By March 28, 2005
As part of the long-standing Cornell tradition, the architecture students paraded down East Avenue on Friday, March 18, surrounding an enormous green dragon. Starting in 1901, Dragon Day has been an integral part of Cornell’s traditions. In its 104th year, Dragon Day, instead of being scheduled for the Thursday before spring break, was pushed back to the Friday this year. “The reason we pushed the Dragon back to Friday,” said Prof. Nasrine Seraji, chair of the architecture department, “was because [this way] there is more time for classes before the spring break.” This year also differed from previous years in the amount of time allotted to the freshmen to work on the project. “We were actually limited to the amount of hours we could work,” said Day Jimenez ’08, president of the freshman class. “The Department of Architecture was cutting hours back because they had to stop paying the shop supervisors for so much overtime. The great success and pretty much flawless execution of our dragon as a whole made it distinctive from all the recent years.” Even with the cut in working time, the students still managed to spend exorbitant amounts of time on the project. “We worked … all through until the Friday of,” said Kerianne Wells ’08, “with some all-nighters, too, but we’re used to that.” Along with the architect students’ dragon, Dragon Day has included in the past the creation of a Phoenix by the long-rivaled engineering students. Last year, the engineers neglected to participate in the festivities, leaving the architect’s dragon unchallenged. This year, however, the engineers constructed an large wooden animal, which some people interpreted to be a penguin. “It was just two pieces of wood put together with black paper wrapped around it,” Wells said. In preparation for dragon day, the architecture students designed and sold t-shirts all over campus in order to raise money to pay for equipment and supplies. According to Natalie Pierro ’09, treasurer of the freshmen class, a total of approximately 1,250 shirts were sold at $10 each. Of the money raised, $3,000 was used for the construction of the dragon. The rest of the money will be saved for next year’s Beaux Arts Ball, which the sophomore class organizes for the architecture school every year. As for the success of the event on the whole, Jimenez said, “It allowed our class a lot of time to bond and grow stronger as a team, where usually in our work we are forced to design and create as individuals.” Having pushed back the day to Friday, many thought that the amount of people present at Dragon Day would have been lowered. Even with many people already home or on their way home for spring break, however, the crowd did not waver. “There were so many people there,” said Sydney Malawer ’08, “it was absolute craziness.” “It’s amazing seeing and being present for a part of Cornell’s history as renowned and famous as Dragon Day,” said Seth Luxenberg ’08. “The students have been doing this for so long, it’s great to finally witness the true enormity of it.” At the end of the march, the architecture students led their dragon back to the arts quad, where they proceeded in the traditional burning of the dragon, leaving the head as the only piece of evidence of all the hard work they accomplished. “I was congratulated by many upperclassmen that this was the best dragon they had seen in their years at Cornell,” Jimenez said. “It was very successful.” Archived article by mily GordonSun Staff Writer
By March 28, 2005
Currently, underage drinking at most fraternity parties can buy underage Cornellians a ticket to a downtown Ithaca courthouse. However, the Cornell University Police Department is calling for change. The CUPD is fighting for the power to handle drinking violations without the help of the Ithaca Police Department, along with all the other abilities that would come from elevating their status from “peace” officers to police officers. Last semester, the Student Assembly passed a resolution to “urge the Cornell University Administration to promptly discuss the matter with the CUPD.” The newly elected S.A. representatives will continue to consider the issue. “I’d be interested in seeing [a resolution on the status of the Cornell Police] again,” said S.A. representative Sarah Boxer ’07. Another S.A. representative, Michelle Fernandes ’06, commented that she’d like to hear a more clear decision from the University before rendering an opinion. “I understand the problems which can arise from CUPD having limited power, however I haven’t heard a clear explanation of the negatives which might come with police status and so I haven’t yet been able to take a position on the matter,” Fernandes said. The position of the Cornell Police Union is that the change in status would not only be beneficial to the force, but also to the student body. “We only have jurisdiction in the fraternit[y houses] that are University-owned; if we were police, we’d have jurisdiction in those that are privately owned. If something happens in a private one, we can’t do anything, we have to call the city and they send kids downtown,” said Jim Morrissette, president of the Cornell Police Union. “We like to keep things within the campus judicial system.” Some students are hesitant to encourage such a change. “I’m not sure I’d want Cornell Police to have jurisdiction in my fraternity house,” said Jason Post ’07. The University has not provided a clear explanation for why they will not seek the change in officer status. Speculation as to reasons for not wanting the change include a belief that the current method of campus security is working and that the campus peace officers do not need any more power. One problem may be that “since the change extends the scope of what the CUPD can do, it extends liability issues,” said Joe Rudnick ’08 during the S.A. hearing on the matter. The officers who make up the CUPD receive their law enforcement authority from the State of New York under section 2.10, subsection 42 of the Criminal Procedure Law. Among peace officer limitations are that they cannot serve arrest or search warrants, cannot obtain criminal history records on arrested subjects and cannot enter missing persons data into the New York State Information Network. The lack of status also prohibits the CUPD from using the New York State Crime Mapping System. The Crime Mapping System provides cross-jurisdictional mapping as an analysis tool to reduce crime and improve public safety. “The peace officer designation inhibits us from doing the best possible job,” Morrissette said. Archived article by Erica FinkSun News Editor