INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 83
THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2018
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Collegetown Cleanout
Infinity War Roundtable
Tourney Time
Thunderstorms
CollegeTown Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts will be closing their locations in Collegetown. | Page 3
No. 9 Men’s lacrosse heads down route 17 for the Ivy League Tournament in NYC. | Page 16
The Arts and Entertainment staff answers important questions about the latest Marvel blockbuster. | Page 10
Cornell Turns Its Sights Toward New York City
Recommendation response | President Pollack (pictured above in an interview in 2017) responds to reports from the President’s Visioning and Consensual Relationships Policy Committees.
‘Fully-operational urban campus’ by 2029 per semester and to set up options like plane and helicopter travel. “She asked us to be visionary. By 2029, Cornell hopes to have a Everything is within the realm of “fully operational urban campus” in possibility,” Prof. Noliwe Rooks, New York City that supports year- Africana studies, chair of the visioning comround undergradmittee, said to uate and graduate “I wanted them to be The Sun in an programs, accordcreative, to think interview. “In ing to a prelimiterms of the price nary report subexpansively and to tag — it was nice mitted to develop a true vision.” to think without President Martha that burden to E. Pollack on President Martha E. Pollack just see what Tuesday. would be best as The report, submitted by the President’s an option for the University.” The report specifies that, while Visioning Committee on Cornell in New York City, was called a there is enthusiasm regarding the “bold set of recommendations” by broadening of Cornell’s footprint, Pollack in an email to the Cornell the aim is not to duplicate Ithaca programs in the city or to create community. “I wanted them to be creative, new undergraduate degree proto think expansively and to develop grams that begin and end in New a true vision for our presence in the York. One specific example of acadecity a decade from now without the constraints of matching aspirations mic collaboration highlighted in to budgets or bureaucracy,” Pollack the report was the creation of combined degrees where students said in her email. There is no guarantee that any would graduate with a dual degree of these recommendations will be after three years in Ithaca and one confirmed by Pollack eventually. to two years in New York. The committee collected inforThe proposed outcome after the 10-year plan is to have at least 25 mation via a campus survey sent to percent of faculty and students See NEW YORK page 4 having an experience in New York
HIGH: 80º LOW: 63º
By GIRISHA ARORA Sun Managing Editor
CAMERON POLLACK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
CRP Final Report Sent to Pollack Proposes ban on same-field faculty-grad relationships By ALISHA GUPTA Sun Assistant Managing Editor
After much debate and criticism, the Consensual Relationships Policy Committee, in its final report to President Martha E. Pollack, recommended a ban on all sexual and romantic relationships between faculty members and graduate or professional students who are affiliated with the same graduate field or degree program. This field ban was scrutinized harshly by many members of the faculty, with only 31 of the 100 votes cast by the Faculty Senate supporting the field ban. Similarly, in the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, only 13 of 41 voted for the field ban. “It distresses me, that Cornell would put a ban on sexual relationships on people who are of-
Iceless Ithaca
age, who have the maturity to make a meaningful choice, not violating a law really,” said Prof. Ken Birman, computer science. “It seems to me that this is an overreach.” The committee defended its decision to include the field ban in the report, arguing that “many comments against the field ban did not account for the academic environment or misinterpreted the proposed policy,” and that those in favor of the ban were typically “concerned about the most vulnerable.” “Within their fields, graduate and professional students must take courses from and are subject to formal and informal evaluation by field faculty, even when those faculty are not teaching required courses or directly supervising the stuSee CRP page 4
Task Force Suggests ‘More Oversight’ Over Greek Life By ALISHA GUPTA Sun Assistant Managing Editor
BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Students enjoy the warm Ithaca weather by taking their books and relaxation outside. Popular sun-bathing destinations include the Arts Quad, Slope and Ag Quad.
The Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate — formed after a student was accused of a racially-motivated assault in the fall semester — submitted three preliminary reports to President Martha E. Pollack on Tuesday, recommending that Cornell provide more diversity education and be allowed to punish students for creating a “hostile environment.” The task force will submit a final set of recommendations to Pollack by the end of May, the president said in an email to the campus community. One of three subcommittees, the campus experience subcommittee, detailed in its report a series of “lessons
learned” during its outreach process, which consisted of meeting with administrators, faculty, students, staff, alumni and trustees. The subcommittee’s findings included a “perceived lack of significant progress toward inclusion,” insufficient response to misconduct and inadequate representation and support for diverse faculty and staff. “Over the last four years, the overall annual turnover rate has remained stable; however, the turnover rate among faculty and staff of color has been increasing,” the subcommittee said, while also acknowledging the “disproportionate representation of staff of color in diversity-related positions and See CLIMATE page 4