Students and faculty rallied in front of the business school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 12 in support of a student who said a professor there had criticized her professed homosexuality during a Sept. 26 class attended by five students.

Photographer Heather Tabacchi, a communications media major, captured the event, the protesters and their posters in support of lesbian Christina I. "Nina" Santiago, 22, a graduate student seeking a master's degree in business administration at Eberly College of Business.

The incident is under investigation, campus administrators said.

By David Loomis

The HawkEye inaugurates its photo-essay feature with images by Alyssa Choiniere, an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student majoring in journalism and a contributor to  The HawkEye.

In spring 2010, Choiniere enrolled in a Photojournalism class at IUP. One of her assignments near the end of the semester was "to use the camera as a story-telling tool." In search of a story, she drove to Pittsburgh on Sunday, April 25.

There, she saw Carl Harris, a handicapped beggar. He sat in front of Mancini's Bread Co. on Penn Avenue near the intersection with 17th Street in the Strip District. On his knee rested a plastic cup containing coins from passers-by.

Here are Choiniere's photographs of Harris and her narrative of that day.