News Story

Taiwanese Progressive Leader Speaks Of Nation’s Independence from China

Jimmy Crowell — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Correction Appended See Below

Yesterday afternoon, Chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan Dr. Tsai Ing-wen LL.M. ’80 delivered a lecture on the current relationship between China and Taiwan, emphasizing the domination of Taiwanese politics by the Republic of China. The lecture, “Cross-Strait Relations: Past, Present and Future” was presented by the Cornell Law School Clarke Program in East Asia Law and Culture.

Students Scramble to Sign Leases Early

Cara Sprunk — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

While college students across the country settle into their new apartments and dorms this fall, many Cornellians are scrambling to sign leases for the next academic year.

Many students feel pressure to sign leases for apartments in Collegetown early in the year, sometimes before being able to compare different properties.

Elizabeth Truax ’11 said she was concerned about signing her lease as early as September.

Cornell Law School Announces Major Expansion in Permanent Faculty

Brian Karlovitz — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The recent addition of six distinguished legal scholars signifies an expansion of permanent faculty at Cornell Law School. The scholars bring with them diverse expertise in areas such as constitutional law, international law, evidence law and commercial litigation.

Stewart Schwab, dean of the Law School, explained that plans for this faculty expansion took shape during a self-review of the that began several years ago.

“Back in 2003 the law school faculty did an extensive self-study and evaluation,” Schwab said, “and there was a consensus that the school needed to expand its faculty, particularly its research faculty.”

Italy Pays Libya $5B in Reparations

Therese Lahlouh — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In an unprecedented political move, Italy has agreed to pay $5 billion in reparations to Libya for its 32-year occupation of the country over half a century ago. According to the BBC, Libya is the first African country to be compensated for colonial rule.

Libya, which seceded to the Italians in 1911 from the Ottoman Empire, became a unified Italian colony in the early 1930s. Italy relinquished claims to the country in 1947, and Libya officially declared independence in 1951.

Committee Seeks More Transparency in Provost Search

Sam Cross — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The search for the next University provost is underway. Calling all members of the Cornell community to offer input, the Provost Search Committee sent a University-wide e-mail over the summer requesting nominations.

The committee will be looking internally for Biddy Martin’s replacement. It will narrow the nominations to compile a short list of candidates from which President David Skorton will then choose the next provost.

With hopes of completing their task by October, the search committee stopped accepting nominations yesterday.

“We have to do our job quickly,” Prof. Martha Haynes, astronomy, and Chair of the Provost Search Committee, said. “But we do not want to rush. With such an important decision, we must take our time and be deliberate.”

Students Push for Safe Ride Initiative Launch Next Fall

Jamie Meyerson — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

2.1 million college students drive under the influence of alcohol each year. In response to this staggering statistic and other safety concerns, students at Cornell are taking steps to start a safe ride program, which will provide students with free transportation at night.

The program should be up and running by Fall ’09.

Sanjiv Tata ’09, president of the Residential Student Congress and sponsor of Resolution 18, which pushes for the creation of a safe ride program and was presented in the Student Assembly, explained that the “safe rides” will be run by trained student volunteers. Three to four vans, coordinated by a central dispatch, will pick up students and take them back to their residences between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

Response to E-mail Outage Inadequate, Report Finds

Michael Stratford — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The University’s response to a massive e-mail outage in June was inadequate and caused significant interruption to the business of the University, according to a report released last month.

The unexpected and widespread e-mail failure prevented some members of the Cornell community from sending or receiving e-mail for as long as five days and caused irreversible damage to about 3,800 email accounts.

The report summarizes the findings of a group of Cornell officials throughout campus who performed an “after action review” of the incident.

Members of the group sharply criticized the manner in which the University communicated with the Cornell community and the public during the outage, calling it ineffective.

Weill Hall on Track for Ofﬁcial Oct. Opening

Abubakar Jalloh — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

High-tech shared research facilities and innovative laboratories are just a few of the features the newest addition to the Biology Quad and the most technologically advanced research facility on campus, Weill Hall, sports. The building is set to officially open on Oct. 16, although some labs opened during the summer.

The establishment of a life science research facility has been “the highest priority for [the] University’s presidents since the early ’90s,” said Susan Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Until recently, the structure was called the Life Sciences Technology Center, but the name was changed after the Weill family’s $50 million donation to the building.

C.U. Plan Prepares for Population Increase

Sun Staff — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

“Poor air quality, massive parking lots, traffic jams and delays are integral parts of life in many parts of the United Sates, but they don’t have to be a part of our future here,” said Bill Wendt, Cornell’s director of Transportation and Mail Services. Wendt’s optimism about Ithaca’s future can be attributed to the Transportation-Focused Generic Environmental Impact Statement released today, which examines the future of Ithaca’s transportation in light of presumed population growth in the next 10 years.

University Bids Farewell To Provost Biddy Martin

Venus Wu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

As a gift to the outgoing provost, President David Skorton proclaimed that the dining room in the A.D. White House would now be called the “Carolyn ‘Biddy’ Martin Room.”

The announcement was made yesterday at a special event, where about 150 staff, faculty, students and alumni gathered under a large, white tent on Bailey Hall plaza to bid farewell to Martin, now chancellor of University Wisconsin-Madison, her alma mater.

“A.D. White House is where I have spent some of my best times at Cornell. It is one of the most beautiful and important houses on campus. And to have something related to the humanities named after me means the world to me,” said Martin.

Fulbright Awards 20 Cornellians Scholarships for Research Abroad

Megan Potter — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

While most victims of armed robbery quickly put the incident behind them, John Bruno ’08 turned his own unsettling experience into an inspired research proposal that won him a Fulbright Scholarship.

