The Corne¬ Daily Sun
MEET THE PLAYING FIELD
Jane’s Predictions
Boston College over Bentley
Denver over Providence
Boston College over Denver
Manchester, New Hampshire Regional
For the second year in a row, Boston College has clinched the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. Despite the early departure of star forward Will Smith, who opted to forgo his college eligibility to sign with the San Jose Sharks, BC’s depth is what poises it for a deep playoff run. Notable weapons include Gabe Perrault (New York Rangers), Hobey Baker finalist Ryan Leonard (Washington Capitals) and top 2025 NHL draft prospect, James Hagens.
Tasked with taking on the top-seeded Eagles in Bentley, which — like Cornell — secured an automatic bid into the tournament by winning the Atlantic Hockey tournament. Looking to lead his team to an improbable upset is former Quinnipiac forward Ethan Leyh, who has posted 41 points as a graduate student for Bentley.
Defending national champion Denver is once again getting shipped east for regionals, and will be east of the Mississippi for the third year in a row. The last time the Pioneers played in Manchester was in 2023 where it got upset by lower-seeded Cornell. This year, the Pioneers are led by two Hobey Baker award finalists in defenseman Zeev Buium (Minnesota Wild) and forward Jack Devine (Florida Panthers).
The Pioneers will meet Providence College, one of six members of Hockey East to make the final playing field. The Friars lost to the University of Connecticut in its conference tournament quarterfinals, and have shown some fragility by dropping some key games against ranked opponents down the stretch. Still, Providence has experience playing the top teams in college hockey, and will look to bar the defending champions from securing their 11th national title. Should Denver and BC win, a national championship rematch will take place in Manchester.
Eli’s Predictions
Boston College over Bentley
Denver over Providence
Denver over Boston College
Allentown, Pennsylvania Regional
Due to a quirk in the way seeding and hosting is determined in the NCAA tournament, No. 3 overall and regional top-seed Maine will have to travel to Pennsylvania to take on Penn State, despite being the higher seed. Cornell fans will be familiar with Maine, which the Red knocked out of the tournament in the first round last season. Led by two transfers — Harrison Scott from Bentley and Taylor Makar (Colorado Avalanche) from UMass — Maine enters the NCAA tournament after securing the Hockey East crown. Between the pipes, Mike Richter award finalist Albin Boija has been excellent for the Black Bears, posting the nation’s fourth lowest goals against average.
Penn State — Maine’s first round opponent — enters the tournament scorching hot. The Nittany Lions have lost just four times in 2025, with the loses all coming against top-15 teams in Pairwise. With 52 points, Hobey Baker finalist Aiden Fink (Nashville Predators) paces the team offensively.
Making irs first ever NCAA tournament appearance, UConn is 8-1-1 in its last 10 games thanks in large part to an offense which has scored three-plus goals in all eight wins during that stretch.
Facing off against the Huskies is a fellow Connecticut team, Quinnipiac. UConn defeated the Bobcats, 2-1, back in January. Despite being upset in the ECAC tournament by Cornell, Quinnipiac is set up well for NCAA tournament success. The Bobcats have the ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year (Holy Cross transfer Jack Ricketts), the nation’s best power play and a winning culture, being just two years removed from
2025 NCAA TOURNAMENT
winning the national championship in 2023. Last year, the Bobcats lost in overtime to Boston College in the regional final.
Jane’s Predictions
Maine over Penn State Quinnipiac over UConn Maine over Quinnipiac
Eli’s Predictions Maine over Penn State Quinnipiac over UConn Quinnipiac over Maine
Toledo, Ohio Regional
Headlined by a talented duo of freshmen named Cole, Boston University earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after losing 2024 No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini to the NHL. Hockey East Rookie of the Year Cole Hutson (Washington Capitals) and Cole Eiserman (New York Islanders), played with the United States National Team Development Program and won gold this winter at the World Junior Championships. While relying on freshmen can be risky in the tournament, their pure talent could carry BU far.
Facing off against BU will be Ohio State. The Buckeyes are coming off a heartbreaking loss in the Big 10 championship game, falling to Michigan State 4-3 in double overtime. Featuring Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (Nashville Predators), a grad student transfer from Northeastern with the best name in college hockey, the Buckeyes have the fourth most even-strength goals in the country and have the ability to beat any team on any night.
Go to page three of the supplement for the Cornell vs. Michigan State preview.
Jane’s Predictions Boston University over Ohio State Cornell over Michigan State “Once again, I am an impartial reporter.”
Eli’s Predictions Boston University over Ohio State Cornell Over Michigan State “What Jane said.”
Fargo, North Dakota Regional
It’s set to be a pair of exciting games in North Dakota, headlined by first-time NCHC winner, Western Michigan. The Broncos have assembled an impressive 2024-2025 campaign, led by sophomore Alex Bump’s 41 points and clutch genes — he scored twice in WMU’s third-period comeback in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff championship game, including the double-overtime game-winner.
The Broncos will face Minnesota State, which clinched a tournament berth after winning the Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship. The Mavericks have not lost since Jan. 31, and have scored three or more goals in their last five games. Though WMU is a powerhouse, Minnesota State — boasting the only goaltender to be named a finalist for the Hobey Baker in Alex Tracy — is peaking at the right time and will look to upend the region’s top seed.
The lone Hockey East team heading west is the University of Massachusetts, which claimed an at-large bid despite its loss in its conference tournament quarterfinals. Cornell defeated UMass in January, but the Minutemen rode a strong second half to secure its spot in the tournament.
UMass will have to get through the University of Minnesota, which will take the ice on Thursday having not played a hockey game in 19 days — the Gophers lost its Big Ten quarterfinal series on Mar. 9 but sat comfortably within the range of an at-large bid. It will look to shake off some rust and let Hobey Baker finalist Jimmy Snuggerud continue his stellar junior campaign.
Jane’s Predictions
Minnesota State over Western Michigan
Minnesota over UMass
Minnesota State over Minnesota
Eli’s Predictions
Western Michigan over Minnesota State
Minnesota over UMass
Western Michigan over Minnesota
The Difference One Year Can Make
JANE McNALLY Sun Senior Editor
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story was published in College Hockey News.
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — If you had told head coach Mike Schafer ’86 one year ago that he’d win another Whitelaw Cup, his second consecutive trophy, he wouldn’t have believed you.
“I was done last year,” Schafer said, wearing a blue cap with “2025 ECAC Champions” written right on the front. “I was ready to retire. I thought it was awesome that we won a championship. … [After former associate head coach Ben Syer left], I just knew I couldn’t leave at that particular time. And I had another year left in me.”
A year later, Schafer and Cornell are champions again. This time, he got to hoist the championship trophy with longtime friend and associate head coach, Casey Jones ’90.
“I'm very grateful that I get to work with Casey. He's gonna be tremendous,” Schafer said. “He's gonna carry on the tradition at Cornell — these guys are very fortunate to have him as a coach.”
For Jones, Saturday’s championship game meant being faced with the group he left last June. Jones spent 13 years building a culture at Clarkson, and was tasked with the difficult decision of leaving a program he was loyal to, or returning to coach for his alma mater.
He opted for the latter. Seeing the players he’d helped develop — like Clarkson seniors Ryan Richardson and Kaelan Taylor — in tears after succumb-
ing to Cornell in Saturday’s title game, was difficult.
“It was tough,” Jones said. “Got to see most of them in the [handshake] line going out there, got a chance to congratulate them and wish them well. It was hard.”
Jones got a taste of the Whitelaw Cup back in 2010, when he served the same role he does now under Schafer. When he left for Clarkson two seasons later, he was determined to accomplish that same feat, which he did in 2019.
On the other bench in 2019 stood Schafer, reeling at what was a heartbreaking overtime defeat for Cornell, watching his former player and associate coach hoist the Whitelaw Cup while the team’s drought grew to nine years.
On Saturday, when Schafer had the Whitelaw Cup in his clutch on the ice at Herb Brooks Arena, he gestured for Jones to join him in a picture. “We didn’t get to do this last time,” Schafer said, alluding to the disappointment and division the 2019 game has delivered. Together, they got to lift the trophy over their heads.
For Schafer, it will be the final time he’ll be able to do so. For Jones, he’ll look to accomplish it next year as head coach of Cornell.
“My first year of coaching, he was a freshman. He was a young French kid from Témiscaming, Quebec,” Schafer said. “He's turned into one of the best coaches in college hockey."
Jones was the student, and soon he’ll be the coach — Jones will succeed Schafer. That is, whenever the Red stops winning.
Saturday’s 3-1 win over Clarkson — the same result it dealt St. Lawrence in last year’s title game — was another signature Cornell win. Whether it be Schafer, Jones, or anyone else behind the bench, Cornell’s marquee defensive prowess allowed the Red to become the first ECAC team to win back-to-back Whitelaw Cups since Union in 2014.
“When I was an assistant coach here, and when I played in the 90s, they played the same way,” said Clarkson head coach J.F. Houle. “They're true to their identity.”
The recent defensive stinginess as of late can be attributed to Schafer — since he suffered a concussion after getting hit in the head with a puck in the Red’s Feb. 28 loss to Union, Schafer has taken a step back and honed in on the defensive group, allowing Jones to take a more central role on the bench. That is the opposite of the usual interplay between the head coach and assistant.
Whatever dynamic has been at play for Cornell behind the bench, has worked as of late. Cornell has won six games in a row and nine of its last 11.
“They all collectively work together to kind of help us get to our main goal, which is this [and] a national championship,” said junior forward Nick DeSantis, who had two points and the game-winning goal. “Even when Schafe wasn't at the rink after his concussion, [Jones] stepped up, Corey [Leivermann] stepped up, and [Sean Flanagan] stepped up, and did a great job teaching us and getting us prepared for this.”
DeSantis potted the second of Cornell’s two first-period goals, the first
one coming courtesy of senior forward Ondrej Psenicka who finished off a textbook passing play. Clarkson goaltender Ethan Langenegger, the ECAC Goaltender of the Year, gave up two goals on the first three shots he saw.
That would be all the scoring Cornell needed to get past the Golden Knights, before sophomore forward Ryan Walsh sealed the game with an empty-netter. Clarkson halved Cornell’s lead in the third period, but was met with an otherwise impenetrable force in net — senior goaltender Ian Shane.
It’s hard to believe that this was the same Cornell team that lost to Clarkson eight games ago on just 11 shots against. Schafer stared down a daunting path to Lake Placid, much less the NCAA tournament. His career was as good as done.
“[After that game] I was so sick and tired of analytics and everything else, and we got to work,” Schafer said. “Practices were long, they were hard, they were tough, and these guys responded. The
players just stiffened up and became even more resilient.”
Cornell was the sixth seed in the ECAC tournament. Now, the Red is heading to the NCAA tournament as arguably the hottest team in college hockey.
For Schafer, that means one more opportunity to get behind the bench, no matter what capacity that may be. At the end of the day, it’s another chance to represent his alma mater.
“I still never forget the day I got the call to come back and coach my alma mater. It was probably one of the highlights of my life,” Schafer said. “I'm just really grateful for the sport of hockey, what it's given to myself, my family here."
Schafer gets to end his career the same way that he started: with back-toback Whitelaw Cups. He’ll get one more shot at a national title.
“It doesn’t get any better than that as a coach,” Schafer said.
ELI FASTIFF & JANE McNALLY Sun Senior Editors
LEILANI BURKE / SUN SENIOR EDITOR
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
CORNELLIANS SUE TRUMP
Pro-Palestinian Plaintif Told to Surrender to ICE
Judge Hears First Arguments in Case
By BENJAMIN LEYNSE and AVERY WANG Sun News Editor and Sun Senior Writer
March 25 — The legal fight of Momodou Taal, a pro-Palestinian activist and international graduate student, began in court on Tuesday, as a federal judge heard the first arguments of Taal’s First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration.
At the heart of the hearing was Taal’s possible U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest and questions over the jurisdiction of the U.S District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Taal, along with Prof. M koma wa Ng g , literatures in English, and Sriram Parasurama, a Ph.D. student in plant sciences, are suing the federal government, claiming that the enforcement of two presidential executive orders violates their First and Fifth Amendment rights. The case now awaits Northern District of New York Judge Elizabeth Coombe’s decision.
The Department of State revoked Taal’s F-1
student visa on March 14, according to court documents, one day before he and two other Cornell plaintiffs filed their lawsuit. However, Taal only received notification of his visa revocation in an email sent to his lawyers on March 21, the same day that the Department of Justice told Taal to surrender himself to ICE custody.
In the hour-long hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs and federal government fielded questions from Coombe.
Ethan Kanter, chief of the national security unit for the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation, emphasized the existing statutes of the Immigration and Nationality Act as the two legal parties contested the jurisdiction of the Northern New York District Court.
Kanter argued that because Taal’s F-1 student visa was revoked on March 14, one day before he filed a lawsuit, the Immigration and Nationality Act would mandate that Taal’s case should be heard not at the district level but during removal proceedings in a federal court of appeals.
Removal proceedings are the legal process to determine whether a non-citizen can remain in the country.
Eric Lee, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, admitted that the federal government “gain[ed] points” with the law for revoking Taal’s visa before his lawsuit was filed. However, Lee argued, the actual injury that Taal sustained began before his loss of legal status, which would make the case not subject to the INA.
Coombe also directed both parties to argue whether the lawsuit demonstrated a tangible injury to which redress could be applied.
The initial filing of Lee’s plaintiffs emphasized the broader implications of the executive orders for “millions across the country.” However, at court on Tuesday, he was pressed to present only the specific injuries that the two executive orders caused Taal and the two other plaintiffs.
To continue reading this artilce, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Benjamin Leynse and Avery Wang can be reached at bleynse@cornellsun.com and awang@cornellsun.com.
DOJ Tells Taal to Turn Himself In
By BENJAMIN LEYNSE Sun News Editor
March 21 — The Department of Justice is requesting that pro-Palestinian activist and international graduate student Momodou Taal surrender himself into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an email sent to Taal’s council on Friday morning.
The email came hours after lawyers representing Taal attempted to preemptively block his arrest or detainment by requesting a temporary restraining order in federal court following the reported presence of unidentified law enforcement outside Taal’s residence, according to affidavits attained by The Sun. The court has not yet made a decision on whether to accept the temporary restraining order or if it applies to Friday’s DOJ email.
Taal has been involved in an ongoing lawsuit against the federal government since March 15, claiming that the enforcement of two national security-related executive orders passed by President Donald Trump violated his First and Fifth Amendment rights.
After two eyewitnesses reported unknown law enforcement parked outside Taal’s residence on Thursday, his attorneys filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to attempt to preemptively prohibit Taal’s arrest or deportation on the basis of his involvement in the ongoing lawsuit.
Taal’s attorneys submitted the DOJ’s email and requested that the court consider it in relation to Thursday’s motion for a temporary restraining order in a Friday letter to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
In the letter, Taal’s lead counsel Eric Lee, and ADC legal director and co-counsel Christopher
Godshall-Bennett questioned the legality of ICE’s request for Taal’s detainment amid the ongoing March 15 lawsuit.
“[Taal’s detainment] would substantially impede counsel’s ability to directly communicate with Mr. Taal … and also constitutes an unlawful attempt to remove this Court’s jurisdiction over this case,” Lee and Godshall-Bennett’s letter stated.
Following the letter, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Coombe stated that the court “carefully reviewed” Thursday’s requested temporary restraining order and directed the federal government to determine whether “the Executive Orders challenged in [the lawsuit] are a basis for Mr. Taal’s anticipated ‘surrender to [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] custody’” in the case docket.
Lee and Godshall-Bennett’s letter stated that they and Taal would comply with ICE, “should the courts so instruct.”
The federal government has until 5 p.m. on Saturday to respond to Coombe’s order.
Benjamin Leynse can be reached at bleynse@cornellsun.com.
Kotlikof Named 15th President, Cutting Short Two-Year Interim Term
By CEREESE QUSBA Sun News Editor
March 21 — After serving eight months as interim president, Michael Kotlikoff has been named Cornell’s 15th president in a vote by the Cornell Board of Trustees on Friday.
This appointment is effective immediately, according to an email sent out to the Cornell community from Board of Trustees chair Kraig H. Kayser MBA ’84 and incoming chair Anne Meinig Smalling ’87.
Kotlikoff was named interim president on May 9, 2024, following former president Martha Pollack’s announcement of retirement. He was slated to serve two years as interim president, with a search committee intended to select the next president six to nine months prior to the end of Kotlikoff’s term.
