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Corne¬ Daily Sun

Dai Pleads Guilty, Awaits Sentence

By SOFIA RUBINSON, ANGELA BUNAY and GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun Senior Reporters and Sun City Editor

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Patrick Dai ’24, the 21-year-old who wrote a series of antisemitic threats on the Cornell section of the anonymous discussion forum Greekrank in October, accepted a plea deal on the felony charge of posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications.

Appearing on Wednesday, April 10 at the Northern District of New York courthouse, Dai waived his right to an indictment and accepted a plea offer from the prosecution, pleading guilty to one felony count for his October threats.

While the charge holds a maximum of five years in prison or a $250,000 fine, the federal prosecutors recommended anywhere from 15 to 21 months following the plea. Federal prosecutors are advocating for maximizing Dai’s sentencing, citing a hate crime motivation.

Dai admitted to sending messages on Greekrank with the knowledge that they would be perceived as threats and acting in a reckless regard while knowing the posts would be perceived as “true threats.”

Dai’s attorney Lisa Peebles stated to the court that his motivation to commit this crime was driven by a desire to “expose Hamas as evil” and not to make genuine threats. Peebles also noted that the apology Dai posted to Greekrank shortly before his arrest indicated his remorse. The final sen-

tencing will be determined by the judge at Dai’s forthcoming sentencing hearing on Aug. 12.

Dai, who has been held in Broome County Jail since Oct. 31, faced prevalent mental health issues that contributed to his October threats, according to Peebles. Dai’s posts threatened a mass shooting at the Center for Jewish Living and called for others to commit violence against Jewish students.

Attending the hearing were Dai’s mother, Bing Liu, and two unidentified individuals. Dai’s father continues to work as a professor in China and was not present at the hearing. Dai’s mother did not make eye contact with Dai, who avoided the gaze of the courtroom.

In a press conference after the hearing, Peebles discussed Dai’s mental state and provided updates to his experience at the Broome County Jail following previous claims of inaccessibility from his mother and a complaint that he was not provided with prescription glasses. Peebles affirmed that his mother has been in contact with Dai and that he has his glasses.

It was revealed that Dai was formally diagnosed with autism, a claim that was previously questioned by the court.

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

Sofa Rubinson, Angela Bunay and Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at srubinson@cornellsun.com, abunay@cornellsun. com and gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Cornell Grad Students Rally for Protections

By ERIC LECHPAMMER Sun Senior Writer

Over 100 graduate students rallied outside of Day Hall demanding that Cornell bargain a fair contract with the graduate student union on April 10.

The union, Cornell Graduate Students United – Union for Everyone, represents graduate workers across the University. CGSU-UE was formed in November after an overwhelmingly positive 1,873 to 80 vote in the unionization election.

In March, the CGSU-UE’s bargaining committee drafted a contract to the University demanding key protections for graduate student employment, exercising their right to collectively bargain their conditions of employment under the National Labor Relations Act. The contract demanded fair discipline and discharge procedures; non-discrimination and non-harassment and academic freedom, health and safety protections. During the rally, graduate student speakers called on Cornell to “meet [them] at the bargaining table” and seriously consider their demands.

Momodou Taal grad, a Ph.D. student in the Africana studies department, emphasized the importance of discrimination protections.

He cited instances of being harassed on campus for attending pro-Palestinian rallies. He also said that despite the administration’s statements condemning discrimination, they have still failed to protect the student body and graduate workers. Taal said that the CGSU-UE has stepped up where the administration’s actions have failed.

"The collective bargaining committee has already drafted language that will protect me and other graduate workers from discrimination and harassment,” Taal said. “A strong union contract is the only way we can ensure a safe environment.”

Cloudy Skies, Bright Spirits: Students Enjoy Solar Eclipse

By JONATHAN BRAND and DALTON MULLINS Sun Senior Writers

Cloudy skies on Monday, April 8 did not deter Cornellians from quitting their books to gather on the slope or road trip northwards to view a rare solar eclipse, escaping the stresses of school to take in a celestial wonder.

This eclipse marked the first time since 1925 that New York fell in the path of totality. From campus, students were able to experience an eclipse with 98.8 percent magnitude through overcast skies. Ithaca’s close proximity to the path of totality also gave many Cornell students the opportunity to travel to see the full total eclipse.

