The first fire took place in early October, after a botched mugging. A student, who wishes to remain anonymous, was walking home to his house on Hudson Avenue when two young adults confronted him. They told the student to give over all of his money. It is unclear if the assailants showed a BB gun or not, but when the student became aware that they didn't have a gun, the student defended himself. He pounded both of the attackers until they were unable to retaliate.

The student fled the scene and decided to stop off at his friend's house and tell everyone about what just happened. Allegedly, the would-be muggers watched the student enter the house. About an hour later, the front of the house was completely ablaze. The beaten attackers came back, but this time they threw Molitov cockta

Junior Brandon Inhaber is enraged, "They want more people to come here (SUNY), but there is no room on campus, so people move downtown. The school should try to make downtown living as safe as possible. Students live here; the school knows that. If they were concerned for our safety, they would send some police here to patrol."

The school has yet to make any movements in the way of improving quality of life downtown. Are there enough people who feel that the school should be taking an active role in protecting their students? You can bet the parents of the 1/3 of off- campus students will.

Police were unable to locate the criminals from the descriptions received. The Red Cross gave aid to the wondering students, and the University offered them free housing for one month. Local clothing stores like Structure donated thousands of dollars in apparel. One student was so depressed that he withdrew from the University. The community was shocked by this act of ignorance and hate.

Senior Dan Chusid says, "After those houses burning, I would never even cross another local, they can watch me go into my house, and then burn it while I'm sleeping. Those people have no concept of consequence."

ils (bottles filled with flammable liquid and a crude fuse) on William Novak's porch. Senior William Novak lost all of his possessions in the blaze. Will said, "I ran out of the house knowing that I was

Some common words found in the essay are:
Albany Police, Hudson Avenue, Counseling Center, Red Cross, Dan Miklos, Dan Chusid, William Novak, Brandon Inhaber, John Mazzola, SUNY Albany, student ghetto, albany police, hudson avenue, burned house, house fraternity, police patrol, senior dan, gun student, students forced,
Approximate Word count = 955
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)