3-16-2023 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Dead and Co. Tickets Released

By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant Managing Editor

Student winners of the ticket lottery for Dead and Company’s May 8 concert in Barton Hall received emails at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday alerting them that they had been selected. While some students rejoiced in their victories, others sought alternative methods of acquiring a ticket.

The lottery — which included several tier options for tickets, such as general admission tickets reserved for Cornell students — opened at around 1 p.m. on March 8 and allowed participants two days to enter, closing on March 10 at 11:59 p.m.

Likely Letters Ofer Comfort, Provoke Confusion in Students

By BREANNA MASCI Sun Staff Writer

For students enduring the stress of the college application process, receiving a “likely letter” from a university warrants a sigh of relief. These letters indicate that the student is “likely” to receive an acceptance from the respective university.

It is common for private universities, such as Cornell, to distribute likely letters, yet the reason for doing so is unclear. The Cornell Admissions Office declined to provide a statement to The Sun about why and how the University carries out this process.

Because university admission teams do not share reasons for acceptance, students who received likely letters will never know what specifically made their application stand out.

“I was pretty surprised because I don’t know who normally gets likely letters, and it wasn’t like my application was particularly outstanding or anything,” MacLean said.

Nia Denis ’26 was also surprised to receive a likely letter in March 2022. Though she expressed appreciation for the letter’s appearance in her inbox, she questioned why only a small number of applicants are sent likely letters. Denis believes if a student is a strong enough applicant to receive an acceptance, then they will be admitted regardless of whether or not they receive a likely letter.

“It’s weird that [they] just a select few people get likely letters because I mean, if you’re accepted, you’re accepted,” Denis said.

Isaac Saadi ’26, another student who received a likely letter in March 2022, said he believes colleges send likely letters to encourage applicants to accept that school’s offer of admission.

“I have heard that likely letters are given to strong applicants to entice them to come to the school by notifying them earlier,” Saadi said.

Shelby Williams’s ’25 experience, which involved her receiving a likely letter in March 2021, serves as an example of this idea.

Students who won the lottery received codes via email enabling them to purchase the $77 general admission tickets on the concert’s website until 11:59 a.m. on Friday, according to the email, which was

obtained by The Sun. Student lottery winners may transfer their tickets only to other Cornell students, as the concert will require student attendees to show their IDs at the door.

Skyler Shapiro ’25, a fan of both the Grateful Dead and Dead and Company, awaited the lottery announcement with hope that he would win a ticket. Although he never received an email confirming whether he had been selected, Shapiro figured he had not won when other students began to comment on their own lottery results on Wednesday morning.

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

Eliot Schuman Highlighted

By GABRIELLA PACITTO Sun News Editor

By day, Eliot Schuman ’75 is a trial lawyer and a partner at Delbello Donnellan Weingarten Wise and Wiederkehr LLP, but by night he is a volunteer coach for the Cornell Mock Trial Team and has been since spring of the 2014-2015 school year.

Invitational Classic, and Schuman was one of the judges. Bach — a member of the team at the time — said that she approached Schuman after the competition to ask for him to be their coach because she liked how constructive and helpful his feedback was.

Maddy MacLean ’26, who received her likely letter in March 2022, was uncertain as to why she received one and could not think of any aspect of her application in particular that might have made her especially deserving.

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

Scouted out by Laura Bach ’16, Schuman has been involved with the team on an entirely volunteer and unpaid basis, helping the mockers improve to new levels over the past nine years. The team has competed at the National Championships five times, and seven members have earned All-American, while Schuman has been coach.

To celebrate his 70th birthday and commemorate the dedication and commitment he has for the Mock Trial team, The Sun interviewed past and current members of the team and his family.

In 2015, the team hosted their annual Big Red

lottery | The student ticket lottery sent announcements to its winners on Wednesday for the Dead and Company reunion concert, which will take place on May 8 at Barton Hall.

Tour time | Likely letters are sent to a select few students a few weeks before the regular admissions decisions are released.

JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Award season | The mock trial team celebrates Eliot Schuman for his dedication to the team on his birthday.

“By receiving a likely letter, it made me consider Cornell a little bit more seriously.”

Shelby

Williams

’25

Breanna Masci can be reached at bmasci@cornellsun.com.

Aimée Eicher can be reached at aeicher@cornellsun.com.

