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Cornell Will Join MOOCs Consortium, Provost Says

A legend on stage | John Legend performs music from his album Teflon Don in New York City on March 4.

CHAD BATKA / THE NEW YORK TIMES

By AKANE OTANI Sun News Editor

writer will discuss his role serving on the national board for Teach for America, according to Richmond Wong ’14, executive chairperson of CUPB. Schwartz said he hopes the concert will be as popular as singer Billy Joel’s visit to campus in December 2011, which also featured a question-andanswer session followed by a concert. “[Joel’s] event was wildly successful last year, so we hope that this will be something that’s just as fun for stu-

At the urging of faculty members, Cornell has decided to join a MOOCs consortium — a step that will allow professors to offer massive open online courses to thousands of students, Provost Kent Fuchs said Tuesday.

MOOCs have seen a surge in popularity over the last several years, as schools such as Harvard and Stanford Universities have taught students topics ranging from quantum mechanics to Greek mythology through the online courses. While some critics of MOOCs argue that their large scale mitigates the quality of education they promise to offer, proponents — including Cornell administrators and professors — say MOOCs have the potential to transform higher education.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Fuchs said. “It gives our faculty a way of experimenting with new ways of teaching using social learning and peer rating.”

Cornell is currently deciding whether to offer its MOOCs through edX, a Harvard and MIT-owned not-for-profit, or Courseera, a Stanford-owned forprofit, according to Fuchs. The University is in the process of negotiating how many courses Cornell will promise to offer through the consortium, which entity will control the courses and how much revenue, if any, will be generated through the courses.

See LEGEND page 5

See MOOC page 4

John Legend toTake Stage at Bailey

Organizers hope to give students a‘personal connection’ to R&B singer

By LAUREN AVERY Sun Staff Writer

Although he is best-known as a R&B musician, nine-time Grammy Award winner John Legend will give a lecture about education reform in the United States at Bailey Hall on March 29. The presentation will be followed by a concert, according to Peter Schwartz ’14, executive director of the Cornell Concert Commission.

The event, called “An Evening with John Legend,” will also include a question-and-answer session,

Candidates Discuss Diversity,Outreach at S.A.Debate

News Gold Star

Prof. Stephem Ceci, human development, will win his third lifetime achievement award for his research in April. | Page 3

Opinion Changing Culture

Jon Weinberg ’13 says that culture surrounding sexual assault is still a work in progress. | Page 7

Arts Rave Review

Drew Adler reviews Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, calling Spiotta a “master of prose.” | Page 10

Sports Running Down a Dream

Big Red brings home the Heps Finals title for the first time in four years. | Page 16

Weather Snow HIGH: 37 LOW: 32

Schwartz said.

“The concert will just be him and the piano, and he’ll be performing six to seven of his hit songs after the talk,” Schwartz said. “This event will give students a way to get a more personal connection with an artist that a lot of people look up to, so we’re all excited.”

During Legend’s performance — which is jointly sponsored by the Cornell Concert Commission, the Cornell University Program Board and the Multicultural Funding Advisory Board — the singer-song-

By EMMA JESCH Sun Staff Writer

Sparring on issues ranging from student engagement to the potential creation of a social justice requirement, candidates for Student Assembly President, Executive Vice President and undesignated at-large representatives faced off Wednesday evening in a debate co-sponsored by The Sun and the Cornell Forensics Society.

At the debate — which was moderated by Juan Forrer ’13, The Sun’s editor-in-chief; Ryan Yeh ’13, president of the CFS and S.A. president Adam Gitlin ’13 — popular topics included late-night safety, mental health services and diversity.

Stephen Breedon ’14, vice president for public relations and Ulysses Smith ’14, vice president for diversity and inclusion for the S.A. — the two candidates for S.A. president that were present at the debate — discussed the S.A.’s relationship with the Cornell community. The third S.A. presidential candidate, Jay Lee ’14, undesignated at-large representative on the S.A., was unable to attend the debate due to a prior conflict.

As S.A. president, Smith said he would guide the assembly to better connect with the student body.

“The biggest failure of the S.A. is failing to actively engage the student body,” Smith

said. “The mission of this assembly is to engage, and I don’t think that we’ve effectively gone out to the various communities on campus. Students should be given an effective voice in every aspect of the student experience.”

Breedon echoed Smith’s sentiments.

“We need to look at how these communi-

ties can make a tangible difference,” Breedon said. “I’m passionate about connecting people and bringing their ideas back to the table –– it’s not about me, it’s about you.”

During the discussion of diversity initiatives — the S.A. Committee for Inclusion See DEBATE page 5

MICHELLE FELDMAN / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Four’s a crowd | The four candidates for Student Assembly Executive Vice President debate at a candidate forum Tuesday.

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Today

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Weird News

Umpteen speedy televisions perused two sheep, then umpteen tickets towed Jupiter, and Dan untangles five progressive orifices. Umpteen quixotic aardvarks annoyingly bought two Macintoshes. Umpteen bureaux tickled two extremely putrid botulisms. Paul sacrificed one lampstand, then Jupiter marries the very quixotic pawnbroker. Five purple poisons laughed, yet umpteen chrysanthemums kisses five aardvarks. Batman noisily untangles one Jabberwocky. Two Macintoshes laughed, then one extremely schizophrenic Jabberwocky drunkenly untangles two sheep, however Quark telephoned umpteen obese Jabberwockies. Five irascible botulisms slightly lamely auctioned off the subway, and five chrysanthemums easily untangles one mostly speedy Klingon. Five dogs drunkenly perused Minnesota, however the mats ran away cleverly, although one partly progressive subway quite comfortably sacrificed

Daybook

of the Week

Today Lipid Mediators in the Resolution of Inflammation 11 a.m. - Noon, Vet Education Center Junior Faculty Lunchtime Discussion: Creating Lectures in the Humanities and Related Social Sciences Noon - 1 p.m., 229 King-Shaw Hall C.U. Music: Midday Music for Organ 12:30 -1:15 p.m., Sage Chapel

Tomorrow C.U. Music: Musicology Colloquium 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., 124 Lincoln Hall Platicas Series With Nidia Trejo: “Bridging Nanotechnology & Textiles” 4:30 p.m., 429 Rockefeller Hall Black History Month Dinner: Soul Food at Okenshields 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Okenshields, Willard Straight Hall Pedagogy and Pedometers 12:30 - 1 p.m., 340 Computing and Communications Center

Royal Penguin Stranded On New Zealand Beach Dies

Zoo’s Bald Eagle Captured After Three Days on the Lam

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A royal penguin that became stranded on a beach more than 1,000 miles from its sub-Antarctic home has died at a New Zealand zoo.

The penguin was emaciated and suffering kidney failure when it arrived at the Wellington Zoo after being found Sunday by hikers.

The zoo did the best it could, Lisa Argilla, the facility’s veterinary science manager, said Friday.

They suspect the penguin suffered multiple organ failure. It was severely underweight, she said, and had no reserves.

The penguin was about a year old, 50 centimeters (20 inches) long and weighed about 2.7 kilograms (6 pounds) when it arrived.

They are considered a threatened species but not endangered. Its sex had not been determined.

It was just the fourth time over the past 100 years that a royal penguin has been found on the North Island of New Zealand.

Jenny Boyne, who lives near Tora Beach where the penguin was found, said she drove it to the zoo in a fish crate after staff suggested she bring it in.

“It sat down like a little quiet lamb,” she said.

The bird stood up briefly a couple of times and honked but generally lay still for the two-hour journey, she said. She blasted the air conditioning and spritzed the bird with water after zoo staff instructed her to keep it cool.

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A radio transmitter and then a feast of quail and mouse led to the capture of a California zoo’s bald eagle after three days on the lam.

The Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo’s tame 24year-old bald eagle Sequoia was enjoying her daily exercise Saturday at a park when strong winds spooked her.

Instead of returning to handlers, she flew north and roosted in Menlo Park.

The San Jose Mercury News reports Sequoia was tracked Monday to a Redwood City tree.

The famished bird finally dropped from her perch to the arm of trainer John Flynn, who rewarded her with a quail and mouse feast.

Sequoia ventured out on her own eight times while at the San Francisco Zoo. She joined the Palo Alto zoo last year.

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Mass. Boy, Trying to Avoid Bedtime, Calls 911 BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — Police in Massachusetts say a 10-year-old boy called 911 because he didn’t want to go to bed.

Brockton police say the boy made the emergency call just after 8 p.m. Wednesday and told the dispatcher he was calling to report his mother because he did not want to go to bed.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 3

NEWS

Walk, glide, bike

Scientific Society Will Award Prof For Child Development Research

By ASHLEY CHU

The second area — neurobiological maturation — pertains to regions of the prefrontal cortex, which are associated with regulating, monitoring and tracking In April, Prof. Stephen Ceci, human development, memories and are not completely developed until will be presented with an award by the Society of early adulthood, according to Ceci.

