09-26-2018

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 | september 26, 2018 ­| Volume 109 | Issue 28

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU’LL GET IF YOU DON’T VOTE

SGB UNVEILS TOWN HALL TO REACH STUDENTS Sid Lingala Staff Writer

Tom Hanks discusses the importance of voting in upcoming election at Tuesday evening’s “When We All Vote” event at Soldiers and Sailors. Sarah Cutshall|staff photographer

HANKS BRINGS VOTING HYPE TO PITTSBURGH

Jon Moss

For The Pitt News Tom Hanks is in the neighborhood, and he wants you to register to vote.

The award-winning actor — along with other high-profile celebrities — took the stage in front of more than 1,000 people at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall on Tuesday evening for the Pittsburgh leg of a political advocacy tour organized by the nonprofit “When We All Vote.” The organization campaigns to register voters, before the upcoming Oct. 9 deadline, for the upcoming midterm elections on Nov. 6.

“What is the most important election in the history of our country?” Hanks asked the crowd.

“The next one!” an audience member called out.

“You’re almost right,” Hanks said. “It’s all of them.”

He further stressed that elections are not only critical to the nation, but are something which all American citizens should participate in. Pitt, located within Pennsylvania’s newly drawn 18th Congressional district, is currently represented by Democrat Michael Doyle, who is running unopposed.

“It’s very possible to assume some decision will be made that you don’t really need to take part,” Hanks said. “If only to argue with a family member at Thanksgiving, you better vote ... You get to do the dishes while everyone else

talks about current events.”

Hanks wasn’t the only recognizable figure encouraging the public to vote.

Kiya Tomlin, wife of Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, spoke early in the evening, urging students to actively participate in the political process.

She said, ultimately, voters are the only Americans who hold the keys to power.

“It’s the people that show up to the polls that get to make our decisions for us. And we can’t allow ourselves to become content to merely watch, or even tune out the daily reality show of keeping up with Washington,” Tomlin said.

Tomlin’s advice rang true for Cassi Whitehead, a senior English writing See Hanks on page 2

The Student Government Board announced a new initiative at Tuesday night’s meeting, aimed at bringing more students into the conversation about various campus issues — SGB Town Hall.

SGB President Maggie Kennedy said they will conduct Town Hall meetings throughout this year to reach students who don’t normally attend regular SGB public meetings due to the meetings’ focus on business. Kennedy also said other organizations’ Tuesday night meetings can contribute to occasional dips in public meeting attendance.

“The objective of the Town Halls is to increase our outreach on campus and make sure we are being the actual representatives we were elected to be,” Kennedy said. “We wanted to create a forum that is just about students sharing their concerns in a open-floor situation the whole time. We’re not giving board reports. We’re not going to do allocations.”

The first Town Hall will be this Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. at Nordy’s Place and will focus on feedback on campus facilities. The first Town Hall will also be attended by Jim Earle, associate vice chancellor for business and auxiliary services, and Joseph Pastorik, a facilities manager. Facilities, Transportation and Technology Chair Caroline Unger said she wanted to see a lot of people at the first Town Hall and hear what students See SGB on page 2

News SGB, pg. 1

Hanks, pg. 1

SGB president Maggie Kennedy uses vice president Cory Stillman’s hand as a makeshift surface on which to strike her gavel at Tuesday night’s public meeting. Sarah Cutshall | staff photographer want to fix in facilities.

Board members also recently attended the first Chancellor’s Lunch with Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner and other Pitt officials to discuss some of students’ top concerns.

“It was a really good opportunity for us to talk to them face-to face about what we think are some of the most pressing issues for Pitt students at the moment,” Kennedy said.

Vice President and Chief of Finance Cory Stillman discussed the University’s initiatives in non-STEM research with Pitt’s Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Joseph McCarthy. Board member Pooja Humar, who also attended the lunch, recounted her conversation with Chancellor Gallagher about optimizing space utilization on campus.

“Being a city school, it’s not really feasible to build more space, but we want to essentially make the spaces

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we have on campus more usable,” said Humar. “I talked to them about having more spaces on campus reservable and maybe just making more spaces on campus open later.”

The SGB also revisited and unanimously passed a bill introduced last week about adding alternatives to the structure of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Jessa Chong, vice president and chief of cabinet, summarized the bill as facilitating the process of adding a replacement to a position on their committee.

“This bill is pretty much adding to the bylaws on the opportunity for alternates for the Diversity and Inclusion committee,” Chong said. “[Other committees] all have alternates in the case that someone on that committee has to remove themselves from it or anything happens, the spot can be filled really easily and without having to do the whole application process again.”

of Woodland Hills High School, said McDowell’s excitement to vote inspired her become more politically engaged.

“Because of her, we all really want to get more people engaged in voting, and make sure people understand how important it is,” King said. “It was very important to her, and she never got to take that step in her life.”

Ritika Bajpai, Pitt junior and Student Government Board community and government relations chair, also spoke at the event. She acknowledged the Woodland Hills High School students’ commitment to political engagement when reflecting on her own choice to vote.

“If I choose not to vote, then I’m giving up my chance to make a decision

major who came to the event with her parents, who were visiting from out of town. Whitehead said the event inspired her to be a more active advocate for voting among her friends — but that she was already well on her way to being active in November. “[My family] was going to vote anyway, but it gives me strategies for the future,” Whitehead said. “I’m thinking of talking with my friends and telling them to make sure they’re registered.”

Students like Whitehead are considering the impact voting can have, especially the possible outcomes of voting in one state over another. Ryan Costenblader, a first-year computer science major, decided to register to vote in Pennsylvania for the midterms, as opp o s e d Ritika Bajpai to his naSGB community and government relations chair tive Connecticut.

“Connecticut always votes Democrat, on my own about what I should believe and it just so happens I am a Democrat,” should happen with our nation,” Bajpai Costenblader said. “But I think it’s insaid. teresting to vote in a swing state.”

The event inspired students like BaWhile some attendees were new to jpai to cast ballots of their own this NoPennsylvania voting, others were new to vember, and reminded everyone in atvoting entirely. Approximately a dozen tendance that though Americans come students from Woodland Hills High from vastly different backgrounds, School attended the event in support of voting gives each person a voice and a the Caileigh Lynn McDowell Foundaplace to stand on equal ground. tion.

“We the people of the United States, McDowell was a Woodland Hills stuin order to form a more perfect union dent who passed away in April 2016, just … can respect our neighbors no matdays before she would become eligible ter what our differences are,” Hanks to vote on her 18th birthday. She was a said. “We can learn on an equal playing strong political activist and planned to field, we have the same opportunities attend law school. The foundation creno matter what our address is or town ated in her name aims to transform powe live in.” litical, social and economic systems into Contributed reporting by Emily kinder and more equitable institutions.

Wolfe.

Keaura King, student body president

September 26, 2018

“

If I choose not to vote, then I’m giving up my chance to make a decision on my own about what I should believe should happen with our nation

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Opinions

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column

VOTING’S NOT A PAIN, IT’S A PRIVILEGE Anne Marie Yurik Staff Columnist

Voting for representation is the core of America’s foundation. It’s why we dumped tea in the Boston Harbor. It’s what separates George Washington from Britain’s King George III. It’s how we distinguish ourselves from the idle subjects of a non-democratic ruler. But for many modern-day Americans, voting in November isn’t a hard-earned liberty — it’s a hassle.

Still, that hassle is essential to our democracy — we can help determine which leaders will act in America’s political sphere. Without the vote, we lose the power to push our city, state and country in the direction we want it to go — and Tom Hanks, who spoke on campus last night, certainly agrees.

Hanks, along with James Conner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, participated in a rally Tuesday led by a national non-for-profit company called When We All Vote — held at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall as part of the organization’s “Week of Action,” featuring voter registration events in cities across the country.

The event strived to improve voter turnout in future elections — but the fact that we as a nation must rely on celebrities to motivate us to exercise our basic democratic right is sad, to say the least. Voting is as much as a responsibility as it is a privilege — and we should never squander any opportunity we have to shape our country’s future.

But since only 50 percent of eligible 18-29 year olds voted in the 2016 presidential election, half our generation clearly is missing their chance. Young voters are the future — if half of us don’t care, that sets a dangerous precedent for generations to follow.

According to Hanks, every upcoming election is the most important in our nation’s history — and each one presents an opportu-

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nity for eligible voters to exercise their power. “[Voting] is a promise, and it’s also a challenge to every single American,” Hanks said.

“If you’re not taking part, you don’t get to complain, so shut up.”

Hanks cited the preamble of the Constitution to illustrate the importance of voting — saying that “we the people” can shape our country into a “perfect union” through voting. And thankfully, several initiatives on Pitt’s campus have tried to make this “perfect union” a reality.

With the Oct. 9 deadline to vote in the Nov. 6 general election quickly approaching, Pitt political organization The Bully PulPitt took initiative to inform its peers about politics by hosting Civic Engagement Week two weeks ago — an event that allowed hundreds of students to explore political clubs and most importantly, register to vote.

Pitt political clubs like The Pitt College Republicans, College Democrats, Students for Liberty and Pitt Progressives also host events specifically to inform students about political issues — and with hundreds of members between them, they’re doing a pretty good job.

