9-8-2016

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | September 8, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 21

NO MORE PARTIES IN GRAVEL LOT

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Stephen Caruso Senior Staff Writer

Fans looking for a place to party before the Pitt-Penn State game shouldn’t expect to find booming bass and shotgunning students at the gravel lot Saturday — or during any other game for the rest of the season.

PPG Public Parking, owner of the popular student tailgating haven at the corner of Western Avenue and Fulton Street, told arriving students Saturday at the Villanova game that walk-in revelers will not be allowed in the lot starting with the Pitt-Penn State game, and continuing on through the season. Only cars with four people or fewer will be allowed in.

PPG Parking is also raising the price from $40 to $60 to park in its lots for Saturday’s much-hyped rivalry matchup between the two Pennsylvania universities.

All other games will still be $40.

The lot is one of six that PPG Public Parking owns near Heinz Field. Access to all of the lots will be limited to fans arriving by car.

Manager Glenn Porter cited “neighborhood complaints, city complaints [and] alumni complaints” for the change.

“We run a parking lot, not a party lot,” Porter said, mentioning issues like public See Gravel Lot on page 3

Pitt defensive back David Sumner smashes into a Penn State ball carrier in the 1992 game. PITT NEWS FILE PHOTO

CITY EXPECTING RECORD CROWD Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

Saturday’s game at Heinz Field between the Pitt Panthers and the Penn State Nittany Lions is set to be the all-time most attended sporting event in the city of Pittsburgh, according to Pitt Athletic Director Scott Barnes.

Pitt has already set a new school record for season ticket sales with 55,630 tickets sold for the 2016-17 season, but the Keystone Classic showdown with Penn State is expected to draw the largest crowd in Heinz

Field history, bringing in nearly 70,000 fans.

Heinz Field’s capacity is listed at 68,400, and Pitt has already sold about 900 standing room only tickets, with an standing room cap of 1,000 tickets. The current Heinz Field attendance record is 6, 234, for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 34-27 win over the Denver Broncos in 2015.

Barnes has always seemed open to continuing the rivalry with the Nittany Lions, but no negotiations have taken place about extending the series beyond 2019.

“We have had conversations, but no new conversations,” Barnes told assembled reporters at a roundtable Wednesday morning.

“We would love to play this [into] perpetuity.”

Barnes knows this will be the football team’s first heated rivalry game since he took over as athletic director in April 2015. He admitted there is an added significance to these games, even when neither team is ranked in the national polls.

See Attendance on page 10

News

PITT WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS Preena Patel

For The Pitt News Thousands of new students swing through the revolving doors of the Cathedral of Learning every year, and this year those students came from 61 different countries.

On Thursday, international students gathered on the Cathedral lawn for the first Chancellor’s Reception for International Students, which the Office of Special Events hosted. The event welcomed 900 undergraduate and graduate international students who enrolled at Pitt this year, as well as 60 administrative and faculty members from departments including history, English and political science.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher took selfies with international students after a reception Wednesday afternoon.

Wenhao Wu SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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See Gallagher on page 2

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The event was held to engage international students in the Pitt community.

This year, Pitt welcomed the greatest number of international students. In the fall 2015 semester, there were 822 international students enrolled at Pitt, according to the 2016 FactBook.

Although Pitt dubbed 2016-2017 the Year of Diversity, the Chancellor’s office had not made the connection between the reception and this year’s theme when planning the inaugural event.

“We were just looking for a great, nice event to welcome the international students,” Gallagher said. “But what a great year to start.”

Upon arrival, students were asked to sign their name and country on a welcoming banner. Professional photographers stood ready to take pictures of the students in front of a white backdrop, which read, “Welcome International Students 2016.”

As students snacked on cheese, fruit and desserts, they listened to live music and mingled with peers they met during International Student orientation week, which started Aug. 18.

Thirty minutes after the event started, Chancellor Gallagher greeted the students with “Hello” in several different languages, including Spanish, French and Hindi.

He congratulated the students on having the courage to come study in another country and encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunities that such a big change brings, such as joining clubs and organizations that would ben-

Gravel Lot, pg. 1 drunkenness, fights and rock throwing by rowdy tailgaters.

Porter was also concerned that the mess left by the student parties cut into the company’s bottom line.

“My cleanup costs are more than my revenue,” he said.

To enforce the new rule, Porter said PPG Public Parking will fence off the lots, as well as bring in Pittsburgh city police. The police could not be reached in time for publication.

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efit from different world views.

“The secret to success when you’re dealing with all the change is to get involved,” Gallagher said in his speech.

Amy Buckle, a sophomore English literature major who’s attending Pitt as part of an exchange program at her university in England, said she chose Pitt from a long list of options because she wanted a “city experience.”

“It’s nice they have an event for international students because, especially as a sophomore, it’s nerve wracking to start at a new school,” Buckle said.

In order to calm their nerves, faculty members, including Meri T. Long, spoke to the students about their experiences with the University this far in the semester.

“The event will help make the transition easier, and it will let them know they have a supportive faculty to welcome them,” Long, a lecturer and academic adviser for the department of political science, said.

Jason Morril, a staff member at the Office of Special Events, said Pitt plans to host similar events that will encourage every student — domestic and international — to interact more with staff members. The events are still in the planning stages.

Gallagher said the University might plan an event to bring international and domestic students together. He said the goal for this year is to bring everyone in the University together.

“In the end, we become a family, we become connected by the university,” Gallagher said. “In the end, we leave with a common goal: to make the world a better place.”

The Pitt news crossword 9/8/16

Gallagher, pg. 2

Porter was quick to clarify that bringing a grill and a few beers was still allowed. He also said if a driver felt he or she could not drive after the game due to intoxication, that person could leave a car at the lot and pick it up later.

The change has been a long time coming for Porter, who said he noticed the problem for the first time four years ago, and it has only escalated in the past two.

“Perhaps it’s been going on too long,” Porter said. “[But] the thousands of kids who come up the sidewalk are not welcome.”

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

GOP: stop stalling Zika relief OUTRAGE FATIGUE FUELS IGNORANCE

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are obviously the ones most in need of the support in question. But that demographic has a direct overlap with the people Planned Parenthood serves, which is why an exclusion of the organization from federal money would cripple any future response.

An average of 2.5 million women visit Planned Parenthood annually. Thanks to several decades of conservative vilification, it largely exists in national politics as an abortion-provider, despite the organization’s claim that abortion only comprises 3 percent of its health services. While a Washington Post fact check last year noted this figure is likely higher in reality, it also called bull on conservative declarations that the overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s revenue comes from such services.

If one of the bills preventing funding from reaching Planned Parenthood passed, women would likely still be able to receive future vaccines and medication from independent health clinics.

And that’s all well and good, but Planned Parenthood has access to far greater resources and existing networks than any of these clinics ever will. Its ability to quickly reach a large number of women — especially those in poor or developing areas like Puerto Rico — is, factually, unparalleled.

While Democrats are the ones blocking these funding bills, they are doing so for good reason, and Senator Mark Kirk, R-Il., even admitted that any funding bill was unlikely to pass until Republicans removed the controversial provision.

Conservatives are proposing a hollow solution in order to maintain their war against Planned Parenthood.

House Republicans need to recognize that attacking Zika is two-pronged: make resources available and distributing them effectively.

Planned Parenthood is only one of the potential beneficiaries, and in the meantime, all of the others are left waiting.

Take the public relations loss on this battle and approve a compromise bill, you could even try spinning it as a sacrifice in the name of world health.

Just stop fighting this unnecessary battle, because Zika victims — and the unborn children the GOP is usually so reticent to protect — are the ones caught in the crossfire.

Annabelle Goll ILLUSTRATOR

For the third time, Congress has failed to approve funding for Zika virus research. And for the third time, the reason is a willful misunderstanding of how to effectively address women’s health.

In May, the U.S. Senate approved a $1.1 billion compromise bill, which was later shot down once it reached the U.S. House of Representatives.

House Republicans introduced alternative bills to address Zika in June and July, but Democrats blocked both due to poison pill provisions not initially in the funding legislation.

The Republican bills included additional language that would prevent federal research money from going to Planned Parenthood, a group the party has painted as dedicated solely to abortion.

On Tuesday, another House Republican bill, once again including the sticking points, came to a vote and failed — blocked again by frustrated Democrats.

As an appeal to pro-life voters, it makes sense that Republicans would want to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds. But as a matter of public health policy, the additional provisions are ludicrous. If House Republicans truly wanted to help women and their children, they would look beyond the buzzwords and realize excluding Planned Parenthood hampers any effective Zika response.

Zika is a blood-transmitted disease most commonly spread through mosquito bites and, in rare cases, sexual intercourse with an infected person. Zika commonly presents no symptoms in adults who contract the illness, but it has devastating — and potentially fatal — consequences if an infected woman becomes pregnant. Children whose mothers pass Zika on to them are commonly afflicted by microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads. Microcephaly can further lead to a host of additional conditions including developmental disorders, blindness and deafness.

Zika is no longer a concern limited to South America. Puerto Rico is in the midst of a massive outbreak, and health officials have identified more than 50 cases in South Florida. With mosquito season still in full force, it’s increasingly likely that Zika will continue to spread across the south.

Since Zika largely affects pregnant women and those attempting to become pregnant, they

Henry Glitz Columnist

Of all the stories shaping the cultural landscape this summer, two events from May have consistently broken the internet.

One involves an unpredictable creature with primate ancestry — the other is Harambe.

On May 26, reality TV personality Donald Trump received his 1,237th delegate to the Republican Convention from North Dakota, and with it the title, bestowed by the Associated Press, of presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Two days later, on May 28, a three-yearold at the Cincinnati Zoo fell into the enclosure of a rare silverback gorilla named Harambe, prompting zoo officials to shoot and kill the animal in order to protect the child.

Each of these horrific events prompted extensive controversy, especially on social media. Harambe-themed memes blanketed the internet, resurging in popularity last month and showing no signs of disap-

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pearing. Of these stories, the Trump phenomenon clearly carries more long-lasting consequences. But the absurdist humor that gave Harambe memes longevity presents a clue to the Trump campaign’s continued success: At this point, we’re just tired of being outraged.

“Outrage fatigue” sounds like a fake condition — it’s been reported on by, among other outlets, the Onion — and it’s unlikely to earn classification as a medical condition anytime soon. Nevertheless, it’s a phenomenon that academics, including digital anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush of Duke University, have attempted to explore.

“Eventually you start hearing the same piece of sad news over and over that it loses its ability to pull you, and that is really dangerous,” Harfoush commented at a Dukehosted panel in February.

Find the full story online at

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Culture

ISLAND OF MEDICATED MINDS Inspired by his own battle with Bipolar II, Zack Williams’s short film “Ward” aims to alter the stigma surrounding mental illness Lexi Kennell Williams pitched the film last fall to a group Staff Writer

While directing a script about a first-year college student struggling with symptoms of depression, Zack Williams was trying to manage his own mental illness.

The senior communication major’s health fluctuated during the four months he spent filming a movie that takes place in the psychiatric unit of a hospital. Williams was told he might need to check into a facility himself — and did, once — but let the movie and the help of close friends motivate him through tough days.

“For the longer shoots, I would have to take multiple breaks out of the day to call my therapist to simply tell her I was doing alright,” said Williams, who was diagnosed with Bipolar II in summer 2014. “I would air out all of my feelings in about two minutes, then I would compose myself and walk back into the room to continue directing.”

of filmmakers from UPTV, Pitt’s television station. The club members wanted to showcase their talent and ambition by independently creating a short film. The crew started an Indiegogo campaign, raised $900 and filmed over the summer. Williams and his cast and crew of roughly 20 members, began filming January 2016 and wrapped up May 1. Although the film is still in post-production, the final product is projected for release in October.

The short film, “Ward,” explores the stigma around mental illness and humanizes those who live with it by following Andy, a first-year in college who is committed to a psychiatric unit in a hospital. There, she meets other people who help her learn to get in touch with her emotions and work toward recovery.

The crew released a new trailer Sunday, which introduces Jackson, who enters the hospital See Ward on page 8

Zack Williams, a senior studying communication and theater arts, drew inspiration for “Ward” from personal experiences. Stephen Caruso CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

BEYOND STEREOTYPES: STAR TREK TURNS 50 Alexa Bakalarski Senior Staff Writer

With its first canonically gay character, the Star Trek franchise went this summer where no mainstream sci-fi blockbuster had gone before.

But the progress came with some controversy.

The decision to make Hikaru Sulu — played

by John Cho in the reboot films — gay in “Star Trek Beyond” caused debate over whether or not a new character or an existing character should have been homosexual.

The conversation continued after George Takei expressed disapproval about Sulu’s sexuality because Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, envisioned Sulu as heterosexual.

“I’m delighted that there’s a gay character,” Takei said to The Hollywood Reporter. “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”

As Star Trek hits its 50th anniversary with

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the birthday of its first aired episode “The Man Trap” airing 50 years ago today, it’s a perfect time to take a look back at a franchise well-known for its progressiveness and diversity.

The controversy over Sulu’s sexuality reflects an aspect of the franchise’s history where it pushes for a progressive and tolerant future, but fails to break away from the influence of 20th and 21st century stereotypes.

While imperfect, the original series did attempt to imagine and portray a more accepting world, though Roddenberry felt like he had to maintain many traditional values in order to keep the show on air.

As Star Trek rounds out its fifth decade and new projects launch in the franchise, it can — and should — make strides to move from attempting to portray a more accepting world to actually portraying it. The possibility to move toward something better — in the face of a long uphill battle to get there — is part of what Star Trek is for me personally. The original series

modeled the theme of possibility, particularly humanity’s potential to become kinder and more tolerant despite its past.

“Infinite diversity in infinite combinations, this was [Roddenberry’s] dream, that is [the makers’ of Star Trek Beyond’s] dream, it should be everybody’s,” Simon Pegg, who plays the Enterprise’s Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the reboot films and co-wrote “Star Trek Beyond,” said in a July 11 post on his website.

Unfortunately, Roddenberry’s dream sometimes clashed with the need to appeal widely to a late 1960s audience to stay on air, an audience which didn’t necessarily share the same dream of diversity. In fact, NBC cancelled the original series after its third season because of low ratings. The series gained much of its popularity after it finished airing with reruns.

Throughout its seasons and film releases, the original Star Trek series and its recent reboot films have received both praise and criticism regarding representation.

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The mix of praise and criticism can feel cliched: like taking five steps forward and ten steps backward. The U.S.S. Enterprise has a racially diverse main cast during the original series, with a black woman as the ship’s chief communications officer, a Japanese-American man at its helm and a Russian character during the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Yet the original series only passes the Bechdel test — in which two named female characters talk to each other about a subject other than a man — 7.5 percent of the time, according to a project done by Jarrah Hodge on the fandom and technology site The Mary Sue. No, the original series and the reboot films aren’t perfect, but moving toward more and better representation is at the heart of the series Roddenberry envisioned in the 1960s.

Find the full story online at

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Ward, pg. 7 following a manic episode and shows Andy around the psych ward. Played by recent Pitt grad Cooper Marsh, Jackson’s character is reminiscent of a witty, zany Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” At one point, he asks another patient, “Isn’t it another wonderful morning in the island of medicated minds?”

Stephen Kraus, a recent Pitt grad, worked as the director of photography on “Ward,” and said the movie was the perfect project to finish his time at Pitt.

“We got started when our friend, Matt Mel-

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nyk, proposed that we should all pool together our collective skills and create a “capstone project” of sorts, showcasing the skills and progression we all have seen over the last few years as filmmakers,” Kraus said. “It really evolved from there, with Zack [Williams] writing the script and taking on the director role and various people coming on and taking on different responsibilities.”

In addition to writing and directing, Williams also composed the music for the film as well as acted as a minor character, Damian, who appears only in flashbacks and makes a brief appearance in the preview.

One if the main intentions of the project is to start a much-needed conversation about mental health, according to Cassidy Davis, a Pitt alum who graduated May with a communication and digital media double major. In “Ward,” she plays the role of Dr. Jamison, the doctor at the psych ward.

“If [you] haven’t experienced the effects of mental [illness] personally, [you] know someone who has. And I don’t think there’s any reason for there to be a stigma around it,” Davis said. “I think the more we talk about it, the more the stigma will hopefully be released and people can no longer be … ashamed to get the help they need.”

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Williams first sought psychiatric help himself during his first year of college, and was soon misdiagnosed with Major Depression. Although he suffered similar experiences to the main character in “Ward,” Williams said the plot of the film is largely fictional with a dose of inspiration from his own life.

“I’ve been struggling with how to treat my illness ever since [I was diagnosed], with some time periods being worse than others,” Williams said.

Find the full story online at

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Sports

See online Saturday for full coverage of Pitt-Penn State

PITT-PSU BRINGS TOGETHER FAMILIAR FOES

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Editorial Policies Pitt Athletic Director Scott Barnes (right) expects the Pitt-Penn State game this weekend to be the most attended sporting event in Pittsburgh history.

Matt Hawley STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

Pitt head football coach Pat Narduzzi isn’t letting the media observe practice or speak to players this week, but he did have some things to say about the upcoming game against Penn State during his weekly teleconference Wednesday.

According to Narduzzi, about three-fourths of the Panthers’ roster knows somebody on Penn State’s team, which is what makes the matchup distinct.

Because of the emergence of the internet and social media, players from all around the country get to know each other –– and those who grow up in the same area, like many of Pitt and Penn State’s players, are able to keep in touch and stay connected.

“I think it’s special, whether you played in

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high school with somebody, played against somebody in high school,” Narduzzi said. “The world of Twitter and Snapchat now these days, these kids know who they’re playing against.

They know them personally.”

Narduzzi mentioned that the Panthers took on Notre Dame last year, a program he considers one of Pitt’s rivals. But battling an in-state opponent for bragging rights takes on a different level of significance.

“I told them, you think [Notre Dame] was big-time, wait until Saturday,” Narduzzi said, adding that the schedule only gets more grueling after that. “And next Saturday we’ve got a big-time game [against Oklahoma State], and the week after that will be a big-time game [against North Carolina].”

Narduzzi — who referred to Penn State’s See Conference on page 10

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Conference, pg. 9 Saquon Barkley as “maybe the best tailback in the country” during his press conference Monday — continued to emphasize stopping the run as his defense’s top priority. “[Barkley]’s a great football player that can make you miss. I’ve talked to a lot of Big Ten coaches about what he does,” Narduzzi said.

“We’re well aware that we, number one, have to stop the run.”

Pitt has its own stable of capable running backs, led by redshirt junior James Conner, who rushed for 53 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in the season opener against Villanova. Narduzzi gave his thoughts on Conner’s return from a torn MCL and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“You could really call it a miracle. Some people aren’t as fortunate as James to have the strength and the attitude that he had to come back,” Narduzzi said. “I didn’t gush during the game, but watching the ESPN highlight afterward put a tear in your eye.”

Narduzzi also spoke about balancing Conner’s playing time with that of last year’s ACC Rookie of the Year, Qadree Ollison, who ran for 30 yards on seven carries against Villanova.

“We’ve got to keep both guys fresh. There was a point in the second half where I was like, ‘We have to give James a break,’” Narduzzi said.

“I think we’ve got a three-headed monster back there, and at times it could be a four- and fiveheaded monster.”

Attendance, pg. 1

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September 8, 2016

“There’s a lot of emotion around rivalries,” Barnes told reporters. “It’s not a top-20 game, but I think it’s an important step after a 16-year hiatus to create another step in our momentum.”

Penn State blogs have insisted the Nittany Lions’ fan base is largely responsible for Pitt’s season ticket sales record, and that there will be a large contingent of blue-and-white in the crowd Saturday. Penn State’s official Twitter account even started a campaign to try to white out Heinz Field.

Still, Barnes is convinced that there will be an overwhelming majority of Panthers faithfuls in attendance to give Pitt an added boost of hometown support.

“This is our house and I think that singlegame sales and the fact that 16,000 of our season-ticket holders requested additional seats is a great example of our fans stepping up,” Barnes told reporters.

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