3-14-24 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Lombardi Rocks the Runway at Cornell Fashion Collective Show

By CAROLINE MICHAILOFF Sun Staff Writer

The 2024 Cornell Fashion Collective Runway Show featured Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life, sporting Cardinal Robinson’s ’24 design as part of his “Cities Unseen” collection.

“It's my final show. It's my senior thesis. I wanted to come out, go out with a splash to some degree.” Robinson said. “Who could be like the biggest Cornell celebrity that I could dress? … The immediate thought is Lombardi — everybody loves him. He's by the students for the students. He's really a man of the people.”

Robinson convinced Lombardi to model for him in the show when he found him eating his daily burrito at Terrace.

“He walks by, and I'm like, ‘wow, his walk is great, he could really be a model’ … so I ran after him,”

Robinson said. “I was like, ‘would you consider modeling for me in the fashion show,’ and truthfully, he really didn't seem that interested when I first brought it up. But he was open to it.”

Robinson’s “Cities Unseen” collection was inspired by his experience growing up outside Boston. Lombardi sported a look that featured front draping with an overdyed silk piano shawl and a flatbed strap pulled from the Zakim Bridge in Boston.

In the collection, Robinson imagined New York City in 2050, and he instructed models to reflect their outfits in how they walk the runway. Lombardi donned a dystopian-inspired, military-style politician jacket. Because of his stature, age and position as the final model of the show, Lombardi acted as king of Cardinal’s futuristic city, with additional overdyed drapery to display his royalty.

By ISKANDER KHAN Sun Staff Writer

Scores of faculty members, staff and students gathered in front of Day Hall on Tuesday to scold the Cornell administration for its Interim Expressive Activity Policy.

Announced on Jan. 24, the interim policy, which enacted limits on the time, manner and place of campus protests, has faced fierce criticism from students and faculty alike.

Tuesday’s demonstration fell just a day after the University relaxed policies regarding event registration, the use of open flames and postering. The administration also stated that the final policy would be decided after consulting faculty, students and staff.

Prof. Alexander Livingston, government, speaking to the crowd of nearly 200, described the protest as an act of open defiance towards the “sloppy and mistaken” interim policies.

Prof. Shannon Gleeson, industrial and labor relations, emphasized in her speech that academics face the consequences of administrative actions as employees of Cornell.

“Those here with tenure have a special responsibility to speak out,” Gleeson said. “We are doing what I study [in ILR]. … I want to remind everyone that we are scholars — faculty and grads — but we are also workers. These are our bosses, not only our colleagues and deans and provosts and presidents.”

As passing cars honked in support, fliers were handed out calling for faculty to speak out at Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting and encouraging departmental statements opposing the interim policy.

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

Donica Varner Speaks About Interim Expressive Policy

By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun Senior Reporter

The University’s Interim Expressive Activity Policy continues to stir up strong emotions across campus, with a faculty and staff protest on Tuesday over several provisions still present after revisions to the policy were released Monday afternoon. But the formation of this policy and how a final version of the policy will look have yet to be made clear.

To better understand the process through which this policy was created and the next steps in the revision process, The Sun spoke with Vice President and General Counsel Donica Varner, who assesses the legal implications of the policy and how it pertains to Cornell’s values.

The initial version of the Interim Expressive Activity Policy was released

on Jan. 24, sparking some condemnation by students and faculty over provisions that they feel impede on free expression. In her announcement of the policy, President Martha Pollack stated that “work on these policies began in Spring 2023, in the lead-up to our freedom of expression theme year, and last semester underscored the importance of such policies.”

Varner said that by January 2023, there was a draft interim policy that was brought to the desks of top administrators. But she said that the need for an expressive activity policy became apparent as early as December 2020, when the Board of Trustees adopted a new Student Code of Conduct in replacement of the Campus Code of Conduct.

Runway Ryan | Vice President Ryan Lombardi takes the CFC stage in dystopian dresswear, an original Cardinal Robinson ’24 look.

ANTHONY CORRALES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Daybook

Thursday, March 14, 2024

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Today Tomorrow

Climate Change, Disasters and Armed Conflicts With Tobias Ide

Noon - 1:15 p.m., Virtual Event

Road Mapping Carbon Dioxide Removal With Rudy Kahsar

12:20 p.m. - 1:10 p.m., 101 Phillips Hall

Zotero 101

12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m., S1-132 College of Veterinary Medicine

Empowering Household Energy Transition

Amid Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa

2:30 p.m. - 4:25 p.m., G08 Uris Hall

Khmer/Cambodian Conversation Hour

3 p.m. - 4 p.m., G25 Stimson Hall

Multi-Messenger Astronomy and Understanding the Supernova Engine

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 105 Space Sciences Building

Scientific Citizenship: Redefining Science Education in a Divided World

With Daniel Pomeroy

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 219 Phillips Hall

Biomimetic Polymer Electronics for Multi-Modal Interfacing With Biology With Sihong Wang

4 p.m., B11 Kimball Hall

The Evolution of Nabokov’s Polyommatus Blues

With Naomi Pierce

4 p.m. - 5 p.m., 160 Mann Library

Proton Fast Ignition: High Gain Inertial Confinement Fusion Scheme

With Farhat N. Beg

4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 700 Clark Hall

‘I Came Back for Molly’

7:30 a.m., Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Flex Theatre

Assembling the Illegality Regime: Vagrancy Laws, Indentured Labor and the Making of Migration Control in Germany

With Sabrina Axster

11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., 106 White Hall

Yiddish Conversation Hour

Noon - 1 p.m., Virtual Event

Does Assimilation Still Matter?

With Richard Alba

Noon - 1:15 p.m., 2250 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall

On Generalization and Uncertainty in Learning with Neural Networks With Lenka Zdeborová

12:15 p.m. - 1:10 p.m., 122 Gates Hall

Crafting Archaeology Stories: A Crash Course in Writing for Public Audiences

12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m., 125 McGraw Hall

Manufacturing Systems Engineering – Modeling the Complete Product Definition With Stephen Hooper

12:20 p.m., 253 Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall

The Rise of Uber and the Fall of the City With Katie J. Wells and Kafui Attoh

12:20 p.m., Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium

The Jamaican Debt Crisis and the Remaking of Socialist Internationalism, 1975-1980

With Giuliana Chamedes

12:20 p.m. - 2:15 p.m., 366 McGraw Hall

Defining Digital Fashion and Tracking the Developments in Relevant Technologies

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Nanomedicine Against Cancer With Andy Tay

2:55 p.m. - 3:55 p.m., 226 Weill Hall

Effects of Narrative Structure and Agency on Memory With Janice Chen

3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m., 262 Uris Hall

Lombardi Bonds With Students at Annual CFC Fashion Show

Te vice president connected with fellow models as he prepared to take the runway on March 2

FASHION Continued from page 1

“All credit goes to Cardinal for a great process. When we initially met, he explained to me how he develops a concept and the process for that becoming a tangible design and product,” wrote Lombardi in a statement to The Sun. “He brought samples, and we did a couple of fittings over several weeks leading up to the event to make sure he was happy with how it was all coming together.”

Lombardi joined student models who spent weeks attending “model bootcamp,” where they practiced their posture, gait and overall presentation on the runway.

“It was nice to see him interact with the [other] models — he seemed like he really cared about the actual [process of putting on the show], every individual’s lives and trying to bring a positive light to this campus,” Robinson said. “I think he and I both saw the fashion show in this event, sort of as a means of him being able to achieve this … especially when things on campus are so tense right now, to sort of bring a level of levity and like entertainment.”

As Lombardi fully immersed himself into the process, nerves surrounding modeling followed.

“It was nice to see him interact with the [other] models — he seemed like he really cared about the actual [process of putting on the show], every individual’s lives and trying to bring a positive light to this campus.”

Cardinal Robinson ’24

“It was a really interesting position to be in to see your VP be nervous about something like walking, which I’ve done for Cardinal since sophomore

year,” said Adam Sharifi ’24, another model that walked for Robinson. “He was also really interested in how to do it properly. He wanted the show to go as smoothly as possible for Cardinal and everyone else.”

Other models did not recognize Lombardi as vice president until he was asked for pictures.

“I thought he was just someone who was related to Cardinal because he didn’t look like a student,” said Neba Neba ’26, another one of Robinson’s models. “I got to know he was vice president because people kept coming up to ask for pictures. He had a lot of questions to ask everyone came to him — you got the sense that he was really interested in student affairs.”

“We talked about him, his wife, his children. He told me about his interests [outside] of academia — he plays saxophone, … he can sing.”

Neba Neba ’26

Students left the experience feeling as if they were able to connect with Lombardi as a peer and not just a superior.

“We talked about him, his wife, his children. He told me about his interests [outside] of academia — he plays saxophone, … he can sing.” Neba said.

Fellow models shared similar experiences with Lombardi, appreciating the care he showed for students.

“He was really interested in what we are doing as students and the kinds of backgrounds that we’re coming from,” said Sharifi. “And he is going about it the right way by integrating himself into it by participating in these events and talking to students on a more personal level. We don’t see Martha Pollack walking around campus and participating in fashion shows and events, right?”

Lombardi enjoyed the opportunity to work with students in a new context.

“This may have been a one-time experience, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I’m not sure that I have much of a future in modeling.”

Ryan Lombardi

“It was wonderful to interact with students in this capacity,” Lombardi wrote. “I try as much as possible to engage with students informally around their events and activities, so this fits that aspiration perfectly.”

Models typically have four to five fitting sessions prior to the show — however, Robinson could fit Lombardi in only two 15-minute sessions due to Lombardi’s busy schedule.

“This may have been a one-time experience, not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I’m not sure that I have much of a future in modeling,” Lombardi wrote to The Sun.

The March 2 show marked the first time that faculty or staff has taken part in one of CFC’s annual shows. Cardinal hoped to bring more attention to the fashion community from everyone on campus, and Lombardi was no exception.

“I was exceedingly impressed with the creativity and effort that goes into developing a piece/collection and also the overall production of the entire show,” Lombardi wrote. “It is really co-curricular learning at its finest — students bringing their work to the broader community through such a fun, inspiring and engaging event. I will forever be a fan of CFC and this event.”

Caroline Michailof can be reached at cmichailof@cornellsun. com.

Varner Shares Timeline, Future of Interim Expression Policy

Continued from page 1

That 2020 shift in conduct code, according to Varner, necessitated a separate expressive activity policy that hosted guidelines applying to all stu-

dents, faculty and staff across Cornell’s multiple campuses.

This timeline seems to contradict a statement made by Dean of Faculty Prof. Eve De Rosa, psychology, in a Feb. 28 faculty forum. De Rosa said that the University intro-

duced the policy in response to a Department of Education investigation into antisemitism at Cornell, but Varner said this characterization is not completely accurate.

“This work really predated the events of Oct. 7 and

predated the Department of Education’s investigation,” Varner said. “The Department of Education’s investigation about whether or not the University was responding appropriately to concerns that antisemitism based on campus activity inspired us and accelerated the process so that we could start the spring semester with a set of guidelines.”

Varner made it clear that the process of “broad consultation” between administrators, faculty, staff and students is still ongoing and will be for the remainder of the semester. In the latest update to the policy, it was announced that a final policy would be presented to the University Assembly in the fall.

“I don’t think any one of us had a clear timeframe as to how quickly [a final policy] might happen because we were really interested in what the public discussion might look like,” Varner said. “What we’ve realized in the past month or so, two months now, is that there is an appetite and a strong desire to be more engaged. And so we’re creating more space for that engagement.”

The new revisions to the expressive activity policy clarified that registration for protests is not required — something

that was vaguely implied in the initial version of the policy — and that small candles may be used in vigils. The revised policy also indicated that prior written permission is not required for posters, signs, flyers and banners in designated locations.

However, some are calling certain provisions that remain — such as the ban on sticks and poles and the requirement that posters contain the name of the sponsoring organization — as contrary to the spirit of free expression. Varner said these policies protect public safety and promote accountability, but there is still a conversation to be had about these provisions.

“This work really predated the events of Oct. 7 and predated the Department of Education’s investigation”

Donica Varner

“Clearly, making the policy interim and not final was designed intentionally to invite broad public community discourse,” Varner said. “And we hope that will continue.”

Sofa Rubinson can be reached at srubinson@cornellsun.com.

VARNER

Brunch is Served At ‘Te Embassy’

By JONATHAN BRAND Sun Staff Writer

Along Dryden Road lives a new contestant for Cornellians’ favorite brunch or late-night spot. The Embassy opened its doors to the public back in January, becoming the latest business venture of prominent Ithaca restaurant owner Kevin Sullivan.

Sullivan is the owner of seven physical Collegetown restaurants, including Jack’s Grill, Luna’s Inspired Street Food and Loco Cantina. He is also the owner of roughly 35 establishments that only exist online, according to a Sun analysis of Ithaca restaurants using Seamless, an online delivery website. Sullivan’s restaurants altogether compose roughly 40 percent of all the restaurants available for delivery in Ithaca.

Sullivan said The Embassy, however, is unlike his numerous other eateries.

“I’ve done lots of startups in Ithaca [and] currently operate seven brick-and-mortar locations in Ithaca, so we [have] got lots going on,” Sullivan said. “As far as The Embassy goes, this is my first brunch spot. So the menu is new to us.” The Embassy offers two distinct menus — a brunch menu and a tapas-style dinner menu. While it typically closes at 10 p.m. on weekdays, closing time extends to as late as 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

“We’ve got lots of comfort food on the menu right now,” Sullivan said. “Currently the menus are essentially a brunch menu and then what we call an evening fair menu. So [it is] not a complete dinner menu, but a sizable enough offering to come and eat dinner [while still predominantly] aimed around cocktailing and having appetizers.”

The Embassy features indoor and outdoor seating arrangements, a lounge area with fireplaces, a chic bar setting, a contemporary dining room, an exclusive private patio and board games. Sullivan said that these amenities are meant to appeal to travelers who encounter The Embassy on a trip to Ithaca.

“We wanted to have The Embassy feel like a home away from home,” Sullivan said. “Something that when you’re out traveling internationally, it is still your home soil.”

The Embassy took the space of Aladdin’s Natural Eatery, which was open for 30 years until its clos-

ing in 2019. Sullivan explained the process of transforming the remains of this Mediterranean-themed restaurant into The Embassy’s more modern look required drastic changes.

“The place was the same restaurant for over almost 30 years. And so when we did this concept change into The Embassy to try to really bring in dining traffic and beverage sales, we wanted to make sure the whole place was freshened up, so it looks completely different,” Sullivan said. “Everything from the furniture to the paint job, the whole place looks very different than it did four months ago.”

Plans for The Embassy began in 2020, and Sullivan spent much of the planning process deliberating on the establishment’s location, ultimately deciding to open a new establishment instead of consolidating the two existing Luna locations.

“This concept is something that we had written for quite a while and we were just waiting for the right time to actually launch in a location to do so,” Sullivan said. “When we combined the two Luna stores into one post-pandemic, we knew it would cause business to wind down a little bit. [The Embassy] was a great concept for this location and the market up here in Collegetown as it evolves over the next 10 years.”

The Embassy has seen success in marketing for event bookings since its opening, according to Sullivan.

“We’re already having a significant number of event bookings here and we’ve really been getting the word out to have groups come,” Sullivan said. “Groups can range from a 20-person brunch all the way up to a 100-person mixer. This is a flexible space where it’s easy to get in and rent the place out and at an affordable cost as well.”

Sullivan sees The Embassy as a novel asset to the entire Ithaca community.

“I’m really excited about The Embassy because I think it brings something that’s really unique to Collegetown and, to be frank, to Ithaca in general,” Sullivan said. “What we tried to do is create a concept that was going to act as a destination not only for the surrounding community but also Collegetown itself.”

Jonathan Mong ’25 contributed reporting.

Jonathan Brand can be reached at jbrand@cornellsun.com.

T e New Drink of Cornell Sororities: Why Poppi Sodas Don’t Always Pop-O f

By MAIA MEHRING Sun Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: Disordered eating behaviors mentioned.

If you’re a social media user, particularly one on a college campus, there is a good chance you’ve seen an ad for Poppi on your feed. Though it sounds as though it could be a childhood toy, Poppi is actually a prebiotic soda drink––one that is marketed as “a modern soda for the next generation.” Who is the next generation, you ask? Poppi is being marketed toward college students and young adults in general, but more specifically, young women. Cornell’s sorority scene, for instance, is no stranger to endorsing and promoting Poppi drinks. The effects of promoting drinks like Poppi may seem harmless on the surface, but it’s important to consider the implications for body image perception among young women and girls.

So what are the health benefits Poppi is claiming to provide its drinkers with?

According to the company’s website, this modern take on soda supports gut health and acts as a low-calorie, low-sugar alternative to traditional sodas, made with agave inulin, apple cider vinegar and fruit juice. This all sounds great, but I, along with other experts who weighed in on prebiotic drinks, are not so

sure. While Poppi has been said to help lower cholesterol levels and aid in weight loss, The Washington Post emphasizes the unsaid considerations. Professor Geoffrey A. Preidis from Baylor College of Medicine explains that these products should not be seen as easy fixes for these health issues and are not replacements for well-balanced meals.

