9-17-15

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

Setting for success

Online exclusive: Pitt volleyball prepares for Panther Invitational

See online: PittServes hosts annual volunteer fair

September 17, 2015 | Issue 24 | Volume 106

FESTIVAL COMING TO OAKLAND Rio Maropis

For The Pitt News

in the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh building, over-occupancy was the biggest concern.

Under current city code, no more than three unrelated people can share a house or an apartment. But in Oakland, which is rife with four-, five- and six-bedroom apartments and houses, some landlords do not follow this code.

Two landlords present at the meeting on Wednesday, including Charles Eckenrode and Bob Harper, said they think there is a better solution to over-

Promising to “push the boundaries” of a normal festival experience, the Oakland Business Improvement District will soon give all Oakland residents a chance to walk the red carpet and check out new tech.

Oakland Business Improvement District is hosting its third annual Oakland Forever event, a festival free to the public from Oct. 8 to 10, which mostly takes place on Oakland Avenue. OBID scheduled multiple events per day to showcase culture and innovation in Oakland through technology, fashion and art exhibitions. OBID has designated Oct. 8, as Tech Thursday and Oct. 9, as Fashion Friday. Saturday does not yet have a theme, according to Jonathan Winkler, spokesperson at OBID. “Instead of a stereotypical festival, we’re really trying to reach out, be different,” Winkler said. “We’re trying to spread our wings a little bit.”

Tech Thursday will feature a tech showcase, as well as the tech crawl, ac-

See Oakwatch on page 2

See OBID on page 2

A member of the Pitt Rugby Football Club cradles the ball at practice. See page 9. |Stephen Caruso Contributing Edi-

OAKWATCH TALKS OVER-CROWDING Elizabeth Lepro and Dale Shoemaker The Pitt News Staff

When Hanson Kappelman attended college in Ohio, he fought for student independence.

More than 30 years later, Kappelman, now living in Oakland, thinks residents need to follow the rules.

At Wednesday’s monthly Oakwatch meeting, Kappelman and several other permanent Oakland residents, like Janice Lorenz, who lives on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Neville Street,

talked about stolen street signs, public drunkenness and over-occupancy in their neighborhood.

Oakwatch, a community group Kappelman and Geof Becker helped create in 2011, is a coalition of Oakland stakeholders, including Pitt and Pittsburgh police, community members, Pitt SGB members and numerous city officials, that holds monthly roundtable discussions to tackle issues in the community. Among the issues Oakwatch members discussed at their meeting at noon Wednesday, Sept. 16,

Oakwatch, pg. 1 occupancy than stringent enforcement of a code. According to Harper, who owns property at 314 S. Neville St., the current system only pinpoints offenders, which he says is unhelpful.

“You can’t fix every problem with a hammer,” Harper said. “Sometimes you need amicable dialogue.”

Pitt police officer Guy Johnson, who was present at Wednesday’s meeting, said over-occupancy isn’t his main focus.

“Our biggest focus,” Johnson said, “is trying to make sure our students are good neighbors.”

Johnson said Pitt Police had recorded 118 incidents since the start of Pitt’s fall semester. Daniel Herrmann, commander of Pittsburgh Police Zone Four, who was also present at the meeting, said police had recorded 37 non-traffic citations to the Oakland community in the same period.

Kappelman said he understands that

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enforcing over-occupancy isn’t high on Johnson’s to-do list. Johnson said the point of Oakwatch is to connect Pitt police with the Permits, Licensing and Inspections Department of Pittsburgh — an office that is focused on solving over-occupancy.

For example, Pitt Police may issue a citation to a house for disruptive partying that includes the names of everyone on the lease. If that number exceeds the three allowed residents, police can pass that information to the PLI at an Oakwatch meeting, according to Kappelman.

Pitt Police are tackling the increase of disruptive partying during the first few months of the school year, Johnson said. From the start of orientation until November, Pitt Police assign four officers a night to patrol Oakland streets on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays — in what Pittsburgh police described as an “increased impact” measure.

