INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 140, No. 27
8 Pages — Free
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2023 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Thanksgiving Dance
Employee Feature
Cornell Comeback
Partly Cloudy
Cornell Bhangra became the first bhangra team to be featured at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. | Page 3
Luke Dennis ’27 compares smartphones to the drug "soma" that was used in Huxley's Brave New World. | Page 5
The Red came back to beat BU 2-1 in Saturday's Red Hot Hockey game in Madison Square Garden. | Page 8
HIGH: 32º LOW: 24º
SJP Decries AntiIslam Sentiments By ANUSHKA SHOREWALA and KATE SANDERS Sun Staff Writers
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Absentee | Patrick Kuehl '24 and Clyde Lederman '26 sought and received votes from fraternity houses in their respective wards via absentee ballot, which helped ensure their elections.
City Candidates Win Election With Crucial Fraternity Votes By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun Managing Editor
Two Cornell students who won seats on Ithaca’s Common Council — including the one who ran a controversial and unannounced write-in campaign — coordinated more closely with Cornell fraternities than was previously known, discussing the possibility of allowing for later fraternity parties and even getting approved to pick up absentee ballots for fraternity brothers. Patrick Kuehl ’24, who edged out an incumbent this month in a surprise write-in campaign for the Fourth Ward, and Clyde Lederman ’26, who won a close race in the Fifth Ward, both were elected in part because of absentee and affidavit ballots cast in wards with low numbers of voters. In the Fifth Ward, 20 of the 60 absentee ballot requests were made by fraternity brothers, along with 19 of the 22 requests in the Fourth Ward. The forms obtained by The Sun only indicate who requested ballots, and do not indicate which of those requestors actually voted. The ballot applications show that all of the fra-
ternity brothers who requested absentee ballots in the fourth and fifth wards authorized either Kuehl or Lederman to pick up their ballots from the Tompkins County Board of Elections and deliver them to the fraternities. Ballots were requested by members of five fraternities, with the most requests coming from Sig Phi, Chi Psi and Delta Kappa Epsilon. The requests came after Kuehl and Lederman met with fraternity presidents on Oct. 22 and encouraged their members to vote in the Nov. 7 election, according to a fraternity member who was briefed on the meeting. All of the 39 fraternity members who requested ballots across the two districts said on the request forms that they were either going to be out of the area on election day — Nov. 7 — or had a “temporary illness or physical disability.” James Gardner, an election law expert at the University at Buffalo, said voters must be truthful about the reason they are requesting absentee ballots. See VOTES page 3
Editor’s note: This article contains mentions of religious and ethnic-based violence, as well as sexual assault. Cornellians advocating for Palestine have criticized the University’s response to the IsraelHamas war and ties to Israeli institutions, as well as accusing Cornell of silence towards threats to Palestinian students and their allies. Sadeen Musa ’25, vice president of Cornell’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, said that the University’s response to the conflict is incongruous with its “Freedom of Expression” theme year. “I really don’t think that the University is actually abiding by their freedom of expression theme because [of] everything that’s been happening,” Musa said. “I think maybe the University is still trying to silence any pro-Palestine movements on campus, which is
definitely something we’re fighting against.” The Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation, a group formed after the Oct. 7 onset of the Israel-Hamas war advocating for several causes, including the Palestinian movement, posted a statement to their Instagram account on Thursday, Nov. 23 condemning Cornell’s “monthlong silence” toward “physical and sexual threats and public acts of intimidation” towards Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students, as well as allies. Meanwhile, recent and upcoming campus demonstrations not only aim to continue enthusiasm for the Palestinian cause but also educate students about historical events and contextualize Cornell’s place within the conflict. See ISLAMOPHOBIA page 4
KATE SANDERS / SUN STAFF WRITER
15,000 | Chalked messages across campus accused Cornell of complicity in the more than 14,000 Gazan casualties of the Israel-Hamas war.
Thomas Kelly Named New Chief of Ithaca Police Department By JONATHAN MONG and SAMANTHA JOHNSTONE Sun News Editor and Sun City Editor
Lieutenant Thomas Kelly, of the Schenectady Police Department in Schenectady, New York, was named the chief of the Ithaca Police Department on Monday, Nov. 27 in a press release to The Sun. The city selected Kelly over John Poleway, who is an officer from Larchmont, New York. Kelly will be filling the role currently held by Acting Police Chief Ted Schwartz, who was not named a finalist in the search and will return to his role as Lieutenant of Investigations. Kelly will begin his position on Dec. 18.
