9-4-15

is james conner the next tony dorsett?

He broke the former Heisman winner’s touchdown record — what’s next for the junior running back?

pg. 5

News

See online for Football bonfire coverage

beds & bathrooms: pitt starts gender-neutral push

This fall, Pitt is welcoming students, faculty and staff to use any restroom on campus that they desire, regardless of gender identity. Next fall, Pitt will open Ruskin Hall as the first gender-neutral dorm on campus.

In an interview with The Pitt News, the University said Ruskin Hall will accommodate all students, regardless of gender identity, beginning in the fall 2016 semester. Students of different genders and different gender identities can share suites as long as all individuals agree to the accommodations. Without a press release or formal announcement, Pitt began encouraging students, faculty and staff last week to use the restroom facilities of whatever gender they identify with anywhere on campus, regardless of the sex specified on their birth certificate. “[The changes] came from talking to our students and our staff to better understand what their needs are,” Kenyon Bonner, interim vice provost and dean of students, said.

“We’ve been focusing on this for quite a while.”

The change in restroom practice is University-wide, meaning the practice is also effective on Pitt’s branch

pittnews.com

campuses. Pitt will only introduce gender-neutral housing at its Oakland campus, leaving branch campuses to respond to gender-neutral housing requests on a case-by-case basis, Pitt spokesperson Ken Service said.

Pitt’s decisions to change its restroom policy and introduce genderneutral housing on campus came from conversations in Pitt’s Student Affairs office between staff and students, such as Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance, a club focused on promoting the interests of the LGBT community, as well as updated Occupational Safety Health Administration recommendations, Service said.

These decisions, Service said, were not a result of the 2012 lawsuit former Pitt Johnstown student Seamus Johnston filed against Pitt Johnstown after it expelled Johnston, a transgender man, for using men’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Pitt’s new restroom practice will not apply to locker rooms, Bonner said.

Pitt’s previous bathroom practice asked faculty, staff and students and their guests to “exercise sound judgment and discretion when accessing and using the restrooms.”

Pitt’s new practice encourages

faculty, staff and students and their guests to use any restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, or whichever bathroom they feel most comfortable using.

When asked if Pitt had plans to advertise the changes, Service said the University was letting The Pitt News spread the word.

Marcus Robinson, president of the Rainbow Alliance, said if a cisgender student — someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth — felt uncomfortable using the same bathroom as a transgender student, the transgender student should mention the new practice and inform an administrator or Robinson.

“Violence is definitely a concern that you have in any situation, but Pitt’s campus is growing more accepting,” Robinson said. “It’s such a place of nervousness, but it shouldn’t be. It’s just a restroom.”

Frayda Cohen, a professor in Pitt’s gender, sexuality and women’s studies program, said gender-neutral bathrooms meet “the everyday needs of a population students.”

“Bathrooms in particular can be intimate spaces in which people might feel challenged or defensive,

Lauren Rosenblatt and Dale Shoemaker

The Pitt News Staff

and gender neutral spaces alleviates many of these concerns,” said Cohen said in an email.

According to a 2008 study in the Journal of Emotional Abuse, 47 percent of transgender people reported they had been assaulted in their lifetime, compared to 21 percent of the general U.S. population. Robinson said he does not expect the practice at Pitt to prompt any violence.

“The University and Chancellor Gallagher are really committed to diversity in general,” Robinson said.

“I’m really excited to see how the University approaches these topics and how the campus is going to change in the next couple years.”

Alexander McCarthy, former president of Rainbow Alliance, has been involved in the discussions with the University for more than a year. He said Pitt and Rainbow Alliances have gotten over “a lot of differences,” and while they still have “ways to go,” he is impressed with the University.

“I’m proud of how Pitt has stepped up in the past year,” McCarthy, a senior urban studies, gender sexuality and women’s studies major, said.

Before the University established See Gender on page 12

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WITNESS TO HISTORY

K.K. Mosley-Smith has emerged as a leader in his senior season. Meghan Sunners SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Pitt football has fielded turmoil in the past five years, and K.K. Mosley-Smith has been there for all of it. Jeremy Tepper Senior Staff Writer

K.K. Mosley-Smith prefers not to dwell on the past. Whatever successes and failures he’s lived through, Mosley-Smith likes to keep them in the rearview.