Find the full story online at

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OBID, pg. 1 cording to Winkler. OBID will hold the showcase outdoors on Fifth Avenue and Oakland Avenue from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will feature a number of interactive tech exhibits.

The tech crawl will begin at Revv Oakland, an organization that fosters startup technology companies, at 5 p.m., at 3710 Forbes Ave. Technology enthusiasts or startups on the tech crawl can network with executives on a tour from Revv Oakland of startup companies NoWait and Stitch Fix. The tech crawl will finish at 8 p.m., Winkler said.

According to Revv Oakland founder Mark Musolino, OBID included Revv in the festival because it’s a “coworking community.” Revv Oakland offers office space to fledgling companies and functions as a community center for events. “[We provide] a turn-key office environment for startups. There’s no

September 17, 2015

long-term commitment, and we give them everything they need,” Musolino said.

On Fashion Friday, Oakland Avenue will close from Forbes Avenue to Sennott Street to transform the street into an outdoor runway.

Teams of five members, who are 21 or older, are eligible to participate in the fashion show with a desire to showcase their style. The show will feature street style from 12:30 to 1 p.m., and street couture from 6 to 6:30 p.m.

Both Natalie Bencivenga, editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s SEEN, which covers social life in Pittsburgh, and Sara Bauknecht, the Post Gazette’s style editor, will judge the contest.

Bauknecht and Bencivenga collaborate weekly on a web show called “Setting the SEEN,” in which they feature events throughout the city, as well as style.

Find the full story online at

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Opinions from the editorial board

Dislike button leads to division What’s on your mind?” Facebook asks as you open its mobile app.

More likely than not, what’s in the back of your mind while you use Facebook is your image — how your peers will perceive your pictures and posts.

Our education level, our relationships, our careers, our personal tastes — we make all these things apparent to our friends on Facebook.

How many “likes” we get on these posts reflect just how desirable we are to others.

But what about how many “dislikes” we get?

On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that a dislike button may soon become a reality for the site’s 1.5 billion users, saying the company will launch a test project of a thumbs-down option soon.

While Facebook users have been clamoring for this option for some time now, a dislike button has the potential to lead to further division and exclusion for certain groups of people — causing more social anxiety to exist in a culture that is already rife with it.

“Facebook can unconsciously increase our self-esteem by providing us with the opportunity to reconstruct and control the way we present ourselves to the world,” Liraz Margalit, who has a doctorate in psychology, wrote in Psychology Today last November.

Mainly, we try to make our Facebook profiles attractive relative to what other individuals post — how cultured or educated do we appear when compared to our friends?

However, the standards of personal success our culture sets — which we reinforce through our Facebook posts — are not achievable for many individuals.

These standards — portrayed through our profiles — are reflections of where we sit on the social ladder.

A post illustrating one’s travels abroad or one describing a recent promotion, for instance, may get a lot of likes, but it also further separates us by socioeconomic level.

“Crude differences in wealth gradually become overlaid by differences in clothing, aespittnews.com

thetic taste, education, sense of self and all the other makers of class identity,” write social scientists Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”

Facebook can exacerbate wealth differences by providing a medium on which to display them to everyone else. It causes a “social evaluative” threat — as psychologists Sally Dickerson of the University of California, Irvine and Margaret Kemeny of the University of California, San Francisco call it. They describe them as “threats to self-esteem or social status.”

Through their experimental research on how humans react to different scenarios, Dickerson and Kemeny found that situations “in which others could negatively judge performance, particularly when the outcome of the performance was uncontrollable,” were the greatest stressors.

This is because, in American culture, we tend to view our social status in terms of ability — rather than opportunity.

“Outward signs of success or failure (the better jobs, higher incomes, education, housing, car and clothes) all make a difference” in our culture, write Wilkinson and Pickett.

This is not fair to so many Americans, as many cannot escape the cyclical poverty that keeps them from gaining these “signs of success.”

