5-1-24 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK

Two More Encampment Protesters Suspended

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor

The University suspended two more student protesters today, following previous threats that additional suspensions were imminent after four protesters were temporarily suspended on April 26.

On May 1 at 5:50 p.m., the Coalition for Mutual Liberation announced the suspensions of two additional students who were partaking in the encampment protest on the Arts Quad. The statement said that the temporary suspensions targeted “anti-genocide students and graduate workers” for their involvement in the protests, particularly students perceived to be in “positions of leadership.”

The two students who were suspended May 1 are not part of the CML negotiations team.

Suspended students received emails informing them about their suspension at 3 p.m. The University has charged them with the same charges as the previously suspended students — unauthorized use of University property by engaging in or facilitating outdoor camping on the Arts Quad without approval, failure to comply with University directives to remove the unauthorized encampment, unreasonably loud chants and

behavior, failure to disperse from the Arts Quad and staying past 8 p.m. on April 25.

Bianca Waked grad, one of the students who was initially suspended on April 26, said the University was targeting students who are engaging in the protest, which she considered an example of “civil disobedience.”

“What the University is reducing to purposeless ‘rule-breaking’ must be properly understood as a core element of civil disobedience — deliberate and public rule-breaking for expressive purpose,” Waked said. “The Liberated Zone expresses deep discontent with Cornell University’s unequal treatment of their students — especially Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and anti-Zionist Jewish students — in addition to protesting Cornell’s material investment in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

The suspensions follow previous statements from the administration promising suspensions after protesters stayed past the 8 p.m. deadline on April 25.

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

'I Will Not Be Intimidated':

Protester Rejects Credit Ofer

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor

On Tuesday, Nick Wilson ’26 rejected a deal from the University to receive academic credit for the Spring 2024 semester in exchange for discontinuing his involvement with the pro-Palestine encampment on the Arts Quad. Wilson was one of four students suspended on Friday for participating in the encampment, which meant he would lose all credit from this semester.

According to a press release from the Coalition from Mutual Liberation, the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards offered a conditional deal on Tuesday, April 30. Under the conditional deal, Wilson would receive “incomplete” grades, providing him with the ability to receive credit for this semester by completing any pending assignments after the suspension is lifted. In exchange for the offer, Wilson would have to sign a written agreement stipulating he would not continue to express his support of students joining the encampment protest.

OSCCS Director Christina Liang summoned a meeting with Wilson under the premise of “discussing the terms of the suspension” in more detail. However, at the meeting, Liang extended the deal as a verbal offer.

The other suspended students have not received similar offers. As graduate students, Bianca Waked grad and Momodou Taal grad must undergo different procedures in terms of negotiating their suspensions. Cornell Graduate Students United held a press conference on the Arts Squad at noon on Wednesday where leaders discussed initiating a bargaining process with the University regarding the suspended students.

The CGSU-UE wrote that “suspensions constitute a change in their working conditions that the National Labor Relations Law mandates Cornell University is required to bargain with CGSU-UE” in a press release sent to The Sun.

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

at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Faculty Stand With Protesters, Denounce Suspensions

“I learned about the encampment when I came to teach my class on Thursday,” said Prof. Natalie Melas, comparative literature, about the encampment established on the Arts Quad on April 27.

The protest has received backlash from the administration and has been met with divided responses from students. Across the country and at Cornell, many faculty members are now coming to the defense of students and standing in solidarity with the protesters.

Since Thursday, faculty members have become involved with the protest, with some delivering speeches and canceling their lectures. Professors have also played a role in providing more active support for protestors, engaging in discussions with the administration, giving demonstrators supplies and participating in the encampment.

Prof. Jess Newman, feminist, gender and sexuality studies, said she wanted to show support for those in the protest, some of whom are her own students. She said she is also dropping off sup-

plies, helping protesters read University policies and monitoring student interactions with police.

But Newman emphasized that, to her, the pedagogical aspect of the protest, including teach-ins and office hours arranged by faculty, are the most valuable support they can offer students.

“The students that are in the encampment as well as those running support in various ways are living up to the tradition of civil disobedience of using the knowledge that they gain on this campus for support for liberation and a more just future,” Newman said.

Other members of faculty like Melas said the encampment promoted educational content for students, speaking about the teachins and the “people’s library,” comparing it to University resources.

“In a way it feels to me like it is still the campus, it is just another form of learning that is happening,” Melas said.

Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, American studies, who is Jewish and has relatives in Israel, told The Sun he supported the encampment protests. He said the administration “missed an opportunity” to showcase freedom of expression on campus by endorsing the protests. Cheyfitz, who has taught at Cornell for 20 years, said he has never seen a violent protest during his time teaching at the University.

/

Persistent protester | Nick Wilson '26 addresses the encampment via megaphone on April 25.

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor

MING DEMERS / SUN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Six suspensions | As of May 2, six encampment protestors have faced temporary suspension.

NINA DAVIS / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Scholar's support | Prof. Eric Cheyfitz, American studies, announced his support for encampment protesters on April 26.

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Local Organizers Push for Just Cause, Good Cause Legislation

By TAEHEE OH, SILOCHANIE MILLER and KATE SANDERS Sun

Ithaca workers and tenants organizations are working to draft and ultimately pass two pieces of legislation through the Common Council — one addressing conditions for the firing of workers and another addressing conditions for the evicting of tenants.

On March 16, the Ithaca Just Cause Coalition — a collection of organizations including the Ithaca Tenants Union — hosted a public meeting with a panel of experts on potential legislation regulating workplace disciplinary policies and the firing of workers.

The proposal, which was written by the coalition, would require that all terminations, suspensions and cuts of more than 15 percent of a worker’s hours have a “just cause” — either their inadequate performance or the employer’s “bona fide” financial hardship.

All employers would be required to have a system of progressive discipline, a series of “graduated responses” to an employee’s “failure to satisfactorily perform such employee’s job duties,” according to the draft legislation. Workers may be fired without notice for only “egregious misconduct,” which the legislation describes as “workplace conduct that is so outrageous, dangerous or illegal that an employer cannot reasonably expect to correct it through progressive discipline.”

Currently, all states excluding Montana allow “at will” employment, a system in which employers can fire an employee at any time for any reason, excluding reasons that constitute discrimination, retaliation or refusal to partake in illegal activities. The United States is one of few countries around the world with this system.

Because of this, Ian Greer M.S. ’02, Ph.D. ’05, director of the ILR co-lab, believes that having a just cause, rather than an at-will employment system, is necessary.

“[Just cause] is going to bring Ithaca in line with the rest of the world, because the U.S. is pretty unique in having at-will employment,” Greer said.

The draft legislation allows employers to lay off employees for a “bona fide economic reason” — defined in the draft legislation to mean either the closure of the establishment, decline in revenue over “no less than a quarter” or a forecasted 75 percent or larger decline in revenues.

The draft legislation also includes that the firing of employees related to economic issues or a non-egregious performance issue would require a written notice issued at least 30 days in advance, including any steps that the employee could take to avoid termination. Should an Ithaca employer terminate employees for reasons that are not in line with these guidelines, they may face action from the city attorney.

Just Cause legislation would also create a new Worker’s Rights Commission, appointed by the Common Council, that would then appoint hearing officers who would “hear and adjudicate complaints” from workers claiming that their

employer violated Just Cause labor laws. The legislation would also compensate workers whose employers are found in violation of these guidelines.

Jorge Defendini ’22, an active member of the Just Cause Coalition and ITU, said the Just Cause Coalition is currently working to push the Ithaca Common Council to adopt their draft proposal.

“We have a draft of the legislation that we’ve proposed, and the Common Council is convening a working group right now, and they’re assessing how they can pass Just Cause,” Defendini said. “They’re looking at our legislation to see what can be incorporated. We’re pressing upon them to just use the legislation as is.”

Local advocacy for Just Cause legislation closely parallels the tenants union’s advocacy for Good Cause Eviction legislation.

Pete Meyers, founder of Tompkins County Workers Center, explained the importance of this work being conducted in parallel.

“Keeping people in their jobs is a really important part of keeping people in their homes, so it made sense to us to reach out to the tenants union.” Meyers said.

Good Cause Eviction seeks to protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases and retaliatory or discriminatory evictions through allowing tenants to challenge evictions for “arbitrary” causes. Since 2019, versions of the law have been implemented in multiple states — such as California, Oregon and Washington — and more than 20 cities.

Good Cause Eviction protections were introduced to the City of Ithaca’s Planning and Economic Development Committee in 2021, but the law was put on indefinite hold by the City due to concerns that it would invite scrutiny and lawsuits from the state.

