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News

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Sports

Weather

The Want Project

Pacific Rim Uprising

Home Opener

Clear

Several banners on campus hoped to spread messages of female empowerment.

Baseball splits double header against Niagara, winning the second game of the season.

Zachary Lee ’20 discusses his experience watching Pacific Rim Uprising.

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Local Man Receives 25 Years for Collegetown Murder

Michael Davis pleads guilty to the second-degree murder of Josie Berrios,transgender woman of color

By SHRUTI JUNEJA

other protected categories of people,” Van Houten said. “The victim and the defendant were in a domestic relationMichael Davis, a 47-year old ship. The victim was not singled out Dryden man, received the maximum because of who she was. It was a crime prison sentence Friday for killing Josie of domestic violence, not a hate Berrios, a 28-year old Ithaca resident. crime.”

Berrios’ body was discovVan Houten said that ered last June near the although Davis waived his Breazzano Center construcright to most of his appellate tion site at 209-215 Dryden arguments, there is still the Avenue in Collegetown and possibility of an appeal.

Davis was arrested by the “What I learned throughIthaca Police less than 24 out the case and especially at hours after the discovery, sentencing is that Josie The Sun previously reportBerrios was someone who ed. was very well loved and DAVIS Davis pleaded guilty to wanted and respected and second-degree murder and was sen- courageous within the community,” he tenced to 25 years in prison. said. “I think that’s the thing we “That’s what we felt he deserved,” should take away from this … is that District Attorney Matthew Van she was taken away from this commuHouten told The Sun. “We’re happy nity and she was a bright light that with the court’s ruling.” shined on the community.”

Berrios was a transgender woman of Berrios, also known as Kimbella color and was in a personal relation- Rosé and Kendra Adams, was one of ship with Davis. Although prosecutors the founding members of The House did consider charging Davis with a of Merlot, a drag performance troupe hate crime, there was not sufficient in Ithaca, and was an active member of evidence. the LGBTQ+ community.

“What a hate crime is defined as [is] “A proud trans woman of color, she one victim selected or singled out for always tried her best to make new pergender, orientation, or religion or formers feel comfortable in our

Sun News Editor

OMAR ABDUL-RAHIM / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Murder | The body of Josie Berrios, a 28-year old Ithaca resident, was discovered near the Breazzano Center construction site (above) in Collegetown last June.

spaces,” The House of Merlot posted on its Facebook page after her death.

“She recognised the realness in all of us without question and made us feel beautiful. She was part of so many families here in Ithaca, that many are

Greek Community Volunteers Provide Day of Service for Ithaca

By EMILY YANG Sun Staff Writer

Members of Cor nell’s Greek life interacted with the Ithaca community on Satur-

day for a day of service during the biannual Greeks Give Back event, which was hosted by the tri-council of the Interfraternity, Panhellenic and Multi -

COURTESY OF ANDREW KANG

Greeks give back | Greek life members do volunteer bike repair work at Recycle Ithaca’s Bicycles.

cultural Greek Letter Councils.

According to Grace Burgin, vice president of university and community relations for the Panhellenic Council, over 780 students signed up to volunteer, which was one of the highest numbers in recent years.

The program allows Greek students to “explore the greater Ithaca area and discover some really neat places that provide the backbone for the Ithaca and Cornell community,” said Chris Ga lantino, vice president of university and community relations for the Interfraternity

feeling stunned and lost following this news. Her presence is still felt, and will never be forgotten.”

Shruti Juneja can be reached at sjuneja@cornellsun.com.

GPSA Resolution Passed for LGBT Resource Center

By BREANNE FLEER Sun News Editor

including tions, the Paleontological

The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly passed a resolution on Monday calling on the University to take steps to facilitate communication with the LGBTQ+ community regarding changes to support services, such as those provided by the LGBT Resource Center.

The resolution specifically requests the release of “campus-wide communication” that would clarify these changes and the creation of a “University Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs” that would include LGBTQ+ representatives from different communities to “review Cornell’s support infrastructure for the LGBTQ+ com-

See GREEKS page 4

See GPSA page 4

COURTESY OF MARETE SEYMOUR ’19

March for our lives | Cornellians volunteer as peacekeepers at Saturday’s rally against gun violence as part of the Greeks Give Back event.

Council.

Students donated their time to approximately 16 organiza-

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Daybook

DAYBOOK

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Today

Historic Maps From Paper to the Screen 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., Olin Library, Digital CoLab, 701

Introduction to Korean Botanic Gardens 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., Plant Science Building, 404

LASSP and Biophysics Colloquium With Alexandra Zidovska 4:00 p.m., Clark Hall, 700

Food Science Graduate Seminar 4:00 - 5:00 p.m., Stocking Hall, PepsiCo Auditorium

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., Mann Library, Makerspace

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Ruth Messinger: What’s Jewish About Social Justice?

4:30 p.m., Goldwin Smith Hall, Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium Linguistics Speaker: Shobha Satyanth 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., Morrill Hall, 107

Tomorrow Economics Coffee and Bagels 9:30 - 11:00 a.m., Uris Hall, Economics Graduate Lounge

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Magnolia and hibiscus| Professor Yong-Shik Kim, director

Introduction to Rhodes & Marshall Scholarships 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., Barnes Hall, 103

of the Chollipo Arboretum Foundation in Korea and professor emeritus at Yeungnam University, will discuss the history of botanic gardens in Korea.

LEPP Theory Seminar: Anson Hook, University of Maryland 2:00 p.m., Physical Sciences Building, 401

“Transnational Kurdish Cinema: Aesthetics, Memory, and the Archive” With Ozgur Cicek Noon - 1:00 p.m., Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 124 Academic Freedom and Authoritarian Governance: Reflections on the China Quarterly Censorship Incident Noon - 2:00 p.m., Uris Hall, G08

www. cor

Artist Talk: Jompet Kuswidananto 2:30 - 4:30 p.m., Johnson Museum of Art, Wing lecture room Cornell Health: “Let’s Talk” Walk-In Consultations 2:30 p.m., East Sibley Hall, 146

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COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Contemporary art | Javanese artist Jompet Kuswidananto wil discuss his work from the Fourth Cornell Modern Indonesia Project “State of the Field” Conference.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018 3

NEWS

The ‘Want Project’ Hopes to Spread Female Empowerment

By GIRISHA ARORA and ALEXIA GE Sun Managing Editor and Sun Contributor

This International Women’s Day, “The Want Project” displayed several banners in the Sage atrium, Statler Hall and Willard Straight Hall that challenged

the traditional perceptions of how women “should” behave in society.

“Women have been the recipients of the word ‘should’ and it shows the constraints that women face,” said Shaibyaa Rajbhandari ’18.

The banners contained statements ranging from how women “should wear makeup” and “should have children” to how they “want to have an orgasm”, “want a level playing field” and “want to be a CEO.” Rajbhandari, one of the three students who worked on the campaign, explained the motivation of launching The Want Project in an interview with The Sun.

“Women have been the recipients of the word ‘should’ and it shows the constraints that women face.”

Shaibyaa Rajbhandari ’18 BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Signs of change | After the removal of The Want Project’s banner in Sage Hall, a comment board was put up instead.

She said it started last year when she reached out to Kate Huffman grad who was collecting “should statements.” When the Should Project did not materialize, Rajbhandari and Huffman decided to “do the opposite of should and focus on wants.”

According to Huffman, this year’s Want Project gathered over 280 statements while last year’s unfinished Should Project only had 100.

The banners went up in the early morning on March 8 and by 4 p.m., the ones in Willard Straight Hall and Sage Hall had been taken down, but the one in Statler remained.

Rajbhandari said that the management of Willard Straight did not give a reason as to why the banner was taken down.

The building managers of Sage Hall, on the other hand, reached out to her and said they had to take it down since the group was “not affiliated with the busi-

Voice for women | Shaibyaa Rajbhandari ’18, one of the organizers of The Want Project.

ness school” and because an outside event was being hosted in the atrium.

However, pictures of the banner were taken and put up on one side of the atrium, and a marker board was made available for anyone who wanted to leave comments. Additionally, pictures were circulated to all MBA students in an email later that day to call their attention to the campaign.

“I really appreciate it that they are not trying to silence us,” Rajbhandari said.

In addition to the banners that were put up on campus, the team released a video that featured women reading out the “want” statements and men reading out the “should” statements in first person. As of print, the See WOMEN page 5

Students From Across the Nation Brainstorm Safer Party Culture Schools from Ivies to local community colleges share ideas to address differences between campuses

By ANNE SNABES Sun Assistant News Editor

Students from across the Ivy League and the nation brainstormed ways to promote a safe party scene at their respective schools through a working group at Cornell on March 16 -17.

Dustin Liu ’19, an organizer of the meeting and human resources manager for The Sun, said the ILR School’s Smithers Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies developed the idea to gather student leaders from various schools to “understand what we needed to do to create a safe party culture on campus.”

Students from MIT, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova, Tompkins Cortland Community College and others traveled to Cornell to participate in the working group, according to the ILR website.

Liu said the day was divided into three sections: the first aimed to “understand” the party culture at each school, the second looked at the difficulties of changing the culture and the last allowed participants to develop “action steps” that they could carry out at their own schools.

“One of the main things we saw was that it was really important to acknowledge how different campuses have different party cultures,” he said. This included assessing the differences between schools that do have Greek life and those that do not.

Liu also said that the “exclusivity” associated with party culture was a theme of the day. Students party with their organizations or attend parties they are invited to, instead having a “very open social scene,” according to Liu. “We think that a large component of

COURTESY OF DUSTIN LIU ’19

Party problems | Students from nine different institutions of higher learning came to Cornell to discuss the nationwide issue of campus party culture.

that is the lack of community that students may feel, which creates an unsafe culture where they don’t necessarily feel supported,” he said.

Liu discussed how underclassman are “coached” by upperclassman about how the party culture works.

“Many people shared that upperclassman perpetuate the culture that they themselves do not necessarily agree with,” he said.

Lauren Goldstein ’20, an organizer of the working group, serves as president of Cayuga’s Watchers, a student run-organization that monitors parties to make sure they remain safe and a co-sponsor of the conference. Goldstein presented Cayuga’s Watchers as a “solution that has worked

well on Cornell’s campus.”

“That being said, it wouldn’t necessarily work on every campus, because of the different party cultures and campus environments,” Goldstein said.

She said that participants brainstormed solutions that would be more applicable to their own campuses, as well as “more subtle cultural shifts and conversations, and [the] kind of steps to take with administrators at their schools.”

Cornell community members also spoke at the event, including Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life, Prof. William Sonnenstuhl, organizational behavior, and Prof. Samuel Bacharach, organizational behavior. The faculty speakers study party culture and

organizational behavior, Goldstein said.

“The professors provided a better context for the students, explaining why the work they are doing is so important, and how their actions can have a lasting impact," she said.

Liu said it was “really interesting” to look at how academia applied to students’ daily lives, including how students might not talk honestly about drinking and party culture because of how they perceive others’ experiences.

Liu said organizers are planning a “virtual working group” involving 14 different colleges — some of whom attended the March meeting and some of whom did not in order to continue engaging with the issue.

Manpreet Kaur, a student at Tompkins Cortland Community College, also participated in the workshop. She told The Sun her campus is alcohol-free, so students party outside of the campus.

Due to this, most of Kaur’s ideas concerned transportation resources for students. “Issues with drinking and driving increase because students on campus are traveling elsewhere to engage in this culture,” she said. “How can we make that safe?”

Kaur said the working group allowed her to think about the party culture on her campus.

“At TC3, party culture isn’t really the hot topic of conversation as it is a dry campus,” she said. “This conference really made me think about the ways in which students on our campus may be finding ways to engage in party culture, because students will always find a way to do so and it’s necessary to keep them safe.”

Anne Snabes can be reached at asnabes@cornellsun.com

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

NEWS

GPSA Calls For Better Communication With LGBTQ+ Community

GPSA resolution written in response to E.A. resolution seeking to limit faculty and staff access to the LBGT Resource Center GPSA

Continued from page 1

munity and to advise the administration regarding future changes.”

Additionally, the resolution advocates for “the strategic planning of the expansion of the LGBTRC,” according to the resolution.

GPSA Resolution 9 comes as a response to Employee Assembly Resolution 8, which was adopted by the E.A. on Nov. 9.

E.A. Resolution 8 called on the administration to rescind a directive issued by the Dean of Students in 2017 “for the LGBTRC to no longer serve staff and faculty due to [it] being understaffed,” according to the language of E.A. Resolution 8.

Manisha Munasinghe grad, executive vice president of GPSA and a co-sponsor of the GPSA resolution, told The Sun that to some involved parties, President Martha E. Pollack’s Jan. 2 acknowledgement of E.A. Resolution 8 “seemed to indicate that the faculty and staff were not going to be allowed to use the LGBTRC in the way that they’ve historically been allowed to.”

Pollack wrote in her acknowledgement that while LGBTQ+ faculty and staff would still be able to “visit” the LGBTRC, “to provide the appropriate levels of service, separating educational and support services for students from faculty and staff allows Cornell to meet the unique needs of our LGBTQ students, as they pursue their degrees.”

Munasinghe discussed how the GPSA resolution was drafted in light of Pollack’s response.

“So we wrote this resolution sort of to express our solidarity with our LGBTQ+ faculty and staff col-

leagues and say that they should have equal access to the programming put on by the LGBTRC,” she said.

However, University leaders including Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life and Dean of Students Vijay Pendakur clarified in a meeting with the GPSA resolution’s sponsors that faculty and staff will still be able to use the LGBTRC for programming, according to GPSA Resolution 9.

The Division of Human Resources will handle “staff diversity and inclusion training” and “bias incidents,” according to the resolution.

Munasinghe expressed her concerns about the communication between the University and faculty and students regarding these LGBTRC changes.

“We’re just really frustrated that it wasn’t communicated effectively to not only the employees but also to students,” she told The Sun. Munasinghe, however, said she is “encouraged” after a “productive meeting with the administration.” She told The Sun that she thinks changes will occur, and she emphasized the importance of including the LGBTQ+ community in conversations about future policy.

“I think LGBTQ+ community members across the board sort of sometimes get left out of the conversation when we’re talking about diversity and inclusion,” she said.

“I think not only with sort of this [University Council on LGBTQ+ Affairs] but also with the new creation of the Loving House, I think it’s really important to make sure that everybody, you know, across constituencies can come together and think about what are the best next steps for Cornell to best support LGBTQ+ community members,” she added.

After voting on Resolution 9, GPSA also passed

Resolution 12: “Calling for the Creation of a Graduate and Professional Student Specific ‘Notice and Respond: Friend 2 Friend’ Workshops.”

This resolution requests that the administration fund a graduate and professional student workshop analogous to the bystander intervention F2F Workshop available to undergraduate students. The F2F

“So we wrote this resolution sort of to express our solidarity with our LGBTQ+ faculty and staff colleagues.”

Manisha Munasinghe grad Workshop “was designed to help students to consider their role in Cornell’s support support network and ways they might respond when peers show signs of distress,” according to a University press release from November 2011.

Munasinghe, who also co-sponsored Resolution 12, told The Sun that the resolution will be particularly important because of the disproportionate impact of mental health issues on graduate and professional students.

“The hope was that by creating a Notice and Respond: Friend 2 Friend workshop specifically for graduate and professional students, we could help graduate students intervene when they see students in their program who are suffering, and making sure they can actually get the support they need from Cornell,” she said.

BreAnne Fleer can be reached at bfleer@cornellsun.com.

Greek Tri-Council Organizes Community Service in Ithaca GREEKS

Continued from page 1

Research Institution, Friends of the Library and Ithaca Community Childcare. Due to the large number of students, many were also assigned to the Letter Writing Campaign to support groups such as Cards for Hospitalized Kids and Soldier's Gratitude, according to Galantino.

“Given how much of the undergraduate population is Greek, there is a lot of potential for impactful work,” Galantino said. The event forces students out of the “college bubble” and “has a unique and incomparable effect on the student perception of Cornell's neighbors and friends,” he said.

This year, the Tri-Council collaborated with Greeks Go Green to offer more opportunities for sustainability focused projects, according to Galantino. In addition to many other new endeavors, students helped expand the Sustainable Finger Lakes Map and worked with Recycle Ithaca’s Bicycles to assemble and test bikes.

Some Greeks Give Back participants also played a special role as peacekeepers

during the March for Our Lives demonstration in downtown Ithaca on Saturday.

The vice presidents from each of the three councils spent over a month planning the large event, including reaching out to community organizations, assigning shifts and coordinating transportation.

Burgin said that a major concern was about whether volunteers who signed up would uphold their commitments.

“The biggest fear when putting on an event like this is that you'll tell the community partners how many people are coming, they’ll take the time to set up projects for them, and no one comes to their shift,” she said.

However, lack of participation did not prove to be as much of problem this year, according to Galantino.

“It was as exhausting as it was rewarding,” he said.

Burgin said that the importance of Greeks Give Back was to allow members to extend their impact beyond the typical fundraisers.

“There’s nothing wrong with fundraising for your cause, but I think the current culture around philanthropy is missing something really important:

COURTESY OF HARRISON JOHNSON ’18

Greek service | PIKE brothers volunteered at the Westhaven farm on Saturday. the why,” Burgin said. “If members don’t really know why they are putting on these events and raising all of the money that they do, the philanthropic spirit is

gone.”

Emily Yang can be reached at eyang@cornellsun.com.

visit us online at www.

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NEWS

The ‘Want Project’ Calls for Progress

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Want for change | Banners were hung in three locations on campus displaying statements collected from Cornell women.

WOMEN

Continued from page 3

video had garnered over 13,000 views on Facebook.

According to J.J. Erpaiboon ’18, the video’s producer and the third student working on “The Want Project,” the purpose of featuring both men and women in the video was to “put guys in the shoes of women” and encourage allyship.

“After we were done shooting the video a lot of men came up to us and told us that actually saying the statements out loud and ‘internalizing’ them changed the way they saw the ‘common stereotypes of women,’ even though such

words were not new to them,” Erpaiboon said.

Aside from the banners and featured video, the team is looking into “phase two”, in which stories from behind the scenes will be released periodically to maintain sustained interest in the project.

The team is determined to transform this project into a long-term cause at Cornell. “We don’t want it to be a once a year celebration and then it’s over,” said Rajbhandari.

Girisha Arora can be reached at garora@cornellsun.com.

Alexia Ge can be reached at qg29@cornell.edu.

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018 5

OPINION

Julia Khan | The Yale Daily News

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Blessing of a B-

Independent Since 1880 136TH EDITORIAL BOARD JACOB S. KARASIK RUBASHKIN ’19 Editor in Chief

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The Blessing of a B- was the name of a book that I often used to see around my home. Its orange cover and rainbow spine would always draw my eye as I passed by its bookshelf. I didn’t realize it was a parenting book until I became curious and read the back cover, on which author Wendy Mogel extols reframing worries and frustrations as blessings to promote resilience in the adolescent offspring of her readers. That’s as far as I got. It was a little too insightful for my 16-year-old self. I wedged it back on the shelf.

Yet I have always remembered that title, maybe because of the snappy alliteration, but also because I thought that calling something like a B- a blessing was odd. I don’t consider grades to be blessings. The gratifi-

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taken. What grade did I receive? It’s not important, nor do I care or remember. What I do remember, however, is the gratification I felt from debugging code or the reprieve every time a problem set compiled.

The amount that I learned from the course rendered the grade completely unimportant.

In college, my attitude about class selection and grades has changed drastically. Instead of gravitating toward subjects that I’m good at, I’m more concerned with which subjects are good for me, regardless of difficulty. My transcript is not some pristine treasure that requires curation. If taking courses that expand my skill set and breadth of knowledge sully it, all the better, because I will graduate with more to show for my education and ability.

I’ve found myself in a plethora of foreign language, biology, history, psychology, archaeology and sociology courses. I’ve recently been on a statistics binge. Because I take so many classes outside my majors, I’m constantly asked, “What are you doing here?” I often encounter surprised, skeptical reactions to my conscious choice to take demanding courses that I want, rather than need, to take.

The tendency of many students is to remain comfortably within their realms of study, rarely veering into new subjects and only dabbling in diverse fields to fill distributional requirements. We are unwilling to risk our carefully crafted transcripts and GPAs. Yale students need to learn the value of being challenged and how to practice academic resilience if a difficult class results in disappointment.

We don’t learn for learning’s sake anymore. A spot at Yale promises frustration and struggle, and if we allow this to discourage us from intellectual enrichment, we run the risk of graduating as one-dimensional people. It takes practice to confront, work through and accept challenge.

In Judaism, to study is to perform a mitzvah, or good deed. The choice to study tedious subjects is considered an honorable endeavor for selfbetterment and growth. The difficulty of learning can dampen the desire to challenge oneself when the reward is a grade. In my mind, the act of receiving a grade signifies perseverance, not failure or success. It means you’ve made it through a class with knowledge you didn’t possess before.

