09-12-12

INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 129, No. 17

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

News In Remembrance

Professors and students reflect on the tragedy of Sept. 11 on the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. | Page 3

Opinion Bust a Move

Dan Rosen ’13 touts his experience in a modern dance class, urging his fellow Cornellians to take a risk and try something new. | Page 7

Science Ornithological Forecast

Cornell ornithologists are developing a method to track the migratory patterns of different bird species. | Page 9

Arts Electric Feel

Sarah Angell ’13 writes that her pilgrimage to the Electric Zoo Music Festival over Labor Day Weekend was well worth the trek. | Page 11

Weather Sunny HIGH: 81 LOW: 54

Profs, Students Provide Input For New IT Plan

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By JONATHAN SWARTZ Sun Staff Writer

More than 300 professors, faculty and administrators gathered for an all-day conference Tuesday to give their input on the University’s strategic plan for information technology. Once created, the plan will guide the evolution of the field at Cornell over the next five years.

The purpose of the IT strategic plan is to create a long-term vision for the University’s IT department, identify priorities for the University’s budget and develop career plans for IT staff, according to the University’s website. Although the University published a strategic plan to guide improvement in other departments in 2010, it is still developing its plan to strengthen Cornell technology.

The purpose of Tuesday’s conference was to include the Cornell community’s concerns, goals and ideas in the plan, according to Ted Dodds, the University’s chief information officer and vice president for information technologies.

“My goal is to make sure that all of you, See TECH page 5

GINA HONG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Student take a mid-day break and practice yoga at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on Tuesday.

Despite College Ave.Location, Fmr. Green Café Lot Sits Empty ‘Most valuable real estate in Collegetown’ remains unused

By SARAH SASSOON Sun Staff Writer

Amid the thriving businesses on College Avenue — the commercial and social hub of Collegetown — the space that was formerly Green Café still stands vacant, more than two years after the café abruptly filed for bankruptcy in February 2010.

In April 2010, the business’ bankruptcy filing was dismissed by a federal bankruptcy court on the grounds that the company had inadequate legal representation. The business shut down the following day.

About 30 months later, city officials question why the property has not been rented out by its owner, Jason Fane, who owns the Ithaca Renting Company.

Though some speculate that the company demands rent that is too expensive, company representatives deny the charge.

Officials said they are concerned by the vacancy at the corner of College Avenue and Dryden Road –– which Alderperson Ellen McCollister ’78 (D-3rd Ward) called “the most valuable real estate in Collegetown.”

Alderperson Graham Kerslick (D-4th Ward) echoed her sentiments, saying that city officials and Collegetown residents are worried about the “negative impact that long-term vacant properties can have on the city.”

Both McCollister and Kerslick said that, prior to the Green Café moving into the lot in 2009, the space had been vacant for years.

“That location hasn’t had a viable business for as long as I can remember,” Kerslick said. “I’ve been in Ithaca for 30 See GREEN CAFÉ page 5

IVORY WANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Peaceful solution | Ellen McCollister ’78 (D-3rd) was one of the city officials who gave her input on tenant-landlord relations at a meeting Tuesday.

NYS Official: Landlords, Students Must Be‘Reasonable People’

By WESLEY ROGERS Sun Staff Writer

To combat tenant-landlord acrimony, students, landlords and city officials met Tuesday at a meeting of the Collegetown Neighborhood Council to discuss the rights and obligations of tenants and landlords.

Michael Danaher, assistant attorney general of New York State, dispensed a mixture of common sense advice and practical legal knowledge as he asked both land-

lords and tenants to be “reasonable people” when working together.

Quoting numerous statutes regarding renting, Danaher said that landlords are legally given “a reasonable amount of time” to make repairs to their properties. At the same time, other statutes, he said, give tenants the right to “reasonable wear and tear” on the property without incurring a cost.

Danaher also emphasized the importance of landlords obtaining See LANDLORDS page 4

DYLAN CLEMENS / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

It’s quiet around here | The lot of the former Green Café has remained empty since the business abruptly closed almost 18 months ago.

2 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Today

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Weird News

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

Today Technical and Engineering Career Fair 10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Barton Hall

Cussing Cockatoo Violates Noise Law

Climate Change and Its Impact On Global Food Production 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., 101 Phillips Hall Creating a Culture of Community Engagement at Cornell 5 - 6 p.m., Carol Tatkon Center Free Self-Defense Class 7:30 - 8:30 p.m., Garden Room, Willard Straight Hall

Tomorrow How Not to Build a National (or Global) Ballistic Missile Defense System 12:15 - 1:30 p.m., G08 Uris Hall 'Wartime’ as a Concept in History 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., 165 McGraw Hall

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island woman has been accused by her neighbors of violating an animal-noise ordinance by training her cockatoo to cuss.

The Providence Journal reports that Lynne Taylor is accused in Warwick municipal court of training the bird, Willy, to say expletives.

The bird allegedly aimed the invectives at the neighbors, who happen to be Taylor’s ex-husband and his girlfriend.

A municipal judge on Thursday denied Taylor’s request to dismiss the case.

The neighbors, Kathleen Melker and Craig Fontaine, say they have been subjected to repeated curses from the bird, at one point for 15 minutes at a time.

The animal noise ordinance imposes a small fine on any pet owner whose animal creates habitual noise.

A judge has issued restraining orders telling both women to have no contact.

Is Diplomacy Relevant and Other Thoughts?

4:45 - 5:45 p.m., 233 Plant Sciences Building

Kitten Goes for 100-Mile Ride on Woman’s Bumper

Cornell Responds: Ripple Effects 5 - 6 p.m., St. Luke's Fellowship Hall, 118 Oak Avenue The Promise of Social Entrepreneurship: Creating a Local Economy That Works for Everyone 7 - 8:30 p.m., Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — A woman says a 6-week-old kitten hitched a ride on the outside of her vehicle as she drove about 100 miles over upstate New York roads.

Stacey Pulsifer tells the Press-Republican of

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Plattsburgh that she recently drove from her home in Plattsburgh to Elizabethtown in the Adirondacks, then back to her apartment. Along the way she stopped for coffee and heard meowing coming from her Jeep.

She asked two friends to help her search the vehicle. They finally found the kitten wedged behind a bumper and had to cut it free.

Pulsifer has since adopted the hitchhiker and named it Pumpkin. She estimates the lucky black cat was lodged in the car for about 22 hours and traveled some 100 miles. She suffered a broken paw during the ride.

Man Arrested After Meth Offer Texted to Officer LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho man apparently trying to get the most bang for his drug-purchasing buck accidentally texted a narcotics detective while he searched for people to join him in a methamphetamine buy.

Police in Lewiston arrested 37-year-old Aaron D. Templeton Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine.

Court records say one of the police detectives received a text Wednesday morning asking if he knew anyone looking for drugs. After determining it wasn’t his co-workers playing a joke, the detective arranged to meet the man to deliver $150 that would be pooled with money from other buyers to enable a bulk purchase of meth.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 3

NEWS

Cornellians Commemorate Anniversary of 9/11Attacks

By ERICA BOORSTEIN

lecture, he “immediately took the diverse class to the campus store to sit together on the floor and watch along with hunCornell students and faculty joined dreds of Cornellians,” he said. millions of Americans on Tuesday to Other Cornellians chose to highlight reflect on the 11th anniversary of the how the tragedy brought Americans closSept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. er together.

Prof. Ross Brann, Near Eastern stud“9/11 is definitely a day when both ies, recalled the terrifying moment he Democrats and Republicans put their heard about the attacks. views aside and come together as “I was sitting in my Cornell office Americans to commemorate those who preparing risk their lives to for class defend our freewhen my “9/11 is definitely a day when both doms,” said Jessica son, a Democrats and Republicans put their Reif ’14, chair of freshman the Cornell at NYU, views aside and come together.”

Republicans. called me Jessica Reif ’14 Like Reif, Jessie and told Palmer ’13, presime to put dent of the CNN on my desktop screen. Students Cornell Democrats, said that Sept. 11 began filing into my office to watch reminds her how Americans united to those horrifying events unfold,” Brann support one another in the wake of the said. attacks.

Soon after, Brann had to leave his What is memorable about Sept.11 is office to teach a 10:10 a.m. class on how the nation came together in the Islamic Spain. Instead of beginning the aftermath of the attacks, Palmer said,

Sun Staff Writer

DYLAN CLEMENS / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

American pride | American flags cover the Arts Quad in honor of the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

adding that she feels that “that sense of community has been maintained” since 2001.

“While the event itself was incredibly tragic, a lot of community members have rallied around each other,” Palmer said.

“9/11 really illustrates the ability of Americans to come together to support one another.”

In addition to reminding Americans of the importance of unity, Cornellians said each anniversary of 9/11 provides an

opportunity to think about how to work toward a more peaceful, tolerant community. Brann said that, after the attacks, professors and students in the Department of Near Eastern Studies organized outreach efforts against racism on campus, in local schools and in synagogues, churches and mosques from Ithaca to Binghamton, N.Y. Erica Boorstein can be reached at eboorstein@cornellsun.com.

Prof Plans to Digitize University’s Collection of Obama Memorabilia

By JONATHAN SWARTZ Sun Staff Writer

In an effort to document what he described as a “transformative event,” Prof. Travis Gosa, Africana studies, is leading a project that will provide online access to the University’s collection of campaign memorabilia from President Barack Obama’s 2008 election.

The Cornell Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections began building the collection — which Gosa’s project will make available in a digital format — in 2008.

Gosa said his project will aid scholarship of Obama’s campaign and electoral victory –– an event that he said will likely be regarded as one of the most consequential moments in American history.

“Numerous articles and monographs on the significance of Obama’s 2008 victory have already been written in the U.S., Europe, Africa and Asia,” Gosa said. “Thus, the [digitization] of

the Obama 2008 election mate- explicit use of popular culture messaging outside of the control rials held in Cornell Library’s … and hip-hop music to brand of the Obama [campaign.]”

The materials also show that collections will aid both interdis- Obama as the young, hip-hop candidate vis-à-vis Republican “Obama’s victory was due in part ciplinary and global study.”

Gosa said his project will opponent John McCain,” he to his savvy use of YouTube, Facebook, blogs and text-mesallow researchers to observe the said.

Gosa explained that the digi- sages,” Gosa said. social and political changes that But aside from its scholarly have occurred in the time tized collection reveals the value, the digitization between the 2008 and project, Gosa said, 2012 presidential elec“The 2008 materials show the holds personal meantions. ing and relevance to “The 2008 election democratization of modern campaigns. him. was characterized by “As an African Obama-mania, a grass- Anyone with a computer could ...

American male, I’m roots social movement download images of Obama.” pleased to help archive meant to reunite a moment in American Americans. The cam- Prof. Travis Gosa, Africana studies history in which the paign materials show American Dream was strategies meant to unify a divided nation around impact of new technologies –– embodied in the image of the charismatic image of such as the extensive use of Obama,” he said.

Gosa received grant money Photoshop and inexpensive digiObama,” he said.

Gosa also said that the memo- tal printing –– on political elec- for his project as part of a joint initiative spearheaded by the rabilia can help scholars better tions.

“The 2008 materials show the University Library and the understand how Obama’s camdemocratization of modern cam- College of Arts and Sciences. paign drew in younger voters.

“The memorabilia speaks to paigns,” he said. “Anyone with a Thus far, the library and arts colthe successful attempt to politi- computer could ... download lege have awarded 11 grants to cize youth voters. Youth voter ... images of Obama, attach their faculty members to digitize turnout in 2008 was the highest own words and graphics and cre- memorabilia and archive collecsince 1972 — especially the ated mashups of new political tions owned by the University.

“The grants program enables faculty to select scholarly materials based on their academic interests and specialties and make them available online for broad use in their teaching or research activities,” said Oya Rieger, associate University librarian for digital scholarship and preservation services. “Also, having content in digital form allows different methods of research and explorations.”

Along with Prof. Sturt Manning, classics, Rieger is the chair of the Arts and Sciences Visual Resources Advisory Group –– which, since 2010, has overseen the digitization program and determined faculty demand for the service.

According to the group’s website, “the program aims to support collaborative and creative use of resources through the creation of digital content of enduring value to the Cornell community and scholarship at large.”

Jonathan Swartz can be reached at jswartz@cornellsun.com.

A dollar for your thoughts

Unlawful Marijuana Possession

Kenneth W. Benton was arrested for unlawful possession of marijuana on Monday afternoon at the Hoy Parking Garage, according to the Cornell Police Department.

Open Container Violation

Jake H. Gillman was arrested on Friday for unlawful possession of alcohol, an open container violation and littering on West Avenue, according to the Cornell Police Department.

Noise Complaint

Cornell University Police assisted the Ithaca Police Department with a reported noise complaint on Thursday night on Hudson

Street, according to CUPD. Reported Theft

Two individuals have been referred to the Judicial Administrator for criminal possession of stolen property during the early hours on Friday near the exterior of the Statler Hotel, according to the Cornell Police Department.

Pardon the Interruption

An individual interrupted a class in Bradfield Hall on Thursday evening, a staff member reported to a Cornell Police officer. The individual was given a persona-non-grata, according to CUPD. — Compiled by Utsav Rai

FIONA MODRAK / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

William Mau ’14 gives Kriti Agarwal ’15 a completed survey for behavioral economics research, which he completed in exchange for one dollar at Mann Library on Tuesday.

4 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

NEWS

Officials Propose Fixes for Big C-Town Tenant-Landlord Disputes LANDLORDS

Continued from page 1

written agreements from tenants.

“The best thing I can give you, advice-wise, in terms of tenants and landlords, is get everything in writing,” he said.

In the state of New York, Danaher said, one does not legally need to have a written lease for agreements less than a year in duration, but “[both landlords and students would be] crazy not to,” he said.

Many of the tenant-landlord disagreements he has seen over the years, he said, are because “people can’t communicate anymore” and he said are not clear on the terms of property rental, which they would be if they had agreed upon them in writing.

Danaher said that tenants should not be afraid to change the terms of the lease. “All terms are negotiable … Just cross out a section and change it if it’s different for your particular circumstance,” he said.

Community members were also able to ask Danaher about issues that are pertinent to Collegetown residents.

John Gutenberger, senior director in the University’s Office of Community Relations, said his office had received two calls from students about when a lease becomes legally binding.

The problem, he said, was that some students who are looking to rent houses and apartments in Collegetown believed that, by signing a lease, they had signed a formal contract with a landlord. They were then surprised to have the landlord give the apartment to another group.

In response, Danaher said that the moment both parties — the landlord and the tenant — sign the contract, it is legally binding, regardless of the exchange of money.

w w w .c o r n e

l l s u n .c o m

Danaher also emphasized that the security deposit is always the tenant’s money, even when being held by the landlord. Throughout his talk, Danaher had the audience answer his call of “Whose money is the security deposit?” with “It’s the tenant’s!”

However, he reminded the students in the audience that tenants can still be sued if they do damage to the house property greater than their security deposit.

Danaher said that, for example, students who throw a party at the end of the school year and damage their house because they believe they “weren’t going to get that security deposit back anyway” could still be responsible for damages that the deposit did not cover.

This example brought knowing nods from audience members.

Another issue raised at the meeting was that of students being pressured to renew their leases earlier and earlier into their rental periods — in some cases, just a few weeks after they have moved in, according to Alderperson Ellen McCollister ’78 (D-3rd Ward).

Although Danaher said that the situation stems from “the law of supply and demand” and remained skeptical that a solution exists, McCollister raised the possibility of introducing city legislation to address the issue.

Graham Kerslick (D-4th Ward), the Common Council’s liaison to Ithaca’s Rental Housing Advisory Committee, echoed McCollister’s sentiments. He said that such a law could serve as a way to reduce the stress that students feel to sign leases increasingly earlier in the fall semester.

“There are measures we can take to reduce the pressure,” he said.

Wesley Rogers can be reached at wrogers@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 5

NEWS

Univ. Hopes to Create Plan That Adapts to ‘Changing Game’ of Technology TECH

Continued from page 1

today, have an opportunity for your voices to be heard,” Dodds said. “I don’t think that an IT strategic plan can happen without having all of the voices of the community heard.”

Dodds said the University, as a whole, needs to start thinking about its future in the technological arena.

“I am one of those people that rolls their eyes when I hear ‘strategic plan,’” he said. “But I actually think that we are well-positioned today to really start thinking ... a few years down the road where we want to be with IT, how we want it to be different and how we should interweave our aspirational goals for IT into Cornell’s strategic plan that the University published back in 2010.”

Prof. John Henderson ’67, anthropology, said he was initially skeptical about the idea of holding a conference to help develop the IT strategic plan.

“My expectations coming in [to the conference] were essentially that this would be a bureaucratic exercise to validate something that was already decided. The first presentation makes me think that that will be less … true than I thought,” Henderson said.

Henderson said one of the main challenges in developing the strategic plan is to adequately address the concerns of a community with a wide variety of IT needs.

“The problem is … figuring out how to keep several hundred faculty members doing different things happy,” he said.

University Ombudsman Charles Walcott ’59 said the University needs to focus on creating an organized system for all of its technology.

“IT affects everybody at the University one way or another, from the libraries to the classrooms, the administration … I think the great issue that the University is struggling with is how to organize this,” Walcott said.

Walcott also highlighted the importance of integrating technology with education.

“We need to find ways of involving technology in

“We need to find ways of involving technology in instruction and making things more efficient.”

Charles Walcott ’59 instruction and make things more efficient,” he said. “[Technology] is all a changing game.”

Shami Chatterjee Ph.D. ’03, a research associate in the Department of Astronomy, said that the conference presented an opportunity for Cornellians to gather to discuss the future of IT at the University.

“It’s overdue, because our data needs and resource needs have been exploding,” Chatterjee said. “It is past time for a centralized conversation about what is going to happen.”

During the conference, Dodds proposed connecting Cornell’s satellite campuses –– such as the New York

City Officials Decry Vacancy In Former Green Café Location After It Sits Empty for 18 Months GREEN CAFÉ

Continued from page 1

years.”

But David Huckle ’79, commercial leasing and marketing manager of the Ithaca Renting Company, said that although the space may have appeared to be vacant before it was renovated to become the Green Café, it actually had a tenant.

“We had a lease in place with a local bank, which had an ATM at the property and used it for storage and meetings,” Huckle said.

Huckle said the 4,700-square foot commercial space has not been rented since Green Café — which closed in February 2010 after its owner filed for bankruptcy — left because it is a “specialized” building. Green Cafe was also fined $1 million for labor violations later that year.

“We have been actively looking at any and all opportunities to get the right operators for that property,” Huckle said.

Such an operator would have “experience in their particular field, whether it be hospitality or retail; a proven track record; and the financial wherewithal to take on a property of that size and setup,” he added.

Observers, however, speculate that the rent for the space is simply too high.

Huckle denied that expensive rent is a factor in the space’s continued vacancy.

“Quite frankly, if you were to look at the rents in Collegetown, without getting specific, I can tell you that we’re in line with what other larger stores are paying,” he said.

The fact that the property, 330 College Ave., is only a onestory commercial space is also

unusual, city officials said.

“It’s a real economic anomaly to have a one-story building at that corner,” McCollister said.

“The land value is just too high.”

Kerslick agreed, saying it does not make sense to limit the commercial space to one story, given the high property values in Collegetown.

Still, Huckle said the Ithaca Renting Company is not focused on expanding the building past a single story.

“Our primary focus has to be on renting the existing 4,700 square feet store,” he said. “A week doesn’t go by where we’re not speaking with various prospects that are looking at that property.”

However, Kerslick said that the vacant property is a waste of space. In addition to not bolstering the city’s sales tax revenue and employment, the empty space “gives the impression that it’s not a thriving community,” he said.

Kerslick compared Cayuga Street to the thriving Aurora Street in the Commons, saying it should be a commercial model for the rest of the city.

“Aurora Street, on the other hand, is a big success story; it is a vibrant setting,” Kerslick said.

But Huckle, rather than focusing on the vacancy of 330 College Ave., emphasized the successes of the Ithaca Renting Company, including the fact that it has rented four other spaces nearby within the past five months.

“The only property that we have that is vacant in Collegetown is 330 College Ave.,” he said.

Sarah Sassoon can be reached at ssassoon@cornellsun.com.

City tech campus –– with the Ithaca campus via technology.

“We have this huge opportunity in New York City with the tech campus to actually invent new things, new ways of doing IT … that could then somewhat be retrofitted back into the home campus,” he said.

Dodds also said that, in the future, Cornell will have a chance to “completely rethink the way we do IT support” by having its Ithaca campus, NYC schools and several academic units in the five boroughs of the city collaborate with each other.

Dodds also highlighted some problems facing the University’s IT services in classrooms.

“We know from our faculty survey that the basic classroom technology infrastructure we have today is not meeting our needs. It is inconsistent and varies from room to room. It is difficult to us … if it breaks, we are not sure who fixes it,” he said. “So there is a huge need … for us to make some investments in classroom technology.”

Dodds also said that students and professors have encountered difficulties using Blackboard, the University’s online education software.

“We know that the current version of … Blackboard is hard for people to use,” he said. “In fact, feasibility of Cornell systems is one of the key goals we have to work at. It is too hard for people to use some of our systems relative to what their expectations are and should be.”

Jonathan Swartz can be reached at jswartz@cornellsun.com.

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OPINION

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Independent Since 1880 130TH EDITORIAL BOARD JUAN FORRER ’13 Editor in Chief

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Business Manager

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Anyone for Tennis?

OR the Greatest Mayor Of All Time, Ever J

acob Kose found Josh Haimi ’13, Marshall Huang ’13 and Marjan Zaman ’13 watching the U.S. Open Men’s Final on Monday evening and wondering aloud at the question everyone’s been asking since September 12, 1983: If you were to do anything for 108 hours and nine minutes straight, what would you do? We put on our bathing caps and goggles and came up with what can best be described as the truth.

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Disclaimer: As always, Scrambled Eggs strives to adequately approximate what was said and who said

open sea with his hands and feet tied together.

M.Z.: That’s so much floating, dude. Also, kind of like torture. You’d have to find a sick T.V. show and watch every episode straight through to stay up that long, like The West Wing.

J.H.: How many hours are in the U.S Open? 128 guys in the field, so 64+32+16+8+4+2+1 is 127 matches, so like 254 hours. I love tennis, Murray’s the man for winning the Olympics and the Open, but that’s just too long.

J.K.: What if we made a highlight

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Editorial

Staying Focused On Addressing Bias

ON SEPT. 8, A GROUP OF STUDENT LEADERS participated in their first monthly roundtable in an effort to address the bias incidents that we have seen on campus the past six months. The start of this ongoing dialogue shows a promising step toward strengthening communication between various groups on campus.

After an incident last spring at the Sigma Pi fraternity in which bottles were thrown at black students, along with degrading vitriol, the administration responded swiftly and admirably by holding a series of events on campus. While we recognize the efforts that the University took to address racial issues on campus in light of the attack, the University cannot solve these issues on its own and needs students to continue their efforts as well.

We recognize that students have taken action. In response to the attack at Sigma Pi, a student led march demonstrated a commendable effort to raise questions of injustice on campus. The march ended with a series of 11 demands presented to Dean of Students Kent Hubbell ’69 and the hanging of a banner with the demands in front of Day Hall. One of these demands requested that the word “diversity” be changed in the University’s lexicon to “anti-oppression,” and another asked that the University create a social justice course requirement.

We doubt that the University’s response would have been nearly as forceful were it not for the way in which students took action in the aftermath of the incident.

The University took tangible and important steps by placing Sigma Pi on probation and adding a position for diversity within the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs.

While more than dialogue is needed to address such a persistent issue, these monthly roundtables will serve an important role by keeping this issue relevant, even when not in direct response to incidents. It is not enough simply to respond to these events after they happen. But students and administrators must actively work together to prevent them from happening in the first place. It is our hope that these dialogues, and not hateful incidents, can remind us of just how much we have left to accomplish in addressing this issue.

what, but may at times mess all of that up.

MARSHALL HUANG: It’s ridiculous they give the runner up that platter.

It’s like, “Here’s something to smack yourself in the face with for coming in second.” That’s just rough.

JOSH HAIMI: Yeah he got served, but Murray’s the man. But wait Kose, this dude did what?

JACOB KOSE: So in 1983 Albert Rizzo was the mayor of Gzira, this town in Malta, but I guess his city council gave him a week off to tread water for 108 hours, nine minutes.

Then in 1984 he broke his own record and tread for 132 hours.

MARJAN Z AMAN: That’s just so much water, dude.

M.H.: That’s also five and a half days. He must’ve been really buoyant, like a-tiny-whale-buoyant, and had boats come up next to him and feed him like 4-5,000 calories a day.

Definitely a tiny whale.

J.K.: He wasn’t so huge. You mean like personal chefs handing him floating plates? You think you could tread water while slicing a floating steak?

That’s some serious foot-steak coordination.

M.Z.: I’ll bet they fed it to him.

Like over the side of the boat.

J.K.: Like throwing fish into a dolphin’s mouth or like mama-bird / baby-bird style?

M.Z.: That’s gross. I’m trying to figure out if they let him take breaks.

Cause if he was really buoyant someone could have said “Al, you still treading?” And he could’ve said yes but actually just been floating and no one would have known, like conspiracy floating.

J.H.: Even so, 132 hours? That’s legit. Could you do anything for 132 hours straight?

M.H.: Rage.

J.K.: I don’t even think we could rage for a day and a half. And the same year this dude tread all that water he floated for 36 hours in the

reel of the best 132 hours of tennis and I told you that the final was amazing, could you stay up for that?

OR, which would you rather do, 132 hours of the best U.S. Open tennis at the actual U.S. Open with a friend, and you can only eat the awesome but expensive food they have and you can’t leave, or at home on a couch, doing whatever you want and inviting over whoever ... kind of like tennisraging, so very civilized, cleanly dressed raging.

M.H.: You gotta stay home. That’s an epic never-ending tennis party that no one’s missing out on — No prelim studying, no party pregaming. Epic.

Never-ending. Tennis partying. But more importantly, that match was five hours long and I’m starving. I’ll pick up our food from Pita Pit if you split my order, $1.25 each.

J.H.: I’d definitely go. To the Open, not Pita Pit. If someone told me this would be at the end of 132 hours of tennis I’d totally go.

M.Z. (after spacing out for a solid five minutes): So I’m telling myself to watch this match all day when I get out of class and I fall asleep until five.

I run to Oakenshields just to throw back some grub and I’m like, “Happy Dave, there’s no U.S. Open on T.V., can we change that?” so he says, “I do have the power to change that,” and all of the sudden it’s the end of this epic, hour and a half first set, tiebreak goes 22 points, then Murray’s up two sets, we go from Josh’s place to Marshall’s room, Djokovic ties it twoall and somehow Murray pulls it out.

Novak just choked at the beginning of the fifth set. Yeah, I’d totally go to the U.S. Open for 132 hours.

J.K.: Alright sweet, Marshall’s going to Pita Pit, then we’ll go to the U.S. Open for 132 hours.

M.H.: Word.

Jacob Kose is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He may be reached at jkose@cornellsun.com. Scrambled Eggs appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 7

OPINION

He’s a Maniac on the Dance Floor A

fter every 50-minute Modern Dance session I leave achy and sore. The class really comes back to haunt me every time I walk up from my Stewart Avenue apartment to campus and my legs quiver. After the first few classes my muscles felt like Neo after he comes out of the Matrix into the “real world” and asks Morpheus why his eyes hurt.

Morpheus somberly replies, “you’ve never used them before.” Twice a week I subject myself to what during the fact seems like a form of physical torture. Flexing

akin to banging out a 20-page paper I was entirely unprepared to write.

When I tell people that I am taking dance this semester they usually give me an incredulous smirk or ask me if I am being serious. This should not surprise me, since out of a class of 25 I am only one of four guys and everybody in the class is as surprised as my incredulous friends that we are there. I did not, as some have suggested, take this class to meet cute girls (besides the fact that I have a girlfriend, any interest a girl may have in me would be immediately erased once they saw me flailing around the studio with all the grace of a wounded gorilla). Nor am I taking dance in Smell the Rosen order to prepare for an Oscar turn in which I whimper a lot and make out with Mila Kunis.

Then why am I taking this class that is both physically grueling and apparently abnormal for men? I know full well that I am not going to be “good” at dancing by any measure, but I have no interest in that anyway. I am taking this class purely as a form of selfbetterment and exploration. It is incredibly freeing to take a class whose goals are entirely self-directed and the outcome is utterly irrelevant. If college is a time for exploration and experimentation, then I am taking dance for the same reason I took Intro to Acting my

Dan Rosen

and pointing toes, holding legs raised, twisting my hips, all the while keeping my chin up and back straight. The class is just a constant reminder of how inflexible I am and how weak and unused many of my muscles are. At points when we are instructed to move a certain limb whilst maintaining another position I can barely do, I feel like I am playing a game of Twister with a sadist holding the spinner. Despite all this however, it is in fact one of the most rewarding classes I have taken at Cornell. I leave each session feeling rejuvenated and a sense of accomplishment

sophomore year or Modern Literature my junior year; to go out of my comfort zone, to challenge myself in ways that I will likely not be able to once I graduate, to enter a completely foreign environment and not feel embarrassed or judged. If, as our conveniently non-latin motto states, Cornell is the institution where “any person can find instruction in any study,” then any person should also be able and encouraged to try everything there is to study.

