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LET TER FROM THE EDITOR As a rising senior, it’s easy for me to remember how panicked I felt during the start of my first year at Pitt. As a newly independent adult at an urban college, I was determined to figure out who I was and what I wanted as soon as possible, and was frustrated when none of that became immediately clear during my first semester. It’s also refreshing to look back and realize that I shouldn’t have been so worried — it took some experimenting during my first year, but I soon figured out what some of my goals in life are, discovered where my academic passions lay and found friends to complain to whenever the goal-chasing and studying became frustrating. Looking back, I have absolutely no regrets about coming to Pitt and taking time out during my first year to explore the campus and Oakland. Props to you for also deciding on Pitt — our University already has a lot of social, academic, cultural and athletic opportunities to seize upon, and there’s plenty of assistance to be found in making new ones for yourself and others. Granted, with as big and bustling a campus as ours, staying on top of everything that’s going on can be tough. As you prepare to navigate an equally uncertain and
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exciting new time in your life, turn to The Pitt News for the steadfast student perspective on what’s happening on our campus. We at The Pitt News compiled this 2019 New Student Guide with the intention of introducing new students to all aspects of Pitt student life. In here, you can catch up with ongoing campus news, read what professors want first-time students to know, find out how to be a proper Panthers fan and learn about the local music scene. Our columnists offer advice on how to live a healthy first year and discuss which residence hall aligns with your astrological sign. This is the first year our annual New Student Guide is being mailed directly to new students. This 88page paper was produced by dozens of our writers, columnists, photographers and editors, who remember what it was like to come to campus, unsure of what was in store and excited about what could happen. We’re thrilled to welcome every single member of the class of 2023 as fellow students and new readers. Beyond this guide, turn to us this fall for daily updates on campus and City news, a closer look at the Pittsburgh arts scene, student opinions
on trending local and national topics and regular reports on the world of college and professional sports. Our burgeoning digital media team has created several new blogs and filmed videos covering sports, study abroad, political rallies and more. We report on crime, business, health, football, science, theater, volleyball, government, music and the University administration, to name a few topics. Whether you’re a studio arts major or a future engineer, we have something for everyone. Visit us at pittnews.com and subscribe to our e-newsletter for weekly story recaps. Download our mobile app or pick up a print edition at one of our many newsstands around Oakland. Stay connected and on top of breaking news by following our Facebook page and liking our Instagram and Twitter @ThePittNews. And as our readers, we want to hear from you — hit us up with news tips, responses to articles and general inquiries on our website or one of our social media accounts. Shoot me a note or op-ed suggestion by emailing editor@pittnews.com or give the office a call at 412-648-7985. Feel free to drop by The Pitt News office at 434 William Pitt Union — somebody’s al-
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ways around, at least up until our 1 a.m. print deadline. And as our graduating staff members have said their goodbyes, we’re eager for new talent to join our team. Starting in August, we’ll be looking for writers, photographers, videographers, digital artists and illustrators to come lend their abilities and perspective to our publication. Students of any skill level and field are welcome — members of our veteran editorial staff come from a variety of disciplines and are here to help you improve, so long as you’re willing to learn. The skills you’ll earn working for us, such as communication and time management, are applicable in literally any profession. You’ll also get to earn some pocket money while you’re at it and get to know your home for the next few years pretty intimately. I hope as the summer goes on you’ll keep in touch with us for updates about your new school — we still publish weekly over the summer. The news never stops! Enjoy the rest of your summer, and we hope to see you around in August. Hail to Pitt!
Janine Faust Editor-in-Chief
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Pitt News
Cudd’s freshman year: Affordability, unionization and plans for the future................................. 7 Across the board: Meet this year’s student government.................................................................... 8 New orientation programs begin where Pitt Start stopped................................................................ 9 Oakland news roundup.................................................................................................................................... 11 Buses, trains and trams: Pittsburgh public transit guide.................................................................... 12 Pitt professors offer advice to first-year students.................................................................................. 14 Staff picks: Hidden gems of Pitt.................................................................................................................... 15 Three Rivers Arts Festival celebrates 60 years....................................................................................... 16 Pittsburgh Music Scene: The FYI on DIY....................................................................................... 30 Art collectives promote Pittsburgh creativity......................................................................................... 30 Pitt Arts introduces students to Pittsburgh’s cultural scene............................................................ 31 Liberal Arts clubs offer expressive outlet for students....................................................................... 32 Point: The case for Pitt Start.......................................................................................................................... 37 Counterpoint: Good riddance to Pitt Start............................................................................................... 37 Column: Tips to prioritize mental health in the transition to college................................................ 38 Column: A double major isn’t always the right choice......................................................................... 38 Column: Reasons you shouldn’t worry about the Freshman 15........................................................ 39 Column: The first year: What I wish I knew....................................................................................... 40 Residence Hall Horoscopes .......................................................................................................................... 41 Going beyond the gyms - fitness at Pitt....................................................................................................... 49 Take 5: A look ahead, from 2019 to 2020 vision........................................................................................... 54 How to be a fan of Pitt sports.................................................................................................................. 56 A runner’s guide to Oakland........................................................................................................................ 58 Coach Bridgette Mitchell joins Pitt women’s basketball........................................................................ 60 The decline and rise of the Oakland Zoo............................................................................................... 64 Qadree Ollison: Next in line............................................................................................................................ 68 TPN Crossword.................................................................................................................................................... 78 TPN’s best photos of summer 2019.............................................................................................................. 82 layout by Joanna Li | Layout Editor cover by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor
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CUDD’S FRESHMAN YEAR: AFFORDABILITY, UNIONIZATION AND PLANS FOR THE FUTURE Jon Moss
News Editor
After one year of leading Pitt’s academic programs, Provost Ann Cudd has her sights set on Pitt’s future. Like many newcomers to Pitt, Cudd’s first year was somewhat of a whirlwind, filled with meetings with students, staff, faculty and administrators, while she became more familiar with Oakland. The Pitt News talked with the provost on June 11 about her first year at Pitt, touching on college affordability, the Tree of Life massacre, unionization efforts and other topics. Reflecting on a “great” first year, Cudd said she is excited to be back at Pitt — she earned an MA in philosophy, an MA in economics and a PhD in philosophy in the mid-1980s from the University. Pitt’s affordability Cudd said Pitt has made great strides toward closing the financial need gap — the difference between the cost of tuition and what a student can pay with the help of institutional financial aid. Two initiatives were announced this year to help close that gap for more students — Panthers Forward, where students receive a credit of up to $5,000 towards federal loans while promising to “pay it forward” for future students following graduation, and the Pitt Success Pell Match, where the University will match federal Pell grants. On a larger scale, Cudd said there is a “crisis” in college affordability sweeping the nation, but added that Pitt is doing its best to help stupittnews.com
Provost Ann Cudd speaks at a Student Government Board meeting on Oct. 24, 2018. Knox Coulter | staff photographer
dents stay in school. “The Pitt Success, the Pell [Grant] match, was aimed specifically at lower-income students who might even think that a Pitt education is out of their reach, and we hope to say, ‘Well, no, this is, we’re going to help you, we’re going to make a difference,’” Cudd said. Cudd also said the University is doing its best to keep tuition as low as possible. Pitt’s annual funding request to the Commonwealth government requested a 6.5% increase in funding, which would be paired with tuition increases of about 3% for in-state students and 5% for outof-state students. It is unclear how tuition prices will be affected if Pitt does not receive its requested funding. Tree of Life and the Rosfeld acquittal The 2018-19 academic year also presented Pittsburghers with two difficult events to process — the
October massacre that left 11 worshippers dead at Squirrel Hill’s Tree of Life Synagogue, and the March acquittal of former Pitt police officer Michael Rosfeld in the June 2018 shooting of Antwon Rose II, an unarmed, 17-year-old black teenager. The Tree of Life massacre occurred on Cudd’s birthday, and said she’ll now “never forget that date.” But Cudd said she was moved by the community response to the tragedy. “I was so moved by the event that students put together, helped put together to recognize what happened, to bring the community together,” Cudd said. Cudd regards Rosfeld’s acquittal as a “tragedy,” and said the University tried to support students in the days after the trial. Cudd, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner all sent out emails to students in the days surrounding the trial.
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“I think our position was to support students in their … grieving, in their protest of the City, of the laws of the state of Pennsylvania which made it possible for the jury to acquit the officer, and I think that was the right way to support,” Cudd said. “Clearly there was a tragic situation that was then exacerbated by the acquittal of the police officer.” Cudd also brought up the suspicious activity at the end of the spring semester, where women were seemingly being targeted on campus. She encourages students to present any concerns about safety to the administration. Cudd added that Pitt police Chief James Loftus and Associate Vice Chancellor of Public Safety and Emergency Management Ted Fritz are working to improve the current University notification system, which is split into two “emergency” and “crime” lists. In the past, students have said they had not heard of the crime list, which is opt-in, as opposed to the emergency list which students are automatically subscribed to. Cudd said there is a “very fine line that has to be drawn” in providing information to the public while not causing panic. Diversity and inclusion Cudd said she is committed to increasing the diversity of Pitt faculty. She said some efforts, such as providing funding to deans to make targeted hires of underrepresented minorities, are already underway. But she added that the University must also rethink some of its hiring processes. See Cudd on page 51
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ACROSS THE BOARD: MEET THIS YEAR’S STUDENT GOVERNMENT Emily Wolfe
Contributing Editor
As a first-year student arriving at Pitt, it can be tricky figuring out exactly what SGB does, or even what it stands for. The answer to the latter is pretty easy: SGB is Pitt’s Student Government Board, the official undergraduate student government organization. When it comes to what it actually does, Caroline Unger, the board member serving as vice president and chief of cabinet this year, describes SGB as “the one big umbrella for all student organizations that fall at Pitt.” “We try and operate as the voice for the students, as an avenue be-
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uate to various student groups that apply for funding. Individual board members also pursue their own projects to improve student life. Last year, for instance, two board members worked on an initiative that let students give feedback on dining services to Pitt officials, and the board worked together on a letter to legislators demanding stricter firearm legislation. Students who want to see how the board works for themselves can SGB President Zechariah Brown. Thomas Yang | visual editor visit SGB’s offices on the eighth floor tween them and upper administra- might have helped convince the Uni- of the William Pitt Union during the versity to cancel classes for weather board’s office hours, or stop by the tion,” Unger said. In addition to acting as a go- last year for the first time in close to a weekly public meeting on Tuesday between for students and Univer- decade — SGB allocates the Student See SGB on page 17 sity administrators — like when SGB Activity Fee paid by each undergrad-
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NEW ORIENTATION PROGRAMS BEGIN WHERE PITT START STOPPED
Vaibhav Gupta Staff Writer
PittStart — Pitt’s signature two-day orientation program — has come to a stop this summer after 19 years of introducing first-years to life in Oakland. The program, where first-years were able to get a taste of college life by meeting with their academic advisors and staying overnight in residence halls, will now largely take place online in an effort to alleviate the stress of travelling to Pittsburgh for only a few days. In addition, the long-standing “Orientation Week” for first-years, colloquially known as “O-Week,” is also receiving an overhaul and has been rebranded “Welcome Week” for the class of 2023. Pitt spokesperson Kevin Zwick
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wrote in an email that the redesigned programming is meant to provide the same critical orientation information while removing the constraints of having to be physically present. “Instead of the required two-day Pitt Start session over the summer, new students will complete an online orientation on academic information, financial resources, student engagement opportunities, campus safety information and community expectations,” Zwick wrote. According to Melissa Warthen, director of new student programs for Student Affairs, PittStart has remained a staple of first-year orientation for nearly two decades. In that time, as more students from outside the Pittsburgh area
began attending the University, the burden of traveling to campus for just a few days became more apparent. Instead of forcing students to travel, administrators decided to utilize online modules to relieve the financial strain of PittStart, while still communicating the same information. “We had a task force that had representation from all of the academic units across the University,” Warthen said. “That’s where we zero-in on the major changes of not doing PittStart but instead doing an online orientation and having Welcome Week.” The new online modules allow for incoming students to learn about Pitt essentials such as academics, student
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resources and paying for college. According to Warthen, the ease of access, as well as the customization of each module, allows for a more accessible model for communicating information to incoming students in the future. “Our hope that this model is the one that we work for the next years,” Warthen said. “The online orientations that we have, we can grow it, we can add to it and we can edit the content to make it more user-friendly and personalized to Pitt.” Another change is the advising appointment, which previously was a one-on-one or group meeting with an academic advisor. Students will now See Pitt Start on page 25
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OAKLAND NEWS ROUNDUP
Neena Hagen
Senior Staff Writer
As an urban campus bustling with nearly 30,000 students and more than 5,000 faculty, there’s always news breaking at Pitt. Here’s a quick glance at some of the largest stories from the past semester and a peek into possible future developments. Tuition Unclear for Next Year, Pitt to Match Pell Grants As of mid-June, legislators in Harrisburg had not yet passed an annual funding bill for Pitt, leaving students hazy about how much they will pay this fall in tuition. Gov. Tom Wolf ’s initial February budget held Pitt’s funding flat for next year, despite the University requesting a 6.5% in-
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crease in funding, which would be paired with tuition increases of about 3% for in-state students and 5% for out-of-state students. It is unclear how tuition prices will be affected if Pitt does not receive its requested funding. Beginning this fall, Pitt will also match federal Pell Grants awarded to undergraduate students. Currently, more than 5,000 students receive Pell Grants, averaging about $4,500 per scholarship. This is one of many updates to financial aid programs that Pitt has rolled out in recent years. Panthers Forward will provide 150 eligible students with up to $5,000 to offset federal loans, starting in the 2019-20 school year. The
University has budgeted more than $130 million for financial aid this coming academic year, a near 50% increase compared to five years ago. Graduate Student Unionization The Graduate Student Organizing Committee has been trying to form a graduate student union at Pitt for more than four years, claiming a union would pave the way for better pay, more flexible hours and health care benefits for the more than 2,000 graduate student employees at the University. But the bid fell just short in a week-long April election, with graduate students voting against unionization 712-675 — a margin of 37 votes.
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Organizers remain unconvinced by the results. They filed an objection with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in May accusing Pitt of “unfair labor practices” and demanding a new election. Prior to the April election, organizers had to fend off University opposition to the union effort. Pitt paid close to a quarter-million dollars to “union avoidance” law firm Ballard Spahr between the summers of 2016 and 2018 to argue that graduate students were not employees and therefore didn’t have the right to unionize. But the PLRB ruled against Pitt’s objection in March, allowing for graduate students to hold an See Local News on page 20
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BUSES, TRAINS AND TRAMS: PITTSBURGH PUBLIC TRANSIT GUIDE Brian Gentry
Senior Staff Writer
With Oakland parking scarce and few alternatives to get around the City, many Pitt students utilize the public transportation system in Pittsburgh, run by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, to move around. ID cards provide all students with free access to the buses, light rail lines and even the inclines that go up the steep hills along the southern border of the City — all you have to do is tap your card against the scanner at the front of the transit when you get on, and you’re ready to ride. While the Port Authority can get you to your destination, understand-
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ing the web of routes that criss-cross through Oakland can be difficult. But once you understand the system’s layout, you will be ready to catch a bus and speed away on a trip. Getting around Oakland Let’s face it: when it gets cold, few people have a hankering to trudge through feet of snow to get to an 8 a.m. lecture. Fortunately, there are many alternatives to walking to get around campus. Each 61 and 71 bus — there are four “branches” of each — provides connections between the westernmost point of campus, near Magee Women’s Hospital, and the easternmost point, by Craig Street.
Similarly, the 58 and 93 travel along the Boulevard of the Allies into South Oakland, giving students a needed connector between so-called “deep South Oakland” and Central Oakland. But Port Authority buses aren’t Pitt students’ only options for getting around within Oakland — Pitt itself offers many shuttles that provide convenient transportation to oft-visited locations around campus. The most popular, the 10A and 10B, stop outside the Cathedral of Learning in the middle of campus and provide connections to upper campus residence halls, like Sutherland Hall, as well as the gym, pool and rock climbing wall at Trees Hall. In addition, the
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20A and 20B offer service to nearby Shadyside, while the 30A, 30B and 30C shuttles provide easy access to South Oakland, and the 40A gets the nerdier of us to the Biotech Center, located along the Monongahela River. Getting to Downtown Downtown has a lot to offer to Pitt students, with multiple entertainment halls for concerts and musicals and a beautiful state park with a large fountain all located within Pittsburgh’s “Golden Triangle.” PNC Park, the stadium for the Pirates, and Heinz Field, the stadium for the Steelers as well as the Pitt Panthers, See Port Authority on page 22
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PIT T PROF ESSOR S OF F ER ADV ICE TO F IR ST-Y EAR ST UDENTS
Erica Guthrie
Senior Staff Writer
As incoming first-years prepare to descend on Oakland, there is not much to worry about before the first day of classes arrives besides settling into dorms, making new friends and learning the bus system. But before the class of 2023 shows up in lecture halls, Pitt professors who work with first-year students want to offer their best advice to the newest members of the student body on how to succeed in their first year of college. Inside the classroom, Karen Bursic, an associate professor and undergraduate program director of the Swanson School of Engineering, said students should expect the college curriculum to be more demanding than that of Students study in Posvar Hall. tpn file photo
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their high school classes. “For first-year students, they need to recognize the differences between high school curriculum and classes and college,” Bursic said. “Differences in terms of how independent you need to be, getting your work done and how intellectually challenging the courses often are.” The approach to testing, and more generally how students express their knowledge of material, also changes between high school and college. John Gareis, a senior lecturer and director of undergraduate advising in the communication department, said new students are frequently stumped by having to apply the concepts they learn, rather than just memorizing definitions. See Professors on page 52
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STAFF PICKS: HIDDEN GEMS OF PITT
The Pitt News Staff
Pitt’s campus can be a bit overwhelming at first. With so many streets, buildings and classrooms, it can be difficult to explore every nook and cranny of Pitt’s corner of Oakland. Here are some hidden gems on campus to look out for. Center for Creativity // Elizabeth Donnelly, Senior Staff Writer Located in the basement of the University Store on Fifth, the C4C cultivates a welcoming environment in which Pitt students can express their artistic sides. The center is not only home to a multitude of art supplies like a pottery wheel, paint and sewing machines, but to instruments, a 3D printer and computers for digital art. The center is completely free to Pitt students — with a swipe of your
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Pitt ID you are able to use any of the supplies that the center has to offer (and you can keep your final product). A personal favorite of mine is the typewriter section — an elongated table beneath the stairs leading to the C4C. I love using the digital typewriters for poems and letters or to try and make typewriter art (I have yet to be successful with this, unfortunately). I also enjoy using the 3D printing pens because there are endless possibilities to what you can create with them. I made a miniature guitar with them, and even though it took a while, the end result was completely worth it. For any and all students with a passion for art, the Center for Creativity is a magical place on Pitt’s campus where self-expression and inventiveness can blossom.
Peregrine falcons // Emily Wolfe, Contributing Editor Get yourself a nice container of Szechuan and go sit at one of the green tables by Schenley Plaza. Then wait. Okay, there. The little black shapes flying over Cathy. Those are Hope and Terzo, the peregrine falcon pair currently living in the nest outside of the 40th floor. There have been peregrines at the top of Cathy for almost 20 years. Once endangered, the species made a major comeback over the last few decades, although every chick that hatches at the nest still gets a band attached to its leg so the state game commission can identify it as it leaves the nest and goes to make its own home somewhere else. Falcons live on cliff tops in nature, and the
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tall buildings and bridges in cities like Pittsburgh make great places for their nests. Local bird-watcher Kate St. John has a great blog where you can read about the birds and their history. The best part of falcon-watching season is in the spring, when Hope will hatch and raise her chicks. It’s a good time to check in on the peregrines through the National Aviary’s nest cam, too, for the most part — watch out at the time of the actual hatching, because things can get nasty. You might be better off watching from afar. Also, peregrines like to fly high, so if you can see its face while it’s flying, it’s not a falcon. It’s probably a pigeon, and it might be trying to steal See Staff Picks on page 24
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THREE RIVERS ARTS FESTIVAL Sarah Connor
CELEBRATES 60 YEARS
Senior Staff Writer
Three multicolored giraffe statues stand at the center of the Wyndham Lawn in Gateway Center Plaza downtown, covered in sporadically placed patches of pink, turquoise, yellow, purple and green. These giraffes are pieces of an art project called Ocean Sole Africa — one of the many major attractions for the 2019 Three Rivers Arts Festival. The artist behind Ocean Sole Africa, Jonathan Lo, collected littered flip-flops from the beaches and waters of the African coast, then later used them to create his nature-inspired art. Throughout this year’s Arts Festival, guests will also find sculptures of a turtle, rhinoceros and elephant in the plaza as part of Ocean Sole Africa. Arts Fest is a yearly event that spans more than 10 days sponsored by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, but this is the
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Artwork on display at the Three Rivers Art Festival. Emily Wolfe |
contributing
editor
first time Ocean Sole Africa has made an appearance at the festival. Since the festival began on June 7, the project has become a favorite of guests and staff members alike. For Sarah Aziz, the director of festival management for the Cultural Trust, Ocean Sole Africa helps to celebrate not just another Arts Fest, but the festival’s 60th year as well.
“I’m really excited to celebrate 60 years and I’m also really excited to bring Ocean Sole Africa here as well,” Aziz said. “I love all of the colorful animals we have on-site this year.” As Aziz showed guests around the festival, families with children took photos with the colorful elephant, while groups of teens and young adults lined
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up at one of the food tents for freshsqueezed lemonade and other sweet treats like funnel cake and fudge. Though Ocean Sole Africa is a highlight of this year’s festival, it’s not the only cultural attraction the event has to offer. Visual artists from both local areas and out-of-town places set up tents and sell their work — guests can pick up anything from handmade necklaces to giant photography prints to hand-painted flower pots. Food trucks, concession stands, dance performances and live music are also staples for the annual festival. “The music this year is great too,” Aziz said. “Kicking off with India Aire and finishing with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, two big, great acts, and then we have so many in between.” The music performances take place at the Dollar Bank Main Stage, which is See TRAF on page 28
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SGB, pg. 8 evenings in the Union’s basement. Unger was elected to the board in February, alongside her seven fellow board members and Zechariah Brown, the incoming president. Since then, they’ve been learning the ropes and preparing for the year ahead. “Coming into the presidency having been a board member, I thought
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I knew everything about Pitt,” Brown said. “I don’t. It’s a great learning experience right now.” Brown, a senior, is the first black SGB president in more than 25 years, according to The Pitt News’s archives. The last, Jacob Brody, served in 1993. Five out of eight members of the board are people of color and five out of eight are women. And, Brown said, their experiences at Pitt are diverse as well.
“For a lot of us who’ve been involved with SGB for a long time, you find there are different barriers — things that you can and can’t do,” Brown said. “For the board members who are coming in with a fresh perspective, they seem limitless in what they want to do and I think that that’s really great.” First-years who want to get involved with SGB can do so by applying to join one of the board’s several
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committees or the nine-member First Year Council. Many of the board members have been involved in SGB since their respective first years at Pitt, beginning as a member of the First Year Council. But others are coming in almost totally fresh. The executive vice president spot, SGB’s second-in-command, will be held by junior board member Anaïs Peterson, who didn’t have any SGB experiSee SGB on page 18
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SGB, pg. 17 ence before running for board. Previously, Peterson was most recognizable on campus for her activism, largely regarding an ongoing effort to convince Pitt trustees to divest the University endowment from fossil fuels. She also wrote for The Pitt News as a columnist during the summer of 2018. Since the election, Peterson said she’s reached a new level of visibility.
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“It’s funny for me to be on campus and people will just come up and talk to me and I genuinely have no idea who they are, but they know who I am now,” Peterson said. In the March runoff election that won Peterson the position, Pitt students also voted on a referendum that asked whether or not Pitt should divest from fossil fuels. Of 2,401 voters, 2,182 said yes, it should divest — about 11% of the student popu-
lation. Presenting that information to University administrators is one of her big goals for next year, Peterson said, along with lobbying to create a public comment period at Board of Trustees meetings and laying the groundwork to create an LGBTQ+ center for students. The third vice president role is filled by board member Ashima Agarwal, the board’s chief of finance. In Agarwal’s words, that makes her
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SGB’s “business manager,” and she also communicates with the allocations committee, which deliberates on student organizations’ funding requests. Agarwal sat on the committee last year, before running for board. “Allocations … I mean, I’m biased but I think it’s really one of the most important committees, not only because you deal with money but also because you have very face-to-face See SGB on page 19
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SGB, pg. 18 and real interactions with students all across campus,” Agarwal said. “There are so many organizations that I would never have heard about if not for allocations.” The allocations committee was one of several divisions of SGB targeted by accusations of misconduct at the end of the spring 2019 semester. A self-described “SGB whistleblower” appeared on Reddit in April, accusing various SGB committees of embezzling student funds, nepotism and altering election results over the past two years. While the poster claimed to possess documented evidence of these claims, collected throughout two years of association with SGB, their post mischaracterized aspects of the organization, leaving some doubt as to their actual connection with SGB. As some commenters pointed out, for example, the whistleblower accused SGB’s judicial committee of “corruption” and ceding to administrative orders not to punish certain students. In reality, the judicial committee plays an interior role — it doesn’t judge whether or not students have broken University rules, which is left to the Division of Student Affairs’ Student Conduct Review Board. When The Pitt News contacted the poster at that time, they did not share any evidence supporting their claims with reporters. Regardless of the truth of the poster’s claims, Brown said the fact that some people believed the allegations showed the necessity of bringing SGB closer to students. He was also “proud of the strength of SGB” and the fact that it hasn’t had to participate in activities like the ones in the accusations, at least as long as he’s been here. “A lot of it had to do with students not knowing how SGB truly funcpittnews.com
tions,” Brown said. “Our response is just to make sure students know the work that we’re doing for them and how we’re doing that work.” Similarly, Peterson said the claims highlight the board’s need for transparency. “I think it does highlight a lot of the concerns that people have about SGB,” she said. “People don’t always know what’s going on.” Upperclassmen at Pitt might feel
disconnected from SGB for another reason, too — there’s a good chance they didn’t vote for the people that sit on it. About 18% of the undergraduate student body voted in the election for the 2018-19 board, slightly below the average turnout of about 21% over the past five years. That’s a fairly standard turnout for an SGB election. But no matter how many people voted for Brown and each of the eight board members,
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their job this year will often require them to represent all Pitt students. Given the size and diversity of the student body, that could be a tricky task. Unger, looking ahead, called it “a big challenge.” “Anything big that might come up, whatever it may be, I’m looking at how we can best speak for or with Pitt students so it’s not just the eight of us,” Unger said. “Because it never was just the eight of us.”
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Local News, pg. 11 election on whether to unionize. The Board’s ruling on the organizers’ appeal is pending, but PLRB administrator Denis Bachy has said he hopes to make a decision by the end of the summer. If the appeal is successful, another election will be scheduled within 60 days. If unsuccessful, organizers will have to wait up to a year to hold another election. In the meantime, union organizers are still in the field campaigning. Faculty Unionization The faculty union campaign, a sister effort to the graduate student union campaign, has also been underway at Pitt for more than two years — and it’s encountered its own roadblocks. Organizers submitted union authorization cards — slips signed by faculty to express interest in
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a union election — to the PLRB in January. But the PLRB ruled in April that organizers failed to collect enough cards to reach the 30% threshold of eligible faculty necessary to prompt an election. Faculty union organizers immediately appealed the decision and accused Pitt of deliberately deliberately inflated the number of University instructors in their potential bargaining unit in an attempt to derail unionization efforts. Organizers say a union would give faculty better job security, higher pay and a seat at the table in making major administrative decisions. A union would also put happier, more financially secure professors in the classroom, according to organizers, which they claim would benefit students. Anti-Hazing Policy Updates
The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board has declined to hold a hearing on Pitt faculty organizers’ election petition. tpn file photo
When Penn State student Tim- vania immediately began draftothy Piazza died after consum- ing stricter legislation to combat ing 18 alcoholic beverages at abuse in fraternities. Pennsylvania’s previous antiBeta Theta Pi’s Bid Night in 2017, the Commonwealth of PennsylSee Local News on page 21
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Local News, pg. 20 hazing law defined hazing as any forced sex acts, physical and mental abuse or humiliation that could be used to gain entrance to university organizations. The new law, passed in October 2018, added forced alcohol consumption to that list and heightened punishments for offenders. Pitt students who take part in hazing rituals could be fined up to $5,000 per offense and be forced to surrender their private property to the University as part of a police investigation. Students can report hazing incidents using the Pitt Police website or the Rave Guardian app — both provide emergency services. New Counseling Center Director After former Counseling Center director Edward Michaels was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography in 2017, 19 months passed before the University appointed a new director — finally selecting Jay Darr to fill the vancancy in January. Students have been vocal about their issues with the Counseling Center. Currently, students have to wait two to three weeks to get an appointment. And even then, they’ve said it’s tough to find the right match with a therapist or psychologist. Darr said he has a plan to fix that, including implementing initiatives like the Student Success Plan, which will cut down on group therapy and allow students to have their own consult. He wants to streamline paperwork, so students need only fill out one See Local News on page 23 pittnews.com
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Port Authority, pg. 12 are directly across the Allegheny River, only a quick walk away. That’s why easy, quick, frequent access to Downtown is so crucial. Pitt students can hop on any 61 or 71 bus heading inbound along Fifth Avenue, and they’ll be in Downtown within 15 minutes. For students living on upper campus, they also have the option of catching the inbound 83 bus near the Fitzgerald Field House, which travels through the Hill District and enters Downtown near PPG Paints Arena, which doubles as the City’s hockey arena and an entertainment venue. Getting to the East End Neighborhoods east of Oakland — collectively known as the East End — offer a diverse set of opportunities for dining, entertainment and shopping. What’s even better
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for Pitt students is that these neighborhoods are quickly accessible by bus. Squirrel Hill, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood located just past Carnegie Mellon University’s campus and Oakland, is accessible from any of the 61 buses. You can hop on any of the buses from the stop just outside Hillman Library, at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard, and get off at the corner of Forbes and Murray avenues. Once there, you will have access to many restaurants and coffee shops within a short walking distance. If Squirrel Hill doesn’t do it for you, Shadyside is an alternative. Catch any of the 71 buses at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard and you can quickly get to Walnut Street, a hotspot for restaurants in between Fifth and Centre avenues. For grocery shopping,
the 71A or 71C will get you to Giant Eagle and Aldi located at the corner of Centre and Negley avenues. And if you need a Target run, you can take either the 71C or 75, both of which stop near the red bullseye marking the store. Getting to South Side South Side is a neighborhood frequented by 21+ students due to the high concentration of bars. But it also offers a restaurant scene that first-years can take advantage of, such as the Hofbrauhaus and the Cheesecake Factory, as well as SouthSide Works Cinema, a movie theater. It’s easy to get there, too. The 75, as well as both the 54C and 54D — which travel the same route towards South Side — leave from the corner of Fifth and Thackeray avenues and head across the Birmingham Bridge to East Carson Street. From there, most restaurants are within walking
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distance. Getting to Pittsburgh International Airport One bus particularly relevant for students traveling from far away is the 28X. The 28X is the only public transit in Pittsburgh that provides a direct connection from Oakland and Downtown to the Pittsburgh International Airport, located 20 miles west of the Cathedral of Learning. It runs every 30 minutes and can pick students up at the Fifth and Thackeray avenues stop, across the street from Litchfield Towers. Taxi services sometimes charge $30 or more for trips to the airport, so many students prefer to take the bus instead. Whether you’re trying to explore the city or just enjoy a bite at your favorite place outside Oakland, Pittsburgh public transportation can get you to where you need to go.
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Local News, pg. 21 form to see any professional in the office. “If we can process students’ information faster and demystify the process, we can help more students,” Darr said. Darr said his main goal is to address the growing demand for counseling services at Pitt. He plans to grow the staff from 20 professionals to 27 to accommodate Pitt’s influx of students every year. Master Plan After more than a year and a half of planning, Pitt released the final version of its comprehensive Campus Master Plan in February. The plan includes major renovations and expansions to existing campus facilities as well as the construction of several new aca-
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Jay Darr is the current Counseling Center director at Pitt. Allison Hansen | staff photographer
demic and housing buildings, all to be completed within 20 to 30 years. According to Greg Scott, Pitt’s
senior vice chancellor for business and operations, the project aims to help the University “excel academically, lead in research
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and innovation and strengthen its ties with the community we call home.” Officials have said they have tried to balance building for the future, while attempting to maintain older structures, such as the historic Music Building. The CMP is broken down into short-, mid- and long-term projects. Short-term projects will be completed in one to seven years, starting in 2019, so incoming students will have a front row seat to construction and the eventual opening of the facilities. Among the most significant projects are the new Recreation and Wellness Center to be built on O’Hara Street, the One Bigelow complex — two academic buildings and a patch of green space in place of the current UPMC parking lot — and several new residence halls.
