2-25-15

Vol. 105 Issue 121

@thepittnews

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

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Pittnews.com

Take a shot: Students, professionals debate vaccines Anjana Murali Staff Writer Debilitating headache. Sore throat. Five hour naps. The works. For Colleen Hilla, being sick is a perpetual cycle.

Hilla gets the flu annually, among other seasonal ailments, and she doesn’t get vaccinated for it because of a bad experience with flu shots in third grade.

“I’ve had the flu every year since I was four years old,” Hilla, a freshman material science and engineering major, said. “And I do not like getting shots.”

Hilla is part of a growing number of millennials who are growing skeptical of vaccines for various personal or medical reasons. This trend, according to a study published on Jan. 30 by YouGov, a web-based market research firm, indicates that 43 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 said parents should decide whether or not their children get vaccinated.

Full-time, first-year students and those living on campus must get vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) because of state and University requirements, according to Marian Vanek, director of Student Health Services. According to Vanek, only 0.1 percent of Pitt students are unvaccinated due to an exemption policy, which allows students to sign a waiver declining the MMR vaccine based on medical or religious beliefs that prohibit immunization.

Hilla agrees with the 43 percent from YouGov’s study that it should be the patient’s or parent’s choice, and not mandated by law.

While Hilla received Pitt’s required vaccines, she chose not to receive the flu vaccine, she said, because even when she did, she still got the flu. Because of this, she has been skeptical

Vaccinations

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February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

FROM PAGE 1

VACCINATIONS

of its effectiveness.

“For me, it’s not worth it to go through the procedure of getting a shot for a vaccine that might not work,” Hilla said.

Some people assume causal relationships when it comes to vaccines and being sick, according to Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia .

“They often go into a doctor’s office where they get the vaccine, where they are sitting in a waiting room where there are sick people,”

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Offit, who’s also an attending physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said.

“They then get the vaccine, they go home, they invariably have caught the infection that was going around in that waiting room, but assume it was the vaccine that did it.”

In a worst-case scenario, the side effects of receiving a vaccine include a low-grade fever, pain, redness, tenderness and fainting.

According to Offit, effects can also occasionally include an immediate or type-1 sensitivity allergic response, which usually occurs within 15 minutes.

“This whole business about vaccines causing serious side-effects … I don’t know

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what people are talking about,” Offit said. “[Vaccines] are frankly the safest, best-tested things we put into our bodies. The problem is that they don’t prevent everything else that happens in the first years of life, so people are always going to make those temporal associations.”

The debate on vaccines’ benefits began in 1998 when Andrew Wakefield, a former British surgeon and medical researcher, published a later-retracted study that linked the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to the development of autism.

Even though subsequent studies disproved Wakefield’s findings, Offit says, a stigma still

surrounds vaccination.

Celebrity Jenny McCarthy has publicly spoken against vaccines. She has claimed that vaccines caused her son to become autistic and her activism has stirred controversy in the media, helping to revive the anti-vaccine movement.

Offit has noticed this revival in working with his own patients who come into Offit’s office are cautious about vaccinating their children, he said.

“Once you scare people, it’s hard to unscare them,” Offit said.

YouGov’s January study also found that 21

Vaccinations

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February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 2

VACCINATIONS

percent of responders under the age of 30 said vaccinations “definitely” or “probably” cause autism. For respondents older than 65, only three percent said vaccines can cause autism.

A vaccination program enabled the U.S. to eradicate measles in 2000, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Last year saw a reawakening of measles in 644 reported cases, the CDC found, because some parents do not vaccinate their children.

So far this year, states have reported a total of 154 cases of measles.

“Childhood communicable diseases, which we thought were eradicated years ago ... can strike at any time in the U.S.,” Vanek said. Vaccine-preventable diseases are still active elsewhere in the world, she said, and can resurface after international travel.

The disease’s vanishment also contributes to a lack of fear, Offit said, fueling the antivaccine movement.

“As a child of the ’50s and ’60s, I had the chicken pox, measles and mumps, so I remember how miserable they made me,” Offit said.

“Even though I survived, I still knew what it meant to suffer those diseases, so I made sure to vaccinate my children.”