The Common Council will have to approve Kelly’s appointment, which will occur in a vote on Dec. 6. “I’m told that the sentiment of the search committee and the public feedback heavily favored Kelly so given our options I’m comfortable moving forward with him,” said Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (D-Second Ward), who said he would vote for Kelly in a statement to The Sun. Kelly’s selection comes after a multiyear-long effort to find a permanent
replacement for Dennis Nayor — who retired in May 2021 — that was fraught with multiple controversies and a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former acting police chief John Joly, which is still ongoing. Mayor Laura Lewis (D) originally intended to appoint Joly as the city’s permanent police chief but shortly withdrew his April 2023 appointment following objections from Common Council members, who were upset by what they said was
a lack of information regarding Joly’s selection — particularly as the selection committee that included three members of Common Council chose former IPD lieutenant Scott Garin instead. Joly promptly took an indefinite personal leave from the position and said he would sue the city regarding its allegation that he contributed to a hostile work environment. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@ cornellsun.com. Samantha Johnstone can be reached at sjohnstone@cornellsun.com.
2 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 28, 2023
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The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 28, 2023 3
News
Dance Team Performs at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Cornell Bhangra featured as one of seven groups invited to annual NYC Thanksgiving parade By GRACE LIU and LUCA PAVLOVICH Sun Contributors
This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a vibrant and dynamic performance from “one of the most wellknown bhangra teams in the world” as introduced by NBC. Cornell Bhangra — the University’s all-inclusive competitive Punjabi dance team — took the stage as the first bhangra dance team in the parade’s history. Cornell Bhangra is one of seven performance groups that performed in the parade, securing a competitive spot in the most-watched entertainment program of the year across cable and satellite television, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Cornell Bhangra aims to promote Punjabi culture and provide a supportive community for its members. They compete in national competitions and also host the largest international bhangra exhibition in the nation, Pao Bhangra. “Whenever we perform, we are able to draw on the excitement of the audience,” Sejal Sekhar ’27 said. “Through that, our team is able to feed off the energy, which makes the dancing more authentic.” Inspired by Cornell Bhangra’s previous performance on America’s Got Talent in 2014, co-president Anisha Saini ’24 said she wanted to showcase this year’s team to a larger audience and made it a goal to get Cornell Bhangra back on the national stage. After applying to several performance events, Cornell Bhangra received a spot in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“I[The parade is] more commonly known for marching bands and balloons, but I did find a performance group application, so I filled it out, and a few months later they contacted us and were like ‘Congratulations, we’d love to have you,’” Saini said. The group traveled to New York City the day before Thanksgiving, giving them time to rehearse throughout the night. “We walked the parade route, which was a little bit more than two and a half miles, and danced all the way to the Macy’s star, which was where the broadcasted performance took place,” Sekhar said. “Instead of just walking throughout the parade route, we wanted to dance the whole route to spread our culture and joy, which is what Bhangra means — ‘intoxicated with joy.’” Following their performance in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Cornell Bhangra is looking ahead to their spring showcase, Pao Bhangra. “Pao Bhangra is the largest Bhangra exhibition in the U.S. It’s one of the largest student-run events on campus. Last year we had close to 1,000 people attend, so it’s really cool,” Saini said. “We invite four teams from around the country to come for a weekend of fun. We also invite some groups from Cornell to perform as guest performances.” The location has yet to be confirmed, but the event will take place on March 16, 2024. Team applications are open now and are due Dec. 15.
©PHOTO BY KEVIN MCCORMICK / GROUPPHOTOS.COM
Parade performance | Cornell Bhangra danced at Macy’s 97th annual Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City.
Grace Liu can be reached at gml93@cornell.edu. Luca Pavlovich can be reached ltp26@cornell.edu.
Revy Adds New Travel Option Fraternities Alleged Cornellians launch carpooling platform for intercity travel To Decide Election By CATHERINE ZHU Sun Contributor
For students without cars on campus, traveling outside of Ithaca’s city confines can bring challenges, including expensive bus fares, inconvenient travel times and a lack of available tickets. To ease the difficulty of intercity traveling, three Cornell students — Jay Joo ’23, Aarsha Joshi ’27 and Prawira Pikanto ’23 — launched Revy, a new carpooling web application, on Oct. 31. Joo, Revy’s main technology
developer, said the application’s main objective is to provide a convenient, centralized place for passengers to find drivers at affordable prices. Revy currently only serves the Cornell community but is looking to expand to other college campuses over time. “Bus prices used to be around $20 to $40 from Ithaca to New York City, and that has recently spiked up [to] $70 to $90 one way,” Joo said. “I think that is why right now there is especially a need for carpooling.”
