11-5 - entire issue hi res by The Cornell Daily Sun

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Ph.D. Student Questions Cornell After His Email Was Breached by DHS

Amandla Tomas-Johnson fears his University-issued

By BENJAMIN LEYNSE Sun News Editor

Nov. 4 — International graduate student Amandla ThomasJohnson had already ﬂed the country in April 2025 over deportation concerns when he received two emails spaced 90 minutes apart.

The ﬁrst email, sent on May 8 from Cornell International Services, stated that his immigration status had been terminated by the federal government. The second email, sent from Google on the same day, notiﬁed him that his personal email account had been subject to a subpoena by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 31.

Thomas-Johnson told The Sun that the question that immediately came to his mind was whether DHS had also accessed information from his Cornell Gmail account. Yet, when he later posed questions to both Cornell’s Media Relations ofﬁce and to Cornell International Services, Thomas-

Johnson said they did not respond.

“This is the big question — whether they were using our [Cornell] emails to track us as well,” Thomas-Johnson said.

A peer of Momodou Taal, a fellow international graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist, Thomas-Johnson said the two “went into hiding” together when Taal sued the federal government over alleged First and Fifth Amendment violations last March. Taal later self-deported after he was told to surrender to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During this period, Thomas-Johnson worried that his Cornell email was being monitored.

“I think that was a factor in why they waited so long to suspend [my visa] last year because they knew what I was doing with Momodou, and I guess some of it [was] on my Cornell email address,” ThomasJohnson said.

Yet for Thomas-Johnson, his main frustrations lie with the

account

was also accessed, though says Cornell refused to tell him

University’s lack of response, adding that “Cornell’s part in this hasn’t been fully explained … I think they’re hiding quite a lot.”

Per Google’s terms of service, if an account is managed by an organization, like the University, only the organization’s administrator, and not the individual, is notiﬁed when a request from a government agency is processed.

When asked by The Sun if the University had received notiﬁcation from Google that ThomasJohnson’s Cornell-issued Gmail account was subpoenaed by DHS, a Cornell spokesperson declined to comment.

A Google spokesperson did not disclose to The Sun if ThomasJohnson’s University email was subpoenaed, but defended its decision to comply with the subpoena of his personal email.

“Our processes for handling law enforcement subpoenas are designed to protect users’ privacy while meeting our legal obligations,” a Google spokesperson told

The Sun. “We review all legal demands for legal validity, and we push back against those that are overbroad or improper including objecting to some entirely.”which disrupted a career fair featuring defense contractors Boeing and L3Harris. It was this protest activity that was later cited in federal

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

Cornell’s Endowment Sees 12.3 Percent Return in FY 25

By KRISTIE TO Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 31 — Cornell reported a 12.3 percent return on its endowment for the 2025 fiscal year, according to a University statement released on Tuesday.

The endowment’s total value rose from $10.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 to approximately $11.8 billion, according to Christopher Cowen, the University’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Kenneth Miranda, chief investment officer, in the statement.

In April 2025, Cornell announced that the Trump administration had frozen $1 billion in federal funding, including more than 75 stop-work orders from the U.S. Department of Defense, amid investigations of civil rights concerns. This action triggered a University-wide cost-cutting wave among different colleges.

In a recent interview with The Sun, President Michael Kotlikoff and Provost Kavita Bala said that Cornell currently faces about $250 million in federal stopwork orders and terminations, along with an additional $80 million owed to the University for programs where expenses have been incurred but not yet reimbursed by the federal government.

In August, Cornell released a “Next steps for our financial future” statement spelling out urgent hiring freezes, spending restrictions and program reviews. In October, the College of Arts and Sciences announced

nearly $11 million in internal budget cuts, roughly 2.4 percent of its $456 million budget.

Cornell’s endowment is limited to what it can fund each year. Every year, the University is only able to withdraw about 4.4 percent of the fund’s average value over the past 7 years, according to Cornell’s 20242025 Consolidated Financial Statements.

According to the statement, in fiscal year 2025, the endowment contributed $439 million toward Cornell’s financial aid, research, academic programs, faculty salaries and facilities expenses that would otherwise be funded by sources like tuition. In fiscal year 2024, the endowment contributed $411 million toward these expenses, equivalent to about 7 percent of the University’s operating revenue.

For the 2025–2026 academic year, Cornell allocated a record $463 million in institutional grants and scholarship aid that does not need to be repaid, “making Cornell more affordable for aided students than it was two decades ago,” according to the statement.

Cornell enrolls more undergraduates than other Ivy League schools, and its endowment is significantly smaller on a per student basis than many peer institutions, ranking 71st among U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities surveyed in the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.

Dorm

district court as cause for Taal’s removal from the country.

Amandla abroad | Amandla Thomas-Johnson ﬂed the country over deportation concerns in May 2025

BENJAMIN LEYNSE / SUN NEWS EDITOR

SUNBURSTS: Parents (Hallo)Weekend

With the end of October comes some of the most anticipated days of the year — Halloween and Parents Weekend

By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

SPOOKY SEASON | Students are lined up against a building on W. State St. on Halloween night.

CIDER? HARDLY KNOW HER | Volunteers pour free apple cider for attendees at Fall Fest

PARENTS POSED | Cornell hosted Parents Weekend last weekend, and many parents enjoyed the autumn weather with their students.

UNDER THE TREES | Two Cornellians enjoy the foliage and views of campus from a bench on the Arts Quad.

SAGE GREEN | Sage Chapel is framed by some of the resilient green trees of the season.

TOWERING ABOVE | McGraw Tower remains the spectacle of the Cornell skyline.

Annie Park / Sun Contributor

Photo

Evie Kwei / Sun Contributor

Jaein Ku / Sun Staf Photographer

Annie Park / Sun Contributor

Camille Parisot / Sun Contributor

Evie Kwei / Sun Contributor

ALMIGHTY ALPHAS | Lambda Upsilon Lambda performs at the Multicultural Greek & Fraternal Council’s annual Yard Show on Ho Plaza on Saturday.

DELTAS ON THE PLAZA | Sisters of Delta Sigma Theta performed at Yard Show on Ho Plaza on Saturday.

Sumedha Shastry / Sun Contributor

Students Protest Proposed GJAC Funding Cuts at Student Assembly

By EMMA SPINDLER and ROOKE WISER Sun Staff Writer and Sun Contributing Writer

Nov. 4 — The Student Assembly voted to reject the Finance Committee’s recommendation to reduce funding for Cornell Class Councils’ and postponed votes on funding recommendations of the Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition, Cornell Minds Matter and CU Tonight, following an hour long public comment at their Oct. 30 meeting.

The decision came after over 50 students packed the room to oppose proposed budget cuts, mobilized by social media posts organized by GJAC and the Cornell Progressives.

The Finance Committee previously voted 6–5 in favor of the recommendation as part of its biennial review of byline-funded organizations, all of which are up for renewal this year. The Committee made seven recommendations, with four being decreases in funding. Three of the four organizations petitioned the recommendations to the Assembly, while CMM petitioned for a larger increase.

More than two dozen students spoke, with some getting emotional, before the public comment period ended at 7 p.m. due to time constraints.

A proposed 39 percent reduction to GJAC’s funding was a signiﬁcant topic of concern, with multiple speakers warning that the cut would threaten their ability to maintain programs including their distribution of free menstrual products across campus.

“Beyond the large events … With the mental-health crisis and recent events, it’s so important to dedicate resources to destigmatizing and helping people understand and access resources on campus.”

Lucy Yang ’26

GJAC President Aria Avery ’27 opened the public comment period with an emotional speech about how the organization has helped her.

“GJAC has supported me through so many things, from medical issues to ﬁnancial troubles, through an abusive relationship, and most recently when … my father passed away,” Avery said. “GJAC has been with me through all of that.”

Ruth Tilahun ’28, a member of the Assembly’s Finance Committee, defended the committee’s recommendation, citing ﬁnancial accountability.

“The committee found several organizations receiving [GJAC allocations] that significantly exceeded the $5,000 limit set by guidelines,” Tilahun said, noting that the committee also identified “potential conflicts of interest” within GJAC’s board structure.

Other organizations also appealed their proposed funding reductions. CU Tonight, which funds late-night campus events, argued against a decrease from $12 to $11 per student.

CU Tonight Co-President Lilian Cao ’27 expressed frustration with a “lack of professionalism” and a “lack of investment and care for people’s time,” alleging that the ﬁnance committee repeatedly rescheduled meetings on short notice.

Cornell Minds Matter, a mental-health advocacy group, opposed the Assembly’s proposal to increase their 2025-2026 allocation from $.50 to $1 for 2026-2028 after requesting a $1.70 proposed allocation.

“Over the years, we’ve had events such as [putting up lights on Ho Plaza] which has had an incredible impact — I can’t even remember the number of people who have talked about how much it’s meant to them when they’re walking home or going home [from] a prelim,” said Lucy Yang ’26, a senior member of CMM’s marketing team.

Class Councils also appealed their reduction from $16 to $13.50 per student, arguing that the cut compensates for increases to other groups.

“This cut is not based on Class Councils as an organization,” Vice President of Finance for Class Councils Nikki Saha ’26 said.

In an interview after the meeting, Vice President for Finance Hayden Watkins ’25 said the recommendations were not intended to target identity-based organizations.

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

Emma Spindler and Rooke Wiser can be reached at espindler@cornellsun.com and rw764@cornell.edu.

Cyclist Airlifted to Pennsylvania Hospital Following Accident

By MATTHEW KIVIAT and BENJAMIN LEYNSE Sun Assistant Managing Editor and Sun News Editor

Nov. 3 — A cyclist who reportedly suffered a head injury following a crash near Ho Plaza was airlifted to Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania, early Monday morning, according to the Tompkins County Scanner.

On the Scanner, which compiles radio traffic from several Tompkins County first responders, Cornell Emergency Medical Service Dispatch first called in the incident at 12:34 a.m., reporting the cyclist to have been injured on Campus Road near the Cornell Health Building.

The cyclist, who was not wearing a helmet, was seen walking after the accident when police ﬁrst responded. Bystanders claimed to have seen the cyclist hit a curb, though the cyclist reported having hit a

car. It was not immediately clear to ﬁrst responders whether the cyclist had hit a car.

At 12:45 a.m., after responding to the scene, a ﬁrst responder asked whether they were “thinking this is a potential helicopter situation,” to which another replied in the afﬁrmative.

By 1:23 a.m., first responders coordinated the landing of a Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital helicopter on Jessup Field on North Campus. By 1:37 a.m., first responders confirmed that the helicopter was in the air with the patient en route to the hospital.

While it is unclear who the cyclist was, ﬁrst responders reported a NetID of a “subject” over the radio.

Matthew Kiviat and Benjamin Leynse can be reached at mkiviat@cornellsun.com and bleynse@cornellsun.com.

Cornell Discontinues Duo Phone Call, SMS Passcode Log-in Routes

By VARSHA BHARGAVA Sun News Editor

Nov. 3 — The University will retire the Duo Phone Call and SMS Passcode log-in methods for students beginning Tuesday, according to an Oct. 2 email to members of the Cornell community from Robert Edamala, Cornell’s chief information security ofﬁcer.

Following the discontinuation of these features, students will no longer be able to receive Duo Security codes via phone call or text, and they must set up an alternative way to use Duo Two-Step Login for University-afﬁliated services.

Duo is the two-factor authentication program that is required for Cornellians to log into their University email address and access websites like Canvas, Student Center and Google Workspace.

Students who primarily use Duo Phone Call or Duo SMS Passcode must download the Duo Mobile app, purchase a USB security key or obtain a hardware token before Tuesday to be able to log into their accounts. Touch options like Windows Hello or Touch ID may work as well, Edamala wrote in the email.

On Tuesday, all accounts without the Mobile Duo app enabled will be shifted to the Duo Veriﬁed Push login method. With Duo Veriﬁed Push, a three-digit code appears on the user’s browser screen, and they are prompted to input their code into their mobile app.

Duo Veriﬁed Push is “the most secure way to use Duo at Cornell,” according to the IT@Cornell website. Why Did This Policy Change?

Phone call and text passcode options have proved “too vulnerable” to protect Duo Security users, Edamala wrote in the Oct 2. email.

Phishing, a type of internet fraud involving account impersonation, is a concern that Edamala shared regarding Duo Phone Call and Duo SMS Passcode.

“The threat of cybercrimes against the Cornell community and university services continues to intensify,” Edamala wrote. “For example, criminals successfully used artiﬁcial intelligence to create convincing phishing messages that tricked individuals into sharing their Duo phone call and text message veriﬁcation codes.”

Effects On The Cornell Community

The whole Cornell community will be affected by this policy change. For Cornell employees, faculty, academic staff, emeritus faculty, retirees and students who already used the Duo Mobile app, the discontinuation of phone call and text message passcodes was rolled out in September.

Prof. Gili Vidan, information science, said that the new policy will likely reduce phishing scams, but will also introduce “friction,” or extra effort, to the community based on accessibility.

“The less access points or the less modalities of verifying your access, the more you’re reducing phishing scams — and especially we know that texting is one of those very phishing-full activities,” Vidan said. “But with any change like that, when it’s about people’s ability to access resources, coursework, emails, we want to make sure that there are fallbacks and to know what they are and what is available.”

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

Varsha Bhargava can be reached at vbhargava@cornellsun.com.

Phishing phones | Phone call and text passcode log-in are vulnerable to phishing scams, prompting the University to change its Duo policy.

VARSHA BHARGAVA / SUN NEWS EDITOR

Rocky Horror Moves After Health, Safety Review Closes Risley Theatre Workshops

By ANJELINA GONZALEZ Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 31

Housing and Residential Life closed Risley Theatre and its workshops for the Fall 2025 semester to conduct health and safety reviews. Tensions within the Risley community come to head as its organizations struggle to access funds and practice spaces within the residential house, pushing the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show to relocate its annual production under booking policy changes.

