INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 140, No. 37
8 Pages — Free
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Hard Work
Thrills Uncovered
Shootout Victory
Sunny
Amidst harsh winters and job insecurity, The Sun looks at the conditions construction workers face in Ithaca. | Page 4
Emma Robinson '27 explores outside of her reading comfort zone and finds new favorites. | Page 5
Men's hockey clinches it's 26th Ivy League title in a shootout victory officialy recorded as a tie. | Page 8
HIGH: 39º LOW: 25º
University Says Goodbye to Grade Medians By JULIA SENZON Sun News Editor
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Resolutions realized | Student transcripts will look less crowded this semester as the University removes grade medians.
The decision to include median grades on transcripts was intended to reduce grade inflation. But the practice became a “bingo, bullseye, backfire," with its impact on grading standards, according to Prof. Rebecca Nelson, plant science, at a Dec. 6 Faculty Senate meeting. On Dec. 15, the Faculty Senate approved Resolution 193 to eliminate median grade visibility. The resolution cited published research that indicates access to grade medians perpetuates grade inflation and students’ assertion that the practice is demor-
alizing and inequitable through Sun columns and a Student Assembly resolution. Students consequently will not see median grades included on transcripts for courses taken in the Fall 2023 semester and beyond, but median grades will not be retroactively eliminated from transcripts of prior semesters. Cornell stood as an outlier with its recording of median grades on transcripts. The University was one of just four universities to include median grades out of 71 member institutions of the Association of American Universities. Cornell began publishing median grades
on the Office of the University Registrar website in 1998, and on transcripts since 2008. The 1997 Faculty Senate resolution that urged the inclusion of median grades on transcripts and the registrar’s website argued that “more accurate recognition of performance may encourage students to take courses in which the median grade is relatively low.” Research on Cornell’s grade information and grade inflation, however, found that “the provision of grade information online induced students to select leniently graded courses.” Comparing the 1990-1997 period before median grade inclusion to the 1998-
2004 post-policy period, the share of courses with A-range medians rose by approximately 16 percent while student enrollment in A-range courses grew by over 42 percent. The Faculty Senate consequently removed median grades from the registrar’s website in 2011, meaning the median grades of all classes were no longer visible for all students. The Faculty Senate’s resolution noted that despite the removal, students collectively shared median grade data on platforms like Reddit, despite the removal of median grades from the OUR website. See MEDIANS page 3
S.A. Criticizes New Rosensaft Opens Dialogue on Expression Policies Antisemitism, Polarization By ERIC LECHPAMMER Sun Staff Writer
Student Assembly President Patrick Kuehl ’24, S.A. Vice President Claire Ting ’25 and Student Trustee J.P. Swenson ’25 critiqued the University’s Interim Expressive Activity Policy in a Feb. 15 meeting with Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina and Vice President and General Counsel Donica Varner. The policy, issued by the University’s executive administration on Jan. 24, established “expectations for Cornell students, faculty and staff engaged in expressive activity” in on-campus spaces with what the University said are “reasonable time, place and manner restrictions.” Swenson said that the measure was not properly deliberated by the S.A., the Faculty Senate or the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly and that the University Assembly Chair Shelby Lynn Williams ’25 was also not properly informed. “The concerning part about all this is the lack of transparency from the administration to the S.A.,” Swenson said. “The fact that the University somewhat undermined the structural governance of the school is concerning.” Kuehl and Swenson said that
the S.A. was allowed to express their considerations for the policy during only a 30-minute confidential meeting between the S.A. Executive Committee and Marla Love, Dean of Students, which took place one week before the enactment. However, the Executive Committee’s suggestions were absent from the final policy, according to Kuehl. “We did raise lots of concerns [about the policy], and none of those were taken,” Kuehl said. “When we brought up [concerns again on Thursday] morning, they said they hadn’t heard those concerns, and [that’s why] they weren’t implemented.” Kuehl said that the Executive Committee had concerns about the timing of the policy, the regulations on permitted locations, the use of amplified sound and posters or other protest materials. LGBTQIA+ Liaison At-Large Karys Everett ’25 criticized the policy, noting that the Coalition for Mutual Liberation’s Feb. 8 “Walk Out To a Die In” divestment protest was shut down based on the new policy measure’s restriction on the use of amplified sound. “This policy is suppressing students’ ability to protest on this campus,” Everett said, “Anything
See EXPRESSION page 4
First talk in spring lecture series examines war and genocide By OLIVIA HOLLOWAY Sun Contributor
Prof. Menachem Rosensaft, law, gave a lecture on Feb. 12 about antisemitism in light of the Israel-Hamas war. The talk, entitled “Antisemitism, the IsraelHamas War and Distorting the Law of Genocide: A Perfect Storm,” was the first of four events part of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Spring 2024 lecture series, planned in partnership with the Office of the Provost and various academic departments. The series, entitled “Antisemitism and Islamophobia Examined,” aims to encourage dialogue rather than hostility, following the rise of controversial acts on Cornell’s campus, including Prof. Rickford’s, history, labeling Hamas’ invasion into Israel as “exhiliarating” and “energizing;” the spread anti-Israel graffiti messages around Central Campus and Patrick Dai’s ’24 posting antisemitic threats. Students who support Palestine have held several protests and “dieins” to promote the adoption of anti-doxxing policies and demand the University’s divestment from companies supportive of Israel’s military, including the occupation
of Day Hall to stage a “mock trial” of President Martha Pollack and Cornell as a whole, claiming that the University is complicit in the genocide and apartheid of Palestinians. Rosensaft, who is the son of two Holocaust survivors, serves as General Counsel Emeritus of the World Jewish Congress and is a former member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council under presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In 1988, Rosensaft was one of five Americans to meet with the
Palestine Liberation Organization when the Palestinian Parliament first recognized the existence of Israel as a state. During his lecture, Rosensaft stressed the history and complexity of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and how related forms of hate have threatened Cornell’s campus. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Olivia Holloway can be reached at oh67@cornell.edu.
JASON WU / SUN SENIOR EDITOR
Encouraging dialogue | Rosensaft speaks to a packed room on the proliferation of antisemitism at Cornell.