@thepittnews Vol. 104 Issue 114 Wednesday, February 19, 2014 41°|30° Pittnews.com Students get the opportunity to meet with various employers with locations in the greater Pittsburgh area at the Spring 2014 Career Fair hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Career Services department. Robyn Konicki | Staff Photographer SIGNING DAY STUDENT GOVERNMENT STUDENT GOVERNMENT Reba Sikder heard a loud boom at work one morning as the building collapsed around her. Sikder doesn’t know how long she remained unconscious, but woke up to find her feet trapped under a machine. When she regained consciousness, she heard a nearby co-worker who was trapped under a beam. Bleeding, he begged her for help. “I told him, ‘Brother I can’t help you, I am stuck too,’” Sikder said. “A few minutes later he died.” Although Sikder eventually managed to free herself and was later rescued by the Ban- gladeshi army, the co-worker Sikder heard dying was one of more than 1,100 garment workers killed when the Rana Plaza building — located in a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city — collapsed last April. Sikder spoke Tuesday night alongside Kal- pona Akter, executive director of the Bangla- desh Center for Worker Solidarity, also from Bangladesh. Two Pitt student groups, Amer- icans for Informed Democracy and South Asian Student Association, hosted the event. Sikder, who now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was crying by the time she finished relaying her experiences. Groups push Pitt to commit to workers’ rights Gideon Bradshaw Senior Staff Writer After weeks of planning and reviewing, the Student Government Board has ensured that students facing crises will have support . Since last Tuesday, the Board made chang- es to the Crisis Relief Fund bill, which will create a financial resource for students who experience housing crises. Board members voted on the pilot pro- gram last night at their weekly 8:45 p.m. meet- ing in front of about 12 students gathered in Nordy’s Place of the William Pitt Union. The Board introduced the fund at its weekly meet- ing two weeks ago, but postponed an official vote on the bill in order to make changes. Much of the bill for the Crisis Relief Fund remained the same since its introduction two weeks ago. The fund will still be comprised of $2,000 reserved from the SGB budget, and if unused, will roll back into the Student Activity Fund at the end of the fiscal year. Individual students who have experienced a housing crisis can receive up to $250. Board member Graeme Meyer, who also serves as the Wellness Committee liaison, initially proposed that the Board distribute the fund through an application process. The Board implements fund to aid in housing emergencies Abbey Reighard Staff Writer SGB 2 Workers’ 2
Transcript
@thepittnews
Vol. 104Issue 114
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
41°|30°
Pittnews.com
Students get the opportunity to meet with various employers with locations in the greater Pittsburgh area at the Spring 2014 Career Fair hosted by the University of Pittsburgh Career Services department. Robyn Konicki | Staff Photographer
SIGNING DAYSTUDENT GOVERNMENTSTUDENT GOVERNMENT
Reba Sikder heard a loud boom at work one morning as the building collapsed around her. Sikder doesn’t know how long she remained unconscious, but woke up to fi nd her feet trapped under a machine.
When she regained consciousness, she heard a nearby co-worker who was trapped under a beam. Bleeding, he begged her for
help.“I told him, ‘Brother I can’t help you, I am
stuck too,’” Sikder said. “A few minutes later he died.”
Although Sikder eventually managed to free herself and was later rescued by the Ban-gladeshi army, the co-worker Sikder heard dying was one of more than 1,100 garment workers killed when the Rana Plaza building — located in a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city — collapsed last April.
Sikder spoke Tuesday night alongside Kal-pona Akter, executive director of the Bangla-desh Center for Worker Solidarity , also from Bangladesh. Two Pitt student groups, Amer-icans for Informed Democracy and South Asian Student Association, hosted the event. Sikder, who now su! ers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was crying by the time she fi nished relaying her experiences.
Groups push Pitt to commit to workers’ rightsGideon Bradshaw Senior Staff Writer
After weeks of planning and reviewing, the Student Government Board has ensured that students facing crises will have support .
Since last Tuesday, the Board made chang-es to the Crisis Relief Fund bill, which will create a fi nancial resource for students who experience housing crises.
Board members voted on the pilot pro-gram last night at their weekly 8:45 p.m. meet-ing in front of about 12 students gathered in Nordy’s Place of the William Pitt Union. The Board introduced the fund at its weekly meet-ing two weeks ago, but postponed an o" cial vote on the bill in order to make changes.
Much of the bill for the Crisis Relief Fund remained the same since its introduction two weeks ago. The fund will still be comprised of $2,000 reserved from the SGB budget, and if unused, will roll back into the Student Activity Fund at the end of the fi scal year. Individual students who have experienced a housing crisis can receive up to $250.
Board member Graeme Meyer, who also serves as the Wellness Committee liaison, initially proposed that the Board distribute the fund through an application process. The
Board implements fund to aid in housing
emergenciesAbbey Reighard
Staff Writer
SGB 2 Workers’ 2
2 February 19, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
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.
Board has since decided that it will instead contact students who the University reports were a" ected by housing crises rather than use an application process.
“We made it a process where we reach out to students to make sure that we can help them as soon as possible,” Meyer said.
SGBFROM PAGE 1
AllocationsStudent Government Board: $2,365.99Pitt Women’s Water Polo: $2,354.00 Strong Women, Strong Girls: $640.64HeroiKs: $498.01
Total Allocated this year: $100,497.23
Read more online at Pittnews.com
Akter discussed the problems in Bangla-desh, where workers live on some of the lowest wages in the world and often face intimida-tion, violence or risk of losing their jobs if they attempt to unionize.
Although the national activist organiza-tion United Students Against Sweatshops organized the tour that included the two Bangladeshi women’s visit to Pitt’s campus, the visit was well-timed for some members of
AID and the No Sweat Coalition, a broad alli-ance of campus groups that advocate for the rights of workers who make Pitt apparel. The groups used the event to encourage students and community members to support one of their ongoing initiatives.
Since last semester, these groups have pushed for Pitt to join a growing list of uni-versities that require their apparel licensees to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a measure University o! cials say they are currently considering.
WORKERS’FROM PAGE 1
Workers’ 4
4 February 19, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.comT P NS U DO K U
Today’s di! culty level: HardPuzzles by Dailysodoku.com
Joe Thomas , an organizer for AID, said that more than 160 students and faculty members signed the petitions that members of the No Sweat Coalition distributed after Sikder and Akter spoke. The petitions urged Pitt o! cials to adopt the accord.
According to the Bangladesh Accord Foundation, a group founded to administer the agreement, the accord is a legally bind-ing agreement between international labor unions, labor groups within Bangladesh and more than 150 of the apparel companies and brands that buy clothes from suppliers located there.
Labor activists say the accord, which labor groups drafted in May 2013 after the disaster at Rana Plaza, will better protect Bangladeshi workers.
In addition to multiple garment facto-ries, the eight-story building also housed the branch of a bank and several shops, but em-ployees of these businesses were not working because of the perceived danger, according to media reports.
Sikder, 19, said that on the day the building collapsed, managers at the factories in the building threatened workers that they would lose their jobs if they refused to return to work.
Akter pointed out that the Rana Plaza was so horrifi c, it largely eclipsed the memory of a fi re that killed more than 100 workers at the Tazreen Fashions factory, also located in Dhaka, in November 2012. The fi re exit in the factory was locked and the fi re extinguishers did not work, according to media reports.
Provisions of the agreement address such oversights — which garment factory owners and managers often encourage to cut operat-ing costs — by requiring apparel companies that sign it to conduct safety inspections of their suppliers located in Bangladesh. If cloth-ing suppliers must close a factory for mainte-nance, the companies that buy clothing from the factory must continue to pay workers in the meantime.
The accord also calls for the creation of a committee including representatives from garment companies and labor organizations. The committee would be responsible for ap-pointing an independent chief of safety in-spections who could only be fi red in the event of serious misconduct, and this o! cial would be responsible for making sure brands follow
the terms of the agreement.According to Thomas, such measures
serve as an incentive for workers to report unsafe conditions rather than to fear reprisal or loss of pay.
“The accord has very specifi c mecha-nisms to make sure corporations pay their fair share,” Thomas, a senior majoring in biol-ogy and political science, said.
The agreement also requires companies that sign the agreement to continue to buy clothing from the same factories they used before signing. For at least two years after signing the agreement, companies must buy as much or more apparel at each factory they use in Bangladesh as they did the year before signing the agreement.
Thomas and other members of AID and the No Sweat Coalition began to meet frequently last semester with Lori Burens, Pitt’s direc-tor of licensing, after Pitt joined the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group for the rights of workers who make university apparel, in August.
At the meetings, which Thomas said took place every week or two weeks, Burens and the other students discussed ways to ensure the safety of workers who make Pitt’s licensed ap-parel. The Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh came up in these meetings.
Thomas and Burens have their fi rst meet-ing this semester scheduled for Friday.
Aside from the meetings, Thomas and other members of the No Sweat Coalition have made sugar-coated appeals directly to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg.
University o! cials have yet to make a fi nal decision.
“The University is reviewing the Bangla-desh Accord and will notify the students when a decision has been made,” Burens said in an email.
If Pitt does follow the students’ requests, it will join at least six other universities that have made signing the accord a requirement for their licensees.
Duke University announced such a move in a public statement last October that reported its licensees would have to sign the accord.
The University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and New York University an-nounced in December that they, too, would require licensees to sign the accord.
Pennsylvania State University, Georgetown University and Cornell University issued simi-lar statements earlier this month.
WORKERS’FROM PAGE 2
Read more online at Pittnews.com.
@thepittnews
Vol. 104Issue 149
Thursday, April 17, 2014
63°|43°
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Students simulate death to protest deaths of factory workers.Subhana Chaudhri | Staff Photographer.
LYING DOWN TO TAKE A STAND
As Mick Brennan lit the cigarette dangling from his lips, he commented on a potentially looming reality: a tobacco-free Pitt campus.
“I like being able to smoke on campus,” Brennan, a sophomore majoring in informa-tion science, said. “It’s convenient.”
Student Government Board member Graeme Meyer, a sophomore majoring in bioengineering, is pushing a tobacco-free policy on Pitt’s campus, starting with an on-line survey to gauge students’ opinions on going tobacco-free. The survey has garnered 154 responses since it went live April 15 on the Student Government Board website.
In the 19-question survey, Meyer asks if students would be comfortable with any of three options: creating designated smoking areas, making Pitt completely smoke-free or banning all tobacco products on campus. The survey also asks whether students use tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and other smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco.
After evaluating student responses, Meyer will decide which of the options, if any, would be best to include in a proposal to Pitt admin-istration. Meyer has not started drafting a proposal as of April 16.
Meyer said the initiative comes from a health standpoint, particularly the correla-tion between smoking and lung cancer and the e! ects of secondhand smoke.
Meyer is also concerned with upholding Pitt’s title as one of the healthiest college cam-puses in the country. According to Greatlist.com, Pitt ranked 12th on the list of healthiest colleges in 2012.
“With such a medically attuned commu-nity, it just doesn’t seem right to not have that
policy,” Meyer said. Meyer’s policy would come in the wake of
Pitt’s failure to make Greatist.com’s list in 2013 of the healthiest college campuses, of which Virginia Tech was the only Atlantic Coast Con-ference school. Greatist.com compiles the list using nominations from readers, information on the Internet relating to health services at schools, student surveys from College Prowler, a site of college reviews written by students, The Princeton Review and a value-based scor-ing system for each school in consideration for the list.
Meyer said he worked closely with Marian Vanek, the director of Student Health Ser-vices, to assemble the survey, which is cur-rently aimed at students. Faculty may take the survey as well, but Meyer said students are the primary concern at this stage in the surveying process..
Meyer said the Wellness Committee, a Stu-dent Government Board committee, Student Health and the Healthy U, a Student A! airs health initiative, will assist with the distribu-tion of paper copies of the survey through tabling, fl yer distribution and social media.
“We support the fi ndings of the Surgeon General that tobacco use in any form, active and/or passive, is a health hazard,” Vanek said in an email. “Thus, we support Graeme and his team with their e! orts to evaluate the poten-tial of the University becoming a tobacco-free living and learning environment.”
Meyer said he did not want to bombard stu-dents with emails about the survey, but rather, hopes they will fi nd it on the SGB website.
“It has the potential to render them inef-fective, as people begin to ignore the emails,” Meyer said.
Since Meyer’s project is in the survey phase,
Student initiative for a smoke-free campus goes live
Macie Ellis For The Pitt News
The lifeless bodies strewn across the Wil-liam Pitt Union on Wednesday were actu-ally standing up.
Ten students took to the ground for a second “die-in” protest by No Sweat: Pitt Coalition Against Sweatshops and Ameri-cans for Informed Democracy. Instead of staging a sit-in, the students lie down as if they were dead to represent the 1,129 workers who died when the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh that col-lapsed last April.
