Four Years at Cornell

2.21.21 BIG BOX ARRIVAL: Under slow flurries and gray skies, dozens of excited Cornellians and Ithacans lined up outside Trader Joe’s for its highly-anticipated opening.

3.31.21 NEW YORK STATE JOINS POT LEGALIZATION BANDWAGON: The New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing adults 21 and older to possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis or 24 grams of concentrate for recreational use. Individuals with some types of marijuana convictions will have the latter expunged from their records.

3.30.21 AS VACCINE ELIGIBILITY EXPANDS, STUDENTS RUSH TO GET FIRST DOSES: The Sun announced that while many Cornell students were not yet eligible, most staff members and faculty would now become qualified to receive vaccines on March 30 under guidelines that allow them for adults 30 and older. The state also plans to make the vaccine available to all adults on April 6, according to a statement released on March 29 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) — a significant development for Cornell students. Josh Figueroa ’24 recently received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the State Fair Expo Center in Syracuse. While Figueroa was pleased with how his appointment went and how organized the vaccine clinic was, he said he had some difficulty registering. “The registration process was pretty stressful because appointments were being booked by the minute,” Figuerora said.

4.22.21 THIS YEARS’ VIRTUAL SLOPE DAY PERFORMERS ARE ANNOUNCED: Last Dinosaurs and Ari Lennox will be this year’s Virtual Slope Day performers on May 14 and 15, announced the Slope Day Programming Board. Though only half of the student body has experienced an in-person Slope Day, the Board nevertheless expressed hope that this year’s festivities would be fun. “The hope is that we as a student body can celebrate the end of the year as safely as we can, given that we’re still in a pandemic, with these concerts,” said Estefania Perez ’21, the Board’s executive director.

YI-KE PENG / SUN FILE PHOTO Back to the future | Though many more rules and precautions will be be in place compared to the May 24, 2009 Graduation festivities seen above, this year’s celebration will nevertheless mark a welcome return to Schoellkopf Field and Stadium.

Cornell will hold an in-person commencement for the Class of 2021, President Pollack announced in an April 6 email. She wrote then that the University was also planning for a virtual celebration for the Class of 2020 in June and an in-person Homecoming in September.

Commencement will take place in Schoellkopf Field the weekend of May 29 — but Pollack’s original April 6 announcement stated that Cornell wouldn’t allow guests, and instead of a customary packed stadium, it would feature a series of smaller, outdoor socially-distanced events to honor graduating seniors, graduate and professional students.

However, a significant modification of these arrangements took place on April 30, when, in another e-mail, Pollack said that New York state had just released updated public health guidance for commencement ceremonies.

Because of this, she said, “where we were previously limited to using only 20 percent of the capacity in Schoellkopf Field, we are now permitted to use up to 33 percent, with our graduating students seated separately and not counting towards that total.” “I am excited to let you know that this means that it is now feasible for us to accommodate a limited number of guests at the Commencement ceremonies.”

She added that each graduate would be given “two non-transferable tickets to enable two guests to attend one of the in-person celebrations.”

Students in the Class of 2021 living outside of Ithaca wishing to return for commencement must follow state travel guidelines, but the University will offer free rooms in residence halls for a short period before their graduation ceremony.

Convocation will be fully virtual this year for this fall’s cohort of

first-year and new transfer students.

And after more than a year of holding out hope for an in-person commencement, the Class of 2020 will gather virtually on June 13 for part of their virtual reunion. However, the University is planning an in-person Homecoming for graduates and their families and has marked the dates for a five-year reunion for June 2025.

For many Cornellians, sunbathing on the patio outside of Schwartz Performing Arts Center is a quintessential memory of joyful warm days in Ithaca. Yet, despite its location in the busiest and loudest part of Collegetown, very few people would linger there at night. The volatile nature of the night weather isn’t particularly welcoming, and even if you sit in a little wooden shelter outside Collegetown Bagels, it can still get quite chilly after they turn off their radiators. The metal chairs and tables and the Modernist architecture certainly do not help make the space feel warmer.

And it’s not just about the weather and the architecture. Without the lateral surveillance of the passersby, there’s a liminal quality to the space that is rather disorienting and unsettling. Afterall, the patio outside of people pass by to move between home and school environments. When people don’t linger at the space at night, though, the eeriness gets amplified by the emptiness and darkness. The tumultuous state of the half-finished construction of unaffordable housing across the street surely doesn’t help, either.

Well, say goodbye to the liminality, but only temporarily — Adam Shulman ’23 has brought light, warmth and nature to the space. This past Sunday night, I sat down with him outside of Schwartz to talk about his artwork, “After Nature Had Drawn a Few Breaths.”

Shulman said the origin for his work can

STEPHEN YANG / SUN ARTS COLUMNIST Bringer of light | Adam

Shulman ’23 stands before the Schwartz Performing Arts Center. See color photo of Shulman’s project on Page 33.

Cheers, honks and relief filled the unusually-warm Ithaca autumn air after President-elect Joe Biden officially clinched the presidency at 11:25 a.m. on November 7, 2020, surpassing 270 electoral votes after winning Pennsylvania.

