Map of the Day II

(MediaMatters)

Why Nash Values Hockey Over Education

If hockey was the only consideration for hockey recruits, few would ever come to Cornell. The Big Red, like other Ivies, does not offer any athletic scholarships. The Ivy schools also play the fewest number of games among all Division I teams, giving players fewer opportunities to rack up goals or gain exposure.

However, Cornell hockey players also receive a quality education, which we Lynah Faithful like to think is of similar importance to hockey. Even if their hockey careers don't work out, Big Red players still have a Cornell diploma. This is a reason for players to stay for four full years; if they're staying for 2 or 3 years anyway, why not stay the extra few semesters and walk away with a diploma?

Riley Nash doesn't buy into this logic. The rising junior has made it clear that hockey is his top priority, and not a Cornell degree. It's safe to assume that many of Cornell's star players share Nash's mindset, but few have explicitly announced their priorities to the press:

"I'm not going to stay there just because I want to finish my degree. I'm going to stay there if I feel I want to stay there for another year of hockey."

"I want to get an education and a degree. But if it doesn't work out with hockey, I think I can always go back and finish my degree, I don't think it's that big of a deal."

I don't think we should fault Nash for placing hockey above a degree. He likely chose Cornell over a non-Ivy school because he wanted to play with his older brother; academics were not a consideration. As a first-round NHL draft pick, he has the potential to earn a lot of money over the next few years and render his academic status irrelevant. Plus, as he and many others have pointed out, he can always go back and finish his education.

Maybe we should stop assuming that academics is always a priority for hockey recruits and recognize that once they've been in Ithaca for a few semesters, it doesn't really matter when they finish the rest of their education. This doesn't jive with the Ivies' academics-first motif, but it's true.

----------------

Bonus for jittery Cornell fans -- Here's another hearsay quote about Nash staying:

How about Riley Nash? The Oilers prospect is pretty sure he's heading back to Cornell, but a lot could change between now and then. Physically he's probably ready for the AHL and I think it's better to struggle for the first half and succeed in the 2nd half of the AHL then have a good full season in college.

(Derek Van Diest/Dean Millard)

Map of the Day

Our local Watergate Safeway posted a map of the farms which supply its fresh produce. Ithaca looks very far away from Cayuga's waters:

Does Cornell Have A Complex?

An inferiority complex, that is.

The first line of the official Cornell campus tour video:

Cornell University is a proud member of the Ivy League.

Instead of stating where Cornell is located, or when it was founded, the video announces Cornell's membership in an athletic conference.

But as Wikipedia informs us, the Ivy League stands for something more:

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term also has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism.

As much as we like to laugh at Andy Bernard's ridiculousness, his mindset about his alma mater isn't much different from that of many of Cornell's students and alumni. We feel that we went to a "better" school than any non-Ivy university, but recognize that we don't stack up well against the other Ivies (except maybe Brown).

It seems that Cornell would rather try hard to be identified as an Ivy school, and thereby receive the kind of respect people reserve for the likes of Harvard and Yale, than to try to define itself independently. We're fine with being at the bottom of the Ivy cluster, so long as we are still in the Ivy cluster.

Which is too bad. Cornell has so many assets -- from the beautiful campus, to the official connections to New York state, to the diversity and uniqueness of academic programs -- that it could do well to stand on its own two feet. Honestly, if we were to just hand a prospective student one of our massive course catalogs, and let him or her flip through it for a few minutes, I think that would do more than any Ivy-draped (uppercase I) image of Cornell.

There are tangible benefits to being Ivy Cornell, such as selective admissions and strong alumni identity and support. Go out on its own, and Cornell might lose a little bit of this elitism. But if we give up on trying to always be Ivy first and Cornell second, we free ourselves to be so much more. I'm not saying we need to leave the Ivy League, but maybe we should stop holding onto the second-to-bottom rung of the Ivy ladder with both hands and instead use them to show the world what makes us unique.

Road Closed, 105 More Weeks

Two weeks ago, Twitter informed me that the construction of Milstein Hall would require that University Ave. be closed for 107 weeks. I hoped there would still be a way for pedestrians to walk down the street.

There isn't:

R.I.P. University Ave.



To lift our spirits, the Milstein Twitter page has been busy answering those burning questions which have been on all of our minds:










(Ithacating/Twitter/Previous)

Is Cornell Hockey "Big"?

One of my roommates attends the University of Iowa, and we've talked a few times about our respective schools' big sports -- Iowa football and Cornell hockey.

I used to think hockey was big at Cornell. Not just big in relation to our other sports, but big on a national scale. As Cornell hockey fans, we like to compare Lynah Rink to Cameron Indoor Stadium, and not just for the tough atmosphere. We like to talk about how students camp out for season tickets, stand during the game, and travel to road games.

But maybe it's time we level with ourselves a little. Cornell hockey is not a big-time sport. At a big-time sports school like Iowa, a football game can consume an entire weekend. The entirety of game day is spent drinking, tailgating, watching the game, and partying. Many of the students won't really understand what's happening on the field, but they go along with everything because it's what one does at a big-time sports school.

Look at Cornell hockey. Outside of going to the games, the Lynah Faithful don't spend a lot of time being hockey fans. Sure, there's the line to buy season tickets (see right), but most people work out a system with their friends so they won't have to spend more than a few hours sitting in Bartels. Some of us travel to a lot of road games, but we're a small minority. This past season, it was rare to see more than five current Cornell students at road games (excluding the pep band and players).

On home weekends, students don't do anything special before or after games. Sure, it's customary to go partying on weekend nights, but the parties have nothing to do with hockey. Walking around Cornell's campus, unless you're traveling near Lynah Rink, one wouldn't be able to tell that there's a hockey game that night.

Some have suggested that Cornell should consider jumping the Ivy League in favor of the Big 10:

In truth, I've often felt that Cornell might be better off if it was in the Big 10. After all, in terms of both the number of undergraduates and demeanor of the student experience, Cornell distances itself greatly from its Ivy League peers. And all it takes is one trip to Lynah Rink to see how excited the Cornell student body can get about a team that can be competitive in a sport of national prominence. At Cornell, the students actually care about their sports, unlike at some other, nameless schools.

Do we really care about our sports, though? Whenever a big-time sports school is playing in a football bowl game, or March Madness, a good number of students make the long trip to watch their team. I have a friend who attends Kansas, and although he isn't a big sports fan, he made the trip from Lawrence to San Antonio last year to watch his team in the Final Four.

As for the Cornell hockey team's trip to Grand Rapids for the NCAA Regional? I was the only student in attendance who wasn't playing on the ice or in the pep band.

I'm not trying to say Cornell hockey is insignificant. It's the biggest sport at Cornell, and our fans are loud and creative. Viewed through the lens of Ivy sports, Cornell hockey might be the biggest sport in the conference. But I think we're being a little dishonest if we claim that Cornell hockey, which attracts 8 percent of the undergraduate population for each game, is a big-time sport on the national scale.

Land of Gorges and Garbage

Remember the clever anti-Cornell take on the alma mater?

Far above Cayuga's waters
There's an awful smell
Some say it's Cayuga's waters
Some say it's Cornell

The Ithaca Journal reports that the awful smell might not be coming from Cornell, but rather from the garbage trucks rumbling through the region:

Up to 9,000 tons per day of garbage is trucked into the Seneca Meadows and Ontario county landfills, making the Finger Lakes region the state's number one destination for trash.

The Journal terms Tompkins County the "garbage capital of New York" and interviews one resident who claims that garbage trucks pass his house every three minutes.

Instead of taking the Thruway up to the landfill in Waterloo, many trucks originating downstate are cutting through Ithaca on Route 79.

