Early results from freshmen about the North Campus Residential Initiative are in. The freshmen class is speaking out about first-year lessons, the summer book-reading project, Guns, Germs and Steel and the environment in the new North Campus. A full academic year has almost passed for the Class of 2005, one year since 3,000 freshmen unpacked their bags and opened their Cornell careers living together as one class on North Campus. A book project designed to build a common experience among freshmen changed the student’s orientation. Freshmen living in the traditionally upperclassmen townhouses and the inter-class program houses confronted new and old issues about housing and diversity. By and large, this year on North has been one of adjustment, a year in which the University began a new experiment and freshmen students began a new tradition for life on North. On Moving In: “Orientation was all about parties in Collegetown,” said Doug Hughes ’05. “The biggest shock was the tests, I really had to do work.” “It took me a good four months to stop hating Cornell but after a while I made my friends and joined my groups and now I love it,” said Eugene Licht ’05. “I would never think about leaving.” “I’m happy, doing well in my classes and I have my friends so you could say I acclimated to Cornell pretty well,” said Jamy Rodriguez ’05. “It took a long time to learn about stuff outside of the classroom,” said Adam Davey ’05. “I’m glad that we have all the new stuff, it would’ve sucked to live on North Campus last year,” said Emily Warren ’05. “I felt at home right away,” said Reid Gooch ’05. “Time management has been the biggest thing but even if you don’t become more responsible you learn a lot about yourself.” “Mews is awesome: we are so close to Commons and Helen Newman with food and a gym right at your fingertips,” said Abigail Becraft ’05. On Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond: “That book was total bullshit, it was so boring,” Rodriguez said, “next year is going to be much better.” “I didn’t feel like we went deep enough into it,” Gooch said. “I had thought it was going to be more important, with more programs.” “It was a good idea but a bad book,” Licht said. “You have to have something that ties everyone together.” “I wouldn’t know about Guns, Germs and Steel, I didn’t read it,” said Kurt Zitzner ’05. “They shouldn’t have a summer reading requirement but Frankenstein sounds a lot better.” “I read it closely but it was useless,” said David Williams ’05. “Some people used it as a doorstop.” “Guns, Germs and Steel was 400 pages too long,” said Elishama Rudolph ’05. “It was uninteresting; the project needs a tune-up.” “No one read the book this year,” said Beau Parks ’05. “That’s probably why they picked a non-intellectual book for next year.” “A lot of people said they didn’t read it but they probably did,” said Emily Warren ’05. “I liked the book until we got to the panel discussion where they trashed the book, the I felt like I had just wasted my time reading it,” said Jamie Duong ’05. “I can’t imagine what they’re going to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a book written by an 18 year old girl way back when. I hate to see great literature torn apart by today’s prejudices.” “I think students have enough worries coming into college to be concerned about a book,” said Jason Jendrewski ’05, vice president for giveaways of the Class of 2005. On North Campus Experience — Isolation vs. Unity: “I like that when I walk down the hall I can see people with the same chemistry textbooks,” Licht said. “Everyone around here is a freshman and you can talk about the same problems you are facing, it helps you adjust faster.” “North Campus detaches us from the real college experience,” said Ten
The women’s lacrosse team wraps up its most successful season ever tomorrow as it travels to Baltimore to visit No. 18 Johns Hopkins (10-6, 4-2 ALC). Cornell (13-1, 6-1 Ivy), ranked sixth in the nation for the third straight week, enters the game on a high after handily defeating Delaware 14-6 in Wednesday’s home finale. Senior Jaimee Reynolds notched her best game of the year, a five-goal, six-point performance that moved her past Cari Hills ’98 in to first place on the Red’s all-time points list. She now has 184 total points, including 130 goals, which is one off of Hills’ record of 131. Cornell was the beneficiary of an extremely diverse attack Wednesday, as eight different players scored during the Red’s thorough handling of one of the top goalies in the country. In addition to Reynolds, two other laxers tallied multiple goals, junior Sarah Averson, and freshman Lindsay Steinberg. Senior goalie Carrie Giancola returned to form following a disappointing outing against Harvard, recording eight saves on 14 shots on goal. “I expect to build on the energy and performance against Delaware,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “That game was pivotal in getting us back on track of playing hard for 60 minutes.” In Johns Hopkins, the Red will face a talented opponent which has had an up-and-down season, handling non-ranked opponents with ease while falling to many ranked teams in close games. The Blue Jays are coming off a 15-6 thrashing of Towson on Wednesday which saw six players score. Jamie Larrimore scored four goals and added an assist in the win. The senior is currently in fourth place on Hopkins’ career points list. Heidi Pearce and Erin Wellner join Larrimore to comprise one of the more potent offenses in Division I at 11.5 goals per game. “Hopkins is a team with three very strong attackers,” said Graap, “the game is going to come down to our ability to contain these threats.” This will be the third meeting in the series between the two schools, in which Cornell holds a 2-0 advantage. The Red upended Johns Hopkins 16-4 in the final of the ECAC tournament in 2000. Last year, Cornell defeated the Blue Jays 8-5 to close the regular season. This matchup holds great importance for the Red (13-1, 6-1 Ivy) as a win would almost guarantee home field advantage in at least the first round of the NCAA tournament. This would give a significant edge to Cornell, which is 17-3 on the Schoellkopf turf over the past three years. In addition, the team would benefit from not being forced to travel during finals week, which is what happened in last year’s tournament appearance. The game is also notable as Lellie Cherry Swords, formerly an assistant for the Red is the volunteer assistant coach for Johns Hopkins. While on Graap’s staff, Swords was responsible for recruiting, and was instrumental in brining many of the team’s upperclassmen to the Hill. “She knows our personnel and our style,” said Graap. “Hopkins will definitely be well prepared for this game.”Archived article by Owen Bochner