Today, vaccinations are a “matter of faith” for Offet’s adult children.

“They are not compelled by [these diseases].”

A common argument by anti-vaxxers is that their children are getting too many vaccines too soon, Offit said, which is somehow overwhelming or weakening the immune system.

“They focus on the traits, quantities of additives or manufacturing residuals in vaccines like formaldehyde or ethyl mercury and claim that those are doing harm,” Offit said. “They are just looking for reasons to not vaccinate.”

Offit cited the fact that, right now in the U.S., parents give their children 14 different vaccines in their first years of life, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists in a 2015 report. That can mean as many as 26 inoculations during those years and five shots at one time to prevent diseases most people don’t see, using biological fluids most people don’t understand, Offit said.

Whether they understand the process or not, some individuals have immediate negative side effects when exposed to certain vaccines.

Rebecca Wages, a freshman emergency medicine major, is part of the 0.1 percent of Pitt students who are exempt from getting the required vaccines.

Wages is allergic to the preservatives in some vaccines, and, as a result, is often not able to protect herself against some illnesses such as the flu and shingles. She said she gets the flu once every flu season.

Vanek said although Pitt allows students to submit waivers to become an exception to the rule, even one infected person can spread a disease to people not immune and result in

an outbreak.

“When significant numbers of people choose not to be vaccinated, herd immunity breaks down,” Vanek said.

Erika Yih, one of the medical student coordinators of the Integrative Health Interest Group at Pitt Medical School, said integrative medicine, which is the idea of using additional therapies to supplement mainstream health care like vaccines, can help restore patients’ health .

Although Yih remains open to integrative medicine, she supports vaccinations and

3 believes they are effective contributions to medicine.

“Being open-minded about non-mainstream approaches does not mean abandoning the approaches that have been proven to be beneficial,” Yih said.

Vanek said vaccines are the only way to prevent spikes in infections.

“When these diseases resurface, the infection can range from a mild case to a more severe and even life-threatening condition,” Vanek said. “Vaccination is effective in preventing these diseases.”

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February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Board members propose to reestablish disbanded committees Abbey Reighard Assistant News Editor Two retired Student Government committees may make a comeback under the new Board.

At last night’s Student Government Board public meeting, Board members Jacky Chen and Natalie Dall discussed reintroducing the Multicultural Com-

mittee and the Traditions Committee, which the last Board did not reintroduce. The two committees would work on multicultural issues and Pitt pride traditions, respectively. Chen and Dall do not know when they plan to reestablish the committees.

If Chen and Dall go through with their plans, the two committees would be ad-

hoc, temporary committees that each board can disband if board members decide the committees are no longer necessary. Board members do not have to vote on the establishment of ad-hoc committees, as long as one Board member agrees to head the committee.

Chen said the Multicultural committee will help cultural groups on campus, such as the Asian Student Alliance and Black Action Society, to advocate cultural initiatives and inform the student body about diversity issues. Chen said he doesn’t know the subjects of initiatives yet, as he intends to collect ideas from the cultural groups.

Chen is still researching when and why the Multicultural committee disbanded.

“Students can advocate for certain issues and programming,” Chen said. “It could also help the people who maybe didn’t grow up in the most culturally diverse area.”

The Pitt News reported on Dec. 8, 2013, that then-Board member Sowmya Sanapala said she had intended to introduce the Multicultural Committee at the beginning of her term, but changed her mind after speaking to multicultural student leaders about their needs. “[The organizations] didn’t feel like it was necessary anymore,” Sanapala said in the article. “They already felt comfortable coming to the SGB office or a representative to speak about any issue they might have.”

Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.

The Board discussed reestablishing two committees. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Edi-

T P N S U D O K U

Today’s difficulty level: Hard Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com

February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

EDITORIAL

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OPINIONS

Twitter turns key to political office

If your Twitter gets no buzz, consider our vote up in smoke.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf took to his keyboard on Tuesday for an hourlong town hall, receiving and answering questions from Twitter users with hashtag #PAgov about topics like education funding and the future of coal. Though the talk produced some canned answers, like that Wolf’s goals are “jobs that pay, schools that teach & gov’t that works [sic],” it was a step in modernizing state government.

