INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 135, No. 70
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2019
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Futbol Feminista
Swan's Song
Postseason Hockey
Cloudy With Showers
Hofstra professor gave talk on the feminist movement in Latin American soccer.
Columnist Nick Swan ’19 reflects in his last column on his Cornell experience.
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Women's heads to Frozen Four while men's looks to end decade-long ECAC drought. | Page 12
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HIGH: 47º LOW: 35º
‘Two Completely Different Worlds’ International Students Share Stories Homesickness, culture shock and community By KATHRYN STAMM Sun Contributor
BORIS TSANG / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Earning trust | Laurence Minter was one of ten trustee candidates, answered pop quiz and yes or no questions about Cornell and their planned approachs to the contested position.
Trustee Hopefuls Debate
Ten candidates state views on key campus questions dates answered questions about Cornell, such as how much the University’s endowment is and to name all five elected officials on the Board of Trustees. Students were then asked how they would stay in touch
would resign from all of her other executive board positions on campus to focus on the job. After a week of FacebookLiz Cantlebary ’21, on the friending and platform-pushother hand, stated that she ing, 10 candidates for Student plans on “staying involved in Trustee filed into Willard all current commitments,” Straight Hall for a including her debate over Cornell’s on-campus job as The primary function of a student future, moderated by a resident advisThe Sun. er, arguing that trustee is “to first and foremost The ten are camdoing so would be a student.” paigning to be electmaintain “organed Undergraduate ic relationships” Laurence Minter ’21 Student Trustee, one with students on of the 64 members campus. of Cornell’s Board of Trustees. with their constituents. Many Following this question, Once elected, the winner will of the candidates proposed set- the potential trustees were become a full voting member ting up meetings with constitu- asked “yes or no” questions on Cornell’s highest governing ents and meeting with student on important issues involving body, acting as a liaison between leaders. University decisions. All but students and the Board. Candidate Liel Sterling ’21 one candidate, Alex Chalgren The debate started with a said that she sees Trustee as “pop quiz” in which the candi- a “full-time job” and that she See TRUSTEE page 3 By ALEX HALE and ANGELA LI Sun Staff Writer and Sun Contributor
Lidia Mandava ’20 has returned home just once since she came to Cornell. Arzu Mammadova ’20 — who speaks four languages — struggled sometimes in her first-year writing seminar. Georgia Makris ’20 and Abdul Rahman Al-Mana ’20 both Al-MANA ’20 described missing out on their changing hometowns. All these students are either the only, or one of MAMMADOVA ’20 a handful, student to ever attend Cornell from their home countries. Interna-tional students face the same homesickness, loneliness and adjustment period that most college students experience. However, that can be compounded by being thousands of miles from home and not knowing another person from their entire country at Cornell. At Cornell, 5,322 international students make up 22.55 percent of the total student body. Although Cornell boasts international diversity, more than three quarters of
foreign students hail from the same ten countries, while some countries send only one. These four students — among many Cornellians with similar experiences — have different home continents, languages and reasons for coming to Cornell, but they’ve all made Ithaca their home (far, far) away from home. Lidia Mandava YOON ’20 ’20 is a governm e n t major from Maputo, Mozambique. She applied to Cornell through MANDAVA ’20 the Davis United World College Scholars program at her interntional high school in Eswatini. “Oh my god, I miss everything,” Mandava said. Then, she continued, “the food, the beaches, the warmer climate, the people.” “Everyone is always complaining like, ‘I haven't been home in two months,’ and I'm like, ‘um, hi’,” she said. Mandava hasn’t been home since December 2017. Mandava explained that one of See INTERNATIONAL page 4
Lombardi Sends Updates on Mental Health Reforms; Students Skeptical By ALEC GIUFURTA and AMANDA CRONIN Sun Staff Writer and Sun News Editor
LOMBARDI
In an email to students on Wednesday night, vice president for student and campus life Ryan Lombardi outlined plans for sweeping reforms to student mental health services. Some students, however, questioned whether Lombardi’s
promises would result in meaningful improvements to Cornell’s frayed mental health support system. Limited updates on the progress of the internal review of the campus environment and culture included that the team is acting upon feedback gathered from students from a fall survey. This review, spearheaded by a com-
mittee of students, staff and faculty, will act concurrently with an external review of Cornell mental health services. The external review team, according to Lombardi’s email, will “come to campus and evaluate our services through the lens of best practices in collegiate and community mental health” starting in
the fall of 2019. The source or members of the team were not specified. Last semester, a student led mental health task force submitted a letter with detailed policy recommendations regarding mental health services to Cornell administration, The Sun previously reported. One of the changes announced in Lombardi’s
email addresses an issue in that letter: reforming Counseling and Psychological Services interviews. Come fall 2019, CAPS will discontinue phone interviews with the introduction of in-person “same-day initial sessions,” Lombardi wrote. See HEALTH page 4