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Cornell University Sustainable Design combats campus plastic waste generation. | Page 3

Baseball overcame large deficits on the way to taking two of three games from Harvard. | Page 16

The new Avengers movie tries to appeal to every fan, spreading itself too thin. | Page 10

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Pollack to Evaluate Report on Consensual Relationships Policy

By ALISHA GUPTA and ANU SUBRAMANIAM Sun Assistant Managing Editor and Sun News Editor

After a year of deliberations and debates to update a 20-year-old policy, the Consensual Relationships Policy Committee will submit its final report to President Martha E. Pollack on Tuesday.

The current policy, last updated in 1996, bans any member of the University from “simultaneously [being] romantically or sexually involved with a

student whom he or she teaches, advises, coaches or supervises in any way,” and asks that relationships be conducted in such a way that avoids “potential conflicts of interest, exploitation, or personal bias.”

In her charge to the committee at the beginning of the fall 2017 semester, Pollack criticized the current policy for “its lack of distinction between different See CRP page 4

ALICE SONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Relationship troubles | Faculty Senate members voice their opinions on the consensual relationships policy at a meeting on April 26.

Chocoholics DinnerFostersBodyPositivity New TCAT App Offers Features Student-organized event Not Found in Existing Services at Okenshields promotes

intuitive eating habits

By AMINA KILPATRICK Sun Staff Writer

On Thursday night, Okenshields dining hall hosted a chocolate themed dinner to urge people to slow down, think intuitively about their eating habits and listen to their body.

This themed dinner was put together through a supervised field work course in the nutrition science department.

Michelle Lefebvre, director of nutrition management for Cornell Dining, is one of the registered dieticians who works with students in the course.

“I oversee dietetic students Bernard ’18 are the two stuin applying what they learn in dents in the course who came the field, i.e. Cornell Dining,” up with the chocolate themed Lefebvre said. “The focus is dinner. They chose chocolate food service management and due to the popularity of the nutrition education. [The food according to Stout. Both course] culminates into an of the students were former event. The students come up facilitators for BPC, which is what inspired them with a theme to do a body posiand they tive activity. design the “Especially activity.” with bodies, The stuthere is a lot dents chose of comchocolate as parison the theme this going on year and incorporatBORIS TSANG / SUN and eating ed a body positivity ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR can play a and intuitive eating exercise into the event. Each semes- role in that,” Stout said, “[We ter during the the themed din- wanted to] bring body positiviner, the class partners with a ty and the fact that health is brand or an organization very individualized and you according to Lefebvre. This have to do what is good for you year they decided to work with in terms of your health and Body Positive Cornell.

See CHOCOLATE page 4 Mariah Stout ’18 and Jenna

Carpe noctem

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Students make posters to conclude Sexual Assault Awareness Week with the Take Back the Night event on Friday, April 27.

By KATHERINE HEANEY

Sun Staff Writer

Trying to figure out how to use the TCAT bus system is a struggle for many members of the Cornell and Ithaca community. Now, students and locals alike can turn to Ithaca Transit, an app designed by Cornell students, to help them navigate Ithaca by bus more easily.

Team member and iOS developer for Ithaca Transit Monica Ong ’19 explained that Ride14850, a “go-to app” for students to determine their ideal bus routes “still has, a terrible [user interface].”

“I remember when I first started using it as a freshman, I had to figure out how to put in starting and ending locations and then I had to figure out how to read the results to figure which bus I needed to take,” she said.

“Ithaca Transit is an end-toend navigation solution that combines the best transit features available into one app,” said project lead Matt Barker ’19. “While apps like Ride14850 only provide routing on a clunky interface or MyStop only provides live updates, Ithaca Transit includes the best features to ride smarter See TCAT page 14

Ithaca Police Charge Man for Rape Connected to 2 Sexual Assaults The Ithaca Police Department Criminal Investigations Division arrested a 20-year-old for a series of sexual assault incidents that took place in Ithaca in 2016 and 2017, according to an IPD press release.

Sethik Howe of Ithaca is charged with rape in the first degree and a criminal sex act in the first degree, both class B felonies. Howe’s April 24 arrest follows reports that he engaged in “forcible sexual intercourse” more than once with a female victim under the age of 17, according to the press release.

Howe’s arraignment took place in Ithaca City Court, and he has been “remanded to

HOWE

the Tompkins County Jail in lieu of $1,500 cash or $3,000 bond,” according to the press release.

Howe does not appear to have any affiliation with Cornell.

— BreAnne Fleer ’20

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Daybook

DAYBOOK

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS Today BEDR Workshop: Michal Kosinski 11:40 a.m. - 1:10 p.m., 141 Sage Hall Using a ChargePoint (EV) Charger Late Brown Bag 12:15 - 1:00 p.m., 151 Martha Van Rensselaer Justice, Law, Inequality, Democracy, and Related Themes: Ideas Panel 12:30 - 2:30 p.m., 182 Myron Taylor Hall

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Tummy trouble | Dr. Renate Reimschuessel, Director of the FDA Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet - LIRN) will give a presentation about how to report potential food related illnesses.

Drop-in Breakfast at the Engaged Cornell Hub 8:30 - 10:00 a.m., Kennedy Hall, 3rd floor

Shravan Kummar Ramaswamy Lecture and Runway Show 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., Human Ecology Building, CHE Commons

FDA Vet-LIRN Presentation: “Who you gonna call” for animal food related illness?

9:00 - 10:00 a.m., College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornel University, S2-223

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 7:00 p.m., Willard Straight Theatre

Biophysics Colloquium with Yan Yu 4:00 p.m., 700 Clark Hall

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Fashion forward | Shravan Kummar, the Nixon Distinguished Speaker for the 2017 - 2018 academic year, will be presenting a line of clothing and speaking about his designs.

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1 , 2018 3

NEWS

Art Explores Refugee Crisis

By XING GAO Sun Staff Writer

Syrian artist and architect Mohamad Hafez drew attention to the role of art in the worldwide refugee crisis as he explored his cultural identity and displayed his work as a part of the Art Beyond Borders event on Friday night.

The event was organized by International Student Union and Cornell Welcome Refugees to “provoke dialogue across cultures and promote international awareness through visual media,” according to the event’s Facebook page.

The keynote address of the event was delivered by Hafez, a Syrian artist previously featured in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Hafez hopes to be a “voice for the Syrian refugees, for Muslim Americans, for forced migrants” through visual art works, according to his website.

“We are living in a crazy time,” Hafez said, “where a lot of us might get labeled too many ways based on our nationality, passport color, ethnicity, religion, skin color … without realizing who we really are.”

According to The Guardian, the U.S. resettled 15,479 refugees in 2016 under Obama, but under Trump the number has reduced to 3,024 in 2017 and only 11 so far this year.

“This country can do so much

LEXI QUARLES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Art beyond borders | Mohamad Hafez, Syrian artist and architect, delivers the keynote address at Friday’s event.

better than that,” said Tarannum Sahar ’20, president of Cornell Welcomes Refugees, in an email to The Sun. “For the first time, [art] gave us an ability to put people in front of each other, to have a conversation, to have a dialogue, a much needed dialogue in a very separated society,” Hafez said.

Hafez said his obsession with arts began with the “peace and tranquility” he observed in humans. As he continued to explore his voice in and outside of the refugee community, he yearned to tell the human part of the story with his artworks.

“I felt that art needs to tell us what is so desperate for somebody to put their two to three year old across the Mediterranean,” Hafez said. “And that story is usually neglected in the media.”

One of his projects, which is titled “UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage,” incorporated suitcases that he collected from immigrants and audio recorded in Syria with “airplanes flying over … bombing, and people yelling.” Through this project, Hafez hoped that he could prevent humans from “repeating the mistakes” made in history.

“There’s no more time important than this time to have these conversations,” he said.

The event also featured different types of art works from Cornell students including paintings, photography, poems and video to raise awareness on refugee crisis all around the world.

Chiara Benitez ’19, president of the International Student Union, said these different artworks that represented different cultural backgrounds would also “promote dialogue on how ‘internationalism’ is depicted through media.”

According to audience member Nadia Samaha ’20, the art pieces exhibited were “astounding” with “truly inspiring” stories behind each.

“Coming from the Middle East, I was especially moved by the talk and it was just beautiful to see people from different communities and backgrounds listen to Hafez’s perspective,” Samaha said.

Xing Gao can be reached at xgao@cornellsun.com.

COURTESY OF EMMA SEYMOUR ’18

Best buddies | Members of the Cornell chapter of Best Buddies, an organization that works with people with disabilities, seen above, at the Friendship Stroll they organized in the Cornell Botanical Gardens on Sunday.

Best Buddies Host Friendship Stroll

By WINNY SUN Sun Staff Writer

The Cornell chapter of Best Buddies has raised over $2,000 through their fundraising efforts in the last two months to help expand the club’s future social events.

Best Buddies is a “nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing a global movement that creates opportunities for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities,” according to the organization’s Facebook page.

The Cornell chapter of the non-profit promotes social inclusion by pairing Cornell students with people with disabilities in the Ithaca Community, according to Sarah Aiken ’18, the club’s outgoing president.

This past Sunday, the group hosted the Best Buddies Friendship Stroll fundraiser in the Cornell Botanical Gardens.

The Friendship Walk is a national movement intended to “raise awareness for inclusion, friendship, leadership development, and integrated job opportunities for people with IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities),” according to the event’s official page.

Best Buddies at Cornell has attended the walk in Albany and Rochester over the past two years. This year, it had the opportunity to host its own friendship stroll for the western New York region.

In preparation for the walk during the past two months, Aiken said that club members participated in a number of fundraising initiatives, including a social media campaign that featured photos and stories of buddy pairs to raise awareness for their cause, in addition to a fundraiser that involved selling wristbands for drink specials at Loco. Individual members also had their own fundraising pages that friends and families could help contribute to.

