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February 2006
But Would I Have Gotten In?
This just in from Jason Locke, at Cornell's Undergraduate Admissions Office: The Cost of School Spirit I always felt that one of the hidden gems at Cornell was the fact that student admission to every single athletic event (except for men's hockey, of course) was free. During my time on East Hill I enjoyed many women's soccer games, men's wrestling matches, and men's lacrosse games, not to mention a polo or gymnastics event or two. It always amounted to free and good fun while cheering on my fellow students-turned-athletes and demonstrating my Big Red Spirit. But now this is all due to change due to the incompetence of Cornell Athletics: Here We Go Again ... Yesterday, Cornellians received a somber message from the President, which began like so: This past weekend, we were stunned and outraged to learn that a visitor to Cornell had been stabbed on our campus, and that one of our students has been charged with the crime. The victim of the assault is an African American student visiting Cornell from Union College. He was hospitalized at Arnot Ogden Hospital in Elmira, NY. We are greatly relieved that he is recovering and may be released from the hospital very soon. We extend our heartfelt feelings of concern and support to him and wish him a speedy and complete recovery. Following an initial investigation into the stabbing, which occurred early Saturday morning on West Avenue, Cornell University Police arrested Nathan H. Poffenbarger, a 20 year-old Caucasian male, of 10703 Coppermine Road, Woodsboro, Md. Poffenbarger is a sophomore at Cornell University. On Sunday morning, he was arraigned on assault charges in the second degree, a class "D" felony. The Cornell University Police are working actively and closely with the Ithaca Police Department and the Office of the District Attorney. They are continuing their investigation into the case. Rawlings takes pains to point out the races of both the victim and the alleged perpetrator, but he never explains why. Reports in The Sun have pointed to likely racial motivations behind the attack, but Rawlings doesn't even allude to them. Instead, he breaks the cardinal rule of sensitivity: only report the race if there's a justification for it. Lame appeals to sympathy or "diversity" don't cut it, and using the preferred "African American" instead of "black" (or "Caucasian" instead of "white") doesn't hide what he's doing. By trying to dodge the real issue, Rawlings comes off as ignorant of the very lessons taught in Cornell's freshman diversity seminars. Love from the Cornell Fund In case any recent alumni happened to miss the naming of Dr. David J. Skorton as Cornell's 12th president, Bob Berstein '97, the young alumni national chair, sent out a letter last week. "You can feel the excitement and energy on campus since the annoucement," Berstein wrote, who later called Skorton a "true Renaissance man." But, what would any correspondence from Cornell be without the pathetic plea? In this case, it only took two paragraphs: "Please join me in support of our new president and convey to him our passion for this institution by making a gift to this year's Annual Fund." It really annoys me that the only correspondence my alma mater now sends me includes an appeal for money. Give, give, give. New initiative announced? Make a donation! New president? Throw a couple dollars our way to celebrate! Want a subscription to the alumni magazine? That'll be 40 bucks! Cornell doesn't seem to understand that as young alumni, we don't have much money to give. And the fact that they're hitting us up for any spare change now won't encourage us to make a donation later in life, when (hopefully) we've really got bucks to throw around -- in fact, it might do just the opposite. Of Transcripts and Median Grades A significant threat to Cornell students wishing for higher GPAs -- the impending encroachment of median grade reports onto the hallowed territory of the official transcript -- seems to have been postponed, at least for now. The one I received in the mail last week is refreshingly unburdened with the achievements of the "average" Cornellian in my various classes. Instead, I'm left with the accomplishments (and failures) of me and me alone. This is great news for students and recent grads, although employers and graduate schools would surely appreciate the extra data for benchmarking purposes. But I'm guessing that they won't shed a tear for this loss. The benefits of keeping the transcripts as they are -- in some basic calculation of overall utility -- seem to outweigh those of the alternative. That is, at least when considering students' (and alums') interests equal to those of a transcript's intended audience. That said, the registrar's website is silent regarding any future transition to a world in which each individual transcript contains the collective effort of Cornell's middle tier. For now, I'm going to stock up on copies of my unsoiled -- if imperfect -- official record, before it may be too late. An Impediment to a Transnational University For all that former President Lehman spoke of 'transnational university' and David Skorton has given lip service to the continued 'internationalization' of Cornell, the University hit a slight speed bump in the road today: Fehrs '77 Resigns as Chief Investment Officer Amidst the news of Skorton’s appointment and the new Gates building, the resignation of Donald Fehrs '77, Cornell’s Chief Investment Officer, slipped through most everybody's radar. Fehrs resignation marks yet another transition for the upper-level administration, and one cannot help but notice the timing of the announcement so soon after the naming of the University's new President. Granted, Fehrs' may simply be interested in making a career change. The endowment's performance over the last three years - since Fehrs was appointed CIO - has been admirable, and the trustees should have no reason to complain. At an annualized rate, the endowment grew by close to 16 percent, beating out the broad-based S&P 500, which grew at an annualized rate of approximately 13 percent. But did the administration have any beef with Fehrs? Matthew Nagowski | February 03, 2006 (#) Giving Collegetown a Facelift Ithaca's Common Council voted last night to establish a task force that will look into reinvigorating Collegetown over the next five to 10 years. One council member described our beloved former collegiate playground to The Sun as "looking a little tired." The laundry list of areas in need of improvement, as cited by the Council, include: parking, retail property, public works, "overall aesthetics," pavement, signs and storefronts. What about the decrepit and horrible state of student housing and the slumlords who run them? Not a peep. Makes you wonder how you revitalize an area - one that is largely residential - without even mentioning the ramshackle (and often, unsafe) houses and apartments that occupy the same place. This is Collegetown's biggest problem. Sure, the parking situation stinks and who wouldn't want nicer storefronts? But, certainly not in the place of enforcing proper building codes and holding landlords responsible for their properties. |
-- WSJ: Cornell Wins NYC Tech Campus Bid (EBilmes) -- Barrier Update: City Approves Nets (DJost) -- Big Red Cymbal Guy (Nagowski) -- New York Times Survey on Campus Recruiting is Flawed (KScott) -- Barrier Update: Legal precedent suggests City of Ithaca will not be held liable for gorge suicide (DJost) -- Despite MSG Loss, Big Potential for Big Red Hockey (EBilmes) -- City Council Will Vote on Suicide Nets (DJost) -- An Encounter on the Upper East Side (Nagowski) -- Showing Off Your School Spirit (Nagowski) -- Chipotle Ithaca? (KScott) -- Cornell at the ING NYC Marathon (KScott) -- Crossing Over a Fine Line: Commercial Activity on Campus (KScott) -- Milstein's Downfall (Nagowski) -- Can any Cornell-associated organization really be independent of the University? (Nagowski) -- Slope Media Revisited (EBilmes) -- Slope Media Group Approved for Byline Funding (KScott) -- Occupy AEM? (KScott) -- New campus pub to be good for both Greeks and non-Greeks (Nagowski) -- Gagging the Election (Nagowski) -- The Changing Structure of Rush Week (Nagowski) -- Ivy League Humility in the Midwest (EBilmes) -- Of Median Grades and Economics Minors (Nagowski) -- Homecoming Recap (Nagowski) -- My Cornell Bookshelf (Nagowski) -- The Sun's Opinion Section Has Suddenly Gotten Good (Nagowski) -- Remembering the 11th (Nagowski) -- Cornellian Tapped as Top Economic Advisor (Nagowski) -- Cutting Pledging, and the Good Which Comes With It (EBilmes) -- Why Cornell Should Not Close Fall Creek Gorge (Nagowski) -- Welcome to the Class of 2015 (Nagowski)  |