“I’m just focused on the future,” Mosley-Smith said. “That’s what type of guy I am. The past is the past because tomorrow’s not promised.”

Mosley-Smith, now entering his fifth year at Pitt and his second as a starting defensive tackle, doesn’t like to focus on what’s already happened.

Still, if he chose to look back, he’d see a past laden with twists and turns — four head coaching changes in his career, each as disruptive as the next.

Some players might dwell on this turmoil, on how it impeded their paths to success. But Mosley-Smith instead takes it as the tale of how he pittnews.com

became the person he is today.

“Struggle builds character, and I feel like those times made me a great person, the person I am now,” Mosley-Smith said.

Change

Five years ago, Mosley-Smith only cared about playing. He was completely unaware of the ever-changing nature of college football staffs.

When he pledged to Dave Wannstedt, then Pitt’s head coach, he didn’t think about whether he would play for anybody else but him.

Wannstedt was fired five months after Mosley-Smith’s commitment to the Panthers.

He was incredulous that the man he chose to play for was no longer there.

“I didn’t know [about coaching

turnover]. I was like, ‘Coaches are in and out?’ How could I trust someone?” Mosley-Smith said.

As is the nature of recruiting, other schools started reaching out to him again, hoping to earn his commitment — and his decommitment from Pitt — in a time of uncertainty. But his mother’s guidance kept him dedicated to the Panthers. She urged him to look at college football as a business, which helped MosleySmith decide to honor his commitment.

“I just felt like this is my city, and I’m going to keep fighting for my city,” he said. “I love it here, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Little did Mosley-Smith know that Wannstedt’s departure would portend of things to come.

Pitt’s next hire, Mike Haywood, lasted only two weeks before the school fired him following domestic violence charges. The school’s next coach, Todd Graham, bolted for Arizona State after 11 months at Pitt. It was unprecedented coaching turnover, and Mosley-Smith still had trouble grasping it.

“As a young kid coming in, I didn’t know that much. I didn’t know how to take it well,” he said. “But now I feel like that made me a stronger person, and I’m great with facing adversity through those times.”

Find the full story online at

pittnews.com

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TIME TO SHINE

James Conner is already a program great.

Now he has to win.

Stephen Caruso

Assistant Sports Editor

Whenever a young football player starts making an impact, the hyperbole emerges just as fast as the knock-off jerseys.

From the most serious journalist to the biggest homer, everyone jumps to proclaim “He’s the next Dan Marino” or “the next Larry Fitzgerald.”

But to be contrary, in junior running back James Conner, Pitt may very well have the next Tony Dorsett.

Conner doesn’t shy away from that attention either.

“I’m not embarrassed. It comes with [success] ... I just focus on the team,” Conner said.

Conner has the power to be the next Dorsett. Images of him running through defenders hang at Heinz Field on gameday and grace the pages of this paper most Mondays.

He has the speed. Conner had runs of 74, 60 and 56 yards last year and averaged 5.9 yards per carry.

No running back can have such an explosive average without quickness.

He has the numbers. After rushing for over 800 yards and eight touchdowns during a freshman year in which he did not start, Conner exploded for 1,765 yards and 26 touchdowns as a starter. Those numbers earned him ACC Player of the Year, as well as All-American honors. In the process, he broke Dorsett’s single-season touchdown record of 22, which he set in 1976. pittnews.com

Both stars arrived at Pitt at similarly pivotal points. Dorsett was recruited by Johnny Majors, who was rebuilding a struggling Pitt team in 1973. Conner, while recruited by an old regime, is hoping to turn around Pitt’s program with a new coach, Pat Narduzzi.

Their roles bring about an even stronger similarity. Both Conner and Dorsett anchored powerful Pitt offenses that improved each year they played. From Dorsett’s first year in 1973 until his senior year in 1976, Pitt’s offense moved from 78th to seventh in the country.

With Conner, Pitt has moved from 80th to 45th — and with how this team talks, the goal is to keep that trend going in the same direction.

