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Vol. 105 Issue 128

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Friday, March 6, 2015

WORK FORCE DIVERSITY

Report shows room for improvement in Pittsburgh

All data average monthly salaries in U.S. dollars

Pittsburgh National Average N

White, non-Hispanic (top) vs. racial/ethnic minority (bottom)

4,047 3 3,948 4,645

3,597 White, non-Hispanic vs. black

4,047

2,666

4,645

2,829 White, non-Hispanic vs. Hispanic/Latino

3,661 White, non-Hispanic vs. Asian

4,047 4,645

3,206 4,047

6,271 4,645

5,153

DATA FROM US CENSUS BUREAU, LONGITUDINAL EMPLOYER-H HOUSEHOLD DYNAMIC DATA

Dale Shoemaker Assistant News Editor Pittsburgh’s work force is not diverse, a new report shows, but its authors expressed a need for the city to improve.

On Thursday, the Workforce Diversity Indicators Initiative, a coalition of Pittsburgh organizations led by Vibrant Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Today, released the Pittsburgh Regional Workforce Diversity Indicators Report. The report collected data from the U.S. Census Bureau Longitudinal EmployerHousehold Dynamics program’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators to measure Pittsburgh against other similar metropolitan regions on diversity in the work force.

Rich Fitzgerald, chief executive of Allegheny County, said that although Pittsburgh has done well at creating jobs, it has failed at filling those jobs with a diverse workforce.

“To see the report ... we fell behind when it came to diversity,” he said. “We do have some challenges we have to meet.”

The coalition also included Pitt’s University Center for Social and Urban Research and the School of Social Work’s Center on Race and Social Problems.

A panel of representatives from each organization spoke at the University Club to an audience of local business leaders, policymakers and officials from community organizations.

The representatives discussed their findings and objectives based on the report.

The report, funded by a grant from the Heinz Endowments, examined 15 U.S. metropolitan regions including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Across the analyzed regions, the researchers found that minority workers hold only 25 percent of all jobs. In

Diversity

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DIVERSITY Pittsburgh, however, minority workers hold only 11 percent of all jobs. According to the report, minorities account for 13.6 percent of the southwestern Pennsylvania population. Atlanta is the closest of the benchmark regions to equality. There, minority groups hold 44 percent of all jobs.

The panel included Douglas Heuck, director of Pittsburgh Today, and Melanie Harrington, president and CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh.

It is clear, the report said, that the lack of a diverse workforce is “pervasive and deeply entrenched,” and it asserted that southwestern Pennsylvania needs a “coordinated” strategy to increase diversity.

Heuck said the report was the first of what will be several steps in working toward making Pittsburgh a more diverse city.

“This is phase one, [this is] laying out the facts.”

Heuck said the Workforce Diversity Indicators Report was the first in a series of similar reports looking at diversity in the

March 6, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com work force that the coalition will publish in the near future. Pittsburgh’s average rate of diversity growth, on pace with the national average, Heuck said, “will not do the trick.”

“The share of the labor force claimed by minority workers overall has risen 2 percent in southwestern Pennsylvania since 2002, which is the average rate of growth across the 15 benchmark regions,” the report stated “What Pittsburgh has is some time,” he said. “We have time to prepare, but if we miss it, that’s on us. There should be a sense of urgency, not only to attract talent but to keep it.”

Hueck also said the report was a “baseline” for determining how to keep minority students in Pittsburgh after they graduate.

Gabriella Gonzalez, a sociologist with the RAND Corporation, Vera Krekanova Krofcheck, director of strategy and research for the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board, and James Futrell, vice president for market research and analysis at Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, also spoke.

Gonzalez said the report should be interpreted for its real implications.

“When we look at the results of this report, what we need to think about is, what

does this mean for individuals?” he said. “We need collective action on this. It needs to be a concerted effort.”

Black, Asian and Hispanic workers each occupy a small share of the work force, the report said, but the Asian working-age population has “the highest rate of employment of any racial and ethnic group, including whites.” .Though minority groups don’t have an equal share of the job market, they do have a nearly equal share of income.

For all minority groups, Pittsburgh ranks well above the benchmark average for income equality. Among the 15 benchmark regions, white workers make, on average, $1,048 more than minority workers per month. But, in Pittsburgh, white workers make only $99 more per month. For black workers, however, Pittsburgh falls below the benchmark average. Those workers make, on average, $1,381 less than white workers per month.

For the other two key minority groups, Hispanic and Latino workers make, on average, $386 less than white workers per month and Asian workers make, on average, $2,224 more than white workers per month.

