02-16-22

The Pitt News

T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | febraury 16, 2022 ­| Volume 112 | Issue 66

‘Giant of a leader’ Val Njie encourages Pitt students to take risks See page 2

News

Cover by Pamela Smith | Visual Editor

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‘Giant of a leader’: Val Njie encourages Pitt students to grow, take risks

Clare Sheedy

Contributing Editor Val Njie’s mother handed her the phone in June 1968 — someone from the University of Pittsburgh wanted to schedule an admittance interview with her. She was accepted into the University a week later and told to report to campus at the end of the month.

“I just wanted to go to college, I didn’t know what happened there. I didn’t know anything about sororities,” Njie said. “I didn’t know how many Black people were there — I mean, I was just thrust into heaven.”

Njie was accepted to Pitt as part of Project A, a University program which aimed to increase enrollment of students of color. Now, 54 years after Hayden’s phone call, she serves as president of the Pitt Alumni Association.

Njie learned from her parents and peers to “do whatever you can to help others — that’s the expectation — do for others, and so that’s what I do [as Alumni Association President] — I feel that’s my responsibility.”

Ludwick “Luddy” Hayden, former director of Project A, said the program worked to admit more students of color into Pitt on full-tuition scholarships. It also protected them from academic expulsion and provided academic counseling services. Hayden said Project A lasted only one year before becoming the University Community Education Program in 1969, and what he described as a “much broader minority student group mission and support project.”

“I never dreamt that anything like that could exist. I never dreamt that there were actually people at all levels who would be there for me, like the community I came from,” Njie, a native of nearby Homestead, said. “‘We’re go-

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ing to do everything we can to make sure you are a success.’ No, I never knew anything like that could exist.”

Njie said she has worn “many hats” throughout her career — including education specialist with the State Department, educational social worker with the Peace Corps in The Gambia, the first Black person elected as commissioner for the Accrediting Commis-

Black students.

“They would help you get a job but they didn’t help you go to college,” Njie said. “They used to help usually one [Black] person a year — you know what, really, seriously they used to help one.”

Njie said despite the barriers she faced at Homestead High, she found ways to be active through participating in majorettes, the honors society, jazz

Valerie Njie looks at pictures in “Say It Loud! Oral History and Reflections from 1968-69.” Clare Sheedy assistant visual editor

sion of Career Schools and Colleges as well as “PTO extraordinaire” when her daughters Lingaire and Njaimeh were in elementary school.

Njie said while growing up going to a “majority white school,” she faced many difficulties getting into college and used her mother’s help to call admission offices. She said her high school counselors either “didn’t really care” or “the times did not require them” to help

band, concert band and the library club.

She graduated from Pitt’s School of Education in December 1971 — a semester early. Njie said she was a member of Delta Sigma Theta and the Black Action Society during her time at the University. She also participated in the famous 1969 BAS takeover of the Cathedral of Learning’s computer center.

She said it was that first summer at Pitt, in 1968, where she met “giants” she

February 16, 2022

looked up to — including some of her sorority sisters, BAS members and Pitt instructors.

One of those giants was Hayden, the director of Project A who interviewed Njie in 1968 for admission. Njie said Hayden “made it all happen” for her.

“You know, it might not be realistic to say ‘he accepted me,’ but I really in my spirit feel like that interview made it all happen for me,” Njie said. “It could have been someone else. It was something about the way he cared, and how he continued to push.”

Hayden said as a student, Njie was “energetic, focused, gregarious and just committed to being successful.” While Njie credits Hayden as the person who got her into Pitt, Hayden said he feels he cannot alone take credit for the acceptance.

“It was like a perfect storm. I was there, the program was there and Valerie wanted to be successful,” Hayden said.

“When those things came together, the result is that we have — Valerie Njie, a giant of a leader.”

Hayden said Njie’s success “was not hers alone” and part of something bigger.

“Valerie is one of those students who always felt her own success was not hers alone, but that she represented a whole collection of people like herself – other African Americans, particularly other African Americans from her hometown of Homestead,” Hayden said.

When Njie first started at Pitt, BAS was less than a year old. Njie, who joined the group during her first year, remembers the BAS office as her “home base.”

While she was often the only Black student in her classes, having other students in BAS and Delta Sigma Theta to connect with energized her to speak out See Njie on page 10

2

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February 16, 2022

3

Winter weather makes commuting more difficult, students say

Staff Writer

For Daniel Antantis, and other Pitt students who commute to campus, the recent string of poor and inconsistent weather has made the commute “a disaster.”

Antantis, a junior data science major, said difficult conditions around his house often force him to take alternate routes to school — routes that aren’t always guaranteed to be clear.

“When we got that first initial hit of all the snow and like, well, first it was raining and then snow, so it all froze, which was a disaster because where I live specifically, I live on the bottom of a steep hill, so I have to go up the hill to get to class,” Antantis said.

Snow, sleet and freezing rain have marked a difficult beginning to the spring semester only a few weeks after the University moved classes back in person. Commuter students such as Antantis discussed their experiences driving or riding the bus to campus in the weather.

Antantis, who lives in the Brentwood and Baldwin area, normally drives around 20 minutes to get to campus. He said the roads around Oakland are generally clear. But he feels for students who need to commute to campus from more than an hour away.

One of these students is Catherine Spiller, who said she’s had issues getting to class. Spiller, a first-year art history major, buses almost an hour and a half from Pittsburgh’s North Hills to campus every day.

“I slipped and fell last week. Down a hill,” Spiller said. “I have an 8 a.m. class, so I was up at 6 and it was pitch black. I just slid down the hill.”

Spiller said campus walkways are normally cleaned up and easy to walk on.

“They are very good about salting the roads, because I usually get off of the bus right outside campus,” Spiller said. “But once you hit campus the sidewalks are all clear.”

University spokesperson David Seldin said Facilities Management works to keep campus paths and walkways clear, but other infrastructure is maintained by various levels of government.

Antantis said he thinks that the University should allow more flexibility, such as remote and hybrid classes, when weather restricts movement. The University began the semester with two-and-a-half weeks of remote learning, but has since switched to fully in person. Despite this, some professors chose to switch to remote for a day due to the weather.

“One of my Thursday classes was actually switched to remote, which was really great for me,” Antantis said. “But Friday morning I did have an in-person class and it was very difficult getting there. I made sure I left at least an hour and 30 minutes before my class, just to give myself that buffer zone, so if anything would go wrong, I'd have time to get there.”

Antantis said while some professors have made accommodations for the weather, he believes the University should do more to help

commuter students.

“I would say the University hasn't, but I would say it's more of a professor-by-professor basis. And I know most of my professors have said that the University does actually push them towards having in person and not going remote after the three weeks,” Antantis said. “So they were told to avoid going remote at all costs.”

Gray Cleric, a sophomore computer science major, said he carpools with his friends to get to campus. He said the group attempted to get a commuter student permit, which had all sold out quickly, so they instead rented a South Oakland parking spot.

Cleric said hybrid class options should be available whenever weather makes conditions unsafe for drivers and pedestrians.

“I feel like Zoom options should be made available when weather is kind of sketchy for both COVID reasons and just for safety reasons as well,” Cleric said. “Because we'd actually drive in and it's like a 20, 25 minute walk from the spot we're renting to campus. And there were some days where the sidewalks weren’t really treated.

So it was just straight ice.”

Antantis said navigating a situation where some classes are online and others are in person is especially difficult for commuter students.

“The difficulty for a commuter student from having a remote class, in-person class and another remote class is almost impossible to navigate,” Antantis said. “Especially finding a place on campus where I can actually attend my class and participate.”

To avoid that situation, Antantis said he wouldn’t mind if the University mandated an online option for all classes during poor weather conditions to help commuters.

“Commuter students could very likely have a few classes go remote and then a few others remain in person and situations like that can make it incredibly difficult on commuters,” Antantis said. “Mandating all classes go remote can assure the safety of all commuter students and help relieve some of the tough schedules they often have.”

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4

Opinions

Kanye West editorial pittnews.com

The feel-good news story is a hoax

Ebonee Rice

Staff Columnist Americans love a feel-good news story — the ones where everyday civilians come together for the greater good despite their differences and defeat whatever obstacles stand in their path. Some examples include a Philadelphia woman using her home as a food pantry or a teacher raising money so their students don’t go hungry over break.

It makes sense that we use these stories to restore our faith in humanity, but as the headlines continue to celebrate the acts of everyday civilians, they obscure reality. The media continues to frame these moments as heartwarming news stories rather than what they really are — societal failures.

When I was scrolling through Twitter last November, I came across the headline “13-YearOld Boy Uses His 'Make-a-Wish' to Feed the Homeless for a Year: 'It Warms Our Hearts'” in People Magazine. At first, I was inspired that someone so young would be willing to make that sort of sacrifice, but the headline continued to eat away at me for days. I couldn’t help but balk at the idea of a young boy using his last big wish on Earth to take up the government’s job. How did this type of responsibility come to rest on the shoulders of a 13-year-old boy with a life-threatening illness?

These thoughts continued to nag me for the rest of the week. I googled more “heartwarming stories” and found an alarming pattern. A majority of these stories are painted as inspirational community stories, obscuring the overarching issues within America’s health, political and economic systems.

A popular storyline is a community coming together to take up an individual’s health care bill. There were a plethora of these stories in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated issues within America’s health care system.

A few months ago, strangers on TikTok raised $57,000 to replace a 79-year-old Navy veteran’s scooter, which was his only mode of transportation. Newsweek described the veteran’s reactions as bringing “a ray of positivity to the video platform.” While it’s great to focus on human empathy and kindness, why are we not asking why a veteran does not have access to a new scooter, or why the scooter is so expensive in the first place?

Another sub-genre of these “feel-good stories” is the classic tale of the individual who was able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

NBC Washington published a story in November about a mother who lost her job due to the pandemic and had to move into a shelter. The article focused on her efforts to start her own business as a pastry chef and congratulated her entrepreneurial drive. There was barely any men-

tion of the lack of resources for the unemployed or the rise in evictions due to the pandemic.

There is also the classic trope of the kindness of everyday people. In December, a loyal Dunkin’ customer gave an employee a fully furnished home. The employee, Ebony Johnson, was a mother of three who had been evicted from her original home. The story did not go into detail about Johnson’s eviction or that the customer, Suzanne Burke, had to rely on third-party organizations to achieve the good deed.

Take, for instance, a story published by CNN last year about Turquoise LeJeune Parker, a teacher at Lakewood Elementary School in Durham, North Carolina. Parker collected $106,000 to feed her students in need so they wouldn’t starve over winter break. In the dozen schools the project assists, 98% of the students rely on school-provided meals, but when the school closes over break, they are left with no source for

food.

Instead of the story being centered around the reason for food insecurity in the community, CNN instead decided to put Parker on a pedestal. The article ended with a statement released by the school district applauding Parker for her efforts to help food-insecure students, saying “she is their lifeline."

Now, I’m not belittling the amazing feats by these individuals. I think it’s incredible there are people like this who exist. But I’m concerned that individuals are the ones forced to take on the role of our nation’s public resources. I realize these stories function as silver linings from the heavy reality that other news stories provide, but they are actively instilling the idea that civilians must provide the resources the government controls.

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A shelf in the Pitt Pantry, based out of Bellefield Presbyterian Church.

TPN File Photo

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February 16, 2022

5

Culture

Love Data Week pittnews.com

CASA, VSA host 2022 Lunar New Year Festival in WPU

Shreya Singh

For The Pitt News The William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room was decked out in red on Saturday to celebrate the Lunar New Year. As students walked in to enjoy the event, they received red envelopes — pertaining to their Chinese zodiac signs — in which their fortunes rested.

Pitt’s Chinese American and Vietnamese student associations hosted a Lunar New Year festival with about 200 students in attendance. The festival returned to an in-person celebration after it was canceled last year due to the pandemic. The event included performances from student artists, a traditional VSA fan dance, songs from R&B singer Thuy, Wushu at Pitt and many more.

A holiday celebrated by people of many Asian cultures, Lunar New Year takes place on the first new moon of the lunar calendar. Since Lunar New Year is dependent on the lunar calendar, the new year’s date varies from year to year. Celebrations typically last until the next new moon on the calendar, which is usually 15 days later.

