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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 130, No. 139
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So It Goes
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SoundSpace, a glove interface that uses motiontracking to create sound, made its debut Saturday. | Page 3
The women’s rowing team failed to capture the Parent’s Cup against Dartmouth this weekend. | Page 16
Katie O’Brien ’17 reviews excerpts from Kurt Vonnegurt’s ’44 anthology of graduation speeches. | Page 8
Ithaca Considers New Stormwater Proposal
Big red pride
University would pay $130,000 management fee under proposal,according to city alderperson By AIMEE CHO Sun Senior Writer
Under a proposal being considered by the City, Cornell could be charged a $130,000 annual stormwater management fee in order to implement a more equitable distribution for sharing the costs of the City’s stormwater management. According to Alderperson Graham Kerslick (D-4th Ward), Ithaca residents are currently charged for stormwater management as part of their property taxes, while owners with some tax-exempt property such as Cornell do not currently contribute to the stormwater management budget. Residents currently pay about $100 per year in stormwater management fees, according to the Stormwater Task Force Fact Sheet. If implemented, the proposal would lower that cost to about $48 per year. Alderperson Stephen Smith (D-4th Ward) said Ithaca spends about See STORMWATER page 4
RYAN LANDVATER / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Steven Albanese ’14 conducts “The Impression that I Get” by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the Big Red Pep Band’s last rehearsal of the spring semester on Libe Slope Monday afternoon.
Univ.to Review Business Minor Following Class of ’14 Graduation By SLOANE GRINSPOON Sun Senior Writer
After a year since its first offering, the University plans to review the Universitywide business minor, which will have its first seniors graduating later this month. According to Prof. Deborah Streeter, Bruce F. Failing Sr. professor of personal enterprise and small business manage-
ment, the University-wide business minor has grown to over 900 students since its initiation in 2012, with over 300 set to graduate this month. The Dyson School, the Johnson School, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Hotel School constructed the minor collaboratively, according to Streeter. It is administered out of the Dyson School and offered to any student
in any school. Streeter says that with the graduation of the first set of students with the minor this month, administrators will begin to evaluate the minor in the upcoming year. “We are about to embark on an evaluation process,” she said. “Up until now it wouldn’t have made sense, because no one had been through the minor.” However, Streeter said there have been
Take a stand
indications that the minor has been successful. “Anecdotally, I think people are very happy with the minor, [and] there’s a lot of interest from incoming students,” she said. “We grew to over 900 [students] with a declared minor. There’s really demand there.” See MINOR page 5
Cornell Student Scores for Accounting Examination Ranked First Place in State By SUN STAFF
SIMON LI / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sean Martin Ph.D. ’13 offers parting words and advice to second-year Johnson graduate students at the Last Lectures event yesterday.
Student scores from Cornell for the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination ranked first in New York State and 11th in the nation, according to Prof. Jack Little, applied economics and management. The exam is required for those seeking to become a U.S. Certified Public Accountant. According to Little, in order to become a certified public accountant, one must meet three important criteria — 150 credit hours of education, passing the CPA examination and one year of work experience under another certified public accountant. “Within those 150 credit hours,
they have to have 33 credit hours of accounting [and] 36 hours in business,” he said. “After they have their education completed, they can take the CPA exam. Anyone in the country taking the CPA exam takes the same exam — it’s uniform.” He added that prospective certified public accountants are also required to have a statement testifying that they are ethical. “As long as they pass the exam and they have the experience requirement fulfilled, they are accepted,” he said. “Another CPA [also] has to sign a statement that they are of good moral character.” Little said Cornell’s results from the examination were “incredible,” See ACCOUNTING page 4
2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
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C.U. Music: Midday Music at Lincoln 12:30 - 1 p.m., B20 Lincoln Hall Engineering Graduate Student Association Field Day 4 - 7 p.m., Engineering Quad
“Lost”
Econometrics Lecture by Matt Backus 4:15 - 5:45 p.m., 498 Uris Hall
They say I know my way around But sometimes I cannot be found For my life has no real direction
University Assembly Meeting 4:30 - 6 p.m., 316 Day Hall Student Union Board Meeting 5:30 - 7 p.m., 402 Willard Straight Hall
Tomorrow
~ Gregory P. Simon ’16
Employee Assembly Meeting 12:15 - 1:30 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building Policy Analysis and Management, Cristian Pop-Eleches 1:15 - 2:45 p.m., 153 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall Scholarly Treasure: The Role of Gems in a University Setting 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., B14 Hollister Hall Korean Festival: The Showcase of the Korean Language Program 7 - 8:30 p.m., 132 Goldwin Smith Hall
PUPIL POETRY cornellians write verse Students may send poetry submissions to news@cornellsun.com.
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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014 3
NEWS
C.U.Student Team Debuts Musical Gloves at Concert
By DAVE JANECZEK Sun Staff Writer
A pair of gloves that allow the wearer to play any virtual musical instrument and manipulate sound by tracking a musician’s hands made its debut at Bailey Hall Saturday in a joint concert with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra. The SoundSpace technology — developed by a team headed by Ray Li ’14 and Michael Ndubuisi ’14 — uses electromagnetic sensors to track the exact position of the gloves in space, Ndubuisi said. According to Li, the motion of the musician’s hands can trigger prepared loops of sound, play different musical notes and add musical effects. “We wanted to imagine sound as a tangible thing that you can hold between your hands,” Li said. “We’ve tried to create something that can basically do anything that you could do in a normal sound-editing computer program.” The first hour of Saturday’s concert showcased the electronic sound of SoundSpace followed by an hour long set from the orchestra featuring classical music. In an attempt to tie the two sets together, the concert closed with a collaborative piece composed by Li and per-
formed using SoundSpace and the orchestra. “The way I structured the orchestra piece was an attempt to portray the relationship between traditional music and new music,” Li said. “The piece starts with just the orchestra and a really long build and then the gloves come in and there’s a huge drum hit, the orchestra falls silent and there’s an argument between SoundSpace and the orchestra, growing towards harmony between them.” Kevin Coughlin ’17, an attendee, said he thinks the concert successfully blended new technology with the classical sound of Cornell’s Chamber Orchestra. “I thought it was a very interesting combination of old and new and I liked the way that they implemented the modern sounds into a more classical feel of music,” Coughlin said. Li said the origins of the SoundSpace interface — which was formerly named “The Aura” — came from his efforts to combine his interests in applied physics and music. The technology evolved from a class project of Li’s into a multidisciplinary effort to make the concert possible, according to Li and Ndubuisi. “This semester, we had a full team of
SEYOUN KIM / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Feel the music | Ray Li ’14 demonstrates SoundSpace — a glove interface that uses motion-tracking to create sound — at Bailey Hall Saturday.
four other programmers other than myself, a team dedicated to building the gloves, professors who were advising us in music and electrical engineering and architecture professors who helped us in building the stage setup we used,” Ndubuisi said. “It started from this small idea but it has definitely changed and grown over the past semester.” Gorges Consulting, an on-campus, student-run consulting firm worked with the SoundSpace team to promote the debut of the gloves. Denay Mack ’16, founder of Gorges Consulting, said that her company used social media, projections of a promotional
video in campus buildings and a contest that featured prizes — including the opportunity to try SoundSpace — to generate excitement for the concert. Li and Ndubuisi said they are unsure of the future of SoundSpace, though they have considered attempting to obtain funding for a startup company. “It definitely has potential to be something that people will want to use in creating their own music because of how fun and expressive it is to make music using the technology,” Ndubuisi said. Dave Janeczek can be reached at djaneczek@cornellsun.com.
Cayuga Medical Doctor Speaks on Importance of HIV Testing By TALIA JUBAS Sun Staff Writer
Douglas MacQueen ’00, an infectious disease doctor at Cayuga Medical Center, spoke Monday evening about sexually transmitted infections, especially the human immunodeficiency virus. MacQueen began by explaining that HIV works by attacking CD4 T-cells — “part of the immune system that help other parts of the immune system fight infections” — and hijacking their machinery to procreate, eventually killing the cell. Once the CD4 count hits a certain low, victims become susceptible to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and other opportunistic infections, some of which are potentially fatal, according to MacQueen. According to MacQueen, the first cases of AIDS were recognized in the 1980s, but HIV was not identified as the cause until 1984.
Initially, the virus seemed to be concentrated among gay men and hemophiliacs, but now “being human is the most important risk factor,” MacQueen said, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to identify certain population segments as being at especially high risk for contracting the virus. MacQueen listed blood, vaginal fluid and semen as “high risk fluids” for transmitting the disease through behaviors such as sex and intravenous drug use. At-home tests are now available over the counter, according to MacQueen. Despite the relative ease of diagnosis, he said, only 60 to 80 percent of Americans with HIV know they have it. This unawareness, coupled with the fact that the virus can remain asymptomatic for several years, can be problematic in delaying treatment and furthering its spread, MacQueen said. Due to the time gap between contracting
the disease and detection of the antibodies, he cautioned that even a negative test result should be repeated to ensure HIV status. “It takes about three or four months for the body to make anti-
“I feel that through education, we can combat this phobia towards HIVpositive people.” Lex Brown ’15 bodies for the infection, so in those first few weeks, if you do the test, it is going to come back negative, and it may be a false negative,” he said. Although the virus is not yet curable, MacQueen said it is treatable. Around 1987, the first antiretroviral drug — which inhibits the lifecycle of the virus by keeping it suppressed to allow the CD4 cells to reproduce — became available. The modern treatment has
All strung out
reduced side effects and is an easier to maintain regimen, according to MacQueen. “We can give you medicine to keep the lid on it and allow you to have an otherwise normal life,” he said. MacQueen also spoke about a treatment that can be used immediately after exposure to HIV transmission risk which leads to about a zero percent transmission rate of HIV infection. MacQueen said that this protocol is available at Gannett in addition to the ER and convenient care, and should be used by students if they have or think they have been exposed to HIV. The discussion also briefly addressed the stigma associated with homosexual behavior, with one audience member questioning the law which prohibits men who have sex with other men from donating blood. “It’s obviously ludicrous,” MacQueen said of the law.
MacQueen concluded with a brief overview of the symptoms and treatments for other sexually transmitted infections, including gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and syphilis, emphasizing that the infections can remain asymptomatic and encouraging testing and pursuing treatment. Lex Brown ’15, one of the cofounders of the HIV support group on campus, said he organized the event to promote a more thorough understanding of the virus, how it is transmitted and what it means to be HIV-positive. “I know that pos-phobia on campus is mainly due to just people being uneducated,” he said. “I feel that through education, we can combat this phobia towards HIV-positive people.” The presentation was sponsored by Haven: Cornell’s LGBTQ Student Union. Talia Jubas can be reached at tjubas@cornellsun.com.
City News
RYAN LANDVATER / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Rachael Comunale ’14, HaeSoo Cheon ’15 and Andrea Jin ’17 play Allegro Modernato from String Quartet in E minor in Barnes Hall Monday.
Finger Lakes Gorge Trails Closed as Crews Clear Loose Rock and Ice Crew members are currently clearing out loose rock caused by unusually high levels of lingering ice in the New York State Parks Finger Lakes Region, The Ithaca Journal reported. These falling-debris hazards, combined with icy trails and leftover damage from heavy floods last August, have kept the gorge trails closed at almost every state park in the region.
Tompkins Clerk Announces Retirement Tompkins County Clerk Aurora Valenti announced Thursday that she will retire and will not seek re-election, The Ithaca Journal reported. According to The Journal, Valenti has worked as the county clerk for 24 years. Valenti started work in law firms when she was 18 in Rochester and worked as paralegal when she first ran for county clerk. — Compiled by Noah Rankin
4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
NEWS
City Proposal Requests Cornell Pay $130K for Storm Management STORMWATER
Continued from page 1
$800,000 a year on storm water drainage, though a lot of this money goes toward management of the tax-exempt properties. “The old system is regressive. [The] cost is distributed to companies, homeowners and renters through property taxes,” he said. “This is unfair because residential properties typically absorb much of their rainwater with lawns and plant life and nonprofits don’t contribute.” In September, Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 created a stormwater task force to come up with recommendations, according to City Attorney Aaron Lavine, leader of the task force. The proposal suggested by the task force would charge fees based on the “square footage of impervious surface per lot,” according to the Fact Sheet. While Cornell would pay the largest portion — $130,000 — of the newly distributed taxes, the City would pay $46,000, Wal-Mart would pay $15,500 and Wegmans would pay $12,000, according to the Fact Sheet said. Lavine said he believes it is appropriate that entities that generate larger volumes of stormwater should pay more. Kerslick agreed, adding that he likes the idea of “more equitably distributing the costs of managing the City’s stormwater.” “There is already discussion of some type of credit for those property owners who implement measures to reduce stormwater runoff, such as
holding ponds or reducing areas of impervious surface,” Kerslick said. “Such measures will likely reduce the overall burden on the City, and should be actively encouraged.” Smith said he also supports the proposal. “I think it’s important for places with large, impermeable parking lots and buildings to contribute more since they generate a disproportionate amount of runoff, costing the average Ithaca household $100 per year,” he said. According to Kerslick, the proposal will next be reviewed in the coming months by the City Administration committee of the Common Council. “This will provide opportunities for public input and allow the proposal to be considered from a range of perspectives,” Kerslick said. “At this early stage it is difficult to predict the outcome of the proposal. There may be changes and revisions as the proposal moves through the legislative process.” Smith said he thinks the proposal has a “great shot” at passing, because it will help to create a “more progressive funding model,” while Lavine said that stormwater management is a “low-profile” but a “very important” issue. “Most people don’t think about it a lot, but it’s very costly and has major impacts on the city,” Lavine said. “We are looking to better apportion those costs.” The University declined to comment Monday afternoon. Aimee Cho can be reached at acho@cornellsun.com.
Prof: C.U. Results on CPA Exam Are ‘Incredible’ ACCOUNTING
Continued from page 1
since programs that have been around for “many, many years” do not have the same kind of results. “Eighty-one percent of [Cornell students] are passing the exam at their first shot … nationally, less than half pass on the first shot,” he said. “Last year, two kids passed the CPA [exam] before graduation. I’ve never heard of that before.” According to Little, Cornell’s high rate of success in regard to the examination results is due
to the academic discipline necessary to gain admission to the University. “The important to thing to consider here is that you would expect Cornell to do the best because we bring in such bright people to start,” he said. Little said he hopes to create a master’s program within the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, which will accommodate students who wish to graduate early but stay an extra year to complete their Master’s in Public Service
degree. “I think it will take probably two years from submission [of the program] to the first student — but it’s a process that has to be approved,” he said. “I could see kids start[ing] the undergraduate business minor, discover[ing] accounting in that process, and be able to transition into this program.” Annie Bui, Alexa Davis and Anushka Mehrotra contributed reporting to this article. The Sun’s news dept. can be reached at news@cornellsun.com.
NEWS
Business Minor Shows Collaboration Among Colleges,Skorton Says BUSINESS
Continued from page 1
President David Skorton agreed with the significance in demand and added that the minor is important because “it shows [that the University] can collaborate across colleges.” “There are seven undergraduate colleges, and what I’ve heard from some students is that they wish it was easier to mix things from different curricula,” he said. “Some of that is obviously the rigor of the curricula — we just don’t have breathing room to do that. Some of it are administrative barriers that we are trying to make lower. However, this business minor shows that we can do such a thing.” According to Streeter, to complete the minor students must take a class in the disciplines of management, marketing, accounting and finance. Streeter says that the minor aims to provide the students with “broad exposure,” saying that the minor allows “the students [to] become familiar with the concepts and frameworks [from the business world] that are presented.” “I think the minor is useful Prof. Rich Curtis, especially for people whose finance, teaches Applied and majors provide no exposure to Economics Management 2240: business and the related way Finance — one of the of thinking.” finance courses that can be taken for the completion Aradhita Gupta ’15 of the finance credit in the university-wide business minor. “My AEM 2240 course is a very challenging in-depth four-credit hour survey of topics in corporate finance, investments and personal finance,” Curtis said. Curtis said students may find business training to be helpful, even if they do not choose to enter the fields of finance, marketing or accounting. “Whether someone goes to law school or works in consulting, public administration, the media … or non-profits, business skills may afford a competitive advantage both in [securing] jobs and being successful on the job,” Curtis said. Though some students say the minor covers everything needed for a well-rounded business education, Erin Gross ’17 said she would like to see more specific minors in the future. “I’m interested in consumer psychology and am essentially doing the minor for the marketing and management coursework, but still have to take finance and accounting,” Gross said. However, according to Streeter, Dyson offers a business minor for engineering and a business minor for life sciences, each with its own “special track.” Other students expressed a positive experience with the minor. “I feel like it is designed in a way such that students get a basic understanding of the major elements and concepts in business,” Aradhita Gupta ’15 said. “The classes I took were very hands-on and extremely useful. I think the minor is useful especially for people whose majors provide no exposure to business and the related way of thinking.” Gupta said she believes the only area in which the minor can improve is in explaining the differences different between the various courses that could be used to fulfill the same requirement. “I think there is a huge difference between taking the same course in different departments and it might be helpful to have that information available when making a choice,” Gupta said. Rachel Saltzman ’15 also said her experience in the business minor has overall been positive. “I think the classes are helpful,” Saltzman said. “I’ve learned a lot about business that I have never known before and I think it’s really important to have a business knowledge in the real world.” Sloane Grinspoon can be reached at sgrinspoon@cornellsun.com.
Enlighten Your Morning
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014 5
OPINION
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
Jake Forken | My Forken Opinion
Voter ID Laws Institutionalize Discrimination
Independent Since 1880 132ND EDITORIAL BOARD HALEY VELASCO ’15 Editor in Chief
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by Ruben Bolling
O
n the same day Donald Sterling in order to combat a negligible voter was banned for life from the fraud rate — isn’t only terrible policy, it’s National Basketball Association a façade that threatens the fundamental for expressing vehemently racist views, a basis of democracy by limiting participamore significant civil rights issue pro- tion on the basis of race and class. This gressed. While the banishment of isn’t a melodramatic appeal to patriotic Sterling from the League is undoubtedly buzzwords. Members of the Republican a vital and applaudable step in advancing Party have explicitly stated the purpose civil rights, the striking down of pro- of voter ID laws is to systematically supposed voter ID laws by a federal judge in press votes in order to benefit their canWisconsin will have a more a substantive didates. impact on reducing racial inequality. The After the 2012 election, former law, drafted by the state’s Republican leg- Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer statislators, would have placed a heavier bur- ed, “The Republican Party, the strateden on voters, requiring state-approved gists, the consultants, they firmly believe photo-identification at the polls. Over that early voting is bad for Republican the past three years, 30 other states have Party candidates. It’s done for one reason debated proposed voting restriction leg- and one reason only. … We’ve got to cut islation. down on early voting because early votVoter ID laws perpetuate inequality ing is not good for us.” by disproportionately affecting young In the spring of the same election voters, especially young minority voters, year, Pennsylvania House Majority a group that tends Leader Mike Turzai to lean Democrat. boasted at a According to a Republican gatherClearly, the purpose of study co-authored ing that the states by Cathy J. Cohen voter ID laws is to ensure new voter ID laws of the University of would “allow the legitimacy of the Chicago and Jon C. Governor Romney Rogowski of to win the state of democratic process by Wa s h i n g t o n Pennsylvania.” University in St. Silver of eliminating any fradulent Fi vNate Louis, 72.9 percent eThirtyEight of black youth ages estimated that from votes. ... The issue with 18 to 29 were asked 2008 to 2012, the to show identificanew voter ID laws this solution is that the tion at the polls, in both problem is nonexistent. compared to 60.8 Pennsylvania and percent of Latinos Kansas reduced and only 50.8 pervoter turnout of cent of whites. Furthermore, 17.3 per- the registered population by 2.4 percent cent of black youth claim that the lack of with a 1.2 percent swing to the an adequate voter ID kept them from Republican candidate. If you think these voting; for Latinos and whites, these changes are insignificant, look at them in numbers stand at 8.1 percent and 4.7 comparison to the voter fraud rate. percent respectively. Surely, voter ID laws are not a Clearly, the purpose of voter ID laws Republican initiative to restore the sinis to ensure the legitimacy of the democ- cerity of the voting process. It’s a method ratic process by eliminating any fraudu- to legalize discrimination and deny lent votes from being registered. The minorities and lower class voters access issue with this solution is that the prob- to political establishments. Yes, Donald lem is nonexistent. Sterling’s comments were ugly and there’s According to the federal judge that certainly no place for such blatant hatred heard the case in Wisconsin, “The defen- in our society. However, we must unfordants could not point to a single instance tunately accept that no matter the of known voter impersonation occurring progress made, there will likely always be in Wisconsin at any time in the recent bigots among us. What we do not have past.” to accept is a barefaced attempt to instiThe Department of Justice revealed in tutionalize discrimination in order to a 2006 Congressional hearing that advance a one-sided political agenda. between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters The ruling in Wisconsin was one small were indicted on voter fraud charges out step in the right direction. of 197 million votes for federal candidates. Out of those forty cases, only 26 resulted in a conviction or a guilty plea, resulting in a .00000013 percent voter Jake Forken is a sophomore in the College of Human Ecology. He may be reached at jrf285@cornell.edu. fraud rate during that time period. My Forken Opinion appears alternate Tuesdays this Disenfranchising minority voters — semester.
Letters to the editor and guest columns may be sent to opinion@cornellsun.com. The Sun reserves the right to edit for clarity, content and space.
THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014 7
OPINION
Deon Thomas | It’s Not Me, It’s You
B
Archaic Greek Life
eing a member of Greek life, I’ve had many interesting conversation with members of other fraternities. In these conversations I’ve noticed a certain number of trends. At parties and especially under the influence of alcohol I’ve heard men and women speak very disrespectfully of women. I have also seen my fair share of derogatory mixer names such as “G.I. Joes and Army Hos.” Lastly, and perhaps the most revealing trend I’ve noticed has been guys complaining about the girls at the party in everything from their the way the dress, how boring they may be, how tame they are acting which commonly alludes to how willing they are to “put out.” Putting out meaning how willing a girl may or may not be to engage in sexual actions. After noticing these trends I did as any worthy columnist should do: I investigated. I needed to know why these trends existed and what we could do to right these wrongs. Now let’s hark back to the dating world of the 1950s where the rules were quite different. I am going to provide some specific rules and examples that show how sexist things really were. One article I read sheds light on some ridiculously sexist dating advice from 1950s manuscripts. Absurd advice exist such as, “If he’s made plans for the evening, don’t try to change them, no matter how much you hanker to see the double feature at the Palace or to show off your beau to the gang at the Pizzateria. Boys resent bitterly, and they have every right to, the idea that they’re being manipulated or pushed around on a date.” It really shows how different the times were. Another quote that illustrates these times: “In this case, a girl not out of her teens would do better to avoid [dinner at a bachelor’s] ... a career girl, from her 20s onward, can accept such an invitation but should not stay beyond 10 or 10:30 p.m.” This one is just for shock value “complaining, whining, comparing, sneering, harping … nagging is a devastating emotional disease. If you are in doubt about having it, ask your husband. If he should tell you that you are a nag, don’t react by violent denial — that only proves he is right.” Other conventions that existed were that only guys were to ask girls out because if women did so they were deemed “floozies.” “At a restaurant, it’s ladylike to tell a date what you want for dinner, so he can order for you” is a particularly interesting “rule” in my opinion. Lastly, my least favorite
I have seen members of fraternities that expect debauchery to be the next logical step after all the work and money they have put in ... and this is a terrible thought. and outdated rule: “Don’t humiliate guys by trying to pay for a date.” Now, times have changed drastically: Girls hang out at guy’s houses whenever they want to and girls even invite guys to their humble abodes. Girls more and more are paying for dates and are often times the breadwinners in relationships. Girls make plans seemingly more often than guys, order what they want and can complain as much as they damn well please. However, these changes have not been in parallel with Greek life. Greek life more often than not attempts to cling to these archaic notions and rules which was illuminated in a recent USA Today article. Men are often not allowed to sleep over at sorority houses, sororities are not allowed to keep alcohol in their houses, which means that they are not allowed to have events with alcohol (almost any party) and lastly, they are not supposed to pay for any of the parties except for their own formals and “crush parties.” This leaves the men responsible for planning events at their house, hosting at their house, providing alcohol, providing snacks, setting up the event, providing rides to and from the event and paying for everything. This leaves the women responsible for coming to the event and very little else. Now, it becomes quite apparent why men have such high expectations for women. They expect them to come in droves, dress promiscuously and, better yet, act even more promiscuously. I have seen members of fraternities that expect debauchery to be the next logical step after all the work and money they have put into the event, and this is a terrible thought indeed. Many of the girls I talked to would love to have more control over the mixer scene on campus. I think these archaic rules need to change sooner rather than later. Sex becomes a problem when it goes from being seen as a possibility to becoming an expectation. These rules are the cause of that transition. I believe that sororities should share in the burden of setting up and paying for parties. This is just one change I am suggesting to reverse a few of the trends I have personally witnessed on campus. Remember that in the 1950’s, when men had to pay and plan for everything, women also had trouble receiving credit cards or welfare, so living without a spouse was an extremely difficult proposition. The chivalry of the 1950’s was not all it was cracked up to be and the chivalry of Greek Life today isn’t much different. Remember that with added responsibility comes added power. So hopefully when you ladies are setting up and paying for half the social events a year from now — thanking me for writing this article and betrothing you with half the power seat — with the additional bonus that my brothers and I won’t have to, just remember it’s not me, it’s you. Deon Thomas is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He may be reached at dthomas@cornellsun.com. It’s Not Me, It’s You appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.
