SLIP N’ SLIDE HI
59° |
LO
WEDNESDAY
50°
october 6, 2010
T H E I N DE PE N DE N T S T U DE N T N E W SPA PE R OF S Y R ACUSE , N E W YOR K
INSIDENEWS
INSIDEOPINION
INSIDEPULP
INSIDESPORTS
Battleground The wife of the imam advocating
Say no, celebs Vicki Ho urges celebrities to
Child’s Play SU promotes the
Line ‘em up USF set a program record with seven sacks in last
for the proposal for the controversial NYC mosque will speak at SU. Page 3
enter the fashion world with caution. Page 5
benefits of reading to local elementary schools with Children’s Book Week. Page 11
week’s win over Florida Atlantic. On Saturday, the Bulls’ defensive line will provide the biggest test thus far for a young Syracuse offensive line. Page 24
Sorkin’s Mark Screenwriter, SU alumnus Aaron Sorkin fills ‘The Social Network’ with personal experiences
Coed room trial loses 18 students By Jon Harris ASST. COPY EDITOR
By Brittney Davies
W
STAFF WRITER
hen asked in several interviews last week if he wants Mark Zuckerberg to see “The Social Network,” screenwriter
Aaron Sorkin said he’d never want a movie made about himself at 19. Why not? “Are you serious?” the Syracuse University alumnus answered in an e-mail from Berlin, where he was promoting the fi lm. “Is M-Street still there? Are there still women attending the school? Did 19-year-old guys stop being morons? And did the drama department students suddenly become cool?” But Sorkin’s script is, in essence, about his own college experience and his road to fame. Among other things, it’s a story of the human need to feel accepted and significant, and the inevitable setbacks that arise. “It seems pretty clear that he has exaggerated a lot of qualities about himself — he actually is writing about himself as a young man,” said Geri SEE SORKIN PAGE 13
illustration by molly snee | art director
Sima Taslakian was all signed up. She and one of her best friends enrolled in a brand new housing option offered at Syracuse University — gender-neutral housing, where dorm rooms are coed. “It was a natural fit,” she said. But over the summer, Taslakian, a sophomore information management and technology major, and her friend decided to cancel the nontraditional arrangement. And they weren’t the only pair of students who decided to opt out of gender-neutral housing. When the housing reservation process ended in April, 82 students had signed up for gender-neutral housing, said Terra Peckskamp, director of the Office of Residence Life. At the beginning of the fall semester, the number had dropped from 82 students to 68 students, or 34 pairs. That number continued to drop into the school year as two pairs of students who experienced problems were moved, bringing the number down to 64 students currently participating in the option, Peckskamp said. Gender-neutral housing is an option increasingly more U.S. colleges are offering. About 50 schools include the option, according to an article
SEE GENDER-NEUTRAL PAGE 8
Police to target texting while driving during second part of pilot program By Darian Herrington CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In an effort to discourage texting while driving, police will be cracking down on motorists in Syracuse for the next two weeks. The Syracuse Police Department, Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, New York State Police and Syracuse University Department of Public Safety will be watching motorists from Thursday until Oct. 16. Handheld cell phone use and texting while driving is banned for all drivers in
New York state. The pilot project, “Phone In One Hand, Ticket in Another,” is federally funded. Its mission is to raise awareness of the fact that using a cell phone while driving is dangerous, especially if the driver is texting, said Ken Baker from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. “One out of five crashes in New York state involves a distracted driver as a contributing factor to a crash,” Baker said. “We see that nationwide about 5,500 people died in 2009 in
crashes involving a distracted driver and more than 440,000 were injured.” The upcoming crackdown is the second in the campaign; the first was from July 22 to July 31. During the July crackdown, joint area police forces issued 184 citations for using a cell phone while driving, six for texting specifically and 160 for other driving violations, according to a state police press release. Texting while driving delays a person’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol content of .08 percent,
the equivalent to being drunk, Baker said. Syracuse is one of two cities in the nation involved in the pilot project. Syracuse and a Hartford, Conn., program will hopefully gain national recognition and become models on how to better educate the public on potentially dangerous driving behaviors, Baker said. “We want to use the pilot project in such a way that it will become a national standard, to be the equivalent of campaigns such as ‘Click it
or Ticket’ or ‘Over the Limit, Under Arrest,’” he said. Sgt. Gary Bulinski of SPD said the purpose of the Syracuse project is to look out for the safety of motorists and for the safety of the surrounding motorists and pedestrians. Police will be on the lookout for drivers and will be giving out tickets. Like many other driving violations, points will be put on their license. Texting while driving has a penalty of two points. SEE TEXTING PAGE 6