The club was first founded in the fall of 2014 without much funding, so Cornell students and their buddies could only do coloring and other limited activities in the basement of Annabel Taylor Hall, Aiken explained.

This motivated the student group to plan fundraisers to support meaningful bonding events, according to Aiken.

In addition to the inclusive walk drawing all community members, Sunday’s event also featured people sharing what Best Buddies meant to them and honored those who fundraised the most money.

Lizabeth Kaminoff ’20, a member of Cornell Best Buddies, said she joined the fundraiser because she had “always been interested in breaking down the barrier between people with disabilities and those without.”

“From the fundraiser, I learned that if you ask people for

help with something you are passionate about, they are willingly to give. I’m clearly passionate about Best Buddies and my peers definitely picked up on that,” she said.

Events like the fundraiser are essential because they not only highlight the importance of social inclusion to the Ithaca and Cornell community members, but also show participants with disabilities that they deserve to be included, according to Aiken.

The club members raised in total around $2,000 dollars, all of which will go into planning for community outings and future events, Aiken reported.

She shared that some group trips that Cornell students and their buddies had been to in the past include the farmers’ market, bowling and sporting events.

Aiken, who will graduate soon, has worked with the club for all of her four years at Cornell. Looking back, she said she believes there is huge value in the work that Best Buddies does and that both buddies with disabilities and Cornell students benefit from participating in the program.

“A lot of buddies face social exclusion … it just gives them a friend which sounds like a trivial thing but has a much bigger impact than people realize,” Aiken said.

Winny Sun can be reached at wsun@cornellsun.com.

CUSD Water Bottle Display on Arts Quad Condemns Plastic Waste

By ANGELA CHON Sun Staff Writer

As a part of People’s Climate Week, the Cornell University Sustainable Design team created a functional art project made out of plastic water bottles to display on the Arts Quad to draw attention to the amount of plastic waste generated by students.

“I think the display is important because it starts a discussion among students about the impact of generating so much plastic use and how easy it is to switch to a reusable water bottle,” said T.J. Ball ’19, CUSD cogeneral manager.

CUSD is a 150-person interdisciplinary project team within systems engineering that allows students to gain hands-on learning experience while creating more sustainable communities.

“As the infographic attached to the piece outlines, plastic waste has a terrible impact on our environment, especially considering how little of it actually gets recycled,” Ball said.

The team used water bottles found on campus, totalling roughly 200 plastic water bottles. This represents 1/20th of the plastic

waste generated by Cornell undergraduate students on a daily basis.

“We found this number based on a Student Assembly environmental committee survey that suggested around 4,000 plas-

tic water bottles are used every day,” Ball said.

The idea for the water bottle project was initiated by Ball, and the art structure was created by him, Ruth Park ’21 and Kevin

Reigner ’20, two other members of the organization’s operations team.

“Kevin helped me collect the water bottles and assisted with stringing the water bottles onto the string,” Ball said. “Ruth helped with stringing on water bottles, assembling the structure and she also put together the infographic that goes along with the structure.”

Assembling the lines of plastic water bottles took eight hours, and putting the structure together took an additional six hours.

“I hope this piece will spur others to create installations or functional art that performs a similar call to action about other important matters,” Ball said.

According to Ball, People’s Climate Week consisted of a series of around 89 events organized by environmental and sustainability awareness clubs on campus.

CUSD will be presenting their final expo May 5 in Collegetown eHub to showcase more of the organization’s research and projects.

COURTESY OF T.J. BALL ’19

Life in plastic | A structure composed of roughly 200 plastic water bottles is currently on display on the Arts Quad as part of People’s Climate Week.

Angela Chon can be reached at achon@cornellsun.com.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018

NEWS

Privacy Concerns in New CRP Policies Divide Faculty, Students

CRP-A bans all faculty and graduate/professional student relationships if both partners are in the same graduate field or degree program CRP

“Having a bright line sends an unambiguous signal to keep their relationship a secret, a privacy both the that there is a zone where the academic interests for the U.S. government and New York State recognizes, their group have unequivocal priority over the romantic academic career could be ruined. groups of students [undergraduate and graduate],” its interests of the individual,” Van Loan said on his ballot.

“Perhaps they fear that a very conservative person in vagueness regarding prohibition and disclosure requireThe University of Pennsylvania, on March 27, their unit might somehow discriminate against them if ments and “its lack of clarity regarding enforcement updated its policy with language similar to that of CRP- their orientation became known,” Birman said. mechanisms.”

Van Loan and Waymack said that the disclosure proA, banning all “sexual relations or dating relationships Now, after a year of work, co-chairs Prof. Charles between a faculty member and a graduate or profession- cedure would be designed to keep the “radius of discloVan Loan, engineering, dean of faculty, and Anna al student during the period of the faculty/student rela- sure” as small as possible.

Waymack grad believe they have fulfilled Pollack’s task. tionship.”

Other faculty members wonder if updating the poliThe committee, composed of undergraduates, gradOn the other hand, severe criticism has been directed cy is even necessary. uates, faculty members, researchers, employees and towards CRP-B for its emphasis on disclosure and Prof. Richard Bensel, government, said that the prestaff, ended its deliberations with two policy options: recusal, with many faculty members and students wor- vious policy “adequately covered” recusals in the case CRP-A and CRP-B. rying about privacy and the proposed 6.x office, which that an individual was in a relationship with someone The two policies are essentially identical. Both would handle all such disclosures and recusals. whom they had authority over. He said the “University include a complete ban on In fact, Miller presented regulation of relationships between consenting adults is sexual or romantic relation“I have no faith that ... the new ‘Office an amendment to the Faculty infantilizing, paternalistic, and intrusive” and has “no ships between faculty and Senate on April 18, which place in a community of reason, intellectual exchange, 6.x’ will be able to regulate personal undergraduate students and proposed a revision to CRP- and open discussion.” neither allow any member of relationships with ... tact and sensitivity.” B that would allow “either “I have no faith that those who administer the new the Cornell community to the 6.x office or the individ- ‘Office 6.x’ will be able to regulate personal relationProf. Richard Bensel exercise academic or profesual who is responsible for the ships with anything like tact and sensitivity,” he added. sional authority over a stuTo Birman, the existing policy has a “tough policy academic workplace that is dent with whom he or she is shared by the faculty member covering coercive behavior, harassment, favorable but sexually or romantically involved. biased behavior and a whole host of other possible abusand the subordinate” to handle the disclosure process.

Just last week, Columbia’s University Senate banned However, both Van Loan and Waymack were es of power or authority.” all relationships between undergraduates and faculty, adamant that an outside entity was necessary in order to However, Prof. Kent Hubbell ’69, architecture, who The Columbia Spectator reported. prevent these cases from being “swept under the rug,” was dean of students from 2001 - 2016, was clear that The undergraduate ban at Cornell has received pop- although they clarified that the 6.x office would work the current policy wasn’t strong or clear enough to hanular support, with the Student Assembly voting with a with departments in order to create the optimal recusal dle the issue. four to one ratio in favor of the ban, according to Van plan.

“These kinds of things have been dealt with such disLoan.

“Students would, on the whole it seems, very much cretion in the past, many faculty don’t think it’s a prob“It’s not that undergraduates are naive or unable to prefer that faculty not be the first point of contact, and lem,” Hubbell said, adding that he’s seen the “very fend for themselves,” Van Loan said. “The difference perhaps not even be contacted,” Waymack said. unfortunate circumstances that have led to very negabetween undergraduates and graduates is that graduates Others have expressed concerns regarding privacy, tive outcomes for students” in-person. have completed an academic degree. They have also like undergraduate committee member and Student “Our policies, viewed as having to do with romantic gone through the process of applying to get here and Assembly executive vice president Joseph Anderson ’20, relationships, also have to speak to the problems we face that means they know a little bit about the power of fac- who wanted to join the committee to make sure that in regards to predatory behavior on campus,” he said. ulty.”

After the committee subconsiderations for LGBTQ “Undergraduates haven’t fully seen that,” he added. mits its final proposal to individuals, like being closetWaymack clarified that undergraduate teaching assis- ed, were discussed during the “Our policies ... also have to speak to Pollack, the crafting of the tants weren’t considered faculty; however, she did state policy’s crafting. He felt the policy shifts to the the problems we face in regards to that the proposed policy prevents T.A.s from exhibiting original draft was “based on a University’s lawyers and predatory behavior on campus.” academic authority over those they are sexually or lot of heteronormative lanhuman resources. The comromantically involved with. mittee’s job was simply to guage.”

Prof. Kent Hubbell ’69 It is the difference between the two policies that has give a read of the campus Prof. Ken Birman, comdrawn the sharpest criticism and strongest debate — puter science, also foresees through the various assembly CRP-A bans all faculty and graduate/professional stu- problems with asking all indiand senate votes and put in dent relationships if both partners are “affiliated with viduals to disclose their relationship status, especially in suggested guidelines. the same graduate field or degree program.” CRP-B the case that an LGBTQ couple fears backlash.

Van Loan said that their draft was detailed in order allows such relationships under the condition that the “There is absolutely no statement about privacy in to ensure the campus was educated. His hope is that relationship is disclosed and a proper recusal plan is the CRP-A or CRP-B proposals: 6.x is under no oblig- when the lawyers offer the official policy, the Cornell drafted. ation not to announce every single thing they learn. community will have the ability to discuss it intelligentMany faculty members, such as Prof. Richard Miller, Indeed, CRP-A and CRP-B more or less require that the ly. philosophy, have criticized CRP-A as “excessive.” 6.x office inform a half dozen people of anything that “I think we’ve accomplished step one, which is raisOthers, however, including both Van Loan and comes to the office,” Birman said.

See POLICIES page 13 Waymack, support the policy for its clarity.

He added that if an LGBTQ couple were to attempt Continued from page 1

Themed Okenshields Dinner Celebrates Chocolate and Body Positivity CHOCOLATE

Continued from page 1

wellbeing.”