Comment of the day Web
“The former president of the Interfraternity Council was in Chi Psi. This organization had the knowledge to not haze and had a member who had previously been charged to stop it while he held the position of IFC president. If under these circumstances a fraternity can’t learn, then what will it take?” Cornell13 Re: “Cornell Revokes Recognition of Chi Psi Fraternity,” News, published May 2, 2014
Maggie Henry | Get Over Yourself
See You on the Flip Side: Another Goodbye Column I
sat down to write them. We normalize we’ve been in a place this column on with people like us. We where the reality of Sunday night and adopt each others’ homogeneity is susfound my brain empti- speech; we mimic each pended. Where even if er than it has been in others’ clothing style. we don’t choose to my time at The Sun. N e i g h b o r h o o d s experience things we What to say in conclu- become segregated by never have before, we sion to a community socioeconomic quin- do by default. Where from which I’ve tile, by background, even if we don’t create received so much? My oppression and choice. social relationships work with the paper We normalize with others from difhas corresponded with according to the peo- ferent backgrounds, we my Cornell experience ple around us and, in are together in classes, — every heartbreak, turn, the homogeneity gyms, libraries and in every excitement. I’ve of experience becomes our home. never had a shortage of a homogeneity of realiI’m not scared of things to say, and yet ty. We don’t just college being the best this time I felt lost for choose to be around time of my life, but I words. people like us — we am scared of it being After completing a are around people who the only time in my life first draft, my comput- are like us. when I was consciously er died and I lost the Trending towards trying new things, file. Even my computer an increasingly similar meeting new people doesn’t want to be community scares me and having new experidone. as much as becoming ences. I’m scared to Since reflections on more close-minded graduate and have the my past at Cornell ran d r y b e t w e e n I’m not scared of college being the best v e r s i o n s time of my life, but I am scared of it one and two of this being the only time in my life when I c o l u m n , was consciously trying new things, I’m going meeting new people and having to instead new experiences. convey something I want to take into my with age. It scares me potential predicted by future. I want to grad- as much as becoming my experiences in this uate and take the bitter or jaded. In time of life quashed by diversity of experience many ways, being my passivity in the we all get here in our around a limited set of working world. wintery, overworked people might be a root Instead, I want to college life into my real cause of those perni- take chances to experilife. I think I’ll have to cious personality traits ence new things and work harder to find it, that I now abhor. learn from people who but I know that I can. When we control are different from me That’s because Cornell our neighborhood and keep converting has shown me how choice, our workplace, these experiences into a many types of people, who we talk to on a more open-minded communities and daily basis, so many of perspective post-graduplaces there are to us choose things we ation. I don’t want experience and learn know and people who graduation to be a slow from. are like us. In college, slide into “sameness,” In my experience, on the other hand, we even if sameness is easy most people don’t tend are exposed to so much and content. I want to towards diversity of more than we are in keep the Cornell spirit experience. People go the real world. — the college spirit, in through life with othFor the last four many ways — alive in ers who are similar to diverse, glorious years, my everyday.
I kept this column short (for me) not because I don’t care about this subject, but because the script of this topic has yet to be written. I hope that at reunions and in newsletters and when we meet face-to-face from time to time, this little piece of Cornell pops up in our stories and catch-ups. I hope that we have been bold and stuck toes outside of the line. I hope we have tried to experience differences and diversity. I don’t hope this because I have any pretense of having taken advantage of every opportunity at Cornell to meet new people and try new things. I hope it because Cornell — and my amazing, outrageous Cornellians — have shown me it’s always possible to try more. I hope to be more like you all, and I hope we all become better at realizing the ideal of interaction and diversity that community can be. So for all the institutional flaws and community strife, thank you, Cornell. I’ll see you on the flip side.
Maggie Henry is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at mhenry@cornellsun.com. Get Over Yourself appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.
A&E
8 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young Excerpt from anthology of graduation speeches by Kurt Vonnegut ’44, courtesy of Seven Stories Press INTRODUCTION BY KATIE O’BRIEN SUN CONTRIBUTOR
In the preface of Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons, a collection of opinion pieces by Kurt Vonnegut ’44 published in 1974, Vonnegut explains how he “used to make speeches all the time” until something snapped in his brain after a question from a man in a Washington audience. “You are a leader of American young people,” the man said. “What right do you have to teach them to be so cynical and pessimistic?” Vonnegut wrote that this question made him realize, “I was not a leader of American young people. I was a writer who should have been home and writing, rather than seeking easy money and applause.” If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? is a book of speeches Vonnegut gave at graduation ceremonies, compiled and published by Seven Stories Press and released in early April. This collection proves that Vonnegut sold himself short in stating that he shouldn’t have ever deviated from writing because he was an engaging speaker with plenty of wisdom to impart on the American youth. With graduation imminent for Cornell’s Class of 2014, and waiting on the not-so-distant horizon for the rest of us, Vonnegut’s graduation speeches are filled with lighthearted tidbits of advice, sardonic humor and social critique that make this a worthy read for current students. Some examples of speeches are: “How to make money and find love,” “Why you can’t stop me from speaking ill of Thomas Jefferson” and “Don’t forget where you come from.” Vonnegut’s speeches include an apology that it has taken so much time and money for society to officially license us as grown-ups and an acknowledgment of the hardship of constantly being expected to have intelligent thoughts. He thanks us for making the world a little saner than it was before by improving our minds, declares that teaching is the most noble profession and encourages us not to give up on books and to meet as many people as possible. He assures us that
loneliness and boredom are COURTESY OF part of being a human. He THE ESTATE OF KURT VONNEGUT ’44 makes fun of modern society (“If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.”), provides dryly humorous advice (“If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts”) and makes matter-offact statements about human nature that are striking in their simple truth (“A man cannot be a whole society to a woman, and a woman cannot be a whole society to a man. We try, but it is scarcely surprising that so many of us go to pieces.”) The collection is not without the cynicism that often colors his writing. He addresses troublesome topics like the increasing divorce rate, government corruption, our addiction to fossil fuels, inequality and hatred. He tells us that the world is tough and life will only get tougher. He questions why anyone would even want to be human. However, contrary to the objections of the man in Washington mentioned above, his cynicism is not without value. He is simply preparing us for a life that will surely be filled with pain on the troubled Earth that has been passed down to us, yet highlighting that it is somehow worth being here regardless. Yielding the title of the collection, he asks us to notice when life is pleasant by passing on his uncle’s advice: “When things are going sweetly and peacefully, please pause a moment and then say out loud, ‘If this isn’t nice, what
is?’” Part of Vonnegut’s appeal to young people must stem from the fact that he doesn’t view the world through rose-colored glasses, yet he always holds out hope in the good of humanity. He’s pessimistic yet idealistic because, above all, he’s humanistic. As pointed out by Dan Wakefield in the preface of If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?, Vonnegut wrote that “a writer is first and foremost a teacher,” and his speeches and stories all promote this simple piece of advice for living a meaningful life: “There’s only one rule I know of, babies — Goddamn it, you’ve got to be kind.” Katie O’Brien is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at kro22@cornell.edu.