Revy works similarly to Uber in that it is a two-sided marketplace. If an individual plans to drive home for the holidays and has two empty seats, they can post on the website, marking their price per passenger. Then, if another student also wants to go to the same location but does not have a car, they can request the ride, and Revy will provide the necessary logistical resources, such as chat features, for the two students to connect. See CARPOOL page 4
VOTES
Continued from page 1
He said the arrangement in which Kuehl and Lederman were authorized to deliver absentee ballots to the fraternity brothers was unusual but did not appear to break any rules. “Typically, if someone else was going to deliver an absentee ballot, it would be because the voter was unable to do so him or herself, and it would be either a family member or, if they were in a nursing home, it would be some
employee of the nursing home,” Gardner said. Lederman defended being authorized to pick up the ballots, saying that he believed it was “standard practice” and that mail delivery around Cornell can be unreliable. Kuehl declined to comment. Kuehl and Lederman’s close coordination with fraternities depicts an ambitious effort to find votes from fraternities in a notoriously low-turnout district, where a handful of ballots can swing an election. Thousands of people live in the Fourth Ward, but because it is so heavily populated by college students — most of whom do not vote in Tompkins County — scavenging for votes can be difficult. This year, only 100 people voted in the Fourth Ward, and Kuehl won by nine votes. Kuehl has already been criticized for running a secretive write-in campaign, in which even his opponent, Jorge DeFendini ’22, did not know he was running until Election Day. Kuehl has given shifting answers about how long he was openly running. He said shortly after the election that he had been canvassing for a month and a half, but said more recently that he did not officially launch his bid until around Oct. 22, the day he met with fraternity presidents. At that meeting, Kuehl and Lederman discussed their campaigns with fraternity presidents and Rocco DeLorenzo ’24, the Interfraternity Council president. Kuehl, Lederman and DeLorenzo all work together on the Student Assembly. To continue reading this story, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Sofia Rubinson can be reached at srubinson@cornellsun.com.
4 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 28, 2023
News
Pro-Palestinian Advocates Accuse Cornellians Promote InterCornell of Ignoring Islamophobia City Travel Via Carshare ISLAMOPHOBIA Continued from page 1
On Monday, Nov. 27 — the first day of classes after Thanksgiving break — Cornell students encountered chalk messages criticizing Cornell’s ties to Israel on several sidewalks on campus. CML has planned eight events about Palestine from Tuesday, Nov. 28 to Friday, Nov. 30. Events include an art exhibit, a vigil, a die-in, an anti-imperialist rally for both Palestine and Sudan, which is experiencing an escalation of violence, two teach-ins, a community prayer and an event titled “Martha Pollack on Trial.” A representative of the University declined a request for comment when asked about the chalkings as well as threats made to Palestinian students. Palestinian, Muslim and Arab Students Express Safety Concerns After Facing Intimidation, Online Harassment On Friday, Nov. 24, CML released an Instagram post detailing safety concerns for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab students and allies of the Free Palestine movement. The post expressed frustration over the administration’s lack of response and action to voiced concerns. The post detailed incidents of Muslim students being targeted and recorded on multiple occasions, such as when leaving Anabel Taylor Hall after prayer and at Student Assembly events, where attendees were asked not to record speakers. The post underscored that President Martha Pollack, Vice President of Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi and other Cornell administrators have neglected to respond to these incidents and, in doing so, have failed to provide protection to their Muslim students. In a Nov. 11 Instagram post, CML explained that the Cornell SJP account has received death threats and rape threats. Based on numerous screenshots acquired by The Sun, viewers commented on posts and directly messaged SJP, calling them “baby killers” and “terrorists” and making threats of rape towards Muslims. Additionally, on Oct. 29, the same day as Patrick Dai’s ’24 threats towards Jewish students became known, threats were posted on Greekrank calling for the enslavement of hijabi women. In addition to receiving online threats, many Muslim students have experienced intimidation on campus. Hasham Khan ’26 noted the unease particularly among visibly Muslim women wearing hijabs regarding their lack of safety as well as an incident of “white guys” photographing Muslim students without their consent as they left from Friday prayer in Anabel Taylor Hall. “We’ve had students say that they’ve been followed and their pictures have been taken,” Khan said. “[Muslim women wearing hijabs] say that they don’t feel safe, as they have been targeted, not verbally harassed but have
received intimidating looks.” On Saturday, Nov. 25, three Palestinian college students were shot in Burlington, Vermont while speaking a mix of English and Arabic and wearing black-and-white keffiyehs, a traditional Middle Eastern scarf that has been used as a symbol of Palestinian identity and solidarity as demonstrations have increased since the start the IsraelHamas War. Musa referenced this act of violence while explaining the danger of visibly identifying as Muslim. “It does feel kind of unsafe to be visibly presenting [as] Arab or Muslim. This past weekend, there were three Palestinian students shot in Vermont,” Musa said. “And this is the reality that we’re living in where it’s not safe to be Palestinian, Arab or Muslim.” In the Nov. 24 statement, CML assured Cornell’s Muslim, Arab and Palestinian community that it will continue to advocate for their community on campus to ensure that every student is valued and create a place where they can speak about their concerns without fear. Cornell-Israel Relationship Condemned in Sidewalk Chalk Messages On Monday, Nov. 27, several chalked messages supporting Palestine appeared on campus sidewalks. These messages attacked Cornell’s partnerships with Israeli institutions and cited the number of deaths reported in Gaza, which has exceeded 14,000, according to the Gazan Ministry of Health, an organization currently controlled by Hamas but whose death tolls are considered generally reliable by international officials and experts. This is not the first time that messages about the war have appeared on Cornell’s sidewalks and walking spaces. On Wednesday, Oct. 25, Cornell’s campus was tagged with anti-Israel graffiti, which included “Israel is fascist” and “F*** Israel.” On Nov. 2, the names of Palestinians killed in the war were chalked on Ho Plaza. The recent sidewalk messages specifically criticized Cornell’s role in the conflict, bearing slogans such as “15,000 [Palestinians] murdered with your tuition” and “Cornell invests in genocide” — both found at the corner of Forest Home Drive and Feeney Way — and “Over 15,000 killed by Israel / No more weapons research,” which was found outside Uris Library. Cornell’s partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology on its Cornell Tech campus in New York City has come under scrutiny by pro-Palestinian groups on campus, such as SJP and CML. To continue reading this article, please visit www. cornellsun.com. Anushka Shorewala can be reached at ashorewala@ cornellsun.com. Kate Sanders can be reached at ksanders@cornellsun. com.
CARPOOL
Continued from page 3
On average, the current price range is approximately $15 to $35 per passenger, and the driver determines a price they deem appropriate, according to Joshi, Revy’s head of marketing execution and growth. Therefore, if a driver has three to four passengers, they can easily make around $100 per ride. Joshi, who is from New York City, expressed her frustration with the transportation options at Cornell — which drove her to seek out carpooling opportunities. “I was trying to get home for fall break, and when I looked three weeks ahead, the [bus] ticket was $100. So I thought the price would go down if I waited a little,” Joshi said. “But as [the] break got closer, my only options had me arriving in New York City at midnight, which wasn’t something I wanted to do.” Revy’s addition to the transportation scene this semester helps solidify carpooling as a competitive option for Cornellians in deciding how to travel out of Ithaca, as typically, carpooling is arranged between friends and on social media platforms. In fact, carpooling continues to grow throughout the nation — the global carpooling market is projected to reach $9.16 billion in 2027 from $3.68 billion in 2020. Joo performed a soft launch in March 2023 to gauge interest and demand in carpooling among Cornell students prior to the team being formed. “Last semester I built a prototype as a weekend project in three or four days, and it got a little over a hundred users,” Joo said. “That’s how I thought it was a signal that carpooling was something in demand. People were willing to use [an application]
that’s so rough because the problem is so prominent.” After the recent beta launch this semester, Joo’s analytics show that Revy currently has 100 to 150 daily active users, although Joo expects a slowdown after Thanksgiving break and a spike in usage again for winter break. The team is currently marketing Revy on three different platforms — Reddit, Instagram and QR codes on physical posters, with Reddit observing the most success with the most clicks and views. A primary challenge for Revy right now is elevating and matching the number of drivers to the demand from potential passengers. “A lot of our efforts right now are around acquiring drivers. So in our marketing for instance, instead of saying ‘find a carpool for your next trip,’ we said: ‘make $50 for your empty seats when driving out of town,’” Joo said. Matt Miller ’27 agreed that making some extra cash is the most appealing part of the concept for him as a car owner at Cornell. “I pay close to $800 to have my car on campus. And then you add gas on top of it as well as the maintenance for fixing up the car intermittently,” Miller said. “So having a handler’s fee of sorts when driving would sound really appealing to me.” On the passenger end of the consideration, a major concern could be the safety and reliability of the ride, according to Joo. Compared to companies like Uber and OurBus, which have a more developed system for maintaining dependability and customer service when issues arise, Revy is still at the early stages and still needs to have those same measures in place. “Taking myself out of the driver context, a question I might ask would be, ‘Is the person driving reliable?’” Miller said. “Since the drivers are all Cornell students, I don’t think safety is a really big concern. Accountability would be the main thing.” In order to post a ride, all drivers must do is to sign in with their Cornell email address. Revy did not request a photograph of a driver’s license or other documentation confirming the driver’s ability to drive or their access to a car when a Sun reporter attempted to post an available ride. Joshi noted that an early inspiration for Revy came from a European carpooling app called BlaBlaCar. “With BlaBlaCar you can find rides from, for example, Germany to France. Because, in Europe, there are so many transportation options available, people are more receptive to not driving themselves,” Joshi said. “In the Northeast [U.S.], given how close everything is, there’s definitely some similarities you can find, and so there’s potential to look towards European modes of transportation.” To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Catherine Zhu can be reached at cyz23@cornell.edu.
A&C
Tuesday, November 27, 2023 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | 5
&
Modern Soma
LUKE DENNIS SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Reach into your pocket and let the height of technology take you far away from the world before you. Enjoy the distraction it gives you: a familiar feeling of warmth and comfort. But is this an act of freedom or the relinquishing of such? I’m referring, of course, to soma. Soma is the instant gratification drug that has desensitized society in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 Brave New World. But 92 years later, this drug sounds awfully familiar — it's just been going by different names: phones, the Internet, the virtual world. I fear how similar our dissociative societies are, as Huxley’s world blurs into our own. Is his world a road map for the journey we are about to begin, or a warning that will help us avoid an artless, passionless society where we are enslaved to instant gratification technology? Or as Ebenezer Scrooge once asked, “Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?” Brave New World depicts a bleak society inside the totalitarian World State. Every human has a specialized job and has been genetically engineered to work without resistance. Every aspect of life is manipulated by the World State, with Mustapha Mond being the World Controller of
Western Europe. Why then do the citizens not revolt against this oppressive lifestyle? Provided to every citizen are capsules of soma. You know what soma does. Every uncomfortable situation, awkward interaction or moment of boredom — soma gets rid of them all. Just reach into your pocket and feel the metaphysical weight of it. It’s what has silenced commuter trains, isolated untold numbers of people and taken away the pressure that comes with free-thinking. And why does society accept this lobotomized form of existence? Mustapha Mond, World Controller extraordinaire, answers this saying, “Anything for a quiet life.” As much as people think they want freedom and independence, what they want more is to be free of these responsibilities. As soma does this for the citizens of the World State, a never-ending supply of entertainment and content via the Internet does this for the world today. Given the freedom and independence to do anything at all, we let curated content and algorithmic models guide our downtime. Unlike soma, these devices have the possibility to assist us as we stand at the frontiers of new knowledge. As we look out into the unknown, we will have more than just ourselves to rely on. The problem is not the devices, but how we integrate them into society. The biggest
shared space of the Internet is social media. It is a circular model which allows us to play the part of performer and audience. We can distract ourselves from the reality that we are neither the performer nor the audience we pretend to be. As Kurt Vonnegut aptly writes in Mother Night, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Mustapha Mond says, “People never are alone now… we make them hate solitude; and we arrange their lives so that it’s almost impossible for them ever to have it.” I fear this is what our technology is most likely pushing us toward. I think more concerning than escaping scenarios of discomfort is escaping those of boredom. Will we condition ourselves to reach for stimulation every time we are met with a quiet moment? I think it has already happened. Future generations will accept this new normalcy. We must consider questions they will ask us when all they have known is the virtual world alongside reality. Is there merit to boredom? With an oversaturation of endless content that is algorithmically tailored to their interests, how do we show the value of less instantaneous pursuits? So far our only response seems to be, “Anything for a quiet life.” In the World State, there are a few individuals living soma-free and not under the control of the regime. These
are the revo- COURTESY OF HARPER PERENNIAL lutionaries: the rebels, scientists, artists or anyone who could not help but ask questions and cause instability in the perfectly stable world. They are banished to islands around the globe. What is seen by many as punishment turns out to be a community for those dissatisfied by their current environment. Early in the novel, a propaganda writattention for algorithmic perer mentions to his friend that fection, there is something “words can be like X-rays, unattainable in endless enterif you use them properly tainment that only revolu— they’ll go through any- tionary science and art can thing. You read and you’re provide. They seem to cappierced.” In those words I feel ture our curiosity and desire Huxley most directly coming in ways technology has not through the pages — breaking yet replicated. It’s that inarthe fourth wall, telling the ticulable feeling of something reader “you read” and “you’re missing, that after hours of pierced” and hoping that his watching content we are still words are the X-rays he imag- left dissatisfied, knowing that ines them to be. For a reader what we truly want is just a in need, deliberate words can little bit more than what the not only be X-rays into them- virtual world can provide. selves, but also into the world around them. Luke Dennis is a freshman in the No matter how much we College of Agricultural and Life commercialize the minds of Sciences. He can be reached at ld524@ our children and sell their cornell.edu.
A Review of Local Bookstores in Ithaca EMMA ROBINSON SUN CONTRIBUTOR
As the weather has gotten chillier, I have been spending more time inside, finishing most of the novels I brought with me to college. This meant I was in need of some new books, so I went on a mission to explore the local bookstores of Ithaca. While researching options near campus, I found three interesting shops down by Ithaca Commons that piqued my interest. First, I visited the Odyssey Bookstore, situated in the basement of a quaint stone building. As my friends and I entered the small space, we immediately fell in love with the cozy atmosphere. The store is packed with books from floor to ceiling, providing plenty of selections for readers of all genres. The shelves have chalkboards above them with a
cute drawing and the name of the genre of book kept on that shelf. My favorite of these illustrations was in the architecture section, which featured several colorful buildings. There are also small slips of paper that hang out from under some of the books to give short synopses of them. This attention to detail had me falling in love with Odyssey Bookstore. They also sold blind dates with a book. You can buy a book that was wrapped with brown paper, with a drawing and description of the book on it. Readers try out a book they might not normally pick up but also have some idea of the genre and general plot that they are going to be reading. They also offered a customizable subscription. Hand-picked books are shipped to you monthly based on your reading preferences. The store has cozy places to sit and read, such as a chair next to a fireplace or an enchanting cush-
ioned window seat, which really made it feel homey. They had a large selection of both fiction and nonfiction. Odyssey Bookstore is the perfect spot for anyone looking for a delightful place to relax and browse books. The second bookstore I explored was Autumn Leaves Used Books. This store had a different vibe. It was much larger and felt less curated. However, it had a nice selection of nonfiction books in genres such as cooking, gardening and classics. There were also some large cases with older and rare books that would be great additions to any book lover’s collection. They also had different editions and copies of books that might be the perfect budget buy for an English reading requirement. It definitely is the kind of place you have to search to find what you are looking for, but there are many hidden gems. Autumn Leaves Used Books additionally had a second and third level that
sold comics, CDs, action figures, VHS tapes, records and more. I am sure music and film fanatics would appreciate these additions. This shop is the perfect spot for anyone interested in investing some time to find unique books at a more affordable price point. The final bookshop I perused was Buffalo Street Books. Slightly off the Commons, it was bigger than the Odyssey Bookstore but smaller than Autumn Leaves Used Books. It had the largest children’s section of the three and a pretty expansive fiction section. This bookstore had a substantial sitting area in the back that would be very comfortable to spend a couple hours reading. They carried multiple copies of each book, and I recognized some popular new releases on the shelves. Like Odyssey Bookstore, some of the shelves had tags highlighting certain books, which was a nice touch. Buffalo Street Books had the largest selec-
tion of book-related merchandise such as stickers, puzzles and games that would be the perfect present for any literary lover. My favorite sticker was one featuring Taylor Swift’s albums on book covers. This is a great place for any reader looking for a larger fiction selection and some fun literary goodies. Overall, Odyssey Bookstore was my favorite. I enjoyed the charm and thoughtful touches making for the perfect book-shopping experience. Buffalo Street Books had a nice selection of my favorite genre of books, so I am sure I will be making many trips there as well. Autumn Leaves Used Books has great deals that would work into any college budget. If you are looking for a new read to cozy up with this winter, all of these book stores provide a great shopping adventure. Emma Robinson is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at elg229@cornell.edu.
ARTS & CULTURE ARTS & CULTURE
6 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Opinion
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Independent Since 1880 141st Editorial Board ANGELA BUNAY ’24 Editor in Chief
KATIE CHEN ’25
SOFIA RUBINSON ’24
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GRACE XIAO ’25
NOAH DO ‘24
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JULIA NAGEL ’24
NIHAR HEGDE ’24
GRAYSON RUHL ’24
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MEHER BHATIA ’24
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SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OR GUEST COLUMN The Cornell Daily Sun is devoted to publishing a broad and diverse set of content from the Cornell and greater Ithaca community. We want to hear what you have to say about today's paper or any of our pieces. Guidelines on how to submit can be found at Cornellsun.com. And here is our email: opinion@cornellsun.com
Gabriel Levin is a second-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His column Almost Fit to Print spans issues in science, social justice and politics. He is the host of Under The Sun, a Cornell Daily Sun opinion podcast. He can be reached at glevin@cornellsun.com.
My Grandfather Couldn’t Come to Cornell. But I’m Here Now
H
oward Levin, my grandfather, was 17 years old when he lied to the Army recruiter about his age. The year was 1942 — the height of the Second World War. Adolf Hitler commanded the fiercest army on Earth with the promise of mechanistically eradicating every single Jew. Crematoria, gas chambers, firing squads, drowning, death marches through the dead of winter, disease and starvation. This was evil on an industrial scale. “There were not six million Jews murdered,” said one Holocaust survivor. “There was one murder, six million times.” My grandfather, a Jew from Brooklyn, knew when he enlisted in the most fatal war in world history that his bravery could play a part in defeating fascism and hatred. An avowed pacifist, Howard trained to be a medic. In the aftermath of D-Day, he was just outside of Normandy, tending to the wounded on the front lines as bullets and bombs whizzed by. port for Israel’s existence as a Jewish state animated much of the worst anti-Israel activity during the 2021-2022 academic year." Caught in the path of approaching Nazis, he used a piano to barricade himself in a house, buying him just enough time to toss his dog tags before being captured. Had he still been wearing those dog tags, which listed his religion for burial purposes, I likely wouldn’t be alive to write this piece. Allied Jewish soldiers caught in Nazi Germany were often summarily executed. Enshrined in the family lore of every Jewish household are such close calls. The history of Judaism is a record of the myriad times Jews narrowly defied the odds, from pharaoh to the pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the early 1900s — the same bloodthirsty lynch mob-style riots that sent Howard’s mother and grandparents fleeing to Ellis Island. Still today, Jews at Cornell and beyond are looking over their shoulders, wondering which of their peers wants them dead. Howard spent 11 grueling months in a prison camp in Essen, Germany. At one point, he was discovered arranging fallen leaves to indicate where in the camp munitions were being stored. Because he was a medic who could be forced to perform surgeries on injured Nazis, they decided not to crucify him onto the side of a train car — the punishment for subversion. For nearly a year, he and other starving soldiers subsisted on potato peels and bread crumbs that Nazis threw on the cold dirt floor for them to fight over. Upon liberation, Howard weighed 95 lbs. He never wasted a scrap of food for the rest of his life. One fellow inmate was a dean at Ohio State who said he would grant Howard admission if they made it out alive. Howard found out that, not long after the war ended, his friend had died. When he visited the dean’s office at the university, he
had been replaced. The new dean, when told about the promise, dismissed my grandfather. “You Jews are always asking for favors,” he said, sitting smugly behind his desk. Howard, who would go on to become New York City’s chief veterinarian, pursued a college education so he could learn how to heal animals. After being rejected from Ohio State for no other reason than that he was Jewish, he applied to Cornell, which has long ranked among the top vet schools in the nation. It was his dream to come here and forge a future for himself beyond the devastation of war. He was accepted, but the University said he wouldn’t be able to attend for another five years. The glut of qualified post-war applicants made for extraordinary deferral periods. Howard had a family to provide for and couldn’t wait. His goal of becoming a Cornellian was dashed, though his expectations may not have been high to begin with as admissions offices across the nation used discriminatory policies to limit Jewish enrollment.
It was his dream to come here and forge a future for himself beyond the devastation of war. Our University hasn’t always lived up to its motto. But for generations of Jews and other minorities who have applied here, “any person, any study” has always been about more than just education — it’s about finding a refuge, a place where one can feel safe being who they really are. My grandfather was time and again deprived of that basic dignity. He may not have been able to attend, but I’m here now. I consider myself blessed: I’m the realization of a dream that took generations of familial effort to make possible. When I applied, though, I didn’t expect to have to confront the kind of horrific anti-Semitism that Howard saw in his lifetime, whether in fighting it overseas or facing it here at home. Today, “any person, any study” sounds like just another broken promise as my Jewish classmates experience daily degradation so intrusive that the Department of Education has stepped in to investigate it. It feels like we’re going backwards to a dangerous chapter of history, one that no Jewish student wants to revisit because we know what could come next for us if everyone doesn’t take a decisive stand against prejudice.
The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, November 28, 2023 7
Comics and Puzzles
Sundoku Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name. (Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)
Puzzle 5036
DANDELION
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Sports
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 28, 2023
8
Men’s Hockey Upsets BU in Pivotal Contest
The Red scores two goals in the third period to defeat BU, 2-1 By RUTH ABRAHAM and JANE McNALLY Sun Sports Editor and Sun Staff Writer
Cornell men’s hockey (5-3-1, 2-3-1 ECAC) defeated Boston University, 2-1, on Saturday, Nov. 25 at Madison Square Garden. The Red earned its first top-5 win of the season over the Terriers (9-4-1, 5-1-1 Hockey East), snapping a threegame skid in the process. The KelleyHarkness Cup returned to the hands of the Red for the fourth consecutive time. “[I’m] very proud of our team for just finding a way to win tonight. It wasn’t beautiful, it wasn’t pretty, but with a young team, you have to learn how to win [and] you have to learn how to overcome adversity,” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86. “You got to learn how to face different teams and I just thought that these guys did a good job stepping forward tonight.” A crucial piece in the win was junior goaltender Ian Shane, who returned in net for the first time since being pulled halfway through the first period against Quinnipiac on Nov. 17. Shane made a season-high 35 saves to keep the offensive prowess of BU at bay. “It’s fortunate to have a great goaltender who made some huge saves for us,” Schafer said. “We hung around and Ian kept us in the [game] in the first two periods.” It was the Red who established the
first significant zone time between either team, possessing the puck in its offensive zone but unable to muster a shot on goal. Junior forward Jack O’Leary gave Cornell its first big look, picking the pocket of a BU skater and turning it into a one-onnone breakaway, but shot the puck just wide. Not much after, Shane made his first save. The Terriers proceeded to test Shane early, holding possession in the Cornell defensive zone. The Red held its own defensively, however, keeping BU to the outside and limiting high-danger scoring chances. The Terrier’s first prime scoring chance was a close call, as Cornell turnover led to a two-on-one right in front of Shane, but the shot attempt slipped just wide. Cornell retaliated with a chance of its own, when junior forward Kyle Penney fired a hard wrist shot on net. BU goaltender Mathieu Caron made a solid save but couldn’t control the big rebound, but the Red was unable to collect it. The Terriers’ freshman phenom Macklin Celebrini, dangling through Cornell defenders, had another close chance as Shane made a glove save to keep BU off the board Cornell got the first opportunity on the power play as BU’s Nick Zabaneh was called for high sticking. The Red looked to remedy its recent power play struggles
against the mediocre Terrier penalty kill which at the time stood at a 78 percent success rate. While the Red was able to establish zone time off of the initial offensive zone faceoff, making some nice passess but failing to generate shots on net. A miscommunication at the blueline led to a shorthanded chance for the Terriers, but freshman forward Jonathan Castagna hustled back and made a diving play with his stick to block the chance. Time ran out on the power play, with Cornell yet again unable to convert. The Red had not scored a power play goal since Nov. 10 against Dartmouth. Almost immediately after time expired on the man advantage with around four minutes remaining in the period, freshman forward Luke Devlin had a huge chance in front of the net that was saved by Caron. Cornell was then nabbed for having too many men on the ice, putting the Red to the test against the No. 6 power play in the nation. A scrum in front of the net found Shane without a stick and O’Leary and junior defenseman Rego in the back of the net looking to keep the loose puck out. Despite the puck appearing to be underneath Shane, no whistle was blown and chaos continued to ensue in front of Cornell’s net. Shane and the rest of the PK unit stood
Comeback kings | The Red scored two goals in the last ten minutes of the third period to defeat Boston University, 2-1.
strong, keeping the score knotted at zero. Following the conclusion of the penalty kill, the referees took another look at the scrum in front of Shane and confirmed the no-goal call. With just over a minute remaining in the frame, Zabaneh went to the box again, this time for cross checking a Cornell skater after the whistle had been blown. Around 30 seconds to go in the period, BU’s Sam Stevens collected Cornell turnover and created a breakaway chance. All alone in front, Stevens went to his backhand but was stopped by a diving Shane, keeping the game scoreless. The Red began the period with 54 seconds remaining on the Zabaneh penalty. Cornell was able to muster a couple of shots but was unable to solve Caron. Right out of the box, Zabaneh shot off a pass from Celebrini, however, it was just deflected wide by Shane. Another shot forced Shane to make a sprawling save. Zabaneh got a piece of the rebound however it was just deflected off the crossbar. To continue reading this story, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Ruth Abraham can be reached at rabraham@cornellsun.com. Jane McNally can be reached at jmcnally@ cornellsun.com.
ANTHONY CORRALES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER