Vol. 105 Issue 48
@thepittnews DIGITAL LOVE
Pittnews.com
Friday, October 10, 2014
Students create Yik Yak alternative Danah Bialoruski For The Pitt News
Miguel Pelino, a senior civil engineering major, plays with toy robots at the Pitt Surplus Store near Penn Avenue. Subhana Chaudhri | Staff
Forget Facebook — students today crave online discussion with all the benefits of anonymity. Rachel Handewerk, a freshman nutrition and dietetics major at Pitt, said anonymity online may change how people speak to each other. “I think that the anonymity allows people to be more outrageous in what they say, which can make it more offensive,” she said. “But it also makes it more entertaining and funny. Basically, you can’t take it seriously and the people who take it seriously need to delete the app.” Yik Yak, an anonymous social media app
Photographer
App
Point Park’s Playhouse to leave Oakland Nerine Sivagnanam Staff Writer In the coming years, Oakland may lose one of its oldest characters: the Pittsburgh Playhouse. The Pittsburgh Playhouse, the performance center for Point Park University students, is located on Craft Avenue in Oakland, but will relocate to the heart of Point Park’s campus
Downtown after the completion of a new university building. “I have always thought the condition of the Playhouse has given Point Park a lot of character, and although it is extremely old, it is pretty cool to think about all of the shows that were put on within it throughout history,” Kristin Serafini, a senior majoring in musical theatre at Point Park, said of the theater, which
was built in the 1930s. A September Point Park release detailed specifications of the new Playhouse, which will be called the Conservatory of Performing Arts and include new theaters, an orchestra pit, study areas and tech space. Point Park decided to build new facilities because “the inadequate
Playhouse
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Women’s Soccer Recap page 5
Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer
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PLAYHOUSE facilities at the Playhouse have not kept pace with the needs of students and patrons alike,” the release said. The change isn’t a surprise for Point Park students. The university informed students about the coming Playhouse move years ago, said Keaton Jadwin, a senior at Point Park majoring in theatre arts. “As freshmen at Point Park University, we were made aware of the plan to move the Pittsburgh Playhouse downtown,” Jadwin said. “This project has been in the works for quite some time and we knew that monumental changes such as this one would take time.” The move Downtown raises questions among students about off-campus living situations. Because of the Playhouse’s current Oakland location, many Point Park theater students have made off-campus homes in Oakland and take Point Park shuttles to classes Downtown. Once the Playhouse moves, the shuttle service probably won’t continue, said Lou Corsaro, managing director of university marketing and
October 10, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com public relations at Point Park. “It is safe to say that when the project is complete, it’s unlikely we would continue with the shuttle service, since the project would centralize our entire campus downtown,” Corsaro said. Serafini, who lives in Oakland, said she thinks students will continue to live in Oakland despite the removal of the shuttle service. “Because Oakland is so affordable and accessible to different restaurants, grocery stores and nightlife, I feel as though students will continue to find housing in Oakland and therefore will be at a big loss without the shuttle,” Serafini said. “They will have to spend extra time and money to rely on public transportation.” Melessie Clark, a senior majoring in musical theatre, resides on Point Park’s campus but said most of her classmates live in Oakland. “Every Point Park student that I know who lives in Oakland uses the shuttle regularly,” Clark said. “Even those of us who live on campus use the shuttle regularly to get to Oakland for rehearsals at the Playhouse, restaurants and shopping.” Once the Downtown project is complete, students commuting from Oakland will have to find their own way to commute to campus.
But in exchange, students will have the new and improved Conservatory, according to Corsaro. Point Park hasn’t yet determined what they will do with the current Playhouse building in Oakland after the new Conservatory is finished. Corsaro said Point Park will release a new and more detailed announcement about the Conservatory in November, and that there is no concrete time frame for completion, though construction is scheduled to begin in 2016. The Conservatory will be a six-story “teaching and performance venue,” Point Park President Paul Hennigan said in a university release. Governor Tom Corbett visited Point Park in September to announce that the Playhouse would receive a $5 million Economic Growth Initiative Grant through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. Corsaro said the $5 million will fund the Conservatory. Jadwin said he thinks that Point Park is making a good decision in moving the Playhouse downtown. “Downtown is the home of the cultural district, where theater and art is continually thriving” Jadwin said. “The addition of the Pittsburgh Playhouse to the already emerging city will only provide economic and artistic growth within the community.”
FROM PAGE 1
APP
based on users’ locations, inspired six college students to create their own platform for online discourse. The six students, including one Pitt student, created OpenVerse, an app to compete with Yik Yak, the popular mobile app that’s come to dominate the anonymous side of social media since it’s creation a year ago. OpenVerse differs from Yik Yak in one fundamental way: It is only available to university students. With Yik Yak, people within a 10-mile radius of one another are able to create and view anonymous posts by those around them. The app, which debuted in November 2013, has spread to more than 200 colleges and universities nationwide. Patryk Fusiarz, Ari Kidron, Matthew Sabatini, Nikhil Ramanathan, Napat Suthasinwong and Pitt student Robert Burger launched the beta version of OpenVerse in late September at New York University’s campus in Florence, Italy. Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.
October 10, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
OPINIONS
EDITORIAL
Casual Fridays
Hyena equality
K
eepers at the Maruyama Zoo in Japan finally figured out why their hyenas wouldn’t mate — the two hyenas, Kami and Kamutori, are actually both male. Years of effort the zoo put into trying to get them to procreate were, naturally, futile. Thankfully, this discovery led them to solve the other mystery as to why the hyenas tended to laugh more than usual.
Cash cow
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restaurant in London, U.K., has successfully concocted the world’s most expensive burger at 1,100 Euros — about $1,768 here in the U.S. The burger itself is made of a minced meat patty consisting of both Kobe Wagyu beef and New Zealand Venison, which is then seasoned with smoked Himalayan salt. Inside the patty itself is a stuffing of black truffle Brie. But that accounts for only about half the price — the sandwich is then served with an Iranian saffron poached lobster, maple syrup bacon, Beluga caviar and a hickory smoked duck egg (life insurance not included).
Siri-ous real estate
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man in Detroit has had a hard time selling his house. It has been on the market for months now, but the dilapidated house won’t sell, even at the low price of $3,000. Desperate to get rid of the house, the
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homeowner has announced that he is willing to trade the house for an iPhone 6, because you know what they say: An apple a day keeps foreclosure away.
Wait, what?
P
olice in Daytona Beach, Florida, have arrested a man for attempted burglary of an unoccupied structure. The felon was found covered in tar on the roof of a closed gas station in the early hours of the morning. Why? Well, first he told the cops that he was visiting family. Then, he claimed to be a repairman. When neither of those stories worked, he told police that he was merely sleeping on the roof and covered himself with tar so that he wouldn’t be seen. But, when police found a prying tool on him, they assumed he was attempting a burglary. Seeing that the job was already half-done, the man was sentenced to be tarred and feathered.
Dude, where’s my okra?
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Georgia man had his house invaded by drugsuppression officers and K-9 units after police suspected him to be growing marijuana in his yard. As it turns out, the suspected marijuana plants were actually okra plants. Even though the plant has similar characteristics to marijuana — they’re both green, I guess? — the police admitted that they were at fault and apologized to the man. So everything ended up being A-OKray.
