VOL. 70 NO. 10 | NOVEMBER 10, 2021
Q&A with the SA e-board
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UBSPECTRUM
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Byron Brown declares victory in Buffalo mayoral race Brown’s apparent victory as a write-in candidate follows his stunning loss to India Walton in the Democratic primary GRANT ASHLEY SENIOR NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
Incumbent Byron Brown has claimed victory in last week’s Buffalo mayoral election, with his opponent, Democratic nominee India Walton, all but conceding Wednesday. Walton, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, defeated Brown in the Democratic primary last spring, but Brown launched a write-in campaign in an effort to keep his job and win an unprecedented fifth term as mayor of Buffalo. “Today’s election was not just a referendum on the direction of the city of Buffalo,” Brown said in an address to cheering supporters on election night. “It was a referendum on the future of our democracy and our vision for our future. At the very beginning, they said we couldn’t win, that it was impossible to win as a write-in [candidate]. But you can’t ever count a Buffalonian out.” Walton appeared to hold out some hope of a victory but acknowledged that her chances appeared slim. “Tens of thousands of write-in and absentee ballots have yet to be tabulated,
and we believe that democracy requires that every vote be counted, and that any improprieties that occurred be brought to light,” Walton said in a statement shared on her Twitter account the day after the election. “However, while we anticipate that the margins will narrow, it seems unlikely that we will end up with enough votes to inaugurate a Walton administration in January.” Walton garnered 23,986 votes, or 41.2%
of all votes cast in person, while the remainder, 34,273 votes, went to one of the three write-in candidates, according to The Buffalo News. About 3,410 mail-in ballots, about 5.5% of the total, remain uncounted. But Brown’s seeming victory hasn’t been called by the Associated Press and cannot be confirmed until later this month. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day must be counted as long as they arrived by Nov.
GRANT ASHLEY SENIOR NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
UB students have created 12 new clubs through the Student Association this semester, adding to the SA’s approximately 170 undergraduate clubs. But the budgets of an additional 29 SArecognized clubs — including the Nerf or Nothing Club, College Republicans, PODER Latinos Unidos and United Nations SA, among others — remain frozen due to lack of university recognition, SA Vice President Montana Desabio and SA Treasurer Austin Wolfgang told The Spectrum in emails. Of those, 28 clubs have not re-registered with the university for the 2021-22 academic year but could do so at any time to unfreeze their budget. The remaining club re-registered, but the university revoked its registration after the club violated university COVID-19 guidelines. That club will be eligible for recognition again in the 2022-23 academic year. The Spectrum doesn’t know the identity of that club. Those 28 clubs have not submitted eboard updates to the SA, “are assumed to be empty” and will be derecognized by the SA Senate in the spring semester if they remain inactive, Wolfgang said. Formal derecognition by the SA Senate would effectively dissolve the clubs and their budgets. It’s an outcome the SA e-board says it would prefer to avoid. “We want to give clubs a bit of time to see if they can naturally come back before we go through and start trying to derecognize the clubs that didn’t survive [the
Email: grant.ashley@ubspectrum.com
Kelsey Rupe / The Spectrum Byron Brown declared victory over India Walton in last week’s Buffalo mayoral election.
Twelve SA clubs created this semester, budgets for 29 others remain frozen Most frozen clubs “likely” to be derecognized next semester if they remain inactive
9. And due to state election law, the Erie County Board of Elections won’t begin examining write-in ballots until Nov. 17. Brown is expected to win the vast majority of those write-in ballots, but Benjamin Carlisle and Jaz Miles also waged write-in campaigns for mayor. No matter what happens, the state must certify the election by Nov. 27.
pandemic],” Wolfgang said in an interview with The Spectrum. The SA has been able to “resurrect” some clubs this semester, Desabio said, mostly because students interested in starting an identical club simply took over an existing club’s budget. “Frozen clubs can be up and running [again] if undergraduate students decide to take them over,” she said in an email to The Spectrum. “They can email me if they would like to get more information.” Many clubs have been operating in person this semester for the first time since the start of the pandemic, which has left some clubs without experienced e-board members — or any members at all. SA has addressed this issue by changing the format of their mandatory club training, which club e-boards have to complete every year to access their budgets. “We actually looked at what clubs needed,” SA President Nick Singh said in an interview with The Spectrum. “How do you lead an e-board? How do you lead your members? How do you conduct meetings? This stuff is what we specifically geared the meeting towards.” The full list of new clubs is as follows: 1. Animation Production Club 2. Vegan Club 3. UB English Club 4. UB Cake Club 5. UB French Club 6. Film Club 7. Pre-Vet’s 8. Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Science Student Association 9. Golf Association 10. S.M.I.L.E.S 11. Bulls Against Trafficking 12. Stand-Up & Laugh Email: grant.ashley@ubspectrum.com
‘What is 101’
UB earns a shoutout on Jeopardy… for a surprising reason JUSTIN WEISS MANAGING EDITOR
The University of Buffalo received a shoutout on Jeopardy! last week. That’s right: UB — which was named the University of Buffalo for 116 years from 1846 until 1962 — was one of the clues to a question on the beloved game show Thursday night. “The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] found the University of Buffalo was the first to use this number denotion an introductory course, in 1929.” The answer: What is 101? But it’s unclear if a 101 course actually originated at UB, and if it did, when exactly it did so. UB archivists haven’t found any proof that the university came up with the classification system, and while the OED has long credited UB with coming up with it, it initially got the year wrong and had to change its entry after UB requested a correction. “Thus far, nothing has been located in the historical records of the College of Arts and Sciences, or any other collection
Courtesy of @kfry781724 on Twitter UB appeared as a hint on a recent episode of the beloved game show Jeopardy.
available in the Archives, documenting that someone at UB conceived this method of distinguishing elementary courses from advanced ones,” John Edens, the former university archivist, wrote in 2009. “But, neither has anything been located indicating UB copied the idea from another institution.” Either way, the shoutout earned the Queen City school recognition on national television, Reddit and the local Buffalo media. “It’s fun national exposure,” UB spokesperson John DellaContrada said in a UBNow story. “[B]ut it’s also a reminder that UB continues to innovate in higher education — from the creation of 101 courses in the 1920s to the creation of courses in artificial intelligence today.” Thursday wasn’t the first time UB earned acclaim for appearing on the show. In 2007, a 25-year-old East Amherst resident named Kevin Holbert became a two-time champion. The UB linguistics graduate chatted with Alex Trebek about his work on Khoi and San languages en route to $39,823 in cash earnings. Email: justin.weiss@ubspectrum.com
2 | Wednesday, November 10 2021
SPORTS
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‘Culture, defense and discipline’: Women’s basketball prepares for pivotal 2021-22 campaign Bulls ready to take on the season with new recruits and a deeper bench HUNTER SKOCZYLAS SPORTS EDITOR
The UB women’s basketball team is set to begin the 2021-22 season with the same philosophy but with a younger team and a deeper bench. The Bulls recently played their lone exhibition game against the D-II Daemen Wildcats, a 98-43 win where they never once trailed and consistently put up a ton of points. The Bulls finished the pandemic-filled 2020-21 season with a 15-9, 11-6 MAC record but lost in the Mid-American Conference Championship to No. 1 seed Bowling Green, 80-67. There were numerous factors preventing head coach Felisha Legette-Jack from sticking to her normal philosophy of running a deep bench and keeping her team fresh at all times, but the major factor was injuries. Redshirt fifth-year forward Summer Hemphill, senior forward Adebola Adeyeye and junior forwards Elea Gaba and Loren Christie all dealt with lingering injuries during the season, leaving the majority of the workload on the backcourt. Legette-Jack believes her players are entering the season at nearly 100% and that it will impact the game flow significantly. “She’s [Adeyeye] not fully healed but she’s getting better and better. Her surgery was perfect but now it’s all about that confidence to use her shoulder and go straight up with it,” Legette-Jack said. “And, unfortunately, Loren went down so we were down two bigs while our other two bigs were still not 100% in the first place. She’s able to shoot the three-ball and we’re asking her to take those mid-range shots at 6-foot-2. She’s shown tremendous improvement and growth in her game and it helped when she played 3-on-3 for her country [England] this summer.”
With the bigs starting to get back into the swing of things, the team’s dependency on junior guard Dyaisha Fair will lessen and she’ll be able to do more than just score, which will help steer this team in the right direction, Legette-Jack said. The backcourt duo of Fair and sophomore Cheyenne McEvans was already impressive last season, but the addition of freshman Australia native Georgia Woolley — who averaged 40 points per game at her high school in Australia last year — adds a whole new dynamic and should allow Legette-Jack to approach opponents differently. “We’re very fortunate to have a young lady like her Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Senior forward Adebola Adeyeye (25) high fives her teammates during UB’s 98-43 victory over Daemen Thursday. [Woolley]. She’s what you call get a single television game on any TV sta- tenure. a ‘cerebral player,’ because she The three words that come to mind analyzes the game and it moves in slow tion. After 10 years, I think I have a right to say that.” when Legette-Jack thinks about her team motion for her,” Legette-Jack said. “She Before conference play begins late De- are culture, defense and discipline. can play three positions, whether that’s cember, the Bulls will have to handle non“That’s it. We build a culture here and the two, three or four and she’s just a very conference foes like No. 1 South Carolina, it’s going to be the same way every time,” smart lady, on- and off-the-court.” The MAC is anticipated to be as stiff VCU and Bucknell. While it’s unlikely the Legette-Jack said. “We’re going to play deas it usually is, full of talented players and Bulls will pull off a generational upset fense where we’re going to guard you to competitive programs. Seven different over the Gamecocks, the non-conference the bus and I don’t care how many points programs have won a conference crown schedule presents the team with a number Dyaisha [Fair] can score, if she can’t defend, she can’t play. And, it’s about disciin the last decade, an unusual amount of of early season opportunities “Those teams are the best in their conpline. It’s a microcosm of life and it’s imparody for women’s hoops. ferences and we just want our young people portant that my staff and I instill that into Legette-Jack believes women’s basketball deserves more recognition, especially to play against these teams,” Legette-Jack them and hopefully they become better in the MAC: “We’re all pretty damn good,” said. “At the end of the day, I challenge people outside of basketball because they them on the court and in the classrooms came to the University at Buffalo.” she says. The Bulls will begin regular season play “There are so many good teams in this here at UB. This is the place to come beconference like Ohio, Bowling Green, cause we’re going to put you to the test with a game against Canisius at Alumni Central Michigan or Toledo that are great, all day every day and we’re going to start Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN3 and will feature a reand I think we’re pretty good too,” Legette- from the top all the way to the bottom.” The program Legette-Jack has created turn of fans in the stands. Jack said. “But nobody knows about our and the culture she has instilled in these conference until the last day of the season hunter.skoczylas@ubspectrum.com young student-athletes is the reason the Email: and I think it’s about time people start getTwitter: @HunterSkoczylas ting upset that women’s basketball doesn’t Bulls have been so successful during her
Men’s basketball will run through its ‘Big 3’ this season Guard Ronaldo Segu, forwards Josh Mballa and Jeenathan Williams will be focal points HUNTER SKOCZYLAS SPORTS EDITOR
The UB men’s basketball team is seeking redemption after consecutive losses in the MAC Championship Game and the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Bulls started off the 2021-22 season with an exhibition game against D-III Medaille College, where they dominated in all aspects of the game, winning 105-54 in front of fans for the first time in over 1 ½ years at Alumni Arena. The ‘Big-3’ — seniors Ronaldo Segu, Josh Mballa and Jeenathan Williams — posted big numbers against the Mavericks, something they will be expected to do all season if the Bulls have any chance of returning to the Big Dance. Both Segu and Williams were freshmen on the dominant 2018-19 team that went 32-4, ranked as high as 14th nationally and made it to the NCAA Tournament where they beat an Arizona State team that featured NBA defensive wiz Luguentz Dort. The duo didn’t get much playing time thanks to the sheer talent around them, but head coach Jim Whitesell, who was an assistant on that staff, says it was good for them to be a part of the team, so they could learn and observe what winning should look like. “It was a very good thing. They got to see what really good players were about and what the competition was going to be like,” Whitesell said. “It was humbling for those guys and I’m not exaggerating here but they stayed after every single practice and just worked. They stay dedicated to
the cause and I’m counting on them this for the most part and we have to hang our qualifier North Texas. Whitesell says he year.” hats on that still.” wanted the competition to be stiff right Although the trio of Segu, Mballa and Aside from the team’s three leaders, away because he knows his team is capable Williams is expected to lead the team after there will be plenty of competition for the of sticking with these high-level teams. “We wanted to go after a good NET an arguably disappointing season, there’s other two starting spots this season. Whistill work to be done for them to reach tesell credited redshirt sophomore center score and that’s what got us into the NIT their full potential, Whitesell says. David Skogman for exceeding his expecta- last year,” Whitesell said. “Getting in with Mballa is a dominant rebounder and in- tions for filling in the role of a big man only 16 teams when it’s normally 64 is really hard to do. This has always been our terior offensive threat while Segu is a pro- nicely. lific playmaker who is underrated defen“When we did give him [Skogman] the philosophy in terms of scheduling. Hopesively. But it’s Williams, the team’s leading opportunity to play, he showed his tough- fully we’re good on the road early in the scorer from a season ago (17.6 per game) ness and he gives you a blue collar atti- season and it’s great to be able to have our who has the chance to make the biggest tude,” Whitesell said. “He shot over 75% fans back. I know the kids are excited to impact for this team. over a six-game stretch when we started return to Alumni and play in front of a “[Jeenathan] has always been a great out, so yeah, he didn’t show a lot but full house for the first time in a long time.” The Bulls have a tough opening night tilt scorer, playmaker and defender but what he made sure his shots were productive we want from him this season is to work enough that they mattered. His ball screen ahead of them when they travel to Ann on his decision-making. We’ve been play- defense has gotten better and better and Arbor, MI on Wednesday to face the No. ing him at point guard in practice to get I’d like to see him continue rebounding 6 Michigan Wolverines, who went 23-5 last season. him more comfortable with the basket- the ball effectively.” ball and he’s worked so hard,” Whitesell UB will kick off its season against No. hunter.skoczylas@ubspectrum.com said. “That’s a big part of why he’s grown. 6 Michigan, before facing No. 23 St. Bo- Email: Twitter: @HunterSkoczylas Then, defensively, we want him to be more naventure and 2021 NCAA Tournament versatile. Yeah, he’s always been a good rebounder but I think he can really make another jump in terms of decisions.” Although Whitesell wants the most out of his seniors and is pushing them to continue improving in areas they don’t already excel in, he emphasized the importance of sticking to what they already do well, whether that’s Williams scoring, Segu’s playmaking or Mballa’s rebounding. “We’re going to ask Jeenathan to shoot the ball. I say to Josh that he’s a very good rebounder, but can he be a great rebounder? Ronaldo always makes plays for his teammates, but can he be an outstanding playmaker this season?” Whitesell said. “We were one of the best rebound- Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum ing teams in the country last year Members of the UB men’s basketball team celebrate during their 105-54 exhibition victory over Medaille Thursday. and we played very good defense
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OPINION
Wednesday, November 10 2021 | 3
‘Never leave your day ones in the gutter’ No matter where you go, you’re always loved
ALEX FALTER SENIOR ARTS EDITOR
Time is an unstoppable beast. Regardless of wealth, health or power, no human can escape the constraints of time. But death is not the worry. As time flies by, I can’t help but notice the different paths my friends have taken. With every passing year, we’ve all matured into someone wiser — but have also grown further apart. We are becoming adults. As joyful as it is to see us all grow, it hurts to see those paths diverge from one another, separating us into exciting new places. Some friends move, others mature quicker and some progress to new chapters.
It’s weird. Just entering my 20s, I have friends with full-time jobs, degrees, homes and children. Some of whom I haven’t heard from in a long time. It’s rarely personal — we are growing up, after all — but I can’t help but miss many of the people I used to see daily, and now see annually, if at all. It hurts. And it doesn’t help that I have my own growing obligations to worry about. Clashing with this newfound responsibility can be exhausting. Not only do we find ourselves busier than ever before, but even the time with our close friends — who are still around — takes on a greater value. While the frequency of these “links” has dialed back significantly, I treasure these times more than ever before. Lounging around and watching TV every day was nice, but too many days go by without us spending time with our loved ones. Nothing beats my teenage years of being an idiot with my friends, walking into McDonalds only to order way too many McNuggets, or lining up next to hundreds of cosplayers on the opening night of any given “Star Wars” or “Marvel Cinematic Universe” film, always cheering with the audience as we became the first people to see the crazy twists.
But as adults, our adventures are more adventurous. Now we can do anything. Sixteen-year-old me could have never imagined that kayaking down the Hudson River by sunset or visiting my friends in college would be so exciting. But the real highlights of the adventures aren’t getting to do fun things. It’s doing those things with the people we call family. These moments would be relatively meaningless among strangers; among friends, they mean the world. And I wouldn’t change it for the world. Of course, it can be difficult to keep in contact with the people we rarely see. That’s why FaceTime and texting are more important than ever. Even with no extra reason, a random call to an old friend can brighten up their — and your — day and prove that no matter how far apart you may be, a genuine friendship is just that: a genuine friendship. No one wants to be a burden. But at the end of the day, I have found I’d rather stay in contact with a loved one than risk calling at a bad time. They’ll appreciate it even if they’re busy. The busyness only intensifies the longer we live. But that’s no excuse. The greater the intensity, the greater we need to love. There is no such thing as not enough
time to spread love. In the short term, I find myself in a weird spot. Many of my friends have either graduated or are busier than before. What used to be weekly hangouts has morphed into distant family members I seldom see. But they never leave my heart. It’s strange: we used to be dumbasses who didn’t know what to do with our lives. In the words of Kanye West: “As kids, we used to laugh, who knew that life would move this fast?” And just like that, we found ourselves at this point, living our own lives, finding our own selves. Yet no matter where those people go, nothing can take away the memories we made with them. We can’t afford to dismiss our happiest memories when we feel our lowest, for they can remind us how great times have and will be again. When we feel stressed, or even depressed, it feels lonely that we’re not near our old friends. But that doesn’t mean they’re not thinking of us too, missing us, reflecting on those same memories. There’s never a goodbye; only a see you later. Email: alex.falter@ubspectrum.com
The UB Curriculum is convoluted and ineffectual
KARA ANDERSON ASST. ARTS EDITOR
It’s Week 11 of the semester. You have back-to-back exams, due dates are piling up and you can barely manage to complete your homework as you are consumed by stress. As you finish assignment after assignment, flashcard after flashcard, you breathe a heavy sigh of relief — you are finally nearly caught up on your work. Then, you remember, you have an assignment due for UB Capstone. It’s a meaningless assignment, more busywork than anything else. But this time, your sigh isn’t of relief; it’s of frustration. You don’t need more work, certainly not an assignment where you spend an hour writing an “About Me” page. The UB Curriculum can and should be heavily critiqued, from its imbalanced requirements between STEM and nonSTEM degrees, to its failure to deliver on the ways a UB Seminar will benefit you.
However, some of the most obvious flaws of the UB Curriculum are found in its Pathways and subsequent Capstone. As part of the SUNY system, UB must follow certain guidelines for its students to meet general education requirements. This includes required credits in basic communication, mathematics, critical thinking and information management, along with credits in either American history, other world civilizations, foreign language, social sciences, humanities, the arts, natural sciences or western civilizations. Pathways generally addresses the latter of these subject areas, in what UB describes as “the building blocks of liberal arts education.” However, rather than allow you to fulfill these requirements on your own, Pathways forces students to take courses via Global and Thematic pathways, creating a limiting and confusing system for the same students it claims to help. One of Pathways’ most consequential problems is that it scantily allows students to apply AP credits to their general education requirements. With Pathways, one can only apply AP credit if the credit is directly articulated to a course or is taking the form of a generic UB departmental course. It’s incredibly frustrating to put time and money into getting ahead at school, only for the university to set you behind again.
More than making it difficult to transfer AP credit, Pathways also creates a system that limits a student’s scheduling options. With an emphasis on the liberal arts, the courses included in Pathways often occur at a single time during the semester. This means there is less mobility in adding them to your schedule, often forcing students to work their other courses (sometimes those counting toward their majors) around the Pathway course. Schedule flexibility is even further limited when completing a Pathway topic, which consists of only a handful of classes per list (each topic has three lists and from each list, students must complete one course). Once students have reached “List 3,” the number of available courses dwindles further, with around half of the courses offered in the list needing prerequisites. These limitations often cause students to have to switch topics multiple times during their time at UB (I know I had to). If one switches topics (even out of scheduling necessities), they may find previous pathway courses no longer fit their new topic, making these courses meaningless to their degree. After finishing these Pathway courses, students are awarded with, in my opinion, the epitome of UB’s nonsensical and timeconsuming curriculum: UB Capstone. Capstone, on paper, is a one-credit
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course that aids students in making “connections across different academic disciplines and perspectives,” among other things. In reality, it’s five weeks of busy work. Students will create an ePortfolio with “About Me”, “Learning Reflection,” “Foundations” and “Pathways” sections — fairly benign-sounding topics that are actually nightmares in practice. Rather than give students a meaningful look back at their educational experience, Capstone essentially tests their ability to rattle off whatever gibberish that will get them an A. After all, it’s hard to put your heart into a reflection on courses that you didn’t care about that much, anyway. I find it particularly un-enriching to be forced to make a connection between MUS 204: Music and Money and DMS 333: World Cinema. UB either needs to get rid of the requirement altogether, or reform it into something actually worthwhile . If there’s anything the UB Curriculum does well, it’s giving students work they’re not interested in, classes they don’t want to take, content they’ll forget the moment their semester is over and a major headache trying to navigate it all. It’s time to put an end to this practice altogether. Email: kara.anderson@ubspectrum.com
SPORTS EDITORS Anthony DeCicco, Sr. Hunter Skoczylas
MANAGING EDITORS Justin Weiss Dan Eastman, Asst.
MULTIMEDIA EDITORS Sabrina Akter-Nabi, Sr. Sai Krishna Seethala, Sr.
NEWS EDITORS ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Grant Ashley, Sr. Jack Porcari, Sr. Natalie Doller, Asst. Julie Frey, Asst. ARTS EDITORS Alex Falter, Sr. Kara Anderson, Asst.
Jenna Quinn, Sr. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Paolo Blanchi, Sr. Jiayi Zhang, Asst.
FEATURES
4 | Wednesday, November 10 2021
Nicholas Singh president
Montana Desabio vice president
ubspectrum.com
Austin Wolfgang treasurer
Q&A with the SA e-board 2021-22 e-board talks about working with students, administration and each other GRANT ASHLEY SENIOR NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
icholas Singh, Montana Desabio and Austin Wolfgang were all elected last April to serve as members of the SA e-board for the 20212022 academic year. The Spectrum sat down with the current eboard and their chief of staff, Will Eaton, to discuss what they’ve done so far, what they hope to achieve moving forward and their experience working together. Sections of the interview pertaining to SA advocacy, fest production, clubs and the revocation of some students’ F-1 visas have been removed from this Q&A. Readers can find information about these topics on The Spectrum’s website. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity: The Spectrum: So, you guys have
been at this job for five months now. What have you been up to?
Nicholas Singh: “The first thing was actually assessing the SA’s current situation and how we could meet the needs of students. So with that being said, I think we spent the first month and a half really getting a fair idea of what students are really lacking, what they need and what we should put more resources into. It is a learning process as we’re going along, especially with the university in reference to COVID-19 regulations. All summer, we didn’t know anything until the week before [school started]. Even though some sort of normality is available, we still have a lot of obstacles preventing us from doing a lot of events like, for example, the carnival. We went through a lot of roadblocks just to make that happen. It was a lot of planning. It took maybe twice as much resources, planning and execution [than it would’ve in a normal year].”
ing with everyone on campus. And most of the time, bi-weekly, we table downstairs [in the Student Union] just to get students’ feedback. Even if we don’t have an event coming up, we still table to try to understand exactly what the students are feeling. ...At the end of the day, we go through the same pain as all the other students, it’s just we are in a position to try to streamline that and make it much more approachable for students.” Will Eaton: “In addition to all that, our Student Affairs director Josephina Nimarko and our assistant director of health and wellness, Cole Fredericks, they’ve all been putting in hours since the beginning, pretty much. They’ve been reaching out to people on campus, trying to get the pulse of what students need, and we’re trying to get on top of that as best we can.”
TS: Do you have anything spe-
NS: “So Cole, Josie, all of them have been meeting with relevant campus officials, like the director of health and wellness, among others. ...We’re trying to join with everybody [on campus]. ...We’re just testing out how we could work best together, rather than alone. We’ve been elected for months, but for the last few months we’ve been assessing exactly what the department does within. And things always change. There’s a lot of stuff changing, so we might plan something today, and tomorrow something else happens.”
TS: Nick, you didn’t have a plat-
cific in the works?
NS: “At the moment, I guess not. Right [now] everything is being considered as to find the best avenue, whether it be typical mainstream stuff like Instagram or whether it be that each month we hold one town hall or whether it be X, Y or Z.”
form when you were running for president. Do you have a platform or long-term goals?
NS: “We need to move away from the overall idea of ‘policing,’ and more toward the idea of ‘helping.’ So that was my first thing, rebuilding SA internally. Which departments are actually working? Where are we spending X amount of dollars? Why are we spending it? Answering those questions took two months, and I’m still
It doesn’t make sense for us to be doing all this advocacy work, or trying to plan events, or always helping our clubs, or X, Y and Z, if the people we are doing it for don’t believe in us. TS: Just to circle back to some-
thing you mentioned, where dent needs and what students were you putting out those surwere lacking. How did you get veys, and how many students responded to them? that information? TS: You talked a lot about stu-
NS: “Firstly, our Media and Marketing team put out surveys to hear from the students about what they want. We started to meet with other organizations on campus, such as RHA [Residence Hall Association]. And I have my monthly call with all the other student government presidents. So it’s a lot of joint collaboration, work-
We all touch [on] a different perspective [within] the student body, which then is good for all of us because then it brings all the students together.
NS: “So, we sent out surveys on our Instagram, we gave out flyers downstairs [in the Student Union]. I don’t have the exact number of students on me...and we plan to do more outreach stuff, especially now that we kind of have a better idea as to the direction we’re going. So, we plan to do more interactive stuff.”
learning. The second thing is connecting with students. It doesn’t make sense for us to be doing all this advocacy work, or trying to plan events, or always helping our clubs, or X, Y and Z, if the people we are doing it for don’t believe in us. I know SA has been through a lot, so I’m trying to regain that trust. And we’ve been trying [to do] that. I personally went to over 20-something club meetings already in the evenings, and I made it clear to my staff that by the end of the semester, we all must attend meetings with 150 clubs. It doesn’t make sense for us to be doing all this work if we don’t know what the
problem is. And then thirdly was actually making a difference on campus. When we all ran for election, we all wanted to make a difference. We don’t want to make a difference that only lasts a month or one year, it should be a long-term, meaningful impact. And I do think mental health is something I’m gonna put a lot of time [into]. That’s why I’m doing my research properly. So, I’m actually making a difference on campus. Now, I know it’s three vague points, but believe me, I’ve been learning and I’ve been trying to set up SA in such a manner that our changes are here for longevity. We’re making sure that the programs we started stay so that when the next e-board comes in, it’s able to continue to grow and actually grow with the students. That way, each year, when a new e-board comes in they aren’t doing so with a one-year plan. I do believe SA is for the students, by the students. And we need to remember that part, ‘for the students.’ We will put them first. Whatever they want, that’s what we’re providing, regardless of whether we have a policy or not. If they want something but a policy prevents us from following through, the question is, ‘How do we fix this policy to make it work for them?’ And it shouldn’t be the other way around.” TS: Can I push a little bit on
your point about restructuring SA? What does that specifically look like?
NS: “Sure, so the first thing I did when I came in was assess each department. Collectively, we have 64 staff [members], I think. We run with an Entertainment Department, Production Department, Media and Marketing Department ...and then come over to the student advocacy side of things. We run the kayak services, but now we’re looking into, during winter, what new program we could do, what new stuff we can start. So when I say, ‘restructuring,’ it’s like looking at all the internal runnings of SA, and asking if it makes sense. Is it really beneficial and is it really working to help these students? And I’m still looking at job descriptions of each staff [position], I’m creating new positions and removing
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other and balance out each other.”
TS: I did notice that you al-
Wednesday, November 10 2021 | 5 TS: Was that disappointing at
all, to see a low level of interest? ready went through your legal fees budget, and had to add AW: “We had more than enough students TS: None of the three of you ran NS: “And I think we respect each other, to $20,000 to that. Is that nor- who signed out petitions, and we had a together in the SA elections. the point that we’ll call each other and say, couple who were close to getting [the nec‘Hey, I don’t like this. What do you think?’ mal? Why was that the case? essary number of signatures], they just I don’t know when’s the last So I would say it’s an interesting but bentime that happened. What have eficial dynamic in reference to actually AW: “I think at this point, we’re not going unfortunately did not make it before the your relationships with each meeting students’ needs. Montana [works] to comment on that just because I would deadline. It was definitely a bit of a disappointment for me especially because I with all the clubs, and I am going to tell want to talk to my lawyer before comother been like? was the head of the [SA Assembly in the] Austin Wolfgang: “Well, first I will say it actually hasn’t happened in SA history before because — I believe it was the 2019 school year [when] we changed it — the president and the vice president used to always run together, so you had to run together and now they run separately. But yeah, it’s been an interesting dynamic.” Montana Desabio: “I think it’s been really interesting because we’re different ages. We all have this new perspective [because we work together]. I’m coming in as someone who came from online school, and Nick’s been in school for longer than I have [been] here. We’re all really good at compromising, and I think we all are here for the students, so the fact that we all have the same goal, really helps us work well together.” NS: “It’s been really dynamic, I would say. Especially because I came in with the mindset of like, ‘Ok, let’s do this, this and this’ based on what I experienced, while Montana brought a whole new perspective, like, ‘Hey Nick, I’ve never touched campus. I don’t know what this is.’ So that was nice. And then Austin sees things very differently than I do sometimes. And it’s nice because it makes us stop to think.” MD: “We all touch [on] a different perspective [within] the student body, which then is good for all of us because then it brings all the students together.” NS: “Honestly, it’s been interesting because none of us knew each other before. The first time we met was downstairs [outside the Student Union] by the food truck. I was getting mac and cheese. Montana was waiting, Austin was [there]. (Maybe I’m wrong, I think they both met [each other] before me.) And it was just like, ‘This is going to be an interesting journey.’ But we’ve learned how to work with each
MD: “We make each other think.”
you, she does a great job with all the clubs. Austin does everything [financial]. It’s so much stuff, and we help balance [it with] all the staff. I [would] want to pick this team again.”
menting on what the lawyers are working on.”
NS: “But what I would say [is that] we provide legal services for all students, undergraduate or graduate. We did re-interview
Even though some sort of normality is available, we still have a lot of obstacles preventing us from doing a lot of events like, for example, the carnival. We went through a lot of roadblocks just to make that happen. It was a lot of planning. It took maybe twice as much resources, planning and execution [than it would’ve in a normal year].
legislative branch last year, so I was really hoping we would have a full Senate. But we’re looking at also appointing people, so we can get back to that full Senate and give as many students [as possible] the opportunity to be a part of it.” TS: What’s the Assembly up to
this semester?
AW: “Oh god. So, at the end of the year, the previous e-board and our lawyer came to me and said, ‘Hey, this whole bicameral legislature thing is not really working out because neither body has enough people to actually meet.’ So, we decided to combine the Assembly and the Senate last year. This was probably one of the last things Nelaje [Branch] did as president was to approve that bylaw amendment, combining the two. It was definitely a very tough choice for me, but especially considering we only had four people running [for SA Senate], it definitely was the right choice.”
TS: What has your relationship with the administration been TS: Nicholas, your vice presi- our lawyer, we did do pre-screening. But like, especially as it pertains to dential running mate, Stephen [we provide] legal services for all students mental health? Holguin, lost to Montana. It in a variety of topics. They just make an NS: “It’s been a good one, I would say, seems like you’ve moved for- appointment online, and the lawyers ad- so far. [We’ve been] having meetings and ward from that, but was that vise them accordingly.” discussing stuff, it’s been good. The first disappointing at first and how month of school was more about underTS: As I recall, there are still standing what we are going to ask for. If did you move forward from some empty seats on the SA you look at all the issues on campus, it’s that? Senate that were not filled be- near impossible to solve it all in a year. NS: “At the end of the day, I believe we cause you didn’t get enough I wish we could. [We were] just having work for the students and if that’s what people to [run for election to] meetings and seeing who really will be our ally, and who would help us through whatthey think is best, then I support it, regard- fill all the seats. less of my opinions.”
AW: “And as the third one in that, I was a little worried that they were going to be two best friends and then just me. It worked out a little bit for me!”
Christopher Palmer / The Spectrum UB’s Student Association is located at 350 Student Union.
AW: “I believe there are still five vacancies on the Senate. And those are all in directly elected positions. All the ex-officio positions are filled at this point.”
ever. So far, I would say it’s been pretty good working with the vice president [for student life]’s office. It should be pretty OK, continuing, once we actually come forward [with exactly what we want].” Email: grant.ashley@ubspectrum.com
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UB’s 10 in 10 climate plan aims for carbon neutrality by 2030
Sustainability’s engagement coordinator talks past, present and future of climate action plan JULIE FREY ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
In an effort to reduce carbon emissions on campus, UB has implemented a 10 in 10 climate action plan which targets ten focus areas where carbon emissions or climatic impact can be reduced in the next 10 years to bring UB to carbon neutrality by 2030. These target areas include carbon pricing, green energy sources, electrifying all university transportation, heating and cooling, waste management, efficient energy usage, greening commute, reducing food waste and investing in WNY carbon offsets. Derek Nichols, the engagement coordinator for UB Sustainability, oversees some of the committees relating to the climate action plan. He spoke to The Spectrum by phone Monday to discuss aspects of the plan and its impact on the campus community:
The Spectrum: What
10 action plan?
is the 10-in-
Derek Nichols: “[The 10 in 10 plan] is really to change the culture of campus to be more sustainable. So that’s everything from individual actions, but also the policies and how the administration works. We’re trying to change everybody’s behaviors to be more sustainable. So that aside, the climate action plan the university has adopted — our office leads the charge on it. We facilitate that work with partners from all over campus: students, faculty, staff. There are 10 strategies trying to get to carbon neutrality. Ten committees are working on pushing that forward, advancing that through boots-on-the-ground work and again, changing the procedures of how our campus operates.”
How does UB Sustainability facilitate the climate action plan?
TS:
DN: “Our office is smaller. There are four people working in it and we have some other students that work for us — if it was just us trying to change the culture of campus, it would be like changing 40,000 people’s daily lives. We like to phrase our work as [if] it’s collective work. So yes, the climate action plan came, we steward that but we have found partners that help push us forward and we want them to really be the owners of it. For example, one of the plans is to upgrade our infrastructure to
make it more and more efficient. I’m not an engineer, nobody in our office is an engineer, so that’s why we have our facilities people really leading that charge because that’s where the knowledge base is.”
What are some of the challenges with the plan right now? TS:
DN: “All the energy that we use on campus, we’ve offset with renewable energy, and that comes from the solar panels that you see on our campus. And then we also purchase renewable energy through something called renewable energy credits. So that’s sort of cut our emissions down, but that might be low-hanging fruit, because it’s something we have a lot more control over. The harder part is commuting patterns and the energy efficiency of our buildings. That’s probably the most expensive cost that we have, is trying to upgrade all of our infrastructure, when you think about South Campus [and] all the old buildings there, [there’s] a lot of stuff on North, too, [that] just needs to be upgraded. So that will help cut carbon emissions.”
Parking is an issue for students and it falls under the climate plan’s transportation purview. How will it be addressed? TS:
Grant Ashley / The Spectrum The GRoW Home, pictured above, is a 1,100-sq.-ft. solar structure located next to the Solar Strand at the Flint Road entrance of North Campus.
DN: “The hard part is, commuting stu-
dents and staff — the majority of us do not live here — commuting goes to emitting emissions. One strategy is obviously to make the green commutes easier, try to create the infrastructure to create a biking culture, carpooling culture, public transportation [goes] right in[to] that, but it’s hard. Biking in the winter, in Buffalo, like that’s something, sustainable as I am — you’ll never see me doing that… [There has always been talk of] extending the Metro Rail to North Campus and that was a conversation when I was a student here like 10 years ago, and we’ve talked about it then but now it seems more and more like it’s coming close to reality. [It] seems like there could be potential there. But that’s a super long-term strategy and it probably won’t be completed by the time we want to be carbon neutral. The other thing that we’ve had conversations about is carbon pricing, and that’s one of the strategies of our climate action plan. These are conversations that we’re still exploring, and there’s not a clear path. [The fees are] probably gonna be the most controversial of all the policies because [we’re] asking people to pay a fee, but it’s not like that fee would go to the President’s salary or anything; it would be like, We’re gonna use that money generated to go into green programs and to streamline the rest of our operations… we [need] create infrastructure to make other com-
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muting [options] possible. It seems very piecemeal, but a holistic transportation policy is being worked on. It’s going to be very, very hard to get to zero emissions for our community like it’s unless we make everybody live on our campus and walk everywhere, we’re always [going to] have emissions. And even if we did [have everyone live on campus and walk everywhere], we still have a football team that flies to play football games, and there’s a lot of addition [of emissions] to that. We can’t otherwise stop having a football team or a basketball team. The answer to all of that is we produce carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are a strategy to help bridge that gap [to] neutrality. So the way we look at it for our office and for the university it [that it] is a band aid.”
TS: COP 26 is going on right now
and one item they’ve addressed is deforestation. On a smaller scale, UB has cut down a lot of trees for solar panels. How does that work? DN: “We were going through the whole process [of putting up more solar panels across UB], [but we were] like, we’re tearing down trees to do this — it looks terrible, but there is a plan. So we’re taking a high-level look [with UB Facilities] at all the trees that we have on campus and where we can plant more. There is a plan in place to replace everything that was knocked down. As well as [an] increase [in] overall totality. So yes, we didn’t just kind of raze all that without a new plan. I like that too because they were just studying.
It is important because they want to make sure they [can] find healthy parts of the forest to meet and steward those. So it’s the long-term plan involved with that.”
Casa Rosada / Wiki Commons Argentinian President Alberto Fernández speaks Conference.
at the
2021 United Nations Climate Change
Email: julie.frey@ubspectrum.com
UB clubs experience room reservation difficulties, struggle to meet Competition for space, long turnaround times create event-planning difficulties NATALIE DOLLER ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
In the fight to reserve space on campus, some of UB’s clubs have resorted to breaking into empty rooms in the Student Union to hold their meetings. Some have even been escorted out by UPD, according to an email sent to club executive board members by Student Unions Reservations Coordinator Elizabeth Hladczuk. On Oct. 18, UPD was called to the SU following complaints that a student employee was being harassed by two unidentified UB clubs. According to Deputy Chief of Police Josh Sticht, officers were called to respond to the student employee, but upon arrival, they deemed it necessary to remove both clubs from the premises. One student was referred to Student Conduct following the incident. “While the original disagreement that led to the harassment complaint did in-
volve a dispute over who had reserved a space, that is not what we were responding to,” Sticht said in an email to The Spectrum. Planning an on-campus event can take upwards of a month. Clubs must secure food permits and pre-approve club expenditures from the Student Association, which requires a 14-day turnaround. Then they must request a space on UBLinked at least two weeks in advance. But as clubs have continued to struggle with the difficult reservation process, SA chief of staff Will Eaton says this process was designed to be complex in order to streamline the approval process. “The system is necessarily complex, as it has to accommodate different recognizing organization approval (like SA), university approval and the SU’s approval all before a reservation can be made,” Eaton said in an email to The Spectrum. Some club members say they are unable to meet in person on a regular basis because of the long reservation waits. Andrea Lin, a senior communications major and vice president of the Malaysian SA and Singapore SA, says in past years, Malaysian SA and Singapore SA would hold general interest meetings every two weeks, where the clubs would meet in-
Courtesy of Andrea Lin Members of the Malaysian SA pose for a photo at apple picking in 2019.
