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The 764 steps in the Cathedral of Learning break down into 36 fl ights of approxi-mately 21 steps each.

I know this, because I’ve climbed every one of them.

I’m not the only one, though. Danny Chew, a lifelong Pittsburgh resident, cur-rently holds the record time for climbing the Cathedral stairs — three minutes, 38 seconds. He is one of a group of Pittsbur-ghers who Chew calls “the stair climbers,” as they regularly use the stairs as a form of exercise. It’s a physically rewarding yet grueling experience, which causes Chew to endearingly call the Cathedral the “Tower of Pain.”

I came prepared to join their ranks. I exchanged my jeans and blouse for

sweatpants and sneak-ers and re-tied my laces as the smells of co! ee and pastries from the

Cathedral Cafe wafted to my nose as I stood on the ground level . I restrained myself. Food would be waiting for me as my reward. It was

the fi rst day of classes, Jan. 5. It was freez-ing outside but the Cathedral stairwell was hot, as usual.

As a frequent runner, I expected the climb to be like any other workout. However, the heat, elevation and unusual repetitive motion made the trek more grueling than expected.

I took my fi rst step, and hoards of stu-dents poured through the outside door on the west side of the building. Some looked at me strangely, wondering why I was poised for a workout, but most ignored me and continued on their way. I quickly shu" ed along with them.

3rd fl oor - 12th fl oor:It turns out I chose the wrong stair-

case. I reached the third fl oor only to fi nd a dead end, forced to abandon my path. I wandered around the halls, ad-miring the view of the Christmas trees illuminating the Commons from below, as I peered over an open ledge to scan for one of two staircases that continued

to the fourth fl oor. Once found, my new stairwell was bet-

ter lit, with the sun streaming through the windows. It was almost pleasant, but I rounded the corner and faced another dead end in this medieval labyrinth.

The third staircase was dark, dank and steep. The number of stairs in each fl ight had increased, I thought, and there were three fl ights, instead of two, between fl oors.

My feet were grateful that I brought a change of running shoes, but my back regretted the decision as I lumbered on with books, a laptop and a spare set of clothes strapped to my shoulders.

My hands clenched the rail.Signs posted on each fl oor reminded

me that I should use stairwells in case of emergency, and not as a form of exercise.

Most people in the staircases, I found, ignored this demand as they lunged up-ward, and I only found out the sign’s pur-pose days after my indoor hike.

Rebecca Findle is one of those scur-rying forms ignoring the warning and climbs the stairs once every few weeks in the winter.

“In the winter, on the extra cold days, I opt to run the stairs instead of outside,”

Vol. 105Issue 96

Wednesday, January 21, 2015Pittnews.com

TrekTrek

Cathy climbersCathy climberstop:top:

thethe

tot

Lauren Rosenblatt Staff Writer

When it comes to matters of money, the Al-locations Committee has caps the Board can brush o! .

At last night’s public meeting, the second of the new Board’s term, the Board allocated more money than the Allocations Committee recommended in two of the six allocations re-quests. In both requests, the Board went above the conference cap of $2,000, listed in Section 3.04 of the Allocations Manual. Allocations chair Nick Reslink said the manual establishes caps to ensure the Committee equally distrib-utes funds to student groups.

Board exceeds Allocation

Committee capsEmily Ahlin Staff Writer

SGB 2

Climbers 2President Meyer explained the Board’s allocations decisions Tuesday night.Meghan Sunners | Staff Photographer

2 January 21, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Findle, a junior nursing student, said. “I prefer the stairs over a treadmill, and it’s a fast and challenging workout.”

Nicholas Sullivan sprints the stairs for extra cardio after an outdoor run.

“I use the stairs for exercise because it’s a great workout. Stair running is great because it’s like a never-ending hill work-out. It’s even better, though more tiring, after running outside,” Sullivan, a sopho-more neuroscience major, said. “This helps me get an even better workout and will hopefully be benefi cial to my marathon training.”

As a “Cathy Climber” all-star, Chew has traversed the equivalent length of a marathon on the Cathedral stairs in just one workout. In a record-setting trial, Chew, 52, ran up the Cathedral stairs for 24 consecutive hours in 2009. By the time he had fi nished, the horizontal distance he ran was at least 26 miles. A marathon is 26.2 miles.