Two stations were set up where participants would serve themselves a brownie or chili. In each instance, the participants were in control of the portion sizes they had. Participants were instructed to take whatever amount of food they wanted without judgment.

“For the brownie, normally you have the brownie cut for you. That is a cue that this is the size of what you should eat,” Stout said. “[Instead] we let people have control over [the size of the brownie] and slow down and think about it.”

“Hopefully we will get some people slow down and think ‘do I really want this?’ or ‘am I hungry for some more food’ or ‘am I okay, do I just want a desert now’ in the hopes that they will listen to their body more,” Bernard said.

Other menu items included chocolate soup and butternut squash bisque, cocoa and coffee rubbed pork loin with demi glaze and roasted beets with chocolate and balsamic glaze.

Mark H. Anbinder, a spokesperson for Cornell Dining, explained the usability of

chocolate in more than just sweet recipes in an email to The Sun. “The menu for the Chocolate and Intuitive Eating dinner is inspired by the idea that chocolate as an ingredient has an incredible array of possible uses in dishes both sweet and savory,” Anbinder wrote.

“We think of it as a treat or a dessert, and while it’s great that way, that's not all chocolate or cocoa is good for,” he said. “The cacao bean is an important part of lots of cuisines, especially in Latin America.”

Kristopher Angle, chef of Willard Straight Dining, took upon the challenge of designing the menu around chocolate.

He compared the savoriness of chocolate to coffee and referenced the similar flavor notes the two share. He said his main focus was using chocolate with foods he knew worked well with it.

“We went with stuff we knew worked together. We took the ingredient chocolate, we know it’s bitter, we know its rich, savory, [and thought about] how can we infuse that into a menu,” Angle said. “We took our normal ingredients and just plugged it in.”

Amina Kilpatrick can be reached at akilpatrick@cornellsun.com.

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Chocoholics | Okenshields serves a special menu centered around chocolate.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 5

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

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

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Editorial

Arts Faculty, Don’t Gut Language Requirement

THE ARTS & SCIENCES CURRICULUM COMMITTEE’S recommended changes to the College’s language requirements, in particular the halving of the credit requirement from 11 to 6, are misguided and should not be adopted by the arts college faculty today. Foreign language is and should remain an integral part of a liberal arts education, and the proposed changes will only do a disservice to students and departments throughout the college.

The committee (on which no language professors sit) notes that students often find the current requirements burdensome; many students aim to take a single intermediatelevel semester of a language they studied in high school, and some even transfer out of the College to avoid those courses. While this may be true, the response to such apathy should not be to lessen what is expected of undergraduates. If students have issues with foreign language classes at Cornell, those issues should be addressed, not swept under the rug by lowering the requirements altogether. Unless the committee believes there is something intrinsically repulsive about foreign language for students (note: there isn’t), they should endeavor to make those classes more enticing and rewarding rather than minimizing them.

The report notes that 63 percent of students elect to take one intermediate-level language course entered via placement exam rather than start a new language. The report implies that by lowering the requirement from “11 credits in a single language” to “two courses, at least three credits each, in a single language,” students who might otherwise take the intermediate-level track will instead choose to start a new language. Leaving aside questions of desired proficiency (it’s hard to learn a language in two intro semesters), that just doesn’t add up.

Now, we are but mere wordsmiths at The Cornell Daily Sun, unfamiliar with the mathematical sciences, but even we know that one is less than two.

If the language requirement is as cumbersome as the committee believes it to be, very few students who under the old rules took just one intermediate course would choose to take two semesters of a totally new language merely because they wouldn’t have to take a third. If the option remains to go “one and done,” that option will remain by far the most popular.

But let’s leave the math to the mathematicians and the game theory to the economists.

Here at The Sun we know a little about language, and we know that learning a language other than English is incredibly important. Because at a time when America’s leaders are taking great pains to isolate our nation from the rest of the world, communication is the key to bolstering our relationships with other nations and other people. It’s much easier to be angry at someone when you can’t understand them. It’s much easier to shut yourself off from the world when you are unable to connect with everything and everyone out there. Cornell’s plethora of language courses (there are so many!) offer us an invaluable door to the rest of the world. Let’s embrace that, not diminish it.

Mental Health Promotion And Suicide Prevention: How Is Cornell Supporting Students?

O

ver the past year, many people have voiced concerns about student mental health, including criticisms of the university’s clinical services and efforts to prevent suicide. Wait times for counseling services are among the challenges we at Cornell Health have been working to address. With university support we have added new therapist positions which has shortened wait times and also increased the diversity of our staff.

Access to mental health care is critical, because treatment works and many students are in need of it. It’s also important to reach students who may be reluctant to walk through our doors, so our Let’s Talk program places counselors in locations around campus for walk-in consultations. And within Cornell Health, our mental health and medical care providers work c o l l a b o r a t i v e l y.

During medical visits, we regularly ask patients about depression, anxiety, and alcohol use, even though they may have come to us for a different reason. If a need is identified, mental health clinicians who are part of our medical teams can provide immediate help.

While these clinical services are vital, treatment alone is not enough.

Promoting student mental health and preventing suicide requires a comprehensive, public health approach that both supports individuals and fosters a healthier educational and social environment. Although the rate of suicide among Cornell students is similar to other schools in the U.S., no level of sui-

vent suicide, we need to focus on both the mental health of individuals and the broader context of students’ lives. We know, for example, that emotional distress and serious thoughts of suicide are higher among students of color, which reflects how racism can erode mental health. Campus climate matters to wellbeing.

The causes of suicide are complex, though research is pointing to common factors. Suicidal thoughts may occur when a person feels cut off from others, hopeless, and thinks they are a burden.

The risk of suicide rises if gradually they also lose their natural, instinctive fear of death. When these thoughts combine, a

Promoting student mental health and preventing suicide requires a comprehensive, public health approach that both supports individuals and fosters a healthier educational and social environment.

Because of our unique topography, the nets are an essential part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. cide is acceptable. Each suicide is a tragedy, and we continually focus on how to prevent them.

Over the past 15 years, the university has developed a Mental Health Framework to guide our efforts. The framework includes strategies to promote resilience, increase help-seeking, and identify people in need of care.

We’re also working with faculty members to explore how they can support student well-being through teaching, evaluation, and advising practices. And since mental health is impacted by alcohol abuse, sexual violence, hazing and bias, strategies to address each of these are part of our approach.

Collectively, these efforts seek to support the mental health of all students and reduce the risk of suicide for those who are in significant distress. To pre-

person may then attempt suicide if they have the ability to act on their suicidal desire. That’s why preventing suicides requires two things: that we alleviate suffering, and that we reduce people’s ability to harm themselves. An example of the latter is when health care providers develop safety plans with suicidal students to put physical distance between them and the method of self-harm they are considering (e.g., by having potentially lethal medications removed from their homes). Doing so can buy time for suicidal impulses to pass.

Most people who die by suicide aren’t in counseling, so restricting access to the means of suicide can help protect those who don’t seek care. Cornell, like most other campuses, has long-standing policies to limit access to firearms and chemicals on campus. Similarly, the nets on our campus-area bridges help protect despairing members of our community when we can’t be there with them.

Because of our unique topography, the nets are an essential part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention for Cornell and the Ithaca community.

Preventing suicide and fulfilling Cornell’s aspiration to be a caring community requires sustained and shared commitment. We need to continue to examine systems, policies, and individual actions. The challenges we face require strong partnerships between students, staff, faculty, alumni, parents, and members of the local community —all are needed as we cultivate a campus culture that supports the well-being of every person. We invite you to be part of the way forward.

To learn more about the university’s new Coalition on Mental Health and the Mental Health Framework, visit health.cornell.edu.

Timothy C. Marchell ’82, Ph.D., is the director of the Skorton Center for Health Initiatives at Cornell Health. Gregory T. Eells, Ph.D., is the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Cornell Health. Guest Room runs periodically. Comments can be sent to opinion@cornellsun.com.

6 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018

OPINION

Lorenzo Benitez | Not a Cop

I

Hearing Dick Cheney

magine a bunch of chairs had been set up for a speaking engagement, and someone had tried to destroy as many of them as possible to decrease the number of people that could attend the engagement. (Assume too, for the sake of argument, that the number of chairs determine the possible audience size: the grass on which they are set up is wet and muddy, so people wouldn’t just be able to sit on the ground, and the speech will last for a tiring while, so standing is off the cards too.) For all intents and purposes, this appears to fall on the spectrum of silencing, albeit of a seemingly benign sort, and I suspect most of us would agree.

When it therefore came to my attention that some students were last month taking as many free tickets as possible to Dick Cheney’s originally scheduled speaking engagement, I couldn’t help but be a little miffed. Such actions admittedly come from well-intentioned political activism.

However, not only does it take advantage of the Cornell Republicans’ good will, but, more troublingly, it demonstrates the increasing political sectarianism within American society.

Irrespective of how much you disagree with what Cheney did while in power, as both a matter of principle and of application, we shouldn’t disrupt speech. For a start, how can either liberals or leftists expect to present the strongest censure of Cheney without first hearing his strongest defense? After all, we need not look further than Barack Obama to discover that a Hobbesian attitude toward foreign policy

isn’t uniquely right-wing. If one believes there is a moral obligation to disrupt Cheney’s speech for his involvement in reinstating torture and initiating the Iraq War, then so too should one disrupt, for example, Obama for authorizing the execution of an American citizen without trial, the unprecedented waging of collateralized drone warfare and continuing the mass surveillance begun by the administration of which Cheney was a member. I suspect many who are planning to disrupt Cheney wouldn’t feel nearly as compelled to disrupt Obama if the latter were invited to speak, suggesting philosophical inconsistency across partisan lines.

However, I understand these actions stem from profound disagreement with Cheney’s economic policies. Some may regard fiscal conservatism, “neoliberalism” or however else free market capitalism is today labelled as hostile to impoverished people, a socioeconomic identity as real as, say, a racial identity. However, Cheney’s domestic policies are the product of a predominant worldview that sees capitalism as the most equitable way to structure society, not an intrapersonal, reactive attitude like hatred. Even then, besides intent, a consequentialist would see that the harms wrought by Cheney are fundamentally different in character than the most grotesque examples of hate speech. Hate speech can directly provoke literal violence, whereas advocating for lower taxes, if you believe it leads to social harms, causes harm indirectly. In fact, the jury is still out on whether status-quo capitalism is any worse than

what could replace it — which is why political economists continue to disagree, after all.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m not defending Cheney’s worldview — I’m simply considering the reasoning that may have led to it. Asking whether Cheney ought to be unrestricted in his speech raises the ageold question of whether speech should ever be restricted. Beyond cases like wrongly shouting “fire” in a crowded theater, I doubt that anyone could name a single person who they would entrust with the responsibility of weighing the benefits and costs of speech — in other words, of serving as society’s ultimate censor. But, if one believes that a governing body of more than just one person would be a better evaluator of speech, then are they not implicitly acknowledging that a group’s ability to evaluate speech improves in proportion to the number of different individuals that constitute it? And, if this is the case, then why not increase the size of this group to the furthest extent? In other words, to encompass as much of society as possible?

As argued by the philosopher John Stuart Mill, when ideas collide, the stronger of the two inevitably prevails. If Cheney’s ideas are so wrong, then there won’t be uptake of them. However, since there is uptake, we have a helpful sign for those who disagree with him that there are some minds that need to be convinced.

This helpfully reveals how arguments against Cheney need to be refined, but this is only possible when his own arguments

are understood at their strongest.

Otherwise, not only do well-intentioned members of the left play into the galvanizing narrative being constructed by the right that free speech is under siege on college campuses, but, more fundamentally, they deprive themselves of the valuable opportunity to strengthen their argumentation.

While some would argue it’s still possible to access Cheney’s arguments via the internet, forcing discourse from a physical venue to a digital platform also constitutes a disruption of speech. An in-person speaking engagement affords the opportunity to more easily query and converse with a speaker, which would become more apparent to the average Cornellian if a leftist speaker were barred from speaking.

Besides, we all know how productive political discussions over the internet tend to be.

To conclude, I’d like to add that airing my beliefs on subjects including identity, immigration, determinism, pre-professionalism, Bitcoin and God has been my favorite extra-curricular at what can feel like an alienating institution. However, I sense I’ve exhausted my noteworthy opinions as a college student and so would like to mark this as my final column. I thank my editors, Jacob Rubashkin ’19 and Katie Sims ’20, and all who’ve followed Not a Cop over the past year.

Lorenzo Benitez is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at lbenitez@cornellsun.com.

Not a Cop appears alternate Mondays this semester.

William Wang | Willpower

I

f you haven’t noticed yet, some companies have already fired up their recruiting engines for next summer’s internships. Along the way, students, especially current sophomores, have scrambled to attend recruiting events, network and hopefully be asked to interview for a coveted position for next summer.

Interviewing for an internship can be incredibly stressful for students, especially when they have to balance it with schoolwork, extracurriculars and a social life.

For instance, one of my friends dropped a class because it was interfering with her networking session, and as a fellow business student, I was sympathetic. A lot of business students feel pressured to prioritize interviews, which seems incredibly backwards. But oftentimes, interviews require studying too. Companies like to know you’ve done the proper research on them when they bring you in for interview. It shows commitment and zeal, I suppose.

“Oh, I’ll do fine on the tests.

What really worries me is my upcoming interview,” said my other friend one day.

She spent a big chunk of her time scrolling through websites, applying to and prepping for her interviews. But as much as you could prep, the problem with interviews is that they could be often unpredictable, riddled with “gotcha!” questions and landmines designed to weed out the candidates who don’t possess the certain, innate qualities a particular company or organization wants.

Make Me Laugh For instance, I recently interviewed for a student club on campus where they decided to try every interview tactic possible. It was perhaps the oddest hour and a half of my life.

First, they had multiple groups of interviewers split up between different themes. One group asked you technical questions, while another asked you behavioral questions. My first batch of interviewees asked me riddle questions. It went something like this: “What gets wetter as it dries?”

“Wanna hear a riddle?” I asked.

(The answer was a towel.

When I got it, I just put my head down and laughed. Riddles never cease to be funny) “What gets bigger as you take stuff out of it?”

(The answer was a hole. I didn’t get that one, mostly because I kept thinking of a bag that somehow inflated as you took stuff out of it.)

“If you had an elephant, and you can’t sell it or give it away, what would you do with it?”

(I just passed on that question because I had no clue how to answer it. Honestly, if someone wants to answer that, they could put it in the comments section below or just email me. I desper-

ately want to know.)

Swinging around to different groups of interviewees led to different kinds of questions: Tricky, but a little more practical.

“What’s the biggest lie on your resume?”

Which is a fairy common question used by interviewers to unhinge candidates. But it was a pretty simple one for me. I had written down “very experienced in python,” which was true (I had taken a class, and I had done some independent projects), but I thought putting “very experienced” was overselling it.

Proficient would have been a better answer.

“If we had a candidate with the exact same background and qualifications as you, why should we hire them over you?”

“Because” — and I thought carefully if this really was tactful, because the mood seemed light — ”I’m more social and funnier.”

“Oh really? Tell me a joke.”

Well, I don’t really know a joke…

At the end of the increasingly perplexing interview, I was sent to a back room to be grilled by a trio of students who decided it would best to screw with me.

“Say your name backwards” “Um, Wang William?”

‘No, say it backwards’ “Like what, phonetically?”

Then they asked me to sing my

favorite song.

“Do I really have to?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how this was relevant.

“Yes, you can just hum it.”

And so, for about 30 seconds in a brightly lit room, during an interview that had far exceeded expectations, I started humming Bowie’s high art classic “Sound and Vision.”

And then it became ludicrous.

“Make me a laugh” demanded the guy in the back row after I finished humming.

Ugh, I thought. I had the distinct feeling I should really learn a joke to tell. I did know a good riddle though.

“Wanna hear a riddle?” I asked hopefully.

“Nah, that’s fine, he doesn’t like to think too much.” said the guy in front of him, with a straight face. “We can move on.”

And on and on they went. At some point, I realize the point of the interview wasn’t for me to do what they said, but to just shock me. They cared more how about I reacted than what I said. They were looking how I reacted under pressure. The problem was, they hadn’t done a good job of it.

Their words were a bit too forced, their actions a bit overdone. They were like bad actors, mimicking what they thought was hostility instead of actually being hostile. But overall, it was quite the interview.

And honestly? It wasn’t that unusual of an interview compared to others I’ve heard about. There was a particularly horrid interview I once heard from someone who had interviewed for a business frat

on campus. They had ripped apart his look, and had done a surprisingly impressive job of unnerving him, because he didn’t strike me as the type of guy to get unnerved.

At one point, an interviewer had zeroed in on his tie and went in for the kill.

“That tie,” he had said with a rather Trumpian sneer, “is absolutely terrible.”

Which seemed a little petty, but served as a good tip for for future interviewees: When companies outline the dress code for interviews, it really isn’t about fitting a style, because company dress codes have about as much style as a vacuum machine. It’s about following directions and paying attention to details, the hallmark of corporate vitality.

Failing to do so doesn’t reflect well on the candidate.

And really, those are just the basics. Companies want to differentiate applicants, but to do that requires creative questions to take them out of their comfort zone.

Everyone can walk through their resume. Not every can give you sound advice on what to do with an elephant if you can sell it of give it away. It’s impossible to predict the questions you’ll be asked.

But personally, the more I think about it, there is at least one thing you can do that will be guaranteed to help you in a future interview.

Just learn a good joke.

William Wang is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He can be reached at wwang@cornellsun.com.

Willpower appears alternating Mondays this semester.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 7

OPINION

Willow Hibsher | Not a Sex Column

Talks Most Says Least

A

s a senior in high school, I was vying for the “Class Clown” superlative but I would not be that lucky. In addition to “Class Gossip,” I also won “Talks Most Says Least.” It is pretty fucked up that this award had been approved by the administration.

Four years later, I am about to graduate college. I am more proud of this superlative than I am of many of my other accomplishments. Looking back now, I can see that this label was and still is a common way to dismiss women with opinions, but this is me reclaiming it.

I still “talk the most.” It is a big part of my identity and it is the reason I can write these columns. If you are going to say anything, you can’t be afraid that people will think it value-less, or you might never end up talking at all. I would like to think that almost all of the things I say (or write) have value and, although that is probably an exaggeration, it is a fun exercise in self esteem building that all women should take part in.

I love the sound of my voice and I will not be silenced. I am still confused, I am not always confident in my view and I surely don’t have all the answers unless this is some kind of Ru Paul’s Drag Race trivia competition. I’ve always worried about being annoying and loud and overly aggressive and as important as it is to grow, it is just as important to be yourself. To quote my own Instagram bio for

the last six years: not everybody likes me, but not everybody matters.

As I write this swan song of a column, and possibly the last of my writing to be published (if no one decides to hire me), I think of all the stories I’ve told through this platform but even more so I think about the stories I’ve yet to write. I think about the things that have changed at Cornell, in my life and in the world over the course of my senior year.

I still haven’t had an orgasm and I am still a feminist killjoy. But a lot is different. The past 10 months have been the most formative of my entire life — which is mildly frustrating because I wanted to have a chill senior year. I worry I’ve slipped too far into the analytical and every interaction with a man sends my reaching for my copy of the Scum Manifesto that I keep on my bedside table. Sometimes I find myself lamenting about how that guy from my class still has not responded to my Facebook message asking him to hang. I try to convince myself that it is a symptom of the larger sexist trend of men ignoring the the desires of women. Then I remember that probably he just isn’t into me and that is okay too. Not every slight against me is a misogynist plot against my gender.

