in control
leading edge
The men’s club golf team extends undefeated streak while looking toward future, page 23
Thursday
Octobe r 2 1 , 2 0 1 0
Mainstage theater brings Broadway musical “Chicago” to Ithaca, page 15
The Ithacan
Workers seek improvements from Sodexo by elizabeth sile editor in chief
Ithaca College dining services employees are joining others across the country to fight for improved working conditions, Keep the disbetter pay and cussion going. benefits and the Comment on right to union- this article at ize without in- theithacan.org. timidation from their employer Sodexo. The Service Employees International Union started Clean Up Sodexo, a campaign to unite Sodexo workers, university students and communities across the country and expose them to the company’s labor practices. Local 200 of SEIU has begun working with Sodexo employees at the college to join this campaign. The French international food service and facilities management company employs about 380,000 people in 80 countries around the world. The college contracts the company to handle all of its residential, retail and catering food services on campus. President Tom Rochon said the company first signed with the college in September 2000, and in February 2007 an amended contract was signed for the next 10 years. The contract costs the college about $9.6 million annually, Carl Sgrecci, vice president of finance and administration, said. More than $3.6 million of this contract is used for employee compensation. Since the recent national campaign started, SEIU has recruited members across the country, started petitions and staged rallies and protests, including at the company’s headquarters in France. Among the campaign’s claims is that Sodexo creates a “cycle of poverty” through low wages, doesn’t give access to affordable health care and has a history of mistreatment of minority employees and sexual harassment. Alfred King, director of public relations at Sodexo in Gaithersburg, Md., said Sodexo offers competitive wages and benefits, and Clean Up Sodexo’s allegations are false. “If anyone looked at our wages in a location, they’d find that they were very competitive with jobs with similar responsibilities and skill levels,” he said. King said no Sodexo employee salary starts at less than $8.19 an hour, and about two-thirds of Sodexo’s employees make or exceed $11.11 an hour, Tompkins County’s living wage with benefits. Calvin Ott, an organizer at Local 200 of SEIU in Rochester,
See sodexo, page 4
Dazzle ‘em
Students get sober and find ways to cope with college atmosphere, page 13
I t h a c a , N . Y. Volum e 7 8 , I s s u e 8
Questionable practices
Genital surgeries come under national and local scrutiny Far right, Ralph Nachman, dean of clinical research at Weill Cornell Medical College, leads a discussion about clitoral reduction surgeries as panelists listen Oct. 4 in Goldwin Smith Hall at Cornell University. claudia pietrzak/the ithacan
by taylor long
Assistant news editor
Janet Green ’79 grew up wondering if there was something wrong with her. As a child born with an enlarged clitoris, Green said jumbled memories of being exposed in hospitals and paraded in front of doctors characterized the early years of her life. Before Green even left the hospital, she had already undergone her first operation to change the appearance of her genitals. “What your parents say to you is ‘I love you just the way you are,’” she said. “When you are a child who finds out that your body has been changed in ways that are abnormal or not necessarily about your satisfaction, … you feel like this is just lip service.” Green has congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a condition medically classified as a disorder of
sexual differentiation, or unusual genital anatomy. Like most females with CAH, Green was born with an enlarged clitoris — larger than one centimeter — at birth. She received surgery to reduce its size 53 years ago. The procedure, which is still performed regularly by surgeons, is meant to make the child’s genitals appear more “normal.” These operations are the specialty of Dr. Dix Poppas, a pediatric urologist and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, whose controversial research measuring the sexual sensitivity of young girls has attracted national attention. A 2007 research paper co-authored by Poppas and published in The Journal of Urology outlines the ways Poppas thinks the clitoris can be cut without compromising the patient’s ability to reach orgasm later in life. The paper also describes ways Poppas gauges the surgery’s success — by stimulating the
clitoris with a cotton applicator or vibratory device and asking girls to rate their level of sensation on a scale of one to five. According to the study, Poppas administered tests to girls as young as 5 years old under the surveillance of their parents. Patient advocates and scholars question how these tests, which potentially subject young girls to serious psychological harm, are being regulated. Ellen Feder, professor of philosophy at American University, co-authored a Bioethics Forum article published in June that attacked Poppas’ practices. Feder said none of the psychologists she spoke with thought administering these tests to young girls was developmentally appropriate. “It strikes most people as an exploitative
See surgery, page 4
Abroad programs not disrupted by travel alerts By christina dey contributing writer
In the wake of travel alerts released by the U.S. State Department earlier this month, study abroad programs at Ithaca College are working to keep students informed of suspected al-Qaeda attacks, though no direct changes have been made to any programs. “We are not advising Americans to avoid travel to Europe first and foremost,” Noel Clay, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said. The alert, released Oct. 3, has prompted response from study abroad programs connected to the college. Study abroad directors have been keeping students informed of the alerts. The decision not to mention any specific countries in the alert was based on conversations between the government and counterparts overseas, Clay said. Unlike travel warnings, which recommend citizens defer or avoid travel in specified countries or regions, alerts urge the use of best practices while traveling and staying abroad, as described by the department. “Travel alerts are more for short term situations, and a travel warning would be a more long term situation,”
A French soldier patrols Oct. 3 around the Louvre museum in Paris. The U.S. State Department has cautioned Americans traveling and staying in Europe.
Laurent Cipriani/associated press
Clay said. “This alert was released to provide information about potential threats so citizens can be more aware while they travel abroad.” Rachel Cullenen, director of study abroad at the college, said the alerts do not offer precise information. “They’re very vague, very non-specific,” she said. The threat level relating to the
possibility of international terrorist attacks within British borders is currently set at severe, which means “a terrorist attack is highly likely,” according to the British government. The British government provides information similar to the U.S. government about the possibility of terrorism threats, but breaks it down by country. France, Germany
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and Spain are all listed as having a “high threat from terrorism” on the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office website. The State Department’s decision to release a European-related travel alert because of terrorism concerns is not unprecedented. It released one in 2004 following a train bombing in Madrid. The 2005 London bombings prompted an update to a worldwide caution statement published by the department. Since the bombings, high terrorism threat levels have become part of life, especially after 9/11, Bill Sheasgreen, program director at the Ithaca College London Center, said. “It follows the pattern of what we have been living with for the past 10 years or so,” he said. Sheasgreen, who also serves as a U.S. Embassy warden for the college in London, said whenever he receives new information from the State Department pertaining to travel alerts and travel warnings, it is always passed on to students. The State Department has advised citizens to know how to contact the American embassy or consulate and how to use pay
See alert, page 4