INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 134, No. 50
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2018
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
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The Johnson celebrates 45 years.
Cornell researchers develop device to moderate students’ mental health. | Page 3
| Page 10
Wrestlers overpower Columbia to extend historic Ivy streak. | Page 16
Dean’s Impending Resignation Kept Grads to Object Secret From Top Business Admins To C.U. Actions By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS Sun City Editor
Cornell University so carefully and closely guarded the impending resignation of its business college dean last week that it kept even the college’s own top administrators in the dark. Kate Walsh, dean of the School of Hotel Administration, said in a closed-door meeting with several dozen faculty members late Monday afternoon that she learned of former dean Soumitra Dutta’s abrupt resignation only when Cornell’s provost publicly announced the change in an email to business college employees and students last week. Walsh’s comments in the private meeting — related by a person in the room who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of retaliation by the University — show that even while Cornell planned for at least a day for the resignation of the SC Johnson College of Business’s chief, it kept top administrators within the college clueless. The College of Business, which launched in July of 2016 despite protests from students and faculty, brought the hotel school, the Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management together under one college. L. Joseph Thomas, the interim dean of the business college,
said Cornell asked him on Monday, Jan. 29, to take on the interim position and said he was surprised by the request. Provost Michael Kotlikoff said in an email to business college employees and students the next day, Jan. 30, that Dutta had submitted his “It has resignation and that Kotlikoff had been a accepted, effective i m m e d i a t e l y. privilege to Kotlikoff gave no serve rationale for Dutta’s sudden Cornell as a Dean.” resignation, which came three days after the Prof. Board of Trustees Soumitra concluded a Dutta scheduled meeting in New York. The unexplained resignation has stunned the Cornell community, sending rumors and concern rippling through Ithaca campus halls and alumni networks. On Feb. 2, Walsh wrote to hotel school faculty members
During Election
By BREANNE FLEER Sun Staff Writer
Cornell Graduate Students United plans to file an objection to the University’s conduct surrounding the graduate student union recognition election held last March. Jaron Kent-Dobias grad, CGSU communications and outreach chair, told The Sun that CGSU’s membership “pretty decisively chose not to accept the University’s offered settlements” in a referendum vote, nearly one year after the results of the election were determined too close to call. Michaela Brangan grad, former member of the Union Management Committee, previously told The Sun that the referendum would present CGSU members with three options: filing objections with the arbitrator,
See DEAN page 4
See CGSU page 5
#MeToo Founder Speaks at Cornell
Calls campus a ‘space that needs healing,’ cultural shift By PARIS GHAZI Sun Staff Writer
MICHAEL WENYE LI / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Innovation teday | Founder and creator of TED highlighted key elements of innovation in a talk on Monday evening in Kennedy Hall.
TED Founder Challenges Definition of Innovation By AMINA KILPATRICK Sun Staff Writer
Technology, Entertainment and Design Talks founder and creator Richard Saul Wurman shared his thoughts on design while jumping from topic to topic, using anecdotes and metaphors to address innovation. “All my speeches are a conversation,” Wurman said. Breaking away from the traditional format of a talk, Wurman began with a question and answer period as soon as the doors opened, familiarizing himself with the audience. He
repeatedly requested audience members to sit in the front rows. The talk was not Wurman’s first time at Cornell — decades ago, he taught in the architecture school as a visiting professor. Although the talk was sponsored by Cornell Hillel, Wurman did not talk about Judaism aside from a few jokes. “I am very proud of being a Jew, but I can’t speak about Judaism,” Wurman said. Instead, he began by sharing some of his wisdom around a See TED page 5
As the latest reports of sexual misconduct emerge from a University report on Zeta Beta Tau, founder of the #MeToo Movement Tarana Burke told her audience, “we need to talk about Cornell,” at Bailey Hall on Sunday night. Prior to her talk, Burke educated herself on sexual violence on the Cornell campus by reading the 2017 survey on the subject. “We need to be thoughtful and we need to be strategic,” she said. Though she applauded Cornell for even addressing the issue through a public medium —since “a lot of schools ignore [sexual misconduct] and don’t even try to comply with Title IX”— what she learned from the statistics convinced her of the pressing need for a campus-wide conversation. “This is a space that needs healing,” said Burke. “This is a community that needs to change a culture — there needs to be a cultural shift here, and this is not just for
Cornell, this is the same shift that needs to happen in the world.” The results of the survey were not unlike those of other universities, according to Burke. She particularly commended the ample resources available to sexual assault survivors, but questioned that “a good portion of folks did not know about the services.” What struck Burke the most, however, were three answers students provided for why they chose to not report their sexual harassment and assault incidents: they had “other things to focus on,” they “didn’t think it was serious enough” or they “wanted to just forget.” “Nine times out of ten if a person thinks that ‘it’s not serious enough,’ it prob-
#MeToo | Burke called on students and faculty to evaluate campus climate.
ably is serious,” said Burke. “Across the gender spectrum we are trained to stuff away those things, to hide them, to figure out another way to ignore it.” At the heart of this report is “the insidiousness of rape culture” and how the silencing of the most vulnerable, particularly non-white, queer, and trans individuals, creates space for “doubt and blame,” accord ing to Burke. See BURKE page 5 EMMA HOARTY / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER