Summer classes serve several purposes
By Justin Fekete | For The Pitt News
May 30, 2018
After final exams week for the spring term ends, most students feel they will get along fine without looking at a syllabus or opening another textbook until August. Many start preparing for internships, jobs or, for the lucky ones, endless hours of sleep. Taking more classes isn’t always the first...
Student stand-ups take the mic
By Zachary Donovan | Staff Writer
March 22, 2018
Filed under 2. Featured, Culture
The crowd erupted in laughter as Nektarios Kasamias — whose parents immigrated from Greece — regaled them with tales of white friends who wished they had “more ethnicity.” “[They’re like,] ‘I’m just plain old regular normal American,’” he said. “Normal American? Let’s not go thr...
Editorial: After shooting, student walkouts lead the way
By The Pitt News Editorial Board
February 21, 2018
Filed under Editorials, Opinions
Florida’s state legislature disappointed gun control advocates Monday when it declined to consider a ban on the assault weapon used in last week’s high school massacre in Parkland, Florida. But for students, both in the state and around the country, that wasn’t the end of the story. From Minnes...
Student election interest starts with SGB slates
By Anne Marie Yurik | Columnist
February 20, 2018
It wasn’t until Monday of last week that I realized it was election season for Student Government Board. I, along with all 19,325 of my peers, are responsible today for voting in a new student body president who will be a voice for all undergraduates on campus. Although I thought the reason I d...
Poetry: January 23-24
By Alexis Buncich | For The Pitt News
January 26, 2018
In spring, we walk to class in miniskirts; we’ve got our books in hand. Everything seems swell outside, the weather at our command. Runners jogging in the park, the warmth remains when it turns dark, and every decision appears to be a complete, brand-new start. In spring, the l...
Pitt playwrights compete in festival
By Caroline Bourque and Shahum Ajmal | Pitt News Staff
January 23, 2018
Onstage, two actors sparred, bickered and gestured toward an imaginary hole in the floor as a willing audience played along — bringing to life a story from the mind of a fellow Pitt student. At the third annual Playwriting Festival, hosted by the Pitt Performance Collaborative, three students had the c...
ASA breaks the bamboo ceiling
By Shahum Ajmal | For The Pitt News
January 18, 2018
Filed under Culture
Albert Tanjaya encouraged the discussion of Asian stereotypes Wednesday night, evoking a feeling of acceptance from the group gathered in room G8 of the Cathedral. “We are talking about the journey of self-identity, self-discovery and what it means to be an Asian-American,” Tanjaya said. Tanjaya...
Don’t make students foot the bill for tax cuts
By Maggie Durwald | Columnist
November 28, 2017
As our fellow Pitt students once again embark on the often overwhelming journey that is apartment hunting for next year, the voters of Pennsylvania may be inadvertently raising our rental costs. At the polls earlier this month, 54 percent of Pennsylvanians voted for a constitutional amendment allo...
Hartford hate crime shows what happens when students stay silent
By Sarah Shearer | Columnist
November 5, 2017
Imagine walking into your dorm room at the end of a long day. You get ready for bed, brush your teeth and apply lotion. The faint smell of — moldy clams? — doesn’t quite hit but lingers questionably in the air. You want to ask your roommate if she smells it too, but can’t find the strength t...
Dear WBC: Hate doesn’t have a home here
By Sarah Shearer | For The Pitt News
October 4, 2017
It only takes reading a few sentences into the “about” page on the Westboro Baptist Church’s website to understand one thing: this is a group fueled by hate. The WBC is well known for its protesting tactics, picketing at events from military funerals, such as Sgt. Dillon Baldridge’s in No...
Pitt students minds at work, hearts at home
By Ellie Yoon | For The Pitt News
October 4, 2017
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
Audrey Chen can’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia every time she walks into the Subway on Forbes Avenue and sees how thin the sandwiches are. “Whenever I go to Subway — we also have the same store called Subway in Taiwan — it makes me think about the difference in thickness,” she said...
Students talk cultural beauty perceptions
By Bailey Frisco | For The Pitt News
October 2, 2017
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
Maria Beniaminova said many Americans have an interest in big butts that people in her home country of Russia would find peculiar. “There is a small population [in Russia] that is into curvier women, but I think that has to do with the fact that Russia used to be the USSR, so there are people fro...
Students soldier on to future
By Jesse Madden | For The Pitt News
September 27, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
Caitlyn Gibbs’ schedule requires her to be at Bellefield Hall at 5:45 a.m. three days per week, where attendance is taken. Then she and 150 other Pitt students head over to the Cathedral lawn for running and weight-training activities until 7 a.m. No, she’s not just a fitness freak. She’s preparing for a ca...
Service dogs help students succeed
By Nina Kneuer | For The Pitt News
September 25, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
Claire Ozolek’s best friend, Lexi, has big eyes and a hard-working disposition. She also has a tail and four legs and works as Ozolek’s service dog. “I mean it sounds cliche, but she is really my best friend,” Ozolek said. Ozolek — a senior psychology major at Pitt — and Lexi ha...
Students skate through school streets
By Ellie Yoon / For The Pitt News
September 21, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
Some Pitt students trek to their classes on foot. Many more bike or pray the bus comes on time. But a handful can sometimes be seen rolling down Forbes or Fifth avenues with a textbook-filled backpack sagging and a skateboard or longboard beneath their feet. Robert Benjamin, who graduated fro...
Subjects for a day: Pitt students participate in studies for money
By Anandhini Narayanan for The Pitt News
September 19, 2017
Filed under 2. Featured, Campus, News
In the second semester of her senior year, Aditi Kumar said her intensive 21-credit schedule forced her to quit her job — leaving her without a source of income. “This was the the first time I found myself without a job,” Kumar, a 2017 graduate in sociology at Pitt, said. “I like to be ind...
Hustling on the holidays
By Zoe Pawliczek | Staff Writer
September 14, 2017
After the last bus home for the holidays leaves Pitt, few students remain in the dorms and on campus — those who do stay often work, including Nordenberg Resident Assistant Liam Monahan. “I’m looking forward to being productive over the break, prepping for finals and hanging with the other RA on d...
Near and far: Pitt students’ diverse origins
By Anandhini Narayanan | Staff Writer
September 12, 2017
Filed under Campus, City, Top Stories
At Audrey Jonas’ high school, students celebrate “Tractor Day” — a day in which students drive their farm tractors to school and spend time marveling at the assortment of tractors in the parking lot. Jonas grew up in Bernville, Pennsylvania, which has a population of about 1,000 residents. “Trac...
Oakland’s businesses adapt to fewer students in summer
By Henry Glitz | News Editor
July 18, 2017
Filed under Campus, News, Top Stories
The warm summer sun beat down this week as business owners across Oakland opened their doors for a day mostly like any other day. The only difference was a conspicuous lack of their main customers — students. Mid-July is undeniably a relatively quiet time of the year in Oakland. With just a few summer...
Getting Thrifty: the key to living on a student budget
By Rose Luder | Staff Writer
May 30, 2017
It’s almost the weekend, which means it’s time to make weekend plans. Living on an urban campus in a city like Pittsburgh, students have what feels like a limitless variety of options to choose from. There are numerous places to eat out with a group of friends, and this weekend alone, a popular band co...
Savoring Schenley Park: the story of a green space
By Grant Burgman | Staff Writer
May 30, 2017
Whether you’re headed over the bridge from Schenley Plaza to go for a run, play some frisbee or relax in the grass, the first thing you’ll see when you cross looks like an imposing glass castle. The building is Phipps Conservatory — a vast greenhouse filled with local and tropical plants. The conse...
Pitt wraps up eighth RecycleMania
By Ashwini Sivaganesh / News Editor
March 30, 2017
Filed under Campus, Top Stories
Some students walking through the parking lot between the William Pitt Union and Towers Patio Wednesday morning said they thought they were witnessing a remake of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” A cobalt blue tarp was set up under the cloudless sky, and students in white puffy Tyvek jumpsuit...
Martin Creed Exhibit
November 20, 2013
The ability of modern art to turn the mundane into the intellectually engaging has persisted since the fateful day that Marcel Duchamp famously scrawled “R.Mutt” onto a urinal and entered it into the 1917 exhibit for New York’s Society of Independent Artists. The work created an uproar and brought a...