Cornell’s campus had been extraordinarily quiet all semester, since the coronavirus made student gatherings impermissible. But after news outlets called the election for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on that Saturday morning, Cornell launched into loud celebration.

Students, half-looking down at their phones, turned to marvel: “Biden won.” Parades of honking cars drove up and down Collegetown; some blasted “Party in the USA,” and students showed off “Fuck Trump” signs and Biden shirts through sunroofs to whoops from passersby. Reveling in the weekend announcement, students took to porch celebrations and picnics after five days of waiting and eyeing the electoral map. Inside a bustling Collegetown Bagels, many employees including Ithaca College student Olivia Kirschbaum found out while on shift.

“I’m just so excited,” said Danielle Mangini ’23, a Biden supporter “since day one.” Mangini, in line at CTB waiting for a Brooklyn bagel and smoothie, heard the news and began fielding a “barrage of calls” from her mom and her friends.

Sitting beside Mangini on a stone bench, Daniela Rodriguez-Chavez ’23 digested the news as she munched on her bagel. “I am so relieved this is over,” she said. “The fear mongering had to stop, and enough people realized to not give into fear.”

BEN PARKER / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR See BIDEN page 57

Joe Biden’s presidential election victory was announced, honking cars with cheering passengers began circling Collegetown and downtown Ithaca. The horn blasts continued for several hours.

Cornell will reopen campus for the fall semester, offering in-person and online instruction, President Martha E. Pollack announced Tuesday, June 30. While students will have to follow strict health precautions when on campus and participate in the University’s extensive COVID-19 testing program, Pollack said reopening for the fall was the safer option. “The key consideration in our decision to reopen is public health,” Pollack said in a University press release. “Residential instruction, when coupled with a robust virus screening program of the form we intend to implement, is a better option for protecting the public health of our community than a purely online semester.” Classes were originally supposed to start on Aug. 27, but will now start Sept. 2; students will go home for the semester by Thanksgiving break. The fall semester will end with online classes and exams, and the spring semester is currently slated to start some time in February.

President Martha E. Pollack announced that Cornell will join Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a lawsuit challenging recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visa restrictions for international students.

FALL SEMESTER BEGINS: Fed up with unsafe working conditions and what they call a lack of concern from Cornell officials, campus resident advisers went on brief strike.

DAY ITSELF: The most fraught election day in a generation turned into a high-stress week; many students voted early or sent in mail-in ballots despite confusing processes and many hiccups. The presidential election would not be called until Saturday morning.

REGULATIONS: Per a Wednesday, November 11 announcement by Governor Cuomo, as of Friday at 10 p.m., all gatherings at private residences larger than 10 will be banned, a measure that takes particular aim at house parties and other social gatherings, Cuomo said. Bars, restaurants, gyms and any establishment with a license from the New York State liquor authority also must close at 10 p.m. –– sans takeout service. These measures come as the state faces a resurgence of COVID-19 that public officials had worked for months to keep at bay, with the state reporting daily new case totals not seen since late April and early May. In Tompkins County, the health department reported 19 new cases on Wednesday.

12.12.20 STUDENT ASSEMBLY CALLS FOR CORNELL POLICE DISARMAMENT: The Student Assembly passed a hotly debated resolution calling for Cornell Police disarmament during its last meeting of the semester, a reversal from when disarmament failed to pass almost one month earlier.

This was the first protest Devonte Parker ’21 ever organized.

He said that after the news broke about the murder of George Floyd, he kept watching and waiting for someone in the Cornell community to plan something. When he didn’t see what he was looking for, he and other members of Phi Beta Sigma — a historically Black social fraternity of which he is president — got together on Saturday, May 30, 2020 to plan a protest, contacting other on-campus and local organizations.

The event, co-sponsored by La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., as well as the Nigerian Students Association, Black Students United, Occupy Ithaca and the Southside Community Center, went live the next day. By Sunday night, news of the peaceful protest was circulating widely on Facebook and social media.

Looki n g around

Ho Plaza about an hour before the Wednes day, June 3, 2020 event as protesters trickled in, he said that the strong online traction was when he realized that “this might just be something.”

B y 12:15 p.m., hundreds upon hundreds of people packed Ho Plaza. Organizers handed out donated bottles of water, snacks and supplies to make protest signs. Also distributed were face masks made by The Protest Mask Project emblazoned with “I Can’t Breathe.”

Even in protest, the COVID-19 pandemic stayed close to mind — nearly every protester of the hundreds that gathered sported a face covering. Some masks were surgical-grade, some were only bandanas wrapped around faces and some had similar slogans of the movement drawn on with paint and marker. Speeches condemned the disproportionate number of Black and Brown people who have fallen victim to the coronavirus.

“Enough is enough,” said Maureen Ekwebelem ’21, who is the vice president of internal affairs for the Nigerian Students Association, as she handed out supplies. She said that while many of their members have left Ithaca, she worked to mobilize everyone who could march.

“We came out here to show that we want the police brutality to end. We read in textbooks about

See MARCH page 56

MICHAEL SUGUITAN / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Just as students booked flights and bus tickets, they faced the latest COVID19 pandemic shock on Friday morning, March 13 when President Martha E. Pollack cancelled classes until April 6. The replacement of in-person classes with online instruction as of April 6 had been previously announed on March 10.

Uncertainty now permeates Cornell’s campus, as students have now been told to leave as soon as possible.

Looming Concern

The surprise announcement reflects a looming concern that the current outbreak will worsen by spring break. Deputy Provost John Siliciano conceded that “in all likelihood it’s going to show up in the county if it hasn’t already.”

Even though Tompkins County said that there were still no confirmed cases in a March 13 afternoon press conference, Tompkins County administrator Jason Molino declared a state of emergency, shuttering local schools.

“As you look across the country right now, we’re in fairly uncharted waters,” Lombardi said in an interview with The Sun.

With COVID-19 spreading seemingly unabated — the number of confirmed cases spiked 30 percent overnight to 421 in New York State — Cornell officials said the accelerated timeline was necessary to give students the chance to begin making travel plans.

“The greatest shift that I was feeling was the concern … travel, [which] is becoming more difficult, certainly downstate, in New York,” said Sharon McMullen, Assistant Vice President of Student and Campus Life for Health and Well-being.

The practical logistics of asking over 13,000 students to vacate campus is one that leaves a host of unsolved questions.

Lombardi had sent out an email to students living on-campus earlier in the week, asking them to fill out a form for housing accommodations. While the form’s deadline has been extended to Sunday, March 22, Lombardi said that the majority of students who filled out the survey said they intended to leave campus.

Students living on-campus who leave will receive a rebate for housing and meal plans, though the exact amount has yet to be determined. In anticipation of swelling unemployment, President Donald Trump announced on Match 13 that interest on federally-backed student loans would be deferred — but the University has yet to address potential changes to financial aid or deadlines for tuition payment.

Despite Friday’s turn of events, many students living off-campus want to stay in Ithaca. But for those planning to remain, McMullen urged students who plan to stay in Ithaca to not leave the city and travel to other states that have become epicenters of the virus.

“We’re going to be relying on all of the members of the community, both the Cornell community and the larger community to exercise caution during this unprecedented time,” McMullen said.

With classes suspended for almost the next month, significant adjustments to Cornell academics are likely to take place. The drop deadline has been extended from March 17 to April 21.

Though no plans have been confirmed, the University is also contemplating shifting the semester to account for the lost two weeks of instruction.

BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Milling and chilling | Cornellians sit and watch the world go by on West Campus, three days after the March 13 news that all Cornell classes had been cancelled until April 6. The latter date had previously been announced as the day when online classes would replace in-person ones.

TO BE DEMOLISHED: Although the iconic building in which students have bought late-night eats for decades will be demolished in June, the owners of Collegetown Bagels are planning to move directly across the street and open up a new location in the first floor of Cornell-owned Sheldon Court.

1.23.20 NEW GREEK EVENT RULES MANDATE BYOB, 15 PERCENT ALCOHOL MAXIMUM: The Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life rolled out sweeping new regulations for Greek Life events after reforms were promised in the fall, restricting events to four days per week, requiring catering services for all alcohol served and limiting co-sponsors on approved events. The new policy also outlined requirements for security, advance event registration and “good standing” for a chapter to host an event.

2.7.20 CORNELL CANCELS CLASSES AFTER BARRAGE OF SNOW: Cornell canceled classes at the Ithaca campus as of 10 a.m. Friday morning, officially closing the entire campus around noon. The delays in announcements left questions unanswered about who should make the trek to campus, even as the University asked staff and students not to travel. This was the second snow day of the academic year, the first coming right after Thanksgiving break.

3.10.20 CORNELL CANCELS IN-PERSON CLASSES AFTER SPRING BREAK; WILL SHIFT TO ONLINE INSTRUCTION: Cornell became the latest university to announce that it would go digital after Spring Break, following a wave of colleges nationwide that had canceled in-person classes due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Although no case of the virus had yet been reported in Tompkins County, students were asked to leave campus at the start of Spring Break and stay home for the rest of the semester.

3.13.20 PRESIDENT POLLACK SUSPENDS ALL CLASSES, EFFECTIVE AT 5 P.M.: In an unexpected move, President Martha E. Pollack announced that Cornell would suspend all classes as of Friday, 5 p.m., amid widespread concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Virtual instruction was set to begin April 6.

3.13.20 S.A. PASSES FOSSEL FUEL DIVESTMENT RESOLUTION AND POSTPONES ITS OWN ELECTIONS: Resolution 56 demanded that Cornell sever ties with the fossil fuel industry “as rapidly as possible,” following protests favoring that course. Cornell’s five constituent assemblies have all passed similar resolutions, including the Faculty Senate. The S.A. also voted unanimously to postpone its elections until the fall, keeping all current members in place with “no legislative power,”according to S.A. President Joe Anderson ’20.

4.5.20 NO UNIVERSAL S/U GRADING; OPT-IN DATE MOVED TO LAST DAY OF CLASSES: While the opt-in grading system would remain, in a concession to students, the deadline to change a course’s grading basis to S/U was moved from April 21 to May 12, the last day of classes, according to an email Provost Michael Kotlikoff sent to members of the Faculty Senate. In addition, each transcript would include a “notation that explains the anomalies associated with the Spring 2020 semester.”

Starting October 15, Julia Feliz would not be welcome at Cornell’s Alliance for Science program, its director said. The decision — which Feliz shared in a widely-circulated post — was followed by waves of student support in a Student Assembly resolution in solidarity with Feliz and a planned rally, as well as a University statement disputing many of Feliz’s characterizations and an email from President Martha E. Pollack.

The controversy began earlier in October, when Feliz accused Iowa State University Prof. Max Rothschild of racist and sexist terminology when responding to their question after a lecture. Feliz recounted their experience at the Alliance for Science in a lengthy piece on Medium, an online publishing platform.

On Oct. 24, in a phone call and email to The Sun, Rothschild unequivocally denied all accusations, wholly disputing Feliz’s account of the incident. The animal science professor added that “[a] ccusing me of being racist because I am white is offensive and racist.”

Feliz said Rothschild spoke loudly and walked towards them to intimidate them. The guest lecturer denied this in an email to The Sun, saying that he requires a hearing aid, and attributed his actions to his inability to hear them at the time.

Pollack replied to Feliz’s email after the S.A.’s resolution — which was contested by all fellows who spoke at the Oct. 24 S.A. meeting — by writing a brief email to Feliz, which they posted online. “I have received your message,” Pollack wrote to Feliz, a Puerto Rican former fellow, on Friday morning. “Cornell takes reports of alleged discrimination seriously, and all appropriate offices are fully engaged in this matter.”

BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Remembrance circle | Students stand together in a formation outside Anabel Taylor Hall at the service remembering Antonio Tsialas ’23 after the chapel was filled to capacity on Oct. 29, 2019.

Debt slashed | Students who have struggled with mounting debt celebrate after the dean of Weill Cornell announced that students eligible for financial aid would no longer need to take out loans.

As classes wrapped up on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2019, a steady stream of students flowed through Ho Plaza to attend the memorial of freshman Antonio Tsialas ’23.

The service was held in the chapel of Anabel Taylor Hall with an hourlong program to provide a space for students to mourn the death of Tsialas. The College of Arts and Sciences freshman was found dead near Ithaca Falls in Fall Creek Gorge on Saturday.

Due to lack of space in the chapel, which seats 150, some students stood or sat outside, talking about Tsialas.

Club soccer teammate Sebastian Barquin-Sanchez ’22 previously told The Sun that he referred to Tsialas as a “little brother.” According to teammate Connor Dolan ’21, the club soccer team plans to retire his jersey number, 19.

Students wrote letters to Tsialas’ family on notecards. He had been missing since Thursday night, after meeting with his mother for dinner, and had planned to take his parents — who were in town during First-Year Family Weekend — on a tour of the campus over the next few days. His parents reported him missing when he failed to meet with them on Friday, state troopers said.

The service concluded as Cornell faculty members read remarks, noting that Tsialas would be remembered by the community. A GoFundMe campaign in his memory quickly surpassed its goal of $20,000, collecting over $30,000 for the family.

88: One of only two Cornellians to be awarded both the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, Toni Morrison M.A. ’55 died after a short illness in August. Morrison studied creative writing at Cornell. She is the author of many popular works, including Beloved and Song of Solomon.

9.16.19 WEILL CORNELL TO PROVIDE DEBT-FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL: Students in Weill’s Class of 2023 — and all classes onward — will have their loans replaced by scholarships. Sticker price for Cornell medical school tuition is currently $58,760, and Weill Cornell’s website states that the program currently has 1,390 students enrolled across its programs.

Amidst chants of “system change, not climate change!,” hundreds of Cornell students and faculty marched to the Commons on Friday. The march, one of over 4,000 protests occurring this week for the Global Climate Strike, called for divestment from fossil fuels and a federal Green New Deal, among other reforms.

GORGE: Antonio Tsialas ’23 was last seen at a fraternity event at the house of the Phi Kappa Psi on Thursday night. The next afternoon, his family reported that he was missing when he failed to meet with them during First-Year Family Weekend.

LEAVE: After five months of protests in Hong Kong, the city’s universities became epicenters of increasingly violent conflict, prompting Cornell to encourage the four students studying abroad there to leave and finish their semesters elsewhere.

PHOTO BY HILARY SWIFT / THE NEW YORK TIMES

BREAK WITHOUT HEAT: Though temperatures hovered in the single digits as classes began for the spring semester, students returned to broken radiators and insufficient heating in their North Campus dorms. If it wasn’t hard enough to live in Low Rise 7, chattering teeth didn’t exactly help.

2.13.19 ALUMNUS FACES BACKLASH AFTER USING ANTIQUATED TERM AT CONFERENCE: After receiving an award for being an “outstanding class leader,” Paul Blanchard ’52 referred to Satchel Paige as a “Negro” in his acceptance speech in front of students and alumni. Students and alumni denounced his comments in the days following. Blanchard apologized in a statement addressed to students and alumni, saying he was “devestated” to hear his words hurt members of the Cornell community.

2.28.19 STEVE AOKI ANNOUNCED AS SLOPE DAY HEADLINER: Best known as the world’s hardest working DJ, Steve Aoki was announced as the Slope Day headliner. Cousin Stizz and singer EZI also performed.

3.13.19 ALUMNUS CHARGED WITH FRAUD IN COLLEGE CHEATING SCANDAL: Gordon Caplan ’88 allegedly wired $75,000 to rig his daughter’s ACT score. A family trust in Caplan’s name donated considerably to Cornell in recent years. Caplan was among nearly 50 others named as defendants in an FBI investigation called “the largest college admissions scandal ever prosecuted.”

4.11.19 STUDENT ASSEMBLY VOTES AGAINST RESOLUTION TO DIVEST: In a vote that also incorporated the opinion of 582 students with two community votes, S.A. voted against a resolution to “urge” Cornell to divest from companies “profiting from the occupation of Palestine and human rights violations.” For the first time in recent memory, the vote was done by secret ballot, after students expressed concerns for the safety of themselves and their families should their votes be public.

4.14.19 HASAN MINHAJ DROPPED OUT AS CONVOCATION SPEAKER: Shortly before before planning to announce Hasan Minhaj as the convocation speaker, Cornell Convocation Committee members learned that Minhaj had dropped out. Two weeks later, the Committee announced Bill Nye ’77 as the Senior Convocation speaker.

4.19.19 WINGS OVER OFFERS CTB-INFUSED TOTS FOR 4/20 MENU: The Collegetown shop purchased by alumni in 2017 offered “Marley Parm CBD Tots,” garlic tots infused with Hemp CBD Oil, for $4.20 for Ithacans celebrating the holiday. They expected high sales from this novelty product.

J.T. Baker ’21 would have won the position of the student-elected trustee had he not been disqualified from race, the University announced on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. A Board of Trustees committee has recommended he fill a vacant spot alongside Jaewon Sim ’21, the undergraduate student trustee-elect, for the next two years starting July.

The Trustee Nominating Committee disqualified Baker, who is a football player, on April 16 over an email sent by a staff member in the athletics department showed that Baker would have won the — which takes up 43 of 64 seats on the Board alerting student athletes of Baker’s cam- election had he been included in the tally. — is the only type of position that allows paign. The TNC said Baker was disquali- The vote tallies released Thursday indi- nomination by the CBCG, while all other fied for failing to notify the committee of cated that Baker ultimately collected 2,583 types of trustee are either elected by constitthis email, which violated election rules. votes, 374 more than Sim, who received uencies or reserved for individuals occupying

On the same day, President 2,209 votes. Voter certain positions such as the Martha E. Pollack and Chair of turnout was 29.24 per- Governor of New York. the Board of Trustees Robert cent, with 6,417 bal- The University did not Harrison ’76 said in separate state- lots cast in the election. confirm whether Baker is ments to The Sun immediately Based on this result, nominated to be a trusteeafter the result was announced the CBCG — an at-large as of April 24. But that they believed election rules 11-member committee if Baker assumed this spot, were not applied appropriately, which both Pollack and it would be the first time a but they will not seek to overrule the TNC, which is independent BAKER ’21 Harrison sit on — said it affirmed Sim’s election SIM ’21 current student serves in a trustee role that is not a stuof the Board and the administration. but also recommended that the Board select dent-elected position, according to Corey

A re-tabulation of the election votes — Baker to fill a currently vacant trustee seat, Ryan Earle ’07. The only exception would conducted by the Office of the Assemblies according to a statement from the chair of be Ezra Cornell ’70, who began holding the under the request of the Committee on the CBCG, Ronald D. McCray ’79. life trustee seat as eldest lineal descendant of Board Composition and Governance — Cornell’s bylaws state that trustee-at-large Ezra Cornell while he was a student.

An elite education is said to be priceless — at least, that could be the motivation behind the actions of Gordon Caplan ’88, who allegedly wired $75,000 to procure a fabricated, inflated ACT score for his daughter. A family trust in Caplan’s name donated considerably to Cornell University in recent years.

The alumnus was named a defendant in an FBI investigation that has also accused famous actresses, exam administrators and athletic directors of giving and accepting bribes to admit students to elite colleges, including Yale University and Stanford University.

“To be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here,” Caplan told William Singer in a phone call, according to excerpts from the wiretapped phone call in the FBI’s criminal complaint. Singer is the founder of The Edge College & Career Network, the college counseling service that investigators say facilitated the fraudulent transaction. The Network also had a nonprofit arm, the Key Worldwide Foundation.

Andrew E. Lelling, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, called the case “the largest college admissions scandal ever prosecuted.” So far, at least 10 athletic coaches from top schools including Georgetown, University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California have been accused of accepting bribes in exchange for positive recommendations for prospective players.

Willkie Farr & Gallagher placed Caplan — who previously served as co-partner — on a leave of absence Wednesday afternoon. The firm said in a statement that Caplan would have “no further Firm management responsibility,” according to Above the Law.

Caplan made his federal court appearance in New York City on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 and was released on a $500,000 bond.

High school students take standardized tests like the ACT in the time leading up to college application deadlines. According to the FBI’s documents, during this time, Caplan was preparing for the ACT in a different way.

FBI documents said that last June, Singer urged Caplan to petition for extended test-taking time for his daughter. In July, transcripts showed Caplan and his wife discussing having Singer’s employees take classes under Caplan’s daughter’s name. In November, Caplan forked out the first payment, wiring $25,000 to the KWF.

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN FILE PHOTO Burning out | The Nines restaurant closed in October of 2018 after nearly 40 years in business serving pizza and other food in the old Ithaca Fire Station #9.

Pizza enthusiasts, trivia night frequenters, open mic night artists and Latin dance lovers have had to say goodbye to longtime Collegetown staple: The Nines, a popular bar and pizza joint which formerly housed Ithaca Fire Station #9, announced it would be bowing out of nearly 40 years of business on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2018.

Though that is the intended closing day, server Ryan Rutledge said that the restaurant’s final day would be determined by when they exhaust supplies.

Located at 311 College Ave., the restaurant was the subject of a contentious Ithaca Common Council debacle on whether to declare The Nines building a local landmark this past year. The proposal was struck down in June when Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 broke a 5-5 split in the council with a vote of no, The Sun previously reported.

Myrick praised the owners Mark Kielmann ’72 and Harold Schultz — who have now owned the restaurant for nearly 40 years — for developing a community that is “still one of the three reasons [he goes] to Collegetown” after his undergraduate years.

Kielmann and Schultz — who celebrated the council’s decision — were given the freedom to sell the property to developers if they wished without having to receive approval from the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission for making any changes to the building’s exterior.

Though the fate of the property remains unclear, Lenya Checkovich ’20, who has worked as a line cook at The Nines for over a year, expressed that she hopes the property

does not become a Collegetown apartment complex.

“I guess that’s my main hope for it,” she said.

Throughout her time as an employee, Checkovich has interacted with employees who have worked at The Nines since it was established in 1980, and she explained that hearing their experiences working though “all of the cycles [The Nines] has been through” has been “pretty crazy.”

“It’s bittersweet, but ultimately the owners … this is what they’ve been wanting for a while now, so it’s good for them,” Checkovich said.

As Collegetown residents prepare to bid farewell to the restaurant, some acknowledge the closure as a goodbye to a hangout spot.

“It’s sad, because we live right down the street and it’s a good [place] to eat,” said Shelby Wray ’21.

The Nines’s final event will be a music show called “Hail and Farewell Nines” on Oct. 6, according to a Facebook post on the restaurant’s page that encourages Ithacans to “come out and celebrate all the good times.” The event will feature musical guests Pete Panek and the Blue Cats.

PARIS GHAZI / SUN SENIOR EDITOR Written in the snow | A swastika was discovered etched in the snow on North Campus in November of 2018.

IN NORTH CAMPUS: The North Campus expansion intends to build two new housing sites on the fields north of Appel Commons, which will provide housing to 2,000 students.

8.30.18 BIG RED MARCHING BAND REPRIMANDED FOR HAZING: Cornell found that incoming section leaders in the band had to “consume a shot of bar-b-que sauce” to “demonstrate devotion to the section.”

A faculty committee found that Wansink misreported research data and used problematic statistical techniques.

BUS CRASH: Rebecca Blanco M.B.A. ’17 was killed in a crash while on a bus ride from Ithaca to New York City. Prosecutors said the driver had cocaine in his system and charged him with homicide.

10.23.18 CORNELL RUNNER ATTACKS 2 WOMEN: Police arrested a Cornell freshman Sunday afternoon after he attacked two women and threatened to rape them while wearing only a green T-Shirt. A custodian and a freshmen helped the women and stopped the runner.

FOUND IN NORTH CAMPUS: In just nine days, three anti-Semitic signs were reported on North Campus — two in dorms and one near a dining hall.

Cornell erected a steel gate on Monday, Jan. 22 through Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 in front of Ezra’s Tunnel, blocking off a cave blasted through rock by the University’s co-founder in 1830 that in recent decades has been used to reach a swimming hole where two Cornellians have drowned.

The closure of the 200-foot tunnel above Ithaca Falls follows the city’s approval, in December, of Cornell’s offer to pay for and build the gate, which is on city land. The City’s 6-3 vote followed a months-long debate between those who wanted one of the most beautiful gorge areas to stay accessible and others who believed that more teens would be injured or die if the tunnel remained open.

