the spectrum vol. 65 no. 63

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2016UBSPECTRUM.COM VOLUME 65 NO. 63

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HANNAH STEINSENIOR NEWS EDITOR

Samantha Sherry received an email last Thursday saying she had been accepted to UB. She was elated to fi nd out that her fi rst choice had admitted her into the university.

After calling UB’s Offi ce of Admissions, Sherry, a Lancaster High School student, quickly found out that the university had mistakenly sent her that email and she had not been offi cially admitted.

UB received over 25,000 applications this year and mistakenly sent acceptance emails to 5,109 applicants earlier this week. The miscommunication occurred when an in-correct email list was generated from an ap-plicant database, according to UB Spokes-person John Della Contrada.

“I understand that mistakes happen but still, UB was my fi rst choice and I was so excited to fi nd out that I had got in and then that excite-ment was kind of killed,” Sherry said.

UB’s admissions department will be con-tacting the students who received the erro-neous email to inform them of their appli-cation status this week. Applications are still being reviewed and the majority of these students had incomplete applications, ac-cording to Della Contrada.

Della Contrada said this type of commu-nication error has never happened before at UB and within three to four hours of dis-covering the error, UB emailed each student and offered its sincerest apologies.

He said UB’s Offi ce of Enrollment Man-agement has implemented “additional and strengthened internal controls to prevent future miscommunications” including “a multi-layer review of communications be-fore they are sent.”

The university is also retraining all staff on the new controls to “ensure accurate de-

livery of communications to all new, pro-spective and returning students,” according to Della Contrada.

UB is not the fi rst school to send errone-ous acceptance letters. Johns Hopkins Uni-versity sent out erroneous acceptance emails to 294 of its applicants in 2014. Carnegie Mellon University did the same thing to 800 students in 2015.

Sherry said when she called the Offi ce of Admissions, the person assisting her was at fi rst confused as to why she had received this email. She was eventually told that it would be another week before UB made a decision on her application.

She has yet to receive an acceptance or re-jection letter.

Deanna Tee, a freshman undecided major said the mistake was unfair to the applicants.

“I think it is unfair for the students who

had gotten their hopes verifi ed,” she said.Tee said UB administration should be

more organized to ensure that this will not happen again.

Robert Rondinaro, a senior political sci-ence major, said he would have felt terri-ble if he received the email. Both Rondinaro and Tee said it wasn’t the university’s inten-tion and that mistakes happen.

Sherry said she feels sorry for the oth-er students that also received the errone-ous email and hopes that UB improves their communication in the future.

“It was a very unfortunate error and the university has apologized to those who were affected,” Della Contrada said in an email. Della Contrada said UB’s Offi ce of Finan-cial Aid is adjusting its procedures to ensure this won’t happen ever again.

Ashley Inkumsah contributing reporting to this story.

email: [email protected]

UB sends out roughly 5,000 erroneous acceptance emailsMiscommunication in the applicant database leads to error

TRUMP TAKES NYTRUMP TAKES NYTRUMP TAKES NYTRUMP TAKES NY

TORI ROSEMANMANAGING EDITOR

Republican presidential candidate Don-ald Trump used Buffalo Monday night as his last campaign stop and a chance to ig-nite a crowd of over 11,000 people before winning the New York Republican primary.

Trump took 62 percent of the vote and 59 delegates, leaving Ohio Governor John Kasich with 24 percent and 23 delegates, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with 14 percent and 14 delegates, according to The New York Times.

Trump needs 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

Trump was the last politician to come to Buffalo before the New York primaries. Candidates Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Ber-nie Sanders made stops in the Queen City in the days leading up to Tuesday’s primary.

“I have only been a politician for nine months,” Trump said at the Buffalo rally.

“Look how much support I already have.” Trump openly derided the other can-

didates, referring to Cruz as “Lying Ted Cruz” and Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary,” while lambasting their platforms.

Trump stirred up the crowd insisting that the U.S. military should defeat ISIS and “stop playing games.” He said he wants to repeal and replace Obamacare, protect the Second Amendment and get rid of Common Core education standards, an idea particularly popular with Western New York voters.

He spoke about trade deals and reiterat-ed his promise to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to stop illegal immigration. Supporters, protestors and those curious to hear the Republican frontrunner speak drove hours and arrived at the center as ear-ly as 2 a.m. Monday.

Rebecca Zielinski drove two hours from Livonia to see Trump after being turned away from Trump’s rally in Rochester on April 10. She, along with a family member,

came four hours early to ensure they were able to see the candidate.

Zielinski said she supports Trump be-cause “he knows what he’s doing.”

“I feel like none of the other candidates know what they’re doing,” Zielinski said. “He’s a businessman who gets things done and isn’t afraid to speak his mind.”

Buffalo Bills coach Rex Ryan introduced Trump and mentioned Trump’s short-lived ownership of the New Jersey Generals from 1984 and 1985, before the candidate took the podium.

Republican Congressman Chris Collins, who represents the 27th District, which in-cludes Lancaster and Geneseo, spoke at the rally. Collins was one of the fi rst members of Congress to support Trump. Collins noted that the event was the largest indoor rally held for Trump and he believes Trump will bring “real change.”

