The Pitt News 9-15-14

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Vol. 105Issue 29

Monday, September 15, 2014

73°|55°Pittnews.com

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page 6 for page 6 for a letter a letter from the from the editor.editor.

Pitt’s Quidditch team holds tryouts on the Cathedral lawn. Jeff Ahearn | Staff Photographer

MUGGLE-TAINMENT

It’s not unusual for strangers to catcall Katie Watson during her daily run through Schenley Park.

Watson, a sophomore fi nance major, was crossing the street when a man appeared next to her. He began running beside her and asked, “Can I run with you next time?”

Watson was confused but de-cided to keep her headphones in and continue running.

She said people on the street make comments directed at her on over half of her daily runs.

“Can’t I just run? I’m wearing a tank top because it’s hot out,” she said when recalling the incident.

And, according to a recent study, Watson’s experience isn’t uncommon.

The Stop Street Harassment organization, based in Reston, Va., conducted and released a report this spring that found 65 percent of women and 25 percent of men experience some type of

Catcalls common for both women,

menSarah Police Staff Writer

Each year, Pitt omits a large por-tion of students in its graduation rates.

The U.S. Department of Edu-cation does not allow schools to include transfer students in their

calculations. But the Student Achievement

Measure (SAM), an organization that encourages universities to post more comprehensive infor-mation about their graduation rates on their website, makes sure no student goes uncalculated.

Christine Keller, executive di-

rector of the organization, said schools don’t account for transfer students for because the federal government does not have access to the records needed to track a student from university to uni-versity. It could also risk counting

Website aims to change how colleges measure graduates

Lauren Rosenblatt Staff Writer

Achievement 3 Harassment 2

2 September 15, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

HARASSMENTFROM PAGE 1

street harassment at some point in their lives.

Julie Beaulieu, a gender, sexuality and women’s studies professor, related street harassment to gender norms.

“That’s the thing about gender: Logics of masculinity, [which] read ‘catcalling’ as harmless and as par for the course for men, allow gender norms to corrupt our sense of right and wrong,” she said. “Explanations routinely use gender as a way to excuse the blatant, public maltreatment of people because of their identity.”

Street harassment is “threatening and dehumanizing,” Beaulieu said, and relat-able to everyone regardless of experience or gender.

Stephen Kraus, a junior information sci-ence major, said he thinks that the culture of masculinity that Beaulieu referred to is “a perpetuated idea and does not accurately represent how most guys behave.”

Harassment 3 Sixty-fi ve percent of women and 25 percent of men experience street harassment in their lifetime. | MCT Campus

3September 15, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

“There are some guys out there who treat women inappropriately, and every time one of those assholes shouts a catcall across Forbes Avenue, it makes all of the guys who actually respect women look bad,” he said.

Holly Kearl, founder of Stop Street Harass-ment, was a part of the team that conducted the study. According to Kearl’s personal web-site, she is an expert on the topic of gender-based violence, has served as a consultant for the United Nations and is an adjunct professor at George Mason University.

“I think it speaks to how normalized street harassment is, that perhaps women didn’t remember or didn’t identify incidents that had happened to them as harassment,” Kearl said.

Street harassment is not specifi c to wom-en. Kraus said he’s experienced it, too.

Kraus and his roommates were walking in South Oakland when a car drove past them. The window was rolled down, and a passenger called out, “Nice boyfriend,” followed by an expletive.

Like Kraus, Amanda Philbrick said she’s encountered street harassment in Oakland. Last year, Philbrick lived in Lothrop Hall and was walking home at night when a man sitting on a bench called out to her.

“Rose for the beautiful girl?” the man called to her. He then called out to her about

fi ve more times.“I just walked away, but it made me feel

uncomfortable and kind of scared,” Philbrick, a junior business major, said.

Two-thirds of the harassed women and half of the harassed men involved in the Stop Street Harassment study said they were “very or somewhat concerned” that the harass-ment could escalate into something more dangerous.

Stop Street Harassment hopes to give people worldwide a platform to share their stories on the organization’s website to raise awareness of how familiar the issue can be, according to Kearl.

The group also organizes International Anti-Street Harassment Week each spring, runs a blog correspondence program and maintains a Safe Public Spaces Mentoring site, Kearl said.

Beaulieu pointed to student organizations to help students combat fearful feelings.

