03-27-12

Slope Day : Grad Students May Need Tix

By ELIZABETH KUSSMAN Sun Staff Wr ter

Graduate students are increasingly likely to have to pay $25 to attend Slope Day after a proposed compromise to a funding dispute was shot down Monday by the Graduate Student and Professional Assembly

Currently, graduate students can attend Slope Day at no additional cost to the amount charged to their student activity fee, which is a part of their overall tuition But because members of the Slope Day Programming Board say graduate stu-

dents do not pay their fair share in comparison to undergraduates, they may soon be forced to buy their tickets at the same rates as alumni

In November, the GPSA decided to allocate $3 50 of the student activity fee per graduate student to Slope Day, despite Slope Day’s appeal to receive $7 50 per student Members of the Slope Day organization said that this level of funding could lead them to reject GPSA funding altogether, a decision that would allow them to charge normal rates

Recent Cornell Graduate Killed in Train Accident

By DENNIS LIU Sun Staff Wr ter

Matthew P Omans ’10 died on March 9 at the age of 24 after he was struck by a Long Island Rail Road train in Bayport, New York

Omans was not authorized to be on the tracks when he was hit by an east-

b o u n d t r a i n a t t h e Bayport Avenue crossing around 9:15 a m ,

L I R R s p o k e s p e r s o n Sam Zambuto told the Sayville-Bayport Patch

Omans was a recent graduate of the Dyson

S c h o o l o f Ap p l i e d

Ec o n o m i c s a n d Ma n a g e m e n t , where he concentrated in entrepren e u r s h i p Du r i n g h i s t i m e a t Cornell, he was a representative for Apple in the Cornell Store and a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity Nelson Conde ’10, who was in Omans fraternity pledge class and who was his roommate for two years, described Omans as an outgoing and devoted student

“He was one of the friendliest guys I knew,” Conde said “He had

a crazy sense of humor That’s what made him one of my best friends Brad Lapoff ’10, who lived with Omans in High Rise 5 his freshman year, and who also knew him through Lambda Chi Alpha, said Om a n s w a s a l w a y s e n e r g i ze d , always upbeat ” “ He w a s n ’ t j u s t a friendly kid He was the single most happy and outgoing person I think I ever met, ” Lapoff said “He never said a bad

Everyone who met him liked him ” Om a n

s e r ve d a s house manager, steward

Alpha, according to an obituary from the Raynor & D’Andrea Fu n

Ho

included snowboarding and playing video games

A

moved to Providence, R I , where he worked as an account manager for AT&T Business Services

Skorton Vows to Enforce Univ. ’ s Labor Standards

President David Skorton could cut Cornell’s ties with the Fair Labor Association if it does not agree to change its code of conduct to more closely align with the Unversity s labor standards, according to a letter he sent to the organization Wednesday

Cornell is partnered with the FLA to ensure that the products sold in the Cornell Store are manufactured in factories in which the workers are treated fairly, according to Mike Powers, senior director for University Communications, which oversees Cornell s licensing program But concerns about its conduct have arisen

The letter cites three issues with the FLA’s code of conduct These disparities are “truly serious” and “potentially warrant leaving” the organization if changes are not made, Powers said

The administration requested that the FLA change its code of conduct to require companies to offer severance funding for workers employed at factories that suddenly shut down It also requested that the voting structure of the FLA executive board be amended to avoid a system of voting that allows representatives affiliated with large companies to band together to vote down an action they do not agree with The letter also requests that FLA monitors sent to conduct factory inspections meet with workers at offsite locations

Skorton demands a response from the FLA by April 30, Powers said “What that reply will be is anybody’s guess What we do next depends on their reply to us, ” Powers said

If the administration decides to disaffiliate from the FLA the University will no longer lend its name to the FLA and will stop paying dues, according to Casey Sweeney 13, Cornell s regional organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops

“We think if the University were to not disaffiliate on April 30 [if the FLA does not agree to change] we would be surprised and that would not

PUPIL POETRY

c

For Spring Break, Students Skip Vacation for Charity

By CAROLINE SIMON Sun Staff Wr ter

Though the words “spring break” usually evoke images of students tanning by the beach or partying at a tropical resort, this year Cornell students filled their nine days of freedom with an array of experiences, including volunteering and traveling

Several students took advantage of their days off to help others, rebuild decrepit buildings and learn more about other places in the United States

Greg Morgan ’14 spent a week in New Orleans doing missionary work involving church construction and interaction with the community in one of the areas of the city that is still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina

He said that this spring break provided him with an opportunity that he would not have had otherwise

“It was definitely different than my past spring breaks,” he said “Instead of just relaxing and going to the pool or the beach, I was in the inner city of New Orleans building a new church and rec center ”

Morgan called his trip a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” He said he recommends that other college students take a similar service trip

“There are four years of college spring breaks, and I’ll get the chance to do the whole typical spring break,” he said “I just thought this was really fulfilling and it was great actually being there, helping people, and doing some good work ”

Other students, such as Kendra Murray ’12, traveled outside the U S during spring break

Murray, who is the president of Cornell’s Dairy Science Club, went to Germany with 50 of her fellow club members The club sponsors a trip for juniors and seniors every other year for an $1,000 fee per person, according to Murray

Murray said that traveling with a larger group enriched her experience abroad

“Instead of just going with 10 of my closer friends, I went with 50 people,” she said “Some had never been on a plane before, and we went abroad and so inexpensively ”

Murray said that during her trip the group visited parts of both western and eastern Germany In addition to visiting farms, they toured businesses, such as the Volkswagen plant and breweries

“It was great to show them how agriculture works in a different country and under a different government system, ” she said “It’s rewarding as the president of the organization to watch some kids go over and take a lot out of it ”

Others used this spring break as an opportunity to further their careers Alexandra Scott ’14, an animal science major, said she went to Florida last week to participate in an externship where she shadowed equine veterinarians

“[It] was a great way to get hours and gain experience,” she said “A lot of vet schools like to see that you ve had different types of animal experience, and equine can be hard to get ”

Scott, who also traveled to Miami after working with the veterinarians for four 11hour days, said she struck a good balance between working and relaxing during her break

“I can go out at school so I don t need to be partying on spring break, she said “The fact that I was able to go to Florida and enjoy the sun and the nice weather while doing something that I could add to my resume was the best of both worlds ”

Still, many students, including Jonathan Falcon ’14, took the opportunity to relax in tropical destinations

Falcon, along with a group of about 40 other Cornellians, spent five days in the Dominican Republic He said he would spend his next spring break in a similar manner “in a minute ”

It was just very relaxing,” he said It was good to get my head out of the Cornell work week ”

Falcon said the trip appealed to him because of the opportunity it provided him to travel with friends

“A bunch of my friends were going, so I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon,” he said And I wasn t going to argue about a week on the beach

Yale Recruits Fewer Athletes

By THE YALE DAILY NEWS

Chris Getman, the current owner of Handsome Dan, took the stage at the Ya l

November to receive the George H W Bush 48 Lifetime Leadership Award Decorations for the celebration lit the Lanman Center blue, and a giant Yale banner

h

President Richard Levin and

At h l e t i c Di

Yale won 7 72 percent of Ivy championships

Student Organization Teaches Cornellians About Chocolate

By NICOLE CHANG Sun Contributor

Founded in 2010 with five members, the Chocolate and Confections Technology Club was formed to apply technical and scientific knowledge to chocolate production and processing Now boasting 20 active members, the club hopes to further foster its members love for chocolate through tasting opportunities, hands-on chocolate making workshops, guest speakers’ lectures and field trips to events such as the annual New York Chocolate Show

During the club’s chocolate tasting events, members discuss what makes each chocolate taste a certain way, the different flavors of chocolate and the antioxidants found in chocolate

On Valentine’s Day, the club held an annual chocolate fest at the Big Red Barn to present 12 different chocolate brands It presented the origins, production process and unique characteristics of each chocolate

Abby Harrison ’14, the club’s vice president, explained the significance of making distinctions between chocolate production processes in order to understand the different tastes of each chocolate

“For example, the Lindt chocolates have a smoother texture while the Hersheys’ have a somewhat pasty texture, because Lindt ‘ s cocoa beans get grinded for a longer time in a chocolate conch to create smaller particles,” Harrison said

