Antiwar Event Comes to C.U.

By wpengine | February 10, 2003

Today marks the beginning of A Week Against the War, a series of events organized by New York Campus Communities for Justice and Peace and the Cornell Forum for Justice and Peace.

Two members of the Cornell Community, Anke Wessels, executive director of the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell (CRESP), and Dana Brown, director of Cornell’s Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations (CUSLAR), helped to organize events for the Cornell campus.

Groups from colleges and high schools around the state will be participating in this week’s events. The organization’s mission statement “[urges] campus communities throughout New York state to disengage from and resist unilateral, illegal and immoral U.S. policies.” The complete schedule of events at colleges statewide can be found at the New York Campus Communities for Justice and Peace web site.

As a first step, the organization proposes “a week of antiwar debates, teach-ins and workshops … for schools throughout the state.”

The idea for bringing the Week Against the War to Cornell started this past fall at the Ithaca Social Forum, held on Nov. 22-23.

Since then, “Many people have done a great job contacting people they know and networks that already exist in order to bring this week together,” Brown said. “I’m just thrilled to see how many people show up and what kinds of conversations came out of it.”

“This is our chance to provide a space for dialogues not happening in the mainstream media, and I’m really excited to see this happen,” she added.

All of the events are free unless otherwise stated, beginning tonight, when Terry Rockefeller from Peaceful Tomorrows will speak from 7:30 to 10 p.m. in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. Local poets and folk singer Stephen Smith will also be participating.

Peaceful Tomorrows is a group of family members of victims from the World Trade Center attacks who seek nonviolent responses to terrorism. The organization will also lead a march in New York City during the Feb. 15 demonstrations.

Gaza Strip, a film directed by James Longley, will be playing tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in Williard Straight Hall. There will be a charge for this event. The film is a documentary that highlights the Israeli-Palestinian situation in the occupied territory.

Wednesday’s events include a Week Against War panel, from 12 noon to 2 p.m. in the International Room of Williard Straght Hall. Featured on the panel are a variety of speakers from different departments, including Prof. Matthew Evangelista, government; Tracy Mitrano of the Office of Information Technologies; Prof. Naoki Sakai, asian studies and comparative literature and Prof. James Turner of the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Wednesday’s events will als include an Evening Information Workshop at 7 p.m with lectures entitled “War on Terrorism: Pressures Toward Militarization in East Asia” in Goldwin Smith 158, “The War on Terrorism and U.S.-Latin American Relations” in Goldwin Smith 160 and “How to Hold a Teach-In” in Goldwin Smith 164.

The workshop series continues on Thursday, featuring “Religion and Our Response to Violence: A Panel Discussion” from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Founders Room of Anabel Taylor Hall.

Also on Thursday, “Alternatives to Violence” with Catholic worker Leslie Schultz will be held at 7 p.m. in Goldwin Smith 144 along with “Organizing for Change” at 7 p.m. in Goldwin Smith 156. “Canvassing for Peace” will be held in Goldwin Smith 158 and “How to Have Difficult Conversations” sponsored by the Community Dispute Resolution Center, will be held in Goldwin Smith 160.

Green Dragon, a film directed by Timothy Linh Bui, will play on Friday in Uris Auditorium at 7 p.m.

The week will end as protestors gather in New York City for a “global day of action protesting the war against Iraq,” according to the New York Campus Communities for Justice and Peace web site.

Archived article by Sarah Workman

C.U. Republicans Unveil Platform

By wpengine February 11, 2003

Last night, the Cornell Republicans officially unveiled their political platform, “A Contract with the Cornell Community.” The contract is a detailed outline of the organization’s objectives for this academic year. Overall goals of the platform include securing representative power in the Student Assembly (S.A.), proposing several policy changes and restoring students’ faith in their representatives. “The title for this platform is a play off of the 1994 National Republican Party movement that called for a dramatic transformation of how the party was operated,” said Ryan Horn, chairman of the Cornell Republicans. According to Horn, the organization hopes to model its platform after the success of the 1994 movement, which resulted in a Republican sweep of the national elections that year. The platform is broken down into approximately six parts. First, the Republicans seek to establish an Ithaca/Cornell Police-Student Advisory Board. This group will work to find and implement on-campus safety improvements that include reduction of bias-related incidents against all Cornellians, coordination of events with fraternities and sororities and a guarantee of safety on Slope Day. Second, the organization announced their support for the maintenance of the Joint Assemblies Multicultural Issues Committee, which will work closely with various groups to finance cultural programs and promote greater cultural appreciation and understanding among students. Third, an independent election committee comprised of Cornellians from different political organizations on campus will be created. This development will advocate honest public representation by implementing non-partisan election rules. Proxy voting in meetings will be banned, and a zero-tolerance policy in regards to violations of spending limits will be established. Fourth, a resolution encouraging all organizations to pursue community service and use incentive-based funding will be passed. The Republicans’ “Finance Flex Plan” will allow individual students to have more power in dictating where their student activities fee will be allocated and how their money will be spent. Fifth, the Republicans will work toward urging Cornell to find economically efficient, environmentally considerate ways of funding the renewable energy endowment. This encompasses concerns regarding ResNet, bandwidth policies and other technological issues. Finally, an independent task force will be created to oversee the financial procedures of the S.A. and to end the pattern of waste, corruption and abuse of influence, according to the Republicans. “We have had grievances raised by previous candidates in regards to the corrupted and scandalous affairs of the S.A., but most were silenced when offered committee seats,” said Elliott M. Reed ’05, vice chairman of the Cornell Republicans. Overall, the Republicans are working toward the goal of making the Student Assembly more accountable to students. “We are on the verge of a complete historic event, and we must get back to the issues that affect people’s lives on a day-to-day basis,” Horn said. “We are trying to reach out to various representative groups on campus, including sororities and fraternities, minority groups and academic organizations. The CU Republicans is not antagonistic, discriminatory and does not threaten any group on campus,” said Darren Rumack ’04, secretary of the Cornell Republicans. The Cornell Republicans’ announcement of their new platform aims to draw more attention to the immediate student issues that are in need of reform. “The candidates of this spring’s elections will all be facing a much more competitive environment. We hope to address issues students are dealing with right now, issues that the S.A. is currently not dealing with or hasn’t done enough about. We want to concentrate on local, campus issues that affect the daily lives of students,” Reed said. Archived article by Jennifer Chen
Lecturer Explores Standards On 'Vibrators and Viagra'

By wpengine February 11, 2003

Rachel Maines, author of The Technology of Orgasm, discussed the history of the vibrator and the double standard applied to male and female sexuality in Hollis E. Cornell auditorium yesterday. Her lecture was a part of Cornell’s V-Day series, a week-long event aimed at curbing violence against women. Maines criticized what she characterizes as an “androcentric model of sexuality” that is dominant in America and, although to a lesser extent, all of Western society. This androcentric model holds that the act of sexual intercourse occurs only in the event of vaginal penetration. Maines said this concept was deeply problematic because it essentially disregards female sexuality, particularly the female orgasm. She pointed to statistics that say that 71 percent of women do not reach orgasm during traditional intercourse. According to Maines, androcentrism is reflected not only in the attitudes of individuals, such as former president Bill Clinton’s definition of “sexual relations”, but also in the American legal system. For example, many states define rape in the androcentric sense, meaning that other forms of sexual acts do not fall under these criteria. As an example of the double standard that exists between male and female sexuality, Maines described the experiences of a foreign maker of vibrators that attempted to advertise in the United States. The company wanted to advertise its product in American magazines that also promoted Viagra. All of these magazines, however, refused to run the advertisement. According to Maines, the company was told by various publishers that the reason they were not willing to carry the advertisement was that, “Viagra is for a man to have sex with a woman. A vibrator is for a woman to have sex with herself.” “The double standard is alive and well in the United States of America,” said Maines in reference to the attitudes of the American magazines. After discussing some manifestations of androcentric views of sexuality, Maines detailed the history of the vibrator and traced its origins to the ancient Greeks who used the handle of a hydraulically powered saw to stimulate the female genitals. Such devices, including the modern vibrator, were developed as medical tools for doctors treating an affliction known as “hysteria.” Hysteria was believed to affect up to two-thirds of all women, particularly young widowers and virgins. The disease was thought to stem from lack of sexual intercourse and the remedy for married women was often to have sex with their husbands. Unmarried women and young virgins were treated with a massage of the genitals by their doctors until they achieved orgasm. Such stimulation was credited with relieving the patients’ tensions and temporarily easing pain and restoring health. According to Maines, the chronic and obviously non-lethal nature of hysteria represented a financial boom to doctors. “From the point of view of the doctor, this was the ideal patient to have [financially]… They kept coming back [for treatment],” she said. Doctors, however, were unhappy with the situation, Maines said. “Doctors complained that it was hard to learn [to sexually stimulate women]… They didn’t actually enjoy the job very much. They wanted to mechanize.” This desire to mechanize was finally realized by the middle of the nineteenth century when the first predecessors to the modern vibrator were developed. Vibrators largely resembling those used today began to appear by the turn of the century and were advertised in several magazines directed at middle class women. After the 1920s, according to Maines, the vibrator industry “went underground” as a result of the vibrator’s appearance in pornographic films and subsequent disappearance from doctors’ offices. While attendance at Maines’s lecture was modest, audience response was overwhelmingly positive. “I think it is interesting regarding the suppression of women’s sexuality and that female sexuality is still taboo especially when it doesn’t involve men,” said Diana Adams grad, who is studying feminist legal theory. The lecture, entitled “Vibrators and Viagra: The Double Standard?” is part of V-Day, an annual event at Cornell coinciding with the week of Valentines’ Day whose stated goal is to bring an end to violence against women and girls. This is the fifth year that V-Day has been observed at Cornell and has for the first time been extended to a week-long series of events. The highlight of V-Day is a Wednesday and Thursday night reading of the Vagina Monologues, a play by Eve Ensler at Barnes Hall. According to Kelly Rawson ’03, leader of Voices, one of the organizers of V-Day activities, and a member of the cast of the Vagina Monologues, Ensler is giving all royalties from the Cornell production of her play to charities. While 90 percent of the royalties will be donated to local shelters for battered women, the remaining 10 percent will be given to Native American women’s organizations, since the theme of this year’s V-Day is Native American women. “I hope that V-Day will raise awareness about violence against women in our own community,” Rawson said. In addition to yesterday’s lecture and the staging of the Vagina Monologues, an art exhibit entitled “Because We Like It: Honoring Women Through Art” will be shown starting Feb. 11 in the Straight’s art gallery.Archived article by Daniel Palmadesso