INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 35
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2017
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages – Free
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
National Geographic
No-Comply
Wild Weekend
Mostly Cloudy HIGH: 51º LOW: 21º
National Geographic explorer Alizé Carrère spreads optimism on adapting to climate change. | Page 3
Queens-born band No-Comply talks about their growth in Ithaca. | Page 10
The hockey team hosts Harvard and Dartmouth, while football takes on Columbia at home. | Page 16
GOP Tax Plan Could Cost C.U. Millions Pollack slams plan, claiming it has ‘no clear policy objective’ By ANNA DELWICHE and ALISHA GUPTA Sun News Editor and Sun Assistant News Editor
ANNE CHARLES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Safety hazard | After three drowning deaths in the past seven years, officials began to debate fencing off the tunnel leading to the Fall Creek Gorge.
C.U. Moves Closer to Fencing Gorge Tunnel By NICHOLAS BOGELBURROUGHS and HNIN EI WAI LWIN Sun City Editor and Sun Staff Writer
Cornell and Ithaca moved one step closer on Wednesday to blocking access to the gorge above Ithaca Falls, which has long served as a local swimming hole but has also been the site of three students’ drowning deaths in the last seven years. Ithaca’s Planning Committee, in a 3 to 1 vote, sent a resolution to Common Council that, if passed next month, would authorize the city make a deal with Cornell in which the University would pay to design and build a fence restricting access to the Fall Creek Gorge. Cornell, under the agreement, would pay for all aspects of creating the gate in front of Ezra’s Tunnel and would then turn the gate over to the City of Ithaca, which would retain “sole ownership” of the barrier. The gate would be required to include access for emergency and maintenance personnel. Ezra’s Tunnel is roughly 16.5 feet tall and 14 feet wide and was constructed by Ezra Cornell in the early 1830s to divert water from the falls to help power a mill. Now, the tunnel is the primary accessway for students and locals, hundreds of whom swim illegally at the Fall Creek Gorge and gawk at the city below each summer. But the site is also a dangerous locale, particularly for Cornell students who are often
not as familiar as Ithacans with the drowning risks posed by the flowing falls. Ithaca Police Officer Jamie Williamson, the department’s spokesman, said in August that officers respond to all of the gorges “about once a week during the summer months for some type of medical emergency.” In August of this year, a 17year-old in Cornell’s prefreshman summer program, Winston S. Perez-Ventura ’22, drowned at Fall Creek Gorge, the area that the University is now attempting to shutter. In July of 2011, Nathaniel Rand See GORGE page 4
After the unveiling of the Republican tax bill Thursday, university presidents across the country were quick to publicly rebuke the bill for its proposed taxes on endowments and potential repeal of a tax exemption for graduate students. Among these presidents was Cornell’s very own Martha E. Pollack. The proposed bill includes a 1.4 percent excise tax, section 4969 of H.R. 1, on endowment income for colleges and universities with at least 500 students and
assets of $250,000 or more per full-time student. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities estimate this tax would affect 70 colleges. Cornell, with a reported full-
time enrollment of 23,016 in 2017 and endowment value of roughly $295,000 per student, would be subject to the tax. Pollack, in an interview with The New York Times, estimated the cost to the University would be $10.5 million annually. A loss in endowment value
MEGAN ROCHE / SUN ASSISTANT DESIGN EDITOR
Death and taxes | The proposed endowment tax would impact about 70 colleges and would cost Cornell $10.5 million per year.
would likely result in “less money to spend on institutional aid, research, new libraries and other campus buildings and facilities,” according to Karin Johns, director of tax policy at NAICU. She warned that students may see “a lower aid package as a result.” However, while Prof. Ronald Ehrenberg, industrial and labor relations, said the University “would have to decide where cuts should be made” in order to accommodate a smaller budget, he deemed it unlikely that cuts would be made from aid packages. Liz Clark M.S. ’00, director of federal affairs at NACUBO, emphasized that the endowment fund is necessary for maintaining the stability of a university in the event of market fluctuations. Carefully managed to support current students and students in perpetuity, endowments are not See TAX page 4
Provost, S.A. Plan to Help Fund Cinema By JOHN YOON, YUICHIRO KAKUTANI and DREW MUSTO Sun Assistant News Editor, Sun Staff Writer and Sun Senior Editor
The Student Assembly and Provost Michael Kotlikoff came to a mutual understanding that they would begin a collaborative process
to ensure Cornell Cinema does not shut down, said a statement released Wednesday night and signed jointly by the provost and members of S.A. “We hope to bring all of the stakeholders together to develop an appropriate funding plan that will continue support for Cornell Cinema and develop a long-term
Waddington win
COURTESY OF ALEX HAMMOND ’18
Alex Hammond ’18 (center) became the youngest active town supervisor in New York after winning his election.
funding model that recognizes the role that the Cinema plays as a student activity, and also appropriately funds academic activities from academic budgets,” said the statement. “This progress will result in a motion to table the current S.A. resolution to zero out funding for Cornell Cinema,” continued the statement — signed by the provost, Jung Won Kim ’18, S.A. president, Gabriel Kaufman ’18, chair of the S.A. Appropriations Committee and Dustin Liu ’19, undergraduate student trustee. Jäelle Sanon ’19, S.A. first generation student representative at-large and member of the Appropriations Committee, said that she would “gladly table” that vote once the motion is raised — but added that tabling the vote indefinitely would be “problematic.” “Cornell Cinema is not something we are putting to the side, but we are investigating it seriously,” she said. “We will do anything in our power to make sure that Cornell Cinema is sustainable, and if that leads to tabling the vote, we will gladly table the vote.” In the unlikely event the assembly is unable to officially agree upon a new amount to allocate to the Cinema, according to the S.A. charSee CINEMA page 3