2-27-12

Upon the stage

Another Court Upholds Fracking Ban

By JINJOO LEE Sun Staff Wr ter

A New York State Supreme Court upheld the Town of Middlefield’s ban on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling on Friday, mirroring a decision made Tuesday on Dryden’s hydraulic fracturing ban

The decisions are widely expected to set a precent for cities and towns across the state that have banned fracking Donald Cerio, Jr , Otsego County Acting Supreme Court Justice, ruled that the Town of Middlefield was in compliance with State law when it passed a ban on oil and gas drilling in June,

according to court documents

Local municipalities are permitted to permit or prohibit oil, gas and solution mining or drilling in conformity with such constitutional and statutory authority,” Cerio wrote in his decision In a similar decision Tuesday, State Supreme Court Justice Philip Rumsey ruled that the Town of Dryden’s ban on hydrofracking a controversial practice in which chemicals are injected into the ground at high pressure to extract natural gas falls within the authority of local governments to regulate municipal land use Rumsey cited a similar rationale to uphold

See FRACKING page 6

Comm. Seeks to Change Sexual Assault Reporting

System comparable to faculty and staff process

By MICHAEL LINHORST Sun Managing Editor

Cornell’s system for resolving sexual assault accusations against students will soon be transformed if a resolution passed by the Codes and Judicial Committee is approved Despite a debate stretching across several months, the practical effects of the resolution which the CJC passed Friday by a vote of five to one will likely be very similar to those of a proposal rejected by the committee in November

Friday s resolution aims to move accusations against students into a system comparable to the process already in place for faculty and staff members The changes must still be approved by the University Assembly and President David Skorton before taking effect

The resolution, which is an attempt to bring Cornell into compliance with new directives from the U S Department of Education, first states that the CJC would prefer to make no changes to the Campus Code of Conduct beyond several smaller alterations the committee approved on Feb 10

But CJC members conceded that Skorton, on advice from the University Counsel’s office, is not likely to accept that system, so they built an alternative into the resolution If Skorton rejects the first choice, the document says he should transfer the process of resolving sexual assault accusations from the Code of Conduct to University Policy 6 4, “contingent on an administrative overhaul of that policy ” That second option mirrors a proposal that the CJC rejected in November by a vote of six to three

Policy 6 4, currently used for accusations against faculty or staff, calls for an investigator to gather the facts relating to the accusation, decide whether the alleged assault occurred, and then recommend corrective actions

The process created by that policy, which will likely be adjusted before it is used for students, is markedly different from the one cur-

See SEXUAL ASSAULT page 4

By CAROLINE SIMON Sun Staff Wr ter

At the first All Cornellian Muslims Banquet, administrators, faculty and student leaders sought to dismiss misconceptions about Muslim-Americans that they said are prevalent in modern society

“We

event is based on the title of the television show All-American Muslim Adam Abboud ’14, co-vice president of CAMC, said the program shows MuslimAmerican families who act the same as other American families

At Cornell Banquet, Campus Mulls Place Of Muslims in U.S. Alumni Leave Oscars Empty-Handed

wanted to show that we’re just like everyone else.”

A dam A b b ou d ’ 1 4

More than 90 people flocked to the atrium of Duffield Hall for the event, which was hosted by the Committee for the Advancement of Muslim Culture

The name of the

“We wanted to show that we ’ re just like everyone else; we have normal goals and varied interests,” Abboud said “It is impor tant to humanize the image of Islam, which is why the

See BANQUET page 5

By UTSAV RAI Sun Staff Writer

After recieving nominations, two Cornellians, Thelma Schoonmaker ’61 and Danfung Dennis ’05, fell short of winning Oscars at the 84th Academy Awards Sunday night Schoonmaker was nominated for Best Film Editing

for Hugo, which was directed by Martin Scorsese She has edited every single one of Scorsese’s films since the 1980s She lost to the film editor of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Schoonmaker is a threetime Academy Award winner, having won the Oscar for editing Raging Bull in 1981, The Aviator in 2005

and The Departed in 2007 She has been nominated for the Best Film Editing category seven times, according to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

During a visit to Cornell in 2005, Schoonmaker said she first met Scorsese at

See OSCARS page 5

Monday, February 27, 2012

weather FORECAST

Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships Introduction Noon, 103 Barnes Hall Blood Drive

Noon - 5 p m , Barton Hall

Defining Latin America in a Global Perspective 12:15 p m , 153 Uris Hall

Explore Cornell in Washington Information Meeting 4:45 p m , 165 McGraw Hall

Messing Around With Birds (for Fun and Science) 7:30 - 9 p m , Cornell Lab of Ornithology

7:15 p m, Film Forum, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts Tomorrow Today

Getting and Keeping a Job

1 - 2 p m , G65 Saperston Lounge, Law School

International Wildlife Techniques: Honduras 2012 1 - 2 p m , Schurman Hall, The Hagan Room Lacrosse vs Binghamton 4 p m, Schoellkopf Field

Miss Representation Screening

6 - 8 p m , G65 Saperston Lounge, Law School The Tailenders

a

English Department Eliminates Required Intro Courses for Major

By LIANNE BORNFELD Sun Contributor

will no longer require majors to take two “ gate way ” courses classes designed to provide ne w English majors with an introduction to the discipline

Pr o f R o

Gilber t, English, chair of the depar tment The change went into effect on Feb 1, an email sent to English majors said According to the email, the depar tment decided that gateway courses no longer ser ved their intended purpose of providing an introduction to the major

T h e re q u i re m e n t , m e t by t a k i n g a n y t w o c o u r s e s between the 2000 and 2050

4 0 English credits needed to complete the major

Ac c o rd i n g t o Gi l b e r t , t h e

more sense to end the requirement, ” Gilber t said

Coupled with the English depar tment ’ s current effor t to implement three ne w minors English, Creative Writing and Minority Indigenous and Third World Literatures the m o v e i s i n d i c a t

sion to recr uit more students, both to the major and to elective courses in the depar tment

when we discuss changes to the m a j o r o r o t h e r k i

changes,” Gilber t said

Though the decision to cut the two-course requirement is not reflective of a desire to create a ne w requirement in the near future, Gilber t said the depar tment is currently tr ying “ t o f i n d a d i f f e re n t w a y t o frame our introductor y courses

an English major who took the courses before the requirement w

the depar tment ’ s choice

“I think that the elimination of the gate way requirement is a great thing ” Brice said in an email “[ The courses] took away the magic of the English major The gate way requirements reminded me of h i g h s c h o o l w h e n t h e English teachers would spoonfeed us Shakespeare

T h o u g h s h e

h e material in the gate way courses, Brice said she thought they caused students who were apathetic about the requirement to

toward the subject

Still, others were torn about the benefits of the introductor y courses

English major Jessica Julich ’14 said in an email that she wavered between praising and c

“Eliminating the requirement is in no way meant to send the message that English majors should not take those courses.”

P rof R oger G ilb ert

c o r e c o u r s e s w e r e i n i t i a l l y designed “ as a kind of experiment ” He said the requirement had only been in effect for two or three years, and the depar tment decided to cut it after numerous students complained that the requirement posed a challenge to the completion the major

According to Gilber t, some English majors only found out about the requirement shor tly

b e f o r e t h e y g r a d u a t e d , a n d thus had to fit them into their senior year course loads This defeated the requirement’s aim of exposing ne w students to introductor y material, he said

A n o t h e r r a t i o n a l e f o

c h a n g e w a s t h e d i s c r e p a n c y surrounding which depar tment

c o u r s e s o u g h t t

s gate ways, Gilber t added

T h e r e w a s e n o u g h d i sagreement as to how the gate way courses should be chosen and str uctured that we decided that for now it made

s o t h a t s t u d e n t s u n d e r s t a n d what their purpose is ” W h i l e G i l b e r t a c k n o w ledged that the gate way courses are not adequately ser ving their intended function, he said he still believes they are “by far the b e s t p l a c e t o s t a r t t a k i n g English classes ” “ E l i m i n a t i n g t h e r e q u i r e -

ment is in no way meant to send the message that English majors should not take those courses, ” Gilber t said Pr o s p e c t i v e E n g l i s h m a j o r Ariel Smilowitz 15 said she did n o t a p p r o v e o f t h e d e p a r tment ’ s decision, praising what she felt was the value of gatew a y c o u r s e s S h e s a i d t h e requirement “provides more of a general background for students to gain a broader understanding of literature and all it encompasses, especially for stud e n t s w h o a r e u n s u r e o f whether or not they want to pursue an English degree ” H o w e v e r, s o m e s t u d e n t s said they were suppor tive of the change Cr ystal Brice ’12,

decision Though she acknowledged that forcing students to complete courses that do not interest them may discourage potential majors, she emphasized that “ gate way courses give English majors a ver y strong base on which to build the rest of their major ”

place, I decided to take [ The

[I],” Julich said “I had ver y little interest in the course material, or at least I thought I didn’t until I took the class It ended up being one of the best classes I ever took at Cornell ”

