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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 132, No. 77
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016
!
ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Rebuild and Remodel
Apocalyptic Applause
Stroke of Genius
Rain HIGH: 56º LOW: 38º
The Board of Trustees approves a plan to expand housing for graduate and professional students. | Page 3
Brynn Richter ’19 praises the You, Me, and the Apocalypse for its quirky take on a common theme. | Page 12
The Cornell men’s swimming and diving team triumphed over Brown in Saturday’s meet. | Page 16
Hotelies Confront Provost on College of Business By JOSH GIRSKY Sun Staff Writer
Almost 150 hotel students descended on Willard Straight Hall Tuesday evening to voice their concerns about the new College of Business at an open forum led by Provost Michael Kotlikoff. Many of the students, who first gathered outside Statler Auditorium before walking to the forum, had previously opposed the creation of the business college. However, with the Board of Trustees’ authorization of the new college, some hotel students said they now hoped the hotel school would retain its core elements under a new umbrella college. “This is not a protest or a march. This is simply a sign of solidarity amongst hotelies moving forward, because the College of Business is already a done deal,” said David Outlaw ’17, one of the organizers of the march. “We want to make sure that the hotel school is taken care of moving forward, that we’re not sacrificing that camaraderie and the close-knit network that we have as hotelies, both as students and alumni alike.” The group was led out by Colton Haney ’17, one of the event’s organizers, who spoke to the crowd about their goal of showing the
CAMERON POLLACK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Hotelie hustle | Colton Haney ’17 leads a group of hotel students, walking from Statler Auditorium to Williard Straight Hall to express their concerns about the new College of Business.
administration how much hotel students and alumni valued the school’s distinct character. “We are here to maintain the integrity of our school regardless of what college you put us in, what group you put us under,” Haney
said. “We will always and forever be the School of Hotel Administration.” After the students entered Willard Straight Hall, Provost Michael Kotlikoff gave a 30 minute presentation on what the new College of Business would look like to
the full audience. He tried to alleviate student and alumni concerns by saying that the merged schools would maintain their unique identities. “Critically, part of this plan is not just to bring [the three schools] together into one college but also to maintain the identity and focus of those schools,” Kotlikoff said. “That’s important because as people hear about this, the first thing they think about is the school’s identity is going away.” He continued, saying that while many students and alumni called the administration’s actions in creating the College of Business as unilateral, the administration decided that they first needed to “get this rolling” before allowing people to help plan and shape the college. “That’s a very inclusive community-oriented effort to say let’s engage, let’s solve this problem,” Kotlikoff said in an interview with The Sun after the open forum. “We had to get past this issue of ‘are we going to do it or not’ and that’s what we tried to do and I think that’s very sensitive to the community.” While many hotel students opposed the integration of the hotel school into the College of Business, Kotlikoff said he had See FORUM page 4
Cornell Trustees Vote Against Fossil Fuel Divestment
Establish future divestment appeals criteria
SUN FILE PHOTO
By MADELINE COHEN
The newly approved standards for divestment say that the board will only divest from companies if The Board of Trustees voted their actions are “morally repreagainst divesting the endowment hensible,” citing examples of from fossil fuel investments, apartheid, genocide, human trafintroducing new guidelines ficking, slavery or systemic cruelwhich specify that the University ty to children and violation of will only divest endowment funds child labor laws as practices that from a compaCornell would ny whose “[Cornell’s endowment] must deem unacceptactions are able, according “morally repre- not be regarded primarily as to the hensible.” an instrument of political or University. This deciThe new social power.” sion comes standards furafter a series of ther specify that Donald Opatrny ’74 resolutions the board will passed by only consider shared governance organizations divesting from corporations if including the Student Assembly, divestment will “likely have a the Graduate and Professional meaningful impact toward corStudent Assembly, Faculty Senate recting the specified harm and and the University Assembly, all will not result in disproportionate urging the University to divest offset societal consequences,” the from the fossil fuel industry. University said. The Board explained its plan Donald Opatrny ’74, chair of to implement a new set of criteria the board’s investment commitwhich in the future will deter- tee, explained the Board’s decimine which corporations will be sion saying Cornell’s endowment able to retain Cornell’s endowment funds. See DIVESTMENT page 5
Sun Assistant News Editor
Divestment disappointment | Students campaign in support of divestment from fossil fuels outside Williard Straight Hall this fall.
Many Cornellians ‘disappointed’ by decision By PHOEBE KELLER Sun Assistant News Editor
Many Cornellians condemned the Board of Trustee’s decision not to divest from fossil fuels, finding fault with what they called subjective new guide-
lines for University investment. Clay Davis ’18, a campaign coordinator for KyotoNOW! said he does consider the fossil fuel industry “morally reprehensive” and believes the board is obligated to disassociate
from corporations which do not represent Cornell’s values. “It was recently discovered that ExxonMobil spread decades of disinformation after conducting See REACTION page 5