Maggie Kennedy couldn’t stop smiling Tuesday night after hearing she received 56 percent of the vote to secure the Student Government Board presidency for next year.

Kennedy, a junior political science and communication major running on the Horizon slate, received 1,889 votes to defeat junior marketing major Saket Rajprohat for the position.

Compared to last year’s almost 29 percent voter turnout with three presidential candidates, this year saw just 18 percent of the student body cast votes — a decrease to 3,481 students from last year’s 5,177.

But Kennedy said both slates with presidential candidates — Horizon and Neighbors — worked hard to ensure students knew their respective platforms leading up to the election.

“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet but it’s surreal and I’m so grateful,” Kennedy said. “Now, my main priority is revamping orientation to [get] education about sexual violence and cultural competency into the curriculum to make our students better members of the community.”

Skip to 28:20 for the results.

Current SGB President Max Kneis tried to move through allocations requests quickly during Tuesday night’s weekly public meeting after accepting a motion to bypass board reports from then-board member candidate and current Allocations Chair Cory Stillman. The room was packed with candidates and supporters awaiting the results of the annual election.

Delaney Regan, a junior psychology and English writing major, served as the campaign manager for the Horizon slate and said she voted for all Horizon candidates.

“I’m very happy with the results, we’re all very pleased,” she said. “I wasn’t very worried, I’m just very proud of all of them.”

Jahari Mercer, a junior industrial engineering major, was overjoyed and cried triumphantly upon hearing he received 1,265 votes — more than any other board candidate — meaning he will serve as executive vice president next year. He then stepped aside to call his parents and deliver the good news.

Jahari Mercer celebrates after being elected executive vice president for Pitt’s 2018-2019 Student Government Board. (Photo by Christian Snyder | Multimedia Editor)

“It’s just gonna be great to give a voice to the student population,” he said. “It’s our job to amplify student voices, and I’m really excited to be able to do that.”

Jessa Chong, a sophomore political science and communication major, received the second highest number of votes with 1,137. Junior biology major Pooja Humar came in third with 1,094 votes and Stillman, a sophomore film studies major, finished just four votes behind her with 1,090. Rajaab Nadeem, a junior economics and political science major, finished in fifth with 1,057 votes and sophomore accounting and finance major Cole Dunn received 944 votes. Zechariah Brown, a junior political science and economics major finished with 696 votes and sophomore computer science major Albert Tanjaya finished with 631 votes.

Voters also answered a referendum on a change to the SGB constitution. The changes were mostly to the document’s formatting, and the referendum passed 2,592–137.

Nadeem, a board member-elect from the Horizon slate, was “absolutely ecstatic” about winning. This will be his first involvement with SGB.

“I’m excited and I’m looking forward to learning the ropes from the many experienced people around me, especially on my slate, from Maggie, from Corey [and] from Jessa,” Nadeem said.

When asked what he hopes SGB looks like after next year, Kneis said he hopes the open educational resource initiative, which SGB introduced at its public meeting Jan. 9, expands and becomes more popular.

“My goal would be a lot of students are using the resources, and teachers and administrators are making a big push for implementing it,” he said. “With every transition there’s always nerves and things that fall through the crack, [but] I’m excited to have a group of candidates who’ve shown how passionate they are in this election.”

After the election results were announced, Rajprohat, who is a former Pitt News columnist, declined to be interviewed. Executive Vice President-elect Mercer, who ran with Rajprohat on the Neighbors slate, said the loss was difficult for the slate’s other candidates but they were accepting the mixed results as a team.

“I think he’s definitely more than qualified for the position and it just didn’t work out the way we had wanted it to,” Mercer said. “I hope that his influence can be transferred through the board, through us and other people as well.”

Allocations:

Club Powerlifting Team requested $2,000 for airfare for 15 people to attend Collegiate Nationals. The board approved in full.

Panther Judo Club requested $1,236 for registration, ground transportation and lodging for their 2018 USA Judo Youth National Championship. The board approved in full.

Panthers for Animal Welfare requested $93.50 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

College Republicans requested $2,240.09 for registration, ground transportation, lodging, parking and meals for CPAC 2018. The board approved $1,620.09 and denied $620.

Hindu Students Council requested $1,200 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved $1,160.80 and denied $39.20.

Pitt Triathlon requested $1,592 for lodging for 15 people to attend USAT Collegiate Club Nationals. The board approved in full.

Exercise Science Club requested $3,256 for ground transportation and lodging for their ACSM International Health and Fitness Summit. The board approved $657.90 and denied $2,598.10.

Pitt Men’s Club Soccer requested $581 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Panther Crossfit requested $800 for general travel. The board denied in full.

Animal Lovers Club requested $400 for general travel. The board approved in full.

First Class Bhangra requested $350 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Pittsburgh Women’s Volleyball Club requested $916.84 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

Student Slovak Club requested $900 for a program expense. The board approved $730 and denied $170.

FORGE requested $998 for a program expense. The board approved $578 and denied $420.

Panther Team Handball Club requested $288.08 for general travel. The board approved in full.

Ski and Snowboard Team requested $1,373.14 for lift tickets, race fees, gatekeeper fees and ground transportation for their Regional Conference Championship. The board approved in full.

Panhellenic Association requested $2,370 for registration for their Northeast Greek Leadership Association Conference. The board approved in full.

Muslim Student Association requested $3,244.84 for honorarium, airfare, lodging and custodial fees for their annual Fastathon. The board approved $3,222.94 and denied $21.90.

Robotics and Automation Society requested $11,688.56 for their Aerial Robotics Project expenses. The board approved $6,362.05 and denied $5,326.51.

Robotics and Automation Society requested $2,065.68 for ground transportation and lodging for their International Aerial Robotics Competition. The board approved in full.

Thompson Wymard contributed reporting.

The post Looking toward the Horizon: Kennedy wins SGB presidency appeared first on The Pitt News.

The University Senate Council held its second meeting of the spring semester Tuesday afternoon and addressed recently contentious topics such as building names and budget concerns.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher started the meeting by discussing the current controversy about Parran Hall, which houses the Graduate School of Public Health.

The building — located on De Soto Street — is named after former Surgeon General Thomas Parran, who was the first dean of the School of Public Health. The debate rises out of questionable ethical standards Parran practiced in experiments on STDs and STIs.

In a Twitter thread on Feb. 13, the Pitt graduate union organizers condemned Parran Hall as a “constant reminder of the legacy of racism” in Pitt’s scientific and medical communities. Gallagher said the best way for the University to address this issue was through “deliberate thought.”

Pitt’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion asked the University Senate to nominate representatives for a committee that will address the building’s name. The Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discriminatory Advocacy Committee within the University Senate also plans to file a statement regarding the name.

“We have tried to create a process where these kinds of issues could be systematically looked at,” Gallagher said. “We felt it was important to not have a reactive process that was doing this … through media attention or something where pressure was being put on.”

Gallagher then spoke on state budget changes and federal tax reform and how new policy would impact access to higher education. Gallagher said the proposed PROSPER Act is a “punitive bill” for many students. The PROSPER — Promoting Real Opportunity, Success and Prosperity through Education Reform — Act is intended to reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965, which was intended to strengthen educational resources and financial assistance for higher education among lower and middle income families.

“It’s very bad for low-income students,” Gallagher said. “It has some real problems for graduate students by limiting student loan eligibility for graduate student programs.”

House Republicans proposed the bill in 2017 as a way of decreasing government spending. The current Democratic stance on the PROSPER Act is it will do more harm because it will cut federal support students rely on.

The Council addressed another issue that directly affects students — the state of the Titusville campus. Student Government Board President Max Kneis expressed SGB’s support in repurposing the campus into an educational and training hub. If the University decided to repurpose the Titusville campus it would be owned by a third-party, Pitt and other higher education institutions.

SGB passed a resolution Feb. 13, which urged Pitt to make the Titusville campus into an education and training hub instead of closing it.

“We believe the hub will serve a wide range of constituencies in need, as well as improved collaboration in resource sharing,” Kneis said. “While we at SGB only represent undergraduates on this campus, we … believe the hub to be an innovative and exciting opportunity for the University.”

Andy Stephany, president of the Staff Council, also expressed support in repurposing the campus, advocating for the jobs of Titusville staff.

“Staff Council asks that University administration to provide clear and consistent employment support and communication to all Titusville staff members throughout the transition process,” Stephany said.

Frank Wilson, president of the Senate, applauded the University for its handling of the Titusville campus. He said Titusville sounded like a “good opportunity” to turn an unfavorable situation into a positive one.

“I would commend the University for the effort they put in for … a long period of time now trying to figure out how we could avoid the thing that we all don’t want to see happen, which is a closure,” Wilson said. “Just because Titusville is the smallest of us doesn’t mean that … they cannot be excellent too.”

The post University Senate Council address Parran Hall, Titusville appeared first on The Pitt News.

Maggie Kennedy couldn’t stop smiling Tuesday night after hearing she received 56 percent of the vote to secure the Student Government Board presidency for next year.

Kennedy, a junior political science and communication major running on the Horizon slate, received 1,889 votes to defeat junior marketing major Saket Rajprohat for the position.