Ac c o rd i n g t o Gi l b e r t , t h e depar tment ’ s decision to eliminate the gate way requirement was not intended to discourage students from taking gate way courses Rather, he said, the intent was to make the English major more flexible, to consider the diverse interests of students interested in the discipline and to improve students’ experience of the material by shifting away from a “one-sizefits-all major ”

lsb233@cornell edu

Signatures of Student Assembly Candidate’s Bid Scrutinized

A candidate for Student Assembly attempted to take credit for another candidate’s signatures by crossing the original candidate’s name off a signature sheet and replacing it with her own, documents obtained by The Sun Tuesday night indicated

Chipotle Opens to Rave Reviews

Ithaca heralded the grand opening of its first Chipotle Mexican Grill on Tuesday with crowds of patrons wrapping around the restaurant The popular chain first announced its opening in November, rousing the excitement of Cornell students

SAE Wants Wrongful Death Trial

Moved to Tompkins County

As a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit

Cornell students progresses, new details have emerged about the events leading up to the death of George Desdunes ’13 last Febr uar y

Alumna Donates $1 Million to CALS M

$750,000 to create new scholarships for students studying agricultural sciences, par t of a larger $1 million donation to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Compiled by Utsav Rai

C.U. Profs: Arctic Drilling May Uncover New Species

By LAUREN AVERY Sun Contr butor

Cornell professors say the recent completion of an Antarctic drilling project could lead to the discovery of new species

On Feb 5, Russian scientists confirmed that they successfully drilled through more than two miles of ice in East Antarctica to the subglacial Lake Vostok, completing a project that has spanned nearly two decades

Organisms living in the lake could give scientists a rare look into what life looked like eons ago and what life may look like in similar environments elsewhere in the solar system, according to Prof Jonathan Lunine, astronomy

“This could be an analog for the modern day Martian crust, where we know the surface of Mars is too cold and too dry to support life, but as you go deeper into the crust of Mars there’s evidence for ice and maybe liquid water below a certain depth,”

Lunine said

Lunine said that the intense conditions at Lake Vostok are similar to those found some places in outer space even in the farthest reaches of the solar system

“Several of the icy moons of the outer solar system also seem to have liquid water oceans underneath an icy crust, ” Lunine said “Europa around Jupiter in particular has an icy crust and we have very good evidence that there is an ocean underneath that ”

The 57th Russian Antarctic expedition, based at the Vostok Station about 800 miles East of the South Pole, reached the surface of the lake beneath 12,366 feet of ice, Lunine said Russian scientists estimate that the water in the lake has been blocked from reaching the surface of the Earth by ice for 15 to 30 million years

In the ice layers above the surface of Lake Vostok, the Russian

team has already detected traces of microbes, according to Prof Philip Nicholson, astronomy This suggests that life exists beneath the lake’s surface as well, Nicholson said

“I don’t want to put money on it, but I think you ’ re guaranteed to find at least some organism in some really rare abundance down there, even if there’s one cell per 10 liters of water there will still be life down there,” said Prof Ian Hewson, microbiology “Life finds a way to survive in the most extreme conditions ”

Roughly the size of Lake Ontario and averaging a depth of more than 1,000 feet, Lake Vostok is the largest and deepest of the 300 subglacial lakes that have been discovered in Antarctica, according to the professors Russian scientists will analyze water in the lake for traces of life in the high-pressure, sunless environment According to Lunine, the Russian team cannot gather samples until weather conditions permit, or after the Antarctic winter is over

The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth, negative 128 6 degrees Fahrenheit, was taken at Vostok Station in 1983, The New York Times reported Despite the intense cold, the waters of Lake Vostok remain liquid because the ice sheet above applies pressure to the surface and traps heat coming from the Earth’s interior

Scientists expect any subaquatic life they find to be mostly “extremophiles” microorganisms that can live in conditions typically unsuitable for life

However, it is possible that the organisms could be unlike anything previously discovered, Hewson said

“ We’re expecting that what we’ll see down there is probably brand new types of life, new

Admins Consider Changes To Code on Sexual Assault

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Continued from page 1

rently in place for accusations against students The existing system, under the Code of Conduct, includes a variety of protections for the accused protections that are modeled after the criminal justice system that Policy 6 4 does not incorporate Among them is the use of the University Hearing Board, which hears arguments by the opposing sides and then makes a decision Under the Code, both sides of the dispute can also bring in outside lawyers to help argue their cases

In response to a letter issued by the Department of Education in April, the University Assembly passed an amendment last spring that kept sexual accusations against students within the Code but lowered the burden of proof required for the accuser to win the case Pursuant to the Department of Education’s directive, the amendment also gave accusers the same rights to appeal the decision as the accused receive

The University Assembly’s amendment was intended to be temporar y and remain in place only until the assembly and the CJC crafted a permanent response to the Department of Education’s directive

That permanent response was approved by the CJC on Friday The resolution included two choices “ to say what we thought the University ought to do, but also to say, if the University was unwilling to do that, what we thought it should do, according to Prof Rachel Weil, histor y, who helped craft the final resolution

If the Cornell administration chooses to pursue the first choice presented in the resolution, no additional changes will be made to the Code of Conduct That would mean the repeal of last spring’s emergency amendment and a return to the higher burden of proof known as the clear and convincing evidence standard for sexual assault accusations But it would keep in place four changes to the Code the CJC approved at its Feb 10 meeting

Those four changes were created to address some of the concerns of victim advocates The changes included an option for either the accuser or the accused in sexual assault cases to request that they face a Hearing Board composed of only faculty and staff, not students They also added a requirement that cross-examination of the accuser be conducted by “written questions submitted in advance or in real time, including follow up questions,” that are read aloud by the chair of the Hearing Board

Although the first option included in Friday’s resolution addresses several concerns raised by victim advocates about Cornell s current system, it does not include the lower standard of proof advocates say is necessar y in sexual assault cases, which often include no evidence beyond the testimony of the accuser The advocates also argue that t h e s o - c a l l e d

Education in April requires the lower standard of proof known as the “preponderance of the evidence standard

“A proposal that does not include the Dear Colleague letter changes would likely be rejected for legal and policy reasons by the University,” Nelson Roth, deputy University counsel, told the CJC on Friday He added that the lower standard of proof had been required by the Education Department even before the April letter

Several members of the CJC said they did not want to include sexual assault in the Code of Conduct if the standard of proof for those offenses would be lower than the standard for all other offenses in the Code They said the two standards could introduce confusion and complication into the Code

Judicial Administrator Mar y Beth Grant J D ’88 told the committee that including two different standards in the Code would create difficulties in cases that include sexual assault charges alongside other accusations

Largely because of these concerns, committee members agreed that if the standard of proof for sexual assault charges must be lowered to preponderance of the evidence,” the charges should be moved out of the Code

“If we want to do this, give it to [Policy] 6 4,” Prof Kevin Clermont, law, said at the committee meeting “Retrofitting the Code means the end of the Code ”

The second option contained in the CJC’s final resolution will move sexual assault accusations into Policy 6 4 and will include the lower burden of proof Although similar changes were rejected in a CJC vote in November, subsequent discussions within the committee and with the University Counsel’s Office seemed to convince many committee members that the Policy 6 4 option was the only choice Cornell administrators found acceptable

Clermont conceded that the first option presented in Friday’s resolution was unlikely to be implemented

That option, which would not have lowered the burden of proof, “has no practical effect because they’re going to ignore it,” Clermont said “But it’s a nice statement that we care ” about rights of accused students, he said

Michael Linhorst can be reached at mlinhorst@cornellsun com

Muslim Stereotypes ‘Broken’

During Banquet Discussion

BANQUET

Continued from page 1

event was spoofed off that title ”

The evening began with a presentation that outlined basic facts about Islam, followed by a video that showcased the individual personalities of various Muslim Cornell students Attendees then split into 12 groups, each with a faculty member and a CAMC student, for more intimate discussion

“ Through the str uctured dialogues, students and faculty could directly learn from the Muslim student,” Abboud said “ The conversations are where stereotypes and misconceptions are broken ”

