INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 130, No. 52
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2013
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Up, Up and Away
Little Strings
Slap Shot
Showers HIGH: 41 LOW: 30
Cornell is ranked one of the top schools for producing Fulbright scholars.
Martha Wydish ’14 reviews Midori Goto, a violinist who performed at Bailey Hall Tuesday. | Page 8
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The men’s and women’s hockey teams will both play RPI and Union College this weekend. | Page 16
Univ.Officials Discuss NYT Film Critic Campus Safety,Health Visits Cornell Say students should care for each other By TYLER ALICEA Sun Senior Writer
In light of growing student concerns about campus safety and health, President David Skorton and Susan Murphy ’73 Ph.D. ’94, vice president of student and academic services, stressed the importance of sharing responsibility for others’ well being. “I think we need to think more and more about how we can work collaboratively to help each other make good choices,” Skorton said during a Student Assembly meeting Thursday. “At the end “We have a there’s nothing that shared responsibility ofcanthe beday, legislated at the University level or the Student for this.” Assembly level or anywhere President David Skorton else to stop people from making poor choices.” Some students have raised concerns about the lack of walk-in health care at Gannett Health Services at night, which they say would assist victims of sexual assault and those who need medical attention. While stressing the importance of student health, Murphy said Thursday that reinstating overnight services at Gannett — which previously existed but was shut down 15 years ago — would likely not be possible. Citing an analysis conducted by the University, Murphy said that, on average, only 1.1 to 1.5 students a night went to visit a doctor See SKORTON page 5
By DARA LEVY
Sun Senior Writer
Audience members filled the aisles and lined the walls of Kaufmann Auditorium Thursday to hear A.O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times, speak about topics ranging from the 300 films he sees each year to a 2012 Twitter feud with Samuel L. Jackson. Scott said the most common question people ask about his profession is, “what gives you the right to be a critic?” Scott said criticism comes naturally in daily life, starting out as one of the first skills we master as children and being something we continue to perfect throughout life. He added that critics often land near the bottom of respected professions “along with lawyers, politicians, journalists and mafia hitmen.” “There’s a sense that the work that critics do is at best superfluous and at worst intrusive,” Scott said. Scott also spoke about the effects new technology and social media have had in changing the definition of who is considered a critic. In May 2012, actor Samuel L. Jackson took to Twitter upon reading Scott’s negatively-leaning review of The Avengers, a film that Jackson had starred in. “#Avengers fans, NY Times critic AO Scott needs a new job! Let’s help him find one! One he can ACTUALLY do!” Jackson wrote on Twitter. Scott said the incident ignited an online feud in which Jackson’s fans attacked Scott’s criticism.
NIKITA DUBNOV / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Critical thinking | A.O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times, discusses highlights of his career in Goldwin Smith Hall Thursday.
Although The Avengers went on to become the second fastest film to reach $1 billion at the global box office, according to Scott, the many people analyzing the film via Twitter showed that the role of “criticism is wobbling, that it is in a state of confusion.” Bloggers, “anonymous lunatics on Yelp,” Amazon users and composite indicators on See SCOTT page 4
Muslim Author Tells Stories‘Not Being Told’ Spotting House Fire, By NOAH RANKIN Sun Senior Writer
Moustafa Boyoumi, author of the 2008 book, How Does it Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America, spoke Thursday about what Arab Muslim Americans say they face in a post-9/11 society. Taking inspiration from civil rights
activist and author W.E.B. DuBois, Boyoumi said he wanted to write a book chronicling stories he thought “were not being told” about Arab Americans. “You often end up writing the book that you want to read,” Boyoumi said. “I felt like if nobody was going to tell the story, then I would tell the story.” Boyoumi said he had always been
RULA SAEED / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Book it | Award-winning writer Moustafa Boyoumi discusses his book about Arab Muslims’ experience in the U.S. in Malott Hall Thursday.
aware of prejudices against Muslims. After seeing the prejudices grow in scale after 9/11, however, Boyoumi said he wanted to record the stories of Arab Muslims living in the U.S. “After 9/11, suddenly everyone was interested in Islam and Muslims, especially the United States,” Boyoumi said. “It’s as if a community went from living in the shadows to living under the spotlight. And in both scenarios, the details of life are washed out. … It seemed to me very important to try to rehumanize a population that’s being increasingly dehumanized.” Boyoumi, an Arab Muslim who grew up in Canada, said he focused on the stories of individuals living in Brooklyn, where he currently lives and teaches. According to Boyoumi, Brooklyn can be viewed as representing the future of American demography. “Nobody really owns Brooklyn,” Boyoumi said. “Everybody lives narrowly shoulder-to-shoulder, and you sort of have to understand each other and work along those lines. I think Brooklyn in some ways is the best of the United States –– the United States without its foreign policy.” Beginning in 2005, Boyoumi said he See BOYOUMI page 4
Newspaper Deliverer Calls Firefighters, Wakes Up Residents By CAROLINE FLAX Sun News Editor
A newspaper deliverer driving by a house in Varna, N.Y. helped save its residents when he noticed a blaze and called the Ithaca Fire Department. At 5:00 a.m., Joel Brockway was driving past 377 Snyder Hill Rd. when he saw the blaze, woke up the house’s residents and called for help, the IFD wrote on Facebook Thursday. According to the Facebook post, upon arriving at the scene, Varna Deputy Chief Vince Monticello saw a “heavy fire on the front porch of the two-story house.” IFD extinguished the fire. According to IFD, the fire was only on the outside of the building, and the inside of the building only sustained smoke and water damage. According to IFD, the fire started because of Caroline Flax can be reached at cflax@cornellsun.com.