Filed under: entertainment, theater | Tags: Comedy, Improv, Ithaca, theater
By Monica Watson
A geologist, a romance novelist and a Catholic schoolteacher walk into a dance club. No, this isn’t the start of a lame joke, but instead the start of Wing Space Theater’s holiday improv show held at the Oasis dance club in Ithaca on the 13th.
Lauren Cahoon Roberts is a writer from the Ithaca area who performs with the troupe. She said that the area has a lot of great venues for different kinds of art, but is lacking when it comes to comedy. She said she likes that people are able to have another venue to experience a different form of art.
“Ithaca’s a great place for all sorts of artistic productions,” Roberts said. “I think we have a lot of great music, and I think we have a lot of great theater. I don’t think we have as much comedy stuff and it’s really important to have that part too. I’m not saying that we’re incredible and filling that niche completely, but I think people like having a third option.”
Deirdre Levine is a New York Times bestselling author who lives in the Ithaca area and performs with the group. She got into improvisational comedy by being an audience member first. She said that the group is important for the community to help them laugh more and loosen up.
“People need to get out and lose themselves,” Levine said. “I think it’s fun to just get out and see people be funny. And I also think it frees people up. I remember the first time I saw improv and I wasn’t doing it. I thought, ‘That looks like a lot of fun,’ and it is a lot of fun. So, I don’t know, I think it’s fun for people to watch and for people to do.”
Kristin Sad is a local performer who came to watch Wing Space’s performance on Sunday and had seen the group perform a few times previously. She said she is amazed by how funny people can be on the spot and likes that it is another outlet for artists to perform.
“My personal reaction has been one of amazement that people can actually improv like this,” she said. “It’s just delightful. Especially, sometimes when they go wrong it’s really funny. Also, it gives local talent the place to strut his or her stuff, and that’s always important. And for another, it’s just a good way to spend an evening. As an audience member it’s so much fun to come here and really see people freak out and do what they’re good at. The fact that it’s unstructured is so fun.”
Director Nicholas Clarey said that the theater brings together people who have a love for improv but don’t want to pursue it for a career.
“We are a group of people who have a passion for the craft,” Clarey said. “Most of us have not chosen this as a occupation or something we’re going to do for a career. But it is something we all love, so we come together as a group.
Levine said that it provides her with a chance to interact and work with people since she spends a lot of time working by herself as a writer.
“I’m a writer, so I work all by myself all day,” Levine said. “So, the thing about Wing Space is that I get to interact with other people. And I get to improvise with other people and bounce ideas off of other people whereas when I’m working it’s me and my own head.”
The troupe enjoys having people from all different walks of life perform. Roberts said that it has affected them positively by bringing in all different kinds of humor to performances.
“It’s really helpful to have people from different backgrounds and different ages,” Roberts said. “We’ve got a guy in his 60s and we’ve got a girl in her 20s, and they’re going to bring different things to the table. I think this is the most diverse group we’ve had so far and I think it’s our funniest group. So I think the diversity really adds to the humor.”
Audience members agree and can also see how the diversity within the ensemble enhances the performances.
“It brings all sorts of different color to the performances,” Sad said. “There are some older people with academic backgrounds and the younger kids. It shows in what they bring to the improv, their background is a major part of that, and so that makes it even more exciting because you have the variety.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
By: Tori McClurg
Sara Clarke, a junior at Ithaca College, dresses in her Army reserves officers training corp. uniform for her lab training and preparation for the Army, as she does every Tuesday. The number of college students dressing in their Army attire as a result of their enrollment in the ROTC program has recently seen a significant increase.
With the economic state on a continuous downhill turn a number of students are thankful to have their ROTC scholarship.
The ROTC provides many incoming freshmen and current students with scholarships that pay all tuition and fees, as well as $1,200 a year for books, a monthly stipend and usually includes full room and board.
Jon Connell, a senior Cadet Major, said, “I have seen the program grow every year since I’ve started.”
Kirby Huber, a physical therapy major at Ithaca College has helped to contribute to the growth of the program. She joined in her senior year of college, which is unusual for the program, but Huber said,
“I always thought about being in the Army. Once I got more involved with physical therapy department here I knew I wanted to be a civilian in the Army. I wanted to do it because it’s the demographic of patients that I’m interested in- they’re young, fit and motivated. There is a lot more freedom.”
Huber had considered being in the Army in high school but continued to debate the subject with herself she said.
“The kick in the pants to actually get started was the money,” said Huber.
Meghan Taglang is in charge of recruiting, finance and public affairs with ROTC. She said that ROTC is making more of an effort to inform people on the opportunities that the program offers. They recruit at anytime possible, by utilizing open houses, school events, and college tours. Taglang works with students at Cornell, Binghampton, and Elmira to further the recruitment in ROTC.
Taglang said they have seen a 25 percent to 35 percent increase in enrollment since 2007.
“A lot of the freshman coming in, I think, are really looking for the program because they hear that it’s a scholarship opportunity, so they look into it more,” Taglang said.
Taglang admits that when she was a freshman the main reason she looked into the program was because of the scholarship the Army offers.
“ I never thought I’d do anything involved in the Army ever in my lifetime,” said Taglang when asked to describe her reasons for getting involved with ROTC,
“The money was the main reason I looked at it but then once I got in the program and started doing stuff I loved it,” Taglang said.
“Hearing hey, you can get four years of school paid for people are normally like, oh really? How?” Taglang.
Taglang said that the program sometimes finds they lose people in the beginning of the semester who realize ROTC isn’t something they want to do. She said that the Army, “doesn’t want people in it who don’t want to actually do it.”
You can be in ROTC without a scholarship but very few people choose that route, Taglang said. You need a 2.5 GPA to get the scholarship and then you need to keep above a 2.0 GPA. Continuing to pass the psychical training test the Army gives each semester is another requirement for keeping the scholarship.
There are long-term benefits to membership in the program. Students who graduate from college and complete an ROTC program are able to start off at a management level, or an officer in some cases, when they enter the military.
Despite the economy, the Army ROTC have yet to experience any serious budget cuts for scholarships.
Ithaca College and Cornell University are two of many schools around the nation seeing ROTC enrollment increases.
“Given the current economic times, offering full scholarships, free books, a stipend, and large low-interest loans are all enticing to young men and women,” said Aaron Furtner a senior Cadet Major with ROTC.
“Although many people enter ROTC for the economic benefit, most who actually complete the program find that they couldn't imagine themselves not in ROTC” said Furtner.
The scholarship is a significant amount of money but Army pride for our nation is something you simply cannot buy.
The scholarship is a significant amount of money but Army pride for our nation is something you simply cannot buy.
The scholarship is a significant amount of money but Army pride for our nation is something you simply cannot buy.
“I know I’m going to get deployed and that’s okay with me because I think if other soldiers have to get deployed I should too. And I’ll be working with people who deserve it the most” said Huber.
Katie Quinn-Jacobs and the rest of the 162 members of IthaCan have mad a “life style choice” that will save them money while reducing their carbon footprints.
Jacobs has create a social networking website to assists people who preserve their own food or are wishing to start preserving their own food.
“The goal of the Web site is to make more connections between the consumers and farmers,” said Jacobs. “When you start making these connections you realize that food perseveration is a really important link between those two. In this community we don’t have any way of processing food unless we do it in our home. We don’t have any commercial base dedicated to doing that.”
The IthaCan website is a spin-off the Web site Prepared Tompkins, which Jacob created years before this site.
“There was a local food preservers group in town where we would get together and preserve in each others home. It was such a positive networking experience, but then we wanted to expand to a larger community. People wanted to join the group but when it gets to big it stops working. So I came up with the social network Web site. Part of it is to share information and the other part is to get together in each other’s home to show each other how to do things,” said Jacob.
On the site there are a variety of groups such as fermentation, canning, or cellaring that provide an area of discussion in regards to the topic. When people are faced with problems related to a certain topic they can look to find ways to solve their problems. If they have had great success persevering their own food they can also share videos and tips to the rest of the community.
“IthaCan has inspired me to try new things because I know I have the resources to follow through on it,” said Marlo Capoccia , an IthaCan member. “I also have people to ask questions when I panic, which is often. I know that a generation or two ago I would have seen a lot more canning sessions and would have had much more confidence doing it alone. Feeling that, having people to answer my specific questions keeps me canning when I might otherwise be afraid and quit.”
There are several benefits of preserving your food versus purchasing your food from the local grocery store.
“Say you process apples that were locally grown but not organically locally grown and made apple sauce out of it. It will actually taste better than the stuff you buy at Aldi’s and Wegmans. The flavors will be better. Will it be cheaper, no. But if you do it with organically grown apples, get a bushel and you process them yourself even with the added cost with the fresh apples it’s still cheaper than buying off the shelf organic applesauce and it tastes better. It’s a freshness thing that happens when you do it in your own home. I don’t know what they do in the big processing plants but they do something and it changes it.
Although food preservation has been more common in the past, during this economic hardship it has become more of a common practice. According to a survey done in 2007 by the National Center for Home Food Preservation about one in five households can their own food. According to this same survey, when asked where the subjects got their information 59 percent said their families or friends, which makes this Web site a great tool to further collect information.
The IthacCan website has planned several different activities to help all the food preserving novices. In February they will be holding a butchering workshop hosted by a local butcher who is an active member of the Web site.
“Ithaca still has a lot of people who can turn summer bounty into winter survival,” said Capoccia, “Even if it never happens, it’s a nice thing to know.”
If interested in Pig Butchering 101 Course hosted by Timothy J Haws it will take place on February 4, 2010 from 6-8 p.m. in Romulus, N.Y
Filed under: Uncategorized
By Casey Musarra
Ithaca College senior Nate Tao, a music major, belts out a solo during Ithacapella’s concert last year. His parents sit front row center, but they don’t hear his melodious voice take hold of the rest of the audience.
Anni and Mark Tao are both deaf. They were born in Taiwan where they received a small pox vaccine that left both of them with hearing loss. While neither of Nate Tao’s parents can hear, he said they have still played a major part in his music career.
“My parents haven’t directly influenced me in the way that when they hear my music they say, ‘Oh, I liked that’ or ‘I didn’t like this,’” Nate Tao said. “It’s more like they encouraged us to really get involved early.”
Nate Tao said his parents’ condition has not greatly affected the way he communicates with his parents. He learned American Sign Language at a young age and uses that when he’s with them. When he’s away from home, he said it’s not much different than any other college student — he uses text messaging, e-mail and other virtual ways to talk to his parents.
“That’s just all I’ve ever known so I’m just used to that,” he said.
Nate Tao has combined his knowledge of American Sign Language and his singing abilities to his advantage when performing.
“It’s kind of hard, but it definitely works,” he said. “It’s a great way to connect two worlds, so to speak.”
Anni and Mark Tao said though they are unable to actually hear, they enjoy attending concerts and seeing Nate Tao on stage. They said they often feel an emotional reaction to the vibrations as well.
“Singing isn’t just about hearing,” Mark Tao said. “It’s about feeling too.”
Nate Tao began singing when he was in middle school, but even before that, his grandmother pushed him and his siblings to play the piano.
“My older brother and sister both started playing the piano when I was like 5 or 6 and I said, ‘I want to do that too.’ I started taking lessons for about seven years then after a while something wasn’t clicking, so I decided to stop.”
Nate Tao originally came to the college as a vocal performance major, but decided to switch, which allowed him to graduate a full year early in May 2010 instead of May 2011.
“[Vocal performance is] very operatic and it wasn’t really my thing, so I switched,” Nate Tao said. “I’m still a music major, but just not performance-wise. I decided to do that because I kind of want to get out and do music.”
Nate Tao gave up the opportunity to appear on NBC’s hit new show, The Sing Off, in order to stay in school and finish his degree.
“I would actually not be here right now,” Nate Tao said. “It would’ve been from Thanksgiving until winter break taping in Los Angeles. One of my teachers wasn’t very excited about it so I decided to just stay and finish school.”
Mark and Anni Tao both said they were glad their son decided to stay in school.
“As much as we’d like to see [Nate] succeed in his music career, it’s always good to have something to fall back on,” Mark Tao said. “I definitely have a lot of confidence in his ability as a performer, but education is still our primary concern.”
Anni Tao said when she can’t make it to Nate Tao’s concerts, she likes to watch his YouTube videos and blast the music.
“There are definitely times that I wish I could hear his voice, especially when I see how much the audience loves him,” Anni Tao said. “It’s something I think about now more than ever because of how real his music career is turning out to be.”
Nate Tao said there have been times during his performances when he wished his parents could hear, but he said that’s not the most important thing.
“There’s kind of a lost connection because you want to tell them, ‘Oh, I sang this high note’ or ‘I sang this solo,’” he said. “They don’t really understand it because they can’t hear it, so it’s kind of lost in translation. But we’re all happy and we’re really lucky.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
Ithaca College works towards greater sustainability
By Tori McClurg
With people like Mark Darling, the coordinator of resource and environmental management at Ithaca College, and Marian Brown, special assistant to the provost, the sustainability initiative at Ithaca College continues to grow.
The two of them are like, “one brain working together towards a similar goal,” said Darling.
