03-25-21 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Asian Students Urge Change After Attacks

By ANTHONY CHEN Sun Staff Writer

On March 16, a white gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, including six Asian women, across three separate Asian-owned businesses. The event sparked a University statement and organizational action, leaving a profoundly negative impact on Cornellians in Asian and Asian American communities.

“It’s important to be visible in our grief, in our struggles, and to ask for humanity and equality.”

Susan Lin

In the days following the attack, Cornell students reported immense shock, grief and anxiety for their families’ safety. As event details disseminated via prominent news sources and social media outlets, they reacted with shock and concern for their communities.

Upon receiving the news, Maggie Zhang Grobowski ’22 immediately called her mother, a Chinese woman

living in suburban Maryland, telling her to be more careful.

Stephanie Naing ’23 spent the night after scrolling through articles and posts with “all the information buzzing in [her] head.”

Amande He ’23 remembered feeling numb after reading the headlines.

“For several days, I would read something new about the victims or the attack that would drive me to tears,” He said. She expressed sadness that the family of one victim, Xioaojie Tan, celebrated her birthday over Zoom to spare Tan’s mother the news of her death.

To provide support for students, Cornell’s Asian-interest organizations took action — the Cornell Asian Pacific Student Union, Cornell Chinese Students Association, Cornell Filipino Association, Alpha Kappa Delta Phi and Pi Delta Psi released statements mourning the loss of the victims from the Atlanta shooting.

The Asian and Asian American Center also hosted “community processing spaces” facilitated by the director and assistant director of the AAAC, Nancy Martinsen and Daniel Hoddinott, on March 18 and 19. Three days later, Pi Delta Psi hosted Jamy Drapeza and Donna C. Poon, Asian American Pacific

Sage Chapel Repairs Continue

Historic

By KELSEY XU Sun Contributor

building still needs foor, pew and organ restoration

146 years after it was built, following a semester as a COVID testing site, countless religious services and many weddings, Sage Chapel is back under construction.

The chapel has required costly renovations to its floors, pews and 81-year-old Aeolian-Skinner organ for some time. The repur-

posing of the chapel as a testing site in the fall and the hefty price tag of $1.2 million to repair the organ has hindered much needed repairs, according to Prof. Annette Richards, music.

Cornell planned to conduct these repairs later in the decade, according to Oliver Goodrich, associate dean for spirituality and meaning making. However, when Cornell closed campus last

year, the University saw a unique opportunity to get started with the funding available.

“During the early summer of 2020, with the building closed and many construction workers looking for work, an opportunity emerged to move up the timeline,” Goodrich wrote in a statement to the Sun.

See SAGE page 3

By ALLY FERTIG Sun Contributor

Earlier this month, President Martha Pollack selected Sherell Farmer ’22 for Cornell’s 2021-22 Newman Civic Fellowship, which rewards students involved in social justice and community service by providing funding to an organization of the fellow’s choosing. A total of 212 students have been chosen from campuses across the country to participate in the program, which supports students with a commitment to community and problem solving. The Fellowship includes a national convention of all Fellows, virtual events, leadership development with an assigned mentor and the opportunity to engage and form connections with other participants.

Fellows are nominated by the president of their respective universities at Campus Compact member colleges. Campus Compact is a cohort of universities around the nation dedicated to “civic education and community development.”

As Cornell’s representa-

“I want to learn lessons that I can bring back to Cornell on how to activate the next group of activists.”

Sherell Farmer ’22

tive, Farmer will receive a stipend, an award for her chosen community partner and funding for travel to Campus Compact conventions with the goal of allowing her to continue and enhance her community service work.

Majoring in industrial

See NEWMAN page 3

Daybook

A LISTING OF FREE CAMPUS EVENTS

Thursday

Greater Ithaca Town Hall Q&A 9 - 9:30 a.m, Virtual Event

Biutiful, Domestic Work and Motherhood 9:40 - 11:00 a.m, Virtual Event

Repairs and Reparations: Institute for European Studies Migration Series 10:30 a.m - 12:10 p.m, Virtual Event

Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women And the Struggle for Global Freedom 11:25 a.m - 12:40 p.m, Virtual Event

Exploring The Diversity Of Plant Life Through Genomics Noon - 1 p.m, Virtual Event

Soup & Hope with Amaris Henderson ’21 12:15 - 12:45 p.m, Virtual Event

Institute for African Development Seminar: The COVID Wakeup Call 2:40 - 4:35 p.m., Virtual Event

Entrepreneur in Residence: Brandon Barton ’03 3 - 3:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Linguistics Colloquium Speaker: Robert Ladd 4:30 p.m., Virtual Event

