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August 2010




No Big Red Love for Love Story

Continuing with last week's Love Story topic, MetaEzra reader SD '12 writes in:

Just finished the post on Love Story and thought you might like to know that even though Love Story never caught on to Cornell as a whole, it holds a special place with the Big Red Pep Band. On their annual trip to Hahvahd/Dartmouth for hockey games, the pep band watches Love Story on the bus. They watch up to the part where Hahvahd gets their ass kicked in hockey (during which they cheer and applaud) and then they fast forward to the part where Jenny dies (where they also cheer and applaud). If you've never seen the movie before and ask a pep band member what it is about, the response goes something like "It's a terrible movie. Basically Cornell whips Hahvahd's ass in hockey, and then Jenny dies."

Do I smell some cause and effect in the air? Was Erich Segal the first to observe that the Big Red Hockey Team is indeed the dream-crushing, soul-devouring juggernaut of the ECAC, effectively squashing Oliver's hopes for a life full of love and happiness with Jenny by pummeling him into the ice (and then killing his beloved)?

Well, if we didn't kill Jenny, we definitely killed Harvard last year in a 4-0 season sweep.

SD continues:

During hockey games with Hahvahd, the BRPB plays the theme to Love Story, which if you've ever seen the film repeats about 8904832904 times.

The pep band manager also keeps a DVD copy of Love Story, which is handed down after pep band manager elections every year.


Matthew Nagowski | August 30, 2010 (#)

What can you say about a hockey team that sucks?

The Times recently ran an article that explores a rather peculiar tradition at Harvard which revolves around the film Love Story. So reports the newspaper of record:

Nowhere is “Love Story” more pummeled than at Harvard, the site of Oliver and Jenny’s gooey courtship. Every year the Crimson Key Society, a student organization that conducts campus tours and otherwise promotes college spirit, runs “Love Story” strictly for laughs for first-year students during their orientation. This year’s two screenings take place on Aug. 30.

Harvard students may 'pummel' the film, but no died-in-the-wool Cornellian should forget that it is the Crimson who are pummeled in the film. By none other than those hairy-chested men from far above Cayuga's waters: the Big Red. Former student-elected trustee Mike Walsh writes in to MetaEzra with the following anecdote:

Nowhere is Love Story more celebrated than at Cornell, the site of Oliver's (and the entire Crimson's) pummeling by a Big Red hockey player, Francis LaPierre.

Though we all enjoy the story about how Ned Harkness would only allow the use of Cornell jerseys if the team won, the movie really hasn’t caught on here as much as it could have. I tried to get a similar tradition started in one of the houses on West Campus the night before The Game. It never took off. Part of the problem is the best part of the movie was about 20 minutes in, after that the entire thing is dreadfully tedious. Most students would come watch the Cornell game scene then leave. A few would stay around for the remainder, but sadly never brought the level of boisterous hate that the movie (ed. note: or Harvard?) deserved.



Matthew Nagowski | August 25, 2010 (#)

Androids, Empathy, and Faith

I was pleased to see that this year's New Student reading selection committee took a creative turn with Phillip K. Dick's Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep, a science fiction novella that explores what it means to be human. I was also pleased to see that rather than sticking 3,600 teenagers in a stifling hot Barton Hall to be bored by a panel discussion, this year's reading project introduced several thematic lectures that students could choose to attend:

Speaking in Statler Auditorium, associate professor of communication and information science Jeff Hancock referenced the novel's Voigt-Kampff "human-detector" empathy test as he engaged students in an "interrogation" to define humanity, and looked at deception in the age of social networks. His lecture was titled "More Human Than Human: Virtual Worlds and Imagination."

Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis, discussed the technology in the book and the roles machines play in our lives in his talk, "Why Electric Sheep Need Human Shepherds" at the Schwartz Center. Other "Android" lecturers were Hod Lipson, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and information science, on "What Do Robots Dream Of?" in Baker Lab; "Pets of the Future" with clinical sciences lecturer Gretchen Schoeffler; and Thomas Whitlow, professor of horticulture, with "Biodiversity, Ecocomplexity, and the Human Experience" in Call Alumni Auditorium.

I must say that this years Androids selection and last year's choice of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath have both been particularly inspired choices after a long series of duds. Let's hope the trend continues.

I also had the pleasure of reading Androids this summer as part of my local Cornell Book Club.

