The Spectrum Vol. 65 No. 67

T H E I N D E P E N D E N T TSHTEU D NETP E PN UD BE LN I CTA S TT IO NA I VTEI R Y FA T T HBEU U FF E T1 B 9U 50 I NED UN D EO NFT TPH UEB LUI C OSNI T O NA I VLEOR,S S I TI N Y CA FFALO, SINCE 1950

UBSPECTRUM.COM

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2016

VOLUME 65 NO. 67

Unbreakable

PHOTO BY KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM DESIGN BY PIERCE STRUDLER

Asher Beasley, a student-athlete and mother, proves nothing can break her GABRIELA JULIA

MANAGING EDITOR

Asher Beasley squatted more than 180 pounds, jumped hurdles and crunched her abs until she could barely breathe. She wanted to outrun her past, secure her place on the UB track team and learn to believe in herself. Nothing was going to stop her.

Until it did.

“It” was a girl.

A baby.

Her baby.

Beasley found out she was five months pregnant a week before her first track meet of the 2013-14 season.

At first, she didn’t believe it. She was on birth control. She had a tiny 5-foot-2 frame and no belly. She strained her body every day to exhaustion.

No way could she have a baby in there.

And yet, she did. The doctor had confirmed it. She had even told her it was a girl.

Beasley first went to her athletic counselor, who then brought in her head coach.

“I just cried. He knew before I even said it,” she said.

She stopped competing. She went to practices, but she no longer drove her body to the limit. Everyone could tell she had changed.

Her edge was gone.

“What’s going on with you?”

“Why aren’t you winning?”

Her teammates barraged her with questions she wasn’t ready to answer.

She was too ashamed.

Now, two years later, Beasley thinks about all those years of feeling shame.

There was the shame about her belly. There was the shame about letting down her coaches, her team and her family. And there was the shame of need – of needing to ask for help.

A few months after her baby was born, her boyfriend and father of her child was away and she thought she would never run or win titles again. She just knew she would never be a good mother for her baby. She tried to dis-

appear by swallowing a bottle of pills.

It’s been her darkest secret.

But, now, the junior media study and theater major is ready to open up and talk about her life. She already holds a degree in communication and wants to do more with her time left at UB. She wants to tell her story – one day she may even make a documentary.

“I’m so tired of being ashamed,” Beasley said. “I want to let it out and talk about it because I don’t want to feel like this anymore.”

She dreams of beginning a women’s empowerment class to help students facing unplanned pregnancy and suicidal thoughts cope and not feel alone.

“

child while being a student-athlete, it’s incredible,” said Steve Esler, UB track and field events coach. “I believe it’s made her a better person.”

Beasley worked out twice a day throughout her pregnancy. She had to keep her spot on the team and her scholarship money or she’d lose her hopes of a college degree.

She knew it was a lot, but she told herself as long as she cut out hurdles, abdominal exercises and heavy lifting, the baby would be safe.

She held it all together.

At least she thought she did.

Then, one month early, two hours before her sign language final exam, Beasley’s wa-

One of my characteristics is that I’m strong and that’s what people see. But behind closed doors, it’s been bad.

- Asher Beasley

She wants all girls, including female athletes, to know she’s been there.

The NCAA does not keep statistics on female student-athletes who carry babies to term, so there is no way of knowing how many there are in the state or the nation. It’s a topic feared, but rarely discussed, among female student-athletes, who nickname being pregnant while on scholarship getting “pinkshirted.” It’s a riff on the term “red-shirted,” which is when a college keeps an athlete off a team for a year to extend eligibility.

Beasley is the first female student-athlete in recent UB history to have a baby and remain on a team. She’s definitely the first to come forward with her story.

“For what she’s gone through and the amount of stress put on her having had a

ubspectrum.com

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ter broke.

Her daughter Jace arrived as a shivering four-pound bundle, and spent a week in an incubator.

Four months later, Jace was diagnosed with infantile hemangioma, a puffy, red benign tumor under her eye, which was not serious, but required regular medication and check-ups for two years.

Through it all, Beasley maintained a stoic front. Her troubles were hers and she’d handle them.

Naturally gregarious with big, almond eyes, she used her outsized smile, good looks and bubbly charm to mask the turmoil she felt.

“One of my characteristics is that I’m strong and that’s what people see in me,” Beasley said.

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“But behind closed doors, it’s been bad.”

A false start Beasley remembers the joy she felt coming to UB and her determination to get a scholarship.

She needed it. Her mixed race Puerto Rican-black family came from Spanish Harlem and she was the only one of her five siblings to go to college. When she was eight years old, her family moved to New Jersey, where they lived in a house with a backyard big enough for her family.

But her parents lost their house when Beasley was a high school freshman and her family had to move back to Harlem and into a city project. There, Beasley remembers the drug addicts and the alcoholics hanging around. There were times she never knew if there would be hot water.

Beasley’s parents wanted to give their smart, talented daughter a chance. So, during the weekdays, she lived with a friend in New Jersey and attended school there, instead of Harlem. On the weekends, she would go home to her family.

She discovered running in the fifth grade – it was like magic.

When she ran, her fears vanished. She felt light, free, golden.

Her high school track coach knew she had talent and encouraged her to try for a scholarship.

At first, she was skeptical.

“College is just not in my family line,” she said. “Where I’m from, no one goes to college.”

She applied and got a full scholarship to Oklahoma City University. She went to Oklahoma for her first year, but it was too far away and she couldn’t afford trips home.

Beasley’s father suggested she look into UB. She was accepted in 2011 and joined the track team as a walk-on.

Always ready to help, she charmed her teammates but also impressed the coaches with her grit.

She was going to fight for that scholarship.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

@ubspectrum

2 An unexpected surprise

GOODBYE COLUMNS

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

How UB went from a fallback to the beginning of my career right route for me.

I applied to Buffalo in early April and received my acceptance letter on the last day of that same month. I decided the next day – with the help of the best mother and father a child could ask for – that I wanted to attend the University at Buffalo and the rest is history.

I’ve moved four times since I got accepted to UB. From Spaulding, to Main Street to Northrup Place, I went through 10 roommates.

John, Daniel, Sherwood, Lomenzo, Mintzer, Spencer, Barfish, Kirsh, Ackerman and Sokol.

My first three years at Buffalo didn’t really mean all that much looking back. It wasn’t until I took a risk and decided to start writing that I felt my time here had any meaning.

Although my time at The Spectrum was quite short, I feel that the skills and values

EVAN SCHNEIDER NEWS EDITOR

I didn’t know I was going to UB until the last day you could possibly register.

I got waitlisted or shut out of all of my dream schools and decided SUNY was the

THE SPECTRUM

I have learned here will only help launch a successful career for me in the future.

I hope to one day think back to the days I struggled to write a headline or contact a source and laugh.

I hope to one day think back to the days when I would have anxiety because Marlee Tuskes wouldn’t answer my Facebook messages and laugh.

I hope to one day think back to my first and last sex issue and … laugh.

I was at a loss before I found The Spectrum.

I had one internship to my name, a couple small jobs, a few years as a camp counselor but no real résumé builder.

Just before last summer, my friend Dani told me I should check it out. She had just finished her first semester as a staff writer and was being moved up to an editor. So I thought why not? I always felt that writing was one of my strong suits.

I thought I would jump right into the sports desk upon my first day in class. I’m a lifelong sports fan so I thought that would be the perfect fit for me, but it wasn’t. Sorry, Jordan Grossman.

After listening to Gabriela Julia and the rest of the senior editors’ desk pitches, I decided I wanted to join the news desk. I felt a sense of pride reporting interesting, inspiring and fun news pieces for the university community.

It felt good to have deadlines and be on a strict schedule even though I didn’t always abide by them.

I want to thank Gabi, Marlee and Ashley Inkumsah for walking me through my first few weeks as a staff writer and helping me get to where I am now.

I want to thank Alyssa for praising one of my first articles when I thought they all were awful. I also want to thank the news desk’s late addition, Hannah, for being such a boss and my friend Sam for giving me a headline for this piece.

To keep with the theme, my time at The Spectrum was short, so I won’t talk your ears off.

I appreciate and am thankful for all that this place has taught me and I will surely keep it with me for years and years to come.

Schneider out. email: news@ubspectrum.com

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GOODBYE COLUMNS The metamorphosis Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

Editorial Board EDITOR IN CHIEF

Tom Dinki

MANAGING EDITORS

Alyssa McClure Gabriela Julia COPY EDITORS

Saqib Hossain NEWS EDITORS

Marlee Tuskes, Senior Ashley Inkumsah Evan Schneider Hannah Stein, Asst.

FEATURES EDITORS

Tori Roseman, Senior Tomas Olivier John Jacobs, Asst.

ARTS EDITORS

Brian Windschitl, Senior Kenneth Kashif Thomas, Senior Luke Hueskin, Asst.

Max Kalnitz, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORS

Jordan Grossman, Co-senior Quentin Haynes, Co-senior Michael Akelson, Asst.

PHOTO EDITORS

Kainan Guo, Senior Angela Barca Rashaad Holley, Asst. .

CARTOONISTS

Joshua Bodah Michael Perlman CREATIVE DIRECTORS

Pierce Strudler Anthony Khoury, Asst.

Professional Staff OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

Helene Polley ADVERTISING MANAGERS

Nicole Dominguez Lee Stoeckel, Asst.

Evan Meenan, Asst.

ADVERTISING DESIGNER

Derek Hosken

THE SPECTRUM Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Volume 65 Number 67 Circulation 4,000 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.

TOM DINKI EDITOR IN CHIEF

Word for word, I still remember my sophomore year Spectrum staff award. You know, those “paper plate” type awards almost every club, sorority and campus organization gives out to members at endof-the-year ceremonies. That piece of paper with a short, personalized award that most recipients will look at, either chuckle at or feel sentimental about and then forget about.

I still think about mine two years later.

The Butterfly Award: To the editor that is coming out of his shell and becoming a leader at the paper.

It made me shrug. I didn’t feel like I was coming out of any shell.

And I certainly didn’t feel like I was becoming a leader. I assumed whoever was responsible for writing encouraging awards to 20 some-odd editors needed something nice to say about the sophomore assistant sports editor who, sure, had wrote a few good stories, but hadn’t said much at all his entire first semester as an editor.

In fact, I had been quiet my first two years on this campus. Too quiet. Like, too quiet to move a conversation past “Hey” and “What’s up?” quiet. I overthought everything I wanted to say, so I just didn’t say it at all. I kept myself distant, even from the other editors at the paper who were great people looking to be my friend.

My shyness cost me friendships and relationships I never had a chance to make. In some cases, it cost me the friendships and relationships I did have.

So why would I choose journalism – the profession which above all requires you to be good at talk-

ing to people? I still don’t know the answer to that. I’m just glad I did.

And I’m not sure if whoever wrote my “Butterfly” award truly saw something in me, or if it was just something nice to say about the shy kid – I’m just glad they did.

I’ve had the responsibility and honor of serving as this paper’s editor in chief this past year – and the pleasure of coming out my “shell” and being a leader for this incredible newspaper that still amazes me even after four years of working here.

We’ve put ourselves out there, open for criticism and ridicule, in effort to do the right thing – sometimes we stumbled, but most times, we made it through the finish line.

We brought to light important issues, like living conditions in the Heights, the classification of sex offenders, drama in the law school and athletic department spending.

We’ve tried to cover each club, department and organization with fairness and balance. We’ve made a lot of allies in doing so. We made some enemies too (Goodbye, UB Athletics. Go Bulls.) Sometimes, they were both. (We know exactly how we feel about each other, SA).

We tried to cover difficult topics, like student art projects and student deaths, with grace and sensitivity to the best of our ability.

All this despite the fact UB has no journalism major and The Spectrum receives no funding from the university. Nothing. Zero. Yet a group of dedicated individuals put a borderline unhealthy amount of hours into 132 Student Union so UB has an award-winning student publication and a place where its students can get experience to land jobs, internships and graduate school acceptance.

(Maybe we should work to change that whole no funding thing, huh, UB?) The Spectrum gave me what I needed: to be pushed.

I needed something to force my mouth open and have a conversation with people without caring

what they thought of me. I needed a star athlete or university official waiting for me to ask a question, to be the one holding the microphone at a press conference, to have a newsroom of hard-working 20-somethings looking for me to tell them what to do.

I needed The Spectrum.

Yeah it’s cliché, but there really is no way to fit in all the different memories I have from The Spectrum inside his last column – this goodbye column as we like to call it. So I’ll give you the abridged version.

There were too many nights leaving 132 Student Union as the sun was beginning to rise. Too many hours furiously transcribing hours of recordings.

Too many ignored text messages from friends looking to hangout – and too many times I pulled out my laptop to edit or post a story when I did hang out with them.

Too many times my parents, whom I live with, went days without seeing me, as I’d come home hours after they’d went to bed, or not come home at all.

And there were way too many sickening feelings that there was no chance my story or that of my peers was going to come together, only to get an amazing sense of relief seeing that same story on the front page of the newspaper the next morning.

Of course when I say “too much,” I don’t really mean it. I loved it. The good and the bad.

Every single second of it.

And as many hours of my life that I gave to The Spectrum, it did much more for me. It took an unconfident, shy 18-year-old without a voice to a 22-year-old willing to stamp his words, face and name out there for thousands of people to read.

Yet, it’s not really The Spectrum that did anything for me. The Spectrum is just a 20x10 piece of newsprint. It’s the people that make The Spectrum what it is.

When I look back at The Spectrum 10, 20 years from now (that will probably come sooner than all

we seniors think) I won’t think of every single story and front page, I’ll think of the people.

I’ll remember the sheer enthusiasm in Jordan Grossman’s eyes every time a breaking news story happened. I’ll remember Marlee Tuskes’ sassiness and organization. I’ll remember Kainan Guo as the most genuine, thoughtful and hard-working human being I have ever met. Seriously, more people should be like you.

I’m going to remember Owen O’Brien being that older advicegiving brother I never had, and the ridiculous and long nights with people like him, Sara DiNatale, Alyssa McClure, Rachel Kramer and Emma Janicki (specifically that night at Owen’s apartment and at The U).

I’m going to think about Spectrum academic adviser Jody Biehl spending hours outside of her job description helping me perfect my big pieces. I mean it when I say I think you’re the best adviser in the country.

I’m going to think of Helene Polley being my second mom and always letting me walk into her office, close the door and vent. Thank you.

Thank you.

I’ll remember Sam Fernando, the one person at The Spectrum who made it a point every day to try to start a conversation with the assistant sports editor who sat in the corner. And I’m going to remember Sara, the former editor in chief, telling a shy kid just starting to realize his potential that he could be the next EIC of the paper. I’ll remember doing the same for incoming EIC Gabriela Julia as she began to flourish.

There’s countless of other people I could list off – I hope they all know how much I appreciated their time and spirit.

It’s the people that make the difference. The people I was once too scared to talk to and almost never got a chance to know.

I’m just glad I did. email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com

‘The One with the College Newspaper’ Saying goodbye to 132 Student Union

For information on adverstising with The Spectrum, visit www.ubspectrum.com/advertising or call us directly at 716-645-2152 The Spectrum offices are located in 132 Student Union, UB North Campus, Buffalo, NY 142602100

ALYSSA MCCLURE

MANAGING EDITOR

The TV show “Friends” has episode titles that are very applicable to the college experience: “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”; “The One with All the Resolutions”; “The One with the Blackout.”

“The One Where No One’s Ready.” Now, perhaps, “The One Where No One’s Ready to Graduate.”

College cannot be fully summed up in one phrase – how can you fit staying up until 2 a.m. on a Tuesday wine drunk with your roommates, 10 p.m. half-app adventures, mud-splattered sunburns, chocolate chip cookie baking and Chinese fire drills in the middle of the Audubon into one blank? Yet for each one of us, our experience has been highlighted by something profound – something that has changed us as individuals, made us more self-confident and gifted us lifelong friends.

For some, it is a fraternity or sorority, a campus club or a sports team.

For me, college has been “The

One with the College Newspaper.”

I joined The Spectrum in the spring of my freshmen year. I spent the majority of my first semester sidelined with a stomach illness that had plagued me throughout my senior year of high school.

I was scared to leave my dorm in case I became ill, so I skipped parties, made up excuses for why I could never leave campus with my classmates and kept to myself.

After receiving a diagnosis over Thanksgiving break, I was looking for a way to start fresh. I had led my high school’s literary magazine and figured that made me a good writer – I soon found out writing for a college newspaper is much different. I was thrown so far out of my comfort zone I could no longer see the wall I had built around myself.

It was the best decision I made in college.

After spending the better part of six months holed up in my bedroom, The Spectrum sent me out into the world. I interviewed professors, professionals and students and inquired about their lives, aspirations and fears. With each interview, my anxiety shed; I realized there was more to me than my illness and more to life than assuming the worst.

The Spectrum pushed me to push myself. Every time I thought I successfully completed a challenge, another was thrust at me. Like when

I wrote a story on a fellow student who had suddenly passed away, when I wrote the front page story to our spring break issue in less than 24 hours and when I was asked to return to the paper after taking a semester off. Even on school breaks, I couldn’t escape The Spectrum. I once spent three hours reading a breaking news story out loud to my editor in chief over the phone so he could read back his edits because it was the middle of August and he was at a cabin without WiFi. Once you join The Spectrum, you are part of it everywhere you go.

You find yourself live-tweeting while waiting in line to see presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, chasing fire trucks across campus and sprinting to the office to notify your photo editor President Satish K. Tripathi is in the Student Union. Everyday life becomes full of newsworthy topics; The Spectrum changes the way you think.

I’ve met some of the funniest and quirkiest people I know at this paper. There is a special camaraderie that develops when you all have to be in the office at 11 a.m. every Sunday and stay until midnight or later every Tuesday and Thursday.

