Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison M.A. ’55, had a joyous homecoming yesterday in a packed Bailey Hall, which welcomed the renowned writer with a standing ovation. Morrison, who graduated from Cornell 54 years ago, read from her most recent offering to the literary world, A Mercy, published last year.

It seems logical for people to donate less when their wallets are tight. Phillip Lyons, a high school economics teacher in Palo Alto, Calif., has been donating $100 to his alma master, UCLA, every year since graduation. However, things became different after the recession hit.

“I haven’t given since the [economic] downturn,” Lyons said. “But in all honesty, I think it’s psychological. I still have a job and the same income but I feel less well off so I haven’t given.”

The University is making public the 20 reports from the tasks forces that have recommended ways on how to restructure Cornell’s academic operations to cut costs, Provost Kent Fuchs will announce today.

From Vice President Olamide Williams’s ’10 State of the Multicultural Community address to a lengthy debate over Campus Life’s decision to reassign Ujamaa Residential Housing Director Ken Glover, Cornell’s multiculturalism became the focus of yesterday’s S.A. meeting.

As a preface to a resolution overturning Campus Life’s decision, Williams provided an address on Cornell’s multicultural community.

The Johnny’s Big Red Grill sign will not be illuminating Dryden Road in the near future. Last week, the sign traveled to its new home in the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, where sign enthusiasts and nostalgic Cornell alumni will be able to visit it after a lengthy restoration process.

Risley Hall recently shed some light on a piece of its historic architecture — literally. In September, lampposts were installed on the four gates the residential college, a project that was initiated by one of Cornell’s student architects.

It all started in 2006, when Joe DeSense ’09, then architecture student and Risley resident, came across several old photos of Risley from 1913, dug up by a friend who had been writing a paper on the history of Risley.

“I noticed these brick lampposts, two in each driveway leading up to the building, and thought, ‘Why did they get rid of something so nice?’” DeSense said.

DeSense eventually proposed his idea of restoring the lampposts to Elaine Bushey, Risley’s residence hall director, who responded favorably.

In the face of a $2.5 million budget shortfall, the Common Council passed a $58,431,727 budget for 2010 yesterday.

Operators at the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory are evaluating and replacing the old equipment that led to two small fires in the synchrotron’s main tunnel earlier this semester. The fires occurred in two small power supplies that provide energy for the synchrotron’s vacuum pumps. The damage done was minimal and localized, but it called attention to the aging machinery still used in parts of the synchrotron. The fires also brought up safety concerns about the accessibility of the tunnel in the event of an emergency.

With consistently stellar performances at regional competitions over the past three years, the University’s Mock Trial Organization was ranked 4th in the nation by the American Mock Trial Association.

Kathy Zoner was sworn in yesterday as the chief of the Cornell University Police Department, becoming the first woman to hold the position since its inception. Zoner, who had served as the interim chief since May 20, was sworn in by retiring chief Curtis S. Ostrander at an impromptu ceremony at the Crash Fire Rescue building at the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport.