INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 139, No. 58
8 Pages – Free
TUESDAY, MAY 9, 2023 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
Sunset
Arts
Sports
Weather
With this issue, The Sun suspends print publication for the summer. Please visit cornellsun.com periodically until The Sun returns to print in the fall.
Beachy Vibes
Legacies
Partly Cloudy
Rachel Cannata '25 reviews Beach House's new Extended Play.
The Sun announces its Male and Female Senior Athletes of the Year.
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HIGH: 65ºF LOW: 39ºF
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Deadheads Return to Barton By JONATHAN MONG and XINYU JOANNE HU Sun News Editor and Sun Assistant News Editor
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 JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Looking back | President Martha Pollack discussed the most contentious issues facing the University this year, ranging from free speech to Greek life.
President Pollack Sits Down With The Sun to Review 2022-2023 Year By SOFIA RUBINSON and AIMÉE EICHER Sun Managing Editor and Sun Assistant Managing Editor
The 2022-2023 school year brought both progress and controversy for Cornell, with the creation and continuation of various campus initiatives, disruptions in Greek life and more recently, tense discussions over the state of free speech at the University. Discussing these topics and more, President Martha Pollack sat down with The Sun to review her top priorities and stances on the most contentious issues affecting Cornellians.
“To provide the kind of education we want to provide at Cornell, it's very expensive.” President Martha Pollack Affordability Cornell’s affordability is a primary concern for many Cornellians, with undergraduate tuition increasing by 4.4 percent going into the 2023-2024 academic year. Pollack commented on the financial resources required to sustain the University. “To provide the kind of education we want to provide at Cornell, it's very expensive. We do everything we can to control costs,” Pollack said. “But, world-class faculty are expensive, [as are] world-class labs and facilities [and] world-class libraries — so we need resources.” Regarding the rise in tuition, Pollack emphasized that Cornell always increases financial aid with tuition. She noted that the
University follows a structured budget model to control costs. “If you look at the amount that students who receive aid pay and adjust for inflation, they actually pay less now than they did 20 years ago,” Pollack said. The University launched the To Do the Greatest Good initiative in October 2021, which aims to raise $5 billion for the University by 2026. For the Spring 2023 semester, the campaign allowed for increases in University grant aid for all undergraduates who qualify for financial aid. Pollack stated that the initiative is on track to reach its fundraising goals, which include $3 billion to fund the Ithaca campus, $1.5 billion for Weill Cornell Medicine and $500 million for Cornell Tech. One of the goals of the campaign, Pollack said, is to improve socioeconomic diversity among Cornell’s student body. The University aims to increase the number of students on financial aid, though Pollack noted that the proportion of students on aid will not increase due to a rise in overall enrollment. Approximately half of Cornell undergraduates receive financial aid, Pollack said. “If you compare to 2020, not only have the number of first-generation students increased from 13 percent to more than 19 percent, but the number of students who are coming with aid has increased by about 650 [students],” Pollack said. Cornell’s endowment reported a 1.3 percent investment loss for the 2022 fiscal year, compared to a significant 41.9 percent gain during the year prior. See POLLACK page 4
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?’” To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.
HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Rocking out | Alumni and students gathered in Barton Hall for the iconic Dead and Co. concert.
Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com. Xinyu Joanne Hu can be reached at xhu@cornellsun.com.
THE CORNELL DAILY SUN GUIDE TO SLOPE DAY 2023 !appy " lope#ay $ve! As per recent tradition, Slope Day will be held the day after classes end to celebrate the end of the academic year.
Schedule:
Free Breakfast
Gates Open: 11 a.m.
Free breakfast sandwiches and fruit will be served in front of Schwartz Center from 7:30 - 10:30 a.m. Wristbands
Slope Fest On Ho Plaza: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
If you have not already obtained your Slope Day wristband, you must pick one up today with a Cornell or government-issued ID. Music
Coco & Clair Clair and Snakehips! will open the concert, followed by Coin. Weather
Expect a sunny day and hot temperatures.
Concert Begins: Noon
All Ithaca Starbucks to Close by June Workers claim stores are closing in reaction to unionization By JONATHAN MONG Sun News Editor
A year after the Starbucks workers in Ithaca successfully voted to unionize and the Collegetown location subsequently closed, Starbucks has announced that it will permanently close the two remaining Ithaca locations — on E. Seneca Street and S. Meadow Street — by May 26, although it denied that the closures were in retaliation for the unionization effort, according to a statement made by a Starbucks official to the Ithaca Voice. According to Evan Sunshine ’24, who took the lead on the
original 2022 collective bargaining negotiations, Andrew Sugar, the district manager for both Ithaca locations, informed workers on shift — including Sunshine — at the E. Seneca Street location on May 5 about the stores’ closure, while those not on shift received a brief voicemail with no caller ID. Sunshine stated that Starbucks’ justification to the workers for closing the stores was due to financial and operational needs, although he expressed skepticism about the reasoning. “The store with the most significant amount of revenue [the College Avenue location] was shut
down,” Sunshine, who worked at the College Avenue location prior to its closing, said. “So most of the customers have migrated to the Commons and Meadow stores in different capacities, meaning that the revenues for those stores are actually higher than they were in previous years, especially because the Commons store has recently acquired a bus stop.” The Sun could not independently verify the revenue at the Ithaca locations. To continue reading this article, pelase visit www.cornellsun.com. Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com.