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Life under the needle SARA DINATALE Editor in Chief
Victoria Iacchetta’s grandfather lay lifeless on the shore of Baby Beach in Aruba. Iacchetta was home in Rochester. It was February 2011. The night before, she spoke with her beloved grandfather – her “Nonno” – on the phone. “I love you, bella,” he told her. Six days before her 18th birthday, Iacchetta lost her best friend when her grandfather died in the ocean; he suffered a heart attack. A month later, Iacchetta had a compulsion. A need. She was about to discover a certain type of “itch” she didn’t know she’d ever want to scratch as a way to cope with a loss she wasn’t expecting. Iacchetta found her answer under the needle. “I felt like I needed him to be a part of me every second of every day,” she said. How many young people are getting tattoos is hard to quantify. Iacchetta thinks the number of college-age students getting ink is on the rise and artists agree. The Pew Research Center has reported 36 percent of 18to 25-year-olds have tattoos. Jess Rocha, a UB alum who owns RedHouse Tattoo in Depew, says she’s seen statistics even higher. “It’s definitely a lot,” Rocha said. And with the increase in popularity, many students have an optimistic outlook – they believe the stigma commonly associated with tattoos is lessening. In 10 to 15 years, Rocha, who has been a tattoo artist for the last 15 years, expects the stigma to be mostly eliminated. And though tattooed students have dealt with concerned – if not disapproving – parents and
In this week’s broadcast, see stories on Dyngus Day, Earth Week, the Soria brothers from UB’s wrestling team and more. Also online: a multimedia version of “Under the needle.”
how the professional world may treat them, the prevailing sense of hopefulness about the future of tattoos is leading students to the needle’s buzz. “I think that our generation really gravitated toward tattoos because of the beauty behind it,” Iacchetta said. “It is an art form and I don’t think a lot of people understand that. They just think, Oh these kids are being rebellious and want to get inked because they’re 18 and don’t know what they’re doing.” Iacchetta never pegged herself as the tattoo type, but her memorial piece for her grandfather evoked a discovery of selfexpression she never anticipated. Since March 2011, Iacchetta, now a junior English and history major at UB, has accumulated eight tattoos, each with its own story. But the Italian flag on her foot with “Nonno” written over top will always be her favorite. Iacchetta’s body serves as somewhat of a roadmap of her life. Quotation marks are fixed on her wrists, a representation of the avid writer’s love for the written word; “En attendant Godot,” French for “Waiting for Godot,” sits on her right forearm (she intends to one day read and understand the whole play in its original French); on her ankle in plain text is “explore.” – which fits with not only her zest for history and other cultures, but her own exploration into tattoos. And that’s naming fewer than half. Iacchetta says in times of stress she has looked to tattoos as a type of therapy. Since she was 18, Lemma Al-Ghanem has turned to tattoos during times of transition. The 21-year-old architecture student – a former art student – has drawn each of her own tattoos. It takes her longer than a mo-
Volume 63 No. 75
Students share stories behind tattoos, discuss the art form’s future
ment to tell you just how many that is; she mentally works her way up from her feet to her hips, knees, wrists, ribs and even behind her left ear. The answer she settles on is 12 – that’s within the last four years. During visits to Syria – where her parents are from and her extended family still lives – she would get her body covered in henna. During one of those trips at age 13, she was seeking out a henna shop with her aunt when the pair landed in an actual tattoo shop, unbeknownst to her aunt. Al-Ghanem begged to get the type of body art that wouldn’t wash off, but she would have to wait five more years. When Al-Ghanem first started getting into tattoos, she’d carry around self-drawn sketches regularly – ready to alter her future tattoos the moment a new idea crept into her head. Her first tattoo was an image of a keyhole on her wrist. She got it when she felt “locked into place,” happily starting art
school in her hometown near Washington, D.C. But her shoulder, which is the canvas to three floating leaves, tells a different story about transitions – a transition away from home and art school and to UB’s School of Architecture. She said her body art is “like a bread crumb trail.” Each tattoo sits as an anchor (she does actually have an anchor on her hip), tying her to moments and feelings from her past. “Nefs,” an Arabic word on her wrist that means “self,” prompts her to be true to what makes her happy. A bird is perched on her foot with the verb “to hunt” in Latin script, emphasizing the importance of going out and getting what one wants in life. Like Iaccheta, Al-Ghanem understands the therapeutic facet of tattooing. “It’d be different if it was just like sort of stamped on or right away put on … seeing it spill onto my foot was really calming in a way,” she said. “I was just
Victoria iacchetta, 21
“I felt like i needed him to be a part of me every second of every day.”
like, ‘I thought about this for, like, a year and I envisioned it,’ but it’s not until you actually see it creeping onto your body that you feel like it’s kind of its own thing that’s slowly integrating itself with you, which is a pretty cool, therapeutic feeling.” She gets a surge of adrenaline under the needle’s steady sting; she views the feeling as a sort of tattoo adoption process, reinforcing the meaning she holds behind her pieces. In addition to the stigma, pain also dissuades some from pursuing ink. But not Darrell Delaney, a senior English major, who has a sleeve and chest piece as well as hip and back tattoos. “It hurt. I know it hurt,” Delaney said. “You can remember how it feels like to jump in cold water or something like that, but I can’t remember how it felt to have the needle digging in my skin.” It’s a pain that is hard to describe – sometimes adrenaline can help block the discomfort, but each person handles it differently. Iacchetta’s foot tattoo gave her sweaty palms and the artist had to hold her body down because she was shaking. Despite the pain, some people can’t resist the urge to return to the chair for more. Delaney’s family jokingly calls him a “freak” whenever he takes his shirt off. Two days before Delaney’s 16th birthday, his father took him to a shop to get a tattoo, likely not imagining his son’s infatuation with the art form would eventually lead to aspirations to have much of his body covered in ink. People with tattoos tend to talk about tattoos almost as if they were Lay’s potato chips – it’s difficult to have just one. SEE TATTOOS, PAGE 4
Student Association views election changes as long overdue SA members explain reasoning behind VP, president and SUNY delegate election changes AMANDA LOW
Senior News Editor
Students walking into the voting booth next year will see fewer names on the ballot and vote for each executive board member separately. On Wednesday night, the Student Association Senate and Assembly passed two changes to the election process. Most SA student leaders believe the change was both constructive and necessary to SA. The Assembly passed an amendment changing the constitution to make presidential and vice presidential candidates run on separate ballots. SA Sen-
ate had an emergency meeting the same night and passed an amendment that gives the president the ability to appoint SUNY delegates. Matt Siwiec, the elections and credentials chair, spearheaded the changes to the election process and brought them to the Assembly and Senate. The rule of the two candidates being on the same ballot, however, has not always been a part of the election process. In 2002, SA Senate passed an amendment that required presidential and vice-presidential candidates to run on a single ticket. James Ingram, president-elect, thinks the separation will en-
sure “that all three elected Student Association executive board members are those who the majority of the students wanted to fill those positions.” Ingram voted to abstain from the passing of the amendment because he felt the topic needed more time for discussion. Daniel Giles, Senate chair, believes it will be a “rare occurrence” for a president and vice president to be from different parties. “If it happens, the student body will probably have had a good reason for doing so,” Giles said. “A weak vice president can’t hide behind a strong president any more.”
Travis Nemmer, a former SA president, said the separation of the presidential and vice presidential ballot is “long overdue.” “They do fundamentally different jobs,” Nemmer said. “You don’t need those people to be on the same party. You don’t need them to work particularly closely together throughout the year.” Melissa Kathan, speaker for the Assembly, also believed the change has been long needed. A concern for the 2002 Senate was that personal or political views might come between elected candidates if they were from different parties and time may be wasted solving these internal problems.
“More often than not they are going to realize that ‘Hey, we have a job to do,’” Nemmer said. “The election is over so let’s put our differences aside – start working for the good of the students.” The argument can be made that those issues of “bickering and wasting time” are still happening with people on the same ticket, according to Siwiec. Giles said this year, there was “tension behind closed doors” and the problems at the end of the year between the members were “dangerously close to boiling over.” But he feels the situation eventually worked out. SEE ELECTIONS, PAGE 8
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EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR IN CHIEF Sara DiNatale MANAGING EDITORS Anthony Hilbert Owen O’Brien OPINION EDITOR Tress Klassen COPY EDITORS Rachel Kramer Alyssa McClure NEWS EDITORS Amanda Low, Senior Brian Windschitl Samaya Abdus-Salaam, Asst. Giselle Lam, Asst. FEATURES EDITORS Emma Janicki, Senior Anne Mulrooney Claudia Ornis, Asst. ARTS EDITORS Jordan Oscar, Senior Sharon Kahn Tori Roseman, Asst. SPORTS EDITORS Tom Dinki, Senior Andy Koniuch Jordan Grossman, Asst. PHOTO EDITORS Chad Cooper, Senior Juan David Pinzon Yusong Shi CARTOONIST Amber Sliter CREATIVE DIRECTORS Jenna Bower Andres Santandreu, Asst. PROFESSIONAL STAFF OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helene Polley ADVERTISING MANAGER Kevin Xaisanasy Alex Buttler, Asst. Melina Panitsidis, Asst. ADVERTISING DESIGNER Tyler Harder
Monday, April 28, 2014 Volume 63 Number 75 Circulation 7,000
The views expressed – both written and graphic – in the Feedback, Opinion and Perspectives sections of The Spectrum do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board. Submit contributions for these pages to The Spectrum office at Suite 132 Student Union or news@ubspectrum.com. The Spectrum reserves the right to edit these pieces for style and length. If a letter is not meant for publication, please mark it as such. All submissions must include the author’s name, daytime phone number, and email address. The Spectrum is represented for national advertising by MediaMate. For information on adverstising with The Spectrum, visit www.ubspectrum.com/advertising or call us directly at (716) 645-2452.
OPINION A new election calls for new regulations
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Voided election results are a temporary fix to a long-term problem The University Council Elections Committee voided the results of the UB Council student representative election on Friday, citing inappropriate use of power by current University Council Student Representative Daniel Ovadia as well as a leak of the election results. Elections Committee Chair Matt Siwiec explained that though Ovadia hadn’t broken any rules, the ethicality of his role in the election process – a role which he should not have had in the first place –was questionable. During the campaign, Ovadia changed his Facebook cover photo to a “Minahil Khan for UB Council” banner and asked Student Association members, via Facebook, to change their cover photos to Khan’s banner as well. Many members, though not all, did changes their photos in response to the request. Per election regulations, representatives are not allowed to use their position to officially endorse any candidate, though they can support candidates as an individual. Technically, Ovadia didn’t violate these regulations; he used his personal Facebook profile to endorse Khan. But the separation between Ovadia as Council Rep and Ovadia as an everyday student is difficult, if not impossible, to delineate. His influence and popularity that stems from his role in student government does not simply disappear when he’s on his personal Facebook page. Undoubtedly, Ovadia displayed poor judgment and interfered in an election process that is already plagued by low voter turnout. With six candidates running for council representative in an election that attracts only a few hundred votes, Ovadia could easily sway the results. Not only does the extent of Ovadia’s influence exacerbate the severity of his poor decisionmaking, but as a member of the UB Council who’s served since 2012, there’s no doubt that Ovadia was aware of the extent of his influence. It’s not just Ovadia’s judgment in question here,
but also his respect for the democratic process. The Elections Committee was wise to declare the election results invalid. But the new election, which will be held in early May, will not fully resolve the issue. Ovadia’s endorsement won’t just vanish from the minds of voters. His effect on this election cannot be mitigated. Although Ovadia should have had the common sense and ethical awareness to consider this, ultimately his actions, and the consequences thereof, indicate issues inherent in the election regulations more than Ovadia’s behavior itself. Students who take on the responsibility of participation in student government should demonstrate a level of integrity and common sense that eliminates the need for such highly specific election regulations, but such an ideal is clearly just that – an ideal. Student leaders should strive to adhere to a high standard of ethicality that is defined and effectively enforced by election regulations. The current rules surrounding the election process need to be revised in order to set such a standard and to avoid creating a gray area into which Ovadia’s actions fall. Behavior that is ethically in the wrong should not be technically in the right. A revised election policy should be as straightforward as possible: our campus representative should not be allowed to endorse candidates. With a regulation this straightforward, there is no room for uncertainty or debate, no gray area between right and wrong. UB Council Student Representative election, which garners no more than 2-3 percent of the student body’s votes, has been degraded by Ovadia’s actions. The sanctity of the election was further eroded by the leak of results, the culprit of which is still unknown. Stricter regulations need to be generated and enforced, in order to protect the spirit of democracy at UB, no matter how meager it may be. email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
The Spectrum offices are located in 132 Student Union, UB North Campus, Buffalo, NY 14260-2100
art by amber sliter
One step forward, one step back Conflicting amendments passed by SA Assembly and Senate alter students’ voting rights The Student Association Assembly and Senate passed conflicting amendments simultaneously expanding and limiting the power of UB student voters. The Assembly voted to revise its election guidelines Wednesday, designating that presidential and vice presidential candidates run on separate ballots. The same night, the Student Association Senate held an impromptu meeting abd passed an amendment permitting the SA president to appoint SUNY delegates, rather than allowing students to elect the delegates. Though the Assembly’s decision is, for the most part, worth celebrating, the Senate’s decision merits only criticism. SUNY delegates exist to represent the concerns and opinions of students, not the SA president. The president already enjoys a position of power and exerts a great deal of influence over the experience of the UB student body. Expanding the president’s au-
thority is unnecessary, and when such an extension of control occurs at the expense of student representation, it’s nothing short of deplorable. The hasty manner in which this decision was made only garners more criticism for the Senate. The amendment was passed in a lastminute meeting and with such rapidity that one senator abstained from the vote – Senator and SA President-elect James Ingram did not vote and said senators needed more time for discussion. The Senate’s meeting Wednesday contributes to the development of a worrisome trend as the group adds to its growing list of rapid-fire amendments to SA policy. In February, the Senate passed six amendments in less than an hour, including far-fromtrivial guidelines that determined the representation of off-campus students. The Senate is supposed to represent the student body and give careful consideration when mak-
ing decisions – decisions that impact students’ experience and the effectiveness of their student government. The elimination of students’ right to elect their delegates, and the manner in which this change was determined embodies the Senate’s failure on both counts. With its far less lamentable amendment, the Assembly’s decision to separate to presidential and vice presidential candidates gives students greater freedom while voting. The move could contribute to government dysfunction if candidates from different tickets, with conflicting opinions and goals, are elected. But student voters can consider this possibility when they make their decision – the choice is in their hands, as it rightly should be. The potential for dysfunction is undoubtedly problematic but that possible discord does not supplant the prospect of productive conflict. A president should be
challenged and questioned by his or her second-in-command; students shouldn’t simply be electing a “yes-man” for the position. Student leaders with different opinions may have to learn to cooperate. This isn’t a problem, but an attribute of a balanced government. If candidates from different parties are forced to work together, a greater diversity of students and their perspectives is represented. The Assembly’s decision was unanimous, and understandably so. Allowing greater flexibility in the election of student leaders will ensure that the most deserving candidates are elected on the basis of their individual merit rather than the attributes of their running partner. This new policy protects and expands students’ rights to representation and freedom as voters and helps to combat the Senate’s hurried amendment that does the opposite. email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
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Continued from Page 1, Tattoos They are easily taken over by “the itch.� An anatomical heart surrounded by roses is strewn across most of Delaney’s chest; it blends almost seamlessly into a naval scene that takes up 3/4 of his right arm. Delaney has spent about $3,000 on his tattoos and more than 24 hours in his artists’ chairs. The 21-year-old sits at a different end of the tattoo scope from Iacchetta and Al-Ghanem; his tattoos don’t have meaning behind them. “There’s two different ends of the spectrum,� he said, comparing the way he uses tattoos to the way someone may choose the art to adorn their living space. “I just hang a painting in my apartment because it looks cool. And to me, my body is basically the ultimate canvas. It goes where I go. I don’t have to invite people over to my apartment to see that ‘cool painting;’ they see it as soon as they meet me.� Regardless of Delaney’s constant desire for more ink, he’s conscious of where his tattoos sit. Some people with tattoos joke about an “unemployment line� – a space, usually around the forearm or above the elbow, they won’t go past out of fear it could affect their marketability in the professional world. Iacchetta works at Tim Hortons and said she has been given no troubles for the pieces on her wrists and arms. Rocha is pleased to see employees at stores like Target and Wegmans with visible ink, piercings and dyed hair. She sees it as a symbol of progress. Delaney’s 3/4 sleeve allows him to roll up a dress shirt once without ink peeking out; his chest piece sits so he can unbutton the first button on a dress shirt without revealing what’s underneath. He feels that individuals’ perceptions of tattoos are improving, but he worries certain jobs may not be as accepting. Al-Ghanem is frustrated she
even has to consider the stigma; she knows some people view tattoos as “dirty.â€? She has big plans – helping rebuild the $200 billion in damages to Syria big. She has lost four extended family members, most recently a cousin who was hit in the neck by shrapnel from a bomb, because of the country’s ongoing conflict. She wants to create a firm or company that will run on donations and help rebuild parts of the Middle East. But the idea that her greatest form of expression could potentially tamper with her life’s biggest goal “messes with [her] head.â€? “I just don’t want my company or firm ‌ to not get what it fully deserves because it’s for other people,â€? she said. “It’s like a selfless thing, so I guess if I have to sacrifice not getting a full sleeve for that, I’m totally fine with that.â€? For the young and tattooed, parents’ perceptions of ink seem to lean on the concerned side. Iacchetta, who has never felt she’s been treated any different by employers or professors due to her visible tattoos, did have to face her “traditionalâ€? and religious family. They didn’t embrace her ink. Though Al-Ghanem has a grandmother and aunt covered in tribal tattoos, her Syrian parents have trouble accepting her body modifications, viewing tattoos as an alteration of what God created and believing the family’s previous generation didn’t “know better.â€? Al-Ghanem’s father is only aware of her most visible tattoos. “People need to understand the world is changing culturally and socially,â€? Iacchetta said. AlGhanem described it as a “gradual climb.â€? And for those willing to go on that hike, Delaney has a few words of advice: always go to a professional and experienced artist. His venture into tattoos was more of an impatient leap. At 16, Delaney got his first tat-
Darrell delaney, 21
LEMMA AL-GHANEM, 21
“And to me my body is basically the ultimate canvas. It goes where I go.�
Photography by Chad Cooper, The Spectrum
too with his father’s permission. It’s a tribal tattoo that sits between his shoulder blades. At 17, Delaney wanted more tattoos. Too young to get one legally in a shop, he sought out what he described as a “basement tattoo.� Delaney hadn’t met the ‘artist’ – Rocha says people in the industry call these types “scratchers� – prior to getting the tattoo, which was put on with a homemade machine held together by rubber bands and hooked up to a makeshift battery. The man who tattooed Del-
DISTINCTIVE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
aney also took two breaks to smoke marijuana because he said it “made him work better.� “Long story short, don’t get a basement tattoo,� Delaney said. He has scar tissue and crooked lines on a design he assumed would be simple to execute. Rocha said getting tattoos outside of a licensed shop leaves people at a huge risk of becoming exposed to infectious diseases from cross-contaminated needles. Despite Delaney’s cautionary tale, he doesn’t regret any of his tattoos. Each denotes who he was at the time he got the piece – even the one he hates on his back. He uses them as a “timestamps� to show his own progression. Tattoos have meanings that can be a struggle for some to articulate. For Iacchetta, a gaze down at her foot brings back memories of lunch dates and soccer games with her grandfather. “As much as people tell me
that I don’t need to get a tattoo in order for him to always be with me, I feel like my tattoo has done so much for me that nobody will understand.� email: sara.dinatale@ubspectrum.com
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LIFE, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Blaine’s magic hands captivate Alumni Arena Illusionist David Blaine performs for Distinguished Speaker Series JOE KONZE JR Special to The Spectrum
On a dark stage, stood a brightly lit tank full of colorful fish and a man dressed in all black. For 10 minutes, the man in black held his breath as he managed to make an eel come out of his mouth, juggle three steel balls, eat a banana and smoke a cigar, before taking a selfie with a lucky UB student. The scene? Captivating. The man? David Blaine. Blaine concluded the 27th annual Distinguished Speakers Series in front of a packed Alumni Arena Saturday night. The world-renown magician and endurance artist told stories of his life through small anecdotes and magic tricks intrigued the audience for the entire performance. It was the first time Blaine performed this stunt in front of an audience. “This is just an act that shows people should come to [the] Distinguished Speakers Series,” said Courtney Hanusch, a senior psychology major. After drying off and returning to the stage about 10 minutes later, Blaine explained how he became immersed in the world of magic. Flicking playing cards back and forth between his hands, Blaine shared anecdotes about how magic became the focal point of his life. When Blaine was 5 years old he wore two leg braces, had asthma and was not athletic. Despite these difficulties, he wished to become as strong as “The Incredible Hulk.” Blaine began challenging himself by running barefoot through the snow of New York and working on his magic tricks.
Aline Kobayashi, The Spectrum Senior business majors Amela Dedajic and Jason MacLean watch as David Blaine prepares to drive an ice pick through his hand.
As a teenager, Blaine exposed himself to more magic by hanging out in a deli frequented by local magicians. One day, a man walked into the deli, took a deck of cards and performed a trick where he flicked one card perfectly from one hand onto a deck in the other, the card flipping in the air – seemingly by magic. “I was freaked out,” Blaine said in his speech. “I said ‘How do you do that? How do you make cards flip over each other?’ He said, ‘Kid, don’t bother. I spent 10 years on it; it’s a complete waste of your time. You’ll never get it.’” Blaine took that as a challenge. For the next four months, Blaine focused on trying to make the cards switch hands in mid-air
and fall perfectly into place on the other half of the deck in the opposite hand. After innumerable failed attempts, Blaine finally mastered the trick and showed it off to the local magician. “Finally, I’m in a restaurant where I’m trying to get a job doing magic and he comes walking in as a customer and I say, ‘Bill, look let me show you something.’ I pull out my deck of cards and I do this little simple switch,” Blaine said. “He says, ‘Give me that deck.’ He looks at the deck and he pulls his deck out of his pocket and he says, ‘Do it with this deck.’ I take it from him flip the two cards and that was it. We became friends.” From then on, Blaine’s confidence and passion for understanding card tricks and illusions
grew. To show how experienced Blaine was with a deck of cards, he asked for volunteers from the audience to join in on basic card tricks. Senior business major Shelley Visone was selected as a volunteer. “I would have never expected to get up there,” Visone said. “It was really nerve racking getting up there and kind of seeing everything was right in front of my face was really cool.” The crowd’s applauds grew with its excitement after each successful trick. Blaine really caught the attention of the audience when he performed a trick he refers to as “subliminal activity.” He had one volunteer close her eyes while touching the oth-
er participant’s nose. The participant with their eyes closed claimed they felt Blaine’s touch. This was Blaine’s way of showing how closely connected these participants were. The next trick was called “Smash and Stab.” One participant placed a sharp ice pick on a wooden block in one bag, and mixed it amongst two other bags that held just wooden blocks. The other participant was blindfolded as the other person mixed up the bags; the goal being to have the blindfolded person correctly guess which bags did not contain the ice pick. “Whatever bag you point to, I’m going to thrust [my hand] as hard as I can over the bag and if the ice pick is not in there, then we’re good,” Blaine explained to the participants. “We’re going to do this two more times and then celebrate.” The trick was successful as the blindfolded participant correctly guessed the two bags without the pick. Blaine wanted to prove that he could withstand the pain, so he drove an ice pick through the center of his hand until it had gone all the way through. No blood was apparent, only the shrieks and loud gasps filled the air of Alumni Arena. “I come to three or four [Distinguished Speaker Series events] every year,” Visone said. “It was a great way to end [my] senior year.” After two hours of captivating magic tricks, Blaine left the audience questioning what was real, what was an illusion and what was magic. email: arts@ubspectrum.com
UB hosts WNY’s first undergrad conference on the humanities English Club hosts first of its kind conference ANNE MULROONEY Features Editor
Video games. Shakespeare plays. Factory farms. Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What do they all have in common? Violence. Students from UB and Buffalo State College participated in Western New York’s first-ever undergraduate conference on the humanities, “On Violence and Representation” Saturday. Students and other participants presented on the portrayals and implications of violence in literature, entertainment and public policy. “There could hardly be a more pressing topic for consideration than violence and representation,” said Graham Hammill, professor of English the department’s chair, during his introductory remarks. “We see and hear of violence and the threat of violence every day. Whether in news reports of civil war in Syria, or the threat of war in Ukraine, in video games … or in Shakespeare plays.” Following Hammill’s introduction, two representatives from the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women, Dr. Karen King, Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership program manager in UB’s chemistry department, and Sawrie Becker, commissioner of public advocacy for Erie County, spoke to the audience about domestic violence. Stressing the phenomenon as a local and global issue, King and Becker sought to raise awareness on domestic violence, emphasizing the impor-
Chad Cooper, The Spectrum Sushmita Gelda (left), a freshman interdisciplinary degree programs social sciences major, won the “On Violence and Representation” conference’s first place for her presentation on factory farming. Casey Brescia (right) , a philosophy major at Buffalo State College, won second for his presentation on hypothetical love drugs.
tance of breaking the cycle of abuse toward women. The commission provides information for victims of abuse and raises money through fundraisers and community projects. News of upcoming events, including the commission’s plan to create a Tribute Garden in Tonawanda to honor lives affected and ended by domestic violence, set a powerful and passionate precedent for the presentations that followed. “It’s an increasing problem, violence against women on college campuses,” King said. “And it doesn’t always get talked about. It cuts across all lines, and it’s not specific to race or class or a particular geographic area. This happens all over our community, and all over the world.” The prevalence of violence within relationships and all representations of violence – literary or otherwise – was the con-
ference’s primary concern. The ubiquity of violence in all of its forms intrigued and disturbed both presenters and audience members. “But are all these representations of violence the same?” Hammill said. “Does the representation of violence spur on further violence, change the meaning of violence or even perhaps nullify its effects? These are essential questions.” The conference split into two concurrent sessions. The first session focused on violence found in Shakespeare plays, while the second featured three diverse presentations on violence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, war and spirituality and video games. Three presentations on chemically induced love, female violence and factory farms followed these sessions. The Executive Steering Committee of Farhana Hasan, a se-
nior linguistics and English major, Kapila Kapoor, a senior English major, Andrew Grabowski, a senior philosophy and English major, and Melissa Pavlovsky, an English major, gave their closing remarks to end the conference. Andrew Stott, dean of undergraduate education and director of the Honors College, presented the awards to the top three presentations. Sushmita Gelda, a freshman interdisciplinary degree programs social sciences major, won the conference’s first place prize for her presentation “Invisible Injustice: How Factory Farm Violence is Under-represented in the United States.” Gelda argued contradictory cultural ideologies, public policy loopholes, the meat industry’s rhetoric and misrepresented nutrition facts contribute to a society indifferent and ignorant to the conditions of factory farms.
“Clearly, we know there’s a problem,” Gelda said. “But there is a refusal to acknowledge the connection between one’s actions and the consequences of one’s actions. Our desire to remain uninformed about an issue of moral controversy makes [us as a society] morally culpable.” Casey Brescia, a philosophy major at Buffalo State College, won second place for his presentation on the ethics behind a hypothetical love drug, entitled “Who Says You Can’t Buy Love?” Augustus Petko, a senior English major, won third place for his presentation on how orators employ subliminal themes of violence to manipulate their audiences, specifically in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The presentation, titled “Veiled Intentions; Rhetoric and the Influence upon an Audience,” explored how violence within language is never addressed outright, but exists in allusion. The conference concluded with audience members and presenters engaged in productive conversation prompted by the thought-provoking presentations. The UB English Club hopes this conference will be the first of many. “It shows just how committed all [these students] are to research and scholarship,” Hammill said. “This conference is a real testament to the kind of intellectual community that’s taken shape here at UB.” email: features@ubspectrum.com
ubspectrum.com
Monday, April 28, 2014
7
Master of the house
The UB Theater and Dance department performs Les Miserables SHARON KAHN
Arts Editor
Zoe Tchapraste grew up in a family of performers in New York City and has been singing since she was 8 years old. “Theater is in my blood,” Tchapraste said. Tchapraste, a senior music theater major, said singing helped her ease into the part of Éponine as she began preparing for her first lead role. UB Theater and Dance department put on the first performance of Les Miserables at the Center For the Arts (CFA) on Thursday. The show, consisting of 31 UB student actors and dancers, brought in a packed audience on its opening night. The musical originally ran on Broadway from 1987 to 2003 and a film adaption of the show came out in 2012. As the first number started, men marched in singing “Look Down,” and the audience hushed, focused on the show. The stage was filled with men dressed in rags, slaving over boulders as police officers kept them in line. Taylor Gray, a senior music theater major, played ex-prisoner Jean Valjean. He left the audience captivated as his voice resonated throughout the theater. The audience, entranced by the talented singers who took over the theater with their powerful voices, was equally astounded at the 14-piece orchestra sitting on stage beside the actors. The towering set used throughout the production was designed by senior theater major Ian Shelanskey. He said designing a set that would fit the whole orchestra and not encumber the 31 actors on stage was the most difficult aspect to consider. “You know the music and the show so well, and all of those
things come together to create the ‘epicness’ of the show,” Shelanskey said. “To have the orchestra on stage kind of solidifies that and makes the characters on the same plane of importance [as the orchestra].” While Shelanskey was concerned about spacing on stage, the performance didn’t seem overcrowded throughout the show. Danielle Gilman, a sophomore business major, said she didn’t expect the UB production to be as “phenomenal” as it turned out. She had never seen a show with the orchestra on stage. “At first, I thought it was going to take away from the show but it ended up doing the complete opposite,” Gilman said. “It was perfect for the type of show that was put on. Whether you’ve seen Les Miserables or not, you are familiar with at least some of the music, and being able to watch the actors sing, and the music being played directly behind them was genius.” Gabrielle Petrosino, a senior music theater major, has been performing in theater department shows since her freshman year. This year, Petrosino had the opportunity to choreograph the entire production and act in the performance as the young Cosette, a role typically played by a child. Nathan Matthews, an associate professor of music theater and director of the show, offered Petrosino the position as choreographer. He thought it would be a great opportunity for her to test out the skills she has acquired, according to Petrosino. She said dance is her specialty. Petrosino began preparing for her role as choreographer over winter break, researching the show, reading the novel and listening to the soundtrack on repeat.
“I made it a point as soon as I found out that I was choreographing not to watch anything,” Petrosino said. “I wanted my ideas to be fresh and I didn’t want to see what anyone else had done before.” The choreographer worked with the entire creative team as well as her mentor Kathleen Gold, adjunct instructor in theater and dance, to decide which direction they wanted to take the show. As each song flowed into the next scene, the audience applauded and cheered. When Petrosino took the stage for her solo, “Castle on a Cloud,” the audience was impressed to hear the voice the 4’9” actress possessed. “Young Cosette was one of the cutest girls in the show,” said Nicole Faerman, a junior communication major. “When she walked onto the stage, I thought she was a little kid they brought in for the production. When she began to sing my jaw literally dropped. I couldn’t believe the voice that came out of her.” Matthews, with the rest of the creative team, chose to focus on the characters and orchestration when putting together this production. “We are being imaginative instead of realistic,” Matthews said. “[The audience] will see actors, and an orchestra that is built into the set, not big mountainsides or big streets with buildings.” Jaclyn Schneider, a sophomore nursing major, said she couldn’t take her eyes off of the stage for a minute. “It was a great idea to use a more basic set design and just really focus on the performers,” Scheinder said. “The actors and the musicians were so unbeliev-
Yusong Shi, The Spectrum Last Thursday, UB’s Theater and Dance department performed its first showing of Les Miserables at the Center For the Arts. Zoe Tchapraste and Edward Powers (posed photo) play Éponine and Thénadier, respectively.
ably talented, anymore set decoration and movement would have taken away from their performance.” The real “powerhouse” number the audience can expect to enjoy is “One Day More,” which features the entire cast on stage. The different voices of each performer melded together in a beautiful harmony, elegantly accompanied by compelling orchestral music. Petrosino said she saw a lot of potential for “One Day More,” focusing specifically on it dance-wise because of the talented force behind it.
The audience should expect to see the same Les Miserables it already knows with the same orchestration without cutting or censoring any scenes, according to Matthews. The Theater and Dance department will be performing Les Miserables through May 4 at the CFA Drama Theater. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $10 for UB students. Tori Roseman contributed reporting to this story. email: arts@ubspectrum.com
What are you thinking about sex? Symposium uses psychoanalytic discussion to question the definition of sex CLAUDIA ORNIS
Asst. Features Editor
Kathryn Bond Stockton, a professor at the University at Utah, is not a “lesbian,” nor is she a “homo.” But, as Stockton explains, she has been “creating lesbians” since she was a child. “I was the ultimate straight man, seeking morally feminine women,” Stockton said. The world saw her as a female so she received the label “lesbian,” though she did not consider herself to be one. About 175 students, faculty and speakers from the psychoanalytic community piled into 120 Clemens on Friday to take part in a discussion around the elusive and daunting question: What is Sex? Stockton spoke of her interactions with the label “lesbian.” The notion of the word was part of the basis of her “Sex with Signifiers: ‘Lesbian Barebacking?’ discussion. The event was coordinated by the English 371 class – a Queer Theory Honors seminar taught by Timothy Dean, an associate English professor and director of the Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture. The event took 10 months of planning and consisted of five speakers from around the United States and Europe. “Virtually everyone, regardless of educational attainment, is capable of answering the question ‘What is Sex?’ Dean said. “But … in a psychoanalytical universe, sex takes unexpected forms, straying ever further from nature, from reproduction, and from so called normality.” Patricia Gherovici, and Philippe Van Haute were the first
Yusong Shi, The Spectrum Eugenie Brinkema, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about the issue of willingness in the pornography industry.
speakers in the symposium. Gherovici, a psychoanalyst in New York and Philadelphia, gave a speech entitled “Plastic Sex? The Beauty of It!” Van Haute, a professor of philosophical and a practicing psychoanalyst in Radboud University in the Netherlands, focused on the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, in his speech, “Freud Against Oedipus,” which confronted definitions of sex. Stockton focused on several different signifiers in the discourse surrounding sex and sexuality. She cited the works of Dean and Leo Bersani, as she discussed the phenomena of “barebacking” or unprotected sex amongst men, and its connection to HIV. Eugenie Brinkema, an assistant professor of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, broke her segment, “Irrumation, the Interrogation: Form, Rhythm, Pornography” into two sections. Each section of her speech was headed by a question. “What does it mean to say I offer you my mouth?” was the first focus of her speech. Brinkema explained the historical difference between “irrumatio,” a form of oral sex in ancient Roman vocabulary, and fellatio. In this ancient context, “fellatio” could be something as intimate as breast-feeding. Irrumatio, on the other hand, was thought of as a punishment, or something that was done to one’s enemy. Her second question asked, “What does it mean to be willing to do what one is unwilling to do?” Brinkema used the medium of
pornography to call into question the definition of willingness. The film clip “Meatholes 2, Hunter’s Break” portrayed this question in the emotional breakdown of seasoned adult film star Nikki Hunter during the filming of an anal sex scene. The clip showed Hunter going from experiencing an emotional breakdown to finally deciding to participate in the next scene. “You do what you can sell,” Hunter said when one of the men behind the camera asked if she thought less of him. In the next scene, Hunter is shown in an edited and brief double penetration sex scene. Brinkema argued that the progression of the scene is an example of when “one is constituting and ceasing at the same time.” Because these two things were happening at once, the scene showed
Hunter’s “willfulness to dispose of her body as property.” The final speaker in the symposium was Bersani, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In his segment, “Why Sex?” Bersani used the works of noted psychoanalysts, such as Freud, Jean Laplanche and Michel Foucault to explain what “drives” sex and sadism. After each segment, the speakers opened their discussion so that the audience could voice any questions it may have. This time allowed for everyone who was less familiar with the work to ask for more clarification. Jordon Maxfield, a senior film studies major, had several questions by the end of the symposium. “I’m not very knowledgeable in the area of study that was focused on today, which was prohibitive in my understanding of everything” Maxfield said. Although Maxfield did not ask any questions himself, he said that the symposium inspired him to look more into the topic of sex in psychoanalysis. This desire to gain more knowledge was the goal of the symposium, according to Dean. “I want people to question fundamental things,” Dean said. “The goal of education is not just transmit knowledge or skills, but to pose questions that cut to the core of who we are and who we want to be.” Dean’s hope was that the five talks that occurred on Friday, would lead to this “questioning” that would continue long after the symposium ended. email: features@ubspectrum.com
ubspectrum.com
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Monday, April 28, 2014
Student arrested on drug charges
Police raid house, arrest alleged drug trafficker near South Campus Continued from Page 1, Election SAMAYA ABDUS-S-LAAM Asst. News Editor
On Wednesday morning, Erie County Sheriff ’s narcotics unit and the Buffalo police raided 45 Tyler St., near South Campus, and arrested UB student Matthew McCarty, a senior in the management school, for drug possession. The narcotics unit had been investigating the house prior to the arrest. The location is known among students as a “drug house,” and a place where people often come in and out. Police found nearly three pounds of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms in McCarty’s home the morning of the raid, according to Buffalo police. Following his arrest, McCarty was placed in the Erie County Holding Center Wednesday night, awaiting his arraignment. He was charged with two counts of possession, one for marijuana and the other for hallucinogenic mushrooms. Police also charged him with intent to sell the drugs. If McCarty is convicted, he could face a prison sentence of up to 25 years.
Yusong Shi, The Spectrum Erie County Sheriff ’s narcotics unit raided 45 Tyler Street Wednesday morning and arrested Matthew McCarty with charges of marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms possession and intent to sell.
email: news@ubspectrum.com
Ingram realizes the change is an increase in presidential power, but it does not give the president more power than it deserves, he said. He remarked the president currently has the power to make appointments that may be more “impactful” than the delegates such as members to Sub-Board I, Inc. “That is a powerful appointment in itself because the SubBoard manages so much money,” Ingram said. Kathan said the Assembly liked that other SUNY schools appoint their delegates. Siwiec said previous parties would often choose delegates based how many votes the candidate would be able to gather. For this past election, Ingram and Evan Chen, vice presidentelect, received 1,201 votes. The second highest amount of votes went to Hayley Ross, a current SUNY delegate, who was reelected with 1,175 votes. “It is just more efficient for the sake of the organization to appoint them because we want to have people who are getting the votes themselves as opposed to relying on other people,” Siwiec said. Siwiec believes by removing the required delegate positions,
more students may decide to run for the executive board positions, and it will bolster the legitimacy of the votes. Independent candidates will no longer have to fill up four more positions to run for the executive board. Nemmer thinks this will completely change the election process, but it wouldn’t necessarily be in a negative way. “You are going to see a lot more people running for president and vice president now,” Nemmer said. “Because beforehand, if you couldn’t fill up a full ticket of ballots – a president, vice president, treasurer and four delegates – you couldn’t run, you would get crushed.” Giles said he suggested to Siwiec a system that “delegates [would] run divorced from eboard parties.” He potentially sees problems where a presidential candidate may promise the delegate position to a student to gain support. Siwiec thinks this point goes along with any other appointed position at SA. The changes will be in affect for the 2015-16 executive board. email: news@ubspectrum.com
Continued from Page 10, Top Ten He harbors no ill will toward the athletic department, however. Witherspoon said he expects to find out in the next 2-3 weeks if he will be coaching at a new school in the winter. “Nothing has changed. That’s my alma mater,” Battle said. “My teammates and myself, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into building that program. The way we feel about it as a group is
that if it wasn’t for Coach Witherspoon believing in all of us, then [Athletic Director] Danny White may not be there as well. It’s always going to be my school and always going to have a place in my heart.” Battle said he is still close with many of his teammates, including Bortz, Gilbert, Cage, Jason Bird and Rod Middleton, and that they “created a bond that
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probably won’t ever be broken.” “We’re all like brothers – like any family, even though you may not talk that often, you’ll always be family,” Bortz said. Their squad helped the Bulls progress from 12-18 as freshmen to 23-10 as seniors. Witherspoon said by the end of Battle’s junior year, in which UB went 17-12, fans started lining up at Alumni Arena at 11 a.m. for a
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7 p.m. tipoff. In Battle’s senior year, UB lost only one non-conference game – to the defending national champion, UConn. “[Battle] was the perfect beginning, foundational stone for the building of the modern era of not only Buffalo basketball, but intercollegiate athletics,” Witherspoon said. “I’ve talked to [former UB President Bill Greiner] about this – I’ve spoke with him
about how important that was, not just to the basketball program and intercollegiate athletics, but the entire university.” “Because later on, it galvanized the university. It gave the university something to come together for in a way they had never known.” email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Monday, April 28, 2014 ubspectrum.com
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DAILY DELIGHTS sponsored by buffalostudenthousing.com Crossword of the Day Monday, April 28, 2014 FROM UNIVERSAL UCLICK
HOROSCOPES
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- You're expecting things to progress according to plan, perhaps, but you're likely to be at the mercy of a chance development. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- You know more than most about a current trend, but certain details remain a mystery. By day's end, even these are clear to you. CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- You may find yourself moving in an unexpected direction before the day is out; you have a friend to thank for this decision. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- If things get more complicated than expected, it is probably because you have neglected to consider the input of others. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Everything seems to be in place at this time, but you may have the feeling that you are overlooking one small detail. Indeed you are! LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- You're waiting for lightning to strike twice when, in fact, nothing so dramatic is likely to happen to you or yours. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- Others may consider your decisions unusual in the extreme, and yet, by day's end, you can prove that they are actually quite mainstream. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- You're likely to attract a great deal of attention, but not for the usual reason. Something strange is in the works. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- You're going to have to dig more deeply than usual in order to uncover information that can prove useful to you at this time. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- No one is likely to treat you as if nothing has happened. Indeed, you're not the same as you were only yesterday. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You'll come to realize that something you've been overlooking lately is actually of great importance to you, personally and professionally. ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- Things are changing again, but not in the way you expect. Pay attention to undercurrents; let yourself react instinctively.
ACROSS
47 Oath 1 Recording studio 48 New York’s capital tasks 50 It’s made to be bro5 Church engagement ken, proverbially announcement 51 Coast Guard off. 10 Business letter open- 52 A great lake ing 53 New Hampshire 14 Very large-scale prep school 15 Perpendicular to a 55 Perform stunningly ship’s length 58 Pert 16 Send off 61 Common cereal 17 NBC’speacock, e.g. grains 18 Anchor line’s hole 62 Amazon parrot 19 Church’s east end, 65 Builder’s work place typically 66 Indian butter 20 Block of gold 67 Place to see pro bas22 Marketing agent, ca- ketball sually 68 Implement 24 Like some cuisine or 69 Word on a commuhumor nal towel? 27 Tex-Mex bite 70 Wren residences 28 Auto 71 PJ fastener 30 Bring on the decorator 31 Barrel features 34 Eggs, in biology 1 Cold-cuts emporium 35 Some beasts of bur2 “Once ___ a time ...” den 36 Lightened one’s wal- 3 Product improvement slogan let 4 Move along quickly 37 What tired dogs do 5 Ebenezer’s exclama39 Atlantic City treat tion 42 Edible corm 6 Bygone NBA rival 43 Fair attractions 7 Press meetings 45 Lively spirit 8 Space org.
DOWN
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9 Runs a blast furnace 10 Ocean painting, e.g. 11 Beta 2 compared to beta 1 12 Bailiff ’s order 13 “Watch your ___!” 21 By way of, for short 23 Enjoys dinner 25 Behind-the-counter call 26 Mental conception 28 Dried coconut meat 29 Be of service to 32 ___ a high note 33 Stores securely 38 Chinese restaurant flowers 40 State of constant change 41 Eli’s school 44 Agitated state 46 Earns, after all 49 Beefeater, for example 54 Some bridge-seat occupants 55 Boots of old 56 Hawaiian “gathering place” 57 Ending for “soft” or “dinner” 59 Classical colonnade 60 Pup’s anguished cry 63 Wee soldier 64 Existed
Monday, April 28, 2014 ubspectrum.com
10
SPORTS TOP 10 No.
6: D1 ERA Turner Battle of the
Character-driven guard & coach became legend in UB’s basketball program
AARON MANSFIELD
Special to the Spectrum
Reggie Witherspoon and Mark Bortz vividly recall their first interactions with Turner Battle – both phone calls. When Witherspoon and his assistant called Battle, who had never heard of UB, he had a question: “Do you play in Division I?” “When we said ‘yes,’ his polite way of saying ‘are you sure?’ was to say ‘who else is in your conference?’” Witherspoon said. Several months after Battle committed to UB, Bortz visited campus. The coaches suggested the pair of youngsters speak on the phone – after all, they reasoned Battle could be the center’s point guard for four years. Bortz laughed recalling the moment and says his talk with Battle was “one of the most awkward phone conversations ever.” “‘Hi Turner, how are you?’ ‘Good,’” Bortz said. “‘So, you’re from North Carolina?’ ‘Yup.’ He was very short and shy, but once we actually met in person, we hit it off.” Battle was a big-time recruit – possibly the biggest signing at the time in program history. A couple factors played into his decision: he had changed AAU squads the summer before his high school senior year and lost some major schools’ interest (which he now calls a “blessing in disguise”). Battle also felt naturally at home when he visited Buffalo. For the point guard, it just felt right. UB is fortunate it did. He and Bortz formed a tandem that, with the help of players like Calvin Cage, Yassin Idbihi and Daniel Gilbert, led UB to the finest basketball season in program history. In 2004-05, their senior year, the Bulls finished 23-10 and advanced to the second round of the NIT after losing in the MidAmerican Conference championship game on a last-second tip-in to Ohio. Battle was named MAC Player of the Year, AP Honorable Mention All-America and Academ-
Spectrum file photo After an exceptional career in which he was named MAC Player of the Year and helped lead the men’s basketball team to its most wins in a season, Turner Battle served as an assistant coach for the Bulls from 2007-13.
