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PIPE DREAM Tuesday, November 12, 2013 | Binghamton University | www.bupipedream.com | Vol. LXXXIV, Issue 18
BU honors veterans
Dillingers signs anti-racism pledge Downtown bar responds to allegations of discrimination Rachel Bluth News Editor
Franz Lino/Staff Photographer
The Binghamton ROTC unit and Binghamton’s New York State University Police participate in a flag raising ceremony Monday morning outside of the Couper Administration Building. The ceremony was conducted in honor of all those who have served and are currently serving in the United States military.
Military servicemen and women recognized on Veterans Day Weekend Dhruv Sehgal News Intern Binghamton University spent some time honoring the men and women of the United States military over Veterans
Day weekend. On Friday, admission to the Binghamton Bearcats basketball doubleheader was free for all veterans, reservists and active duty members of the
military. On Saturday, the Returning Warrior 10-Miler, sponsored by the Broome Country STOPDWI Program, sought to raise awareness about service
members’ transitions from the dangers of war-zone driving to the new risks they face on public highways once they
See VETS Page 5
Following allegations of racism, the owners of Dillingers Celtic Pub & Eatery have signed an antidiscrimination pledge. The pledge was unveiled at an anti-discrimination rally held by the Confronting Racism Coordinating Committee and Women’s Student Union on Nov. 1. Representatives from Dillingers were not among the representatives of local businesses who originally signed the pledge to not discriminate based on race, sex or age. According to Toivo Asheeke, an organizer with the Confronting Racism Coordinating Committee and a graduate student studying sociology, the owners claimed to be out of town at the original rally, though he expressed skepticism about that claim. “We still do not understand why he was not here; he knew about it, although he claims not to have known about it,” Asheeke said.
Both the pledge and the rally were direct responses to an Aug. 25 incident where a black SUNY Broome Community College student, Kyle Lovett-Pitts, was denied access to Dillingers and called racial slurs. Because Dillingers did not sign the pledge originally, the Confronting Racism Coordinating Committee and Women’s Student Union sent Dillingers an invitation to a public signing of the pledge on Nov. 8. “It’s a public signing, not a rally, so that he could do it in public versus hiding behind corners signing documents,” Asheeke said. Dillingers owner Monarco DiFrancesco signed the pledge at Greenman’s Park on Friday evening, thereby agreeing to the three additional requests that the CRCC and WSU made in their invitation to sign the pledge. Dillingers agreed to release a statement to the media that they apologize for what happened to Lovett-Pitts and that they wish for all charges to be dropped, as well as
See SIGN Page 5
Legislation accommodates ROTC Pipe Dream faces backlash Student Congress More than 50 students protest controversial opinion piece WHRW News
A crowd of over 50 students and faculty filled the hallway outside Pipe Dream’s office Monday evening in reaction to an opinion piece published in Friday’s paper. The group, which included leaders of prominent cultural organizations on campus, came prepared with suggestions detailing how they believed Pipe Dream should respond to the incident. Editor-in-Chief Christina Pullano and Managing Editor Paige Nazinitsky emerged from the office several minutes after the crowd had assembled to present a prepared statement. The opinion piece in question, “Dressing as Another Race Isn’t Always Offensive,” authored by Julianne Cuba, a senior double majoring in history and Chinese, discussed the use of blackface in Halloween costumes. The issue has been made nationally relevant by actress Julianne Hough’s recent appearance in blackface, portraying Crazy Eyes from the Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black.”
Cuba presented a viewpoint criticizing recent media condemnation of Hough’s action as racist by arguing that, “By creating racist claims out of something so innocent as a Halloween costume, we are further perpetuating race as an all-inclusive issue when it doesn’t have to be.” The gathering in response to the opinion piece was coordinated in part by senior computer science major Joseph Tannenbaum, who described the group’s organization process and demands. “I contacted the various cultural groups on campus and the student group, that I don’t believe is SA chartered, called the Confronting Racism Coordinating Committee. I also contacted the Women’s Student Union and a number of other organizers who have done stuff in the past.” “My goals and our goals were to present the Pipe Dream with three demands in response to the publishing of the article on Friday.” The demands were to dismiss the author of the opinion piece, to establish a leadership position at
See PROTEST Page 6
allows cadets to miss classes for training
James Scott Contributing Writer
On Monday, the Student Congress unanimously passed legislation in favor of academic accommodation for Binghamton University Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) students. Students in the ROTC program at Binghamton University are not issued formal accommodation from administration for missing classes, contrary to student-athletes, which has caused cadets to drop majors, classes and the ROTC itself. Professors are not required, nor are they recommended by the administration, to accommodate for ROTC students; those decisions are completely under faculty jurisdiction. With the bill, “The Student Association would declare its official policy that supports expansion of current academic accommodations for student-athletes to students enrolled in ROTC programs on campus.” Derrick Conyers, vice president for academic affairs and a senior
File Photo
Members of the Binghamton University ROTC organization drill on campus. Student Congress unanimously passed legislation Monday evening in favor of academic accommodation for BU ROTC students.
double-majoring in political science and philosophy, politics and law, spoke in favor of the bill before it was brought up for the vote. “In this bill we are not asking for anything more than the accommodation that studentathletes already receive to be available for the ROTC students,” he said. “If we pass this bill what we can say to administration is that the SA is completely behind this, and with the representation of the entire student body we can show how this is an uncontroversial issue among all students.”
Carmelo Centeno, a previous ROTC student at BU and a junior majoring in political science, said that he had to drop out of the ROTC program due to the lack of accommodation. “There are many times where teachers are not accommodating at all toward ROTC students. I was forced to drop the ROTC program altogether as a result of the lack of accommodation,” Centeno said. “Since we don’t get accommodation, we [ROTC students] have to make decisions to pursue either our major or the ROTC program.”
The bill also specified that ROTC students have been receiving grade reductions for missed classes due to their training sessions held at Cornell University. According to the legislation, “… students enrolled in ROTC programs have received reductions in course grades or missed exams, without receiving a makeup opportunity, due to absences resulting from these training sessions.” Patrick Elliott, athletics director at BU, wrote that if a student-
See ROTC Page 5