The S pectrum the Independent Student Publication of the University at Buffalo, Since 1950
ubspectrum.com
Wednesday, APRIL 29, 2015
Volume 64 No. 75
Art for justice
Student to travel across the United States to documenting her life with Crohn’s disease
African American studies class holds art show in honor of Black lives lost JAMES BATTLE
ASST. FEATURES EDITOR
Filming the final chapter GABRIELA JULIA SENIOR FEATURES EDITOR In 2009, Ivana Bosek thought her 15 years were coming to an end. Her 5-foot-8, 93-pound frame lay bedridden, unsure of what was causing the agonizing pains in her stomach. A year later, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract. Bosek had an inflammation where her small intestine and large intestine came together which created scar tissue and a stricture, not allowing food to pass through. She threw up excessively. Once she had surgery, her life took a turn for the better. Bosek, a 22-year-old senior contemporary marketing major from Rochester, New York, is still fighting Crohn’s, but now with a camera crew and a new vision. In two months, Bosek plans to travel across the country while producing a documentary called The Crohn’s Moans. She will be speaking with physicians and patients from different cities while trying to answer questions that she and other Crohn’s patients have always asked about the disease.
Bosek created a Kickstarter campaign to raise $20,000 by May 13 for the production of her documentary. She is excited to share footage of her journey to the West Coast but is also taking the audience back to her diagnosis when the idea for the film first started. Scene 1: The diagnosis Ever since Bosek was a child, she had severe stomach problems. Bosek has distinct memories of leaning over buckets and laying on the bathroom floor so the cold tile would touch her face and ease the discomfort. She would throw herself over railings and tables to try to get rid of the sharp pain in her abdomen. “It’s like you’re in this body that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do,” Bosek said. “You’re in so much pain that you feel stuck.” Bosek’s health rapidly declined during her junior year in high school. She lost weight quickly, had no appetite and was extremely fatigued. She knew something was wrong. When Bosek was 15, she was misdiagnosed with mononucleosis for a year. Her pediatrician didn’t take her case seriously, she said. CONTINUED TO PAGES 6 & 7
YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM
Ivana Bosek, a senior contemporary marketing major, was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was 16. She’s taking her story and traveling across the country to get footage for her documentary The Crohn’s Moans.
Moneyball: The cost of Division I football OWEN O’BRIEN
INVESTIGATIVE SPORTS REPORTER
When UB Athletic Director Danny White assumed his position in May 2012, it took him 15 months, or 478 days, to send his first #NYBI tweet – meaning the New York Bulls Initiative. His plan is to make Buffalo, a program with middling success in a Mid-Major conference, “America’s Next Big-Time Athletics Brand.” Judging by attendance numbers and million-dollar television contracts, football seems to be the best way to get a college athletics brand to the public’s eye. The football team brings the most revenue of all of UB’s 20 varsity sports – but it also costs the most. UB isn’t making a profit off its football team, and that’s not abnormal for Mid-Major conferences. So is it worth it for universities? The an-
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swer isn’t clear. Most recently, the University of Alabama at Birmingham cut its D-I football program. UB has no intentions of doing the same. Buffalo spent $6,699,385 on its football program in 2013 – the most on any of its 20 varsity sports and seventh most of the 12 full-time schools in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) according to the U.S. Department of Education. Buffalo broke an even profit margin for football – but largely because of university support. The Spectrum obtained information for this story via Freedom of Information requests and data compiled from the Knight
An editor’s opinion on the violence in Baltimore and on-going racial tensions
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THE SPECTRUM FILE PHOTO
The UB football team runs out of the tunnel of the UB Stadium. The gap between the schools in the Power Five conferences and Mid-Majors like UB seems to be widening, raising the question if it is worth is for schools to have Division I football teams outside of the Power Five.
Foundation database. These numbers are the most recent available and reflect the 2013-14 fiscal year. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Outdoor Adventure Club used kayaks and canoes to clean up the shores of Lake LaSalle
“‘I love you, too,’ Sean Bell. Nov. 25, 2006.” After the words – which were read aloud on a platform in the Student Union – the sound of gunshots rang out. “I love you, too” were Bell’s last words. The gunshots came after only some of the many names were read of people who were killed by police. The gunshot sound was met with mixed reactions from the crowd. On Monday in the Student Union lobby, professor Toni Pressley-Sanon’s African American studies 425 class: “Liberation Struggles” held an art showcase entitled: “Art for Justice” to increase campus awareness of police brutality across the United States. Students in Pressley-Sanon’s class planned the show. “[Recent protests] in Baltimore, for example, that’s a response to people being tired,” said Isaiah Davis, a junior philosophy and English major. “It’s the embodiment or the manifestation of: ‘We’re tired and we don’t know what to do and this is all we have left.’” Art for Justice is a more peaceful means, Davis said. Following the death of Freddie Gray, who was beaten into a coma by Baltimore police and later pronounced dead from his injuries, protesters in Baltimore took the streets and, in some cases, clashed with police. Tensions in the city are high – while some protests are peaceful, other clashes are violent. But Monday’s event aimed at responding to the high-profile deaths in a creative way. Davis said people should utilize their talents, passions or hobbies in a different form. He was hoping to open that gateway to students. “I was doing a lecture in class about the Black Power Movement, and the day of the lecture was actually the day after the Walter Scott incident,” Davis said. “[Our class] figured that something had to be done.” Scott was fatally shot on April 4 after a daytime traffic stop in North Carolina. Officer Michael Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced that showed him shooting Scott in the back while he was fleeing. Professor Pressley-Sanon and her class used the showcase as a creative outlet for students to voice their concerns. Pressley-Sanon said the class didn’t see anything being done on campus besides “a few talks that historicized violence against Black men in particular.” She wanted to plan an event that was student-led and something students took ownership of. “Just talking to my students, mainly African-American male students, I realized that they really didn’t have an outlet or a place to talk about what happened,” Pressley-Sanon said. “It’s very scary, and to not have some sort of outlet was really problematic.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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Men’s tennis team to play Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament