Sunset Park

The phrase is the dedication to Sunset Park, a small lookout point in Cayuga Heights. While it's a great place year-round, the best time to go would be a tolerably warm evening in late fall or early spring, when you have perfect views of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca High School, Routes 13 and 34, parts of downtown, and Ithaca College. In other words, everything except Cornell.

Graduation

I've put my hockey-related thoughts over on eLynah, so I'll focus more on other areas here.

For many, graduation is the culmination of four years spent at Cornell. While my Big Red experience began earlier, with Cornell reunions, hockey games, and two years of Summer College, graduation still represented a clear end. An end to what has been the four best years of my life.

My Cornell experience was transformative. I came to campus after a senior year of high school in which I was, like many other Cornellians, a big fish in a small pond. It took me months to develop a new sense of purpose and determination at Cornell. To my aid came the fraternity, the newspaper, the Lynah Faithful, the job with a professor, and the other organizations and activities of which I became a part. Together, these aspects of my life enabled me to stay busy while learning and having fun. In essence, the goal of college.

At Saturday's convocation, each of the student speakers opted for the rhetorical strategy of trying to name various activities which are common for many Cornell students: studying in Olin Library, going to the bars, attending sporting events. As each speaker presented a new list, I began to think about my own varied experiences over these years. Traveling to an ungodly number of hockey games in eight different states, staying up until 5:00 am to finish piecing together a newspaper, driving to a medium-security prison each week to teach a class, putting in 60-hour weeks at Uris Library to finish my thesis, talking to annoyed cops on weekend nights in my capacity as fraternity president. While I was joined in each of these activities by other people, the combination of all of them together is certainly unique.

So, too, is the combination of activities for every Cornellian. Some of us may seem to be more involved than others, but no two of us spent our time in Ithaca the same way.

I wrote a few weeks ago that there was "no broad sense of the Cornell community." I may have been wrong. You have to wait four years, but on graduation day, there is an undeniable sense of community. With everyone in the black robes, with the packed stadium, and the perfect sunshine, it was a strikingly positive final memory of Cornell.

Cornell is an anonymous place. Of the 130 people who shared my major, I had never spoken to half of them. But Cornell works because it allows each person to create a distinct experience. What binds us together is the realization that we each passed through this place and came out as a different person. Sometimes, as students travel along these solitary paths, they lose their direction and tragedy ensues. For most, though, this journey is immensely rewarding.

My one graduation wish for Cornell is that I hope that my alma mater will seek its own identity in the higher education community. Stop obsessing about being one of the Ivies, and start being Cornell. Stop worrying about the rankings, and celebrate the large student body and our lack of extreme exclusivity. Stop worrying that we are located so far from major metropolitan areas, and celebrate all that Ithaca and its miserable winters have to offer. Stop worrying that our name is associated with tragedy, and celebrate that our name is associated with unprecedented athletic success.

Just as students at Cornell seek their own paths, so may Cornell diverge from what is expected of it. As this happens, perhaps Cornell will move away from the unfortunate combination of grade inflation and the hook-up culture. It's hard to gain much from Cornell when you're scraping out a 3.5 while never leaving Collegetown and its bars.

But I don't want to end on a negative note. I am a proud Cornellian, and I will forever be one.

Thank you for reading this blog. When I started, I vowed that I wouldn't invest any time in publicity. For the first few weeks, I put a link on my Facebook page. And I posted links on eLynah to a couple of posts. But truly, that was it. My father found this blog by reading eLynah. My mother found it almost a year later when she searched in Google for the Cornell hockey schedule and one of my posts came up first. Many of my friends have no idea that I blog.

Regardless, I continued to write because people continued to end up here. Some of you have asked what the future holds. I am certain that I will not be able to update this blog as frequently. Moreover, I will no longer be living in Ithaca, and I hate to rely on my daily dose of Google news alerts for material. Still, I will continue to write when I feel like writing, whether about Cornell University, Cornell hockey, Teach For America, or anything else which arises. Please continue to check back and write comments. I also hope to begin contributing to MetaEzra on an occasional basis, although Matt's superior knowledge of all things Cornell means that my posts may center primarily around sports.

I will conclude this post with a quotation from a certain place in Ithaca. Prize to the person who guesses correctly. And please don't answer if I took you there this weekend.

Here may you too find beauty - goodness - truth.

The Problem With Politicians

I've written each of the last two years about why the convocation committee should not choose a politician as the keynote speaker.

By most accounts, David Plouffe, who never graduated from college, gave a weak speech last year.

And this year, Nancy Pelosi was just miserable.

She gave a rambling speech, the first part of which was an attempt to establish her credible connections to Cornell (and "Tompkin County"), and the second part of which was the typical Democratic stump speech disguised in the context of the need for science education and research. Her inspiring personal story was a self-deprecating anecdote about why she ran for Congress: her teenage daughter wanted her out of the house. When Pelosi ended by telling the graduates that we always had a friend in the speaker's office, it was clear that this was one of those lines which she delivers to every college. Indeed, a look at Pelosi's recent address to lowly Mills College in Oakland, Calif., indicates that her speech today was not original.

With 20-something people on the convocation committee, you'd think they could have come up with a more sincere, engaging, and thoughtful convocation speaker. (At least now they can all brag that they were "instrumental" in bringing Pelosi to campus.)

Why not one of Cornell's famous alumni, someone whose Cornell "cred" does not require 10 minutes of rambling to establish? If you want a government figure, why not Ginsburg? What about someone internal? Is Charles Walcott still alive? He's a great speaker. Ted Lowi spoke at my ceremony this afternoon; he would have been more enjoyable to listen to. I'm sure there are professors, authors, philanthropists, physicians, and musicians who could all give an excellent address.

Why the obsession with the big name? Look smaller, and look better.

Next year provides another opportunity to move away from the political mold.

Athletic Scholarships

I've never been particularly impressed by lacrosse announcers. Too much chitchat about the players' hometowns and the inbred hotbeds of lacrosse. Too much Lacrosse 101 type stuff, even though you wouldn't be watching unless you had some idea about what was going on. And not enough actual commentary about what's happening on the field, unless someone scores.

But today was something else. The announcers loved the underdog story of Notre Dame, a program which - as was mentioned repeatedly - did not give out its maximum allowed number of lacrosse scholarships until 2006. Never mind that this meant that all of the players on the current team would have benefitted from this full complement of scholarships.

Funny that they didn't mention that Cornell has never given out a lacrosse scholarship, and never will. Nor will any other Ivy program. It's ludicrous to view Notre Dame as the underdog because it took them until 2006 to give out the MAXIMUM NUMBER OF SCHOLARSHIPS ALLOWED BY NCAA RULES, when Cornell gives out ZERO.

Later in the broadcast, one of the talking idiots mentioned that Cornell Coach Jeff Tambroni always puts aside some scholarship money in case a quality kid pops up late in the process. Once again, this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Ivy League sports.

I suppose that it's a testament to Tambroni and the Cornell recruiting program that the announcers seem to believe that Cornell gives out scholarships. At least the announcers noticed that Cornell never seems to recruit high school All-Americans, but instead turns overlooked players into great players.

Cornell lost to Notre Dame, 12-7, in the NCAA lacrosse semifinal. Make that three of the last four seasons that Cornell has made it to the Final Four, with a 1-3 record in those appearances.

Human Interest Stories

For all of the wealthy tri-state area Cornell students for whom attending Cornell simply meant that they were rejected by the schools above Cornell in the rankings, or that the reduced in-state tuition persuaded their parents to buy them a new BMW, there are a few like Jordan Davis and Josh Knight.

Timeline of Four Years at Cornell

The Daily Sun has a nice look back at four years of newsworthy events.

Intihar, Nickerson, and Wittman Share Top Award

The award for the top senior athlete at Cornell went to softball star Alyson Intihar, wrestler Troy Nickerson, and basketball player Ryan Wittman.