Poppi isn’t wrong about the importance of gut health and feeding your microbes fiber.. The National Institute of Health explains that fibers act as a main source of energy for microbes, both increasing the amount of beneficial bacteria in and improving the overall health of the intestinal environment. However, does Poppi alone achieve fiber intake goals? Again, the prebiotic drink has the potential to fall short in this area. NPR reported that Stanford University Professor Justin Sonnenburg says while any source of fiber is likely better than none at all, prebiotic drinks like Poppi may not meet the needs of microbes further down the large intestine. Inulin, a prebiotic naturally occurring in plants ranging from the agave tequilana to the chicory, is a main ingredient in Poppi. This, Poppi claims, is the reason why the drink is so gut-healthy. Nevertheless, Sonnenburg clarifies that even too much of this prebiotic can cause negative health effects such as intestinal inflammation.

Recently, Poppi has sought after a very specific group of potential consumers: panhellenic sororities. At Cornell, almost every single girl involved in Greek Life can tell you exactly which flavor of Poppi is her favorite, a result of very public sponsorships with and numerous shipments of product to sorority houses on campus. I had never heard of Poppi until I joined a sorority, and suddenly, it was everywhere.

My sisters are never lacking in opinions on Poppi and its dominant presence in our house. Naturally, I had to try it myself. Though I’ve only ever had the Cola flavor, my opinions on the taste of Poppi are this: though it is just okay, if it is readily accessible and free, I will crack one open. Is it anything special? No, but if it really does achieve all that it claims to, that is impressive, in my opinion. The Cola flavor did resemble Coca Cola, however it almost tasted like a watered-down version of it; still fizzy and somewhat tasting of the traditional flavors found in Coca Cola (vanilla, cinnamon and cherry), but less severe and pronounced. It didn’t pack a punch, let’s just say.

Like I hypothesized before, I have an inkling why Poppi is being specifically marketed toward girls on college campuses, especially ones in sororities. The website itself is, frankly, really aesthetically pleasing. Colored with vibrant pinks, yellows, and blues, Poppi’s

website is the epitome of stylish and trendy. There’s even a smiley face at the bottom of the site with a tongue out accompanied by “let’s be friends.” Neon but in a modern, Barbiestyled way. Everything from the font to the graphics scream modern-day college girl, so much so that I even want to buy a package of Poppi after exploring the website.

Despite the welcoming it-girl vibes, the language surrounding Poppi and its benefits is harmful and problematic. On Poppi’s website, part of its pitch states “No more hiding cans in the bottom of your recycling bin or sipping sparkling water with your burger and fries.” Associating feelings such a shame and guilt to foods and drinks (in this case, soda) is inherently problematic, especially when a product is targeted toward the exact demographic that is arguably most vulnerable to body insecurity and disordered eating. One study from the National Organization of Women reports that at age 13, 53 percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies,” and that this percentage grows to 78 percent by age 17.

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

Maia Mehring (she/her) is a frst-year student in the College of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at mjm743@cornell.edu.

Letters to the Editor

Kotlikof: Statement on Coulter Invitation To Provost Kotlikof: Ann Coulter Has No Place on Tis Campus

Re: “University Has Reportedly Invited Ann Coulter ’84 Back to Campus” (news, March 10)

I am writing to set the record straight with respect to the invitation to Ann Coulter ’84 to speak on campus. Indeed, as reported by the Daily Sun, at the recent Board of Trustees meeting Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law at New York Law School, expressed her concern regarding Ms. Coulter’s disrupted presentation at Cornell, and suggested that she mediate an effort to bring her back to campus. Having been deeply troubled by an invited speaker at Cornell (any speaker) being shouted down and unable to present their views, I agreed that there could be few more powerful demonstrations of Cornell’s commitment to free expression than to have Ms. Coulter return to campus and present her views. This is certainly not because I agree with what she has to say, or because I feel that the content of her presentation is important for our community to hear, but because I believe that Cornell must be a place where the presentation of ideas is protected and inviolable. Shielding students or others in our community from viewpoints with which they disagree, or filtering campus speakers based on the content of their presentation, undermines the fundamental role of a university. To that end, I have worked with the Federalist Society at Cornell, the Cornell Political Union, the Heterodox Academy Campus Community at Cornell and other Cornell organizations to sponsor such a presentation. It is my hope and expectation that Ms. Coulter will deliver her remarks in full and will be met with civility and respect from the Cornell audience.

— Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost

An Open Letter to Provost Kotlikoff, Re: “University Has Reportedly Invited Ann Coulter ’84 Back to Campus” (news, March 10)

Dear Mike,

In the fall I came on your radar briefly because I was a professor doing the very hard work of getting students to quietly and compassionately listen to one another across lines of difference during a horrible time. You came to my class to see my ragtag and diverse group of fabulous people. In the class you visited, I said that some days I feel like the campus has gasoline dumped all over it and I fear someone will strike a match. I go to bed and wake up at night worrying about how this could play out for my students.

I feel that match has been struck with the invitation of Ann Coulter ’84. I am shocked that the invitation came from within the administration and that you thought it was a great idea. It was not a great idea. It was a very bad idea and the administration’s participation made it worse.

Other than being a Cornell alum and a famous controversialist, Coulter contributes nothing civil or thoughtful to the public discourse. She adores causing a fire, burning things down and inflaming tensions. She peddles in racism and hate. She is not a litmus test for free speech. She works with hate speech. That an invitation has been extended to her from the highest echelons of the administration is absolutely and without a doubt the opposite of the kind of decision one would want to see. It is reckless, inconsiderate and insulting to those of us trying to uphold the mission of this university.

