3-23-22

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 | MARCH 23, 2022 ­| Volume 112 | Issue 78

News Dave & Andy’s voted

Pitt goes mask optional; Oakland Crossings updates pittnews.com

best ice cream in 2022 ‘Best Of’ survey

Alexandra Ross Staff Writer

Dave & Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream is located on Atwood Street, just a few feet off of Forbes Avenue, placing it right in the center of Pitt’s campus. But according to Dave & Andy’s crew member Emily Wallace, most of the shop’s customers aren’t Pitt students.

“The people that come in are really nice,” Wallace said. “Mostly local, which you'd be surprised, on a college campus, you’d think it's mostly college students, but a lot of local Pittsburghers come through here and they’re characters, so it’s kind of cool to meet them and stuff.”

Nonetheless, Pitt students voted Dave & Andy’s as the best ice cream in The Pitt News’

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2022 “Best Of” survey. The award comes as no surprise to Wallace, an undeclared sophomore, who called the shop a “classic.”

“I'm not surprised [that Dave & Andy’s won],” Wallace said. “This place is a classic.

It's been around forever. We have all kinds of awards on the walls you can look at, just kind of documenting all the success through time.”

Dave & Andy’s has earned the reader-voted award many times. Several “Best Of” plaques hang on the shop’s walls, among other recognitions from local outlets such as the Pittsburgh City Paper and PA Eats.

Dave & Andy’s opened for business in Oakland in 1983, under the ownership of Andy Hardie and Dave Tuttle. Almost four decades later, Hardie — who has been the sole owner since the early 1990s — said he still likes running the

ice cream shop.

“I still enjoy it, so that’s half the battle,” Hardie said. “I've had a lot of good workers over the years, and that's been a bonus also.”

According to Hardie, some of the things that make Dave & Andy’s special include its location in Oakland and homemade ice cream products — especially the waffle cones.

“I think it's the location of the shop, and then the fact that we do make the waffle cones and make all the ice cream from scratch,” Hardie said. “And the waffle cones specifically, you get the smell of it and it draws people in.”

Wallace said making ice cream and waffle cones in-store has helped Dave & Andy’s win the “Best Of” award so many times. Not only is the ice cream high-quality — according to her, it is also made with love.

March 23, 2022

“Everything here is homemade, our waffle cones are homemade, so it's very, like, gourmet ice cream in my opinion,” Wallace said. “It's made out of love and passion, you know?”

Adam Henderson, who visited Dave & Andy’s on Friday while in Pittsburgh for a wedding, said the shop’s ice cream reminded him of the historic creamery at Penn State. He said he could tell that both ice cream shops put a lot of care into their final product.

“I went to school in State College for graduate school, and there, having the Creamery on campus … the ice cream kind of reminds me of that, like that kind of fresh ice cream made with care, you know?” Henderson said. “So it has that same level of like, going to the Creamery, you're See Dave & Andy’s on page 14

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Teaching through memes, kindness: Uwe Stender wins ‘Best Gen-Ed Professor’

Staff Writer

Students voted Uwe Stender, a lecturer in the German department, as the “Best Gen-Ed Professor” in The Pitt News’ annual “Best Of ” survey. It’s his first time winning the title since he began working for the University in 2006.

Stender said he was surprised to hear the news of his win.

“I’m really excited. I was shocked when I got [the] email [announcing the win],” Stender said.

Stender primarily teaches Germanic Myths, Legends and Sagas, Indo-European Folktales and New German Cinema — all three of which can be counted as general education courses.

Corie Miller, a junior psychology major, took Indo-European Folktales with Stender. She said she was not surprised to hear that Stender had won best gen-ed professor.

“He’s a really good professor, so it doesn’t really surprise me [that he won],” Miller said. “But I’m glad that other people realize how great of a professor he is, too.”

Gabriela Hutter, a junior psychology major, also took Indo-European Folktales with Stender. She said she enjoyed taking a class with Stender because of his kindness.

