INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 136, No. 59
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Naturalized
Crafting Change
On the Verge
Cloudy With Light Snow
On Wednesday, 35 new U.S. citizens in Tompkins County pledged their allegiance to the country. | Page 3
Art can be a uniting force in political action, writes Anna Canny ’21.
Men’s hockey can clinch an Ivy title this weekend against Yale and Brown.
| Page 7
| Page 12
HIGH: 24º LOW: 10º
Fossil Fuel Divestment Captures Campus
Climate Justice Cornell blocks traffic, closes road, second time in seven days By TAMARA KAMIS Sun Staff Writer
Climate Justice Cornell blocked campus roads for the second time in less than seven days, demanding that Cornell divest from the fossil fuel industry and disrupting the commutes of students finishing classes and walking home on Wednesday afternoon. This is the second time in the semester that CJC has staged a protest by occupying streets for divestment, delivering on their promise to disrupt “business as usual.” The roads were closed for around 45 minutes, reopening at 4:30 p.m. At around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, more than 20 CJC protesters briefly gathered in Ho Plaza where they discussed plans for the protest, chanting, “I believe that we will win,” and “Fossil fuels have got to go,” before marching to East Avenue. Only 10 minutes later, CJC had blocked the East Avenue crosswalk next to Statler Hall, asking students passing by to sign petitions calling for fossil fuel divestment. At Statler, Cornell police cars blocked both ends of the road. At the intersection, multiple protesters poured molasses over the heads of other CJC members seated in the middle of the road to simulate an oil spill, while others chanted, “We can’t drink oil,”
“I feel like they can protest in a form that doesn’t affect other people. People have prelims.” Alexia Ge ’21 and “System change, not climate change.” Cornell sent out a road closure email alert at 4:15 p.m., stating that East Avenue and Tower Road between Garden and East Avenue were blocked to vehicular traffic. The CJC blockage also prevented access to Lincoln Drive,
KATIE SIMS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Oiling up | Climate Justice Cornell protesters douse themselves in molasses to mimic an oil spill yesterday on East Avenue. President’s Drive and the Day Hall loading dock. These same roads were closed last Thursday due to CJC’s first protest in front of Uris Hall. This email was sent more than 30 minutes after the road had been blocked. Alexia Ge ’21, whose car was stranded between the protesters and the Cornell police cars, said the protesters frustrated her. Ge had been driving to Collegetown to pick up glasses before a study session for an exam when the protest brought her to a halt. “I feel like they can protest in a form that doesn’t affect other people,” Ge said. “People have prelims.” For the protesters, however, the cause of fossil fuel divestment is critical enough to warrant disrupting traffic. “We want Cornell University to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in local communities,” See PROTEST page 11
Employee Assembly greenlights divestment nearly unanimously, following GPSA, U.A. By SHAWN HIKOSAKA Sun Staff Writer
After a week of divestment protests, Cornell’s Employee Assembly voted — nearly unanimously — in favor of divesting from fossil fuels. The resolution, which passed with a 22-1-0 vote, calls for the University to “divest from all investments in coal, oil, and natural gas in an orderly manner and as rapidly as possible.” The vote comes after the unanimous
passage of similar resolutions in the University Assembly and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. Only hours later, Climate Justice Cornell staged their second major protest — blocking traffic in front of Statler Hall — in the last seven days, urging the University to divest from fossil fuels, following suit of other universities including Georgetown. In 2015, similar resolutions See ASSEMBLY page 5
FYSA Program Welcomes 50 New Cornellians to Ithaca By TAL DOTAN Sun Contributor
Amidst the harsh Ithaca winter, 50 new Cornellians faced the cold and joined the Class of 2023 in January, admitted as part of the First-Year Spring Admissions program. In the fourth year of the program — originally designed to accommodate the growing number of students seeking admission to Cornell — 30 students enrolled in
the College of Arts and Sciences and 20 joined the School of Hotel Administration. Cornell is one of many universities that offer spring admissions programs, including U.C. Berkeley, the University of Southern California and Boston University. For the Class of 2023, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions reviewed over 49,000 applications and enrolled 3,175 students in the fall — allowing the University to
give an additional 50 admits the opportunity to come to Cornell. Previously, the University had a similar program, known as “J Fresh,” which was discontinued in 2003. Cornell decided to reinstate the First-Year Spring Admit program in 2016 to fill in spring semester room vacancies — admissions assumes that more rooms are typically vacated in the spring, according to Jonathan Burdick, See SPRING ADMIT page 11
SABRINA XIE / SUN DESIGN EDITOR