Obviously Dance specifically is not for everyone and I am sure many in the class would argue that it is definitely not for me. However it is important that while at Cornell you take a class like it, something that isn’t in your major, that might not be a requirement, that many people might say is useless and a waste of time. Everybody has had that moment during the scramble to find classes for the next semester, when they stumble upon a class that is completely outside of their interests and have a sudden urge and attraction to it. Obviously there are many time constraints and work loads to consider, but it is important to treat yourself. Learn for the sake of learning. We will all have plenty of time to focus on our soul-sucking career paths once we graduate, so use this opportunity you have essentially already paid for to maybe do a little soul-searching. Don’t limit yourself to what you want future employers to see on your transcript; regardless, you can always take the class pass/fail.

Dan Rosen is a senior in the College of Art, Architecture, and Planning. He may be reached at drosen@cornellsun.com. Smell the Rosen appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

Any Person... Any Study... Anywhere?

Make Study Abroad UniversallyAccessible F

or the past week, I’ve been navigating the complex world of signatures, essays and nail-biting that accompanies the weeks before Cornell Abroad’s September 15 deadline for application forms.

Counselors, deans and other University administrators have been instrumental in explaining the complicated process to me. Their strong capabilities make possible President Skorton’s goal, enumerated last year, to have 50 percent of Cornell students engage in an international experience prior to graduation.

The problem is that President Skorton’s goal has yet to be clearly fleshed out in full view of students. Other than Provost Kent Fuchs and Provost for Medical Affairs Laurie Glimcher’s new University-wide committee charged with articulating Cornell’s international future, I was hard pressed to find a clear reaction within the Cornell administration.

I agree with President Skorton that increasing the percentage of students who have international experience is not only going to prove beneficial to the University’s future viability, but will greatly enhance individual students’ academic experiences. Every discipline — pre-professional or liberal arts-focused — is enhanced with a comparative paradigm. This cannot be achieved without real, tangible international experience. This might come in the form of a semester, a summer or a winter break spent abroad.

Studying abroad in the languages is obviously beneficial, in the sciences can create new partnerships and coordination, in the humanities can explore comparative approaches and in the social sciences can inform our future policies. The importance of a comparative approach to our studies cannot be overstated.

In fact, I think the strongest reason that there is not a 100 percent requirement of international experience for all Cornellians is the cost. This type of experience, so valued by President Skorton and the rest of the administration, is really only not required for everyone because not everyone can afford it. Obviously, some exceptions exist; for example, students who need to be under the tutelage of Ithaca campus faculty to complete rigid programs of study in eight semesters. But for many students, if made a mandatory part of the academic experience studying abroad would be possible.

Outside of the academic exceptions, this issue of cost is indeed pressing and deserves financial resources more than any other issue aside from financial aid. Despite the respectable University policy that applies Cornellians’ financial aid to time abroad, experience in summer and winter breaks, airfare, Cornell’s $3,200 surcharge and other fees can render international experience difficult or impossible for many students. Time abroad is denied to many students, even as policies enabling an ever wider portion of students to afford Cornell at all have improved over the last 20 years. It is, therefore, one of the major frontiers of inequality among student experiences at this institution. University development officials should seek donations to initiatives supporting international experience and existing resources should be diverted to it.

The administration and Cornell Abroad should seek out student involvement in new policies. Forums and inclusion of students on University-wide committees are good ways to come up with standardized policies. To achieve President Skorton’s goal, not only will the University have to make international experiences accessible financially, but it will also have to incentivize study and experience abroad. Student input will be extremely important to the latter, since we students know best what will create an academic experience where time abroad seems both important and reasonable.

A major area where Cornell could improve its abroad policies is in the College of Arts and Sciences. Arts and Sciences is home to the largest population of students and a language requirement, two characteristics that could help the University boost its percentage of students with time abroad. But it is also the place at Cornell where, even if financial resources were more available for students seeking international experience, students are less incentivized to be abroad.

College is a time of exploration. It imbues us not only

with knowledge and reasoning skills, but also time management and planning skills that apply to life inside and outside of the academic realm. The administration’s requirement that Arts and Sciences students study the language of the country they will study in prior to departure requires a degree of preparation that is neither realistic nor productive.

Moreover, students are almost certainly less likely to study abroad once their choices are limited to Englishspeaking countries only. Preference for a foreign country

Maggie Henry Get Over Yourself might not be rooted in a student’s study of the home language; it could be the culture, the people or the foreign institution a student desires to attend. A student will only learn a language if she or he really wants to learn that language. Allowing Arts and Sciences students to attend English-language programs, as long as they take a language course once in-country, will give the most choice.

The more choices students have, the more likely it is that they will become excited by the prospect of international experience.

Indeed, any specific measures geared at increasing international experiences at Cornell would help, inside or outside of Arts and Sciences. I would therefore encourage President Skorton in pursuing the goal he laid out last spring and the University in its initial, tepid efforts at supporting him thereof.

Maggie Henry is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at mhenry@cornellsun.com. Get Over Yourself appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

8 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

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SCIENCE

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 9

Ornithology

Molecular Biology

Birdcast: Migration With a Chance of Feathers

C.U. ornithologists try to forecast how birds move across the sky

By BOB HACKETT Sun Senior Writer

In ancient Rome, high priests divined events by the flights, types and songs of birds. Augurs, as the Roman officials were called, advised emperors. They planned cities. They sanctioned war.

Birdcast, a technological application in its first year of development at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is inaugurating a scientific version of that dated art. The project aims to provide real-time forecasts of bird migration, much like a weather forecast substituting ‘migrations’ for ‘storms’ and ‘birds’ for ‘rain.’

Andrew Farnsworth, research associate in Information Science for Migration Studies and Acoustic Monitoring at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, announced the Birdcast project to an audience at a pressonly event held at the ILR Conference Center in midtown Manhattan last Thursday.

Birdcast developers ultimately plan to have the project predict the complex, dynamic phenomena of bird migrations using an integrated suite of radar, acoustic and ground observation data, he said. The project is a collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation and the Leon Levy Foundation, with partners at Microsoft, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Migratory Miracles In mid-August, tens of thousands of Blackpoll Warblers, each weighing about as much as a pencil, embark on a journey, Farnsworth said as he described his favorite feat of bird migration. Many eat their body weight, literally doubling their mass, in preparation. The warblers descend from the northern latitudes of North America on a multi-thousand kilometer trip in which they soar above the Atlantic Ocean for several days, he said. Spending dozens of hours aloft, not stopping or feeding en route, the birds eventually touch down in northern South America. Exodus completed.

In advance of predictive computer models, Farnsworth and his colleagues calculate and forecast odysseys like those of the Blackpoll Warbler weekly on a website they just launched: www.Birdcast.info.

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH / COURTESY ISIDOR JERKLIN

WARBLER / COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

Flock together | Radar imaging from 140 radar stations shows bird migration across the United States over the course of one day. The light blue represents large, loosely packed groups of birds. Green pixels represent 1,500 to 2,000 birds per cubic kilometer

Mapping Birds With The Doppler Effect According to Farnsworth, Birdcast developers are taking advantage of the network of about 140 radar stations spanning the continental U.S. that monitors atmospheric phenomena such as weather.

“As it turns out, radar is also extremely good at detecting other things in the atmosphere — notably, birds,” he said.

By subtracting aerial occurrences like rain, insects and bats from radar imagery, the researchers can obtain patterns of bird migration containing information on density, direction and velocity. Birds tend to be incredibly directed, powerful flyers at night when they migrate — usually moving across, and about five to six meters per second above, wind speed. The researchers can distinguish the birds by comparing their speeds with wind speeds that are recorded by balloons. Insects, which mostly float on the wind, and bats, which tend to be less directed fliers, are separable components, too.

Though Farnsworth and his colleagues currently perform such analyses manually, they plan to replace their current methods with simple algorithms. The only problem,

WHITE-THROATED SPARROW / COURTESY OF GERRIT VYN

SCARLET TANAGER / COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

“Right now, we’re talking in human terms but in a couple of years, probably beginning next year or the year after, we’re going to start automating the process so that we can use models to tell us what’s going to happen,” Farnsworth said.

Once developed, Farnsworth and his team will assess the computer models against their own forecasts.

“We’re probably going to have some opportunities where I go against the machine and say, ‘Alright, I think the model is wrong in these places. Here’s what I think is going to happen,’” he said.

PALM WARBLER / COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

SWAINSON’S THRUSH / COURTESY ANDREW FARNSWORTH

though, is that the radar’s pixel-data provides no information about the species that are flying. But Birdcast plans to solve this issue: using acoustics data.

Eavesdropping on Flight Calls Flight calls are species specific, commonly faint, high-pitched, single note vocalizations that tend to last less than a quarter of a second long, Farnsworth said.

“Most birds use them in social migratory contexts when they are migrating at night to stay in touch with one another,” he said.

“In a sense they are trying to say, ‘Where are you?’ ‘What direction are you going?’, ‘Are you going down to land?’”

Benjamin Van Doren ’16 works with Farnsworth on the Birdcast project. One of Van Doren’s tasks is to run “primitive” detectors on hundreds of hours of raw audio recordings, that use software to pick out possible calls; he then filters through the calls and assigns tentative identifications that are, in turn, confirmed or revised by team members such as Farnsworth, he said.

“Once you have those exemplars, you can use them to train more automated systems so someone doesn’t have to go through and spend dozens of hours going through and identifying the calls by hand,” Van Doren said. But one doesn’t have to be an official Birdcast team member to get involved with the project, there are opportunities for regular bird enthusiasts, too.

See BIRD CAST page 10

CASPIAN TERN / COURTESY OF GERRIT VYN

Birds in a bush | Birdcast uses radars to forecast the migration of many different types of bird and uses acoustics data to differentiate the different species from each other.

10 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

SCIENCE

Birdcast Predicts Bird Migration Patterns Like Weather Forecasts

COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

BIRDCAST

Continued from page 9

Citizen Science “For a project like this we’re really interested in the amateur recordists that get inspired to build a microphone, put it on top of their house and send us the information it collects,” Farnsworth said, citing the website www.oldbird.org, which teaches users how to build a microphone for $20 to $50.

“Some of it is very much a ‘DIY’ approach,” he said.

Another project called eBird, contains a database of over 100 million observations from birders over the past 10 years. It provides a platform on which to gather data from a distance, Farnsworth said.

Birdcast researchers can use eBird data, uploaded by citizen scientists to the eBird database, to verify the accuracy of future computer-generated forecasts.

Biomarkers With Wings

sisting of many, many other Predicting when and where species. heavy bird migrations occur will “Birds, because they are so vishelp people know the best times ible, are great bioindicators: if a to shut off or dim city lights so as bird species is in decline, it may not to interfere with a migration, mean something is wrong with Farnsworth said. And it may also the ecosystem or ecosystems in yield insights about what habitats which it lives, but that may be difficult to detect otherwise.”

“Birds are great bioindicators: if a Fa r n s w o r t h noted that bird bird species is in decline, it may migration is, at a mean something is wrong with the basic level, a ecosystem in which it lives.” response to climate change, Benjamin Van Doren adding that this year saw patterns where birds were are most important to preserve. arriving two to three weeks ahead In addition to bird conserva- of their typical times. tion efforts, forecasts may provide “Birds are able to predict valuable information about our what’s coming in the future in a global, connected ecosystem, he way that we can’t yet because said. Van Doren wrote in an we’re not tuned into whatever email, “not only can studying they’re sensing,” Farnsworth said. migratory birds help shed light “It certainly seems like they on the birds themselves, but the can do it both at the very minute health of entire ecosystems con- level scale of, say, freaking out

before an earthquake, and also months in advance, anticipating when a drought might occur.”

Farnsworth mentioned that Dickcissel, a blackbird relative, may have predicted something that most market analysts got wrong about this past summer.

“Corn futures suggested that this year was going to be a huge corn production year,” Farnsworth said. “But it turned out it was a complete disaster because there was a dramatic drought.”

Dickcissel, he explained, tend to disperse and move around a lot in years when there will be drought.

“It looked like these birds were doing that long before the drought actually occurred," he said. Perhaps Augurs were on to something.

DICKCISSEL / COURTESY OF ANDREW FARNSWORTH

AMERICAN BITTERN / ANDREW FARNSWORTH

UPLAND SANDPIPER / ANDREW FARNSWORTH

Bob Hackett can be reached at bhackett@cornellsun.com.

Of a feather | Birdcast predicts real-time bird movement patterns.

Prof. Lucks Researches RNA To Build Biological Circuitry

By SARAH COHEN Sun Staff Writer

Can you think of biology as a computer? If so, how would you program it?

That’s a question that Prof. Julius Lucks, chemical and bio-molecular engineering, tries to answer as he researches how to build biological circuitry.

Lucks was a chemistry major as an undergraduate, and did his graduate and postdoctoral work in physical chemistry and theoretical chemistry as it applies to biological problems. His educational pursuits led him to ask questions about how biological systems might be engineered.

Currently Lucks is studying how to cre-

COURTESY OF PROF. JULIUS LUCKS

Molecular mechanic | Prof. Julius Lucks engineers micro circuits using RNA.

ate gene expression networks through RNA. His research strives to determine if one can build RNA circuits.

“Biology is a wildly complex system,” Lucks said. “Our research is to try to figure out how to distill that complexity and come up with a set of fundamental building blocks.”

He compared creating RNA circuits to building a computer. In order to build a computer, one needs resistors transistors and capacitors, and by putting those pieces together in a certain configuration, one can make an electrical circuit that can process logic or do computations.

“We are trying to do the same for biology,” Lucks said. “You might want to design a cell that produces a chemical, but only under certain conditions. The cell needs to sense its environment, process information and enact that program.” He said that by using computer programming, his research can figure out the basic building blocks for constructing biological circuits.

Lucks is trying to use RNA to build these gene expression networks — essentially creating a computer program where the cell functions as the computer and the RNA functions as the code.

“In the past several years, our understanding of RNA has gone from it being the middle molecule — that wavy line in your Bio 101 textbooks — to it doing everything.”

His lab designs RNA molecules that control multiple genes in a cell by using proteins. Lucks said that RNA cell circuitry may be better to use though because it is simpler — four nucleotides as opposed to 20 amino acids — and can be converted into DNA and sequenced.

Sequencing allows researchers to learn

COURTESY OF PROF. JULIUS LUCKS

Cell circuits | Prof. Julius Lucks explains the biosynthetic applications of RNA research. information about RNA that is difficult to obtain when using proteins. By using this diagnostic tool, scientists can figure out if the engineered circuitry is functioning.

Lucks creates a relationship between the sequences, structures and functions of RNA for applications in biotechnology, medicine and the environment. He also said that his tools are directly applicable to biosynthetic and metabolic engineering, as well as in solving biomedical problems through RNA engineering.

As a chemical engineering professor, Lucks teaches the Junior-level course CHEME 3242, Heat and Mass Transfer, which focuses on the fundamentals of thermal energy exchange and touches on

the molecular side of how chemical reactions progress and give off heat. His course examines the designs that chemical engineers create from heat exchangers for chemical plants to the Cornell air-conditioning system.

Lucks said that although Heat and Mass Transfer is a challenging subject, his favorite part is seeing students smile after figuring out difficult problems.

“It’s nice to see the ‘aha!’ moments,” he said. “All the hard work I’ve taken to deconstruct this complexity into something digestible has paid off.”

Sarah Cohen can be reached at scohen@cornell.edu.

A&E

Wednesday, September 12, 2012 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 11

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Electric Zoo 2012: Neon Seas

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ROLLING STONE

BY SARAH ANGELL Sun Staff Writer

For the past three years, I have regarded Electric Zoo with equal parts curiosity and weary trepidation. After spending full summers at music festivals and concerts, the mere thought of pushing my body and mind through three days of non-stop E.D.M. mayhem always seems hopelessly irresponsible. And every year, as Labor Day weekend passes, F.O.M.O. hits me with a nasty vengeance. From the flood of poor quality videos, neverending status updates and oh so adorable “my first rave” albums that follow, it seems as if the entirety of Facebook is in on the fun. After what has felt like an entire college career spent watching from the sidelines, the agony finally became too much to bear. This year — senior year — I too unleashed the raver within.

For those of you who have been living under a proverbial rock as of late, electronic dance music (E.D.M.) is experiencing a surge in popularity of shocking proportions.

A far cry from its humble roots in basement parties and the underground rave scene, today E.D.M.’s all-pervasive influence is evident on our radios, our TV screens and just about everywhere in between. Music festivals like New York City’s Electric Zoo provide one of the most visible examples of E.D.M.’s modern renaissance — the days of intimate and secret raves have been replaced by massive 100,000 person events headlined by the very best the E.D.M. world has to offer. For its fourth annual affair, Electric Zoo pulled out all of the stops, filling its bill with the crème de la crème of techno, dubstep, trance and house. Although hugely successful industry stalwarts such as Tiesto, Guetta, and Above & Beyond may have drawn the biggest crowds of the weekend, the festival’s diverse and ambitious lineup ensured that great performances could be found at every hour of the day. From when gates opened at 11 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 31, until they closed at 11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 2, Randall’s Island was transformed into a mass of undulating, neon bodies. Responsibility be damned, I was happy to be one of them.

With over 100 D.J.s performing on four stages over the weekend, it’s essential to remember that pacing oneself is key. Go too hard the first day and come Sunday you’ll look like an extra from The Walking Dead, and nobody wants that. Entering the festival grounds on Friday with a moderate sense of restraint, I arrived on the later side of things but was able to catch the tail end of Mat Zo’s performance at the Hilltop Arena stage. Known for his genre-blurring productions, the 21-year-old wunderkind unleashed a euphoric “One More Time” remix on his more than eager

audience, the first of many Daft Punk covers to be heard over the weekend. A quick stop at the Sunday School Grove tent for Swiss-Chilean D.J. Luciano provided a brief but sweet taste of Ibiza. Known to elevate his concert experiences from the hedonistic to the truly beautiful, Luciano expertly blended techno, house and Latin influences with the sexy extravagance all his own. Capping things off at the main stage for the night, Pretty Lights bathed Randall’s Island in the feel-good glow one has come to expect from the Colorado titan. From “Hot like Sauce” to “I Know the Truth,” the hits were all there, providing the perfect close to a stellar first day.

With the sun blazing high in the sky, Saturday would show no mercy to the mobs of festival-goers ready to dance for hours on end. With Saturday-only tickets causing attendance numbers to swell, the Electric Zoo grounds seemed packed to the brim — a veritable sea of rhinestones, dayglow and every costume imaginable. Starting things off with recent Dim Mak Records signee Angger Dimas at the Hillside Tent, I was impressed by the Indonesian D.J.’s aggressive energy — the man was clearly enjoying himself. Known to be a prolific remixer, Dimas tackled tracks such as “N***** in Paris,” “Crush on You” and “Pon De Floor” during his hour long set.

Over at the main stage, two prominent Electro House duos proved that Europeans really do it better. Hailing from Holland and Sweden, respectively, Bingo Players and Dada Life put on two of my favorite sets that weekend, with the latter solidifying its reputation as one of the wildest live shows around. After experiencing what the term “bananachampagned” means in all its glory during Dada Life, the Sunday School Grove tent and its more minimalist approach provided a welcome respite. German D.J. and producer Chris Liebing took things to another level, utterly expanding my conceptions about techno and turning me into a believer. Unleashing a stunning set ambitious in scope and sound, Liebing invigorated soaring dance tracks with a dark, industrial energy. To close things

out for the night, trance icons Above & Beyond gave an emotionally charged performance on the main stage, their second of the weekend.

Like any final day of a festival, Sunday proved to be an uphill challenge — a constant battle waged between exhaustion and my determination to enjoy arguably the strongest lineup of the weekend. The crowd was another issue — the Skrillex-Tiesto double whammy ensured that there were thousands of fist-pumping guidos and wasted teenagers to avoid at every turn. Steering clear of the aforementioned groups, I headed over to the Sunday School Grove to catch Slovenian D.J. Umek. A major player in the global techno scene since the early 90s, Umek had everybody grooving, but none more than himself. After a mediocre performance from Porter Robinson left much to be desired, I hoped that Flux Pavilion & Doctor P would not disappoint. And they most certainly did not, inciting the audience to rage with every inch of their beings.

Throwing down one massive drop after another, Flux and Doctor P seemed to be perfectly in sync as they alternated tracks from their respective discographies. Over at the Hillside Arena Stage, the promise of Zeds Dead followed by Diplo won out over my feet’s feeble pleas for rest.

Dropping the best “Mercy” remix of the festival, Zed’s Dead put on the type of insane show that fans have come to expect from this formidable duo.

No festival seems complete without a performance by Diplo, something that I am sure he would like us all to believe. As one of the industry’s most hardworking producers, Diplo’s set was a testament to his long list of accomplishments, playing his productions for Azealia Banks and Usher as well tracks from the artists off his label, Mad Decent.

Electric Zoo may have tested my endurance and tried my limits, but it also gave me the purest gift of all. During those three crazy days of non-stop revelry, not a single trace of F.O.M.O. entered my mind, not even for a second.

What else does anyone really need?

Sarah Angell is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at sangell@cornellsun.com.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

A&E

12 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Friendly Fire at the Carriage House

BY TERESA KIM Sun Contributor

Whatever drives people to reside in quaint but seemingly uneventful Ithaca eludes me. Subpar dining options and inexplicable weather aside (three minute thunderstorm anyone?), I often grapple with a sense of detachment from the rest of the world. Last Thursday, I escaped the familiar gloom by seeking refuge at the Carriage House Café, which frequently hosts intimate jazz shows.

As soon as I entered the second floor lounge, I immediately found the sanctuary I needed. I was here for Jazz Spaces, a new program that aspires to use live jazz as a social resource to forge community connections. Launched this Spring, Jazz Spaces is co-sponsored by Cornell’s Departments of English and Music, alongside the Cornell Jazz Ensembles and Hans Bethe House, was launched this spring.

This program is the brainchild of faculty members of the Minority, Indigenous and Third World Studies Research Group and Paul Merrill, the Gussman Director of Cornell Jazz Ensembles. Besides featuring a major jazz musician every first Thursday of the month at The Carriage House, Jazz Spaces is launching a series of workshops

for students.

Thursday night was all about community. Students, professors and Ithacans were hovering around the bartender for some wine and conversation. Through the ambient lighting, I saw people taking their seats. As we waited in anticipation, a man holding a golden Yanagisawa sax entered the dimly lit room and took his place on stage. Vincent Herring, the man of the hour, had arrived.

Herring opened with a few words, spoken with a very soft and velvety texture.

His pleasant voice slowly transitioned into a pleasant melody on his alto sax. He was then accompanied by three other performers: pianist John White and bassist Peter Chwazik from the Ithaca College music faculty and drummer Tom Killian, also a local educator. These three men are truly passionate musicians who educate in classrooms by day and perform jazz gigs by night. They have also had their share of performing with illustrious musicians like Steve Brown and Dino Losito. Herring, White, Chwazik and Killian quickly created a steady harmony, which displaced the initial uneasy aura. Their adaptability was impressive, given that they were performing together for the first time and only had a few minutes to concoct the night’s set

list.

The ensemble started with a few familiar tones and then flawlessly segued into Herring’s more recent works.

Herring also performed “Friendly Fire,” a tune he first played in a saxophone battle against Eric Alexander at the Smoke Club in New York City. The song is riddled with brilliant riffs that flow into spaces. Herring continuously impressed the audience with his riff interludes, which drew enthusiastic demands for encores. Overall, his performance was breathtaking, and yet it did not overpower that of the accompanying musicians.

On this night of sweet and tender jazz, Herring proved why he is considered one of the best jazz musicians alive. Ultimately, however, community took center stage. In the warmth of The Carriage House, swept over by beautifully bent notes, Ithaca became a little less mysterious to me.

Upcoming events in the series include performances by the Steve Brown Quartet on

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

Oct. 4; pianist Tomoko Ohno on Nov. 1, with Chwazik and Killian; and saxophonist Mark Turner with pianist John Stetch on Dec. 6th also at the Carriage House. Vincent Herring will be coming back in April 2013 for the annual jazz festival in Ithaca.

Teresa Kim is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at tk359@cornell.edu.

The Empty Chair P

olitics is often cheap because it aims to immediately connect with as many people as possible.

Sometimes, however, such actions are so great by their own merits that they transcend the typical election cycle and become artworks. Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy” attack ad implied Barry Goldwater was a nuclear warmonger, and the anti-war poster And Babies? implied American soldiers in the Vietnam War were disturbed baby killers. Both affected the American consciousness so much that they served as catalysts to change the conversation inside and outside of politics, showing how politics can become art just like how art can become politics.

But combining art and politics also means that we have to extend the kitschy examples along with the great ones. We see the same advertisements of happy children running around politicians who are touring American flag factories, but some excel in their tackiness to delight schadenfreude-loving journalists. I am, of course, talking about Clint Eastwood talking to Barack “empty chair” Obama at the Republican National Convention.

Clint’s appearance was kept secret by Romney’s top PR people in the hope of bringing some Hollywood thrills to an otherwise redundant political practice designed when travel across America took days. As typical for political conventions, it was supposed to be highly scripted, with Romney’s top PR people giving Clint talking points and a strict time limit. Clint ignored both, and instead cagily asked the production crew for a chair that later turned out to be the President. “Mr. President, how do you, how do you handle, uh … how do you handle promises that you’ve made when you were running for election, and how do you handle uh, how do you handle them? I know that people, uh … people were wondering …”

Although the reaction to the speech was bad — the Republican governor Scott Walker described it as “cringing” and Romney staffers started pointing blame at each other — Clint’s performance was a sharp break from Romney’s corporate, stuffy approach.

Within 12 minutes, Clint made up for Romney’s lack of color and humanity in the past year. This is because talking to a chair is a legitimate (and effective) role-playing practice used in psychotherapy to help people work out their problems.

Clint, in effect, had the opportunity to start a national

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

therapy session that could have detoxed the current political environment by giving us an honest chance to vent our frustrations and face hard truths.

Clint seemed to be headed in that direction when he botchily asked “President Obama” how he handled the promises he made back in 2008, but as he realized he was bewildering the audience he dumped the whole therapy theme (“We’re gonna have to have a little chat about that”) and switched to something easier. “What?

What do you want me to tell Romney? I can’t tell him to do that, he can’t do that to himself! You’re getting as bad as Biden.” Thus, Clint saved himself and got the next best possible reaction from the audience — laughter.

I don’t blame Clint for switching tack: forming coherent feelings towards a personified hurdle is hard enough in a therapist’s office, and more so on national television.

But that assumes that he was serious about conversing with the President, rather than trying to give the convention a pep / trash talk. If he were honest, Clint’s jokes (“Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party”) would just be the same mask that other patients put on when they first face the empty chair in the You’ve Got To Be therapist’s office. But by making a mockery Kitsching Me of the practice, he had nowhere to go from his awkward position but downhill to cruder jokes.

The humanity that Clint showed, then, was not that of honest emotion, but rather how easy it is for anybody (albeit a very politically active somebody) to succumb to a politically toxic environment and become the very same

Kai Sam Ng

RACHAEL SINGER / SUN CONTRIBUTOR

political kitsch that everybody condemns. As Milan Kundera describes in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, political kitsch is the “absolute denial of shit,” the same worldview where there are no questions or hard truths because all answers are provided in advance. By “having a little chat” later about the President’s record, we get a story that our creaky economy is not a combination of factors, but because Obama is an attorney and “attorneys are taught to argue” (I’m not sure what that means).

Whether it is harmless or incoherent, Clint squandered an opportunity to bridge the two parties together and widened the gap with a kitschy performance aimed only to pander and please. His own crudeness has the other side already joking about Clint’s senility as an example of why we need Obamacare.

If Howard Dean’s screaming back in 2004 is any indication, this speech will only be a blip amongst late-night TV before comedians tire and move onto something else.

But this blip also puts us at a crossroads: will the empty chair be used for the political therapy session that the nation badly needs, or will it continue to be an idiot straw man that serves as a barometer of our nation’s worsening discourse? In the end, the empty chair is more important than it seems.

Kai Sam Ng is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at kng@cornellsun.com. You’ve Got To Be Kitsching Me appears alternate Wednesdays this semester.

COMICS AND PUZZLES

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 “Rumble in the Jungle” champ 4 Hanging on every word 8 Crumb bum 14 Actor Chaney 15 Dot on a map 16 Delphi’s claim to fame 17 Perspectivebending artist 19 “Beau Geste” novelist 20 Grade for a tween 21 Scottish hillside 23 Convent residents 24 Runner Sebastian et al.

26 Second and third in a sequence 28 Port relative 30 Sears rival 34 Subdue with a stun gun 35 Final Four initials 37 “Mercy!”

38 Penn Sta. users 39 Blues standard first recorded by Ma Rainey 41 KGB counterpart 42 Prettify 44 “Roots” author Haley 45 Game with a 32card deck 46 “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” star 48 How some beer is sold 50 Mil. plane for small runways 51 Civil wrong 52 Barbershop member 55 CNBC interviewees 58 Reverend’s residence 61 Pepsi alternative 63 Justice League publisher 65 Charm 66 Entry point 67 Kite on the links 68 “Who wants ice cream?” reply 69 Lid malady 70 Lamb mom

DOWN 1 Poor box donations 2 Focal points 3 More than 4 Having deeper pockets 5 Hibachi residue 6 Roman commoner 7 Okla. or Dak., once 8 Inept sheep keeper 9 Circle part 10 Beginning 11 Color of raw silk 12 Narrow valley 13 Mil. bigwigs 18 Five-and-dime, e.g.

22 Game player’s haunts 25 iPad-to-iMac activity 27 Fourth prime minister of Israel 28 It may be bendy 29 One of three in Coca-Cola 30 Locks up 31 Cable venue for vintage sitcoms

32 Poland Spring competitor 33 Dublin-born poet 36 Pacifier site 39 Online tech news site 40 Parkway offramp 43 Meat- or fishfilled pastry 45 “Vamoose!”

47 Pin down 49 “Mercy!”

52 “Dracula” novelist Stoker 53 Peak 54 Fountain buildup 56 Track numbers 57 St. Andrew’s Day celebrant 59 Garbage barge 60 Salinger heroine 62 Apollo lander, briefly 64 Affectedly shy

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

09/12/12

Sun Sudoku

Doonesbury

Mr. Gnu

Strings Attached

Puzzle #9

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)

Circles and Stuff

By Gareth Bain (c)2012 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Tuesday, September 11, 2012 13

by Robert Radigan grad

09/12/12

by Garry Trudeau

Travis Dandro

by Ali Solomon ’01

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

14 THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012

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Fans Hold Power Despite Possible Lockout Scenario RITTER

Continued from page 16

Players’ Association) are embroiled in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The most recent CBA will run out this Saturday — and from the looks of it, a new deal is rather unlikely. If both groups are unable to reach a decision, then the league will lock the players out for the 2012-13 season — something the sports world has not seen since 2004-05, when the NHL became the first major sports league in North America to cancel an entire season due to a work stoppage.

Like the heart of many ugly business disputes, money is playing a key factor in the talks between both parties. Last season, the league generated record revenue — totaling $3.3 billion. It’s a fairly significant jump from the $2.1 billion that was generated seven years ago when the last CBA was signed. It would seem that the team owners want a bigger share of the pie now, leaving players with less. The biggest point of contention between the players and the owners is now defining what constitutes hockey-related revenues (HRR).

The previous labor pact described them as, “derived or earned from, relating to or arising directly or indirectly out of the playing of NHL hockey games or NHL-related events in which current NHL players participate or in which current NHL players’ names and likenesses are used, by each such club or the league, or attributable directly to the club or the league from a club- affiliated entity or leagueaffiliated entity.” To me, that sounds like a lot of words that don’t really say anything specific. Luckily, the NHL and NHLPA seem to have a better take on the breakdown because, as it stands now, the more things that fall under HRR, the better the players make out.

However, the owners are putting the players between a rock and a hard place (read: highly probable lockout) because they want to redefine HRR and who goes home with what percentage.

If I can’t see the Penguins play this winter, then that’s just pucked up.

You might be wondering, how do the fans fit into this? Well, in addition to sitting at home waiting patiently — hell, who are we kidding? — waiting anxiously to hear the news if we are returning to the dark ages of hockey, we actually have a small voice in the matter.

While your “magic” underwear may not do the trick, your support of the team has the potential to make a great deal of difference to the players. At the end of the day, we are the ones who are paying to see them do what they know how to do best — play hockey.

What drives Islanders fans to pack into the Coliseum most weekends? No, it’s not only Matt Moulson ’06, and it’s clearly not a winning record, either. What drives Canucks fans to rep their team so hard that they set Vancouver on fire after losing in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals? In so few words, it’s pride and passion. Pride for the hometown heroes (or thugs in Philly’s case). But, more importantly, a great passion for hockey. As fans, we love the game and we will stand by our players until the end. This act of support is what has helped many franchises grow over the past few years and become highly successful — both financially and in their playing records.

So, packing into the Coliseum, buying not one, but three Pittsburgh Penguins jerseys in the past year and paying to see your favorite player make a guest appearance somewhere all contribute to the HRR that have built the league up over the past seven years. If it weren’t for the fans supporting the teams, both financially and emotionally, then the players and owners would have had a smaller pie to be dividing from the beginning. We the fans have the power in this situation.

Two fans have already gone above and beyond the call of duty to show their support of the players. Janne Makkonen, a 21-year old from Finland, created a YouTube video entitled “Together We Can,” with the hopes of bringing awareness to the severity of the situation as the days tick closer to Saturday’s deadline and of inspiring fans to unite together and do something big. The video posts some hard facts (as well as a rather solid hockey highlight reel/montage) and left me with an overwhelming feeling of sadness at the thought that I could miss out on an entire season of my favorite sport.

Another fan, T.J. Tully, created the website YouHaveTwoWeeks.com, gathering digital signatures on a petition where fans threatened to boycott the businesses of the 30 NHL owners. Frustration seems to slowly be shifting away from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman ’74 — an Industrial Labor and Relations graduate — and moving toward the very people who hired him. However, Bettman found himself in hot water earlier last month when he was accused of pushing negotiations in the direction of a lockout being the only possible solution.

While the week drags on and the deadline nears, we need to remember that we are not silent in this matter. The fans finally have their chance to influence the outcome. Hopefully time hasn’t run out just yet for the 2012-13 season. If I can’t see the Penguins play this winter, then that’s just pucked up.

Lauren Ritter can be reached at sports-editor@cornellsun.com.

THE CORNELL DAILY SUN | Wednesday, September 12, 2012 15

SPORTS

FIELD HOCKEY

Cornell’s Success Begins, Ends With Goalkeepers

By DANI ABADA Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Although field hockey is a team sport, there is one position that stands out — that of the goalkeeper. A team’s success starts and ends with the success of its goalie. However, although the goalie stands alone in front of the net, her role is not independent from the rest of the team.

“Obviously it’s a unique position in that the skill set is completely different,” said head coach Donna Hornibrook.

“Sometimes people have heard in the past talk about it is almost an individual sport in a team game … but honestly as the game evolves, the integration of the goalkeeper in terms of being like a quarterback in the backfield and a back board in the defense, [the goalie] cannot afford to be isolated. [The goalie] really has to be part of the whole team, particularly the defense.”

The Cornell team has two goalies, junior Carolyn Horner and freshman Elizabeth Schaefller. Horner hails from Allentown, N.J. She served primarily as a back-up goalie her freshman year, but saw a lot more playing time during her sophomore season.

“Carolyn is outstanding for us this season — she is definitely the backbone of the team,” Hornibrook said. “We’ve known for a long time that she’s a good player, but she is really coming into her own … When she got time playing time last year as a sophomore she played fantastic, so we have a lot of confidence in her.”

Goaltending has been a part of Horner’s life for a long time.

“I started goalkeeping because my mom was a goalkeeper in college and I was a really terrible field hockey player in the field,” Horner said. “So, in seventh I switched over to goalie and I stuck with it.”

This past summer, Horner was selected to play on the Pennsylvania High Performance team, among some of the country’s top field hockey contenders.

“Players from all over the country — the best college and non-college players — have gone to this program,” Hornibrook said. “[Horner] was selected to play for Pennsylvania in the national championship … I think the experience she gained this summer playing some of the best players in the country was really useful for her.”

One of the highlights of the experience for Horner, aside from getting another chance to play competitive field hockey in a different setting, was getting to interact with Olympiclevel field hockey players.

“The best part is that the Olympians are also divided amongst the [regional] teams,” she said. “Two of my teammates went to London and the best part was getting to know them as friends and athletes. Having the opportunity to play with Olympic players really gave me the opportunity to see their routines and their work ethic [was incredible] … and to

play up to their intensity was awesome, especially as a college athlete to get that experience.”

However, according to her coach, Horner has no problem providing a work ethic and an intensity of her own at Cornell.

“Carolyn has a terrific work ethic — she is a very hard worker, she’s very focused and calm under pressure,” Hornibrook said. “Her composure is what impresses us the most. She is technically sound but also she really does not get frazzled very often … Really since she’s a freshman she has carried her own work ethic.”

The Red’s other netminder, Schaeffler, hails from Timonium, Md. and is fresh out of high school. Although she has only been here for a few weeks, she is already making contributions to the team.

“She has made adjustments for the collegiate level [and is improving],” Hornibrook said. “She got an opportunity to play in our first game, and she did really well.”

“As an individual I am working on my foot speed and timing,” Schaeffler said. “As a team we are always working to be the best that we can be. Just improving as a team is just the greatest feeling because we want to do so well. It’s hard to explain but what one person does well, everyone does well.”

While Schaeffler echoed Hornibrook’s sentiment that the goalie is still a vital part of the team, the goalie still does face individual challenges.

“A ball coming at you 100 miles an hour [is definitely the hardest part],” Hornibrook said. “People can really crack a ball and it’s a big cage. The keeper is the only one allowed to play the ball with her feet. Getting back to the evolution of the game, some of the rule changes have really opened the game and made it more offensive … balls really are flying.”

Schaeffler pointed to another aspect of goaltending that sometimes proves challenging.

“The hardest part is definitely the mental pressure,” she said. “It’s getting scored on and forgetting the last goal and how it went if it was a bad goal. [Learning to] forget and then moving on and reevaluating after the game — not letting it affect your performance the whole time.”

That being said, the extra pressure comes with extra payoff.

“The thing with being goalie it’s a really bad feeling when you’re not having a good game but when it’s a great game, it’s the best feeling in the world, and that feeling outweighs the bad feeling,” Schaeffler said. “That’s so hard to describe and hard to capture, but it’s the best feeling in the world when you know you are helping your team and having such an amazing game as a goalkeeper.”

So far, Schaeffler says she has been enjoying her time on the Red and adjusting smoothly.

“It’s been going really well — I am really improving,” she said. “The coaches are phenomenal; I couldn’t ask for a better coaching staff. They are all really helping and I’m defi-

nitely doing a lot better, so is everybody … The team is so welcoming and so kind, they are the best and I love them.”

Two years further in her career, Horner feels the same strong connection to her teammates.

“The best part about playing at Cornell has been my teammates,” she said. “We really are like a family off the field and I think on the field it shows that we work together really great. Also it has been just a lot of fun playing here. I think that if you are going to play a sport in college you really need to enjoy the sport because you spend so much time doing it and we really love going out and playing every day and working hard.”

Dani Abada can be reached at dabada@cornellsun.com.

COURTESY OF CORNELL ATHLETICS

Horner’s corner | According to head coach Donna Hornibrook, junior Carolyn Horner has been having a very strong season, acting as a backbone for the Red.

Communication Fuels Momentum M. SOCCER

Continued from page 16

OLIVER KLIEWE / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Midfield madness | Junior midfielder Ben Williams relies on the back line to give him direction when he needs it or has a player on his back.

field of play and switching the point of the attack,” said head coach Jaro Zawislan. “On the set pieces, you can see some of our backs going for offensive set pieces.”

Players like Slogic, who is 6-5, bring added height to the field, which supported by their athleticism is crucial for winning airballs and capitalizing on set pieces.

According to Zawislan, each athlete on the field is splitting time between defending and attacking the ball, ensuring that the momentum moves in favor of a positive result for the Red. “Every player on the team, going from goalkeeper to the defense to the forwards, everybody has as least some responsibilities in attack on offense when we have possession of the ball and everybody has responsibilities on the defensive side,” he said.

Bridging the gap between the offensive and defensive lines, sit players like junior midfielder Ben Williams. “[Williams] helps connect [the backline] with the midfield,” Slogic said. “When we have the ball, he helps us keep possession and helps us move the ball up the

field. Defensively, he helps in stopping the attack before it gets to us, and also with directing the team to one side of the field or the other.”

A transition player on the field, Williams helps to direct the ball away from the back line and back toward the attacking forwards.

“My job is to basically clean up anything in front of me and prevent the ball from getting to [the back line] defensively,” Williams said. “I basically sweep in front of them and defensively we work together as a unit. They’re always telling me where to be and where to go.”

Communication between the different lines and thirds of the field is one of the most crucial aspects of the game. For the back line, having Pflasterer in goal directing the defenders toward the movement of the ball or alerting them to potential threat is key.

“We have always been a closeknit team and that’s the same for the back line and me,” Pflasterer said of the team’s on-field dynamic. “We communicate well and organization is a key factor. As the goalkeeper it stems from me, but it radiates through the back line and to the midfield.”

The players cannot overstress the need to have clear communication between everyone on the

field. Pflasterer is able to see the entire field, so being able to communicate possible threats to the line in front of him and the players in front of that is very important for maintaining a strong defensive wall.

“We can have the momentum by communicating with other players, having the ball, keeping the ball and telling them what positions they need and if they are out of position,” Chodas said. “We hold down the fort and if we start losing the ball, it is up to us to get everyone back in the game.

The strength of the back line, as well as the rest of the team, stems from its close-knit nature. Being able to intuitively understand where to be and where other players are is an invaluable asset for any team.

“I think one of the biggest strengths of the back four as a defensive unit is how well we know each other’s tendencies on the field,” Rinow said.

Defending and attacking as an entire team, combined with the strength of the back four, the goalkeepers and the midfielders, has been a driving factor for the Red’s success so far this season.

Lauren Ritter can be reached at sports-editor@cornellsun.com.

Sports

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2012

16

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Chitanvis Proves Crucial for Attack

By HALEY VELASCO Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Senior forward Maneesha Chitanvis remains a crucial part of the Red’s attack during each game this season, as well as one of the key parts of the on-field and off-field leadership for Cornell. For the past two seasons she has earned All-Ivy honorable mentions, and she often garners a lot of attention from the opposing defense due to her constant intensity.

“I have definitely gotten close to [Chitanvis] with her and I being captains together. I have had to work with her a lot — she is a great leader,” said senior goalie and co-captain Tori Christ. “She is very intense, but it is with a purpose. She really knows what to say in a team huddle. She has this tone about her to make everyone listen. I think she is a really good leader.”

Over the last two seasons, Chitanvis has scored five goals and racked up two assists, leading the team with 12 points in her total time on East Hill.

“She leads by example on and off the field. She is a really good motivator on the field and plays with a lot of emotion,” said sophomore defender Sydney Cetrullo. “You can always count on her to pick you up and bring you to her level of play.”

Last season, Chitanvis was one of three players that started all 16 games for the Red — the only non-senior to do so. The season began for her on Sept. 2 against Fordham, where she scored just 16 seconds into the game. She continued her scoring streak and grabbed another goal at the 30th minute off a shot rebound and helped Brook Chang ’12 with an assist to her goal in the second half. Her other three goals to round out the five came during a four-game stretch where she had two goals in Ivy League play — scoring against Columbia on Sept.

ABHISHEK SHAH / SUN FILE PHOTO

Captain Chitanvis | Senior forward Maneesha Chitanvis acts as co-captain for the 2012 squad, demonstrating leadership both on and off the field and providing a constant intensity on the attack.

23 and Harvard on Oct. 8.

Along with the two other captains — senior defender Jayann Gabrio and Christ — Chitanvis plans to lead the Red into a winning season for the first time in ten years. The main goal for the team is to be above .500 for the season and improve its place in the Ivy standings.

“I think that this is the first year [of leadership] for all of them,” said junior midfielder Rachel Nichols about the tri-captains. “Maneesha especially has been a really good leader on and off the field.”

This season, Chitanvis has had one assist in the 2-5 loss to Albany on Sept. 9 to help senior midfielder/forward Xandra

Hompe score. Thirty-four seconds after the third goal from the Great Danes, Chitanvis passed to Hompe from the right of the field for the goal to try and take the win.

“Not only vocally, but [she is a] really good role model with how she plays,” Nichols said.

Chitanvis has been exhibiting her athletic prowess since the preseason, according to first-year head coach Patrick Farmer. “[Chitanvis has] really been striking the ball well lately, and that captain leadership is big for her,” he said.

Haley Velasco can be reached at hvelasco@cornellsun.com.

That’ s Just Back Four Anchors Red Defense Pucked Up W MEN’S SOCCER

By LAUREN RITTER Sun Sports Editor

On game day, a team is often times judged by the power of its offense, rather than the strength of its defense. However, while scoring on the attack is a very important aspect of any game, being able to defend and block an opponent from capitalizing on goal opportunities is just as crucial. For the men’s soccer team, the back defensive line, also referred to as ‘the back four,’ provides the backbone necessary to anchor the Red on the field.

Holding down the back third of the field are junior defenders Jake Kirsch, Jake Rinow and Patrick Slogic and sophomore Peter Chodas. The four players, separating themselves into two outside backs and two cen-

tral defenders, function together as a unit and act as a last resort before senior Rick Pflasterer in goal.

“The back four is like a unit — we work pretty well together,” Kirsch said. “I’d say as a unit we’re thinking of ourselves as the backbone of the team. We always seek to keep a shutout in every game with as few shots as possible.”

In addition to blocking and defending against many of the balls that are sent towards the goal line, the back line helps to set the momentum for the game, with its players moving to where they are most needed.

“When you look at [the back four] they are very important with keeping the possession, switching the See M. SOCCER page 15

earing your “magic” underpants isn’t going to make the difference between winning or losing on game day. Neither is holding your breath when your favorite player is about to make the free throw that could send the game into sudden-death overtime. If anything, you might pass out. I don’t rec-

to be infallible, game-day routines and superstitions, and almost every sports fan I know can’t resist some couchside coaching. I’d like to believe that every time Pittsburgh’s Marc-André Fleury leaves the crease and I shout at the television for him to move back in he listens to me. Every fan wants to feel that what he is doing — whether it is wearing his

Lauren Ritter Five For Fighting

OLIVER KLIEWE / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Man of many talents | Junior centerback Patrick Slogic has proven to be a strong asset for the Red — contributing both height and athleticism to the team, as well as the ability to win many air balls.

ommend it.

Being a sports fan (read: a die-hard sports fan) is one of the most rewarding, yet stressful experiences possible.

Like many other fans, I consider myself an emotional supporter. I’ve cheered when my team has won, pouted when my team has lost and cried for a whole host of other reasons. Being a sports fan is sometimes just one emotional roller coaster after another.

Many of us also have strange, but what we believe

favorite player’s jersey religiously on game day or offering his own two cents on game strategies — is making a difference. Deep down inside, we want to feel like we are a part of the action. But are we?

Many people who follow the NHL (National Hockey League), closely or casually, are probably in a tizzy over the current state of hockey.

For everyone who hasn’t heard, the NHL and NHLPA (National Hockey League See RITTER page 14