2-8-16

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

Pitt interviews fourth dean candidate

Online: The Pitt News’ weekly, interactive crime map February 8, 2016| Issue 101 | Volume 106

Dale Shoemaker News Editor

When a student came to her office with mental health concerns and asked to withdraw from her classes, Cara Appel-Silbaugh used her position to ease the transition.

The student was set on moving back home, so Appel-Silbaugh, the associate dean of students at the Georgia Institute of Technology, called and directed the health center on campus to locate a treatment center near the student’s home that would accept her insurance. Then, she called the registrar’s office to make sure the student would get as much of a refund as possible.

“All of those things only took a phone call because of the relationships I had built,” AppelSilbaugh said.

Building relationships like those so she can help students, Appel-Silbaugh said, would be one of her top priorities if Pitt chooses her as the next vice provost and dean of students.

Pitt faculty, staff and students interviewed Appel-Silbaugh, the fourth and final candidate for the open dean position, on Friday. A group of about 15 faculty, staff and students — four of whom also serve on the search committee for the dean of students — questioned Appel-Silbaugh for about an hour on her ideas for the dean of students job at Pitt. Focusing on building relationships with individuals, Appel-Silbaugh outlined her plan to make See Dean Interview on page 2

Pitt’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association hosted a New Year Gala Saturday in Alumni Hall. See online for a full gallery. Wenhao Wu SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Bernice King visits Pitt Andrew O’Brien For The Pitt News

Martin Luther King Jr.’s life may have been cut short by an assassin’s bullet almost 48 years ago, but his youngest daughter has picked up his fight for equality.

On Friday, Bernice King, carrying on her father’s beliefs and legacy, brought that fight to Pitt.

Bernice King, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s

four children, addressed the ongoing struggle for equality for minority people at a time when both students and administrators have said Pitt needs to work to make campus more diverse and inclusive. Pitt’s Black Action Society invited King to campus to commemorate Black History Month. The lecture was standing-room only, as more than 300 people packed into the O’Hara Student Center ballroom.

King focused her speech on the difference

between equity — being fair and impartial — and equality — being equal. King said even though two people might receive the same treatment, those two people won’t necessarily be equal because they may start out in different positions.

As an example, King asked three Pitt students — one short, one tall and one of average height — to stand on the stage. She explained See Bernice King on page 5

News

clitoris talK: Pitt hears history of female sexuality

Susan Wells from Temple University spoke at Pitt Friday about female sexuality, specifically the clitoris. Will Miller STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Emily Migdal Staff Writer

With a discussion on sex and anatomy, Susan Wells documented the history of female empowerment in a lecture this weekend.

On Friday, Feb. 5, about 75 students, graduates and faculty members gathered in the lower lounge of the William Pitt Union to hear Wells’ “In Search of the Clitoris.”

Wells, a professor at Temple University and author who focuses on critical theory and feminism, aimed to inform students about the history of the female sex organ and how it has influenced modern feminism.

The talk was part of the Agora Speaker Series, a yearlong lecture circuit Pitt’s communication department sponsors. The series features new speakers every two weeks from 3 to 5 p.m. The talks began Sept. 11, and will continue through April 8. Topics range from race, education and opportu-

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nity to China and the global Internet.

Audience members filled rows of seats and spread to couches and armchairs around the edges of the room. With drawings of early interpretations of the clitoris and informational pamphlets from the ’70s, Wells took the audience through a history of the sexual organ.

In her lecture, Wells explained that the women’s movement in the ’60s and ’70s had prompted women to know their bodies and be open about their sexuality, shaping a discussion of female anatomy.

“The anatomy of the body as a whole was organized around the male body. The male was the norm, and any difference was seen as a deviation,” Wells said.

Wells started her research by looking at a group of 12 women in Boston in 1969.

Find the full story online at

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Dean Interview, pg. 1 more resources available to students — particularly for international students, members of the LGBTQ+ community and student activists.

John Twyning, an associate dean for undergraduate studies and member of the search committee, said the committee would deliberate on the four candidates and make its recommendation to Provost Patricia Beeson and Chancellor Patrick Gallagher on Monday.