Members of the Risley Ministry for Arts and Shops Development returned from summer break to signs posted on the doors of Risley’s basement workshops stating their closure, and to contact Cornell Environment, Health and Safety for more information.

The Shops are a collection of artist workshops in the basement of Risley Residential College for Risley residents and out-of-house members, Cornell students who live outside of Risley and applied to use the workshops by completing a form on CampusGroups. The workshops are used to work on artistic projects ranging from a sound studio and garden to pottery.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Risley has struggled to open the Shops, with the 2024-2025 academic year being the ﬁrst year that most of the workshops were open for use, according to RMASD President Leah Becker ’27. The return notice of the Risley Shops to closure confused RMASD because they had already been working with EHS last year to get the workshops up to safety standards, Becker added.

“When we got back from the summer we saw signs on all the doors of the shops saying that the shops were closed and to contact

[EHS] for some safety review,” Becker ’27 said. “[RMASD] had been in contact with [Cornell] EHS all of last year to properly dispose of … some paints and other chemicals that needed to be given to EHS to dispose of properly.”

In an Oct. 1 email received by Risley residents from Housing and Residential Life, the Risley Theatre closed alongside the workshops for condition review and assessment and is not expected to reopen before the end of the Fall 2025 semester.

To use the workshops, theater and participate in other activities within the living community, Risley’s residents pay a program house fee, according to Becker. Outof-house members complete an application form to gain access to the community and its spaces.

“We also have out-of-house members who pay a fee to participate in the art shops, so a lot of the people ... and deﬁnitely a lot of the freshmen that I’ve talked to said that they chose to live in Risley because they saw on the website advertising about the art shops,” Becker said.

However, in an email statement to The Sun, HRL stated that the Risley residents and out-of-house memberships are not billed a fee for using the Risley Shops and Theatre.

“Residents of Risley Hall are not charged a separate program fee for use of the Risley Shops or Theatre space, and living spaces are not affected by the current review and evaluation of the Shops and Theatre spaces,” HRL wrote to The Sun.

In addition to the closure of the work-

shops and theatre, Rita Kelly ’26 and Riona Yu ’26, co-directors for Risley’s yearly production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, discovered that they were no longer able to use the Risley Dining Room to host the show — breaking a historic 30-year streak of the show’s production held in the dining room.

“They told us that all events not directly associated with dining would have to be not done in the dining hall, basically, and that was very frustrating because they hadn’t reached out and told us before the semester started, or even before we started planning,” Kelly told The Sun.

When asked about what led to Rocky Horror production to lose its long standing tradition of hosting in the Risley dining room, HRL told The Sun that the decision was made in order to help “preserve” Risley certiﬁcation as a dining hall free of peanuts, gluten and tree-nuts for guests with food allergies.

“To avoid endangering guests, Cornell Dining stopped permitting events in Risley Dining Room without supervision in Fall 2024 in order to better control and monitor what was being brought into the dining room,” HRL wrote in an email statement to The Sun.

With the closure of Risley Theatre and no access to the dining hall, Kelly and Yu have relocated the Rocky Horror Picture Show to the third ﬂoor multipurpose room in Appel Commons. However, the show has faced issues with funding in light of the closures within Risley.

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

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

City of Ithaca Reevaluates 2026 Budget After Budget

Shortfall, Increased Expenses, Financial Audit Backlog

By SHUBHA

Nov. 4 — Ithaca city manager Deb Mohlenhoff announced the discovery of an unexpected $2.1 million deficit in the proposed 2026 city budget during an Oct. 21 Ithaca Common Council meeting. The shortfall, in addition to Mohlenhoff’s proposed $6.1 million budget increase compared to 2025 and the city’s backlog of annual financial audits, poses a new challenge for city finances.

The $2.1 million revenue gap was caused by the removal of a line of the draft revenue not transferring to the underlying budget dataset due to a software “synchronization error,” Mohlenhoff said.

Mohlenhoff has since organized an emergency budget task force, that includes herself and senior city ofﬁcials such as deputy city manager Dominick Recckio and acting city controller Wendy Cole, to rectify the error. The ﬁnal budget vote by the Common Council will occur on Wednesday, Nov. 5.

Mohlenhoff presented her original budget proposal to the Common Council on Oct. 6, claiming that increased spending was “based on the cost of doing business” for the city.

In an interview with The Sun, Mohlenhoff said the largest increases in the budget tend to be “personnel and personnel beneﬁts.”

“The City has ratiﬁed several contracts with employee unions over the past several years that maintain steady raises in line with the cost of living — this increases the amount that the City needs to budget to

maintain effort and deliver services to the public,” Mohlenhoff said. “The City cannot carry out its work or meet the needs of the public without our employees.”

Mohlenhoff added that the city has conducted several line-item reviews for each department’s budget, effectively reducing expected expenses by “several million dollars.” The original budget for 2026 was around $112.9 million, but since the identiﬁcation of the budget shortfall, the city proposed adjustments that would reduce this total by around $2.4 million through cuts and additional revenue.

Since at least 2021, property tax rate increases in Ithaca have exceeded the state’s property tax cap, which limits the growth of property tax rates for local governments and school districts. Last year’s tax increase was over 2.5% the maximum state proposed cap. Common Council members voted on Oct. 22 to not exceed the state’s property tax cap of 4.2%, limiting the amount of revenue the city can generate for the 2026 budget.

To follow the Common Council’s decision and mitigate the budget shortfall while maintaining support for the city’s essential operations, Mohlenhoff proposed several measures in an Oct. 3 message to Mayor Robert Cantelmo and the Common Council. These include temporarily defunding six unfilled rostered positions, maintaining a five percent staffing vacancy rate, freezing all non-essential 2026 borrowing, considering additional parking fee increases and partially relying upon an “optimistic” increase in sales tax revenues.

Additionally, Mohlenhoff proposed straying away from using the city’s fund bal-

ance until the 2022-2024 financial audits are completed. Due to its backlog of financial filings, the city’s credit rating was withdrawn in March 2024. Currently, the city relies on short-term bonds to fund its expenditures. The interests on these bonds are influenced by the city’s credit rating, which determines its reliability as a borrower.

Mohenhoff said completing the audit backlog is a “top priority” for the city and once its credit rating is reinstated, the city will implement a comprehensive ﬁve-year capital plan.

However, Emily Thuja, an Ithaca resident and credit analyst at Tompkins Community Bank, expressed concern regarding the city’s ﬁnancial reporting backlog. She attributes it

to “very poor management and lack of interest” on the part of the city, stating that audits and ﬁnancial transparency do not seem to be a priority for the Common Council.

Thuja said the lack of a city controller, which would serve as the chief financial officer, affects the city’s ability to make “fully formed decisions” about its financial expenditure. The city controller position has been unfilled since the end of 2023.

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

Gautam

GAUTAM

Sun Senior Writer

Common Council | An emergency budget task force is seeking to rectify a $2.1 million revenue gap.

CAMERON POLLACK / SUN FILE PHOTO

Shubha

can be reached at sgautam@ cornellsun.com.

ANGELINA TANG / SUN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Rocky Risley | Risley’s theatre and basement workshops were closed this semester, leading to Risley’s annual Rocky Horror Picture Show production being moved to Appel Commons.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Independent Since 1880

143rd Editorial Board

JULIA SENZON ’26

Editor in Chief

ERIC HAN ’26

Associate Editor

SOPHIA DASSER ’28

Opinion Editor

SOPHIA TORRES ’26

Advertising Manager

SYDNEY LEVINTON ’27

Arts & Culture Editor

JAMES PALM ’27

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

JENNA LEDLEY ’27

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

MELISSA MOON ’28

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

SOPHIA ROMANOV IMBER ’28

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

KAITLYN BELL ’28

Lifestyle Editor

MAIA MEHRING ’27

Lifestyle Editor

KARLIE MCGANN ’27

Photography Editor

MATTHEW KORNICZKY ’28

Assistant Photography Editor

STEPHAN MENASCHE ’28

Assistant Photography Editor

MIRELLA BERKOWITZ ’27

Video Editor

JADE DUBUCHE ’27

Multimedia Editor

HANNIA AREVALO ’27

Graphics Editor

HUNTER PETMECKY ’28

Layout Editor

RENA GEULA ’28

Layout Editor

CHRISTOPHER WALKER ’26

Games Editor

Ryan Lombardi

DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER ’27

Managing Editor

MATTHEW KIVIAT ’27

Assistant Managing Editor

VERA SUN ’27

Business Manager

ALEX LIEW ’27

Human Resources Manager

BENJAMIN LEYNSE ’27

News Editor

VARSHA BHARGAVA ’27

News Editor

ISABELLA HANSON ’27

News Editor

CEREESE QUSBA ’27

News Editor

REEM NASRALLAH ’28

Assistant News Editor

ANGELINA TANG ’28

Assistant News Editor

KATE TURK ’27

Assistant News Editor

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26

City Editor

JANE HAVILAND ’28

Features Editor

ZEINAB FARAJ ’28

Features Editor

JEREMIAH JUNG ’28

Assistant News Editor

KAITLIN CHUNG ’26

Science Editor

MARISSA GAUT ’27

Science Editor

ALEXIS ROGERS ’28

Sports Editor

SIMRAN LABORE ’27

Weather Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26 Newsletter Editor

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

Introducing the Ofce of National Fellowships

When you hear the phrase “Rhodes Scholar,” an elite, distant, almost unattainable achievement may come to mind. But at Cornell, the story of national fellowships is, and always has been, about something more: personal reflection, finding and defining purpose and opening up possibility. Cornell’s connection to these transformational programs runs deep. Our first Rhodes Scholar, Warren Ellis Schutt, graduated in 1904. In the years since, Cornellians have been selected for many of the world’s most competitive fellowships, earning opportunities to study, conduct research and serve communities across the globe. Yet for every fellowship recipient, there are many more students and alumni who have gained something equally valuable through the process of applying: the chance to articulate what matters most to them and how they hope to make an impact.

As one student described, “Applying for fellowships was one of the most transformative parts of my undergraduate experience as a first-generation college student. It strengthened my confidence and clarified the impact I hope to create after Cornell. It opened doors I once thought were closed and reminded me how powerful mentorship can be.”

That reﬂection captures what I believe to be the true value of fellowships — not as markers of prestige, but as catalysts for growth. The application process invites students to pause and ask questions that can shape them for a lifetime: What motivates me? What do I hope to change? How will I use what I’ve learned here to do it?

Recognizing the power of that process, Student and Campus Life recently launched the Ofﬁce of National Fellowships — an enhanced campus resource in 100 Barnes Hall. With the

Professor Anurag Agrawal

Anurag Agrawal is the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is a feld biologist and studies the Ecology and Evolution of Botany and Entomology. His column Candor and Chlorophyll runs periodically this semester. He can be reached at profaagrawal@cornellsun.com.

A Teory of Life

At a holiday dinner, a discussion turned too heated to continue, but a family too close to let it break them apart. The hardest conversations often happen between the people we love the most. Yet the most resilient and vibrant groups, like the most diverse ecosystems, are not composed of a single type of participant. Functional groups are dynamic tapestries woven from threads of both deep connection and striking differences.

I have a theory about how social groups function, a concept that grew from my observations of biological communities — groups of trees, rodents and other organisms. Of course there is danger in trying to harmonize ideas of nature’s biodiversity with those of human social groups. But one of the main themes of this column is that we humans are animals like all the others. So, why not take the risk on this theory of life.

For humans, social groups are often most productive when they are composed of people with shared interests, but different backgrounds. Take, for example, the Finger Lakes Bonsai Society. Its members range from college students and retirees to plant ecologists and businesspeople. This unlikely mix is brought together by a shared passion for growing tiny trees in tiny pots, trying to grow them to look like mature old trees. We joyfully trade secrets, pots, tips and seedlings. And unlike some family gatherings, we can usually agree on the main topic of conversation.

Other social groups might be formed by what we biologists call “shared ancestry” rather than shared interests. Whether it’s your parents and siblings or a sprawling network of aunts, cousins and grand-someones, families are bound by shared genes and history. These bonds, connections and affections in a family run so deep that some believe they cannot be created outside of such a shared lineage.

Professor Jan Burzlaff

Both types of groups — those brought together by ancestry and those by interests — are valuable, but in different ways. The most enriching experiences often come from a blend of the two. We don’t pick our family members, but we get a front-row seat to their most frustratingly familiar habits. Nonetheless, the differences they bring to the table force us to confront different worldviews. Nothing is truer than when siblings disagree about politics. And yet, because they are family, we might listen a little longer or tolerate a little more, and if the stars are aligned, we might even start to see things differently.

Similarly, when we are united by a shared interest, the diverse backgrounds of the participants deepen our experience. Whether it’s playing cards, birding or joining a book club, the differences among us broaden our worldview in a meaningful way.

Interestingly, these same dynamics play out in the natural world. At the Ellis Hollow Preserve in Ithaca, several species of oak trees live together in the same community. They have shared ancestry (all in the genus Quercus) and their shared evolutionary history gives them the traits needed to thrive in that particular forest environment. And yet, the forest isn’t just oaks. It’s a mix of beech, maple, birch, cherry and even magnolia trees — all from different botanical families. Despite their distinct origins, they all acquired the traits necessary to survive in that same neighborhood.

The forest is a living system where competition and cooperation coexist. Ecologists know that when two species are too similar, they compete ﬁercely. Families are no different; my mom and I are so much alike, when we are in the house together, we often ﬁght over the thermostat. Yet, the related trees in the forest have typically evolved their own ways to stay out of each other’s way.

