Squashers Fly Solo at Nationals

By wpengine | February 28, 2003

The final test in the collegiate squash season begins today on the courts of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. The National Squash Individual Championship Tournament culls the top 64 men’s and women’s players in nation to compete outside the umbrella of their respective teams for the first time all season.

Players are invited to the tournament based on their national collegiate ranking; some players are unseeded due to the withdrawals of other seeded qualifiers.

The tournament is broken down into two brackets of 32 participants for both the men’s and the women’s draws. The top group (Pool Division for men, Ramsey Cup for women) plays for the national championship while the lower group (Malloy Division for men, Holleran Cup for women) essentially plays for 33rd place. Two rounds will be played today, another two tomorrow, with the finals taking place on Sunday.

Two women and three men from the East Hill will see action in Hartford — freshmen Matt Serediak, Ben Bernstein, and Cory Warfield, as well as sophomores Mike Delany and Brooke Stetson. Warfield and Stetson are unranked qualifiers for the Holleran Cup; Bernstein is ranked No. 1 in the Malloy Division. Also in the Malloy bracket is the unseeded Delany, considered by many to be the dark horse of the draw.

“Mike’s had such a strong season this year, but no one really knows about him,” said senior teammate Tim Nagel. “He’s come in under the radar and he’s going to shock some people.”

Nagel qualified for this weekend’s tournament, but withdrew due to illness.

The lone Cornellian in the upper half of a draw is Serediak, the eighth seed in the Pool Division. This is the highest a Red player has been ranked in several years. In the first round, Serediak will face Carl Baglio, the No. 25 seed from Trinity. He has a long hard road to get to the finals with a possible quarterfinals match with No. 1 seed Yasser El-Hallabi, the freshman star of the Princeton squad. Hallabi is favored to win the tournament; before coming to Princeton, the Egyptian was as high as No. 67 in the world professional rankings.

“I’m looking forward to a good test of my skills,” said Serediak. “We’ll see how I stack up against the rest of the country.”

Archived article by Per Ostman

S.A. Elections Begin Today

By wpengine March 3, 2003

Today marks the beginning of the voting period for the future members of the 2003-2004 Student Assembly (S.A.), as 54 candidates, most supported by either the Cornell Democrats, the Cornell Real Needs Coalition or Students for Students, are vying for 19 one-year terms in the S.A. Outgoing S.A. President Noah Doyle ’03 explained that this year’s election rules underwent major changes due to the work of Director of Elections Leslie Barkemeyer ’03 and the S.A.’s Elections Committee. “I honestly believe that the number of candidates we have running in this year’s election is a testament to the committee’s hard work and the growing influence the Student Assembly has on the Cornell campus,” Doyle said. All S.A. candidates have put forth strong efforts in the campaign process, including the strategic placement of colorful flyers in every crevice of the Cornell campus. Jennifer Hoos ’04 is running as an undesignated representative along with Josh Bronstein ’05, Sai Pidatala ’04 and Cory Sinclair ’04 on the 23-candidate ticket backed by the Cornell Democrats. Hoos, along with other candidates on the ticket, have campaigned door to door to reach students on an individual level. “We are trying to meet as many students [as possible] on campus and talk to them about issues which are of concern to them, one student at a time. Outreach efforts to all student communities on the Cornell campus have always been a priority,” Hoos explained. Among the top issues on this year’s Democratic ticket is better funding for student organizations, support for Greek Autonomy, and, of course, their position on Slope Day, as popularized by their slogan, “I will never support a fenced-in, catered Slope Day.” Stuti Mandala ’04, running for re-election as an Arts and Sciences representative on the Cornell Democrats ticket, stresses the differences in the Democrats’ positions to those of opposition groups, including the Real Needs Coalition, which includes students endorsed by the Cornell Republicans, and Students for Students, a new coalition of student leaders formed because they felt the S.A. was not responding to student needs. “The number one reason we differ from both is that we truly work for Cornell and we really listen to students,” Mandala said. Elliot Reed ’05, vice chair of the Cornell Republicans, explains, “The Real Needs Coalition is running because of the S.A.’s seeming ignorance as to what actually affects students.” This past fall, Reed and Darren Rumack ’04, a candidate for the international liaison seat, began drafting The Real Needs Coalition’s platform, “A Contract with the Cornell Community.” According to the Contract, the Real Needs Coalition seeks to “begin restoring fraternity and sorority autonomy, putting money back in the hands of student groups and individuals, and prioritizing campus safety.” “We aren’t simply promising the last-minute saving of Slope Day, we are proposing a good number of quality life changes that every Cornellian will appreciate — even our opposition. We haven’t presented any cheesy slogans or anything like that; we are trying to meet a need that has been ignored,” explained Reed. New to the elections this year is the Students for Students coalition, with a 24-person ticket. Running for an undesignated representative seat on this ticket is Stephen Blake ’04. According to Blake, “The goal of Students for Students is to bring ‘student leaders, not student politicians’ to student government. Student governance at Cornell has a lot of potential that is currently unrealized. We need to tap that potential and make the university we love a better place.” Students for Students is also trying to reach out to students on an individual level. “Our goal is to tell the truth, to be positive, and to sell one student at a time on the need for change,” Blake said. Among the proposed issues on the Students for Students platform is enhancing Cornell’s image with better speakers and entertainment, reforming the Student Activity Fee Committee (SAFC) and supporting minority rights and diversity on campus. “Students for Students is not anti-Slope Day,” but instead proposes an agenda under the title Rock the Slope, according to Blake. Students for Students is opposed to fencing and catering, but through Rock the Slope hopes to “press the administration to let students decide the details if they are dictating the plan,” Blake explained. Faced with this new opposition, Mandala reiterated her faith in the Cornell Democrats, citing the Democrats’ track record in the S.A. and their past success in obtaining more funding for minority groups as factors that may set them ahead in the current election. “Students for Students has no track record, they are novices, and they have no history of campus leadership,” Mandala said. Additionally, she and the Cornell Democrats “perceive the Students for Students position on Slope Day to be pro-administration,” Mandala said. All candidates encourage students to vote in the elections, which will be held until tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. Doyle reminds students that “a strong campaign is one that focuses on achievements and not false promises. I hope students take into account experience, platform and ability to voice undergraduate student concerns to Cornell’s senior administration when electing next year’s assembly. Clearly, there are both ideological and experience differences among both the candidates and tickets.” Archived article by Sarah Workman
Bhangra Club Hosts Dance Exhibition

