10-6-2016

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | October 6, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 51

FORMER PITT FB COLLINS SUES AAC, NCAA Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

occupied by students who specifically selected a gender-neutral option.

Sophomore Maggie Crotty, who lives in Ruskin and is gender-nonconforming, said they chose the dorm because they were looking for a more secure, inclusive environment than on-campus housing from the year prior.

Former Pitt fullback Conredge Collins joined athletes from 42 other universities in a class action complaint on Tuesday against two national athletic entities regarding the lasting effects of concussions.

The complaint — filed against the NCAA and the American Athletic Conference, formerly called the Big East Conference — is part of a round of 18 federal lawsuits filed by national plaintiffs’ law firm Edelson PC. The complaint was filed on behalf of former football players suffering from lasting effects of concussions sustained during their college careers.

This is the fifth and largest wave of suits filed by the firm, which has now filed 43 such suits since May. Collins played fullback at Pitt from 2005 to 2009, where he contributed in his first year and spent his last three seasons as the team’s starting fullback. He racked up 331 yards and a pair of touchdowns over his four-year collegiate career, but said he has sustained long-term damage in the process.

According to the complaint, Collins now suffers from issues such as depression, light sensitivity and memory loss.

See Ruskin on page 3

See NCAA on page 1

Cody Gilbert, who studies nonprofit management and public service, assembles care packages for families staying with their hospitalized children. Meghan Sunners SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

ROOMING AT GENDER-NEUTRAL RUSKIN Ruskin debuted as Pitt’s first on-campus housing to provide students with gender-neutral housing this semester| by Alexa Bakalarski | Assistant News Editor Ruskin Hall is Pitt’s first on-campus, gender-neutral housing option.

But if you walk down the gray carpets of the apartment-style living facility and knock on a few doors, you’re likely to find someone living there who has no idea.

The University informed The Pitt News last year that Ruskin would become gender-neutral — meaning apartments can be

shared by people regardless of the gender they identify with and whether they identify with a gender at all — during an interview about a lawsuit settlement.

The hall largely contains students who did not check off the gender-neutral-preferred option on their housing forms, but 34 out of 416 students living there did.

Thirteen of the hall’s apartments are now

News Corrections:

In the story “Republicans at Pitt divided about Trump” appearing on Tuesday, Oct. 4, The Pitt News reported that Choose Life at Pitt was dedicated to veganism and pro-life views. The club is dedicated to pro-life views, but not veganism. The story also reported that Pitt student Steven Harris plans to vote for Evan McMullin, while he actually plans to vote for Donald Trump.

In a story that ran Wednesday Oct. 5 titled “NRA pushes gun rights on campus,” The Pitt News reported that approximately 50 people were wearing NRA and Trump attire when that was not the case.

The stories have been updated online to reflect these changes. The Pitt News regrets these errors.

PITT SEARCHES FOR RESEARCH CHANCELLOR Alexa Bakalarski

Assistant News Editor The Office of the Chancellor is gaining one extra body this spring, and the administration is looking for faculty and student input to decide who will fill a newly created position.

Pitt has held four town hall meetings this week to lead the search for the first senior vice chancellor of research. The position will include oversight and organization of research projects at Pitt, regardless of discipline. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, Kenneth P. Dietrich School Arts and Sciences Dean John Cooper and School of Medicine Dean Arthur Levine attended each meeting

to answer questions about the new position and gather input about what researchers would like to see in the candidates.

Gallagher said that, throughout the week, a few themes have emerged. At multiple meetings, attendees have expressed interest in a candidate with a strong research background who can adeptly work in a bureaucracy and knows how to collaborate efficiently.

“The very nature of this position is one of enabling and working across the University,” Gallagher said. “It’s not about empire building.”

Gallagher has focused heavily on research since he became chancellor in 2014.

In May, Pitt announced the Chancellor’s Innovation Commercialization Funds –– $1 million in gap-funding money to help Pitt faculty and students put their research products on the market. Gallagher has also been advocating for commercializing research since February 2015, when he sent a letter about the importance of it to the Pitt community.

Pitt plans to have the position filled and up and running by this spring semester, according to Cooper. Until then Cooper said the administration will consolidate the comments they have heard over the meetings and put together a job description.

From there, members of the search com-

mittee — who Gallagher will announce in the next week — will start advertising and making calls to find candidates for the position. Pitt will also hire Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, a search firm, to help fill the position. Though the committee has not set a salary for the position yet, other senior vice chancellors at Pitt make more than $300,000 annually.

By including people from multiple departments in the committee, Gallagher said he is hoping to cover the breadth of research activity at Pitt.

Find the full story online at

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CAREER FAIRS SPLIT Pitt’ divided the annual career fair into STEM and Humanities fairs over four days and two weeks. | by Wesley Hood | Staff Writer Under blue and gold balloon arches flanking the main floor of the William Pitt Union, students and employers swapped handshakes and resumes for the third time this semester.

Typically, Pitt’s Office of Career Development and Placement Assistance sponsors two large-scale careers fairs in the fall and spring. According to the CDPA, the events are designed to provide an opportunity for students to talk about their skills and career objectives with a wide range of employers.

This year the CDPA decided to experiment by separating the fall career fair into two weeks and two smaller events: one on Sept. 28 and 29, for science, technology, engineering and math majors, and the

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other, this Wednesday and Thursday, for business, humanities and social science majors.

Cheryl Finlay, associate dean and director of the CDPA, said in an email that the decision to separate the career fair was the result of student feedback and research into past fairs.

“An overwhelming number of students wanted an opportunity to have a ‘niche experience’ with employers who reflect their areas of career interest,” Finlay said.

Whether it was due to the split in career fairs or the fact that there’s one day left in the humanities fair Finlay could not say, but employers and students perusing the fair Wednesday afternoon said they See Career Fair on page 2

At the career fair, students search for potential opportunities and employers look for possible hires. Meghan Sunners SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Ruskin, pg. 1

Shayla Goller ives in Ruskin Hall, which is currently Pitt’s only on-campus gender-neutral housing option. Meghan Sunners SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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“Living in Holland [Hall], it wasn’t bad, but it was a little uncomfortable sometimes just because all of the girls on my floor were girls, and I was not really,” Crotty, an English literature and psychology major, said. “It makes me more comfortable knowing that the people living here chose to live here knowing that it’s a gender-neutral building, and there’s going to be people like me ... It’s just that safety, knowing that I’m comfortable here.”

Pitt joins more than 150 universities and colleges that offer gender-neutral housing nationwide, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Locally, Carnegie Mellon University offers gender-neutral housing in six upperclassmen apartments, according to its website. Point Park University housing contracts include an option where students can select their gender identity, and the University will also work with students individually to address housing concerns, according to the housing page on its website.

Since announcing Ruskin’s gender-

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neutral option, Pitt spokesperson John Fedele said information on gender-neutral housing was distributed in the housing booklet and that it is featured prominently on Pitt’s Panther Central housing process page. There has not been any advertising from Pitt about Ruskin beyond those features.

Some students living in Ruskin expressed concern over the lack of promotion Pitt has put into the change. They see the new housing option less as a significant step and more as a jumping-off point for future moves toward gender inclusivity on campus.

A rocky past, a changing present Pitt’s informal announcement about Ruskin came amidst a continuing nationwide debate about bathroom policies for transgender and non cisgender people.

The University said in the fall of 2015 that students were allowed to use the bathroom of any gender they identify with, regardless of what appears on their birth certificate. The change was University-wide, making the practice affective on Pitt’s branch campuses as well.

See Ruskin on page 14

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Ruskin, pg. 3 But Pitt’s history dealing with transgender rights has been rocky, and has not always ruled in favor of non cisgender students.

Former Pitt student Seamus Johnston, a transgender man, was expelled from the University’s Johnstown campus in 2012 for using a locker room that didn’t match his University “gender status.” Johnston filed a lawsuit against Pitt, which the University settled on in 2013.

When Pitt announced the settlement, it also announced that it would form a working group of students, faculty and staff to create a set of best practices for transgender individuals.

Pitt has since begun to provide coverage for faculty and staff members’ transgender-related healthcare services, such as behavioral health support, hormone medications and gender reassignment surgery.

Crotty said overall, they’re proud of the way Pitt has moved the needle on gender inclusivity.

“I’m glad that us, as a university, we’re taking that initiative to start providing

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those services,” Crotty said. “It definitely makes me sure that I made the right choice in coming here.”

“A step in the right direction” Sophomore Shayla Goller’s apartment is like any other on campus — dishes sit in the sink, succulents and plants line the windowsill behind her seat on the couch.

Her roommates all identify as women as well, but Goller said just knowing that Pitt would allow her the option to choose otherwise makes her proud.

“I was really happy to be going to a school that provided that option and acknowledged it,” Goller said. “They didn’t say it was ‘co-ed’ or ‘for boys and girls’ or anything that is cisnormative. It was ‘gender-neutral,’ and I really liked that they had that opportunity and used that language.”

