The Griffin

Canisius has made the first steps toward renovating its library.   These improvements would include remodeling the main floor of the building to make it more conducive to round the clock study.

All vital services would be concentrated on the main floor, which would hopefully remain open 24 hours a day.
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With the debacle that tainted our pages the past couple weeks, one theme bled through the black and white rhetoric. The student body that has “leadership in our DNA” sat back and relied on others’ faults to prove their success. We cannot build our credibility on others’ lack thereof.

What happened to earning respect? What circumstances justify us waiting for others to slip up? Are the costs of diligence and the price of achieving success too high?

Our societal obsession with success has been misconstrued to rationalize the shortcuts used to reach it.  The pitiful drive to make our names memorable is causing us to lose the true purpose of our decisions.

The last few issues included a collage of distractions that made individuals’ mediocre attempts appear valiant. We cannot glorify our elected officials when their workload has included keeping their own heads off the chopping block by making personal attacks. Stones are being thrown by people who are incapable of judging.

In the moment when the curtain drops and the applauded are ushered off stage, the fame becomes fake and flightless. Those who have a chance to redeem themselves have thus far remained silent and thoughtful. We can only legitimize our efforts to turn this situation around and recover our student government from a petty pool of ashes with meaningful contributions; the fingers have been pointed and the whistles have been blown. Drained of pointless accusations and outrageous claims, our next plan of action should involve an actual idea- undeniably without a verbal battle royale.

There is no pride in waiting for our peers to fall short just so we may reap the benefits of the public’s disgust. No one celebrates the motionless parade of others failures. Shame on us.

He said this, she said that.

In light of the turmoil surrounding the leadership in Undergraduate Student Association, it has become clear to The Griffin that many of its problems stemmed from a serious lack of communication.

The lack of communication is evident both among students as well as between students and administrators.
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Core curriculum changes. Cuts in academic budgets. Administrative policies toward clubs. Questionable retention initiatives designed to stop falling enrollment.
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Canisius is not located on an isolated island or in the middle of a rural area. We are in the heart of Buffalo. We have neighbors that aren’t college students. This offers students a unique opportunity to interact with people unlike themselves, but the only interaction most students hear about is our “Timely Notifications.”
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Apparently the College’s administration learned nothing from the mistakes it made last year surrounding the cancellation of the drag competition Unity planned to put on.
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Canisius Resident Assistants have always been required to keep track of the dynamics of their residents. This includes knowing which residents are friends, which do not get along and which are happy or unhappy with their experience overall as a resident student.
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It was brought to the attention of the staff of The Griffin that twice recently Canisius President Rev. Vincent Cooke, S.J. has criticized the quality of the writing in this publication. Both comments were made in public forums: the first at the Undergraduate Student Association’s annual retreat and the second at the Academic Convocation that Cooke delivers yearly to Canisius’ faculty and administration.
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Canisius students each pay $119 per semester in student tax dollars. The student tax is meant to fund activities and clubs on campus which benefit the students in a variety of ways. The student tax creates organizations that unite students of similar interests as well as funding larger, campus wide events that unite the entire student body. These large events include bringing Bob Saget and other acts, Spring Fest, and various concerts.
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Buffalo may not be the most glamorous city but the autumn-leaf paved streets and opalescent snowdrifts compose the setting for a place where life may be experienced in the rawest sense. Hardworking people wait at bus stops as high schoolers glide around in their parents’ two-door. This is not a city like Los Angeles, NYC, Nashville, Miami or Las Vegas; it’s unlikely to find people in Buffalo who arrived with hopes of being discovered or catching their big break. The race of Buffalonians is a population borne by parents who diligently fought tooth and nail to climb the ragged rungs of societal hierarchy. We are raised by a village of proud people who have dreams of success that hardly cross the minds of a lot of lucky people.
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