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Harvard ecotourism expert Megan Elper Wood analyzed the industry’s future at a lecture yesterday. | Page 3

The Arts & Entertainment names its Top 10 Movies of the Year, including Kubo and the Two Strings, seen here. | Page 8

After 10 years in the National Hockey League, Ryan O’Byrne ’07 returns to Cornell to finish his degree. | Page 12

Michigan Faculty Praises Pollack’s Performance Say as university leader, she sought collaboration, advanced innovative ideas

“I rely heavily on her good counsel, understanding of U-M’s culture and knowledge of the faculty.”

By BENJAMIN FINEGAN

University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel

Sun Staff Writer

Since joining the faculty of University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2000, Cornell President-elect Martha Pollack has inspired respect and praise from her colleagues, who say her innovative spirit and emphasis on collaboration will steer Cornell in new directions.

Prof. Michael Wellman, computer science, University of Michigan, said he has known Pollack for 25 years as a fellow researcher in the field of artificial intelligence. For Wellman, Pollack’s most important legacy at Michigan is her academic innovation.

Wellman said he came to understand Pollack’s leadership ability when, as associate chair of computer science and engineering, she reorganized the university’s electrical engineering and computer science department.

“Martha went to great lengths to understand the core issues at stake for the various constituency groups, and found a solution that advanced the objective of restructuring this department,” he said. “In fact, the new structure has worked extremely well, and these areas are thriving at the University of Michigan.”

University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

A legacy of change | Cornell President-elect Martha Pollack’s colleagues at the University of Michigan spoke positively about her impact on its computer science program and student life. Above, Pollack (center) is introduced to Cornellians on Nov. 14.

elaborated on Pollack’s legacy of innovation, discussing her role in creating the Humanities Collaboratory, an initiative that encourages “collaborative, team-based” humanities research and communication among students. Schlissel called the collaboratory “an outstanding and innovative approach to address the persistent challenge of demonstrating the relevance of humanities scholarship.”

He added that he has worked closely with Pollack for over two years, during her tenure as the university’s

ADRIAN BOTEANU / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

provost.

“Her help was invaluable since I began my presidency here at the University of Michigan in July of 2014,” he said. “I rely heavily on her good counsel, understanding of U-M’s culture and knowledge of the faculty.”

Schlissel said that Pollack’s most notable characteristic was her commitment to ethics and integrity.

“In any given situation, she starts with the question, See POLLACK page 5

Depts Support DACA Students

Release statements backing sanctuary campus petition

By STEPHANIE YAN

sion, according to Ekarina Winarto grad.

“Moving forward, we Over 15 Cornell departhope that other assemblies ments, programs and will do the same to express assemblies have released a strong and united front in statements supporting support of this petition,” undocumented students in Winarto said. response to concerns that The Student Assembly, Cornellians may face University Assembly and deportation after Donald Faculty Senate will consider Trump alters immigration similar resolutions at their policies. upcoming meetings, acThese statements cording to Prof. Edward follow a petition pubBaptist, a media repre“We hope that other lished Nov. 18 and sentative for the Cornell signed by over 2,000 assemblies will do the Coalition for CollaborCornellians, requesting ative Democracy. same to express ... that the University to In statements pubcontinue its financial support of this petition.” lished online, many of support of undocuthe University’s academEkarina Winarto grad mented students and ic departments also become a “sanctuary affirmed solidarity with campus” protecting stuCornellians “who are dents from deportation. cial channel” for the peti- grappling with the sense In a statement released tion to receive a response that their lives have just yesterday, over 50 law from the administration, as become more vulnerable school professors called the president must respond and insecure.” upon the University to sup- to GPSA resolutions within See UNDOCUMENTED page 5 port undocumented stu- 30 days of their submis-

Sun Assistant News Editor

Healing the housing hassle | Provost Michael Kotlikoff presented a plan to expand on-campus housing at a Graduate and Professional Student Assembly meeting Monday.

Kotlikoff Details Housing Plan

By BARBARA ESUOSO Sun Staff Writer

University Provost Michael Kotlikoff presented a plan to expand student housing and advance academic initiatives at a Graduate and Professional Student Assembly meeting Monday.

The plan aims to solve two problems — deferred capital investment and academic investment — due to constrained budgets and high sophomore housing demand, according to

Kotlikoff.

Kotlikoff said the plan will “invest in facilities, curriculum initiatives and housing initiatives.” He outlined plans to alleviate housing demand by building new dorms on North Campus and encouraging the townhouses to become part of a “sophomore village.”

Overall, the capital project seeks to add 1,250 beds and a new dining hall to North campus by the year 2020.

See HOUSING page 4

dents, as requested by the sanctuary petition, citing their “obligation” to protect civil rights “in a time when it appears they may be under attack.”

At its Nov. 21 meeting, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly also passed a resolution in support of the petition.

The resolution’s main goal was to create a “more offi-

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Daybook

DAYBOOK

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

C.U. Music: Fortepianist Shin Hwang and Guests 8 - 9:45 p.m., Auditorium, Barnes Hall

Tomorrow Drifting Bandits and Information Markets 11 a.m., 261 Rhodes Hall Phytophthora Infestans: The New Desert Pathogen 12:20 p.m., 404 Plant Sciences Building C.U. Music: Midday Music for Organ 12:30 - 1:15 p.m., Chapel, Anabel Taylor Hall Sediment Flux and Landscape Evolution: Modern and Paleo Perspectives on the Role of Climate 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., 2146 Snee Hall Multiple Roles of Cholesterol in Cell Entry of HIV and Ebola Viruses and Exocytotic Fusion Pore Formation 4 - 5 p.m., 700 Clark Hall

PHOTO COURTSEY OF THE UNIVERSITY

The Future of ‘Whiteness’ | Prof. Linda Martín Alcoff, philosophy, City University of New York, will be participating in a panel discussion on the topic of changing face of white identity and of white anti-racist activism tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.

Today Plant Genetic Resources and Plant Biotechnology Under Biodiplomacy 12:20 - 1:10 p.m., 135 Emerson Hall Order and Chaos: Collective Behavior of Crowded Drops In Microfluidic Systems 4 p.m., 205 Thurston Hall

Renewable Energy Sources in Greece: A Die Hard Case 4:30 p.m., Auditorium, Milstein Hall

The Future of ‘Whiteness’: White Identity, Race and Progressive Politics 4:30 p.m., Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

The Human Edge: Skin, Cloth, and Stone in Aeschylus And Euripides 4:30 p.m., Auditorium, Milstein Hall

From Quantum Puzzles To Quantum Information Technology 7:30 - 9 p.m., Schwartz Auditorium, Rockefeller Hall

Family as Machine: Film, Infrastructure, and Cybernetic Kinship in Suburban America 6 p.m., 258 Goldwin Smith Hall

Remembering Academic Dissent in a Fascist Era: Kurosawa Akira’s Film No Regrets for Our Youth 7:30 - 10 p.m., 374 Rockefeller Hall

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Innovations With Mechanized SRI in Pakistan: Converging the System of Rice Intensification With Conservation Agriculture 4 - 5 p.m., 102 Mann Library

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Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cornell Daily Sun, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 3

NEWS

Three Cornell Profs Make Watchlist for Liberal Bias

Post-it protest

By JOSH GIRSKY Sun News Editor

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

New Yorkers participate in an ongoing Post-It note protest against President-elect Donald Trump in Union Square Station.

Professor Watchlist — a new site that names college professors who “advance a radical agenda in the lecture halls” — named three current and former Cornell professors, alleging that they have a liberal bias.

The site was created by Turning Point USA, an organization that says that its mission is to educate students on “true free market values.” Founder and Executive Director Charlie Kirk said that it was time to expose some professors who are “totally out of line.”

Two professors were named for their comments in The Sun last year in an article about how the vast majority of faculty political donations go to Democrats.

Prof. Andrew Little, government, was mentioned for saying that hiring more Republican faculty at Cornell would “almost certainly require sacrificing on general quality or other dimensions of diversity.”

The other — Prof. Emeritus Kenneth

McClane, English — was named on the site for saying that he believes the “antiscientific rhetoric of many in the Republican Party” is disturbing.

“Many of us here are scientists,” he said last fall. “We believe in global warming.”

The site also accuses Prof. Sara Pritchard, science and technology studies, of claiming that female professors should be awarded “bonus points” in their student evaluations, to counteract the effects of gender bias.

Pritchard said that women are more likely to receive personal attacks and “comments that have nothing to do with their teaching abilities or competencies,” according to a Campus Reform article referenced by the watchlist website.

The site names over 200 professors from universities around the country and the list is considered by many to be a threat to academic freedom, according to The New York Times.

Josh Girsky can be reached at jgirsky@cornellsun.com

Lecturer Criticizes Unsustainable Tourism University

Advocates pressing need for environmental conservation in travel industry

By HANY ZERBIB Sun Staff Writer

Kiwanis Club Honors Nine-Year-Old Police Officer, Cancer Patient Ithaca native Colin Hayward Toland, who has suffered from brain cancer for the majority of his life, was recognized as the Kiwanis Club’s Frank G. Hammer Officer of the Month for November at a ceremony in Lynah Rink on Nov. 19, according to a University press release.

Ithaca Police and the Cornell men’s hockey team attended the ceremony, which took place during the first intermission of the Red’s match against Princeton University, the release said.

Toland was inducted into IPD as an officer in September.

Cornell Students Win Prizes in NYC Hackathon Several Cornell teams won prizes in a financial hackathon last weekend, organized by Entrepre neurship at Cornell at the Cornell Tech campus. The event focused on creating technical solutions to problems in detecting money laundering and financial inclusion, according to a University press release.

A Cornell team — which created a web interface for the elderly to easily monitor their finances — won the grand prize of $2,000, the release said.

— Compiled by Stephanie Yan

“Unprecedented growth” in the tourism industry could become unsustainable without an equivalent focus on conservation, according to Megan Elper Wood, the director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative within Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Elper Wood said she has worked in ecotourism for over 25 years, researching the industry’s future and global impact. At a lecture Monday, she examined whether tourism has improved living conditions in the areas it affects.

Many researchers in Elper Wood’s field have expressed concerns that the pressure of sustainMICHAELA BREW / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

Last Resorts | Megan Elper Wood presented her research on the environmental ramifications of tourism at a lecture on Monday.

ple have great difficulty spending ing a constant influx of visitors has tal,” she said.

As an example, Elper Wood money on future outcomes that forced businesses to focus on marketing, adding that 80 percent of cited her research team’s finding are not tangible,” according to revenue go toward promoting that the presence of tourists leads Wood.

She stressed that the future of to an overall increase in water conadditional tourism.

“If tourism keeps operating the sumption, power consumption tourism must include a means to conserve the environment and way it does, there will be no and waste production.

“The tourists are not paying for encourage countries to place tourism left in the future," she greater value on their natsaid. “More money needs ural capital. to be put into conserving “Traveler costs need to the product that is “If tourism keeps operating the way it increase — countries attracting tourists.” does, there will be no tourism left around the world cannot Locals in many in the future.” afford to give their tourist areas believe that resources away,” she said. while the industry proMegan Elper Wood “Citizens of tourist locaduces significant revtions need to be informed enue, it will damage the environment unless investments these increases,” she said. “Rather, of the value of the land, in order to are also made in conservation, the burden is put on the local com- make real profits and conserve their destinations.” munity.” according to Elper Wood.

Encouraging native businesses “In order for businesses to sustain themselves, they need to to spend in conservation efforts Hany Zerbib can be reached at invest in natural and social capi- has been a challenge because “peo- hzerbib@cornellsun.com

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016

NEWS

Initiative May Increase Size of Freshman Class HOUSING

Continued from page 1

The project’s goal is to create more housing options for sophomores — as currently about 60 percent of sophomores reside in Cornell housing — and open up living opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

to maintain a policy of only accepting as many students as North Campus can hold.

However, this policy becomes difficult with new majors and, this year, the creation of the College of Business. Essentially, Kotlikoff said new academic initiatives create demand for more students.

“The faculty to student ratio

“The faculty to student ratio is the highest it has been in 20 years.”

Provost Michael Kotlikoff The plan does not end on North Campus. Details of the housing plan include goals to renovate Balch Hall and to partner with other facilities to improve and expand opportunities for Collegetown housing.

The housing plan initiative is also projected to increase the freshman class by 250 to 275 students. Plans to address the repercussions of higher student admissions are also underway, including ways to fix the “gateway course issue,” a problem when students cannot get into introductory level classes because they fill to capacity.

In the past, Cornell has tried

You just may find what you’re looking for

in The Sun classifieds.

[at Cornell] is the highest it has ever been in 20 years,” Kotlikoff said. “But in the College of Arts and Sciences it is the lowest it’s ever been because they are not letting in more students.”

The plan must deal with navigating increased student growth, as Kotlikoff acknowledges the potential for increased class sizes and exacerbated “gateway course” issues.

Discussions on the initiative have been taking place since the fall of 2015 and now final reports have been issued to move forward on the initiative.

Barbara Esuoso can be reached at besuoso@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 5

NEWS

Michigan President Calls Pollack‘Outstanding Choice’ POLLACK

Continued from page 1

‘What is the right thing to do?’” he said. He also emphasized Pollack’s organizational talent and ability as a leader.

“Provost Pollack is on a first-name basis with a significant portion of our faculty and staff — and she knows and appreciates their talents,” he said. “She has a very special ability to understand both the institutional data and the more humanistic aspects of the academic programs she leads.”

Schlissel added that Pollack has remained humble, despite her abilities, which he said helps her work well with colleagues.

“She is collaborative and inspiring and is adept at creating great teams around her,” he said. “At the same time, she is humble and authentic and works hard to build trust, and these qualities help her work closely with faculty from all disciplines.”

Pollack also worked closely with students at Michigan to implement institutional changes, accord-

ing to Dave Schafer, president of the university’s student government. Schafer commended Pollack’s thoughtful nature and open-mindedness in engaging with students.

“We have a wonderful relationship with the provost,”

“[Pollack] is collaborative and inspiring and is adept at creating great teams around her.”

Mark Schlissel he said. “We meet monthly to discuss issues of concern with students.”

A major concern of undergraduates was the price of tuition, which many students struggled to afford, according to Schafer.

“We had requested greater student involvement in the budget process, which culminates with the setting of the university tuition,” he said.

Pollack responded by creating the Student Budget

Departments Stand With Undocumented Cornellians

Advisory Committee, which Schafer said allows students to have input in determining the university’s budget.

“She was very open and receptive,” he said. “It goes to show how willing to hear out students the provostsoon-to-be-president is. If she approaches the job with the same level of care and attention and commitment and passion that she did with her job at the University of Michigan, then Cornell is going to be in wonderful hands.”