After Tyler Boyd said Pitt could have the best offense in the ACC, Conner didn’t hesitate to back up his teammate.

“I totally agree with him. We believe in ourselves, in our chemistry and our coaches — there is no doubt in our minds,” Conner said.

Conner will even don the historic Pitt script on gameday, with the athletic department’s recentlyannounced efforts to rebrand to its retro logo.

But what Dorsett is — and what Conner is not — is a champion.

And he knows it.

“Everyone on the team is here for one reason — that’s to be ACC

“From the most serious journalist to the bbiggest homer, everyoone jumps to proclaim ‘He’s the next Dan Marino’...but to be ccontrary, in junior runnning back James Connner, Pitt may very well have the next Tony Dorsett.”

See Conner on page 14

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PENGUINS VS. PANTHERS For Pitt, revenge is best served cold against Youngstown State

Dan Sostek Sports Editor

Three years ago, Pitt tight end J.P. Holtz was an eager, inexperienced freshman, a Pittsburgh kid from Shaler Area High School ready to play in his first collegiate game.

That game was against Youngstown State University, and it was of significant proportions. It was the season opener of Pitt’s final season in the Big East, and the debut for promising new head coach Paul Chryst.

It did not go well.

“They did get us my freshman year,” Holtz said of the 31-17 loss to the Penguins in 2012. “They were ready to play, and we weren’t.”

Three years later, Holtz will get another chance this Saturday.

The Panthers will once again open the season against the Division I-AA opponents from Youngstown, and the game will once again feature a rookie head coach, in charge of his first collegiate contest, Pat Narduzzi. Narduzzi, understands the gravity of that loss, even though he was nowhere near the North Shore when the Penguins last marched to town.

“We might talk about a little payback. To me, it becomes personal that that happened,” Narduzzi said in his weekly press conference. “I think it’s great to play with an attitude and play angry.”

Senior cornerback Lafayette Pitts, who, like Holtz, played in the 2012 loss, said the defeat still stings.

“That’s gonna be on my mind,” Pitts said. “We came [in that game] walking into the building pittnews.com

J.P. Holtz still remembers the sting from 2012’s loss to Youngstown St.. Heather Tennant STAFF PHOTOGHRAPHER

“I think it’s great to play with an attitude and play angry.” - Pat Narduzzi thinking we were just going to roll out and win the game. They showed us there’s more than that to football ... We’re going to be ready.”

The 2015 Youngstown State team is as talented as the 2012 team, if not more so. It returns with a star, junior defensive end Derek Rivers, who tallied 14 sacks last season, as well as its leading passer (Hunter Wells), wideout (Andrew Williams) and two leading rushers.

The most intriguing piece of personnel the Penguins feature is their new head coach, the boisterous former Nebraska playcaller Bo Pelini.

The Cornhuskers fired Pelini last year after seven seasons helming the head coaching position, a tenure that featured constant run-ins with Narduzzi – then a defensive coordinator for Michigan State. The two go even further back, as Pelini and Narduzzi squared off as high school football players growing up in Youngstown.

“Bo is a super coach,” Narduzzi said. “He’s been on both ends of these games, and he’ll have those guys ready to go. He’s an emotional coach, as you know, and it will definitely be a bonus for See Youngstown on page 12

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Pitt faces Youngstown State for the first time since Paul Chryst’s inglorious debut in 2012 — a 31-17 loss. The Panthers will be sans star receiver Tyler Boyd and sophomore defensive end Rori Blair because of suspensions. Blair led Pitt with five sacks in 2014.

The team will miss Blair’s presence on the field, as Pitt lacks a consistent pass-rushing threat from the defensive end. Limiting the passing attack will be the number one obstacle for Pitt defensive coordinator Josh Conklin’s aggressive new defense.

Player to Watch: Andrew Williams, Wide Receiver, Senior

Pitt’s second of three consecutive road games poises the Panthers against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

The Panthers fell to the Hawkeyes last season 24-20, getting outscored 17-3 in the second half. The Hawkeye offense, led by quarterback C.J. Beathard, averaged 237 yards passing per game last season, while the defense held opponents to an average of 176 yards per game. If James Conner and Tyler Boyd can repeat their big games from last year, Pitt should have a chance.

