Welcome Back 2015

The Pitt News Volume 105 Issue 85

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Cover by Theo Schwarz

Table of Contents

Winter Break Sports Timeline...................4

City of Asylum.........................................28

Polar Vortex..............................................5

Column: Stephen Caruso..........................30

Pop Culture Resolutions...........................6

Column: Andrew Boschert........................35

Escape Room...........................................8

Paul Chryst Timeline................................37

Basketball Recap....................................10

Peterson Timeline.....................................38

Column: Eli Talbert................................11

Winter Concerts.......................................39

Second City Improv.................................16

Column: Jessica Craig................................41

Cartoon by Fatima...................................16

December Grads........................................40

Retirement Roundup...............................22

Bowl Game Sidebar....................................44

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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So, what did we miss?

Busy is an understatement as Pitt lost its head football coach, athletic director and bowl game over the course of winter break.

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Dec. 10 Gary Andersen announces he is leaving Wisconsin to become Oregon State’s head coach

Dec. 12 Gary Andersen introduced as Oregon State head coach James Conner rushed for two touchdowns in Pitt’s eventual loss in the Armed Forces Bowl. Ron Jenkins | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | TNS

Dec. 17 Paul Chryst officially accepts Wisconsin job; Steve Pederson out as athletic director

Dec. 26 Pat Narduzzi introduced as next Pitt head football coach

Deontay Greenberry caught a twopoint conversion to cap Houston’s 29-point 4th quarter in the Armed Forces Bowl. Ron Jenkins | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | TNS

Gary Andersen’s departures from Wisconsin set in motion the chain of events that led to Pedersen’s firing.

Mark Hoffman | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | TNS

Jan. 2 Pitt loses Armed Forces Bowl to Houston, finishing the season 6-7

See page 37 for more on Chryst See page 38 for more on Pederson See page 44 for more on the bowl game

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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Salt savior: Students dread cold, university prepared Elizabeth Lepro For The Pitt News

For students like Ellen Ross, living in deep South Oakland during last year’s “polar vortex” meant long underwear — and lots of it.

“I did stay in a lot more instead of going to hang with people or party, because I just didn’t want to go back outside,” said Ross, a junior neuroscience major who’s gearing up for another winter in Oakland.

Other Pitt students can commiserate with Ross’ difficulties of trudging to, from and around campus in wintry mixes. During the last year’s polar vortex, above average amounts of snow and freezing temperatures hit the Northeast.

Last winter’s freezing conditions resulted from a high-pressure system that pushed a large pocket of cold air farther south from its usual position, in the polar region, into the northern United States. This created the “polar vortex.”

Dennis Bowman, meteorologist for KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, said the season finished with 63.4 inches of snow, which is 22 inches above normal.

“Most of the snow accumulation was to the tune of 1-3 inch jobs. Snow fell on a total of 85 days during the winter, which contributed to the misery people experienced,” Bowman said.

Because of University policy, students have become accustomed to braving freezing cold temperatures and making their way to campus from all directions.

Pitt’s Policy on Extreme Weather Conditions, last updated in 2002, states, “Only by authorization of the Chancellor shall the University be officially closed.”

Because of the services Pitt provides, the school remains open in “all but the most extreme circumstances.” These include food services like dining halls and kiosks.

The University last closed during a blizzard in 2007, according to University spokesperson John Fedele. “For the most part, we hear very few complaints about non-cancellation,” Fedele said in an email. “Most of our students are adults and are aware that their jobs, etc., won’t close down for most inclement

weather either once they’ve graduated.”

Last year’s polar vortex, however, was not the worst storm season Pittsburgh has endured in recent years.

According to Bowman, who has worked in Pittsburgh since 1984, the “Snowmageddon” storm of 2010, which brought more than 20 inches of snow, “shut down the entire area and sent us

munications.

Service said Gallagher, facing his first winter in his new position, could not “second guess decisions that were made by others a year ago about conditions and circumstances of which he has no direct knowledge.”

Mike Gable, president of the City of Pittsburgh Department of Public

Aby Griner | Staff Illustrator

galloping to a season total of 77.4 inches — third place on the all-time list for snow in Pittsburgh.”

During this storm, Allegheny County declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard was sent to help with the overwhelming amounts of snow blanketing western Pennsylvania. Point Park University and Carnegie Mellon were both closed for three days, while Pitt canceled only Saturday classes.

It’s unlikely that Chancellor Gallagher will break precedent, according to Ken Service, vice chancellor for com-

Works, said it takes an organized effort to keep the streets safe during extreme weather conditions. For instance, last year’s storms demanded an “additional 20,000 tons of material to salt the roads,” he said.

Fedele said the vast majority of Pitt’s students live either on campus or in close proximity to campus.

“It is only under the worst conditions that classes get canceled,” Fedele said.

But there’s good news for students at Pitt not looking forward to spending another winter frozen to the sidewalks.

Bowman predicts that due to the presence of a weak El Niño in the Pacific Basin, this winter will be “slightly above average on temperature and slightly below average on snowfall.”

Regardless, the Department of Public Works is ready to handle whatever Mother Nature brings — there is an ample amount of materials at the ready, with domes filled to capacity with salt, and a full staff working around the clock.

“It’s just a matter of flicking the switch,” Gable said. “We can’t time the storm. Everyone expects immediacy, but it’s just about getting that window of opportunity.”

For the University, cancellations result from similar spontaneity.

“There are so many variables when it comes to weather that it is really not possible to address hypothetical weather situations in advance,” Service said.

Even though 18,256 Pitt undergrads are from Pennsylvania, according to the University’s 2014 fact book, some are not used to cold winters.

“I’m not used to layering all of my clothes and feeling like the Michelin Man, but it’s the only way I can keep warm,” freshman Adelle Hamilton, a California native, said.

To prepare for another northeast winter, then, commuter students — who may have the most difficult time getting to and from campus in the snow — should make sure they have snow tires and are “making good decisions and taking the most well-traveled roads,” Gable said.

According to Ross, who said she was accustomed to harsh conditions, a pair of leggings or thermal wear under every outfit, sturdy boots and ear warmers are must-haves while making the frigid trek to campus.

While Hamilton will begrudge the white stuff on class days, she still plans to let her hair down under her ski cap for a bit of winter fun.

“I would love to take advantage of the snow by snowboarding,” Hamilton said. “I absolutely love it even though I’m not the greatest at it. I would even love to try sledding as it is something that I have never done before.”

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Pop Culture Resolutions Almost everybody wants to hit the gym, shave off the beer belly or eat healthier in the new year — but some of us realize those goals are too well-worn and cliched to pan out. So instead, why not pledge for more sedentary goals, like tearing through an acclaimed TV series, tackling a new genre of music or finishing more books?

Here are our some of the staff ’s pop culture resolutions to sketch a roadmap for our media (and food) consumption in 2015.

Evan Malachosky My pop culture resolution is to see more concerts in Pittsburgh. Although The Altar Bar, The Smiling Moose, Stage AE and Heinz Field are minutes away from campus, I didn’t see any shows this first semester. Tickets can be expensive.

It’s tough to fork out $25 or more every time an artist I like comes to town, but with artists like Misterwives, Badboxes, PARTYNEXTDOOR and Milky Chance coming to town, I need to empty my wallet for a few.

Dan Willis I want to listen to and read more about Cuban, Cuban-American and Afro-Cuban musical traditions. Most of the Latin influences in our collective American musical vocabulary orginate from Cuba. This makes Cuban music a good entry point to learn more about the Spanish-speaking world and to discover new artists from South and Central America, Africa and the Caribbean.

Basically, I want to expand my knowledge beyond Miami, Sound Machine and Pitbull.

Shawn Cooke I have several quantifiable resolutions for the new year — watching every Tom Cruise movie, finishing up Joni Mitchell’s huge discography and finally getting past the first season of “The Sopranos” — but my main goal requires a bit more self-discipline. In 2015, I pledge to scrap the phrase “supposed to be good” and any of its sister phrases from my critical conversations (used in a sentence: “’The Godfather Part III’ is supposed to be bad.”). It’s lazy language that indicates two things: 1. I haven’t seen, heard or read a work. 2. I generally trust the critical consensus.

First of all, nobody has the authority to assess the quality of something they haven’t seen. And last year, I strayed from the consensus on many of the most acclaimed movies and albums. So, in short, my resolution is to actually watch movies like “The Godfather Part III” and “Battlefield Earth” before shredding them.

Stephanie Roman I started a project in October where I vowed to watch every Tim Burton film over the course of a month. This didn’t really happen, and I only managed to view about half of the movies I set out to see. Then, I extended the deadline to Dec. 25, when Burton’s “Big Eyes” hit the screen, and I didn’t make that deadline either. I’ll give myself until October 2015 to watch the last 10 movies plus “Big Eyes,” and then I’ll consider this resolution successful — finally.

Giulia Schaub As a Pittsburgh native, I’m no stranger to its classic cuisine — in fact, my upbringing takes the blame for my bias towards Primanti’s over any other sandwich place and my intolerance for ketchup without a Heinz label. However, as much as I love dining in the famous Pittsburgh places, I was born a picky eater and can’t bring myself to order anything other than my usual or something very similar to eat.

So, this year, my resolution is order something I’ve never had before every time I attend my favorite places, in hopes of diminishing my selective eating habits.

Jack Trainor I don’t watch a lot of television these days outside of acclaimed fare like “The Walking Dead,” “Game of Thrones,” “Louie” and “True Detective.” I pretty much have a show to watch every season, but none, except for maybe “True Detective,” has me counting down the days until the next episode. I haven’t tackled other prestigious shows like “Mad Men” or “Orange Is The New Black,” and I don’t plan on doing so. It’s exhausting to keep up with a show during your college days, especially when you have to dodge spoilers from all angles — my brother unknowingly spoiled the latest “Walking Dead” midseason finale just by texting me a character’s name.

No, my 2015 will be spoiler and stress-free by revisiting old faithfuls like “Lost” and probably “Breaking Bad” — two shows whose finales, if spoiled, potentially caused catastrophic freak-outs when they were airing. It’ll be so nice to return to shows whose twists and turns are dated enough to be common knowledge yet, after some time after their conclusions, still come as surprising.

Ian Flanagan As I brave into the second half of the second decade of the second millenium, I hope to fulfill the following pop culture resolutions: start and finish “The Wire,” continue to chip away at Woody Allen’s extensive filmography (hopefully reaching halfway by the end of 2015), get into Björk, Aphex Twin and ol’ David Bowie and, lastly, to finish any novel I begin — the first candidate being Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.”

Britnee Meiser To make myself a more well-rounded pop culture junkie and a better writer, I vow to watch more comedy/dramedy shows this year. I’m an avid “Girls” viewer, and I dabble in episodes of “Modern Family” and “Saturday Night Live,” but I know there’s so much comedic gold I’m missing out on. I’ve previously pushed it aside for dramas that I’ve dubbed as more deserving of my time. Now, “Veep,” “Louie” and “Parks and Recreation,” look out — I’m coming for you. I also want to be more open-minded when it comes to the films I watch. I no longer want to shy away from something just because it involves a lot of guns or Taylor Swift.

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Pitt students opt for lockup in Escape Room PGH Dale Shoemaker Assistant News Editor First, Joe Deasy locked us in a jail cell.

It was a small cell set inside a larger room that had a metal desk and an electric chair. The cell was only big enough for one convict, but there were four of us locked inside. Then, Joe told us to place our hands through the bars so he could handcuff us. We did. He cuffed our hands, hung the keys on a hook just outside of the cell and locked the door of the outer room behind him, trapping us, our blood thick with excitement.

Joe, our jailer, is co-owner of Escape Room Pittsburgh in Greenfield. He locked us up in what he calls an “escape room.” To him, it’s a game.

The four of us glanced at one another and exchanged looks that were both nervous and ecstatic. Then we got to work.

The concept is simple. Joe locks his patrons in one of the two rooms of Escape Room Pittsburgh, either the Prison Escape room or Dr. Stein’s Laboratory, and gives them one hour to solve their way to freedom.

Last month, Joe offered The Pitt News the opportunity to get locked up in the Prison Escape room. Ben Wahlberg, Carlisle Walker and Connor Medgaus, all seniors at Pitt, were also locked up and

Five prisoners begin their jail cell breakout as part of Escape Room PGH’s main attraction . | Photo courtesy of Escape Room PGH.

contributed to our attempt. Joe asked that the answers to the puzzles not be disclosed, and The Pitt News has chosen to comply with his request. Erring towards vagueness, then, our basic process was simple: get out of the handcuffs, escape the jail cell, then figure out the code to unlock the main door. In short, the final code stumped us, and we failed to escape

in the hour allotted.

“Don’t feel bad,” he said. He added that only about 30 percent of people escape. We did feel bad, though, because we had done so well until the door code puzzle; it had only taken us 15 minutes to unlock our handcuffs and get out of the jail cell.

Though the Escape Room hasn’t officially opened and is still in test mode, Joe and his co-founder and cousin, Corey Deasy, have been accepting bookings for the past few weeks. “ Technically,” Joe said, “we’re still in test group mode.”

Even still, the Deasy cousins are on the bleeding edge of attraction and live entertainment in the United States. Joe got the idea for an escape room when he was in Budapest visiting family in 2012, not long after Escape Room PGH’s building is located in Greenfield. Dale Shoemaker | Assistant News Editor he had graduated

from Duquesne University. He saw his first escape room there and fell in love with the concept, he said.

After he returned to the United States, he called Corey and pitched the idea of opening their own escape room.

“I called my business partner — my cousin Corey — and said, ‘We’ve got to open one up, I think we’re on to something,’” Joe said.

Corey, too, saw the possibilities of an escape room. “[It seemed like] this could be the next big thing,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in the next cool thing to do.”

The Deasys’ escape room is located at 569 Greenfield Ave., on the opposite side of Schenley Park from Oakland. Both Deasys grew up nearby in the Greenfield neighborhood. Corey, who graduated from California University of Pennsylvania in 2012, currently designs political advertisements for Comcast Spotlight. In his free time over the last eight months, he and Joe built the escape room from scratch. Though the Deasy family already owned the storefront, their project has still incurred a significant enough invest-

Escape Room

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ESCAPE ROOM ment. Neither Joe nor Corey felt comfortable quoting a figure on the escape room installation costs.

According to Tripadvisor.com, there are only 88 escape rooms in the world — most of them in Europe and China.

The idea for escape rooms originated in Japan in 2007 — Takao Kato opened the first one, according to a CNBC article published in June. By 2012, the idea had spread across China to the United States.

Escape Room Pittsburgh is only one of two such attractions in the state. The other escape room is in Philadelphia.

Most escape rooms are similar, Joe said, though the themes of each room can vary. “[The escape room in Budapest] was kinda spooky,” Joe said. “It was a similar concept, you had 60 minutes to escape.”

He said that room in Budapest was his inspiration.

“We took some ideas from that, then totally spun them in our own direction,” he said. “We did everything from scratch.

There are no blueprints for how to do this stuff. We completely prototyped everything and made it all ourselves.”

This aggressive do-it-yourself-ness peaked when the Deasys had to design unique themes for their rooms. To do this, Joe said, he started with the specific props, like the electric chair in the jail cell, that he wanted in each room.

“It’s a lot like working backwards,” he said.

The jail cell room is based off of the true story of Jack and Ed Biddle. In 1901, the story goes, the two brothers — rumored members of the Chloroform Gang — were arrested for robbery and murder, and they were sentenced to death by hanging. According to the Heinz History Center, while locked up in the Allegheny County prison, waiting to die, the brothers were visited by the warden’s wife, Kate Dietrich Soffel. While ministering to them, Soffel became enamored with Ed Biddle and started smuggling in tools the brothers could use to escape. On Jan. 30, 1902, in one last flourish of life, the Biddles, along with Soffel, escaped the prison. In the Deasys’ escape room, players take the Biddles’ place — except for

their fatal shootout with police three days after their escape and Soffel’s consequent arrest and sentencing.

“We wanted to give each game a storyline,” Corey said. “It felt right to me, to give it a Pittsburgh feel.”

The genius of the Escape Room, though, is its lack of traditional marketing. For example, Bradley Fest, a visiting lecturer at Pitt, heard about the Escape Room through the grapevine. He and a group of seven others later visited and escaped Dr. Stein’s lab with time to spare.

“I heard about The Escape Room from a relatively new friend who recently moved to town and is pretty nerdy and very into games, and he heard about The Escape Room from someone at his job,” Fest said.

Through word of mouth and social media like Twitter, news of the Escape Room is spreading quickly. Already, the Escape Room is receiving bookings up to two months in advance, and sales are better than expected, Corey said.

“The way this business is designed,

9 it’s like something to talk about.” Joe said.

Then, addressing our group directly, “Like, you guys are going to talk about this for the next couple days.”

“Duh!” Wahlberg, a psychology major, said.

Medgaus agreed that the Escape Room was good fodder for word of mouth advertising.“It’s got really good word of mouth,” he said.

“So that’s just it,” Joe said. “It’s viral.

We’re going to ride this as long as we can.”

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Shortened rotation contributes to Pittʼs first ACC loss Jasper Wilson Senior Staff Writer All season, the rotation for the Pitt men’s basketball team has featured fewer contributions than expected.

Multiple factors contributed to the lineup shrinkage. First came Cameron Wright’s broken foot in September on the eve of the start of practice, which sidelined him until December. Durand Johnson’s season-long suspension, announced right before the season opener vs. Niagara in November, followed.

Since then, various other ailments have kept the team from having all 13 scholarship players available at once. The most recent casualty is freshman Cameron Johnson, who is dealing with a shoulder injury. He hasn’t played since Dec. 5, missing six games.