You understand what your editors are thinking by the looks on their faces or their tone of voice. Hannah Montana sing-a-longs and Fireball shots happen. You know who will always have a Band-Aid, napkin or fork (me) and who is most likely to write an article when The Spec-

trum wins an award or elects a new editor in chief (also me).

To all of my fellow editors who were there through the super-late nights, the breaking news stories, the 11 a.m. budget meetings, the Starbucks runs, the inevitably frustrating moments and the readthis-six-page-story-out-loud editing sessions – thank you. There is nowhere else that would have tolerated my hatred for the Oxford comma or my incessant reminders that movies need to be written in quotes, not italics.

I don’t intend to enter the field of journalism after graduation and haven’t since my junior year. I’ve stayed at the paper and spent the better part of the past two years editing – and occasionally writing for – this paper because I love the people who comprise it. I also owe it a debt. Without The Spectrum, I would not be the leader I am today – I’d still be shut in my dorm room.

I’m starting law school in the fall and will take with me the editing and writing abilities and awareness of current events that I honed at The Spectrum. In 132 Student Union I’ll leave behind a stack of newspapers, ibuprofen and a family. This paper has given me some amazing memories with some even more amazing people. “The One with the College Newspaper” will go down as my favorite episode. email: alyssa.mcclure@ubspectrum.com

4

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

Finding power in a situation where I had none Sexual assault can happen to anyone

JOHN JACOBS

ASST. FEATURES EDITOR

This is supposed to be my “goodbye” column, where I get nostalgic and sappy and talk about my experience at UB. I could do that.

I could talk about the small group of friends I’ve made here in the last two years like I’m supposed to, but that wouldn’t be an accurate representation of how I feel about my time here.

I’ve got nothing against this school or the people here but I’ve spent my senior year feeling lost, regardless of the friends I’ve made or things I’ve accomplished. I know I sound like a prima donna, like I’m crying because I broke my tiara or something, but let me explain why I feel this way.

It was late October 2015. I was at an open

bar and drank too much because I was depressed and thought it’d help. It didn’t. I got drunk enough that I stumbled outside to catch some air and blacked out.

I regained partial consciousness in a car to a stranger sexually assaulting me. I’m a guy and he was a guy too.

I was too drunk to really understand what was happening to me at the time, but the assailant wasn’t. The guy was sober enough to lead me to his car, sober enough to take my pants off, sober enough to drive. Sober enough to know better.

Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean sexual assault can’t happen to me. And just because I was too drunk to defend myself doesn’t make me gay or mean that I “secretly wanted it.”

If someone broke into one of your friend’s house, beat them and stole all of their money you wouldn’t say: “Well you must have wanted to get robbed and beaten, otherwise you would have had a better security system and put up more of a fight.”

You wouldn’t blame the victim in other violent crimes, so don’t blame the victim when it comes to sexual assault.

I’ve read countless stories on sexual assault and every time I see at least a few comments where people blame the victim instead of holding the assailant accountable. According to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), 68 percent of sexual assaults are never reported to the police.

Victim blaming is no doubt a huge part

of the reason why sexual assault is so unreported and it’s partially what caused me not to report the assault when I could have done something about it. The other reason I didn’t report it has to do with gender roles.

Society sets unrealistic expectations for both men and women but gender roles for men make it seem like it’s impossible for us to be taken advantage of. Society presents the idea that men are supposed to be powerful, strong and in control. We’re not supposed to have something happen to us that makes us victims.

Because of these expectations, I tried to deny that the assault happened to me.

The morning after it happened I tried to tell myself that I made it all up, that I was drunk and misremembering. But I knew that it was real because I had proof.

Even once I knew it had actually happened I still didn’t tell anyone. I thought it wasn’t a big deal. I thought it didn’t matter. I didn’t want to be judged or viewed as less of a man for “letting this happen” to me. I just wanted to deny it so that’s what I did.

I shut out the negative emotions from the trauma and by extension I shut out all my positive emotions as well.

I felt nothing for a long time.

Sexual assault happens to your body but your mind is where most of the damage is done. You no longer trust yourself or other people and you lose grip on who you really are. That’s a terrible feeling to have in your 20s when you’re just starting to figure out

what you really stand for.

I won’t sit here and spin a complete sob story though because I have recently opened up about this to those close to me and I’ve been able to fight through this. I have been able to go to my classes and get all my work done regardless of how terrible I feel most of the time and I’m proud of that.

This article is something that I’ve warred with myself over. Putting myself out there makes me vulnerable and being vulnerable isn’t a feeling I enjoy, for obvious reasons.

But I’d rather be uncomfortable and do some good than be comfortable and help no one but myself. Progress never comes from a place of comfort.

If you’ve been sexually assaulted but never told anyone I want you to know that it’s not your fault and that telling people you trust really does make things better. I know it’s nerve-racking to be so open with someone but there’re some things you weren’t meant to deal with on your own and sexual assault is one of them.

I might not have had control over what happened to me but I have control over how I choose to deal with it.

I choose to speak out. email: john.jacobs@ubspectrum.com

6

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GOODBYE COLUMNS

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

Do it for the story College is for exploration, so don’t be afraid to take risks

JORDAN GROSSMAN

SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Right before the beginning of my final semester at UB, I found out that Long Island native and former UFC Champion Chris Weidman would be in Buffalo. He was promoting legalization of MMA in New York State.

UFC is my favorite promotion in the rising sport of MMA and having the opportunity to interview a champion and executives would be career changing.

Soon after the email was sent out, I reached out for a media pass, secured my spot at the event and spent two hours speaking on and off with some of the best in the business.

Had this interaction happened even two years ago, I would have thought about that opportunity over and over again, just to be disappointed when I would turn down the offer. I would have thoroughly convinced myself I wasn’t a good enough journalist to even think about covering an event with the UFC COO as a keynote speaker.

And here I am now, writing my final col-

umn for The Spectrum, the publication that allowed me to interview thousands of people for hundreds of stories, a handful of whom are household names.

Limiting yourself will get you nowhere.

Hiding behind a mask because you’re uncertain of the result is no way to live life, especially in college, where the entire four-year stretch is nothing but a learning experience.

Take risks. Tell stories. Make your experiences here at UB worthwhile to remember them years down the road.

Possibly the best way to tell my college story begins at the second semester of sophomore year.

Hardly ever in my life have I told myself, “I need to do something with my life,” but I had to say those exact words in fall 2013. I only took two days worth of classes during the week. The rest of the time was spent day drinking at my South Campus home and sleeping in until 1 p.m. It was time for a change.

And it came the moment I entered 101 Baldy, my first-ever Spectrum class.

Two-and-a-half years later, I write my final column for this paper with hundreds of stories in mind, like the countless hours I spent playing NBA Showtime, the amount of all-nighters I pulled in the office, to the places I was able to visit.

As a graduating senior, I’ve been able to reflect on the places I’ve visited, events I’ve covered since I assumed my position as Senior Sports Editor, and embrace them with a different perspective than ever before.

It’s rare for a college journalist to cover an NCAA Tournament, a UFC conference, a Donald Trump rally and a Kevin Spacey speech, to name a few, in the same calendar year. I’ve interviewed close to 50 celebrities in my tenure at The Spectrum.

Unbelievably, I promised myself in that first Spectrum class I would, one day, interview Khalil Mack and Branden Oliver. I now have both of them in my phonebook.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, like every successful journalist, I’ve learned to tell stories. It’s taken this long, however, to figure out how to tell mine. The Spectrum did much more for this lost soul than ever imaginable. The amount of times I would complain to my roommates about quitting, only to show up for 11 a.m. budget the next day, is unfathomable.

Maybe I knew I couldn’t leave The Spectrum.

It slowly became a second home in college (yes, I’ve slept on the office couches more times than many would think). For all the times I would edit a story during a pregame or wake up hungover to come in to Sunday production, I always knew in the back of my head The Spectrum was where I wanted to be.

I wanted that next great story more than I needed a Gatorade those mornings.

Every great story has to come to an end.

And I know my story wouldn’t be complete without a charismatic cast. Tom, my first-ever senior editor on sports, I thank you. The amount of times you’ve bailed me out is unprecedented, and I thank you for push-

ing me to learn types of writing other than sports. My arts and features crew, Tori Roseman, Brian Windschitl, Kenneth Kashif Thomas and Tomas Olivier, thank you for always making production that much easier. I’ll miss our Super Smash Bros. games next year. Quentin Haynes, my right hand man, it’s been a pleasure to work side by side with you for the past year and a half.

Marlee Tuskes, even though you came on to the scene late, it’s incredible how quickly you’ve made The Spectrum your family, like I did. And to Kainan Guo, the hardest worker in the office, unanimously voted by the entire staff. Keep that work ethic up and the sky’s the limit.

Gabi, the paper is in incredible hands next year. Keep doing what you do and never let UB Athletics push you around. They don’t know who they’re dealing with. Alyssa, the unsung hero of the office, keep doing big things at Notre Dame Law School. Thank you, from one devoted senior to another.

