Comic Craze
Mixing it up
Comic fans and artists to gather at Comic Book Club of Ithaca’s 35th annual convention, page 13
Thursday A pr il 2 2 , 2 0 1 0
Freshman Jen Biondi makes smooth transition to outfield, page 23
The Ithacan
Professor Marty Brownstein to retire after 40 years at Ithaca College Staff Writer
With his New York Times tucked under his burgundy-colored button-down shirt, Marty Brownstein walked into his 10:50 a.m. Media and Politics class for one of the last times. While sitting on a table in Park Auditorium, he cleared his throat, and his deep raspy voice filled the room as he started a conversation with his students about the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland and the regulations on Wall Street. “What are the political and economic implications of this eruption?” Brownstein asked his students. “Are we going to see continuous effects from this?” For an hour, Brownstein listened to his students tell him the news, pushing them to articulate
By Ithacan staff
and debate their views of the world. But after 40 years of listening and moderating these discussions, Brownstein, associate professor of politics, has decided to retire. “I was apprehensive as most prospective retirees are, but I have to resolve my questions of the sadness of leaving and the pain of leaving my podium behind,” he said. “It’s a very privileged job, and I did feel a little sad at times for leaving it, but not now.” The Brooklyn native received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College, part of City University of New York, before attending Harvard University for a year and then earning two master’s degrees from Yale University. Brownstein began teaching at
See marty, page 4
allison usavage/the ithacan
European airports work to clear traffic after volcano By taylor long Staff Writer
After being grounded since last Thursday, planes and weary travelers across Europe are finally seeing movement on the runway. An ash cloud left by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, a volcanic glacier near the Atlantic coastline of Iceland, wreaked havoc for travelers hoping to fly to or from the continent since last Thursday and continues to cause problems as airlines struggle to accommodate travelers, following a series of delays worse than those experienced by travelers following the Sept. 11 attacks. The volcanic glacier has been dormant for more than 200 years before it erupted briefly this March and, on a larger scale, beginning last Wednesday. Though 800 people surrounding the glacier were evacuated last week for fear the magma would melt the ice and cause flash flooding, the majority of problems caused by the eruption are a result of the ash blown miles into the air. Once it was ejected high into the atmosphere, the ash was carried to northern Europe by prevailing winds and continues to hover there, held by a high-pressure system that shows no signs of changing, according to a statement made by Sarah Holland of Britain’s Meteorological office to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Even though flights have since been rescheduled, students studying at the Ithaca College London Center who experienced travel delays last weekend fear the disaster could still affect their future travel plans. Last week, junior Laura Bugbee made reservations at a Denmark hostel in advance in order to visit family and friends, but after the volcano
Karin Lidholm from Sweden waits for a flight to Stockholm at the El Prat del Llobregat Airport in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday. Spain has offered to let Britain and other European countries use its airports.
David Ramos/associated press
erupted, Bugbee, who is studying at the London Center, was forced to put her plans on hold. Now Bugbee is waiting to see if the flight to Spain she booked for tomorrow will also be delayed. Many other students studying abroad, their families and even President Tom Rochon are being forced to alter their plans as well. “It’s hard to know I’ll miss out on seeing these places,” Bugbee said. “I came to London to study because I wanted the chance to travel. It’s also annoying to lose money on hostels and
I t h a c a , N . Y.
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ITS releases fix for computer software glitch
The party’s over By Melanie breault
makeover
College’s housing proposal will tackle residential issues, page 10
busses to and from the airport that were booked ahead of time.” Scientists report that seismic activity beneath the volcano continues to increase but that the cloud finally appeared to be dissipating yesterday, a good sign for those stranded in airports across Europe or students like Bugbee who were hoping to have the opportunity to explore the region before their semester abroad comes to a close.
See volcano, page 4
find more. online. www.theithacan.org
Information Technology Services is hoping to quickly resolve a campuswide computer problem after McAfee antivirus software caused computers nationwide to perpetually reboot yesterday afternoon. ITS announced in an e-mail yesterday that a fix for the issue Fuller said ITS has been de- is working to proveloped. The vide assistance to the campus. office is asking for a designate from each department or area to come to the ITS Helpdesk on the first floor of Job Hall between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. today to pick up a CD and the documentation for installing the patch. Ed Fuller, associate vice president of ITS, said the problem is an issue with McAfee and not specific to the college’s network. “It appears that it may be an issue with the McAfee virus scanning products that we use, ironically enough, for protecting ourselves from viruses,” Fuller said. According to CNET News, a McAfee update of its virus software confused PCs’ immune systems yesterday, causing the software to attack legitimate operating system processes. CNET reported that at the University of Michigan’s medical school, 8,000 of its 25,000 computers crashed yesterday because of the update. Peter Earle, multimedia laboratory technician for the Roy H. Park School of Communications, said the antivirus software was saying it was finding a virus when there was actually no virus to be found. “The only way to eradicate it is to restart the system, but it was never going to get rid of it,” he said. ITS began receiving complaints that campus computers were experiencing unexpected shutdowns and were continuously rebooting around 10:30 a.m. Juan Arroyo, assistant professor of politics, said he experienced problems on his office computer. “I started to work on a presentation for my next class, and my computer just kept turning itself off,” he said. “I asked the [politics] department administrator, and she was having the same problem.” Fuller said PC users should contact the ITS Helpdesk if there are any further problems with their machine and check for updates from ITS on Intercom. “We’re going to stay at it until we get it fixed,” he said.