3 -26-15

Vol. 105 Issue 137

@thepittnews

Genocide awareness club comes to Pitt

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Pittnews.com

DIGGING IN THE RAIN

Marjorie Tolsdorf and Dale Shoemaker The Pitt News Staff Shamanta Mostofa said other students ask her “if political leaders can’t control [genocide], what are a bunch of college kids going to do?”

With the her newly-established group, the Genocide Relief and Awareness Club, Mostofa hopes to find that answer at Pitt.

Wednesday night, Mostofa and 10 other students gathered in room 204 of the Cathedral of Learning for the Genocide Relief and Awareness Club’s meeting — the first of its kind in Pitt’s history. The motivation for starting the club, according to Mostofa, one of its founders, stemmed from Pitt’s lack of an organization centered on raising genocide awareness.

The goals of the club, Mostofa — a sophomore neuroscience and psychology major — said, are to “prevent, stop and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder.”

Though Mostofa said the club is not going to be able to fix the “larger political issue at hand,” it “can do something that will mitigate the blows.”

“We can aid in the healing process.

We can make people aware of the issue, recognize the innocent lives being lost

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Construction continued through the rain on the new William Pitt Union patio. Christine Lim | Staff Photographer

It’s complicated: Pitt discusses teacher-student relationships Emma Solak Staff Writer

A Pitt student walks into a bar. A Pitt professor walks into the same bar. The two have never met, and after a few drinks, he invites her out for dinner. It sounds like the start to a bad joke, but under Pitt policy, this romantic invitation is completely acceptable.

Last month, Harvard implemented a new

policy banning sexual and romantic relations between all teachers and students, even if they do not have class together. Before, the university discouraged but did not strictly ban relationships between students and their professors. The change came after a panel at Harvard reviewed its Title IX policy and found that the language in the policy did not reflect the expectations of its enactment, Harvard said in a statement

on its website.

But at Pitt, the rules are different. The University permits relations between teachers and students, as long as the teacher isn’t instructing the student during the relationship. So, for example, if a Pitt instructor or professor meets an individual at a coffee shop and the student attends Pitt, but the

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RELATIONSHIPS instructor is not currently teaching the student, the two can engage in a relationship in accordance with Pitt rules.

A subcommittee of the provost’s Task Force on Sexual Harassment wrote and established Pitt’s policy in 1996.

However, members of the Pitt community are split on student-teacher unions.

Michael Bannon, director of the Oral Communication Lab and lecturer in the Department of Communication, said Pitt should take dating advice from Harvard’s policy.

Undergraduates are in a vulnerable situation, according to Bannon. Students cannot fully disengage themselves from the influential and supervisory role of faculty members to make an informed, honest decision. Bannon said that once a student and teacher have engaged in that authoritative role, it’s very hard for the pair to remove themselves from that setting.

“As an institutional rule, we should forbid [all relations between faculty and students]

March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com because it’s not a likely scenario which will fill social, supervisory pressure and not honest emotional attraction,” Bannon said.

Bannon said he would discourage a colleague from involving him or herself with a student not in his or her class, even though the colleague would not be breaking Pitt’s rules.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said he couldn’t answer whether Pitt has or will consider revising the policy to be more stringent, because it requires speculation.

Students, like freshman Erin Witmer, are also skeptical about the validity of a teacher-student relationships in general.

“When it comes to grades and academics, if that would give someone a leg up, it’s not right,” Witmer said.

James Braza, a sophomore studying

mechanical engineering, agreed that there would be a possibility of bias, but said students and teachers are old enough to make their own decisions.

“It could be unfair to students. But all’s fair in love and war,” Braza said.

For some, like Nancy Pfenning, senior lecturer in the statistics department, Pitt’s policy is fine the way it is.

Pfenning said a total ban on relations between students and teachers often serves as an excuse for a “zero-tolerance” policy. She said a strict policy oversimplifies a complex issue.

A ban on just teacher and current student relations offers some protection from potential problems.

Even so, Pfenning said Pitt’s policy against teachers having relationships with current students makes sense.

“It doesn’t take much imagination to picture some of the many problems that can result from an amorous relationship between a faculty member and his or her current student,” Pfenning said in an email.

The American Association of University Professors’ website states that problems, such as favoritism and bias, arise from teacher and current-student relations.

However, it does not suggest a complete ban on teacher and student relationships.

