Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer

Cornellians and Ithacans join the nation in protest against police brutality in a march from Ho Plaza to the Ithaca Police Department headquarters on June 3.

January 1, 2021
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In Photos: 2020, Reviewed

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Photos at the start of 2020 mirrored previous years: crowded ClubFests, student activism, Ithaca weather and hockey games. But as a raging pandemic canceled events and closed campus, the photos depicted a shift in daily routines and customs that defined an unforgettable year.

Here’s a look at 2020 — often called historic, unprecedented and one like no other — in photos.

Students visit club booths during Spring ClubFest at Barton Hall on Feb. 2. Featuring about 320 clubs and an array of performances, the event gave students the opportunity to learn about and join on-campus organizations encompassing a wide range of interests. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun File Photo)
Members of the Cornell Big Red Marching Band play on the Arts Quad on Feb. 7, after Cornell canceled Ithaca campus classes at 10 a.m. that morning. Despite the chaos of the cancellation — as classes had already begun for the day — students celebrated the serendipitous day off. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun File Photo)
A skier jumps off the roof of the Cocktail Lounge during the Feb. 7 snow day. Much like previous snow days, many students took advantage of the cancellation of classes to slide down Libe Slope on snowboards, skis and makeshift sleds, including cardboard boxes and plastic container lids. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun File Photo)
Customers sample chili at Ithaca’s 22nd Annual Chili Cook-Off on the Commons on Feb. 8. More than 30 restaurants and other organizations participated in the cook-off, including campus eatery McCormick’s and the Chi Phi fraternity. (Ashley He/Sun File Photo)
Marc Lacey ’87, the national editor for The New York Times, speaks to Cornellians about his career in journalism on Feb. 11 as part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Visiting Journalists program. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun File Photo)
Climate Justice Cornell protesters block the intersection of Tower Road and East Avenue on Global Divestment Day, Feb. 13, demanding that Cornell sever its ties to the fossil fuel industry. CJC held frequent demonstrations for the duration of in-person classes in the spring. The Board of Trustees would eventually vote to effectively divest from fossil fuels on May 22. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Men’s hockey forward Morgan Barron ’21 takes a shot at the Red’s final regular season game on Feb. 29, which Cornell handily won 5-1 over Clarkson. The cancellation of the ECAC conference tournament on March 12 meant that this would be the final men’s hockey game of the season, and with the Ivy League prohibiting varsity athletic competition in the fall and winter, the Feb. 29 match ultimately became the last game of 2020. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Students line up to buy cardboard boxes at the UPS store in Collegetown on March 13, after President Martha Pollack announced that the University would suspend all classes until April 6 and encouraged undergraduate students to return to their permanent residences as soon as possible. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
First-year students on North Campus pack their belongings on March 15, following Pollack’s email two days earlier. Students living on campus had until March 29 to move out, though international students who were unable to return home and those with extenuating circumstances were allowed to stay on campus. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
The Touchdown statue in front of Teagle Hall sports an N95 respirator on March 17. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began officially recommending mask-wearing on April 3, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo subsequently issued a mask mandate for the state on April 15. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
The State Theatre postponed all performances through the end of April after New York State banned gatherings of more than 50 people on March 16. With no upcoming events to highlight on its marquee, the theater instead opted to display an optimistic message, photographed here on March 18. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Emmy Chen ’20, Aashka Piprottar ’20, Jack Thompson ’20, Ananya Dua ’20 and Akanksha Jain ’20, from left, pop open bottles of champagne as Akshat Piprottar ’22 takes photos of the group on March 18. Even as the tail end of their last semester was disrupted and their graduation ceremony canceled, many spring semester seniors took advantage of the class suspension to take graduation photos on campus. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
The Collegetown Bagels location at 415 College Avenue stands nearly empty on March 20, after Cuomo suspended dine-in restaurant operations on March 16. The location would eventually close and move across the street over the summer. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Windows of the Statler Hotel illuminate in the shape of a heart on March 25. The hotel was forced to temporarily shutter its doors after Cuomo ordered all non-essential businesses to close by March 22. In the fall, the Statler became the quarantine location for many students who tested positive or were exposed to COVID-19. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
The Cayuga Health System sent two buses with 60 doctors, nurses and staff to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on April 8 in response to a nationwide plea from Cuomo for healthcare workers to come to New York City, an early epicenter of the pandemic. The Cayuga Medical Center held a send-off event honoring the healthcare workers that morning. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Members of the Ithaca community wear masks and hold signs to thank the medical professionals on their way to aid the fight in New York City on April 8. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Goodbye notes cover the window of Collegetown Bagels’ 415 College Avenue location on May 29, the restaurant’s final day of operation. A new CTB location across the street at 420 College Avenue, below Sheldon Court, opened in August. (Michael Wenye Li/Sun File Photo)
Cornellians and Ithacans join the nation in protest against police brutality in a march from Ho Plaza to the Ithaca Police Department headquarters on June 3. Protests — including this one organized by Cornell students — erupted across the country following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Ithacans march down the Commons at the second This Stops Now event remembering Floyd and protesting police brutality on June 7, a week after the first protest on May 31. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
The Fischell Band Center, photographed here on Aug. 21, was one of the first buildings converted into a COVID-19 testing site for the fall semester. Students returning to campus were required to schedule an arrival test and were subsequently tested twice a week starting Sept. 3. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Signs displaying Cornell’s COVID-19 guidelines greet visitors to Boldt Tower on West Campus on Aug. 21, two days before the move-in process began for on-campus residents. Similar signs were posted on entrances to other on-campus buildings. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Students wearing masks walk down Ho Plaza on the first day of classes of the fall semester, Sept. 3. Only a third of classes were held in-person, meaning trips to campus were infrequent and a typically bustling campus was left quiet. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
The line for COVID-19 tests stretches outside the Robert Purcell Community Center on North Campus on Sept. 3, the first day of surveillance testing. The day was marked by technical difficulties and long lines, with some students waiting over half an hour to be tested. (Michelle Zhiqing Yang/Sun Staff Photographer)
Students held a vigil for Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54 on the Arts Quad on Sept. 19, the day after her death. Pictured here, students stay after the event to leave candles and notes under the statue of A.D. White in remembrance of the late Supreme Court Justice. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Students wearing masks study at separate tables in the Klarman Hall atrium on Sept. 21. The atrium, a popular meeting spot for students in previous semesters, was much quieter throughout the fall. (Hannah Rosenberg/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Caution tape blocks off a group study space in Mann Library on Sept. 22. Quiet study seats in the Engineering, Mann, Olin and Uris Libraries were spaced out and labeled with numbers, as seen in the background, and students were required to make reservations before entering. (Hannah Rosenberg/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Students and locals check out the offerings at the Apple Festive at the Ithaca Commons on Oct. 2. The event, which featured six vendors at a socially-distanced farmers market, replaced the annual Apple Harvest Festival, a 38-year-old tradition that has included 200 vendors in past years. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Ranging from a Student Assembly vote over police disarmament to larger calls to completely abolish the department, members of the Cornell community voiced concerns about the Cornell University Police Department during the fall semester, mirroring nationwide conversations on the reallocation of police funds. Several large signs, like the one pictured here on Oct. 5, were placed around campus in support of abolishing Cornell’s police presence. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Students relax by the statue of Ezra Cornell, who dons a mask of his own, on a warm fall afternoon on Oct. 14. (Michelle Li/Sun Contributor)
Counterprotesters gather outside the Tompkins County Republican headquarters in response to a Make America Great Again rally on Oct. 16. The counterprotest, organized by the Ithaca chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, dwarfed the rally supporting President Donald Trump. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Counterprotesters confront Trump supporters outside the Tompkins County Republican storefront on Oct. 16. Several physical and verbal altercations broke out during the event, which blocked traffic on Route 13 and ended in a march to the Commons. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Signs direct students to the COVID-19 testing site at Sage Chapel, photographed here on Oct. 17. Other testing sites on campus included Willard Straight Hall, Bartels Hall and the ILR Conference Center. Over the course of the semester, more than 470,000 nose swabs were administered at Cornell. (Julia Nagel/Sun Staff Photographer)
Students spread out across Libe Slope as the sun sets on Oct. 17. Signs like the one photographed here were placed throughout campus to remind students of Cornell’s COVID-19 guidelines, which permitted outdoor, distanced and masked gatherings of small groups. (Zoe Yang/Sun Staff Photographer)
A protester is released from police custody during a demonstration outside the IPD headquarters on Oct. 22. Protesters gathered outside the headquarters in response to the arrest of a counterprotester at a Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) press conference earlier that afternoon. The police arrested a total of six protesters outside the department that evening after deeming the assembly unlawful. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
On Oct. 24, a Back the Blue rally was met with hundreds of counterprotesters at the Ithaca Commons. Although there were no physical altercations, several individuals from both sides approached the opposite side for conversation or confrontation. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Counterprotesters raise their fists — a gesture that has become synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement — as they face off against Back the Blue demonstrators at the Ithaca Commons on Oct. 24. The counterprotesters chanted “Black Lives Matter” and other slogans against racism and fascism during the standoff. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
A Back the Blue protester sports a bulletproof vest with a “Proud Boys” logo patch at the rally on Oct. 24, though the far-right group did not attend the event in any official capacity. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Early voters wait in a socially-distanced line outside the Ithaca Town Hall on Oct. 24, the first day of early voting. Over 13,000 early votes were cast in Tompkins County, leading to shorter lines at polling sites on Election Day. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
A student climbs up Libe Slope during the first snow of the fall semester on Nov. 2. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
The polling site at the Alice Cook House lounge on West Campus was equipped with disinfectant and personal protective equipment for Election Day on Nov. 3. Voters were required to wear masks and sanitize their hands, and only a limited number of people were allowed inside the voting site at a time. (Ben Parker/Sun Assistant Photography Editor)
Students march down College Avenue with a speaker to celebrate after news outlets called the presidential race for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Nov. 7, four days after the election. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
A celebration ensues on a front yard on College Avenue after news of Biden’s victory on Nov. 7. Similar festivities broke out across Collegetown and continued through the afternoon and evening as many students exhaled after a nail-biting election week came to an end. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Two students cheer from the sunroof of a car as they celebrate Biden’s victory on Nov. 7. Honking cars drove up and down College Avenue throughout the day after the news broke. (Michael Suguitan/Sun Staff Photographer)
Students roll suitcases across the Arts Quad on Nov. 13, the last day of in-person classes for the fall semester. After the semifinal exam period, students were encouraged to return to their permanent residences over Thanksgiving break and finish the semester remotely. (Michelle Zhiqing Yang/Sun Staff Photographer)
Dozens of Cornellians gather outside Barton Hall on Nov. 20 to decry the Student Assembly’s rejection of Resolution 11 — which would call for the University to disarm CUPD — the night before. Organizers urged students to sign petitions to recall the 15 S.A. members who voted against the resolution. Although the petitions ultimately failed to garner enough signatures to spark a recall process, the S.A. later passed the resolution on Dec. 10, leaving it in the hands of Pollack. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
Protesters at the Nov. 20 rally brought signs criticizing CUPD and supporting the disarmament movement. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)
A student sleds down Libe Slope on Dec. 18 — the second day of the online final exam period — after a winter storm left over a foot of snow on the Ithaca campus two days earlier. (Boris Tsang/Sun Photography Editor)