In June 2024, Kotlikoff announced a search committee for the selection of his replacement as provost that included “a very broad swath of folks to participate, from across colleges, constituencies and academic disciplines, as well as undergraduate and
graduate student representation.” The committee invited the Cornell community to provide their input on the selection through an online survey as well as a confidential mailbox.
However, there was no public announcement of the selection process for president — which took place significantly earlier than scheduled — nor was
an official committee or community input system named.
When asked why Cornell decided to end its twoyear search for a permanent president or whether external candidates were considered, Cornell Media Relations referred The Sun to the Friday email announcing Kotlikoff’s election and the Cornell Chronicle article. However, neither directly addressed the two questions.
When asked about his plans for the time after his interim presidency in a September interview with The Sun, Kotlikoff said that he would “almost certainly retire,” after completing his two-year interim presidency term.
“I closed my lab a few years ago. I still teach a little bit, but I’ll retire at that point,” he said at the time.
When asked why he was serving a two-year term as interim president, Kotlikoff said, “The two-year term is to give stability. I was provost, and if I now become president on an interim basis or on an acting basis, and we immediately start searching for a president we would have to start searching for a president and a provost at the same time.”
Kotlikoff suggested that the next president will “most likely be an external candidate and one who’s not as familiar with Cornell.”
During his 25 years at Cornell, Kotlikoff has worked as a lab director, professor, teacher and mentor, researcher, department chair and dean.
As interim president, Kotlikoff established a firm stance on expressive activity.
“While this right [freedom of expression] is foundational, it is not unlimited,” Kotlikoff wrote in an August University statement. “The expressive activities of individuals necessarily unfold within the context of our broader university community, and as such they are bounded by the need to protect the core functions of the university and the reciprocal rights of others.”
To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Cereese Qusba can be reached at cqusba@cornellsun.com.
Student sues | Graduate student Momodou Taal was told to surrender himself to ICE. MING
Newly named | President Michael Kotlikoff was appointed by the Board of Trustees on Friday.
Pro-Israel Group Takes Credit For Reporting Taal to Government
By AVERY WANG Sun Senior Writer
March 25 — Betar US, a pro-Israel and Zionist organization, claimed responsibility for reporting Momodou Taal to the federal government in a statement posted to X on March 21, after the Department of Justice told Taal to surrender himself into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
ICE requested that Taal, a pro-Palestinian activist and international graduate student, turn himself in to law enforcement on March 21, after he filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Trump administration violated his First and Fifth Amendment rights. The Department of State revoked his F-1 visa on March 14, one day before Taal filed the lawsuit.
Taal did not receive notice of his visa revocation until March 21, according to court documents. The Department of State claimed that Taal “had been involved with disruptive protests and had engaged in an escalating pattern of behavior, disregarding university policies and creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.”
Following the reported presence of unidentified law enforcement outside Taal’s residence on March 20, Taal’s lawyers filed a temporary restraining order to preemptively block his arrest or detainment, according to affidavits attained by The Sun. The Department of Justice later sent an
email requesting that Taal turn himself into ICE.
Betar has previously targeted Taal in “deportation alerts” posted to X. In November, the “Zionist organization” provided “hundreds of names to the Trump administration” of visa holders and “naturalized Middle Easterners and foreigners” who engaged in pro-Palestine speech or protest activity, said Daniel Levy, a Betar spokesperson, in an email to The Sun.
“Betar confirms that [Momodou Taal] was among those on our list of jihadis which we submitted to various government offices for deportation. We are pleased he has been ordered to surrender to [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” the organization wrote on X on March 21. “We have repeatedly tweeted about him and been quoted on him as being on our list.”
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative newspaper headquartered in Washington, D.C., named Taal in a February list of the most prominent “foreign students” who had a leading role in pro-Palestinian protests. The lawsuit states that the Beacon “specifically refer[s] to [Taal] as the first and most important target who could face investigation or deportation under a potential Trump executive order.”
To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Avery Wang can be reached at awang@cornellsun.com.
14 Groups Protest Trustee Meeting
By OLIVIA HOLLOWAY and YUHAN HUANG Sun Senior Writer and Sun Staff Writer
March 23 — Over 90 protestors protested outside of the Law School during Cornell’s Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, calling on the trustees to create an emergency fund in Cornell’s 2025-2026 Operating & Capital Budget Plan. The fund would “protect [their] jobs and [their] academic mission” amid the Trump administration spending cuts, which include federal research grants.
The Cornell Contingent Academic Workers wrote a letter to the trustees with over 300 signatures at time of publication, requesting the emergency fund to ensure research in fields like climate change, socioeconomic inequality and students’ financial aid continue to be protected. CCAW is still collecting signatures and will officially present the letter in May, when trustees will vote on the 2025-2026 budget.
More than a dozen organizations organized or attended the rally, including Cornell Contingent Academic Workers, Cornell Graduate Students United, Black Students United, Jewish Voice for Peace, Haven: The LGBTQ+ Student Union, School of Integrative Plant Science Community Advocacy and others.
Demonstrators called for the University to allocate part of the 20252026 budget for protecting immigrant international students and graduate workers, as well as ensuring the continuation of research as the federal government enacts grant cuts to universities.
Throughout the rally, protestors stayed clear of walkways and remained
on the grass near the Law School building. Poole said this was to comply with the Interim Expressive Activity Policy, which stipulates that outdoor demonstrations may not “impede access to or from university property or campus roads.”
“The purpose of the rally was not to disrupt the meeting itself,” he said. “It was just to make our voices heard peacefully.”
The rally featured 14 campus organizations, the most of any recent protest. Nathan Sitaraman M.S. ‘18 Ph.D. ‘22, a member of CCAW and post-doctoral associate at Cornell, spoke with The Sun after the demonstration. He said that the collaboration of so many organizations in one protest is “pretty rare.”
“Federal cuts and federal policy changes are affecting a lot of different groups on campus simultaneously,” Sitaraman said. “It’s an issue that sort of cuts across different departments and different units, and also sort of affects everyone.”
In addition to requesting a Trustee budget for all, representatives from different activism and affinity organizations on campus presented their specific requests to University administration.
Sam Poole ’28, Cornell YDSA campaign committee chair and JVP member, announced speakers and led chants of “Stand up, fight back” and “Cornell, what do you say — it’s time to fund our future today” in between speeches.
One speaker, Karys Everett ’25, political chair at HAVEN, called on the University to continue providing gender-affirming care. Everett called for an end to “the pervasive neglect of the queer community.”
Cornell Health removed several lines
from its gender-affirming care page after President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 28 executive order instructing federal agencies to deny funding to medical providers that administer gender-affirming treatments to patients under the age of 19.
“The purpose of the rally was not to disrupt the meeting itself. ... It was just to make our voices heard peacefully”
Sam Poole ’28
Andrew Scheldorf, a postdoctoral associate in SIPS, said that cuts in research grants would make it more challenging for students from marginalized communities to enter higher education.
Another speaker at the event, Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, industrial and labor relations, said that the rally was designed “to bring people together, to be loud” because they “want [the trustees] to hear [them].”
Poole said, “I think this rally, even though we’re complying with University policies, it’s a rejection of that. It’s saying, ‘We’re here, we’re not going to be silenced.’”
To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Olivia Holloway and Yuhan Huang can be reached at oholloway@cornellsun and yhuang@cornellsun.com.
SUNBURSTS: Sights from Collegetown
Tis past week, Sun photographers captured some of their favorite scenes, stores and eateries from Collegetown.
By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
GREEN GOODS | Green Castle, a grocery store specializing in Asian foods, offers shelves of snacks and fridges full of drinks.
7-UP! | Located at the heart of Collegetown, 7-Eleven is a convenient option for on and off-campus dwellers alike.
SOAK UP THE SUN | Collegetown Bagels has a plethora of outdoor seating options, which are popular on sunny, warm days.
TOWER ON THE HILL | McGraw Tower is visible up the hill from College Avenue.
LITTLE LIBRARY | A small purple-painted library off Oak Avenue offers free books for passersby to borrow.
COLLEGETOWN IS GORGES | One of the most defining features of Collegetown is Cascadilla Gorge, a perfect place to hike or take in breathtaking waterfall views.
2 A.M. PIZZA? | D.P. Dough’s long menu of cheesy calzones and fried foods has made it a go-to spot for Cornellians with late-night munchies.
(BUBBLE) TEA TIME | C-Town is no stranger to bubble tea shops, where many students head to for a sweet treat after class or a long day of studying.
Aerien Huang / Sun Contributor
Ming DeMers / Sun Senior Photographer
Danica Lee / Sun Contributor
Danica Lee / Sun Contributor
Aerien Huang / Sun Contributor
Ming DeMers / Sun Senior Photographer
Ming DeMers / Sun Senior Photographer
Dante de la Peña / Sun Contributor
Cornell Restores References to DEI in Equal Opportunity Statement
By EMMA GALGANO Sun Staff Writer
March 20 — On March 19, The Sun reported that Cornell removed much of its Equal Education and Employment Opportunity Statement, withdrawing DEI references and discrimination resources.
Now, as of March 21, the University has updated its previous EEO statement to reaffirm its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while emphasizing recognition on “the basis of individual performance,” rather than identity and background. The revised statement, unlike the pre-March 2025 version, no longer includes references to affirmative action requirements.
An EEO statement is an official declaration of an organization’s dedication to equal employment opportunities, detailing legal protections and offering guidance on how employees or applicants can report discrimination. An EEO tagline is a condensed version of the statement, typically used in job listings and other company materials.
A University spokesperson attributed earlier changes to a clerical error, and noted that the affirmative action requirement changes were removed.
This comes after Trump’s executive order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” to cease promoting “diversity” and holding federal contractors responsible for affirmative action.
“Cornell regrets any confusion caused by a recent clerical error in updating the Equal Education and Employment Opportunity Statement on our website. Our commitment to equal opportunity remains steadfast. The statement currently published includes minor edits to remove affirmative action requirements for federal contractors and to clarify the regulations that continue to apply to qualified protected veterans and individuals with disabilities,” the University spokesperson wrote in an email to the Sun.
The Sun previously reported that Cornell changed its EEO statement to exclude references to DEI and discrimination resources. While now updated, the statement then read, “Cornell University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Educator supporting individuals with disabilities and veterans. Learn more at hr.cornell. edu/EEO.”
By contrast, the original statement emphasizes Cornell’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, reading, “Cornell University’s history of diversity and inclusion encourages all students, faculty, and staff to support a diverse and inclusive university in which to work, study, teach, research, and serve.”
Amid the changes restored to the current EEO statement references to affirmative action remain missing. The original statement prior to the March changes had explicitly stated that “Cornell University is an affirmative action/ equal opportunity employer.”
In a letter sent on Feb. 14, the ED directed federally funded academic institutions to eliminate racial preferences in admissions, hiring and programming within two weeks — after which they could face potential loss of funding or investigation. Craig Trainor, the ED’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, referenced the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which ruled race-conscious admissions unconstitutional.
Cornell’s updated EEO statement asserts, “Cornell University’s history of diversity and inclusion encourages all students, faculty and staff to support a diverse and inclusive university in which to work, study, teach, research and serve.”
“Cornell regrets any confusion caused by a recent clerical error in updating the Equal Education and Opportunity Statement on our website.”
The revision also restores Cornell’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by ensuring that no one is denied admission or employment based on legally protected statuses, including race, gender, disability and sexual orientation. Additionally, the statement now includes University resources for addressing bias, discrimination and misconduct through the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX.
The revised statement additionally adds protections for veterans and individuals with disabilities under federal law, referencing the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, which mandates affirmative action by federal contractors to recruit and hire protected veterans, and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits disability discrimination in federal and contractor employment. This information was not included in earlier versions of the EEO statement.
According to the webpage, the updated language is awaiting review and approval by the Board of Trustees, who will meet in Ithaca on March 20 and 21.
Ithaca’s Police Watchdog Calls Of Meetings, Citing T reat to Independence
By GABE LEVIN Sun Senior Editor
March 20 — Ithaca’s Community Police Board — which investigates complaints of police misconduct — is suspending its meetings in protest of a City Hall move that members say cripples its independence and jeopardizes whistleblower confidentiality.
The Ithaca City Manager’s Office, which oversees the city’s police department, has recently assumed a role in managing the civilian board’s administrative duties, according to a Wednesday letter the board members sent to the mayor and members of Common Council.
“The City Manager’s Office ... now has direct access to CPB records, scheduling, and communications.”
Ithaca Community Police Board
“The City Manager’s Office, which is responsible for the budget and oversight of the Ithaca Police Department, now has direct access to CPB records, scheduling, and communications,” the board members wrote in the letter, which was copied to City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff and obtained exclusively by The Sun.
The board members blasted the move as a “clear conflict of interest” and vowed to “not meet until our independence is assured.” They demanded that the City Clerk’s Office, which they described as “neutral,” once again manage the board’s administrative tasks.
Among the concerns outlined in the letter, the board members are now worried
that those looking to report police misconduct may no longer come forward, knowing that the board is now “administratively tied to” an office that oversees the police.
They also complained that Mohlenhoff had not met directly with them to discuss a resolution.
Instead, according to the letter, Deputy City Manager Dominick Recckio “interrupted” the planned agenda at the Community Police Board’s February meeting without prior notice and announced the plan to place the board under the administrative scope of the City Manager’s Office.
Mohlenhoff wrote in an email statement to The Sun that she had offered to meet with the chair of the Community Police Board before the letter was sent out to “clear up” what she called “factual misunderstandings” reflected in the letter.
Mohlenhoff did not elaborate on what aspects of the letter she thought were incorrect.
She added that she had met earlier this week with Alderperson David Shapiro (D-Third Ward), who serves as the Common Council’s liaison to the Community Police Board, to “clarify these misunderstandings,” and had “offered to meet again with the [board] Chair.”
“I remain happy to sit down with them at their convenience,” Mohlenhoff wrote, referring to the Community Police Board.
Shapiro declined to comment for this article.
The Community Police Board and Mayor Robert Cantelmo M.A. ’20, who appoints the board’s members, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Gabe
can be reached at glevin@cornellsun.com.
Diversity debate | Although Cornell reinstated DEI references, affirmative action protections are still omitted.
HANNAH ROSENBERG/SUN FILE PHOTO
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
ILANA LIVSHITS ’27
Assistant Opinion Editor
AUDREY IM ’26
Business Manager
SOPHIA TORRES ’26
Marketing 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
Multimedia Editor
HANNIA AREVALO ’27
Graphics Editor
JADE DUBUCHE ’27
Social Media Editor
HUNTER PETMECKY ’28
Layout Editor
RENA GEULA ’28
Layout Editor
Letter to the Editor
DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER ’27
Managing Editor
MATTHEW KIVIAT ’27
Assistant Managing Editor
VERA SUN ’27
Advertising 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
JEREMIAH JUNG ’28
Assistant News Editor
KAITLIN CHUNG ’26
Science Editor
MARISSA GAUT ’27
Science Editor
ALEXIS ROGERS ’28
Sports Editor
ZEINAB FARAJ ’28
Assistant Sports Editor
DYLAN GRAFF ’28
Assistant Sports Editor
SIMRAN LABORE ’27
Weather Editor
ALLISON HECHT ’26
Newsletter Editor
Shimon Edelman
Shimon Edelman has served as professor of psychology at Cornell since 1999 and is a faculty fellow of Cornell on Fire. He can be reached at edelman@cornell.edu.
On Anticipatory Obedience to Fascists’ Demands
Interim President Kotlikof’s February 21 message to the Cornell community concluded with the assurance that “Cornell follows the law. … We will continue, as well, to work to ensure that our principles are consistently maintained and to advance our mission in ways that comply with existing federal and state law.” Tis promise should put all of us on a high alert. It pledges unconditional anticipatory obedience to a legal system that had been corrupt to begin with (presided over by several dishonorable “justices” who guarantee their handlers a majority in the nation’s supreme court) and that is now being further subverted by the lawless rampage of the felon-led executive branch. Worse, it roundly ignores the long history of atrocities perpetrated under the aegis of the law, such as the genocide of the Indigenous inhabitants of this country and of Jews and other undesirables in Nazi Germany.
For me, as a Jew who happens to be a Cornell employee, the latter example is particularly poignant. Te 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service led to an entirely legal purge of Jewish faculty from German universities; those among the purged who did not manage to escape Nazi Germany perished in very legal death camps. In promising unconditional obedience to the current regime in Washington, Cornell has violated the frst rule of resistance under a fascist takeover of a country’s political system: not to obey in advance. Cornell seems to be promising to fre — when the law requires it — those whom the regime fears: dissenters, Jews, gender-nonconformists, immigrants, people of color, women.
