Quote of the Day

"I believe that Lynah is the kind of place that sets rookie development back a good month for visiting squads."

Also, here's some further reading on tonight's opponent, Princeton.

For what it's worth, Brian Sullivan picks Cornell over Princeton 3-1, Quinny over Cornell 4-3, and Cornell over Colgate, 4-2.

Hockey Weekend Outlook

Last week, I predicted that Cornell would lose to Yale, 5-2, and then rebound to beat Brown, 3-0. I was somewhat right. Yale beat Cornell, 4-2. Cornell was leading Brown 3-0 with 3 minutes left. (Final was 6-0.)

In the strong ECAC of 2009-2010, there aren't many easy weekends. Just a couple of years ago, we would have looked at this coming weekend with a sigh of relief. Quinnipiac has never beaten Cornell, except that one time we don't talk about. And Princeton was awful (like 3-26-2 awful) until Kalemba, Jubinville, etc., came along. Colgate, meanwhile, has traditionally been the definition of mediocrity in the ECAC.

Things are different this year.

No. 19 Princeton is only 3-2-1, but they remain a dangerous team. If last year's games are any indication, tomorrow night's game will go down to the final minute. Cornell pulled off a 1-0 road win on the first night of the season last year, then Princeton stole a 2-1 victory at Lynah by scoring twice in the final 36 seconds as the Red imploded. In the ECAC semifinal game, Cornell came back to tie the game late in the 3rd before winning in double overtime. Cornell had trouble getting the puck past Kalemba last year; expect a low-scoring affair.

No. 13 Quinnipiac, at 8-1-0, currently holds the best record in all of college hockey. They opened the season with an impressive sweep of Ohio State in Columbus, and have won all four ECAC games so far (albeit against weak teams). Their lone loss was an 8-5 scorefest at lowly Robert Morris, but they still outshot RMU 63-33 that night. Just had some bad goaltending. Q is second in the nation in goals per game, just behind Cornell.

No. 23 Colgate comes to town on Tuesday, part of an arrangement worked out between the two schools so Cornell can host North Dakota for a weekend in January. Colgate is 5-2-4, but hasn't lost in almost a month. They sit in second place in the ECAC, having managed a 3-3 tie against Yale on Saturday. Perhaps Yale had a mental letdown after the excitement of playing Cornell the night before, or maybe Colgate is a better team at this point in the season than Cornell. We'll find out.

So, here are some predictions. Cornell plays a tight game with Princeton and ties, 2-2. The Quinnipiac offense runs all over Cornell's slow defensemen and wins, 5-3. Panic sets in at Lynah. The team recovers on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory over the Red Raiders. Cornell goes 1-1-1 over the long weekend and now sits at a respectable 5-2-1 heading into next Saturday's game against BU at Madison Square Garden.

Another Great Year for Cornell Sports?

There was some discussion over the summer about how great last year was for Cornell sports. The track teams continued to dominate, the gymnastics team won a national title, and hockey, basketball, wrestling, and lacrosse all had solid seasons.

After beating Alabama on the road to open the season, the Big Red basketball team received a couple of votes in the top 25 polls. Their victory tonight over UMass might earn them some additional respect.

Meanwhile, hockey has the talent to compete for a national title. Good results against Princeton, Quinnipiac, and Colgate this weekend will give us a good idea about where the season may be heading.

Could 2009-2010 be another great year for Cornell sports? Signs point to yes.

Who Is Elmira Mangum?

The university announced last week that Elmira Mangum will be the new vice president for budget and planning. Her appointment was approved last Wednesday by the board of trustees, and Mangum will start in February. Since my June post about Laura Brown seemed to gather a lot of interest, I'll try to do a little research on Mangum.

Mangum is no stranger to upstate New York, having held administrative positions at SUNY-Buffalo from 1984 to 2001. She has served as associate provost at UNC-Chapel Hill since 2001 and is in charge of preparing the operating budget each year.

Earlier this year, it was reported that UNC-Chapel Hill has the highest paid professors of any publicly-supported institution.

Like Cornell, UNC hired the services of Bain & Co. this year to find ways to cut costs and balance the budget. UNC faces a $60 million budget shortfall and is enacting 5 percent cuts across the board. However, unlike Cornell, UNC was able to solicit a private donation to hire Bain.

Mangum wrote a 1998 dissertation entitled "A study of the leadership behaviors of public four-year historically black college and university presidents as perceived by the presidents and their upper echelon administrators." She earns points for crafting a 26-word title with no punctuation.

Unsurprisingly, Mangum donated to Barack Obama's campaign. What is interesting is that she was a very early donor. She gave $500 in June '07 and then another $1800 in August '07, which meant that she was "maxed out" several months before the first primary. For whatever reason, she chose not to give again during the general election cycle (or donated a far smaller amount).

Mangum is a registered Democrat and has voted in every recent election. She may have signed an online petition encouraging North Carolina's superdelgates to cast their votes for Barack Obama at the convention. Mangum should feel at home politically at Cornell, since the senior staff members she will work with are mostly Democrats and Independents.

Mangum is 55 or 56 years old. She owns a four-bedroom, 3,600-sq. ft. home which is currently assessed at $414,188. It appears that she purchased the house in 2001 for $330,000.

Mangum was at one time known as Elmira Mangum-Daniel, which suggests she has since divorced.

We wish Mangum success and hope she is able to balance our budget.

Tough Times in the Ivory Tower

First, apologies for the lack of updates recently. I usually write a few posts in advance to post automatically when I'm away, but I didn't have a chance to do that this weekend.

There's been some additional economic coverage in the media the last couple of weeks, since we're around the one-year anniversary of when our financial system collapsed. You remember what happened -- the plunging stock market, the frantic political maneuvers to pass an unprecedented bailout bill, John McCain "suspending" his presidential campaign to return to Washington.

It took a while for the effects of the poor economy to reach Cornell, but its presence is now unavoidable. The reporters and editors at the Sun have had their hands full this fall, reporting on the various things which are being cut, or downsized, as well as the task force recommendations and consultant reports.

As a student, it seems clear that there are far fewer courses being offered this coming spring than in semesters past. I'm sure departments have needed to make tough decisions about cutting small classes. The eight people in an upper-level seminar might get a lot out of a particular class, but the department loses a lot of money in the process. Without hiring new faculty, there aren't professors available to replace others who have retired or gone on sabbatical.

But it's not just academics which have been affected. There are fewer intramural sports and P.E. classes. Dining hours have been cut back. Some of the grass on Libe Slope was not mowed. Every few days, there's another article in the Sun about something else being cut or reduced.

With the specter of budget cuts looming over nearly every part of the university, the campus dialogue has changed. Issues which may have gotten center attention now seem insignificant. The debate between student dining employees and CU Dining about wearing hats seems downright silly. Gone are the days when students, professors and administrators could quibble over a new parking lot, or criticize Skorton for not signing the Amethyst Initiative.

Now, we argue over how we spend the scarce funds we have left. We are criticizing the Student Assembly for the conflicts of interest which have apparently become part of its governing culture. Milstein Hall might have been constructed without too much opposition just a couple of years ago, but with other construction projects halted, it has become a lightning rod for criticism.

At times like these, one certainly has to feel for President Skorton. Instead of being able to celebrate the start of a new capital campaign, or the opening of new buildings on West Campus, he now finds himself having to decide which parts of the university budget to cut and which to protect. A collegiate Grim Reaper, if you will. Even Facebook seems to pity Skorton, as evidenced by this screenshot.

Cornell's financial pain has been exacerbated by its emotional pain. Five students have died this fall, and we have only been given an explanation for one of the deaths (a car accident). One died of unknown complications from H1N1, one died of unknown causes in his dorm room and was not found for a couple of days, and we have received no details about the causes of death for two others. In each case, the administration has thoughtfully conveyed its condolences and provided counseling services.

Overall, there has been little to cheer about on East Hill. Things will turn around, as they have before, but not before they get worse.

"Bush Went To Yale"

I've written previously about the importance of beating Yale if Cornell wants to accomplish anything this season.

Tonight, the Big Red have a chance to prove themselves in a big way, as they head into the hideously ugly Ingalls Rink for an early-season date with Yale.

Cornell is 6-1-0 against Yale in New Haven over the last seven seasons, but Yale swept all three meetings between the two teams last year, including a 5-0 rout in the ECAC championship game.

Brian Sullivan inexplicably picks Cornell to defeat Yale tonight, and then lose to a much less talented Brown team tomorrow night. I'll take the opposite; 5-2 Yale tonight then 3-0 Cornell tomorrow night.

Even if Cornell loses tonight, it'll be a positive step if they can at least skate well with Yale. Yale so thoroughly outplayed us last season that I'll settle for some evidence that we can match up with them, and maybe win the meeting at Lynah later in the year.

Another Day Brightened By Cornell Hockey

Who knew someone could have so much fun typing "Scituate" and "Kamloops" ten times?

The folks in charge of coordinating the Boston University-Cornell University Red Hot Hockey rematch had moved into the offices below my own. Normally, I’m not a bold person when it comes to asking to be included on projects, but I overheard them mentioning that they were in the beginning stages of putting together the program, and I jumped on it. Pete, the creative lead, immediately gave me the chance of a lifetime – design and write both BU and Cornell’s player profiles.

I have not worked that hard on a project since my senior thesis. When Cornell was ravaged by their H1N1 outbreak and couldn’t provide us with the necessary information on deadline, I ended up researching stats and facts for the entire Cornell roster. I made drafts upon drafts, measured every pixel I could, learned options and functions in Adobe InDesign I never knew existed. Then I was allowed to write a sidebar. Then I was allowed to fact check and edit a major story.

Then, last Thursday, I walked up to my office after a series of meetings and found one of the first copies of the program waiting for me at the front desk. It smelled just like the programs I had saved up to buy as a teenager, had the same glossy cover as those programs, but when you opened to the table of contents and read the credits at the bottom, my name was listed.

I can’t even begin to describe what it felt like to read a program and see my name in the credits after a childhood spent obsessed with them...

Cornell Senior Stabbed Near Campus

A Cornell senior was stabbed tonight as he walked through a wooded area near North Campus.

The Daily Sun is reporting that the victim is Marc Jackson, a senior in ILR. The Cornell crime alert notes that the incident occurred in a wooded area between the 300 block of Highland Road and the 300 block of Triphammer Road.

Jackson was accosted around 10:30 p.m. by two men who "forcibly took his backpack and fled." Jackson received a minor stab wound in the stomach during the incident. He returned to his residence, Kappa Delta Rho at 312 Highland Road, to call police. Jackson was taken to Cayuga Medical Center but has since been released.

I live in a house next door to Jackson's so I'm quite familiar with the neighborhood. The area in which Jackson was robbed is a common cut-through to get from North Campus to Cayuga Heights, but as it is not an official road or walking path, it is poorly lit. The route goes from Triphammer Road at the Africana center, past the Ecology House and then through property owned by the church (not shown on the map) to reach Highland Road. I have traveled this route many times when it is dark, and I can attest to its poor lighting. It is rare to encounter other people along this route at night.

Jackson described the suspects as "two black males, both of medium height and weight and both wearing grey sweatshirts and blue jeans."

The crime alert was posted around 2.5 hours after the stabbing, which is a much faster response time than we have seen from other "crime alerts" this year.

The Sun incorrectly lists the location as "Highland Avenue," which is actually the section of road between Thurston Ave. and Fall Creek Dr. near the suspension bridge. The street near which the stabbing occurred is Highland Road.

The area is home to several Greek houses, including KDR, Acacia, Tau Epsilon Phi, and Pi Beta Phi, as well as the Ecology House and Africana Library.

Cornell made headlines three years ago when a white Cornell student stabbed a black student who was visiting from Union College. The Cornell student had been drinking at a fraternity party by West Campus and yelled racial epithets at the Union student during their altercation.

Cornell Hockey Gains Momentum

Our column today discussed the Big Red's newly found ability to come back from late-game deficits, first against Brown, Princeton, and Northeastern at the end of last year, and then against Harvard on Saturday.

Watching Cornell hockey over the last few years was essentially a two-period experience. Most of the time, you could watch the first 40 minutes of hockey and know whether Cornell would win or lose. As seen in Saturday’s win over Harvard, this may no longer be true.

Cornell jumped to #3 in the meaningless polls. Voters punished Yale for its one-point weekend by dropping them from #6 to #12. Yale will try to gain back some respect by toppling Cornell on Friday. The Big Red (3-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC) are the only untied and undefeated team in the country.

Future Cornell goalie Andy Iles continues to have success with the U-18 team, proving that his performance at Lynah was not too much out of the ordinary for him.

The Cornell women's hockey team is now ranked #7 nationally, which is the highest they've been since 1997. They sit at 4-2-0, with the two losses coming to #1 Mercyhurst.

Election Season in Connecticut

From Colin McEnroe's Sunday column in the Hartford Courant:

Among the winners I would list people who actually voted, especially because several races ended up either in an exact tie or separations of just a few votes. Among the losers I would list Hartford, where there was 7 percent turnout. Granted, it was not a mayoral election, so it lacked the compelling narrative of lots of people getting arrested. Still, 7 percent? Destabilized places ravaged by civil war and serial dictatorships have better than 7 percent turnout. Not Hartford, but the other places like that.