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Elections again | S.A. presidential candidates will face off in a virtual forum Sept. 24, more than six months after the assembly postponed spring elections as the coronavirus hit campus.

S.A. Candidates to Return to Campaign Trail Students ready for virtual elections as campaigns resume after six-month hiatus

By ALEX HALE Sun News Editor

The Student Assembly had everything set for its spring 2020 elections. Candidates signed petitions, some squared off in a debate and the final stretch was underway for the March 16 election.

And then COVID-19 hit.

Just days before the election, President Martha E. Pollack urged students to return home as Cornell

announced the semester would continue online, and the S.A. postponed its elections. Now, during another unprecedented semester, S.A. candidates plan to reboot their campaigns.

“It would be easier to do an election in the fall rather than in March when we were doing it and we were getting sent home and in the midst of the election,” said Moriah Adeghe ’21, who is currently one of the co-directors of elections and served as S.A. treasurer last year. “COVID is a lot more important

Two-Thirds of Cornell Classes Held Online, Despite Hybrid Semester

than this election.”

To deal with the unforeseen lack of election results, the S.A. passed a resolution in March to allow students who did not graduate to keep their positions until the fall elections. It also added new co-election directors, Adeghe and Savanna Lim ’21. “[The S.A.] anticipated a very complicated and difficult elections process this semester,” Lim said. “It’s See ELECTIONS page 2

Testing trials

MEGHANA SRIVASTAVA / SUN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Zooming into class | Cornell is offering only about a third of its courses in person this fall.

By MEGHANA SRIVASTAVA and MADELINE ROSENBERG Sun Assistant News Editors

This fall, a dorm isn’t just a bedroom.

It’s a dining hall. It’s a library. And for most students, it’s also a classroom.

Cornell made national news in July for pledging to bring all students back to campus for a hybrid semester with in-person and online classes. But as thousands of students settle into their Ithaca residences, many of them aren’t trekking to lecture halls and

seminar rooms for class.

A Sun review of the class roster revealed that about two-thirds of Cornell courses are held fully online this fall. Less than 1 percent of the classes in each undergraduate college are entirely in-person, running on campus for seven weeks and ending before Thanksgiving break.

Cornell has split courses into five teaching modalities: in-person, online, distance learning asynchronous, in-person with transition See COURSES page 3

MICHELLE ZHIQING YANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Students line up at Robert Purcell Community Center awaiting coronavirus tests Sept. 3.

The first day of surveillance testing brought long lines and scheduling complications.

News

Arts

Sports

Weather

Anti-Racist Initiatives

Rethinking Disco

Athletic Excellence

Partly Cloudy

President Pollack announced new faculty and staff efforts and University updates. | Page 3

Arts columnist Megan Pontin ’23 argues for a progressive appreciation of disco music. | Page 5

The Sun unveiled its picks for men’s and women’s athlete of the year. | Page 8

HIGH: 88º LOW: 63º

2 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Daybook

Daybook

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS Today

Tomorrow

Converging High-Throughput Phenotyping And Genomics-Enabled Strategies for Accelerated Crop Improvement 11:30 - 12:20 p.m., Virtual Event

Cornell Is Gorges: Finding a Sense of Place on Campus Noon, Virtual Event Beyond Single Genes: How Receptor Networks Underpin Plant Immunity 12:40 p.m., Virtual Event

Cornell International Fair Noon - 2 p.m., Virtual Event Sorghum Improvement in West Africa: Joint Learning And Progress in a Center of Crop Domestication 12:40 p.m., Virtual Event

From Sustainable Forest Management to Forest Landscape Restoration: Analysis Of Two Participatory Approaches 12:40 - 1:30 p.m., Virtual Event

A Just Transition: Centering Economic and Social Justice in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Footprint 3:30 - 4:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Engaged Cornell Learning Coffee Hour 1 - 3 p.m., Virtual Event

Language Resource Center Speaker Series: The Instruction on Heritage Language Learners 4 - 5 p.m., Virtual Event

The Future of Our Postal Service in an Election Year And Beyond: A Congressional Conversation With Rep. Gerry Connolly 1:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Introduction to SAS Programming 4 - 6:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Islamic Libraries From Spain to India 3 - 4:15 p.m., Virtual Event

Exploring the Small Farm Dream: Is Farming Right for You? 6 - 7:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Single Molecules Come Into Focus: Understanding RNA-Driven Regulation From First Principles 4 - 5 p.m., Virtual Event BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTO EDITOR

Plaza pedaling | A masked Cornellian takes advantage of the

Cornell Equine Seminar Series: Dental Floating and Tooth Resorption 6 - 7 p.m., Virtual Event

summer weather in Ithaca to do an activity that is both outdoors and socially distant: biking down Ho Plaza.

Chinese Migrations to Monsoon Asia: The Long Historical View 5:20 - 6:10 p.m., Virtual Event

S.A. Reboots Elections Virtually After Spring Cancellation ELECTIONS

other spring positions — plus those typically scheduled for the fall — will happen virtually from a lot more helpful that there’s two Sept. 29 until Oct. 1.

One difference from last of us working on it, as opposed to semester will be in how candidates just one.”

