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AMPLIFY! | People Live Where You Vacation

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Welcome back from break! Whether you stayed in Ithaca or went abroad, I hope you were able to use this time to rest and recharge away from the stress of coursework. 

While we’re all settling back into class-mode, I thought I would take some time to discuss ethical tourism in the context of Puerto Rico — fun, I know. Given how popular of a destination the island was for Cornellians this year (and most of my years at Cornell), and what I’ve noticed to be a widespread unawareness of Puerto Rico’s political, economic and cultural status, I wanted to take some time to reflect on and address the tourism industry in Puerto Rico, and how visitors can behave respectfully and ethically during their time on the island.

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SWASING | Give Me a Break

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In recent years, there has been a push from newer generations of workers for better work-life balance. This was exacerbated by the pandemic, which gave many workers a taste of having more time off and opportunities for remote work. Since then, social media has flooded with content encouraging Gen Z and millennials to reject the 24/7 hustle culture and instead advocate for their own personal time outside of work to be respected. This mindset shift needs to be applied to academics as well. Cornell should protect students’ rights to a real work-life balance rather than maintaining outdated policies that offer little to no protection of students’ personal time during academic breaks.

Columns

BEARD | Heading South: Reflections on the Sunshine State

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Like Canadian geese in the winter, Cornell’s student body shed their thousand dollar Canada Goose jackets and fled south for some vitamin D rehabilitation and much needed rest and relaxation away from prelims, deadlines and CHEM 2090: Engineering General Chemistry. Many decamped to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, California or anywhere that a sunburn would be possible. In a similar vein, my fair skin and I left New York and made for warmer waters in the state of Florida — Tampa specifically. In the space of 10 brief days in the Sunshine State, I saw some things worthy of the famed “Florida Man” headlines, learned a few important life lessons and returned to Ithaca with my skin a few shades redder. 

Our Florida odyssey began as we made our way south on I-75 towards Tampa. When you think of Florida, your mind tends to conjure up images of beaches and sunshine.

Cornell

MEIDENBAUER | The Break Dilemma

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Breaks literally “break” up the natural week-to-week rhythm of the semester. In many ways that’s great, but when it comes to juggling workloads, it creates its own unique challenges that many of us don’t like to acknowledge. As someone that thrives on organization, it’s easy to capitalize on the momentum of a structured schedule week after week. Many of us develop innate rhythms; going to the library every Sunday for example. These rhythms take time and tweaking to develop and are thrown off by the sudden absence of a workload, even if only for a brief time.