5-29-19

The Pitt News

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T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | May 29, 2019 ­| Volume 110 | Issue 3

PITT’S SECOND WHAT ARE THEY SNARING AT? SUPERCOMPUTER FLIES HIGH IN SPACE Neena Hagen and Maggie Young Senior Staff Writers

On Star Wars Day, May 4, in a galaxy not so far away, Pitt launched its newest supercomputer into the cosmos — marking the first time that the Pitt script logo, engraved in gold on the top of the machine, could be seen in space.

For many engineers at Pitt, that was already an honorable accomplishment. But the main project for the NSF-funded Center of Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing, or SHREC, was to create a prototype of a supercomputer that could withstand tremendous rocket-launch forces and other environmental hazards in space.

It all started when the aerospace and computing lab, which collaborates with four universities, including Pitt, partnered with NASA in 2016 to build the supercomputer after its less complex predecessor rocketed to the International Space Station earlier that year.

The tiny 2-foot tower, which features two high-definition cameras and several computers, will collect high-definition images of the Earth’s surface and perform data analysis inside its home on the ISS. It’s a revolutionary concept in space technology, according to Alan George, SHREC’s founder and director and chair of the Swanson School of Engineering’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

“The goal is to develop systems that can be more autonomous, like self-driving Ubers, that can gather data from sensors, process it and make decisions,” George said. “Best to do all that processing in space, because there’s too much data to transport to the ground.”

The project gave Pitt students a rare opportunity not just to participate in a NASA space mission, but to actually spearhead the effort. For Kevin Glunt, a doctoral student and the project’s lead mechanical engineer, it

Soldiers and Sailors’ 6th Regiment USCT Drum Corps performs at the hall’s Memorial Day celebration on Monday.

Thomas Yang | visual editor

MARIO’S SALOON OPENS DOORS IN OAKLAND Sarah Connor

Contributing Editor

Inside Mario’s Oakland Saloon Thursday night, pop hits blasted over speakers as the bar filled to the brim with students and locals celebrating its grand opening. Outside the doors of the saloon, which sits on Oakland Avenue between Forbes and Fifth, dozens more excited patrons lined up, waiting for bouncers to check their IDs. By 11 p.m., the line was backed up to Forbes Avenue.

Mario’s has taken over the old location of Peter’s Pub, which was a staple for nights out in Oakland since 1974 before it closed in May 2018.

Many Oakland natives and students were disappointed when Peter’s Pub closed, and the legacy left behind set a high bar for Mario’s, with many See Supercomputer on page 2 guests coming out to see if the new bar could live

up to expectations.

Becca Greenhouse, a bartender at Mario’s, saw both the chaos and excitement of the past week firsthand.

“Peter’s Pub was really established, so Mario’s has done a lot of renovations. It looks really nice in here,” Greenhouse said. “A lot of people were excited for our opening. I was here right when we opened the doors at 11 a.m. and people were here and ready to eat and ready to sit down and drink.”

Mario’s offers both a downstairs and upstairs with seating and room for guests who might want to stand and socialize or dance with friends. Food options are far from limited, offering traditional appetizers like dips, nachos and sliders in addition to entrees such as sandwiches, salads, pizza and tacos. The drink menu offers classic beers on tap, from Guinness to Blue Moon to Yuengling, and

plenty of cocktails and other liquor options.

For Greenhouse, many of her friends know Mario’s name from nights out in other parts of the city. Mario’s has two other locations — one in South Side on East Carson Street and another in Shadyside on Walnut Street.

“People know Mario’s, it’s a big name around here,” Greenhouse said. “A lot of people have told me that it’s really cool that Oakland now has one too.”

The owners of the Mario’s venues said they had their eyes on launching an Oakland location for some time. Louis Pessolano, one of the five owners of the franchise, said his team had planned with the owners of Peter’s to take over the space.

“We thought that there was a lack of places to See Mario’s on page 2

News

CORRECTION: In the May 22 story “Student affairs committee approves activity, wellness fee increases,” The Pitt News incorrectly reported that the Pitt Program Council and WPTS Radio are among the organizations receiving more funding from the University going into the 2019-20 academic year, resulting in a higher student activities fee. PPC and WPTS are not receiving an increase in funds.

