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April 2007




A Note on Commenting Policy

Readers CD and NBW have recently written in asking why MetaEzra doesn't allow reader commenting for posts. It's a good question.

Around a year ago we experimented with comments on some posts, but found that 1) the quality of comments we received was generally poor, 2) we just ended up attracting a lot of spam bots, or 3) nobody posted. So in the face of spending way too much time deleting 'spam' comments, being annoyed with petty name calling, or making it look like nobody is coming to this humble website (which is untrue), we didn't really find they are worth the hassle.

That said, we are generally eager to publish reader's comments when they write in with meaningful contributions.

So commenting functionality is already implemented into the website. We just choose not to use it for most of our articles. It is at the author's discretion.

But what do you think? Would the abillity to write comments to posts significantly alter your MetaEzra experience?


Matthew Nagowski | April 26, 2007 (#)

Biddy Martin: More Loans for Cornell Students

In what appears to be a major policy statement, Cornells provost, Biddy Martin, has an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week. In it, she tries to explain why Cornell will not compete with the Harvards and University of Pennsylvanias of the world in offering grant aid in lieu of loans to undergraduates.

Its a fascinating read, but I dont altogether buy it. Cornell could easily match its peers generosity if it wanted to as MetaEzra has previously documented, a scheme such as Harvards would cost the University an additional 17 million dollars a year a drop in the bucket for a campus that is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on residential life construction.

Rather, I suspect that Biddy is trying to signal to other institutions across the country that a financial aid arms race is not in anybodys best interest (except for students and their families, of course), and that there are better uses of money out therelike research funding or faculty salaries. Shes hoping for tacit collusion, and its a classic prisoner's dilemma from a university budget officers perspective.

But with Columbias recent gift of 400 million dollars for student financial aid, and other universities aggressively fundraising for financial aid money, I dont think this is an argument that Biddy is going to win.

The competition for top students is only going to get fiercer, and absent any large change in funding priorities or government support for higher education, Cornell will increasingly lose bright middle-class students to its peers, diminishing the caliber of the student body and degrading the Universitys good reputation.

I include some key passages below.

Over the past couple of years, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Davidson College, and a few others have made laudable efforts to increase the economic diversity of their undergraduate student bodies by modifying their financial-aid practices. They reduced or eliminated the debt burden and parental contributions for low-income and middle-income students, using institutional resources to substitute grants for loans. Unfortunately, very few institutions can match their offers.

Cornell is one of the wealthiest institutions of higher education in the country, and we have increased grants and reduced loans for low-income students. We cannot, however, provide the complete substitution of grants for loans that some even wealthier institutions have begun to offer low-income and middle-income students. Cornell has the 18th-largest college endowment nationwide, but it faces its own economic challenges with the lowest per-student endowment among its Ivy League peers and a relatively high proportion of students receiving aid.

... The ideal of being open to all is a core institutional value at Cornell, set out by audacious design in 1865 and affirmed by the university's conviction in 2007 as the only right and fair course. But we cannot, at least at present, afford to emulate those few colleges and universities that have promised to meet all financial need with grant aid. Nor can most institutions of higher education. To meet the challenges all of us face will take cooperation among all the players involved in supporting higher education.


Matthew Nagowski | April 25, 2007 (#)

Cornell's Best and Brightest: Mitch and Matt

Cornells lacrosse team is what the Ivy League is all about: True scholar-athletes competing to be the very best in the country. Its a shame that college athletics is sometimes anything but.

Cornell lacrosse co-captains and All-Americans, Mitch Belisle and Matt McMonagle, have been nominated for the Lowes Senior Class Award, for achievement both on the playing field and in the classroom. Fans can vote once a day for their picks on this website; given the sheer size of Cornells student body and alumni base, there should be no reason for a Cornellian not to win especially given that Cornell is the only school to have two students nominated.

