11-18-2015

The Pitt News T h e in de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh

SGB SUPPORTS RENTAL REGISTRY

Pitt basketball opens season with blowout victory Page 8

Pitt security officers get new contract Page 2

November 18, 2015 | Issue 66 | Volume 106

Lauren Wilson Staff Writer

Pittsburgh City Council has been working to pass legislation that would keep a list of all landlords in the city for the past year. Now, Pitt Student Government Board has voiced its support to make the city’s bill a reality.

At SGB’s weekly meeting, the Board unanimously passed a resolution detailing its support of a city-wide rental registry that Pittsburgh City Council first proposed last November and is scheduled to vote on today.

Pat Corelli, governmental relations chair and author of SGB’s resolution, said at the meeting he would notify City Council of the resolution’s passage immediately following Tuesday’s meeting.

According to Corelli, a rental registry will make potential legal issues with landlords less problematic because the city will register every person who rents property under the same system.

If approved, the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections will inspect each registered property once every three years to ensure it complies with city code.

Corelli said the licenses are important to ensure landlords pay attention to their properties.

“A big provision is that it’s a business license.

[The properties] will be inspected,” he said. “If landlords know there will be inspections and they will be held to code standards, they should take it more seriously,” Corelli said.

If City Council enacts the registry, landlords who apply would have to pay a $65 fee for every unit they own and must renew their registration See SGB on page 3

The Oakland Zoo celebrated the Panthers’ first points of the season during the team’s win over St. Joseph Tuesday night at the Petersen Events Center. Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer

STUDENTS TO CONTRIBUTE TO PITT PLAN

Lauren Rosenblatt Assistant News Editor

In response to complaints about the lack of student involvement, Student Government Board selected nine students to represent the student opinion on the Plan for Pitt.

Student Government Board Assembly, the lower body of the Student Government Board, announced the nomination of nine student representatives Tuesday to serve on the plan’s strategic working groups, which previously

only included faculty and staff. The student representatives will provide input and answer students’ questions about the groups’ progress.

There is a working group for each of the five goals of the plan, and SGB selected at least one student representative for each group — Mary Turocy and Lia Petrose for advancing educational excellence, Apoorva Kandakatla for engaging in research of impact, Chris Talbot, Harinee Suthakar and Miriam Yeana Kwagh for strengthening communities Max Kneis for building foundational strength and Marcus

Robinson and Shutian Shen for embracing diversity and inclusion.

“It is our hope that the student representative provides the necessary student voice in the planning and implementation of the Strategic Plan,” SGB President Nasreen Harun said in an email. “Students are a large stakeholder in the University’s operations, so we hope to see the success of the University continue as well.”

The Assembly selected these representatives See Plan on page 4

News

TRIUMPH FOR GUARDS

The Pitt News

Pitt security guards have settled negotiations with a national company for a new contract that gives workers higher wages, more training and cheaper health care | by Josh Ye

Pitt security officers rally with 32BJ on Pitt’s campus. Photo courtesy of 32BJ After months of negotiating and rallying, security guards at Pitt are getting a raise, the option of free health care and more job training.

Sam Williamson, the district director for 32BJ, Pittsburgh’s local branch of the Service Employees International Union, said U.S. Security Associates, which employs about 200 security officers at Pitt, agreed to a new contract with 32BJ’s union workers Friday, Nov. 6.

32BJ confirmed that the deal with U.S. Security Associates matches the deal it reached about a month ago with nine other security companies in Pittsburgh. Together, all of the companies have agreed to provide union workers with an option for free health care, job training and higher hourly wages.

Williamson would not give specifics but said negotiations went longer than expected which caused the deal with U.S. Security Associates to take longer to settle. The agreement with the other nine companies took affect Oct. 1. The deal with U.S. Security Associates will be retroactive to that date.

“When workers are trying to turn poverty jobs into good jobs, it sometimes takes

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longer for certain companies to agree than others,” Williamson said in an email.