Mario’s, pg. 1 eat and drink in this area, and George, the owner of Peter’s, gave us a call last summer and reached out knowing that we had been interested in possibly taking this off of his hands,” Pessolano said.

“He said that he was ready and if we were still interested, we could do this.”

From there, it was a “numbers game,” according to Pessolano. Since its opening, Mario’s Oakland has seen large crowds — and not just during the evening hours for drinking and dancing.

“We were surprised by the response [on opening night], especially since this is just the summer session and there aren’t as many students in Oakland,” Pessolano said. “That was just the night, our lunches have been very strong and steady which is great. We get to see the professional workforce in Oakland — so we get a good mix of people here.”

Supercomputer, pg. 1 all began with a simple phone call.

“The head of the project called me and said ‘What are you doing this summer? We have this project we’re working on for NASA,’” Glunt said. “So of course I said ‘Yes.’” Glunt said his role as design coordinator was the glue that held the project together.

“I had meetings with NASA, supervised the mechanical undergraduate team and was in frequent communication with our thermal department to make sure our equipment wouldn’t turn to ashes when exposed to the sun outside of Earth’s atmosphere,” Glunt said.

To protect the supercomputer’s technology from the elements — the rocket’s g-force during launch, radiation and heat from the sun and subzero temperatures in open space — Glunt and a team of mostly students designed a small box to hold the equipment. They experimented with mounts on the circuit boards for several months, installed insulators and ordered special lenses for the cameras that could withstand an inordinate amount of force.

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style windows at the front of the bar.

“This place has $5 buffalo chicken dip, what more could you need?” Range said, causing her table of friends to erupt in laughter. “Mario’s is the best. It’s nice to have another place to go out that is so close to campus too.”

The late nights do get rowdy at Mario’s with packs of guests playing darts, dancing and watching sports, but for Pessolano, having an Oakland location is about more than just the college nightlife.

“The first day we opened up — we technically don’t open until 11 a.m. — but at 10:58, just because the door was opened a group of Mario’s Saloon’s Oakland location opened Thursday.Knox Coulter | senior four kids came in,” Pessolano said. “And just staff photographer to see the excitement on their faces was cool, However, with Mario’s so close to Pitt’s cam- came by Mario’s for opening night Thursday and they asked ‘Are we the first ones in here?’ pus and the South Oakland neighborhood, the came back for an early dinner with friends Tues- And I just said, ‘Well yeah! We open in two bar’s main demographic is still college students. day afternoon. She and her friends chowed down minutes. They got so excited, they were takOne such student who now enjoys visiting Mario’s on appetizers and sipped iced cocktails, taking in ing selfies, and that went on from 11 a.m. is Taya Range, a senior psychology major. Range the sun through the large, opened garage door- from 2 a.m., it goes on all day long.”

Since Pitt doesn’t have an aerospace engineering program, Glunt said learning to apply Earth-centric mechanical engineering concepts to space structures proved difficult, because physics on Earth and in space are very different animals.

“We definitely had a steep learning curve.

It took us a few months and several design changes to find our bearings,” Glunt said. “The first table you make is always gonna be wobbly.”

That trial and error process was the key to optimizing the machine’s design, according to Matthew Barry, a mechanical engineering professor who led the thermal modeling for the computer. With such a lack of resources in space, every little improvement counts, and every slight improvement to the supercomputer and its support structures saved money.

“Every cubic foot on a rocket costs money,” Barry said. “So we have to make our cameras, computers and protective gear as small and as lightweight as possible.”

But the team still took design cues from the supercomputer’s first iteration, launched in

2017, so as not to reinvent the wheel. Instead of using standard convection methods to cool the unit, which would allow sand to blow across the computer to control overheating, Glunt said they used induction because of the zerogravity environment, meaning they had to position the computers and cameras strategically within the casing to avoid direct contact with sunlight.

Glunt said he and his team put the box through rigorous testing before sending it to NASA, ironing out every issue with the thermal and mechanical systems. But some of the testing, he said, will have to be done while the supercomputer is up and running in space.

Measures of radiation damage, for example, will be used to optimize protection technology for future space-bound supercomputers and cameras — which is already in the works at Pitt.

SHREC has plans to complete the supercomputer’s third iteration in 2020, with mechanical engineering students starting designs for the machine this summer and a projected launch date sometime in 2022. According to Barry, this model promises improved graphics

May 29, 2019

and high-definition cameras.

In addition, the supercomputers will be performing a number of tasks for the U.S. government. But, due to their confidential nature, Glunt said he can’t reveal most of the projects.

Barry said state-of-the-art space technology is quickly becoming old-fashioned in this day and age, which requires all devices to be automated — the SHREC supercomputer is simply the latest step in pushing the technology forward.

But while the project’s advanced technology is a focus, Barry said the human element of the projects is also important. He’s glad students have been able to contribute to such a technologically advanced project, and hopes they’ll be the backbone of future NASA missions.

“Now that we’ve left the wheelhouse of terrestrial applications and have something orbiting around the earth, I think we’ve motivated a lot of students,” Barry said. “I’ve seen dozens of students walking around wearing NASA shirts. I think everyone wants to be involved in space.”

Contributed reporting by Jon Moss.

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Opinions from the editorial board

Assange’s journalist credentials aren’t the issue The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was charged on May 23 by the U.S. Department of Justice for soliciting and publishing information leaked by former government employee Chelsea Manning.

Assange is the first person not associated with the government to ever be charged under the Espionage Act. His prosecution brings forth a debate regarding freedom of speech — mainly, whether or not non-government employees, including journalists, can and should be prosecuted under the act. It’s debatable whether or not Assange is actually a journalist since he essentially publishes any leak that comes his way without comment or further verification, but that isn’t the point. His prosecution is worrisome because it erases the line between the responsibility of government employees to safeguard information and the freedom of civilians who are protected under the First Amendment.

The Espionage Act was passed in 1917 to prohibit interference with military operations and ban the support of United States enemies during World War I. It protects classified information within the government and its employees. Anyone found to be guilty of leaking information could face a fine of $10,000 and 20 years in prison.

In recent years, however, the Espionage Act has been used most commonly to prosecute government employees who leaked classified information to the media. One of the more popularized cases concerns former NSA employee Edward Snowden, who leaked highly classified information regarding United States government surveillance programs.

The Trump administration has contributed a hefty seven prosecutions within the last two years, but it isn’t the first administration to crack down on the media. The Obama

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administration brought eight prosecutions for media leaks — more than any of the preObama administrations combined. Though the Obama administration toyed with the idea of charging people not affiliated with the government, it ultimately decided that was a step too far.

Evidently, the Trump administration feels differently. Assistant Attorney General John Demers defended the prosecution of Assange in a statement, saying that Assange is “no journalist.” Many Americans would likely agree that he isn’t a journalist, but that doesn’t matter here. The First Amendment does not specifically protect journalists, but rather protects the “freedom of speech, or of the press.”

“The purpose of the Constitution was not to erect the press into a privileged institution but to protect all persons in their right to print what they will as well as to utter it,” Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter said in 1978.

It also should not matter that Assange solicited the information, since the First Amendment also protects a person’s right to receive information.

Of course, this would all be different if Assange was a government employee. The Supreme Court has long ruled that government employees may be required to forgo certain free-speech rights as a condition of their employment. For example, officials with access to classified information sign non-disclosure agreements, whereas publishers do not.

If Assange can be prosecuted, then there is nothing stopping the prosecution of anyone associated with the free press.

Those who are not government employees should be protected by the First Amendment. The Espionage Act needs to be clarified to establish their protection.

CANDIDATE ‘ELECTABILITY’ ARGUMENT ISN’T RELEVANT

Presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., speaks at a round table discussion and press conference at the Georgia state capitol on May 16 . bob andres/atlanta journal constitution/tns

Devi Ruia

Staff Columnist Anyone who’s participated in or witnessed early conversations about the 2020 presidential race has probably heard some discussion about “electability.” According to a CNN poll, 46% of voters said that electability, which can loosely be defined as the perceived validity of a candidate, was a top issue when it came to choosing a candidate in the Democratic primary. It seems to be the topic overwhelming the conversation surrounding the Democratic primary as of late — despite the fact that it’s an ill-defined term.

It’s understandable in a sense. No Democratic primary voter wants another four years of President Donald Trump, and they think that picking an “electable” candidate over someone they like more could be our best chance at defeating Trump. But people don’t seem to understand what they’re saying when they talk about electability or what a self-fulfilling prophecy it becomes, and voting for the candidate they deem most “electable” in the

May 29, 2019

Democratic primary instead of the candidate they genuinely want isn’t a good way to go about things.

When people talk about an electable candidate, they seem to mostly just mean a white man, despite the fact that the definition is simply just “a person that has a reasonable chance of being elected.”

The idea that only a white man is electable is frankly ridiculous, especially since most of the female candidates for President have proven over and over by winning races that they are electable.

When 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., first ran for office she did so in a very red district of upstate New York. She won that race and has won every one of her races since. She even flipped 18 counties of New York in 2018 that had voted for Trump in 2016. Her fellow candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also defeated a Republican incumbent in her first race for Senate, while Sen. Amy KlobuSee Ruia on page 4

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Ruia, pg. 3 char, D-Minn., another Democratic presidential candidate, won several elections by strong margins in a purple state. Though Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has won all of her elections in fairly liberal areas, she has often been the first woman of color to do so in every case. None of these women has ever lost an election before.

Yet these four contenders for the Democratic nomination are still viewed as less “electable” than their white male counterparts despite this evidence to the contrary. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., both have run for president unsuccessfully before but both are polling higher than their female counterparts — in part due to this notion of electability.

Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel explained that some Democratic primary voters are making their choices not necessarily based on who they actually want or like but based on who they think will win.

“To understand Bidenmentum, you’ve got to have some of the conversations I had yesterday: Middle-aged women explaining that 2016 showed that voters won’t elect a female president, so they’ve got to be strategic,”

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Weigel said in a tweet.

While it is very likely that sexism was a major factor in Secretary Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential race, there were many other unprecedented factors at play in that race — such as interference from a foreign government. It is misleading to say that the sole reason why Clinton lost in 2016 was her gender — and it would be a mistake to not vote for a female candidate simply based on the belief that a woman cannot win.

This idea that America isn’t “ready” for a female president is usually blamed on voters in “middle America.”

“When people talk about electability in the context of 2020, they are talking about white, male candidates and white, workingclass voters,” Harris stated at a NAACP dinner. “There has been a conversation by pundits about ‘electability’ and ‘who can speak to the Midwest.’ But when they say that, they usually put the Midwest in a simplistic box and a narrow narrative.”

The assumption that we must pick a white male moderate as our nominee in 2020 to appeal to working-class voters in the midwest is not only unfair to those voters, but it is unfair to the country as a whole.

According to a poll by Pew Research Cen-

ter, a third of Democrats would be more excited if the nominee was a female. The same poll shows that overall, 21% of Democrats would be more excited if the party’s nominee was black or Hispanic.

Traditional notions of who is and isn’t electable are often rooted in racist, sexist and ideological assumptions. This means that the candidate that is usually viewed as electable would be the moderate white male candidate — in this race that would Joe Biden.

The problem with voting for a candidate in the primaries simply because one thinks that they would be the most “electable” in the general election is that they won’t necessarily have the heart and passion behind their campaign to turn out voters — especially those who have been non-voters in past elections, which are a group we desperately need to win in 2020. Traditionally, Democrats lose when they chase this notion of electability in the primaries.

Voters’ and political pundits’ notions of electability have been constantly overturned throughout history. Former Secretary John Kerry was viewed as the most electable candidate in 2004 and he still lost his race against George W. Bush. In the 2008 Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton was viewed as the most electable candidate early on, yet she

May 29, 2019

lost the nomination to Barack Obama, who as a young black man, was not viewed as electable at all at first. And at this time in the 2016 presidential race, Trump was viewed as the least electable candidate.

This ill-defined notion of electability also becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If voters organize and donate to the candidate that they view as the most electable rather than the candidate that they most prefer, they are subconsciously perpetuating the cycle of who is best suited for the office of the presidency.

The best way to beat Trump is by picking the candidate that inspires voters the most, that makes them come out and vote and organize.

“The best way for candidates to show that they are electable is to build a big grassroots base in the early states,” said former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor.

In order for a candidate to do this, voters must vote with their hearts and their minds to choose the candidate that they like the most, not the candidate that they think can win based on ill-defined, outdated ideas of “electability.” So when the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary rolls around on April 28, 2020, vote for the candidate that you like the most, not the candidate deemed to be the most “electable” by outdated standards.

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Culture

PITT THEATRE ARTS ALUMS SUCCEED ON AND OFF STAGE Mary Rose O’Donnell Culture Editor

Pitt’s department of theatre arts serves hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students per year, covering theatrical production, training and study. Class topics range from the obvious, such as studies in acting and performance, to the technical, such as lighting and set design.

Annmarie Duggan, an associate professor and chair of the theatre arts department, said the department’s program of study is designed to cater to a variety of students, highlighting its undergraduate curriculum.

“We are multi-layer program — a Bachelor of Arts instead of a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Being a B.A., we get students who want to do multiple things. We have students who want to take the traditional theatre route, then we have those who want to use theatre to go onto something else,” she said.

Pitt alumni around the country live up to Duggan’s words, with post-college pursuits of theatre majors ranging from acting to law.

Ben Blazer, Class of 2006, Bachelor’s Degree: Ben Blazer, an actor and professor of movement at Point Park University’s College of Performing Arts, discovered theatre by accident.

After graduating high school in Homeville, Blazer worked in carpentry, but he eventually decided that manual labor was not for him. Everything changed for him when he attended a Model Search America competition in Monroeville with his younger brother. After being scouted at the competition, the boys headed to Washington, D.C., with the organization for further exposure.

It was there that Blazer was first exposed to acting, as he had to read several scripts for casting agents.

Blazer said he was bit by the theatre bug after this encounter. After failing to find

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The Stephen Foster Memorial Theater is home to many of the department of theatre arts’ productions. Thomas Yang | visual editor work in modeling, he returned home and enrolled in an acting for television course at the Community College of Allegheny County per a friend’s recommendation.

“I was so fortunate to be at CCAC because I became a better and better student,” he said.

Eventually, Blazer decided to apply to Pitt, going above and beyond for his application by submitting a variety of supplemental materials, such as a theatre resume and headshot. To Blazer’s surprise, he got in.

He made the most of his three years at Pitt, becoming involved in a variety of University productions, most notably acting in the play “Arms and the Man” by George Bernard Shaw and directing the play “The American Century” by Murphy Guyer. He said that these opportunities were essential in his growth as a student and actor.

“We felt supported as undergrads in terms of the opportunities we had to do things like

direct our own shows, in addition to leaving room for MFA and PhD students to direct as well. Providing those opportunities for undergrads is fantastic, as it helps them develop the ability to communicate their ideas with all kinds of people,” he said.

While at Pitt, Blazer discovered his passion for teaching and decided to go to graduate school to further his education and skills.

He attended the University of South Carolina for his MFA in acting. Here he received extensive training in movement in performance, a skill which helped him acquire his position as an assistant professor at Point Park University after completing his MFA. Blazer is passionate about teaching acting to others and feels that his time at Pitt helped him figure out what kind of teacher he wants to be for his students.

“It starts with having good teachers. I can’t remember any teachers at Pitt that I didn’t get a lot out of,” he said. “It’s good to

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have great instructors that you have a great experience with and find you want to emulate them. Both good and bad instructors can make you want to become a teacher — some you want to emulate and some you want to be better than.”

When school is not in session, he works as a professional actor, most notably with the Pittsburgh Public Theater. Starting on May 30, he will play one of the lead roles in “Marjorie Prime,” a sci-fi comedy play by Jordan Harrison, a writer from Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black.” The play will run from May 30 to June 30 at the O’Reilly Theater.

