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.