Subtract junior transfer Tyrone Haughton, who hasn’t played a minute this season, as he is still mastering head coach Jamie Dixon’s schemes, as well, and what’s

left at present is 10 capable components.

“It’s just the situation we’re at,” Dixon said.

Against the NC State Wolfpack, the list became nine with big man Joseph Uchebo not seeing the floor.

All of which is to say that the need has increased for those few reserve players who can actually get court time to bolster the team’s performance as substitutes.

But, on Saturday, they offered little support when much was needed, as Pitt suffered a drubbing from NC State, losing 68-50 to begin conference play.

“This is one of those games where we didn’t play to our capabilities and we’re extremely disappointed in that,” Dixon said.

Heather Tennant | W h i l e Staff Photographer

the entire offense struggled in the game, the bench’s inability to do something positive meant there was no infusion of energy with which to build toward a comeback.

NC State didn’t have that problem, scoring 20 bench points to Pitt’s seven, which led the Wolfpack’s coach Mark Gottfried to praise those players postgame.

“Our bench helped us today,” Gottfried said.

The performance gap between the two teams’ backups was evident early and often, perhaps best summed up in a sequence from the first half. On his first play of the game after checking in, Lennard Freeman, one of the Wolfpack’s first two substitutions, lost Pitt defender Ryan Luther, also playing his first minutes of the game, for a layup.

Right afterward, Josh Newkirk dribbled the ball off the foot of teammate Chris

Jones, resulting in a turnover that NC State turned into a converted and-one opportunity, as Newkirk reached in to commit the needless foul.

Just like that, Pitt’s only lead of the game evaporated in a span of 20 seconds due to errors by substitutes.

Playing in his hometown of Raleigh, Newkirk had one of his worst games of the season, shooting 1-7 from the field, turning the ball over a game-high three times and scoring just four points in 21 minutes of play. He averaged 7.8 points coming into the contest.

As a unit, the four bench players grabbed just four rebounds, dished two assists and collected two steals in 50 minutes.

“We were up and down with our energy,” Young said. “I feel like in the first half we had great energy. We were kind of frustrated on offense, and it took away from our defense. But I felt, like I said, in

M Hoops

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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THE TALBERT REPORT

The seven wonders of winter

Eli Talbert Columnist While school has just started back up again, we are already well into the middle of winter.

The magic of Christmas is over, but here are some great, never-before-seen reasons to appreciate winter at Pitt.

You no longer have any desire to go outside. One of the worst things in life is looking outside and seeing a beautiful day, while you are forced to attend class in a windowless basement of the Cathedral. With the magical combination of rain and snow that is Pittsburgh’s winter weather, the urge to venture outside will no longer be a problem.

You will appreciate Pitt’s dedication to academics. There is nothing better than knowing that your university is truly dedicated to your education. One of the ways Pitt demonstrates this, besides continually increasing tuition, is steadfastly refusing to cancel classes even in the midst of extreme weather conditions like last year’s polar vor-

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tex. For example, Jan. 7, 2013, saw a record low for that day at -9 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to closures of schools and government offices across Western Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, Pitt steadfastly carried on. In fact, the University did not close at all last winter, and, according to its extreme weather policy, it never has to. Other Universities might cancel classes because of the cold or snow, but Pitt has your education at heart.

You will get more out of your tuition dollars — and those extra fees. With Pittsburgh’s average January temperature hovering around 26 degrees, walking around Oakland will get a lot more torturous. This means that your free Port Authority bus pass will become more useful, and, thus, you will be receiving more value for tuition. Winter makes it socially acceptable to ride a bus for three blocks, and, with each bus ride, you get more out of your tuition.

You see snow. What is more amazing than frozen water falling out of the sky? For one, free ice cream, but as long as

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there is snow in Pittsburgh, you can still deny global warming is happening. This prevents oil companies from going bankrupt, driving the economy. Snow might be uncomfortable when it falls on you, and it can make driving a challenge, but you have to remember that as long as you see snow, Democrats can’t ruin the economy with carbon caps and environmental regulations.

You have a great conversational topic to bond over. There aren’t many topics that you can bring up with strangers besides the weather. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work out too well when the weather is perfectly pleasant, and you descend into awkward silence once you banter about the sunny skies.

During the winter, however, you can complain for hours about the abundance of snow, sleet and mud that accumulates on Pittsburgh’s streets. Nothing is better for bonding than complaining about things like how your heater barely works, the traffic caused by a snowstorm or how the Cathedral is ridiculously hot.

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You can ice skate. Perhaps the only outdoor activity available in a city in the winter is ice skating, and what sounds more fun than potentially falling on your face multiple times? Balancing metal blades on frozen water might seem like a disaster waiting to happen, but I hear that people insist it’s enjoyable. Winter is the only time when you can experience this thrill outside and, as an added bonus, also check a dating cliché off your list.

You can enjoy reading lists struggling to defend winter. Inevitably, one of your friends will post an article, probably from BuzzFeed, explaining why winter isn’t all bad. This will provide you with a small amount of entertainment as you huddle beneath a blanket for warmth. Only in winter do you get to read a piece trying to put a positive spin on a season with a defining characteristic of misery while outside.

Eli Talbert writes a biweekly satirical column for The Pitt News.

Write to Eli at ejt26@pitt.edu.

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Fatima Kizilkaya | Staff Cartoonist

A s l ’ l Fol t A ’ N k The Second City brings a Pittsburgh-specific

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Although they hail from Chicago, the improv troupe The Second City visits Pittsburgh with a show exclusively for and about the city’s residents.

The critically acclaimed ensemble will perform its original show “N’At’s All Folks!” six times at Pittsburgh Public Theater’s O’Reilly Theater from Jan. 6 through Jan. 10 in Downtown Pittsburgh. Since the show is a new creation, and the group will improvise certain sections, there should be many surprises for audiences . It will largely be both a celebration and satire of Pittsburgh culture. The Second City is the country’s first ongoing comedy troupe. Since 1959 it has been training and launching countless nowfamous alumni, including Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey and Bill Murray.

“I think people should leave the show feeling proud to be from Pittsburgh,” John Thibodeaux, one of six performers in “N’At’s All Folks!,” said.

The cast promises that no two shows will be exactly alike, making

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Ian Flanagan Staff Writer

any performance an exclusive experience. The production — split into two 45-minute acts — will be comprised of some classic Second City scenes from their archive, audience-inspired improv and Pittsburgh-focused topics, such as sports rivalries and politics.

Lisa Beasley, a seasoned member of Second City, also teases that the cast

has been studying up on their Pittsburgh accents.

The Pittsburgh Public Theater, after being impressed by an original show back in 2008, invited Second City to look back at the best of the troupe’s more than 50 years in the funny business and more recent Pittsburgh happenings.

According to Nate DuFort, the producing director of Second City’s touring companies, Second City has experience in putting together these customized, city-centric shows. Pittsburgh is a part of the countrywide tour of similar shows entitled “Second City Hits Home.”

“The coolest part is that whatever show you come to, that’s going to be the only show like that,” Beasley said.

For Beasley, improv comedy proved more rewarding than her time in traditional theater.

“When I was doing scripted theater, I loved it, but I was just that one character for six weeks. In one show [with Second City], I could be six characters in 10 minutes,” Beasley said.

Another performer, Alan Linic, acknowledged the combination of individual and group work with Second City.

Improv

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 16

IMPROV “There’s a lot that must be done on one’s own – learning lines, finding humor or where to add little personal touches, studying archive videos,” Linic said. “But there’s just as much that is discovered through [the] rehearsal process ... there are a lot of moving parts and lines and blocking and songs to memorize.”

Although Second City bases one of its major training facilities out of Chicago, it travels and performs more than 400 shows a year both domestically and internationally. Both Thibodeaux and Linic went through Chicago’s conservatory program, developing lasting relationships as well as sharper improvisational skills.

“It’s just nice to be in an environment where there are so many likeminded people around,” Thibodeaux said. He remains friends with many of his classmates from his yearlong program at the training center.

Steven Boyd, Editor-in-Chief of The Pittiful News, a monthly satire paper at Pitt, went through Second City’s month-long intensive improv program — taught in part by Stephen Colbert’s former roommate — in Chicago in 2013.

“The Chicago scene is very much rooted in just developing the raw talent for being onstage,” Boyd said.

Boyd said part of the skill of improv learning is “how to progress a storyline without having any rules.”

All three Second City performers said nearly the same thing about the challenges of improv — it’s all about intuition and “getting out of your head,” as Beasley put it. Overthinking devastates improv, Beasley said, and the simple task of walking can become a gargantuan feat.

“If someone asks you to ‘walk normally,’ it’s almost impossible to do it.

There’s just so much going on – where to put your legs, what your arms are doing, how much breathing is too much, the pace. Improv, likewise, is easiest when you just do it,” Linic said.

The cast, despite the particular challenges of their unusual work,

finds inspiration in the many great talents that have preceded them.

Linic and Thibodeaux still find it hard to believe that they’re doing what their heroes did.

“Every once in a while you have to stop and look around and realize how lucky you are,” Thibodeaux said. He grew up loving Saturday Night Live and became interested in Second City once he realized where his favorite performers were coming from.

For the indifferent and unmoved in

the Pittsburgh scene, Thibodeaux said those who see the show will receive “a renewed sense of community.”

Beasley is equally optimistic about the show’s reception.

“It’s an experience. I’m trying to think of another way to say extremely fun, but that is a statement in itself ... and it’s good to just laugh,” Beasley said, urging yinzers to “start off the New Year doing something different and just having some fun.”

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Immigration reform: Forever stuck in limbo

Bethel Habte Columnist Imagine this: In a land of 316.1 million Americans, you are one of 12 million undocumented immigrants. Why you came here, only you know. Maybe there’s another life to which you can return. Maybe this is the only life you know. You live in the shadows of American ideals, but you’re hopeful. Things will change, they say. They never really do, but you wait anyway. Maybe, one day, you will no longer live in limbo.

Likewise, many American supporters wait with you. Together, in limbo, we wait for progress on immigration reform.

On Nov. 20, 2014, President Obama delivered an address detailing an executive order for a new immigration policy.

Some of the initiatives introduced were reminiscent of policies that gained broad support in Congress when immigration reform first became a priority: increased

border security, ease of entry for highly skilled workers and deportations focused on criminals and national threats.

Congress has faltered with uniform support for past initiatives, leading instead to stagnant polarization.

Through his executive order, Obama introduced a program that would defer deportation of illegal immigrants who have resided in the country for at least five years, as well as those who have children who are citizens or permanent residents. He also expanded on his DACA program. DACA was the result of an executive order in 2012 that deferred deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. It also ex-

tended eligibility to arrival prior to January 2010, increased the deferral period to 3 years and eliminated age restrictions.

None of the reforms introduced through Obama’s executive order offer a path to citizenship or full access to legal benefits. Deferral from deportation would last 3 years and can be renewed. Immigrants would be provided with Social Security cards, which would grant them legal work status, but they would not be eligible for health care under the Affordable Care Act. In other words, Obama’s immigration policy offers limbo.

Obama’s policy is a far cry from what we need to achieve in terms of long-term

“Congress has faltered with uniform support for past initiatives, leading instead to stagnant polarization.”

reform, but it does serve to tide us over until that kind of reform can be achieved.

For reference, the “common sense law” that he referred to in his speech is a bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate about a year ago. That bill effectively died in the House, as Republicans stubbornly refused to consider it or allow it a vote.

Indeed, the congressional response that has followed Obama’s executive order has been anything but interested in working collectively towards long-term reform.

In response to Obama’s speech, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, “By ignoring the will of the American people, President Obama has cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left.”

Boehner’s statement is more dramatic than accurate. Obama’s executive order is certainly legal. His immigration policy is

Habte

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T P N S U D O K U

The Pitt News Crossword, 1/5/2015

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

ACROSS 1 One is featured in the 1962 Ventures instrumental “The 2,000 Pound Bee” 11 Bass output 15 He played the bandit Calvera in “The Magnificent Seven” 16 __ Maar, mistress of Picasso 17 Qualified for 18 “The Enemy Below” setting, briefly 19 Zap 20 Kid’s cry 21 Overpower with noise 23 Airline created by an Act of Parliament 25 Take away 26 “The Love Machine” author 29 Place to stretch 30 In abeyance 31 “Michael” coscreenwriter Ephron 32 Expected 33 Tie 34 “Hot House” Grammy-winning pianist 35 Philadelphia tourist attraction 36 DJIA part: Abbr.

37 Massenet opera 38 Heraklion’s island 39 Chimney repair job 41 14-Down, for one 42 Some property safeguards 43 “Alice in Wonderland” bird 44 They may be frozen or liquid 45 Ideal figure 46 School with the mascot Big Al 50 Quill parts 51 Food chain group

1/17/15

By Barry C. Silk

54 Greek letters 55 Gourmands 56 Erato’s instrument 57 South side DOWN Sense Radius neighbor Unpopular spots Literally, “twicebaked” 5 Rod 6 “Tracey Takes On” author 7 Intestinal 8 Cry of achievement 9 Routine 10 Botswana neighbor, formerly 11 Some October campaigns 12 Fare reduction option 13 Sandusky locale 14 Keys holder in a Rubens portrait 22 Singer James 24 Person 25 Strikes out 26 Power source

Friday’s Puzzle Solved

1 2 3 4

©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

27 Brown, e.g.

28 Business where lines are short?

29 Equip anew 31 Pain relief pill brand 34 Greenside stroke 35 1983 Styx hit that begins in Japanese 37 Flanged fastener 38 Rogue

1/17/15

40 Existing: Lat. 41 Francs and beans?

43 Winger of “Black Widow” 45 Cretaceous giant 47 Stretch 48 Seas overseas 49 Part of PDA: Abbr.

52 Certain threshold 53 Brewery sight

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Retiree Roundup: Pitt seeks new University leaders Emily Ahlin Staff Writer As the University community begins a new year and Patrick Gallgher starts his second semester as Chancellor, some of Pitt’s senior leaders will start new stages of their lives.

Rush Miller, director of the University Library System, and Jerome Cochran, executive vice chancellor, announced last year that they would retire, effective Dec. 31, 2014. John Delaney, dean of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and the College of Business Administration, also announced on Sep. 11, 2014, that he will step down from his position as dean and return to the faculty of both schools as soon as a replacement is found. According to the press release, a search committee should name Delaney’s replacement by next spring.

According to Doug Lederman, editor of Inside Higher Ed — a website that provides opinions, news and job information for people involved in higher education — changes in senior leadership at universities, in general, are common when a new chancellor is hired.

“How fast [changes occur] varies from place to place,” Lederman said in a phone interview. He said the speed of changes can also be affected by whether replacements are coming from outside or inside the university.

Lederman said a “total change of direction” is unusual and that continuity is more common, but change can be beneficial.

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“‘Fresh blood’ is good for an institution,” Lederman said. “People get tired, lose zeal.”

One reason for changes in senior leadership, Lederman said, is to complement a chancellor’s new priorities, if applicable.

Lederman said new positions and job titles can often show what kind of direction the university will move in.

that he hopes to utilize those relationships to ease the financial burden on students by partnering up with other agencies and universities.

However, Lederman said it might be too early to say that Pitt is changing its entire senior leadership. He suggested “wait[ing] a few months,” then looking to see who else might’ve retired or stepped down.

“Fresh blood is good for an institution...People get tired, lose zeal.”

Doug Lederman “Do all jobs stay the same?” Lederman said, adding that job positions can also reflect generational and social changes. . “Is there a diversity officer where there wasn’t before?”

With Chancellor Gallagher, who was appointed by the Board of Trustees on Aug. 1, that direction looks to create stronger community ties.

Chancellor Gallagher told The Pitt News in August that his priorities include strengthening Pitt’s relationships with outside agencies, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Carnegie Mellon University, private business, Pittsburgh’s city government and both the state and federal government. He told The Pitt News in October

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Lederman said we “can’t assume conflict or disagreement.”

Miller, Delaney and Cochran all said they were retiring for reasons unrelated to Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg’s retirement, effective Aug. 1. Both Miller and Delaney’s positions are going to be filled based on the results of two separate search committees.

According to Oct. 7 meeting minutes of the Faculty Assembly of the University Senate, Sheila Corrall of Pitt’s School of Information Sciences, Mark Lynn Anderson of Pitt’s Department of English and Andrew Strathern of Pitt’s Department of Anthropology were the elected members of the search committee to find Miller’s replacement.

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Per the University Senate’s “Guidelines for Search Committees for Senior Academic Administrators,” Corrall, Anderson and Strathern were elected by a nominating committee selected by the president of the University Senate.

The guidelines also state half of the committee must consist of ULS librarians, one person of the Staff Association Council, one graduate student from Pitt’s Oakland campus, an undergraduate from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and an undergraduate from the College of General Studies, appointed by their respective governing bodies.

The guidelines say “if necessary” there could be 15 or more total members of Miller’s committee. Committees in general have seven to 12 members, unless the committee is searching for a provost, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences or director of the University Library System.

The search committee to replace Delaney began open forums on Nov. 18, 2014.

Cochran’s replacement, temporarily, is Art Ramicone, who is currently the University’s chief financial officer, according to the October 2014 release.

Ramicone’s title will be interim executive vice chancellor.

Fedele said the posts of executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer are similar.

“They are both senior administrative positions dealing with business and finance, and supervise professionals

Retirement

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 18

FROM PAGE 10

HABTE M HOOPS most closely tied to the right of deferred action granted by the Immigration and Nationality Act. The INA is based on the idea of prosecutorial discretion, in which prosecutors can choose how to allocate prosecutorial resources, as well as the priority placed on criminal cases.