In an email response to Kotlikof’s statement, I called on the university leadership “to commit to doing the right thing now — or else, when the fascists are kicked out (as they’re bound to be), to discover that it has misplaced its allegiance when it mattered the most.” Kotlikof’s reply was disappointing: “While some seem to want me to make a critical political statement on behalf of the university, my role is to ensure Cornell continues to hew to its values and mission.” Te point, of course, is that Cornell’s hewing to its values requires that its president make a political statement at this critical juncture in US democracy (such as it is). As Cory Doctorow observes in this week’s post on his blog, “you can’t save an institution by betraying its mission.”
It is important to realize that attributing the leadership’s morally questionable stance to a seemingly understandable wish to preserve Cornell’s federal funding is as reprehensible in itself as it is likely to prove futile. Writing in today’s Guardian, Professor Emeritus Sheldon Pollock called the White House ultimatum to Columbia (along with similar demands put to dozens of other universities, including Cornell) a ransom note: Giving in to such threats empowers the mobster and degrades the victim — without, however, guaranteeing that further extortion would not happen. Moreover, even if funding can be obtained at the price of giving up Cornell’s principles, it would be blood money — akin to the university accepting fossil fuel funding or even reparations (if the ecocidal oil barons ever decide to rehabilitate their reputations by supporting good causes).
What should Cornell faculty, staf and students do in the face of craven “leadership”? Organize, fght back, win.
Max Ehrlich
Max Ehrlich ’26 is a Junior in the ILR School. He worked last summer for the American Federation of Teachers and currently writes for the Cornell Undergraduate Law and Society Review. He can be reached at mae222@cornell.edu.
Closing the Department of Education is Antithetical to “Any Person, Any Study”
PresidentDonald Trump’s plan to shutter the Department of Education is, first and foremost, an attack on the education of this country’s most vulnerable students. While Trump and his allies will tell you that they are “returning education to the states,” the truth is that states already control education. Trump’s big lie about the Department of Education masks the real goal of attacking the vulnerable, the goal of breaking a system that supports low-income school districts and provides resources to support students with disabilities. On top of that, the Department of Education administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which is vital to students receiving federal aid for their education and relied on by thousands of Cornell students. It also oversees student loans for millions of American college graduates. As an institution whose motto is “any person, any study,” Cornell cannot remain silent in the face of these attacks on public education and financial aid.
Contrary to what many assume, the Department of Education does not control our schools, nor does it administer anywhere near a majority of our nation’s funding for public education. There is no liberal conspiracy to take away state control over education, and there never has been. The Department of Education mainly exists to administer two programs: Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, commonly referred to as IDEA. Title I provides grants to low-income school districts, while IDEA gives school districts funding to serve students with disabilities. These programs are already underfunded, and despite outward attempts by some Republicans to cut their funding, the programs have bipartisan support.
Title I and IDEA are not radical; they are not leftist, nor are they federal control over our public education. They are part of a commitment to providing every American child with an opportunity to succeed. Other than the 8 percent or so of education funding that comes from these programs, states can do almost anything they want with their schools.
So, the question becomes: Why does the Administration want to cut the Department of Education? The easy answer — the answer I think many Democrats assume — is that the Trump Administration does not care about low-income schools or children with disabilities. There is certainly an element of this; at the very least, the Trump administration does not care enough about these factors. But the truth is that this attack continues a longer fight against public education and the vision it represents. The weakening of our public schools serves a greater purpose for Trump’s allies: the long-held goal of destroying public education as we know it.
Letter
What Trump and his allies really want is to replace public education, either mostly or entirely, with a system of private education subsidized by school vouchers. This is why Project 2025 proposed making Title I and IDEA funding state-administered: The goal is to redirect funds that are supposed to go to vulnerable communities in our public education system towards families sending their children to private schools. The bottom line for the anti-public education grifters who are close to Trump, the DeVoses and McMahons of the world, is that they want to strip our public schools of as much funding as possible to shift our education system from public to private, from a mandate to educate everyone to a model of education as a business.
These people’s vision of education will not be a benefit for the vast majority of American families or for society at large. Most funding from school voucher programs has gone to families already sending their kids to private schools, while public school students have been left behind. Even worse are the effects in rural communities that lack private school options, where students face additional barriers in even getting to a private school (so much for “school choice”). At the end of the day, this comes down to a simple proposition: Will American education serve everyone or just the wealthy and their allies?
On top of its effect on public education, closing the Department of Education could have catastrophic effects on the billions of dollars in student aid that the Department oversees. Thousands of Cornell students, and millions around the country, could be impacted by the closure of the Department of Education. We’ve already seen what can happen when there is a hiccup in FAFSA processing, so what is to happen when the entire Department of Education is in disarray? Is the shell of what was once there, struggling to administer all of its programs, going to help students apply for aid, manage their loans and find a way to attend college? The move towards ending the Department of Education threatens higher education’s ability to accommodate students and Cornell’s commitment to meeting student need.
So what should Cornell do? There are three things: First, Cornell needs to make a statement opposing attacks on public education that weaken every institution of higher education in this country. Second, Cornell needs to commit to providing every student with adequate and timely estimates of financial aid, regardless of how that process ends up looking. And third, Cornell needs to commit to supporting Ithaca public schools in the face of potential funding shortfalls. Cornell has a part to play in saving our public schools, and we have to hold them accountable to that.
Weare Jewish Cornell students, faculty and alumni. While we may hold differing views about Israel and Palestine, we vehemently reject the Trump administration’s allegation that Momodou Taal has ever created a “hostile environment” for Jewish students on campus. In revoking Taal’s student visa, surveilling his home and threatening his right to due process, the administration is once again enacting unconstitutional, anti-immigrant policies on the false pretense of protecting Jewish people, specifically Jewish Cornellians.
Taal’s statements expressing his deeply held personal political opinions are well within the confines of his First Amendment rights. While some members of the Cornell community may disagree with or feel challenged by his political views, to posit them as creating a “hostile environment” dangerously conflates feeling uncomfortable and being unsafe. The goals of a university education are to expose students to a range of diverse perspectives, to push boundaries and to encourage critical thinking. The desire to silence Taal’s speech through repressive state means is antithetical to this mission and should be seen as a chilling foreshadowing of what is to come if we fail to fight back against these blatant attacks on our
rights and freedoms. We recognize that such accusations of antisemitism are being used as fronts for xenophobia, and Jewish students are being used as pawns for the advancement of authoritarianism. The Trump administration is no ally to Jewish students. Rather, these attacks on Taal thinly veil a broader effort to silence dissent, undermine university autonomy, consolidate authoritarian power and uphold white Christian nationalism. We echo the over 2,800 concerned Jewish professors, staff members and students from universities across the United States who recently signed a letter denouncing the detainment of Mahmoud Kahlil and any attempt to harass, expel, arrest or deport members of our campus communities.
These days, we often hear Martin Niemöller’s adage “First they came for…” that describes the complicity of everyday people during the Nazi regime. When the Trump administration threatens any member of our community, we must stand up to them with the knowledge that further repression and violence will follow if we do not act and speak out now.
To see a list of signatories, visit cornellsun.com.
Barbara Lou Taam
Barbara Lou Taam ’74 is a Cornell alum. She submitted this letter on behalf of Alumni for a Fair and Just Cornell, which can be reached at alumni.f.cornell@gmail.com.
Alumni for a Fair and Just Cornell: A Better Pathway to Peace
We, Alumni for a Fair and Just Cornell, envision a path to peace based on these concepts and initiatives:
1. Support and empower students . At Cornell and around the world, students and youth have been at the heart of the movements for peace and justice. Students helped lead the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the civil rights movement, the climate justice movement and the opposition to the US war in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Interim President Kotlikoff has belittled students, attempted to intimidate them, suspended them without due process and threatened them with deportation.
2. End U.S. military aid to Israel . The U.S. has given more than $300 billion in military aid to Israel since 1948. Israel has used recent funding to drop more than 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza, more than three times the Hiroshima nuclear equivalent tonnage.
Liam Harney
Liam Harney is a second-year student at Cornell Law School. He spent last summer working at the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans and will be spending next summer interning at the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Division in New York City. He can be reached at ldh55@cornell.edu.
Trump’s Rubicon
I4. Redirect Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute from sanitizing and enabling Israeli apartheid to helping rebuild Gaza at the forefront of environmental sustainability, powered year-round by clean, renewable energy. Cornell should divest from weapons manufacturers, and invest in life.
5. Oppose the Kotlikoff, Trump and Zionist attacks on academic freedom and free speech . Adopt the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism. Zionism is settler-colonialism and racism and not a path to peace. Stating this should not be criminalized.
6. Support the rights of Palestinians as a people to determine their future, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their pre-1948 homes, as recognized by international law.
7. Oppose war-mongering U.S. politicians . End U.S. military meddling in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Build peace and prosperity at home, for people and the planet.
3. End the U.S. veto in the United Nations Security Council , which undermines international law, and blocks a path for peace. For decades, the U.S. has abused its veto power in the Security Council to shield Israel from accountability. It has single-handedly blocked resolutions calling for peace, ceasefires, humanitarian aid and investigations into war crimes.
Eric Cheyfitz
Eric Cheyfitz is a Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters, a Professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies and the Director of Graduate Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program. He can be reached at etc7@cornell.edu.
Pathway to Peace?
The Cornell administration presented the first of a series of talks and events titled “Pathways to Peace” on Monday, March 10, at Bailey Hall. This panel discussion featured moderator Ryan Crocker, former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait and Lebanon, along with participants Tzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister of Israel; Dr. Salam Fayyad, former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority; and Daniel B. Shapiro, former United States Ambassador to Israel.
Billed by the Cornell administration as a presentation of diverse opinions about the war in Gaza in order to explore a “pathway to peace,” the event was, in effect, an erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, over the last century under the Israeli occupation and a complete omission of any Israeli accountability for the killing of, conservatively, 50,000 Gazans (70% women and children), including 15,000 children, with another estimated 25,000 children injured, and 14,000 people missing, presumed buried under rubble; the massive destruction of Gazan cities and neighborhoods, most levels of infrastructure; and the cruel suppression of water, food and electricity to innocent civilians. None of this was mentioned but referred to only generally as “the war.” The carnage in Gaza was repeatedly presented by Livni with Shapiro’s concurrence as “collateral damage” in Israel’s self-defense against “terrorism,” indicating that Israel’s massive retaliation in Gaza has been justifiable given the attack by Hamas on Israeli border settlements and the Nova music festival and its 1,175 victims: 725 civilians, including 36 children, 71 foreign nationals, and 379 member of the Israeli security forces.
Dr. Fayyad, the only Palestinian on the panel, restricted his comments to a metacritique of Palestinian leadership as a key issue
n a move that surprised no one, the Trump administration has finally asserted that it outranks the courts. Maybe forcing all the competent, principled lawyers at the DOJ to resign has drastically diminished this government’s understanding of our system of checks and balances.
Or maybe, the administration’s timing is cunningly calculated. Trump has always had a flair for the dramatic. He no doubt understands that the public will likely have little sympathy for non-citizen, non-white “terrorists,” “rapists,” and “alien enemies” being deported. Sympathies will be muted for people accused of such heinous crimes, even if they were denied any hearing at all. The serious allegations may make many glad that the deportees were sent to El Salvadorian concentration camps to be held down by masked guards as their heads are shaved on camera and posted on social media. This kind of advertising campaign and attention would often cost much more than the $6 million Trump spent staging it.
The least popular among us are useful pawns for pushing the boundaries of unchecked power. If the president is allowed to strip due process from the most despised, then that process becomes much less of a
“The Trump administration’s position is now clear: there is no judge in the country that has the power to prevent, delay, or even question your removal.”
Liam Harney
erless to “exercise their own time-honored and constitutionally mandated roles of reviewing and resolving” claims of extralegal detention. There’s a world of difference between zealously arguing your position to the courts, and ignoring their orders — verbal or otherwise — because you disagree. One is how a president operates in a democracy. The other, a dictatorship. Rule of law, once a bedrock, bipartisan principle of our republic, collapses under a president who believes himself, or his policy goals, above it.
and gave some assessment about the various “peace plans” over the last 75 years, faulting and praising both the Palestinian and Israeli leadership for various efforts. There was, then, no one on the panel who spoke to what Palestinian scholar Rashid Khalidi has called “the 100 years war against Palestine,” which provides the context, though not the justification, for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
Ignoring the decades of oppression of Palestinian civilians by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, both before and after Oct. 7, 2023, panelists repeated that Oct. 7 was the beginning of the current “war.” Unfortunately, protestors, who were escorted out by Cornell police and some charged with disorderly conduct, raised
“There was, then, no one on the panel who spoke to ... ‘the 100 years war against Palestine,’”
Eric Cheyfitz
the only voices giving any indication that Palestinians continue to die and Israel is facing accountability before the International Court of Justice for what the Court terms a “plausible” genocide, for which such international bodies as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry and Doctors Without Borders have also charged Israel. Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff framed the presentation as a unique opportunity for getting experts with a diverse set of opinions and “wisdom” together to discuss the issues. However, it’s difficult to see how any discussion of peace can credibly take place when there is no voice representing the liberation of the Palestinian people.
right, and more of a privilege earned by your good behavior, as evaluated by the president. Americans cannot forget that we have only those rights actually guaranteed to the lowest common denominator.
I cannot tell you that the people who were deported were good people. Nor can I say that they were terrorists. In fact, I cannot even tell you whether they were U.S. citizens. No one can — they were rounded-up and sent to extraterritorial carceral camps without any judicial oversight, solely on presidential whim.
The founders of our nation, fearful of a king in all but name, wisely provided Constitutional limits on presidential power. This system of checks and balances structures our government. Just as Congress can impeach and remove a president, the courts can order the government to delay certain actions while hearing arguments over whether those actions violate the Constitution. But these checks fail if the president refuses to recognize their authority.
I have no doubt that Trump believes those targeted in the raid deserve what they got — and worse. He certainly knows more about the details of those operations than you, I, Congress, or the courts. Perhaps you’re even inclined to believe him. Many Americans, with good-faith concerns about illegal immigration or cartel activity within our borders, might see this as a necessary step in bringing about Trump’s campaign promises. But those Americans should reflect with caution on this impulse.
While considerations of foreign affairs, national security, and carrying out electoral promises are solid reasons for judges to give broad deference to presidential actions, they cannot, and do not, render judges pow-
Once Trump unmoors himself from the check of the judicial branch, which he is now attempting to do, what could stop him? His newest stunt, ignoring clear judicial orders from a co-equal branch, is no different, constitutionally, from ignoring an impeachment by the House, and conviction by the Senate. It seems needless to explain, with the history of the world so readily available, that the unchecked powers Trump claims to possess will not stop with the summary deportation of alleged terrorist-rapist-alien-criminals. If we continue down this well-trod path to absolute power, the law will no longer constrain him, unless “the law” means simply whatever Donald Trump, signing orders with Sharpie and conviction, says it means. And no, citizens are not safe either. Of the approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans forced into concentration camps during WWII, 80,000 were American citizens. Obviously the language of the Alien Enemies Act does not authorize deportation of U.S. citizens at all, let alone without trial, but laws tend to stop mattering once judges start being ignored. Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Trump declares you an enemy alien terrorist. You’d be hauled out of your home, without a warrant, without a hearing, without a jury, without a lawyer, thrown on a military transport plane, and sent out of the country to have your head shaved. It would do you no good even if you weren’t a terrorist, even if you were an American citizen. If the court can’t hear your defense, no one can.
The Trump administration’s position is now clear: there is no judge in the country that has the power to prevent, delay, or even question your removal. National security, though one of the most vital of executive interests, cannot be a magic phrase that prevents all judicial oversight. This was affirmed even at the height of the War on Terror, in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), where the Supreme Court said that “[i]t would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties… which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile.”
Trump can wave the Constitution around, use legal terms of art like “non-justiciability,” and sign all the executive orders he wants, but a president who defies a coequal branch of government is not upholding the law. He’s functioning off of the raw power of force, and force alone, limited only by his unchecked conviction that he is doing what is necessary to save America.
If this new phase in the Trumpian takeover doesn’t concern you, then you have much more faith than the writers of our Constitution in the ability of the human psyche to wield unchecked power. This is not common-sense immigration policy. This is Trump’s Rubicon.
SC I ENCE & TECH
Legal Protections Bring Cornell’s Crop Innovations to Farms
By JAKE ZAJKOWSKI Sun Contributor
When new technology, scientific methods or plant varieties are developed at Cornell, legal protections are often required to safeguard their creation. Securing patents and plant variety rights is the first step in transforming scientific breakthroughs into farm-ready crops.
Today, Cornell ranks in the top 20 of universities in the United States in the number of patents granted, according to the National Academy of Inventors. In 2024 alone, 107 United States patents were issued to Cornell researchers and 477 licenses and commercialization options were granted across the University system.
These inventions are legally protected under intellectual property laws by a dedicated team bringing innovation to consumers — which is the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell.
Since the University’s founding, over 290 apple, grape, berry and vegetable varieties have been developed and many have been patented at research stations across New York.
This includes some of the most commercialized crop varieties that have emerged from Cornell’s fields including Butternut and Honeynut squashes, SnapDragon and RubyFrost apples and the DMR 401 Cucumber — which is the first cucumber variety equipped to combat the new strain of Downy Mildew, which caused an agricultural pandemic on the East Coast.
These varieties have become essential tools for successful orchards and fields. Some plant breeders at Cornell, such as Prof. Courtney Weber, horticulture, specialize in breeding berry crops like strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.
He said the journey from research to commercialization for plant breeders has a
meticulous timeline.
“It’s a long-term process,” Weber said. “The moment you announce a variety’s availability is only the beginning.”
Last September, Cornell released raspberry varieties in partnership with Weber. Varieties like Crimson Beauty have market-friendly traits, such as being a fall-bearing raspberry that produces larger, more productive fruit starting in late July. This variety offers consumers more fruit throughout summer and fall. Similarly, another release, Crimson Blush, extends the raspberry production window from June to November, providing a longer period of locally grown fruit.
Seeds for Weber’s varieties were developed in 2016 and 2017, followed by seven years of crop field trials. Finally, in 2024, the varieties were released to PhyllaTech, L.L.C. and North American Plants, which now have licenses to propagate the plants for raspberry growers to use this spring.
Weber worked with the Cornell CTL
office to license his crops, which secures the intellectual property of scientists’ work, through patents, trademarks, or copyright guidance.
“There’s a one-year window [following the first sale] to complete the application for patent protection,” Weber explained.
Under his licensing agreements, profits from a variety on the market are distributed: one-third to the college, one-third to the scientists and one-third to the CTL office, in accordance with University Policy 1.5.
“Our standard model is the release of non-exclusivity, which respects our status as a land-grant university,” said Emily Courson, business development & licensing associate for plant variety and research material at the CTL. She said that opening the products to anyone on the market, non-exclusivity, is a revenue-sharing model that supports Cornell’s innovation ecosystem as they work to achieve “maximum public benefit.”
The timeline of each plant breeder’s development process varies, ranging from one growing season for a crop like tomatoes, to four to five years for fruit trees that require significantly longer evaluation periods, Courson explained. Once varieties are developed on Cornell property, they must be tested by farmers and other companies, where the CTL office prepares official material transfers to grant access for entities to use the Cornell-developed varieties.
When preparing for a release, the team models how they expect the variety to compare with existing ones on the market. According to Courson, patents are the most sought-after legal protection, but they are not the only option.
“We don’t patent every plant variety that comes into the office. Some can be protected contractually or through trademark rights. Patenting is just one method we consider,” Courson said.
In the industry, 20-year plant patents for asexually propagated plants, or offspring created genetically identical to its parent in order to retain unique characteristics, are registered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Sexually reproduced plant varieties, or crops that require pollination, can receive Plant Variety Protection.
Trademark rights are another tool used to maintain quality control of brands for up to ten years. Geneva apple rootstocks, one of Cornell’s trademarks with international influence, support trees that produce over 50 percent of the apples grown globally.
To read the rest of this story, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
New Cornell Project Team ‘SensTech’ Engineers Sensible Biosensors
By KYLE CHUN Sun Contributor
SensTech is a new project team that focuses on engineering accessible, practical, and effective biosensors. Biosensors are devices that detect biological signals in a sample and convert them into electrical signals.
Puloma Bishnu ’25 first envisioned SensTech her freshman year summer. A mentor from her summer internship told her about SensUs, an international biosensor competition that takes place in the Netherlands every year. SensUs is a competition that challenges students to create accurate, cost-effective, and user-friendly biosensors, assessing teams on the effectiveness and financial feasibility of their biosensors.
Bishnu’s interest was piqued, and she and three of her friends looked to create a Cornell team. However, she quickly realized that starting a new team at Cornell would not be as straightforward as she imagined without an advisor, financial support, and only four founding members. Furthermore, Cornell has many requirements for an organization to become a project team, including that they must already be an existing student group.
Even becoming a club was
a challenge for SensTech. As the president, Bishnu needed to establish new boundaries with her friends as both personal and professional relations. She voiced the struggles and perseverance required to found a new organization.
“Sometimes, I would reach out to people, and they would tell me what I was doing was pointless and to just join an existing club or project team,” Bishnu said.
Despite obstacles, SensTech became a club, and began work on developing biosensors. New members joined, including current vice president, Adelin Chan ’26. Initially, she worked on SensTech’s wet lab team, where students study, develop, and refine advanced molecular mechanisms to implement in their biosensors. Given its novelty, Adelin feels a sense of ownership and responsibility toward SensTech.
Now, she oversees the inner workings of all of the team operations within SensUs: wet lab, dry lab, and business. “I’ve definitely learned a lot due to the intersectionality of the club,” Chan said.
Due to the intersectional nature of the SensUs competition and the biosensor industry itself, students that participate learn much about biology, chemistry, software, hardware, and business. The students
that join SensUs on campus can expect to gain a lot of hands-on experience in the team that they join, and they aren’t expected to have any prior experience, according to Bishnu.
In the fall, SensTech officially became a Cornell project team. Both Bishnu and Chan felt that a core memory for them was actually flying out the Netherlands and participating in the SensUs competition for the first time. “It was all very surreal to me,” Bishnu said. “It felt like a dream come true. Everything we had worked toward had finally paid off.”
This year, the team prepares for the 2025 SensUs competition, which is an extension of last year’s competition. According to Chan, the competition usually has a new challenge every year. However, this year, SensUs decided to continue the challenge from 2024 to develop a biosensor that can detect levels of creatinine, which is a waste product produced by muscle metabolism. Creatinine is eventually filtered out of the blood by the kidneys and excreted in urine.
An accessible biosensor that can accurately detect levels of creatinine is invaluable, as creatinine levels are indicators of kidney health and function. A device that informs people whether or not they need to see a nephrologist
could vastly improve their quality of life. Currently, SensTech is reaching out to medical professionals for feedback while improving their biosensor design from last year.
“I learned so much about leadership and teamwork from build -
ing this club from the ground up,” Bishnu said. “My advice to anyone that wants to start something new and exciting is to just start.”
Kyle Chun can be reached at ksc224@cornell.edu.
Jake Zajkowski can be reached at jwz29@cornell. edu
Commercialized crops | Legal protections are required to protect the creation of new plant varieties developed at Cornell.
Building biosensors | Puloma Bishnu ’25 founded the SensTech project team to design accessible and effective biosensors.
COURTESY OF PULOMA BISHNU ‘25
COURTESY OF RYAN YOUNG / CORNELL UNIVERSITY
The Corne¬ Daily Sun
Big Red Missed (and Creepy) Connections
By Sneha Singhi
Sneha Singhi is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at ss3298@cornell.edu.
I’m sure many of you have heard about Big Red Missed Connections, the popular Instagram account where Cornell students anonymously post about campus crushes or random encounters they’ve had . The account acts as a sort of digital bulletin board to share lighthearted, flirty (sometimes even awkward) stories about people they noticed but didn’t get the chance — or courage — to talk to. Posts often vaguely describe what someone was wearing, what dining hall they were in or something quirky they did. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes sweet and sometimes… a little too much. The goal is to “find” the person being described and, ideally, spark a connection. At first glance, it seems harmless. Who doesn’t love a little anonymous flattery, right? But scroll through the posts long enough, and you might start feeling like something is off. While many people use the page as a lighthearted outlet, it can also veer into problematic territory. Posts often include vivid, weirdly specific descriptions of certain people, all without their consent. That can easily cross into creepiness and leave the person feeling uncomfortable — or worse, objectified — knowing they’re being talked about publicly.
We often think of catcalling as something that happens on city streets: verbal, in-your-face, hard to miss. But Big Red Missed Connections feels like the digital equivalent. Except here, the catcalling isn’t shouted across the street, rather it’s typed out, broadcasted and preserved for all to see. And let’s be honest: some posts are purely unsettling. Lines like “any chance u can mother my kiddos” or “you in the tight black leggings at Appel—pls step on me” aren’t charming. They’re weird and, frankly, inappropriate.
There’s also the issue of posts being weirdly specific y. Some posts describe not just what someone was wearing, but details about their race, the exact time they were at a certain location, or even what they were eating at the time of being perceived. It blurs the line between harmless admiration and borderline surveillance. At what point does being observant become plain creepy?
The account’s mission might be to connect people, but it raises a bigger question: why not just do this in person? Why rely on anonymously thirsting over someone from afar when, chances are, you’ll see them again considering how small this campus is? If you genuinely like someone, why not try the old-fashioned route and talk to them face-to-face? And, is this something happening across the world or are Cornellians just awkward?
It’s worth pointing out that we’re living in an age with no shortage of ways to meet people — dating apps, social media, friend setups, even good old group projects. While Big Red Missed Connections seems like an attempt to replicate the anonymous, serendipitous charm of these platforms, it ultimately fails at fostering genuine connections in two main respects. Firstly, I’ve never heard of an actual Big Red Missed Connections success story, and secondly, more
often than not, the posts come across as creepy instead of Cupid. So, instead of anonymously posting about your crush on Instagram, why not actually go talk to them? I know that’s easier said than done. But it’s not as daunting as it sounds. Here’s how to make it happen:
Step 1: Get some confidence.
This is the most important step. Remind yourself that the worst-case scenario is a polite rejection and even then no one’s going to judge you. You’re not on some Netflix reality dating show. You’re just a normal person, showing interest in another normal person. At a university of over 20,000 people the worst consequence of rejection is a passing glance walking down Feeney Way. Channel your inner Ted Mosby, a character from How I Met Your Mother, who bought a blue french horn for his crush. Maybe don’t go to that extreme, though.
Step 2: Find a natural moment.
You don’t need to engineer a perfect situation. Look for organic opportunities. Maybe you’re both in line at Libe Café, sitting near each other in lecture, or you run into them at a club meeting. A simple, “Hey, I’ve seen you around and thought I’d say hi,” is often enough to break the ice.
Step 3: Keep it respectful.
Here’s the key: approach them like a person, not a mystery to be solved. Compliment something specific and genuine. Maybe you noticed their cool blue hair, or they are on a unique sports team. Don’t come on too strong. It’s about making a connection, not making them uncomfortable.
Step 4: Accept the outcome.
Not every conversation will lead to a date or a lifelong connection. That’s okay. At least you had the guts to give it a shot in person, rather than anonymously idealizing them behind a screen. And even if nothing comes of it, you’ll feel better knowing you tried.
Big Red Missed Connections might seem like harmless fun and sometimes, it is. Everyone enjoys a little campus gossip and who doesn’t want to feel admired once in a while?
But it’s worth questioning: does this kind of anonymous attention actually help foster real connections or does it just normalize objectifying others under the guise of lightheartedness?
In a world saturated with social media and carefully curated versions of reality, it’s easy to fall into the trap of watching people from afar and assuming you need an app or anonymous platform to connect. But there’s something refreshing, even rare, about the old-school approach of simply starting a conversation.
So next time you catch yourself typing out a detailed description of the person you spotted at Trillium, maybe hit pause. Take a breath. And consider saying hi in person. Your campus crush doesn’t have to stay a missed connection.
Te Heinous State of Greek Food in Ithaca
By Yianni Metis
Yianni Metis is a freshmen in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. He can be reached at jpm395@cornell.edu.
Ithaca is named after the Greek island yet unfortunately in the time I have spent here, I have seen little resemblance to any of the things that make Greek islands so great.
The prime subject in this case is the food. Being Greek and living in New York City for 18 years where there is a high standard for Greek food, I think I know a thing or two about what good Greek food is like.
This year, TasteAtlas ranked Greek cuisine as the best cuisine in the world, overtaking Italian. I will die on that hill defending that take, but that is a story for another day. What matters here is Cornell’s take on Greek food is so subpar it might just bring Greece back down to number two.
I hope you haven’t been eating Greek food here thinking that’s what it’s like everywhere else. If you were, here are all the problems with it that should be corrected.
Dining Hall Chicken Souvla ki
Souvlaki is probably the most common Greek street food. When prepared correctly, it can be a superb lunch or a midnight snack that hits the spot perfectly. Cornell serves chicken souvlaki, if it can be called such, as we will explore here.
The dish is served at Okenshields, Toni Morrison and Northstar Dining. While the meal isn’t bad on its own as a simple grilled chicken dish, that is exactly the problem. There is nothing that actually makes it chicken souvlaki besides the fact that it was probably bought from a food distributor that labeled it as such. It’s just grilled chicken breast with olive oil and oregano.
The whole aim of souvlaki is to cook it in smaller pieces on a skewer and marinate it, so that the meat is crispier and holds more flavor. The larger pieces, clearly not grilled on a skewer, fail to achieve this. Okenshields sometimes releases a variation of it mixed with spinach and milk, which is more strange than creative and doesn’t add value to the chicken.
Tzatziki and other foods
If souvlaki is being served, a crucial element is obviously tzatziki, preferably of at least a mediocre quality. Normally, of course, it isn’t served with any of the Greek food options, but the one time that I had seen it was, it was called “white sauce with cucumber and dill.” In terms of the dip’s quality, there was no taste of lemon, olive oil, cucumber, or any other essential ingredient. They may as well have named it “warm yogurt” and called it a day. What is “gyro smashburger?”
I’m not sure, but they have it at Okenshields, sometimes more than once a week. It’s just smashed ground beef, and mushrooms. I’ve been Greek for many years, and not once have I seen gyro served with mushrooms. Mushrooms aren’t necessarily bad, I just have absolutely no idea how the word gyro was added to this dish. It’s just a smashburger with mushrooms. I’ve seen them smashing the burgers behind the counter, and the burgers
are just normal patties. Confusing to say the least. If Odysseus traveled 20 years back to Ithaca and saw that, I’d like to think he would just turn around and let the sirens seduce him.
The Terrace Restaurant
Another of the most basic and delicious Greek street foods is gyro. Gyro is of course cooked on a vertical spit, so the meat stays hot and fresh, and the slices are flavor dense. In its infinite wisdom, Cornell has failed to do what village people in Greek mountains have done for 100 years. The Terrace in Statler doesn’t have gyro on their everyday menu. But they do serve it from time to time. On one of these occasions I decided to indulge, and was thoroughly disappointed, as one could predict from the article title.
“I hope you haven’t been eating Greek food here thinking that’s what it’s like everywhere else.”
Yianni Metis ‘28
The gyro was dry, cold and flavorless. The other toppings in the bowl had nothing to do with Greek food, and failed to add any element of quality to the meal. While my expectations for college dining halls may be low, the standard for excellence should be higher for a hotel with such a fancy website.
Other Establishments
With Cornell lacking, the only place to look was outside entities in the Ithaca area. It felt like looking in the fridge and seeing the leftovers your mom has been making you eat for the past week. There is only one establishment outside of Cornell’s campus that serves Greek food within a 15-mile radius of Ithaca, The Souvlaki House on Eddy Street. I want to start by saying that if you ever see a restaurant that serves Greek and Italian cuisine, or any two cuisines, that isn’t fusion, don’t go there. Being Greek, I felt compelled to go to ensure there weren’t any quality options in the area, but you don’t have to. The restaurant is fine as a diner, or a quick place to get a burger or a sandwich during the day. There isn’t much else great to say about the food. The souvlaki and gyro were completely dry, the tzatziki had the same issues as Cornell Dining’s and the loukaniko (Greek sausage) had little flavor. The only truly quality food was the bifteki. The problem there is that bifteki is just the Greek term for ground beef, and the only aspect that would make it more “Greek” is potentially its mixture of seasonings. To say the least, a town named after a Greek island could and should do better. This campus could have great prospects in its future if it feeds its students the best of what the cuisine has to offer. In my unbiased opinion, all the funding currently going towards fixing the clock tower should go towards better Greek food, since there’s no progress in the former anyway.
Father, Son Pastors Bring Dialogue on Faith to Campus
By ASHLEY LEE Sun Staff Writer
March 24 — “Follow Christ, read the scriptures, allow God to speak to you and then go out and make it happen. Make this messed up world more like Heaven, and that’s the most exciting, fulfilling life possible,” said Cliffe Knechtle to an audience of about 400 listeners at Sage Chapel on Thursday evening, following an open Q&A on Ho Plaza on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.