However, in March, the movement gained traction once again as the state budget was being negotiated, as lawmakers debated the inclusion of Good Cause provisions.

On April 20, the New York state senate passed the Good Cause Eviction Protections in the budget but limited its scope to New York City and other cities that choose to opt-in. According to Defendini local organizers are also advocating for Ithaca to opt-in to the statewide Good Cause law.

The state bill also outlined several exemptions to the housing covered by the legislation by excluding various housing accommodations such as units with a monthly rent greater than 245 percent of the fair market rent, units owned by landlords who own 10 units or less, owner-occupied buildings that contain 10 units or less, units subject to rent regulation and units required to be affordable.

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

Taehee Oh can be reached at to242@cornell.edu. Silochanie Miller can be reached at nsm88@cornell.edu. Kate Sanders can be reached at ksanders@cornellsun.com.

By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor

The Ithaca Common Council voted to pass a measure on short term rentals and a measure on Justice 50 — an environmental proposal.

After over 10 community members weighed in on the policy during the public comment section of the meeting, the resolution on the Short-Term Rental Ordinance passed with 10 votes to 1, with only Margaret Fabrizio (D-Fifth Ward) voting against the measure. The Justice 50 resolution was approved in a unanimous vote.

Short-Term Rentals

The Short-Term Rental Ordinance, which was originally drafted by the Department of Planning and Development, enacts regulations on short-term rentals. Under the legislation, permits will be issued only to a primary resident of a property. STRs will be allowed in any single- and two-family residences and owner-occupied residences within a multiple-dwelling or mixed-use building.

During public comment, many residents expressed concern for personal eco -

nomic impacts stemming from the measure, while others considered it to be a good first step toward addressing the City’s housing shortage.

Justice 50 Authored by Rebecca Evans, Ithaca’s director of sustainability, the Justice 50 resolution aims to guide the City’s implementation of the 2019 Ithaca Green New Deal, which commits to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030. The framework — modeled after the Biden administration’s Justice 40 initiative — establishes a “minimum investment floor” of 50 percent of total capital funding and 50 percent of funding for the Ithaca Green New Deal that will go to neighborhoods considered Climate Justice Communities. A May 2022 resolution defines CJCs as areas in which the majority of residents are experiencing three or more items from a list of criteria, including being low income, undocumented, homeless or not possessing a high school diploma or GED as a resident who is 25 years old or older.

Gabriel Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.

Contributors and Sun News Editor

Nutrition Students T row Boticelli’s Banquet

By Eirian Huang Sun Lifestyle Writer

Each year, students of Applied Dietetics in Food Service Systems, NS 4880, create themed dinners on West Campus. Last Tuesday, April 23 at Keeton, the theme was “Botticelli’s Banquet,” and boy, did Botticelli have his banquet all right. Featuring an assortment of Italian-Renaissance inspired foods, live performances and delightfully scrumptious desserts, NS 4880’s dinner was nothing short of a success.

I arrived just after 6 p.m., just when the line from the downstairs dining hall had snaked up to the Keeton lobby (a very rare occurrence). However, the line moved relatively quickly, and we got inside after 10 to 15 minutes of waiting. Once inside, the next battle was to find a seat (impossible) amongst the bustling and lively atmosphere of the dining room, also unheard of for a late-in-the-semester Tuesday.

After finding a seat, the rest of the process was smooth. The pasta bar was impressive, featuring alfredo, meat sauce and two types of pesto. I wish I could tell you what the vegetable options tasted like, but I skipped all of them to make space for what I was truly there for: chicken parm. Other protein options featured pork and meatless meatballs.

As we know, Keeton will never be caught slacking in the dessert department. The lemon granita had a surprising hint of savoriness to it from the basil, which tickled my

sweet and savory tooth delightfully.

The tiramisu was the Venus of the entire event, humbly placed on a small side table yet the center of everyone’s attention. It was more of a sponge cake adjourned with traditional tiramisu accouterments but it nonetheless hit the spot (I could be none the wiser) and ran out quickly after I got my serving.

My favorites were the chicken parm and the desserts, however everything was intentionally planned and wonderfully executed. While the chicken parm needed a tad bit more sauce, it hit the spot and I easily put down two pieces. My only mistake was the salad. I was excited for it as it was adjourned with regular and blood oranges, fennel, and all-around looked especially professional. Nevertheless, I found the dressing to be lacking acidity and flavor even with the oranges. But were we ever here to eat salad?

What was most impressive about this dinner is that Keeton dining was truly transformed into Botticelli’s Banquet. Never before have I seen that many people waiting in line or heard the dining room be full of conversation, laughs and people having genuine good time. While the food was amazing, what was even better was the personal connections this dinner was able to facilitate.

Eirian Huang is a second-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences. Tey can be reached at ehh56@cornell.edu

Lifestyle Editor’s Weekly Report

By Kira Walter, Lifestyle Editor

T e Return Of Local Ice Cream Parlor Sweet Melissa’s

With temperatures reaching nearly 80 this week, the cold treat industry is prepping for a business boom. Ice cream parlors ready refreshing flavors for the season, including local favorite Sweet Melissa’s. For almost two weeks, this little hot spot off the corner of West Seneca and North Geneva St. has been doling out heaven on a cone. Te joint has been producing an infamous soft serve selection since 2009, and started selling original hard ice cream just a year later. From 2016-2018, they served as their own milk production plant, pasteurizing their own base for each creamy product. Tough working from a small venue, entrepreneurs behind Sweet Melissa’s execute big plans in the world of frozen dairy. Te summer classic is open from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week offering the best desserts at affordable cash prices. As Ithaca warms up, we at lifestyle can say with confidence that Sweet

Expanding Te Ithaca Farmer’s Market

Another April blessing to downtown Ithaca has been the awaited revival of the Farmers Market. After a long winter, local vendors returned to the Waterfront Trail early on April 13th. Since then, the Ithacan tradition has returned without failure on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. However, as we embark on the month of May, the Ithaca Farmers Market is expanding. Starting May 1st, Wednesday Markets are running at East Hill weekly from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m, featuring a variety of local growers, chefs, and artisans. Te Sunday Market is conveniently being reinstated at Steamboat Landing from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. With markets hosted three times a week until late autumn, vendors have more opportunities to share their products with the greater Ithaca population. Te Farmers Market is increasingly available: there is no way to miss this unique Ithaca staple.

Dinner presented by NS 4880 students went above and beyond with healthy and delicious choices.

CORNELL DAILY SUN PHOTO ARCHIVE

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Independent Since 1880

142nd Masthead

GABRIEL LEVIN 26 Editor in

Chief

MAX FATTAL ’25

Associate Editor

HENRY SCHECHTER ’26

Opinion Editor

MARIAN CABALLO ’26

Multimedia Editor

NINA DAVIS ’26

Photography Editor

ERIC HAN ’26

Arts & Culture Editor

SYDNEY LEVINTON ’27

Arts & Culture Editor

JADE DUBUCHE ’27

Social Media Editor

DANIELA ROJAS ’25

Lifestyle Editor

ISABELLE JUNG ’26

Graphics Editor

JOLIN LI ’27

Layout Editor

PARIS CHAKRAVARTY ’27

Layout Editor

CYNTHIA TSENG ’27

Assistant Photography Editor

LUCY CAO ’26

Assistant Photography Editor

ALLISON HECHT ’26

Newsletter Editor

Letters To The Editor

JULIA SENZON ’26

Managing Editor

ERIC REILLY ’25

Assistant Managing Editor

MARISA CEFOLA ’26

News Editor

MATTHEW KIVIAT ’27

News Editor

CHRISTINA MacCORKLE ’26

News Editor

KATE SANDERS ’27

News Editor

JANE McNALLY ’26

Sports Editor

GABRIEL MUÑOZ ’26

City Editor

KAITLIN CHUNG ’26

Science Editor

LAINE HAVENS ’25

Science Editor

ANUSHKA SHOREWALA ’26

Assistant News Editor

DINA SHLUFMAN ’27

Assistant News Editor

HAMNA WASEEM ’27

Assistant Sports Editor

NICOLE COLLINS ’25

Weather Editor

Keep Speaking Out, It Works

The right for all to speak freely is fundamental to the mission of a university. As alums and former participants in university governance who hail from different points on the political spectrum, we're united in defending students' rights to engage in speech that many find offensive. This includes vehement criticism of the policies of the US and Israeli governments, descriptions of Hamas' terrorist activities and even challenges to the State of Israel's legitimacy. We have stood up for speech we vehemently disagree with and will do so in the future.

But the current encampment in the Arts Quad is a clear violation of University policies. It is an act of civil disobedience and, like all perpetrators of civil disobedience, the students occupying the encampment deserve to face the consequences of their actions in the University judicial system. The protesters demand for "amnesty" undercuts any claim of moral clarity — the key element of civil disobedience is the willingness to face the full consequences of one's actions.

So long as Cornell and law enforcement apply time, place and manner regulations in a content-neutral way, the encampments are not protected by free speech principles. We urge all on campus to take a step back and engage the issues with respect, grace and civility.

— Eli Lehrer '98 — Robert C. Platt '73, Law '76 — Prof. Randy O. Wayne

CORRECTION: Te Sun previously stated in Tuesday's editorial that employee participants in the pro-Palestine encamplment had been referred to Human Resources. In fact, HR referrals are "forthcoming," accoring to a public statement from President Martha Pollack.

Mukoma Wa Ngugi

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is a Professor in the Literatures in English

Our Students Are Not the Enemy

Igrew up in a dictatorship. Jomo Kenyatta, the first post-independence president, detained my father, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o without trial in 1977. In 1982 President Moi forced him into exile. In our Limuru home we endured all sorts of hardships; monetary (I cannot count how many times I had to leave school due to lack of school fees), political intimidation, police raids, violent political thugs attacking our home and effigies of my father being burned on national TV while our mother, Nyambura Wa Ngugi kept us from falling apart.

Now I find myself thinking about the University of Nairobi students who marched against the dictatorships. I have this distinct memory of Mwandawiro Mghanga, a student leader leading student strikes at the University of Nairobi and marches against the Moi dictatorship. The government’s response was heavy handed and he was charged with sedition and sentenced to five years in prison. Some student leaders like Karimi Nduthu were assassinated and plenty of others were thrown into jail.

While the Kenyan Universities stood aside while their students were being jailed and assassinated, here in the US, it is more “sophisticated.” It is study and be quiet or we will make you unemployable, mark you with a scarlet letter that says troublemaker, antisemite and disturber of peace. And the students are asking, what peace?

The numbers coming out of Gaza do not lie: 34,000 plus Palestinians have been killed, homes and hospitals destroyed, and 1.2 million displaced, disease and hunger are weapons, mass graves have been discovered and universities destroyed. Out of the 34,000 killed the majority have been civilians with a staggering 13,000 children victims. Tell me what war, what higher form of morality, demands the sacrifice of 13,000 children.

Yet when our students call for a ceasefire (a reasonable, non-debatable — or ought to be — request) or call for a boycott (also reasonable, but debatable), when they speak their conscience, what do we do? We threaten, arrest and suspend; we destroy their futures. The very antithesis to a university education.

While in Kenya this past February, I was invited to speak at an event titled Valentine’s for Palestine where artists from the Kariobangi slum were painting a mural for Palestine. It was a moving event — here were Kenyan activists so moved by the belief that we share a common humanity and that we are responsible for each other that they were painting a mural in support of Palestine in a slum.

In my remarks I echoed an earlier essay I had written titled, “Gaza and my political conscience.” I do not believe in the killing of civilians as part of a liberation struggle. In my political conscience, it is unjustifiable. I cannot agree with the Hamas killing of 1,200 people in Israel and the taking of hostages. But surely using the same logic, the mass murder of 34,000 Palestinians and the leveling of Gaza is terrorism by any definition, a crime against humanity; it is a genocide unfolding. Yet we punish our students for following their political consciences instead of looking into ours.

Like Mwandawiro in Kenya, or closer to home Nick Wilson, Momodou Taal and two other students who have been suspended, we have all been students at some point. But then enters careerism, the climb from Assistant Professor to tenured, to Dean, Provost and President that numbs our memories of what it felt like to have and be moved by conscience. And we embrace our silence and the silencing of others.

While I was a graduate student at UW Madison in the 2000’s, Muslim students would be pulled out of the classroom for processing in Milwaukee. And our professors, after the interruption, would continue talking about “post-colonial this” and “deconstruct that.” And I always wondered, where did they learn to be silent? Two fellow students and I sat down and wrote this poem inspired by Pastor Martin Niemöller.

Continue reading at www.cornellsun.com.

I recently came across a Kenyan newspaper article about Mwandawiro. In the accompanying photo, he is being led by a policeman to court. And it struck me just how young he was in 1985. Just like the students I teach, just like the students that are being tear gassed, getting arrested and having futures destroyed all over the US. It struck me that Cornell is bringing the full weight of administrative power against young people for simply voicing their conscience. What are we doing?

Department at Cornell. He is the co-founder of the Safal-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Writing. Wa Ngugi's family was deeply impacted by the bloody British suppression of the Mau Mau Revolution. He can be reached at mukomangugi@cornell.edu.

Sundoku Puzzle #936

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)

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SC I ENCE

Cornell ChemE Car Races Ahead In Model Car Competition

By AVA MALKIN Sun Contributor

Cornell ChemE Car, one of many student-run Cornell Engineering Project Teams, combines equally motivated students of various majors under one common goal — to develop model cars that are powered and stopped solely by chemical reactions.

Cornell ChemE Car is a competition-based project team that started in 2004. It competes annually at both regional and national competitions hosted by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The team excels in competitions, having placed in the top two at regionals for the past three years.

“The goal is to produce a car, produce a battery or a power source of chosen pressure and be able to stop that car using a chemical reaction,” said senior captain Austin Kwan ’24.

The students on ChemE Car build on existing chemical reactions and car designs to produce two new shoebox-sized cars each year — a battery car and a pressure-based car — to send to

ChemE Car competitions.

This year, the battery car — Battery Mobile — and the pressure-based car — Under Pressure — both excelled in the competition. During the AIChE ChemE Car Northeast Regionals Competition on Saturday and Sunday, Cornell ChemE Car and Under Pressure took home second place in the ChemE Car competition — a competition centered around which team’s model car can carry a certain load closest to a marked finish line. The team also came in first place in the poster competition for its infographic describing the function and mechanism of Under Pressure.

Both of this year’s cars were mechanically constructed from scratch, according to junior captain Babette Gilles ’25.

“I wouldn’t say that everything we put into the car just came out of nowhere,” Gilles said. “It’s built upon years and years of trials, failures or successes and ideas that previous members have come up with.”

These made-from-scratch cars are produced by eight different subteams

— battery alpha, battery omega, electronics, business, pressure, potions, mechanical and research development consulting.

Battery alpha and battery omega are the two teams working on battery development and construction. The goals of the two battery teams rotate each semester, with one focusing on new chemical makeups and the other working to improve and test various solid, liquid and gas-based designs. Currently, the battery alpha team is working on a lead acid battery, while the battery omega team is working on an aluminum-air battery.

The mechanics and electronics subteams wire and build the car, carefully keeping it within the size constraint of a shoebox and ensuring that each component connects to the battery

The pressure subteam aims to generate a gas reaction to get the cars running, often based on carbon dioxide reactions, while the potions subteam uses chemical reactions, specifically an iodine clock, to stop the cars.

RDC is a support subteam dedicated to troubleshooting problems on any of the subteams, which helps students take on a more creative and adaptive role, according to Gilles.

“[RDC] investigates new projects that other subteams are thinking about, but either don’t have time for or [that are] not important in the moment but definitely [could] help in the future,” Gilles said. “[I] really bring my creativ[e] side [to] that subteam, and that’s what interested me in the beginning.”

Balancing the subteams is not always easy, though. Kwan and Gilles explained that most of the challenges come from creating, integrating and troubleshooting so many different parts

of the car.

However, ChemE Car utilizes collaboration and communication to mitigate these challenges, creating a family of students that helps the cars run smoothly.

“Even if you’re on a power subteam, everyone knows pretty much everything about the car, which is super important for when you actually go to competition,” Gilles said. “Problems arise, and you have to know how to troubleshoot and problem solve.”

Each spring, Cornell ChemE Car attends the regional competition with the intent to qualify for nationals, which take place each fall.

“We are always really strong at competitions, so we’ve qualified every single year at regionals,” Kwan said.

Once the team makes it to nationals, the difference between winning or losing the distance-based ChemE Car portion of the competition is a matter of centimeters.

“It definitely comes down to a little bit of luck and just however the conditions are on [the day of the national competition],” Kwan said.

The expanding competition space has also provided ChemE Car with an opportunity to collaborate, learn and meet other people.

“In competition, there’s a really neat part where we get to meet all the other teams,” Kwan said. “We were placed right next to a team from Saudi Arabia. It was really cool talking about their experience with ChemE Car and what their lives are like.”

As Cornell ChemE Car zooms into nationals, it is hoping to bring home gold from San Diego in November.

Ava Malkin can be reached at ahm254@cornell.edu.

GENERATIVE AI’S FUTURE IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

By TAYLOR RIJOS Sun Contributor

Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, a peer-reviewed journal, published an article titled “Cellular functions of spermatogonial stem cells in relation to JAK/STAT signaling pathway” on Feb. 13. Within a day of publication, readers pointed out that the figures were clearly generated with artificial intelligence — full of spelling errors, nonsensical diagrams and an anatomically incorrect, well-endowed rat. Within three days, Frontiers retracted the article.

The retracted article is just one example contributing to growing concern regarding AI’s applications in science. AI can be a powerful tool that spearheads innovation and development — however, it can also present a series of ethical, legal and scientific challenges that are intensely debated.

Generative AI has developed rapidly within the last decade, in part building off of the Generative Adversarial Network proposed by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in 2014. GANs allow AI models to create new content, including text, figures and videos, differentiating GenAI from classification and decision-making AI tools.

A recent Cornell University report details the potential benefits of GenAI at every stage of academic research — planning studies, organizing research, collecting data, disseminating findings and securing funding. This includes using GenAI tools to summarize large amounts of data,

improve clarity of writing and synthesize information from various sources.

While GenAI could increase research efficiency and accuracy, there are several key challenges to using GenAI in academic research, according to Cornell professors.

“Generative AI can output text or images that perpetuate errors (including misinformation and hallucinations) or invoke stereotypes that are not representative of the world,” wrote Prof. Allison Koenecke, information science, in an email to The Sun.

If the use and outputs of GenAI are not critically examined, there may be a reduction in research quality and accuracy, according to Prof. James Grimmelmann, Cornell Tech and law.

“[The article in Frontiers is an example of] people using generative AI to make things up, to automate the process of writing parts of a paper or illustrating it and to present garbage produced by the AI as though it were scientific research,” Grimmelmann said.

The use of GenAI to create figures in the Frontiers article was obvious to any reader, resulting in the social media storm that occurred shortly after its publication. However, there may be more subtle risks of using GenAI in scientific research.

According to Grimmelmann, using GenAI for routine sections of scientific papers — such as backgrounds, literature reviews and abstracts — opens up the possibilities for GenAI to get things wrong. Unlike the AI-generated images, the errors in these sections may appear reasonably

correct at first glance.

“If [GenAI] is just a shortcut, it might be a shortcut that leads to lower quality,” Grimmelmann said.

Additionally, while data fabrication has always been a concern in scientific research, GenAI may allow people to make up or alter datasets at a large scale while maintaining plausibility. Tools are being developed to detect fraud, but they are not yet able to detect with a high accuracy.

According to Prof. David Mimno, information science, another concern is that many researchers using GenAI tools may incorrectly believe they are producing the intended output or accurate results. Rather, GenAI can change lines of code or alter data — making its outputs seem more plausible — without the researcher’s intent.

As AI tools continue to develop, there has been an increase in actions and dialogues across governments, legal systems, research institutions and developers to maximize the benefits of GenAI while minimizing risks.

For example, in October 2023, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order on the Safe, Secure and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. The EO established safety and security standards for AI technology, safeguarded privacy rights, reduced algorithmic bias and sought to promote innovation.

The intersection between AI and science does not halt with research publi-

cations. In the US, there are more than 20 active legal cases regarding the use of GenAI tools, intellectual property rights and data privacy.

According to Grimmelmann, GenAI is not currently considered eligible for copyright or patent protection in the US because AI-generated content is not considered to be produced by a human. Despite the separation of human and AI, prompts used to generate outputs, data used to train algorithms and programming of AI tools may be considered as being produced by one individual.

“We’re going to have a lot of hard questions about how much human contribution is enough to let the human author take credit for what comes out of the generative AI,” Grimmelmann said.

In academia, scientific journals and editorial boards grapple with disclosure

rules for scientific research. The Cornell report proposes a series of duties for researchers using GenAI in their studies — discretion on the use of data and GenAI tools, verification of the outputs, disclosure of GenAI use and responsibility for every researcher to adhere to the standards of GenAI use.

For Mimno, trust is a major component of this discussion.

“A lot of academia and research works on volunteer labor where we are supporting each other as a community to make work better and to find science and truth,” Mimno said. “Ultimately we have to trust each other that we’re not making things up, we’re not creating images that don’t actually mean anything.”

Taylor Rijos can be reached at tlr65@cornell.edu.

VICTOR ARCE / THE NEW YORK TIMES

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