BARACK OBAMA ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT

Watching a Sea of Green: June 25, 2009

June 25th, 2009
By Donial Dastgir
Maybe it’s because Michael Jackson has died—it’s a sad and unnerving feeling to think that he’s gone—but today has had a very peculiar quality to it. Even for Iran, today was rather strange. Let’s look at what’s happened. Seems like Iran is in a state of flux, alternating between days of horrific violence and tense calm. Today is the major exam day of Iran, during which the Konkoor---Iran’s college entrance exam—is administered. It’s of a different mode than the SATs. Read More

Students Elect Asa Craig ’11 To Serve on Board of Trustees

April 22nd, 2009
By Jimmy Crowell
After several weeks of chalking, handing out quarter cards and waving a flag outside Libe Café, Asa Craig ’11 has been elected as the newest undergraduate student trustee for Cornell, the Office of the Assemblies announced yesterday. Read More

So Long as We're Talking

April 22nd, 2009
By Molly OToole
People put a lot of weight on last words. So I’m going to do it too, running the incredible risk of doing something that’s been done before — something that a columnist must never under any sane circumstances do — because I’m in an altered state of mind. Altered, mind you, because of words. I watched the sunrise through the blinds and I have yet to go to sleep and it is all words’ fault. Under sane circumstances, I myself am fascinated by the idea — what are the last, and I mean the Last, words I want to spend my ultimate breath on? The ones that will just hang there, in the air, until someone opens a window or maybe writes them down and they live on, for a little longer at least? It is a reflection of humankind’s obsession with its own mortality. Words, if recorded or remembered, allow us to escape our fate. Whether “Oh yeah,” (the parting phrase of a friend’s grandfather who died enviously in the act) or “I finally get it now, life is —,” these words transcend the unattainable, the inconceivable: human made immortal. Read More

Graduate Professional S.A. Elects Exeutive Council

April 21st, 2009
By Byungkwan Park
At its last meeting for this academic year, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly held elections last night for the assembly’s 2009-2010 executive council. Darrick Evenson grad was elected the president of GPSA. Erica Gutierrez grad was elected executive vice president, and Brian M. Forster grad was elected the vice president of operations. Read More

Bring On the Intellectual Slugfest

April 10th, 2009
By Alex Kantrowitz
As Malcolm X strolled onto Cornell campus 47 springs ago, you could just imagine the resolve in his eyes. He was here to debate James Farmer, head of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), on the topic “Separation vs. Integration.” The question was simple. Should blacks in America continue to push for equality in society or should they remove themselves from it completely? Farmer argued to keep up the fight, Malcolm argued against. For anyone sitting at the debate it must have been not only intense but eye opening. They were witnessing two major figures in our country debate an issue both salient and close to their hearts. The arguments were strong and not held back. It was an intellectual slugfest of the highest order. It was here. Read More

Panel Challenges Student Trustee Hopefuls to Distinguish Platforms

April 8th, 2009
By Michelle Honor
This year’s undergraduate student trustee elections hold special significance for Cornell. It was 40 years ago that the Takeover of Willard Straight Hall helped elucidate the need for a transparent University. Many credit the Takeover, and a series of tumultuous events that followed, with Cornell allowing four students to serve as voting members on the Board of Trustees. Read More

To the Editor: All majors at Cornell equally essential

March 26th, 2009
To the Editor: Re: “Incorrect information and misleading stereotypes plague college wars,” Letters, March 12 It appears that yet another angry editorial rant has only exacerbated this ongoing Coulter-fueled controversy between colleges. Perhaps, having only spent one semester at Cornell, this freshman did not realize that the vast majority of students and faculty are well aware of the true Ivy League status and admission rate of CALS. That is what makes Ann Coulter’s comments all the more ridiculous. The true problem with this author’s remarks is the tendency to engage in the same kind of ignorant and shallow talk as Ann Coulter herself did. The author claims that, in fact, CALS education is “a little more essential to our nation (no farmers, no food) than Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies or Theatre, Film, and Dance Studies.” Read More

Class Council Election Results

March 10th, 2009
After a long and arduous campaign process, the Class Councils named the presidents and vice-presidents of each class on Friday. Class Councils are charged with planning events for their entire grades in order to bring people together and foster unity. Past events have included Battle of the Late Night Foods, class talent shows and meet and greets with President David Skorton. The Class Councils for each graduating class are also in charge of planning Senior Week, Convocation and Commencement. Read More