ubspectrum.com
Volume 62 No. 55
Friday, February 22, 2013
Walk-on goes from track and field cut to basketball leader Story on page 10
Baby steps become giant leaps for women’s club hockey Story on page 5
Carbon monoxide leak prompts UB to make safety changes in dorms LISA KHOURY Senior News Editor
Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum
The Japanese Student Association has been practicing and preparing for months for UB’s upcoming International Fiesta.
Love beyond borders
Student Association clubs prepare for annual International Fiesta ELVA AGUILAR Senior Arts Editor UB is the SUNY school with the largest international population, and harmony among the various backgrounds is crucial. But once a year, UB’s international and American students come together to compete and showcase their cultures in the International Fiesta. The Chinese Student Association (CSA), Malaysian SA (MASA),
Japanese SA (JSA), Filipino SA (FASA), Indian SA (ISA) and Latin American SA (LASA) will compete in this year’s International Fiesta at the Mainstage Theater inside the Center For the Arts. And although the competition is fierce every year, the camaraderie within and among participating clubs trumps animosity for a night of dance, music and pride. International Fiesta began as a food event in the ’70s with a small dance presentation and has grown
into a major event throughout the years, according to SA International Coordinator and senior mathematics major Theresa Cervantes. Every year, the competing teams are presented with a theme, which have included “Culture Shock,” “Global Kaleidoscope” and “Around the World in One Night.” This year’s theme, “Love,” although simpler in concept, gave way for each group to present what the word means for their respective cultures. Continued on page 4
After a carbon monoxide leak in Richmond Quad poisoned 10 students and sent five of them to the hospital Sunday night, UB has made major safety changes in its dorms. Freshmen roommates Neil Campbell, Bennett Sciacca and Tijo Mathew – three of the five Richmond residents who were hospitalized – are still shaken up with what they experienced. They’re glad UB has finally made significant efforts to reach out to them. Colleen Connolly, a student affairs student support coordinator, emailed them to schedule individual meetings to see if they need to get checked out or need help filling out forms to get reimbursed by UB. “It’s good at this point now that people have been in contact with me,” Sciacca said. “It does make it a little better but, in general, it doesn’t change the overall scope of things for me … If it seems like it’s just to avoid a lawsuit, that would be a little upsetting. But if it genuinely does mean they’re trying to be there for us, it’d be better.” Sciacca is meeting with Connolly on Friday. The 18-year-olds were initially upset with UB’s response to the
carbon monoxide leak. When a boiler in Richmond malfunctioned and carbon monoxide went undetected because the two required CO detectors on the same floor were missing, the poisonous gas reached the entire dorm. UB said the detectors were present in October when the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control inspected UB residence halls. The university does not yet have documented proof it passed the inspection. The fire inspector verbally informed UB there were no violations in Richmond Quad, according to Director of Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) Joseph Raab. “We haven’t received the ‘certificate of compliance’ from the state, which is issued for the whole Ellicott Complex and not the specific buildings,” Raab said in an email. “This is normal that there is a brief gap between the end of the inspection and the receipt of the certificate.” Though UB replaced the missing plug-in detectors with wallmounted battery-operated models and added detectors in the corridors on the third, fourth and fifth floors – which by law it isn’t required to do – the victims told The Spectrum on Tuesday they didn’t receive an apology from the university. Continued on page 4
Remodeling the Grand Tour
Architecture students embark on 3,000-mile trip during winter break REBECCA BRATEK Managing Editor Three thousand miles, 200 hundred buildings, 20 cities – all in one hyper-fast, 15-day whirlwind tour. Twenty-two of UB’s School of Architecture and Planning students spent their winter break exploring the Southern United States as apart of Architrek – a two-week domestic study tour that capped off a seminar taught by Greg Delaney, an adjunct assistant professor of architecture. The excursion began on Dec. 27 in Dallas, Texas and wrapped up in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 12 – just in time for the start of the spring semester. Delaney spent six months planning the tour, which he said is a re-imagined version of the legendary architectural “Grand Tour.” “It used to be that all architects went on the Grand Tour, which is really just seeing the major monuments of the world: Rome, Italy, Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, Turkey, the ancient ruins,” he explained. “And now the idea of the Grand Tour is kind of subsided because of technology.” In today’s digital age, anyone can log onto the nearest computer or smartphone, search Google Earth and suddenly be transported to another place, Delaney said. Anyone today can see infinite photos of the Pantheon and the Parthenon in ways never imagined. Back
in the 1600s, architects would tour Europe’s most cultural spots as a culmination to their education, he added. Delaney wanted to change the definition and scope of the Grand Tour – recontextualizing it and rethinking it for today’s students. He wants to revive this practice of traveling and seeing the world’s wonders. Most architecture students today take a study abroad trip, but most of those voyages are placebased in one city – a chance to really study the culture, people and the urban building and planning. To really immerse themselves in the culture, students spend up to five weeks – equivalent to one term – in an area. Most of these programs tour Europe and countries abroad, taking students out of their domestic sphere and into a whole new world. “I think one thing about the states people think, ‘Oh the states. I know the states,’” Delaney said. “And what’s so shocking is how little most people actually do know. There’s this feeling like you know the history, you know the cities in a way that’s more intimate than something foreign – actually what you find is that these cities are so foreign.” Delaney had only visited one of the 20 cities – New Orleans, La. – before the trip. Many of the students had been to more of the cities but had never experienced them in this way – mostly because
Inside
the tour focused on lesser-known structures. Colleen Creighton, a master’s student in the school of architecture, lived in Atlanta, Ga., one of the cities the group visited. She was shocked to realize she didn’t know the city quite as well as she thought. “It was kind of cool to see Atlanta from this viewpoint. Because I lived there, I didn’t go on tours of the city,” she said. “Some of the architecture I didn’t even know was there, and I was like, ‘Oh I lived here and never even saw this building before.’” The trip started in Dallas, Texas, and hit Austin, San Antonio and Houston before leaving the Lone Star State. They saw the missions in San Antonio, which date back to the early 18th century, and explored a world where the Apache were forced to become Spanish and pledge loyalty to a distant, almostinvisible king. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science opened in Dallas in December, and students noticed the stark contrast of three centuries. They spent New Years in New Orleans and the French Quarter – one of the trip’s “free days” – and they saw the “Make it Right” houses. These 150 sustainable homes were built in the city’s ninth ward, the neighborhood most devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and brought 350 people back to live in an area that was completely desolate.
“It was cool to see how far they’ve come but yet we can still see so much damage from Katrina even though it was [eight] years ago,” Creighton said. “That was pretty mind blowing.” They went across the Panhandle and into Florida, visiting Seaside. The students were fascinated by the neighborhoods The Truman Show was filmed in. They moved back up to Selma, Ala., which was an important site for the Civil Rights Movement. The tour concluded in Miami, Fla., which Delaney and Creighton found to be completely foreign despite it being a part of the United States. It even reminded Creighton of her study abroad trip to Barcelona, Spain. “Miami is just a kind of cultural city and the type of urbanism [there] is so different,” Delaney said. “It has this modernist urban fabric with this kind of playful twist.” Each day started at 7 a.m. and went on for about 14 hours, and Delaney planned every day down to the minute. “The trip can only be successful through this hyper-planning of time,” he said. “It went very much according to schedule.” For example, the guidebook would budget walking time from 9 a.m. until 9:15 a.m. and then another 30 minutes to see a building before getting back on the bus to drive for another 15 minutes. Continued on page 4
Courtesy of Greg Delaney
Students laid on the floor and sketched the Hyatt Regency hotel in Atlanta, Ga. Sketching was a major component of Architrek, a 22-day achitectural tour of the Southern United States the students took during winter break.
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