Team Tries to End Season at .500, Hosting Quakers

By wpengine | November 22, 2002

A football season that began on the wrong foot but has lately been characterized by gritty wins comes to its end tomorrow, when the Red (4-5, 3-3 Ivy) hosts Penn (8-1, 6-0) at Schoellkopf Field at 1 p.m.

The Quakers will be out to reclaim the outright Ivy League crown, which they last won in 2000 but lost last year to Harvard. With last week’s 44-9 win over the Crimson, Penn guaranteed itself at least a share of the title.

The Quakers’ dominance of the Ancient Eight this year doesn’t seem to faze Cornell, though.

“We know that the University of Pennsylvania is an excellent football team, but it doesn’t scare us at all,” said head coach Tim Pendergast. “As a matter of fact, maybe it motivates us even more because we have an opportunity to play against the best.”

Cornell certainly doesn’t have fond memories of the last time the Quakers won the conference championship.

Flash back to the season finale two years ago, when these two teams met at Schoellkopf with the title on the line. Penn’s Kris Ryan ran for 243 yards and four touchdowns en route to a 45-15 win, taking the Ivy crown from the Red’s grasp. The Cornellians on the field that day still hold a grudge against the Quakers.

“We all remember that game,” said senior wide receiver Keith Ferguson. “The paper the next day said, ‘Toast.’ I still have that paper.”

A Red win tomorrow coupled with a Harvard win against Yale would take away Penn’s outright Ivy title, and Cornell is relishing the idea of playing the role of spoiler against the team that took their title two years ago.

“It’s a little something extra to play for when you know you could ruin their outright championship,” said quarterback Mick Razzano.

In last year’s clash between the two squads at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field, the Red raced out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and then was stopped dead in its tracks as the Quakers went on to score 38 unanswered points to win the Trustees’ Cup, which is given to the winner of the Cornell-Penn game yearly. The Red last held the Trustees’ Cup in 1999.

Cornell will be tested tomorrow by one of the best rushing defenses in league history. Penn is allowing an average of just 58 yards on the ground per game this season and is on pace to set the Ivy record in that statistic.

“I think one of the main things is Penn’s defense has been able to make teams go three and out, punt the ball, and have its offense get good field position,” said Razzano. “What we don’t want to do is go three and out. We want to get some things moving, drive the ball downfield. Hopefully, if everything goes right, we’ll be the ones working with the short field.”

Razzano was able to piece together a crucial drive last weekend that lifted his team to a thrilling win in the rain at Columbia. Late in the game, Razzano found junior receiver John Kellner for a 44-yard reception on fourth and 17, and then connected with Kellner later for the winning score in the final minute.

Kellner, along with sophomore tailback Marcus Blanks and senior linebacker Nate Spitler, was named to the Ivy honor roll for their efforts in the victory.

That win against the Lions, as well as other recent wins, has helped turn the Red’s season around. After starting the 2002 slate 1-4, Cornell has won three of its last four contests, with the one loss coming to Princeton in overtime.

“The thing that we’re doing is we’re learning the various ways to win the game,” observed Pendergast.

The recent momentum has given the Red the opportunity to finish its season with a conference record above .500. A win tomorrow will accomplish just that, as well as ensuring Cornell with either a third or fourth-place finish in the Ivy standings.

“We didn’t have the greatest season, but you always want to win more than you lost and do okay,” said Ferguson. “That would make us finish around number three in the league, and we were picked to be eighth or seventh. So it would definitely mean a lot.”

For the 16 seniors on the Red, tomorrow’s game will mark their last appearance in a Cornell uniform, and they will be honored with an on-field ceremony.

Archived article by Alex Fineman

Forum Raises Farm Worker Rights

By wpengine November 25, 2002

A forum organized by the newly formed Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition was held last Thursday evening in Uris Hall. A series of speakers ranging from local migrant farm workers to the director of the Cornell Migrant Program spoke to an audience of about 40 people about important issues currently facing farm workers in upstate New York. The panel of six stressed the lack of human and labor rights afforded to migrant farm workers in the state and how students could help gain fundamental rights for the workers. This was one of the first events of the new student organization, started to get Cornell students more involved in helping local farm workers. Migrant farm workers, of which there are approximately 47,000 in New York alone, often migrate or perform seasonal labor on different kinds of farms, ranging from harvesting fruit such as apples, grapes and cherries, to work on dairy farms. While the National Labor Relations Act of 1995 entitles most workers to many fundamental labor rights, farm workers are exempt from this legislation and therefore are exempt from most labor laws considered standard for other industries in the U.S. The panel explained and illustrated many examples of such laws, including the right to workmen’s compensation and sick leave, minimum wage and freedom from harassment. A highlight of the program were three farm workers, Irlain Theodore, Aleus Hilaire and Augustin Dumerci, who spoke about their experiences during the past 15 to 20 years. Each told a similar story of coming to the United States from the Caribbean and the various jobs they had worked as a farm worker since that time. While each had been in the industry for a number of years, none had received any more substantial increase in payment for work and experience. They all spoke of working in conditions where managing farmers withheld payment for long periods or infinitely, and without water or light. While some of the workers expressed their enjoyment of farm work in general, they all hoped that and actively encouraged their children to succeed enough to be employed in other industries. Because conditions are so poor for farm workers, and real wages have actually decreased over the past thirty years, Hilaire asked the audience who would harvest their food in the future, implying that conditions were so bad that soon everyone would leave the industry. The efforts of organizations such as the United Farm Workers and Rural and Migrant Ministries have been able to lobby legislatures on behalf of farm workers and to organize farm workers themselves to increase their power. However, the latter has remained quite daunting because the workers are not even given the right to organize or unionize. The panel stressed the importance of empowering farm workers themselves, rather than continuously advocating for them. “Farmworkers are the ones leading the charge; we’re helping them along the way.” said Bill Abom of Rural and Migrant Ministries. The idea for the new student groupcame last year from several students and Herb Engman, director of the Cornell Migrant Program, an outreach program which began in 1971 as the Agricultural Manpower Project, part of the department of human development in the College of Human Ecology. Engman spoke extensively about many of the local issues affecting farm workers as well as systems in which Cornell students and faculty have worked on behalf of local farm workers in the past. During the latter part of the program, Engman and members of the Rural and Migrant Ministry as well as some audience members talked about the potential help that students could give by lobbying the state legislature, doing research and creating a knowledge base about farm worker issues for students. Several of the student founders have engaged in independent work during the school year or summer through local organizations. Rebecca Bixby, president of Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition, and Pilar McKay worked on a field interview project this summer, involving interviewing migrant workers across N.Y. about sanitary condition across the state. Alyson Greenlee, another organizer of the Cornell Farm Worker Advocacy Coalition, worked for Rural and Migrant Ministries this summer. “Before working [at the Rural and Migrant Ministries], I had no idea that this issue existed, because farm workers are totally hidden from everyone. And even in school, you don’t learn that they don’t have the same rights as other workers,” Greene said. “Even in ILR, we spent maybe one day learning about how farm workers are exempt from most labor laws.” Discussion between the audience and the panel veered towards the immense structural causes of farm worker impoverishment and lack of rights. While they are being oppressed by farmers, many of the farmers are not making large profits at all and are in turn oppressed by the distributors and supermarkets who sell the food. “There’s an incredible variation, and it’s not based on need, it’s based on production,” Engman said. “The biggest earners are the truckers, processors and grocery stores.” Bixby said that the struggle is “definitely something that Cornell students can and should be involved with, in the way that it relates to ongoing policy changes regarding immigration and documentation” Archived article by Aliza Wasserman
Canadian Parliament Member Speaks

By wpengine November 25, 2002

A current member of the Canadian Parliament and former Canadian Minister of National Defence, Art Eggleton, spoke this past Friday in Goldwin Smith Hall’s H.E.C. Auditorium on Canadian-U.S. Relations since Sept. 11. The talk was sponsored by the Canadians at Cornell Club, the largest Canadian student organization in the Ivy League. Debunking Myths Eggleton said that he wished to “debunk sad myths” that seemed to develop after the terrorist attacks. These myths include “Canada [being] portrayed as a haven of terrorists” and concerns over the Canadian-U.S. border, the longest undefended border in the world. Eggleton said that Sept. 11 “awakened us all to new dangers [and] ushered in new challenges for Canadians and Americans alike.” The president of the Canadians at Cornell Club, Daniel Braun ’04 — a Canadian citizen — said, “When Sept. 11 hit, I didn’t feel like a foreign citizen and it hit close to home … I’m sure other Canadian students felt the same way.” First Country Eggleton said that Canada was the “first country outside of the U.S. to respond” to Sept. 11 and “among the first countries to offer assistance for what would eventually become Operation Enduring Freedom.” Eggleton noted that the “Canadian contribution [is] going largely unreported.” Just three months after Sept. 11 the Canadian government finished work on their budget, with nearly “seven billion dollars [reserved for] all initiatives.” These initiatives include the Smart Border Initiative, which is an attempt to “create a seamless yet secure border” with the U.S. According to Eggleton, “more than one hundred billion dollars U.S. cross the border everyday” which is more than the U.S. trades with all of the European Union countries combined. Though Canadian military assistance was provided for Operation Enduring Freedom during Eggleton’s term as Minister of National Defence, he noted the existence of “growing discomfort with American unilateralism.” Referring to an explanation given to him by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for American unilateralism, Eggleton said, “It is the mission that will define the coalition and not the coalition that will define the mission.” “The principle of multilateralism is still valid” so that the entire international community has a voice, Eggleton said. He added that the “very rules we now seek to circumvent may be the same rules we wish to evoke.” Eggleton also said “as a general principle preemptive action is fraught with dangers … the U.S. or other Western nations [do not] have an unblemished record [and] the solution we sought often [becomes] a problem later.” However, Eggleton noted that Canada is “not neutral when liberty and human rights are at threat” and that “we seek the same outcomes [as the US]: freedom and justice and peace.” “We in Canada are not a militaristic nation, nor do we spend a lot of money on the military,” Eggleton said. He also stated that “perhaps it is because we share so much with you [Americans] and think so much of you that we expect so much of you,” adding that “if war is being inflicted on our friends we rise to the occasion.” Audience members had the opportunity to ask questions after the lecture. One member asked about Canada’s involvement in the United State’s alleged violation of Geneva convention resolutions concerning the treatment of prisoners. Canada passed custody of prisoners they captured in Afghanistan to the U.S. with “assurances the U.S. would follow Geneva conventions,” Eggleton said. He noted that the main issues over prisoner treatment centered on whether the captives were prisoners of war or unlawful combatants. Organizers said they felt lucky to have such a prominent speaker come to Cornell. “Eggleton’s lecture was informative and insightful,” Braun said. “He is at the forefront of Canadian decision making.” Archived article by Brian Kaviar