For instance, according to a 2007 study by the Treasury Department, from 1996 to 2005, 0.2 percent of those who began in the lowest income bracket made it into the top 1 percent.

This gap in socioeconomic levels is something Americans experience every day, so why exacerbate it by allowing us to further ostracize those who can’t move up the ladder?

While most people won’t go on Facebook to explicitly dislike people’s posts, the button will certainly add to a culture of superficiality that is based on economic inequality — one that puts unnecessary pressure on people to be “successful” in the eyes of their peers.

Zuckerberg should keep this in mind during his testing of the dislike button.

September 17, 2015

Aby Sobotka | Staff Illustrator

column

GRADE ON PERFORMANCE, NOT ATTENDANCE Cecile Truong Columnist

After three weeks of class, you’re probably fairly acquainted with your new professors. Some do not care if you show up to class, but others require you to be there every time to earn an A. Both types of teachers may teach largely the same way, so my question is this: If I’m paying for college credits, why should my attendance affect my grade?

Personally, I think that if I miss a couple of classes, but

still demonstrate that I know the class material by getting good grades on projects and tests, a professor shouldn’t punish me.

Making attendance mandatory doesn’t motivate me, or any other student, to do better in class.

In fact, Paul Pintrich, the author of “Student Motivation in the College Classroom,” argues that students’ ambition is tied to their sense of control.

“When [students] do not See Truong on page 5

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Letter to the Editor Dear Pitt News: In reply to the September 16 editorial “We Have The Right to Know”, Ms. Lieberman very misleadingly states that the Right-to-Know Law “allows state-related institutions, like Pitt, to not disclose financial records.” As I explained to Ms. Lieberman, there are requirements of Pennsylvania law (including the PA School Code and Pitt’s annual appropriation bill) which have, for many years, mandated that Pitt disclose extensive information regarding the finances of the University, including how Commonwealth funds are spent, as well as extensive information relating to the make-up of the student body, the numbers, workloads and salaries of faculty members

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and staff, and much more. For example, the PA School Code requires disclosure of revenues and expenditures for the prior fiscal year as well as budgets for the current year. Also required is a list of all University contracts for the purchase of goods and services of $1,000 or more. By way of illustration, if one were to print out all of the disclosures that Pitt submits to the Commonwealth and the Federal government annually (many are now submitted electronically), the stack of documents would be almost a foot tall.

Taken together, these existing disclosure requirements make extensive information regarding all aspects of the operations of the University available to the public. As I also explained to Ms. Lieberman, one of the benefits of the proposed amendments to the Right-to Know Law is that the changes would collect all of

these disclosure requirements that are contained in various Pennsylvania laws, including the School Code and the University’s annual appropriation bill, and put all such requirements into the text of the Right-to Know Law. In order to adequately evaluate and discuss the proposed amendments to the Right-to-Know law, one must first take into account the preexisting requirements for disclosures to the Commonwealth, whether those disclosures are part of the existing Right-to-Know law or contained in other Commonwealth laws.

One additional correction: Contrary to the statement in the Editorial, while proposing an 11% increase for the state-related universities, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf called for these universities to keep any tuition increases to within inflationary levels, and did not call on

September 17, 2015

the University of Pittsburgh to freeze tuition. While the budget vetoed

by Gov. Wolf on June 30 contained a 3% increase for the state-related universities (as well as for the State System of Higher Education universities), Pitt still held tuition increases within the inflationary parameter sought by Gov. Wolf, with an overall tuition increase of 1.7 %, and froze tuition at the Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville campuses.

Governor Wolf did ask the State System of Higher Education, which he also proposed for an 11% increase, to freeze their tuition. Tuition at the PASSHE schools increased by 2.47% for the current academic year.

Thank you for the opportunity to correct the record.

Paul A. Supowitz Vice Chancellor for Community and Governmental Relations

4

Truong, pg. 3 perceive a contingency between their behavior and outcomes, they can experience passivity, anxiety, lack of effort and lower achievement,” Pintrich writes.

In other words, mandatory attendance may reduce students’ feelings of control over their environment, which in turn leads to reduced motivation to learn in class.

The reward of “attendance points” for students who would already be willing to attend class diminishes those students’ desire to learn. It misleads them into attributing their attendance to classroom policy and not their own internal motivation. They are more likely to think they are in class because professors force them to be, not because they want to be.

A study done by the Review of Educational Research in June 2010 reveals that, while showing up to class can definitely help you get a better grade, professors mandating attendance does not significantly impact how well the students do.

Students who get better grades are already intrinsically motivated to go to class, so adding extrinsic motivation does not improve their grades. In fact, it only hurts their grades based on unfair assumptions on their lives outside the classroom.

Many students have to take on full-time jobs in order to pay their tuition, causing them to miss class to pay for school.

Employed students should not receive lower grades than their unemployed peers because they missed class in order to afford college. A survey from Citigroup and Seventeen magazine from August 2013 finds that almost 80 percent of students — including those in high school, community college, online college or traditional college or university — take pittnews.com

on at least a part-time job during the school year. They calculated that, on average, these students work 19 hours a week.

Assuming that students have 15 hours of class a week and sleep 8 hours a night on average, this leaves them with 70 hours of free time per week — so seven hours per day for homework, friends and family.

According to a Wall Street Journal report from July 2013, parents are, on average, contributing 27 percent toward their children’s education.

Therefore, most kids aren’t able to have an open schedule with ample time to attend class when they’re paying, on average, $23,410 a year to stay in college.

Of course, however, sometimes attendance is necessary for discussionbased classes, as a lot of what students learn in these classes depends on how they engage with their peers.

In these cases, professors should work with students who are must miss more than the average two allotted absences by engaging them in class discussions via alternative means — perhaps by having them share their thoughts with the class via message boards or short essays for days when they can’t make it. Professors can initiate a similar policy if they want to ensure that students do readings.

When it comes down to it, though, college students are old enough to take responsibility for their actions — they are able to make up work when needed. Professors don’t need to punish them for not going to class.

Students’ grades should ultimately reflect what they know about the subject and the best way to do that is to get rid of attendance-based grading.

The Pitt News Editor-in-Chief DANIELLE FOX

Managing Editor HARRISON KAMINSKY

News Editor DALE SHOEMAKER

Opinions Editor BETHEL HABTE

newsdesk.tpn@gmail.com

tpnopinions@pittnews.com

Sports Editor DAN SOSTEK

Culture Editor JACK TRAINOR

tpnsports@gmail.com

aeeditors@gmail.com

Visual Editor NIKKI MORIELLO

Layout Editor EMILY HOWER

pittnewsphoto@gmail.com

tpnlayout@gmail.com

Online Editor STEVEN ROOMBERG

Copy Chief MICHELLE REAGLE

tpnonline@gmail.com

tpncopydesk@gmail.com

Elizabeth Lepro | Assistant News Editor Lauen Rosenblatt | Assistant News Editor Nick Voutsinos | Assistant Opinions Editor Stephen Caruso | Assistant Sports Editor Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor Danah Bialoruski | Assistant Layout Editor Sydney Harper | Multimedia Editor Jenna Stearns | Social Media Editor

Chris Puzia | Assistant Copy Chief

editor@pittnews.com

manager@pittnews.com

Copy Staff Bridget Montgomery Anjuli Das Sierra Smith Sydney Mengel Sarah Choflet Kelsey Hunter

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 and

student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is pub lished 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 Com mittee, 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, fac ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito rial offices of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

Business Manager MATT REILLY

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Sales Manager DAVE BARR

Inside Sales Manager KELSEY MCCONVILLE

Marketing Manager KRISTINE APRILE

University Account Executive ALEX KANNER

Graphic Designers

Account Executives

Inside Sales Executive

Matt Hyre Jillian Miller Maya Puskaric

Dave Barrone Antonio Blundo Rob Capone Calvin Reif Allison Soenksen Frany Tish

Marissa Altemus Victoria Hetrick Annie Seagers

Cecile Truong primarily writes about college and social issues for The Pitt News.