After holding previous events in which club members learned the scientific background and detailed production skills behind chocolate-making, the club plans to hold its own chocolate-making event in April

Harrison said that her passion for chocolate-making led her to join the club

To m Beckett, sat on the stage with other coaches and alumni, while the Yale Precision Marching Band played a rendition of “Bulldog ”

But the tone of Getman’s speech was less than celebrator y From 1975-’92, Yale won 11 94 per-

-

President Richard Levin s appointment,

“I’m disappointed that Yale’s announced admissions policy will more than likely relegate our teams in the future to an unlevel playing field in the Ivy League,” he said “It’s disheartening to me that while we have what is arguably the finest athletic venue in the countr y the University has openly decided to take far fewer of the recruited athletes than allowed ” Si n c e L e v i n b e c a m e University president in 1993, recruiting totals have dropped from 18 percent of the incoming Yale College class of 1998 to 13 percent for the class of 2015 Beckett said the class of 2015 had 177 recruited athletes, though the Ivy League allows Yale to recruit 230

This story was originally published in The Yale

“Personally, I adore chocolate and it is basically an artistic medium for which some one can express their soul and speak though their heart, she said

She said that making chocolate brought her back to her youth

“I recently watched a movie called

Chocolat, ” she said “It was very inspiring in that it showed how you can put your personality into what you are making If you are making your own chocolate, you can add a part of yourself into it ”

The club’s president, Evonne Lau ’12, also noted the widespread appeal of chocolate and its ability to lift one ’ s mood

“Chocolates have become so universal you are running low on gift ideas, you can give them chocolate and they will be happy,” Lau said It is a perfect way of making people know that you care about them ”

Recently members of the club attended the New York Chocolate Show, an event featuring chocolate cooking demonstrations and chocolate vendors The club collaborated with the Food Science Club to accommodate its members on the trip

Meghan Collins ’15, a member of the Food Science Club who attended the New York Chocolate Show with the Chocolate Club, said she learned a lot about chocolatemaking at the show

“It was really interesting to talk to the different vendors and learn about the technology behind producing chocolate products, ” Collins said “I love how passionate everyone at the show was about chocolate

The free samples didn’t hurt either ” In addition to informing members about chocolate production the club provides valuable oppor tunities for people interested in the food industry With the guest speakers from Hershey’s and Mars, students can par ticipate in on-campus recruiting With the help of graduate students in the club who have worked with people in the chocolate industry, many undergraduate students find ways to further their career aspirations

Lau and Harrison said that they will continue to expand the club

“We want to provide a solid foundation of people’s knowledge of chocolate,” Harrison said

Chang can be reached at hc729@cornell edu

Wegmans Will Stop Using Additive in Ground Beef

On Friday, Wegmans announced it will no longer sell ground beef containing an additive of lean finely textured beef, The Ithaca Journal repor ted

Gas Projects Will Cause Traffic Problems

Two Ithaca constr uction projects on gas mains are expected to affect traffic and parking in the city beginning this week, according to The Ithaca Journal Compiled by Kaitlyn Kwan

C.U. Demands FL A Changes

SKORTON

Continued from page 1

be something that we would have expected given the meetings we have had [with the administration],” she said

According to Powers, the many, many issues” found with the FLA have been “distilled down to three different things ” Powers said that Skorton’s first demand of the FLA that it would require, in its code of conduct, an addition that would require companies to distribute severance funding to workers if a factory closes –– deals with “the most basic of workers rights

“Factories all over the world close ever y year [almost] overnight,” he said “And people show up the next day, padlocked; the owners are gone, all the money ’ s gone, all that’s left is the equipment ”

For Powers, the lack of a severance package is a “moral issue” that would alone justify the University to disaffiliate from the FLA

“I don’t know how you can tell the world that you support worker rights if you don’t do something about making sure workers can get severance; to me, that’s a no brainer, ” Powers said

The second request proposed by the administration asks for a change in the voting structure of the FLA board, which is comprised of six representatives from companies, six university representatives, six NGO representatives and a chair

“For things that are of substance, they use a system that requires a supermajority vote, which means that each of the three representative groups must vote in a majority,” Powers said This makes it possible for any of the three groups to block any action that they feel does not line up with their individual interests ”