Additionally, Obama is certainly not the first president to take broad executive actions on immigration. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush made similar executive orders in relation to past immigration policies.

Regardless, it’s beginning to appear to me that Republicans have missed the most important part of Obama’s address. The most significant statement uttered that night was not Obama’s decision to act unilaterally, but, rather, this revelation: “And let’s be honest — tracking down, rounding up and deporting millions of people isn’t realistic. Anyone who suggests otherwise isn’t being straight with you. It’s also not who we are as Americans.”

Deportation alone will not fix our immigration system.

Yet deportation seems to be the extent of any, if existent, immigration reform plan supported by many Republicans, though they’ve certainly had a great deal to say about those proposed by others.

In a column I wrote for the Fall Welcome Back Edition, I mentioned that our current immigration system was wasting valuable immigrant resources by focusing reform solely on the ideal of legality and over-prioritizing deportation.

I ended the column by stating that I believed the focus of immigration reform should be on expanding legal pathways into our country, as well as working to legalize those who are already here. I still believe that a path to legal citizenship is the best option for long-term immigration reform.

But it can’t be achieved in limbo.

Bethel primarily writes about social issues and current events for The Pitt News.

Write to Bethel at beh56@pitt.edu.

the locker room at halftime, I felt like we had good energy. We were playing upbeat and with a good tempo.”

Young said the team just had to “start making shots.”

“That would get us going,” he said.

“In the second half, our offense still lagged and still wasn’t able to make shots, [and we] got more frustrated.”

“It just took off from there,” he added.

Pitt’s record in its three games against schools ranked in the top 100 of the Ratings Percentage Index is 0-3. RPI factors in a team’s winning percentage, their opponents’ winning percentages and their opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. NC State was ranked 78th in RPI before beating Pitt.

In the next two months, Pitt has 10 games against top-100 teams. If the Panthers can’t start getting meaning-

23 ful contributions from players at the bottom of the depth chart, that record will only worsen.

They next play on Tuesday night at Boston College with tipoff scheduled for 9 p.m.

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City of Asylum: Writers take refuge in Pittsburgh Kathy Zhao Staff Writer Four years ago, a weak Israel Centeno, recovering from Dengue fever, presented his novel “Bajo las hojas,” or “Under the Leaves,” in his native country of Venezuela. One week later, he left his wife, children and home after boarding a flight to Houston, looking out the plane window only to see his country shrouded in darkness on a moonless night.

“I only can see a shadow,” said Centeno, an exiled writer in residence at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, while recounting the flight to the United States. “[A]n enormous shadow sketched in the darkness as my country, maybe the future.”

Centeno has resided since 2011 at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh in the

Northside. He was forced to leave Caracas, Venezuela, after he wrote “El Complot,” or “The Conspiracy,” which is a fictional work about the attempted assassination of then-President Hugo Chavez. Chavez and his militia groups threatened Centeno after the novel’s publication.

The Pittsburgh location is a local branch of an organization inspired by Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie sought refuge after his novel’s publication resulted in the Supreme Leader of Iran called for his death with a fatwa, or a juristissued legal interpretation on issues related to Islamic law, in 1989.

Since then, the Cities of Asylum network has grown to include a large number of government-run branches in Europe, plus two other U.S. branches in Las Vegas, Nev. and Ithaca, N.Y. City of Asylum’s foremost mission is to “provide sanctu-

ary for exiled writers,” according to marketing manager Nick Courage. The Pittsburgh branch opened 10 years ago.

Since then, the organization, located on Sampsonia Way, has hosted five writers who were threatened or endangered because of works they published in their native countries.

Centeno is one of two current longterm writers in residence — the other is Iranian Yaghoub Yadali, the newest exiled writer in residence.

Centeno was an opinions writer at two newspapers and vice president of the Venezuelan Pen Club, through which he regularly criticized former President Hugo Chavez. He wasn’t personally threatened for his writing, however, until “El Complot.”

Centeno heard about City of Asylum from a friend while in Barcelona, Spain. The friend,

who is also a writer and publisher, connected him with the Pittsburgh branch.

“The process at the beginning was hard,” Centeno said of leaving his home country. “My first concern was bringing my two daughters and my wife to Pittsburgh.”

After a few years, he was granted permanent resident status as an “alien of extraordinary ability,” he said, and could finally reunite with his family.

The transition is still difficult for Centeno. He and his wife have struggled to learn English and are currently searching for work in Pittsburgh or along the East Coast.

Asylum

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh features “House Publications,” including “House Poems” by exiled writer Huang Xiang . Colin van ’t Veld | Staff Photographer

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 28

ASYLUM “I left my country because I would like [to] continue my career as a writer and I am still trying to figure out how,” Centeno said.

Aside from providing a safe haven for international writers, City of Asylum/ Pittsburgh offers other programming, such as creative placemaking, like the series of “House Publications” that line Sampsonia Way. “House Publications” are a collection of four townhouses the facades of which have been used as canvases for not only writing, but also painting, wood-carving and mosaic.

The first in the series is “House Poems,” created by long-term exiled writer Huang Xiang from China.

Xiang was imprisoned and tortured for his poetry. When he arrived in Pittsburgh, he “wanted to write his poems everywhere,” Courage said. “Everywhere” included the exterior of the house that Huang was living in, and continued to live in for almost three years.

The other three houses in the series are the “Jazz House,” “Pittsburgh-Burma House” and “Winged House.”

Monique Briones said she and her friend once stumbled upon the block while they were looking for the Mattress Factory, a contemporary art museum also located in North Side.

“We saw the exterior of the Winged House,” said Briones, a senior English writing and economics major. “The rest of the block was also wonderful to look at because each house has its own unique mural, and they reflect the history and culture of the country that the artist who lives there has been exiled from.”

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh also regularly hosts salon readings by local and visiting authors. In the past, the organization has held events like a Cuban hip-hop show with translated lyric pamphlets for audience members to follow along, as well as a collaboration with the Andy Warhol Museum to make print-screened T-shirts and tote bags.

Although she’s seen advertising from Pitt’s theatre arts department for City of Asylum events, Briones said, she

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hasn’t yet gotten the opportunity to attend one.

“It’s definitely piqued my interest knowing that Pittsburgh houses these sort of artists,” Briones said.

The programming efforts will increase in 2015, Courage said, and he encourages students to come to the events.

“Our events are legitimately really fun and interesting, and there’s food and drink, so it’s a free night out,” Courage said. “It’s not like ‘eat your Wheaties.’ Come to a cultural event.”

Murals line the walls of the City of Asylum house. Colin can ‘t Veld | Staff Photographer

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

COLUMN

Viewing life unequally: Every death is a shame

Stephen Caruso Columnist Any death is a shame.

However, this simple truth is seemingly hard to accept, as evidenced by the events of the past few months. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu dominate the news. Media personalities have passed the blame around until it has no meaning, other than political grandstanding.

Liberals argue that institutional racism killed Brown and Garner and inspires the occasional tragedy like the murders of Officers Ramos and Liu in New York City on Dec. 20th. Conservatives push back that the former deaths are exceptions blown out of proportion, leading to the latter, and the media becomes a willing partner to a cycle of argumentation that won’t change any minds.

These points can be argued ad nauseum, but no one is correct. The focus should be on police reporting and media sensationalism, the real culprits. Use only one of those sources

and your conclusion on race and policing in America will be radically different.

Police shootings are not recorded consistently. No law requires the reporting of shootings by law enforcement officials. Instead, shootings are self-reported by individual departments to other databases, such as the FBI or the CDC. Nobody forces police to report shootings.

It is entirely on the honor system. Forget body cameras — force every police agency to report back to the FBI every time they shoot someone. Then there would be some meat to these arguments. But, with this incomplete information, political commentators still like to try to draw conclusions.

For example, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, on his Dec. 3, 2014 show, said that “in 2012,

123 African Americans were shot dead by police. There are currently more than 43 million blacks living in the U.S.A. Same year, 326 whites were killed by police bullets. Those are the latest stats available.” However, O’Reilly did not include that blacks comprise a smaller percentage of the population, only 12.1 percent, according to the 2000 census. In comparison, whites cover 69.1 percent. So, there is a higher instance of blacks being shot and killed by police when we consider how much smaller the pool is when compared to the white population.

O’Reilly is not incorrect, but his statistics are only representative of the CDC’s numbers, which he did not cite during his show.

Just four days earlier, on Nov. 29, New York

“No law requires the reporting of shootings by law enforcement officials.”

Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote in his article “When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 5” that “young black men are shot dead by police at 21 times the rate of young white men.” He came to this conclusion by using ProPublica, a non-profit journalism group, which gathered data from FBI datasets that were incomplete.

Kristof was at least kind enough to cite ProPublica within his story. The way O’Reilly cites sources would make him fail a high school research paper. O’Reilly’s numbers (or at least how he presented them on his show) imply equal chances of a police shooting, whether black or white, while Kristof’s make the odds much greater for a black person.

