The Spectrum Volume 63 Issue 77

Art students redecorate CFA’s walls for project Top 10 athletes of the D1 Era – No. 4: Brittney Kuras THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950

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Arevalillo, Alvarez connect far beyond the court

Friday, may 2, 2014

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Volume 63 No. 77

Learning to let go UB students recount their experiences with eating disorders, share advice KEREN BARUCH

Senior Features Editor

Jordyn Lowe* remembers the moment she began to despise her body.

She was in the shower, reaching back for shampoo when she saw excess skin rolling over her hip.

FAT. She pinched it, then moved on to her thighs, stomach and arms.

She was 5-foot-4 and weighed 121 pounds, but she said she felt like “Shamu.”

Tears dripping from her face onto the shower floor, Lowe vowed she would never let herself get “big” again. *** Left. Right. Left.

Lowe moves faster. Sweat drips off her nose and onto her chest. She’s going to get where she wants to be – she can feel it.

Her idol: Marilyn Monroe.

Mental and emotional distress are experiences Lowe can relate to. She loves Monroe’s story.

Fame. Success. Perfection.

She will one day stand on stage while everyone applauds. But she has to be thin enough. That’s why numbers matter.

A Wegmans medley of red, green and yellow peppers: 70 calories Bean salad: 200 Cookie cake: 1,000 She gave in to the cake. She

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALINE KOBAYASHI, THE SPECTRUM

tried to fight with all her might to stay away from it, but the warm cookie cake covered in yellow frosting – her favorite – looked too appetizing. Plus, she had been starving herself for days, so why not?

A little treat for all of her hard work can’t hurt that bad, can it?

It can. She feels full. She has to burn more. More than she ate.

Burn double her daily intake.

Two thousand. She won’t stop unless the number on the treadmill’s screen reads “2,000 calories.” It’s her little secret. She’ll

Former UB coach Witherspoon signs as assistant at Alabama After year away from the game, ‘Spoon’ excited for challenge of SEC

never share it.

Left. Right. Left. *** In one semester, the fall of 2011, Lowe lost 18 pounds.

She also became one of the 20 percent of college-aged women across the country with an eating disorder.

At UB, the official number of students treated for eating disorders this year is 60, said counselor Carissa Uschold of UB’s Student Health and Wellness Center. But, she added, this is just a fraction of the students who are

starving, bingeing and purging every day.

These unknown students – mostly women but an increasing number of men – are hard to find and even harder to help, because more than 80 percent of them are afraid or reluctant to come forward, according to statistics from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. Close to 48 percent of these students don’t even admit they have a problem with food.

An innocent addiction Lowe started counting calories in a pocket-sized yellow notebook. She carried her notebook with her everywhere and – like Bridget Jones – made calculations and notes about herself.

Fat-free Swiss cheese: 45 Grilled Chicken: 200 Tea with milk: 10 Tostitos and edamame salad: 140 per half a cup Stir-fried vegetables with teriyaki sauce: 95 Trail mix from Wegmans’ “bulk” section: 240 In between classes, she rushed to the gym to burn more than she had consumed.

Two hours elliptical: 650 Five miles on the treadmill: 700 She wouldn’t dare do biceps curls, fearing it would make her arms look bigger rather than shrinking them. As long as her calories burned were double her calories consumed, she felt safe.

“I’d wear gym clothes to campus and in between classes I had a place to go where I felt I needed to be,” she said. “While my group of friends went to lunch or socialized in the library, I was with my pals: treadmill and elliptical.”

A few weeks into her new lifestyle, Lowe’s friends began to notice a change. She had lost about six pounds and had gained new SEE learning, PAGE 7

A mother’s charitable legacy lives on UB alum, students channel personal experiences to help Afghan widows, orphans LISA KHOURY

Managing Editor

Aaron Mansfield, The Spectrum Reggie Witherspoon, who served as UB’s men’s basketball coach for 14 years, has accepted an offer to become an assistant at Alamba. He held a press conference in his East Amherst home to announce the decision Wednesday.

AARON MANSFIELD Editor in Chief

As Reggie Witherspoon answered the final question and his in-home press conference concluded, the friends, family members and former players sitting behind Witherspoon in support proclaimed, “Roll Tide.”

Wednesday, Witherspoon announced he is heading to the SEC to become an assistant coach at the University of Alabama.

Witherspoon was the UB men’s basketball team’s head coach for 14 years, from 1999-2013, before Athletic Director Danny White terminated his contract with three years remaining on the deal in March 2013 following a 14-20 season.

In July 2013, The Buffalo News reported that Witherspoon had accepted an offer to become special assistant in charge of athletics at Erie Community College, but in August that deal was nixed because of

a contract dispute – it was determined UB would no longer be obligated to pay the remainder of Witherspoon’s deal if he accepted the ECC job. Witherspoon said he had been in discussion with other colleges recently but there were no definite offers outside of Alabama, and he is grateful to have the “deep sense of uncertainty” behind him.

“People would ask, and I just genuinely did not know,” Witherspoon said. “‘What are you going to do?’ ‘I don’t really know.’ But thank God. They say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

Witherspoon joins the staff of head coach Anthony Grant, whom Witherspoon said is the primary reason he was drawn to the job.

Witherspoon met Grant when his Virginia Commonwealth team upset Duke in Buffalo in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. VCU practiced that week SEE WITHERSPOON, PAGE 2

Zubair Trabzada found out his mother passed away two months after it happened. He was 14 and spending a year in Orchard Park, N.Y. – living with a host family and experiencing high school in America.

When he returned to Afghanistan, his family told him the news.

The youngest of six siblings, and the closest to her, Trabzada was devastated. But it was more than a loss for himself.

Amina, his mother, was a staple figure in both his life and the lives of many Afghans. The wife of an important politician, Amina was known for her generosity. She helped dozens of widows and orphans around their home in Kabul – Afghanistan’s capital.

Losing Amina meant losing someone who fought poverty and hunger in the third-world country first hand.

Trabzada couldn’t let that happen.

In 2007, at 18, he returned to Buffalo and studied civil engineering at Canisius College. He transferred to UB in 2009 and started the Amina Foundation after graduating in 2012. Now, he’s seeking to recreate his mother’s generosity.

“That’s the biggest goal in my life,” Trabzada said. “Not to be somebody very rich … but just to be able to be in a position where I could help the people of Afghanistan, my people and these women and children, who a lot of them don’t even know about these wars or they have

Chad Cooper, The Spectrum (From left to right) Zubair Trabzada, a UB alum, and UB students Durgham Alyasiri, Syed Ali Adil, Ahmad Adil, Sarah Hussain, Salma Attai and Buffalo State College student Nilab Hussain are members of the Amina Foundation.

nothing to do with these, but they’re suffering through it because of it.”

What started as a mission to collect donations to send to his brothers overseas, who in turn bought food for widows and orphans in poor villages surrounding Kabul, turned into a movement at UB. In November, five Middle Eastern UB students – Durgham Alyasiri, Sarah Hussain, Salma Attai, Syed Ali Adil and Ahmad Adil – and Buffalo State student Nilab Hussain joined Trabzada. Some of them have been refugees. Others have lost family members or been separated from them. They are driven to help because in their eyes, the widows and orphans of Afghanistan aren’t so different from themselves.

Durgham Alyasiri, a senior biology and health and human services major, met Trabzada at UB

and helped support the Amina Foundation. Born in Iraq and brought up in Jordan, Alyasiri was raised by a single mother – which drives his passion to help women and children who don’t have a man to support their family.

“In the Middle East, where the more fundamentalists are, women are basically deprived of their basic rights, so they can’t work,” Alyasiri said. “Even if they’re hungry and their children don’t have food, they still can’t go out and find a job. So they live on charity – that’s how their whole life is.”

The 23-year-old recalls what that’s like. He relied on extended family in Iraq and Jordan for financial help. Joining the foundation came naturally to Alyasiri, who now works three jobs to help support his mother and family in addition to going to SEE AMINA, PAGE 2

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Continued from page 1: Amina school full time. He says helping others is part of the Arabic culture.

He helped organize the Amina Foundation’s first public fundraisers – a bowling event in March and a soccer tournament in April. He spoke in front of his classes, reached out to offcampus organizations and even asked professors for donations.

For member Sarah Hussain, her childhood experience of being a refugee fuels her passion for the Amina Foundation.

When Hussain was 5 years old, she and her parents left their home in Afghanistan to go to a wedding in Uzbekistan.

They planned to vacation there for two weeks.

During those two weeks in 1998, the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

“It was not safe for our family to go back, so we just stayed in Uzbekistan,” said Hussain, a senior biological sciences major.

“It was difficult because we just planned to stay for two weeks; we left everything there. And not being able to go back to Afghanistan was shocking to us.”

Hussain adapted to her new home, learned the language and made friends. But by the time she was 14, her father had signed up his family for a refugee visa. Her family’s fate was out of their control – the visa could lead them to Canada, America or Australia. They ended up in Buffalo.

So when Alyasiri told his classmate Hussain about the Amina Foundation in November, she was immediately committed. Her life goal is to return to Afghanistan as a physician’s assistant.

“At this moment, we’re just doing financial [support]. So my plan was to become a physician’s assistant and go back and help,

but I don’t have to wait until I become a physician’s assistant.

I can do it right now,” Hussain said. “All you gotta do is just teamwork, and have the passion of helping, and I found those people. So we united and we’re working on this project.”

With that passion, the group has raised almost $6,000 since November.

Twice per week, Trabzada’s brothers in Afghanistan provide $100 worth of food to a widow and her children – which, because of the difference in currency, is enough to feed a family of four to five for a month, according to Alyasiri.

Each weekend, when Trabzada’s brothers drop off the food to a family, they take photos of the family holding a “thank you” sign, written to one person or family who made a donation.

That’s one of Alyasiri’s favorite parts of the foundation – he said when he looks at the photos, he relates to the children.

Just as Trabzada’s mother did in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where his family fled during the civil war, his brothers give oil, rice, beans, potatoes and other cooking supplies and raw materials.

Before the Taliban seized Kabul from the Afghan military in 1996, a victory that began five years of Taliban rule in the capital and large parts of Afghanistan, Trabzada lived a comfortable life in Kabul.

His family had a big house, nice cars and servants, whom Amina treated with kindness and respect. When the family fled to Pakistan temporarily during the Taliban’s occupation, his family lost everything.

“Even when we went to Pakistan, I mean we had left everything, but [Amina] always had a great heart,” Trabzada said. “She

always found people who were in need around us. And every month, she would actually do the same thing. She would find a family who needed a lot of help, and she would provide them food – basically the same thing we’re doing right now.”

In fact, Trabzada’s efforts are almost identical to his mother’s – he focuses on widows and orphans as she did. He provides them with the same types of raw materials Amina did.

As he spoke about his mother’s generosity, he recalled a story that made him smile. He and his mother were walking to a grocery store when she saw a woman coming out of a tent with her children.

“She actually said, ‘Why don’t you come to our house later on and I’ll give you some raw food?’” Trabzada said. “And then she started giving her a little bit of oil, potatoes and onions and whatever. Then she said, ‘You know what, every month, at the end of the month, why don’t you come to our house, and I’ll give you the supplies that you need for the rest of the month?’”

The Amina Foundation recently applied to be a Student Association club. In the future, members hope to be a New York State not-for-profit organization.

As a Muslim, Trabzada feels charity is spiritually nourishing.

He doesn’t like much attention or credit. He emphasizes how the foundation’s members, and their hard work, have been able to feed so many families.

For Trabzada, like it was for Amina, it will always be about others. email: news@ubspectrum.com

Friday, May 2, 2014

Continued from page 1: Witherspoon at UB, and Witherspoon has been a fan of Grant’s coaching style ever since – particularly his pressure defense and ability to execute it against great teams, and his propensity to go deep into his bench and produce balanced teams.

“Coach Grant has been terrific with not only me but he’s been great as a coach at Florida, at VCU and certainly at Alabama,” Witherspoon said. “My wife and I, Dawn and I, got a chance to go down there and visit Tuscaloosa and were amazed by the hospitality of the people there, by the resources there and by the extensive knowledge of building a program that Coach Grant and his staff have.”

Witherspoon has spent the past year doing freelance consulting for teams at every level, from high schools (including the Park School in Buffalo) to colleges (including South Carolina and Illinois) to NBA teams. Still, not being a full-time head coach was difficult for Witherspoon.

“It’s been a struggle to be away from something that I’ve been doing for so long, but at the same time it’s given me an opportunity to visit different programs … practices, games, and just see how other people are doing it and understand how they’re doing it,” Witherspoon said. “And a lot of it validated some of the things we were doing, but it’s been a challenge, and this will be a challenge, too – to move, to get down there – but it’s one we’re really excited about.”

Witherspoon said he was shocked to learn how many programs were aware of his methods of coaching – likely referring to the patented high-low offense he developed at UB, known in some circles as “Reggie Rise-Up,” which many college teams now run.

Witherspoon was born and raised in Buffalo, and before his time atUB, he coached at Sweet Home High School (going from

junior varsity head coach to varsity assistant to varsity head coach) andECC. Much of his press conference involved reminiscing on his extensive time in the Buffalo basketball community – from crying as a young boy after Buffalo Braves losses to becoming a ball boy at UB – and expressing gratitude for those who have supported him over the years.

“It will always be home … we’ll always be connected to Western New York and mindful of the support that we’ve had here for 30 years, really,” Witherspoon said.

“I am really thankful and grateful to be able to serve as part of the Western New York basketball community and to have been able to have helped in any way, and I’m just so appreciative and so grateful for their support over the years.”

The decision of White, who was then in his first year as AD, to fire Witherspoon, who had helped lead the development of UB’s Division I program, spurred controversy in the Buffalo community. White hired Rhode Island assistant Bobby Hurley to take over, and Hurley’s UB team – led by seniors Javon McCrea, Josh Freelove and Jarod Oldham – finished 19-10 and lost in the Mid-American Conference quarterfinals.

“Even the support that we got here in Western New York was a little bit surprising, going through what we went through just a little over a year ago,” Witherspoon said. “Everywhere I went here, really, it surprised me how much support we had.”

Grant is 99-51 in his five-year career at Alabama. This year, his team finished 13-19. It was the program’s first losing season in 14 years.

Witherspoon said he and his wife will be moving to Alabama shortly. email: sports@ubspectrum.com

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EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR IN CHIEF Aaron Mansfield MANAGING EDITORS Lisa Khoury Sara DiNatale OPINION EDITOR Anthony Hilbert COPY EDITORS Tress Klassen, Chief Amanda Jowsey Samaya Abdus-Salaam NEWS EDITORS Sam Fernando, Senior Amanda Low Madelaine Britt, Asst.

FEATURES EDITORS Keren Baruch, Senior Anne Mulrooney, Asst.

Brian Windschitl, Asst.

Emma Janicki, Asst.

ARTS EDITORS Joe Konze Jr., Senior Jordan Oscar Megan Weal, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORS Ben Tarhan, Senior Owen O’Brien Tom Dinki, Asst.

PHOTO EDITORS Aline Kobayashi, Senior Chad Cooper Juan David Pinzon, Asst.

Yusong Shi, Asst.

CARTOONIST Amber Sliter CREATIVE DIRECTORS Brian Keschinger Andres Santandreu, Asst.

Jenna Bower, Asst.

PROFESSIONAL STAFF OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helene Polley ADVERTISING MANAGER Emma Callinan Drew Gaczewski, Asst.

Chris Mirandi, Asst.

ADVERTISING DESIGNER Ashlee Foster Tyler Harder, Asst.

Jenna Bower, Asst.

Friday, May 2, 2014 Volume 63 Number 77 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.

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The Spectrum offices are located in 132 Student Union, UB North Campus, Buffalo, NY 14260-2100

OPINION

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A violation of law, duty and trust Police brutality turns suspect into victim, officer into criminal A 22-year-old from Williamsville lies face down, subdued and handcuffed on the sidewalk. A Buffalo police officer stands over the man and repeatedly kicks and slaps him. Other officers stand and watch while a bystander films the injustice.

The video depicting the brutalizing of John Willet was posted on YouTube last week, leading to federal investigation of the incident. In the wake of the video’s debut, six officers have been put on leave and public ire is burgeoning.

The case comes on the heels of a similar incident of documented police brutality involving a publically intoxicated college student in Tennessee and an officer who choked the student until he passed out.

Police brutality also went viral on Twitter, via the hashtag #myNYPD, as what was meant as an innocuous photo contest initiated by New York City’s police department became an avenue to post photos of police brutality and overreach.

Police brutality deserves a spot in headlines wherever it occurs – visibility of law enforcement overstepping clear moral and legal boundaries is critical in stopping the endemic problem and ensuring censure for officers who engage in unnecessary violent behavior.

It is unfortunate that our city is receiving national attention for this problem.

Daniel Derenda, Buffalo’s police commissioner, held a press conference Monday to discuss the video of the April 19 event.

Derenda assured the public that a complete investigation was under way and that “99.9 percent of our police officers every day do the

art by amber sliter, the spectrum

right thing.”

That remaining tenth of a percentage, however, is absolutely intolerable. And those who chose to stand and watch are by no means innocent.

Willet was arrested on charges of drug possession and resisting arrest. His suspected actions were

unlawful and he should be held accountable in a court of law for them.

The sidewalk is not the place for justice to be served and the end of an officer’s boot is not an acceptable mode of delivery.

Police brutality itself is an alarming problem that has long

plagued communities across the United States, and one that often goes unreported. More than 50 percent of officers stated it is not unusual for an officer “to turn a blind eye” to improper behavior by a fellow officer, according to a survey by the National Institute of Justice.

The pervasiveness of cameras among such a wide swath of the population has, as indicated by the incidents above, opened the eyes of society to a problem long left unseen, left on dark street corners or alleyways.

Visibility of the issue is the first step to counteracting it.

The case of John Willet in Buffalo, Jarod Dotson in Tennessee and the countless individuals whose mistreatment has been illuminated through #myNYPD reveal a disturbing trend but also potential for change.

As this nation’s eyes are opened by social networking to the wrongdoings by those meant to protect and serve, reprehensible abuses of power can be addressed.

What is needed now, in Buffalo and elsewhere, is swift punishment for offenders and those that stood idly by as someone sworn to protect the public violated that duty. Officers who are morally indifferent enough to not intervene deserve to be reprimanded quickly and severely, lest a culture of tolerant apathy is reinforced among those whose morals should stand as an example for the community.

This city’s police department has been tarnished by the actions of a few. Only an appropriate penalty will reinstate the trust of the public. email: editorial@ubspectrum.com

It’s time to kill the death penalty Botched execution calls for reevaluation of already questionable practice The death penalty is slowly dying – not because of legal challenges or moral opposition to the practice, per se, but because the tools of the trade are increasingly unavailable.

The latest in a string of contentious executions came this week when the state of Oklahoma carried out the death penalty on convicted rapist and murderer Clayton Lockett.

A striking trend of using new drugs to execute prisoners has overshadowed executions throughout the year. In protest of the death penalty, European drug manufacturers are no longer providing drugs traditionally used for execution to the United States.

This has left states vehement on executing criminals testing the effectiveness of new, at times untested, clearly unsafe drugs. This lack of testing has exacerbated the already arguably cruel and unusual punishment that characterizes the experience of a prisoner after receiving the drugs.

Witnesses described the Lockett’s execution as “botched.”

After witnessing the con-

demned writhe on the gurney 10 minutes after being deemed unconscious by the doctor present, the injection process was halted. The blinds of the window into the viewing gallery were lowered. Lockett died of a heart attack over half an hour later. Officials say a vein of his “exploded,” meaning the drugs were absorbed slowly into his soft tissue as opposed to his bloodstream.

The incident has thrust the debate over capital punishment back onto headlines across the country. The death penalty is being attacked not for its moral or legal grounding, but for its increasing impracticality, spurred by international discontent with the practice.

The question still retains some obvious ethical considerations.

When does legal execution become illegal cruel and unusual punishment? Is a human being wrenching and writhing in pain, clenching his or her teeth and thrusting on a gurney the image of justice served?

Lockett, like Michael Lee Wilson and Dennis McGuire (criminals who have suffered similar-

ly botched executions with new drug cocktails), certainly deserved the maximum punishment allowed under the law for his vile crimes.

Wilson and McGuire faced inhumane death sentences with drug cocktails in lieu of the appropriate drugs being available.

Danish and Italian drug makers have ceased shipping sodium thiopental and pentobarbital to the United Stated in protest of capital punishment.

The question is not whether Lockett should have been punished, but whether we as a civilized society wish to maintain a practice that is increasingly vanishing from developed nations.

While the world is moving away from the notion of an eye for an eye, we are left killing heinous criminals in increasingly heinous ways.

The question that arises with this latest failed attempt at administering a flawed conception of justice is, is that how we wish to conduct ourselves?

International norms alone are not reason to change a criminal

policy still practiced in the vast majority of states, but it gives cause for careful reflection.

A series of inhumane executions, be they of depraved criminals or not, is cause for meaningful action and serious reconsideration of how we administer justice to those we find most contemptible.

A nation can scarcely be judged by how it treats the average citizen or laudable prodigy. It is assumed, rightfully so, these populations will flourish and prosper in any functioning society.

It’s easy to promote human rights when everyone behaves humanely.

How we choose to handle individuals who have offended the general citizenry, who have committed actions universally seen as reprehensible and depraved – that will be the test of our character.

With Lockett’s death still at the forefront of our attention, the time to decide how we will define human rights is now. email: editorial@ubspectrum.com

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Friday, May 2, 2014 ubspectrum.com

LIFE, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

No more white walls Art students redecorate the CFA’s bland walls for final project MEGAN WEAL

Kickboxing, choir and French literature Ph.D. student from Germany aims to build sense of community in various ventures

Asst. Arts Editor

For the past few weeks, AnnMarie Agness has been sitting in the basement of UB’s Center For the Arts with a paintbrush in hand and a white wall in front of her.

To the untrained eye, the wall painting that is beginning to materialize may look like little more than jagged lines breaking apart the whiteness of the wall. But Agness’ wall painting is more than that – it’s an exact replica of the audio waves for the track “Black Cow” by Steely Dan. It’s incredibly precise.

Against the top 40 tracks that litter today’s music scene, the audio track shows dynamism and scrupulous engineering. Such qualities may be rare in today’s music, but they’re alive in UB’s art students.

“I have lost count of how many hours I’ve spent on this,” said Agness, a junior general studio major. “I’ve been here for the past few weeks – just painting.”

Five years ago, when Joan Linder, an associate professor in UB’s art department, walked through the bare walls of the CFA, she decided something needed to change.

“I used to walk into this building and it felt like Bed, Bath and Beyond – something really antiseptic, not like an arts school,” Linder said. “I just wanted to see something on the walls.”

So Linder incorporated the execution of a mural as a final project in her class, ART307: Thematic Drawing. The murals are projects that let students experience drawing in the public eye and develop their perspective

CLAUDIA ORNIS

Staff Writer

Chad Cooper, The Spectrum AnnMarie Agness, a junior general studio major, works on her wall painting as part of the class, ART307: Thematic Drawing. Her painting depicts the audio waves of “Black Cow.”

on location. It serves as a way of creating a voice, developing interests and communicating a personal visual language.

The wall paintings go through a long process before the brushes are dipped into paint. They are meticulously planned and overseen by multiple authorities within the university, including Linder, the chair of the art department and the head of facilities.

The wall paintings are more than just drawings – they express UB students’ pride in diversity.

On one side of the second floor corridor Joe Vu, a senior studio major, uses thick black paint to curve strong lines into shapes.

“Mostly it’s inspired by Japanese line work and commercial art more than anything else,” Vu said. “This building sucks.

So this adds a little character to it. It kind of makes you feel as if you’re in an actual arts school because this program is very safe and painting the murals messes with that a little bit, which is really cool.”

The lines are forming large,

expressive shapes with flowers and circular patters being dominated by waves that have been entwined through the smaller features of the mural.

Neaha Aamir, a junior psychology and general studio major, is seated in the same corridor. Her painting, which sits on the wall opposite of Vu’s, rivals the other painter’s bold, artistic stance. At the center of Aamir’s mural is a giant face of a Muslim woman.

“This is a Muslim woman, and in society today they’re kind of targeted, so I wanted to do something that was kind of celebratory,” Aamir said. “Whenever I walk into the hallways, I feel kind of inspired by some of them. It’s good that we have this kind of outlet to make it nice.”

The wall paintings weren’t directly intended to spread diversity, but the art being plastered across the walls is expressive of the eclectic mix of students who call UB their home.

The pieces of art do not overbear each other – they stand SEE Murals, PAGE 8

Halfway through a Cardio Kickboxing and Toning session in Alumni 75, everyone looks tired – everyone but one woman.

With a voice that overwhelms the blaring music in the room, she continues her reps and sings along with the music, seemingly unfazed by the high-intensity workout.

This is Ute Inselmann.

Inselmann, a Ph.D. student studying French literature, has been working hard most of her life. Inselmann grew up on a dairy farm outside of the city of Hamburg, Germany. Growing up, she had to do chores with her brother and sisters to maintain the farm.

“A dairy farm is a business that requires a lot of hard work,” Inselmann said. “I’m used to knowing everyone has to chip in …

There’s no reason why, you just have to be hard working.”

Her upbringing instilled a sense of hard work and community that has followed her throughout her life. While pursuing her Ph.D. in Buffalo, she participates in a German-conversation club that she founded, sings in the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and instructs fitness and French classes – all the while developing a sense of community in each endeavor, which she believes to be integral in enjoying a rewarding life.

Inselmann admits she had no desire to come to the United States before coming to Buffalo.

She’s always loved Europe, and in Germany she studied to be a translator and planned to trav-

Andy Koniuch, The Spectrum

Ute Inselmann, a Ph.D. student studying French literature, participates in a German-conversation club that she founded, sings in the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and instructs fitness and French classes – all the while developing a sense of community in each endeavor, which she believes to be integral in enjoying a rewarding life.

el to France or another European country.

But in 2005, when an opportunity came to work as a social worker in Buffalo, she took it and has been here ever since.

Inselmann started her career at UB as an undergraduate. She majored in Spanish, French and German, with a minor in education, and managed to graduate in three and a half years.

SEE community, PAGE 8

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Friday, May 2, 2014

Graphic images are necessary to anti-abortion movement Photography plays a vital role in all human rights campaigns

ANNE MULROONEY

Asst. Features Editor

If you were on campus between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday or Tuesday, then you probably saw the graphic photos of aborted children, lynched slaves and Jews in concentration camps outside the Student Union. And I’m sure you might have wondered – whether you identified with the anti-abortion or abortion-rights cause – why these offensive photos were being shown.

Were they just there to offend and antagonize people, or did they serve some higher purpose?

One of the amazing things about photography is that it forces us to acknowledge brutality and violence in a way that conversation never could. Gazing upon the bloody, ripped corpse of a 10-week-old is infinitely different from referencing the results of “terminated pregnancies” as “blobs of tissue” during political discourse.

Throughout history, photography has helped expose social injustices and genocides. During the late 1800s, King Leopold II of Belgium beat, enslaved, mutilated and brutally killed citizens in the Congo when Belgium’s production quotas for rubber and ivory were not met. Had his actions not been exposed through the photography of Alice Seeley Harris and her hus-

band John Harris – missionaries in the Congo during the 1900s – these horrific abuses might never have been exposed. Their photos depicting children with severed arms and legs formed one of the first ever multimedia campaigns for human rights.

Years later, during the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. made sure the brutal attacks on blacks were shown repeatedly and without censorship, on TV and in magazines all over the country. Americans saw the violent photos of dogs attacking blacks; they saw how water cannons were used as weapons on their fellow citizens. And they were forced to acknowledge the grave reality of racism. He understood, as opponents to abortion rights do, that visual societies respond to visual realities.

King said that America would never reject racism until America saw racism. He was right – and today, his niece says the same thing about abortion. Dr. Alveda King, an anti-abortion activist, believes America will never reject abortion until America sees abortion.

So do I. And that’s why there were graphic photos outside the Student Union this week. As opponents to abortion rights, and as human beings, we have an obligation to bear witness, to testify to the violence and genocide that is abortion. We need the pictures to show our campus, and the world, the humanity of the pre-born.

Abortion has become unforgivably abstracted in our society – so frequently is it referred to as a choice, a reproductive right, a medical procedure or a necessary surgery, that we forget what it looks like. We lose ourselves in semantics and when that happens, it’s easy to forget the physical reality of any situation. LanSEE anti-abortion, PAGE 8

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5

Neon Trees lose luster After 2012 breakout album, Pop Psychology fails to meet expectations JOE KONZE JR

Senior Arts Editor

Album: Pop Psychology Artist: Neon Trees Label: Mercury, Island Def Jam Release Date: April 22, 2014 Grade: C+ Neon lights burn bright when you first plug them in. But after time, the buzzing slows, and their luster eventually fades.

Pop Psychology proves the Neon Trees are no different.

The new album has some catchy tunes, but the simplicity of each hook doesn’t showcase the band’s true talents and the pace of the album suffers, losing the listener’s attention after a few songs.

It takes a few tracks to get the idea of the album, but once you reach “Sleeping With A Friend” – the third track – it becomes apparent what frontman Tyler Glenn was going for: angst and humor.

With a reverbed, mildly distorted guitar, the song gives a catchy hook that is easy to listen to and has a nice balance that doesn’t overpower Glenn’s voice.

There is that same bubble-gum pop feel with the fuzzy ’60s distortion that was apparent in the band’s 2012 album Picture Show in tracks like “Everybody Talks” and “Lessons in Love (All Day, All Night).” Complemented by an apparent synthesizer, that album’s tracks grab the listener’s interest in a manner similar to the band’s debut album, Habits.

The new album gives off a “Saved by the Bell,” early ’90s feel – a beachy theme that makes you want to let everything go and not think about the consequences.

“Sleeping With A Friend” is the album’s ballad track. It forces

Courtesy of Mercury/Island

the listener to become involved.

Following that ballad, “Teenager In Love” boasts an idea that was clearly well thought out. The lyrics tell a story and so does the music. Each riff is broken up perfectly and you can hear a different sound through the verses, with a chorus that you can’t wait to come back around.

But just when you get hooked, the pace of the album drops off and becomes swallowed up by a digital sound that is over-modulated, boring the listener to the point that the only tracks that would be included on mixtapes would be the third and fourth songs.

Any listener seeking brilliance in the rest of the album would find him or herself at a loss.

It seemed as though Glenn was trying to get his message across in his lyrics more than the band as a whole was focused on the music itself. And because of

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this disconnect, the album suffers.

The lack of depth is apparent with the simple catchy hooks, but they never push the limit or do anything else like the music did in Picture Show.

The only other track worth listening to is “Living In Another World,” but it takes nine tracks to get to it.

And if Glenn was trying to get his message across through his lyrics with this album, listeners have already skipped the “important” songs to find the catchy ones – which are, in fact, the important ones.

Although the album seems to lack complex music, the band stays true to its pop roots. It still has that Neon Trees feel we fell in love with in 2012, but it falls short of what the band could actually do. email: arts@ubspectrum.com

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Friday, May 2, 2014

À la Mode: A Guide to Style

The art of dressing

EMMA JANICKI

Asst. Features Editor

May has arrived, and that means we’re honing in on the last couple of days of classes, papers and exams. It also means that this Friday night is First Friday at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, and the First Friday Gallery Walk in Allentown. Next week, be sure to celebrate the last day of classes by paying a to visit the Burchfield Penney Art Center for Second Friday. The galleries are free and open to the public.

Part of developing your personal style is finding what constantly strikes you – what inspires you as you look into your closet in the morning. Inspiration could be a book you adore, your favorite flower, or a fashion blogger whose closet you’d like to replicate.

If you’re heading to an art gallery this weekend, use that as your inspiration.

Like fashion, works of art in all media are forms of expression and since each work is unique, you can really focus on what makes your personal style personal. Art can translate the sometimes incoherent, jarring and sublime ways we put together colors and styles in our everyday clothing.

I’ve picked out two of my favorite works from the Albright Knox collection that can be recreated in fashion form. Pick out your favorite works of art, and I’ll show you how to turn them into your favorite outfit.

Harlequin (Project for a Monument), Pablo Picasso (1935) Known for his complex use of color, lines and shapes, Picasso is an artist who provides the perfect canvas for choosing an outfit. Though every morning I spend too much time looking at the print of The Artist and his Model (1964) stuck on the wall

Yusong Shi, The Spectrum

next to my vanity mirror, Harlequin strikes me as easily re-creatable.

Here, I’m wearing colored tights from Target, a black and white print skirt from PacSun, a navy blue Forever 21 turtleneck, navy blue brogues and my yellow cloche hat from Target.

Each color I chose directly corresponds to what Picasso chose for his beret-wearing harlequin. Of course, you could be even more literal with a yellow dress and a purple beret.

What struck me about this work is the use of significant black lines that separate each color from the surrounding ones. This creates shapes within defined boundaries – nothing bleeds into the rest of the work.

