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Professors Analyze Policy Before Presidential Debate

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The 2008 presidential campaign has been largely inattentive to the issues of health care, immigration and social security, according to a group of experts in those fields who gathered at Cornell for a policy debate on Friday before the first presidential debate.
The debate, sponsored by a host of campus organizations, including the Department of Policy Analysis and Management in the College of Human Ecology, was titled “McCain v. Obama in 3D: Data and Debate on Domestic Policy” and took place at Bailey Hall.
While organizers said that the free tickets to the event “sold out,” the 1,324-seating-capacity auditorium was about three-quarters full when the event began at 6:30 p.m.

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Higher Ed. Bill Seeks To Lower Cost of Textbooks

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This is the second in a three part series analyzing the Higher Education Opportunity Act passed in August.

In an attempt to make the overall cost of attending college more affordable, Congressional lawmakers have targeted soaring textbook prices by imposing new requirements on publishers and retail sellers of course materials.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act, which President George Bush signed into law in August, contains specific provisions that aim to decrease the cost of textbooks by requiring greater institutional and publisher transparency in textbook sales.

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Response to E-mail Outage Inadequate, Report Finds

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The University’s response to a massive e-mail outage in June was inadequate and caused significant interruption to the business of the University, according to a report released last month.
The unexpected and widespread e-mail failure prevented some members of the Cornell community from sending or receiving e-mail for as long as five days and caused irreversible damage to about 3,800 email accounts.
The report summarizes the findings of a group of Cornell officials throughout campus who performed an “after action review” of the incident.
Members of the group sharply criticized the manner in which the University communicated with the Cornell community and the public during the outage, calling it ineffective.

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Alumnus Appeals Judge's Decision in Lawsuit Against Cornell

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Published June 30

Kevin Vanginderen ’83, the Cornell alumnus whose $1 million lawsuit against the University for libel was dismissed earlier this month, is seeking to appeal that decision, according to court documents.

Vanginderen, a practicing California lawyer who is representing himself in court, filed a notice of appeal of Southern California District Court Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz’s June 3 ruling in favor of the University.

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Sudden E-mail Outage Affects Cornell Community

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Members of the Cornell community are still facing problems trying to send and receive e-mail as the University continues to combat a widespread, unexpected outage of many of its e-mail servers.

Cornell staff and Sun Microsystems have been working “around the clock” to remedy the situation since the problems first occurred on Sunday at noon, according to Simeon Moss ’73, director of Cornell Press Relations.

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Judge Dismisses Alum's Libel Suit Against University

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On June 3, a federal judge in California dismissed a former student’s $1-million libel suit against the University. By dismissing the case, the court avoided ruling on some of the first amendment issues that the lawsuit had raised.

Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz granted Cornell’s special motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed last October by Kevin Vanginderen ’83, who alleged that a 1983 Cornell Chronicle article describing his involvement with a string of on-campus burglaries was libelous and constituted an illegal public disclosure of private facts.

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Alum Files $10 Mil. Lawsuit Against C.U.

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The alumnus who sued Cornell last year for defamation and libel has filed additional litigation against the University. In a $10 million lawsuit filed April 8, Kevin Vanginderen ’83 alleges that Cornell published libelous information, placed him in a false light, publicly disclosed private facts about him and intruded into his private affairs.
Some of Vanginderen’s latest complaints relate to a 1983 Cornell Chronicle article — digitized and placed online last year by the University — that described his involvement with several thefts on campus. After finding the article online last year through Google, he sued the University for libel and defamation for the first time.

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University Profs Do Not Sign Affordable Textbook Pledge

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To most students, the concept of free textbooks is a distant fantasy.
However, a group of professors representing schools across the country has pledged try to use a cost-cutting — and often times free — alternative when selecting textbooks for courses.
According to The Affordable Textbooks Campaign, 1,000 professors from over 300 colleges states joined the group’s latest initiative last week, declaring their intent to use open textbooks in their classes — instead of traditional, commercial textbooks. While professors at Harvard, Stanford and Yale have signed onto the campaign, no Cornell professors are signatories on the declaration.

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E-mails Target Professor For Showing Tibet Film

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As international attention on the situation between Tibet and China has increased over the past few weeks while China prepares for the Olympics, a Cornell anthropology professor was the subject of personal attacks posted to two University listservs last week in response to a film screening and discussion she organized on “the prospects for peace in Tibet.”
After Prof. Kathryn March, anthropology, began publicizing the event several weeks ago, it immediately provoked a wave of impassioned e-mail responses, most of which criticized the event. A handful of the responses on the listservs were personally directed at March.