Vol. 61 NO. 47
From One Bruce to Another
IVCF Must Change Constitution to Remain SA Club LUKE HAMMILL Senior News Editor
CAS Dean Bruce Pitman settling into new role
REBECCA BRATEK News Editor
The Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) must get rid of the “basis of faith” that its officers must subscribe to if it wants to maintain its status as a Student Association-recognized club.
Bruce Pitman is almost inaudible as the heater in his office hums over his speech, which is barely louder than a whisper – but that doesn’t mean he is anything but talkative.
On Sunday the SA Senate adopted a resolution to lift the IVCF suspension that was imposed in December, after former IVCF Treasurer (and SA Assembly Speaker) Steven Jackson resigned and accused the club of forcing him out because he is gay.
He sports a small, green stud in his left ear, a shaved head, and a smile that beams with any mention of his beloved university; the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences doesn’t seem to quite fit the stuffy “dean” stereotype.
Jackson’s resignation sparked an investigation into whether the club’s constitution is in line with university and legal antidiscrimination policies. IVCF’s constitution requires officers to subscribe to a “basis of faith” in evangelical Christian beliefs such as the “entire trustworthiness and authority” of the Bible, including the verses condemning homosexuality that Jackson came to disagree with.
Pitman became the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) – UB’s largest and most diverse school – in July 2011, after Bruce McCombe announced his retirement earlier that year. (McCombe has since returned to the administration as the interim provost after Harvey Stenger left to be the president at Binghamton.)
The SA resolution will allow IVCF to meet, draft a new constitution, and ratify a new constitution, but it also imposes a new fiscal suspension, effectively freezing the club’s SA budget, which was comprised of $6,000 in mandatory student activity fee money at the beginning of the school year.
The school houses 25 different departments, spanning from the social sciences to humanities and arts. It also includes the natural sciences. More than 15,000 students are enrolled in the school, and almost 500 faculty members teach and conduct research in over 20 centers, institutes, galleries, and performance venues in CAS.
IVCF has until Feb. 25 to pass and submit a new constitution; if it fails to do so, the SA Senate could impose further repercussions, including full de-recognition of the club.
But how does a man with a mathematics and technological background unite such a large and diverse school – more than 50 percent of UB’s student body – into one, cognate force?
At its last two meetings, the SA Senate created a committee to investigate the allegations against IVCF. The committee – Special Interests and Special Hobbies (IVCF’s club council) coordinator Adam Zimnicki, SA Vice President Meghan McMonagle, Engineering coordinator Dan Pastuf, and on-campus senator Daniel Ovadia – determined that IVCF’s constitution does violate UB policy – specifically, the “University at Buffalo Student Code of Conduct,” which states:
Rising to the top Pitman came to UB in 1989 as an assistant professor in the mathematics department, after complet-
Bruce Pitman succeeded Bruce McCombe as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences this past July.
ing his undergraduate studies at Northwestern (he studied math and physics) and earning his Ph.D. in mathematics at Duke. He liked the mathematics department at UB – it combined applied mathematics with other scientific disciplines. “I was attracted to that – I do very applied kinds of research,” Pitman said. “It was a group where people weren’t afraid to be working with disciplinary scientists – folks who are, in my case, engineers and physiologists. Talk with those guys, that was OK, that was an accepted
Seven of approximately 15 members of the pro-life group, which is still a temporary club in the Student Association, joined 500,000 other pro-lifers in the Jan. 23 march. The students also attended the Students for Life of America Conference with 687 other Students for Life college groups in the nation on Sunday, where they received the award for best new group out of 80 new groups. Christian Andzel, a sophomore history and political science major and the club’s president, was overwhelmed by the responses he received about the award.
“We make no distinction between membership and leadership and deem them to be one and the same,” Ovadia said during the committee’s presentation to the Senate.
“One girl said to me that [she had] heard so much about UB through [our] newsletter, and
UB’s IVCF is a local chapter of a national organization, and UB’s Campus Ministries Association also recognizes the club. If the IVCF eliminates its basis of faith, the national Intervarsity Christian Fellowship might not recognize the group.
“Students were good with computing at the time, but there weren’t very
In 2003, Pitman became the associate dean for research in CAS. He spent eight years in that position, under two CAS deans, before reaching his current position. Overcoming obstacles On Feb. 27, 2007, Pitman’s oldest son, Eric, passed away suddenly from meningitis, a rare bacterial infection of the membranes cover-
[that she] never knew that such a group could have such determination, could have so much charisma going through everything [we] went through,” Andzel said. The UB Students for Life have faced opposition on campus, including an incident last May when vandals attacked their “Cemetery of the Innocents” display. Group members said they spotted approximately 40 pro-choice advocates at the march, who shouted things at the marchers as they walked along. One pro-choice advocate shouted to Andzel in particular, saying he is a man and has no right to voice his opinion on a woman’s issue, Andzel said. “That same claim was used by the Southern slave owners directed to the white abolitionists’ movement,” Andzel said. Continued on page 5
Courtesy of ChrisTian AndZel UB Students for Life marched down the streets of Washington D.C. as a part of the March for Life.
Booze, Blood, and Beauty EDWARD BENOIT
IVCF outreach coordinator Quinten HallLochmann Van Bennekom requested that the Senate give the club until April to resolve its constitutional conflict with SA and its national organization.
Managing Editor A jaded, old, and quite possibly drunk former theater critic stands before a small audience. The stage is dark; its adornments are few. For the better part of the next two hours, he will discuss alcoholism, unrequited lust, and existential crisis.
“We just want to work with both organizations,” Van Bennekom said to the SA Senate. “We’re trying to accommodate both. It’s a legal process, and it does take time.”
Oh, and vampires.
But SA senators thought it was important that the SA’s requirements come before those of an outside organization, and they imposed the Feb. 25 deadline.
The unconventional play in question is Conor McPherson’s “St. Nicholas”; its lone performer is Buffalo legend Vincent O’Neill, owner of the esteemed Irish Classical Theater; the venue is Buffalo’s own Road Less Traveled Theater, in the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center.
Van Bennekom declined an interview with The Spectrum following the proceeding.
“St. Nicholas” and its lone performer
Email: news@ubspectrum.com Courtesy of Road Less Traveled Productions
Friday: Snow Showers- H: 33, L: 30 Saturday: Cloudy- H: 45, L: 42 Sunday: Few Showers- H: 43, L: 33
In 2000, Pitman was appointed as vice provost for educational technology. In this position, he helped to integrate technology across the university. Pitman and his colleagues were responsible for setting up today’s cybrary and drop-in computer terminals along walkways. They developed the UBlearns site and helped set up “smart” classrooms and other valuable resources still in use by students today.
many resources on campus, and the ‘old birds’ knew nothing about using computing to do anything,” Pitman said. “That was back in those ‘dark ages.’”
UB Students for Life March for Life in D.C. Clothes wet and hair matted with rainwater, the UB Students for Life skipped class on Jan. 23 to take part in the march in the March for Life in Washington D.C.
IVCF supporters have argued that the club is not in violation of the policy because it does not require its general membership to subscribe to its basis of faith; it only requires its officers to do so. But the SA committee considers the ability to run for office of a club as a right of being a member of the club.
mode of doing mathematics here. And that’s a little unusual.”
Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum
Continued on page 5
LISA KHOURY Asst. News Editor
“Any organization with restrictive membership clauses which discriminates based on the basis of race, religion, sex (except as exempted by federal regulations), sexual orientation, disability, age, creed, national origin, or veteran status will not obtain or maintain university registration/recognition.”
Weather for the Week:
ubspectrum.com
Monday, January 30, 2012
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tell the tale of an unnamed alcoholic Dublin theater critic whose work, family life, and spiritual condition are all as unfulfilling as you’d expect those of an alcoholic Dublin theater critic to be. Indeed, almost the entirety of the play’s first act is spent recounting them and their emptiness, with varying degrees of emotion and gusto. The critic’s existential crisis eventually leads him to the London abode of a handful of actors – including that of the significantly-named and supernaturally beautiful Helen – while (naturally) quite drunk. After failing to consummate his lust with the walking classical allusion, the critic finds himself alone on a park bench. It is here, at the apex of his disillusion and discontent, where the vampires enter, turning the critic’s worldview on its head.
“I think it’s a good, introspective piece,” said Gina Gandolfo-Lopez, managing director of Road Less Traveled Productions. “It makes you look within yourself…and really question the world around you.” Any one-man or one-woman show requires nothing short of a powerhouse performance, and O’Neill delivered. While the outward persona of his character was usually one of jaded disillusionment and distance, occasional moments of genuine emotion – over Helen’s beauty, or the “real power” of the vampires, or, ironically, his own inability to express his emotions genuinely, artistically or otherwise – provide some of the play’s best moments. “What can I say, it’s Vincent O’Neill…he was phenomenal,” said Anne of Buffalo. Continued on page 2
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