32BJ, which represents thousands of security guards in Pittsburgh, started its negotiation with U.S. Security Associates at the end of April. U.S. Security Associates employs about 200 security officers at Pitt, who, along with 32BJ, hosted several rallies on Pitt’s campus. During the rallies, workers asked Pitt students and administrators to support them as they negotiated a new contract with U.S. Security Associates.

On Nov. 17, Traci Benjamin, a spokesperson for 32BJ, confirmed that the deal U.S. Security Associates agreed to matches the contract the nine other security companies settled with workers. The new contract boosts hourly wages for employees from $8.93 to $11.75 over the course of three years and offers workers training on what do to in emergency situations. U.S. Security Associates offered its workers healthcare prior to the deal, but the agreement includes an option for a free health care plan.

Williamson explained that not only was the previous hourly wage of $8.93 for security guards on Pitt’s campus “a poverty See Guards on page 4

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SGB, pg. 1 every year. If they do not, the city could fine them up to $500 per day they go unregistered.

If City Council passes the bill, people who own and operate property they do not rent out monthly — including bed and breakfasts, hotels, motels and certified rehabilitation facilities — do not have to register. The city will make the program effective 180 days after the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections issues initial regulations, which would happen after city council passes the legislation.

Everett Green, SGB member and executive vice president, said that Pitt’s support of the bill may help City Council make a decision on the rental registry.

“When they bring it for a vote, they will let other Council members know that Pitt student government and Pitt students support it, and Pitt is a major stakeholder,” Green said.

According to Green, Corelli’s push this semester to get more Pitt students registered to vote has helped show City Council Pitt students are serious about local government.

“When [the Council] goes to vote, they’ll understand [how many] Pitt students are registered to vote,” Green said.

SGB president Nasreen Harun said having

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a rental registry will help students feel safer living in off-campus housing.

“Once the landlords have to have things up to code, there will be less issues with tenants,” she said.

Mayor Bill Peduto introduced the legislation on Nov. 10, 2014. Tim McNulty, spokesman for Peduto, said the mayor’s office hopes the council will pass the legislation today and next Wednesday, when the council votes on it for the second time.

“It’s a way of addressing public safety. The way you do that is through systemic enforcement and inspections of properties,” McNulty said. “This is an issue that impacts every city neighborhood, so we’re convinced it’s a good thing for community groups and the city,” According to McNulty, Pittsburgh’s Office of Permits, Licensing and Inspection will enforce the legislation.

“Building inspectors can check every rental property in the city to make sure it’s up to code,” he said. “That will help the city to stamp out problems with landlords and properties.”

According to McNulty, many other cities in Pennsylvania and the nation have similar registration systems.

“It’s something that community groups favor as a way to keep a hold on absentee landlords and problem rental properties, so it cre-

ates a permitting process to track landlords and get properties fixed,” McNulty said.

McNulty said the rental registry will help hold landlords accountable.

“I have to say the vast majority of landlords are really good, but when there are probably bad ones, whether in South Oakland or other parts of the city, we need to address it,” he said.

Bruce Kraus, City Council member, said he supports passing the rental registry because he sees renting property as a business.

“The simplest way to explain the rental registry is licensing of a business,” Kraus said.

“If you come here to be in the rental business, which you are welcome to do so, we just want to license you and have a responsible agent on hand to be able to contact you should there be any issues around the property.”

Kraus said the rental registry will positively affect the student population in Pittsburgh.

“I am often appalled at conditions of apartments that students in the city are living in,” he said. “I argue that when they come here to go to a university, it is not unreasonable to expect they live in a safe environment with safety measures, proper lighting and fire prevention.”

In other news, SGB announced the selection of student representatives in the working groups to assist in the Plan for Pitt, Pitt’s fiveyear plan to improve the University.

November 18, 2015

Max Kneis will work on Building Foundational Strength.

Mary Turocy and Lia Petrose will work on Educational Excellence.

Marcus Robinson and Shutian Shen will be working on Diversity and Inclusion.

Apoorva Kandakatla will work on Research of Impact.

Chris Talbot will work on Strengthening Pitt Communities.

Harinee Suthakar will work on Strengthening Regional Communities, and Miriam Yeana Kwagh will work on Strengthening Global Communities.

Allocations: Project HEAL requested $2,914 to host a guest speaker. The Board approved the request in full.

Pittsburgh Club Baseball requested $1,700 for league dues. The Board approved the request in full.

Pitt Ski and Snowboard Team requested $2,723.10 for two ski trips. The Board approved the request in full.

Musical Theatre Club requested $1,777.87 for a musical production. The Allocations Committee recommended the approval of $1,595.96 and the denial of $181.91. The Board approved $1,623.38 and denied $154.49.

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Plan, pg. 1 from 24 applicants through a group discussion at its meeting on Nov. 16. Harun said the Assembly looked at the students’ campus involvement in the areas related to the applicant’s preferred team.

“We wanted to make sure these students had a well rounded Pitt experience that would allow them to be aware of what’s happening on campus,” Harun said.

After the administration heard complaints about the lack of student involvement at the three open forums the University hosted to discuss the plan with Pitt students, Kenyon Bonner, interim vice provost and dean of students, worked with

Harun to incorporate students in the implementation process of the plan.

Harun announced at the Nov. 10, SGB meeting that students could apply to join a working group.

Turocy said the student forums, and the issues students brought up there, motivated her to apply for the student representative position.

After hearing students’ perspectives, Turocy thought she would be a good representative because she offered an unaffiliated opinion.

As president of Students as Healers, an organization that works to eliminate the gap between medical service providers and patients, and a member of Habitat for Humanity, Turocy has experience leading a team and facilitating discussion.

Raghav Sharma, Students for Justice in Palestine president, has been a prominent student voice throughout the engagement process of the plan but chose not to run for a student representative position because of his passion for issues on campus.

“I don’t believe it’s appropriate for me to label myself as the entire student body if I’m approaching the issue with my own concerns,” Sharma said.

Although Sharma, a junior politics and philosophy major, said the position is an important role, he does not think it will lead to the desired changes.

“The perfect scenario that we are looking for is a broad-based, student-led movement that is less focused on the administration’s goals as they currently stand and more focused on forcing the administration to change their goals,” Sharma said.

According to Harun, the students will serve on the forum for the remainder of the 2015-2016 academic year.

Harun said she gave the names of the selected students to University administration, who will connect the students with the working groups.

According to Student Affairs spokesperson Shawn Ahearn, Bonner had not yet ironed out the details of the process since it was still so new.

Neither Bonner nor Harun knew when the representatives will begin meeting with their working groups.

Bonner said in an email that he hoped the student representatives would offer “unique perspectives” to the working groups.

“The students who were selected by Student Government Board for these positions have a passion for helping Pitt to continue to improve, and we are confident they will enhance the discussions and make significant strategic contributions,” Bonner said.

According to Talbot, the students will meet with their assigned working group once a month, but he anticipates the work will extend beyond the monthly meetings to include attending other

Guards, pg. 2 wage,” but the training that Pitt’s security guards were receiving also did not meet the standard of the Secure and Safe Building Act. The Secure and Safe Building Act, which Pittsburgh City Council passed in May, calls for universal training of security officers across the city. Under the act, security officers who work at all large buildings or campuses must have a minimum of 40 hours of training and eight hours of an annual refresher training on various topics, including emergency response, arrest procedures, use of force and first aid.

Williamson said in this deal all employers have committed to working with the union to improve training and comply with the Safe and Secure Building Act. Lonnie Sutton, the branch manager of U.S. Security Associates in Pittsburgh, acknowledged the company had reached an agreement but said the company had no further comment.

32BJ’s last rally on Pitt’s campus was Sept.

25, during which a delegation of students

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November 18, 2015

events, communicating between meetings and reaching out to other organizations.

Talbot’s working group — which focuses on strengthening communities — is broken into three groups to focus on different aspects of the community. Talbot is working toward strengthening Pitt’s community, Suthakar is working toward strengthening the regional community and Kwagh is working toward strengthening the global community.

Talbot, a junior philosophy and psychology major, said his involvement with several different organizations on campus, including Beta Theta Phi and Jumpstart, as well as his experience with many courses outside of his majors have exposed him to the many opinions of Pitt’s communities.

As an international student, Shen, a sophomore psychology major, wants to focus her efforts on including the international population.

Through her experiences and hearing about her friends’ experience, Shen said she wants to improve communication between international students and resident assistants, as well as between international students and professors.

“I just have a bunch of ideas in mind — that’s why I was motivated to apply. I really see the need to change, and I really think I could help the process,” Shen, the service chair for Lambda Sigma honors society and a member of SGB Wellness Committee, said. “The next step is to think about concrete plans.”

and security officers met with two Pitt administrators in the lobby of the Cathedral of Learning. Ron Frisch, associate vice chancellor of human resources, and Robert Hartman, assistant vice chancellor of employee and labor relations, received 140 note cards from student groups — including the Blue and Gold Society and the Campus Women’s Organization — that penned concerns for the security guards at Pitt.

When he received the cards, Frisch said at the time the feedback from the union and the students was “extremely valuable” and said Pitt wants to include its security officers in the Pitt community. But Frisch also pointed out that the security guards on campus are not Pitt employees and that Pitt has influence on the negotiations. When he met with security officers and representatives from 32BJ, Frisch listened to their concerns but said the University couldn’t do much else.

“The negotiation stays between the union and the company. We have no say at the table,” Frisch said at the rally. “But we’ll continue to talk to them because they are our colleagues. We’ll never throw our colleagues out of the building.”

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Decriminalize marijuana use, prioritize rehabilitation A puff of smoke trailing from the end of a joint should not leave a lingering cloud over someone’s life.

But all too often, that’s the case and the verdict.

Marijuana use is still criminalized in 30 states — including Pennsylvania— according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In Pittsburgh, the realization of criminalization’s costs — burdened judicial systems, racial bias and extreme criminal sentences — has made its way to the legislative agenda. R. Daniel Lavelle, public safety chair councilman, introduced legislation Tuesday that would decriminalize marijuana use in the city.

The proposed legislation marks an important milestone for how we perceive marijuana in Pittsburgh. Criminalization slaps harsh sentences on personal records and drains financial resources — a cost we can no longer justify. Pittsburgh City Council should pass the ordinance and end the harmful effects of marijuana criminalization.

According to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, more than 4,900 people were jailed last year for marijuana offenses in the state.

Nationally, police arrested more than 8 million individuals for marijuana possession between 2001 and 2010, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The criminal justice system does not need this burden over a substance that is legal in some capacity in 23 states and our nation’s capitol.

In an Oct. 31, weekly address on the need for criminal justice reform, President Barack Obama revealed there were more than 2.2 million people in American prisons. The last thing we need are more people in jail for what should be a minor offense.

Enforcing marijuana laws siphons limited resources away from more serious pursuits. It costs about $3.6 billion a year nationally to enforce marijuana laws, according to the ACLU — funds we can easily allocate elsewhere, like drug rehabilitation programs.

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Marijuana criminalization also carries a racial bias — unfairly targeting black individuals and incarcerating them at higher rates.

According to 2007 data reported in the Marijuana Policy Almanac, the largest collection of public data on marijuana arrests in the United States, Pittsburgh police arrested black individuals at a rate of 871 per 100,000, compared to an arrest rate of 129 per 100,000 for white individuals.

These aren’t light sentences. Pennsylvania classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance, and possession of marijuana is a criminal offense.

In accordance with the war on drugs, our country treats marijuana possession on the same scale as the use of harder, life-threatening drugs — like Schedule 1 drug heroin and Schedule 2 drug cocaine — and possession of up to 30 grams of marijuana can just as easily land you a 30-day jail sentence, $500 dollar fine or both in Pennsylvania.

If the proposed ordinance becomes law, city police will issue a fine instead of a misdemeanor summons for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana or eight grams of hashish. The ordinance would also set a civil fine of up to $100 and allow officers to seize the drugs.

