INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 136, No. 35
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2019
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
As Protests Roil, Universities Become Front Lines
C.U. Students in Hong Kong Evacuate By NICOLE ZHU Sun Assistant News Editor
After five months of protests in Hong Kong, the city’s universities are becoming epicenters of increasingly violent conflict— and now international students studying abroad in Hong Kong, like Abbie Zhu ’21, are evacuating the city. Although her peers from other American universities have been called back home, Zhu and her fellow Cornellians are figuring out their own travel plans amidst limited communication from Ithaca. As one of the four Cornell students studying abroad in Hong Kong this semester, Zhu had originally planned to leave Hong Kong at the end of December. But she decided to cut her time short and will be flying out of the city next
week to Shanghai, where she has extended family. On Thursday, Zhu’s classes at the University of Hong Kong were cancelled for the rest of the semester, and a statement by vice provost of international affairs Wendy Wolford confirmed that several Hong Kong universities had ceased face-to-face classes. “I’m leaving with a lot of regrets,” Zhu told The Sun in a phone interview. “I thought that I would have a month more to go to explore the city. A lot of things that I planned to do, I won’t be able to do.” Major clashes with the police have largely occurred at other universities, such as Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where police stormed the campus barricades on Monday morning (Hong Kong Standard Time) and fired petrol bombs at the students inside, the Washington Post reported. At HKU, protesters
See
COURTESY OF ABBIE ZHU '20
Set in stone | Protesters wrote “revolution” in Mandarin with roadblocking bricks.
HONG KONG
page 4
Design of Fine Arts Libe Sparks Uproar Student to Be First-Ever Architect prioritized form over function, critics say Black Woman to Earn CompSci Ph.D. From C.U.
BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Finding perspective | Cornell’s newest library has met criticism, with detractors calling the space inaccessible to certain groups. By KATHRYN STAMM Sun Staff Writer
The newly renovated Mui Ho Fine Arts Library houses over 100,000 books suspended from the ceiling. The steel grate floors between the three levels of stacks are permeable by air and light — and are see-through. Located in the College of Art, Architecture and Planning’s Rand Hall, the $22.6 million project’s
goal was to create a light-filled space that would connect students to the library’s resources and wealth of knowledge, The Sun previously reported. However, since its opening on Aug. 5, many have criticized the library about its usability and accessibility, including for people wearing dresses or afraid of heights. Nicole Noruma, grad, first visited the library with a friend in
September. When she arrived, she instantly realized that she would be “very uncomfortable” going into the stacks — because she was wearing a dress. “I think [the library] is really beautiful, but I realized I couldn’t use it,” said Noruma, who studies landscape architecture and urban planning. “A successful design is something that all people can use, no matter who they are, or what their style is or what their clothing preference is.” In response to these criticisms, architect Wolfgang Tschapeller M.Arch ’87, who designed the renovation, urged visitors to respect each other and not look up, Metropolis Magazine reported. “It's a beautiful library, so your eyes are drawn up, because you can see up through the floors of the library,” Noruma countered. “That comment [is] really disconnected from the actual human experience.” Yuhan Ji ’21 said the first time she was in the library, she was See LIBRARY page 3
By AMINA KILPATRICK Sun News Editor
Last Monday at 11 a.m., Rediet Abebe grad presented her thesis to a room full of supporters representing disciplines and educational levels from across the university. In December, she will become the first black woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell. Her presentation,
entitled “Designing Algorithms for Social Good” was her B exam, the final requirement towards her Ph.D.
REDIET ABEBE GRAD
Jehron Petty ’20, co-president of Underrepresented Minorities in Computing, orga-
nized for students to attend the thesis presentation in support, some of whom had no connection to the computing world. Other groups rallied around her as well, including the Black Graduate & Professional Students Association. “It was a very diverse audience and it was very meaningful to me, actually, to have them there,” Abebe told The Sun. See PH.D. page 5
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Carli Lloyd, starting forward on the U.S. women’s soccer team, is scheduled to speak on campus. | Page 3
The Slope Day programming Board is preparing to release its selections survey. | Page 6
Football stunned Dartmouth with a comeback victory. | Page 12
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