Imagine being able to open a door and go from biting winds and snow to a warm, climate-controlled greenhouse that carries the aroma of fresh tomatoes — being harvested by robots roaming through the aisles.

For Brandon Contino and Daniel Chi, this fantasy is turning into a reality through their company Four Growers, as they aim to develop automated tomato harvesting robots to work in greenhouses.

Contino, CEO of Four Growers and a Pitt 2016 alumnus, takes the spokesperson role for the company, while senior mechanical engineering major Chi focuses on the technical side. The idea developed in April of 2017 when Contino and Chi began talking to tomato growers and associations.

“Dan and I knew we wanted to do something in an indoor farming or hydroponic growing place, so we decided to learn from those who were successful at it,” Contino said.

The two saw firsthand the issues facing modern-day tomato growing when they had their first greenhouse visit a month later with MightyVine — a sustainable tomato growing company in the Chicago area. These issues include weather variability, crop loss and population growth.

Contino’s conversation with the tomato growers made it clear that greenhouses are becoming the future of produce farming. The pair say greenhouse growing is more sustainable, versatile and efficient than traditional farming.

“They require 90 percent less water and provide consistent, yearlong, local, high-yield production with near-zero herbicide and pesticide use,” Contino said. “In fact, over 50 percent of fresh U.S. tomatoes are greenhouse grown.”

Despite the advantages greenhouse farming can provide, Contino said the largest limiting factors growers face are the cost, accessibility and reliability of their labor force.

“There are increasing shortages in workers, and the workers that they are able to find are inconsistent,” Contino said. “Growers desperately need automation to keep providing healthy, local produce at competitive rates.”

This is where Contino hopes Four Growers can provide a solution. Once fully developed, Contino said the automated harvesting robot could replace the role of a human.

“The tomato harvesting robot is able to go down greenhouse aisles, accurately identify ripe versus unripe clusters, harvest them from the plant without damaging them and place them in a cart to get sent back to the packhouse,” Contino said.

The robot — according to Contino’s estimates — will be able to harvest as much as a human, but do it more consistently at a lower cost.

While implementing robots could be more efficient, Four Growers also had to consider what it would mean to replace human labor. But they say that their robot would enable farmers to expand labor resources.

“By enabling this industry we’ll be able to increase the amount of fresh, … pesticide free, local produce greenhouse farms can produce,” Contino said. “It’s a win for the consumer, the greenhouse and the worker.”

So far, the company has developed a vision system for the robot that allows it to learn using artificial intelligence as it works. The two are currently refining a prototype, which they hope to test at major greenhouses.

“We are working with six different farms who wish to beta test our robot, and these farms collectively represent 20 percent of the U.S. and Canadian greenhouse tomato acreage,” Contino said.

For Contino and Chi, reaching the next stage is possible with continued support from Pitt’s Innovation Institute. Susan Dorff — manager for student programs at the Innovation Institute — worked alongside Four Growers since their inception. She said the company became involved with the Institute through student programming.

“We help [students] practice, learn, compete and get funding to continue with their idea,” she said.

Four Growers has been involved with several of the Innovation Institute’s programs, as well as competitions such as the Randall Family Big Idea Competition — an experience-based learning opportunity for Pitt students with big ideas that offers $100,000 in cash prizes.

Babs Carryer — the director of education and outreach at the Innovation Institute — said she has noticed distinct qualities in Contino and Chi’s approach between now and when she first met them.

“I think that the entrepreneurial lead is really important. I view Brandon [Contino] as sort of the driver of this project,” Carryer said. “A lot of student projects don’t quite have that strong a driver. Brandon’s really committed to doing this.”

Carryer said she was amazed by the amount of customer discovery the duo had done and the interest from tomato growers they received. Usually, Carryer sees entrepreneurs get nonspecific, general interest from companies that acknowledge their idea but never move beyond that. She believes the difference in Four Growers is their passion.

“They haven’t just been sitting on their laurels thinking about this. They’ve been actually out there really doing the deep work that’s necessary to advance an idea towards reality,” Carryer said.

As with any early product, there are still more hurdles on the road to completion. Carryer pointed out the challenge of realistically getting a robot to consistently harvest tomatoes without a problem, as well as Four Growers likely having to expand their team as their idea grows. Nevertheless, she believes in what Contino and Chi can do.

“I think they should be one of our leading student spinout companies, and I can’t wait to keep working with them on that,” Carryer said. “They definitely have what it takes.”

The post Four Growers: Farming for the future appeared first on The Pitt News.

Maggie Kennedy and Saket Rajprohat met Monday night to debate for one of the most influential student leadership positions on campus  — the Student Government Board presidential seat. The duo showcased their knowledge of the Pitt student community along with their qualifications for holding office.

Tabitha Barnes, vice chair for SGB elections, and Henry Glitz, opinions editor at The Pitt News, moderated the debate in the William Pitt Union. Along with the presidential candidates, each slate had three minutes to give opening statements and two minutes for closing statements.

Legacy slate mentioned safety, health and wellness and 582 Bridges talked about improving the Wi-Fi system and SafeRider.

Kennedy, SGB’s current Wellness Committee chair who is running with the Horizon slate, emphasized the issues of sexual assault and sexual violence. Rajprohat, a junior marketing major running with the Neighbors slate, spoke on gender-neutral bathrooms and male and female hygiene products.

Following introductions, the candidates had two minutes to answer each question and debated topics such as the most important duty of the SGB president and advocating for the student body. Kennedy said the top priority of the president is to act as a unifying voice.

“I think the most important thing is that that president is someone who is in touch with that student body, knows what students need and is really willing to work with students across organizations, across years, across all sorts of differences to best serve them,” Kennedy said.

Rajprohat said it’s important to acknowledge student concerns. He also said it’s crucial for the president to be able to approach the administration about those concerns.

“As President, I think the most important thing is to understand that you’re not there for yourself, but you’re there to represent the 19,000 students here and represent their concerns,” Rajprohat said.

Current SGB President Max Kneis said what Kennedy and Rajprohat mentioned go hand in hand with the president’s most important role.

“ I consider myself a connector between a lot of different administrative offices and students within SGB. I think both candidates capture the primary role very well,” Kneis said.

The moderators also questioned the presidential candidates on how they would advocate for diversity and increase student interaction in SGB. Rajprohat said listening to organizations from the Office of Cross Cultural and Leadership Development, such as Black Action Society and Asian Student Alliance, would help.

“It’s moreover for me to listen, for our board to listen … to those people, and to make sure that we’re able to convey those concerns in an appropriate and proper manner,” Rajprohat said.

Kennedy said getting more international students on First-Year Council — a group of first-year students who want to be involved with SGB, improve student engagement and assist committee members — and other SGB committees would help this.

“When we’re planning something for Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to take into consideration how these issues vary across cultural differences and make sure that we’re being accurate, comprehensive and inclusive in our approach,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy repeatedly emphasized sexual assault and sexual violence awareness. She said her involvement with the issue stems from her senior year of high school when she lost a close friend to suicide because of sexual violence.

“That really hit home for me when I was in high school because this is not just some issue that they talk about in movies or in TV or things like that,” Kennedy said. “It is real, and it happened to my friend.”

After the debate, Rajprohat mentioned he did not prioritize one issue over another. When his slate spoke in the beginning, though, he mentioned gender neutral bathrooms and making male and female hygiene products more available.

“When I decided to run it wasn’t like a calculated thing, it’s just things that … I heard other students be concerned about,” Rajprohat said.

Attending students also posed questions via paper slips available on the table stationed in Nordy’s Place upon entering the debate. One question selected asked how the candidates would handle time management and if they could deal with the workload of the president’s job.

Both candidates said they have experiences that have allowed them to develop time management skills. Rajprohat said he realized he needed to make sacrifices such as quitting work to dedicate himself fully to one thing. Kennedy said her involvement with groups like SGB and the Office of Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Education helped her with managing time.

This is the second SGB event for this election, and host Andrew Dow from the SGB Meet the Candidates Jan. 31 event, came out because he felt he should get more involved with SGB happenings. He said between Meet the Candidates and the debate, though, he noticed a difference in the candidates.

“They seem more serious,” Dow said.

The post SGB candidates debate for presidency appeared first on The Pitt News.

Within the first 24 hours of the #MeToo movement going viral in October 2017, there were more than 12 million posts, comments and reactions made by 4.7 million Facebook users worldwide. The movement has since reached more than 85 countries, shedding a new light on advocacy for survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

But the idea of supporting sexual assault survivors is relatively new. Most jurisdictions in the United States didn’t adopt variations on rape shield statutes — laws designed to protect victims of sex crimes during criminal proceedings — until the late 1970s.

David Shrager, a Pittsburgh-based criminal defense lawyer, said the shift to consider survivors is needed — but that doesn’t mean the defendant’s rights should be forgotten.

“The victims need to be heard, they need to have a voice, they need to be able to say what happened in a safe space where they can be respected,” Shrager said. “But at the same time, the [defendant] … has civil rights and civil liberties in the Constitution of the United States.”

The victim — considered a “complainant” in the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes — functions solely as a witness during a criminal trial. The plaintiff of a criminal case in Pennsylvania would be the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The only time a judge is obligated to believe the victim is in the preliminary arraignment, when a criminal defendant hears the charges against them.

David Korman, a professor in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and a lawyer, said people often criticize criminal law for not putting enough emphasis on victims’ rights, but the judicial system is designed in this way to protect the rights of the accused.

“The Constitution does not talk about victims’ rights, it talks about the rights of the accused,” Korman said. “There’s nothing in the Constitution that talks about victims’ rights. And that’s because the system was written to protect us from an overpowering government.”

According to Korman, criminal trials aren’t about whether a person is good or bad, or whether they deserve punishment. Rather, the question is if the Commonwealth can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did a certain set of acts at a specific time and location.

He also said media and popular culture has perpetuated many misconceptions about sexual offenses. Pragmatic misuse in media coverage has created confusion surrounding definitions of “rape” and “sexual assault.” According to the PaCS, rape requires the use of threat or force, whereas sexual assault is defined as any act of intercourse without consent.

David DeFazio, professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and a criminal defense attorney, noted the influence of media on the public’s perception, saying inaccurate representations of sex crimes in TV shows and media have caused jurors to have false expectations in criminal trials.

Jurors tend to expect physical evidence in deciding the outcome of a case. However, tangible evidence, like rape kits, only prove sexual intercourse occurred. The important part in determining the guilt or innocence of a defendant is determining consent or lack thereof in conjunction with sexual intercourse.

According to Korman, determination of consent rests on the totality of the circumstances — a standard that encourages consideration of the context, the setting and relationship in concluding whether there is probable cause.

“Did they know each other? Are there wounds? … Was there a weapon used?” Korman said. “All of those things would tend to indicate it wasn’t consensual. You got to look at the totality of it.”

One of the gray areas surrounding the totality of the circumstances lies within the difference between assent and consent. Assent is an expression of approval from an individual. This differs from consent because an assenting individual may not be able to give legal agreement to participate in a certain activity for reasons pertaining to mental impairment, age or force.

Mike Manko, the communications director and chief spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office, said factors determining consent are difficult to generalize since every sexual assault case is different. The priority for prosecuting attorneys lies in protecting the well-being of the victim.

“The welfare of a sexual assault victim is extremely important when we are moving through the investigation and prosecution of a sexual assault case,” Manko said.

To avoid confusion between assent and consent, Shrager said individuals should look for “exuberant consent” in their relationships. While not legally required, it’s a “good benchmark.”

“There is a possibility wherein two people are engaged in behavior, and one person completely believes it’s consensual and wanted, and one person feels uncomfortable about it, but maybe hasn’t said the word ‘no,’” Shrager said. “‘Exuberant consent’ … means not only is the person not maybe saying no, or fighting or something, but they’re enthusiastically … wanting to engage in the same behavior as you.”

Shrager said increased access to sociological and cultural information can be attributed to the shifts in interpreting consent across the world.

“We’re seeing … a cultural shift in what consent means, and what sexual harassment means, and what hitting on someone means, all these different things,” Shrager said. “We’re redefining terms and moving boundaries.”

The post Lawyers navigate the intricacies of assault appeared first on The Pitt News.

With college tuition, textbook and living costs soaring higher each year, students face daunting debts that prompt them to get creative with how they support themselves. Some turn to working at Starbucks, others to tutoring  — and some even turn to dating.

A sugar baby is typically a young woman who is in a romantic relationship with an older man — called a sugar daddy — in exchange for cash, gifts or other benefits. Most sugar babies use the website “SeekingArrangement,” or sometimes Tinder, to find these men. These relationships can vary from purely online or Snapchat interactions to getting dinner at fancy restaurants or “hooking up”— which differs from person to person.

The sugar babies interviewed for this article all requested to remain anonymous for safety concerns, so their names have been changed for privacy. Samantha, a sophomore, first got started with sugar dating so she could stop asking her parents for favors.

“I come from a very upper class family so I’m used to a luxurious lifestyle, but obviously I feel bad everytime I talk to my parents I’m usually asking them for money, so I’d rather ask someone else,” she said.

Samantha’s decision eventually came with its costs and she stopped seeing one sugar daddy because he wanted her to have his kids.

“[One sugar daddy] just wanted to have sex and kept saying he wanted to have another kid because he had a child and was going through a divorce,” Samantha said. “The way he talked about it made it seem like he wanted me to be his surrogate or for us to get married and [for me to] have his kid.”

This is just one of the many experiences that sugar babies have encountered with older, wealthy men. Mildred — the “least sexy” pseudonym she said she could come up with — recounted an instance when she was sick and her sugar daddy offered to care for her.

“He was like, ‘I’m going to buy you groceries and medicine and I’ll be over in like 20,’ and I was like, ‘OK! This is cool,’” Mildred said. “He came over and brought me a lot of stuff and I was like, ‘Oh god he’s going to want something [from me],’ but then he was like ‘OK bye!’”

Not all scenarios work out, though. According to adjunct professor David Korman in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, these types of relationships can quickly become toxic.

“There are some social science studies that seem to indicate that power seduces the person who has the power to be more easily coercive of others, and less empathetic to them,” Korman said.

Mildred said the men sometimes feel as though they own the sugar baby because they are spending money on them and they can become possessive, which is dangerous.

“I just added this guy on Snap and then he was like, ‘Oh can you snap me some pics?’ and I was like, ‘No…’ because you gotta make them work for it so they’re more invested in you,” Mildred said. “He got so aggressive and asked where I lived and if he could come over.”

Certain sites like SeekingArrangement try to avoid unfavorable outcomes by taking the precaution to background check members.

Kiki, a junior neuroscience and psychology double major, who has gone on many sugar dates, said most sugar daddies are a lot more respectable than one would imagine.

“Going into it I expected guys to be flippant and treat you like trash, but I think the whole point of being a sugar daddy is that they want someone to spoil and take care of,” Kiki said. “If they just wanted sex, then they’d get a prostitute.”

Korman said the line between prostitution and sugar dating comes down to exchanging anything of monetary value — including gifts — for sex.  

“Prostitution is defined as engaging in sex as a business, so if there’s money exchanged specifically for sex then it’s prostitution,” Kornan said. “If money is exchanged for companionship and the sex evolves out of the nature of the relationship, then it probably isn’t prostitution.”

Some date sugar daddies out of financial desperation, while others, like Mildred, just want to have the extra cash. Samantha also said she specifically goes out with sugar daddies whose net worths are more than $1 million because for these men, money isn’t an issue.

“It’s really nice to have another source of income, but it’s hard because eventually they do want to have sex because you do build a bond,” Samantha said. “But like, I’m not sexually attracted to these guys, so it’s really hard.”

Samantha’s mother knows about the dates she goes on, but her mom trusts her because she always takes the right precautions.

“I always meet [sugar daddies] in public and I never get in their cars or anything,” Samantha said. “I always bring my pepper spray and I’m just smart about it. I think every girl should be.”

Mildred also said she tells her friends when she’s going on a date with a sugar daddy in case anything goes wrong and she needs to get out of the situation.

“I send the profile to someone who’s awake and vaguely available when I’m out so that I can text them,” Mildred said. “Other than that the plan is to fight and scream.”

Kiki said she’s “kind of scarred” by an experience with an older man who brought money into the relationship, and is considering taking a pause on being a sugar baby.

“At first it was fine, but then he would tell me how kinky he was and how he wanted to take me to sex clubs and basically wear me like arm candy and I was like no no no,” Kiki said.  

Kiki also said if she could give advice to anyone considering becoming a sugar baby, she would tell them to be very cautious of the people they interact with.

“I would say be really, really careful with what you want,” Kiki said. “[Even] if in the moment you’re like, ‘Oh this seems like a great idea,’ you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you can’t get out of it.”

The post The bittersweet lives of sugar babies appeared first on The Pitt News.

During Student Government Board’s weekly public meeting Tuesday night, the board had its first divided vote of the 2017-2018 school year. Executive Vice President Zuri Kent-Smith and board member Ami Fall opposed the funding of the Students for Liberty and Engineering Business Administration event, “John Stossel Speaks.”

The event would bring the libertarian TV personality to Pitt to speak about the value of business, industry and entrepreneurship. EBA has already received $10,000 from the Young America’s Foundation, covering roughly half the cost of the total event. The board approved funding for the remaining cost of the event, granting the full $11,139.93 allocation request.

“For me, with the attendance only being expected to be 200 and given that you are a newer organization, I just don’t feel comfortable giving the full amount, so that’s just where I stand,” Kent-Smith said.

Students for Liberty President Ben Sheppard, a senior majoring in history and political science, and EBA President Troy Emswiler, a senior chemical engineering major, spoke on behalf of their respective organizations. While there wasn’t full agreement across the board, the final decision was to fund the group’s event.

“I mean, as far as I’m concerned I got my money. I got my event approved and that’s what matters to me,” Sheppard said. “‘A win’s a win,’ as I say.”

Before the allocations debate, though, Fall discussed her plan for health and wellness resources and academic resources during her board report. She said they will be available on Blackboard for Pitt students in a few weeks. The resources will be available on the Courseweb homepage via a link that will direct students to another Pitt-affiliated website. The health and wellness section will discuss on- and off-campus resources, while the academic resources, as of right now, are only on campus.

Fall is working with Assistant Director for Marketing and Communications Janine Fisher from Student Affairs, and Associate Dean and Director of Residence Life Steve Anderson on the health and wellness resources.

“It’s a great opportunity to better advertise these resources to students. I know a lot of people may not be aware of them and it might be difficult to navigate, like, finding a specific resource under health and wellness so just having it all in one place … I think it will be very helpful to students,” Fall said.

