INSIDE a; Opinion Beirut bombing sheds light on war in Iraq Page9 Accent ..c Search for sun-kissed skin leads to obsession Page 11 Sports r Football team to visit downtrodden Buffalo State The Newspaper for the Ithaca College Community · Page 21 Volume 71, Number 10 Ithaca, N.Y. Thursday, November 6, 2003 Vector ads . confound job seekers BY-VANESSA MOLINA Senior Writer The chalkboard messages and fliers in acade­ mic buildings can be seen all over campus. "Workforstudents.com: $13.8,5 base pay." But the ambiguity of the advertisements has left some students wondering if they sound too good to be true. Senior Amy Bisaro said she. was drawn to the advertisements in academic buildings and found the pay as well as the prospect of broadening her marketing experience enticing. "This company relies on college students," Bisaro said. "They sell you the sizzle and not the steak." Bisaro met with representatives of Vector Marketing on campus and said they gave little LARRY WESTLERfTHE ITHACAN information about the company, even though she FRESHMAN EVAN MADOW has created a campaign urging an overhaul of the ResNet system. More than 400 students directly expressed her interest in the employ­ have added their signatures to his Web site to petition for better Internet connections on campus. ment opportunity. The company, Vector Marketing Corporation, recruits college students to sell cut­ lery products in and around the Ithaca area. Vector Marketing Corporation has been hir­ ResNet revolt ing college students since its founding in 1949, said Sarah Baker Andrus, the director of Academic Programs at Vector. Hundreds sign petition for improvements to Internet service "We find it is a good marriage between stu­ dents' schedules and selling schedules," she said. BY MEGAN REYNOLDS ed to create a Web site as a means for stu­ The corporation, with more than 300 offices Ed Fuller, director of Information Staff Writer dents to voice their concerns with the in the United States and Canada, teaches poten­ Technology Services. He. explained that current system. the problems with ResNet continue tial employees about sales and marketing Since his first day on campus, fresh­ "I created the Web site out of my own because student computers throughout through personal interaction with customers as man Evan Madow has faced problems well as through preparation courses, she said. frustrations," Madow said. campus are infected with. various virus­ with his ResNet connection. The Web site provides students the es, which block access to the rest of cam­ But some students have raised concerns that As the semester presses on, many stu­ the company has been less than forthright about opportunity to view complaints of fellow pus, intensifying demand on the dents have become increasingly frustrat­ college's firewall. their product. students and to voice their concerns ed with the slow speed ofResNet and the regarding ResNet by signing a petition. The college has plans to overhaul the "They wanted me to fill out an application frequency with which they cannot con­ before giving me any ideas about their corpo- The problems are caused by constant nect to the network at all. Madow decid- and increasing outbreak of viruses, said See TECHNOLOGY, page 4 See SOME, page 4 Rushdie stands up for free speech BY STEPHANIE BERGERON can't stand," he said. ment for free speech in this country." Staff Writer Rushdie. said that people Junior Natasha Bhagat said that should be able to make up their own she admired Rushdie's honesty and For a man who once faced a minds and that it is better to give was surprised by his humor. death threat from a spiritual them the chance to do so. "I definitely admire him for doing leader, acclaimed novelist Salman "It doesn't matter which side of so much with his life," Bhagat said. Rushdie was calm as he discussed the fence you are on .. What is im­ "I was very impressed." the merits of free speech at the col­ portant is that one side of the argu­ President Peggy R. · Williams lege Sunday. ment should not act in such ways as said that Rushdie's visit was impor­ Rushdie is most noted for his book, to intimidate the other side from tant to the college community be­ "The Satanic Verses," which led speaking," he said. cause it allowed students a chahce to Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini to Rushdie drew laughter from the interact with an influential author in to issue a fatwa calling for Rushdie's crowd as he joked about America's person. death in 1989. current political situation and said he Laura DeFrost, a 2002 Cornell The controversy revolved around feared the restriction of freedoms un­ graduate, said she was also im­ references to the Islamic scriptures that der the Patriot Act. pressed and that Rushdie's speech some Muslims found offensive. The In a press conference Tuesday inspired her to write. fatwa forced the author into hiding for Rushdie continued his