And lastly, I thank everyone who’s ever taken an interview with me, read over my stories and criticized my writing. You may not know it, but you helped create a journalist, not a college journalist. I leave UB with a passion for writing and stories to tell. My last piece of advice for anyone in college: enjoy your precious college years, take risks and do it for the story. email: jordan.grossman@ubspectrum.com

Senior Challenge 2016:

THANK YOU! Thank you to everyone who donated.

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8

FEATURES FEATURES

Wednesday, July 1, 4, 2015 Wednesday, May 2016 The Spectrum

THE SPECTRUM

Unbreakable CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

During her first meet in 2011-12 she felt a pop in her leg during the hurdles. Her trainers told her it was a strain and advised her to take a month off.

But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She had to prove herself.

A week later, she was running again. This time her hamstring tore and she couldn’t compete for an entire year.

But still, Beasley trained every day.

She was cleared to run again for the 201213 season and earned a scholarship.

She finished ninth at the Mid-American Conference Outdoor Championship in 400-meter hurdles and led her relay team to the NCAA Championships.

Next year, she vowed, she’d be better. Every day, five times a day, Beasley hit the track or weight room.

But for the first time ever, she didn’t improve with hard work. She actually got slower. During a team meet in November 2013, she came in last.

“Everyone thought I was losing my touch, but I was carrying a couple extra pounds,” Beasley said, “I had a child inside of me.”

But she didn’t know it because her period was so irregular.

Doctor Emmekunla Nylander from Buffalo OB/GYN, was Beasley’s doctor and said it’s not so uncommon for young, active women to not realize they are pregnant until the pregnancy is advanced. Last month, Nylander delivered a baby for a woman in her 20s who didn’t know she was pregnant until she gave birth.

Malayah White, a senior communication major and Beasley’s track teammate, said she knew something was different. Beasley wasn’t the “Asher everyone knew.”

One clue was she kept running to the bathroom in the middle of practices. A teammate asked Beasley if she was pregnant.

No way, she thought. Impossible.

Beasley and her then boyfriend, Jarod Oldham, who was the starting point guard for the UB men’s basketball team, had been taking precautions. Beasley was on birth control.

It was her first time using the pills and she almost always remembered to take them.

She decided to take an at-home pregnancy test anyway.

It was positive.

She scheduled a visit to a local doctor, who could already tell her she was going to have a girl. Beasley was five months along.

Nylander said Beasley’s low body fat may have made her birth control less effective.

“I wasn’t going to have to an abortion because they already knew [the sex of the baby],” Beasley said. “They told me it was a girl, showed me the ultrasounds so it wasn’t happening.”

Three months later, on May 9, 2014, Jace was born prematurely.

While most women have seven to eight months to prepare for a child, Beasley had to restructure her life in three.

Her coaches and the UB Athletics department were supportive throughout her pregnancy and helped her return to track after having the baby, she said.

(TOP)KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM COURTESY OF ASHER BEASLEY

(TOP LEFT) Beasley and her daughter Jace spend time together at the beach. Beasley struggled to find time to spend with her daughter while competing.

(TOP RIGHT) Jace Beasley was born on May 9, 2014. Four months after her birth, Jace was diagnosed with infantile hemangioma, a noncancerous tumor under her left eye.

(BOTTOM RIGHT) Now that Beasley is no longer competing at UB, she looks forward to spending more time with Jace.

“I was surprised, but I understand bringing a child into this world is important, so I was happy,” said Perry Jenkins, UB’s sprints and relays head coach, who had never coached a pregnant player before.

According to an NCAA spokesperson, the NCAA does not keep records of how many student-athletes have carried pregnancies to full term because some women, like Beasley, redshirt and the university never reports the pregnancy to the NCAA. But, the NCAA does maintain a 108-page online “model pregnancy and parenting policy” handbook. According to the handbook, approximately 10 to 15 percent of both male and female college athletes are affected by pregnancy.

But 85 percent of Division I schools do not have a pregnancy policy in place, according to the handbook.

UB is an exception. It does have a pregnancy policy for student-athletes. The policy treats pregnancy like any other temporary health condition. The athlete keeps a scholarship and aid until UB clears him or her to play.

Title IX regulations ban pregnancy discrimination and, according to the NCAA policy, pregnant athletes should “be treated the same as student athletes with a knee injury or mononucleosis.”

The miracle baby Beasley wanted her baby.

But she didn’t want to tell people about her.

She told her grandmother first. She was afraid to tell her parents directly. She made her grandmother break the news to her parents. And when she told Oldham, he was optimistic.

“I was happy about it, it was life changing,” Oldham said. “And with news like that you just want everything to go smooth. I was basically done with school so I was waiting to see what next big thing was coming.”

At the time, Oldham had a few games left in his senior season.

“He was happy, but that’s because his life didn’t change as much. It’s different for men,” Beasley said. “I couldn’t travel any more and couldn’t practice any more. I had to take precautions.”

After months of training and dreaming, Beasley had to watch from the sidelines.

She had to trade in her track uniform for oversized sweaters that hid her small baby bump. She couldn’t go out on the weekends with her friends and teammates. Her coach allowed her to travel with the team for meets, but she couldn’t handle the long bus rides at seven and eight months pregnant.

But Beasley couldn’t stay away from the gym.

“They banned me from the track weight room so I went to the regular one,” she said.

“They could not get me to stop working out. I worked out every single day until I gave birth.”

Nylander recommends waiting at least two weeks after giving birth before working out, but some athletes “just can’t sit down,” she said jokingly.

According to the NCAA, warning signs to terminate exercise during pregnancy include vaginal bleeding, headaches, chest pain, muscle weakness and decreased movement of the baby. Beasley said she had none of those problems and only gained 20 pounds throughout her pregnancy.

“I just wanted to make sure she was cool and wasn’t stressing herself out, but she was special,” Oldham said. “She was still in the gym every day working out. I definitely can’t say she was lazy or didn’t want to do anything.”

Nylander said it takes time for a uterus to contract down to its pre-delivery size. Since the vaginal muscles are more lax, training after birth could help strengthen the muscles.

Her coaches suggested she end her track career. Being a mother is more responsibility than a hurdler. They told her she could keep her scholarship and focus on her daughter’s arrival.

“But I didn’t want to give up just because I’m a mom,” Beasley said. “What does that show her if she’s ever in my situation?”

Once the warm weather hit Buffalo, she had to get rid of the sweatshirts. People started to notice her belly.

Beasley knew people were talking about her. She didn’t like being “the pregnant girl.”

She didn’t like the way people looked at her, eager to hear her story.

But she gritted her teeth the way she did before those hurdles and showed up every day.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 9

FEATURES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT THE SPECTRUM

“

”

“But I didn’t want to give up just because I’m a mom. What does that show her if she’s ever in my situation?” - Asher Beasley

(TOP) KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM COURTESY OF ASHER BEASLEY

Before going into the fall 2014 semester, Beasley brought Jace to live with her in Buffalo because she was still so young at the time.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

And she studied. On May 9, 2014, after an all-nighter of studying for a final exam, she felt her insides gush. Her water had broken.

The baby wasn’t due for four weeks. She had a final in two hours. She didn’t have time to give birth.

She wasn’t in any pain. She told herself she would take the exam and then go to the hospital.

She told her friend, who told the professor and her professor made her go straight to the hospital. Oldham drove her.

If a woman waits too long to go to the hospital after her water breaks, Group B strep bacteria in the vagina can endanger the baby, Nylander said.

After 10 hours and a natural birth with no epidural, Jace arrived at four pounds and 13 ounces.

“She was really small and it was so scary,” Beasley said. “She couldn’t produce her own heat, so if she wasn’t in an incubator she would freeze.”

Nylander said she monitored the size of the baby throughout the pregnancy, but she was at risk because of how hard Beasley was training.

Between taking birth control the first five months of her pregnancy and the constant training, Beasley’s doctors said she could have miscarried. They called her a “miracle baby.”

Beasley only held Jace for a few seconds before the doctors took her out of her arms.

Over the next week, she was only allowed to see her newborn daughter every three hours for 30 minutes.

Evette Beasley, Beasley’s mother, said she was heartbroken when she learned Jace was born prematurely. All her children had healthy and full-term births. She couldn’t imagine the feeling of having to leave a baby in the hospital.

“There’s this bond between a mother and her baby that you don’t ever want to break,” Evette said.

After a week, Beasley took Jace home and

the baby was at a normal weight a month later. But Beasley and Oldham both agreed it was a difficult month.

“We had to wake up in the middle of the night for her because she wouldn’t cry if she was hungry since she was so weak,” Beasley said.

Breastfeeding didn’t work and she had no time to hit the gym.

For the first month, Beasley and Oldham lived together and took care of Jace. But then Oldham got an offer to play basketball in the Greek/Turkish Cypriot League and he left for Europe shortly after.

Beasley felt abandoned.

When Jace was four months old, Beasley’s mother noticed what looked like a bug bite growing under Jace’s left eye. A New York City doctor diagnosed it as infantile hemangioma – a scary-sounding name for a noncancerous vascular tumor.

But it needed regular attention, so Jace stayed with Beasley’s mother so she could see a doctor every two weeks. Jace would need medication for two years to keep the tumor from growing.