A glimmer of hope appeared last year when Gov. David Paterson announced new regulations intended to force trash trucks to use interstates and the New York State Thruway. But the federal government said the regulations violated interstate commerce rules, and it was illegal for the state to single out trash trucks from other big-freight haulers.

Obviously, it's fastest for the trucks to cut through Ithaca, but the Journal notes that the garbage traffic makes accidents more likely, wears down local roads, and creates the potential for waste to spill into watershed areas.

In addition to prison industry, it seems that garbage has become another way for the struggling upstate economy to retain money and jobs.

(Ithaca Journal)

New Hockey Recruit From Florida

Big Red Puckhead:

According to Chris Heisenberg, the Big Red has picked up a 2011 commitment from Brian Ferlin (6' 2", 195), a 1992-born forward from Jacksonville, Florida. Brian will be playing with the Indiana Ice (USHL) this fall. Last season, Brian was named the Metropolitan JHL's South Division Player of the Year while playing with the Jacksonville Ice Dogs, where he scored 40 goals and had 37 assists in 38 games for the Junior Bs.

It's worth noting that over the last few years, Cornell has picked up recruits from some places not known for being hotbeds of hockey talent. This fall's roster will have three Texans: sophomores Locke Jillson (Dallas) and Keir Ross (McKinney), and freshman Armand de Swardt (Plano). Former goalie Dave McKee was also from Texas (Irving). Add Florida to the mix, and that makes four Cornellians from the Gulf Coast on the 2011-2012 roster.

Of course, Cornell's roster still includes 19 Canadians (10 from Ontario), so geographic diversity is relative.

Chronicle Article on Yeh's Departure

When the news about Registrar David Yeh's departure was broken on Wednesday by the Daily Sun, I wrote that Yeh's main legacy would be the rocky implementation of PeopleSoft.

The Chronicle also focuses on this issue, but avoids any discussion of the many, many problems associated with PeopleSoft:

One of Yeh's major contributions at Cornell was the implementation of a student information system that included new technologies to deliver "one-stop shopping" services online. "We were among the earliest schools to give students direct access to their own information," Yeh said. He began the initiative in 1992 and has spent his last years at Cornell developing and implementing the system.

But Yeh was able to accomplish some things without wreaking havoc on students and servers:

Yeh also led logistical planning for such major events as visits from the Dalai Lama, Israeli President Shimon Peres, former president of Taiwan Lee Teng-hui, Ph.D. '68, and former President Bill Clinton. In addition, Yeh oversaw the renovation and restoration of McGraw Tower and the Cornell chimes in 1999 and Bailey Hall in 2007.

The article has some nice quotes about Yeh from Susan Murphy and Frank Rhodes. The Saudi university he's going to work for sounds interesting, and it's good to see that some of our oil dollars are going to something worthwhile:

KAUST is being built as an international, graduate-level research university, where gender, race, ethnicity, religion and age are not defining factors, Yeh said. "It's really wonderful to be asked to participate in that endeavor."

On Names

I'm a few days behind the news cycle on this one, but I've wanted to write about it for a while.

During the week in which Judge Sonia Sotomayor appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, two New York Times columnists referred to Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) by his full name.

Maureen Dowd starts the trend:

President Obama has cited the Ledbetter decision as a reason the court needs a more “common touch.”

“The law requires some finality,” Sotomayor explained about her case, with an iciness that must have sent a chill up the conservative leg of Alabama’s Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, even as it left Obama hanging out on an empathy limb.

Ross Douthat takes it three steps further:

But the senators are yesterday’s men. The America of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is swiftly giving way to the America of Sonia Maria Sotomayor and Barack Hussein Obama.

There were other references to Sessions' full name, but I pulled these two because Dowd is liberal and Douthat is conservative, and their columns appeared days apart on the same opinion page.

Why is it a fair point to refer to Sen. Sessions by his full name? Does writing someone's full name, in an attempt to make a judgment about them, exempt the author from the obligation to include any actual information about them?

These are some of the same people who complained when Republicans referred to "Barack Hussein Obama" during the campaign last summer, and now some of them are doing the same thing with Sessions. In the absence of other information, why is it unfair to use Obama's name to imply he is associated with terrorism, but fair to use Sessions' name to imply that he is associated with racism?

Of course, in these case, there is other information. If pundits had wanted to argue that Sessions was racist or out-of-touch, they could have written about his history of racism. Similarly, if they'd wanted to argue that Sotomayor represented America's growing Hispanic influence, they could have written about her compelling family story.

But that's not the point I'm trying to make. People don't choose their names; parents bestow them upon their children. And sometimes parents make terrible decisions.

I would know. In a decision riddled with misplaced idealism, elitism, and a stunning lack of foresight, my parents chose for me a full name which the vast majority of Americans cannot pronounce, spell, or determine the gender of its bearer. The result has been years of stress and embarrassment. Some examples... My father once entered me in a youth tennis tournament, but I was placed in the girls' draw, and played girls. After that we had to be careful to specify that I was entering the boys' draw. My little league trophies used to have the female softball figurines on top, because the trophy-makers assumed I was a girl playing with boys. For two consecutive years in high school, I was placed in a hotel room with girls at the All State Band festival. When I meet new people, I often have to repeat my name several times before they understand, and of course few people can ever spell or pronounce my name correctly, even after meeting me.

For these reasons, I don't feel like I enter many of life's situations with an even slate. Similarly, Barack Obama might have been able to win more votes if he had a different name. Similarly, discussion sections at Cornell taught by TAs with Anglo-sounding names fill up faster than those taught by people who sound like English might not be their first language.

I prefer to be judged by what I accomplish, and not what my name is. But I have found that these are often inseparable. My name, just as Sessions', Sotomayor's, and Obama's, forms a part of me from which I can't separate myself, no matter how much I would like for it to be so. Just as Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that the individual is inseparable from the narrative which surrounds him, so is one's name often inseparable from what one accomplishes. And for this we have to thank people like Maureen Dowd and Ross Douthat, who teach us that it is okay to judge people by their names. We have to thank the Lee County sheriff whose intonations of "Barack Hussein Obama" riled the crowd at a Palin event. For those of us who try to exceed the expectations of the name we are given, who try to become something more than the stereotype into which we are pigeonholed, the road remains uphill despite the successes of Obama, Sotomayor, and others.

Movies

I don't usually talk about movies here, but I've happened to see a lot of films this summer. Feel free to offer your opinions in the comments section.

Best to Worst:

(500) Days of Summer
I can't say enough good things about this movie. Walking out of this last night, a friend said he thought it was a really good chick flick. I disagreed, saying it's more of a guy's movie about love. Told from the male viewpoint, it illuminates so many of the things about women which frustrate us. Saying they don't want anything serious, but acting in a way which makes us want something more serious. Saying they don't want a relationship, and then starting a relationship with someone else. But this is just one part of this wonderful movie. It's funny, but in an honest and intelligent way. The acting and directing are superb, particularly in one scene which takes place in Ikea. As my uncle wrote on his blog, "this is a movie that turns the aisles of Ikea into the kind of halcyon romantic destination that Woody Allen gives 'Manhattan.'" Go see it this weekend.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Yes, I know it left out some key parts of the book, but this is one of the better HP movies. Remember when this book came out, and a lot of attention was given to the romances going on? The movie uses the frivolous romantic scenes to break up the heavier drama going on everywhere else. It's carried by great performances from the older actors and actresses, particularly Alan Rickman playing Snape.

The Proposal
My friends made fun of me (still do), but I really wanted to see this one and I wasn't disappointed.

Up

The Hangover

Angels and Demons
I was gullible enough that the twist at the end surprised me, otherwise this would be lower on the list.

Brüno
A disappointment after Borat, but a lot of the same humor.