Schlissel said that while he is disappointed Pollack will be departing Michigan, he is confident that Cornell had chosen the right woman for the job.

“President-elect Pollack is an outstanding choice,” he said. “She wants the very best for students and relishes working with faculty and staff to help drive excellence. She will spend time listening first to fully assess the needs of everyone in the Cornell community before pointing your great institution in new directions.”

Benjamin Finnegan can be reached at bpf45@cornell.edu.

Hurt in Havana

Warn against ignoring local intolerance UNDOCUMENTED Continued from page 1

“Teaching and researching [these] issues means recognizing, and never forgetting, the difficult and often precarious situations of people whose daily lives are the concrete expression of these issues,” the Asian American studies program wrote in a statement.

The Latin American studies

fort,” the Latina/o studies program said. “We are not alone.”

Other departments — including history of art and visual studies, government and American studies — expressed broader concerns about “escalations in xenophobic, racist and sexist incidents” that have occurred after Trump’s election.

Such incidents “are often fueled by fake news, and a lack of critical engagement with the

“We write about xenophobia and bigotry, but will not pretend they only exist elsewhere.”

Government department statement program echoed this sentiment, adding that community support is especially vital for defending Cornellians threatened by a president who has repeatedly shown “contempt for a broad swath of the population in this country.”

The Africana studies and history departments, as well as the Latina/o studies programs, also stressed the importance of supporting marginalized students.

“Speak your truth and remember that many people across this nation, and around the world, share our discom-

The CorneDaily Sun

nation’s historical and contemporary realities,” the American studies program said.

The government department pledged to teach “about intolerance, but … not practice it.”

“We write about xenophobia and bigotry, but will not pretend they only exist elsewhere,” the department wrote. “We research racism, homophobia and misogyny, but will not permit them to pass unchallenged.”

Stephanie Yan can be reached at syan@cornellsun.com.

TOMAS MONITA / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cubans make their way to pay homage to Fidel Castro, who died Friday night, at Revolution Square in Havana.

OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Jacob Rubashkin | The Jacobin

Independent Since 1880 134TH EDITORIAL BOARD

SOFIA HU ’17

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Business Manager

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Letter to the Editor

Standing for respect in athletics To the Editor: Over the past few weeks, several of our fellow Ivy League athletics teams made headlines for engaging in some appalling actions. The Harvard Men’s Soccer and Men’s Cross Country teams both created spreadsheets to assess the physical attractiveness and sexual appeal of their female student-athlete counterparts and freshmen recruits. These “scouting reports” contained degrading, sexually explicit language about these women, many of whom were their friends. At Columbia, the Men’s Wrestling team is currently under investigation for racially and sexually explicit group messages.

As captains and leaders of varsity athletics teams at Cornell, we are deeply disappointed by these acts. At the same time, we recognize that more likely than not, similar language has been used within the Cornell Athletics community. We are not naive enough to believe that no Cornell student-athletes have ever used inappropriate language to marginalize and demean others or even acted on such language. That kind of rhetoric is completely unacceptable. Simply excusing such statements as “locker room talk” or ignoring them only makes the problem worse.

Being a student-athlete at Cornell is an incredible privilege that we do not take lightly.

Along with our teammates, we are proud to serve as prominent representatives and ambassadors of this great university. However, with this privilege comes tremendous responsibility. In addition to working to bring home Ivy League championships, we must also strive to always be a positive influence and representative of Cornell. This goal extends far beyond the field, court or rink to the classroom, dining halls, dormitories, Collegetown and the broader Ithaca community.

We are a diverse family with a wide variety of life experiences, beliefs and worldviews.

Although it can be challenging to navigate that diversity, it is ultimately a significant part of what makes Cornell, and the student-athlete experience, so special. Through our exposure to people different than ourselves, we become better individuals and prepare ourselves for a future beyond Cornell.

While the topics of sexism, racism, homophobia and misogyny can lend themselves to difficult and uncomfortable conversations, we must have these discussions in order to make our communities and our world more respectful, dignified and just. These conversations become easier by fostering open communication within our close-knit communities. From personal experiences as captains and leaders, we have found ways to be proactive and intervene to dissuade this type of language and inappropriate behavior on our own teams. We are able to hold each other accountable, whether in one-on-one conversations or general discussions with our coaches and teammates. Intervening in this way allows us to learn and grow from one another so we can prevent the inappropriate language and behavior that let our teams, family and university down. We perform best when we support each other and deconstruct stereotypes through a culture of inclusion and affirmation.

We are proud to stand with the members of the Harvard Women’s Soccer team who wrote their own response to the scouting reports. We agree that the kind of sexist, culturally insensitive and derogatory language used to describe them must be de-normalized, not only within our teams and communities but also within “the locker room that is our world.” We cannot be silent bystanders — we must instead address these issues, which have historically been ingrained and tolerated in our culture and society, head-on.

Ultimately, we recognize that this problem is not perpetuated by just one person, team, or university, but we do know that our individual actions can lead to greater change when we work together to make Cornell a safe and caring community.

We call on all varsity captains and student-athletes to directly confront and combat these issues, first within our individual teams, and then the Cornell community and college campuses nationwide. We encourage the discussion of what happened at Harvard and Columbia, as well as continuous dialogues regarding sexism, racism, homophobia and misogyny more generally. We urge every individual, regardless of their affiliation on campus, to speak up if or when they hear this kind of language being used. As Cornellians, we understand the need to make Cornell Athletics an inclusive environment for all as we strive to be a positive influence in all that we do. Moving forward, we will work to facilitate conversations about these issues amongst our teams and more broadly within the athletics community.

We are incredibly honored to be able to represent Cornell in our respective sports and we will continue to strive for academic, athletic, and personal excellence to the best of our abilities.

Go Big Red. Jackson Weber ’17, football Marshall Peters ’17, men’s lacrosse Grace Tucker, ’17, women’s rowing Jeff Kubiak ’17, men’s ice hockey

Krystin Chiellini ’17, gymnastics Miles Norris ’17, football Kaitlin Doering ’17, women’s ice hockey Ellie Crowell ’17, women’s soccer

Moving the Left Forward

T

he Democrats lost this election.

But despite what you may have heard from the countless talking heads on TV, they have not lost the people. By the time all votes have been counted, Hillary Clinton will have won the popular vote by a larger margin than many previous victors, and Democratic senatorial candidates will have garnered millions more votes than their Republican counterparts. That isn’t just some factoid destined for the footnotes of history — it needs to be a guiding factor in the actions of the party over the next two years. The Democrats must govern like they represent the majority, because they do.

For instance, they must work hard to reject President-elect Trump’s proposed infrastructure bill. On its surface, the bill seems particularly palatable to Democrats, and all but anathema to the (supposedly) budget-conscious Republicans who once shut down the government over $4 billion in disputed spending. But dig not too much deeper, and you discover that the touted “$1 trillion investment in infrastructure” is not really an investment but rather a series of tax breaks for private industry, meant to incentivize corporations to repair our nation’s crumbling roads, bridges, tunnels and so on. Ideally, because corporations would be on the hook for the costs of production themselves, they would insure the projects come in on time and on budget.

But if there’s one thing that everyone should know about corporate America, it’s that private industry doesn’t lift a finger unless it’s under injunction or getting paid to do it, and no amount of tax breaks can change that. So the only projects private industry would even be interested in are high-margin, long term profitable projects such as toll roads in densely populated areas and highly trafficked areas or highcapacity electrical power grids. And herein lies the problem. Attractive projects like these are only a small slice of what is necessary to rebuild America — and they generally serve more affluent areas of the country.

And herein lies the problem: what selfrespecting capitalist would ever take on the project of replacing the countless miles of leaded water pipes in low-income areas?

Or repairing a toll-free interstate that cuts through rural West Virginia and Kentucky? There’s no money in those ventures, not before or after any potential tax breaks. If I were a shareholder of a company that elected to complete one of those projects, I would be positively befuddled.

Public infrastructure is government-funded and maintained because it is a public good. Private industry is not structured to help the public — it is structured to make money. That isn’t a bad thing, by the way, but it means that we need a government to fund public works.

So even if this infrastructure “plan” were being proposed by the run-of-themill Republican politician, it would deserve incredible scrutiny and skepticism, as it seems to be yet another way to enrich the wealthiest at the expense of the most disadvantaged. But it’s not being proposed by the average Republican. It is being proposed by a politically neophytic potential kleptocrat who legitimized and empowered a particularly vicious brand of ignorance, racism, sexism and xenophobia with his campaign and victory.

That matters, for a number of reasons.

First of all, Trump’s past business dealings leave him with deep ties to the construction industry, and he has, in a stunning rebuke of precedent, refused to divest himself of his business holdings. This creates an incredible conflict of interest, especially when it comes to government contracting.

Even though the Office of the President cannot not award contracts outright, it is entirely plausible that Trump will pressure the various executive departments, as well as state governments, to award the tax breaks to his friends and favored partners — the possibility for graft and cronyism is infinite with a man as connected as Trump. The President-elect has already shown a tendency to use his office as a tool for advancing his business interests, having reportedly pressured the presidents of Argentina and Turkey to fast-track approvals for his projects overseas and admittedly attempted to influence British energy policy for the benefit for his golfing properties in Scotland. Can we expect him to act any differently when it comes to American infrastructure?

There is another reason to reject this proposal from Trump: it comes from Trump. And acquiescing to the objectives of a man like Trump, even if he happens to be President of the United States irreversibly legitimizes him. I do not mean legitimize in the legal sense — Donald Trump is the legitimately elected president of the United States, and no recount attempt by Jill Stein to remain relevant will change that. I mean legitimize in the broader sense.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said it best when he took the House floor two weeks ago: “We cannot treat [Trump] like any other politician, or even like any other Republican, because he is not. He represents something much more dangerous … we have a duty to treat him like the threat he is — a threat to our values, a threat to our people, and a threat to our national identity.” Representative Gallego recognizes the danger that blindly following Trump represents. In doing so, he runs contrary to the position of the Democratic leadership, including but not limited to New York’s own Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.) and Senators Bernie Sanders (DVt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), all of whom have reiterated their willingness to work with President Trump.

In short, just because Trump won the election, Democrats and Americans in general do not have to give up on our principles, principles that position us against racism, sexual assault, corruption, greed and hate. We cannot let it become normal for a man like Trump to be able to take power. Democrats in Congress, with the knowledge that they have real popular support, should not trip over themselves trying to cooperate with the incoming Republican administration. Donald Trump may have won the Electoral College, but in order to have the cooperation of the Democrats and the American people, he must win our respect and trust as well.

Jacob Rubashkin is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached at jrubashkin@cornellsun.com. The Jacobin appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

The Cornell Daily Sun

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

| Tuesday, November 29, 2016 PAGE 1

2016 Holiday Gift Guide a special advertising supplement to

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 7

OPINION

Hebani Duggal |

Web

Comment

Teach Me How to Duggal

The Struggle of Giving Thanks

T

his year was the first year I headed home for Thanksgiving. Most of campus tends to clear out the week of Thanksgiving Break, and usually, I am just another immigrant millennial headed to one of their American friends’ homes to gobble down some turkey and stuffing (and chocolate covered strawberries if I get lucky).

This year, however, the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services decided to come in clutch and schedule my citizenship test the week after Thanksgiving. I was headed home to the aggressively Southern state of Texas to take my citizenship test, and spend some quality time giving thanks with my parents in the process.

The idea of family bonding is not lost on my family. My parents, like most other parents, enjoy pretending we all like each other enough to (semi-)voluntarily spend time with each other in a way that constitutes “quality family time.” There are several activities, of course, that fit this description. I like to think of these activities as if they correspond to a spectrum.

If you’re on the “loving family” end of the spectrum, you guys can do a game night or a trip to the mini golf course. Your family gets along with each other to handle a little healthy competition so why not capitalize on the decent guarantee that no one will die during a game of Trivial Pursuit while you can? If you’re on the other end of the spectrum, however, that guarantee does not exist, and you tend to wisely choose heading out to dinner or heading to the movies.

My family headed to the movies this Thanksgiving weekend. The movies are my personal favorite form of “quality family time” because they require no direct interaction and can be mildly fun if you pay close enough attention to the movie and/or fall asleep. The movie my family watched this past weekend was a Hindi movie (Dear Zindagi, for reference), and it got awkward real fast.

Watching movies with your parents can get awkward if you’re on the end of the spectrum that can’t handle a little healthy competition. Sometimes there’s a sex scene, and since sex is not a thing that exists in the bubble that is your household, everyone has to shift uncomfortably until it's over and then you can move on with pretending you have no idea what sex is as a 20 year college student. This time, however, it wasn’t a sex scene that did me in for shifting uncomfortably in my seat. In fact, it was just the premise of the movie itself. It struck home (pun definitely intended) in a way no one saw coming.

The movie’s premise brought up some great points.

Without dissecting the entire movie itself (tune in next week when Hebani turns into a self-proclaimed movie critic and bores everyone to death with her unsubstantiated opinions more so than she usually does), the movie’s basic premise does a lot to address the very real hypocrisy that exists within Indian society when it comes to women in general and young women in particular. Dating more than one person, choosing an unconventional career path, making mistakes — these are a handful of practices upon which Indian society places a complex and unfair judgement.

My favorite point, however — and the one that stuck with me most — was the one about viewing the mistakes your parents make outside of the vacuum of your household. There’s a quote in the movie that translates roughly to “Think about your parents as people rather than the ideal that is a parent.”

I’m not entirely sure how much more accurately I can convey the way in which those words were said, but the idea is simply that your parents are people. In viewing them as just that — people that can make mistakes, people that have to make tough decisions, people that can make the wrong decisions — you distance yourself from the pressure of comparing them to an unrealistic ideal and allow yourself to understand them as people that have faced the same realities you might face as well one day. You don’t have to agree with their decisions, you don’t have to justify them, and frankly, you don’t have to respect them — but you do have to try and understand them if you’re going to move towards a more mature relationship with them.

This was not something I wanted to be hit in the face with in the theater, on Thanksgiving, next to my mom. For a family that hides the fact that we cry at the movies from each other, sobbing hysterically during what was labeled as a Bollywood comedy was not the best way to go about tackling being home for Thanksgiving for the first time in a couple years.

It was, however, one of the better ways to tackle being a part of my family. No one’s family is ever perfect. There’s a reason there’s as many movies about family drama as there are about literally anything else. Families are made up of people that are meant to be yours from the minute you were born, and judging them at a higher standard than you would ever judge yourself or any of your closest friends makes for a tough way to be happy.

