Cornell

Home Plate Program Brings Cornellians and Ithacans to Dinner Table

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Home Plate — a new program organized by the Student Assembly’s City and Local Affairs Committee that arranges dinners between students and members of the Ithaca community — held its first dinner Sunday. “What I really hope for this program is that more Cornell students get to form lasting bonds with Ithaca community members, and through their connections become more active community members themselves,” Millicent Kastenbaum ’16, chair of the S.A. City and Local Affairs Committee, said. “It is such a wonderful, informal way for students to expand themselves outside of the Cornell bubble.”

The program embodies the committee’s mission to bridge the gap between the Ithaca and Cornell communities, according to Kastenbaum. Kastenbaum said she hopes Home Plate will encourage students to interact more with the Ithaca community. This semester is a “pilot round” working with 13 host families and 46 students, according to Zach Praiss ’16, a student organizer of the program and a Sun designer.

News

20-Year-Old Graduate Student Sues New York Attorney General Over Drinking Age

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Matthew Uhalde grad  — a 20-year-old Cornell student — has sued New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, claiming the legal drinking age makes him feel “ostracized and excluded” from the company of other graduate students. The lawsuit was prompted by an unfortunate experience at a graduate student social at Big Red Barn last week, according to Uhalde. Despite having received an invitation to the social, Uhalde said the manager threw him out because he was underage. “The manager said it was a liability having me there, even if I didn’t drink,” Uhalde said. “It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened.

commons

In Ithaca Visit, Schumer Supports Local Road Safety

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Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) visited the Ithaca Commons Monday to support the City’s efforts to improve road safety. He announced that $40 million in funding is available to improve highway safety, including projects on Ithaca roads, according to a press release. Schumer held a news conference Monday afternoon outside the Simeon’s On the Commons restaurant, which is still under construction after a traffic accident, according to The Ithaca Journal. On June 20, 2014, a tractor trailer crashed into the restaurant’s entrance at the intersection of Route 96 B and Route 79, killing Amanda Bush — a bartender at Simeon’s — and her unborn child, and injuring seven others. Investigators determined that the intersection had previously experienced close calls and accidents, according to the press release.

Psi Upsilon

Alleged Sexual Assault Reported at Psi Upsilon Fraternity

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Cornell Police issued a crime alert Monday afternoon regarding an alleged sexual assault that occurred Sunday morning at 2 Forest Park Lane, the location of the Psi Upsilon fraternity. A female student reported she was sexually assaulted at approximately 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, after the perpetrator led her to a bedroom. The perpetrator was described as “a white male, approximately 170 pounds, around 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a medium complexion and wavy dark brown or black collar-length hair,” according to CUPD. Reports like this are relatively rare in our community because sex offenses are significantly under-reported, according to David M. Honan, CUPD Deputy Chief. “We take careful steps to connect victims of these crimes with supportive resources available here on campus and in our community,” Honan said.

cornellian

Three Cornellians Receive Schwarzman Scholarship Awards

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Three Cornellians — Juliana Batista ’16, Atticus DeProspo ’15 and Andrew Schoen ’12 — were named 2016 Schwarzman Scholars, the University announced Jan. 11. This fall, they will live and study at the new Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of China’s most prestigious universities. “I met over 123 people who … challenged me to be a better person.”
—Atticus Deprospo ’15
These scholars will pursue a one-year master’s degree in public policy, economics and business or international studies, according to the University.

Alumni

Alumnus Co-Writes CeeLo Green Song

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Music producer Alex Kresovich ’08 co-wrote the song “Thorns” on CeeLo Green’s new album “Heart Blanche” — released on Nov. 6 — according to a University press release. Kresovich said he co-wrote the song with Ithaca natives Sam Nelson Harris and Hayden Frank of the rock band X Ambassadors. According to Kresovich, he made the track for “Thorns” immediately after he lost out on a publishing deal and the news devastated him. “I felt the need to create something soulful to mend my broken heart,” Kresovich said.

News

Cornell Hosts Annual IvyQ Conference

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“I’m not co-chairing IvyQ 2015 without them as my keynotes,” Fernandez said. “They encompassed everything I haven’t been able to articulate that I wanted to do with the conference.”