Pitt’s policy recommends that if there was a relationship between a professor and a student, the University takes steps to ensure a fair evaluation of the student. Under these rules, Pitt requires the faculty member who engages with a student to remove him or herself from their position of authority over that student.

Universities interpret this policy differently, ranging from absolute bans, like Harvard, to bans only when a professor is currently teaching a student, like fellow Atlantic Coast Conference member, Duke University. If a faculty member does enter a relationship with a student he or she cur-

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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GENOCIDE and be compelled to tell their stories, raise the call for action and then get tangible funds to aid victims,” she said.

With the club, Mostofa hopes to raise genocide awareness and education on campus by holding movie screenings, hosting speakers and collaborating with other human rights clubs on campus. In addition to raising money for charities that support genocide victims, she wants

March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com to establish a campus community to get students involved socially, both online through social media and in person at their weekly meetings.

Mostofa started the genocide awareness club at Pitt because she was involved in a similar club in high school.

Because many genocides don’t have official death tolls, Mostofa said, it is difficult to gauge how many people genocide affects worldwide. But Genocide Watch, the international alliance to end genocide, reports that 170 million people died as a result of genocide in the 20th

century. In the Nanking Massacre, for example, which lasted from December 1937 to January 1938, Japanese troops killed 300,000 residents of Nanjing, China, according to a Chinese census, roughly the current population of Pittsburgh.

Mostofa said although Pitt is an involved campus, it’s still relatively consumed in a bubble of privilege.

“People aren’t immediately concerned with issues such as genocide because it’s not visible,” she said. “There’s nothing to evoke in the campus because

people don’t see it. Or worse, people are not even informed of the atrocities continuing to happen.”

Aisha Upton, a graduate student pursuing a doctorate in sociology, said she decided to become the adviser for GRAC, as there is “a need for a club on campus that deals with genocide. It is an issue that is not frequently discussed, and awareness is necessary,” she said.

According to Upton, GRAC has the potential to grow into something used for a variety of different activist purposes, with the ability to align with other organizations and take on other human rights projects.

Upton alluded to Elie Wiesel, a Jewish-American activist and Holocaust survivor, who was one of the first to use the word “holocaust” to describe the atrocities Jews faced during World War II, which shaped the idea of what human rights mean today.

Upton said she wanted to support the club because it has the power to change the way students think about human rights in general through awareness about genocide.

“A group of students who have the courage to inspire conversations about genocide is rare, especially because it is a difficult dialogue to have,” Upton said.

Dialogue is necessary to find a solution, Upton said, even though it may be difficult.

When Mostofa first told her there was no club dedicated to genocide awareness at Pitt, she was shocked. Upton said she encouraged the creators to continue working to create the club, despite the hoops — including the required 10-student petition — that they had to jump through.

When Mostofa set out to start the club, she needed 10 students to sign a petition to become officially registered with the Student Organization Resource Center. She invited Bryan Trew, a sophomore architecture major, to the group, who said he did not know much about genocide before Mostofa emailed him about the new club. Trew said he now realizes it is a “major problem,” and joining the club was a “small, easy way to combat a problem that is bigger than all of us.”

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 2

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RELATIONSHIPS GENOCIDE rently teaches, Duke’s policy says, the University should terminate its contract with him or her.

Sherry Young, a law professor at the Ohio Northern University, wrote in her 1996 paper on student-professor relationships that such relationships can be problematic, regardless of the policy.

Ohio Northern, where Young teaches, has a policy in its faculty handbook that states, “faculty and staff members should not have sexual relations with students to whom they are not married.”

Young noted that student-professor relationships are historically thought of as between a male instructor and a female student, and the policies in place are meant to protect the female student. These policies, she wrote, derive from “a fundamental distrust of women’s judgement and of their perceptions of their own experience.”

Policy forbids graduate students who act as teaching assistants from having relations with their students at both Pitt and Harvard.

However, at Pitt, a teaching assistant may engage in a relationship with a student they are not currently instructing.

Dave Gau, a third-year doctoral student in biomedical engineering and president of Pitt’s Graduate and Professional Student Government, said Pitt’s policy should contain graduate TAs as well as professors, because TAs are also in supervisory role, and engaging in relations with students could create a biased situation. As long as the TA isn’t evaluating the student, Gau said the situation is harmless.