Player to Watch: Drew Ott, Defensive Line, Senior

Pitt vs. youngstown state Saturday, Sept. 5 1 p.m.

On paper, everything looks easy.

And on paper, Pitt’s schedule seems deceptively easy. But it’s easy to forget that Pitt has lost at least once to each of this year’s opponents in the past three years, some losses nastier than others. But with a new coaching staff and fresh enthusiasm, the future has never seemed brighter.

Pitt vs. virginia saturday, Oct. 10 tbd

Pitt @ iowa Saturday, Sept. 19 8 p.m

Pitt @ Akron Saturday, Sept.

12 6 P.m.

Pitt @ Virginia tech Saturday, Oct. 3 tbd

Pitt travels to Akron for another non-conference matchup. The Zips beat the Panthers 21-10 in a home upset last year. Senior Akron running back Conor Hundley rushed for 148 yards in that win and averaged 5.4 yards per carry for the year. Working to keep Akron’s 5-foot-10, 204-pound bulldozer at bay will be a revamped interior defensive line, highlighted by graduate student transfer Mark Scarpinato.

Player to Watch: Conor Hundley, Running Back, Senior

Pitt season preview pittnews.com

After three straight road contests, the Panthers return home to face the Virginia Cavaliers in their homecoming game. The Panthers fell to the Cavaliers last season, 24-19, as senior running back Kevin Parks ran for 175 yards and a touchdown. The outlook for Mike London’s Cavaliers isn’t so hot in 2015 – Virginia is predicted to finish last in the Coastal Division.

Player to Watch: Quin Blanding, Free Safety, Sophomore

Pitt kicks off conference play in Blacksburg, Virginia, against a surging Hokie team that finished 2014 with a befuddling 7-6 record.

The Hokies received high praise in the ACC preseason polls. They’re predicted to finish second in the Coastal division behind Georgia Tech, mostly on the strength of the Hokie defense. In last year’s win, when the Panthers defeated the Hokies 21-16 at Heinz Field, quarterback Chad Voytik and Conner together rushed for more than 200 yards. Pitt offensive coordinator Jim Chaney will have to keep up the running game against a team with one of Joe Rokicki the best pass defenses in the ACC. Staff Writer Player to Watch: Kendall Fuller, Cornerback, Junior

Pitt @ georgia tech Saturday, oct. 17 tbd The Yellow Jackets’ triple option offense shredded the Panthers’ defense last season and propelled them to a lopsided 52-38 victory, which included five Pitt fumbles in the first half. Pitt cannot afford to make such mistakes at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, especially since Georgia Tech is favorited to win the Coastal. The Yellow Jackets’ offense was the best in the ACC in 2014 with 6,671 total yards — 4,789 of them coming on the ground.

As Pitt started making defensive preparation for Georgia Tech in the second week of training camp this summer, this game will display how much growth and development can occur one year, head coach and coordinator later.

Player to Watch: Justin Thomas, Quarterback, Junior

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It’s difficult to imagine Pitt football without Syracuse. The two rivals have a history dating to 1916. Ninety-nine years and an Aaron Donald extra point attempt block later, the Panthers hold a slim advantage over the Orange, 36-31-3 (the two teams didn’t play each other for 25 years from 1930-1955).

The Panthers and Orange have split the past two meetings in the Carrier Dome, each by one point.

Player To Watch: Terrel Hunt, Quarterback, Senior

A pair of Ray Vinopal interceptions sealed a 28-21 Pitt victory when the teams last met two seasons ago at Heinz Field. Team captain and senior cornerback Lafayette Pitts must shut down star Notre Dame wide receiver Will Fuller, an assignment few accomplished in 2014. Rori Blair and the rest of the Pitt defensive line will also have to establish serious, consistent pressure against Malik Zaire in his first year as starting quarterback since 2014 starter Everett Golson’s transfer to Florida State.

Player to Watch: Will Fuller, Wide Receiver, Junior

Pitt vs. louisville saturday, Nov. 21 tbd

Pitt vs. notre dame saturday, nov. 7 tbd

Pitt @ syracuse Saturday, oct. 24 tbd

PPitt it @ north carolina thur thursday, oct. 29 7 p.m.

The Panthers will seek to avenge another 2014 Coastal Division loss when North Carolina visits Heinz Field for a primetime Thursday night grudge match. The Panthers have yet to defeat Larry Fedora’s Tar Heels as a conference opponent. North Carolina won the inaugural meeting in 2013 at Heinz Field, a 34-27 thriller.

Player To Watch: Marquise Williams, Quarterback, Senior pittnews.com pi i t tnews.com

Week 11 will mark the first time these two teams have met since Paul Chryst’s inaugural season in 2012, when Louisville defeated Pitt 45-35 at Heinz Field. The Cardinals’ efficient, conservative offense is a concern.

Louisville posted the ninth-best team offense in 2014, but its 405 total points scored ranked sixth in the ACC (Pitt ranked fifth with 414 points.). Junior quarterback Will Gardner threw for 1,669 yards in 2014 with 12 touchdowns and three interceptions.

Player to Watch: Sheldon Rankins, Defensive End, Senior

Pitt @ duke Saturday, nov. 14 tbd Pitt travels to Tobacco Road for its final conference road game of the season to face off against a team that finished 9-4 in 2014 and narrowly escaped Heinz Field with a victory in double overtime, 51-48. Pitt and Duke have scored 212 points total in the past two games, as each game offered a showcase of offensive talent. To boot, senior place kicker Ross Martin was 19 of 21 in 2014, and his 90.5 field goal percentage was the best in the Coastal and second-best in the ACC. Player to Watch: Thomas Sirk, Quarterback, Sophomore

TPN Sports ACC Power Rankings 1. FSU 2. CLEMSON 3. GEORGIA TECH 4. LOUISVILLE 5. VIRGINIA TECH 6. MIAMI 7. PITT 8. DUKE 9. UNC 10. NC STATE 11. VIRGINIA 12. BOSTON COLLEGE 13. SYRACUSE 14. WAKE FOREST

Pitt vs. miami friday, nov. 27 tbd Hurricanes’ head coach Al Golden is beginning to feel the Miami heat. His team dropped four of its last five games in 2014, finishing with a 6-7 record. Star running back Duke Johnson departed for the NFL — he finished second in rushing in the ACC (to Conner) with 1,652 yards. A generous reading of the Hurricanes’ nasty schedule has them at third in the conference. It includes a six-game stretch against Nebraska, Cincinnati, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Clemson and Duke before playing presumed Coastal Division bottom-feeder Virginia. Miami is home against Georgia Tech before heading to Pittsburgh.

Player to Watch: Brad Kaaya, Quarterback, Sophomore

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Jordan Whitehead has impressed coaches with his playmaking ability. Stephen Caruso ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

the defense.”

Defensive coordinator Josh Conklin has plenty to work with when it comes to Whitehead’s athleticism and playmaking ability.

“He’s going to make plays,” Conklin said. “He can cover a lot of ground, he’s very athletic and he’s very explosive.”

That innate ability assisted Whitehead to the tune of seven interceptions on the defensive side of the ball his senior season of high school, while also carrying it over on offense for 35 total touchdowns and 1,933 rushing yards.

Whitehead understands, though, that this isn’t high school, and he can’t simply hang his head high on his accomplishments at Central Valley.

“You’re not the star now. You’ve got to earn your spot, t,” Whitehead said. “It’s a big stepping stone from m high school to colollege in thee speed off the game.”

B esides es game speed, eed, Whitehead d has to acclimate himself to a more complex playbook and more talented, diverse offenses.

According to Whitehead, ehead, he’ll be “getting used to different ent coverages, different speed and tempo. mpo.”

To succeed at in n the ACC, Whitehead will have to learn

Skill trumps experience for freshman Whitehead Jeremy Tepper

Senior Staff Writer

Jordan Whitehead might be inexperienced. He might not completely know the playbook. Sometimes, he might not even be in the right place.

But whatever mistakes the young defensive back makes early in his career, they’ll be easy to swallow after considering his raw skill and athleticism. pittnews.com

The freshman safety from Central Valley High School in Monaca, Pennsylvania, made that abundantly clear to cornerbacks coach Renaldo Hill throughout training camp.

“He’s a freshman, but he has lots of talent,” Hill said. “You see that, and our job as coaches is to enhance that talent, enhance his understanding of

from other former high school standouts, like corner Lafayette Pitts, safety Reggie Mitchell and wide receiver Tyler Boyd.

Pitts, Whitehead said, has helped him and the other defensive backs prepare mentally, while Mitchell is always eager to answer Whitehead’s questions. Boyd has been key in showing him how to conduct himself on the football field.

“All you’ve got to do is watch,” Whitehead said. “[Boyd] leads by example. Just watch what he does, and you’ll be all right.”

Whitehead has kept his eyes and ears open to his teammates and coaches and has made it a point to do the same in the film room.

Through those film studies, coaches acknowledged that Whitehead’s production sticks out, regardless of his relative unfamiliarity with the schemes.

“We always talk about defensively whether you can feel a guy or not, and I think we could definitely feel him,” Conklin said. “He’s not 100 percent on his assignments or execution, but you can feel him.” most in Whitehead can be “felt” mo struggle his playmaking, which was a stru for the Pitt defense last season. The unit ranked 84th in intercepinter tions and 117th in fumble fum recoveries, but Hill said Whitehead has the potential to alsome of leviate som those woes.

Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.

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The Pitt News Crossword, 9/4/2015

ACROSS 1 Eggy dessert 11 La Salle of “ER” 15 Occurring at a constant temperature 16 Computer startup?

17 Elementary sextet 18 Browning product 19 Older Pevensie sister in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series 20 Turned brown, maybe 22 Curling piece 26 Square 27 “Do wrong to __”: Shak.

30 Attended to bald spots on 33 Stop 34 University of Miami mascot Sebastian the __ 35 Climate Reality Project founder 36 __ moment 37 Flimflam 38 Slap target, informally 39 Airline with the EuroBonus frequent flier program 40 Alpine parrot 41 Misses 42 Salon service 43 Names 44 Slap cause, maybe 45 Dr. Jones, to Dr. Marcus Brody 46 Mesoamerican crop 48 Column that won’t support anything 50 Involve deeply 53 DeMille specialties 57 It precedes one 58 Dept. of State employee 62 Secretary of Education Duncan 63 Like pen pals’ relationships 64 Hoot 65 High wind

T P N S U D O K U

pittnews.com

9/5/15

By Alex Vratsanos and Jeff Chen

DOWN 1 Some reds, for short 2 Not worth __ 3 Roaring Twenties hairdos 4 Ones for the road?

5 1814 treaty site 6 It may be shaken or pulled 7 He outlived George by 46 years 8 Sacred syllables 9 Dumbarton denials 10 Snow Queen in “Frozen” 11 Wax theatrical 12 Drainage area 13 “Help” 14 Its capital was Xianyang 21 Bad way to go 23 Certain Honshu native 24 Words of emphasis 25 Moves stealthily 27 “Pink Friday” rapper 28 Baroque wind 29 Singer who had a 1959 hit with “I Loves You, Porgy”

Friday’s Puzzle Solved

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

31 “Dish it up!”

32 1974 hit sung entirely in Spanish 38 Foxier 42 “The Banquet of Cleopatra” painter 47 __ cards, used in ESP experiments 49 Dieter’s breakfast

9/5/15

51 Petitions 52 Beantown NHL nickname 54 “Look at me, __ helpless ...”: “Misty” lyric 55 Word spoken con affetto 56 Final crossing?

59 Party bowlful 60 Nation since 1948: Abbr.

61 Ed. group

Today's difficulty level: Very Hard Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com

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Gender, pg. 2 gender-neutral housing, transgender students would contact Panther Central if they were uncomfortable with their housing assignment. Panther Central then gave the students a single room with a private bathroom or a room with a roommate of the same sex.

Because Ruskin Hall only offers housing for upperclassmen, freshmen transgender students must follow the same procedure as before.

Service did not know which dorms include the single rooms.