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Hidden Gems, pg. 15 your Szechuan. 35th and 36th floors of Cathedral // Leah Mensch, Contributing Editor The Cathedral of Learning has 42 floors, though most students seem to only be interested in the first and third, which are home to the nationality rooms, and the basement, where the Chick-Fil-A is located.
Those who choose not to explore further than the third floor are missing out on some beautiful views. And I’m not just talking about the English department on the fifth floor. Head up 35 flights of stairs (or just take the elevator), and you’ll find yourself in a small study space filled with stately wooden decor and windows that overlook parts of the City far past Pitt’s neighborhood of Oakland. Wave to your comrades at Students at the Center for Creativity. tpn file photo
Carnegie Mellon University or admire the colorful exterior of the children’s hospital in Lawrenceville. It’s even a fun place to visit when you’re not studying, and just want to brag to your relatives visiting about how beautiful your city is. Though floors 35 and 36 are technically home to the Honors College See Hidden Gems on page 26
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Pitt Start, pg. 9 meet with their advisors virtually, with the option of talking with their advisor by phone or Skype appointment. “The hope is that even if the conversations have to occur in a virtual way, the conversations and the contents of discussion will all be at the level that can meet the needs of the students,” Warthen said. But the in-person component of
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first-year orientation isn’t completely disappearing. The University is offering Panther Connect, a new optional program which closely parallels PittStart, for students who would like to meet with fellow new students, connect with campus leaders and learn about transitioning to life at Pitt. Students can pick between six Panther Connect sessions to attend over the summer. The overnight programs provide activities to
get to know the campus better, explore Pittsburgh and have fun with other incoming students. “It is all about experiences, ice breakers, team building exercises, personalized interaction with upperclassmen, doing service over the summer,” Warthen said. The new slate of orientation programs is designed to meet the shortcomings of their predecessors. According to Nina Duong, a sophomore
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majoring in biological sciences, PittStart represented a challenge for her due to the logistics of traveling to Pittsburgh. “I picked the latest date, it coincided with Orientation Week because it would otherwise have been a hassle for my parents,” Duong said. “We were five hours away, and it was stressful to do this in the beginning of summer.”
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Hidden Gems, pg. 24 office, the space is open to all Pitt students. Make sure to bring your headphones if you need to watch a video on your laptop though, because people are not afraid to shush you. Frick Fine Arts Building // Elizabeth Martinson, Staff Writer One of several historic buildings at Pitt, the Frick Fine Arts Building sits near Schenley Plaza, directly across from the Cathedral of Learning, sheltered by a host of sycamores. The building was a gift to the University by Helen Clay Frick, daughter of coke and steel manufacturer Henry Clay Frick, and is named in his honor. Often overlooked in favor of the Cathedral, its more imposing neighbor, Frick Fine Arts houses the department of history of art and architecture, the department of studio arts, the University Art Gallery and the Frick Fine Arts Library. The small, cozy study space of the library is deceptive as the collection — more than 90,000 volumes — stretches over five floors and includes comics, graphic novels and zines as well as more traditional resources such as journals and exhibition catalogues. However, my favorite spot in the whole building is the central cloister located just behind the foyer and visible when you enter the building. It forms the heart of the building and provides an area of refuge from the busy Oakland streets. The cloister is relatively small, but filled with plants. Around it hang the works of Nicholas Lochoff, a Russian artist who created large-scale reproductions of Italian masterpieces such as Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus.” The art and architecture of the cloister combine to transport you to Renaissance Europe, taking you even further away from the urban sprawl outside the doors. pittnews.com
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TRAF, pg. 16 set up at Point State Park, where artist tents line the outskirts of the park and picnic tables and eager guests stand on the lawn in front of the stage. The Arts Fest has brought many big-name performers to the Main Stage in past years — acts such as Hippo Campus, Mavis Staples, Jake Bugg, Smash Mouth and Everything, Everything. In addition to the popular national
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acts, many talented local musicians like Brittney Chantele, The Beagle Brothers and Guy Russo also performed at the Main Stage at this year’s Arts Fest, which also featured an acoustic stage at Gateway Center. Many guests come to the festival to take in the full experience — music, food, art and sunny summer weather. This was seen the morning of Monday, June 10, as guests walked along the edges of Point State Park, swaying to the
country music playing onstage, sipping on lemonade and peeking into artist booths. One booth which attracted a large amount of patrons belonged to local artist Emily McGaughey, who specializes in screen printing and illustration. McGaughey sells magnets, pins, posters, stickers and other pieces of visual art that feature quirky objects or animals — often times with smiley faces drawn on. McGaughey said her favorite thing to draw is cats, but her products also fea-
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ture Pittsburgh staples like bridges and pierogies, as well as dogs, coffee cups, tacos, bananas and leaves. “This is my third Arts Fest, so I’m excited to be back,” McGaughey said. “Last year I was only here for two days, but this year I’m going to be here for seven days so that’s really exciting. It’s great business.” McGaughey, who previously worked as a graphic designer before running her art business full-time, does most of her art by drawing on a tablet or iPad, then prints her work to be displayed on a magnet or other object. Her art is popular with a younger crowd, especially college students intrigued by her many laptop stickers and backpack pins for sale. Arts Fest brings in more than just college students shopping for accessories to their school supplies, and that diverse audience is a reason why McGaughey keeps coming back. “Seeing all the people here is my favorite part, and getting to show my work to so many people at once,” she said. As a group of five young adults searched through the many products McGaughey had on display, Krista Jones, a senior marketing major at Pitt, picked up a pin with a smiling, over-easy egg printed on it. “I love this. It’s too cute,” Jones said, as her friends agreed. “I love the variety of art at the festival today.” Jones came out to the festival with a group of co-workers from her job at a coffee shop, one of whom was Chloe Olsen, a barista from Monroeville. Olsen sipped some lemonade as she walked from artist tents to food vendors and swayed to the music with her group of colleagues. The group took in a little bit of everything the festival had to offer — free live performances, local art, homemade food and a summer day in the downtown Pittsburgh sun. “I don’t live in the City so coming out to the festival gives me a great reason to get out here,” Olsen said. “It’s something to look forward to every year.
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PITTSBURGH MUSIC SCENE: THE FYI ON DIY
Maggie Young
Senior Staff Writer
For those interested in pursuing a career in the music industry, Pittsburgh is a pretty good place to start. Famous rappers and Pittsburgh natives Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller first began performing in the Pittsburgh local music scene. Now that this network of artists, booking agents and venues has officially churned out a few rap stars, the space — which some say is categorized by the coming and going of college students — is evolving to produce something a bit different.
Although it took some time for the Pittsburgh music scene to get where it is today, current local artists, like Clara Kent, say it’s an excellent time to be a budding artist in the Steel City. Kent is an R&B artist and a Homewood native who released her first album, “Aura,” in April 2018. She views Pittsburgh as an ideal place for a growing artist to hone their craft, as she considers the City’s audience to be difficult to please. An R&B artist would have to work harder to grow a fanbase in Pittsburgh as opposed to other major cities. According to Kent, Pittsburgh
Clara Kent performing at Pitt Tonight on April 2. Kaycee Orwig |
senior staff
photographer
music fans can be tricky for a few the City on their way to shows in reasons, the first being that Pitts- Washington, D.C., or Philadelphia. “It’s nice to see that we’re not burgh is not known as a popular destination for musicians. Often- allowing that anymore,” Kent said. times during tours, artists fly past See Music Scene on page 34
ART COLLECTIVES PROMOTE PITTSBURGH CREATIVITY Zainab Hakeem For The Pitt News
The artistry of Pittsburgh is inescapable — everywhere you look, there are murals lining buildings and concert posters haphazardly stapled to telephone poles. Pittsburgh art collectives have naturally popped up to encourage the City’s creative output, helping artists go from pop-up art galleries and basement shows to large scale concerts and commissioned works. Here’s a look at how some of the City’s collectives developed. Hatch Arts Collective Adil Mansoor’s theater career began when he was 6. He walked onto the pittnews.com
stage in first grade, dressed as a farm animal, and never looked back. Coming from a family of Pakistani immigrants, Mansoor found that theater provided him with a safe space to be himself as he got older. “I was being pretty bullied at that point in my life, as being a brown, flamboyant kid in the suburbs,” he said. “And the theater room was the only room that was always kind to me.” The arts would remain a constant in his adult life, as he would go on to find work in arts education with the Chicago Public Schools and at the Andy Warhol museum in North Shore before eventually co-founding Pittsburgh’s Hatch.
Hatch found its beginnings in a friendship between Mansoor and filmmaker Paul Kruse following their meeting at Northwestern University in Illinois. Kruse and Mansoor were close friends, but their differences in disciplines never allowed them to work on any projects together. Following graduation in the summer of 2008, Mansoor moved to Pittsburgh and momentarily quit the arts in order to “grow up” and find a well-paying career, but he and Kruse still talked about making art together. Kruse soon followed Mansoor to Pittsburgh and began working more on a play they had discussed making. They looped in Ni-
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cole Shero, the third co-founding member of Hatch, a friend of the two with administrative experience. Mansoor and Kruse’s play, “Chickens in the Yard,” discussed the story of a gay couple transtitioning from the families that raised them to the family that they raise together, through the four chickens they owned. The trio needed grant money to fund their play, which they couldn’t get without creating a theater company. Originally, they thought they would put on just one play and never collaborate again, so they quickly decided to name their company Hatch, relating to the title of their show. See Art Collectives on page 35
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PITT ARTS INTRODUCES STUDENTS TO PITTSBURGH’S CULTURAL SCENE Elizabeth Donnelly Senior Staff Writer
There’s more to college than just classes and extracurriculars, especially at an urban campus. Pitt students can expect dozens of opportunities each year to get out into the City and experience something new. For the artistically inclined, PITT ARTS provides many cheap or free tickets to plays, art galleries and more around the City. Besides handling free or cheap admission to local events and museums, the Student Affairs program, formed in 1997, also offers special events that connects students to artists and performers in the City Artful Wednesdays This event brings some of the most prominent acts in Pittsburgh arts and culture right to campus. Taking place five times a semester, Artful Wednesdays take place from noon to 1 p.m. at Nordy’s Place in the basement of the William Pitt Union and include free lunch for students with a valid ID. These events do not require registration beforehand. Acts for 2018-19 included indie band Meeting of Very Important People and the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. Artful Wednesdays will run this fall between Oct. 9 and Nov. 6. The acts are as follows: Funky Fly Project // October 9 Conscious Soca // October 16 Sierra Sellers and Alex Jeffy // October 23 Sweaty Already String Band // October 30 Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh // November 6 Artists in Residence Some artists PITT ARTS brings in stick around for more than just an hour. The Artists in Residence program brings in pittnews.com
artists from around the country to Pitt to engage in discussions, workshops and performances on campus. The artist in residence for 2018 was Rhodessa Jones, a performer, writer and director who focuses on social activism. She spent the month of February at Pitt helping engage students in the world of theatre and activism. Artists in residence for 2019 have yet to be announced. The director of PITT ARTS, Annabelle Clippinger, said she hopes more students come and interact with the artists in residence because they are such a special aspect of the PITT ARTS program. “These artists in residence are just really extraordinarily rewarding because they’re only here for a limited amount of time,” Clippinger said. “It’s a great opportunity to really experiment and connect with someone you would have never met because they’re from another part of the country completely. We fly them in, pay for their airfare, put them up in hotels so that students get that experience of whatever it is [the artist does].” Arts Encounters PITT ARTS also has more than 100 Free Arts Encounters where full-time registered undergraduate students at Pitt’s Oakland campus can enjoy symphony, opera and ballet performances, as well as films showings, concerts and art gallery visits at no cost to them. Each of these programs include transportation, a catered reception and tickets, all provided by PITT ARTS. Each program incorporates educational components like workshops and discussions with artists and performers so students can get a better understanding of their artistic encounter. Undergrads can sign up to receive PITT ARTS’ e-newsletter, which sends out emails detailing upcoming Arts EncounJune
ters every Monday during the year. “We buy really nice seats, they’re not nosebleeds. It’s for some of the most desirable arts organizations, but also for the smaller ones, which are really worth while.”Clippinger said.“Be an experimenter. Try something different with us. Don’t be afraid to try something new. You might find that it is really interesting to you.” Cheap Seats & discount tickets For performances and exhibits not featured in an Arts Encounter, students with a valid ID can purchase up to four discounted tickets for select shows at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh CLO and CLO Cabaret. Upcoming performances during the fall semester include San Francisco’s ODC/Dance at the Trinity Cathedral and The Lion King on Broadway at the Benedum Center. Students and faculty can access these tickets online by going to the Cultural District group sales page. As long as the Pitt ID holder who bought the tickets is present, friends and family who are not affiliated with Pitt can also use the tickets. The PITT ARTS webpage also offers discounted tickets for other venues like the City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, PICT Classic Theatre and Calliope: Pittsburgh Folk Music Society. Pitt students and faculty are able to enjoy shows and performances at these locations for significantly reduced prices. Pitt Nights PITT ARTS also hosts three annual Pitt Nights during the academic year, where students and their non-Pitt friends and family can take advantage of free transportation and free dessert to a specific performance. Pitt Night attendees will 28, 2019
also get the chance to meet the cast and artistic directors behind each of the performances. According to Clippinger, the 201920 Pitt Nights have been decided upon. They include Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Pittsburgh Opera in October, a performance of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in November and Beauty and the Beast at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater in February. Clippinger said the November symphony performance is the most notable change to this year’s Pitt Nights because it is straying from the typical grand classics to a more contemporary soundtrack. Museum entry and more During the academic year, PITT ARTS also ensures that Pittsburgh’s six premier museum locations are free with a valid Pitt student ID. These include the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, the Carnegie Science Center, The Mattress Factory, the Senator John Heinz History Center and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum. Pitt students are also able to access Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens for free with their Pitt ID. Phipps is one of the closest attractions to campus. Located in Schenley Park, the conservatory offers a variety of seasonal flower shows, orchid and bonsai collections and special events catered for visitors of all ages and interests. New students can also look forward to PITT ARTS’ annual Arts Fest. The event is part of Fall Fest, Pitt Program Council’s annual free music and arts festival in September. Students will be able to purchase art, talk with artists and connect with arts organizations on campus and from around the City.
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LIBERAL ARTS CLUBS OFFER EXPRESSIVE OUTLET FOR STUDENTS Sara Nuss
For The Pitt News
For new students starting their first year at any college, getting involved in clubs on campus can be intimidating, but is also useful when it comes to easing into life at a new university. The University of Pittsburgh offers over 600 clubs, each with a different focus including politics, sports, religion and student government. Out of the 600 clubs offered at Pitt, there are only 49 clubs offered for liberal arts students. Ranging from film, art, music, dance, and literature, these clubs can help students engage with their passions and meet students with similar interests. Here are a few clubs representing the variety of liberal arts extracurriculars on campus, ranging from casual crafting to publishing. The Pittsburgh Film Society The Pittsburgh Film Society is a club for movie enthusiasts that holds screenings and group discussions of foreign and independent movies. Formed in spring 2019, the club currently consists of 17 members who
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gather each week to share their love of cinema and engage in in-depth conversation regarding the screened film and weekly theme. Past themes have ranged from the filmmaking process to holiday movies. Members select the films to be screened by popular vote, taking into consideration the genre and content of the film, as well as how much it will cost to screen. PFS was founded by junior history and political science major Liam Sims and junior English literature and film studies major Tyler Plunkett, who serve respectively as the club’s president and vice president. According to Sims, members of the club decide what movies to screen based on the group’s personal preferences, while also trying to stick more “indie” flicks, such as Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” and Jia Zhangke’s “Ash is Purest White.” “Although we prefer to screen less mainstream movies, anything goes and any movie has the potential to be screened,” Sims said. “We definitely want to avoid elitism while providing a space to host meaningful and
critical discussion that takes into account film history, the works of other filmmakers, cinematic techniques and culture more generally.” Members of PFS currently watch foreign films or independent productions with little to no critical recognition to give club members a more versatile view on films and filmmaking. “In the future we hope to secure some lecturers [and] speakers to put some of these films in a broader context,” Sims said. Sims said all students are able to join, no matter what major they are pursuing or how much they know about films. There are no dues if a student decides to join. “Even if you don’t feel well versed in film [and] filmmaking but want to learn more, please join,” Sims said. “We do not want any barriers to getting as many perspectives as we can.” For more information, contact President Liam Sims at ljs105@pitt. edu. Pitterest One club at Pitt brings the online art world of Pinterest to life.
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Pitterest is a “do it yourself” crafting club with the mission of creating a stress-free environment for students to escape their busy schedules and express themselves through arts and crafts. Pitterest currently has 40 members that gather on a bi-weekly basis to work on various crafts and DIY projects. Past projects have included molding and painting clay plates and designing a wall-hanging macrame. Club members work alongside each other to complete the different crafts, adding a social aspect to a normally independent activity. Taylor Norris, a junior biology major and current president of Pitterest, said all students are welcome to join the club no matter what level of crafting experience they have. “We promote creativity in a stressfree environment by making a different craft at every meeting,” Norris said. “By no means does this mean you need to be ‘good’ at crafting. Any and all students are welcomed to attend.”
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Music Scene, pg. 30 “We’re actually bringing that into question. Why is Pittsburgh a flyover zone or such a hard audience? It’s because we’re mostly known as a sports city or the Steel City. Music and art [were] kind of a novelty for a long time, but now we’re making it like ‘no, this is a place that you can really cultivate those skills and hone those skills.’” Another artist who’s had the opportunity to fine-tune their music career in Pittsburgh is Pitt senior Thomas Troyan. They are a gender, sexuality and women’s studies major and the sole member of their music project “Jorts Season.” They said they didn’t start playing shows until their junior year, after encouragement from other people in the Pittsburgh music scene, and have since enjoyed continued success with their project. “It all started as basically me existing as part of the community and me meeting people and finding encouragement from friends and peers to pursue music,” Troyan said. Until the past two decades, the Pittsburgh music scene has been largely underdeveloped, according to Kent. Even as that reputation began to change, she said artists of her genres — R&B, jazz and funk — still found it difficult to break into the space. “There wasn’t a lot of room for any other genre to have a patient listener, like someone to listen for musicality or lyrics, experience a concert-like show,” Kent said. The Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem study, which was created through a partnership between WYEP, the Pittsburgh Downtown pittnews.com
Partnership and the City of Pittsburgh using input from members of the local music industry, presented areas where the music scene in the City needs development. Four pages of the report, authored in 2018, were devoted to comments from respondents of the study’s survey, some who asked for more support from the City or who cited a lack of marketing and promotional opportuni-
ties for local bands. Kent said musicians have decided to diverge from the existing infrastructure of the music industry in Pittsburgh, taking control of hosting events and creating their own collaborative efforts. Artists used to rely on booking agents to organize performances, using promoting tactics and venues that weren’t reflective of the current music scene.
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“Everyone was leaving it up to promoters previously, and those promoters weren’t tapped into what younger artists want or were doing,” she said. “They were kind of still stuck on the old system, on an old-industry way of doing things, instead of looking at other cities and seeing how they’re developing and how they’re growing, how they’re bringing in new See Music Scene on page 62
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Art Collectives, pg. 30 “There was nothing thoughtful behind it,” Mansoor laughed. “We were almost just gonna be chickens putting on ‘Chicken.’We were just so over it.” After putting on “Chickens in the Yard” in June of 2013, the opportunity to put on other shows soon developed. Six years later, the friends are still putting on plays for the Pittsburgh community such as “Driftless,” which discusses how fracking affects people’s lives and relationships. They used the play to speak on an issue that directly affects members of the Pittsburgh community, while making sure that they were involved every step of the way. “We prioritized hiring folks that had been directly impacted by fracking in one way or another,” Mansoor said. Hatch stands out from many other theater groups, as their events are never held in the same place twice and are often in unusual venues, like in art gal-
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leries, under Pittsburgh’s many bridges or in photo studios. They’ve made telling stories that relate to members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color a main priority. “We pride ourselves in audiences that are queer and full of folks of color,” said Mansoor. “We always wish our audiences grow more and more intersectional and diverse.” According to Mansoor, Hatch treats their team like a family, making them a
collective that everyone wants to work with. They invite team members over for dinner and teach them how to work in disciplines they aren’t familiar with. “Collectively, our goal was to make theater that feels as home to our community,” said Mansoor. “Made by our community, for our community, with our community and about our community.” Redfishbowl Chris Boles, a co-founder and the
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manager of Redfishbowl, was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He went on to become a Pittsburgh Public School teacher as an adult while working side jobs as an Uber driver and an employee at a record store called The Exchange in order to make ends meet. The record store he worked at was right next to a popular coffee shop in the South Side called Delanie’s Coffee. Boles eventually became friends with See Art Collectives on page 36
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Art Collectives pg. 35 the owners and was able to help another friend of his, local artist Tony Fisher, get his work displayed in the shop. Eventually, someone bought the work on display for $200. Word got around, and eventually other local artists began asking if they could display their work at Delanie’s as well. After multiple artists had contacted Boles, he worked with the owners of Delanie’s to display more works for sale, eventually hosting a makeshift gallery night. The art gallery became a regular quarterly event at Delanie’s, creating a pipeline for both local businesses in the area and artists seeking to profit from their work and get exposure. Boles was soon incorporating live music, and the audience for the gallery grew to the point where Boles started the South Side Art Crawl in 2015, a community gathering of art and artists stretching from 10th Street to 25th Street on East
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Carson Street. The art crawl brought customers into local South Side businesses, as Boles matched each participating artist and musician with a business that complimented their work. “The cool thing about that was that none of these were traditional venues,” said Boles. “They were tattoo shops, glass blowing shops, clothing shops, coffee shops.” Redfishbowl was soon given its of-
ficial name by Ted Remlinger, who helped co-found the art collective with Boles in 2015, and now sits as the organization’s head of business development, by mashing together parts of Fisher’s and Bole’s last names. The art crawl increased Redfishbowl’s popularity in Pittsburgh, and by the time the second South Side Art Crawl swung around in 2016, running the art collective had become Bole’s full-time job, sustained by sponsorships
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from brands and a percentage of venue and ticket sales. The art collective utilizes a “guerilla DIY promotional tactic” according to Bole, creating interactive ads such as mannequin displays and projections to advertise upcoming events. Boles is very focused on making their advertising interactive, instead of pushing ticket sales heavily.
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point
counterpoint
THE CASE FOR PITT START
GOOD RIDDANCE TO PITT START
Grace McGinness Staff Columnist
incoming students had an opportunity to experience dorm living before moving in during the now defunct PittStart program. Emily Wolfe | contributing editor
Josh Beylinson Staff Columnist
For many people, PittStart, Pitt’s old overnight college orientation program, was the first chance for incoming students to get a taste of University life. Students would stop by for a couple days on select dates over the summer, sleep in a residence hall and partake in various group activities on campus and around the city, getting a feel for Oakland and connecting with other first-years. The incoming class of 2023 will never experience it. Today, I’m still friends with some of the other students that I met at PittStart. They helped me feel at ease when I first came to Pitt as a nervous newbie and feature in many of the memories I have made since. While Panther Connect offers many of the same things seen in PittStart, there were many features pittnews.com
of PittStart that made it a much better program. The old summer program allowed a majority of students to become familiar with their new home before being thrust onto a crowded campus and met with academic commitments at the start of the year. Even though Pitt is adding many of the PittStart activities to Welcome Week, part of the charm of PittStart is that it’s during the summer when there are not nearly as many people on campus compared to the fall and spring semesters. It’s just groups of incoming first-years getting to know each other and their future campus. While it’s true that many students will get to experience a little bit of Pittsburgh during Welcome Week right before school starts, the campus is much more packed and the experience can be very overwhelming for someone not familiar with See Beylinson on page 43
Ding dong, PittStart is finally dead. This coming academic year will be the first year that first-years will move onto campus without having been forced to attend the overrated overnight orientation to Pitt’s campus. Up until this summer, the program was mandatory for incoming firstyears. PittStart was a required two-day stay on Pitt’s campus offered on several select dates before school started in August. It was meant to familiarize new students with the Central Oakland neighborhood, help them connect with other incoming students and give them a taste of life at Pitt. But while some Pitt students are lamenting the loss of the program, others were not so in love with it in the first place. While the intentions of the former orientation program appeared well-meaning on paper, the program was redundant, inconvenient and unhelpful. At my PittStart, I recall being held hostage in an overcrowded computer lab in the basement of the Cathedral with one person helping nearly 30 students figure out their fall schedule. The program was used to corner anyone who had yet to register for classes in the fall. We were barred from participating in any other activities until our class schedules were solidified — something we ought to have had more time determining and that could have been accomplished in the comfort of our own homes. Many other activities held during
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the program seemed redundant, as there were plenty of outside opportunities for students to learn about college student life. The University has a mandatory online training platform that teaches students how to schedule their courses, recognize alcohol abuse and manage student loans. Welcome Week, the early move-in week set aside specifically for firstyears in August, also offers workshops, roundtables and tours. None of these are themselves a bad idea, but any information I gained at PittStart could have just as easily been gained during O-Week, which Pitt is now referring to as Welcome Week. Students like rising sophomore Patrick Mizzoni agree that PittStart felt like a waste of time. “They should’ve just [added] the same activities to orientation week,” Mizzoni said. “The travel for slightly unnecessary events was just annoying.” Of Pitt’s student body, 75.8% are not originally from the Pittsburgh area. Pitt also has a sizable out-ofstate student population with about 27% of students registering from other U.S. states and territories. Even a trip in from Ohio can be well over a three-hour trip, which is far enough to make attendance to the program difficult to schedule for the few, select weeks that the event was held. While students were offered the option of residing in the Litchfield Towers dormitory for an authentic college experience, their families See McGinness on page 42
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TIPS TO PRIORITIZE MENTAL HEALTH IN THE TRANSITION TO COLLEGE Julia Kreutzer Staff Columnist
With all the wisdom of a rising sophomore, I tend to view the previous year with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. My excitement mounted day by day as I came closer to arriving on campus. I could almost taste the surge of independence, the stimulating new academic course load and the booming social scene that would make up a perfect first year. Looking at how my first year at Pitt actually unfolded, though, I recognize that while I did enjoy the
freedom and novelty, I had not anticipated the feelings of anxiety and loneliness that can come with uprooting one’s life and diving headfirst into a completely new environment. I’m not the only one who faced mental health hurdles during this pivotal new chapter of life. A study from the American Psychological Association in 2018 found more than one third of first-year students reported symptoms consistent with a mental health disorder. And in a survey by the Association for University and College Counseling Center
Directors, 95% of counseling center directors surveyed reported that the number of students facing significant mental health concerns is an increasing problem at their school. Clearly, no one is alone in battling depression, anxiety or other mental health issues, especially in their first year. Here are four tips that helped me through what Gregg Henriques, Ph.D., director of the Combined Clinical and School Psychology Doctoral Program at James Madison University, calls the “College Student Mental Health Crisis.”
1. Prioritize sleep Entering college, I had an incredibly unsustainable view of what “studying” looked like. As a chronic procrastinator, I filled my first semester with all-nighters, panicked cram sessions and anxiety-ridden attempts to score the 4.0 GPA I viewed as a standard of success. Jeffrey M Ellenbogen, Jessica D Payne and Robert Stickgold of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School found that pushing yourself beyond healthy limits not only has negaSee Kreutzer on page 44
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A DOUBLE MAJOR ISN’T ALWAYS THE RIGHT CHOICE Grace McGinness Staff Columnist
Upon entering college, students are faced with a plethora of decisions to make. Where should they live? Should they join Greek life? How often should they be calling their parents? What clubs and activities should they invest in? But the most important decision is one students typically cannot make until their sophomore year — which degrees are they studying for anyway? There are dozens of majors, minors and certificates to mash topittnews.com
gether into an academic plan, and the pressure surrounding this decision is immense. More so now than ever, students are choosing double majoring to seem competitive post-graduation — with around 75% picking up two different majors in completely unrelated fields. As a double major myself, I cannot deny the allure of earning two degrees during the typical four-year college timespan. But I’ve found there are some drawbacks to taking on multiple degrees or certificates that are not discussed as much
as the benefits. While earning multiple degrees sounds fancy on paper, it might not always be practical. Earning a bachelor’s degree is hard — earning two is exhausting. To earn two or more degrees in the same time most people take to earn one requires far more time and effort put towards studying. And stretching your workload between two areas of study may mean getting less experience in each. The time a double major splits between two disciplines is the time that a single major can spend im-
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proving themselves in one area of study. With only one major to focus on, students are able to collect more experience in their field via research and training opportunities. Carl Moses, the provost at Susquehanna University, is among university officials who worry about the rise of the double majoring student, feeling that students should not view accumulating degrees as the best way to gain experience in college. “They operate under the assumption employers are impressed by See McGinness on page 45
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WHY YOU SHOULDN’T WORRY ABOUT THE FRESHMAN 15
Shruti Talekar | staff illustrator
Leah Mensch Opinions Editor
The biggest fear weighing upon some college first-years is the fear of weight gain. The freshman 15, or the phrase that has seemingly horrified many first-year students into believing they’re bound to gain 15 pounds, was first coined on a cover of Seventeen Magazine in 1989. The term bounced around in different publications for years afterward, though comprehensive studies show that there isn’t really any scientific evidence backing the freshman 15 claim. The fear and stigma around the term can be harmful for first-year students, especially when there’s so much “information” all over the internet about how to avoid the freshman 15, all of it contradictory. These are five reasons why you shouldn’t worry pittnews.com
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about the freshman 15. 1. Most college students don’t actually gain 15 pounds While it’s true that first-year students sometimes do gain weight, it’s usually only about three pounds, a 2011 Ohio State University study found. The average adult’s weight fluctuates five to six pounds a day, depending on what they eat or drink and how much they have slept or exercised. Since three pounds falls within the fluctuation range, it is not even statistically significant. Your weight changes day to day. It’s more important to form healthy habits, like exercising a few times a week, eating vegetables, getting adequate sleep and perhaps even prioritizing a nap. 2. It’s normal to gain weight as you get older The same Ohio State University See Mensch on page 46
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THE FIRST YEAR: WHAT I WISH I KNEW Shruti Talekar staff illustrator
Mackenzie Oster Staff Columnist
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I can easily recall my time spent eagerly awaiting my first day at Pitt, including the craving for the independence of living on my own and vivid memories of wanting to buy every blue and gold clothing item I saw for future game days. Adjusting to college is a tough but ultimately riveting experience. So, before the class of 2023 officially arrives at Pitt, I want to present five things that I wish I had known before setting foot on campus. 1. You get out what you put into it. “College is what you make of it” seems to be the quote that every parent recites when giving their kid the spiel about their college experience. It’s one of those things that you instinctively nod your head to and don’t really think twice about. But after my first year of school, I can attest to the accuracy of this statement. College is a place where the way you apply yourself is entirely up to you. Every action and decision lies in your hands, which is why it’s so important to push yourself to try new things early on and experience as much as there is to offer. Getting involved in clubs, student organizations and attending social events can help you meet fellow students and make Pitt feel more like home. The Fall Activities Fair, where student June 28, 2019
organizations recruit new members, can seem daunting, especially without knowing about anybody or any groups at first, but the only way to change that is to rip the Band-Aid off and show up. And don’t fret — there are plenty of other first-years in that same boat. If I hadn’t gone out of my comfort zone and talked to members of other clubs and groups at the fair, I never would have found The Pitt News. I would highly advise attending events like the Activities Fair because there are so many extracurriculars that I was unaware of when I started my first year at Pitt. The fair especially is a really convenient way to explore the many outlets that Pitt has, as it’s the only time all of Pitt’s clubs will be under one roof. Creating these connections and forming relationships on campus is really helpful in the adjustment process. Having others to lean on, or even just being able to spot some friendly and familiar faces on campus can make you feel more confident during your first year, especially if you’re not from the Pittsburgh area. Utilize social spaces and get yourself out there. 2. Living with others isn’t always easy, but communication is key. If there is one thing that I have learned during my time at Pitt, it’s that living with others won’t always See Oster on page 47
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RESIDENCE HALL HOROSCOPES
Allison Dantinne
Senio Staff Columnist
Just like you, each of Pitt’s residence halls has its own distinct character. Location, available amenities, in-house communities and other factors make different halls good choices for different people, but it doesn’t hurt to also consult the stars when considering housing options. Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Lothrop. It’s a bit of an odd set-up, comprised of mostly single dorms with their own sinks. But you’re unique. You thrive off of the weird. And you’ll thrive in the glory of single-roomed independence, with no roommates to tell you that you can’t survive off of peanut butter and jelly tortillas, cool ranch Doritos and iced coffee. You can’t be stopped. You won’t be stopped. You should be stopped. But for now, keep doing you, Aquarius. Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20): Brackenridge. Just like you, Pisces, it’s often forgotten and has a bit of a mysterious air around it. It’s in the Quad and close to the heart of campus, but when did it get there? What is inside it? Are there students or spirits roaming through those halls? After living there for a whole year, fueled by living off of caffeine, confusion and melatonin, drifting through the Brack-Zone, I still don’t have any good answers. Aries (March 21-April 19): Sutherland East. Aries, ruled by Mars (the god of war), is most at home in Sutherland East, living among the student athletes. Yes, Sutherland is all the way up “Cardiac Hill,” but if anyone has the energy and stamina to make it to upper campus every day, pittnews.com
it’s you, Aries. And if you still have energy after hiking to upper campus, you can hit up Pitt’s best gym, Baierl Rec Center, inside the Pete. After this year, you’ll have calves of steel. Taurus (April 20-May 20): Sutherland West. It’s home to the First-Year Honors Housing Community, and just like honors students, you’re persistent and unyielding in the pursuit of what you want. Whether that energy is directed toward passing Chem 1, running toward the 10A as it drives away or even snagging the last grilled cheese from The Perch on the most blessed of days — grilled cheese day — you know how to actualize your goals. Gemini (May 21-June 20): Holland Hall. Gemini is a mutable sign, representative of change and adaptability, which fits perfectly with Holland Hall. The residence hall recently became co-ed after years of existing as an all-female residence hall, showing it has the ability to adapt to the changing student body. The kooky room configurations, varied closets and, of course, the occasional resident in a bathtub in the communal bathrooms reflects the spirit of Gemini: a pendulum swinging between deep confusion and utter joy. Cancer (June 21-July 22): Home. Not your childhood home, but your first South Oakland apartment. Cancers love their creature comforts, and nothing says creature comforts like coming back to your humble abode after a hard day of lectures and looking over your dominion — filled with the three mismatched folding chairs you found on Bates, the “packet drawer” bursting with duck sauce and chopsticks from Szechuan and your roommate sitting on the kitch-
en floor, eating veggie chips. There’s no place like home! Leo (July 23-Aug. 22): Nordenberg. You’re flashy and showy, just like Pitt’s newest and most coveted residence hall. There’s nothing more fabulous than the central location, patio area and University-provided TVs, mini-fridges and microwaves. Is it a little too luxurious? Possibly. However, picture yourself in the fantasy, in a beautiful boudoir gently brushing your hair with a gold comb, carefree, while your University-provided mini-fridge whirrs in the background, keeping your pint of Phish Food frosty. Now ask yourself: Do I deserve it? Absolutely. Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Forbes Hall. Home to the Engineering Living Learning Community, this residence hall gives off that analytical, detailoriented energy that really makes you tick, Virgo. Forbes Hall provides you with the quiet atmosphere necessary to solve everything from your dreaded physics 1 homework to the most heart-wrenching of endeavors: getting that sad little Opportunity Rover back from space. Rest in Peace, Oppy. Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Tower B. You’re always in the middle of the action and love being in a group of friends, which makes Tower B and its whopping 769 students a perfect match for you. Its circular hallways and double rooms are perfect for socializing with your floor, and its central location is perfect for interacting with the rest of Oakland. Before you know it, you’ll be in a lounge — on every third floor — watching old episodes of Flavor of Love and reliving the drama of every iconic New York vs. Pumpkin moment, and, really,
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that’s what Tower B is all about. Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Tower C. Compared to the other two towers, it can seem like a bit of a loner, a dorm for those who seek isolation, a place where it’s difficult to make friends. But that’s not true, Scorpio. Tower C’s single dorms allow you to be as independent as you like, while still being centrally located. You can watch over all the drama in Tower’s lobby at 1 a.m. on a Friday, with the full knowledge that you can escape back to your room. It’s kind of like you get to watch your neighbors squabble over Karen’s dog tearing Christine’s hydrangeas a new one, all from the comfort of your front porch. Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Tower A. You’re social and charming, yes, but you’re so much more than that, Sagittarius. Like Tower A, you’re also always down for a little adventure, whether that adventure is sprinting the stress away in the Towers gym, or going downstairs to eat a bagel and take, say, four oranges with you when you leave. You love being the center of attention, just like the rest of the Towers, but your fiery energy really sets you apart. Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Bruce. It’s home to the Pitt Business Living Learning Community, and, just like business students, you know how much hard work pays off. Capricorns are like a half-mullet: business in the front and … well, business in the back. But that’s just how you like it. You’ll feel right at home with these like-minded folks, and, of course, the rumored Ghost of Suite 1201. Spooky business — what’s not to love? Allison Dantinne primarily writes satire and humor for The Pitt News. Write to Allison at and163@pitt.edu
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McGinness, pg.37 would have to pay for a hotel as they idle around for two days. Not only did PittStart consume time, it forced additional expenditure from families who already agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars for their child’s education. Students like rising junior Hayley Denwood agree that programs like PittStart aren’t accessible for everyone.
