Opinion

WU | The Questions Affirmative Action Conceals

By |

In high school, I found that most discussions of affirmative action came in the form of a snide remark. During the standardized testing days, it went like, “If only I were black, then I wouldn’t have to worry about this test.” And later, as acceptances and rejections drew smiles and tears, the remark bobbed back up: “Makes sense why he didn’t get into [elite school]. It’s so hard to get in if you’re Asian.”

There is a vital, sometimes frustrating, debate to be had on affirmative action. The common story on race-based admissions appeals to the passions. Surely, any just admissions system will ensure marginalized groups — disempowered by centuries of compounding disadvantage — get a fair shake.

campaign

WU | How the Next ‘Extreme Ithaca Liberal’ Can Beat Tom Reed

By |

Some cities are notable for towering skyscrapers, others for offbeat museums or bucolic beauty. But to Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), who represents New York’s 23rd congressional district (including Cornell), Ithaca represents little more than a bastion of lefty extremism. And likewise, Tracy Mitrano, who lost to Reed in yesterday’s midterm election, is little more than an Ithaca outgrowth. In expressing this view, Reed does not pull punches. Look no further than his own campaign ads.

Columns

WU | Brett Kavanaugh Is a Warning Sign for American Democracy

By |

As this column goes to press, 16 days have elapsed since Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court. That is, 16 days have elapsed since a moral, cultural and political inferno engulfed the nation. Yet this once-totalizing story has slipped beneath the headlines. Perhaps, then, Mitch McConnell, a top Republican, was correct in predicting “these things always blow over.”

Then again, perhaps not. The wrongful confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and liberals’ subsequent attacks on institutions show how high the political stakes have become.

Columns

WU | A Career in Finance, Ten Years After the Crisis

By |

Ten years ago, before many of us had the requisite adult teeth to pronounce “synthetic collateralized debt obligation,” capitalism failed. Or at least it seemed that way. On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, once an investment bank holding assets worth thrice the GDP of Greece, filed for bankruptcy. It was, and remains, the largest bankruptcy in American history. Markets tumbled across the globe in a housing-fueled financial crisis that wiped out over $30 trillion in wealth by March 2009.

23rd district

WU | Tracy Mitrano’s Sweet Nothings

By |

Most Cornellians graduate in four years. Tom Reed (R-NY), who represents New York’s 23rd district (including Ithaca), has been in office for twice that. But you wouldn’t know from the jeering Ithacans filling his town halls. Suffice it to say readers of The Cornell Daily Sun are far from Reed’s core constituency. And yet Cornell, as with Ithaca at large, is a blue speck amid a red sea.