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Archives
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May 2006
Should Cornell Be Feeding Feral Cats?
An interesting lawsuit was recently filed by a former Cornell employee who claims he was fired for feeding feral cats while working at a Cornell barn. It's a curious little story, and as the plaintiff freely admits, a long-shot: Matthew Nagowski | May 31, 2006 (#) Cutting the Grass I was able to make the pilgrimage back to Ithaca this weekend for the University’s 138th Commencement. As anybody who has ever experienced a commencement ceremony in Ithaca before can attest, the weekend brought out the best of all Cornell has to offer. The doctoral gowns were as impressive as always, the Glee Club and Chorus performed beautifully, President Rawlings’s speech on Cornell’s historical role in forming lifelong bonds between professors and students was timeless, and the blue sky and 85 degree weather left little else to be desired. And the weekend ended in perhaps the only fitting way: with a leisurely swim in Fall Creek below the suspension bridge followed with a night cap (or two or three) at the Chapter House. That is, all was in fine form at the University except for one thing – many parts of the University did not appear to have its grass cut recently, which struck me as quite odd. The flowers, landscaping, and gardening looked beautiful as always, but dandelions and unkempt grass were to be found across the Slope and the Arts Quad. With so many wallet-opening parents and alumni/ae on campus this past weekend, wasn’t this a bit tactless of the university administration? A little bit akin to leaving one’s dirty laundry lying around the house when you have invited guests over… Matthew Nagowski | May 30, 2006 (#) No Surprise There This article in Editor & Publisher not only reveals the results of the Doonesbury poll (MIT cleaned up with 48%, RIT came in second with 32%, and Cornell languished last, with a measly 19%), but clarifies what I'd suspected: Those geeky pranksters at MIT hacked their way to glory, at least until the Slate web folks caught on. This of course begs the question: Why didn't Cornellians see it necessary to cheat their way to comic-strip infamy? Is it because we have lives? Maybe, but I don't see Cornell engineers having significantly more free time than MIT students. (Or RIT, which also mounted an online hack campaign.) Is it because we don't care as much about our funny-page fate? No. Judging by the alumni office's campaign and the 10,000 e-mails I received urging me to vote (again), Cornell seems to have taken the strip more seriously than either of its competitors, probably because of our image-infused perspective and the perception that we had more riding on a victory. Are Cornell students busier, less competent, or just lazy? Some of the cited excuses, from the Doonesbury page: I would conduct a poll to find out the real reason, but I'd rather wallow in the blow to my self-esteem this loss has caused me. New VP For Alumni Affairs Announced In yet another clear sign that Cornell University's strategic goals over the coming years are going to be life sciences, life sciences, and yet more life sciences, the University announced today that it is hiring Charles D. Phlegar as its new Vice-President for Alumni Affairs and Development. Phlegar is currently the Interim Vice-President of Alumni Affairs and Development at The Johns Hopkins University, an institution certainly not unknown for its medical and life sciences research. Matthew Nagowski | May 23, 2006 (#) Unmasking the Big Red Tape Elliot Back has posted an interesting and somewhat misleading article on his blog about what Cornellians affectionately refer to as the "Big Red Tape" -- what he defines as Cornell's "hasslesome adherence to bloated policy and procedure." Matthew Nagowski | May 23, 2006 (#) Marriage, Dear Uncle Ezra Style Matthew Nagowski | May 21, 2006 (#) Diversity Costs Money Apparently Robert Harris Jr., Cornell vice provost for diversity and faculty development, is getting ready to release a 'diversity report' that will position the University for further staff, faculty, and student development along diverse lines. The Chronicle has a rather candid article on the report and its aims. One select passage states: Matthew Nagowski | May 17, 2006 (#) Ian Alberta 1983 - 2006 During his time at Cornell, Ian worked in Cornell Dining and volunteered regularly with such organizations as Habitat for Humanity and the Cayuga Nature Center. He was also a fellow in the Cornell Tradition. An active artist and musician, Ian was a member of Ithaca's Somatic Umbra and worked extensively with the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and the Sculpture Center of New York City. He graduated from Ithaca High School. does not desert us but comes to tend and produce us, to make room for us and bear us tenderly, considerately, through the gates, to see us through, to ease our pains, quell our cries, to hover over and nestle us, to deliver us into the greatest, most enduring peace, all the way past the bother of recollection, beyond the finework of frailty, the mishmash house of the coming & going, creation's fringes, the eddies and curlicues - ar ammons Matthew Nagowski | May 16, 2006 (#) The State of Cornell's Off-Campus Student Housing In light of the tragic fire and death of Ian Alberta '06 this past weekend, it seems almost inevitable that a discussion of the safety and quality of Cornell's off-campus student housing will arise. Such a discussion should probably take place regardless of whether or not negligence or foul-play (on anybody's part) accompanied this tragedy. (And all information suggests that the fire was accidental and that the landlord, one Mary Ridgeway Tinker, is an upstanding doctor in the Ithaca community.) Matthew Nagowski | May 15, 2006 (#) Mark Zuckerberg in the New Yorker This week's New Yorker has an in-depth article by John Cassidy on what he labels as "Me Media" and the explosion of