The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/cbaran/page/2/)
With the amount of daily cases comparable to last winter and rising, it’s clear the pandemic has no plans to loosen its chokehold on America anytime soon. I, along with many of my peers, expected Cornell to provide similar accommodations for the students that were bound to become sick this semester.
One of the benefits that is supposed to come from attending an Ivy League university is a vast network of resources. Cornell students are ostensibly privileged with all the guidance and mentorship they can ask for, all at the tip of their fingertips. For the most part, this is true. If we truly need help with a particular problem, we can almost always seek it out. And at the core of this support network is the advising system.
Election Day is quickly approaching. It seems as if everyone has an opinion and a stake in the battle for the presidency. However, the tone of the discourse has mirrored that of the current president’s, even as many participating denounce him. Social media and conversation is rife with half-truths, slander and personal attacks. This is not productive and it is downright hypocritical for opponents of the president.
Let the seasons and holidays be seasons and holidays again. Don’t lose them in the mire of internship hunts and prelims.
When used properly, peer pressure is a much more effective enforcement tool than anything in the administration’s repertoire.
The only way for Cornell to stem this trajectory of disillusionment and injustice to financially disadvantaged students is to do everything it can to discount our tuition.
Loneliness is scary. It creeps up at night in our apartment, at lunch with our peers or on the ride back from your job at a local restaurant. We begin to feel unenthusiastic about our life and the future. The world seems a little bit bigger, a little bit darker. Your phone is right next to you but reaching out to someone seems impossible.
The COVID-19 pandemic has already upended our lives at Cornell and beyond. It will undoubtedly continue to do so into the fall. The question Cornell students are yearning to know is: How different will this fall be for us? We are almost uniformly dreading any decision that would make the fall 2020 semester much different than it has been in the past. But … would a little change really be that bad?
Cornell is incredibly cosmopolitan. Over 10 percent of the undergraduate population and 20 percent of the total student enrollment is international. With upwards of 100 countries represented in those statistics, Cornell can claim to be one of the most diverse universities in the countries. This diversity is normally nothing but positive. Having students from varying origins enriches classroom discussion, helps other students think more globally and elevates campus dialogue.
In the 1950s and 60s, thousands of babies in Germany and other European countries were born with major birth defects because their mothers had taken a drug called thalidomide. Thalidomide was used to treat a variety of conditions, including nausea in pregnant women. The drug was not tested on pregnant women. In other words, officials rashly applied a treatment without considering other possible effects. Thalidomide certainly helped with nausea, but at a terrible price.