5-21-25 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Graduation Issue Contents

Four

Years at Cornell 2021-2025: TAKING A PAUSE TO REFLECT

The Sun takes you back to some of the most momentous events of the last four years, tracing back headlines from this semester to the fall of freshman year. Re-read coverage of events that undeniably changed the Hill — from the COVID-19 pandemic to a once-in-a-generation campus protest movement.

Ithaca, though miles away from the metropolitan music haven of New York City, has nevertheless attracted quite the lineup of stars to come entertain the Cornell masses. Reminisce over Dead and Company revisiting campus in 2023, Ken Carson lighting up Barton Hall and other crowd-pleasers from the last four years.

Whether you counted yourself a Lynah Faithful or the friend who had to be dragged to games by Big Red fanatics, relive the biggest headlines in The Sun’s sports archives from 2021-25. The wins and heartbreaking losses alike await you.

Graduation Issue Staff

Cover Design: Serin Koh / Sun Columnist

Julia Senzon ’26, Max Fattal ’25, Eric Reilly ’25, Eric Han ’26, Sophia Dasser ’28, Matthew Kiviat ’27

9.6.21 CORNELL REPORTS RECORD COVID CASES; STUDENTS MISS FIRST CLASSES: Nearly 400 Cornell students tested positive for COVID during the first weeks of classes, scrambling to get tested and find isolation housing. The University linked these cases to “informal, off-campus gatherings” among undergraduates, as Cornell responded by asking students to put off parties and to mask up. Students kept up with coursework in isolation with few live classes to attend, as faculty weren’t required to provide remote course access.

10.17.21 IN-PERSON CAMPUS TOURS RESUME AFTER TWO-YEAR HIATUS: Since spring 2020, prospective Cornell students could only get glimpses of campus through virtual tours and Zoom information sessions — but October 2021 marked the return of the campus tour. Nico Modesti ’21, who had been a tour guide for three years, told The Sun he was excited to interact with prospective students in person again. “You never know who you’re going to meet on a tour, where they’re coming from and what stories they have,” Modesti said.

10.24.21 CORNELL ANNOUNCES PLAN TO RAISE $500 MILLION FOR FINANCIAL AID: President Martha Pollack announced the launch of “To Do the Greatest Good,” a campaign that is aiming to raise $500 million for undergraduate financial aid. According to Pollack, the money raised for the campaign would help the University to educate future leaders, address major world problems and increase Cornell’s global public engagement.

11.17.21 PURITY ICE CREAM USHERS IN NEW OWNERSHIP: The owner of several local restaurants including Luna Inspired Street Food and Jack’s Grill has a new eatery under his ownership: Ithaca’s Kevin Sullivan has continued the legacy of the “ice cream of the Finger Lakes,” serving up a variety of ice cream flavors and family favorite foods to students and locals.

Bomb Threats Hit Campus Treats

ultimately found ‘not credible’

Cornellians were bombarded with a combined 22 alerts — over text, email and phone — throughout the afternoon of Nov. 7, urging students to evacuate Central Campus following a bomb threat that authorities found “not credible.”

An hour and a half following the first alert — when Cornellians, shocked and panicked, scrambled home — the University confirmed that the earlier calls to evacuate and shelter in place on Central Campus were due to bomb threats.

The first alert notified the campus community to avoid the Arts Quad and Goldwin Smith Hall, adding that those in the area should shelter in place, offering no explanation. Before sending the official CornellALERT at 1:57 p.m., the University sent two blank crime alerts, with the subject line “Crime Alert - [INSERT subject here].”

A frantic second alert arrived just 15 minutes later in all caps, urging

Cornellians to evacuate and avoid the Law School, Goldwin Smith Hall, Upson Hall and Kennedy Hall: “PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE CORNELL POLICE UNLESS YOU HAVE AN EMERGENCY,” the text alert read.

By 3 p.m., the University told students, faculty and staff once again to avoid Central Campus and to evacuate areas in or nearby the four buildings. Police blocked off Feeney Way and multiple other sidewalks with caution tape, and stationed cars from multiple statewide agencies across Central Campus.

In Sunday evening campus-wide email, Joel Malina, vice president for University relations, clarified that Tompkins County 911 received an anonymous call from someone threatening with automatic weapons and explosives just before 2 p.m.

About an hour and a half after the first alert Cornell officially said the evacuations were due

to bomb threats at 3:23 p.m. By approximately 4:06 p.m., the latest CornellALERT notified the Ithaca campus that Cornell police, along with other law enforcement agencies, were investigating the bomb threat — and by 5:30 p.m., law enforcement agencies were sweeping buildings, as Cornellians awaited updates on when they could leave shelter.

Five and a half hours later, the seventh and final CornellALERT announced that law enforcement found no credible threats after concluding a search of the Ithaca campus — saying that “it is safe to resume all normal activities.”

For the hour and a half after the first alert, rumors wwirled online and among Cornellians huddled together — without further information that the evacuations were due to a bomb threat. People remained in their dorms and apartments, unsure if they were under active threat or safe away from key buildings.

From popping student union to empty halls

Upperclassmen Lament Willard Straight Changes

Alia Adler ’22 remembers when Willard Straight Hall smelled like popcorn, the lobby bustling with students exchanging a freshly popped bag and a conversation before heading off to class.

She remembers the crowds of students who used to rush through the student union during her first two years at Cornell — catching up with friends in the lobby, waiting in line for Carli Lloyd tickets or even napping on browsing library couches after a long day.

But 19 months after campus first shut down, the Willard Straight Hall lobby smells like hand sanitizer.

Students wandering into the building are greeted by signs that read “Please do not sit here,” rather than club representatives tabling. The longest lines aren’t for free popcorn at the Resource Center, but for a slot at one of Cornell’s busiest COVID testing sites.

“That big library where the testing is in?

That’s where I used to study all the time,” Adler said. “You could take a nap there, you could go study. And right next door was free popcorn. I was there all the time. Now those spaces are gone, so I barely go anymore.”

Even as campus springs back to life this fall, with students spilling onto quads between classes, Willard Straight Hall is not yet the hub for student and campus life that it was before the pandemic. Lobby run-ins are a pre-COVID memory to just upperclassmen, the main floor of the student union now largely dark and empty. Many students say they rarely linger in the Straight, heading inside just for weekly nose swabs. Some of the old events, however, have returned: Cornell Cinema is back with movie screenings, a renovated Okenshields has moved entrances and Student Assembly

meetings once again convene in the Memorial Room.

But the Willard Straight Hall Resource Center (renamed the Campus Activities Resource Center in fall 2019) has remained closed since March 2020. The lobby nook popped up free popcorn for decades, filled with a steady stream of visitors stopping by for a buttered and nutritional yeast-dusted snack.

“Given the various public health precautions put in place in response to COVID it was determined to pause the distribution of popcorn to limit building traffic and prioritize testing and concentrate food consumption in dining hall and eatery areas within Willard Straight Hall,” campus and community engagement, a unit within student and campus life, wrote to The Sun.

Linda Siptrott, campus activities program coordinator and former Resource Center manager, said

one of the primary functions of the center was to support student groups — from organizing campus mail to offering directions and booking club meetings. Now that many of these resources are available online, the campus and community engagement team no longer needs to staff the center for this purpose. Student employees on the campus activities

engagement team can meet with students in 520 Willard Straight Hall to support campus organizations, answering questions about everything from registration to funding.

But to the student workers who staffed the Resource Center, it was more than just a job. It was also about finding community, former popcorn workers said. It was about cultivating kindness

and connecting with strangers. It was a place for students to be themselves.

Adler, who worked at the center from her first year until the campus shutdown, remembers changing into her red Resource Center polo and keeping the popcorn machine running (while trying not to spill butter on herself). She recalls her favorite garlic

regulars from Cornell Health — and Adler also remembers engaging with students at the popcorn stand as a key part of her job.

popcorn

and the

“It’s the idea that no matter what is happening in the world, a snack and a short conversation with a stranger can make it a little bit better,” said Maya Cutforth ’20, who worked at the Resource Center from her sophomore to senior year.

bread

seasoning

2019 : Free popcorn | Willard Straight Hall was once known as a spot to receive free flavored popcorn.

2021: COVID testing | Students wait for a COVID test in The Straight. After the pandemic, the building was re-made into one of the busiest testing centers on campus, but its other spaces are now sparsely used.

HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

BORIS TSANG / SUN FILE PHOTO

LAMBOURNE / SUN STAFF WRITER

Cornellians Rally to Support Ukraine in Midst of War

In the midst of a crowd on Ho Plaza, a woman hands out yellow roses from a bouquet, each individually tied with a blue bow around the stem. The woman, Maryna Lytvynova Mullerman grad, a Ukrainian veterinary student, uses torn pieces from her navy-erinary scrubs to make strips of fabric to mimic a ribbon. The colors of the roseresentation of the Ukrainian flag, a symbol of solidarity for those currently affected by the Russian-Ukrainian

Students, faculty and other sympathizers joined together in support of Ukraine on Feb. 26 at Ho Plaza as the conflict continued to escalate in Europe. Attendees of the peaceful protest waved blue and yellow banners as the Ukrainian national anthem played. Some protesters offered poster The protest comes after Russian military forces

invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, causing uproar and leaving an impression on the global scene. Supporters of Ukraine across the world have held protests, vigils and religious movements in response to the attacks, calling for peace. The devastation that comes with war is difficult to bear alone, and those in Ithaca with ties to Ukraine are leading movements to find a sense of community.

While passing out her roses to protesters, Mullerman shared how she received overwhelming support from friends, family and peers while processing her initial reactions to the daily updates from home.

“Nobody could predict this; nobody could expect this,” Mullerman said. “Me and my fellow Ukrainian students are in complete, complete shock.”

Mullerman was born and raised in Ukraine, only immigrating to the United States when she was 15 years old for schooling. Her family and friends remain in Ukraine, and her grandparents were unable to be evacuated.

“[There’s been] bombs for the past three days nonstop; I just hope all of them are in bomb shelters,” Mullerman said. “My heart is still there, my home is still there. It is extremely hard to watch this and not be able to do much.”

Prof. Olena Vatamaniuk, soil and crop sciences, expressed disbelief that the conflict is occurring.

“We knew there were forces that were surrounding Ukraine, we knew it may happen, but we still didn’t believe it was possible in the 21st century,” Vatamaniuk said.

With a sense of urgency, Vatamaniuk further explained the significance of the event.

“What’s happening right now goes beyond Ukraine. It really touches Europe, it touches all parts of the world

In-Person Slope Day Returns After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Aminé, Loud Luxury and Luna Li lead the Libe lineup

The Slope Day Programming Board announced the artists for the first in-person Slope Day since 2019. The event’s twoyear hiatus led some Cornellians to anticipate more notable artists for this year’s linup — which includes Aminé, Loud Luxury and Luna Li.

In previous years, Cornell has hosted artists like Snoop Dogg, Drake and Kendrick Lamar. The 2022 lineup has drawn mixed reviews from students on campus.

Ashley Yu ’23 said that she found the artists acceptable but underwhelming compared to previous lineups. She said she wished that the Slope Day Programming Board had gone to further lengths to consider student opinions.

In November, the Slope Day committee created an online artist suggestion survey, where students could name artists they hoped to hear on the Hill.

However, several students, like Hanan Abraha ’23, expressed excitement for this year’s set. While he is familiar with only Aminé’s, he said he enjoys his music and is looking forward to hearing the headliner in person.

Regardless of the artists performing, many students are thrilled just to experience an in-person Slope Day for the first

time.

“I am still looking forward to my first Slope Day at Cornell,” said Isabel Hou ’24. “I am excited that Slope Day is happening, and I’m excited to see how it turns out.”

While most students are readying for a day of relaxation between the final day of classes and their final exams, others are gearing up to make Slope Day happen. Over 250 student volunteers will keep the event running smoothly and ensure the safety of attendees.

According to James Lepone ’22, one of the volunteer directors, volunteers will handle many tasks during the event, from handing out water to picking up trash to running carnival games at Slope Fest on Ho Plaza, where attendes can enjoy free food, games and prizes. Lepone attended the last in-person Slope Day in 2019, before the format was radically changed in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, he volunteered as part of what he called the “eagle squad,” keeping an eye on things from atop Libe Slope.

After enjoying the behindthe-scenes look at the festivities, Lepone decided to join the Slope Day Programming Board. Now, following two years of virtual celebration, Lepone is

looking forward to Slope Day’s in-person return.

“I’m really excited that Slope Day is being brought back almost exactly the same as it was,” Lepone said.

However, to make that happen, Lepone emphasized the necessity of finding enough volunteers to cover every two-hour shift during the day-long event.

Nicole Urbina ’23 volunteered to patrol the slope on an eight-hour shift, which involves making sure no dangerous activities take place and getting medical attention to those who need it.

“I thought it would be nice to get volunteer hours and also experience [the concert],” Urbina said. “It’s a win-win.”

Michael Hamilton ’22, a volunteer director, expressed similar excitement for this year’s Slope Day.

“Just being in person on the slope with 15,000 other students — you can’t describe it,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton also highlighted the hard work that the programming board and volunteers have put in to make Slope Day happen.

“It hasn’t been easy, but I know we’re really excited and proud of the work we’ve put in and hope students get to enjoy it,” Hamilton said.

because it’s a fight for democracy,” Vatamaniuk said. “It’s an assault on democracy, people need to understand this. Which country would be next?”

One protestor, Cassi Wattenburger, grad, said that prior to the conflict she was on a “news diet”and hadn’t been reading the news. That changed as soon as she heard about the invasion and had thought about her friends who might be affected.

“It became difficult for me to continue to read the news,” she said. “However, I came here to support my Ukrainian friend [Olenka Zavodna].”

Olga Zimina, a visiting scientist in biology, and Olenka Zavodna, grad, organized the protest on Ho Plaza. They urged Cornellians to support Ukraine and spread awareness about the conflict. They encouraged students to donate to humanitarian organizations and message their local government officials to push more sanctions on Russia.

“One of the reasons why we organized this protest is to show people at Cornell that we are here,” Zavodna said. “Ukrainians are here, and we will protest against the war. Hopefully, Cornell will follow our lead and give some sort of statement, because it was disheartening not to see one.”

Along with Zavodna, Vatamaniuk expressed hopes that Cornell will make a statement soon in support of international students from the eastern European region.

“I am very appalled at Cornell,” Vatamaniuk said. “There was not a single word from the Cornell administration in support of Cornellians who are Ukrainians. I did write a letter, and they did not write back. We are getting letters from people around the world; we don’t need a political statement, just a statement of support. I can’t focus – my mind is with Ukraine.”

TimeLine

1.24.22 MAYOR SVANTE MYRICK ’09 RESIGNS: Cornell alumnus Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 announced his resignation as the 44th mayor of Ithaca at a Jan. 5 Common Council meeting after he accepted an offer with a progressive advocacy group. At 24 years old, Myrick became the youngest person in city history to be sworn into mayoral office and Ithaca’s first mayor of color. His agenda primarily focused on expanding affordable housing options, working toward resolving Ithaca’s substantial $3 million budget deficit and improving city-wide infrastructure.

2.18.22 UNIVERSITY ENDS

SURVEILLANCE TESTING REQUIREMENT FOR VACCINATED INDIVIDUALS: For the first time since August 2020, Cornell announced that it would lift surveillance testing requirements for individuals who are fully vaccinated and boosted. This announcement marked the end of biweekly nose swabs that marked campus life for three semesters at Cornell.

4.13.22 DRAGON DAY RETURNS AFTER TWO-YEAR

HIATUS: On April 1, College of Architecture, Art and Planning students in elaborate outfits grabbed hold of the two-head-

ed dragon they had designed and embarked on the Dragon Day parade, a Cornell tradition returned to campus after a two year pandemic-induced hiatus. Despite rainy weather, participants and observers alike were excited to see the tradition return. “I have long heard about the enormous dragon they built for this parade,” said Noon Son ’25. “It was very magnificent to see.”

4.18.22 ITHACA IS THE FIRST CITY TO UNIONIZE ALL STARBUCKS LOCATIONS: Following efforts extending back to October, all three Ithaca Starbucks locations voted to unionize on April 8. The outcomes of the votes for the College Avenue location, the Ithaca Commons location and the Meadow Street location were 19-1, 15-1 and 13-1, respectively.

5.14.22 STUDNTS PREPARE FOR FIRST IN-PERSON EXAMS: Cornellians are hard at work studying for their first fully in-person finals season since December 2019. For first-year and sophomore students, this means balancing the end-of-year social scene with the rigor of final exams.

Upperclass architects celebrate Dragon Day on April 1 by dressing up as ornate classical

IFC Temporarily Suspends All Social Events

TimeLine

9.12.22 U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT RANKS

CORNELL #1 IN N.Y., SURPASSING COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Cornell was named the best university in all of New York state, according to the 2023 Best National Universities rankings published by U.S. News and World Report. While still remaining the 17th best university in the nation, Cornell has now surpassed Columbia University, which saw a significant drop this year in rank, falling from No. 2 to No. 18. Columbia’s downfall came after Columbia University Prof. Michael Thaddeus, mathematics, started questioning the program’s soaring ranking, which in 2021 tied in second along Harvard and MIT.

11.9.22 SEVEN CORNELLIANS SET TO SERVE IN 118th CONGRESS: Seven Cornellians — mostly incumbents — won their elections to serve in the 118th Congress. In addition, one candidate lost the general election. The seven congress members-elect as well as Jamie McLeod-Skinner, M.R.P. ’95, whose race is too close to call, represent several parts of Cornell: Reps. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) and Sharice Davids J.D. ’10 (D-Kan.) are graduates from Cornell Law School, Rep.

Elissa Slotkin ’98 (D-Mich.) majored in rural sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, while Rep. Dan Heuser ’88 (R.Pa.) was a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) won re-election handily over Republican challenger Caroline Colarusso (R-Mass.) with nearly 75 percent of the vote. This is Clark’s fifth full term since entering office in a 2013 special election to replace then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) following his successful election to the Senate. She also serves as Assistant Speaker of the House.

11.30.22 NICKI MOORE FIRST WOMAN NAMED DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS: Nicki Webber Moore was named Cornell’s first female Meakem Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education.

12.6.22 EARLY MORNING COLLEGETOWN CENTER FIRE LEAVES STUDENTS DISPLACED AMID FINAL EXAMS: On Dec. 6, a fire began at Collegetown Center, an apartment complex on Dryden Road that many students reside in. Residents of the building were safely evacuated. The University gave affected students temporary support through campus housing and dining.

As a response to the release of a crime report on Nov. 4, 2022, alerting the Cornell community to at least four drugging incidents and a sexual assault allegation, the Interfraternity Council has temporarily suspended all fraternity parties and social events.

In a University-wide email, President Martha Pollack and Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi issued a joint statement condemning the reported incidents and calling for solidarity.

“We are outraged and saddened … we strongly condemn the actions of all individuals responsible for these criminal violations,” Pollack and Lombardi wrote. “Crime is never the fault of those who are victimized. The University is providing support services to the victims … our campus community is stronger together.”

According to the C.U. police crime report log, within the past two months at least four students have reported being exposed to Rohypnol, a depressant and benzodiazepine also referred to as “roofies” or a “date-rape” drug. According to the report, the incident occurred between Oct. 28 and Nov. 3 at 800 University Avenue.

“Students reported to have consumed little to no alcohol at an off-campus location but became incapacitated while attending parties,” the police report said.

On Nov. 6, 2022, at approximately 4:45 a.m., the C.U. police crime report log shows that another student reported being sexually assaulted while attending an event at 140 Thurston Avenue. There has not been a release of further details, as the investigations are ongoing.

Given the recent chain of events and past rumored incidents of drugging allegedly involving needles being used, students voiced increased safety concerns.

“Day to day, I feel safe going to Cornell,” said Zoe Yao ’23. “However, given everything that has happened and everything from last year as well, similar drugging rumors, I would say I do not necessarily feel safe going to certain fraternities.”

In response to the rising concerns, the IFC, which governs more than 30 IFC-recognized fraternities at Cornell, is working with the University to implement stronger health and safety plans for students. As its first step, IFC

voluntarily made a decision Sunday evening to suspend all fraternity social events.

“The IFC Executive Board and current IFC Chapter Presidents made the decision to suspend all fraternity functions on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022,” wrote the IFC executive board in an email to The Sun. “The IFC is currently working toward enhancing plans to keep the community and students safe and will use subject matter experts and available resources to promote health and safety.”

In the past, Cornell fraternities have been implicated in the deaths of two students. In 2011, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was temporarily suspended and returned this year after hazing George Desdunes ’13 to death, and in 2019, Antonio Tsialas ’23 was found dead at the Fall Creek Gorge after attending a “dirty rush” event at Phi Kappa Psi. The last ban on Inter-Fraternity Council social events was put into place in 2019 following the death of Tsialas.

“My freshman year Antonio Tsialas passed away,” Yao said. “From there, Martha Pollack, our president, made a good move and reformed Greek life in the spring of that year. It has definitely had implications on the social scene and Greek life for the past couple of years since then.”

However, despite the changes, Yao said that more incidents of laced drinks and drugging have recently surfaced.

“We already have regulations on alcohol at the parties: registering parties, having bands and sober monitors,” Yao said. “[They] all feel like bandages to the fundamental problem.”

The IFC wrote to The Sun that it is looking into “current practices” to ensure a safe and welcoming community.

“We take these reports extremely seriously as this directly infringes upon the principles that the IFC stands for,” the IFC executive board wrote. “The IFC strives to create a safe and welcoming community on campus and we plan to take a hard look at our current practices and see where we can change holistically to better support our campus.”

In a statement to The Sun, the IFC recognized the bravery of the students who came forward and reported the incidents.

“Furthermore, we affirm the bravery of those individuals in our campus community who made the important choice to come forward,” IFC executive board wrote.

Ann Coulter ’84 Speaking Event at Cornell a NonStarter After Disruptions, Protest Prompt an Early Exit

Conservative media pundit and author Ann Coulter ’84 was invited to speak at Cornell on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2022, to talk about the midterm elections and host a Q and A. Coulter was met with a strong coalition of students standing against her with at least eight individuals being removed from the venue for disrupting her speech.

The event was hosted by the Network of Enlightened Women, a campus conservative women’s network. Members of Cornell Republicans assisted in the promotion and staffing of the event.

The event was barely off its feet, however, before protesters interrupted. When Coulter was introduced, one student played “Entrance of the Gladiators” by Julius Fucík — commonly known as the Circus Theme — as she

approached the podium. As the music reverberated throughout the silent lecture hall, the student said, “Go back to the circus Ann.” The student was escorted out without incident.

Not more than a few minutes had gone by before other protesters began sporadically interrupting the event. Some blew raspberries and shouted their disapproval, another blew a loud whistle.

“No KKK, no fascist USA,” said two students, before being escorted out.

Coulter rose to fame for her criticism of the Clinton Administration in the late 1990s, but has since grown into a harsh critic of American liberalism and what she deems as the silencing of conservative values. She has also gained notoriety for her controversial and offensive statements over the course of the last two decades.

In the past, Coulter made targeted remarks of hate against numerous marginalized groups including Muslims, Latino immigrants, Jewish people and women.

The entrance to Landis Hall at the Cornell Law School was patrolled by security guards, and several were scattered throughout the hall itself. Campus police officers were also stationed, standing in the sidelines and the back of the hall, as well as three outside the Law School building.

Outside, a few protesters gathered, but not amounting to more than 20 in total. One protester held a sign, reading, “We don’t support white supremacists.”

Coulter partnered with the Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization that trains conservatives in activism and leadership, as part of her Campus Reform project. It aims to combat perceived liberal bias on college campuses across the country by publicizing such circumstances to larger conservative media outlets and the public.

Coulter began her talk by discussing the midterm election results of the day prior. She spoke of the emerging consensus that the Republican “red wave” that many polls predicted had never materialized, and that the previous night had been kind to Democrats.

Coulter also included quips at the expense of Democratic figures, joking about Fetterman misspeaking in his debate against Republican Senate race rival Republican Mehmet Oz — Fetterman narrowly survived a stroke in May, leaving him with temporary struggles in reading, listening and speaking. Coulter also took aim at President Biden (D) and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) in her opening.

The interruptions past this point, however, became more active and relentless. Coulter was barely able to recount Gov. DeSantis’ win in

Florida’s gubernatorial race before gagging and raspberry blowing began from a student in the audience near her.

Visibly frustrated, Coulter chose to rebuke the Cornell student body, comparing her alma mater with Harvard, which she deemed smart. However, the speech effectively ended at this point, where students began to yell in protest of Coulter.

“Your words are violence! We don’t want you to speak here,” students said. “We don’t want your ideas here! Leave! Leave!”

Coulter urged her security to remove the students from the event. When another student began yelling at Coulter, and then another began blowing a whistle, Coulter left the podium and went backstage leaving the stage empty for nearly 10 minutes. A few extra security guards and police began spreading throughout the room in an effort to be closer to react to future outbursts.

When she returned, Coulter was only able to speak one last sentence.

“Here’s some more violence for ya,” she joked, before another student stood up and interrupted, yelling, “You’re a fucking fascist!” Coulter, stoney faced, promptly exited the hall, concluding the intended hour-long event in 20 minutes.

Although a few students protested individually, some were organized by a coalition of Cornell campus groups and clubs, who wished to not be named. On Friday, the protesters shared a statement with The Sun, signed “Cornell students who stand against white supremacy.”

“Why do we allow someone to come to speak on our campus whose rhetoric very bluntly stands in opposition to [Cornell’s motto]?” the students said in the statement.

Neither the Leadership Institute nor the Network for enlightened Women chapter at Cornell responded to a request for comment.

University Rejects Content Warning Proposal

President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff rejected a Student Assembly resolution which asked the University to implement content warnings for what it calls “triggering” classroom content, citing concerns about academic freedom and freedom of inquiry.

The resolution passed the S.A. on March 23, 2023, and requests content warnings for course content that may trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Such content includes, but is not limited to, domestic and sexual violence, racial and homophobic behavior and suicidal actions. It additionally requests that students be allowed to opt out of viewing or working with said content without academic penalty, so long as they make up missed content.

In their email, Pollack and Kotlikoff wrote that although they understood the interests of the S.A., the necessary actions that would be required by adopting the resolution would violate Cornell’s policy of free and purposeful inquiry and expression.

“Common courtesy would suggest that in some cases faculty may wish to provide notice, whether via the course syllabus or in the classroom, when they will be addressing topics that some may find challenging or painful,” Pollack and Kotlikoff wrote. “But requiring that faculty anticipate and warn about all such situations … would unacceptably restrict the academic freedom of our community, interfering in significant ways with Cornell’s mission and its core value of Free and Purposeful Inquiry and Expression.”

Pollack and Kotlikoff did not support permitting students to opt out of viewing the content without penalty, stating that exposure to challenging ideas is crucial to the University’s educational experience for students.

Though the resolution’s sponsors expressed disap -

pointment at the University’s decision, they said that they understood its reasoning in rejecting the resolution.

Sponsor Claire Ting ’25 said the University and the S.A. were approaching the issue from different perspectives.

“We are both individuals who seek for a better Cornell community — trying to make the environment better for Cornell students so that we can produce the next generation’s leaders — and in doing so we must serve the needs of our [student] communities.”

Sponsor Shelby Williams ’25 shared similar sentiments to Ting, saying that she understood the feedback that President Pollack shared with the S.A., but that the impetus behind the resolution — which the S.A. did not originally disclose in the resolution’s text to protect the victim — caused mischaracterization in national press.

“I understand what [Pollack is] saying: if professors fear some type of retribution for not including this warning, that it might have a chilling effect. I understand that.”

Since its passage, the resolution has drawn fire from conservative news organizations and opinion columns such as Newsmax, Fox News and the New York Post, with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board lambasting the S.A. for even considering the resolution.

“The entire idea of a trigger warning for speech is antithetical to the idea of a university, and in a previous age no one would have taken it seriously,” the board wrote. “But this is era [sic] of woke censorship, so it’s news when campus leaders push back, as they have at Cornell.”

Ting said that the resolution was passed in response to reports of a student — who had recently experienced sexual assault and a Title IX trial — being required to read multiple, graphic, scene-by-scene depictions of sexual assaults

Students Occupy Day Hall Over Starbucks Partnership

| On May 12, 2023,

In response to the announcement that all Ithaca-based Starbucks locations will be permanently closed by May 26, 2023, student organizers and Starbucks employees occupied Day Hall on Thursday, May 11, 2023, to urge Cornell to end its relationship with Starbucks.

On both North and Central Campuses, most Cornell dining halls and cafés serve Starbucks brand beverages.

Rally organizers primarily demand that the University publicize its contract with Starbucks and sever its relationship with the corporation, switching providers for all on-campus dining establishments that serve Starbucks products.

According to Nick Wilson ’26, a former Starbucks barista in his hometown of Wilmette, Illinois who now is a student activist with the People’s Organizing Collective, organizers require a campus-wide switch to an “ethical” brand that is approved by the student activists occupying Day Hall and Starbucks Workers United before the fall semester.

Organizers discussed expanding the number of locations offering Gimme! Coffee — which is currently sold at Bill and Melinda Gates Hall and in three other Ithaca locations. According to Wilson, Gimme! Coffee is ideal due to being a local, unionized worker-run co-op. On Tuesday, organizers offered free Gimme! Coffee in front of Starbucks stores and campus dining establishments selling Starbucks products while discussing their cause and asking for optional donations, which ultimately raised over $700 in support of the strike.

To Wilson, specifically targeting Cornell’s relationship with

for a class in the context of studying the 1937 Rape of Nanking, in which Japanese soldiers committed atrocious human rights abuses against captured Chinese civilians.

“Students have to understand that this material is challenging to interact with to learn from the mistakes of prior history,” Ting said. “At the same time, there’s an understanding that ought to be upheld from instructors that because these are inherently human experiences, past, present or future, students will have some sort of history that will align with this.”

Ting and Williams both stated that they believed that the media had misunderstood the purpose of the resolution, saying that their vision of it was to institute best practices regarding displaying graphic content in the classroom, rather than enforcing any type of University policy.

“All we’re asking for is the same sort of courtesy to students,” Ting said. “If we as students are to learn from disturbing content, then I personally don’t believe it’s egregious to ask that this disturbing content be brought in with an approach that is aware of [the fact that] its disturbing content by nature tends to activate certain responses in students. That’s something instructors should be aware of if this content is to be taught nonetheless.”

Still, despite the setback, Williams said that she hoped to reopen the conversation at some point.

“I think that in some capacity, we’re going to try to re-articulate the intent of the resolution in a way that is better understood by community members,” Williams said. “I can’t give you an answer at this moment as to what that will look like. But I certainly don’t think that this is over. I think it’s an ongoing conversation.”

TimeLine

3.7.23 POLLACK SUPPORTS PLAN B VENDING MACHINE AT CORNELL HEALTH: The University indicated its intention to install a vending machine in Cornell Health for 24-hour access to nonprescription health care supplies, including emergency contraception, following a Student Assembly proposal.

4.10.23 COIN ANNOUNCED AS SLOPE DAY HEADLINER: COIN was announced as the slope day headliner, openers were CoCo and Clair Clair and Snakehips.

4.17.23 POLLACK ANNOUNCES FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ACADEMIC THEME YEAR AMID CONTROVERSY: Following national scrutiny over a proposal to mandate “trigger warnings,” President Pollack announced that the first ever academic theme year would center around the freedom of expression for 2023-2024.

Starbucks — rather than Starbucks as a whole — is a way to leverage the organizers’ authority as students of the University.

“You can’t negotiate with Starbucks — that’s a boardroom full of multinational executives who won’t listen to us,” Wilson said. “Where power is, is we have this affiliation with the University [as students], and we have the ability to democratically rise up and say, ‘This is what we demand.’”

Wilson noted that organizers believe Starbucks is making a profit of millions of dollars through its relationship with Cornell, but this contract is not currently public. In turn, disrupting the agreement between Cornell and Starbucks is a way for organizers to demonstrate to the corporation that there are economic consequences to what they consider to be a national union-busting campaign.