Internet sites tailored to creating personalized extensions of the self on the web. Unfortunately, the article is not available online, but the article is so good I would reccomend that you pick the issue up at the news stand. Matthew Nagowski | May 11, 2006 (#) Self-Segregation Re-examined Matt's last post touches on an interesting tension within the anti-program house camp. (I count myself as a member, despite having lived in one for two years.) Most acknowledge that self-segregation tends to happen naturally on a college campus but still advocate for policy changes like randomized freshman housing. But if the former is assumed to be true, the latter won't improve anything. Right? Therefore, the status quo is acceptable. I think that much of what the Facebook study unearthed was the operation of Nobel Prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling's segregation model, which proved that even the slightest preferences toward interacting with people of the same race (or gender, or smoking preference, etc.) can drive individual living patterns that ultimately result in highly segregated arrangements... Is Self-Segregation Inevitable? My employer graciously paid for me to attend the annual Society of Labor Economists meetings this weekend, and today was busy with many seminars, poster sessions, and heavily detailed discussion about statistical techniques. Among other things addressed, interesting topics discussed included the role of nuns in encouraging fertility, the deceleration of female entry into the workforce, why fat kids will never exhibit good leadership abilities, and the use of SAT data to proxy for secondary school quality. But one of the sessions that I attended today stood out as particularly relevant to a perennial policy discussion that takes place at Cornell: campus diversity and the self-segregation of students. Matthew Nagowski | May 05, 2006 (#) That'll Be $35, Please Much has been said about Cornell's treatment of alumni, especially recent graduates. I was able to witness this treatment first-hand recently when I attended a gathering of Washington-area Cornellians at the University Club, dubbed a "pre-reunion" event. Friends and I dressed up in our best suits, figuring that we'd probably be the youngest ones there. (We were.) But we figured that the $35 -- yes, $35 -- fee would surely be waived for recent, unemployed grads who just wanted to meet a few alums and maybe collect a few business cards. We even reasoned that we could skip the cash bar -- yes, cash bar -- and head straight for the free cheese and crackers. My roommate was able to negotiate an understanding with one of the organizers, who seemed embarrassed to have to ask us for any money at all. She told us to go inside, and that she'd catch up with us later. Toward the end of the event, she found me and whispered uncomfortably, "$15 should be enough." To test her resolve, I produced $14 and made a show of trying to borrow a dollar from one of my friends. She didn't budge. Fifteen dollars, and two lousy business cards. If they're trying to put me in the mood to donate later on, when I actually have money, they're taking the wrong approach. I've already shelled out $10 for a membership to the Cornell Club in Washington, which organized the event, and even more for a magazine subscription that should be subsidized. Cornell should seek to foster pride, not resentment, in its (future) alumni benefactors. Matching Perception With Reality The ongoing discussion about Cornell's Image Committee (of which I'm a member) seems to me a bit hypocritical. On the one hand, there are those who believe the group's mission represents a profound lack of self-esteem and Harvard envy. On the other are those who swear by rankings as absolute bearers of truth. Isn't there a more approachable way to look at the issue? As an oft-repeated quote from the recent Times story puts it, our self-worth is intimately tied to Cornell's U.S. News ranking. Please. You don't have to believe that in order to admit that there's a little surge of pride every time Cornell gets recognition in the press, and a little tinge of disappointment every time it screws up in the public eye. We know we get a top-notch education, but we wish our public perception matched what we know to be true. When I applied to college, I bought a book of 10 Real SATs and practiced till I was happy with my score. I made sure I took the right SAT IIs and AP courses, crafted my essay, and generally created an outward image that I hoped represented the best of who I was, what I wanted the admissions committees to see. In turn, that's what everyone else does when they apply to a prestigious college, and lately, they go much further. Students -- even some who criticize efforts like Cornell's Image Committee -- regularly take rigorous SAT courses, hire firms to rewrite their essays, and use consultants to tailor their applications. As recent reports have suggested, this is snowballing into an admissions climate in which applying to 15 or 20 schools is becoming less and less unusual. If that's the situation you're stuck in, however unfair, you join the fray. You don't stand back and say, "My self-worth can't be measured by a test score or a class grade." The same exact principle is at work in university rankings. While schools far inferior to Cornell -- say, a Washington University in St. Louis -- have recently shot up to higher slots, Cornell has in recent years felt content to stay where it is. That only changed with Image's public pressure and President Lehman's commitment to media relations -- but there's more work to do. The point is not that Cornell could inflate itself to become a Top 5 school. The point is that, with a little more work improving factors that the rankings deem essential, Cornell's own quality as well as its public perception will rise to a point where the two are equivalent. Today, in my estimation, its reputation is far below what it deserves to be. |
-- 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)  |