While discussion topics varied from table to table, they all shared a common theme: the relationship between Muslim culture and religion

“ The idea of cultural Muslims is something not a lot of people are familiar with,” said Sara Rahman ’12, president of CAMC

“People may have ethnic ties to being Muslim, or they just share common values with their religion, but they’re not necessarily 100percent practicing ”

Abboud said the banquet s attendees should spread its message

“I encouraged ever yone to take the conversations they had today wherever they go on campus to their respective communities to continue learning from each other,” he said “One impor tant thing I noticed is that the greatest learning isn’t in, but outside of, the classroom, with your peers ”

Rahman said she wanted a diverse group of people to attend the banquet, so CAMC invited members of several different campus organizations

“It worked out really well because we got a diverse array of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and a couple of seniors here and there,” Rahman said “ We also had people from ever y single college, which was amazing ”

Rahman said she first thought of hosting a banquet last semester after an encounter with a professor

“I [hosted] another event called ‘ Women in Islam’ and [Prof Rober t Babcock, policy analysis and management], contacted me and said he couldn’t come to the event but he didn’t know anything about Islam and wanted to learn more, Rahman said I met and had lunch with him and he was asking me all these questions, and I realized many people don’t know anything about Islam ” Noah Karr Kaitlin ’13, president of the Cornell International Affairs Revie w, attended the banquet

One of the points brought up in my table’s discussion was how it’s impor tant to be patient when you ’ re str uggling to gain respect in American society,” Kaitlin said “ We focused on the Dr [Mar tin Luther] King [ Jr ], quote: ‘ The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice,’ and that is the whole idea ”

Kaitlin said he was impressed by the event

“ This was a really special oppor tunity to bring together all these different people with all these different backgrounds and present them to each other in a show of solidarity with this emerging

n

m

“Ever yone I talked to after wards just said their conversations were terrific and really insightful ”

Founded in fall 2010, CAMC was awarded the James A Perkins Prize for Interracial Understanding and Harmony in March 2011 for making the most significant contribution to interracial harmony on campus

Winning the prize “showed us that what we ’ ve been doing is good,” Rahman said “Hopefully, this will be an annual event ”

Caroline Simon can be reached at csimon@cornellsun com

Alumni Nominated for Oscars

OSCARS Continued from page 1

New York University during a summer course in film editing, according to the Cornell Chronicle He asked Schoonmaker to edit his student film and the two have worked together ever since

Though she didn’t win an Oscar, Schoonmaker’s contribution to Hugo cannot be discounted The film won five Oscars i n c l u d i n g C i n e m a t o g r a p h y, Visual Effects, Sounds Editing, So u n d Mi x i n g a n d A r t Direction

Hugo, adapted from the book

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, follows an orphan boy, Hugo, as he searches for a key that will bring an automaton, the only remaining connection to his deceased father, back to life Dennis was nominated for Best Documentary Feature and lost to Undefeated by T J Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas Dennis, a photojournalist and filmmaker, directed and produced Hell and Back Again, a documentary that chronicles the impact of a bullet injur y on 25-year-old Afghanistan veteran Sergeant Nathan Harris The film details subsequent physical and emotional challenges of adjusting to civilian life

Utsav Rai can be reached at urai@cornellsun com

Fracking Bans Upheld

FRACKING

Continued from page 1

Middlefield’s ban

On June 14, the Town of Middlefield, which is located near Cooperstown, N Y , enacted a zoning law that banned oil and gas drilling within the geographical borders of the township, according to court documents

However, the law was challenged later that year Jennifer Huntington, a Cooperstown-area dairy farmer, sued the town over its drilling ban, arguing that the supersedure clause” prohibited towns from banning gas drilling Huntington had leased mineral rights from her property to a gas company in 2007, but the zoning law would deprive residents like her the right to market their minerals under their leases, according to a press release announcing the lawsuit

In his decision, Cerio said that the supersedure clause, which he said gives the state the authority to regulate oil and gas drilling, does not prevent the town from banning it altogether

Huntington said on Friday that she was disappointed by the decision

“I’m obviously disappointed, and we’ll have to sit down next week and decide where to go from here,” Huntington told the Ithaca Journal

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) said last week that he does not have a position on whether towns have the right to ban hydrofracking, commonly referred to as “fracking,” according to The Ithaca Journal

The two rulings in Dryden and Otsego were viewed as triumphs for conservation groups that have long criticized the environmental impacts of fracking

The New York Water Rangers, a coalition of New York-based environmental organizations, applauded Cerio’s ruling in a statement Friday

“Like the Dryden ruling earlier this week, today’s ruling in [the] Town of Middlefield case proves again that ordinary citizens, and the local governments who listen to them, have power to determine the character of their communities for themselves,” the group said

More than 50 New York communities have banned gas drilling, according to The Wall Street Journal

Jinjoo Lee can be reached at jinjoolee@cornellsun com

New Ice Drilling Techniques Seek to Avoid Contamination

DRILLING

Continued from page 3

species, probably new genera of

other types of larger multi-cellular organisms as well,” he said Te

d British scientists have discussed similar projects to drill into other sub-glacial lakes on the continent, according to Reuters The British Antarctic Survey is scheduled to begin drilling to Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica at the end of this year An American

the high pressure on the lake to push water up through the borehole When this water freezes, it w i l l s e a l o u t c o n t a m i n a n t s , according to Hewson

According to Nicholson, however, the drill used by the Russian expedition at Lake Vostok produced an ice core that will also be analyzed The layers in this core can be used to determine ancient a t m o s p h e r i c c o n d i t i o n s , l i k e l y dating back about 400,000 years, he said

“Scientifically, this is a very valuable thing to do because the deeper you go, the older you’re looking ”

P rof P h ili p N i c h ols on

sending supplies, including a specialized drill, to the site of another lake in the area, Reuters reported Both groups intend to use methods to reduce the risk for contamination, such as drilling with hot water to melt the ice

Early in the drilling process, the Russian team faced an international outcry when it began using kerosene to prevent the hole being drilled from refreezing, according to Hewson, who said the use of kerosene could h a ve c o n t a m i n a t e d t h e l a k e waters and the life that existed there

To prevent contamination, the Russian expedition is now using

“Scientifically, this is a very valuable thing to do because the ice and snow gradually accumulate year by year on the Antarctic, so the deeper you go, the older you ’ re looking,” Nicholson said “By using a microscope, you can actually discern the layers and count them, a bit like counting tree rings ”

Nicholson added that gas bubbles trapped in the ice will allow scientists to study shifts in the Earth’s climate over a very long period of time

“One of the by-products of this is that they have a 400,000 year history of some parameters of the Earth’s climate,” he said

Lauren Avery can be reached at lea39@cornell edu

Santorum: Romney Is Not Conservative Enough for GOP

MARQUETTE, Mich (AP) The question of whether Mitt Romney is conservative enough to deserve the Republican presidential nomination regained center stage in the GOP contest Sunday, with Rick Santorum saying the former Massachusetts governor fails the test

Santorum urged Michigan voters to turn the race “ on its ear ” by rejecting Romney in Tuesday s primary in his native state, in which Romney is spending heavily to avoid an upset Santorum said Romney’s record is virtually identical to President Barack Obama’s on some key issues, especially mandated health coverage, making him a weak potential nominee

“Why would we give away the most salient issue in this election? an impassioned Santorum told more than 100 people in a remote, snow-covered region of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, said he is the true conservative on fiscal and social issues

Romney rejected the claims

“The biggest misconception would be that I’m a guy that comes from Massachusetts and therefore I can ’ t be conservative,” Romney told “Fox News Sunday ” In his one term as Massachusetts governor, he said, he balanced budgets, reduced taxes, enforced immigration laws, “stood up for traditional marriage” and was “ a pro-life governor ”

“I’m a solid conservative,” Romney said

The exchange highlighted the choice facing Republican voters in Arizona and Michigan on Tuesday, and another 10 states a week after that

Romney did pick up the endorsement of Arizona Gov Jan Brewer on Sunday Conservative activists dominate the GOP primaries But party regulars fear too much focus on the Republican right will leave the eventual nominee poorly positioned to confront Obama in November, when independent voters will be crucial

Santorum, a hero to anti-abortion and home-schooling advocates, disputes that argument The way to beat Obama, he said Sunday, is with an unvarnished conservative whose views dramatically clash with the president’s on the economy, church and state, energy, foreign policy and other issues

He said the party needs “ someone who can paint a very different vision of the country ”

Romney and Santorum hit Obama on many issues, including the president’s apology for the actions of U S troops who burned Qurans inadvertently, they said while destroying documents on a military base in Afghanistan

Romney said that for many Americans, the apology “sticks in their throat ”

Now on the Periphery, Gingrich Eyes Super Tuesday

FEDERAL WAY, Wash (AP) On the political periphery, Newt Gingrich is pinning his fleeting Republican presidential hopes on Georgia, where his career began, and a cluster of other states also voting March 6

He’s likely to lose in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday, and could be riding a nine-state losing streak by the time Super Tuesday comes The former House speaker has no opportunities for breakout performances in debates, which he used twice before to pull his campaign back from the brink He squandered an opportunity in a debate Wednesday night to reassert himself in what’s become a two-man race He was relegated to the role of referee between former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen Rick Santorum

With the immediate focus on Tuesday’s contests, Gingrich’s Super Tuesday strategy is filled

with risks On that day, 10 states will vote, with a total of 419 delegates at stake

“There’s only so long you can play for time,” says GOP consultant Terry Nelson, a top strategist for previous presidential candidates who is unaligned in this race People pay attention around these contests When you don’t compete in them, you take yourself out of the conversation ”

Not that Gingrich is letting such notions bother him

The fact is, even though this is at times hard and at times with its ups and downs, I am cheerful,” Gingrich said Thursday as he gazed out over a packed Idaho ballroom It’s an adjective not usually used to describe the hard-charger with a reputation for being cantankerous, though Gingrich, himself, used it when candidates were asked in Wednesday night’s debate to describe themselves in one word

Plans to Drug Test Welfare Recipients Gain Momentum

CHEYENNE, Wyo (AP) Conser vatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a dr ug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side

The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-r unner Mitt Romney saying it’s an “excellent idea ”

Nearly two dozen states are considering plans

mandator y for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week

Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets even as

“ The idea, from Joe Taxpayer is, ‘I don t mind helping you out, but you need to show that you ’ re looking for work, or better yet that you ’ re employed, and that you ’ re dr ug and alcohol free,’” said Wyoming Republican House Speaker Ed Buchanan on Friday Suppor ters are pushing the measures despite w

str uck down similar programs, r uling that the plans amount to an unconstitutional search of people who have done nothing more than seek help “ This legislation assumes suspicion on this group of people It assumes that they re dr ug a

p Patrick Goggles during a heated debate on the measure late Thursday

¬ D a i l y S u

This House Is Not a Home

Ihave open in my lap right now The Best of American Dream Homes: The Nation’s Premier Home Magazine It’s a large, glossy volume that looks like it was intended to sit on the coffee tables of the upwardly mobile As I flip through it I see pages upon pages of bright, colorful photographs of impossibly opulent houses, paired with what I imagine is deliberately bland prose extolling the virtues of imported hardwood flooring, pseudoantique furniture and lacy draperies

What strikes me most about this book is that it and the magazine that content is

culled from is misnamed The Best of American Dream Houses would be a perfectly acceptable title although I very rarely dream about kitchen islands But Homes? These houses really don t seem like homes

Where does this impression come from?

Partly, it’s the conspicuous lack of people, or indeed of any living creatures, in the book’s photographs But it goes further than that I can ’ t even imagine people in these houses

They’re too clean, too orderly, too immaculate I see them as movie sets rather than dwellings Were I to wander around in one, I would quickly find that the kitchen drawers don’t open, there’s no water in the toilets and the tasteful potted ferns are made of plastic

The environment in these houses of wealth, ornamentation and tidiness is one that is utterly unsuited for the messy business of actually living

Yet people do live in these houses The book mentions the owners and assumed occupants of each houses, who are, for the most part, middle-aged upper-class couples

But why would anyone want to live in one of these places? For all of the effort the book puts into describing where each and every lighting fixture comes from, it does a rather inadequate job convincing me that these houses are anything more than expensive facades

The book does attempt to make its subject matter seem desirable When it can tear itself away from discussions of self-darkening windows, it occasionally tries to sell the reader on these houses, with prose that seems taken from uninspired craigslist postings The language the book uses to promote them comes in two varieties: Either a house is a comforting retreat where one can pamper oneself or a lavish impressive jewel

The second argument for these houses

makes sense These houses seem to have been constructed not to be lived in, but to be seen This can be detected in the coatings of ornate and as the book is eager to remind us expensive ornamentation that seems to cover every surface and the way that so many of these houses appear to have been designed with entertaining” in mind What would the point of entertaining in one of these houses be? Why, to show everyone how nice your house is, of course! Having a massive fauxhacienda in Arizona then is just another status symbol to go alongside the SUV and the

private jet

Yet the first argument that these houses are places that the weary can find comfort in seems to be completely invalidated by the actual nature of the houses How can you find comfort in a place that looks as if tracking mud on the floor means destroying some sort of priceless Italian art object? How can you make a turkey sandwich on a counter top imported from Greece? How can you put your feet up on a coffee table that looks as if it’s desperately angling for family heirloom status? In short, how can you live in a place that seems like it was designed just to be looked at?

My reaction to these houses may just be culture shock After all, I might not see anything strange about going to the bathroom in one of these places had I been raised in a house with gold-plated faucets and marble toilet seats Yet I think there may be something more fundamental about it See, I don’t think these places actually exist

The houses themselves exist, of course But the idea of the home put forth in the book that you can live in one of these lavish mansions and enjoy both the comforts of a good home and the status afforded by a public display of wealth isn’t one that can be squared with how people actually live Ultimately, a home isn’t someplace we show off A home is someplace we go with the people we ’ re closest to and do all the things that we don’t want to subject to public scrutiny A home is somewhere you go when you don’t want to worry about status, and to make it a status symbol is to take away what defines it

Bonner is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences He may be reached at abonner@cornellsun com The Weather Report appears alternate Mondays this semester

Ne w York City’s selection of Cornell to create an applied science and technology campus in par tnership with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, on Roosevelt Island in Ne w York City is a source of great pride for our university and for the entire worldwide Cornell family Quite understandably, though, the announcement has also generated questions and, at times, concerns among faculty, staff and students Some of the more frequent questions are about the financial and programmatic impact of the ne w campus on our home campus in Ithaca and the choice of the Technion as a par tner

Make no mistake: The ne w campus in the hear t of Ne w York City, which we are calling CornellNYC Tech – Home of the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute, will be a fantastic oppor tunity for Cornell A desire to expand both our commitment to public engagement and our “footprint in Ne w York City is stated ver y c

CornellNYC Tech we will be able to accomplish these objectives without diver ting or draining resources from the Ithaca campus How can this be?

Overseen by Provost Kent Fuchs, the CornellNYC Tech budget will be tracked separately from the budget of the Ithaca campus The campus will follow all University policies, such as the capital spending guidelines established during the recession, to ensure that all sources of revenue are identified before constr uction of a project begins Funding of Phase One both capital and operating costs is largely in place thanks to The Atlantic Philanthropies and its founding chair Chuck Feeney ’56, who provided an extraordinar y $350 million gift for the tech campus

CornellNYC Tech provides an oppor tunity to recast our land grant mission in a way that promises to benefit the public with intensified economic development and the creation of ne w products and processes

Of course, we will also keep our focus on other aspects of our land grant mission, including agriculture, which continues to be an impor tant par t of the Ne w York State economy and is carried out in vir tually ever y par t of the state

Cornell’s footprint in Ne w York City is already substantial In addition to Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences on the Upper East Side, we have a variety of other prog r a m s i n t h e c i t y, i n c l u d i n g C o r n e l l C o o p e

Extension-NYC, the College of Architecture, Ar t and Planning’s studio and classroom facility in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, an ILR School facility on 34th Street and a financial engineering program in the Wall Street area offered through the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering

CornellNYC Tech will be unique, however, because it is being designed from the ground up literally and figuratively to link the creation of advanced technology with business and entrepreneurship in both its research and its educational programs In higher education, we have recognized for decades the potential of business-higher education par tnerships Those par tnerships will be an integral par t of what the ne w campus is and does

For Ne w York City, the tech campus is a way to diversify the economy through high-tech innovation

and entrepreneurship Long a leader in financial services as well as media fashion health care and the trades, Ne w York is poised to become the world’s premier city for high-tech business creation and development

The city’s analysts predict that the tech campus will help create up to 20,000 constr uction jobs and up to 8,000 permanent jobs In time, it is expected to generate nearly 600 spin-off companies creating up to an additional 30,000 permanent jobs That translates into more than $23 billion in economic activity over the next three decades as well as $1 4 billion in tax revenues for the city And an

tributes

Ne w York State

We are for tunate to have the Technion as a par tner on

The Technion is an

the knowledge-sharing and real-world solutions that spring from these relationships benefit the peoples of many countries, including our own, and in the long r un contribute to the betterment of our global community In this collaboration, as with all our collaborations, we will adhere to our academic values and practices I am proud to be working with colleagues at the Technion

There will also be more oppor tunities for Cornell’s alumni in Ne w York City and beyond Over the years many graduates of our university have turned ideas and inventions into thriving businesses In the past five

house: Three of Israel’s 10 Nobel Prize winners are graduates of the Technion Last October, the Nobel Prize in Chemistr y went to Dr Dan Shechtman, a professor of material science at the Technion, who also earned all three of his degrees there Today, more than 70 percent of Technion graduates are employed in the tech sector and Technion graduates head half of the 121 Israeli companies on the NASDAQ The Technion brings a level of exper tise in technology transfer to existing industr y that is unmatched in the world Cornell and the Technion will collaborate on research and education through the Technion-Cornell Innovation Institute Faculty will be hired specifically for the ne w campus, and there will be oppor tunities for faculty from the Ithaca campus to do research and teach at the tech campus There will be a number of degree options: Once the programs are accredited by the State of Ne w York students at the tech campus will be able to earn graduate degrees from Cornell, the Technion or a dual Cornell/Technion Master of Applied Science degree with a unique emphasis on the application of sciences, entrepreneurship and management While the tech campus will not offer

oppor tunities to pursue research projects and internships there

Our par tnership with the Technion in this ne w venture is based on our complementar y academic exper tise and strengths and our shared vision for a campus that will help transform Ne w York City into a world hub of innovation and technology commercialization From its inception nearly 150 years ago, Cornell and its faculty have had many agreements and working relationships with academic institutions around the world These collaborations are impor tant to our mission of teaching, discover y and engagement, and we encourage them even in countries where some of our faculty, students, staff and alumni may have significant disagreements with the policies of the governments Time and again,

years alone, Cornell alumni have created over 2,600 companies employing over 34,000 people and raising over $10 6 billion in ne w capital We expect an even higher rate of company creation, thanks to the tech campus ’ focus on technology innovation and entrepreneurship Some 2 500 alumni have already expressed an interest in mentoring student projects connected to the ne w campus and in making investments in companies star ted by students and faculty there

It is impor tant to note as well that entrepreneurship and economic development, which are ver y much alive and well here in Ithaca, will also benefit as a result of the visibility and relationships created by the ne w campus Between FY2007 and FY2011, Cornell research effor ts helped launch 34 companies 26 of them within Ne w York State Twenty-four of those companies were launched as a result of intellectual proper ty from Ithaca faculty students and staff And 16 of those companies have remained in the greater Ithaca area, contributing to the local economy The McGovern Family Center for Venture Development in the Life Sciences, which welcomed Glycobia, Inc as its first corporate client last month, will ser ve as an incubator for University spin-off companies in the life sciences and add to the Ithaca campus ’ stature as a powerhouse of innovation and entrepreneurship The ne w campus is already adding to this momentum in the fe w shor t weeks since the campus was announced, we have received a number of inquiries about working with Cornell on research projects and other activities that will be based in Ithaca

As CornellNYC Tech – Home of the TechnionCornell Innovation Institute raises Cornell’s visibility worldwide, all of Cornell and all Cornellians stand to benefit

David J Skorton is president of Cornell University He may be reached at david skorton@cornell edu From David appears bimonthly this semester

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Music, Touring and Battlestar Galactica

An Inter view With Sleeper Agent

If you haven t heard of the band Sleeper Agent yet, you will soon This young, bubbly rock outfit from Bowling Green, Ky is gaining serious traction Since its first album Celabrasion was released in September, it has toured the country with friends Cage the Elephant and made many best-of lists, including Rolling Stone s feature on the 50 Best Singles of 2011 ” For the band’s six members singer and guitarist Tony Smith singer Alex Kandel bassist Lee Williams guitarist Josh Martin and keyboardist Scott Gardner it has been a whirlwind year and it doesn t look like life will be slowing down anytime soon

Sleeper Agent performed last night at The Haunt The Sun spoke to Tony Smith before the show to talk music touring and Battlestar Galactica

THE SUN: For people unfamiliar with your sound, could you briefly describe your music and what listeners can expect from your album Celebrasion?

TONY SMITH: Our sound is really just rock and roll It’s very fast and energetic and there are short bursts of sort of poppy sound But ultimately, it’s just a really fast, energetic rock show

SUN: I know that you write the music yourself Where do you find inspiration? And is it challenging trying to write lyrics from not only your perspective, but also from the perspective of [female singer] Alex?

T S : I think I take a lot of inspiration from everyday life conversations I have with people and certain emotions or feelings I have If an interesting thing happens to me, I’ll just sort of pretty it up in a poetic way

And I guess when it comes to writing for Alex, the challenge is to make sure she’s comfortable saying certain things, and that the lyrics convey what she’s feeling too A lot of times I’ll just talk to her and show her the things I ve written; if she agrees, then we ’ re good to go

SUN: So even though you ’ re writing the songs, you still have a very collaborative atmosphere?

T S : Yes, I would say so

SUN: You guys have been getting a lot of press since last fall

T he State Theatre was packed last Thursday night as Canadian band Cowboy Junkies announced it would play brand new songs off of its latest album The Nomad Series

The album, a collection of four volumes Renmin Park, Demons, Sing in My Meadow and Wilderness, was an eighteen-month-long project for the Cowboy Junkies It’s good to know that they have kept new material coming since their start in 1985 An ambitious project like The Nomad Series is bound to please the band’s fans

The band began with Sing in My Meadow, a lively, grungy song that might make you feel like you ’ re in one of those tough and grimy dive bars where they play pool all day and everyone is wearing sleeveless tees It is the kind of song that makes you want to order another round of brooskies for your buds

How does it feel being a so-called up-and-coming band? And what are the major changes you ’ ve experienced?

T S : At home there hasn’t been too much of a change, I don’t think People are friendlier to me at bars [Laughs ]

I guess we ’ ve kind of seen our band grow stage by stage so it hasn’t been that much of a shock to us You get your first show write up on some small blog, and it’s just constantly building and building from there

We’ve been touring for over a year now and we still love doing it We wouldn’t want to do anything else

SUN: You toured most recently with Cage the Elephant How was that?

T.S.: We’ve known those guys for so long, it’s kind of like taking a home show out on the road It’s a lot of fun

You know, touring has its ups and down You have very little privacy and you can be in a van for 20 hours with six or seven other people But it’s a good trade-off for the experience you get I’ve seen a lot of the country, plus Mexico and Canada So it’s worth having to give up some privacy and personal space for that

SUN: Will this be your first time in Ithaca?

T S : Yes, I believe it will be

SUN: I saw something online about the name of your band being inspired by [the television show] Battlestar Galactica is that true, or just hearsay?

T S : It s totally true [Laughs ]

It’s a name I came up with in college years ago I always thought it had a good ring to it for a rock band I was a really big fan of the remake of the television show that aired on the [Syfy Channel]

The name pretty much comes from these things called “Cylons,” who look and act human They’re unaware that they’re actually cybernetic organisms But when they wake up, they turn against fellow humans and they re called sleeper agents ”

SUN: That sounds a little insidious for a band name

T S : Right Well I think the way we spin it now the way we feel about the name now is that somebody you re in love with might be a “sleeper agent ” Or you could have a “sleeper agent ” in your bed It addresses the complex emotions that everybody has

Hannah Stamler is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences She can be reached at hstamler@cornellsun com

Angels in the Wilder ness

(remember, I m a city girl and have only glimpsed “hard country rock” in movies where these images abound)

The Cowboy Junkies’ sound is mostly bluesy folk-rock, punctuated by sultry and sensual notes Above all, it is nearly always sad Midway through their first set, vocalist Margo Timmins joked about the band’s artistic process, I wish I could tell you as we progressed through these albums that we got happier, but I cannot, ” to which the audience chuckled Prior to this statement, she sang “Sit Sadly By Your Side from Renmin Park, which captured the melancholy of a doomed couple The repetition of th sadly by your side” evokes one sitting sadly in the ro is going on the talk th son in the relationship h since the turbulence bega want to leave the room be said is not for your ears, but you can t help but feel for the person who needs to get out of that relationship You also feel sorry for the end of that relationship

