News - The Spectrum

Robert Shibley is the dean of the school of Architecture and Planning. Shibley is facing a censure vote from the Faculty Senate over an alleged mishandling of a faculty member’s tenure case.

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Dean Robert Shibley faces possible censure

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 19, 2017

UB’s Faculty Senate will decide next month whether or not to publicly censure Dean Robert Shibley after a faculty subcommittee found he mishandled an associate professor’s dismissal in 2016. Several administrators gave emotional appeals on the dean’s behalf to remove the public censure resolution at the Oct. 17 Faculty Senate meeting. Those who support the dean said he never violated official policy and did not act alone or unethically in his decision.

Vice President Mike Pence visited Buffalo Tuesday to meet with Rep. Chris Collins and discuss President Trump’s proposed tax reform plan.

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Vice President Mike Pence visits Buffalo

By News Desk | Oct. 19, 2017

Vice President Mike Pence visited Buffalo on Tuesday to meet with Rep. Chris Collins and discuss Trump’s tax reform plan with local businesses. More than 200 supporters greeted Pence at the airport upon his arrival around noon, according to The Buffalo News. Pence greeted the crowd and shook hands with Collins, an early supporter of the Trump campaign and then left for a Republican fundraiser at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens.

An elevator in Clemens hall is filled with water. The flooding was a result of a burst water valve on the fourth floor cooling system.

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Classes in Clemens Hall cancelled Tuesday due to flooding; extent of damage unknown

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 16, 2017

A ruptured water valve on the fourth floor of Clemens Hall caused extensive flooding from the basement to the fourth floor, according to University Police. Facilities were notified about the flooding at approximately 8:00 p.m. Monday. Facilities staff members turned the water off and university police activated the fire alarm to alert people to evacuate the building.

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UB eliminates Student Readership Program

By MADDY FOWLER | Oct. 16, 2017

UB has eliminated its Newspaper Readership Program, which provided students, faculty and staff with complimentary copies of The New York Times and USA Today. The program was eliminated because it was costly and had a “poor distribution process,” according to UB Spokesperson John Della Contrada.

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DifCon series tackles ‘Taking a Knee’

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 16, 2017

UB will begin the year’s Difficult Conversations series with “Taking a Knee,” a talk centered around kneeling for the national anthem, culturally offensive mascots and language in sports. “Taking a Knee and Other Issues of Speech and Expression in Sports” goes from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. on Oct. 18 in 10 Capen Hall, presented by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the School of Law and the Division of Athletics.

Joe Wolf, president of UB’s Civil Liberties Union, and Katie Raymond, vice-president of the CLU, attended a conference focused on student rights. Raymond and Wolf are trying to change a policy within the Student-Wide Judiciary which prohibits defenders from speaking on behalf of students in administrative panels.

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UB’s Civil Liberties Union fights for students' rights to a defender

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 16, 2017

UB students who get in trouble at the school aren’t allowed to have lawyers or law students defend them during administrative hearings. Members of UB’s Civil Liberties Union want to change that. They say UB’s practice of making students face administrators alone could be a violation of laws that protect due process.

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News Briefs

By News Desk | Oct. 16, 2017

Campus UB working with NFTA to make public transportation more accessible A research partnership between the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority and UB’s Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access is working to make buses in Buffalo more accessible for disabled riders, according to UBNow.

Students participating in the Muslim Student Association's Walk with Us event hold a poster supporting Rohingya refugees.

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Students march to raise awareness for Rohingya refugee crisis

By ANNA SAVCHENKO , HARUKA KOSUGI and KEVIN LAM | Oct. 15, 2017

UB students and the local Muslim community gathered at Flint Loop on Friday to raise awareness of the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis. UB’s Muslim Student Association organized a march from North to South Campus to spread awareness of the region’s ongoing ethnic persecution.

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Man commits lewd act in Alumni Arena

By News Desk | Oct. 13, 2017

A man reportedly committed a lewd act in front of a 14-year-old in the Alumni Arena men's sauna at approximately6 p.m.Thursdaynight. The incident was reportedon Friday. The victim described the subject as a balding white male in his 40's with colorful tattoos on each arm and significant body hair, according to a UB Alert.

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News Briefs

By News Desk | Oct. 12, 2017

Campus Terra cotta mailboxes, winning design in-house competition, installed in Hayes Hall UB set up a series of architectural competitions for students in an effort to “further beautify” the space with student designs following the reopening of the newly renovated Hayes Hall last semester, according to UB Now. The most recent effort was a faculty mailbox redesign.

Students had the opportunity to offer feedback for the future Global Market Cafe. More than 1,200 students, faculty and staff participated in four different focus groups in SU 228 Wednesday and sampled dishes that reflect potential menu options for the cafe.