Clearly, there’s no shortage of opportunities on campus to learn to take part in the democratic process — but if young people take their rights for granted, organizations like these can only help so much.

It is unfair to expect everyone else to elect the candidate that you personally endorse — but according to a study from Pew Research Center, that’s exactly what young people do.

They dominate political conversation on social media, but leave the actual voting to older generations.

So millennials’ low turnout at the polls isn’t because they don’t have political opinions — it’s because they don’t make it to the polls.

But young people shouldn’t take their voting rights for granted — minority groups have

Actor Tom Hanks speaks as a part of Tuesday evening’s “When We All Vote” event. Sarah Cutshall | staff photographer had to fight to legitimize their democratic point of Civic Engagement Week, accordvoices throughout America’s entire history. ing to its head organizer and founder of Women didn’t gain the right to vote un- The Bully PulPitt, Annabelle Hanflig. til Congress ratified the 19th Amendment in “[Voting] is one of the most important 1920. Black men technically have been able to things you can do as a citizen,” Hanflig said vote since the 1870s, but were prevented from in an interview. “It’s one of the most tanactually doing so for almost a century due to gible ways that you can affect what is hapracist policies like the Jim Crow laws and bi- pening to you on an everyday basis.” ased literacy tests, which were finally repealed While voting is not a guaranteed way by the Voting Rights Act in 1965. to get your favorite politician elected into “[The founding fathers] knew that lib- office, it does give you a voice in national erty and freedom, the entire concept of what politics and local goings-on.

America [was founded on], was evolutionarily “I think everyone should take interest certain,” Hanks said. “‘A more perfect union.’ in the community they’re in,” Hanflig said.

In those days, their wives couldn’t vote, their “But as college students, we’re in such a daughters weren’t going to be able to vote. privileged position. We should be the ones And if you were a slave of color, you were only to go out and change things.” worth three-fifths of being a human being.”

And since millennials represent the Since America’s past is so rife with voter largest bloc of eligible voters in 2018, we discrimination, we can’t take our voting must be the ones to make a difference at privileges for granted — which was the the polls.

September 26, 2018

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column

EXPLORING THE BOOT WITH GRACE: EMBRACE YOUR INNER TOURIST

Grace McGinness Staff Columnist

Today marks the end of my first two weeks studying abroad in Florence. I’m settled into my apartment routine, classes are underway and I can finally walk around the city without getting lost. Every day passes under a brilliant blue sky and fat, puffy clouds. The “caffe” in the morning is bitter on the tongue, but the gelato sweetens it at night. To gripe so soon about such an opportunity would be ungrateful, yet there is one thing that weighs on my mind — the word “tourists.”

I’m not about to start ragging on tourists as if I’m a longtime local or a shortterm resident wanting to seem “above” the average vacationer. Although I can understand the aggravation bumbling tourists must often cause for native Florentines, I’ve found I’m more likely to take issue with a knowledgeable native’s complaining than the presence of a clueless sightseer.

Since I have arrived here, the problem of tourists has been a main point of conversation with my professors. Tourists stand in the road and mess up traffic, they don’t know how to speak any Italian or adhere to any of the local customs, they don’t take the time to appreciate anything that they see here. To criticize the tourists seems to be as much of a routine in Florence as the morning caffe, and it’s hard to argue with those criticisms when the average out-of-towner resembles a duckling, stumbling after their tour guide and bumping into everything.

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In class, my classmates and I are quick to criticize the other tourists as if we fall into a different category — “half in and half out,” as a professor of mine described it. Since we’re in the country for longer than the average tourist, we feel entitled to join in on the locals’ jokes about annoying tourists — but while some Florentines may appreciate our efforts in trying to fit in, they must know we’ll never fully assimilate in a few short months.

But then, when I whip out my phone to line up a perfect picture of a statue or fountain, I feel a fear that I look too much like a tourist, and a pressure to put away my phone. I find myself wondering if I’ll look too touristy taking a picture of my food, or if the way I dress is too American, or if ordering the Margherita pizza will out me as a

The Arno river in Florence, Italy. Grace McGinness | STAFF COLUMNIST pack up and go. naive, unworldly foreigner.

This, of course, is not an excuse for I, along with anyone else who goes abroad, need to forget this fear. When I obnoxious behavior of tourists or stuwas nervous about my pictures, my room- dents. A traveler should also be respectmate reminded me to seize the moment ful of the country and culture they are because you don’t know if it will ever hap- imposing on. But at the same time, we’re pen again. She made me realize that it was only here for so long and we have to make more stupid to waste this opportunity be- the most out of every moment. We need cause I’m scared of the way I look to oth- to take the pictures we want, eat the food ers. I will never be able to change the fact we want and dress the way we want. It’s that I am a foreigner to this country, no possible to be a bumbling yet respectful tourist, and that’s what I intend to be. matter how I dress or walk or speak.

There’s no use in pretending to be I can’t cover up this part of me nor should I want to. The Florentines may be something I’m not when everyone else able to gaze upon the Ponte Vecchio arch- certainly isn’t going to buy it either. I’m ing over the sparkling Arno River every- not going to let that fear hold me back day as they eat fresh pistachio gelato, but from having the time of my life especially my time is limited. I only have so many when I have so little time to do so. Besides evenings, so many gelatos and so many — who cares if I have 400 pictures of the walks through the city before I have to Arno in my phone? It’s beautiful.

September 26, 2018

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Sports

Men’s soccer beats No. 12 NC State, 3-1

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FORMER PITT LINEMAN ALEX OFFICER DIAGNOSED WITH BONE CANCER

Griffin Floyd

For The Pitt News Alex Officer, a former standout on Pitt’s offensive line, announced last week that he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an extremely rare form of bone cancer affecting fewer than 1,000 new patients each year in the United States.

When discovered early on — as Officer’s was — the treatment has a success rate of roughly 70 percent.

Officer, who started 49 games at offensive tackle from 2013 through 2017, helped pave the way for three 1,000-yard seasons from tailbacks James Conner and Qadree Ollison during his time as an interior lineman.

“Our hearts and prayers are with that family, with [Officer] … we’re trying to help him along this process because he’s a forever Panther,” Pitt football head coach Pat Narduzzi said last Thursday.

“A.O. is quiet, he’s tough.”

Although Officer was not drafted to the NFL in the spring, he participated in training camp tryouts with three NFL teams, including the Kansas City Chiefs, who ended up releasing him in August for failing to disclose a physical condition — a nagging pain in his knee that impacted his physical performance. Officer came back to Pittsburgh to get an MRI on the troublesome joint after he was released and discovered he had a tumor.

To help pay for the upcoming operations and treatment of Officer’s condition, his older brother Jerome Lewis set up a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $100,000. The donations nearly reached the goal’s halfway mark as of Tuesday night, with 639 people giving

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Former Pitt offensive lineman Alex Officer at Pitt Pro Day on March 21.

Mackenzie Rodrigues | contributing editor His brother agrees. The first thing $46,333.

Narduzzi further emphasized the im- Lewis mentioned about Officer was his portance of giving to his former player’s determination.

“Where we’re from, to get somewhere cause.

“When you get a job, you get insur- you have to earn it,” Lewis said in an inance,” Narduzzi said. “That’s why that terview with The Pitt News.

Beyond his environment growing up, GoFundMe page is so important — he doesn’t really have insurance, so all the Lewis also mentioned Officer’s mother as help that he can get right now is going to a huge influence on his life. However, he be important for him to help pay some made it clear that despite his background and support, Officer is a self-made man. bills.”

The online fundraising page reiter- He’s quiet, he’s humble, but also strong ates the “strong but silent” mentality and incredibly driven — the qualities Narduzzi praised, calling Alex “one of that led him to succeed as a Division I the most humble and selfless individu- athlete.

Beyond his successful college career, als,” but also championing his strength, as “Alex is a self-named ‘Dawg’ and will Officer wants more out of football. Despite his diagnosis and the setbacks it enwin his fight”.

September 26, 2018

tails, Lewis said Officer is still very much planning on making it to the NFL. He will begin treatment this week, but even so, he has no plans on taking it easy. He will continue to train and stay in shape, improving his body along with his health in order to meet the ultimate goal of playing in the NFL. Lewis said that Officer remembers fondly the atmosphere at Pitt and the bonds he formed with his teammates.

“It’s silly to consider myself Alex’s only brother because all his teammates were as well,” Lewis said. “The best part of Pitt was that it felt like family.”

Lewis said Officer’s former teammates Justin Moody, a defensive tackle who was forced to end his playing career due to a spine condition as a junior, Qadree Ollison and fellow cancer survivor James Conner reached out to Officer to provide some support.

Conner has been an especially big help, as he went through his own battle with cancer, specifically Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, in 2015. Conner was able to overcome the issue and now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s already reached out to provide insight and advice for Officer on the adjustments he will have to make.

Lewis also expressed thanks to the Pittsburgh community, the University of Pittsburgh, head coach Narduzzi and the other staff for their ‘Panther forever’ commitment, and how they’ve always been there to provide support for Officer even after graduation.

“The diagnosis has been extremely difficult for our family,” Lewis said. “It’s been a hard time, but they’ve been there every step of the way. Their support has been humbling.”

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