THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Graduation Issue 2012 3
A
RECAP OF EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE DURING OUR TIME IN I THACA
SPRING 2012
Racial Attack From Frat Balcony Sparks Protest
Allegedly taunting them with references to Trayvon Martin, a person or group of people on the roof of the Sigma Pi fraternity house reportedly threw bottles and other objects at black students who were walking by the house during the early morning hours of May 6, according to several accounts. The incident provoked a torrent of criticism from minority organizations, student leaders and Cornell administrators, who all rushed to condemn the reported behavior amid a criminal investigation by the Ithaca Police. Under the glare of national media outlets, the University held no fewer than seven events as part of a “series of conversations addressing bias,” and announced that Sigma Pi had been placed on interim suspension in the week after the incident. Still, at a rally on May 16, protesters from Cornell, Ithaca College and the Ithaca community blasted the University’s response to the attack, bringing with them the sound of syncopated drum beats and the fervor of about 100 shouting voices. “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” protesters shouted as they marched from the fraternity to Day Hall. Among their demands was a call for the administration to “take responsibility to end racism and
stop putting this responsibility on students,” to create an “anti-racist joint task force” and to “require all faculty and staff to undergo ongoing anti-oppression and social justice trainings.” Meanwhile, several key details surrounding the incident — including the identity and number of assailants — remain unknown. The fraternity has been “fully cooperative” with the investigation, said Kathy Zoner, chief of the Cornell University Police Department. Beverly Fonkwo ’14 said she was walking home with a friend when, unprovoked, someone on the fraternity roof began throwing objects that landed near a group walking behind them. When the people walking behind Fonkwo asked them to stop, the person or people on top of the fraternity continued to throw objects — including a Jack Daniels bottle that landed near the group behind Fonkwo and an unopened beer can that landed near Fonkwo and her friend — she said. When they asked them to stop again, the group responded, “‘Come up here, Trayvon,’ and started making all these other racial comments,” Fonkwo said. A black teenager from Florida, Trayvon Martin was shot and
MATT MUNSEY / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Up in arms | At a rally outside Day Hall on May 16, protesters criticize the University’s response to an alleged racial attack. An estimated 100 people attended the event, demanding that Cornell do more to improve race relations on campus.
killed in February — a death that was widely perceived as unprovoked and galvanized AfricanAmerican activists across the country. “I feel like it was targeted and racially motivated … we felt very threatened,” Fonkwo said of the incident. Meanwhile, the assailants “were just laughing at the whole situation until we called the police and then they ran inside,” she said.
TimeLine 8.30.11 THREE DIE IN GORGE ACCIDENTS: Three students died in separate gorge accidents this summer, leading the University to warn the students of the dangers of gorge swimming, a popular past-time for those looking to cool off during the sweltering summer months. 11.9.11 MYRICK ’09 ELECTED MAYOR OF ITHACA: Just two years after graduating from Cornell, 24-year-old Svante Myrick ’09 was elected Mayor of Ithaca on Nov. 8. The young candidate won wide support across Ithaca’s five wards, shocking many who thought he was too young to win.
11.21.11 HUMANITIES BLDG. SLATED FOR ARTS QUAD: A new building devoted to the humanities will rise on the Arts Quad, President David Skorton announced at a Board of Trustees meeting in November. The building, which will cost $61 million, will face East Avenue and attach to Goldwin Smith. 4.2.12 DALE CORSON, C.U.’s 8TH PRESIDENT, DIES AT 97: Remembered by Cornellians as the leader whose remarkably steady guidance saved the University from the upheaval of the 1970s, Dale Corson, the eighth president of Cornell, died March 31 at the age of 97.
4.20.12 RON PAUL STIRS LYNAH FAITHFUL: The Ron Paul revolution roared through Ithaca on April 19, as the Republican presidential candidate and anti-establishment icon implored a Lynah Rink crowd of over 4,000 to join him and defeat the “tyrants” and “enemies of liberty” destroying America. 5.11.12 PROFS APPROVE CALENDAR DESPITE DISSENT: Overriding widespread opposition from students, the Faculty Senate approved contentious changes to the academic calendar on May 10. Among other changes, the plan would add a break in February and shorten both exam week and senior week.
SUN FILE PHOTO
Out front | Then-President Dale Corson declares his opposition to the Vietnam War at a protest of 2,500 people on Oct. 15, 1969. Corson died March 31 at the age of 97.
In a statement, Sigma Pi said that there was one attacker and that he was not a member of the Cornell fraternity. Additionally, Zach Smith ’13, the fraternity’s president, said in an email obtained by The Sun that the individual was a member of Sigma Pi visiting from a chapter at another university. “The entire brotherhood of Sigma Pi is shocked and embar-
rassed by this incident and we recognize [that] we are accountable. Behavior like this from anyone and in any form occurring on our premises is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the ... fraternity,” the statement said. “Though the perpetrator was not a brother of our chapter, this unfortunate event took place on our premises and thus we hold the ultimate responsibility.”
Royal Palm Tavern Closes After 71 Years The alcohol was flowing for one Much of the Palms’ charm, it last night at the Royal Palm Tavern, seems, came from its unabashedly but the crowd — which filled the shabby appearance. Alumni debar to capacity — wasn’t just there to scribed it approvingly as a dive. In a take shots. 1978 review, The Sun described it as The Royal Palm, which had been “the most run-down place in the in Collegetown for 71 years, closed area.” Far from trying to fix it, the its doors for the final time during the owners of the Palms welcomed the early morning of March 1. Its last bar’s reputation. days were marked by throngs of “It’s your corner dive bar, and it’s returning alumni, fond remem- always been that way — it’s not prebrances and, on its final Sunday, a tentious,” Lenny Leonardo, who has marriage proposal. The bar, though “Every time you come back, you dark, dirty and often go to the Palms. But where do sticky, seemed to unite we go now?” its regulars with a special kind of bond. Students, Joe Lando ’92 alumni and townies returning for one more visit described how the bar, com- owned the Palms since the early monly known as the Palms, had 1980s with his brother, Joe, said . become their late-night home away “It’s a beer and shot place. You’re not from home. going to get daiquiris here or frozen “Every time you come back, you margaritas.” go to the Palms. But where do we go Leonardo’s father owned the bar now?” Joe Lando ’92 said outside the — which was established in 1941 by bar the night it closed. Leonardo’s uncle — from the 1950s Current undergraduates felt the through the ’80s. Even then, connection, too. Leonardo said, his father took pride “Where are we going to go? We in the dive bar atmosphere. have no home anymore!” a student “The only thing we ever change yelled at 1:15 a.m., shortly after the here is the light bulbs once in a music ended for the night. while,” Leonardo said.