The Spectrum Vol. 65 No. 9

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

Monday, SepteMber 21, 2015ubSpectruM.coM VoluMe 65 no. 9

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT PUBL ICAT ION OF THE UN IVERS I TY AT BUFFALO , S INCE 1950

ASHLEY INKUMSAHNEWS EDITOR

Every time Ryan Yakal does his laundry, the water running out of his washing ma-chine overflows due to sewage buildup in his basement sink. Yakal, a senior biotech-nology major, had been experiencing the problem for three weeks but hadn’t let his landlord, Jeremy Dunn, know about it.

He didn’t realize it was sewage building up until inspectors came to his Winspear Ave-nue apartment Saturday.

Daniel Ryan, director of Off Campus

Student Services, and Buffalo city inspectors inspected approximate-ly 35 houses on Winspear Avenue and Northrup Place in the Univer-

sity Heights for the first housing blitz of the semester Saturday afternoon. The blitzes are a collaborative effort between Ryan and the city inspectors as the team inspects random houses in the Heights and only enter with stu-dents’ permission.

The inspectors were in pursuit of viola-tions such as insufficient smoke and carbon monoxide detectors among other potentially hazardous conditions.

The blitz happened amid the backdrop of a growing conflict between students and lo-cal residents about the partying culture of the Heights. Buffalo police have increased party breakups and Off-Campus Student Services said 17 students were suspended and 30 were sanctioned to community ser-vice hours two weeks ago.

Ryan said although this housing blitz re-

vealed fewer major violations, there are several houses on Winspear Avenue and Northrup Place inspectors have unsuccess-fully attempted to get into for years that likely possess the most hazardous violations.

Landlords sometimes tell student renters not to allow inspectors in and lie that do-ing so would be a violation of the lease. If inspectors continually aren’t allowed into a house, inspectors can get a court order to al-low them in.

54UB Step Troupe fights to gain popu-larity on campus

Buffalo celebrates start of theater season with Curtain Up!

UB Alumni Association to offer membership to all alumni at no cost 5

MARLEE TUSKESNEWS EDITOR

When Peter Pranata visited a college fair at his school in Indonesia, UB stood out to him. Pranata, a sophomore industrial en-gineering major, said he ultimately chose to go to UB because of how cheap it was compared to other international schools.

Students from around the world, like Pranata, study abroad because they feel U.S. schools provide a better foundation than what they could get at home – and they find UB to be one of better options to get the most bang for their buck, even with annual increased fees.

UB is ranked among the top-20 U.S. uni-versities in enrollment rates for interna-tional students, with 6,504 internation-al students currently enrolled. In-state res-idents pay close to $9,000 in tuition fees whereas out-of-state residents like interna-tional students pay more than $22,000 for tuition and more than $39,000 when in-cluding housing, food and other fees.

International students pay a mandato-ry $100 international student fee and about $1,200 for international student health in-surance.

International students in Western New York contributed more than $194 million to the economy in 2014, with UB’s inter-national students contributing majority of that with more than $140 million, accord-ing to the Association of International Ed-ucators.

Like Pranata, Fahad Hossain, a junior business administration major, said that he chose UB because of how affordable it was. Hossain, who is from Saudi Ara-bia, looked into UB after a relative recom-mended it. He saw it was cheaper com-pared to other universities he applied to in different countries.

“UB was, to be quite frank, quite cheap-er,” Hossain said. “It’s more affordable while still having a good standard of edu-cation.”

Yingxue Bai, a senior business major, said she currently pays more than $13,000 to attend UB, which she said is reasonable for studying abroad but expensive com-pared to colleges in China – especially af-ter UB increased its cost of tuition in 2012.

“Actually, our tuition is much lower than the other universities at similar ranking,” Bai said.

“However, the continual increase of the tu-ition makes me feel kind of unsatisfied. As what I know, on average, students in China pay no more than $1,000.”

SUNY has been raising tuition by $300 per year for the past five years. UB says stu-dents should expect a 3 percent increase in cost-of-attendance expenses each academ-ic year.

International students also have to ac-count for communication costs in order to stay in contact with people from home.

The cost of living abroad International students face

higher costs of attendance, but still find UB a cheaper option

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

First housing blitz of semester reveals few major violations, but problems still linger

Buffalo city inspectors continue search for housing

violations in Heights

PHOTOS BY KAINAN GUO,

THE SPECTRUM

(LEFT) Buffalo housing inspector Cathy Amdur walks through a

Northrup Place basement.

(RIGHT) A group of inspectors stand at the corner of Winspear

Avenue and Northrup Place.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

TORI ROSEMANSENIOR FEATURES EDITOR

Greg Brock didn’t expect to be at UB a few years ago, much less one of the drum majors for the marching band. He had dropped out of community college and was living in Georgia, working a variety of jobs and just getting by. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life.

When a group of his friends came to visit, they presented him with an offer: go back to New York with them. He packed up all of his things into two big bags and

left. After getting into an accident, a large

insurance claim left him with the money he needed to finally go back to school.

“It wasn’t, ‘Oh, my mom wants me to get a degree and get out of the house,’” Brock, now a political science major, said. “[It was] now I know what I want to do and how to do it.”

Once Brock got to UB, he found the Thunder of the East.

