10-5-23 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Mayor's Budget Proposal Requires Cornell Contribution

By JONATHAN MONG Sun News Editor

Mayor Laura Lewis’s (D) $101,058,360 budget proposal for 2024 featured no layoffs and full funding for all new and vacant positions requested by the city government’s departments. Lewis, however, stressed that the budget would have to be reworked should the Common Council fail to pass the memorandum of understanding between Ithaca and Cornell on Wednesday, Oct. 11, in which Cornell agreed to pay $4.08 million to the city in lieu of property

taxes.

“We had to build a budget and, as has been pointed out, it is not responsible to wait until we are in the first quarter of our next budget year, January, to build the budget,” Lewis said. “We must build a 2024 budget now and I fully understand and recognize that Council will be voting on the [memorandum of understanding] next week, but it is important for Council to see the impact of that voluntary contribution.”

Property taxes will make up 43.1 percent of this revenue. The current tax rate, which sits at 11.98

percent, will not change. The tax levy will increase by five percent from 9.74 percent in 2023, while the 2024 tax cap is 2.2 percent. This means that an owner of a property at the median value in Ithaca — $302,000 — would owe $3,295 in taxes. The total revenue is projected to equal $30,690,864. Of the property within the city, 56.94 percent — 79 percent of which Cornell owns — is tax-exempt. This is a decrease from 2023, when 57.3 percent of property in the city was tax-exempt.

"Dog Meat" Startles Students

Satirical pro-veganism event yields mixed student reactions

By ANTHONY NAGLE Sun Contributor

Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat, a satirical brand created by vegan Molly Elwood to spread awareness about veganism, arrived on campus on Monday Oct. 2 — where they stressed their believed hypocrisy of meat-eating and virtues of veganism to students passing by the entrance of Willard Straight Hall.

Elwood’s does not sell dog meat nor other products of any kind. The satirical brand made it a point to challenge many students’ views on veganism and the consumption of animals by using dog meat, a sensitive topic, as a vocal point for discussion on these topics. Monday’s event was sponsored by Allied Scholars for Animal Protection, an organization that aims to produce student activists for animal protection.

“I like to take the joke as far as I possibly can,” said Natalie Fulton — a YouTuber and animal rights activist who participated in the event — in an interview with The Sun. “Because one thing we’ve realized is that people don’t change unless they’re a little uncomfortable.”

The Frequently Asked Questions page on Elwood’s website states its concept is not meant to evoke or be connected with a specific country — despite the consumption of dog meat being a documented pejorative stereotype for East and Southeast Asians, particularly for Chinese and Koreans. The brand claims that the goal is to correct what they believe to be hypocritical actions by those who justify eating animals but still believe in animal rights.

McGraw Residents Voice Security, Pest, Hygiene Concerns

By SOFIA PRINCIPE Sun Staff Writer

Off the beaten path of West Campus’s charming residence halls sits the neglected fraternity house-turned residence hall of McGraw Place. Located on Southwest Campus, 109 McGraw Place is the former house of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, whose recognition was revoked by the University in 2019, and now houses students who most likely had bad housing timeslots or pure bad luck.

122 and 118 McGraw Place were also residence halls until this fall, when they reverted back into fraternity houses for Sigma Alpha Epsilon — which returned to Cornell last year after a decadelong suspension — and Phi Gamma Delta — of which the University withdrew recognition for two years, starting in 2020 — respectively. Former and current residents across all McGraw halls said they have experienced a lack of communication, care and responsiveness to security and infrastructure issues.

Marco Xerri ’26, a current resident of 109 McGraw Place, chose to live in McGraw as a last resort when his poor housing time slot left few options for his suite. According to Xerri, he has experienced troubling encounters with non-Cornell students around the McGraws.

“There are sometimes homeless people walking past my window, and one of them waved to me,” Xerri said.

McGraw 109 Place houses the Cornell Food Pantry, which is open to all undergraduate and graduate students, as well as Cornell staff and faculty. Xerri expressed belief that a food pantry has no place in a resident hall, because it poses potential security threats.

“I feel like you shouldn't have a food pantry in the same spot

that you have a dorm,” Xerri said. “When it is open, there is usually a line outside the door, and I’ve heard of people trying to get in [to the residence hall].”

Joe Siguencia ’26, a current resident of 109 McGraw Place, has also observed homeless people loitering around the residence hall and attempting to enter the building.

Animal protection activists from the satirical brand Elwood's Organic Dog Meat tabled on Ho

Budget | Mayor Laura Lewis (D) presented the 2024 budget proposal for the City of Ithaca, which requires $4 million in PILOT contributions from the University.

JONATHAN MONG / SUN NEWS EDITOR

See BUDGET page 3

See

“I don't think they are fit to be residence halls.”

