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Olbermann’79 Donation Funds New WVBR Bldg

By KERRY CLOSE Sun News Editor

Keith Olbermann ’79 has given a donation of an unspecified amount to WVBR-FM, the student-run radio station at Cornell, that will allow it to move to a larger building in Collegetown, according to WVBR president Drew Endick ’14.

The radio station –– which is currently located more than a mile from campus –– pur“We likely wouldn’t have chased a house been able to move into the on East Buffalo Street this year house without Keith.” to use as its headquarters. At Drew Endick ’14 a WVBR alumni dinner in New York City on Jan. 10, Olbermann –– a political commentator who has hosted shows on MSNBC and Current TV –– presented the organization with a check that will allow its members to partially fund the new, more convenient location.

“We picked the house because we know we wanted to own something and be close to students,” Endick said. “[At the old station], if you didn’t have a car, it wasn’t like you could just get to the station whenever you needed to

News A Cleaner Future

Former Rep. Bob Inglis, Sr. (RS.C.) talks to The Sun about his views on energy policy, conservatism and the fight against climate change.

THE NEW YORK TIMES / BILLY CARTER

From Countdown to C-Town | Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann ’79 made a donation of an unspecified amount to the radio station that will allow it to move to a new facility in Collegetown.

be on the air.”

It has not been revealed how much money Olbermann –– who worked as WVBR’s sports director while he attended Cornell –– donated to the station. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the organization’s fundraising goal of $935,000 for the house has been reduced to $555,081.

The donation was indispensable to the station, which

Phi Sig,Pi Kap punished after ‘excessive’drinking

Opinion Calling for Reflection

By KERRY CLOSE

Rudy Gerson ’15 makes his debut as a Sun columnist with an argument: Do not hold class on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Sun News Editor

| Page 9

Opinion Too Much at Stake

| Page 9

Arts And the Award Goes to ...

Missed the Oscar nominations?

The Sun’s arts section recaps the 2013 nominees, giving its take on some of the more surprising names on the list. | Page 10

Sports Gearing Up

The men’s basketball team prepares to face off against Ivy rival Columbia on Saturday. | Page 20

Weather Snow HIGH: 28 LOW: 23

See WVBR page 5

As Rush Begins,C.U.Reprimands Greeks

| Page 3

Nicholas Kaasik law breaks down potential policy changes that he believes the U.S. should enact to reduce gun violence.

plans to relocate to East Buffalo Street within the next year, according to Endick.

“We likely wouldn’t have been able to move into the house without Keith,” he said.

The new location of East Buffalo Street measures about 2,500 square feet –– which is “significantly” larger than

RYAN LANDVATER / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Kicked off campus | The Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity will no longer be recognized by Cornell after a hazing incident that hospitalized two pledges.

C.U.disbands TEP fraternity

By LIANNE BORNFELD Sun Senior Writer

A previous version of this story appeared on cornellsun.com on Jan. 9.

The Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity will no longer be recognized by Cornell after two of the fraternity’s pledges were hospitalized in a “mentally scarring,” “sexually humiliating” hazing incident, a University official said Jan. 9.

The pledges were hospitalized after an alcohol-related hazing incident in October, according to Cornell. Unless an appeal overturns

the decision, TEP’s recognition will be revoked for a minimum of four years.

The pledges were placed in “really humiliating, sexually humiliating kinds of activities,” said Travis Apgar, associate dean of students for fraternity and sorority affairs.

“There was one activity where the only thing [the pledges] were wearing was underwear, and it’d be ripped off,” Apgar said. “It’s pretty strange on one hand, and pretty serious and mentally scarring on See TEP page 4

A previous version of this story appeared on cornellsun.com on Jan. 13.

A recent incident of “underage and excessive alcohol consumption” has led Cornell to expel the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity for at least one year, the University announced Monday.

Cornell also announced Monday that Pi Kappa Phi will be punished for violating University policy, making it the third fraternity to face judicial consequences at the outset of spring rush.

The most recent incident of underage and excessive drinking tied to Phi Sig occurred on Dec. 2, but was just one in a “history of similar infractions over the past two years,” according to a statement from Tommy Bruce, vice president for University communications. Bruce's statement did not elaborate further on the nature of the violations, and University administrators did not respond to requests for interviews on Monday.

As a result of Cornell’s deci-

sion, Phi Sigma Kappa will not be able to recruit new members, Bruce said. Representatives from the fraternity also did not return requests for comment.

Additionally, the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity has been placed on “provisional recognition status” for a period of no less than four years, according to Bruce’s statement. The decision is the result of three specific incidents over the course of a year, including one on Nov. 4, that also involved “underage and excessive alcohol consumption,” Bruce said.

Although on probation, Pi Kappa Phi can still recruit new members, the statement said.

Monday’s announcement follows Cornell’s decision, made public Jan. 9, to revoke its recognition of the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity. The fraternity has been kicked off campus for at least four years after two of its pledges were hospitalized in a “mentally scarring” and “sexually humiliating” hazing incident, University officials said.

Kerry Close can be reached at kclose@cornellsun.com.

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013

Today

DAYBOOK

Friday, January 18, 2013

Weird News

Today Wardrobes and Rabbit Holes: A Dark History Of Children’s Literature 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Rare Manuscripts Collection, Level 2B, Kroch Library Bus Tour Through Campus Noon, Barton Hall Cornell Essentials 3 p.m., Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall Cornell Games Club Weekly Meeting 7 - 11 p.m., 183-9 Goldwin Smith Hall

Tomorrow Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Breakfast 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Beverly J. Martin Elementary School

Umpteen speedy televisions perused two sheep, then umpteen tickets towed Jupiter, and Dan untangles five progressive orifices. Umpteen quixotic aardvarks annoyingly bought two Macintoshes. Umpteen bureaux tickled two extremely putrid botulisms. Paul sacrificed one lampstand, then Jupiter marries the very quixotic pawnbroker. Five purple poisons laughed, yet umpteen chrysanthemums kisses five aardvarks. Batman noisily untangles one Jabberwocky. Two Macintoshes laughed, then one extremely schizophrenic Jabberwocky drunkenly untangles two sheep, however Quark telephoned umpteen obese Jabberwockies. Five irascible botulisms slightly lamely auctioned off the subway, and five chrysanthemums easily untangles one mostly speedy Klingon. Five dogs drunkenly perused Minnesota, however the mats ran away cleverly, although one partly progressive subway quite comfortably sacrificed

Daybook

of the Week

Ohio Ex-Teacher Sues, Says She Fears Young Kids

CINCINNATI (AP) — A former high school teacher is accusing school district administrators of discriminating against her because of a rare phobia she says she has: a fear of young children.

Maria Waltherr-Willard, 61, had been teaching Spanish and French at Mariemont High School in Cincinnati since 1976.

Waltherr-Willard, who does not have children of her own, said that when she was transferred to the district’s middle school in 2009, the seventh- and eighth-graders triggered her phobia, causing her blood pressure to soar and forcing her to retire in the middle of the 2010-2011 school year.

Bowling Night 6 p.m - 8 p.m., Helen Newman Bowling Lanes Winter Wonderland 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., Appel Commons Fields, North Campus The Climb to Success 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., Lindseth Climbing Wall, Bartels Hall Research Panel 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., Room 142, Goldwin Smith Hall

SUV Plunges Into California Apartment Pool

MERCED, Calif. (AP) — A California woman is OK after crashing her SUV into an apartment complex swimming pool.

Merced police say 69-year-old Pamela Gwyn was in her Chevy Blazer on a city street Wednesday when for an unknown reason she failed to make a right turn and lost control of the vehicle.

The SUV went through a wrought iron fence outside the apartment complex and continued about 50 feet before landing in the pool.

Sgt. Jay Struble says a good Samaritan, 57-year-old Craig Lafleur of Kingsburg, saw the SUV, pulled it to the

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edge of the pool by its roof rack and broke its back window. He then helped Gwyn out of the vehicle before it sank.

Germany: Robbers Dig 100-Foot Tunnel to Raid Bank BERLIN (AP) — German police say robbers dug a 30meter (100-foot) tunnel into the safe deposit room of a Berlin bank and escaped with their haul, setting a fire as they left to cover their tracks.

Berlin police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf says the tunnel led from an underground garage into the bank's safe deposit room.

Neuendorf told The Associated Press Monday that the tunnel was “very professional” and must have taken weeks or even months to complete. It was elaborately constructed and even had ceiling supports.

Police were alerted to the break-in early Monday when a security guard noticed smoke coming from the deposit room.

Neuendorf says police are still trying to determine what valuables were stolen from the deposit boxes.

Details of the heist called to mind the spectacular robbery of another Berlin bank in 1995.

During that robbery thieves entered the bank through the door, took hostages and demanded a helicopter and ransom.

Police besieged and eventually stormed the safe room where the thieves had holed up only to find they had escaped through a tunnel dug by accomplices. Several of the thieves were later caught.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 3

NEWS

From Skeptic to Supporter:

Back to the books

Fmr.GOP Rep.Shifts Climate Views

By AKANE OTANI Sun News Editor

Former Rep. Bob Inglis, Sr. (R-S.C.) shifted from being “completely dismissive of climate change” to an active proponent of economically viable, environmentally friendly energy sources. Inglis, who spoke at Cornell on Thursday, sat down with The Sun Thursday to talk about his views on energy policy.

THE SUN: What sparked your interest in climate change and energy?

BOB INGLIS, SR.: At first, I was com-

“We hope to convince conservatives of the strength of their own ideas.”

Bob Inglis, Sr. pletely dismissive of climate science. I said that climate change was a figment of Al Gore's imagination; that was my first six years in Congress. … When I ran again in 2004, my son was voting for the first time, and he told me, “I’ll vote for you, Dad, but you gotta clean up your act on the environment.” I realized he’s an important constituency that I have to be relevant to.

The second reason: I got on the [House Committee on Science, Space and Technology] and went to Antarctica.

There, I saw evidence that was really persuasive to me … ice core drillings. In that 5,000 feet of ice, there’s a record of the earth’s atmosphere where carbon dioxide levels over time can be plotted. What it shows is stability, followed by a rise and uptick that starts with the Industrial Revolution. I’m not a scientist, but that just makes common sense.

SUN: After you left Capitol Hill, you founded a non-profit: the Energy and Enterprise Initiative. What’s the main goal of the organization?

B.I.: We hope to convince conservatives of the strength of their own ideas and … that they have the answer to climate change: free enterprise. When we tax negative externalities associated with burning fossil fuels, substitutions [of energy sources] will take place and people will seek out other technologies that will drive expansion of the economy. It’s all bedrock, conservative, growth-oriented kind of stuff. That’s what we're trying to convince them.

SUN: You say that there’s no economic incentive to innovate without energy firms paying the full price of their products.

B.I.: Right. In fact, it doesn’t make sense to innovate as long as [carbon dioxide] emitters are able to continue to socializing costs and privatizing profits. I as an individual consumer can’t affect that — it’s economically irrational for me to

seek out better technology because I’ll be dumped on anyway.

SUN: What are the invisible costs of energy you say consumers are paying for when we line up at gas stations to fill our tanks?

B.I.: It’s the title of Milton Friedman's 1975 book: There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. This is what conservatives believe. But isn’t it interesting that, in this era, we apparently believe we’re somehow not paying the full cost of coal or electricity? We pay the full cost of coal not at the meter. … We’re paying higher health insurance costs, through Medicare, taxes, through general revenue for Medicaid, and through the cost shift at hospitals.

SUN: Without paying the full price of energy, then, you think there’s no incentive for innovation?

B.I.: Yes, because if I paid at the meter, I’d be innovating right now in South Carolina, or installing a solar hot-water heater. I’m not calling because, with kids in college, I can’t afford to be altruistic. But if I were paying the real price at the meter, then it would become economically rational for me to call the solar hot-water heater. I’m not an economist, physicist or chemist, but I think this is bedrock economics.

SUN: Another appeal to the conservative platform you raise is that not innovating is detrimental to the U.S.’ national security. Can you talk a little bit about that?

B.I.: I feel as if we’re stepping into a trap in thinking that we’re going to have petroleum self-sufficiency when, in fact, what we’re doing is extending the strategic importance of that commodity … which means that OPEC can ramp down its production until we have sucked all of ours up and burned it, and then they are still in the game with a strategic commodity, and we have not innovated. If we saw the real cost of petroleum, we would be innovating toward other fuels.

SUN: What do you see as the government’s role in this, then?

B.I.: The government must be the cop on the beat. You can’t get away with socializing costs and privatizing profits.

Government must play the role and say everybody must be accountable … that there has to be an accountable marketplace, a true cost comparison between fuels and no subsidies.

SUN: As a proponent of alternative energies, what is your view on hydrofracking?

B.I.: I think it is a good near-term alternative. We should be very thankful for the expansion of the supply of natural gas, because it is helping us achieve emission reductions that are substantial. In South Carolina, for example, six coal fire plants are being converted into natural gas plants, which means a lot of South Carolina will breathe easier.

KELLY YANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Students head to the Cornell Store this week to purchase books for the spring semester.

The Cornell Store renovation has been halted to allow students to easily access books.

As to the specifics of the impacts of servatives by the environmental commufracking … it seems like a logical nity and vice versa, so when he wades improvement would be to have a disclo- through those waters, he’ll be going cross sure of chemicals used in fracking and culturally.

SUN: That sounds like what you did. transparency there … and studies on whether fracking causes fractures that end B.I.: Yes, that was the problem for me with methane reaching through other [laughs]. But he doesn’t have to run again, cracks and services into groundwater. so he may as well leap.

SUN: What do you think about SUN: Final question: What do you see President Barack Obama’s energy platform?

“I feel as if we’re stepping into a trap in B.I.: I think the president has an opportunity to be the thinking that [the US] is going to have post-partisan president that petroleum self-sufficiency ...” he might have wanted to be when it comes to energy. Bob Inglis, Sr. What he can do is if he wants to be that post-partisan guy is recognize as the ideal outcome? that captain trade is graveyard dead, reach B.I.: Eliminating all subsidies for all out to conservatives and say, what pro- fuels, attaching all costs to fuels and taxposal could we work on that could use the ing things that you want less of and makstrengths of free enterprise to accomplish ing things you want free from taxation. the sentiments of progressives? The senti- We want more income, let's untax it. We ments of progressives are to deal with cli- want less pollution, let’s tax it. It’s a triple mate change and the strengths of conser- play this American century: we have the vatives are solutions that use the power of opportunity to create jobs through innofree enterprise and cause innovation to vation, improve our national security by happen rapidly. So I think that this is a moving away from dependence on strategreat opportunity for him if he wants to gic commodities and third, clean up the take it. air.

Now, of course, the challenge for him is we’re all sort of stuck in our con- Akane Otani can be reached stituencies. There’s a real distrust of con- at aotani@cornellsun.com.

Staff Impersonation

Cornell Police addressed a report from a Barton Hall staff member on Tuesday regarding the staffer’s identity being used by an unknown individual to set up an account online. The impersonation dated back to October 2011.

Grand Larceny in Upson Hall

An officer was dispatched to Upson Hall Monday afternoon after a student said his or her laptop was stolen. The unsecured MacBook Pro was valued at $1,500.

Petit Larceny at Vet Medical Center

Petit Larceny at Trillium Dining

A Cornell Police officer was dispatched to take a report from a staff member regarding the theft of $40.00 in cash from an unsecured wallet.

Aggravated Unlicensed Operation On E. Buffalo Street

An investigator was dispatched to Sibley Hall to take a report from a staff member regarding the unauthorized use of a computer.

A Cornell Police officer took a report from a staff member at Trillium Dining regarding the theft of $105 from a safe.

An Ithaca man, Anthony D. White, was referred to the Ithaca City Court for aggravated unlicensed operation on East Buffalo Street at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.

Unauthorized Use of Computer

— Compiled by Rebecca Harris

NEWS

Univ.Cracks Down on Greek Hazing

ing.

“We’re under a little more scrutiny right now with everything that’s going on: preserving the Greek system in general, preserving safety,” said Alan Workman the other.”

Apgar said the decision to revoke TEP’s recognition ’13, executive vice president of the Interfraternity Council. was clear.

Still, without dismissing the new emphasis on elim“These are incredibly intelligent young men; how would they not see that there are better ways to build inating hazing, Apgar said the University would have brotherhood and trust?” Apgar said. “Things that are probably kicked TEP off campus even before the physically or mentally harmful, especially so egregious recent push.

“It’s hard to speculate … but I would like to believe if we had this in front of us “I would like to believe if we had this in front of five years ago we would’ve made the same decision,” Apgar said. us five years ago we would’ve made the same Cornell’s punishment raises concerns decision.” about the its medical amnesty policy, since the fraternity called for emergency Travis Apgar medical help for the pledges. Apgar said that though illegal alcohol consumption as this, we cannot and will not tolerate on our cam- is protected by medical amnesty, hazing is not.

Apgar added that the hazing reported to have pus.”

Representatives from TEP rejected multiple occurred at TEP is not widespread throughout Cornell’s Greek system. requests for comment.

“People want to generalize this to the rest of the The announcement follows President David Skorton’s condemnation of the hazing process and a community, but I think that’s unfortunate … there are highly publicized effort to eradicate it at Cornell. In a a lot of fraternities and sororities working very hard to 2011 op-ed in The New York Times, Skorton said let people in through legitimate activities,” Apgar said. “national fraternities and sororities should end pledg- “This is not happening in every Greek organization.”

The fraternity’s loss of recognition at Cornell makes ing across all campuses; Cornell students can help lead the chapter unable to recruit new members, among the way.”

Following the February 2011 death of Sigma Alpha other lost recognition privileges.

Epsilon fraternity brother George Desdunes ’13 after a pledging event, Cornell Greek life faces a series of Lianne Bornfeld can be reached changes as the University adopts policies to end haz- at lbornfeld@cornellsun.com.

TEP

Continued from page 1

c . o n m u s l l e corn

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 5

NEWS

Gift Allows Radio Lance Armstrong Admits to Doping Station to Expand Disgraced cyclist says he has a ‘flawed character’ WVBR

Continued from page 1

WVBR’s current headquarters, Endick said. The increased space will include a multimedia center that will allow WVBR to train its staff in video production and web design.

“We will have more production and multimedia editing space that we don’t have in our current studios,” Endick said.

The station will also be able to house new studios for live air broadcasts as well as live performance space for concerts and recordings for student and local bands.

“We’ll be able to expand in ways we haven’t in the old location.”

Drew Endick ’14 “We’ll be able to expand in ways we haven’t in the old location,” Endick said.

Endick said Olbermann –– who has previously made several large donations to WVBR –– is a supportive alumnus and has visited the station several times during trips to Cornell.

“Keith is obviously very successful and attributes a lot of his success to WVBR,” Endick said. “He knows it’s a great training ground for students who want to enter the media and he wanted to see it expand.”

Olbermann gave the donation to WVBR on the condition that he receive naming rights to the new location. The new station will be called OlbermannCorneliess Studios, named for Olbermann’s father Theodore and a deceased friend of Olbermann’s, former WVBR program director Glenn Corneliess ’79.

“The entire building is to commemorate what Glenn did for the station and what’s Glenn’s image for the station was,” Endick said.

Endick said members of WVBR –– particularly younger students who will spend most of their time at Cornell working at the new location –– are “extremely excited” about the donation.

CHICAGO (AP) — He did it. He finally admitted it.

Lance Armstrong doped.

He was light on the details and didn’t name names. He mused that he might not have been caught if not for his comeback in 2009. And he was certain his “fate was sealed” when longtime friend, training partner and trusted lieutenant George Hincapie, who was along for the ride on all seven of Armstrong’s Tour de France wins from 1999-2005, was forced to give him up to anti-doping authorities.

But right from the start and more than two dozen times during the first of a two-part interview Thursday night with Oprah Winfrey on her OWN network, the disgraced former cycling champion acknowledged what he had lied about repeatedly for years, and what had been one of the worst-kept secrets for the better part of a week: He was the ringleader of an elaborate doping scheme on a U.S. Postal Service team that swept him to the top of the podium at the Tour de France time after time.

“I’m a flawed character,” he said.

Did it feel wrong?

“No,” Armstrong replied. “Scary.”

“Did you feel bad about it?” Winfrey pressed him.

“No,” he said. “Even scarier.”

“Did you feel in any way that you were cheating?”

“No,” Armstrong paused. “Scariest.”

“I went and looked up the definition of cheat,” he added a moment later. “And the definition is to gain an advantage on a rival or foe. I didn’t view it that way. I viewed it as a level playing field.”

Wearing a blue blazer and open-neck shirt, Armstrong was direct and matter-of-fact, neither pained nor defensive. He looked straight ahead. There were no tears and very few laughs.

He dodged few questions and refused to implicate anyone

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else, even as he said it was humanly impossible to win seven straight Tours without doping.

“I’m not comfortable talking about other people,” Armstrong said. “I don’t want to accuse anybody.”

Whether his televised confession will help or hurt Armstrong’s bruised reputation and his already-tenuous defense in at least two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third, remains to be seen. Either way, a story that seemed too good to be true — cancer survivor returns to win one of sport’s most grueling events seven times in a row — was revealed to be just that.

“This story was so perfect for so long. It’s this myth, this perfect story, and it wasn’t true,” he said.

Winfrey got right to the point when the interview began, asking for yes-or-no answers to five questions.

Did Armstrong take banned substances? “Yes.” Was one of those EPO? “Yes.” Did he do blood doping and use transfusions? “Yes.” Did he use testosterone, cortisone and human growth hormone? “Yes.” Did he take banned substances or blood dope in all his Tour wins? “Yes.” Along the way, Armstrong cast aside teammates who questioned his tactics, yet swore he raced clean and tried to silence anyone who said otherwise. Ruthless and rich enough to settle any score, no place seemed beyond his reach — courtrooms, the court of public opinion, even along the roads of his sport’s most prestigious race.

That relentless pursuit was one of the things that Armstrong said he regretted most.

“I deserve this,” he said twice.

“It’s a major flaw, and it’s a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome. And it’s inexcusable,” he said.

6 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013

NEWS BRIEFS

Toyota Settles Bellwether Wrongful Death Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. has settled what was to be the first in a group of hundreds of pending wrongful death and injury lawsuits involving sudden, unintended acceleration by Toyota vehicles, a company spokesman said Thursday.

Toyota reached the agreement in the case brought by the family of Paul Van Alfen and Charlene Jones Lloyd, spokeswoman Celeste Migliore said. They were killed when their Toyota Camry slammed into a wall in Utah in 2010.

Migliore would not disclose the financial terms, and plaintiffs’ attorney Robert Krause did not immediately reply to a phone message.

The remaining lawsuits are not affected by the settlement, Migliore said.

Toyota issued a statement saying that the company and its attorneys may decide to settle select cases, but “we will have a number of other opportunities to defend our product at trial.”

“We sympathize with anyone in an accident involving one of our vehicles,” the statement said, “however we continue to stand fully behind the safety and integrity of Toyota's Electronic Throttle Control System, which multiple independent evaluations have confirmed as safe.”

Last month, Toyota agreed to a settlement worth more than $1 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits claiming economic losses Toyota owners suffered when the Japanese automaker recalled millions of vehicles. Hundreds more lawsuits involving wrongful death and injury remained.

The Van Alfen case was to be the first of those tried, and to serve as a bellwether for the rest. It had been set to go to trial in February.

A second bellwether case is scheduled for May. Toyota settled a previous wrongful death lawsuit for $10 million in 2010 before the current cases were consolidated in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

House GOP May Seek Short-Term Debt Limit Extension WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — House Republicans may seek a quick, short-term extension of the government’s debt limit, a move that would avoid an immediate default by the Treasury as the party seeks to maximize leverage in negotiations over spending cuts with President Barack Obama this spring, officials said Thursday.

“All options are on the table as far as we’re concerned,” Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said at a news conference during a three-day retreat of the rank and file. He said private discussions focused on how best to “achieve progress on controlling our deficits and controlling our debt.”

Ryan declined to say how long an extension of the government’s borrowing authority is under consideration, or what conditions might be attached. Obama has said repeatedly that he favors additional deficit savings yet he will not negotiate spending cuts as part of an agreement to raise the current $16.4 trillion debt limit. Some Republicans have suggested they may seek unspecified reforms rather than reductions, perhaps trying to force the Democratic-controlled Senate to approve a budget.

The debt limit is one of three deadlines that Congress and the administration will confront this spring. Across-the-board spending cuts begin in early March, and the government runs out of funding for many agencies and services on March 27. By contrast, there is no fixed date for raising the debt limit, since the Treasury has not yet notified Congress when it will exhaust all other measures to stay current with its bills.

Republicans gathered for their retreat at a secluded golf resort a two-hour-plus drive from the Capitol after an awkward beginning to the new Congress.

On Jan. 3, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio drew dissenting votes from nine fellow Republicans in winning a new term as speaker, while one voted present and two abstained. Two days earlier, he had infuriated Republicans as well as Democrats from New York and New Jersey by postponing a vote on emergency relief aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Last Friday, the party’s rank and file overwhelmingly opposed the aid bill when it came to a vote, unhappy that it did not provide for cuts elsewhere in the budget and as a result added to deficits.

The $50 billion measure cleared on the strength of Democratic support, a highly unusual event given that Republicans control the House.

At his news conference Thursday, Ryan sidestepped when asked which would inflict the most harm on the economy — implementation of across-the-board cuts, a partial government shutdown or a default.

“The worst thing for the economy is for this Congress and this administration to do nothing to get our debt and deficits under control,” said the party's 2012 vice presidential candidate, back in Congress now as House Budget Committee chairman. “We think the worst thing for the economy is to move past these events that are occurring without any progress.”

Passage of a shorter-term increase in the debt limit would essentially shuffle the order of the looming deadlines. Rather than flirt with a first-ever default to get their way on spending cuts — a strategy unlikely to win favor on Wall Street — Republicans might threaten a partial government shutdown or allow across-the-board cuts to remain in effect.

Neither is without potential political fallout.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 7

OPINION

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Business Minor For Whom?

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I

n the middle of the past semester, Cornell announced a new business minor open to undergraduates in all seven colleges. Prior to this initiative, only CALS students were eligible to obtain AEM minors from the Dyson school. The administration hopes to broaden Cornell’s opportunities by enabling non-CALS students to have access to Cornell’s prestigious undergraduate business degree. The term “prestige,” however, by definition implies prominent distinction achieved by a select few. Unless

grasp, if any. It was the only course at Cornell I could skip every single lecture and still pulled out an A- by cramming few hours prior to the exams. Initially, I was offended that some students would end up with a same degree as me by taking these types of no-brainer courses. Then, fortunately, my rationale reminded me of where I was. This is Cornell, where we pride ourselves that we, students, are entitled to choose whatever degree we desire to obtain from our undergraduate years. This is no Columbia or Chicago where

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your perception of prestige is congruent to that of Harvard, which grants honors degrees to a whopping 91 percent of its graduates, you may question the legitimacy of this new business minor. Since the announcement, the entire Cornell undergraduate population has been buzzing with this new possibility.

This makes me wonder how future employers will perceive the imminent prevalence of Cornell’s business minor.

Besides the disproportionately increased class size for business minors, it is questionable if the quality of education provided would be suitable for current business world.

The new proposed business minor has only four requirements along with two prerequisites. Since most students have already taken microeconomics and statistics for their major requirements or high school AP courses, this leaves four core courses: management, marketing, accounting and finance. The growing concern is that these courses are already some of the most popular courses at Cornell with massive class sizes hovering around 500 to 600 students, as is the case for management and marketing courses. Even accounting and finance courses with relatively smaller sizes of 100 to 150 students do not require any written assignments, and it is unlikely computing numbers into your calculator takes much critical thinking. The universal goal of undergraduate education is to foster one’s critical analysis through oral and written communication. The Dyson school’s selfdescription of “the smallest, most selective four-year undergraduate business program in the U.S. [where] our students know each other” cannot be farther off from the reality.

