INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 10
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
12 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Xenophobia And Race
Richenburg At Johnson Museum
Glimpse Into The Future
Mostly Sunny HIGH: 75º LOW: 50º
A faculty panel discussed the rise of xenophobia and racial rhetoric in politics on Friday. | Page 3
The Red had a taste of the course it will be running this past weekend. | Page 12
In his debut article for Arts, Yongyu Chen ’20 reviews a Johnson exhibition. | Page 6
CORNELLIANS RALLY AGAINST ENDING OF DACA By MOLLIE CRAMER Sun Staff Writer
Students, faculty and administrators stood in solidarity on the Arts Quad to defend immigrants and demand justice in light of President Donald Trump’s decision Tuesday to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The rally began with a series of chants about defending immigrants and demanding justice in the system. Organizers from the Dream Team also handed out butterfly figures — a symbol of migration and the resilience of immigrants. Following the chants, six speakers representing students, professors and professionals spoke about the implications of the removal of DACA. Carolina Osorio-Gil ’05, Latina/o Studies Engagement Coordinator and District 3 candidate, shared her story as an immigrant and urged students to get involved in local politics in order to fight injustice and insisted that immigrants should have a place in the U.S. “Here we are fighting for our DACA brothers and sisters, and I stand in full support of you,” Osorio-Gil said. “I was undocumented, and I am the same person. I believe no human being is illegal.” The speakers went on to emphasize that the criminalization of immigrants has serious social implications that is manifested in a variety of ways. They also commented that without DACA, many students who have been receiving financial aid at universities like Cornell based on their DACA status will be in need of help.
Prof. Russell Rickford, history, pointed out that “sometimes up here on the hill we wind up alienated from ourselves and from our roots.” He then urged the crowd to see every citizen as equal and united. Rickford led the crowd in a heated chant — “We have a duty to fight for our freedom. We have a
CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Dreamers for DACA | Cornellians march through the Arts Quad to protest President Donald Trump’s ending of DACA.
duty to win. We must love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” The chant progressively got louder. Following the impassioned yells, Rickford more solemnly directed his attention toward explanations of the current political strife. “The system cannot function without defining cer-
Mollie Cramer can be reached at mcramer@cornellsun.com.
Steberger ’13 Withdraws After Rape Allegation
Inside C.U.’s Most Selective Clubs By EMMA NEWBURGER
sulting clubs, which yield acceptance rates significantly lower than the Every year, hundreds of University’s actual admisstudents crowd into infor- sion rate. These clubs becoming “We are really looking for are more comone thing: a potential petitive each year passion for venture capital with acceptance rates as low as 2 or entrepreneurship.” percent. Cornell VenMatti Thurston ’18 ture Capital Club President Matti mation sessions for Thurston ’17 said that Cornell’s highly selective information session attenstudent organizations. dance is often in the low Among these are pre-proSee CLUBS page 4 fessional finance and con-
tain people as outsiders,” Rickford said. “The assault on immigrants and undocumented people has become a far more visible aspect of what I call the racial hunt.” The attendants of the rally responded to impassioned statements with snaps and yells of agreement. Nicole Garcia ’20 participated in the rally because she has friends and family members who are in the U.S. because of DACA. Garcia said that having the rally on Cornell’s campus is encouraging but a more open dialogue needs to start. “I feel like there’s a lot less understanding because there are a lot of people who are not open minded and are kind of just like ‘they’re immigrants, so get them out’ and that’s not how anyone should look at this, especially since we’re all people,” Garcia said. “People need to ask more questions about things they don’t understand. I feel like that’s the main issue in the dialogue surrounding this whole situation. People don’t know so instead of asking they’re just attacking.” Following the speakers, there was a call to support the Dreamers Act, a legislative bill that would provide full protection to undocumented immigrants who came here as children. The Dream Team was also passing out information packets for undocumented students. The rally came to a passionate close as the participants chanted in solidarity “Dreamers stay, dreamers fight, education is a right.”
By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS
Sun Assistant News Editor
Sun City Editor
CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Uncontested | Reed Steberger ’13 withdraws after recent rape allegations, leaving Rich John ’81 uncontested in the race for County Legislature.
At a debate scheduled for Rich John ’81 and Reed Steberger ’13 — two Democrats running to represent District Four on the Tompkins County Legislature — Steberger recognized their engagement in non-consensual sex as “mistakes” in 2011 and withdrew from the race. Steberger’s withdrawal followed The Sun’s report on accusations of their raping a
woman during his studies at Cornell. “I’ve dedicated my professional work to undoing systems of power and oppression and learning from people who have experienced systemic oppression at a personal level,” they said. “I realized just how I have been perpetuating those systems myself.” In response, John said Reed’s withdrawal was unexpected to him. “To everybody here, this is certainly a shock,” he said. See FORUM page 3