With an Unexpected Budget Shortfall, Increase in Expenses, Financial Audit Backlog, the City of Ithaca Reevaluates 2026 Budget

Ithaca city manager Deb Mohlenhoff announced the discovery of an unexpected $2.1 million deficit in the proposed 2026 city budget during an Oct. 21 Ithaca Common Council meeting. The shortfall, in addition to Mohlenhoff’s proposed $6.1 million budget increase compared to 2025 and the city’s backlog of annual financial audits, poses a new challenge for city finances. 

Students Pack Student Assembly Meeting to Protest Proposed Funding Cuts to GJAC, Other Organizations

The Student Assembly voted to reject the Finance Committee’s recommendation to reduce funding for Cornell Class Councils' and postponed votes on funding recommendations of the Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition, Cornell Minds Matter and CU Tonight, following an hour long public comment at their Oct. 30 meeting.

11/5/2025 Crossword

11/4/2025 Mini

Men’s Soccer Held to Scoreless Draw at Harvard

Men’s soccer started a road trip to close the regular season this weekend, facing off against a Harvard team desperate for points to keep them in the running for the Ivy League tournament.

Late Lapse Fuels Women’s Soccer's Season-Ending Loss to Dartmouth

After last week’s loss against Brown, the Red was no longer in the race to clinch a spot for the Ivy League Tournament. Instead, the Red fought for a win in its final game of the season.  

Sprint Football Falters Late in Loss to Caldwell

For three quarters, the Red looked like a team rewriting its story. Every possession felt controlled, every tackle sharp. But as the fourth quarter clock wound down, that rhythm unraveled, and what began as Cornell’s most complete performance of the season turned into another painful loss against Caldwell University.

Volleyball Fights Hard in Hanover, Finds Redemption in Cambridge

With just a few weeks left in Ivy League play, the Red faced one of its toughest road weekends yet. Traveling to Hanover, New Hampshire, and then to Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Red showed determination, depth, and grit across two intense matches that tested both endurance and teamwork.

Cornell to Discontinue Duo Phone Call, SMS Passcode: App, Key or Token Required Beginning On Tuesday

The University will retire the Duo Phone Call and SMS Passcode log-in methods for students beginning Tuesday, according to an Oct. 2 email to members of the Cornell community from Robert Edamala, Cornell’s chief information security officer.

TEST SPINS | ABBA: ‘Voulez-Vous’

ABBA is everywhere. Forget Mamma Mia — it goes beyond that. There is an entire episode of This Is Pop that is essentially about ABBA. They basically dominate the cultural imagination when it comes to Eurovision. “Dancing Queen” has been the inspiration for hundreds of girls’ seventeenth birthday Instagram post captions. And the frats — oh, the frats — they love ABBA. I can just about count on hearing it whenever I go out. Last weekend was no exception — “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” one night, the eponymous “Voulez-Vous” another. And trust me when I say: I am glad to hear it. ABBA deserves their flowers (even forty years after disbanding), and I am happy to give them some. This week’s Test Spin focuses on the 1979 record Voulez-Vous — dare I say some of their best work — and is bound to leave you with at least one ABBA song reverberating in your brain for the next 3 to 5 business days. You’re welcome.

BUTLER | A Federal Shutdown is a Cornell Shutdown

While the government shutdown in Washington, D.C. appears to be worlds away from the sturdy ivory towers of Cornell, our foundations are more fragile than they appear. 

LOMBARDI | Introducing the Office of National Fellowships

When you hear the phrase “Rhodes Scholar,” an elite, distant, almost unattainable achievement may come to mind. But at Cornell, the story of national fellowships is, and always has been, about something more: personal reflection, finding and defining purpose and opening up possibility.

BURZLAFF | The Basics (3): Learning with Machines — Four Principles for Using AI at Cornell

Every semester now begins with the same quiet contradiction. One syllabus declares, “No ChatGPT allowed.” Another encourages it as a research aid. And in between, most of us use it anyway. In a recent national survey, more than half of undergraduates reported using artificial intelligence in the past week — to summarize readings, outline ideas or draft essays at midnight. Faculty use it too, though we’re slower to confess it: to sketch lectures, check citations or polish phrasing before pressing “send.” The technology hums in the background of university life — fast, fluent, available and quietly indispensable. And yet, for all its ubiquity, few feel comfortable with it. We worry it’s doing too much thinking for us or replacing something we can’t quite name. Like calculators in the 1980s or Wikipedia in the 2000s, AI has moved from novelty to necessity before we decided what it should mean for us. On our campus, the question is urgent: how do we use AI wisely without letting it hollow out the very work that makes learning human? At stake is the difference between explanation and engagement, between knowledge that is delivered and knowledge that is made.

Open Your Ears

Walking across the arts quad alone, I forgot my headphones. A wash of sound floods over me — leaves brushing vigorously against each other in the aggressive wind, shoes scurrying past at various paces, bikes mechanically whirlling. I notice my own contribution to the concert. My pants shuffle against each other with an airy, light sound. I can choose the rhythm of the shuffle with each footstep. My steps are more percussive than the ones from the girl who just passed me. She was walking quickly. I am in sync with the boy walking in front of me, but I delay a beat and suddenly we’re syncopated. When I reached my class, I forgot that I wasn’t wearing headphones.

Florence + the Machine Delivers Album That Makes ‘Everybody Scream’

In 2023, the British indie rock band Florence + the Machine was touring their newest album, Dance Fever. Everything was going according to plan for lead singer Florence Welch, until she had to undergo emergency surgery due to a miscarriage. In an interview with a British magazine, Welch poignantly remarked that “the closest [she] came to making life was the closest [she] came to death.” That statement, and her experience as a famous female singer undergoing pain onstage, encapsulates the emotion, inspiration and meaning of the band’s newest album, released Oct. 31, titled Everybody Scream. If the story behind the music doesn’t make you want to scream, then the symphony of life and death Florence Welch has created will — but only in the best way.

Daniel Caesar Takes Us to Church with ‘Son of Spergy’

Love, introspection and spirituality: these are the three themes that characterize pretty much all of Daniel Caesar’s discography. Yet, in his latest project, the third seems to take the spotlight, along with a new motif not explored extensively in his past works: his relationship with his father, who seems to be a fairly central figure in this album’s narrative, being featured on the album itself and being pictured in his younger days on the album cover. Those open to even more soulful and introspective pieces from an artist already known for the presence of these qualities in his past works are sure to find a plethora of things to love about this project.

11/6/2025 Mini

AGRAWAL | A Theory of Life

At a holiday dinner, a discussion turned too heated to continue, but a family too close to let it break them apart. The hardest conversations often happen between the people we love the most. Yet the most resilient and vibrant groups, like the most diverse ecosystems, are not composed of a single type of participant. Functional groups are dynamic tapestries woven from threads of both deep connection and striking differences.

Simeon’s American Bistro: A Must-Try in Ithaca

A couple of weeks ago, my friend’s parents visited Ithaca for the weekend and they graciously treated us to dinner at Simeon's American Bistro. For the evening, my friends and I traded our typical dining hall buffets and late-night Taco Bell runs for fine dining — a rare and welcome change. It was my first time trying out this well known restaurant, and I was eager to see if it lived up to its glowing reputation. 

Cyclist Airlifted From North Campus to Pennsylvania Hospital Following Accident

A cyclist who reportedly suffered a head injury following a crash near Ho Plaza was airlifted to Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania, early Monday morning, according to the Tompkins County Scanner.