The dean of students position at Pitt has been open since January last year when Gallagher promoted then-Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey to senior vice chancellor and chief of staff. Former Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Life Kenyon Bonner has filled the position in the interim. Bonner is also a candidate for the full position and interviewed on Tuesday.

Appel-Silbaugh, a 1996 Pitt graduate, said building relationships with departments and people at Pitt — such as the student health center, the registrar’s office and Pitt’s faculty — is key to the position and would be one of her priorities.

“I have no shame in sitting at the front desk of an office and answering phone calls,” AppelSilbaugh said, “That’s how you learn.”

Appel-Silbaugh holds a bachelor’s degree in film studies from Pitt, a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University and a doctorate degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. She’s worked as the associate dean of students at Georgia Tech since July 2011.

For Appel-Silbaugh, returning to Pittsburgh is both personal and professional. Originally from New Jersey, Appel-Silbaugh said the move would put her closer to family — something she said she wants now that she’s married and has a child.

If she gets the job, Appel-Silbaugh said she would prioritize student wellness and would consider building specialized centers for students on campus — including an LGBTQ+ center, a multicultural center and a women’s center — with building relationships with students at the top of her list.

February 8, 2016

“I think [being dean of students] is about being present,” Appel-Silbaugh said. “And that’s holding dean’s hours, eating in the dining halls and meeting with student groups.”

But beyond eating with students in Market Central, Appel-Silbaugh said she would focus her attention on individual students. In some cases, a dean of students can act as an adviser to students — something she doesn’t think enough deans realize.

“I think there’s a lack of advice,” AppelSilbaugh said, “[When I was in school] I wish someone had said to me, ‘What else do you want to do?’”

For international students, Appel-Silbaugh said she could work to organize a two- or threeday fair that would include banks to get students set up with debit cards, cell phone providers to help the students buy a phone and bus tours so the students can get used to campus and the city.

For student activists, Appel-Silbaugh said she would be willing to sit down and talk about their issues face to face and act as their liaison to the upper administration.

But Appel-Silbaugh also said she would work closely with faculty and other administrators to ensure students get the most out of Pitt they can.

When it comes to students struggling in classes, she said, she will work with the professors, but always protect the students first.

“I’m not going to tell a faculty member or associate dean why a student got an incomplete — they’ve got to trust me on that,” Appel-Silbaugh said. “I always tell faculty I’m not going to tell you how to grade or run your classroom, but I want a little bit of flexibility.”

Though she declined to say who her favorite candidate was, Robin Kear, a liaison librarian in Hillman Library who attended all four open interviews last week, said all of the candidates stand a good chance.

Bonner, she said, has the advantage of already knowing how the job works because he’s held the position in the interim for the last year, and Appel-Silbaugh already knows Pitt well because she is an alumna.

See Dean Interview on page 4

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THE DEAN CHOICE: A STUDENT’S GUIDE A

Dale Shoemaker

News Editor

group of eight faculty, staff and students — all

ate vice president and dean of student life at Southern

since last January when Gallagher promoted then-

At Pitt, the dean of students oversees many de-

a part of a search committee — will make its

Methodist University; William Stackman, associate

Dean Kathy Humphrey to vice chancellor and chief of

partments within the Division of Student Affairs,

recommendation to Pitt’s Provost Patricia Beeson

vice president for student services at the University

staff. Kenyon Bonner, who was formerly the associate

including the Offices of Student Life and Residence

and Chancellor Patrick Gallagher sometime today

of Notre Dame; and Cara Appel-Silbaugh, associate

dean of students, has filled the position in the interim.

Life, the University Counseling Center and Student

for who the next vice provost and dean of students

dean of students at Georgia Institute of Technology,

The committee, which convened in the fall, for-

Health Service. The nature of the position requires

should be.

for the position.

mally opened its search Oct. 1, when it posted the first

the administrator to build a direct relationship with

Last week, four candidates interviewed for the

At each public interview, the candidates spoke

advertisement for the position online. Last Tuesday

Pitt’s student body.

job. The search committee is considering Kenyon

about their ideas for the university and why they con-

through Friday, the Student Affairs staff met with

To jump-start that relationship, The Pitt News

Bonner, the interim dean of students and former as-

sider themselves the most qualified applicant.

