Columns

KEMPFF | We’re Not Ivy League Material

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Collapsing pools. Broken and molding locker rooms. A legacy team being pushed from central campus. 

These are just some of the milder complaints raised by Cornell student athletes when asked about their facilities. To many people in athletics, it’s become sort of a sick joke — Cornell continually underfunds its athletic facilities. 

As Cornell announces new ambitious academic buildings, like the multimillion dollar Bowers CIS building, years of pent up frustration builds. Decades of inadequate maintenance and investment has put Cornell years behind its competitors — especially its Ivy League peers. 

The joke has been going on for long enough. It’s time that Cornell invests more seriously in its athletics program.

Columns

FRIEDMAN | Keeping Them Honest

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As Andrew Morse ‘96, a distinguished media executive, wrote in a sentimental 2011 Sun piece, “I still have such great reverence for The Cornell Daily Sun.” 

In an exercise of deep contrast, in November of last year, one Reddit user wrote: “Why do these kids treat every article like a blog post. I’ve never seen a university paper so unprofessional and simply hard to read.” Another wrote in 2018: “In my opinion 90% of the newspaper is irrelevant to every day student life, uninteresting, or intentionally provocative.”

During my time writing for the paper, I have been fortunate to receive favorable reviews from faculty and other University stakeholders. As a reader of the other columns, I have also found a number of columnists discerning and thoughtful.

Columns

MEHLER | Cornell’s Restorative Judicial System

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On Aug. 2, 2022, the newly adopted Cornell Student Code of Conduct replaced the Cornell Campus Code of Conduct, significantly changing Cornell’s judicial system. While an article from The Cornell Daily Sun covered the changes before they actually occurred almost two years ago, there has been little coverage since due to the mostly private nature of student misconduct across campus. There were no articles about students being reprimanded for underage drinking and campus store theft then and there are no articles about it now. But for those who work directly with the new code, and for myself who has worked with both the old and new code, we have seen a dramatic and positive shift in how Cornell handles student misconduct.

I enrolled in ILRLR 4027: Campus Mediation Practicum in fall 2020, the first fully virtual semester and the third year of the CMP program. CMP trains undergraduates, graduate students  and law students to serve as peer mediators in judicial proceedings for students who have committed misconduct. The program has trained over 100 students in its seven-year lifespan and further trained dozens more to serve as mentors and handle more difficult cases in ILRLR 4029: Campus Mediation Practicum II: Advanced Issues in Restorative Justice.

Columns

PAPPAS | Lifting the FeMale Gaze

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I was never so aware of my womanhood (should we call it femininity?) until I came to Cornell. My guy friends remind me that I am a woman when they offer to walk me back home in the dark. This reminder is sort of a friendly one (although the idea that I need protection is not entirely comforting to me — that this protection is available to me, should I want it, is nice). My self-proclaimed feminist friends remind me of my womanhood, too, but they do so largely in a self-victimizing way with which I’m much less comfortable. 

Columns

PLOWE | Human Rights Activism at Cornell: Interview with Suha Khan ’24

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On Saturday, Feb. 11, Cornell students rallied in Washington, D.C. with politicians, community leaders and students from other universities to reiterate the demands of the Uyghur Policy Act and Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act in response to the genocide in China. 

Their stand reflects an important statement of solidarity amongst those who value human rights. The rally had support from The Hong Kong Student Association, Cornell Chinese in Ithaca, Free Tibet, Free Uyghur Now, Athenai Institute, Uyghur Human Rights Association, the Uyghur American Association and others.

I spoke with Suha Khan ’24, a Cornell Interfaith Council leader who drummed up support for the rally. Zoë MeiLing Johnson-Berman ’24, who fostered solidarity amongst organizations through social media networking, also joined us for the conversation. This interview is lightly edited for clarity.

Columns

SENZON | Intergovernmental Bodies in Protecting Human Rights 

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My interest in the law involves the intersection of labor and environmental law focusing on defending the rights of workers exploited by the agricultural system of America. This issue disproportionately impacts undocumented immigrants who don’t have the legal right to unionize given their lack of citizenship. And yet, seventy-three percent of all agricultural workers in the United States belong to immigrant backgrounds, while an estimated three percent of all workers in the U.S. belong to unions in agriculture. In addition to this overwhelmingly large population of agricultural workers that belong to immigrant backgrounds, twenty-eight percent of this workforce is women. This topic of discussion is not directly related to what I will be discussing today, but I figured offering context on my interest in the law might explain my inclination to enroll in a related course at CLS.

Columns

AMPLIFY! | Divestment Isn’t Over

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The divestment campaign began many semesters ago but notably gained momentum starting in the fall of 2019. CJC members reached out to faculty and students from other clubs, gaining support from a wide collection of allies ranging from Mothers Out Front, to Cornell University Sustainable Design, to the Vegan Club. CJC and other clubs held public protests nearly every week during the spring of 2020 until the campus shut down due to COVID-19. The most notable of these was a mock wedding between Cornell and the fossil fuel industry — two puppets modeled after the clocktower and a Monopoly Man-esque fossil fuel executive were paraded around Ho Plaza by students in orange beanies and oil-themed masks. 

Columns

MEHLER | An Athletics Convert

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How many Cornell students played or captained a varsity sport in high school? I could not find any specific data points online but speaking with other students, you almost certainly can find a higher percentage of students that played varsity athletics in high school than the current 8 percent of Cornellians that still do. So what changed from high school to college that resulted in less students playing varsity sports?

Columns

CHASEN | Forgive Your Friends

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But oftentimes, there’s something that gets omitted from the Cornell experience, something that’s more important than all the rest. It’s the people — from the friends you meet during your first week to the longtime Ithaca residents you meet on campus and around town who have seen generations of Cornellians come and go. The people are what make the Cornell experience what it is. 

Why do I bring this up? Because sometimes the people around you will make you question this simple truth. This has been especially true in these last few years, where the pandemic has called into question many of the social customs we had all previously taken for granted.

Columns

CHOUNG | Giving Back

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If you are interested in building specific skills necessary for community engagement with a more traditional method, the Einhorn Center offers courses and engaged research opportunities for students to develop skills and earn certificates in leadership. Community-engaged learning offers a unique opportunity to directly apply the hard and soft skills you learn both inside and outside the classroom to real-world situations. Working collaboratively with community members creates an educational experience that allows both parties to learn from each other.