Write to Cecile at cet41@pitt.edu.

September 17, 2015

5

Culture Licensed to act: casting the next 007 Mason Lazarcheff Staff Writer

“Spectre” is more than just the next James Bond title — it’s also the job description.

With Daniel Craig’s penultimate adventure as 007 slated to open in November, the race to be the next Bond is heating up almost as quickly as the presidential primaries — and actor Tom Hardy is leading the way.

According to BoyleSports, an independent online Irish bookmaker, Hardy has a 2/1 favorite over previous frontrunners Idris Elba and Damian Lewis. Elba, who was the top pick for the next Bond, recently secured his first Golden Globe for the hit BBC television show “Luther,” in which he plays a detective haunted by his past. His new film, “Beasts of No Nation,” has received critical attention, and its trailer has reached more than 3 million views on YouTube. Lewis is best known for his role as Nicholas Brody in the popular Showtime drama “Homeland.”

Hardy has been busy building his case for the role. Between his summer blockbuster “Mad Max,” with at least one sequel on the way, and his latest film, “Legend,” which is already setting UK box office records, Hardy is currently one of the top acts in Hollywood.

Hardy has made a career playing independent, internalized characters. As if adjusting itself for the actor, the Bond franchise has taken a dark turn while also introducing a theme of classic Bond callbacks. The latest film, “Skyfall,” recalled beloved relics and characters from older Bond adventures that previous movpittnews.com

ies had excluded, like the classic Aston Martin. It also emphasized a new gadget expert, Q, whose toys are arguably what make 007 so iconic, yet who hasn’t appeared much recent films. However, Craig’s dark, lone wolf iteration of Bond, which plays into Hardy’s favor, is the exception to recent nostalgia.

The past three Bond films are evidence

of the franchise’s transition that would welcome his brooding acting chops.

Craig has taken the character rogue, like a dog let off its leash. In “Casino Royale,” Bond hacks his boss’ computer to find the location of villainous henchman Le Chiffre and then proceeds to take him out all on his own, without consulting the British external intelligence agency, MI6.

September 17, 2015

He has become less of a secret agent and more of a secret vigilante.

Hardy’s demonstrated similar character traits to Dark Bond, suggesting somebody should start fitting him a double-vented suit. His appearances in films like “Mad Max” and “Warrior,” where he played the titular — if not quiet — hero See Bond on page 8

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‘MISTRESS AMERICA’: BAUMBACH-STIC

TNS

Mistress america

B+

Starring: Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke Kelechi Urama Staff Writer

There’s something about Greta Gerwig.

The “Frances Ha” star steals the show in “Mistress America,” her second collaboration with her beau and creative partner, writer and director Noah Baumbach.

This is Gerwig’s fourth time starring in a Baumbach project, all of which tend to be about the same things: identifying societal definitions of success and failure and examining our increasingly technocratic lifestyles — “Must we document pittnews.com

ourselves all the time? Must we?” — among other pertinent millenial concerns. “Mistress” is no exception but avoids feeling that way through the sincerity of its characters’ relationships.

“Mistress” follows Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke), a writer and wordy intellectual who swirls her wine and calls her mother by her first name. She’s in the midst of a lonely first semester at college when she meets 30-year-old Brooke, the worldly daughter of her mother’s fiance and a self-proclaimed autodidact — “That word is one of the things I self-taught myself.”

The first night they meet, Brooke takes Tracy dancing and to a concert where Brooke jumps onstage to sing with the band. Their night together inspires Tracy to write a short story in which the main character is clearly modeled after Brooke. “She lives exactly how a young woman should live,” Tracy reads in a voice-over that carries throughout the film.

