After waking up and seeing several inches of snow covering the ground, many students logged onto the Cornell website to find out if the University was closed. Instead, they found a notice from Stephen T. Golding, executive vice president of finance and administration, notifying the community that Cornell was open and had no intention of closing.

April 12 through 14 marked this year’s Diversity Hosting Weekend, a part of Cornell Days that encourages minority students accepted into the Class of 2011 to visit the University. Aside from a $40 registration fee, Diversity Hosting Weekend is free — students do not need to pay for meals, transportation or housing.

One and a half years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast area in August 2005, students at Cornell remain hopeful for the future.

Jarin Jackson ’07 was a few weeks into his junior year at Cornell when he heard that Katrina was about to hit his hometown of New Orleans. While Jackson’s mother and most of his family evacuated to Arizona, his father remained in a hotel. At 5 a.m. during the storm, crouched in a hotel bathroom and thinking he was going to die, Jackson’s father called him to say goodbye.

Although people typically do not think of burning grass as a way to save the environment, that is exactly what the Big Red Barn is doing as part of Cornell’s effort to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Cornell is joining other universities across the country in making an effort to help the environment. One recent project includes the installation of a grass-burning stove in the Big Red Barn, which burns grass pellets.

Trying to get tenure at Cornell is a “traumatic experience,” according to Charles Walcott Ph.D ’59, dean of the faculty. However, it pales in comparison to the 12-day hunger-strike undertaken by Prof.James Sherley, biological engineering, MIT, upon his failure to receive this academic distinction.