The letter also calls for a change in location for interviews conducted by the monitors, which currently often take place in the factory or in factory-owned housing ––a fact that Powers said “quite often results in retaliation from management ”

“[The workers] don’t have anonymity, so management will retaliate and co-workers will sometimes turn against them,” Powers said “So we ’ re asking that all visits with workers and questions for workers be done at off-site locales ”

Some students and faculty members said they were concerned that companies like Nike and Russell Athletics pay the FLA to cover up any abuses they are accused of committing because some employees from these companies also sit on FLA s executive board

“The FLA is basically the company that corporations call when they’re in trouble,” Sweeney said “Because the FLA receives so much money from corporations, those big companies are their main priority over universities ” Sweeney and Karen Li ’15, president of Cornell Students Against Sweatshops, said they have

been expecting this sort of letter to be sent

“It’s been almost two months since the commitment was made to the letter actually being sent, so that’s a little disappointing,” Li said

Sweeney and Li both said they have met with Powers a few times since January The week before classes started for the spring semester, they met with Powers, Skorton, Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy ’73 and Vice President for University Communications Tommy Bruce

“That’s where we got the commitment from Skorton that he would send this letter,” the two said in an email

At their most recent meeting, Powers promised the letter would be sent before spring break

Sweeney said she is excited that the administration has taken this step Still she said she believes that the University should go further and disaffiliate with the FLA

Because of the way [the FLA] is funded and structured, we ’ re still continuing to push for disaffiliation ” she said

Although he noted the FLA is a vital organization that does some good work,” Powers also said that “because of the brand involvement, the suspicion [among students] has always been that the FLA is in the brands hit pocket

“There’s been discontent here since the day [the FLA] was founded,” he said

However, the University has only been actively questioning the organization for about a year, according to Powers He added that the communication between President Skorton and van Heerden has been “cordial ”

On March 13 the University Assembly passed a resolution [recommending] the University cancel its affiliation with and financial support of the FLA until the FLA, once notified of the University’s concerns and expectations, corrects the policies and practices described above,” which included the three main issues Powers outlined The University currently pays between $1,000 and $1,500 to the FLA from Cornell Store profits

Melissa Lukasiewicz ’14, University Assembly chair and one of the resolution’s sponsors, said that if there are no visible efforts being made by the FLA to fix the enumerated problems, the University should disaffiliate and only continue to associate with the Worker Rights Consortium, a workers’ rights group that she said operates independently of corporations

“We would like for the FLA to change their policies and practices to fix the problems that we see and the concerns that we have in the way that they operate, ” she said “If they don’t make corrections in a timely manner we are looking for the university to cancel its affiliation and financial support ”

Sylvia Rusnak can be reached at srusnak@cornellsun com

Graduate Students Defend Funding Level for Slope Day

GRAD

Continued from page 1

Slope Day proposed a deal in which it would accept GPSA funding if it could charge graduate students a reduced fee of about $7 a ticket On Monday, however, the GPSA rejected this compromise

Evan Cor tens grad, president of the GPSA, maintained that the $3 50 fee per student that the GPSA decided to allocate toward Slope Day in November represented a “good faith effor t on the par t of the GPSA to fund Slope Day as much as we can ”

“ The GPSA does not expect a free ride ” Cor tens said “ We do not expect undergraduates to subsidize our attendance at Slope Day What we expect is that Slope Day be constr ucted as an event that is affordable and welcoming to all students ”

However, Slope Day Chair Noelle Cornelio ’12 said the organization was motivated by the idea that undergraduates and graduates should pay the same amount, which she said they do not currently “ We do have money to sustain ourselves without graduate student money, ” Cornelio said “After today’s decision, it will be more than likely that we’ll not be taking their byline money and that we will be charging them for the ticket ”

Yet Cor tens stressed that the GPSA did not cut funding for Slope Day, noting that it received the single largest increase in funding of all byline groups funded by the GPSA

“ That’s been the case for ever y year we ’ ve funded them, back almost 10 years, ” Cor tens said Yet time and again, they have responded by demanding even more money: This year, they demanded yet another doubling ”

Cor tens also said that the amount of money that Slope Day

“If GPSA students are not attending Slope Day, that may diminish the value [of the event].”

Ev an Cort en s grad

already receives from both undergraduate and graduate student activities fees is dispropor tionate to the economic climate

“ The amount of money Slope Day has received from the activity fee has risen from roughly $163,200 for Slope Day ’05 to the $273,757 currently on the table for Slope Day ’13,” Cor tens said “ T h a t ’ s a 6 8 - p e r c e

University’s entire operating expenditures have risen by only 39 percent This is a dramatic increase, and the GPSA has been the lone voice calling for moderation ”

Cor tens said he believes that by rejecting the funding and charging per ticket, Slope Day will ultimately lose funding and attendance from the graduate community, leading the event to ske w even more toward undergraduates

“ The consequences of [SDPB] turning down GPSA funding now do not just affect next year ’ s Slope Day, but also the Slope Day two years from now and chances of Slope Day getting funding in the future,” Cor tens said “If GPSA students are not attending Slope Day, that may diminish the value [of the event] in their minds ”

Should the SDPB reject GPSA funding, graduate students would begin buying their own tickets for Slope Day star ting in 2013 However, graduate students said they still suppor t their funding proposals

“ The Appropriations Committee put a lot of thought into their recommendation of $3 50 per student,” GPSAFC Chairperson Mia Tootill grad told The Sun in November “Slope Day can still take place with that level of funding, whereas the proposed raise would have taken money away from the GPSAFC and likely prevented one or more graduate student organization events from happening ”

Elizabeth Kussman can be reached at ekussman@cornellsun com

Ewine van Dishoeck Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at the University of Leiden, Netherlands

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

4:30

The Public is Invited

S EN D US YO U R F EE DB A CK

Continue the conversation by sending a lette to the editor or guest column to op in ion @co rne llsun co m

should be in response to any recent Sun news article, column, arts piece or editorial They should be no longer than 250 words in length

Guest columns should be your well-reasoned opinion on any cur rent campus issue or controversy They

Keep Out of Reach of Children

When I first learned how to read, labels emblazoned with KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN held my attention with a curious fascination By all the logic of my fiveyear-old brain, I was still a child But these bottles were clearly within reach of my gr ubby little hands, as long as I could climb onto the counter to reach them Was I missing out on some sor t of tantalizing secret contained in the bottles of bleach, shampoo and window cleaner? Were the labels some sor t of secret code I wasn t expected to be able to decipher? Or did the fact that I could read the labels mean that I was exempt from some sor t of special restriction?

Over the years, my reading of these labels has grown marginally more sophist i c a t e d L i s

through my head with their corresponding chemical formulas Phrases like “clever marketing” accompany me as I br ush my teeth and admire the slick label design

Bu t K E E P O U T O F R E AC H O F CHILDREN, usually parked at the bottom, still eludes me

I’ve never really figured out why it was so impor tant to keep those bottles out of my reach I just got older and turned into not-a-child What do I know now that I didn’t know then, and at what point did it actually become okay for these things to be within my reach? I think I missed the transition, some where between learning how to tie my shoes and realizing I could read and understand someone else’s Ph D thesis

I turn 21 next week, and the last “Keep Out of Reach of Children will no longer apply In the eyes of the United States government, I will need no more protecting I will be fully entitled to the consequences of my own stupid decisions

R i g h t T h i s , t o t h e g i r l w h o s t i l l bunny-ears her shoelaces

G e n e r a t i o n A f t e r - L e h m a n , a s w e ’ v e been called, is more responsible, more hardworking and less saddled with a feeling of entitlement than our Generation Z successors (though we do share the same

tastes in music High five, Generation Z) Supposedly it’s due to something called an economic recession that’s made us act a little more hardscrabble about our careers

B u

Lehman, we, like ever y generation before us, are asked to live with a par ticular kind of duality On the one hand, we are regularly told that we are set to change the world On the other, it is difficult for us to rent a car without being charged an arm and a leg

A member of this generation fairly recently became one of the youngest billionaires in the world with an idea he h

Wikipedia is to be believed a fe w months shy of his 21st bir thday Some other guy approximately my age has taken the world of professional basketball by

storm and made it okay to put really awful puns in ne ws headlines A dedicated staff of entirely people my own age has written and published a quality daily ne wspaper for over 130 years, and in their spare time earned their college degrees

Three years ago, it was illegal for me to buy a lotter y ticket

Never before have these age landmarks the ones I ve spent most of my life waiting to tr undle past seemed more arbitrar y I’ve spent years waiting for the memo that tells me I am now qualified to make Responsible Adult Decisions, but nothing’s showing up I’m just getting rather good at pretending to be an adult which, if the data so far is to be believed, largely consists of doing things like not drinking window cleaner I

though, if all these products do something like open a hole in the time vor tex if not handled properly, now would be a good time to let me know I’m an adult now, see That means I have to know

The O ther Debt Crisis

There’s a debt debacle in this countr y, and it’s not the o

Protection Bureau announced that student loan debt passed the one trillion dollar mark With a tepid economic recover y and ever-rising tuition prices, default rates on the loans are increasing too Lest anyone think this is an isolated problem, increased student debt is hampering the recover y of the housing market, as recent-graduates saddled with debt make up a significant portion of would-be first-time homebuyers

And it could soon get worse In July, a law that keeps interest rates on Stafford Student Loans at 3 4 percent is set to expire, which would send rates up to 6 8 percent unless Congress takes action to extend the law As it stands, 40 percent of Americans under the age of 30 already have outstanding student loan debt According to a report released last Monday by the New York Federal Reser ve, the average debt is now $23 300 And that’s to say nothing of the parents who have taken out loans to pay for their children’s education and now find their own economic futures imperiled by their son or daughter’s desire to learn Classic Greek

With these sobering statistics in mind, it s hardly surprising that amid the cacophony of commentar y that has erupted in the wake of the CFPB’s announcement, some are asking whether student loan debt is the next “bubble to threaten America In fact, just last month, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys warned of a “student loan debt bomb ”

The contours of the bubble or bomb go something like this: Higher education, like home-ownership, has become part of the “American dream” and is encouraged both directly and indirectly by the federal government As higher education tuition soars, students take out loans to finance a purchase that they can ’ t justifiably afford When the economy sours and they can ’ t find jobs, defaults

Walking barefoot is a lot like cuddling naked with someone you love The intimacy of cuddling is closely connected to the vulnerability, both physical and emotional, to which the participants open themselves At any moment, with just a swift jerk of the knee, your partner could send you doubling over in pain And yet, despite all sur vival instincts to the contrar y, you open yourself You drop your defenses You drift off to sleep, and the vulnerability is absolute

Such an intimate vulnerability, ever y time it happens is a revolutionar y state of consciousness It unclenches the mind, just as the physical act of cuddling unclenches

the body What once was closed and afraid becomes radically open and trusting in an intimacy to which only a madman would give consent

This insanity, this irrational willingness to open unconditionally to the world this radical trust, is among the most remarkable powers we possess as humans We can overcome our self-protective instincts in the name of intimate connection, whether a connection to the person lying naked in bed

ensue, and the government (read: taxpayer) which has issued or backs almost 80 percent of student loans is left to foot the bill

To many, the underlying cause of the student loan saga is clear and familiar: skyrocketing college tuition and fees, which are now 559 percent of what they were in 1985 While many have been quick to point out the problem, viable solutions seem few and far between Earlier this year, of course Cornell announced a 4 3 percent increase in tuition, room and board and other mandator y fees for the Fall 2012 school year And that s after increases of 4 8 percent and 4 5 percent in 2011 and 2010 respectively

So with all the mounting debt and a looming “debt bomb is it finally time to expect tuition to fall at schools like Cornell?

Probably not

For one, generous financial aid packages at schools like Cornell limit the amount of debt that many students have to take out to finance their e d u c a t i o n s A n d b e c a u s e employment coming out of such schools remains relatively strong, students by and large aren ’ t finding themselves saddled with unthinkable amounts of debt and limited ways to repay it Unless that reality changes there won ’ t be significant downward pressure on tuition

imagine that students will continue to burden themselves with tremendous amounts of debt to finance such an education when the jobs just aren ’ t there

The other victim of the student loan crisis may be the liberal arts degree As the public becomes increasingly aware of the skyrocketing costs of a college degree and the debt many incur to afford it there may be a shift away from classic liberal arts majors to more practical ones That is unless the degree in Classics is going to help students get a job after school, expect those attuned to the challenges of financing an education to hesitate before signing up for Latin

And so, as student debt hits one trillion dollars and

With that said, the student loan debt bomb will likely have ver y real ramifications for other universities This past Sunday, the New York Times Magazine featured a stor y on the graduates of Drew University, which is ranked 94th out of 178 liberal arts colleges by U S News and World Reports Among the stor y ’ s highlights: 17 percent of the sample of Drew University s Class of 2011 is unemployed, and only 39 percent hold full-time jobs It’s hard to

counting, the Ivor y Tower becomes increasingly fragmented between the haves and the have-nots Or perhaps more accurately between those universities that can provide generous financial aid and jobs post-graduation, and those that find it increasingly difficult to do so

I guess we should remember to be thankful we are in the former group as tuition goes up, up and away

Nathaniel Rosen is a junior in the College of Ar ts and Sciences He may be reached at nrosen@cor nellsun com Bringing it Home appears alter nate Tuesdays this semester

The Barefoot P ractice

next to us, or a connection to the stranger we invite home for tea, or a connection to the earth beneath our feet

Which brings us back to bare feet I’ve been barefoot for a few weeks now, ever since Ithaca’s weird half-winter turned into an eerily early spring I’ve yet to encounter a librarian or professor who cares much what I wear or don’t wear on my feet What little criticism I do receive comes mostly from my p e e

California you dirty hippie ” to “You might step on glass/stub your toe/get ringworm!”

And it s true: When I leave the house barefoot, I take upon the soles of my feet the risks of broken glass, stubbed toes, ring-

Tom Moore

What Even Is All This?

worms and all such hazards of the earth

Maybe I’ll end up with a rusty nail through my toe, and that s okay Vulnerability is part of what makes going barefoot such a deeply transformative practice I like to think of it as cuddling naked with the earth I cannot recommend it highly enough Modern American consumer culture so thoroughly alienates us from the land from which we draw sustenance that the simple act of walking barefoot has become revolu-

tionar y In a society where alienation, from the earth and from each other, is the norm, the greatest revolution possible is the rejection of fear and the voluntar y assumption of vulnerability We have been raised to distrust each other, and to distrust the land we walk on Let us revolt

This is the banner under which the practice of direct democracy like the practice of walking barefoot, is a revolutionar y act When a group of strangers comes together in a public space to openly and democratically deliberate and take action, a revolutionar y claim is being made: We don t need institutions to speak for us or to protect us from each other With nothing but some hand signals, a few basic facilitation guidelines and radical trust we can create a safe, open space in which ever y voice is heard This practice of direct horizontal democracy is, in my opinion, the core of the Occupy Wall Street movement; it is a profoundly intimate practice It is the political equivalent of bare feet, or, when it goes really well, naked cuddling

T h e c o n n e c t i o n I ’ m d r a w i n g h e re between direct democracy and bare feet will probably seem like a stretch to some readers, especially to those readers who have little personal experience with either Many of you probably regard the Occupy movement m u c h a s yo u re g a rd b a re f e e t i n l a t e October: a foolish and meaningless gesture that won ’ t sur vive the winter and certainly doesn’t deser ve to bear the name of revolution

I can only tell critics of the Occupy movement the same thing I tell critics of

bare feet (and the same thing I would tell critics of naked cuddling, if I could find them): Don’t knock it till you tr y it Until you ’ ve spent a few days walking around campus barefoot, you just don’t get it You can ' t really understand how it transforms you, in your relationship with your feet, in your relationship with authority and in your relationship with the earth By the same token, unless you ’ ve really immersed yourself in the practice of direct democracy, you can ’ t really understand the transformative power of radical trust

As children of the War on Terror, my generation was brought up to fear and never to trust After all, that strange, quiet man who lives in the next apartment might be a terrorist And there might be a hypodermic needle lurking in the grass on the Arts Quad And the girl you ’ re cuddling with might be a vampire