SGB was also asked to send a representative to the University’s socially responsible investing ad hoc committee. After several students from Fossil Free Pitt Coalition encouraged the Board of Trustees to divest from fossil fuels, the ad hoc committee was created last fall to discuss whether prioritizing environmental and social issues is feasible when directing the University’s investment plan.

“And while this committee does not directly address that question of [whether universities should holistically look at investments] it’s looking at the broader scope of the University’s investments and how our investments relate to the University’s mission and how we can best connect those two,” Kneis said.

Ben Sheppard is a columnist at The Pitt News.

Allocations:

Pre-Medical Organization for Minority Students requested $3,599.40 for their Annual Medical Education Conference for registration, airfare, ground transportation and lodging. The board approved $1,999.40 and denied $1,600.

Ski and Snowboard Club requested $1,654 for club merchandise. The board denied in full.

Pitt Lawn Sports requested $253.75 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

Free the Planet requested $2,700 to sponsor one of their members to attend the PittServes Iceland Alternative Break trip. The board denied in full.

Food Recovery Heros requested $285.48 for general travel. The board approved in full.

Pittsburgh Women’s Volleyball Club requested $556.96 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Pittsburgh Women’s Volleyball Club requested $2,812.70 for their Spring Commodore Classic. The board approved in full.

Ballet Club requested $1,325 for their Spring Show for tutus and lightning and sound equipment. The board approved $1,313.35 and denied $11.65.

Students for Liberty requested $11,139.93 for their “John Stossel Speaks” event for honorarium, airfare, lodging and security. The board approved in full.

Model United Nations requested $2,092.44 for their Virginia International Crisis Simulation for registration, ground transportation and lodging. The board approved $1,878.92 and denied $213.52.

Circle K International requested $1,102.33 for a conference request. The board approved $544.30 and denied $558.03.

Ski and Snowboard Team requested $2,286.34 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Pitt Racquetball Club requested $283.49 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Pitt Women’s Club Soccer requested $905.12 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Fashion Business Association requested $777.34 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

A previous version of this article reported that the allocations committee had its first divided vote. This is incorrect as the board voted and was divided. The Pitt News regrets this error.

The post SGB debate funding for student event appeared first on The Pitt News.

Jeffrey Romoff, president of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, walked on stage at a century-old abandoned car factory Tuesday afternoon and wondered where some of its necessary facilities were.

“This is not quite what I expected,” he said. “I can’t find the lavatories, and I can’t find the laboratories.”

Romoff was one of several people involved in announcing Tuesday that Pitt and UPMC are investing $200 million into a medical research center that seeks to turn an old car factory into an “innovation hub.”

The investment will build the UPMC Immune Transplant and Therapy Center in Bloomfield in a 200,000-square-foot building that Ford built in 1915. The center will house start-ups, labs and offices, focused on researching treatments and drugs that target autoimmune diseases, cancer and aging.

The center is located on Baum Boulevard in Bloomfield. (Photo by Janine Faust / Contributing Editor)

Nonprofit and government leaders, including Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, Mayor Bill Peduto and Romoff, spoke at the announcement. Gallagher said the center will create an “unprecedented ecosystem” that would connect researchers from Pitt and UMPC to industry partners.

“It’s a combination that will transform immunotherapy care and help us tackle some of medicine’s greatest challenges,” he said in a statement.

The center is part of Pittsburgh’s “Innovation District,” a city-wide partnership based on a Brookings Institute report that said the city can better capitalize on life science expertise. The center is expected to take two years to complete and “create thousands of local jobs,” according to a CPMC release.

Gallagher said at the press conference that the renovation of the building is expected to take at least two years. The hub itself is expected to create at least 2,000 local jobs, support a stronger regional economy and attract an “ecosystem” of professionals and businesses.

He also said the building would provide a place that “sparks” creativity between different groups of people, in this case medical experts, University researchers and entrepreneurs.

“That spark is interaction and collaboration, smart people sharing ideas, working together and challenging each other to achieve breakthroughs,” he said.

Aside from stressing UPMC’s partnership with Pitt will help find ways to cure disease and develop therapies, Romoff touched on the potential economic benefits it will bring to the region. He said the creation of the hub will ensure that medical talent and innovation stay in the city.

“We don’t want our Pitt scientists … [or] our Pitt clinicians to be emigres,” he said. “We want that translational science to stay here in Pittsburgh, at the University and at UPMC.”

The future site of the research center was a Ford assembly plant and showroom. (Photo by Janine Faust / Contributing Editor)

Rebecca Bagley, Pitt’s vice chancellor for economic partnership, cited the Brookings report in her speech at the Ford building. She said her office conducted a life sciences analysis funded by the Hillman Foundation and RK Mellon and found they needed to think more “holistically” and connect different parts of the city and different sorts of innovators.

“This building becomes a critical part of that ecosystem because as we talked about that proximity and people being able to work side by side it really generates more translation and brings more ideas into the marketplace,” she said.

Gallagher also brought up the possibility of Amazon bringing its second headquarters to Pittsburgh during his speech — but said the Brookings report had determined Pittsburgh could do fine without it.

“The Brookings report noted that Pittsburgh’s innovation strength is so strong that if we just did an average job connecting our economic activities to that potential we would create more jobs than we’re talking about with the Amazon Headquarters,” he said.

Peduto said he had a history with the 5000 Baum Boulevard building since he had worked there with community groups during his time as a city councilman. Peduto said research and development in technology and medicine will create a new future for the region and connect the entire City from Hazelwood to Lawrenceville, starting at the “fulcrum point” the building serves as.

“This is the lynchpin of an entire corridor that connects all of these communities,” he said. “It was designed this way.”

In an interview after the announcement, Bagley said the hub will impact University faculty by allowing more knowledge to be transferred across disciplines. It will benefit students by giving them more internship opportunities through companies attracted by the hub and connecting them with experts in certain fields in the classroom.

Gallagher said in an interview that the hub will attract some of the “best scientists in the world” who will also serve as professors for students. He also said some of the companies who end up collaborating with researchers in the hub could be Pitt student startups.

“We’re talking about an entrepreneurial economy, this is place where you could start your own company and take that chance,” he said.

Gallagher said during the conference that in his view, the creation of the hub plays into the broader story of Pittsburgh as an “innovation city,” citing the metals and electric industries as having led to enormous industrial commercial activity in the past. He remarked on how 5000 Baum Boulevard was a center of innovation for the budding automotive industry in the early 20th century.

“And maybe a century from now people will say, ‘it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without the groundbreaking work that took place at 5000 Baum,” he said.

(Photo by Janine Faust / Contributing Editor)

The post Pitt, UPMC announce $200 million Immune Transplant and Therapy Center appeared first on The Pitt News.

Editor’s Note: A few weeks before any special edition comes out, the editors on staff try to come up with a theme for that issue. This year was no different, but it didn’t take us long to figure out what we needed to be talking about. Whether it’s the #MeToo campaign or Time’s Up, it’s evident our society is going through a major cultural shift in the way we talk about sex and consent — we are actually talking about it. I might not be the best authority to talk about this subject, but the people you encounter on the next few pages are. As our two-part cover alludes to, you never know who has a story to tell — so proceed with an open mind.

-Ashwini Sivaganesh, Editor-in-Chief

The inside cover of our Sex Edition, featuring two sexual assault survivors telling their stories, along with some statistics.

Eva Louise Kreiser, sophomore, linguistics and psychology major.

Kreiser is a sexual assault survivor, but after her assault she struggled with what to call it.

“A few months later I kind of came to terms with it and was able to get myself away from him, get myself help,” she said.

She said after realizing what happened she could find “strength in it” and find “strength through recovery.”

She has a little bit of doubt about being public with her story but said it “helps not only validate myself but also help to validate other people who have stories that are similar to mine.”

“You’re a valid survivor and … you’re going through hard stuff and there are people out there that are like you,” she said.

There’s a storm brewing with more women “who have been silenced for so long [and] are finally coming out and having the power to say things,” she said. “And all these men who have been hurting people for so long are finally being held responsible, being held accountable and facing repercussions for their actions.”

Caroline Vinci, first-year, undecided

Coming to college, Vinci heard a familiar statistic — one in five women experience sexual assault in college.

She said a lot of women, like herself, think this statistic might apply to them, but “unless they were raped there’s nothing that they feel like they can say.”

Vinci said she was having sex and her partner removed his condom during intercourse. Afterward, she didn’t know how to classify the act — known as “stealthing” — until she went to student health to get a screening.

She said student health told her that stealthing — which some lawmakers are pushing to be legally classified as rape — is a form of assault.

“Putting a label on it made it feel almost better for me because it wasn’t my fault that I wasn’t being safe or that I wasn’t being careful,” she said. “There was nothing really I could do in that situation.”

She didn’t want to talk about her experience for a while because she was worried about being
“slut-shamed.” And, as a first-year, she didn’t know many people that well — but she decided to tell her friend who was also a sexual assault survivor. She says it helped.

“If something happens and it just reminds you of it, you can give them a look like, ‘You know what I’m going through,’” she said. “In those first couple weeks it’s really important to have someone to help you through it.”

Interactive graphic: Sexual assault and college sports

The bittersweet lives of sugar babies

With college tuition, textbook and living costs soaring higher each year, students face daunting debts that prompt them to get creative with how they support themselves. Some turn to working at Starbucks, others to tutoring  — and some even turn to dating.