With 2016 approaching, more politicians in or vying for office should follow Wolf’s lead and better connect with the electorate on Twitter. Traditional campaign tactics like face-to-face conversations, phone calls or TV commercials are not enough to engage with — and capture the votes of — our generation. Getting acclimated with social media can build your brand with minimal time commitment..

We’re living in a mass information age when a lack of extensive knowledge on your platforms is inexcusable. Are you planning heavy tax reforms?

Then we hope you’re following news sources and experts covering economics and finance. Are you particularly keen on social progress? Then, we hope your feed reflects the proliferation of groups and articles sharing personal challenges and disparities.

We learned in 2008 that politicians’ savviness on social media can be pivotal for their campaign.

By giving the public an accessible and clear portrait of themselves and their goals, politicians can better inform voters before Election Day. Locally, the city’s current mayor, Bill Peduto, has bridged the gap between his desk downtown and our eyes with an active page and its more than 28 thousand followers. The account frequently posts photographs of Peduto at events across the city or local news coverage.

Frontrunners in 2016 are, too, learning that before they capture our vote, they can start with our retweet.

Hillary Clinton’s tweets over her past year and a half in the Twittersphere have been sparse, though she held an #AskHillary last summer, reaching out to her more than 2.8 million followers.

Jeb Bush, R-Fla., has been relatively active, tweeting a variety of topics ranging from his thoughts on the keystone pipeline to a picture of himself and his wife in celebration of their 41st wedding anniversary.

Chris Christie, R-N.J., tweets regularly, focusing many of his posts on his agenda as New Jersey governor. Bush and Christie are two of the strongest potential moderate Republicans candidates in 2016. Perhaps Twitter will decide who wins, — or, at least, who grabs the youth vote.

Showing social media prowess isn’t just digital fanfare, either.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., showed politicians can use the social platform to connect with constituents just like we connect with friends.

When Booker was mayor of Newark, N.J., he gained national recognition for keeping up to date with his community through the platform, and going out in the field to help his constituents by shoveling snow or rescuing dogs from freezing temperatures.

We already witnessed the power of social media with Barack Obama’s 2008 victory. Obama’s win, in the race dubbed the “Internet Election,” was attributed much to young voters. He did it again entering his second term, snatching 60 percent of the 18-to-24 vote, while Representative Mitt Romney took 37 percent, according to civicyouth.org.

Simply cranking out tweets isn’t always rosy, either, and can lift the curtain on a window that politicians want to keep private.

Our own former mayor Luke Ravenstahl inadvertently made the case for pushing politicians to use Twitter. His social media push worked for voters and against his office, and exposed his habit of lying about being at the office when he was really at a posh country club.

Politicians shouldn’t forgo boots on the ground tactics, but in order to increase transparency and identify with voters, they must chase the answer at the end of their fingertips.

Terms like hashtag or search engine optimization shouldn’t be a different language — because they could be your ticket to office. Before our hair grays, why not show us your best 140-character pitch?

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THE TALBERT REPORT

Guns and alcohol: Ban them both

Eli Talbert Columnist In light of continued shootings on college campuses, we must address the problem behind these tragedies.

A major issue is gun control. After all, 100 percent of shootings involve guns. However, guns are not the only inanimate objects that kill. There is another evil that, for all the same reasons as guns, the government should ban.

This evil, though admittedly not as scary-looking as guns, has hid within our society for thousands of years. It is insidious, pervasive and just as dangerous as guns. It goes by many names, but the most common is alcohol. Both guns and

alcohol are dangerous to society and should therefore be banned.

Now, I understand that this might seem surprising to many people. What could something primarily used by arguably backward conservatives have to do with something heavily enjoyed by enlightened liberal college students?

Quite a lot, actually.

For one, despite what you might believe, people don’t kill people.

Guns kill people, and so does alcohol. The Center for Disease Control recorded 33,363 deaths related to firearms in 2011, the most recent year on record, and similarly estimates that there were about 88,000

Talbert

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FROM PAGE 5

TALBERT alcohol-related deaths each year from 2006 to 2010. Perhaps even more troubling, guns and alcohol both heavily affect others.

