INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 128, No. 109
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2012
News Better Wages
Local residents held a rally Monday to push for increasing the minimum wage in Tompkins County. | Page 3
Opinion Good Morals
Jon Weinberg ’13 explains the importance of upstanding character in everyday life at Cornell.
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
Claims Against Police Lt. Tied to Discrimination Suit
20 Pages – Free
Sweet fragrances
City leaders link racial tensions in police dept.to allegations
This story was written by Jeff Stein, Liz Camuti and Michael Linhorst.
raise questions about the validity and motives of those whose testimony have impugned Byrd’s character. The accusations against Byrd — which were first published by The Ithaca Journal on Jan. 13 — remain unresolved. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 and Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson are currently investigating the charges, but it is not clear why the allegations have resurfaced now. Though all the published evidence against Byrd originates with the arbitration of officer Chris Miller, damaging accusations have since been made by multiple sources. Miller, who is white, sued the IPD in spring 2010 for $17 million, claiming he suffered racial discrimination when Byrd, rather than Miller, was
Giddy Up
The allegations that a high-ranking Ithaca Police Department officer aided drug dealers stem from lawsuits that claim IPD racially discriminates against white officers — a crucial context that defenders of the embattled officer say has been missing from public discussions of the controversy. In interviews with The Sun, several city officials and community leaders said that Lt. Marlon Byrd, a black officer who was born and raised on Ithaca’s south side, is being targeted primarily because of his connection to the city’s black community — a community whose relationship with the IPD is often marked by tension, antipathy and sporadic violence, they said. These perspectives cast a new light on the debate over Byrd’s conduct and
Blogs
Despite Challenges, Gannett Receives Awards for Services
| Page 9
Science Fashion Show
A Cornell student attempts to save 12 endangered species by wearing 12 outfits inspired by the animals. | Page 10
Arts Night at the Opera
The Sun reviews a French opera performance held this weekend in Bailey Hall. | Page 12
Sports The equestrian team finished its most successful team to date this Saturday, placing second in its final show. | Page 20
By JINJOO LEE
Foreign Exchange
Sun Staff Writer
Kyle W. ’13 describes fun times, and mistakes made, while studying abroad. | Cornellsun.com, March 14
Weather Lots of Sunshine HIGH: 61 LOW: 43
Gannett Health Services received two official recognitions this month for its service as a health center over the last three years, a period that included health crises and concerns over staffing. Gannett was awarded the
See BYRD page 5
highest level of certification a patient-centered medical home can receive from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a University press release stated on March 7. It was also accredited for the fifth time with the highest marks given by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. According to the NCQA’s
KELLY YANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students observe a “corpse plant” — which smells like rotting meat — bloom for the first time in Cornell’s Greenhouse on Tuesday.
website, a patient-centered medical home is a health care setting that encourages individual patients, their personal physicians, and, when appropriate, the patient’s family, to work together. President David Skorton said that the two awards highlight Gannett’s dedication to preventive care. “The PCMH model, with its
emphasis on preventive care, is a good fit with Gannett’s longtime approach and goals,” he said in a press release. The period under review for AAAHC was three years from 2009 to 2011. During this period, Gannett dealt with a number of challenges, such as an H1N1 See GANNETT page 4
One Year Later, Students, C-Town Residents React to Plans for Grocery Store Profs Discuss Effects of Natural Disasters in Japan By KEVIN MILIAN
Sun Staff Writer
By ERICA AUGENSTEIN Sun Staff Writer
One year after an earthquake and tsunami devastated much of Japan, graduate students and professors from both Cornell and the University of Tokyo gathered to discuss the aftermath of the disaster in a conference on Sunday and Monday. On March 11, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit Japan, triggering a tsunami that in turn damaged several nuclear reactors in the country. The disaster killed as many as 20,000 people, The
New York Times reported. One year later, it also has left Japan with questions about the safety of using nuclear energy, residual health hazards and reconstruction. “The question we posed is, ‘How can we bring closure to [a] crisis like Japan’s nuclear and natural disaster?”’ said Prof. Hirokazu Miyazaki, director of the East Asia Program. “It is a tricky question in the sense that the crisis in question is continuing, if not deepening.” Miyazaki said the See JAPAN page 6
On Tuesday, the Collegetown Neighborhood Council — along with the student organization, DesignConnect — solicited feedback from Cornell students and local residents on a new potential grocery store in Collegetown. Both the CNC and DesignConnect intend to
use feedback obtained from the meeting to pursue their plans to develop the store. Logan Axelson grad, a member of DesignConnect who led the session, said he hopes the grocery store, if built, will fill an existing need for access to fresh produce among Collegetown residents — particularly students. “Our purpose is to increase access to healthy
food for students, as well as help them make good nutrition choices,” Axelson said. A new grocery store in Collegetown could also make the neighborhood a “yearly community,” said Alderperson Graham Kerslick (D-4th Ward). “We need more than a grocery store; we need better
as well as their levels of interest in learning such skills. According to Wilkins, if the survey shows there is a strong demand for doing so, the grocery store could include a station designed to teach cooking skills. “Community members could come to take a class
“We need more than a grocery store; we need better selection of stores to make a more vibrant Collegetown.” Graham Kerslick
NATHAN SCHWARTZBERG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Making plans | Students and local residents discuss plans for a grocery store in Collegetown on Monday.
selection of stores to make a more vibrant Collegetown,” Kerslick said. The first of five informational stations presented at the meeting was the “Food Learning Hub,” where Prof. Jennifer Wilkins, nutritional sciences, administered a survey in which students were asked to rank their levels of expertise in preparing food,
on making vegetarian meals, and the store would promote the ingredients of that week’s class,” Wilkins said. “It would be a place where students could talk about food issues and truly learn from expertise from Cornell, the community or the Cornell Cooperative See STORE page 4