THE SPECTRUM VOL. 68 NO. 42 | APRIL 8, 2019
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO, SINCE 1950
Adrenaline designers
Qasim Rashid gives lecture on white supremacy, terrorism and gun violence
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P.R.I.D.E. Party wins Student Association e-board election BRENTON J. BLANCHET, JACKLYN WALTERS EDITORIAL STAFF
SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
Six thousand tons of concrete, 9,000 tons of structural steel, three miles of cabling and wiring and a year and a half of construction later, the Murchie Family Fieldhouse is finally open for use. Construction workers broke ground on the fieldhouse in October 2017. The Bulls held their inaugural football practice in the fieldhouse on March 26. The 92,000-square-foot indoor practice facility is situated just beyond the north end zone of UB Stadium. The $18 million fieldhouse is funded solely through philanthropy and football revenue. UB did not use state funds for the project. “To know that this day would happen and to get to this point, I wasn’t quite sure,” said football head coach Lance Leipold. “I’m awfully appreciative about the people that helped make it possible and it’s been awesome so far.” Leipold arrived at UB in 2015 when the
Student Association president promises to work with SA officials to help recognize oSTEM
BENJAMIN BLANCHET EDITOR
SHUBH JAIN | THE SPECTRUM The 2019-20 SA e-board celebrates its victory Thursday.
Greek Council members. “All I can do is just thank the student body for having trust in us,” Amolegbe, a fourth-year aerospace engineering major and current SA event manager, said. “We promise not to disappoint you guys.” Hulbert, a junior political science major and current SA assistant entertainment director, joked that she’s looking forward to sleeping now that they’ve won the election. She said she is “grateful for everyone’s support.” “We’re in shock,” Hulbert said. “It means so much to us. We’re really excited for next year, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs but we’ve been a great team and I’m super excited for the future.” Harris, a junior economics major and
current SA senator and the Black Student Union’s treasurer, was also emotional following the announcement. “Next year, we hope to make you guys proud,” Harris said. “[We hope to] fight on behalf of all undergraduate students here at UB and carry on the great work that [the current e-board has] been doing.” Campaign opponents watched the new e-board celebrate its victory in the SA office and remained positive about next year, despite losing the election. Sadie Kratt, CLEAR Party’s presidential candidate, said she thinks the upcoming eboard will do a “great job” and said she’s excited to work with them on her environmental goals. “You know I love the Earth and I’m not just going to let our campus environ> SEE SA
Fieldhouse opens
NATHANIEL MENDELSON
> SEE PAGE 8
LGBTQ club said it’s happy with SA for doing ‘morally right’ thing
Murchie Family $18 million facility a ‘game changer,’ according to coaches
Jim Whitesell named men’s basketball head coach
> SEE PAGE 6
P.R.I.D.E. and Joy Yousouf Amolegbe put his hand to his face and covered his tears on Thursday afternoon. He had just become the Student Association’s fifth black president ever. Amolegbe, Georgia Hulbert and Kendra Harris of the P.R.I.D.E. Party won the e-board election after a campaign based on “progressive, reform, integrity, diversity and empowerment” initiatives. Sophonie Pierre-Michel, the Elections and Credentials Chair, announced their victory in the SA office Thursday night after a threeday election, which lasted from Tuesday to Thursday. It brought out 2,181 student voters and 10.3% of the undergraduate student body. Amolegbe and Hulbert –– presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively –– received 1,043 votes and Harris, the treasurer candidate–– received 1,027 votes. P.R.I.D.E. won over the Students Reform Party (681 votes on both tickets), the CLEAR Party (416 votes on the president/VP ticket and 370 votes for treasurer) and the Going Forward, Going Blue Party’s treasurer (27 votes). The new e-board said it hope to advocate for an increase in black faculty members, accessibility and disability rights awareness and implement mandatory sexual violence training for all student athletes and Inter-
UBSPECTRUM
Less than 24 hours after The Spectrum’s article on oSTEM’s denied recognition, SA President Gunnar Haberl promised to do the “morally right thing.” Haberl said the SA e-board will work with the SA senate to do the “morally right” thing and celebrate oSTEM as an SA club. He said the senate, along with the e-board, would also look at current SA policies set for club recognitions. Haberl’s comments came roughly a week after SA Vice President Anyssa Evelyn told oSTEM, an LGBTQ club that caters to professional development in STEM, that SA could not recognize the club because it would “directly duplicate” the purpose of LGBTA –– a club devoted to LGBTQ students. Haberl spoke to students in the SA office and read a version of Dale Wimbrow’s “The Man in the Glass” poem before SA announced its e-board election results on Thursday. Haberl said someone told him to do the “morally right” thing for the club instead of the “right thing policy-wise.” “So I promise you tonight, in these final days as [SA] President, [the SA e-board]
ELECTION | PAGE 4
> SEE OSTEM | PAGE 4
student recreation programming and will be used for intramurals. “This is huge, this facility right here is big time,” said freshman football running back Jaret Patterson. “A lot of other programs have something like this and just having something like this is just going to help us.” The fieldhouse is part of the 2014 athletics master plan, when Danny White was the athletic director. The plan featured the fieldhouse, a new baseball stadium and a tennis center.
The original cost of the fieldhouse was estimated at $20 million and was expected to be 130,000 gross square feet. Athletics also planned a bridge connecting it to Alumni Arena. Coaches and athletes have called the facility a “game changer.” It is supposed to help with recruiting and keeping teams better prepared during the winter when there is no outdoor practice space. Athletics anticipates this will reduce scheduling problems for facilities.
university was still developing and planning stages of the project. It took two years for that vision to become a reality. Four seasons into Leipold’s career at UB, Leipold’s team and others no longer have to travel to off-campus facilities to practice and train. The football team > SEE FIELDHOUSE | PAGE 8 previously trained at the ADPRO Sports Training Center in Orchard Park where the Bills play. The fieldhouse has over 4 million cubic feet of indoor space, which matches the size of the best in the country. Inside it features over 6,000 square feet of rubber track, a full football field with two goalposts, four motorized suspended softball hitting tunnels and two multi-level indoor filming/viewing towers at 24 and 36-feet high. The fieldhouse will be available to every varsity NATHANIEL MENDELSON | THE SPECTRUM athletic team, house uni- Football practices inside the fieldhouse on Thursday morning. The 92,000-square-foot facility will house practices, university versity events, expand events, recreation and intramural sports.