Pitt students condemn catcalling

Lawyers navigate the intricacies of assault

Pitt professor David Korman says some people are quick to criticize the judicial system for not putting enough emphasis on victims’ rights, while not accounting for the rights of the accused. (Photo by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor)

Within the first 24 hours of the #MeToo movement going viral in October 2017, there were more than 12 million posts, comments and reactions made by 4.7 million Facebook users worldwide. The movement has since reached more than 85 countries, shedding a new light on advocacy for survivors of sexual harassment and assault.

But the idea of supporting sexual assault survivors is relatively new. Most jurisdictions in the United States didn’t adopt variations on rape shield statutes — laws designed to protect victims of sex crimes during criminal proceedings — until the late 1970s.

Seeking out safe sex in the LGBTQ+ community

(Illustration by Abigail Katz | Staff Illustrator)

The average human being can only be so comfortable with openly discussing how to insert an internal condom, which is why organizations like the Rainbow Alliance come prepared with a prosthetic vagina.

The post Sex Edition 2018: Survivors, sugar babies and safety appeared first on The Pitt News.

Ricardo Piglia was 15 years old when his father was thrown in prison for a year for supporting Argentina’s former leader — so the young teen began keeping a diary.

It started about the same time Juan Peron, President of Argentina, was overthrown in a coup d’etat in 1955. While it began with one journal, Piglia estimates he filled 327 notebooks over the course of his life.

His story caught the attention of Andres Di Tella, a fellow Argentinian and award-winning filmmaker. Di Tella was then inspired to create “327 Cuadernos,” a documentary depicting Piglia rereading and cataloguing his diaries over the course of several years, something he had never done before.

As part of an event hosted by the Film Studies Program, 33 people gathered to watch Di Tella’s film in the Public Health building Wednesday night. Di Tella also answered audience questions after the screening of the film.

“There were some people who were not sure whether the diaries actually existed,” Di Tella said. “He had mentioned them in interviews and snippets in text, but nobody was sure they existed.”

The film, which features selected passages from Piglia’s diaries narrated by Piglia, is interspersed with old footage depicting the era in which he grew up. Some of the vintage footage comes from an archive of family films owned by a friend of Di Tella. Other portions contain news footage depicting famous events, such as the brother of famous communist revolutionary Che Guevara reacting to news of the Central Intelligence Agency-orchestrated death of his brother in Bolivia.

Di Tella said the film’s intention is “to keep a diary of the reading of a diary.” During the process of filming, Piglia becomes ill with Lou Gehrig’s disease — a disease that breaks down nerve cells and reduces the function of muscles — and slowly loses his mobility. In one scene, Piglia is reduced from flipping through his book and writing to dictating it to someone typing his words into a document.

Much of the film is Piglia ruminating on the nature of writing and events throughout his life and the lives of his friends. Piglia criticizes 20th-century novelist Franz Kafka at the beginning of the film because Kafka did not want his diaries to be published even though he did not destroy them. Piglia then entertains the idea of publishing them under the names of one of his characters, Emilio Renzi, or even burning them.

After working through the first phases of his diaries, Piglia eventually became one of the most prominent contemporary Argentine writers, publishing five novels, a number of essays and four short story collections. He taught Latin American literature at Princeton University from 2001 until 2011. In one scene from the film, Piglia considers the idea of writing about his life.

“There’s nothing more ridiculous than the aspiration of recording one’s own life,” Piglia tells the camera.

As the film ends, Piglia is shown burning one of his diaries. Di Tella said someone convinced him not to burn all of them. Piglia died in January 2017, and his diaries have been published in a set of three volumes.

After the screening, Di Tella answered questions about the film posed by the audience, which was largely composed of graduate students and faculty from the department of Hispanic languages and literature.

Daniel Balderston, a Mellon professor of modern languages, was familiar with the background of Piglia. He described how Piglia was constantly creating.

“He was also working up until the day he died,” Balderston said during the question and answer segment.

He also asked Di Tella about his choice to use what seemed like unrelated footage. Di Tella said scraps of paper from the diaries inspired the added footage in the film. He said there were pieces newspapers, tickets and other papers in the notebooks.

“When I saw these little pieces of paper, I thought that the readings of his diary would go hand in hand with just the details of [collected papers],” Di Tella said.

Pedros Salas, a recent Pitt graduate and current employee at Slippery Rock University, said he came because many of his former classmates were in attendance and he was a fan of Piglia.

“I’ve read several of his books … I like him a lot,” Salas said. “I really liked hearing Piglia talk about his own diaries, and [for it] to be surrounded by the historical fragments was also really interesting.”

The post Di Tella discusses ‘327 Cuadernos’ appeared first on The Pitt News.

The Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association awarded The Pitt News eight prizes and three honorable mentions Wednesday for stories and visuals published in 2017.

The PNA’s 2018 Keystone Press Awards recognized “high school and college journalism that provides relevance, integrity and initiative in serving readers” in Pennsylvania, according to its website. The Pitt News competed in the Division I bracket of the contest, which includes four-year colleges and universities with enrollment of 10,000 students or more.

Judges also awarded pieces from Temple University, Pennsylvania State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University. The outlets could submit stories published between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2017.

Current and former members of The Pitt News won four first-place awards, four second-place awards and three honorable mentions, in separate categories.

In the general news category, former online visual editor Stephen Caruso, staff writer Zoe Pawliczek and current Editor-in-Chief Ashwini Sivaganesh won second place for their collaboration on “No ban, no wall, no silence in Pittsburgh.” The story ran Jan. 30, 2017, and described protesters’ reactions to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration order.

Former news editor and current assistant layout editor Rachel Glasser, managing editor John Hamilton and Sivaganesh also secured an honorable mention in the general news category for “Pitt student’s death being investigated as homicide,” which reported on the death of late Pitt student Alina Sheykhet.

Assistant news editor Janine Faust won second place in the feature story category for “Gone Cold: Pitt students investigate unsolved crimes,” a look into a Pitt club that examines cold cases. She also received the first-place award in the personality profile category for “Ricky Smith: Welcome home.” This profile was part of The Pitt News’ 2017 Silhouette edition and details a Pitt security guard.

Former assistant news editor James Evan Bowen-Gaddy and former opinions editor Amber Montgomery also placed in the personality profile category. They received second place for “The Merante Family,” which explored the Italian family who opened the Groceria Merante in 1979.

In the column category, entries included a portfolio of three entries by the same author on any subject. Christian Snyder won first place for his columns “Infant circumcision disregards basic human rights,” “Greek life promotes dangerous, elitist culture” and “Analysis: How a 1999 NATO operation turned Russia against the West.” Snyder is currently the online visual editor but previously served as the assistant opinions editor.

Two staff illustrators received recognition in the cartoon/graphic illustration category, for which a portfolio of three pieces was submitted. Raka Sakar won first place for her illustrations for the stories “Celebrity deaths: Don’t blame it all on 2016,” “Talk about periods to end the stigma” and “Hate crime penalty protects a diverse society.” Garrett Aguilar earned an honorable mention for his basketball preview cover illustration and for his illustrations for “Volunteer, but not on Thanksgiving” and “Horror movie classics should be standard for scares.”

In the feature photo category, former visual editor Elaina Zachos won second place for her photo in the feature she wrote on Alejandro Morales, which explored his life as an orthopedic surgeon.

Former staff photographer Li Yi and Hamilton earned accolades in the news photo category. Hamilton won first place for his photos in the story “Sanders criticizes GOP health care bill at Pittsburgh rally,” and Yi earned an honorable mention for the photo accompanying the story “Max Kneis wins 2017 SGB presidential election.”

The PNA will honor award recipients in Hershey, Pennsylvania, at the America East Media Business and Technology Conference Wednesday, March 14, 2018.

The post The Pitt News staff wins Student Keystone Press Awards appeared first on The Pitt News.

Pitt’s Graduate Student Organizing Committee announced in a Twitter thread posted Feb. 13 that they are starting a campaign to rename Parran Hall.

“We view Parran Hall as a constant reminder of the legacy of racism in the academic scientific and medical communities and the University of Pittsburgh’s symbolic commitment to white supremacy,” the thread read.

The nine-story building, located on DeSoto Street, is the primary home of the Graduate School of Public Health which contains both classrooms and administrative and faculty offices. It is named after Thomas Parran Jr., the nation’s sixth surgeon general from 1936 to 1948 and the first dean of Pitt’s School of Public Health from 1948 until 1958.

Parran was considered instrumental in pushing Congress to finance centers to control and prevent venereal diseases, such as gonorrhea, and was largely responsible for requiring syphilis tests for marriage license applications — a practice that most states have discarded. He also brought many leading doctors to the public health program at Pitt, including his deputy Surgeon General and successor as dean, James Crabtree.

But he also presided over two infamous experiments during his time as surgeon general. The first, what is commonly known as the “Tuskegee Syphilis Study,” began in 1932 and was not halted by the U.S. Public Health Service until 1972, when its existence became public. In the study, American researchers observed the course of untreated syphilis among hundreds of African-American men who were infected naturally in Alabama during that time period. Infected patients in the study were not given penicillin, the standard therapy after World War II for the disease, and some died as a result of the disease or passed it on to sexual partners and children.

The second experiment was conducted between 1946 and 1948. American researchers intentionally exposed more than 1,300 Guatemalan prisoners and mental institution patients to syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid during those two years. This experiment — and Parran’s involvement in it — were not made public until 2010.

