By wpengine
The Duffield Hall construction project will move into a new phase of development this week when the PRK Blasting Company begins using explosives to extract approximately 3,000 cubic yards of bedrock from the site. The newest addition to the Engineering Quad, Duffield Hall will be the future home of nanotechnology research and teaching facilities. The building design includes basement and sub-basement levels that are currently being excavated. According to Project Manager Robert P. Stundtner, the construction team has reached an impasse of dense bedrock that must beremoved in order to establish the sub-basement nine feet below the existingsite depth. Since construction of Duffield Hall commenced last May, the joint venture of McCarthy Contractors and Welliver McGuire has made strong efforts to minimize impact on the surrounding Cornell community, especially the Knight Nanofabrication Laboratory that performs precision research nearby. Nanoscale studies are conducted at the scale of one billionth of a meter, which means that the building team must operate under strict vibration protocol so as not to interfere with sensitive Knight Lab activities. The Cornell News Service stated that “rock removal by drilling, jack-hammering, ram hoes, and ripping with large excavators,” used to a limited extent in preparation for the blasting, was “deemed too disruptive [for large-scale rock removal] because they require high noise and vibration levels and would extend over a long period of time.” Alternatively, blasting away the bedrock with explosives “gets it over with quickly and with the least impact on everybody, classrooms and research,” said Stundtner. Rock blasting will briefly halt pedestrian and vehicular traffic around the Engineering Quad and along Campus Road. The explosions will take place twice daily for up to two weeks, during morning and afternoon classes when people are inside. “Hopefully because we picked the busiest class times, there won’t be many people around,” said Stundtner. “But we’re going to use the construction workers, the Cornell Police Department, and people from transportation services to help with any traffic management problems.” According to the contractors, a series of three-inch diameter holes will be charged with dynamite for each blast. Two-ton rubber blasting mats will be placed over the rock to eliminate the danger of projectiles. When the blaster is ready, all other workers will exit the immediate construction area and three long whistles will announce the need to halt all pedestrian and vehicular traffic adjacent to the site. About a minute later, two long whistles will announce the imminent blast. The fuse is a tube that contains a chemical that burns at a rate of 22,000 feet per second. “It’s a very reliable technology and a very, very safe method of initiating the explosion … The entire sequence should last about five minutes, then traffic will be allowed to continue,” said Stundtner. The strongest blast is expected to create a noise level of approximately 130dB, which is equivalent to the sound made by a jet engine or a shotgun. “Maybe the noise will help keep everyone in the Engineering Quad awake during lecture,” suggested Adrienne Dutt ’03, a student in the engineering college. The contractors have reviewed their plans with representatives from Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. Dynamite will be stored in a secure facility off-campus and be brought to the site daily by truck, where it will be kept under lock until loaded into a blast hole. In light of recent events, “sensitivity to loud noise is a lot higher today than it was a month ago. People will inevitably hear [the blasts] and not know what is going on … so we’re trying to get the word out as best we can and to as many people as we can,” said Stundtner. According to Cathy Long, Assistant Dean of the College of Engineering, notices will be posted on the Duffield and Engineering Graduate Student Association list-servs, with details to be published in the College’s two electronic newsletters, the Sundial and the Information Update. Administration in the Johnson Graduate School of Management and the School of Hotel Administration will also be notified. “Team members will be very responsive in replying to communications and in addressing questions and concerns,” said Long. As indicated by its website, Duffield Hall will eventually house the Cornell Nanofabrication and Nanobiotechnology administrative centers, engaging in cutting-edge research at the molecular level. It will be the first research facility without resident faculty. According to Stundtner, different research groups will compete for lab space, fostering a unique environment in which teams from diverse disciplines can interact and share ideas, maintaining Cornell’s position as a leader in the field of nanotechnology studies, while also providing a place for graduate students and undergraduates to work and relax. Archived article by Adrianne Kroepsch
By wpengine
Most Cornellians have heard the adage, “Cornell is the easiest Ivy school to get accepted into, but the hardest to graduate from.” Though often heard jokingly, this statement is hardly unfounded: on average in 2001, 43 percent of Ivy League seniors (not including University of Pennsylvania, which does not release honors information) graduated with honors as compared to only eight percent of Cornell students. Harvard University led the pack, recognizing a school-record 91 percent of students graduating with honors. Columbia bestows only 25 percent of its seniors with honors distinction, “As far as how I feel as a Harvard alum (of 40 years ago), it’s what any college professor would feel wherever they graduated from: it seems a little silly when 91 percent get honors,” said Isaac Kramnick, vice provost of undergraduate education and R.J. Schwartz professor of government. At Cornell, the requirements for graduating with honors vary by college. The School of Hotel Administration only bestows honors distinction to a certain percentage of students in the graduating class. In the class of 2000, 23 out of 237 student graduated with honors, representing the top 10 percent of the class by grade point average (GPA). Of the 398 graduates from the College of Human Ecology last year, the top 10 percent by GPA received degrees with distinction, while eight percent received honors. A bachelor of science degree with honors requires students to take research-related courses, attend honors seminars, complete a written thesis, and defend the thesis in an oral examination, according to the University’s Courses of Study. In the College of Arts and Sciences, students may also graduate with honors and with distinction. Departmental honors — including summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude — are offered to students who have demonstrated exceptional ability in the major and who have completed original independent research, according to Courses of Study. Of the 1,086 students who graduated last year, 16 percent received degrees with honors. Students in Arts and Sciences will graduate with distinction if they fulfill certain requirements, such as belonging to the upper 30 percent of their class by GPA at the end of the seventh semester. Last year, these graduates earned grade point averages above 3.543. Other universities, which have different policies on graduating with honors, do not necessarily calculate an official GPA or determine the official class rank. “The University of Pennsylvania does not compute class rank and we do not report relative [honors] statistics because it could prejudice the applications of our graduates,” said Bernard Lentz, director of institutional research and analysis for the University of Pennsylvania. Princeton University, where 45 percent of students graduated with honors in 2001, does not calculate official GPAs, though many departments still determine this all-important number. “Each individual department may calculate grade point average, and the departments may individually determine which students graduate with honors,” said Jennifer Bronson, acting deputy registrar at Princeton. The Operations Research and Financial Engineering department at Princeton, for example, determines GPA cutoffs for students graduating with honors depending on the strength of the class, according to an office representative. This resulted in recognizing just over 50 percent of 2001 graduates with honors. By comparison, in English and molecular biology — typical pre-law or pre-med majors — 34 percent and 42 percent, respectively, graduated with honors at Princeton. Students said believe that Cornell’s distinctive standards will prepare them for the future. “Students compete to get into nursery school, primary school, high school and then Ivy schools, and each stage they have to present their credentials: grades and honors but honors cannot speak for itself anymore [where honors are given to a large percentage of students],” Kramnick said. “Cornell’s difficulty motivates you to work harder, so that when you come out of here you have a stronger work ethic,” said Laura Troiola ’03. “Graduating with honors should be a distinction, not something given out to everyone.”Archived article by Peter Lin