I, for one, took my first non-Arts and Sciences class from the hotel school this past year in finance and could not believe how effortless the course was. As long as you knew which number to plug into your calculator, you were basically all set!

Not much conceptual substance to

every undergraduate must take essentially six identical set of classes as the core.

Although I love Cornell for its freedom and flexibility, encapsulating both liberal-arts and pre-professional programs, I am afraid this delicate balance has tipped in recent years. While Cornell’s humanities struggle to attract undergraduate majors and suffer the consequences of losing prominent linguistic programs such as FALCON and critical language programs, the Dyson school boasts one of the lowest acceptance rates within Cornell at 10 percent, and its home, Warren Hall, is currently going through $51 million renovation project.

I am extremely proud to be attending an institution where you can choose your own degree. I have no problem whatsoever that my peers are pursuing pre-professional programs through ILR, the Hotel school, the Dyson school or the School of Engineering. My concern for this new business minor is that it will inevitably trigger humanities majors’ insecurities over their job prospects. Isn’t it enough that half of the school is already dedicated to pre-professionalism? Every humanities major will ponder whether they should pursue this flashy business minor, since apparently our humanities degree alone isn’t enough. We encounter our peers with impressive lists of internships daily. Yet, we are not intimidated, for it was our choice to explore the meaning and depth of human existence in small, discussion-oriented seminars over playing with some numbers in large, impersonal lecture halls. So, why doesn’t the administration stop preying on our job insecurities and let us actually study what we came here for?

Don Oh is a junior in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. He may be reached at do95@cornell.edu. Guest Room appears periodically this semster.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 9

OPINION

Act for Change G

reetings Cornell! I hope you’re feeling as relaxed as I am after such a much-needed break.

Luckily for you, the exquisite editors down on 139 W. State St. awarded me with a Friday 800-word soapbox for this semester.

And boy am I thrilled to be the Op-

most Universities closed to remember and honor the greatest civil rights leader of our nation’s history, and rightfully so.

Surprisingly, if we look to our shining alma mater’s academic calendar, we would find the first day of spring semester classes to land on the very same day.

We will be the only Ivy League institu-

Rudy Gerson Rooting Around Ed that kicks off your weekend the right way. I think my friends and family will be most thrilled, seeing how I can now direct my rants towards you all and give their unwilling ears some reprieve.

While I was gunning for a spot next to the lovely ladies of Sex on Thursdays, it’s an honor to have my column above the sexually charged, 18+, XXX column, “Barely Legal,” where I expect to read some kinky-Mona G-style group-sex escapades, but only find rather poignant observations made by talented Law students which are likely going to both more stimulating and definitely more mature than the words I plan to present you.

Fortunately, my first column lands on a day where I need not phish for column topics in the deep recesses of my messed-up mind. This Monday is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, a federal holiday with government offices and

tion and perhaps the only university in the country to hold classes on Monday, a shameful travesty indeed, and it’s almost as crazy as not getting off on Labor Day, when we have an entire school devoted to our love for labor (Read: ILR. See: Cornell’s pre-2010 calendars) Now granted, I admit I’m rather unaware of the inner workings behind the decisions of our great schedule makers acting behind Oz’s green curtain with committees and advisors and advisory committees, but holding classes on this day is just wrong. I know we students could never understand the time and complex understanding needed to make a university such as ours function smoothly, but class on MLK day is inexcusable and should never have been an option.

Ever.

On a day we should be honoring the man behind the ultimate civil rights

movement of our nation’s modern history, Cornellians will be receiving their syllabi and preparing their minds for the spirited semester ahead. On a day where Cornell could address the growing social and racial inequality that still exists in New York state and the other 49 states of the union, we instead will implicitly support the current status quo of implicit racism built into our economic and judicial system. On a day where Cornell can utilize its relationship with the Auburn prison, raise social awareness and express its commitment to the work of Dr. King and others, instead, we will continue unmoved.

I again confess, Cornell is cohosting events on campus and across Ithaca on Monday, but does anyone believe these important, yet certainly minor events will be attended by large numbers of students?

Likely not. How many students will walk down to the elementary school on Buffalo Street to celebrate Dr. King?

If Cornell hosted a unified group of events on campus on a day without classes, we could bridge the gap between us living in the bubble on the hill and those existing in the real world with real problems across Ithaca and Tompkins County.

Do you believe MLK would be satisfied with the current racial situation in America? Would he consider his work done? No more nonviolent resistance, no more marches, no more acts of solidarity.

I doubt that.

Dr. King’s work is by no means over.

A racial under-caste still exists in America that takes shape in our racistenabling judicial, economic and political systems. Minorities are swept into

America’s massive prison system and face legalized discrimination in hiring and housing upon release. The hegemony of upper middle class whites over poor minorities is alive and well, a simple extension of Jim Crow laws and the explicit segregation of the 50’s and 60’s.

From the gross racism and dehumanization of slavery, to the explicit racism of racial segregation, to the implicit racism embedded in our justice system, we are far from finished with our fight for racial equality. I would like to think most students here would agree with that.

Not only can MLK day be utilized to foster reflection and analysis of the current inequalities existing in everyday American society, including our own campus, the day falls on the official start of President Obama’s second term. We can bridge past and present, give the icon of modern progressivism the federal holiday he deserves and look ahead towards the prospects of our current black president continuing Dr. King’s work.

Dr. King wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Today, his words are more relevant than ever.

With an information-rich society where anyone with an Internet connection can find out facts typically unheard, the tension between our sheltered lives and the threatened lives of poor minorities is only growing. Instead, let’s hope less for change.

We don’t need hope. It is time to act.

Act for change.

Rudy Gerson is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached a rgerson@cornellsun.com. Rooting Around column runs alternate Fridays this semester.

The Price of Our Failure W

e pay a terrible price for our ahistorical reading of the Constitution’s right to bear arms — 11,000 murders, 19,000 suicides and 600 accidental deaths in 2010 alone. In addition, over 200,000 Americans are injured by firearms each year.

This has to stop.

For anyone who has seen the T.V. show Preppers or listened to Alex Jones’ despicable conspiracy nonsense, the need for gun control must appear obvious. While it may be entertaining to watch a guy who takes Ron Paul’s fear of fiat currency much too seriously stock food and weapons in a potato barn, we must remember that these people don’t exist only on television. These are real people, terrifying people, who seem to believe Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a warning of things to come and the only protection is a massacre-enabling AR-15. These real people can and do purchase real guns, legally. The guns used at Sandy Hook were reportedly owned by such a “prepper” (the killer’s mother). Something is terribly, horrendously wrong.

It’s hard to imagine this is what the framers of our Constitution had in mind. At the time the Second Amendment was adopted, the United States had no standing army, a barely secured independence from the United Kingdom, and citizens could possess guns with a maximum rate of fire of one or two rounds a minute.

How would our nation’s forefathers respond to the massacre at Sandy Hook? How should we?

Of all the descriptors we can apply to what happened at Sandy Hook, unforeseeable isn’t among them. If anything, the devastating massacre was predictable. Not predictable, as in the specific victims, school, town or even state, but predictable in that, in a country where instruments of mass violence are far too readily available, there will be mass violence. We are enabling it.

Our response to Sandy Hook must be to do more to prevent gun violence. New York State’s recently passed gun control legislation is a start. President Obama’s recent statements and executive orders give hope that more will be done to prevent gun violence. However, none of this is enough for the many thousands killed by guns every year. The most promising action from the

Obama administration is to end the self-imposed ban on studying gun violence at the Centers for Disease Control. This action gives hope that we may begin to treat gun violence as a public health issue, and begin to confront it with evidence-based policies proven to reduce gun violence within our constitutional framework. But we cannot forget that evidence-based policies that reduce — indeed virtually eliminate — gun deaths already exist. In Japan in 2008, firearm related homicides killed a total of 11 people. For perspective, firearm related homicides kill nearly three times as many people in the U.S. every single day. Also, in 2008, gun accidents killed no one in Japan.

The popular line those who defend the right to possess and carry AR15s and handguns often resort to is, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” In the same, ridiculous sense that nuclear bombs, hand grenades and cluster munitions don’t kill people, this may be true. But it is also true (and, unlike the previous statement, relevant) that “restricting access to guns saves lives.” Thousands of lives.

Whatever gun control the U.S. may legislate must obviously not infringe on the Supreme Court’s current interpretation of the Second Amendment. I submit that there is much we can do to reduce gun violence within this deadly framework. While background checks and prohibitions on felons owning weapons are not addressed in the second amendment, such restrictions are obviously legal, appropriate and inadequate. We must go further to meaningfully reduce gun violence.

Further even than an assault weapons ban and a ban on high capacity clips. We should enact mandatory liability insurance for gun ownership, with insurance companies

free to charge different gun owners different rates based on age, gender and the type of weapons insured, much like car insurance. Young males (who commit a disproportionate amount of gun crime) would have a higher insurance premium than lower risk gun owners. We should also require references for all prospective gun owners. Citizens interested in owning firearms must get three friends or relatives who have known the prospective gun owner for a minimum number of years to

Nicholas Kaasik Barely Legal

vouch for the person’s character. Additionally, prospective gun owners should be required to seek the consent of spouses or recent ex-spouses.

These are but a few of the common sense policy changes we should enact to reduce gun violence. Our decisions on gun control should be based on figuring out why our gun homicide rate is 33 times higher than that in the U.K. and then doing everything we can to close that gap. For every day that we wait, 30 more of our fellow Americans die because of our failure to act.

The children of Sandy Hook deserved better than this.

It is our responsibility not to fail others like we failed them.

Nicholas Kaasik is a second-year law student at Cornell Law School. He assigns and edits submissions for Barely Legal and serves as The Sun’s Public Editor. He may be reached at nek43@cornell.edu. Barely Legal runs alternate Fridays this semester.

A&E

10 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Friday, January 18, 2013

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

BY PETER JACOBS AND ZACHARY ZAHOS Sun Staff Writer and Sun Arts and Entertainment Editor

A previous version of this story was published on cornellsun.com on Jan. 10.

BEST PICTURE: Amour; Argo; Beasts of the Southern Wild; Django Unchained; Lincoln; Les Misérables; Life of Pi; Silver Linings Playbook; Zero Dark Thirty Lincoln leads the Oscar nominations pool this year with 12 nods, miles ahead of the rest of its competitors in the prestige categories. With recognition from the Academy in directing, writing and acting, it is the clear frontrunner to take home the Best Picture statue come February. One potential caveat: Silver Linings Playbook is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and every acting category. If they start raking in wins early on in the night, look for SLP to make a sweep when the big awards come up at the end.

ZACHARY ZAHOS: I don’t know. Glancing at the nine nominees, I don’t spot any real surprises. With the expanded playing field, critical darling Amour found its way onto the ballot much like The Tree of Life last year, and shut out the little-seen but much-discussed The Master in the process. Thanks to that Oscar machine Harvey Weinstein, Django Unchained was released just late enough in the season to accrue enough buzz to nab a nomination as well. I guess the wild card here is Beasts of the Southern Wild, the little indie film that could. I wasn’t crazy about it — it was lovely, to a point — but it’s welcome to see such a miniscule production rank alongside Hollywood behemoths like Lincoln and Les Mis. I would have liked to see Bernie or The Master take the indie slot, and poor James Bond only has a billion dollars of worldwide Skyfall grosses to wipe the tears as he bemoans missing Best Picture yet again.

PETER JACOBS: I would agree that there are no true surprises (save maybe the heavily stylized violence of Django Unchained). I would have liked to see The Dark Knight Rises or my beloved Joss Whedon’s The Avengers on here, but neither was really that brilliant of a box-office smash to take a spot. Out of the nominees this year, I would love to see Zero Dark Thirty win Best Picture. ZDT was a smart, incredibly focused feature that didn’t stop to offer opinions, needless backstory or even more needless romance, it just gave the viewer a directed, centered story.

BREAKING DOWN THE 2013 OSCAR NOMINATIONS Dianne Feinstein, namely) probe the filmmakers’ contact with the CIA and columnists call it right wing propaganda. It is not propaganda or, I trust, a threat to national security. Bigelow’s snub comes across as the Academy playing it safe and shying away from a film with a message that might (but shouldn’t) scare its members. You’d think her being a woman and all would balance things out, but considering she’s the only female Best Director winner in the Academy’s 85-year history, that probably hurt her chances, too.

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln; Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables; Joaquin Phoenix, The Master; Denzel Washington, Flight P.J.: Unfortunately, Best Actor — often one of the most exciting categories of the night — seems kind of boring this year. The nominations, except maybe Joaquin Phoenix’s after repeatedly dissing the Academy, were all fairly set in stone, and while it would have been great to see John Hawkes nominated, I don’t think he was ever truly in the running to take the statue home. The award is likely going to Daniel Day-Lewis for a great role in a movie everyone liked, or Denzel BEST DIRECTOR: Michael Haneke, Amour; Ang Lee, Life of Washington for a great role in a movie nobody liked. It all Pi; David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook; Steven Spielberg, seems fairly “meh” to me. With Chastain, Lawrence and even Hathaway down in Lincoln; Benh Zeitlin, Beasts Supporting it seems Of The Southern Wild that this year, the P.J.: I have a very, very hard women are having all time seeing anyone but the fun.

Spielberg winning this categoZ.Z.: I agree that ry. My money was on there are few surprises America’s new sweetheart Ben in this line-up, and Affleck, but that — for better these characters are all or for worse — won’t be the biographical, musical case. Also a shame that the or mentally ill, the political discussion that has Academy’s holy trinity been encasing Zero Dark of sorts. Day-Lewis is Thirty since it’s release may truly transcendent as have had a negative impact on our 16th President, Katherine Bigelow’s chances, and I have no arguwho, regardless of what the ment as to why he Academy says, directed the COURTESY OF WARNER BROTHERS PICTURES AND THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY should or could not best movie of the year. The happy surprise for me was Behn Zeitlin, whose Beasts of the take home his third Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Southern Wild was my favorite movie-going experience of the which would set an all-time record. I’ll just say, however, that year. Beasts is an original, whimsical and deeply moving film Jack Black, for Bernie, was robbed. He sang and teetered on that is also very clearly the brainchild of its (first-time) direc- the edge of insanity as a character based on a real person.

What went wrong, Academy?! tor.

Z.Z.: I don’t doubt Zeitlin’s ability as a filmmaker, but BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: Jessica Chastain, Zero Beasts did not sweep me away as it did my fellow Sun writers.

Paul Thomas Anderson likely missed out on a nomination Dark Thirty; Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; due to The Master’s unabashed ambiguity and confusing struc- Emmanuelle Riva, Amour; Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts Of The ture, but, man, did he create a puzzle film buffs will revisit for Southern Wild; Naomi Watts, The Impossible P.J.: One of the questions I found most interesting in the years to come. Haneke’s nomination makes sense, as Amour is the provocative auteur’s most accessible film yet. And I was run-up to the nominations this year was “Can a six-year-old just getting used to the idea of seeing “Academy Award- truly act?” Put more directly, should the Oscars be honoring Nominated Director Ben Affleck” on posters and wasn’t that Quvenzhané Wallis for work she did at age six, at the expense of older and more more experienced actresses? Personally, I bothered by it.

My bone to pick with the Academy concerns its omission think at that age, more credit goes to the director than to the of Kathryn Bigelow for her masterpiece Zero Dark Thirty. Her performer, which is one of the many reasons I’m excited to see nomination seemed like a given, due to her 2010 win for The Behn Zeitlin up for Best Director this year. That shouldn’t Hurt Locker (though, may I say, I am relieved 2011’s victor take any of the luster away from Wallis’ achievement though, Tom Hooper is not here for Les Mis, with its unceasing, queasy both onscreen and now with the Academy. While I’ll be close-ups), yet she is nowhere to be found. It’s strange that the shocked if she ends up victorious, this is the best time to near-unanimous acclaim for Bigelow’s work has fallen on deaf invoke the cliche, “it’s an honor just to be nominated.” ears at the politically correct Academy of Motion Picture Arts Between the two J’s, Chastain gave a powerhouse perforand Sciences, just as politicians (Senators John McCain and mance, one in a long chain of well-received roles, but I think

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

the thought process from a couple of months ago still stands: This is Jennifer Lawrence’s to lose. The Hunger Games star is not only hugely popular, she’s also a previous nominee from two years ago (becoming the second-youngest Best Actress nominee ever at age 20 for Winter’s Bone, a list she just got bumped down in).

Z.Z.: Who doesn’t love Jennifer Lawrence? Not only has she reached and far exceeded the critical acclaim quota necessary for a Best Actress win, Lawrence is America’s newest “Sweetheart,” and just at 22 years young. My pick, however, goes to Jessica Chastain, who proved after being in every 2011 movie that she not only has a good agent but deserves her omnipresence too. But Lawrence has a year on Chastain (her nod for Winter’s Bone was one year before Chastain’s, for The Help) and will likely win because, really, who doesn’t love her?

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Alan Arkin, Argo; Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master; Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln; Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained P.J.: For me, this was the Year of McConaughey. He took on not just one, but four roles this year — Magic Mike, Bernie, Killer Joe and The Paperboy — that have completely revamped his image from shirtless sex idol to challenging and thoughtful actor. He broke type, worked with a well-respected director (Steven Soderbergh) in Magic Mike, and perhaps most importantly, delivered without a doubt in my mind one of the best performances of the year. Within those who were nominated though, Robert De Niro was absolutely stellar in Silver Linings Playbook. He gave a compassionate and totally quirky performance in a movie that could get a lot more statues than people think (or hope).

Z.Z.: Neither Alan Arkin nor Christoph Waltz, great as they were, had roles too different from their Oscar-winning characters already. In the case of Django, Leonardo DiCaprio appeared to not only have a shot at being nominated but winning the prize as well, so I am unsure what happened there.

Every man here has already won an Oscar, so there’s really no predicting who will take it. I’d love to see Tommy Lee Jones nab it, just for the way he said, “You are more reptile than man,” to a pro-slavery Congressman.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Amy Adams, The Master; Sally Field, Lincoln; Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables; Helen Hunt, The Sessions; Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook Z.Z.: This one’s pretty dull. Unfortunately, the unforgettable, non-lead roles almost always go to men (see above), and this year revealed such imbalance. Hathaway should clear aside a spot on her mantel; I wish I could say the same to Amy Adams, who was incendiary in The Master. For an understated but layered performance along the lines of Jacki Weaver, the Academy missed out on Jennifer Ehle from Zero Dark Thirty, as the rival turned friend to Jessica Chastain’s character.

P.J.: Am I the only one who felt like Jacki Weaver kept slipping into her native Australian accent in Silver Linings Playbook? I would have been fine seeing Nicole Kidman’s role in The Paperboy, nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, in it’s place instead. It’s about time the Academy recognize those who have publically peed on Zac Efron. If Anne Hathaway was half as good in Les Mis as she was in Batman this summer, that’s fine with me.

Peter Jacobs is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at pjacobs@cornellsun.com. Zachary Zahos is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at arts-and-entertainment-editor@cornellsun.com.

A&E

Friday, January 18, 2013 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 11

A Great Leap Backward KAI SAM NG Sun Staff Writer

A previous version of this story was published on cornellsun.com on Jan. 12.

40 million: even by conservative estimates, the Great Chinese Famine of 1958-1961 was one of the worst disasters in history. It clobbers the Spanish flu. It trounces 200 years of Mongol conquests.

It matches all WWII deaths — including the Holocaust — in less than half the time.

Yet the Famine swept the countryside in fearful silence, as Tombstone author Yang Jisheng discovers. Called back from school in the city by the sudden news that his father was starving to death, Yang returned to his village, only to discover that it had become a ghost town: “There was no sound of dogs barking, no chickens running about; even the children who used to scamper through the lanes remained at home.” The rural silence was punctured by pointed, pentup acts of depravity: children gnawing on dog bones, adults exhuming corpses and the elderly clawing at full granaries, moaning “Communist Party, Chairman Mao, save us.”

The events that led up to the famine are well established. The Great Leap Forward, Mao’s utopian plan for rapid Chinese industrialization, collectivized agriculture and set targets for grain and steel output. Families that were given plots through land reform were forced off their lands and into communes. To make steel, Mao pushed for backyard furnaces that would melt scrap metal for export.

In practice, people melted their farming tools, meaning the communes had nothing to farm with.

Through his CCP connections and a curious 2001 archival loophole, Yang has

created the instantly definitive metaphorical counterpart for all those that died in this little-discussed era of modern Chinese history. There is a certain literary irony to the fact that he wrote the 1,800 page Chinese work as an actual paternal memorial because Yang couldn’t give his father an actual tombstone: it would have been melted down for steel. Tombstone is not a light read: it nonchalantly and effortlessly pulls out gruesome details because there are so many of them.

The image of the orphaned girl who took care of her younger brother only to eat him after he died will haunt me — and that’s just the lighter stuff. A local official pitied the orphaned girl and jailed her because she would “at least be fed” there.

But Yang makes no qualms about the CCP as the imposers of an environment that made cannibalism the norm; ruthless in its efforts to work peasants without food, the CCP ignored the piling corpses on the sides of roads. Commune halls served corn stalks, bird droppings, rats and clam shells. “Right-deviationist” dissenters that tried to escape were dragged to “struggle sessions,” where they were publicly humiliated and beaten

until they admitted to crimes. If not executed, they were split open at the skull, buried alive, raped, suspended from ceilings in commune mess halls, set on fire, or made to part with finger, ear, or limb.

Communes that didn’t meet quotas were accused of hiding grain, and local officials triumphantly reported seizing non-existent concealed grain. No one ever dared to mention how workers had no food. “The insanity and ruthlessness of the Great Leap For ward,” Yang writes, was “the great ‘achievement’ of the totalitarian system.” Yang jokingly described his book as his own tombstone too, but besides a book ban in Mainland China the CCP hasn’t bothered him.

Even after an entire team of translators had axed the original 1,800 work into a more digestible 700 page English work, the book still feels more like an encyclopedic atrocity exhibition than a coherent narrative. It is fitting under the looming shadow of censorship: after the archival loophole rapidly narrowed and disappeared in 2007, there was no chance original research would surface on the CCP’s role in the Famine. Tombstone is the definitive research tome for future scholars to advance the little mentioned

but widely suspected idea that the Famine was the CCP’s doing, and not the official position of unprecedented climate. Yang’s tepid desperation to list as many details as possible before the censors realized they didn’t wipe out all records of the Famine suffuses the whole book.

But the biggest fight Tombstone picks is with China’s growing apologetic apathy. The China of Mao Zedong is not the same as that of the 2008 Summer Olympics, but that is the China of the cities. The China of the countryside has hardly changed, even though it bore the burden of collectivization and the Great Famine (95 percent of all deaths), because of the apartheid-like hukou system that forbade migrating or engaging in non-agricultural labor. Today, while the CCP is no longer as physically brutal, it is just as ruthless in other ways.

Hukou has loosened so migrant workers can make iPhones, but a lack of legal residency pushes them to live in halfdemolished slums that don’t officially exist (part of the reason why factories have on-site dorms). The new middle class despises the rural destitute, but continues to depend disproportionately on their suffering: the countryside “brought the Famine upon themselves” by gorging on food and not working hard enough.

Tombstone, thus, is not a lifeless memorial to the dead; it is a totem of anguish and pain to a countryside that silently screamed 50 years ago. Today, the book vocalizes those screams against apathetic revisionism, so that silence would not be in vain.

Kai Sam Ng is a junior in the School of Industrial Labor Relations. He can be reached at kng@cornellsun.com.

Selena Gomez, Skrillex and Spring Breakers

M

ore than a month before the 85th Academy Skrillex music plays. Everyone wears Awards Ceremony has even been aired, there neon.

One of the most interesting are already bloggers looking on to bigger and better things. Namely, the 86th Academy Awards, aspects of the movie is the seemingwhose nominees are due to you in January 2014 (“pre- ly constant need by the director and dictions” is currently the second most common Google actors to break type. Watching Yale search when looking up next years awards). Look Ph.D. student and former Oscars around the Internet, and it’s easy to find lists of the host James Franco embody the very most interesting and exciting films coming out of the essence of southern grit and skeeze major festivals this year, based purely on names and is unexpected. It is even more unexpedigree alone. In most cases, not a second of footage pected when you realize that, in the same month, he’ll also be playing has been released.

The film that I am probably most excited about this the Wizard of Oz in Sam Raimi’s Oz year, and which as of Thursday morning has an official the Great and Powerful. Gomez and trailer, is Spring Breakers. The film’s director is Harmony Hudgens are Disney channel sweetKorine, he of Kids infamy. The film stars James Franco, hearts — Wizards of Waverly Place Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, and High School Musical, respectiveRachel Korine and, of course, Gucci Mane. For the ly — and Benson can be seen on cherry on top of the whole project, Skrillex is producing ABC Family’s hit Pretty Little Liars. the score. Skrillex. It is the most perfect combination of Not really the expected credentials to be playing highbrow and gun-toting, lowbrow art I drug snorting hedonists. And, can possibly just because it bears repeating, imagine.

Gucci Mane and Skrillex are The basic involved. plot of the Not to get too deep about a film is as folmovie that stars Selena Gomez lows: Gomez, and Vanessa Hudgens, but Hudgens, Big Talk underneath the neon and silver Benson and teeth, Spring Breakers seems to Korine play a have something to say about group of college girls who stage an armed robbery to finance their American society. The most quoted line following the trailer’s release comes from Franco’s character Alien, spring break partying.

They head down to Florida, get busted on drug who proclaims to a crowd of rowdy college kids on a charges, only to be bailed out of jail by cornrowed, beach, “Bikinis and big booties, y’all! That’s what life is grilled teeth local rapper Alien, played by Franco. Gucci about.” Objectification is rife throughout the two minMane appears, but seems to be acting in some way. utes and 30 seconds of film released, filled with images

Peter Jacobs

COURTESY OF MUSE PRODUCTIONS

of guns, money and bikinis. The protagonists seem motivated by the rawest of capitalist desires, to get money by any means possible and to only look out for themselves. Alien sums it up later in the trailer when rubbing dark tanning oil on two of the girls: “This is the American dream, y’all.”

So, for all of you already back in Ithaca, and looking for the perfect escape to the white winter wonderland outside your window, here it is. Spring Breakers looks bright and fun, and it may even have a deeper resonance. In the very least, bikinis and big booties, y’all.

Skrillex.

Peter Jacobs is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at pjacobs@cornellsun.com. Big Talk appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

12 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis ACROSS 1 Socks for Clinton, e.g.

4 Mums’ relatives, in a way 9 Weber State University city 14 Trouble 15 Petrol purchase 16 __ Laredo, Mexico 17 Bolshevik film festival fodder?

19 Key of the “Eroica” symphony 20 Grant 21 With 51-Across, Puerto Rico pecan and Cuban coconut custard?

23 Ode preposition 25 Musician’s deg.

26 Auden’s vineyard?

33 Dawn deity 34 Last words 35 “__ Peach”: Allman Brothers album 38 Subdued 40 Montréal moniker 41 Jewel box item 42 Gym ball 43 Attic window 45 Doctor of music?

46 Side dish made with russets and Tanqueray?

49 Sigma follower 50 Hosp. readout 51 See 21-Across 57 “The Kiss” painter 61 Lot of baloney 62 Legendary musician responsible for what’s missing from 17-, 21-, 26and 46-Across 64 It’s often stored upside-down 65 City on the Penobscot 66 Have a life 67 “Naturalis Historia” author 68 Parlement français division 69 “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” author Brown

DOWN 1 Cut down 2 Adam’s apple spot 3 Lincoln in-law 4 Looked askance 5 Actress Tyler 6 Left __: rewarded 7 Cologne crowd?

8 Zaire’s Mobutu __ Seko 9 Unrepeated event, in Essex 10 Roared 11 Upper-bod muscle 12 Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?”

13 A or E, but not I, O or U 18 Instrument heard on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bookends” 22 EPA concern 24 45-Across genre 26 Sub 27 Happy __ 28 Legally prohibit 29 Côte-d’Or crop 30 Ecuadoran province named for its gold production

31 Its capital is Amiens 32 Gauge opening?

36 Bagels, shapewise 37 Closing word 39 Cyberface 41 Nutty 43 Smear 44 Denver-to-Wichita dir.

47 Q neighbor 48 Citrus hybrid 51 Soviet letters

52 Kazakhstan border sea 53 Pasta __: food brand 54 Long poem 55 Yorkshire river 56 Gas on Broadway 58 Tech debut of 2010 59 Just 60 Genealogy chart 63 Trial evidence, at times

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Sun Sudoku

By David Poole (c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Doonesbury

Mr. Gnu

Up to My Nipples

Puzzle # two down

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki /Sudoku)

The Lawn xwordeditor@aol.com

COMICS AND PUZZLES / SPORTS

by Liz Popolo ’08

01/18/13

01/18/13

by Garry Trudeau

Travis Dandro

by William Moore ’12 and Jesse Simons grad

It’s up to us. reduce reuse conserve protect recycle

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 13

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SPORTS

Blue Devils Crush Red in Gameplay M. BBALL

Continued from page 20

team, the Red was also a dismal 1-11 from beyond the arc, with the only triple coming from senior guard Dominick Scelfo late in the second half.

Despite being outplayed in the second half by a much bigger and more physical Duke team, the Red was able to come away with some positives.

“It was a great experience.

They are a talented team, so I think it was pretty encouraging that we were able to play well against them in the first half,” Chemerinski said.

“We came in there to win,” Gray said. “We honestly went in there believing we could come out with an upset if we played hard and aggressive. We didn’t go in trying to be timid, I think we came out hard and taking that into consideration if we go in to every game with the same mentality we will be successful.”

The triple threat of Plumlee and guards Seth Curry and Rasheed Sulaimon — coupled with Quinn Cook’s impeccable passing — proved too much for the Red defense in the second half. When the Red was able to play the up-tempo style of basketball that has proven successful so far this season, the squad was able to contain the Blue Devils, who only scored two more points off fast break opportunities. However, in the half court set, Duke had a clear advantage.

“They are such a very good team,” said head coach Bill Courtney. “The things they

want to get out of that group, it’s unbelievable. They just executed well and made every right play. Plumlee is just a load, the emergence of Quinn Cook … he’s been the guy who has taken them to the next level.”

Plumlee had 18 points and nine rebounds on the day — just shy of a double-double — while Cook tallied 12 assists.

Curry and Sulaimon combined for an additional 36 points.

Much of the Red’s first half run came on the back of sophomore forward Shonn Miller.

Miller had 14 points and six rebounds, holding his own on the block against Plumlee and Duke forwards Ryan Kelly and Josh Hairston. Sophomore guard Devin Cherry also provided a spark off the bench, chipping in five points and showing off his fleet-footed spin moves in the open court. Senior guard Miles Asafo-Adjei had a strong offensive game, putting up six points on 3-5 shooting while dishing out three assists.

In just the fourth meeting with a No. 1 ranked team in school history, the Red was unable to pull off the magical upset. However, playing against future NBA first-round draft picks was valuable for a team expecting to contend for a top spot in the Ivy League come February.

“Our guys responded very well to playing in that environment,” Courtney said. “It was a great experience for us either way it turned out.”

Scott Chiusano can be reached at schiusano@cornellsun.com.

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THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 17

18 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013

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SPORTS

Preparing for Pittsburgh Meet GYMNASTICS

Continued from page 20

Penn, posting 191.875 and 192.350, respectively. As the team worked through its tough schedule of competitors, Cornell improved with each meet, recording four meets above 190.0. The team looks to build of of last season’s successes heading into the invitational at George Washington.

“One of the biggest things we did to get ready for the GW meet this year was make sure that we were routine ready earlier in the pre-season,” said junior Elise Kerner. “We had many people doing full routines on events within the first couple months we were back at school. Also, we stepped up our conditioning in the gym and in the weight room a lot this year compared to years past. These two factors definitely helped us to go into our first meet more prepared and more confident.”

This strong training routine set the foundation for Sunday’s performance, where the Red

posted the day’s second highest exciting event for us this year,” scores on both vault (48.325) she said. “With most of our lineand bars (48.625). Freshman up returning in addition to sevMadeline Martinez made her eral new people, we have more collegiate debut on the vault, depth than we have had in a couscoring a 9.775 and earning sec- ple years. This weekend, our ond place overall. Fellow rookie freshmen did especially well on Alicia Bair had a strong showing vault. In their first college meet, on vault and recorded a 9.700, they all stepped up and hit their which was g o o d “Vault is shaping up to be an exciting enough for s e v e n t h event for us this year” place.

“We had McKenna Archer probably what was one of our most powerful vault vaults without hesitation.”

While the Red stood out on performances and we were able to count no falls on that event, vault, the team began the day which was one of our team goals scoring low on floor. Archer going into the first meet,” earned Cornell’s highest place on floor, recording a 9.725 to finish Kerner said.

Cornell scored a 48.325 for in sixth overall. Despite a startvault as a team, placing just ing score of 47.625 which placed behind North Carolina’s 48.525. the team in fourth, the Red was Archer also competed on vault, in a good place and looked to posting a 9.550. According to make up some ground.

“We had a really strong start the senior, the event will be one to watch for the Red this upcom- with the routines on our first event, floor,” Kerner said. “There ing season.

“Vault is shaping up to be an were a couple mistakes here and there but each competitor did a great job staying focused and delivering great routines.”

Cornell left a positive impression on bars, placing three in the top five. Junior Melanie Jorgensen scored 9.850 to earn a second place finish, with junior Alexis Schupp and senior Sarah Hein taking fourth and fifth, with a 9.800 and 9.775, respectively.

“On our third event, bars, we had a very consistent performance, with each competitor executing their routines just like they had practiced them in the gym for the past couple months,” Kerner said. “We were also able to count no falls in that rotation and posted two scores of 9.8 or above.”

Cornell finished with a 48.625, just shy of George Washington’s 48.675. By the end of the third event, the Red held first place with 144.600. Cornell moved to the beam, where the team finished last with a 45.700.

“Beam was our final event, and also the event we look forward to improving upon the most in our upcoming meet at Pitt,” Kerner said. “Our routines gave us a great baseline to work off of and we’ll be looking to improve our consistency and confidence on this event in the coming weekend.”

Archer was the Red’s top finisher on beam, earning 11th place with her 9.600. Cornell will compete on the road again this weekend, traveling to Pittsburgh on Saturday, where it will compete in a four-team meet against host Pitt, Maryland and Temple.

According to Archer, the Red looks to use the George Washington Invitational as a standard to build on for the rest of the season.

“Building off of our first meet, there are a few things we are trying to work on, particularly cleaning up routines and increasing consistency,” she said.

“At Pittsburgh this weekend, one of our goals is to count no falls on any event, as well as improve our team’s overall performance.”

Lauren Ritter can be reached at sportseditor@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Friday, January 18, 2013 19

SPORTS

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Both Red Squads Sweep Colgate Meet

By JOHN McGRORTY Sun Staff Writer

This past Saturday both the Cornell men and women’s swimming and diving teams competed against Colgate University in the team’s second mid-season dual meet following winter break.

Coming off of Cornell’s traditional training trip to Puerto Rico, both the men and women’s teams had strong showings at the Teagle Hall pool and won first regular meet of the season. This success will play an important role in the future of the Red this season.

On the men’s side, the Red (1-5) won its first dual meet of the regular season with a final score of 152-112.

With numerous 1-2 finishes, the Red had an extremely strong showing and looks to continue with this success as it approaches the end of the regular season.

The times as a whole throughout the meet illustrate a significant payoff from the winter training trip and with the championship meets still ahead, the Red looks to end the season in strong fashion.

“The Colgate meet went great, it was after almost three weeks of hard training between training trip and winter training but everyone swam well,” said sophomore freestyler Timothy Satterthwaite.

Now is when all of the hard work and the extensive weight lifting program that the Red has instituted this year will begin to have a large impact on results.

“The Colgate meet was a huge success for both the women and men’s swimming and diving teams, as both sides were able to clinch their first dual-meet wins of the season,” sophomore diver Thomas Hallowell said. “For the divers, the men went one, two and three with a successful showing from the women as well. It was an exciting meet overall due to the success of the team as a whole and some great swims all around.”

The women’s swimming and diving team (1-5) also

TINA CHOU / SUN FILE PHOTO

Pushing to the finish | Both the men’s and women’s Cornell swimming and diving teams won against Colgate this past weekend, giving each team its first regular win of the season thus far.

had its first regular season win against Colgate University this past weekend. With a final score of 159-141, the Red have begun to gather the necessary confidence it will need to have a successful end to the regular season and set themselves up for late season success at the Ivy League Championships.

This coming Friday, Jan. 18, the Cornell men’s swimming and diving team looks to continue the success with its first Ivy League win of the season. The Red will race the Lions at home at 4 pm.

The Red looks to position themselves with another late season win and continue to improve going into the late part of the season.

“The team is looking very strong and seemed to train

well over the long intersession, and I think everyone will agree that we are looking to beat Columbia. It should be a good test especially coming off a very successful weekend against Colgate,” said Hallowell.

The following day, Saturday Jan. 19, the women’s swimming and diving team will also face off against Columbia. This will be the last home meet for both teams this season and the Red looks to end its home stretch in a successful fashion. Both the men and women’s teams will be honoring the graduating seniors at the final home meet of their Cornell swimming and diving careers.

John McGrorty can be reached at jmcgrorty@cornellsun.com.

Cornell Hopes for C.U. Faces Columbia in Heated Ivy Dual Ivy Home Victory

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

By SKYLER DALE Sun Staff Writer

The women’s basketball team (8-6) completed its non-conference schedule on Sunday with a 20-point win over division II Daemon College (8-1).

The Red’s first 14 games featured a number of important milestones, including head coach Dayna Smith’s 100th career win against the Manhattan Jaspers (4-11) in late November and senior forward Clare Fitzpatrick’s 1000th career point against the Buffalo Bulls (5-11) in early January.

“Any time a player can score 1000 [points] they must be doing something right,” acknowledges Coach Smith.

Although the team is proud of both Smith and Fitzpatrick, the Red has its eyes set on an even bigger goal: an Ivy League championship. In order to achieve it, however, Smith believes the

team needs to improve its shooting overall. “[Some nights] we don’t have any guards that are hitting an outside shot … We need consistent shooting. I think that’s first and foremost.”

Smith also believes that staying healthy is key if the team is going to make a run at winning the league.

“The Ivy League games back-toback are grueling [and] depth is important.”

Despite room for improvement Smith is proud of the Red’s effort, especially on the defensive end. She looks at the team’s hard-fought loss on Dec. 20 against then-ranked Texas (7-9) as an example of its stellar defense. “[The game was our] best of the season out the zone. We forced Texas into bad shots. [We were] real excited with that effort against a nationally ranked team.”

MONIQUE HALL / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Eye on the prize | Senior forward Clare Fitzpatrick will be an integral part of the Cornell squad as the team heads into some tough matchups against Ancient Eight rivals.

The Red enters conference play with the third best record in the Ivy League trailing only the Harvard Crimson (105) and the Princeton Tigers (10-5).

“Harvard and Princeton have a few special athletes,” Smith said. “They may play a little bit above the rest of the league.

Nevertheless, the team recognizes that Harvard and Princeton are not the only two teams capable of beating the Red. “Every team in our league is going to be difficult,” Smith said.

Cornell will play host to its rival Columbia Lions at home on Saturday to begin Ivy play and then face them again just one week later on the road.

The Lions have won five of the last nine games between the two teams but Cornell has a 39-23 advantage in the all-time series.

Though Columbia has begun the season 2-12, shooting just 31% and averaging 48 points a game, Smith isn’t fooled.

“It’s the same team we’ve faced in years passed,” she said.

Despite recording only two wins, Columbia has excelled on the defense end throughout the first half of the 2012-2013 campaign. The team’s defense has forced 20.2 turnovers and 10.1 steals per game and kept their opponents to just 38% shooting this season.

“They hope to disrupt your flow and use that to have quick scoring opportunities for them” Smith said.

No matter how Columbia plays on Saturday, Coach Smith makes one thing clear. “We’re going to be prepared.”

Skyler Dale can be reached at sdale@cornellsun.com.

M. BASKETBALL Continued from page 20

and try to speed them up again we can get them out of their rhythm,” Chemerinski added.

Though the Red has had some slow offensive games early on, it is coming off its biggest scoring outburst of the season against Old Westbury. The Red put up 103 points on the Panthers, just the second time in the past 20 years the team has hit triple digits on the scoreboard. Gray led the way with 24 points on 6 of 11 shooting from beyond the arc and grabbed seven boards. It was his second straight game leading the team in scoring after being relatively quiet on offense to start the season.

“Any time you play well it gives you added confidence,” Gray said of the last two games.

“I’ve been thinking too much instead of going out and playing. Now, if I get a shot I’m taking it. I’m trying to get myself into a little rhythm and letting things come to me.”

An additional weapon the Red will have against Columbia on Saturday is senior Errick Peck, who missed last season due to an injury.

Though he was out for two games over the break, the 6-6 forward put up the type of big numbers his coach expects, scoring 16 points and corralling seven rebounds.

“He’s been tremendous for us,” said head coach Bill Courtney. “He had to get back in shape, knock the rust out of his game, but what we’ve seen is his emergence back to the player we’d hoped he would be.”

The game against Columbia is the Red’s first Ivy League home game before going on a three game road trip.

“Winning at home is going to be big,” Courtney said. “[Being able] to establish some dominance and confidence at home is extremely important.”

Scott Chiusano can be reached at schiusano@cornellsun.com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Sports

FRIDAY JANUARY 18, 2013

20

MEN’S BASKETBALL

C.U. Looks Ahead to Columbia

Begins Ivy League play this upcoming weekend

offensive execution has to be a little bit better.” “[Those games] prepared us for how After completing a difficult non-confer- intensely we’ll have to play defense and ence winter break schedule that featured how hard we’ll have to play as a team to be top Division I teams like Duke, Vanderbilt successful,” said senior forward Eitan and Bucknell, the Red returns to Ithaca to Chemerinski.

The Red is coming off two straight wins begin Ivy play against Columbia on against American and Old Westbury and Saturday.

The Red (8-9, 0-0 Ivy League) began can get back to the .500 mark with a victothe break with a trip down South to take ry over Columbia this weekend. The teams on ACC and SEC powerhouses Duke and split the two meetings last year, with the Vanderbilt. After trailing to the Red falling 61-56 on the Lions home turf.

“We went in to Columbia [last “If we are able to limit their offensive year] a little bit lazy and caught a loss,” Gray said. “We didn’t rebounds, we should have a great rebound particularly well and chance to win.” [senior center Mark] Cisco had a tremendous day.”

Johnathan Gray Though the Red never trailed by more than 10 throughout the Commodores by 19 in the first half, the game, it was also never able to take a lead.

Red fought back and came within two The squad was outrebounded 32-21 with points with just under ten minutes remain- Cisco leading the way with 20 points and ing. But Vanderbilt was able to make a late 14 rebounds — six of them offensive. The run and came away with a 66-55 victory. In 6’ 9” senior is averaging nine points and six its second straight nationally televised boards per game.

This year, with its biggest strength in matchup, the Red fell to No. 1 Duke after giving the Blue Devils a scare in the first the open court, the Red will try to use its half. According to senior guard Johnathan speed to catch the Lions off guard.

“They’re going to try to play physical Gray, the tough competition the team saw over break has given Cornell an advantage and they don’t want to play an up-tempo game,” Gray said. “If we are able to limit moving into conference play.

“Any time you play teams that pay their offensive rebounds we should have a attention to details, it makes things that great chance to win.”

“If we stick to our defensive principles much tougher,” he said. “Playing against teams that really take a big focus on defense, we have to understand that our See M. BASKETBALL page 19

By SCOTT CHIUSANO

Sun Assistant Sports Editor

MEN’S BASKETBALL

ENOCH NEWKIRK / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

High hopes | Senior forward Eitan Chemerinski goes up for a shot against his opponent, helping the Red continue on past a tough non-conference winter break schedule.

GYMNASTICS

Red Struggles in Matchup C.U.Places Third in Invitational Against Powerhouse Duke

By LAUREN RITTER

Sun Sports Editor

By SCOTT CHIUSANO Sun Assistant Sports Editor

With his back to the basket, senior forward Eitan Chemerinski gave a slight head fake. Mason Plumlee’s feet left the ground for a brief moment, and Duke’s

BRIAN STERN / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

All or nothing | Despite a tough loss, Cornell fought hard against Duke.

6’10” 235-pound senior forward was fooled. Chemerinski craftily laid the ball in under his outstretched arm, cutting Duke’s lead to four with just under four minutes to go in the half.

Though Chemerinski’s fourth and final point may have successfully silenced the 9,000 fans in Cameron Indoor Stadium, this was as close as the Red would come. Though the squad did cling to a four point lead in the early goings, the No. 1 ranked team in the country did not look back after Chemerinski’s layup, surging to a 9-2 run to end the half and 17 unanswered points to start the second.

“It was a tough environment,” said senior guard Johnathan Gray. “The fans heckle you a little bit, it’s very loud and hard to hear ourselves on the court and a little bit tougher trying to hear signals from the bench.”

Plagued by turnovers in the second half, the Red ended up falling, 88-47.

Cornell coughed the ball up 26 times, leading to 35 points off turnovers for the Blue Devils.

“We got ourselves into a hole [in the second half ] due to our turnovers, and with a team like that they can capitalize so quickly,” Gray said.

Normally a strong point for the See M. BBALL Page 17

The gymnastics team set the bar high with its first meet of the 2013 season, recording 190.300 while competing at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational held at George Washington on Sunday afternoon. Cornell scored just below the host Colonials (193.425) and North Carolina (192.950), but outscored fellow Ivy Penn (189.575) and Temple (187.500). The third place finish marked the second time in program history that the Red scored 190.0 or better to kick off the season.

“It was a great start to the season and I was happy to be back on the competition floor,” said senior McKenna Archer. “Going into my last year, I’m just trying to enjoy every moment and do the best routines I can.”

Last season, the Red finished second in the Ivy Classic held at Cornell and fourth at the ECAC Championships held at

See GYMNASTICS page 18

KYLE KULAS / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Poised for perfection | Senior McKenna Archer showed her skills on the beam, along with the rest of the team, placing Cornell in third place at the Lindsey Ferris Invitational.