Outside a United Auto Workers union vote on a tentative agreement with the University for wage increases and benefits on Monday, over 30 students were present with signs, rally ing for a fair contract for Cornell’s full-time employees.
Delilah Hernandez ’22 is one of the cofounders of the Basic Needs Coalition, an organization that aids first generation and low income students on Hernandezcampus.saidthat while she is disappointed that private loans have not been forgiven in any capacity by Cornell University and the U.S. government, she believes that the policy is a first step towards eradicating the issue of student loan debt.
The Corne¬ Daily Sun INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880 Vol. 139, No 3 TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022 n ITHACA, NEW YORK 8 Pages Free HIGHThunderstorm : 83º LOW: 62º Digging for Answers Charlee Mandy ’24 pens an ode to archaeology. | Page 4 Arts Weather New Season It might be a long season ahead for Cornell's bottom and mid-standing sports teams. | Page 8 Sports Fall Recruitment Keep an eye out for upcoming information sessions for all Sun sec tions! Abortion | Cornell organizations gather on the Arts Quad in response to recent Roe v. Wade overturn, educat ing students on campus resources for reproductive health. LENNOX CAO / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students stood outside Bailey Hall at the start of the meeting, shouting various chants, including ‘Stand up, fight back,’ ‘If you strike, we strike with you’ and ‘Cornell Cornell you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side.’ Ralliers then sang a song in solidarity and entered the meeting, making their presence known by holding up signs and gathering in one section of theParticipatingauditorium.in the rally included members of Cornell Democrats, Cornell Progressives, Starbucks Workers United, the Working Families Party, Ithaca Democratic Socialist of America and People’s Organizing Collective, as well as independent students and local community members passionate about the cause.
Inside the meeting, many union members expressed concern to the UAW bargaining team about the wage increase offers they received from the University. Many cited the high inflation rate — the annual rate was reported at 8.5 percent in July — and argued that the
Abortion Rights on Arts Quad
Negotiations for wage increases started in May, and this is the second tentative agree ment that union representatives presented to UAW members in this round of bargaining. Before this round, UAW negotiated an extension on its contract with Cornell due to the pandemic.“Partof the term of the extension was we took a lower pay increase, and Cornell promised that the next contract would be significantly better,” said Chauncey Bennett IV, a University employee whose job is primarily to coordinate and receive food orders for the dining hall Okenshields. “That’s not what we got.”
Every semester, Cornell students take out loans to pay University tuition and fees, which have continually risen over the past several years. Total estimated cost of attendance this academic year was $83,296 for endowed colleges, and $62,798 for state contract colleges.
By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun News Editor See UNION page 3
As of Aug. 24, a program announced by the Biden administration may help defray some costs for current Cornell students and graduates with student loans to pay back. According to the Federal Student Aid division of the U.S. Department of Education, for borrowers with an individual income of less than $125,000 or or a household income less than $250,000, the U.S. Department of Education plans to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for Pell Grant recipients and those with loans from the Department of Education. Up to $10,000 in student debt is proposed to be canceled for non-Pell Grant recipients.
“This means so much to students and alumni who have taken out federal loans and have had to juggle with the different ways to make pay ments on time,” Hernandez said. “The policy has helped relieve so many Cornellians from the financial strain of thousands of dollars in debt.”
P.J. Brown ’25 is one student who believes that the information released by the Biden administration on the loan forgiveness program
See LOANS page 3See ABORTION page 3 Join the Sun JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Students hold signs inside United Auto Workers union vote to demand a fair con tract for Cornell University employees.
Rally
“We just want people to be able to have a more complete, contextualized conversation than is often possible given the way that abortion is talked about,” said Prof. Jess Marie Newman, feminist, gender and sexuality studies, one of the event’s pri maryRachelorganizers.Jacob ’23, co-president of PPGA, echoed By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant News Editor
By CARLIN REYEN Sun Staff Writer
On Saturday, representatives from reproductive health and justice organizations across Cornell’s campus and beyond gathered on the Arts Quad for the kickoff of Our Bodies, Their Laws — an event series aiming to foster engagement and education on reproductive rights. The organizations tabling at the event includ ed the Cornell chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action, the department of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, End Abortion Stigma, Advocacy Center, Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition, Cornell Health and the Women’s Resource Center. The event also featured a tent where attendees could vent frustrations regarding the current state of reproductive rights. The tables distributed snacks, informational pamphlets and free condoms to attendees. Following the decision of Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022, which overturned the federal right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade, several faculty and staff members began to plan the event series, with a focus on engaging the Cornell community in conversation regarding reproductive rights.
