10-8 - entire issue hi res

INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 142, No. 7

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2025 n ITHACA, NEW YORK

News

Sports

Bearskinner Unveiled

Homecoming hangup

Aaron Chin ’27 reveals himself as the Ganedago bearskinner in MeatEater Podcast. | Page 4

16 Pages – Free

Cornell football lost to Colgate 41-21 during the Homecoming game on Saturday afternoon. | Page 16

International Students Express Fear for Future Students share concerns amidst the Trump administration’s changes to visa application process

By HUSSAM KHER BEK and ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Contributor and Sun Features Editor

Oct. 6 — With the Trump administration vowing to revoke the visas of thousands of international students across the United States in May, some international students report that it’s a “scary” time to be a college student in the United States.

“Being an international student in the U.S. today, it’s definitely scary,” said an undergraduate international student, who was granted anonymity for their personal safety due to fears of deportation and retaliation, to The Sun. “The idea that something as small as jaywalking or a parking ticket could lead to deportation is always in the back of my mind. College is supposed to be a time to make mistakes and grow, yet knowing even the tiniest misstep could ruin my future is paralyzing.”

Last spring, international students across the country were targeted by the federal government, often having Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated over minor offenses. However, a large number of these terminations, which totaled more than 1,800 SEVIS terminations across 240 colleges and universities, were made without explanation.

Cornell itself saw 17 SEVIS terminations and at least 4 visa revocations, though SEVIS records have since been restored as the Department of Homeland Security creates a new system to review student records.

With recent changes to the visa application process, such as

applicants being required to make their social media accounts public, concerns have risen among incoming international students regarding the application for an F-1 visa, which allows international students to study at U.S. universities, high schools or other educational institutions.

“College is supposed to be a time to make mistakes and grow, but knowing even the tiniest misstep could ruin my future is paralyzing.”

Anonymous undergraduate international student According to the U.S. Department of State, all applicants, regardless of country of origin, must “adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’” in order to facilitate the Department’s vetting process.

When asked about how Cornell is assisting its international students with the new policies, Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford explained in an email statement to The Sun that it has “extended flexibility in deferrals” of admission and has launched a global semester program for new students unable to schedule a visa appointment prior to the start of the academic year. Wolfold explained that students “could start their Cornell degree with one of our top three

partners abroad” through this program.

Wolford also directed students to Cornell’s Supporting Our International Community website, which contains updates and resources to support international students through the visa process.

“We’ve seen temporary holds on student visas, more aggressive questioning during consulate and border interviews and far more rejections. I personally know people who were denied simply because of where their dad was born,” the anonymous undergraduate international student told The Sun. When asked about how recent policies have affected the number of international students accepted to Cornell, a University spokesperson told The Sun that the number accepted has been “roughly the same” as in previous years. However, the spokesperson did acknowledge that the University has experienced a decline in the number of international graduate students.

“We have experienced some melt at the graduate level as students were worried about the visa application process or chose not to come to the U.S. because of the political climate,” Wolford wrote in an email statement to The Sun. As international students face more scrutiny, some say they do not feel safe on campus.

To continue reading, please visit www.cornellsun.com Zeinab Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.

Hussam Kher Bek can be reached at hk953@cornell.edu.

‘A Tremendous Loss’: Prof. Debora Castillo Dies Over Weekend After 40 Years at Cornell

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor

Prof. Debra Castillo, comparative literature, died over the weekend, according to a Monday email sent to the College of Arts and Sciences community by Peter Loewen, dean of arts and sciences.

Castillo, a Stephen H. Weiss presidential fellow, Emerson Hinchliff professor of Hispanic Studies and interim director of the Latina/o Studies Program, began teaching at Cornell in 1985, according to the email.

In the email, titled “A tremendous loss to our community,” Loewen expressed the impact of Castillo on the Cornell community.

“This loss is far reaching in our community and I hope all who knew Debra will do what they can to take care of themselves and one another,” Loewen wrote.

“My condolences to you all.”

A separate email from the Latino Studies Program mourning the loss described Castillo as generous, energetic, kind, incredibly knowledgeable and fiercely devoted to her students, noting that “people across the hemisphere and the world will feel her absence.”

South Americans at Cornell also put out a statement on their Instagram mourning the loss of Castillo, who served as a faculty advisor for the club, calling her “a bright ray of sunshine.”

Over her tenure, the professor became involved with multiple departments and initiatives on campus.

Castillo was the director of the Cornell Migration Studies minor and held the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship, which is the University’s highest teaching award.

She also worked in multiple initiatives involving students and community members in Ithaca and

Tompkins County, including Teatrotaller, a Cornell theater troupe founded in 1993 that seeks to preserve Hispanic and Latino culture through theater. The group has performed across multiple stages in the United States and abroad, including Mexico, Canada and Belgium.

Additionally, Castillo supported local nonprofit organizations such as the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County — an organization that supports the local Latino population in Tompkins county — and No Más Lágrimas, which seeks to support vulnerable members of the community to meet basic needs.

Her scholarship focused on migration, border studies and Latinx issues. She was a prolific scholar, publishing more than 150 academic articles and over 20 books as an author, editor or translator. Castillo also served as editor for many academic journals, including the Latin American Literary Review and Diacritics.

She was the former president of the Latin American Studies Organization and La Asociación de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades. She was also a member of several editorial board presses, including the Cornell University Press, the North Carolina Series in Romance Languages and Literatures and the State University of New York Press.

Castillo is survived by her daughter, Melissa, and her son, Carlos.

Castillo was teaching three courses this semester — one undergraduate course and two that were offered in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. According to the Monday email, students in these courses will receive separate guidance and additional information.

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Beebe Lake glows in autumnal colors as the leaves finally start to turn on campus. AUDREY ZHANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTOR

Daybook

2 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Daybook

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS Today National Coming Out Day Noon - 4 p.m., Ho Plaza 2025 Pre-Health Career Fair 1:30 - 4:30 p.m., Duffield Hall Atrium Outdoor Odyssey Information Session 5:30 - 6:30 p.m., Rockefeller Hall 230 Take Action for Animals with Animal Advocacy at Cornell 6 - 7 p.m., Morril Hall 110

Tomorrow Korean Hangeul Day 2 - 3 p.m., Ho Plaza Tatkon Workshop: Aligning your Strengths with Academic and Career Goals 5 - 6:30 p.m., South Balch Hall Multipurpose Room 3330 Iconic Cornell - RBG Documentary at Cornell Cinema 6 - 8 p.m., Cornell Cinema at Willard Straight Hall Cornell Aikido Club Beginner’s Class 7 - 8 p.m., Teagle Hall Second Floor Gymnastics Room

The Corne¬ Daily Sun INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880 Editor in Chief

Julia Senzon ’26

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Postal Information: The Cornell Daily Sun (USPS 132680 ISSN 1095-8169) is published by the Cornell Daily Sun, a New York corporation, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. The Sun is published Wednesdays during the academic year and every weekday online. Three special issues — one for seniors in May, one for reunion alumni in June and one for incoming first-year students in July — make for a total of 33 issues this academic year. Subscriptions are: $35.00 for fall term, $37.50 for spring term and $72.50 for both terms if paid in advance. Standard postage paid at Ithaca, New York. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cornell Daily Sun, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.

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The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Photo

SUNBURSTS: Homecoming Members of the Cornell community from near and far gathered to celebrate Homecoming this weekend

By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

Nathan Ellison / Sun Staff Photographer COMING HOME | Parker Woodring ’25 runs the ball during the Cornell football game against Colgate last weekend.

Nathan Ellison / Sun Staff Photographer BIG LEAP AND A MISS | Kandakai Sherman Jr. makes a tackle during the Homecoming game last weekend.

Matthew Korniczky / Sun Assistant Photography Editor PLAY IT LOUD | The Big Red Marching Band performed during Homecoming’s halftime at Schoellkopf Field.

Matthew Korniczky / Sun Assistant Photography Editor THE (BIG) RED SEA | Schoellkopf Field was packed during the Homecoming match against Colgate last Saturday.

Dante de la Peña / Sun Staff Photographer KICKIN’ IT | Midfielder Mariana Kessinger ’26 contesting the ball at the women’s soccer game against Harvard at Berman Field.

Matthew Korniczky / Sun Assistant Photography Editor BLOCKING OUT THE CRIMSON | Outside hitter/right side Nicole Mallus ’26 and middle blockerMackenzie Parsons ’28 block a ball during the volleyball game against Harvard last weekend.

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Edior SWEET JUSTICE | Singer and rapper Tkay Maidza opened the annual Homecoming concert on Oct. 5 in Bartels Hall.

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Editor LOVE ME NOT | Headliner Ravyn Lenae enchanted the crowd with songs like “Love Me Not,” “Genius” and “One Wish.”

To see more photos, visit cornellsun.com.

3

4 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

News

Cornell Ranks 227 out of 257 Schools in FIRE College Free Speech Rankings

By MARISA CEFOLA Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 7 — Cornell’s overall free speech climate has remained at an F grade by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression since 2021, and its 2025 College Free Speech ratings have seen further decline.

The University earned a speech climate score of 51.66 out of 100 points based on criteria including student surveys, campus policies and recent speech-related controversies. “Speech climate” refers to how much a school’s cultural environment promotes free speech among its community members. Out of the 257 schools surveyed, 166 received an F grade, or an overall score below 60. Only 11 schools boast a grade of C or higher.

Cornell’s score falls below the national average this year, which stands at 58.63.

Cornell Media Relations did not reply to Cornell Media Relations did not reply to a request for comment regarding FIRE’s rankings.

FIRE has been evaluating college and university speech environments to further its goals of protecting students impacted by censorship and a “marketplace of ideas” since 2020. This year, the organization surveyed over 68,000 students, 304 of whom were Cornell students.

FIRE highlighted three major speech-related controversies that contributed to Cornell’s lower score this year.

First, a student was investigated and suspended due to expressing that “Zionists must die” on social media in January 2024.

Next, pro-Palestinian students disrupted the University’s “Pathways for Peace” event discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leading to the arrest or detainment of at least 17 individuals in March 2025. At the time,

President Kotlikoff condemned the protest and suspended the organization that had advertised the disruption, Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell.

Finally, Cornell rescinded R&B artist Kehlani’s invitation to headline Slope Day due to what Kotlikoff labeled as “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments” regarding the IsraelPalestine conflict. U.S. Senator Rick Scott, along with Representatives Lisa McClain and Mike Lawler, called for Kehlani to be uninvited, putting pressure on the Cornell administration, according to FIRE. Cornell’s downward score trend is consistent with universities across the nation, according to FIRE. The organization reported “sobering” findings, including students increasingly self-censoring themselves, possessing lower tolerances for both liberal and

conservative controversial political speakers and higher tolerance of violence to silence campus speech.

“The percentage of students saying it is acceptable to shout down a speaker, block entry to a campus speech, or use violence to stop a campus speech all increased since last year and are at record highs,” says FIRE’s most recent executive summary.

Surveyed Cornellians displayed only a minor increase in their support for violence — to which the majority of students remained opposed — in response to a question that asked if it was acceptable to use violence to stop a campus speech.

Two percent of Cornell student responders selected “always acceptable,” seven percent selected “sometimes acceptable,” 27 percent selected “rarely acceptable,” and 64 percent

selected “never acceptable.”

These results mark a 7 percent increase in the number of students who believed violence was acceptable to any degree compared to the 2024 data — an increase that entirely fell within the “rarely acceptable” response.

FIRE also pointed to the Israel-Palestine conflict and pressures from the Trump administration on universities’ free speech policies as key drivers for the increase in volatile campus environments this year. These topics, along with abortion, were the top three issues all surveyed students found difficult to discuss on campus.

Despite the University’s speech ratings, Cornell earned positive Due Process ratings, which assess Cornell policies that govern a student’s right to due process of law. At Cornell, due process is applied to implementing fair and equitable procedures for students enduring situations such as Student Code of Conduct violations and Title VI and Title IX complaints.

FIRE scrutinized procedural aspects of Cornell’s policies, outlining a student’s rights to a presumption of innocence, a meaningful hearing process and a right to appeal. Each due process category received significantly higher letter grades than an F. Several student activists, however, have expressed frustration with due process in Office of Student Code of Conduct and Community Standards investigations — referencing the temporary suspensions from campus privileges and services many protestors face as their case awaits resolution.

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

MARISA CEFOLA / CREATED WITH DATAWRAPPER

Speech statistics | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression issues grades to universities based on free speech climates. The graphic depicts Cornell’s declining score.

Marisa Cefola can be reached at mcefola@ cornellsun.com.

Aaron Chin ’27 Reveals Himself as Ganedago Hall Bear Skinner on The MeatEater Podcast

By ANJELINA GONZALEZ Sun Senior Writer

Twelve days after two students processed a bear in Gan dag Hall, Aaron Chin ’27 came forward as one of the hunters to detail his account of the incident and its aftermath on The MeatEater Podcast Network.

