INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 135, No. 72
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
Science
Arts
Sports
Weather
Interactive Courses
A$AP
Top-Ten Wrestler
Partly Sunny
As fall 2019 pre-enrollment approaches, professors and students share their experiences with interactive biology classes. | Page 6
Twelvyy and Ferg “ride with the mob" at Cornell's Barton Hall.
Wrestling places top-ten in NCAAs, and individual performances highlight the tournament. | Page 12
| Page 7
HIGH: 37º LOW: 18º
Series of Faulty Sprinklers Sends Sleeping Students Sloshing Outside
Asbestos within material also revealed; abatement may be needed By OLIVIA WEINBERG Sun Staff Writer
As alarms blared at 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning, bleary-eyed, pajama-clad students trudged through puddled carpets on their way out of Low Rise 6. Monday’s sprinkler malfunction was the second time this semester that Low Rise 6 experienced flooding — the last time because of a burst pipe on Jan. 31. Once again, furniture was pushed back to make way for water vacuums and fans
in an effort to remove the pooling water from the carpet, now twice stained over. “I was just eating cereal and then the ceiling decided to rain straight down onto me,” Johnathan Hsu ’22 said. “The water was brown and smelled like the color looked.” Water soaked onto the floor, Hsu said, damaging his power strip and his chargers. Residents of the freshman dormitory were able to go back inside within 30 minutes of the alarm going off, amidst a smattering of
firefighters and facilities workers. In the process of cleaning the building following the sprinkler malfunction, one of the seven-person suites had to be closed for potential asbestos abatement, according to an email sent to residents from Residence Hall Director Mark Schneider. Schneider also told residents that “crumbs of material were knocked loose,” and, while it is not confirmed that this material is asbestos, federal regulations man-
SARAH SILBIGER / THE NEW YORK TIMES
See SPRINKLER page 4
OLIVIA WEINBERG / SUN STAFF WRITER
Low rise leaks | Low Rise 6 residents were jolted out of bed after another burst pipe set off alarms and flooded rooms. The clean-up uncovered another issue: asbestos.
Mueller Report Questioned, Praised by Dems, Republicans Cornellians weigh in on the long-anticipated results By ALEX HALE Sun Staff Writer
Free speech, signed | Conservative student leaders peered over President Trump’s shoulder as he signed an executive order requiring public universities to protect free speech.
Trump Orders ‘Free Inquiry’ By SOPHIE ARZUMANOV Sun Contributor
Last Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order stating that colleges and universities receiving federal research funding and education grants must uphold free speech and “avoid creating environments that stifle competing perspectives” or risk losing their funding. Despite its land-grant colleges — which receive money from New York State — Cornell will likely operate as a private institution, avoiding susceptibility to the order while maintaining its own free speech standards, student leaders said. The order, fully titled “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities,” states that its primary purpose is “to enhance the quality of postsecondary education by making it more affordable, more transparent, and more accountable.” The executive order has been criticized for being redundant with the First Amendment. “My initial reaction was ‘why now?’ and ‘why is Trump reminding us of what we already know?’” Carson Sheinberg ’21 questioned. “I thought the order itself was
extremely vague in terms of what it actually stipulated.” Trump was surrounded by more than one hundred conservative student activists from various schools during the orders’ signing on Thursday, according to the Washington Post. Much of the support for the executive order stems from rightwing individuals and groups that have been barred from speaking on college campuses, the Post reported. Two years ago, former editor of Breitbart News Milo Yiannopolous’ speech at the University of California, Berkeley, was canceled hours before due to uproarious student protests, sparking a national discussion of free speech on college campuses. In response, President Trump tweeted, “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Conflicts regarding how to handle controversial speakers have also transpired on Cornell’s campus. In 2017, the Cornell Political Union invited Michael Johns Sr., the National Tea Party movement See SPEECH page 5
On Sunday, Attorney General William Barr released his summary of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigations into foreign influence during the 2016 presidential election. Reactions to the release varied amongst Cornell professors, alumni and student leaders. Mueller's report, titled the “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,” was the
result of years of examining potential collusion between the Russian government and President Trump’s campaign team during the 2016 election. It concluded that there was no strong evidence that Trump’s team was involved in Russian hacking and attempts to sway the American vote through social media efforts. “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in
its election interference activities,” the report states. Secondly, the report states that some of Trump’s public actions have been investigated for potential obstruction of justice charges. After investigation, the Special Counsel decided not to make a “traditional prosecutorial judgment” and did not rule Trump guilty or not guilty. “While this report does not conclude that the President committed See MUELLER page 4
DOUG MILLS / THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mueller? Mueller? | The former FBI Director submitted the Special Counsel investigation findings on suspected collusion within the Trump administration this week.