The Best of Pitt

Best thing to do on a Friday night | Best on-campus job | Best class to sleep through | … Best thing to do on a Friday night | Best on-campus job | Best class to sleep through | Best classroom | Best free thing Pitt offers | Best student organization | Best Pitt scandal | Best sports team | Reason to call Telefact | Reason to skip class | Best fraternity | Best sorority | Best Pitt tradition | Best way to confuse freshmen | Best way to pay for tuition

Best thing to do on a Friday night: Drink Runner-up: Party

This was a hard one, Folks. I mean, how does one easily choose between two completely different activities to occupy a Friday night with? Drink OR Party. Wow. The decisions young adults have to make these days are monumentally difficult. Still, the readers of The Pitt News did it again, proving their prowess as socially savvy coeds. The boozing elite of Oakland have spoken: partying is so last year.

Sarah Bingler, staff writer

top Best on-campus job: Pathfinders Runner-up: Library

Itching to capitalize on the art of persuasion? The Pitt Pathfinders have clearly mastered the talent, as the number of applications to the University continue to increase. A Pathfinder has the enviable task of walking backwards throughout Oakland with a horde of prospective students and their parents, gesturing at the major landmarks and pausing for photos in front of the Cathedral. Each Pathfinder appears to possess at least twice the average ration of friendliness, and the organization’s relentless good cheer presents a positive introduction to the University.

Kristen DiLemmo, Assistant A’E Editor

top Best class to sleep through: Intro to psych Runner-up: Physics

You thought you would take intro to psych to fulfill a science requirement. It’s not nearly as difficult as biology or chemistry, and the class covers interesting material that can be carried into real life. But when you showed up for class the first day and the professor turned the lights down low for a PowerPoint presentation, you zonked. You’re not alone, because intro to psych is the best class to sleep through on campus.

Professors usually think that PowerPoint presentations will spice a up a lecture, but combined with comfortable seats in a large lecture hall, such as those in David Lawrence Hall, psych becomes an instant nap in your weekly routine.

Don’t fret about your hour-long snooze – the class is relatively simple. Just skim the book and get lecture notes from a prospective psychology major.

Kaitlin Wingard, staff writer

top Best classroom: 121 David Lawrence Runner-up: Nationality Rooms

Ah, 121 David Lawrence: close to the dorms; equipped with microphones, projection equipment and even a chalkboard; cool in the spring, warm in the winter; and best of all, huge. You can sit back, blend into the crowd, do the crossword puzzle, doodle, send text messages or nap, and still feel productive for having gone to class.

Jessica Lear, Editor in Chief

top Best free thing Pitt offers: T-shirts Runner-up: bus pass

Hey, at least this way, you won’t have to go naked.

Jessica Lear, Editor in Chief

top Best student organization: Pitt marching band Runner-up: Pitt Program Council

If you’ve ever been to a Pitt football game, you know it just wouldn’t be the same without the band. They’re at every home football game, entertaining the crowd and cheering for the football team, win or lose. They march in parades and perform at pep rallies, but there’s more to the band than just performing.

Founded in 1911, the Pitt marching band is the oldest spirit group on campus. As part of the athletics department, it is the keeper of some of the University’s oldest traditions – its songs (“Hail to Pitt,” “The Victory Song,” “The Panther Song” and the Alma Mater) – and the most visible group that keeps these traditions alive. With more than 200 members who practice eight hours per week if there’s a game and arrive at games two hours early to prepare and perform, the band is very dedicated to doing what it does.

Anna Kissell, contributing editor

top Best Pitt scandal: SGB sucking Runner-up: Scottie’s citation and removal

You love to hate them, you hate to love them, they are the Student Government Board. Again and again, it’s SGB’s way or the highway. All in all, the quaint little experiment in student advocacy that is SGB can be classified as nothing less than controversial.

No matter what side of the fence you come down on, you can’t deny the fact that this humble board of students who have been charged with our governance routinely manages to irk one group or another. Whether it’s a hotly contested election, vacations to sunny San Diego or disagreement over the ever-popular allocations process, SGB never ceases to provide fodder for a lively, campus-wide debate.

D. Clark Denison, for The Pitt News

top Best sports team: Basketball Runner-up: Football

Carl Krauser is back. Ronald Ramon is back. Levance Fields, Sam Young and Tyrell Biggs are all here. What’s not to get excited about?

The Panthers have made the Sweet 16 three of the last four years. To get back this year, they’ll have to fight their way through a conference that features some of the toughest competition in Division I. Newcomers Louisville and Cincinnati add depth to a conference that already features Connecticut, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Villanova.

The basketball team should also be more accessible this year, as the new season ticket program looks to solve the problems that have plagued students trying to see games the last few years.

Brian Weaver, Assistant Sports Editor

top Reason to call Telefact: Directions Runner-up: Bus schedules

4-Fact: Hello, this is Telefact.

Me: I want to go to the South Side but I have no idea how to get there.

4-Fact: Well you can take the 54C right to East Carson Street, but do you have a more specific place in mind.

Me: Not really I just heard that there were cool things to do there.

4-Fact: Well there are clubs and a movie theater as well as stores and stuff. But you should really decide what you want to do first.

Me: That’s another question I have. You see I suffer from a deep feeling of depression and I was wondering whether Nietsche’s idea of nihilism was correct or are we in a Hegel described universe?

4-Fact: Well according to German Romantic thought and nationalistic tendencies during the early modern period-

Me: When was rice invented?

4-Fact: Rice first became a staple of agricultural societies in-

Me: Who was the most awesome ninja turtle?

4-Fact: (Sigh.) All of them, they are heroes in a half-shell.

Me: Wow, you really do know everything.

4-Fact: Thank you for calling Telefact.

Andy Medici, Assistant News Editor

top Reason to skip class: Sleep Runner-up: Sex

Hmm-’nuff said. What surprised me was the order.

Andy Medici, Assistant News Editor

top Best fraternity: Sigma Alpha Epsilon Runner-up: Iota Beta Kappa

Recently, The Pitt News sat in on a candid conversation between SAE alumni Fred Savage, Nick Lachey and former U.S. President William McKinley.

Savage: Man, I sure do miss the good ol’ days at the SAE house.

Lachey: Yeah, those were some good times.

McKinley: Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!

Savage: We used to throw the best parties. Man, were they wild!

Lachey: Used to! SAE still rocks a joint like no other!

Savage: And you know the ladies love an SAE man.

Lachey: How do you think I got Jessica Simpson?

Savage: Yea, how’s that going by the way?

Lachey: Ah, she wasn’t my type, too gorgeous and successful.

McKinley: When this Teapot-Dome business breaks, we’ll all be finished!

Savage: I hear SAE at Pitt is going strong.

Lachey: Yeah, they’ve got a pretty good group of guys up there.

McKinley: They’d be fine men to staff my Cabinet!

D. Clark Denison, for The Pitt News

top Best sorority: Theta Phi Alpha Runner-up: Delta Zeta

Created in 1912 at the University of Michigan, Theta Phi Alpha was the first sorority that allowed Catholic women into a Greek organization. Today, Theta Phi Alpha continues to be one of the finest sororities in the country, and at Pitt. Their sisters and pledges are not only involved in the sorority, but also in other campus groups including Pitt Pathfinders, the Women’s Choral Ensemble and Pitt Program Council. They are active in the community, going on various service trips and organizing events to raise money for the area.

Theta Phi Alpha fosters a sense of kinship and service that will most likely allow all of its members to become important members of the community as they get older and leave Pitt.

Nick Lucca, Layout Editor

top Best Pitt tradition: Football Runner-up: Arbor Day

Pitt football isn’t the same it was in its glory years, but it’s still worth getting excited about.

The Panthers have won nine national football championships. The last one was in 1976, when the team had a perfect 12-0 season. It was Pitt’s first title in 39 years and was long overdue from a program that had become accustomed to winning titles. You may remember the Pitt Panthers from such national seasons as 1915, 1916, 1918, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936 and 1937. The Panthers are currently sixth all-time in national championships won.

Gone are the days of Pitt Stadium – the Pete is in its place now – as the team now is across the river at Heinz Field. Still, there are few things that rival rolling out of bed at an ungodly hour on a Saturday afternoon to head down and root for the Panthers.

Geoff Dutelle, Sports Editor

top Best way to confuse freshmen: Corner of Fifth and Forbes Runner-up: Wrong directions

Freshmen. They’re easy to spot and even easier to confuse. Next time you see one of them walking in circles, campus map in hand and looking as if they were caught in the headlights of an extra-long PAT bus, offer them this advice: “on the corner of 5th and Forbes.” That poor, naive soul will be halfway to Monroeville before they realize the truth: They should have been walking Downtown.

Sarah Bingler, Staff Writer

top Best way to pay for tuition: Parents Runner-up: Prostitution

So your mom doesn’t like that new piercing you got? Forget about her. You’re in college now, it’s your hot body, you do what you want. Well, sort of. Turns out, parents are still good for at least one thing: paying our tuition. As independent as we like to think we are, plenty of Pitt students are more than happy to let the folks pick up the check when it comes to education. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – as long as mom and dad are paying for college, you can use your money to buy beer. Maybe that piercing was a little over the top, after all.

Emily Kaufman, Assistant Opinions Editor

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