Columns
MEHLER | Redraw Your Own Lines
|
The attempts to silence the voices of college communities are hopefully fading, with the most recent release of New York’s maps for 2022-2032 starting to include college communities together. After the New York Independent Redistricting Commission did not come to a consensus on one set of maps, the Democratic and Republican halves of the NYIRC each drafted their own “Letterss” and “Names” variants. At the Congressional, Senate, and Assembly levels, the Democratic “Letters” maps include Cornell with its surrounding collegiate communities. In the Congressional map, Tompkins County stands unified with Cornell, Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland, TC3, and Syracuse University all under one roof. The Senate map combines the Ithaca schools with Binghamton University while the Assembly map keeps Cornell and Ithaca College congregated with the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County.