INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 128, No. 110
THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2012
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
IPD Officer: 1994 Charges Taken Out of Context
A real puppet master
News Winning Professors
Three Cornell professors will receive $50,000 each in grant money over the next two years from the Sloan Foundation. | Page 3
Opinion Kony Critique
By MICHAEL LINHORST
Patricia Kim ’14 shares her “mixed feelings” on the KONY 2012 campaign.
Sun Senior Writer
| Page 7
Arts
ANDY JOHNSON / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Architecture Meets Art
The Sun reviews the work of sculptor Simon Ungars ’80, which is being displayed at Sibley Hall. | Page 10
Sports Expecting Aces
The men’s and women’s tennis teams prepare to face new competition over spring break. | Page 16
Weather Showers HIGH: 56 LOW: 41
16 Pages – Free
Ki Purbo Asmoro, an Indonesian puppeteer, leads a public shadow puppet workshop at the Johnson Museum on Wednesday. The demonstration was given for an art history class.
University Pushes to Hire Professors in Int’l Studies By CAROLINE FLAX Sun Staff Writer
This is the first article in a series about the University’s push to advance its international education and engagement. As Prof. Fredrick Logevall, history, director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, sat in his office overlooking East Avenue, he recalled what had initially drawn him to Cornell.
He said he was drawn not only by the University’s renowned history department, but also by its Southeast Asia studies program and its faculty’s dedication to studies of international cultures. Now, after the March 2 release of President David Skorton’s white paper, “Bringing the World to Cornell and Cornell to the World,” and in light of an See RENEWAL page 4
C.U. Library Collections Lag Behind Peers’, Profs Say By MANU RATHORE Sun Staff Writer
From 2005 to 2010, the median increase in funding for digital and print collections for the top 10 research libraries in the U.S. was 35.6 percent. At Cornell, however, funding for these expenditures increased by only 1.7 percent, according to a report
by Cornell’s University Faculty Library Board. At a Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday, some faculty members expressed concern over this discrepancy and worried that the Cornell library’s collections are falling behind those of peer institutions. The University’s library materials budget for 2010 was more than $7
million below the median expenditure of top 10 research libraries in North America, according to the UFLB report. In 2010, the median expenditure of top 10 research libraries in the U.S. — as ranked by the Association of Research Libraries — on research
Marlon Byrd, the Ithaca Police lieutenant accused of aiding drug dealers, defended himself in an internal department email Saturday after a 1994 reprimand against him was published in local media last week. In the incident nearly 18 years ago, Byrd received a written reprimand and was charged with incompetency for failing to turn in or report several pieces of potential narcotics evidence. The reprimand came after two staff members of the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services handed Byrd “several empty plastic bags and a small plastic bag with white powder-like contents” suspected of being drugs, and he did not report the items or turn them in as evidence, accord- “I regret not contesting ing to documents pub- the language of lished by The ‘incompetency’ because Ithaca Journal. Byrd waived my actions at the time his right to an had nothing to do with arbitration hearing on the competency.” charges and Lt. Marlon Byrd accepted the reprimand. But in his email to fellow officers on Saturday, Byrd argued that The Journal’s story missed important context and gave a false impression of the situation. “I regret not contesting the language of ‘incompetency’ because my actions at the time had nothing to do with competency,” Byrd wrote in the email, referring to the language used in the reprimand. “In my opinion, the items they turned over to me were garbage and not worth tagging or testing, so I discarded them into the trash,” he wrote, adding that there were no suspects associated with the items. He said that it was not common practice in 1994 to tag every potential piece of evidence — which is the standard today — and that his actions were consistent
See LIBRARY page 5
See IPD page 5
Kenan Thompson to Show C.U.He Is ‘All That’ By DANIELLE SOCHACZEVSKI Sun Staff Writer
Saturday Night Live sensation Kenan Thompson will perform a stand-up comedy routine in Bailey Hall on April 15. Tickets will go on sale the Thursday after Spring Break, March 29 for students and on March 30 for the general public. Last month, the Cornell University Programming Board announced that Thompson’s SNL co-star, Seth Meyers, will perform in Bailey Hall on March 27. Tickets to see Meyers are sold out, according to the Cornell Concerts website. Thompson is entering his ninth season of SNL, NBC’s long-running sketch comedy series. His memorable characters include D.J. Dynasty Handbag, Virginica Hastings, Weekend Update correspondent Jean K. Jean, Lorenzo McIntosh and D’Andre Cole, the disruptive singing talk show host on the wildly popular sketch, “What Up With That.” Thompson’s noted celebrity
impressions include Bill Cosby, Rev. Al Sharpton and Whoopi Goldberg. The Atlanta-born comedian was an original cast member on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series “All That” from 1994 to 1999. Thompson and his “All That” co-star, Kel Mitchell, went on to debut in a spin-off sitcom, “Kenan and Kel.” “I think Kenan is the man. You can never have too much Kenan,” Mikella Goldman ’15 said. “I just wish Kel would be there too.” Thompson starred in Bill Cosby’s 2004 flick “Fat Albert” and has appeared in films including “Mighty Ducks 2,” “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Snakes on a Plane” alongside Samuel L. Jackson and “The Boss’s Daughter” with Ashton Kutcher. According to CUPB President Tajwar Mazhar ’13, who is also a Sun staff writer, Thompson was one of, if not the most, popular choice within CUPB. Students said they were excited for a second chance to see an SNL comedian at Cornell this
year. “I’d rather Cornell get as many big names as possible, rather than people nobody has heard of before,” Evan Neiderhoffer ’15 said. “It's more exciting that way.” Russel Silver-Fagan ’15 said he thinks it makes sense for CUPB to bring another SNL cast member to Cornell given that tickets to see Meyers are sold out. “I’m excited for Kenan Thompson’s performance because I think the style of comedy for each performer is unique,” he said. Home of The Goodburger | Danielle Sochaczevski can be reached at dsochaczevski @cornellsun.com.
Comedian Kenan Thompson is known for his roles in Nickelodeon comedies, as well as SNL.