GSOC began circulating a petition Wednesday, titled “Pitt, Rename Parran Hall & Stop Honoring an Unethical Scientist,” which is currently halfway to its goal of 200 signatures. People who fill out the petition are asked their name, email, postal code and affiliation with Pitt.

The petition recounts Parran’s involvement in the Tuskegee study and states that having a building named after him on campus is an affront to black and Latinx students.

“We must learn from the mistakes, prejudices, and grotesque acts of institutionalized racism and violence that characterize our history,” the petition says. “However, it is imperative that we do not normalize and neutralize them by maintaining monuments to their architects.”

Both the Tuskegee and Guatemala experiments led to public apologies by two U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association changed the name of the lifetime achievement Thomas Parran Award to The ASTDA Distinguished Career Award in 2013 as a result of the discovery of the Guatemalan experiments.

A 2013 piece penned by the New York Times while the ASTDA was considering renaming the award included a statement from Donald S. Burke, dean of Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health. The article reported that Burke said the school has no plans to change Parran Hall’s name at the time.

The GSOC petition goes on to suggest possible other figures the University could name the hall after, including Dr. Herbert Needleman, a former Pitt professor and researcher who did foundational research on lead poisoning in children and Maud Menten, a Pitt professor who was a pioneer in enzyme kinetics and histochemistry.

“Pitt Public Health, the Schools of the Health Sciences, and the University of Pittsburgh have an opportunity to stand up for what is right by removing Dr. Parran’s name from our building,” the petition says. “Having a just and inclusive public health practice demands it.”

Besides demanding the University rename Parran Hall and publicly acknowledge Parran’s “legacy of unethical experimentation,” the petition also calls upon Pitt to either hold a vote for faculty and graduate students in the School of Public Health to decide upon a new name or include them in a joint committee to oversee how donation money is allocated if a donor is solicited to rename the building.

According to University spokesperson Joe Miksch, Pitt’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion is in the process of forming a committee to study the issue and recently asked University senate leadership to nominate faculty, staff and student representatives for it. The senate’s Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discriminatory Advocacy Committee is planning to file a position on the name of the building. An open symposium to gather community input on the issue is being planned for March.

Pitt released a letter Jan. 8 from Burke to Pamela Connelly, the University’s vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It stated that a school-wide meeting within the School of Public Health was already planned for April 20, given what Dr. Burke described as “renewed concerns” about Parran’s role in the Tuskegee study. The letter did not specify what the new concerns were or discuss the outcome of an earlier town hall meeting within the school held in 2011 after the Guatemala experiment came to light, the Post-Gazette reported.

Burke initiated both the institutional review of the name and plans for the symposium in early January, according to Miksch.

The post Students petition to rename Parran Hall appeared first on The Pitt News.

The Allegheny County district attorney’s office will seek the death penalty for Matthew Darby, a 21-year-old man accused of killing Pitt student Alina Sheykhet.

Sheykhet was found dead in her home in Oakland Oct. 8, 2017. Darby — her ex-boyfriend — has been charged with homicide, flight, burglary, theft, trespassing and possessing an instrument of crime.

The District Attorney’s Notice of Intention, filed Thursday, cites four “aggravating circumstances” that the prosecution intends to submit that could justify capital punishment.

These circumstances include that Sheykhet was a prosecution witness in a case involving Darby and was then murdered to prevent her testifying, that Darby committed the killing during the perpetration of a felony, that at the time of the killing Sheykhet had a court order meant to protect her from Darby and that he has a history of violence.

Capital punishment in Pennsylvania can only be applied to someone found guilty of first-degree murder. Then, in a separate hearing, the prosecution must prove to a jury that any aggravating circumstances outweigh any mitigating circumstances provided by the defense.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2015 as he awaited a report from a capital punishment task force. The state has not executed an inmate since 1999, though 154 inmates are on death row as of Feb. 1.

Darby was previously arrested Sept. 26, 2017, for breaking into Sheykhet’s home on Cable Place. He was charged with criminal trespass but released on bond. Sheykhet filed a protection-from-abuse order against Darby as a result. He was served with the PFA Oct. 5, 2017, a few days before her death.

Darby is also facing trial for charges of rape and sexual assault in an unrelated case in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

The post DA to seek death penalty in Pitt student’s homicide appeared first on The Pitt News.

Groups of students sat around several computer-topped desks in a Benedum Hall classroom, casually making conversation as they waited for their Thursday afternoon class to begin. Suddenly, a question flashed across the screen: “Belgian or German wheat beer?”  

Professor Robert Parker repeated this question, marking the beginning of class. He counted the hands that raised in response and determined that neither beer won.

Last spring the Swanson School of Engineering added an unusual elective to their course offerings — Engineering a Craft Brewery — or as students more commonly call it, “beer class.”

Chris Siak, a senior studying electrical engineering, said he enrolled in the class for a simple reason.

“You get to drink beer during class,” Siak said. “Why wouldn’t I want to take it?”

Beer is served on wooden platters during quizzes in Professor Robert Parker’s class, Engineering a Craft Brewery. (Photo by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor)

Parker, the vice chair for graduate education and a professor in the chemical and petroleum engineering department, introduced and now teaches the class. Parker first began casually brewing at home in 2000 alongside a colleague at Carnegie Mellon University. He decided to incorporate the craft into Pitt’s academics last year when he saw how popular craft breweries had become.

Parker said the class is beneficial for students because the process is “an outstanding example of engineering and product design.”

“The layout and design of the facilities and the equipment, and how do you move water and how does it get heated and cooled the way it needs to, these are all engineering processes,” he said. “The conversion of sugar out of grain and to alcohol is good reaction engineering, so you’ve got some good chemical engineering, mechanical engineering taking place.”

The class, which fulfills elective requirements for several engineering majors, is taught in the spring and open to students over 21. Parker designed the class to give students practice in designing an actual beer in case they decide to work in craft breweries in the future. Students pay a $100 fee to enroll in the class, which helps pay for the provided beer.

Siak said students are allowed to drink in class on “sensory perception days,” which are sessions Parker holds six times per semester to allow students to taste the beers he lectures about in class, followed by a quiz to test the students’ knowledge on specific beers. The quizzes are designed to help students distinguish between beers that are made by different processes.

On perception days, class is held in the O’Hara Student Center rather than in a classroom. Bartenders serve the students beers from local breweries and occasionally from Parker’s own collection of home brews. Students treat the event casually, often taking out their phones to post pictures of the academic drinking on social media. Due to University policies, students cannot drink more than 12 oz. of beer per class.

During regular class meetings, the class of about 75 listens to Parker lecture about the engineering components behind beer production. Parker gave a lengthy description of the chemical reaction behind the first step in the brewing process one day, which Siak had some difficulty with as an electrical engineer.

“The sensory things are easy, but like this chemistry stuff? I’m sure it’s super easy for all the chem E’s, but I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Siak said.

Quizzes in Engineering a Craft Brewery have students identify various brews based on taste. (Photo by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor)

Senior chemical engineering student Daniel Wang said he took the class last spring because he knew how much chemical engineering was involved in the beer-making process.

“Even my manager at the chemical company that I work with, he just brews beer on the side, too. It’s a common hobby among chemical engineers,” Wang said.

Throughout the semester, students occasionally help Parker with small portions of the process, though no beer is brewed on campus. Parker takes the class’s product home and brews the beer, which he then serves to chemical engineering graduates at commencement.

The undergraduate engineering class is just the beginning of Parker’s “five-year plan” to bring a larger brewing operation to Pitt’s campus. Eventually, Parker said he would like to see a fully functioning brewery on campus that not only engages engineering students, but also business, law, biology and chemistry students.

“Business students could come run the books, law students could deal with the legal stuff,” Parker said. “So there’s a whole educational component to having a brewery on campus.”

Parker said if Pitt were to open a brewery, engineers could use their skills to tailor beers to customers’ needs, perhaps even serving personalized beers at Pitt basketball games.

“From Pitt’s perspective, it makes sense,” he said. “Instead of ordering in, you just order it from the brewery, who design and brew it, and then bring it to your event.”

Professor Robert Parker hopes a fully operational brewery that engages engineers and other students will be built on campus. (Photo by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor)

Parker is optimistic about his plan, partly because similar projects have been initiated at other schools, such as University of California, Davis and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, both of which run functional breweries on campus.

Students, non-chemical engineers and chemical engineers alike, had positive reactions to the class. In March, several of them are going to Belgium for spring break as a part of the class’s optional study abroad trip, where they will tour Belgian breweries. The trip is open to engineering students who are taking or have taken the class, and costs $4,200.

Parker predicted this level of class enjoyment and said he wants to bring craft brewing to Pitt because of the culture it fosters.

“The people in the brewing industry are just outstanding human beings — they’re collaborative, they’re fun to be around [and] everybody wants to understand and see what’s going on,” Parker said. “It’s just a very supportive environment.”

The post Students mix beer and engineering appeared first on The Pitt News.

Matiangai Sirleaf has represented plaintiffs in numerous international human rights cases litigated in federal courts. Now, as an assistant professor of law at Pitt, she plans to use her legal expertise to eradicate infectious diseases.

Sirleaf presented her research on disease in Africa, titled “Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responses,” to a crowd of about 30 people in Posvar Hall Thursday. She spoke about how international crises, such as epidemics, are perpetuated by structural violence — systemic, often subtle, ways institutions or social structures harm people.

