The Spectrum Volume 61 Issue 53

ubspectrum.com

Vol. 61 NO. 53

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Interview That Never Was

Tripathi Speaks

Spectrum E.I.C. sits down with UB’s president

*OPINION*

LUKE HAMMILL Senior News Editor

Today’s top story is an interview between Spectrum Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino and UB President Satish K. Tripathi. That interview was originally scheduled between Tripathi and me.

But after I wrote a series of articles – about, among other things, an “inaccurate” SUNY rule that Tripathi didn’t follow – about three weeks ago, university spokesman John Della Contrada canceled our interview. (There is new information about the SUNY-Tripathi situation. Keep reading, and see also the Parrino-Tripathi interview.)

Della Contrada then told Parrino (not me) that he didn’t want me to do the interview because he had just discovered that I am no longer a student at UB. That’s no big secret or scandal.

I graduated from UB last spring, after two years at The Spectrum. This year is my third. I am not the first person to work here while not attending UB, and I probably won’t be the last. There is nothing in The Spectrum’s bylaws that bars me, or anyone else, from working here. We are an independent publication. And we haven’t tried to hide my nonstudent status. Under my section of the “Meet the Staff” portion of our website (updated over winter break), I wrote: “Due to a staffing emergency, Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino asked me to return as senior news editor in the fall of 2011, while I wait to hear back from graduate schools. Though I am not a student at UB any longer, I still strive in my reporting to represent the student body as if I were still a part of it.”

Spectrum Editor in Chief Matthew Parrino sat down for his first-ever interview with UB President Satish K. Tripathi last week, finally getting the chance to ask him about the issues The Spectrum has reported on all year.

TS: Can you talk a little bit about UB-UUP’s referendum to demand that UB withdraw from the Buffalo Niagara Partnership?

SKT: You know, that’s a referendum, and UB is [an integral part of the] Western New York region here. We have to be playing the role of working with the business community to have the economic development plan that needs to be there.

From the problems with the HUB and financial aid, to the UB Foundation and TCIE’s illegal donation to former Erie County Executive Chris Collins’ political campaign, and (almost) everything in between, no question was out of bounds.

Due to space limitations, certain parts of the interview – including questions about Tripathi’s co-leadership of the Regional Economic Development Council and its $100 million state grant, the medical school’s move downtown, and whether presidents of public schools make too much money – do not appear in the print version.

To see those questions, visit the online version of this article at ubspectrum. com.

Both the print and online versions of the interview have been edited for length and clarity.

The Spectrum: Let’s talk about the HUB…Students have demonstrated a lot of displeasure with the system as a whole. What are your thoughts on that?

Satish K. Tripathi: I’m a computer scientist, so let me give my view on systems a little bit. Any time you make a big system change like the HUB, which is a multi-million-dollar change, a big change, all kinds of people are impacted. And remember in the background that only 10 years ago, many schools had to spend hundreds and millions of dollars and failed in implementing such a system.

If you saw [last week’s] editorial, even The Buffalo News talks about how important it is for UB to be in the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and work together. And UB has been part of it since 1951, and so, to me, it seems like it’s something that we have to do. We are, and we will continue to do so.

Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum UB President Satish K. Tripathi talked to The Spectrum about issues ranging from the HUB to the UB Foundation, even giving himself a self-evaluation.

It’s a very complex process, and we planned for multiple years, but – no matter how much you plan – when you roll out the system, the users behave differently, and we have been listening to the users and fixing some things that are not the same. From what I understand from the new students, they don’t mind it; there are some issues there that we are fixing and we are listening to that.

But it’s really change, and when I came as a graduate student…we had these punch cards, and when the punch card was changed, people were not really happy…When you think about the system change, this provides the kind of data you need. It provides the services if you are able to use it properly. These small setbacks are always expected in very large transformations of systems, when you go from one to the other, but if you really do a notational survey, you’ll

TYLER CADY Senior Sports Editor Buffalo Director of Athletics Warde Manuel is leaving UB for the Big East, and more specifically the University of Connecticut.

I graduated from high school the same year (2007) as current Senior Managing Editor James Twigg, Editorial Editor James Bowe, and Sports Editor Nathaniel Smith. I am over six years younger than Parrino, who was allowed to interview Tripathi.

Both Twigg and Parrino joined the paper the year before I did.

Manual, a graduate of Michigan, has served as the man in charge of Buffalo’s athletic department for the past six seasons. In that time he hired former head football coach Turner Gill who led the team to its first Mid-American Conference title and first bowl appearance.

It’s not like I’ve been at The Spectrum for seven years, Van Wilder-style, and it’s not like I returned to The Spectrum after 10 years and multiple Pulitzer Prizes at The New York Times. But even if that were the case, what would be the problem?

With all due respect to Parrino, who did a great job and asked Tripathi tough questions, I have been reporting since October on many of the issues he asked about. It took me countless hours of research, interviews, rough drafts, and rewrites to publish those pieces. Parrino has an entire newspaper to run. He was always involved and a great help to me while I worked on the articles, but I was the only one actually working on them.

We both regret that I was not allowed in the interview, and we agree that I would have been most prepared to engage Tripathi in conversation about what I’ve reported. What if I had enrolled in an arbitrary course, like Racquetball, at the beginning of this semester? How would that make me more qualified to speak to Tripathi? Or would there be another reason to keep me out?

I also regret that, from the outside, this whole thing may seem like it’s gotten personal. I assure you that it hasn’t. I respect that Della Contrada has a job to do. His job – representing UB to the media in the most positive way possible – sometimes becomes at odds with an aspect of my job – reporting on issues that may paint UB in a negative light.

In spite of that, my exchanges with Della Contrada have always been civil and professional. They often are even easy-going, routine, and friendly.

Usually, he provides the university’s stance on an issue I’m reporting on – a simple quote, or a piece of information to supplement my piece.

But when I reported that Tripathi did not abide by a SUNY document that says he needed permission from a state ethics commission before he joined the not-for-profit Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s board of directors, and Della Contrada called the document “inaccurate,” I felt the best way to allow readers to understand the issue was to report what actually happened – a back-and-forth between Della Contrada and me, with me asking a question, him answering it, me asking him to clarify, and so on.

Continued on page 2

Weather for the Weekend:

Monday: Partly Cloudy- H: 32, L: 27 Tuesday: Snow Showers- H: 35, L: 32 Wednesday: Cloudy- H: 37, L: 29

SKT: I think we have to communicate better and be able to communicate a lot more, and we learn from the HUB changes, and from the decisions on the tuition, and so on – that we need to do a better job there; I agree.

So the union has its referendum, and that’s fine…The faculty and the students are critical, and that’s why we need to provide, in terms of education, in terms of research, in terms of infrastructure. But at the same time, we are not on an island.

We are part of this community, and the businesses are important here as well.

Continued on page 2

Buffalo players, coaches, and fans have mixed emotions after announcement

I joined this newspaper in the fall of 2009. Since then, at least three of my colleagues (there may be more I’m not aware of), including a former managing editor, worked here while not enrolled in classes at UB.

I suspect that Della Contrada was disingenuous when he said the reason I couldn’t interview Tripathi was because I’m not a student.

TS: With the HUB issues, with the financial aid changes, and then there was the tuition announcement over break, it seems – from a student perspective – that a lot of things are changing, which sometimes is really good. But, when there’s a lot of change, there’s also a lot of getting used to the changes, and a lot of students have voiced concerns that maybe the administration – UB has a whole – didn’t really prepare them as well as they could have for that.

Warde Manuel Hired as UConn Athletic Director

I’ve applied to graduate journalism programs, and while I await their decisions, it makes sense for me to continue working and gaining experience at one of the most legitimate print news sources in the Buffalo area (and the only one that happened to be hiring). I, like some other top editors at the paper, am paid modestly for my efforts.

I may not be a student at UB, but as the senior news editor at The Spectrum, it is my job to represent the students at UB. Just like it would be my job to represent the citizens of Kalamazoo, Mich., where I have never been, if I were hired to cover city council meetings for the Kalamazoo Gazette.

find these issues are much smaller than what’s happened at other campuses.

The other part was [that] The Spectrum talked about how I joined the board illegally. Actually, it’s not illegal, and we’ve got clarification from SUNY…So the thing is, really, our job in the community is to create an environment for business development, and we don’t necessarily develop businesses ourselves. We create intellectual property and we train our students who might start businesses or who are the work force that can really sustain businesses, but we need to work together so that it’s a good quality of life and that the entire region increases.

Courtesy of Alex McCrossen Warde Manuel, Buffalo's AD for the past six years, is now on his way to UConn to head up the Huskies' athletic department.

The immediate impact of the announcement has rocked the university, and all of UB now waits for President Satish K. Tripathi to name an interim Athletic Director on Monday. Tripathi will also announce the university’s plans to conduct a national search for Manuel’s replacement.

In the meantime the mood around Buffalo’s campus is one of anticipation. Manuel was so widely respected, that many coaches and players alike are both saddened by his departure, yet happy because of the amazing achievement by their former AD. “We’re going to miss Warde,” said men’s basketball head coach Reggie Witherspoon. “He was tremendous for our university, and tremendous for our community. We’ll miss him and his family deeply. But I’m happy for Warde. It’s a testament to the university and its division of athletics that a school like UConn, with two hall of fame coaches and a BCS football program, would be attracted to and recognize the values in our division of athletics.”

Manuel is widely respected throughout the NCAA as he was one of three Athletic Directors to sit on the committee that oversees all of the NCAA’s rules.

When Manuel took over the program, the Bulls had four different teams below the 925 Academic Progress Rate that the NCAA mandates in order for teams to compete – football, men’s basketball, wrestling, and baseball all fell below the mark.

Since he took over, every team has raised its APR above the cutline, and 10 out of the 20 programs are over 975. It’s the students first, athletes second approach of Manuel that helped the school improve its academic standing in the NCAA. “During my undergrad years he was definitely a motivational person,” said former Bulls wide receiver Ernest Jackson. “It was vital that we understood that we were studentathletes. He made it his priority that we excelled within the classroom first before we could think about stepping on the field.”

Manuel will have a similar task at hand once he takes control at Connecticut, as the men’s basketball

Continued on page 2

Timothy Boyd: Master of Space and Time LYZI WHITE Life Editor In a lecture hall, 200 students are forced to huddle and crowd into a corner of the room, stuffed so close that they press against each other.

They’re close enough to smell their fellow classmates – their perfumes, their body odors – and they’re noticeably uncomfortable. To demonstrate the appalling conditions of the African slave trade and its slave ships, Timothy Boyd doesn’t just tell his students – he shows them.

Boyd, an associate research professor of classics, has taught at UB for 12 years. Over those 12 years, his teaching methods became well known, and are recommended among the student body. As freshmen became sophomores, they made sure to recommend Boyd’s World Civilizations classes to the next class of freshmen; soon he became the must-take General Education professor. From attending college in Amherst, Mass. to teaching classes in Amherst, NY, Boyd has employed his passion for learning and bestowed it onto his students – one year at a time.

“One of Dr. Boyd’s greatest assets is his innate ability to understand students – whether in individual conversation or all packed into a lecture hall,” said Michael McGlin, a graduate student of classics, has been a Teaching Assistant of Boyd’s for two years.

Boyd grew up close to Princeton in

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rural New Jersey. To get to school, he would board his school bus at 7 a.m. only to arrive an hour later. As an only child with parents who allowed him to watch TV just on the weekends, Boyd had to find alternative ways to entertain himself, often using his imagination as the outlet.

As he grew up in the country, Boyd had an abundance of land to run around on. He also read books of adventure, science fiction, and military history, and he enjoyed writing – especially poems, some of which were published in his school’s literary magazines.

Like many, Boyd was not blessed with the foreknowledge of what career path he would eventually end up on. As he matured, so did his career goals.

At one time, he thought he would be an archeologist. At another point, he believed he could be involved with drama, and still he’s not quite fully sure.

“I might be a cowboy when I grow up, but it depends upon the possibilities for health care,” Boyd said. “And I could never roll my own cigarettes – and I don’t smoke, anyhow.”

Drama and performance were a passion of Boyd’s for a long time. As an eighth grader, he performed his first play and in 1970, he attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, intending to be a drama major. But he would eventually graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Greek.

Yan Gong /// The Spectrum The students of UB have embraced Professor Boyd for his unique teaching styles that make going to class interesting and fun.

“The first drama course I took was so awful, the professor put himself to sleep, he was so uninvolved that I changed to classics and did Greek and Latin instead,” Boyd said.

But college wasn’t as easy of an adjustment as Boyd believed it would be.

After living under his parents’ watchful eyes throughout his childhood, Boyd was thrown into a completely different world – one with almost no supervision at all. As a middle class, public school graduate, Boyd found himself in a new scene surrounded by people completely different from him.

Many came from wealthy, privileged backgrounds and were already independent.

That didn’t stop him. He was deter-

mined to persevere.

“It was sink or swim and there were times – especially in my first two years – when I was closer to drowning,” Boyd said.

Boyd decided to swim.

After graduating with his Ph.D. from Princeton University, he returned to school once more, but this time as a professor.

As a researcher of ancient languages and civilizations, Boyd wasn’t just gifted with the ability to travel around the world, but to travel through time, stepping on the same soil as the emperors, kings, and revolutionaries – the same individuals that he discusses Continued on page 2

Opinion * 3 Life * 5 Arts * 6 Classifieds / Daily Delights * 7 Sports * 8

ubspectrum.com

Page 2 Continued from page 1: The Interview that never was That may have made it seem like the whole thing was a personal battle between the two of us. I hope no one took it that way. It was two men doing their jobs, and nothing more.

Continued from page 1: Tripathi Speaks TS: I want to read you one specific comment on one of our articles, and I would like if you’d respond to it.

“It's disgusting that the public university is run primarily for the benefit of real-estate And I’m happy to report that Della Contrada was developers like Ciminelli, National Fuel, and correct about that issue. The Spectrum obtained a the other businesses that run Western New copy of a Tuesday letter from SUNY Vice Chancellor York. Look at the boards of BNP, BCNY, UB for Human Resources Curtis Lloyd to James Jarvis Foundation, Law School Advisory Council, of SUNY’s Office of General Counsel. It reads, in and the local IDAs, and you'll see the same part: names and the same companies.

“The statement [in the SUNY Presidential Terms of Employment document] indicates that presidents must get approval from the Chancellor and Commission on Public Integrity in order to serve on non-profit boards. The statement is inconsistent with the Public Officer Law and should not be interpreted as SUNY Policy. Presidents do not need approval from the Chancellor or the Commission on Public Integrity (now JCOPE) to serve on a nonprofit board…The statement will be corrected.”

UB 2020 is nothing but state-endorsed looting of the university to line the pockets of real-estate developers. UB pays BNP to lobby the state government to cut salaries for professors, waste taxpayer money on building projects downtown, and jack up tuition and fees.

UB Foundation, whose board is made up of the developers who get paid to build the buildings, pays off Tripathi for his support of the project (UB Foundation is the largest contributor to Tripathi's $650,000/year salary).

I’m not after Tripathi. It’s not like I’m disappointed that, after all, he is allowed on the Partnership’s board of directors. If anything, I’m glad I helped point out a bureaucratic flaw in an important SUNY document, which people interpreted as SUNY policy. Meanwhile, students mortgage their entire futures just trying to borrow enough to get a Here’s the bottom line. I’ve committed no crime bachelor's degree, sentencing themselves to a and no violation of journalistic ethics, university lifetime of debt-slavery.” rules, or Spectrum bylaws. Della Contrada said he thought I had been representing myself as a SKT: What do you want me to say? student. I wasn’t. I’ve been representing myself as a Spectrum reporter, because that’s what I am. And TS: Could you respond to that? In The Spectrum should have the right to schedule an terms of, that’s a student who goes interview and choose which reporter(s) to send to here. It’s a law student. He got his the interview. Parrino and I are in the process of bachelor’s already. Can you just talk scheduling a meeting that Della Contrada proposed about that feeling, that sentiment? between the three of us to talk about these issues, and I am looking forward to it.

