World Suicide Prevention Day was September 10. In the United States as well as in most of the world, cultural squeamishness over discussing mental illness can lead to feelings of isolation. For someone going through a strong period of mental illness, isolation can significantly worsen the symptoms.
Where were you in 1950? What were you reading? Harry S. Truman was the thirty-third president. Gas was 30 cents per gallon. A loaf of bread cost 10 cents and on November 17, 1950, The Spectrum, UB’s only independent student newspaper was born. Our first editor in chief was Jack Keller. I’m Hannah Stein, the sixty-fifth editor in chief of The Spectrum. I am honored to fill this important and historic position during such a volatile time in our country and our campus’s history. Students at universities across the country are at the center of debates about campus free speech, historical naming rights on campus, how sexual assaults on campus are handled, how to handle immigration and transgender rights. Our country is angry, afraid, politically divided and worried about what comes next.
On Aug. 9, the UB administration announced changes to the Fall 2017 weekend Stampede that reduces late-night busing between North and South campuses on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Bulls are coming off a two-win season, a defense that ranked in the bottom five in the nation in rush yards allowed and an offense that ranked in the bottom five in points scored. Win or lose, this year head coach Lance Leipold has to be held accountable for the results this team produces.
Eliminating late night weekend busing was a decision the university made without any student input. The same day the story broke, I met with Interim Director of Parking and Transportation Christopher Austin and learned that contrary to what was reported in the news, the changes to the bus schedule mean that after 1:30 AM on Friday and Saturday nights, there will be no official UB transportation between campuses. As University Council Student Representative for all 30,000 students at UB, I’m committed to ensuring safety for students at all times.
You’ve made it. After years of schooling you’re finally in college. Remembering back two years ago when I was at my orientation, I was so excited for the school year to start. Like many others, I had a warped idea of what my college experience would be. Of course, I’d seen movies like “American Pie” or “Blue Mountain State” and thought my time at UB would mimic what I saw on TV.
Dear students, faculty and administration of the University at Buffalo: On Monday night, a mass murderer killed 22 people and injured 59 at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. The perpetrator was a man named Salman Ramadan Abedi, a man whom friends described as a “devout” Muslim who had memorized the entire Qur’an.
As student government leaders, we are concerned with the lack of support and the manifold access barriers that students who are parents face, especially in light of the freedom from discrimination based on familial status, marital status, and gender that UB promises under Title IX.
When I was in high school, I’d be labeled as “crybaby” or a “softie” because of how emotional I was as a kid. Crying was a “feminine” trait.
It was the second semester of my freshman year. I was lazily ensconced in bed with my ex jamming to Ray LaMontagne when he asked me where I saw myself in 10 years.
Time flies when you’re having fun? Our adviser, Jody Biehl, hates when we open our work with cliché quotes, but I can’t help it this time.
I didn’t think I would make it. I wasn’t supposed to make it.
What does it cost to live in Buffalo? This is a question Teaching Assistants in the Department of English here have been asking. There are different measures for what a living wage is in New York. One could turn to the Coalition of Economic Justice’s estimate that a living wage for full-time work is $15 per hour, adding up to a $30,000 annual income, a number that New York governor Andrew Cuomo has also embraced.
I read the front-page article “UB’s Black Faculty: Dwindling and Isolated,” with great interest, as I am a black faculty member at UB myself. And as a senior administrator charged with ensuring UB’s diversity, I thought the article was fair and balanced. Ironically, it was published the day before the Chronicle of Higher Education released a list of AAU member universities with the greatest diversity among tenure-track hires in the Fall of 2015. UB is listed at #33 of 60 universities, above Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, UC-Berkeley, and Stony Brook University.
Anxiety? Take a pill. Nausea? Take a pill. A pill gets thrown at me for every feeling I have throughout the day. Gabapentin, Venlafaxine, Xanax, Ondansetron. It’s a never-ending cycle of taking pills and waiting for my body to feel “normal.”
I agreed to become a Sponsor Level Donor with the expectation of donating up to $50,000 to the University at Buffalo men’s swim/dive program, because I was led to believe that I was investing in the future of this program, a program which supported kids, like me, who spent much of their childhoods training 3-5hours a day on a pool deck in order to be able to pay for college. As this warming altruistic thought went, a nobler investment could not exist.
If LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers win the NBA finals this year, James will be the greatest NBA player of all time. However, if he loses, he will never be in the same breath as Michael Jordan.
When I was 10 years old, my great grandmother would tell me “you’re so tall, you could model, if only you were a little thinner.” I spent years of my life staring at models, wanting to look exactly like them. They seemed perfect; with toned bodies that by some miracle looked good in everything they wore.
As your student government leaders, we do not condone hate speech. Speech is power, and that means that speech gives the power to hurt others. We encourage an atmosphere where everyone feels safe. We call on UB to continue fostering in their community members an understanding of the responsibility of speech, and the ramifications of all forms of violence. When a specific group of people are singled out to be threatened based on a shared characteristic, such as religious affiliation, the power of speech can quickly turn into targeted violence.
As a friend of Dr. John Kapoor’s and as someone who has spent the last 20 years in the field of substance abuse prevention (currently chairing one national organization and another state-based organization dedicated to those issues), I wanted to respond to Sarah Crowley’s April 26 article, “Questionable business practices cast shadow over UB donor’s pharmaceutical legacy.”
Solutions by The State News
