10-30-24 entire issue hi res by The Cornell Daily Sun

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Back For Redemption

Despite Losing Daniel, Cornell Enters New Season Primed for Success

It’s impossible to evaluate 2024-2025 women’s hockey without comparing the team to last year’s NCAA Tournament squad. This year’s version of the Red returns 21 of the 24 skaters who played more than five games last season, six AllIvy players and the entirety of one of the best blue lines in college hockey.

Cornell will add three impressive freshmen — two of whom have national team experience — a National Championshipwinning transfer and a top line forward who missed the second half of last season due to injury.

Yet what stands out about this year’s team is not the returners or the additions, but the loss. Until Izzy Daniel ’24, no Cornellian had won either the Patty Kazmaier or Hobey Baker, the awards for best collegiate hockey player among women and men respectively. Additionally, Daniel completed the “Triple Crown” (Ivy League Player of The Year, ECAC Hockey Player of The Year and the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award), led the team in goals, assists and +/-, along with being a captain and earning the praise of both current and past teammates for her leadership on and off the ice.

Before being selected 18th overall in the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft, Daniel helped lead the Red to a fourthplace finish in the ECAC and Cornell’s first NCAA Tournament win since 2019. For head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 the challenge is clear: How can Cornell build on the success of 2023-2024 after losing the best player in college hockey?

Defense

It will start on defense. Last season, Cornell had one of the best defensive units in the country, surrendering up just 1.88 goals per game while maintaining an 88 percent penalty kill percentage –– both top-10 in the nation –– and leading the ECAC in shorthanded goals.

Importantly, the entirety of the Red’s blueline will return, led by two first team All-Ivy upperclassmen, senior Rory Guilday

and junior Grace Dwyer. Both Guilday and Dwyer have both youth and senior national team experience, with Guilday medaling with Team USA in both the USA-Canada Rivalry Series and the IIHF World Championships. Guilday, a captain and one of 11 seniors, ranked sixth overall in a preseason PWHL mock draft.

The defense behind Guilday and Dwyer is deep, experienced and decorated with accolades. Senior Ashley Messier –– a captain and second team All-Ivy in 2023-2024 –– junior Alyssa Regalado, sophomore Piper Grober, and junior Sarah MacEachern, all played in 32 or more of the team’s 34 total games. They will be joined by freshman Rose Dwyer, Grace’s younger sister. The Dwyer’s older sister Rose is also a Cornell student-athlete, playing Lacrosse for the Red. Rose is considered one of the stronger incoming freshmen in the ECAC and has medalled twice with Team USA at the IIHF Under-18 Women’s World Championships.

Cornell’s defense was elite in 20232024, but with the loss of Daniel and her offensive firepower, the Red will be more reliant on its stingy play this season. Continuity in lines, playoff and national team experience and a talented goaltender should keep the Red among the best defensively in the NCAA.

Goaltending

In net will be sophomore Annelies Bergmann. Bergmann, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, posted an impressive 20-7-1 record to go along with a 0.927 save percentage and four shutouts. Bergmann has already etched her name in the Cornell record books –– her 660 saves and 20 wins in 2023-2024 are both program records for a freshman. Bergmann ended the season red hot, surrendering two or fewer goals in her final seven games of the ECAC regular season, then proceeding to shut out then-No. 9 in the nation Quinnipiac in the second game of the ECAC quarterfinals.

Bergman’s success can be attributed in part to the work of associate head coach Edith Racine, who was awarded the American Hockey Coaches Association Assistant Women’s Coach Award last winter. Racine has worked extensively with

Cornell’s goaltenders for over 15 years, including Lindsay Browning, Lauren Slebodnick, Amanda Mazzotta, Marlene Boissonnault and Deanna Fraser, all of whom posted impressive careers between the pipes for the Red.

Backing up Bergmann in net are two seniors, Brynn DuLac and Belle Mende, who did not see the ice last season, and freshman Jeanne Lortie.

Forwards

While there are few questions about Cornell’s defense, the loss of Daniel presents both problems and new opportunities on offense. Leading the charge in 2024 will be Cornell’s sole selection to the ECAC Women’s Hockey Preseason All-League Team, senior Lily Delianedis. Delianedis finished last season second –– behind Daniel –– in all major offensive statistics and was placed 27th in the PWHL mock draft. A former ECAC Rookie of the Year, Delianedis certainly benefited from playing alongside Daniel last year, but her shot creating and scoring ability should allow her to continue to succeed.

Behind Delianedis, fellow senior Kaitlin Jockims and sophomore Karel Prefontaine each racked up double digits in goals and assists last year. Named to the ECAC AllRookie Team and Second Team All-Ivy, Prefontaine’s knack for clutch goals and late season improvement sets her up to have a breakout sophomore year. This improvement and clutch instincts was exemplified when Prefontaine scored possibly the most important goal of the season in overtime in game one of the ECAC Quarterfinals.

Cornell’s season will come down to the forward production behind last year’s goal scorers. The Red’s defense and goaltending are among the best in the ECAC, and Cornell’s top line of forwards is also impressive. However, with the loss of Daniel, Cornell will no longer be able to rely on its top line to win games.

“We’re gonna need contributions from three lines, maybe four,” Derraugh said. “We’re not going to be able to rely on just one line, maybe like we did a little bit too much last year.”

Luckily for Derraugh and Cornell, the Red has immense forward depth on its

roster. Senior Katie Chan picked up 19 points in just 13 games last season before going down with injury and could start the season on the top forward line. Some combination of senior and captain Gabbie Rud (four goals, 15 assists), junior Avi Adam (12 goals, five assists), junior Mckenna Van Gelder (eight goals, nine assists), junior Georgia Schiff (eight goals, seven assists) and senior Claudia Yu (three goals, seven assists) should form lines 2-4, alongside two new additions to the forward group.

Derraugh seemed confident his forwards can achieve the goal of a more balanced attack, saying: “I think we can score goals by committee.”

How sophomore transfer Delaney Fleming will fit into Cornell’s lineup is a preseason mystery. The Minnesota native won a National Championship with Ohio State last season, playing in 21 games for the Buckeyes, while registering two points. Derraugh described her as a “dangerous scorer” in an interview with Cornell Athletics. How much she and freshman Lindzi Avar will play remains to be seen, but Derraugh has expressed optimism about the Class of 2028, saying the coaching staff is “very happy with [the] incoming class.”

Closing Thoughts

In 2020, Cornell was primed to win its first National Championship in school history after a 28-2-3 regular season and near perfect (19-0-3) ECAC slate. The Red was the top seed in the NCAA Tournament, led by current PWHLers Kristin O’Neill, Micah Zandee-Hart, Jaime Bourbonnais and then-freshman Daniel.

“I think that our team has a bit of a chip on their shoulder since 2020,” Derraugh said. “That still sits on our program and weighs on our program and so it took a while for us to regroup and rebuild after that.”

While much of the attention this winter on East Hill will rightly go to men’s hockey head coach Mike Schafer ’86’s last year at the helm of the men’s team, Derraugh has assembled another impressive roster that’s poised to make a run. Just like last year, if Cornell can get by Colgate, anything is possible.

Izzy Daniel Selected No. 18 Overall in PWHL Draft

JUNE 10 – After leading Cornell to the NCAA quarterﬁnals and earning just about every accolade available, Izzy Daniel ’24 will continue her hockey career in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

With the eighteenth overall pick on Monday night, PWHL Toronto selected the Minneapolis native, who is now set to become the eighth Cornellian to lace up her skates in the league. Daniel was projected by many experts to be taken in the ﬁrst two rounds, but concerns over her size (she is listed as 5 feet 5 inches) and lack of international experience may have factored into her slipping to the third round.

The 2024 PWHL Draft, held in Daniel’s home state of Minnesota, is the league’s second annual draft and will last seven rounds, with 42 players set to be selected. Princeton’s

Sarah Fillier was selected with the ﬁrst pick by PWHL New York, while four out of the top six picks in the draft are products of the ECAC.

Daniel — who earned the Patty Kazmaier Award in March, given annually to the top women’s hockey player in the NCAA — led Cornell in both goals and assists during her junior and senior years. In the 2023-2024 season, the Cornell forward was second in the nation in assists per game (1.12), third in points per game (1.74) and seventh in goals per game (.62). In addition to receiving the Patty Kazmaier Award, Daniel was named both the Ivy League and ECAC Player of the Year, along with ECAC Forward of the Year. Daniel’s impressive senior campaign landed a spot on the AllECAC and All-Ivy ﬁrst teams.

PWHL Toronto is coming off a disappointing finish to an otherwise impressive first year, finishing first in the regular season but falling to Minnisota in the first round of the playoffs. The team, led by

general manager Gina Kingsbury and coach Troy Ryan, selected Julia Gosling with the sixth overall pick in the ﬁrst round.

Daniel was considered one of the top prospects in the draft due in large part to her creative abilities with the puck on her stick. Fans of the Red have been wowed by both Daniel’s scoring ability and her ﬂair for playmaking in the offensive zone with well-timed passes.

While Daniel’s lack of international competition is a knock on her resume compared to the other top PWHL prospects, the effusive praise for Daniel given by her Cornell teammates demonstrates the former team captain’s leadership abilities. Current PWHLers such as Jaime Bourbonnais ’20 and Kristin O’Neill ’20 raved about playing with Daniel in Ithaca and seemed conﬁdent about her transition to the PWHL.

“I think that she is one of the best players I’ve ever played with and one of the smartest players

I’ve ever played with,” Bourbonnais told the Sun in May. “I’m really excited to see what happens in the draft coming up.”

The PWHL finished its inaugural season on May 29, with Minnesota defeating Boston in the fifth game of the finals to earn the first championship in league history. The league set multiple

single-game records for attendance at a professional women’s hockey game, culminating on April 20, when 21,105 watched Montreal take on Toronto at the Bell Centre in Montreal. In total, the league’s six founding teams welcomed over 483,000 fans throughout the regular season and playoffs, averaging 5,689 per game.

ELI FASTIFF Sun Staf Writer

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Ben Shapiro Brings Conservative Views to Cornell

Oct 29. — Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator and the founding editor-inchief of the right-wing media company The Daily Wire, spoke to a packed audience in Bailey Hall on Monday in an event titled “What’s at Stake on November 5th.” During this talk, Shapiro discussed the upcoming presidential election and ﬁelded questions about intersectionality, free speech, LGBTQ+ politics and former President Donald Trump.

Shapiro was invited to speak on campus by Cornell Republicans and the Young America’s Foundation — an organization focused on promoting conservative views to the younger generations — as part of Shapiro’s Fall Campus Tour. Cornell Republicans declined to comment on the event.

Two hours before the event began, students were already lined up outside Bailey Hall in anticipation of an evening of sharing perspectives and engaging in discussion. Roughly 1,300 students attended the event.

While attendees ﬁled in, they passed by a designated protest area outside Bailey Hall. The space, signiﬁed by a hand-written sign taped to a stone wall reading “Demonstration Area,” remained unused throughout the event.

Once students took their seats, Shapiro began to outline why students should not support Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Shapiro began this 20-minute-long speech by arguing why “intersectional wokeness must die.”

Shapiro deﬁned “intersectional wokeness” as a “hideous ideology” that assumes that “if one group is underperforming economically, it must be that they’ve been victimized by the overarching system, … and if one group has succeeded, that means that they must be exploiters.”

Shapiro voiced his concerns about Harris, criticizing her “pledge to kill the ﬁlibuster … to permanently stack the Senate in favor of Democrats, [and] to stack the Supreme Court or term limit the Supreme Court.”

S.A. Representative Suspended

Over Career Fair Disruption Local Orgs Try to Boost Ithaca Voter Turnout

Oct. 29 — The University has suspended at least 15 students — 10 of whom can continue their studies but have limited access to campus this semester and ﬁve of whom have been banned from campus altogether for several years — according to a statement from Cornell’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America.

That tally includes Sara Almosawi ’25, the Student Assembly’s ﬁrst generation student representative, and Momodou Taal, the international graduate student whose suspension garnered worldwide media attention.

The suspensions are in connection with a pro-Palestinian protest where activists forcefully entered Statler Hall, pushing past police, to shut down a Sept. 18 career fair featuring defense contractors Boeing and L3Harris. A University spokesperson said Cornell identiﬁed 19 protesters to date who

“disrupted university operations” at the event. The spokesperson declined to say whether any faculty or staff members are facing discipline.

Almosawi, who also serves as co-chair of Cornell YDSA, received an email on Sept. 23 from Christina Liang, director of the Ofﬁce of Student Conduct and Community Standards, informing her that she would receive a full suspension. The University is alleging that Almosawi was observed repeatedly blowing into a kazoo at a rally that took place on the ﬁrst day of classes and using a noisemaker at the career fair, she said. She was able to negotiate the punishment down to a non-academic suspension during an in-person meeting with Liang.

To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun. com.

Arush Rompally can be reached at arr252@cornell.edu. Ximena Balli can be reached at xsb2@cornell.edu.

Oct. 29 — Early voting in New York started on Saturday, launching a ﬁnal sprint from local organizations to boost turnout and engage voters.

New York’s 19th Congressional District is highly competitive, with Cook Political Report rating the district as a “toss-up” in the 2024 election.

With these high stakes, local organizations are ramping up outreach to inform voters about key candidates and ballot measures at both the local and national levels.

League of Women Voters of Tompkins County

Founded in 1920 after women gained the right to vote, the League of Women Voters of Tompkins County is a nonpartisan organization that registers and educates voters on national, state and local elections and issues.