ic All-MAC. He started at point guard for four years and amassed career averages of 12.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Now an assistant coach at Chattanooga, Battle played professionally overseas for one year before breaking his elbow while playing pickup at UB, consequently starting his coaching career. Battle and his wife, Clare, are expecting their first child, a girl, in July. “I think about it all the time. I reminisce all the time,” Battle said of his UB career. “When we get together, my teammates that I was close with, we always talk about it. We have a lot of memories – sad memories and happy memories, too – so it’s something that I’ll explain to my kids and my teammates will explain to their kids.” Is Bortz surprised Battle, who received NBA looks, played professionally for only one year? Yes and no. Yes because he was so good in college, but no because his teammates always expected Battle to go into coaching. “Early on, he had a coach’s mindset,” replied Bortz, now an assistant marketing manager for Europe/Middle East at Rich Products in Buffalo. “So when he decided to stop playing and be a coach, that wasn’t really a surprise.” Bortz, who earned his MBA from UB after playing professionally overseas for five years,
said that the team called Battle “Textbook” because he always conducted himself, both on the court and in the classroom, “by the book.” Battle said he was playing the “best basketball of [his] life” before breaking his elbow. He had an offer overseas and “probably would’ve wanted to play until the age I am now [31].” Witherspoon, who started his coaching career just minutes down the road from UB at Sweet Home High School, helped Battle start there as well. Battle planned to rehab while he served as an assistant for the Panthers during the 2006-07 year. In the sectional title game, Sweet Home upset highly favored Niagara Falls, which was led by eventual NBA lottery pick Jonny Flynn. From that point on, the coaching bug stuck with Battle. Brian Pappagallo was a junior guard on that Sweet Home team. “He played every day with us and he was very demanding,” said Pappagallo, who went on to play at Medaille College. “He was 10 times better than anybody we had on our team. We had three other coaches, so he wasn’t as vocal, but seeing things on the court – when we’d play, he would stop and show us what he saw and go through what we saw.” The June following that season, Chris Hawkins, the UB assistant who recruited Battle, took a job at Tulane (he is now an assistant at Radford). Witherspoon offered the open spot to Battle.
“We talked about it as a staff, and obviously trust is a big part of what needs to take place when you’re trying to build a program,” Witherspoon said. The coaches reasoned there was nobody they trusted more than Battle, whose character as a student-athlete made a lasting impact. “It allowed us to grow the athletic department because Turner didn’t walk around with an ego,” Witherspoon said. “There were probably 5,000 students on campus who thought Turner was their best friend because he treated them so well and he was so humble in his success. Every game our crowds got a little bigger, and a little bigger, and a little bigger.” As a coach at UB, Battle said “watching a lot of guys develop was the best thing, because I saw them come in as recruits and leave as successful men that are doing well for themselves right now.” Tony Watson, who graduated from UB in 2013 and played last season for Germany’s Bayer Giants, said even though Battle mentored him as a point guard, he learned more about “how to carry yourself off the court and how athletes are supposed to present themselves.” “It’s not all about basketball,” Watson said. “It’s also about being a good person and respecting other people.” Battle said he attempts to emulate the approach of Witherspoon. “He’s more of a father figure to all his players,” Battle said. “He’s not one of those guys who’s going to be in the office just during office hours and go home. He checks in all the time. If I need anything at 3, 4 o’clock in the morning, he’d answer and he would do it.” Battle and Witherspoon were a part of the staff that was fired from UB after the 2012-13 season. “Things didn’t happen the way we wanted them to happen,” Battle said.
No. 10: Branden Oliver Football 2010-14
No. 9: Kourtney Brown Basketball 2006-11
No. 8: Stacey Evans Softball 2002-05
No. 7: Jonathan Jones Track 2012-14
SEE TOP TEN, PAGE 8
Tennis teams fall short in MAC Tournament Men fall in championship match for third time in five years, women swept in semifinals TOM DINKI and CHRISTIAN BRUNO
Senior Sports Editor and Staff Writer
Both the men’s and women’s tennis team earned a victory in their respective Mid-American Conference Tournaments this weekend, but neither will be returning to Buffalo with a championship. The men’s tennis team (12-8, 2-4 MAC) lost in the MAC Championship match for the third time in the past five years, falling to No. 2 seeded Ball State (14-11, 4-2 MAC) 4-3 in Muncie, Ind. Saturday. The women’s team (156, 6-4 MAC) fell to top-seeded Miami Ohio (17-6, 9-1 MAC) Saturday after defeating Toledo (147, 5-4 MAC) in the quarterfinals Friday. The men’s team made its third championship match appearance under head coach Lee Nickell after upsetting top-seeded Northern Illinois (18-6, 4-1 MAC) Friday morning. The Huskies took a commanding 2-0 lead after winning the doubles point and sophomore Pablo Alvarez fell at No. 3 singles. Then, Buffalo began to rally.
Junior Sebastian Ionescu, sophomore Akhil Mehta and freshman Jonathan Hannestad claimed victories at singles to give the Bulls a 3-2 advantage. Sophomore Sergio Arevalillo clinched the upset victory with a 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 decision over the Huskies’ Jovan Zeljkovic. In the MAC Championship match, Buffalo was again on the verge of losing the doubles point after a loss at No. 2 doubles. But the duo of Alvarez and Ionescu, along with the tandem of junior Damien David and Mehta both claimed victories to give the Bulls the doubles point. With the overall match tied 3-3, the championship came down to Alvarez at No. 3 singles. Alzarez fell in a tiebreaker 9-7, giving the Bulls their third championship match loss in five years. Despite their shortcomings in the final game, the Bulls had a historic season. Buffalo received its first-ever top 75 ranking by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association earlier this season when it upset No. 56 Cornell (13-8, 4-3 Ivy League). At the time, Cornell was ranked No. 53. “Everyone associated with the
Yusong Shi, The Spectrum
Sophomore Akhil Mehta and the men’s tennis team upset top-seeded Northern Illinois in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament this weekend but fell in the MAC Championship match for the third time in five years.
team should be proud of this year,” Nickell said. “We’ve had so many highs – we were ranked for the first time in school history … we beat the best team in the conference [Northern Illinois] here.” In Oxford, Ohio, the women’s team overcame losing the dou-
bles point against the Rockets in the quarterfinals by dominating singles play. “We had a good conversation in between singles and doubles and said, ‘There are things we got to clean and things we have to do better’ and to the girls’ credits, they went out and did it. They just took care of business in singles,” said head coach Kristen Maines. Freshman Margarita Kotok and seniors Marta Stoyanova and Miranda Podlas won their singles matches in two sets to give Buffalo a 3-1 advantage. Senior Anamaria Candanoza clinched the victory for the Bulls with a 6-4, 6-4 victory at No. 5 singles, propelling Buffalo into the MAC semifinals for the first time since 2010. The Bulls could not carry their momentum into their match against Miami Ohio Saturday, however, as they were swept 4-0. Buffalo lost the doubles point again, but there would be no comeback this time. The RedHawks clinched the match with a victory at third singles when junior Laura Fernandez fell 6-2, 6-2 to Christiana Raymond.
“Miami [Ohio] came out really strong,” Maines said. “They played better than we did. That’s what it boiled down to. They competed well, they battled. Miami was the stronger team outside Saturday so unfortunately they deserved that win.” The women finished the season with the highest win total since the 2006-07 season. Candanoza was named to the AllMAC Tournament Team. The semifinal loss marked the final match of Candanoza, Podlas, Stoyanova and Tanvi Shah’s UB careers. “We only have three returners so they’re going to be critical,” Maines said. “We’re going to have a whole new team this year which is exciting and a little scary at the same time. It’s a lot of recruiting and you put a lot of time and effort into the right players but you never really know how the team is going to jell until you get in here.” The men will return all of the starters from this season, however, and are poised for another tournament run next year. email: sports@ubspectrum.com