Away We Go
I love The Office and John Krasinski, but this movie sucked. The film gave me no reason to care about the main characters, and after a lot of jumping around, a few laughs, and some emo scenes, I didn't know what the point was.

Additionally, while both of these movies came out last year, I saw them recently and enjoyed them immensely:

Man on Wire
It has a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it's easy to see why. It's a documentary which tells the story of how the Frenchman Philippe Petit illegally walked a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Center. But it says so much more about what the towers stood for and what drives people like Petit.

Gran Torino
Has Clint Eastwood directed a bad movie recently? Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, and Gran Torino are some of the best movies I've seen. As Manohla Dargis wrote in the NYT review last December, "few Americans make movies about this country anymore." It's an elegy for the American auto industry and the American economy in general, and I recommend it highly.

Colgate Tops Cornell In Mid-Career Salary

Presented in confusing format by the Syracuse Post-Standard blog:

According to the 2009 report, Dartmouth College graduates have the highest mid-career salary. In Central New York, Colgate University is No. 7 on the list, with a mid-career median salary of $122,000. The median starting salary for Colgate graduates is $51,900.

Cornell University has a higher starting salary at $58,000, but the median mid-career salary for Cornell graduates is $106,000. Syracuse University graduates have a median starting salary of $46,200, and $86,200 mid-career.

Maybe the crew over in Hamilton (which by the way is very, very far from civilization) will add a new "anti-Cornell classic cheer" about this for next year's Cornell at Colgate hockey game.

Colgate Cheer Sheet

(Syracuse.com)

To Save Money, Skorton Rides Bus

If you've ever taken the bus from Ithaca to New York City, or anywhere else, you know it's not a fun experience. For this reason, President Skorton's decision to start taking the bus on some trips to New York is probably the most serious commitment to save money I've seen from him yet:

Skorton, who lives in a Cornell-owned home in Ithaca, New York, and uses an apartment rented by the school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side near the medical school, volunteered a 10 percent cut in his compensation beginning in January.

Bus for Jet

In December, Skorton started riding a Cornell bus that shuttles students and faculty between the school’s Ithaca and New York campuses instead of flying, as his schedule permits, Moss said. The coach takes five hours and costs $150 round trip. Flying costs as much as $600 and takes an hour.

Of course, Skorton is taking the Campus to Campus Bus, which is a much nicer experience than riding the Short Line. C2C buses have wireless internet and food available, and travel directly from Ithaca to the Cornell Club in NYC. Still, his willingness to sacrifice the time and comfort of flying shows how seriously the administration is taking Cornell's budget issues.

(Bloomberg)

Things Learned In Court

One of the medical examiners in the Banita Jacks murder trial, which is taking place in my courthouse this week, is named Dr. Deadman.

Cornell Registrar Traded to Saudis For $5 Million?

The Sun implores us to connect the dots:

Earlier this year, the University announced a research partnership with KAUST [King Abdullah University of Science and Technology], which is located in Rabigh City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. KAUST awarded Cornell a five-year, $5 million dollar grant to fund the KAUST-Cornell Center for Energy and Sustainability.

University Registrar and Assistant Vice President for Student and Academic Services David Yeh will be resigning from his position at Cornell to take up a post at KAUST in Saudi Arabia, Director of Cornell Press Relations Simeon Moss ’73 confirmed on Tuesday.

I'm sure Yeh's decision to leave was more complex than this; we're waiting on an official statement from Cornell. Yeh also held the title of Assistant Vice President for Student and Academic Services.

In my mind, Yeh's legacy will be inseparable from two scheduling issues.

The first is the disastrous transition to PeopleSoft, an interface for scheduling classes which replaced the slow yet reliable Just the Facts software package. The Sun's coverage doesn't quite do justice to the experience of swearing at one's computer at 6:30 am, as you find yourself unable to access the system for enrolling in classes. Or being unable to believe your bleary eyes as you are prohibited from enrolling in a certain class because PeopleSoft believes it is scheduled from 10:10 am to 11:00 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and informs you that it conflicts with multiple classes already on your schedule. Or being told several times that all the problems had been fixed and that course enrollment should go smoothly, only to encounter new problems.

It was inexcusable for Cornell to switch to PeopleSoft without doing any sort of testing which might reveal server overload problems. Yeh was probably too confident about the software:

The new software also will empower students, said David Yeh, assistant vice president for student and academic services. "We really want to advance this whole notion of not having to stand in lines," he said.

Yeh was also in charge during the Schedulizer fiasco. Schedulizer is a private site which allows Cornell students to figure out their class schedules with easy-to-read weekly calendars and a helpful interface. Cornell and Schedulizer were unable to work out a way to allow Schedulizer to grab course data from PeopleSoft, so students were forced to abandon Schedulizer in favor of PeopleSoft's not-to-scale and misleading weekly calendar readout. We were not happy:

Meanwhile, students who have tried to use Schedulizer since it went down have responded with outrage. Because PeopleSoft has prohibited many students from adding and dropping courses due to complications with the program that started this morning, many Cornellians still don’t have their schedules finalized. According to some students, Schedulizer’s downfall further complicated the process.

“As one of the top colleges, I’m glad we use scheduling software as user-friendly and compatible as PeopleSoft,” said Pete Kelly ’11 sarcastically, who has already sent an e-mail to the registrar expressing his frustration. “They’re going to have hundreds of emails tomorrow.”

An arrangement was eventually reached and Schedulizer is back in business for Cornell students.

I'm not sure if Yeh made any improvements to the transcript services, but those are very efficient (and free). He might deserve some credit there. And I'm sure we'll learn about more things he's accomplished from the university when it issues an official release.

Cornell Hockey Alumni Update

I know there are a few I'm missing, but here goes.

Tyler Mugford '09 is set to play for the Ontario (California) Reign of the ECHL. Article. Feature.

Ray Sawada '08 scored in his first game with the Stars but was later sent back down to Manitoba. Article.

Topher Scott '08 will play next season for the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees of the Central Hockey League (CHL). Article.

N.B. Here's a line about Topher Scott from 2008, presented without comment:

A sociology major, he is enrolled in one of the most challenging majors at Cornell University.

Byron Bitz '07 was re-signed by the Bruins to a two-year contract worth $1.4 million. Article.

Matt Moulson '06 agreed to a one-year contract with the Islanders. Article.

Mike Iggulden '05 signed with Dinamo Riga (Latvia) of the KHL. Article.

Ryan Vesce '04 was re-signed by the Sharks. Article.

Douglas Murray '03 is playing for the Sharks (and fighting fellow Ivy alumni) for $2.5 million a year.

David Leneveu, who left Cornell after his 2002-03 sophomore season, is somewhere in the Ducks organization, I believe.

Ryan O'Byrne, who left Cornell after his 2005-06 junior season, is on the Canadiens' roster.

Tony Romano, who left Cornell after his 2006-07 freshman season, was traded to the Islanders.

Dave McKee, who left Cornell after his 2006-07 junior season, is accused of rape.

Thanks to posters over at eLynah for many of these links.

Andy Noel Chooses Equestrian Over Rugby

He tells ESPN.com's Graham Watson that Cornell does not have the means to support both, so women's rugby will remain a club sport and women's equestrian will remain an intercollegiate sport:

Cornell, like many Ivy League schools, supports several former and current emerging sports among its 17 female sports, including squash and equestrian. The school also has a successful club women's rugby team. But athletic director Andy Noel said even though rugby is closer to becoming an NCAA championship sport than equestrian, he doesn't have the means to sponsor it.

"We're just not in a financial position to add sports right now," Noel said. "A sport being an NCAA sport is not something that would carry enough weight for us to break the hearts of 35 or 40 women who are at Cornell, participating and really enjoying their program. We have an outstanding [equestrian] coach in Chris Mitchell and we wouldn't discontinue something positive to bring on something else with great potential to be positive. Humanistically, we're not so focused on the NCAA part of it that we would negatively impact a group of Cornell students who are enjoying what they're doing."

I'm fairly certain this is the first time the word humanistically has appeared on ESPN.

(ESPN)

Arrested Professor Used To Teach at Cornell

Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard (Sucks) professor whose recent arrest has been making headlines today, used to teach at Cornell.

Gates, 58, was arrested July 16 after shouting at a police sergeant, “This is what happens to black men in America,” the Cambridge Police Department report said. A woman had called the police to Gates’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard is located, saying a man was trying to force open the door with his shoulder, according to Officer Carlos Figueroa’s report.

Gates taught at Cornell from 1985-1989, arriving in Ithaca after being denied tenure at Yale. He then taught at Duke from 1989-1991 and started at HA+rvA+rd in 1991. It's unclear why Cornell didn't hold onto him, and the move from Cornell to Duke seems quite lateral (although he did move from Duke to Hahvahd).

In the typical Harvard fashion, Gates has accumulated meaningless honors:

He has received 49 honorary degrees, from institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Williams College, Emory University, Howard University, University of Toronto, and the University of Benin.

(Boston Globe / Bloomberg / Cambridge Comm. Coll.)

Johnson Construction Uncovers Mercury

The Ithaca Journal article doesn't say anything about Milstein Hall, but I assume the mercury was found while they were digging.

An excavation team working Wednesday near the Johnson Museum of Art on Cornell University's campus found a small amount of mercury buried in the area.

Mike Swartwout, project manager, said the mercury was found as the team dug up the remains of a building that had stood at the site from 1890 until the 1950s. The building, Morse Hall, housed the university's chemistry department until the 1920s, according to information on Cornell's Web site. It was razed in 1956.

Edit: A commenter claims the mercury was uncovered by construction crews working on an addition to the Johnson Museum, and not Milstein Hall as I originally guessed. Without any other information, I'll go with that.

(Ithaca Journal)

Another Source Says Nash Is Staying

I've discussed Riley Nash's possible departure in a few previous posts. One blogger who writes extensively about Oilers prospects reports that Nash is staying:

He's headed back to Cornell at last report and they'll decide (he'll decide) next spring or summer about turning pro.

As I've said before, this is certainly good news for Cornell hockey fans.

The blog ("Lowetide") has been quite bullish on Nash in the past, labeling him the Oilers' #1 prospect at the end of last year:

Riley Nash is one of my favorite Oiler prospects for many reasons: he has a wide range of skills (meaning he can get to the show at more than one position and spot in the batting order), he's intelligent (no flies on Cornell grads, although Ken Dryden might bore them to death) and he displays some independent thinking (unusual in hockey players).

Lowetide also has a comparison of Nash and Chris Higgins which might interest anyone who watched Higgins play for Yale from 2001-03. Higgins was an All-American at Yale and was recently traded from the Canadiens to the Rangers.

(Lowetide)

Survey Reveals Cornell Freshmen Have Common Sense

A recent article [1] by Cornell nutrition professor Jeffery Sobal and recent grad Dana Amiraian has been making the rounds recently. In the fall of 2007, Amiraian and Sobal administered a survey to 301 Cornell students in introductory biology courses. The survey asked students which foods they thought were most appropriate to eat on a date, and broke down the data by gender. There aren't any surprises here:

Women often named feminine foods (considered appropriate for females) as dating foods, but men were not more likely to name masculine foods (considered appropriate for males) as dating foods. Neat and easy-to-eat foods were often named as dating foods, while pungent foods and foods causing bad breath were named as not dating foods. These findings support the conception that dating scripts guide thinking about food choices to enhance impression management.

So it's more attractive for a woman to neatly eat a salad than to drop pieces of her burrito from Moe's Southwest Grill all over herself?

Cornell professors publish a steady stream of survey results, most of which don't get picked up by the mainstream media. But most of these surveys involve a higher degree of analysis than this one.

[1] Amiraian, D. E., & Sobal, J. Dating and eating. Beliefs about dating foods among university students. Appetite (2009)

Lake Source Cooling Monitoring Is Debated

We wrote earlier that the debate over Lake Source Cooling (LSC), the process by which Cornell uses cold water from the bottom of Cayuga Lake for air conditioning, was heating up. The state Department of Environmental Conservation sent Cornell a letter in May, claiming that it was "possible/probable" that LSC is responsible for the recent decline in water quality in Cayuga Lake.

Now, local leaders are debating the next step. Cornell has one ally in a high place:

The Chairman of the Tompkins County Water Resources Council said he's not convinced that increased Lake Source Cooling monitoring would be useful or even realistic.

"There are a lot of people who are trying to blame Lake Source Cooling for the sun rising in the west, and it just isn't true," said Chairman and County Legislator Frank Proto, R-Caroline and Danby.

On the other side sits Jose Lozano, "the Ph.D. director of the environmental laboratory at the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Plant." Lozano notes that the system is set up so that a negative impact on water quality can only be proven if levels of phosphorous or other indicators change by 30 percent or more. Lozano is calling for more testing to conclusively determine what, if any, the effect of LSC has been.

In the comments, MIC57 mocks Proto's statement:

Cornell should commit to additional monitoring, at least for a few more years, simply to prove to the local local no-nothings that no matter how many PhDs they may have hanging on their wall, the sun still does not rise in the west.

The comments also note that the photo the Ithaca Journal chose to accompany the article is of the sprawling Cargill salt mine, and not the significantly less obtrusive single building which handles the LSC pumping.

LSC will be discussed by the Tompkins County Water Resources Council at 4:15 pm Monday at the Ithaca Tompkins Transit Center, 737 Willow Ave.

Racism Alive And Well In U.S. House

Just watch the video:



Transcript:

If you think of it in human terms, there is a financial incentive that would be put in place, paid for by tax dollars, that would encourage…single parents, living below the poverty level, to have the opportunity for a free abortion. If you take that scenario and apply it to many of the great minds we have today, who would we have been deprived of? Our President grew up in those similar circumstances. If that financial incentive was in place, is it possible that his mother might have taken advantage of it? Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court Justice, if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we’d have been denied his great mind?

Sadly, having just picked up the endorsement of Jim Ryun, Tiahrt seems likely to be the next Senator from Kansas.

Did You Know Sotomayor Has Diabetes?

I've been trending more recently towards writing about Cornell, since I think that's what most of my readers are interested in. (Do you know how many first-time visitors from the cornell.edu domain swung by after this post?)

But sometimes, particularly over the summer, there isn't a lot of exciting news about the Big Red.

If you've watched any of the questioning of Judge Sotomayor over the last few days, you'll know that there isn't much the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee left uncovered. All of the hot-button issues were raised, and Sotomayor, in the style of the successful nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, managed to say a lot without really saying anything.

One thing that hasn't been touched, by politicians or pundits, is the issue of Sotomayor's diabetes. Timothy Phelps of the LA Times has a balanced and thought-provoking blog post on the matter:

Diabetes experts say that advances in the treatment of Type I diabetes mean that a victim of the disease can live to an advanced age if he or she manages blood sugar level well, and Sotomayor’s doctor says she has managed extremely well. But other experts say privately that it is almost impossible to manage perfectly.

It is unlikely, experts say, that Sotomayor will have the longevity of someone such as Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 89 and has been on the court for 34 years. Sotomayor’s seat could more quickly be filled by a Republican than someone without a chronic illness.

Of course, Sotomayor's diabetes is no reason to deny her the promotion to the Supreme Court. If I were a pessimist, I might write that there's a good chance that some Republicans are relieved she might not be able to serve as long as Stevens did. Longevity of justices certainly seems to be a Republican goal, since Clarence Thomas (43 when nominated), Roberts (50), and Alito (55) were all fairly young.

Phelps notes that the nomination of a justice with a disability seems likely to have an impact on future decisions affecting the disabled:

In 1999 the court decided that workers with treatable medical conditions, such as diabetes, were not disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act and therefore could be fired because of their medical problems. The decision provoked an outcry, and last year Congress changed the law to protect people like Sotomayor.

I hope that Sotomayor enjoys a long tenure on the bench, and her successful career will certainly serve to inspire young people who have been diagnosed with diabetes.

Pucks and Bucks

When men's hockey coach Roger Grillo departed Brown at the end of May, we noted his terrible career record.

According to the College Hockey News, the search for a replacement for Grillo has not been easy. Prominent Brown alumni and other well-qualified candidates have not been interviewing for the job, and CHN speculates that this may have something to do with the salary, which it claims is the lowest in the ECAC:

The mean ECAC head coaching salary is around $150,000 annually, and Brown is nowhere near that. In addition, its staff is barely given the resources of what part timers would get.

USHR claims that Brown is offering $85,000, which would be comically low.

What does Cornell coach Mike Schafer '86 make? It's tough to find out, for several reasons.

First, the published salaries of Division I hockey coaches often paint an incomplete picture. Many coaches earn a large part of their income from camps over the summer, in the form of cars and other perks, or gifts from boosters associations. Any figure from Cornell about Schafer's salary would be only partly accurate.

Second, and more obviously, Cornell does not publish salary figures for any high-profile employees, except for the president. (Skorton makes over $700,000 yearly.)

Still, it's fun to guess.

Back in April 2005, the US Hockey Report wrote that Schafer was a top candidate for the head coaching job at Notre Dame. USHR reported that Notre Dame was prepared to offer Schafer $200,000 a year for five years, and implied that this was more than his current salary ("It’s hard to see Cornell being able to match Notre Dame when it comes to coaches’ salaries.")

Schafer, of course, remained at Cornell.

One year later, USHR again referenced Schafer's salary position when reporting on the search for a new coach at RPI:

Don Vaughn, Colgate head coach: We’re hearing his name in a serious way. It seems like a lateral move (and perhaps not even that) to us. Could it be for leverage? Certainly worked for Mike Schafer a year ago when the Notre Dame job opened up.

This implies that Schafer used the Notre Dame job opening (and possible offer) as a way to increase his salary at Cornell.

Then again, this report by USHR said nothing about the man RPI actually hired in 2006 (Seth Appert), so who knows how much faith we should place in it.

One possible way to figure out Schafer's salary would be to find out more about the gift by Jay R. Bloom '77 to endow the position of men's hockey coach. Taking 5% of that figure might give a ballpark estimate. Naturally, there is no record of this donation on the Cornell website or the Ithaca Journal archives.

I would guess that Schafer makes around $200,000 per year. This would mean that Cornell upped Schafer's pay to meet what Notre Dame was offering him, and it places him comfortably above the league average, which is something he deserves at this point. (Bloom's gift would have been around $4m assuming a 5% return.)

This figure would also fit in well nationally. Programs of similar stature pay their coaches similar amounts -- the Ohio State coach makes around $225,000, the Wisconsin coach makes around $250,000, the Minnesota coach makes the same amount, and Maine's coach brings in $156,000 (which strikes me as a little low).

The UNH coach is the state's highest paid employee, earning $382,000, and lowly UConn's coach only brings in $80,000. It would make sense that Schafer's salary would be in the upper range of D-1 salaries.

Besides, there isn't a particularly compelling reason for Schafer to need more money. Ithaca's cost of living is pretty low. He lives in a $485,000 house built three years ago, and his job at Cornell is absolutely secure. Most observers think it's only a matter of time before someone at the NHL level offers Schafer an assistant coaching job, so things are looking up.

107 Weeks!

Via Twitter, I learn that the construction of Milstein Hall will require the stretch of University Ave. between East Ave. and Central Ave. to be closed for the next 107 weeks.

107 weeks.

That's until August 2011.

My class spent our freshman year suffering through the construction of the Thurston Avenue bridge, which required us to walk over either the Beebe Lake footbridge or the Suspension Bridge from North to Central Campus.

And now, one of the main arteries on campus will be closed for an improbable amount of time, with the announcement coming from Twitter with the same gleeful tone as the other updates on Milstein ("Two more cameras being mounted today -- our fingers are crossed for going live on the web next week. URL soon...").

The #10 bus, which runs every 10 minutes between Cornell and the Commons, will need to find a new route (coming up Campus Rd.?). And I know a lot of traffic comes up that way to avoid the College Ave. to Campus Rd. to East Ave. route, which can be very slow during the day.

I hope we'll at least be able to walk through that stretch.

This brings me back to the beginning of my sophomore year, when we were greeted with signs around Baker Lab announcing things like: "This sidewalk will be closed until June 2011." We would double check our phones and watches to make sure it was still 2007 at that point.

Party Affiliations of Cornell Administrators

Cornell is commonly characterized as a liberal college campus, although I've noted previously that Cornell has plenty of moderate and conservative students, particularly in certain academic departments and organizations. But what about the people running the university? Using publicly available information on voter registrations, and about 30 minutes of my time, I was able to compile the following list.

Cornell's leaders are, as one might expect, primarily registered as Democrats and Independents, but there are a few Republicans in important positions. Most remarkably, Cornell's administrators have been very good about voting regularly, with everyone having voted in the 2008 presidential election unless otherwise noted.

The only discoveries which surprised me were about Skorton and Maas. I would have thought that Skorton might have registered as an independent to keep himself out of the political fray. And Maas as a Republican?

White House

* David J. Skorton, President
Democrat

* Robin Davisson
Democrat, voted in 2008 primary but not general election

Senior Staff

* W. Kent Fuchs, Provost
Republican

* Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., Provost for Medical Affairs and Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College
Republican

* James J. Mingle, University Counsel and Secretary of the Corporation
Independent

* Thomas W. Bruce, Vice President for University Communications
Democrat

* Joanne M. DeStefano, Vice President for Finance and CFO
Independent

* Stephen Philip Johnson, Vice President for Government and Community Relations
Democrat

* Susan H. Murphy, Vice President for Student and Academic Services
Independent

* Mary G. Opperman, Vice President for Human Resources
Democrat

* Charles D. Phlegar, Vice President for Alumni Affairs and Development
Independent

* Paul Streeter, Interim Vice President for Planning and Budget
Independent

Academic Leadership

* Glenn C. Altschuler, Dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions
Democrat

* David P. Hajjar, Dean of the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Independent, last voted 2004

* Susan A. Henry, Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Independent

* Daniel P. Huttenlocher, Dean of Computing and Information Science
Independent

* Michael D. Johnson, Dean of the School of Hotel Administration
Independent

* Harry C. Katz, Kenneth F. Kahn Dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Democrat

* Anne R. Kenney, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian
Democrat

* G. Peter Lepage, Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Democrat

Office of the Provost

* David R. Harris, Deputy Provost and Vice Provost for Social Sciences
Democrat

* Laura S. Brown, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Democrat

* Doris Davis, Associate Provost for Admissions and Enrollment
Democrat


Other Administrative Leadership

* Michael B. Dickinson, University Auditor
Independent

* Stephen T. Golding, Senior Consultant to the President
Republican

* Curtis S. Ostrander, Interim Vice President for Risk Management and Public Safety
Republican

Notables

* Dean of the University Faculty: William E. Fry
Democrat

* Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students: Kent L. Hubbell
Independent, last voted 2004

* James Maas
Republican

* Hunter Rawlings
Independent, last voted 2006

* Jeffrey Lehman
Democrat

* Frank Rhodes
Independent

Diversion of the Day

I was doing some research for a future blog post when I came across Cornell's page on Uncyclopedia. In contrast to Cornell's entry on Wikipedia, which was a "featured article" a couple of years ago for the high quality of its writing and information, Uncyclopedia bills itself as " an encyclopedia full of misinformation and utter lies." Very little here is true, but some of the information about Cornell is pretty funny, even if it hits a little close to home.

