As the economic downturn has forced some colleges to cut jobs, Cornell has used these tough times to concentrate its recruiting agenda. The Dual Career Program, a service created eight years ago in Cornell’s Recruitment and Employment Center, has proved a key recruitment tool, offering job-search assistance and career counseling to the spouses and partners of University employees.

Prof. Robert Connelly, mathematics, holds up his finger for silence, intently concentrating as he frantically pushes buttons on a toy cell phone. A minute later his face lights up as he solves the puzzle, beating the game. Red lights next to each button light up in unison and Connelly proudly announces, “See this one is great because it has a great, ‘Aha!’ factor.”

Prof. Connelly's Office

A few years ago, Prof. Brian Earle ’67, communication, awoke to a phone call in the middle of the night from a student. It was Senior Week and the young man, along with his fraternity brothers, had decided that they would visit every bar in Tompkins County. At a stop along their journey, one of the brothers remarked aloud that they had arrived at a true “redneck bar.” At once, the young men were escorted out of the bar and into the parking lot, where one of the bar’s patrons poured beer in the students’ gas tank.

The Hartwell Foundation — which provides funds for translational biomedical research aimed at helping children — recently issued three grants and a fellowship to Cornell researchers. These funds, totaling $1 million, make Cornell the first research university to receive three faculty grants simultaneously from the foundation.

Last night, Weill Medical College Professor Harriet Baker gave a talk entitled “New Frontiers — Humanizing the Scientific Process” in Goldwin Smith's Kaufmann Auditorium. Baker, a faculty member in the Neurology and Neuroscience department, addressed the causes, treatment, and ethics of Parkinson’s disease in her discussion.

Throughout the seminar, Baker drew on her own experiences as a Parkinson’s patient who has dealt with the disease for over 11 years.