INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 130, No. 60
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013
!
ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Cows Go Moo
When in Minnesota
I Just Wanna Run
Mostly Sunny HIGH: 41 LOW: 26
Kirstin Torgerson ’15 will head to Kenya this summer to build a dairy at an all-girls school. | Page 3
Yana Lysenko ’16 calls Fargo a “thrilling crime comedy, beyond what even Coen-lovers could expect.” | Page 10
The women’s cross country team is preparing to head to the NCAA national championships. | Page 16
Students Protest County’s Proposal to Expand Jail By NOAH RANKIN Sun Senior Writer
Carrying signs reading “Stop investing in new cages, we want schools and living wages” and “Stop silencing citizens’ solutions,” about 20 community members protested prospective jail expansions in Tompkins County at the Tompkins County Legislature meeting Tuesday. The potential expansions would consist of seven new inmate beds and additions to the prison yard and cost about $900,000, according to the county legislature. The group of protestors included Cornell students and other members of the community. “Alternatives to incarcerations haven’t
been explored as much as they should have,” Natalie Nesvaderani grad said. “This jail expansion would be a really unintelligent allocation of funds.” Although the protesters went to Tuesday’s meeting under the impression that the 2014 budget being voted on would include the aforementioned expansions, the soonest that the money for jail expansions would be borrowed would be in spring 2014. The expansions themselves would not be fully decided until the 2015 budget, which would occur next year at the earliest. Even so, protesters said they found it promising that there will be more time for conversation about the proposed expansions to continue in the coming months.
RINA KANG / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Can’t stop, won’t stop | About 20 Ithaca residents, including Cornell students, protest against proposed expansions of the Tompkins County Jail at a public meeting Tuesday.
Many protesters said the U.S prison infrastructure as a whole is a racist, classist and financially-motivated system that should be reduced, not expanded. “More African-American men and women are incarcerated in the U.S. today
than were enslaved in 1850,” said Prof. Paula Ioanide, comparative race and ethnicity studies, Ithaca College. “[The American prison system] is equivalent in its See PROTEST page 5
CUPD: Man Arrested After Trying to Rob Employee at Knifepoint By EMMA COURT Sun City Editor
Rishawn M. Vieweg, a 25-year-old Ithaca resident, was arrested in connection with an attempted armed robbery in Weill Hall Tuesday, according to Cornell Police. At approximately 4:53 p.m., Vieweg
allegedly attempted to steal cash from a University employee while threatening her with a knife, according to the Cornell University Police Department. He then allegedly tried to force the employee into an elevator, at which point the employee was able to break free, call for help and escape.
The crime occurred near Synapsis Cafe in Weill Hall, according to a University press release. A witness called CUPD at 4:53 p.m., while the crime was in progress; the first officer was on the scene by 4:55 p.m., Honan said. Vieweg was able to escape, but he was captured by CUPD “minutes
later,” according to the press release. No injuries were reported during the incident. Vieweg was arrested on two felony charges, robbery in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the first degree, and two misdemeanor charges, See ROBBERY page 4
Actor Talks Faith,Hollywood Malina returns to campus parents called home By TALIA JUBAS Sun Staff Writer
AKANE OTANI / SUN MANAGING EDITOR
Stepping off The Hill | A Cornell class has been working to improve Ithaca’s West Hill neighborhood. The West Village Apartments, a low-income housing development, has been the site of much crime in the last two years.
Class Seeks to Improve West Hill Neighborhood By DAVID JANECZEK Sun Contributor
A Cornell landscape architecture class is working on a plan to improve Ithaca’s West Hill neighborhood, which has in the past been plagued by crime and ten-
sions between high-density, lowincome housing residents and other homeowners in the area. The class has explored a variety of options from implementing relatively standard urban planning concepts — like the addition of bicycle lanes, better street light-
ing and greater pedestrian accessibility — to targeting West Hillspecific problems, like the preservation of open space and the problems associated with the lack of a large community meeting See WEST HILL page 4
Joshua Malina, star of acclaimed television series The West Wing and Scandal, spoke about his path to Hollywood, his Jewish faith and the various ways in which the two have intersected — not always successfully — to a crowded Statler Auditorium Tuesday. Malina began his talk — titled “How to Make it in Hollywood and Remain a Mensch” — by noting that it is unclear both if he has made it in Hollywood and if he is a mensch, the Yiddish word for a person of integrity. “[They are] both unproven, merely self-proclaimed — but if you grant me the points, it will go more smoothly,” Malina said, prompting audience laughter. Malina spoke about his upbringing and how he retains some of the traditions he
learned at home and during his eight years in Jewish day school. He reflected on how his parents instilled in him the core tenets of Judaism by modeling behavior that reflected Jewish values, such as giving charity. “I grew up in a household that honored the Jewish tradition and instilled me with Jewish pride, something that I’m trying to pass on to my kids,” he said. He was able to thank his parents — both of whom went to Cornell — directly for their influence, as they were sitting in the audience. They had come up not only to “kvell” — which Malina described as “taking an inordinate amount of vicarious pleasure in the accomplishments … of your children” — for their son, according to the younger Malina, but also to visit their See MALINA page 5