Students remember 9/11 through charity Students struggle to eat healthy, UB offers fresh snacks THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950
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Friday, September 12, 2014
Athletic Director Danny White signs a five-year extension OWEN O’BRIEN
MANAGING EDITOR
The University at Buffalo and Athletic Director Danny White reached a five-year contract extension through 2019 on Wednesday. White’s former deal, which was signed in 2012 after former Athletic Director Warde Manuel accepted the same position at the University of Connecticut, included a window to extend his contract in 2014. White said he and his family were very “anxious” to get a deal done to show “commitment to the Buffalo community and this university.” White was 32 years old in 2012 and the youngest athletic director in the country. White was paid more than $300,000 in 2013 – the highest contract for an Athletic Director in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) – according to USA Today. His original contract included a $75,000 payment “to assist with relocation expenses,” which White owed back to UB if he voluntarily ended his employment before June 3, 2017. He didn’t comment on the details of his new contract. President Trapathi described White as “vital” to be success of UB Athletics. “We are obviously very grateful to President Trapathi and his team for giving us the leadership and continue to build on the work that’s been done here at a place that just has so much potential,” White said. Since his hire, White had a clear plan. He wanted to rebrand UB Athletics. A glance at his Twitter page shows a plethora of #NYBI tweets, which stands for New
UB celebrates 20 years of the Electronic Poetry Collection
COURTESY OF PAUL HOKANSON, UB ATHLETICS
York Bulls Initiative. The name “New York” is now featured at midfield of UB Stadium and half court at Alumni Arena – along with an outline of New York State. The words are featured much larger than “Buffalo” on every team’s jerseys as well. He believes the initiative has been successful in its first 28 months. “I think by any measureable stat, the success of the New York Bulls Initiative is undeniable,” White said. “Our donations are up, our attendance is up. Ticket sales in both of our revenue generating sports are at levels we’ve never seen before.” But with success, often comes rumors. White is no exception. Maybe it’s because of his age, family pedigree – his father is the AD at Duke – or the potential to make money at a bigger program. Speculation of where his “next job” is a discussion on blogs, in the media and on Twitter. White hopes this contract ends these rumors.
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Volume 64 No. 8
A ‘joint’ union
UB study finds that couples who use marijuana are less likely to engage in domestic violence GISELLE LAM
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Young couples who smoke marijuana may be less likely to become violent with their significant others, according to a recent UB study. The study found that frequent marijuana use in young married couples is related to the decreased likelihood of domestic violence or hostile behavior in a relationship. Researchers with the School of Public Health and Health Professions and Research Institute on Addictions conducted the study, which took place over a span of nine years and followed 634 newly married couples. “In one year, if the husband is a frequent marijuana user and the wife is a frequent marijuana user, that couple in the next year will experience lower levels of marital aggression,” said Kenneth Leonard, Ph.D. and director of the addictions research institute. The study compared three situations of marijuana use between couples. It looked at which factor reduced the most aggressive behavior – only husbands smoking, only wives smoking or both parties smoking, according to Leonard. The data revealed the correlation between aggressive behavior and marijuana use was strongest when both partners used the drug. A husband’s aggression was only reduced if he or both partners smoked marijuana and a wife’s aggression was lowered in all three scenarios. Although the study was conducted in New York, only medicinal marijuana is legal in the state. Colorado and Washington are currently the only states that
ART BY AMBER SLITER
have legalized marijuana for recreational use. The marijuana study stemmed from a different investigation that looked into marital relations and couples’ alcohol use, according to Leonard. The researchers had certain control elements like age, education, ethnic background, income and employment. Marijuana use was one factor. UB researchers found a correlation between the regular use of marijuana and
hostile behavior between the couples studied. William Lu*, a UB student, has smoked marijuana since he was 17. Now 22, Lu does not smoke as often anymore and finds it a “luxury.” He thinks the drug helps couples to better connect. “Many people I know use it to get more intimate with their partner,” he said. “It has this calming effect … The person does not get annoyed at little things.” SEE ‘JOINT’ UNION, PAGE 2
‘Wild’ loss turned into 1,100 miles of life Distinguished Speaker Cheryl Strayed discusses effects of mother’s death in book, ‘Wild’ AMANDA LOW SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Cheryl Strayed knows what it’s like to feel buried under grief. She struggled to cope with the sudden death of her mother and felt weighed down at every step. And on the first day of what would be a 94-day hike, Strayed felt the heaviness of something else – her backpack. It contained all the necessities for her trip of self-discovery that would eventually turn into a New York Times best-selling memoir and soon, a feature film. But she couldn’t lift the bag. It was in that moment Strayed understand why she needed to tell her story. “You’ve all at some point been alone, in the metaphorical, with something you can’t lift and you have to,” Strayed told a crowd at UB’s Alumni Arena. “And you have to walk out the door with it on your back and you have to keep walking.” On Wednesday evening, Strayed spoke about the story leading to her journey across the Pacific Crest Trail into her memoir, “Wild.” Strayed, the first speaker of this year’s Distinguished Speaker Series, spoke of her perils with drug abuse and of her mother’s death to cancer, both of which led her to go on a grueling hike. She urged the members of the audience to find their own adventures. The Pacific Crest Trail, which travelers often call the PCT, is a hiking path that stretches from the U.S. border of Mexico to Manning Park in British Columbia, Canada. It’s more than 2,500 miles long. Strayed’s memoir
CLETUS EMOKPAE, THE SPECTRUM
On Wednesday evening in Alumni Arena, Distinguished Speaker Cheryl Strayed spoke about how the loss of her mother led her on a journey of self-discovery on the Pacific Crest Trail.
“Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” details her own 1,100mile trek. Strayed believes the intense physical aspect of her trip – the boots she wore caused her to lose nearly all her toenails – forced the “truest version” of herself to emerge. Strayed’s mother was an integral part of her life and she was unsure how to move past the death. But she said the hike helped her discover the person she “always intended to be.” “Just get comfortable with being uncomfortable, not just on the trail but in life,” she told The Spectrum. “Because so many of the best things in life has come to me when I can settle into that and just accept, sometimes misery makes the best memories.” Her mother found out about the cancer only seven weeks before she died. Strayed was 22 years old. When Strayed was a child, her father left her family. Her mother was left to
fill the role of both parents, which led to a close-knit bond between the two women. Strayed, now 45, realized the “sustaining power of having been loved well” by her mother would be “never ending.” She used that loss and love to fuel her PCT trip. “We can live with sorrow and still thrive,” she said. When Strayed attended the University at St. Thomas, a small college in Minnesota, her mother enrolled into the same college. Students’ parents were able to take classes for free, Strayed said. She joked to the crowd about how mortifying it was to have her mother attend the same school. After transferring to University of Minnesota, her mother transferred as well but to a different campus – much to the relief of Strayed. Strayed’ mother died during the then college senior’s spring break. Her mother was only two classes away
from a bachelor’s degree. This was the start of Strayed’s spiral into self-destruction. She remarked she now understands how untrue the idea was, but at the time, she wanted to grieve “so wildly” and “so savagely,” as to let the world know how much she loved her mother. That’s when she started using heroin. The drug became a “self-destructive cure” because it was the “first thing that took away [the] pain” of her mother’s death. After reaching this “bottom point,” Strayed knew she had to change her life. She found her answer in a Pacific Crest Trail guidebook on the cashier counter of a R.E.I., an outdoors equipment store, in Minnesota. Strayed knew then she was going to tackle the PCT. She grew up in 40 acres of wilderness and this rawness of nature was “home” to her. “I just thought …‘I’m going to do this thing,’” she told Alumni Arena. “It seemed such a simple, but good idea to go to the place – the wilderness – that made me feel the most gathered and at home and at peace with myself.” Strayed transformed on her journey, enduring intense physical pain. She said it took several years for her toenails to grow back. Strayed even offered to show the audience the current normal state of her nails. Holly Kistner, a senior environmental geoscience major, was excited to hear Strayed was coming to UB. After reading “Wild,” Kistner admired the steps Strayed took to change the unfortunate circumstances of her life.
She said what stood out most in Strayed’s talk was how she did not mean the book to be “inspiring” or to “have a message.” “It was a book meant to tell a story about carrying on in your life with an enormous weight,” Kistner said in an email. Strayed stressed the book’s intention isn’t to congratulate herself on hiking the PCT. She said she wanted to tell her story of loss and how she found her own meaning of happiness on the trail. Strayed’s book has been adapted into a film of the same name, which wil be released in December. It stars Reese Witherspoon as Strayed. During the production of the film, which Strayed was heavily involved in, Strayed asked Witherspoon why she wanted to play the role. “She’s like, ‘I’ve never seen a film where the main character, a woman, has no money, and no man and no home, and nothing, and you know she’s going to be totally OK,’” Strayed said. “And that’s how I felt that day. I knew I was going to be OK, because I had myself back.” Strayed said all she ever when wanted was to have her mother back, but it was the one thing she could never attain. Writing “Wild” gave her the opportunity to create a version of her mother that lives on in her life and, now, in the rest of the world. “Your happiness doesn’t obliterate your sorrow,” Strayed said. “But you also can’t let your sorrow obliterate your happiness, no matter what that sorrow is.” email: news@ubspectrum.com