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

Jan Burzlaf is an Opinion Columnist and a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program for Jewish Studies. Ofce Hours (Open Door Edition) is his weekly dispatch to the Cornell community — a professor’s refections on teaching, learning and the small moments that make a campus feel human. Readers can submit thoughts and questions anonymously through the Tip Sheet at www.cornellsun.com/staf/jan-burzlaf. He can also be reached at profburzlaf@cornellsun.com.

ofﬁce launch, student and alumni applicants will now have access to:

A team of two advisors to guide them through this transformational career development opportunity;

Student peer writing support through a partnership with the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines;

Critical connections with faculty, alumni and academic leadership to provide expert advice and encourage students to consider these opportunities.

Enhancing fellowships support has proven to elevate awareness of these opportunities, increase communication and networks with faculty, and build connections with national fellowships organizations and peer institutions. In just its ﬁrst year of this dedicated support, the ofﬁce saw a 195 percent increase in advising appointments.

For Alex Herazy ’25, who applied to four major fellowships and reached the ﬁnal rounds for two, the experience was deﬁning even without a “win.”

“The entire process forced me to ponder the difﬁcult, yet necessary, questions of purpose and meaning,” Herazy said. “My main takeaway was learning the importance of good processes irrespective of the outcome. My deﬁnition of success changed.”

That insight embodies the spirit of Cornell: the belief that the pursuit of knowledge and self-understanding is as valuable as the outcome itself. Our goal is to ensure every student knows that fellowships are for them. These opportunities are for anyone curious about how their experiences, challenges, and ambitions might contribute to something greater.

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

Learning With Machines: Four Principles for Using AI at Cornell

Every semester now begins with the same quiet contradiction. One syllabus declares, “No ChatGPT allowed.” Another encourages it as a research aid. And in between, most of us use it anyway. In a recent national survey, more than half of undergraduates reported using artiﬁcial intelligence in the past week — to summarize readings, outline ideas or draft essays at midnight. Faculty use it too, though we’re slower to confess it: to sketch lectures, check citations or polish phrasing before pressing “send.” The technology hums in the background of university life — fast, ﬂuent, available and quietly indispensable. And yet, for all its ubiquity, few feel comfortable with it. We worry it’s doing too much thinking for us or replacing something we can’t quite name. Like calculators in the 1980s or Wikipedia in the 2000s, AI has moved from novelty to necessity before we decided what it should mean for us. On our campus, the question is urgent: How do we use AI wisely without letting it hollow out the very work that makes learning human? At stake is the difference between explanation and engagement, between knowledge that is delivered and knowledge that is made.

Nowhere has that question felt more pressing to me than in the classroom itself. It’s what I explored — and will do again next spring — in my course “The Past and Future of Holocaust Survivor Testimonies.” There, we place AI in the most ethically demanding context imaginable: asking what happens when a machine tries to interpret fear, silence and moral ambiguity in Holocaust survivor testimonies. The ﬁrst an-

swers — and the many failures along the way — have something to teach every student and every instructor on campus.

Even at first glance, AI’s greatest temptation is its smoothness. It produces sentences that glide, arguments that click neatly into place and summaries that sound as though they’ve already been edited twice. For students juggling five classes and endless deadlines, this fluency can feel like mercy. But the very polish that makes ChatGPT and its kin so seductive also makes them dangerous. Their answers are rarely wrong — but they are rarely alive. The first time we asked ChatGPT to summarize a textbook chapter and a survivor testimony, the results were impeccable — and empty. Every point was correct, but the heartbeat was gone: no struggle, no doubt, no sense of discovery. AI didn’t invent our obsession with polish; it merely perfected it. For decades, higher education has rewarded fluency over friction and performance over reflection. We praise smooth arguments, clean prose and active participation — the very traits a machine can now automate. As faculty, we can’t blame students for seeking what AI now does to perfection. When learning starts to look too perfect, AI simply holds up the mirror to us.

Teaching with — and against — AI has crystallized what many of us already feel instinctively: it can mimic understanding, but it cannot replace the act of thinking. Part of its allure is that it never hesitates.

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

Natalia

Butler Beyond Ivory Towers

the role of academics in the face of the climate and biodiversity crisis. She can be reached at nbutler@ cornellsun.com.

While the government shutdown in Washington, D.C. appears to be worlds away from the sturdy ivory towers of Cornell, our foundations are more fragile than they appear.

From supporting the next generation of scientists through the National Science Foundations Graduate Research Fellowship Program to promoting climate adaptive crops, federal funds are critical for supporting Cornell as an “R1” research institution, indicative of a high research output. President Michael I. Kotlikof reported during the 2025 Trustee-Council Annual Meeting that Cornell has experienced “nearly $250 million in canceled or unpaid research funds.” Existing research funding that has not been cut during the federal funding freeze earlier this year is further strained by the current federal shutdown. A Cornell research associate told Te Sun that “my farmer stakeholders cannot access federal resources (e.g. Farm Services Agency), [and] some federal webpages no longer have resources and content available (e.g. NRCS-NY feld ofce technical guide).” Tis is mirrored within the USDA’s contingency plan, “Te shutdown plan presents an inherent contradiction. It correctly claims NRCS [National Resource Conservation Service] has the needed mandatory resources to continue providing some level of service to producers, but furloughs nearly every sin-

A Cornell Shutdown

gle employee [96 percent], making it impossible to do so.” Cornell plays a unique and valuable role as the only Ivy league institution that also acts as a land grant institution. Te College of Agricultural and Life Sciences hosts a number of adjunct faculty which hold joint federal appointments that serve as a direct line between academia and federal agencies.

One particular unit led by Cornell adjunct faculty, the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, is hosted in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and “pays particular attention to the resource problems and issues of the Northeastern States with New York as its focal point.” Research within the unit ranges from quantifying the New York State bobcat population to Adirondack moose decline. Te leaders of the cooperative are currently furloughed as a result of the federal shutdown.

Adjunct professors are not the only ones afected by the current federal shutdown but faculty at all stages of their careers. Tenured Prof. Christine Goodale explains, “Investigators were alerted that funding for our current year of work is uncertain pending what happens in the federal budget negotiations.” Meanwhile early career assistant Prof. Dan Katz details, “My team was awarded a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to create a new generation of pollen forecasting systems but the current shutdown has delayed everything. Uncertainty about the shutdown and the general funding environment has complicated hiring and we’re worried the delays will interfere with us collecting the data we need for our research.” Te changes facing professors were immense with the previous federal funding cuts and now even greater with the current federal shutdown.

Te impact of the shutdown is not limited to faculty but also trickles down to graduate students. One such graduate student from DNRE is Ash Canino, who is a part of the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. In an interview with Ash, they explained their current situation. “I had to cancel my [masters] M exam and it is currently not rescheduled. I am hopeful that I will be able to still defend before the end of the semester. But it is contingent on whether the government is able to reopen. And if I am not able to defend before the end of the semester, I don't have any funding secured for spring.” Tis is in direct response to Ash’s advisor’s furloughed status. Prior to the shutdown, Ash

had applied to federal jobs in preparation for graduation. Te shutdown has resulted in Ash receiving notices that the application review process is currently stalled. Having only funding for the fall semester, the prolonged shutdown has left Ash in a state of limbo and uncertainty.

Te current federal shutdown has revealed how dependent Cornell University is to federal funding. Te recent attack on academic funding does not seem to be nearing an end. Last June, the Cornell administration announced a spending cut which they called a fnancial austerity measure. On Oct. 16, the administration announced a new funding cut initiative, Resilient Cornell, which the administration claims aims to, “reimagine university-wide operations, reduce spending across all campuses, and explore greater efciencies by avoiding duplication of work.” Tis top down initiative is all too reminiscent of the activities of the Department of Government Efciency earlier this year. Te positive and optimistic language used by the administration cannot hide the fact that Cornell is being attacked on multiple fronts due to pressure from within and outside the institution. Resilient Cornell consists of two sub committees: Provost’s Steering Committee led by Provost Kavita Bala and Cross-Campus Collaboration Committee led by Executive Vice President and CFO Chris Cowen. Will these committees give a listening ear to the woes of its faculty, staf and students? We will have to see.

Cornell University accepted $878 million in private donations within this fscal year. What do these private donations mean for the future of research as we know it? Funding from the federal government served as a neutral source of funding. While some private philanthropy has no strings attached others can have hidden agendas with, “Tese developments reveal a deeper structural crisis: Te convergence of private philanthropy and state power threatens to redefne the university not as a space of free inquiry but as a site of ideological enforcement.” Tis is clearly demonstrated with Prof. Eric Cheyftz being bullied into retirement, despite the Faculty Senate Committee overturning the bias case.

As Congress fails to reach a federal budget agreement, the foundations of Cornell are rumbling. Canceled masters exams, furloughed professors and uncertain research funding all indicate a Cornell shutdown.

To Te Unconscious Anarcho-Primitivist

on par with coexistent species. I cannot erase the tragic rapid succession of human beings into exploitation, denying ourselves spiritual consciousness or real-time connection with the land. For now, I can only suffocate suggesting compromises within systems that host us, and aspire to reinvent them in a post-grad fantasy.

Kira Walter '26 is an opinion columnist and former lifestyle editor. Her column Onion Teory addresses unsustainable aspects of modern systems from a Western Buddhist perspective, with an emphasis on neurodivergent narratives and spiritual reckonings. She can be reached at kwalter@cornellsun.com.

The terrible idealist truth is that I would undo everything if the opportunity stood. I’d deconstruct the urbanities, peel the asphalt from the earthscape in chemical crumbs. Then unwrite the constitutions, unravel academia page by tedious page. I’m the unforgivable anarcho-primitivist in a 21st-century paradigm. I’d scrap the post-industrial, expansionist trade, the renaissance, colonialism, the old world civilizations. I’d put humanity

Zak Kheder '26 is an opinion columnist studying Electrical & Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. Renaissance Man(ia) explores questions of intellectualism and what it means to be a student in the age of information and technology. He can be reached at zkheder@cornellsun.com.

Here, I write from sheepdom and the man-plan. Years suffering an education that markets with “liberation” but gears us to serve as valiant corporate soldiers, we’re misled with ideals of false prestige, networking and net worth. The malleable talented young person matriculates into the college system, is traumatized or integrated into rat-race ethics with concepts destitution, surface level failure, vanities and inability to afford indulgences. Limitless expression, revelation of spirit and soul, intimacy with natural spaces, and chasing catharsis are free pursuits. These are the intended pursuits of the youth population. Somehow we arrive at the age of technology turned off from them.

To be a conscious anarcho-primitivist at a modern academic institution, you’re damned to be a hypocrite. You resent materialistic advancement beyond survivalism, then you contribute to a repugnant cycle of degrada- tion that shuffles wealth into different hands with a dime flip. The proliferation of machinery, the tragedy of the commons, displacement from the true human experience seeds at the collegiate level. The conscious primitivist is plagued with constant impulses to drop out.

But most of us exist as unconscious primitivists, passively exhibiting ideals of the philosophy while we

dissociate in our conditioned predicaments. Already, the Gen Z and millennial populations choose self-employment, entrepreneurship and flexibility over corporate climbing. The generation-wide dissociation is apparent as workforce rookies prioritize autonomy, or invest a few years “soul selling” to generate savings for a comfortable lifestyle. A remarkable movement towards ancestral skills and rewilding is afoot: emphasis on sustainability and minimalism increases while students deprioritize status and income. All this is reflected twice over on media platforms that amplify content around off-the-grid and nomad living.

There are many caveats to the rising trend in unconscious anarcho-primitivism. Nihilism and escapism are generally disregarded by older generations: They are symptoms of the youth struggle to settle or take root in a fervent identity. Rejection of arbitrary hierarchies and conventional career paths are often perceived as phases, brief moments of rebellion that will inevitably be quelled by dissatisfaction. Over-romanticized notions of “running away to live off the land,” renting a camper van, joining an eco-village or indefinite backpacking are shot down by Gen X realists. Glamorized simplistic living is physically demanding, and, when honeymoon season expires, can feel like an isolation sentence. Not to mention, opting in and out has socio-economic constraints: sacrificing savings to so dramatically alter your lifestyle may have detrimental consequences.

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

Te Fragile Truth of the Canvas Outage

As I finish my Zeus latte, I hear a distant murmur. It echoes and amplifies, bouncing from one marble table to another. “Canvas is down?” “How will I submit my work?” “Wait, all of my lectures were on there.” A domino effect of dumbfounded expressions circle the room.

On Oct. 20, Amazon Web Services experienced an outage in their US-East-1 region due to a Domain Name System issue that impacted DynamoDB, their native database system. This issue had cascading effects into AWS cloud computing system, EC2, and their Network Balancing Load. As a result, Canvas, which is hosted on AWS, was disabled and cut off

access to the academic management system for students and professors alike. This outage didn’t just disrupt coursework, though. It exposed the dangerous reality of reliance on digital infrastructure. Canvas is a useful tool, but an Ivy League school should not have stunted academics from one temporary system crash. Cornell students work so hard through our courses, but if one bug in a system update can potentially erase all of that work in seconds, how is that progress tangible?

AWS is the global leader for cloud services and their respective data centers. In a report by Reuters, the outage impacted several sectors. Uber was impacted,

which caused a temporary blip in accessible transportation. Coinbase and Robinhood’s disruptions led to financial disruptions. Social media platforms like Snapchat and Reddit felt the outage effects, and even entertainment services (Netflix, Epic Games) were impacted. As an AI Engineering intern last summer, I learned that AWS is actually incredibly versatile for startups. Emerging startups such as Databricks pool their services through AWS. AWS certification is the ABCs of software engineering in 2025. This ubiquity is their company’s strength and our collective weakness.

