By wpengine October 21, 2003
The area’s Finest and Bravest were on display Saturday at the Cayuga Heights Fire Department open house. This event is held annually to promote fire prevention awareness and community development. The Cayuga Heights Fire Department, the New York State Police, Tompkins County Sheriff, Ithaca Police including a DARE unit, and the Ithaca SWAT team, complete with mobile unit vehicle, were present at the event. This was a success and most of the people that came out were excited to see the department equipment and demonstrations. Assistant Chief Marshall Stocker said, “This is one of our most successful years. It is great to have the community here to see what we do.” Numerous events were planned throughout the four hour open house, beginning with a rousing demonstration of the Jaws of Life, a machine used to rip apart metal and extracting injured people from a desperately wrecked car. A stove fire demonstration was included in connection with Fire Prevention Week. There was also an Emergency Medical Services Demonstration. All were performed flawlessly leaving local Ithaca resident, Kathy Owens, to note, “I feel safe if these guys are out there every night to protect us should something go wrong.” Periodically, the State Police ran their vehicle tumbler, a truck cabin that spins on an axis to simulate an accident involving a rolling car. Seatbelt-less adult and child stuffed mannequins were placed inside the cabin at the start of the demonstration; after several minutes of spinning the small child was outside mangled on the pavement and the adult was wedged under the dashboard. The NYSP conveyed their lesson well: Wear your seatbelt. Fire truck rides were offered during the day for younger children. Local resident Billy Stuart said, “That was a lot of fun. Fire trucks are awesome!” His mother Karen agreed. The Ithaca SWAT team present was established in 1998. A unit designed to knock down doors and run in with weapons ready to take down any uncooperative villain in a city the size of Ithaca, where the most dangerous door might be a hippie commune, may be hard to comprehend. However, after the tragic death of Investigator Michael Padula in 1996, the first Ithacan police officer killed by a mentally ill local while on duty, the unit was formed. Police Officer Brotherton explained several weapons on display from an arsenal of tactical shotguns, MP5s, and Remington .203 sniper rifles. Brotherton, a sniper and entry officer said, “There is a lot of training to maintain an effective unit.” Officer Ducey, responsible for the Mobile Unit truck, explained, “there are 18 officers on the team all men, with numerous others for negotiation and support services. They are on call 24 hours a day seven days a week and ready for anything.” “There are about 25-40 calls per year ranging from barricaded individuals and drug raids to hostage situations,” he added. Seven year-old John Dolan, with a sparkle in his eye and a sticker pronouncing him a ‘Tompkins County Junior Deputy,’ “liked the guns and cool uniforms that the S.W.A.T. cops had on.” His father Kevin Dolan “sees a future in law enforcement for him.” Spectators were impressed by the professionalism of the Cayuga Heights Fire Department which was established in 1955 and has a membership of over 50 volunteers. They respond to nearly 500 calls every year, half of which are EMS calls. Assistant Chief Marshall Stocker commented that, “nearly half the volunteer department is made up of Cornell residents; we always welcome more.” The CHFD recruitment process is ongoing. Classes are held twice a year with the next coming up in early 2004. The CHFD is always looking for volunteers to serve the community by joining and are always ecstatic to receive Cornellians. Community members of all ages had a wonderful time learning about fire prevention at this successful event. All residents of Cayuga Heights and Ithaca are pleased to have such solid support in their heroic law enforcement and fire fighting services, ready to go a moment’s notice to serve and protect. Archived article by Kris Reichardt
By wpengine October 21, 2003
After this year, there will no longer be program assistants in residence halls; Campus Life has decided to eliminate the position due to financial constraints. PAs are student employees who oversee and coordinate all the programming in their building and between buildings. “We talked about it within the staff and there was consensus that we could absorb the PA position,” said Don H. King, director of Community Development. He said that Community Development, like other departments at Cornell, has been undergoing a budget review that requires them to save money by cutting costs. King explained that the current responsibilities of PAs would be redistributed between residence hall directors and RAs. “Currently, a program committee is in the process of deliberations on making recommendations on how the restructuring will occur,” he said. The current PAs and RAs were informed of the changes for next year in a letter sent out by King over the summer. King recieved mixed reactions from students employed by Communtiy Development. “There was disappointment, but also understanding of why we needed to preserve the RA and RHD positions,” he said. However, not all student employees thought that the elemination of the PA positoin was a wise decision. “I think that the PAs are pretty necessary,” said John Chu ’06, a RA in Clara Dickson Hall, “They put all their energy toward programming.” He explained that RAs have to divide their efforts between programming and policy enforcement. PAs, however, focus mostly on just programming. “They’re the ones responsible for making sure programs are carried out efficiently and planned efficiently,” he said. “They’re on top of every program.” Aerin Hohensee ’06, a RA in Risley Residential College, agreed. “The problem with dividing the PA duties is that the information needs to be at one person’s fingertips,” she said. “If the information and duties are scattered, they’ll need more meetings to do get anything done, which is more time.” Currently, the PAs meet once a week to discuss programming. “The weekly meeting is how we have cross-programming,” said Dale L. Davis grad, the PA of Risley, referring to programs that involve participants from more than one building. “That’s going to disappear.” Barry S. LeVine ’04, the PA for the Class of 1918 and Class of 1926 Halls, also agreed that cross-programming will suffer. “It’ll be much more difficult to cross-program because the RAs in complexes are incredibly insular,” LeVine said. He also pointed out that program assistants do more than just program. “In my two years as a RA, I felt like PAs were absolutely necessary as a resource and a mentor,” he said. “They basically are the system that guides the RAs,” Chu agreed, “They’re a good source of help on a peer [basis].” Ben A. Ortiz, the RHD of Risley, also spoke of PAs as good mentors. “Dale is the most influential role model this building has ever seen,” Ortiz said of Risley’s PA. “She helped keep me on track. Program assistants are an RHD’s go-to person, their right-hand person.” Levine also talked about how becoming a PA had been a goal for RAs to achieve through putting in extra effort. Without that position, he’s concerned that current and future RAs will have nothing to strive for. He has a pessimistic view of a future without PAs. “There’s no incentive, no motivation, no cross-programming, no PA as a resource,” he said. Hohensee also has doubts about the change. “[Community Development] says there will be a transition period,” she said. “I think there’ll be a disaster period.” However, Ortiz pointed out that most other colleges have never had PAs in the residence halls. He also mentioned that next year’s freshmen won’t even know the difference. “It’s a luxury we can no longer afford,” Ortiz said.Archived article by Sarah Colby