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ubspectrum.com
WEDNESday, DECember 2, 2015
Volume 65 No. 37
Faculty Senate discusses diversity and inclusion, UB home ownership program Program gives loans to UB employees purchasing homes in Heights
THE NAME ON THE BACK
ASHLEY INKUMSAH NEWS EDITOR
For Joe Licata, it’s always been about playing for family and team
TOM DINKI EDITOR IN CHIEF
Joe Licata often can’t sleep the night before a game. At 5:30 a.m. Friday morning, hours before the Buffalo senior quarterback’s final college game, he texted his mother, father and three sisters in a family group chat. “I hope you get the same thrill I do every time they say our last name,” the text message said. The Licata family has heard its last name over the UB Stadium PA system a lot over the past four seasons. That’s what happens when your son and brother is the program’s all-time leader in touchdown passes and passing yards and is featured on just about every UB football billboard, poster and graphic. And for Joe, it’s always been about using the spotlight to represent his family as well as his team and university. “People talk about not playing for the name on the back of the jersey but the name on the front, but I really think that if you have pride in yourself and you play for the name on the back, it’s all encompassing,” Joe said. “I’m proud to represent our family and I’ve always tried to make my entire family proud and I hope I did.” Joe’s played every single game of his college career with family in the stands, and they were there once again for his last game Friday despite wind, rain and a heart-breaking seasonending 31-26 loss to Massachusetts. His father, Gil, and his mother, Paula, have never missed a game – home or away – while his three sisters have only missed a few. It’s what Joe, who grew up in Buffalo and chose UB so he could play practically in his own backyard, always wanted. “It’s a lot easier to walkout onto that field and perform and play your best when you got five people there that are always going to support you and I’m lucky enough to have that,” Joe said. Bulls home games are self-described family reunions for the Licata family. A crowd of 60 people – composed of cousins, aunts, uncles and Joe’s Williamsville South High School coaches and teammates mostly clad in No. 16 jerseys – always gather on the 200 level standing section on the East Side of the stadium. They might just be the liveliest group of fans in the stadium – rowdier than True Blue and at times even louder than the marching band. No Buffalo positive yardage gain or defensive stop goes without some cheering and when Joe throws a touchdown, the three Licata sisters Rachel, Claire and Grace always find one another to embrace in a group hug,
or as Rachel appropriately calls it, “a huddle.” The Licata’s have always watched Joe’s game from the little-used East side standing section. That’s because Gil can’t sit in the crowd. He likes to pace back and forth as his son and the team moves down the field. Paula, wearing her own No. 16 jersey and holding Joe’s Senior Day rose, watches the game as any mother would: cheering after her son’s every completion and touchdown but holding her breath every time he’s hit. “Don’t do that to my son,” she says under her breath as Joe is knocked to the ground after getting off a pass. Consider Rachel, Joe’s oldest sister who works in digital media for Pegula Sports and Entertainment, as the Licata’s family’s personal Sports Information Director. She’ll set up interviews with cousin Lauren or Williamsville South head coach Kraig Kurzanski for a complete stranger. Kurzanski, who made it to Joe’s final five home games at UB Stadium, says Joe “is Buffalo.” When former Bulls head coach Turner Gill left for Kansas in late 2009, Kurzanski remembers then-head coach Jeff Quinn asking him if Joe was still interested in UB despite the coaching change. There wasn’t any question about it. “I think Buffalo is his family now,” Kurzanski said. “It’s wonderful what he’s done and stayed home.” As for giving his former quarterback pointers and advice after games, Kurzanski said with a laugh that Joe “knows a lot more than I do now.” Paula admits Friday’s game was “melancholy.” Joe’s been at UB for five years and the family has watched him start every game under center for nearly four full seasons. Joe was visibly upset at the post game press conference and who could blame him? His final pass a game-ending interception that went off the hands of an open receiver. After leading Buffalo to a bowl game in 2013, his final season will end on a threegame losing streak with no chance of bowl eligibility. But Joe’s always found support in his family. They usually get together after every game, and they feel the same emotions Joe does – whether it’s the highs of a win or the lows of a loss. In a time when athletes are so publicly criticized by media in newspa-
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COURTESY OF LICATA FAMILY (TOP) (L to R) Claire, Joe, Gil, Grace, Rachel
and Paula Licata pose for a photo after Joe’s final game Friday. Joe has had family at every single game of his college career what he always wanted when he chose to stay home and attend UB. YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM (BOTTOM) Licata hugs freshman center James O’Hagan in his final game at UB Stadium. Licata finished his career as the program’s all-time leading passer.
