The Spectrum Vol. 71 No. 8

Student Success Retention

More UB students are transferring or dropping out since the COVID-19 pandemic

Only 57.7% of students who entered UB in fall 2020 still attend the university

AMY MASLIN STAFF WRITER

Undergraduate students who attended UB during the COVID-19 pandemic are returning for subsequent semesters at some of the lowest rates the university has seen dating back to 2009, the earliest year for which data was available.

The fall 2020 cohort year-three retention rates and fall 2019 year-four retention rates are both far below the typical average. Only 57.7% of students who entered UB in fall of 2020 returned for their third year this fall, according to UB Factbook. Only 54% of the fall 2019 cohort returned for their fourth year this fall. The average for third-year and fourth-year retention rates were 77.8% and 68.1% respectively for the freshmen classes of 2009-2018.

“While our retention rate is not where we would like it to be, it is still above the average of all U.S. colleges granting four-year degrees,” Dawn

Reed, director of Interdivisional Marketing and Communications, said.

The national average retention rate for undergraduate students who started college in the fall of 2020 was 75.4%, according to a Department of Education report.

The fall 2019 cohort lost 21.7% of students between the 2021-22 and 2022-23

UB says it is generally committed to ‘investigating all potential violations’ of policies

GRANT ASHLEY MANAGING EDITOR KAYLA ESTRADA SENIOR NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

Engineering professor Matthew Burge, who was removed as an instructor from all his classes over two weeks ago, is still a university employee, UB spokesperson John DellaContrada said in a statement to The Spectrum

DellaContrada says the university does not comment on “personnel matters” or “rumors or allegations,” but added that “the university is committed to investigating all potential violations of UB’s policies on consensual relationships and nepotism.”

Burge was removed from instructing all of his classes on Oct. 11, according to an email that Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department Chair Francine Battaglia sent notifying Burge’s former students.

Burge answered a phone call from The Spectrum on Tuesday but abruptly hung up after learning he was speaking with a Spectrum editor.

Other professors were assigned to teach Burge’s classes, including Fluid Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering Lab. Classes formerly taught by Burge have a total enrollment of 228 students this semester, according to the MAE Department class schedule.

UB’s Consensual Relationships Policy bars employees from forming “romantic and/or sexual relationships with students or employees for whom they exercise professional responsibility” and requires that they disclose pre-existing relationships

with students or co-workers. Its Nepotism Policy requires that university employees “make decisions regarding employment, academic, research, and procurement situations free from the appearance of favoritism or impropriety that can result from family, personal, or romantic relationships” and to make disclosures when they “cannot reasonably be perceived to be neutral.”

According to his Curriculum Vitae, Burge had taught at SUNY Stony Brook as a teaching assistant from 2011-12 before being employed by UB in 2016. He served as the MAE Student Mentor from 2017-18, held MAE freshman orientation in June 2018 and served as a member of the Student Excellence and Diversity Committee from 2016-19.

Burge also volunteered with WiSE and TechPREP Mentor Program, where according to his CV, he “assisted in leading underrepresented middle school females in completing creative, engineering-type

79.0% 69.9% 86.7% 75.7%

79.0% 69.9% 86.7% 75.7%

school years, dropping from 75.7% of students retained to 54%. While fourthyear data for the fall 2020 cohort will not be released until 2023, the group could set another record low if they continue the 2019 cohort’s trend.

Data for the fall 2021 is not yet available.

Some students left the university due to

COVID-19-related factors such as remote learning, social distancing and vaccination and mask mandates, Reed said.

By spring 2022, UB had lifted most social distancing and mask mandates. But as

Police have no suspects in custody in connection with Oct. 14 Ellicott stabbing

GRANT ASHLEY MANAGING EDITOR

University Police have not taken any suspects into custody in connection with a stabbing that took the life of a Buffalo State College sophomore outside of the Ellicott Complex, UB spokesperson John DellaContrada told The Spectrum Wednesday. UPD’s investigation will enter its third week Friday.

“The community should be assured that University at Buffalo Police are working diligently on this investigation around the clock, seven days a week in close collaboration with the Erie County District Attorney’s Office,” DellaContrada said in a statement. “Together, UB Police, the DA and local law enforcement partners are making real progress. The university is eager to solve the case.”

Police had previously identified a “person of interest” in the case, who they say fled the scene of the stabbing in a black four-door sedan. The individual was described as a college-aged white male between 5’5 and 5’9 who was wearing a blood-stained “mustard-colored shirt” and had multiple facial cuts, including a “large diagonal laceration” on his forehead. Police had also announced at the time of the stabbing that they were searching for “at least four individuals who may have been involved.”

DellaContrada did not say whether or not police had identified a suspect by name but added that “investigators have made good progress” and had no new information to share.

The victim, Tyler Lewis, was pronounced dead at Erie County Medical Center hours

after the stabbing. The 19-year-old from Baldwin, New York was studying prebusiness administration at Buffalo State College and was remembered by family members for playing baseball and attending NASA space camp as a child.

Lewis’ funeral is set to take place Saturday at Hempstead, New York’s Union Baptist Church, according to The Buffalo News.

UPD is in “daily contact” with Lewis’ “immediate family,” who have “been very helpful with the investigation,” DellaContrada said.

Police are urging anyone with information about the stabbing or the person of interest to call University Police “immediately” at 716-645-2222.

grant.ashley@ubspectrum.com

Professor Matthew Burge ‘currently employed’ by UB, but reasons behind his sudden removal unclear

Investigators ‘are making real progress,’ UB spokesperson says

TYLER

‘There’s just no information flowing’: Math department TAs struggle with new duties, unclear communication

JASMIN YEUNG ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

*Editor’s Note: The Spectrum spoke on the re cord to four TAs in the Math Department who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of backlash from their department. The Spectrum doesn’t usually grant anonymity to sources unless they “may face danger, retribution or other harm,” as enumerated in the SPJ Code of Ethics, but has made the decision to do so here in order to pro tect these individuals’ identities. The anonymous sources will be referred to by the pseudonyms, which will be marked with an asterisk on first mention.

Makenzie Cosgrove, a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant (TA) for the math department, has been teaching since fall 2017.

He anticipated the average TA experi ence. But he was thrown for a loop when he found himself with unexpected proc toring responsibilities mid-September in 2020 as his department adapted to a re mote format due to COVID-19.

“We received an email with a [test] proc toring schedule…they distributed it more or less at the last minute with no warning,” Cosgrove said. “These are unprecedent ed things that have never happened, and they’re responding to changes in the en vironment which are also unprecedented. Some communication seems natural, and there was just none.”

He added that there were no mentions of this new system over the summer or in the email that John Ringland, then the as sociate chair of the math department, sent a week before the semester started, assign ing teaching or grading duties.

“And you imagine you could let some of that go,” Cosgrove said “Except for their response when people started asking questions.”

Cosgrove replied to the email to ask for clarification on an informal agreement be tween himself and a professor and listed his concerns about the new responsibili ties: TAs weren’t informed that they would be proctoring, weren’t aware of proctor ing concerns and might exceed their con tracted 20 hours of weekly work with the new proctoring obligations. Ringland responded to the question regarding the clarification on the informal agreement in less than an hour, but neglected to address any of Cosgrove’s other concerns.

“My main concern in all this is that I don’t know anything. I’m not in the fac ulty meetings and I’m not being told any thing by our department,” Cosgrove said. “There’s just no information flowing… we do need to be informed of what the deci sions are in a reasonable and timely man ner and that just hasn’t been happening.”

Graduate students in the department do not have voting rights regarding decisions made, as the “assignment of duties is an administrative function of the depart ment,” Ringland told The Spectrum in an email. Ringland noted that the department asks their graduate workers “in detail” ev ery semester about their preferences to wards their duties and “make every effort to accommodate them.”

During the end of fall 2020, math de partment teaching assistants received an email offering extra service compensation: $60 for proctoring a three-hour final exam and $40 for a two-hour final exam.

TAs are expected to work 20 hours a week. Extra service compensation was no longer offered by the spring 2021 semester as international students’ visa regulations meant that they could not work more than 20 hours, yet teaching assistants were still expected to proctor for free.

“If you set the precedent that this is ex tra work by providing extra service com pensation, then now you don’t get to say ‘Oh, it’s actually not extra work,’” Cos grove said.

He says that a lot of graduate worker’s contracts were “fairly open-ended” and that a lot of the contract “defers to agents of the university” to note employee’s work responsibilities.

Sally Rodriguez* confirmed to The Spec

trum that they filed a formal grievance to the Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) about the additional unpaid proc toring duties in March 2022.

“Proctoring on Zoom… had never pre viously before been an actual responsibil ity,” Lawrence Mullen, an English Ph.D. student and GSEU Business Agent, said.

“In fact, people had actually been paid be fore to do that job, and now we’re told to do it for free… it’s a combination of that and the fact that what it means to be a TA in the math department is not explicitly stated in the offer letter you receive, and that’s something that must be done per the

with grievances about overworking for a handbook, or a list of duties TAs are ex pected to perform in their specific depart ment.

“There are many departments that do not have handbooks for their graduate workers,” Mullen said. “This leads to de partments being able to add additional tasks, being able to change what you do, because there’s no set standard for what it means to be a TA. One way that we’ve tried to combat this is by trying to get de partments to make those handbooks be cause that at least sets a kind of standard for what it means to be a TA.”

her contract that they need to create a TA handbook?”

Biondini concluded his email with: “I’m unfortunately way behind on 100 tasks, which I all need to try to catch up on, so I won’t be able to continue this conversation by email. Sorry.”

This semester, first-year graduate TAs received an email with the new math de partment handbook before their orienta tion began. But none of the existing TAs have been sent the new handbook, accord ing to Cosgrove, who learned there was a handbook in mid-October.

“They never told us,” Vincent Hobbs* said. “We only found out because Maken zie was coming in and waving and was like ‘What? There is a handbook!’ no one knows — besides the first years [TAs].”

Proctoring is now listed as a possible duty on the manual, something that Cos grove says feels almost like “gaslighting.”

“There’s kind of a huge history here that you have to acknowledge and now they’re expecting to hold returning TAs account able to this new manual, but they didn’t share it with us,” Cosgrove said.

Both Cosgrove and Mullen note that it would be difficult for existing TAs to de cline their employment if they didn’t agree with the duties listed in the handbook, as many students live out of town or are from overseas.

“If I chose to decline my TAship, next year I would have to pay for my tuition and my fees, and I would lose my health insurance,” Mullen said.

“The amount of duties for a TA/GA has not changed substantially for decades,” Ringland said in his email response to The Spectrum. “Graduate workers are explic itly told by the Associate Chair, and in the TA manual, that if their duties do seem to exceed expectations, they should first raise it with the instructor… then if necessary with the Associate Chair, who will inter cede to resolve the issue.”

He also stated that the TA handbook acts as a guide to new TAs “by outlining clearly what the expectations have been and continue to be.”

The mathematics administrative board has changed for the fall 2022 semester, with Ringland as department chair, Ber nard Badzioch as associate chair, Joseph Hundley as director of undergraduate studies and Naoki Masuda as director of graduate studies.

Rosalie Meyer* believes that “a lot” of the problems graduate students struggled with in the past have “sort of” been re solved with the change in administrative board.

“A lot of people had issues with certain aspects of how Dr. Ringland engaged with the graduate students and ran the work load of the graduate students, but he’s the [department] chair now,” she said, noting that Ringland has already made positive changes as department chair.

Clara Laing* says that there’s a double standard between graduate employees and faculty.

contract.”

Article 20 of GSEU’s contract states that offer letters should include informa tion like a job title, stipend amount and a “general summary of duties and responsi bilities of the position.”

The math department could choose to pay extra service if it paid domestic stu dents during the semester and interna tional students during finals week, where the hours would be considered outside of the semester, according to an email sent by Mullen to the department’s employees.

Rodriguez’s grievance is still open as of Oct. 27, and is being appealed at the state level with the New York Office of Employee Relations after SUNY failed to respond to their appeal hearing for over 124 days, four times the maximum amount of time they have to respond as per their contract.

GSEU sometimes asks departments

Requesting a handbook was not as sim ple as Cosgrove thought it would be.

He sent an email in October 2021 to Gino Biondini, the department chair at the time, with a list of questions regarding the making of a handbook as well as TA and faculty duties. While Biondini stated in his reply that Cosgrove had made “a rea sonable request” and that they would try to create a handbook, he had reservations, stating that “no document can ever cover everything.”

“Just FYI, please understand that do ing so [creating a TA handbook] is extra work for the administration, that we will never be compensated for, and that will come at the expense of the other million duties we have (teaching, administration, research...),” Biondini said in an email to Cosgrove. “If every duty must be spelled out in writing, should a departmental ad ministrator have it written down in his/

“You’re new to something, you make mistakes,” Laing said. “You’re sometimes unprofessional, you’re sometimes rude, you’re sometimes inconsistent. But we can’t be any of that… you [mathematics administrative board] expect us to be per fect all the time.”

The graduate workers hope for more communication from their department — not just for when they roll out new in structions, but when they make decisions that will impact the graduate employees.

“They [administrative heads of depart ments] could implement a policy that al lows their graduate workers to be in these meetings, and it really doesn’t detract from the meetings at all,” Mullen said. “It lets graduate workers be able to provide the experience that they have to hopefully cre ate better policies or programs or training for future graduate workers in your de partment.”

Vague contracts mean graduate TAs can be assigned duties beyond their expectations

Emma Stanton

Hallway

Emma

Being nonbinary is hard enough

Support your friends, and respect people’s pronouns

possibility that I may be nonbinary.

JULES EVANS STAFF WRITER

For 18 years, I identified as female. Through and through.

I considered myself a “girly-girl.” Womanhood was the core of my identity. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

But as I grew older and developed more of my personality, I started to feel like I was forcing myself to be a girl. It was like I was putting on an overly feminine performance to attract attention and to please my family, because it was easier to be a woman than it was to even consider the

When I got to college, I met more gender-nonconforming individuals than I ever had before. The thought became louder and louder in my head. Maybe I wasn’t as much of a girl as I thought. Maybe I have no real ties to the idea of “girlhood.” Maybe this thing that I’ve spent so long pushing onto myself isn’t actually who I am.

So, this summer, after a lot of thought, I came out as nonbinary and changed my pronouns to she/they. I kept the she in there so that close-minded people can continue to make assumptions based on my appearance, and I still feel like I have a level of control over it.

I told my close friends, and a lot of them were happy for me. I was excited. I instantly felt more comfortable with myself. Saying outloud “I’m nonbinary” felt more right than anytime I said “I’m a girl.”

Now I’ll admit, it’s a confusing subject,

and I still don’t fully understand my gender identity. But I’ve found that I don’t need to. I know I’m more comfortable and feel more like myself this way. So who cares if I don’t fully understand it, or if I can’t explain it very well?

But it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. I never fully prepared myself for the close-minded people — the ones who don’t understand and don’t want to.

The blatantly disrespectful people.

I didn’t consider that even in 2022, after years of nonbinary people being out and open about their gender identities, there’s still people out there that just don’t care. The “there’s only two genders!” folks, the “you have a vagina, therefore you’re a girl!” people.

I’ve encountered people who think this way. It caught me off guard. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone I associated myself with would think that way. But they did.

I don’t know how to defend my own gender identity, but I shouldn’t have to.

Frankly, I don’t care if you don’t understand the concept of identifying as nonbinary, nor is it my responsibility to teach you. But it is my responsibility to address disrespect. And with that I say: grow up. Respect other human beings, whether you agree with them or not, and whether you understand them or not.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to be kind, but it does take a lot of effort to go out of your way to be needlessly rude.

Disrespecting and discrediting the struggles of gender-queer or gendernonconforming individuals doesn’t accomplish anything. It just makes you look ignorant.

Email: opinion@ubspectrum.com

We need more time to choose our majors

guidance during the application process.

I went to an all-girls school in Queens, New York. We had a weekly one 45-minute class period to speak to a counselor. It was intended to help us fill out financial aid forms, write a personal statement and jump through all the other hoops of the college application process.

I only had one real semester at UB and was sure that law would be my end goal.

UB students typically have until fall of their sophomore year to decide on a major to be able to graduate within four years. I was completely online my sophomore year. I couldn’t try new things in person.

KIANA HODGE ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

In my senior year of high school, I took a class that would change the trajectory of my educational career: An intro to law and economics class.

During the first half of the year, we focused on the legal system.

I mastered basic concepts, studied general court proceedings and learned about how the law shapes our everyday lives.

That class challenged my thinking, and I loved every moment of it. I’d never felt truly interested in what I was learning before then. I did so well that I was one of the two students who were exempt from the final exam because of my high grades.

At around this time, I also started applying to colleges.

I started to do my own research outside of the classroom, searching up different types of lawyers, what they do on a daily basis and, of course, their salaries.

As a first generation college student, I felt a lot of pressure from my family to go into school with an idea of what I actually wanted to do, but I barely had any

It helped me fill out my applications. But it failed to give me a better understanding of what route I should take moving forward.

After taking some time and going through the lists of degrees that each school had to offer, I decided to try prelaw.

I thought this was a good starting point. I was enjoying my intro to law class, and worst-case scenario, I could always change my mind after enrolling.

I wound up applying for the legal studies BA at UB.

I took introductory classes in law, political science and sociology, which further increased my interest in the field.

I joined a pre-law organization for prelaw students of color, eventually working my way up to become the club’s president.

One would think I was pretty set on going to law school.

But in all honesty, I’m not too sure.

I started my freshman year in the fall of 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic started at the beginning of my spring semester.

Junior year changed that for me. As COVID-19 restrictions eased up and students returned to campus, I started exploring.

I got real estate experience while interning for a brokerage firm. I grew interested in possibly taking classes and studying to become an agent.

I also found out about the journalism certificate program at UB after taking a journalism class to fill a basic English requirement. I started taking more journalism classes and writing for The Spectrum and Her Campus, leaving me even more confused about what I wanted to do after graduation.

I also got involved in marketing after becoming a campus representative for Victoria’s Secret PINK, and helping a New York City broker market her business better. All of these experiences have helped me become a better student and a better professional, but they also made me question if picking a legal studies major was a good choice.

And honestly, I wish I had the chance to go back and do it all over again.

Being first generation, figuring every-

thing out on my own — I was more worried about keeping my grades up than doing anything else that would jeopardize that. I hadn’t started looking for outside internships by the fall of my sophomore year. Do most students really know all the opportunities out there and what they might be interested in by then? I don’t think so. That’s still way too early in the game.

Yes, there are students who get an early start. But for students like me who are figuring things out on their own, those realizations might come a little later.

And that’s what college is about: someone can have an experience that changes their mind about what they want to spend the rest of their life doing.

I don’t regret my decision. But if I had the chance, I would’ve taken more classes in other fields and given more thought to what I want my future to look like.

Email: kiana.hodge@ubspectrum.com

Anthony DeCicco

Estrada, Sr.

Nguyen,

Franklin,

Ross,

Hill,

Hodge,

Anderson, Sr. Meret

Asst.

Ashley Andrew Lauricella, Asst.

Elazzazi, Sr. Yakun Liu, Asst.

Dylan Greco, Sr. Emma Stanton, Sr. Kailo Mori, Sr.

Tenzin Wodhean Jake Blumberg

Jenna Quinn, Sr.

I wish I could go back and do it again

Retention Rates

UB and the world lifted restrictions, many students still did not return for the fall 2022 semester.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education will be felt for many years to come,” Reed said. “All aspects of the university environment have experienced changes.”

The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the reasons students typically leave, such as a lack of academic success, Reed says. Half of the first-year students who leave UB are in good academic standing, and may have left due to family issues, financial problems or personal difficulties, or simply because they weren’t admitted to their desired major.

Black students have lower than average retention rates, but the difference has become more pronounced in recent years. Just 42.1% of Black students in the 2019 cohort returned to UB for their fourth year, and 48% of those in the 2020 cohort returned for their third year this fall. That’s

compared to 64.3% of Black students from the fall 2018 cohort who returned for a fourth year.

International students have also seen a decrease in retention rates. Reed said that international students usually return to UB at higher rates than domestic students.

Restrictions and guidelines resulting from COVID-19 made it difficult for many international students to return to UB. Factors such as visa issues, the financial costs of traveling and family obligations also play a role in international students’ decisions to remain at the university.

“The university is aware of the lower retention rates of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds,” Reed said. “A variety of programs are currently in place to support students as they transition to college.”

Some of these programs include peer mentor groups, living learning communities, summer bridge programs, the Cora P. Maloney Center, Educational Opportunity Program and Proud To Be First, which supports first-generation college students. The President’s Advisory Council on Race is also working on programs

to support students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“The university is committed to supporting all our students,” Reed said. “Our focus is not simply on retention rates, but overall persistence and student success — our goal is to enroll, retain and graduate a diverse group of students.”

UB’s retention goals for 2022 and 2025 are to retain 91% and 93% of first-year students, respectively, according to their website. The current first-to-second-year retention rate is 83.3%.

Reed says the 2022 and 2025 goals on the university’s Retention Effect webpage were last updated before COVID-19, and she is not aware of a new date to reach 90% retention, a goal that was outlined in President Tripathi’s fall 2022 State of the University Address.

“The university is deeply committed to the success of our students,” Reed said. “Assessment of services is ongoing, and new programs are considered as new and changing needs of our students are identified.”

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

Art in the open photo gallery

Removal

activities to promote interest of younger girls in the STEM fields.”

During his time at UB, Burge has taught Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Practice and Aerospace Engineering Lab, among others.

Read the full statement from the university:

As a matter of practice, the university does not comment on personnel matters.

Separately, regarding the question of Mr. Burge’s employment status, we can confirm that he currently is employed by the university.

Although the university does not comment on rumors or allegations, we can assure the UB community that the university is committed to investigating all potential violations of UB’s policies on consensual relationships and nepotism. The university’s policy on nepotism in part reads:

“The University at Buffalo (UB, university) is committed to maintaining an environment in which employment, academic, research, and procurement decisions are made with the highest degree of integrity, and to promoting a positive academic and work environment free from the appearance of favoritism or impropriety.”

The full policies on consensual relationships and nepotism are available online.

Email: grant.ashley@ubspectrum.com

Email: kayla.estrada@ubspectrum.com

KAYLA ESTRADA SR. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

While living in the Wilkeson Dorms his freshman year, Kevin Corrales was the only Latino student on his floor. He says he endured discriminatory comments about his community.

“Before all this had happened, I never felt like I didn’t belong on this campus, as I always viewed college as the path forward to build a better life for myself and for my family,” Corrales said. “After wards, the feeling stayed with me for years and only compounded throughout the pandemic. The imposter syndrome was intense. These thoughts quickly become invasive: ‘Do I deserve to be here?’ ‘Why am I struggling so much more than my classmates?’”

Corrales, now a senior mechanical engi neering major and president of the Latin American Student Association (LASA), isn’t the only Latine UB student who’s grappled with a lack of representation on campus.

The Latin American Student Associa tion brought Latine representation into the spotlight after protesting the Student Association’s new ticketing policy. The policy prevents clubs like LASA from sub sidizing tickets to events like their annual Heritage Banquet for dozens of family members and alumni and puts a cap on non-undergraduate tickets.

After several conversations with SA and a protest outside the SA office, LASA hosted their banquet — with free tickets.

But they say their fight is far from over.

Members of LASA say that they’re still dogged by discrimination and underrepre sentation following them around campus — and that UB only cares about support ing them during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Yaide Valdez, a junior political sci ence and law major and vice president of LASA, says that none of her Spanish pro fessors looked like her or taught about the cultures behind the language.

“There’s not only a lack of representa tion within the student body but the pro fessional staff as well,” Valdez said.

UB isn’t only missing Hispanic profes sors. Despite being the largest school in the SUNY system, UB ranked No. 41 out of 61 SUNY schools in their Latine stu dent population percentage, with 7.8% of students identifying as Hispanic in the fall of 2021.

“I sit in my classes and look around to a room of white men, and I sit there terrified to ask any questions,” Jaylean V. Ureña, a sophomore aerospace engineering major and LASA member said. “I don’t want to

count the number of women or the people of color or the women of color, yet I do it anyway. Because I want to know how isolated I am. What sucks is no matter the size of the classroom whether it’s 40 peo ple or 300, I can always count the number of women of color using my hands, which is terrifying… You now feel like everyone is judging you 100 times more.”

Corrales says that he has only had one Latino engineering professor during his time at the School of Engineering and Ap plied Sciences, which has impacted his self esteem.

“The support I desperately needed didn’t exist,” Corrales said. “I was fortu nate enough to persevere through engi neering school and reach my final year — others not so much. They don’t get to tell their stories.”

Corrales says that having representation among university staff and faculty mem bers is essential in aiding students of color and immigrant students.

“Many of our families are new to this country and many of us are still struggling for a place in this country,” Corrales said. “Seeing people from our culture in suc cessful positions that are advocating for us lifts up the entire community and can do wonders for individuals at a PWI [primari ly-white institution] who are struggling be cause they may be first-generation college students.”

In 2021, 69 faculty members identified as Hispanic or Latine, representing 2.8% of the 2,506 total faculty count, according to the UB Factbook. That’s up from 59 Hispanic or Latine faculty members, or 2.3% of the total, in 2016.

“Equity and inclusion are core values of our university and we take seriously our role in ensuring the experience on cam pus is a welcoming one for all,” Jacqueline Hollins, interim vice provost for inclusive excellence, said in an email statement to The Spectrum. “That was clear during our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in October with a months-long series of pro grams and activities sponsored by the In tercultural Diversity Center. And it’s clear, by UB’s ongoing commitment to diversify staff and faculty, that an inclusive campus is a priority.”

Latine students also feel underrepre sented is UB’s lack of Hispanic culture around campus, students say.

The only Hispanic food available on campus is Moe’s Southwest Grill in the Student Union, Guac and Roll in the Elli cott Complex and Chick Mex in the Com mons, all of which are inauthentic “Mexi can” restaurants.

The closest Hispanic market to cam pus is ten minutes away, but no university shuttles run routes there.

UB spent $38 million on One World Café, a three-story, 53,500-square-foot, “international eatery.” The dining hall, which consists of five restaurants serving American, South Asian and Mediterranean dishes, doesn’t have any Hispanic or Latin eateries.

All that the international eatery has to represent the Hispanic community is a small Café Bustelo machine located in the back corner of the second floor.

Junior political science major and LASA event coordinator Alexandra Taveras is disappointed by the lack of options pre sented in One World Café.

“Something as simple as one of the res taurants selling rice and beans would have gone a long way,” Taveras said. “It may sound trivial, but I think it lends itself to a bigger picture. We are not seen or ac knowledged the way we should be, the way we need to be. It’s more than just a restaurant in a café; it is that, clearly, we are not being brought up in conversation, there is no one fighting for us with the higher ups, we are not represented.”

Jacqueline Hollins, interim vice provost for inclusive excellence, said in an email statement to The Spectrum that UB met with LASA shortly after their protests in October and will continue communicating with them to gain a “better understanding of their perspective and expectations.”

“UB is always trying to diversify its stu dent body,” Hollins said. “We believe that diversity — whether it’s ethnicity, race, so cioeconomic background, gender or expe rience — substantially increases the quality and value of education for all our students, and is an essential foundation for achiev ing excellence and success.”

Corrales wants to see a more collective effort from UB and its administration. He appreciates UB Student Engagement and the Intercultural and Diversity Cen ter (IDC) but says there “hasn’t been too much support for our club’s mission or our community.”

“I’d say that only some parts of the campus have shown that our organization matters to them,” Corrales said. “There is no widespread recognition of Latinidad on this campus.”

Ureña says that UB only demonstrates an interest in the Hispanic student popula tion when it is beneficial for the university. After not recognizing or celebrating His panic Heritage Month until 2020, Ureña feels that UB should be doing more.

“They now recognize Hispanic Heritage

month, after we protested,” Ureña said. “But honestly that’s about it. They don’t really care about us, or our events, or our issues. We’re just another club they can take pictures of and use for their ads.”

Latine students agree that support from UB is especially vital because many His panic cultures and traditions have a ten dency to overlook mental health. Accord ing to a study performed by the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 65% of Latine students with depression or anxiety go untreated.

“Our culture tends to emphasize pro ductivity and a strong work ethic, [and] this can easily lead to burnout and fa tigue,” Corrales said. “Remember to take care of yourself. Others before you may not have walked in the shoes you’re in, and they may not understand the positions you find yourself in. Don’t let this discourage you. Keep pushing forward.”

Ureña simply wants a familiar face to re assure her that college is worth the strug gles she is enduring now.

“All we need is someone who speaks the same language telling us it’s going to be OK, paciencia y fe [patience and faith],” Ureña said.

Corrales says he would offer two pieces of advice to his fellow Latine students who are struggling to feel represented on cam pus.

“Remember your roots. Our stories of immigration and struggle might be pain ful, but they are an unlimited source of strength,” Corrales said. “Never forget where we come from, but especially don’t lose sight of where we’re going.”

Taveras says the need for community and support is why cultural groups like LASA are necessary to keep the heartbeat of campus alive and well — and the reason why UB should be more aware of LASA’s importance.

“These clubs are the home away from home for so many people, and for the uni versity not to see and respect that is ludi crous,” said Taveras. “We need more than just a budget every year, we need substan tial support from the university across the board.”

Email: kayla.estrada@ubspectrum.com

From sex toys to female anatomy, UB Women’s Health and Wellness Association educates students

UBWHWA, a new club on campus, provides students with resources on women’s health and wellness

KATIE SKOOG STAFF WRITER

A panel of six men sit in front of a room full of women at the UB Women’s Healthcare and Wellness Association’s “Hot Seat” trivia event.

Questions ranging from female anatomy to women’s reproductive products flash across the large screen on the wall as the six males guess the names on their white boards.

A picture of a nail polish holder appears.

Perplexed, confused and bewildered ex pressions face the screen.

The men are stumped. Guesses from menstrual products to a Ring Pop fill their whiteboards.

Reilly Donovan, one of the individuals who guessed a Ring Pop, finished in the top half of the trivia event.

“I got second place so I was pretty proud of myself,” Donovan, secretary of UBWHWA, said. “It was just a lot of fun having everyone judge me for the ones I got wrong but everyone celebrating every time I was right. It was just a really fun experience.”

The UB Women’s Healthcare and Well ness Association (UBWHWA), officially established this semester, is “dedicated to promoting and advocating for the health care and overall wellness of all women,” according to UBLinked. UBWHWA pro vides up-to-date resources regarding sex ual assault, female-focused sex education, contraception availability, women’s repro ductive rights and more.

UBWHWA President Daysia Augustin, a junior neuroscience major, decided to start the club after scrolling through UB Linked, feeling as though an organization focusing on women’s overall health was “missing” at UB.

It all started one week after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Augustin was in her room with three close friends and mentioned that she wanted to pursue the new club, which she believed was needed “now more than ever.”

Those three friends soon became the UBWHWA’s e-board.

‘The support I desperately needed didn’t exist’: Hispanic students say UB isn’t doing enough to support and protect them

The Latine student community feels the university only cared during Hispanic Heritage Month

Hana Samad, a junior biomedical scienc es major, is the vice president; Donovan, a junior history major, is the secretary; and Dior Gillins, a junior electrical engineering and media study major, is the treasurer.

“We immediately jumped on,” Samad said.

Once UBWHWA’s application and club constitution was approved by SA in the spring of 2022, the members moved swift ly to turn their vision into a reality.

The club compiles online resources for students to use and will soon be sending them out in monthly newsletters, which can be found on the UBWHWA’s UB Linked page.

“They [students] have other ways of finding support, especially if they feel like, as a student, their transportation is lim ited,” Augustin said. “That’s always been a big thing in my mind, is showing that there’s resources where you don’t have to leave your home if you’re not able to.”

Besides online support, UBWHWA also

provides information during its in-person meetings. Samad believes that this inperson connection allows students to feel more comfortable getting acquainted with the resources they have to offer.

During the last general body meeting about sex toys, Augustin was more than willing to speak openly with students, even if she wasn’t particularly close with them. She opened the floor for any questions or recommendations. A few members came up to Augustin after the meeting for guid ance.

“That was really memorable because they genuinely trusted me,” she said. “I gave them a couple of recommendations and they were like, ‘Thank you so much. I don’t really talk about this.’”

It’s moments like these that encourage UBWHWA to keep talking about women’s health. The club hopes to eliminate the stigma around female pleasure and make UB students more comfortable with the subject.

“It’s not just us teaching people but also it’s more of an inclusive type [of] club where everybody kind of just joins in and talks about what they personally use,” Gil

lins said.

These discussions are a collaborative effort, allowing students’ voices and con cerns to be heard.

The general body meeting also consisted of education on female anatomy and dif ferent types of intercourse. Augustin had Donovan jump into the conversation to give a “male perspective” on some topics.

While it may be awkward at first, UB WHWA emphasizes that these conversa tions are a part of the process.

“As a guy it’s pretty normal to talk about that kind of stuff,” Donovan said. “It was a little uncomfortable sharing it with ev eryone, but it wasn’t overly weird.”

Samad says that women talking about sexual pleasure is often stigmatized. She hopes the club can change that narrative.

“We want to give you the information so that you feel empowered with whatever choice you make, whether you want to be celibate or whether you want to have a ton of hookups,” Augustin said. “Whatever you choose to do, it’s your body. We just want you to feel empowered with your choices and have that information to feel confident in whatever you choose to do.”

Women’s health and wellness also in corporates the safety of women. To make students feel more comfortable on and off campus, UBWHWA will be hosting a self-defense class with the University Po lice Department. Augustin says the club is “ironing some details out,” but hopes to host the event before the end of this se mester.

Augustin acknowledges that male- and nonbinary-identifying students may see the name of the club and feel as if they don’t belong, but insists this is not the case.

“Everyone is welcome,” she said. “We do have people who identify as male who come into each meeting and are very sup portive of the club.”

Donovan fully expected to be the only man in the club, but he is greeted with new friendly faces — consisting of men, women and nonbinary people — at every meeting.

“You don’t have to be a commit ted member, we’re very open to having members at any point in time,” Augustin said. “All people are welcome.”

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

UB Homework Helpers provides free tutoring for K-12 students in Buffalo

Students and alumni partner with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to found UB chapter

KYLE NGUYEN SR. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR KIARA HODGE ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

Last spring semester, the PHI 485 cap stone course tasked students with “making the world better.”

Despite graduation looming, one team of five then-political science majors knew exactly which issue they wanted to fix: ed ucation inequality.

“We knew [about] the historical redlin ing that Buffalo has gone through and how there’s obvious disparities,” Shanaz Uddin, a graduate and founding team member, said.

The team decided to level the playing field by providing tutoring services and other resources to underserved students in Buffalo. They got to work, like they had on countless prior projects — but this one was different.

“Even though it was just a project, right from the start we were so passionate about it,” Julia Dietz, a graduated group member said. “We knew it was something that we wanted to last for years to come. This isn’t just some project.”

The team was so passionate about it that they started looking for ways to make their idea a reality.

After some research, they found Team AOC’s Homework Helpers, a studentorganized arm of Rep. Alexandra OcasioCortez’s initiative to provide free one-onone virtual tutoring to students in need. Homework Helpers, which was founded in October of 2020 after New York City schools closed due to COVID-19, pairs prospective volunteer tutors with children and teenagers in grades K-12.

“Due to systemic inequities in our edu cation system, working class families are especially struggling with virtual learning and homework,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with parents.com, a dedicated publication for parenting advice. “As elect ed officials, we should step in to support our constituents when systems fail to do so.”

Dietz says after puzzling over a con crete approach to the education disparity in Buffalo, the team decided that a tutor ing service akin to the Homework Helpers initiative would best harness and apply an abundant resource on campus: UB stu dents.

“We just think it’s gonna be really good for the kids,” she said. “Not only in terms of tutoring, but for them to just be able to develop a relationship with someone, at all.”

After setting up a meeting with Home work Helpers and pitching the idea to open an on-campus branch at UB, Uddin says the Homework Helpers team was “re ally excited” to bring the program to K-12

students in the Buffalo area.

“They [Team AOC] gave us all the re sources,” Uddin said. “They wanted to make us a chapter and set a precedent for what other schools and universities could do in their cities to provide free tutoring.”

An original founder left the project af ter they graduated, but the team enlisted senior political science major and Home work Helpers volunteer Evan Hong to pick up the slack. They also inherited a near-replica of Team AOC’s Homework Helpers infrastructure, including onboard ing materials for student volunteer tutors such as instructional presentations for new tutors, email templates that tutors can use to contact parents and a Discord server and learning platform that allows tutors to connect virtually with students and parents.

“They’ve just been very eager to share their resources with us, so hopefully we can really make use of everything that they’ve been giving to us,” Gubaz Gioga dze, a graduated political science major and group member said.

Jonathan Soto, a former political orga nizer for the AOC campaign, encouraged others to join after the program’s launch.

“Anyone can do this,” Soto said. “ If you have 20 people who are willing to give one hour per week for four weeks, you’ll be able to service an entire class.”

Homework Helpers was founded during the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacer bated pre-existing educational disparities between high and low income families.

Low-income parents were most con cerned about their children falling behind academically during the pandemic, accord ing to polling. Seventy-two percent were at least “somewhat concerned” about their students struggling, according to a 2020 report by Pew Research Center.

While 66% of parents reported provid ing additional support for their children outside of school, just 8% of low-income parents hired tutors compared to 19% of high-income parents.

But the disparities transcend the scope of the pandemic. Hong cited a longstand ing reliance on property taxes in public schooling as a key factor in disparities in education between communities with high property values and tax revenues and those blighted by redlining and disinvestment.

The disparity is especially pronounced in Buffalo, which remains one of the most impoverished cities in the U.S., with a pov erty rate of 28.8% in 2019 and a child hood poverty rate of 43.4%, according to The Investigative Post. With less revenue from property taxes, low-income school districts have on average fewer dollars to spend per student.

“When you have these many disadvan tages stacked against you just in terms of

poverty, of course it’s going to be very hard to do well in school,” Hong said.

The Supreme Court has historically up held the status quo in cases like San Anto nio Independent School District v. Rodri guez, which challenged funding inequities between schools in lower income areas and higher income areas in the same state.

“It’s not fair,” Hong said. “It’s stacked against these kids even from when they’re very little and it’s just terrible. Obviously, this [UB Homework Helpers] does not balance it all out. But maybe we can do something. Just any little bit to help.”

Making this program accessible to all students who need it is a priority as well, as students need a computer and stable in ternet connection to participate.

The Buffalo Public School district re ceived a $9 million award from the state in 2020 for “technology improvements” according to The Buffalo News, allowing every student in the district to receive a device.

“We wish we could get everyone inter net access and laptops,” Uddin said. “But obviously, that is not feasible for us.”

The group hopes to one day offer inperson meetings at schools or public li braries, but their top priority is getting enough hands on deck.

Approximately 70 kids have signed up for tutoring, but UB Homework Helpers still needs 30 more tutors to meet demand.

“I just hope that every kid can have someone — even if it’s once a week — to be there for them,” Dietz said. “To help them with their homework but also just to be a friend.”

The five founders even pitched in to

host a $100 raffle for prospective tutors who join and serve until the end of the semester to boost recruitment, at least in the short term.

But to bolster its ranks and establish a durable base of volunteers in the long run, UB Homework Helpers has its sights set on gaining club recognition from SA, con vincing the university to allow students to receive class credit for tutoring and part nering with the university’s Experiential Learning Network to offer microcreden tial badges for future participants.

“I think at the end it’s really rewarding,” Uddin said. “There’s something physical that comes out of it. It gives you some thing to talk about with employers or grad schools. It just sets you a little bit apart if everyone in your course is doing the same things.”

The five founders don’t plan on stop ping their fight against education inequal ity after leaving the UB Homework Help ers, though.

“Eventually, we do want to get into of fice and change these broken systems,” Hong said. “This is just step one. We’re going to keep going.”

Interested students and faculty must provide their name, address and a photo and pass a background check before sign ing up on homeworkhelpers.com.

Volunteers may then specify what sub jects and grades they would like to teach and join the organization Discord server to receive onboarding material before matching with students based on their needs.

Email: kyle.nguyen@ubspectrum.com

kiana.hodge@ubspectrum.com

‘I would like to get a meal plan and eat on campus, but it’s kind of scary’

VICTORIA HILL ASST. NEWS/FEATURES EDITOR

*Editor’s note: The Spectrum spoke on the re cord to one student who is involved in Campus Dining and fears backlash from their employers. The Spectrum doesn’t usually grant anonymity to sources unless they “may face danger, retribution or other harm,” as enumerated in the SPJ Code of Ethics, but has made the decision to do so here in order to protect this person’s identity. The anon ymous student will be referred to by the pseudonym of Wendy Smith throughout this story.

Throughout high school, Scarlett To pilow maintained a gluten-free diet for her celiac disease without trouble.

But since coming to UB, she has found it difficult to find places to eat that can ac commodate her gluten-free diet. Topilow, a freshman business major, has had to deal with substitutes that are “cheap and nasty.”

Many students with food sensitivities have expressed that UB gives them limited options for substitutions, and in the cases where there are substitutions available, it is a very complicated process.

“They always have baked goods in C3, but there will never be good gluten-free baked goods. The only option they have is a very crumbly and tasteless brownie,” Topilow said. “It does get upsetting see ing cakes and cookies and pies, and then you’re sitting here with a brownie that lit erally falls apart when you touch it.”

Topilow says that there are a “decent amount” of gluten-free options on cam pus, but a lot of them don’t taste good.

“They have gluten-free pizza, but it’s like eating mushy cardboard that doesn’t have flavor,” she said. “Or they have gluten-free pasta but again, it’s like eating cardboard with sauce and cheese.”

Topilow is upset because there are “re ally great gluten-free kinds of pasta out there,” but believes the school doesn’t want to spend money on something that is more expensive.

“It would be great to have food that I could eat and actually enjoy, that’s not a game-changing request,” Topilow said.

Topilow isn’t alone. UB students with food allergies and intolerances said UB gives them limited and often complicated substitution options, leaving them feeling overlooked by the university.

Cross-contact issues

Wendy Smith*, a senior geology major who also has celiac disease, has gotten sick from cross-contact with gluten a handful of times this semester. One instance was so severe that she was hospitalized.

“Every single time I go to C3, I end up with food poisoning from cross-contam ination [cross-contact],” Smith said. “In dining halls like C3 or even Goodyear’s Main St. Market, they [the workers] will go into the back and make the [gluten-free] food, but they’ll use utensils or a similar space that’s close enough to an area that’s being prepared with gluten.”

Students have also faced similar prob lems at One World Café, which she avoids.

“Almost every single place has horrible cross-contamination [cross-contact] or1

only has gluten. I haven’t even bothered with One World [Café],” Topilow said.

Samuel Magaseyev, a sophomore unde cided major with a severe peanut and tree nut allergy, says Campus Dining workers aren’t knowledgeable enough about the ingredients of the food they’re serving to serve students with allergies.

“I went to the Indian place [Tikka Ta ble] at One World Café, and I asked one of the workers, ‘Are there any nuts in any of this food or any cross-contamination [cross-contact]?’” Magaseyev said. “And the guy didn’t know what I was saying. His coworker kind of filled in for him and was like ‘No, no nuts.’ And then I scan one of the barcodes and it said ‘May contain pea nuts.’”

The same incident repeated itself at Pan Asia in One World Café only weeks later.

Magaseyev says there is “a lot of incon sistency” with the workers, and believes that workers should be “trained better on how severe allergies are.” Their acts are not malicious, he says, but adds that work ers’ mistakes could be life-threatening.

Cross-contact issues aren’t limited to the larger dining halls. Maximilian Atkins, who has a shrimp allergy, has had a few close call cross-contacts with shrimp at the Governor’s dining hall have forced the sophomore communication major to stay on his toes.

“There’s been a couple of times where there was cross-contamination [crosscontact]with my food,” Atkins said. “They [the workers] would always use the same tongs that they used to pick the shrimp, for everything else. They constantly mix it.”

“Campus Dining and Shops (CDS) man agers are required to pass Menutrinfo’s Al lertrain U certification course,” Raymond Kohl, director of marketing and commu nications for Campus Dining and Shops, said in an email to The Spectrum. “It is an ANAB-accredited, manager-level, glutenfree, and food allergy training course for

colleges and universities.”

The training program focuses in large on cross-contact prevention.

CDS policy states that “all questions about food allergies, ingredients, recipes, and/or preparation methods should be di rected toward a general manager, chef, or dietitian.”

Kohl stated that front-line and student employees are instructed to notify a man ager if a customer states they have a food allergy or are gluten-free and that they should not answer allergy-related ques tions.

Students are also encouraged to alert a manager of their food allergies on the GET mobile app and self-ordering kiosks.

Labeling issues

Students have also faced problems with food labeling and QR codes that don’t work.

“You go to One World [Café] and the barcodes aren’t working and just don’t tell you what the food contains half the time,” Magaseyev said.

Magaseyev wants the QR code to show expanded lists of what ingredients the food contains. Most food items are only labeled as containing “more than one al lergen” without further specificity.

Atkins has also experienced problems with food labeling on campus.

“In the Governor’s dining hall, there is a huge granola dispenser. It contains coco nuts, cashews, and peanuts but there’s no sign,” Atkins said. “It has the ingredients faced toward the consumer, but it’s not in bold print and most people don’t read fine print.”

CDS “labels and flags all food that has allergy alerts for fried items and baked goods,” Kohl said.

Fried items are flagged with “cross-con tact may occur in fryer” listed on NetNu trition and nutrition line signs. Areas with baked goods have purple allergen stickers reminding customers that they are pro duced in a facility that handles major al lergens.

“This is an addition to labeling foods that contain any of the big nine allergens,” Kohl said.

CDS workers also have practices to re duce cross-contact in storage areas and in the placement of items on the service line.

“We group highly allergenic foods to gether or physically separate them from the service line,” Kohl said. “A great ex ample is peanut butter and jelly sandwich es. They are prepared on a separate cutting board, physically away from other items.”

Long wait times

Even if they are able to reach a manager, students still have to wait to get their food specifically prepared.

“Today, I went to Sizzles and it took 40 minutes to get tater tots because there’s a

specific air fryer [to use], and there are other people who need it, too. It’s very time-consuming,” Topilow said. “The is sue with ordering ahead is I don’t always know when I’m going to eat because I’m studying and doing other things, so timing is very difficult.”

Extra precautions are taken to prepare allergen-free and gluten-free meals which may increase wait times, Kohl says.

“Students are encouraged to utilize the GET mobile app or arrive at locations during less busy times,” Kohl said.

When a manager is alerted that a cus tomer has a food allergy, intolerance, and/ or gluten-free they are trained to follow multiple steps to avoid cross-contact when preparing an allergen-free meal.

These steps include “washing hands and putting on new gloves, using dedicat ed equipment, and a special allergen-free food prep kit. The workers are also in structed to use fresh ingredients or backup ingredients that have not touched the ser vice line,” Kohl said. “If a mistake (crosscontact) occurs during the preparation of the allergen-free meal, the manager must discard the meal and start over.”

Simple Kitchen

UB built and opened a new Simple Kitchen in the Governor’s Complex at the beginning of the semester for stu dents with food allergies and sensitivities. The kitchen is “a pantry that is free from foods containing wheat, gluten, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish,” according to Kohl.

The space is meant to reduce the risk of cross-contact by providing dedicated equipment and verified ingredients for students to cook their own accommodat ed meals. The equipment includes storage areas, cookware, utensils, and a dedicated dishwasher to clean all cookware/utensils.

“To avoid cross-contact in this area we have the following policies: there is re stricted access inside the pantry, no out side food is allowed to enter the pantry, and there is monthly allergen testing,” Kohl said.

Even though the Simple Kitchen was added to North Campus, students are pleading for more options across UB’s three campuses.

“I get that it’s super hard to deal with the 30,000 students here, but it is difficult to deal with [food sensitivities] on an indi vidual basis as well for students,” Meghan Kuhnel, a first-year higher education graduate student, said. “There needs to be more options.”

Morgan S.T. Ross contributed to the re porting for this story.

Students that suffer from food sensitivities are left with limited dining options

them from the Service line,”

raymond Kohl director of marKeting and communicationS

UB artists invite patrons into the studio at Art in the Open

The annual open-studio event filled the CFA with art and excitement

MERET KELSEY ASST. ARTS EDITOR

Members of UB’s artistic community offered an exclusive glimpse into their creative processes at Art in the Open, an annual open-studio event held at the CFA last Thursday. Art in the Open has little in common with the typical gallery open ing, where patrons walk past painstakingly curated collections of art hung on plain white walls. Instead, attendees were met with the lively, bustling atmosphere of UB’s most talented artists in their natural habitats: their studios.

On all three floors of the CFA, artists exhibited their works, both finished and unfinished, in the very rooms they were created. Painters showed their latest pieces among palettes of paint, cups of brushes and stacks of canvases. Dancers practiced their new choreography with their studio doors flung wide open. Filmmakers pro jected their latest experiments on the walls of the CFA’s dimly lit screening rooms.

Campus groups including UB Chorus and UB Guitarists filled the atrium with music as visitors explored the building’s many creative spaces, mingling with each other and with the artists themselves.

Soda, a second-year MFA student whose paintings are “imbued with positivity and self-acceptance,” gleefully welcomed cu rious visitors while projecting their most recent sketches on the wall.

Soda’s studio was covered wall-to-wall in colorful pieces exploring the human form, celebrating queer identity and promoting body-positivity.

“It can be a little stressful, opening up your studio to look at what you’re cur rently doing and what’s in progress,” Soda said. “But it’s really cool. I’ve never done this in any other program.”

Though the idea of inviting strangers into a place as personal as an art studio

was nerve-wracking for some artists, the atmosphere was overwhelmingly warm and welcoming, with attendees clearly thrilled at the opportunity to peek behind the curtain.

Some artists, like Quincey Miracle, a second-year MFA student, even continued to work on their pieces while chatting with patrons. As intrigued attendees filed in and out of their basement studio, the sculptor and installation artist casually stitched to gether pieces of a quilt meant to emulate human skin.

“I think it’s really nice to allow people to kind of contextualize the finished work and the process altogether,” Miracle said.

Miracle’s studio exemplifies the sheer

artistic diversity of UB’s campus commu nity. Tucked in the basement of the CFA, it showcases a collection of cathartic con ceptual pieces unlike anything else in the building.

Their sculptures, constructed from met al, plaster, paper and more, touch on men tal illness, queerness and abuse.

In the corner stands “Dyssocialized,” a wooden cabinet that houses a plaster torso tied up in red string.

On the desk is the beginnings of a stuffed rabbit.

Right outside the studio is an interactive installation visitors can literally step inside: a booth showcasing a single journal entry written by the artist that day. “Time: 2:31

p.m. Mood: Anxious,” the paper reads. The studios started to close their doors around 7:30 p.m., but the night’s festivi ties weren’t quite done. They concluded with two disparate but simultaneous per formances: Bridget Moser’s surrealist prop comedy piece “When I Am Through With You There Won’t Be Anything Left” and a performance of “The 25th Annual Put nam Spelling Bee,” a quirky and comedic musical.

As the night ended and the building cleared out, the CFA was still buzzing with excitement from the wealth of creativity on display.

Email: meret.kelsey@ubspectrum.com

UB K-pop group brings energy and attitude

ALEX NOVAK STAFF WRITER

K-pop artists like BTS and BLACK PINK have become international sensa tions, but the genre’s influence extends far beyond South Korea.

UB, for example, has its own group of K-pop superstars.

Mix’n’Max, an exclusively Asian K-Pop dance group on campus, provides a space for students of all skill levels to get togeth er, learn choreography and bond through their love of the artform.

“I think different people have differ ent views about this club,” club leader and sophomore criminology major Sunny Chen said. “Maybe they think, ‘Oh, I got

overwhelmed by my assignment’ some days so they come here to relax. But for me, I really like to dance.”

Mix’n’Max rehearsals aren’t your tradi tional dance classes, either.

Conventional dancewear is nowhere to be found. These dancers wear sweatpants, pajamas and even a casual Nirvana t-shirt.

It seems as if they’re dressed for bed rath er than the stage — until they move.

NCT and Aespa’s “ZOO” plays and the group explodes with uncontainable en ergy. Completely in sync, they shatter that laid-back atmosphere. Their sharp, punchy moves make viewers sit up in their seats. Dance brings them to life.

As the run ends, Chen goes over the

steps. Despite the dancers’ laughter as they practice and make mistakes, Chen still has the assertiveness to correct her dancers with the serious attentiveness of a ballet instructor. The team applies Chen’s critiques but also finds joy along the way; goofing around, cracking jokes and bump ing into each other before bursting into laughter.

But despite her skill and experience, Chen, an urban dancer from New York City, still encounters nerves.