SKT: I don’t see that feeling coming out, except from this law student here.

Della Contrada also thinks The Spectrum’s positions The point is, if you look at the UB should be filled exclusively by students (99 percent Foundation, its job – basically, it’s a already are), partly because it gives students the not-for-profit foundation and its goal, opportunity to learn and develop their journalistic really, is to help UB to raise funds. For skills. Many of you probably don’t know that a large example, they raise funds in terms of part of my job involves teaching the news desk’s the students’ scholarships. Think staff writers, who join through enrolling in an about how many scholarships are English class, about journalism and writing. really given through the UB Foundation.

But though I take pride in passing the knowledge I’ve gained to others, let me be the first to admit: It actually raises money so we can I have much to learn. Almost every day at The attract the top faculty members and Spectrum, I learn something new, shake off a bad retain the faculty members and our habit, or struggle through a situation I’ve never chairs and so on. And also, it helped in dealt with before. Though I’m not enrolled at UB, I building the dorms we couldn’t build am still a student of journalism; after all, I do hope before…And foundations really exist to be in graduate school in the fall. to support UB. Its real goal is to make sure UB exists.

And I’ve definitely learned a lot in the past few weeks; that’s for sure.

Now, you talk about the same people and all who live in the community – they’re not all the same people.

Email: luke.hammill@ubspectrum.com There are a lot of different kinds of

The UB Music Department presents

Monday, February 13, 2012

people who support us. Many people give us money to do things. We had a $40 million anonymous gift – that’s going to benefit the faculty and the students and nothing else. That’s what we’re going to do. I can’t comment on everything that person [said].

Continued from page 1: Timothy Boyd: Master

of Space and Time

in his lectures. From Pompeii in the spring rain to Istanbul at sundown, there is no way to choose a favorite destination, according to Boyd, just as he cannot choose a favorite class.

TS: We also reported on the TCIE incident, and, throughout that – I went back and read everything – you never commented on that.

Those first-person instances are not Boyd’s favorite aspect of his job. It’s the act of teaching itself and seeing his passion for learning transfer onto his students that he truly enjoys.

SKT: It was a mistake, and there was some mistake in how the paper was processed. [It] should have never been given to the campaign, and the money was returned, and we’re going to fix the process. We actually already tightened the process to make sure that these mistakes don’t happen.

“One of the best compliments I’ve gotten from students over the years is: ‘I used to think that history was boring until I took World Civ.,’” Boyd said. “My job is to point enthusiastically towards the subject and hope that students believe my enthusiasm and try the subject for themselves.”

TS: In many jobs, it’s commonplace for employees to give themselves self-evaluations. Because you work for UB and students and faculty, can you give yourself a self-evaluation – how you’ve done?

That’s something that Boyd wants to instill on his students in his courses.

SKT: That’s the toughest job. I think we had a very good semester last semester, if I look at it. We were really able to get the NYSUNY 2020 sort of done. We were able to get the challenge grant from the governor. We were able to sort of look at the students’ quality and a lot of improvement in that. We were working on finishing a floor plan.

We’re getting to a stage where we can really implement it now and do that.

Multiple buildings coming in. Very quick, but very, very rewarding first semester.

I was privileged to be asked to be a co-chair of the Western New York Regional Economical Development Council, which has been a great experience for me. Working with the people has benefited both UB and the Western New York region. And then the next challenge is the billion-dollar challenge for the Buffalo region. So if you look, from inside and outside, at what we have been able to achieve, it has been really good…

“College should be a mixture of work and fun, and if you major in something you really enjoy, what’s fun and what’s work begin to come together in new and pleasurable ways,” Boyd said.

But even if students aren’t going to major in classics, that doesn’t mean they don’t find Boyd’s classes fun.

“All of my friends took him and they were saying how he is the best World Civ professor,” said Gunjan Shah, a junior biological science major.

“His attitude with students is very friendly, he always tries to make class entertaining and fun.”

Boyd understands that his students’ college life is much different from how his own was, and his teaching style reflects that. If he could hand out grants so his students could focus entirely on studies like he was able to do, he would. Although he didn’t need to have a job like many students do now, he understands the extra weight it puts on them.

Continued from page1: Warde Manuel Hired as UConn Athletic Director

team is ineligible for competing in the post-season next year due to not meeting the minimum APR. But it wasn’t just the classroom where Manuel left his mark on Buffalo athletes. He is known for being extremely personable to all Buffalo athletes from the minute they arrive at Buffalo.

“The moment we met on an official visit, I knew Warde was big time,” said former Bulls point guard Ashley Zuber. “[Manuel is] big time in the way he speaks, big time in the way he believes, and big time in the way he succeeds. I’m ecstatic for Warde” One person that was at UB when Manuel first came to Buffalo six years ago was former Bulls point guard Byron Mulkey.

He found out on twitter Sunday night and was immediately shocked. He didn’t see it coming much like the rest of the UB community judging by the online reaction.

But Mulkey is happy for Manuel. He’s always been impressed with how Manuel commanded respect right from the time he set foot on campus, and continued to develop personal relationships throughout his time at Buffalo.

Mulkey also was very appreciative of how approachable Manuel is.

“I’ve been able to sit down and talk with him a couple of times just based on my career aspirations to kind of be in a leadership role in athletic administration,” Mulkey said. “So to be able to interact with him over these past few years has been fantastic, I’ve learned a great deal from him.”

Manuel even made sure to take care of the little things to ensure that the student athletes at Buffalo were given the best opportunity to succeed.

“All you have to do is look at his track record from where we came from to what we’ve accomplished in a short amount of time,” said former Bulls running “Now, so often, I see how tired many back Brandon Thermilus. “I can’t even of my students are because they have explain how far we came along from the to spend long hours at outside jobs, locker room, to the meeting rooms, to the just to survive,” Boyd said. “I also The provost search is on [full] swing stadium and even the way we approached think that can be taken to extremes now, and we should be able to get things.”

– making money isn’t necessarily the somebody before the end of this There is no doubt in the minds of people only or best way to see your future. summer to join here and come be a part of the team. A lot has gone on, but If your heart is in a subject, perhaps he’s worked with or mentored that Manuel it’s better to accept less in the way of has left a lasting impact on Buffalo. But there is still a lot to do. now Tripathi and the rest of the admincompensation and be happier doing istration are faced with the tall task of, what you really want.”

Email: news@ubspectrum.com not only finding an interim to handle the day-to-day operations, but also to find the He found that himself in teaching. next permanent solution to head up the athletics department.

As an endlessly curious man, Boyd is always on a mission to learn about anything and everything – whether “We’ve gone through this before,” Witherit’s ancient languages, cooking, or spoon said. “I think it becomes a strain on construction – if someone knows the person who’s interim. I think we have more than him about any subject, he a couple people that can carry on in that wants to listen and learn. He asks capacity, but it’d be nice to build on what questions and absorbs information, we’ve all been going through for a while.” expanding his knowledge as far as possible.

That next step is already expected to be To read the rest of this article go to ubspecunderway, as Tripathi informed the UB trum.com.

Council of Manuel’s departure on Sunday night. He is expected to issue a statement Presented with support from The Robert congratulating Manuel on Monday.

The Ying String Quartet

Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle

Concert V: Thursday February 16, 2012, 7:30pm Concert VI: Sunday, February 19, 2012, 3:00pm Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music

Tickets and info: (716) 645-2921 or www.slee.buffalo.edu

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Monday, February 13, 2012

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.

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

Vilona Trachtenberg, asst.

LIFE EDITORS Aaron Mansfield, senior Keren Baruch Lyzi White Rachel Kramer, 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 DESIGNERS Nicole Manzo Aline Kobayashi ADVERTISING DESIGNER Aline Kobayashi Liam Gangloff, asst.

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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Opinion ubspectrum.com

An Assault on Humanity

The U.S. needs to protect Syrian citizens Living in America and other western nations has infinite privilege that many people of the world would never know. It’s hard for us to imagine our lives without a bounty waiting for us down at Wegmans, or a police force ready to protect and serve.

Right now, Syria couldn’t be further from our relatively quiet suburban existence. There is a civil war going on between the opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and government forces.

Syria’s state-controlled media would have its people believe that it’s a bunch of ragtag terrorists going around and murdering people, but reports coming out of the country are painting a horrible picture of what’s actually happening.

In short, it’s a massacre. Al-Assad’s forces are launching missiles, mortars, and bombs into opposition territory and causing mass devastation. Last week alone saw 687 deaths, with 59 of those being children.

Of course, the UN is playing its typical part by being completely ineffective. Security Council Resolution 1973 was designed to help the Syrian rebels

defend themselves against al-Assad’s onslaught, but China and Russia effectively blocked the resolution.

So, the typical rounds of meaningless “diplomatic and economic sanctions” get tossed around with some harsh rhetoric to make a verbal diarrhea salad of uselessness. Not only is Syria not very dependent on foreign trade to begin with, it’s already killing people.

It’s like watching a psycho walk up to people on the street and smash them in the face with a baseball bat and asking him to please stop or else you will send him a strongly worded letter.

Syrian citizens have been calling for help. In a short film sent in to the U.K. paper The Daily Telegraph, activist Danny Abdul Dayem demands action from the U.S. or the UN. Dayem has dual British and Syrian citizenship, and in the clip sends out a desperate plea: “where is the humanity in the world?”

President Obama must take real action to protect the people of Syria. We understand that it’s a tricky situation politically, but responsibility overrides the problems we might have afterward with other nations.

This isn’t Iraq, where we went in with a full invasion force before even knowing what was actually happening. We’re looking at the dead every day; al-Assad is murdering his fellow citizens.

A full-scale invasion is too much, however. Libya works as a great model for how we should handle it.

Use airstrikes and drones to prevent forces from continuing their rampage on Homs and other cities.

This is where we prove to the world that we are different. We can prove that we won’t be bullied into sitting on our thumbs while people die because people will make fun of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, or because Syria’s only two allies might get angry with us.

Every day the international community waits, 100 more will perish.

University Heights still in shambles

Living on our own isn’t exactly cheap, however. It’s not exactly a big secret that the price for on-campus housing at UB is on par with your first-born child and many students look for a cheaper alternative and find the University Heights across from South Campus.

Landlords in the Heights take advantage of the students, operating on the “you get what you pay for” notion and leaving the houses that students rent in complete disrepair. Some have no hot water, some have dangerous electrical problems, and some are in danger of practically falling apart.

Last year in April, our editor in chief at the time, Andrew Wiktor, published a story exposing the atrocious conditions in the Heights after four fires in a year, and one caused by an electrical short in a wall destroyed a house.

Most of the landlords that own proper-

ties in the heights don’t even live in Buffalo, opting instead to just sit back and rake in the cash.

UB’s recent “housing blitz” has been helpful by getting the city to cooperate with the school and investigating the housing conditions.

What they’ve found has been a mixture of good and bad. Inspectors say that there have been some improvements made, but that there are still houses that aren’t completely safe to live in, and one that students were forced to vacate.

Every landlord that owns property in the Heights should be embarrassed that even after everything that has happened, that their properties are still horrible and getting cited for issues.

Something has to give. It’s obvious that the landlords couldn’t care less about the students or getting a little fine, and the only people who get hurt in this equation is the tenants.

While the university has been helping with blitz, they need to take some ex-

tra steps. There should be a separate group set up by the school specifically targeted at giving the students who need it resources and coordinating with the Buffalo city to make this “housing blitz” a far more regular occurrence.

The only way to force every one of these scumbags to fix their properties and make them livable is to make it hit their pocket book.

Getting the city into the Heights more often will make it a necessity to fix the problems or face a fine every two weeks or a month.

Students themselves, however, can take the initiative as well. If you’re going to rent off-campus, do more than a simple walk through to check on a place before you sign a lease. There are things that you would never think to look for that a building inspector would recognize as dangerous.

Also, utilize SBI’s legal advice that it provides to students. Know that you have the power to stop the cycle of students walking into deathtraps and leaving them for the next poor sap to get duped into the property.

What are you thinking?

Tweet it! @UBSpectrum

The Art of Performing

Without a doubt, Russia and China have the blood of thousands on their hands, but the longer we wait to take action the more at fault we are for each death. Responsibility is about doing the right thing even when it’s inconvenient.

Take You Higher For many students, coming to college for the first time is an adventure. It’s the first time we’re away from our parents for a long period of time, and the first time we’re tasked with taking care of ourselves.

Page 3

VANESSA FRITH Senior Arts Editor

The number of categories for the 54th Grammy Awards has seen a dramatic drop from years past.

Where there were once 109, now there are only 78. While dropping categories isn’t a new concept – there were once Disco and Polka awards – and while I’m sure there are very few who lament the loss of a Polka award, there is one category the Grammy’s have never bothered to add – Best Live Performance.

The Grammy’s gain respect by being the only American music award show that encompasses an immense range of music genres – from rock and folk to classical and children’s music, the Grammy’s attempt to make sure talent in all fields is given a chance to receive its hard earned awards.

Kudos.

It’s nice that artists have a chance to be rewarded for music that has been finely tuned after hundreds of separate recordings and limitless tries. None of this matters if they can’t actually perform live with the same quality.

By no means do I intend to infer that producers and sound engineers are talentless, soulless individuals who exist only to make up for artists’ singular lack of talent. Recording, mixing, and mastering are no easy tasks and that’s precisely why the Grammy’s gives these individuals their own categories.

However, there is something that can be said for artists who can make their music sound as good on stage as they can in a studio. Whereas one moment sees endless opportunities to get every detail right along with the opportunity to use technology to make up for faulty vocals (auto tune, anyone?), the other instance catches an artist unguarded, surrounded by distractions, and working under far more intense conditions than a cushy little studio. A band that makes music consistent with their actual everyday abilities should be recognized.

Live performances seem to be a slowly dying art. Backing tracks pervade while sampling songs has somehow become something to be lauded and lip-syncing is now a well-developed skill. A concert should be a measure of a band’s ability, particularly if it is dedicated enough to spend nearly all their time either in the studio or on tour.

In an interview last summer, Alex Gaskarth, lead singer of All Time Low, stated, “when we perform live, that’s something we take very seriously. It’s our focus as a band. We record so that people have material to listen to, but our hopes are that they come to the concert.”

Whether or not you like All Time Low is irrelevant when considering the importance of this mentality in a band. Performing is a mark of a band’s true talent, and it’s something that goes unnoticed and unrewarded at the Grammy’s. If you want people to attend your shows and are willing to charge them exorbitant amounts to do so, artists should at least provide an experience worth your dollar.

While it would be a herculean task to try and sort through and weed out the best concert performances in a given year, the Grammy’s somehow manage to pull a select few albums to honor out of the nearly 115,000 released annually in the U.S. (numbers according to the Chicago Tribune).

How much harder could it be to honor bands that display actual talent?

Email: vanessa.frith@ubspectrum.com

Page 4

ubspectrum.com

Monday, February 13, 2012

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Monday, February 13, 2012

From the Convent to the Classroom MEGAN DRESSEL

she shows, but she spends an enormous amount of time doing these things.”

Staff Writer The life Diane Christian lives is not the life she started. Surrounded by women shrouded in black, she entered the convent in 1961, participated in three years of cloister, and took her first vows.

But after eight years in a convent, Christian made the decision to hang up her robe and walk away from her life as a nun.

She can now be found in a lecture hall at UB, imploring her students to talk about real-life enthralling topics, including sex, which makes her among the most popular and most requested professors here. She is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, which is one of the highest honors a teacher can receive in the SUNY system.

“I wanted to be great,” Christian said. “I wanted to be a saint. I wanted to be terrific.”

While she may not be a ‘saint’ in a formal sense of the word, Christian has become a saint to the English Department. She joined the UB faculty in 1970 after receiving her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and teaching at Nazareth College in Rochester.

When she decided to leave Nazareth in 1969, she had sensational credentials and “an oddly sexy background,” so she had a lot of job offers, but she chose to continue her journey at UB. “Buffalo had the best English department in the country,” Christian said. “Full of writers and artists and some really smart people.