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

Natalia Butler M.S./Ph.D. is an opinion columnist from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Her monthly column, Beyond Ivory Towers, explores

Kira Walter Onion Teory

Zak Kheder Renaissance Man(ia)

More Tan a Jack-O’-Lantern: Te Science Behind Pumpkins

By LAINE HAVENS Sun Staff Writer

The pumpkin—an iconic porch decoration and tasty pie component— may define fall for many, but science itself struggles to define it.

Pumpkins have no scientific or botanical definition, according to Prof. Steven Reiners, horticulture.

“It gets a little confusing sometimes,” Reiners said. “Basically, pumpkins fall into what we categorize as squash. Pumpkins are what we grow as sort of an ornamental crop.”

Ornamental plants are cultivated for their aesthetic appeal rather than qualities like nutrition or medicinal potential. While some pumpkins are grown as food, many are sold as seasonal decoration.

In the United States, “pumpkin” typically refers to a round, ribbed squash, according to Prof. Michael Mazourek, plant breeding. However, even this description does not apply to some fruit known as pumpkins, like the flatter Cinderella variety.

“It might be hard to define, but I think you know pumpkins when you see them,” Mazourek said in an Oct. 28 Instagram video.

Pumpkins, in their ambiguity, lie outside any single scientific classification level. Science usually classifies organisms based on criteria such as shared traits, evolutionary ancestors and mating potential. Various classification levels nest within one another, typically increasing in specificity to the species level, within which members

can produce fertile offspring. Fruits known as pumpkins appear in several different squash species, such as Cucurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita moschata.

Aside from varying across species, the squash within a particular species also differ in shape, size, color and taste — just as the distinct chihuahua and great dane breeds are both dogs. For example, the species Cucurbita pepo contains the classic jack-o'-lantern pumpkin, which is large, orange, and thick for carving, as well as some of the sweeter, denser pumpkins used for pies. Cucurbita pepo also contains zucchini, a soft, small, green non-pumpkin squash.

Because they are the same species, pumpkins and zucchini can crossbreed to create “pumpkinis” or “zumpkins” — hybrids that take on both pumpkin and zucchini characteristics, according to Reiners. These hybrids may accidentally develop in compost piles after people discard jack-o'-lanterns near home gardens.

“I’ll get calls and they'll say, ‘I think I've got a brand new species,’” Reiners said. “No, it just crossed. It came out of your compost pile — there's nothing going on.”

Pumpkins have a long history of cultivation – researchers believe humans first domesticated Cucurbita pepo around 10,000 years ago in Mexico, selecting for more desirable traits over time. Today, plant breeders like Mazourek intentionally cross different pumpkin varieties to create

hybrids with desirable traits, like size, shape, color, texture, taste and disease resistance.

“If you want to add a new trait like disease resistance, it's easier to do that with a hybrid because you can have one parent you love and the other parent that brings in the resistance,” Mazourek said. “If you cross them together and you like the final result, you have something right away to provide to the growers and the public.”

Plant breeders can also extract genetic information from seedlings to identify their traits. This information, along with predictive mathematical models, helps them decide which plants to breed with one another, according to Mazourek.

Today, more than 200 pumpkin varieties grow in the United States, many of which are hybrids. However, the numerous options are new, according to Reiners.

“When I became a professor was in the late 1980s, and typically at that time, pumpkins were an afterthought for a lot of farms. Then, Halloween became much bigger,” Reiners said. “At that point, people started to get interested in the varieties that they [were] using.”

Local pumpkin growers Carrie and Jason Moore ’01, B.S. ’02, M.P.S. ’08 take advantage of the modern selection for their pumpkin patch. This year, the Moore Family Farm planted 22 different pumpkin varieties, including a red and white Cucurbita maxima resembling a bloodshot eye — known as the

One Too Many — and a round, bright yellow Cucurbita pepo — known as the Mellow Yellow.

“We've got stripes and bumps and yellows and tans and warts,” Carrie said. “We want something different. We don't want just the orange pumpkin.”

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

Laine Havens can be reached at lfh36@cornell.edu.

How Ecology House’s Pet-Friendly Legacy Resists a Pet Ban

By ANGELINA TANG Sun Assistant News Editor

The North campus dormitory Ecology House bears the colloquial title of “the pet dorm,” according to its residents, even after it lost its calling card of being the only on-campus dormitory to allow student-owned pets in 2024.

Students and alumni alike express that they believe this ban on pets has contributed to an erosion of the dormitory’s unique culture and community, although some current residents are unaware of Eco’s pet-friendly legacy.

Ecology House, otherwise known as Eco, is a program house with about 100 residents united around a shared interest in “sustainability, environmental justice, [and] plants and animals,” according to their Housing & Residential Life page. It was established in 1970.

Aligned with this emphasis on nature,

Eco was also a uniquely pet-friendly dormitory. “For many years, Ecology House was the only residence hall on campus that allowed student-owned pets,” HRL wrote in an email to The Sun.

While ﬁsh are allowed in all on-campus housing, according to HRL Community Living Standards, non-ﬁsh pets, such as rodents, birds, and reptiles, were also permitted in Eco prior to Fall 2024.

Mary Margaret Ferraro ’15, who lived in Eco for two years as an undergraduate and now works at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, chose to live there because of its pet policy, as she wanted to bring her pet cockatoo Cielo to Cornell with her.

As a sophomore transfer student, Ferraro applied to live in Eco her ﬁrst semester but didn’t get in, forcing her to leave behind Cielo as she was residing in

Cascadilla Hall.

“I was totally heartbroken, because I had really wanted to come to Cornell with my pet bird,” she said. “I went one semester without my bird. I was really sad.”

A friend of Ferraro’s lived in Eco at the time and offered to house Cielo during the spring semester.

“I would go pick him up at, like, six a.m. every day,” Ferraro said. “So we had our work-around.” After that year, for her remaining semesters at Cornell, Ferraro lived in Eco.

“It really was the only [on-campus] option that allowed pets,” she said. “And for those of us introverts who really need time with animals to, you know, just be happy people, it’s a needed thing.”

That passion for pets at Eco was maintained into more recent years, too.

“It was a very, very big part of its identity,” said Sarah Rackowski ’25, who lived in Eco for two years as an undergraduate. “I think the main attraction to living at Eco House was that you could have pets other than ﬁsh.”

During the 2021 to 2022 academic year, restrictions on pets included size limits on ﬁsh tanks and terrariums, as well as a ban on owning cats and dogs that were not ESAs or service animals. Students also had to ﬁll out an application detailing the pet’s living space and care plan.

“People would come into your room and do inspections,” Rackowski said. “They'd look at your animal, they'd look at the enclosure … and if they didn't think it looked right, they'd let you know.”

Since Fall 2024, however, all non-ﬁsh

pets have been banned.

According to current Eco resident Hannah Rams ’27, the catalyst for the pet ban was not explicitly given to residents by HRL staff, nor did HRL give speciﬁc details in their statement to The Sun when asked about why the pet ban was instituted. However, alumni and current residents testiﬁed that shortly before the ban, somebody’s pet snake escaped its enclosure in the dormitory.

“What I heard was this one person had a snake,” Rams said. “The snake got out, and they could not ﬁnd it. Because of that, I heard [HRL] was very upset with said person … since then, they’ve really cracked down.”

Rackowski, who was living at Eco at the time of the escape, conﬁrmed that it was the catalyst. “All of this around banning pets happened in the aftermath of the snake escape,” she said. “I don’t believe it was on any ofﬁcial documents about the pet ban, but it was verbally discussed as the number one reason for the pet ban.”

Many who spoke with The Sun believed this incident prompted HRL to examine and adjust their policy surrounding pets in the dormitory.

“Beginning in Fall 2022, Housing & Residential Life reviewed the sustainability of the pet policy and determined it was no longer feasible due to resource, facilities, and accessibility challenges,” HRL wrote in a statement to The Sun.

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

Angelina Tang can be reached at atang@

Lasting legacy | The Ecology House, once the only on-campus dormitory to allow student pets, has faced a pet ban in recent years

ANGELINA TANG / THE CORNELL DAILY SUN

cornellsun.com.

Pumpkin picking | Pumpkins, a fall staple for many families, have a unique horticultural history among other types of squash

BRYAN ANSELM / THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

How Students Make Dorm Lounges Feel Like Home

By Katie Istomin

Katie Istomin is a ﬁrst-year in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at ki227@cornell.edu.

As the semester began, people came in with their bags to their dorms, establishing places of rest, socialization and study. The hallways felt like the airports we had arrived from; carts squeaking, people blindly running around and lost apparel scattered throughout the halls. But while each room was assigned, the lounges inside the building were left up for grabs. They were the shared seating area, waiting to be taken over by a family.

The ﬁrst few weeks were tame — people politely asked if anyone was sitting there, headphones were always on and chatter was kept to a minimum.You could hear the soft hum of laptops and the occasional whisper, but even those were quickly exiled. Slowly though, the lounges were overrun and conquered. For me and my friends, we established a “home” on the second ﬂoor of our building, McClintock Hall.

At first, the lounges were simply quick spots to finish the occasional essay before heading out to dinner, but as the year started to go on, so did the amount of time spent in these lounges. The ten-minute stretches turned into entire evenings, and then into the kind of nights where you start to calculate how many hours of rest you’ll actually get after your time spent in the common space. Our presence lengthened and the amount of personal belongings tripled. Britas appeared on the table, limiting our amount of trips to the water fountain; a variety of snacks overtook the table in case our rumbling stomachs were heard through our headphones; a sweatshirt was hung on the back of each chair to allow for easy adjustment to any climatic change or seamless transition into a quick power nap; and tabs on the computer reached infinity as we jumped from assignment to assignment.

This phenomenon, though, was not unique to just my friend group. At some point, the lounges became an attendance sheet for the residents of Barbara McClintock hall. If someone was missing from their usual corner, you would notice it. The girl from across the hall was always studying and laughing in the kitchen with a large group,while the one downstairs was always tucked in a corner, silently enjoying the music playing in her headphones. I didn’t know their names, but I always knew where we would ﬁnd them. Their location was their identity.

Soon, seating was no longer a matter of availability — it was a matter of legacy. So, if you hear a scoff as someone peaks into the lounge and sees you in their usual spot, know that to them, you’ve just committed treason. Once you’ve done three late-night study sessions in the grey chair, that is now your chair. That’s just the rules. I don’t make them. And the unspoken part is that everyone mostly agrees to follow them

anyway.

Though, as we gained comfort and a sense of home, it started to get a little too comfy. The couches that were once just extra furniture to toss bags on started to look too appealing for a nap. And when that person does inevitably begin to doze off, we all do the politeful thing and lower our voices, blanketing any sound that could wake them. The whiteboard that was once filled with chemical formulas and notes was now being utilized for a large game of hangman. Each study break lengthened and “five minutes” always followed with “five more.”

So, the great migration began. Movement felt necessary if we wanted our brains to keep working. At ﬁrst, we moved one lounge over. Then to the building next door. Now, we’re studying on the other side of campus. The map of our semester redrew itself. As academic fatigue sets in, you ﬁnd yourself draining in focus — and sometimes it means you have to chase the “herd” onto the next spot, because we all know studying can’t stop (even though drawing pictures for pictionary is way more fun than drawing out chemical compounds).

We start our trek in the morning, bundled up for the stinging wind and frosty air — a chai latte in one hand, the other tucked into a coat pocket, a scarf holding our ears from falling off, all sprinkled with a side of complaints about the cold. When midday rolls around, we shed our coats, wondering if they were worth it as we make our way back to the toasty libraries. But as we sit down to finish our work for the day, before we even have the chance to look up, it’s dark outside. Time flies when you’re having fun — or when you have a prelim the next day and just found out chapter 14 is on it. The sunny 50s turned into chilling 35s as our fingers jumped from key to key, anxious to make it back before the dining halls closed. We always end up sacrificing one of the deadlines — the choice between Morrison Dining or our “p-set” isn’t as difficult as it should be.

Yet, from time to time, we pass our old lounges like childhood homes. We see different faces and sometimes, if we are lucky enough, we’ll see the people we used to study with, thinking about the jokes that we would crack at 2 a.m. when everyone else was asleep. A whole miniature chapter of history ﬂashes before us — inside jokes, shared panic, the whiteboard that still has a faint ghost of our drawing. We hope they’re doing well, and we give them a smile and wave as we make our way to the libraries. The wave is a promise: we were here together.

In a way, these lounges reﬂect our freshman year; they evolved as we did.

For the Sake of Your Peers, Please Put Your Phone Down

By Ava Betnar

Ava Betnar is a ﬁrst-year in the College of Human Ecology. She can be reached at aab323@cornell.edu.

Without a car on campus, I am left, like the vast majority of us, to walk an exorbitant amount of steps to classes, dining halls, meetings and my dorm. If my 20,000 steps a day has taught me anything, it’s that “road rage” is not a phenomenon specific to driving. Constantly, I am maneuvering and dodging students so as to avoid collision with people who walk as though they are wearing a blindfold, completely oblivious to the world around them — of course, not because of a blindfold, but because of a phone. People, myself included, are inextricably bound to their phones. Take a look around the next time you walk through campus, and you will see that a phone, along with some form of caffeine or water, is always ready at hand. The phone patiently waits to divert their attention from their surroundings to its notifications: a text from a friend, an email from a club, a notification from Canvas, a message on Slack, a follow request, a phone call. Each ring beckons to us, not so much a message as it is a distraction.

Spending so much time in the digital world, it is easy to completely neglect the real. We often bypass the natural beauty of our campus, only passively acknowledging the waterfalls, geese, sunsets and splashes of color that paint the fall foliage. While friends sit before us, we burrow our heads into our screens when we decide that a notiﬁcation is more deserving of our time. The majority of our days are already spent digitally — staring at one screen, we walk to class to stare at a projected one, and oftentimes take notes on another. In this way, screens are a lens through which we view and experience life, displacing real life to the outside of our periphery.

