The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/sas432cornell-edu/)
The analogies in the news media and popular culture since October 2008 have been hard to miss. The housing bust is being termed the worst since 1929. The University freshmen reading project this summer was The Grapes of Wrath. And if the parallels were not self-evident already, the current economy is referred to as the Great Recession.
Ronald Ehrenberg, the Irving M. Ives Professor of industrial and labor relations and economics and member of the Cornell Board of Trustees, was nominated in May by Gov. David Paterson to serve on the Board of Trustees for the State University of New York (SUNY) school system.
Ehrenberg, a long-time professor at Cornell and author of the book Tuition Rising, which discusses the rapidly increasing price of tuition at many of America’s colleges, was nominated for the position because of his expertise on “public higher education.” Additionally, “both my wife and I, and lots of my relatives, are graduates of SUNY so I have a concern for the institution which is very, very deep,” Ehrenberg said.
Correction Appended
Potentially 50 percent of the United States’ population could be infected by the H1NI virus, commonly known as swine flu, according to a report that the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology released on Monday. In light of the global threat of swine flu, colleges and universities across the nation are gearing up for what could be a serious interruption of typical campus activity.
Mississippi State University has 250 likely cases of the H1N1 virus, according to Fox News. Combined with similar reports from other colleges, many universities have felt the need to prepare because of the way H1N1 differs from the typical seasonal flu.
“Welcome to College,” read the sign hanging outside of a second floor balcony Saturday afternoon, surrounded by students drinking and reveling in the afternoon sunshine. In it’s simplicity and bluntness, the sign represented what were on the minds of most on and around Cornell’s campus: the start of another year.
From the frantic unpacking and tearful goodbyes taking place on North Campus to the debauchery at dozens of crowded Collegetown houses, the widely-revered tradition of Cornell Orientation was highly visible to passersby this weekend.
One of the main challenges for each Orientation Steering Committee is putting a new spin on the annual event.
According to Jack Cao ’10, one of the members on the OSC, this year the committee is trying to give the orientation theme a more prominent role than previous years’ themes.
“What makes 2009 unique is the emphasis on integration,” Cao said. “The theme of technology is meant as a metaphor for the OSC’s attempt to get the new freshmen integrated and connected to Cornell.”
After a professorship of 20 years at the University of California-Los Angeles, Dagmar Richter, a globally renown architect, has been announced as the new chair of the Department of Architecture in the University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. Richter will officially replace interim chair Mark Cruvellier on July 1 and Cruvellier will remain in the college as a professor.
Richter was educated in Europe at the University of Stuttgart and the Royal Art Academy in Copenhagen and has taught both in America and in Europe at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, Columbia University and the Art Academy in Berlin and in Stuttgart.
In order to welcome the newly selected members and bid farewell to the departing seniors, the chimesmasters held their annual special concert during finals week followed by a dinner on Monday. While maintaining traditions, the concert and dinner provided a new service as they were sponsored by a Cornell alumnus in the honor of his friend and fellow Cornell alumnus who died last August.
Edward Trethaway ’49 was looking to pay tribute to his late friend Reed McJunkin ’32 since his death on Aug. 10, 2008 — just under two months shy of his 100th birthday.
“I thought it would be fitting to do something … for Reed McJunkin,” Trethaway said.
As fences were being put up, the stage was being constructed and students were finalizing social plans, the University advised students yesterday to take caution with their Slope Day celebrations in light of the recent nationwide swine flu threat.
With 91 cases of confirmed swine flu in the United States, including possible cases in central New York, the University is trying to ensure that the necessary health precautions will be taken by students on Slope Day when masses of students are set to congregate and potentially spread illnesses.
Not only do school districts issue report cards to their students, but they also receive report cards of their own, issued by the state, reporting their students’ progress.
State report cards made public on Wednesday revealed that five of six Tompkins County school districts failed to meet the required yearly targets for students with disabilities, according to The Ithaca Journal. The only district that passed was Trumansburg Central School District.
All six districts achieved their targets for every other category including elementary/middle and secondary levels; black, white, Latino and Asian ethnic groups; and economically disadvantaged groups.
The $170 million donation that Sanford Weill ’55 advanced to the University ahead of schedule in January is more valuable than its monetary worth alone, college officials say.
“We needed it as an inspiration … for others to come forward … with a gift,” said Stephen Cohen, associate provost and executive vice dean for administration and finance at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Around $135 million of the total donation will be used to fund the construction of a new 480,000 square foot medical research center in New York City, while the remainder will be put towards programming in Weill Hall, the new life sciences building on the Ithaca campus.