Cyber security course gives students hands-on experience
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950
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Friday, february 14, 2014
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Volume 63 No. 49
LIVING IN HIS HONOR Kevin Hughes overcomes death of father and season-ending surgery to take the mound
Chad Cooper, The Spectrum
BEN TARHAN
Senior Sports Editor
Kevin Hughes knows what it means to heal. As a 4-year-old boy, he was once too scared to come out from underneath a table – unwilling to be separated from his mother or father so he could attend an interview for a gifted kindergarten program. But the scared boy Hughes once was isn’t the man who steps onto the pitcher’s mound today as a senior on the baseball team. He has grown up and endured things he couldn’t hide from. Time served as his healing aid. When he was a junior transfer during his first semester at UB, Hughes’ father died. A year and a half later, he had a season-ending elbow injury that kept him on the bench for part of one season and the entirety of another. He needed Tommy John surgery, an ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) reconstruction procedure. Following the surgery, a patient generally reaches full strength in his or her arm after 18 months. It has been nearly 24 months since Hughes’ elbow was repaired on. But losing a parent comes with no reparative procedure – no promise of when life will ever feel “normal” again, because it likely won’t. But Hughes never let himself get angry about the death of his father. “I just live in his honor,” he said. “We got him cremated because I just don’t think one spot in the ground [was appropriate]. He had a bigger impact. So we got little hearts filled with his ashes and gave them to 15 or 20 people who were closest to him.”
Chad Cooper, The Spectrum
Senior pitcher Kevin Hughes overcame the death of his father in 2010 and a torn ulner collateral ligament in his elbow in 2012 to make it back to the mound this season.
His father was a sheet metal worker – he was dedicated to his craft. And he instilled the same kind of devotion in Hughes. When Hughes throws, it is apparent his elbow is fully healed. He doesn’t hold anything back. He puts his entire bodyweight behind the ball. Despite his charismatic nature, the idea of approaching him when he is standing on the mound seems horrifying. He takes the game seriously. Now, Hughes gets one last season to show the world what he can do on the mound – and he gets to do it for his dad. *** On a November morning in 2010 – just three months into Hughes’ first semester at UB – he left his family’s home to go to class and noticed his father’s lunch box on the table. Hughes’ father never missed a day of work. Later in the day, Hughes’ older sister, Ashley,
called him and asked if she could see him. They met outside UB Stadium and Ashley delivered the news. Hughes’ father had passed away. He had driven a friend home the night before and on the way to his home he crashed through a barrier and into a body of water. Officials aren’t sure if it was a medical issue or if he just lost control of the car – there were no skid marks. When they arrived on the scene, Hughes’ father was in still in the car – seatbelt fastened. He drowned. “That was a big blow,” Hughes said. “I was numb to the fact that day and I tried to be strong. But at his wake, my uncles – grown men – were coming up to me crying and I was trying to cheer them up, keep things positive because that’s the way he was. You have to get the most out of life, you have to celebrate what he did do and what he was.”
Hughes said he is exactly like his father. The two often argued because they were so similar but had an understanding that it was all to help make Hughes better. Hughes looked up to his father in every way. He said his dad had a paper route from when he was 10 and that his grandmother still tells stories about all the money he had. “When he wanted something, he did it on his own,” Hughes said. “He would save up money – he would do this and that – and he would find a way.” From age 14 on, Hughes did things his father did. He worked at Niagara County Produce, getting to work at 7:30 a.m. on the weekends so he could work 20 hours a week. It taught Hughes about work ethic. When his father passed away, Hughes’ way of mourning was doing the things his father loved
to do. His father was always upbeat and charismatic, so Hughes didn’t let his dad’s death keep him down. He played baseball because his dad loved watching him play and never missed a game. Hughes – who refused to take a leave from school to grieve – played in his memory. Hughes’ father was such a constant presence at games that people knew how important he was to Hughes. And Hughes meant a lot to his friends. At his father’s wake two full baseball teams – his teammates at UB and a group of players from a summer team he had played with – came to pay their respects. Hughes went to his father for all kinds of advice. When he began weighing transferring from Erie Community College to Genesee Community College for his final semester of junior college, Hughes went to his dad. When he was choosing a fouryear school to spend his final two seasons, Hughes went to his dad. In the end, one of the most attractive parts about going to school at UB was that his family would be able to go to his games because they live nearby in Lockport. Hughes’ dad would never get the chance to watch his son play Division I baseball. After his father’s death, baseball was Hughes’ refuge. It gave him a place to be away from the pain and still commemorate his father. Mary, Hughes’ mother, said he realized he had to move forward because playing Division I baseball was his father’s dream for him. SEE HUGHES, PAGE 6
Anthropology classes, offices battle heat and noise issues University updates heating system, professors and students affected LISA KHOURY
Chad Cooper, The Spectrum
Managing Editor
Professor Fred Klaits’ students couldn’t hear a word he was saying. On Feb. 4, Klaits stopped his anthropology class for 20 minutes because a jackhammer above his classroom was so noisy, he couldn’t make himself heard. His class is in Millard Fillmore Academic Center, where UB is replacing its old heating system. Construction started a couple weeks ago in the beginning of the semester – just as UB’s seven-week winter session came to an end. The timing of the project has frustrated students and faculty in the anthropology department, which is located in the building. Since the beginning of the semester, noise has disrupted classes. Klaits communicated with his students by writing questions on the projector. Jaume Franquesa,
During the first two weeks of the semester, Jaume Franquesa, an assistant anthropology professor, kept his office warm with a space heater. UB is currently replacing the heating system in Millard Fillmore Academic Center, and as a result, offices in the anthropology department were left without heat, and construction work disrupted classes.
an assistant anthropology professor, considered moving his class to a different room. The anthropology department has been in contact with UB and the noise has ceased this week, according to Klaits. “It was extremely frustrating,” Klaits said. “I have a class to teach and I wasn’t able to teach
it. I think that the noisy work needs to be done at times when classes are not in session.” The work in Millard Fillmore, located in Ellicott Complex, is part of a multimillion dollar, multi-year energy efficiency project funded by the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to update aging infrastructure and
equipment on North and South Campuses, according to Joseph Desotelle, the manager of engineering support for UB’s Facilities Planning and Design. Millard Fillmore needed new air handlers. The work began in September and picked up again in January. The Spectrum asked Desotelle why UB began changing the heating system when the semester started instead of during winter break. “This type of work is usually done during the winter months, where possible, because it is much easier and much more economical to provide temporary heating, where necessary, than to provide temporary cooling,” Desotelle said in an email. But as the work went on, professors and students said it was affecting their classes. On Feb. 4, instead of canceling class, Klaits improvised. Because he and his students
couldn’t communicate while the noise was occurring, his students answered his written questions on their computers. But several of his students, including Bailey Humiston, said the work has been distracting during the past couple weeks. She believes Tuesday’s construction took away from her education. “I felt like I really started to miss out on class discussion, and I work better when I’m actually actively participating,” said Humiston, a sophomore music theater major. “So when we were sitting at our computers just writing out the questions that he was asking, basically from the projector, it was just kind of annoying.” Brendan Kerr, who is also in Klaits’ class, said he doesn’t understand why UB didn’t complete the construction in Millard Fillmore over the seven-week winter session. SEE ANTHROPOLOGY, PAGE 2