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“We can’t afford random nights in a hotel and gas money for a multiple hour drive, but we didn’t have a choice,” the neuroscience and psychology major said in an email. And since students have already agreed to come to Pitt by the time summer rolls around, there’s no need to hype them up about campus life three months in advance. Once the brief excitement of PittStart ended, it would be several weeks, sometimes
months before students could return to see any friends made during the event and explore the campus further. This made the program reductive and ill-timed on top of being a waste of time and money. And while some people may form lasting friendships, more likely than not the trip results in an awkward night spent in a Pitt dorm with a total stranger and completing icebreakers with people you promise to meet up
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for coffee with in the fall but never actually do. It can be hard to create a lasting connection when you’re too busy trying to soak up as much as you can from a brief glance at the surface of the City and a set of workshops teaching information that could have been part of an email. Some students felt the whole event to be a bit aimless. Rising sophomore economics major Noah Feder had to travel to PittStart from upstate New York. “It was obvious that the University had good intentions, but I found it not to be worth the eight-hour drive,” Feder said. “I didn’t really feel like I knew the campus all that well afterwards either.” As a two-day event, PittStart was offered little flexibility and was too short for floundering students to actually orient themselves like intended. Presence is mandatory, but participation in many of the workshops was voluntary. The only required part was enrollment into fall courses. This strange set-up sent mixed signals as to the importance of PittStart as a whole and rendered the required expenses for attendance wasteful. Lauren Cox is a rising sophomore at Pitt who attended PittStart with high hopes, but left disappointed. “It was a big waste of time for me. I didn’t meet anyone nor did I find it helpful. I had already created my schedule and been to Admitted Students’ Day, so it was all the same stuff,” she said. What PittStart offered wasn’t totally flawed, but it wasn’t for everyone. Pitt finally made some changes last year and introduced Panther Connect, which is exactly like PittStart, except it’s entirely voluntary. Not everyone has the time, money and interest in getting a glimpse at Pitt’s campus a couple months early — having the option to opt-in is far better than having the inability to opt-out.
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Beylinson, pg.37 Pitt’s campus or the City. Unlike Panther Connect, which only takes on a few thousand students over the course of the summer, everyone had to do PittStart. But the groups that came to PittStart sessions each summer were relatively small, since there were multiple weeks in which the program ran. Thus, everyone was given much more individual attention compared to Welcome Week. And since PittStart happened during the summer months instead of right before classes, people were generally less stressed and could explore the City and campus without having to worry about their first lecture happening in three days. Students like rising sophomore biology major Rhaelynn Zito agree
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that PittStart offered a sociable and welcoming experience. “While it was annoying to drive there for two days I actually met people I kept in contact with all year,” Hope said. “Plus it was nice to be on campus for a night before actually moving there.” Besides all the various places around the City that new students are able to see, the friends that people make during PittStart, even if they are temporary, can make a very big difference for someone as they adjust to college life. Many people come to Pitt and don’t have any friends from their high school coming with them, so they have to make a new circle of friends here at Pitt. Group chats set up among attendees allowed small groups of students to form a social network before even showing up to campus. Many students enjoyed the ability
to experience Pittsburgh with people their age and without their parents guiding them along, like rising junior political science major Chloe Chappell. “I mostly just liked being on campus and experiencing the freedom of college for the first time,” Chappell said. “At night we went down to the Milkshake Factory [in the South Side] and watched the sunset at the Point, which was beautiful. My roommate for PittStart was pretty cool. For some godforsaken reason, we got up early and hiked up Cardiac Hill and that was fun.” My own PittStart experience included a trip to the Milkshake Factory, albeit in Downtown. I’ve loved going there ever since. It is understandable why Pitt would remove PittStart, though, as it can be difficult for people far away to come all the way to campus just
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for the weekend. It makes sense why Pitt is now offering an online version of summer orientation and adding the PittStart activities to Welcome Week. But eliminating PittStart altogether is not a good move. It removes a very special summer program that really helped people feel more welcome on campus and in the City. If anything, Pitt should have made attendance optional for students who had financial or scheduling conflicts, instead of making the entire experience optional. I had many fantastic memories from PittStart and am still very good friends with the people I met there. It saddens me to know that the majority of future Pitt students won’t be pushed to make the memories and meet the strong friends that previous generations of students were able to make.
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Kreutzer, pg. 38 tive effects on your mental health, but actually hinders your efforts to achieve a goal. “Lack of adequate sleep affects mood, motivation, judgment, and our perception of events,” they wrote. “Research suggests that sleep plays an important role in memory, both before and after learning a new task.” Sleep not only gives your hippocampus time to encode the information you’re studying, but also gives your mind much needed respite from the stressors of the day. Whether it’s committing to leave Hillman Library for some much earned sleep by midnight (yes, even if it means skipping some material) or choosing to stay in to watch a movie and rest rather than venture into South Oakland on a Friday night, self-restraint is key to managing your mental health. 2. Find alone time For many, college is the first time they had to share a living space with anyone, let alone a virtual stranger they met on Facebook. Living in tight quarters with someone else, learning in large lecture halls with more than 300 of your peers and eating in a dining hall surrounded by mobs of hungry young adults means first-years in particular typically face a lack of “me time.” However, according to research from Reed W. Larson of the University of Illinois, teenagers struggling with depression experienced significant relief from depressive symptoms after time alone. Taking a walk through Schenley Park or doodling in the Center for Creativity, located on the bottom floor of the University Store, are great ways to check in with yourself and your mental health. 3. Establish a routine Going from having classes nonpittnews.com
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stop from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday to a much more lax and individualized schedule is not easy. While each day may look different depending on your classes and extracurriculars, it is imperative to anchor yourself with some sort of a daily routine. Prioritizing seven to eight hours of sleep, blocking in regular time for self-care and maintaining a healthy eating schedule are great ways to help your mental health. In fact, research from our very own University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found a daily routine greatly benefitted patients with bipolar disorder. Dr. Steve Orma, a CBT clinical psychologist, explained that specific elements of a routine can also help anxiety. “To manage anxiety you need to consistently check in with yourself about what you’re worrying about, then address it,” Orma said. “Just as we create routines with exercise for our physical bodies, we should do the same for our mental health. One way to do this is scheduling ‘thinking time’ to think through any problems or worries weighing on you instead of letting them build up.” 4. Reach out Pitt is a diverse and inclusive campus with opportunities for people of all interests and backgrounds. Joining one of Pitt’s 600+ student organizations of like-minded peers can not only allow you to get more involved at the University, but can be a great way to find people to lean on. At the end of the day, serious mental health problems can’t always be solved on your own. The University Counseling Center, located in the Wellness Center on the 2nd floor of Nordenberg Hall, is a great free service offered at Pitt. Mental health professionals are excellent resources to help you through whatever your first year throws your way.
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McGinness, pg. 38 double majors,” he says. It would be no stretch of the imagination to think that a candidate with two internship experiences in the professional field is likely to have better standing than the candidate with one related internship and one in a completely different work environment. In addition to undivided focus, committing to only one degree gives students some wiggle room in their academic planning. This is beneficial in case you find yourself failing an important class and have to retake a course. It also allows you to explore classes in different areas that pique their interest. Plenty of people change their minds about what fields they really want to go into after entering college, but it’s tough if you don’t figure that out until the start of your junior year, having put all credits up
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to that point towards degrees in bioinformatics and professional writing. Pitt is a huge school with a lot of general education requirements, and it offers a ton of fun, interesting courses each semester for the curious. We even have a “Harry Potter”-focused literature course — but courses like that will be hard to fit in if your schedule is full from the get-go. If “wasting” time by taking an assortment of classes still worries you, still worried, there are places to make your case for the random classes you took during your time in college. College students can list relevant coursework on resumes when applying for a job and cover letters allow you to go into more detail about certain skills you may have picked up. In an interview, you can direct the conversation to why a certain course about Russian fairy tales, observational astronomy or public speaking lent you skills not a lot of other peo-
ple in your field have — all without having to commit to an unrelated 33-credit major. Granted, there are situations where double majoring is the right decision. No one can deny a student who has a genuine passion to cultivate knowledge in two different fields. People are going to find it odd when I have to tell them that I have a Bachelor’s of Science degree in psychology and a Bachelor’s of Arts in English writing, but I couldn’t stop my curiosity in both disciplines. And certain majors complement each other, making it easier to take on both for a double degree. In an email correspondence, Taylor Thornton explained her decision to double major. She is a rising senior who is double majoring in political science and history because she wanted to take so many courses in both fields. “What I like most between my two
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majors is that I can easily intertwine them with the classes I take between the two,” Thornton wrote. “My focus/ concentration for my history degree is American history and in those classes I get the historical context and consequences of certain events and time periods. On the political science side I get to specifically examine the political motivations and behaviors of those same historical actors.” Obviously, the double major works better for some students than others. The point is, consider all of your options and resist the pressure to take on more degrees to seem more competitive to future employers or graduate schools. A university education is meant to prepare you for your future career, but it is also a time when monumental change occurs in how you think and what you desire. Think carefully about what it is that you want, but be open to what could possibly be.
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Mensch, pg. 39 study, which sampled 7,418 people between the ages of 17 and 20, concluded that first-year-aged noncollege attendees gained a similar amount of weight as college students. This finding suggests that first-year weight gain has less to do with being in college and more to do with human biology. Even though we may not grow
taller in college, our bodies aren’t fully developed yet in other ways, which means that weight gain is not only inevitable, but often necessary in order for our bodies to carry out functions efficiently. It’s also normal for females to experience hormone and metabolic changes in their early 20s, which can lead to weight fluctuation. Dr. Maria Sophocles emphasizes that this is totally normal in an interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine.
“Weight normally continues to increase annually in your 20s, mostly due to an increase in body fat compared to teen years,” Sophocles says. 3. Giving your weight too much energy can put your mental health at risk, which is just as important as your physical health College students have an increased amount of anxiety around weight. While anxiety itself has numerous adverse effects, the initial fears can trig-
ger predisposed mental illnesses, like eating disorders. Between the stress of falling into a productive school routine and living away from home, combined with the stress of weight gain, college campuses incubate eating disorders at an alarming rate, explains Dr. Douglas Bunnell, clinical director of an eating disorder treatment center in New York. “If you have a heavy dose of anxiety and you’re in a social environment, and you’re constantly exposed to the thin body ideal, that’s a perfect storm convergence of factors that can drive a vulnerable individual into an eating disorder,” Bunnell writes. Eating disorders are rampant on college campuses, and the prime time for development is between the ages of 18 and 21, according to the National Eating Disorder Association. Of course, there are other factors that play into the development of the mental illness, but coming to campus preoccupied with the freshman 15 certainly isn’t going to help. Ultimately, whether anxiety around weight gain develops into an eating disorder or not, it’s still harmful to your mental health. And mental health also has a direct impact on physical health, according to research conducted at the Mental Health Institute. In other words, fixation on weight gain can be harmful to your body, which is just as important to take care of as your mind. 4. It steals joy While there are countless benefits to exercise — like boosted immunity, better sleep and increased memory — it shouldn’t always be the first priority. Students who come into college preoccupied with the looming threat of the freshman 15 often find themselves prioritizing exercise over a night out with friends or a fun meal away from the dining hall. I can atSee Mensch on page 53
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Oster, pg. 40 work out as smoothly as every episode of Friends. But when problems arise, communication can make all the difference. It’s always important to be mindful of your roommate. Whether you and your roommate are best friends coming into school or meeting for the first time during move-in week, any problems or pet peeves that you may have with them will be best dealt with by being honest and open with one another. Establishing a level of honesty and respect early on will create a more comfortable and open living environment and prepare for a smooth year of living with one another. If all else fails, you can confide in your resident assistant for advice. Assisting residents is quite literally their job, so don’t hesitate to reach out about roommate problems.
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3. Every residence hall has its own perks As I’m sure you have heard, Nordenberg Hall is the so-called RitzCarlton of dorm living at Pitt. But if you don’t get placed in Nordenberg, don’t freak out. In fact, every firstyear dorm at Pitt has its own perks. When I lived in a triple in Nordenberg Hall, the room came with a TV, microwave and fridge. These are all great benefits and I do think living in
Nordenberg was a privilege, but it’s definitely not worth all the hype. Other dorms have their own perks as well. Unlike the rooms in Nordenberg, many of the rooms in Holland Hall have walk-in closets and large windows that actually open, which is super beneficial when you want to catch a breath of fresh air — especially when it’s too cold to go outside. The central location of living in Towers is a huge perk, especially
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when said cold weather rolls around. The Market Central dining hall is located right below Towers Lobby, and not having to leave your building to grab some food is a major benefit to living in Towers. If you’re not in the mood for dining hall food, Towers places you right on Forbes, where you only have to face the outdoors for a few minutes to grab a bite to eat from all the dining options lining See Oster on page 48
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Oster, pg. 47 the street. And then there’s Sutherland Hall, which is basically a palace that lies on top of the steep incline that is De Soto Street, otherwise known as “Cardiac Hill.” Sutherland may be further away than the other first-year dorms, but it is close to the Petersen Events Center, which has a nice gym and some alternative dining options
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that take dining dollars. The Perch dining hall is also located in Sutherland (and rumor has it that the food there is far better Market Central). The distance from classes also isn’t too bad because you can take the campus shuttle up and down the hill. 4. You probably won’t have any idea of where you stand in most classes the whole year, so it’s better to underestimate a grade than overestimate.
While some professors may enter grades for projects and exams on CourseWeb, your actual letter grade in the class is likely to remain a mystery unless you seek out the professor and ask directly. I would advise you not to wait until finals week to ask your professor about your grade, as I once did. Speaking from personal experience, it’s always better to ask early. Your professors are here to help you, and shouldn’t have a
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problem updating you on where you stand in the class. Try your hardest in every class, too. No class is more important than another, especially because all of them will be factored into your GPA with the same weight. Don’t blow off assignments just because a certain class has been written off as easy on RateMyProfessors.com. Try to utilize a daily planner to help stay on top of assignments and ensure steady time management. When your transcript comes around, you’ll thank yourself for staying on top of everything. After all, how you do in college can determine how many opportunities are available to you in the future. 5. A meal plan with a majority of dining dollars is the way to go At the end of this past academic year, I went over to Market Central to donate the many dining swipes that I had leftover so that another student who had run out might benefit from them, but was told that each student can only donate only a single swipe. With that being said, I would highly advise getting a plan with a lot of dining dollars and minimal swipes. Leftover swipes do not transfer from your first semester meal plan to the second semester meal plan, while leftover dining dollars do. And while swipes can only be used at very few locations, dining dollars can be used at any on-campus dining facility, so they’re really a great bang for your buck. They can be used at Forbes Market (Pitt’s new grocery store on Forbes Avenue), Market To-Go and the many other dining locations and coffee carts on campus. Meanwhile, swipes can only be used at Market Central and The Perch. The Perch is seated all the way on top of Cardiac Hill, and Market Central doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to cleanliness — so just trust me on this one.
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GOING BEYOND THE GYMS — FITNESS AT PITT
Pitt’s Peterson Events Center is home to the Baierl Recreation center. Joanna Li | contributing editor
Elizabeth Martinson Staff Writer
Step outside during the few weeks of nice weather at the beginning of the fall semester and you’ll see — and dodge — joggers hitting the pavement and hills of Oakland. Head to the Cathedral lawns or Schenley Plaza and you’ll watch frisbees fly by and see at least one way-too-intense game of spikeball. But if you’re not into running and still want to keep fit, then you’ll probably hit one of the fitness centers around campus. All 14 fitness centers on campus are free to use with your Pitt ID. Beyond the gyms, there are more than 60 club sports, and numerous intramural leagues are offered each semester. Non-credit group exercise classes are also offered each semester, as are perpittnews.com
sonal training and wellness consultations to help you get the most out of your fitness center experience. These classes meet once a week for an hour, but if you are looking for more instruction or to learn a new sport or hobby, the School of Education offers co-ed physical education classes. Below you’ll find an in-depth look at all of the fitness options available to you when you arrive on campus. Group exercise and personal training Each semester — including the summer term — the Department of Campus Recreation offers group exercise classes for students who are looking for something a bit more organized than just hitting the gym. The options range from studio cycling and yoga to more intense options like HIIT See Fitness on page 50 June 28, 2019
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Fitness, pg. 49 and boot camp. Campus Rec offers up to 40 classes each semester, ensuring there are options for all students. The classes are often at or near capacity as people trickle in over the semester as they hear about the course from friends. All group exercise classes are led by students, who are often — but not always — studying the health sciences.
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If you are interested in becoming an instructor, Campus Rec has programs to help you get and maintain the necessary certifications. Some students come to Pitt wanting to use the fitness centers to keep the Market Central waffles off, but don’t feel comfortable with the equipment or don’t know how best to approach each workout. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Free wellness consultations are available for all students — full-time and part-time, undergraduate and graduate — and everyone is encouraged to make use of the service. “We try to push that to be their first step because it is one hour free,” said Kevin Sciullo, the wellness coordinator. “We do a whole range of health and fitness baseline testing, we go over goals, we try to see what do you want to get out of this.” If you’re looking for more one-onone training, there are a few options to choose from. Pitt’s personal trainers offer both hour-long and half-hour training sessions that can be scheduled as needed. They also offer the Panther Exercise Prescription Jumpstart, which is more of a long-term plan than the individual training sessions. “The Prescription Jumpstart [is] three sessions combined into one,” said Sciullo. “We’ll do a more extensive pre-testing and really sit down and say what’s ideal for you … really delve it down. Then we go ahead and write a month-long prescription.” “That’s great for the student that wants a full, month-long plan, and they’re like, ‘I don’t really need you there every second, I know what I’m doing, I just need this guidance, this explanation,’” Sciullo explained. The fitness fiends among you can also become a personal trainer and earn some spending money while keeping yourself — and others — fit. See Fitness on page 74
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Cudd, pg. 7 “For instance, we have a checklist of best practices of hiring practices that we ask every dean to present when they make the request to actually finalize a hire,” Cudd said. Cudd also said she has a vice provost working on a to-be-announced, multi-year cluster hiring initiative. As implemented at other universities, cluster hiring involves employing faculty in multiple departments around interdisciplinary research topics, or “clusters.” Pitt spokesperson Kevin Zwick said more information about the effort would be forthcoming. Unionization Cudd also discussed the two unionization campaigns on Pitt’s campus — one led by graduate students and another championed by faculty. Grad students voted against unionization in a yet-to-be-certified April election by a margin of 37 votes. The Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board held a hearing in midMay to discuss “unfair labor practices,” which union organizers say the University committed during the election. The PLRB is also hearing a case involving the faculty union, in which union organizers allege the University blocked them from reaching the 30% threshold necessary to call a unionization election. When asked about the University’s payments of nearly a quartermillion dollars between summers 2016 and 2018 to “union avoidance” law firm Ballard Spahr, which were first reported by The Pitt News, Cudd said it was a “good use of [University] funds.” “We hire that firm to do a lot of different work for us, in terms of employee-employer relations and HR and things like that,” Cudd said. “I think they’re a great firm. They’ve pittnews.com
been serving us well.” Cudd added that she believes Pitt has discretion in spending money, as long as its actions serve the “best interests of students.” “You know, our position with respect to the union is based on what we think best serves the interests of students … this seems like a reasonable way for us to use our funds,” Cudd said. But when asked whether the Uni-
versity should have recognized the union from the start instead of starting a lengthy series of legal battles, Cudd said that wouldn’t have been a “responsible position to take.” “I think it would have been irresponsible for us, as an administration, to invite the union … to be the bargaining unit, when, in fact, it seems like our students and our faculty, as a whole, don’t particularly want that,” Cudd said.
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Year of Creativity The upcoming academic year will be the “Year of Creativity,” continuing the tradition of declaring a theme for the year that students and faculty can “think about and move forward.” Cudd said she is excited for the different schools and student groups at Pitt to embrace the theme of creativity for the year.
Find the full story online at
pittnews.com
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Professors, pg. 14 “Often times I’ll hear students say in my [communication process] class, ‘Gee, we had objective tests in high school and something doesn’t seem to be the same,’” Gareis said. “I think a lot of times students are trained to think of objective exams entirely in terms of concept and definition … When you start getting application kinds of things, like ‘Here’s a scenario, which of these does this best
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illustrate?’That’s something that they often don’t think through. So, rather than just memorizing terms and definitions, think in terms of application.” Besides for just studying in class, Bursic said students should be aware that the University is a professional environment. “Staff and faculty need to be treated with respect. In our society, we’ve tended to become so much more casual in our communications,” Bursic said. “But professionals expect to be
treated as professionals and so when students address emails or phone calls, or even in person, they need to keep that in mind.” Since Pitt’s campus is intertwined with the streets of Pittsburgh, there are many neighborhoods, organizations and sites for students to familiarize themselves with. Mark Kramer, a lecturer in the English department, said he encouraged students to take advantage of the many academic opportuni-
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ties and learning experiences the City has to offer. “There’s just so much happening in Pittsburgh; if you only stick to learning within a classroom, you’re only getting half the education that’s available to you,” Kramer wrote in an email. “Personally, when I was an undergraduate, some of my most formative moments of learning happened away from campus where I could apply theory and book learning to real world relationships and challenges.” Data from researcher Petrie J. A. C. van der Zanden suggests that a successful first-year experience is not only determined by strong academic performance, but also significantly correlates with a successful social and emotional transition. Some students may feel a need to make many new friends as soon as they get to campus and not form many deep bonds. But Kramer stressed the importance of being patient while finding your place socially in the University environment. “Of course you want to make friends and have a good time, but sometimes I see students jump into scenes right away that aren’t very life-giving, or they get frustrated when they don’t quickly make deep connections,” Kramer said. “Keep at it and be true to your own self and interests. And, keep taking risks to step out of your comfort zone to find your people.” With students hailing from all over the United States and the globe, Gareis said it is a good idea to keep it simple and stay open-minded when it comes to potential friendships. “The University is a big place, and [new students] have probably not had the experience on this scale with potentially being in touch with people from such a diverse variety of backgrounds,” Gareis said. “Don’t just seek out people [you] already know or assume to be a lot like them. Sit beside someone different in class and get to know them.”
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Mensch, pg. 46 test that this isn’t worth it. The same goes for skipping out on events with delicious food or any other weight-management behaviors that students may feel obligated to engage in. When I look back on my first year of college, I don’t remember the time that I spent working out at the gym, but I do remember the time that I spent hanging out with
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my friends. Balance is key. 5. You need to worry about other things College is hard enough. Between getting adequate sleep, studying for difficult exams, managing student finances and living on your own, being hyperfocused on food and weight will hog unnecessary mental space. The less things that we prioritize, the more successful and productive we are in our school lives and work lives. Not
worrying so much about weight gain, which studies show is fairly usual, will likely benefit all areas of your life. And ultimately, if you really are concerned about your health or well-being, Pitt provides free resources to any student who has paid the student health fee. The Student Health Center has a dietitian that conducts individual appointments as well as group programs. This isn’t to say that you should throw your health on the backburner
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and completely ignore your body — that can be just as detrimental as hyperfocusing on weight. Your goal should be to find a balance. You shouldn’t ruin your first year of college worrying about the freshman 15, especially when there really isn’t evidence to support it in the first place. Leah is The Pitt News opinions editor. She writes mostly about sustainability and social issues. Write to Leah at LEM140@pitt.edu.
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TAKE 5: A LOOK AHEAD, FROM 2019 TO 2020 VISION The Pitt News Staff
The 2019-20 season gets closer every day. In this column, our sports staff salutes the departed women’s tennis program, guesses at the effect that an NCAA rule change will have on Panther basketball and looks at the future of a former Pitt running back. NIT bound The Pittsburgh Panthers finished the 2018-19 men’s basketball season with a subpar record (14-19 overall, 3-15 ACC) that saw them finish 14th in the ACC. Despite the disappointment, it was an improvement from the horrendous 201718 season where the Panthers were 0-18 in ACC play. Pitt is heading in the right direction under head coach Jeff Capel. The squad showed signs of greatness during Capel’s first full season, and next season will prove that these signs were no fluke. This young and talented Panthers roster, led by rising sophomore guards Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens, will make the NIT tournament this upcoming season. Pittsburgh will be a competitive team and will be on the bubble to make the NCAA men’s basketball tournament (March Madness) throughout the entire season. Unfortunately, their efforts to make “the dance” will be thwarted by teams that have more experience than the Panthers. Pitt will have a win-loss record of 7-9 See Take 5 on page 55
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Take 5, pg. 54 ACC games. This would more than double its win total in conference play over the past two seasons combined. Alas, Pitt would be one of the first four teams left out of the tournament. However, the Panthers would own a No. 1 seed in the NIT tournament due to being left out of March Madness. This also means that Pitt would have home court advantage until the final four teams of the tournament. Making the NIT tournament just two years after the 0-18 season would be a miracle to Pitt fans. For Capel to turn the program around so quickly would prove how great of a leader he is. So don’t be surprised when Pitt is playing for an NIT championship, or better yet, “dancing” come March. — Tyler Moran, Staff Writer Rule change could bode well for Pitt basketball The NCAA announced on June 12 that it would be pushing back the 3-point line in men’s basketball to 22 feet, 1.75 inches, which is the distance used for international competition. This is more than a foot back from the 20 feet and 9 inches where the line used to reside, but is still not quite as deep as the NBA three-point line. While Pitt was not a particularly overpowering team from 3-point range last season, shooting just a hair above 33%, it was still a key part of its game plan due to its lack of size. Without a large number of big man recruits for this coming season, that part of the game plan likely will not change much in 2019-20. However, thanks to the recruitment of junior college transfer Ryan Murphy and incoming freshman guard Justin Champagnie, the Panthers are looking to shoot a much higher percentage from the outside this season. With the deeper 3-point line, makes from deep will likely be harder to come by in college basketball, but that is a pittnews.com
good thing for Pitt. If it can secure an edge on opponents in terms of 3-point shooting, it will be able to outweigh the lack of a dominant physical presence it possesss on the inside. — Andrew Kelly, Staff Writer Pitt offense looks to be more efficient One of the most important parts of being successful in football is having an efficient offense that can move the ball in the run game and also by passing.