Although Colin Greening received the leadership award, I'm surprised that goalie Ben Scrivens didn't receive one of the top awards. Scrivens was a first-team All-American this year. Ryan Wittman was an honorable mention All-American.

Of course, especially this year, there are plenty of deserving Cornell athletes. I'm wondering, though, whether NCAA tournament success was the deciding factor. Scrivens is better at hockey than Wittman is at basketball, but Wittman's underdog team won two NCAA games and energized Cornell students and alumni. Scrivens' team was blown out in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Nickerson, a former NCAA champion, helped his team to a surprising runner-up finish at the NCAA championships. Intihar, as the Ivy player of the year, is certainly deserving of a spot as well, although her team was blown out in its two NCAA tournament games.

Weather.com Anticipates Cornell Weather Machine

This almost seems too good to be true...

70 degrees with no chance of rain?

The Cornell-Educated Trilingual Bar Trivia Host

Interesting piece on Forbes.com:

I may be one of America's only Ivy League-educated, trilingual trivia hosts with a master's degree.

Note also:

I graduated from Cornell University in 2002 with a degree in Industrial Labor Relations, a de facto pre-law program...

Switzerland Soccer = Cornell Basketball

This is a great blog post which compares each of the World Cup soccer teams to an American sports team. Which team is closest to Switzerland?

Not a great team, but they’ll beat you if you’re not careful. Fundamentally sound, if lacking great athleticism. Also, they all probably have rich parents.

Switzerland = Cornell Big Red basketball

Has Anyone Ever Won $100 From the Cornell Store?

I received yet another email from the Cornell Store today. As usual, it mentions that we should swipe our Cornell IDs at the Store so we are entered in a drawing to win a $100 gift card every day.

You can read full details of this "daily drawing" on the Store website.

Here's my question: Has anyone ever won this? Has anyone heard of anyone winning this?

It seems very strange to me that in four years at Cornell, I have never heard of anyone winning the daily drawing. We're talking about 1000+ daily drawings, and I've never heard of anyone winning. I realize that the odds are that I wouldn't win it personally, but one would think that I would know someone who has won.

So, has anyone won the drawing? Can someone assure me that they actually give out $100 each day?

Update: I have been assured by employees of the Store that they do, in fact, choose a winner each day.

Oops...

C.U. Enters Into Transfer Agreement With N.J. College

Students matriculating at these two-year institutions are guaranteed admission so long as they meet five transfer criteria, which include having at least a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and demonstrating a solid interest and fit in the CALS major these criteria have been mentioned earlier...could we mention the other three? might be more interesting. If applicants meet all five criteria, then they are guaranteed admission to certain CALS majors such as Information Science, International Agriculture and Rural Development and Nutritional Science.

Academic Dishonesty

If you missed it, there's been a big story in the news about a former Harvard student who essentially lied about his entire academic record in order to gain admission to Harvard, win awards there, and receive scholarship money.

When these stories come out, I always wonder: When people lie on this type of scale, are they almost always caught? Is there really no way for someone to succeed by doing this? Or is this case just the tip of the iceberg because there are plenty of others who have gotten away with it?

What makes this story more intriguing, of course, is that it involves Harvard, that bastion of academic excellence. Hockey fans may remember that Crimson goalie Kyle Richter sat out his sophomore season because of an academic integrity violation, which we assume to be cheating. (Richter returned this season and did not play nearly as well as he did as a freshman.)

The only student from my high school class to matriculate to Harvard was also a bit of a trickster. She routinely lied (to us at least, hopefully not to colleges) about her academic record, saying she got a perfect score on her SAT. She continued to brag about her perfect score even as she went to take the test a second time. She also lied about which colleges she was applying to and which ones had accepted her.

Lest I be accused of being overly negative about Harvard, I should also mention the recent case of the woman who falsely inflated her Cornell GPA from a 2.5 to a 4.0 to win dental school scholarships.

And cheating, of course, does occur at Cornell. The Sun ran a feature on this last fall. I've heard of multiple cases involving students plagiarizing on papers, including on some honors theses last year. And smaller forms of cheating - copying homework, collaborating on take-home exams, writing things on hands/arms - are quite common. For one of the Organic Chemistry prelims this spring, students cheated by writing answers on the soles of their shoes. (All footwear was inspected for the next exam.)

Put people in a high-stress setting in which grades are important, and some are bound to cheat. Administrators and professors can warn students not to cheat, but in the end, there will always be a few who choose to break the rules. I was amused to hear about an engineering professor who informed students that he would not report them if they cheated, but would instead "personally beat the shit out of them."

Of course, dishonesty isn't limited to academia. Recall the case of the former Notre Dame coach who lied on his resume. Just last night, the Times broke a story about my attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, who stated falsely that he served in Vietnam.

I worry that this Harvard story is like the movie Catch Me If You Can. On the one hand, it's a terrible thing and the criminal will be punished. On the other hand, it's cool that he got away with it for so long.

Cornell Connection of the Day

One of the co-founders of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com is Doug Chernack '96.

Potential NCAA Rule Changes Will Mostly Hurt Cornell

As happens every two years, the NCAA hockey standing committee on rules will meet this summer to debate potential rule changes. Here's a look at a few of the possible changes, and some speculation on how they will affect Cornell.

-Tampering with overtime; mandating that overtime be played 4-on-4 (as in the NHL), followed by a shootout if no one scores. Right now, each conference decides how overtime games will be played. (The ECAC is 5x5 with no shootout.) I don't like this change at all. I've written before that I think it's stupid to play a decisive overtime period with different rules than those which are used during regulation, whether that means changing the number of players on the ice or calling penalties differently. Plus, Cornell tends to favor good positioning and physical play over skating virtuosity, which means that 4x4 hockey isn't conducive to success for Cornell. If 4x4 is implemented, look for the Big Red to do their best to play good defense and settle for a tie instead of taking the puck to the net. Shootouts are simply stupid, in my opinion. I have no problem with ties. Cornell has done pretty well in shootouts in Florida over the last few years, but remember also that the Big Red haven't converted a penalty shot opportunity in over 20 years.

-Requiring half-shield face masks instead of full-shields. I don't exactly follow the logic of proponents of this shift, who say that players will give more respect to opponents who have half-shields, which means they won't hit them as hard, which will reduce injuries. But apparently "nearly 100 percent" of coaches are in favor of the change.

-Eliminating the ability of shorthanded teams to ice the puck. This is an exceedingly stupid idea and I really hope the coaches aren't asking for this change. Cornell is very good on the penalty kill, and they are almost always content to shoot the puck down the ice and use the opportunity to change lines. If this rule were to be changed, Cornell couldn't ice the puck, but would instead be forced to try to carry the puck past the red line before shooting it down-ice, or else only clear it part of the way down the ice sheet. Either way, it would be more difficult to put fresh penalty killers on the ice.

-Penalizing players for shooting the puck over the glass. The NHL already does this. I'm not personally opposed, but I recall vividly the game at Quinnipiac this year, when Brendon Nash kept sending the puck over the boards when he tried to clear it. The boards are shorter at Q than at Lynah, but still, it was pretty bad. Two people in the stands were injured. This might be a good rule overall.

-Keeping the faceoff in the offensive zone if the puck hits the crossbar and goes out of play. This rule is logical and seems likely to be implemented.

The problem here is that the college game, like the NHL, is looking for ways to boost offense. Cornell is a somewhat anachronistic team in that they like to play low-scoring games. The majority of the proposed rule changes (see some more here) are intended to increase scoring. This hurts Cornell.

One major non-gameplay potential change is the reconfiguration of the NCAA tournament. Currently, four regional sites each host four teams for a total of three games over two days. The winners from each regional advance to the Frozen Four.

There is some support for making the first-round games a best-of-three series at the home rink of the higher seed. This rewards better teams by making it easier for them to advance. Certainly the increasing parity of college hockey has led to a higher number of situations - like RIT over Denver in Albany this year - in which a #1 seed has been stunned by a team which was arguably less talented. I really think Cornell would have beaten UNH in a best-of-three series at Lynah, even though UNH won the single game played in Albany.

