Well, having just graduated from there and having an accord too, I can say that probably the weather is more harsh on your car than anything else. First of all, it is an accord, and an older one at it. Ithaca is a small town with two types of people, retirees, and college related people. Neither group presents much of a security threat. Sometimes I forget to lock my car or apartment for days and nothing happened. I lived in one of the "more" run down apartments too with kids next door that were supposedly high school trouble makers. It is an older accord, and frankly, the bmw's and the mercedes are so prevalent, that a thief would have to be a fool to skip those up to steal an accord.

There is not that much on campus parking. If you get a parking space, most likely it will be off campus and they will also give you a bus pass that you can use to ride on campus. It is freaking dusty there. After an hour or so, I can see a fine layer of dust after washing my car. And about the rims, you'll probably have to wash them a lot considering the slush (partially melted snow) that is prevalent. There are a few potholes to watch out for on certain roads, but it isn't too terrible. I recommend getting tires with a decent tread or your going to be slipping and sliding a lot in the snow. It was fun learning how to drive in the snow. A few full-nelsons? (360 spins) helped me master driving in the snow. I remember once having a little difficult time driving up a hill because of the slush and this is with pretty brand new tires, so you have been warned.
Oh, and the most danger to your car would probably be the drivers who didn't bother to practice driving in the snow and plow through it at 10 over the limit and have no idea how to regain control when their tires have lost traction. I've seen people do crazy stuff with their cars. One person thought it was fun to slip and slide in an S shape and ended up hitting the curb really hard when he slipped to far to the left. He bent at least a rim from what I could tell. Another person took a curve too fast and couldn't stay in his land and ended up jumping the curb on the opposite side. I didn't bother to stop and help that idiot. I have a bunch more I've seen and probably could go on and on, but this is enough for now.