“Impostor Syndrome:” What Is It and How Do I Fight It? 5 - 6:15 p.m., Virtual Event

Women, Womxn, Womyn. What’s The Difference? With Professor Durba Ghosh 6 - 7 p.m., Virtual Event

Resurgence of Memory: Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 7 p.m., Virtual Event

Friday

Labor in the 21st Century Challenges and Opportunities 9:00 a.m -12:05 p.m., Virtual Event

Cornell Policy Review Issues in Public Policy Speaker Series, Spring 2021 Noon -1:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Cornell Population Center Seminar | Joscha Legewie Noon -1:00 p.m., Virtual Event

Traumatic Repetition in the Contemporary Work of Adrienne Kennedy Noon - 1:30 p.m, Virtual Event

Senator James Sanders Jr.: COVID and Communities of Color 12:15 p.m., Virtual Event

Q&A with Darrien Michele Gipson, Executive Director, SAGIndie 3 p.m., Virtual Event

CAM Visit Day Colloquium: Alex Townsend 3:30 p.m., Virtual Event

Asian Students Call for Change After Atlanta Attacks

RESPONSE

Continued from page 1

Islander mental health professionals, for a “community healing space.”

On March 23, Ithaca locals also mourned, by gathering for a vigil in honor of the victims at the Bernie Milton Pavilion in the Ithaca Commons.

In a Facebook post, organizer Susan Lin expressed her desire to show solidarity between the AAPI community in Atlanta and the one in Ithaca, where she grew up.

“It’s important to be visible in our grief, in our struggles, and to ask for humanity and equality,” Lin said. “Our stories are worth telling, and our lives are worth sharing.”

The widespread solidarity in the wake of the Atlanta attack gave Atlanta native Angela Lau ’22 a sense of unity within the Asian American community and expressed appreciation that the hardships of being an Asian American in the South have been recognized.

“The most shocking thing to me was that it was so close to home and to the people I love,” Lau said. “You always hope that this will never happen to the people that you love.”

Due to the rise of hate crimes towards the Asian population during the pandemic, Rina Sunakawa ’22 decided to

stay home in Utah last semester to protect her parents from potential violent attacks.

“It broke my heart when the day before I left to come back to campus this semester, my mom asked me what to say if someone said something racist to her or my dad,” Sunakawa said. “When my mom sends me pictures of her and my dad out on a walk, I can’t help but wonder if that will be the day something happens.”

Sunakawa believes that the legal system should hold the criminals who commit anti-Asian hate crimes accountable, rather than leaving Asians to avoid future attacks by hiding and assimilating.

“Why do we have to be the ones who are scared?” Sunakawa said. “Why don’t they change their racist behavior? Why aren’t they scared of the consequences of assaulting, attacking and murdering minorities?”

Some students, like Zhang Grobowski, struggle to balance feelings of grief with the need to take action.

“As a mixed-race Chinese American who is often perceived as white passing, my whiteness is sometimes a shield of privilege, erasing my lived cultural experiences yet protecting me from minor or major acts of racial discrimination,” Zhang Grobowski said.

Going forward, students stated that the University should do more for Cornell’s AAPI communities. A student who wished to remain anonymous to avoid potential racebased harm wished that Pollack’s statement established greater concrete action items in response to anti-Asian racism.

“I think that allocating funds for the Asian and Asian American Center would have sent a stronger signal for Asian students that their university cares and is willing to take action to protect their well-being,” they wrote in a statement to the Sun.

Naing emphasized the importance of intersectionality when discussing targeted acts of violence. As racism and sexism were both intertwined with the Atlanta shooting, she called the Cornell community to deconstruct the idea of a monolithic “Asian” identity and acknowledge the myriad social problems contributing to racial violence.

“Even if many people view us as a monolith, I hope that we do not blindly embrace this myth,” Naing said. “I hope we continue to be diligent to different social identities held by different Asian people, whether it be class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality and immigration status.”

Anthony Chen can be reached at achen@cornellsun.com.

Sage Chapel Continues Repairs to Historic Organ

SAGE

Continued from page 1

Prof. Annette Richards, music, plays the chapel’s Aeolian-Skinner organ and serves as executive director of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies. She called for donations to secure the long-term care of this historic building, which has been neglected in recent years.

“Sage Chapel is a beautiful, historic building and it really is one of the most special places on campus,” Richards said.“Likewise, the organ which was built in 1940 is an instrument of real historic importance and interest. Together they represent the history and fabric of Cornell.”

As it waits to secure funding for the organ repair, the University completed smaller brush-ups on the instrument.

“We’ve been gradually re-leathering parts of the wind system because there are parts that

are sealed with very thin layers of leather which get dried out and cracked,” said Richards. “We need to find a way to completely restore the interior workings of the organ.”

While these repairs are needed to maintain the Chapel, they have proven both difficult and costly. They also require the Chapel’s closure, according to Goodrich.

“These renovations were done as part of a larger planned maintenance program for the building that began in 2019, and the improvements were funded by a designated gift,” he wrote.

Other ongoing renovations include refinishing the floors and replacing the lighting for environmental efficiency. Over the summer, workers removed all of the chapel’s pews and refinished them off-site; they have now been reestablished in the Chapel, according to Goodrich.

“It’s quite a complicated process. There’s a wooden part to the floor and a beautiful

Te Botanic Gardens Plant Hope

By MIHIKA BADJATE Sun Assistant News Editor

As Ithaca’s biting winds turn into the gentle lull of a spring breeze, winter aconite blooms in the Cornell Botanic Gardens and Cornellians are taking advantage of the warm weather to visit the Conifer Slope and Botanic Buzzline.

Throughout the pandemic, the gardens have been open to the public, albeit with safety precautions — visitors are required to maintain a six foot distance from one another, wear appropriate face coverings, visit in groups of no larger than 10 and all indoor facilities are closed until further notice.

These restrictions have not kept visitors away, nor have they stopped the gardens from continuing their many educational and community driven programs.

In fact, visitation increased significantly in 2020, driven by the closure of other community gathering spaces, according to Shannon Dortch, associate director of communications and marketing at the gardens,.

At one point, the daily visitor count reached over 1,100, and the F. R. Newman Arboretum, Nevin Welcome Center gardens and Beebe Lake Trails recorded 600 visitors daily.

Throughout spring 2019 and fall 2020, when students and professors faced campus closures and social isolation, many took to the gardens. The number of classes that used the gardensas an outdoor classroom increased by 30 percent.

“There’s an element there of peace and togetherness that the gardens are affording by being an outdoor space which is relatively accessible,” said Jeannie Yamazaki ’21, co-lead of the Cornell Botanic Garden

Ambassadors.

Last fall, the gardens established its first team of Garden Ambassadors as part of the larger program, Learning by Leading, an initiative that builds a network of student-led teams that are passionate about environmental issues. The pandemic offered an opportunity for these students to come together to engage in community building, which included starting an online book club featuring titles like “Braiding Sweetgrass.”

The gardens are also maintaining community engagement by transitioning their educational programming online. Webinar series like Verdant Views, which discuss climate issues and their impact on the gardens, drew participants from across the globe, something that was not possible in pre-pandemic years. According to Yamazaki, the international viewership gives the gardens an opportunity to spread their message of beauty, diversity and hope.

“The Botanic Gardens wants to see biocultural diversity,” Yamazaki said. “We want to be protectors of that; we want to empower people to be protectors of that, and you can do that anywhere in the world.”

Yamazaki is grateful for the gardens’ increasing focus on student involvement and their trust in students to advance the gardens’ vision.

“It’s been a source of comfort for me to get to be a part of this program, and get to see the ways in which the Cornell Botanic Gardens is making an investment in students as people who can make environmental change,” Yamazaki said.

Mihika Badjate can be reached at mbadjate@cornellsun.com.

mosaic, which had to have its own separate treatment,” Richards said. “The interior of Sage is a work of art.”

When the University reopened last fall, it converted Sage Chapel into a COVID testing site, delaying the process of renovations halfway through and inviting heavy pedestrian traffic into the building.

The University chose to reclose the Chapel for spring 2021 to continue refurbishment efforts and begin work on the organ in earnest.

During Sage Chapel’s closure, student organizations and classes have been unable to use it at all. Richards has taken her classes to the organ in Anabel Taylor Chapel, and some of her students practice in churches throughout Ithaca.

Cornell University Chorus, which has rehearsed in the chapel since 1959, has had to disrupt the historical practice and use Zoom.

“We had to go in and retrieve everything

we thought we might need for the semester because we weren’t allowed in there [while it was being used] as a testing site,” said Maggie Lin ’21, president of the Cornell University Chorus. “We now have rehearsals online via Zoom, and last semester we were able to do some in-person outdoor singing.”

Richards expects the chapel to be completed by the time COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, which may allow the Chorus to return.

“Sage Chapel is a bit of an anomaly within the Cornell administration, because it’s not really owned by any powerful or rich entity,” Richards said. “So we all need to be looking out for that building. It needs and deserves real, long-term care, something that would be made possible by a significant alumni gift.”