Compared to last year’s almost 29 percent voter turnout with three presidential candidates, this year saw just 18 percent of the student body cast votes — a decrease to 3,481 students from last year’s 5,177.

But Kennedy said both slates with presidential candidates — Horizon and Neighbors — worked hard to ensure students knew their respective platforms leading up to the election.

“I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet but it’s surreal and I’m so grateful,” Kennedy said. “Now, my main priority is revamping orientation to [get] education about sexual violence and cultural competency into the curriculum to make our students better members of the community.”

Skip to 28:20 for the results.

Current SGB President Max Kneis tried to move through allocations requests quickly during Tuesday night’s weekly public meeting after accepting a motion to bypass board reports from then-board member candidate and current Allocations Chair Cory Stillman. The room was packed with candidates and supporters awaiting the results of the annual election.

Delaney Regan, a junior psychology and English writing major, served as the campaign manager for the Horizon slate and said she voted for all Horizon candidates.

“I’m very happy with the results, we’re all very pleased,” she said. “I wasn’t very worried, I’m just very proud of all of them.”

Jahari Mercer, a junior industrial engineering major, was overjoyed and cried triumphantly upon hearing he received 1,265 votes — more than any other board candidate — meaning he will serve as executive vice president next year. He then stepped aside to call his parents and deliver the good news.

Jahari Mercer celebrates after being elected executive vice president for Pitt’s 2018-2019 Student Government Board. (Photo by Christian Snyder | Multimedia Editor)

“It’s just gonna be great to give a voice to the student population,” he said. “It’s our job to amplify student voices, and I’m really excited to be able to do that.”

Jessa Chong, a sophomore political science and communication major, received the second highest number of votes with 1,137. Junior biology major Pooja Humar came in third with 1,094 votes and Stillman, a sophomore film studies major, finished just four votes behind her with 1,090. Rajaab Nadeem, a junior economics and political science major, finished in fifth with 1,057 votes and sophomore accounting and finance major Cole Dunn received 944 votes. Zechariah Brown, a junior political science and economics major finished with 696 votes and sophomore computer science major Albert Tanjaya finished with 631 votes.

Voters also answered a referendum on a change to the SGB constitution. The changes were mostly to the document’s formatting, and the referendum passed 2,592–137.

Nadeem, a board member-elect from the Horizon slate, was “absolutely ecstatic” about winning. This will be his first involvement with SGB.

“I’m excited and I’m looking forward to learning the ropes from the many experienced people around me, especially on my slate, from Maggie, from Corey [and] from Jessa,” Nadeem said.

When asked what he hopes SGB looks like after next year, Kneis said he hopes the open educational resource initiative, which SGB introduced at its public meeting Jan. 9, expands and becomes more popular.

“My goal would be a lot of students are using the resources, and teachers and administrators are making a big push for implementing it,” he said. “With every transition there’s always nerves and things that fall through the crack, [but] I’m excited to have a group of candidates who’ve shown how passionate they are in this election.”

After the election results were announced, Rajprohat, who is a former Pitt News columnist, declined to be interviewed. Executive Vice President-elect Mercer, who ran with Rajprohat on the Neighbors slate, said the loss was difficult for the slate’s other candidates but they were accepting the mixed results as a team.

“I think he’s definitely more than qualified for the position and it just didn’t work out the way we had wanted it to,” Mercer said. “I hope that his influence can be transferred through the board, through us and other people as well.”

Allocations:

Club Powerlifting Team requested $2,000 for airfare for 15 people to attend Collegiate Nationals. The board approved in full.

Panther Judo Club requested $1,236 for registration, ground transportation and lodging for their 2018 USA Judo Youth National Championship. The board approved in full.

Panthers for Animal Welfare requested $93.50 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

College Republicans requested $2,240.09 for registration, ground transportation, lodging, parking and meals for CPAC 2018. The board approved $1,620.09 and denied $620.

Hindu Students Council requested $1,200 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved $1,160.80 and denied $39.20.

Pitt Triathlon requested $1,592 for lodging for 15 people to attend USAT Collegiate Club Nationals. The board approved in full.

Exercise Science Club requested $3,256 for ground transportation and lodging for their ACSM International Health and Fitness Summit. The board approved $657.90 and denied $2,598.10.

Pitt Men’s Club Soccer requested $581 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Panther Crossfit requested $800 for general travel. The board denied in full.

Animal Lovers Club requested $400 for general travel. The board approved in full.

First Class Bhangra requested $350 for a competition expense. The board approved in full.

Pittsburgh Women’s Volleyball Club requested $916.84 for a purchase, rental and service. The board approved in full.

Student Slovak Club requested $900 for a program expense. The board approved $730 and denied $170.

FORGE requested $998 for a program expense. The board approved $578 and denied $420.

Panther Team Handball Club requested $288.08 for general travel. The board approved in full.

Ski and Snowboard Team requested $1,373.14 for lift tickets, race fees, gatekeeper fees and ground transportation for their Regional Conference Championship. The board approved in full.

Panhellenic Association requested $2,370 for registration for their Northeast Greek Leadership Association Conference. The board approved in full.

Muslim Student Association requested $3,244.84 for honorarium, airfare, lodging and custodial fees for their annual Fastathon. The board approved $3,222.94 and denied $21.90.

Robotics and Automation Society requested $11,688.56 for their Aerial Robotics Project expenses. The board approved $6,362.05 and denied $5,326.51.

Robotics and Automation Society requested $2,065.68 for ground transportation and lodging for their International Aerial Robotics Competition. The board approved in full.

Thompson Wymard contributed reporting.

The post Looking to a new Horizon: Kennedy wins SGB presidency appeared first on The Pitt News.

A magisterial judge Wednesday dropped charges against Paul May, a nurse at the Veteran Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System in Oakland who was accused of spying into upper campus dorms.

May, 56, was charged Nov. 6 with loitering and prowling, invasion of privacy and possessing instruments of a crime. All charges have been dropped, court documents show.

District attorney spokesperson Mike Manko said Magisterial District Judge James Hanley Jr dropped the charges because there were no victims, the Tribune Review reported.

According to a Pitt police crime alert, May was caught spying into upper campus dormitories from the garage. The University released a statement in November saying it was working with VA police on the investigation.

The VA arrested May in the hospital garage and said in November it was taking steps to fire him. May is no longer employed by the VA.

The post Charges dropped against man accused of spying on students appeared first on The Pitt News.

The iconic children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” turned 50 Monday. The show, which was broadcast from 1968 to 2001, was filmed in Pittsburgh and hosted by the late Fred Rogers. In honor of the show’s 50th anniversary, assistant news editor Janine Faust sat down with Elizabeth Mahoney, former head of Pitt’s now-dissolved Information Sciences Library, about the show itself and her work with the Rogers archive the library kept for more than 20 years.

Faust: I’m excited to be here talking to someone who was so involved with the archives.

Mahoney: Can I tell you what’s what before you get too excited?

We had the “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” archives in what was once the Information Sciences Library. It was called the Rogers Archive, and it was part of a collection in a room called the Elizabeth Nesbitt Room. In the early ’80s, some agreements were made between Family Communications Inc. — the company that oversaw the production of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” — and the University to house his archives here, to respond to reference questions, to catalog the program and generally make it accessible to the public. So, the materials came. The work did not finish until 2006 or 2007. Over time, from 1984 onward, I can’t even tell you the number of people who touched these videotapes, watched these shows, assigned these records. I would be wrong if I didn’t mention two people — grad student Perry Recker and Laurel Povazan Scholnick, who’s now a library specialist at Langley Hall. In addition to the videotapes of all the programs in black-and-white as well as in color, we had puppets, we had scripts, we had fan mail, we had books related to the show.

We had tons of people sending postal mail, then email, calling on the phone and coming to visit the collection — people who wanted to use the collection because they remembered when their mom was on the show.

On the academic side, it was used by people in psychology, in dental school, in education who would come and look through it. A number of people who wrote books about Mister Rogers would come and look at the materials.

Schools change, so when they decided to close the Information Sciences Library in 2011, parts of our library were sent to Hillman, to storage, to special collections. But one of the hardest decisions was what to do with the things in the Elizabeth Nesbitt room. When Mister Rogers passed, he endowed a building at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, his hometown — the Fred M. Rogers Center. It became clear we needed to move our materials there and bring the archives together. If you’re a scholar, don’t you want to go to just one place?

TPN: How often do people ask to interview you about the Rogers Archive?

Mahoney: Well, with the 50th anniversary, NPR and now you. In the past, when the collection was here, we had phone calls all the time. When Mister Rogers died, we had a number of people who called. I always pushed other people forward to answer questions. It was a great opportunity, though. Mister Rogers was different from Captain Kangaroo or Howdy Doody, because he put his energy toward making sure his show was developmentally appropriate for the three- or four-year-old. Did you watch it when you were younger?

Faust: Yeah, I did.

Mahoney: What do you recall most about the show?

Faust: Uh, him entering the room and taking his outside shoes off and putting his indoor shoes on. That, and the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.

Mahoney: King Friday and Prince Tuesday and Queen Sara. And that mentioning of the shoes is critical. It wasn’t a shtick. Prior to Mister Rogers, other people did similar things. The difference was that Mister Rogers brought together the information he gained by talking and working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland and incorporated an appreciation for the arts. Local people like Joe Negri, who’s a famous jazz musician, to Yo-Yo Ma — Rogers had these people come on the show as friends in the Neighborhood.

Faust: What kind of impact do you think this show has had on American culture?

Mahoney: A significant impact. So many people will talk about how they learned how to parent from it. People would sing those songs — “What do you do when you’re mad about something?” They would use Mister Rogers as a mechanism to talk to their children. The people that came to see us, either they had been on the show or their family members had been on the show. They were so emotionally invested in the show — in what he gave them. He had an identified audience, and asked how we could talk about death, fire, scary things, the dark — these were all topics that he covered. Did it have an impact? Yes. His sweater is in the Smithsonian, for heaven’s sake.

Faust: What did you like most about your time overseeing the archive?

Mahoney: The best part was just the variety of questions. We had so many reference questions coming from so many different sorts of folks. One minute you’re answering an email, telling someone you’re so excited because you found the episode that her grandmother was in — and then you turn around and someone is saying they’re doing some research on the impact of television on children. Meeting Mister Rogers or Mr. McFeely might be what some others would say, and you know, that was great, but at the time I was so intent on the work — what needed to happen, what programs needed to be cataloged.

Faust: What do you feel you learned from being able to work with the material?

Mahoney: When I began working with the collection, I came with no understanding of Mister Rogers, no understanding of how important he was to Pittsburgh as a whole. After years of viewing the programs and seeing what went into the program and the part of Pittsburgh that he highlighted and what he brought to the City, I came to appreciate that he was a spokesperson for the City. We used to have people come to us and think there actually was a “neighborhood” somewhere in Pittsburgh. Maybe the thing that I took away from it most was an appreciation for the depth of the scholarship and research that went into the show. He made it look easy, but it was so much.

Faust: What was the most valuable thing the show taught people overall?

Mahoney: So much of what he did embraced the concept of civility. We need to be friends with our neighbors. We need to have compassion for, we need to understand people who are different from us. We need to be kind to our parents. A lot of his songs, like “What do you do with the mad that you feel” had to do with how to behave civilly in the world. I’m not a media specialist, I’m not a child psychologist, but in my view it’s the civility that overwhelmingly ran throughout all of his programming.

The post Q&A: Elizabeth Mahoney revisits Mister Rogers’ archives appeared first on The Pitt News.

Larry Glasco — a Pitt history professor who mainly teaches about race, caste and the African-American experience in Pittsburgh — said he rarely gets to speak on topics that go beyond “uninterrupted discrimination and oppression.”

But during a lecture Wednesday afternoon, he had the chance to focus on a more positive moment in Pittsburgh’s racial history. About 30 people, including students, faculty and community members, attended Glasco’s installment in the University Library System’s Black History Month celebration series — a lecture called “The Best of Times: Black Pittsburgh During WWII.”

He began the lecture by addressing the pre-World War II culture of racial fragmentation and segregation, both in Pittsburgh and nationally, even though the United States has always prided itself on being a melting pot for immigrants.

“America had always had that image, but when they talked about the land of equality or the melting pot, it was really a white melting pot,” Glasco said. “People of color were not really a part of that melting pot, not part of that aspect of democracy.”

But, he said, this changed with World War II. He described how the war shifted America’s racial relations because of a decrease in innate discrimination toward black businesses and the war’s focus on the racist politics of Europe at that time.
“America portrayed itself in distinction to that, as a land of equality,” Glasco said. “The result of this was — for the first time in American history, it became the patriotic thing to be for racial justice.”

The war also left black Americans who enlisted in the military with renewed vigor in the domestic fight for civil rights, and their military service helped change white people’s perceptions of people of color in the United States, according to Glasco.

Crystal McCormick Ware, the coordinator of diversity and inclusion initiatives for University Library Services and the supervisor of the ULS-sponsored Black History Month events, reflected on this point after the lecture. She said many soldiers returning to America questioned the segregation and lack of civil rights they still faced.

“It was a time of prosperity for America. African-Americans also prospered, even though they might have been segregated,” she said. “[World War II] set the starting point for African-Americans to start to empower themselves.”

Glasco highlighted the rich culture that existed in 1950s Pittsburgh as black Americans saw more opportunities and previously segregated communities that were finally integrated. He presented a collection of pictures from Charles “Teenie” Harris, an accomplished African-American photographer during this era in Pittsburgh, to show the day-to-day routines of residents.

Harris’ photographs focused primarily on communities in the Hill District and Oakland. Glasco pointed out the monthly parades sponsored by various businesses or clubs, the integrated Boy Scouts groups and the thriving black businesses. Glasco displayed photographs of black soldiers in the 1940s posing in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall.

Faye Leibowitz, a ULS librarian and longtime Pittsburgh resident, said that she enjoyed Glasco’s articulate lecture, especially because of the personal connection she has to Pittsburgh during World War II.

“My father actually grew up in the Hill District, so it was really interesting to learn some of the details about what his experience probably was,” she said.

Leibowitz’s family was part of Pittsburgh’s vibrant Jewish community, a group Glasco said acted as allies to black businesses during this period.

Through the lecture, Leibowitz was able to affirm what her father had told her about the communal and positive spirit of postwar Pittsburgh and was comforted by Glasco’s themes of black success and integration.

“All these things gave blacks hope. They could see that things were changing and there was the feeling that they were continually moving in the right direction,” Glasco said. “No one curled up in a corner … It’s remarkable how successful they were in those days.”

The ULS Black History Month celebration will continue next Wednesday from 6-8 p.m. in the Thornburgh Room of Hillman Library, where Pitt’s African American Alumni Council will discuss the formation of the Black Action Society in 1968 and the history of the African-American experience at the University.

The post Professor lectures about black Pittsburgh appeared first on The Pitt News.

The Pitt Progressives and the Students for Liberty met Wednesday night in the William Pitt Union Kurtzman Room to debate their views on the government and distribution of wealth.

The Bully PulPitt and Pitt Political Science Student Association hosted “Government and the Redistribution of Wealth” debate, and Josh Feder, a sophomore political science and communication major and member of Bully PulPitt, moderated it. The debate was followed by a question-and-answer session with Scott Smith, a history professor at Pitt.

“Does the government have a responsibility to redistribute its wealth among its citizens? Should it play a role in this at all?” Feder said to start the debate.

Each side had two debaters. Becca Tasker, a junior anthropology major, and Paul Cox, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, represented the Pitt Progressives. Students for Liberty presented Katherine Ranck, a sophomore actuarial math major, and Kyle Guinness, a sophomore finance and marketing major.

Pitt Progressives Chair Kieran Mclean said his debaters performed “fantastically” in the debate Wednesday night. He also said the group they debated, Students for Liberty, “didn’t do terribly.”

Ben Sheppard, the president of Students for Liberty, said the debate was “excellent” and was one of the more “intense” he has attended.

Ranck and Guinness spoke of their support for private charities — Light of Life Rescue Mission and American Red Cross — and free markets, while Tasker and Cox advocated for government redistribution of wealth.

During the cross examination carried out by Students for Liberty, Tasker said private charities do not work because they cannot provide housing subsidies, food ballots or universal income.

“I don’t doubt that the work that they do isn’t awesome, but they aren’t saving everyone and in this country,” Tasker said. “I don’t want to hear about a bandaid. I want to hear about the solution that is gonna fix the entire system.”

Becca Tasker, who debated for the Pitt Progressives with Paul Cox, responds to an argument made by the Pitt Libertarians at a debate hosted by “The Bully PulPitt” Wednesday. (Photo by Issi Glatts | Assistant Visual Editor)

In the Pitt Progressives’ cross examination, they brought up the opioid crisis. The group asked how a free market can be beneficial if capitalism, as Tasker said, caused the opioid crisis because of a want of profits by companies. Guinness said the pharmaceutical market, in fact, isn’t free.

“Companies are allowed to patent drugs, essentially giving them a monopoly on providing these drugs. They don’t have to answer to the people because … there is no one to hold the accountable,” Guinness said.

When the debate arrived to the moderator question segment, Feder asked about the solution to wealth inequality and the balance between redistributing wealth completely and leaving the current system how it is. Tasker said there needs to be an universal basic income and medicare for all.

“But I think that if we have a wage where people can do more than just survive, that would be awesome,” Tasker said.

Ranck responded by saying Students for Liberty believes in living wages as well. But, Ranck said this will occur with free market and private charities.

“Any private charity that was as ineffective as the government would soon be out of business,” Ranck said.

During the question and answer with Smith, Rex Lundstrom, a 20-year-old from Shadyside, asked Scott and Pitt Progressives where the line was in redistribution of wealth. The response he got, he said, was “accusatory.”

“It came across really, really abrasive. I guess in the sense I was saying, ‘I hate the poor and I don’t care about housing. I want people to freeze on the streets.’ It really didn’t come across as an answer as far as I could tell,” Lundstrom said.

Tasker responded to his inquiry by saying it is not a question of how much wealth a person is entitled to, but how much life. She also said it is a question of how to stop people from starvation, homelessness and an inadequate healthcare industry.