In 2012, there were 12,765 gun-related homicides and 10,322 alcoholimpaired driving crash fatalities, according to the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation, respectively. When you consider that, according to these numbers, alcohol and guns combined helped people directly kill around .0073 percent of the population, it makes sense to deprive the vast law-abiding majority of their right to have alcohol and guns.

This is especially true when you consider how neither guns nor alcohol have any legitimate purpose. Sure, your typical gun rights activist will squawk about self-defense, but why would we need to defend ourselves if we have the police to do that for us? Police might not actually be legally obligated to

February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com protect us, according to the Supreme Court, but the mere possibility should be enough. As far as the entertainment argument goes that applies to both guns and alcohol, why should anyone have the right to enjoy themselves if it raises the probability of me dying by even onehundredth of a percent? Law-abiding citizens simply can’t be trusted with either guns or alcohol if they are ever used by criminals.

After all, it is not just murderers that use guns and alcohol, criminals of all stripes do too. For example, in 2012, 41 percent of robberies involved a firearm, and an estimated two-thirds of domestic violence incidents involve alcohol.

Admittedly, there is no actual evidence that removing alcohol or guns would prevent these crimes from happening, but doing so would only deprive the 34 percent of Americans who own guns and the 56 percent of Americans who regularly drink alcohol of a minor right.

Of course, enforcing a ban on alcohol and guns would require a lot of enforcement work. Pessimists might point to futile events such as Prohibition. They

would say a crackdown might only make things worse, making criminals of lawabiding citizens and giving criminals an advantage.

However, these pessimists should realize that anything is possible in the 21st century. If we give the government enough power, it absolutely could enforce the ban. We even have a ready-made federal agency — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — to enforce it. If we let the government have a free reign, it wouldn’t be a failure like the War on Drugs — which, incidentally, makes the greatest use of the Patriot Act. It comes down to your priorities. Do we want to let people run around freely exercising their rights and making the world slightly more dangerous for the rest of us? Or do we want to let our benevolent Big Brother take care of us and protect us from harm?

The answer is obvious.

Remember, you have no freedom when you are dead. Take the safe choice or risk all the evils of having control over your own life.

The Pitt News Crossword, 2/24/2015

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ACROSS 1 It’s often swiped at offices 11 Censor’s target 15 Deer, e.g.

16 Leveret’s dad 17 Reminder, often 18 Largest island in the Tuscan Archipelago 19 Slip in a store: Abbr.

20 Quarters 21 Olympics coach Karolyi et al.

22 “Fooled ya” 24 Corn lead-in 25 Carbon compound found in crude oil 26 Closed up 28 Attire for filmdom’s The Mask 30 Month in el invierno 31 Terminal 32 Member of the fam 33 Tiny time div.

35 Govt. collectors 37 “Sweet!”

40 Norwegian flag feature 42 Indian bigwig 46 Intimate 48 Words to a savior 49 Breaks off 50 Naval NCO 52 Big name in shaving 53 “The Girl Next Door” co-star Hirsch 54 Work unit 56 Much 57 West Virginia resource 58 Lingered 60 Biblical preposition 61 Surrounded 62 High school subject?

63 Commercial success DOWN 1 Inform 2 Start work

Eli Talbert writes a biweekly satirical column for The Pitt News.

Write to Eli at ejt26@pitt.edu.

3/7/15

By Daniel Nierenberg

3 Medieval Iberian kingdom 4 Fictional giant 5 Activity 6 Venture forth 7 PowerShot maker 8 Reduce to minute particles 9 Soaks, as hemp 10 Beats Electronics co-founder 11 Rain may fall in them 12 Hammer-shaped bone 13 Pope who initiated the First Crusade 14 Dollhouse accessories 21 Like shortbread 23 “Blue Velvet” actress 25 Horizontal spar 27 Reason for overtime 29 Goes (for) 31 Maker of the Ultra Set trap 34 Mythical archer 36 Okinawa’s capital

Friday’s Puzzle Solved

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

37 Diamond buyer’s choice 38 Red flower created from the blood of Adonis 39 Digress 41 Motion backing 43 Aviation supply 44 Put in order 45 Compulsive subject of a former A&E series

3/7/15

47 Rat out 48 Grinders 51 __ Sound, part of the Salish Sea 54 Alexandrite is one of its birthstones 55 Gaelic language 58 Center 59 Whale __

February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

COLUMN

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SPORTS

Kansas State court storm raises concerns, issues Alex Wise Staff Writer Storming the court is obnoxious. Storming the court is harmless. Storming the court is dangerous. Storming the court is fun.