Prior to the occupation of Day Hall, organizers urged Cornell students to send over 900 emails to the University demanding that they sever all University ties to Cornell, although Ryan Lombardi, vice president of student and campus life, denied receiving an email until 30 minutes prior to his and Dean of Students Marla Love’s initial arrival in the lobby of Day Hall shortly before 5 p.m., where students had already been gathered for hours.

Lombardi told protestors President Pollack was out of town and accused the demonstrators of negotiating in bad faith with the administration.

“I’m willing to make that commitment to have this dialogue and try to figure something out — see what we can come up

4.28.23 UNIVERSITY ELIMINATES COVID-19 VACCINE REQUIREMENTS: A The University elimated allCOVID-19 vaccine requirements as of May 20, marking a potential end to Cornell COVID-19 policies.

5.8.23 DEAD AND COMPANY PERFORM AT BARTON HALL: 46 years to the day after the Grateful Dead’s iconic Barton Hall performance, Dead and Company performed at the same location as part of their summer 2023 farewell tour. Droves of Cornellians flocked to Ithaca for the event.

5.9.23 PRESIDENT OF STUDENT ASSEMBLY OUSTED OVER TITLE IX ALLEGATION: Moments after being sworn in, S.A. President Pedro Da Silveira ’25 was voted out of the position after a Title IX allegation was brought to light.

with,” Lombardi said. “I think it’s unreasonable to ask us to make that on the spot. That’s not giving us a fair chance to really look at all the implications.”

“What do you think is unreasonable about the demands? Because for us, it seems pretty clear. You have this contract and you could give it to us,” Wilson said. “All we’re asking you to do is commit to not Starbucks next fall, and commit to working with us… as to what that next vendor will be.”

After an extensive back-and-forth, Lombardi and Love returned to their offices.

Love then came back to the lobby at 5:40 p.m. to inform the demonstrators that the building would officially close at 6 p.m., and offered to allow them back into the building at 8 a.m. on Friday when the building reopens. The demonstrators countered with an agreement to leave the building if Love and Lombardi agreed to a definitive meeting between the demonstrators and President Pollack, as well as all “relevant” decision-makers.

According to both the University and the demonstrators, relevant decision-makers include the University cabinet as well as attorneys representing the University.

Organizers affirmed that they intended to stay in the building until the requested demands were reached or until they received more details affirming legitimate reasons for the University’s inability to meet their demands at the time — such as an explanation of the legal provision that states Cornell cannot be released from its contract with Starbucks or information on why essential individuals cannot be reached.

Tension brewing

protesters moved outside as part of an agreement with the University.

MING DEMERS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Middle E ast C aptures C ampus Attention

Israel-Hamas War Divides Campus

A Cornell professor’s speech at a pro-Palestinian off-campus rally on Oct. 15 sparked a nationwide debate over whether he should continue to hold a position at the University. But his remarks revealed a deeper divide within the Cornell community over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

After calling Hamas’s initial invasion into Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing,” Prof. Russell Rickford, history, first defended his remarks to The Sun, stating that he was referring to “those first few hours, when they broke through the apartheid wall, that it seemed to be a symbol of resistance, and indeed a new phase of resistance in the Palestinian struggle.”

He issued an apology in The Sun over his choice of words two days later.

Following Rickford’s remarks, President Martha Pollack and the Chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees said Rickford’s words were “a reprehensible comment that demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity.”

Rickford subsequently requested and was granted a leave of absence from the University.

Student organizations distributed online petitions both supporting Rickford

TimeLine

8.21.23 CORNELL KICKS OFF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION THEME

YEAR: President Martha Pollack announced intentions to hold a series of events focused on the theme of “The Indispensable Condition: Freedom of Expression at Cornell,” two days after joining the Campus Call for Free Expression, a joint effort by 13 universities to model critical inquiry and civil discourse on campus.

10.12.23 CORNELLIANS ORGANIZE VIGILS FOR ISRAELI VICTIMS OF OCT. 7 ATTACK AND PALESTINIAN LIVES LOST: One day apart, Hillel and Cornellians for Israel held a vigil to honor the victims of Hamas’s attack on Israel and Students for Justice in Palestine held a vigil to mourn the loss of life in Palestine and call on President Pollack to acknowledge Palestinian suffering. Pollack released a statement on Oct. 10 condemning Hamas’s attack but did not mention Palestine.

10.14.23 CORNELL AGREES TO REVISED MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH CITY OF ITHACA, COMMITS TO $4 MILLION

ANNUALLY: After months of stalled negotiations, Cornell agreed to pay the City $4 million annually, adjusted yearly for inflation, with the City amending the term length to 15 years, a five year decrease from the original proposal. Cornell is exempt from paying property taxes as a higher education institution, but instead offers the City voluntary payments in lieu of taxes. Last negotiated in 2003, the University had been paying Ithaca $1 million annually.

10.15.23 PROF. RUSSELL RICKFORD STATES HE WAS “EXHILARATED” BY HAMAS ATTACK ON ISRAEL AT OFF-CAMPUS RALLY: After history professor Russell Rickford stated he

and asking the University to hold the professor accountable for his remarks.

A truck with digital billboards displaying a picture of Rickford was seen driving throughout Cornell’s campus on Oct. 19. The truck displayed the words “President Pollack: Fire Antisemitic Professor Rickford Now.”

While the truck circulated campus for a second day, pro-Palestinian protesters followed the truck in defense of Rickford.

Students gathered in support of Rickford in front of the Statler Hotel on Saturday, Oct. 21, where events for the Cornell Board of Trustees were being held throughout the weekend. The group held two large banners that read “Anti-Zionism ≠ Antisemitism” and “Stand With Russell, Stand With Gaza.” The group chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Many speakers at the rally expressed frustration over Rickford’s leave of absence and urged attendees to email the Administration in support of Rickford. Other students, however, said Rickford’s words created “a hostile environment for learning” and that Rickford was wrong to call Hamas “rife with contradictions” instead of labeling Hamas “for what it is” as a terrorist organization.

was “exhilarated” by the “challenge to the monopoly of violence” during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, he garnered national condemnation, including from University leadership, and elected to take a leave of absence.

10.29.23 POSTS ONLINE THREATEN JEWISH STUDENTS AND CENTER FOR JEWISH LIVING: Students became alerted to vile threats posted on the anonymous discussion forum Greekrank, which implored students to carry out acts of violence against Jewish students and threatened a mass shooting at Cornell’s kosher dining hall. Gov. Kathy Hochul visited campus the next day to assure the community the state was taking these threats seriously, and the perpetrator was identified as Cornell senior Patrick Dai ’24 two days after the threats were posted.

11.8.23 S.A. PRESIDENT PATRICK KUEHL ’24 WINS FOURTH WARD COMMON COUNCIL RACE IN A SURPRISE WRITE-IN CAMPAIGN: In what was previously an uncontested race, incumbent Jorge DeFendini ’22 lost his seat to Cornell senior and Student Assembly president Kuehl, who campaigned almost exclusively at Cornell fraternities. Kuehl provided inconsistent timelines and reasoning for his campaign, that the majority of Fourth Ward residents learned about on Election Day.

11.9.23 CORNELL GRADUATE STUDENTS UNIONIZE: Graduate students won their unionization election by a vote of 1,873 to 80 and will federate as Cornell Graduate Students United, an organization fighting for the rights of graduate workers. The current effort to unionize started in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and over the course of September, over 2,500 graduate workers signed unionization cards.

Antisemtic Treats Target Students

Threats were posted to Cornell’s Greekrank forums on Saturday, Oct. 28 and Sunday, Oct. 29, including one that threatened a shooting at 104West!, which is home to Cornell’s Center for Jewish Living and the kosher dining hall.

Posts also threatened to rape female Jewish students and behead Jewish babies in front of their parents.

The posts came four days after graffiti stating “Israel is fascist,” “Zionism = genocide” and “F*** Israel” was sprayed across Central Campus on Wednesday, Oct. 25.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul came to campus on Oct. 30 to address the campus community directly.

“We will not tolerate threats or antisemitism or any kind of hatred that makes people feel vulnerable and exposes people and makes them feel insecure in a place where they should be enjoying their campus life, without fear that someone could cause them harm,” Hochul said.

Patrick Dai ’24, an engineering student, was arrested on Oct. 31 on charges of posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications, following an accelerated FBI investigation.

The charge filed against Dai carries a maximum term of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of up to three years.

Appearing before a judge on Wednesday in federal court in Syracuse on Nov. 1, Dai originally waived his right to an immediate detention hearing, but backpedaled that decision under new representation.

At a hearing on Nov. 9, Dai’s public defender argued that he was not a risk to the community and that he has an undiagnosed developmental disability that was exacerbated at Cornell into severe mental health issues.

Federal prosecutors stated that his antisemitic threats posed a severe risk to the community and that his release could lead to further terror and dangerous actions. They also stated that his suicidal ideations pose a risk of flight, in addition to his connection to a foreign country as his father currently resides in China.

The judge ordered Dai’s detention on the grounds that his threats were vile and terrorized the Jewish community, and that his online threats were consistent with those of other mass shooters in recent U.S. history.

In Low-Turnout Election, City Candidates Found Votes at Frats

Two Cornell students who won seats on Ithaca’s Common Council — including the one who ran a controversial and unannounced write-in campaign — coordinated more closely with Cornell fraternities than was previously known, discussing the possibility of allowing for later fraternity parties and even getting approved to pick up absentee ballots for fraternity brothers.

Patrick Kuehl ’24, who edged out an incumbent this month in a surprise write-in campaign for the Fourth Ward, and Clyde Lederman ’26, who won a close race in the Fifth Ward, both were elected in part because of absentee and affidavit ballots cast in wards with low numbers of voters. In the Fifth Ward, 20 of the 60 absentee ballot requests were made by fraternity brothers, along with 19 of the 22 requests in the Fourth Ward. The forms obtained by The Sun only indicate who requested ballots, and do not indicate which of those requestors actually voted.

The applications show that all fraternity brothers who requested absentee ballots in the fourth and fifth wards authorized either Kuehl or Lederman to pick up their ballots from the Tompkins County Board of Elections and deliver them to the fraternities. Ballots were requested by members of five fraternities, with the most requests coming from Sig Phi and Chi Psi.

The requests came after Kuehl and Lederman met with fraternity presidents on Oct. 22 and encouraged their members to vote in the

Nov. 7 election, according to a fraternity member who was briefed on the meeting.

All of the 39 fraternity members who requested ballots across the two districts said on the request forms that they were either going to be out of the area on election day or had a “temporary illness or physical disability.”

James Gardner, an election law expert at the University at Buffalo, said voters must be truthful about the reason they are requesting absentee ballots. He said the arrangement in which Kuehl and Lederman were authorized to deliver absentee ballots to the fraternity brothers was unusual but did not appear to break any rules.

Lederman defended being authorized to pick up the ballots, saying it was “standard practice.” Kuehl declined to comment.

Kuehl and Lederman’s close coordination with fraternities depicts an ambitious effort to find votes from fraternities in a notoriously low-turnout district, where a handful of ballots can swing an election. Thousands of people live in the Fourth Ward, but because it is so heavily populated by college students — most of whom do not vote in Tompkins County — scavenging for votes can be difficult. This year, only 100 people voted in the Fourth Ward, and Kuehl won by nine votes. Kuehl has already been criticized for running a secretive write-in campaign, in which even his opponent, Jorge DeFendini ’22, did not know he was

running until Election Day. Kuehl has given shifting answers about how long he was openly running. He said shortly after the election that he had been canvassing for a month and a half, but said more recently that he did not officially launch his bid until around Oct. 22, the day he met with fraternity presidents.

At that meeting, Kuehl and Lederman discussed their campaigns with fraternity presidents and Rocco DeLorenzo ’24, the Interfraternity Council president. Kuehl, Lederman and DeLorenzo all work together on the Student Assembly.

Following that meeting of fraternity presidents, one fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, held a chapter meeting in which members were urged to fill out voter registration forms, according to Sasha Boguraev ’24, who attended the Pi Kappa Alpha meeting. He said members were told that voting for Kuehl and Lederman could lead to later parties — past the general current end time of 1 a.m.

At another fraternity house, Pi Kappa Phi, Ethan Hersch ’26 said the fraternity president slid voter registration forms underneath fraternity brothers’ doors and sent messages encouraging them to register and vote, noting that Lederman might be an ally to fraternities. And at the Chi Psi house, the fraternity which DeLorenzo is part of, Arjun Parikh ’26 similarly said that brothers were told “Clyde would be helpful” to the fraternity.

Inside S.A. Member’s Plan for a Frat “Machine”

TimeLine

1.24.24 INTERIM EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY POLICY ANNOUNCED: The controversial Interim Expressive Activity Policy restricted student protest on campus through limitations on expressive activities including guidelines on the use of amplified sound and the number of people at outdoor demonstrations.

3.22.24 STUDENT ASSEMBLY LAUNCHES

ETHICAL INVESTIGATION INTO MEMBERS CONNECTED TO INTERFRATERNITY COUNCIL AND CORNELL DEMOCRATS: Amid extensive political controversy, Student Assembly President Patrick Kuehl ’24 directed the S.A. Office of Ethics to investigate himself and several other Assembly members currently or formerly connected to either the Interfraternity Council or the Cornell Democrats. In a March 22 letter to the editor, Kuehl explained that the investigation was prompted by The Sun’s reporting on alliances within the Student Assembly, which seemed to implicate Vice President of Finance George Rocco DeLorenzo ’24, ex-president Pedro Da Silveira ’25 and representative Clyde Lederman ’26 in scheming to utilize the voting power of a Greek life “machine.”

4.16.24 ANN COULTER ’84 APPEARANCE LEADS TO ARREST: Ann Coulter ’84, a controversial conservative media personality, made her return to campus with a talk entitled “Immigration: The Conspiracy To End America.” Prof. Monica Cornejo, communication, was arrested during the question and answer section due to disorderly behavior.

4.18.24 VICE PRESIDENT GEORGE ROCCO DELORENZO ’24 RESIGNS FROM STUDENT ASSEMBLY: Vice President of Finance George Rocco DeLorenzo ’24 resigned from his position and seat on the Student Assembly amid

controversy over alleged hostile behavior toward women during his role as chair of the Appropriations Committee. The Student Assembly also voted to retain Vice President of Internal Operations Clyde Lederman ’26 to his position in an 11-6-10 vote, failing to reach the two-thirds majority needed for removal. A Sunday report by the S.A. Office of Ethics recommended that the Assembly consider a recall of the two high-ranking members for a series of ethical violations, including their role in planning to protect Greek life on the Assembly and their handling of complaints about DeLorenzo’s behavior towards women.

4.25.24 STUDENTS STAGE PRO-PALESTINE ENCAMPMENT ON THE ARTS QUAD:

Approximately 50 students staged a pro-Palestine encampment on the Arts Quad. Demonstrators stated they would continue the encampment until the University met their demands or removed them from campus.

5.9.24 PRESIDENT POLLACK ANNOUNES RETIREMENT: President Martha Pollack announced that she will retire from her position on June 30 after seven years of leadership. Pollack acknowledged that there “will be lots of speculation about [her] decision” and emphasized that she independently decided to retire from her role after “extensive reflection.”

5.13.24 COALITION FOR MUTUAL LIBERATION VOLUNTARILY ENDS ENCAMPMENT:

The Coalition for Mutual Liberation voluntarily took down its pro-Palestine encampment on Monday, two and a half weeks after it was initially erected on April 25. Approximately 250 supporters circled the original “Liberated Zone” space — no longer surrounded by a black tarp — as the encampment held a final vigil for the lives lost in Rafah.

Conversations between the president of Cornell’s Interfraternity Council and the embattled ex-president of the Student Assembly during the 2023 election season reveal plans the two had to bar criticism of Greek life from the S.A. floor and block resolutions pertaining to women’s health and gender issues.

Private text messages obtained by The Sun show how IFC president and influential S.A. member Rocco DeLorenzo ’24 — who was also running for executive vice president of the Student Assembly at the time — planned on wielding a Greek life “machine” in the Student Assembly to defend the interests of fraternities.

The Sun has reviewed a host of texts between DeLorenzo and Pedro Da Silveira ’25 during last year’s campaign cycle in which the pair discussed their vision and goals for the S.A.

Da Silveira — who was elected president of the Assembly in May 2023 but was ousted moments after being sworn in due to a Title IX allegation which he was later found not responsible for — said the two were campaigning together during a period when DeLorenzo knew about the allegation.

On Feb. 20, 2023, Da Silveira confided in DeLorenzo that a former sexual partner was creating a record of accusations against him and asked for advice. DeLorenzo responded by telling Da Silveira to report the accuser’s behavior as harassment to the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX to “get the first mover advantage.” The two continued to message about Da Silveira’s allegation over the next

month.

In February 2023, DeLorenzo messaged Da Silveira that a “machine greek life sweep” was coming that would work to prevent changes to the Greek life system from being considered by the Assembly. When asked what the “mandate of the machine” would be for the upcoming year, DeLorenzo wrote: “Probably two rules – 1. Don’t do anything controversial 2. Leave greek life alone.”

DeLorenzo seemed to be particularly upset about the S.A.’s Resolution 16: Condemning Greek Life. The resolution — written in the wake of the suspension of all Cornell fraternities over sexual assault and drugging allegations in November 2022 — called fraternities “misogynistic, racist and transphobic institutions that perpetuate sexual assault and harassment.”

The day after the resolution was adopted in December 2022, DeLorenzo told Da Silveira that the “SA will definitely look different next semester” and that the resolution was targeted hate speech.

DeLorenzo also appeared to take issue with certain women’s health-related resolutions. He told Da Silveira in February 2023 that he “just can’t morally support a Plan B vending machine,” referring to a resolution that supported a program to create a machine with contraception.

“All I gotta say is under the machine greek life sweep coming, this stuff wouldn’t ever make it to the floor,” DeLorenzo wrote, referring to the Plan B vending machine proposal.

In an April 21, 2023, text,

DeLorenzo told Da Silveira not to campaign on providing free date rape drug testing kits to fraternities through Cornell Health. “As promised everything Frat will be kept out of the mouth of the SA so if you feel strongly I can cut it,” Da Silveira wrote.

Toward the end of April, Da Silveira appeared to have lost the support of both the IFC and the Cornell Democrats. DeLorenzo — as IFC president — opted to endorse Patrick Kuehl ’24 (Fourth Ward) as the most “level-headed” presidential candidate. DeLorenzo did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story, including about why he had a change of heart and came out in support of Kuehl despite having apparently planned a platform with Da Silveira.

On May 9, 2023, at around 1 p.m., it was announced that Da Silveira won the presidential election with around 45 percent of the vote. In the following hours, DeLorenzo sent a letter to all Student Assembly member-elects, which openly accused Da Silveira of having sexual relations with a student while she “was in no state to be a consenting individual.”

Shortly after members were sworn into their positions, DeLorenzo introduced a motion expel Da Silveira. Kuehl was appointed to the position on May 18, 2023. In addition to that position, he won a seat on Ithaca’s Common Council in November, after leveraging support from fraternities. The Student Assembly under Kuehl’s leadership has not yet passed any resolutions pertaining to the Interfraternity Council.

Students Stage Pro-Palestine Encampment on Arts Quad

Approximately 50 students staged a pro-Palestine encampment on the Arts Quad on April 25.

Cornell followed demonstrators at several other institutions establishing “liberated zones,” which have prompted mass arrests and suspensions. Demonstrators stated they would continue the encampment until the University met their demands or removed them from campus.

The Coalition for Mutual Liberation, a pro-Palestine coalition of over 40 organizations, organized the encampment.

Approximately 17 tents were enclosed by a low-to-theground tarp fence in front of McGraw Hall. According to an email from CML to The Sun, the encampment was established at 4 a.m. and administrators told the demonstrators to move twice by 9 a.m.

Anyone was welcome to enter the “liberated zone,” so long as they completed an “arrest intake form” to help CML keep track of and support protestors should they be arrested and placed in jail.

The demonstration came a week after the majority of student voters approved of a ceasefire and divestment referendum, held from April 18 to April 19.

According to a CML press release, demonstrators urged the University to take action on eight demands including providing restitution to Indigenous communities, ensuring transparency in its current finances, divesting from “morally reprehensible activities” as per the 2016 Standard Guide to Divestment Consideration, dissolving partnerships with the Jacobs-Technion Cornell Institute and any other partnerships with the Technion Israel, establishing a Palestinian studies program, publicly acknowledging and protecting anti-Zionist perspectives, recognizing that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism and removing all police from campus including from student protests.

Demonstrators asked for police to be replaced with an emergency response team composed of healthcare workers and first responders trained in de-escalation. They also asked for total legal and academic amnesty for all individuals involved in the encampment and similar demonstrators.

On the first day, encampment participants were threatened with academic susepsions if they did not leave by 8 p.m.. Supporters surrounded participants as the encampment passed the 8 p.m. Police ultimately did not interfere with activity. Encampment participants did not budge from the Arts Quad for the next two and a half weeks. As they held educational programming and rallies, Cornell maintained minimal police presence around the encampment. No students were arrested.

Cornell’s administration instead emphasized academic repercussions for demonstrators. Six encampment participants — including both undergraduates and graduate students — were suspended.

The original demands set at the beginning of the encampment were altered as the “Liberated Zone” adjusted to ongoing negotiations with the University, according to the CML representative.

CML notably dropped its original demands for the University to “remove all police from campus” and to “call for an unconditional, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”

The Negotiations Team for the Coalition for Mutual Liberation’s “Liberated Zone” met with President Pollack at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 10.

President Martha Pollack told the Negotiations Team of the Coalition for Mutual Liberation’s “Liberated Zone” that divestment was not feasible, due to the endowment being indirectly managed, according to a CML Instagram post from Saturday,

May 11. The administration also did not support providing full amnesty for encampment participants and “questioned Cornell’s complicity in Indigenous genocide,” according to the post.

CML voluntarily took down its pro-Palestine encampment on May 14.

Approximately 250 supporters circled the original “Liberated Zone” space — no longer surrounded by a black tarp — as the encampment held a final vigil for the lives lost in Rafah starting at 6 p.m. Monday.

Supporters held small candles as demonstrators discussed the significance of the encampment for themselves and the people of Palestine.

Maral Asik ’24, an encampment supporter, told The Sun that it felt “bittersweet” to watch the encampment come to a close.

“We created a community like no other on Cornell campus — the space for our peers and classmates to come and connect and feel safe and included and cared for,” Asak said.

9.18.24 PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTESTERS SHUT DOWN CAREER FAIR, CONFRONT BOEING RECRUITERS: Over 100 pro-Palestinian protesters confronted defense contractor Boeing at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations’ Human Capital and Human Relations Career Fair at The Statler Hotel. The recruiters from the majority of companies present took down their tables approximately 20 minutes after protesters arrived. Footage released by the University showed protesters pushing past Cornell University Police Department officers who were guarding The Statler enterance. The University stated that it used photo and video evidence to identify and refer 19 activists for disciplinary action.

9.24.24 U.S. NEWS RANKS CORNELL NO. 11 UNIVERSITY IN COUNTRY, BEST IN NEW YORK: Ahead of No. 13 Columbia University and No. 30 New York University, Cornell earned the title of top school in New York State. In addition to Columbia, Cornell outranked fellow Ivies Brown University and Dartmouth College.

9.25.24 BLACK, HISPANIC AND NATIVE AMERICAN FIRST-YEAR ENROLLMENT DROPS AFTER AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BAN: Black, Native American and Hispanic student enrollment dropped markedly between the Class of 2027 and the Class of 2028, while the proportion of Asian first-years rose slightly in the first class admitted after the Supreme Court banned race-conscious affirmative action in higher education.

9.25.24 KAVITA BALA NAMED CORNELL”S 17TH PROVOST: Kavita Bala was selected to take the helm as Cornell’s 17th provost, with a five-year appointment starting Jan. 1. Bala served as the inaugural dean of the Bowers

College of Computing and Information Science at the time of her appointment.

10.1.24 ADMINISTRATORS DISCUSS DISCIPLINING PROTESTERS, MONITORING FACULTY IN PRIVATE HILLEL PARENTS MEETING: At the meeting, then-Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina said “If there were a faculty member that invited a KKK representative to speak or a student group that invited a KKK representative to speak, yes, we would allow that.”

10.4.24 BLACK STUDENTS UNITED CONDEMNS MALINA’S STATEMENT: Concerned about the implications of the statement on minority students’ safety, Black Students United called for Malina’s removal from office, with about 180 students rallying from Willard Straight Hall to Day Hall.

10.28.24 BEN SHAPIRO BRINGS CONSERVATIVE PERSPECTIVE TO CORNELL: Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and the founding editor-in-chief of the right-wing media company The Daily Wire, spoke to a packed audience of approximately 1,300 students in Bailey Hall. During this talk, Shapiro rebuked then-Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and fielded questions about intersectionality, free speech, LGBTQ+ politics and Donald Trump.

12.5.24 V.P. JOEL MALINA ANNOUNCES HE IS LEAVING CORNELL FOR A NEW JOB: After serving as vice president for University relations for 11 years, Joel Malina announced that he would leave his position on Jan. 5 to join the corporate advisory firm Brunswick Group in Washington, D.C. The move followed a semester of controversy over statements on free speech.

UAW, Cornell Reach Agreement Following Two Weeks of Strikes

“The tentative agreement has been ratified, and the strike is officially over,” the UAW Local 2300 website read as of Sept. 2.

The United Auto Workers Local 2300 and Cornell have ratified an agreement, endorsed by 77 percent of UAW Local 2300 voters.

Lonnie Everett, a UAW international servicing representative for Region 9, announced the result in a statement posted on the UAW Local 2300 website.

“This is a monumental victory, proving that when we come together, we are unstoppable,” Everett wrote.

The statement calls for UAW workers to return to their regular shifts starting as early as 10 p.m. Sept. 2.

Terms of the agreement include a 21 to 25.4 percent wage increase with a cost-of-living adjustment, among other benefits, according to the UAW Local 2300 statement. Altogether, the agreement represents a $43 million contract over the next four years.

The agreement follows four months of bargaining and two weeks of strikes, during which Cornell reduced its dining options

and recruited former workers to fill the temporarily empty positions.

In an email sent to the Cornell community at noon on Sept. 3, administrators encouraged “everyone [to] act with kindness and respect one another’s personal choices,

wheth er that was to strike or to continue working,” as the campus transi normal staff levels.

Students without a meal plan that includes swipes were told to continue utilizing non-Cor

nell dining options, while the University aims to reopen Cornell Dining locations later in the week.

Food trucks will be at various campus locations from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday to increase meal options for non-

“Welcome back to those who have been on strike,” the University statement read, “and less staff and faculty who helped fill operational gaps caused by the strike munity as a whole

Trump Is Elected 47th President, Watch Parties Held

Former President Donald Trump has officially secured the presidency, hitting the magic number of 270 electoral votes early Nov. 6 morning. He found crucial support in a string of swing states, including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Adding to the state’s significance this election cycle was the attempted assassination on Trump while he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The gunman, a Pennsylvanian recent community college graduate, shot at the former president and grazed his ear, leaving him visibly bleeding but ultimately unharmed. One audience member was killed, and two others were injured by the gunfire.

The Associated Press called the race at 5:36 a.m. after projecting Trump as the winner of Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, pushing him over the edge to 277 votes.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Trump faced stark criticism on a series of policy decisions he made during his first presidency, including his travel ban targeting nearly all travelers from five majority-Muslim countries, as well as North Korea and Venezuelan officials; his response to the coronavirus pandemic, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history; his proposal to build a wall on the southern border and his efforts to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May, 2024 for falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult star Stormy Daniels. He also was ordered to pay $85 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for calling her a liar after she accused him of sexual assault.

At Cornell, some conservative student groups have seemingly turned away from Trump, with The Cornell Review and the Cornell Republicans not endorsing the candidate this election cycle.

Continuous commentary, punctuated by intermittent choruses of cheers and boos, resounded throughout the Biotechnology Building, where students gathered at an election night event co-hosted by Cornell Democrats and Cornell Students for Harris. Approximately 200 attendees met to hear the impending results at a watch party complete with catered food, stickers and pins that read “Students for Harris-Walz.”

The event was one of many watch parties held across campus Nov. 5 evening, where students waited with baited breath as polling offices closed and news outlets began releasing projected winners for each state.

Niles Hite ’26, president of Cornell Democrats, said the organization hosted the watch party to “foster a sense of community” and “make people more politically engaged.”

As results started to come in from across various states, a sense of worry set in among many students. Josephine DeBellis ’28, who attended the Cornell Democrats watch party,

expressed anxiety that the election results might not be finalized by midnight.

“A lot of people are on edge because we’re all quite vulnerable in this situation politically, and no one wanted it to come to this point where the election is this close and decisive,” DeBellis said. “There’s just a lot of liberties and freedoms for people that are more marginalized that are at risk under the current political climate.”

Black Students United also hosted an election night watch party, at Ujamaa Residential College starting at 9 p.m., where around 65 students attended.

Cameron Smith ’26, BSU co-president, felt nervous in the days leading up to the election, urging those around her to vote. Now that Election Day has passed, Smith said she is shifting her mindset to what comes next.

Reflecting on the BSU watch party, Smith stressed the importance of creating a safe space for students to digest the election results.

“We’re trying to create a community here where people feel safe enough to talk about how they feel and are able to address however they feel after [the results come in],” Smith said.

Cornell Hillel was another organization that hosted a Tuesday watch party, attended by a handful of people who

munched on black and white cookies and spanakopita as they watched the election results trickle in at the Hillel House on North Campus. The event fell under Hillel International’s non-partisan MitzVote initiative, which aimed at getting Jewish students out to vote.

“I was sitting in my room, and just was thinking about what this would mean, and didn’t want to digest it all in my dorm,” said attendee Eliana Eats ’26. “This is a space here, with Hillel, that I’m very comfortable with. … It’s been like a second home, so it felt like the safest space to come and see what was going on.”

Eats also discussed the specific experience of being a college student watching the election.

“Half of us are here doing homework while watching the election. … I think it’s a very different atmosphere than what you would normally get outside of a university setting,” Eats said. “The existential crisis of college students mixed with the existential crisis of American citizens.”

Additional watch parties were held on West Campus in Hans Bethe House and Carl Becker House, and on North Campus in the Appel Multipurpose Room. Cornell Republicans also hosted a watch party but did not respond to a request for comment.

TimeLine

1.21.25 PRO-PALESTINIAN

ACTIVISTS VANDALIZE A.D.

WHITE STATUE ON FIRST DAY OF SEMESTER: “Divest from death” and “occupation=death” were spray painted in dark red on the Andrew Dickson White statue on the Arts Quad. The historic statue was also smeared with bright red paint resembling blood. The act mirrored the first day of classes of the Fall 2024 semester, when “Israel bombs, Cornell pays” and “Blood is on your hands” were spray painted in red along the front entrance of Day Hall — Cornell’s main administrative building.

2.8.25 CORNELL DINING

ANNOUNCES LA COLOMBE TO REPLACE STARBUCKS AS PRIMARY RETAIL COFFEE VENDOR:

One and a half years after the University announced its decision to discontinue its partnership with Starbucks, Cornell Dining revealed that La Colombe Coffee Roasters will replace Starbucks as the primary retail coffee vendor across campus. The new brew will come to campus in the summer of 2025.

2.8.25 UNIVERSITY SAYS IT WILL CUT FUNDING FOR CENTER FOR TRANSFORMATIVE ACTION: The Division of Student & Campus Life has decided to end the University’s affiliation with the Center For Transformative Action — the parent organization of many on-campus initiatives including Anabel’s Grocery, Durland Alternatives Library and Prisoner Express — starting June 2025. Over $100,000 in annual funding for CTA will be cut off two years later.

2.10.25 TWELVE UNIVERSITIES SUE NIH AFTER GRANT CUTS ANNOUNCED: Cornell, along with 11 other universities, filed a lawsuit

against the National Institutes of Health challenging the recent cuts to funding related to “indirect costs” — which cover the expenses of research infrastructure — associated with NIH grants towards medical research.

3.11.25 17 PROTESTERS ARRESTED OR DETAINED DURING UNIVERSITY-RUN ‘PATHWAYS TO PEACE’ PANEL: At least 17 pro-Palestinian attendees were arrested or detained by Cornell University Police Department officers at a panel discussion that brought together four experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a “wide-ranging conversation” on “potential paths forward for the people of Israel and Palestine,” according to the event’s description.

3.17.25 PROFESSOR, GRADUATE STUDENTS SUE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Prof. Mukoma Wa Ngugi, literatures in English; Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. candidate in Africana studies; and Sriram Parasurama, a Ph.D. student in plant sciences, claimed that the enforcement of two of the Trump administration’s national security-related executive orders violates their First and Fifth Amendment rights.

3.21.25 MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF NAMED CORNELL’S 15TH PRESIDENT: After serving eight months as interim president, Michael Kotlikoff was named Cornell’s 15th president in a vote by the Cornell Board of Trustees.

4.29.25 AFFECTED STUDENTS SEE SEVIS RECORDS RESTORED: The records were “temporarily” reactivated two weeks after 17 current and former students had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated.

Trump Administration Freezes Over $1 Billion in Cornell Funds

The federal government has frozen over $1 billion in funding for Cornell, according to members of the Trump administration. This comes amid Title VI investigations of Cornell by the U.S. Department of Education.

The move follows the slashing of more than $3.3 billion in federal funding from several Ivy League universities, including Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Princeton. The Trump administration also froze $790 million in funding for Northwestern, according to The New York Times.

Cornell receives both federal and state funding for its research and grants for students. The freezing of Cornell and Northwestern’s funding from the federal government will primarily involve grants and contracts with the departments of agriculture, defense, education and health and human services, The New York Times reported.

An April 7 statement from Cornell administrators explained that the University was “aware of media reports suggesting that more than $1 billion in federal grants have been frozen” but had “not received information that would confirm this figure.”

However, Cornell saw more than 120 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to Cornell research “that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health,” according to the statement.

Stop-work orders are directions

from a contracting officer to a contractor to stop all or parts of work “for a period of 90 days after the order is delivered.” The contractor under a stop-work order is required to immediately comply.

Administrators explained that among the different research projects that were immediately halted include research into jet engines, information networks, superconductors, robotics, propulsion systems and space and satellite communications, in addition to research on cancer.

“[This research is] work of significance for our national defense, the competitiveness of our economy, and the health of our citizens,” the statement reads.

The administrators emphasized that Cornell is a “land-grant university that serves New York state and the nation.”

The ED Office for Civil Rights sent a letter on Feb. 14 to Cornell and other federally funded educational institutions, ordering the dissolution of “racial preferences” and other University race-conscious decisions. The ED highlighted in the letter that universities could potentially lose federal funding if they did not comply within 14 days.

Following the initial letter, the OCR announced the opening of an investigation of Cornell and 44 other universities under Title VI.

The OCR explained that the investigations came amid allegations that the universities violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by working with The Ph.D. Proj-

ect — which “purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants,” according to the OCR.

Cornell was also one of 60 schools sent letters from the ED on March 10, warning the universities to “fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus” or see “enforcement actions.”

The March 10 letter was sent to universities that were under investigation for antisemitic discrimination and harassment.

Administrators ended the April 7 statement by highlighting that Cornell has worked to create an environment on campus where all viewpoints and individuals are “protected and respected.”

“We are committed to working with our federal partners to continue the contributions made by our scientists and scholars,” the statement reads.

In the meantime, researchers are reeling in the wake of funding cuts. Prof. Massimo Cristofanilli, M.D., director of breast medical oncology at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, said the cuts halted clinical trials set to begin by June to test Syantra DX Breast Cancer, an early-cancer-detection blood test technology project for which he was principal investigator. That clinical trial, however, is now on hold.

“The patients are the ones that suffer the most,” Cristofanilli said.

Controversy Comes to Slope Day

Gunna Replaces Kehlani as Slope Day Headliner Following Claims of Antisemitism

The Slope Day Programming Board announced Gunna as the headliner for Slope Day on the morning of May 2, nine days after President Michael Kotlikoff rescinded Kehlani’s invitation on April 23.

Slope Day, the annual concert held on Libe Slope at the end of the academic year, is financed by the Student Activity Funding Commission — a body responsible for allocating a portion of the undergraduate student activity fee, which all students pay to the University.

Gunna, the four-time Grammy nomimance.

Previously collaborating with artists like Doja Cat, Travis Scott and Drake, Gunna has topped the Billboard 200 charts twice with his albums “DS4EVER” and “Wunna.”

Gunna, whose government name is Sergio Kitchens, was arrested in 2022 for racketeering on accusations that he was collaborating with the Young Slime criminal gang. He pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2022.

The Student Assembly previously invited Gunna to attend Slope Day as an emcee in 2022 to accompany headlining artist

The supporting performer will be Louis The Child, known for their songs “It’s Strange,” “Slow Down Love” and “Better Not.” Other performers include student band Lucky Strike and student DJs Two (Asian) Friends and FREQ. The replacement follows student and parent dissatisfaction over Kehlani’s anti-Israel sentiments on her social media. In an email statement to the Cornell community, President Michael Kotlikoff wrote, “I have heard grave concerns from our community that many are angry, hurt, and confused that Slope

Day would feature a performer who has espoused antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments in performances, videos, and on social media.”

In a video posted to X expressing her discontent with other music industry members for not speaking out in favor of Palestine, Kehlani said, “It’s f*ck Israel, it’s f*ck Zion ism and it’s also f*ck a lot of y’all too.”

Kehlani’s beliefs also appear in her per formances. Her “Next 2 U” music video — which was released in June 2024 — begins with the message “Long Live the Intifada,” in addition to featuring dancers in keffiyehs waving Palestinian flags. The word intifada is often asso ciated with two Palestinian up risings.

A week after Kehlani’s an nouncement as headliner, at an April 17 Student Assembly meet ing, Kotlikoff criticized the choice of the outspokenly anti-Israel per former but stated that “it’s too late to secure another performer.”

Following Kotlikoff’s state ments, Cornellians for Israel launched a petition and Go FundMe to replace Kehlani’s headliner position. In an Ins tagram post promoting the pe tition, CFI called Kehlani “an

tisemitic” and wrote that her opposition to Zionism “is a call to eradicate a core aspect of Jewish … identity.”

Soon after CFI’s campaign began, Kotlikoff held a meeting on April 22, which was promoted to several pro-Israel and historically Jewish Greek Life organizations. At the meeting, administrators discussed potential options for Slope Day moving forward and student dissatisfaction

“I am not antisemitic, nor anti-Jew,” Kehlani said in a video posted to her Instagram on May 3 in response to Cornell cancelling her invitation. “I am anti-genocide. I am anti the actions of the Israeli government, I am anti the extermination of an entire people, I am anti the bombing of innocent children, men, women — that’s what I’m anti.”

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Independent Since 1880

142nd Masthead

GABRIEL LEVIN ’26 Editor in Chief

MAX FATTAL ’25

Associate Editor

HENRY SCHECHTER ’26

Opinion Editor

MARIAN CABALLO ’26

Multimedia Editor

MING DEMERS ’25

Photography Editor

ERIC HAN ’26

Arts & Culture Editor

SYDNEY LEVINTON ’27

Arts & Culture Editor

JADE DUBUCHE ’27

Social Media Editor

JESSIE GUILLEN ’27

Graphics Editor

JOLIN LI ’27

Layout Editor

LEILANI BURKE ’25

Assistant Photography Editor

KARLIE MCGANN ’27

Assistant Photography Editor

KIRA WALTER ’26

Lifestyle Editor

DANIELA ROJAS ’25

Assistant Lifestyle Editor

NICOLE COLLINS ’25 Senior Editor

JULIA SENZON ’26 Managing Editor

ERIC REILLY ’25

Assistant Managing Editor

MARISA CEFOLA ’25 News Editor

MATTHEW KIVIAT ’24 News Editor

CHRISTINA MACCORKLE ’26 News Editor

DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER ’27 News Editor

JANE MCNALLY ’26 Sports Editor

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26 City Editor

KAITLIN CHUNG ’26

LAINE HAVENS ’25 Science Editor

ANUSHKA SHOREWALA ’26 Assistant News Editor

OLIVIA HOLLOWAY ’25 Assistant News Editor

DINA SHLUFMAN ’25 Assistant News Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26 Newsletter Editor

Congratulations

Class of 2025 Columnists:

Carlin Reyen | Just Carlin’ It Like It Is

Grace Elmore | Let’s Talk About Sex

Julia Poggi | The Outbox

Max Fattal | Let’s Unpack That

From the Associate Editor

Tis Isn’t a Piecemeal Community

Dear Seniors,

I should know better than to write to you as a monolith. Each of you will remember the Cornell experience differently from your peers — some, maybe, with a blinding enthusiasm, and others with a sour taste left in their mouth. I still can’t help but see the appeal of a general address — a message that personifies community, treats it as one body with thoughts and feelings of its own. Being part of a campus culture taught me to see community as something more like a collective memory or spirit, one whole rather than many parts.

Faced with an abrupt end to a four-year journey, you might find relief in the persevering presence of this community in your recollection. You were a privileged witness to a fleeting snapshot of sunset picnics and bar nights, political protests and union strikes. It’s a privilege you get to share only with your classmates, the people who at the same time were able to witness you . Reciprocity is the cornerstone of community; for all of the changes you underwent because of your peers, you left an equally indelible mark on them. Together, you make up one convoluted web of reciprocal impact, a unity defined by the way that you each influenced each other.

It’s not a harmonious union, admittedly. I read every opinion that comes across The Sun’s desk, and I would be negligent to understate the ideological tension on our campus. For many students, these past couple of years have been an especially alienating time. The community is teeming, almost boiling over with political dissatisfaction. But I have found that this sense of alienation is a driving force for an equal and opposite reaction: community members come together to find agency, to express what they felt alone in thinking. Intimidation only affirms the old platitude that we’re stronger together.

Many of you will start your career in a turbulent job market or a university system that is under attack. No one could blame you for resenting that. But I hope you have observed this community closely enough through these few years of turmoil to see that these sorts of challenges propel collective action. Find the people with whom you share a common cause and resign yourself to something bigger — a community in which you can impart the Cornellian spirit as you understand it. You will not be carrying just one piece of this culture with you but extending the reach of a greater whole.

— Eric Han ’26, 143rd associate editor

Max Fattal

Max Fattal is a graduate from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Tey served as the associate editor of Te Cornell Daily Sun on the 142nd Masthead. Tey can be reached at mfattal@cornellsun.com.

Graduation Column

Ihave no idea what to write. It’s almost too on the nose — my first writing deadline in some six months and I can’t for the life of me think of where to start. It’s made even funnier by the fact that I’ve been planning my graduation column for years: writing down theses and tidbits every couple of weeks when an idea pops into my head. But now, having procrastinated to the last possible moment, I’m out of ideas.

My time at Cornell invites the doubtfulness. I only spent four full semesters here, entering as a sophomore transfer, taking a semester in Dublin and graduating a semester early. That also makes me six months removed from graduating — I’ll be walking next week, but my diploma arrived by mail in February and I haven’t set foot in a classroom since December. Some of my earlier ideas feel stupid from the period of unemployment, or the hellish political environment Cornell has since been subjected to. Writing this from Ithaca, I cannot help but feel already out of touch with my alma mater.

There was a moment, some time after the encampment, amidst but not yet fully embraced by a series of massive life changes, when I think my grad column would have been the best it could possibly be. It was a moment of looking at roses through rose colored glasses, where both the world and the viewer (that is, me) were overwhelmed by the bursts of radical possibility. Just a year later the opinion feels out of fashion, but I genuinely believe that the encampment was and the months that followed were magical.

I’ve written before about that idea, that the revolutionary politics of ’68 felt farther away in ’72 than they do today. When there’s a foot on your throat, it doesn’t particularly matter how the fight was going ten seconds prior. And when protesters are being actively deported and imprisoned, it’s difficult to make it matter that just a year ago so many were willing to join the cause. Even with the caucuses of the resistance elderly hitting downtown Ithaca each Saturday, it becomes hard to imagine a mass movement of legitimately audacious solidarity arriving again anytime soon.

I can’t help but wonder if that’s the reason for the writer’s block. We’re graduating into a moment that isn’t merely malaise (or perhaps fascistic terror); rather, it’s a bleakness buoyed by the soul crushing fear that the horrors won’t ever end. If there was a light at the end of the tunnel last May, we’ve been

taking a bullet train in the opposite direction since. “It’s always darkest before the dawn” serves as a cold comfort when you can’t see your hand in front of your face. And there’s only so dark it can get, only so much the walls can close in, before the claustrophobia begins to get to you.

I know I sound like a panic-stricken lib, and I can’t help but wonder if I am myself just building a straw man to triumphantly refute in my conclusion. But I’m sincere when I say the absolute horrors of Trump’s presidency have started to gnaw at me. Never in my life have I been so utterly distraught by the callous disregard many have for their fellow humans. And again, just as those life circumstances helped make a brilliant moment feel that much more wonderful, I’m aware that the brutality of the job search isn’t giving my brain much space for calm in a cruel national climate. Looking back at last May, it legitimately does feel “different,” whatever that means.

We’re graduating into a moment that isn’t merely malaise (or perhaps fascistic terror); rather, it’s a bleakness buoyed by the soul crushing fear that the horrors won’t ever end.

I never wrote that perfect graduation column; we play the hand we’re dealt. The onetime belief in a personal and political puzzle that’s just waiting to be assembled exists just beyond my fingertips, or maybe even a bit farther. In its place, I’ve stumbled upon this strange writer’s block, forcing out these half-hearted expressions of cynicism, a Bergman pastiche for loss of revolutionary faith. If I were to wager a guess, I’ll say that I prefer it this way. We take the black pill to guard against uncertainty. A cruel universe is, after all, more tolerable than an unknowable one. And, absent the perfect one, an equivocating myopic snapshot grad column is better than an unwritten one.

Serin Koh | And That’s The SKoop Aurora Weirens | The Northern Light Armand Chancellor | The Rostrum

Don’t Let School Get in the Way of Your Education

My dad’s dad, John Joseph Reilly, used to say that. A strange quote from an educator — he was a high school social studies teacher in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

Grandpa Reilly died before I was born, when my dad was only a freshman at Davidson College. All I know of Grandpa Reilly I know from my dad — that he kept a piece of the Berlin Wall on his desk, that he had his students paint a world map on their classroom wall, that he would have been at every one of my basketball games.

For much of my life, Grandpa Reilly’s anti-academy tagline rarely resonated with me. Elementary, middle, high school — I kept my head down, got my grades and did little else. I was content. I loved school. T en I came to Cornell.

Maybe it was the freedom, the lack of rules. Maybe it was the repetitive Environment and Sustainability classes that my University of Vermont transfer credits somehow didn’t satisfy. Or maybe it was the loose attendance policies (which I carefully studied to calculate the fewest number of classes I would have to attend to earn an A; a strategy which more often resulted in a B). Whatever it was, I no longer found adequate joy in attending class.

Joining T e Sun as a news writer and working my way up to assistant managing editor had its own set of sacri f ces. Staying late nights at 139 W State St. and being on call 24/7 meant sleeping through morning classes, quitting my job as a research assistant and devoting less time to relationships. But everything I lost, I gained in education.

For example, on Halloween night 2023, when I should have been out on the town, I was on the phone with my dad. A suspect had been charged for posting

antisemitic threats, and he was scheduled to appear in court the next morning. I wanted to go, but I would lose attendance points on a lecture and discussion section. My dad’s advice was familiar, no, familial — “don’t let school get in the way of your education.” 10 hours later, I crammed into a car with four fellow Sunnies, and I was on my way to Syracuse.

T at morning, as my classmates watched slides on a screen, my classroom was a courtroom. Sitting beside 20 professional reporters, I heard a mother hold back tears as her mentally ill son stepped handcu f ed beside his public defender. And I watched as Patrick Dai, through shaky and scared breath, admitted to authoring the violent, vile posts as his prosecutor read them aloud.

But school is not everything. If it were, I would never know how many more stars you can see through a pair of binoculars, how to hang a hammock where not even sadness can find you.

No law course can tell you what it’s really like in a courtroom. No semester in psychology can predict how a mother feels when she sees her son in an orange jumpsuit. No journalism course can teach you how to beat CNN on a story. Don’t let school get in the way of your education.

T ese lessons soon became continuous. Covering the encampment protests forced me to balance my journalistic principles with my care for our community, interviewing President Kotliko f taught me how to ask tough questions of authority, and reporting on a meeting between top administrators and parents showed me how Cornell’s “content-neutral” policies can be di f erentially communicated. T ese moments were more valuable than any university class. I do not mean that school is unimportant, that academia is useless. How else can I justify to myself the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I dropped on a Cornell diploma? Hell, I still dream of earning a Ph.D., of taking after Grandpa Reilly and becoming a teacher. School must matter.

But school is not everything. If it were, I would never know how many more stars you can see through a pair of binoculars, how to hang a hammock where not even sadness can f nd you. How silent Beebe Lake sleeps. T ese are Life’s lessons.

My message is this — don’t ditch every class, but when academics inhibit extracurricular education, make the tradeo f T ose moments mean more than any lecture or letter grade. Don’t let school get in the way of your education.

Confessions of a Senior

Shakespeare quotes — a rather precarious performance.

Tere are many days when I have sat and pondered how my college experience might have been diferent had I followed the more traditional path: Would I have stayed in touch with freshmen friends? How would I have adjusted to Cornell if I had spent my frst year here? What would my workload be like if I pursued a diferent career path? What memories would I have made if I had not taken a gap semester? Am I missing out on the ultimate college experience, and am I not making the most out of my years as a Cornellian?

Wegrin and regret. It’s the feeling that in approximately 25 days, the day will fnally come when the Class of 2025, clad in scarlet stoles, will cross the stage and leave not as fellow Cornellians, but as fellow alumni. As the bittersweet anticipation of freedom and the simultaneous impending doom of true adulthood march towards me, I can’t help but wonder the question that churns in all seniors’ heads: What did Cornell teach me?

My years as a student have strayed from what many may call the “conventional” college experience; I transferred into Cornell Arts and Sciences as a sophomore, took a gap semester in 2023 spring, and just earlier this semester, decided I wanted to graduate early this summer instead of completing all eight semesters of university. As a Literatures in English major who is also embarking on the pre-medical track, my past two years have been spent juggling between chemical equations and

In a school of approximately 16,000 undergraduates plopped amidst isolated mountains in upstate New York –– which is always concerningly cloudy and cold for six months of the year –– it is easy to fall victim to this epidemic of second-guessing, anxiety and loneliness. Troughout high school, we are promised a glorious, hopeful urban legend: College will be the best four years of our lives. Yet when you receive your frst, second and third 64 on an organic chemistry exam, lose friends, doom scroll alone in your bed on a Friday night, miss your 9 a.m. class with required attendance, sufer from a mysterious cold for a week, trudge through a full day after sleeping three hours or fnd yourself counting spare dollars by the end of the semester, you may feel the piercing betrayal of a broken promise — and perhaps even more devastatingly — of failure.

Such is the reality of college: It is actually not the peak of your life, nor should it be. Te expectation that these four years will secure the rest of your future or unlock untapped interests are mere advertisements for applying students and overwhelming burdens upon current undergraduates. Tat is not to say, of course, that such things are impossible, but the guise of a college diploma as a savior and a solution to all worldly and philosophical dilemmas weaves a toxic blanket of competition, self-hatred, disappointment and, ultimately, a fear of failure.

I wouldn’t say I’ve found a home here on top of the hill. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve rolled in laughter with friends in the library, slipped out at midnight

for froyo from Jason’s, belted godforsaken songs at karaoke, discovered some of my favorite books from my English classes, napped on the sun-dripping Slope, indulged in CTB cheesecakes and conversed happily with professors — just to name a handful of irreplaceable memories from my time at Cornell. However, I fnd Cornell to be something far from a comfortable home: It is instead a place of both turmoil and peace, anger and laughter, community and solitude, failure and success. While it houses some of my favorite stories and experiences, it also holds some of my worst moments of isolation, self-doubt and mental burnout.

Such is the reality of college: It is actually not the peak of your life, nor should it be.

Yes, it is true that once we exit the gates of Cornell, the rest of the seniors and I will have to face much more dire challenges: merciless bills, grueling jobs, post-graduate parents and existential crises here and there. Yet I believe that our four years have prepared us for these moments; we are no longer 18-year olds waiting for the “peak” of our lives to come to us, but are burgeoning adults — armed with our own defnitions of identity and independence — who can now claim and sculpt our own “primes.”

So if someone were to ask me, “What did you learn from Cornell?” I would respond that it had taught me what exclusion, loneliness and failure are, and therefore, how I am an agent of my own experiences. I would say that I am glad that my four years here were not the best years of my life because they have prepared me for all that is to come. And so, I end my column with this: If Cornell has not fulflled all of your fantastical daydreams, do not let expectations dictate the future — in this case, I truly do believe that the grass is greener on the other side.

Eric Joseph Reilly

Eric Reilly is a graduating senior from the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as the Assistant Managing Editor on Te Sun’s 142md Masthead and News Editor on the 141st Masthead. He can be reached at ereilly@cornellsun.com.

Serin Koh

Serin Koh is a graduating senior from the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column And Tat’s the Skoop exploredstudent, academic and social culture at Cornell. She was a dedicated Graphics Contributor and Columnist.She can be reached at skoh@cornellsun.com.

Goodnight (Daily) Sun, Goodnight Moon

Carlin Reyen

Carlin Reyen is a graduating senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column Just Carlin’ It Like It Is centers around student life, social issues, Cornell life hacks and the University’s interactions with the broader community. She was an Assistant News Editor on the 141st Masthead. Carlin can be reached at creyen@cornellsun.com.

When I talk to people about being a college student, they often ask, “Do you love Cornell?”

I feel that this is a reductive question; Cornell has not been a monolith of an experience for me. There are so many moments where I have felt incredible joy, and yet — as readers of my column may note — many moments I have felt discouraged by campus culture, institutional bureaucracy and world affairs.

My first few semesters here were a time of trial and transition: I distinctly remember my first day of college in 2021, standing in a Barton Hall bustling with my new classmates, feeling insignificant — and slightly terrified — with the fact that I knew not a single person amidst the crowd.

Though not easy at first, finding community here has been integral to my experience. The best part of my senior year has been walking amongst the stunning buildings on campus (and some not so stunning — Uris Hall comes to mind) on the way to class,

Ibeing able to greet familiar faces of fellow Cornellians who I have worked with on a project, met through a mutual friend or gotten to know through a club, for example. It is euphoric to walk a campus with the built confidence of having made these connections, seeing all the people I have come to know as friends over the past four years, whose diverse passions I have come to understand and appreciate, and whose future trajectories I can only imagine. Often, I think of that first moment in Barton as a comparator and ruminate on how lucky I am to have connected with so many during such a short period.

Growing up in the Southern Tier of New York, just an hour south of Ithaca, I was initially ambivalent about attending college so close to home. However, I grew to appreciate the close proximity to my family and unique experiences my background brought to my time at Cornell. It has been both humbling and enriching to learn from the varying experiences of classmates from various parts of the U.S. and internationally and to see how these lived experiences inform each student’s approach to learning. Through taking a variety of discussion-based courses in different disciplines, these stories have become a part of my lens for viewing subject material and have challenged me to look beyond my own understanding of the world.

I met many unique individuals through the Cornell Daily Sun itself. Beginning my tenure with the newspaper as a news staffer allowed me the unique opportunity to interview many a Cornell professor, student, staff member or community member in Ithaca. I joke that I love journalism because I am inherently nosy, but I have found over the last four years that journalism is a powerful outlet for learning about the perspectives of others and sharing this newfound knowledge with the general public.

That being said, one of the things I will miss most about Cornell is the privilege of

access to information. I have not taken for granted the close proximity to field experts that this education has presented me: the ability to access current research in academic journals through the Cornell Library System and the wealth of knowledge available in databases and newspapers alike. In our age of digital misinformation, I recognize how valuable peer-reviewed, evidence-based research is, and how hard to come by it can be.

During my time at Cornell, I have tried to immerse myself as much as possible in the community, to spend my semesters attending talks by faculty and visiting scholars and to learn as much as possible, both inside and outside of the classroom. I spent last summer here working for the Ithaca Times, which allowed me to explore the surrounding city further and interact with more members of the greater Ithaca community than ever before.

I would highly recommend every Cornell student spend at least one summer in Ithaca. During the semester, it is easy to get caught up in the stress of school and the internship search, to lose sight of the natural beauty of Ithaca and the rich history of the University. Too often, it seems that undergrads spend most of their time here in a “Cornell bubble” on the Hill, and whether this is due to time constraints or resistance to engaging with the broader Ithaca community, this fact makes me sad. During “summer in Ithaca,” as my friends and I affectionately call those calm, humid months, I learned to slow down and appreciate the present moment and haven of opportunity that Cornell can be.

Cornell can be incredibly difficult; I certainly have had my fair share of highs and lows. Though I look back with intense nostalgia from my vantage point as a graduating senior, there were plenty of nights spent panicking about assignments, moments where I beat myself up over an awkward conversation with a peer and agonizing thoughts

about where I stood intellectually. In these moments, I found space for myself by continuing to put myself out there, to seek out communities and spaces where I felt seen by my peers, felt a sense of belonging.

These spaces may be different for everyone, but as a result of my interactions with many kind and genuine people amidst the chaos of Cornell, I truly believe they are out there. To anyone struggling to feel a sense of belonging, I would encourage readers to try something that may seem impossible or to engage with a new group of people and just see what happens.

“Fake it ’til you make it” is a tired mantra, but it has helped me meet some amazing people in times of self-doubt. After all, these four years are a time to form new experiences and test interests; trial and error is okay. Cornell is a perfect venue for this.

A few weeks ago, for example, I saw an advertisement for an actress for a student film. I had never acted in anything in my entire life, and maybe I was propelled solely by the imminence of my graduation, but I asked myself, “If not now, when?” The experience ended up being incredibly fun, and the student crew and other actors were so kind and encouraging. The opportunity to still meet new people and have positive interactions weeks before graduation filled me with hope about the Cornell experience, and by proxy, about finding my place in the world beyond college.

I leave with significant gratitude for the opportunities Cornell has granted me, coupled with the weight of responsibility to better the world around me. Although I have gone through some of the most difficult moments of my life here, I also can trace much personal, social and academic growth that has carried me through the semesters here. For this, I suppose I do love Cornell, flaws, idiosyncrasies and all.

Cheers to Everyone We Will Ever Meet

n just 10 days, 6,000 robed Cornellians — myself included — will make a long-anticipated walk from the Arts Quad to Schoellkopf Field to bid a ceremonious goodbye to the last four years of class and chaos on the Hill. Right now, I’m sitting at a wooden table in Goldwin Smith 232, a room I’ve had class in nearly every semester at Cornell, and, until a few minutes ago, I was scrolling TikTok, procrastinating both studying for my last fnal (HADM 4300, Wines) and writing this article.

Luckily, I built my TikTok For You Page brick by brick and my algorithm knew exactly what I needed to see: A PBS photo deck full of advice for graduating seniors via quotes from their stars, backed by Lorde’s ever-nostalgic Ribs. A few scrolls into the post was a quote from Bill Nye, who I am partial to because of our shared alma mater and because he reminds me of 6th-grade science class, which I loved.

“The last four years have simply been a preview for the rest of my life.”

Te quote was this: “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.” Tank you, TikTok, PBS and Bill Nye; now I can start writing. Like my classmates, I arrived in Ithaca in the fall of 2021, excited, scared, of the tail end of the pandemic, feeling like I simultaneously knew everything and nothing. I was fresh out of the pond-sized echo chamber that is small-town Indiana, nervous to see if I would sink or swim in the ocean that is Cornell.

I’m not sure how or when it happened, but at

some point I realized that the best way to swim was to become a sponge: to absorb as much knowledge, wisdom and experience as possible, to understand that everyone around me has something unique to ofer and to embrace the opportunity to fnd out what that is. For me, this radical curiosity is what defnes the Cornell experience.

Today, when friends and professors ask me if I’m “ready to graduate,” the little voice in my head screams, “absolutely not!” Everyone around me seems ready, but I’m feeling scared and emotional; certainly not “ready.”

In some strange way, reading that Bill Nye quote under the light of a classroom that has cradled me from my frst ever class all the way through procrastinating in preparation for my last undergraduate exam made it click: I actually am ready to graduate, because the Cornell experience I’m mourning isn’t ending.

Like many, what I have loved most about college is feeling like I can learn from everyone and everything around me, but I mistook that feeling as something only possible in Ithaca. Tat phenomenon won’t end when we leave Cornell, it will expand. As a now well-practiced sponge, I will be free to absorb knowledge, wisdom and experiences from the whole world, not just the world on our slope. Te last four years have simply been a preview for the rest of my life and, if you’re committed to being a lifelong learner, they’ve been a preview for yours, too.

It’s okay for us to feel sad about graduating from frat parties, Slope Days, club meetings and formals, but remember, we’re also graduating from prelims, DuoMobile, homework and pre-enrollment. What we aren’t graduating from is the Cornell experience: an understanding that “everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t,” and the innate Cornellian desire to forever pursue that knowledge.

Grace Elmore

Grace Elmore is a graduating student studying English in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is a senior columnist and her column ran during alternate Sex on Tursdays this semester and can all be found on Instagram and Substack. Comments can be sent to gelmore@cornellsun.com.

Turns out, there was a nine-word sentence capable of both summarizing the type of person Cornell has taught me to be and shifting my feelings about graduation from scared and emotional to scared and excited. Ironically, those are the exact feelings I had moving into Cornell four years ago… Tat chapter was amazing, so I’m confdent the next will be the same.

Despite my days-away English degree, I couldn’t form a sentence that powerful, but Bill Nye was able to (see, I learned something from someone else). For that, and for my fond memories of 6th-grade science, I owe him a thank you.

Some housekeeping: (1) Every student feeling melancholy about graduating and/or leaving Ithaca should listen to the song Ithaca by Beatenberg. It might make you feel sadder, but it is beautiful, and I always fnd myself coming back to it. (2) Stay tuned for a Let’s Talk About Sex swan song; this won’t be the last you hear from me.

Te Places We’ve Been

Julia Poggi is a graduating senior in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. Her fortnightly column Te Outbox was a collection of refections, advice and notes to self about life at Cornell, with a focus on coursework-life balance. She can be reached at jpoggi@cornellsun.com.

Iwritethis sitting in my Collegetown house, procrastinating on studying for my 7 p.m. physics fnal. Tis week has been full of emotions — the bittersweet celebration of Mother's Day far from home, the stress of my fnal exams of college, the warmth of the frst days of Ithaca summer. But above all, I've been grateful for the joy these last four years have brought, a joy I hope every graduate feels.

I chose Cornell because I was interested in an agriculture major, and there's no better place to be. Coming from DC, I knew I was not cut out for the land grants of the Midwest, and loved the proximity to that familiar East Coast way of life. I applied early decision, got in in December, and skirted the responsibility of weighing my options for college. Fast forward four years, and I am among friends choosing between jobs and graduate schools, new cities to establish adult life in, commitment to friends and signifcant others who might be there for the long game. For the frst time in my life, the overwhelming responsibility of deciding my life — a privilege I am so grateful to have — has hit.

But before I focus on the places we'll go, I want to chat about the places we've been. Class of 2025, we've been quarantined at Cayuga Blue during COVID-19, and yelled at by RAs for subpar mask etiquette. We've made the trek from North Campus to Collegetown in search of a "fraternity party," mindlessly wandering the streets during O-week. We’ve watched as AI and online learning have disrupted traditional educational models, as legislation and protests have reminded us of our context outside of campus. We've bathed in the sun at Flat Rock, failed exams and joined the groups that made us who we are, from ultra-selective clubs to informal cohorts of shared interests — friends, I believe they're called.

Tough perhaps uninteresting to the average Sun reader, I'll use my senior column to honor some of the places I've been and the people I've met along the way.

I frst met Sophia Ruser my freshman year, when fate and Facebook brought us together as roommates. Both daughters of physician parents and lovers of cats, we became a quick duo. Flash forward four years of living together, and I consider her my best friend. She has challenged my worldviews and expanded my intellect, has been a moral compass in times of dilemma and has introduced me to others who have fundamentally shaped the trajectory of my life. As we laugh and study, chat and dance, I know I would not be who I am without her.

Sophia introduced me to Kira Baltaytis, who introduced me to Julia Roos. Te two of them introduced me to Conor Burke among many others living in or adjacent to Donlon hall. As freshman friend groups morphed and fuxed, the “Donlon pledge class” became closer, then more distant, then closer again, as these things often work. Today though, I have shared many dinners, beach trips, nights on dorm room foors, a bomb threat, concerts, date nights and events with these people. Each has exposed me to a new corner of Cornell.

Te next year, I lived in the old Phi Gamma Delta dorm on campus, where I met Dylan Winchell and Sean LaMacchia. Coming from an all-girls school, these were some of my frst male friends. Sophia, Sean, Dylan would go to the library and make TikToks, or joke around in "soft lounge," one of the libraries of our house. One day, after coming home from going

out with Julia, we found an unlocked door in the old fraternity house that led to a kitchen, chapter room, party space and spray painted our names on the graftied brick. Tese are my college friends.

Meanwhile, I was becoming closer to my friends Tobie Bertisch and Grace Honeyman in class. Endless hours of lecture, lab, discussion, recitation, co-op, peer-led, ofce hours and their accompanying study sessions makes for quick friends. Tobie listened to me as I ranted about the growing pains of sophomore year, ofering words of encouragement and never-ending support. Grace helped me understand organic chemistry and appreciate all Ithaca has to ofer. Countless waterfall visits, ice cream runs, thrift store sprees and even a trip to Syracuse punctuated my sophomore year with laughter and adventure.

My junior year, I lived with Julia and Sophia, with whom I occupied a small apartment at 305 Eddy St. With a fuorescent, color-changing overhead lamp and one bathroom for three girls, our apartment became a cozy home. We would eat dinner together most nights, usually some unlikely combination sourced from Trader Joe's and incinerated in our air fryer. We decided on one of the more ambitious adventures of my college experience, to foster a cat. Mr. Peebles was (is) a tailless shorthaired cat found in a vegan man's compost pile outside of Ithaca. He slinked around like a reptile the frst few days, to the point where I took him to the vet out of concern. He was fne, they said, just incredibly weird. Julia came to love Mr. Peebles, and days spent with him, evenings hosting dinner parties and nights out made our friendship invincible.

So invincible, Julia and I put it through the challenges of living abroad in Florence, where we shared a bedroom, and living together in New York City, where square foot by square foot, it was worse. Troughout countries, continents, and cities, Julia and I became great friends. She has shown me new people and things, culminating in my participation in the Cornell Fashion Collective runway show, of which she is president. Her creativity, spark, and energy for life has rubbed of on me, and, like many of the names mentioned, I know she will be a lifelong friend. Coming back to Ithaca after a semester in Italy and a summer taste of the real world of NYC was a homecoming. In this senior year, I became infnitely closer to Grace Nahmiyas, with whom I spent many a night watching Lost on our couch. She gave me advice when I was considering huge life choices and helped me stay on track with a heavier than usual senior course load. My friendships with Tobie, Grace, Dylan and Sean grew tighter, and I was introduced to Jen Grous, a Cornell Concert Commissioner, incredible scientist and dear friend of mine. She, like everyone in my house, showed me a new side of the robust Cornell student body.

Tis year, I have watched Kira travel the world as an early graduate, seen Conor win national competitions and witnessed Grace Honeyman present impactful research. I have traveled with Grace Nahmiyas, and Tobie and Sophia, sharing warm nights in Costa Rica and early morning surfng. We've scream-sung pop hits and danced wildly together. We've shared countless meals, popped many a tire and defed a few social norms here and there.

I could go on and on and on. My physics exam is in 10 hours, and even if I did no more studying and instead continued to write, I would not be close to chronicling the ways in which my friends have made me the person I am. Te places we've been are important, but the people we've been are more. Each person I have named, and so many more whom I have not, have changed me. As I take a look down memory lane, I see infnite versions of myself, constantly modifed by the data points of new friendships and experiences.

Next year, many of us will scatter. I know we will text and call and meet up when we can, but the reality is we will never all live within a two-mile radius of each other. I am scared for that next chapter, where the people who have made me who I am will no longer be around. But they are with us always, because they are us. I will channel the inclusivity of Sophia and the creativity of Julia, the laughter of Grace N., the adventurousness of Kira, the support of Tobie and the ambition of Grace H. When we meet up for cofee, I will remember the joviality of Conor, the humor of Dylan and the authenticity of Sean. To any readers who may have asked themselves “Why did I just read a stranger’s tribute to her friends?”, I hope you have recognized some of these names, or their stories have reminded you of individuals in your life.

Te places we’ll go will ask for resumes, for lists of achievements, positions and references. But never forget that, oftentimes, the places we’ve been are less important than the people we’ve met. As much as college is about textbook learning, it’s also about surrounding yourself with people who teach you to be a better version of yourself. Te beneft of college cannot be achieved through prelims and essays alone; it comes from the education of our friends, the examples they set and the lessons we share.

Julia Poggi

Standardized Test Requirement Waived Amid COVID Risks

The undergraduate admissions office announced on Sept. 22, 2021, that the University will waive SAT and ACT requirements for Fall 2023 and Fall 2024 first-year applicants — a decision that was made following ongoing COVID-19 risks.

Cornell is also entering a two-year “deliberate experimental review” period to guide future admissions testing policy requirements.

Under this policy, three colleges –– the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the S.C. Johnson College of Business and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning –– will not accept standardized test scores. The Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and the College of Human Ecology, along with the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, maintains a test-optional policy for SAT and ACT scores.

Requirements for SAT subject tests, in addition to the essay section of the SAT and ACT, were also waived and

will be discontinued in 2021, according to Cornell’s standardized testing website.

Adjustments follow ongoing conversations about testing equity, an issue that has only been amplified by COVID19’s disproportionate effect on low-income students.

The announcement also stated that Cornell will follow Ivy League testing policies for student-athlete applicants. For the 2021-2022 academic year, applicants who plan to participate in a varsity sport did not need to submit test scores. The Ivy League has not yet announced its plans for future years.

The University encourages applicants to consider their health and safety above testing.

“Please do not feel you need to take exams unless you are able to take the exam locally near your home and you feel safe in doing so,” Cornell’s current standardized test policy site reads. “As a reminder, we will evaluate your application without standardized testing.”

Dear Jonah Bitman,

We are so proud of all your accomplishments and the many amazing opportunities ahead of you. We love you so much and are excited to share in your graduation festivities. Love, Mom, Dad, Eli, Grant, Fred and Charlie

Merel,

Thank you for always being game for Latour family adventures. The next one will be entirely your own. We can’t wait to see what it will be.

Mom, Dad and Maude

Congratulations to the entire Cornell Class of 2025, and to all Outdoor Odyssey finishers, past and future.

Congratulations!

Ian Caesar McDaniels

You continue to excel in everything you do! We are incredibly proud of all your accomplishments. Keep reaching for all your dreams.

Love, Mom, Dad, and Amanda

Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 Resigns

In a Jan. 5, 2022, Common Council meeting, Svante Myrick ’09 publicly announced his resignation as the 44th Mayor of Ithaca after accepting an offer from People for the American Way, where he will serve as executive director.

At 24 years old, Myrick became the youngest person in City history to be sworn into mayoral office and Ithaca’s first mayor of color.

Throughout his 10-year, three-term career, Myrick’s agenda primarily focused on expanding affordable housing options, working toward resolving Ithaca’s substantial $3 million budget deficit and improving city-wide infrastructure.

Under his leadership, the City has seen a $37 million plan to rebuild Ithaca water treatment, the development of housing units like Magnolia House and West End Heights, renovations made to famed city attractions like the Ithaca Farmers Market and more.

“I have spent my entire adult life serving the City of Ithaca – and I’ve given all of my effort to the largest challenges we face,” Myrick wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month.

However, citing growing concerns for the “state of our democracy,” Myrick will step down from the mayorship and work at People for the American Way alongside organization President Ben Jealous.

People for the American Way was founded as a progressive advocacy organization in 1981 to fight “right-wing extremism and build a democratic society,” according to the group’s website.

Myrick’s affiliation with the organization dates back to 2017, when he was appointed as Director of Youth Leadership Programs after a nine-year membership with the Young Elected Officials Network. Myrick will be joining People For the American Way in a full time role at the beginning of next month.

In Myrick’s place, Acting Mayor Laura Lewis will assume office on Feb. 7. Lewis, an alderperson for Ithaca’s fifth ward, was elected to the Common Council in 2017 and has predominantly lobbied for affordable housing, volunteering on the board of directors of Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services prior to her term.

Upon her swearing in, Lewis will need to pick up where Myrick left off, including working on Ithaca’s Green New Deal and the Reimagining Public Safety Plan.

“I have the utmost confidence that she will do an outstanding job,” Myrick wrote. “I believe in many ways her empathetic, earnest and tactful leadership is exactly [what] our community needs right now.”

Congratulations Lauren Rose Hirschhorn

From “Giggles” to graduate, we are in awe of the amazing young woman you’ve become. In a school full of stars, you shine effortlessly bright. You’ve made the Cornell legacy even more legendary:

Grandpa Larry ’58

Grandma Sally ’57

Mom Diane ’87

Dad Steve ’88

Aunt Mimi ’90

Cousin Jonathan ’22

Brother David ’23

We all adore you and cannot wait to continue to see the amazing things you will do in this world.

Love, Dad, Mom, David, and Buddy

Congratulations, Ella!

We are so proud of you!

Love, Mom, Dad Lilly, Nini, and Gigi

Congratulations James and the Class of 2025! Go cr ush it, Cornell grads! n e 5!

Dear Jada—

We are so very proud of all you have achieved in your 21 years of life. Getting into one of the best Ivy League colleges speaks volumes. Jada, you can achieve anything you put your mind to. Keep reaching for the stars! God has a plan for your life, Jada, and it’s BIG!

Keep Jeremiah 29:11 in your heart.

For I know the plans I have for you “declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

We love you and Congratulations!

Mom,

Dad, Macaiah & Family

Congratulations, Eric!

We are so proud of your accomplishments at Cornell

and the Sun, and, most importantly, we’re proud of the person that you are.

So excited for your future.

Love, Mom, Dad, Alli, Justin Sunand

If you have a dream...

If you can dream it, you can do it .... and yes you did it! What a journey! God bless you and thank you for being our inspiration! Love, Mom!

I’m very proud of you not just for all these accomplishments, but for also painstakingly performing your duty call more than expected, despite your dad’s life-threatening journey Love, Dad!

Que logro tan impresionante has alcanzado! Hoy celebramos el fruto de tu ardo trabajo. Me siento muy orgullosa de ti. Te ama, Mami Annie

Felicidades en tu graduacion! Que la Gracia de Dios te acompane siempre! Berto

As you accomplish your childhood dream of becoming a vet, we reaffirm how proud we are of you! You dared to dream big and you succeeded. Congrats and best wishes for your next chapter! We love you! Titi Bita, Aby, Ale & Eliam

From “con Mami” to “Dr. Cheung”, we are very proud of you! You continue to amaze us at each of your giant steps. Your energy and passion in life inspires all around you. Thiago and Mateo look up to you as an example of perseverance, tenacity and success. We love you and cannot wait to celebrate with you! Tio Seba, Paula, Thiago & Mateo

It feels like just yesterday you were starting kindergarten— now you are becoming Dr. Cheung, DVM! It’s been a joy to watch you grow into a confident, accomplished young woman during your years at Cornell. We are proud of you,

and can’t wait to see your next chapter! Congratulations! Lots of love, Miriam, Lori, Aron, Jessica and Samantha Amanda Heidi, lo lograste! Suenos cumplidos, metas logradas, todo rodeado de amor y apoyo de tus padres. Te amamos! Fam Rivera Colon y Rosado

Congratulations Mandy! We are so proud of you! New adventures to come. God bless you! We love you. Tio Cheo and Titi Finin

Mandy, it’s now time to celebrate all that hard work. Dancing with you, mamita!!! Congrats!! Love, Tio Caros and Titi Anaida

Congratulations to a beautiful and amazing person. Mandy, may you have a blessed and wonderful life!

Love always, Angie

Love Letter to my Summer Amour...

While I was pregnant I asked Ericka, “What should I do different with Summer Amour?” (Yes, I knew that you were a girl and I loved the summer season—Summer Amour). Your 17-year-old sister told me to “set boundaries and tell Summer no.” I often wondered what kind of mother I would be, considering I was a homeless teenage mother with Ericka, and the thought of having another daughter, at times, scared me. I questioned my anxiety and quickly came to the understanding and truth that having another girl scared me because I was a daughter who was relentlessly trying to find herself. I provided you, Mykal-Michele and Ericka, with all my learnings, experiences, and the highs and lows, so that I might guide you all towards a path of God, acceptance, love, and freedom

Like many other mothers, I am sure, there were times that I would stare at you and wonder… Will I unknowingly make damaging mistakes? I didn’t want this fear to complicate my role as your mother. I was not seeking perfection but just a chance to raise my Summer Amour into a woman who believes in God, was independent and confident in herself, and would live life with an abundance of love and passion. Thank God for choosing me to be your mother and for granting me the special gift of raising you. Always know that everything I say and do is because I love and care for you. As much as I am here to teach you, you are also here to teach me. They say the role of a parent is to teach their children all about life. I have come to understand that children are here to teach parents what life is truly all about. Summer Amour, I have learned so much from you already in such a short timeframe of 22 years. The most astonishing thing for me is that I have learned so much about ME since you have been born.

I am amazed by your sensitivity and pure heart; your understanding and happiness. Your beauty truly runs deeper than the oceans. You have taught me to laugh often, because life is too short not to enjoy every moment of it. The day I had you was the day I began to heal my inner child. I’ve always said, “I wish I had you as my best friend growing up. Your courage and strength would have protected me from a lot of bad people.” You make me a better person someone who strives to live life each day with an open heart, with more understanding, with more acceptance of myself, with more awareness, with more happiness, and with more love.

I am so proud of the hard work and dedication you’ve shown. You’ve truly earned this! It’s been amazing to watch you grow into the amazing young woman you are today. I am so proud of you! I can’t wait to see the amazing things you’ll do in the next chapter. I believe in you! Remember all those late-night homework assignments you did in the car after games, and the 80-plus miles round trips to and from high school? Well…It’s all paid off! I am so proud of you!

HAPPY GRADUATION, SUMMER AMOUR!!

In your words, “MOM, WE DID IT!!”

Any Person, Every Milestone:161 Things Every Cornellian Should Do

20 years. Thousands of memories. 161 traditions. Two decades after the original list debuted, the outgoing 142nd Editorial Board revamped our famous list, updating the quintessential experiences that define life on the Slope. So grab a carnelian colored pen (or steal one from the A.D. White House), and get to checking!

o 1. Make the library into your bedroom and have sex in the stacks

o 2. Go to the Cornell-Harvard men’s hockey game and throw fish on the ice

o 3. Go to Zeus after class. Sit on a bench because all the tables are being used or coffee chats

o 4. Take off to NYC for Fall Break, being sure to post on Instagram about it at least twice

o 5. Sled down Libe Slope during a snowstorm

o 6. Take Hotel Administration 4300: Introduction to Wines

o 7. Take AMST 2001 and learn some Cornell history from Corey Earle ‘07

o 8. Streak across the Arts Quad

o 9. Go sake bombing at Plum Tree

o 10. Order ice cream at the Dairy Bar

o 11. Climb the rock wall in Bartels Hall

o 12. Listen to a full chimes concert from the clock tower and guess the songs played

o 13. Order the same thing off the Collegetown Bagels menu all four years

o 14. Register for classes during Freshman Pre-Enroll, then switch out of every single one by the time Add/Drop ends

o 15. Dress for 70 degree weather. Cry as you walk home in the freezing cold that night

o 16. Steal a vegetable from the Cornell Botanic Gardens. Savor it

o 17. Go to the Fuertes Observatory on North Campus and see Saturn through the telescope

o 18. Enroll in BIOEE 1540: Introductory Oceanography as a joke, then fall in love with Bruce Monger and attend every class

o 19. Have a snowball fight in May

o 20. Stick your hand inside a fistulated cow

o 21. Skip class to play SpikeBall on the Arts Quad

o 22. Bury a bottle of Barton’s on the Slope. Dig it up on Slope Day

o 23. Enjoy golden hour from the Cornell Botanic Gardens

o 24. Attend the Apple Festival on the Commons

o 25. Flirt with your professor

o 26. Bomb a prelim

o 27. Ace the next one to save your grade

o 28. Steal a bunch of cups from the dining hall and never give them back

o 29. Attend Hotelie prom

o 30. Take a selfie with Happy Dave from Okenshield’s

o 31. Take three finals in two days because they were just over 24 hours apart

o 32. Get heartburn at the Chili Cook-off on the Commons

o 33. Enjoy Ithaca’s two months of warm weather — spend a summer here!

o 34. Go to a Shabbat dinner at 104West!

o 35. Watch the AAP students parade down East Avenue on Dragon Day

o 36. Walk out of class to warm weather and immediately get a beer at CTB

o 37. Build a snow penis or count how many you see around campus

o 38. Dress up and view The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Risley

o 39. Take a class you think is impossible just for fun

o 40. Go to Catharine Valley for a wine tour

o 41. Kiss on the suspension bridge at midnight

o 42. Take Plant Pathology 2010: Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds

o 43. Shop at the Friends of the Library Book Sale

o 44. Get a University parking ticket, then sweet-talk your way out of it

o 45. Buy an Ithaca Is Gorges t-shirt, then get sick of wearing it and buy a dumb variation (Ithaca Is Gangsta, Vaginas Are Gorges, Ithaca Is Long Island…)

o 46. Learn the “Alma Mater,” “Evening Song” and “Give My Regards to Davy.” Hum them when you hear the chimes

o 47. Attend an opening at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

o 48. Smuggle food from the dining hall and run for your life as they try to get back your stolen cookies

o 49. Make the Walk of Shame. See an ex on your way home

o 50. Have dinner at a professor’s house

o 51. Get wasted at a professor’s house

o 52. Take a selfie with a Cornell president

o 53. Play a game of tag in the Kroch Library stacks

o 54. Take a class that meets outside

o 55. Start your freshman year pre-med. Graduate from Dyson.

o 56. Kayak or canoe on Beebe Lake

o 57. Watch dancers fly through the air at Pao Bhangra show

o 58. Have a midnight picnic in the Ag Quad

o 59. Wait in line for half an hour for an orange chicken burrito at Terrace

o 60. Ignore the “No Winter Maintenance” signs… slip and fall down the stairs

o 61. Sit in Libe Café when you have no work to do and watch worried students down gallons of coffee

o 62. Write an angry letter to the editor of The Sun

o 63. Get swarmed by freshmen as they migrate back to north

o 64. Explore the secret underground tunnel between Uris and Olin libraries

o 65. Request an item from the library’s Rare and Manuscript Collection.

o 66. Pretend you are Harry Potter and study in the A.D. White Reading Room

o 67. See the brain collection in Uris Hall

o 68. Use all your CityBucks at 7-11 on Keystone and Twisted Tea Light

o 69. Submit a guest column for Sex on Thursday about your raunchy sexcapades

o 70. Eat your way through the Farmer’s Market

o 71. Sleep through your alarm for a 1:25 p.m. class

o 72. Take part in a psychology experiment and get a measly number of SONA credits

o 73. See Ezra Cornell’s body in the crypt

o 74. Occupy Willard Straight or storm Day Hall

o 75. Watch as a virgin crosses the Arts Quad at midnight and A.D. White and Ezra Cornell walk towards each other to shake hands on Halloween

o 76. Live through an Ithaca blizzard and tell your friends you survived frostbite

o 77. Throw a flaming pumpkin into the gorge

o 78. Join an intramural sports team. Take it too seriously and get matching uniforms

o 79. Spend all your lectures figuring out the Wordle and Connections. While

sitting for the final, wish you had taken notes instead

o 80. Go ice skating at Lynah Rink

o 81. Request a song to be played on the clock tower

o 82. Watch the ginger run

o 83. Walk to class in the snow, uphill both ways

o 84. Hook up with someone in your dorm and then see them every day afterward

o 85. Write dirty messages with rocks in the gorge

o 86. Eat a chicken parm sandwich from Louie’s Lunch

o 87. Walk the runway as a model in the Cornell Fashion Collective’s annual fashion show

o 88. Sleep through pre-enroll and change your major as a result

o 89. Gain the freshman 15. Pay $145 for a gym membership and don’t go.

o 90. Play trivia at Collegetown Bagels on Tuesday nights

o 91. Go bowling at Helen Newman Lanes

o 92. Get a ticket for peeing on the Law School

o 93. Have a friend’s parents take you out to eat at Thompson and Bleeker or Simeon’s

o 94. See a concert at Barton Hall

o 95. Order off the secret menu at Louie’s Lunch

o 96. Cheer on your friends as they perform at the Schwartz Center

o 97. Pick next year’s ice cream flavor

o 98. Nap in every library on campus

o 99. Get too drunk before homecoming. Miss the game

o 100. Take a midnight nap in Uris Library Cocktail Lounge and wake up 3 days later

o 101. See Yamatai bang it out at Clubfest

o 102. Visit Ithaca Mall, realize it is severely lacking, then drive to Destiny USA Mall in Syracuse

o 103. Take a night prelim near the vet school, walk back in the dark

o 104. Get thrown out of Balch Hall

o 105. Attend a show at the State Theatre or Hangar Theatre

o 106. Go to an a cappella concert

o 107. Walk to a fraternity party with your entire freshman floor. Get turned away

o 108. Put on a swimsuit and jump into the cold water at Second Dam

o 109. Take part in Holi and get colorful

o 110. Eat at each dining hall at least once

o 111. Try to order pizza from a Blue Light phone

o 112. Have a traumatic OurBus experience. Never return

o 113. See a film at Cornell Cinema

o 114. Ride a horse at Oxley Equestrian Center

o 115. Take the BASICS program. Do it with a beer in hand

o 116. See how long you can go without doing laundry

o 117. Get lost during O-week as a freshman, and end up in the Commons

o 118. Have the Hideaway bartender take a picture of you because your fake doesn’t scan

o 119. Check out a charger from Olin. Don’t give it back

o 120. Lose a friend over signing a lease in Collegetown

o 121. Walk holding hands around Beebe Lake

o 122. Buy a Cornell-grown apple from a vending machine

o 123. Get tapped for a secret society

o 124. Go skinny dipping in a gorge

o 125. Get more downvotes than upvotes on Sidechat

o 126. Host a prefrosh

o 127. Drive your car up and down Libe Slope

o 128. Make a chalking. Weep when it rains that night

o 129. Attend a Sun meeting

o 130. Take photobooth pics at Hideaway and post them on your Instagram story

o 131. Eat hungover brunch at Morrison or Appel

o 132. Turn down a flyer at Ho Plaza and say “I already got one”

o 133. Rush a fraternity/sorority or mosey a co-op during your freshman spring

o 134. Meet Bill Nye ’77, “The Science Guy,” and give him a hug

o 135. Ski at Greek Peak

o 136. Crash a political rally on Ho Plaza

o 137. Get on the wrong TCAT and end up at Ithaca College

o 138. Watch women’s hockey dominate any team who steps on the ice

o 139. See how many people you can cram into your dorm room

o 140. Order Wings Over after 2 a.m.

o 141. Make the trek down the hill: go to a townie bar

o 142. Tell a professor what you really think of his/her class

o 143. Drink with your R.A.

o 144. Go to the sex shop, called the “Adult Outlet,” on the Commons. Gawk

o 145. Run out of BRBs in March. Live off campus events’ free food for the rest of the year

o 146. Heckle your tour guide friend as they’re leading a group of prospective students around campus

o 147. Get asked if you are pregnant at Cornell Health

o 148. Experience a UAW strike

o 149. Go to ClubFest as a first-year and sign up for a dozen clubs that you’ll never go to

o 150. Complain about the Slope Day headliners

o 151. Hit up Fishbowl Wednesdays at Level B

o 152. Ask for an extension on a term paper

o 153. Accidentally rip a poster at the poster sale. Tell no one

o 154. Play mini golf at the Sciencenter

o 155. Hook up with your hot T.A.

o 156. Go swimming at Treman State Park, Buttermilk Falls or Second Dam

o 157. Furnish an apartment entirely with items from Ithaca Reuse and the Dump & Run

o 158. Walk to a fraternity party as a senior; convince yourself you were never one of them

o 159. Fail your swim test, just for kicks

o 160. Eat a Pinesburger, then watch water flow over Taughannock Falls, the highest single-drop waterfall east of the Rockies

o 161. Climb all 161 steps to the top of McGraw Tower

4.25.24 >>> Protestors stage a multi-week encampment on the Arts Quad calling for divestment from weapons manufacturers engaged in arming Israel, among other demands. Six student protestors were suspended during the course of the encampment, but no students were arrested.

<<< 3.26.22

During the Cornell Fashion Collective’s “Twilight Exhibition” preview show, a model on Milstein Hall’s concrete staircase transforms a dirty and stained yellow Vulcan Classic motorcycle strap into an avant garde fashion statement.

8.27 24 >>> Cornell UAW Members stand on the picket line while on strike. Over 1,000 Cornell workers went on strike for two weeks at the beginning of the Fall 2025 semester, eventually winning a contract with wage and benefit increases.

<<< 4.8.24

Students watch the Solar Eclipse of 2024 from Cornell Campus. Though Ithaca was not in the path of totality, the town still experienced a deep partial eclipse, with nearly 99% of the sun covered.

<<< 2 22.25

Cornell Ballet Club stages a sold-out rendition of Swan Lake in February of 2025. Founded just in 2024, the company's put on Snow Lake is its first annual ballet performance.

Hockey games and other sports matches resumed in the Fall 2021 semester with attendance caps and all antendees masking up to view the games. Here audience members are watching a game against RPI.

March

Students watch a gorgeous sunset on the Slope, relaxing near the end of a tumultuous spring semester. Spring 2025 was marred by Slope Day controversies, threats from the federal government and continuing campus divisions.

Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris to secure

second term in the White House, although Ithaca’s congressional district flipped from red to blue.

Centerfold Design: Rob Lieberfarb

“Until the Bliss of All This Hurts” Tjaden Hall Aug. 31, 2021

Big Thief performs at State Theater Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Fashion Collective Spring Runway Show March 22, 2025

HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN

Flo Milli Barton Hall April 23, 2022

ASHLEY RAMYNKE / SUN FILE PHOTO

The Sun

Fire in Collegetown Apartment Building Leaves Some Students Displaced for Finals

Early Dec. 5 morning, a fire began at Collegetown Center, an apartment complex on Dryden Road that many students reside in. Residents of the building were safely evacuated.

The firefighters are ensuring there is no carbon monoxide before allowing people back into the building, and that the building will smell like smoke for a while.

Career Fire Lieutenant with the City of Ithaca Fire Department Tom Basher was on the scene, and addressed the residents who had been evacuated.

The residents of the fourth, fifth and sixth floors will be able to re-enter the building around 9 a.m., according to Basher. However, the third floor and below have to be checked for water damage, caused by the fire suppression system, before the firefighters determine if people can re-enter the building.

Basher said that the University has been notified of the incident and would work on

any needs the students impacted by this may have. It is unclear if the floors below the third floor will be habitable for residents to return.

According to Basher, the fire began on the west wing of the building, and was in a room on the third floor. The occupant of the room also got out safely. One individual was treated and transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation, according to a statement from Lt. Jim Wheal, but no other injuries were reported.

In a statement to The Sun, the University said that affected students are receiving temporary support through campus housing and dining.

“We are in contact with the affected students and we continue to support their immediate needs. As of now, 80 students have been impacted and are being offered temporary housing and dining accommodations in our residences and through campus dining,” the statement read.

I’m writing to express my immense pride and joy at my son, Rishab Jain’s, accomplishments with “The Cornell Daily Sun.” His contributions to the paper throughout his time at Cornell have been truly impressive, and we’re so incredibly proud of his hard work and dedication. His graduation is a significant milestone, and we wanted to exend our heartfelt congratulations to him on this wonderful achievement.

This is certainly a moment that calls for celebration, and we’re so thrilled to share in this joy with you ad the entire “Cornell Daily Sun” team.

Thank you again for providing Rishab with this enriching and rewarding experience. We wish him and all the graduating students continued success in their future endeavors.

Sincerely, Jain family

Congratulations Allan Rikshpun!!

And to Larry, Simba, your Mom & Dad, Babushka and the whole family! We are all so proud of you! Love, Lee

Dreams give us hope...

...and their realization gives us the strength we need to succeed. So if there’s nothing else, always follow those beautiful dreams. Live life to the fullest and give the world only the best parts of yourself. Proud of everything you have accomplished.

Your loving parents and brother.

Emily,

Cong ratulatons on Graduation!

Your accomplishments, drive and ambition are inspiring

We are so very proud of you, and it’s been our g reatest honor to be on this jour ney with you. You’re a star in the making We love you!

Dad, Mom, Hayden and Gramms

Cong ratulations, Marc!

We are so proud of you!

You have always been a hard-working, conscientious student

Social and wellrounded, too. Over these four years, writing and acting in Humor Us, marching band, squiddich, to name a fe w.

Now on to yo ur career in hotel assessment management!

We love you— Dad, Mom, Bobby & Jillian

Congratulations, Gillian Cronin!

We are beyond proud of your incredible four years at Cornell—years filled with academic excellence, leadership, unforgettable campus tours, and the most amazing lifelong Theta friendships and memories. You’ve made a true mark on the Hill, and now you’re off to shine even brighter as you launch your career in New York City

Go Big Red!

With all our love, Mom, Dad, Shane and KK

Congratulations Jordan, Kylie and Kylie!!

We are so proud of you!

Love, Rae, Chance, Monty, Mom & Dad

Tatum, Sydney, Coco, Mom & Dad

Megan, Jeff, Rosie, Mom & Dad

TO SERGIO DANIEL OREIRA-ATEPARA

‘Slow down, won’t you stay here a minute more? I know you want to walk through the door, but it’s all too fast! Let’s make it last a little while. I pointed to the sky and now you wanna fy. I am your biggest fan, I hope you know I am, but do you think you can somehow slow down? ’

(Slow Down, Nicole Nordeman, 2015, punctuation added).

Here’s to you, our beloved son, in honor of your graduation as Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.

Like everyone says, time fies, and it really does! However, ever y memor y we have made together will always be treasured in our hearts. Never lose your great sense of humor, your creativity, doodling funny characters when you’re thinking and your love for music, especially composing songs and playing the piano. Never lose your inner child! We will always be there for you, whether you’re near or far.

Godspeed, dear Sergio Daniel!

Proverbs 3:17-18

With much love , Mom, Dad, Santiago and Valentina

We are so proud of you and love you, Charles!

Love, Chelsey, Rylan, Annika, and Adeline

Congratulations! Derrick Chia

Words can’t fully express our pride and happiness watching you graduate from Cornell University! Your dedication, resilience, and integrity have brought you to this remarkable milestone, and we are in awe of the young man you have become.

This achievement is not only a reflection of your intelligence, but of your strength, and of your character

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” So step out and step on... May you continue to soar, sky-high.

Mom and Dad Congratulations

Love, Mom, Dad and Roland

Congratulations on a job well done! We are so proud of you.

Class of 2025 Sets RecordLow Acceptance Rate

Cornell’s Class of 2025 has already begun to set records ––without stepping foot on campus. With an acceptance rate of 8.7 percent, the Class of 2025 has the lowest acceptance rate in recent years.

67,380 applicants applied to Cornell in last year’s application cycle, an increase of nearly 16,000 from the previous year, likely due to the University’s decision to suspend ACT and SAT requirements.

Out of that application pool, 5,836 students were admitted. Come Thursday, 3,750 freshmen are expected to shuffle into the previously quiet halls of the University; for some, it will be their first in-person class since March of their junior year of high school.

Shawn Felton, director of undergraduate admissions, noted the strength of Cornell’s incoming class, pointing to their ability to weather a particularly unusual high school education.

“The Class of 2025 has endured extraordinary chaos while learning since the second semester of junior year of high school,” Felton wrote in an email to The Sun. “High school did not end as was likely anticipated. But, the members of the Class of 2025 are assuredly more resilient and compassionate because of the challenges they have already endured.”

One of the members of the class of 2025 Billie Morton ’24, an incoming transfer student from California, decided to apply to Cornell after “COVID protocol was not followed” at her previous university. When asked about starting in-person classes again after nearly two years of a virtual education, she shared a common sentiment.

“While studying online at home, it was difficult to form connections with classmates and teachers at such a large school,” she said. “I truly look forward to being more connected in a more

intimate and specialized environment this upcoming year.”

The Class of 2025 is among the most diverse of the University’s recent classes, with 34.2 percent of the students self-identifying as underrepresented minorities, an increase of 7.3 points from the Class of 2024, and 59.3 percent identifying as students of color, a jump from last year’s 51.7 percent.

19.4 percent of the class are first-generation college students, and 55 percent are women, both an uptick from previous years.

Because 96 percent of Cornell’s on-campus population –– including students, faculty and staff –– are vaccinated, the campus is moving toward a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy

“I think it will be great to have a sense of normalcy after the past year and a half,” said Peyton Lancaster ’25.

Others, however, are unsure if a conventional college experience is still possible as the new Delta variant raises questions about the safety of returning to school.

“We are going back to ‘normal’, but we don’t really know what that means anymore,” said Karen Lin ’24, who transferred to Cornell after spending her first year at Stony Brook University. “It feels like a new beginning. The college experience is never going to be the same again.”

Still, many remain optimistic about Cornellians’ –– particularly the Class of 2025, which was undoubtedly shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic –– to experience all that is Cornell, from Slope Day to in-person classes.

“My hope is that what has happened to each individual and the group collectively serves and supports them through the vast array of experiences and unique opportunities that Cornell provides,” Felton wrote. “As they come to feel that they belong and are truly a part of this very special place.”

CONGR ATUL ATIONS MATTHEW and the Class of 2025!

We are so proud of you!

BE THE LIGHT

Love, Mom and Dad

NICK BRENNER

THREE... TWO...

You never cease to amaze us !

We love you!

MOM, DAD, GRANDMA, ERIK & CHEWIE

A MESSAGE from US to ANDRES CASTELLANOS

Students Incoming! First-Years Move In

On Saturday, Courtnee Pete ’25 and her mother drove 30 hours from Houston to arrive in Ithaca just in time for the First Year Carnival.

The usual excitement surrounding meeting new people was muddied because of the circulating delta variant causing an uptick in COVID cases locally. Pete’s mother, Bettye Davis, spent the weekend helping her daughter adjust to her new home in High Rise Five.

“It was honestly a little scary, especially with the new variant strain out there,” Davis said.

Pete was one of nearly 4,000 students moving into the first-year residence halls spread across North Campus, which was filled with suitcases, large red moving bins and cars parked on green spaces to begin moving students in.

Joaquin Rivera ’25 also drove to Ithaca from Houston over the course of four days in order to bring his dorm decorations, winter clothes, and photos of friends.

Though COVID is still a risk, Rivera said that he is “confident about staying safe on campus.”

Parents, too, seem to be comforted by Cornell’s success in keeping cases low last year, as well as the detailed COVID-19 guidelines during this year’s movein, which specified arrival testing requirements for those who are not fully vaccinated and mandated mask-wearing inside for everybody

regardless of vaccination status.

“Despite everything happening with the pandemic, the move-in process was very well organized,” Serwaa Asante, mother of Nick Asante ’25, said. “This is something we've never experienced before, [but] it was good to see that masks were being worn and that testing was being given to those who were unvaccinated.”

“I'm really excited ... to learn more, meet new people and have a great college experience.”

Joaquin Rivera ’25

This year’s move-in process had marked differences from last year, with students not being required to quarantine or get arrival testing if they are vaccinated. Eager families were allowed to help students move into their dorms and explore the Cornell campus, and normal orientation events greeted incoming students.

Rivera is optimistic about the opportunity to spend time in lecture halls with his peers.

“I’m curious by nature, so I’m really excited for my curriculum and just excited to learn more, meet new people and have a great college experience,” he said.

From Raúl: Hey little dude from across the street! You did it, brother—you reached another milestone, and we’ve loved watching you grow. I really admire you, not just for what you’ve accomplished, but for the amazing person you are and the big heart you have. Love you lots, bro!

From Erika: Final exams and final projects are approaching, and I know this last stretch must feel like it’s never-ending. At the same time, it all seems to be flying by. I still can’t believe that four years ago we were just dropping you off at school. And now—two internships, a semester abroad, and countless trips and adventures later—you’re graduating. I honestly struggled to write this letter You’ve made the most of your college years in a way that anyone would admire, all while maintaining impressive academic performance. There are no more words for me to say or advice to provide. All I can say is something you’ve heard before many many times: I love you and I am proud of you. Congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished—this moment belongs to you and all your effort. You do you boo’

From Luis: Andres, I am proud and honored to be called your brother Watching you grow up and seeing how all those years of sacrifice have paid off and have led to this moment is truly inspiring to me. We all are happy to be here, but I am especially grateful to call you my brother

From Sofía: Andrés has always been a role model for me. Growing up, everyone knew me as Andres’ little sister. It became annoying when even my high school teachers knew me only because of my older brother. I wanted to be known for my own accomplishments and achievements, but as I grew up, I realized that everything I’ve done I owe to my brother. I went from trying to be different from my brother, to trying to accomplish at least half of what he has. I am honored to be known as Andres little sister, and I hope he continues to inspire and motivate other people as much as he did me

From Mónika: Not long ago you were my little boy, now I’m proud to see you achieve one of many goals I’m sure you have in mind. Keep on the hard work and keep making us feel proud of you. Love you lots!

From Eduardo: Andres, you’ve accomplished so much in such a short time that it might seem effortless—but nothing could be further from the truth. Your success is the result of your perseverance, focus, and self-discipline—none of it came easy or without sacrifice. What I admire most is how you’ve pursued your goals with positivity, always wearing a smile and making space to enjoy life along the way I’m incredibly proud of who you are, what you’ve achieved, and the way you continue to forge your path.

Cornell Reports RecordHigh 469 COVID Cases

As Cornell students now navigate both in-person and online final exams, cases have skyrocketed to a record-high 469 active student cases on campus — the highest number of positives on the Ithaca campus since the start of the pandemic.

These 469 cases are as of Dec. 12, 2021 data, updated the following day around 5 p.m. Through the weekend, even as the University moved to yellow alert on Dec. 10 and announced nearly 300 new cases — including the introduction of the Omicron variant — on Dec. 11, the COVID dashboard data had yet to be updated.

This new data reveals just how stark the spike is: Against the current 469 active cases, the entire spring 2021 semester saw just 456 cases total.

Similarly, in the first three months of the fall 2021 semester — Sept. 6 to Dec. 4 — Cornell reported 465 cases total. But since Dec. 4, the University has reported 678, with 411 of those cases being in just two days.

“All in-person student gatherings, formal or informal, are cancelled,” Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi wrote on Dec. 11 when updating campus about the latest spike. “This applies to undergraduate, graduate and professional students, and includes events with members of the local community.”

But alongside the case spikes and the event cancellations, the University announced that in-person exams will continue as planned — with exams already running at 50 percent capacity. Cornell also urged students to leave campus as soon as they take their last in-person final.

Still, some instructors moved their exams online, just days before the exams were scheduled — including Cornell’s largest course, Introductory Oceanography, which boasts more than 1,000 students.

“Clearly, a final exam in Barton Hall with 800 students and Statler Auditorium with 200 students are large indoor gatherings to be avoided,” Prof. Bruce Monger, earth and atmospheric sciences, wrote to students on Dec. 11. “My job is to teach, but I am also supposed to help keep everyone safe. I feel very strongly that moving the exam to an online version is the right thing to do at this time.”

As of Dec. 11, Cornell’s COVID-19 website advises students who have been named as close contacts of someone who tested positive, have taken a supplemental test and are asymptomatic to attend their final exam the same day — even if they have yet to receive their test results.

But contact tracing for the county is proving more challenging than usual: On Dec. 12, the Tompkins County Health Department wrote that they are “experiencing delays in case investigation calls for some pos-

itive cases,” and are prioritizing people who are over 65 years old and children in K-12 settings.

“TCHD is reporting that recent cases have been resulting from significant community spread — over 50 percent of cases are not able to trace where they may have been infected, showing significant spread in the community and in settings where masking and distancing are not observed,” Frank Kruppa, the county public health director, wrote in a release.

The spike on campus follows local trends, as Tompkins County has the most active cases since the start of the pandemic. On Dec. 12 there were 772 active cases in the county, and on Dec. 13 there were 748.

With an increasing number of students in isolation, Kotlikoff and Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Lisa Nishii wrote to faculty asking instructors to be flexible with students as cases rise on campus — as well as to communicate with students and their college registrar if they move final exams online.

“You may also hear from students trying to heed guidance to quickly leave campus,” their message reads. “These students may benefit from modest extensions. If you are able and inclined, please know that the absolute final deadline for submitting fall semester grades is 8 a.m. on January 6. After that date, students would need to be given an incomplete (“INC”) until they are able to complete their work.”

The COVID website also tells students who don’t feel well and have tested positive to contact their instructors, who receive Student Disability Services accommodation notices, to discuss their options for the course.

The last time the University raised its COVID alert level was at the beginning of the Fall 2021 semester, when the campus saw record numbers of cases as students returned to Ithaca.

In the week leading up to the raising of the alert level back in August, the University reported 101 cases. In the seven days leading up to the most recent announcement that campus would raise its alert level on Dec. 10, Cornell reported 188 cases.

It is currently unclear how the University decides to raise its alarm, with the COVID19 dashboard stating that “the University, in partnership with the Tompkins County Health Department and Cayuga Health System, continues to monitor a variety of indicators to determine what actions may need to be taken should conditions change.”

As of Dec. 11, the December Recognition Ceremony, slated for the weekend of Dec. 18, is still set to happen in person.

Skyler (Sky)—

You have worked hard, inside the classroom and outside the classroom. You have accomplished a great deal during your time at Cor nell.

We are so very proud of you and all your accomplishments!!

Congratulations with love ♥ from, ViVi and G-Pop, Mom and Dad, T ori, Chace and Brenna

Congratulations Loraine Liu!

We are so proud of you and all that you have accomplished in your time at Cornell. Your next adventure will be so exciting for us and for you.

Your dreams will take you far and we can’ t wait to see where you go!

Congratulations on your graduation!

We love you!

Congratulations, Grace!

I couldn’t be more proud of the woman you are. Kind, compassionate, resilient, brave, and full of love.

The next chapter is even more exciting.

You have been my favorite writer since you picked up a crayon.

Keep living life to its fullest, chase your dreams, and I’ll always be cheering you on.

Love you! —Mom

Hats off to Jean-Luc...

our Houston cowboy who lassoed his degree in the icy tundra of Ithaca! From BBQ to snow boots, you conquered the cold with a warm heart and a hot cup of cocoa.

We are beaming with pride, and we hope your solo four years of adventure at Cor nell were as enlightening as a Texas sunrise.

Love, Mom, Dad, Jacques & Marika

From Remote Classes to a Reopened Campus: Students Enjoy Their First Day of Fall 2021

On Thursday, Cornellians enjoyed their first day of in-person classes after a year of hybrid scheduling and heavy COVID restrictions. Despite hot weather and fresh homework loads, students flocked to campus to participate in classes and meet friends for the first time in months.

Freshmen got started developing in-person friendships and academic interests after a hybrid end to high school. Sophomores stepped foot on a transformed campus they’d never experienced. Juniors returned to the populated campus they barely remembered, and seniors got to relive a part of their pre-COVID college days.

“There's so much lively energy on campus,” said Hannah Han ’23. “It’s really nice.”

Carley Kukk ’23 spent her first morning on the Arts quad with Alec, a three-month-old puppy training to become a guide dog. As a member of Guiding Eyes, Carley watches Alec and other puppies for several hours a week. She expressed her enthusiasm to work with the dogs throughout this semester and the rest of her time at Cornell.

“I help them so they can graduate and become actual guide dogs,” she said, “which is awesome.”

A linguistics and psychology student in the College of Arts and Sciences, Kukk looks forward to the spontaneity of the in-person college experience and forming friendships with peers in her majors.

“I just love finding your first seat and getting lost going to class,” she said. “I’m probably most excited for that.”

Toby Lidov ’23 enjoyed a 9 a.m. acting class and a game of frisbee with friends on his first morning back to school. He looks forward to enjoying the outdoors more this semester with the Cornell Outing Club and his frisbee team.

“It's going to be nice to get back outside and explore what the greater Ithaca area has to offer,” he said.

Lidov studies environmental sustainability in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and he looks forward to returning to ecological field research.

“It’ll allow me to dive deeper into what I’m studying,” he said. “I’m thinking of starting an honors thesis now that I can actually do this work properly.”

As the vice president of the Cornell Outing Club, Lidov is currently planning a 40-person camping and canoeing trip in the Adirondacks over fall break. COVID restrictions made such trips impossible last year, and Lidov expressed excitement for their return.

Dyson students Michael Ortiz ’23 and Cristian Carranza ’23 studied in the shade of Kennedy Hall after their first classes of the semester. They both enjoyed seeing a well-populated campus on their first day, and they look forward to meeting with peers in-person as the semester continues.

Carranza expressed enthusiasm for school events, classes and extra-

curricular meetings freed from the constraints of Zoom.

“Just having an in-person class and being able to see everyone has been a nice change of pace considering the last eighteen months or so,” he said.

Cyrus Irani ’25 made the most of his initial day after O-Week, attending his first college classes and getting lunch with his friends. After this week, he’s considering switching out of his 8 a.m. class – but he’s enthusiastic to start his college career in information science at CALS.

Irani said he’s seeking new friends and interactions, and he has greatly enjoyed meeting peers during orientation.

“It was a whole new experience,” he said, “and there was a lot of fun.”

Thuy Pham ’25 and Hannah Han ’23 met by chance outside the Cornell Store, sharing lunch and a chat on their first day of school. They enjoyed the shade of the trees on Ho Plaza.

Pham, an engineering student from Vietnam, expressed her excitement to make new friends and mentors this year. She’s interested to learn more about culinary and social cultures in the U.S., since COVID has prevented her from visiting before now.

“I don't regret that I’ve come to the U.S.,” she said. “Especially in COVID-19, it's really hard for me from an Asian country to get here.”

Pham looks forward to hanging out with friends and utilizing Cornell gyms this semester. She plans to join a project team in the College of Engineering.

Han returned to school for her first day after a fully remote sophomore year. A junior in applied economics and management, she’s working to adjust to in-person classes and campus life.

“I haven't been to any of the buildings or anything because I was completely online,” she said, “so it was really interesting to be thrown back into school.”

On Thursday, Han met faceto-face for the first time with peers from her Zoom classes. She looks forward to in-person club meetings this semester.

“I might join Ultimate Frisbee or something,” she said. “Yeah, I'm super excited for that.”

New to campus, Jordan Paraboschi ’25 spent part of his first day working outside Klarman Hall. He got up early, ate breakfast, and narrowly made it to class on time. He enjoyed the warm weather on the first day of school and looks forward to figuring out his academic interests this semester.

“I’m interested in government,” he said, “And there are some government-based clubs I’m looking to join.”

Paraboschi’s senior year of high school operated on a hybrid schedule, so he had some in-person classes over the past year. However, he expressed gratitude that his freshman year can happen in person.

Goodbye Online Finals: Students Prepare for First In-Person Exams

Cornellians are studying hard for the first fully in-person finals season since December 2019. For first-year and sophomore students, this means learning to balance both the end of the year social scene and the rigor of final exams for the first time.

Although final exams were originally expected to be in-person for the fall semester, an outbreak on Cornell’s campus led many professors to move exams online. This was followed by the University later issuing a statement that all finals would be moved online in the middle of exam week.

Joaquin Rivera ’25 was supposed to have two in-person final exams last semester, but one was moved online. Although he generally doesn’t feel more stressed by online exams, the sudden change in modality was difficult.

His twin brother Sebastian Rivera ’25 also had a final exam moved online. He felt more stressed for his online final compared to his in-person finals because he felt some professors make online exams harder due to the ability to use reference materials.

“They tried to test more of the obscure topics,” Sebastian Rivera said.

Despite finals returning to fully in-person this semester, both brothers described their workload as manageable. Sebastian Rivera said the key to this has been budgeting his time properly.

“I’m trying to set aside a certain amount of time every day to do work, and then let the rest of my day be free,” Sebastian Rivera said. “I’d rather have a good 3-4 hours and enjoy the rest of my day, than cram for the entire day.”

For other students, the return to in-person exams has made a once manageable workload feel a lot heavier. Maral Asik ’24 described how it has become a challenge for her to balance her social life with her academic responsibilities.

“The workload would feel manageable if I didn’t feel like I was balancing an increased social life on top of it,” Asik said. “As it stands, it’s pretty difficult.”

Compounding this social pressure is the return of Cornell’s Slope Day event, in-person for the first time since 2019. Kyle Goodman ’24 has scheduled his studying around being able to fully experience the event.

“I’m only making time for Slope Day,” Goodman said. “Any time I have not overlapping with Slope Day will have to be used for work.”

Joaquin Rivera is less concerned with balancing his social events. To him, the end-of-year crunch is just a part of being a student.

“Will I over stress about the exams? Probably,” he said. “But suffering for a couple of weeks under a lot of studying and a considerable amount of stress is a sacrifice I view worthwhile.”

Valeria Valencia ’23 Wins S.A. Presidential Election

Executive vice president of ALANA Intercultural Board, vice president of public relations for the Mexican Students Association, member of the Cornell University Hearing and Review Board, Student Assembly vice president of finance, senior Residential Advisor on South Campus –– these are just some of the hats Valeria Valencia ’23 wears. Her latest role? President of the Student Assembly.

Balancing all these responsibilities with her Industrial and Labor Relations major and double minors in Law and Society and Inequality Studies, Valencia is integral to many parts of the Cornell community, representing students’ needs and concerns in every position she takes.

Valencia said she is excited for her term, as well as for its historic precedent: Valencia is the first Latina to serve as president of the S.A. since the body was created in 1981.

“To be the first anything is pretty shocking,” Valencia said. “I know that it definitely means a lot to me and to the rest of the community.”

No stranger to the campaign trail, Valencia ran — and was elected — to be First Generation Student Representative. The year before, her campaign for Minority Students Representative was uncontested.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these campaigns have relied on different tactics than were previously employed. Valencia has used social media platforms, emails and even a music video to reach voters.

“I did a lot of engaging online content to really try and get people excited about elections and the Student Assembly,” Valencia said.

During her presidential campaign, loosening COVID-19 restrictions allowed clubs to meet in-person. Valencia went to campus organizations’ meetings to ask for endorsements and address students’ concerns.

“The main thing that I heard from speaking with them is that they don’t really feel that the S.A. represents them in the best way,” Valencia said, attributing this feeling to how most organizations only hear from S.A. representatives during election season.

In response to these concerns, Valencia said that she will regularly seek out the perspectives of students and their campus organizations on the S.A.’s work just as she did as first generation student representative, as well as serving as a fair moderator when the S.A. deals with important issues.

Students Move Out of Dorms

As finals week drew to a close, Cornell students were busy packing their bags to move out of their dorms or apartments. This year, all undergraduates are required to leave their dorms by 2 p.m. on May 22, except for students who are graduating or participating in commencement.

Since the move-out date was right after the end of the finals week on May 21, students who had finals on May 20 or 21 had limited time to pack up.

“I finished my exams on May 19, but I still had deadlines for an essay and a discussion post on May 21, the time was rushed for me to pack my stuff while working on final assignments,” said Qinghua Tan ’23, a student who lived in Hans Bethe House on West campus this year. “Since the deadline for moving out was 2 p.m., which was accurate to the hour, I felt very stressed out.”

The closeness of the end of finals to the move out deadline was an added burden to students with finals late in the final period.

“It was very difficult and exhausting because I finished the last exam on May 20 and had another deadline on May 21 at 23:59 p.m., but I had to clear my dorm by 2 p.m. on May 22,” said Ke Wu ’23, a student who lived in Schuyler House. “I almost stayed up all night to pack my bags.”

Other than meeting the move out deadline, students also faced difficulties carrying and transporting their luggage.

“The elevator of Schuyler House did not work when I was moving out, so almost all my luggage was carried downstairs by myself. My arms and legs were bruised during the process and are still sore now,” Wu said. “[I] hope the University can provide some affordable transportation services for moving out in the future.”

Moving out of a dorm can be an arduous process for students without a car or other external help.

“The biggest difficulty was that I didn’t have a car, so I had to move it several times by myself, so it was very troublesome,” Qinyue Yu ’23 said. “But the good thing is that almost every time I moved my stuff out of the dorm, there was always someone to help me.”

When it comes to the help that students received from the University during the process, many expressed

their thanks for carts placed in the residential halls which eased the process of moving large objects without wheels.

“There are plenty of carts in the house, and on average each dorm could get about 5 or 6 of them, so you don’t have to wait if you want to use them,” said Ziyu Chen ’23, a student who lived on West campus this year. “It is really convenient.”

As some students moved out of their dorms to apartments in Ithaca, other students were packing to go home.

Gracia Xu ’24 said that it was easier for her to move out because her home is only an hour away from Ithaca, which allowed her to leave town with all her luggage rather than having to store it.

“I started moving some of my smaller things back home a few weeks before my move-out date and my parents came to help me with my move-out, so I did not meet any problems,” Xu said.

Some students who plan to travel to other cities before returning to Ithaca in the fall chose to move their packages to their friends’ apartments. With help from their friends, their move-out process was less stressful.

“I did not have a lot to pack, and my friends helped me move my luggage so the process was relatively easy for me,” said George Lin ’24, a student who plans to move to Palo Alto, California, this summer. “And, I’m in a good mood since I’m going to enjoy the sunshine of California soon.”

But moving out isn’t all sunshine. Even though they’ve only lived in their dorms for one year, many students have already developed attachments to their dorms and have mixed feelings about leaving. Students cite the social environment and connections made in their dorms as major reasons for why they’re sad to say goodbye.

“I feel both sad and excited that I am leaving my dorm,” said Xu.

Despite their ties to their dorms, students are optimistic about their future housing.

“[My dorm] feels like my home, but I am also looking forward to living with my close friends next semester,” Tan said. “I believed it would be cozier.”

Cornell Announces Plan to Raise $500 Million

In a virtual event on Thursday, University President Martha Pollack announced the launch of “To Do the Greatest Good,” a new campaign aiming to raise $500 million for undergraduate financial aid.

The event consisted of pre-recorded speeches to alumni from Pollack, members of the Board of Trustees and Cornell professors with an introduction by undergraduate trustee Selam Woldai ’23.

Pollack laid out the campaign’s goals early on in the program, citing three main factors that prompted the campaign’s launch.

“For us to remain true to our Cornell mission and competitive with our peers, we need to do more to honor that commitment,” she said. “We need to increase the number of lower and middle income students at Cornell to ensure that they have the same opportunities here as their non-aided peers and to reduce the amount of debt that they bear when they graduate.”

According to Pollack, the money raised would help support the University in its three main goals: educating future leaders, addressing major world problems and increasing Cornell’s global public engagement. She also said that Cornell hopes to expand its work in New York City.

She noted that this campaign fits into a larger goal of the Board of Trustees to raise $5 billion, with $3 billion reserved for Cornell’s Ithaca campus, $1.5 billion for Weill Cornell Medicine and $500 million for Cornell Tech.

This campaign launch follows over two years of undergraduate difficulties receiving financial aid, culminating in student protests and S.A. debates.

After President Pollack’s speech, Robert S. Harrison ’76, chairman of the Board of Trustees, spoke on the engagement goals of connecting with 200,000 alumni, or 80 percent of all living alumni, by the campaign’s conclusion in 2026. Through attending alumni events, volunteering and making donations, 140,000 alumni have already contributed to this engagement goal, with 25,000 alumni connecting during the pandemic.

Harrison stated that the University has already obtained $2.6 billion of the $5 billion goal dollars, $223 million of which will be put entirely towards the undergraduate financial aid goal.

Harrison concluded with a call to action to all those tuning in, asking them to contribute to

the campaign.

Ezra Cornell ’70, the great great great grandson of the University’s founder, highlighted the humble beginnings of his namesake and their ideological relevance to current students. He outlined how his ancestor found success through a telegraph company and how his purpose truly was “to do the greatest good.”

“I think he understood that he could ignite something by his example and by encouraging others,” Cornell said.

Between the campaign-specific presidential and donor speeches, the video included presentations from several Cornell professors and spoken word poet Lamin Johnson ’21 discussing the future of the University across different fields.

Prof. Verity Platt, classics and history of art and visual studies, spoke on the importance of engaged learning at Cornell. She talked about studying the classics for a modern era and developing hands-on methods in her department.

“One might think that the study of classics, which is traditionally about studying what is the best or the highest in value culturally or aesthetically, is at odds with this idea of ‘any person, any study,’” she said. “But the way that we study the ancient world today is very much about thinking about the broader range of ideas and experiences that comprised life [then].”

Prof. Praveen Sethupathy ’03, biomedical sciences, spoke on his work as director of the Center for Vertebrate Genomics and the relevance of scientific progress to Cornell culture.

“Cornell is creating a culture where we’re not just doing our work in our ivory towers and letting someone else worry about how the rest of the world understands and appreciates it,” he said, “But rather, [it is] encouraging us to go out into the community.”

Johnson, who formed the Unchained Poetry Group for Black poets during his time at Cornell, delivered an original spoken word poem about the potential of the Cornell community.

All of the speakers emphasized the importance of Cornell’s adaptation to future needs. Pollack expressed how the fundraising campaign could support it.

“Today’s challenges demand a particular kind of ethos and a particular kind of education — one that, while contemporary, is still designed for any person and any study,” she said.

In-Person Tours Return After a Two-Year Hiatus

Prospective students will be welcomed to the Hill for the frst time since pandemic postponements

Since the postponement of in-person admissions events in early 2020, prospective Cornell students could only get a glimpse of campus through virtual tours and Zoom information sessions or unofficial tours done by friends. But as of Friday, Oct. 15 the tradition of in-person fall campus tours resumed.

Nico Modesti ’21 — who has been a tour guide for three years — is excited to interact with prospective students in person again.

“You never know who you’re going to meet on a tour, where they’re coming from and what stories they have,” Modesti said. “Getting to connect with visitors is the reason why the job is different every single day, and I love it so much.”

Charlie Mueller ’24 and Tia Taylor ’25, two students who are not tour guides, feel comfortable with tours resuming as long as visitors maintain physical distance from students and wear masks indoors.

A recruited track athlete, Taylor was frustrated at not being able to speak to coaches and athletes in-person when she applied to Cornell last fall. She supports the University’s decision to resume campus tours, as she does not want current prospective students to share that challenge.

Although in-person admissions events will resume, the Office of

Visitor Relations will continue to hold virtual information sessions, video tours and livestream campus tours.

“Livestream virtual tours have been quite successful,” Taiya Luce, the director of visitor relations, wrote in an email to The Sun. “Our office has been able to reach an audience who may not have had the means to travel to Ithaca either due to logistics or economical reasons.”

Modesti mentioned that the Zoom chat feature made it easier for prospective students, who may be nervous to ask questions in-person, to ask questions. He felt that virtual tours empowered students to learn more about the University.

Charlie Frankel, a prospective member of the class of 2027, sees some benefits of virtual tours, but would still like to visit a campus before committing to attend.

“It makes visiting colleges that are really far away a lot easier and a lot cheaper, because you don’t need to pay for travel,” Frankel said. “[But] I’m definitely going to want to like the area and know where things are.”

Frankel wants to take an in-person, student-guided campus tour, because “a student can give you very honest and very direct answers to questions.”

Frankel plans to ask his student tour guides about

their opinions of campus: for example, whether it is walkable in the winter and which buildings are most inconveniently located.

“Questions like that, I feel like you wouldn’t really be able to answer yourself,” Frankel said.

Sadie Transom — another prospective member of the class of 2027 — is excited that the University is resuming in-person tours. To her, virtual tours felt like an insufficient alternative.

“With virtual tours, I’m seeing exactly what they want me to see,” Transom said. “I’m not going to be able to see if I could actually picture myself there.”

Transom is considering registering for one of the University’s campus tours within the next month. She is looking forward to learning about campus life from a student — on an in-person tour, she said, “you get to see and hear about what student life is really like.” Tours will continue on select dates through Nov. 13. In-person information sessions will resume as well, the first being held on Saturday, Oct. 23. Visitors are required to register for both tours and information sessions in advance on the University’s visitor relations website. For in-person information sessions, visitors must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result within 72 hours of the event.

Final Exams Move Online as Campus Facilities Shut Down

As active student cases have reached 469, Cornell is shutting down campus 21 months after March 2020, leaving students to scramble in the middle of finals week.

All finals are being moved online as of noon, as the University moves to alert level red — indicating high risk — for the first time, wrote President Martha Pollack in an email to the campus community Tuesday morning.

For finals, Pollack wrote that the ones already moved online will continue as normal, and students should look to their professors as they make changes, as many may need to reschedule to accommodate the shift. Updates will also be posted to the academic policies section of the COVID-19 website.

According to the fall final exam schedule, there were exams scheduled on Tuesday at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. — the exams after noon have to adjust to be online. Exams scheduled for the 2 p.m. timeslot right after the announcement include some of the larger introductory courses on campus: Computer Science 2110: ObjectOriented Programming and Data Structures, Economics 1120: Introductory Macroeconomics, Mathematics 2310: Linear Algebra with Applications and Statistical Sciences 2200: Biological Statistics I.

Because of the move to the red alert, Cornell is also canceling is December graduation ceremony, originally planned for Saturday.

The email also states that libraries, fitness centers and gyms are closed to students, and those who eat at Cornell Dining eateries are encouraged to take it to go.

The alert level does not necessarily mean students should rush home — instead, Cornell advises that students obtain a negative COVID-19 test result before any travel.

“Students who have tested negative within the past 48 hours and wish to leave campus are welcome to do so,” Pollack wrote.

However, if students have not received a negative test in the past 48 hours, they should schedule a supplemental test as soon as possible and stay in Ithaca until receiving the results.

Over the past week, Cornell has had over 600 cases and as of Tuesday has over 450 active cases among its student body, according to the COVID-19 dashboard. The dashboard has not updated since Monday evening, though, and as of Tuesday morning, was not loading as people swamped the website.

The worsening situation at Cornell has made up the bulk of the cases in Tompkins County, and as of Tuesday morning, the county had 886 active cases, 10 hospitalizations and four new deaths.

According to the Tuesday morning email, “just last evening our COVID-19 testing lab team identified evidence

of the highly contagious Omicron variant in a significant number of Monday’s positive student samples.”

“While there is still much that is not known about the Omicron variant, it appears to be significantly more transmissible than Delta and other variants,” Pollack continued. “Thus, we need to do what we can to limit further spread, even though we are just a few days away from the end of the semester. That is why we are moving to Alert Level Red.”

Although Cornell has flickered between green and yellow alerts since the fall 2020 semester, indicating the prevalence of the virus on campus, the University has never changed to the red alert in the past three semesters.

There are no concrete metrics dictating when the University would move to the red alert level, but the past week has shattered previous pandemic records for case counts.

“It is obviously extremely dispiriting to have to take these steps. However, since the start of the pandemic, our commitment has been to follow the science and do all we can to protect the health of our faculty, staff, and students,” Pollack wrote. “We have faced many challenges together over the last many months. I am confident that we can once again rise to meet this current challenge so we can all take a well-deserved break.”

Ithaca Becomes First U.S. City to Achieve Unionization Across All Starbucks Locations

Following efforts extending back to October, all three Ithaca Starbucks locations voted to unionize this past Friday, April 8. The outcomes of the votes for the College Avenue location, the Ithaca Commons location and the Meadow Street location were 19-1, 15-1 and 13-1, respectively.

“A lot of my coworkers are very happy, but we know this is only the first step in the next chapter of our journey,” said Evan Sunshine ’24, a barista and member of the union campaign’s organizing committee. “We’ll have to do bargaining with Starbucks for our first contract and only then we’ll be able to reap the benefits of the union.”

For Nadia Vitek, another organizing committee member, the relief of the vote was accompanied by frustration at the months-long, arduous process that Starbucks employees underwent to be permitted to vote for the formation of a union, which they consider a basic right.

“We feel such a huge sense of relief also coupled with sadness that something so simple and basic shouldn't have to take this much work. [We faced] so much resistance for exercising our human rights,” Vitek said.

This resistance, according to the Starbucks workers, came through union-busting methods used by corporate leaders at Starbucks, including intimidation tactics, the denial of breaks and overhiring to limit hours.

In a conversation between Vitek and their manager, intended to serve as a discussion of potential promotions and other opportunities, Vitek was misgendered by their manager. Their manager proceeded to imply that a union would risk the benefits that employees receive, according to Vitek.

“[My manager] went on to brag about how many trans partners work at her store back home, and then after I asked her about trans healthcare benefits at Starbucks, she finished explaining those benefits by saying ‘I would hate for you to have to lose this with the union,’ basically dangling the benefits in front of me. Threatening my benefits,” Vitek said.

Student workers also faced difficulties taking time off to visit family and friends for this past Spring Break and were often presented with the choice between time off or risking their jobs.

According to Vitek, 6 out of 7 requests for time off were denied at the Starbucks on College Avenue by one manager.

Alayna Earl ’23 requested time off in advance for Spring Break but was denied it on the grounds that too many people requested it off before them.

“[The manager] pretty much called back and said, ‘I'm

going to assume you’re voluntarily resigning if you don't show up to your shift’,” Earl said.

Conor Mervyn ’24, who did not go home for Spring Break after being denied time off, shared his ongoing anxieties regarding requesting time off for summer break.

“I shouldn't lose my job for having to leave for the summer,” Mervyn said, who is currently in the process of emailing professors looking for jobs as his fallback options.

“I saw one of my coworkers leave a conversation with the manager in tears knowing she'd have to pick between the job and family for Spring Break. A job shouldn't be a prison, you should have time off if you want. All these people gave a reasonable amount of notice. It’s infuriating,” Vitek said.

Leading up to the vote, many note that the work environment had also been made noticeably less hospitable, with restrictions on water and the use of fans.

“A lot of the retaliation that my store has been experiencing has just been being treated like animals, it almost seems like they're trying to make us quit,” said Rebekkah Maclean, another employee. “They know who supports the union; they are treating them all like shit. The way we're getting talked to is degrading.”

According to Maclean, recently workers were prohibited from keeping beverages like water in non-personal cups, as well as from having a fan on the floor.

“It gets hot. My sister and I have problems with being woozy and passing out; if there’s no water or no fan, how are we supposed to work? It's hell.” Maclean said.

According to Sunshine, the corporation is attempting to hire an unnecessarily large cohort of new employees in order to cut hours across the board and ask pro-union workers to quit.

“Packing in stores is illegal and is a form of retaliation; it is a form of punishment for unionizing,” Sunshine said.

Sunshine mentioned that GenZ for Change created an algorithm to flood the application portal with fake applications in an effort to resist this anti-union attempt.

Starbucks executive sentiment has recently been made public as well, with Interim CEO Howard Schultz reportedly lashing out at a barista at a California location.

“If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” said Schultz, according to The New York Post.

According to the campaign organizers, the next step for the union is negotiating contracts for each store. According to Vitek, the unionized Elmwood store in Buffalo welcomes

partners from other unionized stores to take part in their negotiations and will possibly provide a template for the contracts of Ithaca’s stores.

According to Sunshine, a survey has been sent out to gauge the workers’ needs and demands which will frame the union proposals. The workers’ eminent demands include wage raises and increased hours for those who require them, as well as free healthcare coverage and increased safety measures. Vitek also mentioned their excitement at the proposal of a tip minimum.

“It would be great to be able to depend on making a certain amount of money and not just hope we get lucky,” Vitek said.

Earl would advocate for the provision of universal time off to partners when requested. “It's not fair to prioritize one partners’ request over others’, you don't know why someone is taking time off … I think it [should be] the manager's job to find scheduling and coverage,” they said.

“I want to be as zero waste as possible as a corporation, I want to reduce Starbucks’ carbon footprint,” Maclean said. She also stated the need for easier access to mental health care beyond the 20 sessions per year offered by Starbucks’ current program, Lyra.

“At our store, we'd like to get a manager that's not here to union bust, a manager who cares about us, and if they see that we're struggling they'll put on the apron and get on the floor,” Sunshine said. “What I wanna see is a manager that's a source of support rather than a source of harm.”

Mervyn reminisced about a time when the divide between corporate and workers was not so prominent. He recounted experiences where Starbucks served as a source of support during an expressly challenging time in his life.

“There’s a lot of ‘we’re a family’ [at Starbucks]. Back in my home last summer, I’d spent a month sleeping in a truck because of some extraneous circumstances, and so basically I lived off of essentially camping out at Starbucks, using the WiFi to do some classes, and it's essentially all I had,” Mervyn stated.

Observing the recent changes in worker treatment at his Starbucks location, Mervyn is worried that Starbucks, as a whole, is changing for the worse.

“I can't speak for everyone, I like my job, I wanna keep it. A lot of people I know like their jobs and want to keep them,” Mervyn said. “It's sad to see the disconnect grow larger and larger.”

Dragon Day Roars On After a Two-Year Hiatus

For over a century, Cornell’s Dragon Day has been a rite of passage for first year students in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, who construct a large dragon to parade around campus the Friday before spring break. After being canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dragon Day will return in 2022.

The tradition’s origins can be attributed to Willard Straight ’01, who sought to establish a College of Architecture Day on Saint Patrick’s Day and decorate the college accordingly. Since Irish legend has it that Saint Patrick drove the serpents out of Ireland, the event featured a serpent as its main symbol. Sometime in the 1950s, the celebration became known as “Dragon Day.”

Dragon Day has recently come to involve students in the College of Engineering as well –– engineers build a phoenix to represent the friendly rivalry between the two colleges.

Dragon Day cancellations in previous years arose due to logistical challenges. According to AAP student Oscar Llodra ’25, social distancing guidelines not only made it difficult for Cornell students to gather on campus to enjoy the parade, but also prevented architecture students from coming together for the six or more weeks of close collaboration required to plan and construct the dragon.

Llodra said that Dragon Day is one of the few times when the entire architecture class can come together. He also stated that many current sophomores and juniors in AAP will participate in the event, since they didn’t get the chance to do so during their freshman years.

“Everyone cares about the tradition so much,” Llodra said. “It’s an opportunity to make something happen, which is always really fun … but it also bonds the entire class of

first and second years. That’s just really exciting because it’s really hard to do that.”

This year, Llodra will serve as one of two second-year “Dragon Lords” — peer-elected project leaders who appoint students to the executive board that directs the creation of the Dragon team — alongside classmate Gabby Melton ’25.

The first year class also has two Dragon Lords: Lily Mager ’26 and Jose Ortega ’26. They are responsible for appointing other students to roles that are necessary in making Dragon Day happen, such as construction or finance management.

While many Cornellians only engaged in a single day of Dragon Day festivities, the event requires at least six weeks of planning and preparation in advance. An executive board of students must be chosen to oversee and direct essential activities, such as fundraising, purchasing materials and constructing the dragon.

Because Dragon Day is fully student-funded, the executive board heavily emphasizes fundraising for the event. Llodra and Melton said that selling Dragon Day t-shirts gives them the funds to purchase construction materials for the dragon.

“We need to start selling t-shirts ASAP,” said Melton. “We did a logo design contest that's going to be sort of converted into a t-shirt, and then next week, we'll start selling T-shirts.”

The Dragon Day construction team, which consists of the majority of both first and second year participants, uses woodworking and welding to build the dragon. This year, because there will be twice the amount of students working to build the dragon as there were in 2019, the board decided to build a larger, two-headed dragon to represent

each of the two classes who produced the dragon.

“I think this is going to be a year that will definitely go down in the books,” Mager said.

Mager added that having two classes work together allows for increased collaboration and socialization, with a bigger team also bringing more diverse visions and perspectives to the project.

To generate excitement for Dragon Day, Llodra said that a prank team organizes a series of CUPD-and-administration-approved jokes leading up to the event.

“Although the event is very carnivalesque and seems unhinged … everything is planned with the various administrative levels,” Llodra said.

Some older students who participated in past Dragon Days continue their involvement in the event for years. Remy Mermelstein ’22 was a head designer and builder of the 2018 dragon; this year, he will conduct an introductory meeting informing younger students about Dragon Day. Mermelstein said he was drawn back to the project by its sense of community and fun atmosphere.

“I think [Dragon Day] is the best time for first year architects and a week of bonding and team building that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else,” Mermelstein said. “And Dragon Day is just wicked fun. Especially as upper years, it is fun as well to participate in the parade.”

JULIA NAGEL / SUN FILE PHOTO

Two-headed monster | Freshman and sophomore architecture students collaborated on a design that packed twice the punch, making up for two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Best in State: Cornell Outranks Columbia in Latest U.S. Report

Columbia tumbles to No. 18 following a recent U.S. News and World Report scandal

Cornell has been named the best university in all of New York state, according to the 2023 Best National Universities rankings published by U.S. News and World Report.

While still remaining the 17th best university in the nation, Cornell has now surpassed Columbia University, which saw a significant drop this year in rank, falling from No. 2 to No. 18.

Columbia’s downfall came after Columbia University Prof. Michael Thaddeus, mathematics, started questioning the program’s soaring ranking, which in 2021 tied in second along Harvard and MIT.

In February, Thaddeus published a detailed, analytical report, exploring explanations for Columbia’s abnormally soaring ranking.

“A few other top-tier universities have also improved their standings, but none has matched Columbia’s extraordinary rise,” Thaddeus wrote. “It is natural to wonder what the reason might be.”

Thaddeus’ findings suggested clear signs of number manipulation by Columbia to produce favorable but misleading data sets.

“Key figures supporting Columbia’s high ranking are inaccurate, dubious, or highly misleading,” Thaddeus wrote. “[We found] discrepancies, sometimes quite large, and always in Columbia’s favor.”

On Sept. 9, 2021, upon a thorough internal review and investigation, Columbia released a statement, admitting that the data it provided had signs of inaccuracy. In the statement, Columbia followed up with detailed plans to improve its data accuracy.

“We determined we had previously relied on outdated and/or incorrect methodologies,” the statement said. “We have changed those methodologies for current and future data submissions, as reflected in the newly posted Common Data Sets.”

According to the U.S. News and World Report, the Best Colleges ranking provides an assessment of 1,500 national bachelor’s degree programs on 17 measures of academic quality. This year marks the 38th year of releasing these rankings.

Cornell received an overall score of 86 out of 100, scoring a point lower in comparison to last year. The University scored high in multiple categories, ranking fifth in best colleges for veterans, ninth in undergraduate engineering programs, eighth in business programs and fifth in computer science. However, Cornell lagged behind in several areas, ranking 270 in social mobility, showing much room for improvement.

Nicki Moore Named First Female Director of Cornell Athletics

Nicki Webber Moore is set to become Cornell’s first female Meakem Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education when she begins the position in January 2023.

With Moore’s appointment, Cornell joins four other Ivy league universities with female athletic directors. Brown University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University currently have female athletic directors.

“I am very proud to be named as Cornell’s first woman A.D. [athletic director] during this 50th anniversary year of Title IX [a 1972 law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded schools],” Moore said. “It’s a step that is aligned closely with the founders’ original ‘any person, any study’ vision for the University.”

Moore’s appointment comes after the retirement of previous athletic director Andy Noel, who served at Cornell for 40 years and as A.D. for 23 years. Noel announced his plans to retire in March, and said he would continue to serve in the role until the University would announce a successor.

The search for a new athletic director began over the summer, and now Moore will begin her duties on Jan. 17, 2023.

Moore has 18 years of experience in athletic administrative roles at numerous universities

Seven Cornellians Set to Serve in Congress

Following the results of yesterday’s midterm elections, seven Cornellians — mostly incumbents — will serve in the 118th Congress, with one remaining race being too close to call at the time of publication. In addition, one candidate lost the general election.

The seven congress members-elect as well as Jamie McLeodSkinner, M.R.P. ’95, whose race is too close to call, represent several parts of Cornell: Reps. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) and Sharice Davids J.D. ’10 (D-Kan.) are graduates from Cornell Law School, Rep. Elissa Slotkin ’98 (D-Mich.) majored in rural sociology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, while Rep. Dan Heuser ’88 (R.-Pa.) was a government major in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) won re-election handily over Republican challenger Caroline Colarusso (R-Mass.) with nearly 75 percent of the vote. This is Clark’s fifth full term since entering office in a 2013 special election to replace then-Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) following his successful election to the Senate. She also serves as Assistant Speaker of the House.

Clark’s policy priorities include focuses on families, such as paid family leave initiatives, improvement of child care access and closing the gender pay gap.

In an interview with the Sun in 2019, Clark emphasized family issues as her reasons for running for office.

“I decided to tackle the issues around women and children that have always been priorities for me from the legislative side, instead of the advocacy side,” Clark said.

In an election expected to be among the closest in the nation, Rep. Sharice Davids J.D. ‘10 (D-Kan.) defeated Amanda Adkins (R.-Kan.) in a rematch of the 2020 election with 54.7% of the vote.

centered around abortion restrictions, immigration restrictions, voter ID laws, gun rights and police advocacy.

He will become the third Black Republican serving in the 118th Congress House of Representatives. Rep. Elissa Slotkin ‘98 (D-Mich.) has defeated challenger Tom Barrett (R.-Mich.) in Michigan’s 7th congressional district in a tight race that was called early Wednesday morning.

Slotkin has served as representative of Michigan’s 8th district since 2019, but following Michigan’s redistricting, her district became the 7th. Prior to serving in Congress, she was a CIA agent and did three tours in Iraq along with the United States military.

Beth Van Duyne ’95 (R.-Texas) will serve as a congressional representative in Texas’s 24th district for a second term.

She previously served as the mayor of Irving, Texas and as an regional administrator for former President Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development. Van Duyne was first elected in 2020 and her district is located in the suburban area in between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Incumbent Melanie Stansbury ’07 (D-N.M.) will serve a second term as the congresswoman in New Mexico’s 1st congressional district. She is an alum of the development studies program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and now works on the food insecurity crisis.

including the University of Oklahoma, the University of North Carolina and Colgate University. She said she is honored to be appointed for the role.

Moore was previously recognized by Women Leaders in College Sports as the 2022 Football Championship Subdivision Executive of the Year, and recently served as the president of the FCS Athletics Directors Association.

Moore holds a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri, where she was a fourtime captain on the track and cross-country teams. She is also an Academic All-American and the inaugural president of the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee. Additionally, Moore has earned postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference.

“I can’t wait to get to work,” Moore said. “Cornell is such an exciting opportunity, as a place committed to true excellence in both academics and athletics where student-athletes can pursue all of their aspirations at the very highest level.”

Moore noted that her two highest priorities as athletics director at Cornell will be to promote diversity, equity and inclusion and promote the mental health and well-being of student-athletes and the campus community.

The Third District encompasses the Kansas City, Missouri suburb of Overland Park, Kansas.

Davids, along with Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), is the first Native American woman elected to Congress and is now the only Democratic member of Kansas’ congressional delegation.

Rep. Dan Meuser ‘88 (R.-Pa.) won re-election in a strongly Republican district. Prior to becoming a congressman in 2018, Meuser was the Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue.

Meuser’s name was also listed in The New York Times’s list of 97 members of Congress facing potential conflicts of interest regarding recent financial trades, along with those of Rep. Katherine Clark J.D. ’89 (D-Mass.) and outgoing Rep. Kurt Schrader ’73 (D-Ore.).

Wesley Hunt M.P.A. ’15, M.B.A. ’15, M.I.L.R. ’16 (R-TX) won his brand-new, heavily Republican 38th district, which represents the outskirts of Houston. A West Point graduate, Hunt won an endorsement from former president Donald J. Trump (R.-Fla.). His campaign

Mike Itkis ‘91 (I-N.Y.), who majored in electrical engineering while at Cornell, lost his election bid for congressman from New York’s 12th congressional district. His campaign was attention-grabbing and controversial, not least because of the sex tape he produced and released in an effort to come off as “sex-positive.” Itkis’s other views include the legalization of sex work, ending the requirement to provide child support and redefining the abortion debate as the right to have unplanned sex. His campaign slogan was “Not married. No kids. Not celibate. Atheist.”

Itkis failed to garner one percent of the vote, losing in a landslide to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)

Jamie McLeod-Skinner, M.R.P. ’95 (D-Ore.)’s race remains too close to call, with her opponent Lori Chavez-DeRemer leading her 52 percent to 48 percent at the time of writing, with 69 percent of the votes counted and released.

If she wins, McLeod-Skinner will be the first openly lesbian representative in Oregon’s history. She also previously defeated Kurt Schrader ’73, a fellow Cornellian and 7-term incumbent, in the May Democratic primary.

McLeod-Skinner was an attorney and regional emergency manager and previously served on the City Council in Santa Clara, California. She has emphasized her rural location as well as local issues like working-class support and climate change.

Dead and Company Rocks Barton Hall One Last Time

Dead and Company — which is a band comprising John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti as well as former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart — performed on May 8 at Barton Hall as part of their summer 2023 farewell tour. The concert took place 46 years to the day after the Grateful Dead’s performance at Barton Hall on May 8, 1977.

The original performance, known simply as “Cornell ’77,” has become legendary amongst “Deadheads” — the nickname for the Grateful Dead’s fans — as one of the band’s greatest performances in a storied 30-year career.

“It was an amazing show,” Bill Sherman ’78, who attended the 1977 show, said. “The memory I think all of us have is, it was 60 degrees and sunny before we went into the show. Everybody was playing Frisbee in shorts and T-shirts. We came out four hours later, six inches of snow. You never saw so many people going, ‘Woah, how long were we in there?’”

The recording, which was captured from longtime sound engineer Betty CantorJackson’s soundboard, is noted for its high quality and popularity even amongst Grateful Dead tapes, which were considered a forerunner of viral marketing. Due to its iconic reputation among Deadheads, Cantor-Jackson’s recording was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2012.

Even Deadheads who did not attend the 1977 show held the show in high regard. Leona Kassoff ’83 — who did attend the 1980 and 1981 shows, along with her friend Sherry Sussman ’83 — said both the recording and performance quality of the show were extremely high-quality, among the best of the bootlegged tapes that she was able to acquire at the time.

“It’s iconic,” Kassoff said. “I remember it was one of the best bootlegs that I got to that point, because it was such a fine tape. The bootlegs we had back then were garbly and not that great. And [Cornell ’77] was just a pristine, beautiful show.”

For some longtime Deadheads, the 2023 show was an opportunity to share an experience with their family, who are often also deadheads.

“My sister lured me into it,” said Kathy Holub, who attended Monday’s show with her husband and her sister, Maureen Lynch M.B.A. ’93. “It’s been a wonderful thing that we share. We still go to shows across the country — Boulder, and we’re going to San Francisco — and have been for 40 years. It’s been a great thing to share as sisters, and now I have my daughter and my husband with me as well as my sister. So it’s a great family thing.”

Some, like Todd Wolleman ’88, even brought their children, raising them as

Deadheads and attending the show together as well. Mr. Wolleman, who attended the 1977 show, expressed excitement for being able to share the experience with his daughter, Lauren Wolleman ’18.

“I’m looking forward to it as a combination of the Grateful Dead and Cornell,” Mr. Wolleman said. “I’m looking forward to just being in that same room [as the 1977 show] sitting with my daughter. It closes the loop, if you will — it’s the circle of life.”

However, not all was sunshine and roses. Tickets were allocated via separate lotteries to students and alumni. Those who did not win the lottery faced an expensive secondary retail market. For a comparison, general admission tickets for the 1977 show were $7.50 — or about $37.36 in today’s money — while the cheapest tickets for Monday’s show were only available to students and sold for $77 apiece.

Students who did not attend the concert but won the lottery sold their tickets for over $300 in some cases. To procure a ticket, some students, like Max Horowitz ’23, even resorted to measures such as building bots to track social media and other digital spaces to find tickets being sold for the lowest possible price.

“I set a [price] range that I was willing to consider a deal, and whenever it would hit that range, it made an instant purchase,” Horowitz said.

Pollack Approves Plan B Vending Machines

President Martha Pollack expressed support for Student Assembly’s Resolution 20 — which proposes increased access to nonprescription health care supplies, including contraception — in an email response to the S.A. on Tuesday.

“I support efforts to expand access to non-prescription health care supplies, including contraception,” Pollack wrote. “Cornell Health and campus partners are currently reviewing a proposal for such supplies to be made available via campus vending machines and I encourage your continued collaboration with them.”

The S.A. passed Resolution 20 on Thursday, Feb. 9, and the University Assembly conveyed their version of the proposal — Resolution 5 — to President Pollack on Thursday, March 2.

According to an email obtained by The Sun, President Pollack responded to Duncan Cady ’23, chair of the U.A. and an S.A. undesignated representative-at-large, who also co-sponsored Resolution 5 and Resolution 20.

On Monday, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly also passed Resolution 7, their version of the proposed resolution.

Resolution 20 aims to implement vending machines with nonprescription medicine and emergency contraception around campus. Several members of the S.A. — including Sanvi Bhardwaj ’24, the College of Human Ecology representative, and Shelby Lynn Williams ’25, a College of Arts and Sciences

representative — said they were pleased by Pollack’s support of the resolution.

Bhardwaj emphasized the resolution’s importance in improving healthcare access at Cornell.

“This is critical for increasing health accessibility and equity on campus, as Cornell Health is far for many students, not open 24/7 and the generic version of Plan B they carry is significantly cheaper than the namebrand version offered at most pharmacies,” Bhardwaj wrote in a statement to The Sun.

According to a survey conducted by Cornell University Planned Parenthood Generation Action, increased emergency contraception access is both necessary and desired.

Out of approximately 700 respondents from the Cornell community, 53.3 percent said that they have accessed emergency contraception for themselves or another person and 90.32 percent said that they would feel very comfortable or strongly comfortable accessing emergency contraception from a campus vending machine operated by Cornell Health.

Katherine Esterl ’24, co-president of PPGA, also noted that Cornell’s physical isolation from the greater-Ithaca area poses a transportation barrier for students seeking reproductive health care.

“It’s not like you can walk outside your dorm and walk five minutes to a CVS. And it’s also not like you can walk outside your dorm and walk five minutes to Cayuga Health to get an appointment with an

M.D. gynecologist… even [going] downtown to the Planned Parenthood can be a barrier,” Esterl said. “I think the vending machines are a pretty easy fix for access.”

Bhardwaj, Williams and Cady also highlighted the resolution’s importance within the current political climate.

“I think this resolution is important as part of improving our University’s health access and health equality, but especially relevant post-COVID and post-Dobbs,” Cady, who is also a general body member of PPGA, told The Sun, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, ceasing the constitutional right to abortion in the United States.

Marley Levy ’24, PPGA general body member who helped develop the initial idea to implement vending machines, said that she hopes Pollack’s acknowledgment of Resolution 20 will be a first step toward greater reproductive health equity on campus, citing the President’s lack of support for S.A.’s Resolution 15 — which aimed to fund an M.D. gynecologist on campus.

“I am pleased, yet surprised, at [Pollack’s] support of Resolution 20. I hope it is just the start [of] greater access of needed sexual and reproductive strides on campus,” Levy wrote in a statement to The Sun. “I would like to see measurable progress on this resolution before the end of the semester, as President Pollack said in her email to Student Assembly members.”

PPGA co-president Taisa Strouse ’24 also expressed surprise at Pollack’s support,

adding that her support for Resolution 20 contradicts her refusal to accept Resolution 15.

“Her hypocrisy is clear,” Strouse wrote in a statement to The Sun. “The intention of the Plan B vending machine is based on the inaccessibility of Cornell Health — due to weekend closures and limited hours — and off-campus medical facilities. Thus, Pollack’s justification that there are ‘several gynecology providers in the Ithaca community’ in her refutation of Resolution 15 is unfounded and disappointing.”

Despite Pollack’s acknowledgment of the resolution, Bhardwaj expressed skepticism regarding whether the President’s support would lead to action.

“It definitely makes it easier to navigate Cornell’s bureaucracy, but her support is not a silver bullet — personally, I won’t be assured of progress until I actually see the vending machines on campus,” Bhardwaj told The Sun.

Pedro Da Silveira ’25, the College of Engineering representative & vice president of internal operations for the S.A., wrote in a statement to The Sun that Resolution 20 will bolster students' bodily autonomy.

“The core of this resolution isn’t necessarily about providing access to emergency contraception,” Da Silveira wrote. “It’s about empowering students to make their own healthcare decisions and take control of their own bodies.”

HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN FILE PHOTO

Barton beats | Dead and Company performs in Barton Hall on Monday, May 8, 2023, 46 years after the Grateful Dead's legendary 1977 Barton Hall concert.

MING DEMERS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Day for Deadheads | Long-time supporters and fresh fans alike flocked to Campus Road in hopes of securing a ticket to the show.

Cornell Commits $4 Million Annually to Ithaca Trough New Memorandum of Understanding

Cornell will pay the City of Ithaca $4 million annually, adjusted yearly for inflation, as the Cornell Board of Trustees approved the revised memorandum of understanding in an executive committee on Friday, Oct. 13. On Wednesday, Oct. 11 the Common Council passed the MOU after amending the term length to 15 years, a five year decrease from a prior proposal.

The University last negotiated the MOU in 2003, which stipulated that Cornell provide voluntary payments in lieu of taxes of $1 million annually until June 2024, adjusted yearly for inflation. Cornell is exempt from paying property taxes as a higher education institution, but instead offers the city voluntary PILOT contributions.

The agreement comes after months of negotiations over Cornell’s yearly contribution. In September, Mayor Laura Lewis announced that negotiations halted on Aug. 11, as the City of Ithaca proposed an $8 million contribution while Cornell gave their offer for $3.15 million. Seven days after

Lewis’s office released the statement, President Martha Pollack signed a joint statement with Lewis that committed Cornell to pay $4 million annually.

Following the informal agreement, the Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America held a rally on Sept. 18 at Ho Plaza to demand an increased contribution from the University. Common Council members Jorge DeFendini ’22 (D-Fourth Ward) and Tiffany Kumar ’24 (D-Fourth Ward) joined in support of the increased contributions.

The Common Council approved the $4 million annual contribution MOU 9-1 at a meeting on Wednesday, after tense discussion about the position the city was under. On Oct. 4, the Common Council passed a budget that relied on the University’s $4 million PILOT payment contributions.

“We are in a hostage situation with Cornell University,” DeFendini said. “The fact of the matter is, we don’t have the ability right now as a city to take on Cornell University with their tax exempt status and their army of lawyers.”

The agreement took effect immediately until the year 2039, as the Common Council decreased the term length from 20 to 15 years.

Eighty percent of the funding is unrestricted, allowing the city to use the funds with broad discretion. The remainder will support city infrastructure and other priority projects of mutual interest, according to a University press release.

The University will provide an additional $100,000 annual grant for a Cornell faculty member to collaborate with the city on issues such as sustainability, according to the press release.

“I’m extremely grateful to the Common Council for approving this agreement and appreciate all who were involved in the negotiations that enabled us to reach this historic moment,” Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina said in the statement. “This hard work and dedication strengthens the relationship between the city and Cornell, and these growing resources will benefit Ithaca residents for years to come.”

Cornell Graduate Students United Wins

Unionization Election in 1,873 to 80 Vote

Grads

described struggles with funding guarantees, healthcare coverage and worker protections

Cornell graduate students won their unionization election by a vote of 1,873 to 80, and will federate as Cornell Graduate Students United — an organization fighting for the rights of graduate workers — under the national United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union. 128 ballots were challenged, but not counted because they would not have determined the outcome of the election.

Voting occurred on the Ithaca campus between Nov. 6 and Nov. 8, as well as on Nov. 6 at the Geneva campus and at New York City’s Cornell Tech campus. Of the 3,175 eligible voters, 1,953 voted in the election.

The unionization effort kicked off on Sept. 6 with a card drive. Issues that graduate students have claimed to face include issues with funding guarantees, healthcare coverage and worker protections, according to the CGSU website.

Over the course of the month, over 2,500 graduate workers signed unionization cards, which CGSU claimed was a supermajority of graduate workers at Cornell. Prior to the election, over 1,600 eligible voters pledged to vote yes in support of the unionization election.

This overwhelming yes vote follows CGSU’s previous attempt to unionize in 2017 under affiliation with the American Federation of Teachers, which failed 941 to 867.

Cornell was found to have violated federal labor laws in 2018, resulting from an email from former Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth 24 hours before the March 2017 unionization election began. The email could have been seen as a threat to students voting for unionization, according to the arbitrator’s award document.

Prior to the election, President Pollack, in an address to the Student Assembly on Sept. 28, addressed the issue of graduate unionization.

“[Unionization] is a choice for every individual. We do encourage everyone to consider the question of unionization thoughtfully and carefully and [to] ask questions,” Pollack said. “The University is committed to engaging

in a process that is respectful of the rights of all involved and is consistent with the requirements of the National Labor Relations Act.”

Christine Lovely, vice president and chief human resources officer, and Kathryn Boor, dean of the graduate school and vice provost for graduate education, on Nov. 2, sent out a statement to Cornell students that while the administration respects the role of labor unions, they cannot take a stance on the issue.

“The University is not taking a formal position during this process and believes that all graduate students should decide for themselves as to whether they wish to be represented by the union,” the statement read. “Regardless of whether or not graduate students join a union, Cornell remains deeply committed to supporting students in their academic pursuits and assistantship roles.”

CGSU celebrated its victory in a series of posts on the social media site X — formerly known as Twitter — expressing its gratitude towards its members and saying they “looked forward” to negotiating with the University.

“This victory belongs to all of us: the thousands of workers who cast their votes, the hundreds of organizers throughout the University who organized a lightning-fast campaign,” the union said. “Most of all, we owe this victory to the enduring relationships we have built over the last few years in every department through one-on-one conversations, office visits and over social media.”

Joel Malina, vice president for university relations said in an email to The Sun that the University’s priority is ensuring graduate students are able to speak their minds and that Cornell “looked forward” to forthcoming negotiations with the union.

“Throughout this process, our priority was ensuring that graduate assistants had a voice through voting. Cornell has long-standing relationships with several other bargaining units on campus, and we now welcome the opportunity to build a relationship with UE,” Malina said in the statement. “We look forward to negotiating a collective bargaining agreement that reflects Cornell’s values and addresses the needs of our students.”

JULIA NAGEL / SUN FILE PHOTO

Ready to rally | Students hold a CGSU banner while a speaker addresses the crowd via megaphone, outside the Vet School on March 24, 2023.

TARYN CHUNG / SUN FILE PHOTO

Banners at Bailey | Cornell Graduate Students United launch their union drive outside Bailey Hall on Sept. 6, 2023, about two months before a vote confirmed their unionization.

President Pollack to Retire After Seven Years

President Martha Pollack announced that she will retire from her position on June 30, in an email sent to the Cornell community on Thursday, May 9.

Provost Michael Kotlikoff will serve as interim president for a two-year term beginning on July 1, 2024, according to a follow-up email sent by Kraig Kayser MBA ’84, chair of the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees will establish a committee to select the University’s 15th president six to nine months before Kotlikoff’s term ends.

Pollack acknowledged that there “will be lots of speculation about [her] decision” and emphasized that she independently decided to retire from her role after “extensive reflection.”

Pollack’s retirement follows a year of campus controversies spurred from the Israel-Hamas war, including Prof. Russell Rickford, history, saying that he was “exhilarated” by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Patrick Dai ’24 posting antisemitic threats.

Throughout the year, the Coalition for Mutual Liberation — a pro-Palestine coalition of over 40 on and off-campus organizations — occupied Day Hall, held die-ins in libraries and other campus buildings and established an encampment on the Arts Quad. Demonstrators urged the University to divest from weapons manufacturers, advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza, acknowledge Islamophobia on campus and cease educational ties with Israeli institutions.

The administration has condemned the disruptive nature of demonstrations, labeled some of the organization’s language as antisemitic and

arrested and suspended demonstrators.

Pollack acknowledged the “enormous pain” felt by community members due to world turmoil and local tensions, including for Jewish and Israeli students and Arab, Palestinian and Muslim students. She acknowledged that the next Cornell administration will have to continue to address antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry, while protecting free expression, but asserted that the next leaders will work from a “solid foundation.”

“We have been vigilant in working to ensure the safety and well-being of all members of our community from all backgrounds, work I’ve been dedicated to long before the events of the past year,” Pollack wrote.

However, Muslim students have previously expressed to The Sun concerns about a lack of an administrative response to concerns about online threats and intimidation on campus. This includes how several derogatory messages toward Muslim students were posted on Greekrank on Oct. 29, in addition to antisemitic threats, but the University addressed only the antisemitic posts in an Oct. 29 press release.

The academic year has seen some university presidents, including Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, step down amid backlash for their response to antisemitism on campus.

In January, former trustee Jon Lindseth ’56 published an open letter urging Pollack and Kotlikoff’s resignation, citing the University’s failure to

appropriately address antisemitism on campus amid a “misguided commitment” to diversity, equity and inclusion. However, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted in support of Pollack’s leadership in response to the letter.

This approval for Pollack has sustained into the announcement of her retirement. As of Thursday morning, the Board of Trustees appointed Pollack as president emerita, an honorary title given to a retired leader, effective July 1, 2024.

“On a personal level, all my fellow trustees and I have enjoyed working with President Pollack and have valued her intelligence, integrity, candor and warmth,” Kayser wrote.

Pollack also emphasized her success with furthering her initial goals for

her leadership — “enhancing Cornell’s academic distinction, our educational verve and the fulfillment of our civic responsibility.”

Pollack oversaw the creation of the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, the establishment of COVID-19 pandemic policies and the allocation of increased financial aid, among many other accomplishments.

Pollack considered retiring over the past academic year but chose not to announce the decision earlier due to unforeseen circumstances, according to her email.

“Indeed, I began deliberating about this last fall, and made the decision over the December break; but three times, as I was ready to act on it, I had to pause because of events on our and/ or on other campuses,” Pollack wrote.

Ann Coulter ’84 Appearance Leads to Faculty Arrest

Ann Coulter ’84, a controversial conservative media personality, made her return to campus on Tuesday, April 16 with a talk entitled “Immigration: The Conspiracy To End America.”

Audiences largely did not disrupt Coulter. However, Prof. Monica Cornejo was arrested during the question and answer section due to disorderly behavior.

At Coulter’s last speaking appearance at Cornell in November 2022, numerous attendees protested, resulting in the removal of eight audience members and an early end to the event.

In March, The Sun broke news of Coulter’s invitation to campus, which was spearheaded by Provost Michael Kotlikoff as an effort to allow diverse perspectives on campus during the current freedom of expression theme year. At the start of the event, Kotlikoff expressed it was important to allow Coulter to speak again — this time without interruption.

“We’re here really to correct something that happened a year and a half ago when [Coulter] who was invited by Cornell students was prevented from speaking at Cornell, something that I did not attend,” Kotlikoff said.

Kotlikoff made it clear to attendees that Coulter had the right to speak without intimidation and that individuals who chose to interrupt the event would face consequences.

“Actions that prevent a speaker’s ability to be heard or the right of others to listen and see are a violation of University policy [and violators will] be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards or other appropriate officials, which may lead to a notation on the conduct record or transcript,” Kotlikoff said.

Despite Kotlikoff’s insistence that the Cornell community values freedom of expression, all attendees — including Sun reporters — were told via multiple signs outside the venue that they would not be permitted to take any audio or video recordings of the event, even for journalistic purposes.

In addition to the strict recording rules, participants had to go through multiple security checks for identification and tickets by security personnel and event staff. Participants were also required to walk through a metal detector screening to enter the venue.

Throughout the event, six Cornell University Police Department officers spread out inside the event room and additional officers guarded the hallway. Private security stood next to Coulter throughout her talk.

Throughout her speech, Coulter expressed discontentment about the United States’ immigration policies. Coulter’s initial criticism of the immigration system centered around how she perceives America as starting to resemble other countries with its influx of immigrants.

“Never in human history has a country just decided to turn itself into another country like this,” Coulter said. “No offense to Mexico — love the food — but Japan doesn’t say, ‘Hey, let’s be Australia,’ or Australia say, ‘Let’s be Sweden.’ … We’re not doing them a favor by turning ourselves into the countries [immigrants] fled.”

Coulter particularly expressed her dissatisfaction with Afghan refugees immigrating to the U.S.

“Why does every sad sack in the world have to come to this country?” Coulter questioned. “What’s the trade-off with bringing millions of people from incredibly backward cultures who do not speak the language?”

Coulter also criticized the implications of family reunification preference tracks in immigration policies.

“Because of our family reunification policies, that blocks out other countries where we might be able to get the ones who are smarter, taller, more athletic,” Coulter said. “The pushcart operator from Pakistan who doesn’t speak his own language — nevermind ours — he gets precedence over a surgeon from Denmark.”

Sporting a shirt that read “Keep Migrants, Deport The Racists,” Prof. Monica Cornejo, communication, an undocumented immigrant, criticized the event during the questions portion.

“I’m an assistant professor of communication here, and one of those illegals that you mentioned,” Cornejo said. “I really appreciate you coming in and talking about these issues, that way I get to know how many racist people belong to this University.”

Coulter then interjected, cutting her off for not posing a question. When Cornejo responded by saying that she did have a question, Coulter retorted: “You got your chance. We’re moving on to the next question.”

Cornejo continued to shout remarks throughout the

questions portion, such as “Racist,” and put up middle fingers in response to many of Coulter’s comments.

Eventually, Coulter called for Cornejo’s removal, and she was arrested by members of the CUPD on the charge of disorderly conduct. Upon her removal, Coulter called her “a child.”

When asked about her thoughts regarding her arrest, Cornejo declined to comment.

In a post-event interview with The Sun, Kotlikoff expressed that while he disagreed with many of the claims made by Coulter, he still respects her right to freedom of speech.

“I don’t agree with Ann Coulter’s thesis about immigration, about the value of immigration to the U.S.,” Kotlikoff said. “There’s lots that I don’t agree with, but fundamentally I believe that it’s important for Cornell to be able to support diverse views — that’s what a University does.”

When asked if the University would allow a white nationalist or neo-Nazi to speak if invited to campus by members of the Cornell community, Kotlikoff reiterated the importance of respecting free speech on campus.

“I would support their right to speak at Cornell — I think free speech is that important,” Kotlikoff explained. “I think there are clear areas of speech that are not supported by the First Amendment [such as] incitement of violence. … Those we would shut down.”

NINA DAVIS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER Academic arrested | Prof. Monica Cornejo, communication, was arrested for disorderly conduct.

SUN FILE PHOTO

Ready for retirement | After a seven-year term that saw student protests after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Martha Pollack is stepping down from her role as University President.

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Disrupt Career Fair

Over 100 pro-Palestine protesters confronted Boeing — a company students voted to divest from in April 2024 — at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations’s Human Capital and Human Relations Career Fair Wednesday afternoon.

The Coalition for Mutual Liberation organized a walk-out for Palestine at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Day Hall.

Once protesters arrived, organizers announced they would march into the career fair held at The Statler Hotel, which featured representatives of Boeing and L3Harris, two of the manufacturing companies listed in the S.A. referendum as “supporting the ongoing war in Gaza.”

This disruption, according to a University statement, involved shoving police officers, making guests of the University feel threatened and denying students the opportunity to experience the career fair.

“This behavior is unacceptable, a violation of University policy and illegal,” the statement read.

Members of CML — a pro-Palestine coalition of over 40 on- and off-campus organizations — spoke in support of Palestinian resistance amid Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza and condemned Cornell’s investment in weapons manufacturers.

“We will work, we will fight. No more jobs in genocide” and “F*** you Boeing,”

protesters chanted, as they gathered in front of Day Hall.

At around 2 p.m., protesters marched from Day Hall to The Statler Hotel, where the career fest took place. They banged drums, pots and pans and chanted “Free Palestine” as they entered the building and confronted the companies.

Protesters presented the Boeing recruitment table with a letter titled “People’s Court Indictment of War Crimes and Genocide,” as well as a list of the Gaza death count for children under the age of one.

The letter delivered to Boeing “charged” the company with “the crimes of aiding and abetting human rights violations, war crimes and genocide” under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the U.S. War Crimes Act and the Genocide Convention Implementation Act.

The Boeing representative did not acknowledge the letters, and recruiters from the majority of companies present took down their tables approximately 20 minutes after protesters arrived, ahead of the event’s scheduled end time of 3 p.m.

The protesters also intended to confront L3Harris, a company that manufactures defense technology. However, the company’s table was empty.

According to Yihun Stith ‘26, a spokesperson for CML, coalition members were at an L3Harris information session earlier this week where they asked the represen-

tative “very pointed questions related to their complicity in the genocide in Gaza.”

“I think that scared them off, and they decided not to show up,” Stith said.

Stith said Cornell should prevent Boeing from returning to campus while “they’re complicit in this genocide” considering “70 percent of undergraduates do not want [Boeing] here,” referencing the majority vote to the S.A. referendum.

CML spokesperson Sara Almosawi ’25 emphasized that the majority of the student body voted against investment in the weapons manufacturers present at the career fair.

“We made our voices heard through the referendum last spring, and the University not only completely ignored the wishes of the student body, but continued its complicity through its investments and by continuing to invite these weapons manufacturers to take part in our campus culture,” Almosawi said. “That is completely unacceptable.”

According to the University statement, Cornell Police are working to identify protesters who violated University policies. Students involved will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for disciplinary action including suspension, and faculty and staff will be referred to Human Resources. Protesters may face criminal charges, the statement explained.

Cornell later released footage of

pro-Palestinian activists pushing past police at Statler Hall. The three-minutelong video, which includes footage from Cornell University Police Department officers’ body cameras and a main lobby camera, shows the moment when masked students breached the entrance and shut down the event.

The footage refutes claims from student activists that the protest was peaceful.

In the video, several CUPD officers can be seen guarding The Statler’s entrance. Three of the officers formed a barricade across the building’s sliding doors, briefly holding up their arms to provide resistance before protesters shoved past.

According to a statement by Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina, many community members had asked that video evidence of the “forceful entry” be made available.

“Having completed the preliminary criminal investigation of the event, we are providing video that shows initial forced entry at the Statler lobby and disruptive activity inside the Career Fair,” Malina wrote.

The University has stated that it has used photo and video evidence to identify and refer for disciplinary action 19 activists at the career fair disruption.

Kavita Bala Becomes Cornell’s 17th Provost

Kavita Bala will take the helm as Cornell’s 17th provost, with a five-year appointment starting Jan. 1, 2025. Bala currently serves as the dean of the Bowers College of Computing and Information Science.

Interim President Michael Kotlikoff announced the appointment in a Wednesday morning email, thanking John Siliciano ’75 for his leadership as interim provost.

Bala’s career at Cornell began in 1999 as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2002, she stepped into the role of assistant professor of computer science, and in 2018, she became the chair of the Department of Computer Science.

Bala, an expert in computer graphics, helped secure the over $100 million gift from Ann S. Bowers ’59 to establish Bowers CIS in 2020, becoming the inaugural dean of the college. Under Bala, Bowers CIS has seen rapid expansion, with 2,400 undergraduate majors and three-quarters of students taking at least one class under the college. To meet this demand, Bala increased faculty by 30 percent and secured funds for a 135,000 square-foot building, set to open in 2025, according to a University press release.

“As provost, I hope to foster an environment where all Cornellians can realize their intellectual potential, do their best work and have a positive impact on the world,” Bala said in a University press release.

Upon the start of her term, The Sun sat down with Bala to discuss her vision for her time as provost.

“Developing the talent of the next generation — the intellectual development, growth and the education of the next generation — to me, that is really appealing,”

Bala said. “I have one life, this is what I want to do with it. I want to be here thinking about the research and the education that drives the future of all [students].”

Bala described how computer science reflects her personality. When first breaking into the field, the breakdown of complex problems excited her, and she was immediately “sucked in.” Bala said she uses this same logical thinking process when solving problems in her own life.

Along with computer science, Bala loves Indian classical dance, honey matcha lattes and playing Dungeons & Dragons with her children — who she said inform her perspective as a leader at Cornell.

“I have a better appreciation of how the student experiences [things],” Bala said. “As a parent, [I’m] wondering what are [my] kids’ futures going to look like, and [I] see that in all of the students.”

Growing up, Bala valued education “consciously,” as her parents did not attend college. She pursued her undergraduate education at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and stood alone as the only woman in her computer science class. Bala explained that this experience “toughened” her and shaped how she approaches moral decisions now.

“[I] approach things from a sense of, ‘Am I doing the right thing? Do I have the right values?’ That’s [my] moral compass that [I] use to guide [my] actions,” Bala said. “I truly believe in listening to anybody who has an opinion to share with me that’s informed, [and] I would like to listen to and hear that point of view and incorporate it into my thinking.”

People will not always agree with each other, Bala explained. As provost, she hopes to embody the practice of listening, talking and respecting each other.

At Cornell, Bala immerses herself in working with different voices and disciplines. In addition to her stint modeling mandalas with a human ecology student, she recently worked with fashion anthropologists to study global cultural erasure.

To be “tethered in the right space” while working, it is important to Bala to talk to the “practitioners” of the discipline — the people actively engaged in the work. Bala said that at Cornell, she appreciates the enriching conversations and opportunity to constantly learn.

“I go and talk to alums, and when they come back, they realize that this was a much richer place than they remember,” Bala said. “This campus is so intellectually rich. You always find something cool or new with a different lens that somebody brings to life.”

For Bala, the joy of her job is working with people who are “driven by their missions” and want everyone to succeed. According to Bala, this is “a great time to be a provost,” and she looks forward to tackling the challenges of the world’s current “lack of public trust” and concern around democracy and misinformation.

“I think Cornell has some of the best, most amazing minds of our time who can address these challenges together… [and] I’m excited about bringing together this ‘any person, any study,’ very broad university,” Bala said.

KARLIE MCGANN / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Career fair cacophony | Protesters shouted through megaphones and banged pots and pans to disrupt an event featuring defense contractors Boeing and L3Harris on Sept. 18, 2024.

KARLIE MCGANN / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Pushing police | Students rush into Statler Hall to shut down the event. Footage reviewed by The Sun confirmed the University’s claims that protesters shoved police officers.

Administrators Discuss Disciplining Protesters, Monitoring Faculty in Hillel Parents Meeting

Two high-level administrators outlined how the University monitors and disciplines pro-Palestinian activists, including by boosting security and surveillance around campus and “scrutinizing” faculty members’ in-class behavior, in a private Zoom meeting with more than 220 Jewish parents Monday night.

The event, moderated by Rabbi Ari Weiss — Cornell Hillel’s executive director — was a rare opportunity for concerned Jewish parents to probe Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina and Vice President of Student Life Ryan Lombardi about how Cornell is preparing for another semester of campus tumult. Parents sent questions to Weiss, who posed as many of them as he could to Malina and Lombardi throughout the hour-long, town hall-style meeting.

The meeting was open to parents in Hillel’s network who registered via an invitation form.

Monitoring Academics

When Weiss asked about how the University would handle a newly hired professor who in the past “might have said antisemitic things,” Malina used a specific example of a junior faculty member in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who after being hired was found to have retweeted “some troubling posts.”

That professor, whom The Sun identified as Prof. Wunpini Mohammed, communication, has reposted what Malina called “some troubling posts.” The University became aware of these reposts — which include several anti-Zionist messages — only after a formal hiring offer was made this summer.

“There was no reason to withdraw the offer of employment based on that activity,” Malina said, “but her in-class activities will be scrutinized, as will all in-class activities of our faculty.”

Malina clarified that the University will not act as “intrusive, academic police,” but that it ultimately is a privilege to be a Cornell faculty member, which comes with a set of enforceable conduct-related expectations. Mohammed is set to start teaching in Spring 2025.

Weiss asked the administrators about whether instructors who cancel classes to let their students participate in protests would be punished.

“When those incidents happen, there are immediate conversations with the individuals, with the chairs of their department, with the deans of their academic unit,” Malina said. “Those who are confirmed to have done that will face consequences.”

Disciplining Activists

The Monday meeting came as Cornell pursues disciplinary action against nearly 20 pro-Palestine activists who shut down a Sept. 18 career fair featuring defense contractors Boeing and L3Harris. At least one of these protesters, Momodou Taal grad, is an international student who could face deportation.

In the Zoom meeting, Weiss asked why Cornell’s on-campus activist groups have avoided harsh punishment while other universities’ groups have been outright banned.

The administrators explained that the University is disciplining individual students rather than registered student groups because the activists operate under unregistered coalitions.

“They don’t register [their protests],” Lombardi said, referring to the Coalition for Mutual Liberation, an unregistered ProPalestinan umbrella organization encompassing over 40 campus and local groups. “Which means much of our accountability is focused on the individuals that are participating in some of the activities, rather than a group.”

Identifying Protesters

“We have implemented a new approach as we renovate buildings, as we build new buildings, to make sure that we are installing cameras,” Lombardi said, responding to a question about how the University is trying to identify activists behind pro-Palestinian vandalism. Lombardi emphasized that cameras would not be placed in private spaces.

Lombardi added that the activists who vandalized Day Hall on the first day of the semester “took great pains” to disguise their identities, and Malina confirmed that these activists remain unidentified. Lombardi did mention, however, that after protesters similarly defaced campus buildings last semester, Cornell conducted “robust investigations” through video footage “to apprehend a good number of them.”

Both administrators conceded that identifying masked pro-Palestinian activists is difficult. Malina explained that Nassau County, the first in the nation to sign a mask ban into law, has faced “strenuous litigation” opposing the measure. He said that after discussing the issue with the Office of General Counsel, he does not expect Cornell to “take on the litigation risk” of introducing a similar ban on non-medical facial coverings.

“Our police are doing some incredible work investigating, even in spite of such facial covering, to help in the identification of individuals,” Malina assured the parents.

Heightened Security

When Weiss asked how the University plans to protect students during the oneyear anniversary of Oct. 7, Lombardi told parents that more Cornell University Police Department officers will be on scene and went into detail about Cornell’s long-term plans to ramp up security.

“Our police force is planning for a height-

ened presence all week long — extra staff, extra patrols all along the way,” Lombardi said. “[CUPD is] definitely very tuned into this and working with their local agency partners as well.”

The University is developing a security force called the Public Safety Ambassadors that will “supplement” the Cornell University Police Department and help guard events, Lombardi said. “It’s a little bit in its infancy, but it will continue to grow in time,” he added. “These are not law enforcement officers, and there’s only a few of them now. But again, it’s just another set of eyes and ears.”

An online job posting describes the Public Safety Ambassadors as emergency responders who patrol campus and are assigned to events as needed.

Lombardi also expressed gratitude to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.), who he said has been “very helpful,” sending in state police resources when necessary.

Hate Speech and Protected Speech

Weiss questioned the University’s definition of antisemitism, asking whether Cornell has considered adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition, which equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

A theme from the administrators throughout the meeting was that the University would not punish or prevent offensive speech unless it becomes targeted harassment — even if that means letting a hate group onto campus.

At one point, Weiss asked if the administration would allow the Ku Klux Klan in. Malina responded unequivocally: “If there were a faculty member that invited a KKK representative to speak or a student group that invited a KKK representative to speak, yes, we would allow that.”

Ben Shapiro Brings Conservative Perspective to Cornell

Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and the founding editor-in-chief of the right-wing media company The Daily Wire, spoke to a packed audience in Bailey Hall on Monday in an event titled “What’s at Stake on November 5th.” During this talk, Shapiro discussed the upcoming presidential election and fielded questions about intersectionality, free speech, LGBTQ+ politics and former President Donald Trump. Shapiro was invited to speak on campus by Cornell Republicans and the Young America's Foundation — an organization focused on promoting conservative views to the younger generations — as part of Shapiro’s Fall Campus Tour. Cornell Republicans declined to comment on the event.

Two hours before the event began, students were already lined up outside Bailey Hall in anticipation of an evening of sharing perspectives and engaging in discussion. Roughly 1,300 students attended the event.

While attendees filed in, they passed by a designated protest area outside Bailey Hall. The space, signified by a hand-written sign taped to a stone wall reading “Demonstration Area,” remained unused throughout the event.

Once students took their seats, Shapiro began to outline why students should not support Vice President and Democratic presi-

dential nominee Kamala Harris. Shapiro began this 20-minute-long speech by arguing why “intersectional wokeness must die.”

Shapiro defined “intersectional wokeness” as a “hideous ideology” that assumes that “if one group is underperforming economically, it must be that they’ve been victimized by the overarching system, … and if one group has succeeded, that means that they must be exploiters.”

Shapiro voiced his concerns about Harris, criticizing her “pledge to kill the filibuster … to permanently stack the Senate in favor of Democrats, [and] to stack the Supreme Court or term limit the Supreme Court.”

Toward the end of his speech, Shapiro made the case for voting for Trump, which began with what he saw as the stakes of the 2024 election: “the preservation of institutions.”

“I've given up on the question of whether presidential candidates should be rich in character,” Shapiro said. Instead, Shapiro explained that he sees politicians not as heroes or exemplars but as analogous to “plumbers.”

“They are there to fix the toilet, and if they fix the toilet, that's pretty much something I care about," Shapiro said. “Sure, it could be better. I would love it if we didn't have the constant tweeting and the stream of bizarre jokes — that'd be

great. But you know what I really care about? Whether the toilet is running or not.”

Additionally, Shapiro expressed support for Trump’s foreign policy positions.

“President Trump was responsible for the most burgeoning peaceful era in Middle Eastern history, specifically because he was strong on foreign policy in the Middle East,” Shapiro said. “[After Trump,] the world is on fire from the border to the East to Ukraine.”

After his speech, students lined up to ask questions ranging from foreign politics to polling, with a specific emphasis on gender and sexuality and freedom of speech. Shapiro urged students who disagreed with him to move to the front of the line. An event organizer also appeared to adjust the line order after talking to students waiting to ask questions.

One student named Bruce referenced videos of Shapiro discussing “transgenderism.” Bruce asked Shapiro what his aim in debating “transgenderism” is and about what a “political solution” would be. The student concluded by asking, “What makes my right to exist any less valuable than yours?”

Shapiro maintained that he did not deny the right of transgender people to exist. However, he argued that he should not have to agree with the way transgender people characterize themselves.

“I’m not challenging your right to exist as a human, but I can disagree with your opinion about yourself,” Shapiro said. “The idea that we have to, as a society, redefine categories of male and female to fit people who believe that they are a member of the opposite sex … is an assault on truth.”

Shapiro said, “Do I have a solution to [gender dysphoria]? No, I'm not a psychologist or a scientist. What I know is not a solution to that is pretending things that are not true.”

Quinn Reinhardt ’25, who identified himself as a gay republican voting for Donald Trump, said that many in the LGBTQ+ community feel that liberal media produces a climate of fear regarding former president Trump and the Republican party.

In regards to this fear, Reinhardt asked Shapiro, “What message do you have for those individuals, particularly undecided, to address their concerns and potentially change their perspectives?”

Shapiro responded that Trump, as opposed to more traditional Republicans, has done a lot to move the Republican party closer to the left on LGBTQ+ issues. Shapiro said that at the Republican National Convention, Trump “literally took the Democratic platform” on LGBTQ-related issues. However, Shapiro made clear that he personally disagreed with rec-

ognizing gay marriage in public life as he argued the tax benefits of marriage are for child production.

“[A traditional] view of marriage remains a very strong belief for many of us [in the Republican Party], including me. I’m a man of traditional marriage,” Shapiro said.

In an interview with The Sun after the talk, Reinhardt said that he was satisfied with Shapiro’s response and that he believed his ability to disagree while still informing was commendable. After the Q&A, Reinhardt maintained his support for Trump.

“Whether or not the majority of the Republican Party shares a belief, if a candidate has not acted on the beliefs of those said constituents, then it really does not have any impact or bearing on my decision,” Reinhardt said.

While Rushika Prasad’26 — who asked a question about Shaprio’s commitment to improving discourse — did not believe that the event on campus furthered substantive discussion, Prasad said it provided a desired space for political conversation.

“In his time here, he provided what both parties wanted, which was conversation about the topics that he believed [in],” Prasad said.

“Do I think he necessarily furthered the quality of free speech on campus? No. But was this an event that people wanted for purposes of entertainment? Yes.”

Te New Brew: La Colombe to Replace Starbucks as Cornell University’s Primary Cofee Vendor

A recent ruling said Starbucks unlawfully punished Cornell student workers advocating for unionization

One and a half years after the University announced its decision to discontinue its partnership with Starbucks, Cornell Dining revealed that La Colombe Coffee Roasters will replace Starbucks as the primary retail coffee vendor across campus beginning in the summer of 2025.

La Colombe is an American coffee retailer founded in 1994 and based in Philadelphia. The retailer offers classic blends and single-origin coffee to various retailers and cafés while operating its own locations across the country. La Colombe facilitates direct and sustainable sourcing practices, paying producers above fair trade prices and employee-led community cleanups, according to the Feb. 5 statement by Cornell Student & Campus Life.

This new vendor announcement follows the National Labor Relations Board ruling that Starbucks unlawfully punished

Cornell students at its Ithaca locations who advocated for unionization, including denying some students leave over Cornell’s academic breaks during the unionization process.

Following a unionization movement at the store, all three Ithaca Starbucks locations were shut down by May 2023.

Students then occupied Day Hall to protest Cornell’s participation in the We Proudly Serve Starbucks program, and the Student Assembly proposed a resolution urging Cornell to end its partnership with Starbucks. In August 2023, the University announced it would terminate its partnership with Starbucks following the end of its existing contract with the brand in June 2025.

The year-long process of finding a new vendor started in Fall 2024, when Cornell Dining and Student and Campus Life’s

Purchasing Team investigated and tested potential vendors to replace Starbucks products. From the Student Assembly Dining Committee to the Coffee Club, this process also included opinions from Cornell students, staff and faculty, according to the statement. A tasting event was held at Trillium where coffee drinks from potential vendors were sampled and rated.

The purchasing team also assessed vendor business practices, staff training support, pricing structures and equipment needs before choosing La Colombe as the vendor to replace Starbucks, according to the statement.

“La Colombe’s commitment to equal employment opportunity, and maintaining a workplace where employees feel respected and supported, are at the core of their ethical and sustainable business practices,” the Student Campus & Life statement reads.

“Cornell Dining is proud to partner with a company that shares these values and priorities.”

Cornell Dining said in a statement to Cornell Student & Campus Life news that they will serve “a varying assortment” of La Colombe drinks at Amit Bhatia Libe Café, Bear Necessities, Bus Stop Bagels, Goldie’s Café, Jansen’s Market, Mattin’s Café, Rusty’s and Trillium.

In addition, some of the University’s existing smaller vendors, including Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Sun Coffee Roasters, will expand their service to more locations starting in the summer of 2025, the statement announced. While Peet’s is currently served at Café Jennie, Crossings Café and Novick’s Café, the brand will also begin to serve at Atrium Café. Sun Coffee Roasters drip coffee will be served in all of the residential dining halls.

University Says it Will Cut Over $100K Annually from the Center for Transformative Action

CTA serves as the parent organization for several on-campus programs, like Anabel’s Grocery

The Division of Student & Campus Life has decided to end the University’s affiliation with the Center For Transformative Action — the parent organization of many on-campus initiatives including Anabel’s Grocery, Durland Alternatives Library and Prisoner Express — starting June 2025. Over $100,000 in annual funding for CTA will be cut off two years later.

According to a statement emailed to The Sun from Dean of Students Marla Love, the affiliation between the CTA and Cornell United Religious Work — a multifaith community of more than 40 affiliated religious and spiritual leaders — will expire in June 2025. University funding for CTA will continue for two more years to give the organization time to find alternative funding sources.

“Anabel’s is a shining example of what makes Cornell so special.”

Harry Samuels ’24

The CTA website states that the center was “born from the turmoil of the late 1960’s at Cornell” at a time when many chaplains within CURW took part in antiwar and civil rights protests. In 1971, the Cornell Board of Trustees moved “to house these activities within a newly incorporated, education-based center, one that was affiliated with, but legally separate from, Cornell,” the CTA website states.

According to Love, “The agencies now supported by

CTA, including Anabel’s Grocery, have outgrown the intent of that 1971 agreement and their affiliation with CURW.”

“We have been connecting across the institution to find CTA a supportive home and look forward to continuing those efforts,” Love wrote.

CTA is the fiscal sponsor to 35 non-profit organizations that focus on a range of social causes, many of which exist outside of Cornell in the Ithaca area and beyond.

Anabel’s Grocery, which is housed under CTA, has helped provide subsidized produce to students since 2017. The store was created by two students in response to a 2015 survey that found that 22 percent of Cornell students responded that they “skipped meals or [did not have] enough to eat because of financial constraints.”

Anabel’s launched a petition on Friday asking for signatures and testimonials “requesting the university continue its longstanding financial support of CTA, and share testimonials on how Anabel’s and other CTA programs have impacted your time at Cornell.”

The petition’s webpage further stated that the decision to end CTA’s affiliation agreement will take “away over 100k in annual endowment income after June 2027,” adding that “while Cornell is working towards finding another affiliation for the CTA, it will very likely not include any funding.”

Love wrote in her statement that “the university has been working diligently to find ways to sustain Anabel’s Grocery,” noting that “the course associated with Anabel’s Grocery is an important community-engaged course that

reaches around 115 students each year.”

According to CTA’s most recently published financial statements, in 2023, Cornell contributed a total of $138,726 to CTA, including donor-restricted assets, which carry restrictions as to how they can be used.

“Cutting its funding now, at the height of its impact, would be more than just frustrating — it would be a failure to recognize its essential role…it would sever an invaluable connection to our community.”

Uyen Hoang ’25

At time of publication, 624 people have signed the petition and 185 testimonials have been written. The testimonials from students, staff and alumni highlight the affordable food and strong community Anabel’s provides.

Harry Samuels ’24 wrote in a testimony: “Anabel’s is a shining example of what makes Cornell so special.”

For Uyen Hoang ’25, “Anabel’s is more than just a grocery store—it’s a qualified resource and a bridge to the local food system.” Hoang wrote in a testimony, “Cutting its funding now, at the height of its impact, would be more than just frustrating—it would be a failure to recognize its essential role…it would sever an invaluable connection to our community.”

HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN FILE PHOTO

Grocer gone? | After Cornell announced the termination of its partnership with the Center for Transformative Action, students are worried about the future of Anabel’s Grocery.

MICHELLE YANG / SUN FILE PHOTO

Cheap eats | Anabel’s Grocery has become a campus staple since its creation in 2017, offering subsidized produce to students.

At least 17 pro-Palestinian attendees were arrested or detained on Monday by Cornell University Police Department officers at Pathways to Peace, a panel discussion that brought together four experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a “wide-ranging conversation” on “potential paths forward for the people of Israel and Palestine,” according to the event’s description.

In a statement from Interim President Michael Kotlikoff sent on Tuesday, he explained that CUPD identified 17 people responsible for the disruptions, nine of whom are students who will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for “appropriate action, including the imposition of interim measures up to and including suspension.”

Kotlikoff further explained that University staff will be referred to Human Resources for disciplinary actions and outside demonstrators will be issued “persona non grata status” and be barred from campus.

Kotlikoff also said in his statement that Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian campus organization which helped to advertise and organize the event disruption, “faces suspension as a registered campus organization.”

Moderating the event in Bailey Hall was Ryan Crocker, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon. The panelists were Salam Fayyad, the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Tzipi Livni, the former vice prime minister and former foreign minister of Israel and Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel.

According to a press release from SJP, students and community members were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct during the walkout. Protesters were escorted out of Bailey Hall after disrupting the event with pro-Palestine chants, making noise when panelists were talking and posing unscripted questions.

The panel met resistance before it began from SJP announcing an “emergency walkout” in a Saturday Instagram post. According to the post, SJP and other pro-Palestine organizations planned to walk out to protest what they viewed as “Cornell University’s decision to invite war criminals to our campus.”

Livni faced war crime allegations and a warrant for her arrest in the UK in 2009 for her decisions made before and during a three-week-long Israeli offensive in Palestine, Operation Cast Lead, while she was Israel’s foreign minister and member of the Israeli war cabinet. The warrant was withdrawn when it was discovered that she was not in the UK.

Kotlikoff wrote in a column to The Sun on March 5 that the event would uphold “Cornell’s twin commitments to access and to open inquiry and expression” with “open inquiry” that “enables both students and citizens to see and respect other's views.”

A March 10 opinion column to The Sun written by Hasham Khan ’26 on behalf of SJP detailed how the panel was “unbalanced” in favor of Israeli voices and why SJP would be leading a walkout.

“There is not a single Palestinian voice of resistance, not a single scholar or activist representing the realities of Palestinian oppression,” Khan wrote in the article.

The first instances of pro-Palestinian protest activity at the protest came at the introductions of Crocker, Livni and Shapiro, at which point students shouted phrases like “shame” and “war criminal.

Protests intensified when Crocker pointed to a map of the Middle East, saying, “It’s important to understand how compact

this area is. You could have breakfast in Beirut, lunch in Damascus, afternoon tea in Amman, dinner in Ramallah, a nightcap in Tel Aviv or Gaza City.” This was then interrupted by a stir in the audience. In response, an audience member shouted “What city is left in Gaza?”

Audience member Maria Lima Valdez ’25 said that Crocker’s introduction to the discussion sounded like a “vacation” when “people are literally dying there.”

After the disruption, Kotlikoff went on stage and announced, “We’ve enabled speech and people have made their views heard. You are now infringing on the rights of others to listen to these people. The next individual that shouts will be escorted out. This is your warning.”

Crocker said after the interruption that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not a case of “right versus wrong,” but “right versus right.” His next sentence, “this is what I hope our panelists will explore this evening — how two rights can make an ultimate right when a true pathway to peace…” was interrupted by loud, continuous coughing from various pro-Palestinian students.

A member of SJP who spoke to The Sun on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution said that students coughed “in protest to Kotlikoff, who had just said that no further disruption was allowed.” The student said it was “important to resist in the ways that we can,” especially for those who did not want to “stand up and heckle and immediately be arrested.”

A student then shouted at Livni, accusing her of overseeing the murder “of over 500 children.” The student was taken out through a side door of Bailey Hall by two police officers and led into the Computing and Communications Center.

Other protestors then left the event, chanting slogans like “Free, free, free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” An unidentified man threw a backpack at a student taking part in the walkout when he left his seat. The man was not approached by event staff or CUPD.

The Sun spoke with Kotlikoff about the removal of protestors from the audience at the end of the panel.

“What occurred here was not just an initial response but a disruptive event and that’s not freedom of speech, that’s infringing on somebody else’s freedom of speech, and the freedom of the audience to hear the speakers,” Kotlikoff said. “I find that very unfortunate that people come not to listen to individuals that have significant expertise, but rather to disrupt the event. I don’t think that’s how learning occurs, and I expect more from Cornell students.”

Once about 20 protestors gathered outside Bailey Hall, CUPD attempted to move them away from the stairs of the building. No clear answer was given when protestors asked where they were allowed to protest.

CUPD declined to comment at the time to questions about designated protest areas.

The event proceeded with Livni talking about her experience in the Israeli cabinet before the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, explaining that she convinced other ministers that it was the right thing to dismantle settlements in Gaza and for Israel to withdraw in August 2005. “We pulled out the Israeli forces, Livni said. “And [then] … Hamas won the election.”

Livni said that because “there was [not one] Israeli soldier or one Israeli sanctuary in Gaza” before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the intention of Hamas was “not to free Gaza,” which Livni said it could have achieved by “renouncing violence and terrorism.”

Fayyad stressed the importance of having “recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to the Islamic state ... because we have no

such recognition formally” in negotiations during peace talks. This was similar to Shapiro’s opinion that the creation of a post-conflict government in Palestinian would ensure that “Palestinians [have] as much self-determination as possible,” and Livni’s support for a two-state solution.

However, Fayyad’s view that Hamas needed to be part of the post-war governance of Palestine differed from Shapiro’s perspective that Hamas needed to be “removed from power” and Livni’s explanation of Hamas as a “jihadist” state that “should be out.”

“It’s too much to ask from any political society, any people, to suppress pluralism,” Fayyad said. He continued, “It’s incumbent upon us Palestinians to find an effective way to manage our pluralism” and to “offer people a competitive ideology” instead of “pushing away an ideology by brute force.”

Audience member Ezra Galperin ’27 said he was “surprised” that Fayyad said “the onus is on the Palestinians to install new leadership” and the conflict was “an internal Palestinian issue” which “Israel bears no responsibility [for].”

“It was ... heartening to see that each [panelist] was able to acknowledge problems, actions within their own camp,” Galperin said.

Valdez said that Fayyad was a “puppet” “propped up by the U.S.” with a 25 percent approval rating among Palestinians. She said event organizers “used [Fayyad] as a token” to make it “look like [they] had the Palestinian and Israeli side.”

Some attendees who pre-submitted questions for the event were selected to ask their questions live during a 10-minute Q&A session. Three students were selected by event coordinators to ask a question at the event, all of whom posed unscripted questions.

The first student started their question by saying, “You espoused a pathway to peace, yet during Operation Cast Lead…” referring to Livni’s support for the 2008-2009 Gaza War that resulted in about 1,400 Palestinian deaths. The rest of the question was incomprehensible as the microphone was taken away by event staff. They were then escorted out and detained, according to a SJP press release.

After more shouts from audience members asking Livni to “justify” her allegations related to Operation Cast Lead, Livni said, “It is our legitimate right to defend our citizens ... You should not compare between those acting against terrorists while trying to avoid civilian casualties ... and premeditated murder.”

Kotlikoff asked the last question of the panel to Fayyad about whether there were “viable alternatives to prevent the fragmentation of Palestinian governance” after Hamas’ victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and how Palestinian leadership could “overcome the deeply entrenched political rift today.”

Fayyad reiterated his belief that Hamas should be included in future Palestinian leadership “on a platform of non-violence.” He also stressed the “importance” of having the “Palestinian right to the state” be “enshrined,” despite it being not “likely” that Israel would accept this. “Why should our right to self-determination,” Fayyad continued, “our right to the state, continue to be held hostage towards Israel, politically?”

Some students who attended the event to hear perspectives on the history of conflict and the war in Gaza voiced frustration over the disruptions. J.P. Swenson ’25, the student-elected trustee to Cornell’s Board of Trustees, emphasized that a University environment should be a place where all viewpoints are heard.

"I was disappointed in all the disruptions in the beginning, just because I thought the perspectives were supposed to be balanced, and I don’t think some of the people who were shouting gave the speakers a chance to share their opinions,” Swenson said. “A lot of people were there just trying to listen, like me.”

Michael Kotlikof Named 15th President of Cornell Students Protest Panelists at 'Pathways to Peace' Discussion at a Packed Bailey Hall in March

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 two-year 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 presi-

dent 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.”

Going into the position of interim president, Kotlifkoff and Provost Kavita Bala established in February a new task force to prevent sexual assault on campus.

As interim president, Kotlikoff also formed a

Presidential Task Force on Institutional Voice, which outlined how and when the University should speak institutionally on politics, ideology, current affairs and world events. He formed the task force a year after he and then-president Pollack provided an update on its Interim Expressive Activity Policy addressing concerns about free expression restrictions on March 11, 2024.

Kotlikoff formerly served as founding chair of the biomedical sciences department, the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and provost. He served for nearly nine years and stands as the longest-serving provost in Cornell history.

Kotlikoff emphasized the importance of freedom and responsibility under his leadership in his introduction letter to the Cornell community after accepting the role of interim president.

“In contentious times, it is particularly important that each of us understand and honor the freedoms and responsibilities that we have as Cornellians,” Kotlikoff wrote. “To listen to and respect each other’s views, and to build a community where everyone feels they belong.”

SUNBURSTS: Senior Year in Photos

Sun photographers had a busy year, snapping photos for over 200 assignments. Here are some (but not all) of the highlights

By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

CAREER FAIR CONFRONTATION | A pro-Palestinian protest shuts down an Industrial and Labor Relations career fair attended by weapons manufacturers Boeing and L3Harris.

WHITE COLORED IN | The A.D. White statue in front of Goldwin Smith Hall was vandalized on the first day of the spring semester.

SLOPE-SET | Students walk back from class during a scenic autumn sunset.

SLINGSHOT | Men’s lacrosse midfielder Hugh Kelleher ’25 slings a shot against Penn State.

HOMECOMING HIGHLIGHTS | Cornell defeats Yale 47-23 during the Homecoming football game on Sept. 28.

GET A LEG UP | Cornell Ballet Club performs Swan Lake to a full house at the Schwartz Center on Feb. 22.

FACEPALM | An attendee at a Black Students United election watch party reacts to presidential candidate Donald Trump winning another state.

CARSON CHAOS | Cornell Concert Commission and the Multicultural Community-Fueled Activities Board hosted rapper Ken Carson for a sold-out performance in Barton Hall.

Leilani Burke / Sun Senior Editor

Nathan Ellison / Sun Staf Photographer

Nathan Ellison / Sun Staf Photographer

Timmy Xi / Sun Staf Photographer

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Editor

Stephan Menasche / Sun Assistant Photography Editor

Ming DeMers / Sun Senior Photographer

Connor Lucente / Sun Staf Photographer

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Congratulates its 2025 Graduating Seniors:

Daniella Garcia Almeida

Margot Baker

Leilani Burke

Rachel Cannata

Armand Chancellor

Nicole Collins

Grace Elmore

Max Fattal

Grace Feisthamel

Laine Havens

Olivia Holloway

Serin Koh

Anika Kolanu

SPRING 2024

Tenzin Kunsang

Gillian Lee

Kaitlyn Lee

Dunia Matta

Jonathan Mong

Nia Perry

Caidan Pilarski

Kiki Plowe

Julia Poggi

Eric Reilly

Carlin Reyen

Cristina Torres

Aurora Weirens

S.A. Addresses Bias Issues

Te outgoing Assembly introduced measures to improve transparency

Responding to months of controversy in the Student Assembly and ongoing tension on campus, the Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in its final meeting Thursday to amend the S.A. bylaws to improve transparency and decrease bias, among other initiatives.

The resolution, sponsored by outgoing S.A. President Patrick Kuehl ’24, mandates anti-bias and transparency training for all members of the Assembly, focusing on steps to recognize implicit bias, increase relationships with individuals and groups in the Cornell community and educate about the proper methods to report bias and harassment.

The resolution also calls for funds to be allocated toward implementing date-rape-drug test kits in and around Cornell’s campus during the Fall 2024 semester.

This resolution comes after a Sun investigation into the conduct of a then-highranking Assembly member revealed that he demonstrated a pattern of attempting to block women’s health-related resolutions, including a proposal to implement date-rape-drug test kits at fraternities and Cornell Health.

Proposed by presidential candidate Pedro Da Silveira ’25 in April 2023 to then the Interfraternity Council president and vice presidential candidate George Rocco DeLorenzo ’24, Da Silveira asked if he could campaign on providing free date-rape-drug test kits to fraternities to “maintain an ‘extra safe fun environment’ (you know to really sell myself to the women vote),” an April 21, 2023, message read. The two had an apparent agreement to bar discussion of Greek life from the Student Assembly.

In response, DeLorenzo — who went on to become the vice president of finance of the S.A. before resigning last month due to the findings of an internal ethics investigation — said campus focus was no longer on date rape at fraternities, as it had been in November 2022 after a series of drugging incidents and a sexual assault were reported at Cornell fraternities. “Bringing it back out now does not seem like the best idea,” DeLorenzo wrote, adding that he was not confident test strips work effectively.

When further pressed if Da Silveira could simply campaign on providing funds for Cornell Health to distribute date-rape-drug test kits without mentioning fraternities, DeLorenzo wrote to “pls stay away from this type of stuff.” He added: “There are other ways to get the female vote and this method is

thinly veiled at best.” Da Silveira went on to win the presidency, but was ousted when it was publicly revealed he had a Title IX allegation against him. He was later found not responsible for sexual assault by the Title IX Office.

An investigation by the S.A. Office of Ethics found that DeLorenzo, as chair of the Appropriations Committee, acted in a manner that led to a hostile working environment for committee members and various student organizations that receive funding from the committee.

Members from the Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition testified that they “felt uncomfortable during Appropriations Committee meetings, due at least in part to DeLorenzo’s alleged belittling comments toward female presenters and occasionally aggressive demeanor.” In November, DeLorenzo recommended a decrease in funding for GJAC due to a lack of clear financial records, though the ethics investigation did not find evidence of bias in DeLorenzo’s allocation of funds.

Kuehl told The Sun that while this resolution was not created in direct response to the action of DeLorenzo, there is “some correlation,” and it also broadly responses to “vast inequities” that have been brought to light in the last year.

With the passing of Thursday’s resolution, all student organizations that receive funding from the Appropriations Committee will also be granted an ex-officio seat on the Assembly, which Kuehl said is an attempt to facilitate direct communication between organizations and the S.A. outside of advocating for funding.

The resolution further establishes a Campus Pulse Committee, supported by an endowed account with $400,000, to increase the availability of resources to address “pressing needs” on campus. The committee will implement anti-bias programming and work to facilitate community conversations designed to increase “empathy and cross-cultural dialogue between individuals and groups on the Cornell campus.” Included on the committee will be the president of GJAC, or their designee, among other equity-based group leaders.

“The challenges we have seen this year, both inside the Assembly and in the campus community, while unique to this year, certainly won’t be the last challenge that we face as a community,” Kuehl said. “There will be a need for people to have the resources to work through issues together.”

Remembering Four Years in Cornell Sports

gram-record 11-match home unbeaten streak.

Dec. 2: Men's hockey falls to rival Harvard in overtime. Crimson beat the Red 2-1.

Jan. 21: Men's hockey takes down top-ranked Quinnipiac with a save shutout by Ian Shane '21.

Feb. 25: Men's Hockey defeats Yale 5-1 securing its 25th Ivy League title. The commanding win sent Cornell into a bye week on a high note.

March 20: Wrestling's Arujau and Diakomihalis are crowned national champions ater winning championship matches in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is Diakomihalis's fourth national championship win.

April 29: Men's Lacrosse clinches 31st Ivy Title with Aiden Blake scoring the final two goals leading the Red to victory past the Princeton Tigers.

May 9: Gavin Adler was selected first overall in the Premier Lacrosse League Draft meaning his lacrosse career will not end at Cornell as he joins the Atlas Lacrosse Club.

Junior Year (2023-24)

Sep. 23: Football upsets Yale, the reigning Ivy League champions, on the road. The Red won 23-21.

Oct. 4: Women’s soccer ties Columbia at Berman Field, 1-1, securing a pro-

Oct. 15: Field hockey upsets thenNo. 13 Syracuse in double-overtime at Marsha Dodson Field.

Nov. 11: Women’s swimming and diving beats Harvard for the first time since 1983.

Nov. 25: Men’s hockey beats rival B.U. at Madison Square Garden, aided by a 35-save shutout by Ian Shane ’25.

Jan. 28: Wrestling upsets then-No. 2 Missouri in front of a ruckus crowd at Newman Arena.

Feb. 17: With a 2-1 victory over Yale, women’s hockey clinches the Ivy League title for the 16th time.

Mar. 19: Men’s basketball falls to Ohio State, 88-83, in the Red’s first ever appearance in the NIT. A very promising season ends for a large group of seniors.

Mar. 23: Men’s hockey defeats St. Lawrence in the ECAC Tournament Championship, breaking a 14-year title drought and securing an automatic NCAA tournament bid.

Apr. 2: Men’s lacrosse beats Syracuse in double-overtime, 18-17. The Red overcame a 7-0 deficit to win a game-ofthe-year candidate.

May 5: Baseball clinches its first Ivy League Tournament berth in 12 years with a 9-4 victory over Brown.

Senior Year (2024-25)

for the Summer Olympic Games, earning one gold, one silver and one bronze medal in rowing, the triathlon mixed relay and wrestling, respectively.

Sep. 28: Football upends Yale in a rainy 47-23 win, its first Homecoming game victory since 2017.

Oct. 5: Women’s soccer takes its first conference victory since November of 2022, a 1-0 win over Dartmouth.

Nov.16: Football topples Dartmouth, previously undefeated on the road, for its final home game of 2024.

Nov. 24: Men's soccer started its NCAA Tournament run with a comeback win over visitors Fordham. Despite Fordham coming out to a 2-0 lead, the Red scored four straight to win the game and move on to the second round.

Dec. 18: The Ivy League Council of Presidents approves a proposal to allow the winner of the Ivy League to compete in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs starting next season. This reverses nearly 80 years of precedent.

Jan. 21: The Ivy League opts out of the House v. NCAA settlement, continuing its policy of refraining from providing student-athletes with revenue-sharing allocations, athletic scholarships or direct NIL payments.

Field, has faced complications that may delay its availability for the fall 2025 field hockey season.

Jan. 25: After a 5-0 shakedown of men’s hockey, Dartmouth taunts the Lynah Faithful, leading to a brawl between the entirety of the two teams that results in multiple suspensions.

March 15: In front of a record 3,135 fans, women’s ice hockey’s sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann stops 28 shots in a 1-0 win against Minnesota-Duluth in the NCAA Tournament Regional Final. The team advances to the Frozen Four.

March 24: Men’s lacrosse earns a spot at the top of both Inside Lacrosse and USILA media polls for the first time in 18 years. It goes on to hold the No. 1 rank through the end of the regular season.

March 29: The career of men’s ice hockey head coach Mike Schaefer ’86 ends with an overtime loss to Boston University in the NCAA Tournament. The team now has an eight-game losing streak in regional final games.

April 14: Women’s polo defeats the University of New Hampshire to take its first-ever Division II Women's National Intercollegiate Championship.

April 26: Senior attackman CJ Kirst surpasses the NCAA record for most alltime goals scored in Dl men’s lacrosse with his 225th against Dartmouth on Senior Day. FOUR YEARS

July 24: Five Cornellians head to Paris

Jan. 23: Athletic Director Nicki Moore shares in a statement that the “Game Farm Road” project, meant to replace the demolished Marsha Dodson

LEILANI BURKE / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

Homecoming hype | Cornell Football beat Yale for in its first homecoming game win since 2017 in September

Frozen Four | Womens's hockey beat Minnesota Duluth to make it to the NCAA Frozen Four game.

ELI FASTIFF / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

Women’s Ice Hockey’s Rory Guilday Shines on the Ice

By ELI FASTIFF

For the second year in a row, The Sun’s Female Athlete of the Year is a member of the women’s hockey team. Last year’s winner — Izzy Daniel ’24 — was an incredible individual talent and a bridge between the pre-pandemic success and the post-pandemic rebuild of the program. Like Daniel, Rory Guilday ’25 was instrumental in rebuilding Cornell’s women’s hockey program to a place of excellence. Unlike Daniel, Guilday remained long enough to see the Red return to college hockey’s promised land: the Frozen Four.

For Cornell, the 2024-2025 season was a historic one. The team won its fifth ECAC title, made its fifth Frozen Four appearance, and set a women’s hockey attendance record at Lynah Rink.

“[At the ECAC] championship we had a spectacular crowd, and I remember having chills the entire time, from when we first stepped on ice through the national anthem when everyone yelled ‘Red,’” Guilday said. “I think honestly, maybe I got a little teary eyed.”

The Red’s impressive season came five years after the cancellation of the 2020 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament while the squad was slated as the top seed and four years after the Ivy League missed the entirety of the 2020-2021 season. There may be no player who better represents the post-pandemic resurgence of the women’s hockey program at Cornell than Guilday.

When Guilday first stepped foot on campus, little remained of the impressive 2019-2020 team.

“It was a really, really young, inexperienced team because of the loss of the [COVID-19] year and … I think the team we had at that point there was only a few girls — a handful — who had actually played in college games before that season,” Guilday said. “We had a big freshman class, I think 11 or 12 of us … It was chaos.”

Making matters worse, the 2022 Winter Olympics were held during Guilday’s freshman year, meaning head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 was missing for stretches of the season while coaching for Team Canada. Despite Cornell’s mediocre record (14-142, 12-8-2 ECAC), what Guilday dubbed a “rebuilding year” triumphed in setting up the team for future success.

“We all kind of took on the learning curve together, and did what we could do for that year and we all learned a lot,” said

Guilday. “It took trial and error, and rebuilding this team back up … it was for the people in that room and for no one else. We wanted to get better, and we did each year. I think that’s because of the people we had in the locker room and our amazing coaches that guided us in the right direction, and we eventually made it.”

Make it they did. After finishing sixth in the ECAC during the 2021-2022 regular season, Guilday and the Red finished fifth, then fourth, in the following two years. During these three seasons Guilday was excellent, racking up 43 points and twice finishing second on the team in blocks. While her sophomore campaign was shortened due to injury, Guilday played in 29 and 32 games her freshman and junior seasons respectively, earning All-Ivy honors in both years.

Then came the 2024-2025 season.

It’s no coincidence that what makes Guilday such a special player is almost identical to what propelled this year’s team to greatness: gritty lockdown defense, timely scoring and a close bond.

For both Guilday and Cornell, the defense comes first. This summer, Guilday will be a top pick in the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft because of her defense prowess. At 5’ 11’’, the Minnesota native terrorizes forwards with her physical defensive playstyle, while also being able to keep her head up to close down passing and shooting lanes.

“I’m no stranger to hard work here at Cornell and I think that’s going to help me a lot in the PWHL,” Guilday said. “It’s a fast physical game there and it’s obviously professional hockey with the best players in the world, and I think that I’m well prepared because of what coach [Derraugh] has taught me and what we’ve been through as a team.”

Regardless of what comes next, Guilday’s impact at Cornell is undeniable. Along with her 10 fellow seniors, Guilday helped lead Cornell from a .500 team to competing for National Championships.

“I’m maybe a little biased because she’s one of my best friends, but she is the best human being I know. She’s such a good, well rounded person,” Rud said. “Obviously a very good teammate, friend, person. She excels not only on the ice but off the ice, as well in the classroom. I have nothing but good things to say about her.”

Men’s Lacrosse’s CJ Kirst Continues to Break Records

By ALEXIS ROGERS Sun Sports Editor

It’s easy to describe attackman CJ Kirst’s accomplishments with numbers.

239 goals made him the highest-scoring Dl men’s lacrosse player of all time. 74 goals is the most any Cornellian has achieved in a single season. With 4.62 goals per game, he leads the country. Twice, he’s been named a Tewaaraton Award finalist — and likely, this year, he will win it. He was the first overall pick in the 2025 Professional Lacrosse League draft.

The record books tell one story. It’s impossible, however, to quantify Kirst’s leadership, charisma and character.

“The things that he does are immeasurable on the stats sheet,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17. “The heart that he plays with sets the tone for our entire team.”

Kirst played his first game with the Red in 2022, after his freshman season in 2021 was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. The year prior, the team had only completed five games before all activity shut down.

In 2022, the Red released the bottled-up tension built during two seasons off the field. Though Cornell fell in the semifinal of the Ivy League Tournament, an at-large bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament gave the team a second chance.

The Red faced Ohio State in its first round game, sending the Buckeyes home with a 15-8 defeat. Behind seven of those goals? Kirst, in his first season.

Kirst scored in every game of the Red’s unlikely seventh-seed run to the NCAA Championship, which it ultimately lost to the University of Maryland. He was second only to John Piatelli ’22 in goals and points on the season.

He didn’t let up. In 2023, he led the team with 65 goals, and even in 2024, a comparatively unproductive year (partially due to a shortened postseason), he topped the list. Kirst returned for his fifth-year season with a hunger – not just for personal success, or even to return the Red to glory, but to make the most of his time with his teammates.

“The goal is to earn more time together,” Kirst said. “To host an [NCAA Tournament] game was the goal, and having that opportunity was pretty crazy.”

The Red won the Ivy League Tournament for the first time since 2018. Not only did it win, but it was decisive; Cornell scored over 20 goals in both games.

What distinguishes Kirst on the field, potentially even more than his seemingly unstoppable solo attacks on the net, are his partnerships.

Kirst and senior attackman Michael Long have played side-by-side since high school, graduating the college-preparatory Delbarton

School one year apart. The pair operate as a unit; during the Ivy League Tournament alone, three Kirst goals were assisted by Long, and two Long goals were assisted by Kirst.

On April 26, Kirst officially surpassed the NCAA scoring record with his 225th goal. Making the final pass, of course, was Long.

“If I were to draw it up it couldn’t be any better,” Kirst said after the game. “[Long and I have] been through a lot together.”

The other dynamic duo drawing eyes on Cornell’s offensive line consists of Kirst and sophomore attackman Ryan Goldstein. Goldstein replaced Long’s past position at the X and has thrived; he is second on the team in points, with 34 goals and 48 assists.

The trio is collectively responsible for over one half of the team’s total points for the season.

“I came back as a sixth-year senior,” Long said. “I wanted to come back here. I knew I wanted to play with [Kirst]. You’ve seen it out there; between him and [Ryan] Goldstein, we’re just having the time of our lives.”

Against Yale on March 22nd, Kirst broke his personal record for single-game goals. Goldstein, in that same game, broke his personal record for single-game assists.

“[Goldstein’s] a pass-first kind of guy,” Kirst said after the season’s home-opener against Denver, in which he notched six goals and two assists, while Goldstein earned five assists and one goal. “He’s always got his head up and makes our offense go. It was always an easy shot today, so all credit to him.”

After the Red’s final home game of the 2025 season, a second-round win against University at Albany in the NCAA tournament, Kirst emerged from the locker room into a crowd.

Approaching from the crowd of athletics staff, family members and media representatives, a pair of young lacrosse players held out their sticks. With a smile, Kirst signed both.

“Has that ever happened before?” asked The Sun.

“No, never,” Kirst replied, grinning ear to ear. “That was so cool.”

It’s a family business; with older brothers Colin, Connor, and Cole each playing DI men’s lacrosse and continuing on to the PLL after graduation, it was only natural that Kirst would follow in their footsteps. After being picked up first overall by the Philadelphia Waterdogs during the PLL draft, Kirst has opportunities to test professional-level limits ahead of him.

For now, though, he’s focused on the only thing he can: “getting the next one.” Though he may have achieved every pinnacle of recognition for collegiate men’s lacrosse, Kirst won’t relent until the clock runs out.

Lacrosse legend | CJ Kirst became the highest-scoring DI mens lacrosse scorer.

Guilday goal | Guilday will be a top pick in the Professional Women’s Hockey League Draft this summer.

LEILANI BURKE / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

Eli Fastif can be reached at efastif@cornellsun.com.

Alexis Rogers can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com.

Sun Senior Editor

TIMMY XI / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A Journey Through Four Years in Cornell Athletics

Freshman Year (2021-22)

Aug. 6: Five Cornellians compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games with Kyle Dake ’13 taking the bronze medal in the men’s wrestling freestyle 74kg event and Taylor Knibb ’20 earning silver in the Olympic Triathlon Mixed Relay.

Aug. 28: Men’s lacrosse’s Jonathan Donville ’21 is selected by the Panther City Lacrosse Club with the No. 1 overall pick of the National Lacrosse League Entry Draft, joining Jeff Teat ’21 as the second Cornell player to be drafted No. 1 in as many years.

Sept. 25: Women’s soccer defeats Columbia, 1-0, to win its first Ivy League game since Nov. 5, 2016.

Oct. 23: Following a 28-2-3 season that was cut short due to COVID, women’s hockey returns to the ice by splitting a weekend series with Mercyhurst, dropping a 3-2 decision before rebounding with a 4-0 shutout.

Oct. 29: Sprint football grinds out a 6-0 victory — its second of the season — in a mud- and rain-filled contest at Chestnut Hill College.

Nov. 6: Searching for its first Trustee’s Cup in eight years, Cornell claims the trophy as well as its first Ivy League win of the season in a 15-12 victory over Penn.

Nov. 6: In its final home match of the season during Senior Day, Volleyball sends its upperclassmen off with a straight-set win against Harvard.

Nov. 8: Men’s hockey junior Ben Berard earns Ivy League Player of the Week honors after notching his second career hat trick in a chaotic 5-4 win against Dartmouth.

Nov. 10: Women’s basketball returns to Newman Arena with a 53-34 smothering of Colgate in the season opener.

Nov. 13: In an 11-3 smackdown of RPI, men’s hockey scores 11 goals, the team’s highest scoring output in 42 years.

Nov. 27: Men’s hockey stays hot in its Red Hot Hockey showdown against Boston

University at Madison Garden, racing past the Terriers, 6-4, to preserve a six-game winning streak and improve to 8-1 on the year.

Dec. 4: Men’s hockey keeps its streak alive with a 4-1 victory over St. Lawrence, which featured a third-period hat trick by junior Matt Stienburg. But the team collapses the next day against Clarkson as Cornell squanders a four-goal lead in the final five minutes of regulation and loses in the subsequent shootout.

Jan. 22: Ben Berard powers men’s hockey to a 2-1 upset against No. 1 Quinnipiac, scoring both of the Red’s goals, including the game-winner in overtime.

Feb 2: Men’s heavyweight rowing coxswain, captain and beloved teammate Jack Robinson passes away after an 11-year battle with osteosarcoma.

Feb. 6: Handing Penn its first Ivy loss of the season, wrestling claims its 41st Ancient Eight title and its 18th in 19 seasons.

Feb. 7: Placing fourth in the individual free skate during the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, Karen Chen helps the U.S. figure skating team take home the silver medal in the team competition.

Feb. 19: After enduring mid-season struggles with head coach Mike Schafer ’86 absent due to a bout with COVID-19 as well as a cardiac stent surgery, men’s hockey scores a resounding 6-2 win over No. 15 Clarkson on Senior Night.

Feb. 26: Women’s hockey’s season ends in the ECAC quarterfinals as the Red falls to Colgate in two games.

March 2: After spending 23 years as Cornell’s Director of Athletics, Andy Noel announces his plan to retire this year. Noel, whose contract expires in June, will finish the academic year and serve into the 202223 year until his successor is named.

March 6: With six individual competitors earning NCAA Tournament berths, wrestling captures its 26th EIWA in program history and its first since 2017.

March 6: Squash’s Siva Subramaniam defeats Harvard’s Hana Moataz and wins the national indi-

vidual championship, putting the bow on her perfect individual record of 19-0.

March 12: Making its first appearance in Ivy Madness in three years, men’s basketball’s promising season ends in a narrow 77-73 loss to Princeton.

March 13: Men’s hockey’s season concludes in the ECAC Quarterfinals as the Red drops the third game of the series, 2-1, to Colgate.

March 19: Freshman gymnast Sydney Beers posts a 9.850 score on the vault, a career-high mark that wins her

April 24: Legendary men’s lacrosse coach Richie Moran passes away at the age of 85. Moran coached the Red for 29 seasons, leading the team to three national championships and 15 Ivy League titles, cementing Cornell as a premiere men’s lacrosse program.

April 30: Women’s lacrosse shows out for Senior Day, beating Dartmouth, 16-13, in the regular season finale to clinch the No. 3 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.

April 30: With an Ivy League title on the line, men’s lacrosse defeats Princeton, 18-15, to claim a share of the Ancient Eight crown, its 30th title.

May 15: After bowing out of the Ivy League Tournament with a loss to Yale, men’s lacrosse earns the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where it comes back from a 4-0 deficit to defeat No. 12 Ohio State in the first round, 15-8.

Sophomore Year (2022-23)

Aug. 19: Cornell Athletics makes a return to fall sports for another year since their return from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sept. 5: Men’s soccer sweeps California road trip games. The Red won against UCSB 2-1, and bested U.C. Irvine with a 1-0 victory.

Sept. 12: Cornell Women’s Volleyball closes out the Cornell Invitational without a win, losing 2-4 in the annual event.

Oct. 1: Cornell Football dominates against Colgate, winning 34-31 against the Raiders.

Nov. 2: Women’s Soccer defeats Princeton for the first time since 1995, winning 2-1.

See FOUR YEARS page 54