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Canceled Classes Cause Celebration for Cornellians

Students spend the snow day sledding, drinking hot chocolate and making snow angels

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun Assistant News Editor

After classes were canceled due to a winter storm on Tuesday, students had the day free to relax and unwind. Some students decided to spend the campus closure outdoors, while others enjoyed their day off from the comfort of their home.

The University announced on Monday evening that the Ithaca and AgriTech campuses would be closed from 3 a.m. on Tuesday to 3 a.m. on Wednesday due to an approaching snowstorm that was set to hit the Ithaca region on Tuesday and Wednesday.

While it was predicted that nine to 18 inches of snow would hit Ithaca, the region only saw two to five inches of snowfall. However, that didn’t deter students from participating in snowy activities.

Many students, including Rebekah Goldstein ’25, who hasn’t been sledding since she was six-years-old, decided to go sledding on the slope with friends.

“Our marketing class gave us one [extra] point if we took a photo of us doing something fun outside for the next prelim,” Goldstein said. “I am doing classwork.”

For other students, like Ashley Bao ’24, this was their first time sledding. According to Bao, she found out about a make-your-own sled event that was advertised on Reddit. Students were provided tape and instructions on how to turn signs that read ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ into sleds. Bao explained that she was excited for this opportunity as time constraints had previously prevented her from participating in the tradition of sledding on the slope.

“There were a few other times I could have done it, [but] I want[ed] my friends to come and they’re just too busy,” Bao said. “But today everyone has a day off, so we can finally do it [together].”

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

ELIOT

Continued from page 1

“Eliot was the first qualified lawyer to help out [with the] Cornell Mock Trial and the only coach who loved the team like I did,” Bach said. “I had tried to bring in a lot of coaches who either were unqualified or didn’t respect the team or its students. Eliot, though, was different.”

According to his family — Heidi Schuman, Rachael Schuman ’13 and Paul Schuman ’17 — Schuman cares most about the students and team and only wants to see them succeed. He has devoted much of his time and energy to this team: driving up to Ithaca almost every other weekend from Westchester, New York during mock trial season, traveling with the members to attend every competition with his own money and calling the students everyday. Schuman does this because he wants to.

“I also think it’s hard to overstate

how generous it is for someone with a career and a family, who lives [over] four hours away, to give up their weekends and weekdays to come in and spend that time coaching a bunch of kids they don’t even know,” Bach said. “And that’s not even taking into account the phone calls and emails we’d be exchanging over the week in preparation for tournaments or his visits. Just the time he donated to the team is really incredible.”

Schuman’s love for the University goes beyond Mock Trial. According to his family, Schuman is also a Cornell athletics fan — following everything from basketball to football to lacrosse and keeping track of the statistics of the players and teams from front to back.

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

By SOFIA PRINCIPE Sun Contributor

As pioneers in their respective industries, the legacies of Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54, Toni Morrison ’53 and Barbara McClintock ’23 M.S. ’25 Ph.D. ’27 have been memorialized on Cornell’s campus through honorific residential hall naming. The naming provides these women recognition year-round, especially during Women’s History Month in March as Cornellians reflect on these alumnae’s influence. Three of the five residence hall buildings constructed as part of the University’s recent North Campus Residential Expansion are named in honor of these women. In deciding how to name the new buildings, the

NCRE Naming Committee considered name suggestions from the Cornell community, focusing on groundbreaking and diverse individuals.

Mock Trial Students Recognize Coach Notable Female Alumnae Honored

“The Naming Committee took advantage of a tremendous number of suggestions from the Cornell community in assembling a list of names to propose,” said Karen Brown, senior director of campus life marketing and communications. “Honorific namings — those not involving philanthropic support — are considered, vetted and decided through the University administration, including the president and Board of Trustees.”

Ginsburg, Morrison and McClintock were all chosen for their exceptional contributions not only to the University, but to society as a whole, according to Brown.

Prof. Lee Humphreys, communication, said she appreciates that the buildings’ names continue to recognize these women, during Women’s History Month and beyond.

“It’s important to honor women, not just this month, but all the time, which is to me what the dorms do,” Humphreys said. “It’s not just a temporary honor, but it is a recognition that all three women were really pioneers in their own fields.” Humphreys said.

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

Slippery slope | Students use various objects, such as tubes and pieces of cardboard, to slide down the slope. Many took advantage of classes being canceled to enjoy the snow.

