The Spectrum Volume 61 Issue 60

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Vol. 61 NO. 60

ubspectrum.com

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Bulls take on Akron Wednesday

Week in Ink Issue 46

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Campus Dining $300,000 in Student Money Trades Cash for Credit Suddenly Appears to SA Senate SARA DINATALE Asst. News Editor On Feb. 12, a new line containing $300,000 popped up in the Student Association’s budget.

Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum Campus Dining and Shops, along with the Student Association, announced this past Monday that CDS dining centers are now credit-card friendly.

REBECCA BRATEK News Editor Get ready to trade trips to the ATM for an easy card swipe at Campus Dining and Shops locations. Students can now use their credit cards instead of fussing with cash or worrying about having to purchase a meal plan to buy food in the food centers around campus. On Monday, CDS – along with the Student Association – unveiled their latest announcement in the Student Union, welcoming students to come swipe their credit cards as an alternative to using campus meal plans or cash. Students can now use credit cards at all CDS retail shops, including Moe’s and Jamba Juice in the Student Union. Tim Horton’s, Soma Sushi, and the resident dining halls will be accepting credit cards in the future, according to Adam Coats, the assistant director for CDS. Many UB students have been waiting for CDS locations to become credit card-friendly. “There’s been a desire for it for a number of years, obviously,” Coats said. “This group with SA kind of put a lot more pressure on us and was a little more vocal [about credit cards].” SA President JoAnna Datz credits this newest payment choice to work done by past SA administrations. Nischal Vasant, Shervin Stoney, and Tony Roman – last year’s SA executive board – started to push communication about the initiative. When Datz and her executive board ran on the VOICE party ticket last spring, their platform included plans to “advocate for pilot use of credit/debit cards at food service locations via

In a 13-2-0 vote at a Feb. 12 meeting, the SA Senate approved moving $300,000 from a budgetary line named “Cash and Investments” to a new line entitled “Projects.” Before the move, the “Cash and Investments” reserve had about $650,000 in it, according to SA treasurer Sikander Kahn. The fund exists as a rollover of the mandatory student activity fee. The “Cash and Investments” fund now contains $350,000.

Before Kahn motioned to move part of the fund – which he referred to as a “cushion” or “rainy day fund” – to a new line, the Senate had no idea it existed. “I felt a responsibility that I should take an extra step to tell the Senate we have this money and budget some of it in the operating budget, so we can make the best effort to spend it,” Kahn said. The SA must keep at least 5 percent of the total money it received last year in the reserve, but the amount also cannot exceed the current year’s operational costs, according to SUNY

The play in question is Fen, penned by noted English playwright and feminist Caryl Churchill. Jerry Finnegan, associate professor of acting and longtime member of the UB faculty, directs the incarnation of the play that will grace the Black Box stage starting on Wednesday night. Fen, at its core, is a character drama. The play centers on Val and Frank – the former is a farm laborer, wife, and mother, the latter is the former’s lover – and their affair, which is spurred on in part by the dehumanizing conditions the two live in. The two are “trapped” by their situation, according to Finnegan. “Aspirations don’t even exist, they feel almost ridiculous in this [context]…it’s about the frustrations of

Weather for the Weekend:

This fiscal year, the SA collected $3.5 million, but it spent $3.64 million, so the organization tapped into its investments, according to Kahn. The SA is currently in a $140,000 deficit. In other words, the organization is spending more

Matt Hogan hopes to make his name at the Olympic trials JON GAGNON Staff Writer Matt Hogan was once a bludgeoning force on the rugby pitch in Australia. He dodged swarms of defenders attempting to lay a devastating blows. Rugby is a team sport with 15 players on each side with no padding, going head to head in hopes of pounding the ball past the opponents for a score. All of those opponents are eager to physically punish the ball carrier for coming in their direction. Today, Hogan is far from the vicious pitch, in the docile waters of the natatorium Alumni Arena. Swimming is more of an art form – there is no defense, and no contact. The swimmer’s competition isn’t against a vicious foe, but against the environment itself. The swimmer’s quest is to find the perfect stroke, to glide through the water smoothly. It’s hard to imagine how someone could make the transition from the bruising rugby field to the much tamer pool deck – but this move was

Allen Lin /// The Spectrum Matt Hogan finds himself far from the place he used to call home. Despite the change of venue, Hogan is still an athletic freak who’s dominating the competition and everything that comes his way.

made out of necessity by Hogan. This past fall, Hogan’s swim career reached the highest level as he qualified for the Olympic

life not lived well,” Finnegan said.

trials, an accomplishment that most swimmers will never reach. But Hogan still has lingering memories of his glory days as a rugby player in Australia.

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New Financial Aid Program Offers Student Guidance LISA EPSTEIN Staff Writer

The struggle of those with no agency to find and exercise some makes up much of the play’s drama. The story of Val and Frank is interspersed with short vignettes – like “brushstrokes,” according to Finnegan – that give glimpses into the lives of others who inhabit the titular fen.

Starting this week, UB students will be able to have individual questions answered about their financial aid through the use of new personal advisers. Jennifer Pollard, UB’s interim director of financial aid since May 2011, put the new program in place to assist and advise students and parents on any questions they have about financial aid applications and decisions. In a press release to UB, Pollard said that she has spearheaded these same financial aid programs at major universities like Northeastern, Columbia, and Jacksonville University.

The fen itself – a “fen” being a type of wetland with mineral-rich soil ideal for farming, for those who don’t know – is more than just the play’s setting. Indeed, it’s practically a character in its own right, as its condition through history mirrors that of its characters. Like Val, Frank, and their cohorts, the fen is the subject of capitalistic exploitation, from its transformation into farmland in the late feudal period (covered in some of the play’s vignettes) to its purchase by Japanese venture capitalists in the early 1980s, the work’s present. “It’s almost like fate,” Finnegan said. “Fate is the land, it’s never being given anything.”

Wednesday: Wintery Mix to Rain- H: 39, L: 38 Thursday: Showers- H: 39, L: 33 Friday: Partly Cloudy/Wind- H: 56, L: 40

That’s why Kahn motioned to move money from the reserve fund to the new “Projects” line.

From Australia to Buffalo, and Hopefully London

Finnegan and Fen Look to Impress The hard work, long hours, and dedication of 11 talented students and one very devoted director will culminate onstage at CFA’s Black Box Theater Wednesday night.

“Technically, I cannot collect 100 percent of our budget and put it in our investment,” Kahn said. “I should be spending it.”

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EDWARD BENOIT Managing Editor

Mandatory Student Activity Fee guidelines.

Pollard was unavailable for comment at the time of press. UB spokesman John Della Contrada said that, in general, there will be about 1,000 to 1,200 students per adviser. Students are divided by academic program in some cases, and by alphabet in others. There are about 12 advisers plus support staff. “Jennifer Pollard successfully implemented similar programs at other universities.” Della Contrada said in an email. “She feels strongly that this approach will better meet the needs of students and their families because it will enable advisers to build a stronger relationship with students and more efficiently understand and respond to their needs.”

I N S I D E

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Meg Kinsley /// The Spectrum Fen Director Jerry Finnegan salutes the hard work of his cast and crew the day before opening night.

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Opinion * 3 Arts * 5,7,8 Life* 9,10 Classifieds / Daily Delights * 13 Sports * 14


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