Research in Child Development for his lifetime “Because of their immature prefrontal cortex, chilresearch achievements in the field. dren two to four years old cannot regulate, monitor or Ceci’s colleagues reacted to the news with praise for control their memory and cognition,” he said.

Ceci’s accomplishments. Prof. Stephen Hamilton, huThe third part of Ceci’s approach is the rapid develman development, said the award, called the 2013 opment of memory and cognitive system. This area of Distinguished Lifetime Scientific Contributions to Child his research focuses on how, as children develop, they Development, means Ceci “is thought of as one of the are able to both store more memories and retrieve more leading scholars of child development in the world.” information from them, according to Ceci.

Prof. John Eckenrode, human developThe SRCD award is the third major ment, echoed Hamilton’s sentiments. lifetime achievement award Ceci has “The SRCD is the largest professional recieved for his child development reassociation of child development search. Ceci said he has previously received researchers in the world and this is their the American Psychological Association’s highest scientific achievement award,” Lifetime Distinguished Contribution Eckenrode said.

Award for Science and Society in 2003 and Prof. Elaine Wethington, human develthe Association for Psychological Science’s opment, said Ceci’s work is notable James McKeen Cattell Award for Lifetime because of the influence it has on his colContributions in 2005.

PROF. CECI leagues, as well as because of its real-world Ceci said he hopes to continue his applications. research in the field of child development.

“Ceci is remarkable in how many other researchers “This latest award won’t change the way I do my he has influence on, how many students he has job because I am propelled day to day by ideas that trained, the dozens and dozens of grad students he has excite me and my doctoral students,” he said. “I forementored, the breadth and versatility of his research, see the future as a continuation of the past, just more and especially how he has applied his research to real of the same.” world problems,” Wethington said.

Ceci’s multipronged approach for child developCeci said his approach to child development is ment has appeared in more than 400 publications and three-pronged, drawing jointly on the interactions 17,000 citations. However, he said that he was “humamong social influences, neurobiological maturation bled and honored” by the latest recognition. and cognitive changes.

“I feel this new award is richly undeserved,” he As children develop, they become “much more said. “Many other colleagues are equally deserving, sensitive to status cues and social influences,” Ceci but I happened to work on a topic that got hot. This said. For example, if someone in a police uniform was by chance.” asked questions to a child, the child might be more responsive than if the same person were to interrogate Ashley Chu can be reached at ayc37@cornell.edu. the child dressed as a janitor, he said.

Sun Contributor

KELLY YANG / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Prof. Andy Ruina, mechanical and aerospace engineering, leads a talk titled “Walk This Way! Bicycles, Gliders and Toys Inspire Robot Movement” at Lot 10 in downtown Ithaca on Tuesday.

New Archaeology Institute Hopes To Lead to Increased Collaboration

By TALIA JUBAS Sun Contributor

In order to consolidate the scattered offerings of several University departments, the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies was founded this semester, according to Prof.

Sturt Manning, archaeology, director of the Institute.

Manning said the CIAMS will bring together 18 faculty members from various departments into what he called a “single, synergistic venue.” “[Peter LePage, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences] expressed strong support for archeology over the last half dozen years. It has seen funding support both toward new faculty and some additional graduate students,” Manning said.

The inclusion of material studies — a field of study spanning the gamut of departments, from the physical sciences to anthropology — in the CIAMS is an innovative aspect of the collaboration, reflecting recent developments in the field of archaeology, according to Manning.

“Objects are active participants in culture, both old and new,” he said. “Once you’ve created a material world, that starts to dictate how humans then behave.”

CIAMS will use these ideas to hone the way archaeology is taught. For instance, it will bring cross-departmental teaching teams into the classroom to promote an interdisciplinary approach, according to Smith.

The new curriculum will prepare students who are interested in entering a professional position that deals with the significance of objects, with career paths

ranging from a museum curator to archaeologist, according to Prof. Adam Smith, anthropology, director of graduate studies for the CIAMS. Manning said the archaeology department at Cornell takes an interdisciplinary approach to instructing students, saying “it ranges from scientific applications, studies of past climate and humans, through to history of art and considerations of the role of material culture and humans from early prehistory through to the recent period.”

Catherine Kearns grad, a fifth-year student in the classics department working abroad at the Cyprus American Archaeology Research Institute, said she has benefited from the “rich combination of different fields” among those involved in the archeological community at Cornell.

“I appreciate the willingness of department chairs and advisors to cross disciplinary lines and to promote interesting research that takes advantage of the University’s state-of-the-art offerings, and I think this sort of collaboration will only increase with the establishment of the CIAMS,” Kearns said in an email.

Archaeology students also emphasized how the influence of multiple fields contributes to a richer understanding of archaeology.

“Archaeology is an area of research that thrives because of its interaction with other fields of study,” said Jeffrey Leon grad, who is studying classics with a concentration in classical archaeology. “It sits at an interface between the social and the hard sciences, providing a unique opportunity to put sciences to work within humanistic theoretical frameworks.”

A tale of two countries

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Prof. Fredrik Logevall, history, gives a talk Tuesday about his book “Embers of War” that traces military struggles of the U.S. and France in Vietnam, at the Amit Bhatia Libe Café.

Smith said Cornell has not always been a prominent name in the field of archaeology. Still, he added, it is one of the few institutions that offers an undergraduate degree in archaeology.

“Archaeology at Cornell is unique in that it has its own major apart from the departments of anthropology and classics.

The field has a unique history of independence here,” he said.

There are numerous archaeological programs around the country, but Cornell and the CIAMS offer a unique breadth in comparision to offerings at other universities, such as University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, according to Eilis

Monahan grad, who is studying archaeology and Near Eastern studies.

“The wider concern with material culture and materiality will set us apart, as will the incredibly rigorous theoretical approaches that are represented and taught by our fantastic faculty,” he said.

Monahan emphasized the importance of the CIAMS initiative at Cornell.

“Having an institute, rather than just an interdepartmental program, means that there will be a lot more opportunities and resources available,” Monahan said.

Talia Jubas can be reached at tfj23@cornell.edu.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

NEWS

Profs ‘Eager’to Join MOOCs Consortium MOOCS

Continued from page 1

The University will most likely make an announcement in March about which consortium it will partner with, according to Fuchs.

Regardless of the consortium Cornell decides to join, Fuchs stressed that he does not view MOOCs — which people can enroll in, free of charge — as a mechanism by which the University will generate additional revenue.

“My goal is to break even … to bring revenue in through certificates [of completion for the courses] and through other ways,” Fuchs said.

To help interested professors participate in the MOOCs movement, the University will offer some funding to faculty who want to create their own MOOCs, Fuchs said. That list of interested faculty may be substantial — as, according to Fuchs, “there’s a growing interest among [Cornell’s] faculty in MOOCs.” In fact, Fuchs said, faculty — not the administration — urged him to pursue a partnership with a MOOCs consortium.

“They’re eager and enthusiastic,” Fuchs said. “I just spent an hour talking with a group of faculty who work with the chief information officer on [MOOCs]. They were very pleased. Many of them want to have a course that they can put up that is free.”

Prof. Eva Tardos, computer science, who chaired the faculty committee that recommended the University adopt MOOCs, said she is “thrilled” Cornell is joining a consortium.

“We have to support MOOCs and help faculty experiment with this new form of teaching,” said Tardos, who is also the senior associate dean of Computing and Information Science. “I think the first step of the process is joining a consortium, which helps a group of universities that are essentially together trying to develop technologies to support this kind of education.”

With “a number of faculty who are very interested in teaching MOOCs,” the University stands to reap numerous benefits from joining a consortium — including producing online materials that may complement courses held in person on the Ithaca campus, Tardos said.

Fuchs added that the University, in joining a consortium that will partner it with top schools across the nation, will have the opportunity to collaborate with other colleges offering MOOCs. “It gives our faculty a set of other universities that are participating [in the consortium] with them so we can learn from them,” Fuchs said.

The use of MOOCs will allow faculty to break from the mold of traditional lecture-style courses, Fuchs added.

“They can enhance their lectures with MOOCs by breaking them up into segments instead of holding a 50, 60-minute long lecture,” he said.

By offering free, online courses that allow anyone with an Internet connection to participate, Cornell also has the potential to expand its educational reach, Fuchs said.

“It will bring publicity. If there’s a high school student who takes an online course with Cornell, it will bring positive publicity to the University,” he said.

Akane Otani can be reached at aotani@cornellsun.com.

NEWS

Students ‘Extremely Excited’ For Legend’s Performance LEGEND

Continued from page 1

dents,” Schwartz said.

According to Schwartz, Legend’s agent approached CCC about the possibility of Legend performing at Cornell.

