INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The CorneÂŹ Daily Sun Vol. 131, No. 106
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2015
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
16 Pages â Free
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Partly Cloudy HIGH: 35Âș LOW: 15Âș
Ian Sigalow â16 finds âSouthern comfortâ in Waffle Frolic on the Commons. | Page 8
Stephen Meisel â18 says he admires the Ithaca Underground for letting artists âtry new things.â | Page 9
Sexual Assault Bill May Require C.U. Policy Revisions
The fencing team had a strong showing at the Northeast Regional Tournament this weekend. | Page 16
Preach it KEVIN MA / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Bill mandates campus-wide biannual surveys By JONATHAN SWARTZ Sun Senior Writer
The University may need to change the way it investigates and evaluates cases of alleged sexual assault if federal legislators approve a new law on sexual violence. Introduced to the United States Senate by a bipartisan group of 12 senators on Feb. 26, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act seeks to regulate how universities and colleges handle cases of sexual assault. After the first iteration of the bill in July was not passed, the Senators revised the legislation based on feedback from stakeholders. Cornell Police Chief Kathy Zoner was among those who testified, appearing Dec. 9 before the U.S. Senate to provide her opinion on strengthening the law, according to the University. The updated version of the bill now requires universities to conduct a mandatory, anonymous survey on studentsâ experiences with See SEXUAL ASSAULT page 4
En vogue MICHAELA BREW / SUN SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
A design by Madeline Miles â14 is displayed yesterday on the terrace floor of the Human Ecology Building.
Justin Ying â16 gives a speech about escaping environmental crises at the 5th annual Harold I. Saperstein â31 Cornell Topical Sermon Contest held Tuesday at Anabel Taylor Hall.
Skorton Addresses Faculty Senate
President discusses future of higher education in America Wednesday
for American higher education,â he said. According to Skorton, the most discussed issue concerning the future of American higher education President David Skorton spoke to members of is affordability. âThereâs no doubt, despite strong voices for the the faculty about the future of American higher educontrary, that higher education at the Faculty Senate cation has a major impact meeting Wednesday. âThereâs no doubt, despite on graduatesâ economic In what Skorton said strong voices for the contrary, success,â Skorton said. would be his last time that higher education has a âUnlike other major addressing the Faculty expenditures that one Senate as president of the major impact on graduatesâ might finance with debt, University, he said he was economic success.â like a car, the investment going to be âblunt and in higher education ecodirectâ about what he President David Skorton nomically appreciates and views to be the direction of doesnât depreciate over American higher educatime.â tion following 35 years of experience. According to Skorton, Cornell has a long tradiâI decided to accept a very gracious invitation that [Dean of Faculty Joseph Burns Ph.D. â66] tion of providing talented students from a wide varigave me to speak about just a few of the opportunities and the challenges that I see going forward See SKORTON page 4 By MELVIN LI
Sun Staff Writer
Dean Describes Legacy of Ginsburgâ54
Ritter â83 examines how C.U. experience shaped her career By ARIEL SEIDNER Sun Staff Writer
Gretchen Ritter â83, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgâs â54 successes as a civil rights lawyer and how her experience at Cornell shaped her professional passion at a talk in Hans Bethe House Wednesday night. As a student at Cornell in the 1950s, Ginsburg had exceptional teachers such as Robert Cushman and Vladimir Nabokov, who would greatly influence her, according to
Ritter. Ritter said that Cushman, a government professor, impressed on Ginsburg the importance of democracy and government and particularly the importance of civil liberties. Ginsburg reflected on her Cornell career at an alumni event in September, where Ritter said she cited Vladimir Nabokov as having a particular impact on her writing and career. âProfessor Nabokov changed the way I read and changed the way I write,â Ginsburg said at the event, which was held at The New-York Historical Society. âEven when Iâm drafting [High
Court] opinions, thinking about how the word order should go, I remember him.â Ritter said that prior to Ginsburgâs advocacy in the court for womenâs equal protection of the law, there was not a single cohesive foundation on which to base an argument, so gender equality advocates had not made much progress. âFor several decades there was a partisan competition between the Democratic Party which favored working class women and the Republican Party which See GINSBURG page 5