Often, their presence offers an excuse for us to retreat from awkward interactions. Despite some of my lectures having over one hundred people, the room is largely silent before class begins. Instead of talking to neighbors, people prefer to scroll. During meals alone, rather than engaging in conversation with fellow solo-diners, we sit in solitude with our phones — allowing us to effectively avoid the company of one another. Often, I wonder what these spaces would look like without our phones. Would we be more inclined to talk to one another? How much easier and more natural would that be without our phones to use as a crutch? Would the sense of community at Cornell differ?

Phones not only isolate us from the world, but they also impose a signiﬁcant emotional burden. Research alleges that excessive phone usage is linked to an ongoing mental health crisis. In his book, the “Anxious Generation,” Prof. Johnathan Haidt, social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of

Business, explains that screens have exacerbated rates of anxiety and depression in teens and young adults. Coinciding with the rise of the iPhone, girls have experienced a 145 percent increase and boys a 161 percent increase in major depressive episodes since 2010.

This research is especially relevant at Cornell, where stress is an inherent aspect of the culture. According to a Mental Health & Well-Being Survey of undergraduate, graduate and professional students from 2020, “47.7 percent of Cornell students experienced moderate or serious psychological distress.” While phones are not the root cause of these mental health concerns, less screen time could certainly help alleviate the pressure.

Recognizing these harms, many states have even pursued legislative action to restrict screen usage in schools. For instance, this year the state of New York implemented “bell-to-bell” restrictions on phones with its distraction-free schools policy. These restrictions cultivate a phone-free environment by banning students from personal phone usage during the school day. Such measures aim to enhance educational engagement and interpersonal connection. On college campuses across the country, device-free environments are becoming increasingly popular. Seán Killingsworth, former student at the University of Central Florida, launched the Reconnect Movement, an organization that provides a space for students to disconnect from the digital world so that they can “reconnect” in the real world. It has hundreds of chapters across high schools and colleges, although not one at Cornell. Moreover, in a letter to her campus community, Linda G. Mills, president of NYU, announced that the university would begin offering formal device-free zones and events across its campuses.

Spaces like these don’t outright ban phones. Rather, they provide an opportunity for students to consciously decide to be free from screen-based distractions and stressors. Cornell would beneﬁt from initiatives similar to these as it would help foster community and mindfulness. However, the university can implement measures and provide incentive, but ultimately, it is up to us — the students — to change our individual habits.

“Each

ring beckons to us, not so much a message as it is a distraction.”

Ava Betnar ’29

Phones are supposed to be “mobile,” but they really immobilize us — shackling our attention with its addictive algorithms. Now, I am not the “phone police”; I am guilty of every behavior I just critiqued. But for the sake of our well-being and the preservation of authentic connection, it is paramount that we spend less time with screens, and more time with our friends, surroundings and even ourselves.

When you go to the slope to see the sunset, resist the instinct to take that picture — no matter how aesthetic your Instagram story would be. On your walk to class, tuck your AirPods and phone away and listen to the rush of the falls or chimes of McGraw Tower. In the elevator up to your dorm or apartment, enjoy the company of your fellow residents and strike up a conversation — after all, who knows what friendship could blossom?

Take in all that Ithaca, Cornell and the world has to offer, because I promise you it is so much more than a six-by-three inch screen.

MAIA MEHRING / LIFESTYLE EDITOR

Faculty Senate Resolution on Cheyftz Controversy Faces Criticism From Professors, Administration

By MATTHEW CHEN Sun Contributor

Oct. 30 — A resolution condemning the disciplinary process of now-retired Prof. Eric Cheyﬁtz, literatures in English, was met with criticism by faculty and administrators during a Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 22.

The resolution, which has about 200 co-sponsors, addresses what the Faculty Senate sees as a failure to follow procedures in Cheyﬁtz’s case and calls for the Senate to censure Cornell’s central administration, a procedure used to express formal disapproval or condemnation. It also asks the University to “renew its commitment to protecting academic freedom, even in the face of political pressure.”

Cheyfitz faced a discrimination investigation after he allegedly asked Israeli graduate student Oren Renard to leave his spring course on Gaza, “AIIS 3500: Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance,” last semester, claiming that he was “disruptive.” Renard filed a discrimination complaint with Cornell’s Office of Civil Rights.

The Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Status of the Faculty ruled unanimously in favor of Cheyﬁtz, contradicting an earlier decision by Cornell’s Ofﬁce of Civil Rights, which found

him in violation of federal anti-discrimination law. However, the Faculty Senate’s decision was later overturned and reinvestigated by Provost Kavita Bala.

Cheyﬁtz, who was recommended two semesters of unpaid leave by Dean of Arts and Sciences Peter Loewen, chose to retire before the investigation’s conclusion, ending his disciplinary proceedings. However, the administration’s earlier decision to reopen the investigation after a ﬁnal decision by the AFPSF prompted the formulation of the resolution.

Administration Criticize Resolution, Case Administrators took the ﬂoor to respond to the allegations made in the resolution, which was introduced at the start of the meeting.

Bala said that Cheyﬁtz was charged with two forms of misconduct: discrimination based on nationality, which fell under University Policy 6.4, and unprofessional conduct based on bias against a student’s presumed view, which falls under section 6.6 of the Faculty Handbook. Bala said that the second charge was going to be reviewed at a faculty review panel scheduled for Nov. 3, but Cheyﬁtz chose to retire before the hearing could take place.

The proposed resolution criticizes the administration’s bypass of rules under University Policy 6.4, which states the dean

University Launches ‘Resilient Cornell’ Initiative to Cut Costs

By ROOKE WISER Sun Contributor

Oct. 31 — After months of incremental cost-cutting measures, Cornell has launched “Resilient Cornell,” an initiative to reduce costs across all campuses through a restructuring of the University’s workforce and operations.

The plan, announced Oct. 16 in a statement by President Michael Kotlikoff, Provost Kavita Bala, Provost for Media Affairs Dr. Robert Harrington, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Chris Cowen and Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Christine Lovely, marks Cornell’s latest framework to address ongoing financial challenges.

The announcement follows a series of three earlier statements regarding the University’s financial health, outlining various short-term budget measures, such as extending an indefinite hiring freeze and limiting discretionary spending. Resilient Cornell formalizes these efforts into a unified program to achieve “lasting change that will support a strong Cornell for generations to come.”

Over the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the Provost’s Steering Committee and the Cross-Campus Collaboration Committee will be focusing on strategies to reimagine University operations, reduce spending and improve efﬁciencies “improving efﬁciencies by avoiding duplication of work,” the Resilient Cornell website reads.

The Provost’s Steering Committee, chaired by Bala, will oversee “workforce designs and strategies across the Ithaca, Cornell AgriTech, and Cornell Tech

or provost “must accept the [Faculty Senate] Committee’s ﬁndings” but may “modify the Committee’s recommended sanctions.” In reopening the case and reinvestigating, the resolution states that the Cornell administration broke these rules.

In response to these allegations, Cornell administrative ofﬁcials presented a series of clariﬁcations and criticisms both of the proposed resolution and of University Policy 6.4 itself.

Katie King, the associate vice president for the Ofﬁce of Civil Rights, explained that cases under Policy 6.4 traditionally use a preponderance of evidence standard to make determinations on whether or not the policy has been violated. She claimed that using the clear and convincing evidence standard, which was the legal standard used by the AFPSF in determining Cheyﬁtz’s case, is not consistent with state and federal law, which uses the preponderance of the evidence standard.

Preponderance of evidence is a legal standard used mostly in civil cases, requiring the defendant to prove their claim is more likely true than not. The clear and convincing evidence standard requires a high probability that a factual contention is true, and is a higher burden of proof than preponderance of evidence. While there is no federal law that explicitly says when the preponderance stan-

dard should be used, precedent established through common law and a Supreme Court ruling, E.M.D. Sales Inc. et al. v. Carrera et al., have established that “the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard was the default in American civil litigation, and it remains so today.”

Similar to King, Vice President and General Counsel Donica Varner said that the procedures used by the AFPSF, which interpreted the case as an academic freedom issue, are not appropriate for civil rights complaints. Varner also claimed that an appeal should not allow for a new review consisting of independent fact-ﬁnding hearings by “insufﬁciently trained volunteers,” in reference to members of the AFPSF.

“The [AAUP] guidance provides that individuals evaluating discrimination claims must handle them consistent with how such claims are handled by courts and agencies,” Varner said. “The resolution infers that the AFPSF committee’s conclusions resulted from legally sound practices. They did not.”

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

campuses.” The Cross-Campus Collaboration Committee, chaired by Cowen, will “examine university-wide operations that span all campuses,” including Weill Cornell Medicine, according to the statement.

The two committees will be “supported by a series of design groups tasked with reviewing prioritized functional areas, expense categories, and ﬁnancial strategies,” with Deans and senior administrators leading these groups and seeking input from campus experts. According to the statement, the administrators anticipate that the work of the committees will continue into spring 2026.

On the website’s frequently asked questions page, it acknowledges that the University needs to “make difﬁcult decisions to meet the profound challenges before us,” which “will include targeted workforce reductions.”

Still, the administration maintains that “the Cornell student experience should not be impacted in any material ways by this review of administrative operations,” and promised updates will be provided through community town halls and the newly launched website.

Additionally, the University has hired Huron Consulting, a ﬁrm that has previously advised reorganization efforts at institutions including George Washington University to assess different aspects of the University’s operations.

Members of the Cornell community can contribute feedback about the University’s process to deal with ﬁnancial issues through a suggestion portal.

Nov. 1 — The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly unanimously voted to give Anabel’s Grocery — which is a student-run nonprofit grocery store located on the first floor of Anabel Taylor Hall — $40,000 in funding to its subsidy funds over the next two years in its Oct. 27 meeting.

In spring 2025, the Division of Student & Campus life ended the University’s afﬁliation with the Center for Transformative Action — which is Anabel’s parent organization and has maintained an afﬁliation agreement with Cornell since 1971 — cutting over $100,000 in funding, which will occur in two years.

Resolution 2: “An Act to Fund Anabel’s Grocery,” which was sponsored by graduate students President Nicholas Brennan, Vice President of Finance Siim Sepp and Finance Commission Chair Anurag Koyyada, calls for moving $40,000 from the Assembly’s reserve account to its operating account to help fund Anabel’s.

The resolution calls for this payment to be made over the next two academic years, with $25,000 being transferred from 2025-2026 and $15,000 from 2026-2027. This money would go towards its subsidy fund, which the store would use to keep its prices at or below local supermarket rates.

According to the resolution, Anabel’s received approximately 32 percent of its orders in total from graduate or professional students, which represent 4,518 purchases in 2025. Additionally, the resolution explains that Anabel’s draws around 20 percent of its sales from its subsidy fund to supplement $19,519.38 in operational costs in 2025.

“This is part of a long-standing partnership GPSA has had with Anabel’s Grocery,” Brennan said.

Furthermore, by donating the $40,000, the GPSA hopes to fulﬁll a 2016 agreement with Anabel’s that would grant the store $80,000 over four years. While for the ﬁrst two years, the Graduate student assembly paid $40,000 as per the agreement, due to the interruptions from the

COVID-19 pandemic the other $40,000 was never paid.

“I ﬁnd it a bare minimum piece of legislation to give to Anabel’s the $40,000 we have promised them.” Brennan explained.

A representative from Anabel’s expressed their gratitude for the “generous ﬁnancial support” provided by Resolution 2 in a statement sent to The Sun.

“This funding will enable us to replenish our subsidy fund and maintain affordable prices during a time when low-cost staples are few and far between,” a representative from Anabel’s wrote. “We’re proud to provide nutritious food to graduate and undergraduate students for whom transportation, cost, or time may pose a barrier to routinely accessing healthy food.”

Brennan expressed the purpose of passing the resolution and what it will provide for graduate and undergraduate students in getting access to affordable groceries in a statement sent to The Sun.

“Amid rising costs of living in Ithaca and beyond, providing access to low-cost necessities is crucial for our Graduate and Professional Student community,” Brennan wrote. “I’m immensely grateful for the effort of the wonderful people at Anabel’s Grocery who continue to work hard to deliver fresh produce and local products at affordable prices right here on Cornell’s campus.”

Anabel’s explained that while they are grateful for the support of the GPSA’s passage of Resolution 2, they hope to seek a longer-term solution for funding.

“Especially when living costs are on the rise and efforts to support food security remain limited and underfunded, our underlying goal — to expand food access across Cornell’s campus — remains unwavering,” Anabel’s wrote. “Though we will continue to seek a longer-term funding solution for our store, we are grateful to all of the students, faculty, and staff who have supported our efforts from the beginning, and to GPSA for enabling these efforts to persist in the near term.”

Matthew Chen can be reached at mc2926@ cornell.edu.

By RAJORSHI CHATTERJEE Sun Contributor

Rajorshi Chatterjee can be reached at rc978@ cornell.edu.

Rooke Wiser can be reached at rw764@ cornell.edu.

to more reporting this Spring!

Happiest of birthdays to Koi Nguyen ’29!! I can’t believe you’re 18 today— just yesterday you were a tiny baby who kept me up all night! Remember, keep being a good person, be kind and loving, and

Michael

Kayla Palumbo you are doing awesome! Keep killing it! Xoxo, Quad Fam

‘A Safe Space for the LGBTQ+ Community’: Risley’s Tradition Overcomes Logistical Challenges

By ANGELINA TANG Sun Assistant News Editor

Nov. 2 — Despite losing its usual Risley Dining Hall venue, Risley Hall’s 34th annual performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show took place in Appel Commons, with 10:30 p.m. shows on both Friday and Saturday.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a yearly performance that Risley Hall members put on around Halloween. It is a recreation and tribute to the 1975 musical horror-comedy movie starring Tim Curry.