Under the proposed change, the eight winners of the first-round series would play their quarterfinal games at one of two "super regional" sites, with the four winners of the games advancing to the Frozen Four.

I'm in favor of this change. The shift to a best-of-three series properly rewards the higher seeds, and it'll be a much better atmosphere than the often-dead atmospheres at distant regional sites. (See: Grand Rapids Regional, March 2009). There's also more revenue for the host schools.

As Adam Wodon points out, the major problem with this change is that the Pairwise system for seeding teams in the NCAA is still quite flawed. Until that is resolved, it doesn't make sense to give the #8 seed such a huge advantage over the #9 seed.

Cornell to Play Colgate in... Newark

After selling out Madison Square Garden in 2007 and 2009 for highly anticipated Thanksgiving weekend match-ups with Boston University, Cornell hockey will be moving slightly south this fall to play Colgate at the Prudential Center in Newark.

It's easy to see the logic here. Cornell's two games with BU have been sellouts, highly profitable for both schools and for the venue. Cornell and Colgate have substantial alumni bases (as well as student fans) in the NYC area. And Cornell certainly earns more money over Thanksgiving by sending the team to play in a big arena instead of shipping them (via Canada) to North Dakota for two games, as they did in 2008. Perhaps Athletics is trying to start an annual tradition of Thanksgiving hockey games in the NYC area. It is anticipated that Cornell and BU will face off in MSG again in 2011.

However, this is a disappointing decision in terms of hockey. The Cornell-BU rivalry is fueled by all of those years in the 1970s and 1980s when the two teams battled for supremacy in the ECAC. Moreover, both Cornell and BU have continued to battle for their respective conference titles and NCAA appearances in the years since. Colgate, aside from its geographic proximity to Cornell, is a mediocre hockey program with little emotional significance to Cornell fans.

Over the past few years, Cornell has had the misfortune several times of playing ECAC teams in a neutral venue. In December, Cornell lost to Princeton in Florida in a terrible game. The previous year, they tied Colgate in Florida. The previous year, they tied Clarkson in Florida.

The key is this: as an Ivy team with a responsibility to schedule home games to earn revenue, Cornell has few opportunities to leave Ithaca to play a significant non-conference game. The few high-level non-conference opponents over the last couple of years, such as North Dakota, BU, and UNH, have provided entertaining hockey and a good challenge for the Big Red. You don't want to waste these opportunities by playing mediocre teams which you play twice each year anyway.

Assuming the Red Raiders once again finish in the middle of the ECAC and fail to qualify as a Team Under Consideration, this matchup has little benefit to Cornell. Winning or losing this game in Newark isn't going to have much of an impact on Cornell's season.

I really hope that Cornell was trying to schedule a big game for Thanksgiving -- maybe Boston College, or Northeastern (as was rumored), or another eastern team with a lot of NYC alumni -- but that the arrangement fell through and they had to turn to Colgate. Given the scope of the opportunity, the result is disappointing.

Update: After thinking some more, there is a way this may work to Cornell's advantage. If the Big Red consider the Newark game to be their "home" game against Colgate, and they move the game in Hamilton to a Tuesday (as was done this past year), that frees up a weekend on the schedule. Cornell could bring in (or travel to) a quality opponent at that time, or else have more flexibility to schedule some sort of home-and-home across two different weekends. But this is probably just wishful thinking on my part.

Cornell Rising Freshman Looks Forward to "Not Having Parents"

Maybe the word "around" was supposed to be at the end of the sentence.

Cornell Plans Senior Housing on West Hill

Sounds like it would be a cool opportunity for hotel students to gain experience in running the hospitality and food for a senior center. I'm sure the pre-meds would love to get some experience there as well. And of course, the development of the land would make Cornell some money.

Ithaca Journal via Ithacating

Ithaca: Hotbed of Underwater Hockey

Interesting article about the sport, which is played twice weekly at Teagle.

At first, the idea of a game of hockey played at the bottom of a pool seems absurd, and seeing it played for the first time is similar to watching sharks feeding. Since the action takes place underwater, not much can be seen from the pool deck. The water churns, fins slap the surface and water blasts from snorkels. The pack of eight to 12 players moves quickly, travelling from one end of the pool to the other and back in seconds. After several minutes of this frenzy, the players finally stand up, remove the snorkels from their mouths and congratulate each other on the play.

Yearbook Embarrassment

Just started flipping through this year's Cornellian, which costs around $100.

Who proofreads the yearbook? From glancing through the pages, not even seriously trying to read any of the articles, my eyes kept hitting obvious typos.

Also, there's this gem from the timeline on page 107:

1990: Cornell University's football team wins the national championship.

Between these errors, and the incident a couple of years ago when "Cornell University" was spelled wrong on the cover, I'm wondering whether anyone actually reads this thing before it goes to print.

Edit: Wow. Here's the "recap" of the men's varsity ice hockey season. I realize this had to go to print before much of the season had taken place, but this paragraph is simply terrible. It reads like a middle-schooler wrote it.

This year men's hockey has started with a strong beginning to the season. So far, the team has played seven games, losing only two of the games. The season opened against the University of Windsor, with a 7-0 win. The second game, against the U.S. Under-18 Team, finished with a 2-3 loss over the Big Red. However, this game did not count for the season record. The conference record, to date, for ECAC, stands at 3-1. The first game in the Ivy League Conference was a successful outing against Dartmouth College. Cornell finished the game with 5 goals, letting in only one of Dartmouth's attempts. One of Big Red's biggest accomplishments was the dramatic defeat against Harvard University. Fans came out in full force to support the hockey team's performance against our biggest rival here at Cornell. The Sun printed newspapers for the occasion, and almost every single fan was adorned with Cornell apparel. Cornell also prevailed over Brown University, with a 6-0 loss in Providence. However, one disappointing loss this season was against Yale University. It was the first loss in the ECAC league for Cornell. Cornell will also host Princeton University, Quinnipiac University, and Colgate University. Over Thanksgiving Break, Cornell will face Boston University at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This year, Cornell will also play in the Florida College Classic at the end of December. The first opponent they will face is Colorado College, and the second opponent is to be announced at a later date. The season closes here in Ithaca, against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on February 27. The ECAC Tournament begins on March 5, 2010, and finishes on March 20, 2010.

What's wrong here, aside from the bad English? (Seriously, this isn't meant to be an offensive comment, but these yearbook articles read like the New Haven Advocate when they outsourced an entire issue to India.)

This year men's hockey has started with a strong beginning to the season. So far, the team has played seven games, losing only two of the games. The season opened against the University of Windsor, with a 7-0 win. The second game, against the U.S. Under-18 Team, finished with a 2-3 loss over the Big Red. However, this game did not count for the season record.

Right, and neither did the Windsor game. At the time of writing, Cornell had only played five games.

The conference record, to date, for ECAC, stands at 3-1. The first game in the Ivy League Conference was a successful outing against Dartmouth College.

There is no Ivy League Conference.

Cornell finished the game with 5 goals, letting in only one of Dartmouth's attempts.

So they won, 5-1?

One of Big Red's biggest accomplishments was the dramatic defeat against Harvard University. Fans came out in full force to support the hockey team's performance against our biggest rival here at Cornell. The Sun printed newspapers for the occasion, and almost every single fan was adorned with Cornell apparel.

Surprisingly enough, the Sun prints every weekday during the semester. The Sun had a two-page graphic which was meant to be waved during the introductions. Also, surprising that Cornell fans would wear Cornell apparel to a hockey game.

Cornell also prevailed over Brown University, with a 6-0 loss in Providence.

Wait -- did they prevail, or did they lose? Or both?

However, one disappointing loss this season was against Yale University. It was the first loss in the ECAC league for Cornell. Cornell will also host Princeton University, Quinnipiac University, and Colgate University.

Also the University of North Dakota, Clarkson University, St. Lawrence University, Union College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Yale University, and Brown University.

Over Thanksgiving Break, Cornell will face Boston University at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This year, Cornell will also play in the Florida College Classic at the end of December.

Unlike every other year, when they play in the Florida College Classic at the end of December.

The first opponent they will face is Colorado College, and the second opponent is to be announced at a later date.

Like after the games on the first day.

The season closes here in Ithaca, against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on February 27.

Cornell somehow misses the ECAC playoffs, which involve all 12 teams.

The ECAC Tournament begins on March 5, 2010, and finishes on March 20, 2010.

Which is useful information for fans because the yearbooks are distributed in May 2010.

Headlines That Stretch the Truth

Here's one.

Cornell Seniors Love Cornell

The results from the 2010 Senior Survey look pretty good for the University. Here's the .pdf with the pretty charts and graphs.

Keep in mind, though, that just under 50 percent of seniors completed the survey. My gut feeling is that the people who did complete the voluntary survey were probably disproportionately calm, not stressed, and generally satisfied with their time at Cornell. Some of the numbers simply seem too good for Cornell.

Note that advising within the major, class size, and ability to acquire broad knowledge in the arts and sciences were among the categories with the lowest numbers of students reporting satisfaction. Students love the libraries and their services, with 98 percent satisfied.

Jim Calhoun

I think few people at Cornell would have had a problem with giving Steve Donahue a generous raise after this past season. Yes, Cornell is slashing budgets, eliminating positions, and taking on more debt. But his success has brought recognition, pride, and certainly revenue to a university which went through a tough year.

On the other hand, there's Jim Calhoun. After missing the NCAA tournament this season, he enters into "negotiations" with UConn and wins a huge salary increase, from $1.6 million to $2.3 million. This with UConn deep in the red and the athletic department spending hundreds of thousands to defend Calhoun's program against an NCAA investigation.

Take it away, Colin McEnroe.

Who knew

that Cornell offered an undergraduate degree in winemaking?

Presented Without Comment

Another Painful Lacrosse Loss

For a game which tends to be significantly higher-scoring than hockey, lacrosse seems to produce a disproportionately high number of games which go down to the final seconds. Unfortunately, over the last few years, it seems like Cornell is nearly always on the losing side of these affairs.

It wasn't always this way. As recently as the spring of 2007, en route to a 15-0 start, Cornell won a couple of nailbiters. Up in Syracuse, a great inbounds play by then-sophomore Max Seibald put the Big Red up 16-15 with 4 seconds to play. Seibald's game-winning goal landed him on SportsCenter's Top 10. Then, in the NCAA quarterfinal game, Cornell beat Albany, 12-11, after a goal with 4.8 seconds remaining in sudden-death overtime. You can see this exciting finish here.

Quickly thereafter, the tide turned against Cornell. In the Big Red's next game, at the 2007 NCAA final four in Baltimore, Duke scored the game-winning goal with 3 seconds left to win 12-11. This came after the Big Red rallied from a 7-goal deficit with 18 minutes remaining.

After a comparatively uneventful 2008 season, the gods of lacrosse again turned their wrath on Cornell in 2009. The end of the national championship game was one of the most painful things I've ever seen in person. You know the story: Cornell has possession in the final seconds with a one-goal lead, turns over the ball, Syracuse ties the game with 4.5 seconds remaining, and then wins the game in overtime. Goodbye NCAA title.

Finally, this season. Last month, Cornell lost to Syracuse again, this time with less than one second remaining on the clock. (In fact, from the replay, it seems like time may have already expired). Then, yesterday, Cornell blew a four-goal third quarter lead, squandered two opportunities in overtime, and surrendered the game-winning goal in the final seconds of overtime. Another rough way to lose.

What's going on here is anyone's guess. Perhaps Coach Tambroni, an excellent coach overall, needs to do a better job of calming down his players at the end of games. Or maybe this is a cyclical thing, and we'll soon see a few close games with Cornell as the victor.

At 10-5, Cornell is seeded #7 in the NCAA tournament and will host Loyola on Saturday at 2:30. The game will also be on ESPNU. The winner will travel to Princeton for the NCAA quarterfinal game, where they will most likely face Syracuse.

Hollywood Meets Lynah Rink

Katelyn Pippy, a high school senior from the Pittsburgh area , is both an outstanding hockey goalie and a up-and-coming actress. Pippy has a regular role on the TV show Army Wives, which airs on Lifetime. She's also an excellent goalie, and balances trips to hockey tournaments and development camps with trips to California to film.

As of next fall, Pippy will play hockey at Cornell:

She will attend and play hockey at NCAA Division I Cornell University. Part of what appealed to Pippy about the school was its size (13,000) and the fact it has a traditional campus with a traditional college atmosphere.

"With all the traveling, I didn't really get to do the whole high school thing, so I wanted to do the college thing right," Pippy said. "Cornell just had a great campus and the school is great and then the hockey program, too. It kind of all came together."

In the meantime, Pippy will take a year off to play on a traveling U-19 team. She's only 17, and she doesn't feel quite ready to make the jump to the NCAA.

However, it's not clear whether Pippy will be focusing more on hockey or acting during the interim year.

"I want to go to college but I might take a hiatus for a year and go to L.A. and see what it might be like," she said. "I want to do this more as a livelihood than as a hobby and since moving to L.A. is what I'll probably have to do, I want to take it for a test drive."

I'm also a little unsure of whether Pippy will be able to continue to pursue her acting career while playing for Cornell. She currently attends an arts high school which seems pretty flexible about letting her leave for stretches of time. Cornell, with its more rigorous academics and athletics, might not be so accommodating.

The parent of a prospective Cornell women's hockey player tells me that she is very down-to-earth for someone who's already a bit of a celebrity. We'll see if she's willing to sacrifice some of her Hollywood success to play at Lynah Rink.

Spreading an Idea

Sun editorial on Thursday:

One change that could decompress the current campus climate is to make a change to the academic calendar. The eight-week period between the end of Winter Break and the beginning of Spring Break is the longest stretch of uninterrupted classes at any Ivy except Columbia — the others get vacations on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or President’s Day, or they start Spring Break earlier.

Dean of the University Faculty William Fry that same day:

One possibility that the University Faculty will consider is to adjust the academic calendar. In that regard, one possibility is to reduce the time between the start of the spring semester and spring break. Now it's eight weeks without a break and almost the darkest time of year in Ithaca. A faculty committee will look at everything next year: the spacing and length of breaks, whether or not we have classes on federal holidays, when we start, when we end.

Krueger and Gotovets Play in World Championships

I'm a few days late with this, but Cornell senior defenseman Justin Krueger was named to the German team for the IIHF World Championships. Krueger got a lot ice time (19:14) during Germany's OT win over the U.S. on Friday. Here's one shot of him:

With an announced attendance of 77,803 (roughly 18 times the capacity of Lynah Rink), it's safe to say that was the largest crowd Krueger's ever played for.

Still waiting to see if Krueger will sign with the Carolina Hurricanes, who drafted him. Or, he can wait until August 15 and become a free agent.

Also, incoming Cornell recruit Kirill Gotovets was named to Team Belarus for the tournament. Belarus plays its first game tomorrow, against Kazakhstan.

Images of Slope Day from the Journal

Let's just say some of these don't paint Cornell in the most flattering light. All photos by Simon Wheeler. Full gallery is available here.

Happy Slope Day

Enjoy the "last day of classes," which for most students is a day without classes.

The music begins at 1:30, and runs until around 5:30.

The Sun had a nice piece yesterday about Slope Day history:

Throughout the 1990’s, Slope Day continued to remain an open, relaxed event with little planning or administrative intervention: Cornellians simply congregated on the Slope to drink. In fact, some of the more industrious and ambitious students even took the trouble to bury kegs on the slope the night before Slope Day in order to maximize their potential alcohol consumption during the concert. Such stunts were mostly the result of fraternity ingenuity and thus new members would be sent out at night to bury kegs. The next day frat members would carry couches over to the slope, put them on top of the buried kegs and run the tap up through the couch.