“He is really nice and super sweet,” Hutter said. “He was always organized when it came to class discussion, but organized in a way that also allowed for us to discuss.”

Miller said Stender made a big effort to relate to students.

“He was very understanding and he really tried to understand our generation’s way of thinking and our point of views,” Miller said.

Stender said he tries to make his classes relevant to modern times, especially because some course content — such as myths and folktales — is hundreds of years old. He recalled a recent time where a student compared a saga they were reading in class to catfishing.

“I love when students can apply some-

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thing that is really ancient and not completely modern,” Stender said. “I love that they are thinking that way and try to put it in current times. That’s what I try to encourage — making it relevant to 2022.”

Hutter and Miller both said their favorite memory of class was the day that they made memes.

“He wasn’t just lecturing on what we were learning in history, he was trying to connect it to what’s going on in the current world because a lot of the folktales we read were written forever ago,” Miller said.

“He would try to connect it to things that were happening now and talk about how things have changed, which I thought was nice.”

Stender also said part of his teaching strategy is to get students to engage with one another.

“What I’ve noticed is the classes are pretty silent, people don’t talk to each other and they kind of stare at their phones,” Stender said. “[So I] break them down

into smaller groups and then just encourage them to engage with each other and get to know each other.”

He said he does this because he wants students to become familiar with one another.

“When [students] leave the course, the people they’re with are complete strangers to them, even though they spend 15 weeks with [each other],” Stender said.

Hutter said the class’s communication structure allowed for good conversations.

“It was still structured, but we were allowed to converse in class,” Hutter said.

“We had some fantastic discussions. He wasn’t afraid of tangents.”

Hutter also said she liked the freedom that Stender allowed in the class.

“He gave us creativity and the freedom to change plans, but not enough to be chaotic,” Hutter said.

Outside of teaching, Stender works as a literary agent at TriadaUS, a literary agency he founded. The agency represents

authors such as Olivie Blake, author of ”The Atlas Six”, and Chloe Gong, author of “These Violent Delights.” Both books have been on the New York Times Best Seller List.

As part of his work with TriadaUS, Stender also collaborates with movie studios and production companies to adapt books to film. He has worked with companies such as Amazon Studios and Amblin, Steven Spielberg’s production company.

When Stender is not working, he enjoys running, swimming and biking. He also enjoys watching German soccer.

Miller and Hutter said they were pleased with their experience having Stender as a professor. Both said they enjoyed his teaching style and demeanor.

“I really wish more teachers were like [Stender],” Hutter said. “Some people you can really tell genuinely love teaching and love interacting with students our age.

[Stender] was definitely one of those types of people.”

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Ryleigh Lord

Students vote Latin American Revolutions as best course

For The Pitt News Anna Kovarick’s family fled Cuba when a 1950s uprising led to the formation of the country’s Communist party. She said this played a key role in her interpretation of her history course, Latin American Revolutions.

“Professor Gobat gave me the opportunity to weave into the course a lot of reflection on my own family’s events and history alongside the more general context of the Cuban revolution, and how it affected the country as a whole, but also a small family that came to the United States because of the revolution,” Kovarick, a senior economics and business administration major, said.

Pitt students voted Latin American Revolutions, a history course taught by Professor Michel Gobat, the best undergraduate course at Pitt in The Pitt News’ 2022 “Best Of” survey..

The course focuses on three Latin American revolutions in the 20th century — the Mexican Revolution, the Cuban Revolution and the Nicaraguan Revolution, according to Gobat. Gobat

said the purpose of focusing on only three revolutions is to allow students to develop a deeper understanding of all aspects of the events that impacted the revolutions.

“I want to give students the opportunity to get a more in-depth sense of a country’s history and revolution,” Gobat said. “I use readings, video clips, music, interviews and films to do that.”

Gobat said his approach to teaching the class is different from the typical way revolutions are discussed. It moves away from traditional revolutionary narratives, to instead focus on people and movements who are often forgotten in historical analysis.