critique of the "He works the language so nearly a decade with protection from Bush administration. He also had well," she said. British police and government. harsh words for the American press, Approximately 900 students, fac­ Rushdie was not silenced by the which he said is not as critical as the ulty and community members filled fatwa and has now become an advo­ British press. the Ben Light Gymnasium to hear the cate for the freedom of expression. Rushdie said that this surprises him speech as part of the School of Hu­ He said that it is important to hear all because during the Vietnam War re­ manities and Sciences Distinguished MEGHAN MAZELLAfTHE ITHACAN views, even those that one does not porters took a more active role in an­ Lecture Series. RENOWNl:D NOVELIST SALMAN RUSHDIE drew an audience of agree with. alyzing the government. Rushdie's latest book, "Step approximately 900 faculty, staff, students and community mem­ ''The defense of free speech begins "The thing about civil rights is that Across this Line: Collected Non-fic­ bers Sunday to his lecture, "Step Across This Line: An Evening - not ends, but begins - when some­ they are hard to get and easy to lose," tion," js a compilation of essays, opin­ with Salman Rushdie," in the Ben Light Gymnasium. one says something that you really he said, "I don't think it's a great mo- ions and speeches. ww,N.ithaca.edu/ithacan ,, , - - 2 THE ITHACAN THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2003 I I National and International News The new draft, presented in a formal ceremony outside TIME FOR SCHOOL the presidential palace after weeks of private discussion · among top officials, appeared to be a major political vic­ tory for President Hamid Karzai, 46, who hopes to win elec­ tion next year to the post he now holds temporarily as the country's transitional leader. The final word on ·the new charter, and on the form of Afghanistan's emerging democracy, will come from 500 delegates to a national assembly scheduled for mid-De­ cember, who will debate and ratify the document in prepa­ ration for national elections. "Today we have witnessed a significant step in taking the Afghan nation toward building a society ruled by law," Jawad Luddin, Karzai's spokesman, told journalists after the ceremony. Russian billionaire plans legal defense Imprisoned Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky stepped down Monday as chief executive of the giant Yukos­ Sibneft oil comP.any so that he can concentrate on his legal defense and, according to a source close to the situation, a possible election campaign against President Vladimir Putin. Khodorkovsky, who was arrested Oct 25 and subsequently charged with tax evasion, fraud and forgery, turned over the reins of the oil company he built into Russia's largest and said he would devote his energies to working as chief ex­ ecutive of his Open Russia Foundation, a philanthropic or­ ANDREA BRUCE WOODALL/THE WASHINGTON POST ganization he founded in 2001. IRAQI STUDENTS WALK in front of Khadhimiya High School, where quotes from Saddam Hussein once A likely person to step in as acting head of YukosSibneft graced the walls. Saddam's forces arrested and execu~ed students.fr.om the school in the early 1980s. is an American, Steven M. Theede, a longtime executive at ConocoPhillips who moved over to the Russian company Bush vows not to back down in Iraq Bush portrayed his ultimate goal in Iraq as preventing ter­ justtwo months ago. Theede was installed last week as head rorist attacks in the United States. "A free and peaceful Iraq of Yukos-Moscow, the oil firm's management company, re­ President Bush on Monday blamed the ongoing guer­ will make it niore likely that our children and grandchil­ placing Vasily Shakhnovsky, a Khodorkovsky partner who rilla attacks in Iraq on- terrorists trying to intimidate the dren will be able to grow up without the horrors of Sep­ has also been charged with tax evasion. United States, and he vowed to "never run" from the mount­ tember the 11th," he said. One source in Khodorkovsky's'camp said he decided ing chaos and casualties. to step aside "so that the company could keep moving for­ Bush gave two speeches and made no specific reference Afghan government unveils constitution ward while he fights the charges." But another source added to the helicopter downing on Sunday that killed 16 soldiers, that the move would also allow Khodorkovsky to explore the single deadliest attack against U.S. troops in Iraq. A_se­ The Afghanistan government unveiled its long-await­ a possible challenge to Putin in next March's election even nior aide said the president kept his remarks broad to "reflect ed proposal for a new constitution Monday, opting for a if he remained behind bars, a move that would roil Rus­ reality without getting bogged down in one day's headlines." strong presidential system and dropping the additional po­ sia's political worlc,l.