Your search for Mehler returned 61 results

Columns

MEHLER | Budget as a Moral Statement

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Every October, the Ithaca Common Council dives into its budget process and decides our tax rates, which departments receive funding, the allocation of federal money and more. My role as a city councilman representing Collegetown and West Campus allows me to directly contribute and vote in the budget. But the influence constituents and students have on the budget cannot be understated. As the process is only halfway through, I encourage all Cornellians to take a look, form an opinion and tell the city what you want to see.

Columns

MEHLER | The Art of Fall Breaking

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This break is an opportunity to reset your body’s rest clock and finish the second half of the semester even stronger than the first. I cannot say enough that you must take the time to relieve some of the stress going on in your life. The most productive stage of performance is in a tolerable stress range: too much or too little stress leads us to be too comfortable or not comfortable enough to perform well. But breaks do not require us to be at performance stress levels. Breathe, rest and recuperate to come back better.

Columns

MEHLER | Reflecting on Checkboxes

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I encourage all of you to reflect upon the checkboxes in your Cornell career. Which ones do you need to do before it gets cold? What class do you need to take to get that extra minor? What part of Cornell do you want to remember after we have graduated and look fondly upon our time at Cornell?

Astronomy

MEHLER | More Space for Space and Seeing the Seas

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As we prepare for the start of the semester, my sophomore brother is going to take BIOEE 1540: Introductory Oceanography taught by Professor Bruce Monger, earth and atmospheric science. I took the course my sophomore year as well, right in the middle of the pandemic where the course was fully virtual. Ask any Cornellian who has taken the course and hundreds if not thousands of them, including myself, will tell you how amazing the content, professor and impact of the course is. Over a thousand students each semester take oceanography for a reason, and the course remains as spectacular now as it did when it started years ago. 

Similarly, hundreds of students take ASTRO 1101: From New Worlds to Black Holes every semester; Bill Nye ‘73 even comes back every year to check in on the class. Similar to oceanography, this introductory astronomy course inspires students to do more than look up at the stars but understand what lies amongst them as well.

Columns

MEHLER | The Importance of Fine Art in the Dormitory Experience

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As Cornell now requires sophomores to live in on-campus housing, more students will spend their second year at Cornell in the West Campus houses, the new dorms within the North Campus Residential Expansion and in the heart of Collegetown in South Campus. While many may lament forgoing off-campus and being forced into dorms, there remains plenty of opportunity to personalize the Cornellian living space. By no means am I encouraging students to violate Cornell’s housing policies regarding tapestries, flags and anything else that may violate fire code. However, creativity finds its home in constrained spaces with limited coverage of common rooms and bedrooms permitted. I wish to share just some of the fine art that composed my friends’ and my Hans Bethe dorm for our sophomore and junior years.

Columns

MEHLER | The Case for Moving New York State Primaries

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New York State currently holds its primaries on the last Tuesday of June. I believe moving the primary date would facilitate more civic participation among all age groups, demographics and New Yorkers. New York State will be hosting its primary this year on June 28, 2022. While the primary has been held on the last Tuesday of June for decades, recent internal and external factors present a strong argument for moving our primaries earlier into the year. 

The deadline of a general election happening anywhere between Nov. 2 to Nov.

Columns

MEHLER | Student Tenants’ Rights Shifting in Your Favor

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After legislation passed the Ithaca Common Council on April 6, students’ renting rights are changing in their favor.  Take advantage of a rare opportunity to improve your off-campus living situation.  After joining the Ithaca Common Council in October 2021, I spent hundreds of hours talking with thousands of students, homeowners and longtime renters in Collegetown. Across a multitude of issues that constituents shared, housing repeatedly came up again and again. The issue of urban housing has more complexities than can be explained in a few hundred words or solved in a few years by a few elected officials. But I believe that the role of public officials is to listen to our constituents’ needs and find creative ways to make life better.

161 things

MEHLER | We’ll Get Together in Comstock Hall

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The “161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do” may not be the most realistic, but here’s a new bucket list to complete before graduation. Sitting outside of Ives Hall, I witnessed some of Cornell’s return to normalcy with a campus tour of prospective students walking by. The inaccuracies of the tour aside (for which AMST 2001: The First American University is an excellent source of Cornell truths), I listened to the tour guide give a brief view into each college within the University. After wrapping up the discussion of my home, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the tour guide stopped to ask her visitors: “Has anyone seen The Office?” I put aside my own quarrels with Cornell’s reputation being tied to a fictional television show rather than our outstanding campus, alumni and more while I waited to hear the tour guide connect the television show with the realities of being a Cornellian. Quoting directly from the show, the tour guide noted how one of the characters in The Office says, “We’ll get together in Comstock Hall,” before pointing to Comstock directly across from Ives and Barton.