Vol. 61 NO. 29
ubspectrum.com
Friday, November 4, 2011
Occupy Buffalo Still Strong After One Month
Occupiers continue to stick together and stay together in downtown Buffalo.
SARAH AKERS Staff Writer The Occupy Buffalo movement doesn’t appear to be breaking camp anytime soon. Months after the initial Occupy Wall Street protest began in New York City, the local chapter, Occupy Buffalo, is still going strong. On Tuesday, the protestors will celebrate the one-month mark of their occupation of Niagara Square in front of City Hall. Despite the problems that other Occupy movements have had with authorities, Buffalo’s chapter has been arrest-free and violence-free since its inception. Group members claim that their numbers are growing, and they have been
Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum
working hard to get their message across to City Hall and the local government.
ing lawmakers not to support large corporations that damage the economy.
Last Friday, 32 members of the Occupy Rochester movement were arrested for being in a public park. The following day, Occupy Buffalo members marched to indicate their solidarity with the movement.
Occupy Buffalo actively supports the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011, currently a bill in the U.S. Congress. The act would separate risky investment banking from commercial banking.
The group has held marches from Niagara Square to a downtown Bank of America location to protest national banking injustice. The group often holds meetings and “information sessions” about how to support its cause. Occupiers have brought requests to City Hall, asking the Buffalo Common Council to divest city money from Chase National Bank and urg-
The protestors have been busy in the last month. There are Occupiers on site at Niagara Square 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, the majority of people have to schedule their protesting around their work and school schedules. Many people camp out only on weekends or just drop in for a few hours when they have the time. “There is this huge façade being shown that none of us have jobs. Almost everyone here has at
The Game John B. Simpson is Still of Peace Being Paid By UB VILONA TRACHTENBERG Staff Writer
The document says the data is accurate as of Wednesday, and it lists Simpson’s official job title as “executive officer” in the president’s department. Simpson, formerly the president of the university, left UB last semester and was replaced by Satish K. Tripathi, who the document lists as making a state salary of $385,000 as “president.”
Jurs, an acclaimed sculpture artist of Scottsville, N.Y., displays her interpretation of chess in the Burchfield Penney Art Center through an exhibit called World Peace, which reinvents chess to represent many interpretations of peace and humanity.
Simpson’s additional pay was guaranteed in his contract, according to university spokesman John Della Contrada.
According to Nancy Weekly, Head of Collections and the Charles Cary Rumsey Curator at the gallery, Jurs uses ceramics in a bold way with the large-scale chessboard and eight foot pieces she produced.
The metaphor of humanity and struggle for peace is impressively represented throughout this exhibit. In a normal game of chess, the pieces on the opposing teams have the same structures but with
Like many students, Blake is worried about the future. Many agree that the 2008 downturn left the U.S. economy is in its worst shape since the Great Depression. The unemployment rate is at 9.1 percent as of August 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By living and protesting outside of government buildings like Buffalo’s City Hall and financial institutions like Wall Street, the protestors hope they can effect real change.
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Gleeks Unite
of Information Law (FOIL) request for the 20 highest-paid state employees at UB.
In a normal game of chess, the king prevails and is the only one left on the board after many strategic and costly moves to the other pieces in the game. But, thanks to Nancy Jurs, the universal game of chess has morphed into a metaphor of peace and unity, where all the pieces band together.
“As a contemporary artist relating to contemporary issues, war and peace, I think the timing was right both in [Jurs’] career and for the museum and for the public to think about this,” Weekly said. “The timing too is nice because it encompassed 9/11; there are all different avenues that [one] could start related conversations, using this as a focal point or starting point.”
least one job. Most of us have two,” said Sydney Blake, a student at Frontier High School who balances school with her two part-time jobs. Blake spends her weekends camping out, and she drops in after school during the week.
Courtesy of Douglas Levere
LUKE HAMMILL Senior News Editor John B. Simpson currently receives the 16th-highest state salary at the University at Buffalo. But John B. Simpson no longer works at the University at Buffalo. Simpson’s annual full-time state salary is listed at $265,000 in a document provided to The Spectrum by the university’s Records Access Officer Brian Hines, who produced it in response to a Spectrum Freedom
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Weather for the Weekend: Friday: Sunny- H: 47, L: 32 Saturday: Sunny- H: 50, L: 37 Sunday: Partly Cloudy- H: 55, L: 47
“John Simpson’s compensation was approved by SUNY in 2004 when he was appointed to UB. His contract provided that he would receive up to two academic semesters of pay upon completion of his role as UB president,” Della Contrada said in an email. “Under this agreement, he receives a pro-rated annual salary for nine months, beginning on March 17, 2011, and concluding on Dec. 17, 2011.” That would put the actual compensation somewhere around $198,750 (three-fourths of $265,000). The Spectrum FOIL request was limited to state salaries. Top-level UB officials have been known to collect additional compensation from the University at Buffalo Foundation, Inc. (UBF), which “manag[es] gifts and grants on behalf of the university,” according to its website. UBF also includes UB Foundation Activities, Inc. (UBFA) and various other
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The UB Glee Club sings and dances it’s way to the top and attempts to break out of the stereotype that most Glee Clubs have. Hyun Seok Choi /// The Spectrum
LIZ WHITE Staff Writer In a room full of students belting out Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra, strutting their dancing prowess with moves like the Bernie, the sprinkler, the robot, the monkey, and the pelvic thrust, it’s almost impossible to believe that this a typical club meeting. Members of the UB Glee Club, however, prepares for upcoming rehearsal by singing, dancing, and listening to some of their favorite hits. The sounds of melodic warm ups – buzzing, humming, and tuneful tongue twisters - might confuse students passing by the SU Flag Room late at night. But this is just a normal routine for UB’s Glee Club. Jenna Dunlay, the UB Glee president and junior theatre major, walked into the Flag Room with a huge synthesizer in hand, ready to lead the club’s rehearsal. Not only does Dunlay teach the music, lead warm ups, run rehearsals, and help choose the music the club sings, but she also finds the time to choreograph most
songs, and run social events with other SA Clubs. “Glee is one of my top priorities, probably more so than my school work,” Dunlay said. As the girls worked on their choreography for the club’s upcoming Throwback Attack! Show –fthis Sunday in the SU Theatre at 6 p.m. – it was apparent that the club takes more than just hard work it takes dedication. The club is also about having fun, making friends, and expressing yourself. “I love to sing and dance,” said Naita Howell, a freshman accounting major. “I feel like I can express myself with people who like to do the same thing.” This is Howell’s first semester as a member of UB Glee, and according to her, it’s quite a different experience than being in a high school Glee club. She believes that at UB, the club members are able to have much more input into what goes on. In high school, students just sing whichever songs the teachers tell them to sing. Continued on Page 2
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