Kelsey Xu can be reached at kcx2@cornell.edu.

Sherell Farmer ’22 Chosen As 2021 Newman Fellow

Continued from page 1

labor relations and minoring in inequality studies, law and society and history, Farmer has dedicated much of her time at Cornell to social justice and community service.

“I’m hoping we can create sustainable change at Cornell and I’m hoping that Newman and talking with the other fellows can help me figure out how to get that going here,” Farmer said.

Last summer, she co-founded the organization Cornell Students 4 Black Lives in an effort to amplify the Black Lives Matter movement on campus. The organization has since raised over $110,000 to combat anti-Black racism locally and nationally.

Before her sophomore year, Farmer served as a High Road Fellow with ILR and the Buffalo Co-Lab, where she spent a summer researching economic challenges in Buffalo. Throughout the pandemic, she has coordinated and improved a free legal clinic at the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen, a local Christian ministry dedicated to reducing community food instability Farmer went on to choose Loaves and Fishes, as her community partner to receive funding.

Mike Bishop, Cornell’s fellowship advisor and director for student leadership at the office of engagement initiatives, who first met Farmer during

her time as a High Road Fellow, expressed that she was a perfect fit for the Newman Fellowship.

“What really struck me was her ability to work with community, to listen to community and not just be a lone individual leader, but to work collectively and collaboratively,” Bishop said. “That’s really what the Newman Civic Fellowship is all about.”

During the summer of 2020, Farmer also participated in the Cornell Defender Program, a new program dedicated to expanding local community access to legal advice and aid. Through the program she met Michaela Rossettie Azemi, director of pro bono services & externships at the law school, who encouraged her to apply for the Newman Fellowship.

“I think the world of Sherell,” Azemi said. “I think she’s a go-getter, somebody who cares a lot about social justice issues and I’ve had the good fortune of being able to see her work in action in a couple different ways.”

Going forward, Farmer is interested in learning about the work that the other Newman fellows are doing in their communities.

“I want to learn lessons that I can bring back to Cornell on how to activate the next group of activists here,” she said.

Ally Fertig can be reached at arf96@cornell.edu.

Dining Guide

Your source for good food

Food Cultural Appropriation: It’s Personal

By MERIDIEN MACH Sun Contributor

Iam first generation Chinese-Vietnamese. Both of my parents immigrated to the United States as a result of the Vietnam War. My closest connection to my Vietnamese culture, like many children of immigrants, is food. Food is part of my identity. Food is personal.

Unfortunately, many Asian Americans remember childhood experiences of feeling ashamed after being told that their food was gross or that it smelled weird. As a result, seeing non-Asian chefs successfully sell misrepresentations of the food that we were made fun of for is disrespectful and offensive. When making another culture’s food inauthentically, we fail to respect the culture it originated from, reinforce stereotypes and thus, contribute to oppression known as food cultural appropriation.

I distinctly remember when I started at a new school for first grade; my dad had bought me my favorite lunch — bánh mì from Bánh Mì Chè Cali in

Little Saigon, Orange County (please support them if you are ever in the Westminster area of Southern California, they are the best). Bánh mì is a Vietnamese baguette sandwich packed with a variety of meats and pickled vegetables, French pâté and various other condiments. My excitement to eat my lunch quickly turned into shame; I received disgusted glances and was told that my sandwich didn’t smell good like normal sandwiches. That day, I told my dad that I didn’t want him to pack me food anymore. Rather, I wanted to buy food from school to be like the other kids. Looking back, I feel more shame about this than during that one lunch.

Now, I am seeing restaurants not owned by Vietnamese Americans selling “bánh mì” and modifying it to have American cold cuts or pork belly rather than the traditional meats from Vietnamese cuisine and the French pâté. When restaurateurs take cultural foods and modify them, they disrespect the culture and those that were ostracized for it.

Chinese food has especially

been a victim of cultural food appropriation. Many Chinese American restaurants have changed their menus to appeal to the fried food that mainstream American palates are used to. For example, orange chicken was a dish that was invented by Andy Kao in the United States.

Lieutenant of Ireland, despite being an ally to the British Prime Minister, wrote to him claiming that, “Ireland had been sacrificed to the London corn-dealers … no distress

were exceptions to this legislation. Some Chinese business owners were allowed to get special merchant visas to travel to China and bring back employees. Restaurants were a part of this exception, and as a result, there was a Chinese restaurant boom.

Many of these restaurants had to operate in dense city centers and on tight budgets which contributed to the stereotype that Chinese food is cheap and dirty.

The United States has only been exposed to a certain type of Chinese food. Chinese food is one of the most sophisticated cuisines on Earth and has been around longer than many other cuisines in the world. Additionally, Chinese food is not a monolith. There are many regions within China, and each religion has its own cuisine. Chinese cuisine is diverse, flavorful, sophisticated and certainly cannot be reduced to being unhealthy, cheap or dirty.

None of this is saying that one can only eat and cook the food of their own culture. When it comes to food cultural appropriation, it is not about who can or cannot do something, but rather the manner in which it is done. You can enjoy and cook another culture’s food that is not your own. However, when doing so, respect and learn where it came from. This is cultural appreciation rather than cultural appropriation.

If you are going to profit off of food from another culture — especially one that has

been historically exploited or oppressed — it is your responsibility to do it in a way that honors the cultural origins of the food.

Chinese food is one of the most sophisticated cuisines on Earth. Chinese food is not a monolith.

It is important to acknowledge the escalated hate and violence the AAPI community is facing. Issues such as food cultural appropriation contribute to this hate and violence towards the AAPI community. Please respect us as much as you enjoy and profit off of our food.

tation of Irish grain had been prohibited.” Various relief efforts ed by the British government in response, though many promising programs failed because they were

Britain’s calculated actions, which valued political advantage over human lives, represents the broader tendency throughout history to erase Irish civilization through cultural genocide. This is especially prevalent in modern perceptions of Irish food, which often view the cuisine as “far cially when compared to the …

In 2019 a non-Asian couple opened up Lucky Lee’s and marketed the restaurant as “clean” and less “icky” Chinese food. This fed into the racist stereotypes that Chinese food is unhealthy, cheap and dirty. Furthermore, it dismisses the oppression felt by Chinese Americans that made them adapt their food to Western tastes and the discrimination experienced by Chinese Americans because of the food they eat. It is important to understand why there are so many Chinese American restaurants in the United States, and why these restaurants serve affordable food. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which suspended Chinese immigration into the United States and made it difficult for legal residents to re-enter the country. However, there

ANUSHYA ALANDUR ’23

Business Manager

CATHERINE ST. HILAIRE ’22

Associate Editor

PRANAV KENGERI ’24

Advertising Manager

ODEYA ROSENBAND ’22

Opinion Editor

JYOTHSNA BOLLEDULA ’24

News Editor

TAMARA KAMIS ’22

News Editor

WENDY WANG ’24

Arts & Entertainment Editor

KRISTEN D’SOUZA ’24

Design Editor

HANNAH ROSENBERG ’23

OMSALAMA AYOUB ’22 Science

PUJA OAK ’24

Layout

ANNIE WU ’22

MIHIKA BADJATE ’23

ANGELA BUNAY ’24

Assistant

JOHN COLIE ’23

Assistant

AMELIA CLUTE ’22

Assistant

WILLIAM BODENMAN ’23

Assistant

AARON SNYDER ’23

Assistant Sports Editor

MEGHANA SRIVASTAVA ’23

Compet Manager

139th Editorial Board

KATHRYN STAMM ’22 Editor in Chief MADELINE ROSENBERG ’23

KOH ’23

OZA ’22

HEO ’24

OLIVIA CIPPERMAN ’23

NOOREJEHAN UMAR ’23

YOON ’23

VELANI ’22

PICHINI ’22

TYAGI ’22

MENDOZA ’24

ARANDA ’23

BASU ’23

RIGGS ’24

LEYNSE ’23

NAGEL ’24

’24

ABAYEVA ’24

’22

Katherine Yao Hello Katie

Breakout Rooms Suck: Let’s Change Tat

Picture this: 8 a.m. lecture. A group of five students. Microphones muted. Cameras off. A prompt to discuss or a problem set to work on together. One single attempt at conversation.

*Unmutes microphone* “Um…hello? I think we’re supposed to be going over question two…” *Cue fifteen minutes of dead silence where one student leaves the meeting and you’re pretty sure the others have taken some permanent vow of silence without telling you*

Oh, to experience the joy of breakout rooms.

which can save time for both students and TAs. The difference here, as opposed to breakout rooms during class time, is that students are usually willing to work with and help each other. The desperate race against a tight homework deadline trumps any awkwardness that may arise. We have evidence that breakout rooms can be a beneficial tool, so what are the best ways for teachers and students to make the most out of them?

Tom the Dancing Bug by

Ruben Bolling

Zoom classes have been in full swing for an entire year, which means that professors and TAs have scrambled to find new ways to engage their classes. At first glance, breakout rooms seem to provide the optimal solution: Professors can choose to create rooms with certain students or randomize the grouping process. Breakout rooms simulate group work typically done during in-person lectures, and provide students the chance to interact with each other in a virtual space. There’s even an “ask for help” button in case of questions. I mean, how could anything go wrong?

