February 21, 2012

Page 1

PARDI GRAS! hi

45° |

lo

TUESDAY

34°

february 21, 2012

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

Work ‘n’ play SA members elected students to the

Seeing clearly The Daily Orange Editorial

Cheers for charity Sorority sisters of Delta

Long ball Syracuse softball looks to build

Board discusses the need for transparency from the administration. Page 5

Sigma Theta discuss events during their annual Fortitude Week. Page 7

on last year’s NCAA tournament win and advance deeper in the postseason. Page 16

general assembly and participated in team-building exercises at Monday’s meeting. Page 3

There sometimes

is justification,

but sometimes monitoring is taken to an

EXTREME LEVEL.

Campus community reacts to news that Muslim students were tracked at SU, among other universities By Marwa Eltagouri

A

ASST. NEWS EDITOR

s a member of the Learning About Israel in the Middle East project, Sam Taylor was shocked to hear that the New York Police Department was monitoring Muslim college students at Syracuse University for suspicious terrorist activity. “I knew it was happening, but I’m just so shocked,” Taylor said. “I knew it was happening at other schools, but not here.” The Associated Press reporters broke the news Saturday that undercover officers were sent by the NYPD to monitor Muslim student associations at Northeast colleges such as Syracuse University, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University and the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo and Stony Brook, among others. LIME, an interfaith project to promote discussion on Israeli culture,

works closely with the Muslim Students Association on campus. Taylor, a senior broadcast and digital journalism major, is familiar with the association and said he is surprised anyone in the MSA would have questionable ties to terrorism. “If there’s sufficient evidence, then of course the monitoring would be justified,” he said. “But the MSA is not one of those organizations.” An anonymous source reported a student informant was present on SU’s campus between 2006 and 2008. It is unclear whether the monitoring is still occurring. The NYPD, along with the CIA, developed secret programs to watch Muslims in their daily activities, including their eating locations and frequency of worship. Detectives browsed Muslim student websites, and officers were sent on student trips to monitor the participants, frequently recording personal information for police records. The anonymous source who report-

ed the undercover officer on SU’s campus is familiar with the NYPD’s program, but chose to remain anonymous due to a lack of authority to discuss the issue. Mohamed Ahmed, a senior bioengineering major, said for him, the monitoring is a “reality.” Ahmed is of both Egyptian and Portuguese descent and said he is often racially profiled at airports because his last name matches names on no-fly lists. And although he said he was tolerant when pulled aside the first time, he loses tolerance each time his name is associated with the list. “There sometimes is justification, but sometimes monitoring is taken to an extreme level,” he said. “In this case, NYPD basing monitoring on religion is ridiculous.” Ahmed said he questions why the MSA is receiving unequal treatment in this situation compared to a student association of Christians or Jews. He said he

SEE NYPD PAGE 4

st uden t associ ation

Medical amnesty to take effect By Rachael Barillari ASST. NEWS EDITOR

A medical amnesty policy and explicit cyberbullying language will be added to Syracuse University’s Code of Student Conduct. Student Association President Dylan Lustig said a medical amnesty policy, first proposed three years ago, will be put into effect at SU, although not immediately. The policy encourages students to call officials if they are in need of help in drug- or alcohol-related emergencies. The policy will make it so those in the Office of Judicial Affairs will reprimand the individual in need of medical

SEE AMNESTY PAGE 4

fine a llegations

Lawyers to argue over venue of suit By Liz Sawyer NEWS EDITOR

Lawyers involved in the defamation case against Jim Boeheim and Syracuse University will argue to move the venue of the lawsuit from New York City to Syracuse during a hearing Tuesday morning. Attorneys for stepbrothers Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, the first two men to accuse former associate men’s basketball coach Bernie Fine of molesting them, will contend that an impartial jury cannot be found in Syracuse due to the community’s obsession with SU basketball and the university. State Supreme Court Justice

SEE DEFAMATION PAGE 4


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.