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The Pitt News T h e in de p e n d e n t st ude nt ne w spap e r of t he University of Pittsburgh

PITT LAUNCHES REPLACEMENT LOGIN SERVICE

Alexa Bakalarski | News Editor

Pitt is updating how users access Pitt’s online services with a new login system, beginning in June.

Pitt Passport — passport.pitt.edu — will replace the My Pitt portal and individual access pages for Pitt services with a single login prompt providing access across all sites. According to a release, Pitt is implementing the new login service to enhance security and streamline logins for Pitt services.

Sean Sweeney, Pitt’s information security officer, said students in particular see various logins while using Pitt services such as CourseWeb, Box and PittSource.

“This multiplicity of login pages is not only visually confusing but also an opportunity for hackers to more easily mock-up malicious sites designed to collect your account information,” Sweeney said. “In response, [Computing Services and Systems Development is] rolling out a centralized single sign-on page, Pitt Passport, to make it easier for you to know that you are on a site offering secure access to online resources at Pitt.”

Pitt will implement Pitt Passport on a service-by-service basis over the next several months. Pitt Passport replaced

My Pitt email for faculty and staff at the end of April and fully replaced Legacy Webmail — an old email system still used by some faculty and staff — on May 28.

Among Pitt Passport’s new features is multi-factor authentication. For specific Pitt services, members of Pitt’s community will be able to add a second “factor” to log in to a service. The two factors include information the person logging in must know — such as a password — and a device the person has on them — such as a cell phone to access a login confirmation code. The new feature will be optional for students, faculty and staff, according to the release.

Users will also be able to review their login history and see listings of when their username and password were used to access a Pitt service. If they suspect that someone else has logged in on their account, they will be able to report it immediately on the login history webpage.

Their report will create a help ticket sent directly to CSSD, Sweeney said.

CSSD plans to have several key systems — such as My Pitt — replaced with Pitt Passport before classes resume in August, Sweeney said. Pitt Passport will continue to replace other systems throughout 2017.

See Online

Updated Interactive Crime Map

June 1st, 2016 | Issue 154| Volume 106

Drummers join in on Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Day celebration Alex Nally STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

3D PRINTING AIDS CANCER RESEARCH Erin Hare | Staff Writer

Hacking 3D printers to spit out squishy biological structures, Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University researchers are poised to help doctors make better breast cancer diagnoses.

Researchers at UPMC and CMU are collaborating under a new $800,000 grant to use 3D printers to reproduce breast ducts — the conduit between mammary glands and nipples. In doing so, they hope to discover biomarkers — measurable characteristics associated with disease — to better diagnose which patients with precancerous breast duct lesions will develop an invasive, life-

threatening form of breast cancer.

The researchers received the two-year grant from the U.S. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program of the Department of Defense.

According to Priscilla McAuliffe, breast cancer surgeon, co-investigator on the DOD grant and Pitt assistant professor of surgery, only 20 to 50 percent of patients with noninvasive tumors localized to the breast duct — a condition known as ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS — will go on to develop invasive breast cancer.

See Cancer on page 3

News

Pitt students win national language scholarship Leo Dorran | Staff Writer

After winning a national scholarship, a group of Pitt students will spend the summer studying six languages in five different countries.

Last week, Pitt announced eight students won the U.S. Department of State’s 2016 Critical Language Scholarship. The scholarship recipients — Nicholas Caskey, Emilie Coakley, Alexis Crossland, Steven Moon, Andrew Nitz, Roisin O’Dowd, Ashley Saxe and Zoe Toigo — are among more than 550 individuals across 48 states to win the award this year.

The Pitt students — three graduate and five undergraduate students — will be studying languages in China, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Tajikistan.

Moon, a graduate student studying ethnomusicology, plans to study gender and masculinity in Turkish pop music while in Azerbaijan.

“I think it’s a really great program,” Moon

Alexis Crossland was one of the eight Pitt scholarship recipients.

Courtesy of Alexis Crossland

PITT RELEASES SALARY DETAILS FOR TOP-TIER EARNERS Alexa Bakalarski | News Editor

In accordance with the right-toknow laws, Pitt has released its income tax returns from the previous fiscal year.

Though Pitt is exempt from paying taxes on its revenue as a nonprofit organization, the University must still

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file a 990 tax form with the IRS. As part of the 990 tax form, Pitt disclosed its top earners for the 2015 fiscal year, which began July 1, 2014, and ended June 30, 2015.