There are moments you need to publicly admit a mistake and change course. This is one of them. Publicly reverse course. Do it now. If you want to invite a prominent right-wing speaker, there are choices you could have made. It is an utter waste of our time as an institution to try and figure out how to respond to a person like Coulter with the high stakes the world faces right now. And if your Board of Trustees thinks this was also a good idea, let the faculty educate them about what it feels like to be doing the hard work of keeping young minds thinking critically and compassionately and then have the highest level of administration invite the wrecking ball.

I implore you to reverse course, clearly and publicly, on this matter. Uninvite Ann Coulter and make it clear that you do not consider hate speech to be what this campus needs right now. It is laudable to make a mistake, own it and change directions. Make that the teaching moment. The world needs that model right now.

To be clear, in case I have understated my position: This is a terrible mistake. Rescind the invitation. Take the heat for that, not what will happen when she comes to campus and revels in chaos.

Prof. Jane Marie Law, Asian studies, religious studiess

We

Must

Have

Integrity Amidst Controversy

Re: “The Coalition for Mutual Liberation Threatens to Harm Cornell From Within” (opinion, March 8)

According to the Cornell Standards of Ethical Conduct, “an environment that encourages the highest level of integrity from its members is critical to the university.” Integrity here demands further clarification. Oxford Dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles” (I do not want to sound too lawyerly, but please bear with me). Honesty with moral principles requires us to speak up when witnessing moral wrongdoings. Protest is one way to do it. Writing is another way. There is no right or wrong way to speak up, as long as respect is maintained as a higher value. A corollary to respect is offering a constructive critique. By this token, I do not believe accusing a large and diverse group of students who are showing an honest and serious commitment to Cornell values of “glorifying terrorism” is a constructive critique. Indeed, no one is immune from criticism. Nevertheless, it is needless to say that making false, defamatory accusations against a group of people for speaking up against the horrifying scenes we are witnessing in Gaza, Sudan and in other places in the world, clearly eliminates beforehand any honest attempt to reach an understanding. If anything, it strives to silence and outcast instead of engage and respect. While one does not have to agree with every voice heard, one should be conscious of how their opposition manifests. Does the University hold white conservatives to a different standard than everyone else? What Rickford said is morally contemptible, certainly, but it was a one-off remark. Coulter, on the other hand, has made a career out of statements, which, if repeated by campus progressives, would be fireable offenses by the administration’s standards.

Integrity also demands self-reflection. No one wants to believe they are wrong. I understand that. But a constant attempt to set aside the possibility of being wrong, again, violates integrity. As such, one can disagree with some views, while also reflecting on their own personal views. Integrity should not be a zero-sum game. Criticizing Israel for its conduct in the current war on Gaza does not make you antisemitic. It does not make you a Hamas supporter either.

To continue reading, visit www.cornellsun.com.

— Mayar Darawsha, grad

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

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142nd Editorial Board

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Letter From The Editor

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Assistant Sports Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26 Newsletter Editor

Tis Giving Day, Support Te Sun's Mission

Since 1880, The Sun has been unwaveringly independent. That means our student journalists have never and will never take marching orders from the administration or pressure groups. We are only beholden to you, the reader.

The Sun — unlike the oftentimes unscrupulous, multibillion-dollar University it covers — is run by and for students and aims to always deliver the full truth. In recent years, the job of student journalists has become harder, but we’ve risen to the occasion. The administration has taken on an anti-press attitude, with bureaucrats trying as hard as they can to control the flow of information.

Breaking up interviews and stonewalling. Explicitly instructing students, staff and faculty to not speak to the press. Referring peaceful protestors for disciplinary action. Hiding behind arcane, undemocratic policies on speech and protest. Just when you thought the University couldn’t be any more combative when it comes to freedom of expression, you find out you were wrong.

In case you didn’t know, this is not a normal, transparent administration. Our University leadership needs to be checked now more than ever before.

As the nation’s oldest, continuously independent college daily, The Sun will be that force for positive change, shining light on the obscure bureaucracy that has for so long strangled real education. But The Sun can’t do it without you.

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Daniel Obaseki

Daniel Obaseki is a fourth year student in the College of Arts and Sciences and the President of the Cornell Political Union. His fornightly column Beyond Discourse focuses on politics, culture and student life at Cornell. He can be reached at dobaseki@cornellsun.com.

A Case for Academic Luddism

With so many mind-blowing advancements in AI, there is no doubt students are becoming more reliant on technology on an everyday basis. Can you blame us? We get more work done, professors now assign work online and AI simply makes everything easier. The incentives to rely more often on technology are overwhelming, and the cycle of dependency is intensifying. While much of the technology we already use is necessary — we can’t just go back to using typewriters — it also helps to touch grass for a change. Academic Luddism is the avoidance of technology use in an academic setting, working to reduce our dependence on our devices. Luddism describes a movement of 19th-century textile workers who opposed the adoption of low-skill technology that displaced highskilled laborers at that time. Its colloquial meaning typically refers to the disposition of people who reject the adoption of new technology. I am calling for all Cornellians to embrace it, and at least give it a try. Not only is it healthier, but it also has some educational benefits in our reading, writing and habits.

Few things compare to simply sitting down on the slope with a book in hand. As the sun shines down on the text, with the wind refreshing your mood, it’s an experience that no amount of TikTok or Instagram can match, especially in benefiting our mental health. Not only are physical books great conversation starters, but they are also less of a strain on the eyes. This is especially important later in the day, as computers emit blue light, disrupting our sleep. It’s not just blue light that is detrimental, however. So many distractions are present when we read on our computers. We already use our phones and our laptops for entertainment and browsing social media. While working, we soon give in to that leisurely habit of taking a “quick” break that throws off our concentration and delays our sleep. It doesn’t hurt to also print out the assigned readings that aren’t books. Whether or not we end up using the printers, Cornell is still

going to charge us the printing fee, so we might as well get our money’s worth. Finally, the concern of running out of power isn’t present when reading physical texts. We aren’t bound to certain spaces that offer power, instead being free to try out the many different reading locations on campus that would make our Cornell experience. The best way to take advantage of this warmer weather is to take some time reading on the slope. When are students going to realize just how much more beneficial physically engaging with our texts is to our sleep, concentration and general freedom?

When it comes to writing, ditching the laptop may also be our best bet. This brings me back to my first semester of college when I could not afford a new laptop after my old one broke down. In high school, I never took notes with a laptop, so I was a bit surprised to see just how frequently other students used theirs in class. It was certainly the majority, and I felt like I was at a disadvantage. Unexpectedly, I ended up performing better than most students, and I attribute much of that success to taking notes by hand. Yes, it is slower and more cumbersome, but that is ironically the exact reason why it is more beneficial. With the limited capacity to keep up with professors, you are more compelled to summarize their words in a way that you can understand, cultivating your understanding before later study sessions. This is why students who take notes by hand usually have a higher conceptual understanding of class content than those with laptops, remembering more of the lecture material in the long run. Laptop writers can of course type many more words than hand-writers, but this lends itself to verbatim note-taking. With Cornell being such a difficult school, students should use every advantage to improve their grasp of our professor’s teachings. Ironically, putting the laptop away seems like the best move.

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How to View Paintings and Sculptures

By Daniel R. Schwarz Opinion Columnist

As a teacher of the humanities, I believe in the enriching, educational and joyful value of art in our lives, and I believe that the various arts are paths to self-discovery. Art intensifies our lives by providing quality moments between the tick and tock of chronological time. Whether resonating with our desires and hopes; or giving us insights into our anxieties and nightmares; or providing sublime moments of splendor and beauty, art complements and intensifies our lives. We return to our everyday world more aware of what it is to be human. By deflecting us from tasks and suspending us from everyday concerns, the arts — music, theater, dance, cinema, literature — provide another kind of reality.

My focus today will be on painting and sculpture.

One of the great resources of the Cornell campus is the Johnson Museum of Art. I not only often visit with my wife, but I also find occasions within or outside classes to introduce my students to some of its treasures. The museum contains a worldclass Asian collection as well as significant holdings in both American art beginning with the nineteenth Hudson River School and twentieth and twenty-first century European art.

As a bridge to our Johnson Art Museum and as an opportunity to share the lifetime pleasure that visiting museums and galleries has given me, I want to suggest how we might look at paintings and sculptures.

Take a first slow look and ask yourself what the most important aspects are of what you see. Ask yourself what kind of painting you are observing. Is it realistic — a portrait, a landscape, a narrative, a religious painting with a devotional purpose — or is it abstract with a focus on the paint itself, recognizable and odd shapes, and/or the process of painting? Or is the painting an illuminating distortion with aspects of both realism and abstraction?

Let us turn to sculpture. If possible, walk around a work of sculpture. Notice what materials the artist is using. Is it clay, stone, bronze or something else? Is the shape realistic or abstract, or as with Rodin, a combination of both? How does the size and texture shape our response?

To give yourself an opportunity for multiple respons -

Prof. Daniel R. Schwarz, English, describes his techniques for how to best view art and sculputure

es, move around and look at a painting or sculpture from different perspectives, including moving closer and backing up and moving to both the left and right of your original view. Do not rush; the average person looks at the Mona Lisa for only 15 seconds.

Even during a museum visit of several hours, you will not be able to spend a half hour on each work. What I often do is look briefly at a room in a museum and choose one appealing work to concentrate on. Or if several paintings by a favorite artist are in a room, I might focus on that room. If you have visited a museum countless times, as I have the major museums in NYC (the Met, MoMA, Frick), you need not worry about missing something because you know there will be another visit.

With paintings, I first notice colors, lines, the thickness of the paint and whether and where the artist uses broad strokes or tiny dabs, perhaps how the artist layers the painting, maybe even like Rembrandt using a palette knife. Ask yourself how the painter is using those aspects to invite you to foreground some aspects of the work.

Paintings are sensuous, some more than others. You can learn to respond to the tactility of paint on canvas. Imagine touching a painting (but don’t do so in a museum). With such abstract artists as Jackson Pollock, we can experience the way the painter plays with the paint and imagine the actual process of painting. In Pollock’s case, he added paint to a canvas as it lay on the floor.

I am also cognizant of size. Looking at a small domestic by the Dutch painter Vermeer is not the same as looking at a large mythical or religious painting by the Venetian Veronese. An illuminating geometric Giacometti sculpture of a human is different from the geometric and angular shapes of a large abstract sculpture by Henry Moore.

Keep in mind that art in many cultures was created for religious purposes and that we often don’t know the individual artist. Understanding art means understanding different cultures and historical periods, something stressed by the splendid exhibit of early Buddhist Art at the Met: “Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE-400 CE.”

What is in front of you won’t change, even if, as you move around and learn more,

your perception and understanding will. Unlike literature, which evolves through both the creator’s imagined time and the reader’s process of reading, painting and sculpture are frozen in time and space.

But often, unless the work is purely abstract, you can imagine the preceding backstory of what you see and the implications of what might happen next. If a painting has a mythological or religious theme, you may know the prior and succeeding narrative. If it is a landscape, you can consider how the setting looked in prior seasons or even in prior times and how it will look in the future. If the painting contains people, think about what they have been doing and what they will be doing. If the painting — or sculpture — is a portrait, you may speculate on what happened to create the figure before you. From his or her expression, gestures and garments, you may have some thoughts about what might happen next.

Think about the formal choices the artist has made to create the imagined world of the painting or sculpture and how those choices played a role in what ideas the artist was trying to show the viewers and what emotions the artist was trying to evoke. How did the artist create the cosmology of the artwork and how does she/he persuade us that what we are seeing matters? What are the key ideas of the imagined world at which we are looking?

Without ignoring the ideas and feelings that the work is trying to evoke and what choices the artist made to do so, think about the relationship of the work to your life. Think, too, about what the artist could have done differently and whether there is something overlooked or by our 2024 standards misunderstood. This may take the form of noticing in the work something sexist or racist or an indifference to class structures. Awareness of such issues depends on what we call the hermeneutics of suspicion or a resistant reading.

Often, while in a museum, you can access information on your phone, although I much prefer to read brief commentary on the wall next to the artwork. More substantial reading and a return to the work on a later occasion will intensify your experience. Supplementing what you know and see by reading the information provided on the museum walls or listening to museum audios is very much worth the time, but

don’t let it replace your own experience.

I want to discuss two important works at the Johnson.

Dubuffet’s Scathing Anatomy of France

Jean Dubuffet (19011985) painted in 1948 “La Bouche en Croissant” (“Smiling Face”). We see a boy’s head and shoulders in a cramped, claustrophobic space. The work is not in the representative tradition of portrait paintings. In its simple evocation of facial parts created by finger painting and discordant colors, this work recalls the rudimentary techniques of children’s painting. “In my paintings,” Dubuffet wrote, “I wish to recover the vision of an average and ordinary man without using techniques beyond the grasp of an ordinary man.”

In fact, he mixes oil with such materials as mud, oil, glass, cement, sand and pebbles to produce caricatures of traditional art. In this painting, Dubuffet used impasto, which is a technique where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly so that the brush or painting-knife creates a visible texture on the painting.

Dubuffet often playfully references a child’s world where carnivals, circuses and parades are important. He does this to emphasize the pretentiousness and failures of the adult world. He identified with outsider art produced by those untrained in the tradition of fine art: children, psychiatric patients and those imprisoned, including those arbitrarily imprisoned during the 1940-1944 German Occupation of France.

“La Bouche en Croissant” (“Smiling Face”) stands as a commentary on French behavior during the Occupation. Using scratches and slashes, Dubuffet wanted his art to partake of low culture. He called such work art brut (“raw art”), a term that he used to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art. He is forcefully commenting on France’s self- image — even after the collaboration during the German occupation and the complicity during the Holocaust — as Europe’s most advanced and cultivated culture and still the international capital of the Western art world, he depicts a grinning, seemingly oblivious child to remind his French countrymen that they behaved like helpless, obedient children after the Germans invaded France. When called upon to col -

laborate and adopt Nazi ideology, the French, as if they were obedient kindergarteners, submitted naively and thoughtlessly to the Germans.

Giacometti’s Modern Man at the Edge

Created in 1959-60, Alberto Giacometti’s (19011966) L’homme qui marche II, Walking Man II , cast in bronze with a rough unpolished texture that looks like paper-mache, represents how humanity has endured one catastrophe after another in the twentieth century. His emaciated, skeletal figure references Holocaust victims when the concentration and death camps were discovered by the Allies, the effects of the atomic bomb on Japanese civilians, and images of famines in Africa. With features distorted beyond recognition the tiny head shows how little control the suffering and anguished solitary figure, reduced almost to a shadow with so few distinguishing features, has over his fate. The absence of genitals poignantly demonstrates how even human desire and reproductive capacity have been affected.

At the same time the sculpture shows the determination of humankind to survive. The figure steps awkwardly forward with his back foot, barely bending his knee; nor does he have the physical ability to push strongly off his front foot. With arms close to his sides as if they barely had strength or mobility, he will walk, will endure no matter what resistance he encounters.

Conclusion

My mantra for painting and sculpture is the same as for literature, namely, “Always the text; always historicize.”

As a formalist, I want to discover how form and content are inextricably related. I want to understand how the choices an artist makes determine meaning, even as I am aware of the difference between our world and the ontology and cosmology of an imagined world. The more time we spend in art museums and read about art, the better we can appreciate how objects of art can be understood within the context of the creative and cultural tradition of which they are a part.

SC I ENCE

New Study Decodes Genetic Processes During Ovulation in Mice

By BROOKE GREENFIELD Sun Staff Writer

Cornell researchers have discovered a new application of spatial transcriptomics, an imaging technique that analyzes and maps the gene activity in a tissue sample.

The researchers used this technique to create a detailed map of when and where genes are active during ovulation in mice. Ovulation is the process by which an egg is released from the female sex gland, the ovaries. This map will help them understand how cells communicate and interact during this crucial event.

The research, which was published in Cell Biology on Jan. 22, was conducted through a collaboration between Prof. Iwijn De Vlaminck, biomedical engineering, and Prof. Yi Athena Ren, animal science.

Ren, with a background in fertility and women’s reproductive health, approached Vlaminck at the Intercampus Immunology Symposium. The two-day event brought scientists together to discuss advances in immunology, the study of the body’s defense system.

De Vlaminck gave a talk about a 2022 study from his lab on how heart muscle cells can die of inflammation and infection. Ren was in the audience and speculated during the talk that the cell death process might play an important role in ovulation.

The two hypothesized that the spatial transcriptomics technique developed in the study could be used to study cellular communication during ovulation. After receiving a seed grant from the Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics, De Vlaminck and Ren began initial experiments to test this hypothesis.

The spatial transcriptomics technique was used to map cell types in the mouse ovary by capturing the timing and location of genetic activity. Transcriptomics converts RNA into a DNA copy, which then incorporates barcodes — short, standardized DNA segments — that act as molecular tags corresponding to specific locations in the ovaries.