person with their members and bond over homemade dishes. But this semester, Singapore SA has only been able to hold one general interest meeting over Zoom, while Malaysian SA has held three events: a general interest meeting, a Mid-Autumn Celebration and an apple picking field trip. Lin says the lack of events has caused more than a dip in attendance. “I would say a lot of my e-board members (because they’re new as well) are very unmotivated to do more events because of the complicated process to plan one,” Lin said in an Instagram message to The Spectrum. The event-planning process was becoming increasingly difficult, e-board members say, even before the pandemic. Since 2019, SU has recorded a 1% increase in event room request denials, according to data from UBLinked provided by Hladczuk. Many clubs hold food-related events, from bake sales to restaurant fundraisers. However, according to Lin, whose clubs traditionally host home-cooked dinners for their members, remaining COVID-19 restrictions have prevented her clubs from holding these bonding activities. Currently, clubs are only allowed to serve
pre-packaged food at on-campus events. While remaining COVID-19 restrictions still linger, SA is working with “the university, Student Unions and others” to streamline the event reservation process, Eaton said. But Eaton says SA is not attempting to hinder clubs from hosting events. “It is in both of our best interests, the clubs and SA administration, that clubs are able to reserve space through the proper channels. Accordingly, so long as the clubs and SA administration are both in compliance with University and Student Union policies, and local, state, and federal laws, we are making every effort to help clubs get reservations,” he said. But regardless of how the new reservation process has made scheduling easier for the SA, it continues to prevent clubs from meeting in-person and creating meaningful connections, Lin says. “[Not being able to meet in person] I feel is really such a shame because most of our members are international students (especially new students) and club events are such a great place for them to meet more friends or even to just hang out and have fun,” Lin said. Email: natalie.doller@ubspectrum.com
Courtesy of Andrea Lin Members of the Malaysian SA pose for a photo in 2021. The club’s vice president says room difficulties have contributed to a decrease in student interest.
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How Milla Malik went from undersized recruit to MAC standout The 5-foot-8 outside hitter continues to defy the odds ANTHONY DECICCO SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
From a young age, Milla Malik did whatever she could to stand out from the crowd. Malik, a first-team All-State outside hitter in high school, was so undersized that she felt she needed to wear goggles to set herself apart from taller recruits. She also made business cards that featured an animated character of herself with her high school schedule on the back. Malik handed these out to college coaches to get noticed. In a sport that heavily emphasizes size and power, Malik was concerned that her 5-foot-8 frame would overshadow her exceptional play on the court for Waunakee High School in Wisconsin. Today, Malik doesn’t worry about getting lost in the shuffle. Once seen as an undersized high school prospect, the sophomore outside hitter currently leads the Bulls with 362 kills and 404.5 points, good for third- and fourthbest in the Mid-American Conference. Malik isn’t just surviving as an undersized outside hitter. She’s using it as an advantage. “Being shorter, I think I’ve created a great toolbox of different shots I can use,” Malik said. “I think that’s what’s helped me. I just can’t smash the balls like the girls that are 6-feet. I have to think about it more, and I think growing up being an outside [hitter], that’s helped me form a bigger toolbox.” The average outside hitter in Division 1 is 6-foot plus. Malik stands at 5-foot-8. That lack of size gave Malik a chip on her shoulder. The sophomore computer science major claims she has to “play a little dirty” in order to compete with her taller competitors. Malik also must be more cerebral in her approach to the game than her taller opponents. Where other players rely on raw size and physical intangibles, Malik uses technical proficiency and a high volleyball IQ to outsmart her opponents. “She’s undersized as a player, so she has to do things a lot cleaner, a lot more efficiently than a lot of [the] bigger players,” head coach Sean Smith said. “She puts a lot of effort into refining her technical skills and just keeping things mixed so she can’t do the same thing over and over and expect great results.” Despite her height disadvantage, the Bulls still furiously recruited Malik when she was in high school. Malik also received
interest from programs such as Oregon State, Florida Gulf Coast and Bucknell, because her skill was just too impressive to deny. Malik verbally committed to Buffalo when she was just 15 years old, as a sophomore in high school. On the day Malik committed to UB, Smith says he and his staff knew they had a special player coming to the Queen City. That’s why they weren’t surprised when the Wisconsin native led the Bulls in kills (226) and kills per set (3.77) en route to being named an All-MAC freshman and second-team All-MAC in 2020. “I felt that in the recruiting process,” Smith said. “A lot of people were like, ‘She’s too small to be the attacker you want her to be,’ and I disagreed. I felt like she would be a great fit for our program but also do a phenomenal job in the conference. We knew it beforehand, but when she got out there, and it maybe was the third match of last spring, we were like, ‘Okay, it’s [Malik’s performance] every bit we thought it was gonna be.’” Now a sophomore, Malik has embraced the role of leader for the 2021 Bulls. She was named a team captain prior to the season, and just like her transition
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Once seen as an undersized high school prospect, Milla Malik currently leads kills and 404.5 points.
from high school superstar to Division-I juggernaut went seamlessly, her coaches and teammates say she has developed into a natural leader for the Bulls. “I naturally like to lead people,” Malik said. “It makes me feel good, just helping people. Whether that be on the court or just in life. And so when I do get to play the sport that I love, I just kind of naturally help.” The best leaders lead by example, and it’s not only Malik’s support for her teammates that defines her leadership qualities. She’s also proven to be a pillar of consistency for the Bulls and has yet to miss a set all season. Malik has played every second of UB’s 27 matches, serving as the reliable leader her teammates and coaches can lean on. “[Malik’s presence] definitely relieves a lot of game anxiety,” sophomore rightside hitter Emma Gielas said. “It’s very calming knowing that there’s always that one person on the court that’s going to kind of hold everyone down. She’s on the court the whole time, so that’s really important that we have that one person out there that is going to be leading and communicating
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Milla Malik must be more cerebral in her approach to the game than her bigger opponents.
the
Bulls with 362
the whole time.” And still, after establishing herself as not only the present but the future of UB’s volleyball program, Malik manages to remain humble through it all. She doesn’t entertain conversations about her individual glory or statistics; rather, she insists her stellar performance is a product of her teammates. “My stats, my numbers, it all comes from my teammates,” Malik said. “If they didn’t get me the pass and the set, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do. It’s all my teammates. I give them all the credit for me doing well.” As an undersized high schooler, Malik wore goggles and created business cards to separate herself from the pack. But she doesn’t have to wear goggles anymore, nor does she have to hand out business cards. She’s now the captain and leading scorer for UB, and if the past two seasons are any indication, that won’t change anytime soon. Email: anthony.decicco@ubspectrum.com Twitter: @DeCicco42
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Board Games
Games to play while procrastinating for finals SPECTRUM STAFF
Nothing screams winter like curling up on your couch on a toasty December night and playing Monopoly. As the calendar quickly flips to the cold season, the staff of The Spectrum compiled a list of the best board games for your playing pleasure:
Scattergories
A fast-paced, gear-turning game, Scattergories is a competitive and exciting reinvention of the classic “categories.” The game, which requires two to six players, is perfect for the kitchen table, on camping trips or when with friends. Set against a buzzing timer, players have a little over a minute to fill out answers for 12 categories, ranging anywhere from celebrities to world capitals. The catch, however, is that all answers must begin with the same letter, this being determined by a 20-sided letter die, rolled before each round. If nothing else, the game is sure to have you arguing over what exactly qualifies as “something you throw away” and feeling more than triumphant when the other players agree that, yes, one’s “dignity” fits the description.
nothing better than stopping the progress of your opponent with an unapologetic “Sorry!” ANTHONY DECICCO
The Game of Life
The Game of Life doesn’t have quite as many twists-and-turns as life itself, but it’s still a classic. Originally created in 1860 by the game pioneer Milton Bradley, The Game of Life has since gotten a fresh look — but has still endeared itself to American consumers and inspired numerous board games, video games and even a TV show. Players get to travel along a track in a small automobile, where they have the ability
to navigate through marriage, children, school and retirement. And, the game is relatively short: at approximately one hour, it’s a speedy alternative to Monopoly. JUSTIN WEISS
Ticket to Ride
While not nearly as old as some of the classic board games on this list, Ticket to Ride plays like one. Players compete to build the most expansive railroad network across North America, Europe and the globe. While the hand you’re dealt is (partially) random, it’s up to you to play that hand well to complete as many routes as possible. Ticket to Ride has all the intensi-
Randy Fath / Unsplash The Game of Life doesn’t have quite as many twists-and-turns as life itself, but it’s still a classic.
You may have hated Scrabble when you were young because your mom forced you to play it. Something about “bolstering your vocabulary.” The game is simple; players are given seven letters at a time to string together the best possible words while also getting the higher point squares. Childhood trauma aside, Scrabble is the ideal board game and deserves a second chance. It takes about an hour, relies on both luck and strategy and produces a healthy competitive atmosphere. You will get into fights about how “qua” isn’t a word and how someone can’t count a double letter score twice. A challenge to your spelling ability and to your patience, Scrabble is worth a play.
Nothing ends friendships faster than Catan. Even the most well-planned strategies can be thwarted by opponents in the opening turns. Very similar to the strategy computer game series “Sid Meier’s Civilization,” Catan enlists players with the task of building the largest connected empire across a map of hexagons, as they compete for control of resources as well as complete control of the map. Of course, no Game of Thrones would be complete without the ability to trade resources with (and in some cases, steal from) your opponents, opening up a realm of possibilities for alliances, schemes and unforeseen consequences. Best of all, Catan is a surprisingly fast game, with most four-person games lasting around or less than an hour. While not for anyone looking to relax, Catan will challenge players at every turn, forcing improvisation and rarely a boring turn. ALEX FALTER
Monopoly
JACK PORCARI
Stratego is the board game version of capture the flag. Origins come from France with a game called L’Attaque, which was released in 1910. France is usually waiving the surrender flag, but l’Hexagone ironically created a game about war. Stratego is very similar to the original iteration and is played between two people. You and your opponent have pieces ranked from one (Spy) to 10 (The Marshal) that you can position on opposite sides on the 10by-10 board. Then you take turns moving your pieces, one space at a time, to find the opponent’s flag. Only you can see how you position your pieces until your opponent tries to fight you. Whoever has the highest rank wins and the losing piece is thrown out of the game. The French said it best: “Jeu de bataille avec pièces mobiles sur damier,” or “a battle game with mobile pieces on a gameboard.”
Scrabble
Catan
Talisman
Stratego
GRANT ASHLEY
JULIE FREY
KARA ANDERSON
If you’re looking for the ultimate adventure, Talisman is the game for you. In this multiplayer game, up to six players traverse across three “regions,” in a quest to reach the Crown of Command and win the game. Along the way, you’ll encounter deadly monsters, faeries, gnomes, dragons, spirits, merchants and so much more. Players gain strength or craft from defeating enemies in dice battles. Weapons, armor and magic objects can also be acquired through drawing cards or purchase with gold coins. More than four expansions are available to unlock new characters, cards and regions — players can explore the dungeon, highland, city and woodlands. Despite the initial complexity, Talisman has a relatively small learning curve, making it a great option for those looking to play something new. Be sure to set aside some time, as this expedition can take up to 90 minutes.
ty and cut-throat competition of Monopoly or Settlers of Catan, all while boasting much simpler rules and much less math.
Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash Created in 1935 as a lesson about wealth inequality, Monopoly entertains anyone with a knack for strategy or an insane amount of luck.
It took me until I was 18 to actually understand and follow all the rules of Monopoly, but once I did it easily became my favorite game. Created in 1935 as a lesson about wealth inequality, it entertains anyone with a knack for strategy or an insane amount of luck. Winning the game relies on taking your time, developing properties (or “color sets”) and being smart with your money, which doesn’t always mean saving it. The game ends when one person goes bankrupt, and whoever has the most money wins. It can be painstakingly long and ruin many friendships, but if you win, it will be totally worth it. JENNA QUINN
Left Center Right
Clarissa Watson / Unsplash Scrabble is simple; players are given seven letters at a time to string together the best possible words while also getting the higher point squares.
DAN EASTMAN
Sorry!
“Sorry!” is a game as simple as its name. Each player is given three or four pieces and attempts to reach their “home” before the others. The player who can get all their pieces to their respective “home” wins. Players move their pieces by drawing cards which direct how many spaces they can move. If your piece lands on the same block as another player’s piece, you let out an emphatic “Sorry!” and send your opponent back to their starting point. It’s literally the name of the game, as there’s
There is nothing I love more than sitting around my uncle’s kitchen table on Christmas Eve, gambling with my family. You’ve heard of the classics: poker, blackjack, etc., with high stakes and high rewards. But let me introduce you to Left Center Right. This seemingly harmless game involves each player starting with three tokens (which can be coins, dollars, etc.). Each player rolls three dice labeled “L,” “R,” “C” or with a black dot. The dice direct you where to pass your tokens, with “L” for left, “R” for right, “C” for the center pot and a black dot for holding onto your token. Slowly, the center pot will fill with tokens, until only a few are left in play. The last player to have a token wins the center pot. The simple rules allow for members of all ages to play, which can leave hilarious head-to-head grandparent vs. six-year old matchups. REILLY MULLEN
Dave Photoz / Unsplash Players compete in Ticket to Ride to build the most expansive railroad network across North America, Europe and the globe.
10 | Wednesday, November 10 2021
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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Diana, Princess of Wails ‘Spencer’ premiers as a haunting look at a fictionalized version of the People’s Princess KARA ANDERSON ASST. ARTS EDITOR
Movie: “Spencer” Director: Pablo Larraín Starring: Kristen Stewart Studio: Topic Studios Rating: 7.6/10
“Spencer” is not the name one typically thinks of when remembering the former princess of Wales. It’s a name associated with a certain ordinariness, of a woman before her devastating marriage and claustrophobic relationship with the royal family. It’s also the name given to Pablo Larraín’s historical drama centering around Princess Diana’s psychological and physical state over the course of three days during the Christmas holidays of 1991. In this supposed-to-be festive time, Diana finds herself suffering at the Sandringham Estate as she attempts to navigate an eating disorder, a yearning to return to her childhood home, her husband’s affair and the oppressiveness that comes with being a princess. The film begins with the statement, “a fable from a true tragedy,” which informs the audience that this is not simply a re-
telling of Diana’s real-life narrative, but an artistic rendition of the days leading up to her divorce with Prince Charles. However, the movie is less a fable, and more a horror film, evocative of “The Shining,” in its wintry isolation and declining sanity of Diana at the hands of her family in-law. Tight shots, tense music and graphic depictions of Diana’s bulimia serve to disturb and perturb the audience, making it at once a film that requires great strength to watch, but also great strength to look away. One of the shining moments in “Spencer” is the Christmas Eve dinner scene. Here, the surrealism and horror of the film comes to a height: Diana confronts her eating disorder head-on as she struggles to eat her meal and the Royal Family stares her down, silent and suffocating. The scene quickly derails into a vision that can only be described as grotesque and haunting. Diana sees the distraught ghost of Anne Boleyn among the dinner guests, glaring at her, as the others do. Then, Diana imagines herself tearing away her pearl necklace, a gift from her husband, and the same necklace he gave his mistress; the pearls fall into her food and Diana scarfs it all down. The shots of Stewart as she chokes down the large soup-covered pearls, desperately and achingly, are uncomfortably close and near voyeuristic. They perfectly capture the spectacle and depth of pain that Diana faces as part of the Royal Family. It’s a recoiling moment, one that punches deep in the gut and solidifies “Spencer”
as not merely a historical tragedy, but as a true psychological horror film based in some obscene reality. With the introduction of Boleyn’s apparition in this scene, also comes a more varying motif. The handling of Boleyn as a haunting presence in Diana’s life begins successfully, and is handled with enough subtlety as to build a parallel between the two royals’ lives, without feeling overstated. However, as Boleyn becomes a greater force in the movie, her influence wanes. When Boleyn begins to speak, the performance and meaning of the figure verges on the territory of tacky. It’s an unfortunate mishandling of an otherwise powerful storytelling element. The last quarter of the movie further displays the film’s faults. While the majority of the film situates the audience in a place of deep darkness, duress and dangerous discomfort, the final moments take a jarring turn in tone. In a moment meant to be emblematic of Diana regaining control of her life and happiness against the oppressiveness of royalty, the princess drives her sons away from Sandringham Estate, with the trio free and alive as they sing “All I Need Is a Miracle” by Mike & The Mechanics. However, rather than delivering emotions of liberation, the abrupt transition from the heaviness of Diana’s previous derailment to this sitcom-adjacent scene proves overly shocking and incohesive. It is not necessarily joy without precedent, but the corny levity contrasts almost comically with the beginnings of the film.
What this change in tone does bolster is Stewart’s performance. It is difficult throughout the film to discern the quality of Stewart’s depiction of Diana. There are times when she effortlessly captures the torment and entrapment that the princess must be feeling. Yet, there are also moments when Stewart’s awkward head and body-tilting create an unnecessary melodrama. Any doubts that Stewart did not deliver on Diana, however, are dismissed upon Stewart’s performance in this more lighthearted ending. Here, Stewart effortlessly embodies a realistic and palpable spirit of Diana in her gleeful laughs, maternal warmth and selfcreated confidence. She radiates a kind of acting magic that is sporadically missing in the more emotionally weighted scenes. Overall, “Spencer” is a film that deals in juxtapositions. There are times when these opposites are handled with finesse and care, creating spaces that are meant to bring happiness (such as the Christmas setting), but serve only to generate coldness and isolation. Then, there are times when this contrast is too obvious and heavy-handed. It’s a haunting and disturbing window into Diana’s mental anguish against forces that see her not as a person, but a pawn in a game of public image and tradition. Yet, the weight of this story strays in a mishandled finale. Email:kara.anderson@ubspectrum.com
Courtesy of Neon Topic Studios “Spencer” is the latest film chronicling the life of Diana, Princess of Wales.
‘The Eternals’ is an exciting glimpse into the future of Marvel Marvel’s latest outing dials the scale up to 11 ALEX FALTER SENIOR ARTS EDITOR
Movie: “The Eternals” Director: Chloé Zhao Starring: Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani Studio: Marvel Studios Rating: 7.5/10
From the moment the opening notes of “Time” by Pink Floyd take form in the opening scene of “The Eternals,” it’s clear this is far from what Marvel fans are used to. That’s because “The Eternals” isn’t a superhero film. Rather, it’s a multi-millennium-spanning epic about the supreme beings who act as overseers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Far godlier — and funnier — than “The Avengers,” the titular Eternals have roamed Earth for 7,000 years, protecting it from a species of evil known as Deviants. After being separated for around 500 years, the team is forced to reconvene
amid a new, deadlier threat. While the film’s central conflict naturally takes place after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” one of the film’s highlights is easily its numerous flashbacks which occur across its 157-minute runtime. Ranging from their first arrival on Earth in 5000 B.C. to Tenochtitlan in the 1500s, these scenes are the perfect example of just how much effort Disney pours into their movies, demonstrating exceptional production values and on-location filming. Thankfully, this money was anythingbut-wasted, as these beautiful locations allow for some eye-catching cinematography and display all kinds of beautiful land-
scapes. Thanks in large part to the runtime (2:37) and the aforementioned globetrotting production, “Eternals” feels much more like a Zack Snyder film than anything put out by Marvel, with every character given time to shine with grandiose exposition. Luckily, those characters are what save an otherwise tired set up. Much like the Avengers, the Eternals have a wide-ranging dynamic, where every team member has a unique relationship with each other, fostering a much more familial feeling than previous Marvel teams. This is strengthened by the fact that this is not a group of people who are learn-
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Wednesday, November 10 2021 | 11
Courtesy of Marvel Studios From the moment the opening notes of “Time” by Pink Floyd take form in the opening scene of “The Eternals,” it’s clear this is far from what Marvel fans are used to.
ing to work together, like many superhero team-ups as of late. This is a family reunion, and while they tend to clash as all families do, even the greatest of intra-team conflicts can do nothing to undercut the love they have for one another. Of course, these characters would be nothing without the humans behind them. While everyone gets their due time, the film’s highlight is undoubtedly Gemma Chan, who plays Sersi. One of Marvel’s most exciting protagonists in years, Sersi acts as the heart and soul of the film, valuing her companions far more than the mission, while still gathering plenty of time to demonstrate her god-like power. Other heroes include Kingo, played by Kumail Nanjiani, who is known for his role as Kumar in the “Harold and Kumar” series; Don Lee, who is best-known from “Train to Busan”; and Ikaris, played by Richard Madden, who earned acclaim
in “Game of Thrones.” Madden’s former castmate Kit Harrington takes on a minor role as Dane Whitman, Sersi’s love interest. Arguably the most badass onscreen warrior in years, Angelina Jolie portrays “Theena,” an Eternal who can create any weapon from her hands, which she effectively uses while battling her own internal conflicts, which her team — no, family — supports her in taking on every step of the film, showing what a true family is all about. Partially due to these well-portrayed familial mechanics, “Eternals” is one of the funniest superhero films ever made, eschewing forced laughs from a family audience for both inside jokes among the titular team as well as a barrage of comic relief in the form of Harish Patel’s Karun, Kingo’s hilarious yet classy assistant. Despite acting as one of the film’s least
significant characters, Patel’s performance breathes life into an otherwise forgettable sidekick, as he unexpectedly steals the show from under the rug. While the film undoubtedly follows the typical Marvel plot structure people are so polarized about, “Eternals” feels more like a prologue to what’s next in the MCU. Displayed since the first scene and established by the finale, “Eternals” makes one thing clear: fans have only seen a speck of the MCU. The films and characters seen before this — yes, even Endgame — feel insignificant with the seeds planted throughout the film, which provide a backbone for a number of potential future projects. Just as Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury told Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man in “Iron Man,” “Eternals” is Disney’s way of telling fans: “You’ve become a part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it
yet.” Speaking of which, the mid/post-credits scenes are must-sees, providing even further-reaching looks into the future for fans. Despite a generally cookie-cutter plot structure, “Eternals” makes up for this flaw in nearly every other facet, containing everything from loveable acting to glorious cinematography to its ability to make the audience feel small with an exciting glimpse at what’s to come. Email: alex.falter@ubspectrum.com
New Amherst cookie joint will open in late November Crumbl Cookies will open its second New York location later this month DAN EASTMAN ASST. MANAGING EDITOR
Logan, UT-based Crumbl Cookies is coming to The Boulevard Consumer Square to compete with Insomnia Cookies, an all-time favorite joint among college students. It will be a challenge for Crumbl to convert loyal Insomniacs, who can be seen at midnight outside the Insomnia on Sweet Home Road in the blistering cold trying to get two sugar cookies for about $5, to their cause. Unlike Insomnia, which boasts the same flavor cookies each day, Crumbl likes to mix things up, trying new flavor combinations each week — from “midnight mint” to “key lime pie.” “There will never be an opportunity for our customers to become bored,” Frank Resto, owner of Crumbl in Amherst, told The Spectrum. Resto says that while he doesn’t want to denigrate another establishment, Crumbl Cookies are the best. “The cookies are simply more delicious,” Resto said. “I think you’ll find that everything we do at Crumbl, from our recipes to our packaging, to our building design and layout, to our customer service, to our overall attention to detail, is absolutely ‘top shelf!’” Students looking for a job close to campus with flexibility should look into applying to work with the Crumbl team, Resto
Reilly Mullen / The Spectrum Crumbl Cookies is set to open in Buffalo between late November and early December
says. “In order to apply, they merely need to visit crumblcookies.com, click on ‘Apply Today,’ under ‘Apply to Work at a Crumbl Near You,’ choose ‘Amherst, NY’ in the ‘Select a location’ drop-down menu, select
their desired position, fill out the brief application and submit. That’s all there is to it!” Resto said The Amherst location still has an undetermined grand opening date but is expected to open its doors sometime be-
tween late November and early December. And, for impatient cookie lovers, Crumbl recently opened a new location in Rochester. Email: danielson.eastman@ubspectrum.com
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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Emerging Choreographers Showcase returns to UB
ECS returns for the first time since the pandemic ALEX FALTER SENIOR ARTS EDITOR
rom Nov. 6-7, the Center for the Arts hosted UB’s first Emerging Choreographers Showcase performance since before COVID-19. Held annually since 2015 — with the exception of 2020 — the ECS has been one of UB’s premier dance shows for years, acting as a beacon of creativity for dance majors. Anne Burnridge, chair and associate professor of UB’s Department of Theatre and Dance, highlighted its importance in helping students broaden their creativity in an interview with The Spectrum. “ECS provides critical opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to develop their artistic voices, experiment with new ideas and reflect on the world around us through the embodied expression of dance,” Burnridge said. Directed by Joyce Lichtenberger, an adjunct lecturer in the theatre and dance department who has worked at UB for over 30 years, the ECS consists of eight performances (including one dedicated to bows) choreographed by eight dance majors: seven undergraduate students and one graduate student. But the team goes beyond its choreographers, too. “We work closely with the design tech class at the university, and they have students that are working with [our] students, designing the sound and the lights for each of the pieces that the choreographers are presenting,” Lichtenberger said. “So, it’s really very much a collaboration between the dancers and the designers and choreographers.” The day before the show, Lichtenberger and the rest of her team were delighted to find out the dancers would not be required to wear masks. “The team’s department has bent over backwards to help us with a whole testing protocol that we have in place as of our production and so the dancers all tested negative.” Lichtenberger said. “So much of the artistry element is communicated facially so there’s always something lost when you cover the face.” For choreographers like Theo Qu, a senior dance major, the revelation of a waived mask requirement was just the icing on the cake. “Due to certain COVID-19 restrictions, the whole process has been rough. It was a lot of pressure for everyone to pull the act together,” Qu said. “We were planning on doing it with masks. But with rapid testing, being able to do it without that was a nice surprise for everyone.” Audience members were required to wear masks and provide proof of vaccination upon entry to the show. Instead of formal auditions, ECS has choreographers submit proposals, with the eight best proposals selected to be per-
formed. Once the dances were finalized, the choreographers chose their dancers and began holding weekly two-hour rehearsal sessions for each performance. Abby Cass, a second-year MFA student, says that picking dancers was a challenge in itself. “It was so difficult to choose because I would have been super happy to have any of them,” Cass said. “But the six that I got, I am so grateful for them and they’re the best.” The show’s first act opened with “Secrecy, Silence and Judgement.” The dark room was enamored by trippy music that would fit seamlessly into any Grateful Dead setlist, before piano notes introduced light. Each dancer wore grey garments with colorful variations attached to the outfits. Two dancers took the lead, standing ahead of the rest of the group. Eventually, the dancers began dropping to the floor, until only the first duo remained, dancing together before the rest returned to their feet. As the music sped up, so did the dancers, whose well-choreographed movements eventually turned into them running aggressively in a circle around the stage. The music changed again, this time to a haunting tune as the lights began to feel like a sunset before ultimately going out. The next segment, “Opia,” instantly showcased the range of genres covered in ECS thanks to its incredible contrast to its first performance. Backed by “Someone to Watch Over Me” by Frank Sinatra, “Opia” opened to a dancing couple, as they basked in a spotlight before seamlessly transitioning from the floor to their feet and back in a loving display.
Kelsey Rupe / The Spectrum Directed by Joyce Lichtenberger, the ECS consists of eight performances choreographed by eight dance majors.
a single dancer back to their feet. The dancers returned to their circle, the sound of Sinatra slowly began to refill the theater and the team acted as a back wall to three dancers in the front, who stood together before the lights died again. Next up was “A Many Layered Thing,” which was choreographed by Cass, this year’s sole graduate student choreographer. The piece was centered on how experiences shape people over time, how people can alternate between the external and internal world and how relationships are formed. “I had dancers explore ideas of what it means to discover themselves, like when a baby is first recognizing their hands and their feet and the weight of their head and things like that,” Cass said. The piece began without music, and attendees were greeted by a soloist, illuminated by the spotlight, while the rest of the dancers soaked in an eerie red light. “I wanted my soloist [to be] highlighted, but I didn’t want to not be able to see the other people because they were still important,” Cass said. “Lighting was helping me figure out what I was valuing most as a viewer.” After a series of frantic movements, the dancers eventually made their way to the floor, bodies intertwined in a pile of limbs, which was one of Cass’s original ideas when making her proposal. “Layering came into every aspect, in some of the gestures the dancers were doing, in the spatial design,” Cass said. “So, having dancers in a pile on top of each other and kind of slowly peeling back was just something when I was thinking about the piece initially.”
ECS provides critical opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to develop their artistic voices, experiment with new ideas and reflect on the world around us through the embodied expression of dance. A static noise began to drown out the music as the couple was surrounded by more dancers, with a somber piano replacing Sinatra. The dances grew sporadically, with different duos taking center stage for sections of the dance. They then collapsed on stage in ritualistic fashion, before surrounding and lifting
At its core, Cass designed the piece to explore the concept of touch, which she says worked out perfectly for the show. She also detailed the importance of the dancers, particularly since she had them improvise in some cases. “Had I ended up with different dancers,
[it] would have ended up totally different because it was built around what they value as movers, how they learn as learners.” “Slow Burn,” which has the 1950s written all over it, closed out the first act. That act opened with a single dancer dressed in a black skirt and a top evocative of Mackenzie-Childs. She happily danced to a ‘50s tune before being joined by a greaser-esque man in a bright red jacket for a romantic duet. Eventually the backdrop turned purple and the audience was greeted by a lone female figure dancing in darkness like a silhouette in a James Bond title sequence. After many failed attempts to court a dance from the women, the man danced against the entire group of women, toward and away from each other, back and forth, truly evoking the classic musical “West Side Story.” Eventually, the initial couple returned to focus, sharing a final dance in the vein of the ‘50s inspired musical “Grease” as the other women formed a line in the back. As the fading lights of “Slow Burn” aptly close out the first act, the darkness continued into the second act’s opening for “The Exiled.” With little light on stage, a group of dancers quietly roamed the floor, light on their feet, while one hammered the floor with loud tap shoes. His steps quickened before he stopped abruptly and exited. As one dancer began to dance in cultesque form, absorbed by the spotlight, she was followed by a whooshing sound as the loud stepper returned. The other dancers began to move like water, taking on new forms in the blink of an eye. The segment culminated in a rapid dance across the stage before the spotlight landed on one lone dancer, who darkly dropped to the ground. Qu, who choreographed “The Exiled,” had centered the performance around the effects of quarantining from COVID-19, commenting on the distortion of reality for the many individuals who were stuck inside. “I wanted to make a piece about a group of people meandering in a space [looking] for open space,” Qu said. “Where there’s no boundary, no time and no purpose.” One of the more creative challenges of the show was the inability to use copyrighted music, which Qu handled by making his own. “I ended up making my own music from scratch with sounds and noises that I found on free websites,” Qu said. Choreographed by Timothy Mayberry and Karrigan Rotella, both senior dance
ubspectrum.com majors, “Inevitably” had one of the rockiest roads to release. On top of an already hectic schedule since ECS took place a month earlier than normal this year, Mayberry and Rotella were given the opportunity to choreograph their performance after another dancer dropped, which meant they had significantly less time to plan and teach their dance. “We actually found out we were doing a piece the night before the auditions,” Rotella said. “We just watched people, there was actually an improv section that we based a lot of our picking and choosing off of.” Months behind the other choreographers — proposals had been due over the summer — the duo felt that working together had many benefits. “She [Rotella] reached out to all the artists for the copyright provisions of our songs,” Mayberry said. “We fill in each other’s skill gaps, which is a great thing about collaboration.” Filled with audio snippets discussing death, the themes of “Inevitably” were made instantly apparent in its name and audio. “We took her [Rotella’s] basic concept, which is the concept of grief, and we let it go as it went,” Mayberry said. “We sort of wanted to create a piece that was evocative of an unbiased, almost nature-minded, perspective on grief and death, and how all things sort of come to an end.” The concept of death in their dance was much more elastic than the literal term, however. “It was also in a sense of grieving opportunities, grieving growing out of things, aging, the things that we sort of naturally leave behind, and that it’s okay to grieve those things,” Mayberry said. “It’s not a weak thing. It’s a very natural thing and it deserves to have a space to be honored.” With all the dancers standing in a soldier-esque formation, bright colors and sporadic movements took center stage, as
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Wednesday, November 10 2021 | 13
Kelsey Rupe / The Spectrum Held annually since 2015 — with the exception of 2020 — the ECS has been one of UB’s premier dance shows for years, acting as a beacon of creativity for dance majors.
dancers once again alternated between the floor and their feet, evoking a high level of creativity. By the end of it, all the pieces had come together like a clock, forming a piece where even the smallest facets had great significance. But amid the music, dances and scenery, there was one audio snippet that seemed to capture the voice of the artists best. “There are no wrong feelings; there may be wrong actions in the sense of actions contrary to the rules of human communication, but the way you feel toward other people’s loving, hating etc. — there aren’t any wrong feelings,” the disembodied voice read. The ECS’s final performance brought
out one of the show’s most modern dances in, “Your Way.” As the dancers took to the pitch black stage, they were illuminated by red lights. As the backdrop turned red, the dancers’ silhouettes moved in a fashion akin to the introduction of “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” As the lights returned, the dancers closed out their time with carefully selected movements that showed just how much work was put in by both the choreographers and the dancers. Acting as an epilogue, “Bows — Choreographers & Dancers” showcased everyone involved with production, closing out the show in a classy fashion. After the show, attendees, like junior
Kelsey Rupe / The Spectrum Instead of formal auditions, ECS has choreographers submit proposals, with the eight best proposals selected to be performed.
linguistics major Eric Cald, were in high spirits as they waited to congratulate the performers and choreographers for their works. “I found it really engaging,” Cald said. “I thought all the different stories were very interesting and engaging.” For Mayberry, the show was a great way to celebrate senior year. He recalled memories of dancing as a freshman under choreographer Ginger Paige, before choreographing “Inevitably” as a senior. “It [Mayberry’s first show] was like a rite of passage for me, it was my first ever college show,” Mayberry said. “It was full circle being able to create that moment, as a senior, like Ginger did for me.” Email: alex.falter@ubspectrum.com
SPORTS
14 | Wednesday, November 10 2021
Last week in UB Athletics
Women’s Basketball
Tennis
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL DOMINATES DAEMEN
UB TENNIS ENDS FALL SEASON ON A HIGH NOTE
Women’s basketball defeated the Daemen Wildcats, 98-43, in an exhibition contest at Alumni Arena Thursday night. UB made quick work of its Division-II opponent. The Bulls never trailed in the contest and found themselves up 34 points at halftime. Junior guard Dyaisha Fair led all scorers with 20 points and also recorded eight assists and five rebounds for the Bulls. The 2021 preseason firstteam All-MAC selection also added three steals while shooting three 3-of8 from the three-point arc. Redshirt fifth-year senior forward Summer Hemphill looked like her former self with 17 points and eight rebounds while shooting 8-of-11 from the field. Hemphill was one of the most dominant post players in the MAC before multiple knee injuries sidelined her for over 14 months. She produced an encouraging showing against the Wildcats. The Bulls shot a blistering 50% from the field and shot the same percentage from three. Freshman guard Georgia Woolley showcased her three-point shooting prowess, as the Brisbane, Australia native connected on 4-of6 three-point attempts en route to a 14-point performance. UB collected 44 rebounds to Daemen’s 30. The Bulls wreaked havoc on defense, forcing 29 turnovers (including 18 steals) that led to 29 points. Thursday’s exhibition against Daemen was a mild test, but it highlighted head coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s offensive and defensive philosophies this season.
UB’s men’s and women’s tennis teams finished the fall season on a high note. The men’s team traveled to Kalamazoo, MI for the Mid-American Conference Indoor Tournament hosted by Western Michigan to finish up its fall season. In doubles play, sophomore Finn Macnamara and freshman Daniils Snaiders bounced back from a first round loss to win the consolation bracket in second doubles. The duo won the match 8-4 against Toledo. Senior Simon Wibler advanced to the finals of the second singles flight after winning his first match 7-5, 7-6. After winning the first set, he lost three consecutive sets in the finals. The women’s tennis team hosted the UB Fall Invite over the weekend in hidden dual format. Competition was stiff in the form of teams such as Cornell, St. John’s, Syracuse and Niagara. The Bulls won two of their three doubles matches against Cornell on Friday. Senior Hsin-Yuan Shih and junior Azra Deniz Comlek earned a 6-2 victory at second doubles. On the final day of the invite, Schietekat Sedas and Amat defeated Niagara University graduates Megan Gamble and Elena Mayet 7-5. Senior Pia Schwarz beat Syracuse’s Shorti Ito in singles 6-3, 6-2. This marks the end of the fall season for the Bulls’ tennis program. Both teams will look to build off this momentum when the spring season begins in early February.
LILY MEEK
KAYLA STERNER
STAFF WRITER
STAFF WRITER
ubspectrum.com
Women’s Soccer
Men’s Basketball
WOMEN’S SOCCER ELIMINATED BY BOWLING GREEN IN MAC SEMIFINALS
MEN’S BASKETBALL ROUTS MEDAILLE
Women’s soccer (13-4-3, 6-2-3 MAC) was eliminated from the MidAmerican Conference Tournament Thursday when they lost to the Bowling Green Falcons (10-6-3, 8-2-1 MAC), 1-0, at Cochrane Stadium. The Bulls found themselves as the fourth seed and faced tough competition against top-seeded BGSU, the same team that kept them out of the MAC Championship Game last year due to a bylaw typo. Sixteen minutes in, the Bulls landed their first scoring chance when graduate forward Gianna Yurchak ripped a shot on goal, but BGSU junior goalkeeper Lili Berg secured the save. The Falcons responded with a furious offensive attack, as the 27th minute saw sophomore forward Lacee Bethea break away and find the bottom left corner to give BGSU the 1-0 lead. Second half action saw the Bulls come out fighting with an aggressive attacking formation and mindset. The Bulls’ defense stayed solid, only ceding one second half shot. Yet the Falcons’ defense proved completely unshakable as the Bulls tried time and time again to break through. BGSU refused to let the lead slip. UB outshot the Falcons 8-6 and had the game’s sole corner kick, and the Bulls also matched BGSU’s save count with two saves apiece. But despite the game being a fairly even contest, UB was never able to generate a score. Just two weeks earlier, UB and BGSU had faced each other in the regular season, with the Bulls narrowly defeating the Falcons, 1-0, despite getting outshot 16-4. The Bulls ended the season with a 13-4-3 overall record.
SOPHIE MCNALLY STAFF WRITER
Men’s basketball defeated the Medaille Mavericks, 105-54, in an exhibition contest Thursday night at Alumni Arena. UB was originally slated to face Daemen, but Medaille replaced the Wildcats after Daemen’s men’s team announced a pause in team activities due to COVID-19 protocols (the pause didn’t impact UB’s women’s team, who took on the Daemen women’s team earlier in the day). UB dominated its Division III opponent, especially in the paint. The Bulls’ size and inside presence proved to be too much for the Mavericks, as UB scored 56 points in the paint and attempted 31 free throws. Despite shooting 24% from three, the Bulls still managed to shoot 46% from the field. Senior forwards Josh Mballa and Jeenathan Williams led all scorers with 19 points apiece, each shooting an efficient 8-11 from the field. Williams also grabbed five boards and dished four assists while Mballa snatched five rebounds but shot a concerning 2--6 from the free-throw line. The Bulls outrebounded the Mavericks by 37, with redshirt sophomore center David Skogman and graduate student center Brock Bertram commanding the boards with 10 rebounds apiece. Graduate forward Tra’von Fagan contributed nine rebounds in just 14 minutes. The blowout victory also featured multiple highlight plays, with Mballa hitting a seemingly impossible up-andunder and-one layup in the first half and freshmen Kidtrell Blocker and Kuluel Mading each throwing down thunderous dunks in the second half. UB will open its regular season against No. 6 Michigan at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The game will be aired on the Big Ten Network.
ANTHONY DECICCO SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Women’s basketball head coach Felisha Legette-Jack draws up a play during UB’s 98-43 victory over Daemen Thursday.
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Senior forward Josh Mballa (34) shoots a free throw during UB’s 105-54 exhibition victory over Medaille Thursday.
Brandon Keim / The Spectrum Junior defenseman Emily Lazenby (5) and freshman midfielder Kaya Schultz (24) pass the ball during a recent game. UB lost to Bowling Green 1-0 in the MAC semifinals Thursday.
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum Senior forward Jeenathan Williams (11) drives into the lane during a 105-54 victory over Medaille Thursday.