While we did spend some time gossiping on the nature of the romantic relationship between Rachel and Deckard, we also produced some more productive conversation as well. Given that one of the major conceits of the plot is that empathy is a useful trait for being able to discern the difference between humans and androids, we ended up having a rather invigorating two-hour discussion on the meaning of empathy and whether or not we agreed with Dick's premise.

One of the ironies that we narrowed-in on was that the humans in the book didn't seem to have much empathy for the plight of androids on Earth, especially in light of the fact that the androids didn't pose any material threat to human existence. All of the androids we encountered in the book simply wanted to live a life of peace and dignity with the same fears and dreams that we all have; it was only in response to human bounty hunters did they turn violent.

By contrast, humans did focus a fair amount of empathy towards the plight of much less sentient creatures than the androids, their pets. Deckard did seem to nurture some feelings of empathy for the androids, but said emotions were undeveloped at best and left unresolved by the end of the book.


Matthew Nagowski | August 23, 2010 (#)

Cornell To Match Aid Packages of Other Ivies

There's good news for students who have been cross-admitted to Cornell and other Ivies who would prefer to attend Cornell. Starting this year Cornell will match the parental contribution and loan level amount of any student admitted to any of the other Ivies, as well as Stanford, Duke, and MIT.

-- In order to improve Cornell's competitiveness in the recruitment and enrollment of undergraduate students, Cornell will commit to matching the parental contribution and loan level of other Ivy schools, and will strive to also match the parental contribution and loan levels at Stanford, Duke and MIT.

-- The match policy applies to U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and international students. Please note that since funding for international student financial aid is limited, Cornell may not be able to apply the match policy to all international students.

-- The policy is effective as of July 1, 2010 for new undergraduate students applying for Fall 2011 admission.

Prior to this policy announcement, it wasn't uncommon to hear of students turning down their first-choice Cornell for Columbia or Penn or the like because the financial aid was better at the other schools. Now, Cornell is pledging to meet the financial aid packages of the other Ivies. Provided of course, the student can get multiple acceptance offers on the table.

Given that Cornell is widely seen as the easiest Ivy to gain acceptance to, some might construe this as a merit-based scholarship in disguise. Cornell will give you more money if you get into Harvard (where students with family incomes of less than $200,000 a year only have to pay 10 percent of their income), but not if you were accepted, to say, Georgetown or Northwestern. (Which compete for students much more readily with Cornell than Harvard.)

But it's not really a merit-based program because the student has to qualify for financial aid in the first place. At the end of the day, Cornell will only be giving as much aid as Harvard... or Yale... or Princeton. We've heard this discussion before.

What the program is likely all about is a sly way to get around the Ivy League's crackdown on Cornell's enhanced financial aid program for athletes. Which makes sense, because most of the common-admit battles with Harvard, Princeton, et. al. are likely for athletes.

Because who would want to play hockey in Allston if they can play at Lynah for the same price?


Matthew Nagowski | August 23, 2010 (#)

NPR Confuses the Cornells

The folks over at Cornell Insider picked up on an interesting NPR story that tracks how well college graduates pay back their student loans.

The NPR story cites the fact that Cornell has the second highest loan repayment rate in the Ivy League, at 82 percent, falling only to (who else?) Harvard's 84 percent.

That's all well and good, save for the fact that NPR reported on the Cornell in Iowa. You know, the one where students only take one course at a time and the topography is flat and without any intersecting hydrological features?

Cornell's actual repayment rate is 73 percent, which puts us in fourth place in the Ivies (ahead of Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, and Yale, but behind Columbia, Princeton, and of course, Harvard) and also ahead of some of the Big Red's other peer schools, like Chicago, Northwestern, Duke, and WashU.

The bigger question is what exactly these numbers tell us. I'm not certain they tell you much without taking what the students are studying, their debt load, and the familial backgrounds of the students.

Family backgrounds are important because a student from a family with higher income can reasonably expect to 'lean' on their family for loan payments if time gets tough. Cornell tends to have more economic diversity than its peers, so Cornell looks even better with this taken into consideration.

At the same time, debt load is important too -- the higher the debt the more the monthly payment. Paying off $150,000 in debt is a lot harder to do than $60,000 in debt. The NPR story doesn't really talk about this, even though it's an important angle to their 'public v. private' Ivies comparison. Public school graduates will see lower debt loads. The same principle would apply for Cornell's contract colleges.