Goller found out about the gender neutral option through her involvement with the LGBTQ+ organization Rainbow Alliance. The group’s Vice President Sara Yablonski said along with on campus organizations, the press was useful in spreading the word about Ruskin. “[The option] could’ve been better advertised, but also, it was such a big deal

when it happened,” Yablonski said. “There was a lot of press exposure and I feel like the campus in general was made pretty aware.”

Sophomore Hanna Brubaker was just looking around the Pitt housing website when she found the gender-neutral selection option. She moved into Ruskin this year with a friend of her’s who is a cisgender man.

“To be honest, it was more that we both wanted to live in Ruskin, like we chose the dorm, then we were like ‘oh, look at this,’” Brubaker, a chemistry major, said.

Cisgender students who just want to live with a friend or are in a relationship — as was the case with one couple who moved into Ruskin at the start of this year — are allowed to select Ruskin’s gender neutral option, Fedele said.

Students interested in gender-neutral housing participated in Pitt’s usual suite selection process, according to Fedele, and those students who won a bid overall for apartments and suites in Ruskin Hall based on their request for gender-neutral housing.

Yet, Goller said from conversations she had with members of Rainbow Alliance

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and friends she knew some transgender and nonbinary people chose to stay in the housing accommodations Pitt gave them based on their Pitt gender marker instead of applying for Ruskin. She said cost “definitely affected that decision.”

“A lot of trans people and a lot of members of the LGBT+ community are people who run the risk of not being able to come home one day, of not being able to rely on parents,” Goller said, “so they’re not people that are going to have the most money to throw around on living expenses like this if they can get cheaper housing that makes them uncomfortable.”

Of Pitt’s other on campus, apartment style living options, only single apartments in Bouquet Gardens — which cost $4,300 — reach the least expensive option at Ruskin, which is $4,100.

In response to the price tag, Fedele said Pitt will consider offering gender-neutral housing in other on-campus housing options for next year.

“I think the fact that it exists is a step forward...but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s not a leap,” Goller said. “Hopefully this will be a stepping stone toward bigger and better things.”

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Opinions from the editorial board

Mandatory rehab overlooks addiction pitfalls Pennsylvania finally has a plan to fight the opioid crisis, and Pitt has its fingerprints on it — for better or worse.

A 64-page report on fighting the opioid crisis came out Wednesday after two years of work by a task force of legal and health care experts, including former Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg, who is currently the chair of Pitt’s Institute of Politics.

The task force laid out eight primary actions the state should take to limit abuse of heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioids. Some of these measures, such as improved communication with physicians who overprescribe and expanding access to coroners’ data on overdose death, are straightforward and sensible.

Others are programs that, while well-intentioned, minimize key aspects of addiction treatment. One such provision is the creation of “hard handoffs,” which would require overdose responders to drop people revived with naloxone off at rehab facilities. The overdose survivors will then undergo mandatory observation for 72 hours.

On paper, the concept seems like it closes the key gap between keeping a user alive and ensuring they receive some form of professional treatment.

But the likelihood of reducing overall drug abuse through such short-term recovery systems appears limited, especially if the patient is unwilling to suddenly go clean.

According to the Pittsburgh PostGazette, Terry Miller, director of the Institute of Politics, likened the pro-

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gram to mandatory treatment programs for mental health patients who present a danger to themselves or others. The issue with Miller’s analogy is that mandatory mental health treatment generally lasts longer than three days, and kicking abuse certainly takes longer than the period laid out here. According to the treatment facilities, American Addiction Centers, that’s only long enough to get through the peak of withdrawal symptoms, but cravings persist for weeks after.

If users leave a center and immediately return to taking drugs, the cycle of addiction will continue. This program may save some lives, which makes it valuable enough to attempt, and this path is indisputably preferable to simply jailing those in the midst of addiction.

Still, the decision to stop using drugs is a deeply personal choice.

Often, people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol are not ready for treatment until they make the choice to go themselves.

Pennsylvania already uses “warm handoffs” to recommend treatment options when an overdose sufferer is revived, but the treatment is not mandatory. Clearly this has not sufficiently addressed the crisis. Compulsory rehab takes all of the same issues and adds the potential resentment of centers, as another form of imprisonment, which addicts must trust in order to find help.

The state may be ready for this initiative, but the people actually affected may not be.

column

STOP SAYING PENCE WON VP DEBATE

TNS

Matt Moret

Assistant Opinions Editor Mike Pence lost Tuesday night’s debate. This shouldn’t even be a question.

Since the end of the vice presidential debate, the internet’s political corner has grown bloated with articles about how Indiana Gov. Pence beat Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine — in terms of delivery and confidence — while lying the whole time.

But by any reasonable standard, that means Pence lost.

Tuesday night made it clear that the divide between maintaining a narrative and being a good debater has disappeared. How confident someone looked while an opponent spoke or how people at home will “feel” instead of whether a candidate is saying anything should not be the standard for victory. While this has

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been an issue as long as debates have been on television, the difference now is that modern debates end with a wave of commentary from people behind desks who viewers are supposed to trust.

Ideally, these experts deliver insightful ways to understand the issues discussed, but often, they’re just former insiders now employed by news networks to provide strategy breakdowns.

Take Betsy McCaughey of Fox News, who said, “Pence used fancy footwork to keep the debate from bogging down on the same old issues,” in his “quiet common sense way,” that viewers love so much. One of the “old issues” she highlighted happened to be whether Donald Trump has paid his taxes during the past 20 years.

See Moret on page 7

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Moret, pg. 6 Pundits like McCaughey set standards of success based on how a performance fit a campaign strategy rather than whether candidates effectively discussed the issues presented, providing analyses which are largely useless when it comes to the voting booth.

Stop telling us campaign psychology, and tell us who is competent.

Someone engaged enough in politics to understand how messaging and political communication work is not looking for the media to tell them who won. They pay attention enough to have an opinion and probably know better than to put faith in those shouting at them.

And the people who do draw value from these analysis shows are the ones slightly confused by what they just watched or hoping for something to repeat at work the next day.

And there you are, cable news commentator, saying the person who spent 90 minutes attempting to trick voters did a better job than Kaine, whose biggest error was too eagerly pointing out contradictions. According to Politifact’s live fact-check, Pence had eight false or mostly false claims. Kaine had one.

Kaine listed some of the terrible comments

Trump has made during this election — highlights such as calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and applauding Russian President Vladimir Putin for his strong leadership — i.e., authoritarianism. Pence wrote these off as insults and lied about many of them never happening. CNN’s panel of experts framed this as an unwillingness to defend Trump, but it’s really Pence’s willingness to deceive voters.

“Democrats and many journalists argue

line, instead making their judgments on the overall tone and performance of a candidate.

Pence will not fare well with fact checkers, but his poise and polish played well with voters.”

Gergen’s assessment of voter priorities is largely accurate, as Trump supporters have time and time again shown a willingness to move past their candidate’s bigotry and hostility to direct quotations. The problem is that Gergen writes off the critics as groups who

It’s true that voters rarely scrutinize debates line-byline, but that’s exactly what these experts are there to do. that Pence succeeded only by throwing Trump under the bus, refusing to defend his boss from repeated attacks,” David Gergen, a CNN talking head and former adviser to Ronald Reagan, said in his debate reaction. “But they miss the point: voters rarely scrutinize debates line-by-

have, for good reason, been hostile to Trump in the first place. His statement ignores the role his own commentary, and that of his peers, has in reinforcing misperceptions of average voters.

It’s true that voters rarely scrutinize de-

bates line-by-line, but that’s exactly what these experts are there to do. Demands that media be actively attacking Trump are misplaced because the media should avoid as much bias as possible. But the cable news figures in question are not reporters, they’re supposed to be a spoken form of what I am doing right now: parsing through information to clarify its value.

Instead, they’re instructing viewers about meta factors such as confident delivery and silly taglines.

Our acceptance of political theatrics in place of substance has reached a head this election. Yet, for all the hand-wringing about the media’s failure to fact-check Trump’s campaign, political analysts continue to feed into the idea that his tactics magically result in victories, when all they truly accomplish is manipulation.

Pointing out falsehoods is absolutely worthless if a round of shrugs follows, accompanied by consensus that the lies worked.

Which is why having a show of people there to immediately explain things can be so valuable. It removes the effort of becoming informed, because you don’t even need to switch the channel.

Matt Moret is the Assistant Opinions Editor for The Pitt News. Write to him at mdm123@pitt.edu.

The Pitt News SuDoku 10/6/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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Culture

see online A look inside Oscar Meyers’ “Weinermobile”

“HAZE” SCREENS AT PITT, CHALLENGES GREEK RITUALS Ian Flanagan

Senior Staff Writer When Nick, a wide-eyed first-year, tries to become part of Psi Theta Epsilon in David Burkman’s film “Haze,” he and seven others are given the opportunity to pledge, but — as is tradition — the price of brotherhood is high.

From within the Greek system in Burkman’s film, Nick (Kirk Curran) faces mounting psychological anguish from the fraternity’s leader Taylor (Jeremy O’Shea) and sexual manipulation via senior sorority sister Sophie (Sophia Medley) who constantly teases him.

In an effort to keep experiences like Nick’s limited to movies — and off Pitt’s campus — producer Jayme Aronberg partnered with Fraternity and Sorority Life to screen the film for members of Greek life as part of the University’s official anti-hazing campaign week.

Hundreds of Pitt fraternity brothers and sorority sisters packed into the O’Hara Student Center ballroom this past Tuesday night for an advance screening of the indie film, which serves as a dynamic investigation into See Review on page 10

TNS

CURTAINS RISE ON THE 2016-17 PITT STAGES SEASON Marissa Perino For The Pitt News

Two stories below the Cathedral of Learning’s Commons, the theatre department’s costume shop is filled with busy students.

Storyboards line the unfinished basement walls and sewing machines hum on wooden tables, as designers work to complete finishing touches. It’s one week before the premiere of “Intimate Apparel.”

In her final days fitting actors for costumes, director Karen J. Gilmer made a confident declaration: “We are ready.”

“Intimate Apparel” marks the beginning of Pitt’s theatre department’s 2016-2017 season.

After “Intimate Apparel,” the department will perform “Hair,” “The 25th Annual Putnam

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County Spelling Bee,” “Baltimore” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.” Each show will feature allstudent casts and crew.

“Intimate Apparel” will show Oct. 6 through Oct. 16, at 8 p.m. — with the exception of a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. and no show on Monday — at the Stephen Foster Memorial’s Henry Heymann Theatre.

This season pays tribute to the University’s Year of Diversity by picking shows with themes such as social justice, race and gender inequalities, according to Theatre Department Chair Annemarie Duggan.

“It is important to us to be in step with the University, but also diversity is a part of our department,” Duggan said. “We as a department can help to open a dialogue.”

In addition to stressing diversity, the cur-

rent season will be the first with all backstage lighting run by students. It’s also the first time the season will have five planned shows, instead of the usual three or four that have been staged in recent years.

The lineup includes a variety of genres, ranging from comedy to historical plays, some with music and some without. Some, such as “Baltimore,” have serious messages about racial segregation and political revolutions, while others, such as “Peter and the Starcatcher,” tell quirky stories of fairytale characters.

This season is also the first time a theater company will produce “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a Tony Award winner, in the Pittsburgh area. Pitt brought in seasoned director Kathryn Markey from New York City to direct the play, as part of the department’s goal

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to bring in one outside director per season.

Markey has directed 14 plays, including adaptations of “Don’t Dress for Dinner” and “Pete n’ Keely” in the last nine years.

According to Duggan, this year’s group — from onstage actors to backstage production — is made up of “hardworking, independent students,” a collective that represents 22 different majors such as English, neuroscience and pharmacy.

Rehearsals for Thursday night’s production, “Intimate Apparel,” began the first day of the fall semester. Set in 1905, the play follows Esther Mills, a black seamstress living in Manhattan. Tyler Cruz, a junior neuroscience major, will make her theatrical debut, in the lead role.

See Preview on page 11

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Review, pg. 9 the state of modern Greek culture, as well as a bracing look at college life’s sociological effects.

Following the screening, Burkman, who wrote and directed the film, led an engaging discussion on the moral questions posed by “Haze,” which marks his feature-length debut.

Since last year, screenings like this have been stops on an ongoing nationwide tour of several other campuses including the University of Iowa and the University of Connecticut, before “Haze” releases commercially this spring. The film has also played at various film festivals, including the DC Independent Film Festival and the San Antonio Film Festival.

“We want the film to hopefully get people to speak more openly and honestly about these kinds of issues,” Burkman said.

Samuel Bowser, a junior and a brother of Beta Theta Pi, said he was more inclined to be a member of an anti-hazing community and movement after watching “Haze.”

“It was unique in the sense that the entertainment value was high,” Bowser said. “It seemed genuine, but I did not feel like I was being lectured.”

In addition to the film screening last Tuesday, last week served as Pitt’s official anti-hazing campaign week. At one event, brothers and sisters had to take a picture with a whiteboard, take a stand against hazing in writing, then post it on social media.

At another, there was a roundtable discussion where people from all the Greek organizations on campus were shown different antagonistic scenarios and had to decide if each one was hazing or not.

On Wednesday of last week, Pitt welcomed Mari Callais, a speaker and consultant on Greek life who is currently the senior director of special initiatives for Delta Delta Delta. Callais talked about the positive aspects that Greek life brings to campuses and why hazing has no place in that culture.

Forty-four states currently have anti-hazing laws, yet similar tragedies to those magnified in the film still take place.

As a film, “Haze” provides real cinematic grit, but its virtue is in how skillfully it manages to get you thinking once the lights are up. Burkman — someone who pledged and was hazed during his college years — manages to cover all sides of the complicated issues at hand with brave impartiality. The film’s plot

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is based in part on his own experience facing harassment in Greek life, but also in similar accounts of others involved with the film.

The university that Nick attends feels plenty real. After a student dies of alcohol poisoning — the cause of about 80 percent of hazing-related deaths, according to a 2006 publication called “Hazing in View,” one of the most recent comprehensive studies on the subject. Nick’s brother, Pete (Mike Blejer), spearheads an anti-hazing movement within the film, resulting in mistrust between Nick and the fraternity, particularly Taylor.

The shenanigans and debauchery of the film’s raucous and funny first act slowly turn sinister and gratuitous. The pledges’ will is tested through countless creative forms of humiliation, physical pain, verbal abuse and nauseating amounts of alcohol.

“I think this film showed how psychologically damaging hazing can be — how it starts off subtle and slowly builds to terrifying levels,” said Lauren Sunday, a senior and sister of Delta Phi Epsilon.

In the post-screening discussion, Burkman explained how military traditions of bonding through hazing in WWI — such as spanking and branding the skin — were carried over to college campuses afterward.

In “Haze,” what begins innocently enough becomes an acceptable form of abuse. In his talk, Burkman also referenced the idea of “gradual operate conditioning” and punishment-reward systems that fraternities can often employ. These tactics allow frats to get away with actions imposed on pledges that range from the ethically questionable to the absurdly cruel.

Though the film touches on hazing in sororities, the girls of the main sisterhood in “Haze” are little more than exploited accessories to the fraternities’ excessive partying.

The film’s uncertain ending definitely stirred conversation following the screening.

A majority of the men in the room left the screening before the talk, while nearly all of the women stayed. Burkman said this phenomenon has occurred at other universities he’s visited.

Lauren Hunter, a senior from Delta Phi Epsilon who took part in the anti-hazing week’s activities, said the film offered a lot of opportunity for self-reflection.

“I think the movie was effective in provoking thoughts about hazing and causing the audience members to really think about their organizations in a different light,” Hunter said.

The Pitt News

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Preview, pg. 9 Gilmer, who also directed the play, has been involved with “Intimate Apparel” for almost 10 years, since seeing the show at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre in 2007. Feeling connected to the play by the costumes she has sewn since she was 8, Gilmer pitched the production to Duggan for this fall season.

“I’ve been with this play for such a long a time,” Gilmer said, “and it’s really cool when something that you’ve been with finds a way to speak to you differently ... even after the 500th time that you’ve read it.”

Nick Bernstein, a junior theatre arts and natural sciences major, plays Mr. Marks, the seamstress’ unlikely friend. “[Finishing the performance is] one of those bittersweet moments ... In a couple of weeks it will be over,” he said.

While “Intimate Apparel” rehearsals closed yesterday, the department’s other fall production “Hair” is just getting started.

The “Hair” cast just completed its first week of rehearsals, and will premiere on Nov. 10.

With a much bigger cast and set, the Grammyand Tony Award-winning 1960s rock musical is looking to fill the Charity Randall Theatre

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and its 438 seats.

“Right now we are in what I call ‘building the show’ and we’re focused a lot on choreography and music,” Head of Performance and “Hair” director Cynthia Croot said.

Actor Ben McClymont, a senior theatre arts and Asian studies major, will play Margaret Mead, a drag queen. He said that the songs are “rather disjunct,” but discuss 1960s topics that are still relevant today, including world peace and free love.

After the new year, the theatre department will hold auditions for its three spring productions, including the lighthearted, comedic “Spelling Bee” and the dramatic “Baltimore,” which comments on racial inequalities. To finish the year, the Tony Award-winning “Peter Pan” prequel will start in April.

Duggan remarks that “Peter and the Starcatcher” is “fun and physical” and brings a new challenge for students to try.

As for this week’s premiere, director Gilmer is confident that her cast and crew — which are part of what theatre department faculty call one of the most talented groups in recent memory — will earn a standing ovation.

“They have the commitment and the heart,” Gilmer said. “And then just the passion, which is really, really fantastic to see.”

The “Intimate Apparel” cast prepares for tonight’s premiere. Wenhao Wu SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

October 6, 2016

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Sports first-year wide receivers filling in, breaking out Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

Maurice Ffrench scored his first collegiate touchdown against Marshall last Saturday. Jeff Ahearn SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

T

he call was for the Panthers’ trademark jet sweep –– a handoff where a wide receiver gets a running start before the snap. But this time, the call wasn’t intended for the usual receiver.

Usually, jet sweeps go to sophomore Quadree Henderson, who spent Pitt’s first five games gashing opposing defenses on the play on his way to an NCAA-leading 937 all-purpose yards.

During Saturday’s game against Marshall, though, Henderson needed a rest, and first-year wide receiver Maurice Ffrench took his place. The Panthers had a first down at Marshall’s 11-yard line with a 13-0 lead and 50 seconds left in the first quarter.

Though Ffrench was playing in just the second game of his college career, and had only two previous carries to his credit, he knew exactly what he was going to do.

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He went in motion before the snap and have turned to young players like Ffrench, took a handoff from quarterback Nathan Tre Tipton and Aaron Matthews to step up.

The first crucial player to leave the team Peterman. When he saw a defender crashing down toward the line of scrimmage, he was Tyler Boyd, drafted by the Cincinnati stopped in his tracks and delivered a spin Bengals after his junior season. Then it was move, leaving the defender grasping for air, senior wide receiver Dontez Ford, who left Pitt’s 42-39 win over and waltzed into the Penn State in a sling end zone untouched. and underwent sur“I didn’t think gery for a reported I would ever touch broken collarbone. the end zone. I was Ford was the only so confused when I receiver on the team got in, I didn’t know with significant inwhat to do,” Ffrench experience said. “I’m still in Maurice Ffrench game entering the season, shock to this day. I’ll Pitt wide receiver and analysts had alwatch the video [of ready questioned the touchdown] and how the team would make up for the loss be like, ‘Wow.’” The score was Ffrench’s first for the Pan- of Boyd.

So far, Henderson and junior Jester thers, though, with several wide receiver spots turning over this season, the Panthers Weah have assumed the primary roles as

“

I didn’t think I would ever find the end zone. I was so confused when I got in

October 6, 2016

the team’s starting wide receivers, and both have flourished. But the team needs more than just two receivers to be successful on offense.

That puts pressure on Ffrench, Tipton and Matthews to learn on the fly and raise their game.

“When you look at the freshmen who are playing, you have Aaron Matthews, who had a reception this past week,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said at his Monday press conference. “Frenchie had a nice little run around the edge as well. We’re looking forward to what he’s going to do in the future.”

Ffrench is a true freshman, meaning it is his first year out of high school. Tipton, who is a redshirt freshman –– meaning he sat out last season after suffering an injury and is an academic sophomore –– also scored his first collegiate touchdown in the See Football on page 13

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NCAA, pg. 1 The suit claims that, for decades, the NCAA and AAC knew about the risks associated with concussions and other traumatic brain injuries resulting from playing football, but actively concealed them from student-athletes and failed to implement procedures to protect football players from the long-term dangers associated with them.

Under its new Concussion Management Plan, implemented in 2010, studentathletes who exhibit signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion are to be removed from practice or competition and evaluated by a health care provider with experience in the evaluation and management of concussions.

Additionally, student-athletes diagnosed with a concussion cannot return to activity for the remainder of the day and until the team physician clears them to return.

Attorneys from Edelson PC, representing Collins, could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.

Pitt Athletics spokesperson E.J. Bor-

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ghetti declined comment and attempts to contact another University spokesperson were unsuccessful.

The AAC declined comment, while NCAA Chief Legal Officer Donald Remy responded to the complaint in a statement.

In a similar suit, filed in 2011 by former Eastern Illinois safety Adrian Arrington, a federal judge granted initial approval earlier this year for a $75 million settlement that would cover research and brain damage screenings and examinations for former athletes.

Arrington opposed the settlement, arguing that individual athletes should receive compensation, according to a January New York Times article. Remy said in an emailed statement that this round of lawsuits was a reaction to that earlier case.

“These lawsuits are mere copycats –– using the exact same language –– of the more than 40 cases this lawyer has filed in a matter of months,” the statement read. “The NCAA does not believe that these complaints present legitimate legal arguments and expects that they can be disposed of early by the court.”

Football, pg. 12 first half against Marshall.

Tipton almost had a touchdown earlier in the game when he took a handoff of his own around the end and raced 21 yards down the sideline, but came up just short of the pylon.

“I feel like I should have gotten another [touchdown], because I should have reached the ball out and scored, but I’ll be sure not to make that mistake again,” Tipton said.

The Panthers failed to score after Tipton’s run and turned the ball over on downs, but later in the first half, he got another chance to score.

Pitt faced second-and-9 from Marshall’s 15-yard line with a 20-0 lead and 53 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

Tipton easily beat a defender to the right corner of the end zone, and when he got there, the ball was waiting for him.

Tipton, a native of Apollo, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh, hauled in Peterman’s pass for his first touchdown as a Panther, giving the team a 27-point halftime lead.

October 6, 2016

“I was just glad to finally get one. Especially being a hometown kid, wanting to support my hometown and support my city,” Tipton said. “I just wanted to be able to show them that I’m playing for them, and not only that I’m playing for them, I’m going to do my best.”

So far, Tipton and Ffrench have been up to the challenge every time the ball has come their way. Both players credit watching Henderson as helping them develop and be ready whenever the coaches put them in the game.

“Quadree is like Flash, you never know when he’s going to pop out, how fast he’s going to pop out,” Tipton said. “That dude is something crazy. I call him ‘the special one,’ because he’s just special in everything he does.”

Ffrench said that the fastest wide receiver on the team would be either himself or Weah, and that he has outraced Henderson numerous times. Tipton didn’t argue.

“I’m not going to disagree there, I’m not going to lie,” Tipton said. “Jester, it doesn’t even look like he’s running half of the time, and he’s just flying. And then, to be honest with you … Ffrench is probably one of the fastest kids I’ve seen as a freshman.”

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Career Fair, pg. 2

The location of the fair was also moved from its prior location in the Petersen Events Center to the William Pitt Union.

The CDPA office thought the central location would attract greater numbers of students and employers.

After hearing about t h e tu r n out for the STEM f a i r from the CDPA office, s o m e employers and students expected a large crowd for the business, humanities and social science fair.

Abhinav Sharma, a first year MBA student, said he expected to wait in line to talk to the employers.

“I honestly was surprised that there were so few people here,” Sharma said.

I think I was expecting more in terms of the opportunities available.

-Andrew Levandoski

“It was relieving almost because in India, where I am from, everyone is very focused on getting jobs, and it would have been a mad rush of people to certain employers if an event like this was held there.”

While some of the nearly 250 employers saw numerous students stop and deliver resumés, others didn’t have the same sentiment.

Dustin Nulf, a realtor with Keller Williams Realty, said that he felt “bored in a sense” due to the lack of interest at the first day of the business, humanities and social science event.

“We’ve been here for two years now and three different career fairs, and this is the least amount of people I’ve seen at an event like this,” Nulf said.

Kelsey Kerr, a listings coordinator for Nulf, who was hired after attending the career fair last year at the Petersen, agreed with her boss that the event wasn’t up to expectations.

“I honestly was overwhelmed by the number of people at the fair last year when I was a student, and now seeing this, it’s nothing in comparison. We really haven’t had many students come by at all,” Kerr said.

The Pitt news crossword 10/6/16

were unimpressed with this year’s turnout.

Andrew Levandoski, a junior computer science major, attended the STEM fair last Thursday to land an internship opportunity, but said he was disappointed in the array of opportunities.

“I kind of thought that it was mediocre,” Levandoski said. “I mean, there were a lot of people there, but I think I was expecting more in terms of the opportunities available. There weren’t really a lot of opportunities for computer science people like myself.”

Nearly 250 different organizations were scheduled to attend the separate two-day events, according to the CDPA. Employers in attendance varied from corporate organizations to government and nonprofit organizations from across the country, including UPMC, the National Security Agency and Every Child, Inc. In the past, The Pitt News has reported that about 200 employers and 3,000 students attended the one-day fair. This year, Finlay said about 2,000 students attended the STEM fair last week, and she did not

give an estimate for the first day of the business, humanities and social sciences fair.

She added that through the inclusion of so many different employers, the fair — despite its changes — presented even m o r e opportu n it i e s for students t h a n w h a t w e r e previously available. “ I t ’s hard to c o m pare attendance at this four-day event to past events, because past events have incorporated all majors into one day,” Finlay said.

“We’ve also heard from students who have said there have been much better opportunities available than what were available at fairs in the past.”

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October 6, 2016

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