4-11-23 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Pollack Rejects S.A. Petition for Content Warnings

By JONATHAN MONG Sun News Editor

President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff rejected Student Assembly Resolution 31 — which asks the University to implement content warnings for what it calls “triggering” classroom content — in an April 3 email to S.A. president Valeria Valencia ’23, citing concerns about academic freedom and freedom of inquiry.

The resolution — which was sponsored by Claire Ting ’25, School of Industrial and Labor Relations representative, and Shelby Williams ’25, a College of Arts and Sciences representative — passed the S.A. on March 23 and requests content warnings for

course content that may trigger symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Such content includes, but is not limited to, domestic and sexual violence, racial and homophobic behavior and suicidal actions. It additionally requests that students be allowed to opt out of viewing or working with said content without academic penalty, so long as they make up missed content.

In their email, Pollack and Kotlikoff wrote that although they understood the interests of the S.A., the necessary actions that would be required by adopting the resolution would violate Cornell’s policy of free and purposeful inquiry and expression.

“Common courtesy would suggest that in some cases faculty may wish to provide notice, whether via the course syllabus or in the classroom, when they will be addressing topics that some may find challenging or painful,” Pollack and Kotlikoff wrote. “Similarly, it may also sometimes be appropriate for faculty to contextualize such topics, and explain why they are being introduced. But requiring that faculty anticipate and warn

Minority Cornellians Fight for Recognition

By FINLEY WILLIAMS Sun Staff Writer

Although Cornell is home to a diverse community of faculty and students, those who come from underrepresented backgrounds reported frequently facing unique challenges that their white and male counterparts do not.

Gabrielle Hill ’23 is passionate about her research in environmental harm, racial capitalism and slavery through a Black feminist lens; however, she said white women at Cornell have told her that such research would never earn her a job in academia.

“[I was] basically being told I wasn't going to be successful

Sustainable Scales

about all such situations … would unacceptably restrict the academic freedom of our community, interfering in significant ways with Cornell’s mission and its core value of Free and Purposeful Inquiry and Expression.”

In addition, Pollack and Kotlikoff did not support permitting students to opt out of viewing the content without penalty, stating that exposure to challenging ideas is crucial to the University’s educational experience for students.

“Learning to engage with difficult and challenging ideas is a core part of a university education: essential to our students’ intellectual growth, and to their future ability to lead and thrive in a diverse society,” Pollack and Kotlikoff wrote. “As such, permitting our students to opt out of all such encounters, across any course or topic, would have a deleterious impact both on the education of the individual student, and on the academic distinction of a Cornell degree."

See CONTENT WARNINGS page 3

in a traditional academic route by people who were very much privileged by the system that we were working under,” Hill said.

Hill has not yet entered the world of academia as a professor, though she noted that her work could potentially be devalued as “me-search” in the future, a derogatory term for research that deals with some aspect of personhood or identity, especially when that identity is the same as the researcher’s.

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

With an emphasis on sustainablility, first-year College of Architecture, Art and Planning students worked hard to source the materials for and build their dragon for Cornell's traditional annual Dragon Day festivities.

Slope Day Artists Revealed

Indie-rock band COIN to headline end-of-classes festivities

By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant Managing Editor

The Slope Day Programming Board announced today that the indie-rock group COIN will be this year’s headliner, with EDM duo Snakehips and hip-hop duo Coco & Clair Clair also performing at the event. Slope Day will be held on May 10, with this year marking the second in-person concert

since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SDPB released a survey in late October to solicit student opinions on artists and music genres they would like to see at Slope Day. Margot Baker ’25, SDPB’s artist selection and relations director, said the survey results largely informed the selection process.

“We chose the headliner based on the results of our artist survey, looking at the genres

and performers that received the most student votes,” Baker wrote in a statement to The Sun.

“According to the results, 65.2 percent of survey participants said their ideal genre for a headliner would be pop, and COIN ended up very high on the survey.”

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

Slope smiles | Students cheer for Loud Luxury at last year's Slope Day, an annual concert featuring various musicians on Libe Slope to celebrate the end of classes.

Finley Williams can be reached at fwilliams@cornellsun.com.

“Learning to engage with difficult and challenging ideas is a core part of a university education."

President Martha Pollack

Daybook

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Today Tomorrow

Cornell Quantum Day

9 a.m. - 4 p.m., 401 Physical Sciences Building

Celebration for Chef Adam June

2:30 p.m - 3:30 p.m., Alice Cook House Dining Room

Sweet Poetry

4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m., Klarman Hall Atrium

Baroque Music from the Jesuit Missions Among the Chiquito and Moxo Ethnic Groups

5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m., 230 Anabel Taylor Hall

Blue Space: An Immersive Waterscape Exhibit to Reduce Stress

8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., 1250 Gallery, Martha van Rensselaer Hall

What is my Problem?

The Science (and Art) of Procrastination

2 p.m. - 3 p.m., Virtual Event

Against the Ecofascist CreepPanel Discussion

3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., 423 Morrill Hall

Drink Limits, Understanding BAC

4 p.m. - 5 p.m., Virtual Event

Independent Since 1880

June and one for incoming freshmen in July — make for a total of 61 issues this academic year. Subscriptions are: $60.00 for fall term, $60.00 for spring term and $120.00 for both terms if paid in advance. Standard postage paid at Ithaca, New York. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Cornell Daily Sun, 139 W. State St., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850.

Housing Project Nears Fruition

By ANNINA BRADLEY Sun Contributor

Second Wind, a local non-profit providing affordable housing for the homeless population in Tompkins County, plans to finish construction of its first women’s residence in the town of Dryden this summer. The project, a four-unit home, has largely been made possible by the support of community volunteers.

“It was really a community upswell,” said David Shapiro, Second Wind’s current executive director. “A lot of community people came together.”

The site on West Main Street was donated by the owners of Sumo, a local Japanese restaurant, after their house burned down in a fire.

“No one was harmed or hurt, but when they were thinking about rebuilding versus other things, they read about Second Wind and decided to donate the land to us instead,” Shapiro said.

In total, according to Shapiro, about $350,000 was raised for material construction costs, primarily through individual donations, although the Tompkins County Housing Development Fund awarded the organization $120,000.

Second Wind originated in 2012, when founder Carmen Guidi began purchasing campers with his own money for Ithaca’s unhoused population during wintertime. Later, with the help of other community members, he built the first Second Wind cottages in Newfield to accommodate formerly homeless men. There are 18 cottages today,

which provide access to television, internet, laundry and water. With these services, individual rent would work out to be around $1,000 a month, according to Shapiro.

However, despite the costs, Shapiro said residents are asked to pay what they can. For the first few months, men in Newfield sometimes live in the cottages for free, while a few residents now make enough to pay around $400 per month.

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

Restful Spring Break Refreshes Students

By SYRIELLE CLEMENT Sun Contributor

As in many past years, Cornellians sought to escape the cold climate of Ithaca during last week’s spring break by traveling to warmer locations, with Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Dominican Republic being popular travel destinations for many.

“Everybody I know was in San Juan or Punta Cana,” said Kyle Schoeneborn ’23, who chose instead to travel to Spain and Morocco with friends.

However, plane tickets to these destinations are often expensive, with the cheapest prices often reaching hundreds of dollars.

Schoenborn explained that he was happy that he chose to instead go to Spain and Morocco because his group paid the same or less than peers heading to more popular destinations and because he believed he had a more authentic cultural experience.

Admin Condemns Content Warnings

Though Ting and Williams expressed disappointment at the University’s decision, they both said that they understood its reasoning in rejecting the resolution.

Ting believed that the University and the S.A. were approaching the issue from different perspectives.

