Community Gathers For Arts Quad Vigil

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At noon on Friday, over 12,000 Cornellians — students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the University — gathered together on the Arts Quad for a vigil to commemorate the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.

This day was established by President George W. Bush to mourn and remember the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th.

Classes between 11:15 a.m. and 1:25 p.m. were canceled and many Cornell employees were excused from their workplaces in order to allow more members of the community to attend the vigil.

The McGraw Tower bells chimed the Star Spangled Banner, and the sun broke through the clouds. Many people huddled together, shivering from the chilly breeze, others stood apart.

The mood among the students was somber, some were wiping away tears, others weeping unabashedly. During the vigil, shouts for an ambulance interrupted the singing and many students jumped to their feet as others ran to help. Although Gannett: Cornell University Health Services will not disclose the individual’s name, Janet Corson-Rikert M.D., Director of Gannett, confirmed that “the individual was treated and released.”

President Hunter R. Rawlings emphasized the support Cornellians have given each other in the past week.

“Cornell is united in its condemnation of terrorism. Cornell is united in sympathy for the innocent victims of violence and hatred,” he declared.

Rawlings posed the question of what Cornellians can do to aid the nation and answered it by stating: “We will do what we do best: educate our students in open classrooms and campus-wide teach-ins; conduct our research and scholarship in open labs and libraries, publish our work in open journals and airways.”

Highlighting Cornell’s role in fighting terrorism, Rawlings proclaimed, “Terrorism is the negation of freedom and responsibility; Cornell is a beacon of freedom and responsibility.”

He also commended the Cornell community for many “random and concerted acts of kindness.”

Prof. Emeritus Walter F. LaFebre, american history, followed Rawlings, advising the listeners of the importance of international awareness and civic responsibility.

“We cannot be both ignorant of other people and remain free; we cannot be intolerant of great cultures and races with which we share a shrinking planet and remain free; and we cannot surrender centuries old constitutional principles … and remain free,” he said.

Reverend Kenneth Clark, Director of Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) invited everyone to join him in a “moment of prayer” and as many listened with heads bowed and hands clasped, he prayed “that from the ashes of these horrible events of Sept. 11 there will emerge a phoenix [of] justice and truth, peace and understanding, respect and acceptance.”

The vigil also included a poetry recitation, African chanting, and performance by the Cornell Chorus and Glee Club.

“It was impressive when everyone was doing the hand thing,” commented Jill Sollenberger ’05 on the hand wave that accompanied the chanting.

Marisa Pilievo, an employee of Cornell Student and Academic Services, who helped along with many others in organizing the vigil commented that it was a “University-wide effort.”

“It worked because so many people pitched in,” she said.

Barbara Jastran, a health educator for Gannett: University Health Services, commended the University for organizing the vigil.

“For many, closure won’t happen forever, or for a very long time. Getting together as a large group may help people express their feelings.”

Lisa Clark, an Human Resources Information Systems & Records Administrator agreed that “everyone needs a connection at a time like this.”

Archived article by Liz Novak

C.U. Celebrates Writing Program

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Thursday evening, Cornell students and faculty gathered for dinner in the Statler Hotel’s Roe Room to celebrate the University’s newest venture into literature; Sophomore Writing Seminars.

The initiative is an extension of the Freshman Writing Seminars, funded by a $5 million grant for endowment awarded to Cornell by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and matching funds from Cornell.

“The initiative’s core purpose is to offer sophomores small classes in gateway courses to the majors on topics with which participating faculty are strongly engaged,” wrote Prof. Jonathan Monroe, comparative literature, and director for the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines, in an e-mail.

Each seminar will hold a maximum of 15 students and will be taught by a tenured professor. The program currently consists of two courses, “Imagining the Holocaust,” and “Dark Matter: Topics in Astronomy and Astrophysics.”

Four courses will be offered in the fall semester, two in History and two in English, one of which, “Poetry and Poetics of Difference,” will be led by Monroe.

“All of [the courses] will involve collaboration across the disciplines focused on questions of ethics,” Monroe said in an e-mail.

Finding a common thread to string together this semester’s courses was a challenge at first. Faculty met over the summer to discuss the aim of each class.

“Our classes are two opposites,” said Prof. Martha Haynes, astronomy. “Fortunately, we are willing to explore.”

According to Prof. Stephen Donatelli, comparative literature, and new coordinator of Sophomore Seminars, the atomic bomb exists as a connection point for both classes, and could serve as a point of future discussion.

The classes will continue to meet and mingle, if not on a regular basis, at least at the beginning of each semester. The dinner provided an intimate atmosphere for the students to talk with their professors, which is in conjunction with one of the programs main objectives: is to aid sophomores in meeting professors.

“There has been a high amount of satisfaction with the Freshman Writing Seminars because they are small,” said Monroe. “There is a drop in satisfaction in sophomore year because students don’t have these smaller classes. The Knight Institute wanted to provide sophomores with smaller classes.”

Each class discusses their respective topic, with an ear to the common theme of ethics. According to Prof. Daniel Schwarz, English, and leader of the Holocaust class, his students will be reading a number of literary works, progressing from diaries and memoirs to fictional accounts of the Holocaust, to realistic novels and finally allegorical texts.

“We will be engaging ethical issues such as how should one behave? At what point is one reduced to survival of the fittest? When is it alright to take vengeance on the perpetrator?” said Schwarz. “We will also be looking at the literary works as a texts to see how they affect and shape us, and how approaches to the Holocaust have changed over the years.”

Haynes’ astronomy class, though new to the Knight Program, is not a new course. In fact, Haynes’ has taught this class in conjunction with her husband, Prof. Riccardo Giovanelli, for 12 years.

“We did not change the structure of the course to accommodate the program,” said Haynes. “We focus on a topic of current interest in astronomy that we don’t know the answer to.”

Haynes insists that physical scientists have to know how to write, and the course does not ask the students to write anything that has not been asked of a physical scientist in the past.

Within the next few years the Knight program will continue to expand. After the fall semester’s four Sophomore Seminars, ten seminars will be offered in the 2002-2003 term, 15 in the 2003-2004 term and by the year 2006, 30 Sophomore Seminars will be open to students. The grant from the Knight Institute will pay for 13 seminars and Cornell will provide funding for the remaining 17 seminars.

As an appropriate ending to the evening, coffee and cake was served. The students quieted their chatting and the professors addressed the gathering with a few words on their class. Schwarz concluded his speech with a quote from “The Cure at Troy,” Seamus Heaney’s retelling of Sophocles’ “Philocetes:”

“Human beings torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard.

History says, Don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme.”

“History can speak,” said Schwarz.

“We are exploring something very important that may be a revolution in cosmology in the 21st century,” said Haynes.

Reaching across academic borderlines is no easy feat. The Sophomore Seminar program has provided Cornell with a vital new arm with which to reach across the disciplines, provide sophomores with a different kind of class, and give all a chance to examine this question of ethics and dig a little deeper.

Archived article by Rachel Einschlag

University Cancels All Weekend Sports

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Yesterday morning, about 48 hours after the tragic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the university decided to cancel all of this weekend’s athletic schedule.

The decision — the result of lengthy discussions between President Hunter R. Rawlings III, Athletic Director Andy Noel and Vice President of Academic and Student Services Susan Murphy — affects football, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross-country, volleyball, field hockey, women’s tennis and golf.

“We are canceling all sports events Friday to Sunday,” Rawlings said. “All intercollegiate sporting events have been canceled, both home and away.”

“It just seemed obvious to not concentrate on intercollegiate athletics,” Noel said, adding that it is now more important to “reflect on the tragedy and focus on family and friends.”

“Given the scope of this tragedy, I believe it is appropriate to cancel our entire competitive calendar this weekend,” added Associate Director of Athletics, Bob Chaddock.

The announcement comes as no surprise, considering several other universities, including Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn and Harvard in the Ivy League have taken similar measures. However both Rawlings and Noel were quick to stress that Cornell’s decision was undertaken independently, unaffected by the choices of other schools.

“I’ve been on the phone — since I’m the chair of the Ivy League — and different universities have taken different positions,” Rawlings explained. “Some have canceled everything, others are deciding on a case by case basis. There was not an Ivy Group decision.”

“The Ivy League has dealt with important issues on an institutional basis,” Noel concurred. “The general feeling is that every university has to reflect on the situation and make its own decision.”

As a result of the Ivy League’s position, schools have pursued very different policies. Yale, for example, chose to postpone all events through the weekend as early as Wednesday; Dartmouth, on the other hand, permitted a volleyball match to take place the same day. (Since, it has also canceled all events through the weekend.)

“We respected the administrations at Yale and Dartmouth very much,” said Noel, “but we knew we had to decide for ourselves.”

The decision has been brewing since a few hours after the attacks.

“Discussion started as soon as the events began to sink in,” Noel recalled. “For many, many hours, we were in disbelief as to what happened.”

Though events have been canceled, no such decision has been taken for practice schedules.

“[The approach to] practices are the same as holding classes,” Rawlings said. “It’s healthy to have them. Otherwise life becomes abnormal.

“You need to concentrate on what you’re doing. Getting together in groups is very positive…especially in settings that you’re familiar with.”

As of now, no rescheduling plans have been set. Some events, including the football game against Bucknell will likely be canceled all together.

Archived article by Shiva Nagaraj

Coaches, athletes react to administration's decision to cancel sporting events

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After almost two days of deliberation, it appears that the administration’s decision to suspend athletic competition through Sunday has been met with unanimous support among the Cornell athletic community.

The verdict meant that the women’s soccer team would not be making its scheduled trip to the Hawaii Invitational this weekend. That outcome brought about no resistance from the players.

Junior Caitlin Ramsey suggested that plans to travel by air to Hawaii would have been a logistical nightmare.

“With teams traveling and airports being closed, it could definitely be a problem,” Ramsey explained.

The defender said that the team still had lingering anxieties about taking to the air in wake of Tuesday’s tragedy.

“Most of the team was in support of the decision. Everyone was still a little nervous,” the junior stated.

Although many universities and professional leagues began making alterations to their schedules as early as Tuesday, Cornell’s conclusion was not reached until yesterday morning.

The delay didn’t seem to be a source of concern for those affected by the decision.

Classmate and teammate Erica Olson exemplified such sentiments.

“Cornell made the right decision. It doesn’t matter when they did it. It is just the fact that they did do it,” she reasoned.

Olson is also a resolute supporter of the administration’s decision. She cited the needed for members of the community to take time to consider what happened earlier in the week.

“This whole country needs time to reflect on what happened. Indirectly, everyone knows someone who was affected. Spirits on the field during practice were definitely lower than usual,” she said.

Coaches also seemed content with the universities decision.

“I like the fact that it’s an independent decision as opposed to being a dictatorial thing coming from the NCAA or the conference. I’m confident that it was not a decision reached cavalierly,” women’s cross-country head coach Lou Duesing opined.

Duesing said that he would have understood if the verdict went the other way but affirmed the players’ feelings that Cornell acted in an appropriate time frame.

“I never thought people were dragging their feet [on this decision],” Duesing offered.

Colleague and men’s soccer head coach Bryan Scales suggested that after evaluating the circumstances, the decision became somewhat inevitable.

“The more you realize the scope and the gravity [of the tragedy], nobody would have been too excited to be on the field,” the coach argued.

Senior Halle Watson of the women’s cross country team said she respected the university’s position but felt it was important to focus on remembering the horrors while moving forward.

“I’m really disappointed [about not being able to compete]. But I understand why they did it,” she said. “We want to keep the schedule as normal as possible. We just need to focus on the task at hand. We need to go on.”

While the rest of campus is coping through the tragedy through vigils and support groups, the athletes have their own form of therapy: practices.

“[At Tuesday’s practice] we got together and talked for a while,” said the women’s soccer team’s Sarah Olsen. “It’s our time to get away from everything else.”

Archived article by Gary Schueller

University-Wide Memorial

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In response to President George W. Bush’s decree that today be a national day of prayer and remembrance for the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, University President Hunter R. Rawlings III has canceled all Friday classes falling between the hours of 11:15 a.m. and 1:25 p.m.

A University-wide memorial convocation will be held today on the Arts Quad instead, as part of Bush’s request that Americans mark the national tragedy with “a noontime service, the ringing of bells at that hour and evening candlelight remembrance vigils.”

The memorial will be part of the University’s ongoing efforts to provide support to the community in the wake of the attacks on the two World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. The administration had invited Cornellians via a campus-wide e-mail to join a candlelight vigil on Tuesday “to mourn the loss of life and injuries that have occurred in [the] tragedies and to provide each other with mutual support.”

The vigil was followed by a non-denominational service Wednesday night, where various campus religious groups, administrators and members of the faculty and staff came together to reflect on the week’s events in a religious setting.

“It was symbolically important to have individuals from different religious groups speaking

S.A. Allocates Relief Funds

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In response to Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington D.C. and the plane crash in Pennsylvania, the Student Assembly (S.A.) passed three resolutions last night condemning the tragedy and offering sympathy to the Cornell community.

Resolution 4 includes statements condemning the terrorists attacks and expresses sympathy for those Cornellians who were deeply affected by Tuesday’s events. The document also praises the relief workers and officials’ efforts.

“We did this for the future, so that if people look back, they can see that we made a response,” S.A. President Uzo Asonye ’02 said. “This resolution is modeled after the one passed by Congress yesterday [Wednesday] with insertions for the Cornell community,” he added.

The resolution, which Asonye and S.A. Executive Vice President Mark Greenbaum ’02 drafted, expresses the Assembly’s encouragement for unity and coping. The document also stresses the need for blood donation and understanding.

Several S.A. members expressed their support for the resolution.

“I recognize that we refrain from making comments on issues like this, but [the resolution] good,” Joshua Roth ’03 said.

S.A. members unanimously voted for an amendment to Resolution 4, urging the administration to set aside a day for reflection once the full extent of the destruction is known.

Asonye said that several professors were in favor of a day of reflection.

“I see anger among my friends for the tragedy,” Lindsay Patross ’02 said. “I don’t think that everyone fully realizes the impact of this tragedy. We should take a day to reflect, to mourn the tragedy.”

There were also concerns that professors weren’t using class time to effectively discuss the impact of the tragedy on students.

To help students financially hurt by the attacks, the S.A. established the Students Helping Students (SHS) fund in Resolution 5.

All students can petition for emergency grants during this school year due to financial difficulties incurred from the terrorist attacks. The S.A. allocated $45,000 towards the fund. Members also set aside $500 to advertise the grants to the students. Asonye sent an e-mail to University officials asking them to mention the fund in any future university-wide e-mails.

The SHS fund was established through money obtained from the student activity fee and will be administered through the Financial Aid Office. Students apply for the grants and the Joint Assemblies Financial Aid Review Committee is required to respond to each request within 24 hours of receiving it.

“This [emergency fund] is meant for a strategy when you need to get home but can’t afford it, or you need to send something home,” Asonye said.

Michael Moschella ’02, vice president of finance, also commented on the matter.

“It’s part of the package of being responsible to the community,” he said. “It’s great that we can do this to help people.”

One audience member questioned the anonymity of students petitioning for aid.

“People may not want to reveal the severity of their problems, so how can they do this?” Khary Barnes ’02, student-elected trustee, asked.

Applications for the SHS fund are confidential. The only people who see the recipients’ names are officials in the Financial Aid Office.

The S.A. finished their responses to the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon as well as the plane crash in Pennsylvania with resolution 6, urging the Cornell community to unite and calmly discuss their feelings in a respectful manner.

“I’ve seen a number of students who have been threatened, perhaps by the country they come from, perhaps by their religion,” Dean of Students Kent Hubbell ’69 said. “There have been some uncharitable e-mails and messages left on answering machines. The Cornell Police has been on the look-out.”

Patross commented on the harassment.

“Any form of harassment is unacceptable,” she said.

The S.A. responded by adding an amendment condemning intolerance on campus, and encouraged the construction of a memorial at Cornell in memory of the victims of the attacks.

Resolution 6 was also co-signed by Rebecca A Abou-Chedid ’02, member of the International Students Programming Board and Daniel M. Kasell ’02, president of the Cornell Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Asonye praised the two’s signature of the resolution.

“It shows a lot,” he said.

Archived article by Kelly Samuels

C.U. Celebrates Native America

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Last week, a year-long, cross-departmental series of events celebrating the Native American identity opened with a ceremony on Ho Plaza.

The goals of “Indians’ Indians: (Re)Presentation of Native American People in the Arts” are to provide “a year-long examination of Indian identity through the creative and performing arts,” and “explore through events and symposia the contemporary representation of Native American culture,” according to the program’s web site.

These events are sponsored by several departments and organizations on campus.

According to Raeann Skenandore, associate director of student services and operations for the American Indian program, the underlying ideas of the events are to “showcase

North Wing of MVR Condemned

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When College of Human Ecology students returned from their summer respite, they may have been surprised to find that the college had been thrown into disarray while they were gone.

The confusion began after Patsy M. Brannon, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of the College of Human Ecology, announced on July 10 that all occupants of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall’s (MVR) north wing would have to be relocated to temporary offices due to the building’s structural problems.

The north wing of MVR, which was built in 1966, was closed indefinitely after experts found that the floor slabs did not meet current State Building Code for load capacity.

Facilities personnel noticed the irregularities in the floor several months ago while the college was undertaking a renovation project that included the removal of deteriorated carpet.

“It was a shock,” Brannon said. “The students are largely unaware that the building has been closed and of the turmoil that’s gone on.”

Current events may have affected the rebuilding process.

“The MVR building is pressing hard on the University. The new tragedy [in New York City] will make other things the highest priority. New York [State] can’t agree on a budget, [so the] project has to wait,” said President Hunter R. Rawlings III.

Since the announcement, 207 members of the human ecology college’s faculty and staff have been relocated to the Old Mann building, formerly called Mann Library.

Offices now located in the Old Mann building include the Family Life Development Center, the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, the Professors Emeriti, Policy Analysis and Management (PAM) and Human Development (HD) graduate students, the Cornell Cooperative Extension 4H/Youth Development and Technology Services and the Media and Technology Services Web and Video Production Groups. The Cornell Information Technology computer lab is now in the former Stone computer lab and the Student Commons is in the foyer of the Old Mann building.

“This was a complicated, frustrating and chaotic time for all of us,” Brannon said in an e-mail to the college’s faculty, staff and graduate students in August. “One of our goals is to keep departments and units together to maintain their integrity.”

The emergency move has impeded an estimated 6.5 million dollars worth of research, according to Brannon, who hopes to know the future of the north wing within a few months.

“[We have to decide] whether the building should be knocked down or reinforced,” Rawlings said.

After the official announcement, the human ecology college’s faculty and staff had three days to evacuate the north wing of MVR.

“It’s been very disruptive,” said Donna Dempster-McClain, associate director of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, which has moved to the Old Mann building.

Dempster-McClain said that the administration handled the situation as well as possible, given the circumstances.

“It was difficult to coordinate the types of things that needed to happen in [the Old Mann building],” she said, explaining that individuals relocated a week-and-a-half before several rooms were outfitted for internet and telephones. “The timing of events was unavoidable. The order of activities, because everything happened so quickly, was understandably not in the proper sequence. It prolonged the agony.”

According to Dempster-McClain, the worst consequence of the move is that the relocated offices are isolated from the rest of the college.

“Faculty and students don’t stop by anymore,” she said. “It’s off the beaten path.”

As distressing as the situation has been, Brannon said that the faculty, staff and students have maintained a sense of humor throughout the ordeal.

“We’re trying to do this with an eye towards humor,” she explained.

According to Brannon, the college held a ribbon-tying ceremony to celebrate the evacuation, during which they played Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.” In addition, the Cornell Dairy Bar created a new ice cream flavor called “MVR Crunch” to commemorate the move.

“It was a hoot,” Brannon said in reference to the ribbon-tying ceremony. She added that the new ice cream flavor, which is a light mocha ice cream with crushed heath pieces, “is very good.”

The wing closure and subsequent relocation process have impacted many human ecology college students.

“A friend notified me about [the closure] this summer,” said Nava Silton ’03. “[MVR is] not as homey as it used to be. It’s sad. I love MVR.”

Since only three classrooms remain in use in MVR, some students have experienced disturbances in their schedules.

“I feel like half of my college is gone. The atmosphere has changed totally,” said Johann Chau ’02. He added that there was chaos and confusion in the beginning of the semester because students did not know where to find their professors.

However, some students remain largely unaffected by the closure of the north wing.

“I thought my classes would be all over campus, but they are all still in MVR,” said one human ecology college student. “I think [the relocation] has affected professors mostly, because they had to move their offices.”

The human ecology college has obtained permission from Provost Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin to occupy the Old Mann building for the next 18 months. The relocation has caused the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to postpone plans to renovate the building, originally scheduled for summer of 2002, until the summer of 2003.

However, Peter Schrempf, administrative manager of Mann Library, said that he is pleased to accommodate the human ecology college.

“I’m being as helpful as I can be,” he said. “Mann is pleased with the support we’ve received from Hum Ec, the University and the [State University Construction Fund]

Comfort Women Exhibit Returns

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During a week of tragedy, the Korean Students Association and the Coalition for Comfort Women Issues (CCW) once again invite the Cornell community to remember onto the tragedies of the past at a photo exhibition held at the Willard Straight Hall Art Gallery. The exhibition is open until tomorrow.

The exhibit, “Comfort Women: Suffering and Dignity in Asia during World War II,” features the photos of Korean-American photographer Yunghi Kim and a copy of the first English-language book, Comfort Women Speak, that chronicles some women’s experiences in their own words. Along with these, the presentation includes original artwork from surviving women.

This exhibit, which had already visited the campus in March 2001, follows organizers’ plans to invite a comfort station survivor to speak at Cornell Nov. 5 at the Statler Auditorium.

Mark Hwang ’02 is one of many organizers from the CCW who feel that learning about this issue now can help prevent injustice in the future.

“The issue of the Comfort Women is also a story filled with courage and dignity of extraordinary women who, albeit advanced in age, decided to come forth and demand for justice. These women truly deserve stage on our campus for what they’re doing. They’re doing it for our generation, so that we will never fall victim to another such tragedy,” Hwang said.

Although these events occurred decades ago, it is only until now that the CCW is bringing these women’s stories to universities, such as Cornell and Georgetown University, and public arenas across the country, among them the Philadelphia Free Library,

“Basically we want to inform people,” said Erin Chu ’03, of the Korean Student Association’s political committee. “[We want] people to connect with the Comfort Women.”

Chu hopes that through this exhibit, more members of the Cornell community can connect with the atrocities of the past and connect with the now much older victims.

To connect with the Comfort Women’s story is to connect with a tragic history of sexual enslavement and secrecy during World War II.

Historically called the “Comfort Women,” they are a group of approximately 200,000 women of Korean, Chinese and other Asian decent who were forced into sexual slavery at the hand of the Japanese Imperial Military from 1932 until the end of World War II.

They lived in “comfort stations” which lined East Asia. Many of these women were only teenage girls when the military undertook this then-legal practice, bringing women to camps where they were often raped and tortured.

Through this exhibit, the sponsor organizations stated that they do not want to blame Japan for its actions nor were they against any Japanese person now, however they want to honor the women who died at the hands of the Japanese and acknowledge to the world that this ordeal even occurred.

The Japanese government did not officially offer an apology or reparations to the Comfort Women until 1995.

“It is our intent to commemorate the lives of all ‘comfort women’ of World War II and express our respect for the dignity and honor for women who were murdered as sexual slaves and for those who survived sexual slavery during the war,” said by the Coordinating Committee for the CCW in their letter to members of the Cornell community which was available to visitors at the exhibit.

Given the subject matter, visitor response ranged from “shock” to “anger” as they read and listened to the stories of the surviving women.

Monica Jeong ’02, a student of Korean decent, found that she was angered upon learning the horrendous stories of the victims. She agreed that the focus of the exhibit is not to blame but to celebrate.

“It’s sad to see, if you think about that part of history,” Jeong said. “They don’t even attempt to address it. It’s a really big issue.”

Jeong noted the apparent refusal of the Japanese government to acknowledge the issue as the topic is often absent in Japanese textbooks.

She also considered the exhibit a reminder of the pain that the women of her country had to endure.

“Those people [in the photos] looked like my own grandmother. I’m probably going to look like that [when I grow older],” she added.

The exhibit will travel to Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University later this year.

Archived article by Carlos Perkins

Arab Students Find Peace, Anger at C.U.

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Across the nation there have been reports of attacks against people of Arab origin, evidence of misled acts of revenge against civilians without actual ties to the terrorist groups that may have perpetrated the World Trade Center tragedies.

At Cornell, some Muslim and Arab students do not fear actual violence as part of a possible backlash to Tuesday’s terrorist acts, according to the president of Cornell’s Muslim Educational and Cultural Association (MECA).

“I don’t think it’s possible at Cornell, where everyone is highly educated,” said Khaled Al-Banaa, regarding the possibility of reprisals and threats on campus.

The reaction from some students, however, was seemingly hostile.

“I could feel the anger in their eyes,” Al-Banaa said, recalling the looks he received while he was listening to the radio at Trillium.

Other Muslim students complained about receiving “funny looks” and worried about the incidents that have already occurred around the country.

Concerns have been voiced about misrepresentation in the media and misunderstanding among peers. In fact, several students refused to be interviewed for this story for fear of being typecast and possibly threatened.

“People should realize that Osama bin Laden does not represent the Arab community,” said Junaid Ahmed ’02, a member of the Pakistani Student Association.

“The media should also not jump to any conclusions until the government finds concrete evidence on the crimes,” Ahmed said.

In a previously published statement to The Sun, the Arab Club and MECA wrote, “Contrary to common stereotypes, Islam demands tolerance, kindness and respect of all people.”

Arab students feel they share equally in the collective grief of all Americans.

“We are part of the Cornell community and we are struggling [just like] everyone else,” said Al-Banaa.

The University is prepared for the possibility of any range of demonstrations on campus.

“The University has asked students in President [Hunter R.] Rawling’s address not to be fast to judge because of perceived religion and national origins,” said Robert Harris, vice provost of diversity and faculty development.

In his speech at Tuesday’s vigil, Rawlings advised members of the Cornell community to make “no premature judgments about the perpetrators of these acts.”

According to Harris, “[Director of the International Students and Scholars Office] Brendan O’Brien has contacted students to inform them of the University’s concern for their welfare and to let them know the University will do everything to protect them.”

Archived article by Liz Novak