Student Interest in Public Service Surges at C.U.

By wpengine | November 5, 2003

Although volunteerism on East Hill has increased recently, fewer Cornell students are choosing a public service career path. To rectify this trend, the Cornell Urban Scholars Program, launched in 2002, encourages students to seek careers in the non-profit sectors and in public service.

“There’s been this huge tsunami wave of interest in public service and service learning. Lots of students are doing community work here in Ithaca,” said Prof. Kenneth Reardon, city and regional planning, and co-director of CUSP.

With CUSP, Cornellians spend part of the spring semester and their summer working in non-profit organizations and local government agencies in New York City. The program is described as rigorous and highly selective. In the past three years, over 250 undergraduates have applied for CUSP’s summer internship program — with only 24 students chosen each semester.

Urban Scholars are chosen based on their interest in public service, record of progressive engagement in the community, demonstration of academic and field research and ability to articulate why an internship that is academically based in New York City meets their own personal goals and objectives, according to Reardon. “This isn’t for everyone,” he added.

Involvement with CUSP is more than just a learning experience though, it is a chance to make a difference in the real world.

“We would like them to make an impact on the community, and [have them] engage with very complex organization and incorporate what they learn at Cornell to an experience that exposes them to complex problems and practical problems in the real world,” said Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, Public Service Center director and co-director of CUSP.

Reardon said that the essence of the program is a public service internship, but it is also specifically focused on encouraging students to think about the causal factors of social inequality.

“There’s a sinking number of students who are actively engaged in old fashion policy reform, and organizing politics that really address the causes of social inequality. [We want] to encourage people to think about careers, but also to challenge them to think more critically of more causal factors and how we might be able to think of policies to reduce the distance between the haves and the have-nots

Bill's Comedy Basics

By wpengine November 6, 2003

For years, I had eaten (maybe inhaled is the better word) his Jell-O with reckless abandon and relied on reruns of his namesake show to get me through sleepless nights, but last Friday, I saw Dr. Bill Cosby perform live in all his animated glory. Sponsored by the Cornell University Program Board (CUPB), An Evening with Bill Cosby was two hours of classic Cosby standup. Decked out head to toe in signature Cornell red with our school logo proudly emblazoned across his chest, Cosby proved to be just what the doctor ordered, kicking off Parents’ Weekend with a healthy dose of his wholesome, family fun. No stranger to success, Cosby’s comedic career spans more than thirty years. With hits in practically every medium of entertainment, he remains today a key figure in popular entertainment and culture. Cosby’s performance career started in stand up comedy, where initial success eventually fueled his transformation into a prolific entertainer with nationwide popularity. With hit shows, numerous comedy albums gone platinum, and several best-selling books, Cosby has also garnered critical praise. His wide collection of awards includes multiple Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys. The secret behind Cosby’s popularity lies in the wide appeal of his comedy. Cosby’s humor transcends social barriers and backgrounds and instead references the human experience. It is this simplicity, this sense of normalcy that endears him to our hearts because Cosby glorifies things we usually take for granted, so that even the mundane ritual of going to the dentist can unite us as a common experience. Meshing well with Parents Weekend, Cosby’s program revolved around a theme of “growing up.” Childhood, adolescence, puberty, and eventual adulthood were all major topics that he covered, paralleling his personal saga of growing up with broader lessons for the audience. Smoothly transitioning from one subject to the next with polished storytelling, I barely registered how Cosby had progressed from a vivid description of his adolescent antics to a typical portrait of relationship angst between the sexes. Supplementing his humorous anecdotes with animated movements, Cosby maximized his space and frequently traversed the stage. Still amazingly spry, his stories were often flavored with exaggerated reenactments of described events for added emphasis. Cosby’s energy was infectious and the audience responded to it immediately. His enthusiasm for his subject fostered an atmosphere of familiarity and comfort, eventually resulting in unabashed explosions of laughter from the audience and cheers of agreement for specific issues. Cosby’s talent as an expressive performer enables him to convey a variety of messages through mere nuances of body language. His calculated use of trademark facial expressions alone incited laughter and applause and effectively animated many of his stories. Cosby is not a comedian restricted by words and will often resort to alternative modes of humor to make his point. By imitating the muffled sounds of an argument between his parents, Cosby is able to impact the audience far more than an articulated joke ever could. For me, the two hours passed with delightful ease, a trip down memory lane for times gone by. The nostalgia that Cosby invoked was not, thankfully, of the stereotypically mournful variety but a reaffirmation of the solidarity between all those present. Whining to our parents for that toy we couldn’t live without. Wondering why the dentist needs to make small talk while haphazardly jabbing sharp, metal devices into your mouth. Dealing with the ambivalence inherent in all relations with the opposite sex. These incidents and others of slight variation are all tidbits of everyday angst we can all relate to, frequently occurring events that we tend to forget are so wide spread. A powerful reminder that humor does not have to be restricted by the risqu
Round Two, Reno Returns to Campus

By wpengine November 6, 2003

In the wake of the trial for teenager Lee Boyd Malvo, one of the alleged Beltway snipers, the University is hosting a symposium starting today entitled “Rethinking the Criminalization of Youth.” Among those participating in this two day event is Janet Reno ’60, former U.S. Attorney General and a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of ’56 University Professor. Planning for the event started in spring of this year according to organizer Prof. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, human development and feminist, gender and sexuality studies. Brumberg said that the symposium is a result of research in addition to conversations with Reno last year. “When she was here last time, we talked about the fact that Cornell is an outstanding place in terms of research on developmental psychology, particularly on adolescents,” Brumberg said. “She was interested in how we could better inform students and the public about the kind of mesh between developmental psychology and social policy.” The symposium will tackle issues such as the historical and current use of the juvenile death penalty, research concerning the punishment of adolescent offenders and ways in which the law should deal with these individuals. In addition, students will have the opportunity to observe a professional forum said co-organizer Jane Powers ’85, senior research associate at the Family Life Development Center (FLDC). “This is [about] undergraduates really having an important educational experience of what a conference is like,” Powers said. “All of the presenters are aware that the audience does not have background experience [in this area]. The event is geared to make a lively and intellectual environment for undergraduate students and law students.” To kick off the symposium, Brumberg will give a presentation at Mann Library today at 4 p.m. about her book, Kansas Charley: The Story of a 19th Century Boy Murderer. The non-fiction novel is about a German immigrant orphan who commits a murder in the 19th century at the age of 15 and is hanged two years later. “I look at that case for what it tells us about today and also what it tells us about the 19th century,” Brumberg said. The event continues tomorrow morning with a 9:30 a.m. lecture in the Barnes Hall Auditorium by Laurence Steinberg ’77, distinguished university professor at Temple University. Steinberg’s lecture entitled, “Less Guilty by Reason of Adolescence,” will relate to his work in finding the most suitable practices for dealing with youthful offenders. Following Steinberg’s lecture, the first of two panel discussions will take place. A variety of speakers from different universities and organizations will be on hand in this discussion focusing on the treatment of violent youth including David Kaczynski, a member of the New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty and brother of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski. “The conference will have people who are pro-death penalty as well as some who are anti-death penalty,” Brumberg said. In the afternoon at the Moot Court Room in the Cornell Law School, Prof. Victor L. Streib, author of The Juvenile Death Penalty in America, will provide a presentation concerning the history and the future of juvenile executions. Following Streib’s lecture will be the second panel discussion, “The Juvenile Death Penalty: Where we are now?” Reno, who will present closing comments at the seminar will be joined by three University law professors, Steve Harper, director of the Juvenile Death Penalty Initiative and Robert Blecker, a criminal law and death penalty expert at the New York Law School. One of the panelists, Prof. Muna Ndulo, law, will focus on the question of juveniles and the death penalty by focusing on international law and whether U.S. norms compare to practices around the world. Ndulo said the issue is likely to generate a great deal of discussion. “It’s an important issue to resolve because I think the use of the death penalty on juveniles by the U.S. has been very controversial,” Ndulo said. “It’s a matter that should be somehow addressed.” Although Powers said that the timing of the symposium was “somewhat deliberate” in regards to the upcoming Malvo case, Blumberg said that this was more a coincidence than anything else. “We started thinking about it in spring 2003, so it was post-Washington sniper case but we had no way of knowing when Lee Boyd Malvo would go to trial,” Brumberg said. Organizers advertised the event by putting up posters and sending e-mails to 17 different law groups on campus according to Rachel Ammirati ’04, student employee/research assistant at the FLDC. Ammirati said that she received high feedback from many undergraduate law societies — one professor is even offering students extra credit for attending some of the events. “I think that we are expecting a good turnout not just from campus, but the community as well,” Powers said. “It’s a great program with really exciting speakers. I think that will be a big draw.” Brumberg said that Reno was aware of the plans for the symposium and was willing to partake in discussions about the criminalization of youth. As a former U.S. Attorney General, Reno cares deeply about these issues and “had a real record in advocacy of children and youth,” Brumberg said. Ammirati said that the issues which will be discussed in the conference are particularly complex because of the difficult distinctions between adolescent treatment and adult treatment. Brumberg said that these topics will be especially important in light of the Malvo case. “[The Malvo trial] means we are again facing in 2003 the kind of national discussion about the juvenile death penalty: should Lee Boyd Malvo live or die? That’s exactly the kind of discussion that I researched in my book, only it [took place in] 1892. The question for me is have we progressed any? I’m not sure we have,” Brumberg said. Archived article by Brian Tsao