It soon becomes apparent that Brooke’s life isn’t as together as she would like it to be. Following Baumbach’s obsession of struggling millenial characters, she works as a spin class instructor and tutor part time, leaning on an overseas boyfriend to pay her rent. She’s also in the midst of an ambitious plan to open a Brooklyn restaurant that would double as a community center. But with her history of abandoned business ideas, like interior decorating, designer T-shirts and apps, it’s not likely this dream will materialize.

September 17, 2015

Still, Tracy takes to Brooke like an understudy, clinging to her side and saying everything the older girl wants to hear — like calling the Connecticut city “Greenwich gross-ville.”

However, Tracy’s recurring voiceover begins to show how she truly views the fledgling adult. “People could feel her failure coming,” she writes in a particularly cutting line that compares her future stepsister to a rotten carcass.

Find the full story online at

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7

Bond, pg. 6 Max and boxer Tommy Conlon, respectively, have similarly self-reliant tough-guy traits as the new dark Bond.

Elba was formerly the clear favorite to take the Bond mantle from Craig — and might still be a fan favorite to become the first black Bond — but Hardy has replaced him as the frontrunner. Elba, who got his start in the acclaimed series “The Wire,” hasn’t made an American blockbuster since 2013’s “Thor: The Dark World.” He

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also arguably isn’t a household name like Hardy, who broke out as Bane in 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” and did a victory lap by starring in “Mad Max.” Apart from playing macho characters like Bane or Max, perhaps his strongest experience for the role is his portrayal of the tight-lipped and strictly mission-oriented rogue spy Ricki Tarr in the spy drama “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” Like Bond, Tarr functions alone and is constantly in danger. Transitioning to the fantastic, action-packed world of James Bond seems like the natural next step for someone

who has played both spy and action star, though never both together.

We also cannot forget that Bond is a ladies man. With each film, he manages to work his way into the life of at least one woman. Hardy’s experience in this department triumphs — Tarr lands in a strikingly Bond-esque situation in “Tinker Taylor,” when he becomes romantically distracted while investigating a mole within MI6, jeopardizing the whole mission. This role, in retrospect, now seems like an audition — that Hardy passed.

Hardy has also shined in minor roles,

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such as his underrated performance in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 dream-world hit “Inception,” where he plays Eames, a smooth-talking con man and identity forger. Though he wears suits, it’s easy to imagine a man as witty and handsome as Eames in a tux — the uniform of any secret agent, whose very job is to trick people into capture.

Though we still won’t know the decision for some time, the case is rightfully in Hardy’s favor.

Directors take note: The name is Hardy, Tom Hardy.

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Sports The Pitt Rugby Football Club practices with pads on the Cathedral lawn. Stephen Caruso | Contributing Editor

CHEEK TO CHEEK: A DAY WITH PITT RUGBY

Stephen Caruso

Assistant Sports Editor

Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a two-part, immersive story on Pitt’s Rugby Football Club.

We were all pressed against the ground — shirts dirty, dripping sweat, panting heavily and waiting for the whistle that meant “go time.”

With helmets, it could have been a scene from a war movie — weary warriors waiting to charge into battle.

But there were no helmets. This was not war. This was not even football. It was rugby.

Thirty minutes into a rugby practice with the University of Pittsburgh Rugby Football Club, I was discovering whether or not I could succeed at this foreign sport with no experience whatsoever.

Across from me was Aidan Nuttall, Pitt rugby’s president. Exhausted as I was, I felt somewhat better that the senior, who has been playing rugby since his first semester at Pitt, looked worn as well.

Nuttall has been involved in Pitt’s rugby team since his freshman year.

“I went to the activities fair, and since I’m a larger guy, one of the guys walked up pittnews.com

to me from the table and asked if I would out, while I kept myself toward the right. join,” Nuttall said. “A couple of practice sesThe defense, lying face down on the ground sions later, here I am.” behind the cones, had to jump up from that Nuttall played high school football but position and set up an effective counter. found that rugby let him get engaged in the Then, a veteran on the offensive side ran action. up and tossed the ball back to the offense.