Marco Xerri '26

Higher Ground? Fashion’s Climate Breakdown and Its Effect on Workers 11 a.m., Virtual Event

“Your Past is My Present”: The Case of Ukraine Noon - 1:15 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

“What We See and What We Value: Artificial Intelligence With a Human Perspective” With Prof. Fei-Fei Li, Computer Science, Stanford University Noon - 1 p.m., Virtual Event

Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences Fall 2023 Colloquium: “The Origins of the Universe’s Fastest Transients”

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 105 Space Sciences Building

Using Zotero Effectively

4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Uris Classroom in Uris Library

Laboratory of Plasma Studies Colloquium on Plasma Science amd Application

With Prof. Dennis Whyte, Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 700 Clark Hall

Tomorrow

2023 New York State Veterinary Conference

8 a.m., College of Veterinary Medicine

Cultivating Communication Leadership in Action Research: Moves that Matter

9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., G219 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall

Let’s Meditate Session

12:15 p.m. - 12:45 p.m., Virtual Event

Danielle Arigoni: Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation

Noon - 1 p.m., Virtual Event

Ezra’s Round Table/Systems Seminar

With Prof. Bolun Xu, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Columbia University

12:20 p.m. - 1:10 p.m., 253 Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall

Colloquium Talk: “Cultural Tariffs: Appropriation and the Right to Cross Culture Boundaries”

With Prof. Amir Goldberg, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

3 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

Re-Earthing Sapelo: Abolition Ecology and the Struggle to Save the Land

3 p.m. - 5 p.m., B73 Warren Hall

Anthropology Colloquium: “Weighing the Future: Race, Science and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era”

4 p.m. - 5 p.m., Virtual Event

Men’s Polo: Cornell vs. Yale University

7 p.m., Oxley Equestrian Center

Volleyball: Cornell vs. Yale University

7 p.m., Newman Arena at Bartels Hall

Uýra: The Rising Forest

7 p.m. - 9 p.m., Willard Straight Hall Theatr

Katie Chen ’25

Minority Farmers Receive Grants Kamulkar ’26 Creates

USDA provides compensation to redress past discrimination

By CAROLINE MICHAILOFF Sun Staff Writer

The United States Department of Agriculture has asked Windsor Group, a business focused on providing professional services and business solutions to federal government agencies, to help distribute $2.2 billion that the USDA allocated through the Inflation Reduction Act to farmers, ranchers and forest landowners who have experienced discrimination before Jan. 1 2021.

The USDA’s funding, termed the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, emerged from years of documented examples of discrimination against minority — defined as women, veteran, Asian, Black, Latino and/or Native American — farmers, including denying them access to low-interest rate loans, loan servicing, grant programs and assistance, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic loss and record-breaking land loss through foreclosures.

Alan Blankstein, the New York State manager for the Windsor Group, expressed farmers’ concerns with applying for USDA funding.

“It’s to be an open door process for facilitating anyone and everyone who has some kind of claim of a legitimate claim of discrimination, especially around USDA funding,” Blankstein said. “There are different levels of discrimination. The obvious ones are when they’re turned down for the loan; the less obvious ones are when they received the loan way too late. They may have lost their whole crops because they didn’t have the tractor. On the other end of the spectrum, they may have been dissuaded from even applying.”

Any farmer who can provide specific evidence that they have experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending before Jan. 1, 2021 is eligible to submit applications for compensation to the USDA. Farmers, ranchers and forest owners are permitted to provide additional evidence to support the claim of their discrimination and a full description of their experience to make their application stand out. Submitting information through the application form is all that is required to be considered.

On Sept. 22, 2023, the USDA extended the deadline to apply for the Discrimination Financial Assistance Program from Oct. 31 to Jan. 13, 2024, in response to feedback from potential applicants requesting more time to apply.

Discrimination for this program means

treating some people differently from others for illegitimate reasons. The USDA defines discrimination to include people having been treated unequally because of race, color, national origin or ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, marital status or disability or in reprisal/retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

The USDA has hired Windsor Group to assist New York farmers in applying for compensation, with offices located in Ithaca and Liberty, New York. Members of the Windsor Group have appeared at farmer’s markets and events throughout the state in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extensions, members of the New York State Department of Agriculture, the Black Farmer Ecosystem and other organizations to maximize reach. Applicants can receive up to $500,000 in payments with no repayment requirement.

Myles Caggins, spokesman for the Windsor Group and the eastern region of the USDA’s Discrimination Financial Assistance Program, told The Sun how Windsor Group will allocate the payments.

“The amount of the payment is being determined by the discrimination experienced by the farmers and its impact on that farmers’ operations as articulated or conveyed in the application process,” Caggins said.

According to Caggins, Windsor Group is working to combat predatory lawyers attempting to coerce farmers into signing away part of the financial assistance by charging filing fees.