“I agree with the core of what she addresses in terms of academic freedom and learning to engage with challenging material, I think that we’re very much on the same page there,” Ting said. “At the same time, I also believe that we are both individuals who seek for a better Cornell community — trying to make the environment better for Cornell students so that we can produce the next generation’s leaders — and in doing so we must serve the needs of our [student] communities.”

Williams shared similar sentiments to Ting, saying that she understood the feedback that President Pollack shared with the S.A., but that the impetus behind the resolution — which the S.A. did not originally disclose in the resolution’s text to protect the victim — caused mischaracterization in national press.

“I think that the backstory behind the drafting of the resolution is something that we didn’t include in it out of respect for the person who approached Representative Ting to draft it as well,” Williams said. “And I think that because that wasn’t included, it’s being misinterpreted and mischaracterized, not by President Pollack, but in the press. I understand what [Pollack is] saying: if professors fear some type of retribution for not including this warning, that it might have a chilling effect. I understand that.”

Since its passage, the resolution has drawn fire from conservative news organizations and opinion columns such as Newsmax, Fox News

and the New York Post, with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board lambasting the S.A. for even considering the resolution.

“The entire idea of a trigger warning for speech is antithetical to the idea of a university, and in a previous age no one would have taken it seriously,” the board wrote. “But this is era [sic] of woke censorship, so it’s news when campus leaders push back, as they have at Cornell.”

Ting said that the resolution was passed in response to reports of a student — who had recently expe-

rienced sexual assault and a Title IX trial — being required to read multiple, graphic, scene-by-scene depictions of sexual assaults for a class in the context of studying the 1937 Rape of Nanking, in which Japanese soldiers committed atrocious human rights abuses against captured Chinese civilians.

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

“I had friends that went to Puerto Rico for more than we went to Spain because we booked it early enough,” Schoenborn said. “My friend’s ticket was only

$450

round trip.”

Because of the financial burdens, some students, like Natalie Mahoon ’26 — who said that she chose to visit Boston because it was a close and affordable city — opted to travel to cheaper destinations instead.

“I thought it’d be better financially to go somewhere a little bit closer and not have to take a plane all the way to Florida, which can get a little bit pricey,” Mahoon said.

Similarly, Marie Joyeuse Ingabire ’23 and her friends ultimately chose to go to Cartagena, Colombia because of financial considerations.

“Colombia seemed affordable and new to everybody,” Ingabire said.

Though warmer weather might have played a large role in people’s final decisions, existing connections did as well. Both Mahoon and Schoeneborn had close friends in the places they visited.

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

Building hope | Second wind is building its first women’s residence, which will be located in the town of Dryden, through a community effort.

COURTESY OF JEREMY HUELIN ‘23

Annina Bradley can be reached at anb83@cornell.edu.

Jonathan Mong can be reached at jmong@cornellsun.com.

Syrielle Clement can be reached at sc2958@cornell.edu.

Te Super Mario Bros. Movie: Let’s-a-Go!

BRIAN LU SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Nintendo’s beloved character Mario is one of the most iconic gaming icons since his first appearance in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong; the red hat, white gloves, overalls and mustache are universally recognizable, and the 200+ games that he has been featured in for the last 50 years have undeniably made an impact on our lives in one way or another. So when The Super Mario Bros. Movie was first announced back in 2018, fans were bubbling with excitement — only to be hit with a slight letdown from the first teaser trailer in October 2022. The original voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, had been replaced by Chris Pratt, who revealed an uninspiring Mario voice with a subtle Brooklyn accent, reminiscent of the one by Lou Albano in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, an animated series that aired on television in 1989.

Yet, as more trailers were slowly released in the following months, the movie looked more and more promising. Big names like Jack Black as Bowser, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong brought the flare that everyone had been hoping for, and the visuals were as incredible as what people had come to expect from Illumination.

The end product was much, much better than what many expected, unlike the live action adaptation Super Mario Bros. in 1993. The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit the nostalgia trip at just the right spot, with phenomenal voice acting from Black, Day, and Key. Although the movie just premiered on April 7, a viral clip of Black as Bowser singing about Peach has undoubtedly reached many unsuspecting viewers, giving those that haven’t watched the film a taste of the absolute fun and joy in store. Surprisingly, Pratt’s performance was quite enjoyable as well, portraying a new, endearing facet of Mario that worked very well on the big screen.

The visuals were fantastic, transporting the theater to the sights and colors of the Mushroom Kingdom, but the highlight of it all was the music by Brian Tyler. Throughout the film, bits and pieces of theme songs from the many Mario games were woven into the grandiose orchestral music, bringing the audience on a journey through time as the characters paid tribute to the multitude of video game references.

Anya Taylor-Joy’s depiction of Peach is also a delight to watch. Instead of the classic damsel in distress trope, the movie featured a badass Peach, much like her depiction in the Mario Strikers series or the other Mario sports games, with the character stepping up as the protector of the kingdom against

the onslaught of Bowser and the Koopa Troopas.

The final message of the story was also very well done, with the writers centering the film around the brotherhood between Mario and Luigi — which, although cliche, was executed very well, unlike many other video game adaptations.

It is important to acknowledge,

however, that The Super Mario Bros. Movie does ride somewhat heavily on the nostalgia factor The pacing is fast, which works for Mario fans who are already familiar with the characters, but it may be a little too quick for those that never had the memories of playing Mario on the Wii, DS, Gamecube, Nintendo 64 or any of the older consoles. It’s a good film in the same way that Ready Player One is

a good film to gamers, but it’s also undeniably a blast for families, kids and Mario fans that are hoping to recapture the glee and fun that the Super Mario Brothers brought to our childhood.

Brian Lu is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at blu@cornellsun.com.

Aurora Weirens Te Northern Light

How to Do Nothing at Cornell

There are endless ways to spend your time, especially at a university like Cornell. Parents, professors, counselors and veteran students alike crow about the importance of “good time management,” but what does that even mean? Where do you begin to describe it? How do you apply this vague concept of “good time management” to your life?

In honor of the impending Accepted Students Weekend (aka Cornell Days), I’d like to extend this article as a time management resource for prospective students to peruse. These are some strategies for endlessly whittling away your time at Cornell, all while maximizing stress and minimizing your sanity.

For starters, a good mindset to get into is the “I’ll save it for the weekend” strategy. This way, you’ll be bulldozed with the most work during the time of week when you have the most fun, interesting and tempting distractions to contend with. Better yet is the “I’ll save it for fall/spring/February break” strategy, when you’ll likely be with your family or traveling. Unlock your inner finance bro by frantically typing into a computer at the airport gate to complete last-minute assignments.

Sometimes fun and interesting world events impose on your education, even during the semester. Allow your discipline to melt away like hot jelly. For example, the FIFA World Cup unfortunately coincided with Cornell’s study period last semester. My guidance is that you mustn’t compromise your priorities for academia. Messi only has one World Cup victory, but you’ll have plenty of finals to study for at Cornell.

caring heart.

Additionally, if the sun comes out, drop everything and go frolic, because you probably won’t see sunlight again in Ithaca for weeks. On the other hand, if there's a blizzard, play in the snow and go sledding on the slope. Call it self-care and forget about your assignments.

By pushing your critical tasks to the last possible minute, you’ll become familiar with extreme panic and rekindle a bond with our Homo sapiens ancestors through the intense, survival-like fear injected into your modern life.

Furthermore, accelerating the effects of the freshman 15 through stress can help you acquire a warm blubber coat for the cold Ithaca winters by November. It’s cheaper than Canada Goose and nobody can steal it at a frat party.

However, the real gold isn’t doing unproductive tasks when you should be toiling on productive ones, but accomplishing semi-productive tasks to account for the productive ones not getting done. Going to the gym, taking long naps, getting to inbox zero and cleaning your room are basic examples. These tasks may seem productive, but you know there’s that big project looming over your head you’re trying to ignore by doing other things.

Another particularly effective way to procrastinate is by calling a family member — my go-to is my mom — and talking to them for hours. Catch up on months of extended family gossip and the neighbors' latest landscaping decisions. Blame the three hour call on your big,

Should you actually manage to sit down with a computer in front of you, it’s essential to have the right music. Spend hours crafting the perfect study playlist. Just as you finish, use the bathroom and realize how dehydrated you are. Remedy this by treating yourself to a coffee or tea. Perhaps one of those pastries the campus cafes sell. Spend more time in the bathroom after your coffee. Remember that you haven’t done The New York Times’ crossword and Wordle yet — that just won’t do. Begin your work, but realize after ten minutes you need a change of scenery.

Once you actually get to the last possible second, get to work. Like a Big Red bear coming out of hibernation, channel all the time and energy you spent puttering around not doing that project for weeks into one fear-ridden six hour block with no breaks.

Harness the overwhelming panic and stress to propel yourself to victory. In the tearful, desperate delirium of the moment, tell yourself you’ll never do it again, knowing that you will.

After all, the best masterpieces are created under pressure, and just as the Volkswagen ad on the YouTube video I was procrastinating with said, pressure makes diamonds.

ORAL ENCOUNTER

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name. (Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

Atkins Diet

Men’s Lacrosse

Men’s Lacrosse Sufers its Second Loss of Season

By GRAYSON RUHL Sun Sports Editor

After three weeks of scorching hot offense, No. 4 men’s lacrosse was stifled against an aggressive Harvard defense this past Saturday, April 8. The Red let an early three-goal lead slip away, scoring just two total goals in the middle two quarters. Despite keeping it close, Cornell ultimately fell, 10-8.

The Red (7-2, 3-1 Ivy) was coming off a dominant win against Dartmouth in which it scored a season high 22 goals. The Crimson (5-4, 2-1 Ivy) lost to Dartmouth before defeating Colgate on Saturday, April 1.

Cornell got off to a fast start, scoring three goals in the first four minutes of play. The Red won the opening faceoff, and junior attacker CJ Kirst got the team on the board, using a screen to get open before firing top shelf.

Senior attacker Brian Piatelli grew the lead with two goals in a six-second span. His first came on a putback of a blocked shot from senior attacker Billy Coyle. Freshman face-off specialist Jack Cascadden won the ensuing battle at the x, and Piatelli took advantage of the Red’s transition offense, beating the Harvard goalkeeper on the near 90.

Cornell was unable to keep up the pressure, however, and the Crimson roared back, scoring eight of the next ten goals. Junior midfielder Hugh Kelleher scored once in the second, and Kirst scored again in the third, but the Red struggled to convert looks and find space against Harvard’s defense.

With 12 minutes remaining in the

fourth quarter, Harvard took its biggest lead of the day, going up, 8-5. At this point, the Red’s offense appeared to regain some life, as Kirst and Piatelli both notched goals to bring Cornell within one.

A Harvard goal with four-and-a-half minutes remaining put the Crimson back up by two, but Kirst responded with his fourth goal of the day under a minute later. Nevertheless, the Red

failed to find the equalizer, and Harvard scored an insurance goal with just over two minutes left.

The 10-8 loss is the second on the season for the Red, and the first in conference play. Despite solid days at the faceoff x for Cascadden and senior face-off specialist Angelo Petrakis, Cornell was unable to take advantage of its possessions. The Red committed 19 turnovers, tied for its second highest mark of the

Men’s Track

season.

Cornell has little time to sit on this loss, as it is back in action this Tuesday, April 11, when it hosts Marquette (6-4, 1-1 Big East) at Schoellkopf Field. The game is set to start at noon and will be televised on ESPN+.

Senior Perry Mackinnon Breaks School Record

By LUCAS COREA Sun Contributor

The Cornell men’s distance squad showed up in force on April 1 to the Stanford Invite, one of the biggest meets in the country.

Leading the charge was senior Perry Mackinnon in the second heat of the 10,000-meter event last weekend. Mackinnon won his heat and beat many athletes in the heat above him with a time of 28:33, breaking the previous 29-year-old school record by nearly 27 seconds.

“I just knew during the warmup that it would be a good day for me. I’ve done enough of these races to know when I feel that good on the warm up that it’s going to be a good day for me. But I guess you always take it with a little grain of salt and you’re never 100 percent sure,” Mackinnon said. “But after the first five, ten laps, I knew that I was in for a really good day. I just felt super smooth, very relaxed — I wasn’t forcing at all.”

Mackinnon said. “Just judging on how I felt and what I could see around me I thought, ‘I got this in the bag.’” Mackinnon’s time would have been fast enough to finish 21st in the top heat, beating out nine of the heat’s athletes and priming Mackinnon for the opportunity to be seeded into much faster races later in the season.

We’ve made leaps and bounds forwards. We’re a much more competitive program than when I first came in, and it’s just very rewarding to see my teammates perform well.

Mackinnon attributes the success to Coach Mike Henderson’s influence over the past few years, as well as the strong team culture and camaraderie.

Mackinnon split 14:32 through the opening 5000 meters and ended in a massive negative split of 14:01, closing down the last 400 meters to outkick California Baptist University’s sophomore Valentin Soca by 61 seconds.

“I felt like a million bucks. With ten laps to go I was thinking about a little celebration across the line if I won, because I was pretty confident I could win,”

“I think I could’ve really benefited from being in the faster heat, because I think there was a much faster time in my legs that day,” Mackinnon said. “I’m pretty confident in saying there’s at least a good 10-15 seconds I can go get. That would put me in the low 28:00s, which should put me in the first heat. Now that I ran that time… I want to be in those first heats and be given the same opportunity as the other guys.”

The Red performed well throughout the entire invite, with sophomore Damian Hackett running the second-fastest 1500 meter in school history with a time of 3:41, followed by junior Rhys Hammond at 3:43. Junior Rishabh Prakash also opened his season with an impressive 13:59 for the 5000-meter event.

“Seeing this program during my four years at Cornell from when I was a freshman to today, we’ve made leaps and bounds forwards. We’re a much more competitive program than when I first came in, and it’s just very rewarding to see all my teammates perform well across the board, taking down old school records and beating their personal records,” Mackinnon said. “It’s fun to see the whole team just leveling up and our program improving in general… Everyone’s performing well and everyone’s raising the bar.”

“[Coach Henderson] is relatively new to the program. It was only his second year when I came in,” Mackinnon said. “As a coach, he’s been very composed and patient with us, slowly building us and not being really aggressive and wanting short term gains…playing the long game has been a huge key factor to the team leveling up. We are putting in a lot more work and we are just being more deliberate with the training. We’re not going through the motions anymore — we are really working hard.”

As for Mackinnon’s personal and team goals, he has his sights set on breaking the school 5000 meter record and on the team breaking into the top two at the Heptagonal championships this outdoor season.

“I’ve never run a 5K on an outdoor track in a Cornell uniform. … The school record in the 5K is really old and it’s a pretty robust record [13:36] so I definitely have my sights set on that one. I’d love to take down that old record as well…hopefully I can run in that 13:30 range or break 13:30, I think that’s in my capacity,” Mackinnon said. “As for the team, I’d love to see us beat one of those top teams [Harvard and Princeton] at Heps…I would love to win Heps, but I think just taking down one of those programs would be a huge win for us.”

Just judging on how I felt and what I could see around me I thought, ‘I got this in the bag.’

Leading the charge was senior Perry Mackninnon in the second heat of the 10,000-meter event... with a time of 28:33, breaking the previous 29-year-old school record by nearly 27 seconds.