When I came to the interview, they asked me all sorts of questions – about my work, about film.

I loved the energy.”

Christian believes that the secret to maintaining her passion for education is teaching what she herself is thinking about – the topics that she’s infatuated with. Her most popular classes are Mythology; Heaven, Hell, and Judgment; and The Bible as Literature. She has written and co-authored three books, and produced films about ex-nuns, death row, and Robert Creeley, an American poet.

“It was clear she was very passionate,” said Lydia Quebral, a sophomore English and business

Page 5

UB’s Hidden Crown Jewel

UB provided her with the opportunity to teach what she loves, and it also led her to her husband, Bruce Jackson. Jackson is a Distinguished Professor and a James Agee Professor of American Culture here at UB. The two met on campus on Christian’s first day in 1970 at a sandwich machine. They have been married for over 40 years, and their overlapping interests have allowed them to flourish as both professors and as a couple.

Qing Zhang /// The Spectrum Diane Christian left her life as a nun behind to come to UB and use her life experience to enrich her lectures.

major that took a class with Christian. “She had knowledge beyond her subject – one of the myths we read was her own translation of the myth from French.

She always knew background information, and her lectures really clarified what was going on.”

Many students tie together Christian and sex, because that is often the most frequent and engaging topic of conversation in her classes, but the label does not bother her.

“We live in a wildly sexual culture, and yet we are repressed and puritanical in certain ways,” Christian said. “I really think we are very confused about issues of sex and violence. I can make jokes about it because I’ve read lots of texts about it and I can explore it. I think it’s very important to explore.”

In addition to her extensive résumé, Christian is also part of over 10 committees on campus.

When Cristanne Miller, a professor of literature, became chair of the English department in 2006, she began working with Christian and the two became fast friends.

“I very quickly came to admire enormously the amount of work that she does for the university without public acknowledgement,” Miller said. “She doesn’t have an administrative position; she’s just on a bunch of committees.

There’s no kind of title one can receive for the kind of leadership

They have been teaching the Film Seminar class together for 12 years, which has shown over 400 films. Lectures, organizing conferences, putting on series at UB and the Albright Knox are only a few of the things the two have collaborated on. They also published a book in 1979, called Death Row, and produced a film that goes along with it.

On April 14, they will be releasing their newest book, entitled: In this

Timeless Time Living and Dying on Death Row in America. This book

includes photographs from death row, a long essay about what life is like living on death row, and a section on how they went about completing the first book and film.

The two spend a lot personal and professional time together, which strengthens their already-strong bond.

“She’s one of the smartest people I know,” Jackson said.

Diane Christian redefines the position of ‘professor.’ Her passion for education and her curriculum, combined with her wit and storytelling skills, make her wildly popular among students.

“I love ideas and I love thinking out loud,” Christian said. “I think what makes me popular is that I don’t have the idea that I can just give you a lot of facts; there’s so much to know. I only teach the things I love – that I think are valuable intellectually, morally, aesthetically. I really want to engage people.”

Email: features@ubspectrum.com

On the fourth floor of Capen is a room full of priceless poetry and books.

MAX CRINNIN

Staff Writer On the fourth floor of Capen Hall there sits a mysterious room. Its contents are invaluable, cryptic, and the subject of study by some of the world’s most renowned scholars.

Just what is it?

The Rare Book/Special Poetry Collection.

Unknown to many at UB, 420 Capen Hall is an academic gem on North Campus, and continues to attract worldwide attention as a one-of-a-kind collection. What began nearly a century ago as a donation of rare books from Thomas B. Lockwood has since grown to become a complete, unique archive of Anglophone poetry dating back to 1900.

“For any moment in history from the last 112 years, you can acquire a snapshot of where poetry in English was at a particular time,” said Michael Basinski, curator of the Collection.

Basisnki explained that the collection is particularly distinctive because of its dedication to collecting not only first-edition collections of poetry, but “little magazines,” manuscripts, journals, etc.

These rare texts make the collection ultimately more valuable in terms of scholarly research and money.

“The Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower could be rebuilt; you could put a value on them if you had to – but would anyone do that?” Basinski said. “The Collection is like a monument in that sense.”

According to him, the Collection is priceless, and impossible to duplicate.

For an idea of just how much it’s all worth, one need only take a small glance at the Collection’s most prized possession – the Joyce Collection.

James Joyce is considered to be one of the most significant novelists of the 20th Century, and the UB Special Poetry Collection houses the largest accumulation of his work in the world. Nine pages of original text from his novel Finnegans Wake sold for over $6 million at auction. The Collection houses

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Solyi Lee /// The Spectrum

over 10,000 pages of original Joyce text.

The study area of 420 Capen helps set the scholarly atmosphere: paintings grace the walls, while glass display cases brim with artifacts and collectible items.

That being said, the Special Poetry Collections room is off limits to those who are not using the archive for research. None of the material being examined can leave the room, and there are specific rules on how they must be handled.

Upon entering, students must hang up their belongings and may only use pencils on their desks while studying the text, which is retrieved and brought out by a librarian at the desk. No drinks, no pens. Nothing.

For these reasons, the Collection is truly only accessible to those students who study literature and are doing research on a very specific area of text.

“What’s important is that the collection stays here for those who do use it. What’s an engineering student going to do here if he isn’t studying literature? But if you do need it, it’s here for you,” Basinski said.

For the most part, those who use the collection are graduate and occasionally undergraduate students studying literature; but also professors, patrons from the area, and international scholars.

“It’s a really mellow environment,” said Maria Manunta, a sophomore English and philosophy major, who first visited the Collection this semester with her American Poetry Class. “The artwork is amazing and the people there were really nice. I had no idea about the collection before I went there for class, but most people don’t.”

The Collection currently has many of its visual poetry items on display in an exhibit at the Center For the Arts entitled: “Language To Cover A Wall.”

The exhibit will be there until Feb. 18 and is a good place for students interested in the Collection to start, before they visit the rare compilation that is 420 Capen.

Email: features@ubspectrum.com

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Page 6

The Corner of Main Street and Avenue Q

Monday, February 13, 2012

The Theatric Idiocracy

BRIAN JOSEPHS Arts Editor JAKE KNOTT Staff Writer

There’s a place where monsters, Gary Coleman, and puppet sex coexist, and it’s all brought to you by the letter Q.

I’m a guy that watches a lot of the late George Carlin’s stand ups. I’ll take a seat, venture to YouTube, and watch a line of his episodes for countless hours.

Every Wednesday through Friday, the MusicalFare Theatre at the Daemen College campus is playing the Broadway hit Avenue Q. The show was one of the longest running shows on Broadway, and has won the Tony Award for Best Musical.

Director Doug Weyand was drawn to the musical not because of its accolades, but its material. Avenue Q parodies Sesame Street by using puppets alongside live actors onstage and the familiar stoop setting. Weyand found staying faithful to the material difficult, but rewarding.

“It is one of the funnier Broadway musicals that have come up in the last 10 years,” Weyand said. “But it’s a challenge we’ve had to deal with – creating puppets for the show and hiring actors who could learn to be puppeteers in time to do the show.”

The musical satirizes Sesame Street’s optimism as well. These puppets are adults, and the real world is much more sobering and unfortunate – a fact that the character Lucy the Slut (Amy Jakiel) sings about.

The plot follows the exploits of Princeton (Marc Sacco), a young adult who moves onto Avenue Q with an English B.A. and no work experience. Throughout the musical he interacts with a cast that includes the saccharine Kate Monster (Jakiel), mischievous Bad Idea Bears (Jacob Albarella and Maria Droz), and Rod (Sacco) and Nicky (Albarella), Avenue Q’s version of Bert and Ernie.

Despite its bitter undertone, Avenue Q’s comedy is the show’s main charm.

The musical’s humor ranges from raunchiness to facetious treatment on sensitive issues like homelessness.

MusicalFare’s iteration of Avenue Q has been well received. Weyand says that the tickets sales for the performances have been among the company’s highest, and the show was extended an extra week by popular demand.