Chloe Torrence, Class of 2019, Bachelor’s Degree: Chloe Torrence applied to Pitt on a whim.

“I applied to Pitt because I could apply for free,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh Pittsburgh is cool, I’ll apply’ and then I ended up going without knowing much else about the school.”

Upon arriving on campus, Torrence, a Berlin, Ohio, native, became deeply engrossed in the theatre arts department. She credits her advisor, Gianni Downs, for guiding her on her Pitt journey.

“When I came in I immediately felt so comfortable. [Downs] was so interested in my goals as a theatre artist and finding ways that I would fit into the program. They were really concerned about making sure they knew what I wanted to do and putting me where I needed to be,” she said.

Torrence assistant-directed Pitt’s mainstage productions throughout her college career, and even had the opportunity to direct a few of her own, most notably “Roustabout: The Great Circus Trainwreck,” which happened to be written by her uncle, Jay Torrence.

“To grow up watching him write that play and then have the chance to direct it at See Alums on page 6

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Alums, pg. 5 Pitt was absolutely incredible. The department was so supportive of it and they really wanted and worked hard to make it happen,” she said.

Torrence was also heavily involved in Pitt’s Musical Theatre Club, serving on the executive board and as president during her senior year. While in MTC, she had the opportunity to direct, perform in and produce various shows. She acted in “The Drowsy Chaperone” her first year, served as assistant director for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” her sophomore year, directed “Legally Blonde” her junior year and produced “Pippin” her senior year.

According to Torrence, Pitt’s B.A. program for theatre arts greatly prepared her for all aspects of the field.

“Not only was I taking performancebased classes, but also tech theatre classes.

I also took classes in costuming, so I am pretty well versed in sewing and design,” she said. “If I’m ever in a rut and am not getting directing gigs, I am fully marketable as a costume designer and as a dresser.

The theatre department was really focused

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on putting us in a place where we can never not get work.”

Torrence graduated this past April and is currently preparing to move west for her job at the Pacific Conservatory Theatre in Santa Maria, California, where she will be an assistant director for its mainstage season, as well as teach acting classes to public school students in the area.

Sarah Andrews, Class of 2002, Master’s Degree: Sarah Andrews arrived at Pitt to avoid leaving school behind. After graduating with a B.A. in theatre from Gannon University in 2000, she wasn’t sure what to do.

“I didn’t really have any kind of plan upon graduating. I was studying what I was passionate about, and that didn’t really translate into much thought about how I was going to support myself,” she said. “Going to grad school at Pitt was a way to delay making any decisions about that.”

According to Andrews, the theatre arts department’s master’s program was focused on seminar work and intensive readings of various texts. She was particularly enthusiastic about re-examining women’s involvement in the history of theatre.

Andrews graduated from Pitt’s master’s

program in 2002. Originally, she had plans to pursue a PhD and become a theatre professor, but then re-examined that goal after a discussion with one of her advisors.

“I was told there was a lot of risk in teaching, even though I was passionate about it,” she said.

Andrews then took a real estate job leasing apartments in order to take a year and assess if she wanted to apply to a PhD program. While working, she was encouraged by her now ex-husband to take the LSAT exam. She received a very good score, so much so that she received a full scholarship from Duquesne University’s school of law, deciding her talents were better suited for the courtroom than the stage.

“I like being a student. Unlike with the theatre, where I don’t know how I’m going to make money, maybe I can make money as a lawyer,” she said.

Andrews was at the top of her class while at Duquesne. She credits her success to her work in the theatre department’s master’s program.

“I know with dead certainty that the work I was pushed to do and the academic rigor of my master’s program is why I was able to go to law school and knew how to

May 29, 2019

self-navigate, pace myself and then became sixth in my class at the end of my first year,” she said.

Andrews graduated from law school in 2006. She now works as a knowledge management attorney for Morgan Lewis, a major law firm located in Pittsburgh, helping lawyers evaluate their practices and find ways to innovate the way they do their job.

According to Andrews, her theatre experience has helped her immensely in her job.

“I do a lot of teaching and training to increase new lawyers’ self-awareness and their ability to communicate, such as basic public speaking skills and how to read a room and project their voices, something that I’m pretty familiar with due to my theatre background,” she said.

Andrews also notes that her theatre background, specifically her Pitt training, has made her a diverse thinker in the law world.

“I am not a typical corporate lawyer type.

I function very differently from the very studious and focused people I work with,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t going to fit the ‘law firm partner’ mold, but I’ve been able to use my skills to help others and fulfill an innovation role at the firm.”

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Sports

TAKE 5: KINGS, QUEENS AND CURSES The Pitt News Staff

The NBA draft is approaching fast, and the league’s finals are even sooner. In honor of the season, our staff is sharing four of our hottest basketball takes — and one about Serena Williams.

Luck of the draw On May 14, the New Orleans Pelicans lucked into the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, after being tied for the seventh best odds to acquire the top selection. Their lucky break will ultimately land the Pelicans the best prospect in the draft — Zion Williamson.

This will also leave newly hired general manager Trajan Langdon with an enormous decision this coming offseason. Langdon can pair the likes of Williamson with disgruntled superstar Anthony Davis, or he can trade Davis away and start fresh with Williamson as the face of the franchise.

Langdon should go for the latter and start over the rebuild, and it’s clear who his main trade target should be — the New York Knicks. The Knicks possess the No. 3 selection in the 2019 NBA Draft and have other young talents on their roster that would benefit the Pelicans. A trade between these teams would likely trade Davis for the No. 3 pick, along with Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier.

The Pelicans would end up with both the No. 1 and No. 3 selections in the upcoming draft and could draft both Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett, who were teammates on Duke this past season.

No matter how this scenario plays out, it leaves the New Orleans Pelicans with a respectable starting lineup. The starting five would consist of Jrue Holiday, RJ Barrett, Kevin Knox, Zion Williamson and Mitchell Robinson. Players like Allonzo Trier and Julius Randle, if he remains with the team, would provide a spark off the bench.

With this new roster, the Pelicans will

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soon be a threat in the Western Conference and will be a better team without Anthony Davis moving forward.

— Tyler Moran, Staff Writer Hampton skips on college and goes to New Zealand In a shock move in the basketball world on Monday, RJ Hampton announced that he was skipping college and instead going to play basketball overseas. Hampton will be playing for the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian Basketball League and will not be playing Division 1 basketball like most other top players out of high school.

While it’s unusual for Hampton to choose to play abroad instead of joining one of the top basketball programs on his list like Texas Tech, Memphis or Kansas, he isn’t the first top player to skip out on playing in college. Pro players like Emmanuel Mudiay, Brandon Jennings and Terrance Ferguson all went abroad instead of going the traditional college route.

What does make it exceptional is that Hampton doesn’t have academic problems or the issue of facing an amateur status like the other three did.

Hampton, who was the No. 5 player in the ESPN 100 class of 2019 and had been projected to be the No. 6 pick in the 2020 draft, also has two parents who have graduated college, with his mother working towards a master’s degree.

According to Hampton, he decided to skip college because he saw how players like Dallas Mavericks forward Luka Doncic have been at the top of their games in the NBA after playing internationally.

“I just think my dream has never been to play college basketball,” Hampton said.

“My dream was to always play at the next level in the NBA. So I think this was the best route to live like a pro and play with grown men everyday and not have to juggle books and basketball and focus on my main goal.”

Hampton has the talent to be great at the next level, but he’ll have to play well abroad so his stock doesn’t slip in favor of college players — like it did for Mudiay, Jennings and Ferguson. If he does play well in the Australian league, he could set a trend for other top high school players going abroad instead of to college.

— Dominic Campbell, Staff Writer The King of the North The Toronto Raptors finished off the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday to advance to their first ever NBA Finals. Despite a slow start — Toronto went down 2-0 in the series at first, and it looked like they wouldn’t be able to stop the likely MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo — they proceeded to win the next four on the back of another generational talent, Kawhi Leonard.

Leonard’s 29.8 points per game, matched with the suffocating defense he’s famous for, propelled his team to victory.

It was a career-defining series, followed by his legendary Game 7 buzzer-beater to defeat Philly the previous series. These are the type of moments that make a player want to stick around in a city. And stay Kawhi Leonard should.

Sure, Leonard could head to LA to join the Clippers and instantly vault them into contention. But beaches and billboards aren’t him. He’s quiet and reserved, cold to an extent, like the city he was traded to from the Spurs last offseason. And a move to the Western Conference would make the path to a ring more difficult.

Golden State will always be tough, even without Durant or Cousins, as it has shown these playoffs. The Nuggets are a young team that looks like it’s here to stay.

Teams like Houston and Portland will always be strong with James Harden and Dame Lillard.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s competitors in the East showed their vulnerability this year. Boston imploded. Philly’s young stars

May 29, 2019

folded under pressure. The Greek Freak will always loom over everyone, but Toronto seemingly found a way to slow him down.

Leonard showed he can dominate the East. He made plays that will be remembered for decades this postseason.

He felled the MVP favorite, a player that looks like he could end up on basketball’s Mount Rushmore. The Klaw made history with the Raptors, and if he stays like he should, the rest of the NBA will be looking at a new King of the North for years to come.

— Nick Carlisano, Staff Writer Serena’s not changing her stripes After the president of the French Tennis Federation, Bernard Giudicelli, banned catsuits from last year’s French Open, Serena Williams didn’t stop with just her tutu.

Instead, she continues to lead the fight in the conversation.

In her first match of the 2019 French Open on Monday, Williams wore a black and white outfit that included a mini-skirt, a crop top over a mesh bodysuit and a cape-jacket. She later took off the jacket to reveal her sleeveless crop top. Once again, she made a statement about fashion — and about women’s empowerment.

Williams’ fashion statement clearly exemplifies an emboldened feminist message. As the words printed on her outfit stated, Williams is a “Mother, Champion, Queen, Goddess.” Of course, we already knew that about her — and she proved it when she won that first match. But the words carry a message not just for Williams, but for women everywhere.

We may not be able to play tennis like Serena Williams, but we sure can all be queens.

— Joanna Li, Contributing Editor

Find the full story online at

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I N D E X

Rentals & Sublet • NORTH OAKLAND • SOUTH OAKLAND • SHADYSIDE • SQUIRREL HILL • SOUTHSIDE • NORTHSIDE • BLOOMFIELD • ROOMMATES • OTHER

For Rent North Oakland Craig Street. Safe, secure build‑ ing. 1‑bedroom, furnished. Newly remodeled, no pets, and heat in­ cluded. Rent $850 and up. Mature or Graduate students.

412‑855‑9925 or 724‑940‑0045. Email for pictures: salonre­ na@gmail.com

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Employment • CHILDCARE • FOOD SERVICES • UNIVERSITY • INTERNSHIPS • RESEARCH • VOLUNTEERING • OTHER

South Oakland 3444 Ward St. 3 Bed­room Apartment, Available August 1. Free heating, free parking. Call 412‑361‑2695 LARGE, SOL‑ ID‑BUILD HOUSES FOR 2‑3 PEOPLE, each with spacious kitchen and living room, nice roomy backyard, enjoyable front porch, some re­cent renovations ‑ starting August 25. Only $365‑$450 per room. Call

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412‑692‑1770 to see houses.

Shadyside Shadyside 1BR ($840) or 2BR ($1140).

Fully equipped kitch‑ enette, A/C, laundry, wall‑to‑wall carpet‑ ing. Near Pitt shuttle and city busline. No pets, no smoking.

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412‑628‑1686.

Shadyside: 1 and 2BR, great location, hardwood floors.

Free heat. Available August 1, 2019. Call 412‑361‑2695

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Employment Employment Other TAKING APPLICA­ TIONS FOR SUM­ MER. Ice com‑ pany close to campus.

Some weekend work available. Produc­tion/ driving/mainte­nance positions avail­able.

Good pay, part‑time/ full time. Con­tact Mastro Ice Com­pany 412‑681‑4423. mas‑ troice@aol.com

May 29, 2019

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