‘How to Make Money and Find Love’ Fredonia College, May 20,1978
COURTESY OF SEVEN STORIES PRESS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Your class spokesperson has just said that she is sick and tired of hearing people say, “I’m glad I’m not a young person these days.” All I can say is, “I’m glad I’m not a young person these days.” Your college’s president wished to exclude all negative thinking from his farewell to you, and so has asked me to make this announcement: “All persons who still owe parking fees are to pay up before leaving the property, or there will be monkey business with their transcripts.” When I was a boy in Indianapolis, there was a humorist there named Kin Hubbard. He wrote a few lines for The Indianapolis News every day. Indianapolis needs all the humorists it can get. He was often as witty as Oscar Wilde. He said, for instance, that prohibition was better than no liquor at all. He said that whoever named near-beer was a poor judge of distance. I assume that the really important stuff has been spread out over your four years here and that you have no need of anything much from me. This is lucky for me. I have only this to say, basically: This is the end — this is childhood’s end for certain. “Sorry about that,” as they used to say in the Vietnam War. Perhaps you have read the novel Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, one of the few masterpieces in the field of science fiction. All of the others were written by me. In Clarke’s novel, the characters undergo spectacular evolutionary change. The children become very different from the parents, less physical, more spiritual — and one day they form up into a sort of column of light which spirals out into the universe, its mission unknown. The book ends there. You seniors, however, look a great deal like your parents, and I doubt that you will go radiantly into space as soon as you have your diplomas in hand. It is far more likely that you will go to Buffalo or Rochester
or Eat Quogue — or Cohoes. And I suppose you will all want money and true love, among other things. I will tell you how to make money: Work very hard. I will tell you how to win love: Wear nice clothing and smile all the time. Learn the words to all the latest songs. What other advice can I give you? Eat lots of bran to provide necessary bulk in your diet. The only advice my father ever gave me was this: “Never stick anything in your ear.” The tiniest bones in your body are inside your ears, you know — and your sense of balance, too. If you mess around with your ears, you could not only become deaf, but you could also start falling down all the time. So just leave your ears completely alone. They’re fine, just the way are. Don’t murder anybody — even though New York State does not use the death penalty. That’s about it. One sort of optional thing you might do is to realize there are six seasons instead of four. The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed and so much of the time. I mean, Spring doesn’t feel like Spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for Fall and so on. Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June! What could be springier than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October: See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves. Next comes the season called “Locking.” That is when Nature shuts everything down. November and December aren’t Winter. They’re Locking. Next comes Winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! See VONNEGUT page 9
A&E
Tuesday, May 6, 2014 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 9
slightly younger people? They want credit for having survived so long, and often imaginatively, What comes next? Not Spring. Unlocking comes under difficult conditions. Slightly younger people are intolerably next. What else could April be? One more optional piece of advice: If you ever have stingy about giving them credit for to give a speech, start with a joke, if you know one. For that. What is it the slightly younger years I have been looking for the best joke in the world. I think I know what it is. I will tell it to you, but you people want from the slightly have to help me. You have to say, “No,” when I hold up older people? More than anything, I think, they want acknowledgemy hand like this. All right? Don’t let me down. Do you know why cream is so much more expensive ment, and without further ado, that they are without question than milk? women and men now. Slightly AUDIENCE: No. It is because the cows hate to squat on those little older people are intolerably stingy about making any such acknowlbottles. That is the best joke I know. One time when I edgement. Therefore, I take it upon myself worked for the General Electric Company over in Schenectady, I had to write speeches for a vice presi- to pronounce those about to graddent. He was reading along, and he had never heard uate women and men. No one the joke before. He couldn’t stop laughing, and he had must ever treat them like children to be led away from the podium with a nosebleed. I again. Neither must they ever act like children — ever again. was fired the next day. This is what is known as a How do jokes work? The beginning of each good one challenges you to think. We are such earnest ani- puberty ceremony. I realize that it is coming a little late, but better late mals. When I asked you about cream, you could not help yourselves. You really tried to think of a sensible than never. Every primitive society every studied has answer: Why does a chicken cross the road? Why does had a puberty ceremony, at which former children a fireman wear red suspenders? Why did they bury became unchallengeably women and men. Some Jewish communities still honor this old practice, of George Washington on the side of a hill? The second part of the joke announces that nobody course, and benefit from it, in my opinion. But, by and wants you to think, nobody wants to hear your won- large, ultramodern, massively industrialized societies derful answer. You are so relieved to at last meet some- like ours have decided to do without puberty cerebody who doesn’t demand that you be intelligent. You monies — unless you want to count the issuance of drivers’ licenses at the age of 16. If you want to count laugh for joy. I have in fact designed this entire speech so as to that as a puberty ceremony, then it has a highly unusuallow you to be as stupid as you like, without strain, al feature: A judge can take your puberty away again, and without penalties of any kind. I have even written even if you’re as old as I am. Another event in the lives of American and a ridiculous song for the occasion. It lacks music, but we are up to our necks in composers. One is sure to European males which might be considered a puberty ceremony is war. If a male comes home from a war, come along. The words go like this: Adios to teachers and pneumonia / If I found out especially with serious wounds, everybody agrees: Here where the party is / I’ll telephone ya / I love you so indeed is a man. When I came home to Indianapolis much, Sonya / That I am going to buy you a begonia / from the Second World War in Germany, an uncle of mine said to me, “By golly — you look like a man You love me too, doan ya, Sonya? See — you were trying to guess what the next rhyme now.” I wanted to strangle him. If I had, he would have been the first German I’d killed. I was a man before I was going to be. Nobody cares how smart you are. I am being so silly because I pity you so much. I pity went to war, but he was damned if he would say so. I suggest to you that the withholding of a puberty all of us so much. Life is going to be very tough again, just as soon as this is over. And the most useful thought ceremony from young males in our society is a scheme, we can hold when all hell cuts loose again is that we are devised cunningly, but subconsciously, to make those not members of different generations, as unlike, as males eager to go to war, no matter how terrible or some people would have us believe, as Eskimos and unjust a war may be. There are just wars, too, of Australian Aborigines. We are all so close to each other course. The war I was eager to go to happened to be a in time that we should think of ourselves as brothers just one. And when does a female stop being a little girl and and sisters. I have several children — seven, to be exact — too many children for an atheist, certainly. become a woman, with all the rights and privileges Whenever my children complain about the planet to appertaining thereto? We all know the answer in our me, I say, “Shut up! I just got here myself. Who do you bones: When she has a baby in wedlock, of course. If think I am — Methuselah? You think I like the news of she has that first baby out of wedlock, she is still a child. What could be simpler or more natural and the day any better than you do? You’re wrong.” We are all experiencing more or less the same life- more obvious than that — or, in these days and in this society, at least, more unjust, irrelevant, and just plain time now. What is it the slightly older people want from the stupid? I think we had better, for our own safety, reinstate puberty ceremonies. I not only pronounce those about to graduate as women and men. With the powers vested in me, I pronounce them Clarks as well. Most of you know, I’m sure, that all white people named Clark are descended from inhabitants of the British Isles who were remarkable for being able to read and write. A black person named Clark, of course, would be descended, most likely, from someone who was forced to work without pay or rights of any kind by a white person named Clark. An interesting family — the Clarks. I realize that you graduates are all specialized in some way. But you have spent most of the past 16 or more years learning to read and write. People who can do these things well, as you can, are miracles and, in my opinion, entitle us to suspect that we may be civilized after all. It is terribly hard to learn to read and write. It takes simply forever. When we scold our schoolteachers about the low reading scores of their students, we pretend that it is the easiest thing COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY / VONNEGUT PICTURED CENTER, RIGHT VONNEUGUT
Continued from page 8
COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF KURT VONNEGUT
in the world: To teach a person to read and write. Try it sometime, and you will discover that it is nearly impossible. What good is being a Clark, now that we have computers and movies and television? Clarking, a wholly human enterprise, is sacred. Machinery is not. Clarking is the most profound and effective form of meditation practiced on this planet, and far surpasses any dream experienced by a Hindu on a mountaintop. Why? Because Clarks, by reading well, can think the thoughts of the wisest and most interesting human minds throughout all history. When Clarks meditate, even if they themselves have only mediocre intellects, they do it with the thoughts of angels. What could be more sacred than that? So much for puberty and Clarking. Only two major subjects remain to be covered: Loneliness and boredom. No matter what age any of us is now, we are going to be bored and lonely during what remains of our lives. We are so lonely because we don’t have enough friends and relatives. Human beings are supposed to live in stable, like-minded, extended families of 50 people or more. Your class spokesperson mourned the collapse of the institution of marriage in this country. Marriage is collapsing because our families are too small. A man cannot be a whole society to a woman, and a woman cannot be a whole society to a man. We try, but it is scarcely surprising that so many of us go to pieces. So I recommend that everybody here join all sorts of organizations, no matter how ridiculous, simply to get more people in his or her life. It does not matter much if all the other members are morons. Quantities of relatives of any sort are what we need. As for boredom: Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, a German philosopher who died 78 years ago, had this to say: “Against boredom even the gods contend in vain.” We are supposed to be bored. It is a part of life. Learn to put up with it, or you will not be what I have declared the members of this graduating class to be: Mature women and men. I come to a close now by noting that the press, whose business is to know and understand everything, often find young people to be apathetic (especially when pundits and commentators can’t think of anything else to write about or talk about.). The new generation of graduates has failed to eat a certain vitamin or mineral perhaps, iron perhaps. They have tired blood. They need Geritol. Well, as a member of a zippier generation, with sparkle in its eyes and a snap in its stride, let me tell you what kept us as high as kites a lot of the time: Hatred. All my life I’ve had people to hate — from Hitler to Nixon, not that those two are at all comparable in their villainy. It is a tragedy, perhaps, that human beings can get so much energy and enthusiasm from hate. If you want to feel 10 feet tall and as though you could run 100 miles without stopping, hate beats pure cocaine any day. Hitler resurrected a beaten, bankrupt, halfstarved nation with hatred and nothing more. Imagine that. So it seems quite likely to me that young people of today in the United States of America are not in fact apathetic, but only look that way to people who are used to getting their ecstasies from hatred, among other things, of course. The members of your graduating class are not sleepy, are not listless, are not apathetic. They are simply performing the experiment of doing without hate. Hate is the missing vitamin or mineral or whatever in their diet, they have sensed correctly that hate, in the long run, is about as nourishing as cyanide. This is a very exciting thing they are doing, and I wish them well.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
10 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 SoCal enforcement squad 5 “12 Angry Men” star Henry 10 Swimming spot 14 Seat of Allen County, Kansas 15 Queen __ lace 16 Cherub, in Chambéry 17 Fill-in-the-amount document 19 Actress Ward 20 Made sure of 21 Dines at home 23 Place to check your balance, briefly 25 Expanding bullet 28 Feathery scarves 30 Put down, in slang 31 Marinara sauce brand 32 Bear witness 35 Stun, as a perp 37 Uncomprehending look 41 French girlfriend 42 Soviet newspaper 45 Horoscope columnist Sydney 49 Opening for a chorus line 51 Free from bias 52 Like men modeling swimming trunks 56 Family animal 57 With perfection 58 Roofing piece 60 Prefix with sphere 61 Insincere talk, and a hint to the starts of this puzzle’s four other longest entries 66 Wife and sister of Osiris 67 Seated yoga position 68 Increase, as prices 69 Loch with a monster 70 Garden tool 71 Crooner Williams DOWN 1 Ad-__: improvise 2 Internet giant
3 Flat panel in many a sports bar 4 Funnyman Carvey 5 Ipso __ 6 Waiting to talk to a real person, say 7 Peoria-to-Green Bay dir. 8 End-of-year abbr. 9 Out of kilter 10 Sunday speaker 11 Baby shower bodysuit 12 Leering at 13 Makeshift shelter 18 Electric bill meas. 22 Pop up 23 Lawyer’s gp. 24 Day care attendee 26 Ignores the trash can 27 Mama bears, in Spain 29 Dead __ Scrolls 33 Not widely available 34 Scottish hat 36 Gas additive brand 38 Nick at __ 39 WWII fliers
40 Tony-winning role for Patti LuPone 43 Roller with pips 44 Gallery showing 45 Gain possession of 46 China’s __-tung 47 One of the Musketeers 48 Freshen, as the salad 50 Available for breeding
53 Sexy-looking shoes 54 Steven’s wife on “Family Ties” 55 Margery of kids’ rhyme 59 Frat party wrap 62 Unruly head of hair 63 School support org. 64 Flop 65 Undercover agent
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
COMICS AND PUZZLES
Sun Sudoku
Puzzle #459
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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Tuesday, May 6 and Wednesday, May 7
12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
SPORTS BRIEFS
Stacy Lewis Earns LPGA Shootout Title
Defending champion Inbee Park closed with a 72 to tie for 14th at 5 under. That will be good enough when the new world ranking comes out to stay No. 1 for the 56th consecutive week since the South Korean replaced Lewis at the top. Lewis will supplant Lydia Ko, who didn’t play in North Texas. Ko had moved to No. 2 after her victory a week ago in San Francisco only days after her 17th birthday. Michelle Wie, who closed within two before faltering late, had a 67 to finish third at 9 under. It was Wie’s “It’s relief. I’ve been so fourth consecutive top-10 close the last few months, finish, including her first win in nearly four years at and just to do it and to do it home in Hawaii after a here of all places.” runner-up finish at the Kraft Nabisco, the season’s Stacy Lewis first major. Lewis, from The her previous 16 tournaments, Woodlands near Houston, has Lewis shot a closing 7-under 64 finished outside the top six only to finish at 16-under 268 and six once in nine tournaments this strokes ahead of runner-up year. She was third at the Kraft Meena Lee. That is the LPGA Nabisco and had another runnerTour’s largest margin of victory up finish just last week in San since Jiyai Shin won the 2012 Francisco. She had three runnerup finishes in her last eight tourWomen's British Open by nine. “I kind of have these mini naments in 2013 after her victory goals in the back of my mind. ... at St. Andrews. Wie was 6 under in a sevenOne of them was kind of taking a tournament and running away hole span — Nos. 9-15. When she with it,” Lewis said. “It’s what I’ve made a 4-foot birdie putt at No. 15, she was 11 under and only always wanted to do.” Lewis made a putt from about two strokes behind Lewis, who 25 feet off the fringe at the 540- had just had her only bogey of the yard seventh for an eagle. She fol- day. Wie’s eagle at the 510-yard lowed with consecutive birdies to make the turn at 14 under and 10th hole was her third of the leading by three strokes. She had week there. But after missing the birdies the final two holes, punc- green at the 180-yard 17th, she tuating her round with another hooked her 8-iron approach at the closing par 5 into the trees. long putt at No. 18. “I thought I had it on 17, just It was Lewis’ ninth career LPGA Tour victory, her first since nuked it over the green,” Wie August in the Women’s British said. “I just hit a wall on the last Open, and will boost her from hole, which is disappointing for third to second in the world rank- me. At the same time, 4-under par on the last day, I’ll take it.” ing.
THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014 13
IRVING, Texas (AP) — Stacy Lewis went from all those runnerup finishes to a runaway victory. There would be no “secondplace Stacy” in her home state after a spectacular finish Sunday with family and friends watching at the North Texas LPGA Shootout. “It’s relief. I’ve been so close the last few months, and just to do it and to do it here of all places,” Lewis said. “It’s one of those things that I almost felt like it was meant to be.” After six runner-up finishes in
The LGBT Resource Center
Nets, Heat Prepare For Semifinals Series MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade hardly thinks the regularseason series between Brooklyn and Miami was meaningless. The Nets swept the Heat, winning three of those games by a mere point, taking the other in double overtime. That’s not exactly a show of dominance from a scoring-differential perspective. Doesn’t matter, Wade said. The Nets won all four, and that has Miami’s full attention as the sides get ready to open an Eastern Conference semifinals series. Miami, the league’s twotime defending champion, will host Game 1 on Tuesday night. “They figured out a way to beat us four times and that hasn’t happened,” said Wade, the Heat guard who missed two of the four Brooklyn-Miami games this season. “So we've got to crack that code.” History shows the Heat will struggle in that code-cracking plan. This series marks the 26th time that teams will meet in a best-of-seven series after one club went 4-0 or better against the other in the regular season. In each of the first 25 such instances, the regular-season winner also won the playoff matchup. Advantage, Brooklyn.
“I think they know what's coming,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ve seen them four times. I think we have the utmost respect for them and they have the utmost respect for us. Hopefully, it can be a great series.” The buildup for this started in July, when the Nets added Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and started talking about a championship. That got Miami’s attention. The 4-0 record, that just got even more of Miami’s attention. “The goal from the beginning when we came in here was to win a championship and we understand that in order to do that, you have to go through the best,” Pierce said. “And Miami being that team over the last couple years, we figured this was going to be a test for us.” It's the fifth time Pierce and LeBron James will be on opposite sides of a playoff series. Pierce won the first two when James was in Cleveland; James has won the last two since coming to Miami, topping Garnett and Pierce when they wore Boston colors. To James, this isn’t about breaking a tie. He’s got bigger goals. “It should be very challenging,” James said.
is proud to present:
Lavender Graduation 2014 Be recognized! Be a part of this ceremony celebrating the achievements of graduating students and honoring the lives and contributions of Cornell students, faculty, and staff for their work within and for the LGBT community. Even if you have not been involved in the LGBT community during your time at Cornell, we encourage you to be a part of Lavender Graduation. All graduating students will receive a lavender honor cord and rainbow tassel to wear during commencement ceremonies. There will also be a recognition walk at Lavender Graduation for all graduating students. To register, please see the “Lavender Graduation 2014” Facebook event page or contact shura.gat@cornell.edu, by May 9th Please join us for this most special occasion.