each candidate and hosted public interviews to in-

has compiled highlights from each interview. Here

volve the community in the discussion.

is what you need to know about the four candidates:

sociate dean of students at Pitt; Joanne Vogel, associ-

KENYON BONNER

Current job: Interim vice provost and dean of students Education: Bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy from Washington and Jefferson College and Master of Education degree in rehabilitation counseling from Kent State University Of all four candidates, Bonner has the most experience working with Pitt students, as he’s held the job for the past year, and has worked at the University since 2004. During his interview on Tuesday, Bonner said he wants to fight sexual violence on campus, make Pitt more diverse and inclusive and improve the Outside the Classroom Curriculum program to make it easier to use and make students more aware of its benefits.

In 2004, Pitt hired Bonner as the associate director of Residence Life. He then served as director of student life for 11 years and while he held that position, served for seven years as associate dean of students. Currently, he is serving as interim vice provost and dean of students.

Bonner is the only candidate without a doctorate degree. Though the job listing for the position does not mention whether a doctorate degree is required, Bonner, if chosen, will be Pitt’s first dean of students in recent history to not have one.

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The dean of students job at Pitt has been open

JOANNE VOGEL

WILLIAM STACKMAN

Current job: Associate vice president and dean of student life at Southern Methodist University Education: Bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Duke University, master’s degree in mental health counseling from Stetson University and doctorate in counselor education and supervision from the University of Central Florida.

Coming from the south, Vogel said she would bring her extensive training in mental health counseling north to Pitt.

In her interview on Wednesday, Vogel said student health — including mental, sexual and financial wellness — is her top priority. Vogel said she would work to improve victim advocacy at Pitt for students who are victims of sexual and physical violence.

While Vogel and Bonner addressed the high cost of tuition in their interviews, the other two candidates did not. Vogel, like Bonner, said the dean of students should work to make sure students feel like their college experience is “worth” the price tag.

Current job: Associate vice president for student services at University of Notre Dame Education: Bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation from the University of Kentucky, master’s degree in higher education administration from West Virginia University, master’s degree in parks and recreation administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia and doctorate in leadership, administration and policy studies from Boston University.

If hired as vice provost and dean of students, Stackman said he would focus on mental health, academic integration and diversity and inclusion issues on campus.

In his interview on Thursday, Stackman said paying attention to the needs of people from different backgrounds, like international students, is important when addressing issues like mental health and sexual violence.

Stackman is the most educated and most experienced candidate, holding three graduate degrees and having worked in student affairs roles for 30 years.

February 8, 2016

CARA APPEL-SILBAUGH

Current job: Associate dean of students at Georgia Institute of Technology Education: Bachelor’s degree in film studies from Pitt, master’s degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University and doctorate in college student counseling and personal services from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Like Bonner, Appel-Silbaugh’s Pitt ties run deep, having earned her bachelor’s degree at Pitt.

If chosen as dean, Appel-Silbaugh said she would focus on building a relationship with Pitt faculty, staff and students.

Appel-Silbaugh also said she would prioritize student wellness and look into creating specialized centers for students on campus — including an LGBTQ+ center, a multicultural center and a women’s center.

She would also work with international students to help them feel more at home in Pittsburgh, she said. She would like to organize a two- or threeday fair that would include banks to get students set up with debit cards and cell phone providers, if the student needs a phone or information about communication. She would also look into providing bus tours around the city so international students can get used to campus and the city.

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Dean Interview, pg. 2 She said William Stackman — the associate vice president for student services at the University of Notre Dame who interviewed on Thursday — was impressive because of his depth of experience. Stackman holds a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees and a doctorate degree and has worked in student affairs for 30 years.

“I think it’s going to be a tough decision,” Kear said. “You’re trying to think about who’s going to connect the best with students.”

Similarly, Chyongchiou Jeng Lin, an associate professor of health economics who attended all four interviews, wouldn’t say which candidate she favored but said she saw Pitt’s next dean of students among the applicants.

“Do I see one? Yes,” Jeng Lin said. “I think the search committee has done a good job in picking the candidates.”

For her part, Appel-Silbaugh is hungry for the job.

“No one will care about this institution as much as me, I can promise you that,” she said.