I still have a lot to say. If it sounds like I’m angry, it is because I often am. I want to tell Ithaca to ban plastic cups because walking through Collegetown on a

Sunday morning, I feel like I am transported to trash island. I’m glad that Bill Cosby has been sentenced to prison but I still feel like the sexual safety of women is a mere trend and I fear a time when the public grows weary of it. I am upset about living in a capitalist system that is only possible with the existence of an underclass but I am far too comfortable to leave it. I am angry about the plight of farmworkers but sometimes I forget to check if my produce comes from a unioni z e d farm.

As full as I am of anger, I am equally filled with iced tea, DayQuil and gratitude. I want to thank my mom for being a champion for women before it was cool. I want to thank my best friend for helping me check my white feminist privilege. I want to thank all the girls who have reached out to me with stories and opinions and ideas that have allowed me to make this column what it was. I want to thank Cardi for a killer soundtrack to my last semester.

I’d like to thank The Sun for this opportunity that has fully shifted my life

plans (sorry Dad, I am officially not going to law school ever). Thanks to everyone who was read my rants and double thanks to everyone who has liked them.

Woman are my inspiration and I hope something I’ve said has inspired other women. More girls need to speak up — be it in the bedroom or the classroom or

I still have a lot to say. If it sounds like I’m angry, it is because I often am. the courtroom. Ladies, go get that money. Go get that respect and make them eat it. Find a nice person who will go down on you and won’t call you a “conspiracy theorist” when you talk about the patriarchy. Share your opinions and force people to listen. Do the most. Be the most. Talk the most. Say the most.

Willow Hubsher is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at wrh73@cornell.edu. This is Not a Sex Column appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

Artur Gorokh | Radically Moderate

Nerve Gas, Spies and Secret Briefings F

ollowing politics can be frustrating. You see decisions made on the basis of private motives and private information. Whatever efforts you make in inferring the missing pieces are often thwarted by the fact that some actions are motivated by nothing but plain human stupidity. So instead I kick back and stream the new season of Homeland (which involves plots about as unrealistic but a whole lot more entertaining than those on CNN).

decades ago in the USSR. British officials reacted to the incident with an astonishing speed, pointing fingers at Russia 48 hours after the incident and a few weeks later expelling 24 russian diplomats from the nation and suspending all highlevel relations with Russia.

Many EU nations as well as the U.S. have joined in (believe it or not, Donald Trump actually issued a public statement condemning Russia), expelling the total of 150 russian officials

The lack of pressure to be transparent normalizes this perverse system of making decisions outside of the sight of the public.

But then sometimes, especially when it comes to my homeland Russia, I just can't help it.

A good example of how opaque modern politics are is the recent conflict between Russia and the U.K. It started with the assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 25 in Salisbury, U.K. Skripal is an ex-Russian intelligence officer who in the ’90s started working with MI-6 as a double agent, and after serving his sentence (for treason in the form of espionage) he moved to the U.K. in 2011. The attack was conducted with an exotic nerve gas “Novichek” developed

from around the globe.

Let's put aside the sheer stupidity it takes to try assassinating someone on foreign soil with an exotic nerve gas right before hosting the 2018 World Cup (to conspiracy theorists among you I recommend Hanlon's razor).

What is the evidence used in prosecuting the Russian State?

Publically, next to none. Theresa May originally proclaimed the chemical structure of the nerve agent to be the smoking gun, which was a bit of a blunder as the British lab responsible for analysis later disconfirmed this.

The chemical’s formula has been openly known for a decade, and

it is legal as well as standard for labs around the world to produce small quantities of it for identification purposes.

Begrudgingly, Boris Johnson admits in an awkward interview that in fact the lab investigating the incident itself had such a sample.

Apart from that, and the semi-plausible motives (why not just off the guy while he was serving his sentence back home?), the public case against Russia is vacuous, which is rather unusual. With most of the previous scandals, for example the Russian hacking of DNC, there is plenty of data available online to convince yourself that the evidence, although tangential, is pretty damning. In this case, the only thing we can go off is the fact that 31 other nations chose to join the reprisal after the intelligence briefings. From a U.K. official: “We released unprecedented degrees of intelligence to our allies in order to be able to persuade them of the case that there was no plausible alternative other than this was the Russian state.” EU officials noted that the briefings “including much that is not in the public domain,” are “extremely convincing.”

This is it, this is all we mere mortals have to run on. An important decision that seriously escalated tensions with a nuclear nation was made based

on secret intel, and its contents are an absolute mystery.

Remember that other time a major political decision involving western coalition was made based on secret intel? Due to the scrutiny that followed, the decision to invade Iraq provided us with invaluable knowledge about the inner-workings of employing secret intelligence in making political decisions. We learned that the analysts can be overconfident, that the information can come from unreliable informants and that politicians can easily misrepresent the available data — and do so intentionally.

Part of the reason the CIA failed as badly as it did with collecting intelligence on Iraq was the prior conviction that Iraq was guilty. This is very human, and we all know what it's like to start unwittingly filtering information based on whether it fits your beliefs. But it means that we should be especially worried about secret intel reports when accusations are made against the stereotypically “evil” forces (such as Mr. Putin), as everyone involved is way too biased to remain coldly analytical.

It could be that there is a double agent planted in GRU, Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, who leaked the operation to MI-6 in its entirety.

Or maybe there is a pile of subtle tangential evidence, like with the email hacks, where careful analysis by professionals allowed to make high probability assertions. Or it could be based on words of a nobody trying to get

a green card, like happened with Iraq. We just don’t know.

What pisses me off most about this situation is the complacency with which everyone just accepted that Russia is guilty with pretty much no pushback against the secrecy, from the press nor from the other western nations. The lack of pressure to be transparent normalizes this perverse system of making decisions outside of the sight of the public. It is antithetical to democracy and makes navigating an already incomprehensible world of global politics epistemologically hopeless.

The point I am making is not that the Russians are innocent (in all likelihood, they aren't).

The point is that we are forced to base our opinions exclusively on prior beliefs and hearsay of people we know to be fallible and untrustworthy. This also makes any constructive debate on the issue impossible: when friends back home ask me why is it that the entire world is banishing our diplomats, I can only reply that MI-6 seems to think we're guilty, which you can imagine is not a very convincing argument to someone who already thinks that the West is out to get them. With no factual ground to stand on, we all just float in our own bubbles of beliefs without hope of making any progress.

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, May 1, 2018

SCIENCE

SCIENCE

Business

HealthCare

PHOTOS BY BORIS TSANG/ SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Bumbling bees | Judges pay close attention to the students’ products, innovations and company projections during the presentations on April 20.

Honey Bee Monitoring Company Wins Student Business of the Year

BY KAREN ZAKLAMA Sun Contributer

Combplex, a company that monitors honey bee colonies in real time, was announced as Cornell’s Student Business of the Year on April 20. Less than one month before, business creators Haley Scofield and Nathan Oakes, Ph.D. students in neurobiology and behavior and computational biology, respectively, competed against 13 other businesses nominated for the award.

The criteria for the award include the business’ success in areas like revenue generation, customer validation, creativity, uniqueness and scalability of the business model. After being chosen as the Student Business of the Year, the company receives VAS MATHUR / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

$5,000 to improve and expand.

Judges for this year’s competition included Todd Edmonds, the creative director and founder of Iron Design, Greg Galvin, the president and CEO of Rheonix, Ryoko Nozawa, the principal at the Cayuga Venture Fund, and Sam Sotoodeh, the president of Acquisition Group.

This year, each of the 13 teams brought something new to the table. Businesses ranged from technological to physical platforms, with companies like Religio which is building software to better connect churches, competing against Bumble & Butter, a granola company that many students on campus have recently been introduced to.

Other businesses include Dragon Catcher, a service to better understand e-commerce websites,

Brella, an app that allows people to pick their outfits based on that day’s weather and Vita-Shoes, a socially and environmentally conscious shoe company.

Sponsored by Entrepreneurship at Cornell, the Student Business of the Year was announced almost one month after the initial competition, on April 20th at the annual Entrepreneurship at Cornell celebration.

The winners are prepared to enter a network of other prominent Cornell business owners such as the creators of Wo No Ni Cosmetics, Equine Design, Produce Pay Inc, and Worthy Jerky, who won the Student Business of the Year award in the past four years, respectively.

The deliberation for the winners of the award took so long in part to feature the student businesses at a larger event and to investigate how the businesses can play into 21st century business goals, including startup challenges, sustainability, the power of networking, and crypto-currency. Combplex is therefore prepared to be part of a more complex and socially mindful business world.

Combplex is especially devoted to social and environmental change. Bees are becoming increasingly threatened as a species and it is estimated that beekeepers lose millions of dollars from bee colony deaths. By creating devices that can monitor bee movement and colony reproduction, Combplex is using technology to improve both bee populations and beekeepers’ businesses. The company therefore is at the forefront of unifying environmental and social concerns with technological innovation.

Karen Zaklama can be reached kaz45@cornell.edu.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 9

SCIENCE

Many Obamacare Effects Went Unnoticed, Professor Says Affordable Care Act provisions that went beyond healthcare‘unseen by the public eye’

BY EMMA DIGIOVANNI Sun Staff Writer

The staple of Barack Obama’s 2008 election platform was healthcare reform. However, soon after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law, a majority of the American public supported its repeal.

What happened?

A landmark piece of legislation, many argue that the ACA brought the U.S. substantially closer to having a comprehensive healthcare system, an objective already accomplished by most high-income countries and one placed on many agendas since the Truman administration.

Yet, as Prof. Suzanne Mettler, government, notes in her book, The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy, the ACA’s accomplishments went largely unnoticed by the American public, and despite the successful expansion of health insurance coverage to millions of Americans, Democrats in Congress suffered great losses in the 2010 midterm elections following the ACA’s enactment.

Among many achievements, such as expanding Medicaid and providng insurance to more Americans, the ACA improved coverage for people with preexisting conditions and it allowed people under the age of 26 to be covered by their parents’ insurance plans.