“When you’re doing a 24-hour record,

the intensity isn’t as high, and you have to eat to keep your energy up. I would have food waiting for me on the top fl oor and would eat as I went down the elevator,” Chew said.

I reached the 12th fl oor after eight minutes.

I saw a person clad in a pantsuit and heels coming toward me. Observing my sweaty face and athletic attire, she scooted to the other side of the stairwell, with her head hanging down, as she passed me.

I was acutely aware of how my hair must look, matted to my forehead. I rushed to create more distance between the two of us, anxious to get to the top, partly so I could take a break and partly to avoid any more uncomfortable encounters.

CLIMBERSFROM PAGE 1

SGBFROM PAGE 1

For part two of Lauren’s climb, check tomorrow’s edition of The Pitt News.

The National Society of Black Engineers requested $2,000 for airfare to attend a conference in Anaheim, Calif. The Alloca-tions Committee approved $1,950.80 and the Board allocated $2,072 to the group. The American Chemical Society requested $2,180 to attend a conference in New Orleans. The Allocations Committee approved $1,628 of the ACS’s request , denying $552 — the cost of one extra fl ight ticket — and the Board allocated $2,052.

The Committee could not approve the fl ight ticket, as it’s total cost was $52 more than the cap.

Board President Graeme Meyer said the Allocations Committee cannot recommend more than the cap, but the Board can, as the Board does not have to follow the Allocations Manual.

Reslink said that the Allocations Com-mittee is “bound strictly by the [Allocations] manual.”

Because the requests weren’t for amounts much more than the cap allowed, the Board

amended the allocations recommendations.Meyer said the additional funds weren’t

“that much” in “the grand scheme of things.” Meyer added that the Board can override the cap if they feel a student organization has “contributed fi nancially,” through club dues and fundraisers to raise money on their own for the group’s request.

Executive Vice President Nasreen Harun said the Board doesn’t go over the Allocations cap “too often.”

Harun said it is hard to determine how often the Board goes over the cap, adding “if it’s a minimal amount then we’ll make an exception from time to time.”

In other action:The Board appointed committee chairs

for the term. Kyle Hoch will serve as the Judicial Com-

mittee chair, Naomi Stoll will serve as the Aca-demic A! airs Committee chair, Joseph Streets will serve as the Environmental Committee chair, Rohit Anand will serve as the Facilities and Transportation Committee chair, Patrick Corelli will serve as the Governmental Rela-tions Committee chair, and Jasmine Butler will serve as the Wellness Committee chair.

Read the rest online at Pittnews.com.

3January 21, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

OPINIONSSmall education measures go far

EDITORIALEDITORIAL

Today, we have a di! cult problem that we could solve with simple planning and programs.

We need e" ective educa-tion measures that bridge the opportunity gap between low and high income students. Unfortunately, a poor child has a nine percent chance of getting a college degree, while a high-income child has a 54 percent chance, ac-cording to a Jan. 17 article in The New York Times. For these teens entering the next chapter of schooling, small “nudges” and simple educa-tion measures are not only ef-fi cient but also cost-e" ective.

Take professors Benjamin L. Castleman of the Univer-sity of Virginia and Lindsay C. Page of our own University of Pittsburgh. While gradu-ate students at Harvard, the two created an automated, personalized text message system that reminded high school students about impor-tant college deadlines. The Times article mentions that in Summer 2012, students in Massachusetts who received the texts from Castleman and Page’s program enrolled in college at a rate of 70 per-cent, compared to 63 per-cent among those who did not — a substantial di" er-ence in education numbers.

How much did this ef-fective program cost? Seven dollars per student. We think

it’s safe to say the success of underprivileged students is worth $7.

Now, educators and citizens should continue to implement similar, simple programs, thereby giving a helpful prod to students who could potentially fall through the educational cracks. These measures must act as a supplement, however, rather than a substitute for personal coaching and en-couragement.

The volunteerism of pri-vate organizations and gen-erous individuals who help within the schools is invalu-able to student growth and development. For those who lack the stable and support-ive home life of their peers, classroom volunteers can guide students and keep them on track in their edu-cation.

So, pairing the “nudges” of small programs such as Castleman and Page’s au-tomatic text system with continued on the ground volunteerism can allow un-derprivileged students to achieve success in their edu-cation. Contrary to massive programs such as Common Core , these pragmatic mea-sures have proven to be both successful and cost-e" ective. And that sounds like a good deal to us. Let’s keep it up and remember that bigger isn’t always better.

Voltaire, it turns out, never said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” The famous phrase actually sprang from the pen of a much later biographer of the French wit and philosophe, who used it as a summary of Voltaire’s liberal political views. It’s an appropriate sum-mary, since it ignores all the question-able instances that our principle of free speech has trouble adjudicating. Now, in the wake of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, it is precisely those question-able instances that have captured public interest.

When the world learned that two terrorists had murdered several writ-ers, editors and cartoonists in a planned assault on the controversial French magazine, most everyone invoked the sanctity of ‘freedom of speech’ to defend ‘Charlie.’ The enemy, in almost every case, was the face of ‘Radical Is-lam,’ which drove the two perpetrators to take vengeance on a magazine that published several irreverent cartoons

of the prophet Muhammad. Many writers reacted to the imme-

diate rush of international support for the magazine and its content. David Brooks and Ross Douthat, both of The New York Times, not only upheld the rights of satirists to mock Islamic fi g-ures without the threat of bodily harm but also insisted that such mockery proved particularly valuable to the public sphere.

It became uncomfortably apparent, however, that freedom of speech in the United States is not the same as freedom of speech in France, where public de-nial of the Holocaust is punishable by a prison sentence. None of the defenders of Charlie and its blasphemous images extended their arguments to defend the right to Holocaust denial, let alone praise it as anything but hateful vitriol. If Jewish minorities deserve protection against hate-mongering speech on ac-count of present and historic atrocities, then writers and public fi gures should be equally wary of speech that can jus-tify the violence that Muslim minorities face on a regular basis.

When talking about speech that in-dividuals use to justify violence against Muslims, I don’t mean pictures of Mu-hammad or anything ‘blasphemous’ according to Islamic doctrine. What I mean are statements by would-be Quranic scholars such as comedian and political commentator Bill Maher and intellectuals like author and neurosci-entist Sam Harris who speak of Islam as the “motherlode of bad ideas,” and others who talk of the “clash of civiliza-tions” between Islam and “the West.”

Unfortunately, we do not have an appropriate language to condemn these statements. The term ‘Islamophobic’ does not capture their violent and often racist implications. ‘Islamophobia’ as a word accepts the implication that the phobia only surrounds Islamic theol-ogy and doctrine and not the people who practice it. In many European countries in particular, however, the distinction is not so clear. Group that deploy ugly racial nationalism, such as the National Front party in France

! e many shades of IslamophobiaSimon Brown

Columnist

SIMON SAYSSIMON SAYS

TNS

Simon Says 4


E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 1 0

Editorial PoliciesSingle copies of The Pitt News are free and available at newsstands around

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

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and the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islam-ization of the West in Germany, both feed o" of fears of ‘Sharia Law’ to advance an implicitly racist anti-immigration policy.

I highly doubt that Bill Maher and other prominent critics of Islam, such as biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins and Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, want anything to do with the racial politics inter-

twined in European Islamophobia. They must realize, however, that their

avowed distrust of Islam fuels a very real and very dangerous hatred against both Muslims and immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East that has increasingly spiraled into physical violence in Europe and the United States. A spate of bombings against French mosques in the wake of the massacre has only topped a trend of increasing violence against Muslims in France, Sweden and Finland. This hatred seems to target Muslims specifi cally, considering that similar incidents against Jews

declined in the same countries. It’s not easy for non-Muslims to notice this

proliferating violence — much less the subtle distrust that European and American Mus-lims experience on a daily basis. Therefore, public fi gures ought to consider whether they condone the distrust and marginalization of Muslims that is often a consequence. It’s hard to equate Islam with religious violence and in the same breath reassure listeners that they need not fear women wearing hijabs when they encounter them on the street, or that they shouldn’t vote for lower immigration

quotas from Muslim countries. To avoid these implications, public crit-

ics of Islam have to articulate their specifi c reservations with the religion responsibly, without recourse to generalization. I’m sure those critics wouldn’t want to be lumped in with a group of violent extremists who share their viewpoints in name only. No group of people should face this.

Simon Brown primarily writes about edu-cation and public policy for The Pitt News.

Write to Simon at [email protected].

SIMON SAYSFROM PAGE 3

5January 21, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

SPORTS

You may have seen one of the postgame inter-views with the eloquent Marshawn Lynch. If you didn’t, don’t worry. It was over before it even started.

“Yeah,” said Ly nch, a running back, regard-ing the performance of the Seattle Seahawks’ o! ensive line after a win against the Arizona Cardinals.

“Yeah,” Lynch said again when another reporter asked Lynch about the Cardinals’ defense. The air grew thicker, and the crowd

became more frustrated as reporters contin-ued to point their recording devices toward Lynch’s face, waiting for a detailed answer to their queries.

While watching video of the interview, which now has more than 800,000 views, you can immediately sense the uncomfortable confusion of the reporters surrounding Lynch.

Twenty-two questions and 50 words later, reporters still had nothing from Lynch.

Lynch has been well-documented for this behavior. In November, the NFL fi ned Lynch $100,000 for not speaking to the media, which every player’s contract requires that they do.

Since then, he has attempted to give the bare minimum to the press, the most recent evi-dence being the “yeah” replies.

That Lynch interview took place back in November, but other athletes, including bas-ketball player Russell Westbrook, have mim-icked his interview style. After a win against the Golden State Warriors, the Oklahoma City Thunder guard answered every question with some variation of the phrase “good execution.”

Many fans enjoyed Lynch and Westbrook’s responses to questions, and videos of each interview have accumulated hundreds of thou-sands of views.

Unlike fans, however, these non-answers anger many reporters.

Eric Edholm, a writer for Yahoo! Sports, called Lynch’s interview “immature ,” while Bernie Augustine of the New York Daily News said Lynch’s replies were “ridiculous .”

In some ways, Lynch’s short responses were a bit immature and ridiculous. When you look at many analysts’ columns about Lynch and Westbrook’s interviews, you get the impres-sion that Lynch and Westbrook were being selfi sh — that they refused to give answers

The new regime: Narduzzi brings in new assistant coachesChris Puzia Sports Editor

FOOTBALLFOOTBALL

Lynch!s postgame "answers! cause problems with mediaImaz Athar Staff Writer

COLUMNCOLUMN

Column 6

When Pitt introduced Pat Narduzzi as its next head football coach Dec. 26, the next question many people asked was whether he would bring in his own assistant coaches or keep the current ones.

During his introductory press conference that same day , Narduzzi said he would “certainly” consider retain-ing the assistants already at Pitt.

“We’d like to keep every one of them, but head coaches come in, and you’d like to bring your own guys, too,” he said.

But over the past few weeks, Pitt and Narduzzi have announced several new assistant coaches to replace the former ones. Here is a rundown of who Narduzzi has hired so far:

Defensive coordinator: Josh ConklinConklin is the former Florida International defensive coordina-

tor and led his team to a top-35 fi nish in total defense last season. Conklin was also a nominee last season for the Broyles Award — which Narduzzi won in 2013 — that recognizes the top assistant coach in the country.

Florida International’s defense fi nished fourth in the country in takeaways last season. Conklin replaces Matt House, who was Pitt’s defensive coordinator since 2012.

O! ensive coordinator: Jim ChaneyChaney, the Arkansas o! ensive coordinator, will fi ll the same

role for Pitt starting next season. The Razorbacks ran a pro-style o! ense last season — same as Pitt — and Chaney had spent the last two seasons with the team. Last season, Arkansas scored 30 points against their SEC foe Mississippi, which fi nished the season with the best scoring defense in Division I.

Before coming to Arkansas, Chaney worked as Tennessee’s o! ensive coordinator for four years. He will now bring his long-term SEC experience — a conference often regarded as the best in college football — to the ACC with Pittsburgh.

Arkansas fi nished last season with the 45th best scoring o! ense in the country with 31.9 points per game. In comparison, Pitt fi n-ished last season tied for 46th by averaging 31.8 points per game.

Chaney replaces Joe Rudolph, who served as Pitt’s interim head coach in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against Houston. Rudolph followed former Pitt head coach Paul Chryst to Wisconsin to retain the same position.

Running backs coach/special teams coordinator: Andre Powell

Powell worked as Maryland’s running backs coach for four years before he comes to Pitt this season. Maryland running back C.J. Brown led the Terrapins last season with 539 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.

Powell also previously coached future NFL running backs like Willie Parker at North Carolina and C.J. Spiller at Clemson. He takes over for John Settle, who was the running backs coach at Pitt and now holds the same position at Wisconsin .

Cornerbacks coach: Renaldo HillHill played professional football from

2001 to 2010, before becoming an assistant coach at Wyoming, where he also worked with the cornerbacks.

O! ensive line coach: John PetersonPeterson is best known for his work at

Ohio State. He coached there for eight years, from 2004 to 2011. Following this, Peterson worked at UAB for two years.

Tight ends coach: Tim SalemSalem spent the past three seasons at Illinois, where he worked

as special teams coordinator. He also coached the running backs in the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

Defensive line coach: Tom SimsSims, a former Pitt defensive lineman, spent the last fi ve seasons

at Youngstown State University in Ohio , where he worked in the same capacity. Youngstown State beat Pitt 31-17 in the Panthers’ season opener in 2012, and the two teams will meet again on Sept. 5. Sims also previously worked on the defensive lines at other schools like Kansas, Illinois and Minnesota.

Linebackers coach: Rob HarleyHarley spent last season at Florida International along with

Conklin. Before that, Harley worked as a graduate assistant at Michigan State for two years under Narduzzi.

Strength and conditioning coach: Dave Andrews

Andrews played tight end on Ohio State’s 2002 national championship team. Last sea-son , Andrews worked at Notre Dame as a member of the team’s strength sta! .


COLUMNFROM PAGE 5

Marshawn Lynch has continuously made headlines for his postgame “answers.” TNS

to draw attention to themselves. But some re-porters seem to be missing the point as to why athletes like Lynch and Westbrook answered questions this way.

Perhaps Lynch and Westbrook refused to give the detailed, quote-rich answers that the media wanted because public fi gures aren’t always in control of how their audience per-ceives them. Sure, athletes control what they say and can easily give reporters more than a one-word answer, but they don’t have control over how analysts and viewers will react to their answers.

The story, instead of what the athlete says, is about how he says it or how much or little he says. This is the case with Lynch. But when he says “yeah” as every response, he gives writers like Edholm little choice but to write about it. The focus of the story becomes about how Lynch is unresponsive to the media, and as a result, Lynch may be inclined to continue avoiding the media. It becomes a vicious circle.

Maybe Lynch and Westbrook want their actions on the fi eld or the court, not their words afterwards, to defi ne them . Days after his inter-

view in November, Lynch said he wouldn’t do any interview if he wasn’t obligated to, because, to him, an interview is “just words to people.” To Lynch, when he’s “actually out there, in the fi eld and in the streets, doing it, ” people understand who he is and his personality .

Athletes can choose what they say in inter-views, and they can control how they want to play on the fi eld or court, but what many don’t understand is that athletes aren’t in command of how their words and actions are expressed . Instead, many people have the misconcep-tion that athletes control the news cycle. For instance, after Lynch’s interview, Edholm said “we’re now writing about Lynch and what he didn’t say, as opposed to the fact that the Se-ahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals.”

But Edholm doesn’t realize that he could very easily be writing about something else. He could use an interview from the media-friendly Russell Wilson to write about the Seahawks’ win, instead of focusing on Lynch’s one-word answers. Although he believes Lynch’s short answers limit his stories, Edholm doesn’t realize that he — as well as other reporters, columnists and analysts — is what made Lynch’s interview something to write about in the fi rst place.

1- 21-15

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