Vol. 61 NO. 66
ubspectrum.com
Friday, March 23, 2012
Clean Water, an Informed Campus, and a Philanthropic Fraternity Phi Iota Alpha carries 42-pound jugs, spreads UNICEF ‘Tap Project’ AARON MANSFIELD Senior Life Editor Since the Iraq War began in 2003, 4,486 American soldiers have died, according to antiwar. com. Four thousand one hundred children die of water-related diseases every day. UNICEF is on a mission to stop this. Its title: the UNICEF Tap Project. Its goal: clean, easily accessible water for children around the world. In underprivileged countries, women and children are forced to walk miles for clean water while just $1 can provide it for a person for 40 days, according to UNICEF. The brothers of the Lambda chapter of Phi Iota Alpha (PIA) aim to broaden Tap Project awareness. The fraternity is spreading its message across UB, Buffalo State College, and the general Buffalo area.
Hillel Door Vandalized With Anti-Semitic Inscription SARA DINATALE Asst. News Editor On Saturday, a swastika and the words “f*** Jews” were discovered carved into the door of the Hillel of Buffalo office, located in the Commons. The Hillel of Buffalo banner was also stuffed into a garbage can and brochures were missing. Hillel is a student group designed to bring together students of the Jewish community and exists on most college campuses, according to Hillel of Buffalo President and junior political science major Jonathan Grunin. Grunin believes the vandalism was committed after Hillel members left the office around 7 p.m. Saturday. It was reported to University Police, and an investigation is currently ongoing. This was the most extreme case of anti-Semitism experienced by the members of Hillel at UB this year, Grunin said. “Every year something happens,” Grunin said. “Usually…someone will take our banner, and it happens so often that I’m almost certain we budget for it to happen…and get the banner replaced and stuff. It was never this serious.”
“Our nationals…encouraged us to raise money to help UNICEF,” said Bryant Cuadros, a junior health and human services major. “We decided this semester to put our philanthropy into action and not just raise funds but actually show people what the struggle and issue are about.”
UPD has filed reports for criminal
The jugs weigh 42 pounds, and the fraternity members have been carrying them on their shoulders. In this hot weather, the movement turns into quite a workout.
REBECCA BRATEK News Editor
“It gets pretty tiring and your shoulders hurt, but people see us on campus and they always ask us questions about why we’re doing it,” said Continued on page 2
Spectrum Elects Next Editor in Chief
mischief and larceny, and additional charges may be warranted if an arrest is made, according to a statement released by the university. UB’s statement says the university values the diversity and cultural beliefs on campus and that “hateful acts such as this are contrary to UB’s values and have no place on the UB campus.” Last year, someone inscribed, “The final solution is the only solution” and that “All Jews should die” in a bathroom stall in the Millard Fillmore Academic Complex. Grunin said phrases like that are written all over campus. Grunin was pleased with how the campus responded to the bathroom stall issue. Victoria Hellman, the assistant director for residential life, had the graffiti removed and bathrooms searched for similar vandalism. This most recent incident of defacement is different than those of the past, according to Grunin. In this case, the perpetrator “actually took the extra step to make [his or her] message known” to the Jewish community by putting it somewhere associated directly with the Jewish faith. Grunin feels the UB is handling this situation appropriately, as well. Continued on page 2
Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum Hillel of Buffalo President, Jonathan Gurnin, expresses how his organization and community are facing anti-Semitism on UB’s campus.
Common Council Approves Underage Ban for Entertainment District The proposed area spans from Main Street to Elmwood Avenue and from Seneca Street to Tupper Street. The area will be referred to as the “Downtown Entertainment District,” and businesses that are not clubs or bars – hotels, restaurants, and places like Shea’s Performing Arts Center – will be exempt from the ban. The ban does not include the areas outside the establishments.
On Tuesday, the Buffalo Common Council unanimously passed a bill that will ban anyone under 21 from the area surrounding the Chippewa Entertainment District. The bill, if approved by Mayor Byron Brown, will keep underage patrons out of bars past 10 p.m. six nights a week. The bill intends to stop “commingling,” or the practice of mixing underage patrons and those of legal drinking age in the same establishment, and many business owners throughout the affected downtown area support the measure. If passed as written, the bill would allow underage patrons inside establishments one night a week – Thursday – but Brown believes mixing underage and legal patrons should not happen any night of the week, he told WIVB-TV. He also said he doesn’t believe the plan goes far enough, and he has concerns about safety.
Tinghao Zhang /// The Spectrum If Tuesday’s Buffalo Common Council bill becomes law, entertainment seekers under 21 will have to stay away from the “Chip Strip.”
“I think if it is allowed on one night, it encourages it to happen on other nights, even though it will no longer be legal on other nights,” Brown told WIVB-TV on Wednesday.
Business owners in the area also argued that bars that cater to the younger patrons are having a destructive effect on the area’s nightlife as a whole, according to The Buffalo News. Many of them expect Brown to veto the bill.
The city currently has a curfew – those under the age of 17 are required to be off the streets by 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda told The Buffalo News that if police focus on enforcing the curfew, officers wouldn’t be able to handle “other issues.” The proposed bill also allows affected establishments to petition for waivers to run designated events that could include underage patrons. Establishments would be required to submit information about the event, including information Continued on page 2
Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum Mansfield was elected E.I.C. after leading both the sports and life desks at The Spectrum.
The Spectrum’s editorial board elected Aaron Mansfield as the editor in chief for the 2012-13 school year during a closed forum on Thursday morning. Mansfield, a sophomore English major, is currently the senior life editor and was the senior sports editor for the fall 2011 semester. He is pursuing the English department’s journalism certificate, and he has been on staff since the spring 2011 semester. Mansfield is currently a sports web writer and reporter for WGRZ-TV, and he will be a sports reporter and copy editor intern for The Buffalo News this summer. He hopes to pursue a career in broadcast sports journalism in the future. Mansfield received endorsements from Andrew Wiktor, the 2010-11 editor in chief, and Ben Hayes, a sports anchor for WGRZ-TV. He was very thankful to all who have supported him throughout the election process.
Author Amitav Ghosh Speaks at UB SUSHMITA SIRCAR Staff Writer For over an hour, writer Amitav Ghosh captured UB’s attention as he painted a picture of Guangzhou, China caught in the center of the opium trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Ghosh is an internationally renowned author from West Bengal, India and the recipient of many prizes for his books of historical fiction, which are set in Asia. His most recent work is River of Smoke, the second in the Ibis trilogy after Sea of Poppies. On Monday night, he visited UB for a lecture entitled “The World’s Emporium” in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall. “It is a place that has vanished from mod-
ern memory,” said Ghosh, referring to Canton, now known as Guangzhou, located in the southeast of modern-day China. Eighteenth-century Canton, the setting for River of Smoke, was the destination of ships sailing from India. The ships carried large quantities of opium, which was used by the British to pay off the deficit it had incurred through the purchase of tea and other goods from China. The trade eventually resulted in the two Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century, which ended with the burning down of the industrial region of Canton. Ghosh’s address was part of the “Fluid Culture” series held by UB’s Humanities Institute. The series “focuses on water, globalization and culture to better understand, analyze and critique the increasingly fluid world we live in.” Continued on page 10
Courtesy of Amitav Ghosh Writer Amitav Ghosh spoke to the UB community, connecting the Opium Wars to to modern-day struggle.
“I’m honored and humbled to accept the position,” Mansfield said. “It’s been a goal of mine for over a year, and I’m ready to take over. We’ve made huge progress as a paper this year, but we’re just getting started. I’m very close with current Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino, so we’ve been developing a plan for how we can further our success next year and after that. While The Spectrum is now gaining national notoriety – winning three national awards in 2011 and 2012 – we don’t want to stop there. I have a lot of big goals, and I believe we’ll accomplish them.” Advertising and Co-Creative Director Aline Kobayashi also participated in the election. Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Weather for the Weekend:
Friday: Mostly Cloudy- H: 69, L: 51 Saturday: T-Showers- H: 63, L: 47 Sunday: Few Showers- H: 56, L: 43
I N S I D E
Opinion * 3 Life * 5 Arts * 6 Classifieds / Daily Delights * 11 Sports * 12