Decriminalization in Pittsburgh would not be unprecedented — nationally, cities, like Philadelphia, have enacted similar legislation. Those efforts have allowed the city’s police force to reprioritize its efforts toward addressing heroin use, which has grown into an epidemic in recent years with a rising death toll.

In 2014, there were 303 overdose deaths in Allegheny County. Of those deaths, 40 percent were from illegal drugs, such as heroin and cocaine. We need to prioritize our attention to drugs — focus on marijuana or focus on the drug killing our neighbors and loved ones.

Using the money raised by the fines, we could invest in rehabilitation centers for heroin addicts.

Decriminalizing marijuana could mean less people in jail, more addicts getting help and more resources to improve our city.

ART IS A PUBLIC GOOD, NOT A COMMODITY

Henry Glitz Columnist

We’ve locked away precious pieces and depictions of our humanity in our rush to commodify society and — ironically— cling to our wealth.

Last Monday, New York’s prestigious Christie’s Auction House sold a painting by Italian modernist painter and Picasso contemporary Amedeo Modigliani at auction for an incredible $170.4 million to Chinese billionaire and amateur art collector Liu Yiqian.

Some, including the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones, questioned whether the painting — masterpiece or not — was really worth its huge price tag. In an opinion piece for the Telegraph, arts editor Sarah Crompton envisions the third-world children we could feed using the millions spent on paintings like Modigliani’s 1918 masterpiece “Nu Couché.”

Critics are right that prices in the art market are outrageous, but this is not because we overvalue paintings.

If anything, we underprice paintings selling for nine figures to undeserving buyers — art is a public good that today’s art market treats as a private commodity.

For all the claims that the modern art movement developed as a way for lazy artists to strike rich with minimal effort, astronomical prices are a fairly recent development.

Every one of the top-10 most expensive paintings of all time sold

November 18, 2015

within the last 10 years, including the $300 million sale of Gauguin’s “Nafea Faa Ipoipo” in February. The art industry now values art advisers for their sharp business acumen in the pursuit of pricey art objects, and not solely for their art knowledge.

According to the Bureau of Labor, the median salary in 2012 for an art director was $80,880. In 2014, the median salary had grown to $97,850, according to the Bureau of Labor.

Auction houses sometimes get the blame for manipulating modern and contemporary art markets to maintain the illusion of strength and stability. Sergey Skaterschikov, the founder of Skate’s Art Market Research in New York, called big-name auctions, such as like the auction where “Nu Couché” sold, “too big to fail” in an article for Bloomberg Business.

Art houses use invaluable works of art as collateral for housing enormously risky bets in lesser known artwork. The necessity to keep up large profit margins easily eclipses concern for the art itself.

Although Liu, who wanted to add more Western pieces to his collection of mostly Chinese antiquities, seems to have an aesthetic interest in Modigliani’s painting, oftentimes the fine art market serves as a safe haven for the super rich to isolate their money from governments’ reach.

Spanish aristocrat and art dealer See Glitz on page 6

5

Illustration by Victor Gonzalez

Glitz, pg. 5 Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, accumulated a private art collection that resides in a museum owned by Spain in the remote Cook Islands. Emails obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists showed that Thyssen-Bornemisza owned two offshore companies — Nautilus Trustees Limited and Sargasso Trustees Limited — in tax havens that purchased valuable artwork, saving her from possibly millions of dollars a year in taxes.

The aesthetics of modernism or any individual artwork has little to do with the art price boom.

What’s more, artists who are supposedly making a fortune off scribbles on a

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canvas turn out to have no such financial incentive.

German postmodernist painter Gerhard Richter has repeatedly broken the record for highest auction price for artwork by any living artist. While his “Abstraktes Bild” sold at auction in February for the equivalent of around $43.7 million, Richter earned slightly over the equivalent of $8,000.

“We artists get next to nothing from such an auction. Except for a small morsel, all the profit goes to the seller,” Richter said in a March interview for the Guardian.

Richter also lamented the negative impact of astronomical prices on “‘serious galleries and young artists.” Due to the rise of notably high-stake art fairs, London’s commercial galleries feel considerable

pressure. Today’s art market stifles new young artists’ creativity by forcing them to be entrepreneurs as well as creators.