By wpengine March 3, 2003

More than 900 people gathered in the Statler Auditorium on Saturday night for the Cornell Bhangra Club’s second annual “Pao Bhangra,” an intercollegiate Bhangra dance exhibition. Student performers from the University of Rochester, Rutgers University and New York University joined Cornell’s own Bhangra Mundey, Kudiyan and Mixed Team to demonstrate the folk dance. Bhangra is one of the many folk dances that hail from the Punjab region in northwest India and Pakistan. It is performed predominantly to celebrate festive occasions such as good harvests. Traditionally, when the Punjabi farmer sees the fruits of his hard labor in the fields, his heart soars and he expresses his joy and energy through song and dance. Jasjeet Singh Thind ’00 launched the Cornell Bhangra Club in 1997 at a time when Bhangra was relatively unfamiliar to the mainstream Cornell community. Now in its sixth year, the club has accomplished a great deal in spreading awareness of Punjabi and Sikh culture throughout Cornell via Bhangra. “If you looked into the audience Saturday night, you saw that at least 50 percent of it was non-Indian, and even most of the Indians were not Punjabi. The diversity of the audience and the Bhangra team in general shows how strong the Punjabi culture is and how strong the Cornell Bhangra Club is in portraying it,” said Tarun Subrahmanian ’03, Cornell Bhangra Club president. Pao Bhangra 2 kicked off with an energetic performance by the Cornell Bhangra Kudiyan, the Cornell Bhangra Club’s all-female group. Choreographed by Monika Gupta ’05, the dance was presented to a variety of Punjabi folk songs including Hai Hai (Mirza) and Chan Mere Makhna. Bhangra Kudiyan member Ishani Mukherjee ’04 said that being on the team is an incredible experience despite all the hard work involved. “It’s my first year on the team and I love it. We practice really hard for many hours a week, but it’s worth it,” Mukherjee said. Saleem Malkana ’06, a younger member of the Bhangra Mundey, agreed that Bhangra requires the commitment of a large chunk of time, but is worth the trouble. “Being on the team is time-consuming. Sometimes we practice for many hours at a time, but you make time for it just like you do for anything else at Cornell because it’s fun,” Malkana said. According to one audience member, Syracuse University sophomore Jake Goldman, the performers are not the only ones who enjoy Bhangra. “Bhangra is awesome! It’s great to see how another culture entertains,” Goldman said. Goldman participated in the interlude interactive portion of Pao Bhangra 2, wherein audience members were selected to exhibit their Bhangra skills in a short on-stage competition. He made it to the final round of the competition. Pao Bhangra 2 was an incredible and educational opportunity for the audience and the performers alike, both those at Cornell and those who were visitors. For Rutgers University’s Giddha and Bhangra at Rutgers University (GABRU) team, Pao Bhangra 2 was the first major performance of the year. “We’ve only done little stuff around Rutgers this year. Performing at Cornell has been a lot of fun and a great experience because everyone is really inviting,” said GABRU member Shivani Seth. Amidst the various dances, the Cornell Sikh Association led an informational presentation that outlined tenets of the Sikh faith and culture. Organization members explained the significance of the traditional Sikh turban and other such customs. The Cornell Bhangra Mixed Team presented the highlight performance of the night, which featured the Boliyan song, a traditional set of lyrics modified by Cornell Bhangra Club family and friends and sung by Niyati Trivedi ’03. Executed mostly by the senior members of the Cornell Bhangra Club, the performance received a standing ovation from the audience. Pao Bhangra 2 was the last exhibition that the Cornell Bhangra Club will perform at the University this school year and was thus the final home performance for graduating senior Ashwin Patel ’03, Cornell Bhangra Club vice president. “It’s very emotional to think that Pao Bhangra 2 was the last time I will perform at Cornell. There’s no other audience like Cornell. People don’t cheer for us or receive us the way they do at home. We always get standing ovations here,” Patel said. Patel added that the Cornell Bhangra Club will perform once more this year at the Bhangra Blowout competition in Washington, D.C., later this month. Club members are hoping to add to their long list of trophies, which includes the Mixed Team’s second place win at Hype Production’s program in Detroit, Mich., earlier this year. Subrahmanian, who will also be graduating this May, said that dancing the Cornell Bhangra Club was the definitive aspect of his Cornell experience. “I look back on my three years at Cornell and realize that Bhangra is what kept me grounded and sane. They say that college is supposed to be the best time of your life. Bhangra is what made college the best time of my life,” Subrahmanian said. Archived article by Anita Valliani