The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/kimberlylee/page/2/)
Four new Student Assembly members— Jung Won Kim ’18, Dale Barbaria ’19, Matthew Indimine ’18, and Nelson Billington ’17 — were elected to fill vacancies for the rest of the semester that arose when S.A. members transferred to different Cornell colleges, left to study abroad or not attend enough sessions, the S.A. announced Friday.
Students and faculty passing through Klarman Hall can now admire a cast of the Flying Nike which was installed in the hall’s atrium on Feb. 10, according to the University. The Flying Nike — the Greek goddess of victory and one of many restored pieces from the College of Arts and Sciences’ cast collection — is the first of several plaster figures to be added to the atrium. The collection was compiled in the late 19th century and “is a valuable antique collection in its own right,” said Prof. Verity Platt, classics and history of art, curator of the Cornell Cast Collection. Prior to installation, many of the casts were on display in the Museum of Classical Archaeology, on the ground floor of Goldwin Smith Hall.
This winter is the fourth warmest since 1894, with average temperatures in Ithaca over seven degrees higher than normal, according to Jessica Spaccio, a climatologist at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science.
With a gift of 17.43 acres of land from Prof. Emeritus David K. Bandler, food science, last January, Cornell Plantations’ Fischer Old-Growth Forest Natural Area in the town of Newfield has now expanded from 30 acres to nearly 60 acres, according to the Cornell Plantations. The new addition will be integrated into the pre-existing Plantations and will operate in the same manner, according to Dr. Christopher Dunn, director of the Plantations. “It does, certainly, add to the amount of land we have to manage, but in fact it provides greater opportunities to engage faculty, students and the community in a better understanding and appreciation of the natural world around us,” Dunn said. The new land — which consists of “herbaceous and shrub-dominated old fields and young successional forests,” according to a Plantations press release — will offer visitors the opportunity to observe ecological succession. The Fischer Old-Growth Forest is one of the few remaining pre-European settlement forests in the region, according to the release.
Jonathan Hunn ’15 — a natural resources major and co-founder of the Cornell Environmental Collaborative — died on Nov. 10 in West Bloomfield, N.Y. He was 22. In the spring, Hunn walked with the graduating class of 2015 at Cornell. He remained on campus this semester to finish a few last credits, according to Nyle Taylor ’15, Hunn’s freshman and sophomore year roommate. On campus, Hunn was involved with environmental and sustainability groups.
Several student groups may no longer be able to host weekly meetings in the Memorial Room, as the Student Union Board plans to make Willard Straight Hall more accessible to other student organizations for non-meeting events. Several of the groups affected include the Interfraternity Council, the Student Assembly and Class Councils, which may need to find new meeting spaces next semester. “In an effort to provide greater opportunities for the growing number of student organizations to hold their events in WSH, we are trying to ensure these spaces are being used as effectively as possible,” said Kristen Crasto ’17, director of public affairs for the Student Union Board, in a Nov. 1 email to The Sun. To “best utilize the room to its capacity and for its specific purpose,” the Student Union Board announced new restrictions on using the Memorial Room, according to an Oct.
With a $4.5 million, three-year grant from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Cornell, along with four other New York colleges — New York University, Syracuse University, the State University of New York at Albany and SUNY Buffalo — will enter a partnership that will foster an “entrepreneurial support system” for students of all majors. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation was founded in 2007 and draws from the resources and “intellectual capital” of the firm to spur entrepreneurship within the county and across the globe, according to a University press release. With the grant, New York will become the eighth Blackstone LaunchPad region following Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Montana, California and Ireland. LaunchPad, the campus entrepreneurship program of the foundation, will see its largest expansion with this group of New York schools. Blackstone LaunchPad New York aims to connect colleges, the business community and entrepreneurs to “establish a nurturing environment” and deliver the resources needed for students to “succeed as entrepreneurs,” according to a Blackstone press release.
Recent student-run crowdfunding campaigns to finance University tuition have attracted the attention of many in the Cornell community and raised questions about the necessity of change in the school’s financial aid system. Most recently, following the success of Jonah Hephzibah ’16, Nikolai Lumpkins ’18 took to the online crowdfunding platform GoFundMe in hopes of raising $25,000 for tuition in order to remain enrolled at Cornell. As of Tuesday night, Lumpkins’ campaign has raised nearly $6,000. Originally anticipating “average” reactions, Lumpkins said he was surprised at the strength of the responses he received, both positive and negative, when he made his online page. “There’s so much animosity and so much support,” he said.
A Sept. 10 job posting from the College of Arts and Sciences for an assistant professor position has taken an unorthodox approach with its broad description that seeks candidates from underrepresented groups and does not specify the exact department the candidate will work in. “[The college] is seeking to hire a tenure-track assistant professor in some area of the humanities or qualitative social sciences,” reads the job description. “We are especially interested in considering applications from members of underrepresented groups, those who have faced economic hardship, are first-generation college graduates or work on topics related to these issues.”
Recognizing the unconventional nature of the job posting, Gretchen Ritter ’83, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, called it “an unusual experiment on the part of the [college].”
“This faculty advertisement aims to attract a broad range of applicants across numerous fields in the social sciences and humanities,” Ritter said. “In the context of this and all of our searches, we want to create the broadest, strongest pool possible, and one that includes applicants from all backgrounds.”
The position’s description has piqued the interests of academics online.