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Dogs, pg. 17 “The animal helped him interact with the world,” Robbins said. Robbins noticed animals helping other children during her years teaching, including a 13-year-old non-verbal student with severe autism she taught in 1995. She started bringing him with her to the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, which is now called Humane Animal Rescue. The boy was reluctant to interact with the animals, until one day someone brought in a mutt named Simba. Robbins and a few employees showed the boy how to interact with Simba, and the two became friends. Robbins took pictures of the pair playing and posted them to Simba’s crate. A family saw the pictures and adopted Simba shortly afterward. Robbins saw an opportunity to help both the children and the animals and began bringing more children with special needs to the shelter. With the help of a grant from the Milken Family Foundation, she began taking students to the shelter to play and encourage people to adopt dogs. Robbins then took the therapy aspect into her own hands when she got her first therapy dog, a great Dane-black lab mix named Moses, from Humane Animal Rescue in 1999. She took him through the training process and he passed the Therapy Dog International test in 2000 on his first try. The pair went to work shortly afterwards, visiting schools where she taught, nursing homes and hospitals. Then Robbins remembered how much her Pitt classmates in the late ’80s talked about missing their dogs, so she started bringing Moses to the campus in 2002. At first, Pitt wouldn’t let her in buildings due to liability issues, but she was persistent. With the help of campus student leaders,
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Chance licks his owner after passing the therapy dog certification test Aug. 11. Anne Amundson | staff photographer
Emerson takes his therapy dog certification test Aug. 11. His owner is a Ph.D. student in the School of Education at Pitt. Anne Amundson | staff photographer
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Robbins discovered she and Moses could enter campus buildings if a student organized the visit. She scoped out a spot in the Cathedral and got to work. Over the next 16 years, Robbins was sponsored by the Students for a Multicultural Tomorrow, the Pitt Psychology Club and, eventually, Pitt’s Office of Residence Life. In the meantime, she developed her training program for therapy dogs in anticipation of creating a program between the Pioneer Valley Special Education System and Humane Animal Rescue. Pioneer Valley’s new principal scrapped the new program when Robbins retired from teaching in 2005. According to Robbins, he thought dogs couldn’t be trusted around children with special needs. “It was heartbreaking. But you just pack up and keep on moving,” Robbins said. She instead threw herself into her therapy dog training at Humane Animal Rescue, working on expanding her reach at Pitt and making friends with regular attendees. Eli Ream, a senior chemical engineering major, manages the Snapchat account for Therapy Dog Tuesdays. They started going to Therapy Dog Tuesdays their sophomore year after their dog passed away, where they connected with Robbins’ dog Presto. “First I came to pet people’s dogs, now I come to pet their dogs and talk with them,” Ream said. “There’s a sense of community — you become friends with Marsha, their handlers, and other students.” While the community around the dogs has grown together, the dogs are still the main attraction. Robbins’ therapy dogs have fostered a community of acceptance for anybody who needs their help. “The dogs don’t care who you are,” Robbins said. “They don’t care whether you’ve brushed your teeth or showered. If you’re good to them, they’ll love you.”
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Henderson, pg. 19 hadn’t seen her for almost two months, they weren’t worried or anxious about Monica running across the country with injuries. “We told her to slow down a little bit, she said, ‘No, I’m doing it,’” Carolyn Henderson said. “It’s life-changing. I think it’s going to be life-changing for her.” Stephen Henderson said he couldn’t have been more proud of Monica for supporting a cause she feels deeply about. “Even though she was in pain, she was like, ‘It’s an amazing experience,’ and it gave her a different perspective on life,” he said. After a tearful reunion with family members and celebrating with team members, the runners held a small ceremony where they shared memories and admirations about some of their peers. Cheyenne Greenside, a recent graduate of University of Alaska Fairbanks, was Henderson’s running partner on the first day of the marathon. “No matter what, injured, hurt, annoyed, tired, she’s always out there dancing and screaming and yelling your name,” Greenside said of Henderson at
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the ceremony. Henderson fought through her injuries with positivity. Though she was in pain, she said she constantly reminded herself that even running half of what her teammates were running was an accomplishment. “I feel like it’s a runner’s thing,” Henderson said. “You’re always in pain. But it’s okay … it means that you’re working hard.” But her teammates weren’t the only thing motivating her. Every day, Henderson wrote the names of loved ones, friends and strangers on her body to remind her of her mission. “When miles get rough and it’s 90 degrees, giving up isn’t a possibility, for I see these names that push me,” Henderson said in a Facebook post June 23. “I’m running in honor of all cancer warriors. They inspire me.” She plans on giving herself a few days off to let her injuries rest. But after running 4,000 miles, Henderson said running for her will never be the same — for the better. “I’ve rekindled my love for running. Before this trip it was a little harder to get going and out the door, but I don’t ever want to lose this high,” Henderson said. “I like to say this is a chapter in my book that’s ending, but it’s influencing the rest of the story.”