A few highlights:

Faculty
625 Tenured, 1200 TA's (6 English speaking)

Mascot
The William Wrigley Jr. Corporation purchased the naming rights to Cornell's mascot in 1893 for six 12 packs of Keystone Light. The bear seen on much of Cornell's paraphernalia has been known as "Big Red" every year since, excepting a period from 1947 to 1970 when America experienced heightened fears of Communism and civil rights.

Weill Cornell Graduate School of Terror America in Qatar
Cornell University has opened a graduate school in Doha, Qatar, offering its MD (Master of Disaster) degree. Although named and shown as a medical school, the primary aim of this place is to train terrorists in biological warfare doctors we train doctors.

Uncyclopedia

Cornell Charged With Fixing NY Dairy Economy

Cornell continues to demonstrate that it has friends in high places. We had last Friday's comment by Hillary Clinton ("I love Cornell") and now, New York's two current senators got some nice appropriations money for the university:

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee late last week approved $1 million for Cornell University to research and develop new agricultural policies to help grow New York’s dairy economy in the FY10 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand aggressively lobbied members of the Appropriations Committee to include funding for the project in this year’s spending bill.

Particularly for those of us studying liberal arts, it's not always obvious how large a role Cornell plays in the upstate agricultural economy. But a little looking around reveals a lot. Click on the "land grant" link on Cornell's homepage and you can find things like this:

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), integral to fulfilling Cornell's land-grant mission, contributed $158 million in total economic impact on the state in FY 2007. CCE, with offices serving 57 counties and New York City, puts knowledge to work by extending the results of university-based research for the practical benefit of the people of New York State. CCE volunteers gave more than 1.14 million hours of service to important community efforts statewide.

With the current economic recession affecting New York farmers, lawmakers have turned to Cornell for ways to increase agricultural profitability through research and other means.

Back in May, an executive order by Governor David Paterson created a "Task Force on Diversifying the New York State Economy Through Industry-Higher Education Partnerships" -- or TFODTNYSETIHEP for short -- with Cornell President David Skorton as chairman.

In today's press release, Senator Schumer places a lot of faith in Cornell:

"Cornell is the cream of the crop when it comes to agricultural research institutions and these funds will keep it at the cutting edge of farming innovation," said Senator Schumer. "At a time when New York’s dairy farmers are struggling we need Cornell's help more than ever to help find ways to bring them out of crisis. It is critical that we fund these types of programs within our Universities to promote agricultural research and advancements that will help protect our farmers and promote our economy.”

It doesn't take a great university to admit top-notch students from the tri-state area and spit them out in the direction of law school, med school, or MBA programs. It does take a great university to maintain strong academics while working equally hard to develop the regional economy. For this reason, we should be proud of our alma mater.

Calling Cornell Career Services

Reuters finds an unemployed recent graduate of Cornell:

Dana Lin, 22, is one of the 14.7 million unemployed workers in the United States. She lost her marketing job at a technology company near San Francisco in April and since then has been working for free for about five hours a week for Internet company Jobnob.com.

"Every company has thousands of people applying for each job, and I realized I needed more appeal," said Lin, a graduate of Cornell University. Since being laid off, she has applied unsuccessfully for about 50 jobs.

Update: As of July 20, the Reuters article is featured prominently on Drudge. More publicity for Cornell.

Quotes of the Day

First up is Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), speaking on the House floor against health care reform:

"Allowing people to have quality health care at an affordable price is gonna kill people."

Next, Levi Johnston, the man who fathered Sarah Palin's grandson, telling the Today Show he wouldn't vote for Palin:

"She speaks her mind. She's an incredible lady, but um, there are times that she's not up-front with everybody, but for the most part she is.... She means a lot to me. I do just about anything for her, but I really don't think I'd vote for her if she ran for President."

Finally, Stuart Schwartz of the American Thinker, writing about Palin:

"Sarah Palin loves God. God loves Sarah Palin. And that is why they hate her...and Him. And why she -- and He -- will be back.

It seems like every political commentator has written about Palin recently, but the two finest columns I've read have been by Frank Rich and Andrew Sullivan. Both recommended.

Writer: UAlbany Should Be More Like Cornell

I've previously expressed my disdain for the Capital District, based mainly on trips to the area for hockey games. I haven't spent much time on the UAlbany campus, but one local resident penned an Op-Ed column yesterday in the Schenectady paper to argue, essentially, that UAlbany and Albany should become more like Cornell and Ithaca.

Peter Huston tells us that he attended Albany as an undergraduate 20 years ago, and recently entered a graduate program at Cornell to study Chinese history. He abandoned this plan when, after three years, his Chinese skills were still not considered proficient. Now back studying for another degree at Albany, the author realizes that Albany is no Ithaca:

I miss Ithaca and I miss Cornell. And I think, despite the many strengths and advantages the University at Albany has to offer, it might benefit from implementing a few changes to produce a warmer academic environment.

Huston discusses the arrangement of chairs and seating areas around the UAlbany campus and determines that "I have yet to find a place where one can sit where it is socially acceptable, if not expected, that one will say hello to the strangers at the next table."

It's unclear why Huston thinks Cornell is better in this area, but I believe that Cornell's dining halls and cafés do a good job of promoting social interaction. (Think about the big tables in Ivy Room or the close quarters in Libe Cafe.) Outdoors, the weather is poor enough for most of the year that people won't sit around and chat.

Moving to broader issues, Huston proposes creating a Collegetown-type area near the UAlbany campus:

[UAlbany] forces people to physically be either in or out. To leave campus is literally a half-mile walk, at which point one will find oneself on the fringes of your standard suburban sprawl with little to see. By contrast, many colleges border an area specializing in goods and services for students, including clothing, books, coffee shops and cheap restaurants. Often these become tourist destinations. Might such a zone, something similar to Ithaca’s college-town neighborhood, make a good economic development project?

This is the logic behind the movement to construct a Collegetown near the UConn campus in a relatively rural part of Connecticut:

The town of Mansfield hopes to gain $3 million to $4 million in property taxes annually from the project, said the town manager, Martin Berliner.

“That’s very important in a state that doesn’t provide for any other tax sources for municipalities,” Mr. Berliner said. “But also as important is providing a sense of community that we don’t have now. Providing the downtown will help the university continue to move forward.”

Huston closes with a hope for an Albany which will retain graduates:

At Cornell, some spoke of “the Ithaca syndrome,” where Cornell graduates would take jobs as waiters or salesclerks so they could continue to live in this interesting college town. To an Albany university student, however, the very idea of an “Albany syndrome” where people postpone their career simply to remain in the Capital Region would produce cynical laughter. Should it? If so, perhaps the university and the region should discuss changes.

I'm sure that New York state budget cuts have left Albany administrators with plenty of things to worry about, but I hope that Huston's piece doesn't go unnoticed. If college administrators are looking for an example of a popular Collegetown area, then Ithaca provides a great example.

The Dave McKee Case

I haven't written about this yet, mainly because I was waiting to see if any more details emerged. But it might be partly due to the natural tendency, as a Cornell hockey fan, to shut my eyes and hope the whole thing goes away. Even on eLynah, where we posters are usually desperate for any Cornell hockey news during the offseason, there have only been a few scattered posts about McKee buried in a thread about alumni. (McKee didn't graduate, but that's besides the point.)

Regardless, it's certainly something which should be covered in a blog which covers Cornell hockey, and Cornell in general, so here we go.

Former Cornell hockey goalie and Hobey Baker Award finalist David McKee '07 was charged last month in a California court with raping an unconscious woman in 2006.

McKee was one of the finest Cornell goaltenders of this era. During his sophomore season (2004-2005), he set what was then the NCAA record for goals against average: 1.24. The next year, his numbers dropped off a bit, but he still brought Cornell within inches of a Frozen Four appearance with another trip to the NCAA regional final.

McKee left Cornell after his junior season, meaning that his final collegiate game was Cornell's triple overtime, 1-0, loss to Wisconsin in Green Bay. McKee stopped the first 59 shots he saw before letting in the winning goal.

This brings us to the summer of 2006, which was when McKee allegedly raped the drunk woman. The details from the Orange County DA's office:

On July 12, 2006, McKee and several other male hockey players were staying at a hotel in Orange while in Orange County for a NHL hockey camp. That night, the defendant is accused of going to Woody’s Wharf in Newport Beach with a group of male friends for drinks and meeting 25-year-old Jane Doe. After the bar closed, McKee is accused of going to Jane Doe’s Newport Beach apartment with a group of men and women. Jane Doe, who was intoxicated, went into her bedroom alone to go to sleep.

At approximately 4:15 a.m. on July 13, 2006, McKee is accused of going into Jane Doe’s bedroom and raping her while she was unconscious and unable to resist due to her intoxication. Jane Doe woke up during the sexual assault. Jane Doe immediately contacted the Newport Beach Police Department, who investigated this case. McKee was indicted by the Grand Jury on May 11, 2009.

There is one thing about the case which jumps out immediately: If the accuser approached police immediately, why was there a three-year delay before charges were filed?

The DA has tried to play down the significance of the delay:

Farrah Emami, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney's office, said the reason for the length in time between the alleged incident and indictment was due to the investigation and not the discovery of any new information or evidence.

"It was a lengthy investigation as well as a follow-up investigation," Emami said. "So unfortunately it took the 2 1/2 or three years."

It's tough to figure out what's going on here. I doubt that prosecutors have any sort of DNA evidence to link McKee to the crime, since the evidence would have had to have been obtained shortly after the alleged crime. Without the evidence, the prosecution has a weak case.

I can't find the link now, but I did read at some point that McKee's lawyer had claimed that the DA's office had refused to prosecute the case on two previous occasions before taking it up this summer.

Another question is why the Anaheim Ducks would have re-signed McKee in 2007, if he was the subject of a rape investigation.

There hasn't been much further information. McKee had his pre-trial hearing on Friday, so we should know soon if the case will proceed to trial.

Hillary Clinton: "I Love Cornell"

Secretary of State Clinton held a town hall meeting on Friday at the State Department. The first question was from Tim DeVoogd, a Cornell professor of psychology who is currently on leave and working at the State Department.

QUESTION: Hi, my name’s Tim DeVoogd. I’m a Jefferson Science Fellow in Western Hemisphere and a professor at Cornell University. And I want to make a plug for science diplomacy in particular. And more than saying nice words about it, of course, for the words to mean anything, it has to come with funding, which, in turn, means coordination between State and USAID to promote programs. And I was wondering if you could say anything about how the organization of USAID will develop to support new initiatives like this one.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I agree with you. And I thank you for taking time out and I love Cornell, so it’s wonderful you’re here working in the State Department.

Transcript

Thanks to MA for the tip.

Paper: Riley Nash Staying For Next Year

Derek Van Diest has an article in the Edmonton Sun about Cornell rising junior forward Riley Nash.

Nash was drafted in the first round by the Edmonton Oilers in the 2007 draft and most fans don't think Nash is likely to stay for a full four years. The main question is whether he'll stay at Cornell for another year or leave this summer for the pros, taking his 13 goals from last season with him.

Van Diest thinks he's staying:

While yet to fully commit, the Alberta native is leaning toward returning for his third year at Cornell University.

This follows an article from earlier in the summer on the Oilers' site, which implied that Nash would stay for at least 3 years:

“We don’t want to turn him pro when he’s not ready to turn pro,” Prendergast emphasizes. “We’ll have our prospect camp in July and we’ll have a pretty good idea of where he is at that point. If we feel he’s getting stronger, that’s great and we’ll think about it at the end of next hockey season, and if not, then we’ll wait the four years.”

As I've said before, the departures of either Nash or rising senior forward Colin Greening would create some big holes on the offensive side. If Nash leaves, it will be tough to have as good of a season as some people are expecting.

Selected Questions From Supreme Court Tour

I had some free time this afternoon, so I visited the Supreme Court. Every hour, there's an information session in the courtroom with some time for questions after. There were a few unintentionally amusing questions from the audience:

"Do all seven justices have to be present?"

"Is that where martial law comes from?" (in reference to John Marshall)

"Can the president veto the Court's decision?"

Cornell Is Skorton's Heart Patient?

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a nice puff piece on Cornell's handling of their financial situation. (The article is here but you might need a subscription to read it all.)

The article praises President David Skorton for personally responding to emails from concerned faculty members and for pursuing a policy of "openness."

But it also draws an interesting connection to Skorton's background in cardiology:

As a physician, Dr. Skorton often had to deal with the unknown and deliver
bad news. That experience has helped shape his philosophy that in difficult
situations, transparency is best.

I'm not sure what the proper analogy is here. Hardening of the arteries with the potential for a heart attack unless costs are cut? Yet we must balance this with the need to continue to eat good-tasting foods (spend money on faculty, financial aid, and Milstein Hall)?

If Skorton has a lot of practice delivering bad news, maybe he should have been the one to inform the Cornell community that the university had misplaced 45,000 social security numbers.

Contradiction of the Day

From the Times' article about this morning's bombings in Iraq:

In the deadliest attack, two suicide bombers, working in tandem, detonated
explosives in Tal Afar, a city in Nineveh Province. Tal Afar is about 40 miles
west of Mosul, the provincial capital where violence has raged almost without
interruption despite improved security.

Can someone explain how "improved security" can result in violence raging "without interruption"?

Sarah Palin's "Full-Court Press" Metaphor

A helpful diagram to help you understand Sarah Palin's basketball metaphor -- "passing the ball for victory" or something like that.

Head over to Deadspin for the full image and explanation.

Will 2010 Be The New 2003?

Last season, we played 7 regular season out-of-conference games against teams ranked an average of 27th in the final RPI.

Next year, we're scheduled to play 7 out-of-conference games against teams ranked an average of 16th in the final RPI -- an improvement of 9 places. (For reference, Cornell was 11th.)

How does this happen? Next year, we're only playing one game against Niagara (42nd), and won't face Colgate (38th) again in Florida. We won't play St. Could (22nd) or UMass (28th).

We add games against BU (1st), UNH (10th), Colorado College (21st), and either Princeton (13th) or Maine (33rd). We keep the two games against North Dakota (9th).

Obviously, some opponents are going to get better or worse, but mostly better. This past season was an anomaly for Maine hockey, and Colorado College will likely recover a bit, too.

Flipping through some schedules from previous years, I'm reminded of the 2002-2003 schedule, which was the last time Cornell reached the Frozen Four. That year, we ended up playing two against Ohio State (13th), two against BU (6th), two against Western Michigan (NR), and one against Maine (9th). (Rankings in parentheses from the final poll).

One possible explanation for this year's schedule is that Coach Schafer, as he did prior to the 2003 season, knew he had a very good team and wanted to get them some tough games to prepare them for a strong stretch run. That year, Cornell went 5-2-0 out-of-conference, only losing in Florida when All-America goaltender Dave Leneveu missed the tournament to play for Canada in international competition. A similar record this coming year will position us well for a high seed in the NCAAs.

However, the strong schedule comes at a price. I worry about the two Colgate games scheduled for Tuesdays. We'll have one tough November, with games against Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Colgate, and defending national champion BU all within 22 days! And the game against Colgate in Hamilton is scheduled for a Tuesday in February, which immediately conjures visions of being stuck in a blizzard on a week night driving through the middle of nowhere on the way back to Ithaca.

It's only July, but it seems like last season is long behind us already.

2009-10 Cornell Hockey Schedule Released

On the heels of Friday's official announcement of the incoming freshmen comes today's official release of next year's schedule.

We've been following next year's schedule since February, so the only surprises here are the exhibition games. The Under-18 team is always a talented squad. Windsor lost to every NCAA team they played last season, so that one should be a comfortable win.

Edit: It seems likely that the goalie for the U-18 team will be Andy Iles, a Cornell recruit coming in 2010.

The most amusing line from the Windsor press release is their mention of Princeton:

Cornell finished the season with a 22-10-4 record and reached the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game a year ago. The Princeton Tigers were 22-12-1 in 2008-09 and reached the NCAA West Regional Semi-Final.

In other words, Princeton lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Non-conference games are bolded.

Date Opponent
Fri Oct 23 Univ. of Windsor (Exhibition)
Sat Oct 24 U.S. Under-18 Team (Exhibition)
Fri Oct 30 Niagara
Fri Nov 6 Dartmouth
Sat Nov 7 Harvard
Fri Nov 13 @Yale
Sat Nov 14 @Brown
Fri Nov 20 Princeton
Sat Nov 21 Quinnipiac
Tue Nov 24 Colgate
Sat Nov 28 Boston University @ Madison Sq Garden
Fri Dec 4 @RPI
Sat Dec 5 @Union
Tue Dec 29 Colorado College @ Florida College Hockey Classic
Wed Dec 30 Maine or Princeton @ Florida College Hockey Classic
Sun Jan 3 @UNH
Fri Jan 15 @Clarkson
Sat Jan 16 @St. Lawrence
Fri Jan 22 North Dakota
Sat Jan 23 North Dakota
Fri Jan 29 SLU
Sat Jan 30 Clarkson
Fri Feb 5 @Quinnipiac
Sat Feb 6 @Princeton
Fri Feb 12 Brown
Sat Feb 13 Yale
Tue Feb 16 @Colgate
Fri Feb 19 @Harvard
Sat Feb 20 @Dartmouth
Fri Feb 26 Union
Sat Feb 27 RPI

Fri Mar 5 to Sun Mar 7 -- ECAC Hockey Tournament, First Round, #9-12 @ #8-5
Fri Mar 12 to Sun Mar 14 -- ECAC Hockey Tournament, Quarterfinals, @ #1-4
Fri Mar 19 -- ECAC Semifinals, Albany, N.Y.
Sat Mar 20 -- ECAC Championship/Consolation, Albany, N.Y.

It's unclear if there will be a Red-White scrimmage this year. It would fit nicely on October 16 or 17, but wasn't listed on the schedule.

I'll have some more analysis of the schedule a little later.

On Contrition

Robert McNamara, the former Secretary of Defense who was responsible for dragging the U.S. into the Vietnam War, died this morning at the age of 93.

The well-researched Times obituary is definitely worth reading -- all six online pages of it.

One interesting part of McNamara's story is his public apology, decades after the fact, for his part in the Vietnam War:

In 1995, 14 years after leaving public life, he published his denunciation of the Vietnam War and his role in it, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam” (Times Books/Random House), for which he was denounced in turn.

Unlike any other secretary of defense, Mr. McNamara struggled in public with the morality of war and the uses of American power.

I've been doing some reading recently on the Manhattan Project and the scientists involved in developing the atomic bomb. Many of them, like McNamara with Vietnam, have expressed public contrition for their role in creating a weapon which destroyed tens of thousands of lives and continues to destabalize areas of the world.

For many, this contrition came much faster than it did for McNamara. In their excellent biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin note that on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, many of the scientists at Los Alamos wept or became sick while the uniformed military security forces at the research facility celebrated. Some of the scientists had left the project once Germany surrendered, stating that they had only agreed to work on the bomb because they had believed that the Germans intended to develop one to use against the U.S. An even larger group of Los Alamos scientists had requested that they be allowed to demonstrate the power of the bomb for the benefit of Japanese observers, who presumably would then agree to surrender instead of facing nuclear destruction.

Many of these scientists, including Oppenheimer, began pushing for a ban on nuclear development after World War II. It took McNamara longer to come around, although his denunciation of the Vietnam War was timed to coincide with the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It's difficult to imagine any of our recent leaders expressing contrition for military decisions they may have made in office. President Bush, after all, has refused to say that he would have done anything differently about Iraq, or any other aspect of his presidency, if given the opportunity.

Some of the Democratic presidential candidates for the 2008 nomination had voted in favor of invading Iraq, and several of them stated that they regretted their votes, but we get the impression that it isn't something which keeps them up at night.

It's inconceivable that, decades from now, Donald Rumsfeld or Condoleeza Rice or anyone else will come forward and apologize for the role they played in dragging the U.S. into Iraq in 2003. Nor are we likely to see contrition from executives of Halliburton or other corporations which have profited nicely from the conflict.

Then again, I don't think many people would have expected the same from McNamara when he left the Pentagon in 1967. Sometimes the passage of time can help us see our errors.

Cornell Hockey Officially Announces Class Of 2013

No shockers here if you've been following the recruiting scene. It had looked like Armand de Swardt would defer until the fall of 2010, but he's coming in August. As Big Red Puckhead notes, we'll have a whopping 17 forwards on the roster for next year. Not exactly reassuring news for those of us who think star forwards Colin Greening or Riley Nash might bolt for the pros over the summer, leaving spots for the freshmen to fill.

The big story here (no pun) is the size of our new guys! Check it out:

Yes, those are three defensemen with an average size of 6-3, 199. The coaching staff will deny that there is any sort of purposeful trend towards bringing in bigger guys, but the numbers don't lie here. For a few years in the middle of the decade, we flirted with bringing in some smaller, faster players to help transition to the style of hockey which we thought would better enable us to compete for the national championship. For various reasons, some of these smaller guys didn't work out. We've been bringing in bigger guys the past couple of years, capped by the defensive recruits coming this August.

Chris Moulson is the younger brother of former Cornell standout Matt Moulson '07, who sits 7th on Cornell's list of all-time scorers, with 71 goals from 2002-2007. I don't think anyone expects Chris to equal Matt's numbers, but it'll be nice to see a new player skating around with Moulson on their sweater.

Omar Kanji comes in with the lowest expectations of anyone on the team. Don't take my word for it; take Coach Schafer's:

Cornell Coach Mike Schafer on Kanji: “Omar was highly recommended to us character-wise, and we wanted someone who can come in as our number three goaltender with great character. We wanted someone who wanted to work hard, much along the lines of a kid like Dan DiLeo – a great teammate and knows his role coming into the program. He’ll start out as our third goaltender, and he’s a great student and a great kid.”

DiLeo was by a key supporting member of the team for four years, but remember that DiLeo played 4:36 of hockey in four years at Cornell.

As I've said before, on paper, we have a very solid team for next year. The departures of Nash or Greening would hurt us significantly on the offensive side, but if everyone stays, the Frozen Four will be a realistic goal for this team.