Columns

SWASING | The Novelty of Reading for Pleasure

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When I’m asked about my hobbies, I often respond that I enjoy reading (which is true, for the record). Then when the inevitable question, “What’s the last good book you read?” follows, my mind goes blank; the titles of every book I’ve ever read disappear into thin air. It disappoints me that the last time I had time to read a good book was so long ago that I can’t even remember what book it was. My pile of “to be read” books grows larger by the day, while my “finished reading” list remains stagnant. 

Reading for pleasure while in college is a topic that has been discussed again, and again and again by Sun columnists. As students pursuing a vast array of academically intense interests, many of us find that we spend so much time on reading assignments and other mentally taxing work that by the time we get a chance to relax, reading for fun sounds like a hill we can’t even begin to climb. Instead, we opt for a mind-numbing Netflix show that we can watch passively while we disengage our brains and scroll through social media.

Columns

SPARACIO | Free Speech At Cornell: A Virtuous Theme for the Year   

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In American life, it seems that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction: intellectualism and rising anti-intellectualism, eight years of Barack Obama and the election of Donald Trump, large advances in civil rights and the retraction of those rights (e.g., Dobbs v. Jackson). But no neat system of binaries would stand without eventual collapse when faced with a topic like free speech. Society shifts with the demarcations of history and our current reality is the result of many interconnected political and sociocultural factors. 

People coming from nearly all positions of the political spectrum can seem to become exercised over free speech issues. Within the past year, the following types of incidents have thus occurred: the heckling of conservative speakers, debates over trigger warnings, debates over course content (and the expanding canon), student discomfort with specific topics, self-censorship, cancel culture and what some decry as a lack of viewpoint diversity on campuses. Considering that any situation that involves free speech is highly specific, each incident has a unique context and is a unique combination of the phenomena listed above.

Columns

WEIRENS | Just Peachy: What Cornell Can Learn From Their Orchards

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I dragged the cutters behind me, leaving behind a small divot in the dirt. Despite a lifetime of weightlifting, these were far too heavy for me to hoist with ease. “Aren’t these what criminals use to steal bikes,” I wheezed to Aleks, my fellow intern. She shrugged, pulling a cart weighed down with rusty metal stakes. It was a beautiful, sunny, 95 degree day and we were in the vineyard. Our task for the day? Remove hundreds of heavy metal stakes, each driven through the center of an individual grape plant. A tragic minority of the stakes could be pulled out with our hands, while the rest had to be chopped at the root with iron bike lock cutters.

Columns

KOH | Meet the McGraws: A Sorry Excuse for Housing 

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A little past West Campus, a dark winding road shrouded in overgrown trees leads to three old brick houses: 109, 118 and 122 McGraw Place. To get there, students must venture through a series of fraternity houses by day, and total darkness by night — save for the mere two to three street lamps flickering along the sidewalk. Upon arrival, a cockroach might scuttle from behind the radiator, and what was intended to be a hot shower before bed can end as a frigid flood in the bathroom.

Welcome to Southwest Campus, the forgotten nook of old frat-houses turned dorms.

Southwest Campus is also home to two program houses: Veteran’s House and the Equity & Engagement Community, which students can apply to live in for a unique co-ed and communal living experience. The McGraw houses, however, are a different story; they should no longer be options for housing due to Cornell Housing’s poor maintenance and lack of concern for the residents.

Columns

SENZON | Reigniting My Passion for Learning in a New Season

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I spent eight weeks of my summer in Buffalo, NY as a High Road fellow working for a non-profit known as Partnership for the Public Good that focuses on improving its communities through three main pillars: research on democratic organzations nationally, evaluating the efficacy of experimental models of the law and civic engagement writ large. This was my first experience working a 9 to 5 while commuting and working in a physical office space — it was all new to me. Previous internships I’d held used hybrid structures or were exclusively remote, so this took significant adjustment.

Everyday was a challenge in an unfamiliar city where I was learning to live on my own outside of my usual college campus environment; I had to learn to make compromises and clearly communicate with roommates on setting boundaries. Cooking for myself and making sure I was well-fed was a behemoth of its own, but I found a new passion for culinology that I didn’t know lived inside of me.

Columns

ROJAS | You’re Never Behind: Redefining “Health Leaves”

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Content warning: this piece contains discussion of suicidal ideation, depression and other mental health conditions.

Writing this column from my Cornell dorm, I feel a sense of giddy. I’m realizing how far I’ve come. I’m back on campus and it feels like home; I want to share my takeaways from my health leave before I take a break from auto-biographical columns for the time being (I’ve been documenting my journey via my columns regarding my severe depression and suicidal ideation since last school year). I’m fully aware that I sound like a child excitedly presenting their favorite toy to their first grade class, but it comes from a genuine place.

Columns

SCHECHTER | Tough Love

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The three best speeches I’ve ever heard have been given by presidents: former President George W. Bush’s 2021 address at SMU; former President Barack Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention; and Martha Pollack’s 2023 convocation address.

I have seen twelve-years’ worth of boys-schools’ convocations, which left me with limited expectations on the Sunday after O-Week. As President Pollack began her speech, though, comfortable behind her wooden Cornell University podium, I knew she was confident in her message. As her speech unfolded, I felt myself filled with hope. Hope for my future here. Hope for my classmates’ futures. Hope for the future of the school. And hope in knowing through all of Cornell’s rigid toughness, my classmates and I will make it through.