Magazine Rates C.U. 21st

By wpengine | October 24, 2003

It’s not the U.S. News & World Report rankings, which place Cornell at 14th.

In an attempt to increase readership among youth, magazine giant The Atlantic Monthly has entered the multimillion-dollar college rankings market with the release of its first annual College Admissions Survey, which lists the University at 21, the lowest place of all the Ivy League schools.

These new rankings are based solely on three equally weighted criteria: admissions rates, SAT scores and the class rank of matriculating students. The top five schools are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, the California Institute of Technology, Yale and Harvard. Cornell was the only Ivy League school to rank out of the top 15.

“I don’t think it was for any reason but to sell more magazines,” said Ronald Ehrenberg, the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics, and the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute.

Ehrenberg called the Atlantic Monthly ranking criteria worse than those used by U.S. News. Atlantic did not consider many important factors, he said, including student success and alumni donations. Unlike U.S. News, national universities and liberal arts colleges are ranked on the same list, placing such competitive colleges as Amherst above Cornell.

Manipulable Rankings

Ehrenberg felt that universities could easily manipulate such rankings. For example, he said, if a college claimed not to require SAT scores, more students would apply, leading to decreased admissions rates and higher selectivity ratings.

Ehrenberg does not feel that the new Atlantic Monthly rankings would have a negative effect on Cornell.

“I don’t think it’ll have an impact,” he said.

But if Atlantic Monthly wants to increase its readership among the younger generation, it just might be doing its job.

Mikhail Zhukovskiy ’05 heard about Atlantic Monthly for the first time when he saw the rankings on an online news service. However, he did not express surprise at Cornell’s placement outside of the top 20.

“Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘Easiest [Ivy] to get into, hardest to get out of’?” he said.

James M. Fallows, a leading writer for the Atlantic’s admissions survey, said that the magazine “used this ranking system to illustrate how meaningless rankings can be.”

In fact, the list was accompanied by an article entitled “Illusions of Selectivity,” which criticizes the college ranking system.

However, many feel that it will likely be looked at as just another ranking.

