VOL. 70 NO. 17 | MARCH 9, 2022
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950
UBSPECTRUM
‘This is our reality’:
Ukrainians at UB reflect on the anguish of war
As the Russo-Ukrainian war continues to dredge on, Ukranians at UB continue to speak out KYLE NGUYEN ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
hrystyna Adam couldn’t stop her hands from trembling or her eyes from tearing up. Nor could she keep herself from scrolling through the myriad of “WWIII” jokes that filled her Instagram feed: A fake UBAlert of an incoming nuclear warhead, followed by a fake Zoom call with Vladimir Putin. It was a startlingly comedic contrast to the harrowing images of collapsed buildings and anxious text messages that have filled her waking hours these last few weeks, she says. Adam is a member of the Ukrainian community at UB, one that has anxiously watched as their loved ones face the Russo-Ukrainian war at home. While many of their peers are able to walk triumphantly to class or chat freely in the halls, these students’ days are an exercise of vigilance filled with prayers that their loved ones re-
main safe. “This is our reality. We are so afraid to look down at our phone to see the text message from our family saying, ‘We’re going underground, we’ll contact you when we’re okay,’” Adam said. “You don’t know what news it could be. It could be a family member just died or our house has been shot down. This is not the time to joke around about things like this.” Since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Buffalo Ukrainian community has rallied and fundraised to raise awareness for those impacted by the conflict. Adam, a junior biological sciences major, was leaving a lab on South Campus when she opened her phone to news of the first cities under attack in Ukraine: Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson. She immediately called home to her family back in Lviv, where she grew up. “They woke up at five in the morning
Moaz Elazzazi / The Spectrum A protester holds up a sign during a pro-Ukraine rally outside of City Hall last week.
to sirens going off and they had no idea what was happening,” Adam said. “I’m speaking to you [The Spectrum] right now — three hours ago they were just going in and out of underground bunkers because the sirens are going off.” Adam says updates like these have taken a toll on her sleep schedule and her mental health. “I go to sleep at like four in the morning and [I’m] just checking up on the news and constantly texting my family and friends just asking if they are alright,” Adam said. Senior pharmaceutical sciences major Greg Hawuczuk has a similar dynamic, with extended family members left in Ukraine. He says his cousin, a resident of the capital city of Kyiv, was able to leave the city with family before shelling began. “He was one of the lucky ones,” Hawuczyk said. “As soon as the shelling
broke out, he managed to make it back to his hometown, a small town in the west of Ukraine called Terebovlya. Hopefully, they’ll be safe there.” Hawuczyk recalls texting his uncle after news of the invasion first broke. The interaction left the UB senior with little doubt about the seriousness of the situation. “My uncle — he’s close to 50 or 55 — I was texting with him and he said, ‘We’re all worried,’” Hawuczyk recalled. “I’ve never had a grown man ever tell me that he’s worried or scared before. Ukraine has — I don’t want to say it has a machismo culture — but there’s a stoicness to the Ukrainian man. So just to hear that left goosebumps on me.” Roxy Tyminska, a junior psychology major, says the constant worry for her loved SEE UKRAINIANS PAGE 5
‘I have mixed feelings about it’:
students react to the end of UB’s mask mandate The change comes nearly two years after the start of the pandemic GRANT ASHLEY SENIOR NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR
Face masks had been required in oncampus buildings for 664 days. That count stopped Saturday. For the first time since New York State implemented its mask mandate on April 15, 2020, no students, faculty, staff or visitors — vaccinated or not — were required to wear masks indoors following UB’s decision to lift its requirement on Saturday. After two years of wearing masks, students told The Spectrum they are feeling many different, sometimes conflicting emotions. “Part of me wants to go maskless because it’s taken on the same feeling as wearing a tank top on the first day of good weather,” Alexandra Saccone, a sophomore English major, said. “But [masks] are important COVID-19-wise, and also so people can’t see me cuss them out under my breath.” Saccone said they would continue to wear their mask indoors. But their conflicting impulses were hardly unique. “I go out with my friends, and we interact in environments where we aren’t wearing masks,” Trey Jenkins III, a sophomore psychology major, said. “So it’s not really an issue for me to come on campus and not have to wear one… But I have a lecture of 400 students, and that’s why I have a mask. I’ll put it on if I don’t feel comfortable.” Other students, like freshman biomedi-
cal sciences major Kayla Dechow, worried about immunocompromised UB community members. “It’s more freeing to have the personal choice, but from a medical perspective, if everybody is not wearing masks, then there’s not really much of a point,” Dechow said. “The immunocompromised people can be wearing masks, but COVID-19 is [still] going to be everywhere.” Some disabled, immunocompromised and elderly people have feared that the end of mask mandates will “leave them behind,” according to NBC. Dr. Thomas Russo, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the UB Department of Medicine, advises those who are unvaccinated, immunocompromised, unboosted (if eligible), over 50 years old or pregnant to continue wearing face masks for the time being. “Cases are down, but we’re not quite at the low level we were pre-Delta wave at the end of June,” Russo said. “Cases will hopefully continue to fall, so hopefully they’ll get to very low levels and those people in those risk groups could feel increasingly comfortable, [and] maybe they’ll no longer have to wear a mask.” Gov. Kathy Hochul reinstated New York State’s indoor mask mandate in midDecember in response to rising caseloads caused by the omicron variant, according to NPR. That requirement was lifted for businesses in early February, according to CBS, and for K-12 schools March 2. Hochul stopped short of ending mandates in higher education institutions but allowed colleges and universities to remove their mask mandates in consultation with their county health department.
“I am pro-mask, but when we have a population like this that is required to get the vaccine, I don’t think it’s necessary, personally,” Michael Fernandez, a freshman biology major, said. “In class, if it’s a huge population, like in Knox 20 with 400 students, I’ll probably wear it there. But if it’s like my Calc 2 class, which is a smaller class, I don’t find a need to.” But even in her smaller classes, professors are encouraging students to wear masks, Megan Kane, a senior biological sciences major, said. “In my smaller labs and closer knit classes, I still am wearing a mask,” Kane said. “And my professors have told us, ‘Listen, we’re not going to say you have to wear a mask. However, just out of respect for each other, just keep wearing your mask.’” Crew Ferrentino, a freshman business administration major, said that while he doesn’t plan on wearing a mask anywhere on campus, he still plans to wear one when
visiting elderly relatives who live in the area. “It’s such a big school, and even if it’s not COVID-19 and it’s just a cold, it’s not worth the risk,” he said. “Call it a double standard.” But there are no double standards for Ofeibea Micah. The freshman English major plans to continue wearing a mask while indoors. “I feel like it’s my own personal choice,” Micah said. “If things are going smoothly, then maybe I’ll consider taking it off.” Micah’s caution stems in part from her fear that students returning from spring break will cause infection rates to rise again. If it were up to her, the mandate would’ve ended “a couple weeks after spring break.” “This trend keeps on happening, where SEE UNMASKED PAGE 10
Jenna Quinn / The Spectrum Hannah Clark, a junior business administration major, poses for a photo Tuesday in Pistachios.