World-leading women | Students walk towards Toni Morrison Hall on August 31, 2021. Toni Morrison ’53 was the first female literature Nobel Prize winner.

JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Sofa Principe can be reached at snp48@cornell.edu.

Gabriella Pacitto can be reached at gpacitto@cornellsun.com.

Anabels Grocery: Not Your Typical Grocery Store

By KIRA WALTER Sun Contributor

On Feb. 15, 2023, Ana-

bel’s Grocery opened for the first time this year. A student-run nonprofit, Anabel’s concentrates on not only providing affordable groceries to Cornellians, but also building a community around food justice.

Undergrads who are taking or have graduated from AEM 3385 are constantly planning events and starting initiatives that benefit customers. From collaboration with charitable organizations downtown to cooking lessons, there is always more happening here beyond food sales unlike your typical grocery store, making Anabel’s a unique social enterprise on campus. With multiple projects underway, we can only look forward to what the staff is working on for the rest of this semester.

Within the first month of opening, many successes have already been celebrated at Anabel’s. On Mar. 5, the Collaborative Education committee held Toast-A-Thon, a community brunch with Prisoner Express at the Durland Alternatives Library. Prisoner Express is an organization that spreads hope amongst incarcerated people through poetry, art and writing programs. Those who attended sent letters and book packages to those in need while enjoying bread provided by Wide Awake, a local Ithaca bakery

centered around sustainability and fostering community.

Another very recent event held by the Anabel’s staff was a cooking demonstration on the afternoon of Saturday, Mar. 11. Taking place at 660 Stewart Avenue, staff members taught attendees how to prepare a vegetable lentil coconut curry using only ingredients sourced from the store. More free demos can be expected in the future. RSVP links to these events are posted on the Anabel’s instagram page.

In addition to lessons, there are other ways to learn cooking skills right within the shop. Weekly recipes are printed out and available to all around the register while they are also posted to the Anabel’s website. From overnight oats to vegan mac and cheese, there is so much to learn while all ingredients are stocked right here.

Also available in the store are weekly meal-kits; bundled produce helps encourage students to incorporate new dishes into their lives while working towards more balanced diets. Brand new meals will be featured each Wednesday.

To continue reading, please visit cornellsun.com.

HANNAH ROSENBERG / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Kira Walter is a freshman in the College of Agricultural & Life Sciences. She can be reached at kjw242@cornell.edu.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Brenner Beard Agree to Disagree

Brenner Beard is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at hbb57@cornell.edu. Agree to Disagree runs every other Tuesday this semester.

Te Unsung Victims

Here’s a perspective you don’t hear that often: A sympathetic narrative on Cornell’s legions of Residential Advisors. Based on that sentence alone, I know all you campus dwellers are already writing me off as a “boot-licker” or something to that effect. Trust me, as an idealistic freshman back in 2020 I would’ve done the same. Afterall, what else did my RA do for me other than write me up on numerous occasions?

For many underclassmen this is where their relationships with their RAs start and end. However, as you age out of on campus life, the terror of a 2am knock on the door becomes a thing of the past and your RAs transition to classmates, peers and friends.

Ignoring Cornell’s COVID Critics is Unforgivable

To the Editor:

In the article “Three Years Since COVID-19 Lockdown, Cornellians Reflect on Pandemic,” authors Aimée Eicher and Sofia Rubinson interviewed several students and a professor regarding their COVID-19 experience at Cornell. The Cornellians they selected had nothing but fawning praise for Cornell’s pandemic policies, and Eicher and Rubinson failed to include a single criticism of Cornell’s restrictions.

Worse, one student, Ceci Rodriguez ’26, made demonstrably false assertions in a ludicrous argument for reinstituting masking, but Eicher and Rubinson made no attempt to contextualize or disprove her claims. Considering how willingly the Cornell administration trampled students’ rights in the name of COVID-19 absolutism, The Sun has a responsibility to call out flimsy COVID-19 rationalizations.

“If we’re required to wear [masks] at Cornell Health, ideally we should be required to wear them in every establishment,” Rodriguez was quoted as saying, “Your chances of getting COVID-19 in the building of Cornell Health [are] still the same chances of getting COVID-19 in any other building on campus...So why should [masking] not apply to all buildings on campus as well?”