Last year, the Panthers struggled to be consistent doing either, leading to many unnecessary, headache-inducing losses. The change came with offensive coordinator, Shawn Watson, being fired and replaced by Mark Whipple. Whipple comes with almost four decades of experience coaching football, especially on the offensive side of the ball. These coaching stints include being the quarterback coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2004-06, where he won a Super
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Bowl ring, and the same position with the Cleveland Browns in 2011-12. He was also the head coach at UMass twice, first from 1998-03 when he was able to bring a national championship to the program when they were in Division 1-AA, and from 2014-18 as the team was top 20 in passing in three of those seasons, but were not successful winning games. The change from Watson, who in his See Take 5 on page 80
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HOW TO BE A FAN OF PITT SPORTS
Dominic Campbell Staff Writer
For the first time, Pitt Athletics is offering students the option to purchase season football and men’s basketball tickets together this year in a $125 package — and you might want to take them up on it. After a lackluster past few years, both teams look like they might be on the upswing. But how can you attend these games looking like you know what you’re talking about, and what about the rest of Pitt’s varsity sports? There will be 13 Division 1 sports teams at Pitt next season — down from 14 this season, due to the cutting of the women’s tennis program. The number will go back to 14 when women’s lacrosse starts play in the the 202122 academic year. Don’t worry, our guide has you covered, from new colors to new coaches. Retro colors One of the biggest changes for the upcoming season for all teams is the new uniform colors. At this year’s Bigelow Bash in April, Pitt finally unveiled its return to the retro uniform colors that had been anticipated by Pitt fans, alumni and even college fans across the country. These retro colors are a big contrast to the champagne gold and navy blue of the past few decades, instead calling back to the mustard yellow and royal blue colors worn from the mid-1970s to the end of the ’90s. Football The most anticipated Pitt football game of the season is the big ripittnews.com
valry game against Penn State Sept. 14 — which hardcore Pitt fans will have to hitch a ride to State College to see. But the biggest home game against non-conference opponents, UCF, comes on Sept. 21. All football games are played at Heinz Field, where the Pittsburgh Steelers also play. The team is coming off a season that saw them win the ACC Coastal Division and play in the ACC championship and is returning many starters from the year before. Soccer The men’s soccer team achieved its highest finish in the ACC this year, reaching the quarterfinals only to lose to Duke on penalties, while the women’s team underwent a year of transition. Both teams are set to keep improving as men’s coach Jay Vidovich and women’s coach Randy Waldrum have won National Championships with Wake Forest and Notre Dame, respectively. The soccer teams play at the Petersen Sports Complex on upper campus behind Trees Hall. Women’s volleyball The best team from last year of any Pitt sport was the women’s volleyball team, which made its highest ranking in program history and hosted two games of the NCAA tournament before being knocked out in the second round by Michigan. The team is looking to defend its back-toback ACC titles and with Dan Fisher as head coach, expect them to play well again this year. The team plays at Fitzgerald Field House, but bigger games are held at the Petersen
Women’s volleyball is one of Pitt’s best sports teams. Thomas Yang |
visual
editor
Events Center. Basketball The winter will bring another highly anticipated basketball season at the Petersen Events Center for the men’s and women’s basketball teams. The men’s team improved greatly under new head coach Jeff Capel, who was previously assistant at Duke and head coach at Oklahoma. Capel has brought in recruits like guards Trey McGowens, Xavier Johnson and Au’diese Toney, who starred in their first year and will be the main push for the Panthers in the ACC. The women’s team had its first year with head coach Lance White, who had been an assistant coach at Florida State for the previous 15 years. The team struggled in its first year, but improved down the stretch immensely, especially on the offense. With White’s first recruiting class signed and ready to play next season, along with a new assistant coach, watch out for a much stronger women’s team compared to last year. Gymnastics, wrestling The distinguishing feature of the gymnastics team is that unlike other teams at Pitt, it doesn’t compete June 28, 2019
in the ACC, since the conference doesn’t have a gymnastics league. Instead, Pitt gymnasts compete in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League. The gymnastics team struggled last year, but head coach Samantha Snider’s third year may bring more improvements to the program. The wrestling team improved vastly over the previous season in Keith Gavin’s second season as head coach. The team went from 4-11 in 2017-18 to 13-3 in 2018-19, including a jump from 6th to 4th at the ACC championships in both seasons. After hosting the NCAA Championships in the City last year and three Panthers, junior Taleb Rahmani, redshirt freshmen Nino Bonaccorsi and Micky Phillipi, finishing in the round of 12 in their respective weight classes, the team will hope to rise up the ranks not only in the ACC, but in the country as a whole. Both teams perform at the Fitzgerald Field House, with the gymnastics team starting in early January and the wrestling team in early November. Swimming and diving See Guideon page 66
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June 28, 2019
57
A RUNNER’S GUIDE TO OAKLAND Brian Gentry
Senior Staff Writer
Pittsburgh may be the City of Bridges, but it should also be known as the City of Hills. The City boasts two of the top 10 steepest roads in the United States, and even the flatter areas have a significant amount of terrain. But despite all of the hills the City is friendly to runners. With hundreds of acres of public parks and walkable neighborhoods, runners will delight in exploring all the City has to offer. This is especially true in Oakland, where the University of Pittsburgh is located. Schenley Park, a 456-acre park directly adjacent to Pitt’s campus, and neighborhoods like Squirrel Hill and Shadyside are only a quick jaunt away. Here’s your runner’s guide for new Pitt students itching to get in a jog. When you’re looking for a quick jog For short runs close to campus, your best option is Schenley Park. The park, accessible via Schenley Drive from Posvar Hall, has many trails suitable for small loops, and on hot days, the shade provided by the trees is a welcome reprieve. One set of trails that makes for an excellent lollipop loop is the duo of Panther Hollow Trails, termed the Lower and Upper Panther Hollow Trail. These two trails follow the Panther Hollow Run, a narrow creek, and connect to each other near the Bartlett Playground on the other side of Schenley Park. To access this loop, just enter from the park’s Visitor Center and stay on the main path. This path — the Lower Panther Hollow Trail — will pittnews.com
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take you up a slow incline to a rocky bridge, after which you can go back down the Upper Panther Hollow Trail on the other side. At the end of the Upper Panther Hollow Trail, you can get back up onto the Boulevard of the Allies and connect back to the Visitor Center. Overall, the loop is 1.6 miles long. Adding the distance from Towers to the Visitor Center brings the total mileage up to 3.0 miles. When you’re looking for a longdistance run Farther-flung neighborhoods, such as Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, offer more opportunities for longer runs, closer to 5 miles. One great 5.2-mile loop takes you all the way out to Shady Avenue in Shadyside. Start from Towers, head up to Benedum Hall and turn right onto O’Hara Street. Once you hit the Winchester Thurston schools, jog over one street to Ellsworth and follow that through Shadyside all the way to Shady Avenue. Turn right, head down Shady until you get to Walnut Street, take that to Aiken Avenue and loop back along the same route you headed out on. This route is a great option for a longer, slower run. Plus, if you need to make a Target run along the way, you can make a detour out to the East Liberty Target on Penn Avenue. Frick Park, another major public green area within the boundaries of the city, is located past Squirrel Hill along Beechwood Boulevard. You can either take a 61A or 61B bus out to the entrance, or, if you’re particularly ambitious, you can run out there along Forbes Avenue until you See Runner’s Guide on page 70
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COACH BRIDGETTE MITCHELL JOINS PITT WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Dominic Campbell Staff Writer
Like many tall girls, Bridgette Mitchell grew up being told she should play basketball. Coaches were interested in her from the start, though Mitchell said her height was the only asset she had when she began playing. “I went out, tried out, all the coaches were like, ‘Oh my goodness you’re so tall! You gotta play basketball! You gotta stay, you gotta stay!’” Mitchell said. “So, I had no idea what I was doing, wasn’t very good, was just tall and ran pretty well.” Years later, Mitchell is the new hope of the Pitt women’s basket-
ball team. The Panthers announced Mitchell as the team’s new assistant coach in April after a search to replace Danielle Atkinson, who recently became the head coach at Hofstra. With only two conference wins last season, the women’s team hopes Mitchell will help them improve their program. And her record looks pretty good. Mitchell comes to Pitt from a job as the assistant coach at James Madison University, where the team had a 78-26 record over three years, with three Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearances. Mitchell started playing basketball as a girl in Trenton, New Jersey,
after her grandmother saw an ad in the newspaper. She steadily improved throughout middle school and high school, and said getting to practice against boys was a huge reason for her success. “I strongly encourage girls these days to play against guys, because they’re faster, stronger,” Mitchell said. “That’s why most colleges, all colleges really [Division] 1, have a practice squad full of guys — because they’re faster, they’re stronger and they help you develop and make you better.” Mitchell was a McDonald’s AllAmerican coming out of high school and played four years of basketball at Duke University. Coming out
Bridgette Mitchell was announced as the women’s basketball team’s new assistant coach in April. image via pitt athletics
of Duke, though, she wasn’t good enough to get drafted into the See Mitchell on page 72
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Music Scene, pg. 34 people to be interested in their city.” Kent believes her career especially benefited from seeing other local artists explore different avenues for showcasing their music. “What helped me was to see so many artists really say, ‘you know what, instead of complaining about this, I’m going to throw my own event or I’m going to collaborate with other promoters and artists and really see what we can do,” Kent said. Part of what allowed Kent and other artists to throw their own events were venues that were willing to let them perform. One particular venue Kent has played is right in North Oakland, a house venue called The Bushnel. Stuart Lewis lives in the Bush-
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nel house and was in charge of the venue within in his home, calling himself the “Show Runner.” Lewis said he had the help of various roommates along the way in running the venue. Lewis, who graduated from Pitt in 2017, said he started The Bushnel after some time spent immersing himself in the Pittsburgh music scene. “I love the Pittsburgh music scene. The Bushnel was born out of that love. I had been going to shows at other houses and venues and had made friends with [a lot] of musicians in the city before [starting to have] shows at The Bushnel,” Lewis said over email. The venue hosted its first show in October 2016. Although the venue is now closed — and Lewis is moving out — The Bushnel saw countless musicians in
the Pittsburgh music scene grace its stage. Kent and Troyan were both budding artists in the Pittsburgh scene who had the opportunity to perform multiples times at The Bushnel before it closed. Most recently, Kent performed in one of the venue’s final shows, which occurred just a few weeks ago. As the main operator of The Bushnel, Lewis said house venues like his are a great way to help newer artists connect with a potential fanbase. “Small venues, like The Bushnel, often host emerging artists who are just eager to perform in general, especially if it is to a new audience that may have not heard of them before,” Lewis said over email. As a participant in the space for about three years, Troyan described the Pittsburgh music
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scene as ever-changing. They said this is partly because Pittsburgh is a college city, and artists leave once their time in school is over. But they did note that everyone involved in the scene is dedicated to helping it grow and succeed. “The one thing that sticks out to me about Pittsburgh specifically, I guess, is how passionate a lot of people are,” Troyan said. “You just see these people who are very clearly putting their all into what they do, whether that’s booking and promoting shows or just playing them even.” While this scene is constantly evolving, Troyan said that they enjoy being a Pittsburgh artist at this time because of the inclusive nature of the people involved. “Right now,” Troyan said, “I think it’s just a very welcoming and inclusive space.”
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THE decline AND RISE OF THE ~~ OAKLAND ZOO ~~ Michael Elesinmogun For The Pitt News
Entering Pitt as a first-year in the fall of 2016, I couldn’t wait to be a part of a Division 1 fanbase and watch my first football game as part of the “Panther Pitt.” The football season didn’t disappoint. There were many great moments that first year — like James Conner making his return to the field after his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Later that season, the Panthers beat Penn State in a thrilling matchup and went on to be the only team to take down the unbeaten Clemson in a back-and-forth showdown on primetime TV. It seemed
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There was plenty of hope that the team would do well, since all the players were coming back with another year of experience, but the season did not live up to anyone’s expectations, least of all mine. The Panthers went 4-14 in ACC play and didn’t make the tournament. Players seemed to have little enthusiasm during games. There were suspensions on the team. It all added up, and little by little the Oakland The Oakland Zoo during Pitt men’s basketball’s January matchup with Duke. Zoo — Pitt’s famous student section Thomas Yang | visual editor for basketball games and the one I like a great time to be a fan of Panther The Panthers had hired new coach had been so excited to be a part of — sports. Kevin Stallings and were coming off started to fall apart. As it did, the iniBut everything changed when of an NCAA tournament appearance. See Oakland Zoo on page 76 basketball season rolled around.
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Guide, pg. 56 The swimming and diving season lasts more than six months, from the first meet in early October to the national championships in the spring. Both junior Samy Helmbacher and sophomore Blaise Vera had outstanding seasons this past year, as they were the first men’s swimmers at Pitt to ever finish on the podium as medalists at the ACC championships.
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They both represented the Panthers at the NCAA Championships, a first for the program since 2002. The men’s team also broke 14 conference records, including all relay records. The women’s team broke six last year and saw first year diver, Amy Read, qualify for nationals. Expect to see all three back on the national stage again — and you can watch the home meets at the Trees Swimming Pool in Trees Hall on upper campus.
Track and field, cross-country While Pitt’s track and field team can’t hold official track meets on campus due to a lack of a track and field area, there’s the Blue and Gold meet in early December at the Charles Cost Center on upper campus and also the outdoor CMU Invitational at Carnegie Mellon in late March. Certain athletes to look for next season are high jumper and rising junior Greg Lauray, who’s al-
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ready set the high jump record at Pitt during his first year, and firstyear Sydni Townsend, who competed at Nationals this year. If you’re really into running, also look for the varsity cross-country team and the club cross-country team, which have competitions a couple times a year in Schenley Park, right next to campus. Softball and baseball Vartabedian Field and Charles L. Cost Field in the Petersen Sports Complex on upper campus host the softball and baseball teams, respectively. Both teams had a great 201718 season, with the softball team reaching the ACC championship and baseball making the ACC semis, but both regressed last season under new head coaches, Jodi Hermanek for softball and Mike Bell for baseball. Despite disappointing seasons last year, both Hermanek and Bell have been winners elsewhere, Ohio and Florida State respectively, so an improvement for next year is likely. How to pay for games Only men’s basketball and football charge students to go see games. Season student tickets for football are $25 this season — about $3.50 for each of the seven home games. As mentioned previously, football and basketball season tickets can be bought together for $125. The price might seem hefty, but it includes more than 20 basketball games, along with access to special events and shirts for the Panther Pitt and the Oakland Zoo — the names of the student sections for football and basketball, respectively. All other sports are almost always free for students to attend, with many raffling off free giveaways to students that attend the games. If you choose not to buy season tickets for basketball, make sure to buy tickets for specific games soon and show up early — many games were sellouts last year.
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QADREE OLLISON: NEXT IN LINE Nick Carlisano Staff Writer
Every college football player’s dream is to hear his name called on Draft Day, to join the ranks of the best in the world in the National Football League. For most, that dream never comes true — only 1.6% of NCAA football players ever become professionals. Pitt tailback Qadree Ollison was one of the select few to beat the odds when he was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons as the 152nd overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft. Panther running backs tend to thrive in the league. Lesean McCoy is a borderline Hall of Famer and Dion Lewis has thus far had a nice career. More recently, James Conner has thrived as the hometown Steelers’ starting back. Ollison, the only Pitt player in the 2019 draft, will join their ranks with the Falcons, a team whose backfield has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons. Many players of Ollison’s caliber have no bumps in the road and are superstars cemented at the top of the depth chart their entire careers. But for others, the journey is an uphill climb. Conner was suddenly diagnosed with cancer in 2015, managing to beat it in 2016. Ollison’s story, too, contains a tragic chapter that has made him into the man he is today. But before that chapter was written, Qadree Ollison was a stud at Canisius High School in New York. He was a top, if not the top, running back prospect in the state. Ollison earned two all-state selections, broke his school’s rushing record, racked up almost 60 career touchdowns and led his team to two Monsignor Martin Association titles. Many players enter college and get relegated to backup roles, even those as talented as Ollison. After pittnews.com
Former Pitt tailback Qadree Ollison escapes a shoestring tackle during the ACC Championship game. Thomas Yang | visual editor
redshirting as a true first year, Ollison began the 2015 season stuck in third on the depth chart, but a James Conner knee injury threw him into an active role in the offense. He made the most of his opportunity, rushing for more than 1,000 yards and 11 scores on his way to earning ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year and All-ACC second team honors. James Conner’s return relegated Ollison to the backup role in which he began his Pitt career. He turned in only 127 yards and reached the end zone just twice before his world was turned upside down in his junior season. On Oct. 14, 2017, Ollison and the rest of the Panthers were gearing up for their seventh game of the season against ACC foe NC State. The Panthers would lose to the Wolfpack 35-17. After the game, Ollison found out his brother had been killed early that morning. Lerowne “Rome” Harris, 35, was shot three times, twice in the back, by 22-year-old Denzel Lewis after a gas station encounter. Harris was put into a vehicle and sped to a hospital after the incident and passed away at Niagara Falls Memo-
rial Medical Center. “Everybody was just devastated,” Ollison told ESPN. “It’s not something that you can prepare for.” Ollison and Lewis attended middle school together and were friends at one point in their lives. The two drifted apart, but Ollison has still made the choice to have compassion for his brother’s killer. “Now here I am, and I have this choice to hate you or not. I choose not to,” says an excerpt from Qadree’s 800 word letter to Lewis, read by his father Wayne in court on the day of Lewis’ sentencing. “I hate what you did, most certainly. But I still think your life is just as precious as the next person’s. No life means more than another’s.” Ollison said he hopes Lewis finds peace through God — the Falcons rookie has become quite faithful since entering college. “If you don’t want to believe in God, you want to believe in something,” Ollison told ESPN. “[I would tell Lewis] try to find whatever it is that would bring peace to him and help him.” To pay homage to Rome, Ollison wore his brother’s youth football num-
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ber, 30, his senior year. The New York native proceeded to have a career season, spurring the Panthers to their first ever Coastal Conference title. In his final season, Ollison racked up 1,213 yards on the ground en route to reaching the end zone 11 times. He became only the sixth Panther ever to rush for 1,000 yards more than once, joining the likes of Pitt legends such as Tony Dorsett and Curtis Martin. Ollison stampeded nearly every opponent in a victory lap of sorts that earned him second team All-ACC honors. He was able to perform like this, at least in part, thanks to the spirituality he discovered in college that helped him through his brother’s death and allowed him to forgive Denzel Lewis. When he got to Pitt, Ollison was convinced to attend Bible studies by former teammate Kellen McAlone, jumpstarting the path of faith that has helped him through tough times. As Ollison’s faith grew, the Bible studies led to him reading a verse every night before praying. Many football players play the tough card at all times, but Ollison chose to be open about his excitement when he heard the Falcons gave him the call, shedding tears of joy while embracing his father and mother. He still has to make the Falcons roster, though, and even if he does, he won’t be satisfied. “Just because you’ve been drafted doesn’t mean you’ve arrived,” he once said. The latest in a long line of prolific Panther running backs won’t be content unless he’s made an impact on football fans and future hopeful players. “That’s all I really want to do,” Ollison told ESPN. “I just want to be an inspiration.”
