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TUESDAY
oct. 17, 2017 high 61°, low 48°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • Moving forward
Syracuse University will hold its first 24-hour fundraising campaign on Tuesday. SU aims to outpace a $500,000 donation from an alum during the day. Page 3
dailyorange.com
O • Plan B
P • Endless Pastabilities
Student Life columnist Joanna Orland discusses how vending machines full of condoms and tampons can make health services more accessible at college. Page 5
Pastabilities just closed out one of its busiest weekends of the year, Family Weekend. Now the restaurant is gearing up for its upcoming 35-year anniversary. Page 9
S • Money talks
Syracuse joined the Atlantic Coast Conference largely for the massive monetary gains that come with TV rights deals in a big conference. See how much SU has profited. Page 16
planning commission
Officials approve NVRC plan By Sam Ogozalek asst. news editor
Striking gold MICHELE WHEATLY, DUNCAN BROWN AND STEFAN BALLMER, vice chancellor and provost and physics professors, respectively, participated in a panel discussion Monday on SU researchers’ work on a project that recorded neutron star collisions for the first time and discovered the origins of heavy elements. paul schlesinger asst. photo editor
national
on campus
Officials reveal star collision discovery
Limitations can skew assault report stats
By Kennedy Rose asst. news editor
Scientists at Syracuse University were part of the team that recently discovered evidence of the creation of gold and platinum through the collision of neutron stars, the first time scientists identified a neutron star collision. Physics professors Duncan Brown and Stefan Ballmer, alongside Vice President for Research John Liu and SU alumnus Jaysin Lord, discussed the group’s findings at a panel discussion in Goldstein Auditorium on Monday. Gold and platinum were created after two neutron stars the size of Syracuse collided at one-third the speed of light, Brown said. The force of the collision threw materials into the universe, creating stars, galaxies and heavier elements. “We have a fundamental piece of our knowledge of the universe,” Brown said. “Another piece of the jigsaw puzzle.” Per a fact sheet handed out at
the event, the scientists initially believed supernovas — the explosive death of a star — created heavier elements. They discovered heavier elements were the byproducts of the collision of neutron stars, which are the collapsed cores of supernovae and the smallest and densest stars. Neutron star collisions detected occurred billions of years ago, but its effects are seen today in the ripple of gravitational waves and the gold inside the earth. Brown, Ballmer and Peter Saulson, another physics professor, were part of the Nobel Prizewinning team that detected gravitational waves for the first time last year. They were not direct recipients of the award, but they worked with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory that detected the waves. The LIGO team discovered ripples, or gravitational waves, after two black holes collided. see discovery page 6
By Jordan Muller asst. news editor
One in five female undergraduates experience sexual assault in college, the United States Justice Department has found, and more than 215 respondents in a 2016 campus climate survey conducted at Syracuse University said they had experienced sexual assault. But in the Department of Public Safety’s annual security report, the number of sex offenses last year was just 17 in total. That includes 14 reported rapes and three reported fondling incidents. Unlike SU’s campus climate survey or other questionnaire-based findings, geography and a victim’s decision whether or not to report a crime can limit the number of sexual assaults that appear on the security report, mandated by a federal law called the Jeanne Clery Act. Because of the limitations, experts said the report and survey cannot be compared, and the difference in statistics is unsurprising.
“We know that sexual assault on the whole, from inappropriate touching all the way up to nonconsensual sexual intercourse, is underreported,” said W. Scott Lewis, a partner at NCHERM, a law and consulting firm that specializes in risk management for educational institutions. “The fact that the survey number is higher than the reported number is not stunning at all.” The ways universities handle sexual assault allegations after they have been reported to certain offices have come under increasing scrutiny from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who last month scrapped Obama-era guidelines requiring schools to use the lowest standard of proof — a “preponderance of the evidence” — when determining an accused student’s guilt in a sexual assault. A few days after DeVos’ announcement, SU responded to a lawsuit from a former student expelled for violating SU’s Code see clery
act page 7
A signature component of Chancellor Kent Syverud’s Campus Framework project cleared a major hurdle Monday after the city’s Planning Commission voted to approve the site plan for a proposed veterans complex near the intersection of South Crouse and Waverly avenues. Commission members, in a 3-1 vote, approved designs for the National Veterans Resource Complex, a $62.5 million project aimed at centralizing SU’s military and veterans programs. “This is the university’s number one building priority right now,” said Jennifer Champa Bybee, assistant director for campus planning. At a commission meeting Monday evening, Bybee confirmed that a Centro bus stop at the corner of Marshall Street and South Crouse Avenue will continue operating after the NVRC is built. John Barrett, a senior associate at New York City-based SHoP Architects, also showed commission members a handful of renderings of the future structure. The building will feature large modern glass facades. SHoP Architects won a competition last year to design the NVRC. George Curry, a commission member, wasn’t satisfied with the university’s presentation. “I’m not against this project, I just want to see the details,” said Curry, a distinguished teaching professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Barrett said ginkgo trees and maple trees will be planted in some spots. City staff confirmed a university-specific zoning district in the area does not contain any specific architectural standards. Curry voted against the project, though. SU now plans to request an encroachment permit for the NVRC. Bybee said that permit, needed to encroach upon any public space, might require Common Council approval. There is no timetable yet for the permit, Bybee said. Officials have planned landscaping improvements in city street rights-of-way, records show. The project’s anticipated completion date was pushed back to the spring 2020 semester because fundraising efforts took longer than expected. SU initially expected to finish the complex by the spring or summer of 2019. University officials have said they expect construction to start by January. sfogozal@syr.edu