As Mettler indicates in her book, in the month following the ACA’s enactment, over 50 percent of the public said they were “confused” about the act’s provisions, and months later over 60 percent said they supported its repeal. There was a widespread uncertainty about what the ACA entailed and how — if at all — it would benefit Americans.

While the explanation for this paradox rests in part with political partisanship and opinions about the state of the economy, it also stems from a phenomenon which Mettler describes as the “submerged state.”

According to Mettler, the submerged states describes the subset of policies that function through invisible avenues like the federal tax system or subsidies to private institutions, often benefiting the public without the public noticing. Thus, submerged policies, like the homemortgage-interest deduction, are largely unseen by the public eye, while policies like food stamps, which more directly channel benefits, are more visible.

“The submerged state permits

people to not acknowledge government's role in their lives. It's easier to be anti-government if you don't realize [that] the things that have benefitted you and your family members and your community are government benefits,” Mettler said.

[of ] millions of new customers toward insurance companies for coverage,” were also invisible, Mettler wrote.

Further, because selective interests were deeply invested in the submerged state, the Obama administration couldn’t simply ignore them. It had to accommodate them in order to achieve reform.

Mettler talked about the involvement of selective interests in the policy process leading up to the ACA. “Every time for decades that change has been proposed in these policy areas, [selective interest] groups double down and they protect the existing system. And Obama was up against that,” Mettler said.

The Obama administration’s dealing with selective interests was noticed by the public, and as a result, the administration landed its reform efforts a reputation

“The submerged state permits people to not acknowledge government’s role in their lives.”

Prof. Suzanne Mettler Mettler cited a national poll from 2008 in which participants were asked whether or not they had “ever used a government social program.” Over 40 percent of respondents said “no,” but when presented with an array of specific federal policies and asked whether they had ever benefited from at least one, over 90 percent said “yes.”

As Mettler had expected, submerged policies were predominantly among those policies whose beneficiaries had responded to not ever using a federal social program.

As a result, Mettler argued that the submerged state ended up undercutting American democracy by promoting misinformed, passive, and anti-government sentiment among the public. When Americans receive submerged benefits, they aren’t likely to understand the policy’s content or impact and they detect almost no action or attention coming from their government.

To describe the relation between the submerged state and the ACA, Mettler notes that submergence contributes to the broad, misinformed notion that healthcare policy is created through market institutions.

Since Americans generally don’t perceive healthcare as functioning within the government’s purview, government intervention and initiation of reform efforts are unexpected and often unwelcome, denounced as a “government takeover.”

Moreover, as Mettler explained in her book, Obama’s particular vision for healthcare reform “required transformation of the submerged state in order to be accomplished.”

Obama was required to rework the anatomy of the submerged state, changing deeprooted and often invisible policies and precedents in order to establish new provisions, many of which, like the “channeling

for favoring moneyed interests and excluding the American people.

What the public often perceived, then, was not only a disregard for ordinary Americans, but also an amalgam of unclear or unseen objectives functioning within a policy domain not thought appropriate for government involvement in the first place.

Mettler believes that heightened awareness of the submerged state would generate more favorable circumstances, not only in regards to healthcare, but in regards to all social policy.

“One of the things that I hope people take away [from this research],” Mettler said, “is that in fact nearly everyone in the United States, nearly all of us, are beneficiaries of government social benefits.”

Mettler talked about how the structure of social benefits in the U.S. deviates from that of other developed countries.

“The array of social benefits

[in the U.S.] are more upwardly redistributed. We give more benefits to higher income people,” Mettler said, “but we do so in a submerged manner that seems to erase any trace of government involvement.” As a result, “people think of these as earned benefits, and they think of them as coming through the private sector.”

In order for the submerged state to be reconfigured, Mettler suggested the need for more transparent and meaningful communication between the American people and the government and more policies that challenge submergence.

“We like to think of social benefits as just for those other people, particularly low-income people,” Mettler said. “But in fact, the welfare state, once you include these [submerged] policies, is actually just as large as it is in other comparable, affluent nations.”

Emma DiGiovanni can be reached ejd89@cornell.edu.

A&E

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Tuesday, May 1, 2018

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Avengers: Infinity War Goes to Infinity...But Not Beyond

BY ZACHARY LEE Sun Staff Writer

Though Marvel announced Avengers: Infinity War in October 2014, in many ways the title for the 19th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a long time coming. Yes, the film is loosely based on Jim Starlin’s 1991 comic The Infinity Gauntlet (and its subsequent sequel The Infinity War) but even more so, the title is indicative of Marvel’s ongoing battle to tell cohesive and compelling crossover stories as its roster of heroes exponentially expands with each film. This conflict began back in 2008 when Nick Fury uttered to Tony Stark, “You’ve become a part of a bigger universe. You just don’t know it yet.”

With Infinity War, you can tell that its directors, the Russo Brothers, are trying to live out Thanos’ goal by making this film “balanced as all things should be.”

Yet in their egalitarian attempts to give every character and plot thread a chance in the spotlight, Infinity War both does too much and consequently not enough. In its best moments, it is able to pull off the impossible, drawing together different franchises for a smorgasbord of action, spectacle and adventure.

At its worst moments, it is like

the titan Atlas who strains to keep the world on his shoulders; you are left feeling full by the sheer quantity of which you have witnessed but still disappointingly empty at its lack of depth.

Adulation is due, however, to the Russo Brothers’ willingness to take risks, the first being a narrative departure from past films by truly making the antagonist the “hero” of the story. The mad titan Thanos, having been teased through post credits scenes and an extended cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy finally steps out from the shadows. He desires to get all six infinity stones so that way he may eliminate half the universe to achieve peace, his reason being that the universe, in its finitude, simply cannot support an everexpanding population. Josh Brolin portrays the character with an appropriate amount of menace; never have I seen so many characters want to discourage someone from snapping their fingers. Yet ultimately, his appearance here feels more like an introduction to the character; audiences are simply expected to believe too much in too little time. Thanos feels less like your significant other of a few years finally proposing and more like a classmate who unexpectedly asks you out to a formal.

With so much emphasis on Thanos, the remaining scraps of screen time are divided between

Earth’s (and the galaxy’s) mightiest heroes and guardians. The Russos divide up the characters naturally by character association and personality type, creating recapitulated and derivative versions of the teams found in Captain America: Civil War. Iron Man’s team leads the first line of attack against Thanos, while Captain America battles Thanos’ henchman, the Black Order, as well as his Outrider army, on Earth. While every character gets an opportunity to shine, whether it is Okoye (Danai Gurira) teaming up with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) against Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon) or Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) using his magic to give Spider-Man (Tom Holland) an edge as the web-slinger tackles Thanos, unfortunately most of the characters are stripped away of complexity and depth and reduced to superficial attributes.

Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is disappointingly more arrogant, despite being humbled in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) is far too business-like and we do not see the aftermath of his fall-out with Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).

Yet while not all interactions between characters feel as momentous as they should, it finally feels like a comic book movie and to

COURTESY OF MARVEL STUDIOS

Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlet Johannson) prepare for battle in Avengers: Infinity War.

see Thor inhabit the colorful world of the Guardians or Iron Man’s pragmatism clash with Doctor Strange’s mystic beliefs, is a dream come true.

Likewise, Infinity War boasts some of the most thrilling action sequences ever seen in a superhero film. The battle against Thanos literally takes place across the galaxy and the Russos do an excellent job at showing this scope. There’s an elation to seeing Black Panther and Captain America rush through Wakanda’s foliage, one wielding vibranium gauntlets and the other a vibranium suit, and see them decimate enemies side by side.

Additionally, Infinity War lives up to the “war” in its name; the body count is unapologetically high.

Many of the deaths are quite shocking; you can almost hear the Russo Brothers indifference through some lines Cap utters to

general Ross: “I’m not looking for forgiveness, and I’m way beyond asking for permission.”

Perhaps Infinity War’s greatest accomplishment is the fact that despite its cumulative nature and that every shot reminds you of a sense of finality, it still feels like a set-up for something bigger to come along the line. Rather than have every character do something significant or meaningful in the film, Infinity War wants all characters to be affected significantly by its end. Its tone is dark, with hope barely flickering throughout it scenes. Through this film, it is very clear that the directors know what Good Friday is; let us hope that come the sequel, they know about Easter Sunday too.

Zachary Lee is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at zjl4@cornell.edu.

Goodbye Sun: My Love Letter to Cinema

L

ast week, my editors at The Sun informed me that this was going to be my last column for the paper — and I was shocked. The Cornell Daily Sun has become such a part of my life over the past couple years. Departing is going to be a huge change… but I’m not sad about leaving. Instead, I’m glad for the time that I’ve had here. It’s given a direction to my writing skill, and I fully intend to continue Animation Analysis on my own site, GouldenBean.com. For my last column here though, I’d like to talk about something a little more generalized: how I judge movies, and how I view the art form of cinema in general.

While I’ve specialized in animation, you might have seen my reviews for films as diverse as Love, Simon, A Quiet Place and The Death of Stalin. All three were films that I really enjoyed. Why did I enjoy them? Well, for one thing, I look at the writing. Any artform ultimately comes down to storytelling; some stories are simply more explicitly laid out than others. I look at the characters, I look at the plot, I look at the messages and themes that come out of them. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that even the best visuals cannot save a broken script.

That’s not to say that impressive visuals escape my notice. I’m always eager to see spectacle on the screen, whether bombastic or subdued. Especially in animation, I love seeing little details that help elevate the world from computers or ink into something bursting with life. A beautiful

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

composition will always leave me feeling happy and satisfied. In the same way, there are many times when I’ve purchased a soundtrack after watching a film because the score simply blew me away. A thing of beauty is a joy forever, after all.

Now so far this all sounds objective, and to be sure most films I can judge well with these categories. Yet, I consider it impossible to objectively judge a film’s merit. Every film is different. Do bad special effects sink a movie?

If so, I’d point to Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with its tongue-and-cheek cheesy effects. What about a story that has mediocre characters, but thrusts them into an inventive plot? Is that better or worse than a film that does “pretty good” at both? If humor makes a film good, I’d point out Schindler’s List. If heavy drama makes a movie good, I’d point out The Grand Budapest Hotel. There’s no way to measure all these great films on a single metric. It’s this reason that I don’t use a number scale.

I usually end reviews with a recommendation to see, not see, to wait or so on. That said, there is one factor that I use reliably to determine a film’s worth. One single factor that I base my entire judgment on.

That single factor?

Effort.

Did the people behind this movie care about making a movie? Did they at least

try to make good characters? Is there some imagination in the world, some attempt to make things look good? Or, was it spat out with the hope that the budget would be recouped before it left theaters? Did someone sit down and say, “Let’s try to tell a story here,” or did they say “Let’s trick those poor audience members into forking over their dollars”?

by this weekend’s Avengers: Infinity War just as much as I was moved and impacted by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I’ll watch horror and family, comedy and tragedy, mainstream and niche, because all these areas are full of people, full of artists doing their best work possible. That’s why it pains me when people seem to go through a checklist with films, dinging it for every “mistake.” It reminds me of a line from The Greatest Showman, where P.T. Barnum encounters a critic, and asks when was the last time he smiled. “A theater critic who gets no joy from the theater,” he mutters with a pitying Animation Analysis shake of the head. I don’t let my love for cinema become a dry search for mistakes. I make Funnily enough, the film that helped it a joyful celebration of strengths. It me reach this conclusion was The Room, brings happiness to my life, it brings the infamously bad production that nev- laughs, ponderance, education and so ertheless has a cult following. Here’s the much more. You can be darned sure that thing with The Room. It’s totally inept, I’ll keep going to movies even after school, with incoherent writing, laughable acting, and I’ll keep reporting about them. bizarre visual choices… but at the same Once again, I’ll be continuing at time, you can tell Tommy Wiseau cared so GouldenBean.com. I hope to see you deeply about it. He wanted to make the there. This is David Gouldthorpe, saying world’s greatest drama, and even though a final goodbye to The Cornell Daily he fell so far short, you can still tell that Sun. his movie has heart in it. That’s why it’s talked about 15 years later.

David Gouldthorpe is a senior in the School of When it comes down to it, I love cine- Industrial Relations. He can be reached at ma. I don’t like excluding certain genres djg284@cornell.edu. Animation Analysis will from that love. I was thrilled and shocked appear alternate Tuesdays this semester.

David Gouldthorpe

COMICS AND PUZZLES

Sundoku

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 11

Countdown

Puzzle #832

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)

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NEWS

Committee Seeks to Reform Decades-Long Policy on Student-Faculty Relations President Pollack will most likely release statement on policy following submission POLICIES

legally required, but frowned upon to not buckle up. Not that people back then were knowinging consciousness of this conver- ly doing something wrong or sation on people’s minds,” he taking risks, it’s just that we have said. a better awareWa y m a c k ness of this “There is absolutely no n o w , ” and Van Loan e m p h a s i z e d statement about privacy Waymack said. this policy T h e in the CRP-A or CRP-B U n i v e r s i t y wasn’t a “judgement of declined to proposals.” what hapcomment, Prof. Ken Birman pened 20 or 30 however a years ago,” but statement is compared the expected to be viewpoint change to the evolu- released following the submission tion of how people’s view of seat of the final report to Pollack. belts has changed.

“A generation ago, how many Alisha Gupta can be reached at people wore them? It wasn’t a agupta@cornellsun.com. Anu thing, and then we realized the Subramaniam can be reached at risks and now in fact it’s not only asubramaniam@cornellsun.com.

Continued from page 4

You’ll be blown away

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 13

14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018

NEWS

New TCAT App Allows Users to Search Buses

By Precise Location Cornell AppDev project team consults locals, students in designing Ithaca Transit app TCAT

Continued from page 1

and get you where you need to go.

“Combining live tracking and updates with Google Maps and Search integration, Ithaca Transit is a free and simple solution for the entire transit process,” he added.

The app was created by Cornell AppDev, a project team at Cornell that designs, develops and distributes mobile and web applications through the App Store. It previously developed “Eatery,” a popular app amongst Cornell students that allows them look up the daily

“Students wait out in the cold wondering when the bus is coming or if it already left.”

Mihir Chauhan ’18

WANTED STUDENT MANAGER

for MEN’S and WOMEN’S VARSITY SQUASH TEAMS We are seeking an individual who would fill the role of MANAGER for Cornell’s varsity squash program.

The MANAGER...

• Will be responsible for assisting in planning away trips and helping the coaches with home practices and matches.

• May travel with the team, attend all practice sessions, see to any special needs that players may have, and become an integral member of the Cornell squash program.

• Interested parties should respond via email to JEFFREY LAIKIND [jlaikind@gmail.com], President, Friends of Cornell University Squash, detailing their qualifications for this important position.

hours and menus for Cornell’s dining locations.

Ithaca Transit currently has over 1000 users and 300 active daily users, according to the Cornell AppDev team and can be downloaded for free from the App Store.

Prominent features of the app include live TCAT bus tracking and updates so users can track bus locations and receive notifications when the bus arrives at their stop.

“We want to bring real-time notifications to the app,” said Austin Astorga ’19, a member of Cornell AppDev and an iOS developer for Ithaca Transit.

“These notifications would tell you when your bus is arriving, when to get off the bus, and other information riders will find useful.”

Cornell AppDev had received several requests to create a TCAT bus app for Ithaca. Students were frustrated with trying to read the PDF files on TCAT’s website, or having to pay for unreliable apps.

Citing the “overwhelming” quantity of route numbers and stop names, Mihir Chauhan ’18, Cornell AppDev member and one of Ithaca Transit’s first designers, recalled that since his freshman year, he had witnessed many of the students’ complications as a result of inadequate, existing apps.

“Students wait out in the cold wondering when the bus is coming or if it already left, and often are unsure if they’re even on the right bus,” he said.

Chauhan said that they approached this obstacle with the reasoning that, “if a freshman who doesn’t know Ithaca at all can fig-

ure it out, anyone can.”

“So we started out by designing for the clueless freshman, but also added features like ‘Favorites’ for people more familiar with the area who’ve used the same stops for years,” he said.

App developers consulted locals and Cornell students to learn about their TCAT experiences in order to create a platform “designed specifically with Ithaca in mind,” Chauhan said.

Users can use Ithaca Transit for travel to any location within Ithaca and can also “favorite” their frequent destinations, which saves these locations to their home page for future convenience.

Users can even locate their correct destination by searching precise addresses or even something like Chipotle, Chauhan explained.

“A recurring struggle we heard from users of other apps was having to know exactly what bus stops exist when they search,” he said.

The app also uses Google Maps and Search to optimize bus routes.

Users can search for any location and the app will display all of the TCAT bus transfer options as well as walking directions from the nearest TCAT stop to the desired location.

“One of the biggest challenges was being able to deliver accurate and great bus route options,” Astorga said. “Delivering great routes is a lot harder than what people might think,” but the team now has a creation with routing techniques that rival providers like Google Maps, according to Astorga.

“One of the biggest challenges was being able to deliver accurate and great bus route options.”

Austin Astorga ’19 Ong said that the team is “proud of where Ithaca Transit has gotten today,” but that this is “only the beginning,” and the team plans to add and improve the app’s features and extend its target audience to users who do not have iPhones.

“Our plan is to get feedback from the community and users,” Chauhan said. “We want to solve as many of their problems as possible. We’re looking to modify existing features and add new ones based on the feedback we get.”

Katherine Heaney can be reached at kheaney@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 1, 2018 15

SPORTS

TRACK AND FIELD

Runners Shine at Penn Relays,Look Ahead to Ivy Heps

By BENJAMIN SHI Sun Staff Writer

Recently ranked eighth in the Northeast region, Cornell track looked to post standout performances on the national stage at the Penn Relays late last week.

Action for Cornell kicked off with the Red’s most successful event this season, the women’s 4x100m relay. The team of sophomore Jinjer Pearce, senior Ellen Shepard, sophomore Brittany Stenekes and junior Martha Sam finished with a time of 45.76 — good for 12th during heats — which qualified them for the final race. They finished third the next day with a time of 45.93, behind Penn and Notre Dame.

Later that day, Pearce helped senior Shannon Hugard, freshman Leya Salis and senior Annie Taylor finish sixth with a time of 11:15.38 in the distance medley relay.

Thursday was capped off by strong distance performances. Junior Tyler Fisher finished the 5,000m in 31:17.56, good for 19th. Freshman Gabrielle Orie and senior Jackie Katzman both competed in the women’s 3,000m, finishing in fifth and seventh places with times of 9:25.52

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Ivy Heps ready | Hitting an auspicious note ahead of the most important meet of the year, the Red’s runners breezed past much of Penn Relays’ competition, placing top 10 in a number of key events.

and 9:27.48, respectively. On top of those strong showings, junior Briar Bumbley finished 13th in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase in 10:28.45.

The Red took part in its last event

on Friday, the women’s 100m hurdles, in which Stenekes finished eighth with a time of 13.87.

Cornell gears up for the heavily anticipated Ivy Outdoor Heps

Championships Philadelphia.

this

Saturday

in

Benjamin Shi can be reached at bshi@cornellsun.com.

Cornell Eliminated From NCAA At-large Bid in Season-ender MEN’S TENNIS

Continued from page 16

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Comeback Cornell | Aided by Harvard’s four errors, the Red battled back from a four run deficit to win the first game of the series 10-8, before winning its next game, 7-4, in a similar comeback fashion.

Baseball in Top Form as Team Claims 2 of 3 From Harvard BASEBALL

Continued from page 16

pitchers from there and they did fine work, keeping Harvard off the board. Sophomore Jeb Bemiss kept Harvard off the base paths entirely, pitching a perfect a two-inning save.

After a pair of wins, Cornell ran out of juice for game three on Sunday.

Harvard’s starting pitcher, junior Simon Rosenblum-Larson, shut down the red-hot Cornell offense, pitching five hitless innings and baffling the Red’s lineup.

“He had a slider down in the zone that really looked the same as the fastball coming out of the same slot,” Pepicelli said. “He was pretty disciplined in keeping the slider down. He’s a good pitcher.”

Harvard scratched out a run in each of the first three frames to take another early lead. Cornell didn’t threaten that lead until the seventh inning.

Rosenblum-Larson began the frame by plunking the leadoff man.

Krainz then doubled down the leftfield line, but the Red’s runner from first was gunned down at the plate. Harvard turned to the bullpen, but Cornell continued to tee off; it looked like another comeback was in the making. Gallagher hit a double to the gap to drive in a run. Bitar then drove in Gallagher, junior Will Simoneit doubled and junior Josh Arndt walked after a long at-bat to load the bases, down a run. The inning ended there on a strikeout.

Cornell had made it close, but from there the wheels fell off in

what ended up a 6-2 loss.

“It was still a one-run game, we were still right in it until the end,” Pepicelli said after the loss. “We made some defensive miscues at the end there and let up a couple of tack-on runs that really mattered.”

Harvard put up two runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to put the game out of reach.

Cornell’s offense failed to muster anything in the late frames against the Crimson bullpen that they dinged up in the first two games.

The Red will take on Binghamton on the road on Wednesday night, followed by the Red’s penultimate Ivy series next weekend on the road against Brown.

Miles Henshaw can be reached at mhenshaw@cornellsun.com.

for the Red with a 6-4 win over Columbia’s No. 29 ranked Victor Pham and Jackie Tang. However, the squad dropped its next two doubles matches in 7-5 and 6-4 decisions to allow the Lions to open scoring with the doubles point.

“It was about as close as you could get in the doubles point and we were ahead at number two,” Tanasoiu said.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to get the lead and it affected our momentum and the rest of the match.”

Entering into singles play, junior David Volfson was able to prevail in a tiebreaker against Columbia’s No. 23 ranked Pham in first singles, while Ayeni rallied in his second set at second singles.

Nevertheless, Columbia was able to secure straight set wins in the third, fourth and fifth singles spots to clinch its victory before either of the top two matches finished.

“David Volfson had one of the better matches I’ve seen in college tennis, leading against one of the highest ranked players in the country and just staying very composed,” Tanasoiu said. “Alafia also had a close match and played with a lot of conviction in the second set.”

While Cornell fell short of its aspiration to repeat as Ivy League champions this year,

the squad still views its tumultuous season positively.

Despite being plagued by inconsistent lineups, a difficult schedule, and early losing streaks — including a three-game losing streak to begin conference play — the Red was able to regroup at the end of the season to finish with a near even record.

“We’ve had the fifth strongest schedule in the country this year and we also did not have our full lineup for 9 of our twenty-one matches,” Tanasoiu said. “I truly believe the circumstances had a huge impact on how our season ended, and given the amount of adversity that we’ve had to face as a program, I think the guys responded in an incredibly positive way.”

Looking ahead to next season, the squad maintains much of the same roster, with the exceptions of seniors Karim Aren and Daniel Grunberger. There is a hope that, without the unreliable lineups and tough schedule, next year will be one to look forward to.

“The preparation for next season starts yesterday,” Tanasoiu said. “This year has been a powerful lesson for us all … I can certainly say that this group is much better now than at the start of the season, and forecast that this team will be even better next year.”

Josh Zhu can be reached at jzhu@cornellsun.com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

MEN’S TENNIS

TUESDAY MAY 1, 2018

16

WOMEN’S TENNIS

Senior Shah Makes Cornell History, Earns All-Ivy in Singles and Doubles

By CAROLINE KLEINER Sun Contributor

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Close call | Cornell fell just short of its goal to qualify for NCAA play, though the team is optimistic a better schedule will bode well for success next year.

Loss to No.16 Columbia Ends Cornell’s Season

By JOSH ZHU Sun Senior Writer

A mixed season of ups and downs finally came to an end on Saturday, as the Cornell men’s tennis team fell in a 4-0 decision to Columbia.

Despite the Red (10-11, 3-4 Ivy) downing Columbia’s (17-4, 6-1) nationally ranked doubles duo and leading in its two top singles matches, a final decision was called before the squad could close the scoring gap.

With the loss, Cornell fell below .500 and was eliminated from consideration for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament.

“At the end of the day, they were better,” said head coach Silviu Tanasoiu. “They closed the important moments of the match better than we did, and they deserved to win for that.”

Sophomore Lev Kazakov and freshman Alafia Ayeni opened doubles play See MEN’S TENNIS page 15

For the first time in Cornell women’s tennis’ 46 year history, senior captain Priyanka Shah became the first player to earn first team All-Ivy in both singles and doubles play.

“When I first learned I won All-Ivy in singles and doubles I was really happy and proud of myself,” Shah said. “But when I heard I was the first woman in Cornell women’s tennis history, I was in complete shock.”

Shah ended her Ivy season 3-4 in singles play. Two of those singles victories came in the last two conference matches against Yale and Brown.

“My most memorable singles match [this season] was against Brown,” Shah said. “It was my last match representing Cornell and I just thought, ‘I’m going to win this.’ I ended up winning and ending my career with a 6-1, 62 win over a great player.”

Shah and doubles partner Ananya Dua ended Ivy play with a 4-2 record, promoting both players to first-team All-Ivy in doubles.

“When I heard the news, I was ecstatic because it’s amazing to see how far we had come as a doubles team this season, and how our team chemistry powered us through the tough matches,” Dua said.

Shah recalled the pair’s triumph over a nationally ranked duo from Princeton as her season’s favorite moment.

“They’re nationally ranked, so they’re the biggest win we had all season,” Shah said. “It was great to get that momentum and energy so we really knew we were right in it with the

big teams.”

Head coach Mike Stevens expressed nothing but pride for Shah’s recent successes.

“From the first day of her freshman year to the last match of her senior year, she just excelled in everything she did work ethicwise,” coach Stevens said. “Our motto as a team is to get one percent better everyday and she did well beyond that.”

Earning All-Ivy honors is a decision made by all Ivy League coaches — and Shah was unanimously chosen to receive the honor for both singles and doubles.

“For All-Ivy, you have to excel in standards including sportsmanship, grit and record,” Shah said. “A lot of it comes down to how composed you are and how much you fight. A coach is going to appreciate that even if they’re not your coach.”

After serving as captain for the past two years — including leading the squad to an Ivy League title in 2017 — Shah’s graduation will leave a major hole in tennis’ roster next year.

“Replacing our seniors this year, both Madison [Stevens] and Priyanka is not something you look to do,” coach Stevens said.

“They’ve both been tremendous for this program for the last four years and irreplaceable in their own respect.”

“I’ve had the most amazing four years,” Shah said. “To compete and [earn All-Ivy honors] for myself and the school is an absolutely incredible feeling that still gives me goosebumps.”

Caroline Kleiner can be reached at crk74@cornell.edu.

BASEBALL

Red Uses Late Game Comebacks to Win Harvard Series On the road to season turnaround, Cornell claims 2 of 3 against mistake-ridden Crimson

By MILES HENSHAW Sun Staff Writer

Coming off its first series win of the season at Penn last weekend, Cornell baseball continued its path to a turnaround at home this weekend, taking two of three from Harvard with a pair of come-from-behind wins on Saturday.

Cornell (11-18-1, 6-9 Ivy) faced early four-run deficits in both of its Saturday games, but strong offensive comebacks and timely pitching propelled the Red to two wins and a shot at a sweep. In game three, though, the Red was stymied by Harvard’s pitching Sunday and failed to complete the sweep.

“We’ve just been clicking in every facet of the game going into today,” head coach Dan Pepicelli said on Sunday.

In game one, Harvard (20-19, 9-9) jumped on senior starting pitcher Tim Willittes for four runs in the first inning.

Willittes hung in for five innings, leaving the game all squared.

Errors haunted Harvard in game one.

The Crimson made four errors; just one of the six runs Harvard’s starter allowed was earned. The Red capitalized on mistakes, stringing together hits in innings extended by errors. The team managed to take the

lead in the fourth.

Cornell blew the game open in the sixth with four runs. Senior Dale Wickham knocked in the first with a single, senior Ellis Bitar brought in two with a double and freshman Jason Apostle hit a sac fly for the fourth run.

The Cornell bullpen kept the game in check and carried the team to two wins to start the series. Sophomore Andrew Ellison notched a save in game one to preserve a 108 win.

Harvard again got off to a hot start in game two but their efforts were again to no avail and the Red emerged with a 7-4 victory. The Crimson scored four in the first two frames, two coming unearned. Cornell sophomore starter Seth Urbon settled down nicely, tossing five scoreless innings, allowing only two hits following the rocky start.

Cornell’s offense chipped away in the second and third, but exploded in the fourth for four runs. With a runner on, senior second baseman Ryan Krainz ripped a line drive over the left fielder’s head. The leftfielder misjudged the liner and took a step in before turning around and failing to make a play on the ball, and Krainz hustled to third for a triple.

Next up, senior right fielder Kyle Gallagher hit another high line drive over

BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Pitch perfect | A lights out bullpen kept Harvard’s lineup quiet as the Red’s fiery offense powered the team to a pair of wins in Saturday’s doubleheader.

the left fielder’s head, this one uncatchable, for another run. Wickham followed the double up with a hard grounder that the Harvard second baseman failed to glove.

Bitar poked a single through the left side to give the Red runners on the corners with two outs.

Harvard brought in a reliever to put out the fire, but the righty struggled to get a grip in the rain and threw a run-scoring wild pitch on his first pitch out of the bullpen.

Cornell handed the game over to the See BASEBALL page 15