For executive vice president can sell themselves to their fellow Catherine Huang ’21, the inter- Cornellians. The campaigns are im period currently makes her required to be completely virtual, the highest-ranking member of a rule that prohibits once trathe S.A., after Joe Andersen ’20 ditional campaign activities like quartercarding ended his term as and chalkings.. president follow“I’m definitely Although the ing graduation. worried about the presidential canNow, Huang didates already once again has the voter turnout.” debated back in opportunity to vie Moriah Adeghe ’21 March, they will for the body’s top face off again at position. a candidate forum S.A. presidential candidates Huang, Uchenna on Sept. 24 via Zoom, according Chukwukere ’21 and Dillon to the S.A. election calendar.

Positions that students would Anadkat ’21 debated, campaigned and chalked up to the have voted on in the spring and voting days in March. Six months still have candidates running will later, voting for president and the be closed to new candidates, but Continued from page 1

positions that are now vacant will be open for Cornellians to run for. These include the minority students liaison at-large and the university representative to the Student Assembly.

The newly added students with disabilities representative at-large position will also be on the ballot this semester, as well as the positions that are typically elected in the fall — a transfer representative and four freshmen representatives.

Not all universities decided to cancel their elections during the pandemic. Syracuse University held its elections in April after students were sent home. Brown

University’s Undergraduate Council of Students ran theirs in April as well, but faced problems with voter turnout. Only 37 percent of Brown’s student body voted, down 16 percent from the year before.

The same concern persists six months later at Cornell. Last year, 39.9 percent of students voted, and in 2018 the number was 27 percent.

“I’m definitely worried about voter turnout. The S.A. generally has low voter turnout to begin with,” Adeghe said. “With COVID on top of that, I’m assuming that people have a lot more concerns than S.A. elec-

tions.”

Lim said she hopes the virtual version of elections could spark new interest. The process leading up to the vote will resume Wednesday with a candidate information session.

“Everything’s gonna be online and basically everyone goes to school online and kind of lives online,” Lim said. “I’m also hopeful that the pandemic and everything that’s happened from the spring until now, might spur some new interest or some really great candidates for the election.”

Alex Hale can be reached at ahale@cornellsun.com.

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HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHRY EDITOR

S.A. restart | Although the pandemic persists, the Student Assembly will pick up its elections from last semester.

The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, September 8, 2020 3

News

COVID Dashboard Fails to Report for Days

As University changes risk status to ‘yellow’ level after less than a week of classes, tightening restrictions on gatherings, Cornell’s online case tracking page goes silent

By ANIL OZA Sun Science Editor

Two weeks ago, Cornell set up a COVID-19 dashboard to “keep the community informed of the status of COVID19 testing.” But even as campus cases spike, delays in updating the site have prompted more questions than answers among anxious community members.

Despite a rocky week in which the University’s pandemic alert level was shifted up to “Yellow” following news that an initially 9-person cluster grew to 39 individuals, as of Monday night, the dashboard has not reported test results since Sept. 3.

As a result of the 4-day delay in pub-

“The dashboard is updated each weekday at 6 p.m. There is a two day lag in reporting results.”

VP Joel Malina licizing test results, it is currently unclear just how close Cornell is to reaching 100 new coronavirus cases in a two-week period — a threshold that, if crossed, would force the University to temporarily suspend in-person classes and enact further restrictions.

The dashboard, which provides the daily number of tests and positive COVID-19 cases from Cornell’s testing centers, does warn that “there may be

a two-day delay between when a test is taken and when the results appear on the dashboard.”

However, it has frequently lagged behind the Tompkins County Health Department in reporting campus cases, and lacks data regarding active cases, recoveries, and differentiation between surveillance tests and other COVID-19 diagnostics. Unlike TCHD’s website, which has logged all results since the start of the pandemic, Cornell’s dashboard also only reports information for the five most recent days.

The delays cannot solely be attributed to the processing time of the test itself. At a Common Council Meeting on Sept. 2, University officials stated that the delay in reporting was the result of the time lost in exchanging data with Cayuga Health System and Tompkins County Health Department.

“The dashboard is updated each weekday at 6 p.m. There is a two day lag in reporting results as the data must be verified by the Tompkins County Health Department,” said Joel Malina, vice president for University Relations, in a later email to The Sun. Complicating matters, Cornell is utilizing pooled testing for its surveillance program — which is not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Because students who test positive under a surveillance test must re-test using the FDAapproved nasopharyngeal swab, it can take days from a preliminary positive test to a confirmed case, and ensuing isolation.

It is currently unclear how the dashboard differentiates between surveillance

BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

What’s the total? | As Cornell tests thousands per day in pop-up clinics like this one in Willard Straight Hall, reporting on the results of students’ twice-weekly swabs lags behind.

tests and traditional diagnostic tests, and how positive surveillance tests are reported as opposed to positive diagnostic tests.

While the current delay in releasing updated case totals is the longest so far, lagged results have dogged the dashboard since its launch.

On Aug. 28, Tompkins County Health Department reported nine new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed after several small social gatherings. But this cluster of cases was absent from Cornell’s dashboard until Aug. 31, around 6 p.m. — at which point an additional three cases had been identified over the weekend.