The black gate, made from a combination of stainless steel and galvanized steel, stands about 16-foot tall and includes a locked, 6-foot-by-8-foot door that can be used by medical personnel in case of emergencies. Some Common Council and Cornell community members hope that the gate could one day allow for guided tours, although there are currently no plans for tours of the area.

Sub-Zero Wind Chills

Contractors paid by Cornell worked in freezing temperatures and snow from Monday through Wednesday last week, welding the bolt cutter-resistant gate shut.

“We had the refreshing opportunity to work in sub-zero wind chills to get the work done” by the first day of classes, Dan McClure, the Cornell construction manager who designed the gate and oversaw the installation, said in an email to The Sun.

“I commend the efforts of the team we put together to work on the side of a cliff in icy conditions, at some significant risk to themselves, in an effort to help secure the safety of others when the good weather returns,” McClure said.

McClure said it is not yet clear how much the implementation of the gate cost, saying it would likely end up costing about as much as the gate Cornell erected in the Cascadilla Gorge. The gate will now be transferred to

ANNE CHARLES / SUN FILE PHOTO Gorges Tunnel | Ezra’s Tunnel was gated despite 500 signatures on a petition protesting its closure.

KATIE SIMS / SUN SENIOR WRITER Gated gorge | After months of debate, Cornell blocks off the entrance to Ezra’s Tunnel, which the University’s founder blasted through solid rock to channel water to a mill then operated by Jeremiah S. Beebe at the lower end of Fall Creek Gorge.

the City of Ithaca, which will maintain the gate. nel to lounge on the rocks upstream from the 150-foot-

Cornell owns the gorge area east of the Stewart tall Ithaca Falls or swim illegally under Forest Falls. A Avenue bridge, where students and locals swim illegally headline from The Cornell Daily Sun in 1963 reported under Forest Falls, and the City of Ithaca owns the that “Ezra’s Tunnel Lures Students.” gorge area to the west of the bridge, including Ithaca Frank Proto ’65 told The Sun in December, Falls and Ezra’s Tunnel. after urging Common Council to vote against the

In 2011, Kendrick Castro, 22, from gate, that he and his friends walked Reston, Virginia, drowned the day after he received his diploma after “The safety barriers ... through the tunnel “a number of times” in the early 1960s. slipping and being swept away by the [are] a crucial component Logan Bell, who founded a loose rushing waters as he waded toward the swimming hole under Forest Falls. Winston S. Perez Ventura ’22, of the broader gorge safety efforts.” group, Free the Gorges, that advocates to keep natural areas open, said the erection of the barrier “feels a 17-year-old from the Bronx, was enrolled in Cornell’s pre-freshman Todd Bittner almost unreal.” “There’s this big industrial piece of program when he drowned at the metal blocking access to an area that’s swimming hole on Aug. 5 of 2017. Both passed through so beautiful,” he said on Sunday evening. “We really don’t the tunnel shortly before their deaths. have much of a recourse at this point other than … going

“The installation of the safety barriers to close off the in more dangerous paths to get to the same areas.” dangerous area above Ithaca Falls is a crucial compo- Joe McMahon, the former chair of Ithaca’s Natural nent of the broader gorge safety efforts between Cornell Areas Commission, wrote in an op-ed in The Sun and the City of Ithaca, to promote safe and responsible that he wished he could continue to enjoy the area, use of the gorges,” Todd Bittner, Cornell’s director of but that the danger of the area and the desire of natural areas, said in an email. people “to go to a spot where there is little-to-no oversight” requires that it be shuttered. The Tunnel’s History Some Common Council members said in

Cornell’s co-founder, Ezra Cornell, used gunpowder December that they supported the gate, but also held to burrow through the tunnel in 1830 with a crew. A out hope that it would one day be opened. dam above Ithaca Falls, which is now spray painted and “I will be voting for this gate with the hope that we crumbling, once sent water gushing through the tunnel will also marshall our time and resources [to] maybe and powered mills along Fall Creek. take it down sometime in the near future,” Rob

For decades, students have traveled through the tun- Gearhart (D-Third Ward) said in December.

DE PUERTO RICO: Cornell welcomed 62 students from the Universidad de Puerto Rico with one semester of free tuition, room and board in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

OFFERS NO EXPLANATION: The dean and public face of Cornell University’s business college since its launch, Soumitra Dutta, abruptly resigned, and neither the University nor Dutta offered any reason for his hasty departure.

2.5.18 ZBT PUT ON PROBATIONARY RECOGNITION AFTER UNIVERSITY FOUND IT CONDUCTING A “PIG ROAST”: Cornell’s Zeta Beta Tau fraternity was placed on probationary recognition after the University found that it was conducting a “pig roast” in which “new members could accumulate ‘points’ by

engaging in sexual intercourse with women.” Cornell later admitted that it “mischaracterized” these findings.

APARTMENT: FBI agents and local police seized an AR-15 rifle, a homemade bomb, a bulletproof vest, 300 rounds of ammunition and a plethora of other weapons, combat apparel and survival supplies from a former Cornell University student’s Collegetown apartment last week. Reynolds pleaded guilty to two federal felony charges, admitting that he hoarded weapons in his Collegetown apartment.

MEME: The Student Assembly Elections Committee disqualified Varun Devatha ’19 from the race on March 28, hours after online voting ended, because of a meme posted by one of his supporters that the committee said violated election rules.

LOCATIONS: The reasons behind Dunkin’ Donuts’ closure remain unclear. It closely followed the shuttering of Collegetown Pizza’s 139 Dryden Road location, which sits about a block away. However, Collegetown Pizza reopened as Campustown Pizzeria in the same location shortly after.

BY 2029: By 2029, Cornell should have a “fully operational urban campus” in New York City that supports year-round undergraduate and graduate programs, a presidential committee said in a preliminary report released in early May.

NEW YORK — All the right elements for a successful ceremony were gathered at the official opening of Cornell’s new Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017: a brand new campus on a sunny day, enthusiastic new students, and optimistic academics, former mayors and governor.

“This is the single biggest event at Cornell that I’ve witnessed in 40 years,” said Chair of the Board of Trustees Robert Harrison ’76.

Facing an audience of several hundred members, all key actors of the new campus came together to celebrate and praise the completion of the first phase of a project intended to “bring together academia and industry to create pioneering leaders and transformational new research.”

“Starting a campus from scratch is like surfing a big wave,” Cornell Tech Dean and ceremony moderator Daniel Huttenlocher said, summarizing the work accomplished since the University won former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration’s applied sciences competition for a new campus in 2011. “It’s exhilarating, but can be hard to keep up with.”

Indeed, since Cornell Tech’s first days within the Google offices in Chelsea, hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to create a sustainable and modern campus on the 12 acres of public land leased by the city on Roosevelt Island, a tiny sliver of land in the middle of the East River.

Collaboration as a Driving Force

“Cornell Tech is the result of collaboration,” former Mayor Mike Bloomberg stressed.

The campus is the fruit of a public-pri-

vate partnership, as well as one between Cornell and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, embodied by the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute on the campus.

More importantly for the future of Cornell Tech, the campus is meant to foster collaboration between academics and businesses. The aptly named Bridge building will act partially as an incubator and collaborative space where students will be able to develop their own startups.

Since 2014, Cornell Tech has given birth to 38 startups, 98 percent of which are now based in New York City, and the City estimates that hundreds more could come into existence, generating $23 billion in economic activity over 35 years.

For David Cheng MBA ’17, co-founder of Speech Up, a Cornell created mobile

app that gamifies speech therapy for children, Roosevelt Island means great opportunities to perfect his product. “There’s nothing better than being in a place where there are children, we’ve already partnered with local families here.”

Beyond the important role of entrepreneurship in academia, Cornell Tech also seeks to foster a fusion of disciplines within academia. Ari Yannakogeorgos, a law student from Boston, used to work in law in a venture company, then applied for the new law school on Roosevelt Island. “I wanted to do something where I could move from traditional law and do something more technologically focused because I wanted to work with cutting edge companies,” he said.

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN FILE PHOTO A high-tech future | Cornell community members celebrate the opening of Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island at a dedication event in the Physical Sciences Building on Sept. 13, 2017.

Controversy Over Technion

But despite the beautiful buildings and ceremony, not all Cornell students approve of Cornell Tech.

Student groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine have decried the new campus’ main partner Technion, whose president Peretz Lavie was present at the ceremony Wednesday, due to its partnerships with military companies and collaboration with the Israeli Defense Forces in Israel.

While opposition to Cornell Tech’s partnership was more widespread at the beginning stages of the campus, fewer students are engaged in the matter at the time of the campus’ opening. “I’m not really sure how Technion fits into the campus here,” said Ari Yannakogeorgos.

In fact, no military research on Roosevelt Island has been announced at the moment.

For now, Cornell Tech focuses on the future, with a campus built seven feet above the 100 year flood plain, looking at the United Nations from across the river.

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CAMERON POLLACK / SUN FILE PHOTO Silent protest | Traci Celestin and Delmar Fears, co-chairs of Black Students United, sit in silence and raise fists at a University Assembly meeting in Clark Hall, Sept. 19, 2017.

PRESIDENT: Inaugurated as the fifth president to serve Cornell within the past 15 years, Martha E. Pollack emphasized the importance of “humane and rational values” and inclusiveness on campus in her inauguration speech.

COLLEGETOWN: A white student, John Greenwood ’20, was arrested for the alleged assault of a black student during an altercation that included racial slurs. Greenwood later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and the hate crime charge was dropped.

PRESIDENT POLLACK: Following an incident in which a white student called a black student racial slurs, hundreds of black students occupied Willard Straight Hall for several hours after delivering a list of demands to President Pollack.

CAMPUS PRANK: A student rigged devices in at least four campus buildings to play a short sample from Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” for days.

CINEMA: The S.A. took a controversial vote to decrease the portion of the student activities fee allocated to the on-campus cinema to $0.