The Spectrum Volume 61 Issue 73

Vol. 61 NO. 73

ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Virtual Money Pit

The facts are building, and we need answers from all involved

*Editorial* Often, when a multitude of events come together in ways that don’t seem to fit, it only takes one piece of information to bring an entire puzzle together, and into focus.

On Feb. 12, SA Treasurer Sikander Khan moved a gargantuan $300,000 from what he called a “rainy day fund” to a line named “Projects.” The fund was actually a line called “Cash and Investments,” a rollover fund for the mandatory student activity fee.

SA Scandal: There’s No App For That

Khan said that the money should be spent, but at that time there was no talk of what it should be spent on. There were, however, a few simple guidelines to follow. The money had to provide “long term benefits” to the students, any project spent must benefit the student body for a fiveyear period, and the project must provide services for at least 50 percent of the student body.

The Spectrum investigates Virtual Academix, possible corruption, and SA’s missing treasurer MATTHEW PARRINO Editor in Chief

Student Association Treasurer Sikander Khan and Vice President Meghan McMonagle almost spent $300,000 of student money on a mobile application, but President JoAnna Datz stopped them.

It’s a good thing she did. Virtual Academix, the company trying to sell the app, has been engulfed in mystery and question marks since its inception.

Datz released a 100-page internal document chronicling how SA almost got duped and submitted it to police sometime in March. The District Attorney’s office investigated the case, Khan, and McMonagle, but uncovered no criminal conduct, according to a memo released by University Police.

However, since the report was released, Virtual Academix has seemingly disappeared. Despite numerous efforts by The Spectrum to reach the founder or a spokesperson, no one at the company has answered reporters’ questions. In fact, the more The Spectrum probes, the more those responsible vanish or decline to comment.

The case – which began as a secretive SA deal – has expanded beyond UB and now includes three UB alums, including a former Student Association president. It has also revealed the great schism that currently exists among the top three SA officials.

The three oversee $3.6 million in student money, but haven’t spoken in weeks and can barely stand to be in the same room with each other.

Khan, like the company in question, has vanished. He has not been in his office since at least April 5 and has not been available to the clubs to perform his duties, which include signing off on checks. He’s turned off his phone and been absent from class.

Has SA been doing a good job this his year? year?

How much, if any, do you think SA should p pay ay ffor or a mobile mobile device device app?

Would you want an SA m mobile app?

600 500 Yes

44% %

38%

No

2 27%

Yes

400

29%

No

300

D n’t Know Do

200

18% %

Don n’t Know ow

44% %

Do you trrust SA?

34%

Ye es

47%

No Don’t Know

19%

None e

Over $ 200,000 0

0 - $50,000 0

$ 50 - 100,000 0

0

$ 100 - 200,000 0

100

CHECK OUT PAGE 9

Have you heard abo outt SA’s A mobile e & cloud d servvicces?

McMonagle physically turned her back on two Spectrum reporters who went to the SA office on Monday to ask for comment. She has not returned emails and failed to show up for a scheduled interview on Saturday.

Datz, who’s been the most forthcoming, spoke to The Spectrum but wouldn’t comment on the specific actions of Khan and McMonagle.

Many students around campus are wondering what is going on.

Here’s what happened: On Feb. 12, Khan convinced the SA Senate to approve a transfer of $300,000 from a cash and investments line to a projects line in SA’s budget.

Khan then conducted market research and a vendor search for companies that offer mobile application technology. Khan spoke about the app and the vendors in an interview with The Spectrum on March 26.

On Jan. 31, Virtual Academix Vice President of Corporate Development Ted Miale, a former UB student, reached out to Datz and Khan to set up a meeting to present a plan for an app.

The meeting took place on Feb. 3, and Datz decided she didn’t want to pursue the app. Khan persisted. Datz said she thought he was pursuing it for the coming year since, at the time, he was considering running for re-election. He didn’t.

A little over a month later, on March 13, Khan and McMonagle signed a contract with Virtual Academix for $297,500 that would get SA an app and five years of maintenance service. An SA investigation determined that the price far exceeded fair market value for such a product, which lies between $50,000 and $150,000 prior to negotiation.

No

87% %

FOR RESULTS OF STUDENT POLLS

That kind of talk is extremely vague, and caused a great deal of contention among the SA senate and other parts of SA. That is, until March 27, when more rigid rules on how to spend the money were suggested alongside another move for the money to a line called “Long Term Projects Capital Equipment.”

Investigating Virtual Academix Everyone with connections to Virtual Academix is hiding. They’ve either lawyered up or remain unreachable, much like Khan and McMonagle.

Everyone, that is, except Miale, the former UB student who served as the company’s vice president. But he did try to hide.

On Saturday, The Spectrum reached out to him on Facebook and LinkedIn. By Monday morning, he had deleted or hidden both profiles and became a virtual ghost. The Spectrum then contacted his full-time employer – Linium.

Linium Managing Partner Joe Burke left a voice message for The Spectrum Monday afternoon, saying,“[Linium doesn’t] have any knowledge of the situation or what is going on. This is a personal matter that Ted is involved with. This isn't even the kind of work we do as a consulting firm…Linium is not involved, engaged, or endorsing this work Ted is doing.”

Written by SA Engineering Coordinator Dan Pastuf, it built upon Khan’s original guidelines. It continued on page 3

SA Treasurer Absent Following $300,000 Scandal

Once his boss was contacted, Miale agreed to speak to The Spectrum. He claimed he wasn’t affiliated with Virtual Academix and was simply “doing a favor for a friend” by giving the presentation to SA. He actually wasn’t informed about what he’d be presenting until the morning of the meeting, he told The Spectrum, even though he represented himself to SA as Vice President of Corporate Development.

REBECCA BRATEK News Editor Student Association Treasurer Sikander Khan has seemingly disappeared, and the clubs are angry.

Last Thursday, SA President JoAnna Datz sent an email out to various groups within SA and the university, stating that an internal investigation was taking place – Khan had signed a questionable contract, along with SA Vice President Meghan McMonagle, that would pay $297,500 of SA’s budget to Virtual Academix to develop a mobile application.

He claimed he didn’t know anyone involved with the company other than “his friend,” whose name he would not reveal. He also wouldn’t disclose names or contact information for anyone in the company.

But the clubs, which have finance issues of their own, have been unable to reach Khan since the investigation was made public last week.

On Saturday afternoon, The Spectrum called the phone number on the contact page of Vir-

“I first found out about [the investigation] through a friend who saw something on it on UBReddit, then someone I know showed me

continued on page 2

continued on page 6

SA’s E-Board Has Been Divided All Year LISA KHOURY Asst. News Editor

13% % Yes

By the time the SA investigation was released, The Spectrum had already launched an investigation of its own.

The SA has had its share of problems this year, but perhaps the biggest of all is that the executive board has barely exchanged words.

Currently, Vice President Meghan McMonagle and Treasurer Sikander Khan do not talk to President JoAnna Datz.

The three have not been on civil

terms since soon after they were elected in May 2011. Datz affirmed that the past year could be described as “two-against-one.”

Their personal issues with one another have led to a lack of communication this year. The lack of communication hindered the SA’s operations, according to numerous SA officials.

“It’s been affecting things all year,” said Travis Nemmer, who will be next year’s SA president. “It’s taken

Sprinting Through Overwhelming Odds In her first summer at college, Asia Henry lived on pancake mix and syrup – that’s all she could afford.

Story on page 22

clubs much longer time to get money; departmental activity is stalled.

There’s been less communication.

They’re supposed to be setting an example for us.”

Nemmer went on to say the tension between the e-board led to tension between the departments and between the clubs and SA. The process leading up to Nemmer’s win in the election was fraught with problems between SA higher-ups. continued on page 6

Cracking Open Closed Doors Robert Fearghas slid a condom onto his sister’s curling iron, took a deep breath, and inserted it into the hole in his anus. After eight years of hiding his sexual identity, Fearghas admitted he was gay. Finally, he began to prepare for his first sexual encounter with a man.

Story on page 11

Inside

Opinion 3

| News 5 | Life 10,11 | Arts 12-15 | Classifieds&Daily Delights 21 | Sports 22

ubspectrum.com

Page 2

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Continued form page 1: SA Scandal: There’s No App For That tual Academix’s website. It went to a Google voicemail message. The person on the message introduced himself at the beginning of the message and his last name was Hussain. The first name was garbled. The message has since been changed, so The Spectrum hasn’t been able to confirm the first name.

The SA report says Khan presented two outside bids for the app to Tom Tiberi, UB interim director of student life, on March 30 to show a competitive bidding process. One of those bids was from a company called AB&T Technologies, based in Santa Monica, Calif. A search into the founder of the company – Lucy Zachtchirinskaia – revealed her to be friends with Mohammad Viqar Hussain on Facebook.

Hussain appears to be the founder of Accel Mobile, a company that offers the same services as Virtual Academix. On Saturday, he was listed as the company’s founder, but since Saturday, his name has been removed. However, the company’s Twitter account is linked to him.

Hussain, SA president in 2006-07, has also served as president of UB’s Muslim Student Association, which Khan was the president of last year.

A former high-ranking SA official was at UB when Hussain was president. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of the working relationship she still has and hopes to maintain with current and past SA members.

“Viqar was a president in a long line of corrupt SA presidents,” the source said. “It’s commonly known that some SA presidents use the Student Association as a personal piggy bank. It’s been going on in recent history and it’s continuing, and I feel this incident is just another example…It seems like with everything [Hussain] does, there is some sort of financial kickback he’s hoping to get.”

Additionally, a source close to Khan who wished to remain unidentified, said Hussain’s brother, Shuja Hussain, has spent time studying with Khan in the SA office. The source said the two are close friends.

Miale said he worked with two other men, though he wouldn’t reveal their names. He said one was from Har-

vard.

Hussain’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a NASA Study Research Coordinator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., the same city where Virtual Academix’s headquarters is located. It also says he’s a Harvard student, but that information could not be confirmed. Both former SA officials said he often lied about going to Harvard and had obtained a Harvard email address while working there at one point.

The first former SA official wasn’t surprised to hear Hussain’s name involved in scandal, and she even said it’s not the first time it’s happened.

“When Viqar Hussain was president, he actually purchased a fleet of vehicles that SA is currently using, and they bought the vehicles through his uncle,” the source said. “They made a significant profit off of every single one of the vehicles that were purchased, because the uncle boosted the price and gave the extra profit to Viqar.”

Miale began to put things together, and the tone of his voice changed from one of anger to apprehension in an instant during a phone interview on Monday night.

“This is really getting to be a lot more than I want to be associated with,” Miale said. “…All I know is I helped out a friend. I can get investigated left, right, and center. I don’t know anyone in the SA, never knew anyone in the SA before I met them.

I can prove that. You can investigate my phone records, my emails. I don’t have any ties to those people.”

She said the owner of the company is Omar Abadan. The SA report says Virtual Academix is an “assumed name” for Abadan, Inc. – a Hornell, N.Y.-based company.

The Spectrum, unable to find any information on “Abadan” or his company, sent two reporters to Hornell, about104 miles south of Buffalo, to visit the address the company listed in the SA report. Nobody was home, but the reporters talked to a neighbor, Travis Waight.

Waight said the man who lives at the Abadan address – 476 McKinley Ave., North Hornell, N.Y. 14843 – is named Irfan Mehr. Waight said he was not aware of an Abadan, Virtual Academix, or any other company at the residence.

Tyler Cady /// The Spectrum

The mailbox at the supposed “Abadan” business residence.

After a quick search into Mehr, The Spectrum found a news report linking him to his son, Omar Mehr.

Omar Mehr appears to be the same person as Omar Abadan – the name given by Blank as the owner of Abadan and Virtual Academix. Omar Mehr/Abadan is also a UB graduate who graduated the same year as Hussain.

The Spectrum got Omar Mehr on the phone and asked him if he was the founder of Abadan and Virtual Academix. He said he had “no comment” and before any other questions could be asked, he abruptly said he had hired a lawyer who would be speaking for him.

MOHAMMOD VAQAR HUSSAIN

OMAR MYER/ABADAN

At press time, The Spectrum was researching Mehr and his possible association to SA and/or MSA.

The SA report includes numerous emails between Miale, Khan, and Datz, both before and after the meeting – when asked about this, Miale continued to deny any contact.

There will be an informal meeting held by SA in the Student Union Theater at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night.

The organization will field questions pertaining to the investigation.

At about 4 p.m. on Tuesday and after four days without any success of contacting actual members of Virtual Academix (Miale claims he wasn’t working for the company despite representing himself as a vice president to SA), a lawyer named Lynne Blank contacted The Spectrum and said she had been retained by Virtual Academix.

Stay with The Spectrum for more coverage.

Additional Reporting by Senior News Editor Luke Hammill, Asst.

News Editor Sara DiNatale, Senior Sports Editor Tyler Cady, and Staff Writer Lisa Epstein Email: news@ubspectrum.com

Lisa Epstein /// The Spectrum

House at the address of the supposed “Abadan” business residence.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012 www.ubspectrum.com

Page 3

Opinion

continued from page 1: virtual money pit required that the SA senate look over the spending from the new line to make sure that the money was in agreement with Khan’s original guidelines, and ensure that SA was getting a fair value for any purchases.

Oddly enough, Khan was not very happy about this new measure. He tried saying it was against SUNY regulations, and that it wasn’t fair that he didn’t have time to go over the measure.

It’s apparent now, however, that Khan didn’t want the money to be more restricted because he had already signed a contract with the intent of using the $300,000. According to an investigation done by SA Entertainment Director Marc Rosenblitt, some time on March 13, Khan and SA Vice President Meghan McMonagle signed a contract for work totaling $297,500.

At this time, we are unaware of how many people knew Khan and McMonagle were intending on signing the contract.

The money was going to a company named Virtual Academix, which is supposed to be a mobile phone application design company. A quick scan of its website makes it pretty clear that this company is either not what it says it is or extremely inexperienced in its field.

The graphics are cheesy and ripped off, the literature is vague to the point of being ridiculous, and the list of companies Virtual Academix claims to have worked with is a lie.

So we have many questions for Khan. Considering he’s a computer science major thinking about attending a law school, we have every indication that he should not have fallen for this if it was a pure scam. Even a person with only rudimentary knowledge of websites would know that a professional information technology company would have something better than a free Wordpress site with a domain name purchased from GoDaddy. com.

Yet, we have a major problem. Khan has not been returning our calls, hasn’t been available in his office, and hasn’t been to his classes. We’ve done everything within our power to contact him.

So even after running for treasurer under the notion that he would be all for the student voice, and even while the mistake he made comes to light, he refuses to be seen or heard to answer for the hardearned money he nearly turned over to a company that looks fraudulent.

Here’s what we would have asked, had we been given the chance: How is your friend Shuja’s brother – Viqar Hussain – involved with Virtual Academix?

A Matter of Perspective

Why did you hide this deal from almost everyone at the SA office?

How much was McMonagle involved in this deal?

Was she simply taking your word for it?

EDWARD BENOIT Managing Editor

Why did you wait get multiple bids until after the contract was signed?

When exactly did you make the decision to give money to Virtual Academix?

Yet while thinking of these questions, we can’t help but remember Khan’s sudden shift in tone with The Spectrum since Fall semester. Until this semester, Khan has been less than forthcoming and even downright hostile toward us. Then something suddenly changed.

He pushed us to publish an article about how useful a mobile SA app would be, and has been eager to dish information on President JoAnna Datz.

Then, he suddenly wanted to write in money for The Spectrum in the SA budget. All this from the guy we thought thoroughly hated us.

Maybe it had something to do with the open secret that Datz has been on bad terms with Khan and McMonagle. Khan could have just been eager to look better than Datz, or he could have been trying to pull one over on us. At this point, there are more questions than answers.

What’s clear, however, is that something needs to change. No matter if there was foul play on Khan’s part or not, the fact remains that handing over that cash would have been a horrible decision, and it almost happened without oversight.

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” – Douglas Adams

I’m going to start things off with a humbling, and perhaps a bit embarrassing, personal anecdote: I flew on a plane for the first time over the weekend (April 7-8). And while I found most of the flying experience to be just as miserable and stressful and hectic and confusing and annoying as everyone says it is, I did find one bit kind of cool: the couple minutes immediately after takeoff.

More specifically, I mean the couple minutes immediately after takeoff if you happen to have a window seat. Because, in those few minutes, you can look out the window and really feel – as in gut-level reaction-type stuff, in addition to understand in an intellectual sense – just how small you are.

The transaction was only prevented because someone got a hold of a signed document before it was hidden again. That’s it. Khan was a proverbial inch from the finish line in wasting $300,000.

(If this strikes you as terribly quaint and naïve and silly, keep in mind this was my first time flying, so sorry.)

Much better oversight for large transactions needs to be put in place. SA’s attorney normally has to look at large contracts, but obviously Khan was easily able to move around this.

Anyway, this got me thinking about perspective – specifically, how we all lack it and how we should all strive to get a little more.

SA senate should have to look at any contract over a certain amount, say $30,000, to make sure that it is not only a fair market price but so it also protects our investment from fraud. Then, an independent party should have to do the same process.

In terms of the big picture, it’s always dumbfounded me how narrow our perspective is, collectively, as a species. For one thing, the senses through which we experience the world are pitifully weak. We hear a fraction of all there is to hear; we see a sliver of all there is to see. And this is a shame, I think.

There’s a lot we don’t know about what has happened here. We want to give our readers as much information as possible. We want our view to be balanced, but few are talking and those who do are fairly well insulated from any fallout. This whole thing centers on Khan.

It’s time to face the music, Khan. We are the students you represent, and we want answers now.

Can you imagine how much more beautiful and intricate and subtle music could be if humans could hear pitch beyond 20,000 hertz?

Twenty thousand hertz is nothing. Dogs can hear up to 60,000; bats 120,000; dolphins and whales higher still. Or think about how much

April 11, 2012 | VOLUME 61 NUMBER 73 | CIRCULATION: 7,000 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR IN CHIEF Matthew Parrino SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR James Twigg MANAGING EDITOR Edward Benoit EDITORIAL EDITOR James Bowe

NEWS EDITORS Luke Hammill, senior Rebecca Bratek Sara DiNatale, asst.

Lisa Khoury, asst.

LIFE EDITORS Aaron Mansfield, senior Keren Baruch Lyzi White Rachel Kramer, asst.

ARTS EDITORS Nick Pino, senior Vanessa Frith, senior Brian Josephs Elva Aguilar, asst.

Vilona Trachtenberg, asst.

SPORTS EDITORS Tyler Cady, senior Bryan Feiler Nathaniel Smith

PHOTO EDITORS Meg Kinsley, senior Alexa Strudler Satsuki Aoi WEB EDITOR Matthew Parrino James Twigg GRAPHICS DESIGNER Haider Alidina

PROFESSIONAL STAFF OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helene Polley ADVERTISING MANAGER Mark Kurtz CREATIVE DIRECTORS Nicole Manzo Aline Kobayashi ADVERTISING DESIGNER Aline Kobayashi Liam Gangloff, asst.

more interesting day-to-day life would be if we could perceive infrared or ultraviolet light, or the electromagnetic spectrum beyond even those.

Even the runt of our sensorium, smell, is just as comparatively pathetic. Dogs – these, by the way, being the animals that get thrown through a mental loop by a pump-faked tennis ball – can perceive the world with something like a hundred times the olfactory acuity you and I will ever know. Yeah, feel humble.

In even more broad terms, think about our bodies for a second. As pieces of biological hardware, they’re really pretty subpar. We eat, communicate, and breathe through the same hole in our face. Our simian brains prevent us from intuitively understanding most math, including probability and really large numbers. Men have nipples.

Or – and here’s kind of a fun, hands-on example – pinch yourself on the skin of your elbow. No, seriously, do it. Good. Now pinch yourself on the skin of your triceps.

The lesson: The pain-receiving nerves in our skin aren’t even evenly distributed.

And yet, so narrow is our perspective, that we actually hold our form in high regard. We worship anthropomorphized gods. Aliens in our science fiction, more often than not, look more or less like we do, i.e. vaguely humanoid. Think of how narrow-minded and biologically presumptuous this is of us for a second. I mean, if we were nine-foot-tall octopus monsters, the Star Trek on nine-foot-tall-octopusmonster earth would feature aliens that looked like nine-foot-tall octopus monsters with weird foreheads and shiny jumpsuits.

Anyway, the point of all this is that we all, inherently, have extremely, almost comically, limited points of view. And though we may never be able to, say, experience the world with the sensory acuity of a dog or understand, in a phenomenological sense, what it’s like to be a nine-foot-tall octopus monster, what we can do is put ourselves in the positions of other humans whose perspectives are just as limited as our own, whether they’re loved or hated or homeless or rich or crowding your armrest space on a budget Southwest flight to Chicago or the lonely white collar desk jockey driving into work completely unaware he’s being watched from 12,000 feet in the sky.

Email: eabenoit@buffalo.edu

The views expressed – both written and graphic – in the Feedback, Opinion, and Perspectives sections of The Spectrum do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board. Submit contributions for these pages to The Spectrum office at Suite 132 Student Union or news@ubspectrum.com.

The Spectrum reserves the right to edit these pieces for style and length. If a letter is not meant for publication please mark it as such. All submissions must include the author’s name, daytime phone number, and email address.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

News

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 ubspectrum.com

Page 5

Student Association Runs “Incorrect” Elections with Engineering Coordinator Dan Pastuf, Administrative Director Mark Sorel, and Associate Administrative Director Amanda Johnson – met with Kozlowski the afternoon of March 9 (right before break) to discuss the opportunity and gauge his interest in the position.

LISA EPSTEIN Staff Writer Editor’s note: This story was held after the SA elections because of The Spectrum’s ongoing investigation into SA Treasurer Sikander Khan’s and Vice President Meghan McMonagle’s signing of a questionable $300,000 contract for a mobile application.

All quotes and information attributed to McMonagle was obtained before Thursday, when the SA released its investigation into the contract.

Khan came into the meeting with Kozlowski and immediately began making accusations about Kozlowski, according to Datz.

“I believe Sikander did not even give Kozlowski the opportunity to succeed in his mind, but rather was wrapped up in politics of accusing me of wrongdoing,” Datz said in an email on Tuesday.

The recent SA elections were marred by harsh accusations, violations of SA protocol, and failure to follow New York State Election Law. It all started when SA President JoAnna Datz had to find a replacement for Elections and Credentials Committee Chair Travis Nemmer, who was responsible for maintaining fair and impartial elections. Nemmer had to step down because he was running for president in the election, which he eventually won.

It was a problem that SA officials had never dealt with – Nemmer decided to run after the election had technically “started” because petitions to become a candidate had already gone out. By SA law, an election cannot continue without an E&C chair in place.

When Datz appointed her friend Gretchen Garcia to replace Nemmer, instead of Nemmer’s assistant Raphew Fahm, SA officials began accusing each other of misconduct.

Another person who was considered to replace Nemmer (and wishes to remain anonymous) has accused Datz and On-Campus Senator Dan Ovadia, who ran against each other for SA president last year, of trying to swing the election to benefit Judy Mai and Darwinson Valdez, who unsuccessful-

Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum

The recent SA elections may have been illegal according to New York State law. ly ran as a presidential pairing. Both Datz and Ovadia have strongly denied the claims.

SA Vice President Meghan McMonagle accused Datz of mishandling the entire process and costing the SA substantial legal fees because lawyer Joshua Korman had to be consulted numerous times.

Assembly Rejects Garcia After Nemmer resigned, Datz appointed Garcia on Feb. 26. Datz has the sole discretion to fill vacant staff positions, and the SA Assembly then has the power to approve or deny her appointments. On March 7, the Assembly rejected Garcia in a 6-10-5 vote, leaving the E&C chair unconstitutionally vacant as the election continued.

“Although the election timeline was indeed thrown off, it was not due to any attempt by myself but rather the resignation of former Election and Credentials Chairman Travis Nemmer who declared his candidacy for president after the election had already begun,” Datz said in an email on Tuesday.

Because time was running out and the difficulty of calling Assembly meetings, the decision fell to the Emergency Powers Council (EPC), a body that has the ability to act in place of the Assembly or Senate. It consists of Datz, McMonagle, SA Treasurer Sikander Khan, Senate Chair Darwinson Valdez, and Assembly Speaker Steven Jackson.

Datz needed to appoint another E&C

chair by March 8 (the Thursday before spring break) in order for the “mandatory candidates meeting” to happen and for the election to continue on schedule, according to McMonagle.

She didn’t.

Tensions within the EPC “After Gretchen wasn’t approved, JoAnna had until the last Friday before break to appoint a new E&C chair,” McMonagle said. “The EPC email had to be sent [by JoAnna] by Thursday at 4:50 p.m., but JoAnna didn’t do that, which made it unconstitutional.”

Ovadia recommended Dan Kozlowski as a choice for the next E&C chair; Datz said she considered his recommendation because of Ovadia’s “unquestionable loyalty and commitment to the best interest of SA.” She – along

Datz admitted she did not appoint an E&C chair by the time of the mandatory meeting that was originally set for March 9 at 5 p.m. She said she postponed the meeting until further notice, as she had just met with Kozlowski that same day.

The next day, Khan sent an email to Datz asking her to call the EPC meeting, and he also agreed to approve Datz’s appointment of Kozlowski, but with reservations. He worried about Kozlowski’s lack of experience and added that he wasn’t writing to repair his relationship with Datz.

Khan’s email noted that Kozlowski had no prior experience running elections at any level. Khan also said that it seemed highly probable that Kozlowski may “end up making mistakes that will nullify the elections.”

“A Rushed Decision” On March 19 – the first Monday after spring break – Datz sent out an email calling for an EPC meeting. Datz did not provide any information on the qualifications of the new candidate or give any contact information to the EPC, according to McMonagle.

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SA Treasurer Absent Following $300,000 Scandal an email they received with all the details,” said Zach Barkin, president of the Golf Association, in an email. “The information painted a clearer picture for me as to why the financial process of SA has been moving so slowly.”

Golf Association was formally recognized as a club on March 22, and it has been working toward attending its first regional tournament, according to Barkin. The club was granted a starting budget of $850 from the SA Senate to help fund the competition and additionally received $80 per member through the SBI Ticket Office.

“At first, we were unable to receive the money that our members put in to participate in the tournament because the budget adjustment did not pass due to what I assume was Sikander's [$300,000 mobile app.] project,” Barkin said.

“Along with this, Sikander was virtually absent to try and come up with another plan to help us participate in the tournament.”

Because Khan was not available for help, the club had to use money from a second group of club members who originally planned to participate in a second tournament later in the season.

This group of members paid for a tournament that they weren’t able to participate in because of Khan’s absence and the lack of help from SA. The club will be able to participate in the second tournament through loans from its members; Barkin even donated several hundred dollars of his own to help fund the club. Barkin feels the club has been completely abandoned by SA’s financial department.

“This process started about a month ago, and we have still not received the money that our members put in to compete,” Barkin said. “We are a new, growing club at UB, and these setbacks have prevented us from concentration on the more important aspects of our club. It has led us to have a much rockier start than we had hoped for and caused us to really lose faith in our Student Association.”

Another club president, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing future funding from SA, experienced similar problems.

“Sikander is rarely in the office, and when he is, he ‘cannot be disturbed,’” he said. “It seems to me that his friend [Assistant Treasurer Syed Safiullah] basically does his job. The bottom line is

that if it weren’t for Steve [Hagenbuch] in the Finance department, nothing would ever get done.”

The club president also complained about the “myriad of signatures” that it takes to get a purchase order through to the finance department, and he had concerns about how it’s unfair that when one club’s budget within his respective council is frozen, all other clubs cannot send out checks without special approval.

“After being on my club’s e-board for several years, I have come to learn that 95 percent of SA is bullshit,” he said. “It takes constant reminders and nagging to get any help. A lot of clubs could use the money to help students on campus or represent the university at inter-collegiate events that SA wastes on crappy pizza, ‘capital improvements’ that are rarely used, and performing artists that are not top of the line. I realize that I have drifted away from Sikander, but there are so many problems with SA, I can't help it.”

Student Strategista and Role Players (SARPA) will be holding its 23rd-annual UBCON Gaming and Anime convention this weekend. With the big event quickly approaching, the group hasn’t been able to contact Khan directly.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Continued from page 1:

SA’s E-Board Has Been Divided All Year In a March 10 email from Khan to Datz obtained by The Spectrum, Khan told Datz he had reservations about approving her appointment of an Elections and Credentials chair (though he ended up approving anyway). But the introduction to the email is telling: “My intent of writing this email is not to improve my personal relations with you though I would highly prefer that,” Khan wrote. “I will completely understand if after reading through this email you choose to continue avoiding any communication with me professionally or personally.”

SA Senate Chairman Darwinson Valdez said he noticed the relationships within the e-board are cliquey. He has never seen the three of them together publicly, which goes against their campaign, during which they claimed they would “show their faces in the union,” Valdez said.

“This year has been looking like Meghan and Sikander against JoAnna,” Valdez said. “It’s known that they’re never together.”

At Senate meetings, Khan and McMonagle typically agree on topics that Datz is against, according to Valdez.

“I have gone into his office; I have sent him emails,” said SARPA President Joshua Brodsky.

“We haven’t been able to personally talk to him, but he’s still doing his job. We’re managing; we’re getting on.”

Last semester, communication problems led to some of SA’s accounts being frozen and SA pro-staff members not getting paid, according to SA Senator James Gibbons. He said Khan was trying to find a less expensive accounting service than Sub Board I, Inc.

UB Rock Climbing Vice President Alex Barganier hasn’t experienced any problems with Khan directly, but distrusts Khan and the VOICE party (which comprises the rest of the e-board and all four SUNY delegates) as a whole – not all of SA or the university – after learning of the investigation.

“[Khan] did not sign the initial contract [with Sub-Board] that all the treasurers sign for the upcoming year,” Gibbons said. “He didn’t sign it right away, and the pro-staff got mad because they weren't getting paid. It froze some of the accounts…When [Khan] tried to bring up [changing accountants], apparently everybody [including Datz and McMonagle] just motioned to leave the [Sub-Board] meeting…

When he initially was trying to do this and didn't sign the forms in time, it pissed off JoAnna and the other people in the SA.”

“The actions were his, not those of a collective association, I don’t believe,” Barganier said.

“From a club standpoint, I think that this is a blatant example of how the university puts too much authority into the hands of SA politicians.

Sure, the treasurer should have control over the budget allocation for SA, but at the same time, it is important that [others] keep tabs on how the budget is being used so such an incident won’t happen again.”

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

Gibbons added that had Khan had a better relationship with Datz, that problem would likely have never happened.

It’s common for the SA president and vice president to not get along, according to SA Senator Dan Pastuf. He said that during campaign season, the hopeful vice president typically looks forward to sharing power with the president, only to realize upon taking office that the president has almost complete power, with the vice president relegated to a far lesser role.

“Our term in office has lacked a lot of communication…I think I had better communication last semester than I have this semester,” Datz said on Monday. “I think that office hours can attest that we are never in the office at the same time…it’s rare to see [McMonagle and Khan] in the office…Communication has been lacking in the organization this year. I blame myself, but it was a group effort that caused that lack of communication. We just haven’t really seen them very much.”

When Khan and McMonagle signed a questionable $300,000 contract with Virtual Academix for a mobile app last month, Datz didn’t know about it.

When she found out about it, Datz launched an investigation into Virtual Academix. She and other SA officials found that it might be fraudulent.

Datz said she has not heard from Khan or McMonagle since then. Some have noted that it might be a good thing Datz and Khan don’t get along – if they did, perhaps the $300,000 contract would have slipped by everybody.

The Spectrum’s News Desk contributed to this report.

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

ubspectrum.com

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Continued from page 5: Student Association Runs “Incorrect” Elections Datz was also required by SA rules to provide an alternate for E&C chair, should the EPC not approve of her choice, according to McMonagle.

She didn’t.

The EPC finally met to vote on the appointment of Kozlowski on March 21. Datz said she hadn’t chosen an alternate because Kozlowski was Datz’s sole and best option for the position, as other potential candidates were unwilling, unavailable, or potentially biased.

If Datz’s new appointment hadn’t been approved at that meeting, the election would not have been able to take place.

Jackson voted “yes, with reservations,” according to the EPC meeting minutes. Jackson said that his issue wasn’t with Kozlowski, but with the committee as a whole.

“I regret voting yes to begin with,” Jackson said on March 29. “The way the EPC has been handling their decisions from my understanding, I’m not proud of. I think the committee has been biased, and it’s unfortunate. I expected them to have a little more…moderate attitude, and they haven’t demonstrated that.”

Jackson scheduled an April 5 interview with The Spectrum, but then declined the interview. He sent a statement via email.

“The E&C Chair issue was certainly a rushed decision that we as the Emergency Powers Council needed to make to maintain the timeliness of the Student Association in the long run,” Jackson wrote. “If we had more time, I would have been much happier about the result.”

Jackson wasn’t the only EPC member that voiced concerns during the meeting. McMonagle voted “yes with concerns,” and Khan voted “yes with extreme reservations,” according to the March 21 EPC minutes.

“Individuals have accused me of being biased in my appointment of Dan Kozlowski,” Datz said in a Tuesday email. “I would also like to point out that our student government, like the U.S. government, is set up to have a system of checks and balances. Regarding Meghan and Sikander's accusations that my appointment of Dan Kozlowski was biased, they had the opportunity to vote against the approval of his appointment.”

of SA, and I’ve read the constitution. I read up on all of this stuff before my appointment.”

Because Valdez was running in the election – a conflict of interest – he sent Ovadia to the meeting as his proxy. Ovadia voted “yes” during the meeting – according to the minutes – and criticized the lack of communication within SA.

“I think [the elections] went well, given the timeline we had,” Kozlowski said. “I think if you talked to most of the candidates, they would feel that we were fair – that we acted on all of the complaints promptly. I don’t think we were too aggressive or too lenient on anything.”

“I’ve sat in the room with [the e-board] numerous times, and I think a lot of the time they argue about last year, or old stuff,” Ovadia said. “I think they dwell on the past too much.”

But The Spectrum obtained an email sent to Kozlowski that outlined a flaw within SA’s Elections Rules and Regulations.

He added that Khan argued in the EPC meeting that things were handled differently last year and in past elections, instead of focusing on the task at hand: appointing an E&C chair for this year’s election.

Part of the SA Elections Rules and Regulations states that during elections, SA “intends to comply with applicable federal, state and local laws.”

In short, SA wants to legitimize its elections by abiding by New York State Election laws.

McMonagle thought Kozlowski was a poor candidate for the position as E&C chair because he lacked the skills and experience necessary of running a good election.

Those state laws were just updated this year. The law states – under Section 17, subsection 130, clause 4 – that a person cannot “electioneer on election day or on days of registration within 100 feet, as defined herein, from a polling place…For the purposes of this section, the 100 feet distance shall be deemed to include a 100 foot radial measured from the entrances…to a building where the election or registration is being held.”

“During the meeting, when Kozlowski was asked questions, he turned to Ovadia and JoAnna before he answered,” McMonagle said.

McMonagle said Kozlowski had no idea that the E&C chair was involved in club elections, and he had zero experience with the e-board. Kozlowski, though, argues that he has experience to qualify him as E&C chair.

“I don’t think that it’s true [that I was unknowledgeable],” Kozlowski said. “I’ve been a member of the Assembly since my freshman year [Kozlowski is a junior now]. I’ve been a frequent proxy at Senate meetings. I know the workings

The government center in the Guzara district of Herat was believed to have been the target of the day’s first attack, which took place around 8:45 a.m.

When a policeman opened fire on the suspected vehicle containing the explo-

sive, the attacker detonated his bomb and killed 12 people, including three policemen.

The attacks follow a tumultuous few months for U.S. and Afghan relations.

In February, U.S. soldiers were accused of accidentally burning a pile of Qurans, which set off waves of protest. In March, American Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales killed 16 Afghan civilians in a shooting rampage. On Monday, U.S. military commanders announced that the controversial night raids would be handed over to Afghan forces.

Kozlowski was happy with the way the elections turned out this year, and he believes that, given the circumstances, the entire process ran smoothly without any serious problems.

The SA rules (last updated during Summer 2010) state: “The Polling Area is the area extending 50 feet in all directions around the voting machines, unless otherwise determined by the Elections and Credentials Committee. This area shall be clearly marked by tape on the floor or other means. No campaigning shall take place within the Polling Area.”

David Noll, a junior economics and political science major who ran for SUNY delegate with the Blue Party in last year’s election, brought both clauses and the clear disconnect to Kozlowski’s attention on March 26, just before the elections began.

Kozlowski, along with his committee, reviewed the law and deemed the elections still legal despite the contradictions.

The election can still be contested and reviewed at any time, according to Kozlowski. If it were to be contested and thrown out, a new election could not occur until September or October of this year because an election cannot take place during finals time, according to SA’s lawyer.

During the summer, the club council chair with the most credits would serve as president, according to SA’s constitution. An election has never been thrown out in the history of SA, according to Kozlowski.

But Kozlowski remains hopeful for future elections and plans to learn from this experience to help him run the committee going forward.

“The only changes we’re making are based off the issue with the chair stepping down after the petitions were already out,” Kozlowski said.

“We’re hoping to change the constitution to make that not possible, that he would have to step down before the petitions were available. Other than disclosing out some of those loopholes from this year, I think everything will be the same.”

Additional reporting by News Editor Rebecca Bratek.

Email: news@ubspectrum.com

Santorum Announces Suspension of Campaign

Suicide Bombings Strike Afghan Cities As part of the traditional spring offensive that Afghan insurgents have used for decades against their Western occupiers, a string of suicide bombings occurred on Tuesday in the cities of Helmand and Herat. The attacks killed at least 16 people. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf claimed the group’s responsibility for the bombings.

Differing Opinions About the Election Itself

Quite simply, SA allows students to campaign within the Student Union, but the New York State law deems that practice illegal.

On Tuesday, GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced that he would be suspending his campaign. The statement was made days after Santorum’s 3-year old daughter, Bella, spent a weekend in the hospital with pneumonia while Christian leaders aligned with the GOP have stepped up calls for Santorum to bow out of the race. Santorum was in Gettysburg in his home state of Pennsylvania when he made his decision public.

A former U.S. Senator, Santorum emerged unexpectedly onto the national stage the past year. His campaign worked hard from the begin-

ning to promulgate his conservative social and fiscal values and to highlight his faith as a Catholic. In the last six months, Santorum was able to surpass Newt Gingrich as the “true conservative” in the race.

When Santorum began trailing close behind Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, the delegate count was already stacked in Romney’s favor. But Santorum stood his ground against what soon became improbable odds of winning the nomination. After Romney won Wisconsin, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. on April 3, more Republicans called for Santorum to abandon

his campaign and asked the former senator not to take the GOP race to the convention, as he once promised to do.

Santorum called Romney the morning of yesterday’s announcement and congratulated the former governor.

“We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” Santorum said, according to The New York Times.

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ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Page 9

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Do you trust SA?

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How much, if any, do you think SA should pay for a mobile device app?

Don’t Know

44%

Don’t Know

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No

No

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19%

Has SA been doing a good job this year?

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No

200

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Life

Page 10

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 ubspectrum.com

Sexual Assault: Are You Aware?

MEGAN DRESSEL Staff Writer One in four women and one in six men are sexually assaulted during their lifetimes, according to national statistics.

Eighty-five to 90 percent of the time, the victim knows the perpetrator, and has known him or her for over a year.

In 2010, 5,000 students at UB participated in the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA), a survey about sexual violence: 425 students reported being survivors of attempted rape, 260 students reported being raped, and a little over 1,300 students reported being sexually touched without giving consent.

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness month. Throughout the month, organizations around the world aim to educate people about what sexual assault is, what defines consent, who is at the highest risk, how to protect oneself from assault, and the ways someone could get help.

Anna Sotelo-Peryea, the research and planning coordinator at Wellness Education Services and a violence prevention specialist, works to raise awareness and educate people about sexual assault at UB. “I’ve talked to survivors who feel like once they tell someone they’ve had a sexual assault experience, they are treated completely differently,” SoteloPeryea said. “They’re treated as fragile, or like they have three heads, because people start looking at [them] differently.

It shouldn’t be that way. They are still the same person.”

Sexual assault is defined as any sexual act committed against a person without his or her consent. The word “consent” can be interpreted in different ways, but in a sexual sense, it is defined as a voluntary, sober, enthusiastic, creative, wanted, informed, mutual, honest, and verbal agreement that cannot be coerced. This means that any sort of “consent” that one may receive while one of the parties is drunk is not actual consent, because the individual is not in his or her right mind, according to legal-dictionary.freedictionary.com.

Statistics show that only 40 percent of cases that are identified as sexual assault are actually reported to the police.

In many cases, the first person the survivor chooses to tell is a family member or loved one, and it has been statistically proven that the reaction of this first person told dictates whether or not the individual will tell others.

Sotelo-Peryea stresses that providing support for the individual and taking the blame away from them are the best things that one can do to help. It is also important to inform the victim of the options that they have and safe places to go to get help. Police departments, hospitals, the wellness center at UB, and crisis services are all organizations that can offer information, support, advice, or whatever is necessary to make the victim feel better.

Crisis services in Buffalo offers a 24 hour hotline – which can be reached at 716834-3131 – for any and all emergencies, and also provides someone with an advocate to accompany him or her to the hospital and stay with them the entire time.

“The most important thing to do is just believe them,” Sotelo-Peryea said. “How you react is important. Talk less, listen more. People have a hard time wrapping their mind around the idea that something this horrible happened to someone you care about, so you question to understand what happened. These questions can come off really blaming toward the victim. Bear in mind, for them to speak to you is a huge thing. How they’re received can impact their mental health outcome. It sounds like a very little thing, but it can have a huge impact.”

Dr. Kathleen Parks, a senior research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions, finished collecting data in 2010 for a research project on drinking behaviors. She surveyed approximately 1,000 female incoming freshmen at a four-year university, beginning in the fall semester.

She then followed up with these students every fall semester for the next five years, collecting information on the progression of their drinking behaviors.

In the spring component, 200 women were invited out of the approximately 1,000 to phone in every day for eight weeks to talk about their experiences with alcohol. They were asked if any verbal, physical, or sexual aggression occurred.