Each lunar year is accompanied by an animal, in accordance with Chinese zodiac signs. 2022 is the year of the tiger, honoring strength and courage, so this year’s festival was decorated with this in mind, according to Julia Le, the president of VSA. “For each event, we try to choose a theme. So since this year is the year of the tiger, we wanted to choose the theme of strength,” Le said. “We wanted to convey the strength of our communities and the power of our cultures and its importance to us, especially during this most important holiday.”

Lunar New Year incorporates a plethora of different Asian cultural traditions in its two weeks of celebration, varying from cooking special dishes to spending quality time with family. Korina Cheng, the president of CASA, said she enjoys

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the different traditions, including sitting down and having dinner with family to honor the new year.

“On the Chinese side, usually we have a lunar dinner the day before Lunar New Year — on Lunar’s eve — so this year it was Jan. 31,” Cheng said. “Another tradition for Chinese culture is that we eat different foods that symbolize good luck for the new year. For example, in Chinese culture we eat dumplings, and that’s sup-

ing out, all of this has to be done well in advance. So, yeah it’s very much about starting early and getting through all of the nitty gritty stuff.”

Patricia Bachstein, a first-year psychology major, attended the event and said she enjoys seeing the different aspects of Chinese and Vietnamese culture.

“I enjoyed the performances the most about the festival,” Bachstein said. “Seeing all the talents and special parts of our

Students perform during the Lunar New Year festival held by Pitt’s Chinese American and Vietnamese student associations on Saturday.

Lucas Zheng senior staff photographer posed to symbolize good fortune because it’s in the shape of golden ingots.”

When the leaders of VSA and CASA took to the stage to introduce themselves during the event, the crowd greeted them with cheers. Le said both VSA and CASA started planning the event back in late 2021 hoping to emulate this enthusiastic reception.

“We started late November, early December,” Le said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to [the festival] so between our boards and committees, and a bunch of other organizations like UPTV help-

culture. It’s different to celebrate away from family, but it was nice to come together to celebrate with new friends.”

Although the vast majority of students in attendance were of Chinese or Vietnamese descent, some were simply there to experience a culture different from their own. Julia Zieser, a first-year psychology major, said she particularly enjoyed the performance of Itzy's song “Mafia in the Morning,” by the Fresh Entertainment by Student Artists group.

“A bunch of my friends are in CASA and VSA, so that’s how I found out about

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this festival and Lunar New Year in general,” Zieser said. “I really liked all the performances and seeing the different types of traditional dances. My favorite performance was probably FRESA because that was just really cool and I loved it.”

The last performance of the night was

by R&B singer Thuy, a California native.

Her performance forced the crowd out of their seats as they flocked to the front of the stage. She threw out merchandise hats to lucky audience members as people screamed for an encore.

As the event came to an end, students left the Assembly Room to see booths that lined the WPU’s Kurtzman room.

The booths varied from a tea bar to stalls offering Asian food. Bachstein said one of her favorite foods of the night was a noodle dish.

“They served little cups filled with noodles, green beans, chicken and rice, which I really enjoyed,” Bachstein said.

“It was nice to celebrate the Lunar New Year all together with everyone.”

Le said she was grateful that CASA and VSA were able to make this event possible, as both clubs try their best to foster a sense of community on Pitt’s campus.

“We strive to promote our cultures and advocate for our identities on campus,” Le said. “So it means a lot to us that people of our community are able to celebrate Lunar New Year.”

6

C4C encourages writing, performing during workshop

Jessica McKenzie Senior Staff Writer

For Dani Stuchel, the most effective introduction to any speech is to keep it short and sweet.

Stuchel, a staff member at Pitt’s Center for Creativity, led a One Minute Monologue workshop last Thursday. He challenged attendees to write a monologue that is 10 lines long — between 100 and 120 words — by the end of the session.

A small group of six Pitt faculty, students and C4C staff gathered in the workshop downstairs at the University Store on Fifth. Participants shared one goal for the workshop — to perform their monologues in one minute in front of the rest of the group.

Stuchel said the first minute of any speech is crucial in keeping an audience’s attention.

“People lose attention really quickly, and it's so important — whether you're performing or you're giving a talk or a class presentation — to really use that first minute to introduce the listener to what's going to happen, but to also give them the atmosphere you want them to experience,” Stuchel said.

Stuchel said he wanted to teach a workshop on one minute monologues since 2019, when he created a 60-second podcast called “Okay, Art.” In the podcast, Stuchel plays the character of an art critic.

“The podcast is a series of one minute lectures on art that I performed as this character who's an art critic,” Stuchel said. “I described her as the Amelia Bedelia of art, she gets 90% of [the art] right, and then she's completely confused on the last detail.”

Stuchel, who has been performing in theater since he was a teenager, opened the workshop

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with exercises designed to relax participants. He encouraged people to move around and make noise freely so that they could feel more present. He said since he has been performing for so long, he found that opening workshops with such exercises helps performers to feel more comfortable.

“I used to take some classes with Suzie Silver, who is a professor at Carnegie Mellon. She does performance and she always had these great exercises at the beginning where she'd have people line dance or just lay on the floor and stretch out,” Stuchel said. “It’s kind of an old performance gimmick to just make sounds and not worry what you sound like to other people.”

Josh Fratis, a sophomore digital narrative and interactive design major, attended the workshop after finding out about the event on C4C’s website. He said the exercise at the beginning of the workshop helped him get out of his comfort zone.

“Things like that push you out of your comfort zone a little bit, but I felt comfortable in the space. So it was just fun and it helped,” Fratis said.

Fratis said he visited the C4C a few times before the One Minute Monologue workshop, where he has enjoyed drawing and sketching scenes for a personal video game project he’s making. He said the monologue he wrote was a scene in the game.

“It was a cool opportunity, since we had to make our monologues 10 lines long,” Fratis said.

“It's really fun to interpret a script and a character and speak that and perform that — it's even cooler to get to do that for your own writing.”

While some workshop attendees focused on writing fictional monologues, others wrote about more personal manners. Some faculty attended the workshop with the goal of practicing

condensing their speech while teaching classes and speaking to various audiences.

Stuchel said it was a new experience for him to lead a workshop with students and faculty attending at once.

“I really liked it because people of different ages and different kinds of life experience bring really different hopes for something like a monologue,” Stuchel said. “There's just so much nice intergenerational conversation that can happen, so I was really happy that it was this mix of people who could give each other feedback from very different perspectives.”

Britney Yauger, a C4C employee, served as a support person during the workshop. She said although her background is in vocal performance, she had never written her own monologue before the workshop.

“It was a bit tougher than I expected. Especially having to write in such a short time frame.

I'm someone that will sit there for hours trying to think of one single line for a piece of writing, but it was a really good challenge to not be fixated on every word,” Yauger said.

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One of the exercises in the workshop was to take writing inspiration from a random object.

Yauger had an empty picture frame. The resulting monologue was a scene of an emotional phone call during which the main character explains a painful breakup to a close friend. Yauger said she used pauses in her speech to her advantage during her performance.

“I remember when I started acting, I always felt this pressure to be saying something constantly,” Yauger said. “But when you think about when you're talking about something that's really deep and personal, you don't always have the right words readily accessible to you at every single moment. And so, to me, space between words feels like the most realistic thing that I could put into a monologue delivery.”

Stuchel said he was glad the workshop was a success in that many participants experimented with their writing and delivery of their monologues.

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7

Sports

Baseball, softball previews pittnews.com

Capel, Pitt need to win at UNC to instill belief in hints of progress

Frankie Richetti Senior Staff Writer

You would have to go back more than 390 days to find the last time Pitt men’s basketball recorded back-to-back wins in ACC play. You would have to go back eight years to find Pitt’s last win over NC State.

The Panthers ended both droughts with their 71-69 win over the Wolfpack on Saturday, but in order to show true signs of growth, Pitt needs a win on Wednesday in Chapel Hill.

Pitt beat the Tar Heels on the road only one time since joining the ACC — a 73-65 win during the 2019-20 season. Both teams look vastly different since that night. Every Panther starter from the victory has moved on from Pitt, and first-year North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis is still trying to inject his own identity into a program that is synonymous with predecessor

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Roy Williams.

North Carolina is likely to be a tournament team, but it doesn’t have any wins on its resumé that jump off the page. The Tar Heels beat the teams they should beat and struggle against teams that are even or better than them, talentwise. All four of Carolina’s ACC losses come to teams currently sitting in the top five in the conference standings.

That spells trouble for Pitt, which enters Wednesday’s matchup in the bottom five of the conference. The common theme recently for the Panthers is they fall so far behind in the first half of games that the only hope of a comeback is by saying a prayer at halftime. Across their past seven games, they were outscored 240-156 in the first half — there’s no shovel big enough in the world to dig out of that hole.

The key for Pitt is to get out to a fast start, quiet the crowd and dictate the pace of the game.

North Carolina is No. 26 in the nation in points per game, putting up 90 or more three times in its last five outings. The Panthers sit on the opposite end of the scale, ranking No. 345 in points per game. Pitt needs to start out fast in this one, or it could get ugly quick.

Pitt has done a much better job defensively in its last two games and will need that to carry over in this game. North Carolina shoots a scorching 39% from three — good for No. 12 in 3-point shooting percentage. Pitt needs to stay connected and close out well or UNC’s trio of sharpshooters — sophomore guards RJ Davis and Caleb Love, plus senior forward Brady Manek — will make it pay.

The message from Pitt head coach Jeff Capel to his team hasn’t changed — to win, the game needs to be ugly. That is the recipe for success in every game they play, but especially against an offense as explosive as North Carolina. When the

February 16, 2022

Panthers hold opponents to under 40% shooting, they are 9-2. On the flip side, when opponents shoot above 40% against Pitt, they are 1-14.

Pitt simply doesn’t have the scoring punch to go bucket for bucket with UNC. Its success hinges on defense.

Carolina is led in scoring by junior forward Armando Bacot, who is averaging 16.6 points per game. The old-fashioned interior battle between him and Pitt sophomore forward John Hugley will be one to watch, and it’ll be interesting to see how UNC approaches it. Bacot is physical enough to guard Hugley individually, but it remains to be seen whether the Panthers will send double teams at him to force others to score the ball.

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8

Will McGlynn

Lance White’s substitutions leave Panthers unable to find rhythm

Staff Writer

Pitt women’s basketball has shown tremendous growth throughout the season with its deep roster of capable players, who have made up an exceptional rebounding and defensive basketball team. But the Panthers haven’t been able to break new ground this season, once again finding themselves towards the bottom of the ACC. The team started the season with fresh energy and a great non-conference portion of its season. The start to ACC play was when reality set in a bit for the group though, starting their season off with a blowout loss to women’s basketball powerhouse NC State. Ever since then, Pitt has struggled to find success in the ACC, even against opponents considered to be around their levels like Syracuse and Virginia Tech.

Head coach Lance White has done a great job getting his players to buy into his system since the start of the season, encouraging his group to push the ball in transition early and really transform this team into an offensive powerhouse.

Players welcomed this strategy, and in non-con-

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ference play, Pitt showed signs of turning into an offensive juggernaut with big blowout wins over teams like Radford and Long Island University.

But once Pitt hopped in with the big-name teams, that scoring efficiency quickly faded away.

Pitt has had a lot of trouble holding onto the ball, and many of the turnovers have come from key wing pieces.

Junior guard Dayshanette Harris provides a great offensive spark and oftentimes runs the break for the team. But this also leads to her surrendering many turnovers. Junior guard Amber Brown struggled to hold onto the ball late in the game against Syracuse on Sunday, as well. Brown played an exceptional game on the glass and scored the ball, but when it comes down to it, Pitt can’t handle the basketball.

All these extra possessions let other teams pull away, even if they aren’t shooting the ball that well. And the Panthers have limited 3-point shooting abilities, which mainly rely on senior guard Jayla Everett and junior guard Destiny Strother, making it hard for them to catch up when they fall behind.

Pitt has established itself as one of the best interior basketball teams in the country, with tons of capable rebounders and shot blockers like junior center Rita Igbokwe and sophomore forward Liatu King. The question has become, how do the Panthers win games with that strength?

They just haven’t been able to quite crack the code, and it’s left them just outside of being a solid team in the conference.

White has acknowledged that Pitt is not where programs like NC State are, but Pitt has made some serious progress from its previous iterations. It seems like the Panthers are always just one step behind some of the ACC stalwarts like North Carolina and Boston College this season — they can’t quite bridge the gap.

