Pi Beta Phi Hosts Back-2-School Bash

By wpengine | September 16, 2003

While the Greek system may have garnered a questionable reputation among local community members, Pi Beta Phi commenced the semester in philanthropic spirits, drawing from the Cornell and Ithaca community to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation with their second annual Back-2-School Bash.

While the Bash was largely the result of Pi Beta Phi’s work and organization, the event’s success also depended on the cooperation and participation of various other members of the community.

“We found a lot of businesses and restaurants such as Domino’s and John Thomas eager to help out and donate,” said Ashley Ratner ’06, philanthropy chair, Pi Beta Phi.

Along with local community members, other Cornellians came to support the cause as well. Among the Cornell contributors were the voices of the Cornell a cappella group Cayuga’s Waiters, while members of Psi Epsilon donated food and a grill for the event.

“I think Pi [Beta] Phi is doing a good thing by raising money for Make-A-Wish,” said Tom Carreras ’05, Psi Epsilon member.

Pi Beta Phi Members Lauren Jacobs ’04 and Jackie Greenburg ’05 came up with the idea to organize the Back-2-School carnival to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation last year, and due to the enthusiasm that the event generated for Make-A-Wish, it may be adopted as an annual event for the sorority.

“[Make-A-Wish] is such a good foundation, and people get really excited when they find out that the money we raise is for them. As long as we have girls to put in the time we hope to continue with this event in the future,” Ratner said.

Though the Greek system has recently recieved criticism from the Ithaca and Cornell community, the Back-2-School Bash testifies to how the fraternities and sororities can be beneficial to the community.

“The Greek system isn’t what it used to be and I think it’s important that the community and administration know that we don’t just party,” Ratner said. “Having events such as these are important in trying to improve the image of the Greek system.”

The Back-2-School Bash is Pi Beta Phi’s biggest philanthropy event, but they also make an effort to serve the community with other activities.

“This event has been good because it has drawn a lot of involvement from members of the community. In the future we’ll try to do events more service-oriented to reach out to the community,” said Nicole Adams ’06, Pi Beta Phi member.

Archived article by Carrie Tremblatt

Incident Involving Alcohol Leaves R.A.s Without Jobs

By wpengine September 17, 2003

Being a college student and being responsible do not always go hand in hand, as several resident advisors (R.A.s) in Mary Donlon and Court Halls recently learned, after being fired by the university for violating regulations in an incident that occurred several weeks ago. While exactly which rules were broken by the students remains unclear, Don King, in the office of student services, explained that “there were R.A.s that were found and it was substantiated that they violated both their expectations and responsibilities.” As to the nature of the violations, King admitted only that, “It was serious enough that it warranted relieving them from their positions.” Because the students were employed by community development of Campus Life, the university refused to disclose the names of the students involved and the reasons for their dismissal. R.A.s are asked to leave their positions for a variety of reasons, King said. However, they are usually not forced to leave in groups as was the case with this incident. Neither the administration nor any of the R.A.s contacted by The Sun would confirm the reasons for dismissal. According to freshmen living on the floors though, the incident involved underage drinking by these R.A.s employed by Cornell. When asked what kinds of activities might constitute a violation, King mentioned that not being on call, failing to meet expectations and not providing sufficient programming could all suggest that an R.A. was not living up to his or her potential. Serious infractions, such as those related to alcohol, would depend on the circumstances, according to King. Resident advisors are permitted to drink in the dorms if they are 21 years or older and all of the people in the room are of age as well, according to King. The vast majority of students living in the dorms where the incident took place, however, are freshmen and therefore, underage. “Technically, they’re not supposed to be drinking in the residence hall,” King said. A large responsibility of being an R.A. is acting as a role model, he said, and drinking alcohol in the dorms is not exactly behavior that should be mimicked by those under 21. According to Ben Slovis ’07, a Court Hall resident, there are only four R.A.s left of the nine who were assigned to the hall at the beginning of the year. Students at Donlon were unsure how many of their RAs were involved in the incident. Slovis told The Sun that one of his R.A.s, David Gross, had been dismissed when he took a group of his students to dinner on campus. He did not, however, explain why he was being forced to leave. “He just apologized and said he would miss us,” Slovis said. Slovis’s floor had not been assigned a new R.A. as of Sunday, but students were told that a replacement would be found as soon as possible. In the interim period, the understaffed halls have been tended to by remaining RAs forced to cover additional shifts. King said that the University is in the process of hiring new R.A.s to fill the vacated positions. Two or three students have already been hired. The R.A.s, who had been receiving free housing were forced to find alternative accommodations upon their dismissal. “We worked with them about relocating them to other places on campus,” King said. Most relocated to other university housing, while a few moved off campus, according to King. All will now be responsible for paying for their own housing. King emphasized that a significant amount of research and thought went into the university’s decision. An entire week was devoted to determining what the infractions were and who was involved, by speaking to students and members of the community, King said. “We spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what is fair and what is an appropriate action to take,” King said. “It seems unfair that they didn’t have an extra chance,” Slovis said. “The general consensus of the floor is that it was wrong that they got kicked out. They broke a rule.” Calls to current residential hall advisors and those involved in the incident were left unanswered. Archived article by Stephanie Baritz
How Well Did You Do?

By wpengine September 17, 2003

It’s a typical day in a typical Cornell lecture hall. Psychology 265 students take notes while listening to Prof. David Dunning, psychology, discuss reactions to stress in people exhibiting antisocial personality disorders. Suddenly, without warning, Dunning lets out a scream. Students drop their pens, some gasp and every head in the auditorium snaps to attention. The scream, according to Dunning, is to illustrate fear reactions in persons without antisocial personality disorders. Dunning uses a variety of tactics such as this one to illustrate his points in class. “No one should be bored in class,” he said. Psychology 265: Psychology and Law covers a broad set of topics ranging from technical information about the law and the legal process to disorders that often appear in criminals. According to Dunning, “I got into psych and law because of the major surprise that … witness’ confidence in their identification was not related to the actual identification.” Dunning said that in studying witnesses, their confidence in picking the right person can sometimes be misleading in judging whether or not their identification is actually accurate. “An accurate witness can be very hesitant and an incorrect witness can be supremely confident,” he said, adding that this fact leads to the question, “if you can’t trust confidence, what [can] you trust?” Witness accuracy, according to Dunning, is most prevalent in those witnesses that make their identification in ten to twelve seconds. These results have been replicated in many other labs, Dunning said. Initiating a fear response by screaming in the middle of class is just one of the many ways Dunning illustrates his points. In a class about witness identification error, many times Dunning has a person come into the front of the class, steal an object from the podium and run off. Dunning then asks students to remember and describe the witness. One year, Dunning remembers, “someone [a student] actually got up to protect me.” While his research and lectures cover many topics in witness perception, Dunning said that he chooses not to be directly involved with the legal process and offer his testimony in cases. “I’m conservative in my work,” he said, adding that he prefers to see his research confirmed and duplicated within the psychology field rather than immediately shared with the legal system. The topic of witness’ perception of their accuracy in identification is part of the broader spectrum of Dunning’s research on accuracy in human judgment and people’s perceptions of themselves and how they differ from reality. Dunning said that in many cases, “people really don’t have an accurate perception of themselves.” Much of the research Dunning has done concentrates on asking people to complete tasks and then evaluate how well they have done. One experiment Dunning has conducted asks people to identify jokes that they consider funny, and then evaluate their performance in being able to identify humorous jokes. The jokes deemed humorous were the ones judged to be funny by professional comedians. According to Dunning, “people who really differed from expert comedians thought that they were doing just fine.” In his research, Dunning said that “one finding that hit the media was that incompetent people don’t know they’re incompetent.” This research has potentially serious implications in the medical profession. “For doctors, needless medical mistakes are a big problem,” Dunning said, adding that the perception doctors have of their profession could have an effect on these mistakes. As a result of this, Dunning spends time speaking to groups of doctors and medical groups, discussing perception of performance. According to Dunning, a more difficult step in research in this area is notifying and educating people about their errors in perception. “That’s the next phase,” he said, noting that a problem in doing this is that “people are surprisingly resistant to feedback.” Many businesses, responding to the fact that there is so much error in employee’s perception of their performance, are adopting “360 degree feedback” which involves an employee receiving feedback on his or her performance from colleagues, supervisors and other workers. Dunning said that people are less likely to be able to acknowledge their own incompetence in that “the skills used to judge your behavior are the skills that produced the behavior in the first place.” In addition to evaluating past behavior, Dunning also studies how people anticipate what they will do in the future. “What people thought they would do did not match what they actually do,” he said, adding that this can be attributed to the fact that “it’s hard for people to anticipate how they will react in situations with real emotion.” To illustrate this point in his class, Dunning asks students whether or not they would be willing to dance to the song “Superfreak” in front of the packed Uris Hall Auditorium during class for five dollars. Dunning said that the number of students who anticipate they would dance differs greatly from the number who actually do dance when he offers them money and invites students to the front of the class. Former Psychology 265 student Matt Henning ’04, said that he enjoyed Dunning’s “great sense of humor” and “the surprises he throws in.” According to Henning, Dunning’s willingness to talk to students is also important. “I like how he interacts with students. He’s willing to answer student questions,” he said. “It’s my favorite class I’ve taken here. It’s a random elective for me, and it’s my favorite class,” Henning added. Dunning said that he attributes positive reactions to Psychology 265 like this one to the content first and foremost. “You cant beat the content. The content is about the here and now,” he said. More important to Dunning, however, is the way in which his students are thinking about the issues they are presented in class. “I want students to be thinking about the material,” he said. “I want them to say, ‘Here’s an issue, is it good? How do I think this through?'” he added. According to Dunning, “the content of what everyone in the room is going to be dealing with in twenty years is going to be totally different,” but the ways in which students think about issues and concepts will be the same. Currently, Dunning works on research with seven graduate students and twelve undergraduates. “I enjoy working with people, seeing what they’re learning and what specific people they’re going to be,” he said. “It’s a joy to actually see people become who they are going to be,” he added. Deanna Caputo grad, a former TA of Psych 265, said the reason that she chose to pursue a Psych and Law concentration was because of Dunning and the work he has done. “He’s very much a mentor,” she said, “he gives positive feedback.” Caputo noted Dunning’s teaching style. “Dave was a performer. That is evident in that class,” she said, “he goes into the class aiming to be entertaining.” Caputo also said that while the class can be extremely interesting for students, many are surprised at the work necessary for success. “It’s a difficult class … it’s not a fun, sit around and walk out class,” she said. According to Dunning, “each year the class is different for me,” noting that each year he might choose to focus on a different aspect of psych and law.
“The class is a kaleidoscope image,” he said. “So many facets of the class are important to students,” he added. Archived article by Kate Cooper