“I don’t care how much wealth people have. I care about real humans lives and if you don’t, that’s cool, but I think you should really question that,” Tasker said.

Though there was some intense back-and-forth in the debate, Sheppard said it was a good showing for both political groups.

“[Ranck and Guinness] came off as a good group to be a part of and the Progressives did the same thing. I think they’re gonna see a lot of people join their organization,” Sheppard said. “And what this is about is growing all the memberships of these organizations.”

Ben Sheppard is a columnist for The Pitt News.

The post Progressives, libertarians debate wealth redistribution appeared first on The Pitt News.

When the four District 8 City Council candidates sat behind a table onstage at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, Rennick Remley — the only Republican running in the election — observed that he stood out from the group.

“Oversight and accountability in City Council is our major problem right now.” Remley said. “That and the fact that they’ve been a bunch of Democrats for the past 81 years.”

Remley and Democratic nominee Sonja Finn joined Marty Healey and Erika Strassburger — who are running as Independents after losing the Democratic nomination to Finn — at a town hall forum Thursday night. The candidates, who are seeking to represent parts of Oakland, Point Breeze, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, discussed topics such as gun control, air and water quality, teacher unionization, immigration and affordable housing. About 200 people attended the forum — the last one to be held before the March 6 special election that was triggered by Dan Gilman vacating the seat.

Each of the candidates come from different backgrounds. Finn owns Dinette, a local restaurant, Healey works as a financial officer at his family’s company, the Healey Company, Strassburger serves as the current Chief of Staff of District 8 and Remley is the corporate relations manager at the Pittsburgh Ballet theatre.

A volunteer from the JCC led the forum-like conversation and asked candidates select questions from audience members. Water and air quality received particular attention, as each candidate agreed these areas are in need of improvements. Finn said “we’re all a little fed up” that the Allegheny Health Department was not pushing the Clean Air Act.

“This is where I would just be your advocate,” Finn said. “I would be demanding enforcement of laws protecting water and air, because access to these things is a basic human right.”

While all four candidates agreed getting clean air and water into the City is a top priority, they disagreed on the route for achieving this goal. Finn suggested targeting the Allegheny Health Department, Strassburger advocated for better infrastructure, Healey called for help from other cities and Remley suggested a public-private partnership between the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority and local corporations.

“The last [partnership] didn’t work, but I don’t think that’s a problem with public-private [partnerships.] They do work, they work all around the world,” Remley said. “Doing nothing, keeping it the way that it is, is going to end up costing us hundreds of dollars a month.”

Remley was referring to the partnership that spawned when Pittsburgh hired Veolia Water in 2012 in an effort to improve the City’s water. The partnership ended in 2016 after water tests revealed that lead levels in the water had risen since 2012, indicating that Veolia Water had not helped the situation.

The four candidates had different views about how to treat other corporations as well — specifically Amazon, which could potentially establish a second headquarters in the City. Remley and Healy welcomed corporate expansions because of their tax contributions to the City, but Finn worried that corporate expansion was driving up housing prices to the point where living in Pittsburgh would no longer be affordable.

“I think we’re all worried about the skyrocketing prices in housing,” Finn said. “I know that I bought my house eight years ago — I would not be able to buy in the area now. I think we need to make sure that if we’re offering subsidies to Amazon, we need to see the Amazon bid now.”

Strassburger had a more positive attitude about Amazon, saying the billions of dollars in investment could go toward District 8. But she cautioned officials should “look out for the most vulnerable of our city residents.”

“Those are not just people who are low income, those are people who are ostracized in other ways, we need to stand up for them,” Strassburger said.

Amazon was not the only corporation that received the candidates’ attention. One question addressed the issue of nonprofit corporations not legally having to pay taxes. Nonprofits in Pittsburgh include hospitals, churches and universities like Pitt and Carnegie Mellon. While Remley opposed the idea of taxing out of nonprofits, all three other candidates demanded that UPMC, Carnegie Mellon and Pitt pay their “fair share.”

“We need to look at how much land is owned by UPMC and the universities. I think bringing them to the table and not just asking for [money] and begging for it, we need to make a deal that works for us and them,” Healey said.

Joe Charmy, a 90-year-old audience member who has lived in Squirrel Hill since 1955, agreed with some of the issues the candidates saw with UPMC.

“When I started working here as a psychiatrist, there was no UPMC,” Charny said. “And now there’s [Jeffrey] Romoff, who heads UPMC and makes [$6.99] million a year, and a bunch of billionaire companies who are running up the prices of housing.”

Audience members, however, agreed Pittsburgh also had assets. Naomi Stein, 30, who just moved to the City from Boston, said that in comparison, Pittsburgh is affordable.

“Boston and Pittsburgh aren’t as dramatically different as you might think,” Stein said. “Every city has these problems, and coming from Boston, everything here looks affordable.”

The candidates ended the forum by stating their reasons for running for City Council. All four expressed their desire to help fix Pittsburgh out of love for the City.

Remley described the City as “vibrant, diverse and full of promise” and said he was running in order to fulfill that promise, which was not being kept — pointing to subpar plowing services and water pollution as examples.

“If you can’t get the little things right, how the hell are we going to get the big things right?” he said.

The post District 8 candidates debate water, air, amazon appeared first on The Pitt News.

Former U.S. ambassador Dennis Jett equated the Iran Nuclear Deal negotiations to a “foreign policy food fight” Thursday in Posvar Hall.

“One should not confuse honesty and politics — they’re like oil and water,” Jett said.

Jett, who served as ambassador to Mozambique and Peru under the Clinton administration, spoke to a crowd of 15 about his new book “The Iran Nuclear Deal: Bombs, Bureaucrats, and Billionaires.” The Global Studies Center, along with the Center for Educational Resources on Islamic Studies and Pitt Global Affairs Club, hosted the event.

The Iran Deal, Jett said, was an agreement made in 2015 during former President Barack Obama’s second term between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1, which includes the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France and China — and the European Union. The agreement was that Iran would reduce its nuclear facilities in exchange for all nuclear-related economic sanctions in Iran being lifted, which would release more than $100 billion in frozen assets.

The role of the United States in this plan is to sign a waiver suspending the sanctions every 120 days, but President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the deal as not being in the United States’ best interests, calling it “the worst deal ever made.”

Jett said the recent influences of money, technology, partisan politics, globalization and a growing disregard for truth complicated the way this agreement was made and followed.

“But what’s not new [is that] elected officials, political appointees and bureaucrats don’t think the same,” Jett said.

In his book, Jett argues that the Iran Deal was a fight over congressional and public opinion with billionaires on both sides of the deal.

“Anyone can play this game,” Jett said. “You had rabbis for the deal, you had rabbis against it. You had diplomats, including me, for the deal and against it.”

Jett spoke about another area of conflict related to differences in which people view history. He defined history as “what a country chooses to remember” and contrasted Iran’s version of history with America’s version.

“I think what rankles most with Iranians was the Iraq War,” Jett said. “In the American version it’s all about ‘Argo.’”

“Argo” refers to a film based on the Iran Hostage Crisis, when thousands of Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy Nov. 4, 1979, in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. Americans viewed the crisis as shocking, while the Iranians believed it was justified due to American intervention in Iranian politics. Jett said these differing views largely influenced the contention between the two countries, still impacting the Iran Deal today.

Jett also said the critics of this deal said the agreement is not sufficient in preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons, and that a better deal could be achieved by having greater sanctions.

“My argument is basically that the critics are never gonna be satisfied,” he said.

Currently, Trump is planning to work with European partners to create an agreement that will limit Iran’s ballistic missile activity and testing and make modifications to the existing deal if it is made permanent. But Jett said he thinks this debate will continue for a long time and that the chaos of this deal will only escalate further.

“The daily White House psychodrama will continue,” Jett said. “I wake up everyday and wonder if it can get any worse.”

Tanisha Joseph, a junior economics and statistics major and business manager of the Global Affairs Club, said she appreciated that Jett used language and examples easily understood to those who might not be as informed about global politics. She said she helped found the club to educate students about the impact of politics around the world.

“I feel like in college we’re trapped in a bubble,” she said.

Sophomore economics and philosophy major Eric Workman attended the talk because he had heard the former ambassador speak before and enjoyed his views, despite their contrasts to his own.

“I would say he was a little more radical [than me],” he said.

The post Former ambassador examines Iran nuclear deal appeared first on The Pitt News.

For Erika Strassburger, an independent Democratic candidate for District 8, her decision to run is directly tied to the current federal government — she said she saw democracy at risk when President Donald Trump was elected.

“I also vowed to myself if I got the opportunity, which I thought would be years from now, if anytime, that I would run office and I would take it,” Strassburger said. “When the opportunity came in December, I had to keep that promise to myself.”

About 40 or 50 people gathered in the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh Sunday morning to listen to Strassburger and the three other candidates running for the District 8 City Council seat make their case for why they should be elected. The winner — either independent Democrat Marty Healey, Democratic nominee Sonja Finn, Republican nominee Rennick Remley or Strassburger — will be decided in a March 6 election.

Each candidate shared with the crowd what they would focus on if elected. Finn said she wants to examine the City budget, Remley is concerned with accountability and paying attention to new ideas, Strassburger stressed that listening to minority voices is key and Healey wants to unite people from different backgrounds. All four candidates agreed to focus on hearing the public’s voice.

Finn expanded on making the budget reflect the people’s values, which she said includes putting money in infrastructure and affordable housing instead of giving it to developers.

“This is what I’m worried is not happening in Pittsburgh, and I want to make sure that the money our City has to spend, the public funds, are only used for things that promote the public good,” Finn said.

Remley said he’ll bring a new perspective to City Council because of his more conservative ideology, which he said sets him apart from the others. According to him, there hasn’t been a Republican in Pittsburgh office since the 1930s.

“I speak Republican. I can work with Harrisburg. I can work with the leadership, which is something that hasn’t been done in a very long time. There’s a lot of money that comes out of Harrisburg, and we certainly don’t get our fair share,” Remley said.

After Remley, Strassburger returned to the idea of assuring the people that everyone will have a voice. She said this includes vulnerable populations, such as racial and LGBTQ+ minorities.

“How are we going to make sure the City is equitable for everybody unless we figure out ways to make sure people have their voices heard?” Strassburger asked.

Healey said he would focus on uniting different groups in the district to push for change.

“I’m not always the smartest guy in the room — in fact, most of the time, I’m not. I think my strength is the ability to bring other folks in the room for certain, specific issues — actually, most issues — and we can come in and we can work together for the right solution,” Healey said.

After the candidates spoke, the audience had the opportunity to ask their own questions. Michael Lotze, 65, from Shadyside, asked the candidates about the the new Immune Transplant and Therapy Center that Pitt and UPMC recently announced would be built in Bloomfield. All the candidates supported it, but Strassburger also addressed what she saw specifically as positives, such as raising the wage for those workers to $15, and possible negatives, such as increased traffic and need for parking that would need increasing public voice in the decision.

“It is a good thing, ultimately, but everything has unexpected consequence,” Strassburger said. “We have to make sure that people truly understand what it’s going to look like there.”

Finn said the only downside about it was that it didn’t occur 10 years ago and that she’s “very excited.”

“All the funds should be going towards [immunotherapy]. I support anything with that because it is amazing for people how they don’t have to go through chemotherapy, they don’t have to go through radiation. They can heal from cancer, it’s unbelievable,” Finn said.

Melody Platz, a Shadyside resident, said she is deciding between Finn and Strassburger. If she had to, though, she said she would choose Finn for her leadership qualities.

“I was looking to see how she would answer questions and, especially towards the end when she had a chance to answer questions, she was taking questions first,” Platz, 43, said.

The post District 8 candidates promote platforms appeared first on The Pitt News.

Students applying to Pitt will not be punished for participating in peaceful protests following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the University said on Twitter.

The Pitt Admissions Twitter account first released the statement in response to the #ParklandStudentsSpeak movement.

“Pitt Admissions will not penalize students for exhibiting leadership or activism conducted in a respectful manner as part of peaceful protests. #Pitt2022 #ParklandStudentsSpeak,” Pitt wrote in a tweet.

Pitt Admissions will not penalize students for exhibiting leadership or activism conducted in a respectful manner as part of peaceful protests. #Pitt2022 #ParklandStudentsSpeak

— Pitt Admissions (@pittadmissions) February 23, 2018

Pitt’s tweet comes in response to a movement organized by the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. High school students across the country are organizing schools walkouts in protest of gun violence and a lack of government action following the Parkland mass shooting Feb. 14, where 14 students and 3 teachers were killed by a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle.

Pitt isn’t the only university to address the activism prospective students might be participating in. Other Pennsylvania universities that have released similar statements include Bucknell, Temple and Penn State. Across the country, schools such as University of Connecticut, Brown University and University of California Los Angeles have also released statements regarding admission for students.

A Pitt spokesperson didn’t respond to questions in time for publication.

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Aryanna Berringer grew up the youngest of 10 children in a family that had to rely on food stamps and free school lunches to get by. She remembers how her mother would wash the three different uniforms for her jobs at three different restaurants in their kitchen sink.

All of this motivated Berringer to run for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, because she wanted to be a voice for minorities and people who grew up in poverty.

“I was able to get to a point in my life where I was comfortable and not being scared that I won’t have food on the table or won’t be able to pay a bill,” Berringer said. “I came to recognize that people like me don’t run and don’t get elected. That perspective is missing, which is why I decided to run.”

Berringer was one of six panelists at an event hosted by Students United for Policy Change in room 2017 of the Cathedral of Learning Sunday night. Olivia Benson, Michelle Boyle, Marita Garrett, Sara Innamorato and Megan Winters joined her in discussing their experiences as women involved in politics in front of 27 attendees.

Garrett, the current mayor of Wilkinsburg, mentioned that Pennsylvania is ranked 49th in female representation in elected offices — just one spot above Mississippi. This ranking is confirmed by Represent Women’s gender parity index, which also notes that there are no Pennsylvania women in the U.S. Congress and no woman has ever served the state’s governor.

“You see decisions being made at higher offices — especially those affecting women’s rights — yet women aren’t in these decisions,” Garrett said. “That’s when you realize that something’s wrong, and it’s important to know how you are going to change the representation.”

Benson, the community engagement director at the Women and Girls Foundations — a group that raises awareness of social inequality in the media and in politics — said she is passionate about supporting women’s and girls’ efforts to become more politically involved.

“I get really frustrated by the fact that there is a lack of women, specifically a lack of women of color being elected in office,” she said.

Berringer said it is important to have women in office because that inspires other women to run and create change in their communities. She described how not seeing people who look like you in leadership positions can affect your confidence to affect change yourself.

“The lack of representation … makes you wonder if you could actually do it yourself, and I feel fortunate that there are a number at the national level who have run for office,” she said.

After 24 years of experience as a nurse, Boyle said she became more involved in politics ever since she witnessed inequities in the health care system. Now, she is running for Pennsylvania Senate in District 38 with the goal of addressing issues for people who do not have health insurance.

Innamorato, who is currently running for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives seat in District 21, said she always wanted to stay out of elected office and work in community development, but was encouraged to run.

“I recognized there was such a dearth of women in elected office, because these women who have run and won still face misogyny and pushback,” Innamorato said.

The event ended with an invitation for the audience to ask any questions they had for the panelists. One audience member expressed a concern with the state government, citing it as pursuing policies that limit a women’s abortion access, and wanted to know about the panelists’ positions regarding the issue.

Berringer replied, saying that having someone in office who can better relate to the issues about women’s health care is important.

“I think you need someone who has got the real life experience of why this is important and has the guts to say it,” she said.

Winters, who is the data and Western region director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and a board member of Emerge Pennsylvania, said she wants to empower progressive women at the local and state level of government to run. She also spoke about getting more people, especially women, to vote during elections in order to better their communities.

“We’re in a room full of students, and I’m only a few years out of being a student, but I always felt that my peers weren’t voting at the rate we should be, and we should make sure that our votes count by voting for people who agree with your position on certain issues,” she said.

Senior political science major Aarti Chandan said she enjoyed hearing about the panelists’ experiences as female politicians in person.

“I think it’s really cool that we get to see [women in politics] in person and hear their firsthand accounts and their stories about the struggle for women to break through in politics,” Chandan said.

JoAnna Clark, a senior studying media and professional communications, also enjoyed the panel discussion because it related to what she is learning in her classes.

“I like that they talked about the importance of female candidates for role-model purposes and just how difficult it is for women to run,” she said. “This really enforces everything I have learned in my women and politics class.”

The panelists concluded by giving advice to women who plan to pursue a career in politics and encouraging more women to pursue careers in politics and improve their communities. Berringer said women should get involved in ways that makes them “feel good.”

“Whether it is running for office or in any way, shape or form, you feel like you might be able to help, participate — because you won’t regret it,” she said. “It will make you feel good each and every day.”

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Pitt’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution Friday endorsing a strategy to transform the University’s Titusville branch into an educational and training hub that will share space with corporations, community colleges and other outside groups.

But prior to the Board’s vote on the resolution, about 10 members of Pitt’s Fossil Free Pitt Coalition, all wearing bright orange shirts with the word “Divest” emblazoned in white across the front, stood up and walked out of the William Pitt Union Ballroom.

Jonathan Nigra, a junior environmental studies major who participated in the demonstration, said its purpose was to raise awareness of the Coalition’s continuing fight for University divestment from fossil fuels.

“We want to show [the Board] we’re still on campus, that we still care,” he said. “We wanted to establish a presence.”

University spokesperson Kevin Zwick said there is a committee of Pitt staff, faculty and students that is reviewing the issue of divestment and that the University is awaiting its findings.

Nigra said the Coalition is glad the Board created an ad hoc committee to consider how Pitt can sustainably divest from the fossil fuel industry, but the Coalition wants to make it permanent. The group is currently circulating a petition encouraging the Board to do so.

After the demonstration, the Board spent much of the meeting discussing the Titusville branch — the smallest of Pitt’s five campuses, with only 300 students enrolled. According to the resolution, enrollment at the branch has fallen 45 percent since 2010 due to “demographic forces impacting higher education institutions across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”

“The rural areas have been hit particularly hard,” Provost Patricia Beeson said, adding that there is a declining number of high school students in northwest Pennsylvania. “There’s been a shift in the population of traditional college attendees.”

The Board has been examining the challenges facing Pitt-Titusville since the fall of 2016. University officials released an analysis in June 2017 citing several problems surrounding the branch campus, including a deficit of $1.7 million in 2016, spotty enrollment and competition. Officials announced five final options in June.

Option one called for keeping the campus open. Option two was to close it. Options three through five opted to revise the branch’s programs and operations to address regional needs. The three possible avenues for doing so under consideration included Pitt continuing to own and operate all revised programs, Pitt selling the campus to a third party while maintaining some University programs there or Pitt allowing partners to offer programs at the campus while retaining ownership. The University eventually narrowed it down to two options — either closure or retaining ownership of the campus while partnering with other institutions to maintain it. SGB passed a resolution Feb. 13 supporting the latter option, which the University ultimately chose.

According to a press release from the University, the Education and Training Hub will provide a range of education and workforce training programs run by different partners, with “active input”’ from regional employers.

Beeson placed the cost of the transformation between $10-15 million and said the University is in the process of submitting grant proposals to the state. According to Beeson, Pitt would match whatever funding the state provides.

Gallagher stressed during his Chancellor’s report that the passing of the resolution was not  “a victory lap” but a decision to acknowledge the effort to remake the Titusville campus as one worth maintaining.

“Right now this just means we have to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he said. ‘We’re looking forward to that. We think this is an exciting opportunity and the potential is quite high.”

Gallagher said the University expects the endeavor will be successful and the hub could serve as a model for other places in the state and in the country.

Pitt will begin working with the state, along with community, business and public sector groups, to establish three founding partners for the hub — the University, a training center and a community college. Potential partners who have sent in proposals so far include the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Butler County Community College and the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College, the release said.

Meanwhile, Pitt-Titusville will continue offering programs to college students and will also develop programs for nontraditional students, according to the release. Pitt students in Titusville will have the option to complete programs at the Hub or transfer to another Pitt campus to continue their education.

Beeson said current Pitt-Titusville students will be encouraged to move to the Pitt-Bradford campus or offered scholarships to attend one of the other branch campuses. She said the campus will still be recruiting for next year and students will have time to finish any two-year degrees being pursued. The University expects to begin limiting the number of liberal arts programs in two years, while introducing programs from hub partners and maintaining programs in health sciences and nursing.

Beeson said the hub will provide students with more opportunities to zero in on a program that is suited to their educational or career ambitions.

“I think that the advantage to the student is that they can get a kind of holistic counseling, and then they can also at the same time and at the same place take a class from Manchester Bidwell and from a community college and from Pitt,” she said.

The post Pitt Board of Trustees endorses Titusville training hub appeared first on The Pitt News.

It’s 3 a.m. and you’ve just watched two straight seasons of “Stranger Things” in one sitting — even though you have a test later that day.

But for Todd Yellin, vice president of product at Netflix, watching hours of shows and documentaries is part of his job description.

“I’m blessed to be able to watch as much TV as I want and never feel guilty about it,” Yellin said.

On the seventh-floor auditorium of Alumni Hall, Pitt’s Film and Media Studies Program, in collaboration with Steeltown Entertainment Project and the Center for Behavior Health and Smart Technology, presented “A Conversation with Todd Yellin.” Yellin spoke to a crowd of about 300 students and faculty about what it’s like to work for a company like Netflix, which is now offered in 199 different countries and whose content can be watched on a range of devices.

Yellin said getting a job at Netflix was a long, arduous journey. While he majored in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, he spent most of his time in the basement of the dining hall where the TV studio was, creating comedy shows with his friends. This was when he realized he wanted to enter the entertainment business.

“You don’t get into the entertainment business because it’s lucrative,” Yellin said. “You get into the entertainment business because you can’t control yourself.”

After going to film school, working at a laser disc store in Sunset Valley, California, and shooting some of his own movies, Yellin landed a job at Netflix in 2006. He eventually worked his way up to vice president of product.

He described his role in the company as being on the “Silicon Valley side of Netflix,” meaning he is involved with exposing viewers to interesting content — which includes using complicated algorithms and personalization techniques that entice viewers to binge episode after episode.

Yellin also said the average viewer looking on Netflix for a new show flips through 40 to 50 titles. The algorithms, though, are not purely based on age and gender — so if there’s a 17-year-old boy, Netflix does not assume he just wants to watch action shows.

“There’s 17-year-old guys watching videos about wedding dresses,” Yellin said. “Finding the right content and organizing this mess is something we work really hard on.”

Netflix contains numerous categories of shows, from documentaries about science to serious, intense dramas, and Yellin said his team works hard to organize content in a way that is not overwhelming.

“We don’t put the word ‘recommendation’ anywhere on the Netflix experience,” Yellin said. “People don’t want that shoved in their faces.”

Yellin also weighed in on the debate of releasing entire television show seasons at a time — which Netflix does —versus making viewers wait week after week to see the next episode of a show aired on television. He argued that forcing people to wait for entertainment is old-fashioned and not innovative.

“Typically [with] a TV series, you have to give exposition [before each episode] because people forget things from week to week,” Yellin said. “We trust the consumer to watch as they will.”

Following his presentation, Yellin answered questions onstage from Carl Kulander — a Pitt film professor and co-founder of the Steeltown Entertainment Project — as well as from audience members.

Yellin described the nature of Netflix as both innovative and disrupting. Netflix went head-to-head with Blockbuster in 2007 because both services allowed people to rent DVDs online and shipped them to customers’ houses. Netflix took its work a step further in 2011 with streaming and is now branching out to choose-your-own-adventure-style games, where people can choose the destiny or story line of different characters.

“We’re constantly looking in the rearview mirror,” Yellin said. “We have to fail more, and we have to push more.”

When offering advice to aspiring filmmakers, Yellin warned that passion can only get one so far and encouraged students to think about what they can offer a company.

“If you want to make movies and TV shows, make movies and TV shows,” Yellin said. “If you want to put money on your table, it’s not the same thing.”

Senior film studies and fiction writing major Noah Wilps said he enjoyed Yellin’s attitude, at once matter of fact and lighthearted. He also said he was fascinated by the ways in which Netflix is expanding globally.

“I didn’t realize how much effort they put into the global aspect and having films and series from other countries,” Wilps said. “I really enjoyed that. But I think I’m a subtitle guy. I’m not about the dubs.”

Zachary Ferguson, a staff member and videographer for the University, said Yellin’s speech inspired him to make more of his own content.

“As a filmmaker — and this is true for all filmmakers — you start to have your doubts,” Ferguson said. “In the back of your brain, you say ‘I’m going to keep on going,’ and this was like a fuel to the fire.”

The post Yellin takes Pitt behind the scenes of Netflix appeared first on The Pitt News.

When Susan Faludi stood in front of a large crowd at the Carnegie Music Hall Monday night, she asked more than 1,000 people to consider refugees.

“Around the world today are unintentional monuments to the truth that we live in the age of the refugee and the elusiveness of the refuge they seek,” she said.

Although the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist was referencing the millions of refugees forced to flee their homes in the last decade, she was also including a lesser-known kind of refugee — those seeking an accepted gender identity.  
Faludi’s lecture, an installment of the Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures series, focused on her father’s struggle with identity throughout his life and his experiences as a Holocaust survivor, Hungarian-American immigrant and transgender woman.

Faludi referred to her father as her “father” throughout the entire lecture — also acknowledging her father transitioned to become a woman later in life. To communicate the timeline of her story, Faludi used masculine pronouns when talking about her father before the transition and feminine pronouns after the transition. For this article, The Pitt News will use pronouns consistent with the speaker.

Faludi is known for her 1991 best seller “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.” The author also recently published “In The Darkroom,” which memoirs her father’s life and discusses broader themes of gender identity.

Throughout the talk, she likened her father’s lifelong struggle with gender identity as a “search for refuge.” Her father was born as Istvan Friedman to a wealthy Jewish family in Hungary. The Friedmans were separated into different concentration camps during World War II and then reunited when Istavan used a stolen fascist armband to free his parents. The family survived the rest of the war by impersonating Romanian Christian refugees.
Faludi’s father eventually emigrated to Brazil, where he spent many years as a photographer. He then moved to New York, officially changed his name to Steve Faludi, bought a red Ford convertible and started a family.

Faludi described her childhood perception of her father as a patriarchal figure who often abused his wife and children.

“He ruled our home as the household despot. We feared his wrath and obeyed his orders. My father’s mood turned increasingly dark, explosive and then physically violent,” Faludi said.

She had a tense relationship with her father, and after her parents divorced and he moved back to Hungary, Faludi did not hear from him for more than 25 years. But then she received an unexpected email from her father in 2004.

“At the age of 76, and without telling anyone in the family, my father had flown to Thailand and undergone gender reassignment surgery to become a woman,” Faludi said.

At this time, Faludi was already an accomplished feminist writer, and her father invited her to Hungary to write about her new identity. Faludi, however, was skeptical.

“I wondered if this was another act of flight — my father seeking refuge in yet another identity reinvention,” she said.

Faludi recalled her father initially trying to use her new gender identity to “absolve her past crimes, as a man.” Eventually, though, Stefanie Faludi — Faludi’s father’s new identity — reconciled with her daughter. Faludi said she was able to eventually forgive her father for the abuse during her childhood.

“I came to see how she and I were in many ways on a similar life path, each struggling to free ourselves from the constraints of gender,” Faludi said, referring to her own involvement with the feminist movement.

Faludi also discussed how she conceptualized her father’s change in identity with her own knowledge of the gender spectrum and feminist theory.

“In many ways, what Stefanie was doing was using the cuddle of hyperfemininity to break out of the case of hypermasculinity that Steven had been trapped in — an armor that had come close to suffocating my father,” Faludi said.

Louanne Baily, a community member who has read Faludi’s books, said she enjoyed “how [Faludi] broadened the definition of refugee and refuge and identified many things that refuge is not.”

Francie Robb, a former professor at Waynesburg University, also thought Faludi’s lecture was captivating and thought-provoking. She identified with Faludi’s themes of masculinity because of her own experiences.

“As a mother of men, [I am] acutely aware of how society forces as many limitations on men as it does on women,” Robb said.

Faludi confirmed that the search for refuge that her father experienced in her gender identity extends to more groups of people today than ever.

“Identity can be liberation — people standing up for who they are, whether that is an oppressed minority, an unacknowledged social caste or a stigmatized sexual identity,” she said. “It is no accident that the age of the refugee coincides with gender border crossing.”

The post Faludi discusses gender identity appeared first on The Pitt News.

Linda Penkower — the chair of the University’s religious studies department known for supporting students and faculty — died Tuesday night, the department’s undergraduate director said in an email.

In the email, which was addressed to religious studies majors and recent graduates, professor Rachel Kranson said Penkower had been fighting cancer for several years.

“She engaged in this struggle while working tirelessly for the religious studies department, for her colleagues, and for her students,” Kranson wrote.

The department also shared the news on Facebook, sending condolences to her friends and family.

“We are sorry to have to share the news of the death of our department chair, beloved colleague, dedicated and inspiring teacher, and noted scholar of early Chinese Buddhism, Linda Penkower,” the post read.

Penkower mainly taught courses related to religion in Asia, according to her faculty bio. She spent nine years living in Japan and one in China and has published numerous research papers on Buddhism. She earned her PhD from Columbia University in 1993. She’s received numerous awards and grants — including two Fulbright-Hays faculty research fellowships.

Rebecca Denova, a senior lecturer in the department, said Penkower always had the department’s best interests in mind.

“She always went to bat for everyone in the department all the time,” she said. “It’s really quite a loss.”

Responding to the department’s Facebook post, Jason von Ehrenkrook, now an assistant professor of religious studies at University of Massachusetts-Boston, said Penkower was a guide and mentor when he was a lecturer at Pitt from 2010 to 2014.

“She was enormously supportive while I was at Pitt, and even after I left,” he said. “My deepest condolences to my former colleagues and to her many friends and family.”

Cooper Harriss, also commenting on the department’s post, expressed his appreciation of the kindness and support Penkower provided him during his time as a postdoctoral fellow at Pitt from 2012 to 2013.

“She was good and excellent in ways that few can be at the same time,” Harriss wrote. “My condolences to the department, her friends, and her family.”

One of Penkower’s students, Lianghao Lu — a doctoral candidate in the department — said Penkower was a “dedicated professor and advisor” who provided her with valuable guidance, carefully reading all her work and offering detailed feedback.

“This is the way she treats all her students,” Lu said in an email Tuesday night. “She will always be my mentor.”

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At Student Government Board’s final public meeting before spring break, SBG President Max Kneis introduced a resolution calling for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to expand medical amnesty laws.

The resolution states that approximately 1,825 college students in the United States die each year from alcohol-related injuries. The resolution notes that Pennsylvania’s medical amnesty policy does not provide protection for the person receiving medical attention for alcohol related overdoses, unlike drug overdoses.

“The University of Pittsburgh Student Government Board believes adding legal protection to the state criminal code for the person receiving medical attention in an incident involving alcohol will create a safer environment for college students across the commonwealth,” the resolution said.

The resolution notes the Pitt policy that says the person seeking help for someone and the person experiencing the alcohol emergency won’t be charged with violating Pitt alcohol and drug policies.

But Kneis mentioned in an interview after the meeting that students can still receive a conduct violation from other authorities.

“People don’t want to call for help because they don’t want to get their friend in trouble,” he said. “This essentially does not de-incentivize people calling for help.”

Kneis said he has been in communication frequently with the presidents of the student government at Penn State and Lehigh University. Lehigh’s student government started the push for the legislation in October. The resolution is also co-sponsored by the presidents of Pitt’s three Greek councils.

The resolution is being introduced after Dean Kenyon Bonner placed Pitt fraternity Sigma Chi on suspension in January because of a “serious alcohol incident” involving a Sigma Chi member. All of Pitt Greek Life was also put on social probation because of the incident, meaning they cannot host, sponsor or participate in any social activities in which alcohol is present. Bonner said he will lift the Greek life probation after “meaningful progress” is made in improving the safety of Pitt sororities and fraternities.

SBG will be sending a copy of the resolution to all members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

After the first open forum, Executive Vice President Zuri Kent-Smith announced he has been appointed by Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion Pamela Connelly to create a committee to consider renaming Parran Hall.

Parran Hall is named after Thomas Parran Jr., the nation’s sixth surgeon general and the first dean of Pitt’s School of Public Health from 1948 until 1958. The name of the building has recently come under scrutiny due to Parran’s involvement in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, where treatment was withheld from hundreds of African-American men suffering from the disease for the purpose of research. The graduate student organizing committee started a petition to rename the building, which had 546 signatures Tuesday night.

“I found out about Thomas Parran’s history and controversy over the summer. The name has been on people’s minds for a while,” Kent-Smith said.

The first meeting of this committee will be in March, after spring break.

SGB also discussed internal changes at the public meeting. The board introduced a resolution that would update the process of selecting University Senate Council Representatives. The current process simply selects the three board members who received the most votes in the SGB elections. The bill would instead appoint the executive vice president, the title given to whoever receives the most votes in the board member elections, as well as the chief of finance and and chief of cabinet, two appointed positions.

“We just wanted to ensure SGB was as best represented as possible,” Kneis said. “Questions come up and the vice president have a better knowledge of specifics happening in various committees, as opposed to just general board members.”

Allocations Committee Chair Cory Stillman announced that “Allocations 101” videos have been filmed. They will be posted on the SGB website to show student groups the processes for requesting allocations and filling out supplemental forms.

Board member Ian Callahan announced a new grade-change system that would reduce the time it takes for a professor to change a grade. He said the registrar’s office is still working on finalizing the system.

Callahan also announced that the Dietrich School’s course descriptions site will no longer be used and updated. He said the reason it is shutting down is because the school is no longer able to continue investing in maintaining it. The registrar’s office will be expanding the enrollment information on Peoplesoft instead.

To start the meeting, Kneis also gave his congratulations to next year’s Board members, including incoming SGB President-elect Maggie Kennedy, and announced that the transition process has officially started.

“Maggie, I am excited to pass my gavel on to you, but I’m going to hold on to it for a few months,” Kneis said.

Communications Director Sana Mahmood was absent at Tuesday’s meeting.

Allocations:

Political Science Student Association requested $3,264.04 for ground transportation and lodging for their annual trip to Washington D.C. The board approved in full.

Phi Beta Lambda requested $1,989.95 for ground transportation and lodging for its State Leadership conference in Harrisburg. The board approved in full.

Pitt Women’s Rugby Football Club requested $1,076.48 for competition expenses. The board approved in full.

Pitt Women’s Club Soccer requested $175.00 for competition expenses. The board approved in full.

Panther Airsoft Club Team requested $866.00 for general travel. The board approved in full.

Pitt PanthEARs requested $1,522.71 for airfare and lodging their annual trip to the American Academy of Audiology 2018 Conference. The board approved in full.

Pitt Rugby Football Club requested $1,302.48 for lodging for its NashBash Rugby Festival in Nashville. The board approved in full.

Bass Fishing Team requested $500.90 for competition expenses. The board approved $217.00 and denied $283.90.

Men’s Ultimate Frisbee Club requested $2,225.24 for their Stanford Invite. The board approved in full.

Kappa Kappa Psi requested $2,628.81 for registration, ground transportation and lodging for its Northeast District Convention. The board approved $916.43 and denied $1,712.38.

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Police are investigating an alleged hazing incident after 12 pledges of Pitt’s Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority chapter went to the Penn Hills police department to file a report, the department’s police chief said Wednesday.

Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner sent an email to Greek organizations Wednesday saying Alpha Kappa Alpha has been placed on suspension pending the results of an investigation into the hazing allegations by Penn Hills and Pitt police. The rest of Greek life remains on probation from a January incident.

