Bee Sightings on Campus

First of all, if you are not familiar with Courtney's post, please click here and get yourself up to speed.

The most dedicated of readers may remember that WAY back on October 7, 2009, I had written P.S. I heard a rumor that UB's mascot is the "Super Bee." Can anyone confirm or deny this? to which Laura noted she "didn't know" and Charlene summed up nicely with, "We have a mascot !!!!" (The entire post is here, if you would like to review in full.)

So, as Courtney has answered all of our collective prayers, I have been beside myself with excitement and looking everywhere for a Bee. Here are my findings, field guide style.

2/24/2010, 12:30PM, Law School Computer Lab:

Read Courtney's post about bee/mascot. Scream out loud in amazement. Receive dirty looks from stressed out law students.

2/25/2010, 11:30PM:

Receive UB Daily Digest on iPhone. See headline about Bee mascot. Try desperately to read article on tiny phone screen, realize that it is a teaser and has no further information. Continue ignoring Con Law professor.

2/25/2010, 6:00PM:

Have now searched all five floors of law school building, can confirm that there are NO bees. Countless Ravens spotted. Classmates no longer amused by my questions about possible mascots. One classmate angrily informs me Poe is our mascot.

2/26/2010. 9:00AM:

Confirmed, Poe is law school mascot. Statute out front, 95% of building is named after him, he is dark and depressing, much like law school.

2/27/2010, 9:30AM:

Remember I am in law school, go to library early Saturday morning. Drove car instead of light rail, still, no Bees spotted.

2/27/2010, 1:00PM:

Walk all over building next to law school, you know the one with admissions, bursar's office, the gym? Still no bees spotted.

2/27/2010, 1:13PM:
Follow up on tip received back in October 2009 that "there is some bee thing in the gym." Thank you, Clay Gorton, for your shallow and obvious attempt to get me to work out with you.

2/27/2010, 1:15PM:

EUREKA! There is, in fact, a bee in the gym! This Bee is painted on the wall of the basketball court. He is about as tall as I am, although he is pretty high up on the wall. He doesn't really look like a bee at all, and none of the colors are the university colors (which I understand to be some combination of blue, gold, and slate). Also, his funky shirt is circa 1950, so I think this may be an example of the outgoing bee.

3/1/2010, 12:26PM:

Three more bees found, interestingly, all in the gym.



This specimen was located on a display in one of the hallways in the gym. He is stepping on a cigarette. A good message, definitely. He also resembles a bee. The tough face and well defined muscles make this guy a good mascot, plus he is clearly wearing a UB shirt.




This specimen was also located on the wall in the gym. He is on a banner, way up high on the basketball court. Unfortunately, all I had was my iPhone, and this was a sighting I did not want to miss. Plus, some guys were playing basketball, and I was trying to stay out of the way. This bee is really similar to the above one.



This specimen was located in another gym hallway. He is advertising intramural sports. In an effort to be more anatomically correct, this guy has several sets of arms/legs. Although he looks MUCH more like a bee than my first sighting, he also sort of looks like a Hindu god. Also, not only does he have some well developed arms (all 4 of them!) but he has been doing some sit ups and pilates. I don't know how I feel about his superhero gloves, they look a little outdated to me.

SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS:
1) There are several bees on campus.
2) The red bee on the gym is pretty surely an old one. He has that sort of "Steamboat Willy" charm to him, but I think is probably not a new design.
3) The 2nd and 3rd bees are for sure UB bees, but I am wondering if they are so generic because they were thought up for a stop-smoking campaign, and not a UB design.
4) The fourth bee is on one hand, sort of outdated and all over the place, but on the other hand a pretty decent sports mascot.

Now I leave it to you. Which design do you like best? Have you found any other bees on campus? Do you think any of these designs predict what the new mascot will be? After the last block party being so much fun, how excited are you for the next one? Leave some comments!

WHAT I LEARNED IN LAW SCHOOL
"Maybe the only special interest group that no one hates is the League of Women Voters. Well, probably not even them." American Legal History Professor.
Turns out, Madison wrote about special interest groups (he called them factions) back when the Constitution was still just a twinkle in his eye. His argument: The bigger the country, the more special interest groups represented, the less likely it is one can take over and subjugate all the others.

Rant & Rave: More Printing & More Sweating

Last week, I think I established my impassioned concern for printing here at UB. This week is no exception. Oh yes... here comes my next rant (but soon matched by a rave).


I would like the ability to add printer pages to my UB account online.


Please say it can be so! So yeah, while I didn't lose that much sleep over this issue, I did lose study time. Monday, I walked to the Academic Center to print out about 40 pages of readings. Suddenly, after launching five separate print jobs, I realized that the room was quiet. Too quiet. Aside from the hum of the fluorescent bulbs, there was no mechanical murmuring from the printers. My account had run dry. And what was I to do??! It was about 9pm. Without an option to increase my printing allocation, I could either read the scanned-in articles on the screen as PDFs or just scrap the studying plans until I could show up in-person at OTS and add more pages. I chose the latter idea. It spoke to my heart.

Well, I digress. I really do bow down before the tech staff here at UB. It's a thankless job to keep all our data efficient and virus-free. And it's also pretty sweet that each of us can have our own account for data storage. That's a unique benefit here at UB. So techies...I'm at your mercy!

CarolB actually beat me to the meat of my rave this week: UB's fitness center. I just think they've done an excellent job with the fact that it's tucked away on top of classrooms and uncomfortably partitioned into four sections around a basketball court (not to mention that the only access is through the slave-quarters stairs and a cold-war-inspired elevator shaft). The fitness center is just cool.

First, the fitness staff is friendly. Second, they seem to constantly be cleaning something--much appreciated maintenance given that it can get stuffy up there with only a few windows. Moreover, there is a high water fountains to students ratio. I'm convinced that this last plus will one day be a factor in US News rankings.

And if you're just now about to board the Good Ship Fitness at UB these days, you'll be able to take advantage of some pretty amazing new gym equipment. I've rarely seen a gym replace old fitness benches and workout mats to the extent that happened this May. It really speaks to the dedication of campus health going on the third floor!

One last thing: there is golf in the mornings and I think a Nintendo Wii in the evening too. Golf. Next to a foosball table. Seriously.