News Briefs
Apr. 11, 2011Mubarak Denies Corruption Allegations Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in a speech that all accusations of corruption against him and his family are unfounded.
Mubarak Denies Corruption Allegations Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced in a speech that all accusations of corruption against him and his family are unfounded.
If there was a fire in the University at Buffalo's disability testing center, freshman Mark Shaw would not be able to get out. Sophomore Raymond Matuszak can't fit into a regular classroom desk, so he often has to stand or sit in a chair without a desk during class. Junior Alec Frazier often gets shuffled into back rooms and offices to take exams because he needs voice-automated software to help him. Senior Catherine Scharf, who is visually impaired, clings to the walls of UB's staircases, because the signs and staircases are hazardous for those with limited vision. UB is responsible for much of these students' struggles. Eight years ago, the University at Buffalo agreed to make this campus accessible to the roughly 500 disabled students who attend every year.
Almost nothing that Manny Ramirez did over his 18-year major league career was done with elegance. Whether he was misplaying fly balls off of Fenway Park's Green Monster, getting in the way of cutoff throws in left field, or taking extended bathroom breaks during pitching changes, Manny simply lived in his own world. His dreads were long, and the list of reasons to hate him were even longer, especially after his second positive test for performance enhancing drugs pushed him into early retirement last Friday.
If I could give some advice to current Spectrum staffers, it would be this: keep a journal. What a joy it would be for me if I could reopen a log and relive those halcyon days of the late 1960s, when I was so closely associated with The Spectrum! While I received a bachelor's degree in economics and politics from UB, I really devoted a majority of my time and energy to The Spectrum.
I'll always remember my second, and least fluffy, assignment for The Spectrum, back in the fall of 1976.
In the end, maybe we just went soft. The stakes were lower by the time we came along. We had missed, by a few years, the tear gas and truncheons.
Spectrum Memories ?1969, 1970? deadlines, hanging out at The Spectrum offices at Norton Hall (the original one), and the excitement of being at a real center of activity and "happenings" (including, right outside our windows, anti-Vietnam war demonstrations complete with tear gas and police in riot gear), and keeping up on the news ? the old way, with paper coming off the wire. My entry to the world of The Spectrum was accidental, arising out of the swimming accomplishments of my then-boyfriend and the UB swim team not being reported on.
Dear The Spectrum, Congratulations on publishing for 60 years. When I served The Spectrum, from 1980?1983, we never took publishing for granted.
I was a skinny, scatter-brained freshman in late fall, 1974, when I found my way to the old office of The Spectrum on the Main Street campus in 355 Norton Hall, now Squire Hall.
In 1975 I was bored. It was difficult to stay awake during Professor Pope's lecture on U.S. Western Expansionism.
The chief philosophy during my years (1984-1988) at The Spectrum was never to consider it simply a "college" paper.
My first article for The Spectrum was published Oct. 6, 1978. It was a review of a band that played at Clark Gym and bared so little resemblance to the original type-written copy I had submitted that I double-checked it line-by-line to see if someone else had covered the same concert. I was almost embarrassed to walk into The Spectrum office the next day, but my student editors took my grammar and writing style?or lack thereof?in stride and handed another assignment to me, then another, and slowly, very slowly, my copy began to bleed less ink. As a reporter for The Prodigal Sun, I was appalled at the disco craze inexplicably sweeping the world at the time, was less interested in new wave acts like Blondie and Devo, and kept my focus on heavy rock music in all its illustrious forms: fusion, southern, metal, progressive.
Dear Alumni, Reading your submissions on a speedy Mac computer, "Googling" names to double-check spellings, taking breaks from time-to-time for some video-game relief, and digitally scanning the archives to capture moments from the past six decades has, admittedly, left us feeling guilty. Electric typewriters?
Fact: Being a Spectrum alumnus is not a well-lit path down Journalism Road after graduation. A cursory examination of my Facebook friends' employers confirms this.
Did you know that were it not for The Spectrum, punk rock may never have happened? It was the spring of 1973, and after nearly six years as an undergraduate (don't ask), I was finally nearing the end of my nearly-as-long run as music editor on the paper's arts & entertainment staff.
Of all the things that I did in college, nothing has prepared me better for the "real world" than working at The Spectrum.
Linda Hanley (Finigan) was editor in chief of The Spectrum in 1969-70. This fictionalized account of a freshman joining the paper in the fall of 1966 is adapted from her new novel, LOVE AND WAR, just published by cobalthouse.com. The celebrated jewel of the State University system, Canaswego's campus was the furthest away you could get from home in the State of New York without leaving the country.
Times were changing everywhere during the 1960s. When I began my freshman year in the fall of 1963, seniors ruled the campus.
My wife Lynne (then Lynne Traeger) and I were on The Spectrum staff from 1969 through 1973. I was copy editor, managing editor and then production manager.
Circa, 1970. "Tears of Rage" seemed a suitable title to capture the emotions of the university, the city and the nation during a tumultuous spring 40 years ago.