"I am out here today because our full time workers deserve to have a living wage,” Cornell Progressives member Adele Williams ’24 said. “They are going to the food banks in order to keep up with their low salaries and support their families.”
Biden Admin’s Debt Forgiveness Draws Positive Reactions
“Workers deserve to be recognized and formally thanked,” said Javed Jokhai ’24, Sun columnist, Cornell Democrats president and a student organizer for the rally. “They sup ported the student body for so long, it’s time that the student body supports them back.”
Students Show Solidarity With University Workers |
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The Future of Work: Parallel Economies 10:15 a.m., Virtual Event Behavior Economics and Decision Research Internal Showcase 11:15 a.m., Sage Hall 141 Econometrics Workshop: Charles Manski 11:15 a.m., Ives Hall 219 Level-Up on LinkedIn Noon, Virtual Event Lab of Atomic of Solid State Physics and Applied And Engineering Physics Seminar by Hui Cao 12:20 p.m., 142 Sciences Drive Introduction to LaTeX 3 p.m., Olin Library 106G Classroom Preparing for a Virtual Career Fair 3:30 p.m., Virtual Event Holy Modern: Imperial Abstractions, Technocracy And the Architecture of Fascist Hispanidad 4:45 p.m., Klarman Hall KG42 Home and Household in the Late Ancient Near East 5 p.m., White Hall 106 Music in the Hollow: Silo Food Truck 6 p.m., Ellis Hollow Community Center FlowAntibodyCytometryCafe 10 a.m., Biotechnology Building G10
Alexander Rudensky, Ph.D. Chair, Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering
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The consensus among event organizers and par ticipants was the goal to educate Cornellians on the reproductive health resources available on and off campus. Shura Gat, interim associate dean of stu dents and director of the Women’s Resource Center, emphasized that the Center provides resources for physical and emotional wellbeing.
Chowdhury added that low-income students at Cornell are often told to take out loans to pay for basic necessities includ ing housing, food and medical care. She noted that the Basic Needs Coalition began its advocacy by providing students with resources about federal programs such as SNAP, which provides food stamps and Medicaid, for health insurance so that they would not need to take out additional loans to feed themselves or access healthcare.
“It’s not feasible for low-income students to take up loans when we’re already trying to lift ourselves and our families from existing poverty and debt,” Chowdhury said. She believes that there is still much work to be done, citing that the student loan forgiveness program is a one-time initia tive. The plan is also expected to face legal challenges.
For more information on the student loan forgiveness pro gram, the White House has released a fact sheet.
Student solidarity | Students rally outside a UAW meeting and union vote at Bailey Hall on Monday, chanting for a fairer contact between campus employees and the University.
“We know that, depending on what state stu dents live in, that [current events] might impact them very personally — either their families or their own bodies,” Gat said. Hope Cross-Jaya ’25, an attendee at the event, said she enjoyed speaking with representatives from different organizations and learning about available resources.“There are a lot of opportunities for people to get involved, and to understand their bodies and understand their rights,” Cross-Jaya said. “We need these resources to build each other up, and I think that having that sense of community is so important right now, at this time, but also at this University as well.”
“It’s sad that it took something so bad happening for this many people to care,” Jacob said. “But it’s nice to see a lot of people attend and be motivated and willing to raise awareness and help.”
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
At the FGSS table, Fabiola Faroh ’25, an FGSS minor and student intern for the department, answered students’ questions about the major, minor and class offerings. She said the event was important to inform students of the academic opportunities on gender equality that are available on campus and educate Cornellians on the current state of reproduc tive justice in the United States.
Damien Osborne ’22, who serves as the treasurer of PPGA, emphasized the importance of on-campus resources for students from states with limited repro ductive health services. Gat echoed this sentiment.
“It’s a pretty uniquely American experience that our education is so expensive, as students at this institution are well aware of,” Herzog said, citing that educational costs are outpacing aid. The Biden administration’s plan is a start in the right direction, according to him. Hernandez said that the Basic Needs Coalition is work ing to curtail the offering of private loans to students by the University, which she described as a “go-to” action of the Financial Aid office.
ABORTION Continued from page 1
Loan by Students
Chants could be heard outside UAW meeting for a fair contract
“The whole idea of being a resource center is that we have physical resources — things like free period products, free sustainable period products, free pregnancy tests, free safer sex products, as well as intangible resources such as relevant programming and opportunities for community and connection around gender justice,” Gat said.
“Some people say, ‘Well, I paid my loans, why can’t others do the same?’” Herzog said, pointing out what he described as a “logical fallacy” in the statement. He called this type of reaction a failure to empathize with intense structural issues.
“Future low-income students who are forced to take up loans will not benefit from this,” Chowdhury said. “Cornell is credited for being a need-based aid institution, but that doesn’t mean the aid we receive is enough to sustain all students. Many low-income students are still having to take out loans to feed and house themselves, and the Biden plan is not enough to address this student debt crisis that will continue to impact students in the future.”
“We hope that our upcoming workshops, policy changes, and media presence will prevent students from opting into a private loan by guiding students on how to access resources on our campus,” Hernandez said. “Bringing awareness and pro viding accessibility options for students in navigating essential resources can reduce the amount of debt that many students are stuck with.”
Herzog said he has noticed some “selfish” reactions to the announcement of Biden’s student loan relief initiative.
Forgiveness Viewed Favorably
“Where is that money going towards, if not going towards improving the qual ity of living for the students on cam pus, improving the quality of the build ings and the staff that supports that?” Williams said. “It is completely unreasonable for a company that has made record profits in the last two years to not pay us enough to live,” Bennett added. Throughout the meeting and while passing by the rally outside, union mem bers expressed their gratitude for student activism.“Ifthe workers find a contract through negotiation that they are happy with, then that would be the happiest day for me. And if the Cornell workers decide that they keep getting contracts that they are unhappy with and they decide to disrupt Cornell, I would be equally as happy. Whatever they decide,” Jokhai said. “We will make sure that workers never feel forgotten.” development.“Ithinkthey need to clarify some of their language on [its relevance to] current students,” Brown said. However, Brown believes that for many college graduates, the program will help them out of “really tough positions.” Amisha Chowdhury’23, another cofounder of the Basic Needs Coalition, referenced the disproportionate impact stu dent loans have on first generation, low income students, and students of color. “Biden’s student loan forgiveness is a step towards the right direction, but it is not enough,” Chowdhury said. “Student debt is a major stressor that prevents low-income, first-gen eration, Black and Brown students from building wealth for themselves and their families. We’re told that we have to get into college to climb up the social ladder, but you’re trapped once you’re in Chowdhuryhere.”said that students from low-income families bear the extra responsibility of generating wealth for them selves and their families, compared to students coming from generational
“If it cut mine in half, it would obviously be great,” Brown said.Isaac Herzog ’23 said that while the loan forgiveness initia tive does not personally apply to him, he has been following the issue from an “academic standpoint.”
“It is completely unreasonable for a company that has made record profits in the last two years to not pay us enough to live.” Chauncey Bennett IV
Sofa Rubinson can be reached at srubinson@cornellsun.com. Aimée Eicher can be reached at aeicher@cornellsun.com.
RallyReproductiveKickof
proposed increases would not be enough to compensate for the rising cost of goods.Other union members expressed frus tration about staff shortages, with many saying they were doing the work of two or three employees. One union member said new hires are not being properly trained, causing them to get reprimand ed for not following rules and said that due to this, many new hires do not last long.In an interview with The Sun, build ing care employee Suzanne Monroe con veyed her exhaustion for doing the job of multiple people, all while actively fight ing her battle with cancer and having to go to the hospital for treatments. “Even though I’m tired, I make sure my job is done properly. We are so shortstaffed. We have to go from building to building. We don’t get paid right,” Monroe said. “Building care employees worked throughout COVID. We are down 11 employees in our unit.”
“Buildingwealth.wealth… is extremely difficult to do with the burden of student loans,” Chowdhury said. Brown, too, was hopeful that the program would help reduce his own student loans.
Carlin Reyen can be reached at creyen@cornellsun.com.
News The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 3 UNION Continued from page 1 Students Rally for Campus Employees
LOANS Continued from page 1
Cornell Health also offers reproductive health resources, including reversible forms of contracep tion, sexual health nurses and emergency contracep tion, said Rachel Clark, clinical director of women’s and sexual health at Cornell Health. Cornell Health also collaborates with Planned Parenthood to pro vide students with abortion services.
Bennett expressed concern over wage increases in the tentative agreement. “Cornell is supposed to be a learning institution founded on peer-reviewed academic data, yet rejects all peer-re viewed academic data when it comes to living wage,” Bennett said, referring to MIT’s living wage calculator, which indicates that a living wage for an adult with zero children is $19.33 an hour in Tompkins County. Some pointed out that Cornell’s endowment climbed 41.9 percent during the 2021 fiscal year, marking the largest gain in more than three decades. Union members and students questioned why proposed wage increases could not even climb to a livable wage.
COURTESY OF MARZUOLO ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT
4 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 A & C & ARTS & CULTURE
Charlee Mandy is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at cmandy@cornellsun.com.
CHARLEE MANDY SUN STAFF
It is also true that I, enter ing my final year of undergradu ate study, am guilty of buying a wool Indiana Jones-style hat at TJ Maxx last Tuesday. But, at the very least, I would like to begin my service to the transformation of archaeology with an ode to that daily tedium of fieldwork, to the paperwork and clipboards and the dirt-un der-the-nails absurdity of it. Let it also be my chance to enjoin the reader who takes even a passing interest in archaeology to seek out fieldwork experienc es, especially if you find yourself in a collegiate environment that might fund and enable them. For those that love and revile and chase history, the truth is that its actual fabric is not in books and maps — these are at once the selective, loudest voices of history and the frail, beautiful human handiwork that is essential to our search for knowledge and meaning. But they are not the whole story, and not remotely the whole story for the non-elite. The site in Tuscany where I was working as a student excavator this field work season, on the Marzuolo Archaeological Project, was that of a rural crafting community of the sort that left no literary traces or grand marble monuments, but was undeniably a vibrant center of creative pro duction and exchange. The people that lived there stamped their bricks with their names and logos, forged and mended tools, bought, sold, worked, lived and worshiped between their walls — the same opus reticulatum walls that I crouched and dug beside for four weeks.Iwill never feel so suddenly close to the sense of a Roman indi vidual as I did find ing — with a magpie glance — a little glass bead in the dust, rolled away from some neck lace or bracelet into the shadows. I will never appreciate time’s relentless inter ment of human traces more than when I was brushing layer after layer of beaten or tiled floors, all stacked atop one another like one big earthen lasagna. Eager to ask and answer questions, I was lucky that my trench was a real puzzle. Often my directors, trench supervisor and fellow workers and I would stand frowning down at the jumble — theorizing, swearing and sweating profusely, dream ing of the tinkle of ice in a glass and the gas station Coca Colas. Trowels constantly went miss ing; nothing emerged for hours but the delightful impish globs of iron nails; the chalkboard for labeling photographs was left in the sun and could have been used to fry eggs. In the afternoons, we stu dents scrubbed bones and sherds of pottery, debating immortality and playlist choices, and then swam, slept, flocked to the bar. Stirring our drinks with pink plastic straws, we mused on how different it felt to be tired from hauling dirt, compared with that sleepless, inching fatigue of life at a desk. It was a calloused and self-conscious delight, a sense of remarkable privilege. So this is what I found in the earth: there is no simple reason that we dig. Of course, we bristle with questions — research questions and existential questions, ques tions of finding and funding, and of ourselves. There are nich es of knowledge that seem, like paradoxes, to expand forever into ever-shrinking detail. There is the pride in the eyes of the people of Cinigiano, the town of seven hundred people down the road from the site, when they came one evening at sunset to see our trenches and to share their theories. There is a cold quiet that dwells in the earth when your hand is pressed to stones laid down two thousand years before, which reminds you that things represent the lives of people: not stories, not statues, but messy, unknowable, ordi nary people. And yet this is in part why we reach backwards, peering into the rural ancient past as though through a key hole — to know them better. To look them in the eyes and understand all that we share, and all that we do not, and everything in between that we cannot jargonize. As we hollowed out the walls of ancient lives, collecting in our red buckets the material traces of individuals, we were creating them as seen through the veil of history and our present. They were shaping us in return, on the wheel of our own knowl edge, by influencing our own accretive understandings and by building the walls beside which I knelt on many hot Tuscan mornings, and in whose memo ry I now write — a conversation across the dark shores of time. We worked right until the end, when the trenches were reburied and all traces of our and their presence were smoothed over once more, and the groves lay quiet. The ants whose pas sageways we had disturbed were already rebuilding their siege walls and granaries.
Imagine the weeks stretching behind and ahead of you: the sun on your neck, the musi cal scraping of soil under metal trowels, the smell of earth and damp hay, the scarf tied around nose and mouth, the stubborn rhythm of pickaxes, the jolt in the knees of stepping sideways into the trench as it deepens, time going with it. It is often said of archaeology that it has been romanticized to an aesthetic or swashbuck ling, romantic ideal, and that most people would find disap pointment in its daily tedium. Perhaps there is some proud reluctance to bring that ideal back down to earth. It is true that the field remains, in many corners, rarefied and needing epistemic change (beyond the scope of this meditation, but be assured that many wiser minds than mine are working on it too).
COURTESY OF DR. RHODORA VENNNARUCCI
What I Found in the Earth
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L ate August and non-frozen-hells cape weather once again mark the start of a brand new school year. A fresh set of classes to attend to dili gently, new dorm rooms to christen with unwashed laundry and a fervor for the spirit of academic exploration that runs through our Big Red veins. Not to mention, a whole new cohort of bright-eyed freshmen embarking on their college journeys — all in the surveillance test-free comfort of their brand-spanking-new dorms and boujee pastry cafes. Back in my day, North Campus was a pile of dirt, rock, machin ery and cigarette butts. These whipper snappers just don’t know how good they haveUnfortunateit. renovation timing aside, one of the hallmarks of a new academic year is the freshmen’s mad scramble for group belonging and friendships. Now is the time to approach strangers in the dining hall for some company or attend as many random club meetings as pos sible to hopefully build a decently sized list of lunch contacts. This period of social add/drop allows new students to put themselves out there before every one’s drowning in schoolwork and hap piness becomes a remnant of a foregone time.Observing and partaking in all this socializing and waters-testing has had me reflecting on the ways that we form friendships, particularly in new envi ronments like college. I like to think of these early-semester college interactions as transient, induced dipole moments between neighboring atoms’ electron clouds. If the latter half of that sentence made no sense to you, then I applaud you for preserving your STEM virginity. Like most things in chemistry, the explanation is complicated, so I’ll give the basic gist. Remember to take notes, because none of these lectures will be recorded for some very well thought-out and justifiable reason.
One atom’s momentarily charged elec tron cloud can influence another atom’s cloud by attracting or repelling their elec trons, which can, in turn, do the same to other atoms, creating a whole system of completely random, transient attractions between temporary positive and negative charges.Whew. Six years of chemistry courses and I still had to fall back on LibreTexts to fully recall all of that. What my need lessly complicated simile means to point out is that college companionship often arises out of random associations. Sometimes our electrons just so hap pen to be distributed a certain way for a sliver of a second, creating a par tial charge that then induces a partial charge in someone else’s electron cloud, leading to the faintest of attractions. In the same way, friendships in college can arise from the random, momentary coincidences that draw two people clos er together.Whether it be during a seven hour bus ride home for Thanksgiving or in a breakout room during a gen chem sum mer prep course, serendipitous encoun ters happen to every single one of us, every single day. In the infinitely ran dom, occasionally sober movements of students on this campus, we’re bound to cross paths with a huge variety of people, every single one of them with unique perspectives and stories to share. Out there in the day to day, it’s on us to recognize and embrace these chance encounters. As hard as it may be to believe sometimes, no one has it all together as much as they might seem to. Feigning disinterest is an easy way to avoid being vulnerable, but even the most aloof strangers could benefit from meeting someone new. Besides, anyone who thinks they’re too cool for a new friend probably isn’t worth your time, anyway.I’monly just now, as a junior, learning how to take advantage of these passing encounters. I don’t do it very well by any means, but I try to inch ever so slightly further out of my comfort zone when I see the opportunity arise. Far too often, we wonder if we’re alone in our awkwardness or if everyone else is in on some cruel joke that we don’t get. Neither of those things are true, but even if they were, it wouldn’t matter; sooner or later, you’ll find your electron cloud surrounded by just the right people at just the right time. I want to end by encouraging the underclassmen to pursue their transient dipole moments. You’ll know exactly when these moments come, and what you need to do to capitalize on them. Any opportunity you take to make a new friend means more good done in the world, regardless of how confident you feel doing it. To the upperclassmen: let’s ensure that new students feel welcome and loved in the unforgiving tundra that is Cornell. Even if we’re secretly just as confused and unsure of ourselves as the under classmen, we at least have varying degrees of caffeine dependency and seniority on campus, so let’s use them to make the new students’ experiences more memora ble, even if we’ll never get to live in their fancy new dorms.
Noah Do Noah’s Arc Noah Do is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at ndo@cornellsun.com.
All atoms are made up of a small, positively charged core called a nucleus, which is orbited by negatively charged particles called electrons. These electrons are constantly in motion, so much so that we can never simultaneously know their momentum and position (see the Breaking Bad guy for more on that). The space where all the electrons zoom around the nucleus is called the electron cloud.In all the infinitely random move ment of an atoms’ electrons, there are moments where they just so happen to be distributed slightly asymmetrically throughout the electron cloud at just the right instant, creating regions of partial negative charges (where electrons are more densely located) and partial positive charges (where there are fewer electrons).
Noah’s Arc runs every other Sunday this semester.
Pero now I climb these hillsides of Ithaca. Daydreaming of Nabokovs with a side of plátanos. Dreams of longing Dreams of change But in my dreams I still climb your mountains. I revel in your beautifully broken roads and the man I long to be looks just like you. Here I am, writing to you, hoping to reach you with a story that can bring us together. Because it seems that any other attempt has failed me, failed you. I am writing to claim an identity as a Cornellian — as an intellectual, a person with a story, a song and a purpose — and so should you. I hope you can understand — not count or quantify — the measure of your personal triumphs. Your story is vital to the family we make as Cornellians. I remember sitting on the top of my home on the mountainsides, dreaming of who I was and where I belonged, hoping that someone out there could write this story with me. Now I sit on the hillsides of Ithaca, where I have come to understand that what I needed was not another story like my own, but to hear and experience someone else’s to help put my story in perspective. Te growing pains of adjusting to a new world is as beautiful and enlight ening as it is sufocating. Despite what you think your past narration speaks about you, we all rest on the same hilltop. Not every thing is rainbows and sunshine — there will be disap pointment. Tere will be shortfalls, as there might have been before. Yet remind yourself to look around and acknowledge where your story has led you. Te shared triumph makes us one. It makes us family. Looking back now, perhaps my misunderstood speechlessness was not a lack of words but rather a multitude of feelings — perhaps an unspoken song, not heard but felt, that we have written over our years at Cornell. Curiosity, sorrow, love, animosity, compas sion — you will always fnd poetry beneath these words in your life. Te story that has followed you while you ran is powerful, but how you can make that a testament to your individual character now — that is poetic. Hopefully now at the cusp of adulthood and wisdom that we strive for at Cornell is the time that you must commit to being honest about your story, for the sake of you.Ionly ask that you write down your poems and sto ries from this moment on to a rhythm only felt by you. Write to the judgment of your one-person audience. Don’t look for validation of your craft, as all you’ll fnd is loneliness. I’ve had one too many peers, advisors, employers and educators attempt to force a version of a story onto me; I have relied on others who would carry my pen and hold my paper for too long. If I had acceded to freeing myself from this responsibility, it would become my only life dictated by someone else’s lines. You have an unspoken story, and although you may not know the words to the next chapter of your story, or merely the words to the next sentence of your stanza, when you do, I hope that you’ll profess it with words that last a lifetime and with a desire to help others mend the back bone of their own anthology. I hope that, in the end, you will mold the version of this story, this prose that you’ve worked on your entire life, to become your memoir. I know I will.
Hugo Amador (he/him) is a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He can be reached at haa45@cornell.edu. Caged Birds Always Sing runs every other Monday this semester.
Caged Birds Always Sing
Opinion6 The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Club fest and formal class presenta tions brought another shock. Apparently, everyone but me already had a whole professional wardrobe, ready for inter views and snappy headshots. All I had were a couple pairs of dress pants that didn’t fit right, left over from middle and high school band concert days. And LinkedIn? Never heard of it. I quickly realized I was unprepared for the world of networking and professionalism that I had entered. I had to jump on the learning train quickly or risk getting left behind at the station. My frst professional wardrobe fnally came this summer, and it was all supplied from the second-hand store in my hometown, in preparation for my frst internship (a concept that was completely foreign to me two years ago). Graduate school is a whole ‘nother ball game. If you thought I wasn’t pre pared for the world of college, it might not surprise you to hear how much time I have spent on my own fguring out what it takes to apply to and get into law school. LSATS, interviews, undergradu ate majors, T-14s, big law and more. Some of my peers have two parents and an older sibling who have all been to law school before them. I have Google, an iron will and a mom who loves and supports me no matter what. And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being a f rst-generation student at Cornell has been one of the best expe riences of my life. I have learned about myself and grown as an individual in an environment where I am able to thrive. Did I have it as easy as the students who were raised in the world of higher educa tion and higher income brackets? No, but I would choose my life and my experienc es a thousand times over.