Drawing in Cornell students and the Ithaca community, Cliffe Knechtle and his son Stuart Knechtle, Christian activists and pastors with a significant online presence, held their Ask Cliffe 4-day event at Ho Plaza. The activists answered questions about Christianity in collaboration with the Christian Union Vita, Cru Cornell, Emmaus Road English Ministry, Christian Business Society at Cornell and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The Knechtles hosted an open question and answer session, which provided non-Christian students with the opportunity to ask questions about Christianity and Christian students to reaffirm their beliefs, deepen their understanding of the Gospel and learn more about the Christian religion.
“What are you free to do in your life?” Cliffe said. “If you’re free to do anything, you’re random. But if God creates you for a purpose and a mind to develop, then you better get ready to make a big difference in this world for truth, justice, compassion and generosity.”
The Knechtles garnered followers and attention prior to the event on campus through Give Me An Answer — a media platform created to answer questions on Christian beliefs — as well as through con-
sistent Ask Cliffe Q&A series held on college campuses including Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Andrew Arthungal ’28, who attended the open Q&A on Ho Plaza, has followed the Knechtles’ Q&A series for years, naturally drawing him to the event on Wednesday afternoon
“I definitely have a lot to learn from him and I wanted to learn how to share [the Christian faith] the way he does,” Arthungal said.
Students posed a variety of questions related to their faith and the current society with questions ranging from the ethical standards of Christianity in politics to the com-
parison of Christianity with American values of freedom and individualism. The Knechtles answered the questions, relating it back to faith, and engaged in short debates with the audience if opposing views were expressed.
Some Cornellians raised objections to Cliffe’s beliefs. Julian Kanu ’26 engaged in a more confrontational dialogue with Cliffe in which he critiqued Cliffe’s reasoning, arguing that his definition of subjectivity would lead to an absurd conclusion.
In a statement to The Sun, Kanu wrote, “As a philosophy and math student who has published serious work in philosophy journals, I am deeply offended.”
He also noted that in a video which was posted to Stuart’s Instagram, the interaction
Planning Board Greenlights Game Road Farm Project
and aesthetics.
March 21 — The Town of Ithaca Planning Board determined the Game Farm Road project will not have a significant negative impact on the environment in a six to zero vote on Tuesday.
The Game Farm Road project is a plan designed to build theCornell’s women’s field hockey team with a-brand-new artificial turf, a state-of-the-art clubhouse and amenities at Game Farm Road.
The project has received both support from Cornell athletics and backlash from local environmentalists.
The “negative determination” label given to the project means the potential construction of the new Cornell women’s field hockey turf has been deemed to “not result in any significant adverse environmental impact,” according to the Board’s website.
The move comes after the field construction was “delayed” as a result of “recent municipal approvals challenges,” according to Nicki Moore, Cornell’s director of athletics and physical education. The team’s former home field, Marsha Dodson Field, was previously torn up to prepare for the construction of Game Farm Road. Now, the team must consider other alternatives — including traveling approximately 50 miles to Syracuse University to play its home games.
This move has caused waves, including upsetting the former namesake donor, Marsha Dodson, who received no formal notification of the destruction of the field.
Through its step-by-step analysis, the Planning Board evaluated the turf’s impact based on 18 different categories of impacts on the Town of Ithaca — including its effects on living organisms, the environment
In this process, Cornell was asked to fill out a checklist of how each project was expected to affect each category. If there were issues with the effects, or further questions, the Board had Cornell detail the category and how it would impact the environment.
For each factor, the Board determines whether or not “the proposed action” will result in a magnitude of change that is significant. If they determine the action will have “large magnitude,” the project must answer a series of specific questions as to how the environment will be affected.
Some categories — like impact on human health and impact on land — were evaluated twice. In the end, all evaluated categories were determined to be “small in magnitude,” and thus a negative determination was granted.
According to Planning Board Chair Caitlin Cameron, the project is now ready for the next steps of approval — site plan, special permit, zoning and sewer exemptions — all of which the Board will be “presented with and thoroughly review” before deciding on a positive or negative determination.
The field’s construction has been a controversy for the Town of Ithaca and Cornell. The potential presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — commonly known as PFAS — has fueled the debate between delaying or continuing the construction. PFAS are synthetic “forever chemicals” that may be linked to harmful health issues in animals and humans.
To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
was cut strategically to exclude context and misconstrue his argument.
“The video is deeply edited. The video jumps in where you get no context as to what is going on” Kanu wrote.
In the heat of their interaction, Cliffe stated “Mocking is not a good argument. Or, do they teach that mocking is a good argument?”
In his statement to The Sun, Kanu contended “We should mock people like Cliffe. He makes the huge claim that “objective morality requires God,” which almost no analytic philosopher takes seriously.”
While there were some moments of contention between the students and the speakers, including a few heated arguments, the atmosphere was deemed to be overall “relaxed” by viewers.
“I think a lot of debates can get really heated and nasty, and even among Christians, I had debates where people will say disrespectful, mean and rude things,” said Summer Woo ’28, a member of Cru Cornell.
She further emphasized her surprise at the calm atmosphere of the Q&A event on Wednesday.
“I think it’s amazing how many people are out here and want to learn. [Cliffe and Stuart] mentioned stories about other campuses, where some Ivy League people got snappy with him, and I think it’s really nice how this community on campus is very relaxed.”
“I think it’s amazing how many people are out here and want to learn. [Cliffe and Stuart] mentioned stories about other campuses, where some Ivy League people got snappy with him, and I think it’s really nice how this community on campus is very relaxed.”
To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Ashley Lee can be reached at alee@cornellsun.com.
Pastors preach | Cliffe Knechtle and his son spoke at Ho Plaza answering questions on faith.
By ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Assistant Sports Editor
Saxbys Cafe: Offering College Students to Run Their Own Cafe for Credit
March 18 — Anisa Kurbanali manages a bustling coffee shop in the heart of Philadelphia. Each day, she wakes up at 4:30 a.m., commutes 45 minutes to the cafe and works from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Kurbanali, while working full-time, is also a junior at Saxbys Community College of Philadelphia studying Secondary Education.
Her cafe job is just another part of her studies — she earns a semester’s worth of academic credit without having to take any additional classes as a Student Cafe Executive Officer, governing all day-today operations of her own Saxbys cafe location. Kurbanali’s time as a SCEO will last for six months before the next student takes on the role.
“This is my way of giving back, in a small way, to the next generation.”
Nick Bayer ’00
Founder of Saxbys and former entrepreneur-in-residence at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Nick Bayer ’00, described Saxbys as “an education company disguised as a coffee company.” What started as a small Philadelphia coffee chain eventually transformed into a collection of 30 cafes across nine states — 26 of them completely run by college students.
In 2012, Bayer was asked to teach entrepreneurship at Cornell as an entrepreneur-in-resi-
dence. During his time teaching at Cornell, he noticed that “higher-[education] was really looking for experiential learning,” and on April 13, 2015, Saxbys launched its Experiential Learning Platform with an inaugural cafe at Drexel University.
“[Saxbys was] really the first business of its kind … in which students design and exclusively operate their own campus business, receive academic credit, [are] paid wages and have full profit and loss authority,” Bayer said.
As a first-generation college student who wished he had more opportunities for experiential learning in college, Bayer explained, “This is my way of giving back, in a small way, to the next generation.”
According to Bayer, Saxbys’ educational learning program provides hands-on business experience to college students through cafes that are completely run by student employees. Everything from drink-making and inventory checks to interior design is handled by students.
Bayer said that, on average, former SCEOs get their first leadership position out of college within one year of graduation.
Melody Wozunk, head of area operations of Saxbys cafes in New York and New Jersey and a former SCEO of Saxbys Rowan University, said her experience as an SCEO shaped her work ethic, drive and workplace confidence, and inspired her to join the company headquarters after graduating.
“In addition to perseverance, I gained communication skills, critical thinking [and
Astronomer Vera Rubin M.S. ’51 to Be Featured On a U.S. Quarter
By TAEHEE OH Sun Senior Writer
March 20 — Vera Rubin, M.S. ’51, the pioneering astronomer whose groundbreaking research on galaxy rotation rates provided key evidence for the existence of dark matter, will be honored on a U.S. Quarter as part of the 2025 American Women Quarters Program.
The American Women Quarters Program, launched by the U.S. Mint and the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in 2022, is a four-year initiative authorized by the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. Each year, the program features five women on the reverse side of the quarter, recognizing their achievements and contributions with unique designs.
learned] adaptability — especially when things change unexpectedly or mistakes happen,” Wozunk said. “When you’re managing a team of 30 students who are also your peers, leadership can be tough, especially if you’ve never done it before. Conflict resolution, emotional intelligence — those are skills I’ll always carry with me.”
“[Saxbys is] creating exciting atmospheres in our cafes, with a welcoming place of great hospitality and great products.”
Melody Wozunk
Bayer said his vision for Saxbys is for it to become “synonymous with experiential learning.” He sees the experiential learning platform, or E.L.P. model, expanding beyond food and beverage operations while remaining committed to its mission of empowering the next generation of leaders.
Wozunk said she experienced firsthand how Saxbys cafes “transform the culture on campus,” and is excited to see how its impact broadens in the future.
“[Saxbys is] creating exciting atmospheres in our cafes, with a welcoming place of great hospitality and great products,” Wozunk said. “I’m excited to share that and continue to be a part of impacting more students … and being able to share that with more people is very exciting.”
Past honorees of the program include poet Maya Angelou, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and former Congresswoman Patsy Mink, among others.
In the final year of the program, Rubin is honored alongside journalist and suffragist Ida B. Wells, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low, disability rights activist Stacey Park Milbern and athlete Althea Gibson.
Rubin, who died in 2016 at the age of 88, is best known for her pivotal research in the 1970s that offered strong evidence for the existence of dark matter — an invisible substance that holds galaxies together and is believed to comprise over 80 percent of the universe’s total mass.
In 1985, Rubin presented data on dark matter from dozens of galaxies to the International Astronomical Union, reshaping scientific understanding of the universe and paving the way for new advancements in both astronomy and physics.
Corey Earle ’07, a Cornell history expert, emphasized the rarity and significance of Rubin’s recognition.
“The number of people who get to appear on coins is pretty minuscule, even compared to other unique honors like appearing on a postage stamp,” Earle wrote in an email to The Sun. “Rubin is one of dozens of Cornellians to win the National Medal of Science, but she’s the only one on a coin.”
Jillian Epstein ’25, the outreach coordinator for the Cornell Astronomical Society, expressed her excitement in having a Cornell alum being recognized for a significant contribution in the field of astronomy.
“I look forward to keeping my eye out for Vera Rubin’s quarter,” Epstein wrote in an email to The Sun. “Additionally, it is so cool to see this being minted in the same year the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is expecting to see first light!”
In the context of astronomy, “first light” refers to the first time a telescope takes an astronomical image after it has been constructed.
Epstein also shared that CAS plans to celebrate Vera Rubin’s honor and recognize her groundbreaking contributions to the field.
“We are currently working to renovate the Fuertes Observatory historical museum (a long-term project), and have plans to highlight Rubin’s important contributions to the field of Astronomy and her connection to Cornell,” Epstein wrote.
In addition, to celebrate Rubin’s 100th birthday in 2028, Epstein wrote that CAS will likely have “special events to honor her important contributions and the results from the first few years of the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time.”
Rubin began her academic career in 1944 at Vassar College as an undergraduate studying astronomy. Upon graduating, Rubin started her masters at Cornell in 1948 at a time where women were “very underrepresented in STEM fields,” according to Earle.
“Rubin arrived a year after the first woman faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences: Martha Stahr Carpenter, an astronomer who was appointed assistant professor in astronomy in 1947,” Earle said. “Carpenter was one of Rubin’s professors and thesis advisors, and I imagine having that representation and mentorship was important.”
To continue reading this artilce, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
Taehee Oh can be reached at toh@cornellsun.com.
Shubha Gautam can be reached at sgautam@cornellsun.com.
By SHUBHA GAUTAM Sun Staff Writer
Saxbys students | Kurbanali, a member of the Saxbys program, poses in front of the cafe she is running.
Cornellian quarter | Vera Rubin, M.S. ’51 will be the first Cornellian to be featured on a U.S. Quarter.
COURTESY OF ANISA KURBANALI
SYDNEY LEVINTON ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Men I Trust’s ‘Equus Caballus’
My first time walking into a college library, I saw an army of headphones hunched over books and computers. I had never been one to listen to music while studying — the lyrics of popular songs and the flowing melodies of instrumental pieces would distract me from readings and transport me to places other than Wordsworth’s landscapes or Descartes’ meditations. I didn’t get the appeal. That is, until I first sat down with a book and a Men I Trust album — Oncle Jazz. The electronic, chill pop became a pillow upon which I could gently rest my head and calmly read. From there, I was hooked — the Québec City band became my trusted artist for studying, strolling around campus and getting ready in the morning. The effortless, happy vibe stuck with me, sparking extra excitement when I heard that they released their fifth studio album, Equus Asinus last Wednesday, March 19, 2025. The work had been announced a little more than a month earlier, on Feb. 11, 2025, with another album “from the same genus,” Equus Caballus, to follow. Both albums are set to be featured on their EQUUS tour of North America and Europe later this year. True to form, the album features the band’s signature sound — those whispering vocals and mystical melodies that initially pulled me in. Unlike their previous work, however, Equus Asinus strays from the pop genre, as a folk album that evokes a melancholic and retrospective feeling. With provocative,
poetic lyrics and cascading melodies, the album beautifully reflects an unresolved attempt to come to terms with the past as change sweeps by.
Track 1 of 14, “I Come With Mud,” opens the album and gently sets the stage for the poetic world the band operates within. The beginning of the song is like a mellowed-down version of The 1975’s “About You” — take a listen to both and compare; it’s super cool how similar the two really are. Relatively quickly, the song ventures past its musical connection to “About You” and becomes a unique and earthy expression of the singer’s own flaws, her “mud.” The album continues, rolling forward through every song at a languid, but steady pace — like the hands on a clock, moving slowly but purposefully. This is represented musically in many of the tracks, especially in “Frostbite” and “Unlike Anything” — two tracks in the front and back end of the album where vertically contemplative chords move horizontally, acting as pensive and forward-looking. The ideas of memory, the past and change is present throughout, as Emma Proulx, the band’s lead singer, wonders, “Was there more I could have done?” in “All My Candles.” Musical echoes sing her lingering regret that the past is now only memories and letting go is almost impossible. Interestingly, the album contains scattered biblical references to rebirth, manifesting mostly in “Bethlehem,” “Heavenly Flow” and “Burrow.” These fit within the sphere of the album, as the predicament of time always moving suggests that rebirth is fre-
quent, and people are never the same as their past selves.
My favorite of the album, the last two tracks — “Moon 2” and “What Matters Most” — are gentle instrumental outros, allowing listeners to fully reflect on the heavy, rainy-day album they just experienced. The former is numbing; it is nostalgia in music, giving no solution to the tensions present in the album. “What Matters Most” comes out of the fog of its predecessor, offering a carefree piano melody alongside synthetic strings that make you feel like everything, though unsolved and confused, is alright. The emotional path the album leads you through is a rough one. Though it is not full of twists and turns, its uniform melancholy is thick, making the last track especially relieving.
As a humanities major, the scientific meaning of the album name was initially lost upon me, so let me take a moment to refresh those of us not scientifically inclined. Equus asinus (with the correct capitalization of the first word and lowercase of the second) is the scientific name for the domestic donkey, written in binomial nomenclature, a system that features two Latin names to classify species. The first term is the animal’s genus, a taxonomic group between family and species, while the latter is the animal’s species. The two new EQUUS albums feature two different species within the same genus, the donkey (Equus asinus) and the horse (Equus caballus). Though sharing a genus, these animals cannot be more different. Semiotically, the donkey represents stubbornness due to its stoicism,
while the horse is strong and heroic. Much of the common descriptions of donkeys match the sound that permeates the band’s new album. A stoic, resistance to change as it happens right in front of you is present in lyrics like “Should send for it, but it’s gone, don’t know where” in “I Don’t Like Music.” The whole album has these solitary, watching and reminiscing lyrics as change rolls past in the horizontal melodies. The semiotic associations of these animals stand in stark contrast, hinting at the sound we can expect for Equus Caballus — a more vibrant, uplifting spirit. After the reflective tone of Equus Asinus, that shift will be a welcome change.
Hazel Tjaden is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at hlt43@cornell. edu.
Sammy Rae & Will Leet’s Take on Introspection
CHARLOTTE FEEHAN ARTS CONTRIBUTOR
After slogging my way through an especially nasty bout of prelims, this past Friday I finally took the advice of an oh-so-cliché quote that won’t stop popping up on one of my phone widgets: “Love yourself first because that’s who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.” Struggling to relieve myself of the heavy exhaustion that follows extended periods of library-induced sunlight deprivation, I realized that I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen live music, or for that matter, done something truly on my own. Thus, I found myself sitting inside of the Alice Statler Auditorium on Friday night, unsure of what to expect.
The openers of the Sammy Rae and Will Leet Show, Twin Court, immediately flooded the auditorium with a cacophonous blend of sounds I can only describe as extraterrestrial. Transfixed by the soft vocals of lead singer Grace Kelly Fulton and the hypnotic melody of a myriad of accompanying instruments, I was excited to learn that Twin Court is a local band
that takes inspiration from the sounds and musical structures of Central Javanese gamelan. Borrowing instruments from Cornell’s gamelan ensemble, Twin Court combines traditional Indonesian music with indie rock and dream pop to curate a sound that’s uniquely their own. The night’s set started out illusive as I adjusted to reverberating bronze gamelan instruments fusing their round pitch with rockstyle drums, bass and guitar. However, Twin Court’s sound seemed to take on a clearer meaning the longer I listened; alternating vocalists imbued each song with the simultaneous serenity of “summer’s falling haze” and melancholic pangs for an escape “a thousand miles away.” There’s an inexplicable tension that lies at the beating heart of Twin Court, one that speaks to the innermost desires and fears of its listeners, showing them that it’s possible to see past preconceived structures of sound (and life) to create something that’s natural, raw and authentic. If you’re a music lover in any capacity, I strongly encourage you to give Twin Court’s new album, Forgotten Turns, a listen, or attend one
of their performances before the end of the spring semester. Unfortunately for you and me, Twin Court’s members will graduate at the end of this year and opportunities to hear them live in Ithaca are already dwindling.
Still buzzing from the musical high of Twin Court, the audience of some 600 attendees broke into raucous cheers when headliners Sammy Rae and Will Leet appeared on stage. Sammy Rae & The Friends, typically a collective of seven members, was stripped down to little more than Leet’s guitar and both artists’ infectious excitement.
A carefully selected set of seven songs paired themselves seamlessly with the flowing vocals of Sammy Rae, who described the band’s typical style as rock with influences of funk and jazz. Immediately upon hearing the opening lines of “Talk It Up,” one of the band’s bestknown tracks, I detected the oscillating vibrato in Rae’s vocals often characteristic of jazz artists. The clean-cut clarity of her sound bounced up and down, sometimes soaring twenty feet in the air then just as quickly falling right into my lap. The soft yet masterful
accompaniment of Leet’s guitar and occasional vocals married themselves perfectly to the storytelling style of each song. The artists described the overarching message behind their music as one that attempts to peel back layers of superficiality and cheesy sentiment to reach the real “meat and potatoes” of self-belief. Whether jamming about female friendships and queer discovery in “Jackie Onassis,” male mental health in “David” or growing apart from long-standing relationships in “Closer to You,” the genuine, borderline familial connection between Rae and Leet enveloped the auditorium with the warmth of unity and lyrical artistry. The artists’ mission to write songs simple enough to be “accessible to kids” called a mixture of memories, happy and sad, to the forefront of my mind, making me feel one with the river of nostalgic beats blessing my ears.
In lieu of my solo excursion on Friday and the musical lessons I learned, I would like to push against the convention that college is inevitably about independence, quiet introspection and self-discovery. In fact, university life with its flashy
bells and whistles is by far the easiest point in a young adult’s life to be sucked into patterns of codependency. While parents and teachers may no longer nag me to wash the dishes, get to class on time or eat my vegetables, the persistent ache in the back of my chest to be everything, everywhere, all the time has only grown in magnitude since stepping foot on campus. It’s safe to say that the transcendent performances of Twin Court, Sammy Rae and Will Leet have officially changed the trajectory of my first spring in Ithaca, inspiring me to seek connection beyond what feels comfortable.
In the words of my widget, I encourage you to get out there this spring and start “spending the rest of your life with [yourself].” It’s all in the little things: try that bakery downtown, watch the sunset on the Slope with your favorite tunes or, in my personal recommendation, attend one of Twin Court’s final live performances this semester. I promise you won’t regret it.
Charlotte Feehan is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at cgf47@cornell.edu.
COURTESY OF MEN I TRUST
SNL’s Colin Jost Delivers a Night of Stand Up Comedy to Cornell, Selling Out Barton Hall
By RAFAELA GANDOLFO BUSTAMANTE
Staff Writer
March 24 — Barton Hall welcomed American comedian and writer Colin Jost — best known for his skits on Saturday Night Live — for a sold-out event and an evening full of laughter.
Jost’s appearance was organized by the Cornell University Program Board, which invited him for their largest event in the last four years, according to Head of Strategy for CUPB Melissa Reifman ’25. The show capped at around 3,500 seats and sold out days before the event was to take place.
The packed hall echoed with applause as Jost walked onstage. A fiery comment on recent Cornell events kicked off his fifty-minute set.
“What’s up Ithaca!” Jost said, entering the stage. “I want to thank the hard-working members of CUPB for having me tonight. They were very nice to invite me and also very nice to invite the organization [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement].”
Jost, a 15-time Emmy Award nominee for his writing on SNL, has been widely recognized for co-hosting “Weekend Update” alongside Michael Che. Their SNL sketch puts a satirical spin on current events, as they humor-
ously comment on political and social topics that surface globally.
Jost continued his introductory comments with many references to the University. Tailoring his jokes to the likes of Cornell students, he made note of the many gorges, the weather and even the dynamic between the University and Ithaca College.
“It’s great to be at Cornell… Isn’t it so great if someone’s like, ‘Where do you go to school?’ And you’re like, ‘Ithaca’ – and you then don’t have to be like ‘Ithaca College,’” Jost said.
with varying anecdotes. He reminisced “sadly” skiing at Greek Peak, shared old sketch pitches and gave witty punches at pop culture references.
“It’s great to be at Cornell...”
Jost’s set was unexpectedly opened by two other American comedians Michael Longfellow and Molly Kearney, who both made their SNL debuts in 2022. Their sets, contrasting in energy and content, appealed to the various preferences of the crowd, setting the stage for Jost’s headlining act. Hazel Tjaden
Colin Jost
Jost also mentioned his aunt and uncle, who both studied at the University. After mentioning his aunt, a hotel administration major, scattered cheers resounded throughout the hall. In response, Jost came back to jokes that referred to the School of Hotel Administration throughout the event, specifically pointing at a group of hotel students sitting in the front.
“I would like to tell you something inspiring for all the people who are majoring in Hotel Administration — my aunt came here to study hotels, and now she stays in hotels.”
The rest of the evening was filled
‘28, who has grown up watching SNL, attended CUPB’s event as her first comedy show and expressed appreciation for the openers.
“I really enjoyed that there were a couple openers,” Tjaden said. “It was really nice to see other cast members and other types of jokes — they weren’t all the same sort of humor but it was still cohesive.”
Longfellow opened with a lower energy set, filled with dark humor. Kearney kept their segment upbeat, bringing vibrancy and energy to the stage.
“You guys are going to the library after this — I’m making fun of you,
but I’m not. Like you are going to save the world,” Kearney said, making light of the University’s academic reputation.
Reifman reflected on CUPB’s ambitions for the event’s impact on Cornellians, explaining why the anticipation for a night of relaxation and laughter has perfect timing before spring break.
“The buzz surrounding the show has been amazing so far — it’s great to see the Cornell community this excited,” Reifman wrote in a statement to The Sun. “We hope that everyone can come together to just relax and laugh for an hour, especially as students make the final push to finish up work before spring break.”
As the night came to an end, Jost was bid farewell with a final round of applause from the audience. Kaya Beckles ’28, a fan of SNL through high school, reflected on her experience as an attendee and her resonation with Jost as a New York resident.
“[SNL] is such a ‘New York thing.’ [Jost] is my favorite cast member actually,” Beckles said. “During the show I was really excited and I thought he was really hilarious.”
Rafaela Gandolfo Bustamante can be reached at rgandolfobustamante@cornellsun.com.
AAP Finalizes Planning Cornell’s 125th Dragon Day
By ANJELINA GONZALEZ Sun Staff Writer
March 24 — William Day, B.Arch. ’29 and Kuai Yu, B.Arch. ’29 were elected by the architecture firstyear class to lead the design and implementation process for the 125th Dragon Day event on March 28 at 1 p.m.
Each year, first-year students at Cornell’s College of Art, Architecture and Planning come together to build a dragon to parade around campus the last Friday before Spring Break. Ithaca locals, students and professors gather to watch the presentation.
Day and Yu spend most of their time communicating with the University, negotiating the logistics of road closures, routes pathways and managing the dragon’s progress with the first-year architecture class.
“[Dragon Day has] been a staple on campus,” Day said. “It’s a big part of the department, and that firstyear architecture experience that everybody remembers.”
As leaders, Day and Yu work alongside an e-board team consisting of divisions in advertising, construction, social media and t-shirt selling that helps to generate funding for constructing the dragon and subsequent parade event.
Lucas Leeds, B.Arch. ’29 and Brian Cocero, B.Arch. ’29 lead the construction of the dragon, gathering architecture students into a team that meets semi-weekly. The construction team started their process by deliberating design ideas, creating sketches and designing 3D models to use as the blueprint to begin the physical
construction process.
The construction team devised several master models for the dragon body using strategies from their architecture classes. One of the initial models was a small-scale design made of balsa wood, simulating the soon-to-be large-scale beamed structure.
This year’s theme, “How to Build Your Dragon,” is inspired by the DreamWorks Animation franchise ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ an open-ended concept based on the assembly process of the dragon.
“Our dragon is encouraging people to participate in this dragon-building process. Anyone can leave their mark,” Cocero said of the theme.
One implementation of the theme that arose in Dragon Day team meetings included a dragon with a blank canvas for skin according to Leeds. At the end of the parade, the skin will be colored by water balloons, chalk, paint or coloring by spectators along the parade route to complete the building of the dragon.
However, the team aims to build on the original design by creating a complex base structure. In order to be efficient, the construction team will break the tradition of using many cut-up pieces to build the dragon by using whole, uncut wood beams.
“We’re making a dragon essentially out of that same two-by-eight [wooden] beam we’re buying without cutting it in any way. So the two-by-eight beam becomes a horn, a body, a neck [and] everything is made out of the same material,” Cocero said.
In anticipation of Dragon Day, an egg will be placed near Milstein Hall to mimic the idea that the dragon is about to hatch. According to Cocero, the egg is built by
plywood beams that go around radially [from a center point of the egg] and is covered by tarp, serving as a parallel build to that of the dragon.
The planning and building process for Dragon Day, from t-shirt designs to dragon construction, is a long and grueling process that AAP students take on in tandem with their notoriously rigorous workloads.
“Even though us [architecture] students are so busy, there’s a very fun aspect to this project, too,” Leeds said. “It’s a little bit less of a ‘we have to do this for a class,’ and more like, ‘we’re doing this because we love architecture.’ That’s all really what it is about.”
Anjelina Gonzalez can be reached at agonzalez@cornellsun.com.
Sun
Colin at Cornell | Saturday Night Live comedian Colin Jost performs to around 3,500 attendees at Barton Hall.
COURTESY OF RANYA BENCHAABOUNE ‘25 / CORNELL UNIVERSITY PROGRAM BOARD
Stand-up students | Students laugh as they listen to Colin Jost’s comedy at Barton Hall.
COURTESY OF RANYA BENCHAABOUNE ‘25 / CORNELL UNIVERSITY PROGRAM BOARD
Adoring architecture | Dragon Day is an annual parade occuring right before Spring Break.
ARTS & CULTURE
‘Willard Way’: Glimpsing, Looking & Reaching
By PEN FANG Arts & Culture Writer
In a dark room enveloped in warmth, six wooden, rectangular structures stand. Each has a slit in the side, letting the light spill out and begging the viewer to look in.
Willard Way is a group exhibition in Tjaden Gallery featuring the artists Won Ryu ‘25, Tim Green ’24, Anna Lu ’24, Cook Shaw ’24, Julien Lavigne ’25, Rhys Healy ’25 and Willem Schreiber ’25. The description notes that each of the exhibitors have lived together at some point in the last five years. (The following numbering is my own.)
1. Peering into the unit closest to the entrance reveals a series of images, each seemingly mirrored in some way. I see a child blowing bubbles and the slight line where the image is inverted, reflected and re-attached. On another wall, I see scenes of nature symmetrically reflected, forming an abstract expansion of shapes, green streaks of leaves and shrubbery.
A diamond-shaped mirror sits across the gap in the wood. I see parts of images on the wall facing away from me reflected in it: a landscape of lights, a black and white forest. Do I look in and see reflections of a self — how easily we merge with an atmosphere until there is no distinction between us and the nature-people in it?
2. Light spills from two window-like cuts. A flesh-colored form clings to the top, dripping downward yet frozen. I am reminded of clay or another tac -
tile material by the evidence of touch imprinted on the surface. The light aims upward to accentuate the almost grotesque transformation of the medium above. I am fascinated by the lumps and folds, by how my body is related as a flesh-thing bearing marks of transformation. Is this thing coming down onto the light below, reaching for us to envelop us whole? Will it be warm or suffocating or both?
3. Behind a sheet of plastic are blue-green-purple painterly marks, collage-like in the juxtapositions of texture, brush direction and modulations of color. Some areas have swirls of paint dragged across the surface, breaking apart the rhythmic layering of paint. Is this a disruption or perhaps a gentler melding together of calm and uncalm? The pattern looks like it could extend forever and ever (I think there are mirrors on the bottom and top), no distinction between ground-ceiling and in-between. I could feel it in my body, the disruption and ordered marks melding together for infinity, extending ever-upwards and ever-downwards. And I don’t think this is intentional, but there is a small gap between the wood casting a thin beam of blue light onto the wall behind the unit. It might be accidental, but I like the way the light slips out nonetheless.
4. Look into the backlit space and follow the leaves trickling downward from the ceiling. I immediately think of the word “home,” and the history all these objects must have, even if I can’t quite figure out what they are. A trinket bowl has small seashells filling
maybe a sixth of the space. Wooden objects rest beside it. Caught directly in front of the light is a paper pinwheel or maybe flower, utterly still. Redyellow tapestries drape over the walls. This could be a miniature of someone’s room, so intimate despite its decontextualization. The long shadows cast by each object reach toward me, where I crouch to look so invasively into this bubble of warmth, almost beckoning me to move closer.
5. A searing red light high above my head almost violently bursts from between the crack in the wood. I press my face closer to the rest of the seeming darkness to get a look, and I can make something out, branching out tentatively. I like the idea of light as warning and protection, anchored up top forcing you to wait to look, to press your face against the crack to see beyond the red glare and wait for your eyes to adjust. I am not quite sure what the figure behind the light is, cast in a vivid red glow, but it feels tentatively alive, maybe hiding or lying in wait behind this red loudness.
6. A pirate hat spins like a ceiling fan underneath a flickering yellow lamp. When I get close, I swear I can feel the air moving, a tentative aliveness like the buzzing of cicadas in summer with the light’s modulations and figure-eight of motion. The only piece with motion in the gallery, I cannot help but again feel embodied by the room — the inability to be still and pinned down into one moment and the inability of the light to stay fully focused, constantly wavering.
Tjaden Gallery is not a particularly large space, but the tall and narrow shape of each unit makes me hyper aware of how much space is between each structure, how isolated they are.
Peering through the gaps in the wood feels intrusive, yet the light that spills into the darkness of the gallery is so alive, so inviting. The geometry is inherently protective, reminiscent of a gap made by a door slightly ajar. For all the spaces, the height of the wood and the positioning of the crack makes it impossible to see all of the inside. Am I allowed to look, to gaze in? The more I try to see, the more I cannot help but feel like a voyeur of sorts, yet I desperately want to know more, to slip into the atmosphere of these spaces.
I imagine the units as bodies of sorts, the way a space reflects the person occupying it. Even more, each unit acts like a body with its built-in closedoff-ness and crack of light that feels both accidental and inviting, asking you to look into an ephemeral moment and cautioning against it. What is there to do except tentatively look? What is there to do except try to understand, even though you may never see or speak of it again?
Willard Way is on display in Tjaden Gallery until March 27.
is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. They can be reached at pfang@cornellsun. com.
Spoiler Review: ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’
By EMMA ROBINSON
Like many of you, I was extremely excited when this past week the newest addition to the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins series was released on March 18, 2025. The fifth installment in the Hunger Games universe and second chronologically, follows Haymitch Abernathy during his games. In the original trilogy, Haymitch serves as a mentor to the protagonists Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark as they navigate their own 74th and 75th games. He is portrayed as a short-tempered alcoholic who at first seems to offer little to the pair. However, as the original trilogy progresses, Haymitch does his best to impart knowledge to Katniss and Peeta and eventually plays a crucial role in the rebellion.
In this newly released book, Haymitch has just turned sixteen on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games or Second Quarter Quell. The reader is quickly introduced to a very different Haymitch from the one portrayed in the original books. Not only is he a caring son and brother, but he even has a love interest named Leonore Dove. For those who have read the first prequel A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Leonore is related to the female main character Lucy Gray Baird, which was a nice connection between the prequels. What shocked me was that Haymitch was not initially selected for the 50th Hunger Games; the story describes
an uprising where a boy is killed while trying to escape something, leaving Leonore in trouble.
Haymitch is immediately cast as a boy willing to risk anything for his family and for the greater good. However, it is clear that he is also good at putting on a show to first gain the favor of the capitol and later to face his likely death in the most rebellious manner possible. This is the beginning of his rascal act that we see continued in the original trilogy. Compared to Haymitch’s depth of character, Leonore’s fell flat. Her character was underdeveloped and seemed too similar to Lucy Gray. While I do understand why we see little of her, with most of the book spent describing preparation for the games and the games themselves, this left me largely unattached to her. There are, however, some very interesting side characters from District 12 that come to the games with Haymitch. My personal favorite was a girl named Maysilee Donner who herself undergoes a great character arc. At first, she appears arrogant and condescending as one of the wealthier from District 12. However, her thoughtful and compassionate nature is revealed throughout the novel and she became one of my favorite characters.
I enjoyed how the tributes, other than the “careers,” formed an alliance. This demonstrates how the strength and unity of the rebellion in the districts in the first trilogy was already starting to form 25 years earlier. I also appreciated being
introduced to a couple of characters that come into play in Catching Fire including Beetee and Mags. It allowed me to get a better sense of their journeys. Beetee even helps Haymitch to form a plan to destroy the arena and hopefully stop the games. Although we did get strong side characters from District 12, I could have used a little more development of the other tributes. The careers are mainly displayed as strong and empty-headed, as is typical in this series. Those from the outer districts are characterized as brainy albeit weak, and lacking individual identities.
Once Haymitch entered the arena, I was enthralled by the setting. The arena for these games has its own distinct flare. Although it appears idyllic and utopian with clear streams and frolicking animals, everything is actually either poisonous or carnivorous, providing for some exciting action scenes. Once we are immersed in the games, I loved the pace and thought the moments of action were well planned. Haymitch even attempts to stop the games by planting a bomb in the lower level of the arena, which is ultimately unsuccessful. Before the games commenced, the tempo was a little plodding but I understand why it was necessary to get to know Haymitch and grow empathetic towards him.
Ultimately the other tributes are killed and there is a brutal final fight between Haymitch and a career, concluding with Haymitch winning the games. Unfortunately, he is then treated as a prisoner and toted around the capital before
being returned home. Collins did an excellent job at displaying Haymitch’s emotional and mental state during this time. For example, describing the passage of time as disjointed when Haymitch is under the influence of high doses of drugs. Once Haymitch returns home, he finds his family killed in a fire and shortly after Leonore is poisoned by President Snow. This was a devastating ending. It felt like Haymitch had survived the games for nothing. He doesn’t even have time with his loved ones before they are killed. These events do explain his behavior in the other books. He drives others away to keep them from facing the wrath of Snow. The only solace that the ending provided was that the reader realizes he finds some peace in helping Katniss and Peeta end the games like he promised Leonore he would.
Overall, I would recommend Sunrise on the Reaping to everyone who enjoyed the original trilogy. It provides great background for the series and is a relatively quick read. For those who have not read the other books, you could still savor this action packed read, but you might not get the full experience. To all of those who enjoyed the book like myself, get excited for the movie which is coming out Nov. 20, 2026! If it is anything like the others, I am sure it will be a blockbuster.
Emma Robinson is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at erobinson@ cornellsun.com.
Pen Fang
Arts & Culture Writer
Women’s Hockey Ends Season With Frozen Four Loss
By ELI FASTIFF Sun Senior Editor
March 21 — In three of its last four games, women’s hockey entered the third period either tied or trailing its opponent. Cornell won three of those games, including the ECAC quarterfinals, semifinals and an NCAA tournament regional final. Friday night in Minneapolis, that streak ended.
After falling behind 2-0 in the opening minutes of its Frozen Four matchup with Ohio State, the Red battled back to tie the score in the second period before ultimately falling 4-2.
The loss ends one of the best seasons in program history. Making its fifth appearance in the Frozen Four, Cornell entered the final weekend of the season on a 16-game unbeaten streak, including capturing the Ivy League, ECAC regular season and ECAC tournament titles.
“I’m really proud of our team, proud of the season we had,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “I don’t think we played our best game today [and] it was not a great time for that. … But I thought we showed our mettle and something we took a lot of pride in all year long is battling through games to come back. We just couldn’t get it done in the third.”
In the first game of the 2025 Frozen Four — playing 854 miles from home, the furthest distance the Red have traveled this season — Cornell came out flat, giving up two goals on Ohio State’s first five shots. After falling into an early deficit, it seemed like the Red was heading for a repeat of the Oct. 26, 7-3 drubbing at the hands of the Buckeyes.
Instead, with 5:38 remaining in
the second period, it felt as if Lynah Rink had been transported to Minneapolis. Cornell struck twice just 1:08 apart in the second frame to even the score at two, and sending large swaths of Ridder Arena into a boisterous frenzy.
The first goal — which halved the Ohio State lead — came off the stick of senior forward Lily Delianedis, just as a Cornell power play was expiring. Just as the Lynah Faithful were beginning to quiet, senior forward Kaitlin Jockims received a pass from sophomore defender Piper Grober and led a three-on-one rush into the Ohio State defensive zone.
Her wrist shot rocketed by Buckeye netminder Amanda Thiele and completed the second period comeback.
“I had quite a bit of time, so I could get a good shot,” Jockims said.
“And then it went in.”
The two-goal comeback was sig-
nature Cornell. All season long the Red had battled back from behind to tie and win games which had seemed destined to be losses.
“I knew we could [comeback] from being behind [two goals] and that just gave us a little more life,” Jockims said. “When you get that second goal and it ties the game, it makes [the comeback] real.”
For Derraugh, the relief of mounting a high-stakes comeback may have been behind Cornell’s subsequent third period letdown.
“At the start of the game you’re sort of feeling things a little bit, then you get down, then we started playing our game,” Derraugh said. “Then we tied it up, and I wonder [if] you don’t keep your foot on the pedal the way you were because you knew you had to battle back.”
With the score tied at two, the Buckeyes and Red entered the third
period knowing that both teams’ seasons would come down to the game‘s final 20 minutes.
While Cornell’s offense looked potent to start the final frame, it was Ohio State who would strike first with a score 3:37 into the period. Patty Kazmeir award finalist Joy Dunne took the puck off a teammate’s stick and fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle which deflected off the glove of Bergmann and into the back of the net. The four goals were the most the ECAC Goaltender of the Year had allowed since the team’s previous loss to Ohio State.
“Ohio State is a great team, so they weren’t just going to roll over,” Derraugh said. ”So you got to give them credit that they regrouped in the second period and came out real strong in the third period. It came down to that.”
Now with the lead, the Buckeyes began to dominate. Four minutes after conceding Ohio State’s third goal, Cornell found itself down by two for the second time in the game when Dunne poked a rebound past Bergmann. This time, there was no coming back for the Red.
Though Cornell continued to battle, the Red struggled to get the puck out of its own defensive zone for the game’s remaining 12:38.
Derraugh pulled Bergmann — who finished with 38 saves — with 1:20 left on the clock, and while the Red generated multiple high percentage chances with the extra skater, they could not beat Thiele.
The Red will graduate 11 seniors, including senior defender Ashley Messier who will play a fifth year of college hockey at the University of Minnesota Duluth and it will be up to players like Bergmann to learn from this season and carry the team forward.
“The biggest part I learned this year was what it takes to be a team and how you can rely on your teammates. They’re always going to have you back no matter what,” Bergmann said. “I can’t thank the seniors enough for all the things that they’ve taught me. Same with the coaching staff, and I think that’s what allowed not only me to have a great season, but the team to have a great season.”
The 4-2 loss ends Cornell’s hopes of winning the program’s first national championship. Next year’s team, which will be led by Bergmann and freshman forward Lindzi Avar, will have its work cut out for it to top a magical 2024-2025 campaign.
Eli Fastif can be reached at efastif@cornellsun.com.
Personal Bests From Kirst and Goldstein Loft Men’s Lacrosse Over Yale
By ALEXIS ROGERS, WILLIAM CAWLEY Sun Sports Editor, Sun Staff Writer
March 22 — It seemed that senior attackman CJ Kirst had no achievement yet to complete. In last week’s Ivy opener against Princeton, Kirst broke Cornell’s all-time scoring record, securing his place in program history. He topped the national leaderboard for points per game. He has already earned three Ivy League Player of the Week recognitions.
Who else did he have to one-up but himself?
In the team’s first road conference match, Kirst netted nine goals to break his own single-game high, previously set at seven on March 2, 2024 against Ohio State. Not only did he set a personal best, but he scored more goals than any other player has in a single game in 2025.
“CJ [Kirst] is an exceptional individual,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17 after Kirst’s historical performance against Princeton. “He’s a person that makes our team better because of how he carries himself, because of his love for the game. No surprise that he’s reached the feats he has.”
Buoyed by Kirst’s domination in front of the net, sophomore attackman Ryan Goldstein’s personal record of eight assists, and characteristic offensive depth, then-No. 4/3 Cornell (6-1, 2-0 Ivy) took a 19-14 win over Yale (1-5, 0-2 Ivy).
Kirst opened the game’s scoring less than two minutes after the first whistle off an assist from Goldstein. He went on to score the first four goals of the game for Cornell, giving the Red an early 4-1 lead.
Yale clawed one back before Cornell got a pole goal from sophomore midfielder Walker
Schwartz. The lefty converted a shot from deep for his first career goal.
Cornell and Yale traded pairs of goals from there to close the first 15 minutes of play. Kirst, left alone on the right side of the field, netted his sixth goal of the quarter to bring the Cornell lead to 7-4.
Yale was the first to score in the second quarter, but Goldstein rattled home an answer just nine seconds later, his first goal of the game.
The Bulldogs closed the gap to 8-7, but Cornell’s offense used some quick ball movement to open up Kirst for a wide open shot that he did not waste. Yale answered with a goal from Chris Lyons, who posted 62 goals in 2024 and has been bouncing back from a disappointing early season.
The last eight minutes of the first half would be dominated by Cornell. Senior attackman Micheal Long scored twice and was followed by Kirst ripping an on-the-run, sidewinding shot into the top corner. This marked a new career high in goals for Kirst with 8, with time still on the clock in the first half.
Trying to score to beat the halftime buzzer, Long dove toward the crease and was crunched by Yale defenders. This resulted in a Yale penalty, and Long would not return to the game.
Long, who has been an integral part of the Red’s offense in his sixth season on the team, has battled several injuries during his time at Cornell.
“[Long] has been a leader for many years as a three-time captain,” Buczek said prior to the 2025 season. “He’s a guy that has been through it, has had his setbacks, and has a handle on what it is that makes him move to the best of his
abilities every day.”
Yale made it 12-9 to open the third quarter but left sophomore attackman Willem Firth wide open on the crease. Firth buried his first of the game to put Cornell up by four.
Two penalties on Yale in the same possession — one offside and one slashing — led to a twoman-up opportunity for the Red. Cornell was stonewalled on this chance by Yale goaltender Hugh Conrad, but Firth ripped a low-to-high shot later in the possession that put the Red in a commanding five goal lead.
Kirst added on, picking up a ground ball and immediately slotting it home. The next strike came from senior attackman Danny Caddigan, who easily finished a feed to the crease from junior midfielder and attackman Brian Luzzi. Cornell closed the third quarter with a 16-9 lead.
Caddigan scored again to open the final stanza on yet another Goldstein assist. Luzzi scored a low, long shot which chased Conrad from the game, Jared Paquette taking his place inside the crease for the Bulldogs.
Yale was finally able to find another with just over 10 minutes to go, breaking their 18 minute scoring drought. They followed with another goal after senior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust gave up a bad rebound. Lyons then scored three straight to cut the Red’s lead to 18-14 with two minutes left in the game.
“[Yale] puts pressure on constantly in the course of the game,” Buczek recalled before the match. “They really make you defend for 60 minutes. They make it hard, so it takes a great, cohesive defensive unit [to win against Yale].”
Though the game had a chance of repeating the crushing defeat to Penn State earlier this
season, in which Cornell lost despite holding a four-goal lead two minutes from final time, the Red were able to hunker down and defend its position. After a faceoff violation from the Bulldogs that gave the Red possession, Yale couldn’t find its way back to the offensive zone.
With seven seconds left on the clock, Goldstein, with an assist from Kirst, found the back of a wide-open net to come away with a 19-14 win.
Though Kirst took responsibility for half of the Red’s scoring, seven Cornell players earned goals, with both Kirst and Goldstein notching 10 points on the day. Long, despite exiting late in the first half, took four points with two goals and two assists, and Firth earned two goals and one assist for three points.
Despite allowing five goals in the final ten minutes of play, Knust made 13 saves on 27 shots for a 48 percent save percentage.
Junior faceoff and midfielder Jack Cascadden won 17 of his 31 faceoffs, good for a 55 percent win percentage, while freshman Michael Melkonian went one for four.
The Red now turn their attention to No. 16/17 University of Pennsylvania, who they will face at Schoellkopf Field at 12 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. Last year, the Quakers upset Cornell in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals to prematurely end the Red’s season, a memory that will no doubt be at the forefront as the team prepares for next weekend. Coverage of the highstakes rematch will be available on ESPN+.
Alexis Rogers and William Cawley can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com and wcawley@cornellsun.com.
ELI FASTIFF / SUN SENIOR EDITOR
Final dance | Ohio State emerged victorious 4-2 despite the Red’s two-goal comeback in the second period.
PLAYOFF PREVIEW: MEN’S
HOCKEY TASKED WITH MICHIGAN STATE IN TOLEDO REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
us,” Schafer said.
On Nov. 3, 1995, men’s hockey debuted its newly-minted 31-year-old coach against one of the forces of college hockey: Michigan State.
Head coach Mike Schafer ’86 was looking to resurrect a program that had once soared to great heights in the 1970s, but had plummeted in the early 90s, eclipsing an abysmal 19 losses in the 1992-1993 season.
Schafer would be making his debut against a Spartan team that had made the NCAA tournament twice in three years, and in front of a rowdy road crowd in East Lansing, Michigan.
The debut did not go as planned for Schafer — Michigan State took care of Cornell, 6-2, welcoming Schafer to college hockey with a sour taste in his mouth.
“I thought we were playing pretty well until Anson Carter decided to get involved in the game,” Schafer recollected with a laugh, alluding to the future NHL star that posted 51 points in that 1995-1996 season with Michigan State. “Once he did, I knew why we needed a lot of work.”
Since then, Schafer has coached 975 games for Cornell. He has collected seven Whitelaw Cups, three Cleary Cups, made 14 NCAA tournament appearances and reached a Frozen Four. He announced his predetermined retirement last June, sounding the end to a 30-year career that will stand as one of the best in college hockey coaching history.
After winning the ECAC tournament title, the NCAA tournament selection committee sent Cornell to Toledo. The team is tasked with the No. 1 team in the country per U.S. College Hockey Online, and the second-overall seed in the tournament.
That opponent is the team that began Schafer’s career: Michigan State. He’s trying to ensure that his career won’t be ended by the Spartans.
“The challenges are laid out right in front of
Cornell will take on Michigan State in the NCAA tournament regional semifinal in Toledo, Ohio. The Spartans have rotated with Boston College for the top ranking in the nation, but have now occupied that spot for the last two weeks.
“They’re No. 2 [in the tournament] for a reason, right?” Schafer said. “They have all the different pieces. … They’ve been consistent from the start of the year right through, and they haven’t had many faces of adversity at all throughout the course of the year.”
It’s true — Michigan State has consistently ranked within the top-five in the rankings since the season began. It entered the season ranked No. 4 in the country and has refused to fall since then.
“I think [Adam] Nightingale has done a really good job,” Schafer said. “They play hard, they play simple, they play fast. They have a good formula.”
The Spartans are led by junior forward Isaac Howard, whose 51 points earned him a spot as a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker award. Howard, who played at Minnesota-Duluth as a freshman before transferring to Michigan State, played a big role in his team’s regular season and tournament titles, posting four points in the Big 10 championship game against Ohio State.
He has rarely been slowed down — Howard has more multipoint games than games where he’s been held scoreless. Howard is a product of the United State National Team Development Program and was a standout at the Shattuck St. Mary’s School, one of the top preparatory schools for high school hockey.
While his name packs a punch, Cornell has faced players of a similar calibur. Just this past Saturday, the Red shut down Clarkson’s Ayrton Martino, who — like Howard — had 51 points.
“I don’t think it’s any different than a kid like Martino. [If] you give them time and space, they’re going to make plays, and they can score. They can rip it. They’re good on the power play,” Schafer said. “[Howard] sits over there, and not only can he shoot it, but he can fake it and find people, and
he’ll go all over the place to create his offense. So you have to be aware [when] he’s on the ice.”
Howard is the main player to shut down for Cornell. Michigan State, despite its high-calibur offense, has six players with 20 or more points. Cornell has five.
It will be difficult for Cornell to create offense, though, going up against one of the nation’s top goaltenders. Trey Augustine, a two-time gold medalist at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships and the Big 10 Goaltender of the Year. The Spartans have only allowed more than three goals once since Jan. 30, largely due to Augustine’s stellar play between the pipes.
Michigan State has the star players, and plays in a recognizable conference — one that is sending four teams to the NCAA tournament. But that’s not enough to scare off the Red.
“They got bigger, shinier rinks and a lot more money than the teams in the ECAC. But [when] you get down to it, hockey is hockey,” Schafer said. “It’s the illusion of the Big 10, but it’s not the illusion of the Big 10. Our guys aren’t going to be intimidated by that.”
In the last two NCAA tournaments, Cornell
has been the lower seed. Last season, the Red was the three-seed in Springfield, Massachusetts, beating No. 2 Maine before going toe-to-toe with top-seeded Denver, who eventually won the national championship.
In 2023, Cornell was the four-seed, like it will be this weekend. It was playing the defending national champion Denver, which Cornell shut out, 2-0.
“We’re always going to be a lower seed. I think the reason behind that is that we don’t have graduate students that we can plug [in] and play,” Schafer said. “I think for a team like ourselves, you’re always going to be the lower seed. But at the same time, the goal is not to make the NCAA [tournament — the goal is to win the NCAA championship.”
No matter who Cornell plays, the end goal is the same. Schafer is chasing after the one thing that eludes him: a national championship.
“Whoever you play, they’re an obstacle to try to win a championship,” Schafer said. “Whether you face that number-two seed in the last game of the year or you face them in the first game of the year, doesn’t make any difference. You gotta get through them.”
By the Numbers: How Cornell and Michigan State Compare
83.8% (12th) Michigan State 82.6% (18th).
TOLEDO, O.H.. — No. 1
Men’s hockey is slated to face No. 1 Michigan State in the NCAA tournament regional semifinal at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.
For the latest updates on the men’s hockey team, follow senior editor and men’s hockey beat reporter Jane McNally @janemcnally_.
The Numbers:
Records: Cornell (18-10-6, 10-8-4 ECAC) Michigan State (26-6-4, 15-54 Big 10).
Power play percentage: Cornell 14.3% (60th) Michigan State 24.5% (11th).
Penalty kill percentage: Cornell
Faceoff win percentage: Cornell 53.9% (10th) Michigan State 51.3% (20th).
Goals scored per game on average: Cornell 3.1 (20th) Michigan State 3.5 (7th).
Goals against per game on average: Cornell 2.2 (9th) Michigan State 2.0 (4th).
Series history:
In the brief history between the two teams, Cornell is 4-6-1 against the Spartans. The last series between the two teams took place in the 20192020 season, where Cornell swept the Spartans in East Lansing, Michigan.
Cornell’s last time out: Cornell won its second consecutive ECAC tournament championship with its 3-1 win over Clarkson in Lake Placid last Saturday. The Red scored two first-period goals and added an additional empty-netter to secure the program’s 14th Whitelaw Cup.
Senior forward Ondrej Psenicka scored the game-winning goal and had a three-point night. Senior goaltender Ian Shane continued his strong play as of late, stopping 30 shots en route to winning ECAC Tournament MVP.
Michigan State’s last time out: It took over a period and a half of extra hockey, but the Spartans downed Ohio State, 4-3, in the Big Ten tournament championship game. Michigan State led 3-1 more than
halfway through the third period, but the Buckeyes scored twice in the final seven minutes to push the game into overtime.
It was Hobey Baker award finalist Isaac Howard that was the hero for the Spartans, beating Ohio State netminder Logan Terness on Michigan State’s 51st shot of the game. Howard had two goals in the title game, while Terness made a stunning 47 saves against the high-calibur Spartan offense.
Scouting the Spartans:
The most lethal weapon on Michigan State’s roster is Howard, whose 51 points tie him for fourth in scoring nationally. The 2022 first-round draft pick (Tampa Bay Lightning) is coming off of a fourpoint performance in the Big 10 championship game. Howard has collected a plethora of awards, including Big 10 Player of the Year and First Team All-B1G, and is one of the ten finalists for the Hobey Baker award.
From there, though, the Spartans don’t have quite as much depth. The next leading scorer — Karsen Dorwart — has 21 fewer points than Howard. Michigan State has six players with over 20 points, each playing 34-36 games. Cornell has five players with over 20 points, with none having played more than 34 games.
Between the pipes, Michigan State boasts one of the country’s top goaltenders. Trey Augustine — drafted by
the Detroit Red Wings in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft — is one of four finalists for the Mike Richter award, given to the best goaltender in college hockey. His .927 save percentage ranks 10th-best in the nation, and the netminder was lights-out in the 2025 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship back in January, winning a gold medal with the United States.
Cornell beats Michigan State if: … two things.
One, it must stay out of the penalty box. Cornell nearly let things get out of hand on Friday against Quinnipiac, taking four penalties in the second period and it took dramatic fashion to rid itself of the Bobcats. If the Red wants to advance to its third consecutive NCAA regional final, it cannot afford to lose another special teams battle. The most attainable solution to winning that battle is to stay disciplined.
Two, Shane must bring it. The best asset a team can have to make a deep playoff run is a good goaltender. Though Shane’s numbers might fare worse than Augustine’s, he was a crucial piece of Cornell’s run through the ECAC playoffs — Shane has a combined .957 save percentage in his last five games started, all of them being playoff games.
What They’re Saying in Ithaca: Head coach Mike Schafer ’86 on Michigan State: “They’re No. 2 [in
the tournament] for a reason, right? Howard and their goaltender [are two] of the better [players] in the country. So they have all the different pieces. … They’ve been consistent from the start of the year right through, and they haven’t had many faces of adversity at all throughout the course of the year.” Schafer on what Cornell needs to do to win:
“We just need to play the same kind of hockey. You have to be above their forward, which we were against Quinnipiac and Clarkson, and you gotta be strong. I thought for the most part, in the game against Clarkson, we were disciplined. I didn’t think so much against Quinnipiac, [and] their ability to draw calls is second to none in the country. So you have to make sure that you’re not doing things to make yourself vulnerable.”
What they’re saying in East Lansing: Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale about the matchup: “I think with Cornell, you look at the job Coach Schafer has done. He has been there a long time. This is his last year and the team has responded and finished strong. They’re well coached and defend really hard.”
How to watch or listen: Video on ESPN+ (subscription needed), radio in Ithaca on WHCU 97.7 FM/870 AM, on Twitter @DailySunSports.
JANE McNALLY Sun Senior Editor
JANE McNALLY Sun Senior Editor
Cornell
Michigan State
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. Toledo, OH
Men’s Hockey vs.
LEILANI BURKE/ SUN SENIOR EDITOR
‘I WOULD NEVER THINK THAT I WOULD BE THAT LUCKY.’
ONDREJ PSENICKA’S IMPROBABLE PATH FROM PRAGUE TO THE HILL
— encouraged by his father — stayed behind, preserving his amateur status and remaining eligible to play in the NCAA.
No international student’s path to Cornell is ever the same. And for a Division I hockey player from the Czech Republic, that path is even narrower and more difficult to navigate.
Before Ondrej Psenicka ’25 arrived at Cornell, he had gone almost two years without playing hockey — unheard of for highly coveted, National Collegiate Athletic Association-bound hockey prospects.
Psenicka will leave Cornell with at least 124 games played, scoring 36 goals, 35 assists and counting. As he prepares to graduate with a degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations this spring, Psenicka looks back fondly on everything that got him here.
“I would never think that I would be that lucky to get to such a prestigious university like Cornell,” Psenicka said. “[I] still can’t believe it.
The Early Years
While the Czech Republic is now a strong competitor in international hockey, having medaled in the last three International Ice Hockey Federation U20 World Junior Championships and securing a bronze in the 2022 IIHF World Championship, it wasn’t always that way.
When a young Ondrej Psenicka was growing up in Prague, ice hockey wasn’t the popular sport amongst his friends. Instead, European-dominated sports like soccer and tennis were more common after-school activities.
Psenicka, much taller than most at his age, and who stands at 6’6” today, picked up a hockey stick because of his dad.
Stanislav Psenicka played hockey throughout his childhood, up until he hit a crossroads — go pro or get a college degree. The elder Psenicka ultimately chose the latter, a decision his son gives him a lot of credit for. But once his children reached an apt age, they were on skates.
“He kind of pushed my older brother to start playing hockey when he was three years old,” Psenicka said.
Tomas Psenicka, like his younger brother, rose through the ranks of HC Sparta Praha — a premier hockey club in Prague that has bred dozens of National Hockey League talents, including Zdeno Chåra, Martin Havlát and Patrik Štefan, among others.
“So when I was very little, I used to go to watch [Tomas’] practices. I was sitting on a bench with my mother, and eventually, I wanted to try it also,” Psenicka said. “I’ve been loving it since then.”
Ondrej was a natural — his size and fluidity on skates molded him to be a standout player on HC Sparta Praha’s U16 team, posting 80 points in 58 games across two seasons of play. Psenicka then graduated to the U18 team and ultimately cemented a spot for himself on the U18 national team roster.
In April 2019, 18-year-old Psenicka played in the IIHF U18 World Junior Championship in Sweden. Later that year, in December 2019, Psenicka flew across the ocean to Western Canada to participate in the World Junior A Challenge, a tournament organized by Hockey Canada catered to U19 hockey prospects.
In that tournament, Psenicka stuck out — his five points in as many games, in addition to taking the United States to double-overtime in the third-place match, drew attention from NCAA scouts.
Many European hockey prospects consider going pro around the ages of 19 and 20, but in the Czech Republic, Psenicka explained that certain teams and clubs can force younger kids — as early as ages 16 and 17 — into restrictive contracts. While some of his friends and teammates signed on to play professionally, Psenicka
The plan for Psenicka was always to receive an education in conjunction with progressing his hockey career. After his father was forced to retire from hockey to prioritize his schooling, coming to the United States was an easy decision, albeit one with a difficult transition.
The forward considered playing in Sweden as a kid, but from the moment he stepped on North American ice as a 15-year-old, Psenicka knew his talents as both a hockey player and a person would be best suited overseas.
“Ever since then, I knew [that] this was the best way to go through [because of] the combination of higher education and great level of hockey,” Psenicka said. “Since I was 15 years old, this was the only way. This was the only goal I was focusing on.”
But before Psenicka committed to Cornell, and before he talked to any NCAA coaches, a large obstacle stood in his way: the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I thought I lost this whole opportunity to go to college.”
The Pandemic in Prague
Many European players poised to play college hockey spend one year playing in North America before arriving at their respective campuses — whereas international and Czech surfaces are almost always 197 feet long by 97.5 feet wide, the North American and NHL ice sheets span 200 feet by 85 feet.
Psenicka signed with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League to adjust to the surface before he got to college. He played 43 games for the team and had his first discussions with Cornell, the dream starting to take shape.
Then, in March 2020, the world shut down.
“I had to go back home and I didn’t play hockey for two years,” Psenicka said. “I was only practicing on my own with two of my buddies in the little gym in my house.”
Once destined to reach a top NCAA program, Psenicka was stuck. In the most pivotal year for recruiting, Psenicka was left without a team to play for and, oftentimes, without ice. Lockdown restrictions in Prague were often so strict that Psenicka was confined to just a few kilometers, unable to practice at local rinks, much less play organized hockey.
“It was a pretty stressful and crazy time,” Psenicka said.
In efforts to curb the restrictions and continue training, Psenicka and his teammates would often roam the streets of Prague secretly, skating in “hidden” rinks around the city.
When he couldn’t get to the rink, Psenicka would resort to training in his own home, working on building strength as well as he could without proper coaching or guidance. Psenicka recalls he and two teammates cramming into his home gym in an effort to continue any kind of training.
“There was one time [for] four weeks in a row where the restrictions were so strict that we literally couldn’t leave the radius of, like, five kilometers,” Psenicka said.
As the 2020-2021 season loomed, Psenicka tried to return to the United States to play another season with Waterloo. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, he wasn’t allowed.
Psenicka’s misfortune continued as 2020 came to an end, when he traveled to Edmonton for the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships with the U20 national team. Psenicka was told the final roster cuts would be made after the team’s two exhibition games, giving Psenicka a chance to prove himself before pool play started.
Then Sweden, the team the Czech Republic was set to play in the first exhibition game, had multiple players test positive for
COVID-19. Their game was subsequently canceled, and cuts were ultimately made earlier than expected, Psenicka being among those cut, likely due to his lack of game experience that year.
“It was just pretty funny how [that] whole year went. I was flying home from Edmonton alone on Christmas Day,” Psenicka said. Then, by a stroke of what he perceived to be luck, Psenicka got a call one day from head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
“I couldn’t believe it because I didn’t play for [anywhere] for two years,” Psenicka said.
The first glimpse Psenicka got of Lynah Rink was through Zoom, as Schafer showed Psenicka the ice and the rest of the team’s facilities on a recruiting call. Psenicka never visited Cornell, or the other school in the running for him — Harvard.
It was the culture at Cornell that stuck out to Psenicka. Based on the few conversations he had with Schafer and the rest of the staff, he zeroed in on Cornell as his top choice.
But it wasn’t until April of 2021, four months before he was anticipating to arrive on campus, that he was officially admitted to the University. Psenicka endured hours upon hours of studying and practicing for both the SAT and the Test of English as a Foreign Language, for what he described to be an extremely difficult four to five months.
Though Psenicka struggled to attain the initial scores needed to meet Cornell’s standards — something Schafer cites as the biggest barrier to international recruiting — he has made the transition to college seamlessly, both on and off the ice.
“He’s done unbelievable in school. I think he’s been over a 4.0 his last three or four semesters,” Schafer said.
Psenicka has been placed on the ECAC All-Academic team for each of his first three years at Cornell and will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in ILR as well as a business minor.
And when he’s not in the classroom, he’s training. Psenicka has missed time due to injury over his four years, including a separated shoulder and double-hip surgery — he added with a laugh that he can’t recall a season where he wasn’t injured since playing hockey. But that hasn’t inhibited Psenicka from the ultimate goal of playing professionally, attending an NHL development camp with the New Jersey Devils in 2023.
“[The] season is long [and] hard, so injuries happen, and it’s more about just how to get better even when you’re injured, [rather] than looking at the negative,” Psenicka said.
Due to the smaller ice size in North America, Psenicka credits his Cornell coaches for teaching him how to use his size to combat the speed of opposing skaters.
Ahead of his final season, Psenicka got to return to Prague and play against some of his teammates this past August as part of the team’s abroad trip. The full-circle experience, Psenicka reflected, was “something special.”
What’s also special, according to Psenicka, is the experience of playing hockey at Cornell.
“I know everybody says that, but it’s just like, enjoy every moment, because it runs super quickly,” Psenicka said. “[Upperclassmen] would [tell] me [this] stuff, and I was just looking at him like: ‘Hey, no, I have four years.’”
As his four years wane much sooner than he expected, Psenicka is overwhelmed with gratitude, reckoning with the bittersweet feeling of his college hockey career coming to an end. But he’s still able to crack a smile and remind anyone that he’s not done yet.
“I’m happy [with] how I spent my four years here. And, you know, I still have a couple months,” Psenicka said. “I’m excited about enjoying these last [few] months and hopefully finishing up the season strong.”
JANE McNALLY Sun Senior Editor
COURTESY OF ONDREJ, PSENICKA, LEILANI BURKE / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER