Looking for “Cathy,” as Pitt students lovingly refer to the building, in the night sky is about to become a whole lot easier thanks to the addition of a bright blue beam of light shooting directly into the sky.
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Blue Skies: Pitt Victory Lights Get a New Look
Looking for “Cathy,” as Pitt students lovingly refer to the building, in the night sky is about to become a whole lot easier thanks to the addition of a bright blue beam of light shooting directly into the sky.
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Oh wow! I actually was near the cathedral of learning last week when I went to visit the open houses of dorms in Oakland and I saw the lights on the clouds, but I couldn’t tell where they were coming from nor could I tell what the purpose of them was. So, now that I know that they are lights that are supposed to signal the Cathedral of Learning as a landmark, I’m actually pretty ashamed to say that I am so close to a building that’s contributing to the ever growing problem of light pollution. These lights are cool in theory, but because everyone has phones nowadays with maps on them and if you ever get lost, your first instinct is to look up where you are on your phone, so really what is the purpose of these lights? Also, at the bottom of the article there were twitter posts from people about what they thought of the lights and the very first one makes a good point that those lights are originally for when Pittsburgh sports teams win, so it won’t have that speciality to it anymore.
I was wondering what this was all about the other night. I live right on Forbes avenue in Morewood and had my window open the other night and my entire room was able to be illuminated by this bright blue light. I wouldn't have thought if these lights to be coming form the Cathedral of learning but now I see it and makes more sense. Its a really interesting idea as victory lights. Some of the responses from the students about the "victory" lights are really funny and are kind of sad to think about. But i agree with Hannah whole heartedly on the light pollution these lights aren't needed and the rest of the city doesn't need to be effected by the University of Pitt's sports teams. The amount of light and the beam that it casts looks like something out of Batman and isn't needed by the rest of the city. But hey who knows maybe their students are right maybe if the teams get better and the light becomes more of a problem it will draw more people out to see and to support the games. I just don't want it keeping me up at night anymore.
“If you’re ever lost in Oakland, walk toward Cathedral of Learning to find your way home.” Even though Carnegie Mellon is further down that University of Pittsburgh, I have definitely used the Cathedral of Learning as a landmark when I have been exploring in some of the nearby neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Recently I have noticed the blue lights (whether it be shooting directly up from the building while at dinner in Oakland or just seeing the blue glow looming in the sky on late night walks back to Purnell), and I must day I am not the biggest fan. While I understand the symbolic purpose of adding these lights, University of Pittsburgh is not the strongest in sports so there isn’t a real reason for it to be constantly long if sticking with it’s true purpose. Also, there is an abundance of light pollution within the city of Pittsburgh already, and this blue haze is just adding to the problem rather than taking away from it. I understand the point of tradition, and I hope a deeper meaning can be found for the light, but I do think it is a waste of time and resource for an already incredibly noticeable landmark.
This article ended up answering a lot of questions for me about the alien abduction-looking scene happening down Forbes. I agree with what all of my classmates on the negative effects that these lights seem to have on our environment. I come from somewhere that has next to no light pollution, everything closes at about 8 pm and we don’t have streetlights, so I am not accustomed to the amount of light that Pittsburgh gives off at night, let alone the presence of victory lights. I do have a concern as to how much it is taking to physically power and maintain those lights as well. I think that there might be more effective and community unifying ways to celebrate a victory. I hope a community can do a little more than to just have some lights that shoot up at the sky for passerbys to continue past like they are nothing. The twitter posts included with the article kind of demonstrate all the points that have been made, not to mention are a little bit humorous. Regardless, I think that there is a better way to celebrate rather than to put some lights in the sky.
I can't help but chuckle when looking at the victory "lights" on the cathedral of learning. It's really more like victory "light" because I don't really get a sense of multiple lights. I guess there probably are though. Like Emma, I too am reminded of an alien abduction or imminent "Independence Day" type of thing going down more so than victory. I think it's just the fact that the lights are blue that is throwing me, as I am not a fan of blue lights, dating all the way back to when I was a young boy and my family decided to switch things up by getting all Blue Christmas lights to decorate our house. This was too drastic a shift for my young and suggestible mind, and I lived those weeks in constant fear of some sort of blue Christmas light poltergeist attacking me. Something about blue light is too cold and impersonal for me, so I will struggle to get over my bias in this case as well...
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