Candi Castleberry-Singleton, chief inclu-

sion and diversity officer at UPMC, said the report gave her “some degree of reservation.”

“The part that concerns me most is data doesn’t always move people’s hearts and minds.”

She challenged the panel to find ways to apply their findings.

“We need to think about this not as a diversity issue but as an economic issue where diversity is a solution,” she said. “This is not new, we didn’t wake up one day and diversity was a problem.”

She then challenged the panel to take their report a further step, to a human level.

“If this doesn’t create a call to action for individuals, I mean CEOs and leaders and executives, then we’ve only given them data, but we haven’t given them a call to action. Do we care enough about the data to do something as individuals?” Castleberry-Singleton said.

In response, Heuck reiterated that the report was only a first step.

“This is not meant to be merely an academic exercise,” he said. “This is our phase one. It’s data. We’re going to be getting into more of the storytelling, more of thing that we hope will resonate with people. This is all a means to an economic end.”

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

OPINIONS

EDITORIAL

Casual Fridays

One dope treat

Ben and Jerry might be highjacking the ice cream business in the near future with their next greatest high-dea, according to a TIME Magazine article this week. Jerry Greenfield told The Huffington Post that pot-infused ice cream makes sense. “Ben and I have had previous experiences with substances,” he said. The stakes are high — the two need to outdo their original Half Baked flavor. Whether they add THC to the existing flavor or create a new one, other ice cream companies will be green with envy.

Pillow talk Japanese inventor Koichi Uchimura is taking body pillows to the next level — life in plastic might be fantastic, but life in cotton is far from rotten. While body pillows make for comfortable sleep aids, they aren’t the smoothest talkers. To solve this, Uchimura created “Ita-Supo,” a talking pillow that responds to a user’s touch. The pillow is designed with the face and torso of a blond female anime character. If you touch certain parts of the pillow, the girl playfully responds.

Go for the nether regions, and she scolds, “Not there!” She’s not a cheap date, though — the “ItaSupo” pillow costs about $167.

The benefit? At least you don’t have to wine and dine her, and you’re already in bed.

Thumb war A UFC fight this week was a real knuckle-biter for New Mexico resident Manuel Aragon.

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While sitting down to watch the fight with his family, Aragon took a few hits on his career. After the family made fun of him, Aragon was so angry that he decided to go UFC on them. In the brawl, he bit off Rey Gutierrez’s right index fingertip. Gutierrez said he’d UFsee Aragon in court.

Over-the-top tentacle How many octopi does it take to escape from a Seattle zoo exhibit? It turns out, just about one-eighth. Earlier this week, the restless sea creature was caught on film scaling the sides of his tank. Nearing the top, the octopus managed to get two or three tentacles over the edge, attempting to hoist itself out. Children screamed in the background of the video, fearing the mollusk put a few tentacles out of bounds.

They were in fear for good reason — the octopus nearly eight the kids.

Fa-Jesus This week, a New Jersey appellate court really burned a man.

The court told Hiram Jimenez that he could not seek damages for a burn he received at an Applebee’s. Jimenez had been praying, his face bowed over a hot fajita, when the steam burned his face. Jimenez claimed that his waitress didn’t warn him the food was hot. The court said the threat was obvious. He’d better keep crossing his fingers for a miracle to get compensation for this burn. It’s like the Applebee’s employee said — if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the restaurant.

COLUMN

Stolen hope in humanity: Why can’t I leave my things attended?

Bethel Habte Staff Writer

I stopped when I saw the shattered glass lying on the ground. Dark, gray pieces of glasses that, in the shadow of the darkness, glittered like the intricate jewelry I had tried on, admired and left in the shops we had wandered through.

It seemed my father didn’t, or couldn’t, believe it had happened until he had walked enough steps forward to make out the gaping hole where the car window should have been, as if to make sure that the image was not a simple trick of light playing off his antiquated glasses.

When it finally hit him, it really hit him. He doubled over, his head trapped in his hands and cried out, “My computer!”

And then it finally hit me. I had assumed that the shattered window was the extent of the damage, part of some ill-conceived venture for absent value or cruel amusement.

I hadn’t realized that, where the backseat now lay bare, there had once resided my father’s worn backpack. It had contained not only the computer, but also his passport, papers to be read and notes on his

work.

All that was gone now.

Larceny, and theft in general, is no new crime. According to a 2005 report by the FBI, laptop theft amounted to about $3.5 million in 2005. Regardless, you can never imagine it happening to you. I’ve always preferred to think that the places I’m in are safe and that the people I know are kind.