The market solution for the art “industry” — if we could call it that— evidently is not beneficial for art itself. Private purchase of masterworks almost guarantees that the buyers will hide them in a private gallery or a safe. Worse, as the Guardian’s Crompton suggests, absurdly high prices “make people think that art is out of their reach, something that is not for them.”

The record holder for most expensive painting to sell at auction is Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger,” selling at the price of $179 million in May. This painting — roughly the same period, style and pricing of Modigliani’s “Nu Couché” — is currently residing in a private, unmapped vault.

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No one except the owner may see it, and no one except the owner knows where it is.

It’s unseemly for a Picasso to go unseen and unadmired. It’s a misfortune that the painting isn’t hanging in a public gallery or museum, and it’s a misfortune that we must address.

Crompton agrees that “a civilized society needs art as well as bread,” and we must protect a resource of that importance.

Government funding for the arts should help protect and retain important paintings like a Picasso masterpiece.

Otherwise, millionaires just might lock up our humanity with their treasures.

Henry primarily writes on government and domestic policy for The Pitt News.

Write Henry at hgg7@pitt.edu.

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Health & Fitness

TOP APPS FOR FITNESS Marlo Safi Columnist

Your phone is your virtual wingman, life coach and best friend.

Google Maps helps you navigate through Pittsburgh. Spoonr finds you locals to snuggle. Snapchat gives you a lens into the lives of your social peers.

Like everything else, working out improves when you are wired in. The “Miami nightclub” Spotify playlist can double as your workout jams and facilitate your squat session, but there are apps out there to help you stay fit as well. Whatever your dietary goals may be, here are the apps to coach you through them.

1) For those of us who want to eat healthier to avoid the dreaded postThanksgiving food baby, calorie tracking phone apps keep an eye on consumption when we don’t.

Calorie tracking apps — such as MyNetDiary and Livestrong’s MyPlate calorie tracker — search and add the calories you accumulated in one day, allowing you to reduce your intake of certain foods or increase intake of others. Calorie tracking apps also help you appreciate just how many calories are in everything you eat, teaching you how to better portion your food.

For example, I might eat a small slice of my grandma’s pound cake, under the impression that because it was such a thin

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slice, it couldn’t be too bad for me. After searching it in the calorie tracker, I learn I just consumed what was a 350-calorie slice of pound cake. I allotted myself 1,500 calories that day, so now I know how to limit myself for the rest of the day.

2) Nutrition apps like Fooducate and ShopWell will help you learn what’s really in your food when grocery shopping.

The apps also rate foods according to your custom nutritional needs. This way, you can take control of your diet and tailor it to meet a nutrition goal.

3) You may prefer to spend most of your workout lifting heavy plates of metal and grunting incessantly. Or, you’d rather drench your clothes in sweat during a rigorous cycling class. Regardless, there’s an app to coordinate that burn.

Apps like JEFIT and Two Hundred Squats help track your performance in the weight room. JEFIT helps you set up your workout and then keeps track of reps and amount of weight you lift, saving it for your next workout as a benchmark you’re encouraged to challenge. Two Hundred Squats helps you keep track of your squats over a six-week period, helping you reach — or dip to — two hundred consecutive squats.

4) For people who want to keep track of their cardio workouts, Endomondo tracks

Illustration by Victor Gonzalez your cardio by monitoring heart rate and calories burned — allowing you to quantify every dimension of your healthy lifestyle.

Smartphone apps take care of the brain work so you have more time to put in the physical work. You can still sweat to the

November 18, 2015

oldies, but it’s best if you bring your workout to the 21st century with a little app power.

Marlo Safi primarily writes about public policy and politics for The Pitt News.

Write to Marlo at mes26@pitt.edu

7

Sports

PITT SIGNS THREE RECRUITS Dan Sostek

components of a prototypical successful collegiate guard.

“Justice is a tough, physical, strong With the early recruit signing period guard who plays hard,” Dixon said in the recoming to a close, the Pitt men’s basketball lease. “He played point guard for probably team announced the three newest members the best team [Team Loaded, Virginia] in of the Panther Hoops program. the country last year in terms of AAU proA University release announced that Pitt grams. He plays with great intensity while head coach Jamie Dixon signed three outbeing very unselfish. He is a driver who can of-state recruits —Justice Kithcart, Crismake it to the basket as well as an attacker shawn Clark and Corey Manigault — to the who gets to the foul line, and I like those team’s 2016 recruiting class. They will join things.” the Panthers for the 2016-2017 season.

The other guard in the class, Crisshawn “We have kids that are from good, Clark, is a 6-foot-4-inch junior college solid programs and have been with them transfer. Originally from Huber Heights, for a number of years,” Dixon said. “They Ohio, Clark played at Canada College in all have good size for their position, and Redwood City, California, averaging 15.0 they’re good students at the same time. I’m points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists per excited about the group. They all come from game in his winning freshman programs, year there. and they’re Clark excited chose Pitt about being over off ers at the Unifrom Butler, versity of California, Pittsburgh.”

Nevada, These three addiJamie Dixon Oregon and tions will Pitt men’s basketball head coach St. Mary’s.

He will prove critimiss his cal for the 2015-2016 season at Canada College due to Panthers, who have four players graduating an unspecified knee injury. following the season. Pitt still has until May Without acknowledging the injury, 18 to fill out the remainder of its recruiting Dixon expressed his excitement for Clark, class. who will have three years of eligibility reThe 6-foot-1-inch Kithcart is a threemaining. star guard from Virginia Episcopal School.

“Crisshawn is an athletic guard with As a junior, he averaged 11.3 points, 3.0 regood size,” Dixon said. “He will have three bounds and 2.3 assists per game. years to play, so he will be an older kid He chose Pitt over offers from Memphis, when he gets here. He’s very versatile — he TCU, Wake Forest and Vanderbilt.

Sports Editor

Michael Young scored a team-high 16 points in the win.

Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer

PANTHERS PUMMEL PUMAS AT THE PETE Dan Sostek Sports Editor

With a pristine, safe hardwood court under its feet, the Pitt men’s basketball team officially opened its season, avoiding a slipup Tuesday evening.

After officials cancelled Pitt’s original season opener — a matchup in Okinawa, Japan, against No. 9 Gonzaga — at halftime last Friday due to slippery and unsafe floor conditions, the Panthers defeated the Division II St. Joseph’s Pumas by a final score of 84-43.

According to junior forward Sheldon Jeter, Pitt was thrilled to get to play against a new team, no matter its level of play.

“At this point of the year, we’re tired of practicing against each other,” Jeter said. “I mean, we like the competition we bring out in each other, but we’re ready to get out there and play other people.”

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The Panthers trotted out a starting lineup of familiar faces and newcomers alike, as returning starters James Robinson, Michael Young and Jamel Artis joined graduate transfers Alonzo Nelson-Ododa and Sterling Smith to start the game.

After scoring the first points of the season against Gonzaga in the now-nullified game, Young opened up scoring again for the Panthers, cleaning up his own miss with a layup.

“For this year I tried to tell myself when I prepare for a game, one of my first shots, try to get fouled, try to get a layup, try to get as many rebounds as I can to get me going,” Young said. “[I don’t want to] just use shots or offense to get me going, but use defensive rebounding to get me going. I think it’s really helping me.”

After St. Joseph’s converted on three of four free throws to give the Pumas a 3-2 advantage, See Basketball on page 9

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[The recruits] are excited about being at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dixon said Kithcart possesses many

November 18, 2015

See Recruits on page 10

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Find the full story online at

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Panthers of the Week BRENNA WISE

Wise impressed in her first career game on Friday, helping lead the Panthers to a dominating 67-41 win over Wagner. Wise, a freshman from Vincentian Academy in Pittsburgh, tallied 11 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal in her regular season collegiate debut without committing any turnovers. This performance followed Wise’s exhbition game performance against Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Nov. 8, when she scored a team-high 19 points.