Have fun and be safe.

The 1979 ECAC Quarterfinal

The brief game highlights from the LynahRink.com video have been posted to YouTube:

The box score is here.

Some may recall that Providence upset Cornell in the quarterfinal in 1978, so this win was vindication for Cornell fans.

Remember that there are plenty of other Cornell hockey videos on YouTube to help you pass these long summer months.

McKee Will Stand Trial for Rape

Former Cornell hockey goalie Dave McKee '07 will, in fact, have to stand trial for rape. Although the case against him was dismissed earlier this year, the charges against McKee have been resurrected.

Judge Richard J. Beacom sided with the prosecutor, and said the evidence "strongly suggested" that Jane Doe was asleep when McKee entered her bed.

"I don't see consent here in any way, shape or form,'' the judge said.

Meanwhile, McKee's season just ended as his Allen Americans were eliminated from the CHL playoffs. McKee was the backup goalie.

Update: This article has more detail on recent developments in McKee's case.

Uncle Ezra Urges Students to Leave Campus

Interesting that DUE used a relatively simple question about finding potting soil as a jump-off point to instruct readers to see more of Ithaca:

Taking a trip to downtown Ithaca is a wonderful thing. I know that it is hard to imagine, but you are surrounded by real people of all different ages, babies and old folks, and people who have nothing to do with Cornell.

This is similar to what I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

With so much to offer on campus, and the relative isolation of North Campus, most freshmen hardly ever venture more than a couple of blocks off-campus, much less to the more economically and racially diverse sections of Ithaca. Perhaps they'll go to the Ithaca Mall, or to the Commons a handful of times, but that's about it. Cornell upperclassmen necessarily interact with Townies to sign leases and things like that, but they're not forming any sort of relationships with the typical Ithaca resident.

A Good Idea

Today's Sun editorial suggests that the administration should consider moving Spring Break a week earlier:

One change that could decompress the current campus climate is to make a change to the academic calendar. The eight-week period between the end of Winter Break and the beginning of Spring Break is the longest stretch of uninterrupted classes at any Ivy except Columbia — the others get vacations on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or President’s Day, or they start Spring Break earlier.

There is also precedent for such a change. In the fall of 1977, after a string of three suicides, students gathered on West Campus and collectively yelled the catchphrase, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” In response, the University declared a mental state of emergency and began emphasizing suicide prevention — a process that included a mid-October respite from classes, or as it is known today, Fall Break. The intensity of the grueling eight-week stretch at the beginning of spring semester can be remedied by a similar change to our current academic calendar.

Such a change would only be part of the ultimate solution, but it might ease the stress levels of students who look to spring break as an oasis in the middle of a busy spring semester.

The Sun's editorial from Wednesday about discrepancies in granting honors also deserves the attention of someone in the administration.

The Sun Explores Student Blogging

In today's Red Letter Daze section, Munier Salem (who gave this blog a shout-out in his farewell column last week) provides a nice overview of the world of Cornell student blogging.

I agree with the basic conclusion of the article, that we bloggers bring a welcome variety of perspectives and viewpoints to the online world. And interesting that we all dislike (did I really use the word 'hate'?) Slope Media.

I don't consider myself anti-Greek, which is what Salem implies. I strongly support the Greek system at Cornell; I just wish it could eliminate some of the hypocrisy and bad decision-making which continues to imperil its existence.

Regardless, as Salem notes at the end, the Big Red blogosphere could look quite different next year. I don't think this blog will continue in the same way, if at all, and I'm unsure what will happen with Ithacating. Hopefully there will be some fresh faces looking to jump into the fray.

Kappa Sigma Will Also Close

In addition to Pi Kappa Alpha, the Cornell chapter of Kappa Sigma will close at the end of the year.

You know you're in bad shape when you're holding parties which are not only unregistered, but also in violation of your agreement with your national organization. What did they think was going to happen?

According to their website, Kappa Sig had nearly 50 active members going into this semester. We'll see whether the fraternity will start from scratch, or choose a few current brothers to head the rechartering effort.

Cornell Hosts First Ivy Lacrosse Tournament

I haven't written much about lacrosse this spring, mainly because I've been too busy to make it to many games. But the Cornell men's team has had a pretty remarkable season.

Despite losing a lot of talent from last year's team which really, really should have won the NCAA title, this year's team is right back at the top. They've had disappointing losses to Brown and Dartmouth, another devastating last-second loss to Syracuse, and a blowout loss to Virginia at home. But they've beaten everyone else and currently sit at No. 6 in the RPI rankings.

Their most significant victory came on Saturday at Princeton. With the win, Cornell secured home field for the inaugural Ivy lacrosse tournament, which takes place this weekend. (Under the previous years' system, Cornell would have earned the Ivy automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.) Here are the highlights from Saturday:

Cornell plays Brown in the semifinal at 8pm on Friday. It's Slope Day, so expect a light student turn-out. I think I went a couple of years ago on Slope Day to see Cornell play Hobart, and there weren't many students. The final is Sunday at noon.

This season, Cornell has struggled to get past some easy teams, and they've nearly blown some late-game leads (including on Saturday). And the final-second loss to Syracuse probably set the team back pretty far in their process of recovering from last year's game. Don't expect to see Cornell in the national championship game this year. But the ability to turn what was expected to be a down year into another highly competitive, Ivy-winning season speaks to the talent of Coach Jeff Tambroni and to Cornell's status as a lacrosse powerhouse.

Can't say we're not living in a great time for Cornell athletics. If only I could erase that nightmare at Foxboro from my memory.

PHC to Vote on Expansion

At their meeting Wednesday night, the Panhellenic Council will vote on whether to allow another sorority to come onto campus. As stated earlier, it seems unlikely that the existing chapters will vote for extension. But who knows.

Duff Ball King & Queen Nominees Announced

"Duff Ball," held in Duffield Hall, is essentially the senior class prom. If prom were held in an academic building for $40 a ticket. Not sure what the selection process was, but ticket holders can vote here.

Duff Ball King

Mitch Fried

Alex James

Jeff Katz

Eddie Rooker

Ryan Wittman

Duff Ball Queen

Rachel Bloom

Alison Ewing

Kathy Houng

Danielle Oliver

Stephanie Rigione

All of the nominees are caucasian, except for Kathy Houng, who is of Asian descent.

Photos from Iceland

(mail train, 1911)

With Iceland in the news for the volcanic eruption, the Cornell library has posted many of its photos of Iceland on Flickr. The images are from the early 20th Century, with Iceland "on the edge of modernity." You can browse the collection here.

Cornell Student Arrested for C-town Robberies

The student is Charles Wagner '12, who is originally from the Portland, Ore., area and is enrolled in CALS.

The Sun reports that the items stolen included electronics, alcohol, and prescription drugs.

MetaEzra dug up a picture of Wagner here.

Vice President of Sitting Around and Blogging

Something I can't stand is the tendency of student organizations at Cornell to toss the word "president" into every executive board officer position. Your typical student organization will have a president, perhaps an executive vice president, and then 2-7 vice presidents of some sort. Forget being treasurer, you're the Vice President for Financial Management. Forget being social chair, you're the Vice President for Events. I wish these titles were jokes.

I understand that students want to make their resumes looks good. Including the words "vice president" makes it seem like the officer is a heartbeat away from being in charge, even if he or she holds one of the less important positions. Consider the InterFraternity Council, which has seven vice presidents. Or the laughably incompetent Slope Media, which doesn't post its organizational chart anymore, but at last check had ten vice presidents.

Last night, one of my student organizations held elections. In typical Cornell style, all of the officers have "president" somewhere in their title. At the end of the meeting, we installed the new officers. To no surprise, the script from our national organization had the word "secretary" instead of "Vice President of Records," thereby proving that the transformation of the position into a vice-president-ship was a Cornell invention.

Hazing Updates

Apologies for the lack of updates this weekend. I'm a few days behind on this, but the Sun ran a couple of stories at the end of last week on the ongoing hazing investigations.

According to this article, the investigation of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity (see here) is ongoing. I would tend to agree with B.C.'s thoughts; given the strong alumni presence of Alpha Delt at Cornell, I don't expect them to get hit with anything too severe.

It was fun to see this picture on the front page of the Sun.

The Sun also confirmed what I heard a couple of weeks ago: that Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) will be shut down. It appears that Pike is facing stricter consequences than did Sigma Pi when it sent underage freshmen to the hospital during a Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago. Sig Pi's existing members were allowed to continue to live in the house, but they could not recruit for a year. (I know they did continue to have parties during this time.) Pike's guys might actually lose their physical house.

Final note: I could have sworn that Dean of Students Kent Hubbell was quoted in one of those Sun articles from last week, maybe the one giving an update about Alpha Delt. I know this because I made a mental note to write about the glaring conflict of interest -- Hubbell is an Alpha Delt alum, after all. But his quote doesn't appear in any of the current online versions. Weird.

IvyGate Also Reports That Pike Will Be Shut Down

Confirming what I wrote two weeks ago, IvyGate cites an anonymous source that the Cornell chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) will be shut down at the end of the school year.

Post-Graduation Career Trends

Someone posted a friendly comment yesterday which stated, in part:

...in other [posts], such as your career comments, you're not exactly referencing the actual statistics, just reciting the cliche angry points that make it easy to simplify what you think Cornellians in certain schools are doing and how they view their school.

Okay, fair enough, here are some numbers.

Overall Cornell, class of 2009: 33 percent (that's 1 in 3 graduates surveyed) went into either financial services or consulting. Compare that to 23 percent total who went into the public sector.

School of Industrial and Labor Relations, most recent data: 18 percent went to law school (slightly lower than I expected). BUT, among those with jobs, 42 percent went into human resources and 31 percent went into financial services or some sort of business. Only 4 percent went into labor relations, and 4 percent worked for labor.

School of Hotel Administration, class of 2009: More students went into banking and financial services than the actual administration of a hotel or resort.

College of Human Ecology, most recent data: Of those accepting job offers, 42 percent went into business management.

I'm not going to take the time to go through the other colleges.

On the other hand, here's a cool feature on someone who's availing herself of what Cornell's specialty majors have to offer.

Riley Nash Getting Hate Mail From Oilers Fans?

Not sure if this is legitimate or not, but interesting nonetheless.

Nash:

"Ya, I've been taking a beating in the media there and getting some nice hatemail. I speak very highly of the Oilers organization and feel that their future is very bright for them, this is only a tough time that all organizations go through. I haven't decided what I will be doing next year due to many factors. I think a lot of people are assuming things that I have never said, due to the fact that I haven't signed with them yet. There is still a good possibility I end up in Edmonton or with their farm team."

Cornell Expert Debunks Noah's Ark Discovery

Ha...

Hong Kong-based Noah's Ark Ministries said the structure had been found on Mount Ararat at about 14-thousand-700 feet.

Wood from the structure has reportedly been carbon-dated to reveal it to be about 48-hundred years old.

[...]

A Cornell University archaeologist, Peter Kuniholm, wanted to know if the carbon dating was conducted accurately. He also wanted more data on whether the mountaintop showed any geological signs of flooding.

Kuniholm said, quote, "There's not enough H2O in the world to get an ark that high up on a mountain."

Greening Uses Signing Bonus To Repay Loans

Here's a nice article on Colin Greening from his home town paper.

You can take time to reflect on it and be happy," Greening said, "but reality has to set back in and you have to realize this is where the real work begins. My dream has been to make it to the NHL and it's going to be a tough couple of months or even years to get there."

"When I go into camp, I'm gonna have to knock some people out of their positions and that's a very difficult thing to do."

The Sens have already indicated he'll most likely be going to Binghamton of the AHL to get a feel for pro the game.

"If I end up starting in Binghamton, I don't see that as a step back," Greening suggests. "It's just an opportunity to get more ice time at the AHL level to learn and prepare so I give myself a chance at moving up."

The article also discusses Greening's age. At 24, he's a little older than the other players hitting the pros for the first time.

Scrivens Signs With Toronto

Cornell senior goalie Ben Scrivens has signed a one-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. No word yet on salary. I don't follow pro hockey closely enough to know what the goalies are like who are currently ahead of Scrivens on the depth chart.

Update: Scrivens will earn $67,500 AHL and $690,000 NHL. Recall that these amounts are prorated based on the number of games with either the AHL or NHL team.

Uncle Ezra Scrubs the Record

Now:

***edited for confidentiality*** From talking to upperclassmen, they have all informed me of what they did to their pledge class. I am certain that forcing the new pledge class to drink and stay up all night is considered hazing by the university. I just think it is so ironic that an IFC leader allows this to happen... Do you see something incongruous here? What steps has Cornell taken to ensure that there is a crackdown on hazing? Because clearly, IFC is run by corruption.

Admittedly, it can be considered libel to print an allegation of hazing without any evidence beyond hearsay. However, the edited version indicates that all upperclassmen at Cornell haze their pledge classes. I'm not sure this is better.

Regardless, it will be a fun waiting game to see what happens. As I see it, OFSA is in a difficult situation. Here are the options:

A. Do nothing, or release no public response, which sends a great message about taking hazing allegations seriously.

B. Investigate, and conclude that there is no evidence of hazing. The report will be laughed at, and OFSA will look mighty stupid when further evidence inevitably comes to light.

C. Investigate, conclude that hazing occurs, and figure out how to explain that Eddie and Svante are great people when their fraternity engages in this kind of behavior.

Should be interesting.

Speaking of, what's going on with Alpha Delta Phi? Funny that Kent Hubbell's fraternity hasn't had anything happen to them.

Community College Students Get Automatic Transfer

Raritan Valley Community College, located in Branchburg, N.J., has reached a deal with the College of Human Ecology. If a student graduates from RVCC with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, he or she is guaranteed an automatic transfer into HumEc for the final two years of the B.S. program. The student will start at Cornell with 60 credits.

Maybe I'm just being an elitist here, but to me this deal seems like it's cheapening the value of a Cornell education. I have no problem with students transferring to Cornell from a two-year school, but I like to think that they've excelled at that school in order to gain admission to Cornell. A 3.5 in community college classes, with no further considerations for extracurricular activities, disciplinary record, or anything else, is a pretty low threshold.

Moreover, the agreement essentially means that two years of study at Cornell (at least in HumEc) is equivalent to two years of study in community college in New Jersey. The agreement sends a message to HumEc students from New Jersey that they should have saved a lot of money and effort by spending their first two years at Raritan Valley and then jumping to Cornell via the automatic transfer.

I don't think this deal has gotten much publicity around Ithaca, but if I'm a HumEc upperclassman, I'm pretty pissed that my college doesn't think my first two years of college are any more impressive than the two years of a B+/A- student at community college.

Update: Here's the official announcement from RVCC (.pdf)

Eight Things You Won't Hear During Cornell Days

Readers of this blog know that I truly love Cornell. To blog about the university, you have to either really love it or really hate it. And I fall into the first category.

That said, there are always ways in which our fine college can improve. Over these last few weeks, I'll be pointing out some of these areas and offering some suggestions.

In this post, I look at eight facts about life at Cornell which you wouldn't hear about if you attended Cornell Days over these last two weeks.

1. There really is no broad sense of the Cornell community. 'Community' is a buzz word these days, with the 'caring community' and all which is supposed to prevent suicides. But there are very few occasions on which the whole student body actually comes together. Slope Day might be the one exception, but the focus of the day is drinking, and the architects have final exams or presentations or something that day which prevents them from having too much fun. Aside from that, your choice of major, religion/ethnicity, and Greek (or not) affiliation are the factors which dictate what you do. There are always exceptions, but if you're a Hotelie, you'll be living in and around the Statler. An engineer, and you'll be stuck in labs and up late finishing problem sets. An architect, and you'll be in studio.

2. Many of Cornell's teaching assistants are sub-par. This hasn't affected me too much, since the humanities TAs are generally Ph.D candidates who are highly qualified to grade papers and lead a discussion section. The situation at Cornell is still better than at Harvard, where professors do very little to interact with students and teach courses. But you don't have to stop too many Cornell students before you find someone with a TA horror story. Simply put, many TAs for engineering and science courses are not proficient in English and speak with very heavy accents. They may be some of the smartest graduate students in the university, but their undergraduates cannot understand what they say and feel uncomfortable about asking them to repeat things or approaching them for help. In my four years of taking mostly Arts courses, I had only one TA with an English problem. But even in a history course, I suffered for a semester with a 19th Century specialist who had been assigned to TA a course on classical Greece and Rome.

3. Town-gown relations are not strong. There isn't really a strong sense of a Cornell community, and there is even less of a sense of an inclusive Ithaca community. With so much to offer on campus, and the relative isolation of North Campus, most freshmen hardly ever venture more than a couple of blocks off-campus, much less to the more economically and racially diverse sections of Ithaca. Perhaps they'll go to the Ithaca Mall, or to the Commons a handful of times, but that's about it. Cornell upperclassmen necessarily interact with Townies to sign leases and things like that, but they're not forming any sort of relationships with the typical Ithaca resident.

4. The Greek community exercises tremendous influence over most aspects of life at Cornell. It's not just that the entire campus social scene revolves around alcohol-centric fraternity parties. The most influential campus leaders are almost exclusively Greek. Most troubling, Greek politics makes its way into areas of Cornell life like the tour guide selection process. Greeks will choose members of their own houses for these types of jobs over more qualified members of other houses or (gasp) non Greeks. Similar trends can be seen for new student orientation, with Greeks choosing members of their own houses to serve as orientation supervisors. And don't get me started about the types of things the most prominent and wealthy fraternities can get away with.

5. The specialty majors which make Cornell a unique university have become hijacked by students who use them as springboards to popular and generally unethical jobs. More and more Hotelies want to go to law school or work on Wall Street. ILRies also want to go to law school or work on Wall Street. Liberal arts majors want to go to law school. PAM majors want to go to law school or work on Wall Street. Majors like Biology and Society and Human Biology, Health and Society are used as easier pre-med majors.

6. Cornell students are generally ill informed and don't care about what goes on around them. Just look at the embarrassingly low turnout for things like SA elections. Hell, voting for SA takes about 90 seconds of reading and clicking. And only a small fraction of students take the time to do that. Although the Sun does a fantastic and diligent job of putting together a handy daily report for students about what's happening on campus and in the community, few students actually peruse the newsy sections of the paper.

7. Yes, budget cuts are affecting academics. You can't cut hundreds of millions of dollars by buying fewer paper clips and letting the grass grow on Libe Slope. Whole academic programs have been cut, and departments like Theatre are facing crippling budget cuts. Smaller, upper-level classes, which are often the most rewarding academically, have been cut because departments have difficulty justifying the cost of holding these classes.

8. The weather here really sucks sometimes. Not much can really be done about this, but it should be said. Try walking out of your 2:55-4:10 class during the winter as it's already nearing darkness, the icy wind whips your face, and you have a prelim in three hours. Think the weather doesn't affect students' moods? I came to Ithaca from New England, where the weather isn't much better. But at least in high school, when the weather was bad, I wouldn't have to trudge 15 minutes uphill through ice and snow to get to class. I know tour guides are supposed to talk about the "four seasons" in Ithaca, but the Cornell winter seems to last forever. Unlike some other schools which have underground tunnels or glassed-in walking areas, Cornell lets us experience Mother Nature at her best and worst.

11 Percent of Cornell Seniors Applied to TFA

No official word on the total number of 2010 corps members from Cornell, but 11 percent of Cornell seniors applied to Teach for America. The national acceptance rate was around 10 percent this year, but I believe it was higher at Cornell.

Hazing, Continued

Well, yes, SAE hazes, as do most of the fraternities on the IFC. Today was Greek Awards. To the OFSA's credit, since I've been at Cornell they've been pretty good about sending the right awards to the right houses. Specifically, the houses which really don't haze tend to take home the awards for new member education. Most of the individual and chapter awards, at least from my knowledge of the IFC realm, also tend to be well deserved.

Yet, the blatant existence of hazing didn't stop SAE from receiving a prestigious Outstanding Chapter award. Go figure.

Another moment of levity, at least for me, came when a brother of Lambda Chi received an Outstanding New Member award for, in part, writing the Valentine's Day song and dance for his pledge class. This type of activity, of course, is defined as hazing by the OFSA.

I'll probably write about the Greek system a lot over the next couple of weeks. Lots to think about.

Greening Signs With Ottawa

As expected, senior forward Colin Greening has signed a contract with the Ottawa Senators. Like fellow Big Red senior Brendon Nash did with Montreal, Greening signed a two-way deal which pays differently if he's on the organization's AHL or NHL roster.

Greening: $62,500 AHL and up to $735,000 NHL

Nash: $67,500 AHL and up to $640,000 NHL

Note that Nash signed for two years, while Greening signed for one. With both Ottawa and its AHL affiliate Binghamton eliminated from postseason play, I assume Greening will remain in Ithaca through graduation before starting more intensive training over the summer.

Hotelies Make the Dough?

Not the first article about Cornell grads struggling to pay off debt, but this time it's a hotelie.

Recent university graduate Amy Horwath has grasped the golden ring in this weak economy: a job in her chosen field.

Just one problem: She's $50,000 in debt, mostly student loans.

"Sometimes it seems overwhelming," said Horwath, 23, sitting in her small apartment, where her Cornell University diploma for hotel administration hangs on the wall. "I feel like I'm barely treading water."

Casey Jones Passed Over for OSU Job

I wrote earlier in the week that Cornell's associate head coach might be leaving for the Ohio State job. Although he was a finalist for the position, Casey Jones was not hired.

Wisconsin assistant Mark Osiecki is the new head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

A Cornell Love Story

Ah, the magic of the Big Red.

Ms. Matsis and Mr. McCready met on the first day of college classes in the fall of 2000. Later that year, he took her to a formal fraternity dance.

“I thought it was a date,” he said.

She didn’t.

“I thought we were just friends,” Ms. Matsis explained.

They didn't "date" after that, but met up again over 7 years later.

They lost touch for several years, but in March 2008 reconnected at a Cornell alumni charity event in Manhattan, with Mr. McCready joining Ms. Matsis on the same dodge-ball team. “She was still the beautiful girl, and we were still friends, but this time it was different,” Mr. McCready said. Ms. Matsis was feeling much the same.

How adorable. And what a great plug for that nyc.cornell.edu site the university has been pushing.

Colin Greening to Sign With Senators

Senior captain Colin Greening is expected to sign a one-year, two-way contract with the Ottawa Senators today.

The Senators drafted Greening back in 2006, but if he didn't sign with them before August 15, he would become an unrestricted free agent.

Many of us expect Greening to have a solid career in the NHL.

DUE Takes on Hazing?

See Question 1 today.

The person referenced is no longer IFC president, but both he and a fellow SAE alum serve on the Ithaca Common Council.

Between things like this and the recent Alpha Delt hazing allegations, have we begun to see signs that hazing will no longer be tolerated at Cornell's most influential fraternities? Or will these allegations be quietly swept aside?

The official list of campus hazing violations has not been added to since Spring 2009.

Could Cornell Lose Casey Jones?

He's one of three finalists for the Ohio State job. Jones is a Cornell alum, but worked as an assistant coach at OSU for 13 years.

Jones is currently the associate head coach, and it's clear that he'd move up if Coach Mike Schafer '86 leaves. But if Schafer doesn't seem like he's going to leave anytime soon, I'm sure Jones wants the Ohio State job.

Thesis, Continued

In response to my post over the weekend about my honors thesis, B.C. over at Ithacating enlightened us a little about his thesis.

The differences between our respective theses are about what you'd expect from a liberal arts thesis and a scientific, "technical" thesis. Mine is much longer, but that's what we're expected to produce in A&S. His has more of an emphasis on numbers, and avoids a lot of background discussion, but that's what he's expected to do in his field. His has 31 citations; mine has 157.

It seems that the science types have an easier time breaking into the world of academia. B.C. presented his thesis at a conference last week, and my friend who's writing about geology is traveling to Calgary next month to present his thesis to a group of experts. As for my thesis, I think it's of the same quality as a lot of the published studies on incarceration, but as an undergraduate I'm powerless to publicize my findings. My only hope is for a benevolent and tenured professor to become interested and offer to publish it as a co-author in some third-tier journal if I edit it down to article length. Alternatively, I could wait 5 or 6 years until I get a J.D., hope my thesis is still relevant, and try to market it then. I've considered emailing some of the people who have published similar studies to share the results of my thesis, but I don't know if that's acceptable practice.

The real story here isn't the difference between liberal arts and technical theses, but between colleges like A&S and the ones which hand out honors like Halloween candy (or Harvard?).

Remember this Sun editorial from last spring?

There is a difference between spending a senior year slaving away over an 80-page research summary and achieving the necessary combination of B+s and A-s required to secure a 3.5 GPA — both of which are enough to merit Cum Laude in different colleges.

That's right, the Latin honors which I've worked so hard to earn are the same ones which other schools at Cornell give away for attaining a certain GPA. We're not even talking 3.9 here.

The Sun again:

These variances are too great to exist within a single university. And these discrepancies diminish the worth of the honors award.

[...]

A Cornellian should have to go above and beyond to walk away with an extra distinction. Conferring a Cum Laude on someone who meets only the most basic requirements of the school — completing distribution requirements and receiving fairly good grades — undervalues what should be a real honor.

Of the 20 or so of us who slaved away over Gov theses this year, we'll probably be divided roughly 4-8-8 among summa cum laude-magna cum laude-cum laude. But all of us worked exceptionally hard, and produced a work more significant than anything our Latin-honored Hotelie classmates have produced during their four years on the hill.

I'm sure the Latin honors discrepancy is brought up every year as graduation approaches, but it deserves the attention of someone in the Cornell administration.

Kot Found Guilty on All Counts

It's been a while since I wrote about the Kot case. This afternoon, a jury found Cornell graduate student Blazej Kot guilty on all counts: second-degree murder, third-degree arson, and tampering with physical evidence.

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since we were shocked to hear that a graduate student had interrupted the peaceful Ithaca summer by killing his wife, leading police on a high-speed chase, and seemingly attempting to kill himself.

In some ways, that news set the tone for this rough year for the Big Red. The themes which emerged from the Kot case -- that of a bright tech guy with a promising future who was driven to kill by academic-related stress and perhaps medication -- are similar to what we've seen with the recent string of suicides. The questions the Kot case left us -- why would he do something like that? -- are similar to those we've been asking about the suicides.

In this difficult year, a series of negative storylines were replaced by ones which were successively worse. Cornell was losing a ton of money in the bad economy, then Cornell was perplexed after the Kot murder, then Cornell was coping with H1N1 flu and a tragic student death, then Cornell was coming to terms with multiple student deaths over winter break, then Cornell was on the front page of the New York Times for a pattern of suicides.

Perhaps the one savior for Cornell this year was Steve Donahue and his basketball team. For as many people as there are who now associate Cornell with suicides, there are millions more who associate Cornell with a miracle run to the Sweet Sixteen. Although Donahue moved on to a huge contract and tremendous career opportunity at Boston College, his Cornell legacy is more extensive than the sum of his accomplishments on the court. He was the public relations gift to the Big Red, keeping the Cornell name in the news for something other than tragedy.

The Kot verdict will bring another round of attention to Cornell. Today after the class I TA in prison, one of the inmates asked me whether the jury from "the big murder trial in Ithaca" had reached a verdict.

It will be a couple of months at least before we get admissions statistics from the Class of 2014. Perhaps then we'll know which Cornell storyline won out: tragedy, or basketball.

Thesis Thoughts

I still have a couple of hours of editing and pagination to finish, but my thesis is essentially done.

I came back to Ithaca on the Wednesday of Spring Break, drove directly to Mann Library, and stayed there until it closed that evening. This first day of my thesis home stretch set the tone for what the last few weeks have been like. I've been ID'd more often at Uris Library (they check after 2am) than at bars in Collegetown. I averaged around 8-10 hours at the library every day. I started to scare myself when I would hear the bell to signal that parts of Uris were closing and realize that I hadn't moved from my chair between 8:30pm and 1:30am. My thesis ballooned from 45 pages as of April 1 to 131 pages as of tonight. You can do the math to figure out how many pages I averaged per day.

Of course, I brought a lot of this upon myself. Knowing that I would be a part-time student this semester, I left all of the heavy lifting until after Winter Break. A longer-than-expected stay in Florida stymied some of my plans for making progress in January, and then I didn't exactly hit the ground running this semester. Between traveling to hockey games, taking care of things for TFA and the fraternity, and spending a lot of time being a second-semester senior (read: going to bars), I didn't leave much room for thesis work. I took my time compiling data and figuring out exactly what I was going to write. It wasn't until late March when I realized that I needed to get my ass moving, and that began my period of library shut-in.

That said, writing a thesis has been an incredibly rewarding experience. For the first time in my academic career, I believe that I am a legitimate expert in an area. I had the very cool experience of working closely with faculty members on an academic project. I took workshops to learn to use Stata, taught myself ArcGIS, and wrote the longest paper I'll probably ever produce. (My AP Government final paper was 67 pages; my friend Liz wrote 90-some pages. Coincidentally, we both wrote Honors Government theses at Cornell this year.)

I missed some of the camaraderie of partying and relaxing with senior friends these last few weeks, but with every hour I spent in the library, I grew closer to the other Gov thesis survivors. Maybe I missed out on some memories, but I created something tangible of which I believe I can be proud.

Oh, and if you're interested in these types of things, I've pasted a summary of my findings below.

If you've drifted away from this blog over the last couple of weeks of inactivity, come back. I'll be posting every day for the next few weeks, at least.

My thesis makes five significant contributions to the existing scholarship on the growth of incarceration in the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. First, it disproves the idea of partisan convergence after the 1988 election on a common set of tough-on-crime ideas; in fact, a Republican governor effect emerges in the 1990s. Second, my results indicate that a more liberal and Democratic citizenry is correlated to higher rates of spending on corrections; this is surprising, since conservatives and Republicans have acquired a reputation for being willing to increase spending to maintain a large prison population. Third, my thesis counters the claim that the political exceptionalism of the Southern states is to blame for the national corrections boom; removing the Southern states from the picture has only a negligible effect on regression models. Fourth, I show that the scale of incarceration increases by a smaller amount after a close gubernatorial election; I hypothesize that these governors lack a mandate to push for significant changes. Finally, I created unique data sets with information on state spending on corrections which may prove useful to future scholars.

[...]

My hypothesis is this: By the 1980s, a combination of the forces described in Chapter One conspired to turn the national sentiment in favor of a stronger government response to rising crime rates. This sentiment was particularly acute in states with large urban populations, which explains the positive correlation of population density, Democratic vote share, and citizen ideology with changes in corrections outcome metrics. By the 1990s, perhaps due to a leveling off of crime rates, these states had walked back slightly from their anti-crime stances of the previous decade, and this shift explains the changes in direction for these variables. Meanwhile, Republican governors like Tommy Thompson and Kirk Fordice seized upon the Dukakis defeat of 1988 as evidence that their party had the upper hand on fighting crime, and they bolted to the right on this issue during the 1990s. Some Democratic governors, such as Zell Miller, also moved right in an attempt to negate the Republican advantage on crime, but the gap between the two parties widened and gubernatorial partisanship became significantly correlated to corrections outcome metrics.