Sunday, May 11th 2:00-4:00 PM Physical Sciences, Clark Atrium
14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014
SPORTS
Red Eyes Upcoming Heps Meet Rowers Fall to TRACK & FIELD
Continued from page 16
prepare them for the weeks ahead. Some need rest, some need to compete in another event to help sharpen them up for their natural race. A small meet at home helps us meet the athletes’ needs much better.” Senior co-captain Bruno Hortelano-Roig said his weekend off was important for preparation for next weekend’s Outdoor Heptagonal Championships. “This coming “The team is ready...to show weekend is the most important, and takthe league how strong Cornell ing the weekend off University track and field is was key to getting ready to be in the this year.” best shape that I can Bruno Hortelano-Roig be,” he said. The team is ready to leave everything on the track, Hortelano-Roig said. “The team is ready to show up at Heps, and to show the league how strong Cornell University track and field is this year,” he said. With the long and strenuous season now at a close, the teams still have the major goals of success in the post-season in
mind. However, there is also time for reflection on the team’s successes this season. “It’s hard to center on one accomplishment. The outstanding depth of overall performance has been [exceptional]. We have qualified a record number of athletes to the ECAC Championships, over 45 athletes and three relays,” Bowman said. “This is usually a good measure of the teams overall talent levels. We should have at least 18 athletes heading to Jacksonville for the NCAA East Regional, which also will be a record.” The men and women on Cornell’s track and field teams will need to take on the challenge of performing at Heps, as well as managing factors such as finals week and Slope Day, Bowman said. “Exams have always had a connection with our championship season — professors have been fantastic in helping reschedule. We’ll have a quiet bus coming back on Sunday evening for those that have exams on Monday morning. Clearly it can be a problem if we let it, [but] most have prepared ahead of time for conflicts and thought clearly ahead.” Bowman said. “This is the first Slope Day in years that our athletes can attend. We hope they enjoy the music and spectacle, but anything alcohol-related is of course a breach of our team and athletic code of conduct.” Nikita Dubnov can be reached at ndubnov@cornellsun.com.
Dartmouth Boats W. ROWING
Continued from page 16
against Dartmouth having won in only one boat,” senior captain Lily Eisermann said. “However, we know that we are faster than the results last weekend show.” The team aims to take advantage of the next two weeks and prepare for the Ivy L e a g u e Championships, Eisermann said. The event will take place on May 18 on the
Cooper River in New Jersey. “We will use the next two weeks to prepare mentally and physically to give our best performance for Ivy League Championships,” Eisermann said. “We know that with our best row, we will be able to do great things and beat teams that got the better of us in the regular season.” Elani Cohen can be reached at ecohen@cornellsun.com.
Let us keep you informed every day in
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, May 6, 2014 15
SPORTS
Red Dominates Dartmouth in Weekend Sweeps By TUCKER MAGGIO-HUCEK Sun Staff Writer
Both men’s rowing programs took on Dartmouth this past weekend, defeating the Green in convincing fashion. The heavyweight and lightweight boats for the Red crossed the finish line faster than Dartmouth in every race, sweeping the Green on Dartmouth’s home course. The Connecticut River in Hanover, New Hampshire was the site for all four races for the No. 7 heavyweight team. The Red defeated the Green in each race, although the closest race of the day was the second varsity eight race in which the Red came in just over a second before the Green. In the first race of the day, the third varsity eight race, the Red rowed its way to a nine-second margin of victory. To complete the sweep, the varsity eight and the fourth varsity boats for the Red finished with similarly large margins of victory. The Red’s big win marked the second year in a row that the heavyweight team swept Dartmouth, giving the Red a 4-3 lead in the all-time series. For the next two
weeks, the Red will train for the EARC Sprints to be held Worcester, Massachusetts. The No. 1 lightweight rowing team also dominated No. 9 Dartmouth and took home the Baggaley Bowl in the process. The Red, who have won the two previous Baggaley Bowls, additionally looked to stay atop the national rankings. The first race of the day was the varsity eight race for the Bowl, and the Red finished over 11 seconds in front of Dartmouth. The second race saw the first freshman boat dominate the field and finish ahead of its teammates in the second varsity eight. The freshman boat finished just under four seconds ahead of the fellow rowers and over seven seconds ahead of the Big Green boat. To close out the sweep, the third varsity boat blew out the Green by crossing the finish line just shy of 25 seconds ahead of Dartmouth. The lightweight team will join the heavyweight team in Worcester, Massachusetts to compete in the EARC Sprints. Tucker Maggio-Hucek can be reached at thucek@cornellsun.com.
TINA CHOU / SUN FILE PHOTO
Undefeated | Both the heavyweight and lightweight rowing teams swept all their races this weekend against Dartmouth.
Birkmayer’s Newsletter Provided Updates for College Hockey Fans BIRKMAYER
Continued from page 16
At its peak, the newsletter earned around 1,000 subscribers, although Birkmayer says the number generally resided at around 500. “More interestingly, my first wife, who worked on it intensely, determined subscribers existed in 46 of the 50 states, all of the Canadian provinces except one [and] seven or eight foreign countries that we had never heard of,” Birkmayer said. “So we had subscribers all over the world, even though the number was small. These were mostly people from here who had gone to work taking jobs overseas and wanted to keep up with hockey.” Although the technology for producing the paper changed over time, the earliest papers featured a full community effort. Birkmayer seemed to take particular delight in recalling the hectic Tuesday nights and chats at length about the chaos as friends, family and co-workers gathered at his house to put out the next issue. “The initial ones, the ones that were mimeographs, all of the production work was done in my basement,” he said, reeling off a list of old production technology that would send a Millennial straight to Google. “My grandkids were standing on footstools and stapling and things like that — it was quite a scene. Around 10 o’clock at night, I’d dispatch someone down to the local bar to buy two big pizzas for when we got finished. Two of us took it down to the Post Office, the back room — we had access to the back room because we knew someone — and got it right into the dispatch that was going out on the midnight train. Then came back, picked up the pizzas on our way home and that was it, it was done for two weeks.” For Birkmayer — who graduated from RPI in 1949 with an engineering degree and spent his day job as an engineer with the New York State Department of Transportation — producing the newsletter helped fulfill a long-
time dream. Asked whether he was surprised at the success of the newsletter, he paused a moment before answering. “I think so. I always had second thoughts about being an engineer — I really in my heart wanted to be a newspaper person. My grandfather was an editor and publisher of a German language newspaper in Troy and I worked there in the print shop as a kid,” he said. “With hot type, casting hot type in German. Before linotype machines and it just kind of got in my blood. The other rewards that came from this was being able to write for the New York Times and for the Associated Press and a number of others — NCAA hockey guide and Sports Illustrated, I strung for them for a number of years.” While the newsletter gave Birkmayer an outlet for his own journalistic aspirations, it also provided space for other enthusiastic hockey writers to put themselves in print. Birkmayer said the newspaper was primarily written by himself, but was quick to mention that he received notable contributions from other writers. “I also had a stable of people all over the country who were anxious — more than anxious — to write about their area without any compensation other than a byline, and they would use that byline to promote themselves,” he said. “It was good for me.” Although Birkmayer never played hockey himself, he became notably involved in the RPI program. He was both the coordinator of the team’s off-ice officials and, starting late in 1963, the announcer for the team’s games. His voice, now worn down to a whispery grumble, no longer resembles an announcer’s shout, but, save for an occasional sip of
water here or there, does not waver as he recalls the announcing job — another legacy of his created by Harkness. When Harkness moved to Cornell, his friends who performed the RPI announcing stopped working with the RPI program. New RPI coach Rube Bjorkman suggested to Birkmayer that he become
EMILY BERMAN / SUN ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
the new announcer, and he accepted the position. One famous — although not exactly personality-representative — anecdote about Birkmayer that floats around his few past profile stories involves a particularly rowdy 1987 RPI-Brown game. As an angry Brown fan attempted to break through the scorer’s box in an effort to reach the officials’ dressing room, Birkmayer stopped the aggressive fan with a single right hook. The incident earned Birkmayer the short-lived nickname “Knuckles,” courtesy of RPI sports information director Al Shibley. Birkmayer does not bother to
retell the story himself — picking up a 2000 Times Union profile that lies among the newsletters spread across the table, a little bit of his announcing voice creeps back into his speech as his gamely reads off the Times Union account of the incident. Putting down the paper, he smiles a bit as he elaborates on that account. “The [Brown] coach’s name was Herb Hammond,” he said. “He congratulated me after.” Although Birkmayer sold the newsletter in 1993 — it continued for four more years under a different owner, before the Internet usurped its role — he continued as an announcer until 2000. He refers to the end of his 40-year reign as the newsletter producer as a weight off his shoulders. “It was a relief, in a way. I’m 68 years old when I sell it, I started when I was 28. So there’s a difference, you don’t handle things as well later on,” he said, chuckling lightly. “But I still kept my job at RPI as the announcer.” Birkmayer said he “convinced my second wife to retire. We travelled the world and had a great time.” These days, the old copies of the newsletter exist as collector’s item-type mementos. A full set currently belongs to the University of New Hampshire, although Cornell may soon receive its own set. James Hyla ’67, a longtime subscriber to the newsletter, plans to donate his nearly complete set, along with other memorabilia mostly from Cornell’s hockey team’s championship years. The majority of Birkmayer’s own set of the newsletters is long given away — Hyla hopes to track down the owner of this set to try to fill in the missing early years of his own collection — but Birkmayer still retains stores of information and mementos from
his time in the college hockey world. The idea of an interview sent him back into his old files, digging up items he no longer remembered he owned. “I got boxes out and I spent the whole day just sitting there reading,” he said. “I’d forgotten all that stuff. The correspondents files I had from the NCAA, the president of the NCAA and stuff like that — and think, ‘wow.’” As the years have wound on, those close to Birkmayer and his hockey time have passed away, leaving their memories as their legacy. Harkness passed away in 2008, but Birkmayer — who occasionally protests that his memory is not what it was — remembers fond times with him. “Ned, as you know, was controversial. He was a great coach, great guy, personal friend. We lived close to each other for eight years, my kids and his kids played together,” he said. “I rank him as one of the greatest college hockey coaches. He could get more out of kids than anyone I ever knew.” Another friend Birkmayer lost recently was Art Kaminsky ’68, a major sports agent — and close friend of Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden ’69 — who took the time to help Birkmayer with the newsletter. “I should mention my associated editor for a number of years, Arthur Kaminsky, who passed away,” Birkmayer said. “He was a big help to me in the middle years here. … He was in the city in New York and I was in Troy, but he wrote for it. In many of these you’ll find his byline.” Birkmayer said he still follows RPI hockey, although his attention has gradually waned as the years pass. The surprise legacy of his newsletter, though, remains close to his heart. “It’s very important to me, because I put so much into it,” he said, pausing as he realized the simplest words were the ones that captured it all. “It just means a lot.” Emily Berman can be reached at eberman@cornellsun.com.
Sports
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
TUESDAY MAY 6, 2014
16
Blue Lines and Bylines:Don Birkmayer Reflects The man behind college hockey’s long-running newsletter looks back
Spreading the news | From 1953 through 1993, Don Birkmayer ran the Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletter, which reported scores, standings and the top stories from around the leagues.
By EMILY BERMAN Sun Assistant Sports Editor
Don T. Birkmayer surveys the table in front of him and selects a yellowing piece of paper from among the printed pages scattered across its surface. Holding it up to the sunlight, he casts his light blue eyes over the sheet and, lifting it to his nose, comments, “that paper smells, doesn’t it.” To Birkmayer’s credit, the piece he is holding is nearly 50 years old, printed on cheap paper and stored away for decades. It is an original copy of one of Birkmayer’s 1967 Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletters, and, as the afternoon light dims as one of Ithaca’s ever-present storm clouds draws closer, the 89-year-old retiree gently retells stories of his days as the founder of what was once college hockey’s quintessential source for information. For this generation of college hockey fans, the most frustration felt when attempting to find scores from across the league occurs when their iPhones take an extra few seconds to load a page. Back in the 50s, however, fans not only had no way to learn scores quickly, there was almost no way to find them at all. “The average person couldn’t,” said Birkmayer, who has resided in Ithaca for the past 14 years after moving away from his lifelong home in Troy. “Unless he wanted to pay toll charges and call the Boston Globe and ask them for their hockey scores, and that would be an arduous task
EMILY BERMAN / SUN ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
at best.” Enter legendary college hockey and lacrosse coach Ned Harkness, who helmed the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute squads before transferring his talents over to Cornell. Harkness, a close friend of Birkmayer, suggested copying the already-existing lacrosse newsletter and producing one for college hockey. One meeting with the Boston-area college hockey coaches later, the Intercollegiate Hockey Newsletter was born, and Birkmayer produced the newsletter for 40 years from 1953
until 1993. Recapping the main action, standings and scores from around the leagues, Birkmayer’s paper provided information to fans and coaches eager to keep up with the growing world of college hockey. “It was meant for everyone,” Birmayer said. “It was aimed at the coaches in the first year particularly. But there were no restrictions. … We had 80 subscribers the first year, give or take.” See BIRKMAYER page 15
OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD
Red Closes Out Regular Season With Home Meet By NIKITA DUBNOV
many others including [sophomore] Claire DeVoe [in the 800 meter] and [junior] Alesha The last meet of regular sea- Knudson [in the 400 meter] son competition for the men’s were exceptional.” and women’s track and field The men’s team also had its teams took place this weekend at fair share of stand-out perforthe Cornell Invitational at Kane mances. Senior co-captain Sports Complex. The Red put Stephen Mozia won the discus together a total of 20 wins in var- competition and earned second ious events and almost 30 IC4A in both the shot put and the qualifying hammer throw results. event. Other The coach“We were excited highlights came ing staff for from senior about our results.” Montez Blair, both programs said they were who won the Rich Bowman happy with the high jump overall results event and from the comsenior Dan petition. Scott, who took the triple jump “Though we had limited crown. Many of Cornell’s entries since many of our top notable track and field athletes athletes rested, we were excited had the weekend off, however, to about our results. Several athletes prepare for dominance in the improved their seedings for the championship season. upcoming conference meet and “Having a small meet hit seasonal bests,” said Rich which is non-scoring lets us be Bowman, the head coach of the a bit more selective as to what women’s team. “[Junior] Katie our needs are a week before Woodford ran a huge personal the championship season best in the 400 meter race as did begins,” Bowman said. “In her twin sister Emily in the 400 most instances, we are working meter hurdles. [Sophomore] with each individual athlete to DeeDee Akpaete ran an outstanding 200 meter race, and See TRACK & FIELD page 14
Sun Staff Writer
TINA CHOU / SUN FILE PHOTO
Margin of victory | The Green’s varsity eight boat earned the Parent’s Cup with a time of 5:58.3, while the Red followed in second with 6:00.8 and the University of Central Florida came in a distant third with 6:22.0.
WOMEN’S ROWING
Dartmouth Beats C.U.to Claim Cup By ELANI COHEN Sun Staff Writer
Despite a tough fight, the women’s rowing team failed to capture the Parent’s Cup in its competition this weekend as Dartmouth rowed away with the Cup. Featuring boats from Cornell, Dartmouth and the University of Central Florida, the event took place in Hanover, New Hampshire on the Connecticut River. The regatta started with the varsity eight race, in which Dartmouth came in first closely followed by Cornell. This was one of the closest races for the Red, as Dartmouth finished its first varsity eight with an overall time of 5:58.3 while Cornell finished with similar time of 6:00.8 and UCF finished with a far off time of 6:22.0.
Cornell followed behind Dartmouth in the second varsity eight race as well, earning a time of 6:15.7. During the varsity four, Dartmouth finished the race off in first with a lead of 3.7 seconds, and Cornell finished next, beating UCF by 12.8 seconds. UCF finally pushed ahead of the Red during the third varsity eight race, beating the Red by 5.1 seconds. Cornell stepped its game back up in the final race of the Parent’s Cup, the varsity 4B, finishing in first place with a final time of 6:46.1. The Dartmouth B team finished next, followed close behind by UCF and the Dartmouth C team, which finished in last place. “We were disappointed with the overall results See W. ROWING page 14