INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 137, No. 49
THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021
n
8 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Dining
Sports
Weather
COVID Inequalities
Restaurant Return
2025 Recruits
Snowing And Cold
A virtual panel focuses on racial inequalities in health care amplified by COVID. | Page 3
2 Stay 2 Go, a student-run Collegetown restaurant, is back with many classics and now offers catering services. | Page 4
Led by four top recruits, the future Cornell men’s lacrosse class of 2025 is poised to succeed. | Page 8
HIGH: 36º LOW: 21º
Test Site Staffers Discuss Uniquely Essential Job By MAYANKA DHINGRA Sun Contributor
As many students grab their laptops and morning coffee to gear up for remote classes, a small group of students also don a gown, face shield and gloves to run campus’s testing operation behind the scenes. Cornell’s reopening plan leaned heavily on being able to test all of its students in order to identify when they are sick. The task of collecting the nose swabs falls on roughly 200 testing staffers, including some 80 students. These students have had to weigh the increased potential COVID exposures with working a atypical campus job. Annika Hoff ’22 was initially apprehensive about the number of people she would be interacting with on a weekly basis when she began working as a staffer at multiple testing sites in the fall. Prior to the pandemic, Hoff held two on-campus jobs,
both of which were dependent on normal athletic seasons taking place. Searching for a new well-paying student job, Hoff decided to work at the testing locations, a job that also counts towards physician hours for her pre-physician assistant course of study.
“I am really impressed with the sheer capacity of the testing program.” Annika Hoff ’22 Hoff’s nerves were calmed during her first shift after she was given personal protective equipment and realizing that each interaction with students getting tested only lasted only a couple minutes. “Personally I am really impressed with the sheer
MICHELLE YANG / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
capacity of the testing program,” Hoff said. “As a student, prior to coming to campus I didn’t understand how such a rigorous testing program was possible.” Since returning as a staffer this semester Hoff said her experience has remained relatively the same other than increased volume at certain popular sites such as Robert Purcell Community Center. Jay Crandell ’22, who also began work as a testing site staffer last semester, views his contribution to testing efforts as an extension of his studies in public health and infectious disease. For Crandell, work offers a much-needed break from the stresses of academic life during the pandemic and offers a rare opportunity for socialization. “It is a time when I am not in my room, can’t be on my phone and am not in class,” Crandell said. “I get the chance to see people and have informal conversations.”
Movies on the Arts Quad Return, Socially Distanced By HELENA PRATAMA Sun Staff Writer
University assistance | Members of NAISAC ask for increased representation in a series of initiatives.
NAISAC Urges University Support
Native American, Indigenous students continue work acknowledges the role it has played in Indigenous dispossession. When President Martha E. Pollack eventualAfter months of inaction from the University, ly acknowledged the demands, Former NAISAC Native American and Indigenous Students at Co-Chair Collin Benedict ’21 said that the response Cornell are doubling down on demands for repre- lacked action items. sentation through community outreach and peti“She just basically gave us the runaround,” tions to the University on top of expanding their Benedict said. “She just basically gave us a statement advocacy initiatives. without addressing any of the On Nov. 24, the Student “She just basically gave actual demands that we put into Assembly unanimously voted the resolution.” us a statement without to support the demands of the Pollack’s response highlighted Native American and Indigenous ongoing initiatives to increase addressing any of the Students at Cornell. These ten recruitment of Native American actual demands.” demands were presented in the students and faculty. However, form of an online petition with many of the larger demands, Collin Benedict ’21 the stated goal of rectifying including the redistribution of Cornell’s “tradition of profiting unused Cornell land back to the from acts of colonial violence and Indigenous era- Gayogohón, the native Cayugans, were not mensure.” tioned. The requests emphasized increased funding and Paula Blanco Ortiz ’24, the NAISAC External recognition of the American Indian and Indigenous Relations Chair, noted that the number of indigeStudies Program as a department. They also nous faculty has decreased from 10 in 2010 to five sought to increase the recruitment and retention of Indigenous students and ensure that Cornell See NAISAC page 3 By TYLER WIESMAN Sun Staff Writer
See COVID page 2
Following a year of virtual events, limited building access and few in person events, Cornell is bringing back a beloved on-campus tradition — Movies on the Arts Quad. Hosted by the University’s Student and Campus Life Office in tandem with student organizations including Cornell Cinema, Film Club and Class Councils, Movies on the Arts Quad is slated to be the biggest organized social event at Cornell since March 2020. Every Thursday beginning April 8, films chosen by the Cornell Film Club will be screened, with a focus on highlighting popular works. “Rather than a one-time event, it will feel like a weekly drive-in theater plopped down on the Arts Quad,” said Nick Boozang ’21,
president of the Film Club. Movies shown this semester will include Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Shrek, Kajillionaire, Do The Right Thing, Detective Pikachu and Moonrise Kingdom. Shrek will be screened on April 22, its 25th anniversary, which also falls right before the Wellness Day weekend.
“It will feel like a weekly drive-in theater plopped down on the Arts Quad.” Nick Boozang ’21 The student groups involved in the organization of the series are optimistic about turnout. For Boozang, the event marks a return to normalcy as seniors spend their last semester on campus. “I’d expect so many students to come out. It’s going to be such a blast — a real celeSee MOVIES page 3
BORIS TSANG / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
Movie tradition | A favorite of years past, MOTAQ will return on April 8.