By wpengine April 19, 2002
Cornellians will celebrate Earth Day, the annual day of environmental awareness, for the 33rd time this Monday. Sponsors Cornell’s Earth Day celebration is sponsored by SAECO, Center for the Environment, CRESP, Caritas, United Progressives, Peaceful Justice, Ursus, Roots and Shoots, SNRC, Phi Sigma Pi, COE, Kyoto Now, Greens, COLA, Amnesty International, Educate for the Earth and Earth Rise. The celebration, started by Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970, is “usually marked as a time where organizations take the time to speak on the status of the environment and the progress they have made in preserving it,” said Yiwei Wang ’04, an Earth Day organizer. “It’s main goal is to promote awareness and instill a sense of love and respect for our planet and its inhabitants,” Wang added. “The CU Earth Day 2002 organizers hope to raise awareness about diverse environmental issues and local community activism,” said Vanessa Ulmer ’02. “Crucial to this goal is promoting an expanded understanding of ‘environmentalism’ that reaches beyond elite concerns to include issues of social justice and equity,” she added. This year, Cornell’s celebration of Earth Day will consist of three events. Kicking of Monday, at 11 a.m. A Celebration of the Earth and Community Activism activity will be held on Ho Plaza. The event will feature speakers, open-microphone poetry from various campus and off-campus activist groups as well as live music from the White Pines and Cornell Percussion. “The speakers are truly excellent,” said Christina Schiavoni ’02. “We hope that individuals will leave Ho Plaza with an understanding of the urgency of the issues presented, a sense of the interconnectedness of these issues, and a feeling of empowerment, determination and hope,” she added. At 5 p.m., following the celebration on Ho Plaza, students are encouraged to attend the Hunger Banquet in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room, sponsored by the Phi Sigma Pi fraternity. “Current world hunger issues in the United States and abroad will be discussed, focusing on the ways poverty and malnutrition affect people in various regions of the world,” said Wang. The dinner will feature food from local Ithaca restaurants and cost $4, proceeds of which will be used to attempt to eliminate world hunger. The final event of the day will be the State of the Earth Address in Anabel Taylor Auditorium at 7 p.m. The event will feature five speakers: Anke Wessels, Phil McMichael, Jane Mt. Pleasant, Mahesh Rangarajan and Leland Glenna, who will speak from diverse perspectives and share their greatest current environmental concerns. “It will be a look at the ‘big picture’ with topics ranging from globalization, to hunger and food security, to climate change and international agreements,” said Schiavoni. “Celebration is the way we give gratitude for what the Earth gives us and what we give each other for contributing to an ecologically sustainable world,” said Tony Del Plato, an Ithaca resident and environmental activist. “As grim as the situation looks right now for a sustainable world, celebration recharges our need to hope for a better world,” he added. All Cornell students are encouraged to attend this Monday’s festivities. Archived article by Marc Zawel
By wpengine April 19, 2002
The majority of Cornell freshmen believe that their college education should involve learning about diversity in the United States. Most freshmen also favor the implementation of a diversity distribution requirement, according to results from the Freshman Survey. Administered by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) since 1966, the Freshman Survey seeks to gain longitudinal information about full-time, first-time college students. Eighty percent of Cornell’s 2,988 entering first-year students, as well as students from over 700 other colleges and universities, completed the survey at the beginning of the fall semester. When asked their opinion of the statement, “The Cornell learning experience should include gaining a better understanding of the role of race and racism in American life,” 40.4 percent of the students strongly agreed and 47.1 percent agreed somewhat. 9.9 percent disagreed somewhat and 2.6 percent disagreed strongly to the statement. “An overwhelming majority of entering freshmen, 87.5 percent, believe that they should learn about race and racism while at college,” said Robert Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development. When asked their opinion on the statement, “Before graduating, every Cornell student should complete a course about diversity in the U.S.,” 22.2 percent of the students agreed strongly and 39.1 percent agreed somewhat. 27.7 percent disagreed somewhat and 11.0 percent disagreed strongly. “While a majority still believes in the question, there’s a drop-off,” Harris said. “Students think they should learn about diversity, but there is less strong support for a diversity requirement.” “I think [a course on diversity] should be required,” said Cherise Pais ’05. “It would decrease ignorance and broaden people’s cultural horizons.” The survey results are consistent with a national trend of college freshmen wanting to learn about issues relating to diversity, according to Harris. According to the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, an increasing percentage of entering college freshmen in 2001 considered promoting racial understanding an important or essential goal of their college experience. Although the percentage of student who expressed this view peaked in 1992 at 46.4 percent and dropped to 30.8 percent in 2000, the percentage increased in 31.5 percent in 2001. “Students realize they are not getting this kind of education in high school, and they see it as a gap in their education,” Harris said. “They know they need to develop knowledge in the area.” The committee on diversity within the curriculum, which was formed by Provost Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin last spring, requested that the two questions relating to diversity issues be added to Cornell’s 2001 survey. Martin created the committee after students, in response to bias-related incident that occurred on campus, expressed interest in the issue of diversity in the curriculum. “The students felt that more courses dealing with issues of diversity create more interracial and interethnic understanding on campus,” Harris said. The committee has also planned to ask outgoing seniors the same questions about diversity in the Senior Survey. “Cornell has too many requirements already,” said Joe LaMonte ’02. “The best part of college is being able to take the courses you want to take and not being tied down by requirements.” Harris acknowledged that it will be difficult to compare results from the two surveys since they will come from different groups of people. “When we repeat the questions four years from now, we will have a good basis for comparison,” Harris said. “We will have surveyed the same students as they entered and as they are leaving.” The committee has shared the results of the survey questions with the associate deans of each college, according to Harris. Since officials in the individual colleges, not the administration, control the curricula, the University cannot implement a mandatory diversity requirement. Therefore, the committee is in the process of creating a “menu of courses” that would fulfill a diversity distribution requirement if individual colleges choose to implement one in the future, Harris said. “We have defined diversity as involving issues of race, ethnicity, and sexuality,” Harris said. However, the committee has not decided whether appropriate courses should focus on one issue or if they should give equal treatment to all three.Archived article by Stephanie Hankin