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Graduation Rates Differ Greatly by Race, Gender

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Although it is not as large as the national average, there is a gap in graduation rates between black and Latino students at Cornell compared with their Caucasian and Asian peers.
According to Cornell’s First-Time Freshman Graduation Rates Fall 1980 – Fall 1999 Entering Classes Biennial Report, the six-year graduation rates for Caucasian and Asian students entering Cornell as freshmen between 1980 and 1999 is around 90 percent. For blacks and Latinos, this number is closer to 80 percent. In 1999 alone, these numbers were 93.6 and 86.6 percent, respectively.
Nationally, the numbers are 67 percent for white students, 71 percent for Asian students, 47 percent for Latino students and 46 percent for black students, according to the Teagle Working Group.

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Theft, Criminal Mischief Dominate C.U. Crime Stats Report

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Despite the occasional crime alert emailed to members of the Cornell community, Ithaca is often considered to be a relatively safe town. This belief is supported by current crime statistics as given in the Clery Report, an annual report that colleges and universities must publish.
The reports, which are mandated by the Higher Education Act of 1865, focus on seven different types of crime, where the crimes take place and what actions are taken against the criminal. The reports are made public and can be viewed online.
Captain Kathy Zoner of the Cornell University Police Department acknowledged that the most common crimes on campus are “crimes of opportunity”: property crimes such as theft and criminal mischief.

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District Faces New Charges of Racism

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“Ithaca is supposedly ‘10 square miles surrounded by reality,’ but right now reality is right up against our faces,” said Nathan Shinagawa ’05, a Tompkins County legislator, Friday afternoon at the first of two press conferences held in Ithaca to address new charges of racial discrimination within the Ithaca City School District.
The charges were brought about by Bryce Houseal, a freshman at Ithaca High School, and his mother Keisha Hicks, a graduate student at Cornell. Houseal claims that at school Nov. 8, a white student directed a racial epithet at him. When he reported the incident to an assistant principal, he says, nothing was done.

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Fmr. Pakistani Ambassador Talks Politics

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This past Wednesday evening, retired Ambassador Mansoor Alam gave a talk entitled, “The Pakistani Conundrum” to about 40 members of the Cornell community in the Alice Cook House. Alam has represented Pakistan in Russia, Finland, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico throughout his career.
The event was sponsored by Dialogue, the South Asia Program, Alice Cook House and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. Hatice Bilici ’09, president of Dialogue, said in her introduction that her group “tries to bring speakers from conflict regions.”
Bilici said she hoped Alam would add intellectual discourse to Cornell by increasing the number of speakers on campus.

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Language House Fosters Cultural Experience

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Cornell students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a foreign language without ever having to leave Ithaca. Students with an intermediate knowledge of Arabic, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin or Spanish can choose to live in Boldt Hall’s language houses, a part of the Alice Cook House on West Campus.
Students live in the language houses in order to become fluent in the language of their choice and to learn more about the culture of the various places where their target language is spoken.
Mike Magdovitz ’10 called the Language House “an interesting place to live,” saying that although he lives in the French part of the house, he also has the opportunity to practice his Spanish on a daily basis.

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Cornell EMTs Suit Up for a Safer Campus

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As the saying goes at Cornell University Emergency Medical Services, “Your worst hour is our best hour.”
“It’s never that we want someone to get hurt; we just want to be there to help them,” said Emergency Medical Technician Andy Lazar ’10 in explaining his group’s catchphrase.
Lazar is one of CUEMS’s 80 EMTs who volunteer their time to help injured or sick people on campus. On nights and weekends there are always at least three EMTs on call and at least one or two on weekdays. In addition, CUEMS members can be requested to cover events such as concerts and club sport matches.

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Justice O’Connor Addresses Oral Argument, Supreme Court

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Yesterday afternoon, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor spoke before a packed Bailey Hall on the importance of oral argument in the Supreme Court.
O’Connor, the first female justice, told the audience that she chose to speak about oral arguments to correct the false assumption that the Supreme Court Justices make their decisions “without outside assistance.”
She stressed the importance of lawyers’ oral arguments, which “identify and spell out the legal issues [of cases] . . . and shape a consistent, coherent body of law.”

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Public Confronts Board of Education on Racism

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On Tuesday night, as many Cornellians returned to campus, a group of students joined Ithaca residents and Ithaca College students at the Ithaca City School District’s Board of Education Meeting to speak up about the issues of racism facing the town.
Around 100 people attended the meeting, held at 7 p.m. at Ithaca High School’s Kulp Auditorium, to take advantage of the opportunity to speak out during the “Receiving and Hearing of Delegations” by the public that follows the opening of the Board’s meetings.

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‘D.P. No’ Brings C.U. Students to Noyes

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Students gathered last night at Noyes Community Recreation Center on West Campus to discuss a race-related incident that occurred at an Ithaca restaurant last month. On Sept. 18, four female Cornell students from the black and Latino communities claim that they were victims of racism after two white men allegedly verbally harassed them inside D.P. Dough.
The gathering was originally intended to protest D.P. Dough, since the restaurant was planning to distribute free food as part of Noyes’s Take Out Tuesday! Program.

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Ithaca School District Accused of Racism

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Local residents and students gathered yesterday at the Ithaca City School District’s offices to rally against what they see as tolerance of racism by the district.
The most publicized accusation of racism came from Ithaca resident Amelia Kearney, whose daughter reported she was physically and emotionally abused by her classmates two years ago at the district’s DeWitt Middle School.