However, if in the meantime you still desire some perspective, my best suggestion would be searching #AliveWhileBlack on Twitter.

Tweets with the hashtag give a brief look into the life of black Americans, usually describing the undue attention given to them just for their skin color. These stories won’t have any statis-

Caruso

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FROM PAGE 22

CARUSO

RETIREMENT

tical merit, but at least they won’t be trying to.

While some white Americans may have black friends and exposure to black lives, the reality is that racial divides are still prevalent, especially in cities like Pittsburgh. According to statistics from Business Insider, Pittsburgh’s black-white dissimilarity score is 63.1. Scores above 60 on this scale are considered very highly segregated. Black people tend to stick to a few neighborhoods on the East Side, primarily, such as East Liberty. So, geography often separates the black-white demographic. Social media like the #AliveWhileBlack hashtag on Twitter seeks to close this gap where it exists.

Instead of pushing for a real first step, the media has tried to use the gristle to concoct arguments on race and police violence. The deaths have become mere tools for commentators and broadcast executives, rather than the tragedies they are. It’s not that there is not room for analysis, but, in 24-hour media that focus more on analysis than the news itself, the actual human drama of these deaths feels as if it is lost.

For example,was there any reason to air Ramos’s funeral on live television? It feels more like a ratings ploy than an actual attempt to honor the dead.

More than that, media coverage has shown how unequally America treats death. Two police officers die an early and violent death, and everything stops in their honor.

But what about Eric Garner? Does anyone deserve to die for a petty crime? An innocent death is an innocent death. Rafeal Ramos equals Eric Garner. The media needs to quit sensationalizing death, playing a game of “which murder is worse?”

So, we should continue to question and analyze deaths. It is not a solution to walk away from tragic death and act as though it never happened. However, this critical analysis needs to be more realistic, cause more change rather than sensationalize and dramatize. The attention to brutal tragedies should be equally applied across race and status, as well.

Let’s react solemnly not just when one of New York’s finest dies, but when any one of the country’s innocents dies in such a senseless fashion. That is equality.

Stephen Caruso writes on varying topics such as economics and social issues. He is also the Layout Editor for The Pitt News.

Write to Stephen at SJC79@pitt.edu.

in those areas,” Fedele said in an email.

University spokesman John Fedele said Delaney and Cochran’s stepping down and retirement, respectively, were not related.

Cochran said he retired later in life than he previously intended.

“I’m now halfway between 65 and

66, and I’ve worked longer than I’ve planned,” Cochran said.

Delaney said “the timing was right for [him] to step down.”

“While the timing of my decision and the retirement of Chancellor Emeritus Nordenberg are purely coincidental, the change at Katz/CBA does give Chancellor Gallagher an opportunity to help shape his leadership team and that is a good thing for the University,” Delaney said in an email.

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com COLUMN

Too Spoiled for Breaking Bad The Golden Age of Television

I still haven’t watched all of “Breaking Bad.” It’s not that I don’t have time. Heck, even the boredom that saturated winter break didn’t push me over the edge.

It’s not that I don’t have the means to watch it. These days, it only takes an Internet connection.

It’s not that I can’t get over the hype.

I understand why most people throw their heads back in admonishment after hearing I haven’t seen the series from start to finish. The episodes I’ve seen have been engrossing.

So why haven’t I finished one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows of the last decade?

I’m spoiled.

Being a television fan has never been more palatable. Our position in a “Golden Age of Television” is a vast understatement. At the risk of sounding like a Luddite, things weren’t always this way. We 20-somethings are fortunate enough to have largely avoided the “dark ages,” before the integration of streamable television content, when it was a cycle of identical “family value” sitcoms.

For decades preceding the advent of ondemand v i d e o services like Netflix, family and friends had a uniform taste in television. Watercooler conversations on Monday would always include the same handful of shows. No one was flummoxed at having missed an episode, much less an

entire series.

Despite the crumminess of TV in retrospect, it was something Americans all had in common. It was the great common denominator, and we all loved to talk about it. When a truly great show like “Seinfeld” came around, it was all anyone would talk about.

N o w, g r e a t television doesn’t come around once every five years or so. It’s ubiquitous.

Netflix alone has a massive stable of acclaimed TV such as “House of Cards,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Derek” and “Orange Is The New Black,” all of which would have received cable television accolades 20 years ago.

As a result, cable has been stepping up its game, too, peppering its lineups

to experience playthroughs of a game by another person.

Entertainment hubs seemingly

cater t o e ve r y niche.

But there is a discernible downside — everyone is a snob.

I don’t hold particular qualms with snobbery. My standards for movies, in particular, are brazen, outspoken and high.

Let’s face it: discerning viewers lead the uptick in quality and quantity we see now.

If I hear another groan for not watching “Game of Thrones,” however, I might have an aneurysm.

I know it’s good. I know I’ll like it.

Yes, the dragon girl does seem cool.

“Our position in a “Golden Age of Television” is a vast understatement.” with cinematic-quality flicks.

This isn’t even taking into account the explosion of YouTube or livestream sites like Twitch that allow you

Andrew Boschert Columnist

35 I’m sure King Joffrey was infuriating. I just haven’t seen it.

Nearly every other day, a friend tells me I “have” to watch another new show. What’s worse, most of them continue to talk to me about the plot or characters like I have seen it.

I get it. I have a friend who, for

whatever reason, refuses to watch “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.” It’s utterly infuriating. I know how much he would enjoy it, even though he rejects the recommendation.

While I would normally say this is just a simple case of contrarian-itis, it’s more than that. “It’s Always Sunny” has nine seasons on Netflix. Out of nine seasons, with each episode at 22 minutes long, there’s quite a bit of content to digest. Do I really expect him to watch more than 38 hours of TV just so we can quip back and forth?

We can’t be so indignant when someone’s taste is different, especially

Boschert

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FROM PAGE 36

BOSCHERT since everyone, from grandma to the president, has developed an individual taste in TV. Yes, Netflix has a wide variety of great shows to watch, but we can’t expect viewers to spend hours upon hours delving into every category — it is simply too time-consuming.

So, while it’s great to share your favorite shows with friends and family, we are lucky enough to live in a time when people can watch a wide variety of shows.

When people tell me that “Mad Men” is boring, I have to remember to hold my tongue. I’ll stop trying to make a case for “Archer” to people who “just don’t get it.” It’s exhausting.

Just stop telling me that I need to watch “Breaking Bad.” Andrew Boschert writes about a variety of topics, including pop culture and college, for The Pitt News.

Write to Andrew at amb306@pitt. edu.

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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Remembering the Paul Chryst era 2005 Paul Chryst becomes Wisconsin’s offensive coordina-

Dec. 22, 2011 Chryst is hired as Pitt’s head football coach.

Heather Tennant | Staff Photographer

Sept. 15, 2012 Chryst wins his first game as head coach against Virginia Tech, 35-17.

Sept. 1, 2012 Chryst loses his first game as head coach against Youngstown State, 31-17.

Nov. 29, 2014 Pitt defeats Miami 35-23 to become bowl-eligible and finish 6-6 for fourth straight regular season, 3 of them under Chryst

Jan. 5, 2013 Pitt loses to Ole Miss in the BBVA Compass Bowl, 38-17, to finish Chryst’s first season 6-7.

Dec. 17, 2014 Chryst leaves to become Wisconsin head football coach.

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Oct. 26, 1996: Steve Pederson hired as Pitt’s athletic director

Steve Pederson: A History

1999: Pederson hires Ben Howland as head men’s basketball coach, who takes Pitt to its first NCAA tournament in nine years.

Accomplishments

2001: Pitt football moves from on-campus Pitt Stadium to Heinz Field

-Built Petersen Events center

Dec. 20, 2002: Pederson leaves Pitt to become athletic director at Nebraska. He is replaced by Jeff Long.

-Won Robert R. Neyland Athletic Director Award in 2002

2003: Jamie Dixon is promoted to basketball head coach after Howland leaves. Dixon was part of Howland’s initial coaching staff

-Replaced Adidas with Nike as Pitt’s athletic outfitter

Nov. 30, 2007: Steve Pederson is rehired as Pitt’s athletic director after being fired from Nebraska on Oct. 15.

2011: Steve Pederson hires Tom Graham. He will leave within the year for Arizona State, and be replaced by Paul Chryst Dec. 17, 2014: After Chryst’s departure, Steve Pederson is relieved of duties as Athletic director.

Matt Freed | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | TNS

-Led Pitt from the Big East into the Atlantic Coast Conference

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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MUSIC

TPN’S PICKS FOR THE BEST UPCOMING CONCERTS THE A&E STAFF

After a typical end-ofyear concert dry spell to close out 2014, the early months of 2015 reveal a manifold forecast of artists storming Pittsburgh. Here are some of The Pitt News’ most anticipated shows of the new year.

Hamilton Leithauser — Jan. 15, Club Cafe Hamilton Leithauser, crooning frontman for the disbanded group The Walkmen, will be making a quick return to Pittsburgh at Club Cafe.

Leithauser, who recently opened for Spoon at the Carnegie Library of Homestead back in September, will continue the campaign in support of his first solo record, Black Hours. If you missed Leithauser’s September performance, January will offer another opportunity to see the indie-rock and lounge-friendly singer, who will be joined by special guest Ben Collier, as well as backing members of The Walkmen, The Shins and Fleet Foxes. — Jack Trainor

Motion City Soundtrack — Jan. 24, Mr. Smalls Minneapolis-based Motion City Soundtrack announced a 10-year

anniversary tour of their breakout sophomore album, Commit This to Memory, which will span almost two full months of shows

sound indicates that Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss are reinvigorated and prepared to melt faces. — SR

Ariana Grande — March 10, Petersen Events Center

across the United States. They’ll schlep their blend of punk, pop, indie flair and Moog synthesizers to Mr. Smalls on Jan. 24, where they’ll commemorate 10 years of approximate success by playing Commit This to Memory, featuring their most successful track, “Everything is Alright,” straight through. Maybe knowing the set list in advance is a turnoff, but it shouldn’t be a deterrent considering Motion City Soundtrack’s goofy and, often, comic stage performances. — Stephanie Roman

Sleater-Kinney — March 1, Stage AE Pittsburgh’s Stage AE is the penultimate stop on the first wave of SleaterKinney’s reunion world tour. After a 10-year album drought, these hugely influential Washington punk girls revived their riot grrrl clashing and thrashing for No Cities to Love, a new album due out Jan. 20. Its first single, “Bury Our Friends,” is available on YouTube, and its truly raw

In 2014, Ariana Grande became more than just a Nickelodeon star. In 2015, she’ll be taking the album that made her a bona fide pop star on the road. Her Pittsburgh stop is smack in the middle of Pitt’s spring break, but if you’re still around campus, the venue couldn’t be more convenient. She’ll undoubtedly be testing out her titanic top 40 hits, “Break Free,” “Love Me Harder” and the immortal early 2000s-nostalgia trip, “Problem.” — Shawn Cooke

Perfume Genius — March 27, Warhol Theater Now that Too Bright, the third studio album by Mike Hadreas’ solo project Perfume Genius, has successfully landed on bestof-2014 lists from The A.V. Club to Rolling Stone, he’s kicking off his biggest tour to date. He stops by the Andy Warhol Museum on Friday, March 27 with Norwegian provocateur Jenny Hval, as part of the museum’s sound series.

Hadreas’ deeply personal lyrics unfurl various struggles with identity

atop instrumentals that can just as easily stroll along with stately piano figures as snarl with industrial synthesizers. – Dan Willis

They Might Be Giants — April 16, Mr. Smalls

Alternative rock lifers They Might Be Giants have written songs about many things: Alice Cooper, marching cephalophores, the inbred regality of upstate New York. But did you know that they wrote a song about Pittsburgh’s own Mr. Smalls Theatre, as well as its predecessor The Electric Banana?

You can expect to hear that song and many other bizarre adventures new and old on Thursday, April 16, when they take over Millvale’s venue (the innermost point of the G in their attempt to spell out “TMBG” in tour routing). — DW

Photos courtesy of bands’ Facebooks

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

December graduates get a jump on the job market Aileen Ryan Staff Writer

For Pitt alumna Brittney Ferrone, graduating early saved her thousands of dollars and allowed her enter the job market early.

Ferrone, who majored in rehabilitation science, graduated a semester

early in December 2013. It was easier to acquire a job, she said, because she wasn’t competing with her peers with a remaining semester.

“Graduating early was extremely beneficial because I was able to gain experience prior to starting graduate school and be sure that this was the career path I wanted to pursue,” Ferrone said.

Students are now finding ways to

graduate early through heavier courseloads or summer semesters, in order to save money and start their careers earlier than their peers. Students who graduate from Pitt early can save up to $13,643 for a semester or $27,268 for an academic year, the School of Arts and Science’s out of state tuition for one semester and two semesters respectively, and get a jump on the competitive job

market students enter upon graduation.

Graduating early is not possible for everyone, and, according to the U.S. News and World Report’s most recent college data, Pitt’s four-year graduation rate is 64 percent.

An analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York studied the effect of the current job market, and by examining unemployment rates, found graduates today encounter more difficulty transitioning into the job market than their counterparts in the past two decades. As a result, graduates are “accepting jobs for which they are overqualified, low-wage jobs or part-time work”.

While overall U.S. unemployment has improved to a five-year low, construction and architecture, liberal arts and social science majors had unemployment rates of roughly seven to eight percent. Health care and education graduates experienced lower unemployment, of roughly three to four percent, respectively.

By graduating early, students hope to cut down on their student loans and have a timelier advantage than the rest of their peers.

Despite the benefits of graduating early, Ferrone missed some of the perks — free bus fare or access to University gyms — that come with being a Pitt student.

“It was also hard to start working full-time when my friends were slacking off during their last semester,” she said.

Although seemingly small, these perks can save students money. According to Pittsburgh Port Authority’s website, the fare to ride Port Authority buses varies from $2.50 to $3.75, while an annual bus pass for unlimited rides costs $1,072.50. For LA Fitness, standard membership is $29.95 a month after a $99 initiation fee.

Pitt students who graduate early can participate in a ceremony in December.

This ceremony, however, is not offered to students who graduate in August and may instead attend the April commencement ceremony.

Sara Sitler, who majored in communi-

Grads

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

41

COLUMN

Focus on facts: The dangers of screaming ‘racism’ Jess Craig Columnist

Aug. 9, 2014. Ferguson, Mo. Police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Michael Brown was black. The police officer was white. Brown was unarmed. On Nov. 24, a grand jury in St. Louis County chose not to indict Darren Wilson for any criminal charges.

In the days, weeks and months following the grand jury hearing, violent protests and public uproar ripped through the town of Ferguson and cities across the country. Campaigns gained national attention, accompanied by the emergence of phrases like “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” “I Can’t Breathe” and the earlier “If They Gunned Me Down.” Walkouts, die-ins, traffic stoppages and rallies outside of police departments consumed American news stations. The racism debate

was reignited, and every justifiable police homicide that occurred following the Michael Brown episode served only to fuel the race debate.

This nationwide response to the Michael Brown case reaffirmed the public’s ability to draw attention to important social issues.

The hasty attempt to resurrect the civil rights movement, however, also propelled an infatuation with racism among the media and attentive public and showcased the danger of modernday protest.

Today, it seems that public uproar and advocacy for change presented in the mainstream media are fueled solely

by emotion and groupthink. Logic, fact and evidence do not seem to be the primary foundation of argument, social protest or political change.

ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism newsroom that aims to produce stories fueled by “moral force,” falsely suggested that young black citizens are 21 times more likely to be victims of lethal police action than young white citizens. It is fallacious to conclude that blacks are always unjustly targeted by police , because such a narrow statistic overlooks underlying factors leading to higher rates of incarceration, including increased crime rates and problems within many

“Today, it seems that public uproar and advocacy for change ... are fueled solely by emotion and groupthink.”

minority communities. Slate, President Obama and public figures, including LeBron James, Andrew Hawkins and Usher, echoed the false allegations by supporting these emotional sentiments over fact.

Furthermore, there is no definitive countrywide or even statewide statistic on how many white or black citizens are killed by police officers every year.

According to the New York Daily News, only a small percentage of police departments report records of fatal police shootings to the FBI and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Census of Jail Inmates reports that per 100,000 residents of state prison and local jails, 2,289 are black and 412 are white. More simply, the population of black inmates is 5.5 times larger than the population of white inmates regard-

Craig

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CRAIG

less of age and sex. It is, therefore, a logical conclusion that black Americans are more likely to commit a crime than white Americans and are therefore more likely to face off with police officers, rather than be consistently and unjustly arrested or confronted by them.

Unfortunately for the civil rights

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com radicals, these data do little to support the theory that the American police force is racist.

And yet justifiable lethal police force has been rarely addressed compared to the Michael Brown incident. The unfounded racism controversy that followed the Michael Brown case polluted and skewed every successive case of police brutality and lethal force action following the Michael Brown case. For example, just two days after the Michael Brown shooting, police officer Bron

Cruz shot and killed 20-year-old Dillon Taylor in a Salt Lake City 7-Eleven convenience store. Dillon Taylor was white.

The police officer was black. Taylor was unarmed. An investigation of the incident, which relied heavily on Cruz’s body cam, cleared the police officer.

Was the police officer racist? No, he was doing his job — a very dangerous one.

The most recent lethal force action in St. Louis, Mo., which resulted in the death of 18-year-old Antonio Martin, is an even better example of how the race

debate overshadowed good police work.

After responding to a report of theft, the police officer encountered Martin at a gas station. Martin was armed and pointed his weapon at the police officer, who discharged three bullets from his weapon, one of which hit and killed Martin. Video of this shooting confirms the officer’s story, and the town’s black mayor quickly refuted any question of racism, despite immediate protests at the scene.

But rather than appreciate police protection, a number of protesters erupted in further violence targeted at police, and there have since been many instances of threats against police and unfortunately police fatalities.

Emotion may be an easy, instinctual response. Groupthink may be an attractive opportunity to belong. And certainly emotional responses cannot and will not ever go away. But fact and logic must be the most important factors in our national dialogue. Fact and logic cannot be afterthoughts – or not thought at all.

But, because emotional response heavily influenced the racism debate, this more recent anti-police hatred was an easy and unsurprising transition.

This is not to say that there are certain instances of unnecessary police brutality and police corruption. But the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Antonio Martin and Eric Garner incidences are simply not justifiable cases of racism.

As Daily News columnist , John R. Lott Jr. wrote, “Screaming ‘racism!’” may attract a TV audience. But uncritically spreading bad information is downright dangerous.”

Screaming “racism” where racism doesn’t exist will inhibit Americans from combatting present and future instances of racial discrimination. And, as we enter 2015, we have mass groups of Americans going up against the police. This trend will only push us toward a country where law is not enforced, criminals are not punished and citizens are not protected.

Jess Craig primarily writes about social and political issues for The Pitt News.

Write to Jess at jnc34@pitt.edu.

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 40

GRADS

cation rhetoric and psychology, attended and enjoyed walking the stage and hearing her name called at the ceremony in December 2014 at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall.

“Honestly, money played a huge factor in my decision to graduate early,” Sitler said. “Going to school is expensive, and I wanted to save every penny I could. I knew that finishing school in three and a half years was the best financial option for me.”

But finding a job isn’t easy for all early graduates. Sitler was always told that graduating early would make it easier to find a job, but she is currently experienc-

ing the opposite.

“I have encountered several companies that either are not posting job openings until late April or that have start dates in May,” Sitler said. “This is not the case with every company, but I have found it to be a setback in my job search.”

Sitler is continuing her job search in

“I don’t care about sticking around for student life or living life on campus or anything like that.”

Patrice Penrose

her hometown of Harrisburg, Pa. She has yet to have any luck.

“I have a few connections that have led to applications, but I have not heard back yet due to the busy holiday season,” Sitler said. “If finding a full-time

job takes longer than expected, I will get a part-time job and continue the search until I find the job for me.”

Patrice Penrose, an English writing major, also graduated in December 2014 to avoid paying for another semester.

Penrose said the pros heavily outweigh the cons when it comes to early graduation.

“Some pros of graduating early are not having to pay for an extra term, returning home sooner, getting started on plans for the future and taking a break from work before continuing on to higher education,” Penrose said.

Penrose said she did not have the most typical college experience and that her goal was simply to graduate, stating that the only con of early graduation are the social issues, like leaving friends behind.

“I don’t care about sticking around for student life or living on campus life or anything like that,” Penrose said.

“Those aren’t bad things by any means, but they were not important enough to stick around for.”

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January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

FOOTBALL

Five takeaways from Pitt’s weekend bowl loss

Dan Sostek Assistant Sports Editor After a loss that saw the team surrender a 28-point lead to the University of Houston in the fourth quarter of the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Friday, there’s a litany of negatives we can harp on regarding the Pitt football team’s performance in its final game of the 2014-2015 season. Despite the result, here are some positives that we can take from the disappointing loss.

ISAAC BENNETT: Bennett left the game early because of a knee injury, but the senior running back punctuated his Pitt career with a rushing touchdown, scoring on a 12-yard scamper for his 14th and final rushing touchdown of his career. Despite seemingly always falling in the shadow of a flashier running back like Ray Graham or James Conner, Bennett thrived as a complementary third-down running back and special teams player, and the Tulsa native deservedly found the endzone in his final contest.

CHRIS BLEWITT: most part throwing After starting the seaaccurate passes and son 9-9 on field goal making sound deciattempts, sophomore sions both in and out of kicker Chris Blewitt the pocket. He finished went through a bit of with 222 yards passing, a dry spell towards the the third-highest mark latter portion of the of his career, during a season, missing five of game in which Pitt rehis final 10 attempts. lied more heavily on Most notably, Blewitt him than usual because shanked a potential of star tailback James game-winning 26-yard Ron Jenkins | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | Conner’s injury. The field goal against Duke. TNS redshirt sophomore When Blewitt faced the flashed his mobility as challenge of a 52-yarder against Houston, it well, running for 40 yards on six carries. Voytik, seemed natural for Panther fans to be skepti- who at times appeared to be overwhelmed this cal. Despite less-than-ideal rainy conditions, season, gained a solid grasp on running the Blewitt nailed the long field goal, setting a career Pitt offense. high and an Armed Forces Bowl record. He JOE RUDOLPH: Despite the late-game colconverted a 29-yard attempt, too. lapse, Pitt interim head coach Joe Rudolph’s CHAD VOYTIK: Voytik continued his pro- handling of the Pitt offense was encouraggression as a passer against Houston, for the ing. While Rudolph’s future as Pitt’s offensive

coordinator under incoming head coach Pat Narduzzi is uncertain, he coached admirably on Friday. Rudolph provided a bit of a different look for a Pitt offense that could at times appear predictable under former head coach Paul Chryst. From the early risk he took going to a fake punt on inside their own 30-yard line and his increased use of an, at times, underutilized passing attack.

T.J. CLEMMINGS: With his only real negative play being a false start, senior right tackle T.J. Clemmings once again provided tremendous protection in both the run and pass game for the Panthers. Named a second-team AllAmerican by the Football Writers Association of America, Clemmings used his tremendous size and strength to help lead Pitt to 227 yards rushing, while Voytik enjoyed a comfortable pocket for the majority of the game. Clemmings is considered a potential first round pick in the upcoming 2015 NFL Draft, and could only have helped his stock with his performance on Friday.

January 5, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

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RECAPS

What you may have missed: Winter break rundown Chris Puzia Sports Editor

Students are just returning from break, about to begin the spring semester, but Pitt varsity sports have continued to compete during the intermission. Men’s and women’s basketball played a handful of home games each, preparing for the upcoming ACC schedule.

The football team played its last game of the 2014-2015 season in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. Here’s a rundown of how Pitt sports fared over the break: Men’s basketball Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon helped get his team back in the win column with the remainder of its non-conference schedule, but that momentum didn’t help the team when it faced North Carolina State on Saturday.

Before that, the Panthers won their previous five games, defeating St. Bonaventure (5854), Manhattan (65-56), Oakland (81-77), Holy Cross (58-39) and Florida Gulf Coast (71-54).

After that, however, the team dropped its ACC opener at NC State 68-50. The five-game stretch helped senior Cameron Wright work his way back into the lineup after recovering from surgery on a broken foot. Still, Pitt will want to establish itself in this year’s ACC by handling Boston College on Tuesday.

Women’s basketball The women’s team also had a five-game stretch of home wins over the break to tune up for the ACC. Its wins came against Drexel (72-53), Ball State (59-47), Youngstown State (78-52), Saint Francis (97-59) and Delaware State (93-58). Like the men’s team, however, that momentum didn’t help defeat No. 8 Louisville on Sunday. The Panthers played the Cardinals close, with the game coming down to the final minute, but Louisville made its free throws and put Pitt away.

The game would have been a milestone win for head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio, but the team already has a 10-4 record compared to an 11-20 finish from last year’s team.

Through 14 games last season, Pitt had an 8-6 record. It doesn’t get any easier for Pitt though, as two of its next four games come against ranked teams North Carolina and Syracuse.

Football Pitt finished its 2014-2015 campaign with interim head coach Joe Rudolph in the Lock-

heed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Jan. 2.

Rudolph and the Panthers seemed to be in control, leading 31-6 in the fourth quarter.

But Houston and its quarterback Greg Ward Jr. staged a monumental comeback, including two successful onside kicks in the final quarter. The 25-point deficit marked the largest fourth-quarter deficit that a team ended up winning in bowl history.

Former Michigan State defensive coordi-

nator Pat Narduzzi will take over Pitt and begin coaching games next season, beginning with Youngstown State on Sept. 5. Rudolph, Pitt’s offensive coordinator, may or may not retain that role next season, as Narduzzi selects the assistants he wants on staff.

Wrestling Redshirt seniors Max Thomusseit and Tyler Wilps each placed in the top four at the Southern Scuffle competition on Jan. 1-2.

Thomusseit finished second, losing to No. 7 Gabe Dean of Cornell, and Wilps — wrestling in his first match of the year — lost to No. 4 Matt Brown of Penn State. Pitt, as a team, finished in eighth place.

The loss to Dean was Thomusseit’s first of the season, as the No. 1 wrestler at the 184-pound class is now 14-1 in the season.

Pitt next competes in Pitt Duals on Jan. 11 against North Carolina, Duke and Drexel.