“His agent contacted us and said that he has done this sort of performance before,” Schwartz said. “He had some down time [after] his album release and he likes doing this sort of thing for students, so we were able to bring him.”

Cornell students said they are looking forward to Legend’s performance at Bailey Hall.

“I think he’s a fantastically talented musician and I’m extremely excited to welcome him to Cornell,” said Kevin Lin ’13.

Some also said they are excited to see a famous performer with connections to the Ivy League perform on campus.

“There was a rumor that [Legend] might come and I was really hoping he would. He has a great voice, especially when he is singing R&B,” said Hannah Sawyer ’15. “He went to [the] University of Pennsylvania, so it is awesome that we are having an Ivy League alumnus come. It is amazing that the program boards and organizations are bringing such talented people to Cornell.”

Tickets will go on sale for Cornell students on March 5 and for the general public on March 6.

Lauren Avery can be reached at lavery@cornellsun.com.

S.A. Candidates Stress Need For Improved Communication DEBATE

Continued from page 1

lier this month — Smith questioned his competitors’ commitment to diversity, pointing out that both Breedon and Lee voted against the formation of SACIDI. In response, Breedon said he does not believe establishment of a diversity committee is necessary.

“I think that we need to initiative diversity initiatives throughout the Cornell community,” Breedon said. “We don’t need a position for this.”

In the debate between the four candidates for executive vice president, Sarah Balik ’15, chair of the S.A.’s environmental committee, and Melissa Lukasiewicz ’14, current vice president of internal operations for the S.A., emphasized their experience as current S.A. members.

Mo Cho ’15, Arts and Sciences Representativefor the S.A., said his priority as executive vice president would be to improve outreach.

Nicholas Vasko ’15 agreed with Cho, saying that improved communication with the larger community was necessary, particularly regarding the new distribution requirement relating to social justice.

S.A. elections will run from March 4-8.

Check cornellsun.com for the rest of this story.

Emma Jesch can be reached at ejesch@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Alex Bores |

Your Next Student Trustee Is ...

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T

his is my last column for The Sun before roughly a dozen people try to replace me. Next week, as the polls open for Student Assembly races, the Office of Assemblies will also post the forms to become a candidate for student trustee.

Only eight percent of universities have students serving as full members on their Board of Trustees. The Cornell board is vested with “supreme control” of the University. Practically, however, they relegate most of this power to the faculty and administration. Instead of getting involved in day to day operations, the trustees set broad policy that will ensure Cornell can be its very best decades into the future.

The student-elected trustees have a unique role within this structure. They have a fiduciary responsibility, like every other trustee, to advocate for the best interest of the University as a whole — not just the interest of students. At the same time, it is precisely by voicing the perspective of the student body that the student trustees can uniquely improve the Board’s ability to oversee the campus.

While entrusted with the same responsibilities as the rest of the trustees, the election process for undergraduate student trustee is unlike any other.

Faculty-, employee-, and alumni-elected trustees either involve minimal campaigning or are explicitly barred from promoting themselves. Students running for the S.A. elections only campaign to undergraduates, whereas graduates and undergraduates alike can vote for the student trustees. Since the two student board seats were split between graduates and undergraduates in 2006, the graduate student trustee election has averaged fewer than three candidates a race.

Undergraduate student trustee races have averaged more than 10.

The candidates for student trustee will campaign formally for just 20 days in April. The election is intense. The student trustee before me made a massive flag featuring his name and ran through Ho Plaza before standing on the musical steps above Olin and waving it like a colonial-era general urging on his troops.

Yet if you care deeply about improving the Cornell experience for all of our stakeholders and can deal with some ridiculous antics, I strongly urge you to run. A few people have already

approached me to ask about the position, each of whom could do a good job. My hope is that more students will join the race and effectively campaign for the position. Competitive elections tend to make each of the candidates (and the eventual winner) stronger.

In my election, all of my opponents brought new ideas that challenged me to do better. One helped reestablish this column in The Sun after my predecessor stopped writing it; another came up with a brilliant “Big Red Binder” to collect student input. Many of the candidates published campaign music videos, making me painfully aware of what an awkward dancer I am. Most importantly, the election caused each of us to commit to specific actions we would take if elected — promises I have been bound to during my term.

One of these promises was to attend all S.A. and University Assembly meetings. Student trustees used to be ex-officio members with speaking rights at the U.A., but charter changes a few years ago removed those privileges. In the next few weeks, the S.A. and U.A. will be discussing legislation to reinstate these roles. If you are interested in running for student trustee and believe students’ representatives on the board should be involved in those bodies as well, I urge you to sign on as a cosponsor.

The next student trustee could have a profound impact on Cornell. They will help guide the University through the sesquicentennial and break ground on the first academic building of the Cornell NYC tech campus. This student will be involved in implementing the rest of President David Skorton’s internationalization plan and will have a role in discussions around a potential social justice requirement. For 20 days in April, they may be stuck embarrassing themselves with awkward dance moves and ridiculous flags, but if all goes according to plan, they will emerge ready to fulfill both their fiduciary responsibility and the expectations of the students who elected them.

Alex Bores is the undergraduate student-elected trustee and a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He may be reached at awb78@cornell.edu. Trustee Viewpoint appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 7

OPINION

David Fischer |

Fischy Business

Reforming Arts College Requirements A

s an English major and a devotee of the College of Arts and Sciences, I am constantly subjected to jeers and criticism from my fellow scholars pursuing preprofessional studies. While I respect their decisions to pursue majors such as applied economics and management, I feel that the intellectual fulfillment that stems from a broad course of study outweighs potentially more secure job prospects. The ability to take a wide range of classes, coupled with looser major requirements than pre-professional majors, means that students in the College of Arts and Sciences can truly fulfill Cornell’s old adage of “any person, any study.” However, some of the graduation requirements that the arts college imposes limit the degree to which students can expand their studies. I believe that the degree requirements for the arts college need to be restructured in order to fulfill the promise of a liberal arts education.

Throughout my two year tenure at Cornell, I have taken introductory and intermediate courses in 12 different academic departments (including economics, near eastern studies, mathematics and physics). These courses have ranged from discussing various forms of Buddhist meditation in ASIAN 1114 (a highly recommended writing seminar) to learning about business management in AEM 1200. They have enriched my education and have influenced my thought process — the purpose of a liberal arts education. However, after this semester, I will still have to complete two courses to fulfill my general degree requirements.

One of those courses must be a cultural analysis course or a knowledge, cognition & moral reasoning course.

Although I have not taken a course that could arguably fall under the KCM heading, I feel that I have taken at least one, if not more, courses that fall under the designation of cultural analysis. One such course is one in the classics department called CLASS 2603: “Initiation to Greek Culture.”As indicated by the word “culture,” the course explores ancient

A liberal arts education should not be limited by anachronistic course requirements.

Greece through a historical treatment of Greek literature.

While the course satisfies the college’s literature & the arts college requirement, it seems that it should also fall under cultural analysis. One way to fix this disparity would be to list certain courses under two categories instead of just one.

The other type of course that I need to take in order to graduate must fulfill a physical and biological science or mathematics and quantitative reasoning requirement . In order to fulfill this requirement, I could take MATH 1340: “Mathematics and Politics” or EAS 1220: “Earthquake!”

However, again, I feel that based on the classes I have already taken, this category should already be fulfilled. Last semester, to satisfy my desire to explore the field of economics, I took ECON 3140: “Intermediate Microeconomic Theory,” a class based around multivariable calculus. Although much of the mathematical reasoning required for the course was based on this advanced form of calculus, the course is fulfilled my social & behavioral analysis requirement. Although economics is unquestionably about behavioral analysis, I still believe that an intermediate course that uses calculus should fulfill the mathematics requirement of a practically numerically-illiterate humanities major.

Although I believe the format of general degree requirements of the college is prohibitive, I would not propose eliminating them entirely. I feel as though there should be some general direction applied to arts students. However, these requirements should not be as specific as they are now. Perhaps, instead of courses being placed in immutable categories, there could be an advisor who would determine if a course could fulfill other categories based on the course of study of the petitioning individual. A liberal arts education should not be limited by anachronistic course requirements. They should instead be flexible with the educational needs and desires of individual students.

David Fischer is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached at dfischer@cornellsun.com. Fischy Business appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

Web

Comment of the day “Thank goodness someone took the time to stop the men of Pi Kappa Phi. Now we can only hope this will serve as an example, and that administration will continue to rewrite other derogatory names clearly objectifying women.

On this note, I propose Bare Necessities be renamed ‘Fully Clothed Necessities,’ Mann Library be renamed ‘Gender Inclusive Library for All,’ and Ho Plaza be renamed ‘Nice, Respectable Lady Plaza.’ Once renamed, survivors of sexual assault and other women will be freed from the implications of the Carpenter Library tragedy and the notion they are simply the sum of their jugs. I have a dream someday that we, as complicated individuals, complete with minds bodies and spirits, will feel like equals in an oasis of freedom and justice. Let freedom ring from the tippy top of McGraw Tower. From every slope, let freedom ring!”

NixonLuvr Re: "After Criticism From Cornell, Fraternity Changes Name Of ‘Jugs’ Fundraising Event” published Feb. 26, 2013

Jon Weinberg |

In Focus

Pointing Fingers at the Disruptive and Intimidating H

ere at Cornell, a Department of Education’s student may be Office of Civil Rights this expelled or other- January on behalf of 64 wise punished for violating individuals who had been the Code of Academic through similar experiIntegrity. Obviously, hav- ences, alleging an instituing the courage to report a tional failure to protect rape on Cornell’s campus is victims who report sexual not condemned, but at the assault and repeated rights University of North violations.

Instead of constructiveCarolina, different rules apply. A UNC sophomore ly working to correct a was recently charged with perverse climate for violating the University’s women, UNC took action honor code and faces pos- against the student brave sible expulsion for speak- enough to take a stand. ing out after being assault- Landen Gambill was charged with violating the ed.

Unfortunately, the case aforementioned honor at UNC is illustrative of a code for “disruptive or nationally pervasive igno- intimidating behavior that rance regarding sexual willfully abuses, disparassault on college campus- ages, or otherwise interes. The difficult conversations we’ve had at We are learning to just say Cornell over the past semester are no to sexual assualt and only the first step to take action when in correcting norms that are we witness injustices. unbecoming of supposed beacons of progress and higher feres with another [student].” She faces possible learning.

Quite a few recent inci- expulsion, despite the fact dents across the country that she has kept the idendemonstrate the depraved tity of the male student nature of the current status anonymous. At UNC, an stalking quo for women on college abusive, campuses. UNC sopho- boyfriend wasn’t “disrupmore Landen Gambill first tive or intimidating,” but went through her universi- a woman with courage ty’s Dean of Students was considered to be.

If you think the attitude Office in March 2012 to report an abusive ex- at UNC is isolated, you boyfriend. According to don’t likely watch Fox Gambill and others, the News. Last week, host Bob ensuing process was partic- Beckel asked, “When the ularly disturbing, focusing last time you heard about a on why the victim didn’t rape on campus?” and then do more to stop the abuse. dismissed date rape. Nor Gambill and two other do you likely attend the survivors of abuse at UNC University of Colorado at filed a complaint with U.S. Colorado Springs, where

the Department of Public Safety recently published a list of tips for students who are attacked that included: “Tell your attacker that you have a disease or are menstruating” and “Vomiting or urinating may also convince the attacker to leave you alone.” Nor have you likely visited Amherst College, or Dartmouth College, or any of the many universities where chilling accounts of sexual assaults and subsequent failures of administrations to protect students and afford them due process have been well documented.

According to New York University,

one in five women is raped while in college.

Furthermore, one in 12 men in college report having committed an action that legally constitutes rape. Any sensible individual should be outright disturbed that egregious violations of human dignity continue unabated and that the rights of over half the student population are still flouted.

Readers of The Sun and members of the Cornell community are no strangers to endemic sexual assault on campus. After a string of sexual assaults last semester, Cornell students and administrators

responded with a concerted effort to transform our community. Public campaigns, rallies and programs were instituted to educate male and female students about sexual assault and prevention.

I challenged students last semester to make a more concerted effort to put such sentiment into practice, and I still see it as just that — a challenge.

But at least we are making progress. Other campuses have much further to go, and we can only serve as an example by redoubling our efforts to create a campus community that equally respects and honors the dignity of all, irrespective of gender.

As Cornell continues to debate its policy and students take action through a multitude of programs specifically designed to address this problem, it’s clear that attitudes are changing. We are learning to just say no to sexual assault and to take action when we witness injustices.

Hopefully, Cornellians can help initiate a cultural shift such that the answer to Bob Bickel’s question will someday be “no” instead of “every day.” Cornell is on the right track, but nationally, we have a long way to go before colleges are as protective of sexual freedom as they are of academic freedom.

Jon Weinberg is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He may be reached at jweinberg@cornellsun.com. In Focus appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

SCIENCE

Rocketry

Entomology

Plant Genomics

Project Team Develops Rockets

By YVONNE HUANG Sun Contributor

Formally known as Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Cornell Rocketry is a passionate engineering project team that develops rockets.

Christina Middleton ’14, Matthew Skeels ’15 and Matthew Gentile ’15 are mechanical engineers who founded the project team after finding a common interest in rocketry within the broader spectrum of the exploration and development of space.

Their supervisor is Prof. Ephrahim Garcia, mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“We’re a bunch of enthusiastic engineers interested in building high-powered rockets that will go about a mile high for the NASA University Student Launch Initiative, a competition for different college rocketry teams,” Middleton said.

The team, mostly comprised of underclassmen, will not be competing this year but will be attending the competition to see other teams’ work.

The University Student Launch Initiative takes place once every year in Alabama, with over 30 university teams taking part in the competition. Every team is required to meet certain checkpoints throughout the year before reaching the final Launch Day in April. Rockets are expected to reach, but not exceed, about a mile high.

At the end of the competition, awards are given out based on categories such as Best Vehicle Design, Best Overall Rocket and Best Team Spirit.

“We’re just beginning to fabri-

cate [the rocket]. We’ve built a small model of the rocket, but I hope to have a seven-foot rocket built by the end of this semester,” said Gentile, the head of the air frame subsystem of the project team. The air frame subsystem is responsible for physically creating the rocket.

The competition requires that rockets carry a scientific payload, or some form of scientific experiment. Middleton wants to incorporate small robotic crawlers made with 3D printers into the rocket’s payload. These insect-like robots will be able to survey large areas of land using incorporated sensors after being shot out of the launched rocket.

“We’re trying to design them aerodynamically so that when they are released from the rocket, they spiral and disperse onto the ground,” Middleton said.

Along with a GPS, microcontroller and other sensors, the crawlers would have nitinol actuators to enable movement. These small wires are superheated with electrical current, making them flexible and simulating a crawling motion. These wires have significant contractile force, allowing them to act as “muscles” for the robots, said Middleton.

The payload subsystem already has prototypes printed and is currently working on developing the most efficient gait for the robotic crawlers, said Middleton.

The idea of having crawlers as the scientific experiment on the rocket came from the slow rovers NASA has sent out to planets throughout the years.

“With these crawlers, more ground can be covered due to their higher mobility,” Middleton said.

Cornell Rocketry wants to create

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA MIDDLETON ’14

Forming frames | Matthew Gentile ’15 and Ariane Walker-Horn ’15 work on the fins for the rocket’s frame. crawlers that can be dispersed onto foreign planets to gather data and further space exploration, she added.

Another aim of Cornell Rocketry is that the rocket is reusable, allowing students to be environmentally conscious in their building process.

“We want to recover the rocket and not have it fall apart when it hits the ground,” Skeels said. As the head of the Recovery and Tracking subsystem, Skeels is responsible for making sure the rocket can be found and launched again in under four hours, as per competition rules.

The competition rules also mandate that the rocket land within a 2,500 foot radius of the

launching platform, making drift a significant problem for the R&T subsystem. But with the use of two parachutes – one small and heavy and the other large and light – with staggered deployment times, Cornell Rocketry hopes to easily overcome this part of the competition.

In addition to being environmentally conscious, the competition aims to make participating teams points of outreach in their respective communities. Teams are expected to promote NASA’s longterm goal for education and interest in the field of rocketry and science in general, according to Middleton.

Cornell Rocketry is working on developing programs with high

schools and middle schools in the area to meet this goal.

After viewing the competition in Alabama this April, Cornell Rocketry will gain better perspective and improve their designs in order to compete next year.

“We want to expand and include more people who are interested in rockets in order to complete our goals. We’re in need of people to reach out to corporate sponsors and to set up outreach programs with middle and high school students. With the right people, I believe Cornell Rocketry can be an extremely successful project team,” Middleton said.

Yvonne Huang can be reached at yyh4@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF CHRISTINA MIDDLETON ’14

Blasting Off | The engineering project team Cornell Rocketry aims to build a model rocket that will go at least a mile high and land back on the ground without being destroyed.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 9

SCIENCE

Prof. Greg Loeb Protects Plants From Pests With Natural Predators

By NICOLAS RAMOS Sun Senior Writer

Insect infestations can wreak havoc on crops, and are traditionally controlled through pesticides producing unwanted environmental and ecological side effects.

Prof. Greg Loeb, entomology, studies the interactions between plants and insects in an effort to develop inexpensive, environmentally friendly methods of controlling pest populations in agriculture.

Plants create their own energy through photosynthesis, so they are considered primary producers at the first trophic level – or position – in the food chain.

Herbivores, which include most of the problematic insects in agriculture, are primary consumers, and are placed at the second trophic level. The third trophic level is made up of secondary consumers, or carnivores that eat the herbivores, according to Loeb.

One of Loeb’s main projects is studying tri-trophic interactions, or how plants in the first trophic level and predators at the third trophic level affect one another.

“We are trying to understand what benefits the plant provides to natural enemies and the potential costs there might be to the plant,” Loeb said. “In the case of our system, we have a good idea of the benefits

the predators are providing to the plants.”

Loeb has shown that small hairs on grape leaves can influence predatory mites that live on the plants. These predatory mites provide a crucial benefit to the plant: They feed on the pest mites that eat the plants and cause damage.

“We want to promote the beneficial insects and the predatory mites, as a way to better manage the pests that feed on the plants,” Loeb said.

In collaboration with a geneticist, Loeb is working to determine the mechanisms by which certain plant morphological traits influence predatory mites. Through the process of marker-assisted selection, researchers can identify positive traits in different grape varieties.

Loeb is also investigating whether or not a positive morphological trait is correlated with a negative trait. According to Loeb, if there is an association between two traits, researchers must be careful to decouple the good trait from the bad trait before attempting to promote a particular morphology in a plant.

“By promoting positive morphological traits, we can enhance the natural enemies of the pest mites and indirectly increase the role of the plant in its own defense,” Loeb said. “Miticides can be very expensive and can be disruptive, so the ultimate

COURTESY OF PROF. GREG LOEB

Saving strawberries | A strawberry infected by the tarnished plant bug. Loeb suggests using natural predators instead of insecticides to protect fruit crops.

COURTESY OF PROF. GREG LOEB

Promoting predators | Wildflowers provide food for adult brachonid wasps. The wasps’ young, however, prey on tarnished plant bugs, a common strawberry pest.

goal would be to reduce the monetary and environmental costs of chemical control in the grape commodity.”

Loeb is also working with Heather Connelly grad to examine whether scientists can use natural means to increase ecosystem services in strawberry production. Ecosystem services are services provided by organisms in the environment that are beneficial. These include things such as pollination and decomposition, which are conducted by a wide variety of organisms.

Loeb and Connelly are looking at ways to augment pollination and biological control in strawberry systems by adding plant diversity.

By adding native perennial wildflowers to the strawberry fields, the flowers provide nectar and other resources to pollinators and parasitoids, or insects that lay their eggs in other insects. A particular parasitoid, the braconid wasp, lays its eggs in the body of the tarnished plant bug, a pest in strawberry fields that damages the fruit.

Adult braconid wasps feed on nectar, so their presence poses no threat to the crops.

“The idea is that parasitoid wasps will move into the strawberries once we put

wildflowers in proximity and attack the tarnished plant bugs,” Loeb said.

The braconid wasp is sensitive to insecticide, but it is very effective at biological control. By providing a habitat to the braconid wasp, researchers are simultaneously reducing their use of insecticides and regulating populations of tarnished plant bugs.

Wildflowers can also benefit pollinating insects, which are important for the size of the strawberries. Although strawberries can self-pollinate, the size of the fruit is larger if insects pollinate the plant.

“We are looking to see how we can increase the activity of native bees,” Loeb said. Part of this project is to see how landscape affects the addition of the wildflower resources.

“Certain landscapes may be more amenable to this manipulation, so we are looking to see what kinds of environments the addition of wildflowers would work best in,” Loeb said.

Loeb co-teaches Entomology 3200: Grape Pest Management in the fall semester.

Nicolas Ramos can be reached at nramos@cornellsun.com.

Watermelon: Delicious or Disease-Resistant

By CAMILLE WANG Sun Contributor

The sweet, succulent crunch of a juicy watermelon comes at a price – the familiar red watermelons are highly susceptible to diseases, thus causing millions of dollars of loss for farmers. Prof. Zhangjun Fei, plant genomics, has uncovered a solution to this problem.

Fei realized that wild watermelons, which have white flesh and bitter taste, were more resistant to diseases. After generating a comparison of watermelon DNA sequences, he and his team concluded that these disease-resistant genes were lost during domestication of watermelon.

“We found that during domestication, people only focus on developing sweet watermelons, but they ignore the disease-resistance aspect.

And when we compared those genomes, we found a lot of pathogen-resistant genes in wild watermelons that were lost in the cultivated one. That’s unfortunate,

so now we want to bring back the disease-resistance,” Fei said.

Fei worked with researchers from several countries such as China and France, to complete the project. “[Collaborating] helped a lot. If it were only my group, we would not have been able to do the project because we don’t have certain expertise or facilities,” Fei said.

Fei’s research focuses on using computational tools and system biology to analyze large amounts of information. Such analysis helps the team understand how genes function in living cells, he said.

The technology generates large fragments of the genome and later connects them “like a puzzle” so Fei and his team have the complete sequence of the watermelon plant.

To simplify the process of generating 20 different watermelon sequences, the team first created a “reference genome” from the one watermelon. The team used this reference as a template in order to find the other watermelon genes more efficiently, as all of the plants have

similar genetic sequences, Fei said.

Fei and his team are currently working on the introduction of disease-resistant genes into cultivated plants. This is not a simple process, however, because the researchers must first conduct a series of tests to

ensure that the new disease-resistance genes will not affect the quality of the taste of cultivated watermelon, according to Fei. “If you introduce disease-resistant genes into the cultivated plant, the sweetness may become lost. You

want to introduce this disease-resistant gene but still make sure the fruit is high quality,” Fei said.

Camille Wang can be reached at csw92@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF PROF. ZHANGJUN FEI

Wild watermelon | Watermelon has been bred for taste, but wild, white watermelon are more disease-resistant.

A&E

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Living to Create, Creating to Live

BY DREW ADLER Sun Contributor

Though the novel Stone Arabia is a meta-analytical meditation on the purpose and function of art, there were no doubts about the importance of great writing when author Dana Spiotta, who wrote this critically acclaimed novel, spoke at the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium last Thursday as part of a reading series sponsored by the Creative Writing program.

Stone Arabia tells the story of Nik Kranis, an unsuccessful musician who documents the life he wishes he had — complete with fake interviews, reviews and the like — in a body of work he calls “The Chronicles.” The story is narrated primarily by Denise, his loving and devoted sister who is arguably his biggest fan — though given the small and similarly devoted nature of his fan base, this is not saying much. Through a collection of unusual and chaotic characters, Spiotta raises a number of questions about the purpose of art and what it means to truly be an artist.

Though Nik has a tiny audience, his work appears to be the driving force in his life, but is also a necessary outlet to keep him going: cyclically, he lives to create but he creates to live. But Denise does not serve simply as the narrative vehicle to tell Nik’s story, for we see her struggle with what can only be termed a major existential crisis. Saddened by her mother’s slow descent into dementia, her worries over her own mental health and her brother’s rampant drug and alcohol use, she struggles with her identity and begins to lose her sense of self.

She has difficulty remembering major events in her life, and world issues like the SARS outbreak irrationally terrify her.

Denise’s psychosocial demise, emphasized by this unreasonable concern with global events beyond her control, raises questions about the nature of identity: who are we when we cease to be perceived in the eyes of others? If our identities are just constantly growing amalgams of our past experiences, and if those closest to us either reconstruct our past or don’t remember us, do our identities cease to exist? Memory is a recurring theme throughout the novel, particularly in the context

of Denise’s daughter, Ada, who insists that remembering minute details — like who played whom in whatever movie — is a waste of time because of technology.

Denise acts as the proud voice of the past, claiming that if we rely on technology for the unimportant things, we will lose our ability to remember things that truly matter to us, things that cannot be googled.

But beyond raising profoundly pertinent philosophical questions, Spiotta is a master of prose, beautifully capturing experiences for which words would elude most of us, like the uncertainty one feels in the “anticipatory silent seconds before any sound could be heard” when listening to a new album. It is in this area that hearing her read truly illuminated her craftsmanship.

Hearing an author read her own words — the way she, at least ostensibly, intended them to be heard — allows the listener to experience the rhythm and sound we so often overlook: the poetry within the prose.

The narrative techniques she employs in this novel are at the heart of its effectiveness. Nik is the focal character, though he is not the narrator; we experience him through Denise. We know him the way she has come to know him, and she, being his sister, knows him arguably better than anyone — even himself. It is through this unusual focalization that the author analyzes the unique nature of the sibling relationship.

Denise grew up with Nik, but she obviously is not Nik. Therefore, she is unburdened by the unreliable lens of self-assessment. Whether Nik’s opinion of himself is inflated or deflated (we get the sense throughout the book that he thinks quite highly of himself ), Denise knows the intimate details of his life and admires him for his attributes, flaws and passions. And by seeing the story play out through Denise’s eyes and reading her descriptions of certain aspects of Nik’s life, like the final chapter where Denise carefully describes Nik’s studio and how it reflects his idiosyncratic character, it is hard not to love him, too. Her steadfast devotion to and admiration of her brother is almost an implicit resolution of her identity crisis: we are not solely memories, nor are we solely our present selves. Our identities are the intangible quality for which those who know us best love us. What exactly this quality really is does not matter so much, because humans are complex; to try and put such a thing into words would be reductive.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DANA SPIOTTA

Denise’s description of Nik’s studio drives this point home, because through her discussion of its minutiae — the posters, the drawings, the bizarre organization of the records — we get a more complete picture of Nik than we ever have before.

Ironically, through her writing, Spiotta illustrates the inability of language to fully and accurately portray a human being, and demonstrates the futility of trying to define one true, coherent self.

Drew Adler is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at dma96@cornell.edu.

Clockwise from top: Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia; Nik and Denise, as depicted on the cover of Stone Arabia; the hardcover edition of Stone Arabia.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A&E

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 11 ARIELLE CRUZ Sun Staff Writer

Silver balloons afloat, drifting lazily back and forth, gleaming with light from the gallery lamps. This is The Persepolis Project, an exhibit which opened Monday at Olive Tjaden Gallery. Based off of Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds, The Persepolis Project is first and foremost a statement piece.

In 1972, Warhol’s original Silver Clouds was part of the Cunningham Dance Company’s contentious Persepolis Arts Festival in Iran. The festival was shocking, not because of the art displayed, but because in a time when the people of Iran were poor and struggling, the festival represented a lavish reminder of the Shah’s abuse of power. Another reminder, of course, was the heavy military presence.

The ubiquitous presence of the Shah’s military at the festival was not jarring to attendees, nor did it go unnoticed.

In fact, one thing was certainly noticed: the storage of The Cunningham Dance Company’s silver props in the same room as the military’s machine guns. Raja’a Khalid’s M.F.A. ’13 piece in Tjaden Gallery is a statement about the festival and more generally, about what it means to be a patron of art.

Inside the white-walled gallery Khalid’s balloons hang on strings that, unlike Warhol’s, are tethered to the ground.

The weight holding them down, bullets. From what I can distinguish from the photographs, Warhol’s “clouds” floated free, much like ones made of water. Held aloft, but in no danger of colliding with the ceiling, they contained precisely measured helium. Dense bundles of sleek sliver clowds dotted the otherwise empty space, stunningly reflecting natural light. Warhol’s exhibit exemplified freedom, awe and simplicity.

If that exhibit exemplified freedom, this one can only exemplify repression. The artist stated that the exhibit is “not about a dictator’s megalomania, or the sad follies of his regime,” but a reflection on what his regime led to — limited freedom. At a glance, the balloons look like storage items, left over from the 1972 festival. Yet unlike those haphazardly scattered predecessors, these balloons were wellorganized. The balloons in the center of the room stand together, like a group of dancers in formation. The rest set up camp by walls, by windows or trapped behind air vents.

W

Bullets and Balloons PHOTOS COURTESY OF RAJA’A KHALID

The balloons glide forward and back, linked together, never floating beyond the radius of their strings and their bronze bullets. With this constraint, Khali forces us to think about those who attended the art festival in Persepolis. Were they similarly restrained by the tethers of their society? By the violent potential of bullets? Like in this exhibit, violence was out in the open, in the machine guns held aloft on broad military shoulders. In the gallery, bullets sprinkle the floor. The effect, as they lie at the viewer’s feet, surprises and discomforts. Never have I come this close to a bullet before.

I could have touched it if I had wanted to, but I did not feel the desire to familiarize myself with the surface of that violent metal.

Art is meant to be free. To take the mind to a new place, to surpass the restraints of reality. Khali asks us what art

means when it is not allowed to transcend these boundaries.

When balloons are not allowed to float on their own. When they are so dependent on their mortal enemies, an item that could puncture them and leave them splayed and airless on the floor.

When art depicts or reacts to war, the result can be discomforting, yet beautiful. But when war is forced into the realm of art the result, is discomforting and frightening.

The Persepolis Project runs in Olive Tjaden Hall’s Experimental Gallery from Feb 25 to Mar 1.

Arielle Cruz is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be reached at acruz@cornellsun.com.

iPhone 5: Beyond Skeumorphism

henever Apple releases a new iPhone, the reception is nothing short of magical. Lines camped outside the Apple store! Record sales! Supply issues! But with the iPhone 5, something new has entered that hysteria, which frightens the seasoned marketer more than a product recall: boredom. “The iPhone 5 is Completely Amazing and Utterly Boring,” Wired magazine mourned. “The iPhone 5 forecast: a predictable 73 degrees and sunny,” The Verge complained. For a consumer society that has internalized and institutionalized change, “iPhone” and its operating system “iOS” have become words mumbled to express resentment and ennui over shiny icons.

And to be fair to Apple — why would it change? So far, only the gadget bloggeratti are complaining; the average consumer is happy. But the longer I use my iPhone, the more annoyed I am with small design decisions; by now, this frustration borders on neuroticism. What’s up with those glossy icons on system apps and skeuomorphic textures everywhere? Why does the Notes app look like a legal pad and a leather case? How about Games Center, which looks like the green felt on casino tables? It’s not just passé — it’s perplexing. If the Newsstand app was supposed to look like an actual newsstand, why are the newspapers on a wooden bookshelf? How is this compatible with the hardware’s sleek and modern industrial design?

These design flourishes date back to 2006, when companies competed with each other on imitating real life as closely as possible. In order to show the horsepower of these devices, the thought goes, these devices needed to replicate every lifelike detail: the brushed metal textures on Finder windows

on early Mac OS X with their diffused lighting effects, the glass effects on Aero in Windows Vista with their reflections. But soon these details became distractions for the sake of distraction: At their best, they served no functional purpose, and at their worst they killed productivity. And, of course, there was still the nagging realization that no matter how hard computers tried, they could never imitate actual life. As Oscar Wilde wrote in “The Decay of Lying,” Art begins with abstract decoration and “takes life as part of her rough material, recreates it, refashions it in fresh forms” until life gets the upper hand and “drives Art out into the wilderness.” When Steve Jobs told his

Kai Sam Ng You’ve Got to Be Kitsching Me designers that he wanted the leather stitching on the chairs of his private jet to be replicated in iPad’s calendar app, he drove Art out into the wilderness.

Other big companies, however, have enticed Art to come back, betting that the next battle in mobile technology will be about design, not raw processing power. The most radical of these is Microsoft’s own Windows Phone, which does away with skeuomorphism all together: flat textures, geometric shapes, typography, big icons, flourishing animations, live updates. My Windows Phone felt modern through and through, designed for my life. But once outside of Microsoft’s strictly-curated experience, the magic was gone — third party apps clashed with the rest of the interface (not to

NILS AXEN / SUN CONTRIBUTOR

mention were also slow).

I’m more of a fan with Google’s own efforts, which seeks a compromise between Windows Phone’s own stark digitalism and iOS’s cheesy textures. These efforts have shown up in a uniform and quiet revamping of Google’s websites and apps, centered on the idea of subtlety: quiet gradients, soft shadows, subdued buttons, light fonts, muted pastel colors. There’s liberal use of white space and a religious dedication to simplicity and modernism. In comparison, iOS looks carnivalesque and Windows Phone looks garish.

Perplexingly, this redesign has prominently showed up not in Google’s own Android, but within Google’s iOS apps. But nevertheless, its simplicity is stunning. In Google Maps, Gmail, and the Google search app, unnecessary buttons replace intuitive touch gestures. Animations are instant and fluid but always under your control. The transparency garnishes that Windows Phone crushed out exist in Google’s interpretation, a gentle reminder that the phone’s simplicity was not a compromise with “weak pro-

cessing power” and that your phone is capable of so much more beneath the surface.

The one prominent place it does pop up on Android is within Google’s quasi-competitor to iOS’s Siri, Google Now. Cards pop up information that reveal more than what is written through their positioning and context. If you’re stuck in traffic, a card will tell you exactly how much time is left in your commute. Android itself is catching up to Google’s redesign (most recently with a new Helvetica rip-off system font called Roboto), but manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have always imposed their own skin-deep interfaces to differentiate themselves in the cutthroat Android market.

Google has given manufacturers wide berth in this area, but maybe it’s time to push it across the rest of Android—not to crush manufacturers, but in the name of beautiful design.

Kai Sam Ng is a junior in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations. He can be reached at kng@cornellsun.com. You’ve Got To Be Kitsching Me appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Not interesting 7 Real heel 10 German exports 14 Beaucoup 15 Eight-time Norris Trophy winner 16 Bit attachment 17 *Largest port in NW Africa 19 “Black Beauty” author Sewell 20 Metric distances: Abbr.

21 Athos, to Porthos 22 Word with dark or gray 24 *Warrior’s cry 27 Hersey novel setting 30 Rob Roy’s refusal 31 Four-time Grammy winner Lovett 32 *Picnic side dish 35 23-Down’s div.

37 As found 38 Pupil surrounder 41 Ft. Worth campus 42 *Knocking sound 46 Australian sixfooters 49 Punching tool 50 “SNL” alum Mike 51 *Delighted 54 Animals who like to float on their back 55 Female hare 56 “Hardly!”

59 Violin holder 60 *Island nation in the Indian Ocean 64 A sweatshirt may have one 65 Rocker Rose 66 Sedative 67 Overnight lodging choices 68 Low grade 69 Incursions ... or, phonetically, what the answers to starred clues contain DOWN 1 With 2-Down, “Rio Lobo” actor 2 See 1-Down

3 __ stick: incense 4 Hagen often mentioned on “Inside the Actors Studio” 5 Head, slangily 6 Key of Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto 7 Funnel-shaped 8 Compass-aided curve 9 Pulitzer category 10 Like a spoiled kid, often 11 Unwritten reminder 12 Cab storage site 13 Hunted Carroll creature 18 Microwave maker 23 Braves, on scoreboards 24 Against 25 Exactly 26 Mauna __ 27 “Whoso diggeth __ shall fall therein”: Proverbs 28 Fundraiser with steps?

29 Thing taken for granted 33 California’s Big __ 34 Not dis?

36 Chow 39 Avatar of Vishnu 40 Wd. derivation 43 Some Duracells 44 Silly talk 45 Foil maker 47 Capsizes 48 Neighbor of Isr.

51 __ Minh 52 Comparable to a March hare 53 Words with lamb or mutton 56 School sports org.

57 Like Cheerios 58 Half of seis 61 Fire truck item 62 G.I.’s mail drop 63 Paul McCartney, for one

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

02/27/13

Sun Sudoku

Puzzle #101 Wilson

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki /Sudoku)

Circles and Stuff

By Mark Bickham (c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

COMICS AND PUZZLES

by Robert Radigan grad

02/27/13

Doonesbury

by Garry Trudeau

Mr. Gnu

by Travis Dandro

Strings Attached

by Ali Solomon ’01

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 13

SPORTS

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“It was nice being able to reclaim my title,” she said.

Notable performances by the women’s team included a 1-2-3 sweep of the 3K by junior Rachel Sorna, junior Emily Shearer and senior Katie Kellner, and a win in the 4x400 relay of a team consisting of junior Ryan Woolley, sophomore Zena Kolliesuah, sophomore Katie Woodford and junior Airewele Ebolutalese.

Up next is the IC4A finals for the men’s team, and the ECAC finals for the women’s team, both being hosted in Boston Saturday and Sunday.

“As a team, we have IC4As,” Wade said. “I’m going to run a last chance meet to try to qualify for nationals. Last year, the men’s team won IC4As, so we’re looking to defend that title.”

The women’s team is still determining who will represent Cornell at the ECACs, according to Imbesi.

“We’re still not sure exactly who’s going yet,” she said.

“Last year we won; I hope to win again this year. If our whole team shows up, we can definitely win.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will look to defend their titles from last year this weekend in Boston.

Juan Carlos Toledo can be reached at jtoledo@cornellsun.com.

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TRACK

Continued from page 16

It’s up to us.

25 ROOMS FOR RENT PRIVATE ROOMS

Women Take Second Place At Heps Meet

A planet is a terrible thing to waste.

Consume less. Recycle more.

SPORTS

Red Looks Forward to Start of Season

C.U.begins season with games against Maryland Eastern Shore tion in the late innings.

“Our biggest strength will definitely be our staff,” Cruz said. “We’re returning [with] a lot of the younger guys that had a huge role, like Kellen Urbon. He’s gotten many accolades in the past few months, and he was just a freshman last year.”

In December, Urbon was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association’s Preseason All-America Third Team. This month, he was featured in a question and answer session on College Baseball Insider.com. Urbon also set a single-season record with nine saves and recorded a team best .47 ERA, earning him a spot on the All-Ivy League First Team as the only relief pitcher.

Though the Red will once again sport a dominant staff, its offense will take a hit with the losses of Brian Billigen ’12 and Brandon Lee ’12. The two seniors led the team in batting average at .361 and .320 respectively. Billigen — who was picked up as a free agent by the Arizona Diamondbacks last summer — also led the team in RBI’s with 40.

“In terms of offense, we lost some key members, but the guys that are still around also had a part in our success,” Cruz said. “The guys who

were waiting in the wings all could have started last year and are ready to step up.”

Cruz will be one of those integral parts of the Red’s lineup. He led the team in home runs last season with 12, while driving in 35 runs.

The Red will also have some holes to fill on defense, with the loss of Lee behind the plate and Marshall Yanzick ’12 at shortstop. According to Cruz, junior Tom D’Alessandro is well prepared to take over as the captain of the infield in place of Yanzick.

“Last year we had guys that could have easily started, and he’s one of those guys [who] is more than capable of taking that spot,” he said.

Last season, the Red started off with a fourgame sweep of Maryland Eastern Shore. The squad will take on the Hawks in one game on Friday before facing St. Peter’s Saturday and Sunday. Cruz said the offseason has prepared the team well in terms of what it needs to do to be successful.

“We’re most focused on playing together as a team and everyone doing their part,” Cruz said.

“We all have roles; we all know what needs to be done. So we need to do the little things, and that’s when you can get the victory.”

Scott Chiusano can be reached at schiusano@cornellsun.com.

since 1880

yeah, we’ve been around awhile...

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

This Newspaper

BASEBALL

Continued from page 16

Please Recycle

14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, February 27, 2013 15

SPORTS

TENNIS

Red Takes Down Black Knights

Cornell wins total of nine matches in third-consecutive victory

By DEEYA BAJAJ Sun Contributor

Last Saturday, the Cornell women’s tennis team had its third victory of the semester. Facing off against Army in a non-league match at the Lichtenberg Tennis Center, the team won two of its three doubles matches and all six singles matches to a final tally of 7-0 against the Black Knights. This victory gave the team a 10-1 advantage in the all-time series against Army.

The dual match started off with a loss for the Red in the No. 3 doubles match. The situation improved rapidly, however, with an 8-5 victory at No. 1 doubles by senior Sarah O’Neil and freshman Lauren Frazier and an 8-6 win at the No. 2 spot by senior Christine Ordway and junior Ryann Young.

The team then proceeded to win all six of its singles matches with ease, with no member losing more than three games over the match. O’Neil won her match against freshman Eva Sung 6-1, 6-2; Ordway came out on top with 6-0, 6-3; Young won 6-0, 6-3; and No. 4 freshman Dena Tanenbaum defeated junior Della Taylor 6-0, 6-1. Freshman Laila Judeh at No.5 won her match in the minimum 12 games 6-0,

6-0 and sophomore Lauren Frazier at No. 6 defeated sophomore Alyssa Gleason 6-1, 6-2.

This semester, the team has competed against the University Of Maryland (6-1), St. Johns University (6-1) and Army (7-0).

“It’s been great getting a chance to play more matches, but we haven’t had a chance to play some of the harder teams yet,” Young said.

The team has missed out on some of the tougher competition because it was unable to participate in The Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference 2013 Women’s Indoor Tennis Championships. The championships were scheduled to be hosted by Columbia University, but were cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.

“While the team is disappointed about losing an opportunity to see how the Ivies play, it’s okay because now we have more time to practice,” Young said.

Cornell is now prepared to host Albany at 9:30 a.m. and Farleigh Dickson at 3 p.m. this Saturday in Reis Tennis Center.

CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Game, set, match | Senior Sarah O’Neil won both her dou-

Deeya Bajaj can be reached at sports@cornellsun.com.

bles and singles matches against Army Saturday.

SOFTBALL

C.U. Kicks Off 2013 Season at George Mason-Patriot Classic

By ANNA FASMAN Sun Contributor

This coming weekend, the Cornell softball team heads to Fairfax, Vir. to compete in the first of three weekends at the George Mason-Patriot Classic. The Red begins its run in the classic against Rider University at 10 a.m on Saturday, followed by a game at 12:15 against the host team, George Mason.

Both George Mason and Rider are coming into the season posting 2-4 and 1-3 records respectively, putting Cornell in a favorable position to earn two wins on day one of the classic this Saturday.

The Red is entering the tournament as a strong competitor, coming off its fourth straight Ivy League South Division title and another 25-win season this past year. Head coach Dick Blood, starting the season with 567 wins and five conference crowns under his belt (the most any coach at Cornell holds in a single sport), is also sure to coach the squad to success both this weekend. and throughout the rest of 2013. Senior catcher Kristen Towne said she is looking forward to the tournament.

“Overall, [the team is] feeling confident that if we play to our ability, we will have a good weekend,” she said.

Cornell has been competing at the George Mason Classic since 2005 and has an overall classic record of 34-18. However, this is the first time that Cornell will be facing Rutgers, which is coming into the classic with a strong record of 2-3. Additionally, Rutgers current head coach Jay Nelson has lead the team to three straight Big East tournament appearances.

The Red will face the Scarlet Knights on Sunday at 9 a.m. and finish the first weekend of the tournament with a second game against Rider at 1:30 before returning to Ithaca. With a strong group of returning players and past success at the classic, the Red looks to come home with some wins before heading into weekend number two at George Mason.

“We are all looking forward to getting out on the field and seeing our first competition of the year,” Towne said.

Anna Fasman can be reached at sports@cornellsun.com.

CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Catch me if you can | The Red begins the 2013 season with its fourth straight Ivy League South Division title and a 25-win season under its belt.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Cornell Topples Griffins in Season Opener

By SYDNEY ALTSHULER Sun Contributor

TINA CHOU / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Best foot forward | Senior Caroline Salisbury drove in for goals for the Red in Saturday’s game.

Women’s lacrosse opened its season Saturday with a 16-0 victory against the Canisius Griffins. Highlights included sophomore Lindsay Toppe scoring four goals and grabbing three assists for a career-high seven points, senior Caroline Salisbury adding four goals for the Red and junior Rachel Moody bringing in seven points with two goals and five assists. Additionally, senior goalkeeper Courtney Gallagher had a total of eight saves in net.

The Red’s focus throughout the game was on fine-tuning its “hustle stats,” according to members of the squad.

“We went into the game focusing on opening our season on a strong note by improving our hustle stats, meaning we wanted to cause more turnovers, dominate draw controls and control ground balls,” freshman Abby Hanson said.

The game was close for the entire 60 minutes of playtime, but the Red never trailed. The team entered the second half with a three-goal lead that drove its momentum for the remainder of the game.

The Red capitalized on draw controls for scoring and netted three goals in succession directly after winning the draw at the onset of the second period.

“Performing well on draw controls allowed us to get three goals right off the bat at the beginning of the second period, which gave us a good cushion,” Hanson said.

The Red is ready to start the season off on a win, but knows that it must make improvements before its upcoming game against Harvard.

“We are celebrating the win of our first game of the season, but we didn’t play to our best potential, and we have to get focused now for Harvard, our home-opener,” freshman midfielder

Maddie Kiep said.

Cornell will face Harvard on Saturday, for its first Ivy-League contest of the year.

“I’m excited but nervous because it will most likely be a close game. We’ve beat them the past two years so we hope to continue that streak this year,” freshman midfielder Shelby McNeilly said.

The team is turning to its seniors for strong leadership and a positive morale for an extra boost in tough match-ups such as this one. The ten freshmen in particular — the future of the Red’s women’s lacrosse program — looks to the seniors as role models.

“The seniors are great leaders. They have a really strong work ethic, they lead by example and they give a good vibe on the field. Their passion for securing wins is contagious,” Kiep said.

Sydney Altshuler can be reached at sports@cornellsun.com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2013

16

TRACK AND FIELD

Red Brings Heps Back to Hill

By JUAN CARLOS TOLEDO

[senior] Nick Wade each scored 16 points.”

Wade was more excited about the meet as a whole than just performing as an individual.

It was an exciting weekend for the Red at the Heps “That was pretty surreal,” he said. “It’s really hard to put Championship indoor track and field meet at Harvard. The into words. It was probably the best indoor Heps that’s ever men’s team edged defending champion Princeton by just one occurred [if you could] measure it in terms of intensity. I point to bring the indoor Heps title back to Cornell for the don’t think I’ll ever experience that again in my life — it was first time since 2009. The women’s team also had a strong amazing.” showing but came up short, finAlthough the women’s team ishing the meet in second place “It was probably the best indoor Heps finished in second place, women’s behind Harvard. coach Rich Bowman spoke that’s ever occurred [if you could] head “Most of the people at the about how proud the squad is meet who are long time Heps despite coming up short. measure it in terms of intensity.” people said that that was the “I was just so proud of how well Nick Wade most incredible Heps meet they competed,” he said. “We did they’ve been to in 30 years,” said [the] best job that we could have men’s head coach Nathan Taylor. “The crowd just blew the done. We just got beat by a team that was just a tad bit better roof off the venue for eight hours.” than us on that weekend. We held nothing back.”

Top individual accolades went to the Red’s athletes who The loss to Harvard, according to Bowman, will serve as took first in their events. Junior Montez Blair took first in the motivation for the squad to get going during the outdoor high jump, and senior co-captain J.D. Adarquah reclaimed season. his title in the 60m dash. Senior Bruno Hortelano in the “It gives us that much more motivation to really take it 400m and junior Will Weinlandt in the 800m were among outdoors,” he said. “I think we’re going to use this as a motitop finishers for the Red. Taylor was quick to point out, vational factor for the outdoor season.” though, that there were many unsung heroes for Cornell.

Senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi defended her title from “Some of the real ... efforts were guys like [junior] Chris last year’s Heps meet in the shot put and said she was pleased Bain,” he said. “He hasn’t been able to really practice or by her performance. compete for weeks and was able to score with a 4th place finSee TRACK page 13 ish in the [60m] dash. [Sophomore] Stephen Mozia and

Sun Staff Writer

C.U. Defeats Statesmen In First Game of the Season

CONNOR ARCHARD / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Full speed ahead | The men’s track and field team beat Princeton by one point last weekend to win the indoor Heps Championship for the first time since 2009.

BASEBALL

Cornell Defense Remains Strong As Team Prepares for 2013 Season

By SCOTT CHIUSANO Assistant Sports Editor

OLIVER KLIEWE / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Comeback kid | Senior attackman Rob Pannell, coming off of a foot injury, scored four goals and five assists in Sunday night’s game against Hobart.

The No. 7 men’s lacrosse team came off of a 19-11 win against Hobart Sunday night, thanks to senior attackman Rob Pannell’s return from injury. In the game against the Statesmen, Pannell led the team with four goals and five assists. It was his first game back after a broken foot put him out for a large amount of last season.

The Red offense scored 12 goals in the second half to defeat Hobart in Cornell’s first game of the season.

Pannell moved into second place on Cornell’s career point list with 261 points. His stellar performance in the game against Hobart helped him earn Player of the Week — the 10th Ivy weekly honor of his career. He was named Rookie of the Week twice during his freshman year and this week marked the eighth time he picked

up Player of the Week.

In the game against Hobart, Cornell’s senior attackman Steve Mock and sophomore midfielder Connor Buczek added an additional push for the Red. Mock matched a career high with five goals for the day, including four goals finished off of Pannell’s feeds.

Buczek scored four goals and assisted on one to put Cornell on top.

Senior goalie A.J. Fiore had a strong performance in the first half and made six saves and then an additional seven in the second half to keep the Red in the lead.

The Cornell men’s lacrosse team played Tuesday in its home opener at 4 p.m. on Schoellkopf against Binghamton. Coverage of that game will follow.

— Compiled by Haley Velasco

There may still be traces of snow on the ground in Ithaca, but the first day of March means the start of baseball season, and the Red is prepared to kick off the 2013 season Friday against Maryland Eastern Shore.

“I think we’re definitely getting there.

Everybody is getting into the groove as we get ready to get going this weekend,” junior outfielder Chris Cruz said.

The Red is coming off a historic season that ended in a trip to the NCAA regionals in Chapel Hill, N.C. It took a hard-fought threegame series against Dartmouth and a walk-off homerun by Cruz in the 11th inning of the final game to get Cornell to the tournament. “[NCAA Regionals] were awesome; I’ve

never experienced anything like that in my career. It was a wild time, and the fans were awesome,” Cruz said. “There was so much on the line, because if you have one good weekend, you can win the regional. … Coming off the year, we had the previous year and to make it there, everyone was really excited.”

Fortunately for the Red, much of the pitching staff that carried the team last season is returning. Sophomores Brian McAffee and Brent Jones combined for a 10-0 record on the hill in the regular season. Junior Connor Kaufmann — who pitched the program’s first no-hitter last year against Dartmouth — will also return to lead the staff. Sophomore reliever and the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Kellen Urbon, will once again anchor the rotaSee BASEBALL page 14

XIAOYUE GUO / SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Eye on the ball | The Red is looking forward to the start of its 2013 season. Last year, junior Connor Kaufmann pitched Cornell’s first no-hitter last year against Dartmouth.