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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 7

THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

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ITHACA, NEW YORK

16 Pages – Free

News

Arts

Sports

Weather

ICE Arrest

Green Shots

Make-A-Wish

T-storms, then sunny later HIGH: 67º LOW: 44º

José Guzman-Lopez has pleaded guilty to possessing a false green card and will be sentenced this fall. | Page 3

Field hockey midfielder Maddy Conklin ‘20 is determined to persevere — on and off the field. | Page 16

Troy Sherman ‘18 says nature photography makes us appreciate nature less. | Page 11

Cornell Claims Ex-Coach Owes More Than $100K University demands cash from former football coach for leaving team early

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS and ZACHARY SILVER Sun City Editor and Sun Sports Editor

Cornell University is suing its former head football coach, demanding that the one-time NFL quarterback cough up more than $100,000 for leaving the team with two years remaining on his contract.

Cornell hired the former coach, Richard Kent Austin, in 2010 to a five-year, $1.4-million deal in an attempt to resuscitate a squad that

ABHISHEK SHAH / SUN FILE PHOTO

Tuck and run | Former head coach Richard Kent Austin left his Cornell post three years into a five-year contract, which Cornell says should cost him.

had only won two games the previous year.

“We have a gentleman who has character, ethics and approaches the game the right way for the right reasons,” Athletic Director Andy Noel said in announcing the hire.

But amid the incentives and perks in the $285,000-per-year contract, Cornell also s t i p u l a t e d “We have placed the issue before that Austin the court and will look forward to would need to pay a hefty a judicial resolution of this p e n a l t y contract breach.” should he leave the Lindsey Hadlock, team short of Cornell spokesperson the contract’s end date in January 2015.

The football team won 11 games and lost 19 under Austin in his three years at the University before a Canadian pro team courted him away from Ithaca. Cornell’s attorneys say that when Austin left the head coaching job at Cornell in December of 2012, he initiated the contract clause requiring him to pay the University $100,000 for terminating the deal two years early.

Cornell indicates in its court filings that Noel, in 2012, told Austin he could delay payment of the penalty until he sold a $630,000 Cayuga Heights house

TINA CHOU / SUN FILE PHOTO

Plan B | Austin, who led the team from 2010 through 2012, has yet to

See LAWSUIT page 5

pay the contractual penalty after selling his Ithaca house for $630,000.

Reported Rapes Increased 21% in 2016 4 Refugees Arrive in Ithaca

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS Sun City Editor

The number of on-campus rapes reported to police increased by 21 percent from 2015 to 2016 at Cornell and there were eight on-campus hate crimes reported to police last year, according to the Cornell Police Department’s annual security report.

Domestic violence, stalking and dating violence reports all more than doubled from 2015 to 2016 — from 3 to 11, 7 to 16, and 1 to 5, respectively — according to the report, which was released last week in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Act.

Burglaries slightly decreased, from 20 to 17, and driving while intoxicated arrests decreased from 17 to 3 from 2015 to 2016. Rapes reported on campus jumped from 14 to 17, according to the new report. It’s not clear, from this data, if more rapes occurred or if more victims were reporting the attacks to police.

Fourteen of the 17 rapes occurred in residential facilities, according to the data, while the other three occurred on-campus but not in Cornell residential facilities.

“We’ve had a very strong push over the last couSee CRIME page 4

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Safety | Reports of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking more than doubled from 2015 to 2016.

Under State Dept. Grant

By RONNI MOK

Department.

“The Colombian family has been taking steps to get inteAfter relocating an Afghan grated into the community — family of six refugees in March, the parents are busy learning a local charity has resettled a English, finding job opportunifamily of ties and are three from getting the}ir “We’re worried about Colombia child ready to and a single things like the president start school,” man from Sue Chaffee, stopping the DACA China in the director of program.”

Ithaca comC C T T ’s m u n i t y Immigrant Sue Chaffee under a State Services Department Program, grant. told The Despite some delays with Sun. “The Chinese man was refugee admissions partially resettled in Ithaca with the due to President Donald intention of moving to New Trump’s travel restrictions, Jersey to be with his friends.”

Catholic Charities of Tompkins Ithaca Welcomes Refugees and Tioga brought the four and the larger community in refugees to Ithaca in mid-June, Ithaca, including Cornell stuand the charity has already pro- dents, have continued to help vided all resettlement services required by the State See REFUGEES page 4

Sun Staff Writer

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017

Daybook

DAYBOOK

Thursday, August 31, 2017 Erica Schoenberger: “State, City, Market” 4:30 p.m., 115 W. Sibley Hall

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Switching Colleges 101 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., 3330 Tatkon Center Cornell Abroad Info Session: India 4:45 - 5:30 p.m., 137 Warren Hall

Today

Tomorrow

Truman Scholarship Information Session 9 - 10 a.m., 103 Barnes Hall PPPMB Seminar: “To Grow or Not to Grow: What Makes Roots Respond To Environmental Signals?”

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., A134 Barton Lab

Systems Seminar/Ezra's Round Table: “Choice Modeling for Understanding What Customers Want” 12:15 p.m., 253 Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall

Macroeconomics Workshop: “Credit Shocks and Equilibrium Dynamics in Consumer Durable Goods Markets” 11:40 a.m. - 1:10 p.m., 498 Uris Hall

Psychology Colloquium: “From Photons to Categories: Representational Transformations Enabling High-level Vision” 12:20 p.m., 202 Uris Hall

Energy Engineering Seminar: “A Short History and Perspective of Photovoltaic Energy” 12:20 - 1:20 p.m., B11 Kimball Hall NBB Seminar: “Organnelle Distribution and Redox Communication in Monoaminergic Neurons” 12:30 - 1:30 p.m., A106 Morision Room

SHAILEE SHAW / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

An Overview of China’s Engagement with Africa | David Shinn, former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, will give a talk on ChinaAfrica relations in Uris at 2:30 p.m today.

Introduction to Academic Libraries In the United States 1 p.m., 106G Olin Library An Overview of China’s Engagement with Africa 2:30 - 4 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

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Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cornell Daily Sun, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.

Enceladus After Cassini 4 - 5 p.m., 105 Space Sciences Building MSE Seminar: “From Hybrid Films to Human Skin: Understanding Relationships Between Structure, Processing and Function Of Hybrid Materials” 4 - 5 p.m., B11 Kimball Hall

Joint Experimental and Theory Seminars in Particle Physics and Cosmology: “Searching for Cosmic Inflation: CMB Polarization B-mode Delensing with SPTpol and Herschel” 1 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building BME Seminar: “Glycomaterials for Engineering Immunity and Tolerance” 2:30 - 3:30 p.m., 226 Weill Hall CAM Colloquium: “Random Functions, Random Odes and Chebfun” 3:30 p.m., 655 Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017 3

NEWS

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHER EDITOR

Melting point | Ithaca residents, students and faculty gathered to protest the arrest of José Guzman-Lopez by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in May.

Ithaca Man Arrested by ICE Admits He Had Fake Green Card

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS Sun City Editor

José Guzman-Lopez, the 32-year-old Ithaca man whose arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in May prompted protests, pleaded guilty to the federal charge of possessing a false green card and is preparing for immigration court proceedings to determine if he will be deported.

Guzman-Lopez, a Mexican citizen, has been detained since the morning of May 2, when ICE officers waited for him to exit a house on Cascadilla Street and then arrested him for illegally entering the United States, according to an ICE spokesman and documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Friends of Guzman-Lopez have previously said he has lived in the area for about a decade.

After handcuffing Guzman-Lopez, officers drove him to the parking lot of Ithaca’s Tops grocery store and searched him, when they found an alien registration card, commonly known as a green card, Guzman-Lopez’s attorney said.

Joseph Radley, a deportation officer with ICE, said in a federal complaint that Guzman-Lopez had said the card was fake and that “he only uses it at night when he goes to the bars.”

Guzman-Lopez pleaded guilty on July 19 to possessing a counterfeit document, a federal crime, and is awaiting his sentencing, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 27

in Binghamton.

In an interview this week, Guzman-Lopez’s attorney, Martin Wolfson, said that while the federal charge can carry a maximum of 10 years in prison, sentencing guidelines recommend zero to six months for Guzman-Lopez.

Wolfson said he and his client are hoping Judge Thomas J. McAvoy will sentence Guzman-Lopez to the time he has already served in Cayuga County Jail in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Guzman-Lopez has been at the Cayuga County Jail for the GUZMAN-LOPEZ majority of his detention after a brief period when he was held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia.

Documents filed in federal court shed some new light on how and why ICE may have targeted Guzman-Lopez.

ICE discovered at some point that Guzman-Lopez had been arrested by Ithaca Police in 2013 and accused of stabbing another man, although attorneys in the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office never had enough evidence to prosecute Guzman-Lopez for the charge of assault.

Guzman-Lopez, as part of a plea deal with the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct on June See ICE page 4

Common Council Debates Closing Ezra’s Tunnel

Student’s recent drowning death, several accidents put increased pressure on the issue

By CELINE CHOO Sun Staff Writer

A drowning death earlier this month has added to concerns about a historic tunnel in Ithaca and increased pressure on Common Council to close the pathway to some of Ithaca’s gorges.

Winston S. Perez-Ventura ’22 died near Fall Creek in a drowning accident in the beginning of August. Since then, the city has been considering shutting down the area due to the frequency of accidents.

IPD officers respond to the gorges “about once a

week during the summer months for some type of medical emergency,” IPD Officer Jamie Williamson told The Sun. “We’ve recommended to city staff to work with local agencies to improve their signage around these areas,” said Fourth Ward Alderperson Graham Kerslick. “The city makes every effort to make sure that there is adequate signage, but of course when it gets taken down or vandalized, it’s difficult to keep up with that.”

Despite “extensive signage” on Willard Way, a road leading to Ezra’s Tunnel, as it’s known, many visitors

ignore the warnings and swim in the gorges anyway, former Fifth Ward Alderperson Josephine Martell told the Ithaca Voice.

Shutting down the tunnel is no easy task, however.

Ezra’s Tunnel also serves as an emergency route for the gorge safety task force to quickly help people in hazardous situations near the gorges, Kerslick said.

“We try to keep it as natural as possible while pointing out to people ... which areas are dangerous.”

Graham Kerslick, Fourth Ward Alderperson

ANNE CHARLES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

“It’s not just a question of putting up some kind of gate,” he told The Sun. “We have to make sure that we’ve covered as many possibilities as possible. We don’t want to restrict access in one area and then encourage it in another.”

In addition, Common Council members and Ithacans have concerns regarding the preservation of natural life. Because of erosion and rockfall in certain parts of the gorges, some areas must be blocked off.

“We’re also trying to balance the look of the area,” Kerslick said. “We try to keep it as natural as possible while pointing out to people who are in these areas which areas are dangerous.”

The possibility of shutting Ezra’s Tunnel is just one effort to make the gorges safer. Since July, the Gorge Safety Task Force has been working with Cornell staff to find ways to prevent accidents at the gorges. The fate of Ezra’s Tunnel was one of many decisions the task force had to discuss.

The discussion is ongoing between the Common Council, IPD, gorge rangers, Ithaca Youth Council and Cornell.

“This area is one of those places where it is beautiful to be in, but it is a dangerous area in itself,” Kerslick said.

Closing bell | The Ithaca Common Council is debating whether or not to close Ezra’s Tunnel after a recent drowning death and frequent accidents around the gorges.

Celine Choo can be reached at cchoo@cornellsun.com.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017

NEWS

Ithacan Arrested by ICE Still Faces Deportation ICE

Continued from page 3

30, said Jeffrey Walker, his lawyer for the 2013 local charge.

But even though Guzman-Lopez was never tried for or convicted of anything more than disorderly conduct, the 2013 arrest still put him on ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations’ radar, court documents show.

“ICE seems like they go out of their way to target hard-working people who are active in their community like this,” said Wolfson, who wondered whether directives given by the Trump administration may have resulted in the ICE arrest more than three years after Guzman-Lopez was charged by Ithaca Police.

Wolfson said Guzman-Lopez is “one of the nicest people” he’s ever represented

and said he was heartened to see the support behind his client from friends in the Ithaca area.

After Guzman-Lopez is sentenced for the charge of possessing a forged document, he will still have to face immigration court, where he will be represented by a new attorney. A GoFundMe set up by friends has raised more than $8,000 to be used for legal fees, storage and travel to support Guzman-Lopez at his hearings, according to the site.

More than a dozen supporters attended his first court date in Syracuse before Judge Therese Wiley Dancks, who ordered in May that Guzman-Lopez remain in Marshals’ custody.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs can be reached at nbogelburroughs@cornellsun.com.

Refugees From China, Colombia Arrive REFUGEES

background checks.”

“The number of refugees we are anticipating to resettle this year is extremely low,” she added. with the transition process.

Chaffee said CCTT is also worried about other “Things like showing them how to take the potential policy shifts by the Trump administration TCAT, grocery shop and how to bank were in the coming year and how they may affect the really useful,” Chaffee said, adding that two charity’s mission.

Cornell students had helped “We’re worried about things with Mandarin interpretalike the president stopping the tion.

“The number of refugees DACA program or doing away Trump’s executive order with Temporary Protective we are anticipating to restricting immigration from six Status,” Chaffee said in an resettle this year is majority-Muslim countries has email, adding that the charity hindered CCTT’s ability to serves clients who are a part of extremely low.” resettle refugees, including three both programs and are “worSyrian families who had been ried… about not knowing what Sue Chaffee approved to resettle in Ithaca the future brings.” early this summer but have been Even so, the charity remains delayed. “optimistic” in bringing families to Ithaca, accordTwo Syrian families who had been previously ing to Chaffee. approved to move were waiting in refugee resettle“We’re looking forward to the refugee resettlement camps in Jordan in January, The Sun previ- ment program getting fully functioning again and ously reported. are trying our best to deal with whatever comes our Chaffee said it is hard to predict when the way,” she said.

Syrian families will arrive, “because we don’t know if they will require new medical exams or new Ronni Mok can be reached at rmok@cornellsun.com.

Continued from page 1

CUPD Report:17 On-Campus Rapes, 8 Hate Crimes in 2016 CRIME

Continued from page 1

vandalism based on sexual orientation, one assault based on sexual orientation, one on-campus assault based on disability, and one act of vandalism based on gender.

Total liquor law violation referrals decreased drastically for the second year in a row, from 482 to 207,

ple of years to increase reporting and make sure victims get the resources that they need,” Deputy Chief David Honan told The Sun. “So, I’m hopeful that these numbers are “I’m hopeful that these numbers are showing that showing that victims are connecting victims are connecting with with the services they need.” the services Deputy Chief David Honan they need.”

Honan said CUPD compiles the data and releases it annually although liquor law violation to comply with the national act arrests increased from five to 20 requiring universities to report crime from 2015 to 2016. Drug law vionumbers, but members of the depart- lations resulted in arrest 19 times in ment review statistics much more fre- 2016 as opposed to 27 in 2015.

The full data can be viewed at quently — weekly, in most cases — to spot trends regarding crimes and the Cornell University Police website. services provided to Cornell.

The eight on-campus hate crimes reported in 2016 were: two Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs can be intimidations based on race, one reached at nbogelburroughsassault based on race, two acts of @cornellsun.com.

The CorneDaily Sun

L o g L a dy has a message f o r yo u . . .

“R e c y c l e this paper.”

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017 5

NEWS

Former Football Coach’s Early Exit May Cost Him

Cornell demands more than $100,000 from coach who left team 3 years into 5-year contract LAWSUIT

$100,000 penalty, in extenuating circumstances.

Cornell is seeking the that the coach had purchased just $100,000 it says Austin owes, as months before leaving Cornell well as 9 percent interest for for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in every year Cornell says Austin Ontario. has owed the University and the In December 2015, costs associated with the three years into the lawsuit.

“You know that there is no way for me agreement between the Valerie Cross Dorn, athletic director and to pay this obligation without selling the associate university former coach allowing counsel, is the lead house at a value to make this work.” for the delay in payattorney representing ment, Austin was manCornell in the lawsuit.

Kent Austin, former football coach aging the Canadian Cross Dorn, as well as Football League team John McKain, associate but had neither sold his Cayuga your hands completely?” Austin vice president for communicaHeights home nor paid the asked Noel. tions, did not respond to a list University. A lawyer for Cornell Austin told The Sun in 2011 of questions regarding the lawwrote in a stern letter to Austin that Cornell’s top officials, suit on Wednesday morning. that “this obligation must be including Noel, had given him “a Lindsey Hadlock, a resolved now.” tremendous amount of support,” spokesperson, also did not The University’s special coun- and even when Austin abruptly respond to the list of questions. sel, Nelson E. Roth, told Austin departed Cornell the following In an emailed statement, in the Dec. 17, 2015 letter that if year, Noel expressed his gratitude Hadlock said, “We have placed he could not sell the house, he in strong terms. the issues before the court and would have to “obtain the funds “I will miss him dearly and will look forward to a judicial elsewhere” so that he could fulfill will be forever grateful for the resolution of this contract the terms of his contract with contributions he has made to breach.”

Cornell. our program,” Noel said. “He Austin did not respond to an is a first-class email requesting comment on i n d i v i d u a l Wednesday morning.

The former coach, Richard Kent Austin, and an outAustin ultimately broke even appears to have sold his Ithaca house to s t a n d i n g on the Cayuga Heights house, coach.

It selling it in April 2016 for the the owner of his current team in the hurts to lose same price he paid — $630,000 Canadian Football League for $630,000. him.”

— although the sale raises more It is not questions than answers. clear from The buyer, listed on the deed Later that day, Austin court records — filed on Tuesday as HTCFC, Inc., appears to be a emailed Noel asking if there was in Tompkins County Court — parent company for the anything his former boss could whether the athletic director ever Hamilton Tiger-Cats — Austin’s do. responded to Austin’s plea for employer. The incorporation is a “It has NEVER been my help in 2015, but the contract North Carolina business corpointention to avoid this obliga- between Austin and Cornell ration formed in 2003 whose tion and you know that there is states that the athletic director president is Robert Young, owner no way for me to pay this oblig- has “sole discretion” to waive the of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Continued from page 1

ation without selling the house at a value to make this work,” Austin said in the email, bemoaning taxes and mounting bills.

“Since it has now gone to the Special Counsel, is this out of

Monty Python Star John Cleese to Visit Campus for Film Screening

By GIRISHA ARORA Sun Assistant News Editor

“Writer, Actor and Tall Person” — this description found on his website is befitting for the 6’6’’ tall former A.D. White Professor at Large John Cleese, who has charmed Cornellians with his wit and humor.

The British star will be returning as part of the Visiting Filmmakers series for a screening of his film, A Fish Called Wanda, at the Cornell Cinema on Sept. 10.

“Professor-at-large — a wonderful phrase, [as if] they bring me here in a cage.”

John Cleese, former professor-at-large Cleese, who is best known for his work in the ’70s BBC show Monty Python, can also be recognized as Q in the James Bond film Die Another Day, and as the ghost Nearly Headless Nick in the Harry Potter series.

The actor was appointed A.D. White Professor at Large in 1988, and served in that role until 2006, including a two-year extension to the usual term. Shortly after, he was appointed as the C.U. Provost’s visiting professor, a title he still holds.

“As the [Professors at Large position] is a limited term appointment, and Cleese so liked his association with Cornell, in 2006, the thenProvost Biddy Martin offered him appointment as a Provost’s Professor,” said Gerri Jones, a previ-

ous administrator of the Professors at Large program who now works in the Provost’s Office.

“Professor-at-Large — a wonderful phrase, [as if ] they bring me here in a cage,” Cleese remarked with his characteristic humor regarding his position during an event at Statler Hall in 2003.

In 2015, Cornell University Press approached Cleese with the proposition of compiling a selection of his Cornell presentations. The book, which is still in progress, features performances by Cleese since 1999, including the upcoming performance titled “A Conversation with John Cleese” at Bailey Hall, which will be featured as the last chapter in the book.

During the performance, Cleese will be interviewed by Cornell University Press director Dean Smith. Questions from the audience will also be selected at random to be included in the book.

During this year’s visit — which marks the eighth time Cleese will visit Cornell — the actor will also be participating in several classes, keeping with the tradition that he has followed on all his previous visits.

In a previous interview with The Sun, the Cambridge Law graduate said that he hates traveling to Ithaca, but once he arrives, he never wants to leave.

Tickets to the screening of the heist movie A Fish Called Wanda at Cornell Cinema are now sold out, but starting Aug. 29, Cornellians can go to Willard Straight Hall to get their tickets to see Cleese’s performance on Sept. 11.

Girisha Arora can be reached at garora@cornellsun.com.

according to documents filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State.

Less than eight months after making the purchase, HTCFC sold the Cayuga Heights property at a loss of $170,000 to a man from West Palm Beach, Florida, deeds show.

Austin, who was selected 312th overall in the 1986 NFL Draft after setting the school record for passing yards at Ole Miss, failed to live up to the excitement a Southeastern Conference hire initially

brought to the Cornell fanbase in 2010.

Upon leaving for the job in Ontario in 2012, Austin said Noel and others had his “utmost respect and admiration.”

“Cornell is a special place with very special people, and I will miss them all,” he said.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs can be reached at nbogelburroughs@cornellsun.com, and Zachary Silver can be reached at zsilver@cornellsun.com.

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sarah Lieberman | Blueberries for Sal

Independent Since 1880

The Greek System Is Detrimental to Cornell’s Campus Life

135TH EDITORIAL BOARD

SOPHIA DENG ’19 Editor in Chief

DAHLIA WILSON ’19

JOSHUA GIRSKY ’19

Business Manager

Managing Editor

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Associate Editor

Advertising Manager

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Paul Russell | Russelling Feathers

T

On Twenty

he unwritten rite of passage for every ripe new 20-year-old is a conversation about one’s childhood perceptions of what it meant to be 20. I see it every time. The minute the clock strikes midnight and the teenage persona tumbles to the floor, the birthday girl or boy fumbles through the cabinets of their mind in search of a way to make the day seem meaningful, usually finding that the best way is to turn to a friend and mention that when they were 12 they thought everyone in their 20s were full grown adults.

I, usually standing by the cake at these 20th birthday parties, often overhear these conversations from afar and nod my head, acknowledging that no matter how overplayed the idea is, it rings true: 20 really does catch everyone by surprise, and somehow no one ever imagines it correctly in middle school.

But 20 is still something special. It’s when you can be dumb but not too dumb and when you’re considered young but not too young. It’s the foyer of the rest of our lives, where we stand and look around at what we’ve built or what’s been built for us and soberly consider the rest of our lives for maybe the first time. Looking back, sometimes it felt like the entirety of my adolescent life was preparation for my twenties, the time when I might actually marry and get a real job and be seen as equal to every other adult.

All in all, 20th birthdays, and maybe even more so twenty-first birthdays, are symbols of the more general stage of life we’re all in. It’s the set of moments that fall after we become adults but before we feel like them.

Maybe that’s why everybody seems to be changing nowadays. They’re at the point where they see themselves through and through but don’t feel locked in yet. In elementary school and middle school and high school, I remember walking into class after each summer break, looking around at the friends I hadn’t seen in months and recognizing them as I’d left them. Many had new clothes and some had longer hair, but they all still wore Abercrombie button ups or Nike shirts that said things like “Shoot till my arms fall off,” so it felt more than familiar.

This year, I returned to campus to find that many of my friends had gotten into shape or thrown out their old wardrobe and started anew. People tell you college is a time to reinvent yourself; I just didn’t expect it to happen halfway through.

But if you look at the literature on quarter-life crises, it all makes sense. Your twenties are likely to be the first years in

which you feel truly stuck, and you don’t have to wait to graduate to experience the effects. The later it gets in our college careers, the more our failed relationships and confusion about our futures worry us.

Maybe that’s why, according to Harvard Business Review, the average age for the onset of depression is in one’s 20s. So what do we do? We adapt. We chase new feelings, new versions of ourselves, new experiences. We don’t let the old Taylor come to the phone anymore. She’d dead.

And maybe that’s not so bad. When you’re young, you think 20-year-olds are finally the people they wanted to be, that they’ve hit their prime and are now just gathering their spoils: careers and spouses and pets. In reality, we all still want a few things: to be taller, smarter, funnier, more self aware. We haven’t made it yet, and we’re not even close because that’s not how life works. It isn’t a journey to a finite point. We’re always learning, always finetuning, forever working it out as we go along. And maybe “working it out” means realizing in your twenties that it is time to start buying protein powder or wearing skinny jeans.

This year, I, in the company of Lil Yachty, Hercules, the first Harry Potter book, and Good Will Hunting, turn 20, and I’m not sure how to take it. Even if I eventually stop feeling the need to reinvent myself, I’ll still have to deal with the influx of new responsibilities before me.

In a fit of unexpected insight, a friend of mine once told me that one’s maturity can be measured by their ability to turn down good things for better things. Now, with a couple decades behind me, I’m finally at the point where these types of decisions, the ones between good and better things, actually matter. I’m not just picking which Lunchable to eat anymore; I’m putting together a life.

But that’s how it has to be. When you’re 20, you know yourself well enough to no longer be surprised by the compliments or insults you get, and well enough to have at least a sliver of an idea about what you want out of life. I guess it’s only fair that all this happens around the time when you’ll need to put all that self knowledge to good use.

“When I was 20-something, I asked my father, ‘When did you start feeling like a grownup?’ His response: ‘Never.’” ― Shannon Celebi Paul Russell is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at prussell@cornellsun.com. Russelling Feathers appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

I

grew up in a college town, passively aware of the hoards of girls in matching t-shirts living in beautiful houses.

I knew about boys that traveled in wolf packs — the ones that threw parties. I was quietly accepting of Greek life as a simple fact, basking in a false sense of normalcy that I carried with me to the Northeast.

I’m a part of the Greek system. This is not a disclaimer or some sort of defensive, self-preservation technique. I’m not trying to be one of “the good ones,” or preempt claims of hypocrisy or deny anything you may accuse me of when you hear that I’m in a sorority. I’m only establishing that I’m well versed in the subject from both an external (townie) perspective and an internal (member) perspective.

With all my experience, I can say with conviction that Greek life is adverse to the Cornell experience overall. Time after time I have wished that it would just disappear. Sure, within the walls of my North Campus sorority house I found incredible support through serious traumas and silly, everyday trials. I also found some of my best friends. For this, I owe outstanding gratitude.

But I also found a lot of pain. I found a lot of privileged, white feminism. I

were direct results of space and capital being used as tools of control, often manifested as hazing or sexual assault.

This imbalance of power between men and women in the Greek system was one of my earliest grievances upon joining a sorority.

My feminism was challenged again and again throughout my experience.

The vague concept of sororities is pretty good, which makes the result even more disappointing. Living in a house full of cool girls? Sign me up. Having my social media, outfit choices and behavior towards fraternity men scrutinized and sometimes even censored? Not my favorite thing.

Your house may be fine and free of these dynamics, and you may feel an urge to be defensive or detached. Instead, ask questions, look inward carefully and be mindful.

I understand a sense of loyalty to one’s house. I stayed, after all. The unprecedented sense of belonging and some sweet people had me stuck.

I have met great feminists in sororities and tender, kind men in fraternities. It’s hard for me to reconcile this with the issues I see in Greek life. This isn’t about total condemnation for all members, but I do believe that the Greek System is

The Greek system is not our friend. It’s not our job to stick up for it when it’s catching negative attention. found exclusivity. I found a system that pits girls against girls — ones that have all the same prelims and preoccupations as each other. I found an expectation to be deferential to the men who invited me to their parties, to be gracious and gorgeous regardless of their behavior. I didn’t need a house rank to tell me that I didn’t feel good enough. I didn’t need the scale that sat in the entryway to tell me that I was taking up too much space.

Many members of the Greek system feel a sticky discomfort in speaking this way. It’s hard not to be protective of an institution you call your own — an institution you might even really like. The accessibility to social capital and the convenience of recreation are obvious upsides, and the greatest issues hide under the surface. But in one breath, I could confess my distaste with the fraternities that run rampant with power hierarchies, hazing, alcohol abuse, violence, toxic masculinity, deindividuation and privilege. Sororities, in their marriage to fraternities, become strikingly anti-feminist.

National leadership forbids sororities from throwing parties, denying women the physical domain they need to ensure their own safety and comfort. If drinking and parties are disallowed in our own homes, we become dangerously reliant on fraternities. Some of the most horrifying situations I’ve witnessed at Cornell

dangerous and divisive; an ill-conceived and outdated model that could one day be revolutionized and regulated.

Abolition seems unrealistic but reform does not.

If you don’t agree with my frustrations, try to understand how anyone could feel this way. I know that I’ve questioned if I even deserve to be so distraught. I’m a middle-class, mostly-white woman, and this system is catered toward people just like me. I can’t assume the experiences of people of color or trans people, but I can refuse to feel passive, privileged comfort in an environment so hostile to so many.

These changes might seem fundamentally contradictory to our accepted conception of what Greek life is, but I am fully confident in the ability of all members of the Cornell community to express their discontent, especially if they believe they could actually change something. As Greeks, it’s our job to hold ourselves to an impeccable standard of progressive inclusion and intersectional feminism.

The Greek System is not our friend. It’s not our job to stick up for it when it’s catching negative attention. But if we believe it’s worth sticking around for, it is our job to make sure everyone gets home safely.

Sarah Lieberman is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. Blueberries for Sal appears alternate Thursdays this semester.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017 7

OPINION

Matthew Lam | The Despatch Box

W

A Residential College System for Cornell, Revisited

ith the arrival of a new president, perhaps an old idea should be revisited. Under then-President Hunter S. Rawlings III, West Campus was transformed from a collection of undesirable concrete “UHalls” into state-of-the-art dormitories with modern amenities, welcoming staff and gourmet food. The change was not merely physical, however. In 1998, the administration envisioned a community of “living-learning houses, each with faculty leadership and involvement.” This was a good first step, but as the University plans to improve Cornell’s housing system, it should strongly consider an even bolder initiative: a fully implemented residential college system for all.

In the 1920s, Yale pioneered residential colleges in America and Harvard followed suit shortly after with a similar system that restricted membership of its “Houses” to only upperclassmen. Cornell has more or less

Cornell could finally fully commit to a residential college system similar to that of Yale. emulated the latter, establishing North Campus as solely for freshmen and reserving West Campus for a lucky few upperclassmen and transfer students. Housing on campus is in fact not guaranteed for upperclassmen, and much of the stress for Cornell students at the end of their first year ironically comes not from finals but from the hunt for a place to live next year.

Even West Campus, which is considered to be the “best” housing option for upperclassmen (irrespective of price), may only seem ideal from the outside. In fact, the

community below Libe Slope can be best described as apathetic. Last year, I went to a film screening hosted by a friend who was a Student Advisor on West. In a dining hall that can host almost a hundred, a few trickled in for the entirety of the event. When I asked whether she had put the wrong date on the promotion materials, she commented “Oh, it’s always like this.” It turns out that even among the few attendees, most people were there simply to earn enough house “credits” to stay on West next year, and not because they actually cared about the picture. This screening was actually considered successful, as I later learned, since it’s not uncommon for only two or three residents to show up at other houses’ events.

One poorly attended screening should not condemn the entire West Campus initiative — as a previous resident of Rose House, I did go to and thoroughly enjoy some interesting professor talks. But it does warrant a closer look into how far from the original vision the community remains after nearly a decade of service. During my time on West, I saw far too many lunches eaten alone, programs unattended and residents uninspired. We can and should do better.

Cornell could finally fully commit to a residential college system similar to that of Yale. Residential colleges would be established on both North and West campuses and be open to students of all years, serving as the nexus of student life outside of classes. The existing smattering of residential halls on North Campus would be reorganized and converted into colleges themselves. Currently, North Campus only houses freshmen, and while it is important for the freshman class to bond together as much as possible, the lack of exposure to more experienced upperclassmen can lead to new students making mistakes like succumbing to peer pressure and occasionally feeling totally lost. Knowing some upperclassmen personally can make all the difference in the world. In a possible new North Campus configuration, freshmen floors in the residential colleges would be interspersed with floors of older students, so that the new class can both bond among themselves and have access to

experience and advice just a flight of steps away.

Key to a successful residential college system is the random assignment of incoming freshmen to a college with which they will be affiliated for their entire undergraduate experience. A 2003 article in the Harvard Crimson asking why students at Yale seem to be happier fleshes this out: “Yale first-years are randomly assigned to a residential college before arriving on campus [and] the emphasis on community engenders a strong devotion to the residential colleges.” For new students, receiving an affiliation to a part of the university automatically, after jumping through the hoops of college applications, can lead to not only to a sense of relief, but also immediate inclusion in a new community. And this effect will elicit more campus pride and engagement than all the free water bottles, lanyards and tshirts the University can order in the world. In New Haven, student concerns over the amenities and locations of building that are so common in Harvard and Cornell also fade away, since students feel such pride for their colleges. The author observes that “it appears that all Yalies feel they got placed in the ‘best college.’” This overall feeling of excitement and pride is the goal the University should aim towards with the development of new housing.

With random assignment, the problem of self-selection and the resulting lack of diversity is also avoided.

Presently, Cornell is effectively relinquishing its influence in student life by providing nothing more than the status quo of limited and uninspired housing. The housing problem in Ithaca is a major headache for the administration, but can also act as an inflection point for the University’s offering of campus life. A larger vision is needed for this to happen though. A recent survey found that many more Cornellians want to live on campus after freshman year than expected. And it is tempting to simply build more dorms, as is currently proposed. As it considers its options, however, the University should remember that a fully committed residential college system will provide infinitely more value to students than a set of swanky sleeping quarters ever will.

Matthew Lam is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at mhl82@cornell.edu. The Despatch Box appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

Gaby Leung | Serendipitous Musings

I

It’s My Aura; I Can Do What I Want

t was hot, like only the city can be. The kind of hot that keeps you crossing to the other side of the street to find shade the buildings create just to realize you have to cross back over a minute later. And you can’t help but feel absolutely dragged down by the mixture of heat from the subway and the hordes of people passing by and the blazing sun that makes your skin feel like it’s been stuck in an oven, but it’s the city and what are you supposed to do — stop? No, you keep going.

So it was one of those days. I had already been stuck in a cafe for a few hours, reading through manuscripts for an internship. I wanted to do something, anything really, but I’d already hit all the spots of “What to do in NYC when it’s raining,” which is basically the same list for what to do when it’s too damn hot to do anything else.

Then I knew. It was something I’d been thinking about doing for a while, but I felt like once I did, I would find myself in a downward spiral: a girl who considers her horoscope too seriously does an aura reading and suddenly finds herself involved with tarot cards, palm readings, maybe even crystal balls. But it really was just an aura reading, and there was probably little harm in being curious about the type of energy I was giving off — and what it could mean.

So I found myself in Chinatown, being buzzed into a small room through a door that instantly locked behind me. The woman smiled at me and told me to sit for a photo. After that was done, a man showed me the Polaroid that was taken. I was surrounded by a light pink haze, with

a blue blur in the lower right corner and a green one on the left. A white streak hovered above my head. The man referred to a chakra chart while he read my photo, interpreting what the colors meant.

Of all the things he told me, he emphasized how hard I hold onto things. He said I get wrapped up in the past and collect memories and thoughts that I wind up tighter and tighter. I had to be careful — my brain could only take so much information.

I was reminded of something that happened to me and a few friends during my senior year of high school. We were taking a train back from the city when a man started talking to us (it was in no way unwarranted or inappropriate). He said he had the power to read us, just by looking into our eyes. He said one of my friends would be the type to enter a crowded room, survey it and go exactly to where she felt comfortable; for that reason, she needed to to be more open to new people and experiences. I was last. When he looked at me, I shrank back a little. I remember he tilted his head to the side and said, “Ah, interesting,” and proceeded to tell me that I carry too much baggage around and get caught up in my past experiences. I needed to realize that many things had to be “taken out to the trash,” and it was okay to do that.

After my aura reading, I slowly walked out of the building, wondering how and if these two experiences were connected. Was it coincidence? Maybe. Did I think so? No. But as the week progressed, I started thinking more about what it all meant. So, I was told by a random man on the train

that I need to utilize a trash can for my overabundant heap of memories. So, I was told by an employee at an aura reading that I’m being weighed down by my past and need to look towards the future.

But what was I doing? I knew I hadn’t been sleeping well for weeks, so caught up as I was with past people and experiences that were making me think nonstop — about what ifs, what nows. And I didn’t want to let go, because as much as I had

myself that I was unaware of. I enjoyed telling people, “Look how much they understand me without knowing me.

Doesn’t it mean it’s so real?” I found it more important that someone had the power to tell me something about myself more than the ability to now use that knowledge to better myself.

Because of a sudden-eye-reading experience or an aura reading or not, I knew what my tendencies were and I knew they

After my aura reading, I slowly walked out of the building, wondering how and if these two experiences were connected. Was it coincidence?

Maybe. Did I think so? No. questions, I wanted to figure them out by sorting through what I had gone through.

It was as if I could just put the puzzle pieces together, I would arrive at a clear picture and know what to do. But after my aura reading, when the man said it could be detrimental to keep doing this, and after I remembered what had happened in high school, I realized I wasn’t changing.

They told me things that were scarily connected.

And I was fascinated by that connection; it made me think maybe there was some way that someone or something could read me and tell me things about

weren’t healthy. I had people, perfect strangers, telling me to my face that they recognized those flaws as well and urging me to move on. But it’s not always enough for people to tell you to make a change in your life. What I did learn was that I felt relieved there was some kind of power — ambiguous and vague as it was — that seemed to know me without knowing me.

And maybe a little hope or faith in something is what everyone really wants.

Gaby Leung is a junior in the College of Arts and Sceinces.

She can be reached at gleung@cornellsun.com.

Serendipitous Musings appears every other Thursday this semester.

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017

DINING GUIDE

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Dining Guide

Your source for good food

Bol d, Cozy an d Fl avo rful — L e Co mmo ns Bist ro

By JANNA YU Dining Editor

L

e Commons Bistro is a new French-Asian fusion restaurant that opened three months ago, and is located on the Commons at what used to be Jin Wu. On a Saturday afternoon, our party slowly strolled across the Commons,

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273-3709

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passing many restaurants brimming with guests before stopping at the unassuming facade of this restaurant.

On first sight, the interior is attractive and offers a warm and inviting ambiance. It has a vintage chic feel to it and certainly forms a nice contrast to the neighboring Gorgers Taco Shack. The front lounge is spacious, and the rich decor gives it a cozy feel as well. From the looks of it, the owner clearly wanted it to be a family-friendly place, where people can just sit down and have a good conversation while enjoying the perks of a full-service restaurant.

After munching some shrimp chips with sweet chili sauce — one of my favorite fried snacks growing up — I took a look at the menu. The restaurant features food from all over Southeast Asia, giving life to a small but eclectic menu. They have a rotating menu, meaning you’ll find something different each time you visit. Ithaca is no stranger to Asian fusion or French restaurants, so most guests would know what to expect. Le Commons Bistro definitely checks all the boxes, leaping on the bandwagon of all the

hottest trends in 2017, when French cuisine is making a comeback and street foodinspired ethnic foods are hot as ever.

There were no customers when we arrived, and we were the only ones throughout the meal. The waiting staff were professional and polite, and we had the luxury to enjoy an hour of late dinner, with only music and conversation as company. Cushy chairs and soft jazz made us very comfortable. If I were to nitpick a little bit, I would wish the multi-colored LED lights were removed because they were very disorienting.

From our seats, we could hear folk music by street musicians leaking into the restaurant, an interesting reminder that we were on the Commons, a place bustling with activities. Being the only customers, we did get a bit lonely, but the chef was very easygoing and chatted us up about the food.

For starters, we ordered Mousse Truffée. For entree, we ordered Red Curry Chicken with jasmine rice and Longe de Porc Sauté — sautéed pork loin and with mixed greens and fries.

The restaurant has no wine

JANNA YU / SUN DINING EDITOR

offerings (yet), so we ordered soda instead.

As expected, food came out fast.The food was, overall, very flavorful. The greens were crisp and the fries were just to my taste. The pork loins were exquisite, with the right amount of juiciness. I wasn’t too impressed with the red curry dish, not that it wasn’t tasty, but in the sense that I remember having something better in Ithaca.

In terms of fitting the bill, expect to spend around $15-$30 per person (plus 18 percent gratuities), unless you plan to take advantage of their lunch specials

($9.95 + tax). It never hurts to try something new, and the warm and inviting ambiance definitely is a plus. The dynamics of the staff and the kitchen was very pleasing, so if you are a budgetconscious and food-adventurous person who just wants to hang out with family and friends, definitely try this place.

Serves: French, Asian fusion Vibe: warm, cozy Price: $$$ Overall: Janna Yu is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at food@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017 9

DINING GUIDE

The Demise of the Trillium Salad

By OLIVIA LUTWAK Dining Editor

E

arlier this week, The Sun published an opinion piece in which a columnist proclaimed he was leaving the Republican Party. Though not of an equal political magnitude, the article I present before you is likewise grounded in moral and conscientious objection.

I am leaving the Trillium Salad Party.

For those of you who know me, this may come as a huge shock, and I apologize if I’ve let anyone down. I’ve stood staunchly

immense life change I was facing. Finally, Trillium not switched to self-serve in the my taste buds and waistline tired of the first place.

Terrified by the lack of a fixed price, I Trillium burritos I had turned to instead, I faced my fears and ventured into the world was careful not to take too much. I didn’t of self-serve salads.

The result ... was a salad the likes of I am not an expert in making salads; I have not been specially which I had never had the misfortune trained in the proper topping of consuming. ratio. Putting the correct amount of spinach in the cardboard box was a daunting task, and one I want to end up paying 15 dollars by accifailed at miserably. My spinach:topping dentally piling my salad too high, and I have ratio ended up being about 1:1, which, evi- no sense of how much a pound of salad is.

Instead of the normally packed salad bowl dently, is not correct. that would last me for lunch and dinner, I was left with the saddest of portions, which ended up being less than half a pound and which barely classified as a meal.

Luckily, the vast amount of empty space in my cardboard box allowed me room to shake it up in an attempt to replicate the effect a mixing bowl and tongs had previously. Even with this empty space, which would not exist anyway in a properly made salad, I was left with all my carrots clumped to one side and all my tofu clumped to another.

The result of this dramatic change in service was a salad the likes of which I had never had the misfortune of consuming. It forced me to look back and analyze what truly made Trillium salads special: the abundance of options, the care of topping portioning and the brilliant mixing at the end.

It’s an effect that cannot be replicated by those of us not familiar with the details of a great salad, and it is especially improbable to reproduce when we are not given the proper tools with which to do so.

Trillium, this is a plea. This is a cry for help. I cannot go back to your self-service line knowing that all that awaits me in the end is a depressing clump of salad components, but no real salad. My heart is heavy with the thought that the class of 2021 may never know the beauty that is a real Trillium salad.

Until the day that Trillium returns to its

OLIVIA LUTWAK/ SUN DINING EDITOR

behind Trillium salads through thick and thin, serving as an outspoken supporter of their superiority over the lackluster salads produced at Terrace, Mac’s and other subprime campus locations.

My loyalty wavered, and quickly came crashing down, upon returning to campus this semester. Gone were the Trillium salads I was familiar with: no longer were there large plastic bowls, friendly servers behind the counter piling your salad to the brim with all the toppings you desired and the mixing bowl at the end designed to disperse the flavors evenly. Instead, I was faced with cardboard boxes, fewer My loyalty wavered, toppings that and quickly came you had to crashing down, upon put into the box yourself, returning to campus pricing done this semester. by weight and a sign reading, “We heard you Cornell! You asked, and we’ve made our top-rated on-campus salad station self-serve!” Who asked for this?? Certainly not me.

I stayed away from the salads for the first week of classes, requiring time to process the

OLIVIA LUTWAK/ SUN DINING EDITOR

There are now fewer topping options at the salad station. Rather than having two rows of topping bowls in the first half of the station, there’s only one, cutting the vegetable and fruit choices in half. I’m sure this was to reduce potential contamination of a careless student trying to maneuver the tongs from one bowl over another, but this is an issue that would never arise had

origins and embraces the ingenious salads it has the capacity to make despite the slightly longer lines the care of salad production requires, I must recuse myself from being a Trillium salad supporter.

Olivia Lutwak is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at food@cornellsun.com

THURSTON

Or, how the new self-service line made me change my salad loyalty

A&E

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Thursday, August 31, 2017

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Leap! Barely Gets Off the Ground

BY DAVID GOULDTHORPE Sun Staff Writer

Leap! has taken a very peculiar path. It actually came out a year ago under the title Ballerina, appearing in both France and the UK. Now the Weinstein Company has delivered the movie to US theaters. Directed by Éric Summer and Éric Warin, Leap tries to take on some inspiring (if clichéd) themes, but falls flat due to a combination of botched writing and animation.

The movie follows Felicie, a young orphan voiced by Elle Fanning who dreams of being in the Paris ballet. Her friend Victor, voiced by Nat Wolff (although the original featured Dane DeHaan), wishes to run away to Paris as well to become an inventor. Together they escape the orphanage and make it to the city. From there, they part ways and the narrative focuses on Felicie as she struggles to find a way into the most prestigious dancing school in Paris. A cleaner named Odette (Carly Rae Jepsen) takes the girl under her wing, and from there they begin to work under their employers’ noses to make Felicie’s dream come true.

To begin with, the dialogue frequently fluctuates between good and poor, sadly falling more into the poor category. The biggest problem is that it never seems to stop. The issue arises almost immediately: when Felicie and Victor escape, the orphanage caretaker chases them down on his motorcycle, and he keeps spouting off one-liners in a stream of “I see you, I got you now, get back here, I’m not really upset, come back!” There’s so much empty dialogue that it ends up grating on the senses and cluttering the runtime.

You can’t focus on the action when he keeps mouthing off.

The dialogue also attempts to interject humor with the delicacy and care of a shotgun. The movie is so desperate that we’ll get bored without constant laughter.

As a result, it throws jokes at us that aren’t just unfunny, but detrimental to the story. For example, Felicie mostly comes across as someone who will do anything for her dream — after all, she had tried to

run away on multiple occa- COURTESY OF CARAMEL FILM/QUAD PRODUCTIONS sions, and seems willing to do very hard work to succeed. But when Odette tells her to be up at five in the morning to practice, Felicie quips, “Can we maybe start after lunch?” Now, if she had started out in a place where she didn’t want to do the hard work, it’d be a good way to contrast with later in the movie. That’s not what happens here though, and it hurts so many characters besides Felicie. There are some good lines and readings, but it seems every good scene has to be punctuated by a fart joke or an MC Hammer reference (yes, in late-1800s France).

The dialogue also suffers from poor delivery. At times when slower readings and silence is needed to let emotion the really ferment and grow, the actors beginning suddenly end up decent near instead read their lines flatly and as the end, for no apparent reason and with quickly as possible. Coupled with the no buildup or development in between. delivery is an issue of character anima- Actually, scratch that: there is a reason, to tion. The mouths often don’t fit the lines, lecture to the protagonist and audience which I can partially attribute to the fact AGAIN about how important it is to folthat new voice actors had been brought in low your dreams. Characters and plot are for the U.S. release. However, many char- sacrificed to the moral, and all three sufacters who kept their voices still have the fer for it. same problem. It’s jarring, and completeSo far, I know I’ve been badmouthing ly shatters the suspension of disbelief. On the movie, but there were certain parts I top of that, the expressions are often did like. I mean, a movie about pursuing backwards. That is, they are grotesque your passions despite adversity sends a and exaggerated when subtlety is needed, good message to kids. Some of the but subdued and bland when expressive- dynamics are interesting, such as Felicie’s ness is needed. We don’t feel the illusion rival only trying to dance because of her of watching people on screen, we’re just mother’s pressure. The overall idea for the watching CGI models move around as story is sound enough, and could have people talk over it. been really good! The execution simply And that right there is the movie’s fails to gain any traction. biggest flaw. It doesn’t feel like anyone Honestly, there’s little else to say about here is a character to really get attached the movie. The animation works at some to. Felicie as the protagonist gets a little points, but in others the bodies just more care, but even then she’s awfully appear weightless and, thus, jarring. The bland. I had to go back online to remem- soundtrack is full of generic pop songs, ber the other characters’ names. but at least there’s nothing trying to hook Characters that are downright repulsive at to any memes. They show the Statue of

Liberty being assembled in Paris, but it was already green, which only happened when the New York ocean air rusted the copper skin. The history nerd in me pitched a fit, but I can grant artistic license at least that far. Of course there is that one point where a crazy old woman tries to kill Felicie with a hammer and shouts “Stop!

It’s hammer time!” at which point I physically covered my face with my hands in sheer embarrassment… but gosh darn it, I weathered The Emoji Movie, where I had to do that every five minutes.

In the end, Leap! is a harmless movie.

If you have kids and they want to see it really badly, there’s nothing inappropriate. You can definitely find better and more entertaining alternatives though.

I’ve heard that Paris also houses a rat who tried to pursue his dream of being a cook — maybe that’s a better story for family movie night?

David Gouldthorpe is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at djg284@cornell.edu.

STRFKR: Psychedelic and Fresh

BY ISABELLA YORK Sun Staff Writer

The Arts Quad was packed Saturday with students excited to hear the indie rock band STRFKR. The Portland-based band is known for its entrancing psychedelic and fresh sound. Psychic Twin, an Alternative duo, opened the outdoor show put on by Cornell Concert Commission. Over nearly 100 shows together, the Psychic Twin and STRFKR have developed a captivating show with each other. The openers provided a dreamlike pop sound with beautiful vocals that were the perfect opening for STRFKR’s exciting lineup of songs.

After joining the Cornell students in the crowd to watch Psychic Twin, STRFKR got on the stage and emerged with a tame, yet compelling performance. The band performed their most popular hits and songs off of their new albums Vault Vols. 1 and 2. Their cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” excited the crowd and brought the energy up with a familiar favorite. The band per-

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

formed some of its most popular songs, including “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second” and “While I’m Alive.” The

overall sound packs up an irresistible sound that allows the listener to dance or just chill and enjoy the music.

COURTESY OF STRFKR

lyrics “all my life/ there you go/ oh please stay/ just this once/ anyway” echoed through the crowd. The bands’ simple lyrics are paired with complex electronic elements and clean instrumentals. The

Each member of the band possessed a different aura on stage, with some members more withdrawn than others. Joshua Hodges, Shawn Glassford, Keil Corcoran and Arian Jalali were onstage for the per-

formance. While singing and playing the keyboard, Hodges gave off a more subdued presence. He wore a hoodie and sunglasses, making it difficult to see any facial expression. Glassford’s presence was more high energy while playing the guitar. He interacted with guitarist Jalali and added a carefree energy to the performance. Jalali is not an official member of the band, but did perform on stage that night. Finally, Corcoran spent the majority of his time at the back of the stage playing the drums and singing vocals. Midway through the concert, Corcoran switched with Hodges to perform the song “German Love.”

Corcoran wore all burgundy and gave off a more stimulating presence as he danced and performed with more energy.

Nonetheless, Hodges was just as compelling.

STRFKR has released two albums this year. In February they released Vault Volume 1 and on July 7, they released Vault Volume 2.

Isabella York is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at iy43@cornell.edu.

A&E

Thursday, August 31, 2017 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 11

Should We Stop Shooting Nature?

T

he havoc that Hurricane Harvey is currently wreaking on Texas has got me reflecting on a visit I made to the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few weeks ago. I found myself alone in Philly for a couple of days, and it was scorching hot. With a handful of hours to spare and an acute desire to get somewhere cool, and do so quickly, I decided to trudge my way towards the hallowed, climate-controlled halls of the city's eponymous art museum. Never having been before, I was struck by the building's stateliness, its enormity and finally by the impossibility of the task looming before me: which infinitesimal fraction of the exhibits should I try to consume in the short time I have. So, naturally, I allowed myself to be herded — by flowing banners and eager docents — towards PMA's blockbuster exhibition: Wild: Michael Nichols.

"Nick" Nichols is a nature photographer. Born in 1952 in Alabama and having cut his teeth in a photography unit for the US army in the early 1970s, he built a successful career as a photojournalist over the years. He was a member of Magnum Photos, a famous photography cooperative cofounded by Henri CarteirBresson, French pioneer of candid “street photography.” In 1989, Nichols joined at nature, especially through a camera the National Geographic as a photogra- lens, is as something objective, pher and writer, eventually becoming an unscathed, pure, perfect and, most editor. Much of Wild is photos that importantly, entirely separate from us Nichols took for NatGeo over the years, humans. And while Frost sticks to docuand some mentarians shots from and doesrelated book n't conprojects cern herundertaken self with with such photojourluminous nalists of Troy to the world collaborators Nichols' as Jane ilk, bringGoodall. ing up her Each of critique in a discussion about Wild seems the successive prints in Wild — all stag- like a natural step to take. gering images of roaring geysers, vast The PMA's website promises any expanses, animal encounters and exhibition-goer the prospect of immedibreathtaking sojourns – are hung in a ate "transportation" in Nichols' phorow and blown up to impressive sizes tographs. His shots "offer intense conwell beyond the bounds of what any lit- frontations with the power and fragility tle magazine page could ever dream to of the wild and a reflection on our own hold. I moved through the gallery, humanity," the exhibition overview says. absorbing perfect shot after painstaking, These works were made for us, so it pored-over composition and grew pro- seems, considering "Nichols has vengressively more skeptical. I was not con- tured to the farthest reaches of the world vinced that this way of capturing the to document nature’s wildest creatures world around us, this way of telling a and landscapes," such as the Congo story about the "wild" was the right Basin, the Serengeti, Yellowstone way. What are the implications of look- National Park and others. All have been ing at nature, and what is the best way condensed into a series of images "capto go about it? tured" by Nichols in, lest we forget, The question is an important one, "some of the most remote areas of the and growing more so each day. In an arti- world." cle in Current Affairs, Amber A'Lee Frost Such an outlook on art and how it can tackled the topic from a slightly different help engage us with the world is shallow angle, critiquing nature documentaries, even at first glance. When you consider such as Wild America, White Wilderness the act of bringing us pictures of far-off and Planet Earth. Though she starts off places, importing neverland and labelling it definitively "nature," inarguably "wild," that might make Undocumented immigrants living in us feel like the world beyond our Texas have been among hardest hit by own, beyond the thousands of Harvey over the past few days. tons of cast concrete and laid brick making up the galleries we're walking through, is someby highlighting the most flagrant lies how made up of different stuff than the that nature documentarians have been one we inhabit every day. known to tell — namely, that they're But there is also a slightly more insidshowing the "objective truth" about the ious effect. The idea that pictures can world while in fact their craft is founded offer us, to repeat the exhibition's on deliberately running imported lem- description, "a reflection on our own mings and deer off of cliffs, into rivers humanity." It's most salient in the show's and to their deaths — her main point banner image, a blurry, close-up shot of a develops into something even more silverback gorilla from the mountains of nuanced. The way we've all come to look Rwanda, whose name is Mrithi. The

Troy Sherman

COURTESY OF MICHAEL NICHOLS

great ape looks sidelong at the viewer, der, then, that people of color in New pursing its lips and pouting its eyes in an Orleans bore the brunt of police brutaliexpression that evokes empathy, under- ty when they were scared and hungry in standing and, most importantly, con- the aftermath of Katrina, or that undocsciousness. But this consciousness is of a umented immigrants living in Texas have conditioned variety. A gorilla, so it been among hardest hit by Harvey over seems, can manage to be like a person, the past few days. and other people — those who live in far-away places near "the And I guess all I’m saying is that taking end of the world" — can be pictures of gorillas isn’t the best way to closer to nature, more "at one go about [fixing climate change]. with" it and, transitively, more similar to that gorilla who looks back plaintively at the camera.

The big phrase I've avoided, of This is similar to what Frost calls the "ambiguous racism" of looking at nature, course, is climate change. That existenwhereby tricks of the lens and sleights of tial crisis that we're still trying to figure hand from behind the editing desk make out how to handle (or not). The big picit seem as though "the animals are people ture of all of this is that tackling climate and the people are animals." In Nichols's change, with all of its devastating tencase, the elision is a bit less fundamental, drils of which Harvey is just one, is an but still, the fetish of “far off places” that issue which necessitates not merely techthe very idea of nature photography nological solutions and political strataoperates on is one that necessitates a gems, but a rethinking and reordering of viewer to compartmentalize their world the ways we interact with the "nature" into us and them. For the patrons of the that Nichols has made a career of phoPMA, "nature" is something that hap- tographing. But, such a restructuring of pens somewhere else, over there, to other the way we think about our world and people, concerning us only if and when our relationship to it doesn't just need to happen on the political, economic and we let it.

So, with Hurricane Harvey at the technological fronts, but more fundaforefront of our national consciousness, mentally on the cultural and social. This problem doesn't require a vote cast towards a particular party or some gadget The way we talk and that turns farts into fuel. We need an entirely new vocabulary for talking and think about ‘nature’ is a thinking about us and the environment, topic of immediate because inventors tend not to trouble themselves with niceties like the disproimportance. portionate effects of a changing climate on poor and disenfranchised people. the way we talk and think about "nature" Politicians tend not to trouble themis a topic of immediate importance, espe- selves with the topic much at all. And cially considering the United States' while song and dance won't stop the sea track record of leaving its very own com- levels from rising, literature won’t patch munities entirely in the lurch after up the ozone and painters aren't going to they've been struck by natural disasters. save the world in any immediate sense, Nichols' photos of Yellowstone National it's the questions raised in such disciPark show the great, "wild" outdoors plines that can push us in the right directhat still exist within our own continen- tion. And I guess all I'm saying is that tal bounds. The people whom we've taking pictures of gorillas isn't the best resultingly come to consider, even if way to go about doing it. unconsciously, as closer to that nature and to the "wild" earth — and therefore far away, different from us and in signif- Troy Sherman is a senior in the College of Arts and icantly less need of rescue — exist within Sciences. He can be reached at tsherman@cornellthese continental bounds, too. No won- sun.com

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017

Sundoku

COMICS AND PUZZLES

Puzzle #211

Kaysar

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)

The Lawn

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The CorneDaily Sun since 1880

ADRIAN BOTEANU / SUN FILE PHOTO

Room for progress | Cornell finished its 2016 campaign even at 12 wins and 12 losses. However it struggled against conference opponents with a 6-8 Ivy League record.

VOLLEYBALL

Spikers Set Sights on First Winning Season Since 2006

By KAREN PAPAZIAN

As many of the staff members are experienced volleyball players, they brought their knowledge and experience of the game to the team in hopes The Cornell’s Women’s Volleyball team left off of inspiring them and sparking motivation to its 2016 season with a 12-12 record and a fifth prosper this season. The main focus is to get onto place 6-8 Ivy League record, its best Ivy record the court and start the season in the win column. since 2008. The group is working on staying “The team is really excited to start playing focused this season, with the goal of winning at together,” said senior Kiley McPeek. “We see how the forefront. much potential we have for the season and can’t The Red upped its game since the 2015 season, wait to see it all come together.” when its record was just 6-18. It found its rhythm The team consists of several fresh faces with a last season, and the players are determined to keep lot of talent, perhaps more than ever before. The the momentum rolling as the 2017 season begins. four new recruits are highly experienced. Stubbs Cornell has not finished with a winning record was her high school’s all time kill leader with since 2006.

1,099 kills. Becker has been attending Cornell’s Hoping to start off the season as well as the camp since she was a freshman in high school. team ended the last, head coach Trudy Vande Berg Although the team losing a valuable setter in is excited to see how Alyssa Phelps, the Red plays against a Chamness will help fill trio of tough teams this “[The newcomers] are doing great. They the void. Madar has weekend. all come from elite playing background proven herself to Vande “I hope that we conBerg, referred to as one so they have come a long way.” tinue with where we of the hardest workers left off,” she said. “We on the court.

Head Coach Trudy Vande Berg ended the season playVande Berg is ing great volleyball last focused on preparing year and the team worked incredibly hard over the her team for the hard times that they will spring/summer so I’m excited to see us in action inevitably encounter. The team is looking to its this weekend against some very good teams.” experienced players to help the team maintain its Although the team lost a couple of key focus throughout the season, regardless of what starters and a handful of other contributors, happens on the court. there is a lot of excitement surrounding the four “Making sure that we stay focused on the newcomers. Freshmen Paige Becker, Zoe process, not the result,” Vande Berg said. “This Chamness, Lauren Stubbs and Alena Madar team really wants to have a great season, but we all joined the team this season and are looking to know that there will be ups and downs. It’s how fill the gaps that the graduating seniors left. you learn from the highs and lows that will make Their attitudes on and off the court have already the difference in November.” contributed to the overall positive atmosphere The Red will open up its season on the road at surrounding the team.

James Madison on Friday at 7 p.m. followed by a “[The newcomers] are doing great,” Vande doubleheader on Saturday against Drake and Berg said. “They all came from an elite playing Hampton. background so they have come a long way in a very short amount of time. I couldn’t be happier Karen Papazian can be reached at with their performance on and off the court.” kpapazian@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staff Writer

14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, August 31, 2017

SPORTS

Conklin Works to Raise Awareness for Cystic Fibrosis CONKLIN

Continued from page 16

Competing at Cornell

Playing the arduous position of midfielder at Cornell, Conklin runs on average six miles a game, she says. But if you ask head coach Donna Hornibrook, her on-field performance gives no indication of any respiratory issues.

“I had no idea about her condition until her parents told me,” Hornibrook said, according to a Cornell Big Red Bio. “I had seen her play in high school and thought she was outstanding. There was nothing in her play that indicated that she had lung problems.”

Conklin told Hornibrook about her condition while she was recruited, but it made no difference to the coach.

“I didn’t have any reservations about Maddy,” Hornibrook said in the bio. “I thought even if she needed to come off the bench or play limited minutes, she was still going to be a really solid addition for us. And it turns out we were right.”

Conklin now says that being a student-athlete has been the “best thing” for her in dealing with her C.F..

“I am diligent about keeping fit all year round,” she said. “Daily exercise, good nutrition and healthy choices for my body are all vital for promoting good lung functioning.”

While some bumps in the road have forced Conklin make adjustments, her active lifestyle makes dealing with the complications of C.F. more manageable.

“There are times when I need to increase or tweak my medications, physiotherapy or need IV therapy, but still

feel that being fit helps fight infections and bounce back from a C.F. related setback,” Conklin said.

Conklin also emphasized that being a Division I athlete allows her to spread awareness about her disease. For example, she garnered moderate national attention after Boomer Esiason — a former NFL MVP and four-time Pro Bowler — tweeted about her story. Esiason now runs the Boomer Esiason Foundation, a charity that “raises money, awareness, and support for the C.F. community.”

Paying Wishes Forward

When she was 11 years old, Conklin was granted a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. With her wish, Conklin traveled to Hawaii, where she participated in a myriad of activities, including a luau, a helicopter ride, a swim with dolphins and a horseback ride.

While the trip was one that Conklin will never forget, she said the experience also opened up various avenues for her to give back to future wish-recipients.

“While my wish was an amazing experience and one that I will never forget, I am most grateful for the relationships I have formed within the Make-A-Wish family and the doors that it has opened for me,” she said.

Today, Conklin often meets with Make-A-Wish children and their families, speaks at events and participates in planning and fundraising efforts for the organization, such as the Polar Plunge and Walk for Wishes. She served as an intern for the foundation in her senior year of high school.

Conklin is also an ambassador for Cohen’s Children's Hospital in New York, where she meets with children and speaks on behalf of the hospital to help raise awareness of

COURTESY OF MADDY CONKLIN ‘20

Helping hand | Conklin serves as an ambassador for Cohen’s Children’s Hospital in New York, meeting with children to raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis.

COURTEESY OF MADDY CONKLIN ‘20

Wish come true | With the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Conklin was able to visit Hawaii when she was 11 years old.

the hospital and C.F..

Conklin said she is “most proud of the impact [she’s had] on others,” and is “humbled” that the field hockey team has partnered with an organization that has done so much for her.

“Being a part of Big Red field hockey has been an amazing experience,” she said. “My teammates and coaches are always supportive of me, the C.F. foundation and Make-A-Wish.”

Inspiring a Future

C.F. has had a large impact on Conklin’s life, so it’s no surprise that it has shaped her academic and intellectual interests as well.

“Even since [I was] diagnosed, I have become interested in science,” she said. “It started with the questions, ‘What is Cystic Fibrosis?’ ‘Why does this happen?’ ‘Why me?’

Which then led to the more complex questions of science, and ever since then science has been one of my passions.”

Conklin studies Biology and Society in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a minor in business, and hopes to someday work in business or the administrative side of medicine.

But until then, Conklin will continue her work to be a role model for children with life-threatening diseases.

“As of now, I hope to continue ... showing [the children] that they should never let these hardships control them, and to continue pursuing their dreams,” Conklin said. “At the end of the day, if my story motivates, helps, or supports another child living with a life-threatening illness, it was well worth it.”

Jamil Rahman can be reached at jrahman@cornellsun.com.

FIELD HOCKEY

Veteran-Led Group Has Lofty Goals for 2017 Season

By BENNETT GROSS

“Since I had my wish granted, I have been three of which were in the Ivy League — the Red is hoping to carry that same momentum very involved in the charity, because without into this year. But despite many familiar them, my wish was an opportunity that othAfter a fourth-place finish in the Ivy faces, the Red must rely on some key under- erwise never would have happened,” League last season, the field hockey team is classmen, including freshmen midfielder Conklin said. “I am excited to see the looking to make significant strides in 2017, Taylor Gladd and forward Juliana Tardif, turnout this weekend, and I hope that for as with much of the same squad that won 10 each of whom Hornibrook expects to be cru- long as I am here, we can have more events games last season returning this year. such as this one.” cial to the team’s success.

The team lost just three seniors to graduAfter opening with six non-conference The Red will open its season Friday when ation, and this fall’s group will feature the top it hosts Ohio University at 5 p.m. Last sea- matchups, the Red will begin its Ivy-slate two goal scorers from last year, in senior for- son, Cornell defeated the Bobcats 2-1.

Sept. 23, when it travels to Penn. But the wards Krysten Mayers and Katie Carlson.

“Early in the season, there is not really a players will try to treat every game just as Starting goalkeeper big body of work by any team seriously.

Kelly Johnson is also “We plan to go into every game treating in order to make a lot of deter“We have a core group of minations, so what we are real- it like we are playing our hardest opponent; back in net.

“Our experience ly doing heading into the game we want to set the standard each game and kids ... We are just has helped us a lot in against Ohio is focusing on our walk off the field feeling like we played to the building from where we team,” Hornibrook said of the best of our abilities,” Carlson said. “The the early going,” said head coach Donna upcoming matchup. “I think score is just a number, so the main aspect we left off last season.”

Hornibrook. “We that we are all just really look- can control is the effort and work we put have a core group of Head Coach Donna Hornibrook ing forward to hearing that ini- into each game, and then the results will folkids that have done tial whistle blow, and to keep low.” a really solid job. It With its talent, experience and mindset, progressing, as we have over doesn’t feel like we are starting from ground the past few weeks.” the team believes strongly in its chance of zero, but instead, we are just building off of The team’s second game against Bucknell winning the Ivy League and making an where we left off last season.”

Sunday is one that is especially important for appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Captains Sam McIlwrick and Isabel the team, as the Red will hold a fundraiser “We have some high expectations this Josephs will anchor the Red’s defense. year, as our goal is to make it to the NCAA for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“We have strong leadership coming from In 2005, sophomore midfielder Maddy tournament,” Carlson said. “We want throughout this team,” McIlwrick said. “It is Conklin was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, Cornell field hockey to continue improving not just coming from the captains or the and in 2008, Conklin had her wish of surf- every year, so we want to keep raising the bar senior class, but everyone who has been on ing in Hawaii granted by the foundation. So, for future players and maintain a team the team for at least one year has been lead- throughout high school and now college, she atmosphere that people want to be a part of.” ing in some form.” has held fundraisers to benefit Make-A-Wish After closing out the 2016 campaign on a so that others could have their wishes grant- Bennett Gross can be reached at high note — winning its last four games, ed as well. bgross@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staff Writer

MICHAEL WENYE LI / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

The core | After winning 10 games last season, much of the same sqaud from 2016 will be returning to achieve greatness this year.

SPORTS

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Thursday, Augsut 31, 2017 15

MEN’S LACROSSE

Red Goalie Knight Granted 5th-Year Of Eligibility to Play in Upcoming Season in 2018 2014 Ivy League Rookie of the Year returns to finish career

By ADAM BRONFIN Sun Senior Editor

MICHAEL WENYE LI / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Eyes on prize | Men’s soccer is motivated to rebound for a successful season after it faltered in its 2016 campaign. The season kicks off this weekend in Dallas.

MEN’S SOCCER

Cornell Looks to Pick Up the Pieces as 2017 Season Kicks Off

Team seeks major improvements after one-win season last year

By TROY BRIDSON

ity of training.

“As far as tactics go, we’ve spent the vast majority of the last 10 days on going over defensive shape and Cornell men’s soccer will look to rebound from a trying to teach the guys individual and team defendfrustrating season last year as it heads into its first slate ing,” Smith said. of games this weekend in Dallas, Texas.

Offensively, Cornell is looking to be much The Big Red (0-0) will take on University of the more creative in its scoring approach this season, Incarnate Word (1-1) on Friday and Southern as goal scoring was a major area of weakness last Methodist (1-0) on Sunday in what will be a chance year. to build on a successful training camp thus far. The “I want this to be a well disciplined team but I Red have welcomed a large freshman class under sec- also want this to be a team that enjoys going forward ond-year head coach John Smith, in hopes of bolster- and being creative when we have to attack,” Smith ing the roster across the board. said.

“We have 14 freshman in a squad of 30,” Smith As the young players get up to speed with the tacsaid. “Balancing that with tical requirements of collethe returning players has giate soccer, Smith has been made for exciting sessions “We have 14 freshman in a squad of 30. encouraged by what he has thus far.” seen.

Although it is very early, Balancing that with the returning players “A lot of these new guys Smith has been impressed has made for exciting sessions.” are already at a level where with what he has seen so far they are making smart deciHead Coach John Smith from his squad. sions on the field,” Smith “Technically, competisaid. tion has been at a high The young players will join a team led by three level,” Smith said. “Last year was a challenging year captains. Junior defender Ryan Burne, senior but it has been encouraging to see a strong signs in defender Spencer Kopko, and senior defender training.”

Eric Nuss are working to set standards for work Last year, the Red finished with a record of 1-14-2, ethic and responsibility both on and off the field. with an 0-7 record in Ivy League play. The coaching With the season just days away, Smith has just staff has been working on changing the culture of named the travel squad for the trip to Dallas. He Cornell soccer and trying to instill a winning mental- described the competitive nature of position battles in ity heading into this year. training and noted that this year it has been more difThe training sessions thus far have demonstrated ficult choosing players with the added level of talent how much younger and fitter the team has grown for on the roster. the 2017 campaign.

“It was challenging because there are a number of “We set a level of expectations in terms of fitness guys who could’ve made a good claim to be on that and what guys should be doing technically before they trip,” Smith said. “That is great for me as a coach but get in here,” Smith said. “Quite often you wait to see it is definitely tough for the guys who don’t make it.” how they arrive.”

The coaching staff has a solid idea of what Under the guidance of the coaching staff and more Cornell’s top 16 or 17 player rotations will be. But experienced players, the team has improved its offsea- with such a young squad and the prospect of injuries, son conditioning regimens; many players look to be in the shape of the squad could change throughout the great shape heading into this year. season.

“They’ve come into training in great shape,” Smith Smith says the upcoming games in Dallas will give commended his team. him with an early sense of where his team stands and This physical fitness has allowed players to show- whether adjustments need to be made. case their abilities on the ball and focus on the technical side of training. Likewise, Smith has been focused on developing tactics for his young side for the major- Troy Bridson can be reached at tbridson@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staff Writer

Cornell men’s lacrosse goalie Christian Knight, who missed his entire junior season two years ago due to injury, told The Sun this past April he hoped to retain his final year of eligibility and return to the program.

On Tuesday morning, Cornell Athletics announced he was officially granted his fifth year of eligibility.

Last year, Knight was named All Ivy League honorable mention, his third season earning the honor. In 2016, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound goalie averaged 11.92 saves per game, 12th in the nation. His streak of six games with at least 10 saves was the longest by a Red netminder since 2000.

During his sophomore year, Knight led the league in in-conference goals against. With Knight’s steadfast presence in goal, Cornell won a share of the Ivy title that year but was blown out in the NCAA tournament, when Albany hung up 19 goals against the Red’s defense despite Knight’s career high 18 saves.

Knight helped Cornell to 11 wins and a share of the league crown in 2014. In that season, he was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and, in his collegiate debut as a starter, was instrumental in the Red’s upset of No. 2 Virginia.

Since Knight’s freshman and sophomore years, Cornell has struggled to maintain the same level of success. With Knight in cage last season, Cornell had its fewest regular season wins in 20 years, posting just five victories. The defense as a whole was ranked last in the league for goals against, and Knight finished last in save percentage, among qualified goalies.

Following the disastrous 2017 campaign, Matt Kerwick stepped down from his post as head coach and former associate head coach Peter Milliman was named the interim coach for the 2018 season. Hoping to spark a rejuvenation of the program, and with a familiar face with a winning pedigree between the pipes, Milliman may have gotten back a key piece of that turnaround.

Adam Bronfin can be reached at abronfin@cornellsun.com.

COURTESY OF CORNELL ATHLETICS

Return to glory | Since Knight’s freshman and sophomore years, Cornell lacrosse has struggled. However, the goalie may be a key piece in the program’s turnaround.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

THURSDAY AUGUST 31, 2017

16

Boxing’s Next Great Main Event O

COURTESY OF MADDY CONKLIN / CORNELL ATHLETICS

In control | Conklin says being a student athlete has helped her handle her Cystic Fibrosis disease, as she is diligent about keeping her body in top shape year round.

FIELD HOCKEY

Charity Game Personal for Conklin

By JAMIL RAHMAN Sun Assistant Sports Editor

2005 should have been an exciting year for the Conklin family. In addition to six-year old Maddy and her younger sister Frankie, the Conklin crew was awaiting the arrival of another daughter, who could join the family at any moment.

However, this sense of eager expectation quickly soured.

Less than a month after the arrival of newborn Kate, the family’s pediatrician delivered some unwelcoming news.

Postnatal genetic tests showed that Kate had Cystic Fibrosis — an illness that causes a thick buildup of mucus in the lungs, clogging airways and trapping bacteria. The disease can cause lung damage and respiratory failure, potentially affecting the pancreas and damaging other organs.

But Kate’s diagnosis was just the tip of the iceberg. C.F. is a hereditary condition, so the entire family was advised to undergo testing for the genetic disorder. The news that fol-

lowed was detrimental: Maddy and Frankie also tested positive for C.F..

While the disease presented the sisters with plenty of challenges growing up, Maddy, now a sophomore on the Cornell field hockey team, says the illness allowed her to forge relationships with others in her same situation and become involved with organizations like “C.F. was part of my life Make-A-Wish, Cystic that helped shape me, Fibrosis Foundation however, I didn’t let it and Cohen’s Children’s Hospital in define me.”

Queens.

Maddy Conklin So the field hockey team’s Make-A-Wish fundraising event this Sunday — which runs concurrently with its contest against Bucknell — will be personal for Conklin, who was a beneficiary of the foundation.

“I am really excited to be a part of the wish granting process,” Conklin said, who once had her own wish fulfilled. “After having such an amazing experience with this foundation, it is extremely important to me to help allow other individuals in similar situations to have their wish come true.”

Growing Up With C.F.

COURTESY OF MADDY CONKLIN / CORNELL ATHLETICS

Giving back | Conklin often meets with Make-a-Wish children and families, speaks and particpates at events. She even interned at the organization in high school.

Life wasn’t easy for Conklin and her sisters growing up.

Conklin said that she and Frankie, the family’s middle daughter, were constantly being treated for “asthma-like symptoms, frequent respiratory illnesses and difficulties [with] gaining and maintaining weight.”

Once the sisters were diagnosed with C.F., they had to go take medication and undergo therapy multiple times a day, on top of multiple doctor appointments, hospital stays and IV treatments. Just trying to stay healthy caused them to miss out on many routine events.

Nevertheless, Conklin made the best of her condition.

“C.F. was part of my life that helped shape me, however, I didn’t let it define me,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let C.F. stop me from doing the things I enjoyed most.”

Maddy came to this realization when she was playing AAU field hockey for the Strong Island Field Hockey club in high school with Frankie. While the two were down in Florida for the Disney Field Hockey Showcase, ESPN made a short video about the two sisters living with C.F., a video which eventually made its way to a young girl in Massachusetts who was also fighting the disease. “[The video] gave [the girl] and her parents hope that there is life outside of having C.F.. Because of that video, we made a difference in that one family’s life,” Conklin said.

“We became friends, [I] FaceTimed with her and offered encouragement when needed. I realized the impact I could have on others.”

See CONKLIN page 14

n Saturday, in the what was the most anticipated boxing fight in years, Floyd Mayweather precisely met expectations with his 10th round technical knockout of UFC superstar Conor McGregor. All eyes were on the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as McGregor made his professional boxing debut against one of the greatest of all time. McGregor likely stood no chance against Mayweather, and the fight’s final result was poignantly predictable. But the fight itself was entertaining and lively, and McGregor exceeded expectations.

Millions across America watched the super welterweight bout, as is standard for a fight marketed by Mayweather Promotions. Mayweather’s fights against Manny Pacquiao and Canelo Alvarez were similarly hyped, but neither came close to the entertainment level on Saturday.

Mayweather said on Saturday that, “tonight was my last fight, for sure.” He has said this before, but at 40 years old, Mayweather is likely telling the truth.

His departure from boxing means that the sport no longer has its highest consistently successful revenue generator. There is perhaps no moniker in sports more suitable than Floyd “Money” Mayweather. Whether endearment or epithet, Mayweather earned that title for a reason. He revolutionized the way that boxing is marketed, and made himself and the sport hundreds of millions in the process.

But now Mayweather is gone, and boxing needs new faces and superstars to entertain, and, more importantly, boost the bottom line. The sport will not have to look very far, as the superfight to fill the void left by Mayweather’s blockbuster programs is already scheduled. And you should definitely be watching.

On Sept. 16, Canelo Alvarez — a 49-win boxer whose only loss came in a split decision to Mayweather — will enter the ring with Gennady Golovkin. Better known as GGG, Golovkin is an undefeated champion who has defended his title 18 times, knocking out 33 of his 37 opponents. These are two of the most powerful pound-for-pound fighters of this generation; the winner will likely be crowned as the undisputed greatest boxer in the world. Three title belts are at stake.

Much like the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao, this fight has been built up for many years.

Long disputes over the weight at which the two would fight has been the chief cause for delay. But in the time that it’s taken to schedule the bout, Alvarez has grown tremendously as a fighter. His most recent defeat of

Dylan McDevitt One Point Play Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., was a display of his crushing dominance, proof that the 27-year-old Alvarez is entering his prime with an already extraordinary career behind him and perhaps his best years ahead.

At 35, Golovkin is in the twilight of his career, and the younger Alvarez may have the perfect opportunity to take over the world of boxing. But if there is anyone left on earth with the power and stamina to take him down, it’s Golovkin. In either case, these two are undoubtedly on the highest level of the sport, and their showdown next month is sure to be entertaining.

Perhaps this fight can provide the intensity that fans were supposed to enjoy from Mayweather’s overhyped and overall boring fight against Pacquiao two years ago.

With Mayweather out of the picture now, this is exactly the kind of event that boxing needs. Following up the McGregor fight with something big could be great for the sport, and this fight has all the makings of an instant classic.

Dylan McDevitt can be contacted at dmcdevitt@ cornellsun.com. One Point Play appears weekly.