While correlation does not imply causation, the results from this study suggest a link between the consumption of alcohol and sexual aggression: when females consumed more than four alcoholic drinks, they became 19 times more likely to experience acts of sexual aggression.

On days when women drank less – on average consuming two drinks – there was no difference in the likelihood of experiencing aggression in comparison to when

Healthy Living with The Spectrum Making big physical changes on a small budget AARON MANSFIELD Senior Life Editor Do you wake up and check your bank account balance online before buying coffee? Or put no more than $10 of gas in your car at a time? Maybe even pack a sandwich when you go out to the bar on Friday night?

You’re not alone. College students are notorious for being broke, but that doesn’t mean we have to be out of shape. As students, we get a “free” membership (free being in quotes because we actually pay for every free service on campus) to all the Alumni Arena workout facilities.

Personally, I don’t like the weight room at Alumni because it’s always so packed and you often have to wait for a treadmill. I guess I’m impatient. If you don’t mind the crowd or if you go at a time when no one’s there, more power to you. Otherwise, here are some tips for staying healthy on a student’s budget: 1. Do it the old-fashioned way Push-ups, sit-ups, jump rope, sprint, pull-ups. Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.

2. Play a sport Head over to the Triple Gym, or the racquetball courts, or even consider joining a sports club. Athletics are an easy way to burn calories without even noticing. If you play basketball for an hour,

Continued on page 16

Continued on page 16

Debating Life vs. Choice DUANE OWENS Staff Writer The halls in Knox are usually quiet late in the afternoon. On April 5 from 5-7 p.m., though, the pulse of Knox 109 beat strong. There seemed to be an invisible line inside the lecture hall between two groups of people. On one side sat pro-life and on the other prochoice.

Each side had signs and strong beliefs; furious tension sifted through the air.

This was the setting of the debate between UB Students for Life and UB Philosophers on a sensitive topic that has been contested for years: abortion.

Heated debate got started between members of the audience before the actual event even began, so the crowd was reminded to be respectful and to not interrupt once the speaking began.

Then things got really interesting.

Each side was given six minutes to state its claim and prove its point, and then the next team was given an opportunity to respond.

When assistant philosophy professor Kenneth Ehrenberg realized he only had 30 seconds left to make his argument, he directed his stress toward the

timekeeper and yelled: “you have to give me minute by minute, you have to tell me every minute.”

Apprehension only increased when the timekeeper snapped back: “it’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention.”

This hostility continued to grow when people in the audience began to intentionally move the squeaky chairs of the lecture hall while a debater from the opposing team was presenting.

They were banging on tables whenever they disagreed with an argument.

Professor Ehrenberg was even caught banging on the table while Catherine Nolan, a graduate student in philosophy who argued for the pro-life side, spoke.

“Banging on the table is a parliamentary form of expressing support for what is being said. Usually one does it for one’s own side,” Ehrenberg said.

“But sometimes it can be done when the other side is speaking in an attempt to show that what they are saying actually helps your side.”

Minus the random outbursts, noises, and people from the back of the classroom trying to debate the debaters, the crowd was for the most part respectful in listening and not getting too rowdy.

“I was extremely proud of our students and community,” said Bernadette Clor, debate volunteer and UB Law faculty member. “The students asked thoughtful and thought-provoking questions. I also believe that the crowd was respectful and engaged, a hard task on an issue that can be emotional and polarizing.”

“The way that the question was framed, ‘abortion is immoral,’ put our side at a disadvantage,” Ehrenberg said. “It is much easier to argue that abortion should remain legal or that it is frequently the best option out of a bad situation than that it is not immoral, which may imply that it is always permissible.”

Even the sex of the debaters was controversial – initially, neither side had a female member. Eventually, though, each team selected one woman, Nolan being one of them.

Though the task may have been more difficult for one side than the other, some members of the audience still didn’t excuse the pro-choice team and voiced their disappointment in the debate.

“I was glad to be one of the women selected for the debate,” Nolan said. “I think it’s all too often assumed that all women, or at least all feminists, are necessarily pro-choice, and that’s just not true.”

Throughout the debate, the main argument revolved around whether a fetus is considered a person or not. Pro-life argued that life begins at conception while pro-choice maintained that a group of cells do not constitute a person.

The debate proved to be a bigger challenge for pro-choice than pro-life because of the question of whether or not abortion is moral.

“I was disappointed in the debate, which I considered [to be] very imbalanced,” said Juan Oliveros, an accounting major. “On one hand the prolife group was very well prepared and ready to deliver their argument. On the other, the pro-choice group was very unprepared and overwhelmed by the other side’s arguments. The lack of preparation was evident in the philosophy club’s president’s speech, when he stated that he was not feeling capable of debating. The other prochoice members were equally disappointing.”

Students gathered in Knox 109 on April 5 to participate in a heated pro-life and pro-choice debate between UB Students for Life and UB Philosophers.

The pro-life team got the jump on the debate before the pro-choice team had a chance. According to Nolan, the prolife team prepared by communicating with each other on which points of argument they were going to touch on and practiced questions that the audience might ask.

According to Ehrenberg, the methods of preparation they used were note taking and brainstorming replies to likely arguments from the other team.

Having only met once as a group, they went into the debate with the mindset of “thinking on their feet.”

After questions from the audience, the debate ended peacefully without further arguments or conflict of any kind.

Members of the crowd casually spoke with debaters. The debaters have expressed interest in doing something like this again in the future and encourage those who are interested to join their respective clubs.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com

Aline Kobayashi /// The Spectrum

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Page 11

Sexpectations KEREN BARUCH Life Editor I recently overheard a boy complaining to his friends about one of his wild nights out at the bars over the weekend. A girl supposedly “wasted his precious time” by making out with him all night and then denying to go home with him.

If you refer to one of my previous columns you know that I’m aware of the main objective of most guys when they go out: to get laid. I wasn’t born yesterday – we’re all in college and we like to have fun. What I didn’t realize, though, is that if there’s no sex, there’s no fun.

Robert Fearghas has spent years trying to come to terms with his sexuality.

Photo Illustration by Meg Kinsley

Cracking Open Closed Doors KEREN BARUCH Life Editor Robert Fearghas slid a condom onto his sister’s curling iron, took a deep breath, and inserted it into the hole in his anus. After eight years of hiding his sexual identity, Fearghas admitted he was gay. Finally, he began to prepare for his first sexual encounter with a man.

Coming out wasn’t easy. For years, Fearghas had resigned himself to spending his entire life in the closet.

“I knew I was gay, but I thought in my head maybe I can live a lifestyle where I could be straight,” Fearghas said. “I could get married [and] I could have sex with a woman. I never believed I could biologically switch who I was attracted to, but I thought maybe I could live… the normal line of life.”

But no longer.

He has been inspired by the publicity and outrage generated by the Jamie Rodemeyer and Tyler Clementi suicides and relieved to see his own struggles mirrored in popular media outlets, like Lady Gaga lyrics and stories across the country. Fearghas has become bolder about his sexuality.

In the past year, he – like hundreds of students across the country – had come out to his friends and his family.

Rodemeyer, 14, of Williamsville, N.Y., killed himself after classmates taunted him online about his sexuality. Clementi, a Rutgers freshman, jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate spied on a sexual encounter he had with another man and invited others to watch.

Data on how many young people have come out in recent years is hard to come by, said Elaine Maccio, an assistant professor in LSU’s school of social work, who studies lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues (LGBTQ).

Students don’t “register” when they come out or contact any on-campus organizations so researchers are having trouble quantifying the numbers.

“If you define ‘community’ as a visible group of LGBTQ people, then yes, the community has grown,” Maccio said. “The number of LGBTQ people living openly is increasing, meaning there are more people getting involved in the LGBTQ community.”

This year, for the first time, an LGBTQ group marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in NYC. The group, OUTspoken for Equality, is based in Buffalo, and continues to fight for and promote equality by hosting events like their Royal Wedding Watch Party. During the event, they watched the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, while signing letters that were sent to state senators explaining the importance of equality for gay and lesbian couples fighting for marriage rights.

At UB, 20 new members have joined the LGBTQ in the past two years, which is a lot compared to previous years, said Judy Mai, a junior health and human services major who is the group’s president.

Hiding Behind Closed Doors Fearghas grew up in a white Catholic neighborhood full of girls. He played with his younger sister and two neighborhood girls every day.

He rarely saw his father, a computer engineer, who worked what seemed like all the time to Fearghas growing up. He was always effeminate and sometimes blamed it on the lack of men in his life.

The Coming Out By college, Fearghas felt caged.

He wanted to talk about who he really was yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“It was getting to a point where people knew [I was gay, without me telling them] and it felt weird,” Fearghas said. “I’d be in a room with my best friends, I’d put on this completely different act about how I sleep with women or whatever it may be, and I’d leave the room and they’d obviously talk about me being gay… that’s when I realized it’s time that I really have to be true to myself.”

When Fearghas was in eighth grade, his father caught him looking at male porn online. He sat his son down and told him: “you know, we’d really rather you not turn out gay, we want you to be straight.”

He decided to try it out on his best friend, Sofia Sessler, in March of last year.

Fearghas was crushed.

“It affected me in only positive ways,” Sessler said. “It was such a relief to finally be able to get to know him on that level. We had been best friends for two years prior, but there was always an element of him that I knew he was hiding. Once he was out I got to know the whole him, and all of the feelings he had been suppressing since he was a kid. I felt so happy for him that he could finally be himself.”

He felt as if his family would never accept him if they knew about his attraction to men. He assured them that he was just going through a phase and that he was straight.

“Growing up was really rough, because I am very feminine,” Fearghas said. “Middle school was the roughest. I’d wake up and I’d just hope not to be made fun of, or I’d hope to be made fun of once instead of 10 times.”

A classmate once walked up to him in the lunch room, slammed a tray of food into his lap, and shouted: “Do you know what a faggot is?

That’s what you are.”

On Halloween of the same year, Fearghas dyed his hair green and was taunted in the hallways by groups of people screaming: “Green is the color of gay.”

One boy even approached him and said: “Just hit me first so I can hit you back because you’re gay.”

Research has shown that being bullied puts youths at risk for low self-esteem, depression, self-harm and suicide, substance use disorders, poor academic performance, and many other challenges, Maccio said.

Fearghas responded to the harassment by becoming introverted, but he was filled with selfdoubt.

“I kind of just went into this shell,” Fearghas said. “I was really quiet, I didn’t talk much, I was never myself. I questioned a lot of things… it definitely affected me negatively as far as not being who I am.”

Fearghas relied on a small group of friends and his family to help him through middle and high school. But he never dared talk to them about his deepest concern – his growing awareness of his homosexuality.

She cried.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, he decided to tell his parents. But he couldn’t do it in person, so he mailed them a letter.

His father called him the day he got it. He said Fearghas was courageous. He called him mature and said he was proud to be his father.

Fearghas was relieved and proud – and shocked that he had waited so long to come out.

Fearghas knows he was lucky.

Many students do not have such supportive families or friends.

Jim Bowman, a special populations outreach coordinator for the Student Wellness Center, meets many of them. He sees approximately 200-300 students each year working on trainings, workshops, and classroom visits. He also meets with 30-40 students that seek individualized and smaller group support in his office at 114 SU. According to him, over the past five years, the numbers of people that visit him has steadily increased.

Bowman also has his own story to tell.

He came out to himself and to others 13 years ago, and while many in his family support him, his father no longer allows him or his partner in his home.

Continued on page 17

I don’t judge girls that take home the first boy they make eye contact with at the bar.

I believe that women are entitled to make their own decisions about their sex lives and, if their reputations suffer because of their choices, they can find a way to fix that on their own.

I do judge and pity girls that don’t know how to make their own decisions – the girls that cave under the pressure guys put on them.

In this day and age, it seems guys don’t understand the concept of ending the night with a kiss. Once lips lock, a light bulb goes off in a man’s head and he automatically expects to be inside of the girl at some point during the night – or, if she’s too drunk, at least the morning after.

I’ve seen situations where guys literally beg girls to come home with them. Once a girl relents, though, just being there isn’t enough for him. He’ll beg for a blowjob, a hand job, and, inevitably, sex. He’ll make the girl feel stupid for saying no and make her feel prudish for not wanting to “just have some fun.”

News flash, guys: it’s not “simple fun” if she feels like she’s being taken advantage of or if she only agreed to pleasure you because you pressured her to do so. Chances are the night will end with you putting another notch on your bedpost while she goes home crying, wondering when she became “that” kind of girl.

In middle school, being prude meant being afraid to hold hands and hug your “boyfriend” of the week. The next step was being too nervous or not wanting to kiss someone.

Now it means not wanting to let someone you barely know get in your sheets and in between your legs.

Too many girls are too scared to say no.

“Well, if I had sex with that blonde kid the night I met him I guess it wouldn’t be fair for me to say no to the one asking to come over tonight, right?”

Wrong. If you felt bad about yourself the last time you fell victim to the pressures a guy put on you, then you will feel equally – if not more – shameful the next time. Don’t think that because you did something once or twice you have to do it all the time. You can change your ways when you realize that you’re worth more than what this random boy is making you out to be.

Often we forget who we are and who we want to be. Sometimes the girl that the random charming boy at the bar wants us to be is the girl we become. We let their expectations enter our minds and they engrave themselves there.

While having wild Sex and The City status sex with someone you find incredibly attractive who you share loads of sexual tension with is fiery and fun, having it with someone just because he won’t stop asking is not.

If you want to get down and dirty and wake up next to his face in the morning, after letting him shake your bed all night, then go for it. But girl, if you’re not feeling it tonight, then say no. You’re entitled to; it’s just easy to forget that in this day and age.

Email: keren.baruch@ubspectrum.com

Arts

Page 12

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 ubspectrum.com

UB Alum Takes Film to Next Level However, even without the help of Naded and MLG, Imbs would not be in the dark. He has been playing video games for much of his life and spent a large amount of his time at UB engaging in Halo LAN parties with his friends.

JAMES TWIGG Senior Managing Editor All across the country parents are telling kids and teens to put down the video games and go outside. Whether or not they realize it, they’re also telling their children to pass up on the chance to make six figures a year.

“We took it seriously, like a religion” Imbs said laughing. “We would play hour-long capture the flag matches on Blood Gulch and when you lost there was an hour long discussion of what the team did wrong…I remember we were playing at Flint Village and it was Team Kitchen vs. Team Couch and we would skip class and just play that all day.”

Over the past few years, professional gaming has become an underground phenomenon. Players in Major League Gaming (MLG), most of whom are in their late teens, make hundreds of thousands of dollars playing games like Halo: Reach and StarCraft II competitively. Now, with his new movie, Game Changers, Robert Imbs is looking to not only craft a compelling tale of friendship and growing up, but to also bring the world of professional gaming to light.

The story of Game Changers focuses on Brian and Scott, two friends and former pro Halo MLG players. While working at a failing IT business, the two find themselves playing Halo at someone’s house and losing several matches. Brian snaps and decides to make one last run at becoming a pro gamer. Scott reluctantly agrees and the two set out to discover whether or not they’ve still got what it takes to frag with the pros and what it really means to grow up.

Although all the characters are fictitious, Imbs did find inspiration through real-world circumstances.

“The [story is] not based on anyone directly but, I do have to be honest, I am a gamer,” Imbs said. “I was a student [at UB]. I was a founding member of SMASH club – the Super Smash Bros. club.

I grew up playing video games obsessively. I could’ve seen myself dedicating my life to becoming a pro gamer. So, this is also an exploration for me.”

The only thing holding this film back from being made is the funding.

Imbs and his crew are currently attempting to raise $30,000 through the site indiegogo.com/ game-changers, which allows users to make donations to help finance the project. Currently, Imbs has raised roughly $6,100 and has until April 21 to collect the remaining $23,900.

About a year ago, though, Imbs made the decision to give up gaming. He realized that between shooting, editing, and producing his films, he needed all the time he could spare.

But that’s not to say he doesn’t miss it.

Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum

Robert Imbs combines his love of video games and movies in his upcoming feature film Game Changers.

On the final day of fundraising for Game Changers, Imbs and his crew will be having a 12 hour telethon that can be streamed through the film’s website. It will feature talks on the cinematography behind the film from the crewmembers as well as a Dr. Mario Deathwing Challenge.

However, even if they don’t hit their goal of $30,000, Imbs said the film would still get made with filming taking place in August throughout Buffalo. He has been working on the concept for Game Changers for two years and is dedicated to getting it made.

This will be far from Imbs’ first foray into film.

As a student at UB, he created SATV before graduating with a degree from the department of media studies in 2003. Since then, he has written and directed the award-winning Couch, founded the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, and has attended several other festivals including Toronto and Sundance. However, he admitted that not all of his experiences in film are positive.

“When I graduated I cut a feature film that was called The Maize: The Movie, which I am proud now to say was rated the worst horror movie of all time on IMDB,” Imbs said. “At the time it

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really hurt my ego, but I was just the editor, and now I think it’s kind of funny.”

Imbs is determined to make Game Changers a success, though. He has even gone as far as to enlist the help of someone who knows the world of MLG intimately – professional Halo player Naded.

Naded (Brett Leonard) of Team SV has been signed on as the film’s official gaming consultant. He will work with Imbs to make sure that the film is a proper representation of the professional gaming world.

“I want to make sure that when I write scenes they’re accurate,” Imbs said. “Even though most people who watch the film won’t necessarily know the differences if they’re not gamers, it’s important to me to make this a very realistic film.

I hate nothing more than fake techno babble jargon.”

Imbs has also been working with PR representatives at MLG to organize an on-site filming of a live MLG event for pick-ups in Game Changers.

“I remember I played StarCraft II to the point where I couldn’t stop,” Imbs said. “It was a hard thing for me to do, my girlfriend said ‘you should delete it’ and I remember dragging that StarCraft II icon to the trash, right-clicking and hitting empty. It was a horrifying and invigorating process.”

Imbs is also an avid fan of MLG. He follows the teams and tournaments closely, and has for several years. He has yet to attend a live event though, much to his dismay.

Still, he watches every tournament with rapt attention and cheers on his favorite team.

“Once I say it I’ll have to hold to it,” Imbs said hesitantly. “Status Quo just took it and they’re awesome but I’ll have to say Instinct [is my favorite team] because Ogre 2, to me, is just the champion. He was there when Walshy made those huge runs with Final Boss, and now to be on a team that’s dominating again?”

If everything goes according to plan for Imbs, Game Changers will be released in summer 2013 with a premiere taking place in either New York or LA. Email: arts@ubspectrum.com

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ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Page 13

The Reality of Reality Dance Shows DELANEY MARSCO Staff Writer The television industry does a lot of things wrong. I think we need look no further than Snooki to see that.

Reality television is a particularly fallible beast, and the new season of America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC), premiering this Wednesday, proves that.

Allen Lin /// The Spectrum

Printmaking excellence was in full display at the UB Anderson Gallery.

Print Mastery at UB SEAN BABINEAU Staff Writer

Humanism, individualization, and equality are all abstract ideas, but there’s a gallery that makes these concepts concrete and aesthetically pleasing.

UB Anderson Gallery is hosting the Print Review, an exhibit that featured the work of three Buffalo-affiliated printmakers – renowned artist Chunwoo Nam, UB professor Harold L. Cohen, and Buffalo Print Club founder Kevin B. O’Callahan.

Nam, an MFA graduate from UB and assistant professor of printmaking at the Herron School of Arts and Design in Indianapolis, Ind., used his work to show his liberal views. Nam uses lithographic imaging and installation pieces to speak out against the inequalities of a globalizing world.

“Global society is not a village where people amicably live together, but a playground of a few global players in their course of making profits and fostering their distinctive social taste,” Nam said. “Marginalized people are brutally excluded by their own legal boundary of citizenship.”

Nam’s 2010 piece, “I Am Here,” is an installation of 108 lithographs that stretch well over 30 feet. The sprawl-

ing, repeated ghostly outline of a figure stands alone in a city of advertising image, representing the idea of the endangerment of identity.

Cohen – artist, Dean Emeritus, and professor in the School of Architecture and Planning – also focuses on elements of humanity and equality in his work. He holds the belief that design can change the world.

“We can remake our cities into environments which will discourage the bestial qualities of men and women and reinforce the humane and decent characteristics we expect from a civilized society,” Cohen said. “We can support the necessary behaviors required to train our next generation so that they will come to see the whole problem and not merely the economic factors.”

Cohen’s “Inalienable Rights” (2008) uses dry point, a type of engraving that requires the use of a sharply pointed instrument on a copperplate.

Working in a medium most would be unable to master, Cohen not only succeeds in this exquisite rendering of five women in full garb learning to read – he triumphs.

Cohen also used other techniques in his creations, including etching, woodcut, linocut, collagraph, and drawing.

“What I really like about this exhibit is it touches on the process of lithography and printmaking where it not only has the prints, but the actual plates and etchings that are used to create the finished lithograph,” said Jim Snider, UB Anderson Gallery’s staff assistant.

O’Callahan had a more abstract approach to his work. He paid particular attention to details of form and structure in his work, creating mechanical scenes from Buffalo’s industrial waterfront and geometrically precise images of shipbuilding from Thomaston, Maine.

“Ship’s Skeleton” (1940), his woodengraved illustration, is created from the perspective of an off-kilter angle in the bowels of an unfinished, framed boat. Martin Pops, a UB English professor, praised the vagueness of this vantage point.

“We are trapped in a confusion of visual ambiguity without a satisfactory point of view in a workspace unmoored to any discernible world beyond it,” Pops said.

The UB Anderson Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and this exhibit will be displayed until May 27.

Email: arts@ubspectrum.com

This and other reality dance shows, like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars, have done nothing but disservice to a highly specialized profession that, at one time, was reserved for only the talented and the elite. Professional dancers – the ones who achieved a certain level of fame – used to embody the notion that fame must be deserved and that time, experience, and technical mastery were requirements for gaining recognition.

Reality dance shows work against this idea of elitism in dance. Becoming a talented dancer is a lifelong process.

“Training” people like Rob Kardashian and Sherri Shepherd to be world-class ballroom dancers in a few short weeks must be insulting to those people who have trained for 20 years to perfect the tango – and if it isn’t insulting, it certainly should be.

These shows represent the idea that anyone can achieve a level of proficiency and talent to achieve fame in the world of professional dance, and this simply is not true.

And would anyone want that to be true?

What made Salvador Dali so amazing was the fact that simply no one else could have done what he did. The same goes for Mozart, Michelangelo, The Beatles, and for any other great artist.

People are attracted to these great artists because of their originality – the fact that no one else could achieve what they did.

Instead of trying to promote the idea of elitism in the art of dance, these shows do something more sinister: they commodify dance. The result of this commodification is detrimental to the development of young dancers every-

where. The quality of dance on a local level will ultimately diminish, making dance obsolete as an art form and giving way for dance to be considered a sport.

I don’t want to be misunderstood. I, in no way, think the democratization of dance is wrong. On the contrary, the byproduct of shows like ABDC is something reality dance television does right. But, without widespread recognition of an art form and the process that it requires, respect for that art form will not exist.

My roommate’s boyfriend, in fact, has developed an attitude of veneration for dance because of ABDC; the show, he says, demonstrates the athleticism dance requires and that it’s more difficult than it first appears.

The problem with these shows is that they only tell half of the story. Any educated, self-respecting dancer would admit, perhaps begrudgingly, that ballet is the foundation of most dance forms. (I say “most” and not “all” because I am unfamiliar with the technical foundation for more modern and unregulated dance forms, like breakdancing.) Because ballet is such a cornerstone of subsequent dance forms, one cannot hope to truly excel in dance without some working knowledge of ballet.

Shows such as Dancing with the Stars are particularly bad at mentioning this important fact. Paralleling the popularity of these shows will undoubtedly bring about an increase of dancers who don’t want to engage in fundamental ballet training and dance schools who won’t provide it. This will not only produce ill-prepared dancers who are unable to uphold the reputation of dance as an elite art form, but also perpetuate the idea that sport-like competitions are the best way to preserve the art in the modern world.

Instead of educating people about the importance of the arts, these shows exist to be more of a fast track to shortlived fame than a form of paying homage to the craft.

Email: dnmarsco@buffalo.edu

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Page 14

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Journey to Clufffalo DELANEY MARSCO Staff Writer

Finger painting is usually reserved for toddlers, but Charles Clough proved otherwise.

Clough, the artist whose work is on display in the first floor at the CFA art gallery, has perfected the art of finger painting. The exhibit, entitled Charles Clough: The Way to Clufffalo, highlights Clough’s artistic journey from the early 1970s to the present.

His finger painting works were the highlight of the exhibit. Their bright colors and intricate patterns are a feast for the eyes, injecting palpable energy into the stark white walls of the gallery.

UB Art Gallery Curator Sandra Q. Firmin, who has been curating the UB galleries for nine years, chose the exhibit because she felt Clough and his work uniquely represented the identity of the Buffalo area and the legacy of the Buffalo avantgarde scene.

“Charlie Clough was an artist who I was really intrigued by,” Firmin said. “I went out to Los Angeles where he lived and I saw the early works and they fascinated me. Also, Charlie is a part of [the] Hallwalls [legacy]. Hallwalls [Contemporary Arts Center] was one of the first alternative art spaces in Buffalo.”

Clough’s earlier works first drew Firmin to the artist. The pieces embody Clough’s artistic term “PEPFOG,” an acronym for the “photographic epic of a painter as a film or a ghost,” which refers to the way people have increasingly related to art through a camera lens. The prominences of the eye, and the strong element of voyeurism in his early pieces, showcase how the artist acts as a translator between art and spectator.

His early work features magazine cutouts of eyes as well as blown-up pictures of Clough’s own eye. The eyes are often distorted in some way, whether by simply being flipped upside down or by being obscured by swirls of brightly colored paint. The most provocative aspect of these pieces show Clough’s personal pictures painted over his characteristic finger-paint style.

Clough’s later work does not translate the notion of “PEPFOG” as literally with the eye, but

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Yue Hu /// The Spectrum Charles Clough’s homage to his home city, The Way To Clufffalo, challenged his audience to see art differently and is currently on display at the CFA Art Gallery.

it certainly does play with perception. The finger painting that was not fully developed in his work in the early 1970s comes full force as his work progresses.

The finger painting technique Clough uses is no kindergartener’s task. It’s an intricate method that must be exercised with meticulous precision to prevent the muddling of all the colors into brown. To create his work, Clough uses giant finger painting tools that are on display in the gallery. Firmin was able to use these tools and experience the difficulty of the technique firsthand through one of Clough’s group painting workshops.

The “Big Finger” painting series show how complex the paintings are and how various the effects could be. “Delelorum,” enamel on masonite, is a work in the series that highlights intricate dragging patterns. Clough manages to create negative space that isn’t at all negative by using a diverse range of color in shade and tone; the colors work together to confuse the division between negative and occupied space. The thick strokes combined with thin dragging lines also construct this altered perception, and it becomes easy to get lost in the work.

“I realized what kind of a fascinating artist he is and also how difficult what he does is,” Firmin said. “His strategy, and the way he paints, is actually really difficult. If you go too far it turns

Another standout piece was “Arabesque,” enamel on linen. Clough blended the yellowy colors against darker shades, creating a veiny effect when viewed up close.

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The danger of this type of abstract expressionism is the immediate dismissal of it as amateurish, simply because it looks easy to do. Charles Clough: The Way to Clufffalo, however, proves that such art requires a detailed, difficult process that is rewarding for all parties involved. “[Clough was] rewarding to write about [because of] a couple of things,” Firmin said. “His love of abundance. He is like a machine, and he just produces and produces – his love of color, his joy. The joy he takes in painting and his desire to communicate joy to other people.”

Charles Clough: The Way to Clufffalo will be on display in the UB Art Gallery until May 19.

Email: arts@ubspectum.com

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Science Evolves Into Art STEPH O’BRYAN Staff Writer Ruby Merritt stands next to a plethora of petri dishes and test tubs. It isn’t her science class; it’s her contribution to the ongoing visual arts exhibit in the CFA Arts Gallery.