On Sept. 1, TCHD reported that 12 individuals who were close contacts of those in the initial cluster had tested

positive for COVID-19. But these cases were not published on the COVID-19 dashboard until days later.

Cornell started its campus wide surveillance testing on Thursday, and despite some students who were tested on Thursday reporting they have not received results the dashboard was last updated with testing statistics A delay in updating the dashboard also stalls the updating of Cornell’s COVID19 alert level. Currently, the dashboard indicates the campus is still in the second lowest alert level — “Yellow: Low to Moderate Risk.”

Anil Oza can be reached at aoza@cornellsun.com.

In Email, President Pollack Updates Online Classes Make Up Campus on Cornell’s Anti-Racist Efforts Two-Thirds of Fall Roster University debuts training courses for faculty, students

By KATHRYN STAMM Sun News Editor

In the latest in a long line of emails about anti-racism at Cornell, President Martha E. Pollack announced a number of faculty and staff initiatives and the most recent updates.

The majority of the updates were related to discussions that were held while mapping out the future of Cornell’s anti-racism work. These discussions included a Faculty Senate meeting with students from Do Better Cornell, a conversation with faculty from the American Indian and Indigenous Studies program and a series of July meetings with law enforcement agencies.

Do Better Cornell launched a massive campaign in early June after multiple police killings of Black Americans — including two petitions and sharing resources on social media. After the petitions, activists met with administration, spurring a series of Universitywide efforts.

Pollack explained that the Faculty Senate is already developing three frameworks that were previously announced: the AntiRacism Institute, a required educational program for faculty and a required class for all Cornell

students. presence of Cornell University The Senate’s first steps were to Police Department on campus. meet with student activists about In response, the University has their goals Aug. 26 and to form promised to strengthen commucommittees in the coming weeks. nity involvement in public safety Along with the program for — including a new communifaculty and the class for students, a ty response team to act as first required training course for all staff responders to reports of noncrimwill be available later this month. inal offenses and nonviolent inciThe course is set to cover issues of dents. equity and cultural competency In the update, Pollack wrote and will have optional community that the Public Safety Advisory chats for further engagement. The Committee — whose chief duty University hopes to have trained is to make recommendations to all staff by September 2021. improve campus security policies In staff development, a conver- — is working to identify new stusation with BIPOC staff resulted dent, staff and faculty members to in the creation of three subcom- join. The first meeting will be held mittees to focus on “work-life and in October.

The University’s other action wellness needs, the employment life cycle and elevating the voices surrounding police reform was a “series of meetings with represenand successes of staff of color.”

During the conversation with tatives of regional law enforceAIIS faculty, Pollack’s leadership ment agencies, with a focus on team spoke about “a public insti- understanding and sharing best tutional statement acknowledging practices around law enforcement our land-grant history, engage- interactions with communities of ment with the indigenous peoples color.”

The meetings included memimpacted by our land grant and

by Cornell’s New York campuses.” bers of the Cornell community She also wrote that she hopes for a and CUPD representatives, who “more overt and robust inclusion” talked about hiring practices, of Native American peoples’ per- accountability protocols, 21st censpectives. tury policing and civil discourse.

One of the biggest concerns of Do Better Cornell and Kathryn Stamm can be reached at other student activists is the kstamm@cornellsun.com.

COURSES

Continued from page 1

to online and hybrid. After online classes, in-person courses that transition online after Thanksgiving break are the most common format.

Classes that only consist of pre-recorded lectures — called distance learning asynchronous — make up less than 2 percent of the roster. Hybrid courses, which require some in-person learning, consist of nearly 9 percent of the classes offered this fall.

Approximately 80 percent of classes in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations are fully online, making it the undergraduate college with the highest percentage of all-online courses.

The College of Architecture, Art and Planning has the highest percentage of in-person classes that transition online — a third of them have started in Milstein and Tjaden Hall studios.

Familiar Cornell favorites also look different this semester. The thousands of students taking introductory psychology or oceanography won’t find their professors lecturing from the Bailey Hall stage, but live from

their Zoom screens. Students taking Hotel Administraton 4300: Introduction to Wines won’t be sipping along with their professors each week, but will enjoy the course online.

Meanwhile, students are running experiments and recording data inside the Physical Sciences Building and on the engineering quad.

More than half of lab classes are held in person until they transition online in December.

Most campus lecture halls sit empty, as over two-thirds of lecture classes across colleges are online only. Cornell is holding over 80 percent of seminars over Zoom, rather than around wooden tables and in cramped classrooms.

And for students taking at least one in-person class, they won’t have a classmate beside them to turn to for help.

Students wear masks and sit several chairs apart in lecture halls that were once packed, while their peers Zoom in from miles away. Even in a hybrid semester, students are often much farther than just six feet apart.

Meghana Srivastava can be reached at msrivastava@cornellsun.com.

4 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Science

SCIENCE Addressing Mental Health of Students During COVID

By TAMARA KAMIS and SRISHTI TYAGI Sun Senior Staff Writers

As the number of COVID-19 cases on campus continues to rise, stress associated with the pandemic has worsened mental health concerns for many students.

In a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 74.9 percent of 18 to 24 year-olds reported having experienced mental health challenges, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression.

According to postdoctoral researcher Kaylin Ratner, human development, college students often struggle with mental health more as they navigate the uncertain process of becoming independent adults.

However, common parts of emerging to adulthood — such finding work — have become more challenging during the pandemic, which could exacerbate mental health concerns for some young adults, Ratner said.

Ratner explained that the prevalence of mental illnesses in young adults was already increasing pre-pandemic. These conditions, such as anxiety and depression, can alter individuals’ perception of the world, which make coping with a pandemic even more difficult for some individuals.

For example, people with depression tend to pay more attention to negative topics and struggle to be hopeful about the future, according to Ratner.

“The pandemic is rife with negative stimuli to attend to, so it would be easy to become entrapped in a vicious cycle of negative attention and mood,” Ratner said in an email to The Sun. The pandemic’s toll on mental health

creates even more unease for Cornellians coping with pre-existing mental health conditions. Mar Buquez ’22, a first-generation low-income student who has struggled with medication-resistant depression and anxiety for over a decade, has long experienced pain due to mental illness.

Even Buquez, however, did not anticipate the struggles caused by both the pandemic and the subsequent disruption of his ketamine infusions — a treatment for depression that requires a specialized clinic. Stay-athome orders delayed Buquez’s treatment for seven months, during which he experienced panic attacks and depressive episodes.

“I think the fact that I was used to isolating made it easier to quarantine at the beginning, but as the pandemic goes on the isolation becomes more stressful,” Buquez said.

Although the pandemic has worsened the mental health of many young adults, there are ways students can support one another and improve their own mental wellbeing.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach for coping mechanisms, Ratner said. However, as a starting point for managing students’ mental health, Ratner recommended using mindfulness apps, staying physically active, sticking to a daily routine and limiting consumption of distressing news sources.

Melanie Little, director of youth services at the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County, also suggested trying to overcome the effects of social isolation by finding safe, distanced ways to connect with friends, family and peers.

For students, faculty and staff concerned for one another’s mental health, Ratner also suggested empathic listening as a method of

EMMA HOARTY / SUN PHOTOGRAPHER

Providing Support | Cornell Health’s fifth floor has space reserved for mental health services. providing support.

“When people share problems, they’re not often asking you to solve that problem for them,” Ratner said. “Sometimes just being able to reflect back what you’re hearing — a skill that shows that you acknowledge and understand the speaker’s concerns — is enough for the speaker to feel validated.”

Cornell Health provides a wide range of services for students in need of mental health support. According to Dr. Alecia Sundsmo, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, CAPS will continue to offer telehealth consultation for eligible students in New York.

Students outside of New York cannot get traditional counseling from CAPS due to federal law and licensing guidelines, according to Sundsmo. However, these students can still access CAPS-led workshops and Let’s

Talk services as Cornell Health continues to explore other methods of providing support for the future.

“Cornell Health is actively exploring ways to contract with another agency that has access to a large pool of providers licensed in various jurisdictions to provide support to students outside of New York,” Sundsmo said.

Cornell Health also has a virtual support group for students impacted by COVID-19 grief, as well as other free weekly support groups. Faculty and staff can turn to the Faculty & Staff Assistance Program for free professional counseling.

Tamara Kamis can be reached at tkamis@ cornellsun.com and Srishti Tyagi can be reached at styagi@cornellsun.com.

A&E

Tuesday, September 8, 2020 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 5

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT T

Let’s Take Disco Seriously

o the chagrin of history enthusiasts everywhere, many of the cultural moments most essential to American imagery have since shed their charm and disintegrated into tasteless, Halloween costume-style tropes. Disco is no exception. These days, we reduce the groundbreaking nature of disco culture to a pair of go-go boots and a metallic halter top.

The vibrancy and vitality of the music that emboldened these trends has been largely forgotten.

We look not to the marginalized artists who bore the movement almost entirely on their own, but to the mainstream media fixtures who popularized it. As the style continues to weave its way through the musical food chain and into our ears, it’s undeniably clear that the disco inferno rages on — and, as Donna Summer would tell us, it’s some pretty “hot stuff.”

In order to truly understand disco’s place in the American music terrain, it is imperative to understand the 1970s as a backdrop. The countercultures and the progressivism of the preceding decade nearly pushed right-wing and even moderate Americans over the edge, leaving them to fume in the wake of their own dismissal. They craved a widespread reinstatement of more conservative social policy, and for the most part, they succeeded. The “silent majority” championed a leader committed to the erasure of plans designed to ease the burdens of the poor (thanks, Nixon).

The “New Right” blocked the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment.

U.S. engagement in proxy wars reinforced a heavily fabricated and deeply ironic sense of democracy that had come to be synonymous with the American name.

H o w e v e r, what these con-

servatives desired above all else was neither victory in Congress nor in the courtroom — they lusted after a restoration of conventional, establishment values. They yearned for a day when the exclusion and the (albeit superficial) stability of the 1950s would return, when nuclear families would once again join around the television for their daily dose of capitalist programming and immerse themselves wholeheartedly in the consumer society. What did they receive in return for these earnest wishes?

Bell bottoms, overflowing nightclubs and an expanding spotlight on Black performers.

Nightclubs frequented by Black, Latinx and LGBTQ partygoers were largely responsible for the genesis of the genre.

Deejays harnessed their own musical expertise to nurse age-old categories of sound into an aural experience awash with unmistakable qualities of motion and animation. A waltz into any one of New York’s numerous nightlife landmarks would reveal a haven entirely separate from the orderly grid of sidewalks just beyond the door, with Midtown’s Studio 54 as the most prominent example.

Disco was fueled by an easily discernible commitment to the ostentatious, spawning a fashion complete with bold shapes and outlandishly loud patterns.

More so than other genres, disco culture was also remarkable for its physical aspect, ranging from acrobatics performances in clubs to dance floors that filled until they practically had pulses of their own. As if all of this intrigue wasn’t enough to alarm straight-laced, religion-loving Americans in wide swaths of the country, even the most innocent of the nightly rituals were forbidden under the city’s Cabaret Law, a legal remnant of Prohibition that was only repealed in 2017.

Before long, however, the narrative was carefully detached from its “provocative” roots. John Badham’s 1977 blockbuster Saturday Night Fever promoted an image of disco that was simply incongruous with the style’s origins, swapping out the Black and gay major players for COURTESY OF BBC John Travolta’s leather-clad Italian-

American. Similarly, the film’s soundtrack was largely monopolized by the Bee Gees, who, though achieving legend status, were not exactly representative of the population that truly cultivated disco. For example, the voices of several Black women — Sister Sledge, Chaka Khan, the Pointer Sisters, Diana Ross — that ruled the disco era were not granted spots on the record, thereby ushering them to the sidelines of a movement they were deeply responsible for creating.

Rewind By the end of the decade, hating disco had become the proxy for expressing discontent with those who had generated it. In 1979, “Disco Demolition Night” even entered the vernacular as baseball fans in Chicago destroyed not only disco records, but work by Black artists of a handful of styles.

While disco may no longer be the genre at the forefront of the American club scene, to dismiss it as entirely irrelevant would carelessly neglect an extensive and irrefutable legacy.

Disco was a crucial period of experimentation for a handful of music production technologies that were coming of age in the 1970s. Remixing is perhaps the most striking example, having originated earlier in Jamaica yet achieving compelling success during disco’s heyday. Likewise, disco’s widespread utilization of synthesizers moved the innovation out of the ether and into the open, inspiring countless styles that feel at first glance utterly and completely detached from disco itself — ambient, house, ethereal wave. Even beyond these advancements, the lineup of modern artists whose sounds draw from disco is a long one, including Daft Punk, Mark Ronson and Tame Impala.

Disco thrived on a disruption of the status quo and a total refusal of the value system that prevailed at the time it was created. It derailed the notions of what was expected and accepted, highlighting communities largely ostracized from the ideals upheld in previous decades. Disco expanded the demarcations of how we conceptualize music, driving home the impression that sound bleeds into fashion and leisure and lifestyle. Disco is surviving proof that art cannot be compartmentalized from the remaining aspects of our lives — it shocks us, it shakes us, it shapes us.

Megan Pontin

Megan Pontin is a sophomore in the School of Industrial Labor Relations. She can be reached at mpontin@cornellsun.com. Rewind runs alternate Tuesdays this semester.

Animal Crossing, Empathy and Campaign Yard Signs

I

’ve always theorized that Animal Crossing’s popularity stems from our generation’s insecurity about never being homeowners. That, combined with the new reality of life under COVID19, was part of what drew me into the game during the early stages of the pandemic. Animal Crossing is escapism at its finest: Adorable interior design, cuddly critter friends and complete freedom to design your environment. This isn’t just my opinion; New Horizons’ producer, Hisashi Nogami, expressed upon release that he hoped Animal Crossing players around the world would use the game as an escape from COVID-19, saying, “I am very disheartened and saddened by the events happening across the world. Considering the timing, we hope that a lot of the Animal Crossing fans will use this as an escape, so they can enjoy themselves during this difficult time.”

As I adjusted to life at home, surrendering my independence and giving in to the purgatory of Zoom University, Animal Crossing was one of the few elements in my life that I felt I could control. Beyond offering a sense of security, I found that part of what drew me into the game was that Animal Crossing felt completely divorced from reality. Whenever I was in game, I turned my brain off — no COVID-19, no politics, no nothing. I even went against my nature and developed a soft spot for the notorious tycoon Tom Nook, despite his capitalist inclinations. That was all part of the magic, and in my mind the whole point of the game. To me, Animal Crossing was a guilty pleasure. So, when I heard that the Biden campaign was offering virtual yard signs to Animal Crossing players, I was a bit confused.

According to Christian Tom, the director of digital partnerships for the Biden campaign, this effort is “an exciting new opportunity for our campaign to engage and connect Biden-Harris supporters as they build and decorate their islands” — which is especially important given the shift in campaign strategies under COVID-19. Though this felt random, I realized upon further research that the Biden campaign’s appeal to Animal Crossing isn’t coming out of nowhere.

Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) began to use Animal Crossing to engage with Twitter followers, and after opening her DMs for the first time since the Zuckerberg hearing, immediately tweeted “Honestly never in my life did I think opening my DMs would grant me faith in humanity but the brief window actually resulted in a lot of these messages being very wholesome” accompanied by a crying emoji. Additionally, protesters in Hong Kong, PETA activists and Black Lives Matter organizers have all used the game to host digital direct action, whether that be designing in game protest signs or, in PETA’s case, storming Blather’s fish museum and asking everybody’s favorite owl to free the fish in what the organization’s Twitter described as a “cultural reset.”

It’s possible that Animal Crossing — as well as other video games — is the future of organizing under COVID-19. But, I have to wonder whether direct action loses its legitimacy when performed in a digital landscape like Animal Crossing. I can understand the importance of finding

ways to connect with one another in spite of physical separation, as well as the appeal Mira of a format as widely popular as Animal Kudva Crossing. I can also see how, as people try build their perfect islands, the politics of Driskell toa “perfect” world could enter their minds.

But I have to wonder whether demonstraPortrait of a tions, or even yard signs, are important in Gen Z on Fire a wholly digital world.

All of this feels incredibly performative.

To be fair, this sentiment may stem from the fact that I’m incredibly bitter about not being able to organize more action in person, though there are of course weekly BLM protests every Sunday. It’s also possible that I’m being misanthropic for no reason, and maybe I should embrace the warmhearted spirit of Animal Crossing and be grateful that people are connecting, even if it is via digital settings.

Still, I can’t shake a pervasive sense of discomfort. I don’t love how Animal Crossing, a game focused around building an aesthetically pleasing home and interacting with snappily dressed animals, is now being considered some sort of political frontier. Especially as people all over the world gather in person and risk their health and lives in defense of justice, should we really care about Animal Crossing demonstrations?

Yet, as I’m realizing while writing this article, perhaps the reason that people are using Animal Crossing for direct action is the same reason that I took to using the game in the first place: A desire for tenderness, and to create a better world for themself — even if it is digital.

I can recognize that desire, and I feel it as well. During the past few months, there’s been many moments where I’ve felt crushed by the sheer weight of the world, and I know I’m not alone in that. Right now, nothing feels consequential. Every time that I feel any sense of joy, it feels like a betrayal, some sort of guilty secret that I have to hide from others. Because of the state of the world, I feel as though I don’t have the right to be happy.

I can recognize that this way of thinking isn’t a good way to live. And, as we all try to find the new normal, I’m of the belief that empathy comes first. So, rather than ending on a negative note, I’ll extend some kindness towards the many people organizing through Animal Crossing, because, like everybody else, they’re simply trying to navigate the new normal.

Mira Kudva Driskell is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be reached at mdriskell@cornellsun.com. Portrait of a Gen Z on Fire runs alternate Mondays this semester.

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Letter to the Editor

Tom Reed, debate Tracy Mitrano J. D. ’95 To the Editor: Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), you refuse to debate your opponent Tracy Mitrano J.D. ’95, for NY’s 23rd Congressional District, but recently stated: “I’m always willing to see the other side of the equation, and you do that . . . by sitting, by talking and most importantly by listening.”

I presume you adhere to your caucus tenets that state: “Every week we are in Washington, you will find Problem Solvers, proud Democrats and Republicans, seated together around a table, debating, listening, and working together to help solve these issues.”

So, why not talk face-to-face with Mitrano about the important issues in our district? How does it serve the people of C.D.-23 for you to evade a robust debate about the problems that confront our district?

Kris Hodges, Ithaca resident

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We’re Not Just Being Set Up To Fail, We’re Being Set Up To Blame Each Other O n July 21 The Atlantic published an article indicating that colleges were readying themselves to blame students for failed campus re-openings. Inevitable parties and quarantine breaches would be registered as violations of some form of a Behavioral Compact, allowing universities to lay blame directly upon their students.

Increasingly, however, Cornell has succeeded not only in creating metrics to blame students directly for the spread of COVID-19 but has leveraged the Compact so that students will blame one another, shielding administrators from much direct responsibility for the campus reopening.

Such internalization of responsibility and blame works in predictable ways if you understand the nature of power. The first step is an exertion of force — compelling students to sign the Compact — softened by the fallacy of choice. Cornell compels students to sign but insinuates that there is a degree of agency to promote acceptance of the terms offered. Students do technically have a choice: One could refuse to sign the Compact, but for many graduate workers this would mean a termination of employment, and for undergraduates termination or suspension of their education. Faced with this non-choice, students sign and formally, at least, accept the framing the university offers.

Step two encourages students to police one another. Students participate for a variety of reasons, not least because they become invested in these rules as a means through which to protect their own interests (the campus remaining open, their tuition money going towards the in-person instruction promised). It is also, however, easier to assign blame to concrete action than abstractions or omissions. That is to say, it is easier to blame a student for not physical distancing or for inappropriate quarantine adherence than to ask whether the university has unreasonable expectations of students or workers or is able to provide safe working conditions.

Thirdly, the often, though not uniformly, reasonable demands of the Compact work to further quash discussion of broader institutional responsibility. Physical distancing, mask wearing and limited social gatherings are all important means to keep us safe and healthy as a community. One cannot (and should not) refuse to wear a mask while on campus, but the Compact implicitly makes the claim that students are the potential source of the problem regardless of choices made by the university that otherwise leave us at risk. There’s little room to discuss the failures of, or hold the administration accountable for, poor decision-making or execution of COVID-19 safety plans because our acceptance of the general requirements to reduce community transmission are taken as an acceptance of the implications of the Compact. To be dubious of the work of the Compact can, in other words, be incorrectly read as a rebuttal of important public health measures.

That we are disregarding the university’s responsibility in favour of blaming students is clear. With the semester barely upon us, students have launched (and at least one faculty member co-signed) a petition to expel a single first-year

student. Little serious discussion seems to have taken place about the nature of this petition, including the ethics of student policing, underlying xenophobia and cyber-bullying. Further, few questions have been raised about why the university has not condemned this petition outright which seemingly exists outside of formal complaint mechanisms. The university’s silence clarifies the Compact’s work: Not merely to influence behaviors but to divide the student body such that it won’t be the university who does the ‘disciplining,’ blaming students for a failed semester; it will be students themselves.

Despite the recent claims that the university has a ‘meticulous’ plan it seems fairer to say that many of the decisions made about the semester are unfolding in real time. Thousands of students have returned to campus from across the country in the midst of a pandemic, many of whom were forced to find quarantine accommodations other than those promised them initially. Student RAs were left without sufficient Personal Protective Equipment to facilitate move-in, resulting in a strike. The COVID-19 Dashboard that recently went live with a promise of daily updates seems incapable of providing up-to-the-minute data. Rather than questioning these structural problems, we have tacitly accepted the metrics of the Compact and the university administration has disappeared from view.

No city, state, country or organization has contained COVID-19. Even those quickest to act have found themselves unable to stamp out the virus entirely. While individual responsibility is important and many of the stipulations in the Behavioral Compact vital for the health and safety of our peers and community members, it is entirely possible that the semester will be cut short. We need to be wary of rhetoric that absolves administrators of total responsibility as we fixate on the (ir)responsibility of students. Despite all the warning the administration has received about how contagious this virus is, the clear limitations in their current plans and the significant demands that COVID-19 restrictions place upon all students (and staff and faculty), the university has opted for a residential experience this semester. The reason that you, or I or anyone else within Cornell’s community have become personally and palpably responsible for the survival of our peers is because Cornell’s administrators have chosen this path for us.

We need to hold the administration responsible for creating the conditions under which we exist as much as they will hold us responsible for individual breaches of conduct. I don’t doubt that our administrators are well meaning, and working hard to make this re-opening of the university successful.

But I also don’t doubt that students are well-meaning, and working hard to make this re-opening of the university successful.

The difference between these two groups, then, is that one is in charge and the other is being held accountable.

Sean Cosgrove is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Cornell University.

Comments can be sent to opinion@cornellsun. com. Guest Room runs periodically this semester.

Comics and Puzzles

Cornell Crossword by Eric Sanchez ’19

Sundoku Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name.

(Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, September 8, 2020 7

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Sports

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

8

The Sun’s Senior Athletes of the Year MALE SENIOR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

rhy

Jeff Teat Will Return for Another Season With Red

By MIKE SEITZ

tradition from other accolades is the responsibility of the job — coaches select a junior who epitomizes pride, respect and heart.

Senior attackman and captain Jeff Teat’s “It means a lot knowing that the players skill, drive and selflessness are three of the who came before us did so much for this qualities that earned the Canadian box program both on and off the field,” Teat said. lacrosse product a place in Cornell’s record In 2019, the team gained national attenbooks and the title of The Sun’s Male Senior tion and was featured on “The Season” docAthlete of the Year. umentary. Teat channeled all his power to The hours that Teat spent honing his lead the Red in points (70) and assists (36) craft have transformed him into the phenom on the big stage, but ultimately the team did that he is. At 5-foot-10, 170 lbs, he is not not earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. the biggest, nor the fastest, nor the strongest.

The end-of-season disappointment fueled Rather, he is consistently the smartest player Teat’s fire for his senior year. Improvements on the field — visualizing plays before they showed early on in 2020, as he propelled happen and always seeming to pick out the Cornell to an undefeated 5-0 start. In what right pass to set up a teammate. proved to be the final game of the season, Teat’s career accomplishments have been the team’s biggest challenge came from nationally touted. In both 2018 and 2019, he Penn State. In clutch fashion, Teat stepped was a nominee for the Tewaaraton Award — up when his team needed him the most. colloquially known as the Heisman Trophy Scoring the game-tying goal with seconds of lacrosse. This year, he was named to the left, Teat laid the groundwork for a dramatic award’s watch list, but the award itself was win that was secured just moments later. not given due to the season’s cancellation.

“Every time we get to put on the big red From the start of his time at Cornell, it uniform it means a lot,” Teat said. was apparent that the Brampton, Ontario In retrospect, Teat recognized that much native was going to be special. Scoring 72 of his growth has actually occurred off the points during his freshman year, Teat broke field — affirming that classroom lessons have the freshman record previously held by deeply impacted his mentality for the future. attackman Rob Pannell ’13.

“To continue to be the best The next season, Teat version of yourself no matter “Every time we was a catalyst for his strugwhat you are doing — that’s gling team, launching it to get to put on the a standard that we hold each a 13-5 record and NCAA big red uniform it other to all the time,” Teat said.

Tournament appearance. Teat The future is bright for Teat, means a lot.” cites the season’s Ivy League as he was selected as a draft Championship victory and pick in two different outdoor Jeff Teat ’21 win over rival Syracuse in the lacrosse professional leagues. On Carrier Dome as some of his May 4th, the Boston Cannons favorite moments in a Cornell uniform. of Major League Lacrosse chose Teat with the “Our 2018 playoff push was memorable. 25th pick. Two nights later, the Chaos Lacrosse We weren’t highly rated but came out with Club of the Premier Lacrosse League selected some big wins,” he said. him with the 12th pick.

Much of the team’s success stemmed from Despite these professional opportunities, Teat’s selflessness. Facilitating a whopping 62 Teat will be making his return to Cornell assists across 18 games, he led all of Division I for the 2021 season. The decision essentially at the time in feeds. His 99 total points stand replicates the process Pannell previously as the 24th all-time best single season point went through to withdraw as a senior and total in NCAA Division I history. re-enroll for the following spring semester “Teammates are the most important piece during lacrosse season. of success,” he said. “I always got to play with While it is difficult to predict what will teammates that made playing easy.” happen to athletics in the future, we can be After being named a USILA All-American sure to expect great things from The Sun’s as a sophomore, it was clear that Teat was the pick for Male Senior Athlete of the Year, Red’s talisman. Consequently, he earned the Jeff Teat. honor to wear the team’s symbolic hardhat in honor of the late George Boiardi ’04. The Mike Seitz can be reached at meaningful distinction that separates this mseitz@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staff Writer

BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

#51 | Teat showed his strength not only as a player, but also as a leader during his four years at C.U.

BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

#20 | O’Neill playing a impressive game in the ECAC Championships.

FEMALE SENIOR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

O’Neill’s Goals, Leadership Sends Cornell to No. 1 Spot

By CHRISTINA BULKELEY Sun Sports Editor

Forward women’s hockey captain Kristin O’Neill’s consistently stellar performances over four years on East Hill make her The Sun’s pick for Female Senior Athlete of the Year. O’Neill led the Red in goals every year of her NCAA career.

O’Neill’s accolades are numerous, with some of the most prominent including her time representing Team Canada in the Four Nations Cup during her junior year, being named to an AllECAC team all four years, and earning a nomination for the Patty Kazmaier Award — NCAA women’s hockey’s premier award — in both her sophomore and junior years. She also captained Cornell to a No. 1 national ranking in her senior season.

The significant contributions to the Red that O’Neill made in her first season earned her the Ivy League Rookie of the Year crown and a spot on the ECAC All-Rookie team. As a freshman, she set a program record for short-handed goals with five.

O’Neill more than avoided a sophomore slump, earning even more ECAC honors throughout the season, which culminated in an All-ECAC First Team selection. Her signature short-hand-

ed goals kept coming, breaking the Cornell career record just halfway through her second season with the Red. She led Cornell not only in goals, but also in points and assists in a season where the Red just barely missed an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In her junior campaign, Cornell would not settle for missing the national stage again and made it to the Frozen Four for the first time since 2012.

Despite missing three games in the first part of the season as she competed with Team Canada in the Four Nations Cup — in which she recorded an assist — O’Neill still notched 38 points with

“It makes me super confident that our senior class can step up.”

Kristin O’Neill ’20 Cornell, good for second-most on the team.

During that NCAA Tournament run, O’Neill recorded an assist in the 3-2 overtime win against Northeastern in the quarterfinal. Cornell would go on to lose 2-0 against Minnesota in the next tilt.

While the COVID19 pandemic might have robbed O’Neill of her crowning achievement in

the form of a national title, fans will not soon forget this year’s Cornell team, which was arguably the best in memory.

Alongside seven other key seniors, O’Neill led the Red to a 28-2-3 record, with the Red’s one loss at home coming in the ECAC title game against Princeton. Cornell was set to take on Mercyhurst in Lynah Rink for the first round of the NCAAs before the tournament was canceled.

The Red’s 2019-20 season saw the team earn the nation’s best winning percentage and a No. 1 ranking in the USCHO. com polls for the final stretch of the season.

Even with her four outstanding campaigns with Cornell, O’Neill often credited her classmates and the team’s chemistry with much of the Red’s overall success.

“It makes me super confident just knowing that our senior class can step up on any given day,” O’Neill said after sweeping St. Lawrence in the ECAC Quarterfinals in February. “It’s a really crucial part of our team and it’s brought us a long way.

I think the underclassmen really follow our lead and that’s really awesome to have on the team.”

Christina Bulkeley can be reached at cbulkeley@cornellsun.com.