Former head basketball coach Jamie Dixon topped the list of highest-

paid Pitt employees, with a total gross pay of $2,320,887. Former head football coach Paul Chryst earned the second highest salary, with $1,645,652.

Pitt spokesperson John Fedele declined to comment on the salaries for current head basketball coach Kevin Stallings and current head football coach Pat Narduzzi.

Arthur Levine, senior vice chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine, earned $1,081,512 — making him one of Pitt’s top three earners still employed by the University.

Because Chancellor Patrick Gallagher began working for Pitt in August 2014 — after the fiscal year had begun — the 990 form only shows the

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said. “It will really allow me to immerse myself in the language.”

The CLS program arose in 2007, as part of a U.S. government initiative to boost the number of American students studying critical languages and deepen relationships with foreign countries. The State Department deems languages critical if they are spoken in countries important to national security and relations or are less commonly known among Americans.

Students study for the summer over eight to 10 weeks. The recipients attend overseas institutions and receive full funding, including airfare. The typical course load adds up to 20 hours of language-intensive classes a week and a cultural program as well. The program covers approximately one academic year of university-level coursework. The course credits are issued through Bryn Mawr College and can be applied to a scholar’s college career.

See Scholarship on page 3 portion of his salary earned during the months he worked at Pitt to that point rather than his full base salary, said Fedele.

Gallagher earned $218,592 during those months, according to the form. Pitt set the chancellor’s salary at $525,000 per year with five yearly raises of $100,000 when he arrived at Pitt.

Before leaving the position at the end of July 2014, former chancellor Mark Nordenberg earned $867,501.

Also included in the form were Pitt’s total expenses and revenue, each totaling more than $2 billion. Pitt allocated more than $1 billion of its expenses toward salaries, employee benefits and other compensation.

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Cancer, pg. 1 Being able to identify which women need treatment and which do not would cut down on unnecessary radiation, surgery and pain, according to McAuliffe.

Common treatments for DCIS include lumpectomy plus radiation or mastectomy, and patients may also undergo hormone therapy, McAuliffe said. Recovering from surgery is painful and leaves scarring, while radiation can irritate skin and estrogen-blocking hormones carry a host of rare but serious side effects, such as blood clots, stroke and uterine cancer.

Adam Feinberg, co-principal investigator on the DOD grant and a materials science and biomedical engineering professor at CMU, published a 2015 article in the journal Science Advances showing that it is possible to replicate intricate soft tissue structures with a 3D printer.

“You can start to ask the question, given a certain kind of tumor: Is it more invasive in certain architectures?” Feinberg said. “You can change now each independently so you can start to understand what the mechanism is. Maybe the architecture itself, regardless of

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the kind of tumor, would promote invasion.

Or maybe it’s not the architecture and it’s purely the cells.”

Patricia Halpin-Murphy, president and founder of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition and a breast cancer survivor for more than 20 years, is enthusiastic about what the 3D printing technology could mean for women with DCIS. “For the patient, you’re told you have ductal carcinoma [in situ] and it may not proceed to invasive, but it could,” Halpin-Murphy said. “You say, ‘Well, what are my chances?

Is there a 10 percent chance? A 50 percent chance?’ Right now we have no idea.”

According to McAuliffe, the ability to perform risk assessment on each patient would be transformative.

“It’s pretty well-known that we are doing too much surgery on patients with DCIS,” McAuliffe said.

Not knowing whether a given patient falls into the unlucky minority, McAuliffe never counsels her DCIS patients against treatment, even though up to 80 percent of them might not need it.

Find the full story online at

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Scholarship, pg. 2 In the nine years since the award’s inception, 38 Pitt students have won.

Nitz, a senior Russian language major, participated in an intensive Turkish language program last summer in Istanbul, hoping to set himself on the way to becoming an interpreter.

He believes the program in Istanbul gave him a leg up in the process of applying to learn Turkish this summer in Azerbaijan.

“They knew I was dedicated to the language and would work hard at it,” Nitz said.

On the CLS website, the program notes that it selects applicants based off their academic record and ability to adapt to a different cultural environment. The program also considers whether students plan to continue studying the language and how they plan to use the language in a future career.

Saxe, a senior rehabilitation science major, will study Swahili in Tanzania in hopes of working as a physical therapist in East African nations after graduation.

