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Donlon residents bristled at only having four working laundry machines. | Page 3

The Center for Disease Control gave Cornell $8.7 million in grants for vector-borne disease research. | Page 12

Eirian Huang '26 reviews Keeton House's Thanksgiving dinner. | Page 5

HIGH: 61º LOW: 45º

C.U. Pre-Enroll Posters Displaying Kidnapped Compared to Ivy Israelis Vandalized, Removed College Processes

By KATE SANDERS Sun Staff Writer

After being attached to poles in Ithaca Commons for over a week, posters about the hostages taken by Hamas have been removed after they were vandalized with anti-Israel remarks.

In the weeks since Hamas took about 240 people hostage on Oct. 7, red and white posters displaying the word “KIDNAPPED” in large block letters have become ubiquitous in cities and college campuses around the

world. These posters were designed in New York City by Israeli street artist Nitzan Mintz and her partner Dede Bandaid as an effort to support Israel from thousands of miles away. Their official website describes the posters as a piece of “guerilla public artwork” and encourages supporters to “place as many posters as possible in the public space.”

Several posters bringing awareness to Hamas holding individuals hostage were hung on every pole in the Commons on Nov. 13. The next day,

JONATHAN MONG / SUN NEWS EDITOR

Posters | Posters on the Ithaca Commons that displayed the names and pictures of Israelis held hostage by Hamas were vandalized with anti-Israel slogans and removed.

all of the posters on Ithaca Commons had been removed, and small, damp, red and white pieces of paper laid on the ground next to where the posters once were.

Chapter 272 of The City of Ithaca’s code prohibits the posting of “temporary signs” — like the “KIDNAPPED” posters — in public spaces without a permit from the city. The Sun was unable to independently confirm whether or not the city granted a permit for the posters and whether or not the city was involved in their removal.

Some members of the business community said they disliked that the posters were placed in a public space. Lou Cassaniti, owner of Lou’s Street Food, said he disapproved of their being posted without city permission.

“I’m against it only because it doesn’t look good. I’m not against the idea — I’m against what the controversy is going to cause about whether you can do it or not,” Cassaniti said. “Some people feel they can do it because it’s their right to do it, but the Commons is owned by the city. You can’t come to my house and put posters on my house.”

Prior to the Commons being cleared of posters entirely on Nov. 14, individuals had been attempting to remove them themselves — often leaving large chunks of ripped paper attached to the poles. Several people working at stores in Ithaca Commons said they observed people taking the posters down in this way before Nov. 14. Alli Streeter, a retail assistant at a store on the Commons, said she was upset when she saw someone ripping down the posters.

See VANDALISM page 3

By GRACE LIU and LUKA PAVLOVICH Sun Contributors

Natalie McFadden ’27 stared anxiously at her computer screen at 7:29 a.m. on Nov. 8, waiting for the freshmen pre-enroll period to open so she could sign up for courses for the upcoming spring semester. McFadden said she spent weeks meticulously crafting the perfect class schedule — and preparing multiple backup schedules, too, in case her first-choice classes were full by the time she attempted to enroll in them. As the clock struck 7:30 a.m., McFadden raced "Just trying to get [the to click the “enroll” necessary credits] to button in Student Center. be a full-time student “I watched was a challenge." the loading icon spin around and Natalie McFadden ’27 around, until my computer screen refreshed and flashed a sea of red x’s,” McFadden said.

Out of the 18 credits she attempted to enroll in, McFadden could only successfully enroll in 2.5 credits. To remain in good academic standing with the University, a student must enroll in at least 12 academic credits. She then tried enrolling in multiple backup courses, but it ultimately took an hour of frantic searching for McFadden to find a schedule that worked for her.

“I felt helpless because my backups didn’t work.

Nothing was working,” McFadden said. “Just trying to get [the necessary credits] to be a full-time student was a challenge.”

McFadden’s pre-enroll ordeal, however, is not uncommon among Cornell students. To provide context to Cornell’s course enrollment process, The Sun analyzed the processes at different Ivy League institutions and spoke to students at their respective universities.

See PRE-ENROLL page 4

Latino Cornellians' Day Hall Takeover, 30 Years Later

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ and DINA SHLUFMAN Sun News Editor and Sun Contributor

On Nov. 19, 1993, a group of Cornell Latino students and their supporters marched to Day Hall to demand the administration address on-campus vandalism and hate speech.

When the administration refused to speak with them, they staged a fourday takeover of the building.

According to Kety Esquivel ’97, a takeover participant, the protest began in response to an act of vandalism that had occurred earlier that month.

Cornell students had vandalized a piece of artwork — “The Castle is Burning”

by Daniel J. Martinez, a prominent Hispanic-American artist — that was on display in the Arts Quad.

The artwork was a part of a series of exhibitions called “Revelaciones/ Revelations, Hispanic art of evanescence,” in which art by various Hispanic artists was placed around campus.

Martinez’s piece, a set of barricades covered in black tar, was vandalized with messages such as “Cesar Chavez is dead,” “Kill the illegals,” and “White pride.” A swastika was also drawn on the artwork.

Esquivel, a native New Yorker, said these messages shocked her when she first saw them on campus.

“The things that they were saying made it such an unwelcoming climate when in fact, this was my home,” Esquivel said. “This is my home.”

Cristina Bañuelos ’97, who was adjusting to her first year at Cornell when the vandalism took place, expressed a similar sentiment.

“It was really shocking,” Bañuelos said. “My expectation coming onto campus was that it was this really diverse place with people coming together because they wanted to be a part of a multicultural, diverse learning environment.”

See TAKEOVER page 4

MARK PASNIK / SUN FILE PHOTO

Thirty years later | In 1993, Latino Cornellians and their allies staged a takeover of Day Hall after an art installation was vandalized.

News

2 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023

Daybook

Thursday, November 16, 2023

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS Today

Tomorrow

The Right On, Write In! 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m., 190 Rockefeller Hall

Shadowing Cybersecurity 10 a.m. - 11:15 a.m., 2250 Martha van Rensselaer Hall

Write a Winning Cover Letter – Human Resources 3073 10 a.m. - 11 a.m., Virtual Event

Context Matters: Insights From Environmental Communication Research in Latin America 1 p.m., 102 Mann Library

Cornell’s Relationship to Indigenous Peoples: The Ithaca Campus and Beyond Noon - 1 p.m., Yarnell Lecture Hall 4, College of Veterinary Medicine

Milstein Program: Info Session for First-Years 2 p.m. - 3 p.m., 133 Rockefeller Hall

Environmental Justice Noon - 1 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

Institute for German Cultural Studies Fall 2023 Colloquium Series 2:30 - 4:30 p.m., 155 Klarman Hall

Cornell in Washington: Student Ambassador Drop-In Hours 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., Martha’s Cafe, Martha van Rensselaer Hall

History of Art and Visual Studies Alumni Career Panel 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m., History of Art Gallery, Goldwin Smith Hall

The Intersectionality of Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Racism 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall

Classics Speaker Series: Erik Gunderson 4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m., 1G22 Goldwin Smith Hall

Laboratory of Plasma Studies Colloquium on Plasma Science and Application Featuring Dr. Riccardo Betti 4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 700 Clark Hall

Language Expansion Program 4:30 - 5:30 p.m., G25 Stimson Hall

Heroes to Hostages: America, Iran, and Global Civil Rights 4:30 p.m., 236 Goldwin Smith Hall Reading by Zadie Smith 5 p.m., KG70 Klarman Hal Performing and Media Arts Presents Andrea Savage ‘94 5 p.m. - 6 p.m., Film Forum, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts Danielle Hanley at the Political Theory Workshop - “From Wayward Lives to Choral Politics: Saidiya Hartman and the Emancipatory Potential of the Chorus” 5 p.m.- 6:30 p.m., 201 A.D. White House

Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards Salon: CU Music 5 p.m., A.D. White House Cornell Women’s Ice Hockey vs Quinnipiac University 6 p.m., Lynah Rink Love and Information 7:30 p.m., Class of 56 Flexible Theater, Schwartz Performing Arts Center Café con Leche 6 p.m. - 7 p.m., Latino Living Center

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The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 3

News

Posters Showing Hostages Written Over, Torn Down Graffiti on the “KIDNAPPED” hostage posters in the Commons read “Zionist Scum” and “Israel is Hitler” VANDALISM

Continued from page 1

“I wish I was brave enough to confront them, but I feel like that’s dangerous sometimes,” Streeter said. “I just think it’s a really unfortunate way to speak your mind by hurting someone else or ruining someone else’s project.”

