Welcome Back: Pitt adds new rules

Pitt students beware: University administration inked a few more rules into the books this… Pitt students beware: University administration inked a few more rules into the books this summer. If you dare to break them, you could face action from campus security and the University Judicial Board.

University administration enacted two new rules: the first bans the practice of “weight dropping” in campus gyms and the other bans recording without consent in classrooms. Both rules were drafted after administrators faced new situations with students that put strain on old practices.

Weight dropping involves lifting a barbell to chest height or above and then dropping the weight, rather than lowering it for another rep. The technique is considered the safest way to handle heavy weights in some exercises, particularly those that involve lifting a barbell above the head.

The practice was banned after a student group, Panther CrossFit, damaged the Bellefield heavy lifting gym by repeatedly dropping weight.

The ceiling of the Aerobics Room below the workout room in Bellefield was damaged, and Marilyn Ross, Pitt’s director of intramurals and recreation, quickly ruled that Pitt didn’t have any venues that could host weight dropping exercise.

“We don’t have a problem with CrossFit,” Ross said. “We just don’t have a place on campus where we can put them. Bellefield is a very old building. It just can’t take heavy weight dropping. We’re hoping they might be able to find a site near campus.”

The Panther CrossFit club started working out in Bellefield Hall in January after being moved out of Trees Hall.

Weight dropping could now put students in front of the University Judicial Board and could result in a Pitt police escort out of workout facilities.

The recording rule requires professors to give written permission for students to record classes, whether through video or audio.

The University’s Staff Assembly passed the rule in response to an incident where a student videotaped a class and put the video on Youtube — along with negative commentary on the teacher and class.

The video has since been removed from Youtube. Violating the policy could put students in front of the Student Judiciary Board, under the policy of creating a “hostile learning environment” in the classroom University Senate President Michael R. Pinsky said in May.

The Staff Assembly is affiliated with the University Senate. The assembly, Pinsky said, acted to protect the “sanctity of the classroom” in making students get written permission from faculty to record in classes.

The University’s faculty handbook mentions “creating a hostile work or learning environment” as part of its anti-harassment policy.

To allow students to record “just because they want to is quite dangerous” to the classroom, Pinsky said.

“Learning can be too easily bruised or damaged,” he said.

Pinsky said that some faculty were concerned that recording in classrooms would affect the class discussion, as students might censor themselves if they knew they were being recorded.