INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 76
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2018
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Puerto Rico
Isle of Dogs
Ivy Upset
Snow Showers
Students delivered water and medicine to Puerto Rico during Spring Break, months after Hurricane Maria. | Page 3
Men’s tennis benefits from a fully healthy lineup and tops Harvard.
David Gouldthorpe ’18 says he will “be back in the cinema” again to see Wes Anderson’s new movie. | Page 9
| Page 16
HIGH: 36º LOW: 29º
New Title IX Coordinator Outlines Goals University announcement. In her opinion, Cleary said the role of the Title IX coordinator is to “engage the community” and Chantelle Cleary, who will be joining the bring people together “to do work collectively and University as the new Title IX coordinator in June, collaboratively, to achieve whatever it is that is our outlined her objectives and emphasized her desire ultimate goal.” At one point, Cornell led the nation in Title IX to work with the Cornell community to address and prevent sexual and interpersonal violence in an investigations by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights interview with The Sun. about the mishandling of sexual “I’m not coming to Cornell to assault investigations by the kind of just push papers and make University, The Sun previously sure that we’re doing the bare minreported. imum to comply,” she said. “I’m Cleary said that these factors did coming to Cornell because I want not really influence her decision to to work with a community of come to Cornell and said she will incredibly bright and talented learn more about the nuances of past people to actually start to make situations at the University when she some changes.” actually starts the job. Cleary will be succeeding Sarah Cleary is currently the assistant Affel, who has been the Title IX vice president for equity and compliCoordinator since 2015. Affel will ance and the Title IX coordinator at be stepping down at the end of the the University of Albany, where she semester, The Sun previously CLEARY has been since 2015. She is also a facreported. The Title IX coordinator is responsible for the ulty member for the National Center for Campus “oversight of the University’s compliance with Title Public Safety’s Trauma Informed Sexual Assault and IX; its ongoing education and sexual assault and Adjudication Institute. She received her bachelor’s harassment prevention efforts; the investigation, degree from Binghamton University and a J.D. response and resolution of all reports of sexual and from Albany Law School. Prior to joining the University of Albany as the related misconduct at the University; and Cornell’s efforts to eliminate prohibited conduct, prevent its See TITLE IX page 4 recurrence and remedy its effects,” according to the By SHRUTI JUNEJA and DREW MUSTO
Sun News Editor and Sun Senior Writer
Suicide Film Fosters Mental Health Discussions
Panelists hold a Q&A session about suicide stigmas after screening
COURTESY OF THE SOPHIE FUND
The S Word | Lisa Klein (center) came to campus on Sunday for a screening of a film she directed about suicide. By ANDREA VALDES Sun Staff Writer
In an event sponsored by The Sophie Fund and Cornell Minds Matter, community members viewed an award-winning documentary about suicide called The S Word on Sunday night to foster dialogue surrounding the stigma of suicide. Cooper Walter ’18, president of
Cornell Minds Matter, said he was “immediately interested” in arranging a showing of the documentary on campus after the film’s marketing team reached out to him. “Suicide is one of the most important and not well enough known mental health problems in the United States, [but] it’s hard to bring up, to talk to other people about and I think that having this film… [is] a great way to open that
dialogue,” he said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States in 2015, claiming the lives of more than 44,000 people. It was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 15 and 34. See DOCUMENTARY page 5
COURTESY OF EZRA MAGAZINE
Environmental activist | David Buckel law ’87 (left) speaks on composting at a “Trash Talk” forum in Brooklyn in 2011.
Law Alumnus SelfImmolates in Protest By MARYAM ZAFAR Sun Staff Writer
David Buckel law ’87, ended his career as an environmental activist and prominent gay rights lawyer by setting himself on fire and burning to death on Saturday morning in a protest against environmental deterioration. Buckel drenched himself in fossil fuels before starting the fire. He left behind two notes explaining his choice in a shopping cart near his body, according to the New York Daily News. He also emailed them to major press centers, including The New York Times. “Most humans on the planet now breathe air made unhealthy by fossil fuels, and many die early deaths as a result — my early death by fossil fuel reflects what we are doing to ourselves,” Buckel wrote in his note, as reported by The New York Times. “Honorable purpose in life invites honorable purpose in death.” “I hope it is an honorable death that might serve others,” Buckel wrote, according to the New York Daily News. Buckel was well-known for his work with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a legal organization that works on behalf of the LGBT community, according to its website, where he served as the former Marriage Project Director. During his time at
Lambda Legal, he championed cases including Nabozny v. Podlesny, which said that students should be protected from verbal and physical antigay abuse, and Lewis v. Harris, which said that New Jersey's marriage laws violated equal protection guaranteed by the Constitution for samesex couples, according to Lambda Legal. In a statement released on Saturday, Lambda Legal commended Buckel as an “indefatigable attorney and advocate” and wrote that it “will honor his life by continuing his fight for a better world.” In March 2006, Buckel returned to Cornell for the Public Interest Law Career Symposium, where he served on a panel for “Domestic Civil Rights.” Buckel also received the Cornell Law School Public Service Award in 2007. In a Cornell Law School spotlight, which described Buckel as “making history”, Buckel’s work arguing against prominent national organizations including the Boy Scouts of America, the military and the IRS is highlighted. John Carberry, senior director of media relations and news, said that the University would not be able to comment on Buckel’s passing at this time. According to The New York Times, Buckel was also See LAWYER page 5