Gau also said that, because of the nature of teaching assistants having not been undergraduates too long ago, it’s easier for the TA and undergraduate to relate than with an older professor and an undergraduate student.

Bannon said he would also caution against a TA engaging in a relationship with a student. He wouldn’t go so far as to forbid it, as long as it wasn’t a current student, but would advise against it for similar reasons as students involving themselves with a professor.

“If there is any chance of the student being swept up in the aura of an intelligent, intellectual [professor], that can often overwhelm undergraduate students. They should be very, very cautious,” Bannon said.

“It’s a small start,” Trew said, “but you never know what these kinds of things can turn into.”

Though Mostofa’s school, Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School, only graduates about 300 to 400 students annually, their genocide awareness club was able to raise $10,000 at a benefit concert in 2010. Mostofa said she hopes

to do even greater things at Pitt.

Upton said the most important message was that the student body should come to the meetings, even just to gain awareness about the issue, because the meetings are a safe space to learn. Students can join the club, Mostofa said, by reaching out to the group on social media, through its Facebook page or Twitter account, @Pitt_Grac.

“We can’t go in with guns blazing and say ‘stop doing this,’” Mostofa said, “but we’re doing what we can.”

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

EDITORIAL

OPINIONS

Less apathy, fewer tweets without action toward peace

Often, critics accuse millennials of being a “hashtag generation,” speaking out but doing little and existing in a state of apathy. Starting this week, the Genocide Relief and Awareness Club at Pitt will provide an outlet for students to go beyond Twitter, breach apathy and tangibly take steps against genocide in our modern world.

The first campus group of its kind at Pitt, the club’s members aim to educate one another on the brutal realities of modern genocide. Ultimately, the group seeks to call for legislative change and bring awareness to the Pittsburgh community and beyond.

We urge students to educate themselves through this group and similar undertakings, as with more knowledge about a topic comes a greater ability to move toward change.

Often as university students, we can easily neglect the outside world, especially the negative aspects of it.

By participating in genocide awareness, students learn to care for others not as fortunate as themselves. We must remember that injustice is not a fixture of the past, unceasing in its harmful progression in the 21st century. It is thus our responsibility, as the future leaders of this century, to call for awareness of and action against violence and atrocities in society, whether at home or abroad.

If we as students and as millennials combine the presence of social media with the power of organization, we can make a tangible difference in the fight against genocide, as well as in local issues like police brutality and the #Blacklivesmatter marches.

More educated citizens means more voices to shape our generation’s global outlook.

We applaud the efforts of Pitt’s Genocide Relief and Awareness Club, and urge all students to act instead of only tweeting to better the world in which we all live.

TNS

COLUMN

Gov. Wolf: Keep the progress alive on death penalty reform Alex Turner For The Pitt News

Gov. Wolf has cleared the path toward progressive death penalty reform.

Pennsylvania has executed only three prisoners on death row since 1976, when the Supreme Court of the United States reinstated the death penalty. Yet, it was not until the middle of February this year that Wolf halted executions as result of a death penalty moratorium, or, a temporary prohibition.

In 2012, Pennsylvania announced that it purchased lethal injection drugs from compounding pharmacies — pharmacies that mix, combine or alter various drugs. Compounding pharmacies can remove components of drugs to

prevent allergic reactions. The danger of compounded drugs, however, is that the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board does not require accreditation or quality testing of compounded drugs. In addition, the buyer does not know the contents of compound drugs for security purposes.

Mainly because of the European-led pharmaceutical embargo, American manufacturers now lack the resources necessary to create the lethal injection drug that European drug companies previously supplied. For example, States use two of the drugs European countries exported to the U.S. — pentobarbital and sodium thiopental — in the vast majority of executions in the United States. Now, in some cases, states have delayed executions because

of the inaccessibility of the combination of chemicals.

Just a few months ago, Wolf’s predecessor, Tom Corbett, signed 48 death warrants for Pennsylvania inmates.

Terrence Williams is one example of a detainee who Wolf’s moratorium kept from execution. The commonwealth scheduled his execution for 2012, but a series of trials pushed it back.

Wolf’s election victory over Corbett granted Williams an extension.

Philadelphia District Attorney, Rufus Seth Williams, has expressed his opposition to the moratorium, saying it is “flagrantly unconstitutional.”

Some families of victims, however, say otherwise.