The women’s basketball team next plays Friday at 5:30 p.m. when it takes on Delaware State at the Petersen Events Center.

November 18, 2015

MIKE CAPRARA

LINEBACKER | FOOTBALL

the Panthers utilized the long ball to create some separation. Artis and Smith hit two consecutive jumpers — a three and a two— to give Pitt an 8-3 advantage.

St. Joseph’s clawed back, diminishing the Panther lead to 10-8 with 12 minutes left in the half.

But Pitt responded with a 13-2 run, highlighted by back-to-back 15-foot jump shots by Robinson and a three-pointer by junior college transfer Jonathan Milligan.

“I thought our effort, execution and unselfishness was good early,” head coach Jamie Dixon said after the game. “I think it started carrying over, and then we started making some shots.”

Heralded freshman guard Damon Wilson made his Pitt debut with 5:58 left in the first half, checking in at point guard. He snagged a rebound on his first play.

The half ended with a spark for Pitt, as Young followed up when Robinson missed 3-pointer and laid it in just before time expired, giving Pitt a 37-23 lead heading into the intermission.

Young had a well-rounded first half, tallying nine points, six rebounds and five assists. Robin-

son added seven points of his own.

“I thought Mike really set the tone with some passing early,” Dixon said. “We didn’t knock them down, but he could have had a triple-double with some of the passes he made early in the game.”

Nelson-Ododa got Pitt on the board in the second half, following up an Artis’ miss to give Pitt a 39-23 lead and give Nelson-Ododa, a Richmond transfer, his first points as a Panther.

Once again, St. Joseph’s fired back, as it narrowed the gap to 49-34. But a 3-pointer by redshirt freshman Cameron Johnson and an andone score by Chris Jones put the Panthers up 55-34 with 12:04 remaining in the game.

The teams traded baskets throughout the remainder of the contest, with a breakaway layup

by Nelson-Ododa, Wilson’s first career points, a wide-open 3-pointer with 6:34 remaining, and a three-point play by Ryan Luther with 5:35 left highlighting the way.

Then with 4:24 left, Wilson dished the ball to a sprinting Jeter, who hammered in an electrifying slam dunk to put Pitt up 73-43. The dunk impressed the crowd more than Jeter, though.

GUARD | WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Basketball, pg. 8

Caprara had the best game of his Pitt career Saturday in Durham, North Carolina, playing a integral role in Pitt’s 31-13 win over the Duke Blue Devils. Caprara, a graduate of Woodland Hills High School, compiled eight tackles, two sacks, a fumble recovery and a pass defended in the afternoon, earning the ACC Linebacker of the Week honors for his performance.

Caprara and the Panthers are back on the gridiron Saturday, taking on the Louisville Cardinals at 3:45 p.m. at Heinz Field.

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Recruits, pg. 8 can shoot the ball, play point guard and guard as well on defense.

He’s a good athlete and very hard worker.”

The most heralded player of the class thus far — 6-foot-8-inch forward Corey Manigault — accompanies Kithcart and Clark.

Manigault is a four-star prospect from Suitland, Maryland. At Paul IV in Virginia, Manigault averaged 15.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, thriving as big man.

Many schools heavily recruited Manigault, who ended up choosing Pitt over Miami, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Xavier and Maryland.

Dixon highlighted Manigault’s youth and his versatility as some of the recruit’s strengths.

“Corey is a really good player and is young for his class,” Dixon said. “He didn’t play a lot in the summer with some injuries, but we are really fortunate to get him. He has good size for someone who is still growing. He can play inside and out, has good skills and very strong hands with a soft touch.”

Aside from his flexibility on the court, Dixon also praised his new recruit’s shooting ability.

“He will be a good free throw shooter, so we have to get him to the foul line,” Dixon said. “And he can also hit midrange jump shots.”

The Pitt men’s basketball team next plays on Friday at the Petersen Events Center when they take on the Detroit Titans. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

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Jamie Dixon signed three recruits to the Pitt basketball program, the school announced Tuesday. Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer

November 18, 2015

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