INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 135, No. 27
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018
n
ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Bee Travel on Campus
First Man
Comeback Kids
Rain
Students raised money for a pathway for bees that stretches from the Dairy Bar to the Botanic Gardens. | Page 3
Director Damien Chazelle makes his audience feel like astronauts, writes Lev Akabas ’19 | Page 9
A dominant fourth quarter pushed sprint football past St. Thomas Aquinas for its first conference win. | Page 16
HIGH: 55˚ LOW: 40˚
Students Demand C.U. Eliminate Student Contribution Fee
The fee, which all students must pay, cannot be reduced through grant aid or C.U. scholarships By SARAH SKINNER Sun Assistant News Editor
COURTESY OF DANIEL BROMBERG ’20
Tuition talk | Students present a petition and a letter to Interim Director of Financial Aid Colleen Wright last
On Oct. 17, 17 students crowded through the offices of Day Hall, proudly presenting Interim Director of Financial Aid Colleen Wright with a letter and a petition with hundreds of signatures calling for an end to Cornell’s student contribution fee. The contribution fee is a flat rate based on a student’s year in school and is a requirement for every Cornell student enrolled at the University. However, said Daniel Bromberg ’20, one of the organizers of the People’s Organizing Collective campaign, not every student on campus is even aware of its existence. “If you haven’t looked at your tuition bill, you don’t know what it is,” he said. The experience, he said, is profoundly different for students who receive financial aid and those who do not.
Wednesday about the student contribution fee. The fee is a flat rate based on a student’s year in school.
Democrats, Republicans Debate Economic Policy, Foreign Affairs By ROCHELLE LI Sun Staff Writer
Leaders of Cornell Democrats and Republicans debated policy issues Monday, both sides trying to convince the audience to vote for their respective parties in the midterm elections. Parties started out with eight-minute PowerPoint presentations laying out their core platforms followed by two rounds of rebuttal, conclusion arguments and questions submitted by the audience. The Cornell Republicans framed their platform as a way to continue economic growth, referencing the current economic strength under the Trump
administration. They argued that the tax cut was growing the economy. Citing a Congressional Budget Office report, they mentioned that revenue since the tax cut is up $26 billion, largely due to increases in wages. The Republicans repeatedly compared policies under the Obama administration with the current administration’s policies, claiming the latter achieved more growth and enhanced national security. “Do you vote to … derail this successful platform in favor of a party which had its chance and failed on every one of these issues, or do you choose to return See DEBATE page 5
BORIS TSANG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Politics on the hill | Republicans and Democrats speak about the economy during the Trump and Obama administrations, among other topics, at a debate on Monday.
See FEE page 4
Undergraduates Compose Chimes Music for Course By JOLIE WEI and LUCY XU Sun Contributor and Sun Staff Writer
For the first time in the instrument’s 150-year history, a group of 13 undergraduates composed a piece to be performed by the Cornell Chimes, a set of 21 bells housed in McGraw Tower. The feat was born out of a collaboration between the Cornell Chimes and Music 3140: Instrumentation for Composers, a new music course that teaches students how to compose for various instruments of the classical orchestra. Led by Prof. Eli Marshall, music, Instrumentation for Composers takes an active learning approach to music education by tasking each student with composing a one-minute piece for every instrument that they learn about. To guide students during this process, the class invites performers to workshop the pieces with the students. In the composition of the piece for the Chimes, Cornell Chimesmasters collaborated with the students in their creative processes. Since the Chimes are only two octaves high,
MATT HINTSA / SUN FILE PHOTO
Chimes innovation | Kathryn Barger Ph.D. ’08 plays the bells on the top of McGraw Tower. Members of a music course recently composed a piece for the Chimes.
composers are limited on what they can write, said Drake Eshleman ’20, a student in the course. However, through collaboration with the Chimesmasters, students were able to learn more of the body movements and physical aspects of playing the chimes. While the process was difficult on both ends,
Billie Sun ’19, head Chimesmaster, said the most rewarding part was getting to work with people of new perspectives. “These [students] were coming at it from a music theory background,” Sun said. “They took a lot of things into account that Chimesmasters themselves See CHIMES page 4