One thing the Panthers have had difficulty with this season is finding a true, consistent bench rotation. White likes to put a lot of his players on the floor and give everyone a chance to grow and develop, but at times it appears to make Pitt look uncomfortable.

Harris and many of the guards off the bench appear to struggle to get on the same page on the

February 16, 2022

fly because of how often players are moving in and out. It seems like the Panthers can never really establish a rhythm with their play. White will commonly play 11-12 players for double-digit minutes in each game, which keeps the group fresh, but also mixes players up a bit.

At one point, Pitt was looking to play in March this season and become a real threat in the ACC, but they once again seemed to fall short. The Panthers have trouble closing out big ACC matchups, losing many by just a few points.

Winning close games and becoming a prolific offense have proved out of reach for this group up until this point, commonly staying below 60 points against the elite level ACC competition.

Despite the team’s shortcomings in its record, the group should definitely be remembered in the history of Pitt women’s basketball. Fiery leaders like Everett and Brown have brought the group up time and time again, and they tell the media any chance they get about how proud they are of the team.

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9

Njie, pg. 2 about racial injustice.

“The BAS was it, that’s what was going to sustain you, that’s where you got your fuel,” Njie said. “That was home base for everybody. Had it not been for that, I know I would not have been able to do what I went on to do.”

Tony Fountain, who graduated with a communications degree from Pitt in 1970 and was chair of the BAS Political Action Committee, knew Njie when they were both students. The pair have gone from being mostly acquaintances — he saw her as “quiet and reserved” — to close friends.

“Val is just a ball of energy and I am so fortunate [to be her friend],” Fountain said.

Njie said another “giant” she looked up to while at Pitt was Jack Daniel, who at the time was an assistant professor and involved with Project A. Daniel, a former dean of students and distinguished service professor, said he admires Njie’s commitment to social justice.

Njie said she wouldn’t have been able to succeed without mentors. One of the first was her grandmother Grace Griffin.

“She knew how to care for people.

She was so compassionate, so very intelligent and just had this endless energy,” Njie said. “She was my first teacher — and even when I got out of the School of Education here, when I went to teach children, I used some of her methods.”

Njie said she now makes it a point to pay it forward, and mentor students in which she sees promise.

One of those mentees is Oluwatobi “Tobi” Ajimoko, a 2019 alumna who majored in economics and Africana studies. Njie helped mentor her through her MHA application to Georgetown University and law school applications.

As she grew during her undergraduate years, Ajimoko said she “wanted to become more like the mentors [she] had.”

“I like how flexible Ms. Val has been, because she took on the role of like answering questions, but she also is somebody who can sit back and let you decide what you want — and she’ll be there if it works out and she’ll be there if it doesn’t,” Ajimoko said.

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Coming from a minority family where they “​​know how much privilege you have going to college,” Ajimoko said she felt the pressure to “take the safe route” for a career, such as becoming an accountant or doctor. She said Njie was a mentor who encouraged her to take risks, which was “refreshing,” but she also “knew when to call you out.”

“I remember when I told [Njie] I was moving to Colorado and she was like, ‘Great. Don’t stay here, because then you’ll just be in the same place you’ve always been,’” Ajimoko said. “[Njie] has been able to make her decision ev-

ery step of the way. And I think that’s a quality of a great mentor – because they know what it means to take a step in the dark.”

Nancy Merritt, Pitt’s vice chancellor for alumni relations, said Njie is “inspiring” and “incredibly generous with her time.” Merritt said she frequently sees Njie make time for mentoring and advising students, alumni, faculty and staff.

After living all over the world — including Boston, Chicago, The Gambia and Salt Lake City — Njie now calls Pittsburgh her home.

No matter what committee she’s lead-

February 16, 2022

ing, Njie said she always comes “ready — I mean it is detailed.” She said “that’s just the way it is” because she realizes her comments matter and her votes “mean something to a lot of people.”

Njie said with the support of her mentors, she felt confident in her mission to succeed.

“I was on a mission. These individuals inspired me so much, I mean they led me to believe I could do anything. And so when I was 20 years old I finished, left here with a plane ticket to Chicago and $90 — and no fear. I just knew I was going to be able to make it, and I did.”

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February 16, 2022

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February 16, 2022

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