“I got to touch the ball more, it’s defi“Back” is the most important term in nitely something that kept me around, the rugby. All passes must be backward, unlike ability to be so involved,” he said. the bastardized American version of the The drill we ran certainly kept us ensport. Upon viewing a game during a visit gaged. Coaches Allan Murray and Derek to America, Winston Churchill remarked Neubauer devised the exercise to help the biggest difference between football and teach the team to quickly adapt to a change rugby was “all the committee meetings” — in possession. They had noticed transitions the huddles. as an issue in their last game, a 50-19 win But the other difference, no matter how over Indiana University of Pennsylvania. small, still took some getting used to. At The coaches had divided those in attenmultiple points, my instincts kicked in, and dance — around 35 people — into three upon receiving the ball in a drill — when groups. One group played offense, one I actually managed to corral the ball, that defense, while the odd group out jogged is — I tossed it forward to an open player. around their teammates.

At that moment, it seemed as if all pracI started in the offensive group. At Neutice ground to a halt, the team shocked at bauer’s whistle, we ran to the announced the indemnity of what had occurred. color-coded cone and tried to prepare an “A forward pass? What is this most foul offensive attack. As we waited for the whiscreation? What rugby player would do tle, I asked Nuttall what I should do. such a thing?” they all seemed to think.

He whirled around.

Then, with a jolt, practice resumed, as “Oh, you’re with my group? Stay toward they all remembered it was the journalist the side and watch, you’ll pick it up,” he said. in their midst who had made the mistake.

I did as told. At the whistle, we fanned Luckily for me, the team doesn’t have September 17, 2015

huge expectations for the rookies, according to Murray.

“As a freshman rookie, you can anticipate playing B-side consistently, until your sophomore year,” he said.

As a sophomore, players usually have accrued enough experience to at least substitute in on A-side.

After the attempts at offense, my group switched to defense. It was here, belly against the ground, grimace on my face, that I started to realize the extent of my exhaustion.

My inner monologue began to question this journalistic endeavour .

“What are you doing here, Stephen,” it yelled at me, its voice chiding. “You think you can compete with the club? When’s the last time you managed to even make a layup or score a touchdown?”

But then I remembered that nearly every person’s story began with them knowing nothing about rugby. I may not have been as strong as “Big Dave,” or as experienced as Aidan, but everyone started like this — nervous and exhausted.

And everyone seemed to have the same grimace on their face that I had. So See Rugby on page 10

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Rugby, pg. 9 unbounded, we leapt up from our prone position at every whistle and rushed to form a line to hold off the coming assault.

At this point in practice, there was no contact. I both hungered and feared for it.

Getting hit by these large, well-practiced players did not seem like a fun proposition.

But as I proved myself incompetent in ball handling and most other parts of the game, it felt like the one place I could still prove myself.

Earlier on, Murray had gone over the proper tackling form for rugby.

The most important part of a rugby tackle is going “cheek to cheek,” as he said — your face to the opponent’s buttocks. With no helmets or padding, taking a knee to the face would make it quite unappealing.

But after my first attempt, when I had succeeded in going cheek to cheek, Murray noticed another remnant of the American game in my technique.

“You’re a big guy, and you’re trying to use all of your size to drag the other guy down,” Murray explained. “Don’t fight the other guy’s momentum, use it.”

With no “committee meetings,” no stoppages in play — except for half — saving your energy is important. That’s why the team keeps fit with what they call the “runs.”

The runs are led by the two captains, “Big” Dave Zimmerman, a senior chemical engineering major, who manages the forwards, and Connor Janawitz, a senior chemistry major, who manages the backs.

The runs can involve stairs, hills, sprints, burpees — when you throw yourself to the ground and get back up — or anything else the captains decide to do.

While few look forward to the cardiovascular exertion, the results the workouts produce quiet any dissent.

“Everybody wants to win, generally when we have a winning season, everybody wants to run and win more games,” Zimmerman said.

Jogging around the spectacle of practice gave all the players — myself included — a little extra conditioning. Everyone was filthy and sweating, but seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Zimmerman knows the reasons for playing are as varied as the body types of the players.

