Vol. 105 Issue 126
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Pittnews.com
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Pitt’s got some ‘Schmutz’ Abbey Reighard Assistant News Editor
Emily Zelenka, a chemical engineering major, sorts clothes for the Give a Thread campaign. Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer
Pitt students address sexual assault through art Jessica Iacullo Staff Writer Two Pitt graduate students are combating sexual assault on college campuses, armed with a paper chain that could one day span the height of the Cathedral of Learning. The chain is made out of colored paper stapled together to create links, similar to the decorative chains one might find hanging in an elementary school art room. On each link there is an “It’s On Us” pledge, signed by a Pitt student, faculty member or staff member. Megan Crilly and Christopher Hoff-
mann want to implement a Pitt-specific initiative similar to the national “It’s On Us” campaign that Pitt’s Sexual Assault Task Force adopted last September. “Everyone has been reacting really positively to the campaign, and faculty and staff have been involved as well,” Crilly and Hoffmann said in an email. “One of the coolest reactions we have noticed is that people have been writing messages to us on the paper links themselves. Students have written things like, ‘Thank you for doing this!’ and ‘This is much needed.’” The two graduate students, also members of the Task Force, are con-
tributing to the campaign with a paper chain project and a campaign video, according to Mary Ruiz, head of the Pitt’s Sexual Assault Task Force. The video is scheduled to appear on the Student Affairs website today. Crilly and Hoffmann said it will be long enough to span the height of the Cathedral of Learning, which is 535 feet tall. The two added that they hope they can display the chain at a location on campus, which they haven’t yet determined.
It’s On Us
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Only one person attended Schmutz’s weekly meeting last night — its founder. But she’s not too worried about the low attendance. “People come if they feel like it,” Jessie Kast, who founded the group in January, said. Schmutz is an improv comedy group that meets each Tuesday at 9 p.m. in room 363 of the Cathedral of Learning to play games and practice improv. Kast, who is also a member of Hillel, said she started the group after Hillel put on a performance comedy show last November called “MonOY-logues,” which plays off the Yiddish expression, “oy vey.” After the show, Kast and Courtney Strauss, Hillel’s director of engagement, decided that the Hillel students should form an improv troupe. Schmutz is now the second improv group currently at Pitt. Ruckus, the other group, formed in 2013. The word “schmutz” is a Yiddish word that Kast said “a lot of old Jewish grandmas say” to refer to dirt on one’s face. “We thought it was appropriate for Hillel and we thought it was funny,” Kast, a sophomore majoring in poetry and microbiology, said. Kast said there are about eight consistent members who come to most of the weekly meetings, but she added that the number changes depending on students’ schedules. Kast said the meetings are very casual and added that Schmutz is a good place for people who want to try improv, but might be nervous about performing improv in front of an audience. Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.