10-4-17

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The Pitt News

SGB partners with Rainbow See online

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | October 4, 2017 | Volume 108 | Issue 37

Pitt, Rainbow prep for westboro Janine Faust

Assistant News Editor With the Westboro Baptist Church planning to protest on Pitt’s campus Thursday, the University and campus organizations are preparing. The WBC is known for its hateful speech against the LGBTQ+ community, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Jews and American soldiers. According to its online picket schedule, the group will be holding a series of protests Thursday in Pittsburgh, starting at Carnegie Mellon University at 1:30 p.m. and ending at 3:15 p.m. at Duquesne University. The group is scheduled to demonstrate on Pitt’s campus from 2:30-3:05 p.m. University spokesperson Joe Miksch said in an email that Pitt is unable to comment on the exact safety precautions it’ll take for the protest but “will take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of students, faculty, and staff.” Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance released a statement Tuesday condemning the upcoming WBC visit to campus and encouraging students to respond to the protest in ways most meaningful to them. The group is partnering up with Pitt’s Student Government Board to raise $600 — $20 for every minute WBC plans to appear on campus — for Proud Haven, a local nonprofit that helps LGBTQ+ homeless youth. Rainbow’s release said SisTers PGH — a nonprofit that helps poor transgender people and people of color in Pittsburgh — is organizing a counter protest that will follow WBC throughout the city. The Rainbow Alliance’s office in 611 William Pitt Union will also be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday for people who need “a safe place to escape to.” “Regardless of what you do, please remain non-violent,” Rainbow Alliance President Kate See Westboro on page 2

Pitt Wushu club members learn martial arts with president of the club Gina Bao (far left). Harl Iyer STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MINDS AT WORK, HEARTS AT HOME Pitt students talk about missing friends, family and old neighborhoods whil far away at college. by Ellie Yoon | For The Pitt News

Audrey Chen can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia every time she walks into the Subway on Forbes Avenue and sees how thin the sandwiches are. “Whenever I go to Subway — we also have the same store called Subway in Taiwan — it makes me think about the difference in thickness,” she said. “In Taiwan, the sandwiches are really thick, but here, it’s smaller.” Chen is a sophomore nutrition and dietetics major who traveled from her home

country of Taiwan to study at Pitt. The homesickness she’s suffered since her first year here has not gotten better. “America’s a whole new environment, the food and culture [are] really different,” she said. “I think about Taiwan when I buy food here, over there I just walk out and get good cheap food from a random vendor, but over here you can’t get good sushi.” Chen is one of thousands of college students around the world who end up

wistfully remembering old inside jokes, family game nights and neighborhood haunts while trying to write an English essay miles away from home. According to Pitt’s 2017 Fact Book, 11,254 out of 34,750 students — nearly a third — attending Pitt are out-of-state. There are 3,133 international students currently enrolled. Chen is half a world away from her home city of Tainan — and hasn’t been there since winter break in 2016. She feels See Homesick on page 2


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10-4-17 by The Pitt News - Issuu