2023.02.07 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

President Delivers Annual Summary

By ERIC REILLY Sun Staff Writer

University President Martha Pollack delivered her annual address to staff on Monday afternoon, highlighting Cornell’s recent accomplishments and expressing gratitude towards staff. The meeting was well-attended by Cornell staff and faculty, both in person and over Zoom.

Students Explore ClubFest

By JONATHAN MONG Sun Staff Writer

Students browsed Cornell’s offering of student organizations and explored their future possibilities last Sunday at ClubFest in Barton Hall.

Now in its 19th year, ClubFest featured over 400 student clubs, Cornell-affiliated programs and pre-professional organizations. Clubs handed out quarter-cards and other advertising materials, chatted with prospective new members and distributed candy to passersby.

The event repeated last year’s scheduling, breaking the expo into two sessions. Preprofessional clubs and fraternities, media and publication organizations, sustainability clubs and University-sponsored programs such as Cornell in Washington, headlined the first session. The second half included entities such as performing arts groups, club sports, food organizations, identity-based affinity groups and community services.

Students found the experience fruitful and valuable through finding new communities,

while faculty and staff stressed the importance of finding community.

“Cornell is a big school, and it’s hard to find people even within your own major, and sometimes [finding people in your major] doesn’t even matter in terms of interests outside academics,” said Michelle Sánchez-Patino ’25. “I feel like ClubFest is a good way to see what’s out here at Cornell because sometimes the school can be so big that you don’t even know what’s happening.”

Not only did ClubFest give students ways to find, rekindle or continue pursuing their passions, but it also provided a way for them to find groups where they can make memories. Ricky Boche, assistant director of campus activities, stressed ClubFest’s importance for finding communities where students can fit in.

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

Pollack began by reiterating an announcement she made at last week’s Employee Assembly meeting — that the University will provide in-year bonuses to all full and part-time staff members with salaries up to $100,000. The bonuses, issued in response to higher living expenses due to inflation, will be distributed on a sliding scale based on income. Crowd members were excited to hear of this program, applauding exuberantly.

After her announcement, Pollack covered Cornell’s achievements in the last year. She noted Cornell’s development at the college level, celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and the two-year anniversary of the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

In addition to Cornell’s on-campus growth, Pollack also recognized the University’s expansion in New York City, citing Cornell Tech, the Cardiovascular AI Institute and the Multicollege Department of Design Tech as Cornell’s budding programs in the city.

Polish Ambassador Speaks to Cornellians

By ISABELA WILSON Sun Contributor

On Feb. 1, Cornell’s Society of Polish Students welcomed Marek Magierowski, Polish ambassador to the United States, to give a virtual lecture on Polish-Ukrainian relations amidst the Russo-Ukrainian War.

After leaving journalism in October 2015, Magierowski embarked on an extensive career in international politics by obtaining a position within the Polish government. Magierowski then served as

undersecretary of state at Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Israel until 2021, when Magierowski became Polish Ambassador to the United States.

Julia Pienkowska ’23, organizer of the event and member of the Society of Polish Students, stated that she found the lecture informative.

“He took a pragmatic approach, elaborating on Putin's wartime failures but recognizing that Russia is a powerful country that is not easy to beat,” Pienkowska said.

Magierowski began his lecture

by describing the legacy shared by Poland and Ukraine. Both countries served as a former constituent to the defunct Eastern Bloc, as Ukraine is a former Soviet republic and Poland was a Soviet satellite. According to Magierowski, this shared history brought the countries into an amicable alliance against Russia.

When discussing Russia, Magierowski drew comparisons between the Cold War-era SovietAmerican relations and the modern day.

2022 Wrapped | President Pollack speaks at the annual address to the University's staff, summarizing past year's achievements.

Allies | Marek Magierowski, Polish Ambassador to the United States, peeks through the hall during the Democratic Caucus.

Newbies | Students crowded among tables in Barton Hall during Spring ClubFest on Feb. 5.

JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com.

Eric Reilly can be reached at ereilly@cornellsun.com.

See RECAP page 4

Workshop and Lecture With Tarren Andrews

1 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., 258 Goldwin Smith Hall

Working With Restricted Data at Cornell 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., B30B Mann Library

Atoms for Peace in the Middle East: Borders, Reactors and Nuclear Lives

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 224 Weill Hall Study Abroad Fair

2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Colloquium: Ionut-Gabriel Farcas, Ph.D., Technical University of Munich

4 p.m. - 5 p.m., B11 Kimball Hall

Topics in Public and Ecosystem Health With Alistar Hayden

4 p.m. - 5 p.m., LH1 Schurman Hall

Evangelization, Enslavement and the Radicalized Performance of Faith in Jesuit Japan

4:30 p.m., 374 Rockefeller Hall

Info Session: Graduate Fulbright Opportunities

4:45 p.m. - 5:45 p.m., Virtual Event

Tomorrow

Debate on “Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Experts on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises”

9 a.m., Virtual Event

Doing Business in Emerging Markets: Legal Insights from the Middle East and North Africa

11 a.m. - Noon, 279 Myron Taylor Hall

“Expanding Our Views of Marginalized Students’ Identities” With Mesmin Destin

Noon - 1:15 p.m., Virtual Event

Interviewing and Negotiation for Academic Positions

Noon - 1:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Megatrends Shaping African Food Systems With Ed Mabaya, Ph.D.

