INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 136, No. 13
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019
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12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
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Fresh Start
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ILR students react to the UAW's decision to launch the first major strike in a decade. | Page 3
Cine con Cultura is taking over Ithaca this month. Don’t miss out on feature films being shown across town. | Page 7
Men's tennis hopes tough opening tournament springboards spring success. | Page 12
Renters Line Up Overnight for Leases
BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cutthroat housing market forces students to camp out for 15 hours By SARAH SKINNER Sun Managing Editor
Fifteen hours before the renting office opened on a rainy Thursday morning, the girls spread out their blankets on the sidewalk, plugged in an extension cord through a hole in the door and settled in for the night. Large local firm the Ithaca Renting Company advertises the opening of the next year’s Collegetown leasing for 9 a.m. sharp on a September day each year. To snag leases in prime locations and at lower prices, students line up hours beforehand or even camp out the night before. Sophomores Amy Chen ’22, Sophie Matton ’22 and Bella Romano ’22 arrived at the door at 6 p.m. on the night of Sept. 11, equipped with warm clothes and a big umbrella — the forecast threatened rain early in the morning. That wouldn’t stop them from getting the apartment they
wanted for 2020-2021, the only three-bedroom in their complex of choice. One of the girls parallel parked her car in front of them on the street, an accessible haven for a quick nap. “It’s like Black Friday,” Matton told The Sun four hours into their vigil, but nearly 11 months before she could move into the apartment she hoped to sign a lease for the next day. “We’re not waiting outside of “It’s like Black Friday ... Walmart to get our TV, We’re not waiting outside a we’re wait- Walmart ... we’re waiting to ing to get get our apartment.” our apartment.” Sophie Matton ’22 This is a yearly phenomenon, the company’s manager said. Ithaca Renting is used to students queuing up half a day in advance for the cheapest or most desirable leases, and allowed the groups to stay inside until around 9 p.m. The three-bedroom that Chen, Matton and Romano camped out for was listed at $1,160 per person, per month. Other buildings that opened up that morning offered rents in Collegetown for as low as $720. The sophomores could see the window of what they hoped See HOUSING page 4
Early birds | Students line up nearly 15 hours before the Ithaca Renting Company opens in a bid for the most desirable leases.
SARAH SKINNER / SUN MANAGING EDITOR
HIGH: 66º LOW: 50º
Apple-tizing | The 37th annual celebration of New York’s most iconic fruit will feature musical acts, cider tastings and farmers from the local area. Above: A scene from last year’s festival.
Annual Ithaca Apple Festival to Arrive This Weekend on Commons By JOHNATHAN STIMPSON Sun News Editor
Tompkins County’s iteration of the time-honored Upstate New York fall tradition, the Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival, will open this Friday in Downtown Ithaca at noon and continue until Sunday, Sept. 29. The three-day festival celebrates one of upstate New York’s most iconic and valuable agricultural exports — trailing only Washington in production, the state produces 30 million bushels of apples annually, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. “The idea is to help share the story and the strong, rich agriculture economy that we have in the county and the greater
Finger Lakes. With apples being the prime crop in New York State, we are in the prime apple region,” Allison Graffin, marketing director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, told the Ithaca Times. “The real goal has been to get back to the roots to share with people coming in why this festival and why apples are so important to our region.” Started in 1982, the 37-yearold event, which is free to attend, will include a wide variety of musical showings, artist demonstrations and local vendors. Over 20 local farmers will have stalls centered on the Commons and surrounding streets, selling products and ingredients sourced from Ithaca’s hinterlands, notably See APPLES page 3
Amanda Nguyen Gives Speech at 10th Anniversary Celebration of A3C Nobel Peace Prize nominee speaks about struggles, triumphs at Asian and Asian American Center ANGELA LI 10 Years | By Sun Staff Writer
Nguyen’s keynote address marked a decade of existence for Cornell’s Asian and Asian American Center.
MEERA SHAH/ CORNELL UNIVERSITY
She is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, has helped pass protections for sexual assault survivors unanimously through the U.S. Congress and is training to become an astronaut — and she’s only 27. Amanda Nguyen visited Cornell on Sept. 19 as the keynote speaker for the 10th-anniversary celebration of the Asian and Asian American Center, bringing with her a tale of Asian American determination, political will and activism that parallels the history of the A3C itself. The center was borne out of a
need to “make this campus more responsive to the specific needs of students of Asian descent,” after several suicides by Asian students and incidents of “anti-Asian assaults” sent shockwaves through the Cornell campus during the 2002-03 academic year, according to Prof. Derek Chang, history and Asian American studies. A task force was then convened and issued recommendations. But it was not until 2009 — after the University faced years of sustained pressure from student activists, with help from alumni, faculty and staff — that the A3C opened its doors. “Institutional leaders, rather
than initiating change themselves, a choice. I could accept the injustice were pushed to it by stakeholders,” or rewrite the law, so I rewrote it. Chang said. “This center was cre- No big deal!” ated by you, and this center is for “I realized I had a choice. I could accept you.” the injustice or rewrite the law, That same ethos held true so I rewrote it.” for Nguyen as she “penned her Amanda Nguyen own civil rights into existence” in the face of a broken criminal As the room laughed, Nguyen justice system after she was sexually echoed the words of Elle Woods, a assaulted in 2013 as an undergrad- fellow Harvard alumna of Legally uate at Harvard. Blonde fame: “What, like it’s hard?” “I felt a lot of despair, but I also felt fire,” she said. “I realized I had See NGUYEN page 4