The skirt recreates Harlequin’s defined shapes, separating colors from each other while replicating the graphic in its print.

The Transparent Simulacrum of the Feigned Image, Salvador Dali (1938) Whether you first see the bowl of food sitting on a table or the landscape of a bay and mountains, the floating, lightly colored objects of Dali’s painting demand melancholic attention.

Composed of moving neutrals, recreating this painting in clothing demands soft fabrics and earth tones.

I transposed this painting into my outfit with a beige and blackcollared silk Ann Taylor blouse, loose-fitting black Ann Taylor trousers and navy blue brogues.

The silk floats on the body just as the napkin in the center of the painting floats in seemingly midair.

Unlike Harlequin, this painting does not have extremely defined lines – rather, the objects interact. The use of similar neutral colors creates an ample scheme

for inspired outfits. Like the cultstatus Urban Decay Naked eye shadow palette, this painting is a canvas from which you can draw a minimalistic, flowing style. *** If you have a piece of art in mind that you would like to recreate with clothing, the best things to draw from are the colors used, the definition between objects and the time period in which the work was produced.

If you can’t get over a portrait of a Tudor queen, recreate her style with embroidered dresses, heavily constructed skirts and what would today be considered costume jewelry. Browse thrift and vintage shops to find pieces that recall the fashion of the past.

Recreating abstract, avantgarde art through color can be simultaneously easy and difficult.

Working with only one or two colors gives you tons of options

– as long you wear those colors, you’re on the right track. But what style should you choose?

Should the way you put the clothing pieces together be just as abstract as the work itself ?

It’s up to you.

Or you can just wear a classic blouse and colored jeans and be Mark Rothko’s 1956 piece, Orange and Yellow.

With works like Jackson Pollock’s Convergence, produced in 1952 and currently not on display at the Albright Knox, you’d want to choose graphic prints.

Today’s trends in dresses have created a wealth of graphically stunning options as designers use digital art on fabric. All you need is the dress and a pair of colored tights, and you’re a walking work of art.

Whether you’re going to an art gallery this weekend, or just having some drinks with friends, use what inspires you in everyday life as you get dressed.

Inspiration is really all around you; it’s in everything you love.

If you love art, don’t just hang it on your walls.

Hang it on your body. email: emma.janicki@ubspectrum.com

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7

Continued from page 1: Learning confidence.

She began to think of calorie intake and exercise as a game.

“I would Google how many calories were in cookie cake and make sure I’d burn at least twice that amount before I had a piece for dinner,” Lowe said.

“One night, I decided to treat myself to McDonald’s and then spent the next day at the gym until I burned at least 1,200 calories.”

Lowe thought she had discovered the secret to looking good and eating what she wanted with no restrictions. Burning calories gave her life purpose. Her mood depended on creating negative numbers. If she was in the black, she headed for the gym.

She did not consider her situation to be a “disorder,” nor did she think it strange that soon, the minute she saw food, she thought of its calorie count.

After two months and 18 pounds, her friends began to worry. One of Lowe’s roommates asked her to step on the scale. It read 103 pounds.

Lowe’s habits were no longer an innocent addiction. She promised her friends she would eat.

She did. Then she went to the gym.

Lowe also began to see fat and flaws on her body that weren’t there, a condition known as “body dysmorphia,” which made her feel incompetent and unworthy. This led her to feel depressed and anxious because of the imagined fat in her thighs and arms.

“That’s the way an eating disorder works,” said UB alumna Allie F., who suffered from disordered eating habits and bulimia for 11 years, four of which at UB. “It attacks your thought processes and your sense of self worth until it’s fully controlling your mind and has you believing that you’re nothing and deserve nothing.”

Holding on to secrets Allie found out she needed help from her computer.

On a whim, she took a test on UB Counseling Center’s online eating disorder survey. The results flashed in front of her: “YOU HAVE AN EATING DISORDER.” She had already met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIV) criteria for bulimia, but had ignored it. The all-caps words, however, made her act. She is unsure as to exactly why and cannot fully explain it, but seeing the words on the screen before her impacted her so strongly, she wanted to get help.

She had been struggling with disordered eating for 11 years on and off; she always blamed herself for her disorder and isolated herself from her support system, just like Lowe did.

When Allie was in seventh grade, she went on Weight Watchers after gaining a few pounds from her birth control pills. She was upset about her weight gain but did not expect her perfectionist personality to allow her diet to completely control her mind.

“I quickly became obsessive about the program and people’s comments about my weight loss encouraged that,” Allie said. “[I was] also having crazy cravings and obsessive food thoughts because I didn’t realize at the time that the number of ‘points’ that the program had me eating was less than the number of calories where most women’s bodies go into starvation mode. I lost a large amount of weight in a few months, then fell into a cycle of bingeing, purging and starving, and gained the weight back.”

This cycle continued on and off throughout high school.

Allie’s weight would yo-yo depending on whether she was obsessively counting calories more or bingeing more.

“It was like a really awful pendulum, with no happy medium of just normal eating,” Allie said. “And it wasn’t until I started seeing UB’s nutritionist that I linked the cycle back to that first diet.”

Allie advises anyone struggling with any sort of an eating disorder is to resist the urge to isolate, she said. UB’s large campus makes it easy for students to detach from others and keep what they are doing secret, which is exactly what Lowe did once her friends caught on to her disorder.

Uschold is not surprised Lowe hid her disorder so well.

“There is often an element of shame associated with eating disorder symptoms and behaviors that can lead an individual to hide or deny things,” Uschold said. “They do have some insight and awareness surrounding what is going on but have utilized the behaviors as coping and have a difficult time bringing these out into the open.”

As a therapist, Uschold has developed an understanding of the path eating disorders can take. She tries to help her patients see that, too. “[I’m] able to gently assist clients in becoming more aware of what they need and assisting them in listening to their own voice rather than the negative voice of their eating disorder,” Uschold said.

It took Lowe four semesters at UB before she was able to listen to her own voice, rather than the voice of her disorder.

“I was ecstatic [that I weighed 103 pounds],” Lowe said. “But also realized I needed to be more careful – people were starting to catch on to my secret.”

So Lowe began to eat in front of the people who noticed her weight loss and then sneak off to the gym. The routine exhausted her. It also isolated her from her friends.

But whenever she had doubts, she would strip down and look at her naked body.

She saw herself through the eyes of the disease.

She didn’t see a beautiful and talented woman when she looked in the mirror, like her friends always told her she was, she said. Rather, she saw fat – fat that would keep her from reaching her ultimate goal of becoming an actress. Fat that would keep her from ever finding true love. Fat that led her into relationships with men who verbally abused her and made her feel even more worthless, like she felt she deserved to be treated.

Lowe thought her numbers game meant she was in charge of her life – that she was in control.

Now – two years later – she sees that the disease controlled her.

The inception Anna Gautier, a junior Asian study major, suffered from depression and anxiety, which sparked her disorder.

“Eating disorders commonly stem from current or past stresses, where an individual may not feel in control,” said Jessica Nyrop, assistant director for academic instruction in UB’s Division of Athletics. “College is a time where an individual can experience a slew of different stresses such as class schedule, grades, parental stresses or scholarships. These stresses may trigger the onset or relapse of an eating disorder.”

Looking back, Gautier is aware that she focused on her body as a way of dealing with her anxiety and depression – she did not realize how obsessed she became with counting calories until she began to barely eat and purge after her small meals, she said.

She began to suffer from exhaustion and felt physically ill.

When her eating disorder began to make her weak while going through everyday activities, she knew it was time to change.

Lowe also realizes now why her disorder surfaced: It was from a lack of control.

She believes many college students suffer from disordered eating because it is one of the only aspects they feel they have control over.

“We can study and work hard to an extent, but our final grade is ultimately up to the teacher,” Lowe said. “Those of us who are not financially dependent have to worry about the cost of classes, books, etc., which is in the university’s control. And especially in social situations, we’re at an age where we’re experimenting with relationships and people and we only have so much control over how others perceive us.”

Changing habits When Lowe was diagnosed with Korsakoff ’s syndrome, a neurological disorder caused by a lack of thiamine in the brain linked with chronic alcohol abuse and malnutrition, during the fall of 2013, she knew she needed to gain control over her life.

She remembers her mom telling her she looked “emaciated in the face.”

She told one of her best friends she was ready to get help and began to attend therapy sessions to treat her Korsakoff ’s syndrome and eating disorder.

Since January, Lowe has been traveling the road to self-love.

Gautier opened up to a friend who had also struggled with disordered eating. She said having supportive friends was the most important thing in her journey toward recovery.

She urges those who feel as if their environment places pressure to be as “beautiful and thin as models” to escape that environment and surround themselves with friends.

“Opening up to your friends about what you’re going through so it stops being your dirty secret and starts being something that you can fight against with the help of a support system [is crucial],” Allie said. “I f you do this early on, you will save yourself a lot of pain, time and money in the long run.”

Lowe took a unique approach on her road to self-love, finding solace in art. Though she attends professional therapy sessions, she needed to do more on her own to escape the demons living in her head.

“After you recognize you have a problem, how, when and why you get help depends on the person,” Lowe said. “There are many forms of therapy one could do to overcome a disorder – from counseling to art class-

es. For me, I personally think the best form of therapy is figuring out what you’re passionate about and throwing yourself into that.”

So she threw herself into singing and acting – her greatest passions. Since January, she has had professional headshots taken and produced her first two music videos.

She finally put down her yellow notebook – rather than constantly writing down what she eats and how many calories she needs to burn to fill the emptiness inside of her, she doodles.

She draws images of things that make her happy, accompanied by quotations about friendship and love.

She began to pre-cook her meals so she would eat them and know they were an appropriate portion size. Tupperware boxes became her “thing” rather than bingeing on cookie cake and then burning double a day’s worth of calories at the gym.

Lowe considers herself lucky to have the support system of friends and family to open the bars of the eating disorder cage she had managed to lock herself in. She genuinely does not know if she would be alive if it were not for them.

Only 50 percent of people report ever being cured from an eating disorder, according to statistics provided by North Dakota State University.

Looking forward Lowe is not sure whether she is cured “for good.” She believes eating disorders can sneak their way back into the lives of those who have suffered because of how integrated a disorder can become with one’s life.

But she has overcome the toughest battle: taking her first few steps toward self-love.

She knows she’s not 100 percent there yet, but love from her friends and family drives her to continue this road to recovery.

“People don’t realize the impact they can have just by showing someone how much they mean to you,” Lowe said.

“When I’m struggling with loving myself, knowing that I am loved by others makes all the difference.”

She hopes other students in her former position will understand the importance of breaking free from the chains of an eating disorder. Simply telling someone else can save your life, she said. *The Spectrum has changed this student’s name to protect her anonymity. email: features@ubspectrum.com

Continued from page 10: Teammates ing personally and you go the tournament and lose, then you only let yourself down.”

Although many players struggle to adapt to the college level of tennis, Alvarez quickly became accustomed to it. After going 11-8 overall in singles and 4-1 in Mid-American Conference play in 2013, Alvarez was named the MAC Newcomer of the Year.

Arevalillo did not find the same success as Alvarez in his first year, but he did find his stride in his sophomore campaign. Not only did Arevalillo record the most singles wins on the team (13) this season, but his doubles record with teammate freshman Jonathan Hannestad also led the team.

Arevalillo and Alvarez’s offthe-court mentalities aid in their success on the court.

For Arevalillo, his hidden passion has come in the form of melodies and instruments; his family is deeply connected in the Spanish music scene. At a young age, he began to play the bass guitar and transitioned to the electric guitar as he learned to play almost entirely on his own with minimal instruction.

Juan José Arevalillo, Arevalillo’s father, wasn’t surprised by his son’s talent. Arevalillo’s

grandfather was a professional musician and a professor at Madrid Music School. He was the first musician to use the vibraphone, a percussion instrument similar in appearance to a xylophone, in Spain and managed to play with world-class stars such as Lionel Hampton.

“With that background and some genetic inheritance, it was not strange that Sergio should be keen on music too,” Juan José said.

Alvarez was not always destined to be a tennis player.

Before Alvarez learned to swing a tennis racquet, he was kicking a soccer ball. His mother, Begoña Diaz, saw the athletic ability in Alvarez from a young age when he exceled in many different sports.

“Since he was little, he always distinguished in many sports such as skiing, cycling … and cross-country,” Diaz said. “Yet, soccer was what he did best, corroborated when he passed over the first admission tests of the Real Madrid Spanish Football Club.”

Parents and peers were not only ones to see his soccer skills.

Elite soccer clubs in Spain noticed as well. Although his success in the youth programs showed a promising future in

soccer, a growing dilemma was forming for Alvarez. When the commitment to playing both sports became too much for Alvarez and his family, he chose to focus on tennis.

Both Alvarez and his parents believed tennis was the better sport to continue playing because they said it was easier to practice in his spare time and provided a better competitive atmosphere. Alvarez’s love for soccer continues to be evident in his affection for the professional soccer club Real Madrid and his favorite player, Cristiano Ronaldo.

According to Alvarez and Arevalillo, the choice to play different sports and instruments gave both of them the freedom many talented tennis players lack growing up. Many of their peers in Spain endured immense pressure from their parents to be elite athletes. This constant stress caused some of their friends to quit the sport entirely.

“Both of our families never pushed us to play a sport or to be good,” Arevalillo said.

“When your family puts pressure on you, you’re not enjoying it because you’re playing for them and not yourself.”

This lack of pressure from their parents has enhanced their

passion and desire to succeed even more. Instead of playing matches to please their families, Alvarez and Arevalillo are winning for themselves.

Both were critical to the Bulls’ success this year, as the team competed in this season’s MAC Championship game against Ball State. Arevalillo punched Buffalo’s ticket to the championship match with a comeback victory to upset the No. 1 seed, Northern Illinois.

Before the title match, Arevalillo knew his best friend needed a confidence boost, so he predicted Alvarez would clinch the final point for the MAC title.

Arevalillo said the entire team knows Alvarez has the “clutch” gene. Alvarez’s match-clinching victories over Pennsylvania and Cornell earlier this season were the most important wins for the program, according to Nickell.

Arevalillo’s prophecy looked to be emerging as Alvarez found himself in the winner-take-all match for the MAC Championship. After winning his first set, he dropped the second to force a third set. With the match tied at 6, Alvarez entered a deciding tiebreaking set.

After battling the entire season through injuries and hardships, it would seem like a sto-

rybook ending for the Spaniard to win in the pressure-packed situation. In the end, Alvarez lost 9-7, resulting in a Ball State championship.

“I fought so hard, not only for me, but for the team and my coaches and to represent UB,” Alvarez said. “It gives me motivation for next year to fight for it and bring it home. I can’t wait for next season because I love my team and coaches so much.”

In a heartbreaking end to the season, Arevalillo’s first reaction was not to be upset over losing the championship match, but to support his teammate and best friend.

“When we lost, the first thing I did was to run to him and try to hug him,” Arevalillo said. “I knew I had to be there with him because he deserved that game.

It was really unfair.”

Alvarez and Arevalillo will always be linked together because of tennis. Their friendship started on the court and grew because of the sport they loved.

Their travels and time spent together off the court has turned the best friends into something more – it has turned them into brothers. email: sports@ubspectrum.com

ubspectrum.com

8

Friday, May 2, 2014

Continued from page 4: Sense of Community She later decided to continue her education at UB, and is now working on her Ph.D. â&#x20AC;&#x153;UB is a good replacement for Europe,â&#x20AC;? Inselmann said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;All I have to do is walk down the ninth floor of Clemens [Hall] and I get to speak in three different languages.â&#x20AC;?

Inselmann was able to keep much of her culture alive by starting a stammtisch, an informal German conversation group, four years ago. The group meets in the Center For the Arts to converse in German and learn about German culture.

Anne Lockwood, a member of the Buffalo community, has been part of the stammtisch since it began. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[Stammtisch] is unique because Ute welcomes everyone from the Buffalo community, not just students,â&#x20AC;? Lockwood said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She has given a great deal of her time to teaching [German] without making anyone feel stupid.â&#x20AC;?

Living in Buffalo has allowed Inselmann to pursue other passions in addition to studying languages. Inselmann has been singing for most of her life and joined the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus about two years ago.

She says music is something one canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t explain, but â&#x20AC;&#x153;it just does what it does to us.â&#x20AC;? She incor-

porates this inexplicable power of music into her aerobic classes and often challenges students to sing along during their workouts.

Though Inselmann was able to hold onto some of the European culture when she came to Buffalo, she felt that her small hometownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sense of community was missing. Inselmann not only infuses her aerobic classes with music but also strives to create a sense of community among her students. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the United States, people have a sense that the individual needs to propel themselves forward, whereas European cultures tend to have more closely knit communities,â&#x20AC;? Inselmann said.

When she volunteered as a fitness instructor for a group fitness class at the YMCA, working with groups of people trying to achieve similar goals, Inselmann regained a feeling of community.

The power of communal work is something Inselmann carries in all of her endeavors. In addition to teaching aerobic exercises, Inselmann is a French teacher at UB and emphasizes the need for everyone to work together. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I notice in my classrooms that if everyone chips in, it becomes a learning community that moves forward much more efficiently,â&#x20AC;? Inselmann said.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;One person who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to chip in is enough to break that community.â&#x20AC;?

The joy Inselmann gained from these communal efforts gave her the desire to continue teaching fitness as a job. She now teaches Cardio Kickboxing and Toning and an Insanity class in Alumni 75. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Doing exercises with Ute is never easy,â&#x20AC;? said Sarah Frank, a senior health and human services major in Inselmannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cardio class. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You have to come ready to work out, and by the end youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be sweating your butt off.â&#x20AC;?

The classes contain high-intensity interval training. Inselmann said the exercises are meant to challenge students and have a high impact on their workout. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like to waste my time,â&#x20AC;?

Inselmann said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know I have to make the most out of every workout because if you want to progress, you have to touch your limits and go beyond them.â&#x20AC;?

Inselmann believes pushing everyone to their limits always gives the most rewarding and visible results. At the same time, she said her students motivate her to go beyond and to work even harder. email: features@ubspectrum.com

Continued from page 4: Murals alone and demand equal attention. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been waiting for the Visual Studies department to get a density first, which I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really just starting to get,â&#x20AC;? Linder said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You walk in and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something yellow, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a giant face, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flowers, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sound wave, the shoes over here â&#x20AC;&#x201C; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s starting to feel dense enough that spreading out into the campus, where itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desired, will be great.â&#x20AC;?

The wall paintings are begin-

ning to spread throughout the campus. Recently, the typography wall paintings have added a colorful and thought-provoking lacquer to the Lockwood corridors. And as the wall paintings receive continual support and admiration, the hope is for the wall paintings to appear more frequently across campus, provided university officials give permission, according to Linder.

Time, thought and planning are essential for the longevity of the paintings. Though some of

Continued from page 5: Anti-Abortion guage can impede the truth, despite writersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; best efforts to reflect it.

As oral and literary communicators, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sure weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve all become familiar with the limits, and even failures, of language at least once. Hence the old adage that â&#x20AC;&#x153;words fail.â&#x20AC;?

The graphic photos give abortion a face; they anchor the discussion in an inescapable, carnal reality. Most importantly, they do what words canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do. They show the truth.

In the wise words of Flannery Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connor, American writer and essayist, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.â&#x20AC;? The truth is that photos of abortion are offensive.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re offensive because they show grave human rights violations. We hate to see the pictures of aborted children for the same reason we hate to see pictures of any genocide â&#x20AC;&#x201C; they depict fellow human beings stripped of all dignity, worth and value. If these pictures did not sicken us, then we would have to call our societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collective conscience into serious question.

We all agree the Holocaust was a disgusting violation of human rights, targeting a group of peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s religious beliefs. And we all agree that slavery was a disgusting violation of human rights, targeting ethnic groups as subhuman. In order to ensure these

monstrous injustices never happen again, we must never let ourselves forget the stories of the victims. Pictures force us to remember the victimsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; stories as they happened.

We must never forget that people allowed society to become so twisted and so terribly misguided that these brutalities were allowed to occur. What lies did we feed ourselves, what broken philosophies did we operate under, that led to these socially accepted and legally sanctioned horrors?

When we examine the rationales that justified these injustices, we quickly realize the haunting parallels between the historical logic of all genocides, and the logic of abortion. When we draw lines between â&#x20AC;&#x153;humanâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;person;â&#x20AC;? when we deem other human beings as â&#x20AC;&#x153;subhumanâ&#x20AC;? based on traits like age or ethnicity; when we argue that matters of human life should be matters of â&#x20AC;&#x153;personal choice,â&#x20AC;? we use the same arguments that killed millions of human beings all over the world throughout history.

We owe ourselves, and the victims of all genocides, the courage to face the truth. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s use this courage to not only to look upon the transgressions of history but also rectify them. anne.mulrooney@ubspectrum.com

the murals that cover the CFA were original works produced five years ago, others have been painted over by other art students. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I call them semi-permanent to the students,â&#x20AC;? Linder said.

No matter the longevity of the pieces, they epitomize UBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art department â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a growing program that is getting denser and more diverse with age. email: arts@ubspectrum.com

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DAILY DELIGHTS sponsored by buffalostudenthousing.com Crossword of the Day Friday, May 2, 2014 FROM UNIVERSAL UCLICK

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- Are you sure you're working against a rival, and not against yourself ?

What goes on today can tell you a great deal about your own intentions.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Don't ignore the needs of another, for in doing so, you also ignore your own. Things are more connected today than you might think.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- You need something that another has laid claim to, but by day's end, both parties can be satisfied. You'll find a creative solution.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- You'll receive an offer you find both surprising and highly attractive -- but you won't be able to move on it right away. Be patient.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- You may grow tired of the same old signs and warnings, but that has nothing to do with their validity. Pay attention to each of them!

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- You can maximize your rewards by increasing your capacity for empathy and generosity. They work together to pay you back!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- You know what has to be done, and you know what you are capable of -but somewhere in the middle, there may be a tricky puzzle to solve.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- You're in the mood for an adventure, and a friend or loved one is likely to provide more than you had bargained for, so be ready!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- You'll be facing certain fears throughout the day, but in the end you'll realize that fear itself is your only real obstacle right now.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- You can learn something important from those who have gone before, whether you know them personally or not. Listen to silent warnings!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You're hoping to do the impossible. Though others are skeptical, you know just how you can get around a major obstacle.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- You'll be facing a dilemma that only a certain friend can help you with, so be sure to get in touch before things get even worse!

Edited by Timothy E. Parker May 2, 2014 LADY OF THE HOUSE By Gary Cooper

SUDOKU

ACROSS 1 Unspecified philosophies 5 Where Margaret Mead studied 10 Scholar of Islamic law 14 Certain hockey shot 15 Manhattan Project’s goal, briefly 16 Dunce-hat shape 17 Plumb crazy 18 Bit part for a big-timer 19 Erupter of 1971 20 Spirit of a culture 22 Added nutrients, e.g.

24 Medical resident 27 Good piece of farmland 28 Solo of sci-fi 30 Single stock quantity 31 Eyed impolitely 34 Suffix with “cyan” 35 Mythical queen of Carthage 36 Certain vertebrae 37 “___ as good a time as any” 39 Pass the buck 42 Castle barrier 43 Attractions 45 The “Say Hey Kid” 47 “___ it or lose it” 48 Oust from office 50 Initials of urgency

mouth 10 It could be found in a float 11 Places of ones’ births 12 “Green Gables” girl 13 Honey wine 21 Poker variety 23 Italian desserts 25 “National Velvet” author Bagnold 26 Six Flags attraction 28 A believer in karma 29 Bejewel, e.g.

32 Delete 33 Like most food items 38 Most sugary 40 “At ___, soldier!”

41 Scandinavian rugs 44 Indian dress 46 Barbecue item 49 Plaid pattern 54 Perceive 1 Presque or Capri 55 Flew the coop 2 Casino cash collector 56 “To Sir, With Love” 3 Not taken to the clean- singer ers?

57 Creme cookie 4 Cuddle 59 Crackle and Pop’s col5 Cul-de-___ league 6 Legal-eagle org.

60 Hardly difficult 7 Bad time for a big de- 63 Familiar tapper cision 64 Infiltrator 8 Sign observed by augurs 9 Away from one’s 51 Springfield’s Mr. Flanders 52 Queen of Olympus 53 Partner of “cease” 55 Its business was pressing 58 Brief in speech 61 Auto-service job 62 Allowances for waste 65 Singing Simone 66 Architectural annexes 67 Noted fable author 68 Adriatic and Aegean 69 Operatic love scene 70 Curious to a fault 71 Glimpse from afar

DOWN

FALL SPACES ARE WHERE YOU SHOULD

BE LIVING! GOING FAST RESERVE YOUR SPACE TODAY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Friday, May 2, 2014 ubspectrum.com

10

SPORTS

No. 4: of the D1 ERA Brittney Kuras TOP 10

Kuras achieved rare feat, winning three Outstanding Swimmer Awards

BEN TARHAN

Senior Sports Editor

Brittney Kuras needed to be two tenths of a second faster.

She swam in the preliminaries of the 100-yard freestyle at the 2014 Mid-American Conference Championships and finished with a time of 48.9. She would need a 48.7 in the actual competition to accomplish her goal of competing at the NCAA Championships.

“I had a talk with her during that day of, ‘OK, if you want to make the meet, this is what you are going to need to go,’” said swimming and diving head coach Andy Bashor. “And when she heard that, you could see, ‘OK, this is what I need to do. My goal is to make the meet. I’m ready.’

She went out that night and made a 48.5, broke the MAC record, achieved a lifetime best and qualified for the meet. To me, that’s Brittney right there.”

Kuras only competed at UB for three years, but in those three years she achieved some of the most notable accomplishments in school history.

The biggest competition of the year for swimmers is the MidAmerican Conference Championships. Regular season standings no longer matter; the season comes down to points scored by the top 16 swimmers in each event and five relays.

Kuras swam in nine individual events in her three seasons at UB. She won nine individual titles.

But she almost did not swim at UB. If it hadn’t been for a coaching change at her first school, Rutgers, Kuras never would have redecorated the record board in the Alumni Arena Natatorium.

Kuras originally chose Rutgers over UB because of the reputation of the school and its academic programs. Rutgers also had an equine program.

But she only competed at Rutgers for one year. Prior to her sophomore season, she had surgery to fuse a joint in her left foot to help with her arthritis. Prior to her surgery, movement in the joint was so painful that Kuras couldn’t walk without crutches at times.

No. 10: Branden Oliver

No. 9: Kourtney Brown

Football 2010-14

Basketball 2006-11

No. 8: Stacey Evans

No. 7: Jonathan Jones

Softball 2002-05

Track 2012-14

Courtesy of Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics

Brittney Kuras only competed at UB for three years, but for those three years she was the best swimmer in the MAC and appeared at the NCAA Championships three times.

Following the surgery, she redshirted her second season at Rutgers, sitting out four months and spending the rest of the year with workouts limited to 5001,000 yards. Normal practices consist of 5,000-6,000 yards.

After the coaching change at Rutgers, Kuras decided to leave.

Buffalo was her second choice out of high school, which made the decision of where to transfer easy.

“Coming out of high school, I just had a really good feeling that she could develop into a very fast swimmer,” Bashor said. “She’s tall, she’s got a good stroke and you could really get an idea that she was a competitor right from the beginning.”

The marriage between coach and athlete at UB turned out to be the perfect storm.

There are two thought processes when it comes to training for swimming: You either swim as many yards as you can to build as much endurance as possible, or you cut back on the yards and focus on technique.

With Kuras’ arthritis, swimming thousands of yards would have only hurt her, so Bashor let her swim with the sprint group even though she was a mid-distance swimmer.

“I’ve had so many injuries that I couldn’t just pile on the yardage,” Kuras said. “So he put me into the sprint group even though I am more of a mid-distance swimmer and I was able to really focus and work on my stroke and get race strategies down, so that was just what I

needed.”

Bashor said Kuras was tentative when she first arrived in Buffalo because she didn’t know how hard she could push her foot.

She was still limited in some of the things she could do, particularly dry land workouts, which she had to substitute with workouts in the pool to take pressure off her foot.

But Bashor and the rest of the team got an idea early on of her capabilities.

“We do a bracket set [at practice] in the beginning of the year where it’s kind of like a game and they race each other,” Bashor said. “With that set we saw the competitor that she was and the times she was able to post during that bracket set and it was like, ‘OK, it just needs a little bit of time for her training to catch up with her competitiveness and she’s going to be really good.’”

Even so, Kuras’ performance at her first MAC Championships in 2012 surprised Bashor. Kuras won the 200-yard individual medley (1:59.84), the 200-yard freestyle (1:46.3) and the 100yard freestyle (48.9), setting UB records in all three.

“I didn’t know she had that kind of speed in her,” Bashor said.

Her accomplishments raised the bar for the future. Although she had been able to compete at a high level, she was returning from a year of less intense practices. Bashor saw potential for her to get even faster with a full year of practice under her belt.

She competed at the NCAA

No. 6: Turner Battle Basketball 2001-05

Championships in 2012, becoming the first female swimmer at Buffalo to ever do so. She swam there two more times, in 2013 and 2014, and finished 19th in the 100-yard freestyle in 2013.

She missed out on qualifying for the finals of the 100-yard freestyle by .21 seconds this past March.

Kuras finished her career with her name in the record books seven times for the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 200yard individual medley, 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay, 400-yard freestyle relay and 800-yard freestyle relay. She was the fourth swimmer to win the MAC Outstanding Swimmer

No. 5: Desi Green

Wrestling 2008-11

Award three times.

“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to take my abilities and go as far as I possibly could,” Kuras said. “I just love the sport.

I’m just grateful that I had the opportunity to continue doing it for as long as possible.”

Kuras already has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is currently pursuing her graduate degree in school counseling. She has two years left in the program, and when she graduates she wants to work as a school counselor. email: sports@ubspectrum.com

An unbreakable bond

Teammates Arevalillo, Alvarez share connection far beyond the court JEFF PLACITO

Staff Writer

It starts with a quick glance and subtle smirk. There is a connection between sophomore tennis players Sergio Arevalillo and Pablo Alvarez that requires no words for them to understand each other.

“We just look at each other and know what’s going on,” Alvarez said. “There are moments that sometimes with just looking at each other we know what we mean, or know what to do because we think so similarly.”

When college athletes join their teammates for the first time, a bond often begins to form. This connection is built through tireless hours of training and sacrifice that team members endure together. Arevalillo and Alvarez’s history starts in Madrid, Spain, on opposite sides of the court.

Their friendship first began while playing against each other in tennis tournaments at 12 years old. Arevalillo will be the first one to tell you Alvarez beat

Chad Cooper, The Spectrum Sophomore men’s tennis players Pablo Alvarez (left) and Sergio Arevalillo have formed a bond off the court that dates back to their time competing against each other as boys in their native Spain.

him most of the time, but their matchups were always battles.

Tennis introduced the two, but it was their personalities that made the Spaniards best friends.

Arevalillo is high-strung and outspoken, while Alvarez is laidback and observant. Their relationship is yin and yang with opposite characteristics coming together to form a strong bond.

This connection was nearly separated as the two went different ways after finishing high school.

Alvarez was still looking for colleges to attend while Arevalillo enrolled at Buffalo after visiting a handful of American universities over the summer. When a player was dismissed from the Buffalo tennis team during the fall of 2012, a spot opened up on the roster. Buffalo head coach Lee Nickell asked Arevalillo for help finding a replacement.

And who was the first name that came to Arevalillo’s head?

Alvarez.

“We had a player let go for disciplinary reasons and another recruit not make academic standards, so I just asked Sergio randomly if he knew anyone that would be interested,” Nickell said. “He told me Pablo was interested and was top 10 in juniors in Spain, so of course we jumped all over him and it worked out for the best.”

From girls to music to tennis, the Spaniards are linked so tightly that it is difficult to find something they don’t know about the other. The two are roommates; even when they first moved in, nothing was surprising about each other. They had already learned everything from sleeping over at each other’s house regularly in Spain or playing tennis together.

For some college students, a seven-hour car ride is too much distance between themselves and their family. Alvarez and Arevalillo are 4,000 miles from home.

Their new teammates and coaches helped ease the transition, but in the beginning they relied on each other more than

anyone. Arevalillo may have had the tougher change of the two, as he is a self-proclaimed mama’s boy, but Buffalo ended up being exactly where he wanted to be.

“When I was in Spain, I was just a kid and my parents did almost everything for me,” Arevalillo said. “So when I came here, I was like, ‘Now what? I really have to do everything.’ And I think that helped me grow up and be independent.”

Arevalillo and Alvarez had a steeper learning curve than most freshmen leaving home for the first time. Not only were they experiencing a new country and culture, but also a new way to play the game they had played their whole lives.

Nickell explained that the oncourt adjustment must be made by every college tennis player as he or she goes from an individual mindset to a team-oriented one.

“You feel a different type of pressure because everyone’s success is riding on your back,” Nickell said. “When you’re playSEE TEAMMATES, PAGE 7