“Everybody has their own reasons, and

everybody embraces that,” Zimmerman said. He then listed off friendship and the joy of a contact sport as additional points.

Murray finds camaraderie the biggest draw.

“It’s a very social sport,” the coach said.

That seemed odd to me. Isn’t every sport social? I guessed it was a lesson I would need more time to learn.

Finally, after many drills that involved passing and catching and rugby tactics — what I was worst at — we moved on. Next was what I most anticipated with both dread and excitement — some contact.

It was time for the pads. We formed groups of four to practice a ruck — when the ball is transferred from a downed player to his own team. The first player hit a veteran holding a pad — playing a defender — and went down. The second player pushed away the defender, the third defended against a counter ruck and the fourth backed up.

After some instructions on proper rugby hitting — lead with the opposite shoulder of the ball, stay low and wrap your arm without the ball around the opponent — I felt confident.

But perhaps I felt too confident.

On my try as the third man, I lunged

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September 17, 2015

over the downed teammate. In my absentmindedness, I forgot to look up. Wham — like a ton of bricks, Murray hit me with the pad.

I had tried to mentally prepare myself for this situation, the chance to prove myself as tough enough for this rough-and-tumble sport. It was the moment I both feared and wanted. And I did not give an inch.

OK, that’s an exaggeration. My head spun for a moment. I almost stepped back onto the head of the man I was supposed to be protecting.

But only almost.

“Not bad,” Murray said. For the first time that evening, I was proud of myself.

As the coaches and captain brought our tired selves into the huddle, I saw why rugby specifically is such a social sport.

“You are fighting and scrapping and playing with these guys, so you build a bond,” Murray said.

It’s a bond enforced by a desire to stretch your legs, take a couple of hits and get dirty.

The team put their hands in.

“Who are we?” Zimmerman shouted.

“Pitt rugby!” the team roared.

I may have been an amateur. But I don’t think anyone else cared. We all were.

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SMOKERS NEEDED! Researchers at UPMC are looking to enroll healthy adult cigarette smokers ages 18-65. This research is examining the influence of brief uses of FDA-approved nicotine patch or nicotine nasal spray on mood and behavior. The study involves a brief physical exam and five sessions lasting two hours each. Eligible participants who complete all sessions will receive up to $250, or $20 per hour. This is NOT a treatment study. For more information, call 412-2465396 or visit www.SmokingStudies.pitt.edu

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College or graduate school students needed to work with elementary school children in a fun, structured afterschool program in the South Hills. $11-$13/hr., flexible hours, and must have own trnasportation.

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Need extra cash?

Hard working parttime handyman helper wanted for busy property management company.

Some duties include light painting, cleaning, grass cutting and snow shoveling.

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Call 412.682.7622 or stop by 5816 Forbes Avenue.

R INSERTIONS 1X 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X ADDITIONAL A 1-15 WORDS $6.30 $11.90 $17.30 $22.00 $27.00 $30.20 $5.00 T 16-30 WORDS $7.50 $14.20 $20.00 $25.00 $29.10 $32.30 $5.40 E S DEADLINE: TWO BUSINESS DAYS PRIOR BY 3 PM | EMAIL: ADVERTISING@PITTNEWS.COM | PHONE: 412.648.7978 (EACH ADDITIONAL WORD: $0.10)

Recruiting Now! We need individuals strong in writing, humanities, arts, math, and sciences with a strong desire to impact others. All work conducted in Pitt campus area. Students, post-grads and others welcome to apply. Strong writing and English proficiency a must! Competitive, hourly wages. Email: rachel@myrightnote.com Servers/Bartenders – SoHo, a full service restaurant & bar located on the North Shore is seeking Servers & Bartenders to join our team. Full and/or part time positions available for both daytime and/or evening shifts. Experience preferred.

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Alex’s East End Floral Shoppe for all occasions

September 17, 2015

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September 17, 2015

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