2 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building

Careers in Science: Clinical and Translational Research Center

2 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building

Info Session: Language Opportunities and Funding

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., G-08 Uris Hall

“The Queerness of Home: Gender, Sexuality and the Politics of Domesticity After World War II” With Stephen Vider

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 107 Olin Library

LinkedIn Overview

5 p.m. - 6 p.m., Virtual Event

Early College Awareness Info Session With Insomnia Cookies

5 p.m. - 6 p.m., 105 Kennedy Hall

Student Activities Funding Commission Info Session

5 p.m. - 6 p.m., B30B Mann Library

The Cornell Chimes Info Session

5 p.m. - 6:15 p.m., McGraw Tower

Sample Weekly Workout: Rock Climbing

7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., Lindseth Climbing Center

Yellow Deli Opens for Business

By JONATHAN MONG Sun Staff Writer

The Yellow Deli, operated by the Twelve Tribes community, opened in the Commons on Jan. 1 at the same location as their previous establishment, Maté Factor.

According to their website, the Twelve Tribes, also known as the Commonwealth of Israel, are a religious group where families and individuals live together in communities. They have a worldwide presence, scattered throughout every continent except Africa.

Founded by Gene Spriggs in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Twelve Tribes encourages members to live as adherents to the early church, emphasizing its communal aspect — the Denver Post reported in 2022 that new members must sign over ownership of all of their possessions to the group’s limited liability companies.

The Ithaca branch has been present for about 20 years, according to Marcel Campbell, a worker at the Yellow Deli and a lifelong member of the Twelve Tribes. As the branch is located on 119 Third Street, their presence has attracted negative attention from the Ithaca community for years.

“It is also my understanding that generally most Ithacans are at least somewhat aware that the Twelve Tribes is a religious cult and thus the appeal [of the Yellow Deli] would be more to university students,

visitors and tourists who are only here temporarily,” said Ian Stewart ’23, a student who has lived in Ithaca for 31 years.

When the group arrived in Ithaca in 2003, they held an open forum to address concerns about their presence, but twenty years later, the group still remains.

“Choosing to go commercial on the Commons is basically an unannounced front for a cult,” said Pastor Steve Felker of Christ Chapel in Ithaca to The Sun in 2006. “I felt like it was important to [shed] light on what they stand for, so that the community understands what they are spending their dollars on at the commons.”

Similarly, Stewart’s early memories of the Twelve Tribes were negative.

“They casually strew pamphlets and brochures around the café that laid out their beliefs in the coming end times, or other such concepts,” Stewart said. “They were never overt in their more disturbing opinions and it is my own belief that this was deliberate, as a means of getting outsiders interested before explaining the more unsavory beliefs, much like other cults.”

However, Ithaca is not unique in its distaste for the Twelve Tribes, who have also attracted controversy from localities across the United States for their views and labor practices.

In an investigation, the University of Colorado Boulder’s newspaper the CU Independent found accusations of child abuse after interviewing former members of the organization. A publicly accessible copy of the Twelve Tribes’ “Child Training Manual” specifically encourages parents to use physical dominance to assert dominance over their children in various ways. It is unclear whether or not this document applies to the Ithaca branch of the Twelve Tribes.

According to the manual, “a child needs to learn that his disobedience results in receiving his parents’ disapproval. The parents’ controlled use of pain is not cruel and will not cause the child to fear his parents personally. He will only learn to respect their word and the authority they possess … The minor discomfort a child must experience in order to learn to obey his parents’ commands will save him much pain in the future.”

LRC Announces Conversation Hours Schedule

By ANANTHI JAYASUNDERA Sun Staff Writer

The Language Resource Center published its full schedule for their Conversation Hours initiative last week.

The initiative offers weekly conversation sessions in 28 different languages and provides a space for students to practice their language skills, including multiple levels for higher languages in higher demand —Spanish, Mandarin and French. Over 45 volunteer facilitators, including students, faculty, staff and members of the public, provide these services to the Cornell and greater Ithaca communities.

Wilson Kan ’26 discovered the opportunity to facilitate the Cantonese Conversation Hours when he met Emma Britton, coordinator of Language Learning Initiatives at Cornell Language Resource Center, at a freshman event during orientation week.

lary,” Moustafa said. “I try to get them to think about what they know and how they can use it in a sentence. I mostly just ask people very basic questions and have them think through how they would answer the question in their language.”

Attendees of Conversation Hours find the dialogues helpful, whether they are learners trying to improve their speaking skills or native or heritage speakers trying to practice their language.

“I like having group conversations in Spanish because it diversifies the conversation topics and allows me to learn from other students learning the language. I also try to ask the facilitator to correct me if I make errors, which helps me improve” said Lia Sokol ’23, a Spanish minor and a heritage Russian speaker. “In my Russian Conversation

because of their views and practices.

Ambassador Discusses Ukraine

Magierowski expects that intelligence agencies are now beginning to underestimate Russian power.

“Emma asked me if I spoke any languages, and I told her I speak Mandarin and Cantonese,” Kan said. “She invited me to facilitate the Cantonese Conversation Hour, and I thought it was a good opportunity to practice my Cantonese and make friends, so I got on board.”

Conversation hours facilitators lead conversations to groups of students who attend their weekly meetings.

“For [Russia], diplomacy is a zero-sum game, someone has to win in order for someone else to be crushed, to be irreversibly and painfully defeated,” Magierowski said. “This is something we heard in the ’60s. And this is something we heard in the ’70s, in the ’80s, on the eve of the Soviet Union’s collapse and what we can hear, even today — still a zero-sum game.”

Magierowski stated that not much has changed in contemporary Russia in comparison with the late Soviet Union, as diplomatic hostility towards the United States and the West in general continued even after the USSR’s fall in 1991.

According to Magierowski, Russia’s zero-sum foreign policy has been proven by international law violations at the war’s front lines, including Putin’s indiscriminate bombings of Ukrainian civilians and the mistreatment of human bodies using mobile crematoriums.

Magierowski found that the United States’ perception of Russia’s military power is still nebulous, despite the abundance of information on the war. He spoke to Gen. James Mattis, who served as the secretary of defense under President Donald Trump (R-Fla.), and learned that the West had once overestimated Putin’s military prowess. However, following numerous Russian failures leading to a stalemate in Ukraine,

Despite Putin’s relentless political attacks on Ukraine, Magierowski pointed out how these attacks have repeatedly backfired. He stated that rather than diminishing the Ukrainian identity, Putin’s actions have caused the West to become more aware of Ukraine and its cultural identity. NATO membership has

Magierowski said that Poland also wishes to shift its image from being a net recipient of security to a net provider of security for European powers. He used the country’s reliance on American military manufacturing as an example, stating that Poland is attempting to become self-reliant due to worries that they will not keep up with the war’s rapid pace.

Despite making acknowledgements that Ukraine may very well lose the war and keep a realistic outlook on its outcome due to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, Magierowski nonetheless held out hope that the Ukrainians could pull off an unlikely victory.

“Last semester, we would usually have three or four people come in during our weekly Conversation hours in the evening, and it’d just be a normal conversation. We would talk about how classes are going, for example,” said Pedro PontesGarcía ’26, a facilitator for the beginner Spanish level. “Now that we have changed our weekly time to the afternoon, we have seven or eight people attending one section. We often play games like Pictionary to get everyone involved and have fun.”

Hours, the type of conversation is different because there are generally more native speakers that attend.”

Moustafa shares a similar sentiment, stating that her Conversation Hours with native or heritage speakers developed more advanced goals.

“Last semester, my students were all native speakers, and we were all able to communicate using a more advanced vocabulary,” Moustafa said. “We focused more on differences in dialect, which we don’t really do with beginners and intermediates.”

Although Conversation Hours allow students to converse with multiple speakers, some students believe they could benefit from one-on-one dialogues.

also expanded, with Sweden and Finland applying for official membership.

Magierowski returned to the topic of Polish-Ukrainian relations, highlighting the crucial role that Poland has held for assisting Ukrainian refugees. The population of Poland has increased from roughly 38 million to roughly 40 million due to the influx of Ukrainian and Russian refugees, and more than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been integrated into the school system. Magierowski attributed the Ukrainians’ easy assimilation into Polish society to cultural and linguistic similarities.

“When I’m talking about the vestiges of the Soviet mentality in today’s Russia, blatant disregard for human life and for human dignity, especially in the times of war, for Mr. Putin, human life is irrelevant,” Magierowski said. “That’s why I’m not terribly optimistic about the course of this war, because I believe President Putin can still flood Ukraine with men and cannon fodders, because again, their treatment of human life.”

To conclude his lecture, Magierowski addressed concerns that Russia would use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or a Western country.

Suzanna Moustafa ’24, who leads the Arabic and Georgian conversation hours, facilitates more personal conversation hours since her groups tend to be smaller.

“I facilitate conversations based on the learner’s vocabu-

“While I appreciate the group conversations, I think one-onone meetings would also be helpful because they would allow for more individualized instruction and more directed language practice,” Sokol said.

See LANGUAGES page 4

Deli dilemma | The Twelve Tribes, owner of the new Yellow Deli, attracted attention and accusations of being a cult

“For [Russia], diplomacy is a zero-sum game, someone has to win in order for someone else to be crushed, to be irreversibly and painfully defeated.”

Marek Magierowski

“I thought it was a good opportunity to practice my Cantonese and make friends, so I got on board.”

Wilson Kan ‘26

Twelve Tribes, Yellow Deli Owner

Nowadays the Jews have really fallen away from what is right,” Mikal Yophi, member of the Twelve Tribes, said to The Guardian.

A fundamental tenet of the 348 page “Child Training Manual” is that pain ought to be the element of control over a child.

“A wriggling six month-old baby who intentionally refuses to let you put on his diaper can be taught the meaning of ‘no’ in one or two simple lessons. When he tries to crawl away while changing his diaper, he can be told ‘no,’ pulled back and held in place for a moment. The next time that he tries to crawl away, he should be spanked lightly,” said the manual.

The Twelve Tribes also believe that being LGBTQ+ is sinful and mortally dangerous.

“We do not approve of homosexual behavior,” the Twelve Tribes website said. “We do not regard it as a genetic variation, a valid alternative lifestyle or a mere psychological quirk. We embrace what God says on this subject without regard for political correctness. Homosexual behavior is immoral and can be mortally dangerous.”

The Guardian also accused them in 2000 of describing Jews as murderers while recruiting, which the Anti-Defamation League highlights as anti-Semitic behavior.

“We believe in the Bible and what it states.

However, the website says that it is laughable that some label them as anti-Semitic, since they say that they observe several Jewish customs.

According to the website, “it is amazing that anyone would consider us anti-Semitic, when we honor the Sabbath, follow the dietary guidelines in Leviticus and Deuteronomy and have approximately the same proportion of Jews in our Communities as in the general population. We don’t hate Jews, we love Jews.”

Even the Federal Bureau of Investigation has looked into the Twelve Tribes for various felonies. In 2013, they opened an investigation into the North Carolina community, following an ex-member’s allegations of sexual exploitation of children.

However, as someone who was born into the Twelve Tribes, Campbell said that he was glad to have worked alongside his family. It is unclear whether or not Ithaca’s branch also uses this practice.

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

Conversation Hours Scheduled

Nonetheless, the current Conversation Hours prove to be a more casual environment to gain speaking practice that benefits all parties.

“My favorite part of the Conversation Hours is that I can practice more,” Moustafa said. “I learned Arabic in an informal, colloquial setting, so as a facilitator I am able to help the learners pick up slang terms from me. On the other hand, I get to learn the more formal, diplomatic form of speaking that they learn through their Cornell classes.”

Moustafa noted that when students practice speaking with their peers, they do not have to worry about grades or being scolded by a professor, which relieves the pressure of academic performance and accuracy on the students

Beyond facilitating speaking practice, the Language Resource Center’s Conversation Hours have helped bring the Cornell community closer.

“As a facilitator, I’ve been able to get to know

Pres. Pollack Tanks Staf in Annual Address

Pollack also boasted the University’s increased research budget of $1.3 billion, which has provided researchers with greater opportunities to conduct path-breaking research. Pollack mentioned three of many Cornell professors — Prof. Geoffrey Coates, chemistry and chemical biology, Prof. Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz, neurobiology and behavior and Prof. Liliana Colanzi, romance studies — whose research earned awards in their respective fields this past year. Pollack attributed Cornell’s development to its staff and faculty members’ efforts.

“Whatever your role is at Cornell, each of you has played a really important part in the success of our academic enterprise, and I truly appreciate all of your contributions,” Pollack said.

Pollack then discussed her aspirations for Cornell, many

do in the 21st century is to reimagine and continue to rebuild our university over and over and over to meet the demands of a world that is again facing seismic changes — a world that is more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous than ever before,” Pollack said.

As part of this goal, Pollack announced that the ‘To Do the Greatest Good’ Campaign

has continued to make progress in making Cornell more affordable for undergraduate students.

“I am thrilled that we’ve made very significant progress on our goals of raising funds that will enable us to do three things — increase the number of students on financial aid by 1,000, decrease student loans on average by 25 percent and ensure that every student has the opportunity to spend at least one summer without the expectation of contributing to their tuition bill,” Pollack said.

people and make new friends,” Kan said. “Cantonese is special because most of the people who go to Conversation Hours are heritage speakers, so it has been a nice opportunity to get to know people with a similar background to me.”

Pres. Martha Pollack

of which centered on redefining the University in modern contexts.

“Now, what we need to

Pollack mentioned that this program echoes Cornell’s founding mission of “... any person … any study,” a sentiment that can be found at the heart of institutions across the United States. Pollack explained that the University was founded as a model for higher education, and she hopes Cornell can carry on this tradition.

“Personally, I see Cornell as uniquely well-placed to be the model of the modern research university,” Pollack said, “with a drive for innovation and a foundational commitment to diversity inclusion, with world-class faculty who work at and across the boundaries of their field, with exceptional students who will become capable citizens and problem-solving leaders… and with a talented and dedicated staff who support the work across everything that we do.”

Throughout her speech, Pollack emphasized the important role that staff have played in facilitating the University’s success, particularly in providing a supportive environment for students.

“Cornell education changes the lives of our students forever, thanks to the Cornell staff who are tireless in their commitment to providing all of our students at every level with what they need to thrive at Cornell,” Pollack said.

Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com.

Ananthi Jayasundera can be reached at ajayasundera@cornellsun.com.

Eric Reilly can be reached at ereilly@cornellsun.com.

“Personally, I see Cornell as uniquely well-placed to be the model of the modern research university.”

Pres. Martha Pollack

“Whatever your role is at Cornell, each of you has played a really important part in the success of our academic enterprise.”

“Cantonese is special because most of the people who go to Conversation Hours are heritage speakers, so it has been a nice opportunity to get to know people with a similar background to me.” Wilson

Kan ’26

Nona the Ninth and the Abyss of Love

On Sept. 13, the much-anticipated third installment of Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series finally released. Nona the Ninth answers many questions about the series — especially on the mysterious Alecto, whose body resides in the titular tomb — yet raises new ones as well. For those who have followed the previous novels, Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth , one of the biggest shocks about Nona might be its departure in scope. While Gideon and Harrow are set, respectively, in an isolated mansion on post-apocalyptic Earth and God’s personal space station, Nona takes place in the bustling, gritty backstreets of a planet caught between empire and rebellion. As Hugo Awardwinning writer Alix E. Harrow puts in her review, “There were no children in the previous two books. There were no animals or pets, either, or fried food stands or shitty upstairs neighbors… But Nona is positively bursting with life, from kids to rebels to

six-legged dogs.”

Nona herself also represents a departure. An amnesiac of ambiguous identity who woke up only six months ago, her carefree innocence and all-loving nature contrast with the last two protagonists — from Gideon’s bravado to Harrow’s dour desolation. Gideon and Harrow themselves feature less prominently than in their eponymous books. Instead, fan-favorite characters Camilla Hect, Palamedes Sextus and Pyrrha Dve play far more central roles.

What Nona does retain is Muir’s sharp, captivating prose and irreverent, freewheeling sense of humor. Even in a setting rife with war, death, loss and horror, Muir’s characterization shines through — her characters are memorable as distinct individuals, capable both of shouldering immense trauma and trading “saucy quips” with each other.

Perhaps surprisingly, one character Nona develops most is the Locked Tomb universe’s God, also known as John. In the tradition of science-fiction god-emperors like those

of Herbert’s Dune and the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, John Gaius begins the series as an enigmatic, vaguely benign figure whose ruthlessness is only revealed through the course of Harrow the Ninth.

In Nona the Ninth , Muir explores his true motives — the blood price of his and Alecto’s shared past. What emerges is a tragedy of biblical proportions. One of climate catastrophe, hubris, desperation and grief. Unfolding piece by piece, with dreamlike flashbacks to a world like our own — or what our own could be — John’s story shows how a fatal combination of power and very real love can lead to ten thousand years of embittered, vengeful conquest.

I agree with Alix E. Harrow when she writes that the book is about love. She highlights the quote “life is too short and love is too long” — a line I also cried at. Setting up the series for

its final book, Alecto the Ninth , Nona is an unironic testament to the awesome, awful and world-breaking power of love in all its forms.

But I think another theme of the book is that love, by itself, is not enough. It must be tempered by self-control, emotional maturity and genuine empathy for others. Love is beautiful, maybe the most beautiful thing in the world, but it can also be mad and cruel. No one ever owes you love. As someone who drove a dear friend to cut contact with me for reasons entirely my fault — insecurities that I perhaps justified, unconsciously, as being out of love — Nona the Ninth filled me with a sense of cold clarity, like being resurrected.

In the end, I’d like to share another line from the book that stayed with me: “It’s finished, it’s done. You can’t take loved away. We loved you too.”

I hope it comforts anyone else who might need it as much as I did.

Women Talking Refuses to Commit to Its Own Premise

Trigger Warning: This Review includes Extensive Discussions of Sexual Violence and Rape

In a twist shocking to absolutely no one, much of the writing surrounding Women Talking has involved negative regressive accusations of wokeism and trauma dumping on one hand, and vague liberal fawning of praise on the other. Seemingly designed to invoke a discourse about nothing in particular, Women Talking is the film, based on the book, based on the true story of what the opening text describes as “an act of female imagination.” The act, a radical response of an Amish community’s women to a culture enabling constant sexual assault and subsequent gaslighting, is one which seems so straightforward to make controversy impossible and, as such, becomes the perfect vehicle for reactionary takes. Unfortunately for the film, it ends up seeming to anticipate potential criticism and feels like it works overtime to produce palatability at the expense of quality. What emerges is Women Talking, a film so seemingly wavering on its own premise that it fails to draw out anything more than momentary emotional reaction and obligatory applause.

Much of the difficulty in discussing Women Talking emerges in the fact that many of the emotional beats are fairly effective. Sarah Polley directs the film in a fairly stylish and attention-grabbing way. She cross-cuts into and out of subplots and leverages an excellent score to better engage the audience in a film which otherwise would be criticized for its stuffy, play-like nature. Yet, it’s precisely because of its constant efforts to entertain that Women Talking loses much of its quality. For a film called Women Talking, Polley’s direction refrains from presenting too much of the title act, vying instead to maximize conventional storytelling beats and consequently emphasize watchability. Thus, what emerges is a film that doesn’t ever really grapple with its guiding principle. It never ultimately descends into effect philosophical discourse because of its insistence upon plottyness, and it never fully grounds the film in the barn so as to honestly depict its central confrontation. In buying a film that is watchable and entertaining, Women Talking sells any aspirations towards an interesting ideological center.

The film certainly does more to center authentic women’s voices and authentic women’s stories than any entry in the rape revenge film subgenre, but it dredges up the same

conclusory issue as many of those do. A triumphant ending, whether in violence or in liberation, still ultimately suggests an unpleasant dismissal of the reality that there is nothing unambiguously good to come out of something so horrible. From the opening text to Hildur Guðnadóttir’s optimistic score, there remains the uncomfortable implication here that, regardless of all the awful events underpinning the film, the story itself should make us feel good. While it may be too much to ask for an Oscar-vying film to suggest the possibility that neither justice nor liberation is a legitimate outgrowth of sexual violence or proto-fascism, the absence of cynicism produces a far more sinister notion. When presented with a wholly bright-eyed conclusion, where evil (regardless of how earnestly that evil is presented) facilitates the emergence of good (and hardly anything but good), the film produces the indication of evil as a necessary productive condition for good. Making the film an “act of female imagination” suggests a causal relationship between that imagination and the preceding trauma, an unsettling idea treated rather inexplicably as an avenue for populism.

Not all of Women Talking’s filmmaking works on its own terms, either. In its attempts to serve

simultaneously as a plotted story of heroic women and a philosophical discourse, it generates characters who speak with the combined experience of uneducated and perpetually gaslit Amish women and the intellectual ammunition of Ivy League students. Using the faulty allegory dredges up more interesting questions than would an honest depiction of the former, but also makes the film suffer from its own nonsensical construction. Similarly, there’s even an equivocation on the purportedly radical message of the film. As the women at one point express their ire at their oppressors as “men did this,” one character dismisses with the thought “not all men,” as the camera cuts to Ben Whishaw (its allied poster child) as if in agreement. Radical messaging is dismissed in an instant through an unintentionally hilarious moment which, aside from reading like an idiotic studio note, feels out of place even with the limited project of the film.

Polley’s film looks drab and gray so as to present a visual ugliness to match with the thematic ugliness of the film. The washed out colors, though, simply make each shot unpleasant to watch, and, lacking any other indications of disgust, feel out of place in a film that’s otherwise asking to be enjoyed. Without any interest in supporting such ugliness

through either plot or emotional beats, we’re left with a feel-good movie that simply looks ugly.

Women Talking is a film which feels much in conversation with Schindler’s List (though perhaps not quite so expertly directed). Schindler’s List centers a Nazi who saved Jews, rendering the horrors of the Holocaust watchable through the aberrant heroism of one who defied it. Women Talking doesn’t center the men (save Ben Whishaw), but it still strains to give its audience contentment in the otherwise intolerable evil of rape. In both cases the stories present the miniscule “at least” rather than honestly baring the overwhelming majority which remains inexplicably horrifying. Maybe there exists a place for films which are interested in the “single drop at the bottom of the glass” perspective, but that place should hardly be the Academy Awards, particularly when the film is treated as a replacement for the honest depiction of a glass that is, for all intents and purposes, empty.

MAX FATTAL SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Amy Wang is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at saw289@cornell.edu.

This is the second article in a series covering each of the Best Picture Oscar nominees.

Max Fattal is a sophomore in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. They can be reached at mbf68@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF TOMMY ARNOLD

When Health Leaves Are Needed

Cornell students should not be afraid of taking a health leave for mental health, no matter what time of the semester it is. Students’ health will be better in the long run, especially for any mental health condition that is not acute (lasts a short period of time). Te only way to help chronic mental health conditions, especially those that are interfering with school and when outpatient treatment alone isn’t enough, is to be bold and vulnerable. Advocating for yourself is key.

Daniela Wise-Rojas Anything but MunDANIties

Trigger warning: this piece contains discussion of suicidal ideation, depression and other mental health conditions.

I’m not writing this column in my Ithaca dorm room, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, I’m not even enrolled in Spring classes at the moment. I’m writing this column in a time crunch because I have limited computer access where 90 percent of what’s on Google is blocked and my usual computer time is consumed by endless health appointments. I’m in California, a one hour car-drive away from my hometown of San Ramon, on a completely different coast. I’m in a psychiatric residential care facility, on a health leave from Cornell. A lot has happened since I’ve last published a column.

With that being said, there’s no place to gather the utmost inspiration to write like residential. You’re in an environment where you’re focusing on how to get better, rather than a competitive environment. I have a list of topics to tackle with my columns this semester; as is, my perspective on almost everything is evolving, and I want to continue to use my platform to educate myself and send messages to the Cornell student body and greater community.

For this column, I want to focus on something I feared the most: Taking a health leave of absence.

When a trusted adult in my life mentioned taking a health leave, I hated the idea. It felt like I was failing myself; I’m smart enough to get into Cornell, the last thing I wanted was to waste time, money and resources just because I was struggling. I told myself “everyone struggles, I don’t need to take a health leave. I don’t need major surgery, I’m not dying.” So, I thought that taking a health leave was honestly kind of dumb.After publishing my column on being honest with a counselor, where I detailed what happens after you ask for help when you want to end your life, I was on an upward swing. What I failed to understand was that I was, in fact, dying, just on the inside.

A month later, all hell broke loose again. I still wanted to die. I had another episode, ending up back in the same psych ward. By this point, I realized that this is how my life will be. I’ll work hard, struggle, have a couple psych ward visits, and repeat. Te hospital felt like a safe environment, and that’s what I needed. I had nine visits to the ER for mental health last semester. I fell into this cycle of having episodes, calling for help, ending up in the ER, feeling safe in the annex rooms, calming myself down and ending up getting discharged rather than admitted. All this was going on, I was struggling to attend classes, and I still believed a health leave was not ideal. Looking back, that’s insane. I really needed help, and I needed more than just crisis management.

People in my life started floating around the term “residential,” and needless to say, it sounded terrifying.

My psychiatrist in the psych ward seconded that, diagnosing me with borderline personality disorder (on top of everything I already had) during my final visit. Looking at my medical records was scary. My “problem list” was rather lengthy at this point: ADHD, major depressive disorder, BPD, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and PTSD. Tat doesn’t even include some of my physical health conditions. I was still trying to be a full time student, work as an RA and have an office job, have a social life, keep this column and maintain my dining editor duties for Te Sun. I thrive off of stress,

but this was getting to the point where everything was overbearing. Having a therapy session every week and seeing a psychiatrist two times a month suddenly wasn’t it anymore.

Daniel Bernstein Feel the Bern

Daniel Bernstein is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at dbernstein@ cornellsun.com. Feel the Bern runs alternate Sundays this semester.

There comes a time in almost every high school-to college-aged kid’s life where they stop playing organized sports.

For some, it’s a moment of relief. You never really wanted to play soccer anyway, you only really did it because you weren’t half-bad and you knew your teammates and parents would be a little disappointed if you quit. Besides, it looked good on the college app. Maybe you were done after freshman year of high school because you worked up the courage to say no, this isn’t for me. Or maybe you enjoyed your time playing your sport, but you were just ready. It’d been a long season, and it was bittersweet to be

I was weighing the pros and cons of taking a health leave, and it essentially boiled down to these factors: If I took a health leave, I could take time to go to residential, get the help I need, learn how to manage my conditions, possibly preventing future suicide attempts. However, taking a health leave required paperwork, meant I had to quit both of my jobs, possibly graduate a semester later than I planned. I needed money to help with the logistics of traveling, find somewhere for my car, to plan the logistics of flying with a cat and a fish, try to get into a residential facility, not be able to run for an editor position again for the next Sun editorial board, put my social life on hold, and navigate the murky waters of transferring prescriptions between states when there’s a billion laws.

As you can tell, the list of cons was lengthy, but the few things on the pro list were powerful enough to outweigh the cons. It took a trusted adult to tell me, “if you choose to not get help, I cannot support that decision, and I’m saying this out of love.” I initially fought this person, but then I came to my senses. I decided in November that I was going to take a health leave. Here’s how the process works: after deciding you want to take a health leave, or even if you’re still deciding and you just want to find out more about it (which at this point, that’s where I was at), you can go to Cornell Chatter and in the same way you book meetings with your advising dean, you can book an appointment with the Heath Leaves Coordinator. Obviously, taking a health leave is different... To read more visit Cornellsun.com

Te Death of the Athlete

done, but it was right.

For others, it’s a moment of pain. You broke your ankle playing pick-up basketball and from the sideline blew a somber kiss goodbye to your senior baseball or softball season. Or you lost a big game — maybe even a playoff game — you could have sworn you should have won. You walked away from your respective field, court, track, rink, dock, pool or piste speechless, trying

you are always needing exercise, and your body is always athletic. No matter when you finish playing your sport, varsity, junior varsity, club, whatever level you achieved, you are always an athlete. Te competition transforms from a blank-faced opponent like your high school or college rival into a previous version of yourself, and the game you play against this opponent is some form of physical or mental training as opposed to lacrosse.

I believe this to be mostly true. I don’t always think that athletics and exercise need to be competitive, even in a bettering-of-self sort of way, but I recognize and appreciate how we are always athletes on an individual basis.

I find it, however, that what’s more fascinating than the idea of how we continue to be athletic beyond the end of each of our respective athletic careers is what happens in the moment those careers die. What changes inside of us? At this turning point, I think there’s a necessary point of introspection. You evaluate your own motivations, goals, skills picked up along the way, how good of a teammate you are and how much fun you have and are able to have.

to keep your chin up because that’s what you’re supposed to do. Or you cried with your teammates in the locker room after your final game or match, whatever the outcome was — you might not even remember.

It’d be easy to write this column with the main takeaway being that the athlete in you never really dies. You are always moving,

Here’s an example. I often find myself thinking about how a journeyman back-up who plays at the professional level deals with internal evaluation at the end of their career. Tey were a top recruit out of high school, a superstar at the collegiate level and then made their promise to be the best there ever was. Ten, they got to the pros and by all means stunk. When they retire, how do they look back? How do they suppress regret and instead find pride in what fans and pundits

might call a failure? Maybe more importantly, how do they look forward? How do they learn from their success and mistakes to move on and be better?

It wasn’t until I finished my senior year playing Sprint Football this past fall that I began to realize how broadly these questions apply. Not just to the back-up, but to the superstar and the role player. To me, my teammates, my peers and anyone who has ever played a sport at any organized level.

I spent 13 years playing football, and it’s pretty unlikely that I will ever have to kick slide into a pass set again in my life. It’s a skill I’ve practiced so much that I do it in my dreams, just gone. What I will have to do, however, is learn how to harness the energy and effort that I’ve put into niche skills for my sport and apply them elsewhere. Te same goes for the devotion towards being a good teammate, committing to personal growth, attaining specific goals and having fun playing a game I love. Now, I have to figure out how to redirect that devotion.

I think this applies for anyone who has ever played a sport, and I think athletics in particular are powerful for this reason — whether or not you even enjoyed the game you played, or regardless of how hard you think you tried — they require so much of us, and then they just end.

Time runs out on the game clock, the final out is caught, the sun sets and it’s over. Te journeyman back-up sleeps well at night knowing that their athletic career, despite its appearance of triviality, has been profound. Our careers, regardless of how passionate or successful, have too been profound. May their deaths only bolster their legacies.

Daniela Wise-Rojas is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at dwise-rojas@cornellsun.com. Anything But MunDANIties runs periodically this semester.

You evaluate your own motivations, goals, skills picked up along the way, how good of a teammate you are and how much fun you have and are able to have.

By this point, I realized that this is how my life will be. I’ll work hard, struggle, have a couple psych ward visits, and repeat.

Sundoku

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name. (Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/

Thirsty

Puzzle 5475

Mr.

Mr.

Mr.

Wrestling

Wrestling Captures Ivy Title

Te Red beat Princeton and Penn to secure its 42nd conference title

By NATE KRACKELER Sun Contributor

No. 5 wrestling (11-2, 5-0 EIWA) headed into its final games of conference play with a goal in mind: its 42nd Ivy League championship. With matchups against Princeton (3-9, 1-3 EIWA) and No. 25 Penn (6-5, 5-1 EIWA), it controlled its own destiny. After two wins, it would secure the title. With history on the line, the Red stepped up, sweeping the weekend to secure its 42nd Ivy League championship.

As fans funneled in, lining up for commorative bobbleheads, three time national champion Diakomihalis prepared for his final meet in front of a home crowd at the Friedman wrestling center.

The Red kicked off its dual against the Tigers with a bang, as sophomore No. 9 Julian Ramirez took down the undefeated No. 3 Quincy Monday, 10-6, at 165 pounds to start off what turned into an easy win for Cornell. A pin by senior Brendan Furman and technical falls by No. 3 junior Vito Arujau at 133 and No. 1 senior Yianni Diakhomihalis at 149 propelled the Red to a dominant 32-7 win.

This victory meant that Sunday’s dual versus Penn was for the Ivy League title, but the meet carried additional significance. As fans funneled in, lining up for commemorative bobbleheads, three time national champion Diakhomihalis prepared for his final meet in front of a

home crowd at the Friedman wrestling center.

Following two Penn victories by decision and a dominant win by Arujau, Cornell trailed 6-3 and was in need of a victory. Diakhomihalis took on

“Our crowd is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic crowds out there in the wrestling community... I think it’s really tough to be an away team in the Friedman.”

Vito Arujau ’23

No. 12 Doug Zapf in a contest that started out very close before the Red pulled away, ultimately prevailing 8-3. Diakhomihalis walked off the mat for the last time at Friedman to a standing ovation from a near sellout crowd. Diakhomihalis will look to take home his fourth NCAA championship next month, which would tie Kyle Dake’s ’13 record.

The energy from the fans proved to be crucial as the Red channeled that enthusiasm to rally and secure a league title. After falling behind 9-6 heading into halftime, a tightly contested decision win by Ramirez tied the match before Cornell started to take over. An explosive pin by No. 4 sophomore Chris Foca at 174 netted the Red six points and sent the arena into a frenzy.

“Our crowd is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic crowds out there in the wrestling community,” Arujau said. “I think it’s really tough to be an away team in the Friedman.”

After a decision win by Penn, No. 14 junior

“Securing the Ivy League title is really important to us just to stay consistent, show all the others Ivies that we are the best... It’s nice to finish the season on an up. It’ll help us build a little momentum going into the postseason, into EIWAs and then ultimately NCAAs.”

Vito Arujau ’23

Jacob Cardenas secured an important major decision at 197 that clinched the Ivy League title for Cornell. The team unfurled the Ivy banner and will look to use the momentum from its championship moving forward towards the postseason.

“Securing the Ivy League title is really important to us just to stay consistent, show all the other Ivies that we are the best,” Arujau said. “It’s nice to finish the season on an up. It’ll help us build a little momentum going into the postseason, into EIWAs and then ultimately NCAAs.”

With less than a month until the EIWA championships, the team is in the stretch run of its schedule. The Red is back in action next weekend as they take on Binghamton on Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at James T. Valvano Arena.

Take down | Wrestling has been riding a 10-game win streak, including five wins against Ivy opponents, en route to the conference. The team now looks ahead at the EIWA Championships, where it looks to defend its title.

JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Nate Krackeler can be reached at njk74@cornell.edu.