Archived article by Chinyelum Morah

LSP Appoints Brady Director

By wpengine October 27, 2003

Mary Pat Brady was appointed to the position of Director of the Latino Studies Program over the summer. Brady had previously been an assistant professor of history. The LSP serves as a resource center for students who are researching Latino-related topics. Currently, there are approximately 40 to 50 students concentrating in Latino studies, with about one half of the students being Latino. Brady explained that, “by the time the current class of Cornell seniors are ready to think about retirement, at least one in four people in the U.S. will be Latino.” She said that this vast demographic shift will have an impact on all sects of life in the United States. The Latino population in the United States is now estimated to be more than 35 million people. “These people, who hope to be leaders in all kinds of professions, from hotel management to information technologies, from investment banking to communications, will absolutely have to understand Latino histories, cultures, philosophies, politics,” Brady said. The LSP faculty and students work together to explore the social, political and economic aspects of life in the Latino community. The goals of the program include expanding the course curriculum, increasing the size of the faculty and staff and enhancing the academic environment for Latino students. Brady hopes to increase the knowledge and awareness of the Latino program at Cornell. As director, she plans to expand the program’s course offerings, create new events for the program as well as collaborate with the library system to increase its assortment of Latino collections. “This spring we are hosting a special symposium on U.S.-Dominican practices and identities as well as a two-day conference about queer Latina cultures,” she said. Brady said the LSP is currently looking for two new assistant professors as well. Olin Library, according to Brady, is currently implementing a new Latino Studies Collection. Ida Martinez, the librarian in charge of the collection, has organized the resources and promoted the collection. “Cornell is incredibly fortunate to have such an energetic and knowledgeable librarian at the helm of one of the most crucial aspects of any intellectual effort,” Brady said. Brady replaces Maria Christina Garcia who served as the director of the LSP for three years. “[The LSP] was created in response to the militancy of Latino students in 1990s, but since then, it has become a very exciting program and we are meant to serve not only the Latino students on campus, but all students interested in Latino studies,” Garcia said. Garica noted, “Like most programs on this campus we are here to educate students on particular topics, especially Latino populations of the United States because it is the fastest growing population.” Garcia replied that she automatically knew Mary Pat Brady would be the perfect fit for the new position. “Mary was the natural choice to take over for me once I stepped down. She has lots of energy and ideas, and I look forward to seeing what she does in the next year,” Garcia said. After deciding not to renew her position as director of the LSP, Garcia has resumed to teaching history and Latino studies courses at Cornell. Brady said that the main focus of the LSP this year is to inform Cornell students about the Latino population as a whole. “Fortunately for students here, Cornell has the strongest U.S. Latino studies program in the Ivy League,” Brady said.cult at a place like Cornell and what strategies we need to use.” Koestner began delivering her message against date rape, which she calls the “crime of silence,” after going public with her experience of sexual assault during her first year at the College of William and Mary in 1990. The first part of her address on Wednesday evening was a detailed recollection of the event. Koestner related the details that led up to the incident, which involved another William and Mary freshman. During the assault, she remembered that she “clenched up — closed up. People always ask me why I didn’t do anything, because they expect you to hate it, and you do, but there are many different ways to hate it. I remember trying to will him off of me — but telepathy doesn’t work that well.” During the following week, Koestner wrestled with her options before approaching several levels of authority on campus. She had a difficult time getting support for her case but was finally able to have a hearing with a dean concerning rules of conduct that the assailant, Peter, had broken. In that hearing, Koestner recalled Peter testifying, “She told me no more than a dozen times that night, but eventually stopped, so I figured I changed her mind.” The dean found Peter guilty of several violations and punished him by outlawing him from Koestner’s residence hall. Dissatisfied with William and Mary’s response, Koestner began getting publicity for her situation by calling local newspapers. Before long, she had signed a release to be named the first victim of date rape, a term that did not exist before Koestner’s experience in 1990. She was on many television programs after that, including Oprah, Good Morning America and Larry King Live. She was also featured on the cover of Time magazine’s date rape issue. Koestner earned degrees in public policy and women’s studies. Since then, she has been touring continuously with Campus Outreach Services to spread her message. “I want to work with communities that aren’t addressing this. There are plenty of professors who work with this, but they don’t get into West Point or a small town in Georgia where the football team rules,” Koestner said. To help spread awareness of sexual assault, Koestner has begun working with people like Braxton, who addressed the group about his work in “stopping oppression.” He has experience working with all-male groups as well as mixed-gender groups and has developed exercises to help men understand what role they have traditionally played in society and how that can lead to aggressiveness and oppression. “A lot of gut emotions come out of [all-male] discussion groups. They usually challenge each other — they’re never all defensive,” Braxton said. Braxton began speaking against racial oppression while in high school and then went on to study at the University of Virginia, where he won several awards for his activism. He has since begun to “bridge the gap between the struggles of all oppressed people” and now works mainly in challenging the oppression of women, specifically concerning gender violence. Koestner has recently formed a foundation called The Katie Koestner Initiative for a World Without Rape. Koestner said she hopes the group will grow to be national in the same way that MADD is a national group against drunk driving. Koestner and Braxton concluded their presentation by describing the next step in the battle against sexual aggression. “If ‘no means no,’ when does yes mean yes?” Koestner asked. She said such a determination will be vital to combat sexual aggression, particularly date rape, in the future. Another member of SAGE, Wendy Soref ’04, thought Koestner’s presentation was helpful because “she told her whole story and all the obstacles that she faced in getting justice for what had happened and how many people were opposed to even speaking out about it.” The event was sponsored by Community Development, Balch Hall, Balch Hall Womyn’s Center and the Community Center Councils. Archived article by Allison Markowitz
Meeting Tompkins County's Quilting Guild