The learning benefit that breakout rooms should provide deteriorates when human nature is thrown in the mix.

Some of my best experiences in breakout rooms have occurred when the professor lays out a specific task that can be accomplished in around five to seven minutes. Any longer and even the most vocal bunch will run out of things to say. Any shorter and it leaves no time for getting acquainted with the other members in the room. A professor I had last semester also assigned each room a different question and had every group detail their answer on a different page of a Google Slides presentation. This forced everyone to participate since we knew that the work we did would be public.

Well, I have the list of grievances in both alphabetical and chronological order, whichever you prefer. But the Sparknotes version is this: Breakout rooms are just so freaking awkward. Most times, you’re with people you’ve never even seen before. And, since nobody wants to turn their camera on, you’ll probably never see them. It’s online speed dating but worse. Any rules put out are impossible to enforce, so everyone waits around in anticipation for the professor to (mercifully) close the rooms. Not even the random checkins from the professor can assuage the lapses of silence. The learning benefit that breakout rooms should provide deteriorates when human nature is thrown in the mix.

When some brave soul unmutes their microphone to start the conversation, please don’t leave them hanging.

I’m not saying that breakout rooms are always useless. During packed office hours, creating separate groups based on question type allows students to work amongst themselves before getting help,

Zoom also has a feature where everyone on the call can choose which room to go to. One idea could be to let students pick their rooms, and have those be the designated rooms for the month or unit before switching up the groups again. That way, we aren’t put on the spot with strangers in each class, but rather have the chance to get comfortable working with the same people for a while. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about “Zoom University” is how hard it can be to develop connections with others in the same classes. Changing up the groups once in a while counteracts that issue. We don’t know how much longer this pandemic will last, so at least for the near future, breakout rooms will likely remain a constant staple in our lives. For these potential solutions to work, everyone needs to be on board. That means turning on the camera if at all possible to show that you’re willing to engage with the discussion. And when some brave soul unmutes their microphone to start the conversation, please don’t leave them hanging.

White Evangelical Christianity And the Atlanta Shootings

Darren Chang Swamp Snorkeling

Darren Chang is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at dchang@cornellsun.com. Swamp Snorkeling runs every other Tursday this semester.

Like many of you, I have been reeling from the shootings in Atlanta last week. Eight women, of which six were Asian American, were killed. Many diferent conversations have been broached — with friends, white or otherwise, family and online — wondering how senseless violence “like this” could have happened (the answer I wanted to give was to read a book).

One of the things we know about the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, is his religious background: h e was a churchgoer who belonged to the Southern Baptist congregation. Tis might be surprising for those who view Christianity as a religion that espouses peace and togetherness above all else. Ten again, Long’s faith might be completely unsurprising for those who think of Christianity as an excuse for hate, backed by historical examples that span the Crusades to the Westboro Baptist Church.

Other prominent journalists and thinkers, both inside and outside of Christian circles, have already

tackled how church teachings on sexuality and uncritical afrmation of purity culture were part of Long’s thinking. To him, the Asian women working at massage parlors were a source of temptation and threat, so Long felt that he had to eliminate them. In his twisted view, the women were at fault.

But what hasn’t received a lot of attention is that the church’s teaching on race and racism, or lack thereof, needs re-examination. Growing up, I, like Long, attended a church that was predominantly white. And by predominantly, I mean that I was the only Asian person in the congregation. Of course, there had to have been others — a membership of over 4,000 people made that inevitable — but it was safe to say that I was in a very small minority.

Many churches across the United States, whether by choice or by demographics, are also predominantly white. To no one’s surprise, minorities often fock to ethnic churches as a result, fnding comfort in attending services with people who have the same cultural background. Te white Evangelical Church has a problem talking about race. Brett Cottrell, who led youth ministry while Long was involved, said, “I don’t recall any sermons dealing specifcally with racism, but the general tenor was to welcome and to be as inclusive as possible.” In a white church, being welcoming and being inclusive means little. A church environment that lacks teaching — through sermons, small groups and Biblical study — that explicitly preaches against racism allows implicit bias and racialized hate to fester. Indeed, many churches like the Southern Baptist congregation Long belonged to swore of Critical Race Teory as incompatible with their faith.

Even though Long said that the attacks were not racially motivated, the impact on the Asian, Asian American and Pacifc Islander communities has been enormous. It is possible, and even likely, that this impact will go unaddressed by many churches. As Raymond Chang, campus minister at Wheaton College, writes, “…the white evangelical church in the west has not only remained silent but also … been

the (sic) among the greatest resisters to faithfulness around God’s call to love neighbor….”

White evangelicals are at a crossroads, with lives at stake. Will churches put forth a good faith efort

Don’t think for a second that you have escaped the pervasiveness of whiteness and white evangelical ideology at Cornell.

to truly welcome and afrm all members of their congregations and all parts of the Bible, including every passage that mentions loving or preaching to “all the nations” (as in John 17:23 or Acts 1:8)? Or, will the exodus continue — the “quiet exodus” that began with Black believers leaving white evangelical churches?

Don’t think for a second that you have escaped the pervasiveness of whiteness and white evangelical ideology at Cornell. It does not take an opinion columnist to remind you of the various hate crimes that have occurred on this chunk of hilltop in Ithaca, even in the past few years. This criticism demonstrates how the fabric of society is inculcated by an inability and silence to speak about racism — whether against the Asian American community or Black community.

We should not ask Asian Americans how such a violent event could have occurred when exclusion is intrinsic to Asian American history. Rather, we should question how we have contributed to structures that allow and even perpetuate violence — like, in this case, the white evangelical church’s silence on race.

Cornell Should Allow Students to Fail

Daniel Bernstein

Feel the Bern

Daniel Bernstein is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at dgb222@cornell.edu. Feel the Bern runs every other Monday this semester.

Cornell doesn’t let its students fail, but it should. I don’t mean to suggest that we pull out any security blankets or safety nets that would otherwise protect us from walking away with an F — I don’t think those exist here. But we’ve all been in libraries during a big prelim week, where the tension is palpable and the stress is dripping down the walls, all because we as students are terrifed of failing.

Tings like “If you try your best, that’s good enough” or “You’re not who your grade says you are” feel almost cliché to say, but reality doesn’t actually support these claims; like it or not, our grades signifcantly impact our ability to explore opportunities. As such, we’re punished for failing. But I argue a grade should refect how much one learns, and we should be allowed to make mistakes and mess up without punishment so long as we’re trying, and so long as we’re learning.

My frst class at Cornell was a First-Year Writing Seminar at 8:40 a.m. that I intended on dropping. It was called Medieval Studies 1101: History of the English Language, and while the class’ title seemed cool, waking up early and

reading Old English did not. But when the teacher, Ryan Lawrence grad, announced that all of our essays would be graded on only two criteria — if it met the required length and if it was turned in on time — I decided to stick around. I thought maybe the class would be easy, and maybe I’d learn a thing or two.

Ryan reads over, reviews, and comments on all of his students’ papers just like anyone else, but he grades on completion rather than performance. While he has opinions on papers and will talk about them with his students and let them know what they’ve done well or poorly, if you completed the assignment, you get an A.

“I grade this way because I want students to have the freedom to take risks, to experiment with what writing is and how to write, and not be afraid to fail. And to give space to fail without failing a course,” he says. Ryan’s students aren’t punished for making mistakes or for sticking their neck out. Tey could try something that doesn’t work, but they’ll learn their lesson, and they won’t fail for trying.

Some might think that without performance-based grades, it would be difcult to keep students engaged or put in any efort at all. But Ryan says that this hasn’t been his experience. “Students try even harder, because they know it’s up to them. If you don’t try in my course, I’m not going to punish you for it. And they own up to the responsibility of their own academic work.”

From my experience in his class, I can say that my peers

Cornell’s job as a university is not primarily to give grades — its job is to help students learn.

and I actually participated and tried. We wrote full essays, had active discussions and completed readings. Tere were times when I slacked of a little bit, as there admittedly are for all of my classes. A big diference, though, is that I wasn’t

scared or stressed about potential slacking. Because so long as I got my work done, I knew my grade would be fne. Ryan’s philosophy is efective because in his class, completion is synonymous with learning. “I think the papers force students to learn. I do completion grades, but I design papers that, if you just turn something in, you will have learned something.”

Sometimes, the papers in our class had weird and specifc prompts. For example, we had an essay where we couldn’t use the letter “E”, nor could we use “it”, “this”, or “that”. Te point was to practice writing with constraint, and the lessons I learned still impact my writing now — and hopefully I don’t have too many antecedent-less demonstratives in this column.

We also wrote a 12 to15 page research paper in Ryan’s class. I’d never written such a long paper before, and honestly I don’t think my fnished product was that special. Truthfully, I didn’t really care too much. I had nevertheless learned skills for writing long papers that I still use now for other classes. Tis is the idea of Ryan’s assignments; “Tey don’t have to be great, but the fact that you wrote 15 pages will make you a better writer.”