Before taking to the stage, Chen often frets about whether she will make a mis take or if the group will forget their steps. But when she spots her friends out in the crowd, those fears dissipate.

“They say, ‘Yeah! Go, Sunny! Yeah!’” Chen said. “So I have that confidence when my friends are yelling out my name and I think, ‘Yeah, just do it.’”

Chen is not the only dancer in Mix’n’Max who deals with self-doubt.

Aniko Baranski, a 16-year-old Am herst Central High School student, has been a member of Mix’n’Max, a college level group, since eighth grade. Baranski’s mother’s heavy involvement in Buffalo’s Chinese community led her to Mix’n’Max’s doorstep.

At nine years old, Baranksi began learn ing K-pop, urban and hip-hop dance as well as ballet and Chinese folk dance. She moved to Buffalo from Beijing just before her 12th birthday. Without a dance studio in Buffalo that taught the styles she want ed to learn, she continued learning k-pop, urban and hip-hop dancing on her own.

Baranski’s extensive dance background lends itself to teaching others. In her own

bedroom, which has a gigantic mirror, Ba ranski helps younger children learn some of her moves. At the head of Mix’n’Max rehearsal, Baranski’s pigtails flop around in the front as she and Chen demonstrate choreography to the group. At one point, Chen jokingly tugged on one of Baranski’s pigtails, both of them laughing.

Her cool demeanor, eye-catching danc ing and willingness to be goofy might in dicate that Baranski, still a high school stu dent, feels totally at ease leading a bunch of college students. But this didn’t always come naturally to her.

“I actually started teaching them around two to three weeks ago for the first time ever,” Baranski said. “We kind of switch around the people on our team to teach, but it was my first time. It was really nerveracking at first but right now, I’m kind of more used to it.”

This particular rehearsal, with a talent ed urban dancer and an advanced high schooler at the helm, was unmatched and completely electric.

Whether it’s a desire for camaraderie, a passion for k-pop music and its stun ning idols or the need to express oneself through dance, Mix’n’Max offers a musical escape for UB’s Asian students.

There’s no denying their incredible en ergy. With every step, finger point, slide, body roll and turn, Mix’n’Max gives audi ences one thing above all else: attitude.

“I really like to show my feelings and my attitude to the audience,” Chen said. “That is very special to me and to them.”

Moaz Elazzazi / ThE SpEcTruM Art in the Open is An AnnuAl

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UB’s Mix’n’Max helps Asian students learn dance and embrace their inner K-pop idol

How UB football used poise and continuity to turn its season around

ANTHONY DECICCO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Maurice Linguist dreamt of moments like this.

Down by 17 points entering the fourth quarter during last Saturday’s game against then-MAC West-leading Toledo, UB had to rally in order to keep its winning streak alive.

But the Bulls have become accustomed to beating the odds.

UB scored 24 unanswered points to beat Toledo last Saturday. The Bulls opened up the season on a three-game losing streak but are now 5-1 since losing to Coastal Carolina in September.

Linguist, now in his second season as the Bulls’ head coach, met his team in the locker room after the 17-point comeback against Toledo. Overcome with emotion, the 38-year-old fought back tears when ad dressing his group following the unforget table game.

“I was just so proud of them, I don’t have the words to express how proud I am of that locker room,” Linguist told The Spectrum. “Those guys and their coaching staff, I mean, hours worked, the time we spend, the battles you have. What we are doing and what they did is not common. It’s not common in football. I think more than anything in today’s society, it’s easier to quit than to persevere. And they chose character, they chose grit and determina tion.”

To the casual spectator, the Bulls were dead in the water.

UB (expectedly) lost to Maryland in Week 1. But things slid downhill after that.

The Bulls fell to FCS opponent Holy Cross after a heartbreaking Hail Mary as time expired the following week. Then, a fourth quarter collapse against Coastal Carolina (the Bulls were outscored by 14 points in the final period) resulted in an 0-3 start — UB’s worst through three games since 2005.

Despite the historically bad beginning to the season, Linguist and the Bulls turned things around. They won five consecu tive games (before losing to Ohio Tuesday night) and are in contention for the top spot in the conference.

Last Saturday’s epic comeback had the makings of a Hollywood script, and it came at just the right time.

“That game was really a microcosm of our entire season,” Linguist said after the game. “Starting off the season 0-3, a lot of people doubted us. A lot of people didn’t believe in us. All we did was keep staying together and keep fighting. We’re not done yet.”

Linguist’s display of raw emotion might have gone viral on social media, but it didn’t come as a surprise to anybody in the Bulls’ locker room. Emotions that strong can come out “after a tough drill on a Thursday practice,” Linguist says.

That’s a part of the culture he is creating at UB.

As a former Division I player at Baylor from 2003 to 2006, Linguist understands the player perspective. Take it from his players.

“He’s a player’s coach,” junior safety Marcus Fuqua said. “You saw the energy in that video. That’s really him every single day. He pours so much into us and we love him.”

“We’re all thankful for him,” gradu ate wide receiver Quian Williams said. “I couldn’t ask for any other head coach.”

But with great emotion comes the risk of losing one’s focus.

Linguist learned that the hard way this season, and even last season. After a fourgame skid to end the 2021 season and a 0-3 start to this year, UB owned one of the longest losing streaks in the country.

The second-year head coach relied on his previous experiences — 14 years coaching in the NFL (Dallas Cowboys), SEC (Mississippi State, Texas A&M), Big Ten (Minnesota, Michigan), Big 12 (Bay lor, Iowa State), MAC (UB), FCS (James

Madison) and Division II levels (Valdosta State) — to stay level-headed.

“I think if you’re not careful you can kind of get caught up. I think emotions are real. I think it’s good to have the emo tion, but you have to stay poised through the whole thing,” Linguist said. “What football has taught me is stay poised. I be lieve in just being able to be a strong lead er. What the team needed at the moment was a strong leader. And I felt like that’s the biggest thing that I want to provide to them.”

Linguist told his players he felt they were a “championship team” after every loss this season.

But there was still something missing: strong second half performances.

UB was outscored by a combined 38 points in the second half of its three loss es to start the season.

The Bulls weren’t executing in the sec ond half through three games. But that all changed once MAC play started.

UB won a back-and-forth battle with Eastern Michigan, as the defense forced three turnovers on downs, a punt and an interception (courtesy of graduate line backer James Patterson) in the second half. The offense exploded for 50 points, 20 of which came in the second half.

“That was our first shutout in the fourth quarter, [we] figured out how to finish,” Fuqua said. “We figured out that we can be an elite team if we want to be, but it’s all up to us.”

The Bulls outscored their opponents by a combined 45 points in the second half during the five-game winning streak that followed. They’ve also pitched five fourth quarter shutouts. UB would be at the top

of the conference if it weren’t for a recent 45-24 loss to now-MAC-leading Ohio.

From nightmare finishes against Holy Cross and Coastal Carolina to some of the program’s best finishes, Linguist and his staff emphasized that the fourth quarter is where games are won and lost.

“We lose to Holy Cross, we lost the game in the fourth quarter. We lose to Coastal Carolina, we lost the game in the fourth quarter,” Linguist said. “So all we talked about from a coaching perspective was finishing the fourth quarter against Eastern [Michigan]. That was the next right step for us to take in that moment at that time.”

The players are also flourishing individ ually alongside their team.

Fuqua is currently tied for first in the country with five interceptions. He was also named Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week by the Foot ball Writers Association of America after a three-interception showing against Tole do. The Southfield, Michigan native is the first player in UB history to win the award.

Junior linebacker Shaun Dolac ranks first in the nation with 68 solo tackles.

Williams, graduate receiver Justin Mar shall and sophomore receiver Jamari Gas sett have combined for 1,431 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns. Junior quar terback Cole Snyder has thrown for 2,145 yards and 14 touchdowns while rushing for 124 yards and four touchdowns.

On the ground, senior running back Ron Cook Jr. has racked up 500 yards and three rushing touchdowns while red shirt freshman Mike Washington has 506 yards and six touchdowns.

“We were always bought in, we always

knew we were a championship team,” Fuqua said. “We started slow, we just didn’t finish those games. We didn’t make enough plays. We just stayed bought into the program and now we’re seeing the benefits of it.”

Renowned as one of the nation’s top re cruiters (look no further than UB’s No. 1 overall ranked recruiting class in the MAC this offseason), Linguist knows how to connect with players.

In the offseason, he invited all of the different position groups to dinner at his house. With strong bonds off the field, he believes his team is prepared to over come whatever chaos a football season can bring.

UB’s response to the 0-3 start proved that.

“Relationships is a four-letter word spelled t-i-m-e,” Linguist said. “Time al lows you to develop trust and trust allows you to develop respect and love and have each other’s back. Then you can have any kind of conversations you need to have when you actually trust someone. And I think we have so much trust and respect in that locker room and there’s real love. We’re able to go through hard things, have real conversations.”

Linguist’s messaging and philosophy are resonating with the team.

“Everything that is going on between these walls, it’s working,” Cook Jr. said af ter the win against Toledo. “It’s definitely seeping into our brains.”

“It’s working because we’re bought in, that’s really it,” Fuqua said. “We believe in the vision that coach Mo [Linguist] has for us and we’re going out there and living it.”

The Bulls are now in a position to be come bowl-eligible for the first time under Linguist’s regime, bouncing back from a disappointing 4-8 record last year.

It’s a major jump for a program that needed it after former head coach Lance Leipold left for the University of Kansas in the spring of 2021.

And after a rocky stretch of subpar performances, UB has hit its stride. UB is coming off a tough loss to Ohio, but Lin guist and the Bulls are proving that they are ready for the moment.

No matter the outcome, Linguist will continue to be emotional and wear his heart on his sleeve.

It’s simply how he’s wired.

“You’ve gotta be real, be genuine, be you. We want to be us, be who we are,” Linguist said. “I love my players. I love my guys. I love my staff. I love what we’re doing. I’ve got the best job in the Unit ed States of America. I love where I am. I love the people I’m surrounded with. We want to just continue to drive Buffalo forward and continue to make us into a nationally-known program.”

Email: anthony.decicco@ubspectrum.com

Moaz Elazzazi / The SpecTrum Maurice Linguist and the BuLLs are 5-1 since starting the season with an 0-3 record

Moaz Elazzazi / The SpecTrum head coach Maurice Linguist caLLs out orders during uB’s 37-31 Loss to hoLy cross on sept. 10

Despite an 0-3 start, the Bulls have rallied around head coach Maurice Linguist

UB fails to extend winning streak against Ohio

RYAN TANTALO STAFF WRITER

With first place in the MAC East on the line, UB (5-4, 4-1 MAC) fell to Ohio (63, 4-1 MAC) at Peden Stadium Tuesday night, 45-24. UB came in with a 5-3 re cord, riding a five-game win streak. The Bulls’ 4-0 record in the MAC had them ahead of Ohio by one game. With the loss, they are now 4-1 and have dropped to No. 2 in the MAC East standings, with Ohio claiming the No. 1 spot.

The night began poorly for a UB of fense that ranked third in the MAC with 30.9 points per game. The Bulls went three-and-out on their first two drives and punted the ball to an Ohio offense averag ing 32 points.

The Bobcats went 70 yards on five plays on their first drive, capped off by a touch down pass from redshirt junior Kurtis Rourke to graduate wide receiver Sam Wi glusz.

Ohio marched down the field on its next drive but settled for a 37-yard field goal to go up 10-0.

UB began its third drive looking to bring the game back within one possession. But on 3rd & 14, junior quarterback Cole Sny der threw across his body to the right side line for an interception by Ohio graduate safety Tariq Drake.

Ohio took advantage of the turnover, with Rourke finding junior wide receiver Jacoby Jones in the endzone on the ensu ing drive to give the Bobcats a command ing 17-0 lead as the first quarter expired.

UB began the second quarter with its first successful drive of the game. Comple tions to graduate wide receiver Justin Mar shall and senior running back Ron Cook Jr., with the help of an Ohio unnecessary roughness penalty against graduate cor

nerback Zack Sanders, got the Bulls into field goal range. A field goal courtesy of senior kicker Alex McNulty put the Bulls on the board and cut Ohio’s lead to 14.

In the final four minutes of the first half, Rourke connected with Wiglusz for a 49yard catch-and-run. Rourke then found Wiglusz on a five-yard score to put Ohio up by 21 points.

UB received the ball with 90 seconds to play in the first half, and Snyder finally found his groove in the two-minute of fense. A crucial third down connection with graduate wide receiver Quian Wil liams got the Bulls into striking distance. From the 12-yard line, Snyder passed to the back-right corner of the endzone, re sulting in an impressive snag by Marshall for the Bulls’ first touchdown of the day. Ohio’s defense stood out in the first half. Highlighted by two sacks and an in terception, they held the potent Buffalo offense to 115 total yards with just 19 on the ground. Ohio’s offense was nearly unstoppable, scoring on two-thirds of its first-half drives.

Rourke looked left and threw a near-in terception to UB junior safety Keyshawn Cobb to start the second half. Cobb missed a golden opportunity to return the ball for six.

But two plays later, Cobb got another chance. Rourke again threw the ball in Cobb’s direction and the UB defensive back snatched the ball and trotted 26 yards into the endzone. The Bulls’ biggest de fensive play of the game cut their deficit to just seven, sparking hopes of a 21-point comeback.

Rourke stayed composed, and on the ensuing possession, the Ohio quarterback completed a series of passes to redshirt freshman tight end Will Kacmarek and

sophomore wide receiver Miles Cross to march his team to the UB two-yard line. From the two, Cross swung out left and received a touch pass for Rourke’s fourth passing touchdown of the game. Ohio now led 31-17.

UB continued to fight, scoring early in the fourth on a Snyder shovel pass to red shirt freshman running back Mike Wash ington. UB cut their deficit to 31-24, but would not score again.

The Ohio defense continued strong play, sacking Snyder a total of six times. The UB run offense was nonexistent. One week after Cook Jr. rushed for a careerhigh 118 yards, the Bulls combined for 19 yards on the ground.

Following Ohio’s fifth touchdown, a pitch to redshirt sophomore safety Cam Dorsey, Ohio’s defense sealed the game. Graduate defensive tackle Kai Caesar strip-sacked Snyder on second down and the Bobcats recovered at the Buffalo 12yard line. Rourke found the endzone for a career-high fifth time, passing to Cross for his second score. Two Ohio touchdowns in 66 seconds sealed the Bulls’ fate, a 45-24 final score.

Ohio’s ability to force turnovers and stop the run were defensive keys. On the other side of the ball, UB had no answer for Rourke and the Ohio offense. The MAC’s most accurate QB had a career night with 20 completions for 317 yards. His top weapon, Wiglusz, had six catches for 131 yards.

UB’s defense had bright moments, forc ing two turnovers of their own, including a pick-six.

But in a game where Ohio’s quarterback had a near-perfect night, Snyder and the UB offense were unable to elevate their play. The Bulls’ passing attack was compe

tent with Williams and Marshall combin ing for over 130 yards. But with no ground game and a vicious Ohio pass rush, the Bulls consistently found themselves be hind the sticks, converting just 42% of third downs.

The loss snapped Buffalo’s five-game win streak and put the Bulls behind Ohio in MAC East standings. The Bulls look to rebound on the road against Central Michigan (2-6, 1-3 MAC) on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Women’s soccer clinches regular-season MAC championship after defeating Kent State 2-0

UB to host MAC tournament after undefeated conference play

AMY MASLIN STAFF WRITER

Women’s soccer (13-1-4, 7-0-4 MAC) defeated Kent State (4-7-7, 4-2-5 MAC) 2-0 to claim the Mid-American Confer ence regular season title Thursday. The Bulls clinched the title after going unde feated for 15 straight games, breaking the 2014 team’s previous record of 14 unde feated games. With the victory, UB has earned home-field advantage throughout the MAC tournament.

The Bulls started strong against Kent State with a top-of-the-net goal from sophomore forward Jasmine Guerber in the 12th minute, putting the Bulls up 1-0. Senior midfielder and defender Payton Robertson had the assist.

UB kept the pressure on the Golden Flashes throughout the game. In the 26th minute, Roberston passed the ball to se nior forward Leah Wengender, who gained separation in the box. She netted a ball in the top left corner of the goal, extending the Bulls’ lead to 2-0.

At the end of the first half, fifth-year goalkeeper Emily Kelly saved a shot on net from redshirt junior forward Lauryn Arruda to stop Kent State from scoring in the 44th minute. The Golden Flashes re corded six shots in the first half but were unable to convert against the Bulls.

To start the second half, Wengender took a shot that went over the top of the goal in the 46th minute. UB had four cor ner kicks in the first 10 minutes of the half that they were unable to score from. In the 73rd minute, freshman defender Ellie Sim mons took a free kick from just outside of the box that missed and went right of the goal.

Kelly was tested again in the 83rd minute when Kent State shot a ball to the center of the net that posed a threat to the Bulls’

When the final whistle blew, the Bulls rushed on the field to celebrate winning the regular-season MAC championship. This is the 3rd time the Bulls have won the regular-season championship and the first

since 2014.

With their last regular season game complete, the Bulls finish the season with no losses in conference play. The team recorded 12 shutouts, only allowing eight goals all season while scoring 33 of their own. UB will take on No. 5 seed Miami

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Costly turnovers and defensive mistakes cost the Bulls the No. 1 spot in the MAC East

clean sheet. Kelly made the save, keeping the score at 2-0.

(OH) at UB stadium on Thursday at 5 p.m. in the MAC tournament semifinals. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.

Moaz Elazzazi / The SpecTrum UB will host the Mid-AMericAn confernece toUrnAMent when the BUlls will fAce off AgAinst no. 5 seeded MiAMi (ohio) on thUrsdAy

Yakun liu / The SpecTrum the BUlls Are now in second plAce in the MAc eAst After fAlling to ohio tUesdAy night