Students weigh in on this year’s early start to Black Friday Students, faculty recall their first time experiencing Buffalo snow
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Wednesday, December 3, 2014
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Lance Leipold named UB’s 25th head football coach
Buffalo’s new head football coach knows a thing or two about winning. UB Athletics introduced Lance Leipold as the 25th head football coach Monday afternoon in Alumni Arena. Leipold coached eight seasons at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater and posted an incredible 106-6 record. He was the fastest coach in college football history to reach 100 wins (106 games). Leipold won five national championships at Wisconsin-Whitewater and his team
is currently on a 27-game winning streak and is playing in the Division-III playoffs. Leipold will continue coaching his former team throughout the postseason. Junior quarterback Joe Licata was among a group of players who Athletic Director Danny White spoke to about the qualities they wanted in their new head coach. The players wanted an ex-player with previous head coaching experience and someone they could relate to. “Main criteria was someone who can relate to the guys and who players are going to love to play for and run through a wall
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for and coach [Leipold] seems to be that type of guy, so I’m excited,” Licata said. Leipold played quarterback for Wisconsin-Whitewater from 1983-86. He had several assistant coaching stints, including some at the FBS level, before returning to his alma mater in 2007. Leipold served as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin from 199193 and as an administrative assistant at Nebraska from 2001-03. Leipold had offers to leave Whitewater in the past, but he needed a “special opportunity” to relocate his family and find a new home.
CHAD COOPER, THE SPECTRUM
Lance Leipold was introduced as the 25th head coach of the Bulls. He previously went 106-6 at Division-III Wisconsin-Whitewater.
UB Athletics reached out to Leipold through phone calls and text messages. About four weeks ago, he spoke with White for the first time. The two spoke again Friday and Saturday, and he officially accepted the position Saturday evening and was on a plane early Sunday morning. The Bulls are coming off a 5-6 finish in which the team won its final two games. Buffalo had eight wins the season before and played in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. “This is an unbelievable opportunity and it’s ready to take off,” Leipold said. “It’s going to take some work in the program, got to find a way to get a few more wins.” White said there were still “several options” the team had over the weekend for head coach. Leipold was impressed with White’s vision of making Buffalo “The next big-time college Athletics brand,” as the Athletics Departments displays on its website. “It wasn’t just an open football position,” Leipold said. “It was the whole package Danny was talking about. I can tell just walking around with Danny that he’s always thinking about how he could make this thing better.” White said he wanted someone with previous head coaching experience. He wanted someone who didn’t have much of a “learning curve” and believed Leipold fit those criteria. The news of the hiring began to break Sunday evening. Licata said junior punter Tyler Grassman found a tweet from Leipold’s niece, Elissa Chessman, saying her uncle was accepting the head football coach position at the University at Buffalo. SEE LEIPOLD, PAGE 2
Faculty senate passes new gen ed program Changes in UB’s general education curriculum could be implemented as early as 2016 TOM DINKI
SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
After a semester-long process, UB faculty senators finally passed new general education requirements – but that decision came after a tumultuous Tuesday meeting. There was a motion to overrule the Faculty Senate chair and confusion over whether a vote was to pass an amendment or to pass an amendment to an amendment. After an hour-long faculty debate, UB has a new general education program, which could come into classrooms as early as 2016. The Faculty Senate voted to pass the new general education program on Tuesday. Fifty-one faculty members voted “yes,” to the overhaul, while seven voted “no,” and five abstained. The new curriculum, which was spear-
headed by the General Education Committee, emphasizes critical thinking and communication skills by incorporating capstone projects. Student will also be required to complete an “e-portfolio” – a digital portfolio that will archive their academic career. “The most exciting thing is it gives a chance for our undergraduates to integrate their general education to a field,” said Peter Horvath, an associate professor of exercise and nutrition sciences. “Students now see their gen eds as a bunch of discordant things, while the eportfolio chaining them all together, they can envision their courses they’re taking as a whole.” Horvath was one of 51 faculty members to vote “yes,” Tuesday, and he spoke positively for the proposal to the Faculty Senate for an allotted 2-3 minutes before the vote. Horvath told the Senate that the
Students look to do ‘something more’ in wake of Ferguson decision
KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM
Paul Zarembka, an economics professor, looks on as other faculty members vote yes to the general education proposal.
proposal should be approved in part because the Student Association endorsed it, and he said students were a “key portion of all this.” A UB survey showed 68 percent of students thought the current required general education classes were just something to “get out of the way.” Paul Zarembka, an economics professor, voted against the proposal and spoke negatively about it to Senate. He took issue with the proposal’s plan to have untenured faculty teaching general educa-
tion courses. Kristin Stapleton, an associate history professor, voiced those same concerns after the new general education curriculum had already been passed. “There are a lot of unknowns about this,” Stapleton said. “Are we going to have a group of underprivileged faculty running gen ed, overseen by a very small committee of tenured faculty members with no one else paying attention? That would be a very bad outcome.” SEE GEN ED, PAGE 6
CHARLES W SCHAAB, THE SPECTRUM
On Tuesday night, students held a peaceful protest in response the non-indictment of Officer Darren Wilson. Protestors, including students from UB and Buffalo State, marched down Elmwood Avenue and ended the protest with a candlelight vigil.
Elmwood Avenue shut down for peaceful protest CHARLES W SCHAAB STAFF WRITER Elmwood Avenue, normally filled with bustling traffic in Buffalo, was instead filled with crowds of protestors Monday night. The Kenmore and Buffalo Police Department closed the street to make way for the nearly 100 peaceful protesters, mainly from Buffalo State College, who walked almost two-and-a-half miles down Elmwood Avenue. The marchers were protesting a St. Louis grand jury’s decision to not indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the death of Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old.
“Our voice needs to be heard,” said Symone Campbell, a sophomore anthropology major at Buffalo State. On Aug. 9, 2014, Wilson fatally shot Brown, who was unarmed, after the two were involved in an altercation in Ferguson, Missouri. The grand jury, comprised of nine white people and three black people, announced its decision not to indict Wilson Nov. 24. Wilson resigned from the Ferguson police force Nov. 29. Campbell is also vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Buffalo State chapter.
The Divine Nine, a group of nine Greek organizations, collaborated with Buffalo State’s NAACP to start the protest, which at least a handful of UB students attended. Deon Bolden, a first-year finance graduate student from UB, brought up the idea of a march to his fraternity, Iota Phi Theta, which is a part of the Divine Nine. But the
group felt they could not organize it on their own so they reached out to other organizations at Buffalo State, which Bolden graduated from in May. He said he wanted the march to combat “slacktivism,” a term used to refer to minimal efforts by people to promote activist issues.
SEE FERGUSON, PAGE 6