Ryan’s class forces his students to learn, and it doesn’t care if they make mistakes or if they slack of a little bit every so often. It allows kids to fail without fear. Te result is a stress-less class where students actually learn. It sounds almost unreal, but shouldn’t that be the goal of every class on campus? Professors say all the time that their students’ well-being is the number one priority, but how often do they really mean it?

It may seem difcult to apply this philosophy to a STEM class, where there are certain correct answers, or really to anything other than a writing class. But it’s not. Give students multiple tries to get questions right on quizzes or tests, provide lots of opportunities for points so that a couple mistakes don’t drag us down, walk students through problems and homework assignments, and foster a class culture more concerned with learning than grades.

Cornell’s job as a university is not primarily to give grades — its job is to help students grow and learn. Cornell students are supposed to be curious risk-takers who are unafraid of the unknown. Sometimes, though, when people take risks, they fail. Tat’s okay. Cornell shouldn’t punish them for failing, but celebrate them for learning.

Fill in the empty cells, one number in each, so that each column, row, and region contains the numbers 1-9 exactly once. Each number in the solution therefore occurs only once in each of the three “directions,” hence the “single numbers” implied by the puzzle’s name. (Rules from wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sudoku)

Faster Than Light by Alicia Wang ’21

Sports

2020 Seniors Refect on Transition

To Professional Play

By ALLY KNAPP Sun Contributor Writer

COVID-19 cut seasons short for most college athletes. For Cornell men’s hockey Jeff Malott ’20 and Yanni Kaldis ’20, the end to their season also marked an abrupt end of their college athletic careers.

The end of their tenure with the Red was devastating as the senior class was hoping to cap their collegiate career with their fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament and a run at a league and national championship.

Despite an unceremonious end to their time in Ithaca, the two both moved on to play on professional teams in the American Hockey League, Malott for the Manitoba Moose and Kaldis for the Bakersfield Condors.

Even as a rookie, Malott has already impressed the Moose, having scored seven goals in his first 12 games. Malott is adjusting to his new team, and beginning to putb-

more trust in them.

“In hockey, a lot of times people say you’re gripping your stick too tight,” Malott said. “It kind of allowed me to not grip my stick too tight and just play our systems and find success through our team’s structure, which has been nice.”

Malott attributes some of his performance so far to what he learned from Cornell head coach Mike Schafer ’86, who Malott said instilled a strong work ethic in his players and emphasized working hard in practice and over the summer in addition to during games.

“He’s really helped mold who I am as a player,” Malott said. “Everything I’ve learned at Cornell has just helped me get the most out of my potential here as well.”

Watching the older players on the Moose has also shown Malott just how important it is to always work hard.

“You realize that their work ethic is the same every night, nobody takes any nights off . . . so that’s been really cool to learn from them and try to incorporate some of that as well,”

Malott said.

Like Malott, Kaldis credited the coaching staff at Cornell with helping him build his whole game and teaching him

“Everything I’ve learned at Cornell has just helped me get the most out of my

potential here.”

Jeff Malott ’20

how to be a good leader. In his time in the Red, the team helped him grow from a shy freshman to an outgoing leader as a senior.

Kaldis has always put a lot of pressure on himself, but similar to his former teammate he has been learning from more veteran players on the Condors to ease the stress. They remind him that one game does not shape his career or who he is and that there is no time to dwell on one loss.

As a player who was used to playing 25 to 30 minutes per game played at Cornell, a reduction in minutes during Kaldis’s rookie year has taken a toll on his confidence.

“Here, the margin of error is a lot smaller,” Kaldis said. “I don’t want to get out there and make a mistake and get benched.”

Malott is unsure where his professional career is headed in the future, but he is excited to continue to work as hard as he can to make the most out of the opportunities he has been given.

“It really is a privilege that we’re able to play this season,” he said. “I don’t really know what [the future] will look like but in terms of the present I’m just extremely grateful for the opportunity so I think I’m just looking to make the most of that.”

Kaldis began his year with a loan to the Dornbirn Bulldogs in Austria, where he played 35 games from September to January before returning to Bakersfield, California for the Condors season.

He hopes to get a shot in the NHL one day, but he could also see himself playing overseas too. No matter what, Kaldis wants hockey to be part of his life.

“I think the biggest thing I took away from being a part of the team at Cornell is just that we’re a team and a family where year after year season after season guys are just putting the team first and making sacrifices and really putting the team ahead of themselves and it really makes you appreciate everything that goes into a successful year.” said Malott.