UB’s Thunder of the East March-ing Band has a big job – the 123-per-son group learns new music every few

weeks to create three to four completely different sets to play on campus, at com-petitions and for exhibitions. Their mem-bers vary from students who are studying music to others who just enjoy playing.

The band practices three times a week. On Mondays members learn their new music – anything from Bruno Mars to soundtracks from James Bond movies. The music is re-worked to fit the band’s instruments and allotted time.

On Wednesdays, the band learns drills, the formations they move in while on the field that create patterns and shapes. These formations take time to learn, as each person must move in the exact path within an eight-count or two in order to create the desired picture.

On Fridays everyone puts it together and practices with UB’s dance team, the Dazzlers.

The Dazzlers, like the marching band, have to quickly learn and create dance routines to go along with the music that the band is performing. They have a simi-lar schedule to the band and are the other half of a cohesive show.

“Some days we’ll bring it altogether on Wednesday so we kind of have to learn as we go,” said Michelle Arriesgado, a senior communication major who joined the team last year. “What they’re doing right now is a new routine we just learned.”

Thunder of the East marching band creates variety at UB events

Stealing UB's thunderKAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

The Thunder of the East, UB’s marching band, plays at UB’s football season opener on Sept. 5. The goup plays at various events both at UB and outside the school.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5

In previous years, the inspectors discovered several major violations. This time around the trend of unlivable housing conditions seemed to take a shift toward the better.

Last year, inspectors discovered makeshift windows composed of plastic or Plexiglas, rooms without smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, exposed electrical units and even one basement into which carbon monoxide was leaking.

Jon Deross, a junior accounting major, and Scott Papkin, a junior business major, moved into their Winspear home, owned by Dunn, in August and have yet to experience any ma-jor issues.

Deross said he encountered several prob-lems in his previous home on Main Street, though. Deross’ landlord there was Mike Mi-randa, owner of Surrender and several other properties within the Heights.

Deross said there was one section of the apartment where they did not have a door going out to the rooftop, so the area would become freezing cold. He also said his sink would often get clogged.

“We talked to [Miranda] about our issues and he did what he could and he was help-ful, but the house itself shouldn’t have been in that condition to begin with,” Deross said.

The inspectors visited a house on Winspear in which the landlord turned the living room into several padlocked bedrooms, which serves as a major violation, according to Buf-falo city inspector Sean Sullivan.

If someone can’t turn the door from the inside and open it without having to undo a latch or hasp, it’s a violation, Sullivan said.

“The thing is that each room is being rent-ed as a unit as opposed to a single family home, so we have one house with six doors on it – six padlocks – six rent checks, and it’s a single family home, it should actually be considered a lodging house,” Sullivan said.

Two students living in a Northrup apart-ment also owned by Dunn said they had to constantly text and call Dunn about the issues in the house. The students said in order to get Dunn to address issues that were occurring in their basement, their parents had to write him a letter.

The Spectrum reached out to Dunn but he

did not respond by the time of print. Ryan said his office runs housing listings

that are limited to the houses that pass in-spections. He said UB students often end up living in unsafe houses because they tend to use sites like Craigslist, which do not indicate whether houses pass inspections, when rent-ing homes.

“Sometimes [housing blitzes are] tough be-cause the students’ schedules are tough and our schedules are pretty fixed, but it’s been a breakthrough,” Ryan said. “We’ve learned along the way too, but it’s been a great part-nership.”

Ryan said this collaboration is being looked at as a model across the country and more schools are looking to take on a similar ap-proach.

“Even though some of the violations are just missing smoke detectors, no grounded receptacles, things that aren’t always a huge deal can turn into a big deal,” Ryan said. “Fif-teen seconds could mean all the difference in the world.”

email: [email protected]

NEWS2Monday, September 21, 2015

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The Spectrum

First housing blitz of semester reveals few major violations, but problems still linger

PHOTOS BY KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

(FAR LEFT) Buffalo housing inspector Charlie Didio shows an illegal padlock installation in a Northrup house.

(MIDDLE LEFT) Buffalo housing inspector Tom Carter checks a bedroom smoke detector in a house on Northrup Place.

(MIDDLE RIGHT) Buffalo housing inspector Tom Carter stands in front of a living room that was turned into a bedroom and has an illegal padlock.

(FAR RIGHT) Buffalo city housing inspectors walk down Winspear Avenue Saturday looking for houses to inspect.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Destroying our world can’t be the best option. We aren’t leav-ing it anytime soon. So on the sur-face, UB Sustainability seems like a good thing. We’re working to make things better.

UB’s effort comes across as no-ble. There’s a lingering uncertain-ty that it’s both not enough and a slightly calculated move. Fur-thermore, these efforts are entire-ly contingent on the students and faculty. We have to be the change – no outside body can force us to make the changes necessary.

UB Sustainability aims to have the whole campus climate neutral by 2030. Why 2030? If we real-ly cared, we would be making the efforts now, not gradual changes over 15 years.

Furthermore, the changes in place now seem unduly limited. Composting in Culinary Cross-roads Center (C3) is a great start, as the United States wastes mil-lions of tons of food yearly. Pres-ident Obama recently unveiled a plan to combat waste, too.

But if we’re only using the com-post “on campus and beyond,” then how much are we actual-ly saving? Why are we only imple-menting these changes in a few dining halls?

Half measures are not enough.The other major selling point for

UB Sustainability concerns new buildings. New buildings will be built to a gold-level on the Leader-ship in Energy and Environmental Design. Why only gold? The rat-ing system goes up to platinum, so why not go for the best?

Furthermore, is this system only being applied to new build-ings? We saw the results of a fail-ing power infrastructure on South Campus a few weeks ago, so it’s probably fair to assume that exist-ing buildings across both campus-

es don’t adhere to these ratings. Is anything being done to bring them into line?

Climate change becomes a more serious issue with every passing day. Our ice caps are disappearing rapidly and severe weather erupts more violently every year as a di-rect cause of our actions.

We don’t have time to wait – cer-tainly not 15 years to become “cli-mate neutral.” We have to take actions to fix what we have done and prevent further damage.

The UB community needs to address this issue seriously – and not as a marketing measure, not as a sop to appease the concerned parties. There needs to be serious action now.

This is not to denigrate the

Chief Sustainability Officer Ryan McPherson. His actions are prob-ably mitigated by the school. What we need to do is support his mea-sures fully and push for more.

But the biggest hurdle facing true sustainability at UB remains the people who inhabit it. Stu-dents and faculty have to not only push for the sustainable infrastruc-ture to be put into place, but have to make the effort ourselves. Con-sciously conserving energy, recy-cling and being caretakers of what we have will be necessary to evoke any change.

The efforts put forward so far by UB Sustainability are great, gal-lant even. But they remain, like so many endeavors, not enough. We must strive to make amends for the damage caused by prior and current actions and the urgency is immense. There can’t be room for slow change. Every person has to do his or her part and be the change we wish for in the world.


JORDAN GROSSMANSENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Admit it – you were surprised.Everyone was expecting a high-

scoring affair, led by Buffalo’s se-nior ‘triplets’ and Florida Atlan-tic’s down-the-field threats. I even thought it was going to be one of the highest scoring affairs the Bulls would have all season.

It wasn’t even close.In fact, 23 of Buffalo’s 33 points

Saturday came from the defense. The offense wasn’t even a factor in the 33-15 victory over the Owls. The Buffalo ‘D’ took over the game early and didn’t look back.

The Bulls’ defense scored three touchdowns and recorded a safety in arguably the best defensive per-formances I’ve ever seen. Yes, I’ve seen Khalil Mack and that trium-phant defense in 2013 play as well. There have been better individual performances, but there has nev-er been a better team performance, from the first snap to the last.

And I can’t say I wasn’t expect-ing it.

Buffalo’s game against Penn State was the first time I realized the unit had serious potential. The Bulls only relinquished 13 points through the first three quarters and the Nittany Lions didn’t even sniff the end zone until halfway through the second quarter.

Buffalo had poise, confidence and swagger. They didn’t play like a unit with question marks. They didn’t even play like an inexperi-enced team. They played like – dare I say it – a Power 5 team.

I knew the team would even-tually get into a groove. Piece by piece, the defense came together. It played like it wanted to prove skep-tics wrong – possibly to even prove to everyone it could be the best unit in the Mid-American Confer-ence. The Bulls were eventually go-ing to be a force to be reckoned with.

I had no idea this week would be it.

The Buffalo ‘D’ simply manhan-

dled the Owls. Other than the first quarter, The Bulls’ defense just dominated in every aspect imag-inable. How dominant were they? The defense scored more points than Florida Atlantic put up dur-ing the entire game. Buffalo put up the same amount of fumble return yards as Florida Atlantic had rush-ing yards (105).

You could point out any of the game-changing plays that led to the Owls’ defeat: Boise Ross’ intercep-tion, Nick Gilbo’s safety or even the unheralded senior linebacker Travis Pitzonka’s fumble return for a touchdown. All of them helped define Buffalo’s day. There was nothing Buffalo needed more than a big game from the defense, espe-cially with the questions surround-ing how it would step up once the season began.

But many people forget the most important part of the day.

Quarterback Joe Licata admitted he had one of his most frustrating performances in a Bulls uniform. He only threw for 105 yards and did not convert a touchdown pass

for the first time since the 2013 season. That touted offense, oth-er than a second half surge by the backfield, simply couldn’t find a groove. But it’s not a knock to that unit. They’re still talented. They’re still going to do big things entering conference play. They’ll most def-initely get back on track, even as early as next week against Nevada.

If it weren’t for that defense, the Bulls would be below .500 right now.

What Saturday’s game proved to me is the defense can step up when needed. When the offense strug-gles, head coach Lance Leipold now knows he can rely on defen-sive coordinator Brian Borland’s unit.

It’s not likely the defense will re-peat its success, probably not for the rest of the season. It’s not sur-prising. This was the first time Buf-falo ever scored three defensive touchdowns in a game. Buffalo will be lucky to accumulate three more defensive touchdowns in the entire season.

But the Bulls don’t need a per-formance like Saturday’s. Leipold needs a unit that can step up when needed. He needs a unit that will make those big plays from the first minute to the last snap. That’s ex-actly what he got today.

But will it continue?


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THE SPECTRUM

Editorial BoardEditorial Board

Monday, September 21, 2015Volume 65 Number 9

Circulation 7,000

3OPINIONThe Spectrum

Buffalo’s success on ‘D’ came sooner than imagined, but there were early signs of progress

Growing gains for Bulls’ defense

Sustainability efforts at UB seem lackluster

Too little, too late?

Monday, September 21, 2015

EDITOR IN CHIEF Tom Dinki

MANAGING EDITOR

Alyssa McClure

OPINION EDITORRicky Nolan

COPY EDITORS

Kayla Menes Renée Staples

NEWS EDITORSGabriela Julia, Senior

Ashley InkumsahMarlee Tuskes

FEATURES EDITORSTori Roseman, Senior

Dani Guglielmo

ARTS EDITORSBrian Windschitl, SeniorKenneth Kashif ThomasAlexandra Saleh, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORSJordan Grossman, Co-seniorQuentin Haynes, Co-senior

PHOTO EDITORSYusong Shi, Co-seniorKainan Guo, Co-senior

Angela Barca .

CARTOONISTS Joshua Bodah

Michael Perlman

CREATIVE DIRECTORSKenneth Cruz

Pierce Strudler, Asst.

Professional Staff

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Helene Polley

ADVERTISING MANAGER

Nicole DominguezLee Stoeckel, Asst.

Zach Hilderbrandt, Asst.

ADVERTISING DESIGNERDerek Hosken

ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL PERLMAN

While apps like Skype or Facebook mes-senger give students the free option to communicate with people overseas for free, often times international students will pur-chase a new phone altogether to keep costs down.

Hossain said he wishes now he did more researching on phone plans when he first came to the United States especially be-cause he said he thinks the phone carriers here are “more complicated” than in Sau-di Arabia.

“I went from scratch – a new phone, a new carrier, everything,” Hossain said. “I just wish I knew more before going into it.”

Bai says she didn’t worry about paying for a phone plan – let alone a new phone – when she came to Buffalo. Instead, she said she uses a free app or the Internet to communicate with her family without cost-ing any money.

Hossain said food is another expense that was cheaper back home in Saudi Ara-bia. When he came to Buffalo, he got used to buying food in bulk since it was expen-sive. But often times he bought too much so the food went to waste.

Pranata said both food and housing are more expensive here than Indonesia, which he said wouldn’t be an issue if he decided to stay home for schooling since he would be able to live with his parents.

But Pranata said he made the right choice when deciding to go to UB. He said that while Asian schools are more theoretical, American schools are more practical.

“It’s definitely more expensive, but at the same time it provides you with a better foundation,” he said.


NEWS4Monday, September 21, 2015

The Spectrum

YUSONG SHI, THE SPECTRUM

Peter Pranata, an international student from Indonesia, chose to study abroad at UB due to the low cost of tuition compared to other international schools he applied to.

The cost of living abroad CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

GABRIELA JULIASENIOR NEWS EDITOR

The UB Alumni Association is expecting to have more than 240,000 members after it makes some substantial changes.

In the past, alumni weren’t automatic members of the association unless they paid a monthly, annual or lifetime membership fee. Starting in October, there will no lon-ger be a fee and all UB graduates will be au-tomatic members of the association, which grants them access to special benefits.

“We didn’t want it to be exclusive,” said Clay Connor, an engagement assistant in the Office of Alumni Engagement. “We want-ed to open it up so that students who grad-uate or people who graduated in the past wouldn’t feel a barrier if they wanted to at-tend an event.”

The Alumni Association is a global net-work of alumni who graduated from UB and UB’s main way to keep alumni connect-ed with each other.

The change is retroactive, which means anyone who already graduated will be an au-tomatic member and will not have to pay fees. Those who have already paid the life-time fee will get special benefits and services that have yet to be determined.

Once the changes take place, more than 240,000 alumni will be added to the network along with an additional six to seven thou-sand new members each year.

Connor said the association gets “great support” from UB. He said although mem-bers no longer have to pay a membership fee, the association is not losing money. It is instead restructuring where they’re utilizing the funds given to them.

There will be no decrease in the number of events or services but there will actually be more since the association is expanding with so many new members, Connor said.

“You won’t see a fall behind in any way,” Connor said.

In a few weeks there will be a soft launch of the All Alumni event at the Harbor-Center in downtown Buffalo. The asso-ciation also has a presence at all UB foot-ball games in Stampede Square, basketball games, events at CanalSide and holds events in Rochester, New York City and Washing-ton D.C.

Young Alumni is another program that will be made available to alumni and will go into effect sometime this year. It started more than a year ago for alumni who grad-uated in the past 10 years and branches off of the Alumni Association.

One major benefit that comes with join-ing Young Alumni is career help. There are webinar series and an online platform that will allow alumni to seek out other alumni for resume critiquing, mentoring and net-working. This career help is geared toward people first starting out in their profession.

UB graduate Tyler Bauer is a member of the Young Alumni Leadership Council and just became a member of the Alumni As-sociation subcommittee board on building new traditions at UB.

“I think [Young Alumni] really affects the recent graduates of UB,” Bauer said. “Some recent graduates are not established and with the drop of membership fees, recent alumni [will] feel encouraged to become more involved.”

Future Alumni Network (FAN) is also funded and run through the Alumni Asso-ciation. FAN connects current students with alumni for either career help or just to min-gle at events.

It is designed for students who want to get involved from a volunteer capacity and re-ally focus on careers, according to Connor.

Because of the recent changes, UB is launching a new senior series for any gradu-

ating student to be invited to a select num-ber of alumni social events. The graduat-ing seniors can see what to expect from the association and what events and benefits it offers. Students can also meet alumni and make connections.

In conjunction with the switch to no fees, the association is launching a brand new comprehensive website. Alumni will be able to create a profile and will receive a mem-bership card. There is no signing up – just an automatic membership.

“The website creates a network of peo-

ple who can go to each other for career help or just to socialize with,” Connor said. “It is the best way to engage all UB graduates dur-ing such a pivotal time for the university.”

UBConnect is the one stop-shop to con-trol information. Alumni can choose what kind of emails they want to receive like in-formation for benefits and services. It also saves information in case someone moves or gets a new job. It is overall a “smoother process,” Connor said.


Expanding the network

UB Alumni Association to no longer require fee

COURTESY OF CLAY CONNOR

UB Alumni Association helped host an event in Canalside last winter. All UB alumni will soon be able to attend all ssociation events without having to pay a membership fee.

In an article that appeared in The Spectrum’s last issue entitled “UB Athletics receives $1.5 million bequest from alumnus,” there were several errors.

An incorrect explanation of a bequest was given. The donation is a part of Dr. Burt Rubin’s will.

The article stated the money from Rubin’s bequest will be used for certain areas in the program, but it should have stated it might be used for those certain areas. The article also said it was the

second bequest in the past six weeks for the program, but there has been only one bequest. Edmond Gicewicz’s donation was a cash gift.

The article also stated that Eric Gross was the Assistant Athletic Director for Development, however, he is the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Development. His title, as classified by the state, appears in UB Directory as Assistant Athletic Director for Development, but UB Athletics sometimes has different internal titles.

CORRECTION:

5LIFE, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Monday, September 21, 2015

The Spectrum

In the past, the group has learned two shows and switched between the two, but that isn’t the case this year. The team per-forms at UB football games and some ma-jor UB events like the Welcome Back pic-nic, but it have also performed at local West Seneca High School and Syracuse’s Carrier Dome.

“We have about 20 minutes at the dome, so we’ll probably pull our best songs from each set and put them together,” said Chris Rodriguez, a junior communication major and the commanding officer for the band.

The group operates like a class – students can take it for credit and class is held dur-ing the practice time. Students join by sign-ing up on the band’s website.

The band has no issues retaining students, but every year it looks to recruit freshmen that want to be dedicated to the group. Ro-driguez said this year in particular, the band has a lot of freshmen who are experienced.

“It’s not about the quantity of the fresh-men, it’s all about the quality,” Rodri-guez said. “These guys are all people who played in marching band in competitive high schools, which makes our job so much eas-ier.”

Brian Howe, a freshman biological sci-

ences major, originally tried the drums be-fore settling on the trombone, but found he wasn’t good at keeping rhythm.

He, like many of the other freshmen, was part of his high school’s marching band in Massapequa, Long Island. He joined UB’s band looking for the same brotherhood he had back home.

“It’s a lot more stressful, since back in high school we only learned one show and here we’re learning a new one for ev-ery game, but it’s a lot of fun,” Howe said. “We’re basically a family here.”

Some people have been part of the group since their freshman year and have seen it grow over time.

Lance Waithe, a senior performance ma-jor, is a drum major alongside Brock. He conducts the group and spends most of his time printing music and helping to put the sets together.

“It’s really cool because after a while, you get to really know them and the way that they work,” Waithe said.

Some of bands teachers, including Direc-tor of Athletic Bands James Mauk and High Brass and Marching Instructor Kacy Dolan perform together in a Chicago tribute band. Waithe thinks their friendship led to their

cohesion and helps keep the band cohesive as well.

Because they spend so much time togeth-er, the group becomes close-knit. Rodriguez said members try to advertise this idea to freshmen so they stay in the group and can truly enjoy their time.

Brock, who is 27, is older than the stu-dents but younger than most of the instruc-tors. He said the other teachers will often tease him about his age in good humor.

“If I’m doing something that’s irritating to them, they’ll just look at me and go ‘Greg, how old are you?’ because they know what-ever I’m doing, I’ll just stop,” Brock said.

The family dynamic is evident in the group’s ability to coordinate new shows so quickly. Their talent as individuals is exem-plified in their group – all 123 members combined make quite the noise.


Stealing UB's thunder

JUSTIN SHAW, THE SPECTRUM

UB Thunder of the East practices three times a week to perfect

each new show. They learn new music and new drill, which are

formations on the field that create shapes or patterns.


BRIAN WINDSCHITLSENIOR ARTS EDITOR

Jarren Fahey spent her Friday night down-town, dressed up and drinking with her friends.

But she didn’t go downtown for any of the bars or clubs like Skybar or Bottoms Up – she was there for Curtain Up!

On Friday, the 34th edition of Curtain Up!, held by the Theatre District Associa-tion of WNY and M&T Bank, kicked off

the theater season in Buffalo. Curtain Up! is a promotional event held to celebrate the beginning of the theater season in Buffalo.

Hundreds of theater fans dressed and came out to enjoy performances, food, out-door bars and live music for this year’s an-nual theatre kickoff.

Fahey, a senior psychology and theatre performance major, said she spent her en-tire evening participating in Curtain Up! events.

She first attended “In the Heights,” a per-formance at Musical Fare. Then she ven-tured around the theater district outside of Shea’s Performing Arts for the free street party that caps off Curtain Up!, where they were serving drinks to attendees.

A night under the stars

TY ADAMSSTAFF WRITER

Resilient is the best way to describe the UB Step Troupe (UBST).

Despite reputation and miscommunica-tion problems that caused its membership to drop from the largest club on campus to a much smaller group, UBST celebrates its 23rd year of performing and competing.

“In the beginning, UBST was … larger than the Black Student Union,” said Rayna Moncrieffe, the club president and a senior accounting major. “We had one of the larg-est budgets on campus. Over time we con-tinued to decrease and became a smaller club than when we started.”

The club was well known for having many

members that would put on huge perfor-mances, but now has only 30 members – and the e-board makes up half of this num-ber.

Moncrieffe is aiming to help build the club back up and put UBST back on the map around campus.

“A couple years back, UBST was known to be, well, over the top,” said Jordan Hall, a senior psychology major and the team’s cos-tume liaison. “There was a lot of cattiness and dealing with attitude problems. The team wasn’t presented in the best light.”

According to Hall, word got around that the team wasn’t the most friendly. Current members think that this might have been the reason for decreased turnout at tryouts. As a freshman on the team, Hall recounts experiencing miscommunication among

team members. While the group has had its fair share of

rocky moments internally, external factors have played a role in the club’s obstacles, members said.

“When you’re dealing with a lot of the people inside of Student Association, there’s a lot of miscommunication, misin-formation or plain out not knowing what’s happening,” Moncrieffe said.

Moncrieffe has been on the team since freshman year and has moved through var-ious e-board positions including secretary, activities coordinator and treasurer.

Most people hear about the UB Step Troupe (UBST) and associate it with the art of stepping and maybe a performance or two on campus – but the club does more. It also performs and competes at other lo-cal area colleges and participates in commu-nity engagement.

“My most memorable moment was Black Explosion 2014. It was one of my last big performances. It was so well put together. Just to complete the entire step felt so good. The way the crowd reacted was amazing,” Moncrieffe said.

Yanava Hawkins, UBST vice president and a senior communication and health and human services major, remembers a compe-tition at local Canisius College as her most memorable UBST moment.

“Freshmen year, Canisius College com-

petition – our first competition. Our energy was amazing, and we won,” Hawkins said.

UBST is asked to travel to other colleges to perform, including at Binghamton Uni-versity for its Caribbean Week.

UBST volunteers at a high school step-ping program for select Buffalo high schools. The group advertises stepping and empowerment. At some of its events, the team encourages high school students to go to college and uses stepping as an example for a possible outlet for prospective college students.

Other events include high school compe-titions, a Halloween party and an open mic night in honor of the passing of one of their former teammates.

Full of zeal and attitude, the step team has always managed to make their mark on campus. Throughout all of their obstacles and roadblocks the step team has always re-mained a cohesive unit. This year is no dif-ferent.

“Depending on what you do as a group, you can be very successful if you put the time and energy into it,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins hopes that the club gains a high-er budget and also emphasizes positivity this upcoming school year. She also wants the team as whole to be known more through-out campus.

Through everything, the team says they remain a family. UBST member and soph-omore business management major Delilah Murray considers her teammates to be fam-ily.

“Around them you can be yourself,” Mur-ray said. “Around them I feel like I won’t be judged. Whenever I’m around them I just have this homey feeling,”


UB Step Troupe keeps on stepping

Despite ups and downs, team is still in full force

COURTESY OF JASON HAMLET

The UB Step Troupe has decreased in size significantly over the last few years but is working to rebuild and strengthen itself as a club and as a family.

Buffalo’s theater season kicks off with 34th

annual Curtain Up!

COURTESY OF JIM BUSH PHOTOGRAPHY

On Saturday, the 34th annual Curtain Up! event kicked off Buffalo’s theater season with live music and performances, food and fireworks.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENTMonday,September 21, 2015

DAILY DELIGHTS

The Spectrum

KENNETH KASHIT THOMASARTS EDITOR

Gretchen Parlato, Grammy-nominated jazz singer, graced the drama theater stage at UB’s Center for the Arts Saturday.

In a well-received event, she played songs from her critically acclaimed album Gretch-en Parlato - Live in NYC and gave fans of the Jazz genre a reason to follow her musi-cal career.

Parlato performed among building sounds of bass, which was followed by piano and drums, where she sang songs of love and intimacy.

Backed up by Taylor Eigsti on the piano, Alan Hampton playing bass, guitar and vocals, and Kendrick Scott on the drums, Parlato set aside time to play duets with each member.

During her first song she stepped away from the microphone stand, listening the collective sounds of her band.

The musicians played emotionally - their fac-es expressed the sounds of their instruments.

Sandy Henning, an Orchard Park resident, said Parlato’s performance was “phenomenal.”

“I’ve never heard of her until a friend got tickets, I definitely will be following her in the future. Every musician played exquisite-ly,” she said.

While performing “Holding Back The Years,” Eigsti began a piano solo as the lights dimmed and Parlato began to clap in a gentle, rhythmic fashion, singing doo-wop.

The next track “Butterfly,” the first track off of her Grammy-nominated project, was an explosion of blue and red light, rhythmic drums and intense vocals from Parlato.

After performing her first few songs, Par-lato took time to introduce the band and speak to the audience: “These songs are a pleasure to sing, it’s been awhile since we’ve all played together,” she said.

Eigsti and Scott exited the stage when Parlato would begin her first solo with bass-ist Allan Hampton performing “After All.”

Parlato’s talent for coordinating with her band members was evident – in “After All.”

The song started with the slow plucking of bass strings and Parlato’s clapping and centered around the hook, which the duo sung together: “Don’t call it a miracle if that’s not what it is at all.”

“I’ve never heard heard of her before, but they were extraordinary! [Parlato’s] voice was incredible and her band was fantastic,” said Todd Branson, a local Buffalonian. “I first became interested in through reading about her, it was a spur of the moment at-tendance, but I will be following her.”

Parlato would put a spin on classic French vocal jazz with the addition of the drums in her song “Doralice,” making for a more contemporary listening experience.

“We’ll do one more song,” Parlato said before jokingly following up with, “maybe more. We’ll do a fake leave, you’ll clap and we’ll do some more songs”

The most heartfelt song of the night was her performance of “Magnus” – Parlato taught the crowd the hook and everyone in the theatre sang along.

Before performing “Magnus,” Parlato gave the audience some insight into the sto-ry behind the song.

“Magnus is the name is a little boy - when he was five he sang a lullaby [to his moth-er’s stomach] he wrote when his mother was pregnant with his little brother Thadius,” she said. “I had it recorded and added cer-tain aspects to the song.”

Janelle Azra, a junior communication ma-jor, said, “The show was amazing, I like how she used the band and performed a spec-trum of sounds.”

The debut of the CFA’s jazz series ended with Parlato leaving the drama theatre amid a standing ovation from a full house.

The next event in the CFA’s jazz series is Kendrick Scott on Jan. 30.


KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

World-renowned jazz musician Gretchen Parlato performed at the

Center for the Arts on Saturday night. Her performance was lauded as

“exquisite” and she left the stage amid a standing ovation.

She said the event is all about openness and enjoying yourself.

“It’s an amazing event that celebrates the openings of all shows that theater compa-nies in the area are putting on for the fall,” Fahey said.“It’s essential to the Buffalo community because it’s so welcoming. It’s about putting the pettiness of every day life aside.”

Curtain Up! is a huge benefit to local business and local theatres alike – the night-long event sees hundreds of locals come to enjoy the parties and openings down-town.

Kelsey Gage, a senior communication and theatre performance major, said the event is critical for local theatre to thrive.

“It brings people together through the arts and exposes patrons to diverse works they otherwise might have never seen,” Gage said. “It also provides job opportu-nities for the actors, directors, writers, de-signers and technical staff that work or are training in the area.”

Gage said many UB students, graduated or current, participated in the local theater performances.

“My favorite part of the night was easi-ly watching my friends perform in ‘In The Heights’ and seeing the amazing support our department brought,” Gage said.

Francesca Harvey, a sophomore commu-nication and theatre performance major, said this is the favorite time of year for any theater student.

She said the event is important because it shows off the passion for the arts in the Buffalo community.

“Buffalo needs art just as well as it needs its notorious sports teams,” Fahey said.


A night under the stars


Gretchen Parlato performs at the Center for the ArtsGrammy-nominated jazz

singer comes to UB

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The Spectrum8 SPORTS

QUENTIN HAYNES SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Quarterbacks: DSenior quarterback Joe Licata has seen

better days. Against Florida Atlantic, Lica-ta completed just 10 of 20 passes for 105 yards and finished with zero touchdowns and an interception. He was inaccurate and often moved around, getting into pressure situations against the Owls. As a result, he had one of the worst games of his UB ca-reer.Running backs: A

While Licata struggled, the Bulls leaned upon the running backs and got solid pro-duction from their one-two punch. The Bulls finished with 185 rushing yards and one touchdown in a balanced effort. Se-nior Anthone Taylor led the way with 116 rushing yards on 25 carries, while junior Jor-dan Johnson had 66 yards on 14 carries and found his way to the end zone on a 19-yard sprint. Wide Receivers and Tight Ends: C

It was a lowly day for the Buffalo receiv-ers and tight ends. Five players caught at least one reception from Licata, but no one caught more than two. Sophomore Collin Lisa (two catches, eight yards) and senior Marcus McGill (two catches, 28 yards) led the way for the receivers, while senior tight

end Matt Weiser tied with two catches and had 22 yards on the day.

Another offensive skill player appeared in the already crowded Bulls receiving corps, as junior receiver Malcolm Robinson had the one big play for the Bulls, taking his lone reception on the day for 43 yards. Offensive Line: B

The Bulls offensive line did a good job of keeping Licata upright and allowed just one sack on the day to an agile Owl’s defense. But in terms of negating pressure, the Bulls had trouble stopping Florida Atlantic at times and had a part in Licata’s poor play. It was better than last week against Penn State, but adjustments still need to be made. Defensive Line: A

In terms of running defense, the Bulls did allow 105 rushing yards but held the Owls to just 3.1 yards per carry. Along with the improvement in the running game, the Bulls got five sacks on the day, highlighted by senior linebacker Nick Gilbo and his 1.5 sacks. Getting five sacks, forcing two turn-overs and getting a safety is always a good day for any football team. Linebackers: A

The Buffalo linebackers had themselves a day. Unheralded senior linebacker Travis Pitzonka returned a fumble back 60 yards for a touchdown. Senior Brandon Ber-ry forced a fumble and finished with three tackles for loss. Gilbo also contributed nine total tackles, 1.5 sacks and a quarterback hit.

Secondary: CThe Bulls forced another turnover here

as junior cornerback Boise Ross got his sec-ond interception of the season. This time he took it back 39 yards for a touchdown.

It seems that this position should get a higher score for their effort yesterday but the stats don’t lie. Florida Atlantic had two 100-yard receivers and their quarterback Ja-son Driskel threw for 385 yards and two touchdowns. Special Teams: B

Senior punter Tyler Grassman gave the Buffalo defense great field position on his nine punts for a total of 349 yards, while freshman kicker Adam Mitcheson went 4-for-4 on extra points. He did miss one of his two field goal attempts on the day. Coaching: A

Head coach Lance Leipold did a great job

of going to a more conservative running at-tack when he saw Licata struggling on the day. The Bulls didn’t panic when they were down 9-0. They got a quick score to end the half and made adjustments to score 26 un-answered points.

But the best coaching of the day came from defensive coordinator Brian Borland. The ‘D’ looked poised and focused from the beginning and the three-touchdown per-formance was proof.


JORDAN GROSSMAN SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

Boise Ross took one huge step toward finishing his transition – all the way to the end zone on Sat-urday.

Halfway through the third quarter, Ross, a junior cornerback for the football team, noticed Florida Atlantic quarterback Jason Driskel took three steps back and his eyes were locked on his receiver. Ross jumped the route and ran the ball back 39 yards.

Touchdown.It was the latest endeavor Ross overcame in his

full-time return to his high school position. Ross spent the past year re-learning the nuances and de-tails of being a cornerback. He originally played it in high school, but only knew the basics like back-pedaling. It wasn’t until he switched from wide re-ceiver to cornerback last season that he was able to learn more about the position in hopes to become the best on the team.

He’s closer than many imagine.“We knew plays had to be made and that was

what our defense was driving for,” Ross said. “I was excited. But we kept it going all day. We were all gas, no break [Saturday].”

Ross moved to cornerback when former head coach Jeff Quinn put him there in 2014 after a slew of injuries left a hole in Buffalo’s secondary. When new head coach Lance Leipold took over, he kept Ross there because of the junior’s aggressiveness and the Bulls’ lack of cornerbacks and plethora of wide receivers.

He shined through the first two games of 2015.

In the matchups against Albany and Penn State to begin the season, Ross totaled nine tackles, three pass breakups and an interception.

But this Saturday’s game against Florida Atlantic had to have been his most impressive performance to date.

“[Florida Atlantic] talked that they were going to do something,” Leipold said. “They were trying to make something happen. They were either going to start going one direction or take a shot. Boise had great anticipation. He came up big right there. He really switched it on for good.”

Ross locked in on the Owl’s quarterback and in-tercepted his second ball of the season with 8:30 left in the third. He then ran down the right sideline virtually unscathed. He didn’t hesitate – it was all one fluid motion from jumping the route to catch-ing it to running to the end zone. The whole play took roughly five seconds.

And Ross knew exactly what to do. That’s what his year-long training has helped him do.

“The ball skills will always be there because I played an offensive position and it helped to get a read on wide receivers as well,” Ross said. “I’m happy that our team got the win and our team is on a good path right now.”

Ross’ touchdown was the second of three Buf-falo defensive touchdowns on Saturday, the most in program history in a single game. For all of the de-

fensive glory that occurred during Saturday’s victo-ry, Ross had arguably the best play of all.

So how valuable has Ross been for Buffalo this year? His two interceptions are the most on the team and equaled the entire team’s total from last season. He leads the Bulls with six pass breakups. Even more impressive, the second-year defensive back is tied for first in the nation with eight pass-es defended.

But it didn’t matter how well he executed. He preferred enjoying the success of the defense as a whole, especially when the unit played as well as it did when the offense struggled for most of the day.

Ross thanked defensive coordinator Brian Bor-land and senior linebacker Okezie Alozie for their help during his position change. Although he’s en-joying his success, he still has a long way to go be-fore he becomes the shut down cornerback he

wants to be. And no one knows that more than Boise. “[Borland and Alozie] know a lot about the

game,” Ross said. “And if I can just pick their brains and be focused on what my coaches are tell-ing me, there will be more plays like that.”

Only time will tell.


Converted cornerback Boise Ross helped fuel Buffalo’s 33-15 victory

‘All gas, no break’

COURTESY OF FAU ATHLETICS

Ross gets the tackle on a FAU receiver. Ross finished with four tackles and an interception in the Bulls’ 33-15 victory

over the Owls.

COURTESY OF FAU ATHLETICS

Bulls linebacker Okezie Alozie attempts to break up a pass in

coverage. The Bulls forced three turnovers and scored 23 points on

defense in a victory over FAU.

1 2 3 433 151 2 3 4BUF

FAU

0

2

7

7 0

19

6

FINAL GAME INFO

7

Gridiron Report CardBulls get three defensive touchdowns against

Florida Atlantic

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The Spectrum Vol. 65 No. 9