The national LWV services VOTE411, a guide that informs voters on which elections are being held within their speciﬁc districts based on their home addresses. The guide also provides information on each candidate’s background and policy stance and about other voter initiatives that will be on the ballot.

Sally Grubb, the co-president and chair of the voter services committee of the LWV of Tompkins County said that being strategic in talking to community members is important when engaging in voter outreach.

“[When] you’re talking to people with small kids, you’re talking to a different generation who’ve got different issues than say, as a senior, that I have,” Grubb said. “They’re more interested in educational issues. So you have to approach them on that basis to say, ‘Are you ready to vote? Are you going to vote? Can we give you information about what’s going on?’”

Grubb emphasized the importance of individual participation, underscoring that every vote counts.

“One vote can elect somebody, and not voting means you’re not either supporting that person or helping prevent him or her getting elected,” Grubb said. “Opting out is really not the answer.”

Eat bop!

Alumni David Yun ’24 and Andy Jae ’24 debuted thebop! food truck on Oct. 18, now stationed on College Ave.

Page 10

Conservative commentary | As part of his Fall Campus Tour, Ben Shapiro spoke about intersectionality, free speech and other topics at stake in this upcoming election.

By BENJAMIN LEYNSE, DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER, CHRISTINA MacCORKLE, ANUSHKA SHOREWALA, and DINA SHLUFMAN Sun Senior Writer, Sun Assistant News Editor, Sun News Editor and Sun Assistant News Editors

By ARUSH ROMPALLY and XIMENA BALLI Sun Contributors

By TAEHEE OH Sun Senior Writer

AASP and A3C BeComing Lunch Series with Kaylee Yin Noon to 1 p.m.

Rockefeller Hall, 429

Guided Mindfulness Mediation with the Let’s Meditate Initiative 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. Upson Hall, 106

American Sign Language Conversation Hour 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Stimson Hall, G25

Cornell in Washington: Virtual Information Session 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Virtual Belnick Presidential Forum 5 p.m. to 6.15 p.m. Ives Hall, 305

Lisa Holmes ’92 to Retire as County Administrator

By XAVIER ROLSTON Sun Contributor

Oct. 29 —After 26 years serving Tompkins County, Lisa Holmes ’92 announced she will retire at the end of this year.

A career public servant, Holmes made history in 2022 when she became the ﬁrst woman in Tompkins County history to be appointed county administrator. She led the county of over 100,000 people through post-pandemic recovery in this role, where she was responsible for overseeing county employees, proposing the annual budget and collaborating with the legislature on social initiatives.

Early Career

Holmes’ connection to Tompkins County began in college. Holmes completed her undergraduate work at Cornell, receiving a degree in human development and family studies from the College of Human Ecology.

“In retrospect, I can see the common thread — starting in undergrad — was human services and wanting to be of service and help people,” Holmes said, reﬂecting on what drew her to working for Tompkins County.

She worked in multiple roles as a direct service provider straight out of undergrad. Though she enjoyed those roles, she was inspired to continue her education and focus on building policies that impact local communities.

Holmes received her master’s in public administration from Northeastern University, before returning to Ithaca in 1998, responding to a vacancy posting from the county. She seized the opportunity to use her new degree at the county’s Ofﬁce for the Aging, where she served as the aging services planner.

In this role, she was responsible for creating services or programs that met the community needs for adults in Tompkins County 60 years

old and above and assessing how effective those programs were. Holmes moved up quickly within the department and became the ofﬁce’s director in 2006 — a position she held for over 12 years.

“I entered with some trepidation, but I really enjoyed it,” Holmes said, describing her promotion. “I got to work with a great group of staff who were really dedicated and mission-based, and a lot of great people who really care deeply about serving elders in our community.”

County Administration During the Pandemic

In September 2018, Holmes stepped into a new department — County Administration — where she served as deputy county administrator, focusing on policy development. Soon, however, Holmes found herself taking on a new role within the department.

“Shortly into my role as deputy, we needed assistance. We were without a human resources commissioner, so I did a stint as the interim human resources commissioner,” Holmes said. “It was just going to be very temporary, but then COVID happened, and it turned into a year and a half.”

Holmes remained in this position for the earlier stages of the pandemic — a time when stafﬁng proved to be a major concern for the county. The on-site ofﬁce presence quickly decreased to half due to state directives, with many employees put on furlough or forced to work remotely.

Holmes worked to help set up policies for the workplace, which included working with the information technology department to create remote work protocols, as well as identifying “essential workers.” Holmes also made sure to care for the rest of her staff, working with labor unions and helping employees apply for expanded unemployment beneﬁts. She also worked to create COVID-19 related directives for employees, which included social distancing and masking

protocols.

On May 4, 2021, Holmes was named interim county administrator.

“At the time, there was a transition back to a new normal, so to speak, and establishing what that new normal was,” Holmes said. “There was a lot that had happened in our workforce.”

Holmes’ main concern was rebuilding after COVID-driven staff turnover. She explained that many more experienced county employees were already considering retirement, and the pandemic pushed them over the edge.

“It was really a period of rebuilding and a lot of hiring for management-level positions,” Holmes said. “We’re really missing a lot of that staff longevity and experience that we’ve had, but we’re beneﬁting from new people coming in with new vision as well.”

Breaking Barriers

Less than one year after her promotion, Holmes was named the next permanent county administrator. She felt proud, yet surprised to be the ﬁrst woman to hold this position.

“We’re a very progressive community in a very progressive county,” Holmes said. “At the same time, this ﬁeld of public administration is still very much a male-dominated ﬁeld. So in that respect, there aren’t that many women that are among my colleagues across the state.”

Many top ﬁgures across the county admire Holmes’ leadership and are sad to see her retiring due to her valued mentorship.

“As a human being but also as a leader, she listens, she has very little ego — she’s there to solve the problems and do the work,” Tompkins County Legislature Chair Dan Klein said. “What she’ll never do is react sharply, or get angry or jump to conclusions. The word that comes to mind for me is centered.”

Assemblywoman Anna Kelles Outlines Campaign Priorities Danielle Obisie-Orlu Elected as the new Grad Student Trustee

Oct. 27 — New York Assemblywoman Anna Kelles (D-125th District), a former Cornell professor in nutritional science, has recently found a shift in her campaign for a third term in the state assembly with the emergence of a last minute write-in candidate, Lindsay Lustick Garner.

Garner, who grew up in Ithaca and has worked in Finger Lakes real estate since 2004, announced her write-in candidacy last Wednesday, Oct. 23, in a Facebook video. Garner contends that Kelles “does not represent our needs as a community” and expressed concerns that the Democratic Party is overlooking the priorities essential for community well-being. Garner voiced her desire to see more attention to “what we need to be healthy, successful [and] happy.”

Kelles responded to Garner’s challenge, pointing to her decade-long career in public service and prior role in local government.

“I have worked in the local government and state government,” Kelles said in an interview with The Sun. “Having the experience in local government is actually really important because my roots are embedded in the community.”

Kelles emphasized that her “very diverse and broad” background as a politician and educator serves as a key advantage when representing her community.

With a Ph.D. in nutritional epidemiology from the University of North Carolina, Kelles said she is one of only two scientists currently serving in the New York State legislature and the only epidemiologist in state government in the U.S. She said that her unique scientiﬁc background contributes to legislative discussions, noting that she brings “a science mind [that] understands data.” Her expertise, she said, provides critical insights on policies impacting public health and environmental matters.

In her interview with The Sun, Kelles reiterated

her commitment to enacting policies that benefit her native Finger Lakes community. Her priorities for the upcoming term include environmental protection, criminal justice reform and affordable housing. She intends to introduce legislation that would enforce the scheduled 2025 shutdown of the Seneca Meadows landfill — the eighth-largest landfill in the country — despite attempts by its Texas-based owners to extend its operations.

Reﬂecting on her achievements, Kelles cited the Gap Fund — a program which gives funding to low-to-moderate income families to make necessary repairs on their homes — and the Just Energy Transition Act — an act which helps to phase out polluting fossil-fuel power plants — as major legislative accomplishments that, in her view, demonstrate her dedication to environmental protection and public safety.

Kelles also emphasizes the importance of the upcoming national elections, warning that “literally, our democracy is on the line.” She expressed alarm at what she described as authoritarian rhetoric in national political discourse.

“We have a candidate who has said, ‘You vote this one time, I win, you’ll never have to vote again,’” Kelles said. “That is the deﬁnition of a dictatorship.”

Outside of her role as an Assemblymember, Kelles cherishes moments spent with her family, especially watching performances by her husband’s community theater group, Running to Places.

When asked about her future, Kelles emphasized her focus on her current position but added “I will go wherever I can be the most effective and do the most good and serve the people I love and my community,” leaving open the possibility of future ambitions beyond her current ofﬁce. But for now, Kelles remains committed to representing the 125th District.

Oct. 23 — Ph.D. student Danielle Obisie-Orlu was chosen to serve as the graduate and professional student-elected trustee to the Board of Trustees, according to results announced by the Ofﬁce of Student Assemblies on Oct. 8.

Obisie-Orlu is pursuing a Ph.D. in International Relations under the Department of Government. Her studies of how politics of memory turn into political capital inﬂuenced her decision to run for the Board of Trustees. Obisie-Orlu said that understanding political behaviors helps expose international struggles, and she hopes to apply this concept to her work on the Board of Trustees before gathering student insight to address major issues at the University.

As the graduate student trustee, Obisie-Orlu looks forward to helping international students, drawing on her experiences growing up in South Africa and living in Washington D.C. with her Nigerian parents. She views herself as a citizen of the world instead of being tied to one geographic area, and therefore believes she can help students from nonlinear backgrounds ﬁnd their voice on the Cornell campus.

“One of the main things I’d

like to address is: If we are situated in Ithaca, how do we understand the relationship between Cornell and Ithaca?” Obisie-Orlu said. This relationship includes ensuring students have access to non-predatory housing and that Cornell is investing in programs that serve students.

Many graduate international students particularly struggle to ﬁnd housing, Obisie-Orlu said. She explained that in the past, international students have been taken advantage of by dishonest tenants when they sign their leases because they are unfamiliar with their new surroundings. She hopes to spread awareness to students of their rights while searching for housing to prevent this from happening.

“I believe in the power of using your voice to serve,” Obisie-Orlu said. “I want to make sure everyone knows the power of their voice.”

Obisie-Orlu said that international students particularly struggle to ﬁnd a sense of belonging at Cornell. She believes that her experience in public speaking gives her the necessary tools to be the voice for a community of students who often feel overlooked.

To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com.

By ISABELLA PAZMINO-SCHELL Sun Contributor

By HOPE THOMAS Sun Contributor

SUNBURSTS: Big Red Hockey

Men’s and women’s ice hockey play their frst games at Lynah Rink for this season. Here’s a brief history chronicled in photos

By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

LYNAH RINK | For many years, ice hockey was played on Beebe Lake. In 1957, Lynah Rink was built, where it remains their home to this day.

THE WHITELAW CUP | Ian Shane ‘25 hoists the Whitelaw Cup after Cornell defeated St. Lawrence 3-1 in the ECAC Championship last year on March 23, 2024.

A FISHY TRADITION | In 1973, a Cornell fan threw a dead ﬁsh at Harvard, in retaliation for a Harvard fan throwing a dead chicken at the goalie. The tradition continues today.

PWHL | Izzy Daniel ‘24, former captain of the women’s ice hockey team, now plays in the Professional Women’s Hockey League for the Toronto Sceptres, becoming the 8th Big Red alumna in the league. She was also the ﬁrst Cornell player to receive the Patty Kazmaier Award.

MAKING HISTORY | In 1967, the Cornell team won their ﬁrst of two NCAA national championships.

LYNAH FAITHFUL | In front of a sold out crowd, Kyle Penney ‘25 and Dalton Bancroft ‘26 celebrate after a Cornell goal on November 18, 2022.

HISTORY OF GREATNESS | On February 10, 2018, the women’s ice hockey team won the Ivy League championship. They have won it a total of sixteen times over the years.

NHL | Sam Malinski ‘23 is among the long string of Cornell alumni to play professional hockey in the National Hockey League. He currently plays for the Colorado Avalanche.

Sun File Photo

Justin Rattner/Sun File Photo

Cam Pollack/Sun File Photo

Ming DeMers/Sun Photography Editor

Anthony Corrales/Sun File Photo

Leilani Burke/Sun Assistant Photography Editor

Ming DeMers/Sun Photography Editor

Leilani Burke/Sun Assistant Photography Editor

Student Leaders Share Concerns Amid Indigenous Enrollment Decreases

By VARSHA BHARGAVA and AVERIE PERRIN Sun Contributors

Oct. 30 — “In my class, yet again, I was the only person with their hand up,” said Aleesia Dillon ’25, co-president of the Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell, recalling when members of one of her classes were asked to raise their hands if they were Native American.

In 2020, Avery August, the chair of the Presidential Advisors on Diversity and Equity pledged to support increased Native American student recruitment, but student leaders say the University has made little progress.

Following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to overturn afﬁrmative action, Cornell reported decreased enrollment for underrepresented minority groups including Black, Hispanic and Native American students. The Native American student enrollment dropped to one percent for the Class of 2028 from 1.8 percent for the Class of 2027.

The Sun spoke to Cornell University’s Native American student leaders, who expressed disappointment with the University’s efforts to recruit and retain Indigenous students and faculty.

University Initiatives to Increase Indigenous Enrollment

According to Lisa Nishii, vice provost for both undergraduate education and enrollment, the University has taken steps to increase Native American enrollment, including hiring a recruiter that specializes in Indigenous outreach, attending Indigenous college fairs, visiting high schools with signiﬁcant Indigenous populations and participating in Native American college access programs.

Cornell is partnered with College Horizons, a pre-college program for Native American high schoolers, and hosts events like Promising Futures, an in-person recruitment event for Native American students, through the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.

When asked about challenges in recruitment, Nishii wrote that “Indigenous students are a small percentage of the U.S. population,” and that many high schools with higher populations of Native American students are under-resourced and sometimes do not offer certain courses that are prerequisites for admission to Cornell. She also wrote that the schools with higher populations of Native American students are often challenging to visit in person, either because they are in rural areas, or because Native American students are dispersed across larger urban areas.

Nishii wrote that the University is currently “in the process” of modifying its recruitment plan to effectively reach more Native American students.

“We are not satisﬁed with progress so far,” Nishii wrote to The Sun. “We sincerely want to grow the size of the Indigenous student population at Cornell. We are committing to aggressive and afﬁrmative efforts to make this happen.”

The University has made similar statements in the past regarding increased recruitment efforts.

In October 2020, the Student Assembly passed Resolution 7, which, along with other demands for Native American representation and support, called for the University to maintain a Native American student enrollment of 1.7 percent — equal to the proportion of Native American people in the United States based on the 2010 U.S. Census. The census reported nearly double as many Native American people in the 2020 U.S. Census potentially partly due to differences in the race question tabulation process.

Former University president Martha Pollack and deputy provost and presidential advisor on diversity and equality Avery August responded to the Assembly’s resolution, acknowledging Indigenous students and faculty broadly.

“We are looking for additional ways to acknowledge the history between Cornell and American Indian and Indigenous peoples,” Pollack wrote in her response. “We continue to serve members of all communities through research, teaching and public engagement.”

‘The Words Are There, But the Actions Are Not’

Despite Pollack’s 2020 statements, Dillon said little has changed.

“Time and time again, as history proves, the words are there, but the actions are not,” Dillon said. “My opinion on Martha Pollack’s 2020 statement on Indigenous students is that it’s just another set of empty promises.”

Peter Iotenerah’tate:nion Thais ’25, co-president of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, said that he is concerned about the future of Native American and Indigenous students at Cornell.

“The overall acceptance rates brought forth by University admissions is incredibly disheartening,” Thais said. “I am concerned about the decrease in Indigenous students at this University who come after me. This is in direct opposition to President Pollack’s commitment ‘to serve members of all communities through research, teaching and public engagement.’”

In their responses to the resolution, Pollack and August also acknowledged the Morrill Land Grant Act, which allowed Cornell to dispossess land from the Gayogohó:no (Cayuga) Nation. The dispossession of land was violent and destructive to the millions of Indigenous people who lived there.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun Independent Since

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142nd Masthead

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Botanical Banditry in Uris Library

There’s been a lot of theft in my life lately. It’s not the world I want to live in, and I hope it doesn’t change me. A year ago, my bicycle was taken from the rack in front of my building on Tower Road, but that was my own damn fault. I didn’t lock it – not my style.

Interacting with students is a big part of my life at Cornell. I study plants, and how they evolve and interact with animals around them. I love to talk about them, grow them, eat them and visit them both close and far from home. A hobby for some time has been to grow water-storing succulents, often spiny, typically poisonous and usually quite hardy.

Several years ago, when I spied the glass rotunda, on my way down to the Uris Library cocktail lounge, I thought it would be a magniﬁcent place to share my love of succulence. However, it wasn’t until last year that I got up the gumption to ask the Director of Uris whether this was a possibility. Much to my surprise, my request to add a little jungle to the library greenhouse was met with enthusiasm. It was a convergent collection of caudiciforms, independently evolved barrel-like plants, one from Madagascar, another from Guatemala, and still others from the Sonoran desert of Arizona.

Of course, I knew the risks, but I wanted to share some of my prized specimens. Both the Dr. Seuss tree and Thick Foot Pachypodium were over 35 years old. The saguaro cactus I had germinated from a seed 24 years ago may ﬂower in the next decade or two, and perhaps grown an arm in twice as many years.

To those who now possess my green gems, I only have the following to offer. These succulents are desert dwellers, water them judiciously and only after a complete dry-down. Blast them with your sunshine, and put them outside from May to October. Offer a tiny bit of fertility once a year, and repot around 2030. I hope these slow growing and forgiving solar panels will bring you joy and help you cultivate a world you want to live in.

– Dr. Anurag Agrawal James Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

President Michael Kotlikoff

Michael Kotlikof is the interim president and former provost of Cornell University. His two year term as president began in July of 2024. His ofce be reached at president@cornell.edu.

Whose Foot?

Why are you punishing students for free speech?”

This is the question a Cornell student asked me last Saturday, as I crossed campus on my way to an event during Cornell Family Weekend.

One thing I’ve learned, over four decades of teaching and advising, is that if one student asks a question, they’re probably not the only one to have the question. And when a student asks a question in a way that demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding, they likely aren’t the only ones with that misunderstanding. I didn’t have time to give a full answer then, but I’d like to give it here, for others who might have the same question themselves.

As a private institution, Cornell is not required to adhere to the strict speech protections of the First Amendment, but the concept of an inherent right of free expression is so essential to the process of unfettered inquiry that universities depart from it at their peril. Examples of those departures during the Red Scare, Vietnam War and other periods of government pressure did not reﬂect well on many universities; part of learning and growing is the act of questioning the views of others, including university and government leaders. It is a concept of respect not only for the rights of the individual, but for the rights of the University community to express its opposition to government or university policy without fear of consequences.

Whether protected by the Constitution or, as at Cornell, by a core institutional commitment, the right of free expression is not unlimited. Speech that constitutes a direct threat to others, or violates the rights of others to speak or attend events (“heckler’s veto”), is never protected, since its function is not to share thoughts and ideas, but to silence them. To ensure both the right of free expression, and the right to pursue one’s own work, Universities commonly enact “time, place and manner” restrictions on speech. These are designed to protect and platform the speech of the protestor, while also securing the rights of those around them. In practice, this means that we, like every other school, college and university, seek to balance the right of free expression with the rights of others, and with the core functions of the University: protecting the right of speech while also protecting individuals’ rights to study, go to class and pursue research, as well as the University’s ability to conduct lectures, athletic events and commencement ceremonies.

As a University, we have an institutional responsibility to set policies that clearly deﬁne the expectations of our community, and the consequences of choosing not to respect them. At the beginning of this semester, Interim Provost John Siliciano and I communicated those policies, particularly emphasizing measured responses to peaceful protests that did not disrupt educational activities even if they violated time, place and manner restrictions, as well as our responsibility to prevent disruption of University activities and destruction of University property.

Unfortunately, on Sept. 18, a number of members of our community chose to disregard those policies, expressing their views in a way that fell far outside the standards of Cornell. Masked students forcefully and violently entered and disrupted an School of Industrial Relations Career Fair at the Statler Hotel, where representatives of Boeing and other companies were discussing career opportunities in human resources. Pushing past two lines of police and making so much noise that the event could not continue, members of our community exercised the heckler’s veto. Their actions disrupted the activities of the University, prevented other students from pursuing their goals, and violated both our Interim Expressive Activity Policy and our Student Code of Conduct. Consistent with our policies, Cornell students who were identiﬁed as having participated in this disruption have been referred for conduct violations according to the procedures and the protections outlined in the Student Code of Conduct. Where appropriate, criminal charges have also been ﬁled. Coming back to the question the student asked, no one has been referred for their speech, and free expression remains fully protected at Cornell. But we must understand the difference between protected speech and speech or actions that are designed to suppress the speech and rights of others. Recent Sun letters similarly appear to confuse this issue. Shouting or writing “f*ck you Boeing” is free speech and fully protected; preventing Boeing from discussing jobs with students is not. Calling someone a “kapo” is offensive, but protected speech; breaking through a police line is not.

When I quickly tried to point out this distinction to my questioner, she responded that “Boeing kills babies.” That is not a free speech argument, but rather one that asserts a moral justification for violating the rights of others; that assumes the right to decide what activities other students may pursue, what conversations they may have and with whom they may have them. Whatever their argument, whatever the grounds on which they see their actions as justified, we need to be cleareyed about what those actions are: not the assertion of the right of free speech, but the presumption of the right to suppress the speech of others. Thomas Jefferson, the flawed individual, but great political theorist and proponent of free speech, asked when arguing against censorship and for religious freedom: “Whose foot is to be the measure against which ours are all to be cut or stretched?” Indeed, who gets to decide which University activities are acceptable and which are not?

No student at Cornell has been punished for expressing their beliefs. Neither will any student be permitted, whatever their feelings of moral righteousness, to forcibly deny others the rights that are central to our mission at Cornell: the rights to freely speak, converse and learn, with whomever and about whatever they choose.

in the College of Arts & Sciences. His column, Te Other Side, takes on controversial issues both on the Cornell campus and in broader societal context. He can be reached at smb474@cornell.edu.

Your Vote Won’t Matter, But You Still Need to Use It

One week until the election. Seven days to decide if you’ll cast your vote, and for whom.

As I walk through campus and see volunteers in Collegetown dedicated to registering as many voters as possible, I can’t help but think: for most of us, our vote in the national election doesn’t matter (it does in our local elections). Unless you’re voting in a swing state — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or North Carolina — the outcome is already a foregone conclusion. To the 31 percent of the student body from New York, your 28 electoral votes will certainly go to the Democratic candidate — it is the same in my home state of Maryland. I could go on about how this is an apparent flaw in our system, where few votes in very few states decide the outcome. However, I’m not here to tell you we must change the system. Instead, I want to tell you that despite your (nonexistent) impact on the result of the national election, you still need to vote.

I’ll give you three reasons why. First, It is your civic duty to vote. I know this sounds cliché; you’ve probably heard this before — it was my 12th-grade government teacher’s favorite line. However, it’s more than just a catchphrase; it’s an expectation we should take seriously. Think about it: voting, along with maybe serving on a jury or paying taxes, is one of the only actions we can take that gives us agency in the functioning of our government.

Second, Voting is about visibility. Even if it doesn’t tip a national election, our vote creates a public record of what matters to us in aggregate. This record is important everywhere, but especially on a college campus where a significant number of young people have the opportunity to turn out. Here’s how it works: political campaigns live and die by data, voter trends and turnout rates. Consultants advise candidates based on this data, telling them which topics to prioritize,

which policies to promote, and which groups to cater to. If youth turnout is low, leaders have no incentive to focus on issues like student loan reform or climate initiatives; their attention shifts elsewhere. But when young voters are active, these issues get pushed to the forefront. Even if you don’t have a senator on the ballot this year or if the presidential race seems like a given, showing up in the national election has a ripple effect. It can lead to future campaigns tailoring their platforms and messages into outreach that targets you — the ones who vote. It might be subtle, but these shifts are real, shaping the future of policy by elevating our concerns. By voting, we are not just picking candidates; we are also ensuring our demographics are noticed Third, and to me the most important reason to vote, is simply because you can. This may seem obvious, but for much of the world, and even within our country’s history, the right to vote has been far from guaranteed. Look around the world — countries where voting systems are rigged or nonexistent, political expression is silenced, millions, and likely billions, can only imagine having a say in their government. Even in the United States, the right to vote was highly restricted until about 100 years ago (and remains so for some groups). It was not until years of struggle and protest that marginalized groups like women and Black Americans were granted stronger protections against the systemic barriers that had barred their voices. Each of these milestones was a victory but also a reminder of how fragile our rights can be — and how easily, if we take them for granted, they can be restricted or undermined. Thus, I urge every student to go to the ballots on November 5th or send in their mail-in ballot. Your vote probably won’t matter in this national election, but it absolutely matters that you vote.

Ayman Abou-Alfa

Ayman Abou-Alfa is a second year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His fortnightly column Mind & Matter delves into the intersection of culture and science at Cornell University. He can be reached at aaboualfa@cornellsun.com.

Cornell’s Most Important Overlooked Class: Labs

As a science or engineering student at Cornell, it is all too easy to get frustrated with labs. They tend to be time-consuming and tedious, especially when focus needs to be dedicated to other courses. Most of all, however, they feel like a dumbed-down version of the theory covered in class, lacking the depth of analytical problems. To many, it feels that labs are totally pointless, distracting from useful concepts that can be used for exams.

However, the fundamentals of scientific practice are not, shockingly, extracting elegant expressions from carefully posed problems. Instead, they are a pursuit of answers amidst unclear observations and contradictory ideas, guided by the fundamental principles learned in lecture. This is what science is really like, requiring clever problem solving as well as practiced interpretation. Lab work becomes an exercise in argumentation and rhetoric, as evidence to back up ideas must be used in conjunction with effective communication. Yet, this is rarely communicated to students, with labs feeling like they are tacked on to lecture-based classes.

Even if they are an important aspect of a thorough scientific education, the labs at Cornell are often lacking. Whether it be the burden of quizzes or rushed lab periods, there is a lot actively working against the well-being of the students. Pre-lab work, although typically presented by professors as an opportunity for additional credit, can distract from the actual concepts and techniques evaluated during the lab sessions — with students hyperfocusing on measured performance. These seem to be archaic detriments for evaluation, especially in the massive labbased classes, such as General Chemistry I & II. For these, and other hated classes especially, students are usually more than happy to engage with pre-lab resources, as they are ultimately motivated in getting a good grade on their reports. This, though, becomes excessive when it compounds into several graded preand post-lab assessments, as well as the mismatched paces of lecture and lab material. Knowing that students are burdened with other busy science classes, these odd incentive structures seem like blunderous oversights.

Complementing this, many of Cornell’s labs are verification-based in nature, which rely on checking the validity of scientific theorems. This work is often rigid and methodical, leaving little room for student initiative, rendering the work boring and repetitive. It is a disingenuous interpretation of what it is “to do science.” Posing hypotheses is pointless, as the result is already known, rather than observed and argued for. As such, some have proposed to relinquish more control to students’ hands, allowing them not only to have a hand in designing experiments (assisted by

professor supervision of course), but actively work in discovering relationships, rather than verifying them. Yet, despite such ideas for innovation, which hope to encourage student independence, some may wonder how effective these might be actually implemented. More freedom in labs is a far higher burden for both students and teachers alike. Students will need to be more involved in their pre-class preparations, at risk of emerging from the lab with no results at all, while teachers will have to interact with the ideas of various students rather than a general cookie-cutter method. Furthermore, in labs where student leadership could be actively dangerous, such as chemistry, this proves infeasible.

This leaves a dilemma. On the one hand, many of Cornell’s labs suffer from their businesslike administration, sacrificing proper scientific understanding for a more methodical approach. It only takes a quick walk around PSB to hear the groans of “I have lab later today,” or “This report is taking me forever.” The alternative, however, can be distressing in the academic liberty it offers. Students, many of whom have never had lab-like classes before, are at the risk of finding themselves lost, creating unequal pedagogical accessibility. Solutions to some of these problems exist in many of Cornell’s labs, but they have been held back from emerging to the forefront. “Introduction to Experimental Physics” is a class that, especially near the end, encourages students to participate in experimental design, allowing for the aforementioned process of discovery. However, it falls short in excessive hand-holding at the start of the course, initially avoiding the liberty that it gives students later on.

“Organic Chemistry Lab,” one of the better run labs, is a genuinely informative educational experience. Lab technique is contextualized well in lecture, and, despite the structured nature of the work, ends up being quite engaging. As a course, it is living proof that chemistry labs not only work better divorced from their associated lectures, providing liberty in student schedules, but also that tedious busy work, which the class lacks, is pointless. When it comes to scientific education, especially at a university as prestigious as Cornell, the efficacy of lab-based learning is of central concern and importance. Lack of student engagement or interest in many introductory courses is a calamitous misstep, as proper science is not taught, while students get jaded with the material as they learn it. As long as labs continue to get sidelined, they hurt students and their ability to uncover the scientific relevance of the phenomena observed in class.

Seth Berman is a third-year student

SC I ENCE & TECH

Cornell Lab of Ornithology Prepares for Project FeederWatch

By BHAVYA ANOOP Sun Contributor

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is gearing up for Project FeederWatch, an annual project inviting participants in the United States and Canada to observe and report bird species. This year’s season will begin on Nov. 1 and will continue through April 30. During this period, thousands of FeederWatchers across North America will count birds and submit their ﬁndings to the FeederWatch database.

FeederWatch data is used to understand several different aspects of winter birds, such as climate change impacts and bird distribution, population shifts and diseases. FeederWatchers can even report aspects of bird behavior, such as displacement — when one bird attempts to take the spot of another bird at a feeder — one of the most interesting areas of research, according to Anne Marie Johnson, FeederWatch project assistant at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Supported by a National Science Foundation grant, FeederWatch has expanded its scope to include reports on mammals, sick birds and participants’ responses to birdwatching experiences.

“We are trying to accomplish several things with these new data,” said the Cornell Lab’s project leader Emma Greig in an Oct. 17 press release. “If participants

see sick birds or a predation event, for example, how does it change how they feel overall about birds and bird feeding? We are also trying to understand if seeing squirrels, deer or other mammals affects human behavior or changes the way people feel about offering supplementary food to birds.”

Anyone in the United States or Canada can join FeederWatch by signing up online. Participants then choose “count

days” throughout the season to observe and report the highest number of each bird species seen at one time. Count days refer to two consecutive days of observing, which participants can take at any time throughout the FeederWatch season. Participants must follow explicit instructions for what to count, when to count and how to count to maintain the scientiﬁc reliability of the data. All counts, regardless of size, help research-

ers detect changes in bird populations, identify trends and monitor bird health nationwide.

“Participants often think that we only want to hear from people seeing lots of birds, but that’s not true,” Johnson wrote in an email statement to The Sun. “The only way we learn where birds are missing is if people who don’t see any or many birds send us those observations.”

Additionally, for many participants, FeederWatch is a meaningful way to connect with nature while also helping preserve it.

“Joining FeederWatch not only helps science but lets you learn way more about birds that you see all the time by really watching their behavior and habits,” wrote FeederWatch participant Brian Hofstetter ’26 in an email to The Sun. “I feel that watching birds brings me a lot of joy and also fascination with the natural world.”

Although FeederWatch is dedicated to collecting scientiﬁc data, the project also emphasizes enhancing participants’ relationships with the environment.

“FeederWatch’s greatest contribution to conservation is in the improved connection to nature that participants gain,” Johnson said.

Bhavya Anoop can be reached at ba436@ cornell.edu.

Cornell DEBUT Earns Prizes at Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting

By LAUREN HSU Sun Contributor

Twelve members of Cornell Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams — a biomedical engineering project team — participated in the Biomedical Engineering Society 2024 Annual Meeting held at the Baltimore Convention Center from Oct. 23 to 26. Two Cornell DEBUT sub-teams, SteadyStride and NanoLIST, attended the event with devices developed over a twoyear period.

The BMES 2024 Annual Meeting brought together nearly 5,000 biomedical engineering students, researchers and industry professionals. The agenda included industry tours, panels, research poster presentations and design competitions.

The SteadyStride sub-team presented its self-stabilizing cane for patients with Parkinson’s disease, taking ﬁrst-place in the Mechanical/ Electrical category at the Medtronic/ BMES Student Design Competition.

The NanoLIST sub-team accepted the “Healthcare Technologies for Low-Resource Settings Prize” on Oct. 25 and delivered a ﬁve-minute presentation about its winning lowcost and rapid saliva test kit that measures lead levels in blood. NanoLIST received the award on Aug. 26.

The SteadyStride cane reduces tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease and enables easier movement. Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that leads to difﬁculties with balance and coordination as well as uncontrollable movements such as shaking.

The cane features a tuned mass damper and dome-shaped base made of a shock absorbent, rubber-like plastic and coated in chlorinated rubber with treads at the bottom. A tuned mass damper is a device that

reduces vibrations with an internal spring-mass system. Instead of the entire structure wobbling, the energy that would wobble the structures causes an internal mass to move on a spring.

In SteadyStride, the tuned mass damper consists of four springs and a central aluminum block inside the cane’s shaft. The SteadyStride team designed the speciﬁc dimensions of the springs and the block to counteract the frequency of Parkinsonian tremors.

According to team lead elect Veda Kamaraju ’26, SteadyStride took inspiration from a skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan, that mitigated earthquake effects using a tuned mass damper as well.

Angela Altamirano ’25, a senior

consultant for Cornell DEBUT, delivered a 10-minute presentation on SteadyStride to a panel of seven judges. The judges evaluated teams on a 25-point scale based on criteria such as market potential, device potential and presentation style.

SteadyStride faced stiff competition from teams that included doctoral and medical school students, according to Altamirano.

“I think it was down to a tenth of a point between ﬁrst and third place,” Altamirano said. “And I believe we were deﬁnitely the underdogs in our category.”

As a result, winning the Mechanical/Electrical category surprised the team.

“When we ﬁnally got the announcement, we were all stunned

— there was really not even an immediate sense of joy,” said project manager Andrew D’Onofrio ’26.

Cornell DEBUT’s second project, NanoLIST, quantiﬁes blood lead levels through a chemical reaction. The process uses gold nanoparticles — in the presence of lead, the gold nanoparticles clump together, leading to a color change.

NanoLIST users simply spit into a vial, insert another container, press a button and shake the vial for 30 seconds. According to Cornell DEBUT, elevated lead levels in blood affects an estimated 815 million children. While current blood test kits cost $17 on average, NanoLIST costs less than 24 cents.

During SteadyStride’s development, Cornell DEBUT received approval from the Institutional Review Board to test its product on people with Parkinson’s disease. They collected data at the State University of New York at Cortland’s Biomechanics Lab.

“[The people with Parkinson’s in the trial] informed us that they would want something that’s a bit more discrete compared to a walker,” Kamaraju said. “That emotional aspect was also very, very important to us.”

As a winning team at the Medtronic/BMES Student Design Competition, Cornell DEBUT had the opportunity to discuss SteadyStride’s commercialization with a Medtronic representative, a chance that sub-team members found rewarding.

“People understand that there is a market. They understand that our product is novel, and they see a future for it. That was deﬁnitely really rewarding,” said research and development analyst Emma Weiss ’26.

Beyond Cornell DEBUT’s marketing potential and prizes earned, the impacts of its work excite team members.

“We deﬁnitely went into [the BMES 2024 Annual Meeting] already feeling that we won because of the community we have continued to build and are now a part of,” Altamirano said.

“This kind of diagnostic device would be distributed in low income communities,” D’Onofrio said. “[NanoLIST] would be an early stage test for people who are trying to see whether or not they do need to get treatment for lead poisoning.”

Lauren Hsu can be reached at lkh58@cornell.edu.

Participant project | Project FeederWatch invites participants across North America to count birds and submit findings for use by scientists.

Triumphant team | Cornell DEBUT’s SteadyStride subteam won the Mechanical/Electronic category at the Medtronic/Biomedical Engineering Society Student Design Competition in Baltimore, Maryland.

COURTESY OF CORNELL DEBUT

Bundle Up Cheaply: Best Coat Bargains In Ithaca

By Maia Mehring

Maia Mehring is a sophomore in the School of Industrial & Labor Relations. She can be reached at mjm743@cornell.edu.

Creeping into early November, it can start to feel like owning a Canada Goose coat is required to be a formal student at Cornell. Like clockwork every year, the thick, black silhouettes emerge when the temperature slips below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sidechat likes to poke fun at the fact that an overwhelming number of students on this campus sport designer coats that cost a pretty penny. The most affordable women’s Canada Goose down coat, the Cypress Jacket, costs 850 dollars, while the most expensive, Paradigm Expedition Parka, costs 1,995 dollars. It can feel isolating not knowing where to find an affordable winter coat. If you are like me and from the northeast, you know the importance of a staple winter jacket. However, if you are unfamiliar with upstate New York’s treacherous winter climate (and a denier that the cold will, yes, get to you eventually), you may be in the market for a jacket. And if you are still disagreeing, the only thing I have to say is just wait. Whether you have accepted the fact that you will succumb to the cold now or you’re cycling back to this article three weeks from now as a result of denying the reality of the situation, I am here to point you toward the best places to invest in an affordable coat just in time for the impending temperature drop.

If you’re looking for a coat with the lowest sticker price in the area, you’ll want to check out Plato’s Closet. This retail store buys and sells gently used clothing and outerwear in South Meadow Square in Ithaca, which can be accessed via TCAT’s Route 15, also known as “Southside Shopper.” Last weekend marked the beginning of the store’s coat event, with a new assortment of trendy coats on the rack for up to 70 percent off retail prices. Along the racks, name-brand manufacturers such as Calvin Klein, Guess, and

Northland Professional range from 25 to 40 dollars. Plato’s Closet is an excellent option for those looking for unique, affordable finds at dramatically lower prices than your typical clothing store. Plus, you’ll get the bonus of being a sustainable king or queen for thrifting a coat for this winter. Going on a Thursday might save you money, as long as you bring your student ID, as the Ithaca Plato’s permanently reserves Thursdays for 15 percent off with a student ID.

TJ Maxx sits across the street and in the strip mall, which can also be accessed by Route 15. It is the next place you’ll want to explore to find deals on designer and standard winter coats. Unlike at Plato’s Closet, you’re more likely to find a wide variety of long coats, which may be a better option for those looking for substantive parkas. At the higher end, brands such as DKNY and Michael Kors have retail prices of around 300 dollars and discounted prices of around 89.99 dollars. Also available were Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger styles, which ran for 59.99 dollars.

Old Navy, which sits just a few doors down from TJ Maxx, has potential for your next winter coat, too. Its sherpa parkas and its puffer jackets are on sale for 34.99 dollars. Walmart is another location for coat prospecting, as it is just an eight-minute walk from Old Navy and has coats averaging about 40 dollars. Both stores are accessible on TCAT’s Route 15, and you can walk from one to the other. Though expensive, REI Co-Op, an American retail and outdoor recreation services cooperation could be good options for finding the right coat fit. If you are looking for a reliable coat brand but are unwilling to spend the amount of the retail price, it is worth checking out REI to try on some options and then going on an online second-hand clothing platform to buy a coat. For example,

if you get fitted for a Patagonia jacket in-person at REI, you can look for the same coat in an online second-hand store, two of which being Depop and Poshmark. You may be surprised to come across the same 60-dollar Patagonia coat.

When speaking with a salesperson on the floor of REI, I was told there are often sales promotions for winter coats for REI Co-Op members. However, the subscription is 30 dollars a year, which may not be worth it to those looking to make a one-time purchase. Still, this is another way to get discounted prices on designer, durable winter coats (if that is your goal).

Something to consider for the future is the annual Dump and Run sale, a fall event that resells high-quality clothing and items donated by students leaving campus in May. Winter coats are often sold at a fraction of their retail price at the event. Not only are the coats for sale affordable, but they are also practical, as Cornell students have worn and loved them before donation. Though the next one is next fall, knowing that that resource is available to you is helpful. For students who qualify, they may be eligible for funds for winter gear from Student and Campus Life collaborates with Cornell’s FGLI (First Generation Low Income) Student Support. Their Access Fund application is currently open until November 22, and they can cover up to 250 dollars for winter clothing. Ithaca temperatures can be an adjustment, and seeing your peers casually walking around in winter gear worth hundreds of dollars (if not over a thousand) can be a gut punch. However, I hope you can find some comfort in knowing there are other options. At the end of the day, it is about finding a coat you feel comfortable purchasing—that is, once you finally accept that the hoodie just won’t cut it anymore.

How To Battle Fall Colds & A Busy Semester

By Melanie Delfosse

Melanie Delfosse is a freshman in the College of Human Ecology. She can be reached at md2262@cornell.edu.

If you’re taking any large lecture classes this semester, you’ve likely noticed that coughing has become a natural part of background noise. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been dealing with a lethal common cold and seasonal allergy combo for a while now. While colds just tend to suck for however long they last, professionals at Cornell Health have endless recommendations for how to deal with symptoms and when to go to the office. After catering to college students for years, here are some tips for treating and avoiding illness this fall season.

1. Rest as much as possible

If you’re sick, you probably feel much more tired as it is, so getting more sleep might come more naturally. Your body needs rest to recover, so try to avoid more activity than is necessary (those hills are especially bad when you can’t breathe through your nose). Many Cornell students cited rest as one of the most important steps to feeling better, so if you can, go to bed earlier and wake up later.

2. Drink plenty of fluids

Up your water intake (use those Owala water bottles everyone has) and refill often. Students especially love the warmth of tea, which soothes their throats. Increasing fluids might also loosen mucus, which helps ease congestion. Most dining halls have black tea bags and hot water machines near the coffee station. For a quick at-home remedy, you can also microwave water in a mug for a few minutes.

3. Gargle warm water for a sore throat

Growing up, my mom always added a few spoons of salt to warm water to “wash away the illness.” I hated doing this, but it usually helped. The warmth soothes the throat, and if you add salt, it helps reduce swelling. Throat swelling is one of the greatest causes of discomfort during upper respiratory infections.

4. Take medication in moderation

Pain relievers are usually helpful if you’re experiencing an intense

illness (e.g., fever), but taking Tylenol or Advil could alleviate a lot of physical distress, especially if you need to go to class or work a shift during your time of suffering. Decongestants can also ease congestion and help you breathe more easily. Meanwhile, cough suppressants might get you through class in silence. I personally hate these because coughing is slightly needed to get better and help clear the airways. However, if you’re hoping to just survive lectures without hacking the entire time, medications like cough drops or Vicks DayQuil and NyQuil are close friends. If you have any sort of chronic illness, consider visiting a doctor about intense attacks. Some illnesses like bronchitis or mono demand an extra inhaler if you have asthma. The health vending machine, located in Cornell Health’s lobby, is open 24 hours and has various cold medications at a low cost and free covid tests.

5. Follow some student advice on how to wake up

After speaking with fellow undergrads in shared spaces, such as in my dorm and classes, many recommended taking extra hot showers. Steam in the air helps to clear sinuses, especially in the morning. Eating a bit of honey to minimize throat pain is also a great course of action. It can be a natural medicine and a delicious treat throughout the day. If you just need to wake up, take the quickest route to class and avoid excess physical expenditure, take any medicine routinely before leaving for the day and bring a large water bottle (or tea thermos) with you. Try to prevent the spread of your illness, especially during the first five to seven days when you’re most infectious. Being sick sucks. You regret not appreciating being able to breathe through your nose and feel more tired after the most basic activities. It’s just harder to do the workload of a successful student. Not to mention the awkward coughing in the middle of class and constant sniffling. Hopefully, some of these tips will help reduce symptoms. Still, remember to seek professional help if you’re feeling unusually worse or struggling to breathe.

MELANIE DELFOSSE / SUN LIFESTYLE CONTRIBUTOR

Shapiro Addresses Cornell

Te controversial conservative fgure spoke to a packed audience in Bailey Hall

Oct. 29 — Toward the end of his speech, Shapiro made the case for voting for Trump, which began with what he saw as the stakes of the 2024 election: “the preservation of institutions.”

“I’ve given up on the question of whether presidential candidates should be rich in character,” Shapiro said. Instead, Shapiro explained that he sees politicians not as heroes or exemplars but as analogous to “plumbers.”

“They are there to ﬁx the toilet, and if they ﬁx the toilet, that’s pretty much something I care about,” Shapiro said. “Sure, it could be better. I would love it if we didn’t have the constant tweeting and the stream of bizarre jokes — that’d be great. But you know what I really care about? Whether the toilet is running or not.”

Additionally, Shapiro expressed support for Trump’s foreign policy positions.

“President Trump was responsible for the most burgeoning peacful era in Middle Eastern history”

Ben Shapiro

“President Trump was responsible for the most burgeoning peaceful era in Middle Eastern history, speciﬁcally because he was strong on foreign policy in the Middle East,” Shapiro said. “[After Trump,] the world is on ﬁre from the border to the East to Ukraine.”

After his speech, students lined up to ask questions ranging from foreign politics to polling, with a speciﬁc emphasis on gender and sexuality and freedom of speech. Shapiro urged students who disagreed with him to move to the front of the line. An event organizer also appeared to adjust the line order after talking to students waiting to ask questions.

One student named Bruce referenced videos of Shapiro discussing “transgenderism.” Bruce asked Shapiro what his aim in debating “transgenderism” is and about what a “political solution” would be. The student concluded by asking, “What makes my right to exist any less valuable than yours?”

Shapiro maintained that he did not deny

the right of transgender people to exist. However, he argued that he should not have to agree with the way transgender people characterize themselves.

“I’m not challenging your right to exist as a human, but I can disagree with your opinion about yourself,” Shapiro said. “The idea that we have to, as a society, redeﬁne categories of male and female to ﬁt people who believe that they are a member of the opposite sex … is an assault on truth.”

Shapiro said, “Do I have a solution to [gender dysphoria]? No, I’m not a psychologist or a scientist. What I know is not a solution to that is pretending things that are not true.”

Quinn Reinhardt ’25, who identiﬁed himself as a gay republican voting for Donald Trump, said that many in the LGBTQ+ community feel that liberal media produces a climate of fear regarding former president Trump and the Republican party.

In regards to this fear, Reinhardt asked Shapiro, “What message do you have for those individuals, particularly undecided, to address their concerns and potentially change their perspectives?”

Shapiro responded that Trump, as opposed to more traditional Republicans, has done a lot to move the Republican party closer to the left on LGBTQ+ issues. Shapiro said that at the Republican National Convention, Trump “literally took the Democratic platform” on LGBTQ-related issues. However, Shapiro made clear that he personally disagreed with recognizing gay marriage in public life as he argued the tax beneﬁts of marriage are for child production.

“[A traditional] view of marriage remains a very strong belief for many of us [in the Republican Party], including me. I’m a man of traditional marriage,” Shapiro said.

In an interview with The Sun after the talk, Reinhardt said that he was satisﬁed with Shapiro’s response and that he believed his ability to disagree while still informing was commendable. After the Q&A, Reinhardt maintained his support for Trump.

To continue reading, please visit www. cornellsun.com.

Local Groups Push to Boost Vote Turnout As Early Voting Starts

By TAEHEE OH Sun Senior Writer

Oct. 30 — Early voting in New York started on Saturday, launching a ﬁnal sprint from local organizations to boost turnout and engage voters.

New York’s 19th Congressional District is highly competitive, with Cook Political Report rating the district as a “tossup” in the 2024 election.

With these high stakes, local organizations are ramping up outreach to inform voters about key candidates and ballot measures at both the local and national levels.

League of Women Voters of Tompkins

County

The national LWV services VOTE411, a guide that informs voters on which elections are being held within their specific districts based on their home addresses. The guide also provides information on each candidate’s background and policy stance and about other voter initiatives that will be on the ballot.

“[When] you’re talking to people with small kids, you’re talking to a different

New Bimbap Food Truck Brings

Korean Cuisine to Collegetown

By ASHLEY LEE Sun Contributor

Oct. 28 — “Kimbap is our soul food as Koreans, and seeing students from around the world enjoying our food feels amazing,” said David Yun ’24, who opened bop! — a Korean food truck on College Avenue in Collegetown — with Andy Jae ’24 on Oct. 18.

The college friends turned entrepreneurs told The Sun that bop! is unlike other local Korean eateries. Its menu is noticeably small, featuring just four different varieties of kimbap — a classic Korean dish with ingredients rolled in dry seaweed sheets. The owners said they invited two chefs from Korea to help

them prepare gourmet dishes to sell at $8.99 and $10.99, working to ﬁt a college student’s budget.

“We really wanted to make it good and affordable,” Jae said. “So we tried a bunch of different ingredients, and we found the right combinations.”

Reﬂecting on their undergraduate experience as international students from South Korea, Yun and Jae take pride in providing an affordable food option using ingredients sourced from Korea. Especially after struggling to ﬁnd inexpensive Korean food during their time at Cornell, they resolved to start an affordable and authentic eatery for other Cornell students.

The idea of opening the food

generation who’ve got different issues than say, as a senior, that I have,” Grubb said. “They’re more interested in educational issues. So you have to approach them on that basis to say, ‘Are you ready to vote? Are you going to vote? Can we give you information about what’s going on?’”

Grubb emphasized the importance of individual participation, underscoring that every vote counts.

Rejoice the Vote

Aiming to transform voting into a joyful celebration, Rejoice the Vote is a nonproﬁt nonpartisan organization based in Tompkins County, “honoring the history of the struggle for voting rights, celebrating voting in the present and challenging the future to strengthen the democratic foundations.”

This year marks the second time Rejoice the Vote is hosting the Votingest County Challenge, awarding a trophy to counties with the highest voter participation in New York. In 2020, the challenge focused on cities, with Albany winning among larger cities and Saratoga Springs leading smaller ones. The competition has since shifted to a county-based format to include all voters, not just those in urban areas. Additionally, since voter turnout is calculated at the county level, the format would simplify the calculation process.

Jeff Furman, founder of Rejoice the Vote, elaborat-

ed on how the challenge rewards voter participation.

“We will give an award to a large county and a small county of who gets the highest percentage of eligible voters to actually vote,” Furman said. “We’ll wait for the [voter turnout] numbers and then do the calculation in each of the 62 counties in New York State.”

Rejoice the Vote also celebrates youth activism through both art and film to inspire voter participation. One of its national initiatives includes an art contest celebrating youth advocates for voting rights. Furman highlighted how storytelling through film also amplifies youth voices.

“We have done [a] film with local filmmakers here around what young people around the country are doing,” Furman said. “[The fundraising] came through Rejoice the Vote, and they [put] the film together. [It’s] about an eight-minute film called Youth to Power. So it’s just honoring young people doing work.”

Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Action Fund

The Planned Parenthood of Greater New York Action Fund is a nonpartisan nonproﬁt dedicated to building political power around Planned Parenthood’s legislative priorities and advancing reproductive rights and healthcare.

To continue reading, please visit www.cornellsun. com.

truck began as nothing more than “a tableside joke” between the two friends, who ﬁrst met as ﬁrst-year dorm-room neighbors.

“While we ate [from local Korean restaurants], we always complained about how there’s no authentic Korean food in Ithaca and how everything was so expensive,” Yun said.

Yun and Jae fell out of contact for the next three years, only to reconnect before their graduation last May, talking about their goals for the future over drinks.

To continue reading, please visit www.cornellsun.com.

Ben Leynse can be reached at bleynse@cornellsun.com.

Taehee Oh can be reached at toh@cornellsun.com.

Ashley Lee can be reached at ayl65@cornellsun.edu

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)

Sun KenKen by Lev Akabas ’19

Fill in the grid with numbers 1-6. Do not repeat a number in any row or column. In each heavily outlined set of squares, the numbers must combine, in any order, to produce the target number in the top left corner using the operation indicated.

Hungry Joe by Xinena Balli ‘27

Worst Fears by Pen Fang ‘28

Boeing by Mariana Meriles ‘25

& &

‘Civil War’ and the Unraveling of Democracy

When it was released in April of this year, Civil War captured the nation’s attention with its dystopian vision of a future America: a post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by a war. With the presidential election now just days away, it seems there’s no better time to examine director Alex Garland’s masterstroke of speculative fiction. The film is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6, forcing us to confront the question: What if the nation was again broken by civil war?

Civil War opens in the closing stages of the war. The so-called “Western Forces” (California and Texas), as well as the “Southern Alliance” (Florida and other southern states), are rapidly closing in on Washington D.C., desperately defended by the last of the Federal Government under the control of a despotic president (Nick Offerman). Meanwhile, in a depopulated New York City, photojournalists Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Joel (Wagner Moura) share their plan with a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen Henderson), to drive to D.C. and interview the president before he is captured and executed by secessionist forces. Shortly before hitting the road, young photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) joins the trip, the eager young upstart taken under Lee’s reluctant wing. From there on out, the movie becomes a road trip tour of the war. Garland expertly exploits the tense emptiness of the land. Strangers are potential threats, and pretty country roads have become ominously ambiguous byways. As the journey continues, the encounters of the four reporters slowly construct the bigger picture. The dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone and the president authorizes airstrikes on citizens — but for the most part, Garland focuses on the journalists and the violence they encounter.

While Civil War feels relentlessly brutal, many contemporary action movies are far more overtly

gruesome, partly because gratuitous violence is oneway unimaginative directors can leave an impression while working with otherwise interchangeable material. Part of what makes the carnage here feel so unrelenting and palpably realistic is that Garland’s visual approach doesn’t varnish the violence, turning it into a spectacle. Instead, violence appears shockingly casual. The non-chalantness with which Civil War handles violence sells its unpleasantness to the point it almost comes as a surprise. It’s an unpleasantness aided by the fact that no matter what happens to the protagonists, given the film’s premise, a happy ending is impossible. Wisely, Garland avoids the Hollywood-entrenched inclination for happy endings, which even purportedly independent studios often maintain.

The movie’s incredibly plain yet intimate shot composition, focusing on faces, also makes each moment more emotionally impactful. The thousand-yard stare of veteran reporters like Lee constantly contrasts with Jessie’s naively fearful face. With each passing mile, Jessie slowly becomes desensitized to the violence around her, mimicking her veteran company. By the end of their journey in D.C., Jessie acquires her own stare, unflinching in the face of gunfire and completely blank-faced as she watches Lee, and then, eventually, the president gets killed within inches of her camera lens. In these moments Civil War shrewdly communicates both the addictive nature of the rush of combat as well as its subconscious psychological toll. It is right up there with Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in how well it depicts the mental costs of war. Garland didn’t want to portray this war as a straightforward narrative arc but as an intrinsic part of the nation’s psyche. It’s a subtle suggestion that a country in constant search of enemies may eventually turn on itself.

Unlike most war films, which often rely on heavy contextualization to create tension, Civil War leaves expositional dialogue by the wayside. It avoids overt political commentary, focusing instead on the struggle for mental and physical survival amidst chaos. We never learn the specifics of why

the war began. We get clues, but we never learn the objectives of the other powers at play. We are not informed of any specific motivations or political stances. Even at the very end of the film, when Jessie and Joel succeed in reaching the president and ask him for “a quote,” the terrified president can only spit out, “Please don’t kill me,” while he faces his inevitable execution. There is no last great speech, only a human reaction, the desire not to die. Some see this as a missed opportunity for Civil War to engage meaningfully with our current polarized politics and to take a stance, but honestly, I think Garland made the right choice. By omitting specifics, Garland deliberately highlights the universal devastation of conflict without trying to overly moralize. The opaque politics of Civil War also helped it to bridge the partisan gap and attract audiences from both the left and the right.

Exit interviews conducted for A24, the studio that produced the movie, found that half of moviegoers identified as “liberal” and half as “conservative.” Garland didn’t want this film to be a self-fulfilling prophecy or pander to a particular political bloc. He wanted a general wake-up call. Garland wants us to know that if America is to go to war with itself, it will be because of the inertia of partisanship, not because of the specific views of the left or the right.

James Palm is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at jgp99@cornell.edu.

Pixies’ ‘The Night the Zombies Came’ and Halloween Rock

In perfect Halloween spirit, alternative-rock band Pixies’s most recent release, The Night the Zombies Came, puts a gothic spin on their signature style. As the first album released since new bassist Emma Richardson (formerly with Band of Skulls) joined the lineup, the LP is hefty, featuring 13 tracks and a total runtime of 39 minutes. Lacking the spark of breakthrough alternative rock albums “Doolittle” and “Surfer Rosa,” The Night the Zombies Came seems to be a longshot from the Pixies’ former glory. The elements that once defined the Pixies — their trademark weirdness, their genre-bending approach and Kim Deal’s intricate bass lines — are gone and replaced with a more straightforward, less impactful sound.

At least, that was my initial impression. As someone mostly familiar with the Pixies’ ’80s and ’90s music, I expected … more. The Pixies not only bent but revolutionized their own genre of rock in the ’90s, inspiring bands like Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer and the Smashing Pumpkins. But it’s 2024, and the Pixies are no longer college-dropouts trying to carve their niche in the 1990s alternative rock scene. To admit that they’ve aged is to admit that their sound has aged; it’s lost the screaming angst of youth and is replaced by something more familiar, more stable — perhaps not worse, but undeniably different. The bold experimentation that defined their past work has evolved into a more assured confidence. Although The Night the Zombies Came cannot hold a candle to the Pixies’ legacy, the album is not necessarily poor in quality; a fun, eclectic mix of songs, the album is an odd and apocalyptic showcase of the Pixies’ enduring creativity.

The album begins on a subdued note with “Primrose,” an atmospheric ballad of uncertainty that flirts with a folk-punk sound. Backed by an acoustic rhythm, a quivering guitar and a chilling bass

line, frontman Black Francis and new bassist Emma Richardson share the song vocally. Slow, haunting and cleverly layered, “Primrose” is an indulgent taste of the Pixies’ new sound.

The energy picks up with the upbeat “You’re So Impatient.” Originally released as a single off the new album, “You’re So Impatient” flaunts Joey Santiago’s tastefully distorted guitar line (featuring a short solo around the 1:27 mark), fun lyrics and the Pixies’ signature dynamic shifts.

Title track “Jane (The Night the Zombies Came),” adorned lavishly in layers of instrumentation, tells a story of a zombie apocalypse both through slow lyric delivery and a cinematic, almost orchestral execution. The next two songs, “Chicken” and “Hypnotised,” follow in the same vein of dramatism, featuring weeping guitars, blown-up choruses and exaggerated tempo changes.

“Johnny Good Man” pivots into more of an art-rock sound, layering a flamboyant yet relatively repetitive riff over self-deprecating lyrics: “This is just a drinking song / Something just for me to sing along,” Francis sings. Though it feels like filler, the song serves as a nice transition into “Motoroller,” which amps up the melodrama, capitalizing on Francis’ and Richardson’s harmonies in another ’70s-art-rock-esque track. This ’70s-rock influence persists with “I Hear You Mary,” where guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Levering take over with powerful instrumentation; however, the overblown instrumental lines only underscore the general flatness of the song itself. The upbeat “Oyster Beds” follows; reminiscent of classic hard-andfast rock, the song seems less charming than anachronistic in its execution.

“Mercy Me,” the next song up, takes a completely different turn into a country-rock style song with only a hint of the punk that defines the Pixies’ work. Backed with an acoustic guitar line, husky vocals, and lyrics about “Tennessee,” “country music” and “guitars,”

the album makes a confusing diversion from the artrock style of the last few songs. Although it might not quite work with the album, the song once again flaunts Francis and Richardson’s harmonies in a melancholic song of loss and longing.

With a fast, rockabilly sound, “Ernest Evans” takes the listener out of the sentimentality of “Mercy Me” in a sobering mix of crash cymbals and an enthusiastic guitar line.

The album then ventures into more folksy territory with the next song, “Kings of the Prairie,” a sweet and upbeat song that begins to wind down the album.

The final track, “The Vegas Suite,” follows “Kings of the Prairie” in its acoustic intro but quickly merges the folk influences with a more punk rock sound. Black sings about a hope for some sort of redemption, almost religious in his language: “He’s coming today / he’s coming to save us / I hope he don’t hate us / I hope he forgave us,” the chorus repeats.

Cohesive not quite in sound but in its gothic themes, “The Night the Zombies Came” may not quite live up to the Pixies’ past glory but holds its own as a solid Halloween album. Though I haven’t quite finished mourning the Pixies’ old sound, The Night the Zombies Came is enjoyable in its own right: it’s unfettered in its creativity,

YAELIN HOUGH

ARTS & CULTURE CONTRIBUTOR

JAMES PALM ARTS & CULTURE CONTRIBUTOR

Yaelin Hough is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at yh2299@cornell.edu.

ARTS & CULTURE

Student Artist Spotlight: Arden Conine

By MELISSA MOON Arts & Culture Contributor

Wednesday, Oct. 23, I was back in Tjaden for another interview with a student artist. Arden Conine ’26 is a

BFA student originally from Boston. She invited me into the printmaking studio, the location of her most recent artistic endeavors. I had the pleasure of seeing some of her most

recent work, along with discussing her artistic experience and how being at Cornell has allowed her to grow as an artist. Experimentation was the thing she identiﬁed as most central to her artistic ethic and practice, and it was readily apparent when I ﬁrst set eyes on her art.

Conine’s work spans a copious number of mediums; from rug tufting to ceramic pottery to printmaking to photography, she’s constantly experimenting and adopting new techniques. Her experiences are similarly varied. She’s spent time with muralists in Boston, making pottery in Vermont and even teaching at an art center. “[At Cornell], with all the facilities we have access to … I’ve learned so many new tools and techniques that my art now is really just experimenting with all these new things that I’m learning,” she said. Conine came into Cornell as a potter, but discovered a love for printmaking through the classes Cornell offers.

She then pulled from her collection to show me an example, laying out six pieces of paper on the table to put together her piece. The sheets came together like a mosaic or a puzzle, forming an almost magical scene of people relaxing on a lake. “This is the coolest thing I’ve done most recently; I’m excited about it. I ﬁgured out how to transfer a digital image

onto the handmade paper. This is actually a film photo.” She had processed color film, printed it large-scale and soaked the paper so that the image would transfer. The result was a dreamlike picture that retained all the intriguing texture and color of the handmade paper. Its materiality was what drew Conine to the medium in the first place. Papermaking, one of her current experiments, allows her to consider the paper as well as the image overlaid on top. To her, material is becoming increasingly important, and that’s reflected in the way she thinks about her pieces. “The way that the paper took the photo is really interesting to me. Anything printed on handmade paper sits super well on the paper and feels like part of the piece as a material … It’s photo, print, and handmade paper all in one.”

In fact, the creation of that particular piece is indicative of the larger approach Conine takes to art. In her own words: “Making beautiful stuff is important to me. Even if it looks really cool and beautiful on the surface, it does speak to something deeper. And it’s everywhere too. The design of something has such an impact on everyone who experiences it. I love to be the one making that.” In three words, to Conine, art is “color, humor, and experimentation.” All three ideas are fully and clearly embodied in her work.

Spooky Solar Flare

By EMMA ROBINSON Arts and Culture Writer

Halloween is this week so it is time to get in the spooky spirit! With exams and work piling up, I know I’m feeling pretty terriﬁed. Here are a few songs to get you through this petrifying time and help you let loose this Halloweekend:

1. Michael Jackson: “Thriller”

2. Trap Remix Guys: “Harry Potter (Trap Remix)”

3. Ray Parker Jr.: “Ghostbusters”

4. Jack Lenz: “Goosebumps Original Theme Song”

5. Andrew Gold: “The Addams Family”

6. Bobby “Boris” Pickett and, The Crypt-Kickers: “Monster Mash”

7. Andrew Gold: “Spooky, Scary Skeletons”

8. Retrospectre: “Halloweentown Theme”

9. The Citizens of Halloween: “This is Halloween”

10. Rockwell: “Somebody’s Watching Me”

“Overall, I’m making new stuff every week and I’m really excited about it. I like being super productive,” Conine said. Then, as testament to that exceptional productivity, she showed me a booklet of photography she had made and printed that very same morning. It makes sense that she’s already had a solo art exhibition this year. Conine aims to see in her art shows how her pieces speak to each other and create a cohesive environment. She then shared that, at one of her shows, “the main critique was that I had … too much [artwork].” Looking at the multitude of work she’d brought out to show me, I had to disagree with the critic. And she wasn’t at all discouraged either. Conine intends to keep making art, branching out and trying medium after medium the way she has been these past years. If the past is any indication, there is a lot more to look forward to from her. Conine’s work ethic is inspiring; there is never too much art in this world.

It would be impossible to do her vast collection justice in just one article, but it really is a joy to see. If you’re interested, you can visit ardenconine.com, @ delicious.bass.art on Instagram, or email her at akc53@cornell.edu.

Melissa Moon is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at mm3457@ cornell.edu.

First Female County Administrator Lisa Holmes to Retire After 26 Years Israeli Journalist Amir

Tibon Describes Life Since Oct. 7 Attack

Klein explained the importance of Holmes’ role in keeping the county running. He praised her ability to radiate calm energy while being under a significant amount of pressure.

“We have roughly 800 employees in the county, and all but four report to her,” Klein said. “She’s the link between the work that actually gets done in the county, and then the electeds, who just talk about it.”

One major task the county administrator takes on is creating a budget. Earlier this fall, Tompkins County began debating the budget for 2025. County Legislator Shawna Black remarked on Holmes’ work during this process.

“Lisa was faced with a very difficult task of creating a proposed budget that would cause minimal disruption to services but also take into account the decrease in revenue and ARPA funds that we have received in the past few years,” Black wrote in an email to The Sun. “She actually provided two different budgets and from there, it was legislators who made decisions on the direction of the budget as it pertains to our tax levy.”

Aside from her work on the annual budget, Holmes highlighted two major accomplishments that she was proud of. The first of these was passing collective bargaining agreements with the four county unions and completing a compensation analysis to help adjust salaries for employees.

Her second major accomplishment was creating the county’s first strategic operations plan, which she says will serve as a guiding document for the county.

“[The document includes] identifying the county’s priorities and action steps to achieving those priorities in several areas, outlining the county’s mission, vision and values and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,” Holmes said.

The county’s priority areas include equitable service delivery, organizational excellence, climate change mitigation and resiliency, health and safety, economic

opportunity and quality of life, according to Holmes.

Visions for the Future

Holmes is staying on through January to help incoming County Administrator Korsah Akumfi with the transition period. Holmes said one major priority area for the county is combatting homelessness, which she described as a “near crisis point.” She hopes to help bring Akumfi up to speed on the county’s homeless initiatives and “pass the baton” to him during the first month.

Black explained that Holmes’ preparation for future initiatives has been helpful for the County legislature.

“Right now we are faced with creating a new shelter in a short amount of time, with limited resources,” Black wrote. “Lisa has worked tirelessly to convene staff, organize ideas and implement steps moving forward.”

“Right now we are faced with creating a new shelter in a short amount of time, with limited resources”

Shawna Black

Holmes said she’s looking forward to a period of rest and relaxation, before hopefully reengaging with the community. She also expressed gratitude for her partnerships with Cornell and University students throughout her tenure and hopes students will continue to engage with the local government.

“There are so many ways to plug into the community as students and through the county,” Holmes said. “We have so many different things going on, whether it be around public safety or community justice, our health department, aging, youth services — you name it.”

Xavier Rolston is a Sun contributor and can be reached at xr46@cornell.edu.

By ROWAN WALLIN Sun Contributor

Oct. 29 — Amir Tibon, an Israeli journalist and author, joined a Grinspoon Hillel event via Zoom from Haifa, Israel, at 8 p.m. local time and 2 p.m. EST on Monday.

“I really hope there will not be a rocket alarm during our conversation,” Tibon said, alluding to the ongoing instability in the region.

Tibon recounted the state of his kibbutz —- a Hebrew word that describes a communal settlement in Israel —- named Nahal Oz to the 30 event attendees. On Oct. 7, 2023, Tibon woke at 6:30 a.m. to the rocket attacks in Nahal Oz, which is situated just 800 meters from Gaza.

Since this day, Tibon, his family and the rest of his community of roughly 450 people have relocated multiple times — once to a college dorm living complex for six months — for safety precautions due to Nahal Oz’s close proximity to the Israel-Gaza border.

Reﬂecting on the impact of the attack, Tibon described how he and his family “spent 10 hours barricaded in a safe room,” hoping to avoid detection by Hamas militants. He emphasized the severe toll on his community.

“Out of a population of 450 people, we lost 15 — that’s about three and a half percent of our entire community, gone in a single day,” Tibon said. Seven other members of the kibbutz were taken hostage, ﬁve of whom — women and girls — have since been returned in a deal involving President Joe Biden’s mediation.

In discussing his book released last month, The Gates of Gaza, Tibon delved into the history of Nahal Oz, a kibbutz long positioned at the frontlines of Israel-Gaza tensions. The book highlights the lives of young male community members who became unexpected military heroes despite no prior combat experience, as well as other losses that community members endured.

During the event, Tibon called on the Israeli government to prioritize an investigation into the events surrounding the Oct. 7 attack. The war will be over when hostages are returned to their families alive, according to Tibon.

“[The main challenge is] to convince the [Israeli] government that this is the most important issue and that it should take priority over all else,” Tibon said. “This will be a very important sign that we can, you know, trust our government [and] our military.”

To close the meeting, Tibon answered questions that were pre-submitted by meeting attendees and read by Hillel moderators. When asked how Cornell students can help his cause, his main message is to keep spreading the stories of victims of the IsraelPalestine conﬂict.

Tibon hopes that he and members of his kibbutz can return to Nahal Oz by this coming summer.

S.A. to Provide Drug Testing Kits in On-Campus Housing, Fund Airport Shuttle Buses During Finals

Each resolution proposed in the recent S.A. meeting passed without dissent

By HAMNA WASEEM and KENDALL EDDINGTON Sun Contributors

Oct. 25 — The Student Assembly voted on Thursday to bankroll shuttle buses to nearby airports during ﬁnals week, provide drug-testing kits and Narcan in on-campus housing and fund a local student-run theater group. Drug-testing Kits and Overdose Resources

The School of Industrial and Labor Relations representative Davian Gekman ’27 sponsored Resolution 10, which will provide on-campus dormitories and social housing units with fentanyl test strips, xylazine test strips, daterape drug testing kits and Narcan. Gekam introduced the Resolution during the S.A. meeting on Oct. 17 and said that he communicated with Cornell Health about the resolution.

“Funding for this will be decided by Cornell Health, who I’ve communicated with and I’ll say that there’s a lot of people there who look forward to seeing this resolution pass,” Gekman said.

Cornell Health will fund the initiative, including costs associated with training housing staff. While Cornell Health currently provides Narcan (an emergency treatment for narcotic overdoses),

fentanyl testing strips and xylazine testing strips for free, Resolution 10 makes these resources more accessible to students by placing them directly in residential halls.

The Assembly passed similar legislation last semester that called for funds to be allocated for such a proposal, along with the requirement of anti-bias and transparency training for all members. That initiative followed a semester of controversy over attempts to block women’s health resolutions by high-ranking S.A. members. 0

Data from the Tompkins County Department of Emergency Response shows that Tompkins

“Funding for this will be decided by Cornell Health”

Davian Gekman ’27

County’s 911 center received 341 calls related to overdoses in 2023. Gekman said that this resolution aims to increase accessibility to resources in situations like these and increase campus safety.

The resolution also incorporates mandatory training from Cornell Health on resource use for housing staff, resident advisors

and Greek-life and co-op housing representatives. Gekman said that while Narcan and other resources are designed to be easy to use and do not have negative effects if administered on someone not overdosing, these requirements mirror current training programs offered through Cornell Health.

Gekam intends to expand these resources to the Collegetown area to support students living off-campus. The resolution provides opportunities for off-campus entities such as Student Agencies and the Lux Apartments to partner with the Student Health Advisory Committee on the S.A. to operate a similar initiative to increase accessibility for students living off-campus.

Airport Shuttles

Resolution 11, sponsored by the Vice President of External Affairs Simone Chan ’25, will earmark about 4,000 dollars from S.A.’s reserve accounts — backup money set aside to ﬁnance similar projects — to fund charter buses to the Ithaca and Syracuse airports during the tail-end of ﬁnals week.

In the past, students have faced obstacles accessing transit to nearby airports due to limited transportation options or high ticket prices. This year will be the second time the S.A. will sponsor

this program.

Tickets for the Assemblysponsored buses will be free of charge to Cornell students, who will be able to reserve them via Campus Groups on a ﬁrst-comeﬁrst-serve basis. More information will be sent out through a campus-wide newsletter and the S.A. Instagram.

Special Project Funding Approval

Resolution 9, sponsored by the S.A. Vice President for Finance Niles Hite ’26, approved $5,000 to provide special project funding for The Melodramatics Theatre Company, a student-run arts organization.

Ethan Ordower ’25, president of Melodramatics, said that new microphones are essential for the production of their show, Company. The new equipment will also be available for other groups on campus to use. Ordower expressed hope that the funding will increase participation in performing arts on campus. All three resolutions were passed without any dissent.

Hamna Waseem can be reached at hw765@ cornell.edu.

Kendall Eddington can be reached at kle53@ cornell.edu.

Indigenous Students Express Disappointment with Admin

In Pollack’s response, she mentioned the act’s “laudable ideals,” and August wrote that “there is much to be proud of in our land grant history,” before addressing the dispossession of land. Cannon Cline ’25, co-president of AISES, said that they unrightfully praised the Act.

“This Act was one of many examples of the genocide of Indigenous people in this country,” Cline said. “To frame any aspect of it as a source of pride is to partake in the white-washing of Indigenous genocide and dispossession.”

Aidan Solomon ’25, co-president of NAISAC, said that, overall, the administration’s responses to the resolution offered little promise.

“I feel that most of the statements put out are just put out so that the University can say that they made an effort,” Solomon said. “I have seen very little change in my time at Cornell.”

Why a Native American Professor Left Cornell

In addition to Pollack’s statement, August addressed diversifying

Cornell’s faculty and student body in his response. He said the University “[has] worked to develop new policies for the recruitment” of Native American students and staff. In his response, August announced that Cornell would welcome two new faculty members who would work in the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program in 2021.

One of these hires, former professor Jodi Byrd, left Cornell earlier this year.

“I am no longer faculty at Cornell in part because Cornell has shown no substantive commitment to Indigenous studies, to Indigenous faculty or to Indigenous students institutionally beyond what Indigenous staff and faculty have been able to bring to AIISP,” Byrd wrote to The Sun. “Cornell continually assumes Indigenous studies is merely advocacy and its sole role is student support services.”

Byrd is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and said they were not informed that their hire was part of an initiative to increase Indigenous representation.

“My hire was a targeted hire in Literatures in English to meet a curricular need and departmental commitment to having an American Indian scholar whose work focused on American Indian literary studies,” Byrd wrote to The Sun. “I only found out after I arrived in 2021 that the administration was suggesting my hire was somehow supposed to be some form of redress on their part

and in support of student recruitment.”

Even within the AIISP, most of the faculty are not Indigenous, Byrd wrote.

Byrd now teaches at the Department of Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago.

Concerns for the Future

This year’s seniors comprise a large part of the Native American students on campus, Dillon said. With few Indigenous faculty members and a declining Indigenous enrollment, the co-presidents of NAISAC said they worry about rep-

resentation after the seniors graduate. Speciﬁcally, Dillon said she sees the sense of community for Native American students at Cornell taking a hit.

“This future is less and less Indigenous students on Cornell campus,” Dillon said. “[This will] ultimately lead to less engagement, a loss of community and sense of belonging here.”

Varsha Bhargava can be reached at vb372@cornell.edu.

Averie Perrin can be reached at amp444@ cornell.edu.

Empty efforts | Indigenous students believe the University has made little progress in recruiting Native American students and faculty.

Field Hockey Earns Win in Final Game at Marsha Dodson Field

By ZEINAB

OCT. 29 – Expectations were high this weekend with ﬁeld hockey’s (6-8, 3-3 Ivy) ﬁnal home game against Brown (7-7, 3-3 Ivy) in a must-win game to keep playoff hopes alive. Both teams entered Friday’s game with the same Ivy record — meaning both teams had to win this game to stay in postseason contention.

“I did not want us to completely ignore the pressure surrounding this game. … We wanted to use it to our advantage because it is a privilege to play with pressure,” said senior midﬁelder and captain Claire Wolfe.

From the pass back, the Red showcased lots of energy and explosive passes up to the midﬁeld and to the forwards. The Bears were also keen to win –– they matched Cornell’s pace and made many tackles to stop the Red.

The pressure and emotion of the game certainly got to the Bears –– two cards were given to Brown, while Cornell was not given a card the entire game.

“We have been working on being composed in practice a lot and I think it materialized during this game,” Wolfe said.

Ultimately, the ﬁrst goal went to Brown. Forward Lexi Pellegrino scored off a tipped ball sent in from

Lucy Adams in the midﬁeld.

However, the Red were determined to answer back.

“Everyone really dug deep. … We each had our moments but deﬁnitely an amazing game,” said sophomore goalkeeper Martha Broderick.

On a penalty corner, Cornell was able to capitalize with freshman forward Uma Käding, ﬁnding the back of the net off an assist from Wolfe. It was Käding’s ﬁrst goal of the season from a penalty corner.

“She’s been brilliant all week,” said head coach Andy Smith.

But Käding did not stop there — she scored another goal off a tip from a long pass from senior defender Claire Vaughn.

Both scores from Käding put the Red ahead of the Bears going into halftime.

“We knew at the beginning it was an all-or-nothing game, so scoring those two goals was incredibly important to us,” Käding said. “I felt relief.”

Yet Brown was determined to answer back –– 33 seconds into the second half, Brown had an opportunity with a penalty corner. Broderick saved Katie McCallum’s initial shot, but the ball landed in a perfect spot for Brown’s Zoe Lawrence to even the score for the Bears.

With an even score in the third

quarter, both teams had to dig deep.

“We used to get really frustrated and try and score frantically instead of focusing on our process, but our change in mentality and maintaining our standard of play has been super important,” Wolfe said.

The Red showcased “their process” for the rest of the second half, successfully defending six Brown penalty corners.

“A lot of practice and teamwork goes into defending penalty corners,” Broderick said. “Our defenders always step up when we need them to.”

With the defense locking down the Bears, it was up to the offense to ﬁnd the back of the net and seal the game. Off a corner, junior defender Georgia Kelly smashed a goal in to push the Red ahead of Brown during the fourth period.

At that point, all the Red needed to do was keep up the defense.

“When we play together, we really are unstoppable,” Wolfe said.

In a desperate attempt to score a goal, the Bears pulled sophomore goalkeeper Kylee Del Monte out of the game and put in an extra forward.

“It’s not a super common move in ﬁeld hockey. They were down to the wire,” Vaughn said. “So, we dropped back and went to man-marking to protect the goal and kill time.”

The Red held the score and ultimately earned its 85th win on Marsha Dodson Field. Broderick earned her 18th career victory in goal and now ranks sixth in a career in Cornell history. This is now Cornell’s third consecutive win.

Now, the Red are preparing for their ﬁnal Ivy game against No. 11 Harvard. The last two contests between Cornell and Harvard have been decided by a single goal.

“Last year it was a really rough game to lose on our home ﬁeld and we are going to take it to them,” Broderick said. “We have more to play for.”

The Crimson have already clinched an Ivy League tournament berth. For the Red, a win over Harvard would seal its goal of qualifying for the Ivy League Tournament.

“Harvard is the game we are concerned about. It is the big Ivy League, must-win game. … Our plan is to watch a lot of ﬁlm, use our game to beat their presses and defend their attack penalty corners,” Vaughn said.

Cornell will play Harvard at noon on Saturday, Nov. 2 on Berylson Field with coverage of the game available on ESPN+.

Zeinab Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.

Sun Staf Football Picks — Week Six

FARAJ Sun Staff Writer

Unfnished Business

In Schafer’s Closing Chapter, Cornell Eyes a National Title

JANE McNALLY Sun Sports Editor

In 2023, it was Boston University. In 2024, it was Denver, which went on to win a National Championship. Men’s hockey, instead, was home in Ithaca, reeling at what could’ve been an unlikely road to greatness.

Two consecutive regional final defeats have left Cornell –– picked to finish first in the ECAC this season –– frothing at the mouth for more, as the waning months of head coach Mike Schafer ’86’s tenure loom. As the team prepares for its 2024-2025 season, slated to begin on Nov. 1 and 2 for two out-of-conference games against perennial powerhouse No. 6 North Dakota, the feeling of falling short once again is simply not an option.

Losing just two seniors –– and one regular skater –– to graduation has the Red poised to defend its Whitelaw Cup title. Aided by an All-American goaltender, depth at the blue line and breakout year potential within the forward group, Cornell will enter the 2024-2025 season as one of the top teams in the nation. Here’s a breakdown of each position, what to know about the incoming freshmen and how the nationally-ranked Red will look as the season commences.

Defense

Perhaps the stingiest defensive group in the NCAA, Cornell will look to cement itself once again as a formidable, shot-blocking machine. Last season, the Red averaged the fewest goals against per game at just 1.9 per 60 minutes. That number is in part attributable to senior goaltender Ian Shane, the reigning ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year, but also due to the ability of the Cornell D to limit scoring chances before they reach the net. The Red also allowed the

fewest shots against per game at 22.7.

As for personnel, Cornell returns its entire blueline. Sophomore defenseman Ben Robertson, the top point-scoring defenseman and third-highest shot-blocker, is likely to assume a toppair role. Also expected to make an impact are seniors Tim Rego, Hank Kempf and Michael Suda, as well as sophomore Hoyt Stanley. Fellow sophomore George Fegaras, an NHL draft pick on the backend alongside Kempf, Robertson and Stanley, is expected to miss some time with a hand injury and leaves a substantial hole in the top-four.

Freshman defenseman Nicholas Wolfenberg enters the picture with an opportunity to succeed, though will battle for ice time as sophomores Liam Steele and Marian Mosko, as well as junior Jack O’Brien look to make a larger impact in 2024-2025.

Offense

The largest loss to graduation will be felt on offense, as Gabriel Seger ’24 ––Cornell’s top goal and point scorer last season –– leaves a spot for the taking at the first-line center. Behind Seger in both goals in points in 2023-2024 was junior forward Dalton Bancroft, who, led by his one-timer on the power play, spent the summer training with the Boston Bruins at their 2024 Development Camp. He was joined by sophomore forward Ryan Walsh, a Bruins draft pick who is a candidate for a breakout offensive year. Fellow sophomore Jonathan Castagna, whose rights are owned by the Utah Hockey Club, is another crucial offensive piece for Cornell.

In its most recent exhibition game against the University of Toronto, Walsh centered a first line with Bancroft and junior forward Ondrej Psenicka at the wings. Senior forward Kyler Kovich, who missed most of last season with a foot injury, earned shifts with the third

line and is expected to play a larger role in his final season.

This year’s power play should look almost identical to last season’s. Sans Seger, Bancroft and Walsh, Castagna will return while freshman forward Charlie Major, according to Schafer, has been playing with the top unit since he arrived in Ithaca. Quarterbacking the top unit will be Robertson.

The second power play unit, which got a fair amount of action on Saturday against Toronto, featured senior forward Kyle Penney, senior forward Sullivan Mack, sophomore forward Nick DeSantis, Psenicka and Rego at the point.

Goaltender

There are few questions as to who will take the crease this season –– Shane will return for his final year donning Carnelian and White, poised to lead the D-corps to another impressive season.

In his junior campaign, Shane posted a .923 save percentage, good for seventh best in the nation, and led the NCAA

with his 1.69 goals against average. Backing up Shane once again is junior goaltender Remington Keopple, who played in two games and earned one start in his sophomore season. Along with Keopple is freshman goaltender Justin Katz, a right-catching keeper from Montreal, Quebec who will provide depth at the position. All three goaltenders got action against Toronto, including an impressive third period from Katz who stopped seven of eight shots.

Closing Thoughts

Not much looks different for Cornell as it gears up for the 2024-2025 season, which is why it is predicted to repeat as ECAC Champions and contend for a national championship. As its infamous 10-man freshman class now returns as sophomores, the Red has ample experience winning. However, it’s the heartbreak that came with losing to the eventual national champions, Denver, that can ultimately aid Cornell to reach new heights in the final year of Schafer’s coaching career.

Meet the Four Newest Members of Men’s Hockey

JANE McNALLY Sun Sports Editor

After losing just two seniors to graduation –– and only one regular contributor –– men’s hockey will look relatively unchanged from its 2024-2024 season that saw it reach the NCAA Quarterfinals. Cornell returns the majority of its roster that clinched an Ivy League title and secured its ﬁrst Whitelaw Cup in 13 years.

Four newcomers will adorn the Red’s roster this season — two forwards, one defenseman and a goaltender. They will join a group of ten sophomores, six juniors and ten seniors poised to make a run at a national championship.

Charlie Major Skaneateles, N.Y.

Forward

The son of Mark Major ’88, Major enters East Hill after two seasons with the

Chicago Steel in the United States Hockey League. The New York native racked up 84 points over 105 games played, including a breakout 70-point year in 20232024. Standing at 5’ 10”, Major is better known for his skillful playmaking abilities and is highly touted by head coach Mike Schafer ’86 as the season gets underway.

“Charlie Major I think is going to be a great player in this league,” Schafer said. “He’s a guy [who] I think has an opportunity to be a very special player in the ECAC.”

Having played center for the Steel, Major has an opportunity to ﬁll a gaping hole at center left by the graduation of Gabriel Seger ’24, who was reliable as a goal scorer, playmaker and faceoff specialist.

Parker Murray Manhattan Beach, C.A. Forward Listed as 6’ 5”, 229

pounds, Murray is a power forward who has spent the last two-and-a-half seasons in the British Columbia Hockey League. A relatively late recruit, Murray pledged his commitment to the admissions process at Cornell on Jan. 3, 2024, nearly two years later than the rest of his freshman class.

Combining for 116 points in 139 games over his last three seasons, he has the ability to create offense while utilizing his size to make plays and big hits. Murray is the son of Glen Murray, who spent 16 years in the NHL and posted 651 points in over 1,000 games played. With the absence of junior forward Winter Wallace, who is out longterm with a lower-body injury, Murray could be expected to play a similar role as an aggressive power forward.

Nicholas Wolfeberg Calgary, Alberta Defenseman

Wolfenberg, like Murray, also hails from the BCHL.

The right-handed defenseman played 14 games in 2023-2024 before being sidelined with an injury for the remainder of the season.

In 2022-2023, Wolfenberg served as an alternate captain and posted 37 points in 74 games overall in his career with the Okotoks Oilers.

Joining an already deep defensive group led by seniors Hank Kempf, Tim Rego and Michael Suda and sophomore Ben Robertson, Wolfenberg will likely play a third-pair role should he slot into the lineup. He could earn some ice time early on as sophomore defenseman George Fegaras recovers from a hand injury, which Schafer notes as a big gap to ﬁll, but will likely have to ﬁght for minutes with returning sophomores Marian Mosko and Liam Steele and junior Jack O’Brien, all who are eager

to make a bigger impact in 2024-25.

Justin Katz Montreal, Quebe Goaltender

Hailing from eastern Canada, Katz is a goaltending prospect who has played in many different leagues over the past few seasons. Noted by Schafer as someone battling an injury in 2023-2024, Katz played in just 14 games last season, posting a 4-9-4 record with a .902 save percentage. Intriguingly, Katz catches with his right hand rather than the standard left and spent time playing in the United States with Deerﬁeld Academy, a private preparatory school in Deerﬁeld, Massachusetts.

Katz will likely play a depth role as Cornell returns senior goaltender Ian Shane, who was tabbed as a second-team All American in 2023-2024 and is the reigning ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year.

MEN’S HOCKEY

ANTHONY CORRALES / SUN FILE PHOTO

Te Last Dance

As Schafer Readies for Final Season, Taking Life Day-By-Day is Key

burden of the many pedantic things that coincide with running a Division-1 hockey program — from scheduling, recruiting, travel and so much more.

Few can say they’ve woken up each day for 30 years to work the exact same job and enjoyed it.

Head coach Mike Schafer ’86 can. And when he announced his predetermined retirement on June 13, despite spending nearly 40 years on East Hill as both a player and a coach, many were shocked by the announcement.

“I’m on the back nine here,” Schafer had said following Cornell’s ECAC Championship victory on Mar. 23, 2024.

What few know is how close Schafer was to hanging up his skates and whistle shortly after the 2023-2024 season. The departure of former associate head coach Ben Syer in April found Schafer at a crossroads.

“It’s been a wild ride since the end of last year, starting with Ben Syer getting the head coaching job at Princeton,” Schafer said. “At that time, [I was] thinking, ‘I’m ready to retire.’”

Yet the departure of his longtime coaching accomplice and fond friend challenged Schafer to adopt a new perspective that focused on the well-being of a program — his alma mater — that he had committed years and years of work and effort towards.

With the assistance of Athletics Director Nikki Moore, the program zeroed in on Casey Jones ’90 as Schafer’s successor, announcing in June — alongside his retirement — that Jones would be Schafer’s associate coach in 2024-2025 before replacing him at the helm for 2025-2026.

“The recruits, our players [and] our alumni all know who’s going to be the head coach the following year,” Schafer said.

A relatively atypical way of announcing retirement, what Schafer is inevitably faced with is the idea of a “last dance” — familiarized by the popular 2020 Michael Jordan documentary, the term is coined as a way of commemorating one ﬁnal push towards greatness.

With Cornell poised to make a run at a national title in returning almost its entire 2023-2024 squad, Schafer is tasked with juggling the narrative — and knowing — that each milestone he checks off this season will ultimately be his last.

In an almost stoic fashion, though, Schafer doesn’t plan on letting that stray him from his course. At least, not yet.

“It’s the same thing I tell my players — I’m not looking to the future. I’m not looking to those things,” Schafer said.

Retirement, on a lighter note, does lift the

“Some of the things I’ve grown tired of, which is scheduling, recruiting, budgets and, you know, staff department meetings and trainings and that stuff is like — that’s great. That’s the last time I have to do that. That’s been exciting,” Schafer said.

The ebbs and ﬂows of the program have certainly taken a toll on the head coach, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. The toll of the 2020-2021 season shutout is still being felt today, as Ivies continue to reconcile with the effects it left on recruiting especially. Many of Cornell’s seniors are currently spending their eighth and ninth semesters on East Hill in efforts to preserve eligibility after they missed their freshman year.

“There’s an old saying: ‘If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans.’ And for me, my plans are just to stay in the moment each day. And if I do that, and our team can do that, it always leads to success for us.”

Head coach Mike Schafer ’86

It’s undoubtedly been a struggle for the program to return to the national prestige it held when the 2019-2020 season was shut down. Schafer himself had a battle with COVID-19 in the 2021-2022 season which caused him to miss the latter part of the season which ended in an upset in the ECAC quarterﬁnals against Colgate.

“[As for] the recruiting aspect — I realized very quickly how much self-stress I was putting on myself, thinking about our recruits and how they’re developing. … You know, are they going to make an impact? Are they going to carry our program forward?” Schafer said. “That’s taken a huge amount of stress off.”

The storylines are endless, and the narrative nearly writes itself: the Red have an opportunity to contend for a national title with a legendary coach in his ﬁnal season. Can Schafer ﬁnally reach his second Frozen Four of his tenure in a year where it matters most?

The way in which the media can frame his season is indubitably overwhelming, yet Schafer remains steadfast and committed to not dwelling on the headlines. Schafer has always been one to focus his players on their craft and ignore all

the rankings, polls, individual awards and more. Perhaps it’s been the recipe for success for Cornell in becoming a national powerhouse.

“I just don’t know where that journey is going to take us, but I’m not worried about it,” Schafer said. “There’s an old saying: ‘If you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans.’ And for me, my plans are just to stay in the moment each day. And if I do that, and our team can do that, it always leads to success for us.”

Schafer has, of course, battled all kinds of adversity over the years. He quickly elevated the program to national prominence, winning ﬁve ECAC titles in 15 years before enduring a 14-year wait for the next one that came in 2024. He has tolerated a global pandemic and the heartbreak that came with watching the No. 1 team in the nation get robbed of an opportunity to contend for a national title.

Still, there are things to be learned, even after three decades.

“You never stop learning,” Schafer said. “I learn stuff from other coaches in our department about recruiting. I learn stuff from fundraising from our fundraisers. I learn stuff from Casey [Jones]. I learn stuff from Sean Flanagan. I learn stuff from Corey [Leivermann]. I learn stuff from watching NHL, hockey. If you stop learning in this business, you’re in trouble.”

The year will be another one full of new lessons, both in life and in hockey. Schafer, although the style of play of his teams has remained relatively unchanged as years have passed, his style of coaching has adapted.

“I’m excited to hear different guys’ ideas and approach something differently. Do something different. … [It’s been] 30 years. I’m a way different coach than I was 30, 15, 10 and ﬁve years ago — much different,” Schafer said. “You keep evolving and keep getting better, and that’s [what] we’re still doing.”

So as the team prepares for puck drop on its 2024-2025 season, with Schafer leading the way alongside his new-look coaching staff, few things will look different when you look on the ice. Off it, though, as the program turns a new leaf in less than seven months’ time, blocking out the noise will be a challenge.

“It’s a challenge for them, and it’ll be a challenge for me,” Schafer said. “It’s kind of looking forward to that challenge.”

JANE McNALLY Sun Sports Editor