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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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Vol. 105 Issue 88

Pittnews.com

@thepittnews

Thursday,January Janu 8, 2014

SEEING RED FDAʼs move to loosen blood donor ban meets opposition Lauren Wilson For The Pitt News

Missing the mark 8 Alex Wise revisits his menʼs basketball preseason predictions.

based LGBT advocacy organization, isn’t satisfied with the new regulations, either.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s still discriminatory,” said Chris Bryan, director of marketing and development at the Delta Foundation.

Before donating blood, prospective donors must complete the AABB Donor His-

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with the position of our organizations that the current lifetime deferral is unwarranted,” but that it would take time to implement them.

“Our organizations strongly support the use of rational, scientifically based deferral periods that are applied fairly and consistently among blood donors who engage in similar risk activities,” the statement said.

Brandon Benjamin, a former president of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, said the Red Cross should instead pose questions — not exclusive to gay or bisexual men — regarding high-risk behaviors that could cause disease.

“It’s strange, because they think it’s progress,” Benjamin said.

The FDA’s recommendations are based on “available scientific evidence,” according to a statement by Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, with help from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Delta Foundation, a Pittsburgh-

New seasonsʼ greetings 6 Stay warm with this winterʼs TV lineup.

d oo Bl

A federal recommendation that would lift the ban on men who have had sex with other men from donating blood has left members of the LGBTQ community dissatisfied.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a statement on Dec. 23 announcing recommendations to loosen the guidelines for men who have had sex with other men to donate blood, meeting support of American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) and America’s Blood Centers. The FDA would implement the updated guidelines sometime this year after the public and stakeholders have had time to comment.

The recommendation would replace the FDA’s 31-year-old lifetime ban on men who have had sex with other men from donating, which stemmed from the prevalence of HIV and AIDS within the population.

The Red Cross, the AABB and America’s Blood Centers said in their statement that the FDA’s recommendations are “consistent

Weaving the web 4 Local students should improve small businessesʼ internet presence.

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BLOOD tory Questionnaire, which is mandated by the FDA. The questionnaire surveys respondents’ health history to ensure their blood is free of diseases.

Nine of the 29 questions ask specifically about HIV and AIDS, and two of them ask specifically about men who have had sexual contact with other men.

One question asks: “Female donors: Since your last donation, have you had sexual contact with a male who has ever had sexual contact with another male?

(Males: check “I am male.”).”

If a woman answers yes to this question, she is deferred from donating for one year because “HIV and other diseases may be transmitted through sexual contact.”

Another question asks: “Male donors: Since your last donation, have you had sexual contact with another male, even once? (Females: Check “I am female.”)”

The Red Cross already has a one-year donation deferral period for other groups, including intravenous recreational drug

January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com users and cancer patients, and a six-month deferral period for others who have recently gotten a tattoo or piercing.

The American Medical Association said it supports the FDA’s recommendations.

“It’s important that national policy on blood donations be based on sound science. The AMA will continue working with the FDA to ensure that population risks are evaluated consistently and without discrimination,” the association said in an email.

Benjamin said he is skeptical of the scientific basis for the new policy.

According to Benjamin, modern blood testing technology can detect the virus within months, and the scientific reason for the waiting period is still unclear.

The revised policy would still reinforce stereotypes, he said, from when AIDs emerged more than 30 years ago in the United States, affecting a large population of the gay community, which was the basis for lifetime restriction, he said.

“There still is a fear, and these kinds of policies perpetuate that fear,” Benjamin said. “The question trivializes the com-

munity. It says that we are in desperate need of blood, but your blood is dirty.”

According to Allie McCarthy, current president of Rainbow Alliance, the new recommendations aren’t significantly more favorable than the outdated policy, but will hopefully propel future progress.

“I’m glad people are at least hearing the arguments [that the old guidelines were unfair], so it may be a good foot in the door,” McCarthy said.