Storming the court is unsportsmanlike.

Storming the court is exciting.

Pick an opinion, any opinion.

After unranked Kansas State University’s home win over No. 8 University of

Kansas on Monday night, Wildcat fans spilled out of the stands and onto the court, swarming players, referees, coaches, reporters and photographers. Thousands of enthusiastic kids celebrating a victory over their biggest rival, a perennial powerhouse in the college basketball world: it’s quite the sight to see. Everybody in Manhattan, Kan. was happy last night.

Everybody except for Kansas head coach Bill Self, who complained about

the court storming in his post-game press conference.

Kansas State’s athletic department responded with an apology that was as unnecessary as it was halfhearted and weak.

“Our security staff...was unable to get into proper position quickly enough last night and was overwhelmed by the fans rushing the floor,” KSU athletic director John Currie said.

First of all, there’s no need to apologize

TNS

for something you can’t control. That’s why I don’t apologize to my roommates when I eat their leftover pizza. It’s out of my hands.

Second of all, what is ‘proper position’?

Is placing one security guard in a bright yellow jacket every 10 feet really going to stop a few thousand college students from leaving the bleachers?

I’ve seen the security at many college

Column

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MEN’S BASKETBALL

Pitt tops BC despite Hanlan’s 39 points Chris Puzia Sports Editor

Olivier Hanlan did the best he could do to single-handedly beat Pitt.

Boston College’s star junior guard and his 39 points, however, were not enough as Pitt (19-10, 8-7 ACC) defeated the Eagles (9-18, 1-14 ACC) 71-65 on Tuesday night at the Petersen Events Center.

Hanlan, who averaged 18.7 points per game entering the contest, hit several open jumpers in the first half as part of a 15-0 Boston College run. After a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Chris Jones gave the

Panthers a 33-18 lead with four minutes remaining in the half, both teams traded baskets. But then the Eagles proceeded to use an extended 15-0 run crossing into the second half to bring Pitt’s once-doubledigit lead to a 35-35 tie.

The Panthers steadily caught back up, and nursed a lead of between three and seven points for the majority of the second half.

Sophomore forward Jamel Artis led Pitt with 24 points, and sophomore forward Michael Young followed him closely with 22 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

While the Eagles’ reliance on the 3-point shot brought them back into the game earlier, nobody outside Hanlan and graduate student guard Aaron Brown could make shots. Boston College finished shooting 36 percent from long range.

Down seven with three minutes remaining in the game, Boston College tried to use full-court press to force Pitt turnovers. But junior point guard James Robinson passed the ball up to Artis for a quick fast-break dunk to extend Pitt’s lead to 65-56.

Michael Young scored 22 points on TuesPitt’s next game comes on the road at day. Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer Wake Forest on Saturday.

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February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

SWIMMING

Pitt swimmers and divers head to Georgia for championships Brandon Duerr Staff Writer Dominic Giordano knew before his dive on Saturday that his win depended on nearly perfect form.

His back 1 1/2 somersault and 3 1/2 twist earned him 97.35 points out of a possible 99 and ensured that he grabbed the top spot, and in the process, the sophomore diver won his and Pitt’s first ACC diving title.

“I knew I had to relax and let my body do what it normally does,” Giordano said in an interview with Pitt Athletics afterward.

Now, the regular season has ended for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams. Next up is the ACC championships, beginning on Wednesday and hosted by Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where Pitt will try to stay afloat and keep up the success.

The Pitt men currently rank sixth out of 12 teams after a strong performance from the divers last week. They will have an opportunity to advance further up the standings this week, beginning with the 200-yard

medley relay and the 800-yard free relay on Wednesday.

The championships continue on Thursday with preliminary and final rounds for several freestyle events, with most of the backstroke races coming on Friday. Saturday hosts the finals for most of the events spanning every racing style.

Senior swimmer Kourosh Ahani said his personal experiences in big meets have him prepared for Georgia.

“We didn’t know what to expect our first year in the ACC, and we were kind of shocked at the caliber and depth of the teams,” Ahani said. “But now we are ready and know what’s coming.” Ahani will compete in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, as well as the 100-yard butterfly.

In 2013, Ahani set personal bests in the Pitt’s swimming and diving team takes the pool Wednesday. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant 50- and 100-yard freestyle in Pitt’s final year Visual Editor of the Big East championships.

Senior teammate Luke Nobisch added “When one person is competing at the highest Nobisch will also compete in the 50- and that focus is as important for him as past level they are capable of, then the rest of the 100-yard freestyle, which will occur on Thursperformance. team can see the effort and really build off Swimming 9 “Focus is a big thing individually,” he said. that energy, and the team can come together.”

February 25, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 8

SWIMMING day and Saturday, respectively.

Last week, Giordano wasn’t the only Pitt athlete who enjoyed a strong performance.

Junior swimmer Kaleigh Ritter headlined the women’s teams, setting half of the four school records broken in the tournament. She was a primary factor in the Panthers’ eighthplace finish and an overall improvement in

North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Louisville and North Carolina State rounded out the rest of the top five, all but one of which are currently ranked in the top 25 in the country.

On the men’s side, Pitt sits at No. 6 in a conference loaded with ranked teams, like No. 7 North Carolina State, No. 10 Louisville, No. 15 North Carolina, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 25 Virginia.

With the competition requiring faster times and better scores, Pitt may need more

“It’s more of a business trip than a fun trip.”

Kourosh Ahani points with 501 — 26.5 more points than last year’s tournament.

Her time of 16:41:31 in the 1650 free also set a school record and earned her a bronze.

No. 8 Virginia won its eighth straight ACC women’s championship in the competition, finishing with a final score of 1308.5 points.

top-notch performances like Giordano’s.

Ahani said that atmosphere will affect Pitt’s preparation.

“There’s a different type of feel to it,” he said. “It’s more of a business trip instead of a fun trip, and for that, we need to have proper rest and visualization.”

FROM PAGE 7

COLUMN basketball venues, and I can nearly guarantee that men well over the age of 60 and women under 5-foot-4, who make up the majority of “security” teams, can’t physically stop anybody from getting by. And, assuming security would have been effective if it had been in place, why was security not in place quickly enough? It’s not like Kansas State came from behind with six seconds left on the clock and nailed a buzzer beater for the win.

The Wildcats led for the final eight minutes.

I understand that something needs to be done. It’s not acceptable for coaches to get pinned up against the scorer’s table, as Self was, or for players to have fans throwing elbows at them, as Kansas forward Jamari Traylor did. But what can we do to change it?

Most conferences have a system in place to fine schools for their students storming the court, but that matters little to the students doing the storming. They don’t have to pay the fines personally, and they’ll

9 almost certainly see their stunt replayed on ESPN later that night.

Maybe we should start playing basketball in hockey rinks, with plexiglass boards keeping fans at bay. Or, better yet, let’s play in a bubble! Imagine the floor of the Petersen Events Center enclosed in a big plastic dome, keeping us pesky fans and our loud noises on the outside. It’s not like the Oakland Zoo even helps that much, anyway.

In case you haven’t been able to tell, I’m a proponent of court-storming. I think it’s fun to watch, would be absurdly fun to participate in and is an exciting opportunity for fans to come together with the team they support. Is it dangerous? Perhaps a bit. And I apologize to those who, in the past, suffered injuries as a result of a stormed court.

There’s also room to argue the situations in which storming is acceptable (hint: when you’re ranked, it’s always unacceptable... looking at you, West Virginia). But fan excitement and participation, especially at the student level, are an integral part of the game that the NCAA and the schools themselves cannot, should not and will not remove.