INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 135, No. 4
MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2018
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Unite for Justice
Summer Movie Roundtable
Reinforcements
Partly Cloudy HIGH: 86º LOW: 70º
Many local activitsts rallied for female reproductive rights on Sunday afternoon in The Ithaca Commons. | Page 3
Get to know men’s lacrosse’s incoming freshman class.
The Arts and Entertainment staff answers questions about this summer’s films. | Page 6
| Page 12
Rachel Doran ’19, Fashion Enthusiast and Loving Friend, Dies At 21 By MEREDITH LIU Sun Assistant News Editor
Rachel Doran ’19, a rising senior in the College of Human Ecology, died Aug. 17 after battling against several rare and life-threatening syndromes for five weeks. She was 21 years old. Doran died with family and friends by her side, according to a statement from Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life. She is survived by her parents, Lisa and Alan, and her 15-year-old sister Ellie Doran. “She’s the most kind and considerate person there ever was,” said Prof. Denise N. Green ’07, fiber science and apparel design, under whom Doran served as a research assistant in the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection for five semesters. “She is passionate, determinant and thoughtful. She would never push someone out of the way to get things done,” Green told The Sun. “Rachel taught me so much about life and about being a good person.” Doran was diagnosed on July 13 with both StevensJohnson Syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis, serious skin disorders usually caused by a drug reaction, according to the webpage of a GoFundMe campaign created by Doran’s family friends to raise money for her treatment. The SJS resulted in severe burns to 95 percent of Rachel’s body, the fundraisers said. The GoFundMe had raised more than $100,000 out of a $150,000 goal as of Sunday afternoon to help Doran’s parents, including many donations made after the announcement of Doran’s death. Doran was treated at The Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital for two weeks before she was transferred to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center for the treatment of adult respiratory distress
syndrome, where she spent her last days, according to the same page. “True to Rachel’s spirit and with the same fervor she had for everything she took on, she fought the most difficult health issues with tenacity and grace,” Kathy Coon and Elaine Daignault, the GoFundMe campaign organizers, wrote after her death. Originally from Westport, Connecticut, Doran was a fashion management design major at Cornell and was completing a minor in business. Aside from doing research for the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, she was also the vice president of public relations for the Pi Sigma Epsilon professional fraternity and a member of the Cornell Fashion Industry Network. Doran, who was interested in the modern business side of the fashion industry according to Green, was called an “old soul” by Coon in an interview with Westport News. In a class assignment during her sophomore year, Doran said her music tastes were shaped by classic rock artists. “One of my earliest memories is singing along to Eric Clapton on the way to preschool,” she wrote, adding: “Instead of lullabies, [my dad] sang Led Zeppelin’s ‘Going to California’ and Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’ to put me to sleep at night,” she wrote in spring 2017 for a group project for COMM 1300: Visual Communication. “His music taste has been a big influence on me.” Doran was remembered by her friends as a strong and genuine person. “She was the most mature, independent person I’ve ever known,” Abby Lustig ’19, a friend of Doran’s since nursery school, told Westport News. “She was driving highways before I could drive Post Road, running errands for her family, and bringing her sister Ellie around.” Pi Sigma Epsilon president Noah Burgett ’19 first met Doran in the fall of 2016 at the new member interview for
COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY
Doran dies | Rachel Doran ’19, who died on August 17, stands in front of her fashion exhibit in the College of Human Ecology in Novermber 2017.
the fraternity. As they walked out of the Dairy Bar, where the interview took place, it started pouring and they had to run all the way to their next classes. “I didn’t know it was that far from Central Campus, and See OBITUARY page 5
3 Profs. Support NYU Prof. Ronnell By AMINA KILPATRICK
Three Cornell professors are among dozens of scholars defending a New York University professor who was found by NYU to have sexually harassed her former student in a unique #MeToo case that has garnered widespread attention in academia and elsewhere. In the letter to NYU’s president and provost, 51 scholars including Profs. Jonathan Culler, Cathy Caruth and Cynthia Chase, all English and comparative literature, testified to
the character of NYU Prof. Avital Ronell, German studies and comparative literature, and highlighted her standing within academia. NYU has suspended Ronell for the academic year after finding that she had sexually harassed a former graduate student. Nimrod Reitman, the former student, said Ronell had kissed and touched him, slept in his bed, and constantly sent him messages. Ronell was reportedly cleared by NYU of Reitman’s allegations of sexual assault, stalking and retaliation.
Caruth and Chase declined to be interviewed by The Sun, but Culler defended his signing of the letter, saying the language Ronell used in emails with her former student -in which she called him “cock-er spaniel” and “my most adored one” -- was commonplace in her style of correspondence. “I certainly don’t regret signing Judith Butler’s letter in support of Avital Ronell, at a time when, we were told, NYU was trying to fire her,” Culler wrote
CARUTH
CHASE
CULLER
Sun Staff Writer
EMMA HOARTY / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Fox talk | Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox speaks on topics ranging from his family history to 9/11 to his adversarial relationship with the fracking industry in Bailey Hall on Friday.
Emmy Winner Promotes Anti-Fracking By MATTHEW McGOWEN Sun Senior Editor
Nearly 1,000 Cornellians, Ithacans and activists converged on Bailey Hall Friday night for The Truth Has Changed, a monologue performance by Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated director of Gasland and prominent anti-fracking activist Josh Fox. The roughly two and a half hour performance was filmed as part of Fox’s upcoming feature film by the same title originally commissioned by HBO, to be released next year. It was also one of many stops on a nationwide tour of politically focused events.
“We’re touring this piece all across the nation in support of progressive candidates in the 2018 midterm elections. When I go on tour with a new piece, whether that’s a film or something like this, what we do is we put out an email to our list, which is 250,000 people, and we say, ‘who wants us to come?’” Fox said. Fox’s performance was a potpourri of political activism, climate advocacy and entertainment organized by Cornell Environmental Collaborative and Climate Justice Cornell and sponsored by 39 groups from Cornell and the local community. See FOX page 5
See NYU page 5