Local News: March 22, 2024

A new report says wage growth in Ithaca is the slowest among 30 similar college towns. Peter Meyers of the Tompkins County Workers Center told WHCU the report highlights what he called a “perfect storm of worker suffering.” Ithaca’s wage growth between 2017 and 2022 was just 16.9%. The top wage growth reported by the study was in Burlington, VT at 39.4%

Demonstrators staged an occupation of Cornell’s administrative office building Thursday. According to the Cornell Sun, twenty-four members of the Coalition for Mutual Liberation or CML announced they refused to leave Day Hall until Cornell President Martha Pollack called for a trustee vote on divesting from ten weapons manufacturers. The companies are supplying Israel war efforts in Gaza. Cornell’s Board of Trustees meeting was scheduled for Friday. 

The University issued a statement Thursday reporting that Trustees Stephen Robinson and Martin Scheinman visited the protesters and listened to their concerns, but told them their demand for a vote would not be met. After multiple warnings, at around 6pm, Cornell police removed the students from Day Hall. Twenty two of the protestors are being charged with violating the Student Code of Conduct. All twenty-four protesters are being charged with trespassing in Ithaca City Court.

On Friday CML announced that Cornell’s Student Assembly approved a binding student referendum calling for divestiture and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They announced on Twitter that over 1,100 students had signed a petition calling for the referendum in just 48 hours. WRFI could not independently verify the referendum’s approval by airtime, Friday.