She pointed out that all blood is screened, regardless of sexual orientation.

“It’s really hurtful to the community that it’s still associated with HIV,” McCarthy said.

As of now, Rainbow Alliance hasn’t taken a stance on the new recommendations, McCarthy said.

When the new recommendations are implemented later this year, Benjamin said he will not be lining up to donate blood.

“Once they finally recognize the dignity and the responsibility of men who have sex with men to have safe sex just like everybody else, then I’ll want to do it,” he said.

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

EDITORIAL

OPINIONS

Letʼs channel studentsʼ web skills to bolster local business

When looking for something to buy, what do you do? Do you walk around every street and weigh your options, or do you take out your laptop or phone, visit Google and search for businesses around you?

In 2015, businesses must weigh the importance of reaching potential customers online.

Locally, some businesses have taken to the web to increase their popularity.

When asked about its website, Stan Prestogeorge, the owner of Prestogeorge, a Strip District-based coffee and tea shop, said, “We are a wholesale distributor and retailer. Most of our business is brick and mortar. We would like to grow online more.”

Despite being on Yelp and Urbanspoon, Red Oak Cafe does not currently have its own website. Its owner, Dave Gancy, said, “We used to have a website, but it was hacked.”

The Oakland cafe went online in 2007, but was hacked in 2010.

When asked about whether Yelp or Urbanspoon was better than having its own site,

the owner replied, “It’s not really an either or. We should have our own, but I can’t do what they do as far as reach. It’s a different animal.”

Whatever the case, there is no question that online shopping plays a major role in modern commerce. According to the SCORE Association, a Herndon, Va.-based nonprofit organization of small business counselors and mentors supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration, only 51 percent of small businesses have websites. In sum, half of smaller enterprises in the United States do not have a website of their own.

An article on Wednesday in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette elaborated on numerous statistics about small businesses’ online presences reported by the SCORE Association. According to the article, 97 percent of customers search online for products and services, 91 percent of customers have visited a store because of its online presence and 88 percent of customers have been influenced by an online

review. While a larger enterprise possesses the resources to build a prominent online presence, many smaller companies find it difficult, since all of their energy must go into the actual day-to-day business they are trying to keep afloat.

So what can citizens do to help their local business owners and, therefore, local economy? For starters, the neighborhoods of Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and surrounding universities and colleges can play a major role.

Computer science departments should implement a program that matches educated programmers and web designers with local businesses that remain offline. Students would design a functioning website, especially one that is mobile-compatible, since 93.3 percent of small business websites are not, despite 4 out of 5 customers saying they have used a smartphone to shop. During this process, business owners could remain focused on their daily tasks without distraction. If students successfully complete the project,

they would then be awarded class credit.

It’s a win-win: The business increases its consumer reach by going online, while students get both college credit and real world experience.

We live in an era of the decline of mom and pop shops, and much of this comes at the cost of the undeniably convenient World Wide Web. Twenty percent of businesses employing five or fewer people will fail per year, according to the Cato Institute.

The Internet is not going away. And, to ensure that economic competition does not, either, small businesses must adapt to the extraordinary prominence of online shopping.

Joint efforts between community members and community businesses are vehicles to keep small businesses alive.

Linking small, local enterprises with student computer scientists provides a window to our generation’s digital skills derived from a lifelong relationship with technology. Why not put our skills to use?

SIMON SAYS

New education standards nothing more than ‘standard’ Simon Brown Columnist

In the last two months since the midterm election, the Obama administration has taken one bold political step after another — from the executive order against deportation of undocumented immigrants to the deconstruction of Cold War-era restrictions against a thawing Cuba.

In the wake of these enactments, the media gave little attention to the Department of Education when it unveiled the long-awaited standards for the ‘college rating’ program that the president first proposed more than a year ago. While these standards move higher-education policy in the right direction, they suffer from the same shortcomings of Obama’s initial proposal.

The decidedly more measured tones of the announcement ensured minimal publicity for the standards, which aren’t exactly standards at all. They are, rather, a framework for the

standards. But they aren’t exactly a “framework,” either. They are a “draft framework.”

Even in this climate of partisan hostility, nothing called a draft framework could provoke too much passion.

Nevertheless, the tentative tone of the draft framework speaks to the controversy that the initial proposal and the ED’s subsequent fact-finding sparked among college presidents and policy makers. Obama proposed a rating system that could reliably inform prospective students and their families of college choices, and which would correspond to the proportional distribution of federal funds to each institution. The idea of the ratings themselves evoked the ire of some college administrators worried for their institutions’ reputations. Other administrators welcomed the plan, but held reservations about certain measurements.

Rather than committing to controversial measurements, the ED released the entirely

non-committal draft framework, which emphasizes the three main metrics upon which institutions will be scored: “access, affordability and outcomes” — that is, representation of low-income students, low costs and manageable loan debt and high graduation and employment rates after graduation. Most stakeholders agree to these principles, but the quantitative measurements necessary to capture these broad categories prove elusive.

The ED put the predicament best itself, conceding in the announcement that “many of the factors that contribute to a high-quality postsecondary education are intangible, not amenable to simple and readily comparable quantitative measures and not the subject of existing data sources that could be used across all institutions.” It turns out that a good college education isn’t something that anyone can measure as easily as a good baseball player — even if there are about as many rankings.

Administrators have particularly targeted the “outcomes” category as an overly simplistic, one-size-fits-all approach to measuring higher education. Not all colleges strive to produce graduates with impressive long-term median incomes or with jobs paying 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines immediately upon graduation — both of which the draft framework considers as possible metrics. Colleges that train students to enter social work, public service or encourage short-term employment opportunities, such as the Peace Corps, would not rank well under such scrutiny.

What is more, colleges can easily subvert the well-intentioned metrics through any number of loopholes. If colleges fear for their unimpressive graduation rates, they can always reduce academic rigor even further to pass students through a learning-free con-

Simon Says

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 4

SIMON SAYS veyor belt. If they want to increase their population of first-generation college students, they can always admit more and skimp on the institutional support that many of those students need to overcome their respective challenges.

The standards can circumvent these problems, however, by focusing on practices above results. The ED recognizes that stu-

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dents attend different colleges for different reasons — one quantitative definition of a “good outcome” may apply to a liberal arts college attracting idealistic 18-year-olds, but not to a vocational school enrolling employed adults into night school classes. Nevertheless, certain measurable pedagogic practices allow for a universal standard to assess quality.

It might help to think of colleges like restaurants. No government agency could reasonably articulate a standard for a good restaurant experience that pleases everyone.

But they can — and certainly do — ensure

E S T A B L I S HE D 1 9 1 0

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that restaurants adhere to food safety standards, lest they poison their patrons.

In the same way, the ED can ensure universities conform to best educational practices without making any judgments on the definition of a good education. Rather than measuring graduates’ median salary, they can measure the proportion of the budget that a university allocates to classroom education as opposed to, say, advertising and marketing.

Rather than measuring the number of Pell Grant students an institution succeeds in attracting, they can measure the extent to which

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a university appeals to local public schools and low-income student demographics.

The standards themselves — or at least their draft framework — could identify practices that all universities can be expected to follow. Any pronouncements on some ideal Platonic form of higher education, however, belong rightfully in the Ivory Tower and not Capitol Hill.

Simon Brown primarily writes about education for The Pitt News.

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT TV

Warm up to new winter TV Britnee Meiser Staff Writer The first weeks of January can be a dumping ground for dozens of pilots that won’t make it to February. But here’s a preview of some of the most-anticipated returning shows (and one new show) — based solely on the so-far-released trailers.

“Portlandia” Returns Thursday, Jan. 8 on IFC The sketch comedy series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein returns to IFC in an epic way. Set to a score that builds in intensity and compiling some of the most zealous examples of Portland’s hipster culture — a purple-headed Olivia Wilde wants to save the whales — it’s hard to imagine that the newest season of “Portlandia” could be a disappointing one. Armisen is hilarious as usual, carrying out his varying personas with ease. Brownstein is his complement, contributing to the comedy gold. Bonus? The trailer begins and ends with Kyle MacLachlan in short-shorts.

Trailer Grade: A

“Girls” Returns Sunday, Jan. 11 on HBO Season four of Lena Dunham’s dramedy series finds itself in previously uncharted territory: Iowa. Though the music is catchy, the characters continue to be endearingly flawed and the writing itself is among the show’s most outstanding features — “I just don’t understand why nobody tells you how bad it’s going to be in the real world,” says Shoshanna. “Yeah they do, it’s pretty much all they ever tell you,” replies Marnie. Do viewers really feel like watching Hannah navigate grad school in Iowa? According to Elijah, “Iowa is amazing!” Since it’s a primary talking point in the trailer, I certainly hope he’s right.

Trailer Grade: B+

“Shameless” Returns Sunday, Jan. 11 on Showtime The Gallagher family returns in full force for season five of the Showtime dramedy.

They’ve got guns, a distaste for organic coffee shops and even a stolen prosthetic leg, yet they still manage to be

charming. That being said, that’s really all this trailer has.

There’s nothing new, nothing too exciting — with the exception of a new character, Sean Pierce (played by Dermot Mulroney), trying to frisk Fiona. Even slogans such as “old dog, new guys” and “once a Gallagher, always a Gallagher” are used positively, as if the showrunners want to let viewers know that literally nothing original is at play here.

Trailer Grade: C

“Parks and Recreation” Returns Tuesday, Jan. 13 on NBC. It’s hard to say whether or not the farewell season of “Parks and Rec” will live up to expectations for a few reasons. First, the trailer is a measly 30 seconds, leaving time for little other than small glimpses of each character’s whereabouts. Secondly, there’s a two-year time jump from the previous season — now drones and floating screens exist and Andy has a TV show about ninjas. Otherwise, the characters and their quirks are pretty much the same — yes, the signature Swanson staredown is still around in 2017.

Trailer Grade: B

“The Walking Dead” Returns Sunday, Feb. 8 on AMC The group is on the road again as it looks for someplace to survive, “rather than just making it,” as Michonne says.

Now that everybody is traveling together — and grieving together, as the trailer shows glimpses of multiple characters kneeling on the ground dramatically — the second half of season five has a chance at continuing the first half’s greatness. Although there isn’t any indication of the group finding somewhere to settle, they all appear to be back under the reign of a rugged-looking Rick Grimes and on a mission, and that’s when the show is at its best.

Trailer Grade: B+

“Better Call Saul” Premieres Sunday, Feb. 8 on AMC There have been multiple teaser trailers released for the “Breaking Bad” prequel, and every one sets the scene perfectly for what the show is trying to convey.

The subdued, hazy atmosphere, tense undertones in almost every character interaction and Saul Goodman: the problem-solver who gets himself into a lot of problems. The hype surrounding this show is massive and, even though I wasn’t a big fan of “Breaking Bad,” it’s not hard to see why.

Trailer Grade: A Top to bottom: ‘Parks and Recreation,’ ‘Portlandia’ and ‘Shameless.’

January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

REVIEW

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Cumberbatch commands the whip-smart ‘Imitation Game’ Ian Flanagan Staff Writer

Directed by: Morten Tyldum Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material and historical smoking Grade: ABenedict Cumberbatch’s fastidious portrayal of Alan Turing opens “The Imitation Game” with a question: “Are you paying attention?” It begins as he delivers the preface to the Turing test, which can distinguish whether something is human or not, through narration.

The introduction to the experiment also doubles metaphorically as the conversation between the film and its audience, as it often demands the viewer’s full participation. In a film so crisply paced and reliably involving, there is little room for passivity.

Confident direction by Norwegian Morten Tyldum and Cumberbatch’s finest performance to date assure that the fascinating, tragic life of Turing and his staggering accomplishments

are done absolute justice. The film’s narrative slides back and forth between Turing’s troubled youth and his secret work with the British government during World War II decoding Enigma, the theoretically unbreakable German code, and then culminates in the tragic aftermath of his classified contributions to ending the global conflict.

With a biopic subject so interesting, it almost seems hard to mess up, but Norwegian director Tyldum goes further by creating something with both nuanced craftsmanship and mass audience appeal. With tight editing tethering together the different fragments of Turing’s life, “The Imitation Game” straddles the fine line between complex emotional artistry and its status as a gripping, yet crowd-pleasing, historical thriller. It is restlessly entertaining.

Cumberbatch’s new position as a member of the Hollywood A-list makes him the center of attention, but Keira Knightley is commendable as Joan Clarke, who is hired to join Turing’s elite team of mathematically savvy minds. Matthew Goode provides a great deal of the film’s welcome and unexpectedly witty humor as Hugh Alexander, the most charismatic of the

code-breakers. Mark Strong, though only in a few scenes, makes the most of his onscreen time as MI6 Chief Stewart Menzies.

The story, which was unfortunately oversimplified and bulletpointed in the film’s main trailer, is littered with twists, palpable drama and a sense of wonder at intellectual discovery. The film also avoids condescension by refusing to dumb down the sciences and depicting Turing’s struggles in later life — as a homosexual forced by the British government to take hormonal medicine — with tact, identifying themes that are even more relevant today with the LGBTQ movement’s modern progress.

Not enough can be said of Cumberbatch, who brings an uncompromising amount of strangeness and sophistication to his difficult role. This is something deeper than any of his similar modes of unsociable geniuses, such as in BBC’s “Sherlock.” Turing was a once-ina-generation mind, saving millions of lives in World War II and just happening to invent

Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts in Britain. The Weinstein Company

computers along the way. His life deserves to be immortalized in film, and Cumberbatch unquestionably rises to the occasion.

A taut thriller and an emotionally satisfying biopic, “The Imitation Game” cares just as much about respecting its story as it does about keeping eyes glued to the screen. We are, indeed, paying attention.

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Making adjustments: A look back on Pitt’s season so far Alex Wise Staff Writer

Just before the start of the college basketball season, I looked at the Panthers’ schedule, took the optimistic approach to a few games

“Pitt’s team just isn’t coming together like most of us had hoped.” and decided that 25-7 would be an achievable mark. Fifteen games, a loss to Hawaii and a homecourt nail-biter against Oakland University later, I would like to amend my

original projection. How do I go about doing this?

This season, Pitt’s team just isn’t coming together like most of us had hoped.

Injuries and suspensions have played a part, sure, but that’s something we’ve come to expect. There are grander problems to consider — the lack of a true big man being one. ACC play is now underway, meaning Pitt will encounter a handful of the country’s most talented post players: Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell, Syracuse’s Rakeem Christmas and North Carolina’s Kennedy Meeks, to name a few. It’ll be up to Derrick Randall and Michael Young to stop bigger and more talented players without getting into foul trouble, as quality bench depth is a problem.

Being undersized also causes problems on the of-

fensive end of the floor, as San Diego State and North Carolina State — the only teams Pitt has faced, thus far, with talented interior size — blocked 10 and nine Pitt shots, respectively. Both games were decided by significant margins, and Pitt’s post struggled to score.

Another glaring problem with this Pitt team is one that has plagued the program for years: the Panthers lack a true scorer. Basketball analysts talk constantly about the need for a “go-to guy,” someone you’d trust with the ball on the final possession of a tight game. Before the season, we all thought that guy would be Durand Johnson, of whom I’ve never been a big fan. I thought his shot selection was a little too

Basketball

9 Michael Young has led the team in scoring, but ranks 16th in the ACC in points per game. Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Pitt takes on second straight ranked team at home

Trending upwards: Recent win totals Agnes Berenato

Suzie McConnell-Serio

Wins

Blue: First 14 games

?

Year

Gold: Final record

Chris Puzia Sports Editor The Pitt women’s basketball team made the case in its last game that even a loss can be encouraging for a team.

The Panthers (10-4, 0-1 ACC) dropped a close contest to No. 7 Louisville (14-1, 2-0 ACC) 63-57, despite leading for much of the game. Led by senior Brianna Kiesel, who scored 19 points, the team gave a scare to one of the top teams in the conference, but came just short of what would have been the program’s biggest win in years.

Still, head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio is beginning to make her presence felt in improving the program.

Through 14 games last year, the Panthers were 8-6.

UNC Preview

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January 8, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 8

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BASKETBALL

UNC PREVIEW

free-spirited, but I’ve now realized that the shots he pulled were necessary. With Johnson suspended, Pitt not only lacks someone who’s capable of making the tough shot, but appears to lack someone willing to take that kind of shot.

Look at it this way: Young ’s 13.7 points per game, best on the team, rank 16th in scoring in the ACC. He’s the only Pitt player that ranks in the top 35 in that category. So far this year, Pitt has just four total 20-plus point performances. But individual scoring isn’t the only issue on the offensive end: Pitt’s team offense ranks 13th out of 15 ACC teams. Only Boston College and Clemson score fewer points, and the difference is slim. Evidence of that comes from Pitt’s Tuesday night victory over BC, in which the final score was only 61-60, even though the game went into overtime.

Nobody in the conference grabs fewer defensive rebounds than Pitt, which is unacceptable considering the quality of Pitt’s non-conference schedule. As a team, Pitt averages less than five steals and less than four blocks.

So what does all of this mean?

It means I must have made that 25-7 prediction after one too many Busch Lights, apparently.

Duke, Virginia and Louisville look as good as or better than advertised, and are currently ranked as three of the top five teams in the country.

North Carolina and Syracuse are struggling by the standards of their programs, but are still solid teams.

Notre Dame, North Carolina State and Miami are exceeding expectations. The Hurricanes nearly beat No. 3 Virginia not long ago. Despite this appearing to be a down year for Syracuse, the Orange still pose a threat to Pitt.

In other words, the ACC is strong — probably the strongest conference in college basketball.

If things don’t change for Pitt in the near future, missing the NCAA tournament will become a strong possibility, and the Panthers’ second ACC season will quickly become a forgettable one.

The Panthers were 9-5 the year before, like this year, but finished that season with a 9-21 overall record. The team has started well before, as seen in the graph, but this year’s team has looked more promising in its wins, and even in some of its losses.

The Panthers will next face another top-10 opponent in No. 8 North Caro-

lina on Thursday night at the Petersen Events Center. Sophomore guard Allisha Gray leads the Tar Heels with 16.8 points per game and is second on the team with 7.9 rebounds per game.

The Tar Heels’ (14-1, 1-0 ACC) lone loss came to Oregon State on Dec. 16. In its ACC opener, UNC beat in-state rival North Carolina State 72-56 on Sunday.

Last year, Pitt played against six teams that finished the season ranked, but did not beat any of them en route to a 3-13 conference finish. Before Louis-

9 ville, the Panthers also faced then-No. 23 James Madison earlier this season, who defeated Pitt by a score of 80-64 on Nov. 23.

However, last season — McConnellSerio’s first as head coach — did see the Panthers snap a 33-game regular season conference losing streak that dated back to the 2010-2011 season when Agnes Berenato was still the team’s head coach.

Thursday’s contest against North Carolina tips off at 7 p.m.