That was especially the case in Santana Row, San Jose, where my father and I had been shopping.

It’s an upscale part of California, full of high-end retailers and places for fine dining. It’s also not a place where I ever expected anyone to break into my father’s car and steal his belongings and peace of mind.

As I stood there, in the backdrop of my father’s anguish, I thought about a recent conversation I had with a friend. Amused by my ill-phrased dislike of people, he had inquired about my decision to pursue a people-oriented profession.

“It’s not that I don’t like people,” I had remarked. “It’s that they frustrate me.”

I was, I realized, frustrated with human nature. It seemed to me that the distinction between

being “good” and “bad” was merely a choice, and I didn’t understand why we too often made the more morally detrimental choice.

That said, to be honest, I am of no greater moral composure myself. I’ve probably made the “bad” choice as often as I’ve made the “good” one. But I’ve also seen how much of a force of good people can be, should they only choose to.

The person who had stolen my father’s bag, shattered his window and momentarily shattered his life had made a clear choice to be a destructive force. It was a choice that I didn’t understand and don’t think I ever will. After all, that bag was the accumulation of a life that my father had built. What more could it ever be to anyone else than a few worn belongings?

I have a habit of leaving belongings unattended. It was, to close friends, evidence of my naive approach to life, my Sunnyvale-bred disconcern and my incredible luck.

But, frankly, I’m saddened that my carefree demeanor needs to be questioned. According to 2009 Pennsylvania State Police figures, larceny — or simply theft — was

Habte

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Fatima Kizilkaya | Staff Cartoonist

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

FROM PAGE 3

HABTE the most common crime committed on campus. College campuses, supposedly havens of safety and sanctuaries for learning, were still no exception.

I once studied on the second floor of the Carnegie Library. After a while, I had decided to head down to the ground floor. I had meant only to grab a quick snack, get something to drink and promptly head back to where my stuff had been spread over a table. But I had

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received a call from my mother, and my quick snack had become a lengthy conversation.

When I finally did make my way up the two flights of stairs, down the hall and to the secluded table in the corner, I was brought to a sudden halt. My belongings were gone.

In their place was a note.

The security guards stared down at me as I had approached them with the note.

In front of them was my backpack, filled haphazardly with my belongings.

“You can’t just leave things laying around,” they chided.

They’re right — if someone had stolen

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my belongings, just like someone stole my father’s, it’s unlikely that it would have been returned. At Shippensburg University, police cleared only nine of 41 reported larceny cases in 2009, according to PennLive..

In 2011, 88 laptops were reported stolen at UC Berkeley, according to Berkeley Security. Most of them were stolen at an opportune time by outside sources, not students.

When I think about what they said that day, I grow resentful. As immature as it may sound, I wanted to be able to leave things lying around. I didn’t want to live in a world where, if I wasn’t looking out for my belong-

ings, someone was looking to take them.

I don’t want to live in a world where I have to watch my father, a man whom I consider intelligent, call himself stupid. He had meant to put the bag in the trunk — why had he forgotten? He had meant to back up his computer that night — why hadn’t he done it earlier? Why hadn’t we gotten to the car sooner?

Why had someone decided to be a destructive force that night?

Bethel primarily writes about social issues and current events for The Pitt News.

Write Bethel at beh56@pitt.edu.

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

SPORTS

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Panthersʼ ACC trip comes to disappointing halt Dan Sostek Assistant Sports Editor The clock ticked a little closer to midnight for the Pitt women’s basketball team’s Cinderella season, as the No. 7-seed Panthers fell to the No. 15-seed Virginia Tech Hokies by a final score of 51-45 in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

The contest, which took place in Greensboro, N.C., started off promising enough for Pitt (19-11, 9-7 ACC). Head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio’s squad jumped out to an early 10-3 lead after the first eight minutes of the ballgame, thanks in part to five points by freshman Stasha Carey.

Virginia Tech (12-19, 1-15 ACC) would fight back, tying the game up at 14 points each with 7:06 remaining in the first half. Still, the Panthers would not trail until 35 seconds remained in the half, as sophomore forward Sidney Cook converted a layup out of a timeout to give the Hokies a 17-15 advantage.

The two teams traded baskets to end the half, and Pitt headed into halftime trailing 19-17. They would not lead for the remainder of the night.

The Panthers kept clawing their way back into the contest, even tying the game at 31-31 with 11:20 remaining in the second half, but the team’s lack of consistency at the free throw line prevented Pitt from making a serious push.

The struggles served as the team’s kiss of death in a close and winnable postseason game.

Despite averaging 70.9 percent on free throw attempts in the regular season, the Panthers were atrocious from the charity stripe on Thursday, going 10-24, good for a 41.7 percent mark.

On the other side of the box score, Pitt’s opponents thrived at the line, shooting a lights-out 11-13 (84.6 per-

W Hoops

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Brianna Kiesel and the Panthers came up short in Greensboro Thursday evening. Alyson Derrick | Staff Photographer

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WEEKEND RUNDOWN

Litany of Pitt teams look to bounce back Chris Puzia Sports Editor

Several Pitt teams are looking toward this weekend as a chance to catch fire and end some recent disappointing runs.

The men’s basketball team enters Saturday’s game on a two-game losing streak, the baseball team had a losing record in each of its three weekend series so far and Pitt’s wrestling team has lost three straight dual matches entering the ACC Tournament.

But it’s not all bad: The softball team is off to a 15-2 start, and several individual swimmers and runners have had strong recent performances.

Here’s a rundown on Pitt sports competition during spring break: Women’s Basketball With a loss on Thursday to Virginia Tech, Pitt (19-11, 9-7 ACC) is now eliminated from the ACC Tournament and is done playing for the weekend. The Panthers will now wait until the NCAA Tournament field is announced to see if — or when — they will next play.

Men’s Basketball The Panthers (19-12, 8-9 ACC) have lost their last two games, Wednesday against Miami and Sunday at Wake Forest, making an already tenuous path to the NCAA Tournament nearly impossible. With a win Saturday at Florida State, Pitt will likely need a deep run in

Rundown

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6 FROM PAGE 5

RUNDOWN the ACC Tournament to have a chance of crossing the “bubble.”

Currently, ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi has the Panthers in his “next four out” category, meaning the team has a lot of work to do if it wants to play in March Madness.

Wrestling Pitt wrestling had a much-needed week off last Sunday after losing three straight dual matches and six of its last seven overall. The Panthers (8-8, 2-3 ACC) have wrapped up their dual season with the 24-14 loss to West Virginia on Feb. 22.

Next is the ACC Tournament on Sunday.

Pitt hosts the tournament this year, so it will have the luxury of only traveling

March 6, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com to the Petersen Events Center to compete with the rest of the conference.

Baseball After an 18-1 explosion in its first game of the season, Pitt (3-6) has cooled down a bit. The team has not had a winning record in each of its first three weekends, and next the team will travel to Charlottesville, Va., for its three-game weekend series at Virginia.

This weekend does not get any easier: Virginia boasts a 10-0 record, including dominating wins over Marist, La Salle and East Carolina. After that series, the team will finally return to the Charles L. Cost Center to play its first home games against Niagara on Tuesday and Wednesday. After a long road trip to start the season, Pitt’s next seven games are at home.

Softball

FROM PAGE 5

Pitt baseball will want to replicate the success the softball team has had, because it just came off of a weekend series with Virginia itself. Pitt (15-2, 2-1 ACC) won two of the three games to continue its hot start.

Next, the Panthers head to Fort Myers, Fla., for the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament, running from Friday through Sunday. The team will play Quinnipiac and Boston University on Friday, and Long Island University-Brooklyn and Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday. Pitt’s performance in those games will determine its final opponent on Sunday.

After that, the team will stay in Florida for a Tuesday doubleheader against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and Florida Gulf Coast.

Senior pitcher Savannah King will likely log heavy innings over the weekend based on her 9-0 record with a 1.75 ERA so far this season.

W HOOPS cent), which served as a deciding difference in a game in which both teams shot under 32 percent from the field.

The Panthers had no answer for Hokies sophomore guard Vanessa Panousis, who totaled a game-high 20 points while going 4-11 from beyond the arc and 6-6 on free throw attempts.

Pitt senior guard and first-team AllACC member Brianna Kiesel struggled throughout the evening, tallying nine points (half of her per-game average for the regular season), though she did tally 10 rebounds. Carey led all Pitt scorers with 13 and recorded 10 boards as well.

With the win, Virginia Tech advances to take on the No. 2 seed Florida State Seminoles on Friday.

While the loss potentially created a severe blemish on the Panthers’ tournament resumé, the team will find out their fate for sure on March 16 when the NCAA officially unveils the 2015 field of 64.

T P N Today’s difficulty level: Very Hard S U D Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com O K U