Turner

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 6

TURNER Terrence Williams murdered Herbert Hamilton and Amos Norwood in 1984. The Patriot News published a letter written by Norwood’s wife, Mamie Norwood, in which she urges lawmakers to “stop trying to execute Terry Williams.”

She has since “forgiven” Terrence Williams for his crime. She concluded her letter by saying “don’t use me for your own political gain,”

THE PITT NEWS Natalie Daher Editor-in-Chief editor@pittnews.com

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referring to R. Seth Williams’ comments.

Other family members of other victims have also come forward with similar words in the recent past.

In Texas in 1983, Karla Faye Tucker killed Ronald Carlson’s sister, Deborah Thornton.

Tucker’s execution did not take place until 1998, and Carlson said the execution left him with “emptiness,” and that he realized it “only continues the violence.”

We must also then ask: On what basis does the U.S. government assume that all victims’ families find closure through trials and ex-

E S T A B L I S HE D 1 9 1 0

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ecution?

Since December 2012, the United Nations General Assembly has also imposed a moratorium on the death penalty. Only 41 nations opposed the moratorium, while 111 agreed, with 34 abstentions. As evident, there is a growing trend toward complete abolition of the death penalty.

When death is on the line, it is crucial that all facts are clear and that there can be no doubt before prosecution. Before the DNA testing era, states wrongfully carried out executions of innocent people. Even with modern

technology, the evidence does not necessarily point in one direction. There may simply be a lack of evidence or a spotty witness testimony that leaves room for multidimensional verdicts when they should ideally be linear.

Wolf has taken a step forward for Pennsylvania, but we must do more to remove the death penalty from our justice system. It’s time for executions in Pennsylvania to cease permanently, not just temporarily. Wolf has realized the latter. Let’s hope he can execute the former.

Write to Alex at aet28@pitt.edu.

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

ARTS and ENTERTAINMENT Pitt alumna Julie Sokolow talks feature-film debut, ʻAspie Seeks Loveʼ

“Aspie Seeks Love” Premieres Tonight at Regent Square Theater (Sold Out)

Harris Theater from April 25 to the 29 and at Row House Cinema May 3.

Ian Flanagan Staff Writer

Documentary filmmaker and 2010 Pitt alumna Julie Sokolow guides viewers through loneliness and Pittsburgh with her recently completed her first feature-length film “Aspie Seeks Love.”

The documentary film focuses on David Matthews, a 49-year-old Aliquippa, Pa., resident struggling with his late-in-life diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, as well as his artistic and romantic pursuits. For the past 20 years, Matthews has posted personal ads on telephone poles all over town, inquiring about dates. In “Aspie,” Sokolow tracks his quest for romantic connection, and it has drawn some early critical acclaim on the festival circuit. The film premieres at a sold-out Regent Square Theatre screening tonight, but will open again at Harris Theater from April 25 to the 29 and at Row House Cinema May 3.

rewarding to tell other people’s stories. It’s a little more social to be in collaboration with whomever you’re profiling.

filmmaker who’s trying to be a fly on the wall and not have the camera interfere with what you’re documenting.

TPN: What was your first meeting with David like?

TPN: How do you feel the film represents Asperger’s in general?

JS: The first time I had coffee with him was at the Crazy Mocha in Bloomfield. I was already sitting with him, imagining him in that role, like the way that he spoke and everything — he just seemed perfect for following around with a camera, just because he’s so witty and his word choice is so unique. He’s a writer and an artist and used to being in the public eye, and I think that comes across sitting across the table from him. He’s also just incredibly sincere — he just can’t be anything other than himself, and he attributes part of that to the Asperger’s, that he doesn’t really know how to put up a facade. Basically he’s just always authentically himself and that’s very appealing to a

JS: This film to me was always more about David as a person, as a writer and artist and a hilarious commentator than the romantic struggles or the autism — those are just aspects of his life that he’s going through. But when that comes up, I think that this film may be unique in that it lets David and other people on the spectrum talk about their experiences rather than having a didactic tone in any way. So we try to let the people in the film who are experiencing life on the spectrum define it for the audience, rather than have a clinical, voice-over point-of-view.

Sokolow

The Pitt News talked to Sokolow about becoming a filmmaker, the challenges of making “Aspie” and meeting with Matthews for the first time.

The Pitt News: When did you know you wanted to do documentary filmmaking?

JS: I think it was a lot of trial and error. I tried psychology at Pitt and did fiction writing, and I took a bunch of film studies classes, and that kind of led me down this wormhole of filmmaking and film production. Especially with having a lot of varied interests, filmmaking helped me combine those interests. And a lot of my favorite narrative filmmakers had started in documentary, so that was compelling — it was a way to make something low-budget and community-oriented.

I guess there’s a lot more leeway with documentary filmmaking if you have a low budget, so it’s a good place to start for filmmakers. It’s just very

David Matthews with one of his self-portraits. Photo courtesy of Julie Sokolow

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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Waxahatchee Ivy Tripp Grade: AEditor’s Note: Waxahatchee won’t release Ivy Tripp until April 7, but we’re printing an advance review to preview tomorrow’s WPTS Spring Show. Waxahatchee and Swearin’ will headline at the William Pitt Union Assembly Room tomorrow night at 8 p.m.

Katie Crutchfield’s third LP as Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp, should be in the music library of every college student approaching graduation. She reaches some inconvenient truths about adult life on this record, which she translates into piercingly sincere words for the rest of us to understand.

In the album’s press release, the 25-year-old indie singer-songwriter described Ivy Tripp as a term she made up to embody “directionlessness, specifically of the 20-something, 30-something, 40-something of today, lacking regard for the complaisant life path of our parents and grandparents,” which, as an English major, strikes a familiar chord.

And it shouldn’t just apply to English majors, but for anyone approaching the ambiguously intimidating “real world.” A confident acceptance of herself in a paternalistic world of expectations seems

to be the secret that Crutchfield has found as her solo musical act matures and evolves.

“What do you want, what do you need,” she asks on the track “Poison.” “A welcome mat?/ You get lazy, you get boring/ You jump the track.”

Crutchfield has described Ivy Tripp as a gas compared to her previous “solid” record, Cerulean Salt — likely due to its directness and confidence. This kind of speculative lyricism shows what Crutchfield is coming to terms with in Ivy Tripp — quashing the anxiety of future

M

Jack Trainor Staff Writer

er ge

Waxahatchee takes hazy, but triumphant head trip on third album

uncertainty and learning to embrace it.

Waxahatchee recorded Ivy Tripp in Crutchfield’s home on Long Island, but despite the domestic setting, it sounds

Review

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REVIEW more confident and full-bodied than her previous records. She also recorded her first two albums in informal atmospheres, which included her parent’s isolated Alabama cabin and friends’ houses. Nonetheless, Crutchfield’s words and voice remain more compelling than the enhanced sonic components on Ivy Tripp.

Sometimes monotonous, other times passionate and punchy, Crutchfield’s fluctuations give her voice a punk-rock sense of liberated carelessness, even when hushed, that works as her most important instrument. Her sister, Allison Crutchfield, is in a full-blown punk band, Swearin’, which has helped record Waxahatchee songs in the past. Though the two artists’ sounds are decidedly different, the seething pointed words of both Katie Crutchfield and Swearin’ singer/guitarist Kyle Gilbride bear some resemblance.

“Air” showcases the malleability of

March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com Crutchfield’s voice. The singer seems to scowl, before giving way to high soaring sighs as she sings about getting over an ex-lover, dismissing their relationship as something that she’ll “never need.”

The album’s songs are cunningly didactic, not simply because of her “live and learn” mentality, but because Crutchfield is unafraid to show her vulnerability, which resonates with the gaseous metaphor that she used to define the record’s title.

This is perhaps most obvious in the breezy “Summer of Love,” which shows Crutchfield at her most mature, lyrically.

Accompanied by simple acoustic strums and long, dragged-out words, Crutchfield sings, “I lose a thought and I’m here/ Reaching for poise as I’m speaking/ Conversations are dry, I absolve.”

The song enters nostalgia with its sweetly melodic chorus of “the summer of love is a photo of us,” but Crutchfield is not caught up on the memories or missed opportunities. Instead, Ivy Tripp is a triumphant collection of songs about acknowledging expectations as a way to move into autonomous self-discovery.

FROM PAGE 8

SOKOLOW TPN: Were any parts of the film more challenging than you expected?

JS: Probably post-production — the naivety that comes along with making your first picture is almost in some aspects necessary to even attempt it [at] all, because it’s so much more work than you think it’s going to be, and that’s part of the naivety that gives you the courage to do it. But I think I was under the impression that I would finish a rough cut and then I would magically know the next step, but I was very lucky that, through research and looking around the area of producers, I connected with Animal [her production company], which produced the Sundance-winning “Blood Brother,” and one of their producers came on as an executive producer of the film, which was huge.

TPN: What was the process of scoring your own film?

JS: I was writing songs all throughout making the film that had to do with my own love

life, because that’s usually what my songs are like — heart on your sleeve, about romantic travails and the desire for independence and also to not be lonely and to connect. That’s a lot of the stuff that David was going through in his quest for love, so I thought, “Oh, this makes a lot of sense that this would be the soundtrack.”

I thought it might not work, but we’ve been getting a lot of feedback that people like the score, which is really rewarding to hear, so I may be putting that album out in the coming months.

So that would be my second solo album.

TPN: How do you feel now that the film is completed, compared to how you felt when you began three years ago?

JS: I guess there were times when [I was] shooting and editing where it was like being in the wilderness, being scared. “Is this ever going to get finished? Is a story going to emerge that people actually want to watch?” I guess having it finished feels like, “Oh, yeah, now everything’s fine.” But there were times of utter uncertainty, and I don’t necessarily do well with uncertainty.

March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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SPORTS

Great expectations

Although the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament begins Thursday, and the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) have just finished, Pitt始s men始s basketball team is absent from both tournaments.

The Panthers, who lost their first NIT game to George Washington University on March 17, have completed their season with a 19-15 record, including an 8-10 mark in the ACC. Before the season began, the sports editors of The Pitt News predicted how the team would perform and who would step up as a breakout player.

Chris Puzia, Sports Editor Preseason record prediction: 23-9 Breakout player pick: Josh Newkirk Looking back on my breakout pick, this one stings.

While I did think forward Michael Young would take a big step forward in his sophomore year, I had pegged another sophomore to break out for the Panthers: Josh Newkirk.

Instead, the guard turned into one of the bigger disappointments for Pitt, giving wildly inconsistent performances throughout the season. Newkirk only finished with 5.7 points per game and 2.7 assists per game this season, but, watching him play, one would think he finished with even less.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20. I had picked Newkirk because of the flashes of sheer athleticism and promise he displayed his freshman year, when he would occasionally use his speed and elusiveness to burn past defenders and get to the hoop.

I figured that if head coach Jamie Dixon could develop him into a more complete player and competent defender during the offseason, he would be a solid understudy to junior point guard James Robinson.

Instead, Newkirk showed poor ball control and decision-making skills, largely exemplified in his late-game turnover against Wake Forest on March 1 to seal the loss.

The clear-cut choice for breakout

Puzia

13 Josh Newkirk (left) and Michael Young (right). Meghan Sunners |Staff Photographer

Dan Sostek, Assistant Sports Editor Preseason record prediction: 22-10 Breakout player pick: Michael Young Heading into the season, I highlighted some issues that I thought Pitt would face in 2014-2015. The biggest obstacle appeared to be a tough non-conference schedule, with matchups against Florida Gulf Coast, Indiana, San Diego State and Kansas State.

The team went 2-2 in those four contests, but Pitt fans knew it could have been worse. Then the Panthers struggled mightily against some average to belowaverage teams, such as Hawaii early on in the season, as well as a home loss to Clemson and road losses to the lowly Virginia Tech and Wake Forest teams.

Before the campaign began, I thought that depth would be a strength for the Panthers, but the opposite occurred. The Panthers had no depth in their frontcourt, leading to walk-on Aron Phillips-Nwankwo jumping ahead of scholarship players Derrick Randall and Joseph Uchebo on the depth chart.

After promising starts to the season, freshmen forwards Ryan Luther and Cameron Johnson struggled to see the court due to inconsistency and injuries, respectively.

But perhaps the most shocking development was the regression of sophomore guard Josh Newkirk. While Newkirk continued to display his physical gifts this season, he struggled with decision-making, turnovers and 3-point shooting. His shortcomings left less depth at the guard

Sostek

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

COLUMN

An open letter to Urban Meyer: Stop complaining Alex Wise Staff Writer

There’s an old adage in sports that having depth is a “good problem.” If that’s true, then Ohio State University head football coach Urban Meyer has more than just a problem on his hands.

Dear Mr. Meyer, You have a good crisis: too many talented quarterbacks.

