Make your years count – The Spectrum

When I got to UB, I hated it.

On August 25, 2021, I dropped off my boxes and bags in a dingy apartment in South Lake Village, met my roommate (and possible enemy), and set out to explore the seven wonders of North Campus.

OK, seven is being generous: North Campus is truly an “academic factory,” as a UB student described it nearly 50 years ago in a letter to Spectrum.

But I didn’t stop there: I got into the habit of hiking the Ellicott Creek Trail, became a Metro Rail regular, and learned how to get around Buffalo. I knocked on my new neighbors’ doors with cookies, joined the Residence Hall Association, and tried a half-dozen clubs.

I met a lot of people in those first two weeks – and most of them quickly disappeared, forming their own groups. I struggled to make friends in my major, clubs, and classes.

But I tried. And you should too, because this university is not just a collection of classrooms and parking lots (and parking lots, and more parking lots). Although UB may seem like a particularly listless island — almost three quarters of its 30,000 students commute from off campus, and only about 10,000 are active in a club, according to Student Engagement employee Tom Vane — that’s still a campus of 30,000.

It’s one Ithaca, or one North Tonawanda, or two Batavias. And like those cities, UB has all kinds of people: people who share many things with you, people who are very different from you, but above all, people who make their time here their own.

And maybe you won’t find your collaborators at UB, but that’s okay too. Buffalo is a city of 300,000 people, the Niagara border is home to 1.2 million, and the Golden Horseshoe has 7.8 million. Someone here will get along with you.

For me, it all started in Charles Anzalone’s journalism class. He filled the three-hour evening classes with infectious passion and endless patience. His encouragement gave me the confidence to try my hand as an editor at Spectrum – and dozens of late nights, long meetings and phone calls later, I feel more part of UB than ever.

Spectrum attracts people who care deeply about the people of UB – people who attend these boring meetings, people who listen to both the protesters and counter-protesters, people who stay up well past midnight.make the donuts“- because they know that UB people matter.

These are people I am proud to call my friends.

So I invite you to find a place here in Buffalo where you can write your story – and if you have a little more time, maybe you can join us in writing other people’s stories.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of responsibility, but it’s an honor. 74 years of Spectrum journalists agree.

Sol Hauser was the senior news editor and can be contacted at [email protected]

Mylien Lai is the new Senior News Editor and can be contacted at [email protected]