“Really think about why you are applying and ask yourself why you want to do it,” Saxe said about applying for the scholarship. “I did a

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lot of soul searching on why I wanted to learn Swahili and go to Tanzania.”

Crossland, a senior environmental studies major, already has an idea of what to expect while studying in China, having studied there the previous summer.

“In my application I said it may be unfair for me to go again, but I already started so I can’t turn back now,” Crossland said. “[CLS] saw that I could stick with it.”

Crossland, who went to China in the spring and summer of 2015 as part of a six-month language program at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, is optimistic that her CLS trip will be even more productive than her last..

“I have cried at the ATM [and] taken subways the wrong way, so I’ll actually learn better this time,” Crossland said. “I wanted to go because I wanted to learn a language I love for free, but I also just really love China.”

While she is eager to return to a country that fascinates her, Crossland warns potential applicants that joining the CLS program is no small task. “[CLS] can tell if you’re passionate,” Crossland said. “Pick your language and program carefully. Make sure you’re willing to work hard at it.”

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Opinions from the editorial board

Formula fixes funding After years of political disparaging over education funds, politicians will no longer control the board when it comes to fixing our school systems.

Last week, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would set a formula for state education funding. Once it becomes law, the formula will funnel funds towards lower-income school districts based on a set of specific factors.

The Basic Education Funding Commission recommended the formula last year, which will account for factors including number of students living in poverty, district’s income, local tax effort and enrollment levels, amongst others, when it comes to additional funding.

Pennsylvania currently has the widest disparity of spending between high-income and low-income school districts in the country, making this bill more necessary than ever. The formula will officially prioritize the communities ignored by previous, ineffectual systems and fund schools fairly, according to their needs. A one-size-fits-all approach to allotting educational funds clearly does not work, and Pennsylvania’s course correction is far overdue.

According to National Center for Education Statistics data, the state’s poorest school districts received 33 percent less state and local funding than its wealthiest schools, with the state exasperating the trend by investing disproportionately to those schools.

Because of this, school districts often have to rely on local property taxes to fund their school districts — varying significantly based on geographic location and community affluence.

While all 500 of the state’s public school districts will receive the same allocations as last year, poorer school districts such as Erie City School District will receive additional increases — 5.42 percent in Erie’s case — while wealthier districts will see smaller increases.

Last year’s budget impasse, along with years of the No Child Left Behind Act punishing lower-income schools for not performing up to federal standards — while rewarding the higher-

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performing, affluent schools — has left public school districts underfunded and under-served.

Low-income students deserve the same quality of education their affluent counterparts receive, and the location of their district should not determine their overall academic success in life.

Poor school districts could benefit immensely from having the same opportunities to take Advanced Placement courses and participate in dual-enrollment programs that will keep them competitive for college applications.

It will also expose them to programs that schools cannot otherwise provide or have stripped of funding.

Resources such as textbooks, computers and up-to-date facilities are necessary for successful learning, but we must not forget all the programs that can have a meaningful impact outside the classroom, building up a stronger sense of community and providing constructive outlets for children.

After-school programs and extracurricular activities are crucial for keeping students engaged in their studies. Having mentors or tutors there to help those who are behind or who need individualized attention. After-school sports create strong social skills and teaches the value of working in a team. Arts and science programs can foster interests that can serve students’ thirst for innovation and creativity.

Effective services such as guidance counselors, psychologists, career counselors and social workers helping students address their specific needs and fulfill their potential can save lives — especially those from impoverished backgrounds.

Now that we have finally made fair funding a priority, we must maximize the impact schools can have on students. How we use those funds is just as important as how much money is available.

Poor schools are receiving a limited but necessary lifeline. While they are busy catching up, they must be sure every student has the chance to climb it.

Higher education’s failed civics test Maya Puskaric LAYOUT EDITOR

CIVICS CRUCIAL TO CURRICULUM

Marlo Safi | Senior Columnist

“We The People” are the beneficiaries of a constitution that protects our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — words that every American should have memorized.

But millennial college students are approaching the frontline to guard those liberties with an artillery of ignorance, not insight.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, an independent, nonprofit organization committed to university accountability and academic freedom, released a study in January 2016 that would make James Madison and Thomas Jefferson rip the powdered wigs off their heads.

But most college students don’t even know exactly what those two people did.

