The big question down here at the end of this crazy week was what to do with NYSEG: Hero or villain? Obviously, the first inclination was to slap a big villain tag on the company that powers up all of Ithaca, including The Sun. For goodness sake, Tuesday night's four-hour power outage downtown came perilously close to forcing The Sun to skip a regularly scheduled day of publication for the first time in more than three decades. But then we thought about it some more. And you know what? That power outage doesn't seem so bad in retrospect. Why? Well, to put it succinctly ... sitting around with nothing but candlelight to see fellow Sun staffers, discussing such important topics as the potential job market ramifications of the Chase-Morgan merger, drinking Distilled Love (a.k.a. "cheap beer") ... priceless. Thank you, NYSEG. Just don't freakin' let it happen again.

Without a doubt, the number one VILLAIN of the past week was the University official who gave Ford Motor Company approval to park a fleet of cars on the Arts Quad to coincide with this week's Career Fair. Ford has displayed its cars for years on campus as a means of attracting potential employees from Cornell. But this year's display was different, and reflected quite poorly on the University. For one, the exhibition was sorely out of place on the Arts Quad, where it was relocated as a result of the Engineering Quad construction, prompting one staff member to remark, "It looks like a car sales lot." But more bothersome was the fact that some of the cars came equipped with the much-maligned Firestone Wilderness tires that are currently under federal investigation. The whole episode just defied any notion of common sense on the part of both Ford recruiters and the University. So far, we have heard no public apology from anyone at Cornell, which is unacceptable given the dangers of Firestone tires. These pages are a great place to start. Has the University become unwilling to stand up to corporate America? We hope not.

As for the Career Fair itself, the HEROES at Cornell Career Services did a commendable job of bringing a vast array of employers to the Cornell campus this week. But we wonder what all those recruiters think about our school now, after the VILLAINOUS set-up of the Ramin Room. The place was jammed full of booths, with some of the busiest ones located seemingly in all of the wrong places, such that movement was difficult at best. To make matters worse, the lack of air conditioning left the place resembling a sauna. As if Cornellians weren't sweating enough in front of the Goldman recruiters already.

But before we get carried away with that whole "your future" thing, let's get back to some of the great vignettes that make this place so much fun. Have you heard about the web site, www.cornellreview.org? A source tipped us off last night, and we couldn't stop laughing after we visited. So for that, we have to make the creator of the site a HERO this week.

That's it from us. Have a great weekend, and best of luck to the HEROES on the football team. Chew up the Bucknell Bison.

Archived article by Sun Staff