The low point One summer night, Beasley felt the dark thoughts she had been having start to win.

She took 15 hydrocodone pills.

Jace was with Beasley’s mother. She was safe. Safer than she would be if Beasley was caring for her. She would never get back in shape. She would never pass her classes.

Never be strong again.

“I was disappointed in myself and didn’t think I could be a good mother,” Beasley said. “I told myself she would be better off without me.”

Her body started to fade in and out.

But a part of her knew she didn’t want to die.

Beasley texted a friend. Then she passed out.

She woke up in Buffalo General Hospital vomiting the pills out of her system. She saw blurry figures in the room with her.

“I didn’t want people to know there was something wrong with me,” Beasley said. “I woke up laughing and joking around trying to distract people.”

Beasley thought she would be free to go home after she was conscious, but instead she was admitted into the psych ward for 30 hours.

She walked into the psych ward with no shoes, just socks. Some people were screaming; others were naked.

Beasley was terrified.

She had lived in a place with drug dealers and addicts, but it wasn’t nearly as scary as being in the psych ward.

“Every person that came to visit me, I cried and begged for them to stay,” Beasley said.

She was tired and weak. She wanted to sleep but refused to lay her head on the pillows.

Beasley met with five doctors for consultations. She covered her arms so they wouldn’t see scars from years of cutting herself.

She told them she wasn’t trying to commit suicide. She said she took a few pills, not 15.

The doctors eventually agreed she was no longer harmful to herself or other people.

But she was still alone and desperately lonely.

“There wasn’t some epiphany when I got out,” Beasley said. “If anything, it was worse.”

She was hit with medical bills and the memories from that night.

They still haunt her.

The recovery Beasley had to recover on her own. Her family and friends didn’t discuss her suicide attempt.

Beasley brought Jace back to Buffalo to live with her for the fall 2014 semester. She was recovering, trying to look forward to a new school year.

“She was so little and I wanted her to be with me,” Beasley said. “I didn’t want her to grow up and keep seeing so many faces.”

But Jace had no choice but to get used to

9

Wednesday,May July4, 1, 2016 2015 Wednesday, The Spectrum

the faces on the women’s track and field team.

Beasley’s teammates helped babysit in rotation while Beasley was in class or at the gym.

“Thank God for my teammates because we were passing her around like a hot potato,” Beasley said laughing.

Sometimes Jenkins, the sprints and relay head coach, would let her bring Jace to indoor practices. She slept on the sidelines while Beasley trained.

Beasley’s sisters also came to Buffalo to take turns watching her.

But it always felt overwhelming. And she lived with constant guilt.

She watched old friends and her old funloving self vanish. The people who left didn’t matter, she told herself.

But the part of herself she lost did.

Study. Train. Nurture.

That’s all she did.

In the winter, Oldham got a job offer as the director of operations for the UB men’s basketball team and he came back from Cyprus.

“I was scared about [Jace’s] health,” Oldham said. “That’s my first child and being that far away not knowing what’s going on, it was too hard so I had to come back.”

But neither the job nor the relationship lasted.

The sweetness between them went sour.

There were too many sleepless nights, too much real-world pressure, too much misunderstanding. These days, they barely talk.

Oldham sees Jace when he can.

Jace went back to live with Beasley’s parents that semester. That’s where she is now.

Even miles away from both her parents, Evette said she’s amazed at how Jace recognizes both of their faces.

“Jace loves her mommy, their bond is unbreakable,” Evette said.

Beasley cries often being away from Jace, but tried all season not to let too many weeks pass without at least a quick visit. They use FaceTime often. Beasley’s parents once brought Jace to the airport during a layover in between Beasley’s track meet so they could have a short visit together.

“Being away from Jace is tough on her but she has her team and she always does what needs to be done,” White, Beasley’s teammate, said.

Having Jace also changed her as an athlete. Today, she’s less all about herself and more about the team. Even her coach has noticed.

“She gets behind everybody no matter what event, because she is a six-year athlete and the oldest, she’s often referred to as the mother of the team,” Esler said. “She’s probably the most mature, too.”

She’s also looking to keep running beyond graduation. She’s considering competing on the Puerto Rican national team.

“She’s my inspiration, I told her this the other day,” White said. “She kills it every single time and you just would never even guess she had a baby the way she came back.”

In a recent meet at the University of Virginia in April, Beasley’s 4x100 meter relay team took first place. At the University of Florida, Beasley’s 4x200 meter team ran the event in 1:37.46, faster than the previous school record.

“To qualify for indoor and outdoor MAC and to be on the relay team that made the first round of the NCAA, I mean she’s dedicated to being a student, mother and athlete,” Jenkins said. “I tip my hat off to her.”

Beasley knows that other women walking the UB halls can relate to parts of her story.

She thinks they can help each other.

If only they weren’t strangers.

She wants to be the one to start the connection by creating a women’s empowerment class on campus.

And she’s ready to do so in the hardest way she knows – admitting her own need.

“She’s a strong girl,” Oldham said. “She’s always the type of person to finish anything she starts. When she has something in mind, she doesn’t care, she’s going to get it.”

Beasley plans to raise Jace as a single mother, but looks forward to getting married and having more children one day.

“I’m just trying to find my way doing it on my own,” Beasley said.

She knows she’ll have to talk to Jace about her past one day. When that day comes, she will tell Jace the truth.

“I would still be living selfishly if she weren’t here,” Beasley said. “She is the best thing that ever happened to me.” email: gabriela.julia@ubspectrum.com

0 1High fashion says goodbye 10 Wednesday,May July4, 1, 2016 2015 Wednesday, The Spectrum

GOODBYEFEATURES COLUMNS

A senior’s fond farewell to his Spectrum family

BRIAN WINDSCHITL SENIOR ARTS EDITOR

In order to understand how far I’ve come, I guess should to start at the beginning.

In a galaxy far away, I used to be the type of kid who would wear snapback hats, pastel pants, button downs and boat shoes nearly every day. I was a bro’s bro to a T, right down to the cultural insensitivity, casual misogyny and complete lack of selfawareness. Can you see it? I can’t even imagine myself like that anymore.

Not that I’m excusing myself but it was a residual effect, I’m sure, of attending a preppy high school where we wore ties and khaki’s to school every day and 90 percent of the students were wealthy white kids.

It wasn’t a bad place, but it’s certainly the type of place where you can lose sight of yourself.

And so, cue beginning of my journey, my own personal revolution if you will.

Flashback to the beginning of sophomore year of college: My first year at UB. I had just

transferred out of Ithaca College because it was $1 million a semester and I felt like I didn’t fit in. It was full of preppy rich kids and it felt too much like the high school I was desperately trying to dissociate myself from.

I couldn’t afford it and the school was full of people who could.

Thinking back, I wouldn’t trade my experience at Ithaca for anything. But I often wonder why on earth I chose that place. Little did I know, UB was the place for me.

Leaving Ithaca still felt like a personal failure to me – if only I had worked harder I could have made it, or gotten another scholarship or something like that. It’s funny, I hated the place but I still felt like a failure for leaving. I also felt like a flop because I had always told myself that UB was a place I would never end up. I had promised myself in high school: “I won’t get stuck in Buffalo for four more years.”

Low and behold, here I am, graduating from UB. Fast-forward to sophomore year, spring semester.

I had just spent my fall semester being sad and lonely. I spent most of my time watching TV shows on my computer in my dorm room. For my first semester here, I just floated by. I took morning naps and midday naps and quite a few evening naps.

The age-old adage, you get what you put into it could not have been more true, in that I literally did nothing and got nothing. I didn’t know what I wanted and I didn’t know myself at all – that was the biggest problem.

I was restless and I wanted to get involved.

My favorite part of Ithaca was a music magazine I worked for, so I looked around UB for something similar.

After applying to a couple positions, I

heard back from some dude named Aaron Mansfield.

I walked into his office and see this kid with a pressed suit, coifed hair and I’m pretty sure he even had a pocket square, looking like he wanted to be in a GQ spread or something (he definitely still does).

I had this terrible writing sample where I threw as many fancy words into the article as possible. I think I used the word “eclectic” like three times – the opposite of what journalism writing is all about, which is conciseness, or whatever.

But he hired me anyway.

Full disclosure: Aaron made me an editor for Keren with no previous editing or journalism writing experience, I never was a staff writer here, nor did I ever take the Spectrum class. Thank you for taking a chance on me. Without that, I don’t think I would have been able to come as far as I have.

Without that first step, I think I would still be just as lost and directionless as I was.

And, Aaron, as embarrassing as it is to admit, you also helped me with so much more, without even realizing it. You were inspiration to me, an example of how to live.

While I certainly won’t rocking a suit daily anytime soon, you taught me so much about what it means to take pride in my appearance and, more generally, how to take pride in myself and my work. Thanks for helping me become a person and teaching me how to stop dressing like I lived in Cape Cod year-round.

Also, thank you to my first editor Keren for teaching me how to write a story in an hour for deadline. You probably won’t read this, but you’re my favorite type A personality. I still don’t know how the heck you edited at the Spectrum, taught a dance class and studied for law school maintaining a 4.0 GPA, but I certainly am trying to learn.