“We make the emphasis that the technical assistance provided is free,” Caggins said. “In the history of discrimination, there have been class action suits, where… attorneys have come in and helped people file to be part of those suits. And some of the arrangements have just taken so much money from the farmers.”

Caggins emphasized that Windsor Group is a woman-owned, veteran-owned, disabled-owned small business, focusing primarily on government solutions or government staffing.

“This is a unique historic opportunity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an attempt to provide recompense of this sort in this magnitude to so many people who have experienced discrimination,” Blankstein said. “I am very optimistic in this part. There are lots of things to be concerned about in life and this is a ray of hope for those who do apply. I hope that they put aside any qualms or cynicism.”

Pop-Up Restaurant CENA, Pairs Menus with Music

By ANUSHKA SHOREWALA Sun Contributor

At an age where students are navigating college and figuring out what career to pursue, Arnav Kamulkar ’26 has already begun to forge his path. Currently a sophomore at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, Kamulkar’s passion for the culinary arts has led him to start his own pop-up restaurant, CENA.

Starting off by serving guests from the third floor of a house in Collegetown, Kamulkar combined inspiration from his musician parents with his passion for cooking, offering a custom playlist for each menu. Kamulkar now accepts reservation requests, preparing food in diners’ kitchens when available and making separate seating arrangements otherwise.

Kamulkar said his interest in cuisine began at a young age, when he spent time cooking with his mother. This early exposure to the culinary world ignited his passion for food, setting him on a path toward a career in the hospitality industry.

Upon arriving at the Hotel School, Kamulkar said he was pleasantly surprised by the vibrant community of like-minded individuals who shared his enthusiasm for food and culinary arts.

During his first year at Cornell, Kamulkar joined the culinary teams for Hotel Ezra Cornell — a weeklong, annual conference organized and executed by Hotel students. Kamulkar said joining HEC gave him hands-on exposure to the culinary field and the opportunity to interact with peers also passionate about hospitality.

However, Kamulkar realized that he wanted to engage more actively with cooking. Thus, he decided to start his own restaurant.

Kamulkar explained that he aims to make CENA a restaurant where people not only enjoy food but also experience it. He said he

decided to infuse music into the very heart and soul of CENA to turn from a simple restaurant to a dining experience.

Kamulkar recounted one of his favorite memories of CENA, when, during the restaurant’s second seating, guest and music enthusiast Ethan Goldberg ’24 approached Kamulkar with excitement.

“[Goldberg] told me, ‘If there ever was a song for this food, it would be this,’” Kamulkar said. “[W]hen people compliment my food, I love it, but the fact that someone who is a music aficionado was genuinely blown away from the thought put into the music… really solidified [my mission].”

Kamulkar expressed that the restaurant is not just a representation of his talent but a testament to his support community. When Kamulkar initially came up with the idea of CENA, he said his three friends — Dylan Beegal ’25, Alex Zoneraich ’25 and Dylan Drongesen ’26 — jumped at the idea, always ready to help him cook or offer to drive him to the grocery store. The three still help Kamulkar run CENA.

Kamulkar also said he did not anticipate the support he would receive from the Hotel School and larger Cornell community. His first seating waitlist received 20 responses, an outpouring of interest and support that he said not only exceeded his expectations but also demonstrated the genuine belief that many had in him and his culinary endeavor.

The process, however, came with difficulties as well. Kamulkar’s first challenge was gaining the initial momentum and overcoming the financial and logistical hurdles that come with starting a restaurant from scratch.

To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.

Ithaca Budget Requires Approval of Cornell PILOT

BUDGET Continued from page 1

The budget assumes a $4.08 million contribution from Cornell in 2024, of which $816,000 — 20 percent — will be restricted to infrastructure work determined by a joint working group, on which Cornell will not have veto power.

Lewis also said the 2024 budget will need to be reworked if the MOU is not approved.

New York State once again did not increase its contribution of slightly over $2 million to the city budget, which has remained stagnant since 2011.

“It is unfortunate that there has been a zero percent increase [in state contributions] since 2011,” Lewis said. “That’s not a typo.”

Of Ithaca’s expenses, 66.3 percent go toward salaries and benefits for city staff, according to Lewis. Retirement costs from the general fund will increase by 14.9 percent from 2023, and health insurance costs are trending at a 13 percent increase in costs, though unions cover roughly 20 percent of health insurance costs.

The city’s labor negotiations team settled all open contracts, including a longstanding negotiation with the Ithaca

Police Benevolent Association, the union representing the Ithaca Police Department officers. The Common Council approved the agreement — which will run until 2026 — along with an agreement with the City Executive Association, which represents Ithaca’s municipal workers, during Wednesday’s meeting. With these agreements ratified, each of the six unions representing city employees — including both fire unions — have contracts expiring in 2024 or beyond, but all six contracts will also increase costs for the city.

Lewis attributed these cost increases to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased inflation, made it more difficult to hire and retain employees and caused cost uncertainty with supply chain and availability issues.

The Department of Public Works will be the department with the greatest funding at over $10 million, while both IPD and the Ithaca Fire Department will each receive slightly more than $7.5 million. Lewis stated there will be no layoffs, and the city will be adding or restoring 22 positions, including a full staff for the incoming city manager position. Under Lewis’s proposal, the city will also be funding all new and vacant positions requested by all of the city’s departments.

The IFD will receive enough funding to hire three new firefighters, who will begin in their positions on Dec. 1,

2024. Human Resources will receive $25,000 in order to implement and train workers for the new commitment to equity statement, while GIAC will receive enough funding for two of its 25-hour program assistants to begin 35 hours as well as extra overtime money. IPD will add seven new police officers to start on Dec. 1, 2024 and will receive funding for a crime analyst position, $58,125 for year one of a fiveyear taser replacement project, $30,000 to update protective plates and $56,945 to fund a special response team.

The city will increase its contribution to TCAT by 4.4 percent from 2023.

Lewis stated her budget proposal aimed to reduce the debt load, keep taxes to a minimum, integrate the new labor contract wages and maintain fund reserves. She also said the city will evaluate infrastructure needs across Ithaca.

“Our infrastructure needs continue to be of concern and have been mentioned in the past,” Lewis said. “Deferred maintenance has meant that the millions and expenses responding to infrastructure needs continue to grow.”

Public hearings on Lewis’s proposal will occur on Oct. 11, Oct. 12, Oct. 19 and Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The Common Council will vote on the proposal on Nov. 1.

Anushka Shorewala can be reached at aas374@cornell.edu.

Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com.

Vegan Advocates Demonstrate With “Dog Meat” Satire Students Living in McGraw Place Dorms Report Safety Worries

“The only reason we are doing dog [meat] is because most people on average care about dogs. I have a dog, [and] I would never eat a dog even if it’s humanely raised and humanely killed and all that,” said Faraz Harsini, founder and CEO of ASAP, in an interview with The Sun. “So the whole point is to get people’s attention and bring attention to eating other animals.”

Fulton said the choice of dog meat was to highlight the difference in perception between animals such as dogs and cats — which are primarily kept as companions — and other domesticated animals, typically kept as tools.

“Society’s taught us that certain animals deserve respect and reverence such as dogs and cats but other animals are tools for us to use for resources and don’t even count,” Fulton said. “People are totally [in favor of] animal rights until they realize that they would have to change something about their lifestyle.”

The comparison between dogs and other animals is a goal Elwood’s organic dog meat seeks to emphasize. They believe all animals have a right to life without having to suffer or be eaten.

“I think a lot of the reason [for] using dogs … is [to grab] people’s attention,” said Jessica Cohen ’25, the president of Cornell’s chapter of ASAP. “By showing that a dog is not really any different than a cow, and a pig and other animals we eat, it’s helping people realize how their food choices impact all these animals who go through pain and

suffering every day.”

Cohen and Cornell’s chapter of ASAP aim to make vegan food options more accessible and affordable on campus.

“We are working hard on some initiatives in the dining hall,” Cohen said. “We are trying to get more plant-based options.”

Elwood’s presence caused mixed reactions from students, however, with many questioning the organizers’ motives and the views they represented prior to the event.

“I had heard of the event beforehand and then I saw some posts on social media about this event being racist,” Ryan Noonan ’25 said. “Why are people saying it’s racist? I wanted to come and see what I thought about it.”

Although Elwood’s strategy drew many students to the event, some students found it to be ineffective in convincing students of the brand’s mission.

“I personally think it’s failed,” Noonan said. “If you look at the backlash, it doesn’t really matter how good your arguments are if people aren’t receptive to them.”

However, not all reactions to the event were negative.

“I just decided to stop by because it seemed really interesting,” said Owen Luo ’27. “I thought [the event] really stood out to me and kind of changed my perspective, because I would never eat a dog. But then on the other hand, I am going to eat all these other animals, and it’s like cognitive dissonance.”

“A few homeless people do try to come in every now and then, twice so far this year,” Siguencia said.

In addition to safety concerns, residents were vocal about rodent and insect encounters. Siguencia has spotted mice, spiders and other bugs around his dorm space.

“There have been dead bugs on my windowsill randomly showing up, small flies and bugs in my room and even occasional giant spiders in the bathroom,” Siguencia said. “There’s also two mice currently residing in our lounge that we know of, so there’s definitely a rodent problem.”

Jackie Chen ’25, president of Phi Gamma Delta, said the former dorm was not properly boarded before the University transferred operations to the fraternity at the end of the summer.

“At the beginning of the year, there were a lot of insects and bugs in the house because the windows were left open over the summer,” Chen said. “After we cleaned all that up, it has been pretty good.”

Karen Brown, senior director of Campus Life Marketing and Communications, told the Sun that the McGraw residence halls are included in their pest protocol to address these issues.

“We have a pest control vendor who

routinely visits our facilities, including the McGraw Place buildings, to help us minimize these problems, and our facilities team has a protocol in place to handle any issues that arise,” Brown said.

Xerri and Siguencia both mentioned a lack of hot water when they first arrived at the dorm. Residents took cold showers for about a week before maintenance fixed the issue, Xerri said.

Joseph Sugarman ’24, a current resident of 109 McGraw Place, remarked on his relative indifference towards the McGraws despite complaints regarding air ventilation.

“There’s nothing good about it, but there’s nothing bad about it,” Sugerman said. “Because they sealed off all these doors since they were frat doors, there is no ventilation in any of the rooms, and because there are so many windows, it’s like a big heat pit.”

Brown said that 109 McGraw Place is part of a Cornell housing renewal plan and is continually being repaired and renovated. Meanwhile, residents remain uneasy about the safety and hygienic concerns in the McGraws, especially amidst better housing options.

“I don’t think they are fit to be residence halls,” Xerri said.

USDA Gives Grants to Farmers

three separate instances where they applied for farm business loans and were rejected each time.

Carlos Aguilera and Lorena Mendoza, the owners of West Haven Farm — located in Ithaca — have applied for financial assistance through Windsor Group. The two grew up in Central Mexico and immigrated to the U.S., where they have been farming since 2012. The couple had

“There was no explanation on why,” Aguilera said. “We weren’t even asking for that much money, and when they asked for less money, they said no, they couldn’t give us that either.”

Aguilera expressed his hesitation in applying for this compensation.

“Why would the government

be looking for us to compensate us for not giving us a loan in the first place?” Aguilera said. “Minority folks like us… are very skeptical, because we feel not only being discriminated against, but… there are a lot of organizations out there that are capitalizing on us, and using us as a way of making money for them, not to help our community.”

Aguilera and Mendoza ultimately decided to apply for the compensation after receiving an email from Windsor Group’s Ithaca office including the name of another local farmer, a friend of theirs, saying that they might qualify for the program. After researching the Windsor group further, meeting with them and thoroughly reviewing their website, Aguilera and Mendoza decided that Windsor group was legitimate.

If granted the funding, Aguilera and Mendoza said they intend to use it to pay off debts they have acquired through the purchase of their existing farm and to build the infrastructure they need to farm.

Over 1,000 people have submitted to Windsor Group throughout the Eastern U.S. Applicants may be women, veterans, Asian, Black, Latino and/ or American Indian farmers. The application must be submitted online or, for U.S. mailing, postmarked by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on Jan. 13, 2024. Applications submitted in person at a regional office must be delivered by 8 p.m. local time on Jan. 13, 2024.

Sofa Principe be reached at sprincipe@cornellsun.com.

Anthony Nagle can be reached at afn27@cornell.edu.

Caroline Michailof can be reached at cmichailof@cornellsun.com.

Dining Guide

Your source for good food

Foodie Fuel: Foods T at Make You Feel Good AND Satisfy the Sweet Spot

BY MAIA MEHRING Sun

As a First-Year student at Cornell, the dining halls have totally won me over. From french fries at North Star to warm cookies at Morrison, it seems as though everywhere I turn there is something delicious to eat. However, ever since I’ve gotten here, I’ve fallen victim to “college air.” What is “college air,” you ask? It is very similar to the phenomenon “school air” that you may have heard about back in high school. Basically, “school air” is the mysterious composition of the atmosphere in a high school that causes one’s appearance to go from perfectly put together in the morning to messy and grimey by the end of the school day. I’m finding evidence of this same sensation here; I’m always breaking out and bloating for some reason. And it’s not just over the course of a school day– it’s a perpetual event.

As much as I like to believe that my issues are a result of “college air,” I can’t help but feel as if my meal decisions are playing a role, as well. After all, how can I resist the Dairy Bar ice cream and diverse pizza stations? So, I’ve decided to devise a list of foods and food combinations that may help me and my fellow foodies incorporate some nutwwrition into wour diets while also satisfying our cravings. Just a disclaimer: if you still want that cookie, by all means eat it! These are just some potential additions to your diet that happen to be healthy and yummy.

To start us off, I thought I would suggest a combination that would make my Jewish family members proud – apples and honey! On the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, us Jews welcome in the new year with the sweetness of this killer combo. And trust me, it is gooood. So good, that I’ve even incorporated apples and honey into my day-to-day life. You know what they say, an

apple a day keeps the doctor away! Though this popular saying is a little silly, there are some serious health benefits to apples. For one, they are loaded with fiber and antioxidants, which aid digestion, stabilize glucose

breakfast! Like apples, chia seeds are high in fiber, which fills you up for longer and gives you the power to finish writing that essay *wink wink*. If you’re a fruit lover like I am, you’ll eat up the addition of bananas

levels, and ease inflammation. Honey, while composed of sugar, also has some of those coveted antioxidants too, making its fusion with apples a great snack to not only enjoy for dessert, but also enhance your health with!

On the note of honey and fruit, another sweet pick of mine is chia seed pudding with granola and/or bananas and honey on top. This combination is just as easy, accessible, and delicious as the first, and it’s a particularly great supplement to your

to your chia seed pudding. Bananas contain a slew of nutritional elements including high amounts of potassium. Potassium has been found to help get rid of sodium in the body, lower blood pressure, and aid muscle contraction. If you’re looking for some extra crunch, add a little bit of granola to the mix. I promise, this snack will leave you feeling satisfied when you walk out of the dining hall!

My last recommendation is one that requires a little extra work, but I think you’ll find it’s worth it when you try it out. It’s… drum roll please…frozen greek yogurt bark!

I love this recipe because it gives you the freedom to customize it however you want. Technically, the only thing you’ll truly need is greek yogurt, but it’s not as much fun eating the bark plain. Some toppings I like to include in my bark are peanut butter (or a substitute like sunflower butter if you have a peanut allergy), semi-sweet chocolate chips, honey, and fresh fruit (bananas or blueberries). You’ll want to mix the honey and peanut butter in with the greek yogurt and spread melted chocolate over it with a toothpick or fork (all on a tray or plate) before freezing your mixture; that way, you can work the sweetness into the bark. Right before entering the freezer, add your fruit right on top! Let your bark freeze for four hours, and then enjoy! Greek yogurt, which is high in protein, provides health benefits such as boosting your metabolism, building muscle, and encouraging better bone health. Making greek yogurt bark is a great dorm room activity to do with your friends, and you’ll even get a great sweet treat out of it. Well, that’s my little spiel on my sweet snack secrets. I personally enjoy all of these, and when I make the effort to switch up my dining choices, I always notice a difference in how these foods make me feel. It’s so much fun to experiment, and there are an endless amount of combinations to try. If you’re also struggling with incorporating healthy options into your diet, maybe consider giving some of these snacks a try. We can combat “college air” one cool food combo at a time!

Dani’s Foodie Finds: Non-Apple Foods At Apple Fest

BY DANIELA ROJAS Dining Editor

The 41st annual Apple Harvest Festival (Applefest) took place this past weekend in the Ithaca Commons. Most people know about the apple cider donuts that scream fall in Ithaca and the delectable taste of hot and sweet fresh apple cider. However, not many talk about the non-apple food items. Here are two of my favorite non-apple finds from Applefest this past weekend: one sweet and one savory!

Tibetan Momo Bar had several appetizing freshly-made offerings. One of them was momos, sold in bundles (such as 8 for $12). Momos, although they look like dumplings, have a thicker dough than dumplings. The Times of India describes this as a “heartier bite.” Momos have roots in Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. I ordered pork-filled momos, served with a compote spicy sauce on the side. A few bites were enough to finish one momo; every bite was flavorsome, savory and satisfying. The sauce on the side worked in harmony with the luscious dough and pork, as well.

Funnel cakes are a staple for me anytime I go to Applefest. In previous years, I went out of my way to find the apple funnel cakes. I was slightly disappointed, as this year there were no apple funnel cakes this year. To my surprise, there was still a seasonal funnel cake. I don’t remember the name of the business unfortunately, all the photos I took of the tent just say “Pumpkin Funnel Cake.” The funnel cake itself, though, proved to be worth the trouble. The fresh warmth of the luscious yet delicate funnel cake with mellow, sweet notes of pumpkin increased my serotonin levels greatly. Topped with powdered sugar, not only was the cake aesthetically pleasing but it was also sweet and scrumptious. Not too saccharine either.

Applefest is known for its apples, but don’t let that limit your taste buds’ comfort zone. I have no regrets about trying these dishes, and neither should you. Let us know by emailing food@cornellsun.com if you tried any other non-apple foods at applefest you would like to share!

Dining Staffer

Maia Mehring, dining stafer, is a frst year in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mjm743@cornell.edu.

Pumpkin funnel caks are a new unexpected delicacy at Applefest

Deeserts deserve attention too: most dining halls offer a wide array of desserts offerings.

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Rebecca Sparacio is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. Her fortnightly column Te Space Between is a discussion on student life, politics and community. She can be reached at rsparacio@ cornellsun.com.

How has English Studies Changed?

RLS: Since I have the honor of writing a column with Professor Daniel Schwarz, I’ve chosen to have a conversation about how the English major has changed over time. To start, Dan, what are some of the big picture changes that have occurred within the English department over the years?

DRS: Our department, Rebecca, changed its name to the Department of Literatures in English and stipulated a curriculum where each student is required to take courses from among a group of burgeoning fields that reach into once neglected areas. We need to remember that what English departments have traditionally done well is to teach students how to read closely, carefully and critically and to see the nuances and ambiguities, as well as the passion and power in words, sentences and paragraphs. That is, the English major prepared students for a lifetime of careful reading no matter what field they chose.

The model for a liberal education in elite universities in the U.K. and the U.S. had originally been a study of classical literature and the focus was on historical criticism and philology. Literature after the 1900s or so was not something serious people studied. The two-year Honors degree in Edinburgh where I did my 1961-1962 junior year left a week or two for the modern authors who followed Hardy. In the post-World War II world, American Literature was still fighting for a place for full curricula representation.

RLS: Going through Cornell’s Courses of Study Archive to see how the course offerings have changed, I was able to access course rosters from 1980 onwards. The courses in 1980-1981 address historical periods; for example: classes like “The Romantic Poets,” “The Victorian Period,” and “The Early Twentieth Century.” This contrasts starkly with the Fall 2023 course offerings which are thematically inflected: “Revolution or Reform,” “Free Speech, Censorship, and the Age of Global Media” and “Communicating Climate Change.” Is historicism no longer prioritized as highly over connecting works to contemporary themes, issues and even politics?

DRS: Yes, Rebecca, our evolving departmental curriculum reflects changes in what we are doing. You correctly note that the focus on periods has changed and that our classes are more thematically defined. We have diminished the centrality of the Western Literary tradition. For much of my years here each student was required to take a two-semester chronological survey of English Literature beginning with Chaucer, if not before. Such a course was based on the concept of a canon of major works that all majors had to know, including Paradise Lost and Shakespeare’s major plays. We have opened the door to other literatures in English, some from the Global South — Nigeria and

all of Anglophone Africa; India; the Anglophone Caribbean — which is a developmental, not a geographic concept and excludes developed countries like Australia and New Zealand which are in the Southern Hemisphere. We no longer require our majors to have read a common group of works.

RLS: I think at the heart of this issue are two major points. The first is the idea, for me at least, that culture is never stagnant. If we are going to have an education that makes us culturally aware and opens the doors and windows of the mind, I think it is important that students learn about a wide variety of experiences. The second issue is the question of what happens when close reading in a historical context takes a back seat to thematically inflected readings that connect works to contemporary politics and issues. The loss of a historical grounding can be dangerous if teachers fail to stress that works of literature represent the historical times in which they are produced. In today’s climate of cancel culture we need explore how some past literature reflected views we now find abhorrent — homophobia, racism, class elitism — while past literature was in the vanguard of criticizing such views.

In today’s classrooms, students are concerned with the political implications of a text to the point of asking the following question: If my professor is stressing a certain political line, would I be negatively affected — in terms of grade or the esteem in which I am held by the professor — if I were to dissent? It would be wrong to contend that students do not self-censor to some extent both in the classroom and with one another.

DRS: Our job as literature teachers is not political re-education but rather teaching students to articulate their perspectives based on evidence and to listen carefully to the perspectives of others. Too often academic scholarship has led to a disconnection between thematic and politically foregrounded literary criticism and the process of reading; thus, writing about literature has become a rather arcane enterprise. But this need not, and should not, be the case in functional classrooms where both close reading with attention to the inextricable relation between form and content and the belief that literature opens the door to a better understanding of the world go hand-inhand.

RLS: The term “Native American” or Native American literature is nowhere to be found in 1980. In a course called “American History and the Literary Imagination — defined as a class with a focus on narratives surrounding “certain controversial American events such as

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the Salem Witchcraft trial, the Nat Turner slave revolt, the Oppenheimer Security Hearing...

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Puzzle 2263

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27 HOUSE FOR RENT

by Travis Dandro

Mr. Gnu

SC I ENCE

Digital Viticulture: Cornell Lab Detecting Diseases In Grapevines Using Robots, Satellites

By DAN HONG LOH Sun Contributor

The next time you visit one of the many vineyards around the Finger Lakes region, take a closer look at the grape vines. While leaves may appear perfectly lush, healthy and green, there may be disease-causing viruses or fungi unseen to the eye.

Cornell AgriTech has a long history of collaborating with grape growers to improve vineyard productivity — in terms of grape breeding, development of climate-adapted grape varieties and pest and disease management.

One professor researching the future of viticulture is Prof. Kaitlin Gold, grape pathology, who leads the Grape Sensing, Pathology and Extension Lab.

GrapeSPEC is one of the primary extensions responsible for grape disease management in New York state, specializing in digital viticulture technologies that could improve disease management decision-making.

Grapes are a crop susceptible to a number of diseases that, if left untreated, result in significant decreases in crop yields — which farmers have long tried to avoid. These include viral diseases like grapevine leafroll disease, or fungal diseases like Botrytis bunch rot and powdery mildew.

To minimize crop damage, it is crucial to detect diseases early and deploy management strategies, whether they be applying fungicides or eliminating diseased grapevines to stop the spread.

However, this poses a significant challenge to grape growers, as symptoms can vary and take as long as a year to show up after infection — if they do so at all.

For example, with grapevine leafroll disease, leaf tissue of red-skinned grape crops turn deep red or purple. With green-skinned grape crops, the leaf tissue will turn yellow.

Hybrids, however, can be infected and have no physical symptoms. Regardless, leafroll affected vines can have yield losses of up to 50 percent and even delayed and inconsistent ripening of fruit.

Gold and her lab work on grapevine disease sensing using imaging spectroscopy, or sensors capable of detecting grapevine diseases even when grape crops are asymptomatic.

Although there may be no difference to the eye, the physiological processes of infected grapevines are affected at a cellular level, since their defense mechanism against

the disease is activated.

According to Gold, these sensors are able to detect a range of light of 2100 nanometres, compared to the 300 nm range that human eyes are capable of.

By capturing these subtle interactions of light with the plant, researchers are able to measure aspects of plant physiology that are otherwise invisible to farmers growing these crops — such as water content and starch concentration — in a non-destructive way.

“This technology was developed to tell NASA what Mars is made up of, so [it can detect] diverse aspects of environmental chemistry,” Gold said. “And we can leverage

that together to accomplish early disease detection [in grapevines].”

Imaging spectroscopy at GrapeSPEC is utilized across a range of spatial scales, including proximal and remote sensing.

Autonomous rovers are used in proximal sensing, through which they can scan the foliage in each row of the vineyard. In contrast, satellites are used in remote sensing, which can capture spectral data of the whole vineyard at once.

Gold noted that while remote sensing offers unparalleled coverage of vineyards, proximal sensing can provide specific biological information and detailed coverage of

or not — based on spectral data that the sensors capture. However, while imaging spectroscopy is a powerful technology, there are a number of caveats that come with it.

“One of the curses with spectroscopic imagery is that this dataset is so sensitive that lots of things affect it — the time of day data was collected, the weather conditions,” Galvan said.

Galvan added that even the location of data collection can heavily influence disease diagnosis. More data would need to be collected across different conditions to determine if the signal for disease can be detected despite data variation due to confounding factors, he said.

Galvan said seeing the rate of infection inspired him to help the grape grower community, but he also noted the gravity of plant disease.

“It’s also hard to be excited because this is people’s lives [and] livelihoods that are going up in flames due to a virus,” Galvan said.

For Gold, conversations with growers and other stakeholders in California drove her research for detecting asymptomatic grapevine leafroll virus.

“It is very much like a twoway street,” she said. “[T]heir goals have really defined the research that we do.”

While imaging spectroscopy in early disease detection is a huge technological advancement, it is not meant to replace current disease management efforts, but rather to complement it, according to David Combs, a research support specialist at GrapeSPEC.

Having such a way to detect disease at growers’ disposal will help inform ground-based solutions ansd allow them to target diseased grapevines precisely and efficiently.

the foliage on the grapevines. Both complement each other in detecting diseases.

“They are like yin and yang,” Gold said. “They fix each other’s weak spots.”

Machine learning can be used to process large amounts of data that the sensors generate. Fernando Romero Galvan grad, a Ph.D. student under Gold, works on a remote sensing project in collaboration with NASA to detect grapevine leafroll disease in Californian vineyards.

Using known parts of healthy, symptomatic and asymptomatic grapevines, Galvan trains a machine learning model to distinguish between healthy and diseased grapevines — asymptomatic

“Having this technology to advance towards disease control and having fewer toxic materials in the environment — it’s great,” Combs said. “These things were unheard of 20 or 30 years ago, and now, the idea is becoming reality.”

Gold expressed confidence that this technology will be essential to ensuring environmental and financial sustainability of the agricultural sector in the face of climate change.

“Precision management technologies, digital agriculture, [non-destructive sensing],” Gold said. “This is the future.”

Dan Hong Loh can be reached at dl962@cornell.edu.

Changing colors | Many grapevines infected with diseases like grapevine leafroll disease will show physical symptoms, such as green leaves turning deep red or even purple.

Digital disease detection | A utonomous rovers are rolling through vineyards to inspect the physiciological state of each grapevine for disease, utilizing imaging spectroscopy and computer vision.

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

COURTESY OF FERNANDO ROMERO GALVAN