T \ - I --, ( I ACCENT ROCK Examining THE self-injury BOAT Page 15 OPINION Thinking critically about "race" · Page 11 Thursday, March 25, 2004 Noisy neighbors Teenager threatens student BY KATIE MASLANKA Assistant News Editor An Ithaca College student was the victim of an attempted robbery Friday night. The student was approached by a 15-year­ old around 5: 15 p.m. while in his car in the M-lot, which is located near Boothroyd Hall. According to the Tompkins County Sheriff's Department, the teenager reached into the student's car, grabbed him by the throat and threatened him with a rock while demanding money from the student. When the student said he did not have any money, the teenager allowed him to drive away. The student contacted the Office of Pub­ lic Safe ty, and Patrol Officer Bill Kerry stopped the suspect minutes later based on a description given by the student of the sus­ pect and the vehicJe he was riding in. The teenager was arrested by the sheriff's REBECCA GARDNER/THE ITHACAN department and charged with attempted rob­ PARTY-GOERS GATHER at a party on Kendall Avenue In February. Noise from partltta may lead to stricter penalties. bery in the fiist degree, a felony, and menac­ ing in the seco degree a · Proposed city ordinance appeared . on Monday. As of pre s time, the results of that hearing were unavailable. BY KELLI B. GRANT The resulting noise and garbage is just amendment to the city's noise ordinance The 15-year-old had been riding in a car Special Projects Manager one of the reasons area residents say they're on March 30 at 7 p.m. in City Hall. If the with three other people the night of the at­ supporting the proposed revisions to the changes pass, said governance chair­ tempted robbery. Toe sheriff's department con­ After the final day of classes in spring City of Ithaca's noise ordinance. woman Pam Mackesey, D-lst Ward, the cluded that the individuals were not involved last year, hundreds of white, red and blue "It's everything - the screaming, the changes would be put before the city's in the incident and did not press charges, said 16 oz. cups were strewn across the road, yelling, the urination," said Linda Ter­ Connnon Council on April 7. Dave Maley, director of media relations. front yards and sidewalks along Pleasant williger of South Aurora Street, who said The proposed changes would dramati­ While it is the norm to release alerts Street. she's become fed up with the noise and the cally increase fines and make it easier to around campus when the perpetrators of a Students from both colleges had par­ vandalism. "[The parties] used to be just fi_ne violators for multiple infractions. crime remain unknown and at large, Maley tied all day Friday and into Saturday Friday and Saturday. Now it's Thursday, The existing ordinance affects all areas said no alert was released in this case be­ morning, celebrating with Slope Day at Friday and Saturday." within city limits. That includes College­ cause the suspect was no longer a threat to Cornell University, a block party on The governance committee of the town, the downtown area and all streets on the community. Pleasant Street and forays to the bars Common Council is scheduled to contin­ South Hill up to and including Grandview "Because there was an arrest made and downtown and in Collegetown. ue discussing, and possibly vote on, an See LOCAL RESIDENTS, Page 3 a perpetrator identified, we don't need to alert the campus community to be on the lookout for some suspect," he said. Housillg policy written ONE YEAR LATER for transgender residents BY SARAH HOFIUS housing arose with Created Equal's attempt to make Staff Writer more housing choices available last semester. Its goal was to see the college create gender-blind Starting this fall, the Office of Residential Life will housing to increase the comfort level of those who formalize the college's transgender housing policy. would want to live with members of the opposite sex. Under the official policy, students who identify them­ At the same time Created Equal was working on selves as transgender can contact Residential Life to drafting the proposal, Prunty said Residential Life was pursue alternative housing arrangements. The staff at Res­ evaluating the transgender housing policies. idential Life will set up a meeting with Lisa Maurer, co­ Some colleges have gender-blind housing options, ordinator of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans gender Ed­ but when looking into what the colleges offered, ucation, Outreach and Services. Maurer will evaluate the Prunty said Ithaca's College Circle Apartments are students and help them find suitable housing options. similar in nature. Many colleges with gender-blind "Lisa will be our adviser in these situations to make options have single rooms with a common living sure that we'r.e providing the accommodations that space, she said. are best for the student," said Bonnie Prunty, direc­ Since the college has agreed to formalize the trans­ tor of Residential Life and Judicial Affairs. gender policies, members of Created Equal have This program has been available to students, but stopped working on 1:he proposal, said freshman Greer it is neither publicized nor written as a policy, she said. Connor, who was in charge of the project. · Currently, incoming freshmen have no idea about She added that they will see how the college's pol­ the housing option, she said. icy goes, and if needed, pursue the issue further. MEGHAN MAZELLA!THE ITHACAN Maurer said she appreciates the fact that Residential Braeden Sullivan, a queer rights activist, said it will THE ITHACA COLLEGE REPUBLICANS displayed 600 Life is interested in exploring ways to provide the most be good for transgender freshmen to know this option. American flags in the Academic Quad Monday and Tuesday to appropriate housing for all students. "I think it's definitely a step in the right direction," memorialize troops killed in Iraq since the war began a year ago. The idea of transgender and nongender specific he said. 2 THE ITH ACAN NEWS THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2004 Nation & World Hamas appoints new leader HEADING HOME Abdulaziz Rantisi, a pediatrician and senior Hamas official known for his hard-line views, was appointed Tuesday to the militant group's top post, putting him squarely in the crosshairs of the Jewish state. The 56-year-old Rantisi replaced Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated a day ear­ lier by Israel. Israel vowed Tuesday to target NEWS BRIEFS AND LOCAL .EVENTS Hamas' and other Palestinian leaders, including Yasser Arafat. The Vote 2004 "I have no doubt that if we persist in our For the past week, television opera_tions against Hamas and other terror viewers in Lansing, Mich., have organizations in all _channels, including the been seeing twice as many ads for operations against the leaders, we'll bring President Bush's re-election cam­ security for the citizens of Israel," Defense Min­ paign as for Sen. John Kerry, D­ ister Shaul Mofaz said on Israel Radio. Mass. Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said But that does not mean Israel's hit list "includes everyone down.to the Democrats have been falling very last among them, including those who·ap­ behind. While Bush and Kerry slug pear on television and lash out telling us their it out, two liberal organizations, intention tp cut the prime minister's head off." MoveOn.org and the Media Fund, have joined the fray with television 9/1 I panel faults adniinistration spots of their own, knocking the president's record on jobs and the Finding fault with the Clinton and Bush ad­ Iraq war. ministrations, the commission investigating The result: When Kerry's ad the Sept. 11 attacks released findings Tuesday spending is combined with that of that cite years of diplomatic failures, bureaucratic the two independent groups, inertia and meager military responses as factors Democrats have been able to go that contributed to the emergence of al-Qaida. toe-to-toe with the president. ''The as the nation's most serious security threat. share of voice seems relatively The commission released its preliminary find­ SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST AFTER A YEAR In Iraq, the 1032nd Transportation Company, a unit of the Virginia equal here," said Michael King, ings during a day of politically charged hear­ ·National Guard, Is oh Its way home. The unit made It through the year with no fatalttles. gene~al manager of WILX-TV; one ings in which top national security officials from of four Lansing stations -running the Bush and Clinton White Houses took turns campaign ads. ''The Democratic defending their performance and decrying the ets," said Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator Green Zone since last fall. In October, a U.S. side is coming at it from two or counterterrorism record of the other. for space science, at a news conference in Wa&h­ · Army lieutenant colonel died in a rocket attack three sources." Bush officials in particular sought to deflect ington announcing the discovery. against the area's Rashid Uotel, where Deputy The ad wars in Lansing may be fresh criticism that the administration ignored NASA scientists announced earlier this Defense Department Secretary Paul D. Wol­ . a microcosm of what is to come in al-Qaida after taking office in 2001 and, ·even month that they had determined that water had fowitz was staying. the next few months in cities and after the Sept. 11 attacks, was too eager to tum once existed on.Mars, possibly during the ear­ .On Sunday, a U.S.