The other day, my insides agitated with laughter to one of Carlin’s comments that suitably fits the premise of this column, “I like people… But I have a very low tolerance level for stupid bulls***!”

Wholesome values and raunchiness collide in Avenue Q.

Weyand believes that the actors feed off the reception in order to keep their performances consistent. A majority of the actors have no puppet experience and work to improve themselves as they perform in front of the pack theatres.

“The audience reaction is great so [the actors] are getting something from the audience,” Weyand said.

“They find new ways to make it even better than when it opened so things get refined as it goes along. They’re having a great time as far as I can tell.”

Sacco has performed in multiple musicals, but ranked Avenue Q as one of his favorite performances. The actor works as the secretary to the Dean of Affairs at the UB School of Nursing during the day before heading off to Daemen to perform five times a week.

Sacco draws the energy to perform his lead role from the cast.

“Sometimes it can be little difficult,” Sacco said. “But the cast gets along really well, and it’s a good group of people. It helps that I’m really happy to see everybody every day. I think the fact that we have a very jovial friendship with each other helps gives us life.”

The demographic that the Buffalo venue draws in is another challenge.

Avenue Q’s humor and theme more directly speaks to the 18 to 24 year old audience. MusicalFare Theatre’s

Satsuki Aoi /// The Spectrum

location draws in a more elderly audience.

The crowd’s more conservative background led to mixed responses to some of the material. “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist,” a number that jokes about racial relations, was met with spurts of laughter accompanied by curmudgeon moans. A similar reaction occurred in a scene where puppets Princeton and Kate Monster were having onstage sex while Gary Coleman (Adrienne Lewis) encouraged the behavior in song.

Phil O’Neal, 53 from Buffalo, received tickets to the show as a Christmas gift from his wife. By intermission, he admitted that he got more than he bargained for.

“It’s racier than I thought,” O’Neal said.

You want an example? I’ll give you one that drives me to the threshold of lunacy.

Last Saturday, my movie-posse and I checked into our weekly appointment at Regal Cinemas. The Woman In Black was the unanimous choice, and the only doable showtime for the entire group was at 11:45 p.m. I didn’t even consider the late showtime, which is normally inhabited with a sea of intolerable teenagers. I was merely excited to see Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Potter movie.

As soon as I found my seat, all was lost.

One chair separated me from a noisy popcorn eater. He devoured his buttery snack the way a lawn mower trims grass.

I couldn’t go one minute without hearing my obnoxious neighbor consume his prey.

Sacco is aware of the audience’s age and noted that its reaction to Thursday’s performance was quieter than usual. However, he’s still pleased with the crowd’s reaction.

“So shows like this are risky in general,” Sacco said. “But into the process you know people may not like it or they’re really, really going to respond well. We’ve been lucky enough that the responses have been great.”

The show’s run will continue through March 11.

Email: arts@ubspectrum.com

George and I share this idea. My most despicable peeve is the ruthlessness of brainless acts of a fellow human being.

I’m not out to call other people brainless, but sometimes there is just that one person – or few people – that just have to be aggravating to be around.

Seated a row ahead of me were two teenage girls, roughly 14 years old. They obviously had stuff that were so imperative to discuss that they – not whispering, mind you – talked and texted on their cells with their minds in careless oblivion. One of the lawnmower’s friends kindly asked them to quiet down. They didn’t.

Why didn’t I personally ask them to shut up? Mainly because I’m allergic to meaningless conversations, and I knew full well that the girls would blurt out a

generic, hollow line like, “Mind your own business!” or “It’s a free country!” or, my idolized favorite, “Nobody else seems to care!”

That’s a false assumption. Everyone cared, but nobody wanted to be ‘that guy’ to tell them off. I have already confessed that even I wasn’t ready to mouth my honest opinion to these two harpies.

But someone should. Each movie theater should hire an undercover watchman/woman during late-night movie premiers. These guardians will quietly protect the audience from any obnoxious noisemakers. And if anybody so much as inhale to speak, that said guardian would spill his/her soft drink onto the noisemaker’s head.

Even the movie theater needs its dark knight.

Now, of course there are loopholes.

Comedies, for instance, pretty much require a noisy audience to make laughing easier. And horror films will understandably cause girlfriends to shriek and clutch onto her date for dear life. The Woman In Black even caused me to jump once, and erupted screaming and fearful chatter among the crowd. I expected and ignored that.

But there is just no need to discuss your life story during a public showing. Some people don’t consider that there are moviegoers who take film seriously.

The worst encounter happened about two years ago at a screening of Paranormal Activity. One guy in the audience shushed another guy seated two rows below, and that was a good enough excuse for him to climb over inhabited seats to publicly battle a stranger.

Don’t do it. Don’t be the one who tortures everyone else with your voice and/or blinding cell phone and/or popcorn eating. You will be hated for X amount of minutes by people who paid a high price to see a movie. If you truly yearn to gossip and obnoxiously text cute boys or girls, go to the mall.

You just might walk out not covered in soft drink.

Email: jacobkno@buffalo.edu

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Monday, February 13, 2012

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4, 5, 6, & 8 BEDROOM Remodeled Apartments to choose from: located at University at Buffalo Main Street Campus-Off Englewood. Beginning June 2012: 32 Apartments $275/ to $300/ bed plus utilities. Washers & Dryers included. Contact BRADENGEL37@ gmail.com 301-785-3773 or Shawn 716-984-7813 check out our web-site www.BUFAPT.com.

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Page 7

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Visit ubspectrum.com/games for our online game of the week Also see the crossword and Sudoku answers from last issue

Crossword of the Day STEVEN WROBEL Life Editor It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a…weather balloon.

While many students spend their weekends partying, studying, and hanging out with their friends, one club at UB spent its weekend studying the outer realms of Earth’s atmosphere.

UB Students for the Exploration and Development Space (UB-SEDS) is a club that sets its ambitions skyward to generate interest and activism in the community for any and all space-related topics, according to Sean Lyons, a senior aerospace engineering major.

Lyons was the project Edited bymanager Timothy of E. the Parker February 13, 2012 club’s High-Altitude Weather BalloonBy Kathy George WHAT, NO SNOW? Project (HAWB). The project’s goal

ACROSS was to send a weather balloon into wheel?

39 Bad weather for those behind the 1 Bowl-shaped roof temperature and the sky to measure

42 Good hole card 5 They prey every night atmospheric pressure. In addition, the

43 State of adversity 9 Turkish title

team wanted to capture pictures and46 Old-time oath

14 Not quite round

49 Practically touching video to document the trip and 15 ___footage En-lai (Chinese premier)

51 Color similar to mouse gray measure atmospheric boundary 16 Lowestthe female voices

52 Well-to-do layers.

17 Bit of unusual weather

54 Tierra ___ Fuego 19 Poet William Butler

56 Word with "luxury" or "excise" 20 It may be brushed off by a barber

“This project is one of the most chal- 57 Help a market cashier 21 Cushiness

lenging yeta rewarding feats of my 58 Do news-paper work 23 Not, to Scot

undergraduate career,” said. 60 Bartlett or bosc 24 Musketeer motto word Lyons

26 Source of after-hours cash and [the]62 "Hi" or "bye" on Lanai “The lessons I have learned

middle 64 Strong current of air 28 Cracker with a hole in the success of this project have given me68 Coins of Turkey

30inspiration ___ and bounds an no course offered at this

69 Task list heading 32 Site for stained-glass windows

university could ever provide.”

70 "We don't know who said it" abbr.

34 "___ and the Real Girl"

71 Had a purpose in mind 35 Long, slender cigar

72 Florist's cutting 37 Target of many a shot The launching of the balloon last 73 Method of meditation and exercise

Saturday, Oct. 22, was the culmination of many hours of planning. The group had to not only raise the funds to take on this project, but it also had to develop the means by which to perform all the desirable functions.

UB-SEDS procured $1,100 in funding from sponsorships from local companies and from Sub Board I Inc.

“The idea for this came about in either October or November of last year, when we saw a video of a father-andson team that sent an iPhone aboard a balloon and recovered it, becom-

monDay, FEBRUARY 13 FROM UNIVERSAL UCLICK

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -- Put things in simple terms today and your message is sure to reach those with whom you are really trying to communicate.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -- Your prospects are bright, and there are those who will want to follow in your footsteps in the time to come.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- You'll discover that you have more friends and supporters than you had originally estimated -- and it's a good thing, too!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You'll want to get your part of a project done before anyone else has to prompt you to do so. Being responsible is a key issue at this time.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -- You can make an important discovery today, and yet you won't know quite what to do with it until you receive a bit more information.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- You're going to have to use your imagination in order to come up with a solution to a problem you have inherited from another.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) -- Others may think you are simply vacillating, but the truth is that by changing your mind you are demonstrating how reasonable you really are.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- The lessons you have to learn largely have to do with fitting in and heightening your own sense of belonging.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -You know how to work and play well with others, but today you may not be in the mood for such interaction.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- You may not know just how to approach another about an issue that has been plaguing you for some time, but you know the time has come to do so.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -Not everyone is on your particular wavelength, which means that a few difficult things will be up to you to say and do.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -- What begins in a surprising way soon becomes something you are used to, and that can affect a great deal more about what you are doing.

DOWN

1 Homer Simpson's shout

2 Biological eggs

3 California et al, to Hawaiians 4 "___ Enchanted" (2004 fantasy film) 5 Band of eight

6 "Which person?"

7 Wisdom passed along

8 Some poisonous shrubs

9 Check recipient

10 Hearty quaff

11 Poem division

12 Balloon filler

13 Left side of the balance sheet 18 Afflicted with muscle tremors

22 Clips, as sheep

24 High peak

25 Grazing land for sheep

27 African republic

29 City near Binghamton, N.Y.

31 Macy's event 33 Cuddly bamboo-muncher 36 Tied, as the score 38 Playpen toys 40 Encircle or bind 41 Elementary particle with no charge 44 Place with curative waters 45 Questionnaire category 46 Prepare for mummification 47 Net minder 48 Mohair-coated goat 50 Authoritative decrees 53 Baker's buy 55 Certain salt source 59 Homer-hitter's pace 61 "And ___ we go!"

63 Solo in a space flick 65 Exalting poem 66 Eggy seasonal drink 67 Watson and Crick's lab material

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Sports ubspectrum.com

Page 8

If a Team Wins Eight Straight, Does It Make an Impact?

TYLER CADY Senior Sports Editor

There are over 29,000 students on this campus, and judging by the student turnout at Saturday’s basketball game, only 1,400 of them care that they go here.

It was True Blue and the athletic department’s attempt to break the student attendance record once again. There was never a better time, riding a sevengame winning streak, on a Saturday at 6 p.m.

Yet only 1,400 students paid the price of admission – zero dollars – to attend a Division 1 basketball game, support the most recognizable entity of their school, and even get a free T-shirt.

In my four years here I’ve seen a lot of empty seats in Alumni Arena, and at this point I’m just fed up, and quite frankly, embarrassed.

Don’t get me wrong – the students that came out and stayed to the end made Alumni Arena louder than I’ve ever heard it, as Western Michigan sophomore forward Matt Stainbrook shot potential game-winning free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining. He missed them with the help of the screaming students behind the basket.

I got chills during that sequence as Dave Barnett’s video prompting the crowd for noise played over the videoboard, and the building erupted. You could feel the floor shaking beneath your feet, and it was an incredible feeling.

It just makes me imagine what the Arena could – and should – be like every night.

As everyone should at least know by now, the team is really good this year.

The eight straight wins speak for themselves.

It’s just mind-blowing how few students support the team. If the season ended today, the Bulls would get the two seed in the conference tournament, and would be just two games away from berth in the NCAA Tournament, a first for the school. C’mon, people.

Reality Check: The Sabres are awful, and they still play in the league that gets near no attention in the U.S. The Bills haven’t been a relevant team (save for the five weeks that they suck fans back in every year) this whole decade.

The Buffalo men’s basketball team is the city’s best chance to make headlines this year, and I’m not sure if the student body recognizes that.

It’s 6 p.m. on a Saturday and less than 6 percent of the student body makes it out for what is the best thing this campus has going for it?

There are more students who religiously follow that “UB Memes” Facebook page.

It’s a collection of cartoons with stupid captions, and more people would rather sit on their laptops than come support their hometown Bulls?

Crazy Eights

Bulls eek out nail-biter for eighth straight win AARON MANSFIELD Senior Life Editor

He missed the first. The student section erupted in hysteria. The Broncos called a timeout and the gargantuan, 6-foot-9, 290-pound center thought about the situation for a long, hard 30 seconds as thunderous chants of “STAAAAIN-BROOK” exploded throughout the Arena.

Email: tyler.cady@ubspectrum.com

Last Meeting: 66-65 Buffalo (January 7, 2012, Alumni Arena) Two Golden Flashes to watch: F-Justin Greene: What else is there to say about the reining Conference player of the year? The 6-foot-8 senior is the team’s leading scorer at 13.5 points per game, and he has heated up in conference play, averaging 16 points against MAC competition. He is an efficient scorer down in the low post, making over 50 percent of his shots.

Stainbrook pulled his jersey over his head in dejection after he missed the second. Senior forward Titus Robinson – who faced some free throw woes of his own, going 0-for-5 from the line down the stretch – said he didn’t envy Stainbrook’s dilemma: shooting lategame free throws in a rowdy Alumni Arena.

“Better him than me,” Robinson joked.

Western Michigan head coach Steve Hawkins said he didn’t blame Stainbrook – who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds – whatsoever for the loss.

“I felt awful for him,” Hawkins said.

“I told him that he deserved better. I told him that we wouldn’t have been in that position if it weren’t for him.”

With 23.5 seconds left, Western Michigan (10-15, 4-7 MAC) appeared to have the game won. Broncos’ guard Mike Douglas drove down the lane, drew contact, and converted a three-point play to give his team a 57-56 lead.

As the clock read “20.7,” Buffalo called a timeout to set up for the gamewinning possession. Senior guard Zach Filzen got a pass from sophomore guard Jarod Oldham, shot-faked from the 3-point line – getting his defender off balance – and dribbled a few feet inside the arc. He then hit a pressured fade away jumper. Filzen said he was just supposed to be a decoy, but the game fell into his hands.

Stainbrook grabbed an offensive board at the other end, drew a foul, and the rest is history. Dave Barnett hit a free throw with .3 seconds left. Filzen finished with 10 points, though he sat on the bench for the majority of the second half as he struggled to get in rhythm.

Senior forward Mitchell Watt and junior forward Javon McCrea – who

Reimon Bhuyan /// The Spectrum The True Blue section erupts as Western Michigan’s Matt Stainbrook misses both free throws with 1.1 seconds left to give the Bulls a 59-57 win at Alumni Arena, their eighth straight victory.

have been the team’s two steadiest players this year – continued their monstrous play in the paint. Watt finished with 16 points, eight boards, and six blocks, though he was nearly non-existent in the opening half. McCrea scored 14 on 6-of-7 shooting, but he fouled out with 3:56 remaining. The two just couldn’t get going at the same time. The Bulls were up 56-52 when McCrea exited.

Buffalo is now 28-4 in its last 32 games at Alumni Arena, and head coach Reggie Witherspoon said the crowd was a massive part of this win.

“We got through some rough times and got ourselves back in the game [after trailing 46-38 late in the second half],” Witherspoon said. “I thought the crowd played a big hand in that right up to the end, and it’s great to have that kind of support.”

The win gives the Bulls their first sweep of the MAC West (6-0) in school history.

“I think [the sweep] is big,” Filzen said. “Obviously in this conference it’s such a battle; you need to play well every single night to get a win. I think we’re more excited about that: keeping a streak going, trying to get better and

better.”

Robinson said his team wanted to make history, and now it has.

Buffalo jumped out to a 9-2 lead, but led just 27-23 at the break, as Western Michigan found little ways to hang around. McCrea scored 12 of his team’s first 19 points.

The Bulls turned the ball over twice as much as their counterparts – 12 to six – but out-rebounded the Broncos (who came in second in the MAC in rebounding differential), 44-37.

“Offensively, we never really got into a rhythm,” Witherspoon said.

This game was Buffalo’s last in Alumni Arena until Feb. 22, when the Bulls will play Ohio (19-6, 7-4 MAC). The Bobcats fell two games behind Buffalo in conference standings with a Saturday-night loss to Eastern Michigan.

The Bulls will be in action twice next week with both games on the road, and in the first game, they’ll travel to Kent State (18-6, 8-3 MAC) on Tuesday. The game will tip at 7 p.m.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

Bulls Mount Comeback, But Come Up Short BRAD PARKER Staff Reporter It has been a rough season for the women’s basketball team, and Saturday’s seesaw battle in Alumni Arena, was a microcosm for the plight of the Bulls this year.

Buffalo (7-18, 2-9 Mid-American Conference) looked to get its first backto-back win since late December as it played host to Central Michigan (13-12, 5-6 MAC). Despite a late rally to tie the game at 60, the Chippewas would score the final six points as they snatched a 66-60 victory.

The Chippewas’ suffocating 2-3 zone defense smothered senior guard Brittany Hedderson and held her to a season-low four first half points on 1-of-7 shooting.

I just wish you cared.

All-Time Record: 25-8 Kent State

Those two missed free throws, a clutch late-game bucket by senior guard Zach Filzen, and a made free throw by senior forward Dave Barnett gave the Bulls a massive 59-57 win, improving the team to 16-6 (9-2 Mid-American Conference) and keeping its spot at no. 2 in the MAC. Buffalo sits just a half game behind of conference-leading Akron.

It’s sad, and I honestly feel bad for the people who work for True Blue and the athletics department, because they’re busting their asses for an apathetic, clueless population.

I couldn’t tell you what majors Alabama offers, or anything else about the school for that matter. But I can tell you it has a damn good football team. People around Western New York should be saying that about this basketball team.

Current Record: (18-6, 8-3 Mid-American Conference)

He missed again.

How about the “flash raves” in the library every year? Those never have attendance issues.

I fully understand the number one reason on everyone’s list for attending Buffalo was not its sports teams, but once again on the national scale no one cares about the engineering department, or the med school, or whatever else you’re taking here.

Scouting Kent State

With 1.1 seconds left, Western Michigan forward Matt Stainbrook stepped up to the free throw line for two shots with his team trailing, 58-57. His squad’s hopes rested on his back. Alumni Arena pulsated in pandemonium, as a near-capacity crowd did its damndest to thwart Stainbrook.

Central Michigan jumped out of the gates early as it scored 12 of its first 14 points on 3-point shots, with three of them coming from guard Niki DiGuilio.

The Chippewas’ hot start continued as they mounted a 21-8 lead with 9:08 left in the first half.

It was Greek night at the game, and the Greeks were noticeably missing, along with almost every other club and organization on campus, my question is why?

Monday, February 13, 2012

“The defense they played on Brittany in the first half was like wallpaper,” said head coach Linda Hill-McDonald.

“They absolutely covered her.”

Double and triple teams on Hedderson allowed for a balanced first half in scoring with solid contributions from multiple players. Sophomore forward Nytor Longar had five points, two rebounds, and two blocks going into the locker room, while senior forward Beth Christensen doubled her season scoring average in the first half with six points to go along with five boards, and two blocks.

G-Michael Porrini: The floor general for the Golden Flashes has been a big factor in the team’s six-game winning streak. The senior guard is averaging six assists per game, and is shooting well in conference play, making almost 44 percent of his shots from 3-point range.

The Bulls will win if... They are able to exploit the lack of rebounding by Kent State. They have been outrebounded in five out of their last six games, while Buffalo is second in the country in terms of defensive rebounding, and that is key to holding teams to only one shot in a possession. Bulls sophomore forward Javon McCrea and senior forward Mitchell Watt need to also stay out of foul trouble, as they need all hands on deck to beat the Golden Flashes on the road.

The Golden Flashes will win if...

They can maintain the buzz they get from playing at the MAC Center. The Bulls are 0-14 against Kent State on the road all-time, and the Golden Flashes are undefeated at home in the MAC this year. Kent State has to be at its best offensively against the Bulls, and the best way to exploit that is to score points in transition, which prevents the Bulls from setting up in their half-court defense.

Predictions NATHANIEL SMITH Sports Editor It’s one thing to win against MAC West competition. Its quite another to slay the demon that is Kent State at the MAC Center. This will be the toughest test for the Bulls so far this season, with this Kent State team wanting revenge from its Jan. 7 game against Buffalo. If junior guard Tony Watson can continue to hit critical shots and the Bulls can improve from the free throw line a win is very likely. This team has been breaking records all year, and its time the Bulls finally get this monkey off their back Buffalo-74 Kent State-71 TYLER CADY Senior Sports Editor

Alexa Strudler /// The Spectrum Buffalo’s Nytor Longar (with ball) drives to the basket. Her 15 points were not enough as the Bulls fell short to Central Michigan, 66-60 at Alumni Arena.

“I think that they started forgetting about me in the second half after I scored only four points in the first half,” Hedderson said. “We pounded the ball inside to Nytor and Beth in the first half so they couldn’t just play on me, they had to defend the team, and once that happens, it makes it a lot easier to score.”

A rejuvenated Hedderson combined with some lackadaisical Central Michigan defense sparked the Bulls, as they went on a 13-2 run to even the score at 36 apiece with 13:05 remaining, and Hedderson gave the Bulls their first lead of the night on a nifty layup coming mid way through the second half.

The fast-paced effort by both squads was clear as every Buffalo basket was matched by a Central Michigan basket.

Despite the strong efforts from some of the Buffalo role players, the Bulls still faced an eight-point deficit going into the break.

Tied going into the closing stages of the game, a layup by Chippewa guard Jessica Green put Central Michigan up by two with 21.9 seconds left. Buffalo then missed a shot and fouled Central Michigan’s guard Kylie Welch, who sank two free throws to put the game away.

The sub-par first half play by Hedderson was quickly erased as she connected on her first shot in the second half. She went on a tear, scoring 16 points in the second half, keeping the Bulls afloat and giving her a team-best 20 points for the contest.

“I thought we came back well in the second half,” Hill-McDonald said. “In those last two minutes, we executed the offense the way we wanted to and got the looks we wanted but we didn’t knock down the shot. It was unfortunate because we worked on these late

game situations, and I felt we executed them very very well.”

Hedderson blamed youth for the team’s recent losing ways and failure down the stretch.

“We don’t have a lot of players that have had that late game experience and I think that kind of shows,” said Hedderson.

Despite the hard fought loss, the Bulls had strong individual efforts all around. Longar finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds. Senior guard Teresa Semalulu filled the stat sheet with a career-high 16 points, nine boards, five assists, two steals, and two blocks in one of her strongest efforts of the season.

“It’s really nice to see Teresa in her senior year blossoming,” Hill-McDonald said. “She’s really hard to defend because she is so quick even when she’s matched up with the quickest defender on the other team.”

The Bulls have now lost nine of their last 11, and will hit the road to face Bowling Green (20-4, 11-1 MAC), a team with the best record in the MAC, Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com

In all honesty, Kent State should win this basketball game. Buffalo won by one point at Alumni Arena, and sweeping the top-tier of the MAC East is always pretty unlikely. This is the most talented team the Bulls have played on the road during their current win streak, and it’ll take a monumental effort from the entire team to top Kent State on the road. However, Buffalo is undefeated since I started predicting in these scouting reports, and until they show me differently I’m going to continue to ride with the Bulls.

Buffalo-68 Kent State-67 AARON MANSFIELD Senior Life Editor Tyler says Kent State should win this basketball game, and I agree. The Golden Flashes should’ve won in Buffalo, too, and I think they’ll get the job done in their home arena. The streak has to end some time, folks. I would love if it went on forever, but it won’t, especially in this year’s parity-riddled MAC. Each team – top to bottom, East and West – is capable of winning every night. Kent State is just so tough and winning on the road in the MAC is less likely than the other team’s best player missing two free throws to lose the game at the last second. Oh wait.

Buffalo-61 Kent State-68