Mi querido Honduras: My days run short as does my memory of your misery. Heads, decapitated, grazed the grounds of you, which I call home.
Did I have it as easy as the students who were raised in the world of higher education and higher income brackets? No, but I would choose my life and growing pains of adjusting to a new world is as beautiful and enlightening as it is suffocating.
Why I Choose to Write
W hen I was very young, my mom used to take me garage-saling in the wealthier neighborhoods. She would show me the big houses, the beautifully landscaped yards and the in-ground pools. She would explain to me that the people that lived in these houses were people who went to college and got good jobs — specifcally, they were doc tors and lawyers. More importantly, she made it clear to me that I could be one of those people, even though my parents hadn’t been. So, I always knew I was going to col lege. Partly because of my mom’s encour agement, and partly because I was made for college. I liked school, I did well and I earned good grades. Education was part of the values I was raised on and part of who I Untilwas.I was accepted to Cornell, I had never considered myself to be a frst-generation college student. It wasn’t something that I cared about or thought mattered. My mom, regardless of her level of education, is the strongest woman I know and was the one who had always supported my education. She went with me on college tours and proof-read every application essay I submitted. I never felt at aIndisadvantage.myfrstcouple of years at Cornell, however, I developed an identity as a frst-generation student. I learned about the unique challenges that we are present ed with as frst-generation students, and I gained an increased sense of pride in my Ivy League education. One of the frst challenges I faced as a frst-generation student is knowing what a typical college schedule even looks like. I have bittersweet memories of my frst pre-enroll, emailing back and forth with my advisor about what a normal college schedule looked like, realizing very quickly it was much diferent than the standard 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. school day in high school. No one had ever told me how diferent college life would look from that of high school, and I didn’t know many people in college, so it came as quite a shock to me that I wouldn’t be in class all day every day. Something so simple was so confusing for me because I had no one’s footsteps to follow in. Tis was followed by a sharp learning curve on what it actually looks like to be a college student on the day to day. What do I do with the time I’m not in class? How does a meal plan work? Is the only chance at a social life the kind of college parties you see in movies? What on Earth is Greek life?
Hugo Amador
thousandexperiencesmyatimesover.The
Halle Swasing Goes Without Swasing
First-Generation: More Tan Just the First to College D earIreader:grew up in the beautiful wetlands of Honduras. A gorgeous world of its own — one I call home. To me, heaven was the barren jungle that was the backdrop of my innocence and ignorance. I was once luckily gifted a small pocket journal by the only professor remaining in my school (the rest were either killed or forced to fee). In that journal I crafted a simi lar world like the one around me: the hungry, scaveng ing for food. Te homeless and broken yearning for a moment of shade, and fnding a home within my jungle. Te gangs, machine guns and violence plagued me and those around me. Mi Árbolesselva.verdes, pájaros bellos, la selva que adoro nos protege sobre el temor. Ellos que caminan con armas de dolor no nos harán daño en mi selva. I wrote unapologetically. I had no fear of how my tale would unfold in the real world because it was a variation of my real world. At Cornell I was but a poor mimicry of the people I surrounded myself with – so here I am, the fctional being I had written into life: Born in New York, not Honduras. Living in an upper-middle-class home, not the tents of trash bags most would deem a luxury in mi Honduras.Yetdespite the change in character, my story has fol lowed me to Ithaca. It reminded me of a key fact of my life: you can leave the wetlands, master the English lan guage and run as far as your heels and heart can carry. Yet, the story runs with you. Here I am, two years into Cornell and in fear of how a story out of place might crumble this new reality that I exist in. Te character I had crafted fears the new world, but I, Hugo, no longer wish to. Frankly, you should not either.
Halle Swasing (she/her) is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at hls87@cornell.edu. Goes Without Swasing runs every other Sunday this semester.
