Nine Down, One to Go

Most Sun columnists write their final piece as they excitedly look forward to graduation, their career and a new locale. Although this is my last column, I will not walk at commencement until next spring and the only early summer excitement I have to look forward to is my five-year Cornell undergraduate reunion. Even though I will still be a student in the coming year, my main responsibilities on campus are drawing to a close. Both my two-year term as a student elected trustee and tenure as a captain of the Ultimate team are ending this semester. I am sad to be moving on from these endeavors, but my Dissertation Committee will probably be happy to know I am going to be fully dedicated to my research.

Before I pass the student trustee torch on to Kate Duch ’09, I want to discuss a frustration of mine over the past few years. It bothers me that some students place such a strong emphasis on Cornell’s image and ranking in publications such as U.S. News and World Report.Sun Podcast: A podcast is available for this column. Click here [1] to listen to or to download it. Frankly, paying attention to rankings only perpetuates a flawed system instead of taking action to actually improve educational opportunities. For instance, a policy change of admitting students based solely on their high SAT score and GPA for the sake of a more selective class would indeed improve Cornell’s ranking. Nevertheless, this strategy is misguided and completely ignores Ezra’s original intent. Similarly, mandating a decrease in class size and hiring more faculty to teach the increased course load, would also improve the University’s ranking. Departmental need, intellectual diversification of faculty and student learning should be the primary motivators when creating new faculty positions, not solely an opportunity to reduce class sizes.

Prospective students pick colleges based on a wide range of criteria in an effort to find the one that best fits them. Hence, impressive educational experiences, both inside and outside the classroom, will attract the best and brightest students to Ithaca, not a Cornell ranking breaking into the top 10. Rather than focusing on where Cornell stands in arbitrary ranking systems, the University administration should focus on improvements that rarely appear in the rankings. It is the student body’s responsibility to lobby the administration, encouraging them to continue creating programs and experiences for students that will substantively challenge them to become better people. In particular, the student body is already holding the University accountable in three key areas: diversity, sustainability and graduate and professional student life.

Diversity is a nebulous term and much time can be spent trying to define what it means without ever taking real action to solve problems associated with it. Based on the pointed feedback received from the well-attended student forum in early April, the Diversity Council Working Group is enthusiastic about implementing two new programs over the next year. The first is Breaking Bread, a program that funds two different student groups to organize a meal together and then co-sponsor an event. The main benefit of this program is that it is open to the broadest interpretation of diversity (ethnic, religious, intellectual, etc.), and the program that needs to be devised is flexible in formality (co-sponsoring a speaker or meeting to play pickup sports). The second program provides an opportunity for professors to attend a summer workshop where they can examine the syllabi of the classes they teach to look for ways to include diversity. For example, instead of allowing students to choose partners for projects, pairing them randomly would allow people from different backgrounds to work and learn together.

Discussions on sustainability, an equally vague buzzword, parallel those on diversity in many ways. Thankfully, President Skorton’s signature on the President’s Climate Commitment has already started the University on a path to action in a particular aspect of sustainability, carbon neutrality. In order for Cornell to be a leader in environmentally and socially sustainable enterprises, it will take more funding than what will be raised via the $5 optional fee undergraduates overwhelmingly supported in a referendum earlier this semester. An increase in tuition or a mandatory sustainability fee should eventually replace the voluntary contributions to cover these added costs (thanks to the capital campaign there will be more scholarship money available to help offset these increases). To meaningfully involve students in this process, some percentage of these revenues should be allocated to the Kyoto Task Team to fund student-proposed projects.

I also want to highlight graduate and professional student life as another program area that needs administrative focus. Because graduate and professional student culture lends itself to departmental isolation, there are few chances to meet and interact with students outside of one’s field. In response to the general lack of cohesion, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly recently compiled a Graduate Community Initiative document that reviews key issues affecting the student experience at the graduate level. The Initiative requests an improved student center, sustained attention to housing, mentorship and interdisciplinary opportunities and career services. By following these suggested guidelines, graduate and professional students will hopefully be integrated into the Cornell community in a meaningful way.

In all of these examples, incremental changes can be made to improve each area. Doing so allows the University to move beyond the numbers, statistics and public relations fodder that are poor indicators of how well Cornell is preparing its students for the real world. Emerging student leaders must ensure the University administration goes beyond our collective image and rankings ego to create a positive learning environment for the entire Cornell community.

Finally, after almost a decade spent at Cornell, I have been significantly influenced by enough people to fill the entire column with individual thank yous. Though there is not enough room to mention everyone, I want to especially thank Graeme Bailey, Ken Gabard, Kathy March and my mom, Carol Crowley. To all of these people in the Cornell community and to my family, I am forever grateful for all you have done for me. Thank you!

Doug Mitarotonda is a student-elected trustee. He can be contacted at dcm14@cornell.edu [2]. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Tuesdays.