By wpengine October 27, 2003

Last weekend, the Tompkins County Quilting Guild hosted its fourteenth biennial quilting show, “Traditions and Beyond 2003.” The overwhelming positive response to the show — which garnered over 1300 visitors — is only an indicator of the popularity and influence of the guild in the community. The guild, founded in 1974 by Jeanne Greene, has seen tremendous growth since its inception. Starting with twenty members who met weekly, it has grown to 140 members who are involved in events ranging from quilting workshops to ABC Quilts for at-risk babies. The guild now meets semimonthly at the Women’s Community Building on 100 W. Seneca St. Here, the guild members meet and share techniques, patterns and stories. The first meeting is generally a lecture or workshop, while the second focuses on personal projects and community service. “We may have a guest speaker, work on ABC Quilts, special workshops, visit a museum — anything that the committee can find for us that is interesting to see or do that relates to quilting,” explains guild member Kristin Thompson. Equally important at these meetings is the social aspect. “At every meeting we have show and tell,” Barbara Dimock told The Sun. Here, members show their finished quilts or works in progress, and offer others advice and critique. “It’s a real sharing and caring community,” Dimock added. Members of all levels and interest are invited to share, learn and contribute. With the guild’s ambitious service record, the openness to contributors doesn’t hurt. The guild makes and auctions quilts to raise money for charities such as Habitat for Humanity and the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance. “It is a lot of fun to use quilting, something that we love, as a way to help others in the community,” explained Thompson. “One of the biggest fund raisers we have done has been in support of IBCA. I think we raised over $40,000 with two separate small quilt auctions.” In addition to monetary support, the guild makes a direct difference by donating thousands of quilts to the ABC Quilt program, which matches children of teen pregnancies and AIDs mothers with quilts. The guild has annual quilting bees which draw upon the entire Tompkins County community to help with these programs. Funding these various workshops, meetings and service events is the guild’s biennial show. This year’s show, the fourteenth put on by the guild, featured over 250 quilts and saw more than 50 small quilts auctioned off to cover the guild’s expenses. “The planning starts a year ahead of time,” Dimock said. Well before the show, advertising, floor layout and logistics are devised and discussed by the committee. Also at this time, the show’s centerpiece quilt is begun. At each show, a large quilt is raffled to guild members. The quilt is a showcase of the guild’s various styles and techniques with approximately thirty individuals working on it. Work begins a year before the show and ends just prior to the show’s opening — an example of the tremendous amount of effort and time that go into a quilt. This year’s raffle quilt, entitled “Even Flowers Get the Blues,” involved a mixture of machined and hand-quilting to apply the complex flower designs to the fabric. “It was a real combination of techniques,” Dimock said. Most of the quilts auctioned off are smaller, submitted by both local members and quilters outside of the guild. All, however, involved a lot of time and dedication to their creation. This year’s theme, “Tradition and Beyond 2003,” emphasized quilting’s long tradition and recent evolutions. “Quilting is a very old skill, coming to Europe from the East, probably central Asia,” explained Prof. Charlotte Jirousek, textiles and apparel. But because of quilting’s close ties with the American frontier “preserving and making use of what you had,” quilting has become “the most unique and well-defined American craft,” she added. According to Jirousek, as quilting moved from frontier necessity to becoming an artistic and social activity, elaborations on the basic patterns arose. In the 19th century, “Crazy Quilts” came into vogue, using silk fabric with fine embroidery. Soon after, however, a renewed interest in quilting’s humble origins focused on the quilting of poor peoples, especially the rural South, Jirousek said. Whatever the guise, however, quilts and quilting is now a firmly American art. “America has become the world model for this craft. England has a long tradition [in quilting], but they often emulate America,” Jirousek said. She also made a distinction between quilting, which involves sandwiching layers of cloth and fabric, and simple patchwork, which is simply putting various pieces of fabric together. Although the two crafts share a fair amount of cross-over, there is a distinct difference. With growing interest in quilting and a large turnout, this year’s show was certainly a success in spreading the history and joy of quilting to the area. “There’s something very warm and drawing about quilts, I think that’s what gets people involved,” Dimock said. “Ithaca has grown into a quilting nexus.” That nexus is a far cry from the 20 quilters the guild started with. Archived article by Michael Morisy