On campus, classes were paused from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m. to offer students the opportunity to view the rare solar event. Student and Campus Life also hosted an eclipse

viewing party from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m. on Ho Plaza.

Min Kwon ’27 stayed on campus for the celestial event, watching the eclipse from the slope. He said that the overcast skies made viewing the eclipse difficult, with the eclipse only being visible for a few brief moments.

“We went to the slope at 2:30 p.m. — it was packed with people,” Kwon said. “We waited for 30 to 40 minutes, and then someone yelled when the eclipse came for just a few seconds. We were all taking pictures and then a few seconds later, it disappeared again. We were very disappointed.”

Though he said many students were disappointed by the cloud cover, Kwon said the experience was worth it because it allowed everyone to meet with their friends and enjoy the warm weather together.

Court case | Patrick Dai awaits sentencing after accepting a plea deal at the Northern District of New York courthouse on April 10.

ANGELA BUNAY / SUN SENIOR REPORTER

New Ithaca Police Training Centers on Procedural Justice

By JONATHAN BRAND Sun Senior Writer

Procedural justice and implicit bias, two critically important concepts in law enforcement, have recently become the central focus of training at the Ithaca Police Department, as highlighted in the March 6 Common Council Agenda which stated that training had begun earlier that week.

This one-day training program has been strongly supported by Chief of Police Thomas Kelly, who recently assumed the role of chief back in November. Prior to his service in Ithaca, Kelly served 22 years in the Schenectady Police Department and was a lead instructor for Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

“Procedural justice is really what good police officers do. And generally, what other government agencies and businesses do when they’re responsive to the needs of the community,” Kelly said. “It’s about giving people a voice. It’s about being neutral in decisions, hearing all sides of whatever the situation is and making an impartial decision.”

The training itself is not a new concept for law enforcement. Developed by Yale professors Tracy Meares and Tom Tyler back in 2016, procedural justice training was later conducted in Ithaca after it was adopted by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice, according to Kelly.

“New York State stepped in and said, ‘Well, we want to do this program for New York State,’” Kelly said. “So myself and five other instructors became the lead instructors for the Department of Criminal Justice Services. And we were going around the state doing this training when the murder of George Floyd happened. That became kind

of a catalyst to really ramp up participation.”

As explained by Thomas Condzella, president of the Ithaca Police Benevolent Association, training is divided into modules which focus on different pillars of procedural justice, implicit bias and the importance of having legitimacy.

“The four main concepts surrounding procedural justice are giving people a voice, remaining neutral in our interactions, being respectful and gaining trust through being transparent in our processes,” Condzella said. “It really just is a good reminder for the officers to essentially treat folks like they would their family members or loved ones.”

While the training aims to ensure a better future for officers and the community, acknowledging the past and present are important aspects of the training process.

“There’ve been several other incidents in the past involving police officers that have created a very negative stigma about our profession and uniform,” Condzella said. “So we also really want our officers to be aware that even though some of those things may not have happened locally, our profession is still viewed in a certain way depending on who they’re interacting with and what that person’s experience with police might be.”

Kelly explained that alongside police officers, community members also participate in the training. Through community feedback, the training is altered and improved.

“One day, we had 10 different members of the community come in from different groups and participated in the training,” Kelly said. “We got a lot of really positive feedback. They said they learned what types of things that officers experience that they really didn’t think about.”

Shirey Kane, chair of the Community Police Board, was one of these community

participants.

“[The training] focused on understanding and wellness.” Kane said. “People opened up and told their stories of bad or uncomfortable interactions with police. Police told stories about horrible things that they saw and how difficult it is for them to go through those awful things and then have to continue with their shift and go home to see their families.”

Another focus of this training is on implicit bias, with a psychological understanding of the concept being one of the priorities.

“The training is basically recognizing what bias is, and what the difference between implicit and explicit is,” Kelly said. “There’s a number of different exercises that are done in that training to demonstrate the shortcuts that your brain takes when it’s reacting to a situation. [The training helps participants] recognize [that] everybody has bias that’s shaped from your personal experiences, from your education and from social media.”