Seven first year graduate students in the MFA program were selected to display their avantgarde work in the CFA Art Gallery for the exhibit, First Year MFA Show: Drag Bar. Each piece in the gallery is a representation of a current contemporary issue or ideology represented through different mediums.

These students were selected for UB’s rigorous, two-year, 60-credit MFA program. The regiment tracks the student’s development and culminates with the presentation of a whole semester’s worth of work.

Merritt displayed work that demonstrated her fascination with geology and examining evolving elements over time. Her display featured test tubes holding different substances that had developed to a certain density and form. The tubes were placed in plexiglass holders and were strung up by fishing wire 20-feet from the ceiling of the gallery. The fishing wire was used to make the elements appear to be floating in air.

“It’s the materials that come out of natural processes like evaporation and erosion forming densities,” Merritt said. “As the show progresses, my pieces will change and evolve to show constant transformation.”

In the center of the exhibit, a silver medallion made of clay laid stretched five feet across the floor. This piece by Anthony DiMezza represented a moment of Irish history when the Fenian Irish Brotherhood, consisting of IrishAmericans, attempted to invade Canada in the 1860s.

For the opening reception, DiMezza organized the 155th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the Union Volunteers Fife and Drum Corp to march throughout the exhibit and stomp over the coin in a performance entitled Fág an Bealac!

Toward the back of the gallery was the art of Gary Sczerbaniewicz, whose pieces represented his background in woodwork and architecture.

One opus, “Cabinet,” featured a wooden box hanging on the wall with three peepholes. At first, it simply seems like a box, but, when one looks through a hole on either side, one sees a vacant life-sized room. The house seems to once be inhabited, with a knocked over chair and clothing strewn around the floor.

“The idea was to create a scenario where the viewer has to put together elements of a reallife marriage,” Sczerbaniewicz said. “That’s what interests me, the theatrical evidence of existing life. It’s the narrative aspect of art.”

Two other MFA students, Alexander Derwick and Dave Leighty, shared one wall of the gallery. Both students had a background in printmaking, and their pieces represented different life themes.

Derwick explored the idea of a ‘Lost Kids’ scenario, which showed how kids make decisions without parental guidance. Some of the images had children carving their own tattoos and racing bicycles. He used a scratching method for each piece and layered the etchings on black and white backgrounds.

Leighty focused on young adulthood by portraying a performance space from his past.

He took different elements of the building and rubbed them onto paper like a traditional grave rubbing. According to Leighty, it is a display of his entire consciousness of the space.

The group of seven MFA students curated the exhibit on their own, and held meetings throughout the semester to collaborate their works.

“We have so many little subtle undertones to our work that are just almost naturally linked,” Merritt said. “It’s a really great group that brings different aspects of contemporary art to the table.”

The exhibit will be on display in the second floor gallery of the CFA until April 28.

Email: arts@ubspectrum.com

Page 15

Hood-lums

lazily using social media as a response to the injustice.

It looked like the same problem was going to happen for America’s latest saga of racial injustice. But Fight The Power UB’s March for Trayvon last Monday proved otherwise. There were a few students in the march for social BRIAN JOSEPHS reasons and maybe others present just for the Arts Editor hell of it. However, there was one thing that remained consistent – the hoodie.

I don’t think there are a lot of things America does right nowadays, but if I had to pick one, I’d quickly point at the guy proudly wearing his hoodie as he walks across the Student Union.

I’ve been critical about how we’ve been handling the past few major tragedies, mainly because of our lazy reliance on social media.

The Casey Anthony trial, the Troy Davis execution, and Kony 2012 are the ones that immediately come to mind.

Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have been our main source of “protest” against these injustices, and revolutionaries from the ’60s and ’70s would undoubtedly laugh at that. I feel that liking a witty Facebook picture about George Zimmerman in your comfortable Greiner dorm doesn’t scream “No Justice, No Peace” like it should.

Even worse off, the social injustices have become more of a trending topic then an actual rallying cry. I remember everybody was up in arms about Kony 2012 about a month back.

Then the Trayvon Martin murder happened, and I haven’t seen one status or tweet about Joseph Kony since.

I’ve specifically called out this short-term memory in a satirical comment on Facebook that said, “I’m just curious if people still care about Kony 2012.”

A few Facebook friends responded to the comment by reposting/retweeting it. Then they continued to like and share the witty Martin pictures before going on to rant about their minor everyday problems. These were the exact same things I had just called them out on.

I wrote a column about this false sense of activism last semester about the Troy Davis execution (titled “The Tragedy of Troy”).

Specifically, I called out college students for

The Skittles are ripe for parody, and I feel like Arizona profits skyrocketed because of how refreshing activism began to taste. But the hoodie encapsulated many of America’s problems in one piece of clothing. Suddenly, a hooded African-American college student represented racial injustice, stereotyping, the flawed judicial system, and – the main tragedy – the loss of an unfulfilled life.

The most interesting thing about the hoodie is that is forced African-Americans to ask one question: If I wore a hoodie, would I also look suspicious? If so, then I could’ve easily been Zimmerman’s victim that night.

I’m glad that the youth has decided to use the hoodie as a rallying cry to bring these problems to light, instead of self-righteous social media usage.

This is a double-edged sword though. The Anthony trial doesn’t resonate as much because a majority of us aren’t parents. The Davis execution represents an extreme circumstance.

Do we really care only if a case directly applies to us?

We also have to take into account that America is a superficial society. Zimmerman identified Martin as a threat mostly because of that hoodie. I think some African-Americans may feel doubly threatened by the fact that they may be being targeted because of what they wear. Automatically we’re being robbed of something that essentially makes us American.

These are speculations. I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers, since I’m biased.

I’m African-American, I’m pissed about the case, and I do believe justice has yet to be served.

But knowledgeable or not, I’m wearing that hoodie.

Email: brian.josephs@ubspectrum.com

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Page 16

Continued from page 10: Sexual Assault: Are You Aware? they consumed no alcohol at all.

Parks says it’s important to note that this research does not aim to blame the survivors of sexual abuse in any way – she is looking for patterns, so that women and men can become educated on the topic and aware of behaviors that may place them in vulnerable situations.

“I study women to try and figure out what specifically the risks are for women,” Parks said. “I can empower women with the risk factors [so that] they can help themselves to prevent these things from happening. Even though I think women should be able to do anything they want to and be safe, that’s not reality. So the more I can do to help women protect themselves, the better off we are.”

UB offers help to students who are survivors of sexual assault and to students who are considered “secondary survivors” – individuals who have a loved one who has been affected by sexual assault. Two groups on campus that offer support are The Men’s Group and the Student Survivor Advocacy Alliance. Both groups focus on advocacy, awareness, and education of the topic of sexual assault.

Ashley Bennett, a graduate student in the school of social work, is the founder and one of the current leaders of the Student Survivor Advocacy Alliance, better known as “the Alliance.” The organization offers life and learning workshops about the bystander effect and how to help a sexual assault survivor, along with healing activities.

“We want to make a safe place for survivors,” Bennett said. “We focus on a lot of the advocacy and activism because we haven’t gotten to the point where it doesn’t exist.

So we need to make sure that while it exists, there are people here to support survivors, and this is an environment where they feel comfortable seeking help. Where they feel safe. Where it’s okay to be a survivor of sexual assault.”

Dr. Amberly Panepinto, a counselor at UB with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, suggests that education about what sexual violence actually is and the importance of explicit consent could be beneficial to all students.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Continued form page 10: Healthy Living with The Spectrum ly Banks – yup, the Tae Bo guy – workouts online. As unusual as his training methods are, and as absurd as the 1990s outfits are, you’ll love the actual exercise.

by all means, buy one! Otherwise, stay away from the $100-plus contraptions that promise to get you in the best shape of your life – without even having to work hard!

3. Work out at home

If you’re looking to buy a program online, visit eBay, Half.com, or Amazon. Can’t beat the prices on those sites.

In-home exercise programs like Insanity and P90X, though they’re incredible programs that I’d recommend to anyone – they’ll leave you in a pool of sweat that you won’t achieve by just jogging on a treadmill or lifting weights. They can get expensive (upwards of $100-200) (unless you download them illegally online) (not that a college student would ever do that).

A benefit of working out at home is you can also wear whatever you want. I know a lot of guys prefer working out shirtless, but that’s sort of frowned upon at the gym. Obviously you’re free to wear whatever embarrassing outfit you want when you’re working out at home, and your outfit is essential, because it’s vital to be comfortable when you work out.

Fact: you’ll never get results if you don’t exert energy. Herein lies the problem with a lot of people who go to the gym: they run on the treadmill for 10 minutes, then rest for 10, chat with some friends, and end up spending an hour at the gym without doing much work at all. Silly as this may sound, a lot of people do it without even realizing it. It’s like: “Oh, I spent my hour at the gym, I’ve filled my quota for the day.” You won’t burn calories when you’re talking whether you’re in a suit at work or in shorts at the gym.

you can burn anywhere from 500-800 calories. If you’re going all-out in racquetball, you’ll likely burn close to 1,000 calories.

Those are some pretty big numbers, especially considering that jogging for the same amount of time will only burn about half as many calories.

There are plenty of other options for in-home exercise. Just YouTube “workouts” and you’ll find some great videos – the Six Pack Shortcuts guys always have fresh, fun material that’s sure to leave you exhausted (and in a short amount of time – Six Pack Shortcuts are designed for people who have hectic schedules). Also consider the old-school Bil-

4. Don’t spend money on fancy gadgets You mean that ab belt I bought last month won’t work? Damn it! Sorry to break the news, but most of those expensive workout machines you see advertised in infomercials just work targeted areas of your body. So if you want a one-pack or just ripped thighs,

Above all…

You don’t need shiny tools or snazzy threads to get in shape. You just need work ethic. So man up and get to work – today.

Email: aaron.mansfield@ubspectrum.com

WANT A SPECTRUM T-SHIRT? BE ONE OF THREE TO BRING A COPY OF THIS ISSUE TO THE SPECTRUM OFFICE!!

While Panepinto recognizes that people might feel that explicit consent might be considered a “mood killer,” it really protects everyone.

On April 28, UB will be participating in the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, which raises awareness about sexual assault.

There is no registration fee and donations are optional. All of the proceeds go to crisis services and the advocate program, which provides practically anything a sexual assault victim could need, from a comfort kit, to someone who will stay at the hospital and advocate for the survivor’s rights.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Divided Teams Win Along Coastline

Continued form page 11:

Cracking Open Closed Doors “It hurts because they’re your support system,” Bowman said. “You’re no different than you were two seconds before you tell them that you are gay. It’s like: ‘well, where’s my support structure?’ You say you love me but then I tell you something very true, and I’m letting you know who I am, the authentic me, and then that is no longer acceptable for you.”

Bowman works to ensure that students who turn to him have physical health and wellness, as well as mental health and wellness.

He also stresses the importance of emotional wellness and identity support around identity development. He helps to create a safe and inclusive campus environment for students to work and live at UB. Bowman educates and brings support from heterosexual allies for the LGBTQ community as well.

“Not only am I a member of LGBTQ community, but it’s a great opportunity for me to give back and help create and continue to foster a great environment here at UB for LGBTQ students,” Bowman said. “I particularly enjoy working toward social justice, and around diversity and supporting students and that really inspired me to do the work that I do.”

Fearghas said he matured a lot in college.

Meeting new people and watching openly gay people interact and thrive on campus helped him with his decision.

Maccio’s research shows there is strength in numbers.

“As more and more people come out, more heterosexual people discover that those they care about are LGBTQ, and the more this happens, acceptance increases and the more LGBTQ people come out,” Maccio said. “It’s a cycle that way. Coming out is itself an empowering process, and when people feel empowered, they feel more confident in asserting themselves and, in this case, fighting oppression and advocating for their rights.”

Now that he’s out, Fearghas is making up for lost time.

He’s no longer afraid to kiss men in public (although the first time it happened in a

straight bar he got the jitters). And this fall, he had his first sexual encounter.

He had been practicing with his sister’s curling iron and other objects, like markers, for several months.

“I was just thinking I need to let this to happen, and ever since I’ve loved it…I was definitely scared but I knew it was time. I was scared it was going to be painful. I also didn’t want to get hurt or regret it.”

Sometimes Fearghas feels as if he’s living the life of a 14-year-old girl on fast forward.

“When a [young] girl starts to have feelings for a guy, they start talking for a couple of months, they start dating, and after a year and half of dating they get their first hand job,” Fearghas said. “This is different – I come out, it’s very new to me, and I don’t have that year and a half to really prepare. I’m jumping right into sex where I’m a one-night stand on a date.”

He is still learning the rules of playing hard to get, figuring out how to make gay friends without having to hook up with them first, and has yet to be in a serious relationship with a man. Being in a large, diverse city like Buffalo has helped.

“Going to a university that has a lot more kids and people to talk to and hang out with definitely makes it easier,” Fearghas said.

“The gay community in Buffalo is also pretty big. I actually love it. I hear stories of friends that go to Oneonta and don’t know one gay person. It’s probably because they don’t want to show themselves, because it’s such a small community.”

Sessler said that Fearghas seems more real now that he is out of the closet. Before he was quiet; now he’s loud and funny. He is comfortable bringing boys back to the apartment that he and Sessler share, and she said that if Fearghas’ relationship lasts a while she forms a friendship with his partner. Sessler enjoys sitting around and talking about boys with Fearghas.

He’s finally found a piece of him that he lost in the eighth grade.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com

Page 17

JOE KONZE JR Staff Writer The men and women’s track teams both split up last weekend so members could compete at different events across the country. However, every squad had similar results.

The Bulls’ top distance runners competed in Princeton, N.J., while the team’s best throwers and sprinters went to Gainesville for the Florida Relays. The remainder of the team competed in an All-New York event in Rochester.

The school record books were re-written this weekend at Florida as sophomore sprinter Miles Lewis set a new school record in the 100-meter dash. The climate change was no problem for Lewis as he finished at 10.49, earning him a spot in school history.

Lewis would finish 19th out of 71 runners in the field to add to his accomplishments.

The women’s 4x400-meter relay team also etched its name into the record books. The team posted a time of 3:40.62.

“It was a great performance,” said head coach Perry Jenkins. “Especially when you get to run down here in some nice weather against top competition.”

The weekend success didn’t stop with the runners.

Senior thrower Corey Knox may have been most impressive for the Bulls. He threw 174-1 (53.06 m) in men’s discus to win the event by a long shot. The closest person to Knox was Morgan State’s Emmanuel Stewart whose distance fell over five feet short.

Knox would also go on to win the men’s shot put with a throw of 17.22 meters, almost a meter longer than his personal best.

Senior Rob Golabek and junior Kristy Woods would also add to their collegiate résumés. Golabek finished second-place in the invitational shot put event with a throw of 61-0 (18.59 m). Woods placed fourth with 179-2 (54.62 m) in the women’s hammer throw.

“It’s good for the [throwers] to come down here and be in the top five, or top three for throwers,” Jenkins said. “I know our goal again is to get ready for the [MAC Championships].”

While one part of the track team was competing at the Florida Relays, the distance team was competing in Princeton’s Sam Howell Invitational.

The distance squad competed in the 10,000-meter (6.2 mile) race.

Senior John Inzina, who turned in a performance that surprised Mitchell, led the Bulls.

“The goal was to run close to 31:00, I believe the finishing time was 31:08,” said head coach Vicki Mitchell. “It was a really strong performance to run around that 31:00 mark…I don’t really think we knew where [John] would place overall. He ran a real consistent race, and picked a lot of guys off during the race.”

The men and women’s track and field team will look to build off of their successes as they will compete in the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic on Saturday and Sunday.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

“Our throwers were fantastic,” Jenkins said. “That’s our strength with the men and women – the size of our throws.”

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Junior thrower Erin Miller followed Knox’s lead in the hammer throw. She needed nearly all 151-9 (46.26 m) to hold off Ashley Holmes of Miami (Florida) to place first in the event, as Miller won by just seven inches.

“The [throwers] are in the process of getting better, but are not yet [there],” Jenkins said. “They know they’ve got six weeks to get ready for [the MAC Championships].”

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Page 18

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

continued from page 22: sprinting through overwhelming odds ing to Henry.

Despite selling everything, there were times when money was scarce and Henry had to be resourceful. For a week, she only ate pancakes. This is a small window into her first summer away at college – she took classes not because she needed credit, but because she wanted to take out loans and send financial aid money to her family.

of the family was not so tolerant.

This was necessary because her mother is no longer able to work after being injured in a factory accident at the Advent Tool manufacturing company.

Henry’s father has been absent through most of her life. However, she still had strong relationships with people on her father’s side of the family, but after she came out, they became strained or non-existent.

Henry sends part of her weekly work-study paychecks that she earns from hours checking people in at Alumni Arena and a big portion of her financial aid stipend to help pay the bills at home.

“I got my Pell Grant and I put it all in my savings,” Henry said. “I try not to go shopping. It’s just me and my mom, just in case my mom needs a little extra money if something is wrong or whatever. I am always trying to help out and I tell her: ‘mom, if you need money I’ll send it.’ Whenever she needs it she’ll call me.”

Breaking the News Henry didn’t just have to deal with hunger and homesickness at Bethune-Cookman. A week after Henry returned to school from winter break, she called her mother and told her that she was a lesbian.

“At the end of the day I feel like I am a part of the family and that they should accept me the way I am,” Henry said. “But it really does not bother me as much as it used to. It has always been me, my mom, and [her] side of the family. It would be nice to have that support system, but I don’t have it.”

Henry doesn’t talk to her sister and she rarely speaks to her father.

The people who helped raise her no longer accept her as one of their own because of her sexuality. It was a painful transition for Henry, but having the support of her mother made it bearable.

Henry’s girlfriend, Christa Baccas, a freshman forward on the women’s basketball team, has also helped her. The two met on Facebook during the fall semester. Henry ‘liked’ a few of Baccas’ photos and the two started to talk, and eventually date.

“She is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me,” Henry said. “She is so perfect and amazing and she does not even have to try.”

Pushing Through the Pain

“I remember when she called me and she told me: ‘mom, I have something to tell you,’” said Karen Martinez, Henry’s mother. “My first thought was that she had a boyfriend; in the past it may have been something along those lines, but then she told me that she was gay.”

Another influence was the meniscus tear she suffered in high school, which she didn’t make known to any colleges for fear of being kicked off the team and sent home.

Henry was nervous about making the call to her mother, as the pair is so close. She was worried that this news would devastate her mother, but she knew that she needed to tell her.

“I never told any of the coaches that I got hurt,” Henry said. “I was scared that if they found out I was hurt they would look at me as a liability case, like they can’t invest any money into me because [I am] just going to get hurt. So I just never told anybody.”

At first, Martinez thought that it was just a phase that her daughter was going through, a college girl thing, until her daughter made it clear that was not the case. Although Henry’s siblings and her mother were accepting of her lifestyle, her father’s side

That changed when she decided to transfer. She told both Pittsburgh’s and Buffalo’s coaching staffs about the injury. Buffalo head coach Perry Jenkins didn’t care, but Pittsburgh’s did, accord-

“I ran one bad race before I left Bethune,” Henry said. “The Pittsburgh coach said I was a liability and that they could not invest any money in me.”

That left Buffalo, a school only 45 minutes away from her home, but far from familiar. She had never even seen the campus before.

The move to Buffalo would immediately prove beneficial for Henry on several fronts. It brought her significantly closer to family and her hometown. The transfer also represented an opportunity for her to continue her education and track career.

Even though her determination was unyielding, her body was not as complying. When she arrived in Buffalo, the team quickly found that she needed surgery on her left knee – again.

Henry’s knee issues date back to her sophomore year of high school, when she first injured it in a basketball game. She was going for a rebound when she was bumped from behind mid-air and landed with substantial pain. The injury would cause her years of agony.

Her doctors advised her to stop running and playing sports. The damage done to her knee was too severe and if she continued she would only be destroying her knee further.

“I had broken the bone, cartilage, and messed up my meniscus,” Henry said. “Every so often after training on it hard, the bone is going to keep breaking, and I am going to have to keep getting surgeries.”

There were times when her knee was so fragile that she could push her fingers into it and move around the broken and chipped pieces of bone that were floating aimlessly throughout it. She said it was excruciatingly painful to walk and even more painful to run, but Henry concealed the full extent of her injury.

“If I don’t have track I don’t have anything,” Henry said. “Because at home there’s nothing positive.”

Fortunately for Henry, running track at UB has

proved to be much more rewarding than her prior life.

She is the anchor of UB’s record-breaking 4x400meter relay team – and she’s doing all of it with a smile.

“If anyone needs to go to someone on the team they go to her first,” Thompson said. “Even on other teams people come to her and tell her their problems. She’s that type of person.”

Even though she’s overcome a tremendous amount to get to where she is today, it still isn’t enough for Henry. She lives by the motto of famous speaker Eric Henry: “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, that’s when you’ll be successful.”

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Vecchio to Become Alfred’s AD TYLER CADY Senior Sports Editor The athletic department has yet another job vacancy to fill as Senior Associate Athletics Director Paul Vecchio accepted the athletic director position at Alfred University. The move was announced on Tuesday, April 10.

Vecchio, who has been with Buffalo since 1995, will join the Saxons in July and will head an athletic department that boasts 19 sports teams that compete in Division-3.

Vecchio is familiar with Alfred. He was the sports information director at the school from 1992-95 prior to joining the staff at Buffalo.

“It’s kind of like full circle for me,” Vecchio said.

“I loved Alfred, and I loved every minute there, and I left there because it was an opportunity to

come to a Division-1 school that was blossoming. I’ve always wanted the opportunity to be a director of athletics, and it’s a place that I’ve had a fondness for, so it makes a lot of sense for me to come back.”

The move is the second in as many months for a senior official within the athletics department.

Warde Manuel, former athletic director, recently left Buffalo to take the same position at UConn.

Manuel’s replacement has yet to be announced.

Vecchio and his wife, Dawn, are both native to towns near Alfred. They view the move as a homecoming of sorts.

“I give so much credit to Warde for the staff he put together and what he meant to me as a mentor,” Vecchio said. “He gave me opportunities here that I’ve never had. I have this job because of him. But this place is in great hands. President [Satish K.] Tripathi is absolutely supportive of athletics and knows the role that it can play here, and I think that great things are ahead at UB.”

But for Vecchio the homecoming comes with mixed emotions.

“It’s bittersweet,” Vecchio said. “It’s something that I’ve worked for my whole life. On the one side I’m absolutely ecstatic for the opportunity, but to leave a place that I feel like I’ve poured a great part of myself into is tough. I feel like I’ve experienced every emotion here: high, low, and in between.”

Vecchio will still be performing his day-to-day duties for the duration of the school year before taking over for James Moretti, who has served as Alfred’s AD for the past 14 years.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Page 19

Bulls Falter Despite Offensive Explosion BRAD PARKER Staff Reporter The last time the softball team had scored 14 runs in a game, the entire current roster was still in elementary school.

The Bulls (8-20, 1-6 Mid-American Conference) had their offense finally break out after slumping the week prior, as they scored a season-high 14 runs en route to a 14-3 victory in the first game of a doubleheader against Toledo (10-24, 3-5 MAC). However, the momentum would not carry over as the Bulls lost the final three games of the weekend.

Buffalo dropped the second game of Friday’s double-header 11-9, then played two weekend games against Bowling Green (21-14, 6-2 MAC), dropping both, 3-1 and 8-4, respectively.

The 14 runs were the most runs scored by the Bulls since joining Division-1 in 2000. Buffalo had amassed 13 runs three different times previously, with the last time coming against Syracuse in 2008.

Friday’s record-breaking victory snapped a sixgame losing skid for the Bulls as they used a first inning three-run homer off the bat of junior third baseman Alyssa Ward to jump out to an early lead. The Bulls then scored nine runs in the third inning, the most in any inning this year. By the end of the contest, every Bull who stepped in the batters box recorded a hit.

Yan Gong /// The Spectrum

Sophomore pitcher Tori Speckman had plenty of run support to work with, and she used it to end the game after five innings due to the mercy rule.

Speckman struck out seven batters in the shortened start, her second most of the year.

The Bulls continued their hitting ways as they scored the first five runs in the second game of the doubleheader. However, Toledo was able to match the Bulls’ high-powered offense in round two.

Toledo battled back to take a 9-7 lead in the top of seventh inning. But the Bulls scored two to send the game to extra innings. In the eighth, Toledo’s Brooke Gates blasted a two-run shot over the wall, giving the Rockets the victory.

“Bowling Green’s a team that just doesn’t give up,” said head coach Jennifer Teague. “Our players have to continue to push themselves and believe in themselves as we cannot just go into coast mode at the plate. We just got to continue to work on that in practice and hopefully, something clicks soon.”

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The softball team scored a Buffalo Division-I record 14 runs during the first game of a Friday doubleheader. However, inconsistent play led to three straight losses after the impressive offensive output.

The two teams combined for seven home runs and 29 hits in the contest. Buffalo had 17 hits, including four homeruns, but still could not get one in the win column.

The Bulls crept back into it and would eventually even the score at four apiece in the bottom of the fourth. However, a three-run seventh inning fueled by another Bulls error put the game out of reach.

“This team can score when they really want to score,” Teague said. “Unfortunately, if we don’t play superior defense, we lose those games. We continue to have games with double digit hits but we’re unable to put a win up on the board and it hurts – it starts to sting a little bit.”

“Our defense just wasn’t here today,” Teague said. “We had decent hitting, decent pitching, we should be winning ball games, but our defense was just a no-show today.”

The demoralizing loss in Friday’s finale seemingly had a lingering effect for the weekend pair of games.

Senior Holly Johnson pitched all seven innings in the series finale for the Bulls. She allowed eight hits, walked seven batters, and struck out seven batters in the process.

In Sunday’s affair, the Falcons jumped on the Bulls, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. Three of the four runs were unearned due to a pair of errors by Buffalo’s infielders.

The weekend as a whole was a forgettable one for Teague, as she was disappointed with her team’s inconsistent play over the course of the

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weekend. With four of the Bulls’ next six games coming against MAC opponents, Teague believes changes need to be made.

“I feel one of the biggest changes that need to be made is that we have to continue to believe in ourselves,” Teague said. “They’re up and down, and it’s kind of like a roller coaster of emotions within each player. They need to continue to demand excellence, not perfection, but excellence from themselves every day.”

The Bulls look to turn their season around on Wednesday as they face local rival Canisius (9-21, 2-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) in a double-header starting at 3 p.m. Buffalo is seeking redemption after a tough, 4-3 loss to the Golden Griffins back on March 28.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Page 20

Briefs

ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Bryan’s

Continued from page 22: Kent State of Emergency The Bulls missed their best opportunity to defeat the three-time defending conference champions on Friday, as they held a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the ninth. Senior starting pitcher Cameron Copping followed up his 10-inning two-hit performance the week prior with another gem, going seven innings and given up two earned runs.

But Copping’s performance was once again all for naught, after a three-run bottom of the ninth let the Golden Flashes walk off with a victory.

“We competed and we played hard, we just haven’t learned how to finish a game,” Torgalski said. “We play great baseball for six, seven innings, and then somebody makes one mistake here or there that leads to two or three runs, and it happens every game.”

Saturday’s contest followed the same theme, as the Bulls held a 3-0 lead entering the seventh inning. Senior starter Jeff Thompson followed up Copping’s game with a stellar start of his own, throwing six scoreless innings.

Things swung in a familiar direction in the seventh, though, as Kent State knocked Thompson out of the game with a three-run inning. Buffalo turned to senior reliever Kevin Crumb, but he couldn’t stop the bleeding. Kent State circled the bases three more times in the eighth, giving it the win and Crumb his sixth loss of the year.

The loss brings Buffalo’s record when leading or tied after seven innings to 6-7.

“We need to improve upon being clutch players and playing with confidence,” Torgalski said.

“We need guys to step up and want to be that

guy in the eighth and ninth inning, and right now we have no one stepping up and doing that.”

The Bulls’ lack of run support is part of the lateinning problems.

Junior catcher Tom Murphy, who is known as an offensive juggernaut, went only 1-for-10 on the weekend, and was even moved down a spot in the lineup for the finale by Torgalski.

Bizarre Briefs

What was once the strong spot of the team has now become the liability for Buffalo. The Bulls has failed to score more than four runs in six of their last seven contests. Prior to this stretch the Bulls had only done that four times in the first 19 games.

The problem hasn’t necessarily been hitting, as the Bulls are batting .319. They are just failing to score runs when they need to, leaving 29 men on base this weekend alone. Thirteen of those came in Friday’s one run loss.

The Bulls have shown bright spots on the mound and at the plate all season long. However, they will need both to have complete games if they want to improve their record.

They’ll be given their next opportunity to do so this weekend as Akron (13-17, 6-3 MAC) comes to Buffalo. The Zips are coming off a sweep of fellow MAC team Bowling Green, and they’ll look to take that confidence into their series against the Bulls. First pitch will be Friday at 3 p.m.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Keeping up with Lamar

BRYAN FEILER Sports Editor

After the Lakers and Hornets trade was vetoed by the NBA at the beginning of the season, Lamar Odom had to be shipped out of LA.

Crash Course Welp, another Arkansas official is at it again.

On Sunday night, Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino reported he got into an accident on his motorcycle. Petrino said he was the only one on the bike, and was sent to the hospital in stable condition Except the married man with four children was not alone. A former Arkansas volleyball player and current staff member for the football, Jessica Dorrell, had her arms wrapped around Petrino as the two shared a romantic ride 20 miles from campus.

Go figure, an adulterous man covering his tracks?

If only he would have kept those tracks on the road and not in a ditch he might have gotten away with it.

What are you thinking?

Tweet it!

“My concern was to protect my family and a previous inappropriate relationship from becoming public,” Petrino said in a statement released by the school. “In hindsight, I showed a serious mistake in judgment when I chose not to be more specific about those details.”

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I think the “serious mistake in judgment” came when you started fooling around with a girl half your age when you’re married. Not to mention you are one of the most recognizable faces in Arkansas besides Bill Clinton.

Petrino was put on paid leave – only in the SEC would a lying, adulterous coach get a paid vacation – but has since been fired.

www.buffalodrivingschools.com

Odom went to Dallas as the reigning sixth man of the year and left with a handshake and a “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

It looks like Ryan Seacrest will have some new material for the next season of Khloe and Lamar as Odom will have to find a new city to play in next season as Dallas and him have come to an agreement that he will not play for the remainder of the season.

Despite his subpar year and marriage to a subpar Kardashian, fellow players have stuck by him, unlike Nets forward Kris Humphries, who was voted the most disliked player in the league by the NBA players.

Odom now joins the long list of athletes to have his career take a turn for the worse after hooking up with a Kardashian.

Even rumors of dating one of the sisters could ruin a season as was the case with Knicks guard Jeremy Lin. Lakers’ forward Metta World Peace had some ideas as to what Odom should do during the remainder of the season.

“Maybe he can come back and be a ball boy and then next year, come play,” World Peace told Dave McMenamin of ESPNLA.com of his plan to get Odom back in L.A. “He’d be the first ball boy in the NBA that can play. Come back; get the towels and next year, play. Why not? He should be a scout. Lamar should be a scout.”

If Odom agrees to the deal he will become the most highly paid ball boy in sports history as he made nearly $9 million in 2011.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

SUMMER AT CSI Soar to New Heights College of Staten Island Summer Sessions begin: June 4 (first session), June 9 (weekend session), June 28 (second session) Registration for continuing CUNY students begins on April 4, 2012.

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Classifieds Classifieds Page 21

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 ubspectrum.com

HELP WANTED

4, 5, 6, & 8 BEDROOM Remodeled Apartment

LIFEGUARDS NEEDED for Sturbridge Village

Apts. May 30th thru season. Must be CPR/AED certified. Please call 688-2757 to apply.

PAINTER FOR LOCAL COMPANY. Some

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LANDSCAPE POSITIONS AVAILABLE Must have transportation. Experience or will train.

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SPRING-SUMMER JOB OPENINGS LASERTRON Family Entertainment Center

is currently hiring for Go-Kart operators and general customer service. Working at a fast, detail oriented pace and having excellent customer service skills is a must. Starting at approximately $11/hr, must be available nights, holidays, and weekends. Stop in and complete an application at LASERTRON 5101 North Bailey Avenue, Amherst, NY.

HOUSE CLEANER needed by professor parttime $13.00/hr near N. Campus 688-2461.

APARTMENT FOR RENT 1,3,4,5,6,7&8 BEDROOM homes and

apartments available June 1, 2012. To view go to www.daveburnette.net or call Dave at 716-4452514.

3 & 4 bdrm townhouses available June through August

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HOUSE FOR RENT

2, 3, & 4 BDRM APARTMENTS. South campus close. Appliances, off-street parking & utilities included. Available June 1st 716-984-6970.

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Crossword of the Day

Edited by Timothy E. Parker April 11, 2012 PUT IT IN REVERSE By Donald Stubin

Sudoku

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~ Immedate Occupancy! ~ for information

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ACROSS

1 "Pike's Peak or ___!"

5 Ewe's offspring

9 Good smell from the kitchen 14 Ancient South American

15 Taken with a spoon

16 Banister post 17 MGM mascot

18 Palindromic Preminger

19 Gossipy buttinsky 20 What a CPA does for a catered event?

23 Available from a keg

24 Bow lubricant 25 Had the blue plate special, e.g.

28 Wrestling type

30 One at the top of the board 32 "Washboard" body parts

35 Boxing ring borders

38 Delineate

39 Interrogate a Boston orchestra?

43 "Battle Cry" author Leon

44 Clear of vermin 45 One imbibing rotgut

46 Dutch beer brand

49 Aussie hatchlings 51 "Casablanca" piano player

52 Curtain fabric

55 Bands' auditions

59 Put a mineral on permanent

display?

61 Neat ___ (slob's opposite)

64 Adult nits 65 Arthritis symptom

66 "Beauty and the Beast" beauty

67 Liveliness

68 "Am I glad that's over!"

69 Loafed around

70 Veteran seafarers

71 "... countrymen, lend me your ___"

DOWN

1 "The Hobbit" character 2 Civil War victor 3 "Amscray!"

4 Certain Japanese poems 5 Criminal's haul 6 Centipede, e.g.

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HOROSCOPES

Visit ubspectrum.com/games for our online game of the week.

Also see the crossword and Sudoku answers from last issue.

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7 San ___ (Bay Area county) 8 Political groups 9 "Do I have a volunteer?"

10 Carry a stench 11 Rent-to-___ 12 Was introduced to 13 ___ mode (topped with ice cream) 21 Sudden burst of growth 22 3-in-One product 25 "Farewell, amigo!"

26 A conductor might want you to pick it up 27 Young's partner in accounting 29 Pronoun for Miss Piggy 31 Snow-capped peak 32 Blue-green shades 33 Myanmar's former name 34 Richter scale event 36 Heading away from WSW 37 Tennessee Williams transportation 40 The Concorde was one 41 Virginia or Smithfield product 42 Chopin piano piece 47 Brought forth, as emotions 48 Yankee great Gehrig 50 Mexican blanket 53 Bit of land in the ocean 54 Soprano role in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers" 56 Cappuccino flavor 57 An earth tone 58 Depicts with bias 59 ___ and hearty (healthy) 60 Barnyard cluckers 61 "Most Wanted" agcy.

62 "And the rockets' ___ glare ..."

63 Twelfth in a series of 26

WednesDay, APRIL 11 FROM UNIVERSAL UCLICK

ARIES (March 21-April 19) You may want to follow another through territory that is not yet entirely familiar to you. Protect yourself as best you can.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You may be disappointed upon receiving a certain piece of news from a distant loved one, but you can recover quickly and focus on the future.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) You have a full day ahead of you; others are depending on you to be in the right place at the right time. Don't let anyone derail you.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) You may have to depend on a friend or loved one for a great deal today. You're building up a good head of steam, however.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) When someone needs help, he or she is likely to turn to you first. You can provide what is needed in a way that makes it even more useful.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) You're not the kind to give someone something today without also offering a life-lesson of some sort. He or she will be better off because of it.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) A painful memory haunts you throughout the day, but not in its entirety. Just bits and pieces are likely to surface at the oddest times.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) An emotional situation can be looked upon in an intellectual way today -- but not everyone will agree with your assessment, that is certain.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Even while working very hard today you can enjoy yourself fully. Others are impressed by your ability to laugh at almost anything.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) It may be more difficult than expected today to get in touch with someone who holds the key to a complex situation at home.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Take care that you aren't so quick to judge yourself and your performance that you demoralize yourself. Look at all you CAN do!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Be courteous and accommodating today, and you'll enjoy certain unforeseen rewards in the days to come.

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ubspectrum.com

Page 22

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Moneyball TYLER CADY Senior Sports Editor

A new season in Major League Baseball means optimism for all 30 teams. Every spring fans hold out hope that this season will be “their year.”

Unfortunately for the teams without payrolls north of $100 million, that optimism will likely fade to disappointment by July.

Baseball is the only one of the four major sports leagues in the United States without a salary cap, and the disparity in spending is just not fair.

This season, the Yankees third and fourth hitters (Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira) salaries put together will be just percentage points off the total payroll of the 25-man San Diego Padres roster.

For years, the Yankees have been the face of the discrepancy between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ of baseball. But the Phillies, Red Sox, and Tigers aren’t far behind.

It’s just not realistic to expect that the teams within a small market to compete with the big boys.

Small market teams have to rely on drafting and developing young talent to field a competitive squad. Then, when they finally put a talented player on the roster they have to trade him because it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll be wearing someone else’s uniform next season.

For a general manager your hands are tied because trading him is the only way to ensure you get something in return.

Adrian Gonzalez is a prime example of this. The Padres made him into one of the league’s most competent first basemen, and the perennial AllStar loved San Diego. But at the end of the day what he could have gotten on the open market was far greater than what San Diego could have offered, so they traded him to Boston.

The Red Sox got a can’t miss player, and the Padres got a handful of guys who should be good someday based on how they performed in AA (that is, if all goes as planned).

The current system takes all the skill out of putting a competitive team on the field. How hard is it to outspend everyone else for proven talent?

Try being the general manager in Pittsburgh.

That’d be like entering a cook-off where one chef is working with fillet mignon and you’ve got to make due with grade D ground beef.

Bud Selig likes to pretend this isn’t the case. He says that the revenue sharing system – which teams are taxed for spending beyond a certain limit and the money is distributed to low revenue teams – works just fine.

But the same teams consistently make the playoffs in baseball. There are seven franchises that haven’t made the playoffs in the last decade; no other sport has more than four teams who haven’t made it in the last six.

Granted only eight teams (10 starting this year) make the playoffs annually in baseball, but does anyone really think Baltimore stands a chance in the AL East this year?

I think not.

It’s time to give Mariners’ fans something enjoyable to watch in August while they’re spending $11 on a beer.

It’s the least we could do after taking the Sonics from them.

Email: tyler.cady@ubspectrum.com

Aline Kobayashi /// The Spectrum Sophomore sprinter Asia Henry’s life has been a constant sprint. She is a full-time student-athlete and must to send money to her family in Rochester.

Sprinting Through Overwhelming Odds Asia Henry’s success on the track hasn’t come easy BRANDON BARNES Staff Writer In her first summer at college, Asia Henry lived on pancake mix and syrup – that’s all she could afford.

She had a work-study job, but sent most of the money home to help her family. Her money helped support her two brothers and two sisters, and it helped pay the bills. She was the first in her family to graduate high school, let alone go to college. Still, some of her family – her father, her older sister – refused to speak to her or acknowledge her existence.

They couldn’t accept that she was a lesbian.

Now a sophomore social sciences major and sprinter, Henry has pushed beyond her family’s prejudice – just as she’s pushed beyond a potentially career-ending knee injury – and made a place for herself at UB. She was named second team All Mid-American Conference at the 2011 Outdoor Championships.

Henry ran hard, hoping track would assist in her quest to attend college. Henry was so determined that even when her family didn’t have Internet access, she woke up before sunrise, went to school, and typed and printed an essay she had written on her phone.

It was that determination that earned her the family’s first diploma.

“When I went across the stage [at graduation] I cried,” Henry said. “I saw my mom in the crowd and I pointed to her and yelled: ‘this is for you.’

It felt good and it was a big moment for everybody.”

A passionate, warm-hearted person, Henry takes that same determination with her every time she competes. She’s consistently the first runner on the track, and last to leave, and it rubs off on her teammates.

“She was really motivated,” said Jasmine Thompson, a sophomore hurdler. “She will do anything to go get it. She went on six in the morning runs, do two miles, then come back and do ab workouts. Go to lift, go to practice and do another 15-minute ab workout.”

While attending Wilson Magnet High School,

The dedication is something that has been with Henry all her life.

After graduation, Henry headed to BethuneCookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla. to run for “Coach G,” Garfield Ellenwood, who had shown great interest in her.

Less than a month into Henry’s first semester, Ellenwood was fired for alleged NCAA rules violations and Henry’s life twisted into disarray.

Henry had to transfer.

“My mom was hurt by the whole situation because it took so much for us to get down there,” Henry said. “We don’t have that much. In order to get down there we had to sell a lot of stuff; we had to sell stuff to pay for the plane ticket and to send my stuff down there. It hurt my mom more than anything because she said we did all that for nothing.”

Since they only made around $30 in a garage sale, Henry’s family sold irreplaceable, nostalgia-filled heirlooms and other personal possessions of her family. Her mother and grandmother both sold their wedding rings and engagement rings.

Continued on page 18

Kent State of Emergency Buffalo losing streak reaches nine games JON GAGNON Staff Writer On Friday afternoon, the baseball team sat in the dugout and watched yet another team celebrate at home plate.

Friday’s 5-4 loss would not be the last time the Bulls (7-19, 1-7 Mid-American Conference) would watch Kent State (18-13, 9-0 MAC) celebrate, as they took the final two games of the series (both by a score of 6-3) from Buffalo, bringing the Bulls’ losing streak to nine.

“I keep telling my guys, good players make good plays at the end of games,” said head coach Ron Torgalski. “Right now we’re not making those plays.”

Continued on page 20

Courtesy of Matt Bass/ Kent State Athletics The Golden Flashes used a three-run ninth to walk off against the Bulls on Friday. The three-time defending MAC Champions went on to sweep the Bulls in a weekend series.