the Independent Student Publication of the University at Buffalo, Since 1950
The S pectrum ubspectrum.com
Volume 62 No. 31
Monday, November 12, 2012
Despite McCrea’s monstrous second half, Bulls drop season opener
SpaceVision unites generations at final frontier’s crossroad Story on page 4
Story on page 8
Scarred
Six attacked The story of a UB student’s Rwandan Genocide survival in separate incidents in the Heights SARA DINATALE Senior News Editor
A member of the Hutu militia dragged Reverien Mfizi’s unconscious body to the side of a dirt road. A wounded man’s pained screams jolted Mfzi awake. Surrounded by dead bodies, bloodied from a severe blow to the head and soaked from a recent rainfall, the then 14-year-old Mfizi realized he shouldn’t still be alive. He didn’t have time to process that day’s events. Aware most of his family was likely dead, he had to push on. He was a Tutsi amidst the Rwandan Genocide. He only survived because the Hutu militia, which killed the four others he was fleeing with, assumed him dead. He later discovered he was the only survivor of his seven-member household. Distracted by the older Tutsis who were capable of fighting back, the militia members must have “forgot to finish me off,” Mfizi said, while reflecting on the horrors now 18 years in the past. Mfizi, now a 33-year-old political science Ph.D. student at UB, is left with a scar that stretches from his temple to behind his ear on the left side of his head. His matted black hair conceals the physical evidence of what he has endured. With a stoic demeanor and conscious effort to remain strong for his family, most people – including the students and colleagues he encounters as a teaching assistant – know little of his painful past. Mfizi came to America in 2000 after being awarded a scholarship designated for refugees. The father of three has built a new life. But he will never be able to separate himself from the Rwandan Genocide; it’s the reason he studies political science. He looks to higher education to help him make sense of his war-torn tale of survival. He
knows he will probably never find the answers to satisfy his questions. No matter how many years pass or how many miles he is from his homeland, a part of Mfizi will always be back in Rwanda. “You’ve escaped something or not really anything at all,” he said. “I’ve always boasted myself [to be] this strong person who wanted to escape this past, but I can’t get rid of it. It always comes around and goes back again, but I have really pushed so hard. At the end of the day, you’ve seen that past and you’re revolving around it. You live it.” Rwanda, located in East Africa, was a hotbed of ethnic tension for decades. The Hutus and Tutsis – though they speak the same language, live in the same area and follow similar traditions – are considered ethnically different. Some say Tutsis are taller and thinner or have longer noses. “Really most people in Rwanda look the same,” Mfizi remarked. Tensions first started to majorly erupt in 1959, when Hutus held riots and killed over 20,000 Tutsis. Tutsis were regarded as the higher class by the then in-power Belgians, which enraged many Hutus. In 1962, Rwanda became independent. The Hutus took power and the Tutsi minority became Rwanda’s scapegoat for every crisis in the following decades. April 6, 1994 seemed like a normal day for Mfizi. It was a Wednesday. He went to school, where he was typically taunted and called names like “traitor” and “cockroach” by Hutu children. He went through the same motions he did every day. He came straight home after primary school – as a Tutsi in his home city of Kigali, you were in your home by 5 p.m., Mfizi said. As soon as the sun started going down, Tutsis stayed indoors. They kept to themselves.
UB students identified as victims of attacks LISA KHOURY Senior News Editor
Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum
Reverien Mfizi, a political science graudate student, reflects on his near-death experience as a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide. His tragedy fuels his academics.
Stay quiet. Shut up. Don’t get involved in politics. Don’t stay out late. If Tutsis didn’t follow those guidelines, they were killed, Mfizi explained. But the rules he became familiar with didn’t apply once the president of Rwanda, Juvenal Habyarimana, was killed that day in April.
Violence, death and murder surrounded Mfizi. So when the president’s plane was shot down above the Kigali airport – only a few miles from Mfizi’s home – the teenager didn’t know anything unusual happened. He slept through the night.
Two males were beaten and robbed, one was held at knifepoint and three females were assaulted in three separate incidents early Saturday morning in the University Heights. According to University Police Chief Gerald Schoenle, all the victims were UB students. The first incident happened at 1 a.m. when two male suspects approached two males on Winspear Avenue and punched one of the victims in the mouth. The victim fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness, according to The Buffalo News. The two robbers then took $40, a cell phone, an ATM card and a UB student ID card from the victim’s pockets. The other victim was punched in the face but nothing was stolen from him. The suspects fled in a black Chevrolet Suburban, according to The News. Another robbery happened approximately an hour later on Main Street and Lisbon Avenue. A male suspect left his bronze-colored Chevrolet Blazer and approached the victim with a knife. The suspect ordered the victim to hand over his belongings. He searched the victim’s pockets and wallet, stole an
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UB School of Nursing receives $695,000 grant RACHEL RAIMONDI Staff Writer
Courtesy of Davidhar
The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, awarded UB’s School of Nursing a $695,000 grant. The grant aims to increase the number of primary care providers by assisting nurses who are pursuing advanced degrees as nurse practitioners (NP). UB was one of approximately 71 universities to receive the prestigious award. This will allow the institution to “lead change and impact health care delivery,” said Marsha Lewis, professor and dean of the School of Nursing, in an interview with UB Reporter. The grant is anticipated to provide financial support for approximately 30 to 40 students per semester for two years. The money will be used to cover tuition, books and living expenses, according to Robert Cenczyk, assistant to the academic dean in the School of Nursing.
Not only does it allow the school to financially assist the students, but it also slows the increasing faculty shortages at nursing schools across the country by training more advanced-educated nurses. These nationwide faculty shortages have also decreased new enrollments. “Locally, this grant allows us to both increase the quality of care throughout the region and increase access to health care for older adults in Western New York,” Cenczyk said. The grant is specifically for post-baccalaureate students who already have six credits in the post-baccalaureate Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and intend to go into the fields of adult NP, family NP and psych/mental health NP. The DNP program was accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) and approved by SUNY and the New York State Education Department in 2010. The accreditation “ensures the quality and integrity of baccalaureate, graduate and residency programs in nursing,” according to the American
UB’s School of Nursing is located in Wende Hall on South Campus.
Inside
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