Julie Bannister, the manager of Panther Central, directed all media inquiries to Pitt spokesperson John Fedele. Fedele also said he could not look into where the rooms were located Thursday evening.

According to Service, Panther Central has received several re-

pittnews.com

quests for single dorms with private restrooms this year and has accommodated all of them.

Ruskin Hall, located on Ruskin Avenue, houses 416 students in single, double and triple dorm rooms.

Service said Pitt expects Ruskin will be able to accommodate the full need for gender-neutral housing next year.

Service said it doesn’t have plans to open any other dorms as genderneutral until it gauges student demand on Ruskin.

Ruskin’s apartment-style dorms are popular among students because of its private kitchens and central location on campus. Because Pitt will label Ruskin Hall as gender-neutral, Carlisle Walker, a senior and transgender man, said he thinks demand for Ruskin will change from all students to only See Genderon page 14

Youngstown, pg. 7 Youngstown State.”

Pitt definitely won’t underestimate its week-one opponent this year.

Narduzzi heaped praise on the Penguins, calling them a “great team.” He warned that they have plenty of players on the roster with personal vendettas against the Panthers, whether that stems from old high school rivalries or the pain of rejection.

“If you look at their two-deep, they have 14 guys from the state of Pennsylvania. When I look at that, I know where their heart is going to be on [game] day,” Narduzzi said. “They will come in ready to go, probably guys who would have liked to play at Pitt, didn’t get recruited for whatever reason, and went there, and will have a grudge when they come to Pittsburgh.”.

Those beefs could very well lead

to a physical game. Pitts and the Panthers are amped for that opportunity.

“We’ve been hitting each other for the last three weeks in camp, and then we had spring ball for 15 practices,” Pitts said. “We’re really excited to hit somebody else for once.”

WANT MORE CONTENT? GO ONLINE TO

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Conner, pg. 5 Champions,” Conner said in a training camp interview.

It may fall short of the national champion benchmark that Dorsett set in 1976, the last time Pitt won the title, but it is enough of a goal for a team with four straight 6-6 seasons in its past.

Of course, that championship season also occurred in Dorsett’s senior season, when he won a Heisman and was drafted with the second overall pick of the NFL Draft on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

“I have a lot to improve on before I get to that stage,” Conner said.

Conner has the numbers, the skill set, the wardrobe and the attitude of Dorsett. Now all he and the team have to do is win.

pittnews.com

Gender, pg. 12 students who are comfortable living in a gender-neutral environment.

“No one wants to think of themselves as bigoted,” Walker said. “But if you’re uncomfortable living with a trans person, you’re not going to volunteer [to live in Ruskin].”

The process to sign up for this housing will be just like signing up for any other dorm. Students will use their lottery number to get a designated time to sign up for housing, with Ruskin Hall as an option.

According to Bonner, there will be a mechanism in place to ensure all students who apply to live in Ruskin are on board with living in a gender-neutral dorm, but Pitt has not decided on the specifics of that mechanism yet. Possible op-

tions are a drop-down menu on the housing website’s online form or a phone call with the University, Bonner said.

Ruskin Hall will be available for student bids when housing selection begins in January.

In the event of a complaint, the University will follow the same procedure for any other dorm. If a student wishes to move out, they may do so as long as there is an opening in another dorm .

If there is a complaint beyond “normal roommate issues,” Pitt’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion will address it, according to Pamela Connelly, the associate vice chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion.

The University is still discussing other practices, such as for locker rooms and showers.

“We’re looking at every issue that we can,” Bonner said. “As with

anything on campus, we’re all ears.”

Todd Reeser, Pitt’s Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program director, said while he could not speak for the transgender community, Pitt’s decision to make Ruskin Hall gender-neutral is a step forward.

“I was very pleased to hear about Pitt’s policy on gender-neutral housing and restrooms, as it reflects the lived reality of the nonbinary nature of sex and gender,” Reeser said in an email.

As for transgender students on campus, Walker said Pitt’s move is a good idea , mostly for the mental health of transgender students at Pitt.

“It’s hard to use all of your mental energy focusing on being trans all day,” he said. “To be able to come home at the end of the day and be comfortable — that’s huge.”

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