“Every cell has a unique gene expression program, and they produce RNA from differ-

ent genes,” De Vlamnick said. “Our goal was to quantify the abundance of these different RNA molecules that are derived from different genes as a function of location within the tissue.”

To accomplish this goal, DeVlamnick and Ren used multiple methods to develop multi-dimensional understanding.

“We incorporated the high-resolution technique from the lab with high-density sampling over time, which allowed us to achieve both spatial and temporal rates,” Ren said. “It was fascinating to look at things happening in both time and space.”

The samples were visualized using the barcode system. In this system, the barcode associated with the imaged RNA is computationally interpreted to find its specific location in the tissue. Ten years ago, this spatial resolution technique could image only a quarter millimeter. Now, it has evolved to now measure pixels of 10 micrometers, which is the diameter of a typical animal cell.

“We’re more recently surpassing the res-

olution that would be needed to map the gene expression profile, the transcriptome of individual cells, within the context of a tissue,” De Vlaminck said.

This increased level of resolution helped the researchers accomplish their goal. However, one drawback of this technique, De Vlaminck noted, is the invasive measurements that must be taken. The ovary must be removed from the mouse and sliced to collect tissue for imaging.

While the ovulatory process takes around 28 days in humans, it occurs every four to five days in mice, allowing the researchers to capture the entire process in snapshots within a brief 12-hour time frame.

“That allowed us to create a digital representation of this very complex molecular process where different cell types that make up the ovary are communicating with one another,” De Vlaminck said.

After imaging, the transcriptomes, or the types of RNAs, of the cells were mapped, and phenotypes were collected. The phenotype is

an observable trait of gene expression, which can give insight about cell function and activity.

“The processes that happen in one follicle are completely different from the processes that happened in another follicle, so you really need this type of spatial measurement in order to be able to make sense of this biology,” De Vlaminck said.

These techniques allowed the researchers to visualize which cell signaling programs enable egg cells to communicate with surrounding cells during ovulation. By identifying different cell types, the researchers seek to find new markers that are important for the stages of development.

“Having this molecular map, we can find markers that then inspire new chemical and biological approaches to inhibit certain pathways or promote certain pathways,” De Vlaminck said. “We can now start mining this to better understand what kind of therapeutics might be possible.”

De Vlamnick expresses excitement to continue exploring this area of biology. He hopes to use this technology to see the effects of aging on ovulation, the interaction between obesity and ovulation and how obesity is coupled to infertility.

“The biology of this formulation is incredibly beautiful, and it’s remarkable the complexity of the process and all that happens at the molecular level for this important event to succeed,” De Vlamnick said.

Ren also hopes to follow up on this research, using this large dataset to explore particular genes of interest.

“Cells change so much during ovulation, and it is fundamental how cells talk to each other and change tissue structure through remodeling,” Ren said. “I think the ovary is the perfect model to study how changes are controlled in a tissue that can be applied to all different tissues in the body.”

Brooke Greenfeld can be reached at bgreenfeld@cornellsun.com.

C.U. Researchers Find New Protein Modification Patterns in C. Elegans

By KAITYLN LEE Sun Staff Writer

A new study on fatty acid acylation, or attachment, patterns onto proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans, a type of roundworm, provides a foundation for future discoveries around protein function and its association with various diseases.

The study, published by Prof. Frank Schroeder, chemistry and chemical biology, on Jan. 22, found new protein modification patterns in C. elegans through multiple techniques.

Fatty acid acylation is a process that adds branched fatty acid chains to proteins. These modifications enable proteins to anchor onto cell membranes, and may also serve various functions based on which fatty acids are added to the protein.

According to study co-author Bingsen Zhang grad the team utilized two techniques — high-resolution mass spectroscopy and click chemistry — to identify the modified proteins and fatty acid chains involved in the process.

Using click chemistry, the researchers developed a probe to detect proteins by incorporating them into fatty acid modifications. They used mass spectroscopy, which ionizes molecules and puts them through an electrical current

in order to observe their deflection and map them on a spectrum, to identify and determine the molecular weights of both modified proteins and attached fatty acid chains.

The team selected C. elegans as a model organism because it has various biological similarities to humans, including fatty acid acylation of proteins. Model organisms are species commonly used in fundamental biology research.

“People use [C. elegans] because

there are many conserved gene pathways and fundamental biological processes in humans,” Zhang said.

The researchers discovered that fatty acid acylation is specific, as fatty acids are added to certain amino acids, such as lysine, cysteine, glycine and serine, that make up these proteins. They also found that the fatty acids attached to these amino acids differ as well, particularly in the structure and amount of carbons in each fatty acid.

The diversity of fatty acid modifi-

cations indicates a link between the synthesis of various fatty acids and protein function. By understanding this connection, researchers can investigate how fatty acid acylation of proteins can potentially influence various health conditions, such as cancer, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disorders and infectious diseases.

Fatty acid acylation can also be further linked to diet and the gut microbiome. Some fatty acids involved in protein modification, such as 15-methylhexadecanoic acid, are typically synthesized by C. elegans; however, in mammals, they can be absorbed from food intake or produced by microbes in the gut.

Zhang explained this research opens opportunities to understand how fatty acids affect the function of modified proteins.

“We present the first comprehensive resource on proteins in C. elegans modified by fatty acids,” Zhang said. “People can start from here to study the function of protein fatty acid acylation. For us, we may further look at how these branched chain fatty acids are incorporated into proteins.”

Kaitlyn Lee can be reached at klee@cornellsun. com.

Noble nematodes | Scientists discover complex fatty acid modifications on proteins in C. elegans, a type of small, slender worm.

Mapping mice | Cornell researchers map the gene expression that occurs in ovarian cells during ovulation in mice.

ZACH