We also know that Cornell tends to be more of a pre-professional place than a lot of our peers, so it would make sense that Cornellians might have better job prospects upon graduating. On the flip side, the consideration might only matter for future engineers, farmers, or hotel managers, tilting the scale in Cornell's favor due to those students, but telling us nothing about the marginal liberal arts student at Cornell vis-a-vis Brown or Dartmouth.

Tellingly, Carnegie Mellon, a Cornell-peer but heavily concentrated in business and engineering education, has a repayment rate of 80 percent. Besting all but Harvard.

And Cornell College.


Matthew Nagowski | August 22, 2010 (#)

Cornell Acceptance Rates by SAT Scores

Longtime readers of the site know my old adage -- acceptance rates tell us nothing -- because they tell you nothing about the academic caliber of the institution, nor the quality of the students applying, being accepted, or enrolling.

That said, SAT-contingent acceptance rates can be very useful to students applying to a school because it may help provide guidance to their chances of being accepted. This is true even at a school like Cornell, which with many different undergraduate colleges and niche majors like architecture, viticulture, and hotel management, tends to be more focused on a qualitative assessment of the student's fit for a particular program that strict numbers like SAT scores or class rank.

Longtime readers of the site also know that I find a certain amount of pride in the fact that Cornell is more open about its admissions and enrollment data than any of its peers. Good luck getting a peer school like Penn or Duke or Northwestern to disclose admissions statistics by undergraduate college, but Cornell has nothing to hide.

That's why I'm particularly excited to note that the folks in Institutional and Research and Planning have significantly improved the amount of data they are now sharing on Cornell's admissions process. This year, they've upgraded their brief to include distributions of applicants, acceptances, and enrollments by SAT scores. That allows these types of statistics to be inferred:

The verdict: Study your verbal skills, kids, because Cornell accepts high SAT Critical Reading scores at a much higher rate than high SAT Math scores. But if you have less than a 650 SAT in both the Critical Reading or Math tests, there's not that much of a difference in acceptance rates among the same scores.

It's also fair to point out that even if you have SAT scores below 650 in either test, you still have a better chance of getting into Cornell than schools with sub-10 percent acceptance rates like Harvard and Yale.

Finally, for those of you with over a 750 Math score, don't be too cocky. You still have a 75 percent chance of being rejected. That's not all that much different than those with a 650 Math score who have an 85 percent chance of being rejected. Just more proof that Cornell doesn't place all that much emphasis on SAT scores -- unlike other colleges, Ezra's University is more about fit.

As for the 5 percent of students with below a 500 SAT Verbal that are being accepted, I sure hope your parents are quite wealthy. Or you have a strong slapshot.

More data below the jump.


Matthew Nagowski | August 18, 2010 (#)

Class of 2014 Strongest Class Ever?

With orientation only a week away for the Class of 2014 and students already arriving in Ithaca for awesome pre-orientation programs like Outdoor Odyssey, nee Wilderness Reflections, MetaEzra recently came across some statistics for the entering class. And with this year's low acceptance rate and high yield, we knew that the Class of 2014 was bound to impress.

The big news is that this appears to be the strongest year in recent memory, not only on the acceptance rate and yield side, but also on the academic caliber side. The later is much more important, because acceptance rates don't really tell you anything about the strength of the entering class:

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
. . .
Class of 2013 67 82
Class of 2014 70 85

This may, in fact, be the first time that more than 70 percent of the entering class had a Verbal SAT greater than 650.

On the flip side of things, however, we understand that entering black students plummeted this year, from 6.7% (216) to 5.3% (172), which is almost a 25 percent drop in black students. This is sure to cause some consternation in Day Hall given the amount of attention this number gets every year. One speculation is that the drop in matriculating blacks may be a result of the suicide cluster, as black students may be more sensitive to the perceived amount of student support on campus.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine whether or not there is a link between the SAT scores going up and black matriculates going down.

The other big headline is that the percentage of international students declined substantially, from 10.5 to 7.7 percent of the class. One has to wonder if the decision to re-allocate financial aid for Canadian students might not have played a role in that change.

At least we're still going to have a kick-ass woman's hockey team this year, complete with three new Canadians, and one returning Olympic gold-medal winner.


Matthew Nagowski | August 12, 2010 (#)

Moving Past Coulter and Olbermann?

Mark Kirk's '81 star may be falling, but another Midwestern Cornellian is poised to win big in November. As we posted in the sidebar and the Sun reported last week, Hansen Clarke '81 defeated thirteen-year incumbent Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in the Democratic primary for Michigan's 13th District. Given that the district is strongly Democratic, analysts predict that Hansen is "all but certain" to win this fall's election.

Clarke's victory was due in large part to the ethical problems facing Kilpatrick and her family, but Clarke's personal story is a compelling narrative of diversity and perseverance. His father, a Bangladeshi Muslim, died when Clarke was eight years old. His mother, an African-American Methodist, raised Clarke in Detroit on a crossing guard's salary. (Clarke later converted to Roman Catholicism.)

Clarke was flagged by a teacher for a special art program, and it was through this experience that he gained admission to Cornell. However, Clarke struggled during his first few months on East Hill:

An aspiring artist attending prestigious Cornell University on a scholarship, Clarke couldn't study, couldn't work, couldn't keep up his grades. His mother, who had raised him alone on the tough east side of Detroit, had died. Clarke was bereft.

He dropped out of Cornell in his freshman year and ended up back in the neighborhood, living on food stamps and struggling to survive.

In an act which cemented Clarke's loyalty to his city, neighbors in Detroit raised money to send him back to Cornell. However, he had lost his full scholarship and needed to work his way through school.

After turning around his academic career, Clarke attended Georgetown Law School and began working in politics. He married Choi Palmer-Cohen - bonus points if you guessed that she was born in South Korea and adopted by a Jewish father and a Catholic mother.

Clarke's story is not easily simplified. He has described his politics as a "mix of Newt Gingrich and Malcolm X" - I'll let Isaac Kramnick sort that out - and has campaigned in favor of decreased federal spending.

Despite Clarke's time in the Ithaca ivory tower, he is a legitimate Detroit local. In contrast to many political transplants who spent time in other areas before returning home to run for office, Hansen has received less than one-tenth of one percent of his career fundraising from New York.

So, is Clarke the person to finally carry the Cornell political flag past the era of bickering Keith Olbermann '79 and Ann Coulter '84? Perhaps not.

At Cornell, Clarke ran for a student seat on the board of trustees against (who else?) Coulter. It is believed that Clarke's victory in this election was a major factor in pushing Coulter to become the conservative firebrand whom we know today:

“She was so laid back when I ran against her,” Clarke said. “I think that election changed her.”

Clarke is not the only Cornellian on the political rise - I'm still partial to Gabrielle Giffords M.R.P. '96 - but he's got one of those stories which is likely to be discussed more and more as we get closer to January 2011. I'm hoping that Clarke's ascendancy is not evidence that we are still in the era of Coulter, Olbermann, Wolfowitz, etc., but that Clarke will instead serve as a bridge between that era of the 1990s and 2000s and a new period in which he will be only one of several new, exciting Big Red faces to make headlines.


Elie Bilmes | August 09, 2010 (#)

Explaining Denver

Last week I detailed where Cornell alumni live across the country, and I noted at the time that I was most surprised by Denver's relatively high standing in the rankings -- ahead of larger metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Atlanta. Today, MetaEzra reader AB contributes:

I am a current student and avid reader and thank you for your great blog. I learn more from your blog than I do any other Cornell related publication.

I am in a rush, but as a proud Coloradan I couldn't help but notice you mentioning that the only thing that could explain kids going to Denver was the fact that the Coors family went to Cornell. However, the real reasons
are more likely that it is one of the most educated cities in America, has one of the highest qualities of life, and Forbes recently ranked it the number 4 best city for grads.

Might help to explain why so many Cornellians have been following the 'Pikes Peak or Bust' mantra.


Matthew Nagowski | August 09, 2010 (#)

I Am Cornell

A cool new Cornell meme that's circulating the Internets is the I Am Cornell project, which came out of University's Office of Web Communications. Reads the project website:

Are you a Cornellian? Do you work for the university? Teach on the Hill? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are Cornell.

Make a sign telling the world how Cornell is in your life, how the university has touched your world, how you relate to the Big Red. Then have someone snap your photo holding it.

Be creative. Have fun. Share your Cornell with the world.

During Reunions, my rag-tag bunch of friends and I happened to come across the I Am Cornell booth at the All-Alumni Affair. Urged-along by my friends, I soon found myself up on stage, avec my now infamous blazer, holding a sign that was written for me which didn't completely fulfill the spirit of either the I Am Cornell project or MetaEzra, because after all, this humble author is but one contributor to our fledgling blog, and you can barely read the 'I Am Cornell' text in my sign, which also says "and this blazer cost $20 on eBay".

Of course, this all occurred two months ago, but I'm only able to share the resulting picture with you now, dear reader, due to some bureaucratic hold-up that occurred between the University and the photo studio, Laughing Penguins. (Who take pretty nifty pictures, I should add.)

The Big Red Tape strikes again!

Looking through the Flickr pool, it's pretty clear that the project is off to a good start, but it definitely needs more diversity. To date, the pool features a lot of white alumni and professional staff. Not a lot of faculty. Nor are there a lot of faces of color. Where's the 'such diversity in one university' that we love and cherish?


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The good news? If you take your own I Am Cornell picture from the comfort of your own home (and not a sweltering Barton Hall), you should be able to get it online pronto.


Matthew Nagowski | August 08, 2010 (#)

Cornell's Suicide Bridge Problem

Not to turn this humble blog towards all-suicide, all-the-time coverage, but I recently came across some additional statistics on suicides at Cornell and in Tompkins County. This follows Susan Murphy's public statements that the Ithaca Journal covered last month. Taken in full, I believe the statistics point to the fact that aside from the tragic cluster that occurred this spring which required a large response by the administration, Cornell still doesn't have a suicide problem, it has a bridge problem.

* Between 1990 and 2010, there were 29 gorge-related suicide or suicide attempts in Tompkins County. Of those 29, 15 were college students (14 at Cornell, 1 at Ithaca College), and 4 were not residents of the county. 1 of the 10 community member deaths was a student on leave from Cornell.

* Of the 14 above-mentioned Cornell students, 2 Cornell students attempted suicide by jumping into the gorge but survived the fall.

* Between 1990 and 2010 there were 166 suicides total. That means 16% of all Tompkins County suicides by gorge.

* Of the 27 gorge-related deaths, only one was not by a bridge.

* Between 1990 and 2010, Cornell registered a total of 25 student suicides. That number includes the six in the past year, yielding a rate of 1.25 a year, or 6.25 for every 100,000 student-years. Of course, prior to this year's cluster, Cornell's suicide rate was below 5 for every 100,000 students. This compares to the U.S. national suicide rate of 10 per 100,000 per year for individuals aged 15-24, and the Big Ten study's findings of 7.5 per 100,000 students which is traditionally treated as the national norm for college students.

* 48 percent of all Cornell student suicides have occurred by jumping into the gorges.

I think that last statistic is the most damning and really helps to serve the mythology that surrounds Cornell's suicide rate. One out of every two Cornell suicides happens in a very public setting for the entire world to see. By contrast, only 2 percent of suicides across the country occur due to a fall.

That means that Cornell's suicides are 25 times more likely to be publicly viewable than the national average! If somebody hangs themselves, overdoses on pain killers, or even uses a fire-arm to take their own life, as is the case at most other colleges, by its very nature it will be a lot less public than the types of intensely public tragedies (complete with exhausting media coverage) that Cornell students have to cope with. Most college campuses don't require emergency responders to rappel 100 feet into a gorge to retrieve a student's body. And, of course, they don't subsequently have thousands of students walk past the place where a student took their own life every day for the rest of the semester.

The second question, of course, is whether or not Cornell will limit the number of suicides on campus by erecting more effective (and more aesthetically pleasing) bridge barriers. Research indicates that the barriers will at the very least deter such public suicide, and the studies are hopeful that young adults are the most responsive to means-restriction approaches, as they are the most likely to commit suicide impulsively.


Matthew Nagowski | August 06, 2010 (#)

Where Do Cornell Alumni Live?

One of the tidbits of info that Chris Marshall shared with me in his interview last year was the location of Cornell alumni across the country. I, of course, neglected to include the data in the original interview, but recently stumbled across it again and thought it would be worthwhile to share with all of you.

Now, this type of information might not be all that interesting to some of our readers, but as both a data and a geography geek, I find it pretty neat. I was also able to match up Chris's data with data from the U.S. Census to compare the relative concentration of Cornell alumni across different metro areas.

The take away is that close to 1 in 4 Cornell alumni -- or over 35,000 people -- reside in the greater New York City area -- spanning from Northern New Jersey to Southwestern Connecticut. That's around 2.2 Cornellians for every resident of that area of the country.

So while the megalopolis has a commanding share of alumni, it actually isn't all that over-represented relative to some other areas. Boston actually has more Cornell alumni per capita at 2.34 per 1,000 residents. And outside of Ithaca (where roughly 7.5 percent of the populace is a Cornellian) the highest concentration of Cornellians are living in the Upstate metros of Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester.

The city that surprised me the most was Denver, with over 2,500 Cornellians. It must be the Coors connection -- places like Portland, Seattle, and San Diego can be explained by lifestyle and economy.

The Midwest appears to be doing the worst. Chicago, the third largest metro in the country, only ranks 10th in terms of Cornellians, at 0.4 per thousand. Other large Midwestern cities, like Detroit and Cleveland, don't make the list, while others, like Minneapolis and Milwaukee are nowhere to be found.

All said, 80 percent of Cornell's domestic alumni are in 31 cities (26 once you group the downstate environs). Data below the fold.


Matthew Nagowski | August 03, 2010 (#)

Continuing the Golden Age After 2010

It should be clear to Big Red sports fans that the spring of 2010 was the historical high-water mark for Cornell Athletics. The season was marked by not only the unprecedented success of teams like women's hockey and men's basketball, but also the continued success of teams like men's hockey, women's softball, men's lacrosse, wrestling, and track and field.

In the weeks since, however, it has become clear that this pinnacle of sports success will not be matched in 2011. Two of the individuals responsible for this success, basketball coach Steve Donahue and lacrosse coach Jeff Tambroni, left for bigger paychecks at non-Ivy schools. Moreover, as unprecedented numbers of Cornellians have signed professional contracts, we are reminded of how many talented athletes played their last games on East Hill this spring. Basketball players Ryan Wittman, Jon Jaques, Jeff Foote and Louis Dale have signed contracts to continue their professional careers. If Joe Scali continues his professional career in Italy, as he is expected to do, then all six graduating seniors from the hockey team will be playing professional hockey next year. Add to this the early departure of Riley Nash, and the team's roster is severely depleted.

Going down

For men's basketball and men's hockey, 2011 will be no 2010. The basketball team will be anchored by junior guard Chris Wroblewski, but no other returning player will have averaged more than 3 ppg this past season. With the other Ivies hungry for a chance to beat Cornell after three seasons of Big Red domination, the team's inexperience may lead to some early losses in Ivy play. Many fans expect Cornell to compete again for the Ivy title, but another run past the first round of the NCAA tournament is highly unlikely.

Men's hockey loses 49 percent of last year's total offense, including three career 100-point scorers. Cornell's defense and goaltending should remain strong, but it's not clear where the scoring will come from. Mike Schafer and his staff have done a great job of keeping Cornell competitive every year, but Big Red fans should expect to lose a lot of close, low-scoring games next season. Another ECAC title is unlikely.

Staying steady

Look for men's lacrosse and women's hockey to repeat some of their 2009-2010 successes. Tambroni's replacement as lacrosse coach, Ben DeLuca, is regarded pretty highly among Cornell fans. The lacrosse team's losses to graduation are more than offset by the continued development of players like Rob Pannell, Steve Mock, and goalie A.J. Fiore. The team likely overachieved in 2010 by reaching the Final Four, but a repeat appearance is certainly possible. If that happens, perhaps Cornell's fourth trip to the Final Four in five seasons will be the one which finally brings home a title.

Similarly, the women's hockey team returns most of its key players, including forward Catherine White and goaltender Amanda Mazzotta. The team will also receive a boost when gold medal-winning Olympian Rebecca Johnston returns to campus. As with lacrosse, this year's team may have overachieved by nearly winning the NCAA championship, but another strong season is likely in 2011.

Moving up?

The Cornell wrestling team, which finished second at this year's NCAA championships, is the early favorite to win the NCAA title. Kyle Dake, Mack Lewnes, and Cam Simaz are expected to compete for the championships in their weight classes.

Although Andy Noel, Cornell's athletic director, has angered some hockey fans by cracking down on traditions at Lynah Rink, he deserves credit for putting together this Golden Age of Cornell sports. The challenge for Noel will be to battle shrinking budgets and coaching departures to sustain this high level of success in 2011 and beyond.


Elie Bilmes | August 01, 2010 (#)


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