Julian Roberts-Grmela is a senior news editor for The Spectrum and an English and philosophy major. His favorite book is “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith and he hopes that one day his writing will be as good as hers.
Student Association elections, which were postponed from March 24 to March 26 due to COVID, are taking place online today through September 16.
Omran Albarazanchi wishes he had been “more vocal” when he heard instances of “pure racism” during high school.
Last semester, my intramural soccer team lost in the semi-finals of the UB playoffs. It was a bummer for a team that still never won a championship. We’d come so close so many times over the last seven semesters. “But at least we had one more opportunity,” we thought. “We still had the spring.” Turns out we didn’t.
Photo: The Spectrum
Tasfiah Khan always expected her freshman year of college would mean she could “become more independent.” She envisioned meeting new friends, creating her own schedule and settling into a new environment. But Khan, a senior at Manhattan/Hunter Science High School who plans to enroll at UB in the fall, thinks her vision may be “crushed” by the coronavirus. She’s worried UB will extend its “distance-learning” model into the fall semester. UB already decided the summer term will operate entirely remotely.
Jannat Inqiyad said that in order to complete the online work for her classes, she needs to leave her home since she doesn’t have internet access. Inqiyad, a sophomore health and human services major, said her family had to “sacrifice” internet connection to afford essentials after the family lost its main source of income due to COVID-19. Now, she needs to go to public libraries to complete her remote coursework and said she doesn’t feel safe leaving her house because she has family members and friends who are hospitalized with COVID-19.
Photo: Courtesy of Minnoli Aya
Minnoli Aya never got to say goodbye to her mother, Madhvi. Madhvi, the breadwinner of the family and “the person [Aya] would turn to when the world got ugly,” died alone in the hospital from COVID-19. She was 61.
Photo: Courtesy of Bruce Jackson
Peter Regan, former acting UB president, executive vice president and professor, died at 95 on April 5. Fifty years ago, Regan took over as acting president for one year from 1969-70, while President Martin Meyerson took a leave-of-absence, and later left UB.
UB has not yet provided a specific date that fee refunds will be applied to student accounts, but a university spokesperson said students will see prorated refunds “prior to the end of the semester.” The prorated fee refunds –– the percentage of money that will be refunded from the total fee –– will be “calculated on an individual basis” and “based on actual services provided,” according to UB spokesperson Kate McKenna.
Howard Bunsis –– the Eastern Michigan University accounting professor who reported UB spends more on administration than any of its “peers” –– denies UB’s statement that his independent financial analysis had a “preconceived agenda.” Bunsis’ report, which he released in February, called UB financial reporting “less transparent” than any of the over 100 universities he examined over the last 15 years. UB’s response urged readers to be “very skeptical of its findings” and said Bunsis had a “preconceived agenda” because he was hired. UB said the “report contains several flaws, inaccuracies and inconsistencies that misrepresent and misinterpret UB’s budget and budgeting process.” But Bunsis, in an April 3 email, said his report was based on “facts.”
The Food and Drug Administration gave UB and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center permission Wednesday to begin a “collaborative clinical study” using an experimental drug, sarilumab, to try to treat some COVID-19 effects. Igor Puzanov, the trial’s co-principal investigator, hopes the drug, which reduces inflammation, may alleviate some of COVID-19’s worst symptoms like lung injury.
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where the first patient in Buffalo received sarilumab treatment. UB donated materials needed for COVID-19 testing to Erie County.
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, where the first patient in Buffalo received sarilumab treatment.
Roughly 40 students attend Student Association Board of Directors’ Rules, Administration and Government Oversight Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Members of UB Solo pose for a group photo after their showcase on Saturday.
The UB football team watches on during a speech at the Murchie Family Fieldhouse grand opening Tuesday.
The UB Libraries held its “Banned Books Week” from Sept. 26-27. The event lined up with the American Libraries Association’s Banned Books Week, where students and faculty read excerpts from banned books in an effort to combat censorship.
Solutions by The State News