“And no one will work harder.”

pittnews.com

Police report fourth assault in two weeks

Dale Shoemaker News Editor

Pitt and city police are investigating a sexual assault that occurred on Meyran Avenue early Saturday morning — the fourth assault in a week.

At about 1:12 a.m. Saturday, Pitt and city police responded to a call on Meyran Avenue at Fresco Way where a woman told officers that a black man, about 5-feet and 9 or 10 inches tall, had sexually assaulted her at about 1 a.m.

The woman, who is not a Pitt student, told police the man assaulted her at AD’s Pittsburgh Cafe at 226 Meyran Ave. Archie Donald, the co-owner of the bar, did not respond to a request for comment.

The woman told police she did not know the man who assaulted her.

At the time of the assault, the man, who

the woman said was heavyset and in his late 20s or early 30s, was wearing a dark sweatshirt with “Columbia” in white writing and a blue tossle cap with a Rams football team logo on the front, the crime alert said.

Saturday’s assault comes a week after three other assaults last Sunday, causing Pitt police to increase their weekend patrols, Pitt spokesperson John Fedele said.

In the incidents last week, a man reported he was physically assaulted on the 3400 block of Saint James Place and two women reported being indecently assaulted on the 200 block of Oakland Avenue and the 3400 block of Fifth Avenue, respectively.

All three victims in last week’s cases were Pitt students, according to Fedele. Police are still searching for the assailants in all three cases, Fedele said.

Police do not think any of the assaults

February 8, 2016

are connected, Fedele said, as the descriptions of the assailants are different in each case.

Police ask anyone with information about the most recent assault Saturday to call either Pitt police at 412-624-2121 and reference their report #16-00448, or City police at 911, and reference their report CCR# 22225.

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Bernice King, pg. 1 that, even if every student grew the same number of inches, they wouldn’t be the same height because they all started out at different heights.

The shorter students would be at a disadvantage to the taller student, she said.

“Everybody’s not starting off at the same place,” she said, referring to class and economic privilege, sex privilege, citizenship privilege and nationalist privilege.

“There are many kinds of privilege,” King said. “Race is just one.”

King gave many examples of institutionalized racism — even in illegal drug sentencing — black Americans have faced over the years.

“There was a time when the person who used cocaine got less of a sentence than the person who used crack cocaine,” she said. “They may be using a different version, but it’s the same thing.

You got a greater sentence because you could not afford the other drug.”

King said that one of the crowning accomplishments of her father’s movement was that it “did away with de jure discrimination,” the type of discrimination that U.S. law used to enforce, like the Jim Crow laws. De facto discrimination, however, the type of discrimination that happens because of a person’s opinions and actions, still persists.

As she acknowledged that reality to the audience, her voice cracked with emotion.

“We can’t just sweep [these issues] under the rug anymore,” she said.

During a question and answer session after her 50-minute speech, a student asked King if there was any particular change she would make to the U.S. education system.

King said the United States needs to tailor education more to each individual student and their particular strengths and weaknesses. She mentioned that her father scored in the lowest one-third of a percentile on his GRE, and said that America needs to move away from its “onesize-fits-all” educational system.

After King’s speech, Charisse Pearson-Bey, Pitt senior marketing major and Black Action Society member, called King’s talk amazing and said that she enjoyed King’s approach of “here are the problems ... but I have solutions.” She believes that she and everyone else at the talk was “making history by being [there].”

Gabbie Wynn, the president of Pitt’s Black Action Society, called the speech a “great mashup

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of current events and history” and said King “challenged all of us to work within our own communities to make change happen.”

“What better way to kick Black History Month off than by inviting a relation to a civil rights hero and legend — and someone who is an inspiration in her own right?” Wynn said.

She said Pitt’s hiring of Pamela Connelly as associate vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion in May 2015 is a “huge step in the right direction” and that mandatory diversity programs for first-year students “show incoming students that diversity is important,” but that overall, Pitt

could do a better job of recognizing minority interests.

Jacky Chen, a member of the Student Government Board and the Hail to Diversity coalition, said Pitt’s diversity programs are a start, but they haven’t had much of a real effect yet.

Despite the formation of a diversity inclusion task force, among other programs, Chen, a Pitt junior neuroscience major, said he “[doesn’t] think diversity has improved too much.”

Currently, Pitt’s undergraduate student population is 74.3 percent white and only 4.9 percent black, according to Pitt’s 2016 Fact Book.

February 8, 2016

“We as a University are not diverse at all,” he said. “It takes away from the student experience when you aren’t able to make friends with people who don’t share the same beliefs as you.”

Above all, King impressed upon her audience the importance that people give each other fair opportunity to succeed, regardless of their racial, cultural or economic background.

“Regardless of our barriers, regardless of our differences ... [we need to] create a true global humanity, where all of God’s children have the opportunity to live to their highest, total, full potential.”

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Privilege is not enough to end all discussions

Kenyon Bonner for dean of students Pitt’s best option for the dean of students position has already filled the role for a year.

With four seemingly qualified candidates, the University should select the one who best understands our student body.

By that measure, Kenyon Bonner, Pitt’s interim vice provost and dean of students, is right where he should be. The real question is why it’s taken the University so long to acknowledge it.

Since coming to Pitt in 2004, Bonner has done nearly everything right.

He served for seven years as associate dean of students and 11 years as the director of student life. While associate dean, Bonner was the program director for RISE, Pitt’s student mentorship program, and in 2013, Bonner won the Chancellor’s Award for Staff for Excellence in Service to the University, the highest award given to University administrators.

During his tenure here, the University — as well as the city — has undergone massive growth and change. As the University handled growing pains, Bonner never shied away from students or confrontation.

When students requested strategic planning forums to have a larger voice in University decisions, he welcomed their perspectives every time. He has also met with leaders from student organizations, such as Black Action Society and the Fossil Free Pitt Coalition, to discuss their concerns directly, inviting students to the table rather than hiding behind an administrative curtain.

These relationships are bridges that

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require maintenance, not reconstruction.

Pitt, a school within a still-developing city with hyper-specific diversity and economic storylines, cannot wait for someone to form relationships from scratch.

Replacing Bonner with an unfamiliar face is more counterproductive than anything.

Bonner has built these ties already — he should be the one to make them count for something.

Part of improving our campus climate is being bold enough to advertise Pitt’s progress, as Bonner knows. Next fall, Ruskin Hall will begin its first year as a gender-neutral housing option for students, and even though the signs have not yet changed, all campus bathrooms will become officially gender-neutral, too.

But, as always, there is plenty of work left.

Cara Appel-Silbaugh, one of Bonner’s fellow candidates and a strong contender, recommended that Pitt create an LGBTQ+ center. No matter who the University selects, we hope they will pursue this idea.

Concerns about high tuition persist, and mental health resources can always improve. Pitt’s student services need to be accessible to all of its students. Moving forward with increased inclusiveness and helpful services to ensure that every student feels welcome is something we must continue pushing toward.

Whoever takes over as dean of students must maintain Pitt’s momentum.

Kenyon Bonner’s vision for Pitt students is already in motion — the University should let it stay that way.

Tim Nerozzi Columnist

“Check your privilege” is a statement that says: To move forward in conversation, one needs to give up ownership of their own ideas and attribute them to the circumstances of one’s birth.

The problem with this belief and the fight against privilege is the ramifications they have on meaningful discussion. What started as a thought experiment for individuals to look back on their own experiences and think about how their own race, gender, religion and other circumstances could have affected their lives, has gone too far.

Constantly checking privilege has become a counterproductive mentality that boils down entire groups of people based on generalities and presumed life experiences. If you’ve ever heard it in a debate or discussion, you know what comes next. Either the accused party kneels down, hands clasped, and begs the old gods of social justice for forgiveness for their transgression, or the discussion immediately becomes an attempt to convince the accusing party that the accused is not blind to everything happening outside the realm of their life experience.

Privilege is a messy term with countless qualifiers typically attached to it.

From “white privilege” to “thin privilege,” it seems like just about everyone falls into some sort of privileged category, so we should probably know what it is supposed to say about us.

The dictionary definition of privilege — “a special right, advantage or immunity granted or available only to a particular

February 8, 2016

person or group of people” — does not clear things up very much. We live in a free country. There are no inherent hierarchies of privileges, as our rights are clearly outlined in our country’s Constitution, and its subsequent amendments. To deny someone their rights is a punishable crime.

Instead, we need a sociological definition, as the soft sciences are where this term has entered a new life.

The term was first truly brought to the forefront of American academia in 1988 by Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, who said, “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, code books, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.”

While this completely disregards individual experiences and amalgamates every person with pale skin into a giant group and judges their lives collectively, it is not a bad thought experiment.

Whether you believe in privilege or not, asking yourself, “Has my appearance helped me in life?” can provide a lot of insight into race relations. Have you ever received preferential treatment because of your race? Has society ever held you back because of your race?

From these genuine instances of selfreflection, we spin off into the fantastical world of hundreds of privileges, all claiming to give you a leg up at the cost of those unlike yourself. Thin privilege, heterosexual privilege, cisgendered privilege, monogamous privilege, Christian privilege, native English-speaker privilege, neurotypical privilege — these are phrases See Nerozzi on page 7

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Nerozzi, pg. 6 thrown around online on sites like Tumblr, which thrive on victim complexes and social groups based on self-declared social transgressions.

Is being monogamous a privilege? No, it is your fundamental choice about with whom you would like to be in a relationship, which happens to fit in line with the majority of society. Is being neurotypical really a privilege? Of course not, it’s normality — the lack of a problem in your brain. A person with depression is not being systematically discriminated against. They have a mental health condition that needs treatment.

Instead of talking about the possible benefits old institutions can give to specific people and withhold from others, the dialogue about privilege has shifted. It has become a laundry list of complaints leveled at anyone with even minor conveniences in their lives, regardless of whether it was a result of lifestyle, hard work or even just luck.

It’s not a meaningful socioeconomic insight, it’s a witch hunt.

This is the result of taking privilege as a concrete, real social dynamic and not looking at it as a theoretical social philosophy that cannot be applied to every individual.

When we take privilege as a “sins of the father” situation — an inherent mark on someone denoting them as a member of a privileged class they cannot escape or reject — we stop seeing people as people. This compartmentalizing of people based on external appearance and inherent traits is the exact same line of thought that feeds racial prejudice, sexism and anti-gay sentiment.

When a term like privilege is brought into real world situations — situations with men and women of all sectors of humanity — it cannot be used to make generalizations, or else this problem will continue. Every person is different, and trying to pretend like you know anything about their lives or lived experiences by simply looking at their appearance or learning about their religion is ridiculous.

You can make generalizations all you want, but there will always be people who break those stereotypes. The white girl

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growing up in a broken home in downtown Detroit is not going to fulfill your fantastical idea of a white person’s “invisible knapsack of privilege.” People are more complex than that.

Some argue that it’s not discrimination, and that telling someone to check their privilege is only asking them to self-reflect, not to feel bad about being given the irrevocable mark of privilege. The rhetoric, however, is inconsistent.

Mia McKenzie, writing in Black Girl Dangerous, a website featuring voices from queer and transgendered people of color, suggests, “If you are a person with a lot of privilege (i.e. a white, straight, able-bodied, class-privileged, cisgender male or any combination of two or more of those) and you call yourself being against oppression, then it should be part of your regular routine to sit the hell down and shut the eff up.”

Ah yes, of course. Any person who is white and able-bodied needs to “shut the eff up” while the disadvantaged talk. What is to be gained from shutting people out of dialogue based on who they are? Every human is capable of looking at race, religion and other complex humanistic issues.

We can empathize, and even though we may never truly know what it’s like to be any one other person, we can try. No matter who you are, your facts and arguments are either good or bad. No person should have their ideas discounted because of something as stupid as the circumstances of their birth.

If your ideas are scrutinized and your worldview isn’t being accepted, falling back on privilege and claiming the other party could never have a meaningful understanding because of who they are, you are not debating. You are not furthering discussion.

You are squashing all dialogue. The people who see other humans in terms of race, gender, sexuality or other privilege qualifiers and not by who they are as individuals and try to squash dissent by telling them to be silent are not progressive. They are bigots.

There’s nothing wrong with thinking about privilege from time to time, reflecting on who you are, where you’ve come from and what has helped you along the way.

It’s an important part of introspection. Just don’t let anyone try and tell you what your life has been like.

The Pitt News Editor-in-Chief DANIELLE FOX

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Sports

see online for more Photos from the blackout game

ALL DARK AT THE ZOO For hardcore Panther fans, blackout prep is a two-day event.

More than 24 hours before the Pittsburgh men’s basketball team faced off with the University of Virginia Cavaliers, fans from the Oakland Zoo were already lined up for the game in the Petersen Events Center, wielding sleeping bags, air mattresses and Roc pillow pets.

The Panthers blackout game, inaugurated in the 2014-2015 season, has become one of the most anticipated games of the season. Students who do not sleep over in the Pete’s lobby will typically show up around 6 a.m., ready to cheer their team.

Phoebe Gilmore For The Pitt News Jeff Ahearn Assistant Visual Editor

(Below) Ryan Foley, the vice president of the Zoo, distributes “cheat sheets” with dirt on the opposing team’s players before the game Saturday. Foley, a senior health information management major, arrived at the Pete at 11 a.m. the day before the game to set up for the sleepover. He said the blackout game “took on a life of its own” during the 2015-2015 season when the Zoo introduced it.

First-year pre-pharmacy major Saxon Hartman, the second person in line behind Foley, has only missed two games this year. Friday night, she had a setup on the floor for the sleepover, complete with an air mattress.

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February 8, 2016

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Time running out for Panthers Dan Sostek Sports Editor

There were multiple reasons for Panthers fans to be positive leading up to Pitt men’s basketball’s Saturday afternoon game against No. 9 Virginia.

The Panthers boast a 14-3 record at the Petersen Events Center against Top 10 teams. They were coming off an impressive, bounce-back blowout of Virginia Tech. They had six days off. Virginia had lost to three teams that Pitt had beat.

The Oakland Zoo was decked in jet black, riled up for the second annual Pitt Blackout.

Yet none of that ended up curbing the Cavaliers, who dominated in the second half to pull out a 64-50 win over the Panthers, leaving Jamie Dixon and the Panthers at the crossroad. The team’s attitude after the loss, while defeated, maintained an air of optimism.

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“We’re a good team, we’re fine,” junior forward Jamel Artis said. “We’ve just gotta learn how to control when we’re down.”

Despite remaining confident, Pitt is running out of chances to prove that it is anything more than a vanilla, middle-ofthe-road ACC team — and Artis knows it.

“It definitely needs to be proven on the court,” Artis said. “We can say we’re a great team, but like I said, we need to do it on the court on a daily basis.”

The Panthers are 0-3 on the season against ranked opponents, with their best win coming on the road in South Bend, Indiana, against a frisky Notre Dame team — a game where the Panthers almost squandered an 18-point lead.

Pitt’s schedule is still ripe with opportunities to pick up a statement victory.

The team travels to Miami for a matchup with the No. 14 Hurricanes Tuesday, then

treks to Chapel Hill to take on the imposing No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Panthers’ remaining schedule also features winnable home contests against Duke and Louisville, but if the Panthers expects the selection committee to even consider them a viable NCAA Tournament team, their defense, which ranks 148th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating, has to improve — and fast. “...I was concerned [about the defense] in November and October and September,” head coach Jamie Dixon said. “It’s no secret to me. It comes out in losses but it’s evident in wins as well, we’ve got to get better [on defense] to be at the top of the league.”

It’s been a surprising struggle for a program that has built itself up on a reputation of hard-nosed defensive play under Dixon. But there’s plenty of room

February 8, 2016

for a late season run if the Panthers can toughen up defensively.

Dixon looks no further than the team that bested the Panthers Saturday for a model turnaround. The Cavaliers lost their second game of the season at George Washington, and suffered conference losses away from home at Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Florida State. “[Virginia] had some losses on the road, and they didn’t feel good about themselves I’m sure,” Dixon said. “And now they’re playing really well.”

But that flipping of the switch will have to come soon. Dixon said Tuesday’s matchup with Miami will be a strong indicator of where this team is headed.

“Who we are is what we do tomorrow and what we do Tuesday,” Dixon said.

The contest on Tuesday against the Hurricanes will tip off at 7 p.m. ESPNU will air the game.

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The Pitt news crossword 2/8/16

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The Pitt News SuDoku 2/8/16

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