Penn Hills Police Chief Howard Burton said a dozen female Pitt students and one of their mothers walked into the department and reported hazing Monday afternoon. The students claimed they were brought to a house in the town outside Pittsburgh twice, Burton said, once Feb. 21 and again Feb. 23.

Burton said the mother of a student wanted to file a report after she noticed bruising on her daughter. He said police have not seen any bruising yet, but the mother has a photo. A paddle may have been used in the alleged hazing, Burton added.

This investigation comes less than a month following Bonner’s suspension of Sigma Chi after a student was hospitalized for drinking to excess at a fraternity event. All Greek organizations were placed under modified social probation — essentially banning them from serving alcohol — until “meaningful progress” is made in improving Greek life safety.

Alpha Kappa Alpha is part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, one of three councils at Pitt. The communications chairman at the sorority’s national office did not answer a call from The Pitt News. Pitt’s chapter didn’t respond to an email sent Wednesday afternoon.

The University released a statement regarding the incident, confirming the suspension and investigation.

“The Penn Hills Police Department, in close partnership with University of Pittsburgh Police, is working to investigate a potential hazing incident, which occurred off-campus,” the statement said. “The University rejects hazing and intimidation of any kind — and in all circumstances.”

Pitt police conducted interviews with five of the students who went to the police, Burton said, adding that the departments are cooperating in a “parallel investigation.”

Pitt spokesperson Kevin Zwick said the University began working with students and families when it was were notified, providing resources such as counseling.

“The rest of the student body and parents were notified as soon as it was determined doing so would not interfere with the police department’s investigation,” he said.

Bonner’s letter said student organizations found responsible for hazing could have their University status permanently terminated. Students found responsible for hazing could also be expelled, regardless of the severity of the hazing.

“Based on this incident, the Division of Student Affairs will reevaluate the next steps regarding the future of fraternity and sorority life at Pitt,” Bonner said. “We are better than this, and now is the time for you and your organizations to join me in holding yourselves and each other accountable to effect positive change.”

Bonner also said campus resources are available to help students file reports and manage their self-care, including the University Counseling Center, Title IX Office and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Officials are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact the University of Pittsburgh Police Department at (412) 624-2121 or the Penn Hills police department at (412) 798-2035.

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Past and present members of Pitt’s Black Action Society met Wednesday afternoon to commemorate the organization’s founding and fortify its future.

The African American Alumni Council hosted a discussion about the Black Action Society, which was founded 50 years ago. Approximately 50 people attended the Total Justice and True Black Freedom event to remember the group’s rich history on Pitt’s campus. Held in Hillman Library, the event featured a panel of founding and former BAS members and displayed a collection of original organization documents from the University’s archives.

Attendees came not only to hear the history, but to engage with the speakers. Pamela Heywood, 55, of the North Side, said she had heard stories about the founding during her time at BAS in the ‘80s. She came to Total Justice to learn how it happened from those who were there.

“I want to stay abreast of what’s going on [at BAS],” Heywood said.

Curtiss E. Porter, chancellor emeritus at Penn State Greater Allegheny, and Gail Austin, Pitt’s Academic Resource Center director emeritus, represented the “founding mothers and fathers” of BAS on the panel. Marita Garrett, the mayor of Wilkinsburg, and Austin Davis, a recently elected congressman from Pennsylvania’s 35th District, represented the generations that followed.

“It seems I spent my whole life at the University of Pittsburgh,” Austin said.

Austin took classes at Pitt while attending Schenley High School, earning credits she thinks got her admitted. Austin believes two events at Pitt helped with the formation of BAS — Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1966 speech at the William Pitt Union and Stokely Carmichael’s speech six months later.

“More than any other lecture that, I think, black students had heard … at that time, it had a tremendous impact on us,” Austin said.

Carmichael spoke in front of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and on the steps of the WPU. According to Austin, he arrived without an entourage to call Pitt students to action and encourage black power.

The result of that call to action was the African American Cultural Society — a forerunner to BAS. The AACS involved both students and community members on all Pittsburgh college campuses, with Pitt at its core.

“We literally created a cultural movement in the City of Pittsburgh,” Porter said.

Porter said the AACS brought speakers to Pitt and supported writers across the City of Pittsburgh, and mentioned it was one of the first publishers of Pittsburgh playwright August Wilson.

Curtiss E. Porter, a former Penn State Greater Allegheny chancellor, pauses during a discussion about the early history of the Black Action Society at Wednesday’s Total Justice and True Black Freedom event at Hillman Library. (Photo by Thomas Yang | Visual Editor)

The AACS also helped Pitt learn it needed resources. When laying out its original constitution, the first things BAS requested were an office, an official budget and “a means of communication” — resources the AACS lacked.

As chairperson, Porter spent long hours making connections with other colleges across the United States. The information he gathered would be used as the AACS transitioned into the BAS.

“We looked like we had telephones coming out of our ears,” he said. “There was a number of different prongs of activity … and it was all about trying to establish a strategic foothold that would move the movement forward.”

Both Davis and Garrett spoke about BAS’ lasting impact as a community that gives students a voice.

“BAS, to me, is one entity, but so much came from the organization,” Garrett said. “Each of us were different, coming from different places, but it felt like a family … I always knew I could go to a BAS meeting and feel like you’re at home.”

The program was not just for reflection and celebration — members of the panel took time to discuss modern student activism, social media in social change and diversity at Pitt.

Davis said he continues to see the battles of 1968 still fought in 2018 and commented on the role social media plays in today’s activism.

“I think we’re seeing a lot of younger activists and politicians taking advantage of [social media]. I know I take advantage of it a lot, just in terms of what I’m doing in my offices and my activism, and I know Marita does as well because we’d be crazy not to,” he said.

Arif Jamal, liaison librarian for African studies, Africana studies and social work, delivered the event’s welcome address. Speaking about a time when it was improper for students to question or make demands of their University, he made clear the importance of revisiting BAS’ 50 years of activism.

“Part of that was the establishment of a type of consciousness where students were saying, ‘This is who we are, this is where we want to go and this is how we’re going to do it,’” Jamal said.

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“How can I help?” and “How do I start a conversation?” are questions Sean Moundas, a psychologist at the University Counseling Center, gets asked a lot when it comes to mental health.

“Over half of those with mental health challenges go untreated,” Moundas said.

At the Be The Difference: An Intro to Mental Health First Aid event, hosted by the American Medical Students Association and the University of Pittsburgh Student Health Advisory Board, about 50 students listened Wednesday night as Moundas described mental health resources available at Pitt and ways to help family and friends.

Moundas said knowing how to recognize shifts in mental health is an important first step toward preventing more severe problems. He recommended keeping track of any changes in routine and letting friends who aren’t acting normally know that they have someone to rely on. He also emphasized the importance of directing those who are struggling with mental health issues to the proper resources.

“If you’re doing first aid, you’re not prescribing medication, you’re not doing surgery — your role is to help them get connected to professionals,” Moundas said.

Moundas brought up the University Counseling Center as a resource, emphasizing that it is free and available by phone at all times. Students can call or walk into the Counseling Center and receive same-day services for immediate help, while long-term counseling may have a waiting period.

The Counseling Center has faced criticism from some students, who cite long wait times and the center going from October 2016 to March 2017 without having a full-time psychiatrist employed. But Pitt says the Counseling Center has made efforts to improve its services.

Sophomore neuroscience major Anjali Kumar said she would have used the Counseling Center as a resource earlier if she had known the extent of its services.

“I honestly didn’t know you could call [the Counseling Center even when school isn’t in session] or if someone you know was having problems,” Kumar said.

At Pitt, the Counseling Center provides three main types of support. Individual therapy is short-term and can be for a specific issue or to help a student identify resources outside of the University system.

Relationship therapy is also available and isn’t limited to couples. It can also help students who are concerned about someone in their life and aren’t sure how to best help. Additionally, the Counseling Center has more than 10 groups that meet weekly and discuss shared experiences or concerns.

Benedicta Olonilua, a sophomore psychology major, said she is grateful for the Counseling Center. She thinks the resources are especially important for premed students who may be neglecting their mental health.

“There’s a lot of things going on and a lot of things to juggle, and mental health and self care may not be at the forefront,” she said.

Another resource Moundas mentioned that provides immediate aid is resolve, a crisis helpline not associated with the University that students can call at (888) 796-8226, any hour of the day. He said advice and counseling can be given over the phone, or someone on staff can provide in-person support without contacting authorities.

Moundas also directed students to Mental Health First Aid — an organization that certifies individuals for responding to mental health challenges — especially if they are concerned about a friend or family member. The certification takes about eight hours, is good for three years and can be taken at numerous times each month.

“Mental Health First Aid seeks to change the number of people who go untreated,” Moundas said.

Moundas wanted students to know they shouldn’t be apprehensive about going to the Counseling Center. Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner said that as of 2016, 2,500 students use the Counseling Center annually.

“A lot of people can be experiencing symptoms for the first time — it can be confusing, it can be scary,” Moundas said.

What’s most important, according to Moundas, is to reach out and provide support for those suffering from mental health problems.

“The goal is to convey a sense of hope to those who may feel hopeless,” he said.

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