Sirleaf said her goal is to have more people gain a better understanding of what structural violence is and what warrants international and interventional attention. She is using the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak — an epidemic that mainly affected the three African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — as a case study to examine this.

Speaking as part of Pitt’s Critical Research on Africa Lecture Series, Sirleaf began by briefly discussing how big of an impact infectious diseases can have on certain communities. She said infectious diseases cause roughly 15 percent of all deaths around the world, but people usually see these as resulting from physical issues rather than institutional ones.

“There is a continuum of violence which comes from what we see as physical violence to a spectrum of violence that is structural and institutional,” Sirleaf said. “What we tend to do is focus on the narrowing end of that continuum.”

Sirleaf described health care systems in West Africa as contributing to structural violence because of how weak they are in response to infectious diseases.  Their instability is why health organizations like World Vision and Doctors Without Borders had to come in and assist countries stricken with Ebola. When these health organizations left West African countries to help other countries fight infectious diseases, it became harder again for West Africa to provide effective health care to treat Ebola.

“[The health organizations leaving] accelerated the harm that Ebola caused once it came, decreasing the likelihood of survival of the health systems to this particular disease,” Sirleaf said.

Sirleaf talked about how a cumulative build up of structural violence led to exploitation and underdevelopment throughout the three countries that were affected most by Ebola in Africa. Sirleaf cited how imperialist exploitation in the past — particularly the slave trade — weakened these countries. She also said northern African countries took western African resources to improve their own economies.

Sirleaf argued that not enough attention is given to the inequalities that enable the spread of infectious diseases around the world, which, she said, is a form a structural violence. Sirleaf wants to incorporate the concept of structural violence into law in order to ensure that epidemics such as the one that happened in West Africa can be prevented from overtaking and destroying communities.

Caitlin Budd, a sophomore majoring in natural sciences, said she did not know about the forces causing delayed responses to epidemics, such as Ebola, prior to coming to the lecture.

“The idea that Ebola affecting African countries is a violent act and the fact that we need to do more as a country is something I think is very critical,” Budd said.

Brittaney Richards, a first-year majoring in biology, appreciated Sirleaf’s presentation because it taught her how much infectious diseases in general can affect large populations.

“Coming from a biology major perspective, I think I grew up with a very closed definition of how diseases impacts people, and so I learned a lot from this presentation,” Richards said.

Sirleaf is aiming to expand those limited definitions and stressed the importance of developing a better plan to respond to these types of emergencies.

“I think that it is incumbent upon us to reduce the responsibility and accountability gaps in international law because we are responsible for our individual and collective actions,” Sirleaf said.

The post Professor proposes use of law to tackle infectious diseases appeared first on The Pitt News.

When Lydia Brown asked audience members if they understand what disability rights are and if they know the difference between disability rights and disability justice only about six or seven people out of the 42 present raised their hands.

Brown then asked the audience what words they associate with these topics. Some associated mental health with “broken,” “diseased” and “hidden” and associated disability with “ableism,” “accommodation,” and “systemic justice.”

Brown asked these questions because of their background as an disability rights activist, writer and public speaker who is on the Autism spectrum. Brown has worked as a policy analyst for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network — a national disability rights organization led by autistic people, which serves students with disabilities throughout the Washington, D.C., area.

The event — organized by Chinese American Student Association, Asian Student Alliance and Students for Disability Advocacy — took place in the William Pitt Union Lower Lounge Sunday. Brown, who identifies as gender non-binary, focused on the topics of disability and discrimination at the mental health advocacy workshop.

“Disability is this concept that we have all encountered at some point. We have witnessed it, we have lived it, we’ve experienced it, we shame it, attempting to hide it as if it doesn’t exist,” Brown said.

Throughout the presentation, Brown emphasized the idea that everyone deserves to be loved and that someone’s worth should not depend on what a person can or cannot do.

“The premise of my idea is that all of us are actually valuable, that we deserve to exist, that we deserve to love and to be loved and to be cared for, and our worth does not depend on whether we can or can’t do work,” Brown said.

They asked the audience how everyone heard of this event, and if they heard of this event because they knew Brown. Brown said people who don’t have the ability to access the internet or people who are not involved with the organizing clubs might not know about the event or be able to have the discussion of what disability means.

“You have the privilege and the resources of social capital. So the question is what can we do moving forward to make sure that more people can have this conversation on disability and mental health, not just people connected to these organizations that know about this talk,” Brown said.

Christine Chau, a junior biology major and one of the organizers of the event, wanted Brown to speak to Pitt students to bring more awareness of mental health and social justice. She also wanted someone who could connect with a variety of students.

“We wanted to have a speaker represent a wide majority of different populations, and we wanted this to be an open space for people who aren’t represented,” Chau said.

Rosalynd Burke, a sophomore nursing major, said she appreciated Brown’s presentation, especially because it gave a new perspective on how some people are mistreated in society.

“I learned that different people have different strengths and abilities. Just because you may look a certain way, it doesn’t mean you don’t have abilities to do certain tasks,” Burke said.

This was the kind of understanding Brown wanted the audience to gain. They wanted to promote a better understanding of what people with disabilities experience in society.

“Disability justice for me is very much getting to a world in which it’s not that I deserve to exist, but I deserve to be loved and to be cared for,” Brown said. “And I hope that is a rule you would like to have also.”

The post Lydia Brown discusses disability advocacy appeared first on The Pitt News.

Anne Allison writes extensively on topics related to modern Japanese culture, ranging from sexuality to censorship. Her most recent publication on the precariousness of Japanese society has led her to explore a more morbid topic.

“I will try to make this lively, even though we’re talking about death,” Allison said before her lecture Friday.

Allison, a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University, presented her research on the sociality of death in Japan in a lecture titled “Matter of Death.” About 40 students attended the Asian Studies Center-hosted event in the Anthropology Lounge of Posvar Hall.

Gabriella Lukacs, a professor in the department of anthropology, invited Allison through the Asian Studies Center. She said she finds Allison’s work fascinating and enjoys how her research connects different topics such as philosophy, psychology and feminism.

“I teach a course in Japanese society here at Pitt,” Lukacs said. “Any of her books could be used [for] their own courses.”

Allison compiled her research during three summers of field work in Japan where she attended events and conducted interviews. At the lecture, she described how a steadily decreasing population after World War II led to large amounts of elderly Japanese alone during their final years.

“Following wartime Japan, there was a push in society to downsize the household,” Allison said. “Now, marriage and childbirth are in the decline in Japan, employment is increasingly short-term and precarious and more and more people are living longer and alone.”

According to a 2014 report by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, approximately 61 percent of Japan’s population is over 65. Combined with the shrinking population, many Japanese are facing what’s known as a “lonely death,” when someone dies living on their own.

As a result, Allison said sociality — the tendency to group together in communities — has shifted in Japan to become more focused on the individual. The Japanese are placing more attention on a free and independent self as opposed to work and family, particularly in being able to handle one’s own affairs.

“There is now an active form of doing care by and for the self,” Allison said.

Part of this shift, Allison said, is that many Japanese handling their end-of-life arrangements — some to avoid being a burden on their family and others because they don’t have someone to care for them.

She explained how elder Japanese are now looking to “declutter” their lives, paying attention to methods such as the KonMari method.

“A new trend in minimal or simple lifestyle has developed in Japan,” Allison said, “involving a meditative process of evaluating on each item own, and either keeping and caring or throwing away.”

Created by Marie Kondo, this method of organizing consists of gathering together all of one’s belongings and keeping only those things that “spark joy” and throwing or giving away what is deemed unessential.

Allison examined new businesses emerging in Japan that help clients sort through the possessions left behind. Special cleanup of the “lonely dead” is one of the growing services. After a neighbor notices a dead body, a cleanup crew will clean the room, dispose of the body and kill any insects that had flocked to the dwelling.

She used the term “Ending Centers” to describe these facilities that handle the aspects normally taken care of by family members, such as planning funerals, organizing finances and taking care of human remains.

While many would expect these centers to be gloomy, “the atmosphere tends to be animated or bright,” Allison said.

She said there is a sense of joy and anticipation toward death, even being excited to be next to your “grave buddies.”

Raja Adal, a Pitt history professor and historian of Japan, was excited for the opportunity to hear Allison speak, as she is well respected in the field and familiar with the human experience.

“The ideas and issues are not foreign to us, but we are thinking about her research and this new form of sociality in a deeper fashion,” Adal said.

Hailey Roh, a sophomore studying political science, entered the lecture knowing almost nothing about the topic. She said she was fascinated by the sociality of death in Japan and learned a lot about the services provided for the citizens of Japan.

“It is interesting that Japan’s market is advocating for people to die alone rather than be more social,” Roh said.

Allison plans to write and publish a book about her findings about this new sociality, the creativity around death and what inspires its citizens. When an audience member asked her what constitutes a “good” death in Japan, she responded that she thinks Japanese people view dying alone as a “bad” death, with one of the worrisome parts of it being unable to get your affairs in order.

“People do want you to have a good time now,” she said. “Handle that, and have a good time now.”

The post Speaker gives lively talk on death appeared first on The Pitt News.

Each Pitt student can vote Tuesday for one president and three board members to fill the nine elected positions on the 2018-2019 Student Government Board.