Trump uses Buffalo as last stop to rally over 11,000 people

KAINAN GUO, THE SPECTRUM

Trump brings crowds of people to the First Niagara Center to hear him speak about trade deals, New York values and building his wall between the United States and Mexico.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

SARAH CROWLEYASST. NEWS EDITOR

Tuesday, April 19 marked one of the most competitive presidential primary races in years for New York State voters.

With 95 delegates up for grabs on the Republican side and 291 on the Dem-ocratic side, the stakes were high going into the New York primaries.

Both Democratic presidential candi-date Hillary Clinton and Republican pres-idential candidate Donald Trump were predicted to sweep the New York prima-ries, according to The Huffi ngton Post.

New York State

primary results

Clinton takes Democratic win while

Trump holds onto Republican lead

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

40%

60%

62%

24%

14%

CLINTON

SANDERS

TRUMP

KASICH

CRUZ

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On the Republican side, Trump gained 59 delegates and took 62 percent of the vote, which put him closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination. On the Democratic side, Clinton gained 175 dele-gates and took 60 percent of the vote, ac-cording to The New York Times. This lead places her less than 300 delegates ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders and closer to the 2,383 delegates needed.

Sanders nearly caught up to Clinton’s ini-tial lead, after winning the last eight succes-sive primary victories over Clinton.

Jacob Niehesel, a political science associ-ate professor, said New York’s primary sys-tem may have played a role in the outcome on the Democratic side.

The closed primary system only allows registered Democrats and Republicans to vote in their respective primaries. An open primary, by comparison, allows indepen-dents and nonpartisan voters to participate in the nomination process.

According to FairVote, those who favor an open primary system believe it enables voter participation and thus a more inclu-sive and direct democracy. Opponents of the open primary system argue that it is un-constitutional and violates the freedom of association by allowing outsiders to choose its candidate. In the past, the Supreme Court has supported this conclusion.

“The deadline to register for a party passed last year, when nobody saw the race being this close on either side,” Niehesel said. “Now those people have totally been cut out of the election process.”

Niehesel said this may be the whole point of the closed primary system.

Aside from discouraging sabotage voting,

the closed primary system allows the politi-cal parties a substantial amount of control over the nomination process, according to FairVote. By closing off the process to most-ly long-term party supporters, the system can make it very diffi cult for insurgent candidates like Sanders to win closed primaries.

Trump however, seems to defy these in-tentions as a party outsider.

Dylan Quattrucci, a freshman history and legal studies major, sent in his absentee bal-lot last Tuesday. Quattrucci voted for Trump in the primary and attended the rally Monday.

“With the way this country is going, we need a strong leader who will build our econ-omy here instead of outsourcing jobs to Mexico and China,” Quattrucci said. “He just wants to make America great again and he’s a successful businessman who can do that.”

New York Republicans seem to agree with Quattrucci’s thoughts.

Trump has maintained a steady lead over his fellow GOP candidates, according to the most recent ABC News Poll, and will likely amass a sizeable portion of delegates, put-ting him even closer toward winning the Re-publican nomination.

Mike Crodelle, a freshman biological sci-ences major from Albany, voted through an absentee ballot for Sanders.

“I [voted] for Bernie because I agree with his views on health care and education and I know he’s not afraid to stand up for them,” Crodelle said. “[Clinton] seems like she’ll say anything to get elected…she contradicts herself constantly, you can’t trust her.”

The Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island primaries will be on April 26.


New York State primary results

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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THE SPECTRUM

Editorial BoardEditorial Board

Wednesday, April 20, 2016Volume 65 Number 63

Circulation 4,000

OPINION 3Wednesday, September 2, 2015The Spectrum333333OPINION Wednesday, April 20, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

EDITOR IN CHIEFGabriela Julia

MANAGING EDITORS

Tori Roseman

COPY EDITORSSaqib HossainEmma Medina

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NEWS EDITORSHannah Stein, Senior

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FEATURES EDITORSKenneth Kashif Thomas, Senior

Evan Grisley

ARTS EDITORSMax Kaltnitz, Senior

Jamal AllardDavid Tunis-Garcia, Asst.

SPORTS EDITORSMichael Akelson, Senior

PHOTO EDITORSKainan Guo, Senior

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Students know that there’s no better feeling than getting accept-ed into one of their top schools. But only some know what it’s like for their top school to tell them their acceptance letter was sent to them accidently.

This past weekend, UB told over 5,000 potential students via email that they had been accept-ed into their intended program. A few hours later, the university sent emails to all the same students say-ing their admissions review has yet to be completed. One-fi fth of all applicants to the university were told they hadn’t yet been accepted.

Human error was a factor in the mishap, but UB is not the fi rst col-lege to send out false acceptance letters. However, a large portion of potential UB students may feel upset with the school. That resent-ment is warranted and the school must take every measure possible to prevent a mistake like this from happening again.

Perhaps the most embarrassing part for UB is that not all of the ap-plications had even completed the admissions process yet, which means some of those students will receive rejection letters since not even 5,000 students will be admitted.

The admissions department said the miscommunication came from an incorrect email list pulled from a database of applicants. We hope that nobody has lost their job over the ordeal, but at the same time contend that someone should be held responsible and do their ut-

most to prevent a reoccurrence. There are multiple recorded cas-

es of a school making a “cleri-cal error” and sending out letters of acceptance in error or too ear-ly. In 1995 for instance, Cornell University sent out 45 letters that said, “Welcome to Cornell,” only to inform the recipients that they hadn’t actually been accepted.

Upon receiving the original ac-ceptance letter to Cornell, Eliza-beth Mikus, a hopeful Cornell stu-dent, withdrew her applications to other colleges in accordance with the letters’ instructions. Mikus’ parents threatened to, but didn’t actually, sue the school for undue

emotional distress. If UB wants to avoid any legal

hassle in the future, they must take all necessary precautions in their IT department to fi x whatever sent those emails.

Some might say that students who received these emails should be compensated somehow. But in what way? Money is out of the question and a free “Go Bulls!” T-shirt may be the last thing some of these students want.

A mistake was made, but it is something that can certainly be fi xed and prevented in the future.

Instead of asking what UB should do for the students, there are other

factors prospective college students should take into account.

Mikus’ story is an example of why students should always send out multiple college applications. Some schools may ask students to withdraw their applications for other universities, but com-mitment in today’s world can feel like an empty promise, particularly when students are receiving false acceptance letters.

Due to this environment of hol-low commitment, perhaps one shouldn’t throw as many applica-tions at a wall and see what sticks, but they should keep an open mind in applying elsewhere. Com-munity college is always a great choice to start your college career and if you’re determined to grad-uate from UB, transferring after a year is always open.

Rejection is part of life and it’s not just scholarly rejection. Stu-dents who received these letters should take the error in stride. We have all experienced rejection in our lives, whether it’s been from relationships, job applications or college admissions. It is the atti-tude following the rejection that truly matters.

For prospective students, don’t lose faith in UB - this error doesn’t represent anything close to what UB is about. And as for UB admis-sions offi ce, all measures should be taken to make sure this error doesn’t happen again.


Although UB’s clerical error was unfortunate, the university doesn’t have

to compensate prospective students

KENNETH KASHIF THOMASSENIOR FEATURES EDITOR

Yesterday I had the displeasure of attending presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally at the First Niagara Center with my colleagues.

While most politicians will stick to talking points and spend some time on an issue, Trump was all over the place, barely staying on one topic for a sentence – and the crowd loved it.

Trump is leading the Republi-can primaries due to his perceived “straight talking” and “hones-ty,” but he fails to explain how his quick fi xes will affect the change his ideas will cause. The crowd cheered for the U.S. and Mex-ico border wall and taking our jobs back from China and Mex-ico. Along with all the cheering, there seemed to be a lack of crit-ical thinking, which was the most alarming facet of the rally.

Opening up for Trump’s rally was Nicholas Langworthy, chair-man of the Erie County Republi-can Committee.

His most memorable line, at least for me, was, “we’re going to make a smaller government and a

stronger military.”His understanding of govern-

ment is questionable since, if you decrease the size and revenue of the government, how will you be able to afford a stronger military?

Mind you, we already spend $601 billion on the military, a 2015 fi gure according to Business Insider.

According to the Peter G. Pe-terson foundation, we spend more money on our military than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Japan and the UK combined.

Langworthy also had the crowd cheering at the idea of ending our “progressive” government. I’m still trying to fi gure out what that means.

Trump’s biggest promise to his supporters is his wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. No one seemed to see the irony in wanting something free – from Mexico of all places.

According to Statista, Mexico, with a population of 125.4 mil-lion, has an approximated GDP per capita and was under $10,784 USD for 2015. The country’s na-tional GDP was $1.295 trillion USD for the same year.

Even without this informa-tion one has to ask, “if you could somehow make Mexico pay for this wall, where would they get the money from?”

The wall, which Trump has tagged would cost $8 billion, has been fact checked by The Washing-ton Post and that estimate is much

different from Trump’s.While Trump has said we only

need 1,000 miles of a wall, not 2,000 due to natural barriers, it’s important to note that the fencing we have now cost $2.4 billion and that’s only for 670 miles of fencing.

Materials for the wall have to be manufactured, then transport-ed, along with building tools and equipment. Labor and maintenance would also have to be paid for.

Anyone who thinks that this wall won’t have a fi nal astronom-ical price tag is out of their mind.

Washington Post found the wall to be $25 billion dollars, which is a conservative fi gure.

So the question returns, where is Mexico going to get this money?

If the response is defi cit spend-ing, then you’re probably not thinking about the socioeconomic results of that. If you think Mexi-co is bad now with the cartels, just wait. If we economically destroy their country we give them a rea-son to hate the U.S. like those radi-calized in the U.S.

The icing on the cake was Trump comparing the proposed wall to the Great Wall of China, which if you studied your history, didn’t stop the Mongolians from invading China.

Trump also wants to stop China and Mexico from “stealing” our jobs.

The question that comes to mind is, “how will you make

Americans want to have competi-tive wages with countries who are willing to let their working class work for less than a dollar a day?”

In the U.S. there’s a notion that immigrants are coming in and tak-ing our jobs, but most of those jobs are ones that Americans, typi-cally, will not even look at.

How many people do you know are willing to work long hours as a dishwasher for less than $10 dol-lars and hour?

These people are called a drain on the economy due to the capital outfl ow that is attributed to them.

Regardless of Trump’s speech, the most disturbing part of the rally was what happened outside.

Protestors were confi ned behind lines of local police, state troopers and other various agencies. We’re supposed to be leaders of the free world and the world is watching this election more closely than ever before – we’re making ourselves look like wild, untethered children.

It’s a sad realization to see your political process go from civil de-bates of various issues to people fi ghting in crowds and being held back by police in riot gear.

If this is how the “leader” of the free world behaves, I’m afraid to see where the world is being led.


The danger of group thinking in the political process

Why it’s important to think before you cheer for a political candidate

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“If you like Obama, you’re going to love Hillary,” Collins said. “America cannot af-ford another four years of a socialist and progressive government.”

Trump greeted the crowd of 11,400 peo-ple explaining he knows what “New York values” are, unlike his opponent Cruz. He said “honesty” and “straight talking” exem-plify those New York values.

Trump said New York fi refi ghters, police and transit workers don’t get “enough cred-it” and accidentally referred to the 9/11 ter-ror attacks as “7/11.”

“Because I was down there and I watched our police and our fi remen down on 7/11 down at the World Trade Center right after it came down,” Trump said. “And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action.”

Eli Cobti, a Buffalo resident that works for the Erie County Republicans, supports Trump because he believes the candidate will “bring the change this country needs.”

“He has experience with building busi-nesses so that can only translate to good foreign relations,” Cobti said.

Carl Paladino, a Buffalo businessman and founder of Ellicott Development Company, also spoke at the event and mentioned Trump’s proposal to build the Mexican wall four times.

Paladino said he believes in Trump be-cause he believes Trump isn’t going to “apologize for America” or try to “appease” world leaders.

But Trump wasn’t able to get through his speech without interruptions.

Buffalo Police ejected 21 people from the arena and arrested six.

Before Ryan introduced Trump, an an-nouncement over the loudspeaker said police would remove anyone protesting inside dur-ing the event. Event-goers were asked to alert the police if they saw signs or protests inside.

“The protestors are being rowdier than the supporters,” said Alex Johns a junior

civil engineering major. “It kind of caught me off-guard.”

Eric Rigg, a senior at Niagara Universi-ty, protested outside with the Western New York Peace Center.

He said he wanted to demonstrate how Trump’s policies are not as “sound” as peo-ple think.

“The Trump supporters are not understand-ing,” Rigg said. “They’re not paying attention.”

Most UB students interviewed said they were there just for the experience, but were not planning to vote for Trump.

“Anti-fascism is something I care about deep-ly,” said David Glotzer, a senior economics ma-jor. “I would like to, for journalistic purposes, come and see what an actual event at a Trump rally is like because there is a lot of proto-fascist elements in the Trump movement.”



(Top)Presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of over 11,000 people at the First Niagara Center a day before winning the New York primary

(Middle)Rally-goers had their phones out the entire night taking pictures of the presidential candidate.(Bottom)Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan introduces Donald Trump to the crowd at the First Niagara Center.

TRUMP TAKES NYCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

555NEWS Wednesday, April 20, 2016THE SPECTRUM

JORDAN GROSSMANSPECIAL TO THE SPECTRUM

Three minutes into his Monday night speech at First Niagara Center, presiden-tial candidate Donald Trump muttered, “get ‘em outta here.”

One by one, Buffalo police offi cers dragged out 21 protesters by their arms and legs. Some of them offered up lewd gestures, while oth-ers entwined fi ngers to form a heart.

Outside the arena, close to 700 protesters held signs with slogans like, “Love Trumps Hate,” “No Racism in Buffalo,” “No to Fas-cist Trump,” “Buffalo Says No to Islamopho-bia.” The protesters started to crowd behind police barricades at 10 a.m. for the 7 p.m. ral-ly, which attracted 11,400, according to police.

Protesters stayed past 10 p.m. Police used loudspeakers to tell protesters that they had to stay outside and that anyone protesting inside would be removed.

Most protesters were under 35 and includ-ed a mix of whites, blacks and Latinos. The crowd inside was almost all white. In one sec-tion of the stadium that held close to 500 peo-ple, the only black person was a security guard.

Alex Sityar, a senior clinical psycholo-gy major, is Latino and said the lack of di-versity was “unsettling” and “unnerving.” He started protesting at 1 p.m. by joining in chants. Later, when he went into the rally, he said Trump supporters – who had not seen him protesting – stared him down and mur-mured “Trump 2016,” as he walked past.

“It’s upsetting,” Sityar said. “You shouldn’t feel unsafe in any town, anywhere.

This is America. There’s always that poten-tial danger.”

Sityar supports Bernie Sanders, but – like many students interviewed – went to the Trump rally out of curiosity.

Police arrested six protesters outside the area, mainly for disorderly conduct and tres-passing, according Buffalo Police. No one

inside the arena was arrested, police said. Jacob Pleskach, a senior international

studies major, said he attended the rally with Sityar to protest Trump’s “harmful” poli-cies and “rhetoric that is aggressive and is threating to our rights.”

Pleskach said the Trump rally differed from Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders’

rally at UB’s Alumni Arena on April 11. No one protested the Sanders rally and students stood outside for hours waiting to get in.

“The atmosphere at the Bernie rally was much happier,” said Pleskach, who is a Sanders supporter. “It seemed like a com-munity rather than what this is.”

Colin Slager, a senior at Orchard Park High School and a Trump supporter, said the pro-testers at Trump’s rally were causing unnec-essary trouble. He pointed out that Trump supporters didn’t protest Sanders’ speech.

“And [protesters] are supposed to be the peaceful ones,” Slager said. “That’s not true when they’re here shouting obscene things when we’re at our rally.”

Some Trump supporters arrived early and had to walk in front of the barricaded pro-testers in order to get close to the First Ni-agara Center. Some of the interactions were peaceful, but many grew heated with people on both sides shouting lewd epithets at each other and making obscene hand gestures.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” said Ha-leigh Morgan, a freshman English major, who went just to see the protesting. “But I didn’t expect to walk down the street and see a plethora of T-shirts and buttons say-ing ‘Hillary sucks,’ ‘Hillary should go to prison,’ ‘Trump for eight years.’”

Forrest Wlodarczyk, a junior media stud-ies major, said the arrests and violence at Trump rallies around the country made him lose respect for Trump’s supporters.

“To have any political action in this coun-try, you need to come together as a group,” Wlodarczyk said. “Even if coming out here doesn’t persuade his followers not to vote for him, maybe, at the end of the day, they could learn something through us - through peaceful protesting - contrary to how sup-porters act at [Trump’s] rallies.”


Hundreds of Trump protesters line up in downtown Buffalo

Students express safety concerns

regarding protests outside the venue


Close to 700 protesters held signs and stood behind barricades outside of the First Niagara Center before, during and after Donald Trump’s rally.

66 SPORTSWednesday,September 4, 2015The Spectrum

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT666666666Wednesday, April 20, 2016

THE SPECTRUM

JAMAL C. ALLARDARTS EDITOR

Lea Mann is excited for Spring Fest be-cause she is a fan of how “culturally rele-vant” the acts are along with the diversity of the musical genres.

“I love this line-up,” Mann, a freshman unde-cided major, said. “The Chainsmokers are hot right now and Mac Miller is my favorite rapper.”

UB’s Student Association (SA) has seen a lower turnout in the past couple of Spring Fests. This year’s concert on April 23 will feature The Chainsmokers, Mac Miller, Coleman Hell and Icona Pop. For the past two years, country music and small bands have dominated Spring Fest and students have voiced their displeasure with the line-ups by not attending the events.

Even though the last two Fall Fests have been almost exclusively hip-hop acts, the genres represented were more diverse than their spring counterparts. Big Sean, a popular hip-hop act, was partnered with Jeremih, an R&B singer, for Fall Fest last semester.

UB students, who pay a mandatory stu-dent activity fee of $104.75 a semester to fund these concerts, clamored for even more diversity for future lineups.

The Chainsmokers are popular right now for their famous single “Roses. The song was re-leased in late 2015 and has already been played over a quarter billion times on the music-streaming app Spotify.

This lineup is reminiscent to the 2013 Spring Fest when Steve Aoki and Kendrick Lamar were the two main acts. Aoki was popular after the success of his 2012 album Wonderland and students were ecstatic to have him headline Spring Fest because of his cul-tural prominence at the time.

In 2013 Kendrick Lamar was fresh off the release of his immensely acclaimed album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Lamar had been an established artist, with three well-received projects before his breakout album.

Some students who haven’t attended past Spring Fests are looking forward to what

this year will bring.Haley Nelson, a sophomore health and hu-

man services major, is excited to hear tracks of Miller’s newest album GO:OD AM.

“I’m really excited to see Mac Miller per-form songs off of his new album,” Nelson said. “I really enjoyed listening to it, it was his best work in a long time.”

The album was released on Sept. 18 and received exceptional reviews from those who were familiar with his past work.

Nelson enjoyed the album so much that she couldn’t pick a song she wanted to hear him perform the most.

“If I had to narrow it down it’s between ‘Weekend’ featuring Miguel and ‘ROS (Rain or Shine),’” Nelson said.

The opening act for this year’s Spring Fest, Coleman Hell, is a relatively new performer from nearby Ontario, Canada. His most pop-ular single, “2 Heads” was played over 60 mil-lion times on Spotify. He’s gained relevance from his self-titled EP, but the Indie singer is still an unfamiliar face to UB students.

Coleman Hell’s music eclectically com-bines sounds from indie rock to folk music to electric. Although he is a fairly new artist, his inclusion into the lineup gives the con-cert more variety, appealing to the students who are not huge fans of EDM or rap. Kim Clendenning, a junior communications major, sees the lineup as a vast improvement over the last two Spring Fests she attended as a freshman and sophomore.

“I have no clue who Coleman Hell is, as long

as his music isn’t hard to listen to I don’t mind that he’s coming,” Clendenning said. “Even with Coleman Hell coming, this lineup is still better than the last couple of Spring Fests.”

Alongside Coleman Hell is the pop duo Icona Pop. Their hit single “I Love It,” re-leased in 2012, was widely played in clubs and on the radio, and was the number one pop song on the UK’s singles chart.

Although the band is mainly known for their only major single, the crowd will be able to feed off their energy and prepare for the main acts.

Spring Fest is Saturday April 23, at 6 p.m. and doors open at 5 p.m.


Combination of EDM and lyrical rap incites positive student reaction

COURTESY OF FLICKR USER ED THOMAS

Coleman Hell, an indie rock artist, will open for Spring Fest on April 23,

followed by Icona Pop, Mac Miller and The Chainsmokers.

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BENJAMIN CASSIDY BLANCHETCONTRIBUTING WRITER

About an hour after I got back from Re-publican presidential candidate Donald

Trump’s rally at Buffalo’s First Niagara Cen-ter, I started to think about the experience.

I’m not disappointed by the message he spat from his mouth, but I was taken back by the polarity between his rally and Demo-cratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ rally last week, which I also attended.

The differences between the two rallies were immediately noticeable. One was harsh and dividing, the other was warm and em-bracing. Trump’s rally attracted a different audience from the one seen at UB. Those who attended Trump’s rally were there to be entertained, as opposed to those looking to hear a message at Sanders’.

Last week, Sanders’ appearance had many in the cold rain at UB’s Alumni Arena, wait-

ing to hear him speak on issues from Amer-ica’s desperate need for prison reform to his dislike for Wall Street crooks.

The positive atmosphere in Alumni Arena gave attendees hope for a better future and positive change seemed possible.

This is separate from the tense, frightened feeling felt for our future at the Trump rally.

Following Sanders’ speech, I had the op-portunity to shake his hand aggressively as he laughed. I could tell by his facial expres-sion that he knew why I was shaking his hand so hard.

I promised myself I wouldn’t make much noise at the Sanders’ rally and not get “caught up in the hype.” Looking back now, I fully regret this decision.

I wish I could say the same at First Ni-agara Center on Monday. I had brought my mini American fl ag to show my patriotism.

Unfortunately, security wasn’t too fond of it and said, “You’re not getting in unless you take the fl ag off the pole.”

So much for making America great again. The security was much different between

the two rallies as well. For Sanders, it was a matter of when you got in line and how quickly you could push to the front. For Trump, there were police everywhere, scan-ning people and snipers waiting outside in case of a threat.

Finally getting to my seat, I got to hear Trump’s openers.

They sung all the classic tunes Trump had written, like “Our Jobs are Being Stolen by Foreign Powers,” “New York Values” and “Build the Wall.”

Chairman of the Erie County Republican Committee Nicholas Langworthy said, “We can’t afford another four years of progres-sive government.”

Since when did progress become a bad thing?

Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan in-troduced Trump, who came out to “Y’all Ready for This” as if he was a WWE wres-tler about to enter the ring.

Trump as a speaker was predictably a lot less tolerable in person. He confused “7/11” with “9/11,” and imitated a Chinese accent while talking about doing business in China. I listened to his talking points and many were reused throughout the evening.

As Trump went on, protestors were dragged out by security like hunters han-dling a deer they had just killed with pride.

I tried to blend in by bouncing around my free Trump sign, but overall, I felt disgust-ing for being there.

The atmosphere there wasn’t as welcom-ing as the rally a week before.

I left early and witnessed the tense scene outside where Trump supporters on the Metro fl ipped off protestors who threw up the peace sign.

By now, all my friends know I attended the rally and will be asking me in the coming days my thoughts on what went down, as if I got a sneak-peek at a new superhero mov-ie or something.

I’ll provide them with brief responses, but nothing I say will help me cope with the sights and sounds I experienced in that arena.

It’s hard to tell which direction the race will take after the primaries, but I can only hope America returns to it’s sensibilities and remembers what we stand for: inclusion, equality and prosperity.


Opposite ends of the same spectrumA UB students’ experience at two presidential rallies

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University Police are currently investigat-ing vandalism in Goodyear Hall that will ex-ceed $10,000 in repairs.

Campus Living sent out an email to res-idents living in South Campus’ Goodyear Hall on April 15 stating that lights, ceiling tiles, windows and furniture that is “no lon-ger usable” have been vandalized. The email stated a monetary amount is likely to be charged to each Goodyear Hall resident’s bill if no students come forward.

UB Spokesperson John Della Contrada said University Police are investigating the

vandalism and those responsible will be ar-rested. A reward of $1,000 will be offered to anyone who is willing to provide Campus Living with information.

Approximately 1,000 students live on South Campus and the amount each resident may be charged with has yet to be released.

“Paying for the vandalism personal-ly is quite upsetting to me,” said Kathryn Doherty, president of Goodyear Hall Coun-cil and freshman biochemistry major. “I work hard with an organization of my peers to make this building better and to have to pay out of pocket for damage done seems like a contradiction to everything we have working to do all year.”

Doherty has seen the vandalism and the broken windows and fi nds it upsetting peo-ple wouldn’t “respect the building we all call home.” She is also worried about her own personal belongings.

Wet fl oor signs used by building services staff were also stolen, which has “happened multiple times,” according to the email.

“This behavior is inappropriate and disrup-tive to all members of our community – those who live here, as well as those who work to maintain it,” said Stephanie Magin, Goodyear residence hall director, in the email.

Magin said that although it’s often just a few students who are responsible for the damage, it is still a “poor refl ection on our community in Goodyear Hall.”

Alexandra Torres, a freshman undecid-ed major, said that vandalism is affecting the “appearance” of Goodyear and its residents.

“If those who vandalized the building were willing to go through all that vandal-ism, then who knows what else they’re capa-ble of,” Torres said.

Torres said her resident adviser (RA) held

a fl oor meeting to discuss the matter and her RA said the people who are responsible need to be informed that those who work in Goodyear won’t tolerate these actions.

Della Contrada said students with any information about the vandalism should contact UPD.


Goodyear Hall marked with vandalism

Vandalism exceeds $10,000 in repairs, consists of broken windows and furniture

RASHAAD HOLLEY, THE SPECTRUM Windows and furniture have been

vandalized in Goodyear Hall on UB's South Campus. A monetary amount is likely to be charged to each Goodyear Hall

resident’s bill if no students come forward.

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1010 SPORTSWednesday, April 20, 2016THE SPECTRUM

QUENTIN HAYNESSPECIAL TO THE SPECTRUM

For the past few years, the quarterback po-

sition hasn’t been a question mark for the Buffalo football team. In fact, it has been ar-guably the most sure position coming out of spring practice.

In the last three offseasons, Joe Licata was the only name on the starting depth chart at the position.

After four years, 9485 passing yards and 87 career touchdown passes from Licata, the Bulls are looking to fi ll the shoes of one of their greatest quarterbacks ever.

As spring football concludes, the ques-tion remains unanswered - who’s the quar-terback? Will it be one of Licata’s backups from last year, a Big-10 transfer, or a stand-out freshman?

On Monday, the Bulls took part in a late night practice at UB Stadium, gearing up for this Saturday’s spring game. Each of the quarterback candidates, including freshman Tyree Jackson, Iowa State transfer Grant Rohach and rising sophomore Chris Mer-chant, had a chance to prove themselves.

With the Blue and White game just days away, all three quarterbacks are expected to see time on the fi eld, with the expecta-tion that one can take a step forward and put himself in the driver’s seat heading into summer practices.

However, offensive coordinator and quar-terback coach Andy Kotelnicki was adamant in saying that the coaching staff “wasn’t in a hurry” to make a decision.

“It’s all about getting three guys out there battling and doing a good job,” Kotelnicki said. “I want to see them continue to show us the ability to execute what we’re trying to do. Iron out the details, operate the system clean, but I want to see them play within themselves and show us what they can pro-vide. If someone emerges, we’ll act accord-ingly and move from there. ”

The three quarterbacks have been split-ting the snaps all spring, and all three partic-ipated in one-on-one drills between the wide receivers and defensive backs and received snaps during 11-vs-11 action on Monday.

After several practices, Kotelnicki has kept his eye on all three of the potential starting quarterbacks, hoping to see progression from practice to practice.

“We’re progressing, moving along,” Ko-telnicki said. “Going through we’re trying

to identify what we’re doing on offense. We want them to lead by example. It’s a true three-man race at quarterback. We’re trying to give them all equal reps in practice and we’re really trying to evaluate all of them be-fore making a decision.”

Rohach, Merchant and Jackson entered spring practice looking to make an impres-sion and get a potential leg up on the start-ing quarterback job. Each player has a spe-cifi c skill set that is crucial to success at the mid-major level, it’s just a matter of who outperforms the others.

Rohach has the most experience of the bunch. Prior to transferring to Buffalo, he played in nine games for Iowa State in his career and threw for 1,459 yards and 10 touchdowns over three seasons. As a senior with experience at the Division I level, many felt like it was Rohach who was in position to claim the job this upcoming fall.

However, the expectation that he may be the frontrunner hasn’t stopped Rohach from working hard – he knows the job isn’t going to be handed to him. Much like the other quarterbacks on the roster, Rohach approaches each snap in practice as if he’s going to be the starter heading into the fi rst game of the season.

“I think I have that mentality, but everyone takes that mentality,” Rohach said. “It’s been a new learning curve. This is new with the ter-minology, but I’ve been catching up. With me, it’s my last chance and my last year, so I know I have to attack and try my best out there.”

Jackson, one of Rohach’s competitors, is

expected to be the future of the Bulls at the quarterback position. Jackson redshirted last season after completing his career at Mona Shores High School in Michigan. Jackson threw for over 2,000 yards and scored 36 to-tal touchdowns as a high school senior in 2014, and sat behind four quarterbacks on UB’s roster in 2015.

This year, he wants to make a difference on the fi eld for the Bulls.

At 6-foot-5, Jackson has a similar pres-ence and cadence to NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Like Kaepernick, Jackson has shown his ability to throw the ball down-fi eld and elusively move out of the pocket.

Kotelnicki said that Jackson is “still devel-oping as a quarterback,” but also called him an excellent talent, with a “big, strong arm.”

Much like Rohach, Jackson comes into practice every day with the belief that he can become the starting quarterback for the Bulls this season.

“I’m going to practice every day with the goal of being the starter,” Jackson said. “Even though I redshirted last season, trav-eling to every game and being able to learn from Licata and [former backup quarterback] Tony Daniel really helped me and now, I’m able to show what I can do on the fi eld. I think I’m getting better every practice.”

While Rohach has the most experience of the three and Jackson’s combination of size

and speed makes him the most tantalizing choice, Merchant has played the most games for the Bulls and he’s worked for two years under Kotelnicki’s tutelage, fi rst as a redshirt in 2014 and then as a freshman last season. It’s an offense that Merchant “continues to grow more and more comfortable in,” ac-cording to Kotelnicki.

Although Merchant has completed just one pass attempt during his career, he looked comfortable on Monday throwing interme-diate passes and moving the ball down the fi eld. Both Jackson and Rohach have shown their ability to move outside of the pocket, but it was Merchant’s touch and decision-making that shined through practice.

“Being here for a couple years, I have the most experience with the team, but I have to continue to work because we have several tal-ented guys out here,” Merchant said. “I come out here working as the starter, but all of us are at this point. Having the experience, know-ing all the calls, it helps, but I have to continue to work hard and improve in practice.”

The competition to replace Licata is heat-ing up as we get closer to summer practic-es and it’s still anyone’s job. The 2016 Blue and White Spring game will take place Sat-urday, April 23 at UB Stadium. Kickoff for that game is set for 2 p.m.


ANGELA BARCA, THE SPECTRUMAll UB quarterbacks are expected to see time on the fi eld during the Blue and White game on Saturday, with the expectation that one can take a step forward and put himself in the driver’s

seat heading into summer practices.

Three-man race Bulls continue hunt for quarterback position

MICHAEL AKELSONSENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

At the 2015 outdoor NCAA Champion-ships, UB senior shot putter Jonathan Jones set his eyes on achieving a historic fi rst for his university. He is the fi rst national cham-pion in UB’s Division I program.

With his heave of 20.78 meters that day, he did just that. Jones now has a new goal: to be the fi rst Olympian from UB.

While many Olympic hopefuls choose to move elsewhere to train full-time with a new coach, Jones decided to stay in Buffalo after graduation as he prepares for Olympic Trials.

“A lot of times people will go once they graduate college, to some training facility, or go fi nd a new coach and totally forget what got you there from the get go,” Jones said.

On July 1, Jones will compete in Eugene, Oregon for a spot on the 2016 USA Olym-pic team. Jones is a Buffalo native who at-tended Portville High School and trans-ferred to UB from Buffalo State. He has de-stroyed every expectation thus far in his UB career, becoming one of the most accom-plished athletes in school history. He’s been named a six-time All-American and set the record for men’s shot put while at UB.

But the road to Olympic Trials isn’t a smooth one.

Jones said he still spends about an hour and a half every day rehabbing a knee injury that has been plaguing him since early on in his college career. He admits that he still isn’t at 100 percent and probably won’t be come July.

However, it hasn’t held him back yet. Jones won the NCAA National Champion-ship on his bad knee and last month, he fi n-ished fi fth at the 2016 World Champion-ships. His 20.31-meter throw was the best toss of any American at the event.

Jones has not forgotten where he came from, or more specifi cally, who helped him get to where he is today. He admits his close relationship with UB throws coach Jim Garnham Sr. was a signifi cant reason to stay in Buffalo to continue training.

“Jim and I have a very close relationship,” Jones said. “If he’s around here, there’s no point in me switching anything that’s not broken. You never know if it’s going bad unless you’re not doing as well as you were so, Jim and I have been going upwards with it and we’ve gotten better every year, so might as well keep doing it.”

The path to becoming an Olympian is unlike anything else in professional sports. Many Olympic hopefuls train two to three

times a day, often without pay, making it near impossible for them to pick up another job in their pursuit.

Jones, however, has picked up a paid sponsorship from Dick’s Sporting Goods, which has a “Contenders” series that high-lights the tough journeys of Olympic hope-fuls with unique stories.

“They’re basically helping out and giving athletes, Olympic hopefuls, jobs with com-petitive pay and really fl exible hours,” Jones said. “The way I train and the way I compete, I’m all over the place so it’d be hard for me to keep a job right now with those standards.”

Darien Johnson, a senior communication major, is another UB Olympic hopeful who plans to stay local for a few more years before traveling elsewhere to train for the games.

“Every time I see him, that’s one of the people that had a lot of big expectations of me,” Johnson said. “He was here when I was weak, when I came in and I wasn’t as strong as I was, to where I became the strongest runner in school history. He does believe in me.”

Even if he doesn’t make this year’s Olympic team, Jones plans on trying again in four years, with the entire UB community behind him.

“It would mean the world to be able to represent USA, and not only USA, but also UB and my hometown.”

Olympic Trials for shot put will take place in Eugene, Oregon on July 1.


Going for gold Buffalo bred Jonathan Jones stays local

in pursuit of Olympic glory

COURTESY OF UB ATHLETICS While many Olympic hopefuls choose to move elsewhere to train full-time with a new coach, UB shot putter Jonathan Jones decided to stay in Buffalo after graduation as he prepares for

Olympic Trials.

the spectrum vol. 65 no. 63

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