Science v. Tradition: Why people believe in Ghosts.

By Brandon Adelbock and Opal Jessica Bogdan

A 6-year-old girl settles into bed, her toes sticking out from the sheets. Suddenly, a shadowy figure appears over her bed and reaches as if to grab her feet. The girl screams. Every night since that day until she died, she saw them: ghosts.

Phillis Kanellis’ was that 6-year-old girl. More than 60 years later she told her grandchildren Peter and Patti Kanellis these stories. “I thought they were ghost stories, come to find out she was really seeing stuff,”  Peter Kanellis, member of the Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes, said.

The stories sparked an unusual interest in Peter and his sister Patti Kanellis, another member of the Ghost Hunting group. They became believers in the paranormal world, and started The Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes in 2009. The group travels to houses that people believe are haunted.

“We don’t go in and say ‘oh you have stuff,’ we go in with an open mind and if we get something, we get something. We don’t get paid for doing this so we don’t have pressure to produce evidence,” Peter Kanellis said.

“…it’s the human need for an explanation–to see patterns and causality in ambiguous or inexplicable things happening in the material world,” Eriche Goode, professor of at Stony Brook University and sociologist said. “[We] need to interpret that which one does not understand.”

The Kanellis have investigated more than 100 houses in the Finger Lake region. The owners of those haunted houses are a part of the 42% of Americans who believe in the existence of ghosts. Some 37% in the United States denies the existence of ghosts. These numbers come from a Harris poll.

“This is can be accounted to something called confirmation bias, which is this idea that once we have a set of beliefs we do everything we can to convince us that we’re right,” Cronk said.

People fear death; so developing a theory about people coming back is a comfort to some, reinforcing the idea that ghosts exist, Goode said. “There’s a spiritual dimension that ghost belief taps into. A need to see something beyond the materially real, a denial that the end of one’s physical life is the end of one’s spiritual life.”

But at the end of this life, science and skeptics can only theorize what happens. For Goode, a connection between belief in God and belief in ghosts isn’t a straightforward relation.

“Only a small percentage of the population, maybe 10%, deny God, deny ghosts, are strictly materialists, skeptics, and consistently end up on one side of the scale. It’s not a very comforting belief, it’s scary and hence, not popular. But the rest of it, how education relates to paranormalism, to spirituality, to religion, etc., is very complicated and not at all straightforward,” Goode said.

The Kanellis’ take a different approach to the paranormal world, and think people believe in ghosts due to the number of stories they’ve heard, and what they’ve seen through investigations.

“People just talk about [their experience] with such sincerity its hard not to believe them,” Patti Kanellis said.

“Things that break motion light beams, it has to be some kind of physical mass to be doing that, because well when we walk by we’re going to break it. There’s some kind of energy. They say when we die that energy still exists, so where does it go? You can just theorize.” Peter Kanellis said.

Local dog training club helps build owner – dog bond

Andrea Lachance holds the leash tightly coiled around her hand as Mazie, her seven-month-old black Labrador, lunges forward, barking loudly at another dog. After several sharp tugs, Lachance is out of breath but manages to pull the excited Mazie aside to calm down.

Lachance and Mazie are members of the Ithaca Dog Training Club. They’ve been attending the beginner’s class for two weeks, and Lachance’s goal for Mazie is to make her into a better behaved, and a more athletic dog.

“She does okay [in public]. She’s better than before but she likes other dogs a lot so when she comes in [to the IDTC class] she’s barking and wants to play,” Lachance said. “She’s quite athletic so we’ll see about the agility course but I want to get her through good citizen training first.”

The Ithaca Dog Training Club (IDTC) is run by a group of volunteer trainers and has courses for dogs of various obedience skills. The club offers beginner’s classes for puppies (under six months) and dogs, as well as rally, agility and canine good citizen courses. Each course runs for six weeks and meets weekly at Cornell University’s Livestock Pavilion.

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People interested in taking courses must first submit an application to become a member of the IDTC. They can enroll in classes that is appropriate to the dog’s obedience level, move up to more advanced classes, and can even apply to become an instructor.

While dog training may not seem like a sport to some, IDTC instructor Marian Szebenyi said it is a sport that requires practice, learning and bonding by both dog and the owner. She has been with the club for more than three decades, first as a beginner’s class member and now as a veteran dog instructor.

