INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 16 Pages – Free
Vol. 141, No. 14
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Opinion
Sports
Weather
Board of Trustees
Giving Gratitude
The Frozen Apple
Snow
The Sun analyzed the occupations and industries of the many members of the Cornell Board of Trustees. | Page 4
Opinion Editor Henry Schechter ’26 says thank you to The Sun’s faithful readers in 2024.
No.11 Cornell men’s hockey defeated Quinnipiac at Madison Sqaure Garden after a shootout. | Page 16
| Page 6
HIGH: 31º LOW: 22º
‘The New Jungle’: Asteri Apartments Residents Share Living Struggles By CEREESE QUSBA Sun Contributor
Dec. 4 — A woman threatened with an axe. Another reportedly attacked in her apartment. A man stabbed in the chest. Since residents began moving into the building in early June, Asteri has endured a spate of criminal activity. Asteri, a $96 million affordable housing development in the Ithaca Commons, opened in August 2024 to provide 40 housing units with on-site support services specifically reserved for previously unhoused individuals. Some residents, however, told The Sun they feel unsafe in these accommodations, voicing concerns about the transition. The 181 affordable housing units were built to combat increased homelessness in Ithaca. Households earning 80 percent or less of Ithaca’s Area Median Income of approximately $45,000 are eligible for affordable rent. Tompkins County, along with state and federal partners, contributed to funding this public-private development project. Many residents, however, are unhappy with the conditions inside and around the development. The visibly broken key-card scanner has rendered the building entrance constantly open
for over a month, according to some residents. Despite ‘No Smoking’ signs, people smoke cigarettes in hallways where “you literally cannot breathe,” one resident said. “It’s a sh*t hole,” said Joshua Fenton, a resident of four months. “Personally, I don’t want to live here no more.” Soon after Asteri opened, frequent reports of assault, instances of fires and overdoses in and around the building were filed. In addition, the police have responded to complaints about individuals sleeping outside the entrance, increased waste around the premises and public disturbances. Chief of Police Thomas Kelly confirmed in an interview with The Sun that “Asteri has increased calls for service.” Through regular surveillance checks and responses to the calls near Asteri, Kelly said that the Ithaca Police Department takes “a more proactive approach with Asteri to deter activity,” noting that this does detract from patrols and requires more resources than other sectors of the City. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Cereese Qusba can be reached at cq78@cornell.edu
Cornell Course on Gaza Sparks National, University Backlash By MARYAM ISMAIL Sun Contributor
Dec. 2 — Last month, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) condemned Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, American studies, on X, claiming that he “demonizes Israel and lionizes Hamas” The criticism came amid escalating tensions surrounding Cheyfitz’s Spring 2025 course, “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” which, according to Cheyfitz, was approved by the curriculum committee. The course has drawn scrutiny for its alleged antisemitic bias. In an email quoted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Interim President Michael Kotlikoff described it as presenting “a radical, factually inaccurate, and biased view of the formation of the State of Israel and the ongoing conflict.” In a separate statement to The Sun, Kotlikoff clarified that his comments were intended to remain private. “I do not comment publicly about faculty courses or faculty curricular decisions. Recently my private comments
to a colleague were obtained tive narratives. The curricuby the press. Those comments lum committee reviewed and reflected my personal view that approved this course based on courses should challenge and its academic merits.” provoke independent thought, Cheyfitz argued that his rather than seek to convince course seeks to explore the students of a particular point of complexities of Gaza’s humanview,” Kotlikoff said. itarian crisis, not to justify vioMenachem Rosensaft, law, lence. “This is about a deeper has been openly critical of understanding of history and Cheyfitz’s course, accusing it human rights,” he said. of “using the curriculum in Last semester, Cheyfitz their courses for political pur- hosted a teach-in on Gaza, an poses” in an interview with the educational forum designed Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In to foster discussion and raise an email to The Sun, Rosensaft awareness about pressing issues. described the course description Teach-ins, unlike traditional as “inflammatory, constituting lectures, often include interantisemitism on steroids.” active elements and encourage Rosensaft confirmed with open dialogue among particThe Sun that he was the one ipants. This particular event who shared his correspondence explored themes closely tied to with Kotlikoff to the Jewish his controversial course. Telegraphic Agency upon their “[Kotlikoff] called me request. before the teach-in, not to ask Rosensaft took issue with about the content or raise conthe omission of the Hamas-led cerns, but to ask if I needed Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in security,” Cheyfitz said. the course description. “Ignoring this event casts To continue reading this doubt on the course’s legitima- article, please visit www.corcy,” Rosensaft wrote. nellsun.com. In an interview with the Sun, Cheyfitz countered, “I Maryam Ismail can be reached teach facts — not alterna- at mmi26@cornell.edu.
MING DEMERS / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cornell crime | Noah Rebei ’25 takes the stand in Ithaca City Court on Nov. 6.
New Documents Reveal Details of Cornellian’s Trespassing, Assault Case
Noah Rebei ’25 faces criminal charges after hiding under a female student’s bed By BENJAMIN LEYNSE Sun Senior Writer
Dec. 4 — Editor’s Note: The content in this article discusses a 2015 incident of sexual assault. Near midnight on Oct. 30, Noah Rebei ’25 was discovered underneath the bed of a woman in Keeton House. The following day, he was arrested by campus police and charged with second-degree criminal trespassing and third-degree assault before being turned over to the Tompkins County Sheriff on Nov. 1. Now, previously unreported details about the case reveal conflicting accounts from Rebei, the victim and her roommate after their statements made to Cornell University Police were released to The Sun by the Ithaca City Court. The women, whose names The Sun is withholding for their privacy, did not respond to requests for comment. In Rebei’s statement to CUPD, he said that when he saw a group of women leave their room around 10 p.m., he “came up with the idea to scare them” on Halloween Eve. Once the women left the area, he went into their room, which was “left open.” “I started to look for somewhere to hide and then I became very nervous when I heard them coming back. I quickly went under the bed,” Rebei said in his statement to the police. Rebei told the police that he stayed under the bed for around 10 minutes. Later, in a statement to The Sun, Rebei said that he stayed under the bed for no more than 30 minutes. However, according to the women’s statements, after they came to their dorm between 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., they never left the room fully unattended. The victim added that
she only discovered the intruder sometime after 11:40 p.m., and according to the crime log, CUPD responded at 11:57 p.m., over two and a half hours after the room would have last been left empty. According to the victim’s statement, in the time between returning to their dorm and discovering Rebei, she and her roommate showered, changed clothes in the dorm and engaged in personal phone calls. When the two women discovered Rebei, they were lying in bed, their dorm room entirely dark beside the light of their phones, they told the police. The victim said she was about to get off a phone call with her boyfriend when she reportedly felt three taps underneath her legs. Moments later, after hanging up, she said she discovered “a head of curly dark hair” under the bed. She told CUPD she immediately yelled as loud as she could and ran to open the door, shouting at him to get out as he began to crawl out from under the bed. An altercation ensued. “He rushed toward me and when I noticed he was unarmed — unsure if he had any other objects on him — I reached my right arm out to grab the chest area of his shirt,” she told CUPD. She held on as the man pushed around her before running out the door and down the stairwell, according to her statement. She said she could no longer hold onto him and was forced to let go as he reached the bottom of the stairs, reportedly rolling her right ankle as she fell onto the platform below. She told police that he then escaped out the exit door. Soon after, police and emergency medical services arrived on the scene. See REBEI page 13