Cornell University Police Department received reports of a skinned bear in the main floor kitchen of the Gan dag Hall dorm Sept. 7. A University spokesperson told The Sun that no charges were filed.

Chin did not reply to a request for comment from The Sun. The incident was immediately met with online backlash on Reddit and Cornell’s Sidechat, an anonymous social media platform — resulting in national news coverage and even garnering an opinion piece from The Dartmouth.

Chin appeared publicly to claim responsibility for the incident for the first time on the podcast. Chin, a mechanical engineering student, is also a volunteer firefighter for the Cayuga Heights Fire Department and a US army cadet and squad leader with the Army ROTC at Cornell.

Chin said that, while there have been many critics, many people have reached out to organizations he is a member of to express their ongoing support after the event’s publicity.

“A lot of people opened their doors,” Chin told Steven Rinella, host of The MeatEater Podcast Network. “Of course, [there are] the keyboard warriors and the basement dwellers, but people have been overwhelmingly supportive.”

And while Chin replied, “Oh, hell no” when asked if he would conduct an animal processing in a dormitory kitchen again, he said he does not regret his actions.

“I didn’t think it would become that large and definitely we’d probably do it in the woods next time,” Chin said. “But also looking back, no regrets for what we did, how we conducted ourselves. Like the fact that we thought about the implications … we were very considerate of just our etiquette and how we conducted ourselves when we were processing.”

Chin shared that he and his hunting partner — whose name he did not share on the podcast — planned their hunt two hours from Cornell in an undisclosed state forest for the first day of early firearms season.

Following the hunt on Sept. 6, Chin and his partner intended to process the bear at a friend’s place when the friend had an “emergency to tend to” that led to the plans falling through, according to Chin. Not wanting to let the meat spoil, they headed to Gan dag Hall’s communal kitchen for processing.

“We didn’t expect it to blow up. We were really diligent in reading all of the rules [and] regulations,” Chin said. “We made sure we did everything by the book because we knew we were going to be under scrutiny.”

By the evening of Sept. 7, images of the bear began circulating on Sidechat, a Cornell social media app, and Reddit, with users questioning the sanitation, legality and whether processing the kill in a dormitory kitchen followed community guidelines.

NBC News reported that an investigator from the Department of Environmental

JULIA NAGEL / SUN FILE PHOTO

Scandalous skinning | Two Cornell students recieved backlash for skinning a bear in the main communal kitchen of the Ganedago Hall dormitory.

Conservation visited Cornell that Sunday and confirmed that they “found no code violations.”

In an email to The Sun, a Cornell spokesperson verified that “the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards determined that the [bear processing] incident is not a violation of the Student Code of Conduct.”

The statement also detailed that several offices were working together to address the impact of the bear processing, including the residence hall where the bear was processed and stored.

Cornell Housing and Residential Life emailed a statement on Sept. 18 to Gan dag Hall residents to clarify that the kitchen had

been sanitized and reopened as of Sept. 8.

Chin shared that University authorities gave minimal follow-up with him after the initial investigation. However, he noted that Student Support and Advocacy Services reached out due to the national media coverage.

“I remember when it was at its high point [of people] talking about it, I’m like, ‘Wow, okay. This is the talk of the town,’” Chin said. “And for the most part, people in the real world have been pretty supportive.”

Anjelina Gonzalez can be reached at agonzalez@cornellsun.com.

The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025 5

News

Cornell Forms ‘Committee on the Cornell Hillel Holds Future of the American University’ Vigil for Two-Year

By ISABELLA HANSON Sun News Editor

Oct. 1 — Cornell has formed a committee to reimagine “How should the American university adapt to best serve future generations?” amid a “defining” moment.

Announced in an email to the campus community on Wednesday morning by Provost Kavita Bala, the Committee on the Future of the American University includes 18 professors representing eight undergraduate colleges and five graduate colleges.

“This committee is charged with envisioning the long-term future of Cornell as an American university pursuing its core missions of education, scholarship, public impact, and community engagement,” Bala wrote. “It will explore the challenges and opportunities of this moment, engaging thoughtfully with both supporters and skeptics — within our university and beyond.”

The creation of the committee follows the freezing of at least $250 million in the form of stop-work orders and frozen grants by the Trump administration. In an August statement from administrators, Cornell shared that due to “acute fiscal pressures arising from a number of factors,” there would be immediate budget reductions.

“This committee is charged with envisioning the long-term future of Cornell as an American university pursuing its core missions of education, scholarship, public impact, and community engagement.

Kavita Bala

As part of those reductions, Bala announced an internal budget cut of approximately $11 million from the College of Arts and Sciences budget at a Sept. 17 meeting.

Along with Bala, the committee is co-chaired by Prof. Ariel Avgar, labor rela-

tions and law and history; Prof. Phoebe Sengers, information science and science and technology studies; Prof. Praveen Sethupathy, biomedical sciences, who also chairs the department; and Prof. Adam Smith, anthropology, director of the Cornell Institute of Archaeology and Material Studies and associate dean and secretary of faculty.

Bala wrote that among other challenges, American universities face “a loss of public trust in higher education, the erosion of the longtime compact between universities and the federal government, and rapid technological change,” which reshape how “we teach, learn, and engage with the world.”

The committee will examine questions across four distinct areas: undergraduate education, graduate education, scholarship and public impact and community engagement.

For undergraduate education, the committee intends to discuss how a university should educate students amid diminished trust and societal change, best train students to become “responsible citizens in a polarized world” and embrace changes presented from artificial intelligence development, while retaining “retaining our commitment to the power of reading and writing, dialogue, human ingenuity, and critical thought,” according to the committee description.

The committee also intends to explore the effects of reduced federal funding for graduate education, how “American universities retain global leadership in research through new partnerships and funding models” and how to “ leverage the knowledge we generate” to help inform policy and impact community engagement.

“Envisioning the future of American higher education is a bold but necessary endeavor,” Bala wrote. “Grounded in our enduring founding principles, Cornellians are equipped to rise to this challenge. I look forward to thoughtful and inspiring conversations across campus and throughout our broader community.”

Isabella Hanson can be reached at ihanson@cornellsun.com.

BearTrak Seeks to ‘Make Life a Little Easier’ for Cornellians

By SOPHIA KOMAN Sun Staff Writer

Oct. 7 — As first-year and transfer students learn to navigate Cornell’s 10 dining halls, five fitness centers, numerous bus routes and everything else the campus has to offer, a student-designed app aims to make the learning process easier.

Created by Ben Koppe ’26 in December 2024, BearTrak allows students to see dining hall menus and hours, track the TCAT bus system, check gym hours and crowds, access library hours and find printers on campus.

The app also provides directions for getting to any of the libraries, dining halls and gyms on campus.

“At some point, I just realized that everything can really fit together in one single app,” Koppe said.

Koppe, who majors in computer science, coded and designed the app himself because of how much public data is readily accessible to students through the University. He credits Zain Bilal ’28 with the gym prediction algorithm and exchange student Hiral Arora ’26 with the app icon.

Bilal shared that after going to the gym this summer but never knowing when it would be crowded, he decided to develop a model for BearTrak that predicts when gyms would be

most busy.

“Being part of BearTrak means using my skills to make life a little easier for me and other Cornell students, which I think is exciting,” Bilal said.

BearTrak became available for students to download in December.

“I was posting on Sidechat and Reddit trying to get the word out,” Koppe shared regarding his initial marketing tactics when the app first launched. According to Koppe’s data, it has gained a total of approximately 3,900 downloads since its release. Additionally, the app has since added new features, including incorporating student ID barcodes to swipe into the dining halls and the locations of printers on campus.

Koppe said that the app particularly gained traction when students returned to campus, going from 200 daily users at the end of the spring semester to over 700 at the start of the fall semester.

“I think word of mouth was probably a huge part of that,” he said regarding the uptick in users.

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

Sophia Koman can be reached at skoman@cornellsun.com.

Anniversary of Oct. 7

By ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Features Editor

Oct. 6 — Over 100 Cornell community members gathered on Ho Plaza for a vigil put together by Cornell Hillel to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel on Sunday.

The vigil included prayers and personal stories shared

by Cornell community members impacted by the attacks.

Prayers were recited in Hebrew and English in honor of the lives lost on Oct. 7, as well as Israel Defense Force soldiers, the country of Israel and those held hostage by Hamas. Additionally, the mourner’s kaddish — a Jewish prayer that mourners recite — was said.

“October 7th two years ago was one of the darkest days in the history of the Jewish people and certainly the darkest day in most of our lifetimes,” said Noah Bodner ’27, student vice president of Cornell Hillel to the crowd.

“There is a lot of pain in our community, so we wanted to create a space for people to come together and support each other,” Bodner said. “We hope that people lean on each other during this difficult time.”

Candles in the shape of the Star of David and dozens of Israeli flags were present among the crowd of students.

Amidst the students, democratic candidate for the House of Representatives Josh Riley and Cornell LinkedIn influencer Tony Chen ’12 were also in attendance. Riley recently faced backlash from Ithaca residents for visiting Israel in a trip sponsored by the AIPAC-affiliated American Israel Education Foundation.

“There is a lot of pain in our community, so we wanted to create a space for people to come together and support each other.”

Noah Bodner ’27 In a Sept. 1 statement to the Ithaca Times, Riley stated that he supported the Israeli people but not their leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, and that he shared humanitarian concerns over the war.

“I thought it was important to come to campus and show my support for the community,” Riley said to The Sun. “Seeing everyone come together and support each other really inspires me, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

To close the ceremony, the national anthem of Israel and the names of the 48 hostages — 20 of which are believed to be alive — were recited.

Last year, Students for Justice in Palestine held an alternative vigil to commemorate the events of Oct. 7, but the group did not hold one this year. They were previously suspended in March due to their role in the walkouts at the Pathways to Peace Event that resulted in the arrest or detainment of at least 17 pro-Palestinian protesters.

From 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7, there will be a display on the Arts Quad to commemorate the hostages and remember the event.

Zeinab Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.

STEPHAN MENASCHE / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Cornell commemorates | Over 100 Cornell community members attended a vigil held by Cornell Hillel on Sunday.

6 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

OPINION

AAUP Cornell

Independent Since 1880

The Cornell Chapter of the American Association of University Professors represents faculty, academic staff and research employees with the goal of advancing academic freedom and shared governance.

143rd Editorial Board

Risa Lieberwitz is a professor of Industrial Labor Relations. She can be reached at rll5@cornell.edu.

JULIA SENZON ’26

Cornell’s Actions Against Cheyfitz Violate Due Process

Editor in Chief

ERIC HAN ’26

DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER ’27

SOPHIA DASSER ’28

MATTHEW KIVIAT ’27

ILANA LIVSHITS ’27

VERA SUN ’27

Associate Editor

Managing Editor

Opinion Editor

Assistant Managing Editor

Assistant Opinion Editor

Business Manager

SOPHIA TORRES ’26

EMILY LEE ’27

Advertising Manager

Marketing Manager

SYDNEY LEVINTON ’27

ALEX LIEW ’27

Arts & Culture Editor

Human Resources Manager

JAMES PALM ’27

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

BENJAMIN LEYNSE ’27

JENNA LEDLEY ’27

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

VARSHA BHARGAVA ’27

MELISSA MOON ’28

ISABELLA HANSON ’27

SOPHIA ROMANOV IMBER ’28

CEREESE QUSBA ’27

KAITLYN BELL ’28 Lifestyle Editor

REEM NASRALLAH ’28

MAIA MEHRING ’27

ANGELINA TANG ’28

News Editor News Editor

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

News Editor

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

News Editor

Assistant News Editor

Lifestyle Editor

Assistant News Editor

KARLIE MCGANN ’27

KATE TURK ’27

Photography Editor

Assistant News Editor

MATTHEW KORNICZKY ’28

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26

STEPHAN MENASCHE ’28

JANE HAVILAND ’28

MIRELLA BERKOWITZ ’27

ZEINAB FARAJ ’28

JADE DUBUCHE ’27

JEREMIAH JUNG ’28

HANNIA AREVALO ’27

KAITLIN CHUNG ’26

HUNTER PETMECKY ’28

MARISSA GAUT ’27

RENA GEULA ’28

ALEXIS ROGERS ’28

CHIRSTOPHER WALKER ’26

SIMRAN LABORE ’27

Assistant Photography Editor

City Editor

Assistant Photography Editor

Features Editor

Video Editor

Features Editor

Multimedia Editor

Assistant News Editor

Graphics Editor

Science Editor Science Editor

Layout Editor

Sports Editor

Layout Editor

Weather Editor

Games Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26 Newsletter Editor

Ryan Lombardi Ryan Lombardi is the Vice President of Student and Campus Life. Since acquiring the role in 2015, he has overseen the student experience outside of the classroom. His office can be reached at ryan.lombardi@cornell.edu.

On the Student Code of Conduct Review Process

I

am writing to provide additional detail and clarity on the Student Code of Conduct and Procedures review process, announced a month ago. In this letter, I share several points to help clarify misperceptions.

We are following established processes as outlined in the Code The framework for this process is clearly outlined in pages 2 and 3 of the Student Code of Conduct. We are following that process as it is outlined and have sought to make it even more inclusive, in several ways, than is required by the Code, which I explain below.

This will evolve into a standing committee and ongoing process

The intention is for this process to be ongoing through a standing committee that reviews the Code regularly. This will be the approach going forward, despite this being the first time the committee has been formed since the new Code took effect in August 2021. Members will necessarily change as students graduate or move on from their elected positions, or faculty and staff shift their work responsibilities, but the work of the committee will be ongoing.

This is not a wholesale overhaul of the Code and Procedures or the 2020 trustee decision We will look at the past four years of experience with the current Code and Procedures and invite proposed amendments based on

the lessons learned over that time, now that over 3300 reports have been received under this version of the Code and Procedures.

The process will be transparent, inclusive and not rushed Fall Semester Over the course of the fall semester, we will look for opportunities to hear from the community on what they think is working or not working with the Code and Procedures, and we will engage in community listening sessions to obtain this feedback. We invite the assemblies to share proposed amendments.

The assemblies are valuable forums to debate matters like this and elevate the voices of their respective communities. The committee will take this feedback, analyze it and then share any proposed changes for a public comment period.

Spring Semester The public comment period is planned to be approximately six weeks and, if we can keep to our planned schedule, will be at the beginning of the spring semester. We will engage in additional listening sessions during the public comment period if there are proposed amendments that lack clarity or are disputed within the community. This will be another important time for assemblies to weigh in on any proposed revisions.

To continue reading, visit www.cornellsun.com.

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s the Academic Freedom Committee of the Cornell Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), we write in support of our colleague Dr. Eric Cheyfitz, the Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters in the Department of Literatures in English and a member of the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, whose rights of academic freedom and due process have been violated by the Cornell administration.

As The Nation reported last week, in Spring semester 2025, a student filed a complaint under Cornell Policy 6.4, “Prohibited Bias, Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual and Related Misconduct,” alleging that Professor Cheyfitz had discriminated against the student based on his Israeli national origin during the Spring 2025 course, “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance.” Policy 6.4 governs allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment and sets forth procedures for the investigation and resolution of such complaints.

As provided in Policy 6.4, the Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Status of Faculty held a hearing to consider the allegation against Professor Cheyfitz. Based on its review of all the evidence, the six-person AFPSF Committee panel concluded unanimously that the Cornell administration had failed to prove its allegation of discrimination. Based on their decision in favor of Professor Cheyfitz, the AFPSF Committee panel further found that the question of sanctions was no longer relevant.

Cornell’s Policy 6.4 unequivocally states: “The dean or equivalent unit head must accept the Committee’s findings of fact and conclusions.” There is no exception to this requirement, so this is where the case should have ended. Instead, Cornell administrators disregarded University policy and ran roughshod over the unanimous findings of the AFPSF Committee.

Ignoring the clear mandate of Policy 6.4, the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences announced that he was recommending to the Provost that Professor Cheyfitz receive a severe sanction of an unpaid two-semester suspension. The Provost likewise cast aside the AFPSF Committee’s findings. Apparently dissatisfied with the result, she ordered new disciplinary proceedings against Professor Cheyfitz, based on the same evidence that the AFPSF Committee had just considered. Another hearing will be held by a new faculty panel, this time constituted under Section 6.6 of the Faculty Handbook. If this were a court of law, the new proceedings would be dismissed as double jeopardy — a bedrock constitutional principle that protects all of us from being subjected to repeated, frivolous prosecutions.

The Provost’s actions thus violate Policy 6.4 and due process. They also demonstrate complete disdain for the unanimous conclusion in Professor Cheyfitz’s favor by his faculty peers on the AFPSF Committee. Why would the Provost ignore mandatory policies endorsed by Cornell’s Administration? The only conclusion we can draw is that she was unhappy with the outcome. This is the height of arbitrariness and it sets a dangerous precedent for faculty members under Cornell’s current administration.

The Provost has claimed that the Committee’s findings were inconsistent with federal law — elevating her singular interpretation of the facts over the considered and unanimous finding of six appointed faculty members. The Provost has implied that a finding of discrimination is required under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits federally funded institutions (including universities) from discriminating on the basis of race, color, and national origin. This misapprehends the mandate of Title VI. Contrary to the Provost’s assertion, Title VI requires that universities promptly respond and investigate allegations of discrimination. This is what Cornell Policy 6.4 is designed to do — and this is what was done in Professor Cheyfitz’s

case: the university promptly investigated the facts, held a hearing before the AFPSF Committee, and received the Committee’s findings and conclusions, which the Dean and Provost are obligated to accept.

Adding insult to injury, the Provost has gone even further in failing to comply with Cornell’s own policies by taking punitive action against Professor Cheyfitz even before the second hearing has been held. One week before the start of this Fall semester 2025, the Provost suspended Professor Cheyfitz from teaching this semester, cancelling his two courses, “Contemporary Native American Fiction” and “Thinking from a Different Place: Indigenous Philosophies.” Suspending Professor Cheyfitz violates Section 6.6 of the Faculty Handbook, which allows for an “emergency suspension” only where the faculty member’s “continuance threatens imminent, serious harm to the member, to others, or to property.” There is not a shred of evidence to support this suspension. This is retaliation, pure and simple.

There is no mystery about why the Cornell administration is acting in such an egregiously unfair manner. As the national AAUP stated in its September 19, 2025, letter to Cornell President Kotlikoff: We are also deeply concerned that the administration’s action against Professor Cheyfitz has occurred in the context of external political pressure and escalated demands nationwide that higher education institutions restrict what can be said or expressed on campus, especially in relation to the war in Gaza.

Within this national context, the AAUP letter recounts the specific context in which President Kotlikoff criticized Professor Cheyfitz’s course, “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance,” even before it was taught: [The] investigation [of Professor Cheyfitz] was initiated in the context of fall 2024 complaints from Cornell alumni and faculty to [President Kotlikoff] about the course on Gaza, several months before it was scheduled to be taught in spring 2025. You [President Kotlikoff] reportedly responded to the faculty members’ complaint by stating that you “shared” the faculty members’ concerns and that you were “extremely disappointed with the [school] curriculum committee’s decision to offer the course and the course’s apparent lack of openness and objectivity.”

The political context and President Kotlikoff’s bias against Professor Cheyfitz’s course explains the vehemence with which the Dean and Provost seek to impose an extreme disciplinary sanction on Professor Cheyfitz.

Given his own negative views of the course content, the President is hardly a neutral arbiter, underscoring the importance of deferring to the findings of a properly constituted faculty committee. Should the Provost and President continue to override the decision of the AFPSF Committee, it will signal a dangerous double standard for those who speak out about topics disfavored by the current Presidential administration.

The Cornell administration’s actions violate Professor Cheyfitz’s academic freedom and due process rights under Cornell’s policies and under the principles of the AAUP. But it is not too late for the Provost to rectify the situation. We call on the Provost to immediately dismiss all charges against Professor Cheyfitz and to accept the Cornell Faculty Senate AFPSF Committee’s unanimous decision in favor of Professor Cheyfitz.

Signed, The Cornell Chapter of the AAUP Committee on Academic Freedom Risa Lieberwitz Sandra Babcock Eli Friedman Bianca Waked Dan Hirschman Paul Nadasdy Suman Seth

The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Op-ed

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Stand Up, Fight Back Yihun Stith Stand Up, Fight Back Yihun Stith ’26 is an Opinion Columnist and a Computer Science and Government student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His fortnightly column, Stand Up, Fight Back, explores the political structures and power dynamics that shape life at Cornell. Through analysis, critique, and calls to action, the column challenges Cornellians to engage with the world beyond the campus bubble and to fight for a more just and accountable university. He can be reached at ystith@cornellsun.com.

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t 9 a.m. on October 10, 2024, I was preparing to leave for my discussion section. As I grabbed my bag and prepared to head out the door, my phone rang. The caller ID read Cornell University Police Department. My heart began to race, I could already predict what the call was for. Petrified, I let it ring, and ring again. After an uneasy silence, a notification that I had received one voicemail lit my screen. The voicemail then started with, “Hi Yihun, this is Investigator [John Doe] with Cornell Police … I have some charges that I need to charge you with. I need you to turn yourself into the Cornell University Police Department.” Mere hours later,

I received notification of my temporary suspension from Cornell University. I don’t lead with this simply for dramatic effect, but because it’s an example of how Cornell treats those who fight for change.

My name is Yihun Stith and I was born in the south of Ethiopia as the youngest of seven children.

At three years old, I was tasked with selling CDs on the side of the road and watching our animals. My life radically changed after the passing of my biological parents. My siblings put me up for adoption, which led to my current parents bringing me to America.

Comparatively, I was stepping into a world of unimaginable privilege. I didn’t have to share a room with 6 other siblings. I no longer was forced to work in order to support my family. I had been given a lottery ticket and I knew I could not waste it. So when I received an acceptance letter from Cornell, I felt I had vindicated my siblings. I was living the American dream. “Any person, any study” included me.

Cornell had allowed me to realize that dream. My freshman year was solely focused on my computer science degree. The degree would be the final step in making both of my families proud. However, my priorities shifted after the start of the genocide in Gaza. This utterly destroyed my vision of the world, America, and Cornell. My naivete had led me to believe that genocide was impossible in the modern age. That America, the country that developed me, could never reach such a level of depravity. And that Cornell, a university for “any person, any study,” would never use the shield of “institutional neutrality” to avoid contending with the eradication of a people.

After months of watching Gaza bleed, it felt restless to stay idle. Learning of Cornell’s ties to weapons manufacturers and collaboration with an Israeli tech-

nical institute, I joined campus organizing. In March 2024, I supported the Day Hall sit-in during the Board of Trustees meeting. In April, I helped lead a historic divestment referendum in which 70 percent of students voted to cut ties with weapons manufacturers complicit in the war. That spring, I co-planned the Palestine Solidarity Encampment on the Arts Quad. And in September, I organized and joined the Statler Hall Career Fair protest targeting two weapons firms. For that action, Cornell imposed a three-year persona non grata order and a temporary suspension.

Today, Cornell’s administration continues to ignore the genocide in Gaza. From abandoning commitments to diversity to failing to protect its international students, Cornell has completely forsaken its morality and principles to the Trump administration.

For much of my time here, Cornell has failed to live up to its highest ideals when financial interests are involved. My column, “Stand up, Fight Back,” explores the political structures and power dynamics that shape life at Cornell. Through analysis, critique, and calls to action, the column challenges Cornellians to engage with the world beyond the campus bubble and to fight for a more just and accountable university.

I truly believe that Cornell on paper is one of the best educational institutions in the world. In my short time here I’ve met students who are olympic level athletes, elected officials, union organizers, skilled orators, future engineers, politicians and leaders.

Cornell’s motto, “any person, any study,” on a personal level still rings true in my heart. Many of my columns criticize the actions of this institution, not because I hate it, but because its ideals and existence are worth fighting for.

A Contrarian’s Calamity

Francis Xavier Jaso A Contrarian’s Calamity Francis Xavier Jaso ’28 is an Opinion Columnist and a Government and Economics student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His fortnightly column A Contrarian’s Calamity defies normative, dysfunctional campus discourse in the name of reason, hedonism, and most notably, satire. He can be reached at fjaso@cornellsun.com.

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hen calamities hit, as they so often do, most expect the drama of storybook catastrophe. This word, so pointlessly attached to beliefs in a doomsday event that plays out like recycled role-playing-game narratives or World War Z (2013) with its calamitous-looking Brad Pitt, isn’t so black-and-white. Disasters are not immediate. War is isolated in physicality and brute force, yet pervasive in its soft-power and chatty politics. And democracy dies not “in darkness,” but after repeated, conspicuous headblows — to the point of concussion.

My Calamity is a reflection of our calamity: an ongoing, slow burn of political agency, of humanity. This is obvious on the national and global

fronts — from the federalized D.C. and her woeful (still) unrepresented constituents, to the fury in Gaza and a Sino-Bhutanese border on the tipping point. Through implicit, less “in-your-face” ways, our social and cultural surroundings present an ambiguous terror, too. Increased surveillance and content oversight farce as earnest protective measures but disenfranchise our trust in one another, forcing speech into domains decided by the state, the “coldest of all cold monsters,” in Nietzsche’s words. But it is especially at Cornell where, albeit confusingly, these manifestations are born, and where calamities make themselves known before lurching outwards. I hope — reader, Tankie, occasional lesbian — to clear this confusion.

Who is to say the University isn’t doing the usual rigamarole? To pay the bill, do your language requirement, get the degree and return with big bucks for an inevitable Clocktower reup is too simple an explanation for us big brains to accept. The campus is and has always been a testing ground for next-generation politics: from the upending of Willard Strait in ‘69 to Hans Bethe’s involvement in the Manhattan Project, from which fellow dorky nuke scientists fell into professorial roles. Things are calmer, if not less apparent to us now. But look close enough, and the calamity is abound.

The examples are understated but endless: A substitute for human ingenuity is made each time “vibe-coding” replaces Python in classtime.

Cutthroat club competition separates the wheat from unworthy chaff, forcing slews of untailored suits into sweaty evening halls for the rush of acronym-boasting. Personality and passion are continually overshadowed by an admissions process which hasn’t innovated beyond replicable personal essays, lagging behind our elite peers who’ve repri-

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Paul Caruso Caruso’s Compass Paul Caruso is an Opinion Columnist and a second year MPA student in the Brooks School of Public Policy. He is the founder of the Cornell Negotiation Student Society. His column, Caruso’s Compass, focuses on politics, international affairs, and campus life. The column seeks to identify issues with the status quo and provide solutions to them. He can be reached at pcaruso@cornellsun.com.

oritized the need for sociability and moral character in their criteria. And on expression, a mere glance at our history shows that a largely youthled resistance to campus and national politics has been replaced by oldheads who probably know President Perkins and The Ronettes better than Kotlikoff and Kehlani. Yet we still haven’t kicked the youthful folly that doomed such predecessors in their fight for civil rights, which began the trend of collective demands over mutual consensus with admin.

All of this isn’t to spell doom or regurgitate a predictable newscycle. There’s no use in reframing a complex political climate to suit the wants of student eyes and ears. That would be too easy and even more naïve, and Jubilee exists for a reason.

It exists, rather, to make you think. Or at least read (something — anything!). Knowing that our exiting classes frequent the upper rungs of society is equally worrying as it is critical, in the sense that our progeny will, in one way or another, reshape broader society. It’s imperative then, that this column realizes the implications of our thoughts and actions as they rise in the present, and picks them apart with some quasi-journalistic rigor and a hint of satire, of course.

The Calamity will be as much yours as it is mine. If you feel inspired to extend your support, bring to light an oversight or burn the paper copy to ash, I have accomplished my goal. Because in a time of disorientation with the issues of today, a period marked not by debate and rationality but willing ignorance, a mere encounter with this paper, with those of my fellow opinion columnists and an unchartered world of alternative, sometimes wrong viewpoints, are potent cures against the powers that be.

A Compass in the Wilderness

e are living in dark times. Universities across the country face unparalleled levels of scrutiny and attack. Friends and families have been torn apart by political differences.

Institutions in this country and others have been eliminated or weakened within the last year. We find ourselves constantly short of money for ourselves and our programs. Human rights have been cast aside. Conflict plagues half the world’s shores.

Amidst it all, we persevere nonetheless in the pursuit of our own normalcy and the accomplishment of our degrees. As we cope with a turbulent world, it’s easy to get lost in our phones and the rage-bait interactions we are forced to have. No matter the issue, there is and always will be the backlash to the backlash to the backlash to some controversial event.

In this paralysis of rage, there is but one culprit: corporate social media and the economy of holding your attention. To them, you are meant to doomscroll. You are meant to get wrapped up in the mindless rant of someone you politically disagree with.

You are meant to, after leaving an angry comment, keep scrolling and think nothing of the advertisements they are paid to put in front of you.

On a daily basis, we are confused about what is really important: the last reel you watched, the last news article, the last comment section debate you had, the last shouting match, the last ‘I told you so?’

Is all of it as important as it seems?

It depends, but I believe not; rarely is a mind changed by name-calling on a public platform. More common is how a perspective can change from a casual conversation on a bus ride. More common is how entire groups of people can break down walls through a simple sharing of bread.

I believe we find ourselves in a moral wilderness, plagued by a hyper-fixation on nuance, circumstance, and taking a side. This column seeks to cut through that — to achieve a degree of focus and clarity on issues that truly matter.

To continue reading, visit www.cornellsun.com.

8 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Science

Cornell Hyperloop Mathematically Models Magnetic Levitation Technology

By ALLISON HECHT Sun Newsletter Editor

Five members of the Cornell Hyperloop project team competed at the 2025 Hyperloop Global Conference, hosted at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, this past summer.

Among top international teams, Cornell’s team earned distinction for their mathematical modeling of stable magnetic levitation, or mag-lev, control. Building on this recognition, the team is preparing to push the boundaries of hyperloop technology even further in the 2025-2026 academic year.

Founded in 2017, the Cornell Hyperloop project team seeks to advance the future of hyperloop technology by designing pods and researching the physics that make these systems possible. The idea for hyperloop technology was first popularized

by Elon Musk in 2013. The concept behind the technology is to place a magnetically levitating train, known as a pod, inside a vacuum tube. This can reduce air drag, or resistance or an object’s motion.

“The idea is to reduce air drag to make it more optimal and efficient,” said Lalo Esparza ’26, Cornell Hyperloop’s power systems lead.

The vacuum technology would theoretically allow for pods to transport passengers between cities at speeds over 600 miles per hour. While the technology is still in development, team members see the potential to revolutionize transportation through

their research.

“I think the potential for growth is one of the defining traits of our team,” said Claire Choi ’28, the team’s business development lead. “These types of technologies in our time could grow into something that could make people’s lives much better in the future.

That’s one of the promises that I joined Cornell Hyperloop for.”

Esparza agreed. “The technology is really interesting and has applications outside of just Hyperloop,” he said.

“Our goal is not to actually build a fully functioning pod that could get us from Ithaca to Syracuse, but more to develop the technology on a smaller scale to show proof of concept.”

Cornell Hyperloop is divided into three subteams — the electrical subteam, the mechanical subteam and the business subteam. As the team prepared for the Hyperloop Global Conference, members of all three subteams joined together to work on building the physical pod they would bring to the competition.

Attending the three-day conference was an opportunity for team members to network with other teams and share ideas, as well as present their own work. Choi and Esparza described the conference as both fun and informative.

“You get to transfer ideas and talk about different ways of doing things, which is something that we’re incorporating into our design moving forward. You also get to have fun with like-minded people,” Esparza said.

According to Esparza, the team was thrilled when they found out that they won an award for their modeling of mag-lev technology.

“A lot of that research was done by our graduating seniors, and so they were just ecstatic to hear that their work had contributed to us winning that award,” Esparza said.

The team hopes to build on their momentum from this summer’s accomplishments this academic year as they continue to improve upon their hyperloop pod design. Inspired by their trip to the Hyperloop Global Conference, one of the team’s priorities for this year is building their own motor and levitation systems for the pod.

“Previously, we had been using a motor that we bought from a company, but at the competition, we saw how other teams were building their own motors,” Esparza said. “So we’re trying to do that now, coming up with our own ways to make this design.”

The team is currently conducting physics research to understand how to build its own motor. They then hope to move on to manufacturing, building and testing the systems they design. The team plans to attend the Hyperloop Global Conference again this spring, as well as Maker Faires held in Syracuse and Rochester.

Recruitment of new members is also currently in full swing for the team.

Both Choi and Esparza agreed that joining Hyperloop has been a valuable part of their Cornell experience

COURTESY OF CORNELL HYPERLOOP

Magnificent modeling | The Cornell Hyperloop project team won an award at the 2025 Global Conference for their mathematical modeling of magnetic levitation. and encouraged freshmen to apply for project teams. Choi described Cornell Hyperloop as having a “culture of care” and noted that she believes the team is “very helpful in developing your skills.”

“I highly suggest project teams if you’re interested,” Esparza said. “You get to know the people you’re working with, and you get to collectively problem solve.”

Allison Hecht can be reached at ahecht@cornellsun.com.

Cornell SensTech Designs Wearable Biosensor to Monitor Kidney Disease Biomarker

By TANIA HAO Sun Contributor

SensTech, one of Cornell’s newest project teams, received a third-place award at the international biosensor competition, SensUs, for its wearable biosensor designed to manage kidney disease this August.

SensTech is a 15-member project team founded in 2024 that develops biosensors to compete in SensUs. Based on the year’s theme, student teams design a biosensor — a small device for rapid, convenient measurement of molecules in body fluids for disease diagnoses or monitoring. The competition gives awards for the research and development of the sensor, as well as a business component in which teams pitch their biosensors to industry experts.

For the 2025 competition, teams were tasked to build a biosensor to mon-

itor creatinine, a waste product of muscle activity that can be a biomarker of kidney disease. SensTech created a wearable biosensor designed for continuous at-home monitoring that would track patients’ creatinine levels and alert them if levels become elevated. The device uses a microneedle patch embedded in the skin to measure creatinine molecules found in the fluid between cells in the bloodstream.

According to Alice Wei ’26, senior advisor and former dry lab team lead for SensTech, “One important aspect that the team focuses on is not only how we read the data but how the data is spread to the patients themselves.”

To help patients easily access the data, the team developed a mobile app to connect to the device. The data collected by the sensor is translated into the app, which informs patients COURTESY OF ALEXANDER HARRIS / CORNELL SENSTECH

Brilliant biosensor | The Cornell SensTech project team won third place at the 2025 international SensUs competition for their biosensor to monitor kidney disease.

about whether their creatinine levels are healthy without requiring a physician to interpret the data.

To build the sensor, the SensTech team started by researching current techniques and similar products and conducting interviews with stakeholders. The team interviewed physicians, including kidney specialists from Weill Cornell Medicine and patients with chronic kidney disease to better understand patients’ authentic experiences with this type of biosensor.

In conducting these interviews, the team paid particular attention to the perspectives of patients in rural areas.

“We're uniquely positioned in Ithaca, where some people don't have the same access to care that you do around the world or in different parts of the US,” said Alexander Harris ’26, the president of SensTech.

These experiences influenced their design of a continuously monitoring sensor, which may be especially helpful for patients who live several hours away from a physician.

SensTech is divided into three subteams: Wet Lab, which focuses on the biorecognition and chemical aspect of the sensor; Dry Lab, which focuses on the hardware and app development aspect; and Business and Outreach, which focuses on the public-facing, business aspect. Students on separate teams with varying levels of experience are still involved with each step of the biosensor design process, particularly due to SensTech’s small size.

“That's what makes us so unique as we're able to position ourselves as a startup or as a startup environment

rather than a project team with very distinguished responsibilities and goals between members,” said Adelin Chan ’26, senior advisor and former wet lab team lead of SensTech.

While building the sensor, the team sought advice from researchers and faculty across Cornell, who provided them with valuable insights to guide their process. Building the sensor itself, however, involved many rounds of trial and error.

“Going through that process over and over again and just going back to the drawing board when we realized that it probably wouldn't work was definitely the biggest challenge for us,” Harris said.

The team traveled to the Netherlands for the SensUs competition this past August, where they received third place in the Analytical Performance category, which highlights the team whose biosensor functions the best in terms of accuracy and speed. The award came as a pleasant surprise to the SensTech team, which is only in its second year.

For Chan, who has been part of the project team since its founding, receiving the award was a meaningful experience. has also been part of SensTech before it was an official project team, said,a “I know we have so much potential for even more growth into the coming years, and with not only the projects, but with the people themselves and seeing how they grow with the project team as well.”

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

Tania Hao can be reached at th696@cornell.edu.

The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025 9

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Behind the Scenes at NYFW With Julia Sun ’26

Your Guide to Midnight Walks on Campus

By Jessica Agran

By Yianni Metis

Jessica Agran is a junior in the College of Human Ecology. She can be reached at jba76@cornell.edu.

Yianni Metis is a sophomore in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. He can be reached at jpm395@cornell.edu.

I

t’s easy to forget how close we are to a global fashion capital when you’re sitting next to a 23-year-old sporting a Minecraft T-shirt and sweatpants with mystery stains. But if you’re familiar with the fashion sphere, you will know we are in the prime time of fashion weeks around the world. Fall fashion weeks are a sacred moment when brands come together and show off their major collections and the styles of the year. And if you’re just driven enough, you may land a spot working these events. This past September, New York Fashion Week occurred from Sept.

11 to 16 and showcased many powerhouse brands, ranging from larger known names like Alexander Wang and LoveShackFancy to lesser known ones like Lii or Diotima.

New York Fashion Week began in 1943, with Eleanor Lambert leading the charge to centralize press efforts around American fashion in New York City. In the midst of the Second World War, American designers who couldn’t travel to Europe created their own spotlight show called “press week.” This initiative began to grow until the infamous Battle of Versailles (no, not the one you’re thinking of). During this event, American designers like Halston, Oscar de la Renta and Ralph Lauren went head-to-head with French houses to prove themselves among the best in the fashion world. As time went on, New York Fashion Week solidified into its own, showcasing American designers’ talent.

Experienced in everything New York Fashion Week is Julia Sun ’26, a chemical engineering student at Cornell who had the opportunity to photograph the iconic week-long event. Shooting for ArtHearts Fashion, a global organization that highlights emerging designers among established ones, she was able to go backstage, take runway photos and create content surrounding these talented designers. Under her Instagram handle @itsjuliasun, she documented her incredible experiences and stunning shots, with one TikTok in particular featuring Cambodian designer Almee reaching 3.1 million views. Her success lies in highlighting the designers’ work and talent among the participating models. “You have to give the dress the most respect,” Julia said in my interview with her. She explained that paying homage to the delicate and detailed nature of designing is the true goal of Fashion Week photography.

To Julia, fashion is an escape. The cramped pit, full of photographers granted the best seat in the house and hunched over their camera cases, is one of the most exciting aspects of the job. Photographers from all walks of life come together to capture the divine moment when the world falls away — when an incredible triumph of human creativity walks the catwalk. She sees the runway as a space to create unique experiences, where one can live in the moment and wholeheartedly appreciate pockets of perfection within this masterful craft.

Getting your start in the fashion industry is no small feat, especially when it comes to breaking into photography. Julia spoke of how, after shooting for the past three Cornell Fashion Collective annual spring shows, she felt inspired to take her passion even further, entering an internationally recognized arena. And so the grueling process began. She started to work in spaces with other passionate photographers, going to events to facilitate relationships with accomplished fashion photographers and sharing her goals with her like-minded peers. Until one day, after countless applications and

new friendships, she got her break. She made the right connection, and before she knew it, she was flying to New York for Fashion Week. “You don’t have to be just good,” Julia noted, “you have to have a different vision, as well as connections.”

This necessary trifecta must be accomplished, with a heap of luck, to fully break into the editorial fashion industry. She went on to discuss the true importance of networking with other photographers who had made their way into shows through knowing designers, photographers and industry professionals. She quickly learned that very few actually secure their positions through formal application processes.

When Julia goes to shoot the actual show, she heads to the pit. This is the area at the end of runways where photographers sit, competing to get the best shot. Photographers sit on their Pelican cases (camera suitcases) for hours to hold their spots and ensure they get the perfect picture. She described the highly systematic composition needed to get runway pictures. The technical skill that goes into it takes dedication and practice: the feet must be aligned so you only see one, the body and garment in motion but not blurry, the model’s gaze unwavering.

All of these considerations run through Julia’s head as she captures these fast-moving models strutting down the runway.

She also had the opportunity to go backstage and witness the models — who are seemingly comfortable amidst all of the chaos that comes with show preparation. Their environment is full of makeup artists, hairstylists and organizers, all working together to make the show seem as effortless as possible. She describes how packed this area is, with media crews trying to capture this hidden aspect of fashion shows; the energy is palpable among the cohort. Tables are packed in rows, all spilling over with products. The models are pampered as they prepare for their debut.

Julia was especially fascinated by the rawness and honesty of this pre-show environment, along with the abundance of tall, gorgeous models in their skyscraper heels.

Often, those that strut down the runway with such ease and grace give a false illusion of a no-prep production. As a result, the thought of what goes into it is barely considered. Julia wanted to contrast that perception by showing the demanding and, in fact, meticulously rehearsed, process in action and the intricate mechanisms at play.

Contrary to popular belief about the industry, Julia gushed over the kindness of everyone involved and their willingness to network and share stories. She noted the healthier culture in the industry and the substance now required for models to not only be gorgeous but to have charismatic personalities within their digital imprint, specifically calling out Alex Consani and Anok Yai. “Fashion as a whole is pretty gatekept,” Julia explained, while also acknowledging the kindness and willingness of older professionals to welcome in the new generation.

She enthusiastically encourages emerging photographers to think outside the box, use their community and resources to push boundaries and achieve their aspirations.

She is currently setting up numerous editorial shoots here at Cornell, utilizing the on-campus fashion department and all the talent around her to practice her craft. For future photographers, she urges people to practice! Learn the techniques, develop a style and get some firsthand experience.

E

arly-morning walks and jogs are for insufferable nerds who lie about waking up energetically in the morning.

Late-night walks are for the great thinkers of their eras: people who are emotionally intelligent and have tremendous capacity for critical thinking. People walk in the quiet hours of the night so they can brood and be more brilliant than others around them — and feel worse afterward.

That being said, Cornell is a great place for a midnight walk. With dark streets and expansive stretches of nature, you really have no choice but to get into the vibe. Having taken my fair share of these, I want to go over some of the best routes on and off campus.

The North to South route is the first to come to mind. It starts anywhere on North, goes through the Balch Arch and over Thurston Avenue Bridge. From there, the best variation is to cut to the back of the Arts Quad to pass the slope. After walking through Ho Plaza and the law school to get to Collegetown, 7-Eleven is a prime spot for a snack or drink.

The walk is a perfect 15 to 20 minutes each way, and you pass the top of the slope without walking up or down it. Stopping for a second at the slope has you question every decision you have ever made, but then you keep walking two minutes later.

“Late-night walks are for the great thinkers of their era” Yianni Metis ’28 Living on or starting your route from West Campus makes it harder to get that perfect walk in. The shortcut behind the law school is an efficient way to get to Collegetown, but it is just too quick, and you don’t see many people or enough of the campus. The only really great spot visually is a gorge just before Collegetown, but you get that on any walk there.

The only real option is to go up that slope. It is tiring, but rewarding at the end of your journey. So, starting from West, Baker flagpole is the first place to hit for the view from that empty middle section between Hans Bethe House and Flora Rose House.

Then, you can go up the middle of the slope and through the Arts Quad to Feeney Way. I like to head toward and go through the Engineering Quad from there, since I don’t

MAIA MEHRING / LIFESTYLE EDITOR

go there often, and the little bridge and mini-forest route to Collegetown is calming.

The walk is another smooth 30 to 40 minutes total, and it gets around the campus.

Walking up the slope builds up that motivation for the rest of the walk. Going along the main roads of campus, you either see people you know or occasionally run into Batman.

I have never gone to East Campus at night, or really during the day either. I went to the Dairy Bar and Botanic Gardens once at 8:40 a.m. for a class. I don’t know what possessed people to be willingly all the way out there at 8:40 a.m., but I don’t want to find out who lurks there at night.

There is actually a really nice path from behind Warren Hall to the Botanic Gardens, but I’m not walking all the way to Warren or the gardens. It also seems like it would be horrendously scary at night, so I would have to go with someone — and even then maybe not.

Midnight walks are not just about where you walk, but also what you listen to when you walk. Songs that you play on late-nightwalks either prove they’re not elite or show why they need to stay on your playlist.

When it’s late and there is not much going on outside, the music only has to compete with your thoughts. Songs are judged on a high bar, because they can’t just be the background music you play when you study.

They need to step up and be the MVP of the moment. Some songs can’t live up to those expectations.

The best kind of song for a late-night walk shares some similarity with a good song for a highway car ride, but there are some nuanced differences. While a midnight car ride is great for songs that flow smoothly, songs that mix well with the beats of footsteps can truly enhance the walking experience.

In the car it always seems to be better the faster you go with these songs, but there’s many ways to walk. It could be slow, fast, straight from point A to B or take alternative side routes. Knowing the right song to get the right vibe for the walk is crucial.

A great midnight walk can come in many forms, but these were the two routes that have stood out to me the most at Cornell.

Of course, I haven’t mentioned the walk from Collegetown back to West or North after a night out. That walk is usually uphill and more difficult for certain reasons, so it doesn’t always make for a good time.

If you want to be better than the people around you, go on midnight walks, and act like you are more philosophically inclined after doing so.

10 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

News

George Hornedo B.A. ’13 Runs for Congress, Hoping to ‘Rebuild the Democratic Party’

By SKYLAR KLEINMAN Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 6 — From New York’s Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-N.Y.) to New Orleans’ Helena Moreno, young progressive leaders around the country are making waves to rebuild the Democratic party in the wake of losing the 2024 presidential election.

Their opponents? Not Republicans, but incumbent Democrats whom they view as ineffective amid the adapting needs of the party and the working class.

Democratic candidate George Hornedo B.A. ’13 launched his bid for Indiana’s 7th congressional district in April, joining the fight for new leadership in a race he describes as “one of the big Democratic upsets this cycle.”

“I’m not the rebel from outside throwing rocks,” he said. “I’m inside the house trying to tell everybody that it’s on fire and trying to fix it. If we keep doing things in the same ways … we’re going to lose and we deserve to lose.”

Hornedo, 34, will challenge incumbent Rep. André Carson (D-I.N.), who has held the seat since 2008.

The two leading Democratic candidates will compete in Indiana’s Democratic primary, scheduled for May, to earn the party nomination for the November 2026 midterm election.

Hornedo grew up among the roughly 754,000 residents of Indiana’s 7th congressional district, which comprises Indianapolis and its surrounding suburbs. It’s a district that consistently votes 60 to 70 percent Democratic.

“I’m not the rebel from outside throwing rocks ... If we keep doing things in the same ways ... we’re going to lose and we deserve to lose.”

George Hornedo ’13 According to Hornedo, his policies that include raising the minimum wage and expanding affordable healthcare will continue a legacy of left-leaning legislation while he executes his vision for party-building.

“We may be in a safe blue dot here in Indianapolis, but if we’re not turning out and pulling our weight as a community, then we’re a drag not just on ourselves, but on Democrats across the whole state,” Hornedo said.

“The member of Congress out of Indianapolis has more influence, more of a platform.”

COURTESY OF GEORGE HORNEDO

Cornellian for Congress | A Cornell alumnus has launched a congressional campaign to represent Indiana.

According to the Center for Effective Lawmaking, which produces legislative effectiveness scores for all members of Congress, incumbent Carson ranks No. 197 out of 220 House Democrats. Voter turnout has declined nearly 20 percent in Marion County, Indiana since 1988.

Hornedo worries about these implications for Carson and other Indiana lawmakers.

“Under Congressman Carson’s tenure, we’ve been very hands-off [on] party building,” Hornedo said. “We’re in a state where unfortunately the Democratic party is just broke, disorganized and forgot how to fight.”

Hornedo says that his background in political strategy, including political appointments in the Department of Justice under Obama, coordinating campaigns for Pete Buttigieg and Texas Democrats and founding his own political consulting start-up, Hornedo Strategies, has given him the mobilization skills necessary “to rebuild the Democratic party.”

“We may not have a lot of power right now as Democrats — not just nationally, but in Indiana — but

we still have our voice and we need to use it,” Hornedo said. “It’s [about] being a party leader that’s speaking out against a lot of the terrible actions and consequences of bad policy.”

Despite criticism from Indiana Democrats who oppose Hornedo’s campaign, Hornedo said he remains committed to running on a platform that aims to unify people.

“I’ve faced a lot of institutional backlash from the state Democratic party,” Hornedo said. “But there’s a disconnect between them and the actual voters on the ground [and] this is about people at the end of the day.”

While Hornedo says support from voters “far surpassed our expectations,” his race highlights new tensions in the party.

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

Skylar Kleinman can be reached at skleinman@cornellsun.com.

Cornell’s Jewish Community Celebrates the High Holidays

By ROWAN WALLIN Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 3 — Cornell’s Jewish community came together over the last Ten Days in celebration of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holidays that mark the beginning of the Jewish year and serve as a time for reflection and renewal.

The High Holidays began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on Monday, Sept. 22 at sundown until Wednesday, Sept. 24 at sundown.

Students attended services organized by Chabad Cornell and Cornell Hillel at Anabel Taylor Hall, offering services for Reform, Conservative and Orthodox traditions.

“In Judaism, we use the beginning of a new year to reflect on the past year and how we can improve ourselves in the coming year.”

Maya Weisberg ’26 President of Cornell Hillel Maya Weisberg ’26 discussed what this time means to her.

“Rosh Hashanah, to me, is a time for reflection, intention-setting and hope,” Weisberg said. “In Judaism, we use the beginning of a new year to

reflect on the past year and how we can improve ourselves in the coming year.”

Hillel hosted a series of events leading up to Rosh Hashanah, including apple picking and baking challah, a special bread in Jewish cuisine.

Yael Schranz ’25, a Jewish student, shared the meaning behind these events.

“The Jewish New Year is all about starting … on a sweet note, so it’s a custom to have apples and honey,” said Schranz.

The events included shared meals in addition to sweet snacks. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, nearly 400 students attended the Rosh Hashanah Banquet dinner held at Trillium. Hillel additionally offered funds for students to have their own meals which expanded opportunities for students to celebrate.

“We worked really hard to enable students to have the most meaningful experience they could,” Weisberg said.

Chabad similarly hosted large crowds, with an estimated 500 students attending its first-night dinner in the Center for Jewish Living’s newly renovated building.

In addition to meals and services, some students participated in Tashlich, a symbolic ritual of casting bread into water, representing “throwing away all the things you regret from the past year,” said Schranz who does this ceremony at Beebe Lake.

On Rosh Hashanah, students also heard the shofar — a ram’s horn blown as a call to spiritual

awakening — on Ho Plaza, where volunteers made the sound accessible to those passing by.

“The Jewish New Year is all about starting ... on a sweet note, so it’s a custom to have apples and honey.”

Yael Schranz ’25 “The shofar — to me — symbolizes … ‘God, you’re here, and you’re watching over us; thank you for everything you’ve given,’” said Schranz.

These events led into Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and fasting, which began on Wednesday evening and ended at sundown on Thursday.

Annabelle Raz ’26 described spending Thursday attending services until the day ended at sundown; “The highlight of my day was breaking fast at Collegetown Bagels,” Raz said, a meal funded by Hillel.