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Global Market Café planning committee holds community feedback event

By MADDY FOWLER | Oct. 12, 2017

Rainy Liu is excited about the Global Market Café because she thinks it will give international students a taste of home. More than 1,200 students, faculty and staff participated in four different focus groups in SU 228 Wednesday. Participants sampled global-inspired dishes that reflect potential menu options for the Global Market Café.

The unearthed remains of 372 people found on South Campus were re-buried Wednesday morning after a memorial service at the Newman Center.

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The bones of Buffalo: human remains offer insight into the Queen City’s forgotten past

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 12, 2017

Their names were Michael and Frederica. Michael was an Irish immigrant who worked on the docks unloading lumber, before an injury rendered his leg useless and his family impoverished. Frederica was the wife of an alcoholic, who beat her and cursed her every time he drank. UB researchers called these people Michael and Frederica, but even tireless community research efforts were not able to name the 372 people whose remains were discovered in unmarked graves on UB’s South Campus.

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UB to revoke Harvey Weinstein’s honorary degree

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 11, 2017

UB will revoke the honorary doctorate it awarded Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2000 , after an investigation by The New York Times revealed Weinstein had settled multiple sexual harassment charges over the course of his career. Female actresses, reporters and employees of Weinstein told the Times he had a practice of cornering women under the guise of “business meetings,” then making unwanted sexual advances. “The university is well aware of the allegations involving Mr. Weinstein,” said spokesperson John Della Contrada in an official statement. “The university has initiated the process, pursuant to the SUNY Board of Trustees policy, for the revocation of a SUNY honorary degree.”

Tuesday evening a candle light vigil was held outside the Student Union. Students showed their support for victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting.

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UB students hold candlelight vigil for Las Vegas shooting victims

By MAX KALNITZ | Oct. 10, 2017

Students gathered Tuesday night outside the Student Union for a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival. On Oct. 1, a shooter opened fire on concertgoers from the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, overlooking the Las Vegas Strip. At least fifty-eight people were killed and close to 500 were injured before the gunman shot and killed himself. The attack is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. modern history, according to CNN.

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Former Spectrum editors nominated as 2016-17 Pinnacle award finalists

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 9, 2017

Two former editors of The Spectrum have been nominated for national college media awards. The College Media Association (CMA) has nominated Tori Roseman and Mike Akelson for Pinnacle awards for the 2016-17 season.

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News Briefs

By News Desk | Oct. 9, 2017

Campus Steering committee seeks student input on Global Market Cafe Students and faculty are invited to share their input on the global market cafe with members of the steering committee, according to UBNow. The focus groups are open to the campus and will take place at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

A student in the department of anthropology analyzes skeletal remains. The remains were unearthed after a construction crew discovered human remains from a nineteenth century gravesite on UB's South Campus.

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UB to hold re-burial ceremony for remains uncovered by construction

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 8, 2017

A reinterment ceremony will be held on Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. in the Newman Center that will culminate nearly a decade worth of research into the remains of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century persons buried in the Erie County Poorhouse Cemetery on Bailey Avenue. The ceremony commemorates the lives of 372 people buried in the Erie County Poorhouse Cemetary on Bailey Avenue.

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Male points handgun at woman on Winspear Avenue

By News Desk | Oct. 8, 2017

Two women reported they were approached by two unknown males at approximately 1:10 a.m. Sunday near South Campus, according to a UB Alert. Buffalo Police are investigating the incident, which took place on Winspear Avenue near Rotary Road. One of the suspects pointed a silver handgun at one of the women. The suspects reportedly fled East toward Bailey Avenue. The victims described subject who brandished the gun as a male, 18 to 20 years old and roughly 5 feet 2 inches tall. The victims were unable to describe the second subject. The alert urged members of the university community to stay alert, always travel with other people and report on unusual activity or suspicious persons to UPD.

President Tripathi highlighted UB’s recent accomplishments, including the three campuses’ physical transformations and university ranking in his sixth annual State of the University address in the Student Union Theater Friday morning.

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President Tripathi’s State of the University Address reflects on the year’s accomplishments

By SARAH CROWLEY | Oct. 6, 2017

President Satish Tripathi’s sixth annual address took full stock of the year’s accomplishments; from the completion of 1 Capen and 1 Diefendorf, to the development the new medical campus, as well as the year’s record-breaking scholarly achievements.

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Global-inspired dining hall to open in 2020

By MADDY FOWLER | Oct. 5, 2017

A new dining hall featuring a variety of authentic international cuisine is set to open in spring 2020. The Global Market Café is the third and final phase of the Heart of the Campus initiative, which was established in 2012. The new dining location will serve as a “front door” to North Campus, connecting Flint Circle to Hamilton, according to Vice Provost for Graduate Education Graham Hammill, who is directing the project.