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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

Nurse practitioners push for full authority

May 18, 2016 | Issue 152 | Volume 106

Erin Hare| Staff Writer

The Department of Health and Human Services projects that by 2020, the country will face a shortage of 20,400 primary care doctors.

While medical experts can only guess at the cause for the declining number of physicians — higher education costs, strict standards for practicing, waning interest — Pennsylvania nurse practitioners like Sheila Gealey think they have a solution.

“The number of primary care physicians is really decreasing and there is a projected shortage in Pennsylvania,” Gealey said. “That’s where nurse practitioners can fill the void.”

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure committee will vote on Senate Bill 717, which would grant nurse practitioners full practice authority in the state. Having full practice authority would allow nurse practitioners to open their own practices, bill patients directly and prescribe any medication without needing approval from a physician.

Critics are concerned that the bill will hamper collaboration between nurses and physicians and lead to more medical errors, while supporters say this legislation would increase access to health care and decrease related costs.

According to a 2015 study by medical profesSee Nurses on page 3

West Virginia beat the Panthers, 10-4 Tuesday, to split the season series. Ian Flanagan CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

CITY COMPETES FOR FUNDS

Alexa Bakalarski News Editor

At a meeting of Pittsburgh minds on Monday, Mayor Bill Peduto lamented the city’s aging transportation system.

“We have an infrastructure that is still based in the 1950s,” Peduto said. “We have to be able to change that to be able to reconnect.”

According to Peduto, Pittsburgh has a shot at becoming “smarter” through technological innovation like self-driving cars and an app that can communicate with traffic signals — he just wants $40 million to do it.

The Steel City is up against six other finalists in the U.S. Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge — a national program that offers up to $40 million to the city with the best plan to fully integrate innovative technologies into transportation.

Pittsburgh was among 78 applicants when the competition launched last December. USDOT has since narrowed that list down to just six others, including Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon.

USDOT will select the winner in June.

At a roundtable discussion at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden Monday morning, Peduto, along with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, discussed Pittsburgh’s fastmoving future.

Fueled by companies like Uber — the ride-booking start-up that moved into Pittsburgh last year and plans to start testdriving autonomous vehicles in the area — the city has made national headlines for its turnaround from steel to smart.

See Smart City on page 3

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PITT CREATES URBAN EDUCATION CERTIFICATE Alexa Bakalarski News Editor

On Wednesday, Pitt’s School of Education announced a new graduate program certificate that specifically addresses cultural divides between teachers and students in urban schools.

The Graduate School of Education Post-Baccalaureate Certificate of Advanced Study in Teaching with an Area of Concentration in Urban Education will begin classes this summer. The program, according to a University release, aims to strengthen student-teacher relations across demographics. The 15 credit program will be in Pitt’s department of instruction and learning with support from Pitt’s Center for Urban Education.

A 2015 report on urban schools from the Center for Reinventing Public Education found that students of color and low-income students — compared to white or more affluent students — were less likely to enroll in elementary and middle schools that score high on tests. It also found that an achievement gap of about 14 percent existed between students eligible for reduced-price and free meals and students who were not eligible.

According to the release, the disparity applies particularly to Pittsburgh, as almost 85 percent of Pittsburgh’s public school teachers are white while more than 60 percent of Pittsburgh public school students are people of color.

Students will complete the certificate program in three semesters, according to Erika Gold Kestenberg, the program’s

May 18, 2016

organizer.

One of the program’s courses, “Introduction to Urban Education,” will address issues related to public education policy and systematic racism, illustrating how they directly and indirectly influence students’ experiences in education.

Other courses in the program include “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy” and “Relationship Building with Students, Families and Communities.” Both courses will teach students how to cultivate better relationships with their future students and how to become sensitive teachers.

The program will also provide students with real-world experience in local Pittsburgh public schools. Kestenberg said the specific schools will vary based on the student’s area of interest.

Students who have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution and meet minimal requirements for admission to Pitt’s graduate programs can apply for the course with letters of recommendation and a 3.0 GPA. H. Richard Milner, the director of the Center for Urban Education, said the new certificate program will increase job satisfaction and students’ potential to stand out against other job applicants.

“The more knowledge and skills our graduates have about developing innovative, relevant and responsive practices to identify and build on the many assets of students in urban environments,” Milner said in the release, “the better our chances that every child receives the kind of education he or she deserves.”

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Nurses, pg. 1

Smart City, pg. 1

“Our job is now to think about transportation in a much different way,” Peduto said.

“It’s not about getting in a car and going somewhere, that is a part of the past. It is about how we look at all modes of mobility … and how [people] are able to get to where they need to go.”

Pittsburgh’s plan is heavily focused on creating ways to better connect people with their jobs.

As the economy develops along the Monongahela River, Peduto said reconnecting the Hill District and Oakland to Downtown, for example, would help communities that have been cut off from vital parts of the city for decades.

In places like Penn Hills, people without cars who need access to transportation more often than during weekly business hours can’t always rely on the infrequent bus service.

A dearth of public transportation in the city’s low-income neighborhoods adds to See Nurses on page 5 what some people, including Peduto, are

dubbing “a tale of two cities.” On one hand, new technology is boosting the economy, but only for those who are able to take part in the boom.

Fitzgerald said Pittsburgh needs to harness its tech-savvy resources to fix transportation systems and address neighborhood inequalities that have been present for nearly 70 years.

“As we grow again, we need to make sure we’re growing in a smart way,” Fitzgerald said.

Pittsburgh’s application also links transportation to less recognizable issues such as air pollution and combined sewage overflow. The application plans to put devices that measure air pollution at streetlights while a second application being finalized this week will include more details on addressing combined sewage overflow.

“By combining transportation, energy and stormwater reduction, we can rebuild these neighborhoods in green ways and create things they haven’t had,” Peduto said.

Find the full story online at

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The Pitt news crossword 5/18/16

sors Michael Richards and Daniel Polsky spanning 10 states, clinics employing nurse practitioners offered better access for Medicaid patients and lower prices for office visits, but this was only true in states with full practice authority.

Pitt nursing professor Kathy Magdic said patients appreciate comprehensive treatment, an arena in which nurse practitioners excel.

“Nurse practitioners provide care that’s more holistic,” Magdic said. “So we’re seeing the patients as a whole rather than just a disease process.”

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have earned a master’s or doctoral degree and obtained national certification from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Currently, in Pennsylvania, nurse practitioners must work in collaboration with two physicians.

SB717 would allow nurse practitioners to function without oversight from a physician after three years and 3,600 hours of training under a collaborating physician.

President of the Philadelphia County Medical Society Michael DellaVecchia opposes the bill because — as a doctor — he said it would discourage collaboration and teamwork.

“Physicians are necessary for care,” DellaVecchia said. “We are part of the team, and we want to work as part of the team, and that includes nurse practitioners. We would not want anyone to

practice outside of the team.”

Sheila Gealey, retired nurse practitioner and longtime activist with the Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, said the bill is not meant to reduce teamwork or take any say away from physicians.

“We agree that collaboration is necessary, but we don’t need a written document to provide that collaboration,” Gealey said.

For routine office visits, patients could choose to see either a nurse practitioner or a physician, but either way the bill reflects the collaborating physician’s higher rate.

Because of this, full practice authority could save money for uninsured patients and those with high deductible plans, according to Susan Van Cleve, legislative chair for the Three Rivers Chapter of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.

A 2015 report by Duke University law researchers John Bailey and Kyle Jaep show that increasing autonomy for nurse practitioners would also save the state billions of dollars and increase health care access for patients.

Nurse practitioner authority ranges from full — in states such as Washington and Minnesota — to reduced — in states such as Pennsylvania and New York — to restricted — in states such as Texas and California.

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Q&A: Pitt students bike for a cause Alexa Bakalarski| News Editor Three Pitt students and fraternity brothers had barely put down their pencils after finals before they were strapping on helmets to raise money for a good cause.

To support the V Foundation for Cancer Research, a Delta Chi partner and non-profit organization that funds cancer research, rising junior Max Lindsay and rising seniors Malcolm Juring and Zach Ward biked from Pitt’s campus to the headquarters of their international social fraternity Delta Chi in Iowa City, Iowa. The students biked about 750 miles in total.

The brothers left Pittsburgh May 2, and reached the headquarters May 12. Although the fraternity had already met its fundraising goal for the foundation, they decided to take the trip anyway, and raised more than $4,000 in additional funds for the cause.

After the bike trip, Lindsay, a material science and engineering major, and Ward, a business and economics major, returned to their Pennsylvania homes in Peters Township and Bethlehem, respectively.

But Juring, a neuroscience major, is still spinning his wheels in Pittsburgh. He sat down with The Pitt News to talk about his experience cruising through three states in 11 days.

The Pitt News: Where did you get the idea for the trip? How did you plan for it, training-wise?

Malcolm Juring: It was originally Max’s idea, and he thought that it would be a contingency plan if we didn’t meet our pledge — our philanthropy pledge. We reached that pledge, but we liked the idea of doing it anyway, so we went ahead with it.

Yeah, we did some training, but a lot of it — we didn’t really prepare for it because you can’t really prepare for a trip like that until you’re doing it.

You can’t bike 100 miles every day during finals, so a lot of the training was actually during the first couple days of the trip. We were really sore and it was a lot of adjusting.

TPN: That sounds like a lot of work without any training, do you bike regularly?

MJ: Yes, we all bike fairly regularly. However, we weren’t able to train as much as we would have liked to because of finals.

TPN: Besides the fact that it’s your headquarters, why Iowa City?

MJ: Our fraternity, Delta Chi, has their international headquarters in Iowa City … and the

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May 18, 2016

V Foundation is our fraternity’s national philanthropic partner, so we were looking for a ride that would make sense. There are more exciting places to ride — maybe New York, [Washington] D.C. — but we wanted somewhere that was connected with us.

TPN: Were you nervous?

MJ: I think we were excited. We didn’t know exactly what to expect. None of us had done a trip exactly like this before, so there was a lot of “what ifs” floating around.

We tried to limit our expectations, I think, just because it was something so different from anything we’ve ever done before. It became our lives for a week and a half, nothing but riding, eating and sleeping.

TPN: What was the hardest part of the trip?

MJ: The whole thing was pretty hard, [laughs] but the time pressure ... to do it in the 11 days that we did it in was the hardest part, I think. It meant that we were doing anywhere from 70 to 100 miles in a day, and [doing] that every day is difficult. You get sore and you don’t want to ride the next day, but you just have to. When you factor in stopping for food, that basically means riding from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, so it’s very full days — long days. The hardest thing was probably the last two days when we had a really strong headwind. We had a 20 mph headwind for the last couple days, so that made it probably about twice as hard to go the same distance.

TPN: Did you meet a lot of people while you were biking? What did they think about what you were doing?

MJ: A lot of people were curious what we were doing, so we didn’t even have to — we never went up to people and were like, ‘this is what we’re doing,’ but a lot of people saw us on our bikes or they saw us in restaurants, and they asked us ... when we explained it, there was almost always a positive response.

A couple of times, people told us stories about their friends or family that had cancer and how they thought young people doing this was a really great thing. We actually got over $100 in donations during the trip from people who just asked us what we were doing.

Find the full story online at

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Nurses, pg. 3 The most restrictive states require physician oversight for nurse practitioners to diagnose and treat patients, which DellaVecchia said is critical for care.

He said that physicians’ training is more intense, involves a higher degree of responsibility and spans a longer duration than that of nurse practitioners. Physicians have roughly 16,000 hours of supervised clinical training, compared to the 3,600 hours required for nurse practitioners under SB717.

Van Cleve said a shortage of primary care physicians has forced her to take time away from patients while she searches for a doctor who can write the prescription for her.

“Not one study has found that nurse practitioners provide services that are inferior to physicians,” Van Cleve said.

The Institute of Medicine published a report in 2011 stating that nurse practitioners have equal patient outcomes and quality ratings as physicians.

This isn’t the first time nurses have fought for full authority. Paula Milone-Nuzzo, dean of nursing at Penn State University, said nurse practitioners in Pennsylvania have been working to obtain full practice authority since 1988. SB717 is the closest they have ever gotten.

Gealey said despite the opposition, she is optimistic the bill will pass, even if it’s solely for financial reasons.

According to Gealey, this law could save Pennsylvania $6 billion over 10 years, largely due to the fact that Medicare generally pays nurse practitioners 85 percent of what physicians typically make. More facilities with full authority nurse practitioners also increases access to health care that can potentially reduce emergency room visits.

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PA Coalition of Nurse Practitioners “It will not cost Pennsylvania one cent to pass this bill,” Gealey said, “but it will lower health care costs and it will provide increased access to care.”

DellaVecchia said that if malpractice costs, legislative costs, profit in pharmacies and profit in insurance companies did not affect them, doctors could also practice at much less of a cost.

Even the notion that nurse practitioners could take only the most routine cases is questionable, DellaVecchia said.

“When a patient walks through that door you have no idea what’s basic,” DellaVecchia said.

He said that a patient who presents with fatigue could have a virus or the beginning symptoms of leukemia, so treating this patient like they have a routine virus — which a nurse practitioner is more apt to do than a physician — could be damaging.

SB717 would grant nurse practitioners the ability to open their own practices and to continue practicing during unexpected lapses in physician collaboration. This would increase access to underserved communities both in rural and urban areas, Gealey said.

DellaVecchia said the American Medical Association and the Pennsylvania Medical Society are already addressing the shortage. Solutions including increasing the number of students admitted to medical school and increasing the number of spots in residency programs offer alternative options to the full authority bill.

Allowing nurse practitioners to practice independently, he said, would further eliminate incentives for doctors to practice in rural areas because they would be undercut in an already unprofitable market.

Van Cleve remains adamant, saying the bill is a necessary change to health care — and Pennsylvania should follow other states in acknowledging its range possibilities.

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Opinions from the editorial board

Pitt’s new certificate critical for education majors The most significant challenges to the American education system often go unaddressed or under-addressed in college curriculums.

But on Tuesday, the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education announced a new certificate program that seeks to foster the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban education, a move that will hopefully usher in a new era of teacher training.

This summer, Pitt will offer classes for the Graduate School of Education Post-Baccalaureate Certificate of Advanced Study in Teaching with an Area of Concentration in Urban Education.

The 15 credit hour program will focus on “strengthening classroom relations between educators and diverse student populations,” according to a University release.

The certificate includes classes that emphasize building relationships with families and communities and culturally responsive teaching methods, and highlights issues of race and poverty that can affect students’ learning experience.

The program is a small step, but it’s a positive and prominent one towards addressing the myriad issues that stem from poor relationships between students and teachers in urban schools.

In order to close the achievement gap that leaves lower-income students be-

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hind, it is crucial that teachers and educators going to work in any area learn what kind of classrooms they’re stepping into before they arrive.

Urban schools often face the most challenges in the American education system, where a lack of funding, resources and adequate, experienced teachers set students up for a lifetime of disinterest in education.

Students in urban areas — specifically low-income, inner-city areas — are subject to higher risks of poverty, trauma, crime and family instability.

These adversities, according to the Alliance for Quality Education, not only create significant barriers to early education, but correspond with higher dropout rates. Chicago children who did not attend early childhood education programs were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for violent crime by age 18 than their peers who did attend.

Because of monetary limitations, urban schools have trouble hiring and retaining teachers who can meet high demands. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 2011 to 2012, urban schools had the highest rates of teacher vacancies across all subjects.

Often, this means the least skilled teachers end up teaching the students who need the most support.

See Editorial on page 7

Facebook

FACEBOOK’S NEWS SUPPRESSION MISLEADS USERS Marlo Safi | Staff Writer

Facebook is synonymous with nagging family, bragging friends and viral memes, but we rarely associate the social networking site with news.

On an everyday basis, I log into Facebook and am immediately inundated: friends’ shameless selfies posted to fish Facebook’s superficial depths for validation, a stranger’s outpouring of raw emotion for their significant other with the kind of grammar mistakes most of us could’ve fixed at the tender age of 11 and pictures of my cousin’s hastilyplanned wedding in Cancun.

But increasingly, I’m presented with a different kind of information overload. Millennials now use Facebook for much more than the occasional — or daily — stalking session.

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According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of people ages 20 to 35 get their political news from Facebook.

We see the two-word headline in Facebook’s “trending topics” sidebar and the small summary that follows and our interest is piqued. We follow the link and read up on President Barack Obama changing high school bathroom policies or the Alaskan moose someone caught on camera playing with wind chimes on their porch. While Facebook claims that the trending list is the product of an objective algorithm that detects what topics users are popularly discussing as well as breaking events, the news you are reading is a product of something else — something Facebook never disclosed.

Bias.

See Safi on page 7

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Safi, pg. 6 Earlier this month, Gizmodo, a design and technology blog from the Gawker Media network, released a story based on interviews with former Facebook “news curators” — employees who shape the trending list on Facebook. Once the company’s algorithm specifies which topics are trending, the curators select the stories that will end up on the final list.

One of the individuals Gizmodo interviewed reported that Facebook officials routinely suppressed news of interest to conservative readers even when such news was trending. Instead, the curator said, Facebook encouraged curators to “inject” topics of interest to them or that aligned with a progressive agenda, like stories about the Black Lives Matter movement.

When the vast majority of millennials get their news from a social media website that deliberately deep-sixes news outside its specific agenda, young people suffer a grave injustice.

They are unknowingly exposed to an ideological tilt presented as objective, nonpartisan truth. Facebook is following the trend of mass media and universities across the nation, further reinforcing a lack of tolerance, dialogue and critical reasoning.

While Mark Zuckerberg may continue to claim that Facebook does not permit reviewers to add or suppress political perspectives, the former news curator kept notes of stories that higher-ups prevented from running.

Editorial, pg. 6 A history of institutional racism deeply rooted in urban education also means that students of color are disproportionately affected by limited funding and educational opportunities. In Pittsburgh, nearly 85 percent of public school teachers are white and more than 60 percent of students are from minority communities, according to the 2014 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Programs like Teach for America and City Year — which place college students and recent graduates in urban schools for a specific period of time — are valuable. But it’s not enough to go somewhere with only the desire to help.

Like any other job, there are socially and culturally specific factors that educators should take the time to understand be-

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Some of the topics and outlets the former curator jotted down in the log include: former IRS official Lois Lerner, whom Republicans accused of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; the Breitbart and the Drudge Report and information about a former Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle, who was murdered in 2013.

The former news curator went on to say the suppression of certain topics “had a chilling effect on conservative news.”

The chilling effect extends beyond Facebook. On college campuses, and generally in mass media, young people are time and time again made to believe that conservative news is either short-sighted or doesn’t exist at all.

Universities and colleges often don’t facilitate discussion between opposing viewpoints, subsequently silencing conservative voices while at the same time touting diversity and inclusivity.

Many classes in American universities are taught with a bias, but journalism courses often don’t try and hide it. Even journalism and media classes focus on how “social change” comes from only the left.

Burlington College in Vermont offers a course called “Historical Activism and Social Movement” and New York University offers a course called “Media Activism and Social Movements.” Both courses neglect to account for widespread social movements like the Tea Party, which garnered a following when it called for fiscal responsibility and less governmental intervention.

Sure, Facebook is a private entity, unlike

the many state universities that subtly promote progressive agendas. It can push the starry-eyed and romanticized homilies of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders until the politically correct bovines of nonspecified genders come home.

But, Mr. Zuckerberg, if you truly are the bleeding heart, paragon of virtue you have marketed yourself to be, and if you are stepping into an industry that’s supposed to present fact — rather than opinion — you need to understand the disservice you’re doing to impressionable consumers.

More than one billion people across the world use Facebook and are subject to the news it chooses to highlight. This means that whether we like it or not, Facebook controls discussions.

It’s no secret conservatives are a minority amongst young people — according to pollster Frank Luntz, 45 percent of young people in 2016 say they would vote for Sanders if the election were held today and 19 percent said they would vote for Hillary Clinton. 10 percent said they would cast their vote for Donald Trump. The remaining three candidates at the time didn’t even reach double digits.

With such an overwhelming population of young liberals, Facebook is providing little more than an echo chamber where millennials can read the same angles they’ve been retweeting, sharing and talking about all day.

When Facebook does report news from the right, it’s likely about which marginalized demographic Donald Trump chose to disparage

that day for the umpteenth time, sending a distorted message of what real conservative news looks like.

If Facebook considers itself a leading company that promotes innovation, open access to information and the ability to broaden the social experience, it should seek to expand young users’ capacity to consider and independently evaluate a wide range of issues.

Zuckerberg took to Facebook Thursday evening to defend the company in light of the allegations, saying it stands for “giving everyone a voice” and he plans to talk with 15 leading conservatives in coming weeks including Donald Trump’s advisor Barry Bennett, Glenn Beck and Fox News’ Dana Perino.

Talking with conservatives isn’t a plan, it’s a misguided distraction and a not-so-creative tactic to appear unbiased.

Biased information manifests itself in several ways, including the absence of tolerance for conservative beliefs and causes, the chilling of fellow peers’ speech via threats or public humiliation and a general narrowmindedness from a site that is supposed to be a socially enriching experience.

Limiting the public discourse by ignoring “unpopular” viewpoints on Facebook is simply fueling the political polarization we see happening in colleges across the country.

Conservative news is news too, Zuckerberg, and if you’re expanding into the world of journalism, it’s your job to uphold its standards and present stories objectively to your users.

fore getting invested in a school.

Additionally, teachers and volunteers who take part in these programs don’t stick around for very long and won’t be able continue on with kids as they get older. Urban schools often face high turnover rates of people coming and going, making it hard for children to form valuable connections, relationships or trust.

If we want to set students up for success and improve overall crime and employment rates in the long run, we must prepare permanent teachers to adapt and cater to the specific needs of urban schools and low-income students.

While Pitt’s new certificate offers an exceptional chance for students who might not get this kind of specific training otherwise, every college student majoring in education would benefit from a

curriculum that teaches these skills.

At Pitt, students interested in the certificate can only apply once they receive their bachelor’s degree and must have a minimum 3.0 GPA and two letters of recommendation .

A similar program for undergraduates — without qualifications for entry — would ensure that every teacher is ready to take on outside factors such as poverty and trauma and effectively support their students’ needs inside the classroom.

There are a few undergraduate courses at Pitt that touch on these issues, including “Social Foundations of Education,” but none that fully immerse students in the kind of education that the new certificate program promises.

Schools are continually diversifying, and understanding the importance of cultural diversity will improve the land-

scape of all education, not just in urban schools.

Highly skilled teachers are not the only solution to pushing our urban schools to their highest potential. Properly funding under-resourced schools, providing social services in classrooms and investing in afterschool programs and extracurricular activities are necessary for allowing students to succeed. We have a long way to go in fully advancing our underperforming schools.

Passion is an exceptional trait for a teacher to possess, but so is a willingness to funnel that passion appropriately in their environment.

Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty and crime, which is why we need to make education the great equalizer that it’s meant to be — especially for our urban communities.

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Culture

‘A BIGGER SPLASH’ RIDES WAVES OF PASSION Nick Mullen | Staff writer

The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album cover, 1966

AN ODE TO ICONIC ‘PET SOUNDS’ Ian Flanagan Culture Editor

Before The Beatles truly blossomed, The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” represented one of the most seismic shifts in the rapidly evolving landscape of popular music during the latter half of the ’60s.

Brian Wilson’s magnum opus turned 50 years old May 16, and the record remains a remarkable listening experience even half a century out. Though The Beach Boys’ name is attached, Wilson was the predominant creative force behind the conception of the album.

Released to underwhelming critical and commercial reactions, “Pet Sounds” has grown on people in the past 50 years. The album was key to the development of psychedelic and

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progressive rock and is considered by many to be one of the greatest albums in the history of popular music. The album’s legacy and influence, as well as its obsession with love, heartbreak and the complexity of human emotion, has extended well into the 21st century.

Last year, a biopic on Wilson entitled “Love and Mercy,” starring Paul Dano and John Cusack, received considerable critical praise.

In addition, Wilson, now 73, began his “Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary World Tour” last month, which marks the final performances of the album’s music.

A striking alteration on the band’s more radio-friendly sound, the album’s conception began in 1964, when Wilson suffered a severe See Pet Sounds on page 9

After a year of cycling through international festivals, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s English-language “A Bigger Splash” has made its way to American theaters.

As a dialogue-laden, lengthy slow-burner, “A Bigger Splash” relies heavily on quietly mounted suspense and intense character study. Set against a beautiful but barren landscape, the emotional film highlights the mysterious and complicated problems of the wealthy elite in a sun-soaked environment.

“A Bigger Splash” finds famous musician Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) on a leisurely sojourn on the Italian island of Pantelleria. In an opulent villa buried in the lush countryside, Marianne recuperates from major vocal surgery with her boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts), a quiet documentary filmmaker. On the island, she and Paul grind their busy lives to a dead stop, trading the hectic limelight for the relaxing pleasures of swimming and sex.

Their low-key getaway is interrupted when Marianne’s old flame, and Paul’s old friend, Harry Hawkes (Ralph Fiennes), an eclectic and narcissistic record producer, shows up unannounced with his young and amorous daughter, Penelope (Dakota Johnson). From his boisterous arrival to his incessant need to keep the attention on himself, writer David Kajganich makes Harry’s motive for return clear: to get back with Marianne.

Guadagnino captures the striking countryside — perfect for hedonistic pleasure, but lurking with ever-encroaching dangers. Snakes slither towards napping sunbathers, and harsh winds whip the sand into torrential rainstorms.

The island’s natural beauty coexists with its danger, making it the perfect setting for such a tense and vibrant drama.

Along with their clothes, the artists vacationing in this erotic thriller completely let down

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their guards, allowing for insight into their convoluted psyches. Marianne loves Paul’s reserved presence, but she can’t help but yearn for the more exuberant memories dug up by Harry, who drags Paul into a macho psychological battle to win back her affection.

As the film advances, Paul’s alcoholism and troubled past begins to unravel, and Marianne can’t help but observe Harry’s casually over-affectionate relationship with Penelope. Though a lot of the backstories are easily decipherable, the script is light. Marianne, recovering from vocal surgery, is unable to do more than whisper, and Harry’s self-absorbed monologues dominate many conversations.

Even with just four characters inhabiting the villa, the well of tangled relations never dries.

Buried deep in the patchy Italian countryside, the villa may be a privilege only the characters know, but their problems are flagrantly universal.

Their worst tendencies, from alcoholism to jealousy, transcend class and wealth. With nothing for the upper-class characters to do but let their issues simmer under the beating sun, they steadily bubble up to the surface.

Much of the film’s dialogue is in English, and the characters’ Italian fluency varies. Each person has have just as much difficulty communicating in Italian as they do with one another. Like children, they immaturely refuse to fully express themselves, enabling their discomfort to build without resolution.

Empathizing with any of the cast, is a challenge. None of the characters are depicted favorably — in fact, they’re all portrayed as broken and troubled.

Their overall absence of redeeming qualities combined with their proclivity for indulging in their ugliest ones, makes empathizing with any of the characters next to impossible.

See Review on page 9

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Pet Sounds, pg. 8 panic attack on a flight following a television performance. Wilson’s damaged psyche was his excuse to forgo touring with his band mates and instead focus more intently on songwriting and recording.

In 1965, Wilson formed a collaboration with Tony Asher, who ultimately became the self-described “interpreter” of Wilson’s thematic direction for “Pet Sounds.” Asher put into words the sentiments Wilson wanted to convey with each song. Following Wilson’s satisfaction with “You Still Believe in Me,” the album’s second track, he decided Asher was the right fit.

Asher also showed Wilson “Rubber Soul,” an album by The Beatles, which became a major inspiration for the album due to its absence of filler tracks. In turn, the Fab Four would echo the influence of “Pet Sounds” two albums later with the avant-garde pop touchstone “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Wilson hired The Wrecking Crew, a group of session musicians famous for their work with producer Phil Spector, to record the album’s instrumentation. Backed with ravishing orchestral arrangements, “Pet Sounds” possesses a childlike, carnival-esque tone. The experimental instruments — from bicycle bells and dog barks to

harpsichords and French horns — relay subtle psychedelic qualities, as Wilson dabbled in mind-altering substances at the time.

Considered one of the first true examples of a concept album, the ambitious revision of pop music standards in “Pet Sounds” is strung together by introspection and disillusioned musings on love and dejection. Wilson bears his soul in both confession and vocal performance.

Juxtaposing loneliness with dissections of romance enhances the sensation behind his ideas through contrast. The clear-eyed, unabashed honesty behind the words of “Pet Sounds” — especially on the subject of despondence — is met with vibrant symphonic marvels from Wilson’s arrangements and sweet melodies.

Many of the songs form meaning by discussing the foibles of romance. Though a frequent topic of pop music, Wilson manages to find fresh perspectives. In “That’s Not Me,” which analyzes the price of independence, Wilson candidly admits, “I could try to be big in the eyes of the world/What matters to me is what I could be to just one girl.” But the mawkishness that can seem overwhelming is always offset by the maturity supporting each observation.

Find the full story online at

Review, pg. 8 Desire is the motivator for all of the characters’ actions, whether it’s jealousy or hedonism.

Everyone seduces everyone, from Harry and Paul constantly cornering Marianne — speaking softly and boldly — in a never-ending struggle of cavalier machismo, to Paul taking Penelope to a secluded beach after days of her obvious advances.

And their desire slowly builds — “A Bigger Splash” progresses as lazily as the characters’ vacation. Free from any real responsibility, the characters can and do ignore the growing animosity and apprehension between them. Eventually, the tension begins to loom heavily, as it waits for viewers to catch up.

The film’s deliberate pace assures that each moment allows enough time for anticipation. But the suspense escalates so gradually, through small quips and telling glances, that by the end of the film the viewer is almost comfortable with it.

Though it could have benefited from heavier editing, “A Bigger Splash” captures the raw, intimate feelings of desire and shows that the struggles of a world-class elite are no less universal, or less sinister, than our own.

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Dakota Johnson as Penelope | TNS

The Pitt News SuDoku 5/18/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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May 18, 2016

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Sports

Pitt Script

See live stream of Pitt Script unveiling today on The Pitt News Sports Twitter

WVU BEATS PITT, 10-4, SPLITS SEASON SERIES Steve Rotstein Sports Editor Pitt and West Virginia University’s football teams haven’t faced each other in the Backyard Brawl since 2011, but the baseball rivals met on the diamond at Charles L. Cost Field Tuesday night.

The Pitt baseball team ran into the redhot WVU Mountaineers (32-19 overall), who pulled away from the Panthers (25-24 overall, 10-16 ACC) late to win their 10th game in a row, 10-4.

Pitt head coach Joe Jordano was disappointed with his team’s effort, but commended its opponent.

“Credit goes to West Virginia,” Jordano said. “They swung the bats extremely well today, they pitched well and minimized and did everything that they had to do to win.”

Junior starting pitcher Sam Mersing took the mound for Pitt looking to replicate his performance earlier this season in Granville, West Virginia.

Mersing –– who tossed six scoreless innings in a 4-1 win against the Mountaineers on April 12 –– started strong, pitching a 1-23 top of the first inning. In the second inning, WVU’s bats figured him out.

First-year cleanup hitter Ivan Vera lined a triple to right-center to lead off the top of the second. Junior Jackson Cramer followed with an RBI double to left-center to give the Mountaineers an early 1-0 lead, then a single and a walk loaded the bases with nobody out.

WVU brought home two more runs on a sacrifice fly and a bunt single to take a 3-0 lead before the inning was over.

See Baseball on page 11

Matt Johnson started for Charles LeBlanc | Ian Flanagan CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

PIRATES NEED TO BEAT THE CUBS, NOT RETALIATE

David Leftwich Staff Writer

To put it bluntly, the Pittsburgh Pirates tend to be sore losers when it comes to taking on the Chicago Cubs.

In both series the Pirates have played against the Cubs this season, the Cubs have had the upper hand. And both times, the benches have cleared.

After Pirates outfielder Starling Marte was hit by a pitch from Cubs starter Jason Hammel at PNC Park earlier in May, the Pirates retaliated by plunking Cubs utility man Ben Zobrist. The result was a shouting match between Cubs manager Joe Maddon and Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli.

The most recent incident between the

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two teams took place in the fourth inning Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

After running into some trouble and giving up two runs with another man on third base, reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta nailed Pirates infielder Jung-ho Kang square in the back with a 92 mph fastball in the first pitch of his at bat.

This isn’t foreign behavior in baseball, where the actions of players are dominated by “unwritten rules” that have existed since baseball’s inception.

These rules include: don’t step on the chalk lines when taking the field, don’t bunt to break up a no-hitter and don’t show up the pitcher after a big hit unless you want to get

hit. Those rules, while never formalized, are pretty clear and easy to follow.

But a problem arises when teams try to decipher whether a batter was hit on purpose, because there is no way to really know for sure unless the pitcher comes out and admits to intentionally pegging the batter.

As expected, the Pirates deemed Arrieta’s rare loss of control as intentional, while the Cubs vehemently denied it.

“Anytime somebody like Arrieta hits somebody, you’ve got to assume automatically that one didn’t just get away,” Pirates starter Jeff Locke told the Pittsburgh PostGazette after the game. “I don’t know what happened on the pitch. It got [Kang] pretty flush, though.”

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The Cubs’ manager strongly disagreed, with a possible allusion to the takeout slide that injured Kang in a Cubs vs. Pirates game last September.

Maddon told the Post-Gazette that only fans expecting a fight would imagine the hit was on purpose.

“Why would we ever want to hit him based on what happened last year? That makes no sense whatsoever,” Maddon said.

“There’s no dots to be connected there.”

Whether it was intentional or not, the Pirates are overreacting to the Cubs’ mistakes out of frustration, when the real way to get revenge is to beat them.

Find the full story online at

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Baseball, pg. 10 First-year starting pitcher Braden Zarbnisky cruised through the first two innings for the Mountaineers before sophomore Kyle Davis led off the top of the third with a solo home run, extending WVU’s lead to 4-0.

Pitt’s offense found a spark in the bottom of the third after Zarbnisky spotted the team three base runners.

The Mountaineers starter issued a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch to load the bases for the Panthers. Senior Alex Kowalczyk lined a twoout, bases-clearing double down the line in left, then sophomore Frank Maldonado brought him home with an RBI single to tie the game.

Zarbnisky helped his own cause in the top of the fourth, bunting home first-year shortstop Jimmy Galusky to put WVU back on top, 5-4.

First-year reliever Tyler Garbee replaced Mersing out of the bullpen with two outs in the fourth and Kowalczyk immediately nailed Davis trying to steal second to end the inning.

First-year second baseman Kyle Gray reached base for the Mountaineers with a perfect bunt in the top of the sixth, but Kowalczyk shut down his attempt to steal as well.

“I was telling Garbee, just keep doing what

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you’re doing, you can’t control stuff like that,” Kowalczyk said.

Garbee kept rolling, putting up three consecutive zeroes to keep Pitt within a run.

In the bottom of the seventh, Kowalczyk again stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. This time, WVU reliever BJ Myers got him to ground into a fielder’s choice to protect the Mountaineers’ one-run lead.

WVU catcher Ray Guerrini led off the top of the eighth with a solo home run before the Mountaineers added four more runs off Garbee in the ninth to make it 10-4.

“That one home run was low and in, I don’t know how that guy got that,” Kowalczyk said.

“But it’s tough. Sometimes they hit you around.”

The Panthers were unable to mount a comeback, settling for a split of the season series with WVU after the 10-4 loss. They still have a chance to make the ACC tournament, but will have no room for error in their final regular season series against the Duke University Blue Devils.

“We’ve got to go one pitch at a time,” Garbee said. “We know what we have to do, but you really can’t think too much about it.”

Pitt will host Duke for the first of a threegame series to wrap up the regular season on Thursday, May 19, at 6 p.m.

SOFTBALL ENDS AT ACC TOURNAMENT

Ash Sivaganesh |Assistant Sports Editor In a rematch of last season’s ACC title game, the Pitt softball team ended its season with a loss to the vaunted Florida State University Seminoles.

Under the morning blue sky in Raleigh, North Carolina, the No. 8 seed Pitt Panthers (31-21 overall, 8-14 ACC) faced the topseeded Seminoles (46-8, 21-2 ACC) Thursday, this time in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. FSU came out on top in an 8-0 shutout victory.

After the Panthers went down in order in the top of the first, senior Jenna Modic took the circle for Pitt in the last game of her collegiate career.

Modic gave up the first hit of the day in the bottom of the first on a single by FSU junior Ellie Cooper, then settled in and kept the Seminoles off the board.

Sophomore Giorgiana Zeremenko tallied Pitt’s first hit in the top of the second with a

May 18, 2016

single down the right field line, but sophomore Erin Hershman and senior Ashlee Sills were unable to bring her home.

The Seminoles’ high-powered bats lit up in the bottom half of the inning.

A single up the middle and two consecutive walks loaded the bases with one out.

FSU then sandwiched a pair of RBI singles around a bases-loaded walk and fielder’s choice to take a four-run lead.

Seminoles starting pitcher Meghan King registered another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the third, inducing three consecutive groundouts to third baseman Jessica Warren.

Modic gave up a pair of walks and a double in the bottom of the third, but catcher Kathryn Duran gunned down Seminole Carsyn Gordon at second base and Modic stranded runners on second and third to keep the Panthers close.

Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.

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