INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 131, No. 113
MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
12 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
International Affair
Raw Design
Go for Gold
Snow Showers HIGH: 24º LOW: 13º
Students attend the first-ever International Gala at the Johnson Museum Friday. | Page 3
Shay Collins ‘18 immersed himself in design at the [RAW] expo and thumbnail Friday. | Page 6
Athlete Ally will host two Olympic athletes Wednesday night. | Page 12
Student-Run Grocery Proposed
Center stage
Aims to provide healthful, affordable options to students
year, and have been working since.” Matthew Stefanko ’16, vice president for finance for the S.A. and another leader on the project, said that although A student-run grocery store that aims to make healthful there are a number of “high-quality dining options” at and affordable food more accessible to Cornell students is Cornell, a lot of the food is tailored toward middle-and expected to open in the basement of Anabel Taylor Hall in higher-income students. “Grocery options are limited to people who have the abilthe fall, according to Emma Johnston ’16, one of the leaders ity to access a car, so many students are frequently forced to of the project. “It will have a tiered pricing that offers food scholarships buy groceries at 7/11 or Jason’s and the rent in Collegetown to students based on their financial need,” said Johnston, who drives their prices up significantly,” Stefanko said. “At the end of the day, food is either inaccessible because of its disis also Student Assembly arts and sciences representative. “By connecting with local farmers and vendors, we hope tance away from campus or [because it is] too expensive.” The grocery store will be entirely studentrun and will operate under the nonprofit “We began to formulate the idea of Center for Transformative Action, according to creating a sort of grocery store or food Johnston. “All of the managers and workers of the store cooperative at the end of the spring will be students,” Johnston said. “We have about seven students working to design the semester last year.” store itself. One of my favorite parts about this Emma Johnston ’16 project is that it’s allowing students with expertise in a wide variety of disciplines to gain releto reconnect students to the food they eat and increase our vant hands-on experience in their field of study.” The process of designing the grocery store is also being ties with the local economy,” she added. According to Johnston, a group of faculty members and undertaken completely by students as well, according to administrators set out to try to solve the problem of food Kelly Guo ’17, who is leading the team of design and enviinsecurity across campus several years ago. They developed a ronmental analysis and architecture students working to rensmall food pantry in 626 Thurston, along with weekly ovate the building. “The actual layout of what the grocery market is still in lunches in different campus centers. “There is a large amount of stigma around being a low- the making … but we want this space to be inclusive to all income student here, and we didn’t want to increase the students,” Guo said. “Because our goal is to subsidize studivide between students by creating a place where only food dents financially when purchasing food, we want to create insecure students would receive food,” Johnston said. “We an environment that does not discriminate against users began to formulate the idea of creating a sort of grocery store because they have certain needs.” Guo said her team is currently planning on adding in refrigor food cooperative at the end of the spring semester last
By OLIVIA LUTWAK Sun Staff Writer
SAMANTHA BRIGGS / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Hearsay a Cappella performs its “Cirque de Hearsay” concert Friday in Call Auditorium.
eration, redoing the ceiling, putting in more environmentally efficient and less visually disruptive lighting and adding areas of food education, such as graphics or cooking tutorials. “We also need to figure out ways to help students find their way into the store within Anabel Taylor Hall and on campus,” Guo said. “We plan on extending the hours of the grocery mart to late nights … in case students need to graband-go.” See STORE page 4
COLA Continues Qatar Campaign Lawsuit Against C.U.
Employee Withdrawn
By PHOEBE KELLER Sun Assistant News Editor
BRITTNEY CHEW / SUN NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Fighting for justice | Students protest unfair working conditions for workers at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar on Ho Plaza Friday.
Cornell Organization for Labor Action conducted an experiment with Ordinary People — a social justice theatre troupe — on Ho Plaza Friday, as part of their campaign calling for administrative action to remedy labor abuses at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. The organization wrote a letter to President Skorton earlier this month, decrying the poor conditions of impoverished workers at the Qatar campus. On Friday, representatives from both organizations distributed flyers advertising summer jobs to passing Cornell students outside of Willard Straight Hall, according to Jazlin Gomez ’16, a member of Ordinary People. “COLA came to us and really just wanted a creative action that was very visible, so we all collaborated and came up with this idea to advertise jobs,” she said. “We make the jobs seem really appealing, and make people think people are promised something, and then its completely different.” After students expressed interest in the advertised summer jobs, the club representatives began to reveal the disparities between the the benefits advertised and the true job descripSee LABOR page 5
By SOFIA HU Sun News Editor
A $1.25 million defamation lawsuit against a Cornell employee was withdrawn by the plaintiff Wednesday, according
Silberling, who he was in a relationship with in 2011, undertook a “malicious campaign to utterly destroy [his] personal and professional reputation” by posting “defamatory” posts on blogs titled “John Wender
“Any allegations against me were bogus. I am still in shock that I was accused and sued. I simply did not do it.” Louise Silberling M.S. ’91 to court documents. In November 2013, New York City architect John Wender charged Louise Silberling M.S. ’92 grad — an editorial associate for The Philosophical Review, a top quarterly journal edited by the faculty of Cornell’s Sage School of Philosophy — with libel. Wender alleged that
Sleazy Cheater” and “John Wender’s Weiner,” according to documents. Over 15 months after he first brought the lawsuit against Silberling, Wender withdrew the lawsuit without citing any reason in court documents. Silberling’s lawyer, Jared See LAWSUIT page 4