SGB Member | SGB Member to Complain About | SGB Member | SGB Member to Complain About | Sports Star | Campus Celebrity | Administrator | Police Officer | WPTS DJ | Pitt News Columnist | Local News Personality | Local Bartendert | Oakland Regular | Professor | Local News Personality | Local Bartendert | Oakland Regular | Professor | Local News Personality | Local Bartendert

Best class: History of Jazz

Runner-up: Intro to Psych

While the weekend might be the highlight of your week, History of Jazz class may come in as a close second.

I know what you’re thinking.

“How can any class actually be fun?” you ask.

But Jazz is not the most typical of topics studied at the University. And listening to jazz music by greats like Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk isn’t exactly your typical college lecture.

And the class is taught by musician Nathan Davis. Davis palled around in Paris during the 1960s with famous drummer Kenny Clarke, known as “Klook” to the jazz world, and has played with greats like Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin and Elvin Jones.

The saxophone player then came back to the States to earn a doctorate in ethnomusicology. He’s qualified, experienced and interesting.

Davis teaches jazz facts spliced with real stories and tidbits he picked up as a musician. He teaches jazz history, but also tells the real stories behind the music. There are also just two tests or papers all semester, and you can choose which of those options want to do.

So a word of advice: put History of Jazz on your schedule before graduation and you won’t be disappointed.

-Nikki Schwab, Senior Staff Writer

Best class to sleep through: Intro to Psych

Runner-up: Astronomy

There are about 250 students enrolled. The professor lectures with — what’s our favorite method of pedagogy at the university level? — ah yes, PowerPoint. The slides — really just chapter outlines of the textbook you either didn’t buy or haven’t read — are also available online. So as you imagine those stupid dogs salivating every time a bell rings, you can’t help but ask yourself: Why did I get up for this today?

Don’t let this question simmer on the slow cooker (otherwise known as your mind) for too long. Just take a nap. Explore some uncertainties within the realm of psychology and dream. The professor, to say nothing of your slumbering classmates, will not notice. Promise. Then test your short-term memory and see if you remember anything about the class or your dream the next day.

Welcome to Introduction to Psychology — naptime. It’s the class most of us have to take, and love to sleep and dream through.

-Maria Nicole Smith, Assistant Opinions Editor

Best classroom: David Lawrence 120/121

Runner-up: Chevron 12

Four hundred random Pitt students crammed into one room. Where else could you experience this? The anonymity of David Lawrence 120/121 guarantees you the privacy you need to nap, complete the Pitt News crossword puzzle, or text your pal five rows back. Unless you sit in the front of the class, the unreadable notes on the overhead are a great excuse to kick back and enjoy the scenery. Taking exams in this gargantuan auditorium is almost a joke; group work is the norm. If you are having trouble staying awake through the class, it is worth staying home. No one will notice you are gone, and your bed is a lot comfier than the chairs. When you see this room in your course selection book, always remember that attendance will not be mandatory.

-Laura Thomas, Photo Editor

Best student organization: Student Government Board

Runner-up: Pathfinders

It’s Thursday night, and you don’t have enough money to head to the bar. Your television’s broken, and all your friends are in class. Where do you go for free entertainment? To the SGB meeting headquarters with you.

Students with genuine needs and complaints about Pitt also benefit from SGB, the organization that represents students in Pitt politics and allocates student activities fee funds. But while attending SGB meetings to take part in student government decision-making is admirable, they’re significantly more enjoyable for students who go with no stake in the decisions.

The choice is yours: become a student leader and work to improve the Pitt community, or go watch the interesting shenanigans of people who do.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best sports team: Men’s basketball

Runner-up: Football

The men’s basketball team has been in the Sweet 16 three years in a row, and this next year promises to be just as exciting, as Pitt is ranked No. 17 in preseason polls.

For that reason, it is no surprise that the team was voted best Pitt sports team for the third year in a row.

The Panthers return three starters and have new recruits making noise. Returning at center is sophomore Chris Taft. Also returning down low is forward Chevon Troutman. The third returning starter is guard Carl Krauser, who has stepped into a leadership role on the team.

He’s teaching the new recruits, such as freshmen guards Ronald Ramon and Keith Benjamin.

Jamie Dixon will be entering his second season as Pitt’s head coach and will look to improve on Pitt’s 33-5 record from last season.

-Jimmy Johnson, Assistant Sports Editor

Best way to confuse freshmen: Give bad directions

Runner-up: Tell them to find the corner of Fifth and Forbes avenues

Oh, freshmen. They’re cute, cuddly and easy to confuse. What more could you want from more than one-fourth of Pitt’s undergraduate student body?

Scoring for the game of Confuse-the-Freshman can be complicated. While creativity earns more laughs, it can backfire, leaving the joker tangled in an intricate web of lies that not even a freshman would believe. Simple pranks are reliable, but they tend to be mean, and who would want to hurt a freshman? Remember, cute and cuddly.

When looking for a simple, harmless way to confuse freshmen, most upperclassmen turn to giving bad directions. In Pittsburgh, it’s not hard — and it doubles for a good excuse when you try to give a freshman good directions, only to realize that you don’t actually know the way to Old Engineering Hall, either.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best Pitt tradition: Penn State Sucks

Runner-up: Tailgating/football games

At this point, I can only assume it’s like the kosher laws. We don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know why. All we know is that a few thousand years ago, some guys told everyone not to eat dairy with meat and that ham is out.

Pitt football hasn’t played Penn State in more than four years (when we righteously creamed them), and we won’t do so again during my tenure here. However, we can’t stop teasing those poor students in the Happy Valley, no doubt bound for a career of fry-slinging at the local Mickey D’s.

And so it goes, no matter how much WVU may beat us, they’ll never break our spirit, because Penn State, that jewel of the boondocks, does indeed suck.

-Michael Mastroianni, Chief Photographer

Best fraternity: Pi Kappa Alpha

Runner-up: Sigma Alpha Epsilon

These boys throw one heck of a party.

Whether it’s a rockin’ ’80s party in the fall, or their famed Purple Passion party in the spring, the brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha undoubtedly know how to have a good time.

PiKA isn’t just about the partying, though. Their philanthropic achievements are exceptional. Winners of last year’s Cathedral Award for “canning,” PiKA brothers raised the most money to go toward the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. They put in 1,000 hours of community service last year, doing projects such as “Adopt a Block” and “Adopt a Highway.” Their brothers, including Student Government Board member Matt Hutchinson, are involved in numerous student organizations on campus.

“In any student organization, we have a member in there that is a brother of PiKA,” fraternity President Jason Parkins said of student government.

Nationally, PiKA was founded in 1868 at the University of Virginia and has grown to more than 210,000 members at 215 colleges and universities in North America.

-Nikki Schwab, Senior Staff Writer

Best sorority: Delta Zeta

Runner-up: Chi Omega

The Delta Zeta sisters at Pitt are easily recognizable.

Whether dressing up as schoolgirls and rocking Greek sing, or wearing their colorful DZ shirts around campus, the girls are involved in numerous honor societies and organizations.

“We are a very well-rounded chapter,” DZ president Cassie Wilkinson said. “I think that this has a lot of appeal for people that are not Greek.”

Delta Zeta was founded in 1902, at Miami University in Ohio, upon beliefs in academic excellence, leadership development and service to others.

The Pitt sisters have certainly upheld these beliefs. They work hard getting money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation. Their most recent accomplishment involved bringing in $2,150 — more money than any other Pitt sorority — at the Greek Brother/Sister auction. They have done philanthropic work for organizations such as the House Ear Institute and the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, and they are currently planning an event to cook a holiday dinner for the underprivileged. Wilkinson said Delta Zeta is the only sorority at Pitt to do work with the hearing impaired.

One of the largest national sororities, Delta Zeta has 165 college chapters and 250 alumnae chapters across the country.

-Nikki Schwab, Senior Staff Writer

Best free thing Pitt offers: Bus Pass

Runner-up: T-shirts

Fares may go up, transfers may expire, and the incline may have lost its cool token system. But Pitt students can drift on through all of it, as oblivious as they like, because the card gets you on board.

Whether you’re going to the Waterfront for a movie or to the airport for a trip home, it’s all free. More to the point, it’s all bought and paid for, since I’ve been reminded that we pay for the privilege of being at Pitt. But, considering how few city universities have deals with public transit like ours, we might as well take it, and take it everywhere.

-Michael Mastroianni, Chief Photographer

Best reason to skip class: Sleep

Runner-up: Hungover

Wake up, gotta go to class. Eat, gotta go to class. Get dressed, gotta go to class. Get out the door, gotta *yawn* go to *sigh* class …

Why bother? You know you want to crawl into those soft sheets, let gravity pull your head back into the pillow, and pretend the syllabus doesn’t say “attendance is mandatory.” After all, you must have some family emergency under your belt that you haven’t told the professor about yet. I mean, you are paying to be there. You’re not going to sleep through a party, so you might as well sleep through class.

-Michael Mastroianni, Chief Photographer

Best bus route: 54C

Runner-up: 61C

It’s about 8:30 p.m. You just got out of microeconomics, and you’re a poetry major. It’s Thursday night. Your professor just had one more slide he had to get through, and as you skip a step or two coming out of the Cathedral, stumble and fall, you raise your head just in time to see the 71A go down Fifth Avenue. Don’t cry. Never fret. The 54C will save you. As long as you’re just on your way to North Oakland with no intention of going further than Millvale and Centre avenues, the 54C will get you there. You even have enough time to brush that dirt off your shoulders. But wait; you don’t want to go home! It’s Thursday night, and you just got out of another boring lecture. This warrants a drink or two with some friends as far away from campus as your 21-and-older college budget will allow. Guess what: The 54C will still supply your demand for a ride to the South Side.

Just remember, the 54C doesn’t go Downtown.

-Maria Nicole Smith, Assistant Opinions Editor

Best scandal: Basketball tickets

Runner-up: Tuition hike

Everyone loves a good scandal — the more student frustration, the better. And few scandals have delivered as reliably as the one surrounding Pitt’s basketball ticket sales. Each year, new and interesting problems develop, leaving students feeling 50 percent more outraged than the last ones. That’s a scandal that delivers.

Rarely can a scandal actually inspire people to become involved, but the annual basketball ticket sale fiasco is fun for the whole campus. Freshmen and seniors alike can engage in outraged ranting, athletics department bashing and other forms of scandal-induced protest. It unites the whole campus in a warm sentiment of rage.

Thank you, basketball ticket sales, for being the scandal of the people.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best on-campus job: Pathfinders

Runner-up: Library

Everyone knows the Pitt Pathfinders because, on campus, they are everywhere. The approximately 130 members lead about 4,000 walking tours each year, and also guide bus tours and sponsor various spirited events. Their wardrobe consists of an extensive collection of Pitt-related items, but their token uniform is the blue-and-gold striped polo shirt, which they sport while leading campus tours, walking backwards like champs. They attend an annual semi-formal and a retreat, they tele-recruit Pitt prospects, and they greet drunken students and other Panther fans at football games. The service organization, which also pays its members, has held the Best On-Campus Job title since 2001.

-Lucy Leitner, Staff Writer

Best reason to call Telefact: Directions

Runner-up: Phone numbers

Being an out-of-state student means never having to say you’re sorry.

It also means showing up in Pittsburgh and not knowing where the hell anything is.

But you think you’ve got things down with your cute, little campus map until you actually set foot out into your adopted city, armed only with MapQuest directions and a smile. The next thing you know, you’ve been walking for 30 minutes down Fifth Avenue, it’s pouring down rain, it’s getting dark, and all the houses are starting to look the same, and, and, and….

It’s OK. Don’t be scared. Telefact’s here.

You take out your cell phone, you call that number you know better than your own land line, and you relax. That soothing voice on the other end of the line guides you through the twists and turns — or even the straight path you’ve been taking in the wrong direction for the last half hour — and gets you to your destination.

Just remember, you’re never lost as long as you can see the Cathedral and as long as you can don’t forget “4-F-A-C-T.”

-Michelle Scott, Senior Staff Writer

Best way to pay for tuition: Parents

Runner-up: Loans

They worry when you don’t call each week. They enjoy reminding you that you looked very cute in red, corduroy overalls when you were little.

And they probably have more money than you do.

They’re your parents, and when you need money to pay tuition bills, they’re the best people to see. They might just hand over the check, or they might hold you to a strict repayment plan. Either way, they’ve never asked a debt collector named Bruce to pay you a visit, and how many people can you say that about?

Of course, if it doesn’t work out with your parents, you can always try your roommate’s parents. Just don’t forget the cute, red overalls.

-J. Elizabeth Strohm, News Editor

Best thing to do on a Friday night: Party/Drink

Runner-up: Party at PiKA

The cell phone is blowing up, and your instant messenger won’t stop blinking. It’s Friday night in Pittsburgh, the kegs will be tapped, and the shot glasses will be clinking. Whether you’re hitting up your best friend’s house party or buying a couple rounds at the bar, drinking is the thing to do. As soon as the last class is over, Pitt students begin gravitating to the pong tables, and uber-competitive games of flip cup commence. While the night is still young, there will be dancing, keg stands and more than a few beer bongs taken. Your closest and dearest-since-freshman-year friend or the hottie you met by the keg will make this night one you’ll never forget. But be forewarned: The Saturday morning walk of shame did not make our Best Of list.

-Laura Thomas, Photo Editor

Best secret organization: Druids

The Druids provide their members with silky, black robes, secret meeting spots and pure, unadulterated power. They have once again been voted the best secret organization on campus, winning with large margins against The Skulls and the Masons.

The Druids used to be an official student group, until the Illuminati complained about “market crowding” and “unfair competition,” and they were forced to go underground in the mid-’90s. They found out that, although rents were lower, it didn’t provide much in the trappings of authority, and, in this regard, they were similar to students living in South Oakland. Many believe the organization consists of the best and brightest: SGB, the Blue and Gold Society and Greek Leaders. So “best and brightest” may be open to debate.

If you are ever in doubt about the identity of a Druid, you may recite their initiation oath, which all members must repeat once they hear it.

You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but when you are a Druid, you cannot pick your clothes.

-Andy Medici, Staff Writer