Comics and Puzzles The Cornell Daily Sun | Tuesday, August 30, 2022 7 Sundoku Puzzle 2775 Strings Attached by Ali Solomon ’01 I Am Going to Be Small Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the num bers 1-9 threesolutionnumberonce.exactlyEachinthethereforeoccursonlyonceineachofthe“directions,”hencethe“singlenumbers”impliedbythepuzzle’sname.(Rulesfromwikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku) BREATHE Mr. Gnu by Travis Dandro Mr. Gnu by Travis Dandro 26 A PA R TMENT FOR R ENT *****************************RENTNOW,GETTHEBEST www.MatoulasHouses.com Apartments & Houses in Collegetown LINDEN AVE, COLLEGE AVE, CATHERINE ST, EDDY ST, E. SENECA ST & OAK AVE EMAIL: **************************************FIRST-COMES,PHONE:MatoulasHouses@Gmail.com(607)800-9900FIRST-SERVED We have availability for the 2023-2024 school year beginning June 1st at Hudson Heights apartments. These studios include electric, heat, water, garbage and parking. Coin-operated laundry facilities available on site. Prices start at $850/month for a 12 month lease, with options for 10 month and semester leases with different rates. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a tour contact us by email: forwww.ithacalivingsolutions.comPleaserenting@ithacaLS.com.visitourwebsitephotosandmoreinformation. cenro l usl n . c o m cornellsuncom
Sprint Football (Alumni Game): Sept. 3 at 2 p.m. Women’s soccer: Sept. 4 at 1 p.m. Volleyball: Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. Men’s soccer: Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. Field Hockey: Sept. 23 at 4 p.m.
Upcoming home games
Back to school means back to the feld for the Red
The Red was picked to finish in a tie for last in the Ivy League preseason poll, but it will try to build on a 2021 campaign that saw its first Ivy League win in five years. The team kicks off Ivy play on Sept. 24 at Columbia.
SportsThe Corne¬ Daily Sun 8TUESDAY AUGUST 30, 2022
Here’s What You Need to Know
Cornell football returns home on September 24 against Yale at Schoellkopf Field at 2 p.m.
Defense |
Berman Field’s other tenant for the fall, men’s soccer, will look to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. The Red narrowly missed a postseason berth last fall after coming up short in a late-season loss against Princeton and drawing Columbia in the final match of the season. 2021 All-Ivy First Team forward Emeka Eneli will lead the team into its season opener on Sept. 2 at UC Santa Barbara. On Dodson Field, field hockey is looking to end a 31-year Ivy League title drought. Standing in the Red’s way is a Harvard squad that is coming off a Final Four appearance in 2021. The Red, which was picked fourth in the preseason poll, starts its campaign on Sept. 7 at Colgate and returns to Dodson Field on Sept. 23 when it hostsOverDartmouth.onthehard court in Newman Arena volleyball is hoping to bounce back from a disappointing seventh place finish in 2021. The Red was chosen to repeat in seventh in the Ivy League preseason poll. Cornell returns to the court at the Kent State Invitational on Sept. 2. Across Campus Road on Schoellkopf Field, football is coming off a tie for sixth place in the Ivy League in 2021. The Red was picked to finish last in the preseason poll, but Cornell has beaten its preseason prediction in six of the last seven seasons. Cornell will be hampered by the loss of 51 seniors, but will hope that a full season with sophomore quarterback Jameson Wang under center will help revital ize the offense. The Red kicks off its 2022 campaign on Sept. 17 at VMI before returning to Schoellkopf on Sept. 24 to host Yale during homecoming.
Sprint football will return to action on Sept. 16 at Army, and will look to do better than the 66-6 loss it suf fered against Army last season. The Red will try to improve on its 2-5 2021 season. On the water, sailing has a busy fall schedule and row ing will get a taste of competition before the main spring season. Sailing starts its season at the Kings Point Regatta on Sept. 10, where it will try to repeat its first place finish from last season. Their fellow team on the water, rowing, returns to action on Oct. 23 in Boston on the Charles River.Last but not least, golf will return on Sept. 3 at the Alex Lagowitz Memorial Invitational at Colgate. The team will attempt to beat its finish of sixth, out of 15, at the event in 2021.
JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Cornerback Michael Irons defends a pass against Princeton at Schoellkopf Field. The Red is hoping to get revenge against the Tigers when it faces them on Oct. 29. With the semester in full swing, Cornell’s fall sports teams are preparing for the upcoming season. Women’s soccer got the ball rolling over the weekend, and men’s soccer, volleyball, sailing and golf will return to action over Labor Day weekend. If the preseason polls are any indication, it could be a long season for the Red. Women’s soccer, volleyball and football are all projected to finish at or near the bottom of the Ivy League standings, while men’s soccer and field hockey are projected to finish in the middle of the pack. Women’s soccer kicked off the season, jumping out to a disappointing 0-2 start in two games over the weekend.
Aaron Snyder can be reached at asnyder@cornellsun.com. If the preseason polls are any indication, it could be a long season for the Red.
By AARON SNYDER Sun Sports Editor
Women’s soccer, volleyball and football are all predicted to finish at or near the bottom of the Ivy League standings.
Fall Sports Return to Action