Last year’s election saw double the voter turnout of the previous year with about 30 percent of the student body voting. SGB is responsible for allocating the $2.6 million Student Allocations Fund to student organizations, and also seeks to promote student concerns and needs.

Two students are running for president this year and 11 are campaigning for the eight board spots. Ballots can be cast from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at my.pitt.edu.

Here’s a rundown of the approaches and initiatives each candidate is running on:

Presidential candidates:

Maggie Kennedy

Maggie Kennedy, a junior political science and communications rhetoric major running on the Horizon slate, is one of two candidates for SGB president. She is currently the SGB wellness chair and much of her platform deals with student health issues, including sexual violence.

Kennedy — who is a resident assistant and peer educator at the Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Education Office — wants to reform first-year orientation programming about sexual assault to make it more comprehensive and proactive, rather than mainly focusing on bystander intervention.

“I think trying to get at the root of the cause is really important,” she said. “Even if I don’t get elected, this is something I would like to work on.”

She also hopes to expand the diversity general education requirement to all schools after the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences implemented the requirement this year. The expansion wouldn’t require new courses or professors, she said, but will better promote courses that focus on topics related to diversity.

Kennedy wants to start a program where SGB will “sponsor” events by helping with marketing, planning and graphic design, in addition to the Board’s main job of allocating money for student organizations.

“We want to do that so student orgs have a better relationship with SGB and all student orgs are getting the attention they deserve,” she said.

Saket Rajprohat

Saket Rajprohat, a junior marketing major running on the Neighbors slate, is the second candidate for SGB president. His platform focuses on advocating for a more environmentally friendly campus and additional gender-neutral bathrooms.

He also said he wants to make SGB a place where students and organizations go to promote their ideas.

“I’ve met with a number of student organization leaders … and told them if I become president, we’re going to have monthly meetings about how you think Student Government Board can more greatly affect your area of academia,” Rajprohat said.

Rajprohat would propose a “sustainability campaign” to promote the idea of living a more sustainable life. He also said he believes the University should divest from the fossil fuel industry and increase investments in renewable energy.

Rajprohat has never worked for SGB, though he has been involved with student groups like Facilitating Opportunities for Refugee Growth and Empowerment, as well as the South Asian Student Association. He said that experience makes him qualified for the job.

“You’re not coming in with a list of initiatives that you came up with from your own experiences,” he said. “You’re coming in with the concerns of 19,000 students that go here.”

Editor’s note: Rajprohat worked as a columnist for The Pitt News.

Slates:

582 Bridges

(Pictured left to right) Albert Tanjaya, Nicholas Bibby and Zechariah Brown. (Photos via Student Government Board)

The 582 Bridges slate gets its name from the 582 student organizations on campus that connect Pitt’s student body. Their policies center on improving resources for student groups and increasing involvement in Pitt’s “awareness weeks.”

The three people on the slate are all running for one of the eight board slots — the group has no presidential candidate.

Albert Tanjaya, a sophomore computer science major, is the recording secretary for SGB’s lower legislative body, The Assembly, and is involved in several student organizations including Asian Students Alliance and Jumpstart. His initiatives include expanding the booking system so that student organizations can hold meetings and events in more rooms on campus.

“The role of SGB is a support system, hence our name ‘Bridges,’” he said of the slate. “SGB has to be trustworthy, transparent and strong enough to hold all the traffic that comes through.”

Nicholas Bibby, a sophomore political science major, is the secretary for the Pitt Political Science Student Association and a member of the new American Civil Liberties Union club. He wants to improve Wi-Fi service on campus, add more departmental advisers and increase communication between student organizations and the University administration.

Zechariah Brown, a sophomore economics and political science major, is the vice president of the Pitt Political Science Student Association and a member of the Black Action Society. He wants to improve Pitt’s SafeRider system and create a comprehensive Student Health Services website. He also plants to start an “Allies Week” to promote cultural competency and sexuality awareness on campus.

Tanjaya said the slate members want SGB to function as a “direct line” for students to present concerns to the administration and plan to be transparent about their communications with the University.

“We have the talk and we have the action plan, we’re not just making false promises,” Tanjaya said. “We have steps we’ll be looking to take when we get elected.”

Legacy

Matthew Jones (left) and Noah Rubin (right). (Photos via Student Government Board)

The Legacy candidates see SGB as a force that can “improve the general campus environment” for individual students. While this slate does not have a presidential candidate, the two board candidates are focused on promoting campus safety and engaging students with global issues.

Matthew Jones, a sophomore economics and finance major, was a member of SGB’s First-Year Council and now works with the Allocations Committee. He is also the co-vice president of finance of Phi Beta Lambda, a business fraternity. For Jones, focusing on students first means addressing health and wellness resources available to students.

Noah Rubin, a sophomore political science major, was also a First-Year Council member and now works as a first-year mentor and sits on the Resident Student Association’s executive board.

If elected, Rubin said Legacy would try to improve campus safety by working with the City of Pittsburgh to implement more streetlights in Oakland. The slate’s two members also plan to work with Pitt to extend the emergency blue light system.

Rubin believes the student should play an active role in the community at large, and said Legacy wants to empower students to participate in the political system by cancelling class University-wide on election days.

He said he and Jones discussed this idea with Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner at the January Dean’s Hour event, and that Bonner was receptive to the idea. Rubin said if elected, this change “could be implemented in the current school year.”

“What makes Matt and I stand out is that all of our initiatives are focused on the individual student,” Rubin said.

Neighbors

Pooja Humar (top left), Jahari Mercer (top right), Saket Rajprohat (lower left) and Cole Dunn (lower right). (Photo courtesy of Saket Rajprohat)

The Neighbors slate gets its name from the TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” This slate’s candidates are focused on representing as many student voices as possible. They plan to increase SGB’s involvement of student groups, focusing on promoting the organization’s ideas and not simply being a funding source.

Saket Rajprohat, who is running for president, said the slate also wants to increase campus safety through improving SafeRider and “creating the idea that Pitt students should have each other’s back.”

In addition to Rajprohat, the slate has three board candidates.

Jahari Mercer, a junior industrial engineering major, is the president of Pitt Students for Social Justice and the Corporate Liaison Chair for the Pitt National Society of Black Engineers. He wants to be a voice for student concerns.

Pooja Humar, a junior biology major, is currently a member of SGB’s allocations committee. She plans to focus on peer advising and student research opportunities.

Cole Dunn, a sophomore finance and accounting major, is the co-vice president of finance for Phi Beta Lambda and a member of the Socially Responsible Investment Portfolio. His goals are to make improvements with study or work room reservations, subsidize the cost of study materials for graduate school tests and increase school spirit at athletic events.

“The idea is that we want to make pitt more like a neighborhood, a community, for the students that go here,” Rajprohat said.

Horizon

(Pictured left to right) Maggie Kennedy, Rajaab Nadeem, Jessa Chong and Cory Stillman. (Photo courtesy Maggie Kennedy)

The Horizon slate wants to expand opportunities for Pitt students to challenge themselves. The slate is looking to get more resources for students in terms of internships, mental and physical health options and improve the overall environment of the Oakland campus.

Presidential candidate Maggie Kennedy said the slate also plans to develop new first-year orientation programming around sexual violence education.

The slate also features three board candidates.

Rajaab Nadeem, a junior majoring in economics and political science, is currently a resident assistant and the executive chair of donations and finance at the ICP Food Pantry in Oakland. He plans to work with the Office of International Students to better introduce international students to campus and diversify the health center staff.

Cory Stillman, a sophomore film studies major, is the chairman of the SGB allocations committee. He is focusing on familiarizing students with the allocations process, developing opportunities for students studying the arts and creating an LGBTQ+ resource center.

Jessa Chong, a sophomore majoring in political science and communications, currently serves as the chair of SGB’s Community and Governmental Relations Committee and is also an officer for Delta Delta Delta. Chong’s initiatives include cleaning up South Oakland through better garbage disposal, getting quality produce at on-campus dining locations and providing more exercise resources for students on lower campus.

“The most important [role of SGB] is that the board is really in tune with the students and really works with student orgs to know what the concerns are on campus,” Kennedy said.

The post Guide to 2018 Student Government Board election appeared first on The Pitt News.

As technology and business come together, Emily Hirao is well-versed on how she can use a multifaceted skill set to help her forge a professional future — by focusing on data analytics, the process by which meaning can be derived from information.

Hirao, a senior studying business technology at Carnegie Mellon University, shared her experiences as a paid student intern on Wall Street working her way through 50 to 60 hour weeks last summer. At an event co-hosted by Pitt’s Business Technology Association and CMU’s Business Technology Club, between 15 and 20 students gathered Monday night in room 230 in the Cathedral of Learning to listen to Hirao talk about finding internships in the field of business technology.

As a former Deutsche Bank intern, Hirao gave advice to business and nonbusiness students figuring out their careers and looking for ideal internships. Hirao advised that students looking for internships should actively seek out opportunities and establish contact with companies hiring interns. She remembered her experience at Deutsche Bank and talked briefly about the cruise she was able to go on while working as an intern along with other benefits, such as free food.

Hirao also mingled with top employees, worked with a mentor and networked with other interns. She was even called back for a position at Deutsche Bank but declined the opportunity because she did not like “the hustle and bustle” of New York City.

Hirao’s experience in the business world allowed her to gain insight, which she wanted to share with other students who were just branching out. She made a few course suggestions for first-year business students in particular.