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Runner’s Guide, pg. 58
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upon request or by popular demand. This includes, and surely is not limited to, pretzels, fruits and Cheetos. There are also options catered to specific dietary needs, from gluten free to lactose free and even vegan. Visits to the store are highly encouraged, but The Chocolate Moose does take orders online at thechocolatemoosepgh.com, giving the option to customize baskets, chocolates and trays to be delivered or shipped. We also offer exam survival baskets for those stressful weeks of final exams.The store is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. To reach The Chocolate Moose, call 412-422-2208 or email chocolatemoosepgh@gmail.com.
get there. Once there, many trails are available to you, such as the Riverview Trail and the Clayton Loop. When you’re looking for a track workout The more competitive of us may
offer one of the most effective ways to get your heart rate up and build muscle. Plus, with so many hills available, you’ll never get tired of repetitive scenery. The best hills for repeats are located right in Oakland, one of which is just past the UPMC Presbyterian
Schenley Park’s trails are popular routes for runners. tpn file photo
be looking for a harder workout, one that builds muscle. Fortunately, Schenley Park also conveniently has a track at the Schenley Oval Sportsplex, which can be accessed by exiting the park at the halfway point on the Panther Hollow loop. You’ll end up at Panther Hollow Road, which you can cross to get to the Sportsplex, where you can start your workout. While the most obvious feature to runners is the track located on the western side of the Sportsplex, the area also sports a 1-kilometer loop around the edge, as well as tennis courts and a large green space in the center. Regardless of what intensity workout you’re going for, odds are you can find a suitable loop at the Sportsplex to complete the workout. When you’re looking for a hill workout You knew it’d be coming. Your calves may complain, but hill repeats
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hospital. You can run from the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Darragh Street straight up the hill, and either stop at Terrace Street — a 100-foot climb — or all the way at Trees Hall — a nearly 200-foot climb. Turn left at either stop and loop back down the hill, then repeat. And if you can’t get enough of the hills, you can run up and down the Chevron Steps, which start outside the Chevron Science Center, the chemistry building, and end at Irvis Hall, one of the residence halls available to sophomores and juniors. Bring your chemistry notes too so you can get in some studying while your quads are burning. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting to get into shape, there’s plenty of options in the Oakland area to get a run in. When you arrive on campus in August, take a break from studying, go on a run and enjoy the sun — it won’t be there forever.
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Mitchell, pg. 60 WNBA, so she chose to go abroad, playing in France for Villeneuve d’Ascq in 2010 and Poland for Energa Torun from 2011-12. After her season in Poland, Mitchell came home to Trenton where she helped take care of her diabetic mother. On the weekends, she started holding weekly basketball clinics for underprivileged girls in the area. That was where she found her passion for mentoring and coaching. When her former Amateur Athletic Union offered her the chance to be assistant coach at Wagner, Mitchell had to choose between the coaching job and returning overseas to play in Italy. Though she was torn between coaching and continuing her professional career, Mitchell chose to coach, because the job would keep her closer to home.
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When women’s basketball head coach Lance White started looking for a new assistant coach, Mitchell’s name kept coming up when he talked to people, he said. White had also watched Mitchell when she played for Duke. “As we’re on the recruiting circuit, you just watch and observe different people and different young coaches,” White said. “You watch them really grind and work, and she was one of those that I’d just watch for a number of years and really appreciated what she did. When I had this opportunity come up [to hire a new assistant coach], there were people that I really trust … her name kept coming up in a lot of different circles. Then as we began talking, it was just really what she brought that was exactly what I needed.” White was especially impressed by Mitchell’s ability to form strong relationships with players, coaches and families, he said. That’s an ability that’s served her well in one big
aspect of the assistant coach job — recruiting. At Pitt, like at JMU, Mitchell’s job requires her to teach basketball, mentor her players and recruit well. The job at Pitt will allow her to recruit higher-ranked players than she did at JMU, Mitchell said. Being a recruiting coordinator requires her to know where to send her staff to recruit, what players they should target and, also, if they have a real shot at a player. Above all, she said, she places importance on really getting to know the players she recruits. “If you’re recruiting a kid, you gotta know her parents, remember their names, her grandparents, her best friends, things that are important to her. You gotta really make sure you know those things so that you can talk about those things and genuinely care,” Mitchell said. “Parents pick up when you’re not genuine, so if you don’t care about their kid or
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their future or their well-being, then that’s gonna show. That aspect is really important to me because I care about them as young women first.” Mitchell has enjoyed getting to know Oakland and Pittsburgh with her new players and staff over the past couple of months, she said, adding that she’s pleased by how wellreceived she’s been by the players. Incoming sophomore guard Ismini Prapa said Mitchell has already helped her improve her game, working with her on shooting, her footwork and finishing at the rim. “She’s a very dedicated coach,” Prapa said. “She puts a lot of energy in practice. She makes us work really hard and fight for the team, which is something that we really need. She’s a great person too, so even though she’s pushing us really hard she tries to talk with us. As soon as I met her, she wanted to go out and eat, get to know me better.”
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Fitness pg. 50 Intramurals If you miss the friendly competition of Little League sports or you and your friends want to find something to do when you hang out other than study, intramurals might be the best fit. Due to popular demand, indoor soccer is offered year-round and only requires six people to field a team. For those of you who are already card-
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carrying members of the Oakland Zoo and are counting down the days to the first game, recreational basketball — meaning no officials or scorekeepers — is offered in the fall semester, with the competitive league taking place in the spring. Even if you don’t have a full team scouted and organized, you can join any league as a partial team looking for some extra free-agent players or you can sign up as a free agent your-
self. Bill Wallace, the intramural sports coordinator, said that about half of teams are open to free agents, so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved. “You can sign up as an individual instead of a team, and then once the season starts, we can guide you to a team that is needing of players,” said Wallace. Although there are not many different sports offered, Wallace is open
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to student suggestions, and this year he added a dodgeball league during the spring semester. Most suggestions come to Wallace through his student staff of intramural referees and supervisors who regularly interact with intramural participants. Competitive and recreational club sports If you played a sport in high school and miss the competitive atmosphere, you might find your home away from home in one of the 43 competitive club sports at Pitt. With options ranging from hurling to ice hockey to Ultimate Frisbee as well as club versions of most of Pitt’s varsity sports, there are opportunities for everyone. Most club sports will accept anyone, regardless of their experience or ability, so if you’ve always wanted to learn how to ride a horse, the Panther Equestrian Club will teach you and get you up to speed to enter competitions. Most clubs practice three or more times a week, which can include time in the gym as well as on the playing field. Additionally, competitive teams will travel to events around the region and, sometimes, across the country. Recreational club teams are more about “the instructional aspects and recreational play of the sport” according to the Campus Rec website. These clubs, which include badminton, billiards and several martial arts, focus on intra-club competition and skill development rather than competing against other colleges and universities. Recreational clubs involve a smaller time commitment than their competitive counterparts and usually only meet once or twice a week. As part of Welcome Week this year, there will be a separate activities fair for club and recreational sports at the Pitt Sports Dome on Saturday, Aug. 24, where you can meet members of the teams and learn more about club sports at Pitt.
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Oakland Zoo, pg. 64 tial enthusiasm for the season quickly turned into disdain. Things became very dreary for Panthers fans because there wasn’t much going on to root for. The following year was even worse. Four out of our starting five didn’t return — Michael Young, Jamel Artis and Sheldon Jeter all graduated, while Cam Johnson transferred to University of North Carolina. The 2017-18 Panther basketball team was more than disappointing. It was one of the worst in the country. The fans, understandably, didn’t want to go to wait around watching their team get blown out. Many times Zoo fans would go to the game just to yell “Fire Stallings” or put paper bags over their heads. A once-great student section with articles written about it and which in 2007 was named the “toughest place to play” in the Big East was gone, and looked like it wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Then, late in the season, Athletic Director Heather Lyke made the move to let go head coach Kevin Stallings and hire Duke assistant coach Jeff Capel as the Panthers’ new head coach. Capel immediately came in with a presence. From his introductory press conference, there was a feeling that things were going to be different on the court. “I promise you, the fans, the administration, everyone, that I will give you everything that I have, every day,” he said. Capel was the main recruiter at his previous coaching gig at Duke, so we knew he was going to be able to bring in quality players. After Capel came in, several “top” players from the previous season decided to transfer, but Capel never wavered. He went out immediately and recruited able first-years in Xavier Johnson, Au’Diese pittnews.com
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Toney and Trey McGowens, all of whom quickly showed their worth as players. Then came the 2018-19 basketball season — which, to me, was the highlight of Panthers sports this past season. The Panthers started off their non-conference schedule with blowout wins against superior teams, but we had seen that in the years before. But then, the Panthers lost a game against Iowa in the Big Ten and ACC challenge by only one point — a competitive performance against what was, at the time, a top 15 team. That was the spark, and it brought the Zoo back in a big way. The team had a confidence that had been missing for a couple of years. The Panthers were young, and while they lost a lot of games they had a chance to win that season, the fans could see that players were once again making an effort. Even in a blowout game, you could see they would still fight. That’s why people kept coming back to the Oakland Zoo. The Panthers won only 3 ACC games — a worse record than the 2016-17 season — but the excitement was much greater. Despite the fact that the Panthers didn’t have a good record, there was a fresh scent to the program. Sitting in the Zoo was exciting again. And after next year’s court flip, sitting in the Zoo will be an even bigger deal. The section, currently located in front of the court’s floor seats, will now sit behind the benches and be shown on TV. So buy those basketball season tickets. As an incoming first-year trying to navigate classes, living on your own and figuring out a whole new life, you need moments of escape. Our reinvigorated basketball team will give you those. Those moments might not turn into victories, but it’ll definitely be fun to watch.
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TPN CROSSWORD | ROC YOUR WORLD
Created by Brian Gentry and Emily Wolfe The Pitt News Staff
Down: 1. Type of dance 2. Gerard Way’s band, to fans 3. Rating system used by FiveThir tyEight’s NFL model 4. Prepare apples for pie-making 5. German chainsaw manufacturer 6. Intend to 7. What’s missing after a shipwrek? 8. Director DuVernay 9. They’re paid at funerals 10. Credit option 11. Fiddling emperor, or a Pitt physics professor 12. Hubbubs 14. -ide prefix 18. Secondary Pittsburgh airport code 21.“Forest giraffes”native to the Congo 23.Happy Days nickname, almost 24. ___porosis 25. Swahili word for freedom, and the source of a “Star Trek” name 26. Beach bag 30.“You’d Be So ___ Love”(Cole Porter) 31. XVI + XXV 32. Romeo, to Benvolio 33. Before, to a poet 34. Egyptian offering to the dead 35. Fameux last word 36. Sticky things 38. Places to lay your feet to rest 39. Dave and Andy’s flavor, for short 43. Viral throat infection type 44. ___ thought 45. “Beavis and Butt-Head” spin-off 46. Car giver? 47. Have to pay again 48. Fairy tale beginnings 49. — 50. Pot before the kiln 51. Italian capital 54. Drunken sort 56. Jemison in space 57. Picnic crasher 58. Denials jokes of the night 30. But pitcher Derek West Across: 53. Game of Thrones’s“Knight of Flowers” 37. Pitt mascot’s favorite low-sugar drink 20. “You ___ study more” 1. Slapped a copyright on 55. Pitt mascot’s favorite 2019 musical 40. Smalls 22. Next stop after playing for a Pitt 5. Ride in space, familiarly biopic 41. __-Tac sports team 8. The Pittsburgh Penguins’ PPG Paints, 59. ___ acid, a protein building block 42. Mess (with) 23. Pitt mascot’s favorite English after for one 60. Amazement 43. Aerodynamic noon appointment 13. Roman ___ (thinly veiled nonfiction) 61. Instrument found in the Pitt Orches 45. Pitt mascot’s favorite tentacled Spi 27. Pitt’s “Lifelong Learning Institute” 15. Uuncle, in SPAN 0101 tra der-Man villain 28. Young U.S. Rep. from NY-14 16. Annoyed 62. Bread leavener 50. Something Pitt students do before 29. Singaporean engineering sch., and 17. PPitt mascot’s favorite synonym for 63. “__ Just Not That Into You” final exams somewhere Pitt students frequently con “says so” 64. Views from the Zoo? 52. Pitt Tonight host Andrew Dow’s first duct research 19. Houston ballplayer, like former Pitt pittnews.com June 28, 2019 78
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Take 5, pg. 55 last three games had the team post offensive totals of three, 10 and 13 points respectively, to Whipple should be a huge change to a team that is in desperate need for offensive production next season as it looks to defend its ACC Coastal Division title. Many players have already stated how much better the change to Whipple has been during spring practices and
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if the change is successful, Pitt could look to improve vastly on what was a successful season a year ago. — Dominic Campbell, Staff Writer Discontinuing Pitt women’s tennis a swing and a miss This past January marked a new low for Pitt’s women’s tennis team when Athletic Director Heather Lyke announced on social media that this season would be its last. Lyke’s decision marks the first time since the women’s tennis team’s incep-
tion in 1975 that Pitt will be without a tennis program, leaving a gaping hole in the University’s athletic scene. Pitt also cut the underperforming men’s tennis team back in 1995, and, in recent years, the women haven’t fared any better. The program’s woes began five years ago, when Pitt switched from the Big East Conference to the Atlantic Coast Conference, which currently holds three of the sport’s top 10 teams. The uptick in competition was undeniable — Pitt’s record crashed from 19-23 in its last five years of Eastern Conference play to a combined 1-69 in its five-year ACC debut. The team has yet to win a league match this season, but it’s a season — and a program — that was doomed from the start. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in January that “continuing this program undermines our commitment to future student athletes.” But Pitt was the only team in its conference that didn’t have an on-campus tennis facility, so players had to make the trek to Wexford just to practice everyday. And to make matters worse, funding for the team was quite slim — women’s tennis was one of 19 sports at Pitt, but received only 2.3% of the athletic department’s funding. Instead of cushioning the team’s adjustment to the ACC with better funding, more coaching and, perhaps, more local facilities, the athletic department threw their players racquet-first into a division
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where they obviously couldn’t compete. The result? Pitt’s players were left scrambling to figure out their next moves — both on the tennis court and in their University lives. And Pitt tennis fans were robbed of the chance to watch hometown heroes trade shots with some of the best players from across the country. — Neena Hagen, Senior Staff Writer Heat is on Ollison in Atlanta The summer months between the end of the NFL Draft and the beginning of the preseason is the roughest stretch of the year for football fans. Aside from a few sporadic rumors concerning roster developments during training camp, this time is a desert wasteland for meaningful NFL news. But while NFL veterans saunter through organized team activities and NFL fans wallow through the summer heat, this time is highly valuable for one particular demographic — NFL rookies, especially late-round picks and undrafted free agents. For rookie running back Qadree Ollison, selected in the fifth round by the Atlanta Falcons, the stakes will be higher than ever during training camp and the preseason. At Pitt, Ollison racked up 2,859 career rushing yards, putting him seventh on the Panthers’ all-time list — a prestigious group, including names like Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin and Lesean McCoy.
Find the full story online at
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TPN’S BEST PHOTOS OF SUMMER 2019 . . . so far
Photos by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor
A starling picks apart a chunk of bread in Schenley Plaza on Saturday afternoon.
Demonstrators march across the Roberto Clemente Bridge during Sunday’s People’s Pride.
The Steel City Sisters at Sunday’s Equality March. See Best Photos on page 84
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Best Photos, pg. 82
BELOW: Soldiers and Sailors’ 6th Regiment USCT Drum Corps performs at the hall’s Memorial Day celebration.
The Filipino American Association of Pittsburgh’s reynas prepare to enter the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room.
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The Pitt News Editor-in-Chief JANINE FAUST editor@pittnews.com
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