COLUMN
Climate march reflects urgency, calls for immediate action Channing Kaiser Columnist
Three weeks ago, I walked in the People’s Climate March in New York City along with more than 300,000 individuals. Yet in the weeks following the march, I’ve monitored the news coverage of it and have been slightly disappointed. There were many headlines during the days following the event boasting about its size and reach, and there were television stations replaying footage of the swarms of people flooding the Manhattan streets, but the buzz seemed to die within days. Something great happened in New York City on Sept. 21, and we need to keep talking about it. More importantly, we need to understand why people marched that day. The media coverage the march received was a little discouraging. Articles talked about Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo’s attendance, but glossed over the fact that the Secretary-General of the U, Ban Ki-moon, was there as well. Headlines also complained that the marchers left garbage piled on top of already filled trash cans but mentioned very little about the climate negotiations that took place the very next day. Of course, the rally wasn’t without its problems. The city had been expecting around 100,000 protesters and was wholly unprepared for the 300,000 to 400,000 marchers who converged on the city in one weekend, many for a single day. Had they known more people would show, they probably would’ve set up more trash recep-
Hundreds of thousands of protestors met in New York to voice their concerns about the environment. Dale Shoemaker | For The Pitt News
tacles and been better organized. The Pitt marchers spent two hours corralled on a sidewalk, not moving, because the streets couldn’t accommodate any more people. In fact, barriers delineating the march path were removed toward the end in order to scatter people in different directions because it was simply too crowded. The march also received criticism because it lacked unity and had no end goal. People representing myriad organizations came — from PETA, to the Sierra Club, to groups of vegans — all wanting to help the environment with a multitude of initiatives. But rather than focusing on the faults with the march or on the handful of celebrities who attended, we must focus on the driving passion that inspired more than 300,000 individuals to leave their
homes, carry signs and sing anthems in Manhattan. The take-away from the march should be that, yes, there is an apparent problem and, more importantly, we can and need to do something about it. The Earth is warming, and although there are still questions as to what exactly is driving this change in climate, it’s undeniable that we humans don’t treat the earth and environment kindly overall. Reading articles about the environment is depressing. The Guardian recently released an article with research from the World Wildlife Fund that says the Earth has lost 50 percent of its wildlife in the past 40 years alone. Another example of our de-
Kaiser
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October 10, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
FROM PAGE 3
KAISER structive tendencies is Mt. Everest. In March 2014, Nepal declared that all climbers must descend with 18 pounds of trash because the mountain is so polluted. In fact, the path leading up to Everest is nicknamed “the toilet paper trail” because hikers do a poor job burying their waste and strands of toilet paper are left strewn about. These are very physical reminders that we are having a large negative impact on the environment. Tackling climate change by yourself is
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impossible, but small efforts — whether it be through recycling or using renewable energy — can help improve the environment and hopefully the climate. Let’s do our part. Start small. Make sure all of the lights in your dorm or apartment are turned off when you leave. Unplug electronics when they’re not in use so they don’t suck phantom energy. Oakland has a biweekly recycling service, so place your recyclables in a blue bag and set them by the curb so that they can be properly disposed of. Try to eat less meat: Meat production, especially beef, requires tons of energy, so cutting down on your meat intake is an easy and effective way to curb energy costs.
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Also, take the time to educate yourself about pertinent issues. If you know anyone who participated in the march or another activist, ask them what organizations they support, what issues they feel need to be addressed immediately and how you can get involved. Before you can be part of the solution, you have to understand what the problems are. My roommate questioned the outcome of the march, saying it wouldn’t have much of an impact besides frustrating cab drivers for the day and clogging NYC streets. She didn’t understand how it could have an effect without a unified end goal. But we have the power and responsibil-
ity to make the march lasting and effective. It’s easy to dismiss environmental issues as irrelevant and futuristic since we often don’t see its immediate effects. But as the statistics from the WWF and the mandate on Mt. Everest show, these are issues affecting the Earth right now. By talking about the march and why people participated, hopefully we can help people understand that these are real, pertinent issues that need to be addressed and help spread the knowledge of how to participate in resolutions to environmental issues. Instead of being part of the problem, we need to be part of the solution. Email Channing at clk87@pitt.edu
Editorial Policies Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each. Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns,- car toons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter - in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left. The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is-pub lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer. Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations -Com mittee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260. The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University staff, - fac ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito rial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.
The Pitt News Crossword, 10/10/2014
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ACROSS 1 Plant owner: Abbr. 4 Quieted (down) 10 Novelist Clancy 13 Go it alone 14 Starting squads 15 Commotion 16 *Tailor’s fabric marker 18 Fortysomething, e.g. 19 Parts of stairs 20 Paving supply 21 “Suits” actress Torres 22 Oft-blessed outburst 23 *Like a job that doesn’t cause ulcers 25 Nonstick kitchen brand 26 Pro offering IRA advice 28 Netherworld 29 Uppity one 31 Chapter in a geology text, maybe 33 Finished first 34 *Anna Sewell novel narrated by a horse 38 Early hrs. 39 Misspell or misspeak 40 Woodshop tools 43 “NCIS” actor Joe 46 Personal connections 48 Extinct emu-like bird 49 *Icon in billpaying software 53 Top-selling Toyota 55 __ Hashanah 56 “Bambi” doe 57 Runway figures 58 “What was __ do?” 59 “Remember what I said!” ... and a hint to what can follow each part of the answers to starred clues 61 Jazz genre 62 Layered rock 63 Pull up stakes, to Realtors 64 USCG rank 65 Hardly boastful
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10/28/14
By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
66 Dreyer’s partner in ice cream DOWN 1 Tribesman in a Cooper title 2 Apparently spontaneous public gathering 3 Logger’s contest 4 Spending limits 5 Completed the course? 6 Slowly, to Mozart 7 Colorful parrot 8 Mideast leaders 9 High-speed www connection 10 Rolled up to the jetway 11 Danish birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen 12 Marshy tract 13 Torn-off paper pieces 17 McDonald’s founder Ray 21 Research funding sources 23 Carefree diversion 24 “__ shalt not ...” 27 Push-up targets, briefly
Monday’s Puzzle Solved
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30 Boil briefly, as asparagus 32 Honest __ 33 Tip off 35 Out of control 36 Composer Satie 37 Whined 41 Urbane 42 States as fact 43 Book copier of yore 44 Particle of light 45 __ Fables
10/28/14
47 Garbage vessel 50 Bingo relative 51 No right __: road sign 52 Jack of “The Texas Rangers” 54 Really love 57 Computer game title island 59 Studio with a lion mascot 60 Submissions to an ed.
October 10, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
WOMEN’S SOCCER
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SPORTS
Streaking Panthers stumble, fall to rival Fighting Irish 2-0 Jasper Wilson Senior Staff Writer For the first half of its game against No. 14 Notre Dame, the Pitt women’s soccer team had all the luck. Two near-scoring chances by the Fighting Irish in a five-minute span during the middle of the period hit the crossbar. But the luck ran out just before halftime because of an unrelenting Irish attack, and the Panthers lost their game Thursday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field, getting shutout 2-0 and ending their two-game winning streak. Coming into the contest, the former Big East foe has dominated the series between the two schools, possessing a 11-0-1 record. Pitt (6-7 overall, 2-3 ACC) recorded its first ACC wins in program history over the last two weekends, while Notre Dame’s (8-4-1 overall, 3-2 ACC) most recent contest was a loss to No. 4 University of Virginia by a score of 2-1. Early on, neither side built a substantial attack, but eventually the visitors settled in with help from the Panthers. Miscommunication between two Pitt players in their own defensive box in the 17th minute saw a ball not get cleared away to safety. An ensuing scramble for possession
Freshman Hanna Hannesdottir battles for possession. Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer
with a charging Notre Dame player resulted in an obstruction call on a Pitt player, leading to an indirect kick 16 yards from goal by Morgan Andrews, which went high over the bar. Soon after, teammate Lauren Bohaboy received the ball outside the box on the right
side and cut in on her left foot, separating from her marker and shot. The attempt had pace and was out of reach of Pitt’s goalie Taylor Francis, but the ball struck the frame of goal and went high. A Notre Dame attempt to redirect the rebound on net was deflected
high out of play for a corner. Nothing came from that set piece, but a little over five minutes later, the Fighting Irish got a restart out wide left level with the box. It swung in, and Andrews met it with her head, powering it towards net, but the bar again saved Pitt from conceding the game’s first goal. The stat sheet at the break reflected Notre Dame’s dominance in the first half: 15 shots on goal, with five on target, to Pitt’s three total attempts, two of which were on goal, neither challenging the goalie. When facing such an offensive onslaught, the sophomore Francis says the key is to stay calm. “When you’re getting that much action, it’s really stressful. I get a lot of anxiety,” Francis said. “You just kind of have to slow your breathing down and focus on each shot individually, each play individually.” The defense held for a little longer with players throwing themselves in front of numerous Irish attempts on net. Head coach Greg Miller said that beginning with its game against Boston College the team began breaking games into quarters. “We got through the first quarter without
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VOLLEYBALL
Pitt readies for weekend ACC battles with Notre Dame, Syracuse Caitlin Hinsey Staff Writer The Panthers’ volleyball team wants to make a comeback this weekend from a thrilling, close loss to a top 25-ranked opponent, but it’ll take a lot of work. With ACC play in full swing, Pitt continues to face tough competitors. Notre Dame visits the Fitzgerald Field House at 7 p.m. Friday. Following that match, the team makes a quick turnaround, traveling to Syracuse to play the Orange in
the Panthers’ first away match since Sept. 6 — a loss to Colorado in Boulder. Redshirt sophomore Jenna Potts is excited for the weekend’s play. “We have been home for a long time. It’ll be a nice change-up to go on the road,” the middle blocker said. “It’s going to be a battle.” Head coach Dan Fisher agreed. “We haven’t been on the road in awhile. It’s a very important two games for us,” Fisher said. The home-away match weekend is new
for Pitt. Last season, the Panthers did not have a single split weekend, but Fisher thinks the Panthers won’t have to make major adjustments, as the majority of the team competed at Syracuse last year. Both of Pitt’s opponents find themselves in the bottom of the ACC rankings, with Notre Dame tied for twelfth and Syracuse in dead last at fifteenth, but Fisher knows the Panthers can’t afford to get too complacent. “Mostly, we’re just going to have to be ready to go to war,” Fisher said. “If we slip into thinking that its going to be easy, that’s
when you lose.” Notre Dame Pitt currently holds a 8-1 record on its home court, but the team knows the Irish can wreak havoc there as well. Notre Dame (4-11, 1-3 ACC) is a better team than its record indicates, according to Fisher. The Irish topped Syracuse 3-1 only one week ago, and five of their losses have come against ranked opponents — including two fellow ACC schools, Florida State
Volleyball
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October 10, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 5
SOCCER
Sophomore Jenna Potts goes up for the spike. Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer
FROM PAGE 5
VOLLEYBALL and Duke — in the last eight days. “They took a set off of a top 25 team [Duke],” Fisher said. “We have to operate under the assumption that they’re playing a lot better and that they are a dangerous team … We are expecting a very competitive team to come in.” In their most recent meeting last November, Pitt fell on the road in a close 3-2 match, so Fisher and the team know the Irish are better than what its stats suggest. “They were in the NCAA Tournament two years ago. They have good players on their team,” Fisher said before adding, “They’re going to want to win and turn their season around.”
Leading Notre Dame in hitting this season is returning middle blocker/right side Jeni Houser. The senior is hitting .254 with 150 kills. Houser ranks second on the team in kills with 2.78 and blocks with 29. Syracuse The Orange has struggled this season, finding themselves with a below .500 record and no conference victories entering Friday’s match against Miami. Syracuse (7-9, 0-4 ACC) has had a lackluster season, considering that they tied for fifth last year with Pitt in the ACC standings. “I’m a little surprised by where they are at this point,” Fisher said. Fisher knows, though, that one match can change the course of a season for any team. Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.
giving up anything. While we didn’t create a lot of chances, that’s still a positive for us,” Miller said. “Where in some of these other games we’ve been giving up early goals, that was good.” That didn’t last. “In the next 22 minutes, it got a little scary,” he said. In the 42nd minute, some sharp passing and buildup play by the Irish cleared Lauren Bohaboy an open path to goal at top of the box to the right of the half circle, and she took advantage, slotting the ball into the far side netting between two Pitt defenders. It was her fourth goal of the year. The score was the culmination of discombobulated play from Pitt over the course of the opening 45 minutes, according to Miller. “We really panicked under pressure a lot of times. We gave the ball away at times without pressure. It causes you to have to defend for longer periods of time, and defend in our own half of the field and it just makes life a lot more difficult,” Miller said. “If we’re able to get out and possess the ball a little higher up the field, it takes them longer to come back at us.“ The flow of the game evened out when play resumed, but the Panthers couldn’t manage to put together an attack to break down the opposition’s defense or goalie. Any chance Pitt had of leveling the score disappeared when Notre Dame’s Andrews won the ball off a Panther defender deep in the offensive third and took aim at goal from 25 yards out, as she finished with power to the left side of the net for her fifth goal of the season. The Irish almost added a third when, in the final minute of regulation, Cari Roccaro blasted an attempt right at Francis who punched it out of bounds. Senior defender Jackie Poucel said the energy from the opposition never waned. “They put a lot of pressure on us,” Poucel said. “Our game plan was to try to stay a little bit more composed than that, but you never know how it goes when you get on the field.” Sunday, Pitt will return to the Tar Heel State to face No. 7 University of North Carolina.