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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2000/10/27/cross-country-runs-in-heptagonal-championships/)

October 27, 2000

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Cross Country Runs in Heptagonal Championships

By ryan | October 27, 2000

If the Cornell cross-country teams wish to reach the NCAAs, they’ll have to take the road through the Heptagonal Championships first.

And they do so today, traveling to Van Cordtlandt Park in the Bronx to face off with the full complement of Ivy League schools as well as Navy.

In last year’s meet, the women finished second while the men took sixth.

Thirty-one teams will go to the NCAA Championships late next month, and 13 of them will be chosen by way of at-large bids. Both the men and women are looking to grab one of those berths.

And with the NCAA Regional Qualifying race next week, today’s race may be one of the Red’s last chances to prove to the selection committee that it is among the top programs in the country.

On the men’s side, Princeton has won the Heps title three years running, but the Tigers’ hopes this season are in jeopardy — the winner of the Heps last year, Paul Morrison, has been hurt this fall and will not compete today, and Mike Spence who finished second in 1999 graduated.

That puts the Red in prime position to steal the crown. Not only is Cornell 5-0 so far, but it also garnered 35th place in the Pre-National Meet earlier this month.

Junior Max King will likely pace the squad just as he has in every race for the Red this year. He finished 25th at Heps last season, clocking 25:55.6. Also expected to score for squad are senior captain Colin Moore as well as juniors Matt Gallagher and Geoff Van Fleet.

The women could be considered among the favorites to win Heps. However, if they run like they did at the Pre-National Meet — finishing 31st — their chances may be rudely extinguished. Several Ivy squads placed ahead of the Red in that competition.

Senior co-captains Meredith Freimer and Kim Chatman should anchor the team. Junior Halle Watson and freshman Jessica Parrott should also be expected to score.

Two things, though, are in favor for both the men and women. Both squads were able to rest last weekend, and furthermore, both have run at the Van Cortlandt course previously, having finished first and second, respectively, at the Ram Invitational in September.

Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj

Related

Angela Oh Addresses University Race Relations

By ryan October 30, 2000

In light of the bias-related incidents that have struck the University campus this month, last night’s lecture, “Be Proactive,” by Angela Oh, an expert on race relations, struck a chord with the Statler Auditorium audience. Tim Huang ’01, president of the Chinese Student Association, co-sponsor of the event, called Oh a “constructive and fruitful” voice for America, as well as pertinent voice now as the University continues to try to improve race relations. J. C. Park ’01, president of the Cornell Korean Student Association, co-sponsor of the event, hoped that Oh’s speech would help to achieve “the true sense of racial harmony.” Dean of Students John L. Ford introduced Oh in the context of Cornell’s commitment to racial diversity. “By establishing a diverse community, all are challenged intellectually and interpersonally,” Ford said. “Cornell’s campus climate must be committed to a statement of diversity. Angela Oh is one of the many steps on the path to accomplishing our mission.” Oh began by addressing the role of race in her own community of Los Angeles. “You have to think deeply about your community,” she said, describing her personal struggles with racial identity as a Korean woman. “I do not see through rose colored glasses. I know how tough it is.” She discussed her role as the spokesperson for the Korean American community in the 1993 L.A. race riots, which she attributed to “double digit unemployment, shifting demographics, social services and the public’s lack of confidence in the police.” Oh emphasized the importance of developing awareness of racial inequalities in a community. “People need to speak up, they need to mobilize,” she said. “People need to pay attention to poverty in the community.” Oh also described her role as a member of the race initiative advisory board to President Clinton. “Race initiative was an attempt to try to say ‘Wake up,'” she said. “It took somebody in leadership and authority to move us.” Oh specifically addressed racial equality in terms of economic equality. “The challenge is about equality in the year 2000,” she said. “The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, bottom line. The more you have, the more you have to give.” “Racism becomes dangerous when it becomes violent and it becomes dangerous when we shut up,” she concluded. “It takes little steps to move people to a different place.” Following the lecture, Oh took questions from the audience. Students in attendance were moved by the speech. “Her message was one that Cornell needs to hear,” Angie Hunter ’01 said. “We wanted someone who could use more than rhetoric — someone who could tell us something concrete,” said Jason Choy, vice political chair of the Korean Student Association. “Angela Oh was an expert on the subject.”Archived article by Colin Ilgen
Students, CIT Struggle With CoursEnroll Problems

By ryan October 28, 2000

Besides the common reasons for pulling an all-nighter, the recent problems students have had accessing the University’s CoursEnroll service are adding one more, according to many Cornellians. Since the CoursEnroll period has begun for upperclassmen, students registering for their spring semester courses have run into problems that that arose from outdated software and low-capacity network servers. “I didn’t get into one of my classes for my major even though I stayed up until 1:45 in the morning,” said Gretchen Poulos ’03. As a result, Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) is monitoring the registration program to alleviate the burden students face. CIT is also continuously adding servers to mitigate the difficulties that have come up. The early hours of Oct. 21 brought a considerable surge in usage of CoursEnroll, mainly because both sophomores and juniors were first allowed to access the program on that day. “Between midnight and 3 a.m., 1,365 students enrolled in 6,721 classes,” said Rick MacDonald, director of CIT information technologies. “There was an enormous load on the servers.” As a result of the problems with the current software, CIT has steadily increased the number of network distribution servers in order to help handle simultaneous connections. On Oct. 14, the University service provider had one server; on Oct. 21 it was functioning with six. This Saturday, when freshmen begin registering for their courses, CIT will offer 21 servers to the campus community. “We were aware of the delays and difficulties that people were having,” MacDonald said. “And we had a large staff [at CIT] tuning the system in response to the load.” He added, “The program staff has been working to alleviate potential bottlenecks. It’s an ongoing effort and a high priority.” According to CIT staff, the continuing problems encountered by students using CoursEnroll are mostly load-related. These concerns deal with a specific type of commercial software that CIT is trying to modify, but the modifications will not be complete by freshman course registration. CIT stated that students may encounter a “create socket failed” error that indicates system overload. CIT suggests that if students receive this error, they should try enrolling later. The reduced number of students using the system combined with steps taken by CIT to lessen the load on the servers should significantly improve the registration process tomorrow. Still, CIT believes that the network servers could suffer if all eligible students use CoursEnroll at midnight tomorrow. “CoursEnroll has been changed to a Java-based application,” said David S. Yeh, assistant vice president of student academic services and University registrar. According to Yeh, CoursEnroll was designed with significant feedback, testing and the validation of numerous students. The advantages of the program this year are its navigability and accessibility through a web browser. “The performance, which everyone is working on, is not a result of the new design,” said Yeh. “Rather, the culprit may be the Student Information System itself, which is old and will likely need significant modifications.” Student leaders say they are aware that CIT is working hard on fixing the computer glitches associated with CoursEnroll and are trying to encourage patience. “CoursEnroll has been revamped since last year, and aside from the three hour delay we all experienced this past weekend, is apparently working better than ever before,” said Karl Johnson ’03, chair of the Student Assembly (S.A.) Committee on Information and Technologies. “CIT has been working hard on the CoursEnroll program and server, so the S.A. has had no reason to give them a hard time about it,” Johnson said. “[A large number of] simultaneous log-ins to any server are going to be difficult to handle.” For technical support regarding CoursEnroll, students can contact the CIT HelpDesk from midnight on Friday, Oct. 27 to 2 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, or call 255-8990. The Office of the University Registrar will also be available to answer questions about CoursEnroll during the same hours at 254-4795.Archived article by Ritu Gupta