He jokes that he is the, “better half of the brain,” but the camaraderie between these coworkers is almost tangible.
The two of them have been with the college for over twenty years and both are passionate about making sustainability a more prominent issue to every individual at Ithaca.
Ithaca College received a 98 out of a possible 99 points for a green rating score from the Princeton Review survey of environmental friendliness. The college will soon be the only college or university in the world with two platinum buildings on its campus. “Platinum” is a status that is chosen by the leadership in energy and environmental design or “LEED.” “Platinum” is a difficult status to obtain, in order to do so the building needs to demonstrate standards for environmentally sustainable construction.
The athletics and events center is going to continue to work towards increasing sustainability by being,
“Passively cooled, the big tower they’re building is more than just for show it actually is an old concept the Italians came up with in the 12th or 13th century, it may even be older than that, but when the sun strikes the building, it warms the air there and because the warm air is rising it tends to build cooler air that will move throughout the building” said Darling.
The sustainability initiative has been in place since 1989 it was first started by students. The students realized that without being institutionalized the program wouldn’t be effective because they needed people who were going to be around for a longer span of time to work harder to implement “green” philosophies.
The rescue and environmental management program recruited different management groups like residence life, facilities and environmental health and safety together to keep the program going. A junior Becky Webster is one of the six-eco representatives on campus. She works with Darling in an effort to spread awareness on campus by doing floor programs on sustainability such as energy jeopardy. Webster also offers a survey regarding students’ energy usage to allow students to measure their carbon footprints against one another.
The college has implemented a program called the sustainability café series. The college sponsors speakers each month to inform people about different aspects of sustainability.
Ithaca is a university that is prestigious for its efforts towards sustainability,
Darling said, “We’re really going to make people aware of the seriousness that is the issue and how important sustainability is, and how much more we can do and need to do.”
His goal is to make sustainability a more important issue to every member of Ithaca College by making it a part of the curriculum.
“Just opening door on what is possible I’d like to see part of what every student at Ithaca College learns be some basic things about sustainability,” said Darling.
Brown has similar goals for the near future,
“And to now see that sweet spot where you get academics and operations together students like it because they get to learn about it and they can see an impact and make a difference on where they live.”
Ithaca College has certainly broken ground on efforts towards being sustainable they are, “seeing a tremendous growth in those opportunities for students,” said Brown.
However, both Brown and Darling confessed that there is a lot more work to be done.
“People have to be told, it has to be made simple, and they have to be constantly reminded,” said Darling in reference to recycling on campus.
Filed under: science
ITHACA, NY
Fatty, Pia, and Jeremy, are creatures that lurk the Cornell Research Pond in Lansing and have got students tracking their every move.
These are the subjects of Ithaca College’s Professor Leann Kanda mammal dispersal research for the past couple of months. They are the names of three of the several muskrats.
“I generally interested in the question of how and what determines how animals move around and use space,” said Professor Leann Kanda. “I am particularly interested in the kind of movement called dispersal. When a juvenile picks up, leaves home, and goes and settle someplace else. That’s where they are going to be themselves, becoming parents. “
Kanda has received a grant of $3,300 from the Ithaca Provost in order to carry out her research, The Movement Ecology in Muskrat: The influence of personalities, social interactions, and predators.
“If we could understand the underlying process better it could really help with conservation efforts. When you have fragmented habitats and your animals can live over here or over here. Than as a conservation planner, with this research, you will be able to connect these habitats so that populations will be able to move back and forth. And this is when it becomes more of a general interest,” said Kanda.
In order to collect data the students and Professor Kanda travel to Lansing where man-made swamps outline the premises. One of her student, Charlie Abbott goes out every Thursday night to collect data.
In order to get their data Kanda has installed radio collars on the necks of each muskrat. With an antenna, a compass, and a radio the student sets off into the fields to record data.
Every several feet there are numbered bird houses that act as the landmarks that indicate where the researcher was when recording their data. With the antenna the students listens for the highest and loudest wavelengths and then takes a reading from his compass from that direction. Afterwards they record in the data-tracking book the time at which they take the reading, the degree measurement, and the bird house number where they were located. Then they move in the direction from which they took the degree reading in a diagonal manner. After moving to a different point on the premises the students will than take another reading. For accurate triangulation you need a minimum of three readings. These measurement than getting plugged into the computer website, Flying Fox Technology.
The computer takes the coordinates of each birdhouse and of each degree measurement and computes a Google that indicated where the readings were recorded.
“Based of how close the measurements are the computer will give you an error reading of how close you are to finding the muskrat in that region,” said Charlie Abbott.
Kanda employs the help many of her biology students to do the research. This is a convenient way for students who are looking to get real-life training on scientific research. Seniors required to do a senior thesis have also developed their own questions using her research as their basis.
“From my research I have come to understand that in a larger context this research is important because as human beings are moving out they are effecting these animals’ habitats. This could be messing with the muskrat’s movements throughout their lifetime and whether or not it’s harmful to be infringing upon their area,” said Abbott.
Through her research Kanda has come to notice a similar pattern in some of the muskrats movements. “There are some animals that will suddenly just get up and go well outside their normal activity range and then there are some that stick to the local habitat patch, said Kanda. “What do these guys do before they get up and go. I think that they are the sticks in the mud, the ones that just hang out at mom and dad’s place and never do this high exploratory movement. It’s kind of intuitive that the higher exploratory ones end up settling closer to home than the ones who don’t ever leave the local place. These muskrats just finally decide, its time for me to go” and they pack and they are gone.”
By Monica Watson
Ron Schassburger, a professor at Ithaca College in the School of Health Science and Human Performance, sat in his office and remebered his wife Elizabeth O’Brien-Schassburger, known as Bunny to everyone.
“It was Friday October 13th, 2006 when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” he said. “She was a nurse practitioner, so with her experience with medicine she knew the diagnosis was pretty bad.”
O’Brien passed away in 2008 from pancreatic cancer after a 15-month battle. In honor of his late wife, Schassburger hopes to start a symposium that will help others in the medical field and students learning about the field embody the caring spirit his late wife had for her patients.
Steve Siconolfi, Dean of the School of Health Science and Human Performance at Ithaca College, said that O’Brien did more than just provide health care to her patients.
“She was an extraordinary professional who went out of her way to assist her patients who were in a chronic disease state,” he said “Not only did she provide good health care, she provided improvement of quality of life.”
The symposium will be available for students, professionals and the public. Siconolfi said that the symposium will help instill O’Brien’s natural gift of bedside manner into more health care professionals.
“They don’t teach bedside manner,” he said. “The idea is that these people who don’t get the bedside manner training will learn from this symposium and then go on to improve the quality of healthcare in rural America.”
Alana Koehler, a pre-medical exercise science major at Ithaca College, said that because there are no classes that teach bedside manners and that through the symposium people could become inspired to develop those skills.
“That’s something that really can’t be taught,” Koehler said. “There’s a humanistic element to it. You either have the passion for health and healing and improving people’s quality of life or you don’t. I think it would be a good way to try to develop that passion, especially if you had that community of people who have a compassion for healing and would be a great atmosphere to learn in.”
Schassburger said the symposium will help integrate the medical professionals with the average person or patient to learn and discuss with.
“The practitioners who are caring for people with various diseases can come together and discuss new developments in their field, Schassburger said. “The families and patients themselves will also have an opportunity to interact and find out what’s going on in that area of medicine and how they can best take care of themselves. I wanted to integrate both the medical community and the lay community with this.”
Schassburger said that the topic of the symposium will change from year to year depending on what the community and the practitioners are most concerned with.
“While the first year would be living with kidney disease, and that because that was the field she worked in. It would change year to year,” he said. “The topic might be living with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or any number of topics, whatever is of major concern to the people in the area.”
He said that the next steps are to fundraise and then establish a date for next year to hold Bunny’s first Symposium on the Art and Science of Healing.
Filed under: Uncategorized
By Casey Musarra
With the most recent break out of the H1N1 virus — more commonly known as swine flu — Ithaca College and Cornell University have both been taking precautionary measures that include advising students to use hand sanitizer on a regular basis.
Ithaca College in particular has distributed more bottles of hand sanitizer throughout campus in an attempt to limit the number of swine flu victims.
Though hand sanitizer can be beneficial in protecting students against harmful germs, bio-medicine.org says there can be negative side effects. The Web site states that alcohol in most hand sanitizers can cause cracks in skin that open a pathway directly to the bloodstream.
While the site argues that hand sanitizers can be damaging to skin, Dr. Lewis Drusin, a Cornell University professor of clinical medicine, said H1N1 is contracted through the air, so using hand sanitizer doesn’t necessarily prevent the contraction of the virus.
“Flu is transmitted through the nasal route and the respiratory tract” he said. “We’re really stressing to people the importance of using Purell, or alcohol skin preparations, in order to protect themselves from transmitting flu.”
Drusin said that products such as Purell have emoluments built in to help prevent skin from cracking, which then further prevents the contraction of illnesses. Despite that, Drusin said it is not a good idea to use hand sanitizer too often.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to overuse [hand sanitizer],” Drusin said. “For example, I live in New York and when I’m in the subway, sometimes I see people who won’t touch the poll in a subway without Purelling their hands afterwards, and that’s kind of ridiculous. If you use it normally, it won’t alter your normal [germs], so it won’t make you likely to get an infection.”
Ithaca High School senior Sara Spagnoletti contracted the H1N1 virus in June when there was an outbreak at the school.
Before contracting it, she said she took precautionary measure such as washing her hands and using hand sanitizer.
“I was just being careful,” Spagnoletti said. “Anyone who said they weren’t feeling well, I’d try to stay away from. It’s just so contagious that really anything you do, sometimes you just can’t help it. It’s airborne — it’s not like it’s on my hands.”
Drusin said that one of the best ways to prevent the flu is to simply avoid contact with people who have contracted it.
“When you sneeze or cough, the virus is on the droplets that you spit out. And they only travel between three and six feet. So if you’re between three and six feet away from a patient who has the flu, you stand less of a chance of getting it.”
Spagnoletti said after having the flu for three days in June and not being allowed to leave the house for 10 days, she is no longer as careful about avoiding illness.
“I’m a little bit less careful about it just because last year, I worked so hard not to get it, but I got it anyway,” she said. “Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do. At this point, I’ve already had it, so I probably have an immunity. I haven’t gotten sick yet this year, and I haven’t been as careful.”
Ithaca College junior Ashley Brinkerhoff said she uses hand sanitizer on a regular basis and keeps several bottles of it in her room, purse and backpack.
“I first became obsessed once swine flu started around,” she said. “My family sent me packages or when I went home they would give me little bottles of Purell. I just can’t get sick, because if you get sick at school, you’re screwed.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
By Stephanie Raabe
ITHACA–Once dinnertime comes around at the Ithaca College circle apartments and the residents begin cooking, it is a common habit of the residents to illegally shut off the smoke detectors to prevent them from going off. This could potentially be very dangerous.
“Sometimes even if were boiling something or frying something it can set off the smoke detector throughout the entire house. Even if we have the range on just the smoke from cooking will set it off. It’s really annoying so sometimes before we even start cooking we set off the smoke detector from the fuse box,” said Junior Graham Martin.
An issue with this other than it being illegal is whether or not they remember to turn it back on once they are finished with cooking.
“It’s illegal if they get caught. It could be pretty serious,” said Mark Swanhart, fire protection specialist of Ithaca College. “Tampering with a life safety device is a pretty serious crime. I like to think that they are not doing it but, its human nature. They play with things, they have parties, they smoke, and they do different things.”
College students nation wide should take responsibility when it comes to fire safety considering the close quarter they live in. Fires are easily started and can easily spread.
According to the National Fire Protection Association U.S fire departments have responded to approximately 3,570 fires within dormitories, fraternities, and sororities in 2003 to 2006. There have been seven deaths, 54 fire injuries and a total of $29.4 million dollars in property damage and lately the numbers have been rising. The most common cause of these fires was from cooking.
The New York state law states that for apartment buildings, dormitories and all similar buildings require fire alarms are installed outside of each sleeping area, in any room used for sleeping purposes and on each of story within a household. It is the responsibility of the residents to maintain their smoke detectors in working condition.
When college students nationwide move to an off-campus apartment they should be aware of fire safety more than ever.
“On a safety scale about 10 percent of what they really need to protect the people are in these apartments off campus. It’s scary some of the conditions that you see. Some of these apartments I bet don’t even have any form of fire protection,” said Swanhart.
For students moving off campus the Fire Safety Departments both Cornell University and Ithaca College encourage students to talk with their landlords about the locations of their smoke detectors, where an accessible fire extinguisher is and how to use it.
“Going over my lease that I signed for next year I just notice there was not much about fire safety in it. I guess that was the last thing on my mind at the time when I was signing it that I didn’t even ask,” said Sophomore Colleen Ellif. “I am definitely worried for next year.”
The Higher Education Opportunity Act requires all colleges to provide fire safety education and programs to train students what to do in case of an emergency. Classes are required because most students do not know how to act in an emergency.
“We have class here on campus were we show the students how to use an extinguisher. How to take it off the wall, pull the pin and use it,” said Swanhart. “Its good training and its easy stuff to do.”
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