Hebani Duggal is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at hduggal@cornellsun.com. Teach Me How to Duggal appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

of the day

“This is not a discussion about how just U.S. immigration law is, or about whether academia thinks it’s so just and ethical and revolutionary that it gets to stand above that law. It’s a discussion about what compliance with current law looks like. That’s all. And in those terms, Rawlings’ answer is spot on. Cornell follows the laws currently in place.”

DeShawn Brown Re: “Rawlings Promises Cornell Will ‘Support and Defend’ Undocumented Students” News November 27, 2016

Alex Davies | Have I Got News for You?

We Need to Talk About Donald (As if We Haven’t Already)

D

The latest piece of Trump antics onald Trump, like Mobutu er, would slide right into the goverSese Seko’s illegitimate nor’s mansion. It seems odd that that seems most concerning is his child, is already showing Trump would nominate Haley to persistent questioning of the elechis nepotistic tendencies. such an important post considering tion results. Previously he stated Unprecedented is an understate- her paucity of experience. Maybe that he would have won the popument. Trump’s transition team not so odd when put in the context lar vote if that had been what matreportedly enquired about obtain- of Trump trying to reward his tered. Now he is stating that he did ing security clearances for his chil- faithful. McMaster’s ascension win the popular vote once one subdren, the very people who would would give Trump a zealous ally in tracts the millions of illegal votes. be controlling his “blind trust.” state government. This, in con- This is unsubstantiated, untrue Ivanka Trump sat in on her father’s junction with his selection of and dangerous. Will Little meeting with Prime Minister Reince Priebus for White House Donald’s tight-shut eyes and Shinzo Abe of Japan. Trump, chief, seems to be a continuation of tantrums and arguments save us at *ahem*, reportedly closed their Trump’s attempt to smother the the eleventh hour when “millions of illegal nuclear weapons are pourmeeting by asking his guest if he Republican Party.

Trump’s nepotism will be great- ing out of Russian borders and could help him understand just ly intensified by his lack of prepa- coming to America”? quite why “the nuclear” is so bad.

J a r e d Kushner, a newspaper proprietor, could Trump’s nepotism will be greatly intensified by his lack bring peace to the Middle East, of preparation and the disgust he inspires among much according to of the conservative foreign policy elite. One is almost Trump. That is despite mem- required to staff vital agency chairs with one’s own bers of his fami- progeny when one has repulsed most of the ly coming close to disowning, Republican Washington swamp-dwellers. for what appears to have been at least the second time, him for ration and the disgust he inspires Donald Trump is clearly a man backing Trump’s anti-Semitic among much of the conservative frustrated with the details of means. tweets. Still, his Wikipedia page foreign policy elite. One is almost Don’t talk to a woman, just grab now states him to be a “political required to staff vital agency chairs what you want, you’re a star. Don’t operative.” No one has ever sat with one’s own progeny when one construct buildings, just license down as a guest at a dinner table has repulsed most of the your name out like a washed up and asked their host what they do, Republican Washington swamp- country singer bringing out a new only to have them reply, “Why, dwellers. line of Walmart clothing. America didn’t you know? I’m a political Equally worryingly, Trump con- must not let its president’s immatuoperative.” tinues to sideline the press, break- rity steer us away from questioning Down to nominations for posi- ing long observed precedents for his actions. If “millions” of votes tions that many believe will hold that oh-so-important steak dinner. can be arbitrarily declared “illegal” little power in a Trump administra- With Breitbart looking set to by a soon-to-be-sitting president, tion, like Ambassador to the U.N., morph into a Trumpian Pravda, and the American people — not we see glimpses of the megaloma- Trump’s media strategy will only the American intelligentsia, not the niacal machinations of this man. make it more difficult for American coasts — barely stirs, Trump has nominated South Americans to hold his administra- like an opiate addict in a trailer Carolina Governor Nikki Haley tion accountable. The Donald park, it only becomes more likely (R-S.C.) to that post, in a seeming doesn’t even try to justify his that this country will rue the day it ploy to bind the wounds of divi- infringements through, say, argu- did not do more to stop what may sion within the Republican Party. ments about his family’s privacy. happen.

Haley has no foreign policy qualifi- No, among Trump’s most substancations or experience. tive critiques of the media has been Davies is a senior in the College of If Haley were confirmed to that that “they don’t know how to write Alex Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at position, South Carolina’s current good,” a statement after which an ajd253@cornell.edu. Have I Got News lieutenant governor, Henry aide interjected, “at least he speaks For You? appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

McMaster, an early Trump endors- good.” I’m not joking.

A&E

8 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 29, 2016

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT The Sun’s Top 10 Movies of 2016

1

Moonlight

Based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Moonlight is a three-part meditation on race, class, queerness and growing up. Set in Miami in the 1980s, the movie follows Chiron from childhood through adolescence throughout adulthood (played by Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes respectively) as he attempts to grapple with his mother’s drug addiction and incessant desecration of his black, queer body. The film’s focus is not simply on marginalized identities and the tortured psyches that accompany them, however, but on probing intimacy. It propels viewers to be there during Chiron’s gravest difficulties — an easy task given his lived experiences — while simultaneously eschewing stereotypes, culminating in a depiction, rather than exploitation, of pain. Moonlight is expected to be a 2017 Academy Award contender.

2

Hell or High Water Arrival

Inspired by Ted Chiang’s short story “The Story of Your Life,” Arrival’s beginning scene breaks from formulaic plot of its better budgeted sci-fi predecessors. Twelve unidentified alien spacecrafts land at various parts across the globe, and humanity has no way to contact them. As a linguist and theoretical physicists attempt to crack the aliens’ code, the governments of the world prepare for all-out war. Yet despite familiar elements, Denis Villeneuve’s latest cinematic offering takes this archetypal alien invasion/first contact trope and imbues it with a surprising amount of heart, realism and relevance. The end product is a masterpiece that dialectically celebrates the beauty of diversity and laments the world’s polarization across ethnic, cultural and political lines. Indeed, while Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker all give stellar performances, Arrival’s strength lies in its own self-cognizance and versatility.

— Gwen Aviles

4

Zootopia

Part-world building, part-crime thriller, part-cute animal flick: Zootopia is one of those rare movies that takes a huge bite and is still able to chew it all. An all-star vocal cast featuring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba and Jenny Slate helped to propel this lush, full-speed romp through the imaginary land that gives the movie its name. Were there plot holes galore (how did Flash the sloth have fast enough reflexes to cut tight turns?!)? Yes, but in the end Zootopia was just, plain fun.

— Shay Collins

7

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Kubo and the Two Strings

5

The Nice Guys is a throwback to the buddy cop movies of the ’80s and ’90s, with classic shootouts and chases to go along with laugh-out-loud dialogue.

Whether or not you go into this movie having a crush on Ryan Gosling, you will leave this movie having a crush on Ryan Gosling. His chemistry with Russell Crowe is as good as you’ll see between two actors in a comedy, as they feed off each other with one deadpan joke and spot-on facial expression after another. Thanks to them, every scene of this movie just oozes with fun.

—Lev Akabas

American Honey

What are the kids up to now-a-days?

With print in peril, no one would expect them to be selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door, and yet that’s exactly what the gang of traveling teenagers — led by Shia LeBeouf — in American Honey does (among other illicit activities). The film stars Sasha Lane as Star, a directionless and destitute teenager who’s recruited for a national magazine scam after she’s seen rummaging through a garbage can for food.

Lane’s lack of professional acting experience (American Honey is her first credit) is juxtaposed with LeBeouf’s established range, rooting the film in authenticity, while the hazy Midwestern shots are an unrefined reminder that those in pursuit of the American Dream have many faces.

— Gwen Aviles

Hell or High Water is a crime movie so assured in the skill of its actors, its pacing and its realistic characters that it creates tension is many ways other than a bank robbery shootout. The relationships between characters are so well portrayed and multidimensional that simple conversations between them are as effective at drawing in the audience as the action scenes. Chris Pine gives the most emotionally rich performance of his career, Jeff Bridges steals every scene he’s in with impeccable comedic timing and Ben Foster’s acting is so natural, you don’t even realize how good he is. The screenplay is nuanced and thoughtful in such a way that even when minor characters such as a waitress get a few lines, we care about what they have to say. While this movie is not the most epic in terms of story, action or budget, it’s nearly perfect, down to the most minor details.

—Lev Akabas

— Zachary Lee

The Nice Guys

The Handmaiden

89

The Handmaiden is a film about fetish, but it is also a film about storytelling. A delightful gothic tale of revenge and entrapment, what starts as a story of forged identities and tragic seduction stops and shifts perspective Rashomon-style to reveal greater depths of deception. Everyone in the film is pretending to be something they are not.

Women are dominated by patriarchs not through real sexuality but through the bombardment of erotic art and bawdy tales, gentlemanly amusement with real consequences. Although entrapped by these narratives, it is through them that our heroines are liberated — some will likely criticize the film for its overtly eroticized, fantastical lesbian relationship, but unlike other films the male gaze at play here is central to the themes explored.

— Nathan Chazan

3 6

Laika Animation has done it again with Kubo and the Two Strings. They’ve blended together classical stopmotion animation, computer-generated imagery, and robotic puppetry into an enrapturing journey across Eastern mythology. The characters are heartfelt with some great performances from Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey.

Huge action set-pieces include batting giant monsters, besting sea creatures, and dueling with masked figures.

Creature designs are intricate and detailed. Music is integral to the film. Kubo’s three-stringed Shamisen gives him his powers, allowing origami to come to life in beautiful choreography. This informs the film’s score which is exciting and upbeat with heavy influences in Japanese style.

— Brendan Coyle

Deadpool

Deadpool is like high-budget, extended YouTube parody of the superhero genre, full of crude humor and lacking any actual heroics. Deadpool will walk to the end of the world for a cheap joke, constantly bombarding you with quips that you’ll laugh at just long enough to hold you over for another one.

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson was quick and witty throughout the whole movie, unrelenting in his profanity and snark. The wrecking ball they kept on set to constantly break the fourth wall made Deadpool’s criticism of superheroics more clear and personal, adding to the irony of an anti-hero participating in all of the practices he criticizes. It becomes a parody of itself very fast, and puts humor into every second of it. It’s funny and fun, and while it doesn’t do much more than crack jokes, that’s all it really needs.

— Katie Sims

Weiner

10

Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg easily could have made a documentary that simply condemned former Representative Anthony Weiner. Yet, Weiner begins on a high note: the Anthony Weiner who appears at the beginning of the documentary is rejuvenated, remorseful about his sexting scandals and ready to fight in New York City’s mayoral race. Weiner, once again, descends into lying and defensiveness as more sexting allegations surface.

Kriegman and Steinberg expertly elevate Weiner from an entertaining to a thoroughly thought-provoking movie by catching the moments when Weiner and the people around him reflect on his self-destruction.

— Shay Collins

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 9

SCIENCE

CLIMATE CHANGE

MATERIALS

Researchers Propose New Biochar Technique to Scrub Atmospheric CO2

By SAM NADELL Sun Contributor

Three million years ago, there were no humans, global temperatures were possibly four degrees celsius warmer and sea levels were high enough to cover most of modern-day Manhattan. This was also the last time in geologic history that global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2 ) levels exceeded 400 parts per million 1.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOMINIC WOOLF

Deep Within | (1.) Dawit Solomon, a soil scientist at Cornell University, investigates the carbon accumulated in Liberian soil due to indigenous agricultural practices.

(2.) Biochar is made from maize residues.

(ppm), a benchmark that was permanently and ominously passed once again in 2016.

Carbon emissions, largely as a result of burning fossil fuels, are not likely to halt anytime soon. Some scientists have started organizing backup plans; most notably, finding a way to grab some of this atmospheric carbon and store it in the Earth.

“The critical thing at this point in time is to reduce emissions as rapidly as we are able to do so. However, in the event that we cannot, as a global community, manage to reduce emissions fast enough, we will still end up with a surplus of CO2 in the atmosphere that we need to deal with,” said Dominic Woolf, soil and crop sciences, and lead author of a recent study that focussed on a new way to sequester more CO2 into the Earth and out of the atmosphere.

“We need a plan B, because it looks like we may not get there fast enough or quick enough. Plan B is how we get that carbon back down out of the atmosphere,” Woolf said.

Plan B, in Woolf ’s case, is to use a “BiocharBioenergy System.” BCBES involves using a technique called pyrolysis, the burning of plant material in the absence of oxygen. By doing so, half of the original carbon in the plant remains in the leftover biomass, now called biochar.

BCBES has been proposed by Woolf and other researchers as a substitute for “Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage,” a similar method of carbon sequestration that captures CO2 from plants through combustion.

Although BECCS may be a more effective way to remove and store CO2 , there are several advantages to using BCBES instead. A bioenergy capture system requires a large carbon transportation network and therefore a lot of capital for infrastructure, while a biochar system could be implemented in more remote areas.

Biochar can also be added to infertile soils in order to increase agricultural productivity, which could be used to offset some of the costs associated with BCBES. “Plants already draw down 10 times as much carbon as we’re emitting at the moment globally,” Woolf said.

Under normal conditions, approximately 90 percent of that carbon would be returned to the Earth or atmosphere through burning or plant decay over a three year period. Pyrolysis, on the other hand, releases 50 percent of plant carbon instantly, but stores the rest

2.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DOMINIC WOOLF

in biochar for a significantly longer duration.

Woolf suggests using BCBES and BECCS in tandem for now, transitioning to using BECCS once it becomes more economically viable. Other carbon sequestration techniques, such as reforestation or direct carbon capture, either require too much land and money to implement or are too under-developed to be used immediately.

However, Woolf stresses that the main goal right now must be to reduce CO2 emissions and said that these proposed techniques are not a panacea for the warming climate. Keeping CO2 levels under 450 ppm is critical, as scientists have warned that crossing that threshold will likely have irreversible effects on the environment. In order to do so, Woolf urges that “we’ve got to move rapidly and drastically as a global effort.”

“By 2100, our key driving motivation must be to keep any change that does happen within manageable levels and the more we can mitigate, the better it is.

And it’s clear that bioenergy-biochar systems will have a role to play in that,” he said. “The less we manage to reduce emissions, the larger the role these other technologies will have to have. But we shouldn’t see them as a get-out or a substitute for reducing emissions.”

Sam Nadell can be reached at san55@cornell.edu.

Researchers Turn Ordinary Fibers Into Water, Air Purifiers

By DARREN CHOW Sun Contributor

For centuries, rivers have sustained human civilization. From the Nile to the Indus, these blue-green and brown waters have been invaluable sources of irrigation.

Unfortunately, they are equally convenient for waste disposal. Over time, cocktails of industrial effluents have caused these rivers to acquire much darker hues.

Fortunately, Prof. Juan Hinestroza, fiber science, has created a pollutant-absorbing fiber that could help restore rivers to their former glory.

“I often know what color is in fashion in the U.S. by looking at a river because some of the chemicals used in manufacturing are thrown into lakes and rivers,” Hinestroza said. It’s so sad because people have to drink this water. As a result, what we wanted to do is create a material that could capture pollutants from air and water.”

Hinestroza developed the polymer using a process known as cyclodextrin polymerization to coat the surface of a cotton fabric. Polymerization is the process of reacting molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymers, large molecules of repeated subunits. The resultant material is capable of filtering a variety of contaminants, including Styrene and Bisphenol A. BPA is known to cause a variety of negative health effects, including breast cancer, early puberty, heart disease and infertility.

“Cyclodextrin is a very beautiful molecule. On the outside its hydrophobic and on the inside its

hydrophilic,” Hinestroza explained. “It works because of the chemical affinity of the molecule - it is able to capture the pollutants inside and reuse them.”

He uses the analogy of a cup to explain how the polymer captures these pollutants.

“The polymer is like a little cup. When we put the cups together the contaminant gets captured. We can

“I think the main advantage of our polymer is that we can capture the pollutants extremely fast.”

Prof. Juan Hinestroza release the pollutants by changing the pressure or heating it up slowly,” Hinestroza said.That’s an advantage because we can reuse the polymer.”

Hinestroza’s polymer has numerous other advantages over those that already exist. For example, companies can easily incorporate it into their manufacturing processes without needing to procure new machines or make special changes to manufacturing conditions.

“I think the main advantage of our polymer is that we can capture the pollutants extremely fast,” Hinestroza

said. “We decided to benchmark our polymer with commercial solvents and we ended up being several orders of magnitude faster in capturing large amounts of pollutants without saturation.”

The process is not exclusive to cotton. Cotton was only chosen as the testing material due to its common use and low level of testing difficulty.

“We can coat polyester, we can coat nylon, we can coat any other textile fiber,” Hinestroza said. “Once you have it as a fiber, you can produce a t-shirt, a filter, a carpet, a curtain, anything. All these different objects can clean the air.”

Hinestroza said he hopes that such polymers will eventually be used in other industries as well.

“We want to see it become much bigger than the textile industry. It will be nice to have clothing that can clean water and air, but we also see these filtering juices, packaging food and as architectural textiles,” Hinestroza said.

In fact, one of Hinestroza’s main goals is to develop a ‘super-suit’ capable of repelling stains, changing colors and healing minor wounds.

“We work on interactive textiles, so cleaning the air and water is only one aspect. We are also working on clothing that changes colors without pigments. For example, when there is an allergen closeby, the clothing will change colors to alert you. If someone spills wine on the clothing, it should be able repel the stain and scent.”

Darren Chow can be reached at dlc279@cornell.edu.

10 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Energizes, with “up” 5 Onetime TWA rival 10 Lucy’s co-star 14 “Star Wars” princess 15 Bakery draw 16 “That’s so true!”

17 Misfortunes 18 Las Vegas loser’s complaint 20 [“Get off the stage!”]

22 Word with dog, horse or lion 23 Bank acct. posting 24 Critter “in the headlights” 26 Worked hard 30 Spoken 32 Make on the job 34 Explosive emotion 35 Eight, en español 36 Like some committees 37 Martini ingredient 38 Jack of nursery rhymes 39 “Give __ chance!”

40 Grate residue 42 Chinese-born architect I.M. __ 43 Techie’s hangout 45 “Doggone it!”

46 Dada pioneer Jean 47 Speak hoarsely 48 Landmark on Missouri’s state quarter 49 Georgia, but not Florida 51 Vatican City currency 53 Uncanny claim 56 Crime syndicate leader 57 What a judge may do during an arraignment 59 Grecian Formula competitor 64 Invention beginning 65 Roughly 30% of Earth’s land area 66 Fall zodiac sign 67 Denim pioneer Strauss 68 Chimed

69 “No bid,” in bridge 70 Perfect spot

28 Great Lakes 50 Suitcase tie-on natives 52 App downloaders 29 Lairs of lions 54 Kitchen strainer 31 “Of course!”

55 Opposite of 33 Ill-fated whale everything, in DOWN 1 “I was home chaser bageldom alone” isn’t a very 35 Rossini creation 58 Rancor 59 Jelly holder strong one 36 Is home sick 2 Breakfast fruit 38 Stretch across 60 Land “across the 3 *Screenwriter’s 41 Cul-de-__ pond” from the U.K. work for the first 44 Tubular Italian 61 Gluttony, e.g. episode pastries 62 Tear (into) 4 Merit badge 48 Concert milieus 63 Exec’s degree holder 5 Analyzed, as a ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: sentence 6 Got out of bed 7 “__ again!”

8 Invoice no.

9 Leader with a baton 10 __ Lama 11 Big bird from Down Under 12 “Hold on a __!”

13 Pentel filler 19 *Orangy Crayola color 21 *Simple-to-use 25 *Symbol of bureaucracy 27 Dizzy ... and a hint to the starts of the answers to starred clues 11/29/16 xwordeditor@aol.com

Sun Sudoku

COMICS AND PUZZLES

Puzzle #5,186

THE GONGOOZLER 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)

Circles and Stuff

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Deadline: 2:30 p.m. at The Sun’s office on the day preceding publication. Monday’s deadline: Friday, 2:30 p.m. at The Sun’s office.

Standard Rate: $3.60 per day for first 15

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, November 29, 2016 11

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O’Byrne ’07 Returns for His Degree MEN’S HOCKEY

Continued from page 12

workload — definitely focusing a lot on studies,” said O’Byrne, who is currently has a “kind of consulting role,” on the team.

Like any freshman adjusting to Cornell, it took O’Byrne time to get fully reaccustomed to the pressures of college life.

“Let’s not kid yourself, the first week is tough,” O’Byrne said. “I called my family after the first week and was like, ‘Whoa, that was nuts.’ Every week got easier and easier.”

Compared to most Cornellians, O’Byrne has been privy to an opportunity most others never experience: he took a leave of absence for several years, developed as an adult and then returned to finish his degree with a new outlook on life.

In many ways, O’Byrne believes maturing during his time as a professional athlete has allowed him adjust his world view and take full advantage of what Cornell has to offer now that he has a second chance.

“I think as you come back as a mature student you really appreciate Cornell for what it is,” he said. “Maybe when I was younger I didn't appreciate it enough. Not only the schooling but the people, institution, all the services that are offered, not just actual teaching but, for example, career services or different groups that people can be a part of to help them prepare for their careers. You really realize what a great institution this is.”

At the end of the day, O’Byrne has chosen the path less travelled in receiving his degree.

His decision to leave the University in the first place was one that kept him up for weeks, but in hindsight, he said, “I don't have a lot of regrets to tell you the truth.”

Now that he has a firmer grasp on his future, O’Byrne is doing his part to help Cornell hockey’s present make the most of their few years on the hill and prepare themselves for life after hockey.

“I tell the [guys on the team] this but work hard, be a great teammate, do everything asked of you, stay out of trouble and listen to your coaches and you'll be successful,” he said. “Those staples that got me to where I was I want to kind of pass on to the guys.”

O’Byrne has just weeks before he graduates in the winter and begins his next venture in an already eventful life. As he prepares to leave Cornell for the second time, he will look back on his two stints as a student fondly, knowing some of his most memorable moments were made in Ithaca.

“It’s kind of funny because I was here from 2003-06 and I have some great memories here,” O’Byrne said. “I’m building new memories here, but all the memories that I have are with people that aren't here any more, so it’s been kind of fun on that end.”

Zach Silver can be reached at zsilver@cornellsun.com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29, 2016

12

MEN’S HOCKEY FEATURE

After 10 Years in the NHL, O’Byrne ’07 Returns to Cornell

By ZACH SILVER

What Once Was

because I think with all those attributes he had, he was ready for the next level and that game,” t is just another school day in Schafer said, “I think a lot of guys Ithaca and Ryan O’Byrne aren't ready, but I think he's the ’07 is sitting in class listening only guy that I've had that left to a lecture on strategic manearly and made the nhl within a agement. Like many Cornell year.” students, O’Byrne is unsure of O’Byrne spent six seasons playwhat lies in store for him after he ing in the NHL for three teams graduates. But, unlike many before taking his talents to internaCornell students, O’Byrne already tional leagues and eventually retirhas a career behind him: 10 years ing due to injuries, combined with of playing profesgeneral wear and sional hockey. tear. O’Byrne made Flashback to six the choice at age 31 years earlier and to leave professionO’Byrne is sitting al hockey with his in a room similar future in mind. to a classroom, but “I [was] at a which serves a difpoint now where ferent purpose. On it's like I can still Nov. 11, 2010, enjoy activities — I while playing for can go hiking or the Montreal play hockey on Canadiens’ and Sundays,” he said, preparing for a “but maybe if I COURTESY OF RYAN O’BYRNE highly anticipated played for another rivalry game Move on up | O’Byrne opted out of his final year at Cornell to play four years I would against the Boston in the minors, eventually making it to the big league in 2007. have been in a posiBruins, O’Byrne tion where I have to went through his typical pregame that led Conell to two ECAC have another two or three surgritual, reading the newspaper at championship appearances — eries. So if I step away now then his locker room stall to loosen up winning one — and two showing can still enjoy being active and in the NCAA tournament. healthy.” before the game.

Only appearing in three of 15 Although O’Byrne was not gifted possible games that season, with the silky hands or deadly An Outspoken Advocate O’Byrne was not expecting to see accurate shot of some of his teamAfter making the the choice to the ice in Boston, but what hap- mates and opponents, head coach leave a sport he had always loved, pened next completely changed Mike Schafer ’86 lauded his for- O’Byrne had to find something to mer player for other aspects of his fill the void practices, games and his way of life.

As the team prepared for one of play. constant flights to different cities “He really grew as a player, but used to fill. its biggest games of the season, O’Byrne received a phone call he came in with all the necessary While O’Byrne has been lucky from Pierre Gauthier, then the attributes — the size and the skat- enough to locate his path so quickgeneral manager of the Canadiens. ing for his size,” Schafer remi- ly — choosing to finish his degree Gauthier told O’Byrne that he nisced. “As he was here he had to pursue a second career — other had been traded to the Colorado some inconsistencies like every- retired athletes have not been quite Avalanche, a move that he had body else does, but he started get- so fortunate. ting through those. We had a real been anticipating.

In 2011, then-Nashville “I was a healthy scratch for good lineup, but as I said he was a Predator Wade Belak retired from about a month [before being trad- big part of that. With his skating professional hockey after 14 years ed] and it was really tough,” he ability, he could play all night in the game when he was demoted said. “I walked into coach’s office long.” to the AHL and sustained a pelvis O’Byrne decided to forgo his injury. Just five months later, after one day and … we had a good talk and I kind of insinuated that senior year at Cornell when he was a battle with depression, he commaybe it would be a good time for offered a contract to play for the mitted suicide in a Toronto apartCanadiens’ minor league farm ment. me to move on.”

Although it was not the only team. He spent one year playing Following Belak’s death, time O’Byrne was traded, his for the Hamilton Bulldogs — windeparture to the Avalanche has ning the American Hockey become emblematic of his hectic League’s Calder Cup champilife as a whole. Ever since he first onship that year — before getting picked up a pair of skates at the the nod to play in the big leagues age of four, his goal was to make it in 2007.

When O’Byrne decided to sign to the NHL. But even O’Byrne knew that a backup plan would be his contract, Schafer knew he was necessary with such an ambitious losing one of his biggest leaders both on and off the ice. Apart from dream.

And upon returning to his playing ability, O’Byrne was Cornell, he’s certainly found a named an alternate captain as a much more predictable lifestyle junior, meaning a captaincy was than the uncertainty of profes- very plausible the next year; his lost senior year. sional sports.

Losing an emerging college ath- COURTESY OF CORNELL ATHLETICS “[At Cornell I am] not always on the go [and do] not have that lete, Schafer said O’Byrne was one Back to where it began | thought in the back of my head that of the most “NHL-ready” players After 10 years of playing maybe I’ll get traded today, or I had he has seen to come through the hockey professionally, O’Byrne a bad game last night maybe I’ll get program in his 22-year tenure at retrurned to Cornell. The forsent down. Here they can’t send me the helm of Cornell men’s hockey. mer Red icer is currently “I think that for him personally down,” he joked. “So it’s been really completing his Cornell degree. it was a good decision [to go pro] rewarding being back here.”

Sun Assistant Sports Editor

I

O’Byrne’s path to the NHL started 13 years ago when he was drafted in the third round of the 2003 NHL entry-level draft by the Canadiens. For the next three years, O’Byrne played hockey for Cornell — a common move for young drafted players hoping to someday make it to the NHL. As a player for Cornell, O’Byrne quickly rose to become a dominant force on the blueline

COURTESY OF RYAN O’BYRNE

Top of his game | O’Byrne was a dominant force with the Red, winning two ECAC championships and appearing in the NCAA tournement twice.

O’Byrne was one of the players at the forefront of the mental health discussion within the league.

“I think this will be a big eyeopener for everybody that mental illness isn’t something to be ashamed about,” he told CTV News in 2011. “If you’re feeling down for whatever reason, just talk about it with somebody.”

According to HELIX magazine — a science publication from Northwestern University — athletes who step away from their game have a clear tendency to fall into this pattern of depression.

O’Byrne said this was a problem he tackled from the very beginning.

“The best advice I've heard is that once you start in the NHL you start thinking about what you're going to do afterwards right away so you get prepared for that transition,” he continued to tell CTV News.

And that’s exactly what he did.

Familiar Face In a Familiar Place

O’Byrne’s days of dealing out bruising hits and trading punches is now in the past. Over the summer, the British Columbia native announced he would return to Ithaca to finish what he started in the fall

of 2003: earning a Cornell degree.

“The first couple of weeks were definitely a transition period,” he said. “Leading up to the coming back there were a lot of thoughts and how it was going to work, so not being in a school setting for 10 years it is definitely interesting.

After a couple of weeks, I finally started to get into my groove.”

Despite the drastic change of pace, O’Byrne said he welcomes the opportunity to take a step back and resettle his life back down.

“Playing professional hockey every weekend you're on the road and that definitely wore on me,” he said. “I definitely enjoy being back at Cornell, being situated and waking up and working towards something.”

Many people were intrigued by the news that a former NHL player was returning to Cornell to finish his degree, and while he is excited to be back on his old stomping grounds, O’Byrne knows that his remaining time here is work-oriented. As much as he would love to help out with the current team, school work is his number one priority.

“I’m involved a little bit [with the team], but I am taking 19 credits this semester, so I have a heavy See MEN’S HOCKEY page 11