The College of Architecture, Art and Planning held a town hall meeting yesterday to discuss what could be learned from the alleged stabbing on West Campus of Charles Holiday, a visiting black student, by Nathan Poffenbarger '08, a white Cornell student. The meeting was moderated by Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of AAP, and the panel members were Deven Gray '06, Kent Hubbell '69, Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students, Susan Murphy '73, vice president of student and academic services, and Gwen Wilkinson, Tompkins County District Attorney.

Wilkinson began by explaining the current status of Poffenbarger's trial. Yesterday, a grand jury voted to indict Nathan Poffenbarger on five charges. He is indicted on one count of tampering with evidence, three counts of assault in the 2nd degree as a hate crime, and one count of assault in the first degree as a hate crime. Poffenbarger will be arraigned Friday, and Wilkinson expects a trial in the fall. She stressed that "as with any other criminal charge he must and will be presumed innocent," saying that this is especially important for her as the prosecutor, "so that the outcome is a legitimate one, and the sentence imposed on him will be firm."

LaToya Brackett '06 was "really happy" that Wilkinson was present.

"There's often a lack of communication with the administration, and we got some answers," she said. Brackett continued, "It's great AAP did this. No other school is doing this … stepping up and saying we want to pose this question."

Murphy talked about changes in crisis management in response to the alleged stabbing. Staff were informed at about 8:00 the morning following the shooting, and "pulled together" by about noon. "By then it was well through the students. Some said there was 'nothing' from the administration for 12 hours and I don't disagree," Murphy said. In the past, staff would have only been informed immediately if there had been a death, but now they will be informed immediately if there is any sort of a crisis.

Also, Murphy said that the much-criticized "One Vision Many Voices," skit will not be returning for orientation week in the fall.

"It was not found to be very helpful and we're working to change it," Murphy said.

Ernie Jolly '09 feels that a lot of attention is given to pursuing new initiatives, while it's important to maintain current programs such as Ujaama, the Multicultual Living Learning Unit and the Africana Center.

"Specifically McLLU needs some space, some more renovations. People are attracted to West Campus, and McLLU is slowly slipping away," he said.

Gray spoke of student action, saying Cornell has a "legacy of protest unique amongst Ivy league universities," covering the takeovers of The Straight and Day Hall, as well as the protestors at Redbud Woods. She mentioned the student demands for a required course to cover racial issues, and said, "You can't teach diversity; you just have to be it."

Instead of one required class, "Every course should reflect the diversity of the world; all courses should be reflective of all cultures," she added.

Prof. Dick Booth, city and regional planning, said that there are "hundreds of courses" at Cornell that already contain elements relevant to diversity and discrimination. He teaches a course called CRP653: The Legal Aspects of Land Use Planning, which covers racial issues.

"Zoning is a lot of law about discrimination, the way communities have used land use powers to discriminate either intentionally or unintentionally against poor people and people of color," he said.

Sade Owolabi grad feels that a required course is not the best solution.

"I don't think the classroom will make a difference," she said. "It starts with Cornell being diverse; the faculty, the students. It's not just ethnicity, but social class."

When several students complained about low student turnout due to its proximity to the end of classes, Mostafavi responded that this evening was only a starting point. "Hopefully we'll have many more meetings; this won't be the last one."

Archived article by Laura Rice
Sun Staff Writer