Holding the rest of campus to the standard of Cornell Health would be ridiculous. First of all, Cornell’s continuance of the policy requiring masking in healthcare facilities is its own choice, and is more restrictive than advised by federal CDC recommendations, which were relaxed in September 2022. New York State actually ended its healthcare facility mask mandate over a month ago, on Feb. 12. Second, there are several good reasons to employ stricter masking requirements in health facilities than in other settings. In fact, healthcare facilities are famous for rigorously enforcing a sanitized, sterilized environment. It’s one of Cornell’s least disputable COVID-19 requirements.

Since healthcare facilities treat sick people, Cornell Health patients are more likely to be sick or have pre-existing conditions (like Rodriguez herself, as The Sun’s article notes), making them more susceptible to COVID-19 infection. Conversely, the sicknesses inducing patients to visit Cornell Health could very likely be COVID-19, a cold or influenza. Thus, the people who congregate at Cornell Health are both more likely to be vulnerable to COVID-19 and more likely to spread it than the average Cornell student.

The Sun has a duty to point out the arguments against Cornell’s COVID-19 restrictions, even if its writers disagree with them. If it will not, it should at least interview those who would. Were they unable to find any students with grievances against Cornell’s COVID-19 restrictions? Ignoring the critics is unforgivable. Cornell’s COVID-19 regime has no lack of victims: There was the class of 2020, who lost their commencement ceremony and senior spring semester. There were the students who were made to mask, test and isolate continuously for two years. And there were the students with religious objections or medical issues who were left in limbo for months while Cornell dithered with vaccine exemptions. Yet somehow, Eicher and Rubinson managed to interview only students who were appreciative and laudatory of Cornell’s actions.

If truly no one will provide criticism, I will. While the original measures were prudent, Cornell’s prolonged restrictions became ludicrous in their demands. As I have argued for years, many of Cornell’s restrictions were unnecessarily draconian, since the vast majority of Cornell students are young, fit and at low risk for COVID-19. The plight of the few who are at risk is regrettable, but it is no excuse to heap endless restrictions on everyone. As with all diseases, those at risk should take independent measures to reduce their exposure. Cornellians have sacrificed enough for COVID-19. We deserve far more than a complaisant, whitewashed account of the past three years.

Cullen O’Hara ’23

Just like any of our university’s community members, they deserve an administration that looks out for them and upholds its mission to “do the greatest good” as Cornell’s 3.6 billion dollar fundraising campaign claims. But, in the school’s relentless march of progress, the scores of RAs that cohabit Cornell’s dorms have been left behind and find themselves the victims of a revenue raising catch-22.

Recently in an effort to revamp their campus life in the wake of COVID19, the university has mandated several sweeping decrees meant to affect underclassmen. Firstly, starting with the class of 2025, all freshmen and sophomores are required to live in University owned campus housing. This of course comes with the implicit requirement to have a meal-plan as well.

What Cornell has also done, though, is drop the 10 and 14 meals a week meal plans and require on-campus underclassmen to buy into an unlimited meal plan. In their infinite charity, however, this plan is now charged at the former 14-meals a week rate. The guise, of course, is Cornell dining’s commitment to fighting food insecurity. One group that this change absolutely does not fight for is the residential advisors that staff all these newly occupied dorms.

Believe it or not, Cornell RA’s do not get free room and board. Sure, they are granted the privilege to live in the buildings they patrol, but their meals aren’t free. Like any of the students they write up, the typical RA also has to shell out for a meal plan.

Likewise, the policies Cornell mandates for its on-campus underclassmen population also apply to its on-campus RA’s. All incoming RA’s will be required to purchase the newly priced unlimited plan to the tune of $3,471.

One might then say, “at least they’re getting paid so they can afford it,” and you would be wholly wrong in that assumption. According to a contract that your author reviewed, the starting RA stipend is $3,050 per semester. By cutting the smaller meal plan and forcing them to buy this more expensive option, the University at the minimum stands to make $421 per head of their own employees.

Not only does this decision rob the RAs of their freedom to choose more

affordable or smaller meal plan options, it also quite literally robs them and lines the University’s pockets.

Honestly, based upon historical precedent this latest twist isn’t much of a surprise. Despite all of our potential misgivings toward our freshman year RAs, the indisputable fact is that the University has long treated its residential advisors horrendously.

If we want to dive back into facts and figures, this becomes even clearer. The contract I reviewed says that RAs are required to work a minimum of 20 hours a week. For the fall semester this work period ran from Aug. 8 till dorm move-out on Dec. 19. That’s 19 weeks of employment. With the 20 hour requirement, an RA was contractually expected to work 380 hours. Dividing their stipend then by the hours worked reveals an hourly rate of just over 8 dollars per hour. This compensation alone should be illegal. The NY State minimum wage is $14.20, almost twice what an RA earns hourly.

With this latest meal plan decision, the university is asking these beleaguered RA’s to blow more than their entire measly stipend on the right to have access to breakfast, lunch and dinner. This isn’t just a tale of undervalued employees, it’s a narrative of continuous employer abuse.

To be clear, we’re not talking about just any employer either. Cornell is an ancient academic institution with an endowment surpassing $9 billion. For crying out loud, the University just raised a further 3.6 billion in a single calendar year. Why on Earth does Cornell need to nickel and dime its own student workers over a meal plan when it has cash reserves of this magnitude? I’m sorry, but it seems the answer can only be pure, unadulterated greed.

Someplace, somewhere along the line there was a conscious effort to disregard the welfare of residential advisors. I don’t know if it was a decision made by the board of trustees, Martha Pollock, Ryan Lombardi or Tim Blair (the executive director of Housing and Residential Life), but someone dropped the ball. Either that, or the idea of “Doing the Greatest Good” was a lie all along.

The meal plan is only the tip of the abusive iceberg, but it could very well be the spark of something bigger. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for another RA strike. It could be the only way our administrators will pay attention to these unsung victims.

Like any of the students they write up, the typical RA also has to shell out for a meal plan.

Tunnel Part. 21

BLUE FRANCES

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)

Too Strong

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Tunnel Part. 22

Tunnel Part. 23

SC I ENCE

Cornell Astronomers Uncover A Unique New Galaxy

By LAINE HAVENS Sun Contributor

Cornell astronomers detailed a newly-discovered galaxy with many unique traits, which make it a subject of further exploration, in a Feb. 17 paper. Published in The Astrophysics Journal Letters, the study found that the newly-uncovered galaxy likely has an efficient star formation rate, meaning that more stars are born per year relative to other galaxies.

The galaxy, known as SPT0418-SE, was discovered in James Webb Space Telescope images of a wellknown galaxy, SPT0418-47.

The galaxies are close enough for SPT0418-SE’s gravitational fields to disturb those of SPT0418-47, a characteristic of the system that appears to contradict earlier research. Such findings are relevant to scientists studying the beginnings of the universe and galaxy evolution.

“It’s like looking at a human,” said author Bo Peng, a doctoral student in astronomy.” Looking at the growth of an infant is much more interesting than a 30-year-old person.”

SPT0418-47 is well-documented due to its unique ring shape, a phenomenon known as an Einstein ring. An Einstein ring is caused by gravitational lensing, which occurs when the gravitational pull of other massive celestial objects, like galaxies, distorts or warps light emitted in space.

Light emitted by a distant

galaxy exactly behind another massive galaxy is bent into a circle, forming the ring. Gravitational lensing often acts as a natural telescope by magnifying the background galaxy, with astronomers utilizing it to observe young galaxies farther away from Earth and further back in time.

While viewing data, researchers noticed two abnormally bright shapes outside the original ring. They suspected these shapes were light from a single galaxy, warped by the same gravitational lensing.

“In the eight or 10 years that I’ve been working in astronomy, I think that was certainly one of the

most exciting days when we found it,” said Amit Vishwas Ph.D. ’19, a research associate at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences.

The researchers confirmed they were images of the same galaxy from spectra emissions, which show the light from atoms as a function of color and wavelength. They are like the fingerprints of atoms — each creates a spectrum with light bands appearing at slightly different wavelengths.

Astronomers use spectra to determine chemical compositions of celestial objects and measure astronomical distances. When objects move farther away, the light

seen from the viewer’s vantage point stretches, becoming redder and shifting further down the spectrum. This redshift displacement — how much redder something is than it should be — corresponds to displacement across space.

When the researchers investigated the redshift of the two bright shapes, it confirmed they were the same shift and, therefore, images of the same galaxy.

Using the same technique, the researchers found the images were the same distance away from the SPT0418-47 Einstein ring: about 5 kiloparsecs, which is very close for two galaxies. It puts them in merging territory.

Merging galaxies are expected to be dynamically hot and full of randomness and chaos. This contradicts the conclusions of an influential 2020 astronomy paper, according to Vishwas.

Published in Nature, the study classified the ring as dynamically cold, meaning it lacks random motion relative to the rotational motion of the galaxy.

“[The discrepancy] becomes sort of an exciting bit of what we can work with and further develop this into,” Vishwas said.

By using the spectra to determine the chemical makeup of the new galaxy, the researchers found that it had

high metallicity. Metallicity refers to the abundance of elements heavier than helium, which stars create throughout their lifecycle. Both the ring and the new galaxy had abundances of these heavier elements comparable to the Sun, despite being about 3.5 million years younger. Therefore, the researchers speculated that it must have a very efficient star production rate. This trait is a new piece in the puzzle of galaxy evolution.

“The fact that this galaxy exists with the data that we have right now clearly tells us that it is a possible pathway for evolution of galaxies,” Vishwas said.

This discovery highlights a need for further investigation. In addition to conducting research on the galaxy’s structure and composition, the research team plans to reconstruct the image of the new galaxy without gravitational lensing and is optimistic there are neighboring galaxies not yet identified.

“For now, we can certainly say something about the combined system. And then hopefully use that as an argument to propose and ask for higher quality data,” Vishwas said, referring to the Einstein ring and new companion galaxy. “The idea is that by studying these highly magnified systems, we’ll be able to study their properties in enough detail that we could use that as a template for comparing to other galaxies.”

Laine Havens can be reached at lfh36@cornell.edu.

Lab Of Ornithology Publishes New Research on Social Bird Behavior

By ANNA LABINER

Sun Staff Writer

A recent study on social bird behavior has found that more sociality in birds may confer to reduced competition in interactions between

and among bird species.

The findings, published on March 1 in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, utilized data from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Sociality, or the degree

to which individuals interact and associate in groups, is a highly favorable trait for many species because it enhances reproductive opportunities, improves foraging results and provides protection from predators.

In addition to these benefits, the study notes that sociality also influences bird dominance hierarchies, in which larger birds tend to overpower smaller ones.

“There are some obvious benefits to being a social species,” said co-author Eliot Miller, a postdoctoral associate at the Lab. “Birds that aren’t that good at these interspecific interactions tend to lose when they’re alone, and they do better when they’re in groups.”

While doing research in Ecuador before graduate school, Miller developed an interest in the evolutionary and ecological ramifications of social interactions between birds.

He encountered difficulties obtaining adequate sample sizes for his research, which prompted him to partner with citizen scientists to help contribute data.

In 2016, Miller helped create Project FeederWatch

— a website that allows people to send in videos and data tracking bird presence and behavior in their area.

Through this project, Miller and his colleagues were able to utilize data from over 55,000 interactions among 68 common species to make conclusions about social bird behavior.

“We’re measuring sociality by the group size that people saw on their feeders,” Miller said.

The most notable pattern in the interaction data showed that larger birds tend to physically attach smaller birds.

The researchers also found that if organisms of social species must survive on their own, they tend to be less dominant than expected for their body mass.

“Against an equally-matched competitor that doesn’t tend to be social, the social species will more

often lose in that one-onone encounter, but when they show up in groups at feeders, the social species tend to have an advantage and more confidence… they’ve got their friends with them,” Miller said.

The decision to be social or solitary and the selective pressures that drive sociality — as well as the effects of diet and disease on sociality and avian communities — are topics that Miller intends to further explore utilizing the data from this research.

“Data sets are growing and there’s a lot of smart people out there in the world, so I think this [research] could go any number of really fun ways from here,” Miller said. “I’m always thankful for all of the citizen scientists that submit all their great data.”

Anna Labiner can be reached at alabiner@cornellsun.com.

COURTESY OF ESA/WEBB, NASA AND CSA, A. MARTEL.

Social species | A new Lab of Ornthiology study found that the social behavior of birds can influence intraspecific and interspecific species competition for resources.

Glowing galaxies | Using James Webb Telescope data, Cornell researchers detected a new galaxy with gravitational lensing. The galaxy’s unique traits lend themselves to scientists as a way to further study galaxy evolution and the universe’s beginnings.

ERIN SCHAFF /