Just for fun, we’ll have this exchange without considering Joe Burrow, your 4- or 5-star (depending on which recruiting publication you trust) quarterback prospect who earned Mr. Football honors in Ohio last year.

Senior Braxton Miller, one of the preseason frontrunners for last season’s Heisman Trophy before a shoulder injury sidelined him for the year, is healthy again. Freshman J.T. Barrett, who filled Miller’s position to the tune of a 10-1 record and a spot in the Big Ten title game,

has recovered from the ankle injury he suffered in the Buckeyes’ final regular season game against the University of Michigan. And sophomore Cardale Jones, a third stringer whose short resumé includes the Big Ten Championship and a national title, returns to the squad.

On Tuesday, you said that the looming notion of having to pick your starter is “starting to eat away at (you) a little bit.”

Sorry, Meyer, but I’ll let this one devour you before I make any attempts to stop it.

Nobody feels sorry for the person who has it all, and Ohio State’s quarterback conundrum is even less pityworthy than Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari nervously pondering how he would divvy up playing time for his shipping crate full of McDonald’s AllAmericans. Nobody sympathized with

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Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has a “problem”: three talented quarterbacks.

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March 26, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 12

COLUMN him before the season began, and nobody sympathizes now that they’ve won a bajillion games in a row.

Take notes, Mr. Meyer.

You recently said that the worst part of “QuarterbackGate” — trademark pending — is that “two people are going to have to watch,” but this simply isn’t true.

Every football program in America would be more than happy to take one of your two “watchers” and make them “doers.”

I know this guy named Pat Narduzzi who just took a coaching job in western Pennsylvania at some school people call “Pitt.” Narduzzi would love to have Miller leading his offense. Or Barrett. Or even Jones. Fans — fans who, might I add, consistently fill two-thirds of their stadium to 100 percent capacity — would welcome any one of them like a hero. If one of them moved their talents one state over, you’d have one less thing to worry about, Meyer.

It’s a good plan. I’ll tell Narduzzi to expect your call.

In all seriousness, though, you’re being

a bit optimistic about your quarterback situation. Two of your guys will watch from the sidelines. You have that right.

But football is a rough game: You learned that firsthand last season.

I don’t mean to sound negative Nancy here, but who’s to say that history won’t repeat itself? Obviously nobody wants to see kids get hurt, but your job is to think practically. Miller has a history of injuries, and the last time we saw Barrett’s ankle it was facing a direction that ankles aren’t supposed to face. Those kinds of things aren’t insignificant.

Will you choose Miller, one of the best players the Big Ten has seen in the last decade? Or maybe Barrett, who rewrote the Ohio State record book last year? Or perhaps Jones, the one who won you those shiny trophies and earned you those massive bonuses?

I’m sure that bitter Florida fans and the state of Michigan will join me in saying that I wish you nothing but the best in making this difficult choice. Just stop complaining about it.

Sincerely, Alex

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player of the year on Pitt was sophomore forward Jamel Artis and his team-leading 13.8 points per game.

Artis also ranked second on the team with 5.9 rebounds per game, trailing only Young. His scoring ability was largely the reason Pitt hung on at all, and he is the reason my record prediction was only off by a few games.

Without him, I might have looked a lot worse.

Still, I — and most of the Pitt fanbase, most likely — could not have predicted this great of a step backward this year. Despite losing forwards Lamar Patterson and Talib Zanna to graduation, Pitt seemingly had plenty of players to fill the void.

My 23-9 guess was a little generous. But with the core group of sophomores gaining another offseason of experience and intriguing incoming guard Damon Wilson joining the mix, I might just find myself making a similar preseason prediction next year.

position, and Jamie Dixon had to lean heavily on junior guard James Robinson, sophomore guard Chris Jones and senior guard Cam Wright.

There were some shining lights during the bleak season, though. My breakout player pick, sophomore forward Michael Young, showed tremendous improvement, shooting better than 50 percent from the field while averaging nearly 14 points per game. Jamel Artis developed more quickly than anyone expected, becoming the team’s go-to scorer. Sophomore transfer Sheldon Jeter flashed plenty of offensive prowess — when given a chance.

Regardless of this season, the team still has plenty of returning talent, with only Wright, Randall and Phillips-Nwankwo departing. If Newkirk can return to his freshman form, and the team can get some production out of junior forward Durand Johnson, who is returning from a suspension, the Panthers will be in play for another NCAA tournament berth in 2015-2016.