News - The Spectrum

NEWS

UB Student Association spent $9,000 on 'new, outdated confusing' website

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 31, 2015

The Student Association launched a new, roughly $9,000, website and some students aren’t too impressed, saying the design and aesthetic doesn’t match the price tag. Students have negatively critiqued the website's design and layout and SA's lack of communication about the site with students and clubs, and there is a post on the UB Reddit page entitled “UB SA launches new outdated, confusing site after years of outdated, confusing site” that currently has 24 comments.

English students sit in critical race theory, a 400-level English class. Starting in the fall, the requirements to complete the English major are decreasing in difficulty in order to encourage more students to become English majors.

NEWS

English department makes major ‘more attractive’ as national numbers shrink

By MARLEE TUSKES | Mar. 31, 2015

The English department announced changes in its degree requirements, which include allowing more 200-level courses and the elimination of the foreign language requirement, in an email sent on March 13.

NEWS

Police Blotter: 3/17 - 3/23

Mar. 31, 2015

All information according to University Police

Dr. Carl Nightingale from Transnational Studies led the discussion on the rash of assaults and ‘hate crimes’ across the world. InFocus is a monthly series of student-orientated, informal conversations on today’s hot topics.

NEWS

UB's Hate InFocus looks at impact of hate speech, actions

By DEVIN KOLLURU | Mar. 29, 2015

The latest InFocus discussion, “Hate InFocus: How Race, Religion, and Class Fuel Intolerance and Murder in ‘Multicultural’ America,” focused on incidents like the viral video of a University of Oklahoma fraternity chanting a racial slur.

Student Association President James Ingram shows off SA’s new website, which launched March 18. SA spent $9,000 to create a new website that would include more up-to-date information and would be easier to navigate.

NEWS

UB's Student Association launches new website after years of outdated, confusing site

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 29, 2015

SA officially launched its new website, which was created by SA Entertainment Coordinator Marc Rosenblitt using a Joomla content management system, on March 18. The website cost $9,000.

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee met in Capen Hall on Wednesday to discuss budget issues, experiential learning and making the Senate more efficient.

NEWS

Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting rundown

By ASHLEY INKUMSAH | Mar. 26, 2015

When Faculty Senate Chair Ezra Zubrow attended a seminar on the corporatization of pension funds, he wondered what right governors have to take money that is legislated to higher education and “hold it back to get their political agendas taken into account.” For the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, the ‘Westbury Resolution,’ proposed by the SUNY Old Westbury Faculty Senate Executive Committee, seems like a solution to the budgeting crisis. The executive committee met in Capen Hall on Wednesday and discussed budgeting issues, experimental education and how the Faculty Senate can be more productive when not meeting quorum.

Robert Ballard will be discussing deep-sea exploration at Alumni Arena on April 1. Ballard is a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island and helped discover the RMS Titanic in 1985.

NEWS

Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, to come to UB

By CHARLES W. SCHAAB | Mar. 26, 2015

Dr. Robert Ballard, now a professor of oceanography and the director of the Center for Ocean Exploration at the University of Rhode Island, will be speaking in Alumni Arena on April 1 as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series. Ballard said the talk will cover the past, present and future of deep-sea exploration illustrated through his explorations.

SA Assembly members Davis Podkulski (left) and Jack Oshei (right) speak at Wednesday’s meeting in the Student Union to push a motion to create a UBreathe Free taskforce committee.

NEWS

SA Assembly creates taskforce to review UB's smoke-free policy

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 26, 2015

The SA Assembly voted to create a taskforce Wednesday to review the UBreathe Free policy on smoking.

Cribspot co-founder Jason Orkrasinski works from the team's Michigan based home. Cribspot is a website that helps students across 175 universities find off-campus housing.

NEWS

Cribspot website provides UB students off-campus housing listings

By JASHONDA WILLIAMS | Mar. 25, 2015

Cribspot, a website where students and landlords can post off-campus housing listings, is currently used at 175 schools across the country and was recently launched at UB. Students can post their apartments for free with their buffalo.edu accounts.

Vanessa Dwyer, a sophomore environmental geosciences major; Andrew Harp, a PhD student in geology; Chris Portor of CDS Outdoor Inc.; and Kevin Sauta, a senior environmental geosciences major look on as Mike Mazuitowski and Max Bass, a junior social sciences interdisciplinary major participate in a drill on an Outdoor Pursuits trip in which they evacuate a "victim."

NEWS

UB Outdoor Pursuits will now offer critical first aid training

By JOSE ESCOBAR | Mar. 24, 2015

On March 5-8 eight UB students and two faculty members were trained and certified through UB Outdoor Pursuits and Student Life to become wilderness first responders. Classroom and wilderness training prepared participants to become knowledgeable wilderness leaders.

The Winspear Avenue entrance to UB South Campus. A power outage has occurred on South Campus Wednesday morning.

NEWS

Living off campus can mean uncertainty for UB students

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 24, 2015

When Craig Laudani and his roommates first visited a Stockbridge Avenue apartment near South Campus and found broken tiles, trash on the carpet, a gas canister in a closet upstairs and nails sticking out of the floor, they were assured it would be cleaned up and fixed by the time they moved in in August 2014. It was not.

Alexadra Mastoras’ ceiling gave way on March 3 at her Sundridge apartment off of East Robinson Road in Amherst. Mastoras experienced the worst case of water leaking through the roof and above her ceiling, a problem many Western New Yorkers have dealt with this winter.

NEWS

Rough winter causes students to experience leaky roofs

By CHARLES W. SCHAAB | Mar. 24, 2015

Students both on and off campus – as well as the Buffalo area at large – have dealt with leaking roofs because of the snow and cold weather this winter.

Madelaine Britt, a junior political science major and Student Association Assembly member, presents her idea for a website that would allow UB students to create petitions concerning issues they see at UB at an SA Assembly meeting Wednesday night.

NEWS

SA Assembly discusses a potential petition website for UB students

By MARLEE TUSKES | Mar. 12, 2015

Members of the Student Association Assembly advocated at an SA Assembly meeting for a website that would allow UB students to create petitions strictly concerning issues and policies at the university.

UB students can opt out of bumming a ride from a friend or paying for a taxi ride to the airport and take the free shuttle provided by the Student Association.

NEWS

SA offers students free ride to Buffalo International Airport

By CHARLES W. SCHAAB | Mar. 12, 2015

SA has spent more than $13,000 so far this year on the shuttle service to the airport and has been quoted an additional $2,475 for this year’s spring break, according to SA President James Ingram.

NEWS

Police Blotter 3/3 – 3/10

By News Desk | Mar. 12, 2015

University at Buffalo police blotter - all information according to University Police.

President Satish Tripathi (center), Provost Charles Zukoski (left) and UB Council Student Representative Minahil Khan (far left) at the UB Council meeting Monday in Capen Hall. The Council discussed rational tuition, as well as renovations to UB’s three campuses.

NEWS

UB Council discusses campus renovations, student debt

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 10, 2015

UB used revenue from NYSUNY 2020’s rational tuition program to hire 277 new faculty members from the time of the plan’s inception in 2011 to the end of 2014. But the additional faculty may have limited space on campus.

A shot of Squire Hall on South Campus in 2014. There was a small fire in the basement of the building on Tuesday.

NEWS

Squire Hall evacuated for small fire

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 10, 2015

A small fire in the basement of Squire Hall caused an evacuation of the building on Tuesday morning.

NEWS

Over 225 pounds of clothing donated to Hearts for the Homeless

By JASHONDA WILLIAMS | Mar. 8, 2015

Thanks to the generosity of some UB students, about 225 more pounds of clothing will be made available to the homeless population of Western New York, which includes more than 5,750 people.

NEWS

The Spectrum elects 2015-16 editor in chief

By ALYSSA MCCLURE | Mar. 8, 2015

The Spectrum’s editorial board unanimously elected Tom Dinki as next year’s editor in chief on Sunday. Dinki, a junior English major and current senior news editor at the newspaper, ran unopposed.

NEWS

Low attendance halts Faculty Senate vote

By Tom Dinki | Mar. 6, 2015

Michael Chaskes, a professor in the Department of Medicine, is wondering how “anything is going to get done” at UB with the consistent struggle the Faculty Senate has getting enough members present at a meeting to take a vote.