“I would say definitely to take a few very technical courses,” Hirao said.

She also said these courses would be especially helpful for student when applying for internships.

For Hirao, the fast-paced culture of Wall Street and her experiences at Deutsche Bank offered her alternative insights into the ways data analytics are used. Hirao addressed the challenges for students trying to make their way into the professional world.

“The hardest aspect was the sense of competition within the bank, because everyone was trying to further their career,” Hirao said.

David Qin, a senior finance and business information systems major at Pitt, thought Hirao’s talk was especially helpful since he is involved in a field that directly corresponds with data analytics. He said a better understanding of the topic will help him maximize his career potential.

“Emily mentioned that data analytics is the future and that traditional jobs are being automated,” Qin said. “Decisions are being driven more by data than by people, so in the future, this decision-making will impact how businesses make decisions.”

Qin thought it was crucial for students to learn about firsthand experiences like Hirao’s and to understand data analytics in order to get a proper internship.

“I think that it’s important not just for me but for our younger members on how to get internships,” Qin said.

Gabriel Aoki, a junior economics and philosophy major at Pitt, attended the meeting to gain a better understanding of the tools necessary to comprehend the fields he is closing in on.

Aoki said he needs a firm background in economics and an understanding of data analytics to pursue the vision he has for his future.

“I plan on starting businesses, and obviously data analytics is something that is a very big part of it, so definitely it will help me indirectly,” Aoki said.

Kai Gentile-Manigault, a statistics major at Pitt, came to the meeting because he heard someone was giving a talk on data analytics. He was eager to attend and said data analytics is the reason he is a statistics major.

“I’ve always liked math and things with numbers,” Gentile-Manigault said.

While many students were intrigued about the lifestyle of Wall Street, which Hirao was happy to discuss, her talk allowed students like Qin to get a stronger sense of the real-world applications of data analytics.

“I think Emily did a great job talking about her experiences and shedding some wisdom on how other students can use these skills and succeed,” Qin said.

The post Students get business and banking advice appeared first on The Pitt News.

Jeanna Sybert was sure to address both sides of the reclamation argument in her presentation — and she didn’t shy away from using shocking language to make those points.

The University of Pittsburgh’s chapter of the American Association of University Women held an event, C U Next Tuesday: Reclaiming Words Through a Feminist Lense, Monday night in room 540 of the William Pitt Union. Sybert, the secretary of the Pitt’s AAUW chapter and a senior studying communication and political science, gave a brief presentation on reclaiming words. Following the presentation, there was a short discussion on the topic.

Sybert began the talk by defining a reclaimed word as a slur or other negative term used to refer to a certain group, which the group then reclaims for its own use. After conducting research on reclaiming words, she gathered that the purpose of this is to reduce the power of a dominant group and to control one’s own — and others’ — views of oneself.

“It also limits the ability of suppressing groups to use the word on the groups,” Sybert said.

Sybert highlighted that many groups, including the black, LGBTQ+ and disabled communities, have worked to reclaim slurs. Now, women are doing so as well. Sybert provided the audience with arguments she found for and against the idea of reclamation.

“Language has power. That’s the takeaway,” Sybert said.

Sybert also presented arguments for reclamation that show how it undermines the historical, social and cultural power of slurs. She said it also changes the original meaning and intent, creates a sense of community and empowerment for those in the oppressed group and opens conversations about microaggressions and broader issues related to oppressions.

In addressing the other side of the argument, Sybert said it can appear as a movement in which only privileged members of a group can partake, and it does not erase how words are used in relation to either interpersonal or systemic violence. It can also invalidate experiences or the feelings of those who do not want to reclaim slurs.

“Of course there are other words that can be reclaimed, but there are three big ones we are going to talk about,” Sybert said.

According to Sybert, the “big three” are “slut, bitch and cunt.”

For the first word, the she showed a video that outlined its historical context. She went on to talk about SlutWalk, a transnational protest march that calls for the end of rape culture. She highlighted criticism in an open letter by black feminists, accusing the event of being exclusionary to women of color.

“We don’t have the privilege to play on destructive representations burned in our collective minds, on our bodies and souls for generations,” Black Women’s Blueprint writes.

“The arguments are something to keep in mind while deciding whether or not to reclaim the word,” Sybert said.

The speaker said the second word holds negative connotations for both men and women. Sybert provided descriptions and varying arguments on the word from philosophers such as Mary Daly.

While Gloria Steinem said the response to the word should be “thank you,” Sherryl Kleinman, Matthew B. Ezzell and A. Corey Frost write that the word is not part of the feminist movement.  

Then the discussion came to the third and final word, first used for a 13th-century London street. The medical community in the 1500s also used the term as the medical word for vagina, but it became taboo in the 1800s, which Sybert joked about during the presentation.

“Victorian societal terms that ruin everything also ruined the word,” Sybert said.

The presenter displayed a tweet from The Onion showing what she believed was a completely wrong usage of the word and a clip from a performance of the Vagina Monologue reclaiming the word correctly.

The event closed with discussions among the event attendees. They shared their own personal ideas on reclamation and expanded the discussion to broader terms, including the idea of women in music reclaiming the words in their songs and the idea of the reclaimed word “girl.”

Maddie Stackhouse, a first year studying neuroscience, said she came into the discussion knowing it’s a complicated topic and a lot of people have differing opinions on the subject.

“I personally already do reclaim these words with friends of mine in specific contexts and situations,” Stackhouse said. “There’s a time and place for everything.”

Allison Phillips, the organization’s event coordinator and a sophomore studying anthropology, thought the discussion was pretty much what she expected.

“I am not comfortable with the term ‘slut’ due to personal experience with the word. I find the word is associated with a weapon,” she said. “It is used in a negative manner far more than in a positive manner. I cannot think of any positive uses myself, but I am not going to say that no one can reclaim it.”

The post Women discuss reclaiming female slurs appeared first on The Pitt News.

Maggie Kennedy will be the 2018-2019 Student Government Board president, winning 56 percent of the vote.

Watch the live announcement here:

2 p.m.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. today for the 2018 Student Government Board election, in which students can vote for one president and three board members to fill nine election positions on next year’s board. Ballots close at 8 p.m., and can be cast at my.pitt.edu.

There are 13 students are running for the nine positions under four slates – Legacy, Horizon, 582 Bridges and Neighbors. Each slate has different goals they would pursue if elected to further SGB’s relationship with the student body and the University.

While tabling outside of the William Pitt Union this morning, the candidates described their tactics to increase voter turnout, which last year was 30 percent – double the previous year’s turnout.

Candidates and volunteers began campaigning at midnight, scrawling chalk messages on sidewalks, staircases and walls around campus. Saket Rajprohat, a junior marketing major and presidential candidate running on the Neighbors slate, said he stayed out past 3 a.m.

“I woke up with about three hours of sleep, but I’m feeling great,” he said at noon outside the William Pitt Union.

Saket Rajprohat, junior marketing major and Neighbors slate presidential candidate, sits back while volunteers and board candidates from his slate hand out fliers and buttons. (Photo by Christian Snyder | Multimedia Editor)

About 10 of Rajprohat’s friends, supporters and other board candidates tabled for the Neighbors slate, while Maggie Kennedy, a junior political science and communications rhetoric major running for president on the Horizon slate, passed out buttons and fliers at the Horizon table.

“The most important thing today is that students vote,” Kennedy said. “We need a student government that is representative.”

Kennedy started her campaigning at midnight, passing out royal blue and yellow Horizon T-shirts to accepting students. Board candidates from the Horizon slate, including Jessa Chong, were also in front of WPU doing the same thing.

“Morale is really high,” Chong said, gesturing to the clear sky. “Students are happy to take fliers and hear what you’re willing to say.”

Lucy Pratt, a senior sociology major, took a flier from a Horizon volunteer and listened to him explain the platform. Afterwards, she said although this was the first she had heard of this year’s SGB election, their tactics were working.

“Honestly, no,” she said, when asked if she’d heard of the election. “I got an email this morning and didn’t read it, but they’re doing a really good job [tabling].”

The post Maggie Kennedy wins SGB presidency in close election appeared first on The Pitt News.

Pitt’s chief financial officer and senior vice chancellor, Arthur Ramicone, will retire in August after a 30-year career at Pitt, the University announced Tuesday.

Ramicone, 64, is the second senior vice chancellor who will step down in 2018, following Provost Patricia Beeson’s announcement that she will leave her post next fall.

Ramicone began his Pitt career in 1988 as an internal audit manager. He became CFO in 1996 and was appointed to also serve as senior vice chancellor in 2015.

“He is a leader known for his honesty, integrity and sense of humor — and for bringing great teams together to tackle the right challenges,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in a press release. “As a result, the University finds itself in an enviable position of exceptional financial strength.”

Pitt’s release credited Ramicone with implementing cost-saving methods and strengthening Pitt’s bond ratings.

Ramicone also oversees Pitt’s $3.52 billion endowment — the 26th largest in the country — which has increased from about $660 million when Ramicone became CFO. The Office of Finance manages the endowment with oversight from the Board of Trustees. The investment pool has come under scrutiny recently with student organizations pushing the Board of Trustees to divest the $26 million Pitt has invested in the fossil fuel industry.

As CFO, Ramicone is responsible for 14 departments, including payroll and risk management. His 2015 salary was $457,543.

The post Pitt announces long-time CFO’s retirement appeared first on The Pitt News.