THURSDAY ITHACA, N. y. NOVEMBER 14, 2002 32 PAGES, FREE VOLUME 70, NUMBER 11 The Newspaper for the Ithaca College Community WWW. ITHACA. EDU/ITHACAN Out of bounds? Controversial Cortaca T-shirt causes uproar BY KATE SH EPPARD relevance of having this large breasted, narrow­ Staff Writer waisted, long-legged woman on a T-shirt," Ti­ fone said. "She's there for the shock value." Cortaca Jug shirts emblazoned with a bux­ Other groups have joined the effort om, scantily clad woman were reported as a against the shirts, which were illegally solicited bias-related incident Sunday night, drawing on campus through signs, word of mouth and both support and outrage from students. a Web site. Created Equal, Students Advocat­ Senior Jason Tifone, support chair for Body ing Gender Equality and BIGAYLAhave come Related Images Discussion, Education and Sup- out against the shirt, and the Student Govern­ port, said the l'r""'""""'""""'""""'""""'""""'""""'""""'""""'= ment Association passed a resolution Tuesday executive board See INCIDENTS, disapproving of the shirt as a representation of met Sunday to Page 15 and body image and the Ithaca College community. discuss the CORTACA, Pages 26-27 The Bias-Related Incidents Committee shirts, which he meets on Friday, and discussion of the T-shirts said depict a is expected. Committee member Bonnie negative, objectifying image of women. They Prunty, director of residential life and judicial decided to report the shirts, which began ap­ affairs, said the shirts fit the definition of _an pearing on campus over the incident. weekend, as a bias-related "Clearly, there are incident. ' ' I understand the some people who are The shirts feature a jugs reference, but short of experiencing this to woman wearing a blue and be demeaning. of gold bikini top, holding a the 'titillation factor, ' I really women," Prunty said. football over her crotch "It seems that there are and carrying a flag that don't see the relevance ... ways that you could be reads "Cortland sucks." humorous and you The "unattainably She's there for the shock could engender sup­ small waist, disproportion­ port for the Cortaca ately enormous breasts, value. '' Jug game withowt and long and twig-like -JASON TIFONE having to depict legs" were among the Support Chair for Body Related something that might • problems BRIDGES exec­ Images Discussion, Education make some people and S upp ort utive board members had feel uncomfortable." with the shirts, they said in The designer and a statement Monday. The shirts contribute to marketer of the shirts, who spoke only under con­ body image disorders, female objectification, vi­ dition of anonymity, said the shirts were not olence against women and a negative image of meant to be offensive. SARAH SCHULTE/THE ITHACAN Ithaca College, they and other opponents said. "The 'Cortland Sucks' shirts have been SOPHOMORE LAUREN O'NEILL sports her Cortaca Jug T-shirt while doing "I understand the jugs reference, but short around for so long. Everyone's seen thell) so work in her room. The T-shirts have been the subject of controversy on campus of the 'titillation factor,' I really don't see the See T-SHIRT, Page 4 after several groups became offended by the cartoon. Police investigate vehicle vandalism Academic dishonesty to come under review BY ANNE K. WALTERS Staff Writer in SGA investigation Sophomore Marc Klein's parents met him Nov. 2 and took him out to dinner for BY ANNE K. WALTERS his birthday, but when he woke up the Staff Writer next morning, he found an unexpected surprise - his car had been vandalized. The Student Government Association received As he approached his car parked in M­ overwhelming support from Faculty Council lot, he noticed glass spread around it. He Tuesday in its attempt to examine the state of then saw that his rear passenger-side light cheating and plagiarism at Ithaca College. had been smashed. Senior Lisa Palmero, student body presi­ "I was shocked, but I thought a car just dent, told Faculty Council that the guidelines hit it," Klein said. "I was very upset." in the Student Handbook on dealing with aca­ When he walked around to the front side demic dishonesty are too vague. Three main of his car and saw that his passenger head­ problems are created because each professor light was also shattered, Klein concluded it decides how a student's grade will be affect­ must have been vandalism. Klein's car was ed on a case- by-case basis, Palmero said. one of several cars damaged within the last First, penalties are distributed unevenly. two weeks. Nine cars in campus lots were Second, extra pressure is put on faculty mem­ damaged in two separate incidents. bers to decide what to do about a student's Repairs cost Klein $250 out of his pock­ grade. Third, students do not clearly under­ et, since the damage was less than his in­ ALLISON ROBERTSON/THE ITHACAN stand the consequences of academic dishon­ surance deductible, but he received estimates SOP HOMORE ANDREW PARKHURST points out the damage done to th e tail­ esty. SGA is also concerned because there is of up to $500, he said. When he started to light of his car last week when it was parked in C-lot. no procedure for students to report cheating tell others about his misfortune, he learned in their classes. that others had experienced similar problems. age to cars in the C-lot was done by the around 1 a.m. Nov. 6. Michael Leary, assistant director of judicial Public Safety Investigator Thomas same individual or individuals, Dunn said. "It was a little bit of a shock and a lit­ affairs, said there were 22 cases of academic dis­ Dunn said seven cars parked in C-lot had side Sophomore Andrew Parkhurst said that tle bit of a relief because just the mirrors honesty handled through the Office of Judicial mirrors broken off between midnight and after the taillight of his car was smashed, he were damaged," Scerra said. Affairs in the 2001-2002 academic year, down 12:30 am. Nov. 6. Some radio antennas were had to pay $100 for a part to replace it and Dunn said vandalism of this many ve­ from 40 cases in 2000-2001. The majority of also bent and broken, Dunn said. is still waiting for estimates on the labor cost. hicles is fairly uncommon. By parking in cases deal with plagiarism rather than cheating. In a separate incident, two students had Senior Matthew Scerra, online man­ well-lit areas, students can reduce the risk The SGA Academics Committee plans to car taillights smashed Nov. 3. The Office of ager for The Ithacan, first learned his car of their c.ar being vand;:i.lized, he said. conduct a survey with the Office of Institu­ Public Safety is assuming the two incidents mirrors had been knocked off when Pub­ Anyone with any information is en­ tional Research about student attitudes and are unrelated but believes that all the dam- lic Safety called and left him a message couraged to contact Public Safety. See FACULTY, Page4 INSIDE ACCENT ••• 17 CLASSIFIED ••• 23 COMICS ••• 24 OPINION ••• 14 SPORTS ••• 32 /, l I •II ~ ~I 2 THE ITHACAN NEWS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2002 National and I nternational ews former Soviet Union. The Soviets are known to have pro­ duced tens of thousands of radioactive devices for uses rang­ ing from medical diagnostics to military communications, and many were simply abandoned after the Soviet breakup in 199 L Some regions are so littered with such devices that published tourist guides caution travelers about them. Nowhere has the problem attracted greater attention than in Georgia, a struggling democracy and staunch U.S. ally where 'there have been not only mishaps involving ra­ dioactive devices, but documented attempts to steal or smuggle nuclear material. Porous borders with the sepa­ ratist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have be­ come thoroughfares for smuggled contraband from ciga­ rettes to weapoQ.s, according to Georgian and U.S. gov­ ernment officials. Four years ago, a sting operation in the port city of Batumi netted three kilograms of enriched ura­ nium - one of the largest seizures ever made of materi­ al that could be used in a nuclear bomb. "Not only is Georgia's government incapable of stopping this kind of smuggling, but some local officials would no doubt take part in it," said Mikheil Saakashvili, a parliament mem­ DAYNA SMITH/THE WASHINGTON POST ber and leader of Georgia's opposition National Movement PAUL:. 8. EBERT, commonwealth attorney in Prince William County, Va., has sent more defendants to die than party. "There are no resources for monitoring, and the pay any other prosecutor in the state. He will prosecute sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad. for the border guards is $30 to $50 a month." Attorney could call for death sentence sexual abuse policy - changes that church lawyers and China takes step toward privatization public prosecutors say could produce serious conflicts be­ China is committed to leveling the playing field between He'd like people to believe that he's just a good old coun­ tween the church's internal legal code and U.S. civil law. private entrepreneurs and their competitors in the state-run try boy who happens fo be responsible for prosecuting crim­ Under the revised policy, church tribunals would gath­ sector, two leading Chinese economic officials said earlier this inals. His trademark "conversations" with juries include er and weigh evidence against priests who might also face week in another sign that the Chinese Communist Party is frequent calls for people to use their common sense, and criminal prosecution in civil courts.