INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 128, No. 123 News Space Race
The Downtown Ithaca Alliance is reviewing proposals for new businesses on the Commons. | Page 3
Opinion Position of Privilege
Tom Moore ’14 defends his background as an opportunity to speak out on important issues. | Page 7
Arts Piano Man
The Sun interviews rock pianist Marco Benevento before his concert at the Haunt on Friday. | Page 9
Sports Champions of Cayuga
The women’s rowing team defeated Yale this weekend to claim the Cayuga Cup. | Page 16
Blogs Myrick ’09 Goes to D.C.
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 went to Washington to ask for a transportation grant. | cornellsun.com
Weather Few Showers HIGH: 47 LOW: 33
TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2012
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
Diversity Plan Delegates
16 Pages – Free
ATTEMPTED MURDER TRIAL • APRIL 8, 2011: Jamel Booker
Day Hall report allows colleges to choose own goals
allegedly shoots Russel Blackman.
• JUNE 2011: After being indicted,
By EMMA COURT
Over the course of the next year, each college dean and vice president will be expected to choose five specific goals from a “menu” of A plan to increase student, faculty and staff 16 to work on during the course of the acaddiversity by giving responsibility to leaders of emic year, according to Brown. the University’s colleges has been circulated Options include increasing certain types of among top administrators on campus and is diversity, “increasing engagement for a target in its final planning stages, according to Vice group” and supporting career development. Provost for Undergraduate Education Laura The deans and vice presidents will report to Skorton and Provost Fuchs at the end of “If you announce broad goals, it’s the year, according to really hard to hold anyone Brown. “If you announce accountable ... Each college has its broad goals, it’s really own priorities ... around diversity.” hard to hold anyone accountable," Brown Laura Brown said. “This gives each of them the opportuBrown. nity to highlight five goals, report back and “Each college has its own priorities and its use those as target points.” own strategic planning around diversity,” Brown also said the new policy allows each Brown said. “We didn't want to meddle in college to create its own approach to improvwhat they thought was appropriate. It will ing diversity, while still maintaining a system look different from college to college.” of accountability. The new approach –– called “Toward The new diversity priorities were created New Destinations” –– was announced by by the University Diversity Council, a group President David Skorton in an email to the charged with promoting diversity throughout Cornell community on Feb. 15 and will go into effect starting in the next academic year. See DIVERSITY page 4
Booker reportedly flees to Florida.
Sun Staff Writer
Students Mull Methods to Curb Alcohol Abuse By HARRISON OKIN Sun Staff Writer
Continuing an effort to combat highrisk drinking, four Cornell students attended a conference at Dartmouth College this weekend in which groups from five Ivy League universities discussed the different practices they employ to mitigate dangerous behaviors. The conference, dubbed the second annual Ivy Student Summit for Alcohol Harm Reduction, spawned from last year’s Dartmouth Collaborative, an initiative organized by the National College Health Improvement Project. As part of NCIP, representatives from 32 colleges
across the country met to discuss harm reduction as it relates to alcohol consumption, according to Melanie Herman ’12, one member of Cornell’s group. Herman said that, unlike the first conference, this summit focused solely on the input from Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, Harvard and Columbia in order to address the similar problems that these institutions have faced in recent years. “It is interesting to examine the social culture of different schools. It places a lot of what we are doing in context with the larger college drinking problem,” said atlarge Student Assembly Rep. John Mueller ’13, another member of the
group that attended the conference. “We are building connections with students who are trying to tackle the same issues we have here, each with our different nuances.” While students at the event primarily brainstormed ideas for reducing highrisk drinking rather than making tangible proposals, the five schools dissected which plans have worked best and worst at each school, according to Herman. It also gives Cornell an opportunity to tailor policies to our own culture and social environment, she said. “In terms of Cornell versus
Helping the hungry
• FEB. 9: Booker caught by police in hotel in Ithaca.
• FEBRUARY 2012: The D.A. charges Booker with attempted murder.
• MARCH 30: Booker files defense S
brief contesting charges.
After Fleeing, City Resident Fights Charges By JEFF STEIN Sun Managing Editor
About one year ago, outside the Elks Club on Green Street in downtown Ithaca, 22-yearold Jamel Booker allegedly pulled out a long silver revolver as he got to his feet. He had just been punched and knocked to the ground by Russell “Poon” Blackman, who reportedly incensed Booker by dancing with certain women in the club. A friend of Booker’s, who is unidentified in court papers, apparently urged him to strike back. “Kill the motherfuckers! Kill the motherfuckers! Give me the gun; I will do it,” the man reportedly bellowed. According to the prosecution, Booker relented to this demand. On April 8, 2011, they say, Booker shot Blackman multiple times in the torso, and one bullet grazed Blackman’s face. Police say Booker later fled to Florida, where he remained until February 2012, when he was caught by Ithaca Police. Blackman survived, but Tompkins County District Attorney is charging Booker, who is known as “Mel,” with attempted murder,
See DARTMOUTH page 5
See BOOKER page 4
Car Crash Victims Identified By AKANE OTANI Sun News Editor
GINA HONG / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Four panelists gathered in Goldwin Smith Hall Monday evening to discuss homelessness and hunger in the Southern Tier.
Ithaca Police released the names of the people involved in the fatal car accident that occurred Sunday on Route 13. D o m i n i q u e Slaughter-Smith, 20, from Fairburn, Ga., and Ithaca resident Prince J. Griffith, 21, died after their car collided rooffirst with a utility pole at the intersection of Cascadilla and North Fulton Street at approximately 3:54 a.m. Although the Ithaca Fire Department and personnel from Bangs
Ambulance provided medical assistance, both Slaughter-Smith and Griffith died at the scene of the accident due to injuries sustained in the crash, a police report stated. Two other passengers in the vehicle — Ithaca resident Rakim D. Slaughter, 24, and Isiah Mack, 19, from Brooklyn, N.Y. — were transported to trauma centers Sunday after the accident, the report stated. As of Monday, Mack had been released from a hospital in Sayre, Pa. Slaughter remained hospitalized in critical condi-
tion at a trauma center in Syracuse, N.Y. While police are still investigating the cause of the accident, they said that “it is known that the speed of the vehicle was one factor in the cause of this crash.” Police said only one vehicle appeared to have been involved in the accident. The crash left street signs for Cascadilla and North Fulton Street dented and a torn powerline loose on the ground. Akane Otani can be reached at aotani@cornellsun.com.