Students Prepare For Winter Activities

By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant News Editor

As snow falls and temperatures sit below freezing, winter sports organizations and facilities across Cornell and the greater Ithaca area hope to engage Cornellians in cold-weather activities.

Julia Forte ’24 and Tory Watnick ’23, co-captains of the Cornell University Figure Skating Club, said they hope to involve the Cornell community in their events this semester. Although figure skaters practice the sport year-round, Forte recognized the sport’s increase in popularity amongst the general public during the winter.

“[For] figure skaters who are competing or do it as an actual sport, it’s definitely a year-round sport. I think it’s just a little bit of a misconception that it’s a winter sport,” Forte said. “But I think the general public just gets into it in the winter, because it’s such a fun thing to do, to skate outside, and that’s the only weather that permits that.”

Last semester, CUFSC hosted Lynahmation, a figure skating show during which skaters portrayed animated characters. The club also hosted a public skate night, where students could skate at Lynah Rink with the team.

Watnick said that CUFSC will put on another show this semester and hopes to host another skate night. Forte echoed Watnick’s sentiment, adding that she enjoys engaging the Cornell community in figure skating.

“I’d say it’s really great for us to have our campus involved — in the shows, in skate night,” Forte said.

Lynah Rink is open to the Cornell community for public skating as well, although the rink reduced its hours last semester due to lack of staffing. The rink will resume its Sunday public skating session this semester, which will take place from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Lynah Rink manager Phil Graham wrote in an email to The Sun.

In addition to ice skating, Cornellians can enjoy skiing this winter.

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Students who purchased the Regal Unlimited pass for $18.99 a month are feeling particularly devastated. Rayvaughn Brown ’26 would frequent the Regal theater weekly to see the latest films, with trips in the Ithaca Mall becoming part of his routine.

For Jakene Reaves ’26, the unlimited pass meant visits to the theater almost every other day over the summer. He participated in the Pre-Collegiate Summer Scholars program, leaving him with plenty of time to watch movies. Reaves has gone to the movies once or twice a week since the beginning of the school year.

“The biggest value [of the Regal theater] is we don’t have any other options, so it’s a great place — if people like watching movies — to go congregate with their friends,” Reaves said. “Not that many people were going there, but at least it was the place to go. Now that there is no place to go, you just can’t watch movies. You’re either forced to stream or forced to go to Syracuse,” he continued, referring to the nearest Regal north of Ithaca.

Frequent movie-goers noticed low showings for most films, with the exception of opening nights and on National Cinema Day, when all tickets were $3. Reaves said on most occasions, it was just him and a few others in a theater.

The Regal cinema has left lasting impacts on Cornell alumni. Violet Fwwermin ’13 still has memories of spending time with close friends at the theater. After seeing a highly-anticipated Tyler Perry movie, she recalls missing the last TCAT back to campus.

“We had to walk back to campus in the dark from the theater, super late at night, and we were making jokes about it, but we were also a little bit nervous, but we made it back okay,” Fermin said.

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Sofa Rubinson can be reached at srubinson@cornellsun.com.