“The instructor doesn’t teach the dog,” Szebenyi said. “What we do is we teach the owners how to work with their dogs and having their dog pay attention to the owner. That carries over to whatever they want to teach them. You’ve got to have some kind of a bond.”

Many people who go through IDTC classes see varied levels of success, Szebenyi said, from having dogs that listens better to dogs that go into athletic competitions.

Susan Tosto, along with her dog Savannah, began taking classes at the club and has moved up to lure coursing, which is an advanced level competition where dogs display speed, endurance and agility by zigzagging across fields at high speeds after an artificial lure. But to get to that level, Tosto said basic training comes first.

“You go to basic training with a dog just to learn how to interact with them, which is really what basic obedience is. That’s a great place for anyone to start if they want to move on to other things, like if they want to compete in agility or in obedience. Whatever it is, the basics are important,” Tosto said.

Mike Hagin, another member of the club, compared taking his mom’s dog to classes as equivalent to going to the gym. “Every lesson comes new challenges; mental and physical for both the dog and me. We strive to go a little further and do a little better every time,” he said

He said he’s seeing his mother’s dog change with each class she attends. And he benefits, too, by honing his skills of raising a dog for when he decides to have one of his own.

Community reacts to Presbyterian Church recognizing gay marriage

By Brandon Glass and Opal Jessica Bogdan

Marilyn Sargent had a “self-hatred” she couldn’t identify. Living in loneliness and depression, she had spent her time running from herself, seeing therapist after therapist, until finally the eighth professional Marilyn saw led her to confess her feelings for women.

Eventually, Marilyn met the love of her life, Connie, a closeted woman living in a homophobic community, in 1990. After coming out in 1993 to her colleagues at a faculty high school meeting, Marilyn spent 20 years with Connie before the couple officially tied the knot in 2013. Both Presbyterian, however, they couldn’t get married in their favorite church or by their favorite pastor. And it wasn’t until a few days ago, when couples like Marilyn and Connie could finally get access to that right.

On March 17, the Presbyterian Church (PC) updated its constitution to recognize same-sex marriage. While the General Assembly of the PC, the country’s largest Presbyterian denomination, approved the amendment to its Book of Order last June, the change had to win approval from 171 local bodies to become official.

“This church would have been ordaining and marrying a long time ago if it were up to us locally to make that decision,” Reverend Kirianne Riehl, Head Pastor of Ithaca’s First Presbyterian Church said.

As of right now, there are no same-sex marriages planned at her church, Riehl said. However, she expected that will soon change.

In 2011, the Presbyterian denomination eliminated obstacles to ordaining clergy with same-sex partners, but until last week, individual churches and ministers could not marry gay couples and risked penalties for doing so. The amendment to the constitution still states that individual churches can choose not to perform such marriages.

“[When the amendment passed], I was absolutely thrilled,” Sargent said. “It would have been nice [to have passed earlier], but the fact it has happened at all is a thrill. Institutions move backwards most of the time, so we are just pleased that it has happened now.”

The connection between religion and sexual orientation has been one of debate around the country, especially over the last week. On March 26, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a religious freedom bill into law that protects business owners from being required to serve same-sex couples if they have religious objections.

“There’s a variety of opinions in any place, but I would think that [the amendment] would be more authentically felt by people in Tompkins County as part of the open, real way that life is,” Reverend Rick Bair, Pastor of Ithaca’s St. Luke Lutheran Church and University Chaplain of Cornell University, said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey, Ithaca ranks 14th on the list of U.S. cities with the most amount of same-sex couples per 1,000 households.

“I am thinking Presbyterian folks are happy, and I am thinking that friends of Presbyterian folks are happy,” Luca Maurer, LGBT Education, Outreach & Services Program Director at Ithaca College, said. “I would think for that some Presbyterian folks, and some folks who are not Presbyterian, this gives them great hope that this is a conversation that will allow people to bring their whole selves to their place of worship, which I think is terrific.”

“This congregation has been working for something like this for a long time,” Riehl said. “Hopefully [the amendment] is a relief and one more sign for people that the world can be a welcoming place for them.”

Multimedia Avid Drill

Dog rescue program saves more than 500 lives

By Karly RedPath and Opal Jessica Bogdan

Sidney sits on the blue carpet of his home, chewing on his antler treat. For the first eight months of his life, he and his brother, Noodles lived with a chain around their neck outside a home in Kentucky. At first so emaciated that he could barely be transported up north, Sidney has recently grown to be a strong, happy, dog with a safe home in Ithaca, New York.

Sidney lives with his new owner, Elizabeth Newbury, who is currently working towards her doctorate in communications at Cornell University. She has worked on the social media side, training staff at other non-profit organizations and now volunteers, both fostering and managing the Facebook page for the Cayuga Dog Rescue, after her dog died.

Sidney is one of 502 dogs that have been rescued through the Cayuga Rescue Program since 2005.

“I realized after this experience that I had a lot of medical expertise from helping her and I wanted to give that back to a dog in need,” Newbury said.

Tompkins County SPCA started rescuing dogs in 1902. Currently it is estimated by the ASPCA that 28% of dogs are purchased from breeders, but 29% of cats and dogs are adopted from shelters and rescues.

There are about 13,600 community animal shelters nationwide and six local rescue programs that are putting dogs up for adoption and have successful in finding dogs new homes.

Locally, There’s Hope Dog Rescue, started by Diana Niemi, has helped over 80 dogs since March 2014, and continues to find dogs forever homes.

“When you match the dog with the adopter you can just see a glow in their eyes, how happy they are and how excited the pet is. Even though you’ve invested so much time and care with the animal and they became attached to you, we see how easily they are ready to go with the adopter,” Niemi said.

A dog’s rescue process can take between two weeks to two months, including traveling to the rescue center, training and finding the correct family. The non-profit shelters around the Ithaca area all go through meticulous steps to make sure the dog goes home to the correct family for it.

“Because we ask for an application, a phone screen and a home visit before meeting the dog, it ensures the people know about the dog and how it will fit into their lifestyle,” Newbury said. “The last thing we want is for someone to adopt a dog and for it to end up in a shelter again.”

The Humane Society estimates that the number of households with animals has more than doubled over the last 40 years. But with these growing numbers, the application has become more extensive to ensure dogs find the best home.

Nancy Given, executive director of Pet the Pet Program in Trumansburg N.Y. said, “so many of the dogs that come to us have had horrific experiences – starvation, gun shots, knife wounds…yet once they arrive here, their strife is over and a new life full of love and goodness awaits them.”

Cornell Laundry is all washed out

Cornell Laundry plans to sell their local Ithaca business to Ames Linen in Cortland, N.Y. within the next few weeks, after serving customers in Central N.Y. for 69 years.

Cornell Laundry currently serves and holds contracts with 95 percent of restaurants in the Ithaca Area. John Gorsky, the owner of Cornell Laundry, says that they’re trying to make the transition as smooth as possible.

“The deal with Ames Linen is that we’re in negotiation and hopefully getting close to consummating that. They are more similar to what we are, which is a privately owned business,” said Gorsky.

However, this is not this first time Gorsky has tried to sell the Laundry business. In September of 2014, AmeriPride, based out of Minnetonka, M.n. placed the highest bid on Cornell Laundry in the initial selling.

The deal fell through two weeks prior to official signing because, according to Gorsky, AmeriPride would not provide service to Cornell University, one of the biggest business Cornell Laundry serves, seven days a week.

“They were only interested in our drivers and not interested in any other employees. Our drivers seem to be our front line of communication with our customers,” said Grosky.

However, a previous employee of Cornell Laundry, who wished to stay anonymous, stated that there were other reasons the deal with AmeriPride fell through.

“A main reason was that none of the drivers were on board to work with AmeriPride…the deal they offered was mediocre at best. That I know is a fact. For anyone to come in and buy the business they need the drivers, but the deal they offered gave everyone a pay-cut,” said the employee who worked at Cornell Laundry for over 10 years.

The fall-out of this deal caused a lot of ripple effects, and the previous Cornell Laundry employee fears that customers were led to believe the business was going to be around for a while.

“When the initial sale fell through with AmeriPride, the employees of Cornell Laundry were told that Cornell laundry was staying open. We were all led to believe that it was going to be [open] for a period of time, whether that was a year or so on,” said the previous employee.

However, Gorsky says that with every new contract signed, a letter is sent out explaining this transition. Whether it was before or after the signing was unclear.

“We’re not trying to deceive any customers. We’re upfront. Linen business is all about contracts, [customers] get protected with price and we get protected that they’re our customer for X amount of years, so it’s a win-win situation for everybody,” said Gorsky.

Gorsky is optimistic that the deal with Ames Linen will go through, and doesn’t want customers to worry because it’s only a partial selling. He said he will keep The Mall Dry Cleaner.

“Until it’s signed on the dotted line I don’t want to be too optimistic about it,” said Gorsky.

Lansing mine earns $26 million more than last year, State says

Stephen Adams and Opal Jessica Bogdan

New York State is paying the salt mine in Lansing roughly $26 million more than last year–a 60 percent increase–for the 2014-2015 season, according to the Office of General Services. Even so, the mine, which supplies the town of Ithaca and adjacent cities, is struggling to churn out enough salt to keep the roads clear after the coldest February on record.

An average of 200 local workers have been excavating salt six days a week since September 2014 to fulfill the contracts Cargill Deicing Technology negotiated with New York State over the summer.

“Bidding demand was strong in anticipation of a bad winter and because little was left over from the previous winter,” Mark Klein, a company spokesman, said. “We have been working extra hours since September to match supply with demand.”

New York State ordered more than 1.1 million tons of road salt from Cargill last summer, in preparation for this year—an 80-percent increase over last season. The contracts are worth roughly $67 million, according to the state, up from a little less than $41 million the year prior. The price of salt has risen nationwide, in part, due to greater demand and stockpile shortages after last year’s snowfall, according to Heather Groll, communications director at the Office of General Services, which handles the contracts.

Cargill supplies both the town and city of Ithaca. The latter might have to cut overtime hours for projects like summer asphalt repair, Ray Benjamin, assistant superintendent for the city’s public works department, said, based on the amount of money being directed to road salt.

“Each of the past two years we’ve probably had a 25 to 30 percent increase in demand for salt,” Sean Wilcynski, manager of the Lansing mine, said. “So, really over a couple of years ago, like 50 percent up.”

As of March 2, it snowed in Ithaca on 46 of 61 days since the start of 2015, according to data from the Northeast Regional Climate Center. The town of Ithaca called its snowplow drivers, who lay road salt, in to work overtime hours on 30 of those days—straining the supply.

“We thought the extra 40 percent we ordered would have gotten us through,” Jim Weber, the town’s Highway Superintendent, said. “But, nobody would have expected Mother Nature to present what she did.”

On average, the town has historically used about 2,200 tons per year. Thanks, in part, to extra money from the town board’s reserve fund, Weber was able to purchase 3,200 tons for the 2014-2015 winter season. At the end of February, only about 300 tons remained, and it is going fast. On a snowy weekend, the town might use 75 tons of Cargill’s salt per day, Weber said.

“They’re trying to produce nonstop to keep up with the demand,” Weber said. “Their mine is 2,700 feet down. They have a lot of costs to extract that material and get it on to the service. Are they making a profit? Probably. But, that’s what businesses are supposed to do.”

The demand has been tough for all the salt suppliers in New York State, Wilcynski said. But, the strain of this season is preferable to mild winters. Cargill was forced to lay off 50 workers in 2012 due to weather that yielded less than half of the company’s annual sales.

“Even we’re tired,” he said. “Although it’s much better than laying people off, there’s only so long you can sustain an extended schedule with people getting tired. But, we’ll take the extended schedule over the layoffs. That’s for sure.”

National immunization debate heats up in Tompkins County

Emma Rizzo and Opal Jessica Bogdan

Tompkins County has a 95 percent immunization rate. However, recent data shows that six Ithaca schools have a rate lower than this average, the lowest being 65.1 percent.

According to state data from the 2012-2013 academic year, which is the most recent data, these schools are Ithaca Waldorf School, 65.1 percent, Fall Creek Elementary School, 84 percent, Alternative Community School, 83.4 percent, New Roots Charter School, 87 percent, Cascadilla Prep, 85.9 percent and Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School, 89.2 percent.

A 95 percent immunization rate is the necessary percentage to protect the community from a measles outbreak, such as that in California, according to Theresa Lyzcko, Director of Public Information and the Health Promotion Program for the Tompkins County Department of Health.

“If we’re talking about measles now, the critical point is a 95 percent vaccination rate to protect the public,” Lyzcko said. “And measles is very contagious. It spreads easily. So what’s needed to create what is called ‘herd immunity,’ is a 95 percent vaccination rate.”

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In order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like measles, state residents are encouraged to follow the New York State Department of Health immunization schedule, which outlines the immunization recommendations at each age of childhood.

While medical professionals are advocating for immunization, some parents choose not to vaccinate their children.

An Ithaca mother of unvaccinated children who has chosen to remain anonymous said she has chosen not to vaccinate because of the ingredients of the immunizations and an observed increase in childhood developmental problems.

“I’ve been a preschool teacher for nearly 20 years and I’ve seen children get sicker and sicker throughout my tenure,” she said. “I’ve also observed that unvaccinated children are healthier, more perceptive, and less prone to chronic illnesses.”

Dr. Jeffrey Snedeker, a physician at Northeast Pediatrics and an expert on infectious diseases, said parents of his patients most commonly show concern over alleged harmful ingredients, damage to immunity and side effects, such as the development of autism. These concerns, he said, are based on false information.

“This is just another example of something that is totally false, but people continue to believe just because people keep talking about it and talking about it, and as long as that buzz persists people believe that there must be something to it,” Snedeker said. “Even though there isn’t.”

The myth linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism, for example, was a claim made by a study published Andrew Wakefield in 1998. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the study was revoked in 2010 along with Wakefield’s medical license.

The majority of parents consent to following the recommended vaccination guidelines. Megan Powers, of Ithaca, has chosen to vaccinate her 3-year-old daughter.

“I believe vaccines’ safety and effectiveness has been demonstrated, especially over the last few years,” Powers said. “The side effects are very small, and the risk of getting seriously hurt, sick, or even dying from one of these diseases are fairly high. There is a clear choice.”

Anti-vaccination organizations were not willing to comment on their position. Jeffry Aufderheide, founder of VacTruth.com, declined to make a statement due to what he considered is a one-sided type of media coverage on immunization.

Ingri Cassel, of Vaccination Liberation, requested the reporter to fill out a survey before she could decide whether she would consent to make comment.

“The reason for this is that I need to make sure we are closer to an understanding of the real issues we all face with this latest witch hunt,” Cassel said in an email.

Aside from medical conditions and religious exemptions, parents choose not to vaccinate due to the circulation of anecdotes, rather than medical studies, Snedeker said.

“I think that gets very deep into the heart of human nature,” Dr. Snedeker said. “I don’t honestly know what it is, but I think stories carry a lot a weight. And I think it’s one of the reasons why the anti-vaccine movement has had so much potency. Because it isn’t based on data. It’s based on stories.”

There is also a psychological element to why parents choose not to vaccinate, he said.

“There is something fundamentally very different about a harm coming from a vaccine than a harm coming from an illness,” Dr. Snedeker said. “When a parent consents for a child to get a shot, it’s a conscious decision that they made for something to be put in their child. And even the tiniest possibility that something bad could happen because of that strikes terror into the heart of parents.”

The anonymous mother said she would like to keep the right to choose what is best for her child’s body.

“The debate is far more intense than it needs to be,” she said.  “We have rights that should not be taken from us or our children because of fear. The state and the federal government have no standing to tell us what must be injected into our bodies.”

 Barbara Fisher is the president of the National Vaccination Information Center, which works to present information regarding the benefits and risks of immunization, and advocates for parental consent to vaccinate. She said that it is not the clash of opinion that is the problem, but rather a problem of individual rights.

“I think that the current issue…has to do with whether or not, in America, we’re going to have the rights to make voluntary vaccination decisions for ourselves and our children and not be punished by government for the decision that we make if it doesn’t comply with the government vaccine policies,” Fisher said.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, immunization aids in the elimination of infectious diseases such as smallpox. Dr. Snedeker said that polio and measles could be eradicated with the decrease of misinformation and the increase in vaccination rates.

“There has not been a case of smallpox in the world since 1980, and it was eradicated because of vaccination,” Snedeker said. “No other disease that we know of has been eradicated other than that one. It should be possible to do it for polio. It should be possible to do it for measles, but we haven’t quite gotten there yet.”

The United States Surgeon General, on multiple, occasions has called for parents to vaccinate their children in order to prevent national outbreaks of preventable diseases.