pers and fans on Twitter, Joe says he loves knowing he can throw five interceptions and his dad will still be standing on the field after the game ready to give him a hug. Joe, who graduated last May, now turns his attention to going pro. He’ll start looking for an agent and will train for the next few months and as he says, “hopefully get picked up and just go for it.” “I hope that’s not the last time I took off shoulder pads,” he said after Friday’s game. As for the rest of the family, it will be a “different way to live life” without watching Joe’s games at UB Stadium, Paula said. “We were talking about that this morning like, ‘Oh my god, what are we gonna do on Saturday when we go to the mall and do whatever and not have to worry about wearing an extra set of socks or have hand warmers in our pockets?’” Paula said. “It will be very weird.” As for Joe trying to make the NFL, Paula said her son has the family’s full support – no surprise. It’s what Joe’s wanted since he was a child. “He wants to live out his dream and we’re there to help make that happen,” she said. Speaking just minutes after his final game, Joe admitted it was tough in that moment to think about his UB legacy. He’ll probably get his photograph placed somewhere in the new expansion of UB Stadium’s team facilities. The stadium Jumbotron will probably turn to him whenever he visits Bulls games in the future. “When people look back I just hope they’re happy that a local kid stayed local and had fun playing for the city,” Joe said, “That’s all I ever wanted.” email: tom.dinki@ubspectrum.com
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Teresa Miller said there has been progress in the realm of diversity and inclusion in universities like UB, but there is still much work to be done. The Faculty Senate discussed topics of concern within the university, including the controversial “White Only” art project and the UB home ownership program in the Center for Tomorrow Tuesday. Miller, vice provost for equity and inclusion and a law professor, delivered a presentation to the senate regarding diversity and inclusion. “Inclusion means access, people being able to come to UB. It means getting them through their programs. It means supporting students while they’re here [and] it also means making them feel welcomed,” Miller said. The SUNY Board of Trustees passed a resolution in September to help make SUNY the “nation’s most inclusive university system in the nation,” according to Miller. An important aspect of this resolution is that every campus will have a chief diversity officer. Miller said this is a “bold and ambitious” endeavor with respect to diversity. She said SUNY is collecting data at a statewide level on having students identify sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and various other factors that the SUNY trustees felt they did not have enough information on. She said the idea of using the words “equity and inclusion” is to take a step from “diversity as a goal.” “We see evidence of diversity in having a great variety of races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientation, but equity and inclusion means we’re not going to have a ‘check the box’ kind of approach,” Miller said. Miller spoke of the university’s recent initiative to include a required designated culture course beginning with next year’s freshmen. Diversity and inclusion have been topics on campus since graduate fine arts student Ashley Powell sparked controversy for her “White Only” and “Black Only” signs that she hung around campus as part of a class project in September. “The idea is to increase cultural competence and expose our students to the types of issues and skills that they’re going to need to be effective members of the increasingly diverse workforce.” Miller addressed the recent racial tensions and protests at universities across the country like the University of Missouri. She said although there is a different kind of situation going on at UB, the university is still working to rectify issues of diversity that exist within the campus. “What has happened in UB with the [art project] signs was really a discussion about expression and welcome,” Miller said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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