“The class tries to get students to think about a variety of actors,” Gobat said. “We look at peasants involved in the Mexican revolution and the role women played in the Nicaraguan revolution.

Often when people take courses on revolutions the emphasis is on the origins of the revolution and the outcomes of them, but I’m really interested in what happens during the in-between period.”

Justin Jones, a senior history and Spanish

major who took the course last year, said the use of firsthand accounts is something that elevated the class from other ones he has taken.

“I really liked the unit on the Cuban revolution,” Jones said. “We read an anthropological study that was a detailed breakdown of day-today life in rural communist Cuba towards the end of the 20th century, and we watched a documentary about the ‘Special Period,’ which was when the Soviet Union collapsed.”

Jones said the interactive classes make Gobat’s course stand out from the thousands that Pitt has to offer.

“Class was split into different groups of four or five students, and we would discuss the out-ofclass material with the groups,” Jones said. “Talking about different opinions made the class more lively, and everyone was able to feel like they could safely share their own thoughts.”

Kovarick said she enjoyed the way in which the course was set up, using flip lectures, because in-class time was utilized for discussions, which distinguishes the class from others. She said podcasts created by Gobat were instrumental to her

understanding of the course.

“The course combines out-of-class podcasts and readings, and we came into class ready for discussions and group work in order to have the most well-rounded understanding of the material,” Kovarick said. “I had never had podcasts as course material for a class before, and I liked hearing Professor Gobat talk through the historical events and set up the themes we’d be discussing in class.”

Gobat said the course is adaptable, evolving with students in a way that encourages them to incorporate their own interpretations of and opinions on the events discussed in class. This level of open discussion increases everyone’s understanding of historical events, according to Gobat.

“I want my students to develop analytical skills,” Gobat said. “The classes are about getting students to talk, and it was satisfying to see how they talk to each other and work through their

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4

Culture Student indie pop band

Quiet Hours named ‘Best Band’ Grace Hemcher Staff Writer

The lights are dim, the air is hot and dozens of bodies are packed closely together — all waiting for the first shriek of the guitar strings to ring against the basement walls. The Bates Box is full of Pitt students waiting to see their peers perform on the small, makeshift stage.

If you're part of the underground music scene on campus, you may have heard of Quiet Hours, a six-member indie pop band that performs weekly shows at music venues around Oakland and the greater Pittsburgh area. The band has performed cover songs and its original music for the past three years, and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Evan Heming, the band’s lead vocalist and a Pitt political science alumnus, met senior physics major and bassist, Patrick Bobko, on the fourth floor of Sutherland East in 2019. Heming said the pair casually played music together in the dorm, until they met the rest of the band members and made the group official.

“Pat met Jared at the WPTS showcase I guess and then Jared came up to start jamming with us,” Heming said. “And then we all went out and got Cambodian food and the rest is history I suppose.”

The band began performing after adding Jared Deluccia, the drummer and a senior economics major, and Gabe Field, the lead guitarist and an English literature alumnus, to the lineup in spring 2020. Field said things seemed to be going along great for the band until the COVID-19 pandemic hit, halting live music across the country.

“It did kind of suck that it was right in the middle of our time period where we were starting to figure stuff out,” Field said. “We had played some shows before COVID, and we were just kind of starting to find the groove, and then it's like, ‘Oh, you can't play another show for a year and a half.’”

Even with the pandemic, the band persisted. Heming said the members used their time in lockdown to re-record the album, “School Dance,” and reconsider their goals for the band

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and first big project.

“So COVID happens and we were forced to take a step back and reevaluate. We decided to go to a studio and record [the album] and I think it turned out a lot better than it would have if we would have kept it self-recorded,” Heming said.

“So from that perspective, I guess it made us kind of reevaluate what we actually wanted to do with this project.”

While stuck at home, Bobko said the band members also had more downtime to write new music and collaborate on projects while they were physically apart. He said some of their most interesting songs came from this period of not being together.

