Recent Contributions from Jennifer Kahn

Laura Restrepo Speaks on Childhood and Memory

Jennifer Kahn — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:35:05 -0500

For further coverage of the event, click here.

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Spring 2008 Reading Series

Jennifer Kahn — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:28:54 -0500

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Visiting Professors Start Spring 2008 Reading Series

Jennifer Kahn — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Last Friday, Cornell kicked off its Spring 2008 Reading Series with a presentation from Denis Johnson, Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky, three new visiting professors in the creative writing program. The event was sponsored by two anonymous donors who are alumni of Cornell University.

The reading began with selections from the poetry and prose of Lisicky, author of Lawnboy and Famous Builder.

“I really enjoyed his poems about his mom and her memory,” Sarah Scoles grad said. “They were very touching.”

A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Lisicky won numerous awards from societies such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Michener/Copernicus Society, the Henfield Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center.

2008 Chili Cook-Off and WinterFest

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:47:36 -0500

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Cornellians and Locals Head Downtown for Chili Cook-Off

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Chili Cook-Off and Iron Chef Competition video

Large crowds, eager to try the unique flavors of chili from local restaurants and chefs, bombarded downtown Ithaca for the 10th Annual Chili Cook-Off & WinterFest this past Saturday. New this year was an Iron Chef-style cooking contest, “Chili Idol” karaoke, an air guitar competition and a people’s choice chili award.

Many vendors ran out of chili early due to the high volume of people at the event.

“I wish I’d known we’d have 1,200 people,” said Leslie Muhlhahn, chef and owner of Just Desserts and Queen of Tarts. “We had the longest line for a while. That’s why we were out of stuff.”

Underneath the Surface: C.U.’s Tunnels Join Campus Buildings

Jennifer Kahn — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As the weather gets colder and snow continues to pile up, the idea of an alternate route underneath the surface of the Cornell campus is very appealing. Coincidently, there are a few tunnels buried beneath the University’s grounds. Most of them, however, are inaccessible to the public.

“It all depends on your definition of a tunnel. There are things underground that you could crawl through, that have utilities and various other things running through them,” said Frank Popowitch of the Campus Planning Office. “But as far as the amount [sic] of tunnels available to the public on a campus of this size, there really aren’t that many.”

Cornell Students Rally for Obama

Jennifer Kahn — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Cornell students hold a rally for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign on Jan. 31, 2008.

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Highlights from "Barack The Vote"

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:48:24 -0500

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Senate Questions Financial Policies of Top Universities

Jennifer Kahn — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As Cornell reached the halfway mark of its $4 billion Capital Campaign to strengthen the University’s endowment last week, the Senate Finance Committee questioned the large endowments of institutions of higher education. Last Thursday, the committee sent a letter to the 136 U.S. universities with endowments larger than $500 million, requesting detailed information on endowment growth and student financial aid.

Scientists Use Tree Rings to Date 3,000-Year-Old Volcanic Eruption

Jennifer Kahn — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Within every tree lies a coded history to its past, and when stitched together with the information found in other trees, this record can span the past 10,000 years. Each year, a tree adds on a new growth ring to its trunk, preserving and reflecting the information about its surrounding climate and environmental conditions based in part on the width of that ring. Prof. Sturt Manning, classics, and Cornell’s Lab of Dendrochronology have been able to use tree-ring chronologies in combination with radiocarbon dating in order to place important events, such as the massive volcanic eruption at Santorini in the late 17th century B.C.

Number of U.S.-Based Published Science Articles Hits a Plateau

Jennifer Kahn — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The face of scientific publishing has changed dramatically in the past 15 years. While it was formerly common to see only two names on a research paper, now one is likely to see an article listing up to 12 authors.

The need for increased collaboration and the rising cost of doing research have contributed to the plateaued number of science and engineering journal articles from the U.S. since the 1990s. This is a marked contrast from the previous two decades, which saw a rise in publication numbers. This unexpected development led the National Science Foundation’s Division of Science Resource Statistics to produce a quantitative study of the patterns and trends of U.S. journal articles from the past 15 years.

Apple Fever Hits the Ithaca Community

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

“Never again!” said Jesse Simons grad, after participating in the 25th Annual Apple Harvest Festival’s apple pie eating contest. Simons ate eight slices of pie in two minutes, making him the winner of his round. However, he won’t be giving up apple pie all that soon.

“I think I’m eating more tomorrow actually, someone’s making me pie in celebration,” Simons said.

The Apple Harvest Festival began in 1983 and was first managed by Jean Demming, then Commons Coordinator. The festival, which ran from Friday to yesterday, took over the downtown Commons area with an array of food, music, dancing and, of course, apples.

“We have every kind of apple thing you could ever think of,” said Katie Clapp, events coordinator for the Ithaca Downtown Partnership.

Sex Health Report Card Ranks C.U. 63 out of 139

Jennifer Kahn — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

While Cornell may have earned an A+ for its motto in a recent poll by Motto Magazine, the University did not score as well in a recent survey on sexual health resources and awareness on college campuses.

Cornell was ranked 63rd out of 139 universities with a score of 2.91 out of a possible 4.0 in the 2007 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card.

The survey, conducted by Sperling’s BestPlaces on the behalf of Trojan, polled student health centers and assessed their websites in 11 different categories of sexual health resources.

However, staff members at Gannett Health Center involved in sexual health counseling report they were never contacted for the study.

Cisneros Writes to Make Peace — With Self and Others

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Sandra Cisneros does not only tell stories in her fiction, she carries them with her on her skin — she has a tattoo on her left arm she calls “the Buddhalupe,” a female version of Buddha, with a third eye on the figure’s hand to remind her to always “look deeply.”

“[It wasn’t] so bad,” she recalled of the day she got the tattoo. “Love hurts more than that.”

Students, faculty and other fans of Cisneros filled Schwartz Auditorium last Thursday, sitting on the floor in front or standing in the back to listen to her stories and essays as part of the Fall 2007 Reading Series.

C.U. Team Enters Auto X Prize Contest

Jennifer Kahn — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Mayor Declares May 8 ‘Dead Day’

Jennifer Kahn — Fri, 04 May 2007 03:21:37 -0400

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Peterson’s proclamation honors Grateful Dead’s ’77 C.U. concert

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To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s May 8, 1977 performance at Barton Hall, Mayor Carolyn K. Peterson has declared next Tuesday, May 8, to be ‘Grateful Dead Day’ in the City of Ithaca.

Asia Night Features Food, Entertainment

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:47:01 -0400

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This Saturday at Barton Hall, over 50 Asian organizations from across campus came together to celebrate the many facets of Asian culture — dancers twirled ribbons and flipped through the air as guests browsed the interactive cultural booths while munching on pad Thai or sipping bubble tea.

Warsaw Ghetto Victim Speaks to C.U. Students

Jennifer Kahn — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:31:39 -0400

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In 1943, at only five years of age, Bill Donat was separated from his family in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto and cast into the arms of strangers to protect him while war ravaged the city around him. Donat spoke to the Cornell community last night about his experiences in the ghetto, as well as finding refuge in a Catholic orphanage. The event was sponsored by Students for Tolerance, Awareness and Remembering Survivors and the Cornell Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

African Women Face Postpartum Risks

Jennifer Kahn — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 02:25:51 -0400

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Each year, 50,000 to 100,000 women develop a condition called fistula after prolonged childbirth, a post-natal result that hardly occurs in the United States any longer but continues to be a severe problem in many developing nations. Last Saturday, Dr. Karolynn Echols ’89 came to speak about her experience treating fistula in West Africa and how it inspired her to create Medicine in Action (MIA), a non-profit healthcare organization focused on underserved women’s health issues. Dr. Echols was the keynote speaker for Skee-Week 2007, sponsored by the Mu Upsilon chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

C.U. Scientists Aim to Spot Rare Woodpecker

Jennifer Kahn — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:01:00 -0400

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When looking for a needle in a 550,000 acre haystack, otherwise known as the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, it takes a collaborative effort from top ornithologists and engineers. This is especially true when the needle is the ivory-billed woodpecker, one of the world’s rarest and most elusive birds. The last uncontested sighting of the bird was in 1944.