Anyway, that was what started it all. It’s hard to explain how much I changed since then.

The last two years have been so important for me and have flown by.

THE SPECTRUM

Tori and Jordan: our first year on arts desk taught me about the importance of communication and how to deal with a bad situation when it happens. I learned how to think on my feet. I also learned how important it is to actually try to enjoy the people you work with and the work you do.

If you care about your work, you should never settle.

In that same vein, I have to give a special shout-out to Emma Janicki. I have never had anyone challenge me more. Or rather, I have literally never had anyone nitpick my every opinion and thought and word before, you stubborn idiot. You are really stubborn, but that stubbornness helped me learn how to be less wishy-washy about my own opinions.

Thanks for helping me think outside of myself. You taught me how to think critically about literally everything.

Literally, everything.

And Emma, the times we spent walking around Berlin at 2 a.m. drinking on the streets, talking about our problems and bumming butts from people I will cherish forever. We will go back there one day.

Also, and this is for Emma and Gabs (and Kendall and Nick), thanks for helping me wake up and stay woke.

Also, stop “those” people. Stop them.

Stop them 2k16. You all know who they are.

(The f*ckboys.)

I’m running out of thank yous and I’m running out of room here. Who knew I even could write three pages about the Spectrum.

You learn what you care about most when you are about to lose it. The Spectrum, as endlessly frustrating as it is, was a safe space for me.

To Gabs, Tori, Tomas and Kenneth, you all made this last year fun. Without you, I would not have enjoyed my time here as much as I did.

Gabs, I love throwing shade with you because at heart we are both really talented petty teenage girls. You are going to be an incredible EIC. Believe in yourself!

Tori, you’re an inspiration. Never ever stop smiling, a compilation.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

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GOODBYE COLUMNS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT THE SPECTRUM

VIEWS FROM THE 132 How I found a home in an unlikely spot – the Student Union MARLEE TUSKES SENIOR NEWS EDITOR

I remember the moment distinctly, even now almost four years later.

I was standing outside of NSC 112 after my first class freshman year with one thought in my head: What now?

I had almost an hour and a half before my next class and nothing to do during that break. As a commuter, I didn’t have the ability to go back to my dorm to kill time, and although my house is less than 10 minutes away from North Campus, I was already well aware of the risks of leaving my prime parking spot up for grabs.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: UB was not my first choice for my undergraduate college career. If anything, I applied to it as my “worst-case scenario.” I grew up thinking UB was essentially right in my backyard and no matter how many people told me how great of a school it would be, I wanted to get as far away as possible. So to

end up walking through the halls and sitting in lectures of the one school I vowed to never step into, I was miserable.

During my first couple of years at UB I felt like I was going through the motions – I drove to campus in the morning for classes then left as soon as my last one was over to either go to work or hang out with my other commuter friends I knew from high school. Even after I started taking journalism classes – the one subject I was planning my life around – I didn’t feel part of the “UB community.” It wasn’t until my junior year I found my niche.

My defining UB moment happened while I was thousands of miles away from UB. I mentioned my passion for journalism and dream to become a star news anchor as I was standing in a broadcast studio while studying abroad in Berlin, Germany. Although I thought I was nonchalant about it, that was all it took before I found myself about a month later writing my first article as a contributing writer for the news desk.

UB STUDENT REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY A ceremony to remember our student friends who passed away in 2015-2016

Without that moment, which seemed so small at the time, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

I quickly moved through the ranks from contributing writer all the way to senior news editor within what now seems to be a whirlwind of a year. I’ve spent many hours researching, interviewing and writing for countless of articles and columns. There were times when I wanted to rip my hair out from frustration and mornings where I couldn’t function without several cups of coffee after staying up editing half of the night. And of course, there were moments where I had to take a step back and remind myself that the stress would be worth it in the end.

But those moments seem so small in comparison to the feeling of seeing the article you worked so hard to accomplish on the front page and in the hands of so many people. There was the week during my time as an assistant news editor where one day I was standing in the Student Union among the University Police covering an alleged gun being dropped on the stairs and the next day I was running up and down the

111111

Wednesday,May July4, 1, 2016 2015 Wednesday, The Spectrum

floors of Clemens Hall searching for the “Black Only” and “White Only” signs before breaking the story with my colleagues.

And although after that week was over I was ready to sleep for a few days, the feeling of seeing my article being linked in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and other wellknown news sites woke me right back up.

But ultimately, nothing will compare to how I went from standing alone trying to figure out my next move freshman year to knowing I was right at home with my Spectrum family while working in 132 Student Union.

And while it’s cliché to talk about many people I have to thank for getting me to this point in my life – two weeks away from graduation with graduate school right ahead of me – it’s the truth.

Without the dedicated and talented people I was surrounded with in that windowless dungeon of an office, I would not have survived this crazy year and a half. To the ones who I saw more than my own family, the ones who had to deal with my lame jokes and constant need to say everything that came into my head and of course the ones who I spent countless hours venting to – I cannot thank you enough. Because of all of you, I look back at my experience at UB, something I originally dreaded, knowing I made the right decision.

And now as I enter my last week of undergraduate classes and head into adulthood at a rapid pace, I’ll look at the Spectrum’s mural outside of 132 Student Union and not have to worry, What now? Because thanks to UB and thanks to The Spectrum, I know what’s next.

email: marlee.tuskes@ubspectrum.com

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12

Wednesday, May 4, 2016 The Spectrum

GOODBYE COLUMNS

THE SPECTRUM

INSERT CLICHÉ QUOTE HERE Kind of a goodbye, but not really

TOMAS OLIVIER FEATURES EDITOR

Originally, I didn’t want to write this piece – for multiple reasons. The main reason being that I’m not really leaving UB. Also, because saying goodbye seems silly to me considering that the work that we do as staff writers, editors, copy editors and managing editors will always be part of the legacy that is The Spectrum.

This year has been a very busy one for me with 19 credits including an honors thesis, 20 hours of work a week as a lifeguard and applying to grad school on top of it all. I got accepted in the English MA program at

High fashion says goodbye CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Tomas: I think you should start working out man. You’re kinda frail. Yeah, bro. Totally. Yeah.

Kenneth, you really suck at Super Smash Bros, I wish I could have stayed and helped you not suck.

Kidding aside, I know you are all four of you are going to be successful and happy no matter what you do or where you go. You are charismatic and brilliant and you’re doing so great.

When I come back and visit I expect you

UB for next year and am really more excited for that than graduation to be honest. I was lucky enough to be awarded the Schomburg Fellowship, which is going to pay for my masters and then some.

This year hasn’t been easy. My landlord has been a constant pain in my back, my downstairs neighbors tried to scheme my housemates and I out of money (emphasis on “tried”). My mom’s mental health has been consistently up and then soon after way down. It’s as if this year, which should have been the least stressful, managed to find a way to be the most difficult year of my undergrad career.

My time at UB was a roller coaster. I came in my freshman year thinking I was going to come out some sort of medical doctor – three changes to my major later, I learned to appreciate the things that come naturally to me.

Writing wasn’t so easy for me growing up and through most of high school, but I wrote anyway because it is the one instance

that I can actually talk to myself and not look like a crazy person – structuring my thoughts and learning more from just putting my ideas on paper.

I was able to read great writing and not so great writing as an editor – you’d be surprised at how few college students can actually write well. It’s given me an appreciation for my ability that comes from learning from those who are better than me and learning from their strengths.

I’ve made great friends on The Spectrum staff. I’ve been able to meet new people as I chased down student opinions for stories on deadlines. I’ve allowed myself to not just go to school at UB invest myself into the institution and the people that work to make it run.

Now, for a few thank you notes. Thank you to my guys Brian Windschitl and Kenneth Thomas for bringing me in with open arms (or should I say open hands?) and helping me grow as a writer. Thank you to Tori Roseman and John Jacobs, my team

on the features desk. Tori for always joining me during my random dance parties and John for being one of the subtlest funny people I’ve ever met. Thank you to Kainan Guo for always making the time to help me whenever I need help making videos or editing photos for other classes that I probably wouldn’t have done as well in without him.

And finally, thank you to Jordan Grossman for being a helping hand whenever I needed it and always jamming out on our Thursday night drives back home.

Although I won’t be formally writing for the paper next school year, I do plan on occasionally coming back as a contributing writer when I have any interesting stories to share. UB has been and will continue to be my home for the next couple years and I look forward to creating new and exciting memories as a graduate student.

will be even more charismatic and brilliant and great. Shout-out to the dark side of The Spectrum. May the force be with you.

To the people who helped me with my writing, who taught me the value of putting words onto paper: Jodi, Sara, Tom and Alyssa.

Thank you all for teaching me what it means to be a journalist and that what you write can actually affect the lives of people who read it in tangible, visible and lasting ways. I will never forget the feeling of writing a story that means something – and the responsibility.

And I’m sorry about me. Sometimes I can be a little bit much, I think.

And to Kainan – we never had a good run

during our Spectrum intramural team. Sadly, I think my soccer days are over, but you better know that I’ll text you constantly about the Champions League for years to come.

Oh and finally, to Max, the young upstart taking my place. Don’t let them tease you about being similar to me because one, that’s a good thing.

And two, you are already doing way better than I did. You’re going to be way better at this whole thing than I was. Just stop using oxford commas man.

So yeah, my time at UB changed me for the better.

I know I’m goofy and don’t seem very se-

rious most of the time, but I really hope you all know how much you mean to me. I came to UB as a snooty stuck-up brat – and now, I’m snooty stuck-up adult, but at least I’m self-aware about it now. I went from some little punk kid to being an actual person.

And everyone I have met at The Spectrum has helped me get there.

At first I was ashamed to have come to UB, I thought was going to be a terrible time. But because of my experiences with all of you it turned into something meaningful, something I am proud of.

Thank you all so much.

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13 History is fun for Timothy Boyd NEWS

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

World Civilization professor discusses his passion for history SARAH DROZDA STAFF WRITER

Timothy Boyd said the first books he ever read were about the Battle of Gettysburg and the pioneers going west – books he still owns to this day.

He grew up fascinated with history, especially the American Revolutionary War, and would read books on different historical events in places like the chicken farm in the back of his house and the dairy farm across the street.

Boyd, a classics professor though students mostly know him for teaching World Civilization, has brought his passion for history to UB classrooms since 1999. He makes history fun for his students by doing things like bringing out props and, as one student once told him, making history “the best soap opera in the world.”

Boyd attended Amherst College for a Bachelor of Arts degree in classics and went on to UMass Amherst for his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and Princeton University for his Ph.D. in comparative literature.

Boyd said so much of what is wrong with the world is poverty, not just domestically, but worldwide. He said if he could be president, he would focus on ending poverty.

“If everyone was assured of enough to eat every day, clothes, shelter, and meaningful work, all in complete safety, I suspect that the world’s violence would begin to subside,” he said.

When it comes to favorite books, Boyd doesn’t have just one, he has “hundreds.”

He lists off the different subjects he likes – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, art books, comic books, graphic novels, children’s, young adult, classics.

“You name, I read it,” he said. “If I enjoy it, I’ll read it more than once, but even a disappointing book has things to teach.”

When Boyd isn’t teaching he enjoys music.

He owns two early to mid 19th century fortepianos, and he said he enjoys playing music that isn’t modern. He also collects CDs and scores and books from operettas and musicals.

“Every hobby has many facets, but, at the base, the pleasure is in learning about complex things, often from the past,” Boyd said.

Boyd said he also likes experimenting with different scales of figures, ranging from 5mm to 54mm, in periods that range from ancient Greeks to World War I. Boyd said he “fell into teaching.” He was working an office job when he was offered the chance to teach Latin and World History at a private school in northern New Jersey.

He said it was only for the spring semester, but it led to more teaching jobs.

Eventually, he became a full-time associate research professor at UB. He estimates he has taught roughly 15,000 students.

He aims to make his classes fun and to share that fun with his students or else he said he would “bore himself, and then bore the students.”

He also looks to use the traditional factbased lectures to fill his students with chains of historical information, and not just what happened but why, what it looked like and how it could affect other places and times.

Even though he personally loves to remember dates, he said he keeps them to a minimum for his students because he knows that they are a struggle for most people.

He said one of the best compliments that he has ever received was when a student once told him that he made history feel like “the best soap opera in the world.”

“He took a subject that a lot of people find boring and tried to make it fascinating by making some aspects of history interactive,” said Casey Manzanero, a junior biomedical sciences major.

Manzanero said Boyd made the class act like factory workers, and everyone had to

RASHAAD HOLLEY, THE SPECTRUM

Professor Timothy Boyd (pictured) brings enthusiam to his World Civilizations general education requirement classes.

move a ball around the whole class. She said Boyd also used images and explained them in depth and tested on them and “did his best to make history fun.”

“The thing I love most about his class was the atmosphere. He treated you like a person rather than just another student. He was very genuine, making jokes and having conversations with the student,” said Ryan Moroney, a freshman aerospace engineering student. “He did all this while he was getting the material across perfectly.”

Maroney said he enjoyed when Boyd occasionally brought out props to teach history.

Boyd said he doesn’t have one favorite thing about teaching.

“I really love it all – the students, the subject, the ability to convey so much interesting stuff to so many minds just starving to know something worthwhile and exciting at the same time,” Boyd said. “And what could be more worthwhile than history?” email: news@ubspectrum.com

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14

SPORTS

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

Football team racks up $70,000 bill to stay in hotel before home games CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

Greene stresses that staying in hotels is a matter of “keeping up with the Joneses,” as the football team tries to remain competitive against its opponents. Seven of UB’s 11 Mid-American Conference rivals confirmed to The Spectrum that they also put their football programs in hotels before home games and provide food. The other four did not immediately respond to The Spectrum’s inquires.

And while UB spent more than $70,000 staying in hotels before home games in 2014 and probably spends roughly $60,000 most seasons, other teams spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Star-Telegram reported that the University of Texas at Austin racked up a $232,000 bill for its hotel stays before home games in 2014.

But some top athletic departments like Texas, which play in the Power 5, the topfive richest and influential conferences in the country, generate all of their own revenue through TV contracts, ticket sales and donations. Power 5 teams take in significantly less subsidies than that of universities outside of the Power 5 like UB, and in some cases like Texas, don’t need any subsidies at all.

Yet even the Power 5 has questioned football teams staying in hotels before home games. In 2009, Power 5 conference the Pac-12, then the Pac-10, considered banning hotel stays the nights before home games to save money. The proposal was withdrawn, however, due to a lack of support.

The entire UB football team did not stay at the Ramada in 2014 – only the top-68 players on the team’s more than 100-man roster. About seven coaches, mostly graduate assistants and the director of player development and director of football operations, would stay the night to supervise.

Head coach Lance Leipold, whose first season at UB was 2015 after replacing fired head coach Jeff Quinn, said the team usually has meetings, fulfills academic require-

ments and sometimes watches a movie in the hotel. Leipold usually addresses the team with a speech.

He said the night before his first college start as a quarterback for Division-III Wisconsin-Whitewater in the 1980s, students across the hall from his dorm threw a party until 2 a.m. The team had to leave for their game at 6 a.m.

“This way it’s a controlled environment and you have a chance to regulate some things and keep it in a good setting,” Leipold said.

Two players would share a room – each with their own bed – while the coaches received their own room. The hotel charged the team $52.40 for each room, according to the contract. On the Buffalo Ramada’s website, the rate for a room with two beds is $89 a night.

The vast majority of the team’s bill didn’t come from the rooms – it came from the food.

Seventy-two percent – or $44,733 – of the Bulls’ Ramada bill during the 2014 season was for the various team dinners, snacks, breakfast buffets, lunches and pregame meals.

All meals were set for 88 people, except for the team snack that was only for 80. The most expensive meal was the dinner buffet the night before the game. Those meals cost $26.51 a person, or more than $2,300 for one game, and had to be held in a “fine dining environment,” according to the contract between the team and the Ramada.

The pre-game meal was the second-most expensive meal at $18.59 a person. Former UB safety Adam Redden, who graduated after the 2014 season, said the meals were designed to prevent cramping before the game and helped prevent “heavier guys or guys with bad eating habits” from eating things like McDonald’s before the game.

“That’s not the best thing for you,” Redden said.

The team also receives a meal after home

games, with a buffet spread available for players in the lobby of the Murchie Family Football Center in UB Stadium. Costs for the post-game meal are not a part of the hotel bill.

The team even slept in the hotel when it would not be hitting the field until the following night. Three of the team’s seven homes game were night games in 2014, as MAC teams play mid-week night games during the month of November. The Bulls also had a nationally televised night game in September. Stays in the hotel prior to night games were more expansive than for day games.

The team was charged for two nights in the case of two of the three night games, as it would stay in the hotel throughout game day until heading over to the stadium before kickoff. To house the team for one night would typically cost $2,100, while two nights would cost $4,200.

Day games only required four meals – a dinner buffet and team snack the night before the game, and a continental breakfast and pregame meal on game day. Night games required five meals – a dinner buffet, team snack, a breakfast buffet, lunch and pre-game meal. Per the contract, the hotel had to serve a more expensive breakfast buffet the morning before evening games.

The continental breakfast was $9.81 a person, while the breakfast buffet was $15.40 a person.

The team’s most expensive stay at the Ramada that season was for a game that never even happened.

The team racked up a bill of more than $14,000 for its final home game, which was ultimately canceled due to Kent State’s equipment truck getting stuck in the historic Buffalo Snowvember snowstorm. The game was supposed to held the night of Nov. 19, 2014, but was then postponed and ultimately canceled by the MAC on Nov. 20.

While the team stayed two nights in the

hotel awaiting the conference’s decision on the game, it accumulated a food bill of nearly $10,000. The team paid for its usual meals the first two days, including a “pregame meal,” and then paid for an additional $1,300 breakfast buffet and $281 for cookies and water the morning the game was canceled.

Eastern Michigan University, UB’s MAC rival, wrote an open letter last week that it would not be dropping its football program to save money, after pressure from faculty and students to do so. Eastern Michigan Athletics is the most subsidized program in the MAC, receiving $120 million from its university and student fees from 2010-14, according to data collected by The Huffington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

UB Athletics was second with $110 million in subsidies during that time.

In UB’s letter explaining where campuswide increased fees would go toward, UB Athletics cited rising travel costs as one of the reasons the student athletic fee will increase $54 over the next five years. Yet the department does not have any plans of dropping the local hotel stays.

Greene said UB Athletics reviews the budget every year with “fine-tooth comb” and questions all the decisions they make.

He said if pulling something out of the budget means any team could potentially lose games or have a lesser chance of helping a student-athlete graduate they typically won’t do it.

He said staying in hotels before home games come down to whether or not UB Athletics wants to be competitive.

“If the answer is we just want to have [intercollegiate athletics] and not be competitive then there’s a certain way to approach it. If you want to have intercollegiate athletics and be competitive, then there’s a certain way to approach it,” Greene said. “There are certain things that occur throughout our industry that are commonplace. Are they necessarily needed? I guess you would have to figure out what ‘need’ means.” email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com

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15

Wednesday, September 2, 2016 2015 Wednesday, May 4,

THE SPECTRUM

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16 Football team racks up $70,000 bill

SPORTS

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

to stay in hotel before home games

Costs come from rooms and large-scale meals TOM DINKI EDITOR IN CHIEF

The night before home games, the UB football team leaves its scholarship-funded dorms and apartments and checks into the Ramada Hotel across the street from campus – a practice that cost the program more than $70,000 in 2014.

During stays at the Ramada that season, players and coaches feasted on a $2,300 fine-dining buffet, consisting of three meats, side dishes, salads, bread, beverages and an array of desserts. Later, for those still hungry, there was a $600 “team snack” of a submarine sandwich, a bag of chips, a cup of chicken noodle soup, fruit and one large cookie.

In the morning, the team ate a $1,300 breakfast of cereal, assorted breads, scrambled eggs, meat, pancakes, breakfast potatoes, whole fruit and assorted juices.

And four hours before kickoff, the team had a $1,600 pre-game meal of either a 6 ounce boneless chicken breast or lean steak filet, a baked potato and broccoli and a buffet offering spaghetti, meat sauce, white and wheat bread, fruit and bagels.

UB, like almost all Division I football programs across the country, stays in local hotels before its home games, and did so before all seven home games during the 2014 season, resulting in a bill of $72,562. The team spent six nights at the Ramada and one night in the Millennium Hotel. The Spectrum obtained the contract between the football team and the Ramada for the 2014 season, the most recent year available, as well as the invoice from the Millennium, via a Freedom

KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

The football team walks off the field after a game against Nevada in September of 2015. The team spent more than $70,000 staying in local hotels before home games during the 2014 season.

of Information Law (FOIL) request. The Bulls have just six home games most years.

The team also spends several weeks in the Ramada during fall camp each August. The Spectrum recently submitted a FOIL request for those documents as well.

Staying in local hotels the nights before home games is practiced by almost all Division I football programs and is part of the college football tradition. Coaches and administrators stress that it ensures players get a healthy meal and good night’s sleep away from the distractions that come with staying in a college dorm room the night before a big game.

“Do we want to have distractions or potential for distractions, or would you rather be able to have young people focus and take care of the meetings and the other things that occur to put them in the best position to be as successful as possible?” said UB Athletic Director Allen Greene. “That’s really what it comes down to.”

No other UB team regularly stays in hotels before home games, nor receives as much athletics-supplied food in preparation of the game, according to student-athletes for non-revenue sports.

Although UB’s 2014 Ramada Hotel bill was a relatively small portion of UB Ath-

Batting to the big leagues Vinny Mallaro wants chance at MLB, hopes to get drafted

SPECTRUM STOCK PHOTO

Junior outfielder Vinny Mallaro rounds the bases for the Bulls. After enjoying a breakout junior season this year, Mallaro has hopes of being drafted in the upcoming MLB Draft, and perhaps playing for his favorite team the New York Yankees.

EDWARD GOLDSCHMID STAFF WRITER

Vinny Mallaro has always dreamt of being a member of the New York Yankees, playing outfield next to Jacoby Ellsbury and knocking home runs over the short right field fence.

Growing up, Mallaro was a huge Yankees fan with his favorite memory being former Yankee Derek Jeter running into the stands to catch a foul ball in 2004.

“Yeah, I remember that moment, it was crazy,” Mallaro said with a laugh. “I always enjoyed watching the Yankees. Growing up in Syracuse, it was either the New York Mets or New York Yankees on television. I stuck to the Yankees because, in my opinion, they are the best team in all of baseball.”

Mallaro is one of the best players on an otherwise rebuilding Buffalo baseball team.

The junior outfielder has the brute strength

to become a great power hitter one day, but it’s his contact hitting that draws attention to his game. He’s one of the hardest workers in the clubhouse and has even taken on a leadership role in his third season on the team.

Mallaro currently sits with the secondhighest batting average on the Bulls (14-26, 6-12 Mid-American Conference) at .329 on the season. He leads Buffalo with five home runs, 31 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .531. As a junior, Mallaro has a chance of getting drafted into the major leagues this year, and there’s a chance that he could become the one thing he wanted to be his entire life: A Yankee.

“It would be amazing to be a Yankee, but at the same time, I could be drafted by anyone,” Mallaro said. “I would play for anyone.

I just want to live my dream and play in the majors one day. Whether that’s home in New York or on the other side of the country, I’m

going to do my best to achieve my dreams.”

From Syracuse, New York, Mallaro started early on the baseball diamond, but also split time on the soccer field and basketball court at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. Starting as a catcher, Mallaro played on junior varsity in the ninth grade. He continued to progress and grow until he outgrew the position.

As he continued to focus more on the diamond, Mallaro’s skills improved. By his senior season, Mallaro led his team to a state title and finished with a .398 batting average and six home runs. As Mallaro became a state champion, it was his ability to make the team as a ninth grader that pushed him to become better.

“I think it was that ability to make the team so young that helped me,” Mallaro said. “I suddenly looked up one day and saw so many older players, guys way older than me on my team, it really helped me with my confidence in playing, as well as made my love for the game grow more.”

At UB, Mallaro started at first base before moving into the outfield. As a freshman, Mallaro finished with two home runs and a .289 batting average. He had three home runs and was second on the team with 22 RBIs as a sophomore last season, but also struggled to get on base with just a .296 onbase percentage. He wanted to get better heading into his junior season.

He went to a man who knows all about the game. Former San Diego Padres draftee Dickie Woodridge. The two spent time working on baseball together and talking about the game – specifically hitting. Instead of the typical coaching that Mallaro received, usually involving tweaks and changes in his swing, Mallaro and Woodridge would talk about the mental aspect of the game at the plate.

Coming back for his junior season, Mallaro came in with a focus: he wanted to help the team win and also catch the eyes of MLB scouts.

letics’ $2.7 million team travel budget, the department is heavily subsidized by institutional support and student fees. UB Athletics’ 2014-15 budget was 68 percent subsidized, as $22.1 million of its $32.1 million budget came from student fees and direct institutional support from the university.

And football is by far UB’s and all of college athletics’ most expensive sport. UB’s football team received more subsidies ($5.7 million) than any other team in the department, and without that subsidy, would have had a loss of $5.7 million.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

There are 40 rounds in the MLB draft.

Mallaro does not want to risk losing his college career if he’s not picked in the first 25 rounds. He knows that if he declares for the draft he won’t be able to return to UB for a couple of years because of NCAA rules, and he doesn’t see a reason to risk his education if he will not be selected in the first 25 rounds, which pays out a sizable amount.

If Mallaro doesn’t make the big leagues, his dream is to open up a landscaping business down south. He’d also gladly be a guidance counselor at a high school. He’s a health and human services major and would put that degree to work if the MLB dream does not come true.

The Bulls still have six games left in conference play and 12 games overall. Mallaro still has time to enhance his stat sheet for prospective teams to look at him and be considered for a shot to make his major league dreams come true.

There’s been a host of formers UB baseball players drafted in recent years to give Mallaro inspiration.

Mike Burke, UB’s all-time leader in wins, is in the Baltimore Orioles system. Tom Murphy, a Colorado Rockies affiliate catcher, made his MLB debut last September, while Jason Kanzler and Tyler Mautner were both drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Steve Geltz played at UB from 2006-2008 and made his MLB debut in 2012 with the Los Angeles Angels.

And last season, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted Nick Sinay in the 22th round. Mallaro wants to be able to get drafted in the same round and much like some of the counterparts in other sports, represent UB in the best way possible.

“I want to be like the Khalil Mack, Branden Oliver, Nick Sinay,” Mallaro said. “I want to be able to be one of the best representations for a university whose sports programs are on the rise. I think I have the talent to make it, all I need is the chance.” email: sports@ubspectrum.com