Columns

WEIRENS | Pants on the Ground: The Saggy Situation of Women’s Athletic Gear at Cornell

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It all started with a pair of ill-fitting, droopy sweatpants. Saggy in the wrong places, tight in even worse places — they were unwearable. I gave them to a male friend. They fit him perfectly. My teammates and fellow athletes on other women’s varsity teams encountered similar grievances with these sweatpants, because they were not made for women. They were men’s pants. They simply wouldn’t stay on, and even if they did, they looked awful. 

These notorious sweatpants were mass-issued by Cornell Athletics to their athletes earlier this school year. For background, the Cornell Athletics Department issues a multitude of assorted clothing items to their athletes prior to and throughout their seasons.

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

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

BERNSTEIN | The Death of the Athlete

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There comes a time in almost every high school-to college-aged kid’s life where they stop playing organized sports.

For some, it’s a moment of relief. You never really wanted to play soccer anyway, you only really did it because you weren’t half-bad and you knew your teammates and parents would be a little disappointed if you quit. Besides, it looked good on the college app. Maybe you were done after freshman year of high school because you worked up the courage to say no, this isn’t for me. Or maybe you enjoyed your time playing your sport, but you were just ready. It’d been a long season, and it was bittersweet to be done, but it was right.