I know it is a "final plan", but at Cornell nothing is ever set in stone, save for maybe the inscription on Eddy Gate, so allow me to focus on a couple of the positives and negatives of the plan.

First, the positives:

-- The focus on "greenways", natural settings, and open spaces. It goes without saying that Cornell's natural, open setting is one of its strongest assets, and its setting has strong implications for the feel and character of the University. So we're thankful that the planners have at least picked up on this. In particular, we are enthused by the 'Wee Stinky Glen' greenway, connecting the campus from the Baldwin steps all the way to Beebee Lake. We're also excited by the idea of a 'Cascadilla Meadows' behind Schoellkopf Field and a Judd Falls Greenway on East Campus, zig-zagging between the Orchards and Beebee Lake. These meandering, open areas are precisely the type of Olmstedian landscapes that Cornellians need for inspiration and relaxation.

-- The intensification and formal development of East Campus. As we speculated when we first heard of the master planning process, it's exciting to see East Campus -- south and east of the Ag Quad receive considerable attention that will greatly improve the experience in this part of campus. The Alumni Fields are being sacrificed in the process, but in return we are getting a new Alumni Quad, a Mid-Campus Walk, a Vet Quad, and a lot more social amenities and community feeling to East Campus, which often feels desolate and windswept today.

-- The continued development of the Commons, Collegetown, and East Hill Plaza Village. It's easy to see why East Hill Village is so prominently featured in the plan; it's the cheapest space in Ithaca closest to campus that is easily amendable for new uses. And we agree that it makes sense for Cornell to develop the area residentially and commercially, especially as more professors, graduate students, and post-docs will be employed on East Campus, and there is a need to centralize a lot of extension, outreach, technology transfer, and public relations functions. Relocating more athletic facilities there also makes sense -- providing more of a community feel to the area -- especially as tennis, softball, rugby, and the equine sports are at East Hill Plaza already. Meanwhile, both the Commons and Collegetown are pillars of the City of Ithaca and need to receive continued investment from Cornell, in full cooperation with the city, of course.

Of course, we are never without criticism:

-- The current plan proposes a new plaza where the Campus Store currently stands, and suggests that Day Hall will be demolished and replaced by a new administrative building. We disagree. Unless there are major structural issues with the building, Day Hall is historic and should be kept and retooled as an academic building. (Economics?) Additionally, the Campus Store land is extremely valuable and more density should be added, so close to the major undergraduate library and student union. We envision a five to six story administrative building with a new campus store, student services, and multi-use spaces on the first two floors of the building. Ho Plaza and Central Ave. can always use more face-time, not less.

-- There is little to no discussion of the location of various programs and disciplines across campus. Of course we know that the the Arts Quad has humanities and the East Ave. crest has the physicals sciences, but more direction may be necessary. Should AEM, the undergraduate business program, be moved closer to the Johnson School, the Hotel School, and ILR instead of its outpost surrounded by Aggies and bio majors? (The Johnson School's parking lot is begging for it.) Should the social sciences be scattered as they are across campus? Should Stimson still be dedicated to biology majors even though most everything else for Bio majors is up near the Ag Quad?

-- Where's the desperately needed new pool going to go?

-- No reference to the use of the parking lot at the corner of Stewart Ave. and Williams, which is a prime piece of real estate, and ripe for perhaps another art museum or residential college.

-- Milstein Hall hasn't been scrapped yet (again).

-- Where's our trolley?

There are, of course, a bunch of other interesting things to comment on, like the replacement of Hoy Field for a new engineering quad and the planned demolishing of the North Campus townhouses, but those seem self-explanatory and rather non-controversial.

Courtesy of Wordle, designed by an English major from Brown.

As the interview was conducted over email, we didn't actually get a chance to sit down with Harris. But this is what he would look like if we did:

The interview went well, but as Cornell partisans, we were ultimately disappointed with his answer to the final question.

When you assume the position of interim provost in August, you will become Cornell’s first non-white provost. How important is that to you, personally? How important of an occasion do you think that is to Cornell, a school with an egalitarian bent aiming to instruct “any person”?

I think it is special, but I hope that people do not forget that there remain tremendous inconsistencies between the racial, ethnic, and gender compositions of birth cohorts, and the compositions of the senior leadership of elite universities and top companies. There are myriad factors across the life course that account for differences in life chances. I feel fortunate to be the first black provost at Cornell. I would be truly happy if there were not racial disparities in life chances, from infant mortality rates, to incarceration rates, to life expectancies. Sorry to be a downer, but you did ask a quantitative inequality scholar about the significance of a single event.

Four of Cornell’s Ivy League peers – Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Brown – all currently have female presidents, and one – Brown – currently has a black female as president. In your mind, how important it to have a female or a racial-minority in such a visible position as provost or president?

I think it is important, but it has to be the right person. Again, I think that we can be too focused on the demographic characteristics of the few people at the top of the organization. It is more difficult and more important to ascertain whether the organization is a place where all students and employees achieve to their full potential.

Cornell has historically struggled to enroll under-represented minorities relative to its peer schools. Why do you think this is? Is it due to Ithaca's location? The history of racial tension on campus?

I think that there are a number of factors. We are working very hard with admissions and others across campus to identify and address the factors that lead underrepresented minorities to apply to and select Cornell at lower rates than we would like.

This is the first of two parts; today we focus on the position of the provost and developing the social sciences at Cornell. Tomorrow we will explore Harris's thoughts on diversity in 21st century America.

MetaEzra: Last August you accepted a position as Cornell’s first Deputy Provost. Did you suspect at the time that Biddy Martin would be considered for leadership positions at other schools, and that your appointment would help to bring some continuity to the provost’s office at Cornell?

David Harris: Given the duration and distinction of Biddy’s term as Cornell Provost, you had to assume that she would be a candidate for top academic leadership positions around the world, and at some point one of these opportunities would prove irresistible. The deputy provost position was always about getting the work of the office done during Biddy’s tenure, not about transitioning to a time after Biddy.

Acting as interim provost, what do you think will be the hardest part of Biddy’s role to fulfill? And even though you will only be provost on an interim basis, do you see yourself differing from her management style and direction in any way?

I think that my experience as Vice Provost for Social Sciences and Deputy Provost will ensure a smooth transition. For the past three years, I have attended multiple meetings each week with Biddy in which all of the major and minor issues have been discussed. I know what we are trying to do, and how we intend to succeed. I also have good working relationships with a broad range of administrators, staff, faculty, and alumni.

The hardest part will be the transition that the campus will have to make from thinking of Biddy as provost to thinking of me as provost. We have all become comfortable with Biddy over the past eight years. Adjusting to me and then to the permanent provost will take some time.

I do not expect any significant changes. I will strive to advance the academic priorities that have been established by the faculty and endorsed by the academic leadership. My term as interim provost will be marked by steady progress, not stasis nor inconsistency. You should not expect to see any significant differences in the focus or operations of the office.

Well, it turns out we went only one for nine! And there are actually ten!

The esteemed Corey Earle -- the greatest historian of Cornell among our generation -- wrote in to tell us just how wrong we are. The list actually comprises the following, in order of Forbes's ranking.

#227: Paul Milstein & family (including Howard P. Milstein '73)
#307 Robert Ziff JD '92
#553: H. Fisk Johnson '79, MEng '80, MBA '84, PhD '86
#553: Imogene Powers Johnson '52
#553: S. Curtis Johnson '77
#553 Helen Johnson-Leipold '78
#553: Winnie Johnson-Marquart '81 (no degree)
#743: Irwin M. Jacobs '54
#843: Sanford I. Weill '55
#897 David A. Duffield '62, MBA '64

So whereas Forbes originally reported nine, there are actually ten American billionaire graduates of Cornell. And five out of the ten come from the Johnson family, which is a little bit less diverse than we would have thought. But where did we go wrong?

Well, Chuck Feeney was a billionaire but then he gave away all of his money to the Atlantic Philanthropies. So that means that he is no longer a billionaire.

We did guess correctly on Sandy Weill, who has given most his fortune to the medical school, and has only recently started to focus his attention to the Ithaca campus.

And then we identified Tata, but he is an international and was necessarily excluded from the original ranking of colleges and universities. But surprisingly, Tata is not to be found on the Forbes list.

Yet there are some international Cornell billionaires to be found, including:

#538 Stephen Jarislowsky '46 (Canada)
#1062 Kyung Bae Suh MBA '87 (Korea)

And likely more, but we don't have the patience to go digging. We're confident the folks in the development office know who they are though.

Thankfully, the Internet is not without chatter on the topic, and ArtUpdates.com has offered some insight:

-- I've never met Mr. Kleinman but judging from the comments I think that he already sounds like a better fit than Mohsen - it sounds like he will click much better with the older faculty, which, to be honest, are the heart and soul of Cornell. I'm pretty glad that we didn't get another flashy figure, and instead someone who seems like he is serious about doing some good. Even though I won't be around much longer to see the changes (abroad + thesis), I'm looking forward to being in school under his deanship.

-- I am glad to hear the good stuff about Kleinman. It's true, Cornell is a good place for a genuine intellect - but the dash of fashion can be good for it too. They need someone to toot their horn to the NYC crowd, I think. To push them to publish and get the name out. Mohsen was very good for that. It would be sad to see Cornell lose the intellectual strength that is its real value (in contrast to the vapid star system elsewhere), but a bit of flash was very good for the reputation of the school. Just my humble opinion.

-- He was at Michigan for one year while I was there. The man is a spectacular intellect and a really genuine guy. Dean is the perfect position for him - I would reckon a far better fit than Mohsen, who has always been better at networking and self-promotion than working for the good of a school. Just my opinion.

-- It'll be sad to see Kent leave NYC. Let the maddeningly drawn out dash for the next available "NYC" Dean position begin.

So it seems like the search committee has done well, but time will only tell. And given the tumultuous decade that AAP has had, AAP will certainly need strong, wise leadership from here on out.

The last time Cornell had a new dean of AAP, Mostafavi scrapped Barkow Lieblinger's perfectly fine plan for Milstein Hall and brought in Rem Koolhaas. Will Kent do the same? Part of us just wants to get the damn building built, but I think most would agree that the building is less than ideal, from the silly cantilever over University Ave. to the way it imposes its modern self upon the traditional Arts Quad. Even Olin Library echoes shades of Boardman Hall.

So our vote? It probably won't happen, but let's get a new architect for Milstein Hall. We still have time, as ground isn't set to break until October 2008. And could we please get William Henry Miller as the architect?

Otherwise, what else would we like to to see Kent do with the school? Well, obviously, a focus on the undergraduate program is paramount. And while Mostafavi's connections to New York and the international scene were not unwelcome, Cornell also needs to focus on retaining its own unique role in the architectural world.

It's interesting to note that Kent is with past Upstate connections, having served at the University of Buffalo for over a decade. Personally, I would love nothing more than to see the College develop more linkages to local and Upstate architecture. Students can spend a semester in Rome, but can they spend a week touring Buffalo viewing some of the country's most significant architecture from the first half of the 20th century? Similarly, planning students have been quick to fly down to New Orleans to help out with the virtually unapproachable Ninth Ward, but what is to happen to inner-city Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica?

Additionally, we have always felt that the College of AAP needs to develop more linkages across the University. Programs in design and textiles in Human Ecology, materials and civil engineering in Engineering, and international labor and agriculture need to interact with AAP programs. There is every reason for them to be interconnected.

Good luck, Kent.

I've played on FieldTurf before, and I like it. It's about the closest to actual grass that you can imagine playing on. It should help in both lacrosse and football recruiting, but might take away some of Schoellkopf's famed home-field advantage (where the Big Red was 4-1 last year despite going 5-5.)

So both aesthetically and physically, the new turf is a tremendous improvement.

But as some commentators over on eLynah have noted, there's an interesting addition to the Big Red color schema: black. The text on the field is in a big block print with heavy black outlines. It's not so much unattractive as it is historically blasphemous. As the Cornell Athletics website shares from Bishops's A History of Cornell:

At sunrise on Inauguration Day, said the New York Times envoy, "from all the hills poured forth delightful music, and every few minutes the thunder of artillery from the eastern hills responded to the booming of cannon from a lofty eminence on the west side of town." Students and citizens thronged to Library Hall, which was tastefully decorated with marble vases of flowers and a large cross covered with moss, entwined with myrtle. On the side wall, the motto of the new university was blazoned in evergreen letters, and behind the speakers the illustrious names of CORNELL and WHITE appeared in large white letters against artistically draped red flannel, on which stars cut out of silver paper were pinned at pleasing intervals. Thus, entirely unintentionally, the Cornell colors were established for all time, on the first Cornell banner.

To add insult to injury, others are reporting that the famed Carnelian red looks a bit like magenta.

I wonder if the Image Committee from a few years back didn't go far enough to make certain that Athletics also followed Cornell's new identity rules.

Anyways, you can be the judge. Would the field look better like this? (Note only the 'Big' had been modified...)

Or should we be okay with the new look?

Moody-Adams commented on the book at the time:

The book should be potentially as enriching for non-American readers who may have little knowledge of American history as for American readers looking for a deeper understanding of their national history, Moody-Adams said.

For the many incoming students who will be engaged with the details of the national election this fall, "Will's discussions of the dynamics of politics should prove especially insightful," Moody-Adams said. The book "offers no simplistic analyses and no easy answers. Instead, it asks the reader to reflect on the complexities of political life and political agency, and to resist the tendency to think in terms of simple dichotomies or absolutes divorced from the contingencies of political life."

I think the reading of this book is important for two reasons:

-- The role of the Civil War era in helping to usher in the founding of Cornell University. If you read Carl Becker's The Founders and The Founding, you will know it's not a coincidence that the year the first "modern" war ended, the first "modern" university was founded -- 1865. Other "modern" universities -- Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Stanford -- were founded quite a bit after Cornell was founded. It's also not a coincidence that Cornell was founded as a place for pragmatic knowledge in an era that was desperate for such forms of thought, and that Cornell would readily admit women and minorities immediately after a decisive war that forced the country to rethink the role of women and minorities in society.

-- The insights we can learn about today's political contest -- an election oft-cited as critical and that will probably prove to be an inflection point in the course of our country -- from the past. For the past several years Cornell has been assigning a work of fiction, but I think a non-fictional text on the issue of politics and social change is appropriate given the nation's current state. Besides, I had to read the non-fictional Guns, Germs, and Steel, and I was better for it. It's certainly seems more worthwhile than reading The Great Gatsby , which it seems like everybody needs to read in high school, international students outstanding.

It's also interesting to note that the author, Garry Wills, is also noted for writings on his Catholic faith.

Here at MetaEzra, we're excited about this book as well, and just checked it out from our local library. We encourage all of our readers to do the same. The University has also set up a blog (featuring an awful pun), which we will frequent over the course of the summer.

Andy is also in the process of setting up our very first reader's panel on MetaEzra to discuss the book, featuring a handful of young alumni who are currently active in the national political scene. Expect the panel to debut at the start of freshmen orientation, serendipitously coinciding with the national conventions taking place in Minneapolis and Denver.

If you're interested in getting involved, get in touch, and let us know how you think you can contribute. Otherwise stay tuned for much more excitement this summer!

N.B. We also noticed that another finalist for the book project was Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which would have been a wonderful choice, especially given Cornell programs in agriculture and food science, and Ithaca's reputation as a hotbed for vegetarianism. Alas, it's an election year. But let's keep our fingers crossed for next year.

This is exciting. With no disrespect to the leadership that President Skorton has provided to Cornell, who can resist Lehman's address to incoming freshmen on the underlying meaning to an oft-quoted line from The Big Lebowski when compared to more boilerplate fare?

All Cornellians, past and present, should read Lehman's speeches, including his Commencement address on Vonnegut and Satre and his inaugural address as the first Cornell alum ever to assume the institution's presidency -- when he introduced the powerful theme of a Revolutionary and Beloved Cornell.

This is also exciting because the publication of the book indicates an interest in the University to integrate the Lehman years into Cornellian's collective conscious, to perhaps help heal the wounds that opened in 2005 with Lehman's sudden and surprising resignation. So we're glad that all parties are being gracious towards each other, even as we wish that the Board of Trustees would have been more forthcoming all along in regards to the source of their tension with Lehman.

Of course, Lehman is busy pursuing other endeavors besides for compiling a book of his speeches. Not only has he taken the lead in bringing an American law school to the Far East, but he has also recently written on how to measure the amount of integration that occurs within diverse student bodies.

Student diversity, integration, and self-segregation has always been a hot topic for MetaEzra, so we took some interest to this article.

Lehman writes:

One should not feel any particular sense of alarm if, when one looks at into a lunchroom, one sees a table at which all of the students are black. What one needs to look for are integration pods – venues where mixed-race groups are interacting. Even a relatively small number of such venues might be enough to sustain a meaningfully integrated community.

More precisely, one needs to be looking at flows, not snapshots. An evaluation should be structured to monitor the movements within with an individual’s daily life. It should be longitudinal rather than cross-sectional...

Consider once more the context of racial integration. Suppose one were to take a series of snapshots of a role reversal integration pod. Suppose that in every snapshot one found 8 black students and 2 white students. And, upon closer inspection, suppose one found that one of the 2 white students was always the same.

It might be tempting to focus on the student who was always there and say, “This integration pod isn’t having much of an impact; the same white student is here all the time.” But if the point is to evaluate the prevalence of a role reversal experience within the community over time, the lesson of the poverty spells example is that one must not look at individual snapshots. One must look at the entire population over time. The question is not “there now,” but rather “ever there.”

There is a common point to both the cafeteria example and the role reversal example. The point is that, to evaluate how one is doing, one must resist the psychological temptation to fixate on indicators of failure. One must not fixate on homogeneous lunchroom tables or on the white student who seems to be in the role reversal pod every day. Rather, one must try to see the entire picture, over time.

In Lehman's mind, these integration and role-reversal pods work against the inherent trends towards self-segregation that occur everywhere in life. And I think most would agree with his assessment of the types of integrative institutions that can enrich a student's educational experience.

Integration among a diverse student body is important due to it's ability to build trust and community on campus. Harvard's famed Robert Putnam has been writing a lot about this recently, claiming that more diversity is associated with all sorts of negative outcomes, including less likelihood of giving to charity or volunteering, fewer close friends and confidants, and less happiness and a lower perceived quality of life.

I will suggest that this is more of a problem at Cornell than at most other universities. Not only do you have a lot of racial, ethnic, culturally, and socioeconomic diversity, but you also have more academic and residential diversity than at most other top private universities. Any person. Any study.

So it's curious that Lehman doesn't talk about the Cornell experience more fully. He only adds one anecdote from his time at Cornell:

As president of Cornell, I was struck by the extraordinary alliance between Muslim students and Jewish students on campus. Year in and year out, I saw remarkable efforts at joint programming, so that students from each group might come to appreciate the perspectives of the other. One year the students collaborated to design and make a mosaic. In other years the end of Ramaddan featured an Iftar banquet that drew hundreds and hundreds of students into a comparative discussion of the role of fasting in different religions. In still another year Iranian Muslim students and Sephardi Jewish students staged a joint evening of culture, food, and comedy.

But I think there is a lot more to talk about:

Would a more integrated university allow freshmen to self-segregate themselves before they even arrive on campus? Would a more integrated university allow camaraderie building athletic traditions at Lynah to be squashed? Would a more integrated university seek to include all alums in the distribution of its alumni magazine?

Commenting on the news of his appointment, Harris praised Martin's eight-year tenure as provost and said: "It is an honor to be appointed interim provost of Cornell University. I will strive to advance the academic priorities that have been established by the faculty and endorsed by the academic leadership. My term as interim provost will be marked by steady progress. I do not have any interest in being considered as the next provost. This is not the right time in my life or in my career to pursue the position."

Whatever the reason for Harris choosing to exclude himself from the running, one can't help but notice the remarkable run he has had so far. Eleven years ago he was a freshly minted Sociology PhD. Today he is chief academic officer for one of the nation's premier research universities.

MetaEzra had been trying to get an interview with Harris for last six months. In light of recent developments, we don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

But never fear, a committee has been put together so that Harris can go back to his day job, hopefully by early 2009:

The search committee will be chaired by Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy Martha Haynes and will have the following members: Harry Katz, dean of the ILR School and J. Sheinkman Professor in Collective Bargaining; Carlos Bustamante, assistant professor of biological statistics and computational biology; Paulette Clancy, professor and the William C. Hooey Director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Robert Frank, the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management and professor of economics; Sandra Greene, professor of history; Charles Phlegar, vice president for alumni affairs and development; Ryan Lavin, president of the Student Assembly; Michelle Leinfelder, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly; and Brian Cornell, chair of the Employee Assembly. The committee will solicit nominations and applications this summer, and recommend finalists to Skorton by mid-fall.

Last year we speculated that there was a social-sciences subtext to the naming of Harris as deputy provost. And we can't help but think that there may be a social sciences subtext to the search committee as well, with three social scientists (counting Greene), three scientists, and no humanists. For what it is worth, the social sciences have been talked up in the recent year, as the University attempts to bolster its economics and government repertoire.

We're also told that this is the first time that there has ever been a search committee for a provost at Cornell. We wonder if that means there will be the possibility for an external candidate, although we doubt it. Cornell's way too complicated of a place for anybody other than an insider to become provost.

First, whereas the Ithaca Journal originally reported:

Kelsey Space, a recent Cornell graduate, said she saw Lowe slide down the falls and into the water below. She turned away, Space said, then heard a muted cry for help and turned back to look at the water.

The Ithace Police Department's official report claims:

The incident was first reported at approximately 6:04PM. Lowe was swimming with a friend and went under as they were preparing to get out of the water. Several attempts were made to locate Lowe by his friend and other swimmers who dove into the area where Lowe was last seen.

So was Doug climbing on the waterfalls or swimming in the water at the time of the accident?

Then there is the question of water flow. The police report claims:

The water flow in the gorge at the time of the incident was relatively calm due to a lack of recent rain.

But the USGS gauge reading on Fall Creek demonstrates that at the time of his death, the reading was 48 cubic feet per second several miles upstream from the Suspension Bridge location, and that a significant rain event within the last day had brought that reading up above 100.

For comparison purposes, in August, when most Cornell freshmen first get introduced to the Fall Creek swimming hole, the readings are often around 25 cubic feet per second, or about half the force experienced on Thursday afternoon.

I'm most surprised by one aspect to the story. Apparently the water in which Lowe drowned is 25-30 feet deep. I knew the hole was probably over 10 feet deep , but never assumed it to be more than 20 feet deep. As reflected in the gorges themselves, it's amazing how strong the force of water is.

Of course, not even 24 hours after the incident, students were already back to swimming at the same location of Lowe's death:

On Friday at about 2:30 p.m., police responded to a report of 20 or so swimmers in and around the area where Lowe's body was recovered. The swimmers said they were asked by police to cross to the opposite side of the gorge and refrain from swimming near the falls.

Chapter 250 of the City of Ithaca code, Peace and Good Order, states, “No person shall bathe in, swim in, or for purposes of swimming and/or bathing enter any of the waters within the City of Ithaca except in the waters officially designated as swimming or bathing areas.”

Swimmers said they were not, however, asked to leave.

“We come here all the time, but we stay away from where the current is strong,” said Kalie Stoneman, one of roughly a dozen sunbathers. “It's sad that we've gotten used to it.”

Evan Uheu, a Cornell senior, said that he lived less than a hundred yards from where he lay on a towel. Convenience, and the cleanliness of the water, he said, would keep him coming back.

“I don't like to swim below the gun factory,” he said. When asked specifically whether Lowe's death would deter him in any way, he paused.

“I didn't jump off the falls today,” he said, “but I probably will in a week.”

Simeon Moss, press relations director for Cornell, said the university is developing new literature regarding gorge safety to be made available during the upcoming freshman orientation.

In addition, Moss said that Cornell publishes several pamphlets and devotes a great deal of energy to signage that warns against the dangers of swimming in the gorges and reservoirs in the Ithaca area.

Acting Ithaca Police Chief Ed Vallely said they rely chiefly on education, working with Cornell to publicize the dangers of these illegal swimming areas.

Good. Education and public awareness of the dangers are the key, not excluding gorge access to all.

A picture of the Fall Creek swimming hole during Reunion Weekend '08:

Update:Reports have now surfaced that the student was Douglas Lowe '11, 18, of Shelton, Conn. He was a student in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Kelsey Space, a recent Cornell graduate, said she saw the man slide down the falls and into the water below. She turned away, Space said, then heard a muted cry for help and turned back to look at the water.

“I saw him flailing around in the water, like everyone does, because the current is so strong,” she said. Then he disappeared under the water, she said, and people at the scene tried to rescue him while others called 911.

Another witness said they heard the call for help, dove in but couldn't find the man.

“You can't really see anything under the water,” the witness said.

A terrible tragedy for somebody young and full of promise. May he rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family today.

Safety is obviously a huge concern with the illicit swimming holes that dot Ithaca's gorge, and it will be interesting to see if Cornell takes any further steps to limit swimming in the gorge, especially in light of the fact that this was a freshman who drowned. Don't forget, it was less than a year ago when a visiting student died in the same fashion. If the University is to take a heavier hand to regulating gorge activity, whatever happened to Carl Becker's 'freedom and responsibility'?

As a Cornell student, I often swam in the very same spot, fully aware of the deaths that had occurred in the swimming hole where I so enjoyed myself. And I would be lying if the appeal of the gorges, swimming, and cliff jumping in a sublime natural setting wasn't one of the primary factors that cemented my decision to attend Cornell.

My sophomore summer, an idyllic Ithacan summer with memories to last a lifetime, was highlighted by a 'Polar Bear Swimming Club' that some friends and I devised. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, at the ungodly (for a college student) time of 7AM, we would trudge down to the swimming hole and reinvigorate our senses. (You can actually read a take on the 'club' in the first volume of The Muse.) And my last night as a student in Ithaca (for I stayed at Cornell a full month after I graduated, not wanting to leave, ) was capped off with some skinny dipping under the stars.

But through this enjoyment, I was always very concerned about the safety of others swimming in Fall Creek, and in light of this most recent drowning, I wonder if Cornell should or would do more to limit swimming in the gorges.

You see, I have always been a strong swimmer. I was tossed into the mighty Niagara River when I was three and never looked back. I am a lifeguard, an Eagle Scout, and a Wilderness First Responder. I was on a state championship swimming team in high school, and I have swam across many a lake in my day. Even today, suffering from fairly severe arthritis and my body unable to cooperate with me on land, I am a remarkably strong swimmer.

But for others, those who haven't ever had to swim against current for a minute, swim for miles at end, or tread water with bricks over their head for thirty minutes at a time, swimming in Fall Creek is a much more dangerous activity. True it's illegal, but there are some common sense rules that can make it safer, should you choose to break the law. These rules should be obvious to a bright Cornell student, but you would be surprised:

0) It's illegal, and people have died. So think it over again before you break the law and put yourself at risk.

1) Do not enter the water if the discharge as measured by the USGS here is over 50 cubic feet of water per second. It appears that it was yesterday evening.

2) Do not climb the waterfalls under any circumstance. (Except perhaps if it is frozen in the winter.) Wet, slippery, algae-infested rock with thousands of pounds of water pouring over it is never safe, no matter how agile you think you are. This appears to have what caused this most recent incident. (So there are already three risk factors working against the deceased's safety). If you slip and crack your head open, is doesn't matter how amazing of a swimmer you are.

3) If you are not a strong swimmer, do not let your feet leave the ground underneath you. And by strong swimmer, I do not mean barely able to pass the Cornell swimming test. I mean able to swim 500 yards and tread water for fifteen minutes without stopping.

4) Keep your head above water at all times. No diving or jumping. Treading water to cool off is the only thing that might be recommended.

5) Don't be foolish enough to think that alcohol and swimming mix.

As always, and probably why she was selected as Chancellor of UW-Madison, Biddy is a strong advocate for public education:

After three consecutive years of significant growth in state operating support, the New York State Legislature adopted a budget that yields almost no growth in state appropriations for Cornell in 2008-09. The state budget outlook continues to be challenging, and it is quite possible that we will experience in-year expenditure constraints for Cornell’s state appropriations. Indications from Governor Paterson, legislative leaders, and the State University of New York suggest that a significant reduction in state operating support for higher education may occur in 2009-10, and we are planning for this possibility accordingly...

The public at large must not lose sight of the fact that higher education is funded as a partnership among individuals, governments, and institutions. The strength and commitment of that partnership has enabled America to develop the most comprehensive and envied system of higher education in the world. Institutional endowments such as Cornell’s cannot alone bear the entire financial burden of providing higher education for those who desire it, and a disproportionate shift of this burden to any of the three partners threatens the very success that has benefited our country to date.

A lot of outsiders fail to appreciate the importance and role of Cornell's state appropriations. The yearly check from Albany functions as a de facto endowment for the statutory colleges, funding professor salaries, student services, and research initiatives. Last year, Cornell received $175 MM in state support. That's the functional equivalent of a $3.5 billion endowment.

Next year? $169 MM.

The problem is that in real terms, Cornell's state support has been declining for quite some time now. After controlling for inflation, Cornell was regularly receiving over $210 MM from the state in the late eighties and early nineties. And today's funding levels stand at the lowest they have been in half a century, falling from 70 percent of the state-side budget to less than 30 percent. So tuition and gifts have had to pick up in kind.

It's bad for New York State. It's bad for students. And it's bad for Cornell.

Cornell is tied for ninth on the list, with UCLA, Berkeley, Northwestern, MIT, and USC, each with nine billionaires. It seems like USC billionaires have made all of their money in Hollywood, and I'm actually surprised MIT hasn't produced more.

Of course, this places Cornell below a lot of other top universities, including Harvard (50), Stanford (30), Penn (27), Yale(19), Columbia (15), Princeton(13), NYU(10), and Chicago (10). But Cornell also stands above other notables including, Duke, with eight (and even then, we wonder how much of Duke's billions represent tobacco money...).

One aspect of these rankings is that they don't separate undergraduate study with graduate schools, so I don't think it's any surprise that over 50 percent of Harvard and Penn's billionaires are associated at the graduate school level. Cornell may be hurt due to the relatively small size of its business and law schools. Secondly, it doesn't consider how many are self made.

Off the top of our head, MetaEzra can think of three of Cornell's billionaires, listed below. But can you name them all without sneaking a peak at Wikipedia?

- Sandy Weill
- Ratan Tata
- Chuck Feeney

Of course, the distribution of billionaires might affect the way the University seeks to to conduct its fund raising. Given that we have less billionaires than peer institutions like Columbia and Penn, it might make sense for Cornell to approach fund raising with a more egalitarian philosophy, like making the alumni magazine free to all alums.

But over in the Badger State, this fact has been getting a lot of press, in part because she will be the most powerful gay public figure in academia, but also because Wisconsin is the only school in the Big 10 to not offer domestic partner benefits:

Martin now finds herself days away from being appointed the next chancellor at UW-Madison, which still doesn't provide domestic partner benefits despite years of attempts by UW officials to secure such benefits from the state Legislature.

"I certainly think it's an important thing to have, and I believe that the university's recruitment and retention of staff and faculty depends on benefits of that sort," said Martin in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday.

"Domestic partner benefits are, in my view, a matter of fairness but also a matter of competitiveness," added Martin, who, if confirmed by the Board of Regents next week, would be the first openly gay chancellor to lead Wisconsin's flagship university...

Although Martin made it clear she believed it was important to make domestic partner benefits available to keep the university competitive with its peers, she stopped short of saying she would make the issue a top priority when she takes over at UW-Madison on Sept. 1.

"Well, to be honest I believe UW-Madison and the system is on record, already, as supporting domestic partner benefits, and I will certainly join my colleagues in that support," said Martin.

So Martin isn't going to make it a top priority at Wisconsin. But in an interesting twist of history, it may have been this very policy that kept Martin at Cornell, allowing her to become the provost of dear Alma Mater in the first place:

A faculty member from Cornell, Biddy Martin, was offered a senior faculty position at UW and finally declined, partly due to the partner benefits issue; she later became the Provost at Cornell.

Late Update:Apparently the above claim is false, and Biddy never turned down Wisconsin for lack of domestic partner benefits, citing only "personal reasons".

Needless to say, it will interesting to see how Biddy approaches the domestic benefits issue at Wisconsin.