10-4-22 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Arts Weather

Homecoming Concert

Sports

Students Rally for Liberties in Iran

Grad students protest for women's rights in Iran after police murder

By ANGELA BUNAY and RORY CONFINO-PINZON Sun Managing Editor and Sun Staff Writer

Ho Plaza amassed a crowd of more than 100 students and faculty on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 27 as the rain poured. This did not deter demonstrators from sharing their powerful slogan of “women, life, liberty.”

The demonstration was held in response to protests rav aging Iran since mid-September. On Sept. 16, a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Jina Amini was murdered in police custody — her death has sparked national outrage in Iran.

Amini was accused by the Iranian Guidance Patrol of improperly wearing a hijab, in violation of the Iranian com

“We were also hoping that, you know, we can get some attention from Cornell so they can also provide some support for the Iranian community at Cornell,” Sadeghi said.

Participants in the rally ranged from graduate students, undergraduates and professors from both Cornell and Ithaca College. Sadeghi said that she noticed there were more non-Ira nian participants than Iranian students.

Teddy George ’24 skipped class to attend the rally. George said that he attended the rally to stand with the Iranian com munity in solidarity and listen to people who have a stake in the conflict.

“Even random white kids from Philadelphia know what's going on, and they made [the] time to go support [the rally],” George said.

George explained that his most important motive in attending was the hope that his presence at the rally would help increase the crowd size, encouraging passersby to stop and listen.

Attendees

2022 Apple Harvest Festival Estimates Over

By SAM JOHNSTONE Sun Contributor

The 40th annual Apple Harvest Festival, hosted by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, kicked off Cider Week New York this weekend.

Held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, the festival featured fresh produce, baked goods, ciders, a variety of food trucks and artisanal craft stands. Local performers and bands provided live entertainment on Saturday and Sunday, accompanied by carnival rides and themed games.

Gary Ferguson, executive director of DIA, explained that the Apple Harvest Festival is the organization’s biggest community event of the year and that they expected between 70,000 and 75,000 people to attend over the course of the weekend.

“We work on planning the event all year … starting in early spring when we send out information to vendors about participating in it,” Ferguson said. “As we get closer and clos er, we’re booking the bands and the activities and beginning to work on all the specific details.”

Planning for the event included outlining its budget. Ferguson explained that the cost of hosting such a large event is substantial, but the revenue from the Apple Harvest Fest actually makes enough money to fund future events as well.

Ali Farahbakhsh, grad

pulsory hijab mandate. This restriction, which has been in place since 1983, requires all Iranian women to wear a hijab in public.

“These people [the Iran Republic and Iranian Guidance Patrol] have no regard for any aspect of human life and social life,” Ali Farahbakhsh grad said. “So, just name it, freedom, jus tice, prosperity, human dignity, environmental issues — these people are against it and they think that they own the moral codes and standards for each of these categories.”

In the weeks following Amini’s death, protests erupted across Iran and have continued since. At Cornell, a group of graduate students held a solidarity rally to raise awareness for the ongoing protests.

Sanaz Sadeghi grad, an executive board member of the Iranian Graduate Student Organization, said it was import ant to hold the protest to show the Iranian government that Iranians abroad care about what is happening and to raise awareness among members of the campus community who have not heard about the conflict.

Endowment Sees 1.3 Percent Loss

By SURITA BASU Sun Assistant Managing Editor

After a thirty-year record return last year, Cornell’s endowment reported a 1.3 percent investment loss, ending the 2022 fiscal year at $9.8 billion, according to the Office of University Investments. According to the release, the University endowment outper formed its strategic benchmark return of minus 5.1 percent.

Last year, the endowment climbed to $10 billion from just $7.2 billion in 2020, recording a 41.9 percent annual return. In a University press release, Chief Investment Officer Kenneth Miranda attributed this year’s 1.3 percent loss to market volatility stemming from the war in Ukraine, ongoing supply chain hur dles, inflation and tightening U.S. monetary policy. Given the economic backdrop, Miranda stated that this year’s returns are respectable relative

to the environment.

“We position the portfolio for the long term to weather positive and negative years. Fundamental to our investment philosophy is an understanding that over our near-in finite time horizon, the endowment will confront all manner of expected and unexpected market conditions,” Miranda said.

The third quarter of 2022 saw ongoing volatility in equity and fixed income markets. The S&P 500 fin ished the quarter down 5.3 percent and is down 25 percent year to date, while the iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond exchange-traded fund was down 5.3 percent during the quarter and was down 16 percent year to date.

The University Investment Office supervises Cornell’s Long Term Investments. Most of the LTI's actively managed assets are in the Long Term Investment Pool, which

invests across stocks, bonds and other asset classes, such as real estate and private equity, with the objective of achieving a return of at least 5 percent in excess of inflation. Fifty-eight per cent of the LTI is invested in equity while 18 percent is invested in real assets.

So far, only two other Ivy League schools have reported endowment returns for the 2022 fiscal year. Cornell’s endowment performed bet ter than Dartmouth’s, which returned a 3.1 percent loss, falling from $8.5 billion to $8.1 billion. The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment saw a positive return that was less than 1 percent, climbing from $20.5 billion to $20.7 billion.

