Students at Ithaca College Vote 'No Confidence' in President
By
Gabriella Lee
· Monday, Nov. 30, 2015
![After seven days of assessing what happened at Yale, the Cornell football team (0-1, 0-1 Ivy) will enter Colgate's Andy Kerr Stadium trying to prove last week's debacle was a fluke. Head coach Tim Pendergast began the season promising a revitalized run game balancing the Red's already respected passing offense. While most of the burden fell to senior tailbacks Evan Simmons and Justin Dunleavy, and junior fullbacks Nate Archer and Brian Ulbricht, it was senior quarterback Ricky Rahne who led the team in yards rushing with 32. In the end the highly touted running game amassed 66 grounds yards, even though the Elis boast arguably the best defenses in the Ivies. But unlike last year, the aerial attack couldn't compensate. Rahne threw for 136 yards, his lowest total in his career on East Hill. "Every game is a learning experience, and coach told us we're not going to give up on the run game," Simmons said. "As of Sunday, the whole team realized that we have a lot of work to do, as far as the running game. So it's been one of the major focuses this week in practice. Against Colgate it will be a chance to see how far we've gotten along." "Were not necessarily making adjustments," Pendergast seconded. "We can take a lot at what we did last week, evaluate it and tweak it where necessary." "We have to block better. We have to come off the ball better. We have to come off the ball better," he added. The offensive line's ability to protect Rahne and open holes in the defense will be key, as the Elis routinely held the rushers at the line of scrimmage and had Rahne scrambling. The Red's 4-4 defense had bright points, sacking Yale quarterback Peter Lee four times. But the scant secondary often left the middle of the field open. Junior linebacker Nate Spitler was one of the most effective defensive players last week, leading the team in tackles despite missing most of the first half due to dehydration. "Nate was clearly a bright spot," Pendergast asserted. "We clearly had other bright spots. We played well that first quarter. We played well defensively to start the third quarter both series. We played pretty well for a little over a quarter." If the Red can revitalize its running game, the defense will benefit. Last Saturday, it was worn down while Yale commanded time of possession in the second half. Hopefully for the Red, many of its woes have been ameliorated in practice while preparing a more fearsome foe in Colgate (1-2). The Patriot League team has a talented lineup of wideouts, a rushing game that ran for 293 on Cornell last year, and a defense that boasts as good or better athletes than Yale's. "They're a very explosive offensive. They've been for years," Pendergast remarked. "It has a tenacious defense. They run. They play well together. Dick Biddle is a defensive minded coach," he continued. "They have some very outstanding players. They're going to present us with some problems. There's no question about that. The mentality among the squad remains positive going into tomorrow's game. "The mood of the team has been outstanding," Pendergast said at a press conference Wednesday. "We probably had our two best days of practice in a row Tuesday and Wednesday." And the team will continue to focus and stay on track having eight games still left in the season. "[We're going to] keep doing the same things," Pendergast assured. "We don't believe in pushing the panic button. Last time I looked, we played one game. I don't think one game tells the story."Archived article by Amanda Angel](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/f07d7723-895b-4468-84eb-b21d716003cb.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![Last night, at Ithaca's Town Hall, the preliminary stages for the construction of a new wrestling facility on Campus Road were passed. The facility, with a proposed location east of Bartels Hall at the existing tennis courts, received a preliminary site plan approval for construction. The cost is estimated at approximately $3.5 million. The building, approximately 15,000 square feet, will include a 900-seat arena, training facilities, locker rooms and offices dedicated to the varsity wrestling program. According to Athletic Director Andy Noel, plans for constructing it had been in the works for a couple of years already. Michael Husar and Steven Wright, project managers for Cornell Planning and Design, presented the site plans to the Board. Although the basic structure is set, Husar said, "We're still in the process of design," referring to the exterior of the building. Due to this unexpected complication, the Town Board stated that it could not pass a final site plan approval, meaning that Cornell will have to make a return trip to Town Hall. "It completely alters what we're looking at," said one Board member about the possible future changes. "The budget reductions that must occur will impact the design a small amount in my view," said Noel, "but it was enough for the board to think that we should come back in another month." Current design plans include a tower as well as a barreled-roof. However, because of budget constraints, the tower may be eliminated and the roof height could be altered. "[The tower] serves no practical purpose except to draw attention [to the facility]," said Wright. Funding for the facility will come from a combination of the university and alumni. "We have tremendous alumni support, and have gotten a lot of lead gifts already," Noel said. The Board recommended that the final architectural designs -- including the final drawings, revised elevations and description of materials used --](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/ab404a70-5d7e-4ec2-8540-d6f659d90584.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![This week, daze had a chance to sit down with Eric Aceto, an instrument builder and member of the popular Ithaca-based band Mectapus. daze: When and how did you get into building instruments? Eric Aceto: It was in the very early '70s, 1970 and '71. I was attending art school and I wanted to put the music and art together. I had played music my whole life and then I got into building basic instruments. I had done a lot of repair work and work on friends' instruments. And later, when I got into it more, I started constructing instruments more in a bigger way. D: When did you build your first electric fiddle? EA: That was in 1974, early on. D: So many accomplished musicians use your instruments. Who are you most proud to build for? EA: Wow. Well, probably Darol Anger [fiddle player who has performed with David Grisman, String Cheese Incident, and others]. He's a great player and he's been a great supporter of the whole project. D: If, for whatever reason, you could no longer be either a musician or an instrument-maker, which would you choose? EA: You know, it's not like that for me. I guess part of being a Gemini is that dual nature. They really go hand in hand. Plus, I began building violins because I was playing violin and looking for a certain sound. I really don't separate those two at all. D: Do certain musical styles and approaches influence the design of your instruments? EA: Well, certainly the instrument we're most interested in building is an amplified instrument, so yes. The reason I came to it is because I'm into acoustic music, and acoustic instruments. I'm trying to translate that feel, and that timbre, to an amplified situation, and it's been tough over the years but I'm feeling pretty good about it. D: You certainly should. Roughly, how long does it take you to build a single instrument? EA: Well, it's not just me. My partner Dan Hoffman has a huge amount to do with it. We pretty much work on each instrument together. Dan does all the plate carving, and what's called the corpus, so he's working the plates and the garling and the voicing of the air chamber and everything. And then I work more on the neck, the setup, the feel, and the peg-head carving. All the electric work and that stuff. So, we really both work on them and not just one instrument at a time. Different things are in different stages of development. But we can deliver a violin, right now, in about 10 weeks. D: After all that, does the whole trend of rock stars smashing their instruments on stage make you cringe? EA: Are they doing that again? Oh no. See, I've never wanted to smash an instrument, even in my most frustrated moments on stage. Why? I've never understood it. D: Anything new in store with Ti Ti Chickapea [a folk trio consisting of Hank Roberts on cello, Richie Stearns on banjo and tenor guitar, and Eric on violin and guitar]? EA: Yeah, right now we're working on album with Kevin Kinsella [lead singer and guitarist of reggae outfit John Brown's Body]. We're doing a bunch of Kevin's material, and that's been really fun. And we're hoping to do some gigging with that kind of group. It's tough working around Richie's schedule [he's now on tour with roots-rock group Donna the Buffalo] and Kevin'd been on the road quite a bit with John Brown's. But we're going to try to do a more scaled back, amplified acoustic thing. It's been really fun working with Kevin. He's such a beautiful guy. D: Will we ever see more from Mectapus [an eclectic and notorious local band with which Eric played violin, mandolin, and guitar] in the future? EA: Yeah. Definitely. Joe [Palermo, Mectapus drummer and professor of history and English at Cornell] took a gig out at the University of Santa Cruz. So he's not here during the year, but he may still teach here at Cornell during the summer. And we've talked about doing the acoustic thing with just hand percussion. I actually got a chance to play with my dream band at the Rongo not too long ago. It was Mike Cerza [of Mectapus] on percussion, Joe on drums, my brother Harry on upright bass, and Mich](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/6eb5c1e6-2c41-4404-86ed-1d1919100007.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![During a week of tragedy, the Korean Students Association and the Coalition for Comfort Women Issues (CCW) once again invite the Cornell community to remember onto the tragedies of the past at a photo exhibition held at the Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery. The exhibition is open until tomorrow. The exhibit, "Comfort Women: Suffering and Dignity in Asia during World War II," features the photos of Korean-American photographer Yunghi Kim and a copy of the first English-language book, Comfort Women Speak, that chronicles some women's experiences in their own words. Along with these, the presentation includes original artwork from surviving women. This exhibit, which had already visited the campus in March 2001, follows organizers' plans to invite a comfort station survivor to speak at Cornell Nov. 5 at the Statler Auditorium. Mark Hwang '02 is one of many organizers from the CCW who feel that learning about this issue now can help prevent injustice in the future. "The issue of the Comfort Women is also a story filled with courage and dignity of extraordinary women who, albeit advanced in age, decided to come forth and demand for justice. These women truly deserve stage on our campus for what they're doing. They're doing it for our generation, so that we will never fall victim to another such tragedy," Hwang said. Although these events occurred decades ago, it is only until now that the CCW is bringing these women's stories to universities, such as Cornell and Georgetown University, and public arenas across the country, among them the Philadelphia Free Library, "Basically we want to inform people," said Erin Chu '03, of the Korean Student Association's political committee. "[We want] people to connect with the Comfort Women." Chu hopes that through this exhibit, more members of the Cornell community can connect with the atrocities of the past and connect with the now much older victims. To connect with the Comfort Women's story is to connect with a tragic history of sexual enslavement and secrecy during World War II. Historically called the "Comfort Women," they are a group of approximately 200,000 women of Korean, Chinese and other Asian decent who were forced into sexual slavery at the hand of the Japanese Imperial Military from 1932 until the end of World War II. They lived in "comfort stations" which lined East Asia. Many of these women were only teenage girls when the military undertook this then-legal practice, bringing women to camps where they were often raped and tortured. Through this exhibit, the sponsor organizations stated that they do not want to blame Japan for its actions nor were they against any Japanese person now, however they want to honor the women who died at the hands of the Japanese and acknowledge to the world that this ordeal even occurred. The Japanese government did not officially offer an apology or reparations to the Comfort Women until 1995. "It is our intent to commemorate the lives of all 'comfort women' of World War II and express our respect for the dignity and honor for women who were murdered as sexual slaves and for those who survived sexual slavery during the war," said by the Coordinating Committee for the CCW in their letter to members of the Cornell community which was available to visitors at the exhibit. Given the subject matter, visitor response ranged from "shock" to "anger" as they read and listened to the stories of the surviving women. Monica Jeong '02, a student of Korean decent, found that she was angered upon learning the horrendous stories of the victims. She agreed that the focus of the exhibit is not to blame but to celebrate. "It's sad to see, if you think about that part of history," Jeong said. "They don't even attempt to address it. It's a really big issue." Jeong noted the apparent refusal of the Japanese government to acknowledge the issue as the topic is often absent in Japanese textbooks. She also considered the exhibit a reminder of the pain that the women of her country had to endure. "Those people [in the photos] looked like my own grandmother. I'm probably going to look like that [when I grow older]," she added. The exhibit will travel to Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University later this year.Archived article by Carlos Perkins](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/75c73837-90ac-4d54-8b7c-11b2b32b4d26.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![Derek Burrows '03 is reaching beyond the boundaries of the Cornell campus this semester by running for a seat the Tompkins County Board of Representatives. The election will take place on Nov. 6. Nancy Schuler, a member of the Tompkins County Board of Representatives for 12 years, is Burrows' opponent. "I am running because I want college kids to have solid representation on the Board," Burrows explained. A member of the Collegetown Independent Party, Burrows wants to improve quality of life for people living in District 4 of the City of Ithaca, which encompasses West Campus and Collegetown. Burrows' main concern is Tompkins County's growing budget. "The budget has been expanding at an exponential rate over the last three years," he said. "This leads to increases in student rent." Burrows hopes to protect student rent prices by assuming fiscal responsibility and capping the budget. "I want to prevent the [rumored] one percent increase in sales tax," Burrows said. "I'm for less taxes." Current seat holder Schuler is concerned with quality of life issues such as transportation, human services and consumer protection, according to her website. Schuler could not be reached for comment. These issues are of importance to Burrows as well, but he feels that because "Nancy Schuler lives outside the district and I live with college students, I am more in touch with the district's constituents. Students can approach me, call me or e-mail me with their concerns." Should he win the election, Burrows pledges to live in Ithaca for the full duration of his 4-year term. Although he is an operations research major in the College of Engineering, and has no prior experience in politics, he plans to remain involved in the political scene after he graduates. Although Burrows thinks he "definitely can win," the campaign got off to a rocky start. Due to invalid signatures on his nominating petitions, it took him two attempts to earn a spot on the ballot. Now, his remaining obstacle is getting students to vote. "I'm going to kick off my campaign with a registration drive," he said. "I will be [signing students up] at Ho Plaza, Noyes Community Center, or convenience stores in Collegetown." Students running for positions in Ithaca's government is not unprecedented. In 1999, Green party candidate Josh Glasstetter '01 defeated Jane V. Pedersen, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, for the position of alderman for the city's Common Council. Students make up 90 percent of the voters in his district, Ward 4. Two other students running for positions on the Common Council that year, however, did not fare as well, losing to their opponents. Burrows noted that the adult members of the Board seemed receptive to working with a student. Many of Burrows' peers support his efforts as well. "Cornell students are not just part of the Cornell community, but part of the Ithaca community as well and have just as much right to speak their minds as any other citizen," said Sarah Bender '04. Burrows hopes that in case of a victory, his seat would remain occupied by a student in the future. "Student involvement in politics is a huge issue to me. Our generation has been accused of apathy and disinterest for as long as I can remember. This is a way to show the critics that we do care, and that we do want to be involved," Burrows said. Archived article by Rachel Einschlag](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/67ecc005-4a0d-4cb8-8de2-b1bddccc746d.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
![Yesterday morning, about 48 hours after the tragic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the university decided to cancel all of this weekend's athletic schedule. The decision -- the result of lengthy discussions between President Hunter R. Rawlings III, Athletic Director Andy Noel and Vice President of Academic and Student Services Susan Murphy -- affects football, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross-country, volleyball, field hockey, women's tennis and golf. "We are canceling all sports events Friday to Sunday," Rawlings said. "All intercollegiate sporting events have been canceled, both home and away." "It just seemed obvious to not concentrate on intercollegiate athletics," Noel said, adding that it is now more important to "reflect on the tragedy and focus on family and friends." "Given the scope of this tragedy, I believe it is appropriate to cancel our entire competitive calendar this weekend," added Associate Director of Athletics, Bob Chaddock. The announcement comes as no surprise, considering several other universities, including Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn and Harvard in the Ivy League have taken similar measures. However both Rawlings and Noel were quick to stress that Cornell's decision was undertaken independently, unaffected by the choices of other schools. "I've been on the phone -- since I'm the chair of the Ivy League -- and different universities have taken different positions," Rawlings explained. "Some have canceled everything, others are deciding on a case by case basis. There was not an Ivy Group decision." "The Ivy League has dealt with important issues on an institutional basis," Noel concurred. "The general feeling is that every university has to reflect on the situation and make its own decision." As a result of the Ivy League's position, schools have pursued very different policies. Yale, for example, chose to postpone all events through the weekend as early as Wednesday; Dartmouth, on the other hand, permitted a volleyball match to take place the same day. (Since, it has also canceled all events through the weekend.) "We respected the administrations at Yale and Dartmouth very much," said Noel, "but we knew we had to decide for ourselves." The decision has been brewing since a few hours after the attacks. "Discussion started as soon as the events began to sink in," Noel recalled. "For many, many hours, we were in disbelief as to what happened." Though events have been canceled, no such decision has been taken for practice schedules. "[The approach to] practices are the same as holding classes," Rawlings said. "It's healthy to have them. Otherwise life becomes abnormal. "You need to concentrate on what you're doing. Getting together in groups is very positive...especially in settings that you're familiar with." As of now, no rescheduling plans have been set. Some events, including the football game against Bucknell will likely be canceled all together. Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj](https://snworksceo.imgix.net/cds/35d77a88-46ca-4dd9-8a1f-18dec2ba33f4.sized-1000x1000.?w=1500&ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=faces&facepad=3&auto=format)