The groups are trying to persuade Pitt to require its licensees — anyone who pro-duces Pitt apparel — to sign an accord so that Pitt apparel is not made in factories with unfair or dangerous working condi-tions. The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety will make corporations responsible for the workers in factories in Bangladesh.
Joe Thomas, co-founder of AID and No Sweat, said signing the accord is an impor-tant step for Pitt and that students have the power to change the apparel industry.
Students lie down, protest again for workers’ rights
Jessica IaculloFor The Pitt News
Smoke-Free 2 Read the rest on pittnews.com
2 April 17, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
he said he has not contacted many administra-tive members besides Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey. Meyer said he’ll determine his next step based on the survey responses.
“When you smoke around other students, you are subjecting them to secondhand smoke,” Meyer said. “It’s about respecting people’s right to clean air.”
Brennan expressed confl icting sentiments.“I don’t think I harm others with second-
hand smoke,” Brennan said. “There’s other air.”
Meyer said he’s researched many successful tobacco-free campaigns, including those at University of Maryland, Ohio State, University of Michigan and Michigan State University, which do not impose harsh punishments, if any, and said this approach seems more ef-fi cient than strict enforcement policies em-
ployed by other universities. For instance, at Ohio State University, smoking is prohibited on all university-owned and operated prop-erties, and students or faculty who eitness direct repeat o! enders can report them to their Student Conduct Councils.
Meyer said he is not prepared to make a fi rm statement on how repeat o! enders would be punishe d until he has the survey results, but said that they would likely go through the University judiciary system just like those who break other campus rules
For Meyer, the main priority isn’t the University’s enforcement but to “promote awareness and use peer pressure to enforce the policy.”
Meyer’s initiative comes at a time when the University System of Georgia, an organi-zational body of public institutions of higher learning in Georgia, will enact a ban on smok-ing, including e-cigarettes. The ban will apply to all 31 universities in the system and will begin Oct. 1, 2014.
Marion Fedrick, the USG’s vice chancellor
for human resources, said in a press release on the organizational body’s website that the pol-icy aims “to preserve and improve the health, comfort and environment of employees and any persons occupying USG facilities.”
The USG policy applies to all employees, students, contractors, subcontractors and visitors and is applicable 24/7. According to the statement, all USG-related events shall be tobacco- and smoke-free. To follow suit with the USG, Meyer plans to use his “peer pressure” model to encourage students to use the resources of Pitt’s QUIT program, which stands for “Quit Using Irritating Tobacco.”
Megan Stahl, a health educator at Student Health, said the QUIT program is a free service o! ered by The O" ce of Health Education and Promotion as part of Student Health services to help students quit using tobacco.
According to Stahl, the QUIT program is available to Pitt students regardless of the type or amount of tobacco they use and includes weekly one-on-one counseling sessions for students.
A health educator helps the students to understand their use, to develop a QUIT action plan and to transition to a tobacco free-lifestyle during their appointments, according to Stahl.
QUIT o! ers students nicotine patches at no cost. The QUIT program is based in the O" ce of Health Education and Promotion inside the Student Health o" ce at Nordenberg Hall.
A question in Meyer’s survey asks if stu-dents know about QUIT because he plans to assess students’ knowledge of the program and, if awareness is low, to develop a PR plan with Student Health and the environmental committee
Becky Brown, a sophomore majoring in biology, said she doesn’t like smoking or sec-ondhand smoke.
“It’s gross,” Brown said.But Lindsey Guerrini, a freshman studying
athletic training, said she felt that smoking does not a! ect nonsmoking students.
“I don’t really care about smoking as long as it’s not directly in my face,” Guerrini said.
SMOKE-FREEFROM PAGE 1
In an article published Monday, April 14, titled “Board goes public with student groups’ budget appeals,” The Pitt News reported that the Allocations Committee approved the Board’s request for the cost for Board members to attend the Professional Association for SQL Server conference. This information is incorrect. The Al-locations Committee approved the Board’s request for the cost for Board members to attend the Pennsylvania Association of State-Related Students conference. The Pitt News regrets this error.
I n an article published Tuesday, April 15, titled “Nordenberg celebrated, praised on honorary day,” The Pitt News reported that “members of the Resident Student Associated marched to the event carrying signs.” This is inaccurate. Those marching with signs were Resident Assistants, not members of the Resident Student Association. It was also not the inten-tion of The Pitt News to imply that the Resident Student Association was the only group responsible for the planning of the event. The third paragraph of the article states the other student groups involved in the planning of the event. The Pitt News regrets these errors.
I n an article published Thursday, April 10, titled “Books and bakes: Hillman hosts a cake party,” The Pitt News reported that Leam Bridge, a male, won “overall favorite” at the Edible Book Fest competition for a “The Giving Tree” cake. This information is incorrect. Leann Bridge, a female, is the name of “overall favorite” winner. The Pitt News regrets this error.
1
After a year of student pressure, Pitt will require its apparel licensees to sign a legal document agreeing not to manufacture products in unsafe working environments.
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh aims to prevent accidents like the collapse of a Bangladeshi garment factory in April 2013. The accord promotes a garment industry “in which no worker needs to fear fi res, building collapses, or other accidents that could be prevented with reasonable health and safety measures.” More than 1,000 work-ers died in the collapse of the factory at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, a country with signifi cantly unsafe factories.
“[The accord] has certain mechanisms that force com-panies to fi nance the repair and upkeep of their factories and also empowers employees by allowing them to form unions,” said Dolly Prabhu , president of Pitt’s Americans for Informed Democracy (AID).
The University sent a letter to its licensees on Friday, Aug. 22, according to vice chan-cellor of communications Ken Service. If Pitt’s partners do not sign the accord, Service said “they will no longer do business with Pitt.”
The University looked over the conditions of the accord, Service said, and agreed that it was time to sign the document and force those who produce Pitt products to do the same. Licensees will have until Oct. 1 to sign the accord, according to an AID release last week, but Service said he wasn’t aware of a specifi c deadline for licensees to sign the accord by.
Students from AID, the leading group of the No Sweat: Pitt Coalition Against Sweatshops , met with University administration sev-
Cristina Holtzer News Editor
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Urban Hike offers new way to see PittsburghSee Page 2
Mural project promotes art among youthSee Page 6
First-time foray into fantasy foot-ballSee Page 10
Bangladesh 2
SAFERSAFER SPIRIT WEAR
Bobby Mizia | Visual Editor
@thepittnews
Vol. 105Issue 16
Tuesday, August 26th, 2014
88°|63°Pittnews.com
2 August 26, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
eral times last year to urge Pitt o! cials to sign the accord. The No Sweat: Pitt Coalition Against Sweatshops is a conglomerate of Pitt student groups who work together to ban sweatshops worldwide. In April, students from the coalition staged a successful die-in on the William Pitt Union Lawn , during which they lied down to make their bod-ies represent those who died in the factory collapse.
Last year, Pitt AID invited Reba Sikder, a survivor of the Bangladeshi factory collapse, to speak at Pitt about her experiences. For one AID member, Sikder’s speech was an impetus to get more involved in supporting workers’ rights issues.
“The entire story was very heartbreak-
ing,” said Mihir Mulloth, a junior chemistry and neuroscience major. “She was only 18 years old. Many of us are applying to college at 18 and she was watching people she’s worked with for months or years just die in front of her.”
After two semesters of dropping o" baked goods, letters and petitions with more than 160 student signatures, the students from Pitt AID met with administration in April.
“We were told the review of the Accord was going in a positive direction, but no more than that,” Prabhu said of the meeting.
While AID members were initially frus-trated with the lack of indication that the administration had read or received their petitions and letters, former AID president Erin Shields said negotiations advanced after the students made it clear that student interest was high.
Last August , the University signed on with the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that fi ghts for labor rights in factories worldwide. The Worker Rights Consortium drafted the accord in conjunc-tion with many other organizations in re-sponse to the 2013 factory collapse.
“We worked very hard to get them to sign on to that,” said Shield, a senior history and political science major. “They’re trust-ing this organization to make these recom-mendations that will ultimately ensure that their apparel doesn’t come at the expense of workers around the world.”
To continue their student activism, Prabhu said the next step for AID will be to continue monitoring the Worker Rights Consortium and “making sure Pitt is doing as much as possible to ensure the ethical production of Pitt apparel.”
“For instance, we are also promoting
the sale of Alta Gracia brand clothing at the University Store, because it is produced in a living wage factory,” Prabhu said.
Throughout the negotiations , Shields and the other AID members learned how the administration works, boosting her hopes that “this cooperation can extend to other student groups as well.” Shields said she “briefl y and informally” met with dean of students Kathy Humphrey to discuss a pos-sible labor rights committee at Pitt, but that the group hasn’t really had a chance to con-vene and talk about what comes next after the University signed the accord.
“Us pushing for the accord is part of the larger mission that Pitt stands by the Worker Rights Consortium and makes decision that are both smart and ethical, and using our power as students in order to infl uence that,” Shields said.
BANGLADESHFROM PAGE 1
Some hikers require heavy gear and extensive preparation, but with Urban Hikers, you can hit the trail with only a cup of joe and curiosity for Pittsburgh culture.
In 2003, a group of Pittsburghers be-gan leading organized hikes to explore different neighborhoods of the city. As a cohort, they call themselves “Urban Hike,” and their mission is to uncover lesser known features of Pittsburgh’s communities. .
Emily Keebler, a long-term volunteer for the urban hiking community, said it is unclear how the name originated.
“It feels kind of silly trying to explain it and not sound patronizing,” Keebler said. “People think it’s going hiking in an urban area, but it’s not. Though we love to hit green space, we mainly walk on and explore the city streets.”
Once a month, the Urban Hike com-munity embarks on open hikes that usually draw about 40 to 60 people between 25 to 45 years old.
Journeys usually begin in front of a bakery or coffee shop, so the hikers can pick up a cup of coffee or a dough-nut before they begin their trek. From there, the group walks around the city, typically three to five miles, exploring restaurants, churches, shops, museums and parks.
Urban Hike’s members determine the route ahead of time, usually inspired by one member stumbling upon a café or spotting some interesting architecture he or she wanted to learn more about. From there, they call local shop or res-taurant owners, asking them if they would be willing to speak to the group. Though the main goal of the hikes is to get some exercise, the group still makes pit stops to learn about Pittsburgh.
“We make a point of stressing to people that it’s very casual and infor-mal, [and] that it’s a free service being offered to the public,” Keebler said. “We want people to get exercise, so we don’t stop on every corner. But there are some things you just can’t pass up without learning more.”
Keebler said Brian Maloney, a college
student living in Pittsburgh at the time, founded Urban Hike as a way to teach Pittsburgh residents about their home.
A main draw to Pitt for senior Philip Sweet was the chance to explore the city, and he frequently ventures off to roam around other parts of town, espe-cially the North Shore. Like the Urban Hikers , Sweet opts for local delis and cafés on his trips, and often stumbles upon places he did not know existed, like a guitar shop or farmer’s market. Sweet said he may not be an official “Urban Hiker”, but he appreciates the group’s mission.
“I would love to join the Urban Hike community,” said Sweet, a molecular biology major. “There are lots of things going on in the city that don’t reach the student population, and so much of it wants student involvement. Students should be interested in these things.”
Katherine Anderson, vice president of the Pitt Outdoors Club , said the club hopes to get involved in the trend.
Though the club typically partici-pates in more “traditional” hiking, An-derson, a junior studio art major, said
members are open to local outdoors activities, too. The club has also started pairing up with Venture Outdoors, a nonprofit organization that provides services such as kayaks trips down the rivers of Pittsburgh.
Besides dressing for the weather and travelling equipped with water, Urban Hikers should bring intrigue about new places.
“Whatever happens, happens,” Keebler said. “We hit the city steps and see what we can find out about.”
Take an urban hike, venture to parts unknownEmma Solak
For The Pitt News
NEWS
4 August 26, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com
OPINIONSWith perseverance,
student activism triggers results
EDITORIALEDITORIAL
Students often do not realize the power they have to bring change to campus. Two stu-dent organizations at Pitt have shown that student activism can work when paired with perseverance.
On Friday, Pitt signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh . Accord-ing to a release, the accord re-quires “regular factory safety inspections, fi nancial account-ability on behalf of companies for necessary factory repairs and gives workers the rights to form unions and refuse to enter a building they fi nd un-safe without the risk of losing their jobs.”
This move will ideally pres-sure Pitt’s apparel licensees to follow the practices within the accord. Licensees that fail to abide by the accord may face termination or the loss of their University license.
Pitt’s announcement comes after long-term e! orts by No Sweat: Pitt Coalition Against Sweatshops and Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) — student groups that remained committed to their cause since April 2013. Their primary vehicles were peti-tions and protests, including last April’s “die-in” in the Ca-thedral of Learning.
Besides this humanitarian undertaking, students have spearheaded other e! orts that fueled change at the adminis-trative level.
Last spring, the University saw a vast reduction in plastic bag at campus dining facilities as a result of the “bring your own bag ” campaign led by stu-dents with a vision for a more sustainable campus. Once the University implemented the policy, students were re-stricted to a semester quota of 15 plastic bags. Exceeding this limit could be met with a 25 cent charge per additional bag. The policy has e! ectively decreased plastic bag usage on campus.
Peaceful, committed stu-dent activism and a willingness to cooperate have the power to change longstanding conven-tions. No Sweat, AID and the many environmental groups on campus have proven that even campaigns initially met with little interest can succeed — and without hostility.
Activist success relies more upon collaboration and mu-tual understanding between student groups and Univer-sity administrators. As the new school year commences, students should avoid the fall into lethargy and apathy and instead remember the recent victories of their peers.
With patience and com-mitment, students can make a di! erence on campus. Hope-fully, students can replicate the magnitude of such accomplish-ments in coming semesters.
As the new year begins, students will again be exposed to minds that assert the dangers and evils of capitalism. These thinkers have every right to put forth such beliefs — that is what America is all about. But be weary of such cynicism. Instead, try thinking of the world’s predominant eco-nomic system in both a personal and rational manner. Then you will understand its true value.
As an American, I am incred-ibly fortunate to live in a nation whose economic tradition cen-ters around capitalism. It has made this nation prosperous and provided me with oppor-tunities unrealized in centrally planned economies — a thriv-ing free market in which I am free to use my earned money as I wish, enroll in the university I wish to attend and lead the life I wish to lead — unburdened by the dictates of inefficient and ineffective central planning. All of this stems from the economic freedom and choice that capital-ism, not socialism or Marxism, provides.
In a speech on Nov. 11, 1947, Sir Winston Churchill reminded the UK’s House of Commons that “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.” In a similar fashion, capitalism is the worst economic system, except for all the others.
Capitalism is no different from anything else in this world. It is imperfect because imperfect men created it. Humans are not
perfect, nor are they capable of perfection. Avarice and greed are not unique to capitalism. They were present in the USSR, and they will be present in any man-made system.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, free market systems have been implemented in numerous former Soviet States. Perhaps nowhere better illustrates capi-talism’s success in post-Iron Cur-tain Europe than in the country of Estonia.
On Oct. 21, 1992, Mart Laar became Prime Minister of the newly independent nation. He was only 32 years old. Upon en-tering office, Laar’s economic knowledge consisted of one book: 20th century free market economist Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, a personal state-ment advocating for the immense value of economic freedom.
The young prime minister was so impressed that he im-plemented many of Friedman’s ideas, such as free markets and free trade. Rather than borrow-ing huge amounts of money from international institutions, Es-tonia sought to attract foreign investment. The most northern Baltic nation prioritized real, natural growth over shallow, artificial growth. Because of this, Estonia successfully tran-sitioned from a poverty-stricken nation with a planned economy to a flourishing capitalist society. In fact, by the latter half of the 1990s, Estonia received more foreign investment per capita than any other central or eastern European country. Therefore, because of free markets and
private investment — not central planning and public intervention — new workplaces formed, old factories were reconstructed and new knowledge and technology were acquired, making Estonia authentically modern and in-creasingly competitive.
In 1992, Estonia’s GDP per capita (in dollars) was $2,823. In only 20 years, GDP per capita increased dramatically, totaling $17,041 in 2012.
Leaving Estonia and enter-ing China, one will find more corroboration for the case for economic freedom.
Globally, capitalism is re-sponsible for lifting nearly one billion individuals out of poverty in the past 20 years alone. China is responsible for three-fourths of this achievement. Moreover, extreme poverty is disappearing. Between 1981 and 2010, China elevated 680 million people out of poverty and reduced its ex-treme poverty rate from 84 per-cent in 1980 to 10 percent today.
Like Estonia, China has expe-rienced great economic liberal-ization leading to a vast influx of foreign investment — producing remarkable domestic growth and opportunity.
As evidently displayed in practice, nations that have fo-cused on economic freedom, such as Estonia and China, have significantly grown and devel-oped. Regimes that focus purely on abstract and utopian ideol-ogy, as those of Soviet Russia and Maoist China did, fail to provide true progress and sustainability.
As Friedman once said, “A
Capitalism: The worst economic system, except for all the others