Cornell’s endowment consists of more than 8,000 individual accounts. Approximately 5 percent of earnings are distributed each year to support

Colgate Comeback Football hopes to rebound from last week's loss at a Colgate game on

Wesley Hunt

Solidarity and support | Members of the Cornell and Ithaca College communities gather for a demonstration on Sept. 27 in solidarity with recent Iranian protests.

EDITOR

An apple a day | Attendees of this weekend's Apple Harvest Festival enjoyed a variety of apple-themed dishes.

MING

/ SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

“This is the climax of what has always happened in Iran. We want citizens of the free world to know these are murderers."

Daybook

Today

October 4, 2022

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Halal and/or Qingzhen: A Historical Process And Recent Policies of Sinicization Of Islam in China Noon, Virtual Event

Introduction to Market Research Noon, Mann Library Stone Classroom

Inequality Discussion Group With Camille Portier 3:30 p.m., Uris Hall G08

The Cyborgs Have Always Been Zombies With Soyi Kim 4:45 p.m., Goldwin Smith Hall G22

Children and Youths’ Migration in a Global Landscape Talk 10:30 a.m., Virtual Event

A Role for HBCUs in Global Food Security 12:25 p.m., Warren Hall 151

French Conversation Hour (Advanced) 3 p.m. Stimson Hall G25

Global Hubs Info Session: Joint Seed Grants With University College London

9 a.m. - 10 a.m., Virtual Event

Tastings and Tomes: Celebrating NYS Cider Week

11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Mann Library Lobby

Attention Advertisers Fall Break Deadlines

Display Advertising Deadlines:

• Thursday, October 6 at 3 p.m. for the Wednesday, October 12 and Thursday, October 13 issues.

Classified Advertising Deadline:

• Thursday, October 6 at 3 p.m. for the Wednesday, October 12 issue.

The Sun’s Business Office will close at 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 6, and will reopen on Wednesday, October 12 at 9 a.m.

Brunch and Learn With the Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Anabel Taylor Hall 230

Humanities Scholars Program Orientation Session for First-Year Students 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., A.D. White House 110

Microeconomic Theory Workshop: Suraj Malladi 4:15 p.m., Uris Hall 498

Palestine and Indigenous North America: A Panel Discussion With Eric Cheyfitz, Eman Ghanayem and Robert Warrior 5:15 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., A.D. White House Guerlac Room

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Humanities scholars | Humanities Scholars Program director Prof. Durba Ghosh, history, will host an information session on Tuesday for first-year students. The program offers support for humanities majors and minors, guidance on independent senior research projects, curated courses and funding for research and internships.

Cornell Alumnus Campaigns for Congress Seat

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun Contributor

A West Point graduate, former military captain and Cornell graduate with three master’s degrees, Wesley Hunt MPA ’15, MBA ’15, MILR ’16 appears to be one of the forerunners of a new wave of Republican politicians.

Hunt is running for Congress this November for Texas’s 38th district, one of two new congressional districts added following the results of the 2020 census. With a solid Republican rating from the Politico Forecast 2022 and a Trump endorsement, Hunt is on track to become Texas’ 38th district’s first representative and the third Black Republican serving in the 118th Congress House of Representatives, following Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla).

After graduating from West Point, Hunt spent 8 years in the Army. He flew 55 combat missions in Iraq, later spend ing two years in Saudi Arabia as a diplomatic officer. He said that his time in the military shaped his political views and fostered his appreciation for living in the U.S.

“You learn about working with people from all walks of life all over the world, and you gain a serious appreciation for how good we have it in this country as well,” Hunt said. “It’s really cool to be around a bunch of people that have that same idea, and those same motivations that really believe in this country and are willing to die for it. …I’ve taken that attitude, and I want to take that attitude to the halls of Congress as well.”

After completing military service, Hunt spent four years in Ithaca while attending Cornell University, obtaining an MBA,

a Masters of Public Policy and a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations. At Cornell, Hunt formed connections with classmates from around the world and learned how to have productive, intellectual conversations about political issues.

“I was talking to people from different backgrounds. We really had good intellectual banter and went back and forth,” Hunt said. ”But we’re at a time where everyone’s yell ing at each other all the time, and just going back to Cornell and having real, thoughtful conversations is something that I think we need to get back to.”

Hunt grew up in a household with predominantly con servative beliefs, with his father also serving in the military and his sister also attending West Point. As a conservative, Hunt said that it was challenging to attend an institution with a lot of left-leaning students.

“I’ve had to defend my views, but being in Ithaca for four years, I got really good at defending myself. And it actually made me a pretty good politician,” Hunt said. “I really owe Cornell for that.”

Hunt’s campaign centers around building the border wall, protecting the Second Amendment, being pro-life and standing with Israel. But his main focus going into the election is energy, as his district is home to the energy corri dor — a major focal point for the energy industry in Texas, where multiple oil and gas companies are headquartered.

“I think we all want to reduce our carbon footprint, I think we all want to be cleaner, I think we all want to be bet ter,” Hunt said. “But you are literally not going to get to the next affordable and abundant energy source without natural gas, oil and everything else. It’s just impossible.”

According to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan independent

Students Rally for Women’s Rights in Iran on Ho Plaza

IRAN

Continued from page 1

“If there’s a big crowd, more peo ple keep coming,” George said.

While Sadeghi said the turnout by the campus community was heart warming and she is grateful for the support, she is disappointed by the University’s indifference toward the issue.

“Any inclusive community needs to be supportive of the members of their community,” Sadeghi said. “And, right now, there are parts of the community that are going through hard times.”

The protestors assembled at the Ezra Cornell statue on the arts quad at noon. They discussed the hardships currently facing Iran, including inter net access being cut off and the lack of communication with the outside world.

After a crowd of around 60 people assembled, the protestors marched to Ho Plaza, chanting “women, life, liberty,” “say her name” and sim ply the name “Mahsa Amini.” Some protest-goers held signs, emblazoned with slogans such as “please be our voice,” “I stand with the women in Iran” and “mandatory hijab is not hijab.”

Upon reaching Ho Plaza, the group assembled in front of a make shift memorial for Mahsa Amini, placed in front of the Cornell Store. After a few speeches, two candles were lit on the memorial in her honor, and flowers were laid at its base.

At the rally, two men shaved their heads and two women cut their hair, which to some protestors is symbolic of women removing a beauty that the Islamic Republic mandates they cover.

Shahrzad Ezzatpour grad explained that these protests highlight decades of accruing grievance against the Islamic regime for corruption,

mismanagement of the economy, electoral engineering and unrelenting authoritarianism and abuse.

“Lacking internet access, Iranians are isolated and need support from the global community,” Ezzatpour said in a statement to The Sun. “We believe that issuing a statement of support for the protests is a concrete way for Cornell University to express solidarity, to support its Iranian stu dents and faculty, as well as raise awareness of the events in a U.S. media environment that is barely and inadequately covering the unfolding movement.”

At the protest, Farahbakhsh explained the significance of the cur rent conflict within the context of Iran’s historical oppression of women.

“This is the climax of what has always happened in Iran,” Farahbakhsh said. “We want citizens of the free world to know these are murderers.”

Most recently, in Tehran, Iran, students who were protesting the government at the nation’s presti gious Sharif University were met with teargas and riot police. And over the weekend, many Iranians across the country held a day of action on Oct. 1 in solidarity with the Iranian people.

Farahbakhsh attended a rally in New York City and noted the massive turnout across the world. In Toronto, there were around 50,000 protestors, according to reports from the Toronto Star.

“We have to wait and see if [the revolution] succeeds in practical terms,” Farahbakhsh said. “But, in many aspects, it has already succeed ed.”

Angela Bunay can be reached at abunay@cornellsun.com. Rory Confno-Pinzon can be reached at rconfno-pinzon@cornellsun.com.

Fortieth Annual AppleFest Kicks Of Cider Week in New York State

APPLEFEST

Continued from page 1

“Some of our events make money and some of them do not, but we just love having people come down and check out downtown,” Ferguson said. “And for this particular one, many of our businesses do very well. They have specials and plan around this because it is such a big downtown event.”

This year, the festival featured over 50 vendors — primarily cider houses, wineries, restaurants and crafters.

In attendance was Littletree Orchards, a family orchard based in Newfield, that has been at every Apple Harvest Fest since the first one in 1982. Littletree Orchards sold a variety of their apple products at the festival, including apple cider vinegar, apple butter, apple chips and fresh apples. Most popular proved to be their fresh donuts, whose piping hot scent attracted a steady stream of customers throughout the day.

Littletree’s manager Amara Steinkraus inherited the farm from her mother and cherishes innumerable memories of Apple Harvest Fest from her childhood. As a child, her favorite part of the festival was listen ing to the music and scampering around the Ithaca Commons. Currently, Steinkraus favors the commu nity spirit and emphasis on local agriculture, artisans and food.

“I love that there is a good showcasing of local agri culture doing various kinds of value-added products, a lot of which is about apples, and it’s really cool to see the diversity,” Steinkraus said.

Also at the festival was Steve Daughhetee, co-owner of New York Cider Company and a former Cornell graduate student.

Daughhetee has been selling cider since 2017, spe

cializing in dry, hard ciders as opposed to sweet ciders. This was his second year at Apple Harvest Fest — he mostly focuses selling in farmers markets in Ithaca and Long Island.

Daughhetee cultivated his passion for cider while pursuing a Ph.D. at Cornell.

“I moved here from California and realized I was in apple country. A friend of mine told me, ‘Hey, you know there are these places that will press your apples. You can just bring them in there, pay a fee, and they will press it for you,’” Daughhetee said. “So we picked a bunch of fruit and took it down there and had it pressed, and it made great cider. And I’ve just been doing it ever since.”

The Society for Horticulture, an organization for Cornell horticulture graduate students also known as SoHo, was also selling cider, albeit non-alcoholic.

The apples used to make the cider being sold were grown on the Cornell Orchards. SoHo members worked to harvest and sort the varieties in preparation for the festival.

Manu Shi grad and Bethany Schulteis grad volun teered at the booth on Friday, selling a variety of apples to festival-goers.

“I like the outreach part of events like this because I get to teach people about apples and what we’re doing at Cornell and what we’re working on,” Schulteis said.

Shi explained that some of the apples were “research apples,” meaning they are subjects of projects facili tated through Cornell Orchards. Objectives of these projects include working to develop fruit production systems and extending apples’ storage lives.

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

Sam Johnstone can be reached at scj54@@cornell.edu.

Endowment Reports Slight Loss

ENDOWMENT

Continued from page 1

the University’s operating budget, funding initiatives like financial aid, research and faculty salaries. During the 2022 fiscal year, the endowment paid out $352 mil lion.

Cornell has historically posted lower investment returns than the rest of the Ivy League but last year outperformed the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Yale — which reported 41.1 percent,

33.6 percent and 40.2 percent returns, respectively.

In the statement, Miranda noted that the endowment large ly preserved last year’s gains, in part, due to his office’s work since 2016 to diversify the University’s investment portfolio, with respect to risk, sector and other criteria.

Despite ongoing market tur moil, which will likely persist through 2022, Miranda is con fident that Investment Office’s

restructuring and diversification efforts will allow the portfolio to weather the storm.

“The likelihood of an extended period of lower returns and geo political turmoil appears height ened,” Miranda said. “The broad diversification of the endowment is intended to provide resilience and support for the wide range of possible outcomes.”

Surita Basu can be reached at sbasu@cornellsun.com.

organization that uses data from the Federal Election Commission to track campaign finances, Hunt received $482,700 from individuals affiliated with oil and gas indus try companies Enterprise Products Partner and Walter Oil & Gas, among others, for his first Congressional race in 2020.

Congressional campaign | Wesley Hunt MPA ’15, MBA ’15 and MILR ’16 is slated to win Texas congressional seat.

CHRISTIAN K. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gam256@cornell.edu.

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

lovelytheband, Lovely the Concert

ISABELLA HACKETT SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Ah, the Roaring Twenties. Known for the birth of mass consumerism, F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, speakeasies and — of course — Cornell Homecoming.

For more than a century, Homecoming has boosted school spirit, and now offers current students a chance to connect with alumni on a level deeper than LinkedIn. This year marks the first regular Homecoming Weekend since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Big Red communi ty celebrated with a fireworks show, a festival, a football game against Yale and an evening con cert. Sponsored by the Cornell Concert Commission and the Division of Alumni Affairs and Development, Barton Hall was lucky enough to host sing er-songwriter Indigo De Souza and indie pop group lovelythe band.

After missing the rest of the Homecoming festivities to write an essay, I was thrilled to attend the concert. I submitted my essay and headed straight for Barton Hall. I’ll admit, I always underestimate the cam pus hills, so I arrived fashionably late compared to the 7 p.m. showtime. Only slightly lost and shins moderately burning, I finally arrived.

Thankfully, I made it in time to watch the guest performer, Indigo De Souza. Having heard songs by lovelytheband and read the concert description, I was expecting De Souza’s music to

match the indie pop vibe. With an album titled I Love My Mom, my assumptions were along the lines of Conan Gray, Cavetown, Beach Bunny or even mxm toon. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My parents raised me on George Strait, Crazy Frog and Brandy Clark. I weathered a long emo phase in middle school just to revert back to my childhood Taylor Swift obsession in high school — the point being, I usu ally consider myself well-versed in the vast extent of what music can be, which Indigo De Souza made me completely question. I have never heard anything nearly comparable to the gut-wrenching depths and soul-crushing highs of her voice. Every word sung sounds like a plea, every song a soliloquy of absolute anguish.

Especially in the song “Ghost,” De Souza has a unique wailing ability. Somehow sound ing both desperate and self-as sured as she sings, “[t]hese tits will ghost on your forever,” De Souza’s lyrics and voice capture the dichotomy between what we feel and what we present to the world.

With rainbow lights swirling around Barton Hall, a slideshow of seemingly random pictures quickly flashing on stage and couples rolling around on the floor next to the crowd, this guest performer definitely brought an aesthetic I could have never imagined. In the best way possi ble, her beautiful cries will haunt me indefinitely.

The vibe shift from De Souza to lovelytheband was insane.

After having my heart twisted and my stomach turned by “Kill Me,” it’s shocking how quickly I could turn around and dance to lovelytheband’s “loneliness for love.” As soon as lovelytheband’s signature lipstick stain cover for their album finding it hard to smile appeared on stage, though, I was ready.

The 1975-esque band imme diately clicked with the crowd. With the band members’ incred

ible energy and lively songs, peo ple stopped their floor rolling to dance (or, at least, there were enough people dancing around them). A personal highlight was hearing “make you feel pretty” for the first time, a really fun song and perfect for singing along. Some of the lyrics even perfectly described how I’m sure many of us felt during Homecoming Weekend:

Oh my God

My life is such a mess

Oh my God

I think that I need some rest Have I really lost it?

Maybe, maybe I’m out of my mind …

The band’s sound is distinct ly indie pop. Reminiscent of Grouplove, COIN and Neon Trees, their upbeat vocals and instrumentals often hide sad lyr ics.

Before the final song, the lead vocalist Mitchy Collins took the time to remind students to check up on the people around them. Whether it be your friend, relative or even someone you don’t like, they may be fighting a hidden battle with their mental health. He reminded us that it’s never a sign of weakness to ask for help.

Following this speech was the band’s hit song, “broken.” Now that I have this platform, I need to use it to let the world know: this song is my ‘I liked it before it was cool’ moment. “broken” was a favorite on my summer 2019 playlist. For me, the song is laced with nostalgia and heart ache for the simpler times of summer.

In that sense, lovelytheband was the perfect performer for the Homecoming concert. The tran sition to college has been excit ing, confusing and full of home sickness. This concert reminded me just what home feels like and shone a light of hope for build ing a new home here in Ithaca.

Isabella Hackett is a freshman in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be reached at ifh4@cornell.edu.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

VEE CIPPERMAN ’23

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Business Manager

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Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

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Sun thrives

Aurora Weirens Te Northern Light

Aurora Weirens is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at afw46@cornell.edu. Te Northern Light runs alternate Tursdays this semester.

Jam-Packed

It was a typical lunch break at Terrace, one of the main central campus BRB dining halls. “You know the drill,” I said to my friend. As we began our 35-minute wait for a burrito, our friend took our bags and hurried off to claim an open table before they all filled with the lunch rush. This experience is typical for Cornellians. Trillium, Okenshields and other BRB locations on central campus face a similar crush of students.

Visiting Trillium at noon requires a morning of mental preparation, both for the stroke-inducing lines and the sub sequent fight to get a table. Places like the Temple of Zeus that are supposed to be quick café stops turn into more than half-hour ordeals for a sandwich or cup of soup.

Overcrowding, as evident in the cen tral campus dining halls, is an increas ingly problematic issue at Cornell. Basic services like dining, housing and classes are bursting at the seams due to rapid enrollment increases in recent years. Consequently, comically long lines and jam-packed spaces dominate all aspects of campus life.

The North Campus expansion sits at the core of this issue. In 2021, they opened two new residence halls: Toni Morrison and Ganedago Halls. By 2022, they had enrolled approximately 2,000 additional students with the building of Hugh Chi Minh and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Halls, but made no accom modations besides beds to support this increase in students.

Morrison Dining is a fantastic addi tion; however as they opened Morrison Dining, they closed Robert Purcell Dining hall, canceling out the capacity benefit of this expansion. Despite living in Morrison Hall, I eat there no more than once a week, due to the never-end ing lines.

This space issue grows beyond North Campus and further leeches into higher branches of student life. Pre-enrollment is a cutthroat click race to get into your classes, where many don’t fully suc ceed despite clicking “enroll” the second sign-up opens. Collegetown housing for upperclassmen is already a bloodbath, and the new student surge will put further strain on the already struggling housing market.

ing in an attempt to dodge this notorious wait, long before the mailroom room even opened, only to find an impressive queue already formed. By mid-Septem ber, the administration finally responded to this glaring issue with an email telling students to stop ordering packages. This action had little effect, and the endless lines persist.

I would propose three solutions to the administration to help alleviate this overcrowding issue. For starters, stop growing class sizes. Improve the quality of life for existing ones, then think about expansion. Secondly, build the proper infrastructure to keep up with the big ger student body. This would look like at least one more dining hall on North Campus and Central Campus and more gyms, mailrooms and classes offered.

Lastly, consider redistributing the existing students on campus for future years. West Campus has five official din ing halls for the five residence halls, with short or nonexistent lines at these dining halls and surrounding services like the mailrooms or gym. North Campus, on the other hand, has three dining halls for about 14 dorms and surrounding program houses, with an understandable effect on density.

Visiting Trillium at noon requires a morning of mental preparation, both for the stroke-inducing lines and the subsequent fight to get a table.

conversation

sending a letter

Letters should be no longer than 250 words in length. Columns are 700-900

Please include graduating year if applicable.

The greatest annoyance, by far, is the Robert Purcell Community Center mail room line. Especially in the beginning of the year, students living on North Campus spent ridiculous amounts of time trying to get their packages, with a line typically between a half-hour to an hour long. The scene that greeted me each day was worthy of a bread line in a communist state. Two lines snaked through the entirety of the lobby, where dozens of students were sitting on the ground with their computers, meals, phones or homework, slowly scooting forward inches at a time.

It was pathetic to see what a 70k per year education got these first-years. People would line up early in the morn

I suggest that they move the minori ty of sophomores that live on North Campus to West Campus, where build ing more housing would provide capacity for such a maneuver and would unite the sophomore class with a common living space. Having random groupings of sophomores spread throughout South, West and North campus unnecessarily fragments the class — and moving them all to West Campus is the most sensible solution in terms of both resources and community.

Bringing a Cornell education to as many people as possible is a mission I support. However, based on current student life experiences, there seems to be a lack of appropriate infrastructure to support such an agenda.

In the future, I hope the administra tion will address both these current needs while pursuing a policy of heightened moderation of enrollment in the long term.

Isabelle Pappas Like It Iz

Retelling Cornhell

still is — bad PR for a private institution like Cornell. Perhaps, in the 1970s and again in 2010, repeating this particular narrative about Cornell had a purpose — to light a fre under the administration to make some changes to campus culture. Now, though, decades later, I’d argue that there is very little good in telling yourself and the rest of the world the same depressing narrative about Cornell.

If we become too comfortable with this image of Cornell as a “suicide school,” we’re in danger of trap ping Cornell and its students in this vicious cycle of psy chological sickness. Cracking seemingly harmless jokes about the gorge nets doesn’t help us break free from this cycle, either. Coping with comedy has its limits. For many of us, Cornell was our frst choice (it was mine) or at least our second or third. And if it wasn’t at the top of your list, you’re still here studying at Cornell, so you might as well make the best of the situation.

does well.

What if we told ourselves, and the rest of the world too, that Cornell wasn’t actually all that bad?

Te prelims are challenging but not impossible. Sure, it’s been a particularly cold and rainy month, but at least we’re not getting hit by a hurricane. Here, you see,

Reading my previous columns (one in which I gave a bold but fair review of the pre-med path, and another in which I call Cornell blatantly unkind to its students) you might assume that I hav en’t absolutely loved every minute of my time here. My sentiments about Cornell aren’t entirely important (who cares what I think anyway) but the fact that a lot of students share similar sentiments is. Te sayings “Cornhell” and “Shithica” originated from somewhere, and it certainly wasn’t from the love we have for this school. And once we understand how we came to “hate the one we love” perhaps we can learn to “hate” Cornell less and maybe even not at all.

There are aspects of Cornell that we as students can’t control, like the academic pressure and the less-than-optimal weather. We can, however, control the narrative that we construct about our time here on the hill. Changing the story we tell ourselves and the rest of the world might be all we need to change our experience here — and everyone else’s perceptions of Cornell too.

From the 1970’s to the early 2000’s Cornell earned it’s reputation as a “suicide school” after a series of “sui cide clusters.” Following a particularly bad cluster from 2009 to 2010, Cornell again supported its depressing status. A title as horrifc as “suicide school” was — and

We’ve made a name for ourselves as the “easiest Ivy to get into but the hardest one to stay in.” Tis statement reeks not only of self-deprecation but also self-aggrandizement, trapping us in a psychological straight-jacket of our own making. We’ve been telling ourselves that Cornell is hard — academically and emo tionally — because, this in turn allows every Cornellian to identify as a hard worker by virtue of the fact that they go to Cornell. To some extent, catastrophizing our circumstances at Cornell infates our egos, which makes us feel good. Eventually, though, the ego tires, and it defates.

I’ve spun a diferent web with the same string. Te plot stayed the same, but the story itself changed. Depending on how you frame your own narrative, you can expe rience the same circumstances quite diferently. When we make an efort to fnd the good in the bad, we open ourselves up to positive experiences that might reshape the way we think about our time at Cornell.

Julia Poggi

Te Outbox

Julia Poggi is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be reached at jcp337@cornell.edu. Te Outbox runs every other Sunday this semester.

On my frst day of frst-year class es, I walked into Baker 200 to a standing-room-only crowd.

Despite arriving early to class, I look through the packed Chem 2070 class, scouring for a free seat. Some students sat on the foor, while others spread out into the wings of the balcony. My transcript states that the two lectures combined had a fnal enrollment of 784 students, but due to heavy dropping after the frst pre lim, there may have been closer to 1,000 enrolled Cornellians on that frst day. My other STEM foundation courses had sim ilar enrollment patterns: in my freshman fall, my only class with less than 100 peo

Yet we continue to feed ourselves the same story even when it no longer makes us feel good. In fact, it makes us feel very bad. If we think of the prelims as impossible feats, they become much harder to conquer. If we focus our mental energy on everything that pits this institution against its students, we don’t leave room in our brains to acknowledge all the things that Cornell

Learning to look for the good in the bad might be benefcial to enhancing your experience at Cornell, but fnding the good in the good is just as important too. Find what you enjoy about Cornell and focus your attention on that. I like walking alone to my classes with the same song that’s been on repeat for a week now. I like working (read: falling asleep on my work) in the law school on the comfy couch next to the fake freplace. And I love the jumbo blueberry mufns at Goldie’s. Tese don’t have to be your favorite things about Cornell. In fact, they probably won’t be, but once you’ve identifed what your favorite things are, hold onto them, think more about them and talk more about them too.

Once we prove to ourselves that Cornell isn’t actually all that bad, we might be able to prove to the rest of the world too that there’s a lot to be happy about here.

Refecting on Checkboxes

ple was my First-year Writing Seminar.

I came from a high school with 78 people in my graduating class. My teach ers knew exactly who I was, either from teaching my sister in previous years or hearing about me through the grapevine.

At college, particularly in my STEM class es, I was in the big leagues, writing my student identifcation number before my name on exams.

izing place where instructors and students could meet as peers. Before coming here, I imagined chatting with my professors in their ofces between classes, or at least being able to exchange a wave in the halls. Tat might sound like a naïve vision of college, but it isn’t far from reality for my friends who attend small liberal arts schools. One good high school friend of mine, who now attends Colby College, says that she and her peers regularly grab cofee with their professors, attend dinner parties at their houses or even babysit their kids.

Cornell’s student-instructor culture is vastly diferent, however, especially in the large departments and STEM classes. With the large (and growing) student population, there just aren’t enough fac ulty to facilitate meaningful relationships in classes unless the subject is niche and the class is small. Moreover, while Ithaca isn’t New York City, the city is large enough that there isn’t the small-town phenomenon of bumping into professors out and about.

cussion sections are taught by TAs rather than faculty. Compared to my friends’ experiences in other majors, however, the STEM TAs are more likely to be graduate students and not peers. While my friends may see their TAs out at social events, I know that I will never cross paths with mine outside of class.

I had always hoped that college would be a place where I could really get to know my professors. Unlike high school, where students are distinctly and legally chil dren, college seemed to be a more equal

Yet the distance between faculty and student isn’t universal within Cornell. Last year, an acquaintance mentioned that he was having dinner at a professor’s house later that week. I was shocked. Most of my professors didn’t know my name. Now that I’m a sophomore, I’m start ing to understand though. Te STEM teaching culture at Cornell discourages student-instructor connection — and not without reason.

With so many students in STEM felds, it’s understandable that many dis

As pre-med and pre-graduate school students search for letters of recommen dation and research placements, I can understand the weariness to connect on a professor’s part. To be completely honest, many of my attempts at connecting with faculty have come from self-serving goals rather than intellectual curiosity — it’s only human to seek strategic relationships. However, I still wish professors seemed more interested in getting to know me. Sure, I could attend every ofce hour and stop by before class, but I feel that most Cornell professors don’t want that. Instructor time already feels stretched thin with the large queues of students waiting to ask questions, so spending time discuss ing nonacademic matters feels disrespect ful. I certainly prefer being anonymously distant to being recognizably annoying.

As I’ve aged past some of the foun dational STEM courses into more niche subjects, I’m starting to see how my future classes may allow for better relationships with my instructors. Perhaps it is just a waiting game, not something to strategize or plan for. Until then, I’ll continue to daydream about midwinter dinner par ties in cozy upstate homes flled with the murmur of conversation, scholarly and colloquial alike.

Isabelle Pappas (she/her) is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at icp6@cornell.edu. Like It Iz runs every other Monday this semester.

Before coming here, I imagined chatting with my professors in their offices between classes, or at least being able to exchange a wave in the halls.

If we become too comfortable with this image of Cornell as a “suicide school,” we’re in danger of trapping Cornell and its students in this vicious cycle of psychological sickness.

What if we told ourselves, and the rest of the world too, that Cornell wasn’t actually all that bad?

SPACE BUNS

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the num bers 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 wiki pedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

I Am Going to Be Small

26 A PA R TMENT FOR R ENT

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Mr. Gnu by Travis Dandro

Mr. Gnu by Travis Dandro

by Ali Solomon ’01

SAILING

Sailing Soars, Securing Series of Weekend Successes

By ANNA HOOPER Sun Staff Writer

Sailing continued its streak of successful matchups this week, adding new titles to its growing list of accolades. The Red divid ed its ranks this weekend, placing fourth overall in the 2022 MAISA Match Race Championship and claiming the top two positions in the Top 9/ Susan Rogers ’75 Memorial Regatta.

Cornell dominated the Susan Rogers ’75 Regatta, held at home in the Cayuga inlet. The Red’s first team, entitled “Big Red 1,” was skippered by senior Meredith Moran and junior J.J. Smith with freshman Sophia Mulvania and sophomore Amelia Neumann as the crew. Scoring 44 points in the A division and 54 in the B division, the team blew past the competition, racking up 98 total points.

The Red’s second team was quick to follow. Scoring 105 points in total, “Big Red 2” was a mere seven points behind the regatta champions. The team was skip pered by sophomore Bridget Green and freshman Sophia Devling. Freshman Sophia Pearce crewed the A division and sophomore Sophia Fogarty manned the B division.

Both of Cornell’s teams overtook the competition with ease. George Washington University claimed the third and fourth place titles, scoring 175 and 208, respectively. Hobart and William Smith (209), Fordham (218), and UPenn (248) followed.

Head coach Lior Lavie remarked that these at-home wins were rewarding consid ering the focus that the team has maintained these past couple of weeks.

“It always gets the morale up,” Lavie said. “During practice, we emphasize the founda tions and the collective effort of the team. When someone is having individual success, it is a reflection of the entire team and the hard work we put in.”

For the MAISA Championship, assis tant coach Charlie Knape accompanied the remaining sailors to Kings Point, N.Y. Sophomore Hayden Earl served as the team’s skipper and junior Lucija Ruzevic, sophomore Adler Weber, and senior Gabbi DelBello as the crews.

The Red won four out of its seven

matches in the first round, claiming victory over Fordham, the Navy, NY Maritime, and Princeton. In the second round, Cornell failed to find similar success, falling to Kings Point, Georgetown, and Hobart & William Smith. The Red ended in fourth place with a 4-6 overall record. Georgetown, 9/1, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, 8/2, and Hobart & William Smith, 6/4, placed first, second, and third, respectively.

Lavie stated that despite the split of its members this weekend, the team func tioned as a well-oiled machine. During home competitions, Lavie is largely responsible for hosting and ensuring that events run smoothly, which leaves little time for coach ing. The team, he explained, was responsible for themselves.

“We have what we call a shore crew and they have just been phenomenal,” Lavie said. “They are in charge of their own food and water and make sure that all of the equip ment is working well… the shore crew is

definitely a demonstration of the strength and chemistry that we are building together.”

The newly-formed coaching team has also found a balance this season, utilizing their different strengths to become a stronger whole.

“Sailing is like an art,” Lavie said. “There are multiple ways to go around the racecourse successfully. With our combined coaching styles and perspectives, we can provide a broad spectrum of coaching for the athletes and what might work best for them.”

Looking ahead to the next competitions, Lavie expects harder match-ups later in the season.

“The level of intensity and pressure will go up in October,” Lavie said. “We’ve been preparing our athletes and we are looking forward to seeing how we will line up with more competitive teams.”

Cornell will also anticipate this year’s Singlehanded National Championships in November. At the Faye Bennet MAISA

FOOTBALL

Women’s singles last week, Ruzevic and Ehnot earned the top two titles, securing their spots at nationals.

Lavie explained that their accomplish ments are especially impressive considering their sailing backgrounds. Both Ruzevic and Ehnot primarily sailed singlehanded in high school. With collegiate sailing, the majority of events are doublehanded. Upon their arrival to Cornell, Ruzevic and Ehnot had to transition to doublehanded sailing only to switch back to singlehanded for Nationals.

“This just shows what versatile sailors they are,” Lavie said. “Both are extremely fit and some of the most hard-working athletes on our team.”

Next weekend, the Red will split up again to compete at the Women’s ACC Semifinals in Cambridge, Mass., and the SUNY Open in Throggs Neck, N.Y.

Football Prevails in Back-and-Forth With Colgate

By MITCH HOY Sun Staff Writer

Football staved off the Colgate Raiders at Andy Kerr Stadium and came away with a 34-31 win over their longtime rival on the road.

It was a game chock full of run ning and gunning, and the Red fought tooth and nail down to the bitter end.

Sophomore quarterback Jameson Wang had his best game of the sea son, putting up big numbers on the ground and in the air.

Wang’s success was largely enabled by a diligent offensive line providing ample protection, allowing the senior quarterback to scramble and tuck at will.

Wang ran 15 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

Wang’s effective scrambling opened up opportunities for receiv ers down field. He posted his best

passing performance of the season, going 18-27 for 284 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Senior wide receiver Thomas Glover notched a 62-yard receiving touchdown early in the second quar ter and finished with 160 receiving yards and a 16-yard touchdown run.

Defensively, there were some bright spots. Holt Fletcher came up with his second interception of the season in the second quarter. The Cornell defense allowed 383 yards — 188 on the ground and 195 in the passing game — but forced the Raiders off the field on nine of 11 third downs.

A clutch 40-yard field goal by junior kicker Jackson Kennedy put the Red up 34-31 and the defense in position to win the game with 1:55 left in the fourth quarter.

The game came down to Colgate’s final drive on offense with Cornell

leading by a field goal. The Raiders managed to march down all the way to the 34-yard line before attempting a 51-yard field goal that missed left.

The miss allowed Cornell to a knee and finish out a 34-31 victory to move to 2-1 on the season.

“The team did a great job showing resilience,” said head coach Dave Archer ’05. gritty… the kids showed tremendous character all week and we were able to execute.”

Kennedy’s 40-yard field goal was his second of the game and second of the season.

“We’ve seen him crush the ball in practice,” Archer said. “This week he said ‘I’m waiting for my first oppor tunity and I’m ready.’”

The Red resumes Ivy League play at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7 when it hosts Harvard in Ithaca.

Mitch Hoy can be reached at mhoy@cornellsun.com.

Weekend of accomplishment | Cornell sailors compete in the Jack Boehringer Memorial Regatta, Cayuga Lake on Sept. 18, 2022.

JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Anna Hooper can be reached at ahooper@cornellsun.com.

JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Magic hand | Sophomore quarterback Jameson Wang’s big day fueled the Red’s narrow win over Colgate.