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 | october 3, 2018 | Volume 109 | Issue 33
REDISTRICTING EVENT UNPACKS GERRYMANDERING
SOUNDS LIKE HOMECOMING
Remy Samuels Staff Writer
Erik Thiessen isn’t happy that the Pennsylvania 7th Congressional District “looks like a picture of Goofy kicking Donald Duck.” Thiessen is a representative for Fair Districts PA — a nonpartisan organization that aims to create a fair process for redistricting. He said his cartoonish comparison of the 7th district, which includes parts of the Philadelphia suburbs and Delaware County, actually represents a major issue that limits voters. “People in government aren’t listening to their voters,” Thiessen said. “They don’t represent their voters anymore. Gerrymandering allows elected officials to pick their voters.” Thiessen spoke about this at an event called “Let’s Talk Gerrymandering,” held in the William Pitt Union Kurtzman Room Tuesday and hosted by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — a membership-based community where adults 50 and older can take classes at Pitt. The event was a way to create a dialogue about the issue of gerrymandering and how it impacts voters, according to the event description. Thiessen and the second speaker at the event — Chris Satullo — each represented organizations that focus on educating people about and pushing for legislation against gerrymandering. Satullo is the project director of Draw the Lines, a “statewide civic education and engagement initiative,” according to its website. The concept of gerrymandering, as Thiessen explained, is essentially a technique that state legislators use to manipulate district boundaries. District lines are redrawn every 10 years after each U.S. census — gerrymandering is the
The University of Pittsburgh Women’s Choral Ensemble performs at the Sounds of Pitt Homecoming Concert in Heinz Memorial Chapel Tuesday night. Levko Karmazyn | staff photographer
PITT ANNOUNCES NEW STUDENT LOAN AID PROGRAM
Christian Snyder Editor-in-Chief
The 2018-19 academic year is the first time in 43 years that tuition didn’t rise for all Pitt students — and while there’s little Pitt can do to procure more funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the University wants to help students deal with their debt. In partnership with education finance startup Altian Education, Pitt announced a new debt easement program yesterday, called Panthers Forward. The program aims to utilize the University’s network of successful alumni to help fund current students’ education. Eligible college seniors with federal loans can apply starting Monday, Oct. 8. “We think we’re innovating something that’s quite new,” Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said in See Gerrymandering on page 2 an interview with The Pitt News Monday after-
noon. “This idea of paying it forward and kind of replacing the commercial loan space with an evergreening fund that we all support ourselves is [new].” Panthers Forward offers eligible students a grant of up to $5,000 toward their federal student loans, which Pitt will disburse directly to the federal government. It also connects participants with a network of alumni ambassadors. Grant recipients become lifetime members of the program and sign the Panthers Forward pledge, a noncontractual agreement to contribute money and time to the program to help fund future grants and mentor future participants. In its first year, the program is open to 150 full-time students graduating in the spring of 2019 who have a federal subsidized or unsubsidized student loans, are in good academic stand-
ing and are “active and engaged members of the Pitt community.” “You don’t have to be a straight-A student,” Bethany Miga, executive communications manager for the chancellor, said. “[We] want you to be engaged in your community.” For Panthers Forward, Gallagher hopes engagement will pay off in two ways — engaged students are more likely to honor their noncontractual agreement to make recurring donations to the program after graduation and they are more likely to become active alumni ambassadors for future participants. Engagement, Miga said, is broadly defined, including everything from student leadership roles to athletics to part- or fulltime work during school. In Indiana, Purdue University has a similar See Forward on page 2