By May 7, 2004
The Chordials, one of the handful of co-ed a capella groups on Cornell’s campus, proved their pipes by garnering third place at the recent International Championships of Collegiate A Capella in New York City. This was the group’s fourth trip to the ICCA in four years, and by far their best finish, said Musical Director Rob Shapiro ’04. They advanced to the finals, held on April 25 at Town Hall in New York City, after taking first place in the ICCA Northeast semifinals in Albany earlier this spring. The Chordials and the groups with whom they competed at Town Hall played to a capacity crowd of approximately 2,000 spectators, making it the largest crowd that the Chordials have performed for, said Business Manager Jackie Pribil ’05. “It was really an incredible experience for us,” Pribil said. Three hundred a capella groups auditioned for the ICCA competition, out of which 120 participated in the first round of performances, Shapiro said. The field was narrowed down to 36 for the semifinal round, and seven were selected to move on to the finals. Groups from schools throughout the country, as well as Canada and Taiwan, tried out for the competition. “Technically, we’re now the third best college a capella group in the world,” said Bridget Tracy ’05. “Although for the most part it was North America.” The Chordials were in top form for the competition, Pribil said. “Our harmony was really good, and it felt great on stage” she said. It also helped that there were friends and family in the audience for support, Shapiro said. “Some of our alumni even came out” he added. The group performed four songs in the competition, Tracy said, which included a capella arrangements of Tamia’s “Officially Missing You” and Boyz II Men’s “Please Don’t Go” as well as two songs from the Broadway musical production of The Lion King: “The Circle of Life,” and an African chant entitled “One By One.” In addition to performing, members of the group do all of the musical arrangement for the songs that the Chordials perform, Pribil said. They have won several awards for their original arrangements, including recently Best Arranger, which went to Sam Coffin ’05 for his arrangement of Boyz II Men’s “Please Don’t Go,” Pribil said. Besides producing innovative arrangements and tight harmonies, the Chordials complement their vocal virtuosity with original stomping and dance routines, Pribil said. “We’re big on movements corresponding to sound,” Pribil said. “We did some stomp choreography last year, and we’ve recently been experimenting more with dance routines.” For their last performance Pribil choreographed a “booty dance for the girls” she said. The group, which was founded in 1997, is currently comprised of 16 members ranging from freshmen to graduate students. In addition to the ICCA competition, on-campus concerts and arch sings, the group travels to other schools throughout the state, including recently the State Universities at Albany and Buffalo, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Pribil said. The Chordials’ next concert, Cocktail Hour VII, will be held this Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Statler Auditorium.Archived article by Matt TompkinsSun Staff Writer
By May 7, 2004
Early last Saturday, two female Cornell students awoke to a stranger standing in their room, according to an Ithaca Police crime alert. A third student awoke to an arm groping at her through her window, the screen of which had been opened from outside. “I was really out of it and don’t remember much, which actually scares me more that I don’t know what he … had been doing,” the third victim told the Sun. “I yelled at him and he proceeded to take his arm out of the window and leave,” she said. “Well, I also was trying to slam his arm in my window so I guess you pick your battles.” A friend then closed the window and checked the area before the two called the police. The collegetown area where the man was reported — Linden Avenue, College Avenue, and Catherine Street — has been victimized before. Last September, an intruder of similar appearance was reported to have entered four different young ladies” rooms along the same streets. Other disturbances, generally occurring early in the morning, had been reported the previous summer. In fact, similar “peeping tom” incidents were traced back through various newspaper archives to 1999, although descriptions of the perpetrator were not consistently available. The current suspect’s description is a “white male, approximately 5’8” to 6′ 0” tall, possibly with his hair pulled back in a ponytail,” according to the Ithaca Police Department crime alert. One victim, whose apartment was intruded twice last semester, recently recounted to the Sun her experience. “It was probably two in the morning, and my door to my bedroom was locked, and it sounded like somebody was running and bashing into my door, and trying to get the door open,” she said. “I’m yelling to the person, ‘Who is this?’ And they just kept saying, ‘It’s me, it’s me, just open door.'” When she tried to call the police, the intruder starting pulling on the wires that lead under the door. “It was really scary, but I actually called 911 and he must have heard that,” she said. The young lady’s friend, who had been victimized the month before, heard the commotion and came to help. “He walked into her room so she was able to run and close the door on him basically. She said she was pretty positive he was the same person [who had trespassed previously],” the young lady said. The police arrived “within minutes” after the intruder left, according to the young lady. “The cop’s really did not care,” she said. “They barely looked around and said, ‘yup, he’s not here. Ok, must be a peeping tom.’ It’s not really a peeping tom when they’re trying to break your door down.” She said that the police told her the break-in occurred because she didn’t “live in a safe house and should expect this kind of thing.” “The cops were like, take it up with your landlords. That’s their problem, not ours,” she said. When she did take up the problem of the non-locking doors with the landlords, she says that the response was disappointing. “They said that, oh, they don’t want to hurt you,” she said. “But the door still didn’t even lock on the back of the house.” “I don’t think people I realize how often this happens,” she said. Last weekend’s victim agreed. “I’ve heard of other incidents — but of course never thought it would happen to me,” she told the Sun. She also offered some advice to others. “I thought nothing of sleeping with my window open because it was hot out — but what I didn’t realize was that my window screen didn’t have those slidey-click things on them,” she said. “It just completely slides up and down with nothing in it’s way. I would check out the window and if they have a screen like mine — ask your landlord to switch it.” She also recommended to have individual room locks on doors, and to keep blinds shut when one is in the room. “The fact that this man seems to be getting braver scares me,” she added. “Before there were reports that he just comes into apartments, houses and rooms and watches people. The fact that now he’s touching people makes me wonder what he’ll do next.” Indeed, the Caribbean Students Association Dance Ensemble has recently been harassed twice by a man masturbating during their practices, with the culprit still eluding authorities. “[The police] were supposed to protect us and they didn’t do their job,” a member of that group said after the second incident. The Ithaca Police department was not able to comment in time for this article.Archived article by Michael MorisySun Senior Writer