“I was robbed at gunpoint the first time I visited my family in Guayaquil, Ecuador. After this eye-opening experience, the Fulbright seemed like the perfect opportunity to actually contribute to a critical issue facing Ecuador and immerse myself in my ancestral heritage,” Bruno said. A Sociology major while at Cornell, Bruno chose to study delinquency and problems surrounding the “revolving door” of the prison system for 10 months in Ecuador.

Collegetown Vision Committee Approves Master Plan

Ben Eisen — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Collegetown Vision Implementation Committee, in its final meeting before an indefinite hiatus, has begun to conclude a master plan that has been a year in the making. Since the moratorium on Collegetown construction went into effect last year to enable consultants to formulate the Collegetown Master Plan, the CVIC — under the direction of Mary Tomlan ’71 (D-3rd Ward) and Svante Myrick ’09 (D-4th Ward) — has been hard at work guiding the planning process.

The result is a master plan that will likely steer the future development of Collegetown. Residents hope that it will improve issues of pedestrian transportation, add mixed-use developments, provide for student parking and open up public spaces.

C.U. Helps Students Find Jobs During Downturn

Elizabeth Krevsky and Nikhita Parandakar — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The slow economy has hit higher education head on, and Cornell’s graduate and undergraduate colleges are responding with full force.

The Johnson School of Management held consulting, marketing and finance career events over the summer to make the internship and job search process easier for first-year business students this fall semester.

“The students returning to campus and the incoming class will most likely face a more challenging job market than we have experienced in the last few years,” said Karin Ash, director of the school’s career management center.

“For students to be successful in this market, especially students who are desiring a job function or an industry change, they need to be very focused and persuasive in their presentation to employers,” she said.

Protest Against Review Erupts During Clubfest

Jasmine Marcus — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It wasn’t all fun and games at this year’s Clubfest, an annual start-of-the-year event where students can learn about campus organizations.

On Sunday afternoon, students protested The Cornell Review during the event held in Barton Hall. Around 3:00 p.m., some students began circulating quarter cards calling the Cornell Review “racist.” The protesters also chanted at the members of The Review sitting at the magazine’s booth, causing members of the Cornell University Police Department to be called in. The CUPD refused to comment on the incident.

Freshman Reading Book Draws Mixed Reactions

Sun Staff — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The cold aura of Barton Hall was, on August 24, transformed into an intensely intellectual colloquium when the New Students Book Project invaded the massive gymnasium. The incoming class, along with others members of the Cornell community, discussed Lincoln at Gettysburg by Gary Wills. The book’s focus is on the 272 words of the Gettysburg Address.

Lincoln at Gettysburg was sent to over 3,700 members of the Class of 2012 at the beginning of the summer. They were assigned to read about it for their first academic experience of the year, and then analyze it with their peers.

C.U. Alum Wins Sierra Club Prize

Emily Cohn — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A few weeks following his graduation last spring, Carlos Rymer ’08 received an e-mail containing news. Rymer — whose legacy at Cornell reads like a laundry list of the University’s recent sustainability initiatives — had won the Sierra Club’s 2008 Joseph Barbosa Award.

Rymer was nominated for the award , which recognizes club members under 30 years old who have “a demonstrated record of service to the environment,” by Bonnie Tillery, who worked with Rymer at the local Sierra Club near his hometown in New Jersey. He will fly to San Francisco on Sept. 20 to be honored by the Sierra Club, where he will receive a $250 grant for his work.

A New Cornell:

Sun Staff — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Cornell is a place of change: from the students who pass through campus to the scientific innovations that University researchers pioneer. Thus, it’s only fitting that the campus changes as well. Here are some of the latest transformations that the University is currently undergoing.

The Johnson Museum broke ground on its 16,000 square foot addition in May, prompting a groundbreaking celebration in which President David Skorton read a haiku. The 35-year-old museum will receive $20 million, which will go towards the addition of a lecture room, new galleries, a workshop studio and more storage space. Though the University still lacked $1 million of the money needed for the addition as of May, the new Johnson is scheduled to open in 2010.

Pres. Skorton Refuses to Sign Pledge to Lower Drinking Age

Nikhita Parandekar — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The Amethyst Initiative was created by a group of college presidents in June with the goal of inciting discussion about the effectiveness of the current drinking age. As of Wednesday, 129 presidents of colleges and universities around the country had signed an initiative supporting an investigation to lower the drinking age back to 18. President David Skorton was not one of the signatories.

Meet Peter Kwon '11, Lone Protester

David Wittenberg — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Meet Peter Kwon ’11. Yesterday he got so mad about the death of Schedulizer that he ran into the Cornell Store, bought some poster board and a marker, and began a one-man crusade on Ho Plaza. “Bring Schedulizer back!” he shouted. “PeopleSoft may not need Schedulizer but the students do!” he cried. Again, and again, and again. Kwon drew stares, chuckles, and a steady stream of support. “Screw PeopleSoft! PeopleSoft is garbage!” one kid called out.

Kwon said he was undaunted by the fact that he was standing alone, and unafraid of University retaliation.

“What are they going to do, expel me?” Kwon said.

Schedulizer Is Back At C.U. Following Registrar Scuffle

Ben Eisen — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

After just over 24 hours without service, the familiar tabs and lists of Schedulizer.com are once again active. Schedulizer CEO Jay Searson ’08 put the site back online around 8:20 p.m. last night, citing the willingness of the Registrar to work with the website and the outpouring of student support as the two main causes.

“We’ve got a meeting with the Registrar, and we’re going to work with them to keep Cornell accurate,” Searson said. “We haven’t come to any firm agreements, but we are very, very optimistic.”

However, he added that the student support that Schedulizer received, in all forms — from protesting students to e-mails of support — was what eventually made them put the site back up.