“I really like some of the tunes that we were able to produce over that time that we weren't together,” Bobko said. “A lot of the situation sucked.

But it's also the case where, I don't know if we would have these specifically interesting songs that we have now because it was a product of that whole situation.”

Quiet Hours has accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, but Heming said they have found Instagram to be the most helpful platform to gain a following. They look to connect personally with followers, and make them feel more connected to the members and their music.

“I think the thing with Instagram is we're super big on trying to get people engaged. With posts, we're trying to get people to have a reaction to it,” Heming said. “We do a lot of polls and interactive things where people actually feel like they're a part of it.”

Mikey Morrissey, a senior computer science major, regularly attends Oakland basement concerts. He described the process of getting into your first underground concert show as being rather tricky.

“Usually, either the venue has an Instagram account, or the band themselves will send out a flyer to their friends, and then they'll send it off to their friends,” Morrissey said. “It's like once you go to your first show, you'll have more opportu-

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March 23, 2022

5

5801 Video Lounge & Bar offers safe space for LGBTQ+ community, allies

Maria Scanga

Senior Staff Writer With a simple golden orange infinity symbol above the entrance of the 5801 Video Lounge & Bar, the large eating area and several bar areas can come as quite a surprise. This was true for Heather White, a Pittsburgh native and sociologist, who said she wasn’t expecting 5801 to be so expansive.

“I’m here for the second time in a week, the food and the vibes are that good,” White said.

“When I came over the weekend with friends I was afraid they wouldn’t have a table for our large group, but they definitely have plenty of space to go around.”

Voted as best LGBTQ+ bar by Pitt students, 5801 is located on Ellsworth Avenue, in the center of Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. 5801 features three bars in its building — one immediately upon entering, one after following a rainbow carpet upstairs and then another opposite their outdoor patio seating area.

Every weekday, from 5 to 7 p.m., the bar has

a buy one, get one free appetizer special, which White said pairs well with Tuesday team trivia.

“I came back with my friends for the trivia, which some people are pretty die-hard about,” White said. “Including my own group since they were aggressive about the order we sit in for trivia.”

Trivia night is only one of 5801’s weekly events. According to Matt Jaworski, a Lawrenceville resident, a good introduction to 5801 is to come for Sunday brunch and a drag show, which the bar calls, “The Ladies Who Drag Brunch.” The show lasts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but the Sunday celebration extends all day, featuring an extensive draft list and food specials.

“I’ve been here by myself just for the drag show and a nice pick-me-up after a night out drinking,” Jaworski said.

According to Jaworksi, 5801 satisfies visitors with friendly service, good food and consistent entertainment, making it a good place for a first or second date.

“When I recommend to friends where they

should go for their first date, or I myself have to choose a place, I’ll always recommend 5801,” Jaworski said. “You know you’re going to treated well, it’s a nice safe place for baby gays, and even if the date doesn’t work out, you can both say you had a good time.”

Boasting 15 different flat screen TVs, 5801 doesn’t shy from entertainment. On game days, there will be a Steelers game on one and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” on another — they even honor requests, according to their website.

Jason, who works in Pittsburgh, said they are a 5801 regular. The bartenders know them by name, and can have their usual drink — a rum and coke — ready without even having to ask.

According to Jason, 5801 is the friendliest LGBTQ+ bar in the area.

“Pittsburgh has a lot of gay bars, but this is the one I return to because everyone is friendly and sociable,” Jason said. “It’s not just nice bartenders, but the stranger who sits next to me at the bar can become an instant friend by the end of the night.”

Even with a loyal clientele, White said she felt

welcomed immediately. She said even though some of her friends referred to bartenders and staff by their first names, including their personal favorite bartender, Christie, White didn’t feel excluded.

“Christie [the bartender] will make you feel like her own after your first visit,” White said. “It’s my second time here but she already made me feel less socially anxious, telling me where I can sit and asking if it’s my first time here.”

White’s group of trivia partners were adamant about people coming not just for the food or the music videos or the bargoers, but for Christie herself. For Jason, his favorite part about 5801 is its inclusiveness, even with nonLGBTQ+ friends.

“It’s really nice to have a gay bar that mixes locals and visitors, regulars and non-regulars, without making it clear who is who,” Jason said. “I’m gay but I know some straight people who come just for the drag show or the food, and they’re

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6

Opinions

It’s okay to not be good at your hobby pittnews.com

satire | pittsburgh, do better with bagels

Paige Wasserman Staff Columnist

I am many things. I’m a writer, an actor, a singer, a daughter, a sister and a friend. But before I’m all of those things, I’m a CARB GIRL. Specifically, I’m a bagel girl. Everybody loves bagels. But to me, they are more than just bagels. As an East Coast Jew, they are a centerpiece of my culture.

Bagels immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century along with my Polish-Jewish ancestors. Stacked on a stick, Jewish immigrants would sell them in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Some New York Jews, upon securing a comfortable middle class lifestyle, relocated to the suburbs of Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey and opened bagel shops of equal quality, bringing deliciousness to Jews and nonJews alike.

Jews continued to spread out across North America. Some traveled to Montreal, where

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they created a sweeter offshoot of the original New York bagel. Pittsburgh also collected a sizable close-knit Jewish community in Squirrel Hill and other neighborhoods. Squirrel Hill is now home to about 13,000 Jewish people, making them more than half of the neighborhood’s population.

That being said, Squirrel-Hillers did not bring the perfection of the NYC metro area bagel with them. And as a New Jersey suburbanite-turnedYinzer, finding a perfect bagel in Pittsburgh has become the bane of my Jewish existence.

What makes a perfect bagel? To me, the perfect bagel has a chewy, luscious crust decorated with crispy bubbles. If you tear a great bagel apart, its interior should have steaming, carby ribbons, almost resembling pulled pork. When you squish the bagel, It should crackle and pop right back up. The rise should also be significant — preferably, but not necessarily, the rise should

be so great that the hole in the bagel reduces to nothing, almost with the appearance of an innie belly button.

As a student of the bagel, I’ve tried to reduce confounds by purchasing the same type of bagel each time — an everything bagel with butter.

You may be wondering, why not cream cheese?

I don’t like cream cheese all that much. Plus, in my opinion, butter is less overwhelming and allows me to judge the integrity of the bagel. I never toast it because, again, it compromises the bagel’s true form. This past week, in preparation for this column, I ventured out to multiple establishments to refresh my memories of Pittsburgh bagels.

Here they are: 1. Einstein’s Einstein’s is technically not a Pittsburgh bagel. It’s a chain, but makes multiple appearances on Pitt’s campus between Swanson and Posvar.

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These bagels are bad. There is no rise, and the inside is crumbly and sad. At least they’re consistent. I will only eat Einstein’s if I am truly at rock bottom, life-wise.

2. Bruegger’s Bruegger’s, Pittsburgh’s other bagel chain, makes some lofty claims. Their logo’s subtitle reads “AUTHENTIC NEW YORK STYLE,” which, right off the bat, no. Just no. First of all, the size of the bagel was downright depressing — by New York/New Jersey standards, it was a mini bagel. I wasn’t angry at the crust, as it had the bubbles of my desired bagel. But the inside just didn’t hold up. These bagels were not in their prime, as evidenced by the simultaneous crumbliness and doughiness of the interior.

3. Pigeon Bagels

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10

The best and worst of water fountains on campus Jessica Snyder

Senior Staff Columnist Something I pride myself in is drinking a lot of water. I started trying to drink three bottles of water a day in high school after noticing that I had fewer headaches and more hydrated skin when I did.

Access to clean water is essential to life and, thankfully, I think Pitt does a very good job of doing that in a sustainable manner.

But there is no denying that some water fountains on campus are better than others.

When it comes to ranking these water fountains, I’m mainly going off of their bottle-filling abilities.

Through my observations, I have come to find that the Elkay ezH2O Bottle Filling Station is truly a game changer and these wonderful pieces of equipment can be found in most buildings on campus. Still, there are some disparities among them.

For one, their sensors can sometimes function unpredictably. The water is supposed to shut off after 20 seconds, but differences in water bottles contribute greatly to the variability of whether the bottle is completely filled or registered by the sensor at all.

This brings me to the issue of water pressure. For whatever reason, some bottle filling stations on campus have stronger water pressure than others. This might not seem like a big issue, but it makes all the difference when it comes to the 20-second shut off time. In cases of extreme variation, your water bottle may end up underfilled or overfilled.

The water’s temperature and taste is also important in the bottle-filling experience. There are certain places on campus, namely the Cathedral of Learning, where the water is warm and seems to just not taste right. Fortunately, the majority of stations at Pitt provide cold and refreshing water.

As a first-year, I absolutely adored the bottle filling station on my floor in Litchfield Tower A. It was nothing special, but its location, for me, was unbeatable. Bottle filling stations in residence halls are definitely the most convenient of all the stations on campus, even if they are just average.

The bottle filling station on the ground floor of Hillman is probably the best one on campus. In fact, all of the stations in the library are great. The water is always cold,

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there is rarely ever a line and it’s a great place for a study break that keeps you hydrated.

The ground floor station is the most notable due to its water pressure — it fills water bottles up quickly, so you have to be attentive to make sure your water bottle doesn’t overflow.

The station at Baierl Student Recreation Center in the Petersen Events Center is good, but it has some drawbacks. When you’re at the gym, this fountain provides a reliable source of cold water that is easy to drink. Sometimes there is a line which can become quite annoying, but the station is probably used more than all the others on campus. For this reason, the LED filter indicator is often yellow. While the water is still drinkable, I think most people would prefer the green filter indicator.

The fountains in Benedum Hall are also average, but I honestly expected better. Benedum is where most classes and research for the Swanson School of Engineering are held.

As a liberal arts major visiting this hall for the sole purpose of writing this article, I couldn’t help but think of all of the ways a water fountain could be engineered. The ones in the building weren’t bad by any means, I was just surprised to see normal water fountains and a lack of bottle-filling stations.

The worst water fountains are in the Cathedral of Learning. This is particularly a shame for me, since it’s where all of my classes are, making trips to the good water fountains in Hillman worthwhile, if not necessary. The water is rarely cold — the warm temperature gives it a seemingly metallic taste.

All of these water fountains give us the same thing in different ways. Being a student on campus for a couple of years exposes us to the minute disparities between things like water fountains. Water fountains become routine if you drink a lot of water, and soon enough you will have created your own water fountain hierarchy at Pitt like me.

With that being said, there are probably many other water fountains at Pitt that I haven’t encountered that are better or worse than the ones I have mentioned. But don’t let anyone tell you that they’re all the same.

Jessica Snyder primarily writes about controversy in art and politics. Write to her at jes341@pitt.edu.

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SportsAfter standout club career,

Best moments in 2021 pittnews.com

Ratliff-Kailbourne makes impact at varsity level

Zack Gibney

Senior Staff Writer Pitt senior attacker Kierin Ratliff-Kailbourne had made her peace with not playing college lacrosse. As a standout high school player, Ratliff-Kailbourne tested the waters with the recruiting process. But of the schools that recruited her, none stood out.

Born in Honeoye Falls, a small town just outside of Rochester, New York, Ratliff-Kailbourne began playing lacrosse in second grade after her friend’s father introduced her to the sport. As she improved throughout middle and high schools, Ratliff-Kailbourne grew interested in playing at the collegiate level.

Despite drawing interest from some smaller schools, she settled on Pitt — a school that didn’t have a varsity lacrosse program at the time, but

was a fit in all other regards.

“I was looking at a lot of smaller schools but I knew ultimately that I wanted to go to a big-time sports school and if I got hurt, I wouldn’t be happy at a smaller school,” Ratliff-Kailbourne said. “I stopped the recruiting process and just focused on what school I wanted to go to academically and socially.”

Not only did Pitt have a storied varsity athletic program, she had heard that Pitt’s Club Lacrosse team was a talented group.

The team won a national championship in 2014 and reached the national title game in 2017. A finance and marketing major, RatliffKailbourne saw this as an opportunity to stay involved in the sport she loved while studying at a university she wanted to be at.

Before leaving for Pitt, some of Ratliff-Kail-

bourne’s friends mentioned the possibility of Pitt introducing a varsity lacrosse team. While the idea crossed her mind, Ratliff-Kailbourne wasn’t banking on it coming to fruition.

“I did not come here anticipating a varsity team,” Ratliff-Kailbourne said. “I had thought of it, but thought there was no way it would happen while I was here.”

But the school announced in fall 2018 that it would add a women's lacrosse program and begin playing in spring 2022.

Ratliff-Kailbourne joined the club team upon arriving at Pitt and was immediately successful.

Her club coach, Kevin Tidgewell, immediately noticed that Ratliff-Kailbourne had talent and had the potential to get even better.

“Kierin is a special player. She definitely had the skills and mindset and drive to play at

the next level,” Tidgewell said. “We get a good number of girls who were recruited to NCAA programs who chose Pitt for academics or other reasons, and that’s what Kierin was.”

Even in a short time with Tidgewell and the club team, Ratliff-Kailbourne was quick to make her presence felt. Ratliff-Kailbourne scored 44 goals and won MCLL DI Player of the Year in 2019 as the team secured their first national title since 2014.

It was around this time that Pitt tapped Emily Boissonneault, a former assistant coach with James Madison University and Team Canada, as the varsity program’s first head coach. After the announcement, Boissonneault quickly got to work assembling a roster.

See Varsity on page 13

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Varsity, pg. 12 The Pitt Club Lacrosse team was one of her first stops on the recruiting trail.

Along with Ratliff-Kailbourne, Boissonneault also scouted senior defender Caroline Lederman and senior midfielder Payton Reed from the club team, and invited them to take part in early morning training sessions with the new coach of the varsity team.

The three had a quick turnaround after their late-night club practices, as Boissonneault’s sessions started the next morning at 7 a.m. The new head coach wanted to establish a regimented work ethic within the players that would help them succeed at the Division I level, valuing one thing above all else — showing up.

“I really wanted to see that they were committed to coming,” Boissonneault said. "The physicality and skill of the game is significantly different [at the DI level], but I think what’s even harder is to balance the schedule and to be able to come to practice every day and be challenged."

None of the three ever missed a morning training session and, after they concluded, Boissonneault offered them a spot on the team the day before Pitt sent students home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Ratliff-Kailbourne, it was not an easy decision to leave Tidgewell and the club team.

“People have asked me and the two other girls if it was easy to leave, and that was probably the hardest decision,” Ratliff-Kailbourne said. “I had 50 best friends on that team.”

While Tidgewell’s squad was undoubtedly losing an asset on the field, the chance for RatliffKailbourne to make the transition to the varsity team was something that he knew was the right choice.

“I knew it was happening,” Tidgewell said. “I was like, ‘Go for it. Go chase your dreams. You only get one shot at this, so why wouldn’t you?’”

After returning from the pandemic absence, Pitt lacrosse began to hold practices with the socalled “Original 14” — the first group of officially rostered players, including Ratliff-Kailbourne and some of her former club teammates. As the roster began to grow, the new members began to mold to the culture that the original players established.

“Us original 14 last year – we were so tight,” Ratliff-Kailbourne said. “That bond carried over and we are able to bring everyone together and everyone has bought in.”

Despite being a newcomer to the team just like everyone else, Ratliff-Kailbourne was one of the older players on the roster. Entering her senior year before the program’s inaugural season,

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Ratliff-Kailbourne stepped into a leadership role for some of the younger players on the team.