No grade, regardless of the letter, can devalue what you’ve gained. There’s always a blessing in a B-.

Students need to learn the value of being challenged and how to practice academic resilience if a difficult class results in disappointment. cation that I find upon receiving them is rooted in feelings of fulfillment from my achievement.

In high school, I most enjoyed the classes in which I excelled. Being challenged wasn’t quite on my mind, and I wasn’t unique in that regard.

Like most high school students with their eyes on college, I was considering the whole picture: an ideal balance of difficult yet doable classes to produce the perfect transcript. A pediatrician that I’d visited as a teenager hit it on the nail when, about to stick a tongue depressor down my throat, she said, “Now Julia, what do you want your high school transcript to read when you apply to college?” It was terrifying.

College was a different ballgame.

During my first semester, I was floored by the number of course opportunities and subjects I’d never heard of. To top off a comically diverse course load, I enrolled in CS50 and subsequently attended every minute of every office hours, four nights a week. After those ended at 11 p.m., I would sometimes continue working until 4 a.m.

Some of my dearest friends struggled alongside me that semester. We still laugh and shake our heads incredulously that we devoted so much time to one course that first year. “Never again will I take a computer science class. My transcript is still recovering,” they lament. “I have my two QR credits. That is enough for a lifetime.”

But that wasn’t my last computer science course, and no, I’m not a computer science major. It was and still is one of the hardest classes I’ve

Julia Kahn is a junior in Silliman College at Yale University. IvyWire runs occasionally.

CORRECTIONS A Monday article, “McGraw Hall Renovation Plan Back in Motion After 7-Year Suspension,” referred to McGraw Hall as the second-oldest building on campus. It is the third-oldest building on campus by construction date.

A Monday letter to the editor stated that student subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal through the Collegiate Readership Program were funded by the Student Assembly at $2.50 per student. The S.A. Resolution stated the cost was $1.75 per student. The Sun regrets these errors.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018 7

OPINION

Willow Hibsher | Not a Sex Column

I

am now 22 years old and I can drink legally but, for much of my Cornell career, I was underage. I came into college with the I.D. of a friend of a friend who looked kind of like me and whose name was “Yelena.” That got taken at a liquor store and then I used a string of fakes before I turned 21. Being underage in Collegetown is more of an obstacle than a barrier. The bar scene here is always changing but there will forever be three or four places that 18 and 19 and 20 year olds can get into if they know the right tricks.

Some of these bars don’t care at all. My Korean friend from freshman year got in with a white girl’s I.D. Some of the other bar’s don’t look at your I.D. at all and just see if it scans. For most of the “underage friendly” spots, your chances of getting in depend greatly on who the bouncer is, what time it is and how busy the place is. One Collegetown bar in particular has this one bouncer who lets in all the underage girls — but not for nothing.

I met this man my freshman year, when my roommate and I would go out drinking almost every night of the week. He would always let us in if he was working, greet us by name (except he thought my name was Yelena) and give us a hug. This bouncer knows everyone, especially the girls. And he knows the I.D.s are fake. He must! Halfway through my sophomore year when I was no longer Yelena from Massachusetts but rather Cara from Connecticut, he still let me in. But every “you’re good” or stamp on your hand came with an uncomfortable touch on your back or a hug that lasted little too long.

Can I See Your I.D.?

He walks all through the bar, putting his arms around girls, grabbing waists and asses and kissing cheeks. We all accepted this as the norm. This was the toll we had to pay. We had a reliable bar to get into if we could suffer through the creepy bounc-

er, and we did. He handed out his number with the instructions to “text him if you had trouble getting in,” knowing full well that if you did, you would have to feel his hot breath on your neck as he told you how good you looked. But all your friends are inside and you’re already dressed up and it is cold out and your girls are pressuring you to just do it. There was no one to complain to because even if he was inappropriate, we were still underage.

Last month, my older sister came to visit and I decided to take her to this bar where I had spent many a weeknight taking shots out of little plastic cups. Sure enough, he was standing outside the bar, checking I.D.s and exhibiting the same predatory behavior he has for at least the 4

years I’ve been here, probably longer.

Seeing this play out, as someone removed from the situation, was sickening. I understood the desire to get in the bar and get it over with I also appreciate the vulnerability that younger girls feel in this situation.

life, a rite of passage that I would be robbing future girls of. But then I remembered that although this is normal, it is not OK. If you want to say that underage girls shouldn’t go to bars, then fine. What I am arguing is that women should not be harassed for taking part in something that almost all college kids do. Telling women they have to be harassed to enjoy the same things as their male classmates is not only a dangerous precedent to set, but sounds eerily similar to telling a girl she is asking for it because of her short skirt.

I don’t really go to this bar anymore.

I’ve swapped Long Islands and for White karaoke Russians and reality TV. Still, I believe this is a REBECCA DAI / SUN SKETCH ARTIST topic that needs to be The choice to be groped and get to be addressed. The most obvious solution is to lower the drinking age so that vulnerability social or stay home is unfair and sexist.

Drinking is a part of the college experi- of college freshmen and sophomores is not ence and telling girls to just wait until they exploited as a way for male bouncers to are 21 is like preaching abstinence: it does- cop a feel. Otherwise, Collegetown busin't work. This is a distinctly gendered nesses should be more cognisant of the issue. Boys would sometimes get in and way their employees treat their clients — sometimes they wouldn’t, depending on not that I believe that management does how good their I.D.s were; that’s it. Even not know exactly what is going on. We at Cornell, social pressures and an arbitrary need more female staff in nightlife and we drinking age force girls to commodify their need to punish people who treat women as own sexuality and we allow this to happen. sexual commodities, whether the women I understand the hypocrisy of me talk- should be allowed into the bar or not. ing about this now. I’ve reaped the benefits of this crooked system and yet now I am Willow Hubsher is a senior in the School of and Labor Relations. She can be sounding the alarm. My reticence to write Industrial reached at wrh73@cornell.edu. This is Not a about this issue has stemmed from the Sex Column appears alternate Tuesdays this thought that maybe this is just a part of semester.

Artur Gorokh | Radically Moderate

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conomists often talk of the metaphorical pie that keeps growing with every passing year. Economy has been in fact steadily multiplying for more than a century now: for example, our GDP per capita now is 5 times what it has been in the 1950s; we are collectively producing 5 times more stuff per person.

But, when I take a look around, I do not see people kicking back to enjoy the prosperity our ancestors couldn’t have imagined. Even in the somewhat elitist bubble I inhabit people worry an awful lot about the money and the jobs.

This mismatch between the numbers and felt reality puzzles me a great deal, in a way that an NFL star is puzzled when he discovers the millions he earned through sweat and trauma have somehow vaporized between the lines of contracts and lawyer fees.

Some, given this premise, would turn to Marxism, proclaiming that the exploiting 1% is sucking up all the benefits of the improved economy, leaving everyone else stuck in the conditions of the past. This claim certainly has some truth to it, but the economic weight of the wealthiest is sometimes overestimated. Let me illustrate.

Imagine (and you really need to strain your creative muscles

Where Is Our Pie?

for this one) America elects a socialist — scratch that — communist president who manages to pass a law that distributes all income equally. Using either magic or hypnosis she then manages to convince everyone to show up for their jobs the next day as if nothing happened to the underlying incentives.

Economy still outputs the same amount of stuff, and every family of three is making $73,000 (the average household income as of now).

What strikes me about this number is just how low it is.

Such an income doesn’t make you poor (unless we’re talking San Francisco), but not particularly affluent either. It’s only about $15,000 more than what most people live on right now (median income is about $60,000). Take this number and subtract taxes, housing, insurance, car maintenance, groceries, babycare and you’re barely left with anything. Having fulfilled the communist ambition in the wealthiest of states, we are left with everyone still absorbed in the material concerns. At the same time we are purportedly producing 5 times more value than back in the Eisenhower days, so what is going on?

The first explanation that comes to mind is the inefficiency accumulated in the system.

We waste resource on stuff we don’t really need. The U.S. is spending half a trillion dollars on military (more than it did in the midst of Cold War, inflation adjusted!) and the medical system is spending a trillion dollars on people who are going to die within 2 months. Higher education cost has increased more than tenfold in its cost in the last 40 years without any apparent improvement its quality, and don't get me started on lawyers.

It's a very eye-opening experience to look at the employment statistics and see just how few people are involved in actually producing anything of value.

This is a personal experience as well: many of my friends and acquaintances, that is the ones who knew better than to apply to grad school, are busy doing things associated with sales, finance and bureaucracy. They are dealing in and being paid for handling abstractions built upon abstractions. Others are working on making Uber rides arrive a few seconds earlier, or personal assistants for plants. Meanwhile, housing and food and all other basics are still expensive enough to absorb most of our income.

Or, maybe, the life a family can buy for $73,000 is plentiful enough and it's our conception of what is enough that is broken.

Aside from certain inadequacies mentioned above, the prices of

most consumer goods are in fact going down. We did learn to make most things better and more efficiently. Cars, clothes, electronics and books cost much less than they used to while having better quality. Maybe, if we were to teleport a 1950s into nowadays America she would be ecstatic with the buying power $73,000 gives you and genuinely puzzled as to why would some find such a sum insufficient (she would then, of course, collapse after seeing the bill from the doctor’s office).

What consistently happens whenever something becomes cheaper is, instead of saving money, or, alternatively, getting by just as well while working less, we start to consume more of this good or some other good.

We choose to have more comfortable cars and wider tvs while still spending most of our time laboring at a job we find utterly meaningless.

What exacerbates or maybe even drives this issue are the social dynamics behind it.

Clothes aren't garments, they're status. Jobs aren't income, they're status. Education is unadulterated status. When economy makes things cheap, what used to be normal becomes low-status. Like having few clothes and fixing them up when they tear. Like using public transportation. The most sane

thing to do in an efficient economy — spend less money and less time earning money — is low status and, moreover, borderline impossible for most occupations.

One of the first things you learn in a microeconomics class is the concept of revealed preferences — the preferences that best fit the choices made. The history of 20th century seems to tell us that a nearly universal revealed preference of humans is to spend most of their time working at a job they hate to have more shoes, bigger phones and a few bonus years of life expectancy; to choose that over working three hours a day like John Keynes predicted we would.

But humans are confusing creatures only vaguely reminiscent of the rational agents that populate the tales of economists.

Slaves to ourselves we often choose things we do not wish and fail to pursue the ambitions our mind harbors. Maybe that’s just it and growing the pie further is going to be no remedy, or maybe I’m wrong and one day we will wake up in a world of plenty. I don’t know.

Artur Gorokh is a graduate student studying applied mathematics at Cornell University. He can be reached at ag2282@cornell.edu.

Radically Moderate appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

SCIENCE

SCIENCE

Marine Biology

The World is Their Oyster Hare Lab discovers new data on remnant oyster population that could help restore the Hudson

BY ADAM HIGH Sun Contributer

The Hudson River is infamous for being one of the most polluted rivers in America, but its waters have a lot more to them than meets the eye. Estuaries like the Hudson are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, where one can find marine, brackish and freshwater species intermingling in a relatively small area. In the Hudson River, oysters served as the foundation for this rich environment until around 1900, when a combination of overfishing and pollution locally decimated the stocks.

Oysters begin their life cycle as small, mobile larvae. As they mature, they seek out a surface to settle on and develop their recognizable shells. They have a tendency to cement down on previously established oyster beds and eventually form large reefs in brackish environments.

These reefs create habitat for a variety of species within COURTESTY OF MATT HARE estuaries, as well as provide direct social and economic Ocean’s creatures l This graphic describes how the Hare Lab measures wild spat-on-shell oysters. benefits for the communities around them. Oyster reefs are also capable of reducing the impact of storm surges jects. However, a new report from the Hare Lab in oyster populations are severely reduced. With lower genetand other natural disasters. As filter feeders, oysters have Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources suggests a new ic diversity, there is a lower chance that a given population also been studied extensively for their ability to filter some source of healthy oysters: a wild Hudson River species will be able to thrive. With the discovery of a stable, wild water pollutants and regulate phytoplankton populations located near the Tappan Zee Bridge in the New York City Hudson River oyster population, Hare hopes that future in bodies of water which are over nutrified. metropolitan area. Discovered during unrelated research projects can implement their genetics to increase chances Given the numerous ecosystem services oysters per- by Prof. Matthew Hare, natural resources, and his team, of future successful populations. form, many groups, including New York State and the this new find is proof that a wild population of Hudson Hare elaborated on the genetic differences between City of New York have taken part in efforts to restore oys- oysters has survived the degradation of the river and are hatchery and wild populations. Hare discussed why local ter populations in the Hudson to their historic levels. stable enough to reproduce regularly. species are better suited than hatchery species for restoring Notable undertakings, such as the Billion Oyster Project The significance of a stable wild oyster population ulti- oyster populations. and NY Baykeepers, have led the charge in engaging the mately boils down to genetics. All oysters sourced from a “It comes down to climate change and a population’s community in seeding hatchery-bred oysters into the hatchery are subject to the conditions inside the hatchery. adaptive capacity during environmental change,” Hare Hudson.

These conditions can sometimes create genetic bottleneck said.

In the past, hatchery-bred oysters were the most feasi- events, favoring certain genetic groups over others. ble source of spat, or young oysters, for restoration proAfter such an event, the genetic diversity of hatchery Adam High can be reached at awh64@cornell.edu

Finches are Friends, Not Food

BY SHRIYA PERATI Sun Contributer

For many, Drs. Rosemary and Peter Grant, evolutionary biology, Princeton University, are living legends in the field of modern evolutionary biology, having conducted over four decades of field research on the Galapagos finches. On Monday, March 12, students, professors and alumni packed into Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall to witness the scientists bring their research on the Galapagos Finches to life.

Rosemary’s talk, titled “Evolution of Darwin’s Finches: Integrating Behavior, Ecology, and Genetics” kicked off the Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship, in honor of the late Paul C. Mundinger. Mundiger received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1967 and developed a strong attachment with lab of Ornithology as a graduate student.

Mundinger, formerly a professor at Queens College, prized teaching and inspiring his students with his love for evolutionary biology. The Mundinger lectureship series was instituted in 2018 to honor his memory and spirit by bringing inspirational and renowned speakers to the University each year.

“I chose this title because Paul’s very innovative research in a number of species of birds really did integrate behavior,

ecology, and genetics. This is where Peter and I have followed in the same footsteps as Paul,” Rosemary said “Paul was able to show that song-learning involved an interaction between experience and genetic determancy or observatory, and this is a really innovative piece of work that he and his colleagues did.”

Rosemary began her talk emphasizing fundamental questions that scientists seek to answer regarding biodiversity.

“All of us, in this room, whether we are hiking in the Alpine meadows, traveling in the Amazon jungle, or diving to the depths of the sea are just amazed at the diversity of life on this planet. How is all of this biodiversity generated? How and why do species multiply? How do we even go about studying this process of speciation?” Rosemary said. Rosemary’s enthusiasm for the diversity of life reverberated throughout the course of her talk.

For many, the most fascinating part of Rosemary’s talk was her discussion of the origin of a completely new lineage,which Rosemary and Peter both followed since its inception through the sixth generation.

“Her results were amazing: she witnessed a new species being born right before her own eyes,” Edwin Quaye ’21 said.

In her talk, Rosemary described the

chronological progression of how she and her husband, Peter, observed the origin of the new Big Bird lineage. When the couple went to the islands in 1978, there were two distinct species: Geospiza fortis and Geospiza scandens. After the enormous El Niño event of 1983, the hybrids began to survive and G. fortis and G. scandens began to converge on each other. Five years later, G. magnirostris arrived on the island from Española and mated with the species, G. fortis producing multiple hybrid offspring. These offspring then proceeded to interbreed producing a unique hybrid lineage, which the Grants now call the Big Bird lineage.

“In all respects, the new lineage is functioning as a new separate species.

Will it die out through inbreeding depression? Will the genetic variation be augmented through genetic exchange?”

Rosemary said. Despite these lasting questions Grant emphasized that whether or this new lineage survives, it still provides incredibly valuable insight into how a new species could arise and either persist or become extinct.

In the concluding remarks of her talk, Rosemary delivered two key messages.

First, she highlighted the dynamic nature of environments and populations and emphasized the importance in keeping environments capable of further natural

change for a sustainable environment.

Second, Rosemary commented on the importance in understanding ecology and evolution even with our rapidly accumulating genomics data. “[We] live in very exciting times: the genomics data are rapidly accumulating, changes are happening every year, and this can really enhance our field studies.

But reciprocally, a reliable interpretation of genetic data really requires a deep understanding of ecology, evolution, and behavior in the natural environment,” Rosemary said.

For students who are currently enrolled in BIOEE 1780: An Introduction to Evolutionary Biology and Diversity, it was exciting to see the one of the quintessential researchers behind the science that they are currently learning about in their class. Many students approached Rosemary and Peter after their talk, buzzing with enthusiasm or requesting autographs on their sketches of the Galapagos finches.

“I feel very excited now, about her research, especially because she performed her research over such a long period of time, and she stayed with it. It motivates me as well to keep pursuing research,” Jasmine Mack ’20 said.

Shriya Perati can be reached at sp774@cornell.edu

A&E

Tuesday, March 27, 2018 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 9

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Pacific Rim Uprising: A Feast for Eyes, Not Heart

BY ZACHARY LEE Sun Staff Writer

Even with a Kanye West endorsement and an all-star cast, many believed Guillermo Del Toro’s mecha-monster film Pacific Rim would bomb when it was released in 2013.

While it is unfortunate that the guileless thrills of seeing giant monsters brawl equally colossal robots no longer excites as it used to, Del Toro’s eye for detail and ability to bestow a haunting grace to his extraterrestrial and mechanical monsters alike elevated Pacific Rim above the typical creature features. A stellar overseas performance helped drag the sequel’s status from the depths of development hell and now, Pacific Rim Uprising graces screens five years later.

However, the absence of Del Toro’s idiosyncratic and artful touch looms over this Steven DeKnight directed film.

While Pacific Rim Uprising never quite “rises up” to the iconic nature of its predecessor, it is fast-paced and undeniably fun, delivering exhilarating and bright action sequences and crisp CGI spectacle that excites in the moment, even if it does not stimulate much afterthought.

Pacific Rim Uprising works well as a stand-alone sequel,though a quick voice-over covers the essential plotbeats. In 2013, humanity built massive robots (Jaegers) to fight Kaiju, alien sea monsters that emerged from an interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

With the help of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), the world was able to defeat the Kaiju and seal the portal. Ten years later, humanity is rebuilding cities and the Shao Corporation has launched a new program of automated Jaegers that threaten to put pilots out of business. When new Kaiju emerge, a group of pilots must put aside their differences and past histories and suit up to save the world.

Sadly, even with this straightforward plot, the character’s narrative arcs are not enough to anchor the film. Rinko Kikuchi reprises her role of Mako Mori yet is reduced to a glorified cameo, with her presence only present to help further Jake’s story. Burn Gorman and Charlie Day also return as the eccentric Dr. Hermann and Newt respectively, and while Gorman’s performance is a carbon copy from the first film, Charlie Day’s character factors significantly into the plot. The notable exception is John Boyega’s Jake Pentecost who, while loquacious and rebellious, delivers his lines with a passion that is convincingly reminiscent of Idris Elba’s Stacker. His brash personality clashes well with pilot recruit Amara Namani’s (Cailee Spaeny) fiery temper, who proves to be resourceful and courageous in the heat of battle.

To DeKnight’s credit, he honors the themes of the first film by attempting to answer question of “can you fight monsters without becoming monstrous yourself?” This is cleverly explored through the Shao Corporation’s drone Jaeger program. For Jake and his comrades, they view piloting Jaegers not as privilege but as a duty; the machines are less symbols of scientific innovation than they are weapons of last resort. Yet by creating drones, the Shao corporation literally removes humanity from machine, rendering Jaegers solely as armaments used for destruction. Likewise, the film raises interesting questions about legacy. Jake cannot deny the influence he has being the son of a great war hero. Is he obligated to “honor” his dad and sister’s legacy by fighting, or can he justify avoiding the past?

Yet being a monster movie, Uprising provides an action feast for the eyes. From Sabre Athena to Obsidian Fury, the outrageous Jaeger names are only matched by the equally insane fight scenes. There’s a childlike glee in seeing a Kaiju toss a Jaeger around like a doll or seeing two Jaegers, one

COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL AND LEGACY

with flame chainsaws, and the other with glowing cobalt swords spar against the backdrop of snowy Russia. It is in these moments where DeKnight excels; he chooses not to focus on the majesty of the robots’ aesthetic but their abilities.

If I were to describe the monster movie genre as a food, it would be pasta: difficult to mess up, yet it takes a master to transform this plebeian dish into a piece of culinary art. Guillermo Del Toro is one of those master chefs who is able to take the simple recipe of a monster movie and imbue it with zesty flavor that still lingers long after you have partaken in his cinematic feast. DeKnight’s sequel is largely lacking of those unique components yet still gets the job done. For my pasta cravings, while I usually prefer a lobster carbonara spaghetti with smoked bacon and sugar snap peas doused in truffle cream sauce and topped with parmesan and hot peppers, sometimes, a vat of tomato sauce with meatballs is not a bad alternative. Likewise, for those looking for action and adventure, look no further than Pacific Rim Uprising.

Zachary Lee is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at zlee@cornellsun.com.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

I

An Artist’s Place in the Gun Debate

f you’re a fan of the rap group/radical-left hype-men Run the Jewels, you may have been surprised by the news this weekend. Rapper Killer Mike, who forms one-half of Run the Jewels with El-P, gave an interview with the NRATV host Colion Noir in which he seemed to agree with the NRA and guns-right activists that new gun-control laws are not a solution to gun violence, separating himself from the progressive left that he has often acted as a celebrity spokesman for. In the interview, Killer Mike accused guns rights activists of being “lackey[s] of the progressive movement,” adding that “I told my kids on the school walkout: ‘I love you — if you walk out that school, walk out my house.’”

To be fair, Killer Mike was not simply aping the NRA’s incendiary rhetoric — he was trying to make an argument about the need specifically for African-Americans in poorly-policed areas to be prepared to defend themselves against

threats. Killer Mike apologized in two videos he filmed at home soon after the NRATV interview was posted online, saying that he had unintentionally allowed the NRA to post the video as a counter to the March for Our Lives on Saturday,

right too, then I’m standing on your side of the room when they say, ‘Who’s for guns?’”

A less surprising attack on gun control activists came from Jesse Hughes, the frontman of Eagles of Death Metal. Hughes and the rest of the band were actually present during a mass shooting in 2015, when their show at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris was interrupted by Despite all armed attackers who killed nearly 90 people the — part of the coordiAmputations nated attacks in Paris of November 2015, which March 24, a protest which he called ISIS claimed responsibility for. After “a very noble campaign that I actu- a brief period of prayer-tweeting and ally support.” However, he has cho- donation-collecting, Hughes began sen to explicitly align himself with claiming that the Muslim security at gun-rights activists in the past: he the Bataclan probably knew about said on Tavis Smiley’s show on PBS the attack beforehand, a claim he last year that “White men don’t made, apologized for and then conwant to give up their guns, and I’m tinued to make publicly.

After the March for Our Lives, with that. If you don’t want to give up your guns, and I have that right Hughes called the protesters “vile — not privilege — but I have that abusers of the dead” in a long post

Jack Jones

on Instagram and hoped that they would “live as long as possible so they can have the maximum amount of time to endure their shame....and be Cursed…,” a truly bizarre condemnation. Hughes also called himself a “survivor of a mass shooting,” which seemed intended to discredit those at the march who hadn’t actually been present at one — and as for the Parkland survivors, they were “playing hooky at the expense of 16 of your classmates blood,” as if their protesting itself was responsible for their friends’ deaths.

Hughes also threw a “Long Live Rock’n’Roll” into the middle of his mocking of teenage mass-shooting survivors, for good measure.

Lots of things differentiate these two cases. The two artists come from opposing political viewpoints, even if there views converge to some extent on this topic. Perhaps the most important difference, however, is in their relationship to their own opinions.

Killer Mike sees himself as in-

A&E

progress; he admits to mistakes and apologizes. Hughes, on the other hand, has no self-checking mechanism to counter his bluster.

He denigrates and smears his opponents, including tweeting the fake, Photoshopped image of Parkland survivor Emma González tearing the U.S. Constitution in two that has been circling in altright online communities after the March for Our Lives. And his apologies are insincere and irreversible, as they were in the case of his racist accusation about the Bataclan security guards.

If there’s anything to learn from these roundly unimpressive takes, it comes from Killer Mike’s willingness to reexamine his words and actions, and to treat debate as an opportunity to reconsider rather than a zerosum game of verbal assault.

Jack Jones is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at jackjones@cornellsun.com. His column Despite all the Amputations runs alternate Tuesdays this semester.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

The CorneDaily Sun

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018 11

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Sundoku 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)

COMICS AND PUZZLES

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14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, March 27, 2018 15

SPORTS

WITH

T E N

Q U E S T I O N S

P R I YA N K A S H A H

Sun contributor Caroline Kleiner sat down with Cornell women’s tennis senior captain Priyanka Shah to talk about everything from Roger Federer to taking on Harvard.

This transcript has been lightly edited for content and clarity.

1. How did you fall in love with tennis?

That’s actually a funny story.

I moved to Florida to play tennis and I was supposed to go to an academy there, but my older sister went to the academy because she’s a little better and I was too scared to go.

Those days, I went to a local park instead because I just hated tennis. I lied to my mom, “Oh, practice is cancelled.” I would stand behind one of the buildings and cry and not go to practice. But eventually, everyone there at that academy made me fall in love with the game and now it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

2. Did your tennis career in high school help prepare you for the intensity of Cornell tennis?

High school tennis is a little bit different than college tennis. I didn’t play that competitively within my high school, so I wouldn’t say it’s prepared me. It’s brought me a lot of great memories, but, college tennis is a whole different ball game.

3. What made you choose to come play for Cornell?

“I have so many memories of van rides and clinching points that I’ll never forget.”

Senior Priyanka Shah I just fell in love with the campus and I really liked the coach, the program and the girls. I thought there was a lot of room for me to grow here, academically and athletically. So I really took that to heart in my decision to come here.

4. Last year, you had a 14-4 singles record and helped the team win its first Ivy League title. What was that historic moment like?

It was amazing, there are no words that can describe it. I was also a captain that year and having that historic season for the program and for everyone, all the girls on this team, was incredible. I have so many memories of van rides and clinching points that I’ll never forget.

One moment was at Reis [Tennis Center] when we beat Harvard 4-3 and I was the only person on the court for about an hour during the third set. There were 50-100 people watching. The electricity … just knowing that I was going to win the whole time, even though it was

WOMEN’S

League Champions since freshman year, I’ve been the one to clinch that match ... I was the person who ultimately decided it and I hope to do that again this year.

TENNIS

learned how to balance that with the relationships I have with my teammates, which is also incredibly strong. I natu5. Is there a tennis player rally do set a great example, that you model your game after? so that came easy to me. But, I really like Kim Clijsters: I’ve also taken to she’s very athletic and heart the responsibilihas a lot of passion on “I’ll just miss coming to Reis every ty of motivating oththe court. In terms of exact replicating, I single day. This has become my home ers in trying to grow future leaders on this would say no. But, I and I love every second of it.” team. also am a fan of Roger Federer. He’s just a Senior Priyanka Shah class act and it’s inspir8. Aside from tennis, ing to have that kind of what are your other composure on the court day in hobbies?

7. How has becoming captain and day out.

I love being outdoors and changed your responsibilities on experiencing nature and that’s 6. What is the most memo- the team? why I really love Ithaca. I love rable match you have played It has definitely made me hiking and going to the representing Cornell? balance my relationship with gorges. Another hobby of A pretty memorable matchup my teammates and my coach- mine is trying new things like for me has always been our es differently. It’s gotten me new sports and picking up annual match against Harvard. closer to my coaches, which different skills. I just picked For the last three years at Ivy has been great. I’ve also up squash in the fall and it’s

close, is a moment I’ll never forget.

super, super fun. When I grow up, I’m making my kids play squash.

9. If you could spend a week anywhere in the world for free, where would you go?

I would go to Australia. I still have not been to Australia and I’m a dual citizen of Australia! I would spend more than a week there.

10. When you graduate from Cornell this May, what is going to be the one thing you’ll miss the most?

I’ll miss everything. To pinpoint, I’ll just miss coming to Reis every single day. This has become my home and I love every second of it.

Caroline Kleiner can be reached at crk74@cornell.edu

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

TUESDAY MARCH 27, 2018

16

BASEBALL

Red Splits Doubleheader Explosive offense powers Cornell to 2nd win of season

By MILES HENSHAW

made just two errors on the day, a welcome improvement from last weekend’s Fordham series when the Red amassed a Eager to turn things around after a total of nine errors. turbulent start to its season, Cornell Senior starting pitcher Tim Willittes made headway when it exploded at the cruised to his first win of the season. plate for a combined 21 runs in its dou- Tossing elusive stuff, he lasted seven bleheader home opener on Sunday. innings, let up only seven hits, struck out Facing nearby rival Niagara (5-11), five and gave up just one earned run. the Red (2-9) split the doubleheader: Niagara struggled to string together hits Cornell won the first, a 17-5 blowout, against the crafty starter. while Niagara claimed the second game However, game two did not get off to in a 7-4 nailbiter. an auspicious start for the Red. Niagara quickly put up three runs in the on a leadoff walk, a single, “I thought that, even in game two, I saw first a triple, and a squeeze bunt. a lot of quality swings. I think we’re Things were quiet until Cornell clawed back two runs in the really starting to come out of it.” fourth off a triple from Wickham, followed by a sacriHead coach Dan Pepicelli fice fly.

The outfielder’s performance After a slew of relatively low-scoring in the doubleheader was a consistent games, the Red’s offense came out strong bright spot for the Red. Having collectand early in game one. The team put up ed only three hits prior to Sunday, his six three runs in the first on a bases loaded RBIs marked a welcome return to form double by senior outfielder Dale for a player who batted just over .400 last Wickham, followed by another three in season. the second and four more in the third — “I was just trying to relax out there amounting to a healthy 10 run lead from and trust myself, and eventually this was which Cornell never looked back. bound to happen. It was a good day,” “It’ll never disappoint you, that many said Wickham. “See the baseball, try not runs,” said head coach Dan Pepicelli. “I to do too much with it, adjust to offthought that even in game two I saw a lot speed. It’s been the same approach all of quality swings. I think we’re really season.” starting to come out of it.”

Cornell gave up a home-run that had Continuing its onslaught, senior out- some help from a lucky gust in the sixth, fielder Kyle Gallagher — who currently but got the run back in the bottom of the leads the team in batting average — led inning. In the seventh, the Red blanked the inning with a double and later, a two the Purple Eagles and put up a run to tie run single when the Red batted around. the game on a wacky infield single from He finished game one four-for-four with Gallagher — a squibber that bounced four RBIs. from foul to fair.

On defense, the Red also looked comNiagara pulled away in the eighth by fortable on their home turf. Cornell stringing together a couple doubles and Sun Contributor

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Home opener | After starting its season with a paltry 1-7 record, Cornell scored a total of 21 runs at home on Sunday — in what it hopes marks a lasting turnaround before conference play.

singles for three runs. However, Cornell brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the eighth and loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but was not able to convert this last-ditch effort into runs.

Despite the loss, Pepicelli considered the series a success and remains optimistic looking forward.

“If we play up to our standard I think the scoreboard will take care of itself at the end of the weekend, but we’ve got to

be sharp … and be a little bit better than we were this weekend. I’m really hoping it all comes together next weekend,” Pepicelli said.

The Red will travel to Penn State on Wednesday night, followed by a weekend series at Princeton, Cornell’s first chance at league play.

Miles Henshaw can be reached at mjh425@cornell.edu.

GYMNASTICS

Cornell Lands 4th at ECAC Champs, Qualifies for Nationals

By ZORA HAHN Sun Staff Writer

In perhaps the most critical meet of its season thus far, women’s gymnastics managed to turn in another solid performance, this time finishing well enough to advance on to the next and final, round of postseason play.

Last weekend, Cornell travelled to Philadelphia to compete in the ECAC Championships, which included Yale, William and Mary, Brown, Penn and Temple. The Red, which earned a score of 193.200 — the fifth time it has surpassed 193.00 this season — tied with the Quakers to win fourth place, just good enough to earn a spot at the USAG Collegiate National Championships.

As has been the case for much of the year, Cornell’s success was driven by a diverse group of competitors, ranging from rookie to veteran.

Freshman Amy Shen claimed second place on vault with a score of 9.800, while freshman Izzy Herczeg earned fifth in the same event. Freshman Madison Smith and sophomore Samantha Henry tied for second on floor with 9.850 points.

“At our last home meet I scored a 9.925, tying the school floor score record. This

week I’ve been focusing on improving the little things in my routines like straightening my legs and emphasizing my dance to earn back tenths on my score,” Smith said.

Adding to the contributions of the squad’s younger athletes, senior Lauren Wong placed seventh on bars with a score of 9.850.

“I really focused on quality over quantity in my routines and tried to balance doing numbers and staying healthy for the weekend,” she said.

Despite qualifying for nationals, the Red performed slightly worse this meet than it had in the previous two weekends. But some players attributed this decline to issues limited to one event.

“We had a rough start to the meet on beam with two falls ... but I think the team did really well in keeping the positive energy and motivation up, and did really well on the rest of the events,” Wong said.

Others, instead, pointed out the ECAC Championships’ unique caliber of

competition.

“The other teams had a really good showing during the weekend's competition,” Chen noted. “Yale, in particular, has been having their best season ever, probably in program history.”

In either case, Cornell remains optimistic heading into the USAG Collegiate National Championships, its last official meet of the season. The team hopes to continue building on what has proved to be a year generally defined by an upward trend, and aims to do so by fostering individual growth and maintaining consistency.

“We are a really strong team and definitely capable of accomplishing way more than we have this year, but we definitely have things we need to work on,” Wong said.

Throughout the season we have done really well in all four events, but have struggled in doing well on all four in one competition. If we can improve our consistency in practice, we have a really good chance of performing well at nationals.”

Action next starts for the gymnasts when they travel to Denton, Texas, April 14th to compete in the USAG Championships.

ADRIAN BOTEANU / SUN FILE PHOTO

Ready for Texas | After its finish at ECAC Championships earned Cornell a spot at USAG nationals, the team is now focused on preparing for what will be its last meet of the year.

Zora Hahn can be reached at zhahn@cornellsun.com.