Zoe Bernstein ’24, president of Cornellians for Israel, said that the posters were an important way to spread awareness about the hostages. Many students in Cornellians for Israel have put up “KIDNAPPED” posters on Cornell’s campus, and Bernstein said that she was distressed by the backlash against them.

“These are innocent people who were just kidnapped. I don’t think that’s a very political ask to have them returned, but apparently it’s become one, as we’ve seen so many people ripping them down,” Bernstein said.

However, some students have expressed a different opinion about the posters’ political implications in certain contexts. At a die-in protest for Palestine on Nov. 9, some students not participating in the protest brought “KIDNAPPED” posters to raise awareness of the hostage crisis. A postscript about the event from Cornell’s Coalition for Mutual Liberation, which describes itself as a “broad based coalition of solidarity” that is in support of Palestinian liberation, cited

the use of images of the hostages as an “intimidation tactic.”

Some ideological opponents to the posters in both the Commons and Cornell went further than just attempting to remove them, covering them with pro-Palestine posters and writing over them with anti-Israel remarks. Bernstein said that at Cornell, she encountered a poster near Sibley Hall with “#Free Palestine” written over it in pencil.

“These are innocent people who were just kidnapped. I don’t think that’s a very political ask to have them returned.”

Zoe Bernstein ’24 On the Commons, one piece of graffiti called the hostages “Zionist scum.” Another read “Israel is Hitler.” The graffiti was removed at around the same time that the posters were removed.

Deirdre Kurzweil, the owner of Sunny Days of Ithaca — whose storefront was tagged with antisemitic symbols in October 2020 — said that she wrote to the city to have the posters removed, not because of their ideas but because of the controversy they incited.

Kurzweil said that the city responded to her, saying

that because of the way the posters were attached to the poles, they were difficult to remove.

Despite numerous attempts, both the city and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance were unavailable for comment.

Across the country, the “KIDNAPPED” posters and the response to them have sparked hostility between those on different sides of the conflict.

At Columbia, a student was arrested for allegedly assaulting another student during an argument over the posters, and a Miami dentist was fired after being filmed tearing posters down.

Kurzweil said that the posters and the backlash against them are unproductive ways for Ithaca as a community to have difficult conversations about the Israel-Hamas war.

“There’s a reason why we don’t allow anyone to put up random posters — it’s not allowed. This is just too controversial, [and] it’s not the right way to have the dialogue,” Kurzweil said. “It invites what has now subsequently happened, which is people putting posters over the hostage posters and making it even more contentious. It’s a really hard conversation. There’s no easy answer, but this is just triggering and disturbing.”

Kate Sanders can be reached at ksanders@cornellsun.com.

Students Lament Laundry Issues

By FLORENCE CHEUNG Sun Contributor

As first-year Cornellians adapt to the independence of college life, they must navigate the challenges of doing their own laundry — which some students said Cornell’s student laundry system makes difficult, citing malfunctioning machines and the extra costs residents must pay to use them.

Given the significant housing fee the University charges students to live on campus — approximately $12,00 per year for a double room — Cornellians such as Shalini Ramakrishnan ’27 expressed belief that campus laundry machines should be free to use.

“The laundry service should be free, and the quality should be improved because we are already paying so much to be here,” Ramakrishnan said.

The washing machines in Cornell’s residence halls cost $1.75 per cycle, and the dryers cost $1.30. If a student washes and dries their clothes once per week for the entire academic year, they will end up paying a total of nearly $100 to do their laundry.

Karen Brown, senior director of campus life marketing and communications, told The Sun that it is difficult for the University to track each individual’s laundry use.

“Students have such a varied need for quantity and frequency of laundry — [therefore], it’s appropriate to charge per use,” Brown wrote in an email to The Sun. In addition to the costs, students have also reported ongoing maintenance issues with the laundry facilities.

Out of the 14 washing machines in Mary Donlon Hall, only four seemed to be operating to serve the dorm’s 450 first-year residents as of Oct. 12, according to Spencer Hom ’27, a Donlon resident.

“It’s honestly a little disappointing that our laundry service is not funded, and in times that we need them, they are not available to us,” Hom said.

Other Donlon residents also expressed frustration with the lack of available working laundry machines

— such as Patrick Fang ’27, who described the laundry situation as “frustrating and unfair.”

Malfunctioning laundry machines are not exclusive to Donlon. Alejandro Rojas ’27, who lives in Low Rise #6, noted that the limited number of working laundry machines has sparked tensions within the residence hall’s community.

“Since there are only four laundry machines [for Low Rise 6 residents] — of which three are actually functioning — laundry is done in a hostile environment, because everybody is waiting to take your laundry out so they can do theirs,” Rojas said.

After almost two weeks, on Oct. 25, all of the laundry machines in Mary Donlon Hall had been fixed, according to Brown.

“We continue to work with the vendor, and they have committed to replacing all machines older than 2021 in the summer of 2024,” Brown wrote.

To maintain functioning laundry machines in dormitories, Brown suggested students refrain from overloading machines, use a small amount of liquid detergent and avoid using detergent sheets or putting detergent pods in the liquid detergent dispenser. Cornell’s Housing and Residential Life website also directs students to LaundryView, where users can monitor the availability of laundry machines in their dorms.

Still, Donlon residents remain frustrated by the frequent malfunctions in the laundry system.

“I feel like it is unfair that we are all paying the same tuition as other dorms,

JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Machine malfunction | Donlon residents expressed frustration over the lack of available working laundry machines in the residence hall, which only had four operating at one point.

Cornell currently partners with CSC ServiceWorks, a third-party laundry operation. Through the company’s app — CSCPay Mobile — students are able to deposit money to pay for their laundry. The app also includes features that alert users when their laundry has finished washing.

yet most of our washing machines are not working,” said Donlon resident Maham Khan ’27. “And there seems to be no incentive for people to come in or resources to fix them.”

Florence Cheung can be reached at fc364@ cornell.edu.

www.cornellsun.com

4 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023

Latino Cornellians Look Back on 1993 Day Hall Takeover

News

Cloudy Campus

TAKEOVER

Continued from page 1

Patricia Campos-Medina ’96, a sophomore at the time, also reported sensing a hostile environment, saying she felt the vandalism was disrespectful to Cornell’s Latino community.

According to Esquivel, Cornell’s Latino community was dissatisfied with the University’s lack of response, especially in contrast with their rapid condemnation of the vandalism of the Ezra Cornell statue that occurred around the same time.

Campos-Medina said she, among other members of the Latino community, felt the need to take action.

“We were hurt. We were angry. We were upset,” CamposMedina said. “But we also felt that we couldn’t stay quiet. I worked as hard as any other student on that campus to get accepted to the University, so nobody could tell me that I didn’t belong on that campus.”

The community responded by leading a peaceful protest, joined by many non-Latino students. However, this protest was met with some physical altercations with other students.

Having experienced the hostile campus climate, some students decided that they wanted to speak directly with Cornell’s president at the time, Frank H. T. Rhodes, to encourage him to address the vandalism.

When the students arrived at Day Hall, where Rhodes’s office was, Esquivel said that they were ignored by administrators and told that Rhodes was not present on campus.

The students decided to stay in the building, refusing to leave until an administrator would speak with them.

“We did this because we cared [about Cornell], and we believed in this mantra of ‘any person…any study,’” Esquivel said.

During the takeover, students’ demands began to grow.

They urged University administration to increase funding for initiatives run by and serving Latino students — including supporting activities for Hispanic Heritage Month,purchasing more books about Latinos in America, hiring more Latino professors and creating a Latino Living Center by the following academic year.

Campos-Medina said she and others believed strongly in these demands. In addition to occupying the building, Lorna Holt ’96 decided to participate in a hunger strike.

“I thought that would be an effective way to make a loud statement, silently,” Holt wrote in a statement to The Sun. During the four-day-long takeover, the administration threatened suspension and even expulsion for the students remaining in Day Hall. However, after three days of occupation, the administration agreed to speak with the students on Monday, Nov. 22, 1993.

Esquivel said she was proud to have taken part in the takeover with her fellow students.

“We were able to contribute ‘nuestros granitos de arena’ [our little grains of sand] to really make a difference,” she said.

Holt is likewise proud to have participated.

“I am still amazed at what [the takeover] did,” Holt said.

“It showed me what activism can do.”

In response to the takeover, Cornell created the Latino Living Center, transformed the Hispanic American Studies Program into the more well-funded Latino Studies Program, hired more Latino professors and created courses that reflected the diversity of the American Latino community.

See TAKEOVER page 5

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Looking back | Current and past Cornellians look back on the Day Hall takeover in support of Latino students in 1993.

MING DEMERS / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

As temperatures continue to fall and Ithaca approaches its winter season, a cloudy sky hangs over Cornell’s central campus.

Course Enrollment Varies Across Ivy League Colleges PRE-ENROLL

Continued from page 1

Cornell University At Cornell, each undergraduate year has a different pre-enrollment period that lasts for about two days, with time slots ordered by seniority.

For Spring 2024, enrollment began on Nov. 1 for seniors, Nov. 6 for juniors, Nov. 7 for sophomores and Nov. 8 for first-year students.

Enrollment opened at 7:30 a.m. on each day.

Students may apply for waitlists and reach out to professors if they do not initially receive entrance to a class. At the beginning of the semester, students enter into the Add/Drop period, during which they are able to add courses in the first two weeks of the semester and have the option to drop courses up until a month into the semester. Sometimes, availability for previously closed classes opens throughout this period, giving students a second chance at enrolling in their preferred courses.

McFadden said she looks toward the Add/ Drop period with nervous optimism, especially for the possibility of enrolling in currently full courses that other students may drop out of.

“I think I have too much false hope,” McFadden said. “I feel naive, like I’m over reliant on the Add/Drop period. But I know the only way to secure my required classes and other classes I want is through [the] Add/Drop [period].”

The University of Pennsylvania There are two rounds of course registration at the University of Pennsylvania — Advance Registration and Course Selection, also referred to as Add/Drop/Swap. During Advance Registration, students use an online registration system called Path@Penn to submit their preferred and alternative courses. There is no advantage to registering early, as all courses requested are simultaneously processed through an algorithm at the conclusion of the Advance Registration period.

Jada Hembrador, a first-year student in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, said that course results are returned after Advance Registration closes.

“Getting desired courses really depends on the ratio between the number of people trying to take that specific section of class with the number of spots available. Path@Penn uses random assignments for the most part, so it is really up to luck,” Hembrador said.

The second part of course registration, the Course Selection period, allows students to add and drop courses before finalizing their schedules. Throughout this period, students are able to

freely swap courses, as long as they have instructor permission and sections are not yet full.

Hembrador said the university should create more sections of highly popular classes or make them available during both fall and spring semesters to help make course scheduling more flexible.

“The rigidity of certain majors and inability to obtain certain classes frustrates me,” Hembrador said. “For some students, if they are unable to obtain the classes they need, their course plans could be set back by one to two semesters.”

Yale College About two weeks before official course registration, Yale College offers a system called Preference Selection for a limited number of courses, in which students can select and rank the classes they want. This method is offered for a few courses in chemistry, directed studies, French, math and first-year seminars.

Students enroll in their remaining courses during the course registration week, which, like Cornell’s system, is based on a seniority priority system. There is also an Add/Drop period at the beginning of each term that lasts for about two weeks.

Nilab Ahmed is a student in Yale’s Directed Studies program, which gives a small group of first-year students the opportunity to study formative texts of Western and Near Eastern cultures. She explained that while she was guaranteed a spot in each of her three classes within the program, it was more difficult for her to register for her remaining language class during course enrollment.

“Even though I was registering for only one class, I was unable to get the section that best fit with my schedule and had to go through extensive communication with the registrar’s office during the Add/Drop period to make it work out,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed suggested that making more classes available during preference selection might remedy some of the stress and other problems with course enrollment.

“Preference selection is not on a first-come first-serve basis, so I’ve found that selecting classes that way has been significantly less stress-inducing,” Ahmed said. “[If I were in charge,] I would implement a change so that more classes are offered through preference selection – it would make for an overall smoother course selection process.”

Ahmed also suggested extending the Add/ Drop period to provide students with more time to explore classes and ensure that they are satisfied with their course selection for the term.

See PRE-ENROLL page 5

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 5

News

Day Hall Takeover, 30 Years Later

www.cornellsun.com

Latino Cornellians took over Day Hall to protest anti-Hispanic racism on campus TAKEOVER

Continued from page 4

In addition, the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County was founded shortly after by a group of individuals who were associated with the takeover — in part, due to the culture of activism that the takeover helped foster on campus and beyond, according to Esquivel.

Bañuelos also commented on the empowerment she felt following the takeover.

“I was active on campus afterwards and felt empowered,” Bañuelos said. “I saw how organizing and action could lead to tangible results.”

Because of the influx of Latino professors and resources that were brought to Cornell, Bañuelos, a Mexican-American student, said she was able to participate in a Chicana conference and take classes within the Latino studies program.

Campos-Medina also expressed pride at the impact the takeover had on the Cornell community.

“We changed the future trajectory of [our] campus,” Campos-Medina said. “I am very proud that we changed Cornell for the better.”

The takeover will be commemorated with multiple events on Thursday, Nov. 16 and Friday, Nov. 17, organized by groups

including La Asociación Latina, the Latino Living Center, MechA — Cornell’s Chicanx Student association — and the Cornell Latino Alumni Association.

The programming will include a poster making event at the Latino Living Center on Nov. 16 and a Day Hall takeover alumni panel and discussion at William Straight Hall, as well as a Day Hall takeover walk reenactment, on Nov. 17.

Cristobal Ramirez ’26, a co-chair of MEChA who will be one of the speakers at the commemoration event, emphasized the importance of commemorating the takeover, saying its goal was to build solidarity among Latino Cornellians.

“The primary importance of this event, besides being political, is to build Latino intergenerational solidarity. Not just among the alumni within themselves, but between the alumni and [current students],” Ramirez said. “Latinos in general — but at Cornell, especially — I feel like we don’t have role models that are exactly like us, that are visible. But they’re actually quite a lot of them.”

Ramirez — whose mother is a Cornell alumna and was one of the first residents of the Latino Living Center — noted the current challenges faced by Latino students and organizations on campus. Although he recognized the progress from administration and a more accepting environment in the student body, he said there are funding

and planning constraints that do not allow for a cohesive sense of community among Latinos on campus.

“The LLC itself is underfunded. It’s sometimes disorganized. The only big Latino event that we have per year there is the Latino Bienvenidos Barbecue,” Ramirez said. “Never again, is there an event where the community has an excuse to get together in hundreds.”

Despite these shortcomings, Ramirez said he remains hopeful of the possibility of students to reconnect and learn from how alumni overcame challenges to create community and unity on campus.

“I hope that it can be a place for reconnection, and for us youngsters to get to know the people who are in our shoes, who walked upon this very same campus facing very similar issues that we can learn from them,” Ramirez said.

Campos-Medina said she hopes that current Latino students do not take these campus resources for granted.

“I hope they treasure the legacy of the Latino students but also keep working to make it better and make it serve the purpose of their generation,” Campos-Medina said.

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

Dina Shlufman can be reached at dfs225@ cornell.edu.

Inside The Differences Between Ivy Course Enrollments Cornellians are not alone in the scramble for courses, but other Ivies have varying selection systems PRE-ENROLL

Continued from page 4

Harvard College At Harvard College, the enrollment process varies based on the types of classes students want to enroll in. Students pre-enroll for their classes online, adding courses to a virtual cart before submitting their preferences. General education classes — wherein Harvard faculty instruct topics of personal interest — use a lottery to decide what students receive entry, whereas seminar courses require that students write an application of roughly 200 words for a chance to gain admission to a course. Since space is limited, applicants often do not obtain seats in seminars or even gen-ed classes and must prepare back-up options.

Students are randomly slotted into discussion sections for large lecture-based courses halfway through the two-week enrollment process, sometimes drastically shifting student schedules. Each student enrolls in the lecture part of the course first and is then assigned a random discussion section later in the enrollment process. Noah Parker, a first-year student at Harvard, noted that the delayed publishing of these discussion sections poses difficulties for students studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects or pursuing a pre-medical track, as they must fulfill requirements in a specific progression.

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College operates on a trimester system, where students take three classes in each term. The first round of course registration operates on a lottery system where students select their three desired courses.

“Everyone is treated equally as long as you make selections by the deadline,” said Michael DiCostanzo, a first-year student at Dartmouth.

DiCostanzo said that the second part of the enrollment process becomes more stressful.

“On a later night, the school reveals whether or not you got all, two, one or zero of your courses. The day after that, at 8:00 a.m., ‘Add/Drop’ goes live, and this is first-come-firstserve; this is when students all log on simultaneously to see if someone might drop one of the classes that they wanted, and they fight over it,” DiCostanzo said. “As you can imagine, the website is subject to frequent crashes.”

Students engage in an “Add/Drop” period at the beginning of the trimester to finalize their schedule.

Princeton University Princeton University’s enrollment process is also similar to Cornell’s.

Students build their schedule on a university website called Tigerhub, selecting courses before the gradewide course selection days. Like at Cornell, seniors enroll first, followed by juniors, sophomores and first-year students. During the first two weeks of each semester, students may add or drop classes.

Princeton’s enrollment process differs for writing seminars: Students rank their top-eight seminars during the enrollment period and are then slotted into one of these classes through a lottery that looks at student preferences and enrollment availability. For these classes, there is no add/ drop period.

Brown University At Brown University, students sign up for courses within a given time

frame and are assigned classes through a lottery system. To finalize their schedules, students engage in Brown’s signature two-week-long “shopping period,” where students drop into different classes as they choose and select those they most enjoy.

Ethan Hoskins, a senior pursuing a dual degree at Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, said that courses for his psychology major at Brown are relatively large and therefore easy to get into. Hoskins noted that being a dual degree student, he receives less priority in enrolling in Brown courses. For example, he said enrolling in electives outside of his major is difficult.

“Some electives have been a lot more difficult to get into because of the smaller class sizes and because they are from different departments where they prioritize [students pursuing degrees within the department],” Hoskins said. “Recently, I haven’t gotten into a lot of electives I wanted to.”

Hoskins said his most significant gripe with Brown’s enrollment system is that the most enticing classes are offered only during one semester and with limited class sizes. Although he said he would prefer that some classes, especially those with high desirability, are offered both semesters, he recognized this may be impractical for the university.

Columbia University Similar to Cornell and Yale, Columbia University’s course registration becomes available for seniors first, and is subsequently made available to juniors, sophomores and then all students. Students register during the registration period as established by each school within Columbia. Per the Columbia Office of the University Registrar, some schools determine

appointment distributions for registration by class standing, while other schools use random selection.

All students register for courses through Student Services Online during their designated enrollment time. The Online Class Wait List and Post-Change of Program Add/Drop Period are also both offered through SSOL. Waitlists are managed either by autofill or by faculty and their respective departments. During the Change of Program period, students can add or drop classes using SSOL. Although the course enrollment systems differ across each Ivy League

“I really wanted to take Environmental History, and I couldn’t get into the course.

Now I’m worried that I won’t be able to take it next semester because I’ll have too many other requirements to fill. But I’m remaining optimistic.”

Natalie McFadden ’27 university, one trend remained consistent across student interviews: students’ dissatisfaction at not getting their most desired courses.

“I really wanted to take Environmental History, and I couldn’t get into the course. Now I’m worried that I won’t be able to take it next semester because I’ll have too many other requirements to fill,” McFadden said. “But I’m remaining optimistic.”

Grace Liu can be reached at gml93@cornell. edu.

Luca Pavlovich can be reached at ltp26@ cornell.edu.

6 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 PAID ADVERTISEMENT: This ad does not reflect any opinion or perspective of The Cornell Daily Sun.

Opinion

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 7

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Dining Guide Your source for good food

Review: Keeton House Serves Scrumptious Thanksgiving House Dinner

BY EIRIAN HUANG Sun Contributor

I

walked into the Keeton House Dining Hall on November 8 with low expectations. Why? Because Keeton usually lacks in the House Dinner department. Other West Campus houses will have the most scrumptious meals, like ramen and Ethiopian food.

Meanwhile, I’m at Keeton eating roasted pork loin for the nth time in a row. The menu last Wednesday was Thanksgivingthemed food, which usually means dry Turkey and blandness.

Thus, I was not particularly excited per se, but rather hungry. So there I was, marching myself downstairs at 6 p.m., serving myself green beans, sweet potato mash, stuffing, and two slabs of turkey.

Of course, before I even sat down, I had to saunter over to the dessert table to get some pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

If Keeton wasn’t going to win the best house dinner award, it was going to come first in the dessert category for me.

My low expectations were surprisingly wrong. First, and most surprising, the turkey was scrumptious. It was juicy. It was seasoned. It was sauced

up. It was everything that most average Thanksgiving turkeys usually are not.

The mashed sweet potato was delightful

lar green beans.

However, the shining star of this meal was the stuffing. For years, the idea of

ARMANDO RAFAEL / THE NEW YORK TIMES PHOTOS

and just sweet enough without being empowering. As a regular mashed potato purist, I was pleased. I wasn’t even mad at the green beans, which were just regu-

stuffing puzzled me because it seemed like it was never actually getting … stuffed into anything. That Wednesday, I finally understood its purpose. The stuffing was made with sourdough and it was so delicious. Not soggy at all and so good.

The pumpkin pie was scrumptious, of course.

Perfectly light and decadent,without being overly indulgent and paired well with a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Nevertheless, there were a few misses. The brussel sprout salad was cold, mushy, and flavored in a way that made me question a few life choices.

Where brussel sprouts have the opportunity to

be crispy, tender, and sweet, these were not helping with the brussel sprout redemption arc I am trying to fork. Also, the cranberry sauce was a bit too tart, but still tasted okay paired with everything else on my plate.

As someone who does not eat a traditional American Thanksgiving, I thank Keeton dining for bringing me the foods I do not have a chance to eat

“Being in a college dining hall may not be everyone’s first choice for a Thanksgiving meal, but what else can bring us all together?”

Eirian Huang ’26 on the actual holiday. While I’ve never had the opportunity to carve a turkey or eat cylindrical cranberry sauce, my appreciation for Thanksgiving extends beyond the delicious accouterments on the dinner table.

Being in a college dining hall may not be everyone’s first choice for a Thanksgiving meal, but what else can bring us all together? The deliciousness of the Thanksgiving house dinner gave me hope for life as I trudged up the slope. It gave me hope for the future of America (not really).

Eirian Huang is a second year in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at ehh56@cornell.edu.

8 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023

Opinion

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Independent Since 1880 141st Editorial Board ANGELA BUNAY ’24 Editor in Chief

KATIE CHEN ’25

SOFIA RUBINSON ’24

Business Manager

Managing Editor

SHEILA YU ’25

GRACE XIAO ’25

Advertising Manager

Dan R. Schwarz

Web Editor

NOAH DO ‘24

AIMÉE EICHER ’24

Associate Editor

Assistant Managing Editor

HUGO AMADOR ’24

UYEN HOANG ’25

Opinion Editor

Assitant Web Editor

EMILY VO ‘25

ANNA LIANG ‘24

Multimedia Editor

Assistant Advertising Editor

JONATHAN MONG ’25

ERIC REILLY ’25

News Editor

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JULIA SENZON ’26

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26

JULIA NAGEL ’24

NIHAR HEGDE ’24

GRAYSON RUHL ’24

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JOANNE HU ’24

MEHER BHATIA ’24

News Editor

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Arts & Culture Editor

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Working on today’s sun Managing Desker Opinion Desker News Deskers Photography Desker Layout Desker

Aimee Eicher ’24 Hugo Amador ’24 Jonathan Mong ’25 Marissa Cefola ’26 Ming DeMers ’24 Kate Kim ’24

SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OR GUEST COLUMN The Cornell Daily Sun is devoted to publishing a broad and diverse set of content from the Cornell and greater Ithaca community.

We want to hear what you have to say about today's paper or any of our pieces.

Guidelines on how to submit can be found at Cornellsun.com. And here is our email: opinion@cornellsun.com

Daniel R. Schwarz is the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of English Literature and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in the College of Arts & Sciences. He is The Cornell Daily Sun’s 2023 visiting columnist. He can be reached at drs6@cornell.edu.

How We Learn from Our Students

S

ome of my colleagues and even my own students are surprised when I say that I learn from my students every day.

I was told when I first thought about being a professor that high school and elementary school teachers teach a subject to students, and college professors teach the subject and are not so alert to the makeup of the audience. But nothing could be further from the truth.

To be an effective university classroom professor, one needs to know one’s student audience as much as possible, namely who is being addressed, how much they can be expected to know prior to each day’s class and how they will benefit from what you are saying and how. By watching their expressions and listening to questions and discussion, you can measure the efficacy of your teaching that day.

Teaching is a collaborative activity; put another way, teaching is a shared learning experience between my students and me. During every class session something surprising happens, even if I am teaching texts I have taught for years. Often stirred by students’ oral reports and comments, I discover relationships within a text that I have never seen before.

On the first day of class I usually tell what is, perhaps, an apocryphal story of how the legendary jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane, hired for his band a young bassist named Reggie Workman. When Workman was at first intimidated by Coltrane’s presence, Coltrane told him: “I can’t do it alone. I play the saxophone; you play the bass. If I did not think that you were a great bassist, you would not be here.” Over the ensuing years, Workman became recognized as a world-class bassist.

Let us think about how teaching is a similarly transactional relationship where students become part of a purposeful group. Perhaps the most important quality we convey to students is insatiable curiosity. When we do, they are apt to follow. I also know that the higher I set my standards, the better the students perform.

I have been told by countless students that the reason my classes attract some of our best students is that I challenge them in ways that perhaps others do not. On the first day of class, I tell my students they will be judged in part by the acronym APP: attendance, preparation, participation.

Students take pleasure and pride in a class that comes together as a community, something that occurs when faculty and students work together to create positive class dynamics. Establishing a tradition where the other students respond to and even applaud oral seminar reports encourages the students to make such presentations a centerpiece of their term’s work.

If, in these moments of engagement within the classroom, we teach by example to listen carefully and respectfully to the ideas of others and to appreciate the views of others who may be from different

cultures and socio-economic backgrounds, we will have accomplished a great deal in establishing for our students lifetime values and providing an important base for participating in democracy.

I often take student suggestions about when to take an extra day on a text we are reading or on what I could focus more as we go forward. I always leave time for questions which can take me into new areas or remind me what I overlooked or did not properly clarify. In senior seminars and graduate seminars, I somewhat adjust to the group’s interest in what I stress in our discussions, be it narrative structure or thematic issues that interest a particular class.

As professors, we hope our ownlife experiences help us to become better teachers. With greater emphases on diversity and inclusion, including more first-generation college students, international students, LGBTQ+ and non-binary students,as wellas BIPOC students, I am learning daily from the varied lives of our students.

On campus I often engage with students whom I don’t know whether at the residential college where I am a house fellow, the gym or making my way around campus. Recently I was, by chance, walking and talking with three students who were of Egyptian, Sudanese and Nigerian heritage. Because I have travelled to over a hundred countries in my lifetime, I like to believe that within my limitations I’ve encompassed a complex understanding of the world, and that my travels enable me to have a richer dialogue with students like these than otherwise might be the case.

Much of what I know about what is going on at Cornell I learn from my students, including from the Cornell Daily Sun which I have always urged my colleagues to read. After my students graduate from Cornell, I keep in touch with them and learn about the worlds in which they are living in. We often meet when they return to Ithaca, or when I visit their home cities. Often, I meet students who reside, or are visiting New York City, at a major museum.

Good teachers are flexible enough to adjust expectations to circumstances without sacrificing standards. Thus, drawing a line varies with circumstances, and even the best teachers make mistakes about when and to whom to be more severe than one might with others. Each student is different and the more you know about a student the better you can teach them. At times, we as faculty need to accommodate legitimate personal and family issues and must respond to such issues with sympathy and empathy.

From those who come from a modest background, I have learned the value of perseverance.

To continue reading this essay visit Cornellsun.com

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 9

Opinion

Olga Litvak

David Einhorn

Olga Litvak is the Laurie B. and Eric M. Roth Professor of Modern European Jewish History in The College of Arts and Sciences. Her research and teaching focuses on the east of Europe, the Jewish people, social fracture, mass migration, sexual anarchy, the rise of anarchy and catastrophic violence. She can be reached at ol76@cornell.edu.

David Einhorn ‘91 is the President of Greenlight Capital, Inc., an investment advisor and chairman of the boards of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. and Green Brick Partners, Inc. He is also the Founder and Trustee of Einhorn Collaborative, a non-profit foundation working to foster social connection and cohesion in the U.S.

The Middle East Conflict and the Faculty’s Responsibility

How Cornellians Can Rise to the Challenge of Our Time

T

here is an episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry’s Catholic dentist, Tim Whately, converts to Judaism. Jerry is very upset and goes to complain to a priest that Whately has been telling Jewish jokes. The priest, perplexed, asks whether Jerry takes offense at Whately’s jokes as a Jewish person. “No, father,” Jerry insists indignantly, “I am offended as a comedian.”

There is more than one reason to take offense at what has been going on at Cornell and other campuses in the past three weeks. We shall not speak here of the way in which the specific target of fanatical hatred was rendered publicly unmentionable, not to say invisible until an increasing climate of fear and hostility led to a threat of violence. Neither shall we speak of the persistent unwillingness to acknowledge the reality of Jewish loss and Jewish isolation; and we shall have nothing to say about the still greater reluctance to grapple with a wildly misguided and meretricious deployment of the word “human” as if it were the opposite of the word “Jewish.”

But there is one objection to the current climate of opinion — so far unacknowledged by the academic community — of which it is still possible, even imperative, to speak. Failure to do so is to compound the damage being done to the integrity of the teaching profession and to the trust between teacher and student in the absence of which no real education is possible. Whatever our personal response to the unfolding spectacle of physical and verbal violence now being directed at Jewish people not only here, where we live, but everywhere, it is as professors and educators that we wish now to speak and to register our offense.

To begin with, we must consider the question of student safety. It is surely clear that no student can feel unsafe in a classroom without all students feeling similarly vulnerable. It is for this reason that universities have made such strenuous efforts to screen classrooms from hate speech and to encourage sensitivity and respect for difference. The implication, reinforced at every anti-Israel protest, that there is only one reasonable and moral response to a complex military and civic crisis — with victims on both sides of the political and territorial divide — sends a chilling message to students who have a legitimate and entirely understandable interest in discussing the issue openly with their peers and their teachers. Openly — without fear of reprisal, intimidation and the threat of public shame. If professors abdicate their responsibility to ensure the freedom of all their students to speak their minds, what happens in the classroom hardly deserves the name of higher education. What passes for teaching under such circumstances is called propaganda.

Second, we must address the question of academic standards. As professors, we are committed to helping students learn to think about any number of intractable problems — social, environmental, intellectual, political, biological. To do this effectively, we commit ourselves to rigorous training in a variety of demanding and challenging disciplines. We expect students to follow similarly rigorous standards of inquiry and we assess their work on their ability to do so. In the history department, undergraduates must demonstrate their mastery of primary sources in order to make any kind of argument. In the social sciences, we spend much time and effort making sure sound methods are being used to analyze data and derive conclusions. The first and last question of every scholarly discipline is: “How do we know this?” But what intellectual credibility can this question possibly command when professionally trained scholars undertake to opine on matters that are well beyond the scope of their knowledge?

When scholars decide to take up the microphone and speak, with all the authority that an advanced degree can confer, on issues with which they have only a superficial acquaintance, and pass judgment on events taking place in a part of the world the history of which they do not know and the languages of which they do not read? Any such performance — whether undertaken in innocent enthusiasm or for the sake of vanity and attention — is an expression of contempt for the years of painstaking effort that it takes to master any subject. As scholars, people who seek to capitalize on their credentials in this way are, in fact, expressing contempt for their colleagues. As professors, they are also making it very difficult for all of us to ask our students to follow the rules that differentiate the conscientious pursuit of knowledge from the irresponsible reproduction of ignorance.

Finally, we must speak of another elusive, but no less important aspect of teaching, one threatened by what we can only describe as a dispiriting lack of scholarly imagination that afflicts the dominant academic “reading” of the war between Israel and Hamas. One of the most characteristic features of Socratic teaching is the philosopher’s extraordinary ability to help his interlocutors see the implications of their position on a specific question — to imagine, that is to say, that their opinion was fact. What would the world be like, Socrates inquires, if Thrasymachus (the defender of the position that justice is equivalent to the effective exercise of force) were right? As anyone who has ever taught knows, students often adopt views which they have not fully thought out and repeat commonly held propositions which they have not fully digested.

To continue reading visit Cornellsun.com

T

oday, I’m reaching out as part of the Cornell community, which is of deep importance to me and my family. I attended Cornell, as did my parents and two of my children.

Our Cornell family is struggling and in turmoil. At a time when many of my peers are sending angry letters that disengage from and withdraw support for universities, I take the opposite approach. While I understand their reasons for doing so, now is not the time to withdraw. Rather, struggle and turmoil demand even deeper engagement. Crisis creates opportunity for change and improvement. I want to be part of this transformation and help repair and strengthen the Cornell family.

I watched from afar the protests on campus, the anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli graffiti, the bloodthirsty expression of a Cornell professor and the terrifying online threats posted by a Cornell student in the wake of the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel.

Many Jewish students are understandably living in a state of shock and fear.

Some of our Muslim and Arab students are also afraid for their safety as they face harassment and Islamophobia on the heels of protests at Cornell.

I have been thinking about what I would tell my daughters if they were still students on campus and in your shoes today. This is what I would say: In moments of unspeakable tragedy and extreme division, we as Cornellians are called to uphold our core values and exemplify Ezra Cornell’s belief in us: “to do the greatest good.”

That may sound lofty and naïve in a moment of such profound rupture, and yet, I’m grateful for our namesake’s foresight. Not only was his mandate to ensure “any person, any study,” but also to utilize the knowledge and character we develop at Cornell for a purpose greater than ourselves. I believe you all can live up to these values right now.

For Cornell to become a model from which other college campuses can learn, we need to apply our founding principles as a university in and out of the classroom: to honor our shared humanity; to build communities of belonging where every student feels safe and welcomed; to encourage and promote free expression, exchange and engagement of diverse ideas; and to bring about positive social change through acts of service.

It is an enormous challenge to hold on to these values in the face of intense disagreements, disinformation and dehumanization. It is also not easy to be asked to do so as a young person in full public view and scrutiny. But time and again, I have seen Cornellians rise to the task. I know that this is not the narrative being told about you right now, but you get to dictate a truer version of this story by the actions you take next.

During my campus visit a few weeks ago and in my conversations with those on campus, I have seen positive examples of students supporting each other and being brave and resilient in the face of hate. I have seen the administration and Cornell Police address the safety and security needs of our students and continue to do so as new ones arise. I have seen students engage in increasingly difficult conversations across lines of difference respectfully and appropriately.

And I have seen peaceful protests calling for Palestinian statehood and vigils mourning the loss of Israeli lives on Ho Plaza. All these illustrations demonstrate our capability to act positively.

Unfortunately, the media has no interest in publicizing these showings of community strength, but we can, and we should.

In a speech to the Global Convention on Peace and Non-violence in New Delhi, India in 2004, Nelson Mandela said of our society: “Religion, ethnicity, language, social and cultural practices are elements which enrich human civilization, adding to the wealth of our diversity. Why should they be allowed to become a cause of division and violence?

We demean our common humanity by allowing that to happen.”

Cornell makes an enormous effort to promote diversity. The value of that diversity does not come from huddling with your own group. Rather, it comes from engaging with those who are different from you. The whole community benefits when you make that effort to engage. Whoever the “they” is, they proudly wear the same Cornell sweatshirts you do.

Even on contentious issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you may be surprised by the common beliefs, values, hopes and fears that you share with someone from a different background, life experience and perspective. No matter where we live or what faith we practice, we all want to be free from bigotry and hatred. We want to contribute positively to our communities and provide for our families. We want to see our loved ones come home safely at night. And we want to live lives of meaning, with myriad opportunities that help each of us flourish and thrive.

As you confront the crisis of hyper-polarization and divisions at Cornell, I ask that you see the inherent humanity and dignity in all people, especially those with whom you disagree. This creates a campus culture that enables us to build trust and relationships across lines of difference, repair ruptures and bridge divides.

Let’s get practical. What does this look like? Firstly, civilization cannot exist if we cannot have an agreement on basic decency...

To continue reading visit Cornellsun.com

10 The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023

AU

Now presenting the happily-married-because-the-three-divorces-don’t-count-ifyou-remarry-the-same-person, Amazing, Uool, Awesome, Uaptivating, Attractive, Uhaotic, Admirable, Ureative, AdventuroUs, UoUrageous, Ageless, Urisp, Advanced, Uharming, AmUsing, Uhatty, Amicable, Uheerful, Aesthetic, Ulassy, Arresting, Uommitted, Adorable, Ulever, Absurd, UUte, Angelic, Uhampions in the Ivy LeagUe... Rank AU! Cadence “steak” Barkan Catherine “gone before you can finish saying silly string” Frank Maalini “frogs tea cats” Krishna Tina “sweeper of mines” Li Katherine “let me tell you about The Owl House” Manning Lauren “permanent slay” Noll Hales “diagonal horn pops” Rugh Caleb “fully prepared to win the next Tour de France” Schmitt

B

Erin “accidentally baked the section leader brain cell into a cookie babe” Baum Isabella “Slay, all day, everyday babe” Zahl Jordan “haha teeth babe” Quinn Ally “secret comedic genius babe” Guo Lauren “unofficial first chair babe” Jang Priscilla “got those biking Itha-thighs babe” Ye

D

Emily “only real 8-to-5 in the only real marching band in the ivy league” Kerstetter Yunnie “anything bigger than a picc is too big to march” Kim Izzy “*fumbling around like Velma* Erin, where did you put the brain cell?” Cowan Ari “duty-head forever” Schor Sabrina “crying tears of ice” Sheridan Clara “definition of ‘go with the flow’” Nordahl Hayley “wants a bigger uniform for a totally normal reason” Marino Jas “no uniform? No problem” Khan

E

It is our plEasurE to prEsEnt thE most EnErgEtic, EffErvEscEnt, Elluminating, ExcEptional, EncrEdiblE, ExcEllEnt, Exciting, EllitEratE and confusEd rank in the Ivy LEaguE, rank E!!!!

Dora “what’s a ZOZA?“ Donacik Caidan “duffiEld is my safE spacE“ Pilarski AbbiE “it’s a CLOCK towEr“ Harrison Skylar “bringing thE nEck bracE back“ Bush Mary “bonus points for rank spirit!“ King BEnjamin “man-about-Mann“ Isaacson Abigail “what thE Harrison“ HEck AndrEw “who nEEds Atlanta wEathEr“ Chung BEyan “hEad managEr? I hardly know hEr“ KEssElly

F

Now presenting the most Fierce, Fantastic, Fabulous, Fiercalicious, Fulfilling, Fancy, Formidable, Friendly, Fearless, Fascinating, and Flovely rank…Rank F!!!

Arianna “public health girlboss” Desir Chloe “lover oF animals and nets” Walker Hannah “the actual rank leader” Blank Emily “the net-cymbal pipeline is so real bestie” Mawhinney Jess “queen, hero, and mentor to all” Sakamoto Justin “Sax Ketchum” Han Katelyn “Renaissance woman” Tai Linsey ”just dance” Chen Matthew “THE quirky boy with glasses” Kushner Sophia “Net touch” Clarke Trinity “think about it TWICE” Wu

Z

Zand znow, preZenting ze zupreme, amaZingest, zestiest, pizzazziest, zbestiest zrank zin ze Zivy ZLeague…..Rank Z! Andrew “speed walker” DiFabbio Emily “in my 1989 girlboss era” Jones Al “olive oil” Palanuwech Ava “crazy sock day” Ianuale Hanna “ray of FFA sunshine” Lighthall Jonathan “find me in office hours! “Chen Kate “pitbull” Burger Lila “sharps aren’t real” Kleppner Sophia “bass clarinet arm workout” Gammel Alia “bubble tea” Naqvi Minnie “I saw the sign” Nguyen

JL

now&presenting&the&iLLest,&skiLLest&chi LLest&kriLLest&JoLLiest&JoyfuLest&JeLLiest&JiggLiest rank: J(&)L!!!

Em “&m” iLy FeLts Imani “maverick” Harrigan Simon “goober” Kapen MaLka “JL bump founder” GoLdberg Caitie “heart & soul of JL” FarreLL AL “Lyre? I bareLy know her” PaLanuwech WuLfgar “*aLveoLar triLL*” Ramsey CaLeb “Master of Winds” Schmitt Morgan “past my bedtime” WiLcox with JLove, (J’)osh “DRU” WiLLiams (L’)Retna “GRU” Arun

$

Now pre$enting the $weete$t, $picie$t, $laye$t, $aucie$t, $illie$t, $piffie$t, $waggie$t, and $harpe$t rank in the Ivy League…$ Ring!!!

Caidan “Moon Hooch $tan” Pilarski Chayil “Wordle connoi$$eur” Hyland Daniel “$agittariu$, like $laylor $wift” Fransen Dawson “Keeping u$ in line” Melton Gloria “the $ax-hotelie lin continue$” Jin Greg “Re$ident wind$ baddie” Marzano Justin “Meena apologi$t” Han Megan “$erving $a$$ and cla$$” McKelvey Mike “The Vengabu$ go vroom vroom” Bai Paul “ROGER THAT, $axe$!” Cheng Ronald “$peedie$t learner” Qu Selena “Ma$ter of Word Hunt” Zheng

#

Meredith “#PerfectAttendance” Rosenthal Vivian “#CrazyForAZ” Martinez Jamie “#ThisIsWhatAnICFilmMajorLooksLike” Heskett Abbott “#WhoNeedsTwoArms?” Sherlock Kiara “#BlueSaxDabadeeDabadi” Jones AJ “#AlannahGraceDennis” James Alannah “#AstridCamilleJames” Dennis Michael “#IDoNOTLikeGlee” DiGrado Rafael “#Robbed!AtTheStrutOff” Montán Faiza “#AuditionsWho?” Huda

M

Mow Mintroducing the Most Magnificent, Majestic, Marvelous, Multitalented, Momentous, and Melodic Members of the Most Monumental Mank in the Mivy Meague…MANK MMMMMM!!!!!

Tails “Can I get an MM MM MMMM?!”

Addo Dutch “MM MM MMMM!!!” Renenger Emily “Plays the big trumpet with a slide and no valves” Andersen Hex “iGEM Rocks!” Constant Leah “NSQ Enthusiast” Goddard Madison “Actual Rank M Leader” Lammers Dive “I haven’t learned the drill, yet” Rummery Ella “Never a perfect time” Schneider Chestnut “Chili eating contest” Stoner Beats “Let’s talk about the Roman Empire” Sussman Cookies “How do I know the line is straight?” Thomas Kevin “Finishing my CS project” Zhang

N

And now presenting the nicest, niftiest, notablest, noteworthiest, neatest rank in the Ivy League: Rank |\| Duck “safety Komet“ Haig Crash “I move again!?“ Slivovsky Mugs “I’m not a freshman!!“ Canova Apples “watch me do a cartwheel“ Chuhta Dawgs “sun’s out, toes out“ Gu Niamh “what rank are we?“ Gunning Komet “safety Duck“ Leiby Frog “ribbit“ Lizmi Doc “play on the downbeat again, it’ll be funny“ Neiss Mew “zzzzzzzz“ Skeete Sven “yay another full run-through“ van Hoesel

O

NOw intrOducing the Optimal, Outstanding, OmnipOtent, OvatiOn-wOrthy, OreOchOmping Rank OOOOOOO!!!

Toast “Hey, where did you park my car?”

Holst Sugar “It’s just a little past the no parking sign, it’ll be fine” Nazario Cheddar “Earthquakes ain’t got nothing on me” Wolf Ben “Leaving the field to chase a bird” Kerstetter Sunny “Jumpscaring you on campus” Batuncang Lukas “There’s not a problem large rocks can’t solve” Vera Scooby “That’s not where toothbrushes belong!” O’Connor Maha “Showing up for the Oreos” Mohamed Milkman “Grrr woof woof bark meowww” Bilotti Abbott “Vending machines fear me” Sherlock Chewy “Doesn’t know how to say gloves in spanish” McNulty Beyan “Managing the head at Fischell and PSB” Kesselly

P

Now presenting… the most Pristine, Paramount, Pioneering, and Passionate PRank in the Ivy League… RANK P! Dubs “Lynah Faith-full” Kaprielian Limbo “Prelim on da bus” Chargois Tommy “Supposed to be the dot” McFarland Chuckles “Eye drops” Alexiadis Fancy “ESports legend” Lau Grapefruit “The betrayer” Bermudez Goob “Can someone unlock the band center” Sugarmann Pipsqueak “Toast terrorizer” Howard James “P is for” Press

class

H*

Angelleigh DeTroy^ Liza Wadell^ Jess Sakamoto Al Palanuwech Dasha Griffiths* Griffin Blotner* Jake Walter Jesse Lin Eduardo Novoa-Lugo Carol Montejo Emily Mawhinney Izzy Toso Kaleb Smith*

And now, presenting the most H*mongous, H*rmonious, H*inous, H***y rank in the Ivy League, Rank H*!

Allison “strut queen” Weiher Campbell “tbh” Mitchell Derek “I’d be the grease” Thompson Jen “where’s Jen?” Joaqui-Almendarez Jonathan “slap slap bump bump birdy bump bump finger thingy” Lee Nathaniel “lanternfly killer” Kisslinger Owen “perfectly in sync” Wetherbee Beyan “trumpet of a horn” Kesselly Caitlyn “lyres are fancy” Pelletier Aidan “he’ll come back” Visconti

Senior=* Subsection Leader=^ Drum Captain=~

R

S

And now introducing the slippiest, sluperb, most slensational rank in the Slivy League!

Sli “three pizza movie night” ce Ani “anime businessman” sh Mat “my parents forgot the h” tew Sar “we know she wears pink and lives on North” ah Zo “John Coffey 2.0” e Ka “Eastern European architecture” i

K

And now, presenting the koolest, kalmest, kan’t spell-est rank in the Ivy League…

Rank K! Marc “Rank Kperfect” Scocca Nikolett “Who took my hat?!“ Blackham Erik “trombone AND trumpet????”

Bermudez Ben “We’re so back” Quint Willow “How’d you get in the announcing booth” Martin Mahalia “St. Louis pizza is a circular pie cut into squares” Donaldson Rank K forever (even if it’s endangered haha), Imani “didn’t get a upenn scarf :(” Thompson Willem “I’m a rank leader but I follow the freshmen” Light-Olson

T

AJ “structural integrity” Villaruel Alex “an entire film crew” Coy Bowen “the shrug” Jiang Dina “CANDY CORN!” Nabavian Eddy “ATAAT” Silva Jonathan “veggie pizza” Miller Micah “livin’ the premed life” Toliver Yehyun “tuba muncher” Choi Carter “radiator walnuts” Larsen

Guard

Crystal “I forgot I’m section leader” Grissom Ola “my phone saved the band center” Taha Ariel “let’s get sturdy” Kang Emily “I’m not thriving but I’m surviving” Spans

Drumline

Drumline – thank you for an awesome season. We are incredibly proud of everyone and are honored to have been your section leaders. The drumline’s future is brighter than ever, and we can’t wait to see what you all will accomplish.

Your 2023 Drum Captains, Patrick Thieblemont and Seth Norman And now presenting the only REAL drumline in the Ivy League!

Snares

Seth Norman*~ Jiho Cha* Dennis Chen Tori Cotton Youngjin Yang Reilly Potter

Tenors

Patrick Thieblemont~ Lucy Cheeley^ Max Fanning Kobe West

Basses

Kasey Gray^ Jada Mbgua Anand Bannerji Noah Lee Grayson Shultz

Cymbals

Angelleigh DeTroy^ Liza Wadell^ Jess Sakamoto Al Palanuwech Dasha Griffiths* Griffin Blotner*

Love, Beyan Kesselly

Bells

Peter Bell*^ Claudia Slivovsky Leticia Pessoa Talia Rubeo Alex Wong Jordyn Hurry

With H*love, your rank leaders, Caroline “back from retirement” Herzog Ryan “can’t bottle flip” Pinard

And now, presenting the most ratchet, radiant, rambunctious, rankiest rank in the Ivy League … Rank R! Josh “I hardly know her” Faber Cam “The fun one” Thornton Ella “Bone Brunch Boss” Johnson Emily “Save the Stink Bugs” Anderson Jeffrey “Slippery and Dizzy” Xue

as DM because you were the most integral part of this year for me. I look forward to seeing what you will do next year because I know you will keep making positive change in the band. I have had the time of my life leading this band and marching with you all this year. Thank you Band for the best year of my life!

HM Hey Band!

Thank you all for making this year so special! To all the new members that joined this year, seeing all of your smiling faces during auditions and first night was one of the best moments of this year for me. It has been such a pleasure watching you all find family in our band. To every returning member, thanks for helping to foster such a loving and caring community in the band.

I would also like to thank bandstaph for all the hard work they have put in this year.

The band would not be able to function without all the members of bandstaph. To Pauws, you impress me so much with the amount of passion, devotion, and positive energy you bring to the band. I can’t imagine being HM without you by my side

DM Hey Band!

I am so excited and thankful to serve as your 2024 Drum Major!

I promise to stay confident, stand my ground, and protect the legacy.

Love, Nina “Pauws” Ellison Beyan, I couldn’t have done this year without you.

I am beyond grateful to have shared this incredible experience with you. You are one of my best friends, and I hope we stay in touch so we can rant complain talk about the band. Thank you for showing me what it means to be a genuine person.

Thank you for showing me how to have fun when it feels like everything is falling apart.

You deserve the world, Beyan, and I hope you are kind to yourself in these next few uncertain years.

I know you’ll find the best path for you, even if you have a pretty bad sense of direction.

With so much love, Pauws

The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023 11

Comics and Puzzles

Sundoku

Puzzle #13

MASTERSUNIVERSE

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

3

9 8

7

4

8 7

3

Standard Rate: $3.95 per day for the first 15 words, 39 cents per day per word thereafter. Five or more consecutive insertions, $3.70 per day for the first 15 words, 37 cents per day per word thereafter.

4 7

5

1

6

8

4 3 1

3

5

Commercial Rate: $5.95 per day for first 15 words, 40 cents per day per word thereafter. Five or more consecutive insertions, $5.75 per day for the first 15 words, 38 cents per day per word thereafter.

4

2 6

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The Sun is responsible for only one day make-good on ads.

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27 HOUSE FOR RENT

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The Cornell Daily Sun | Thursday, November 16, 2023

Science

SCIENCE

C.U. Researchers Expand Wildfire Smoke Sensor Network to Improve Future Wildfire Response

By TAYLOR RIJOS Sun Contributor

From June to October of this year, Canadian wildfires spread to the United States’s midwest and northeast regions, decreasing air quality to unhealthy levels across New York State and Tompkins County. In response to the deadly wildfires, Cornell researchers and Cornell Cooperative Extension members installed a wildfire smoke sensor network in New York State to improve future wildfire response.

According to Prof. Alistair Hayden, public and ecosystem health, 28 counties in the state — most of which were rural — lacked county specific air quality data, preventing them from deciding when to respond to wildfire smoke events.

“I was getting calls from people saying, ‘How do I interpret data from a county several counties over? Does that apply to me?

How do I make decisions?’ And the answer is that it’s really hard to make decisions when you don’t have data for your community,” Hayden said.

The community response led Hayden to form the task group that expanded the wildfire smoke sensor network.

Data from the sensor network will support informed decision making that is necessary to protect individual and community health. High wildfire smoke levels increase concentrations of fine particulate matter, which

can cause headaches, difficulty breathing, asthma attacks and even death.

Wildfire smoke exposure threatens the health of all people, but there are groups that may be more vulnerable to wildfire smoke events. According to Hayden, vulnerable groups include people who are more exposed, such as transportation and outdoor workers, or are more sensitive to wildfire smoke, such as children and pregnant people.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people can protect themselves during a smoke wave by staying indoors, using an air filtration system and wearing N95 respirators, as well as monitoring wildfire and smoke data from Fire AirNow, a real time source of wildfire and air quality data in the U.S. The data from the newly installed wildfire sensors in New York state will be added to the Fire AirNow map.

“A big focus for us was ensuring that this data goes through a pathway that is accessible to everybody — not just governments, not just researchers,” Hayden said. “We’re ensuring that the sensor data is available on Fire.AirNow.gov so that everyone can make their own informed decisions.”

While air quality data can empower New York residents to make more informed decisions about their health and behavior in a wildfire smoke event, barriers to individual action persist.

“There is a need to communicate in a way that is also sensitive to the realities of the limitations that people have in being able to respond,” said Prof. Jeff Niederdeppe, communications.

“And it is particularly important to then deploy resources and support to people who are in higher risk areas.”

Helpful resources include clean air spaces and air purifiers.

Air quality data must also be comprehensible to community members.

“These sensors report numbers that may not be that meaningful to people,” Niederdeppe said.

AirNow, the government agency that monitors air quality, uses the Air Quality Index to translate and communicate air quality data. Information provided through AirNow is color coded, which can be a valuable secondary cue to help people interpret the data and remember categorizations, especially for unfamiliar indicators, according to Niederdeppe.

According to Hayden, it will be increasingly important for officials to clearly communicate air quality data as wildfires are expected to become more prevalent due to climate change. As a result, New York residents will likely experience more episodic wildfire smoke exposure events.

According to Niederdeppe, data availability may support calls to action not only for individuals but for governments, companies and lawmakers to reduce the like-

ALISTAIR HAYDEN / CORNELL UNIVERVSITY

Smoke sensors | Data from installed smoke sensors will be added to the Fire AirNow app to improve accessibility.

lihood of wildfire-related risks.

“There are broad ways to think about preparedness for addressing wildfires that deal with issues related to generating support for activism and activities to address climate change,” Niederdeppe said. “Part of that means putting pressure on elected officials to take action.”

It is difficult to communicate about the importance of wildfire preparedness and mitigation during an acute wildfire event — according to Niederdeppe, communication about wildfire prevention strategies must happen before wildfire crises occur.

According to Hayden, collecting data to measure the magnitude of wildfire smoke effects is

the first step to creating effective strategies. Across the U.S., researchers have been improving sensor density and quality to measure short and long term air quality.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to determine what solutions are but it’s a very exciting time because there’s a lot of energy from a wide variety of groups to create those solutions,” Hayden said.

Taylor Rijos can be reached at tlr65@cornell.edu.

CDC Funds Vector-Borne Disease Research, Education at Cornell

By ANNA LABINER Sun Staff Writer

Led by a team of Cornell faculty, the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases received a fiveyear, $8.7 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July.

NEVBD plans to use this funding to continue forming relationships with vector control and surveillance workers, as well as evaluating current measures taken to reduce disease burden, aiming to continue their three goals for training, applied research and community of practice.

NEVBD formed in 2017 in response to a declining supply of medical entomologists in the United States, during a time of increased endemic and newly emerging vector-borne disease infections, such as West Nile virus.

The center first received a $10 million grant from the CDC in 2017, which funded many of their programs, such as their Master of Science in Entomology: Vector-Borne Disease Biology program in the University’s graduate department of entomology.

Since its inception, NEVBD has brought together academic communities and public health organizations at the local, state and federal level to address vector-borne disease concerns in the northeast region of the U.S., covering 13 states and the District of Columbia.

With the new $8.7 million grant, NEVBD plans to address the workforce needs of the northeast region by increasing opportunities for students and professionals to receive train-

ing in vector-borne disease control. One of these initiatives is the creation of vector biology education programs that focus on recruiting underrepresented students in STEM. “There is a lot of scientifically based evidence that these communities are not being reached and they are at the greatest risk of being severely impacted,” said Prof. Laura

vector-borne diseases, applied practice experiences for Master of Public Health students, undergraduate internship programs and a vector biology boot camp program for the professional workforce. The boot camp program features short courses, rapid response training and an online medical entomology certificate program.

HIROKO MASUIKE / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Insects | Education projects within Cornell’s Entomology department will improve vector-born disease literacy among graduate students and faculty.

Harrington, entomology, who is also the director of NEVBD. Education projects include the continued support of the Master of Science in Entomology program, undergraduate and graduate-level courses in vector biology and

Beyond training, the center also plans to enhance their applied research agenda, specifically evaluating important areas of vector management. This includes the establishment of permanent mosquito pesticide resistance monitoring sites and evaluation of host-target-

ed methods for reducing tick encounters.

NEVBD also plans to evaluate the most effective ways of disseminating vector-borne disease information to communities that are disproportionately affected by vectored diseases, such as agricultural and outdoor workers.

The center’s goal of facilitating a community of practice builds connections between partners in the northeast, including Columbia University, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the New York State Department of Health. Harrington said she and her team hope to use the new funds to work alongside regional stakeholders to form an advisory board that will direct future activities of the center and continue to facilitate connections between professionals in the field.

The grant has allowed NEVBD to enter a new phase in their development as the leadership team continues to search for ways to ameliorate the gap in public health infrastructure.

“Currently, this program is not sustainable, because it requires a huge investment from a sole source. My hope is that we can find ways to make it financially sustainable, which means more support from state funding and other sources,” Harrington said. “We do a lot of training, but in the end we want the vector control units and the health departments to do that training on their own and be independent.”

Anna Labiner can be reached at alabiner@cornellsun.com