Pitt student Monica Henderson ran across the Brooklyn Bridge Aug. 4 as part of the Ulman Cancer Fund’s 4k run from San Francisco to Brooklyn this summer. Anna Bongardino | visual editor
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OPINIONS study abroad
32 pro-straws
anti-straws
35 amazon
39 keep the goats
41 parran hall
43 keystone scholars program pittnews.com
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HOST FAMILIES ENRICH THE STUDY ABROAD EXPERIENCE
Anna Bongardino Contributing Editor
I could hear the rhythmic chant of the afternoon adhan — the Islamic call to worship — ring out from the tinny rooftop speakers of nearby mosques from my second story bedroom in the city center of Rabat, Morocco. After the call to prayer subsided, a Moroccan woman who looked to be a few years younger than my mother walked through the door of my new bedroom and wrapped me in an affectionate embrace. She introduced herself as Hanan, my host mother, and immediately asked if I would like mint tea and a pastry — a traditional afternoon snack enjoyed by Moroccans. By the end of my semester in Morocco, I was introducing my host parents to my American friends and family as my Mama and Baba — the Arabic words for mom and
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myself due to a language barrier did not seem appealing. But as I embarked on a search for the perfect study abroad program, I quickly realized I would miss incredible opportunities if I opted to live in a dorm with other American students. While some aspects of my homestay mimicked the comforts of home, the most valuable experiences were those that couldn’t have been more different from life in the United States — and that I would not have experienced had I been surrounded by other Americans. LivAnna poses with her host siblings Fatine, 18, and Salem, 20, in the family’s apartment in Rabat, Morocco. ing with a host family gave me the opportuAnna Bongardino | visual editor nity to authentically experience Moroccan dad — and referring to my host siblings get a break from regular college course- culture while making it easier to acclimate work? Those were easy selling points. But I to the new customs and language of my simply as my brother and sister. I always knew I wanted to study abroad. vowed to never live with a host family. The host country. Rabat, the coastal capital city of the The chance to experience a new culture, thought of imposing upon another family learn new languages, eat delicious food and for months and constantly embarrassing North African country, has a population of See Bongardino on page 37
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PLASTIC STRAW BANS, A BENEFICIAL BEGINNING Justin Jordan
For The Pitt News From coffee shops to major airlines to local governments, every vein of public life seems determined to declare war on plastic straws. Corporations such as Starbucks and American Airlines began the trend, promising to phase out usage of straws in all of their locations in the next few years. Just last month, Seattle, Santa Barbara, Calif., and San Francisco all jumped on the bandwagon, banning the sale of straws at restaurants and other food distributors — in Santa Barbara, a violation could put you in jail for up to six months. This move is a positive one — plastic straws are the 11th most common plastic item found in ocean garbage. It is also attainable as similar efforts to reduce plastic bag usage have been successful, suggesting straw usage can be cut down through various regulations to help decrease pollution in our oceans. Straws are inherently wasteful — used once
and then tossed out. According to the market research firm Fredonia Group, about 390 million of the small plastic tubes are thrown away in the United States every day. This might not be as much of an issue if plastic straws could be recycled, but that is impossible in most places. Like plastic eating utensils and bottle caps, straws are too small to recycle properly. They quite literally fall through the cracks at sorting facilities because the machines are designed to filter larger items like water bottles. And a straw’s lifespan is long — the two most common plastics used for making straws, polypropylene and polystyrene, can take over 450 years to decompose. This means that once a straw ends up in a landfill or the ocean, it will still exist when the initial user’s great-great-greatgreat-great-great-great-great-great-great-greatgreat-great-grandchildren are walking the earth. Plastic straws are an ever-growing presence in our oceans and are extremely harmful to marine animals. Plastic ingestion contributes to
the deaths of 1 million seabirds and more than 100,000 other marine animals each year, according to the United Nations. Research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic than fish if current trends continue. And this, in turn, carries over to us. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation found people who regularly eat seafood already consume plastic particulates found in seafood as a result of marine life swallowing plastic in the ocean. Consuming plastic can lead to chemicals being stored in the body and cause everything from birth defects to cancer, according to the Ecology Center. For most people, using straws is not a necessity — but a common legitimate concern about banning straws is that those with disabilities who rely on plastic straws will be unable to enjoy drinks in restaurants and cafes as a result. In response, cities and companies should create policies allowing eateries to keep a small supply of plastic straws on hand for those who require one.
Similarly, straws made of reusable materials such as steel, bent glass and bamboo, or compostable materials such as eco-friendly paper could also be offered to everyone. While banning plastic straws from many places may seem like it’ll hinder day-to-day life for a lot of people, this is unlikely considering how people have adapted to other eco-friendly prohibitions, like those on plastic bag. San Francisco achieved a 72 percent reduction in usage of plastic bags by banning single-use plastic bags — people simply started to use cheap, reusable bags. Pitt has taken similar steps on a smaller scale — Market-To-Go and the University Bookstore introduced charges for plastic bags in 2017 in an effort to deter consumption, offering cheap reusable ones in their place. The switch, according to Pitt Sustainability Coordinator Nick Goodfellow, achieved a 95 percent reduction from students using 30,000 bags a week to 500-800 bags a week. Forty countries worldwide have already See Jordan on page 33
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PLASTIC STRAW BANS, AN ERRONEOUS ENDEAVOR Neena Hagen Senior Staff Writer In Santa Barbara, California, many crimes can land you up to six months in jail — burglary, assault and possession of illegal drugs, for example. This July, the city’s council voted to add another crime to that list — selling plastic straws at restaurants, delis and coffee shops. Santa Barbara’s new ordinance is just the latest installment in America’s war on plastic straws. In Seattle and San Francisco, a server who gives a customer an unrequested straw can now face a fine up to $1,000 per offense. These policies may be well-intentioned — they aim to protect sea creatures harmed by excessive plastic in waterways. But one glance at the data reveals that straws hardly contribute to ocean pollution at all, so straw
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bans are misguided, unnecessary and even potentially harmful. Forfeiting the occasional straw won’t make a dent in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of trash in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas. According to research from Australian scientists, there could be up to 8.3 billion straws lying on coastlines worldwide. But even if they all entered the ocean at once, they’d account for only 0.03 percent of the 8 million metric tons of plastic that are dumped into waterways each year. Nearly half of that garbage comes from fishing gear — 1,500 times more volume than from plastic straws. And abandoned fishing nets are by far the most lethal plastic waste for marine life, trapping millions of sea creatures each year, by design. The United Nations has been heav-
ily regulating the fishing industry since the 1990s to combat pollution from fishing gear. They’ve instituted stiff dumping fines and better on-shore facilities to recycle used fishing nets. But while wealthy countries follow these rules with ease, developing countries struggle. So it’s no coincidence that Asia, a continent comprised mostly of poor countries, is to blame for five times more plastic trash per capita than the United States. Since most developing countries don’t have the infrastructure to dispose of waste responsibly, the United States should help to finance and build more eco-friendly waste disposal plants in these nations. If politicians put half as much effort into regulating the fishing industry and aiding foreign countries as they did cracking down on everyone’s iced coffee, they could signifi-
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cantly reduce ocean pollution and actually “save the sea turtles” as their bumper stickers say. But instead, their poorly substantiated anti-straw efforts could actually worsen atmospheric pollution. Disposable paper products, like cups —require 20 percent more fossil fuel and 50 percent more electricity to produce than their plastic counterparts. According to research from the California State Water Resources Control Board, these alternatives may not even reduce ocean pollution one iota. “Mere substitution would not result in reduced trash generation if such product substitution would be discarded in the same manner as the banned item,” the study reads. See Hagen on page 33
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Jordan, pg. 32 banned, partly banned or taxed single-use plastic bags, many of which were replaced by supermarkets offering cloth alternatives. Kenyan officials reported that after enforcing the ban in their country, their streets became cleaner and plastic was found less frequently in the stomachs of animals. “Our streets are generally cleaner which has brought with it a general ‘feel-good’ factor,” said David Ong’are, the enforcement director of Kenya’s National Environment Management Authority. “You no longer see carrier bags flying around when its windy. Waterways are less obstructed. Fishermen on the coast and Lake Victoria are seeing few bags entangled in their nets.” In order to help both life on the ocean and on land, banning straws cannot be the only measure taken to assist in environmental conservation. Hopefully the energy of this trend will snowball and people will begin calling for companies and cities to ban and replace other major contributors to plastic pollution, such as plastic packaging, with more eco-friendly options. Kraft Heinz is already taking a step in this direction — it recently pledged to make 100 percent of its packaging recyclable, reus-
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Maria Heines staff illustrator able or compostable by 2025. While plastic is currently a daily commodity, it also causes great damage to the environment with each passing day. Whether banning straws makes a noticeable impact or not, it is an important first step in cutting down on the use of single use plastic products that have already cost our world so much. Public awareness is key on the long journey to a less polluted future.
Since California’s plastic straw ban would hardly reduce plastic pollution in America, let alone worldwide, making hefty fines and jail sentences a possible punishment for using straws seems extreme. But it turns out the threat of jail-time is not even necessary to deter straw use. Many large corporations are already phasing out plastic straws on their own. Starbucks, McDonald’s and American Airlines have all promised to eliminate straws from their locations in just a few years. So if politicians want straw-free cities, the private sector is already accomplishing that — and far less coercively. This doesn’t mean governments shouldn’t concern themselves with saving the environment — they should. But instead of peddling petty, unhelpful policies like the straw ban, they should focus their efforts where they’ll actually make a difference — like regulating the fishing industry, helping improve waste disposal policies in developing coun-
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tries and making sustainable alternatives more accessible. Likewise, individuals should make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. And while forgoing that straw may give you a surge of do-gooderism, it hardly helps the environment. The straw ban may sound virtuous, but it’s a plastic solution — politicians who push it are just grasping at straws.
Maria Heines staff illustrator
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PITTSBURGH WILL HAVE TO PREPARE IF AMAZON ARRIVES
Brian Gentry
Senior Staff Writer When tech companies like Google came to the Pittsburgh neighborhood of East Liberty, Penn Plaza apartments — a complex that used to provide affordable housing — was torn down to make room for a Whole Foods and high-rises. And Amazon is threatening to cause similar damage with the possible arrival of its second headquarters, or HQ2, in Pittsburgh. Amazon is expected to announce later this year which of twenty cities it is considering as finalists to house its HQ2. Regardless of the company’s decision, Pittsburgh’s the best course of action is to develop preventative policies. If Amazon comes to Pittsburgh, the City and its residents must respond with an affirmed commitment to protecting the communities that would be impacted most by the consequences. Seattle, the site of Amazon’s “HQ1,” is an omen of what is to come if the e-commerce gi-
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ant settles down in an unprepared Pittsburgh. As Amazon has grown and expanded in Seattle, the cost of living has soared. Rent has increased by almost $1,000 since 2011 from an average of $1,200 to $2,150. Like much of the West Coast, the median home price is out of reach for most homebuyers — to afford a mortgage in Seattle, one needs to make almost $100,000, while in Pittsburgh a salary of $35,000 will suffice. As a result, the company has received significant pushback from Seattle residents, many of whom blame Amazon for hikes in real estate costs and traffic gridlock. The most recent spurt of anger came after Amazon threatened to stop construction in the city following a proposed tax on large employers to help the homeless. “The people who are being disruptive are being disruptive because they are angry,” activist Tae Phoenix told The Washington Post. “The system is not working for them, and disrupting it is the only thing they can do. They are desperate, and See Gentry on page 47
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Daniel Walsh | staff illustrator
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Bongardino, pg. 30 slightly less than 600,000 people — about the same size as Milwaukee. The streets surrounding my family’s apartment were always bustling with citizens rushing to and from work in government buildings down the block or in one of the many cafes that lined each street. My school was 15 minutes from my family’s apartment through the crowded and winding streets of the medina — the walled center of the city that seemed like a labyrinthine maze to any foreigner. My host sister walked me to and from school the first week while I got my bearings. In turn, I walked with her to a few basketball practices she asked me to take pictures of with my camera. We drove the same route to watch her games on weekends. On Friday afternoons, we returned home alongside thousands of other Moroccan students and workers to eat couscous — a pasta dish my host mom served with cooked vegetables, chickpeas, hard boiled eggs and a thick milk drink — out of a large communal bowl. I was abroad for only a few weeks before I discovered I had a family I felt comfortable with, some routines and a favorite dish that I couldn’t find prepared as well at any restaurant. Then one Saturday afternoon, while walking the same busy Rabat streets I followed to get to school, my host mother led me to the hammam, a public bath many Moroccans frequent on weekends. We weaved through crowds of shoppers, vendors and residents in the familiar medina but soon turned and entered a discrete doorway on a side street I’d never noticed before. My host mom knew when to go — there are separate hours for men and women — and showed me which soap to get and where to put my clothes. She poured a large bucket of water over my head when I wasn’t washing myself with enough water. She arranged for a woman to scrub my body with the soap and wash my hair in a heated room filled with women of all ages washing their bodies and chatting for hours on end. Had I gone as a foreigner, I wouldn’t have had the slightest clue where, when or how to coordinate that outing. While hammams may not be a staple cultural experience of every study abroad destination, every country has less commonly known experiences and traditions for
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visitors who are privy to them. Those experiences are even better and more accessible when you have a local to guide you through it. And in almost any country you go to, some of these locals you meet will be able to hold a conversation in English and others won’t. Because my host parents were fluent in Arabic and French but didn’t speak more than a few words of English, I quickly learned the important role immersion played in language acquisition. When my host mother asked me “Do you want tea?” during the first afternoon I spent with her in French — “Tu veux du thé?” — I stared back incredulously. I had to will my brain to recall a functional amount of the French I learned a few years prior if I wanted to be a temporary member of my host family. My host parents could rely on my host siblings to translate if communication became too difficult. But as the weeks passed, I became increasingly determined to figure out a way to use my vocabulary to express myself to my host parents without help from another English speaker. I downloaded DuoLingo to fill the gaps in the vocabulary I remembered. When I spoke to my host mom about chores or trips I took with other students in my journalism program, I began to learn from my mistakes and accepted them as part of the process. Speaking in another language out of necessity everyday replaced the fear and anxiety I anticipated with an unflinching resolve to improve. And what I earned was worth it — I could navigate the city more easily and some of my most profound experiences of Moroccan culture were cultivated through conversation. One of the best nights I spent there was when my host brother and I sat up until 4 a.m. talking about marriage, catcalling, religion and American celebrities in a mix of French and English — something I couldn’t have done in a dorm room with other Americans. Living with my host family led me to authentically experience the customs and traditions of Moroccan culture and exposed me to the daily lives of citizens in Rabat. And most importantly, I gained a new family. A few months after I reluctantly returned to the United States, my host brother called just to check in. “Mama and Baba are well,” he said. “We all miss you.”
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CAMPUS GOATSCAPERS HELP ENVIRONMENT, LOOK CUTE Maggie Durwald Senior Staff Writer When it comes to battling overgrown plants, thorny bushes and poison ivy, Pitt’s latest hires for its groundskeeping staff aren’t sheepish about digging in and getting their hooves dirty. For several weeks this summer, the University employed 12 goats to clear weeds and invasive plants from areas behind Eberly Hall and the Fitzgerald Field House. This was Pitt’s first foray into using goats to maintain several lawns around campus. While it seems like only one small step in the ambitious Pitt Sustainability Plan, it has had a big effect and shows that the University is serious about reaching its sustainability goals. Pitt’s Facilities Management Division hired the goats from Have U Herd, a “goatscaping” company based in Collier Township that offers lawn care services, goat rentals and goat yoga classes. About a third of owner Rainy Laux’s herd roamed Pitt’s green spaces, chewing through unwanted vegetation. According to the University Times, senior manager for grounds Andy Moran said the total cost of hiring the goats for four weeks was $4,000. Using a dozen goats as landscapers may seem a quirky yet minor part of Pitt’s Sustainability Plan, the main goal of which is to achieve “the target of 50% reductions in energy use, water use, and transportation emissions by the year 2030.” Already Pitt has launched major efforts to reach this end, including projects such as the Carrillo Street Steam Plant, which is one of the cleanest university heating plants in the country and the Real Food Challenge, which states that by 2020, Market Central will serve 20 percent “real food,” meaning food that is locally sourced, fair-trade cer-
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Pitt hired a dozen goats to landscape a patch of overgrown land behind Chevron Science Center for a few weeks this summer. Jon Kunitsky | staff photographer tified, ecological and humane. Employing goats to tend to various lawns fits into a docket of impressive projects, like the Real Food Challenge, in that it demonstrates the positive impact one small, creative activity can have on the environment. That one small activity can come from any aspect of daily life on campus — and Pitt should continue in this direction. Outdoor projects, such as land-
scaping, typically involve people, machines and chemicals to rid areas on campus of weeds and overgrown plants, but the negative effects of all of these methods were either reduced or completely eliminated with the alternative use of goats. Moran estimated the goats could save approximately 160 hours of work and 20 gallons of fuel that groundskeepers would use to do the same
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work. And while some may argue that hiring goats takes wages from humans, these animals are just freeing up groundskeeping to do other projects, for which they will still be paid. The only outside energy the herd required was power for the electric fence that confined them to certain areas — and that energy was generated by solar panels. As an added bonus, Pitt will continue to reap benefits from these goats after they’ve stopped munching — it will be able to use their pellets as fertilizer, allowing the quality of the soil to improve. The goats’ work helps cycle plant nutrients in the soil. By getting rid of invasive species that suck away important nutrients, the soil becomes healthier for native species. Pitt isn’t the first institution in the area to use goatscaping as a smart way to take care of unwanted vegetation. Last fall, Carnegie Mellon University utilized goats to clean up steep slopes overgrown with kudzu vines that would have been a laborious and less ecologically-friendly task for humans to clear. Pittsburgh’s City Council approved a five-year deal in March 2018 with the nonprofit Allegheny Goatscaping to clean up parks and other green spaces owned by the City. Both the City of Pittsburgh and these two universities are showing that they are conscious of their duty to the environment. Although the business of goatscaping may seem a footnote to Pitt’s many larger sustainability projects, in reality it’s a sign that the University is leaving no stone unturned. No matter seems to be too small to be overlooked as a candidate for innovation and improvement. If this is the kind of creativity that will accompany Pitt’s approach to sustainability in the future, it will be exciting to see what projects — large or small — follow.
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PUBLIC HEALTH BUILDING IS NO LONGER PARRAN HALL – NOW WHAT? Delilah Bourque Staff Writer After encountering pressure throughout the 2018 spring semester from the Pitt community, including a petition started by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee and a recommendation from Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, Pitt’s Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to rename Parran Hall in July. The original name of the home of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health was immediately struck from the plaque outside the building as well as campus maps. But now, with another school year starting, the question of what the building’s new name should be remains — as well as how Pitt should go about renaming it. The name Parran was derived from Dr. Thomas Parran Jr., founder and first dean of Pitt’s School of Public Health. He is known for his pioneering research on sexu-
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ally transmitted diseases and his efforts to remove the stigma surrounding them. But Parran recently became the subject of controversy after newly discovered information revealed he approved several racist and unethical medical experiments during his tenure as U.S. surgeon general from 1936-48. The Board made the correct decision in removing Parran’s name from the School of Public Health, as I explained in a previous column. His unethical actions in the field of public health make his name unworthy of gracing a prominent campus building. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the Guatemala syphilis experiments are the two infamous events that have put a blight on Parran’s legacy. During the Tuskegee experiments, researchers observed the course of syphilis in unknowing rural African American men from 1932-72, all while withholding treatment from them. The Guatemala syphilis experiments from 1946-
48 were similar, except the victims were soldiers, prisoners and mental patients who were purposely infected. Because of the racist and oppressive circumstances surrounding these cases, Pitt should consider a new name for the School of Public Health building that honors both the greatness and the diverse background of a Pitt affiliate. In this way, Pitt can recognize the important contributions of alums whose significant contributions to society may be otherwise be overlooked. One potential — and very relevant — candidate would be Dr. Bennet Omalu, a living neuropathologist born in Nigeria during the Nigerian Civil War who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football players. Omalu graduated from Pitt’s School of Public Health with a master’s degree in 2004 and went on to discover CTE while working in the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office.
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He faced pushback from the National Football League when he published his findings but still worked to create awareness from the condition, which occurs after multiple injuries to the head and neck. His name on the building would represent the contributions immigrants and people of color make both to Pitt and to the world. Another suggestion would be Dr. Maud Menten, who worked in the Pitt Department of Pathology in 1918 and at one point delivered one-third of all the department’s lectures. Menten’s crowning achievement in the field of public health is the discovery of an equation to describe the rate of product produced relative to concentration in an enzyme catalyzed reaction. This work is the basis of enzyme replacement therapies for diseases such as severe combined immunodeficiency, which has dramatically lengthened lifespans for people suffering from See Bourque on page 48
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STATE SHOULD STEP UP TO ADDRESS RISING TUITION
Janine Faust
Opinions Editor As a rising junior at the University of Pittsburgh, I only have two more years until I graduate and enter the workforce, armed with an English Writing degree and a list of recommendations — and saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. At an average of $12,186 for in-state and $ 24,312 for out-of-state, Pennsylvania colleges have some of the highest average tuition rates in the country — Pitt’s rests at $18,192 for in-state students like myself, making it the second-most expensive public school for in-state residents in Pennsylvania. And this doesn’t even include the costs for room, board and other fees. But instead of taking action to address the roots of the state’s student debt crisis, the state responded by introducing a new program that encourages families to prepare for when they fall victim to it. The new Keystone Scholars program, effective beginning in 2019, will give every child who
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is a Pennsylvania resident at birth — or adopted by a family in the commonwealth — a $100 grant toward their college savings. The investment could grow to roughly $200 by the time the child turns 18 and about $400 by age 29, the maximum age a person can use the grant under the program. This small amount is meant to encourage parents to start saving their own cash to cover the cost of college. This ultimately helps little. Pennsylvania students graduating from public and nonprofit colleges in 2015 left their alma maters saddled with an average of $33,264 in student loan debt — several thousand more than the national average of $28,950. This is a cost no one family can reasonably take up on their own, but that many have been forced to due to the state’s refusal to intercede. And that may prove fatal for the state’s economy, unless the government starts providing solutions that take the stress off its citizens. It’s unclear why tuition rises every year. Some claim it’s because public and private colleges and
Daniel Walsh | staff illustrator
universities have been expanding their payrolls – the number of administrative positions reportedly increased by 60 percent across the United States between 1993 and 2009. Others cite costly but necessary efforts to attract more applicants by introducing more amenities and constructing new buildings. Still, student loan debt wasn’t considered a
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real crisis until it spiked significantly during the 2008 Great Recession — according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the country’s total student loan debt nearly doubled between 2008 and 2013. Other research, like that found in the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report “A Lost See Faust on page 50
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