 While the discussion involves national debate, it is not a matter of contention, Lyzcko said.

“Public health doesn’t consider it a controversy,” Lyzcko said. “There’s a lot of science behind vaccination and certainly immunization and vaccination has been one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. It’s saved many, many lives.”

Tompkins County has previously seen increases in pertussis, or whooping cough, with 38 cases reported in 2006. With a spike of 13 cases in 2011 and 9 in 2012, the Tompkins County Department of Health encouraged parents to vaccinate their children in order to protect the community.

With the measles outbreak in the national spotlight, Lyzcko and Snedeker both hope to use this spike in public dialogue to present the facts on immunization.

“I think that in some ways it’s an opportunity to educate people about immunization,” Lyzcko said. “And for those who are hesitant, it’s an opportunity to work with them about their hesitancies.”

The Tompkins County Department of Health hopes that public education will help prevent an outbreak such as that in California. For more information on county immunization guidelines, visit the health department website.

Drill Session 2

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If New Cuomo Student Loan Repayment Proposal Effects Admissions at TC3, School Is Prepared Officials Say

With a proposal to help college students with loans, the school of TC3 is prepared to handle any changes.

Brandon Adelbock and Opal Jessica Bogdan

Tompkins Cortland Community College is prepared to handle large fluctuations in student registration rates if Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to aid students with loan debt influences a change, officials say.

This tentative proposal, titled the “Get on Your Feet” Loan Forgiveness Program, allows graduates to have their first two-years of loan repayment aided by New York state.

Educators at colleges like TC3 are preparing for a change in enrollment and any financial change that may come as a result of the program’s announcement.

“Our funding is based on our enrollment numbers, so if we have more students, we would get more funding,” Peter Voorhees, Public Information Officer at TC3 said.

According to the NY state website, this program could affect as many as 24,000 students when it is fully implemented in the 2019-2020 academic year.

In the past, TC3’s students have had trouble repaying student loans. In October 2013, TC3 received notice that 23.5% of students who attended in 2010 were defaulting on their loans, according to Director of Financial Aid at TC3, LaSonya Griggs.

Loan default is when a debtor fails to repay a loan in the time allotted to them. A financier can take legal action to obtain money from a debtor after a loan is determined to be in default.

A study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that more than 70% of students pursuing an associates degree borrow less than $6,000.

Another report by the Federal Education Budget Project looked at national student default rates and found students who attended a public school for 2 years or less were defaulting at a rate of 13.6% in 2011.

In the spring of 2014, 2,180 full-time students were enrolled at TC3. Voorhees says the school deals with a lot of fluctuations in student admissions every semester.

“Our enrollment changes every year, so we have plenty of experience in dealing with fluctuations,” Voorhees said.

Samantha Hitchcock, a senior at Lansing High School, says almost half of the students at Lansing High School attend TC3 after graduation. But she describes TC3 as just a stepping stone school and that even if the Cuomo proposal was passed, she still wouldn’t select college based on cost.

“I applied to colleges that I want to go to first without the worry about cost,” she said.

Griggs, agrees community college can save college students a multitude of loan debt before entering a 4-year institution, “maybe they’ll go to a school that’s a little more expensive, in a program that may not yield them the best repayment options when they leave,” Griggs said. “If they are savvy enough, the proposal may help them [students choosing based on the loan repayment program].”

Griggs also says she doesn’t expect the college to receive a large influx of students if the program is passed through the state legislature.

“I don’t see [TC3] getting a whole lot of students from [the proposal]. I do see students who are smart and savvy enough to look at those kinds of things—it may influence their decisions into what school they will attend.”

To be eligible for “Get on Your Feet”, college graduates would have to meet the following criteria:

-Attend a college in New York and remain a resident of the state after graduation.

-Participate in the Federal PAYE program.

-Earn less than $50,000 a year.

Over the past five years, TC3’s full-time student enrollment numbers have not fluctuated more than 266 students, according to a review of the schools student enrollment rates by Ithaca Week.

The college offers high school students in the local area the opportunity to enroll in college courses before leaving high school and may help to show how TC3 has handled large fluctuations of students in the past. However, these enrollment numbers are only available from the past year and may have had a larger impact in the data mentioned above.

It is not clear how the college would handle a spike or deflation in student admission rates past that number.