“We have a lot of people trying to step up into those leadership roles and I think Kierin is definitely one of them,” Boissonneault said. “She’s a really good person and I think any time you’re a great lacrosse player and a great person, that’s going to put you in a position where people have expectations for you to be a go-to … not just on the field, but off the field as well.”

As preseason practices came to a close, the program began to prepare for what would be its first season of competition. First up was the City Game against Duquesne.

After nearly three years of anticipation,

Ratliff-Kailbourne’s dream of playing DI lacrosse would soon be realized — an unthinkable reality back when she enrolled at Pitt. Ratliff-Kailbourne said the first gameday felt almost surreal given all of the buildup.

“I hadn’t had the feeling that it was gameday in over two years,” Ratliff-Kailbourne said. “Seeing everybody decked out in their uniforms was the best feeling.”

Prior to the game, there were some nerves in the locker room — a reality that comes with playing the first game in the history of a program. A point of emphasis in the pregame huddle was to get the first goal on the board.

“It was super nerve-wracking,” Ratliff-Kai-

March 23, 2022

lbourne said. “A couple of my teammates and I were in the huddle before the game and I was just like, ‘We just have to score the first goal.”

Ratliff-Kailbourne did just that.

After Duquesne took a 1-0 lead, Ratliff-Kailbourne scored the first goal in program history with 3:41 remaining in the first quarter. After narrowly missing the net just minutes prior, Ratliff-Kailbourne capitalized from the free position for the historic goal.

“I missed the first shot before that, so I was very frustrated with myself,” she said.

Find the full story online at

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13

Dave & Andy’s, pg. 2 like, ‘You really care about this and love what you do.’”

Wallace, who has worked at Dave & Andy’s since August, said she eats a lot of ice cream since she works at Dave & Andy’s — especially her favorite flavor, the classic cookie dough. After about seven months, Wallace said she still hasn’t gotten sick of eating the homemade treat.

“I don't ever get tired of it, really,” Wallace said. “It’s always, like, a nice snack to take home while I’m doing my homework.”

Ranya Khouri, a local high school student who stopped into Dave & Andy’s on Sunday for some scoops of birthday cake and brownie fudge ice cream, said she was born in Oakland and grew up going to Dave & Andy’s. She said she associates the ice cream, especially certain flavors, with her childhood.

“I would say one of my favorites [flavors] is cookies and cream or birthday cake, and because they just remind me of my youth, because I always chose those two flavors when I was younger,” Khouri said.

According to the shop’s Facebook page, Dave & Andy’s features more than 200 flavors of homemade ice cream. This includes classics such as chocolate, vanilla and chocolate chip

cookie dough, but also more distinct flavors, such as Thai iced tea or pumpkin pie. As for Hardie, he said his favorites are the coffee-flavored ice creams.

“I like coffees a lot, like kahlua cookies and cream is real good,” Hardie said. “And then we make a lot of funky ones too. My mom, before she passed away, her favorite was honey apple cinnamon granola. So we make a lot of different ones and we just keep experimenting.”

Not all 200 flavors are on sale at once. Instead, certain classics are always on the menu while other flavors are cycled in and out. Wallace said the variety and rotation of ice cream flavors keeps customers coming back to the store to see what new items are on the menu.

“We don't have like, typical, you know, store bought flavors,” Wallace said. “We have one that's like, spicy habanero, or I think it's white cinnamon habanero. We just have all kinds of random things, so it kind of keeps people interested in what’s coming up next.”

Besides the shop’s “really good” homemade ice cream, Khouri said she kept coming back to Dave & Andy’s because of all the memories she has associated with it. She said what makes the shop so special is how friendly the staff is.

“It feels like a family,” Khouri said. “Everyone is so friendly.”

Dave & Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream on Atwood Street in Oakland.

Hannah Wilson senior staff photographer

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