Fresh Coat
Ithaca commissions artists to paint murals in an attempt to prevent graffiti, page 13
Th ursday
S e p t e m be r 8 , 2 0 1 1
lucked out
family ties
Senior distance runner finds inspiration as a second-generation Bomber, page 23
Government gives to Pell Grants and takes from grad loans, page 10
The Ithacan
It ha ca , N . Y. Volume 7 9 , Is s u e 2
Rebuilding and remembering A nation comes together one decade after 9/11
One decade after the 9/11 attacks, New York City is still rebuilding, and a new skyline is taking shape. One World Trade Center rises from Ground Zero and will stand at 1,776 feet.
michelle boulé/the ithacan
by gerald doherty staff writer
When many current college students were still in middle school, the United States suffered one of the deadliest attacks in its history. Across the U.S., children were taken out of school. They learned a new word that would pervade a decade: terrorism. They would later learn of the men and women who lost their lives after going to work or boarding a plane, and of those who gave their lives to save anyone they could as towers burned and smoke blackened skylines and TV screens. This week, the college and community will hold a series of services and ceremonies to mark the passing of one decade since that attack. The events will commemorate lives lost and invite reflection on the crisis. For many college students, the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks still recalls vivid memories. Junior Juliet Barriola lived in northern Manhattan in a community called Inwood. She said early in the morning her teacher gathered the students together and explained to them what a terrorist attack was. “We had never heard of that, and she told us about the towers,” Barriola said. “I didn’t really understand what was going on, but my aunt picked me up early and we sat in front of the TV and watched the towers all day.” Barriola said her mother worked in an office five blocks
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from the World Trade Center, facing the towers. Her aunt didn’t tell her how close her mom was at the time. “She saw where the planes hit and she was nervous,” Barriola said. “She had to evacuate the building and walk over 100 blocks. She came home very tired with dust on her clothes.”
Junior Amber Zadrozny went to school in Milford, Conn., and remembers only confusion. “The principal made an announcement over the intercom saying that it was a ‘Code White,’” she said. “All the teachers got really worried looks on their faces and left the room for a minute and came back. They didn’t tell us what had happened, but you could tell they were stressed out.” Zadrozny said many students left early and no one was allowed outside for recess. It wasn’t until Zadrozny’s mother picked her up from school, brought her home and turned on the television that she had any idea of what was going on. For some, the attacks crushed all sense of security. “For weeks afterwards if I heard a plane, I would run outside to see what was going on because I was afraid it was coming down on Philadelphia,” junior Bella Ciabattoni said. She was in Pennsauken, N.J., during the attack. Two years later, Ciabattoni took a flight from California to New York City. She said she wasn’t familiar with the flight paths and didn’t know that the plane had to go over the ocean and turn around to face the landing strip. “I freaked out because I thought we had been hijacked and that we were going to keep going over the Atlantic,” she said. “I started crying, I was so scared. My mom had to convince me
See 9/11, page 4
Debt ceiling deal hits grad loans by Gillian smith senior writer
The federal government has eliminated loan subsidies for graduate students as part of the summer debt ceiling bill, leaving students with more financial worries about graduate school. By axing subsidized loans and repayment benefits for some students, the government is using the savings to help fill the shortfall in the Pell Grant program. With the elimination of these subsidized loans, graduate students — who are not eligible for Pell Grants — will now accrue interest while in school. The new changes to the system will go into effect in the 2012-13 academic year and will mostly
affect graduate students whose federal loans will begin accruing interest upon dispersal. Haley Chitty, director of communications for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said the Pell Grant system operates as an entitlement program in which students can get money they are eligible for, even if Congress hasn’t appropriated enough funding to cover it. The Pell Grant system is a federally funded aid program that gives financial aid to low-to-middleincome class students. These are students whose annual household income is less than $30,000 per year. The maximum grant per student is $5,550 per year. Pell Grants do not have to be
paid back to the government and are different from subsidized loans, which are loans that do not accrue interest while the student is still enrolled in school. “In previous years’ budgets,” Chitty said, “Congress has underestimated how many students will get awards, so the $17 billion will hopefully shore up that deficit.” This year, the Congressional Research Service conducted a study that estimated 9.4 million students would receive Pell Grant aid for the upcoming academic year. A couple years ago, the number was estimated at 6 million students. “There’s a couple different factors contributing to [the increase],” Chitty said. “Any time there is high unemployment, there is an increase
Senior Marlee Rutberg visits Becky Best, a specialist in the Office of Student Financial Services. The Pell Grant system will receive $17 billion. file photo/the ithacan
in the number of students who go back to school and, combined with the economic conditions, there are more people applying for and being eligible for financial aid.” At Ithaca College, 22 percent of
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undergraduate students receive Pell Grants. There are about 500 graduate students at the college, 22 percent of whom receive federal aid.
See Grants, page 4