Looking back on the High Holidays, these celebrations on campus helped fill the gap of being away from their families during these important holidays.

“I think it’s nice when you’re all together [at these events] because you have each other as family,” Schranz said.

Rowan Wallin can be reached at rwallin@cornellsun.com.

Comics

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12 The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Features

ZEINAB FARAJ / SUN FEATURES EDITOR

ZEINAB FARAJ / SUN FEATURES EDITOR

Hiring highlights | Lasya Priya Vadlamani ’26 works as the hiring supervior at the Cornell

Campus connector | The Cornell Store, located on Ho Plaza, connects University faculty,

Store and can be found training new hires or reviewing potential applicants.

students, alumni and visitors.

The Centerpiece of Campus: Meet the Student-Workers of the Cornell Store

By JONATHAN McCORMACK Sun Contributor

Near McGraw Tower on Ho Plaza is The Cornell Store, the one-stop shop to pick up textbooks, buy a new laptop, grab a coffee or purchase school-spirit apparel. Tourists, prospective and current students, alumni, faculty and family alike flock to the Cornell Store to purchase mementos of their time on The Hill.

The Sun spoke with student workers at the store to highlight their experiences working at the heart of campus.

Maream Adous ’26, Sales Associate As guests visit Cornell for the first time, they may be welcomed to campus by Maream Adous ’26, a sales associate for The Cornell Store. Adous, who is a student in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, serves on the marketing team, leading social media promotions for the store.

When it comes to The Cornell Store, she explained

“My favorite part about the job is both the people that I work with and the different people that I meet.”

Maream Adous ’26 that what she loved was, most notably, the people.

As a sales associate, Adous is often the one customers interact with in passing — and said that it is these interactions “with all generations of Cornell” which have been a highlight of her work.

“My favorite part about the job is both the people that I work with and the different people that I meet,” Adous said. “Working during parent’s weekend is one of my favorite times because I interact with prospective students, current students and parents who are all just happy to be here.”

When not working, Adous is a member of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship and a course assistant for AEM 2225: Financial Accounting for Dyson Majors.

Also an avid runner, Adous completed the Wizz Air Milano Marathon in Milan last year during her semester abroad — a full 26.2 mile course which begins at the Piazza Del Duomo, the heart of the city.

Returning to Ithaca this year, Adous joked that she was excited to be back on campus.

“I kind of just missed touching grass here,” Adous said. “It’s nice to have fresh air and just be surrounded

by Ithaca’s nature.”

Dahntay Baugh ’26, Sales Associate Dahntay Baugh ’26 began working at The Cornell Store just this year in a position behind the register.

He is a senior studying Information Science and Business in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“I am looking forward to the freedom of being anything and the excitement of uncertainty.”

Lasya Priya Vadlamani ’26 In his free time, Baugh plays in various intramural sports leagues, including soccer, volleyball, bowling and flag football. He is also a member of Phi Gamma Nu, a professional business fraternity on campus.

Baugh explained that he finds working at The Cornell Store “a lot of fun” because he is able to work with other students with whom he gets along well. He also worked at The Cornell Store over the summer, where he interacted with a lot of students in the PreCollegiate Summer Scholars Program, touring families and high schoolers.

“Family and alumni and admitted students … they would always ask questions about what I like about campus,” Baugh said. “‘Where should I go? And what do you think?’ I like that a lot … just talking to people and helping them out.”

Baugh shared that he was looking forward to completing a bucket list before graduating with his friends, including kayaking on Beebe Lake and having a midnight picnic on the Ag Quad.

ZEINAB FARAJ / SUN FEATURES EDITOR

Familiar face | Dahntay Baugh ’26 started working at the Cornell Store this past year, and you can find him working at the register.

Lasya Priya Vadlamani ’26, Hiring Supervisor Cornell Store Hiring Supervisor and Onboarding Instructor Lasya Vadlmani ’26 wears many hats around the store. When found under the hill, she may be reviewing applications, training new members as an onboarding instructor or stepping up as student manager.

Vadlamani touched on the diversity of applicants The Cornell Store receives and approves.

“I review up to 150 applications sometimes,” Vadlamani said, “Some freshmen, but also a lot from the other grades, including seniors.” She added that “the diversity of workers at The Cornell Store makes it an unexpected place to find friends.”

Vadlamani continued to say that it is the people at the store who make it a great place for her.

“Most student workers bond and create a community, working together at the store,” Vadlamani said.

“It’s run by all these students, so it’s a really good place to make friends and have a community.”

“Family and alumni and admitted students... they would always ask questions about what I like about campus...I like that alot, just talking to people and helping them out.”

Dahntay Baugh ’26 Outside of work, Vadlamani is enrolled in the College of Human Ecology and studies Law and Society and Performing and Media Arts. She is also a part of pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, as well as Planned Parenthood Generational Action, a student organization seeking to raise awareness around reproductive justice and sex education at Cornell.

Vadlamani is looking forward to graduating soon and enjoying what time she has left on campus.

“I am looking forward to the freedom of being anything and the excitement of uncertainty,” she said.

Jonathan McCormack can be reached at jjm@cornell.edu.

SHAILEE SHAW / SUN FEATURES EDITOR

Social media senior | Maream Adous ’26 works as a sales associate at the Cornell Store and also serves on the marketing team, leading social media promotions for the store.

Features

43rd Applefest Draws Community Amidst Fire, Difficult Harvest

By TAEHEE OH Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 1 — The scent of apple cider donuts and the sounds of live music filled the Commons this weekend as thousands gathered for Ithaca’s 43rd Annual Apple Harvest Festival, even as an outbreak of fire briefly disrupted the festival.

Commonly called “Applefest,” the festival is organized by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and features local farmers, artisans, live performers and plenty of apples, celebrating New York’s status as the country’s second-largest apple producer. This year it spanned from State Street to Albany Street, filling also the stretch between Seneca Street and Green Street.

The celebration was jolted Saturday afternoon when a fire broke out at a food stand offering funnel cakes and fried oreos on the corner of State and Geneva Street.

The fire started around 2:40 p.m. when it appeared that the oil from the grill ignited, spreading throughout and burning the top of the tent.

The employees of the food stand declined to comment on the circumstances behind the fire and the booth’s name. The offerings of the food stand include pumpkin funnel cakes, apple cider funnel cakes, fried Oreos and lemonade.

Ann Reichlin, who was tabling for the Tompkins Democratic Committee with Indivisible Tompkins just adjacent to the funnel cake stand when the fire broke out, said that when firefighters got to the scene, they cleared the street, pausing the festival for about 45 minutes.

Reichlin said she was thankful that the City’s safety protocols prevented the fire from spreading.

The City’s event application instructions state that any food vendors that use “solid, liquid or gas-fired cooking/ heating appliances” are required to have a permit issued by the Ithaca Fire Department and directs event organizers to the IFD for “advice on vendor placement in relation to the use of tents/canopies and cooking appliances, and maintaining fire lanes.”

When asked by The Sun about details of the accident, firefighters at the booth on Geneva Street declined to comment, deferring to a future press release.

By Sunday morning, Reichlin noted that the food stand returned with a new tent after their old one caught fire, but did not fry any more Oreos.

Despite the brief halt to the festivities, the rest of the weekend proceeded as scheduled.

Tori Cotton ’26, who was attending Applefest for the fourth consecutive year, said she was looking forward to checking out a booth with Ithacadesign t-shirts.

“There’s one booth that has these printed t-shirts that are $5 each, so it’s really good, and they’re really cute,” Cotton said. “They have specific Ithaca designs, so there’s like a Buttermilk Falls one, so specifically that booth I want to check out.”

Another attendee, Malcolm Mauro, an Ithaca College alumna, said he is “very happy” to be back at Applefest.

“I graduated in 2022, so I haven’t been to Applefest in three years, and it’s just as great as I remember, but it’s much bigger than I remember,” Mauro said.

Behind the scenes of the apple-filled stands and bustling customers, local farms described the challenges of getting there.

Abbie Teeter, the owner of the A.J. Teeter Farm, who has been a vendor at Applefest for over 20 years, explained that a late spring frost that kills the flowers on apple trees results in a poor apple crop the following year. Teeter said the late frost impacted apple harvest this year, following an exceptionally weak apple harvest in 2023.

“We press our own cider with apples on our farm, and we didn’t have enough, so we had to go to our neighbors and get some apples from them to have enough for this event,” Teeter said.

Amara Steinkraus, the owner of Littletree Orchards, which has been a staple at Applefest since its founding, expressed a similar sentiment, citing changing climate as one of the “biggest challenges” for apple growers.

“In general, probably one of the big things that’s facing apple growers in this area is that spring tends to break earlier and tend to be more unpredictable, which is really challenging for a perennial crop like apples,” Steinkraus said.

However for Robert Grannis, the owner of Robbies Produce and a 15 year Applefest vendor, because of the location of his farm near Lake Ontario, his harvest was not as affected by the cold spring and late frost.

“Down here [near Ithaca], the spring affected the farmers more. My apples come from Lake Ontario, and the lake gives us a lot of protection, so we did okay,” Grannis said.

Even with the difficulties in the apple harvest this year, the festival continued to draw crowds and stands as a staple celebration in Ithaca and across upstate New York.

Teeter said the extended hours on Friday brought in more attendees and customers compared to last year, when the festival ran from noon to 6 p.m.

“Normally, [Applefest] sort of dies down by five, six o’clock on Friday, but there was actually an uptick, and then it was pretty busy [Friday] night between six and eight.”

For Steinkraus and her orchard, Applefest is a crucial marker in the year when harvest is at its peak.

“The busyness of harvest leads up to [Applefest], so it’s always kind of this pinnacle of full harvest time,” Steinkraus explained. And also, obviously, it’s really financially impactful for a lot of the small businesses and small farms that come here.”

Teeter explained the significance of Applefest for her, highlighting the sense of community that Applefest brings.

“There are vendors here, [who] have watched me grow up with their kids, and they’re still here, and we’re still here, and we have relationships with the vendors all around us,” Teeter said.

“And so it’s nice to get to see them once a year and be able to support each other.”

As Mauro described it, Applefest is a time to enjoy the “culture of Ithaca.” “[Ithaca] is not just a college town — it has farms on the outside, and everyone’s bringing in the agriculture, or the restaurants are setting up their shops, and people are getting food together,” Mauro said. “ It’s just a really nice way to come together and just celebrate being here.”

The Cornell Daily Sun | Wednesday, October 8, 2025 13

COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE LANGUOIS

Schwartz style | The women’s rowing team’s classes competed against each other and the men’s rowing team for best class costume at the Schwartz Cup on Saturday.

Schwartz Cup Tradition With Men’s and Women’s Rowing

By ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Features Editor

Sept. 30 — Over 100 alumni and parents gathered on Cayuga Lake on Saturday for the men’s heavyweight, lightweight and women’s rowing teams that unofficially started their seasons with the Schwartz Cup. The Schwartz Cup has a 150-year history at Cornell and consists of two 4.5k races where each class competes against each other. There is also a 500-meter sprint, five alumni races, and a christening ceremony for a new boat.

Cornell Athletics Director Nicki Moore was also in attendance helping to dedicate the men’s lightweight rowing bay to Raymond Randolph ’69, who was a renowned rower and multi-million dollar donor to the rowing team before his death in 2020.

“It is a very special opportunity that we get to compete within our classes.”

Charlotte Langlois ’28 Charlotte Langlois ’28 represented the women’s rowing sophomore class and told The Sun that the Schwartz Cup was one of her “favorite traditions.”

“It is a very special opportunity that we get every year to compete within our classes,” Langlois said. “It is especially great when we have a ton of alumni and family back to support us and spend time together throughout the weekend.”

On top of racing each other, the classes also compete in a costume competition that spans across all three teams with one overall winner. Former head coach of the men’s heavyweight team, Todd Kennet, previously told The Sun that the costume tradition was started by Dick Schwartz ’60.

“Everybody thought it’d be funny to do a little costume, and a boat came down

with reindeer antlers and a Santa Claus hat. That was the start of the whole thing,” Kennet said. “After a while, it took off, and everybody started putting more effort into the costumes. One year, Jean Schwartz [Schwartz’ wife] decided there was so much spirit in it, so she offered a cup for the best costume.”

“Looking forward to the rest of our fall season, I am really excited to continue racing and getting faster as a team.”

Charlotte Langlois ’28 The women’s senior class won the race, besting the junior class by just 6.6 seconds.

The women’s sophomore and freshman classes followed, clocking in at 40:07.2 and 42:51.0 minutes, respectively.

For the men’s heavyweight team, the junior class claimed victory with a time of 33:37.5. The freshmen trailed closely at 34:22.7, with the sophomores just three seconds behind at 34:25.4. The seniors finished at 34:41.5.

The men’s lightweight senior class posted the fastest time of the meet, clocking in at 33:34.2. The sophomores and juniors followed with times of 34:32.9 and 35:09.7, respectively.

“Looking forward to the rest of our fall season, I am really excited to continue racing and getting faster as a team,” Languois said. “Each class put out a fantastic race, so as we move into racing teams outside of Cornell, it will be super cool to see how we all will continue to grow together and race as fast as possible.”

All three rowing teams will officially start their season when they travel to Boston for the Head of the Charles Regatta on Sunday, Oct. 19, with times to be announced the week of the event.

Zeinab Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@ cornellsun.com.

COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE LANGUOIS

Taehee Oh can be reached at toh@cornellsun.com.

Crew costumes | The Women’s rowing team dresses up in disco chic for the traditon of competing for fastest time in races and for best costume.

A & C

14 | Wednesday, October 8, 2025 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun

&

“Magnum O-Pspsps”: A Feline Devotional MELISSA MOON ARTS & CULTURE ASSISTANT EDITOR

Even though I’ve only ever owned a dog (love you, Bear), I would consider myself thoroughly a cat person.

So, when MFA student Michael Morgan ’26 invited me to his cat-themed exhibition, I had no choice but to go. I met Morgan last semester, when he introduced me to his own vibrant, masterful artwork. Knowing how inspiring he is as an artist, I was eager to see the product of his curatorial pursuit. “Magnum O-Pspsps” — the title an inspired play on the Latin magnum opus — showed in the Olive Tjaden Gallery from Sept. 15 to 25. Morgan and fellow MFA student Elina Ansary ’25 curated cat-related artwork from over 47 artists working in a vast array of mediums.

“Magnum O-Pspsps” displayed feline character in every respect. Against plain white walls in a vast open space, the gallery of cats more than filled the room. The exhibition’s greatest strength was its diversity — roughly four dozen artists’ interpretations of catlike character — varying from portraits of pets to abstract color-blocking with cheetah print, from loose lines to stunningly realistic brushwork.

On conceptualizing the show, Morgan asked himself: “What does it mean to be [a] magnum opus?” The answer came trifold. “In my mind, ‘Magnum O-Pspsps’ has three thematic ties: self aggrandizing, humor and grief.”

Elaborating on each theme, he continued, “There’s a campy, self aggrandizing humor that cats embody … like self imposed royalty. The other thing was humor. A lot of works here are kind of the butt of a joke … showing the childlike inspiration that sometimes the cats can bring us.

Finally, one other thing … A lot of artists … shared artwork they’d done of late pets. There’s the idea of magnum opus: ‘This pet is my greatest work because I miss them; I love them.’”

Surveying the gallery, the artwork displayed an over-

whelming range. Oil paintings hung next to spray-painted sculptures next to collages next to illustrations and prints.

But, in each section of the gallery, I could see the distinct throughlines of each of the themes Morgan identified: Juan Hinojosa’s “Gloria” embodied self-aggrandizement in an ostentatious golden cat with sunbeam-like rays haloing its furry head, John O’Donnell’s “Carrot Cat” collages were absurd and undeniably humorous and Noel Neri hit grief right on the nose with an actual stainless steel cast of his cat’s grave.

Moving along the walls, it seemed that every individual piece caught my eye, begging me to step up close to the canvases in a way that’s gotten me admonished by security in art museums on multiple occasions. Lisa Lebofsky’s “Fileseffer,” a hyperrealistic oil-on-aluminum depicting cat fur, was just one of the pieces that made me do a serious double take, then turn around and ask Morgan whether it was actually a photograph. And although each artist, like Lebofsky, displayed immeasurable skill in their craft, when I stepped back and looked at the gallery as a whole, the curation and display really drove the show home. Stepping from section to section felt like viewing each of the different aspects of a cat — playful, aloof, affectionate, predatory — while all were still undeniably interconnected and distinctly feline.

Another of Morgan’s curatorial goals, evident in the cohesiveness of all the opposing natures of the artworks, was highlighting the idea of bonded pairs. Finding himself inundated with submissions, Morgan found that “clustering them as bonded pairs” was an inspirational “curatorial moment of letting the works respond to each other thematically.” As soon as he pointed it out, I couldn’t unsee it.

The most colorful, silly section of catlike playfulness stood alongside George Booury’s illustration of a tiger mauling its prey — undeniably different moods, but all encapsulating the nature of a cat. Seeing the works clustered with their cognates and offset with their opposites was almost a

pleasant whiplash; I wanted to keep looking back and forth forever. Morgan shared, “I like that they’re in conversation and opposites. … Both of those fit in this exhibition in a way that’s part of the same litter. Part of the curation process was clustering works aesthetically or thematically, works that seemed to resonate or say something new.”

I wish I had space enough to comment on each piece in the exhibit, from Kate Finneran’s haunting, glowing-eyed “Closet Cats” to Tatiana Tatum’s dreamlike, vibrant “Meow from the back seat,” but that would require a much longer article than this. So, I’ll leave off with the most powerful thing Morgan shared — his hopes for the impact of his show on other Cornell artists: “I really want to show undergrads how you can use the gallery space to do shows. … [It’s a] really important part of building the community.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the curation of “Magnum O-Pspsps,” you can find the show featured in Art Spiel and Hyperallergic. Morgan can also be contacted at mjm764@cornell.edu or @mikemorganart on Instagram.

Melissa Moon is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mmoon@cornellsun.com.

‘The Life of a Showgirl’: Showstopping?

AYLA KRUSE LAWSON ARTS & CULTURE WRITER

Are you ready for tonight’s dazzling spectacle? She is the height of glamour, of luxury, a portrait in sequins and feathers like you’ve never seen before. Put your hands together for the one and only: The Life of a Showgirl!

Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album has arrived, shimmering with the timeless allure of old Hollywood glitz and glam.

The Life of a Showgirl is a collection of neon-soaked pop anthems, contrasting with her last release, The Tortured Poets Department. Showgirl brings a buzzing energy that comes on the heels of her widely successful Eras Tour and blissful engagement. Swift’s joy is infectious.

Track one, “The Fate of Ophelia,” is perhaps one of the strongest album openers from Swift. I absolutely adore this track with its catchy beat, Shakespearean references and fantastical undertones — it truly feels like there are narcotics in this song. Similar to “Love Story,” Swift decides she does not like the tragic ending Shakespeare characters get, so she writes her own. Despite a slight disconnect between Ophelia’s story in Hamlet and the background provided for Swift’s Ophelia, the song is still an enormous success. Given this is a more pop-centric album, the lyrics are not necessarily the focal point and we need to support Swift’s new reinvention.

Along with “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor” and “Opalite” compose the powerful songs that open the album. Both follow a similar upbeat, pop trend again reminding us that Swift is happy and in love. In “Elizabeth Taylor,” she talks about Hollywood and what it’s

like to love under the spotlight as well as the anxiety involved in fame and love.

“Opalite” is more about healing from past relationships and finding easy joy in her current one. It is interesting that Swift chose to name the song “Opalite,” which is a man-made stone, rather than the naturally occurring opal. Maybe she is saying her happiness is man-made but it could also be construed as her feelings being artificial which I doubt is what she intended.

Track 4, titled “Father Figure” is an interpolation of George Michael’s 1987 hit of the same name. In Swift’s version, she takes on the role of a mentor to someone who reminds her of her younger self, guiding this person to fame and covering up their scandals. It could also be interpreted as Swift talking to her younger self or her fight with her record label. Overall, it is a smooth, smoky song where Swift asserts that she is in control — she’s the man.

In Showgirl, track 5 gets a never-seen-before twist: it’s a love song!

Track 5 is always known by Swifties to be the saddest song on the album and while “Eldest Daughter” does have some sad lyrics, it is primarily hopeful. Piano takes the place of synth as Swift claims her undying loyalty to the love she longed for as a child and has now found. Despite this cute message, the lyricism falls dramatically short and epitomizes my problem with the album lyrically. With words and phrases like “trolling,” “memes,” “savage” or “we looked fire,” it feels like Swift is trying to embody something she simply is not. Although lyrics such as “I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool” frame this as intentional and actually part of the struggle of being an

eldest daughter who is trying to navigate the world.

Lyrically and sonically I quite liked “Wood”; it was playful, happy and a little cheeky. I enjoyed the development from trusting luck and superstition to pave a favorable path to then realizing Swift can make her own luck. Swift says she no longer has to “knock on wood” for the odds to be in her favor. She also includes percussive sampling of knocking on wood to accompany this lyric which is immensely satisfying.

“CANCELLED!” embraces the theme of the album by discussing Swift’s life as one of the biggest stars in the world.

As is epitomized by the aesthetic of the album, the spotlight can be glamorous but it can also turn harsh and gritty in a second. In Reputation, she revealed what it is like to be hated by thousands of people, but “CANCELLED!” takes a new angle now that she is experienced in how the industry treats women like her. The song sounds like a gothic Disney villain anthem as Swift sings “did you make a joke only a man could?” The industry often villainizes successful women for the smallest acts or choices, but each time they come back stronger and more interesting people.

The final eponymous track, “The Life of a Showgirl” features Sabrina Carpenter and explores the price of stardom and life in the spotlight. The song warns that “the life of a showgirl” is not an easy one, but it also not one Swift or Carpenter would give up. To me, much of the song’s message came off as saying “you will never be me” and could never handle it. With this album, I was hoping for more of a peek behind the curtain, not Swift telling us we will simply never understand.

The album’s language with mentions of Cartier, Gucci and expensive hotels contribute to the intended luxurious feel, but it’s so luxurious that I don’t feel welcome in its atmosphere. In combination with the messaging, I felt like an outsider which is never something I would associate with a Taylor Swift album. And I won’t even get into the petulance emanating from Actually Romantic and Wi$h Li$t.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to the album. It’s past time our showgirl found her happiness – and this album shows unequivocally that she has. Songwriting is always a balance between beats and lyrics and in Showgirl the bangers win out. As the album takes its bow, we must remember that people are always going to complain and negative voices will always be loudest. But if you can find your corner of joy, that is all that matters. And, baby, that’s show business for you.

COURTESY OF REPUBLIC RECORDS

Ayla Kruse Lawson is a junior in the College of Human Ecology. She can be reached at akruselawson@cornellsun.com.

ARTS & CULTURE

A & C

Wednesday, October 8, 2025 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun

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15

ARTS & CULTURE

Sword and Sorcery Movies Are a Thing of the Past

By JANE LOCKE

Arts & Culture Writer

Filmmaking has changed dramatically since the 1980s. Advancements in technology, from visual effects to production equipment to home media, have altered how audiences see films and how creators market to audiences. However, perhaps no movie genre has been transformed as much as sword and sorcery. Often said to be birthed with Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories, sword and sorcery is a realm of epic heroes, dark forces, battles of steel, magic and struggles for the fate of the world. As a movie genre, sword and sorcery saw its golden age in the ’80s, but has since petered out, restricted to low-budget movies with sub-par actors and garish effects.

Today, with the film industry’s heavy reliance on computer-generated imagery and the spread of artificial intelligence, we have to wonder if the magic has faded forever, taking sword and sorcery with it.

In 1982, Conan the Barbarian came to the big screen with the release of director John Milius’s take on Robert E. Howard’s legendary story of the same name. With a budget of $20 million, the movie ended with a worldwide box office performance of almost $80 million, bringing in four times the cost of creating the movie. It was this movie, and its success, that served as the standard for most forthcoming sword and sorcery films, until the release of The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001. Conan the Barbarian remains a cult classic today, and it owes much of its longevity to the nature of the production. Production designer

Ron Cobb set the film in real locations across Spain while also blending in meticulously-crafted sets in studios. An animatronic puppet was used for the scene where the villainous mage Thulsa Doom transforms into a snake. Everything about the movie feels real, because it is, in a sense. The human element of the movie’s design makes a stark contrast to today’s computer element.

When Conan’s story was recreated in 2011, this time with Jason Momoa instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, all the human quirks of the old movie — the elaborate sets, the mildly-cheesy snake animatronic — were gone. Creators relied more on CGI than artisanship.

This is why sword and sorcery, as a movie genre, might be over. The methods used to bring these types of films alive are now themselves almost dead. Today, watching fantasy or science-fiction movies in theaters often leads to trying to become emotionally invested in watching two CGI monsters fight each other. While there are some arguments that computer-generated imagery takes some measure of imagination, it still comes off as fake and untouchable to audiences, and that imagination could better be spent in utilizing tactile resources in set design and costume creation.

One of the best examples of costume design as a feat of human ingenuity is the appearance of the Lord of Darkness in the 1985 film Legend. The Lord of Darkness, played by Tim Curry, is the main villain of the story. The character has massive horns, a satan-like appearance and extensive makeup. Tim Curry spent upwards of five and a half hours becoming the Lord of Darkness.

Everything was done to an actual person by actual people. If the Lord of Darkness were to be recreat-

ed in a movie today, chances are the actor would have green dots on their face and CGI plastered on top.

Another aspect of sword and sorcery movies from the 1980s that lends to their appeal has been smoothed out by technology: fuzzy picture quality. It may seem counterintuitive to argue that blurry is better, but the picture-perfect visual look of today’s films makes movies too clear. When audiences sit down to view an older film, the fuzzier quality feels more real and more human.