“Both the Campus Women’s Organization and the Rainbow Alliance are committed to social justice, to making people feel safe on campus and to creating events that help people fl ourish,” Beaulieu said.

Kraus said this is an issue that can be over-come.

“We’ve established gender equality as an ideal, and I believe we’ve come a long way in terms of seeing both genders as equals,” he said. “However, there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

some students twice if they included trans-fer students in their data. Each university is responsible for tracking the graduation rates of its transfer students.

Pitt is an “inaugural member” of the SAM and joined shortly after the website launched in 2013. Now, 532 institutions use the website to post their graduation rates. Utilizing the SAM allows universities to in-clude transfer students in their calculations, which creates a more accurate representa-tion of the university’s success.

Juan Manfredi, vice provost of under-graduate studies at Pitt, said SAM provides an accurate picture of Pitt’s graduation rates.

“I hope this is being given due consider-ation, because I think it is better than any simple ranking that has come out because

it covers all kinds of dimensions,” Manfredi said.

The idea for the organization came up in 2013, Keller said, when the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities joined with fi ve other organizations to improve the way the U.S. Department of Education determines graduation rates. SAM includes transfer students in universities’ gradua-tion rates.

“Rather than just one of us getting to-gether with our institutions, we thought this was a big enough issue for higher educa-tion across all di! erent types of universities that we should all develop this alternative method together,” Keller said.

Universities that join SAM can post data about their school on the organization’s website. Data includes separate representa-tions for the graduation rates of fi rst-time students, full-time students and full-time transfer students.

“Given the way students move from in-

stitution to institution, and the variety of students graduating, the federal rate just doesn’t give us the data and information to fi gure out what is happening at an institu-tion,” Keller said.

A 2010 special report by the National As-sociation for College Admission Counseling found that nearly one-third of students end up transferring to another university during their college careers.

According to Keller, most SAM website users are public, four-year institutions. She’d like more private universities and communi-ty colleges to post their data to the website.

According to Pitt’s profi le on the SAM website, 503 transfer students graduated from Pitt in spring 2013.

Kate Ledger, a sta! member of the O" ce of Admissions and Financial Aid at Pitt, said there are 830 transfer students at Pitt this fall.

Following the U.S. Department of Edu-cation guidelines, this would leave 1,836

students unclaimed by any university. Keller said they are “unclaimed” because neither a transfer student’s original university nor the student’s new university could include the student in graduation rates.

“The federal graduation rate only tracks a very specifi c group of students,” Keller said. “They don’t track students across in-stitutions.”

Manfredi questioned whether the federal standards will change any time soon.

“General standards are fi rst-time, full-time freshman. Maybe it will change, maybe not, but they have had the same defi nition for several years,” Manfredi said.

Keller said this defi nition was originally used as a comparison for student athletes.

“They wanted to measure the success and development of the student athletes, but they needed a group to compare to. So they chose fi rst-time, full-time students entering higher education for the fi rst time,” Keller said. “Now they’re the yardstick.”

ACHIEVEMENTFROM PAGE 1

HARASSMENTFROM PAGE 2


ACROSS1 Story5 Gauge on a dash9 Lowest opera

voice14 Landed on the

runway15 Sunburn soother16 Starting squad17 Window material19 Beauty at the ball20 French friend21 Rapture23 Marshland24 Legendary skater

Henie26 “If it only could be”28 “The

Autobiography ofAlice B.Toklas”author

34 Indian orChinese, e.g.

35 Nametag greeting36 Harbinger39 Hindu guru42 Imitated43 Images on a

desktop45 Bride’s beloved47 One coming in

from the bullpen51 Thigh bone52 Feel around in

the dark55 N.C. State’s

conference57 Early

metalworkingperiod

61 Hush-hush fed.org.

62 Centrally managedstore group

64 Explosive situation66 Metamorphosis

stage67 Scat legend

Fitzgerald68 “__ upon a

time ...”69 Speak70 Optimistic71 Brew found in

increasingquantities in theends of 17-, 28-,47- and 64-Across

DOWN1 Spanish

appetizers2 Texas mission

3 Every cloud’ssilver feature?

4 Somme summer5 Soft mineral6 “Ah, me!”7 What you pay8 Half a guy-gal

argument9 Infantile

10 Had dinner11 “For Dummies”

bookstore section12 Reduced-price

event13 Harbinger18 Drive and reverse22 Stockholm’s land:

Abbr.25 Lady in the 1965

sitcom pilotepisode “TheLady in the Bottle”

27 Pot for clams29 “__ better to have

loved ...”:Tennyson

30 How half-shellclams are eaten

31 Eel, at sushi bars32 Land in la mer33 Silent agreement36 Knight’s title37 Cubes in a bucket38 Wheels on the

links

40 Mohawk-sportingactor

41 Biennial gamesgp.

44 Advanced collegecourse

46 “Golly”48 Cat’s coat49 Like capitalized

nouns50 Legendary

football coachKnute

53 Cake serving54 Like the idiomatic

beaver55 Civil rights org.56 Online dialogue58 __ contendere:

court plea59 Leatherworking

tools60 Down Under

greeting63 “__ got it!”65 Director Reiner

Saturday’s Puzzle Solved

By Don Rosenthal 9/15/14

©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 9/15/14

The

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OPINIONS

“Don’t tell me white girls struggle in so-ciety.”

“Sitting next to black people on the bus makes me nervous.”

“I don’t understand why people dislike Justin Bieber.”

We’ve all heard statements like this before — phrases that make our eye-brows shoot up and our faces grimace. Sometimes, people toss out these o! -handed comments in conversation with no explanation for the questionable state-ment. T hey are usually space-fi llers, a casual comment made to a friend in the Cathedral when the silence is a little too heavy.

But words, both verbal and written,

have social consequences. Yet, we often refuse to take responsibility for what we say, as if our words don’t belong to us.

I realized this the other day when I attempted to recruit my friend to write for The Pitt News. I’ve been doing this a lot lately — fi rstly, because my friends are generally good writers with interesting insights and secondly, because more writ-ers on sta! means fewer deadlines for me.

But after several days of consider-ation, my friend declined my o! er, say-ing, “I just don’t want to be responsible for what I say.”

I understand where she is coming from. Having your words in print and spread among the masses makes them less retractable. There’s no backspace key, no “whoops, wrong person” text message that can save a misguided ar-

ticle. A lot more people are aware when you stumble, compared to a private con-versation with a friend.

Printed word has its perks, though. Writing gives you the opportunity to step back, re-evaluate and edit your ideas. Un-like speaking o! -the-cu! , writing tends to be very precise.

Although spoken word provides less opportunity for revision, it doesn’t ex-cuse insensitive and poorly thought-out verbal comments. We should be held ac-countable for what we say at all times and across all media.

It is a misconception that the sound waves of spoken words are lost moments after conception. To the air, sure, but people around you will remember what you’ve said long after the conversation has ended, even if you don’t.

I still remember being a freshman in high school and having an upperclass-man compliment me on my outfi t before volleyball practice. But I also remember middle school boys butchering the pro-nunciation of my fi rst name on purpose, trying to be funny.

Sometimes we say things because we think they aren’t permanent. Would people really catcall if everything they yelled was written down and fi led under their name? Would we really crack those stereotyping jokes if they were printed on paper and passed out on the Union lawn? Probably not.

Of course, there are slip-ups. I’ve had my fair share of poorly articulated ideas and classless jokes. But when I say

Sticks and stones: Don!t underestimate the power of wordsChanning Kaiser

Columnist

COLUMNCOLUMN

Kaiser 6


Daily print production, for many student newspapers, is a thing of the past. Over the past decade, student publications have cut some, or all, of their paper products in favor of the evolving journalistic practice that is the “digital-fi rst” approach.

We at The Pitt News are fortunate to retain our daily papers, but we’re not overlooking our audience’s membership to a generation known for its use of smartphones, laptops and tablets.

With that in mind, we’re rolling out our summer project: a new, sleeker website de-

sign, which comes a year after the creation of our mobile app. Some of the functional aspects of the redesign include the addition of social media buttons — which link to all our platforms, including our new Pinterest account. We’ve also added an events calendar that we’ll update with things to do on campus and around the city that may interest you, and we’ll also gladly accept submissions. Our section content is now divided according to category, and we’ll also have space for our

special editions, so readers can easily access them beyond when they hit newsstands.

Aesthetically, we’ve added a sketch of the Cathedral of Learning — a striking feature on Pitt’s campus that often captures prospective Panthers and continues to allure students and alumni. Bringing the Cathedral to the online masthead highlights the paper’s connection to the University for readers who have — and haven’t — visited Oakland.

Throughout the year, we’ll look forward

to introducing other online tools to further engage our readers sitting behind a screen.

I welcome feedback and suggestions on our redesign and the additions that came with it. Please feel free to drop by the o! ce at 434 William Pitt Union, call me at (412)648-7985 or shoot me an email at [email protected]. By nature and job position, I’m a frequent visi-tor to the site. But what’s more important is that you have a reason to visit, too.

Hail to Pitt! Natalie Daher Editor-in-Chief

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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

campus. Additional copies can be purchased with permission of the editor in chief for $.50 each.

Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the students, faculty or University administration. Opinions expressed in columns, 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.

The Pitt News is an independent, student-written and student-managed newspaper for the Oakland campus of the University of Pittsburgh. It is pub-lished Monday through Friday during the regular school year and Wednesdays during the summer.

Complaints concerning coverage by The Pitt News, after first being brought to the editors, may be referred to the Community Relations Com-mittee, Pitt News Advisory Board, c/o student media adviser, 435 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

The editor in chief has the final authority on editorial matters and cannot be censored, according to state and federal law. The editor in chief is selected by the Pitt News Advisory Board, which includes University sta", fac-ulty and students, as well as journalism professionals. The business and edito-rial o!ces of The Pitt News are located at 434 William Pitt Union, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260.

Copy Sta!Sarah Choflet

Anjuli Das Kinley Gillette Johanna HelbaEmily Maccia

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Bridget MontgomerySarah Mejia

Shivani PanditMichelle ReagleMichael WilsonMegan Zagorski

Danielle Fox, Assistant News EditorHarrison Kaminsky, Assistant News Editor

Matt Barnes, Assistant Opinions EditorChris Puzia, Assistant Sports Editor

Sheldon Satenstein, Assistant Visual EditorZheru Liu, Multimedia Editor

Joelle Smith, Social Media EditorBecca Nagy, Assistant Copy Chief

Emily Hower, Assistant Layout Editor

Mahita Gajanan, Managing [email protected]

Maxwell HineJordan BullockRobert Capone

Rosalyn NyeAntonio Blundo

Joe LeoneJoe Kloecker

Mackenzie WalshSean Leone

Jordyn Aungst

THE PITT NEWSNatalie Daher Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]

Kevin Vanover, Business [email protected]

David Barr, Sales [email protected]

Kelsey McConville, Inside Sales [email protected]

Nicole BarrettVictoria Hetrick

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Marketing ManagerKristine Aprile

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Inside Sales

Account Executives

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Ad Designer Mark Janavel

Senior Universal Account Executive

Matt Reilly

Best colleges rankings: Who is really the ‘best’?EDITORIALEDITORIAL

Groans inevitably followed the release of U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Na-tional Universities Rankings” last week.

For example, upon learning Pitt’s rank-ing, a subsequent “Really?” may arise — we’re tied for 62nd with fi ve other schools: BYU, Clemson, Purdue and the Universities of Maryland and Georgia. .

But what exactly makes us the 62nd “best” university in the nation? According to the satirical publication The Onion, one of U.S. News’ main criteria for the list in-volves the “aggregate incoming freshmen’s SAT, ACT and COWFACTS test scores.”

The last is, obviously, not true, but the SAT and ACT part are. These scores are included in what U.S. News calls the “se-lectivity score.” It’s one of the largest fac-tors in the rankings and is largely based on incoming freshmen’s SAT and/or ACT scores. Currently, schools that don’t evalu-ate prospective students based on SAT or ACT scores in their admission process go unranked. As The Onion implies, though, this is just about as relevant to a college’s

worth as COWFACTS.This is because there are major prob-

lems with the SAT and ACT tests. SAT and ACT scores are directly correlated, not with a student’s IQ, but with the student’s socioeconomic standing. According to the 2009 College Board Report, students’ av-erage critical reading, math and writing scores increased along with their family income bracket. For instance, students in the “$200,000 and above” income bracket averaged a writing score of 560 on the SATs. Comparatively, those in the “under $20,000” income bracket averaged a score of 430.

This data is coupled with a multi-billion dollar test prep industry.

Naturally, parents want the best for their children, and are willing to spend a lot of money to ensure their kids can get into the best universities possible. Thus, SAT and ACT prep books and classes are met with a high demand — and high prices — that those in the lower end of the eco-nomic spectrum cannot a" ord.

So, when a student can literally buy his or her way into a college, what does that really prove, in terms of merit?

Or, in relation to U.S. News’ list, what does this prove in terms of “selectivity?”

Based on the trends, the criteria for U.S. News’ selectivity category cannot accurately depict the overall worth of a university. U.S. News should focus on less superfi cial and more practical factors to more precisely determine the nation’s top schools.

When selecting a school, factors like job placement and return on investment are more valuable to a student than the student body’s average SAT or ACT scores.

Job placement rates can refl ect how ef-fectively universities train their students in their fi eld of study. U.S. News can gather these averages by calculating the percent-age of graduates who gain employment related to their degree within six months of graduation.

This will ensure that incoming fresh-men know what to expect and where their

school stands in the fi eld they wish to study. For instance, the likelihood of eventually becoming a doctor should be vital informa-tion to any pre-medical student — if this was a criterion for the list, Pitt would most likely be much higher.

U.S. News can pair this with return on investment, which can determine the cost-e" ectiveness of going to a particular univer-sity. In other words, it can help determine whether or not the costs outweigh the ben-efi ts of going to a certain school. This can be calculated by determining the amount of debt versus the amount of income accumu-lated by graduates a number of years after they complete education. Before spending thousands of dollars on a college education, a student can know whether or not the ends will justify the means.

The value in the list lies in its ability to guide students towards the best and most e" ective universities available. However, the criteria must change, for the sake of the students and for the sake of many schools’ reputations.

something that my friends ideologically disagree with or fi nd o" ensive, they hold me to it, forcing me to either fi nd a new way of expressing myself or backtrack completely. They don’t let my missteps slide, which I’m thankful for because it makes me a better educated and more

articulate person, as it challenges my convictions.

The old saying isn’t “do as I do, not as I say,” and how else are we to judge someone if not by his or her word? Our peers should hold us accountable for ev-ery homophobic snub and every promise we don’t keep. Words mean something, whether they are written or verbalized, and minimizing their meaning situates us in a world of half-truths — one in which

we never know whether what people say is genuine or not.

When the president says he doesn’t have a plan for a foreign threat, his words carry weight. Whether true or not, what the president says directly a" ects the morale of the country. If his words aren’t confi dent, how can the public be?

So, if you say “I hate the color blue,” I get it — blue is not your thing. So why should saying, “Girls who dress like sluts

deserve to be treated like them,” be any less telling? Qualify it, if you want, but don’t say something if you’re not willing to accept the consequences.

Continuing to devalue words won’t lead us anywhere positive. It leads to hurt feelings, misunderstandings and less credibility. So, if you disagree with something you hear, tell that person — it’s the only way to a more tolerant world.

Email Channing at [email protected]

KAISERFROM PAGE 4


SPORTSRECRUITING

Nick Bowers and Tre Tipton faced o! in a thrilling overtime battle on Friday, with Tipton putting together a record-setting performance. Here’s how he and the rest of Pitt’s commits fared in last week’s games.

Darrin Hall (running back) — Aus-tintown Fitch High School, Ohio

Hall ran 10 times for 27 yards, as Aus-

tintown Fitch lost to Brunswick 41-27. Nick Bowers (tight end) — Kittanning

High School, Pa.

Bowers caught a 39-yard touchdown, though Kittanning lost to Apollo-Ridge 44-41 in overtime.

Kevin Givens (linebacker) — Altoona

High School, Pa.

Givens and Altoona put together a stout defensive e! ort, defeating Plum 14-11.

DaVon Hamilton (defensive tackle) —

Pickerington Central High School, Ohio

Pickerington Central shutout Holy Trin-ity Catholic 54-0.

Malik Henderson (cornerback) — Hal-landale High School, Fla.

Hallandale blanked South Broward 61-0 and forced three turnovers.

Quadree Henderson (wide receiver) — Alexis I. duPont High School, Del.

Henderson caught 51-yard and fi ve-yard touchdown passes to lead A. I. duPont to a 19-14 victory.

Alex Hornibrook (quarterback) — Mal-vern Prep, Pa.

Malvern Prep squeaked out a 16-13 win over St. Mary’s.

Kraig Howe (defensive tackle) — Arch-

bishop Alter High School, Ohio

Archbishop Alter stayed undefeated, taking down Thurgood Marshall 42-14.

Dane Jackson (cornerback) — Quaker Valley High School, Pa.

Jackson remains injured, though Quaker Valley was able to defeat South Allegheny 35-7.

Sekai Lindsay (running back) — Palm Bay High School, Fla.

Lindsay ran 10 times for 80 yards as Palm Bay defeated Melbourne 28-14.

Alex Paulina (o! ensive guard) — Can-

on-McMillan High School, Pa.

Pailina and Canon-McMillan lost to Pe-ters Township 27-14

Tony Pilato (o! ensive tackle) — Hemp-

fi eld High School, Pa.

Hempfi eld defeated Central York on the road 22-7.

Tre Tipton (wide receiver) — Apollo-Ridge High School, Pa.

Tipton spearheaded Apollo-Ridge to a thrilling 44-41 overtime victory, running for 309 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries and throwing for 83 yards and a touch-down. Tipton’s 309-yard e! ort is believed to be a school record.

Rob Dowdy (o! ensive tackle) — Wester-ville South High School, Ohio

Westerville South notched their second victory in a row, beating Grove City 27-8.

Football recruit rundownJeremy Tepper

Staff Writer

The football and basketball teams may have discontinued the Backyard Brawl, but one Pitt sport that has con-tinued the rivalry against West Virginia says it is alive and well.

The Pitt men’s club rugby team, also known as the Pittsburgh Rugby Football Club (PRFC), lists its game against the Mountaineers, the last of the regular season, among its most highly antici-pated of the upcoming fall season. Ju-nior captain Matt Dunleavy says that game is one the team circles on its cal-endar every year.

“[The game] could decide our playoff fate,” Dunleavy, who plays center on the team, said.

Among the 15 different positions in rugby, the inside and outside centers are some of the most versatile. Both comprise the center of the defense and must be proficient in a variety of skills, such as passing and clearing out space for teammates.

The fall season for the club team began this weekend with a road trip to Michigan State, a non-conference foe. For rugby, Pitt is a member of the Keystone Conference, which is made up of two divisions: the Keystone West, which is Pitt’s and WVU’s division, and the Keystone East, which includes the likes of Rutgers and Saint Joseph’s.

For some veterans of the rugby team, this competition differs from that of a few years ago. After winning seven of the last 11 conference championships in Division II, the club moved up to Division I-AA before the 2013 season, joining the more competitive Keystone Conference.

Pitt’s inter-divisional opponents in-clude Millersville and Shippensburg, an away game. The road games take a toll, but Dunleavy said the road trip is

usually a pretty efficient one.“For most road games, we usually

leave Saturday morning and are back Saturday night,” he said. “But for fur-ther games, like Michigan State, we usu-ally stay overnight at least one night.”

Rugby, far from the most popular sport in the United States, typically has more popularity in other countries such as Ireland and Australia. Senior accounting major Brian Chatot said the team does not want that to discourage people from joining.

Chatot, who plays second row and prop on the team, said the team doesn’t hold tryouts because so many people have never played the sport.

“I didn’t really even know what rugby was until I went to a practice freshman year, and, three years later, I’m starting and helping teach the underclassmen how to play,” he said.

The props typically position them-selves at the front of the team forma-tion, while the second row helps to push the scrum. But with 30 total players between both teams on the field at once, players often have to learn, and play, more than one position.

This year’s recruiting class has more than two dozen rookies attending reg-ular practices, and Chatot said these less-experienced players will still get playing time to develop.

“We play two games every weekend against our opponent, an A-side game and a B-side game,” he said. “Our A-side games count towards our standings, so you need to be chosen to play in them, but our B-side games are used for teach-ing the less-experienced players.”

Michigan State won the game against Pitt’s A-side, 34-17. The B-side also won, 20-15.

While many on the team are looking forward to the end of the season, be-

Men’s rugby begins fall campaign

Chris Puzia Assistant Sports Editor

CLUB SPORTSCLUB SPORTS

Rugby 9


T P NS U DO K U

Today’s di! culty level: Very HardPuzzles by Dailysodoku.com

cause of the West Virginia game, Chatot also noted another rivalry game for the team.

“We play Saint Joe’s, who won the conference last year, at home in two weeks,” he said. “That’s a big rivalry game for us because, two years ago, we beat Saint Joe’s in the conference final.”

Senior captain Jake Radziwon com-pared the team’s work ethic and practice schedule with most other college varsity sports, as the team practices three times a week to prepare for games.

“Like any other sport, a typical prac-tice session covers individual skills and team strategy, usually culminating with a live scrimmage,” Radziwon, a senior who plays prop on the team, said.

The team typically practices every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the Cathe-dral Lawn. Dunleavy said that the prac-tices work both positional and whole-team skills.

“We eventually split up between backs and forwards to work on game plan separately,” he said. “Then we usually all come together for the last half hour to scrimmage. We are start-ing two mandatory conditioning runs per week.”

Radziwon said the practice time and commitment to training new recruits has paid off in national tournaments. The team competed last spring in Nash-ville and Washington, D.C., against na-tional opposition.

“Despite fielding a relatively young lineup, we found success against strong opponents from across the country, with many an underclassman playing quality minutes and improving his game,” Radziwon said.

With more recruits becoming in-terested and joining the team to play and learn the sport, Radziwon said this helps the team’s chances to contend in this and future years.

“The sky is the limit for this team,” he said. “I truly believe Pitt rugby has the talent to contend for the confer-ence title.”

RUGBYFROM PAGE 8


James Conner

31 Carries177 Yards

3 Touchdowns

Jessica Wynn

28 kills24 digs

TPN Panthers of the week

Krono Lescano | The Beacon Zach Schaffer | Senior Staff Photographer

Many of Pitt’s varsity teams were in action over the weekend. Here’s a recap of their performances.

Football fell behind early to Florida Inter-national University, which scored 16 straight points in the fi rst quarter. But Pitt (3-0) re-sponded with a scoring run of its own, regis-tering 26 unanswered points before winning 42-15. James Conner ran for 177 yards, which helped him break Tony Dorsett’s 1973 record for most rushing yards in three games to open a season (487) with 544.

Men’s soccer traveled to Chapel Hill,

N.C., on Friday to face No. 3 University of North Carolina in its ACC opener, keeping the game scoreless until right before half-time, when the Tar Heels scored to take the lead.

The hosts added two more goals in the second half, and Pitt (2-2) lost 3-0.

Women’s soccer played sluggishly Fri-day night against Virginia Commonwealth University in its last non-conference match before beginning ACC play. VCU dominated on o! ense for the fi rst half and, after scor-ing on a corner kick in the 22nd minute, established a lead it would hold. Pitt (4-4) launched a prolonged attack over the last 25 minutes of the game, but the Rams pre-

served the 1-0 shutout. For the game, Pitt was outshot 15-7.

Softball began its fall season Saturday with a two-game sweep of Division II Slip-pery Rock: 6-5 and 13-0.

Cross country’s men’s and women’s teams fi nished fi fth out of 11 and fourth out of 10, respectively, at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational hosted by Penn State. The women’s event was a 6K, and DeeDee Adams led the way for the Pitt women with a time of 21:50, good for 15th place.

Cullen Davis, a senior, paced the men with a time of 26:27, fi nishing 14th in their 5.2-mile event.

A portion of the women’s team competed

at the Father Bede Invitational 5K, also on Saturday, in Loretto, Pa. The team fi nished second out of three schools, including Saint Francis University and Robert Morris Uni-versity, with three runners in the top 10: freshman Anja Weiler took sixth (20:33.7), sophomore Karli O’Neill, seventh (20:40.5) and sophomore Abby Peters picked up eighth (20:54.7).

Volleyball opened its home schedule with a sweep of its four-team tournament at the Fitzgerald Field House. It started Friday night, when the Panthers defeated Duquesne in straight sets. Pitt (8-1) didn’t lose a set all weekend and bested Norfolk State and Niagara University on Saturday.

Football, volleyball continue strong starts to seasonsJasper Wilson

Sports Editor

WEEKEND RECAPWEEKEND RECAP

James Conner ran for 177 yards on 31 carries and three touchdowns in Pitt’s 42-25 victory over Florida International University on Saturday. His combined rushing total over three games this season is 577 yards, which surpasses the mark of 487 yards set by Tony Dorsett in 1973. The sophomore running back has scored eight touchdowns.

Jessica Wynn, a senior outside hitter, led Pitt to its 3-0 performance over the weekend, collecting a team-high 28 kills and with a second-best 24 digs . She fi nished with a double-double in two of the Panthers’ games, 11 kills and 13 digs versus Duquesne, as well as 16 kills and 11 digs against Niagara.

The Pitt News 9-15-14

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Transcript of The Pitt News 9-15-14