Features - The Spectrum

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spoke to residents in a town hall discussion on Friday. Gillibrand answered questions about healthcare, public transit and selective service.

FEATURES

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand hosts town hall event at UB

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET and TANVEEN VOHRA | Oct. 29, 2018

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) discussed immigration, the U.S. economy and climate concerns during a town hall event at UB on Friday. Gillibrand, who is running for re-election on Nov. 6, answered questions for roughly an hour at Slee Hall. Jean Wactawski-Wende, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Professions, moderated the town hall, but no attendee who asked questions identified themselves as a student.

Men’s bathrooms are notoriously gross, but The Spectrum sought out the worst of the worst. From urinals to stalls, these restrooms might just be the scariest things on campus this Halloween.

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The top five spookiest bathrooms on campus

By ARSH ISSANY | Oct. 25, 2018

As an avid bathroom user –– mostly due to high consumption of C3 –– I have become a campus bathroom connoisseur. Through my two years at UB, I’ve used almost every male bathroom on North Campus. When duty calls, you don’t refuse.

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Give your corpse pose a glow up

By JACKLYN WALTERS | Oct. 25, 2018

Blacklights? Check. Body paint? Got it. “Monster Mash?” Already playing in the background.

Buffalo’s Grand Central Terminal, abandoned since 1979, has recently undergone efforts to restore the once-mighty train station. However, no amount of fixing-up can remove spirits from the station’s hayday that still haunt the spacious halls.

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Buffalo Haunts

By KIRSTEN DEAN | Oct. 25, 2018

Buffalo is known for our unfortunate sports teams and our love of chicken wings. But embedded deep into the cold tundra are a number of frigidly haunted places. Here are just a few of the Queen City’s most spooky locations. Take a visit … if you dare.

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Humans of UB: Davay Henry

By DAVILA TARAKINIKINI | Oct. 23, 2018

For committed junior Davay Henry, improv is so much more than just performing in front of other individuals.

The SA Senate talks in a meeting last academic year. The Senate did not contact The Spectrum or other news media before the Oct. 11 SA Senate meeting. New York’s top open-government official said SA’s precedent of not alerting news media did not comply with the law.

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The Student Association Senate did not comply with Open Meetings Law, according to state top open-government official

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 22, 2018

The Student Association didn’t notify The Spectrum or other news media in advance of its last Senate meeting, a public meeting where students move and distribute student activity fee money. The SA President Gunnar Haberl, chairperson of the SA Senate meeting on Oct. 11, said he was following SA’s past “precedent” by not alerting media.

Givary Muhammad, a junior finance major, is the president of the Indonesian Student Association. Muhammad, who is from the Indonesian island Java, said he is contacting presidents from other Indonesian student groups across the country, to help give as much aid as possible.

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Indonesian students upset after devastating tsunami in their home country

By Shamini Priya Gopalakrishna | Oct. 22, 2018

On Sept. 28, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The earthquake triggered a roughly 10-foot-high tsunami. The tsunami struck land and hit Palu, Indonesia. The official death toll, as of Oct. 17, is 2,100, according to a report by the World Health Organization. Six hundred eighty people are missing, according to the report.

William Regan (left) hands Distinguished Speakers Series posters to Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist Malala Yousafzai. Regan’s office, the office of University Events, has hosted the lecture-based, educative series for over three decades at UB.

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How It's Made: Distinguished Speakers Series

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 22, 2018

For William Regan, the UB Distinguished Speakers Series is all about the process. Regan, director of the Office of University Events, said some event preparations may not hold a lot of glamour, but the behind-the-scenes brunt work by his staff and other UB units makes its all possible by showtime.

The golf tee on top of Baldy Hall is one of UB’s hidden treasures on North Campus.

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UB Secrets II: The spooky unknowns

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 18, 2018

I value every reader of this newspaper, and I also value every non-reader. Two weeks ago, I posted my first UB Secrets article on /r/UBReddit. The post received over 1,800 views, and 37 upvotes as a majority of users responded with rays of positivity. But some users were much more critical.

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Alone on the Appalachian Trail: Alexa Ringer's six-month journey from Georgia to Maine

By Isabella Nurt | Oct. 18, 2018

It’s a Sunday night, and Alexa Ringer just returned home from her three-day excursion in Canada’s Algonquin Provincial Park. But a weekend is nothing compared to her outdoor accomplishment two years ago before she came to UB.

UB’s radio tower, adjacent to the Millersport Highway, stands over 400-feet high. The tower hosts six tenants from around Western New York, including WNED/WBFO, Verizon and Transwave Communications Systems.

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North Campus radio tower still used after WBFO sale in 2012

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 18, 2018

Over a decade since its completion, North Campus’ radio tower still stands high above the student body. The 443-foot tower was built for WBFO, the UB-founded radio station from 1959-2012, and for additional tenants to improve their signal quality. After Buffalo’s public radio station WNED acquired the station’s rights in 2012, UB kept the tower, which houses six tenants today.

From local restaurant week to after hours at the science museum, there is plenty to keep you busy in Buffalo this weekend.

FEATURES

Around town

By KIRSTEN DEAN | Oct. 18, 2018

Fall is in full swing and with Halloween quickly approaching, there are a number of events students can enjoy throughout the Queen City. As the winds pick up, enjoy the autumn weather while it lasts and take advantage of a few of these events this week.

Panelists discuss UB’s and Buffalo’s “radical history” on Friday in Hayes Hall. Friday’s symposium featured a number of panelists who recounted the histories of feminist and queer cultures in the Queen City.

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Radical queer histories rediscovered, remembered throughout Buffalo

By ABHI WAGH | Oct. 15, 2018

UB community members gathered this past weekend to discuss influential moments in local LGBTQ and feminist history. On Friday and Saturday, UB’s Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies, the English department and history department, among others, hosted a symposium, street tour and archival tour of Buffalo’s queer, transgender and feminist milestones. The departments held the event on Friday and Saturday on South Campus, at Buffalo State College and throughout downtown Buffalo.

Nature View Park currently sits on land formerly owned by the Faculty Student Association (FSA). FSA claims the land, purchased in 1964 and sold in 1987, was purchased with a “portion” of student activity fees as well as other resources.

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Faculty Student Association says $785,500 land purchase came from student fees, other money

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 14, 2018

The Faculty Student Association says its 1964 land purchase for students came from a mixture of student activity fees and other organizational resources. For three decades, FSA, a UB-controlled nonprofit known to most students as Campus Dining & Shops, has claimed it had no idea how much money went into the $785,500 it used to buy a piece of land in Amherst in 1964. This month, FSA lawyer Terry Gilbride of the law firm Hodgson Russ wrote that a “portion” of FSA’s funds used to purchase the 1964 land “did originally come from student [activity] fees collected by FSA” and the “balance of the purchase price came from other FSA resources which did not derive from student activity fees.”

Fern Mallis, creator of New York Fashion Week and UB alum, spoke in Hayes Hall as part of UB’s new “Lessons Learned” alumni speaker series. Mallis spoke on Thursday about her successes in the fashion industry and time as a UB student.

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New York Fashion Week founder Fern Mallis speaks at UB

By KIRSTEN DEAN | Oct. 14, 2018

Before she founded New York Fashion Week in the 1990s, Fern Mallis built her artistic foundations as a student in UB’s fine arts department. Mallis, a ’69 UB alum and fashion icon, discussed her experiences in the world of fashion to a sold-out crowd in 403 Hayes Hall Thursday night. The event marked the beginning of the university’s new speaker series featuring alumni and the lessons they’ve learned in their respective fields.

UB’s new safety app, UB Guardian, uses call and chat communication, along with a GPS-based location system which students can use to send their locations to friends and family.

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University Police release new safety alert app for UB community

By Isabella Nurt | Oct. 8, 2018

If students, faculty or staff sense danger, they can connect with University Police with just a tap on their phone from now on.

A peregrine falcon incubates two eggs in the nesting box installed in Mackay [Heating Plant] on South Campus. This May, two eggs were laid by mother falcon, Dixie.

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Flight school

By KIRSTEN DEAN | Oct. 8, 2018

There are some residents on South Campus who aren’t paying their Campus Living fees, but UB doesn’t mind. These feathered residents are peregrine falcons, a New York State endangered species whose presence on campus is both encouraged and monitored by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Students, faculty and staff can tune in to the falcons’ moves too. A “Falcon Cam” near a nesting box on Mackay Heating Plant on South Campus records a constant live video of the resident birds and allows the DEC to actively monitor the nest and allows the public to do the same, without disturbing the birds.

Bobby Militello boasts a legendary musical life. Militello, who has played with trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, currently is an instructor in the music department at UB.

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Bobby Militello continues his musical quest in the classroom

By BENJAMIN BLANCHET | Oct. 4, 2018

Bobby Militello’s career is a destiny fulfilled. At around 10 years old, Militello flipped through 99-cent jazz records on the corner of Grant and Ferry Street.

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Humans of UB: Felicia Vanier

By ABHI WAGH | Oct. 4, 2018

For soft-spoken sophomore Felicia Vanier, style is about showing off statement pieces in subtle ways. Vanier, an environmental engineering major, said she is both reserved in her attitude yet outspoken with her words. The Queensbury, New York native’s personality informs her laid-back and eclectic style, as well. She puts a feminine twist on casual staples like jeans and t-shirts by adding floral prints and delicate jewelry.

Anchor Bar and Duff’s have been battling for decades over who makes the best Buffalo wings. The debate, like the wings, is only getting hotter.

FEATURES

Wing Wars

By KIRSTEN DEAN | Oct. 4, 2018

If you are from Buffalo or have spent just an hour here, you know that the one thing Buffalo is best at –– other than having underperforming sports teams –– is chicken wings. From fans wearing chicken wing hats at football games to the annual National Buffalo Wing Festival held downtown, Buffalonians are passionate about their fried, saucy wings.