The study reported that 60 percent of college students identified Jefferson as the father of the Constitution, despite Jefferson having been a U.S. ambassador to France at the time

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of its writing. Only 20.6 percent of respondents correctly gave the label to Madison.

The study also reported 60 percent of college students didn’t know any of the requirements for ratifying a constitutional amendment, and 40 percent didn’t know that Congress has the power to declare war.

The failure of high schools to instill their students with even a rudimentary understanding of civic processes is nothing new, but civic ignorance has seeped into most of our universities as well. Classes such as “History of Jazz” and “Russian Fairy Tales” fulfill general education requirements, yet civic education courses such as “Constitutional Law” and “Civic Liberties and the Constitution” do not.

While all Pitt students have the option of taking “American Presidency” or “Electoral Behavior Democratic Process” as a class to fulfill a social science requirement, not every student will choose to enroll in these classes

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We may brood over general education classes and why we perceive as them being useless, but civics education is an investment that goes beyond creating well-rounded students — it creates informed citizens.

During an election year at Pitt, civic engagement appears at its peak. There are Bernie buttons and bumper stickers as far as the eye can see. But according to a study the Reason Foundation did in 2014, our beloved campus socialists most likely don’t understand what socialism is.

According to the survey, only 16 percent of millennials could accurately define what socialism is, while 45 percent of young adults claim to support Bernie Sanders. The same survey showed that when tax rates are not explicit, 54 percent of millennials favor a larger government with more services and 43 percent prefer a smaller government with fewer services. However, support flipped and 57 percent favored smaller government once the surveyors disclosed the tax rate, suggesting the participants didn’t even know a larger government would require higher taxes.

This concerns capitalist fangirls like me who fear that poorly informed millennials could bring socialist sentiment into our country. But self-proclaimed socialists aren’t the only people we have to worry about this election season — Trumpsters who haven’t just experienced a lack of civic education, but in most cases, no post-secondary education at all, are setting records for voter turnout in states such as Delaware. Unlike Sanders, those uninformed voters could propel Trump into the White House.

When we become too sure of our country’s robustness or long-term viability to the point of complacency, we succumb to ignorance, and that ignorance makes us susceptible to the sort of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes that have killed millions. The information these classes teach you doesn’t just matter for one semester or even one exam — it matter for as long as you are an American prepared to participate in a democratic republic.

As the Constitutional Convention of 1787 came to a close, Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall after a day of deliberation and a woman approached him to ask what type of government the convention had established.

Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

“We The People” have the responsibility of keeping our republic and forming a more perfect union, and it’s the duty of our universities to make that a priority.

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when there are dozens of other options.

Given the lack of civic education in public schools, it is disingenuous of colleges to assume the students they are admitting into their programs are literate in civics. Thus, it is their duty to not simply provide civics classes as options, but as requirements for students. General education requirements supposedly make us well-rounded citizens of society. Civic education would allow us to be active members of our nation. We require a foreign, non-western culture requirement, why not a requirement about learning how to navigate the institutions already surrounding us?

We can’t expect to overcome a civic recession when the classes that teach students vital information about the laws, politics and history of our country are just one option among many.

The idea that we are to find human fulfillment in our liberties and the struggles to sustain them is the premise of our Bill of Rights and the unalienable rights within it.

If universities claim to pride themselves on providing this fulfillment through academic enlightenment, they have to understand the disservice they are doing to their students.

Civic education is indispensable — whether you are a biology major or a political science major, an American citizen or a foreign citizen in the United States for schooling. We all have to live under the same laws and should understand how the government we pay taxes to operates. Furthermore, if international students would like to obtain citizenship after their studies, taking civic courses would prepare them for the civic test they must pass.

You should know the U.S. Supreme Court case that establishes your right to free speech on school property, or that in Pennsylvania you have the right to carry a concealed firearm with a permit at any location that isn’t a school, court house or casino.

Regardless of what you study, you will be a taxpayer. As such, you should have an understanding of the social security and Medicare programs your dollars are going towards.

We’re currently approaching the end of the Supreme Court’s term, and you should understand the effects of the court rulings on our lives. You should know the importance of protecting your rights when a cop comes to your door without a warrant and wants to search your property.

While legislation and taxes may not seem glamorous to the majority of students, the abuse and taxation without representation that an uneducated populace attracts isn’t either.

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Culture

The Pitt News Editor-in-Chief MATT MORET

Opinions Editor KIRSTEN WONG

editor@pittnews.com

Culture Editor IAN FLANAGAN

News Editor ALEXA BAKALARSKI newsdesk.tpn@gmail.com

tpnlayout@gmail.com

tpnsports@gmail.com

Copy Chief SIERRA SMITH

Visual Editor EVA FINE pittnewsphoto@gmail.com

Lexi Kennell | Staff Writer

Sunday morning, the streets of Pittsburgh were bustling with everything but cars. Bicyclists, unicyclists, dog walkers, runners, rollerbladers, musicians, monks and hula hoopers alike roamed the temporarily car-free streets of Pittsburgh for OpenStreetsPGH. OpenStreetsPGH kicked off its first event this year May 29, running from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. BikePGH organized and sponsored the event with the help of outside organizations, including Highmark Health and the Colcom Foundation.

Free and open to the public, the event consisted of 3.5 miles of closed-off road from Downtown to Lawrenceville.

“OpenStreetsPGH is this idea to take a couple of miles of road in Pittsburgh and let people walk, ride their bikes, run, rollerblade — just to let them use the streets without fear of cars or getting hit,” said Suzanne Wasilko, a business intern with BikePGH.

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But beyond the freedom of the streets, Scott Bricker, Executive Director of BikePGH, said that the purpose of the event is to have people out getting healthy exercise, shopping at local businesses and exploring the city in a new way.

“Primarily, along the 3.5 miles of course, it’s mostly walking, biking, running and skating, but we also have [public activities],” Bricker said. “For example, at Market Square, there is Zumba and yoga. There are also some workout classes up the course — boot camp, salsa dancing — anything that gets people moving.”

There were stations along the course where children drew with chalk on sidewalks, jumped rope, played baseball and did many other activities. Although there were no cars, the streets were constantly in motion, from bike riders to mothers pushing strollers.

Bridget Montgomery Anjuli Das Amanda Sobczak Sydney Mengel Sarah Choflet Kelsey Hunter

tpnonline@gmail.com

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Matthew Maelli Kyleen Pickering Casey Talay Corey Forman Alex Stryker Maria Castello

Editorial Policies

Single copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, cartoons and letters are not necessarily those of The Pitt News. Any letter in tended for publication must be addressed to the editor, be no more than 250 words and include the writer’s name, phone number and University affiliation, if any. Letters may be sent via e-mail to letters@pittnews.com. The Pitt News reserves the right to edit any and all letters. In the event of multiple replies to an issue, The Pitt News may print one letter that represents the majority of responses. Unsigned editorials are a majority opinion of the Editorial Board, listed to the left.

The Pitt News is an independent, student-written

See OpenStreets on page 8

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ROAMING FREE AT OPENSTREETSPGH

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Pittsburghers gather Downtown for OpenStreetsPGH Courtesy of Lexi Kennell

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and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is published Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer.

Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations Committee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University staff, faculty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and editorial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

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C.K.’S ‘HORACE AND PETE’ PAYS OFF

Ian Flanagan| Culture Editor

If anyone is able to marry comedy and tragedy effectively, it’s Louis C.K., but never has he done it so deftly as with “Horace and Pete.”

The exploration of family and human life through the ancestral owners of a century-old bar and their customers is the comedian’s boldest and most mature creative work to date.

Ten episodes make up the first — and, if C.K. doesn’t change his mind, only — season of the series. After releasing the first episode of “Horace and Pete” late last January exclusively through his website, the final episode of the season premiered in early April. C.K. recently announced that he is taking a break from his popular FX show “Louie,” so the possibility of returning for a sixth season of the sitcom, or another season of “Horace and Pete,” still looms.

Entirely self-funded, kept secret until its release date and free from the touch of any network, the show is a challenge to the current distribution model of television and other visual mediums.

C.K. went into debt early on in the production of the web series, with each episode costing him half a million dollars to produce. After an-

nouncing the conclusion of the show a few days prior, he assured the public in late April that he is far from bankruptcy. C.K. has earned his money back straight from his fans, keeping up with the direct-to-consumer distribution model of his more recent works. Each episode comes with a small price tag, the first being $5, the second $2 and the rest $3.

“Money grows back, time doesn’t,” C.K. said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” back in May, quoting his mother. His plan was to have the revenue of the first four episodes pay for the rest of the show, but a promotional tour was necessary to generate enough money. C.K. plans to eventually sell the series to another streaming platform, such as Netflix.

Privately courting talents including Steve Buscemi, Jane Fonda and Edie Falco, C.K. cast himself in the story of three siblings carrying on their forefathers’ legacies through a family bar.

Scripted like theater, and staged like it as well, “Horace and Pete” essentially has the feeling of a sitcom without an audience. C.K. plays Horace VIII, who has worked at the titular bar, where nearly all of the series takes place, for a year since the death of his father. Buscemi plays Pete, C.K.’s

presumed brother, co-owner of the bar and a hermit ex-mental patient.

Alan Alda is brilliant, playing against type as foul-mouthed hypocrite Uncle Pete, the final co-owner of Horace and Pete’s. Falco rounds out the main cast as Sylvia, sister to the younger Horace and Pete, who is suffering from cancer and is

Six-time Emmy-winner Louis C.K. TNS frequently bitter towards the bar and the decades of woe that her ancestors have left behind. She wishes to sell the place to pay for chemotherapy, but Pete cannot live a normal life outside the establishment.

Find the full story online at

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The Pitt News SuDoku 6/1/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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OpenStreets, pg. 6 Mike Carroll, the Event Director of BikePGH, said that OpenStreetsPGH is not a new concept and has been around for about 40 years, the idea originating in Bogota, Columbia.

“In Bogota, they do this initiative where they close down streets to car traffic because they are facing the same issues that we have here in the United States: childhood obesity and chronic health problems among their citizens.”

The movement in Bogota is called Ciclovía and is now practiced in over 100 cities in North and Central America. Bogota closes its roads every Sunday and holiday to bring the parks to the people, and the initiative has expanded to about 100 miles of car-free streets and over 1 million participants.

2016 is the second year of OpenStreetsPGH and features three event days throughout the summer: the last Sunday of May, June and July.

“The June version is going to be essentially the same [as this OpenStreetsPGH event],” Bricker said. “There’s going to be one detour because it’s also [the Pittsburgh Jazz Live International Festival], but it will still be Downtown to Lawrenceville.”

Bricker said July’s route changes to a Downtown course that travels to the West End via the North Side. OpenStreetsPGH hopes to do at least one new route a year.

Last year’s event had a turnout of nearly 18,000 people, but Carroll commented it’s too early to tell what the head count is for this year.

In a grassroots effort, partnership between over a dozen organizations and many volunteers made OpenStreetsPGH possible. But while the freedom of the event is its main selling point, the lack of a central activity makes the event difficult to illustrate.

“Our biggest challenge [in gaining support] was trying to explain what OpenStreets is. It’s kind of a difficult concept to understand. It’s not a race, not a parade, not competitive, not a bike ride, not a run and it’s not a walk. Well what is it, then? It’s all of these things,” Carroll said. “I tend to describe it as the ‘Seinfeld’ of events — it’s the event about nothing.”

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June 1, 2016

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Sports FOUR PANTHERS GOING TO TRACK NATIONALS

Steve Rotstein | Sports Editor

Junior Desmond Palmer is going back to TrackTown USA, and this time he’s bringing three teammates with him to Oregon .

Four Pitt Panthers qualified for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in Jacksonville, Florida, this weekend.

“I would consider our last day of competition and the whole weekend a success,” Pitt head coach Alonzo Webb

Desmond Palmer is one of four Pitt Panthers headed to nationals.

Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

said in a press release Saturday. “We are in what I consider the toughest region to qualify to the national championship. We are heading to Oregon with the purpose of making the final and bring home some All-American accolades.”

After placing eighth last year in the 400 meter hurdles and earning First Team All-American status, Palmer will compete at the national championships in Eugene, Oregon, for the second straight year.

See Track on page 10

PIRATES' PITCHERS HELPING THEMSELVES AT BAT

David Leftwich | Staff Writer

The Pittsburgh Pirates play in the National League, where baseball is played the way it used to be — without a designated hitter.

But unlike most NL teams, there are no automatic outs in this lineup.

It’s no secret this season the Pirates have an explosive offense. The team leads the NL with an impressive .284 batting average and features four regular starters hitting above .300 — Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, Josh Harrison and John Jaso.

The big names in the lineup get paid to produce at the plate, but no one expected the Pirates’ pitching staff to do the same.

While the Pirates’ pitchers have posted a 4.11 ERA through the first 49 games — a far cry from

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last year’s 3.21 team ERA — the team’s starting pitchers are making up for their decreased production on the mound by stepping up at the plate. Every starting pitcher on the Pirates started the week batting at least .125, higher than the 2014 major league average for pitchers of .122.

The two pitchers leading the Pirates’ rotation have also been leading the way with the lumber.

Staff ace Gerrit Cole is hitting .200, punctuated by a crucial three-run home run in his last start.

And veteran lefty Francisco Liriano — whose ERA has ballooned from 3.38 the last two years to 4.63 this year — is hitting .348, better than any qualified position player on the team.

See Pirates on page 10

Francisco Liriano batting .348, better than any Pirates position player.

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June 1, 2016

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Track, pg. 9 Palmer’s time of 50.22 in his 400mH heat Friday night was good enough for third place and an automatic qualifying spot to nationals. He already defended his 400mH title at the May 15 ACC Championships with a season-best time of 49.66, just short of matching Pitt’s school record time of 49.41, which Palmer set a year ago.

“It was definitely an accomplishment being able to repeat my [ACC] title, but now I have more work to do to try and go out and get a national title,” Palmer said.

In the final event of the NCAA East preliminaries Saturday night, the Pitt men’s 4x400 meter relay team — comprised of Palmer, junior Brylan Slay and seniors Donnell Taylor and Chris Tate — secured the 12th and final qualifying spot for the national championships with a time of 3:06:24.

The top three teams in all three heats automatically qualified for nationals, while the next three fastest times rounded out the 12 qualifying teams.

The Panthers finished their heat in fifth place, leaving their fate unknown until the

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last race was over. After the final heat, the letter “Q” appeared next to Pittsburgh on the scoreboard, indicating the Panthers were the last team qualified.

“It was the biggest relief, not just for me but for my teammates who weren’t able to go in their individual events,” Palmer said.

“It was a stressful 5-10 minutes just waiting, just waiting. But once we qualified we were just full of joy.”

Slay, Taylor and Tate will be making their first trip to nationals with Pitt. Tate previously competed at the 2014 NCAA outdoor championships in the 4x100 meter relay while at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“I’m most proud of our men’s 4x400 team that finally accomplished something they set out to do a year ago and that was making it to the national championship,” Webb said.

“These young men have been through a lot together and I’m so happy for them, especially our seniors.”

The 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held June 8 through 11, at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Pirates, pg. 9 The pitchers are keeping the lineup moving, and the rest of the lineup is reaping the benefits.

Opponents can’t afford to pitch around the No. 8 hitter in the Pirates’ lineup, because the pitcher in the No. 9 spot is not an automatic out.

This keeps the offense in rhythm, and it is a big reason the Pirates entered this week seven games over .500 at 28-21 despite giving up nearly a full earned run per game more than last season.

While the Pirates’ starting pitchers have been providing run support all season, the best example came last Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Cole entered the game against the high-powered Arizona offense riding a three-game winning streak, but ran into some trouble early.

Cole gave up a run on back-to-back doubles to start the game, but stranded runners on second and third to limit the damage. In the second inning, he retired Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt with the bases loaded to keep it a one-run game.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Pirates’ fiery right-hander got a chance to help his team’s cause and took advantage of it.

With two on and one out, Arizona lefty Patrick Corbin challenged Cole with a 94-mph fastball over the plate. Cole turned on the pitch and

June 1, 2016

blasted it 409 feet into the center field bullpen for the second home run of his career.

With one swing of the bat, Cole gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead and completely changed the complexion of the game.

The Diamondbacks made Cole work, forcing him to come out of the game after throwing 108 pitches in five innings. But he repeatedly got out of jams and left with that 3-1 lead still intact.

Arizona struck back for two runs off reliever A.J. Schugel in the top of the sixth to tie the game 3-3, costing Cole a shot at his sixth win of the season. But the Pirates’ offense responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half and three in the eighth to clinch an 8-3 win and series sweep.

“Everybody’s stepping up, coming in,” Andrew McCutchen told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the game. “It’s not just one or two guys, it’s the whole team. Everyone’s doing their job on the pitching side and on the offensive side.”

Cole’s three-run shot was the first homer this season by a Pirates pitcher, but the staff has shown they are all capable of producing with the bat in their hands.

If the Pirates want to win the division and avoid a fourth straight Wild Card Game, though, the pitchers will need to be just as successful on the hill as they have been in the batter’s box.

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