The saddest song, however, was probably “Angels in the Wilderness” from the Wilderness volume It began in airy, peaceful vocals tinged with a sorrow that quieted the room The soft acoustics accompanying it gave the song an ethereal, mystical tone that set the mood for its namesake wilderness setting It’s a song of loss and doubt The drawn out closing vocals tug at the heartstrings: Are there angels in the wilderness? I don’t know ”

This song was definitely my favorite of the night and will be downloaded

With overlapping themes of lost love, relationship failures and death, The Nomad Series seems to just fall short of being uplifting The soundtrack could well be playing in a

their drinks and reflect upon their blues The album does however have its riled up moments The atmospheric changes were regularly cued by Timmins: “Mr Lighting Man, I m 51 years old Could you cut the lights down,” she joked This was not just a reminder of how long the Cowboy Junkies had been making music, but also that they could still be sexy The opening lines of A Bride’s Price” are sexy In fact, everything about this song from Sing in My Meadow is sensual the electric guitar interlude, the heavy symbolism, the haunting wails courtesy of Timmins and of course the regulating bass guitar The whisperings of the starting lines, “She hooked me with her ‘fuck me ’ eyes, they still haunt me to this day, give you shivers and let you know where the song is going This one will make you saunter over to that special someone

Cowboy Junkies indulged its fans by playing some of its most famous hits like “Sweet Jane” and “Misguided Angel ” Naturally, the fans took kindly to these old favorites

As a new listener to the Cowboy Junkies, I didn’t quite know what to expect I was raised on hip hop and pop, with a little contemporary Brit rock mixed in, and yet I found that I could easily appreciate the Junkies style and masterful lyrical ability The synthetic beats the band sometimes blends into its music make for a pleasant surprise in the folk rock genre Cowboy Junkies has definitely convinced this city girl to add to her musical melange and maybe take a hike in the woods

Monday, February 27, 2012 | The Corne¬ Daily Sun |

Arts Around Town

Cornell Cinema’s Elegant Winter Party: A Magical Melies Evening

7:30 p.m. Saturday at Willard Straight Theater

T h i s S a t u r d a y, w a l t z i n t o a French-inspired night on the town featuring live music, hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar and a film duo that won ’ t disappoint With two Georges Melies related films, Cornell Cinema’s Eight Annual Elegant Winter Par ty is centered on an ingenious coupling of the 2011 blockbuster Hugo and the 1902 classic, A Trip to Moon

Whether you ’ re a movie nerd or y o u ’ v

Cornell University Jazz Band: The Music of Gil Evans

8 p m on Friday at Carriage House Cafe Hayloft

The Cornell University Jazz Band, with director Paul Merrill on tr umpet, plays the music of Canadian jazz maestro Gil Evans

The show features Evans arrangements from his close collaborations with

Claude Thornhill

Evans was renowned for his ability to attract top musicians, as shown in his 1971 album Where Flamingos Fly and his

everchanging supergroup that involved illustrious musicians like the pianist Bill Evans

There’s also a touch of rock and roll in Evans music; he worked with guitarist Ryo Kawasaki on an album of Jimi Hendrix song arrangements

Friday’s per formance promises diversity and drama The show is free and open to the public

Daveen Koh

h e adventurous Hugo in theatrers, the c o m p l e m e n t a r y w i n e t a s t

n g f r o m

Por ts of Ne w York at 7:30 p m will ignite your night with a sophisticated red hue Abby Davidoff

Arts of India 7 p m Saturday at Alice Statler Auditorium

The Cornell India Association presents Ar t of India on Saturday T h i s l i v e c u l t u r a l s h o w c a s e o f Indian dance and music features d

and Tarana

C I A is ser ving more than just a

Wvisual feast Enjoy a complimentar y savor y simosa and sweet lassi at the show

Tickets may be purchased for $5 each from CIA TicketBud com/Ar tof-India

Katherine Carreño

Fred Frith: Experimental Music and Guitar

8 p m on Wednesday at Barnes Hall

Experimental music icon Fred Frith joins the campus-wide celebration of his work with an improvisational per formance at Barnes Hall Frith will be joined by pianist Annie Le wandowski following the intermission Preceding Frith’s show, join him at the A D White Guerlac House at 4:30 p m as he discusses the process of making music for film

Daveen Koh

Where the Rock Stars Are: In the Movies

hen this year ’ s Academy Award

n o m i n a t i o n

ro l l e d a ro u n d , I could pretty much recite the entire list before any formal announcem e n t w a s m a d e T h e A r t i s t ! G e o r g e Clooney! Bridesmaids (whose mere recognition from any respectable institution will never cease to baffle me)! But when I scrolled down to the nominations for Best Original Score, one musical duo s glaring absence caused me to read the list repeatedly ever so carefully and slowly in an attempt to convince myself that I had mistakenly looked over it

But, much to my dismay, my eyes were n o t d e c e i v i n g m e Tr e n t R e z n o r a n d Atticus Ross, composers of the soundtrack for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and 2 0 1 1 O s c a r w i n n e r s f o r T h e S o c i a l Network soundtrack were nowhere to be s e e n S e r io u s l y, A c ademy?! Is the Ni n e I n c h Na i l s f r o n tman too cool for you? And

s o w h a t i f R e z n o r a n d R o s s t o o k home the prize last year for their brilliant score for the e q u a l l y b r i l l i a n t T h e S o c i a l Ne t w o r k ? Ever yone and his or her mom knows that David Fincher s adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo boasted the most haunting, eerie and stirring (not to mention appropriate for the gritty murder myster y) soundtrack heard in any film this

year Remember the movie’s opening credi t s s e q u e n c e s e t t o a c o v e r o f L e d

Zeppelin s Immigrant Song? Of course you do, because it was perhaps one of the most unforgettable sequences of the year, thanks in large par t to Re znor ’ s industrial (not to mention awesome) take on the Zeppelin classic But in what can only be described as a crime against ever ything that is right in this world, Re znor and Ross were ignored by the Academy

The Academy must learn from its grave mistake Rock stars turned film composers deser ve more love and respect than this Yes, Re znor and Ross have already taken home the gold statuettes, but they cer tainly earned it and they are an exception to the r ule Rock stars who take a shot at composing film scores just don t get the reverence their work warrants Before last

Network’s pulsing score when was the last time one of your favorite rock musicians received prestigious awards recognition?

Exactly

Take note, Academy Don’t be afraid to show rockers some love In my previous column, I named my favorite bands whose

videos received the high film ar t treatment from some of the most venerated names that Hollywood has to offer Here, I ll pre-

favorite rock star contributions to some of my favorite films The marriage between film and music that I described in my previous entr y now comes full circle

1 Jonny Greenwood for There Will Be Blood: Well, this one ’ s just a given The orchestral masterpiece composed by the Radiohead multi-instr umentalist (who has always kind of reminded me of Animal from the Muppets, but I digress) is the ultimate composition in the Film Scores By Rock Stars canon The building tension in his opus is so ingeniously crafted that the strings sound like they’re about to snap And how can you forget that scene with the oil well disaster that Greenwood magnificently paired with a tribal-esque percussion number? Greenwood composes a tour de force that parallels the growing u n e a s e b e t we e n Da n i e l Da y - L e w i s ’ o i l tycoon and Paul Dano’s naïve preacher exquisitely Ironically enough, the explosive final scene in which the two rivals’ psyches climactically collide contains no music at all

2 AIR for The Virgin Suicides: The one where Hollywood royalty’s heiress to the throne Sofia Coppola exposed the world to her obsession with the female comingof-age stor yline and French pop music for the first time The ambient, synth-heavy composition by French duo AIR is appropriately eerie for the film, which chronicles the events leading up to the suicides of five blonde sisters in a 1970s suburb

The atmospheric electronica complements the cloudy uncer tainty of the neighborhood boys who become witnesses to the tragic demise of the seemingly flawless sist e r s T h e s t a n d o u t t r a c k , s u n g b y Coppola’s husband Thomas Mars of the b a n d P h o e n

x , i s t h e s a x - l a d e n “Playground Love,” a moody number that adds to the dark mystique of the film The score underlies the simultaneous sunniness and melancholy of the film, leaving us perplexed by the inexplicable circumstances 3 Karen O & The Kids for Where the Wild Things Are: Even those unfamiliar with the work of Karen O as par t of the Ne

Yeah Yeah Yeahs know that a children’s movie is questionable territor y for the wailing, swearing, beer-swilling punk rock goddess But in a move that shocked Y Y Ys fans, Karen O composed an adorable and g

Sp i k e Jonze’s adaptation of the picture book classic Backed by a band featuring mem-

Deerhunter and a chor us of, well, kids, Karen O’s playful tracks made per fect harmony with Jonze’s hear twarming take on

Johnston’s Worried Shoes” and children’s cheering on the elated “All is Love” had us embracing the wild things in all of us

Sydney Ramsden is a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences She can be reached at sramsden@cornellsun com Almost Famous runs alternate Mondays this semester

17 H ELP WANTED

Yale Loss Is Motivation for Final Season Games, Ferr y S ays

After just 10 minutes, the Red was up, 26-10, mainly due to a play by freshman for ward Shonn Miller He scored nine points during the sequence and 15 of his 17 points in the first half The rookie also grabbed nine rebounds

[Miller] was the reason for most of the points in the first half and during that run [when we built the lead] ” said senior guard and co-captain Drew Ferr y “He provides great energy for us and he’s a dynamic player He can post smaller guys up and he can take bigger guys to the basket because he s quick He’s just a great player ”

The Red went into the half with the lead, 42-31, and never slowed down to start the second half Cornell increased its lead to 17 points; however, Brown countered by calling for ward Docker y Walker off the bench Walker, who averages only five points and four rebounds a game went wild against the Red, putting up career-highs in points (23) and rebounds (17), as he almost single-handedly kept the Bears in the game

We got off to a great start in the second half as well then they put Walker back in the game and that’s when they made their run, ” Wroblewski said “All the credit to him; he had career highs in both points and

rebounds If I had a game like that, I’d be overjoyed and I hope he is too for his outstanding performance ”

Despite Brown s late run, the Red coasted to victor y, winning 69-63 Wroblewski helped the Red by recording 24 points on 56-percent shooting, which included a

h 1 1 rebounds

[ Wroblewski] is ve

y a g g re

ve going to the glass ” Ferr y said “He’s one o

rebounders and it’s

He

rd pursuing balls and he’s a ver y aggressive

y and defensively, and the stat line shows the effort he has put in all year ”

The Red provided a strong effort when it came to shutting down Brown’s star point guard Sean McGonagill, who leads the team in minutes played, scoring and assists He missed all eight of his shots from the field and scored just two from the charity stripe which led to four turnovers

“ [ Mc Go n

ye

n a l against us last year, so we just threw a lot of

different guys at him just to wear him down,” Wroblewski said “ We pressed the entire game, and luckily, he didn’t hit some of the shots he s used to hitting, so in that regard we got a little lucky, but all the credit to the guys who defended him like [ j u n i o r g u a rd ] Mi l e s A s a f o - Ad

e i a n d [freshman guard] Galal Cancer ” The Red struggled against Yale, shooting only 22 percent from the

the game with an 8-0 run Cornell responded quickly with a 16-8 run to tie the game, 1616 At this point, the Red started to lose its grip on the game, as the squad struggled to buy a bucket and Yale seemed unable to miss The Bulldogs led the Red at half, 37-24

“Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go into the hoop,” Wroblewski said “It was Senior Night, so I think their guys came out with a lot more energy than us and they hit their shots When one team is hitting all their shots and the other team just isn’t, the game will be played out like it did and it was a

ver y embarrassing game for all of us ” “ We definitely were getting good looks I know personally that I had good looks but shots that we made [against Brown], we didn’t make [against Yale],” Ferr y said “ We have to be able to overcome a few missed shots and regain our confidence and knock them down and we just weren ’ t able to do that Yale did play good defense, but for the most part, we got good looks we just couldn’t knock them in ” The stor y did not change much in the second half, as Yale cruised to an easy victor y, 71-40 No Cornell player scored more than two field goals and only Wroblewski scored more than five points

Despite the deflating loss, the Red looks to use this weekend’s blowout as motivation for its last two games of the season, according to Ferr y “It’s tough to see positives when you lose in a 30-point game like that and play as poor as we did,” Ferr y sad “But, I think it could motivate us for this last week to come out and work extremely hard this week in practice and come out and get two wins this weekend ”

Albert Liao can be reached at

Squad Hosts Mid-Week Season Opener Against Bearcats

By LAUREN RITTER Sun Assistant Sports Editor

The No 5/3 Cornell men s lacrosse team is geared up to go for Tuesday’s home matchup against the Binghamton Bearcats (1-0) The Red was set to kick off the 2012 season away against Hobar t (0-1) on Saturday; however, windy and snowy conditions affected the field s playability and forced officials to postpone the game much to the team ’ s dismay, according to senior midfielder J J Gilbane

“It was a little fr ustrating,” Gilbane said “As I said before, we have been waiting to play in a game since midAugust It was fr ustrating, but at the same time if it is super icy and dangerous you don’t want to risk injuries for either team ”

With that said, Cornell (0-0) is more than ready to finally take to the field and play against a real opponent, according to senior midfielder Chip Daugher ty

“At this time we ’ re getting pretty restless,” he said “ We’ve been practicing for so long and we are so excited for [the game against Binghamton] at this point

Bottom line is that we are ver y restless and anxious to play a game and not just practice against each other ”

The squad has been practicing since mid-august, all in preparation for a strong season ahead One area that the team has been par ticularly keyed into is improving faceoffs, according to Daugher ty

“Basically since August we have really been focusing on becoming a lot quicker off the whistle, he said Our faceoff coach Paul Richards has really been focusing on improving hand speed and power at the face-off X making it a 3-on-3 battle, utilizing the wings of the face-off ”

The squad s plan of attack is to take advantage of the depth and athleticism of the squad something which head coach Ben DeLuca ’98 emphasized last week The face-off unit hopes to move away from a 1-on-1 game and fully make use of the other talent on the field

Last year against the Bearcats, Cornell secured a 13-4 victor y, holding Binghamton to a scoreless first half

Senior attacker and captain Rob Pannell recorded three goals and five assists in the contest, matching his previous career-high of eight points, which he set the season before in a game against Har vard on April 10, 2010 Pannell also enters his senior year with the most career assists (140) and career points (236) of any active player in Division I men s lacrosse

The Red looks to continue building on the momentumgained last year entering this new season, as the team has been setting lofty goals for the upcoming weeks

“One of our goals this season is to be undefeated at home and be the best team in New York State ” Gilbane said “So that obviously includes Binghamton, Army and New York State opponents Being undefeated at home is a huge goal for us ”

Another goal for the squad is to improve on ground ball recover y “ The huge focus and goal of the team is to be the best ground ball team in he countr y and that star ts by winning ground balls by the face-off ‘ X,’” Daugher ty said

Playing Binghamton at home holds special meaning for the team, as well as the Cornell lacrosse family, according to the senior midfielder “ We call Schoellkopf Field ‘Georgy’s House,’ after George Boiardi ’04 who passed away in 2004 in this game, ” Gilbane said “So this is a huge game for us ” Boiardi, a four-year star ter and team captain, took a hard ball to the chest as he tried to defend the goal from a Binghamton player who fired a shot with just 2:33 remaining in the March 17 game Boiardi collapsed on the field and was transpor ted to Cayuga Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead

The team looks for ward to playing Tuesday’s game in honor of Boiardi’s memor y “It s not just a lacrosse game, Gilbane said “It means a lot to us and our Cornell family ”

The game against Binghamton will be exciting for the Red for both Boiardi’s honor and the fact that the team will finally kick off the season, according to Gilbane

Women’s

Hockey

Lucky 77 | Junior defenseman

Laura Fortino scored two goals in Saturday’s 6-0 victor y over Brown in the second game of the ECAC quarterfinals

Advances

Past ECAC

Quarterfinals After Defeating Brown

The Red has started the postseason on the right foot coming out victorious against Brown in a two-game sweep, 4-2, 6-0 But the team ’ s success started before Friday night on Thursday, senior forward Rebecca Johnston was named Ivy League Player of the Year Johnston also won the same title back in 2008, but this year she scored nine goals in Ivy League play, more than anyone else in the league

And once again, a Red forward comes away with the Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors Freshman forward Jillian Saulnier took this title from reigning champion, sophomore Brianne Jenner

Cornell boasts an impressive showing on the All-Ivy first team Aside from Johnston and Jenner, junior defensemen Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau made the cut

Additionally senior goaltender Amanda Mazzotta Cornell’s reigning all-time wins leader with 48 made the All-Ivy second team

On Friday at 3:30 p m , Cornell beat Brown, 4-2, to kick off the ECAC quarterfinals The Red took the early lead, scoring three goals in the first

period Although Brown answered with a goal late in the first and another in the second, ultimately the Bears could not comeback to win it, as Cornell buried a fourth goal halfway through the third Johnston came away from the night with two goals, senior forward Catherine White earned a goal and an assist and sophomore defenseman

Alyssa Gagliardi notched two assists

The Ivy rivals faced off at Lynah Rink again on Saturday at 2 p m This time, the Bears could not put the puck past Mazzotta, who collected her fifth shutout of the season as the Red defeated Brown, 6-0 Fortino scored twice and Rougeau along with senior forwards Chelsea Karpenko and Erin Barley-Maloney each registered a goal and an assist

With the shutout over Brown, Cornell advances to the ECAC Hockey semifinals The opponent is yet to be determined, but the showdown will begin at 3:30 pm on March 2 at Lynah Rink

Compiled by Dani Abada

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said “ We are ver y exicted to get out and star t our season on our tur f It’s going to be a special day out there and we can ’ t wait to get out there We are going to go into the game and play as fast and hard as possible We are looking to give our best effor t and I feel confident if we do that then we would be okay ”

Ball drops at 4 p m on Tuesday, and the Red will finish the week in a Saturday match against Army at 1 p m at Schoellkopf Field

Lauren Ritter can be reached at lritter@cornellsun com

Craig Records First Goal of Season With Third Period Game-Winner

strongest periods to date, deflecting a shot from Whitney at the point for the equalizer at 8:32and demonstrating skilled stick handling along the boards on the power play

Wayne Simpson almost knocked one in for the Dutchmen just 30 seconds after the Red’s first goal, but sophomore netminder Andy Iles swatted it out of the air above the goal line with the thick of his stick this save was one of 28 in the victory over Union

The Dutchmen, who thrive on quickly reversing their opponents drives to generate odd-man rushes, would have had a breakaway at 7:36 in the second had junior defenseman Braden Birch not intercepted a pass at center ice Union did it again by taking advantage of a bad pass by freshman winger Cole Bardreau just inside the Red’s offensive zone Senior captain Keir Ross took the man while his partner covered the pass, but the Dutchmen trailer was left open Iles was forced to make a chest save with 33 1 seconds left in the second frame, which ended tied, 1-1

“The puck wasn ’ t really bouncing my way tonight; it bounced over my stick on a couple back door plays too, Bardreau said, after he dropped the puck by senior Locke Jillson

An early 3-on-2 in the third resulted in a shot by Collins that split the defenders and popped the puck loose Cornell recovered the rebound and clinked it off the top-left meeting of the post and crossbar Union picked up the ricochet and caught the Red off guard with a second goal by Welsh his 22nd of the season By comparison, only two Cornell players have scored more than 10 goals this season

The greatest strength of our team is that we ’ re a team ” said head coach Mike Schafer ’86 of his team ’ s depth

Junior center Greg Miller, recording 14 goals for the season needed only 11 seconds to transfer the puck to the netting on the other side of the ice; though, the referee carried it half the distance for the faceoff With Miller’s unassisted goal at 4:38 an intense struggle began for the go-ahead point The crowd in Lynah became more raucous as Lowry missed McCarron in the slot Union grabbed a high saucer pass out of the air between two Red defenders for a break away, though Iles shut the play down

The magic moment occurred when sophomore forward Rodger Craig tapped a pass from Whitney ahead at the red line through one defender s legs Craig took a shot despite the pressure and beat Dutchman goalie Troy Grosenick top right by an order of magnitude

He s been a healthy scratch The left wingers [sophomore Armand de Swardt] and [freshman Madison Dias] and [Craig] have all been in and out of the lineup No one has really claimed to be a regular, Schafer said “I love that he scored the goal because he’s so popular amongst our guys ” The entire men ’ s hockey team came out of the locker room to support Craig as he answered questions after the win

“It feels good ” Craig said Union pulled its goalie with a minute to go, and called a timeout with 33 4 seconds left, but the Cornell squad skated away with the win by utilizing a five-man penalty-kill formation

“We’ve been learning; it’s been a process since January,” Schafer said We’ve put ourselves in the situation where we ’ ve got seven ties and haven’t done a good job of maintaining our leads You learn from your mistakes it s all about getting better before the end of the year and making sure you are not having problems holding leads or having bad third periods ”

Rob Moore can be reached at rmoore@cornellsun com

Senior Night Loss Ends ECAC Title Hopes

By ROB MOORE Sun Senior Writer

“Tell me the difference between RPI and Union Tell me the difference between St Lawrence and Harvard Tell me the difference between Clarkson and Rensselaer Tell me the difference between Yale and Harvard There is none, ” said head coach Mike Schafer ‘86 in anticipation of ECAC Hockey playoffs After the Red’s Saturday loss, 2-1, to the Rensselaer Engineers (7-12-3, 10-21-3), Cornell has a bye week to rest up before the second round of the ECAC tournament kicks off on March 10 The Red (15-7-7, 12-4-6 ECAC Hockey) will hold the tournament ’ s second seed since Union clinched the Cleary Cup by winning its second game of the weekend over Colgate (17-14-3, 11-10-1), finishing the season with 32

points

Saturday’s first period started sluggishly as both teams turned over the puck several times Halfway through the beginning frame, the Red’s offense finally put itself into first gear With 3:19 left to go in the period, junior defenseman and alternate captain Nick D’Agostino caught the Engineers in a change but was unable to put a shot on net The second frame brought more scoring opportunities for both teams; however, neither team recorded a change on the scoreboard The Red s offense lost battles to the puck and players on both sides were falling down from hits and poor footing The Cornell squad simply did not come ready to play Division I hockey, according to senior captain Keir Ross We were off to a rough start, he said Halfway through the final period, the Red pulled ahead First, a long video review determined that a puck loose in the

lead

With 3:04 left to play the Engineers put the puck into the Red net for the first time; however, the referee blew his whistle first, halting play Then, at the 17:40 mark in the third, Rensselaer was able to tie it up with a goal by sopho-

Red Skates Past League Leading No. 8 Dutchmen

By ROB MOORE Sun Senior Writer

In one of the best displays this season of what the ECAC has to offer, No 11 Cornell (15-7-7, 124-6 ECAC Hockey) downed the league-leader No 8 Union (20-77, 14-4-4), 3-2, to tie the Dutchmen for first place, forcing deciding games for the Cleary Cup on Saturday Union held the puck deep in the Red s zone for the first two minutes of play Friday night, resulting in a goal by junior center Jeremy Welsh 1:12 into the contest from a step outside the crease The Red attempted to respond with six of its 13 first period shots, but was denied Sophomore for ward Dustin Mowrey fed junior forward Greg Miller a soft forehand on the left in one of Cornell’s breakouts midway through the period, but Welsh rebuffed the attempt by hitting Miller so hard that his helmet

came off at the Union blue line Welsh took two minutes for roughing, but the Red was unable to conver t on the power-play opportunity The remainder of the first was dominated by both teams ’ defensemen Eight minutes in, senior defender Sean Whitney exchanged some words with junior forward Kyle Bodie after a loose puck in the crease, and both found themselves banished to the sin bin for slashing and u n s p o r t s m a n l i k e conduct, respectively

The Red came back to tie the game 1-1 by the end of the second The hitting picked up as did the presence of Union’s devout road warriors Five minutes into the middle frame

Mowrey landed a hit on sophomore goalie Troy Grosenick’s chest shortly before John McCarron laid out Union senior defenseman Taylor Reid on the forecheck McCarron played one of his

See UNION page 15

After

Red Ends Road Season With Split Weekend

By ALBERT LIAO Sun Staff Writer

After struggling away from Ne wman Arena all year, the Cornell men ’ s basketball team concluded its road schedule this weekend, splitting its games against Brown and Yale The Red beat Brown (8-21, 2-10 Ivy League) on Friday, 69-63, before falling to Yale (19-7, 9-3) in a

blowout on Saturday, 71-40 Cornell (11-15, 6-6) finished its road schedule with just two wins in 15 tries

The Red has emphasized starting games with a lot of energy, and against Brown, Cornell did just that getting off to a hot start and establishing a large lead that the team never relinquished

“We got off to a great start, ” said senior guard and co-captain

Chris Wroble wski “ We really jumped on them early, which is something coach Courtney tries to emphasize to us every week We got up 16 at one point, [and] because we ’ ve been put in that position at times this year, [we know] it’s a tough hole to get out of and we created a bit of a cushion for ourselves ”

See M B-BALL page 14