LEE | Ending on a Cliche

The past few weeks, I’ve talked to my friends about whether it’s possible to write a graduation column without cliches. The universal opinion is that it’s impossible. Cliches go hand in hand with beginnings and endings. It’s why every movie that ends with graduation feels corny (though I do admit, I half-wish my high school graduation was like High School Musical 3). College graduation represents one of the few opportunities for major change in a person’s life, the conclusion to a time where we’re expected to laugh, cry, learn and enjoy ourselves and finally become adults.

Head Coach Brian Earl Sets New Tone for Men’s Basketball

Brian Earl lurks, not in a menacing way, but you always know where he is in a room. The new coach of the Cornell men’s basketball team — hired after eight years as an assistant at his alma mater of Princeton — is a relatively quiet presence at practice. Sometimes Earl jumps into drills, but often he’s slightly removed from the middle of the action, observing. He watches practices intensely, walking over to players one-on-one to tell them if he sees something they can improve. From time to time, Earl will raise his voice, but that’s often limited to when he’s announcing what drill he wants to see the team work on next.

Dalton Banks Displays Poise, Confidence Leading Cornell Football Comeback

HAMILTON, N.Y. — Sophomore quarterback Dalton Banks could not afford to make a mistake. In a game where the gunslinger wasn’t at his sharpest, ending the first half completing just 11 of 24 passes, he could ill afford an error with the Cornell football team down 38-33 to the No. 25 Colgate Raiders and just 90 seconds left on the clock. This is Banks’ first year starting for the Red, but he exudes the confidence of an upperclassman. He’s poised and confident, but still makes mistakes, as is expected of a first-time starter.