the Independent Student Publication of the University at Buffalo, Since 1950
The S pectrum ubspectrum.com
Volume 62 No. 42
wednesday, January 23, 2013
Jesus, drunks and talent
Story on page 6
Wrestling gets first victory of season Story on page 10
De Veaux runs home
Newly retired UB professor, former renowned journalist, reflects on her at-bat REBECCA BRATEK Managing Editor The world changed when Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid movement leader, walked to freedom on Feb. 2, 1990. Alexis De Veaux, a retired UB women’s studies professor, never thought she would see such a moment in her lifetime, let alone experience it firsthand. But there she was, a black woman barely into her 40s, sitting across from Mandela and his wife in their home in Soweto, South Africa, the day after his release from prison – a moment De Veaux will never forget. “It was mind-blowing,” she said, almost unable to describe the moment. “You had to change. You were changed yourself. Your cellular structure changed as a result of witnessing the power of this moment in South Africa. “Just his own sense of himself as a human being, in spite of the fact that we also look at him as a black South African, but his notion of what it meant to be dignified really gave me another way of thinking about what it means to be among those who are considered to be oppressed.” De Veaux, a black woman who had felt racial discrimination throughout her own life, was the first North American journalist to interview Mandela after his newfound freedom. She subsequently published a story entitled “Walking Into Freedom” about her private meeting with South Africa’s first president elected in a representative democratic election. She didn’t quite recognize then how this opportunity would propel her into the world stage; in her mind, she was just a black female writer in a world that didn’t quite have the perfect space for her. De Veaux was then working as a contributing editor for Essence magazine, a monthly publication geared toward empowering young African-American women, writing about social issues and conditions with a global focus. Mandela, who was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years for leading the African
Courtesy of Jill Brazel Photography
Alexis De Veaux, a now-retired professor of women’s studies, recites a poem in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., during 2012’s Split This Rock Poetry Festival, a poetry festival that celebrates activism and social change. De Veaux, who considers herself to be a writer, believes in using literacy for social change.
National Congress and fighting against black oppression, was never broken by his struggle. His release into the country he had fought so hard for began a global shift in terms of peace and racial segregation. The world celebrated with South Africa. As Mandela negotiated for liberation and was released from prison, the anti-apartheid movement was given new strength. De Veaux, along with millions of people around the globe, witnessed continent-wide celebrations in Africa and among black people involved in the Diaspora, and she was right at
the heart of the moment. De Veaux – now 64 years old and years after what she describes as the “fateful day” with Mandela that changed her life –retired from UB at the end of the fall semester after spending over 20 years as an associate professor in the department of women’s studies. Strike one: poor De Veaux was born in Harlem, N.Y., in 1948, just after the explosion of AfricanAmerican culture from the Harlem Renaissance and at the turn of the 20th century,
Obama calls for social progress at inauguration Professors and students respond differently to president’s speech
A plan for the plan Zukoski releases UB 2020 preparation draft
ERIC CORTELLESSA Staff Writer President Barack Obama was publicly sworn in for his second term on Monday. This year’s inaugural event was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, carrying with it reminders of all the history behind the second Inauguration of the first African-American president. The president’s speech, given just before noon in front of over 600,000 people on the west side of the Capitol, was a call to action. His speech discussed the importance of social progress by identifying them in human terms – emphasizing people over policy. Deemed by many as a defense of progressivism and American liberalism, Obama used Monday’s occasion as a moment for setting the agenda for his second term. Many felt his confidence and self-assurance in leading the nation’s movement toward social progressivism was a contrast to his previous inaugural address, which forewarned a difficult economic period to come. Distinguished political science professor James Campbell said the speech mainly appealed to the democratic base and lacked a focus on the economy that Campbell was expecting.
which changed and shook the literary and arts worlds. Her mother, a Caribbean immigrant, had eight children, all from different fathers, and supported them on welfare. Her father, a descendant of migrant workers from North Carolina, was absent from her childhood – he was in prison most of her life and died in 1975. Her siblings’ fathers, too, were out of the picture and De Veaux’s mother made it clear to her children that privilege was nonexistent in their lives. Continued on page 8
REBECCA BRATEK Managing Editor
Courtesy of AP
President Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural speech, emphasizing the importance of the nation's social progressivism, in front of over 600,000 spectators in Washington, D.C.
“It was a fairly partisan address,” Campbell said. “He calls for compromise and working together on these problems, but there seems to be an undercurrent meaning that the other side compromises.”
Inside
Campbell said while Obama calls for compromise, his speech suggested it’s the Republicans that need to make the compromises. Continued on page 4
Provost Charles Zukoski has a vision for UB’s future, and it begins with UB 2020. In November, Zukoski held two open forums to announce a new, comprehensive plan that will help guide UB 2020’s ambitious goals for the next five years and asked for faculty, staff and student feedback. The document would spark the change the university needs, he said. He has since published the first draft of “Realizing UB 2020: A Window of Opportunity,” a document that outlines how the university will fulfill its aspirations. This guide will clarify the goals of UB 2020 and what steps the university needs to take to get there. Zukoski sat down with The Spectrum last week to discuss how the draft is laid out and what needs to be done before the final draft is published in May. The 2020 plan, as first imagined by former President John B. Simpson five years ago, called for $5 billion in renovations across UB’s three campuses over two deRead the rest at ubspectrum.com
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