Sword and sorcery movies that are too clear become artificial, while simultaneously attempting to persuade audiences that heroes and magic truly exist. Sword and sorcery movies from the 1980s that retain a less-than-perfect aspect look just imperfect enough to make us believe.

With the introduction of artificial intelligence to major parts of filmmaking, like scriptwriting and visual effects, we get further and further away from the spirit and art of sword and sorcery movies. Instead of set designers laying out scenes by hand, artificial intelligence and CGI can buffer out the background. Instead of hours of work put into doing makeup and putting together the perfect look for a character, CGI can paste appearances onto actors. The sword and sorcery genre has always been about the power of humanity to conquer all, to create something beautiful and to come together for human connection. Now, it could be the first genre to fizzle out under the burgeoning surge of computer gadgets that erase the potential for human imagination.

Jane Locke is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at jal562@cornell.edu.

To Be a Rock and Not to Roll: Velvet Sundown

By Josh Yiu Arts & Culture Writer

All we are is dust on the wind? You would think an algorithm designed to produce chart-toppers would steer clear of paths already taken, but the Velvet Sundown shamelessly rehashes what’s already been done and tests the limits of our collective memories.

Dust on the wind? “Dust in the Wind?” The classic rock canon has been shamelessly defaced.

The Velvet Sundown’s biggest “hit” has racked up millions of streams despite the fact that it is readily confused with the Kansas song. Or perhaps that was the idea all along. Perhaps we are supposed to confuse them with the Velvet Underground. I’d gladly give humanity the benefit of the doubt when it comes to spotting egregious violations of integrity such as those committed by this “band,” but it’s a lot harder to spot them when Spotify themselves are promoting an AI-generated band on playlists.

The Velvet Sundown are fully AI-generated. Their two albums were released weeks apart in 2025 and have nearly identical covers (that ripoff of Nick Drake). And their promotion by Spotify has helped their songs infiltrate classic rock playlists, subjecting innocent people to their siren songs. Oh, to think of the hapless youth who may fall victim to such trickery.

And that is the worst part. That people have been, and will continue to be fooled. The Velvet Sundown is convincing; they were designed to be. Yet, their song titles and lyrics make no sense. There is something sinister about the way AI puts human words together, there is an element missing, a living, breathing essence that cannot be captured and reproduced by a machine. “Dust on the Wind?” “Drift Beyond the Flame?” “Back Home Never Came?” It is uncanny how blatantly obvious this is to me. I can only hope that others see through the veil as readily as I do.

And I haven’t even gotten to the music yet.

It all holds itself together until the machine starts to sing. The acoustic guitars are convincing, the drums are in time, soulless, but in time. The chord progressions are frustratingly familiar. But there is something more placable in the “singer’s” voice that is downright unsettling. The accents, the vibrato, all the sensibilities that a human singer possesses are missing or in the wrong spots. From a more technical standpoint, many of “his” melodic runs reveal a more inorganic source. Let’s take “Dust on the Wind” again. The notes are clearly out of this synthetic singer’s range (a B4, really?), and a very obvious discord exists in “his” chest and head voices. Essentially, I can hear that he is a fake. I bet you could too.

So what next? The Velvet Sundown is a testament to AI’s pervasiveness and subtle proof that we are surrounded and at a loss. The music industry, streaming platforms, are doing little to limit our contact with this new plague. The onus is on us, I suppose; if you want to stay away from AI music, it is your responsibility to do so. That is, if you want to. The sobering reality of the matter is that people probably don’t care. Why would anyone who actively entrusts their music intake to algorithms particularly care about this infringement?

In some strange way, one could argue that you’re asking for it. If you are willing to let the digital captain take the wheel and dictate what you listen to, how can you blame them? The incentive is obvious.

Spotify doesn’t pay their artists anyway, imagine what a relief it is to support a band that doesn’t exist? The commodification of music has reached its peak, and there are no more rungs to climb before we slip and plummet.

I would posit that it is our means of consumption of music that best models our response, whether that be profound disgust or tragic indifference. Let’s consider the casual listener, the student who listens to customized, algorithm-generated playlists on Spotify at the gym or at the library. They don’t know what they

are listening to, nor do they particularly care. Why should knowing that the song they just listened to was AI-generated change their opinion of it? If they don’t care as long as they have music to entertain them, why is AI music a problem? Now, let’s consider the opposite scenario, the enjoyer of music, the student who knows what they are listening to, perhaps even goes out of their way to learn about the artists behind the music they enjoy. The enjoyer of music will discover that this band is AI-generated, and make their decision accordingly (one of firm refusal?). By this modelling of the listener, the problem is solved.

The indifferent remain indifferent, the passionate make their stand. So why does it still feel like an injustice has been done?

For everyone who lies in between, there is a decision to make. Perhaps the average listener cares about the music they listen to enough to value its integrity, while remaining ignorant of its origins. Perhaps this average listener will make a potentially shocking discovery when they realize that this music they have been enjoying was created by a machine. Perhaps the average listener will be thrown violently into this dilemma. By this model, the average listener is the only one who is slighted. The casual listener and enjoyer avoid any negative outcome, are not surprised or affected by what they may or may not learn. How accurate my model is, I cannot say; I suspect it is adequate at best. Yet, I suspect that people exist to fill each category, and as such, people exist who would be disgusted to learn that they have been unknowingly indulging in AI filth. Either way, the discovery is for us to make. As such, it appears that the dawn of AI music has forced the responsibility on us, the receiving end, to pay attention to what we are receiving.

Regardless of what stance you take, you, and only you, are in charge of what you consume.

Josh Yiu is a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He can be reached at jy793@cornell.edu.

16 WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 8, 2025

Sports

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Football Drops Homecoming to Colgate

NATHAN ELLISON / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Homecoming hangup | Despite narrowing the gap in the third quarter, early lapses and lack of late momentum caused Cornell to fall, 41-21, to the Raiders.

By ALEXIS ROGERS and MATTHEW LEONARD Sun Sports Editor and Sun Staff Writer

After falling into a two-touchdown hole early in its homecoming game against Colgate, chances looked dire for the Red. Junior quarterback Devin Page had given up two interceptions, the team couldn’t manage to string together a drive longer than 25 yards and repeat the success of last year’s shocker over Yale.

The score tightened up during a dominant third quarter for Cornell (0-3, 0-1 Ivy), but, despite the homecoming-day hype, the Red lost its momentum in the final 15 minutes and fell 41-21 to the Raiders (2-3, 1-0 Patriot).

“The level of major mistakes was just insurmountable,” said head coach Dan Swanstrom.

“We’re in a situation where the Big Red just keeps beating the Big Red, and we don’t really have a chance to win these games. I saw some resiliency and some fight, and somehow we got this to a one score game.”

Homecoming got off to a rocky — and whiplash-inducing — start, with possession switching three times in the first three minutes.

Page’s first play of the game, a long pass attempt, was intercepted by Justyn Toler, giving the Raiders an early head start on the Red’s 37-yard line. Thanks to a concerted effort by the Cornell defense, Colgate couldn’t advance and was forced to punt.

Just three plays into the Red’s next drive, however, Colgate earned another interception, this time on the 34-yard line. Jake Stearney launched a 27-yard throw into the endzone, which was picked up by Treyvhon Saunders to give the Raiders the lead, 7-0.

After giving up the pair of interceptions, Page was pulled from the quarterback position, yielding to junior quarterback Garrett BassSulpizio for the rest of the match.

“Devin was practicing really well. He had some glimpses and moments in the first two games that I really liked,” Swanstrom said. “But the decision making [in the first quarter] was just not great. It put us in a 14-nothing bind almost immediately.”

Midway through the quarter, the Raiders got another golden opportunity; Stearney completed a 35-yard pass to Saunders to get Colgate close, then found Saunders again in the next play to double their lead.

Bass-Sulpizio made his first appearance of the game on the following possession, travel-

ling 25 yards before relenting the Red’s fourth possession. At the conclusion of the first 15 minutes, Colgate led 14-0 and had advanced 127 yards (114 of which were passing) to Cornell’s 78.

The second quarter saw Bass-Sulpizio come out strong, with a quick completion to junior tight end Ryder Kurtz and a quarterback sneak putting the Red within scoring range. From the 13-yard line, Bass-Sulpizio threw a handbook pass directly to senior wide receiver Smith Doryn that led him right to the corner of the endzone. While the play was initially called incomplete, a review by officials resulted in the Red earning its first touchdown of the season at Schoellkopf.

“My job is just to help the guys around me move the ball and they do a great job,” BassSulpizio said when speaking about his receivers.

“They were ready to go, everyone on the sideline came up here like, ‘Hey, we got you.’ And that is exactly what they did.”

Shaban rushing 57-yards to get within 10 yards of the endzone within the first minute. Cornell’s defense didn’t relent, despite the early lapse.

The Red forced a fumble on the third down, which was recovered by senior safety Jeremiah Lewis to give Cornell possession on its own 6-yard line.

Bass-Sulpizio hurled a 39-yard completion to junior wide receiver Brendan Lee to get Cornell back in field goal range, beginning the Red’s longest drive of the game.

The Red would make sure to take advantage of this play, after senior running back Robert Tucker lll rushed right into the endzone for a four yard touchdown. Zhao then secured the extra point on his second attempt of the game, cutting the Raiders lead down to 15 points. “[Bass-Sulpizio] really competed,” Swanstrom said. “He fought. He got us back in this game. He got us in good plays, and he made enough good throws to really get us in the mix.”

“The level of major mistakes was just insurmountable. We’re in a situation where the Big Red just keeps beating the Big Red, and we don’t really have a chance to win these games. I saw some resiliency and some fight, and somehow we got this to a one score game.”

Head coach Dan Swanstrom While emotions were high, junior kicker Alan Zhao missed the extra point, keeping the score at 14-6 in favor of Colgate. The Red and Colgate would then both go four-and-out for drives of just six and seven yards.

The Raiders would not wait long to strike back against the Red, with Reed Swanson making a one-handed 33-yard catch to put them within striking distance of the endzone. Mason Mozo then received a short pass from Stearney, stepping into the endzone for the Raiders’ third touchdown of the game.

Not long after, Colgate’s Trooper Price logged a pick-six, intercepting Bass-Sulpizio’s mid-field pass and running 43 uninterrupted yards to the endzone. With the first half coming to a close, the Red was able to fight its way into field goal range. However, the Red unsuccessfully chose to go for a touchdown, resulting in the first half ending with the Raiders up 28-6.

Colgate hit the ground running, with Danny

Cornell followed up its scoring play by holding Colgate to just an eight-yard drive.

The resulting drive took the Red from its own 16-yard line to a touchdown earned off a quarterback sneak by Bass-Sulpizio. Cornell then chose to go for a two-point conversion, which ended successfully, closing the gap with Colgate to 28-21.

The third quarter concluded with the Red outscoring Colgate 15-0, giving Cornell great momentum heading into a crucial fourth quarter. “[The team] just needs to realize how close we are to where we want to be,” Bass-Sulpizio said. “We can look at the grand scheme of things and see that we’re losing these games, but at the end of the day, we’re right there.”

Colgate opened the final 15 minutes with a touchdown, earned by a wide-open pass up the middle to Max Walters, disrupting the Red’s late-game dominance.

Down 34-21 with under 10 minutes of play left, the prospect of mounting a comeback looked bleak, but the Red was not ready to give up. Bass-Sulpizio and the Cornell offense marched down the field on the back of multiple huge plays. However, the Red would unsuccessfully attempt a fourth down rush, putting the ball back in the hands of the Raiders with just under 7 minutes left.

Cornell attempted a fourth-down conversion on its next possession, only for Colgate’s Kenny Langston to intercept Bass-Sulpizio’s pass and give Colgate the ball at midfield.

The game concluded with a late touchdown from Cole Fulton sealing the victory for the Raiders, 41-21, over the Red. “We’ve got to execute better,” Swanstrom said. “We’ve got to block the right people. Let’s focus on just doing what we’re coached to do and see what it looks like.”

The quarterback battle drove the game’s momentum, with Stearney and Bass-Sulpizio both taking all or a significant portion of playing time despite typically sharing the position.

Stearney demonstrated superior passing in the first half, giving his team a significant leg up with 163 passing yards. Bass-Sulpizio saw immense growth after the half, logging 89 passing and 29 rushing yards in the Red’s productive third quarter alone.

The absence of Jameson Wang ’25 has hit the Red’s offense hard. In just three games, Page and Bass-Sulpizio have relented nine interceptions, while Wang threw 11 over the entirety of the 2024 season. The Red has averaged 18.3 points per game, a far cry from last year’s 30-point average.

“There’s definitely some throws that I want back, missing some guys on crucial downs,” Bass-Sulpizio said. “We started off the season 0-3. We’ve just got to stay together, because this is the time of season where teams fall apart.”

The game marked Cornell’s third-straight loss to Colgate, and its sixth homecoming loss in the last seven years.

Cornell is back on the road again next week, traveling to Cambridge, Massachusetts to take on Harvard on Friday. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m., the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Alexis Rogers and Matthew Leonard can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com and mbl229@cornell.edu.