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So, we’re a nation that tortures.
Doesn’t feel particularly good to think about in the abstract, let alone face as a reality. But, that’s what the United States has done, torture. We’ve probably done it for a long while.
Writing this blog, I saw two options as to how to handle the issue. I could just talk about how we justified torture in several ways, ranging from the “greater good” argument to avoiding the issue on technicalities (e.g.
Welcome to SunShine, the blog of The Cornell Daily Sun News Department.
SunShine is the online voice of the News Department. Conceived as a supplement to the news articles found in our print edition, SunShine provides news stories, videos, as well as our own take on issues local, national and global.
SunShine will be updated daily, providing up-to-the-minute information on the latest major events at Cornell.
This is only the beginning, so stay with us as we grow.
Cornell Days may be over, but enjoy SunShine.
This is the last article in a series examining the effects of the University’s budget cuts on individual schools and colleges.
When President David Skorton announced Cornell’s financial cuts in the latter half of 2008, the University’s colleges were faced with the difficult task of reducing their budgets by 4.8 percent. For the College of Engineering, like the other colleges, meeting the cuts has been a particularly troublesome burden.
While Liz continues on her analysis of international woes from a European perspective, I’ve decided the time is ripe to pipe up with some American vision about recent events.
Let’s begin with an anecdote. Last Thursday, as many began to celebrate the start of spring break a bit early, I was holed up in my room writing papers (yes, plural) . As I typed, my roommate barged into my room to decry Obama’s economic policy solutions. Claiming that they were destroying the banking system, he explained that there was a clause in the recovery plan (hire-American) that mandated all companies receiving government support hire only American employees. This has been at the cost of the jobs of many foreigners in the United States.
Cornell announced on Friday its voluntary retirement programs for staff. In the wake of a budget crisis that has crippled the economy, the University has decided to offer the packages to eligible employees in an effort to alleviate financial strain on the University.
“The national and global economy has continued to decline, increasing the need for further budget reductions, including postponement of many faculty recruitments and reductions in staff,” Mary Opperman, vice president for human services, stated in a press release.
“Because layoffs are inevitable, President Skorton and I believe that Cornell University has a responsibility to give long-serving staff members the opportunity to leave with dignity and a measure of financial security,” she said in the statement.
Earl Flansburgh ’53, a prominent architect and former member of Cornell’s Board of Trustees, died Feb. 3 following a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
According to the Lincoln Journal, Flansburgh, an Ithaca native and an Air Force veteran, received his masters degree in architecture at MIT in 1957 and taught at the Architectural Association in London as a Fulbright Scholar.
Following his time in England, Flansburgh lived and worked in Cambridge, establishing his own architecture firm Earl R. Flansburgh & Associates in 1963.
The construction freeze announced by President David Skorton on Oct. 30, 2008 will not affect all building plans and instead will permit several projects to progress.
The construction pause will give the University a chance to re-evaluate “every project that has not got the shovel in the ground,” according to Simeon Moss ’73, director of Cornell Press Relations. The University will, for example, make use of the pause to prioritize and look into the funding of such projects.
A former member of Weather Underground brought Ithaca’s Common Council meeting to a halt Wednesday night when he threw his shoes at Mayor Carolyn Peterson.
Robert Palmer, a long time resident of Ithaca, threw his shoes in protest of the Council’s position against the “immoral wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 2008 Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowships have been awarded to four Cornell professors — Bruce Ganem, the Franz and Elisabeth Roessler Professor of Chemistry; Prof. Ronald Harris-Warrick, neurobiology and behavior; Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History; and Prof. Richard Rand, mechanical and aerospace engineering.
According to the University Faculty website, the fellowships are meant to honor and recognize tenured faculty members “who [have] a sustained record of effective, inspiring and distinguished teaching of undergraduate students and of contributions to undergraduate education.”