Matt is a physics major in the College of Arts and Sciences, and is considered to be the best college goalie in the country. Mitch is in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, plays defense for the Red, and has consistently shut down the nations best offensive threats. To boot, both are active volunteers in the Cornell community and have posted absurdly high GPAs over the last couple of semesters.

You can read interviews with Belislehere and here. McMonagle was interviewed by the Daily Sun today.

The last time a Cornell team won a national championship in an NCAA sanctioned sport was 1977. Its been thirty years, folks.

Full disclosure: Mitch Belisle was a student of mine when I was a teaching assistant for a statistics class during my senior year. He was the best student I had my section.


Matthew Nagowski | April 25, 2007 (#)

How Stingy is Cornell's Financial Aid?

Today's New York Times is running a fascinating chart depicting the average financial aid packages at top private colleges and universities across the country.

I've broken the data down to its core elements and list Cornell's key "competitor schools" (both Ivy and non-Ivy) in the table below. All dollar amounts are in thousands.

In general, Cornell provides less grant aid and more self-help aid (loans and work study) to students that qualify for aid than other schools in the Ivy League, but is on par with most of its non-Ivy peers.

avgaid.jpg

One thing's for sure: If Cornell is serious about attracting top-caliber students and competing with some of the other Ivies for students, Cornell's fundraising efforts better go extremely well. We can argue about the uniqueness of the Cornell experience all we want (and I believe we should), but it is harder to do so when a student is recieving $5,000 dollars more a year in grant aid at another school.

Over the last decade the average salaries for Cornell's faculty have been brought in line with most other top private colleges on the East Coast. And after taking Ithaca's low-cost of living into consideration, Cornell's faculty gets paid much better in real terms than most of their peers. It's time that the administration started taking students's financial well-being seriously.

Some other thoughts on the data after the fold...


Matthew Nagowski | April 22, 2007 (#)

More Admin Stats for Class of 2011

In an email to alumni, Cornell's Undergraduate Admissions Office released some additional data today (beyond what we originally reported a couple of weeks ago) about the accepted class of 2011. They note that these are still preliminary...

- 11.4% of those admitted are legacies (10.7% for 2005-2006)

- 19.0% of those admitted are Underrepresented Minorities (17.4% for 2005-2006)

- 36.5% identify as students of color (35.8% for 2005-2006)

- 7.4% are international students (8.3% for 2005-2006)

- 18.7% Regular Decision admit rate (23.0%for 2005-2006)

A couple of quick thoughts on these data:

The percent of accepted students that are under-represented minority is quite high, but the matriculated class in the fall will likely be less diverse, due to the University's difficulty in attracting these students, both for financial reasons as well as location. MetaEzra has dealt with this issue before. (Although from my own perspective, I don't know who could pass down four years of rural bliss in Ithaca, NY.)

There's been a (perhaps?) significant decline in international students accepted... it would be interesting to know the reasons, especially in light of one student-elected trustee's argument that Cornell needs to become more international.

I'm encouraged by the University's commitment to limit the size of the class that is accepted early decision. No doubt Cornell could accept more highly qualified applicants this way, and bow to the ratings game by mechanically decreasing its acceptance rate and increasing its yield, but Doris Davis rightly chooses not to.

Roughly a third of the incoming class continues to be accepted early, compared to close to 50 percent at some of our peer institutions. If Cornell followed such practices, it could easily have had an overall acceptance rate of around 18 percent for the Class of 2011.

And for all of you data geeks out there, enjoy the table below.


Matthew Nagowski | April 20, 2007 (#)

Cornell's Game of the Year?

There is talk that the crowd will fill Schoellkopf.

Cornell v. Princeton -- Since the inception of the Ivy League, two teams have ruled men's lacrosse like no other - Cornell and Princeton. Since Ivy League play began in 1956, these two squads have dominated their conference foes and have combined to win at least a share of all but 10 Ivy League titles. Likewise, the two teams have won at least a share of the past 12 conference crowns and this weekend, the No. 1 Big Red will be looking to keep that streak alive, as a win over No. 5 Princeton will guarantee Cornell at least a share of its fifth straight league title.

Members of the 1977 NCAA championship team will be attending the game and there will be a special ceremony at halftime to mark the 30th anniversary of their undefeated National Championship season.

1977 and 2007. Do I smell a connection?


Matthew Nagowski | April 19, 2007 (#)

Cornell Counselor on Virginia Tech Shooting

Greg Eells, director of Cornell's counseling services programs, is interviewed in the Chronicle of Higher Education regarding the Virginia Tech tragedy. It's fairly illuminating as to what universities actually can do in cases like Cho's:

Greg Eells, who directs counseling services at Cornell University, says that he has been watching the news coverage of the shootings and has seen people wonder why people did not heed warning signs from Mr. Cho.

"Is there a profile of people who do this? Of course," says Mr. Eells. "The problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of false positives. We get this all the time."

Many counseling centers, including those at Cornell and Texas A&M, have started proactive programs to reach out to their communities. Texas A&M runs a program that instructs faculty and staff members on how to identify students with serious problems -- and how persuade those students to seek help.

At Cornell, the counseling center has made a special effort to reach out to minority and international students, who suffer from extra levels of stress and are less likely to reach out to counselors. Satellite counseling offices have been set up in buildings on the campus that are regularly used by international and minority students.

Mr. Eells says that some of the problems of this generation are exacerbated by technology, which can be an isolating force in a student's life. "If you are spending three or more hours on Facebook," he says, "you are not spending three hours having pizza, throwing darts, and talking about the meaning of life."

Encourage dart throwing...? But in all seriousness, it seems that the inclusive communities that are developing among West Campus's program houses are exactly the type of community that universities need to offer.


Matthew Nagowski | April 19, 2007 (#)

Cornell's Involuntary Leave Policy

For all of the grieving that Hokies and the entire nation are going through this week, its unfortunate that the media has so quickly taken to playing a sensationalist blame game. Such antics only disrupt the process of healing: remembrance, understanding, and acceptance.

That said, to doubt the early-morning decisions made by Virginia Tech's administration regarding a seemingly isolated domestic incident seems inherently unfair, and will no doubt only create unwarranted remorse that individuals will have to live the rest of their lives with.

What's a little bit more regretful is that Cho's troubled personality had been identified by campus officials a year and a half ago, was recommended for involuntary commitment at a psychiatric hospital, and yet the university allowed him to remain a student. Still, one can only trust that the individuals who were responsible for Cho's case acted with sound judgment and the best information.

Cornell actually has an involuntary leave policy "for reasons of personal or community safety". Interestingly, though, the New York Times is reporting that universities "cannot put students on involuntary medical leave, just because they develop a serious mental illness."

Kitsch Magazine, which I lauded for other reasons last week, actually ran a fascinating article on Cornell's involuntary leave policy last semester. Michelle Pascucci reports:

Susan Murphy, Vice President of Student and Academic Affairs, elaborated: Ideally, we never have to evoke [the policy] but it is necessary for the health and welfare of individuals if they are sufficiently ill to need inpatient care.

The policy, according to Greg Eells, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), is most likely employed when ill students refuse to receive help. Students suffering from alcoholism or eating disorders, and suicidal or self-harming students can be asked to leave campus to receive care for their illnesses even if they are maintaining a high GPA and completing work.

Its an effective tool to give [these students] care when they dont know they need care, said Eells.

... Eells said that the administrations first step is to suggest that a student takes a voluntary leave of absence, which constitutes the majority of medical leaves. It is only after a student has continued to engage in destructive behavior while refusing to receive care or consider voluntary leave that involuntary leave is enacted. (Voluntary leave is ultimately much more frequent than involuntary leave. According to Eells, there were 125 cases of voluntary leave last year while Murphy cited a maximum of one case of mandatory leave per year.)

We try to stay away from anything punitive in CAPS, said Eells, At the same time, were legally obligated to protect students.

At the end of the day, there's only so much that can be done, difficult decisions abound, and hindsight is always 20/20.


Matthew Nagowski | April 19, 2007 (#)

Some housecleaning

I've been meaning to announce a change that has taken place over here at MetaEzra. Our intrepid associate editor, Andy Guess has taken a new job with Inside Higher Ed, our absolute favorite source of news and information concerning the higher education sector.

Although the new gig doesn't preclude Andy from continuing to post on MetaEzra, he will now be somewhat more limited in what he can write about on our own humble website. But that doesn't mean that we can't follow Mr. Guess's writings elsewhere. Here, for instance, he reports on the tragic massacre at Virginia Tech yesterday:

No campus could ever be fully prepared for the sort of full-scale assault suffered by students and faculty on Monday. But Virginia Tech hasn't been a stranger to dangerous on-campus situations -- just last August, an escaped inmate ignited fears of a gunman on the premises -- and that has invited more criticism for the current response. "They should have been better prepared," Tubbs said. "The bottom line is that the first e-mail didn't go out until two hours after the first shooting."

But others cautioned that it would be wise to be skeptical of any overly critical evaluations of the university's response at this point.

"Everyone would like there to be an answer: If we did a, b and c, this would never happen', but that's impossible," said Kelly McCann, president of Kroll Security Group, which works with educational institutions, corporations, military and the government on risk mitigation. By their nature, college campuses are open environments, for cultural reasons and even safety reasons, McCann said, citing, for instance, fire code stipulations requiring easy exit paths.

And stay tuned, as there are some other exciting changes at MetaEzra in the works.


Matthew Nagowski | April 17, 2007 (#)

Working Class Sport for the Working Class Ivy

Certainly not squash. Not crew. Not fencing. Wrestling.

Olivia Dwyer, a senior writer for The Sun, has a great article
in Sports Illustrated about Cornells dynamic and in-your-face wrestling program.

To anybody who has never been at a wrestling match at the Friedman Center, the events are highlighted by blaring music, rabid fans, and a zany mascot. To a large extent, I would say that the character of Cornells wrestling program embodies the spirit of the University.

"[The administration doesn't] like it, but they let us do it anyway," (Cornell's head coach) says of his musical selections and mascot's behavior. "And it's certainly better to ask for forgiveness than approval. They don't think it's appropriate for an Ivy League setting. Well, guess what? Neither is wrestling. It's a very blue-collar sport. Perhaps it's not fencing, it's not crew, but we can win at the highest level here, and everyone loves winning."


Matthew Nagowski | April 13, 2007 (#)

Kurt Vonnegut '44 in the Berry Patch

Even as a chemistry major on East Hill, Vonnegut demonstrated a knack for writing outlandish, entertaining stories. Here is one from the Sun's Berry Patch, on November 2nd, 1942.

vonnegut.jpg


Courtesy of the library's digital Daily Sun archive.


Matthew Nagowski | April 12, 2007 (#)

Kurt Vonnegut '44 (1922 - 2007)

Ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones.
That's from Slaughterhouse Five.

Obituaries from The Sun, The Times, elsewhere. And so it goes...


Matthew Nagowski | April 12, 2007 (#)

Entering class size still targeted at 3,050

As opposed to last weeks April Fools joke, MetaEzra has actually had recent email contact with associate provost Doris Davis regarding next years freshmen class size. She has confirmed that the target remains 3,050, and not 3,200 as Skorton announced to the trustees last month.

So why did Skorton say 3,200? Its complete speculation, but maybe it was a simple goof. Or maybe he was being realistic, given Cornells tendency to have a higher than anticipated yield rate over the last couple of years.


Matthew Nagowski | April 09, 2007 (#)

Acceptance Rates Tell Us Nothing

Amid the headlines of Cornells record low acceptance rate this year, it is easy to forget a much more important issue: Whether or not the quality of the student body will increase.

Acceptance rates provide a limited amount of information because they neglect to consider who is being accepted and rejected. If a school sees a 10 percent increase in applications, but the additional applicants all fall at the bottom of the applicant pool and are outright rejected, has a school increased its selectivity? No.

Therefore, it may be of concern that the Cornell student body doesnt seem to have gotten any brighter over the last three yearseven as the acceptance rate dropped precipitously. In fact, if the table below (amassed from statistics here, here, and here) is any indication, the quality of Cornells entering class has stagnated, if not declined somewhat over the last three years.

Over the last three years, the percent of entering students with SAT scores above 650 on either Math or Verbal tests has actually declined.

Percent of entering class with SAT scores greater than 650
VerbalMath
Class of 2008 69 83
Class of 2009 67 82
Class of 2010 66 81

Admittedly, I would be the first to point out that SAT scores arent the best measure of student quality, and that a simple threshold doesnt really tell us much about the distribution of students. Maybe there are a bunch of absolutely brilliant poets being accepted with lousy math skills, or maybe prodigious engineering students are increasingly lacking the ability to read and write. Plus, what is a percentage point or two?

But the trend is counterintuitive, to say the least. We would expect a more competitive student body given a more competitive admissions environment.

Update: A generous reader, PC, writes in to remind us that SAT scores fell as a whole for the high school graduating class of 2007. I'm not certain how much this would affect Cornell's applicant pool, but it is worth considering.


Matthew Nagowski | April 09, 2007 (#)

CNN on Self-Segregation at Cornell

CNN is airing a segment about program houses and the self-segregation of students by race/ethnicity on Cornell's campus.

The segement is unfortunate because it glosses over many aspects of this multi-dimensional issue, and fails to interview ordinary Cornell students on the matter; it only interviews a member of the College Republicans and residents of the program houses themselves. If CNN really wanted to cover the issue well, it would have included the following details:

-- Cornell features one of the most diverse student bodies, both socio-economically and ethnically, among top colleges and universitites. Such a composition of students on such a large college campus means that some degree of self-segregation will always occur, as students naturally seek out peers who they are most comfortable around. We're not exactly some of our Ivy League brethren, where everybody is rich and well-bred.

-- By far one of the most self-segregating aspects of campus is the Greek system. To see Greek houses as anything other than mini-program houses for narrowly defined segments of the student body denies reality. There are fraternity houses for middle-class Jews from Long Island, just as there are fraternity houses for international students from Asia.

-- Many more minorities on campus exist than could ever live in the program houses.

-- Any student on Cornell campus who wants to meet, interact, or even live with students of a different background from herself doesn't have to try very hard. Between classroom settings, extracurricular activities, and informal interactions, there are ample opportunities to meet people from all walks of life. I know my Cornell experience was filled with it.

-- A little bit of history: The racially-themed program houses were instituted after the Straight takover of 1969, when racial tensions on campus were at an all-time high.

-- And finally, all signs indicate that the progam houses are waning in popularity due to the appeal of the West Campus residential house system. The take away? Provide students with an honest sense of community and they will no longer default to race-based associations.


Matthew Nagowski | April 06, 2007 (#)

In Praise of The Ithacan and Kitsch

I think it goes without saying that both The Ithacan, South Hill's student weekly, and Kitsch, East Hill's student semesterly, are doing the type of in-depth investigative reporting that should be done by students in a college town. It's always a joy to read these types of articles written by students, and I can only hope that more are on the way.

Consider, for example, the recent Ithacan article on the town-gown tensions that exist at both CU and IC due to their tax-exempt status:

Theres a natural logic for the university contributing back to the city some set of resources to offset the cost to providing those services to the university, said Stephen Golding, vice president of finance and administration at Cornell.

While giving money to the city and school district is a welcomed effort, claims Tim Joseph, chairman of the Tompkins County Legislature. But Cornell should not be allowed to count the $3 million given to TCAT as a voluntary payment because its students and employees make up such a large percentage of riders.

[Paying for local schools and municipal services] ... are good things for [Cornell] to do, but I dont think it comes close to the burden placed into the community by being here, so I wouldnt say its enough, he said. On the other hand, IC doesnt do anything, so its more than that.

Or how about Kitsch's recent foray into Cornell's Greek system, documenting the use of strippers as a recruiting tool to attract pledges:

The interactions between college-age males and exotic dancers have come under much scrutiny since a dancer accused three members of the Duke lacrosse team of raping her after a private performance, leading to the cancellation of their season and igniting a nationwide scandal. The rape charges against the three players have recently been dropped.

A similar incident occurring at Cornell would likely occur in a slightly different setting. If something like the Duke lacrosse [scandal] happened at Cornell, it would be a fraternity, not a sports team, said Leo, a senior and a rush chair for a fraternity, citing the greater number of males in fraternities than on sports teams.

After the Duke incident, Kuma stopped sending girls to private parties. However, two of the girls who work at the club still do private performances, some of which are fraternity recruitment events. As a pair, Nevaeh (heaven backwards) and Ella have done five or six private parties at Cornell fraternities so far this academic year. Older fraternity brothers, usually seniors, come to the club, pick them out, and ask them to perform at an event. They are usually paid $300 for an hour plus $100 prepaid in tips. The two almost always hire someone to serve as their bouncer. Sometimes the boys will be so ambivalent about the cost that theyll pay up to $450 an hour, because, according to Nevaeh, Its their parents money.

Other examples abound. Like Kitsch's look at a local elementary school struggling to manage under the mandate of No Child Left Behind, or The Ithacan exploring the nature of student-town relations two years after Ithaca's noise violation ordinance was passed. I don't think I am the only one hoping to see both The Ithacan and Kitsch published on a more timely basis.


Matthew Nagowski | April 05, 2007 (#)

Class of 2011 Acceptance Rate: 20.5 Percent

I haven't seen any news stories come across Cornell-centric media yet (e.g. The Sun, Chronicle, or the Ithaca Journal), but both Bloomberg News and the Yale Daily News are reporting that the University had a 20.5 percent acceptance rate for the class of 2011, an all time low.

Long-time readers of MetaEzra will no doubt recall that we originally predicted a 21 percent acceptance rate back in January. Being off by 0.5 percent isn't too shabby, if you ask us. Last year the University had an acceptance rate of 24.7 percent

Overall, the University received 30,383 applications, and MetaEzra has learned that apparently 29,015 were actually considered for admission. The remainder apparently did not select a specific college to apply to at Cornell, which appears to be a recurring problem since the adoption of the Common Application.

Interestingly, while Cornell's acceptance rate dropped by over 4 percent this year, some of the University's peers did not experience such a precipitous drop. For instance, both Dartmouth and Duke had acceptance rates that stayed relatively constant, at 15 percent and 20 percent, respectively.


Matthew Nagowski | April 04, 2007 (#)

Cornell To Implement Random Lottery for Admissions

I recently heard from Dean of Admissions Doris Davis regarding an important change in Cornell's undergraduate admissions policy. Effective next year, all admissions decisions will be awarded using a random lottery.

Apparently, the University no longer feels the amount of time and effort it spends reviewing over 30,000 applications is worth the expense. I suppose the intelligence and commitment of pikers are very hard to ascertain before they actually arrive on East Hill. For instance, our own associate editor, Andy Guess '06, an intrepid presence among undergraduates during his time in Ithaca, was waitlisted before being allowed to attend Cornell.

This will give a whole new meaning to Ezra's dream of founding an institution for "any person."

But there's no word on whether or not this change in policy will affect the University's Early Decision program, or how Schaefer's hockey team will shape up now that playing junior hockey in Canada will have no merit on one's application.


Matthew Nagowski | April 01, 2007 (#)


Other Recent Posts


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-- 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)