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The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/2000/11/13/volunteers-help-move-books/)

November 13, 2000

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Volunteers Help Move Books

By ryan | November 13, 2000

More than two hundred volunteers helped the Tompkins County Public Library transport books into the library’s newly constructed building at 101 East Green St. this weekend.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Nate Brown ’04, a volunteer director, noting that many more people volunteered than were originally expected.

Volunteers pitching in to aid the move came from many different organizations within Cornell, Ithaca College and the surrounding community.

These helpers covered one of two shifts from the morning until 5 p.m. each day. As popular music played throughout the library, volunteers wrapped and transported crates of books out of trucks and then shelved books.

For many, this experience was more than just hard work.

“It makes you feel good about yourself

New Store Sells Worldly Crafts

By ryan November 14, 2000

Metal art from Haiti, textiles from Asia, jewelry from Peru and carvings from Africa are just some of the Third World handicrafts available at Ten Thousand Villages, a new retail store on the Commons. Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit program of the Mennonite Central Committee and a member of the International Federation for Alternative Trade and the Fair Trade Federation. It purchases handicrafts under strict fair trade guidelines from more than 30 Third World countries, which are sold in 200 stores across the country. “We try to promote the idea that people from the developing world can get a decent pay for their work,” said Laurie Konwinski, manager of the Ithaca store, which opened on Nov. 4. “We can make a difference with the way we spend our dollars.” The organization promotes equal opportunities for craftsmen by ensuring fair wages and safe working conditions. It also promotes environmentally sustainable practices, so craftsmen are not using wood from endangered trees in their carvings, according to Konwinski. Liz and Dick Adams, owners of Logos Bookstore, brought Ten Thousand Villages to Ithaca, the culmination of 20 years of interest in helping craftsmen in developing countries. “It was their dream to build a permanent store in Ithaca,” Konwinski said. “They were interested in the Third World economic justice system.” Through friends and the organization, the Adamses have been involved in a series of four day sales of these goods over the last decade. The sales were successful, so Dick Adams approached people from Ten Thousand Villages about opening a store in Ithaca. “The more people we talked to, the more people said Ithaca was the perfect place for a store like that,” he said. “After a week of the store being there, we’re convinced Ithaca is the perfect place.” Dick Adams estimated that the store has had about 50 customers a day for the past week and at least twice that many people have just stopped by. To keep the costs low, the sales associates are all volunteers. There are currently over 50 volunteers, including several Cornell students. “It’s a great a idea to have a store that supported fair trade with people and I’d like to support that,” said Meaghan Burch ’04, a volunteer. The store is scheduled to stay open through December. “We hope to raise enough funds to open a permanent store in the spring,” Konwinski said. “So far we’re doing well.”Archived article by Anastasia Handy
Amphitheater Dedicated

By ryan November 14, 2000

The high-tech distance learning capabilities of the renovated Harriet Stein Mancuso ’73 Amphitheater in Myron Taylor Hall were demonstrated at the dedication ceremony in memory of the late alumna yesterday. Fully equipped with instructor and student-tracking cameras, a large screen for projecting images and audio-visual recording equipment, the law school classroom will be able accommodate 150 students who can see, hear and interact with other students in teleconference classrooms around the world. “The video-conferencing capabilities of this room allow us to ignore distance and to view academics, lawyers and judges situated anywhere on the globe as prospective presenters, commentators and mentors for our resident students,” said Peter W. Martin, Jane M. G. Foster Professor of Law and co-director of the Legal Information Institute. Through this technology, professors can integrate relevant materials from the Internet into their classroom presentation. Each student’s desk is equipped with a microphone to pick up comments from other seminar participants and speakers. The wall-mounted cameras can track the instructor moving throughout the classroom and zoom in on a particular student called upon to answer a question. “The technology enriches the learning environment by speeding up classroom interaction,” said Prof. Robert Green, law, who used the monitor to project documents and mathematical diagrams for an income tax seminar he taught in the classroom this semester. In addition to cutting-edge technology, the law school classroom also displays the only known plaster-cast replicas of the Law Codes of Gortyn, which were the set of rules governing the ancient Greek city during the fifth century B.C., at the entrance. “Just as this room bridges old and new, ancient and modern, it bridges my past with the present,” said Robert Mancuso ’73, who met his wife Harriet in the classroom 30 years ago. “The story of Harriet’s life will be retold. In that retelling some of those in the classroom may be touched, some may be inspired.” The transformation of this ordinary classroom into a high-tech teleconference facility will provide for an interactive learning center beginning next semester.Archived article by Dan Webb