“Rocky Horror is, at its core, a cult classic. Rocky Horror provides two nights a year where self-expression and self-exploration is the norm.”

Rita Kelly ’26

“Rocky Horror is, at its core, a cult classic,” wrote Rita Kelly ’26, co-director of Risley’s show, to The Sun. “Rocky Horror provides two nights a year where self-expression and self-exploration is the norm.”

The story follows Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple whose car breaks down in the middle of the woods. In their search for help, they stumble upon a castle owned by Dr. Frank-N-

Furter, a cross-dressing mad scientist alien from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. The film plays with many LGBTQ+ and sexual themes.

The performance is staged by students who act out the show on stage and lip-sync alongside the film in a practice called shadowcasting. The event traditionally encourages audience participation, with attendees given a document of the script and callouts — or phrases for audience members to shout out for humorous effect. This style of performance is traditional for productions of Rocky Horror all over.

Risley’s performance typically occurs in the Risley Dining Hall, where it has been shown for decades. However, this year, they were barred from using the space due to concerns about contamination at the allergen-free dining facility.

Risley’s performance was also traditionally around midnight, as Rocky Horror is traditionally a “midnight movie” and shown at late hours. However, in the switch to using Appel Commons, Risley’s team had to shift the showtime up to 10:30 p.m. this year.

Per Risley tradition, audience members who had never seen Rocky Horror before had a letter V drawn on their hand in lip gloss at the door to signify that they were “Rocky Virgins.” The show began with a selection of two

“Rocky Virgin” audience members to participate as guest actors in the show for the opening scene.

Pole Posse opened the show with a pole dancing number, followed by a roughly two-hour-long showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The film played on a projector next to the stage where students acted out the scene.

For the callouts, audience members were also given a script via QR code at the door and were instructed to shout certain lines at the film and actors during the performance. For example, whenever Brad mentioned wanting to try to borrow the telephone at the castle to call for help, the audience was instructed to shout, “Castles don’t have phones, a—hole!”

There was no admission fee, but donations were collected at the door to reimburse production costs. All proceeds after covering costs were donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which raises money to increase access to AIDS healthcare and fund projects tackling LGBTQ+ stigma.

The Rocky Horror production this year faced many challenges due to the loss of the Risley Dining venue for rehearsals and the production this year, according to Kelly.

“Without a consistent rehearsal space, we have been forced to practice in many different locations across campus,” Kelly wrote in a statement to The Sun. This led to inconsistent

rehearsal times and “lots of scheduling conflicts” for performers.

Despite a challenging production process, the Risley team pulled through for the sake of the value of the annual performance to the LGBTQ+ community at Cornell.

“With its camp style and themes of self-discovery, sexual liberation, and opposition to societal norms, Rocky Horror screenings have naturally become a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and their allies,” Kelly wrote. “We aim to maintain that safe space in the face of so many circumstances that have threatened our production this year.”

“Rocky Virgin” audience members enjoyed the unpredictability of the show.

“It was really fun. I didn’t know what to expect at all going in,” said Ray Finn ’29, a first-time Rocky Horror viewer. “I had a really good time.”

Audience members also recommended the show to anyone who missed it.

“Cornell’s Rocky Horror Show production was a great show,” wrote Daniela Rodriguez ’27, an audience member, to The Sun. “I recommend all to give it a chance and experience the fun Rocky has to offer.”

Angelina Tang can be reached at atang@ cornellsun.com.

Tyler Canaday ’26 Seeks to End Cross Country Career With a Bang

By ERIC JOY Sun Staff Writer

Nov. 2 — Senior runner Tyler Canaday believes the sky’s the limit for men’s cross country this season.

In 2024, Canaday competed in three races representing the Red, finishing fifth, seventh and sixth on the team.

Following the 2024 season, the Red lost many talented runners. Derek Amicon ’25 was the fastest on the team and the only one to make an appearance at the Cross Country National Championship race, placing 48th out of 252. Damian Hackett ’25, an AllAmerican in track and the second-fastest cross country runner for the Red, also graduated.

However, the team’s new senior Canaday is stepping up to the plate. This season, Canaday has finished first on the team twice and third once, along with decreasing his personal record by 25 seconds.

“You really need to fill the space that’s left by the guys that graduate,” Canaday said.

Born in Severna Park, Maryland and enrolled in the College of Engineering, Canaday had an unusual path to becoming a Division l runner. Having been cut from the soccer team as a freshman in high school, he joined the cross country team as a fallback. But it was not until his junior season that he realized he was a cut above the rest.

“Halfway through my junior year, I started running times [that] people in the classes above me were running, and they were going to Division I schools,”

Canaday said. “That’s when I realized this is maybe something I can take to the next level.”

During the recruiting process, Cornell always felt like the right choice for Canaday. He cited head coach Mike Henderson and the “familial environment” as a reason for him to commit.

“I got [other Division l offers], but I was pretty happy here,” Canaday said. “After my visit, I met a lot of nice people. [Head] coach Henderson’s great, and I felt like this is where the family is.”

Since his freshman year, Canaday has run at the Ivy League Championship race every year, along with the Northeast Regional Championship since his sophomore year.

When probed for his favorite memory over the past four years, Canaday enjoys the camaraderie more than the running itself.

“I think my favorite thing is traveling,” he said. “I think going to the hotels, eating the dinners and just hanging out with your guys before the race is just a super awesome experience.”

Big Red Leadership

While not having official captains, the Red has always relied on its seniors to steer the ship. Canaday is no exception to this rule, having been described as a true leader on the team by Henderson.

“I’ve always been someone who’s pretty vocal,” Canaday said. “Combined with doing the right things day in and day out [and] setting the right example, I think that’s

a really good winning combination for leadership.”

Canaday, in line with Cornell cross-country’s mantra, ascribed a familial environment to the overall leadership structure of the team.

“We definitely have a group, like all the seniors, [who] I think are totally comfortable leading too, and that just creates a big, cohesive group,” Canaday said. “It’s not more of a hierarchy, it’s more an episode of family.”

Canaday drew leadership inspiration from several of his former teammates, Perry Mackinnon ’23, Rishabh Prakash ’23 and Rhys Hammond ’24 in particular. In the eyes of Canaday, those three were instrumental in turning the team from a bottom-feeder to one eyeing a bid at nationals.

“Six, seven, eight years ago, we maybe weren’t a team that was as competitive in the Ivy League as we are now. It took the diligent efforts of a couple main people, including Mackinnon, [Prakash] and [Hammond] [to change that],” Canaday said. “These guys showed our team that you can be serious and you can have fun, [and that] this team can be good if you really put in the work and you really want to be good, if you have a passion.”

Exemplary of Canaday’s hard work and dedication this season, he was awarded Ivy League Athlete of the Week Honor Roll on Oct. 6.

“I think as you make that jump [in performance], you’re gonna get recognized, but yeah, there’s plenty of work to be done,” Canaday said.

Last Dance

Canaday, having decided against

pursuing a professional running career for now, has only a few competitive cross-country races left. Nevertheless, he plans on enjoying every second of it.

“It’s all or nothing, man,” Canady said. “You’ve got to lay it all on the line. This is totally, totally fun.”

Despite the increased excitement, adrenaline and intensity for these races, Canaday emphasized the need for caution and level-headedness.

“I think not panicking is an important thing to remember,” Canaday said. “If you start to freak out and change what you’ve been doing, then that’s how you get hurt. That’s how things fall apart. So just keep your head down and remember that you’re out there running for the guys around you, and you’re out there running because you love it.”

The men have not qualified to the National Championship Race as a team since 1992, the third-longest drought in the Ivy League. Last year, the men were slated to qualify for nationals, until certain results in the West Region altered the outcome, resulting in yet another miss.

“We were really, really, close last year,” Canaday said. “The guys will tell you that we were on the bus home…

“We will be making nationals,” Canaday said. “I’ll come out here and say it: this has been our goal, and I don’t think anyone on the team is afraid to say it.”

Eric Joy can be reached at ewj36@cornell. edu

Former Dean of Cornell Law School, Protest Leader Eduardo Peñalver ’94 Elected President of Georgetown

By JONATHAN McCORMACK Sun Staff Writer

Oct. 30 — From Ithaca to Washington D.C., former Dean of the Cornell Law School and 1993 Latino Cornellians’ Day Hall Takeover leader Eduardo Peñalver ’94 will become the 49th president of Georgetown University on July 1, 2026. He was unanimously elected by its board of directors on Oct. 15.

“I’m deeply honored to have the privilege of serving as Georgetown’s next president,” Peñalver said in a press release for Georgetown University.

Peñalver, who currently serves as the 22nd Seattle University President, received a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1994, graduating magna cum laude.

While an undergraduate at Cornell, Peñalver was a leader of the four-day-long 1993 Latino Cornellians’ Day Hall Takeover, which, among other changes undertaken by the University, led to the creation of the Latino Living Center and increased funding for the Latino Studies Program. The protest was sparked by the vandalism of a Hispanic art exhibit piece on display in the Arts Quad.

Peñalver returned to his alma

mater in 2014 when he was appointed dean of Cornell Law School.

The ﬁrst Latino to lead an Ivy League law school, he led fundraising efforts to provide ﬁnancial aid to law school candidates, making it more accessible for students to pursue legal careers. By the end of his term, 12 percent more students were able to graduate from Cornell Law without debt.

Peñalver also previously served as a professor at Cornell Law from 2006 to 2012. He was also a law school professor at Fordham University and the University of Chicago, as well as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens in 2000.

Peñalver received a Masters in Philosophy and Theology in 1996 as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford before turning to pursue a career in Law. He afterwards achieved a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School in 1999.

“I’m

deeply honored to have the privilege of serving as Georgetown’s next president.”

Eduardo Peñalver ’94

In 2021, he left his role as dean of Cornell Law in order to accept a position as President of Seattle

President Peñalver | The former Dean of the Cornell Law School is slated to lead Georgetown University as president this upcoming July.

University. There, Peñalver established the Cornish College of the Arts, which offers degrees in ﬁne arts and music.

Peñalver will succeed their current interim president Robert Groves, who has held the position since 2024.

The Board of Directors at Georgetown unanimously elected Peñalver. Thomas A. Reynolds, a chairman of the board, made the announcement, saying, “We look forward to [Peñalver] joining our Georgetown Community.”

Jonathan McCormack can be reached at jmccormack@cornellsun.com.

‘Tere Is a Bittersweet Element to Senior Year’: Cross Country Senior Mairead Clas Refects on Athletic Career

By THOMAS VOLLARO Sun Staff Writer

Nov. 4 — From the moment she laced up her running shoes, senior Mairead Clas knew that cross country would be a lifelong companion. Growing up in a family of runners, getting involved in the sport felt almost inevitable.

“I always knew I wanted to run,” Clas said. “I started with the team in middle school and just kept developing through high school.”

Now, Clas is a senior leader on the women’s cross country teams with top times and new personal bests every season. She characterizes her journey as a positive one, ﬁlled with encouragement, improvement, and emotion — proof that the right environment can bring out the best in a great athlete.

Finding Her Stride at Cornell

It didn’t take long for Clas to make her mark. As a freshman, she quickly found herself improving in ways she hadn’t anticipated, both on the course and off.

“It honestly has a lot to do with the team and the coaching environment,” Clas said. Compared to high school, the team and coaches brought an amazing, supportive

atmosphere. I felt encouraged in every area - and that contributed to how I was able to be so successful coming into freshman year.”

Over the past four seasons, Clas has consistently climbed the Ivy League ranks, setting personal bests in every distance from the 5k to the 10k. Her breakout came at the 2023 Northeast Regional Championship where she clocked a lifetime best 20:50.7 in the 6k, a performance that hinted at the runner she was becoming. By 2024, she placed 12th at the Ivy League Cross Country Championships with a time of 20:38.1, becoming one of Cornell’s most consistent performers.

Among all her achievements, one meet stands above the rest. Her favorite Cross Country memory came during her sophomore season at the NCAA Northeast Regionals, lamenting Cornell’s team performance.

“We had the entire team running personal records on the regionals course that year,” Clas said. “It was the ﬁrst time I was really able to see our women’s team growing and improving, which we have continued to do now two years later. That meet was important to recognize the improvement we were making.”

Running at Cornell carries extra meaning for Clas because of her family ties. Her father, Brian Clas ‘94, is a highly decorated alumni of Cornell Cross Country, winning the 1993 Ivy League Championship, achieving all-American status the same year, and placing 12th at the 1993 NCAA Championship.

“It was the ﬁrst time I was really able to see our women’s team growing and improving, which we have continued to do now two years later. That meet was important to recognize the improvement we were making.”

Mairead Clas ’26

Their connection came to life in an unforgettable way last year.

“Last year at the Ivy League Championships it was the ﬁrst time I scored in an event [at the championship meet] — and he was the one who was giving out the medals,” Clas said, smiling. “It was a surprise to me in the moment — it was a really emotional moment. It’s really a special thing to have him supporting me

along the way.”

Embracing Leadership and Legacy

Now a senior, Clas has transitioned from rising star to team leader, a shift she has embraced wholeheartedly.

“There are a lot more eyes on you once you become an upper classman, and it requires you to step up to the challenge,” Clas said. “It has been such a rewarding experience to be able to demonstrate my experience, and be that person that my teammates can look to, to lift everyone up.”

As her collegiate career comes to a close, Clas runs every race with a renewed sense of purpose and gratitude.

“Every time I step on the line, it’s a moment of gratitude, a moment to really appreciate what I’m doing here,” Clas said. “There is a bittersweet element to senior year.”

While her time at Cornell may be nearing its end, her lifelong love for running is here to stay.

“Wherever I end up, I will deﬁnitely be searching for a running community of some kind,” Clas reﬂected. “I want to be able to continue what I’m doing.”

Tomas Vollaro can be reached at tvollaro@cornellsun.com.

Daniel Caesar’s ‘Son of Spergy’

JORDAN WHITE ARTS & CULTURE CONTRIBUTOR

Love, introspection and spirituality: these are the three themes that characterize pretty much all of Daniel Caesar’s discography. Yet, in his latest project, the third seems to take the spotlight, along with a new motif not explored extensively in his past works: his relationship with his father, who seems to be a fairly central ﬁgure in this album’s narrative, being featured on the album itself and being pictured in his younger days on the album cover. Those open to even more soulful and introspective pieces from an artist already known for the presence of these qualities in his past works are sure to ﬁnd a plethora of things to love about this project.

Son of Spergy is Daniel Caesar’s fourth studio album, coming about two and a half years after the release of its immediate precursor, Never Enough. “Spergy” is the nickname of Norwill Simmonds — singer, Adventist preacher and Caesar’s father. Caesar and Simmonds’ relationship is one of two major focal points of this album, with the other being Christianity, which Caesar explores more in this album than any of its predecessors. Son of Spergy echoes many aspects of the musicality commonly attributed to Caesar’s music, with his smooth, ﬂowery vocals being front and center yet again. In this compilation, however, the heavy inclusion of acoustic guitar and choral harmonies both aid in establishing a sense of intimacy that lingers from beginning to end.

Son of Spergy opens with a piece that captures the gospel-oriented nature of the album: “Rain Down,” featuring Sampha. Between the continuous rainfall noise establishing an immersive backdrop, the

enticing softness of each piano chord and the passionate gospel vocals, this track truly sets the scene, before seamlessly transitioning into the next track, “Have A Baby (With Me).” In this single, Caesar makes a last-ditch plea to save a dying relationship with something permanent, forging a piece characterized by its poetic messaging and intense melancholy.

The third track, “Call On Me,” opens with bold electric guitar that carries throughout the song and makes for a welcome stylistic standout. “Baby Blue,” the track featuring Caesar’s father, is a beautiful reﬂection on the fulﬁllment he received from a partner, through whom he experienced an unprecedented love and sense of belonging. The vocals of Caesar’s father paint the outro to this track, reintroducing the spirituality that lingers through the remainder of the album as he sings a passionate gospel hymn. This track is followed by “Root Of All Evil,” a personal favorite of mine, hallmarked by its groovy bassline and introspective theme of slipping into temptation to self-sabotage and wrongdoing.

The track “Who Knows” rather appropriately centers around the theme of uncertainty. Throughout this song, Caesar harmonizes with himself, creating an echo chamber effect that serves as a creative metaphor for how he has become deeply immersed in his own self-doubt and regret regarding a failed relationship. “Moon,” the ﬁrst of two tracks on this album featuring production by Bon Iver, is underscored by serene instrumentalism and windy ambience. In this piece, Caesar meditates on his own imperfections and dire need for guidance as he continually inquires, “Who’s going to be my Jesus? Who will advocate?” The track “Touching God”

is perhaps the spiritual highlight of the album, as Caesar speaks directly to God, lamenting the shortcomings of mankind juxtaposed with the perfection he sees up above. This piece features Blood Orange and Yebba, with the former reciting scripture in a hazy sequence towards the end of the track, followed by the latter closing out the song with powerful vocals in direct praise of God.

“Sign of the Times” merges the themes of spirituality and romance, as Caesar navigates the line between love and lust, desiring a sign from God that will show him to a meaningful love beyond the surface level. “Emily’s Song” is a much simpler and straightforward track — both instrumentally and thematically — where Caesar takes on the maturity to thank a past partner for helping him to grow as an individual. “No More Loving (On Women I Don’t Love)” is also fairly straightforward, with the premise of the song being encapsulated completely by its title. I would point to this as a weaker moment of the album, with said weakness stemming only from redundancy; but like every other track in this compilation, its smooth production and buttery vocals make listening worthwhile.

The eight-minute powerhouse that is “Sins Of The Father,” featuring production yet again by Bon Iver, provides closure to this album. This piece marries the themes of spirituality and paternal bonding, as Caesar acknowledges his father’s imperfections, yet also expresses immense gratitude for his presence, as well as for God’s grace and forgiveness towards him. In many aspects, this piece is reminiscent of “Freudian” — the closing track on the album of the same name — especially with regards to the theme of gratitude towards Caesar’s parents.

If it hasn’t already been made clear, Son of Spergy is embedded with soulful immersion, maintaining the motif of spirituality throughout and exploring each topic with a sense of unﬁltered sincerity. One of the album’s primary critiques is its lyrical simplicity; certain critics are convinced that the straightforwardness of Caesar’s writing marks a lack of creativity. On the contrary, I believe that this is intentionally the essence of the album; in a hyper-consumerist world plagued by epidemics of overstimulation and superﬁciality, Caesar has deliberately released an album that thrives on simplicity and exposes the raw, inner workings of a growing individual. Bearing a strong resemblance to Frank Ocean’s legendary Blonde, Son of Spergy preserves the musical spirit of Daniel Caesar’s discography up to this point, while bringing the most raw and spiritual presentation we’ve seen yet.

Last Call and Nothing But Treble’s Halloween

KATHERINE WINTON ARTS & CULTURE CONTRIBUTOR

On Thursday, The Men of Last Call and Nothing But Treble, two of Cornell’s a cappella groups, collaborated for their annual Halloween performance. Both groups are single-gender, with Nothing But Treble being Cornell’s ﬁrst all-women group, so the event showcased a larger vocal range than each of the groups’ usual gigs. In true holiday spirit, both groups arrived in costume, ready to put on a fun performance. The new members of Nothing But Treble dressed as Pitbull, while the older members performed as Dr. Seuss characters, Steve Harvey, Timothée Chalamet and Pete Davidson. Meanwhile, Last Call members coordinated their costumes by grade: freshmen as minions from Despicable Me , sophomores as hippies and seniors as smurfs (the group doesn’t have any juniors).

Before the performance, which took place at Baker Arch, both groups warmed up. One of Nothing But Treble’s warmup songs was Pitbull, Afrojack and Ne-Yo’s 2011 hit “Give Me Everything.” Listening to the warmup brought me back to watching Pitch Perfect for the ﬁrst time and falling in love with a cappella.

The gig was structured into three parts: two introductory songs performed by Last Call, followed by two Nothing But Treble songs and a finishing act by Last Call. The first song of the night was a mashup of Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls,” soloed by Cole Garcia ’26, and Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” soloed by Justin Lee ’26. Although this is the first time the group has performed this arrangement, it sounded amazing. Especially on a rainy day,

Garcia’s vocals felt like the perfect way to start the gig; they had a cozy, pure quality that left me wanting more. Before Last Call performed their second song, they interrupted the performance and asked the audience to join in for an impromptu birthday song for one of the members, senior Adi Arora, who then soloed the next song, George Michael’s “Careless Whisper.”

After this, Last Call gave the stage to Nothing But Treble, who opened with “Alone” by Heart. This was by far my favorite part; sophomore Riley Auman’s solo was breathtaking, her belts carrying throughout the archway. I, as well as the rest of the audience, was stunned while listening to her performance, which was beautifully accompanied by the other Nothing But Treble girls. Afterwards, Maggie Levine ’26 led the group’s second and ﬁnal song, Maroon 5’s “This Love.” Because the song is sung in a minor chord, the vibe felt very different from the others and perfect for a Halloween performance.

Finally, Last Call concluded with “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” by The Georgia Satellites, which they perform at every gig. Matthew Merril, Last Call’s president, solos this song and always performs both with amazing vocal quality and stage presence. Midway through the song, he directed the audience’s attention to Arora, who performed one of the verses. The song was funny and upbeat — especially since the group ran around the archway, serenaded an audience member and had incredible overall dynamics — and a great way to end the gig.

I expected the arch sing to be a bit unserious, especially given the silly costumes, but both groups delivered beautiful performanc -

es. Merril remarked that performing arts are “one of the best organizations you can join at Cornell.” Speciﬁcally, he noted that collaborations with groups like Nothing But Treble allow the students to share their ideas and create something they love that expands beyond just the spaces they are in and reach as much of campus as possible. Though there was no joint song between the two groups, it was nice listening to a set with such a wide vocal range, and the soloists especially blew me away. If you’re looking for a chance to see these amazing groups, Check out Nothing But Treble’s upcoming concert on Nov. 14 and The Men of Last Call’s Fall 2025 Concert on Dec. 6!

Katherine Winton is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at kgw45@cornell.edu.

Jordan White is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at jiw39@cornell. edu.

COURTESY

& CULTURE

Why Splitting ‘Wicked’ in Two Works

By Layla Copen Arts & Culture Contributor

What are the implications of splitting Wicked into two movies? A savvy marketing move? A ﬁnancial strategy? To encompass more detail? This storytelling choice has certainly succeeded in building tension and anticipation for what is to come in Wicked: For Good.

The original Wicked, which came out last November, certainly turned me into a fan. However, I have hesitated to fully immerse myself in the world of Wicked for fear of spoiling the story. I have seen The Wizard of Oz, read the book and listened to the Wicked soundtrack on repeat until I memorized every song, but I still feel like I haven’t experienced the story in its entirety. Perhaps I am an imposter, but, by initially holding back, I have allowed myself to build anticipation and excitement for what is to come in Wicked: For Good. And maybe that is precisely the brilliance of splitting the story into two ﬁlms. By creating a narrative pause, the ﬁlmmakers have allowed fans to slowly savor the world, characters and music, making the wait for part two part of the experience itself.

The decision to split the movie into two was initially met by major criticism. OnStage Blog, a popular online publication, described the decision as “dumb” and one that “will ultimately fail.” However, the reception of the movie has conﬁrmed a variety of reasons as to why this decision was the right one. First of all, the movie takes an incredibly deep dive into the complexity and stories of the characters. We see the relation-

ship between Elphaba and Glinda unfold in a way that would not be possible in a more concise movie. We see the true sense of humanity in Elphaba in a way that further deepens the significance of her impending transformation into the powerful, confident “wicked witch.” Cynthia Erivo said herself, “What’s wonderful about the [Broadway] show is that you get an insight into why this woman becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but you have only three hours to do it in. With us, you have two movies.” The decision to split the story into two allows the filmmakers to gradually reveal the magic of Oz, giving audiences a richer, more immersive experience rather than rushing through the plot.

From a financial standpoint, Universal earns box office returns from two separate blockbuster movies. Perhaps a risky move, but one I believe will pay off. Beyond ticket sales, this strategy extends the commercial relevance of Wicked, as well as the amount of time the franchise can profit off of merchandising and brand deals. In an era where franchises compete for sustained attention, this move ensures that Wicked remains culturally and commercially significant for years rather than months.

Most importantly, the decision to split Wicked into two parts has succeeded in building a dedicated fan base through anticipation for what is to come. Online forums are alive with fan theories, debates over potential plot points and discussions of easter eggs from the ﬁrst ﬁlm. For someone like myself, who was not deeply invested in the fanbase of Wicked before, the staggered release schedule has transformed the experience into an instance of community bonding. My friends

Open Your Ears

and I gather around the phone the morning of a new Wicked teaser trailer drop to watch together. We even secured our movie tickets months in advance — the moment they became available. All this is to say that splitting the story into two has not only sustained fans’ attention, but grown the fanbase and transformed viewing and speculation into a shared community experience. Since the announcement that Wicked: For Good would follow the first film, a full year later, excitement has only intensified, with fans poring over every detail, theorizing about new plotlines and celebrating the return of beloved characters.

So, while the two-part structure of Wicked is in some ways a brilliant marketing and ﬁnancial strategy, it has also proved to be wonderfully successful in expanding on storytelling and sustaining a growing fanbase. By giving audiences a full year to engage with one another, debate online and bond over the story, anticipation itself has become an integral part of the Wicked experience.

Walking across the arts quad alone, I forgot my headphones. A wash of sound floods over me — leaves brushing vigorously against each other in the aggressive wind, shoes scurrying past at various paces, bikes mechanically whirlling. I notice my own contribution to the concert. My pants shuffle against each other with an airy, light sound. I can choose the rhythm of the shuffle with each footstep. My steps are more percussive than the ones from the girl who just passed me. She was walking quickly. I am in sync with the boy walking in front of me, but I delay a beat and suddenly we’re syncopated. When I reached my class, I forgot that I wasn’t wearing headphones.

There’s so much that isn’t listened to. Streaming services are musical black holes, and record shops host endless bins of names from A to Z in every genre imaginable. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. An abundance of music hides in plain sight all around us, undetectable to the distracted ear. It is in your steps, the trees, even your computer keyboard. When you put on headphones for a morning walk to class, the familiar songs that fill your head tune out a worthwhile opportunity for musical interaction. Music, especially in the confines of solo listening, is so often a method of detachment. It removes the listener from their surroundings and tells a story outside of the moment. The most musically rewarding experiences, though, can be those where you find yourself without headphones or a catchy tune, just an ear and an eagerness to listen. So, I challenge you to take the headphones off and try an experimental exercise in close listening similar to the one I described above. Let the world be your playlist and stage. The only thing you have to do is open your ears.

To listen, you ﬁrst need to know what to lis-

ten for. How can you hear music in your steps? Unfortunately, we face a problem fairly quickly when determining the definition of “music.” What is considered “music” as opposed to “sound” has changed much throughout the ages, as boundaries have been broken and definitions have widened. Augustine of Hippo, an ancient Roman philosopher and Catholic saint, for example, saw music in its most mathematical form — as evidence of adequate measurement. More recently, however, British ethnomusicologist John Blacking argued that the core of music is humanly-organized sound. He explained that the human dimension is vital. This is expanded in a definition by Luciano Berio, an Italian composer, who proposed that music is “everything that one listens to with the intention of listening to music.” Where Augustine may view a bird’s chirp as music due to its mathematical placement in time, Blacking or Berio would point to the human listener as the one who makes the bird’s sound a song. Deciding whether any of these viewpoints is objectively correct is moot; rather, they are all significant in that they represent a scale of varying degrees of rigidity that distinguish mere noise from music. The music we are looking for in this close listening experiment lies on the most abstract end of the scale. Like Berio’s comment, it is music because we say it is. In other words, it’s experimental.

Experimental music has historically pushed the limits of these rigid deﬁnitions of what music can or should be. Its core principle lies in the idea that all of the conventional elements of music — be it rhythm, pitch, timbre, harmony, form, etc. — can be intentionally warped to create a completely new and oftentimes unconventional sound. For this exercise, the most important aspect is to embrace this open-mindedness, especially in instrumentation. An instrument, for our purposes, is not just the traditional groups of strings, winds and percussion you may see a local band perform in standardized ways.

Really, anything “playable” will do. Get creative! The vacuum in your dorm, your water bottle with ice, a creaky door — all instruments with a promising variety of ways to be played.

Now that the terms of listening have been established, it is time to begin. Here’s how the experiment goes. In a moment of desire for new music, listen — but don’t put on your headphones. Just connect to your surroundings, regardless of where you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re walking across the arts quad like I did or sitting and doing your work at the library. Using an open-minded deﬁnition of music and instruments, listen with intent. You begin as an audience member, noticing the louder sounds of the space. Friends are chatting, footsteps are pounding. Slowly, you’ll begin to hear the quiet hum around you. Maybe it’s the air conditioner. And then, you’ll become a performer. Just as you get more comfortable in the musical environment you’ve created, so too you will interact with musical purpose. Perhaps you’ll contribute by typing on the keyboard. Maybe one key is quieter than the other. All this would be noticed as you become the performer and listener of your wonderful piece of interactive experimental music. But it can’t be forgotten that this is an improvisation exercise, so a sneeze from a passerby is a welcome addition to the collage of sound you have now made through close listening.

Of course, this could never be a replacement for a more conventional type of music. Rather, it’s a meditative exercise to try every once in a while. It reminds you to connect to the environment around you, that a musical distraction doesn’t have to be detached. The mindfulness required in close listening allows you to situate yourself and create a peaceful awareness. A musical ear makes the most entertained listener, even when it’s silent.

Hazel Tjaden is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at hlt43@cornell.edu.

Hazel Tjaden Arts & Culture Writer

Layla Copen is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at lmc374@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Football’s Win Streak Grows to Three

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

Cornell was on its third game of a threeweek homestand. It had won the first two, against Bucknell and Brown, and drew its largest crowd since Homecoming thanks to visitors in town for Family Weekend.

The setup seemed perfect for a victory against Princeton (3-4, 2-2 Ivy), which had the potential to leapfrog the Red into the top half of the league. Yet, less than five minutes into Saturday’s match, Cornell had given up a touchdown. Ten minutes later, that hole had doubled.

Instead of rolling over, Cornell (3-4, 2-2) flipped the script. The version of the Red that came out of the halftime locker room was unrecognizable as the team that had struggled to gain its footing earlier in the game. Junior quarterback Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, who had thrown for only 25 yards in the first half, logged 92 passing yards in the second to catapult Cornell into the lead, 20-17.

Ultimately, the Red’s defense cracked down, holding off Princeton’s attempts to close the gap and securing Cornell’s third win of the season. This is Cornell’s first three-game win streak since 2016 — and its first time winning three games at home in consecutive weeks since 1972.

“[Head coach Dan] Swanstrom tells us not to care about the score or the outcome, but we got out there and got the win,” said sophomore running back Jordan Triplett. “To a lot of the guys, that means a lot. It feels great to have three wins in a row.”

The Tigers struck first, and they struck hard. While 27 yards from the endzone in the first drive of the game, Princeton quarterback Kai Colón tossed a lateral pass to Josh Robinson. Cornell’s defense converged and got their hands on Robinson, and it appeared that Princeton would be taking no yardage from the play.

Instead, with a spin and sprint towards the opposite sideline, Robinson evaded the Red’s tackles and ran to score a touchdown.

Cornell’s chance to respond ended in an intercepted pass on its own 40-yard line after just two plays. A series of short drives kept the action on the Red’s half of the field, and Princeton broke through, completing a fourthdown conversion on the way to their second touchdown of the game.

Four minutes remained in the first quarter, and Cornell was down 14-0.

“[Princeton] did a fantastic job of running the football early against us and moving us off the ball,” said head coach Dan Swanstrom. “They were more physical on the point of attack. We really had to root in with our competitive spirit to try to balance this game out.”

The Red’s last chance to respond before the first intermission began in the same vein as its previous unsuccessful charges — a fumbled snap seemed likely to cut the drive short on the second play.

Bass-Sulpizio and Triplett powered a string of rushes that put the team on the precipice of the red zone. Freshman running back John McAuliffe carried a 22-yard rush to get Cornell a yard away from a touchdown before the quarter break.

The second quarter began with the ball on the one-yard line, allowing Bass-Sulpizio to immediately sneak into the endzone only seconds into the quarter. Sophomore kicker Caden Lesiewicz secured the extra point, the first of his collegiate career, putting the score at 14-7.

“[Princeton’s defense] is an experienced group,” Triplett said. “They’re fast, physical, and they know how to squeeze the line of scrimmage. At the end of the day, our line did a great job of getting the push.”

The Tigers responded with an immediate 18-yard run from running back Ethan Clark. It would not take long for Colón to lead his team into striking distance, completing pass after pass.

Like in last week’s victory over Brown, when it mattered most the Red defense came through. With the Tigers just yards away from a touchdown, the Red defense locked down the field over the course of four plays, putting the ball back in the hands of Bass-Sulpizio.

Cornell wasn’t able to take advantage of the turnover, giving up the ball after three plays. With possession back in the hands of Princeton, the Tigers quickly returned to scoring range. Though they found themselves just four yards away from their third touchdown of the game, Colón wasn’t able to complete his passes and Princeton settled for the field goal.

“[The defense] is about as good as I’ve seen,” Swanstrom said. “You got your Ben Sahakian, your Damon Barnes, you got Joey Cheshire, Max Van Fleet, James Reinbold. They’re grabbing guys like Johnny Williamson

and Keith Williamson, and those guys are jumping on board with their habits. So [the seniors] are really doing something really good for the program right now.”

The Red’s final opportunity of the half was cut short while building momentum by an interception caught by Evan Haynie. While this interception did not translate into any points for the Tigers, it was still a halting moment for the Red.

Princeton’s offense put on a dominant display throughout the half. Though the Tigers have averaged 19 first downs a match in the first part of the season, they completed 14 in the first half of the game alone. Cornell, in contrast, struggled to sustain cohesive strands of plays and had three drives of less than seven yards.

Bass-Sulpizio came into the second half having only thrown for 25 yards. He would more than double this number in the beginning of the first drive with 10-yard and 22-yard completions, but when it seemed he was getting into a groove, went down after a hard tackle.

The Red attempted a trick play with no quarterback on the field, and a pass thrown by junior wide receiver Brendan Lee was intercepted in the endzone. Thanks to a penalty call, Cornell retained possession and was granted a first down.

Bass-Sulpizio returned, and with him back in the driver’s seat of the Red offense, Cornell was able to get back within range of the endzone. Only a few yards away from another score, Bass-Sulpizio set his sights on senior wide receiver Doryn Smith. A perfectly executed 5-yard throw from Bass-Sulpizio allowed Smith to easily secure the second Red touchdown of the game.

However, the Tigers would not make it as easy for Lesiewicz, who had his extra point attempt blocked. The score now sat at 17-13.

To open the third quarter, senior linebacker Ben Sahakian logged a sack to force a fumble, which senior linebacker James Reinbold picked up to give the Red possession on Princeton’s 33-yard line.

“We have so many strong senior leaders,” Sahakian said. “So many strong guys who really, really have brotherhood, like Max [Van Fleet]. He’s one of my best friends on the line, and he’s right next to me the whole game. I know he’s going to double down when I double down, and we just go back and forth.

We have some mentality, some mantra, in the defensive room and it’s between us.”

Though the Tigers forced Cornell to the fourth down, a pass interference call granted the Red another shot. Now on the 18-yard line, the Red was once again in reach of taking the lead.

This time, the Red offense and BassSulpizio did not let the opportunity slip away. Bass-Sulpizio quickly threw the ball to junior tight end Ryder Kurtz, who broke multiple tackles to sneak his way into the endzone. A successful extra point kick from Lesiewicz officially gave the Red a three point lead over the Tigers.

“It was awesome. It always is,” Triplett said. “Last week [taking the lead] in overtime, this week in the fourth quarter. It’s an experience that I will never get tired of. We’re gonna try to do it again next week, and we want to try to do that every season.”

The defense’s senior leadership again showed up big, with fifth-year defensive lineman Maxwell Van Fleet sacking Colón to put Princeton back by 25 yards on the fourth down. When the Red’s offense took the field, it carried the same momentum from its previous drive, making headway while running down the clock.

Bass-Sulpizio punted the ball on the fourth down to catch the Tigers out of position, and Princeton regained possession with 1:48 left in the game. After making no progress in the first three plays, Colón threw a 38-yard completion to Roman Laurio to put the Tigers in the danger zone.

The Tigers were now only a few yards outside the red zone, meaning the Red defense needed to prevent them from advancing the ball any further. After a five-yard rush, Colón unsuccessfully attempted two throws. Now on the fourth down, Colón would need to secure a first down to keep the Tigers hope of a comeback alive.

Van Fleet had other things in mind. When Colón attempted a last ditch effort, Van Fleet broke it up, forcing a bad pass to take possession from the Tigers on downs.

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

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

Men’s Hockey Splits Season-Opening Series

By TYLER GOLDBERG Sun Staff Writer

Coming off a loss in the last minutes of regulation on Friday to Massachusetts, men’s hockey was looking for its first win of the season. A shakeup in net allowed freshman goaltender Alexis Cournoyer to make his collegiate debut — a 33-save, .971 save percentage performance. Saturday’s change would provide the Red with a jolt of energy and, in the end, a win.

“I thought [Cournoyer] had a good game,” said head coach Casey Jones ’90. “For that to be his first real test, I thought that was impressive.”

Cornell (1-1-0, 0-0-0 ECAC) hoped to improve on its slow start of the prior night, and that it would do — just 1:41 into the game, junior forward Luke Devlin intercepted a pass behind the net and passed it to an open freshman forward Gio DiGiulian in the slot, who fired it over the shoulder of Massachusetts goaltender Michael Hrabal.

“[DiGiulian] does have a good release,” Jones said in his post-game press conference. “That’s probably his strength is his ability to shoot it.”

After an early penalty taken by Cornell in Friday night’s loss, the Red were once again tasked with an early kill — junior forward Tyler Catalano was nabbed for slashing just over three minutes into Saturday’s contest. However, for the first time this season, the special teams unit would fight off the opportunity — from the same Massachusetts power-play unit that bested it twice the previous night. Cornell did not have a player enter the penalty box on Saturday after Catalano.

“It’s a special teams game, and we were the better special teams team tonight,” Jones said.

After the kill, Cornell traded opportunities with Massachusetts (6-3-0, 0-1-0 Hockey East), with the latter ultimately having the most dangerous chances. With just under five minutes left in the period, a nifty move by

Minutemen star Jack Musa gave him an open pass to a forward who rocketed a one-timer past Cournoyer.

In his first period of collegiate play, Cournoyer faced 16 shots, while Hrabal was only forced to confront eight. The Red entered the first intermission deadlocked in score, but not in momentum.

“[I] thought we weathered the storm in the first period,” Jones said.

In the first five minutes of the second, it looked like both teams had each other sized up. Both Cornell and Massachusetts would enjoy offensive zone sequences, but neither found many real dangerous opportunities. The Minutemen once again had the more perilous chance — a slot shot that was firmly stopped by Cournoyer.

“[Cournoyer is] just poised,” Jones said. “His biggest strength tonight was that he didn’t give up a lot of second-chance opportunities.”

It would not take long for the Red to find its footing as a fortunate bounce led to a grade-A chance for freshman forward Connor

Arseneault; once again, Hrabal stood tall, and the Minutemen survived the onslaught.

Despite the surge, Cornell drew a penalty with 4:03 remaining in the frame and went on its first advantage of the night. It did not take long to find the 2-1 lead and its first power-play goal of the season — just 25 seconds into the advantage, off sophomore forward Charlie Major’s first of the campaign. The Red took its first lead this year off the ice and into the intermission.

More than just the score sheet changed in the second but also the momentum, as the Minutemen were outshot by 10-9, and surrendered 14 faceoffs to Cornell.

“I thought we won faceoffs, which gave us possession,” Jones said. “I thought we stuck to the game plan and really had an attacking mentality.”

With just 20 minutes standing between Cornell and its first win of the season, the Red continued pressure into the frame. Just around 13 minutes in, it looked like the

lead might be extended by a senior forward Nick DeSantis shot off a rebound, but Hrabal made perhaps his best save of the game and averted danger.

The Minutemen’s frustration came out as junior defenseman Hoyt Stanley drew a penalty after the whistle with 7:57 left, and for the second time, Cornell went to the power play. Just a second later on the ensuing draw, Massachusetts committed a faceoff violation, and the advantage became a five-on-three.

Eventually, a junior forward Ryan Walsh pass found an open freshman defenseman Xavier Veilleux, who buried it for his first career goal with 6:32 remaining in the game.

“[Veilleux’s] got a good hockey sense,” Jones said. ”It was hard to imagine him being this ready [for college hockey].”

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

Tyler Goldberg can be reached at tgoldberg@cornellsun.com.