Thus far, community members have expressed support for the IPD’s procedural justice training, a sentiment which Kelly

appreciates and hopes will expand in the future.

“[Positive feedback] is so good to hear. I’m guessing this is going to stay. I hope to see [procedural justice training] become even more nationwide.”

As the summer approaches, initiatives aimed at fostering community-police relations are in the works at the department.

“What we’re doing now is work with the CJC, the Community Justice Center, and community conversations,” Kelly said. “Something that’s going to be rolling out this summer is actual meetings at different locations in the City with officers from the police department, including myself, to have conversations. I think that a key component in building trust is being able to talk to officers and ask questions.”

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

Republican SEC Commissioner Debates Financial Regulations With S.C. Johnson College Dean Karolyi

By JOANNE HU Sun Senior Writer

On March 25, Hester Peirce, the Republican commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, spoke with Andrew Karolyi, the dean of S.C. Johnson College of Business, to exchange their opposing views about regulations on finance industries in the 36th annual Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture.

Appointed by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017, Peirce has been aggressively advocating for fewer financial regulations and fighting against SEC’s current chair Gary Gensler. Reading Peirce’s feature, Karolyi was motivated to invite her by her “uncompromising” attitude against disagreements, according to an email from S.C. Johnson College. The event changed from its traditional single-speaker lecture format into a two-person panel in accordance with the University’s Freedom of Expression theme year.

In her introduction of the speakers, President Martha Pollack explained that the lecture aimed to create a discourse between disagreements.

“We’re having a conversation between two experts who, as they share their expertise with us, will also engage with one another over points on which they disagree,” Pollack said. “I was just in the back with them, and I know there are points on which they disagree.”

Cryptocurrency, the first topic introduced, has sparked public concern about trade frauds since FTX’s $8 billion-loss bankruptcy in November 2022. There are no federal regulations exclusively for cryptocurrency, and few effective cryptocurrency regulations are in place. In January, the SEC unanimously approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products, which is seen as the SEC’s move to encourage investments in bitcoins.

Peirce voted in favor of the approval, which she sees as the SEC’s first step to regulating cryptocurrency, as managing crypto trades on exchanges is easier with their knowledge of regulating stock and other exchanges. She suggested that regulators and people in general should be cautious about the wide variety of crypto products.

“It’s difficult to talk about crypto in [a whole] bucket because it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Peirce said. “My core message is when people are taking their money and

buying anything with it, they need to ask some questions and be skeptical about the promises that are being made to them.”

Karolyi held a more optimistic view on crypto’s reliability, arguing that, based on his recent research results, cryptocurrencies generate safer returns and that loose regulations might be feasible. Still, Peirce refuted that regulations are necessary to guide the market amid uncertainties.

“Thinking of somewhere like the [European Union] and [Bermuda] that has a pretty comprehensive regulatory framework, do you think if we don’t do anything in the US, the market will figure out how to regulate itself when it comes to those changes?” Peirce questioned.

“I have less confidence,” Karolyi replied. “I feel like the U.S. should be at the forefront of defining [the gold standard of regulations]. The other research that I know suggests this.”

Both speakers ultimately agreed that the general public should receive more education about cryptocurrencies.

The second topic — environmental, social and government disclosure — is contextualized in the SEC’s recent adoption of rules requiring public companies to disclose their climate-related risks, such as greenhouse emissions and carbon offsets.

While regulators are embracing mandatory climate disclosure, the third-party environmental rating systems commonly adopted by regulators are very inconsistent, as Karolyi pointed out. His research showed that investors and companies are unsatisfied with the existing criteria and have been advocating to develop their own criteria, which Peirce also confirmed.

However, Peirce and Karolyi disagreed over whether companies should have more power in their climate disclosure instead of simply abiding by independent metrics. While Karolyi insisted that universal standards would be more effective, Peirce thinks companies should have more say in defining their own terms, given the unique difficulty of calculating climate data.

“But climate data is not very rigorous, and it’s actually much more difficult,” Pierce said. “Even around certain major accounting concepts, there are still disagreements on how to calculate those.”

To address the discussion, Karolyi admitted part of Peirce’s concerns about how the disclosure fails to prevent greenwashing.

“We’re not supposed to agree, and we don’t have to agree,” Karolyi said. “But I do appreciate the perspective you’re worrying

that there are some [companies] that are in the checkbox mode.”

Peirce argued that the original goal of climate disclosure is to direct investment into good businesses. She worried that stakeholders with valuable ideas who don’t fit into the current ESG criteria could be easily ignored and lose the investment they should have.

“You’ll actually end up not knowing that there are some women sitting in a garage in the middle of a small village in India, who have this brilliant idea for solving a water crisis or something like that,” Peirce said. “She’s not going to get the money, because she didn’t fit into that taxonomy.”

The last topic of the talk focused on the role of financial regulations and introduced the SEC’s Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which serves as the independent auditor entity to supervise auditing firms to avoid fraud.

Karolyi was surprised at the fast-growing PCAOB budget — estimated to increase from $300 million in 2023 to $385 million this year — and questioned Peirce if the funding was worth it. Peirce replied that, after 20 years of supervision, the board still reported flaws in 40 percent of the audits they reviewed in 2022. She thinks PCAOB needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems auditing firms face.

“The question that I’m asking is, why are we in the place we are?” Peirce said in a Q&A session following the debate. “I think part of it is that we do have to go and look at what actual findings are there, because one departure from audit standards is not equivalent to another, and one might be much worse than the other. ”

At the end of the discussion, Karolyi and Peirce both expressed their appreciation for how the talk built conversations across different stakeholders.

“It is always encouraging to see people [in academia] provide us [with their work],” Peirce said. “The work they’re doing is informing the work that I’m doing.”

Karolyi said the event was organized to show students how to listen to perspectives they do not agree with.

“As many students may not expect, our colleagues, the faculty members, also disagree with each other,” Karolyi said. “I hope I can present the [panel] to our students.”

Procedural policing | The Ithaca Police Department recently implemented a new training program that features procedural justice and implicit bias as cornerstones of enforcement.

Jonathan Brand can be reached at jbrand@cornellsun.com.

Gradudate Student Union

Rallies Outside of Day Hall

Sadie Seddon-Stettler grad, a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the physics department, discussed the importance of the contract’s health and safety provisions, particularly for students who work in labs with hazardous materials, including high-voltage and mechanical equipment, radiation and chemicals.

“Facing hazards is crucial for my work, which is cutting-edge research at the frontier of accelerator physics,” Seddon-Stettler said. “It also means that I face the risk of injury and permanent harm daily.”

Seddon-Settler said that it is Cornell’s responsibility to ensure robust protections for students working in hazardous settings and formally guaranteed compensation and job security for workers if an incident were to occur.

“Graduate workers should not have to rely on federal law or their advisors for their health and safety, [nor should they] fear retaliation when raising health and safety concerns,” Seddon-Settler said, referencing the reluctance of students who work in dangerous labs to confront their advisors to demand safer working conditions.

Seddon-Settler called on the Cornell administration to “take these health and safety protections as seriously as I, a worker in hazardous conditions, take them.”

Sophia Taborski grad, a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in the classical archaeology department, said that graduate students require contract protection that provides safe and equitable discipline and discharge procedures. She said that current procedures to fire students or terminate their funding are not transparent.

“[Graduate] workers should be protected from unexpected firing [or] discipline and discharge, whether that comes in the form of suspension, ‘failing’ exams or other vague terms set by [Cornell],” Taborski said.

Taborski said that since beginning her Ph.D., seven of 30 students in her department have been forced to leave, which she claims is due to the ambiguous nature of existing procedures. She said that her employment has been threatened by vague

disciplinary terms, recalling how in March, she was summoned to a disciplinary meeting for holding a megaphone during a protest even though she did not speak into the megaphone.

“Some weeks I spend more time figuring out how to stay in my program than working on my Ph.D.,” Taborski said.

Taborski also spoke critically of the administration’s Interim Expressive Activity Policy, which imposes limits on student protest. She claimed that the policy was implemented unjustly, as the CGSU-UE was not consulted before the administration adopted a policy that affects graduate students’ terms and conditions of employment.

“I object to the fact that … Cornell can decide one day to introduce a brand new set of criteria and discharge graduate workers based on things that did not exist the day before, [when] they’re supposed to negotiate any new discipline and discharge policies with CGSU-UE,” Taborski said.

Bianca Waked grad, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the philosophy department, spoke about the importance of academic freedom, specifically in protecting graduate students’ research and teaching.

In January, Waked was called into a meeting with her department chair and a member of Cornell’s University Relations office. The purpose of the meeting was to address a pro-Palestinian statement she wrote in 2021 on a webpage of the Cornell Philosophy of Law Undergraduate Summer School, a graduate school preparatory program for students from marginalized backgrounds. Waked founded PLUSS before beginning her Ph.D. program.

As an international graduate student, Waked feared for her job, financial stability and visa status. Although she did not encounter any repercussions, Waked attributed the lack of consequences to the support of her department chair, the support of her advisor and “luck.”

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

Students Quit Books to Experience Solar Eclipse

Sarah Schiavo ’26 traveled with her friends to see the eclipse. She said the cloud cover inhibited her ability to see the eclipse itself, but she was still able to experience the near-complete darkness of totality.

“My friends convinced me to go driving up north to go see it,” Schiavo said. “It was very cloudy — we did not use our eclipse glasses because we could not see the sun nor the moon. But it did get very dark outside. The lights of the park turned on, and the birds were kind of freaking out because it just got dark.”

While many did not see the eclipse due to clouds, Finley Allen ’27 was able to still get a great view of the solar event while at a watch party hosted by the Syracuse Mets, who invited the public to its stadium to view the total eclipse.

“[The Mets] let people onto the field to watch the eclipse. “It

was pretty cloudy, but you could generally see it through your glasses,” Allen said. “It definitely surpassed my expectations. I feel like the most shocking thing was how dark it was. It was as dark as night and it got dark immediately and it got light immediately after.”

The Cornell Astronomical Society provided free buses for students to Rochester to view the eclipse in totality. The club’s outreach coordinator, Benjamin Shapiro ’24, explained that the club’s goal was to both increase public interest in astronomy and give students a chance to experience the total eclipse.

“We know a lot of people on campus are not from here or do not have access to a car. We thought it was a very public thing to do to provide free buses to see totality,” Shapiro said. “[Eclipses] are rare and only happen in a certain location every hundred years. So not only is it a matter of providing public outreach and

getting the public and people at Cornell into liking astronomy, but it’s also a matter of eclipses are awesome and good for people too.”

Dylan Jackaway ’24, one of the many students who traveled to Rochester to experience the total eclipse, said that the total eclipse was surreal and was unlike anything he had ever been a part of before.

“It really was like nighttime, but it felt very strange given that it was only for a brief moment,” Jackaway said. “There was some reflection off the bottom of the clouds from areas that were outside of the shadow however many miles away. It was like being in this alternate reality that was being created by this alignment by celestial forces or forces of nature, even though that’s not usually how I tend to think about such things.”

Many students who traveled to the path of totality found themselves missing class. Emma Linscomb ’27 also traveled in the buses provided by the Astronomical Society. Linscomb explained that even with the clouds, the experience was well worth being absent from class.

“If there wasn’t any cloud cover, then it would be 100 percent cooler because you would get to see the solar atmosphere and stuff around the border,” Linscomb said. “The fact that we even got to see it partially was really cool. It was definitely worth missing class. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, honestly.”

Shapiro felt strongly that the buses provided by the Astronomical Society had its intended impact on students. He said that eclipse provided students with an escape from the stresses of college life, allowing them to live in the moment.

“When you’re a student going to Cornell and you’re a semester, two semesters, or several years in, I think there’s this kind of haze you fall into,” Shapiro said. “You lose sight that there’s all this life out there.”

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

MING DEMERS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

| Wielding an iPhone and a pair of eclipse glasses, a student carefully captures the moon-shadowed sun as the eclipse emerges through overcast skies on April 8.

Eric Lechpammer can be reached at elechpammer@cornellsun.com.

Jonathan Brand and Dalton Mullins can be reached at jbrand@cornellsun.com and dmullins@cornellsun.com.

Dining Guide Getting T at Bread With Cornell Dining’s Mystery Shopper Program

By KIRA WALTER Sun Staff Writer

For many students with meal plans, the Mystery Shopper Program has been a longtime subject of curiosity. Aiming to recognize outstanding eateries and improve the dining experience, this initiative is real and offers students the dream job: to eat meals at select cafes and dining halls on an hourly salary in addition to reimbursement for the meal. All that’s required is a brief online review preceded by subtle, discrete and unannounced visits to dining units.

[The Mystery Shopper Program] offers students the dream job: to eat at cafes and dining halls on an hourly salary.

In late February, the opportunity was formally opened to students with a meal plan during Spring of 2024. Now, over a month later, there are 70 total mystery shoppers traveling to 29 different dining units. Started by former Assistant Director Of Staff Training & Development Therese O’Connor, the program has expanded dramatically over the years, helping Cornell maintain its reputation and high rankings, such as having the second “Best Campus Food” per the Princeton Review.

The program has a simple structure for collecting and implementing feedback. Students go to two locations each week, assessing their dining experience in an undercover “workshop.”

The expense of their meal is reimbursed in bonus bucks, expendable at any dining establishment. Feedback is expected within 48 hours of each visit. Reviews are completed in an online survey, which assesses units on cleanliness, customer service and product quality. Shoppers are also able to leave suggestions based on what they would like to see altered or continued.

Many improvements have been made since the slew of suggestions began. Reviews have given students more power over

their diet, causing the return of old cafe favorites or bringing in new dining hall staples. Feedback has also made meal plans more inclusive, as suggestions have contributed to a plethora of diet-specific accommodations. There has been a significant increase in vegan and vegetarian choices at dining halls. Additionally, plant-based milks and other allergy-conscious ingredients have been added to Cornell kitchens.

The Mystery Shopper Program has created a positive connection between students and Cornell dining as a whole, as they are able to communicate about their options. It has been a source of innovation for eateries while encouraging students to diversify their palates.

When asked how this project accomplished its goals, program director Matthew Johnson explained that it’s “one way we stay ahead of the curve and actively listen to our guests’ opinions and needs.” He was proud about how much has been accomplished with this system of feedback.

Moving forward, dining has many prospective ideas on how to build the program as well. With Discovery Kitchen Now at Morrison Dining and a new year round Test Kitchen, customer feedback is even more valuable to the dining staff members.

Johnson and his co-workers also plan to partner with the Student Assembly Dining Committee so that Cornellians can provide direct feedback to chefs after enjoying a meal in the dining room. Mystery Shoppers play a significant role in selecting the “Nourishing The Future Award” winner, based on food waste management, training compliance and positive student reviews.

Meanwhile, Goldie’s barista Jackie Rangel ‘26 was ecstatic about how mystery shoppers will influence the dining community she is part of.

“I think it is essential for student employees who work as baristas to be able to provide anonymous feedback to fellow units so that we can foster a dining community that encourages learning from each other,” she stated. Rangel also credited the program for providing “worthwhile and considerate incentives for participation.” She represents a sense of student enthusiasm that is only growing as the program continues.

Plentiful options | Cornell Dining’s Mystery Shopper Program pays students to review food from various dining units such as Toni Morrison Dining Hall and Crossings Cafe.

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Sophia Arnold

Silent Auction: Pollack’s Free Speech Subject to the Highest Bid

conflicted with donors’ checkbooks.

While the Interim Expressive Activity Policy is particularly egregious, it’s only another example of Pollack’s Cornell performing as a plutocracy. Undeniably, our current administration has been defined by their unprecedented disconnect from the student body.

merely

right to learn in a non-disruptive setting. It seems our president and provost have forgotten a few other rights — namely, students’ constitutionally protected ones.

To give credit where credit is due, at least Pollack is consistent: Tuesday’s letter is just as ill-conceived as the Interim Expressive Activity Policy was in the first place. For Pollack to spin a narrative in which she cares enough about Cornell’s students to take action on our behalf is questionable at best. Evidently, Pollack’s only agenda item since taking office has been to accede to whoever holds the purse strings.

Perhaps our President simply forgot the meaning of the word “indispensable” when she declared 2023 to 2024 to be the year of Freedom of Expression. This semester, however, Pollack elaborated: Freedom of Expression, so long as that expression occurs between noon and 1 p.m., at an outdoor event registered sufficiently in advance, without any posters, sticks or candles.

Pollack and Kotlikoff’s Letter to the Editor is little more than bureaucratic waffling — a self-purported free speech champion's insincere overture to arbitrarily draw the boundaries of “disruption” as they see fit. Our President, a self-purported champion of free speech, is now enacting oppressive policies, complete with disciplinary consequences for those who dare disobey.

Pollack’s concern for my “right to enjoy [an] environment of respectful learning” is touching, truly, but as a student who has been in the middle of class in Goldwin Smith Hall during these “disruptive demonstrations,” I must admit it didn’t particularly feel like my rights had been infringed upon. Given Pollack’s willingness to lay waste to freedom of speech on campus, it seems there’s been a mixup of whose rights, exactly, have been violated.

After all, in Pollack’s own words, “When you allow decision makers to determine what speech is allowed and what is suppressed… what you see is that the suppression of speech harms those who hold the least power.” Of course, this statement came before students began espousing views that

Perhaps the University’s callous pursuit of profit margins would be more understandable if students tangibly benefitted. From the refusal to hire an OB-GYN to a TCAT system left underfunded by Cornell’s penny-pinching, Pollack’s donor appeasement appears fruitless to those of us outside the red tape of bureaucracy. Our administration’s method of handling issues seems to revolve around the bottom line.

It’s clear that President Pollack and Provost Kotlikoff’s interests lie not in serving the student body, but with the trustees, donors and alumni they aim to mollify. Their willingness to sacrifice student rights upon the altar of political expediency is a mercenary betrayal of the meaningful discourse that institutions like Cornell are meant to protect.

The University’s plan to “convene a group of faculty, staff and students” on this matter retroactively, as if the Interim Policy was not created behind the backs of the Student Assembly and Faculty Senate to begin with, is absurd. By unilaterally imposing authoritarian-style censorship, Pollack has stifled the very discourse she claims to support.

Pollack and Kotlikoff’s refusal to acknowledge the harmful impact of the Interim Expressive Activity Policy on students and faculty alike by hiding behind the guise of protecting students is not just cowardly; It’s a blatant abdication of responsibility, and an unconvincing one at that.

There is nothing noble about administrators measuring students’ rights with a fine-toothed comb to parse out where, when and how we may dissent. To treat student protests as little more than an inconvenience to their ivory tower is something Pollack and Kotlikoff ought to be ashamed of — not defending in a half-baked letter to The Sun.

It is not just the Interim Expressive Activity Policy that our administration needs to reconsider, but their position on free speech on campus as a whole. Freedom of speech isn’t some privilege to be graciously bestowed upon students by their University, it’s a constitutionally enshrined right, and according to Pollack herself, the bedrock of democracy and academic freedom as well.

Continue reading at www.conrellsun. com.

Sophia Arnold is a second year student in the Brooks School of Public Policy. Her fortnightly column Under Scrutiny focuses broadly on politics, culture and campus issues. She can be reached at sarnold@cornellsun.com.

Study Discovers New Predictor of Severe Pediatric Crohn’s Disease

By EMMA ARBOLEDA Sun Contributor

On Feb. 22, the Journal of Clinical Investigations published a study on the discovery of a new predictor of severe pediatric Crohn’s disease.

MicroRNAs are small molecules that help regulate gene expression in cells. Crohn’s is an increasingly prevalent disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the gut. It causes symptoms that can lead to malnutrition and fatigue and can be severe.

“There’s a serious need to better understand how this disease develops and come up with better therapies,” said Prof. Praveen Sethupathy, biomedical sciences, the senior author of the study.

MicroRNA have known potential to serve as indicators of severity of disease and diagnostic markers in adults with Crohn’s disease, but their role in pediatric Crohn’s isn’t as well studied.

To better understand the mechanisms of pediatric Crohn’s, Sethupathy and his team investigated the role of micro-RNAs in severe Crohn’s disease, collaborating with researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Looking at microRNAs in the gut samples of a large cohort of healthy children and in children diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, researchers found that 58 micro-RNAs differed between the two groups. One of them, miR-29, was found to be predictive of severe disease.

“[There was a] correlation with miR-29 and a couple others with association with disease severity, [but] only miR-29 was shown to be specific to pediatric Crohn’s,” said Alexxandria Shumway grad, the first author on the study.

To follow up on their results, the researchers genetically engineered mice to overexpress miR29. The goal was to see how this overexpression would affect inflammation in the gut.

“We were broadly looking across a lot of different cell types in the intestinal lining,” Sethupathy said. “It was the Paneth cells that really stuck out as being dramatically changed in the context where we were elevating the microRNA.”

Elevated levels of miR-29 caused decreased amounts of Paneth cells, which are cells that have antimicrobial properties in the small intestine. Higher levels of miR-29 also caused lower expression of the tight junction protein Pmp22, which can result in compromised barrier integrity in the gut and more inflammation.

Resolution of miR-29 as a key driver in inflammation in pediatric Crohn’s can have critical applications for diagnoses and may provide direction for further studies.

Shumway cites her best friend’s diagnosis with Crohn’s in middle school as a key motivator for her participation in Crohn’s research. She hopes the use of miR-29 as a potential diagnostic tool may help improve the quality of care for other pediatric patients.

Kiran Kadakia ’26 was diagnosed with

Crohn’s disease in middle school, and for him, getting diagnosed was a significant challenge.

“The idea of Crohn’s disease was something my family wasn’t super conscious of. For a while I was just kind of dealing with the malnutrition and bouts of exhaustion without exactly knowing why it was [happening],” Kadakia said. “That initial discovery process was the most challenging part of my journey.”

Kadakia hopes that this research will improve public understanding about the disease and aid

medical professionals in early diagnostic stages.

I think anything that boosts awareness of Crohn’s disease or boosts the doctors ability to be like, ‘Oh is this going to be something that’s very severe,’ [will be] very useful.”

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Cornell Atomspheric Scientist Reflects on Ithaca’s Fourth Warmest Winter in 150 Years

By REGINA GALVAN RAMAYOR Sun Contributor

The spring equinox on March 19 signaled the official end of an unusual winter in Ithaca — its fourth warmest in approximately 150 years. This winter also marked the warmest in history across the contiguous U.S.

One reason for the above-average winter temperatures is El Niño — a natural phenomenon that has been closely followed by meteorologists for

over a century. El Niño is a complex weather pattern that occurs due to changes in ocean water temperatures, which in turn can cause ocean currents to shift from their typical paths. El Niño occurs when warm waters in the Pacific Ocean cause the current to move south of its neutral position. Such a shift causes areas in the US Northeast and Canada to have warmer and dryer winters.

The warm weather is not the only

effect produced by El Niño. Prof. Arthur DeGaetano, atmospheric sciences, provided insight into El Niño’s other meteorological effects.

“[El Niño] tends to be warmer than normal and less snowy,” DeGaetano said. “However, this is not a sure thing — some seasons have been colder and snowier.”

According to DeGaetano, El Niño tends to cause more storms along the coast. Storms in California, for example, are a classic El Niño signal.

Additionally, storms in the northeast tend to align closer to the east coast. The coastal storms of El Niño were apparent this year as New York City was subjected to more storms than upstate New York.

Scientists are continuing to study the connection between climate change and El Niño. Currently, the common consensus is that increasing temperatures in the ocean due to climate change affect weather patterns.

According to DeGaetano, even

though this season’s weather patterns were to be expected, climate change also played a role in heating up Ithaca’s winter. The Applied Climate Information System database, which includes weather data from the past 150 years, indicates that five out of the 10 warmest Ithaca winters occurred after 2000, and the rising winter temperatures may continue.

However, fortunately for Ithaca farmers, warmer winters are not necessarily dry winters, according to DeGaetano. Models also show that during El Niño, precipitation will continue to occur, but it can manifest as heavy rainfall in certain areas that used to have a lot of snow.

While climate models indicate that warmer winters will continue to occur, DeGaetano is hopeful that human intervention can help to ameliorate its effects.

Emma Arboleda can be reached at ea325@ cornell.edu.

Dynamic disease | Cornell researchers identified a molecule that can help predict the severity of pediatric Crohn’s disease.

Regina Galvan Rumayor can be reached at rg623@cornell.edu.

COURTESY OF PATHOS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS