3-5-25 entire issue hi res by The Cornell Daily Sun

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Changed messaging

Cornell Health deleted several lines on its gender-aﬃrming care page following executive orders from Trump. | Page 4

Bad blood Kaityln Bell ’27 discusses arch nemeses and ﬁnding humor in rivalry. | Page 9

SIPS Advocacy Protests, Urge

Public To ‘Stand Up For Science’

By EMMA COHEN Sun Staff Writer

March 1 — About 150 School of Integrative Plant Science students, faculty and supporters assembled outside of Mann Library at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Protestors carried signs demanding access to science for all in the face of recent executive orders and echoed chants for “human need, not corporate greed.”

Speakers called for members of the Ithaca community to “stand up for science,” emphasizing the loss of research funding through National Institutes of Health grants and the backpedaling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at universities under the Trump administration.

In response to President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order on Unleashing American Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently froze funding to the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, along with funding to environmental conservation programs funded by former President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inﬂation Reduction Act.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun to unfreeze certain funding of climate programs, farmers and scientiﬁc researchers remain at risk due to cuts to federal agencies including the USDA, NIH and the National Science Foundation.

“Executive orders from the current administration have created chaos [and] uncertainty and have disrupted the scientiﬁc community across the country,” said Prof. Cynthia Leifer,

immunology, to the crowd. She highlighted the potential loss of research trainees due to uncertainty about the funding of research programs, which would prevent faculty from accepting graduate students.

“We don’t want to lose a generation of talented and highly motivated researchers,” Liefer said.

The crowd carried a variety of signs, with some reading, “Science is not propaganda,” “Science saves lives,” “Stand up for science” and “Will an apple a day keep Trump away?”

See SIPS page 10

Keen Kava A recent New York State regulation puts kava bars under scrutiny. | Page 8

Unionized TCAT Workers Rally Over Contract, Wages

By XAVIER ROLSTON Sun Staff Writer

March 1 — Employees represented by the United Auto Workers Local 2300 union rallied outside the Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit ofﬁce on Thursday to generate support and awareness about their ongoing negotiations for a new contract.

The TCAT oversees all bus lines that service Ithaca and Cornell. In December, the workers’s contracts expired, launching a series of negotiations between the union and TCAT management.

According to a statement released on its website, the UAW Local 2300 “continues to focus on our priorities of fair wages for all members, equal pay for equal work, and ensuring stafﬁng levels meet the needs of our community without forcing our members to work 6 days a week, enduring exhaustion and facing burnout.”

Will Wright, a bus operator for TCAT, vice chair for the TCAT unit of the UAW Local 2300

union and member of the bargaining team, addressed fellow workers and bus riders outside the downtown ofﬁce where the monthly board of directors meetings take place. The rally occurred directly before a monthly meeting.

For Wright, one part of a fair contract means an increase in wages, which he said are not keeping up with the cost of living, and are worth less after adjusting for inﬂation than the wages drivers earned in 2019. He also wants to see an increase in overall stafﬁng and more consideration in the contracts for work-life balance.

“The drivers of the membership have been sacrificing and sacrificing and sacrificing to make sure that public transit in this area is still functional to whatever degree we can,” Wright said.

To continue reading this article, please visitwww.cornellsun.com.

Xavier Rolson can be reached at xrolston@cornellsun.com.

University-Wide Hiring Freeze Amid Financial Uncertainty

Cornell announced the decision following “potential

By AVERY WANG Sun Senior Writer

Feb. 28 — The University announced a hiring pause, effective immediately, across all colleges, schools, divisions and administrative units in a statement on Thursday afternoon, citing a “time of signiﬁcant ﬁnancial uncertainty” along with “all of American higher education.”

The decision comes amid Cornell and 11 other universities ﬁling a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health for funding restrictions that would cost the University $80 million. Several other universities, including Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University, have also announced hiring freezes in the past two weeks.

“The potential for deep cuts in federal research funding, as well as tax legislation affecting our endowment income, has now been added to existing concerns related to rapid growth and cost escalations,” the statement reads.

Earlier this month, Republican members of Congress introduced proposals to increase the excise tax rate from 1.4 percent to 10 percent of endowment income and to lower the per-student endowment threshold from $500,000 to $200,000 to include more eligible universities.

As of October, Cornell’s endowment was approximate -

deep cuts” to its federal research funding and endowment.

ly $10.7 billion, according to the Ofﬁce of University Investments. Cornell’s endowment per student was $395,108 in 2022.

Only positions deemed “essential” for departmental functions will continue their hiring process under an increased level of review. Positions determined by deans, vice provosts and vice presidents as “mission-critical” will continue their review process, while staff positions will be evaluated by a new central position control committee that reports to the provost.

Colleges will work with their deans to consult with the provost for faculty hiring. It is unclear how the hiring pause will affect graduate students.

The University highlighted the importance of hiring managers working with local college and unit human resources representatives so that all decisions are made in alignment with individual college needs.

To determine whether a position is “mission-critical,” the University will consider whether it contributes to the delivery of core services or supports critical operations that enable core services. Core services include teaching, research, information technology support and maintenance.

Units may not extend term appointments or temporary terms without consulting their college or unit human resources representatives. Additionally, no new temporary hires may be made.

The statement also encourages colleges and units to

consider alternative solutions, such as using technology or an existing role to fulﬁll the position, before using independent contractors or those employed under a ﬁxed-term contract.

“The potential for deep cuts in the federal research funding, as well as tax legislation affecting our endowment income, has now been added to existing concerns related to reapid growth and cost escaliations.”

Feb. 27 University statement

“If you have employees in your organization who have available time, you should consider asking them to take on this work if possible,” the statement said. “You may want to look ﬁrst at asking other staff to take on the work if their workload permits before deciding to request and [sic] exception to the hiring pause.”

VAUGHN FRIEDMAN / SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Shouting science | Demonstrators protest recent executive orders, demanding access to science for all.

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Today

An Overview of AI 9 a.m. - 10 a.m., Online

ASC Flower Bouquet Making Event 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 1157 MVR

Careers in Psychology and Social Work Panel 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., Online

Cornell In Washington: Information Session 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m., 141 Sage Hall

“Is Fat Female? Evolution, Feminsm, and Getting the Story Right.”

5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., 132 Goldwin Smith Hall

Fireside Chat with Erik Gerding: “The SEC in Flux: What to Expect”

5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m., 182 Myron Taylor Hall

Bowling Practices

5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., Helen Newman Lanes

Come Juggle!

6 p.m. - 8 p.m., Physical Sciences Building Atrium

PMA Free Screening of “Assemblage”

7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., Schwartz Film Forum, B21

Tomorrow

Midday Music in Lincoln: “Human and Machine” 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., B20 Lincoln Hall

Astronomy & Space Sciences Colloquium: The Chiral Universe

3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m., 105 Space Sciences Building

The US-Russia Pivot and the Importance of Ukraine to US National Interests 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m., MVR

Identity in Industry: Fireside Chat with Taneka Coates 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m., 165 Statler Hall

Exploring Careers by Finding What Sparks Your Curiosity

6 p.m. - 7 p.m., Multipurpose Room, Morrison Hall

Free ZUMBA

6:30 p.m. - 7:15 p.m., B16 Helen Newman Hall

The Consultant’s Playbook: Frameworks for Success & Scale 7 p.m. - 8 p.m., Online

Thursday Tango Lesson

7 p.m. - 10 p.m., Physical Sciences Building Atrium

Breithaupt

SUNBURSTS: Sun Elections and Open House

Last weekend, Te Sun elected its 143rd Editorial Board and welcomed new writers and creatives alike to its historic ofce in downtown Ithaca during Te Sun Open House

By SUN PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT

THE SUN OFFICE | The Sun hosted multiple events this weekend at its ofﬁce located at 139 W. State Street.

DELIBERATIONS | Multimedia Editor Mirella Berkowitz ’27 asks to comment during deliberations.

VETTING | Dorothy France-Miller ’27, who was elected Managing Editor, questions a candidate for Sports Editor.

SUN CIRCLE | Members of the 143rd Editorial Board introduce themselves to new Sunnies during the open house on Sunday.

DEMOCRACY | Sunnies use the democratic process to elect its editorial boards. Each attendee writes the initial of the candidate they are voting for on a slip of paper.

SPEECH! | Eric Han ’26 gives a speech before he is voted in as the Associate Editor for the 143rd Editorial Board.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | Before being elected Editor-in-Chief, Julia Senzon ’26 addressed attendees about her vision for The Sun in the upcoming year.

SHEDING (SUN)LIGHT | Assistant Managing Editor Matthew Kiviat ’27 shows a new writer the functions of InDesign, which The Sun uses to design the print paper.

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Editor Photo

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Editor

Jade Dubuche / Social Media Editor

Karlie McGann / Sun Photography Editor

Jade Dubuche / Social Media Editor

Private Copilot Version Avaliable to Cornellians

March 3 — More than half of college students say artiﬁcial intelligence has helped them improve their grades, according to a June 2024 Pearson report. However, recent federal investigations into AI giants are raising concerns over how and why user data is stored.

To protect user data, Cornell-afﬁliated users can now access a private version of Microsoft’s artiﬁcial intelligence-powered chat assistant Copilot — an initiative designed to provide a safer environment for experimentation in generative AI that prioritizes user privacy.

First launched in early March 2024 and later updated, this private version of Copilot establishes that user input is not used to train the tech giant’s future AI models, granting users more control over when their data is stored and how it is used.

“By logging into Copilot with a Cornell NetID, users will be provided with Enterprise Data Protection which provides additional security, privacy and copyright protections for the information users entered into Copilot,” Cornell Information Technologies ofﬁce wrote in an email to The Sun. “This ensures that data is not used to train Microsoft’s AI models.”

CIT told The Sun that they had advertised the privatized Copilot throughout the fall semester, meeting with student groups and both the University Assembly and the Student Assembly. According to the CIT ofﬁce, the private AI service currently has just under 1,900 daily users.

While signing into Copilot with a netID does provide extra privacy and copyright protection compared to the free version, users are still advised to exercise caution when inputting sensitive data.

“Copilot has been approved for use only with low-risk data,” CIT said, “Though discussions are underway that may permit broader use in the future.”

Kathleen Anderson ’25, an information science student who studies the relationship between AI and humans, said that she was not aware of the private version of Copilot. Anderson founded the Responsible AI Network last semester, a student-led initiative aimed at educating students about the ethical implications of AI. She believes that Cornell could improve communication about these resources that are available to students.

“Cornell is a very tech-heavy school. We have a lot of people here that are interested in AI and using these tools and building these tools,” Anderson said. “I think it would be to the beneﬁt of everyone — the school, the students [and] the professors — if that information was widely available to people who would want to use it or get involved.”

Prof. Ayham Boucher, information science, said that privacy initiatives with AI are crucial, citing the release of ChatGPT.

“Because [ChatGPT], like many other free tools, had no privacy guarantees or contractual agreement with enterprises, conversations could be recorded and used to train the next version of ChatGPT, improving its ability to understand user intent,” Boucher said. “That’s why institutions quickly blocked it — people were inputting sensitive data without any assurance that it wouldn’t be used to train the model and as a result leak this data unintentionally to other users.”

Although Microsoft does not use any information from Cornell users to train future AI tools, Copilot still offers chat history, which enables users to select from their recent chats and continue those conversations with previous questions and details available, according to Boucher. He said this feature was not previously available — a shortfall that annoyed users.

Boucher emphasized the distinction between storing data as training material and saving it for context in order to improve the user’s experience. Chat history maintains the efﬁciency of chats while excluding the possibility of personal information being saved and used as training data without the user’s knowledge.

The decision is one of several AI privacy proposals that CIT juggles as the protection of sensitive data remains a consideration for University administration.

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

Cornell Health Website Adjusts Gender-Afrming Care Page

Te change follows an executive order from President Donald Trump

Feb. 28 — Cornell Health has deleted several lines from its gender-afﬁrming care page. The move follows an executive order from President Donald Trump directing federal entities to withhold funding from medical providers that offer gender-afﬁrming treatments to individuals under 19 years old.

Cornell Health’s gender-afﬁrming care page previously noted that “New York State has legislation in place to protect access to gender-afﬁrming care” and that they “do not anticipate any future changes to the services [they] provide,” as of Jan. 9.

Cornell Health added that “students enrolled in Cornell’s Student Health Plan and other New Yorkbased employer and exchange insurance plans in 2025 will continue to have coverage for gender-afﬁrming care.”

However, after Trump issued his executive order on Jan. 28 instructing federal agencies to deny funding to medical providers that administer gender-afﬁrming treatments to individuals under the age of 19, Cornell Health removed these statements from its website.

At time of publication, the page now states that “Cornell Health remains committed to providing gender-afﬁrming services for students at this time; and [they] are monitoring rapidly changing legal developments in this area which could affect individuals under 19.”

Some members of Cornell’s transgender community said they are dissatisﬁed with the adjustment in Cornell Health’s messaging. According to Hugo Keil ’27, “It is sickening. There is no compromise between transphobia and supporting transgender students. You can’t ﬁnd a happy medium between a band of frothing, rabid fascists and an individual who merely wishes to maintain their rights as ensured by New York State.”

Rather than directing students to speciﬁc resources such as Cornell’s Student Health Plan as it previously did before the executive order, the website now only states that “students with speciﬁc questions about their care should contact their medical provider or plan administrator regarding insurance coverage.”

SHP is a health insurance plan providing coverage for students and their dependents, facilitating access to care on campus and beyond. The current plan includes beneﬁts for transgender services, offering payment for permanent hair removal, including electrolysis when a student is undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

“University leadership continues to evaluate how new executive orders affect our community,” Cornell

Media Relations wrote in a statement to The Sun. “As more concrete information becomes available, we will provide guidance on how the executive orders and other directives may impact our programs and community members.”

Keil described entering Cornell expecting it to be a safe haven from the discrimination they faced elsewhere.

“I believed that, in coming to Cornell, I had ﬁnally managed to escape into an environment which was actively afﬁrming of transgender liberty and refuted discrimination,” Keil said. “I was naive beyond all reason.”

Karys Everett ’25, Student Assembly undesignated representative at-large and political action chair for Haven: The LGBTQ Student Union, expressed a similar sentiment criticizing Cornell Health’s actions.

“The University continues to make it abundantly clear that it is easier to give in to hate and repression rather than supporting their students who continue to be impacted by targeted and hateful policy,” Everett said. “It is incredibly disappointing and unsettling that when queer students are repeatedly targeted through legislation, through hate crimes, through speakers brought on campus, the University makes no effort to protect them.”

Weill Cornell Medicine similarly removed a public statement afﬁrming its commitment to providing gender-afﬁrming care to transgender youth in correspondence with Trump’s executive order.

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

27th Annual Chili Cook-Of Hosted in Commons

and “What’s Hot” magazine writer Roger Theise said of Szymczak’s chili.

March 3 — Thousands of attendees braved cold weather and wind on Saturday to crown the best chili in Ithaca at the 27th Annual Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off, hosted by the Downtown Ithaca Alliance.

The event, which ran from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Ithaca Commons, boasted over 40 vendors serving chili or chili-inspired products. 29 businesses and nonproﬁts served vegan, vegetarian and meat chili to compete for the ﬁrst-place People’s Choice Award.

Last year, Statler Hotel’s Taverna Banfi won first place for the best chili. Taverna Banfi executive chef Eric Szymczak said “there’s no doubt” that his chili will take home first place again this year.

Szymczak credited his untraditional recipe with drawing one of the longest lines at the event to his stand. “There’s actually thirty to forty ingredients in here,” he said. “I’ve crafted it over several years, and every year I tweak it a little bit more.”

Among other ingredients, Szymczak’s chili includes smoked tri-tip, ground brisket, bacon, ﬁve different kinds of chili peppers, three different kinds of beans, espresso, bourbon, anchovies and Vegemite. Szymczak topped it off with a chili corn cookie “to bridge the ﬂavors” of sweet and savory.

“My ﬁrst taste is fantastic,” ﬁrst-time judge

This year’s cook-off welcomed several new vendors offering unique chili recipes and toppings, such as The William George Agency for Children’s Services, which served a sweet potato chorizo chili with avocado crema, cilantro, lime and goat cheese.

A panel of 15 judges tasted chili from each of the contestants to narrow down the finalists. The finalists will be sampled by three final judges: former Ithaca firefighter Mark Spadolini, Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (D-Second Ward) and founder and owner of Via’s Cookies, Via Carpenter.

Judges and attendees did not seem to reach a consensus by mid-Saturday afternoon. Jack Applegarth, a second-year judge and executive chef at Ithaca College, favored the extensive non-meat chili offerings at the cook-off.

“Vegetarian chili? Gorgeous,” Applegarth said. “That was the best one I’ve tasted so far.”

First-time judge and “What’s Hot” magazine writer Scott Hopko preferred the chicken chili served outside of Collegetown Bagels.

The winners of the 27th Annual Chili Cook-Off will be announced on Bernie Milton Pavilion stage and the Downtown Ithaca Alliance’s social media early this week.

Copilot AI-powered chat assistance is avaliable to Cornell students.

HINDSLEY / THE NEW YORK TIMES

By OLIVIA HOLLOWAY Sun Senior Writer

Olivia Holloway can be reached at oholloway@cornellsun.com.

By KRISTIE TO Sun Staff Writer

Website wipe | Cornell Health deleted several lines on its gender-afﬁrming care website page.

RACHAEL EISENHART / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

By SKYLAR KLEINMAN Sun Senior Writer Kristie

Two Unendorsed Candidates Bring Conservative Perspectives to the Alumni-Elected Trustee Ballot

Te candidates’ platforms address DEI policies and political activism on campus

By CAROLINE KELLY Sun Contributor

Feb. 28 —Two unendorsed candidates have joined the alumni-elected trustee ballot, bringing conservative perspectives to the election.

The Board of Trustees consists of 64 members, including eight alumni-elected trustees. Its responsibilities include managing Cornell’s investments, selecting the president and approving the operating budget. Voting for the two open slots is open from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, and Cornell alumni will have the opportunity to elect two new Board of Trustee members.

The 2025 candidates include four candidates endorsed by the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations, a committee of alumni representatives across colleges and alumni organizations. The committee endorses who they ﬁnd to be qualiﬁed alumni nominated for election and recommends process improvement and guideline updates for elections.

Endorsed candidates can move on to the ballot with the recommendation of CATN, but unendorsed candidates need to petition at least 400 signatures to make the ballot.

Unendorsed candidate J. Kennerly Davis Jr. ’68 is calling for stricter enforcement of University rules to create a “secure, peaceful campus environment essential for successful academic endeavors,” according to his interview introducing himself to

voters.

According to the interview, Davis’ vision of Cornell is one that “opposes the intolerant imposition of abstract reality-distorting, ideology-based doctrines, such as those embodied in neo-Marxian, anti-Western critical theory, decolonization dogmas and social constructionism.” He additionally hoped that Cornell would reject “the discriminatory, divisive, anti-meritocratic, anti-democratic, antisemitic doctrines of DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion].”

Davis speciﬁcally elaborated on his concern over what he calls “the disgusting, shameful and unlawful antisemitism on display since October the 7th.”

“Demonstrations, encampments, destruction of University property, disruption of University events, antisemitic death threats — none of these are remotely consistent with the legitimizing purpose of a University,” Davis said.

Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people, and Israel subsequently launched a retaliatory military bombardment with a death toll of nearly 50,000 people. In late October 2023, several threatening messages were posted by a Cornell student on Greekrank forums, directly targeting the Jewish community.

There have been several student demonstrations relating to the war in Gaza, including the vandalism of the A.D. White statue, the shutdown of a career fair in Statler Hall and a

Alumni advocacy | Candidates not endorsed by the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations must petition for at least 400 alumni signatures to make the ballot.

two-and-a-half week-long encampment on the Arts Quad.

Unendorsed candidate Cindy Crawford MBA ’90, is concerned about the line between exercising First Amendment rights and political activism at Cornell.

In her interview introducing herself to voters, Crawford stated, “Universities play a crucial role: to foster [the] pursuit of truth without dictating what ‘truth’ is. If they abandon that role for political activism, then they leave a vacuum they were meant to ﬁll.”

When asked where she envisions

Cornell in 25 years, Crawford said, “What I hope stays the same and perhaps recovers a bit from recent lows is the reputation of Cornell for kindness and cordiality. … The principles should remain the same, but I hope that the structure for supporting these principles becomes more robust.”

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

Caroline Kelly can be reached at cck84@ cornell.edu.

Strutting Into Spring: CFC Prepares for 41st Annual Show

By GRACE LIU Sun Senior Writer

March 3 — 56 designers. Approximately 180 models. Almost 2,000 attendees. One professional runway show. Entirely student run.

With less than a month to go, Cornell Fashion Collective is hard at work preparing for its 41st Annual Spring Runway Show on Saturday, March 22 in Barton Hall. Doors for the show will open at 6 p.m. and the show will begin at 7 p.m.

Led by co-presidents Julia Roos ’25 and Mattie Nguyen ’25 and assisted by faculty advisor and senior lecturer Kimberly Phoenix, CFC provides students with the opportunity to showcase their talent in fashion management and design. With over 180 club members, CFC represents all seven of Cornell’s undergraduate colleges and two graduate colleges.

Design Preparation

Behind the scenes, student designers tirelessly prepare their collections to present to the Cornell community. There are four levels of designers in CFC — one, two, three and four — and each level designs for a different number of models. Level one designers dress one model, this year adhering to the theme “all white.” Level two designers are responsible for two looks and work with two models. Level three designers dress four to six models and level four designers work with a range of six to 10 models.

Aside from level one, other designers do not follow an overarching theme, and there is no comprehensive theme for the spring show this year.

Raquel Coren ’25, a level four designer, said she spends the majority of her days in the

studio working on her designs in the leadup to the show.

“I come to the studio before class, then I go to class, I maybe have some time to do a little bit of homework if I’m lucky and then I come back and I do it until I go to sleep,” Coren said. “I eat all my meals in this building. I do work like 24/7, but it’s also super fun cause we’re all in it together.”

Financial Sourcing

CFC ﬁnances their runway shows partly through ticket sales and gets the other half from their crowdfunding page. As of March 3, CFC raised $33,835 through the crowdfunding page and $14,850 in ticket sales, though they anticipate raising between $27,000 and $30,000 in total from ticket sales, according to Roos. CFC also receives money from the Student Activities Funding Commission.

Roos said the production invoice itself is $47,000 and the overall cost of the show, also including merchandise, posters and material, will likely end up being around $58,000. All the money raised goes towards all aspects of the show, including working with BSI Production to set up Barton Hall with the stage, lights, cameras and chairs.

“How intense [CFC] is is so unique to anything else. It’s more intense than a prelim or a ﬁnal,” Roos said. “There’s like runway math that we have to do. The Excel spreadsheet for the timing breakdown is by second [for the whole show] from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., it’s all like ‘Lights down. Music up.’ It’s crazy.”

Model Selection and Training

In addition to the designers, student models diligently prepare their runway walks to showcase each designer’s creation. CFC holds

an annual model call early in the fall semester, where applicants ﬁll out a form and get their headshots taken. Runway director Susanna Burr ’27 then compiles all the information and puts together a lookbook for designers to sort through. Once designers have selected their models and model contracts have been signed, Burr begins working with them at ‘model boot camps.’

At these ‘model boot camps,’ Burr conﬁgures the classroom into a U-shape to match the shape of the runway, puts on music and has models practice their walks over and over again. She plays a BPM — beats per minute track — so models can practice the general pace they will be walking at during the show. Burr also makes sure models know how different runway walking is, teaching them

how to walk with hips pushed forward, smile with your eyes and move your arms but “not too much.”

“I want this conﬁdence to translate onto the runway, so I try to make the boot camps as much of a positive experience as I can,” Burr said. “I mean, in the spring, they [will be] walking in front of 2,000 people. So I try to do a balance of making sure that they know that, because this is a really big thing, but also like, ‘you can do this, you’re gonna look amazing, you know what to do,’” Burr said.

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

Grace Liu can be reached at gliu@cornellsun. com.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Independent Since 1880

143rd Editorial Board

JULIA SENZON ’26

Bridgewater, N.J.

Editor in Chief

ERIC HAN ’26

New York, N.Y.

Associate Editor

SOPHIA DASSER ’28

New York, N.Y. Opinion Editor

ILANA LIVSHITS ’27

New York, N.Y.

Assistant Opinion Editor

AUDREY IM ’26

Queens, N.Y. Business Manager

SOPHIA TORRES ’26

Redwood City, Calif. Marketing Manager

SYDNEY LEVINTON ’27

Dix Hills, N.Y. Arts & Culture Editor

JAMES PALM ’27

New York, N.Y.

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

JENNA LEDLEY ’27

Penn Valley, Pa.

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

MELISSA MOON ’28

Los Angeles, Calif.

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

SOPHIA ROMANOV IMBER ’28

Miami, Fla.

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

KAITLYN BELL ’28

Long Island, N.Y. Lifestyle Editor

MAIA MEHRING ’27

Great Neck, N.Y. Lifestyle Editor

KARLIE MCGANN ’27

Syracuse, N.Y. Photography Editor

MATHEW KORNICZKY ’28

San Diego, Calif.

Assistant Photography Editor

STEPHAN MENASCHE ’28

Queens, N.Y

Assistant Photography Editor

MIRELLA BERKOWITZ ’27

New York, N.Y.

Multimedia Editor

HANNIA AREVALO ’27

McAllen, Texas Graphics Editor

JADE DUBUCHE ’27

Bronx, N.Y.

Social Media Editor

HUNTER PETMECKY ’28

Los Angeles, Calif. Layout Editor

RENA GEULA ’28

Great Neck, N.Y Layout Editor

From the Editor

DOROTHY FRANCE-MLLER ’27

Glens Falls, N.Y. Managing Editor

MATTHEW KIVIAT ’27

Clarksburg, Md. Assistant Managing Editor

VERA SUN ’27

Scarsdale, N.Y. Advertising Manager

ALEX LIEW ’27

Queens, N.Y. Human Resouces Manager

BENJAMIN LEYNSE ’27

Leonia, N.J. News Editor

VARSHA BHARGAVA ’27

Basking Ridge, N.J. News Editor

ISABELLA HANSON ’27

Chadds Ford, Pa. News Editor

CEREESE QUSBA ’27

New York, N.Y. News Editor

REEM NASRALLAH ’28

Queens, N.Y. Assistant News Editor

ANGELINA TANG ’28

Bufalo, N.Y. Assistant News Editor

KATE TURK ’27

Gulf Breeze, Fla. Assistant News Editor

JEREMIAH JUNG ’28

Chino Hills, Calif. Assistant News Editor

KAITLIN CHUNG ’26

Corning, N.Y. Science Editor

MARISSA GAUT ’27

San Diego, Calif. Science Editor

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26

Miami, Fla. City Editor

JANE HAVILAND ’28

Barnegat, N.J. Features Editor

ALEXIS ROGERS ’28

Evanston, Ill. Sports Editor

ZEINAB FARAJ ’28

Jacksonville, Fla.

Assistant Sports Editor

DYLAN GRAFF ’28

Los Angeles, Calif. Assistant Sports Editor

SIMRAN LABORE ’27

Saint Louis, M.O. Weather Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26

Larchmont, N.Y. Newsletter Editor

A New Sun Is Rising

Te Sun gathered at its downtown Ithaca oﬃce on Saturday to elect the 143rd Editorial Board. Dedicated and daring Sunnies stepped forward into their new roles, promising to protect the truth, above all else.w

Te truth can be hard to ﬁnd these days. We have entered a world where leaders in the highest levels of government treat truth as malleable, and journalism as an industry that can be bent, rather than a pillar of democracy.

Papers across the nation have been hit with lawsuits and directives by the Trump administration. Te Associated Press was barred from covering news events at the Oval Oﬃce for declining to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. And in justifying the move, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated, “It’s a privilege to cover the White House.”

If we at Te Sun stand by one promise, it is that we will always remain courageous. When Te Los Angeles Times and Te Washington Post shelved endorsements for Kamala Harris last fall, Te Sun went full steam ahead on our own.

With police and administrators around, Te Sun stayed steadfast in its on-the-ground protest reporting — part of a collective student newspaper eﬀort that Te Pulitzer Prizes honored during the web of encampment demonstrations last spring.

College papers preserve the narrative. We are documenters of history, and in an age of censorship and erasure, historians are needed more than ever.

Our readers have a key part to play in building our record. Contact us with tips to ensure the stories that matter are being covered. Send us correction requests when we mess up. And join the conversation by submitting letters to the editor and guest columns.

As Te Sun dawns for another year, we will light the path to a more transparent future. We have never backed down from bringing the truth to our readers, and we won’t start now.

Eric Han

Te Cornell Daily Sun Welcomes the 143rd Editorial Board

When you notice a light fade from the horizon, you might assume that it’s the falling sun. This weekend, it was the passing of a torch. Much like its celestial namesake, The Cornell Daily Sun never fails to rise for every time it sets. Its staff gathered on Saturday for many rounds of competitive ﬂattery and delicate criticism, ultimately leaving with a brand new team of elected leaders. Please join us in congratulating the members of our 143rd Editorial Board!wad our board than your favorite editor’s favorite editor, Julia Senzon ’26. While we may trust our 143rd editor-in-chief to lead our paper up these slopes, we might be more hesitant about the other kind — she got stuck on a mountain last week. Thanks, ski patrol!

Her protégés leading the objective side of the paper will be managing editor Dorothy FranceMiller ’27, who always brightens up the ofﬁce with her glittery eyeshadow, and assistant managing editor Matthew Kiviat ’27. Matthew wants you to know that he’s an avid runner — he didn’t mention that he likes the occasional Rockstarfueled midnight sprint from North campus to our ofﬁce in the Commons.

All hailing from the same notorious high school (go Peglegs?) are our three additions to the Opinion department. Putting the Eric in esoteric, our new associate editor can’t help but philosophize on the job. Leading the subjective side, it’s me: Eric Han ’26. I’ll be joined by opinion editor Sophia Dasser ’28, who, like Julia, has been navigating all sorts of slippery slopes this semester — whether it’s skiing (poorly), deciding just how controversial an opinion piece can be (answer: very) or ﬁguring out if she’s had too much matcha (she hasn’t). Meanwhile, you can ﬁnd assistant opinion editor Ilana Livshits ’27 baking desserts at the most random hours. Go ask her what she’s cheffed up this week!

Because printer ink costs an arm and leg, the 143rd has enlisted coffee aﬁcionado Audrey Im ’26 to balance the books as our business manager. Don’t think the business side is all work and no play, though, with advertising manager Vera Sun ’27 always planning her next travel destination. I suggest you don’t tell Vera how beautiful it can be in Venezuela, where marketing manager Sophia Torres ’26 grew up — that visa might be hard to acquire. And I’m glad our new human resources manager knows a thing or two about checking mates: Alex Liew ’27 is retired from professional chess.

A newspaper isn’t complete without news, so we’ve picked some impressive journalists to be our news editors. We’ve elected four to be precise, which happens to be the number of cats Isabella Hanson ’27 owns. Maybe Cereese Qusba ’27, who dabbles in carpentry, could build them a place to stay in the ofﬁce (only cats could comfort us after staring at Adobe InDesign all night). Benjamin Leynse ’27 might take “hours” (more like days) to respond to texts, but don’t worry, he’ll respond to your Slack DMs in a pinch. And it looks like Varsha Bhargava ’27 has been busy reading the Sun Style Manual — she’s purportedly a big fan of em dashes.

Don’t worry, our four horsemen will have all the help they need to break the best stories. In fact, we have just as many assistant news editors! We’re hoping Jeremiah Jung ’28, for example, can bring some new life into the ofﬁce with his advanced DJ skills. And maybe Kate Turk ’27 could be our new token environment & sustainability major, now that we’re losing our previous one (we’ll miss you Eric Reilly!). If you want to strike a conversation with Reem Nasrallah ’28, you might want to bring up Gilmore Girls — she’s currently on her 25th watch. Finally, try not to decompose around Angelina Tang ’28, because she has a serious love for turkey vultures. Don’t ask me what that entails.

The news team doesn’t stop there. Our city editor, Gabriel Muñoz ’26, can be found lingering inconspicuously around Zeus when he’s not chasing down Common Council members. Gabe may be a Sun veteran, but Jane Haviland ’28 is bringing some fresh perspective as our ﬁrst-ever features editor. If you want to be her friend, I

suggest you get her an iced caramel latte. This board’s sole arts and culture editor (she’s glad to be rid of me) is the critic behind all of your favorite throwback album reviews — “Test Spins” writer Sydney Levinton ’27. She’s recruited a small village of assistant editors to join her, starting with the 143rd’s only redhead, Jenna Ledley ’27. Jenna knows not to bring up the Oxford comma around Melissa Moon ’28, who cries every time she has to remove it in edits. Sun Style is law. And while we’re giving advice, don’t ask Sophia Romanov Imber ’28 to explain a metaphor. She’ll overanalyze it (“it’s always that deep”) unless she’s too busy editing photos on Adobe Lightroom. Here’s an easy one for her: James Palm ’27 is taking Arts to new heights! Sorry Sophia, but this one’s literal — James has his pilot’s license.

We’re all looking forward to seeing what becomes of our youngest section, Lifestyle (RIP, Dining). Thankfully, lifestyle co-editor Maia Mehring ’27 is ready to put her video-producing skills to the test after her big splash on Netﬂix (she was an extra in Master of None). And I’m guessing her co-editor Kaitlyn Bell ’28 is just excited to be her department twin since she’s too used to being the only sister of triplets!

Words are great and all, but sometimes it’s hard to write more than 999 of them. That’s when we’re grateful to have our hardworking photo editor Karlie McGann ’27, who lives off of diet soda and caffeine. Hopefully, she can just stick to the soda now that we’ve elected two assistant photo editors to share some of the load. Despite being from San Diego, Matthew Korniczky ’28 claims that he’s already earned a “Northern Attitude” (and by that he means that he’s a Noah Kahan fan). I heard he’s trying to get his pilot’s license — maybe he’ll be the Goose to James’ Maverick. Stephan Menasche ’28, on the other hand, can be found doom-scrolling whenever he’s not catching intense ﬂicks of political tension on campus.

But the visual content doesn’t end there! We have Mirella Berkowitz ’27 stepping into the role of multimedia editor, the Sun’s resident camera equipment manager. If you catch her speed-walking around campus with an iced latte (yes, even in winter), let me know what depressing music she’s listening to this time. She’ll be working closely with our veteran social media editor Jade Dubuche ’27, with a 10-hour daily average screen time. Would we trust our Instagram with anyone else?

They’ll certainly be a reliable resource of action shots for our new sports editor Alexis Rogers ’28, who claims to be the No. 1 consumer of Cornell Dairy ice cream. She’s supported by assistant sports editors Dylan Graff ’28, a big Knicks fan (go JB!), and Zeinab Faraj ’28, who’s been to about 13 different NFL stadiums. Now that’s the dream team.

Science editor Kaitlin Chung ’26, an impassioned advocate for the hazelnut latte at Mac’s, is returning to lead our most scholastic inquiries. Her new partner-in-crime studies philosophy and biology — science editor Marissa Gaut ’27 might be the new Aristotle, if Aristotle also liked going on 20-mile walks for fun. They’ll get their weather forecasts from resident meteorologist Simran LaBore ’27, our weather editor with a penchant for the banjo.

For those of you unsure if it’s possible to be a good visual artist and writer at the same time, we’d like you to meet graphics editor Hannia Arevalo ’27! When she’s not drawing some of our most crucial graphics, she’s busy ﬁguring out the political logistics of her science-ﬁction and fantasy worlds. Stay tuned for her upcoming Opinion debut!

Our beautiful print pages wouldn’t look so dazzling without the assistance of our highly sought layout editors, Hunter Petmecky ’28 and Rena Geula ’28. Rena, who plays soccer in her free time, is a proud froyo enthusiast.

If there’s one thing that can bring this editorial board together, it’s our appreciation for newsletter editor Allison Hecht ’26. She still (x2) may not be able to ride a bike, but we don’t mind (as long as she keeps our alumni reading).

Henry Schechter

Henry Schechter is the outgoing Opinion Editor at Te Sun. He is a third-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. His fortnightly column Onward focuses on politics, history and how they come together in Ithaca. He can be reached at hschechter@cornellsun.com.

On Academic Freedom: Go Home, Ted Cruz!

Zebra finches are chatty. Researchers often study their vocal interactions to better understand the evolution of communication. In fact, Cornell academics are at the cutting edge of this finch research. And since early 2024, Cornell professors have been conducting a study on zebra finches’ ability to pick out different voices in a noisy landscape. Importantly, the project also works to develop an outreach program accessible to those with communication disabilities so they can benefit from the joys of bird song.

This project is what research should be: productive, rigorous, unique and beneﬁcial to the community. But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-T.X.) would vehemently disagree.

Last week, Cruz released a database of over 3,400 research grants that he claims promote “woke” ideology. The Texan listed examples of what he called weaponized, “questionable projects that promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or advance neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.” Among these projects were 22 Cornell grants, including the zebra ﬁnch study. By dismissing legitimate research as destructive, ideological propaganda, Cruz kicks sand in the face of academic freedom, an institution that drives society forward. Cornell must resist him.

“Apolitical academic freedom lies at the beating heart of powerhouse research universities like our own.”

Henry Schechter ’26

By stirring up discord, Cruz is clearly trying to score political points without regard for the altruistic beneﬁts that productive research universities like our own contribute to society. He casts a wide net, seemingly ferreting out all grants that include words like “diversity,” “environmental justice,” “race” or “gender” without any consideration of their merits.

Cruz is doing what’s en vogue in today’s Republican party — taking aim at good-faith efforts to improve society by throwing out shiny phrases that manufacture outrage in his political base. Some people call that rage bait. I call it an act of performative politics at the expense of crossing the sovereign line of academic freedom — one that politicians should never touch.

This freedom lets serious academics pursue all avenues of study, performing valuable research into new ideas that may someday ben-

eﬁt society. It doesn’t force ideas on anyone — it generates well-tested ones that the world may use as needed.

Without academic freedom, important research would be constrained. Once politicians have carte blanche to determine which projects have merit and which are “dangerous,” science will move forward along political lines instead of natural ones, stuck in arrested development.

When we look to the past, we can see the detrimental effects of political intervention in science firsthand. In 2001, President George W. Bush, a pro-life Republican, announced his intentions to limit the scope of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Stem cells theoretically have the potential to cure all conditions involving cellular pathology, helping patients suffering from afflictions including Parkinson’s, dementia and diabetes; some people see them as a potential miracle cure. Bush made the decision to restrict funding for these cells by looking to his faith for guidance, informing a scientific decision through his belief in the church.

His partisan decision to constrain funding for this potentially lifesaving treatment led to a decline in American stem cell research output. It made research collaboration with foreign partners exceedingly difﬁcult. And it severely limited the embryonic genetic diversity to which researchers had access. Bush’s decision hindered American scientists in their work toward curing disease and made them hesitant to do so for fear of repercussions. His choice, while much more ethically complicated than Cruz’s, shows how political intervention into science can stiﬂe growth.

Apolitical academic freedom lies at the beating heart of powerhouse research universities like our own. It undoubtedly makes our world a better place through exploration and must stay out of the hands of politicians. But Ted Cruz wants to shut down valuable research just to make a political statement; he doesn’t care about the grants.

So Cornell must ﬁrmly stand against the tide.

Last Friday, Cornell leadership made their first public rebuttal to Republican aggression: they reaffirmed opportunity and access, diversity, merit-based decisions and compliance with the law. An email is one thing, but putting words into action is another. When Republicans in Congress overreach and try to meddle in our personal business, Cornell administration must turn to the courts. Because if Ted Cruz thinks zebra finch research is dangerous, there’s no telling what he aims at next.

Sophie Gross

Sophie Gross is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her fortnightly column Observing aims to analyze popular and academic culture at Cornell in an attempt to understand current social and political trends sweeping the country. She can be reached at sgross@cornellsun.com.

Te Problem With Prelims

Alas! Te worst has yet again arrived at Cornell University: prelim season. From now until the last day of the semester, Cornellians will trudge their way through exam after exam, week after week, just to make it to summer break. Why? How? Te unfortunate answer is Cornell’s assessment system: an endless, chaotic, demanding system characterized by a never-ending cycle of stress and mountains of time spent cramming. It is no secret that Cornellians always seem to be studying for something. As it turns out, many Cornell classes have as many as four prelims per semester. Even those with only two still contribute to an overwhelming workload. Take the average fve-class schedule — two classes might have four prelims each while another two have two each, all alongside one essay-based class. Tat adds up to 12 prelims in just a single semester! Tis is not just ludicrous but unsustainable. We need a new system, or rather, an old one. Cornell, it’s time to rethink your approach: We need a midterm week.

A midterm week would act as a miniature fnals week, where each class would have an exam set to take place within one week. Depending on the course, the assessment could take the form of a sit-down exam or a take-home exam or a paper. Under this model, each class would have only two examinations for the semester: the midterm and the fnal.

Professors may argue that more preliminary exams are better for students; that way, their grade for the class doesn’t hinge on just two exams, and that one bad day won’t ruin them for a semester. Tis line of reasoning isn’t completely of, it identifes the problem, but the solution is way of base. Exams should not be the dominant force in determining student success, prelims or no prelims. I am in a chemistry class where the weekly problem set — where I actually learn the material — is worth a mere fve percent of my total grade. Meanwhile, the exams, which prioritize high-stakes memorization over long-term understanding, count for the majority of my fnal grade. Why is that?

We already know that there are better ways to measure mastery aside from constant test taking such as completing graded problem sets, essays or projects. Tese are not meant to completely replace tests, but to supplement them and to account for a larger section of a student’s fnal grade.

Some students might argue that a midterm week would create an intense, condensed period of stress that may be too much to handle. Obviously part of this is likely preference, but why should students be forced to endure sustained stress all semester long instead? A number of scholars and health organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, the American Psychological Association

consistently show that prolonged, chronic stress (lasting a whole semester, perhaps) is far more harmful to physical and mental health than short-term, high-intensity pressure due to hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, or the endocrine pathway which regulates stress and cortisol production, dysfunction.

Besides, prelim exams already cluster together. Anyone who has been at Cornell long enough knows about the inevitable three-prelim-week. A midterm week wouldn’t necessarily increase exam overlap, it would just formalize the structure, making our schedules more predictable and less chaotic.

“[A] midterm week would offer an opportunity for us to rethink how we structure learning at Cornell.”

Sophie Gross ’27

At the end of the day, nobody likes tests. Students hate taking them. Professors and teaching assistants hate grading them. And yet, despite overwhelming evidence that they create an environment of competitiveness amongst students, encourage cramming and fuel an obsessive culture over grades instead of learning for the sake of long-term information retention, they remain a staple of the American university, and will likely continue to be the largest metric by which the knowledge obtained by students might be assessed.

Tis system also introduces unnecessary logistical problems — overlapping exam schedules, accessibility issues for students with SDS accommodations and professors scrambling to reserve testing spaces.

In my own experience, my peers seem more concerned with acing their exams than understanding their coursework. Tis isn’t just sad — it’s dangerous for society at large.

I recognize that standardized testing isn’t going anywhere. Exams have and will continue to play a role in higher education. But a midterm week would ofer an opportunity for us to rethink how we structure learning at Cornell.

Will stress and anxiety still exist with a midterm week? Absolutely. Cornell and universities in general are pressure cookers by nature. But the goal isn’t to eliminate stress altogether — the goal is to reduce the culture of stress, which has been carefully cultivated and refned after years of continuous assessments.

But it’s time to change that and a midterm week, although not the fnal solution, is a step in the right direction. Te question isn’t whether Cornell students can handle the stress of a constant onslaught of prelims — we know we can. Te question is whether Cornell is willing to prioritize student well-being and education over institutional optics and perceived rigor.

SC I ENCE & TECH

NYS Regulation on Kava Reveals FDA Regulatory Gaps

By TAEHEE OH Sun Staff Writer

A new New York State Department of Health regulation, which does not approve kava as a food additive, is forcing kava bars across the state — including Sacred Root Kava Lounge & Tea Bar in Ithaca — to stop the sale of traditional kava drinks.

Kava, a shrub native to the South Pacific, has been used by Pacific Islanders to promote physical relaxation for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. In the U.S., kava is sold in both supplements and as a traditional drink, such as in tea bars.

In an email to The Sun, Prof. Giulia Friso, plant biology, who teaches “Medicinal Ethnobotany,” explained the properties of kava and its effects on the human body.

“Kavalactones are the primary bioactive compounds in kava and are responsible for most of its effects on the human body,” Friso wrote in an email to the Sun.

Friso further explained the various ways kavalactones affect the brain and body. Kavalactones increase the activity of gamma-aminobutyric acid, a calming brain chemical, leading to feelings of relaxation. They also boost levels of mood-related chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine by preventing their breakdown, which may improve mood and lower anxiety. Kavalactones can also block certain signals linked to pain such as sodium and calcium channels, potentially offering mild pain relief.

However, Friso said that users

should exercise caution when consuming kava.

“While kava may be effective in reducing anxiety and promoting relaxation, it should be used cautiously, especially in high doses or with alcohol, as it may have hepatotoxic effects if misused,” Friso wrote.

Hepatotoxic effects are a “medical term for liver damage caused by a medicine, chemical, or supplement (herbal or dietary),” according to the National Institutes of Health.

Friso noted that the way kava is processed or consumed can significantly impact its safety.

“Traditional kava preparation is generally safer because it uses just the root, and people know how to prepare it properly,” Friso wrote in

an email to the Sun. “Kava extracts, especially in the Western world, can be riskier as they may contain additives, use the wrong parts of the plant, or contain chemicals from pesticides or contaminated soil, like heavy metals. Extracts are also more concentrated, which increases the risk of side effects like liver issues if taken in excess.”

However, the new NYSDOH regulation largely targets traditional forms of kava. The regulation follows a 2020 review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which raised concerns about the safety of kava as a food additive. As a result, food establishments are prohibited from selling kava drinks, as traditional kava preparations are considered an unapproved

food additive.

The FDA report cited the potential health risks of kava including liver damage such as hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver and cirrhosis, a chronic liver disease that occurs when scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue. Based on these concerns, the FDA concluded that kava is not generally recognized as safe for human consumption, meaning that kava was deemed not “adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use.”

Paul Galgoczy, founder and co-owner of Sacred Root Kava Lounge & Tea Bar, noted that many in the Ithaca community are frustrated by the state’s decision, arguing that it unfairly targets kava while more harmful substances remain legally accessible.

“In online [and] in conversations about it, the reaction seems so consistent, which people are saying, ‘This is absolutely absurd. Alcohol is legal and so many more obviously known to be harmful [substances] are allowed to be used, while something like this, which in its natural form, has so much positive impact on the people that use it, is being restricted,’” Galgoczy said.

New York Assemblywoman Anna Kelles (D-125th District), a former Cornell professor in nutritional science, said that she is aware of the challenges that Sacred Root and other kava bars across the state are facing and attributed the state’s regulations on kava to a deeper, systematic issue within the FDA.

Taehee Oh can be reached at toh@cornellsun. com.

Renowned Environmental Journalist to Visit Cornell to Discuss Climate, Conservation

By KITTY ZHANG Sun Contributor

Launched six years ago by Ray Jayawardhana, former dean of the College of Arts and Science, the Zubrow Distinguished Visiting Journalist Fellow program was envisioned as a commitment of the college to civic engagement. The program connects distinguished journalists with Cornellians by hosting them for two to eight weeks.

During their stay, the esteemed guests interact with faculty, researchers and students through classroom visits, research collaborations and panel discussions. These activities foster mentorship, open doors for professional growth and create pathways for the Cornell community to explore journalism as a career.

“We don’t have a journalism school at Cornell,” said Tricia Ritterbusch, assistant dean of communications in the College of Arts and Sciences. “However, we have many alumni in journalism. The liberal arts education they received in [the College of] Arts and Sciences, along with opportunities like The Cornell Daily Sun, provided them with signiﬁcant crossover experiences to consider journalism as a career.”

Over the years, Cornell has hosted seven journalists from diverse ﬁelds, covering topics such as immigration, national security, Supreme Court coverage and international correspondence. Notably, four of these

journalists, representing prominent news organizations like The Los Angeles Times, CNN and The New York Times, are Cornell alumni who worked as editors, reporters or writers for The Cornell Daily Sun.

Notable Sun alumni who have returned as DVJ Fellows include:

• Marc Lacey ’87, former Sun editor-in-chief

• David Folkenﬂik ’91, former Sun editor-in-chief

• Andrew Morse ’96, former Sun editor-in-chief

• Molly O’Toole ’09, former Sun editor

The involvement of The Sun with the DVJ program can be traced back to Guinevere Griest ’44, the ﬁrst woman to serve as an editor at The Cornell Daily Sun. Her bequest, focused on public engagement, combined with a signiﬁcant endowment from Jan Rock Zubrow ’77, Barry Zubrow and other alumni donors — including Jay Branegan ’72 and Rose Gutfeld Edwards ’78 — has ensured the program’s ongoing success.

Building on this strong foundation of support, the DVJ program continues to bring esteemed and accomplished journalists to Cornell. This spring, in early April, Cornell will welcome Anne Thompson as the Distinguished Visiting Journalist.

As NBC News’ chief environmental affairs correspondent and a ﬁve-time Emmy winner, Thompson has extensive expertise in environmental reporting. She has covered

major global climate events, such as negotiations in Copenhagen, Paris and Glasgow, as well as signiﬁcant environmental crises like the Gulf oil spill and the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska.

In collaboration with the DVJ program and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Thompson will engage with faculty and students, particularly those interested in climate-related research. She will also offer new perspectives on developing creative solutions to address climate change, aligning with Cornell’s Climate Action Plan.

“This is such a unique and exciting opportunity for students to hear and learn from a female journalist reporting on climate change,” said Abby Zekarias ’28, a ﬁrst-year studying environment & sustainability. “I want to learn how Thompson translates complex scientiﬁc knowledge into engaging stories for the public, reaching a broad audience without oversimplifying or exaggerating.”

Ritterbusch echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of communicators who can bridge the gap between specialized research and the general public. “In this day and age, we need people who can translate the signiﬁcance of scientiﬁc work to humanity. This skill is desperately needed in the world today,” she said.

As Cornell ﬁnalizes preparations to host Thompson, the DVJ program encourages the community to start reﬂecting on how they can actively

engage and learn during her visit. By doing so, students, researchers and faculty can broaden their current research and interests in climate change and sustainability while gaining a deeper understanding of the dedication, challenges and courage required to succeed in journalism.

One day, Cornell community members — just like the DVJ

carry forward the passion, skills and experiences gained during their time at Cornell and the DVJ program to their future careers. Perhaps they, too, will return as distinguished journalists to inspire future generations through this unique program.

Kitty Zhang can be reached at az429@cornell.edu.

alumni from The Cornell Daily Sun — may

Vital voice | Cornell will welcome Anne Thompson, NBC News’ chief environmental affairs correspondent, to speak on climate.

Keen kava | Kava, a food additive derived from a South Pacific shrub, has come under scrutiny due to recent New York State regulation.

COURTESY OF FOREST & KIM STARR / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

My Cornell Archnemesis: Finding Humor in Rivalry

By Kaitlyn Bell

Kaitlyn Bell is a freshman in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at kgb57@cornell.edu.

Before you continue reading I would like to make a disclaimer, if you are my Cornell archnemesis and you are reading this, this is not about you. If you are that person and you think you are, you’re a narcissist. With that being said, I would like to remind I don’t think about you, I don’t care about your opinions and you are probably not reading this because you deﬁnitely don’t care about my opinion either (unless they’ve looked at my Linkedin recently, which I believe is probably true).

Now that the air has been cleared, the introduction is an exaggeration. I do not have an archnemesis. The term, meaning, “a main competitor or opponent that a person cannot win against” does not apply here. The dynamic is a little bit more nuanced than that, speciﬁcally because this person has no idea that I have deﬁned them as my archnemesis and they hopefully never will.

For context, without giving away my position, I met this individual very early-on in my ﬁrst semester. We had a mutual acquaintance and ended up speaking in a group context. The conversation was civil but, as you can tell, the outcome wasn’t productive and now it’s counterproductive.

We don’t ﬁght. We don’t even talk. I don’t see this person often. Yet, every time I do, I leave with the satisfaction that I have, in some small, imperceptible way, annoyed them — or at least said the right thing in the right way. This could be a common Cornellian mindset: always analyzing how you say things, wondering if it was the right thing to say at the right time. But this? This is different. I have no intention of sounding better than this person, one-upping them, or putting them down — that is not my speed. Instead, all I hope to take away is a laugh and the satisfaction of having ever-so-gently trolled them.

The beautiful part of this dynamic is that they are slightly deadpan and bitter and have actually insulted me once or twice. The even better part? I don’t typically get personally offended. So, on my birthday, when they told me I was dressed like their dad, my ego wasn’t bruised. But, I was motivated to lean into the bit. If I was going to be their dad in their eyes, I was going to be the best dad possible – fully embracing the role with humor and a commitment to welltimed, utterly harmless antagonism.

The reason that I’m sharing this story with you, is because, I think it is

reﬂective of a larger epidemic that we as Cornellians and academics face — a competitive, unrealistic expectation that everyone is an archnemesis.

At a school like Cornell, where ambition runs high and imposter syndrome lurks around every corner, it’s easy to feel like every interaction is a battle for intellectual dominance. Conversations can turn into subtle power struggles, where people measure their worth based on how articulate, well-read, or quick-witted they appear. The pressure to prove yourself, to be the smartest in the room, or to come out of a discussion feeling victorious can turn even the most mundane interactions into something unnecessarily adversarial. This mindset isn’t always explicit but it is present in our day-to-day lives.

We internalize this idea that success is comparative, that our achievements mean less if someone else is doing better. And suddenly, without even realizing it, we ﬁnd ourselves assigning archnemeses in our heads — people we view as obstacles, as benchmarks, or even just as characters in our own personal narrative of obstacles.

But the truth is, most of these so-called rivals have no idea they’ve been cast in this role. They’re probably just as wrapped up in their own anxieties, their own ambitions, their own imaginary competitions. And when you take a step back, it becomes clear that this dynamic is, more often than not, just another symptom of the high-pressure environment we exist in.

That’s why I’ve chosen to approach my own “archnemesis” with humor rather than hostility. Instead of letting this dynamic bother me, I’ve turned it into a running joke — one that lets me release anxiety rather than feed into it. And maybe that’s the real lesson here: we don’t have to take these unspoken rivalries so seriously. We don’t have to see every person we disagree with as a threat. Sometimes, we can just laugh, let go and recognize that we’re all just trying to navigate this place the best we can.

The Cornell bubble is an anxiety-inducing place as it is and it only gets worse when you start keeping track of what everyone else is up to. My solution (not always, but a good amount of the time): a laugh. So when I see my favorite person on campus — alternatively known as my archnemesis — and I tell them to “have a good day” and they shoot back a “stop lying,” I smile. Because at that moment, I’d already won (a laugh).

False Promises: A Review of Big Red Food Court

By Maia Mehring

Maia Mehring is a sophomore in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at mjm743@cornell.edu.

Anew addition to the food scene in Ithaca is always exciting – especially one that is so conveniently located in Collegetown. Big Red Food Court opened on Feb. 20 and sparked all of our interests in its relationship with the university that the name alludes to and the status it would achieve in the eyes of students, faculty and others dining in Ithaca. After seeing all of the chatter on sidechat, the Lifestyle Department decided to put this newcomer to the test.

As the successor of Ithaca Beer Company, which closed its doors in March 2024, Big Red Food Court now sits directly across from the beloved Collegetown Bagels. If you’re living on campus, this location can be reached either via walking or Route 30 of the TCAT. Since it is situated in a relatively accessible spot for students, it was all the more important to review this food court in totality.

Kaitlyn Bell ’28 and I are both Lifestyle Editors and native New Yorkers, putting us in a unique position to challenge Big Red Food Court’s claims of being “New York City style.” When we showed up with our media team on Feb. 28 at 1:30 p.m. to film our experience dining at the eatery, the doors were locked, despite Google actively indicating it was open. When I knocked on the glass, a man came out to communicate that they were overwhelmed by the demand, and that they would be open the next day.

So, we returned two days later on Mar. 2 at 11:35 a.m., only to find out that they would not be opening until 12:00 p.m. due to limited “soft opening” hours. This was neither communicated on Google nor posted on any of their social media accounts at the time. With no other choice, we waited, along with the growing crowd of confused customers drawn in by the large “open” banner waving at the door.

Walking in, we could sense the overall sentiment of uncertainty curated by all of us overwhelmed by the vastness of the space and extensiveness of the menu. The TVs displayed long lists of food items across varying cuisines. With everything ranging from deli sandwiches to pasta dishes to shawarma, it was incredibly easy to get lost in all of the options. And for a food court claiming to be New York City style, I was personally shocked there were no pizza slices in sight.

Worried that this was a situation in which by trying to achieve everything, Big Red Food Court achieves nothing, Kaitlyn and I strategized the best items to pick out of the (over)ambitious spread in order to give you the most holistic review. We went with the North Three Sandwich, the Classic Burger, a plain bagel with scallion cream cheese, an iced latte with oat milk and sugar, and the Banana Mango Tango Smoothie.

Of course, we had to start with our bagel and its schmear. Our bagel was fluffy and

soft, but it definitely did not have a New York City feel, as it wasn’t reminiscent of the perfect warm, round bread with a shiny crust and rich tan color. In fact, if bagels aren’t fresh out of the oven, I feel they should always be toasted. To me, it felt like I was eating a pretty average-tasting bagel I had gotten from a buffet at a speaker event. However, though Kaitlyn and I are both highly critical, we still agreed it was decent for an approximately $6 bagel, assigning it a final ranking of six out of ten. At home, I always get a coffee with my bagel, and the quality of one’s coffee speaks volumes about its other drink offerings. I ordered one of the most basic coffee orders one can: an iced latte with milk and sugar. Upon receiving it, we were immediately skeptical of how it was going to taste, and for good reason, too. It was a light tan color with no ice in sight and a pool of white froth on top. My first sip told me everything I needed to know: it tasted like a watered down coffee, one that was neither iced nor sweetened. I was very disappointed, and even though it was just $5, I would have preferred a more expensive drink of higher quality. I rated this a two out of ten. Along the lines of your typical New York City staples, the North Three Sandwich promised grilled chicken, mozzarella, arugula, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar on a roll for $9.99. Expecting big things from the “NYC Style Deli” promised by its menu, Big Red Food Court needed to deliver. When we opened the wrapping up, we were surprised by how small and condensed the sandwich was; we also noticed that it actually came on a burger bun instead of a bread roll, but for us, that wasn’t a huge issue. In general, the combination of ingredients made for an eight out of ten sandwich, not quite rivaling a classic NYC, but still making for an easy bite to grab if you’re passing through Collegetown. Kaitlyn opted for a smoothie with mango, banana and orange juice to accompany our meal. She picked up the drink, swirled it around and found that it was somewhat on the liquidy side. After tasting it, she expressed dissatisfaction with the overpowering banana flavor. “It tastes like mashed up bananas,” she said at that moment. She also rated her $9.99 drink a two out of ten, indicating it was not her cup of tea (or smoothie).

Lastly, the Classic Burger surprised us with its satisfying combination of lettuce, tomato, pickles, American cheese and a mystery sauce tucked inside we assumed was mayonnaise. Priced at $7.99, it was the item we enjoyed most out of our selection. Again, it was a small single patty, but it got the job done in terms of quelling a craving. Our ratings averaged out to be seven and a half out of ten. Would Big Red Food Court be my first option to dine at if I wasn’t crunched for time? No, it wouldn’t be. Even if I was on a tight schedule, it took us a little under ten minutes to order and another ten to get our food, possibly disqualifying it from being the best place to run in and grab a meal if you’re between classes. They do offer a 10 percent student discount, which brought our total to approximately $38 for five items. Though reasonably priced given the dining scene in Ithaca, Kaitlyn and I still agreed on the fact that Big Red Food Court is far from achieving an authentic NYC feel.

ISABELLE JUNG / GRAPHICS EDITOR

KAITLYN BELL / SUN LIFESTYLE EDITOR

SIPS Students, Faculty Protest Decreases in Federal Research Funding

A variety of speakers stepped forward, including Andrew Scheldorf, a post-doctoral associate in SIPS who described the impact of the recent executive orders on the transgender community.

“[The orders make] it impossible for trans people to do their work.

… Removing required healthcare prevents them from contributing to science and being a part of this community,” Scheldorf explained.

Annika Rowland ’23 also attended the event. Rowland earned her master’s degree in soil and crop sciences from Cornell and now works with farmers in Ithaca to advocate for sustainable agriculture. Rowland helps manage a federal grant from the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding pool and works with local farmers to distribute incentive payments to develop sustainable agriculture practices.

Due to the loss of federal funding, Rowland has had to inform several farmers in the past week that their projects can no longer receive ﬁnancial support. She also shared that she will likely have to leave her position at Pasa Sustainable Agriculture due to a lack of funding.

In addition to farmers, these cuts will likely have devastating effects on scientiﬁc researchers, Rowland said.

“A lot of essential research, especially for healthcare, is going to be put on stop, and a lot of people who require essential health services will be put on the line,” Rowland said.

SIPS graduate student Luke Thompson read an anonymous letter from a ﬁred USDA employee aloud, which detailed the loss of their position as a scientist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service about 1.5 years into a three-year probation.

“Even though some people are getting hired again, it’s complicated,” Thompson said. “People are basically destroying USDA-associated labs at Cornell and people have lost their jobs, so I’m coming out here to support them [and] to organize and to help get mutual aid for them.”

Olga Khmelnitsky is a second-year Ph.D. student in plant pathology who helped to organize the demonstration. She described SIPS Community Advocacy as “a group of graduates that are tuned in to graduate needs and advocate for science in general.”

To continue reading this article, please visitwww.cornellsun.com.

Emma Cohen can be reached at ecohen@cornellsun.com.

Deboarah Fisher Announces Run For Common Council

By ATTICUS JOHNSON Sun Contributor

March 3 — For Deborah Fisher, a newly announced candidate for the Ithaca Common Council’s Fifth Ward, the reason to run was clear. “Local government is becoming incredibly important, and it’s going to save lives and protect people,” she said, referencing the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations and DOGE cuts in major agencies.

Fisher currently works as chief instructor at Ithaca Aikikai, an aikido dojo located on South Cayuga Street.

Fisher joins Hannah Shvets ’27 in the June 24 Democratic primary for the open seat being vacated by Clyde Lederman ’26, who chose not to run for re-election.

Shvets has been endorsed by the Ithaca Working Families Party, the Ithaca Tenants Union, and the Democratic Socialists at Cornell. Fisher has not yet been endorsed by any group.

“[We] share the same fundamental goals in making Ithaca a better place,” Shvets said regarding Fisher. “I consider myself a pragmatic progressive,” Fisher said.

While Fisher thinks Shvets has similar political positions to her, she explained that she differs in her years of experience.

“I have 20 years of experience working with lots of different kinds of stakeholders to solve really big creative problems,” she said, connecting previous nonproﬁt leadership to the problems Ithaca is facing.

Previous to her current position at Aikikai and as a nonproﬁt consultant, Fisher founded the nonproﬁt A Blade of Grass. The organization focuses on supporting artists who are engaged in social activism and has an anartist-run board, which Fisher helped implement.

As the Fifth Ward encompasses all of North Campus and some of West Campus, Fisher believes collaboration between the city and the University are necessary, especially amid freezes in federal funding.

To continue reading this article, please visitwww.cornellsun.com.

Actor and Filmmaker Josh Radnor Speaks to Students About Creative Journey, Storytelling

By RAFAELA GANDOLFO BUSTAMANTE Sun Staff Writer

March 3 — A packed Call auditorium welcomed American actor and ﬁlmmaker Josh Radnor — best known for his role of Ted Mosby on the Emmy-award winning show “How I Met Your Mother” — for a Q&A session on Sunday evening.

Radnor was invited by the Cornell University Program Board and Cornell Hillel as part of the Major Speaker series, which has brought Jewish ﬁgures like Josh Peck and Aly Raisman to the University. Maya Weisberg ’26, Cornell Hillel President, explained that Radnor was the perfect candidate for this event.

“[Radnor] was chosen because of his unique perspective as an actor and director, and we believe his experiences and work will resonate deeply with our community,” Weisberg wrote in a statement to The Sun.

The crowd erupted with applause as Radnor was brought to the stage. The event opened with a moderated Q&A, where Radnor was asked to reﬂect on different eras of his life.

Radnor’s role of Ted on “How I Met Your Mother,” the romance sit-com from the 2000s, played a pivotal part in Radnor’s career. Radnor described how being known for one role led him to be hard on himself at the time of ﬁlming.

Now, in preparation for a new podcast he is working on called “How We Made Your Mother,” he has decided to rewatch the show. This time around, he gives his younger self more grace from a different vantage point.

“I think it’s hard to take ‘How I Met Your Mother’ out of my life … I’m in this season of reclamation with [it].” Radnor said. “I am becoming a fan of it in my own little way.”

Apart from acting, Radnor has written and directed ﬁlms of his own, such as “Happythankyoumoreplease,” a project he worked on simultaneously while ﬁlming “How I Met Your Mother,” after feeling the need for a greater creative outlet. He shared the interesting

contrast that was created between balancing projects of different emotional and narrative complexities.

Radnor has also ventured into songwriting, releasing various records within the past decade like his latest release “Eulogy II.”

As an actor, director, ﬁlmmaker and singer-songwriter, Radnor has channeled his talents into the art of storytelling in its many forms, each piece representing a chapter in his evolving creative journey.

“It’s been a really great way to journal my life,” Radnor said. “Sometimes you have an idea and you’re like, ‘You know what? That’s a four minute song.’ And then you have another idea, and you say, ‘No, that idea is a 90 minute movie.’”

Radnor’s love of storytelling originated in his Jewish upbringing, as he ﬁnds many values and lessons of Judaism applied to different aspects of his life.

To continue reading this article, please visitwww. cornellsun.com.

Gandolfo

can be reached at rgandolfobustamante@cornellsun.com.

Radnor reﬂects | Josh Randor spoke to students in Call auditorium about acting career and songwriting.

JOSEPH REYES / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Rafaela

Bustamante

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Donor Baffled After Destruction of Namesake Field Hockey Turf

By ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Feb. 27 — “Well, I’ll be a lot more cautious about my donations,” Marsha Dodson ’75 told The Sun.

When she discovered that the University razed the field hockey turf named after her in November 2024, Dodson was both baffled and furious. For one, she only learned that her namesake field had been destroyed after an alumnus — not the University — broke the news to her, she said.

But the real sticking point for Dodson — a former Cornell student-athlete who said that she has donated more than $1 million to Cornell Athletics — was that Marsha Dodson Field was destroyed with no regulation turf for the women’s team to use for the 20252026 athletic season, except one more than 50 miles away in Syracuse.

“I was incredibly angry and disappointed when I found out,” Dodson said, describing the ordeal as “a monumental blunder” on Cornell Athletics’ part. “They took the field up before they had a new place for the team to play, so I was really, really angry, and I went on a warpath. It was just plain dumb.”

Cornell had planned to relocate the field hockey team to a new location at Game Farm Road. However, the move has been set back. The delay in construction follows a series of complaints about environmental concerns from Ithaca residents over the proposed field’s use of synthetic turf.

What irked Dodson especially was the lack of communication from Cornell Athletics, she said, blaming Director of Athletics Nicki Moore for the mishap.

“If the previous athletic director, Andy Noel, was still there, I would have gotten a call, and I would have been included [in conversations about the move],” Dodson said.

Moore declined to comment on Dodson’s accusation that the University “messed up” the field-change process.

“Marsha Dodson has long championed women’s athletics at Cornell, and we’re grateful for all she does for her alma mater,” Moore wrote in an email statement to The Sun, adding that

the “new Cornell field hockey facility will be among the very best in the Northeast and we look forward to moving the project toward completion.”

In an announcement last month, Moore admitted that she had “made mistakes in not offering adequate communication” about the field change. “I should have shared developments with the field hockey community along the way,” she wrote, “and I should have listened to my project team colleagues when they warned me of growing timeline risks.”

Dodson said she has had “quite a few phone calls” with Interim President Michael Kotlikoff recently as the University discusses alternatives for the team. The University, she said, has “stepped up to the plate” to cover for what she described as Moore’s “mistake.”

“Well, I’ll be a lot more cautious about my donations”

Mary Dodson ’75

Through a spokesperson, Kotlikoff referred The Sun to Moore’s statement for this article.

Dodson said she has donated to field hockey, women’s tennis and softball because of inequalities in women’s sports at Cornell that she experienced as an undergraduate tennis player in the ’70s.

Her hope was to support young female athletes. Now, she is worried that the future of field hockey is in jeopardy.

“If this is more than just this season, it will kill the field hockey program,” Dodson said, warning that the program might struggle to recruit new players.

“Even though these things happened, it’s being fixed by the University, and they are trying their best to remedy the problem,” Dodson said, adding that she hopes “this never repeats itself.”

Zeinab Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@cornell.edu.

Destroying Dodson | Marsha Dodson’s ’75 namesake field hockey turf under construction without a replacement for the team’s upcoming fall season. ZEINAB FARAJ / SUN ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Makenna Chokelal’s Journey From Medical Retirement to Advocating for Athlete Mental Health

By ZEINAB FARAJ Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Feb. 26 — At midnight on Feb. 17, 2024, Makenna Chokelal ’25 walked in the icy cold to greet the women’s hockey team with confetti poppers and a congratulatory sign after its victory over then No. 15 Yale to claim the Ivy League title.

On Jan. 25, 2025, Chokelal made the same frigid walk to the bus to congratulate the team on its victory against Harvard. This time, her sign read “It’s two easy! Congrats champ!” referring to the team’s back-to-back titles.

Meet Makenna Chokelal, known as women’s ice hockey “biggest fan” by her teammates and an advocate for athletes’ mental health following her medical retirement from the sport.

Injury, Surgery and a Difﬁcult Decision

Chokelal hails from Oshawa, a city in Ontario, Canada and studies psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. According to Chokelal, her ﬁrst year of college can be best described as a whirlwind of events. She was originally set to attend Cornell in the fall of 2020, but due to an ankle injury and the COVID-19 pandemic, Chokelal chose to defer her offer of admission.

So, when she started playing games for the Red on the women’s ice hockey team in 2021, she was excited to get back on the ice and skate.

“We had a pretty young team at the time, so fortunately, we were given many opportunities to play,” Chokelal said.

She played 26 games for the Red that year, taking 16 shots and assisting twice. Unfortunately for Chokelal, this one season of play would be her last due to a major hip injury.

“Toward the end of the season, I started getting pretty bad pain in one of my hips, so talking with the trainer, we decided to treat it as a pulled hip ﬂexor,” Chokelal said. “I ended up getting a referral for an MRI with a contrast dye, and when the results came back, I found out I had a labrum tear, cam hip impingement and degeneration of my cartilage.”

The ﬁrst option for Chokelal was to get a cortisone injection before considering

surgery. Unfortunately, this treatment did not work.

In the summer of 2022, Chokelal decided with her trainer to take the next big step and get surgery done on her left hip due to severe daily pain.

On June 22, 2022, Chokelal had her ﬁrst hip surgery. She had ﬁve anchors placed in her left labrum — which is more than the average of two to three surgeons typically use. Along with surgery, Chokelal was given platelet-rich plasma from her blood in an attempt to speed up her recovery.

Unfortunately for Chokelal, she would endure another surgery on her right hip due to pain that began six weeks post-operation.

“When I returned to Cornell for my sophomore year, I immediately had another MRI done that basically conﬁrmed the same level of damage on the right side,” Chokelal said. “I had a very difﬁcult conversation with my teammates and coaches basically stating that I was out.”

her hips.

Luckily, Chokelal’s second operation went well and come her sophomore spring, she was making plans to get back on the ice twelve weeks later.

“My recovery was going really well, much better than my ﬁrst surgery,” Chokelal said. “It was around March when I had a pretty big setback because I got too eager about my recovery, which knocked me back a couple steps.”

Her pain was so excruciating that she described it as “someone tearing apart” her hips. Chokelal ultimately had more difﬁcult conversations with her surgeons, trainer and coaches.

“In the long term, I really want to see more conversations about athletes and mental health.”

Makenna Chokelal ’25

Chokelal would not participate in the 2022-2023 women’s ice hockey season. On top of that, she was not able to get her next surgery until the end of the fall semester.

“Due to Cornell’s hills, it is not the most optimal thing to be walking around a college campus fresh out of surgery on crutches so I had to wait about four months to get my surgery,” Chokelal said.

During this time, her teammates and coaches informed her that they would be around to support her and that she was still a member of the team. However, Chokelal’s pain made it difﬁcult to watch her teammates play.

“Sitting in the rink to watch the practice was painful because the cold would make my hips ache,” Chokelal said. “When we would do team lifts, I was sidelined because I had to do my own rehabilitation.”

Chokelal explained that the team did their best to include her even though she was not even able to skate. She was present for all the games but did not travel on the road because sitting on the bus for extended periods of time was too much of a strain on

“I had to think for myself, current me and future me what would be best mentally, emotionally and physically,” Chokelal said. “That is when I made the really difﬁcult decision to step away from hockey.”

Out of the Game, Into Advocacy

With her hopes of skating on the ice over, Chokelal turned her attention to working on improving and assisting the team off the ice.

“I remember talking to our director for hockey, Louise Derraugh, wanting to help the community and work on bringing back initiatives that were canceled due to COVID-19,” Chokelal said.

Her ﬁrst initiative was to bring back the women’s ice hockey Toys for Tots drive, a program that provides toys for children in need, speciﬁcally around Christmastime.

As the only Black athlete on the team, Chokelal explained the importance of having representation. During Black History Month, she invited then-Cornell volleyball player and athlete advocate, Sydney Moore, to come and talk to the team.

“It was important to me to bring in a different perspective and have the girls listen to her speaking was very inspiring,” Chokelal said.

She also helped run the Salvation Army’s Adopt a Family program — a holiday program that pairs up a family in need with a sponsor — to the team’s philanthropy efforts. For Chokelal, these programs helped

her to mentally deal with her injury.

“It was an outlet to be able to help the team and use my free time since I was not able to contribute hours on the rink like the girls do every day,” Chokelal said. “I was able to pour that energy into giving back to the community.”

As a junior, Chokelal continued the Toys for Tots initiative and had Dean Marla Love come and speak to the team for Black History Month. In addition, Love ﬁlmed a “Dean Does New Things” challenge with the team where she tried to play ice hockey.

The Hidden Opponent

While Chokelal’s transition from a Division I athlete to a regular student seemed to be going smoothly to most people, she said her personal reality was much more complicated.

“When I decided to step away from hockey, it felt like my entire identity was stripped away from me,” Chokelal said. “Everyone in my life knew me as an athlete, so looking at the circle of what makes me who I am, it felt like being a hockey player was that entire circle.”

Chokelal authored a poetic collage she called When the Mask Slips where she discussed all the emotions she felt stepping away from her sport.

“As athletes, we give our blood, sweat and tears to our sports,” Chokelal said. “I wanted the piece to resonate with people outside of hockey, and if one line helped someone, that is all that really matters. I wanted people to know they are not alone in their experiences, and that life is not always so glamorous.”

Chokelal’s advice to athletes is to listen to their bodies and prioritize their mental health. Her goals for the future are to continue pushing to eliminate the negative stigma surrounding mental health and see the women’s hockey team be successful this year.

“We have some big ECAC quarterﬁnals coming up, so right now, my focus is on supporting the team,” Chokelal said. “In the long term, I really want to see more conversations about athletes and mental health.”

Faraj can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.

Zeinab

Caring competitor| Makenna Chokelal ’25 is a champion of the community and athletes’ mental health.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

142nd Edi torial Boa

Not Pictured

KARLIE MCGANN Asst. Photography Editor

ANUSHKA SHOREWALA Asst. News Editor

KIRA WALTER Lifestyle Editor

NICOLE COLLINS Weather Editor

JENNA LEDLEY Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

MING DEMERS Photography Editor

ERIC HAN Arts & Culture Editor

SYDNEY LEVINTON Arts & Culture Editor

CHRISTINA MACCORKLE News Editor

JOLIN LI Layout Editor

LAINE HAVENS Science Editor

GABE LEVIN Editor in Chief

JULIA SENZON Managing Editor

MAX FATTAL Associate Editor

ERIC REILLY Asst. Managing Editor

MATTHEW KIVIAT News Editor

DINA SHLUFMAN Asst. News Editor

MARISA CEFOLA News Editor

DOROTHY FRANCE-MILLER News Editor

AUDREY IM HR Manager

OLIVIA HOLLOWAY Asst. News Editor

JANE MCNALLY Sports Editor

GABRIEL MUÑOZ City Editor KAITLIN CHUNG Science Editor

LEILANI BURKE Asst. Photo Editor

JADE DUBUCHE Social Media Editor

MARIAN CABALLO Multimedia Editor

HENRY SCHECHTER Opinion Editor

ALLISON HECHT Newsletter Editor

PARIS CHAKRAVARTY Layout Editor

ARTS & CULTURE

Sir, I Got Lost on the Way to College, Sir

By AIMA RAZA Arts & Culture Writer

“A story.

A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war.

And afterwards, he comes home.

And he sees that whatever else he might do with his life:

Build a house.

Love a woman.

Change his son’s diaper.

He will always remain …a jarhead.”

— Anthony “Swoff” Swofford, Jarhead (2005)

Smoke plumes billow from the distance, a dusky silhouette sinks into the ablaze, molten gold horizon. Opaque, viscous crude oil oozes from the sky, entrenching charred and decayed bodies, coating dog tags and stinging the eyes and skin of every Marine until they are virtually and irreparably unrecognizable — inside and out.

It must be made clear that Jarhead (2005) is no classic action movie about Operation Desert Storm, nor should it be taken as such. It is neither a glorification of war nor a thrilling spectacle of military prowess. Rather, it is an anti-war film disguised as a warmonger movie — a meditation on the existential ennui of soldiers, the dissonance between the call to arms and the inaction that often follows. It strips away

the traditional Hollywood heroism that pervades films like Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and Black Hawk Down (2001), offering instead a vision of war that is dull, alienating and psychologically grating.

What fundamentally separates Jarhead from those films? It was not funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Hollywood has long been intertwined with the American military-industrial complex, an unspoken yet reciprocal relationship that ensures a steady stream of war films casting U.S. military operations in a favorable light. In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote, “The hand of government must be carefully concealed, and, in some cases, I should say, wholly eliminated” and that “a great deal of this particular type of thing would be done through arrangements with all sorts of privately operated enterprises in the field of entertainment, dramatics, music, and so on and so on.”

The result? A film industry that serves as an unofficial propaganda arm of the U.S. military, offering audiences a highly curated depiction of war — one filled with noble sacrifices, tactical brilliance and unwavering camaraderie.

Top Gun: Maverick , for instance, received extensive support from the monopolistic control that the U.S. Navy has over armaments, with access to real fighter jets, aircraft carriers and military advisors to ensure an optimal portrayal of American air superiority. Black

Hawk Down , depicting the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, was similarly crafted with Pentagon assistance, showcasing a high-intensity, actionpacked narrative of American soldiers caught in the throes of combat. Both films are designed to be immersive and emotionally stirring, reinforcing the notion of war as an arena of heroism, self-sacrifice and moral certainty.

Jarhead , however, diverges from this formula entirely. It does not bask in the glory of combat because there is none.

The soldiers in the film do not engage in firefights, execute daring rescue missions or emerge as victors in climactic battles. Instead, they wait. They train, they haze each other, they burn time (and each other) in the desert, longing for action that never truly arrives. The film meticulously captures the restless anticipation, the paranoia and the sheer monotony that define a soldier’s life as much as combat itself does.

This authenticity stems from the film’s source material, Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles , a memoir by Anthony Swofford, who served as a scout sniper during the First Gulf War. His account is deeply introspective, detailing the psychological toll of warfare, the loss of self and the way that military experience seeps into a soldier’s identity long after they leave the battlefield. This sentiment — of never truly leaving war behind — is what lingers most

hauntingly in the film.

Members of the United States Marine Corps subreddit have described Jarhead as “scarily accurate.” While individual experiences vary, the depiction of relentless boredom, harsh conditioning and acute mental fatigue resonates deeply with many veterans. The film does not adhere to the traditional war narrative because war itself does not adhere to a single story. Every war is different, yet every war is the same:

THIS IS MY RIFLE. REPEAT AFTER ME. SAY THE F*CKING WORDS.

THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT, BUT THIS ONE IS MINE.

WITHOUT MY RIFLE, I AM NOTHING.

This creed, drilled into every Marine in the film, encapsulates the paradox of military service — the weapon becomes an extension of the self, yet the self is simultaneously diminished in its presence. In Jarhead , the rifle is not fired in battle but remains an ever-present symbol of identity, duty and disillusionment. Because no matter what else he may do with his life, a soldier will always remain… a jarhead.

Aima Raza is a sophomore in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at ar2548@cornellsun.edu.

Generation Z’s Revival of the Y2K Aesthetic

By YAELIN HOUGH Arts & Culture Writer

A Blink-182 baby tee. Low-rise jeans. Juicy Couture’s bling collection. Characterized by bold colors and flashy patterns, the Y2K style is distinctive in its playful girlishness: It’s messy, loud and daring. As a result of both the inherently cyclical nature of fashion trends and also Gen Z’s nostalgia for the retro-futurism of the digital age, Y2K fashion has been making a steady comeback, proudly re-inserting itself into the mainstream.

The term Y2K, short for “the year 2000,” was first meant as a term to describe a certain computer bug that was predicted to occur when the year changed from 1999 to 2000. However, the term has grown to encapsulate a particular aesthetic associated with the late 1990s and early 2000s. Though this aesthetic was originally more outwardly futuristic — characterized by metallic, reflective materials and blobject designs — it evolved into a flashy, bedazzled style often conflated with the “McBling” style. With the turn of the century came nervous anticipation for the advent of the digital age and the future of the world. We retroactively coin this sentiment “futurism”: from camera phones to iPods to the GPS, the world was changing rapidly, and the world of pop culture was not far behind. With the freedom of expression that came with Y2K — seriously, look at Jennifer Lopez’s iconic green Versace dress — came an advent

in the music scene with the global domination of hip-hop, the revival of post-punk, and, importantly, the popularization of pop-rock. In recent years, 2000s-esque pop-rock has been returning to the current music scene. This is not to say that music from the 2000s is necessarily climbing the charts — although “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield has, in fact, been experiencing a resurgence in popularity because of its appearance in the recent romcom Anyone but You . Instead, I mean to argue that pop artists have been attempting to recreate these genres. The most relevant example I can think of is Olivia Rodrigo with her album GUTS ; the energetic, colorful poprock sound mirrors that of Y2K artists like Avril Lavigne and Paramore. Interestingly, Rodrigo’s album received immediate commercial success, indicating that the pop-rock sound is not yet dead.

However, this seemed to have been somewhat of an outlier in the pop-rock scene. Other artists who have tried to recreate this sound, like Leah Kate, have not been able to reach anywhere near the success of Avril Lavigne, Paramore or even Olivia Rodrigo. Even Olivia Rodrigo’s music seems to lose the spunk and whimsy that defined Y2K pop-rock artists, and, while she gets the closest, her sound feels more performative than natural.

Without the social context of the Y2K era, the sounds and aesthetic of Y2K lose their depth. Pop-rock and post-punk artists like Paramore and Blink-182 were popular not

only because of their music but also because they were reactionary — songs by pop artists like Britney Spears, Destiny’s Child or Nelly existed in a monoculture of pop music and lacked the depth and passion that the poprock and post-punk scenes brought to the table. But in 2025, the musical landscape is much more diverse; with various genres beginning to creep up mainstream charts, the advent of genre-blurring and generally more emotional depth in mainstream pop and hip hop, there is no longer a need for reactionary music. While this doesn’t take away from the quality of the music, it detracts from the listening experience and the motivation to listen. Pop-rock has never been an unpopular genre, but, as music becomes more multicultural, diverse and emotive, I doubt that we will ever again experience the genre’s peak. Gen Z is obsessed with the concept of “newstalgia,” and I don’t think our romanticization of past decades will ever go away. But, to an extent, a Gen Z reiteration of a past aesthetic cheapens it; the aesthetic begins to feel dated or unnatural, and the impact is lessened. Perhaps it is time to stop looking for ourselves in the past and instead allow ourselves to form a unique identity. Or maybe it is this retroactivity that defines our era. Who knows?

Yaelin Hough is a freshman in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at yhough@cornellsun.com..

Women’s Hockey Sweeps ECAC Quarterfinals Against Union

By ELI FASTIFF Sun Senior Editor

It’s difficult to describe what transpired in the last minute and a half of game two of the ECAC women’s hockey quarterfinals. Down a goal against Union — a team that has served as No. 3 women’s hockey’s kryptonite this season — Cornell managed to score not once, but twice in the game’s final moments to send the team to ECAC championship weekend.

Coming a day after a gritty 3-0 win, the comeback completes a series sweep for the Red over Union, one of two ECAC teams Cornell lost to during the regular season. Thanks to goals with 1:09 and 0:27 left on the clock, Cornell will have a chance to win its ﬁfth ECAC tournament title at home next weekend.

“I know for myself, there is never going to be a doubt that someone is going to score,” said senior forward Gabbie Rud, one of the late goal-scorers. “It’s pretty exciting to get the win like that, especially in the last couple minutes of the game to come back from the deﬁcit.”

For the third time this season, the Red (22-4-5, 16-2-4 ECAC) entered the third period Saturday down a goal to Union. Despite outshooting the Garnet Chargers (13-23-1, 8-14-0 ECAC) 29-14 over the game’s first 40 minutes, Cornell struggled for a second day in a row to find a way past Sophie Matsoukas, leading to the 2-1 deficit.

After dominating most of the third period but having little to show for it, head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 used his timeout with 2:55 remaining in the game and pulled sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann for an extra skater.

Then, with 1:12 left in the game, an unmarked junior forward Avi Adam lined up a potentially game-tying shot from below the left faceoff circle on an open Garnet Charger net.

Instead of tying the game, the shot ricocheted away from the net to the stick of sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine. Hoping to create a scrum in front of the net, Prefontaine ﬁred a slapshot at Matsoukas. Instead of creating a scrum, the shot went in.

“Great,” Prefontaine said when asked about how she felt when the puck crossed the goal line. “I don’t think there is a better word to describe it. It felt awesome.”

42 seconds later, Rud sent the 1,680 fans in attendance into pandemonium. The Cornell captain caught a pass in the low slot and pushed the puck past Matsoukas.

“I was just thinking: ‘Try to get it on the net again,’” Rud said. “I kind of blacked out after that. It was really exciting.”

27.5 seconds later, it was ofﬁcial: the Red had avoided an upset and was headed to the ECAC semiﬁnals.

The second game of the best of three series started much like the ﬁrst with Matsoukas — who made 39 saves in net for Union on Friday night — passing an early test after a Union turnover gave Cornell a three-on-two opportunity 1:35 into the game.

Just as in the previous evening’s matchup, Cornell was whistled for the ﬁrst penalty of the game, when junior forward Mckenna Van Gelder was called for hooking 5:31 into the ﬁrst period. However, the best chance of the penalty was a one-onnone shorthanded bid by senior forward Lily Delianedis, but her backhand attempt was brushed away by Matsoukas.

While the ﬁrst half of the opening frame was marked by back and forth play between the two teams, with just under 11 minutes to go in the period Cornell sent a ﬂurry of shots towards the Union net, but much like in game one it seemed as if nothing could get by Matsoukas.

“It deﬁnitely gets frustrating

when you put up 40 shots a game and you only get [a] few goals,” said Rud. “You just gotta keep working. If we stick to our structure, if we stick to what we do, you know [goals are] going to come.”

Cornell got its ﬁrst chance of the afternoon with a skater advantage when a Union skater was sent to the penalty box for tripping with 9:33 remaining in the period, but the Red could not convert.

With 3:57 remaining in the period, sophomore forward Delaney Fleming was penalized for high-sticking. The Union power play, which had struggled to test sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann in its ﬁrst four opportunities of the series, seemed to ﬁnd its rhythm, but the ECAC Goaltender of the Year stood tall.

As the opening period entered its ﬁnal thirty seconds, Rud connected with a wide-open Adam in front of the left faceoff circle. Just as Adam’s one-timer seemed destined to open the scoring, a Matsoukas kick-save sent both teams into their locker rooms with the score tied.

While Cornell still controlled the ﬁrst period, outshooting the Garnet Chargers 13-8, it was a less dominant opening frame than the night before when Union was outshot 13-1.

Just as in the ﬁrst frame, Cornell tested Matsoukas early in the second with a series of closerange and unobstructed efforts, but the Red’s attack remained stymied.

After controlling play for long stretches, Cornell earned its second penalty of the afternoon 7:22 into the period. Shortly into the skater advantage, junior forward Georgia Schiff and a Union skater got into a shoving match after the whistle and were awarded offsetting minors for roughing. Union challenged the call, but the minors were not changed after a review. While the Garnet Chargers killed the initial

penalty, Union was whistled for too many skaters on the ice 44 seconds later.

11 seconds into the power play, Cornell ﬁnally broke through. A junior defender Grace Dwyer wrist shot from the point worked its way past a screened Matsoukas to give Cornell a 1-0 advantage.

The lead was short-lived. A Cornell misplay in the neutral zone led to a Union two-onone opportunity. The odd-man rush — which Derraugh had warned about repeatedly before and during the series — led to an uncontested wrist shot from that beat Bergmann.

After successfully killing off a cross-checking penalty, the second period went from bad to worse for the Red. With under a minute to go in the frame, a disorganized Cornell defense left a Garnet Charger skater alone at the top of the right faceoff circle. The ensuing Union one-timer rocketed by Bergmann, giving the visitors’ their ﬁrst lead of the series.

3 2

Despite the deficit, the team entered the second intermission confident it would find a way to win.

“We have been in this spot before this year, and a lot of times had success in coming back,” Derraugh said. “So I think there is a belief in the locker-room that we can when we get down”

Cornell opened the ﬁnal period dominating play. For seven minutes the puck rarely left Union’s defensive zone, yet the Red had nothing to show for it. Still, Cornell maintained hope.

“We have been in this situation before,” Prefontaine said. “It happened three weeks ago against Union as well, but we’ve been

there, we know what we are capable of. I don’t think there was any doubt in anyone’s mind.”

Cornell’s push for an equalizer was halted when senior forward Lily Delianedis was given an unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty for snowing Union’s netminder. The Red’s penalty kill did its job for the sixth time of the weekend, and the deﬁcit remained at one.

“[Special teams are] incredibly important this time of the year because the games are so tight ﬁve-on-ﬁve,” Derraugh said. “Tonight, we [got] a power play goal, our penalty killing [was] good again. The margin for error tonight was obviously very thin.”

Despite killing the penalty, Cornell struggled down the stretch in the ﬁnal period. For the ﬁrst time all weekend, Union seemed to be the better team on the ice. With 2:55 remaining and time running out, Cornell called a timeout and pulled Bergmann for an extra skater. That risky decision turned out to be one of the best of the season.

“I just said I wanted to make sure that we kept moving the puck north, not allowing them to get set up,” said Derraugh when asked what he told the team during the timeout. “[Union] wanted to slow the game down. I wanted to pick up the pace. So I was like: ‘Hey, let’s get back to pucks quick, let’s move it up quickly, let’s get going before they get set and then lets play down in their end.’”

Cornell will face the winner of tomorrow’s Clarkson and Quinnipiac matchup next Friday at 3 p.m. in the first of two ECAC semifinals at Lynah Rink. Unlike the quarterfinals, the semifinals are a winner-take-all contest, with the victor moving on to the ECAC title game the next day. All games played during ECAC championship weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Eli Fastif can be reached at efastif@cornellsun.com.

Under the wire | A series of goals in the last minute of game two earned the Red a 3-2 victory, securing its spot in the semifinals to be hosted at Lynah Rink next weekend.

JANE MCNALLY / SUN SENIOR EDITOR

C ORNELL VS . U NION