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Sitting with the candidate for almost an hour on Friday morning, community and faith leaders in Duquesne told Republican U.S. Senate contender Mehmet Oz that the reason Pennsylvania is seeing its communities ravaged by violent crime is because of deeply-embedded systemic issues, insisting that it’ll take level-headed solutions — not mantras like “Defund the Police” — to fix them. In a small activity room at New Birth Baptist Church on Grant Ave, Mr. Oz was joined by church members and activists to discuss solutions to rising crime rates, modeled off a similar roundtable he held in Philadelphia recently. On the...

While Johnny Mandel sang “suicide is painless,” it is apparently also ethical. Duquesne University Psychology professor Derek Hook is under fire this week after arguing in class that white people may find that the ethical option for the dismantling of white culture is suicide. As will likely come as little surprise to many on this blog, I oppose calls for Hook’s termination as a matter of academic freedom. In a class to Baltimore-based American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work in June available on Twitter, Hook used a quote by South African philosophy professor, Terblanche Delport, that “White people...

PITTSBURGH - A Duquesne University football player died after he fell from a 16th floor window of a residence hall on Duquesne University’s campus Thursday night, authorities said. Pittsburgh police were called about 10:30 p.m. to Brottier Hall, where campus police had responded for an altercation on the 16th floor. Duquesne University President Ken Gormley identified the man as Marquis Brown, a junior. He was from Washington, D.C. The man was taken to a hospital in critical condition and was later pronounced dead.

Students at Duquesne University are petitioning their school to reconsider a plan to bring Chick-fil-A to campus, arguing the fast-food restaurant’s support for traditional marriage would create an unsafe environment for gay students. . . . Rachel Coury, president of the Duquesne gay-straight alliance, said she fears Chick-fil-A will roll back efforts to create a safe environment for gay students on campus. “I’ve tried very hard within the last semester and a half to promote this safe environment for the LGBTQ+ community,” Ms. Coury told The Duke. “So I fear that with the Chick-fil-A … maybe people will feel that...

On Sept. 1, Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct professor who had taught French at Duquesne University for 25 years, passed away at the age of 83. She died as the result of a massive heart attack she suffered two weeks before. As it turned out, I may have been the last person she talked to. On Aug. 16, I received a call from a very upset Margaret Mary. She told me that she was under an incredible amount of stress. She was receiving radiation therapy for the cancer that had just returned to her, she was living nearly homeless because...

<p>PITTSBURGH (AP) – Duquesne University says TV personality Geraldo Rivera isn’t welcome to appear on a panel at the Pittsburgh school because of a half-naked self-portrait he posted this summer.</p> <p>Duquesne says the cell phone picture Rivera posted in July was inappropriate and not in line with their values as a Catholic university. Rivera had been scheduled to moderate a panel to mark the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.</p>

Denver, Colo., Nov 1, 2012 / 04:03 am (CNA).- The Obama campaign attempted to schedule a rally-like event on a Catholic university campus in the key swing state of Colorado before settling on a dialogue with a co-chair of Catholics for Obama. “Their original intent was to have more of a rally element to it,” said Paul Alexander, director of Regis University's Institute for the Common Good, which hosted the event. “We just felt we couldn’t do a rally, but we felt a healthy dialogue among Catholics was important.” About 45 people attended the Oct. 25 dialogue and small group...

Duquesne University has ordered WDUQ-FM to stop airing underwriter support messages from the reproductive rights and health-care education group Planned Parenthood. The National Public Radio affiliate and jazz station, which is based on the Duquesne University campus and operates under the university's 501(c)3 tax-exempt status, pulled the underwriting acknowledgement messages Thursday. "Planned Parenthood is not aligned with the university's Catholic mission and identity and legally, stations are not required to accept underwriting support," said Bridget Fare, Duquesne University spokeswoman

PITTSBURGH - Duquesne coach Ron Everhart is "embarrassed, disappointed and angry" about the drug-related arrests of former junior college star Stuard Baldonado, a promising recruit who drew national sympathy a year ago after being shot but now has an uncertain basketball future. But Everhart and athletic director Greg Amodio said Thursday they are determined to prevent Baldonado's case from tarnishing his teammates and the school or derailing a promising program that appears to be on the brink of winning for the first time in 14 years. "I know from a basketball perspective it's not going to affect our program in...

Police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting of five Duquesne basketball players early Sunday. KDKA-TV said the alleged gunman was arrested overnight. His name has not yet been released. The man will be arraigned this morning on charges related to the shooting. Two other men are in custody, but are thought to be witnesses to the shooting. A 19-year-old woman, who is said to be an associate of the suspect, was arrested on a conspiracy charge stemming from an incident at a dance earlier in night.

Five Duquesne basketball players, all but one of them new players who enrolled only this month, were shot early Sunday during an apparent act of random violence on campus. Two players were in critical condition, and the condition of a third hospitalized player was not immediately available.

Five Duquesne University basketball players were shot on campus and taken to local hospitals early Sunday morning, a university spokeswoman said. Two of the victims -- ages 23 and 21 -- are in critical condition at Mercy Hospital. One was shot in the head, and the other was shot in the elbow and shoulder, Pittsburgh police said. The other three students were treated at Pittsburgh hospitals and released, police said. Duquesne has not identified any of the five injured students yet.

When the Vatican announced it would start banning priestly candidates with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies, Duquesne University student Jonathan Danial thought it was a big mistake. But he didn't worry that the Vatican's hard line would affect him and other gay students at Catholic universities -- a belief that was bolstered last week when Duquesne University announced it will allow a new Gay-Straight Alliance organization. Matthew Pratter, who proposed forming the group, said Duquesne supports gay students, and he sees no sign that the Vatican's sentiments are trickling down to the campus. "I'm not going to let myself be afraid about...

Almost every time I speak on a college campus, a field representative from The Leadership Institute is listening in the audience. That’s always good because, after the speech, the representative usually shares great ideas for campus conservative activism. Recently, in Athens, Ohio, I heard an especially good idea that will drive liberal administrators – former hippies who stopped supporting campus protest shortly after becoming administrators – absolutely crazy. That idea is called “Marry Anything Day.” The idea behind “Marry Anything Day” is to bring an ordained minister to campus to perform marriage ceremonies. But the ceremonies are not limited to...

Catholic Schools Punish Students for Opposing Homosexuality By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor November 02, 2005 (CNSNews.com) - Two Catholic universities have tried to censor students during the past week for defending the church's teachings against homosexuality, actions the head of one Roman Catholic organization called "ridiculous." One incident took place in Pittsburgh, where a Duquesne University student used an independent website to voice his opposition to a proposed "gay-straight alliance" on campus and described homosexual sex as "subhuman actions." According to the school's website, several students complained to Duquesne's Office of Judicial Affairs, which held a hearing and concluded...

Recent news coverage regarding a Duquesne University judicial affairs case and the proposed creation of a Gay Straight Alliance has resulted in misleading information about the case itself, the judicial affairs process and code of conduct, and the proposed alliance. The following information is designed to provide basic clarity on these issues. The Judicial Affairs Process and Code of Conduct All Duquesne students are bound by the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct. If a student’s behavior on or off-campus violates the code of conduct while he or she is associated with the University, the behavior could be brought...

Expulsion For Gay Comments? Duquesne Student Resists Punishment Catholic University Sanctions Student for Calling Homosexuality 'Subhuman' PITTSBURGH -- A Duquesne University sophomore will risk being kicked out of school rather than write an essay as punishment for expressing his view that homosexuality is "subhuman." Ryan Miner, 19, of Hagerstown, Md., was sanctioned by Duquesne after posting his view in The Facebook, an online directory that is not related to the university. Miner opposed an effort by other students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance group, an issue that is still being debated by the university. "I believe as a student...

Refusal to allow formation of a gay student organization at Duquesne University is fanning an extraordinary debate on the Catholic campus, where 119 faculty and staff are publicly urging the administration to reconsider. What is being framed by some as a struggle pitting diversity against school mission surrounds sophomore Matthew Pratter. He penned an opinion piece in the student newspaper, The Duquesne Duke, recounting his failed bid to gain approval for a gay-straight alliance on the 10,000-student campus. Pratter argued that at schools where they exist, such groups promote dialogue and discourage harassment. "It is crucial to combat the 'better...