So how much are you willing to let fear govern your life? The choice between fear and trust is ultimately yours to make, which is why the “ War on Terror” will never be won by dropping more bombs It will be won by learning to trust each other enough to practice direct democracy in public spaces, no matter how the police feel about such trust It will be won by reconnecting to the earth through the soles of our bare feet And it will be won by cuddling

Tom Moore is a sophomore in the College of Ar ts a n d S c i e n c e s

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mass Effect 3 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Alien Apocalypse

The Mass Effect series is, so far, the only body of video game fiction worthy to join the heavies in film, television and literature like Star Wars Lost and Harry Potter The rich universe of characters, locations, conflicts, phenomena and funny names created by Canadian developer BioWare not only stirs a rabid fanbase but also mines a vein of franchise dollars on a scale unseen before in role-playing games All tales must end, and Mass Effect 3 concludes the trilogy just like those aforementioned series: with nostalgic nods to its revered canon, inspiring additions and a handful of questionable decisions

Despite what EA Games’ marketing team may be preaching, Mass Effect 3 is made for the fans Who starts with Return of the Jedi, after all?

As hero Commander Shepard, you run into basically every key and bit character of the trilogy (well over 50) as you prepare to battle the gargantuan threat of the Reapers, an ancient alien race that wipes the universe of all sentient life every 50,000 years Since you can import your save file from the second game which, in turn, could have been imported from the first the choices you made way back in 2007 decide who is alive to fight by your side

The word “choice” rules most discussions of Mass Effect Once again, choices you make shape your character into a good “ paragon ” or bad “renegade” character, though saving the galaxy is the common goal at both ends The variable is more how you get there: Unite the quarreling races or save only those already on your side? (Hint: the latter approach is most unwise )

Guiding your Shepard’s morality takes place in the abundant cinematic dialogue for which the series is famous Not much has changed in aesthetic since the first game but I am once again astonished how over 40,000 lines of dialogue are recorded and attached to convincing, animated characters in proper lip-sync The voice cast includes such actors as Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Keith David and Yvonne Strahovski It speaks to the respect

BioWare has accrued that these respected talents bring their all to this medium

BioWare fills the Milky Way with species ranging from beautiful humanoids to sentient Portuguese Man o ’

Quarians, carry an unmistakable Middle Eastern accent Earthly ties can be drawn between all events, if on a macro scale It is a post-human society where contemporary quibbles over evolution “the cosmic imperative,” a wise, Africaninspired race calls it and homosexuality pilot Steve Cortez recalls his dead husband with no camp or novel subtext are relics of the past

But your time with Mass Effect 3 will not rest solely on futurist political theory and interspecies sociology At its core the game is a cover-based shooter à la Gears of War Action still does not flow as smoothly as said game, and both schools and monasteries possess invincible architecture primed for war However, there is a broader cornucopia of choice on how each battle is played Dozens of pistols, shotguns, snipers and machine guns flesh out the arsenal, and new modifications can be purchased to strengthen your stopping power Biotic and tech powers, including a repackaged Force push, are now easier to complement conventional weapons, leading to varied battlefield encounters encouraging experimentation

There are only 15 or so hours of required missions but to see all the content and achieve the “best” ending 30 to 40 hours will rake

Wars There are the brilliant, if neurotic, amphibious Salarians and the brutish reptilian Krogans Ignore that all these disparate organisms evolved with roughly equal intelligence and have spoken modern English for millennia (shh, ignore it) Shepard has to find a way to band together the warring factions and recruit the isolated ones to unite against the greater threat In my playthrough, Shepard solved not one but two Israel/Palestine analogous conflicts; one race involved, the

One central mission culminates with directing airstrikes on and dodging the death rays of a giant Reaper, the design of which resembles Halo s Covenant ships and H G Wells alien forces Another smaller assignment has you defusing a bomb that could decimate a planet, ending with a scene of thrilling cinematography and moving sacrifice There was only one mission I actively disliked, involving a digital Shepard recovering important files; basically, a virtual reality CCleaner Regardless, most missions reintroduce familiar faces from past titles and carry enough thrills to induce involuntary gamer vegetation or bliss as we prefer it to be called Between missions you roam the Normandy SR-2, your sleek vessel capable of faster-than-light speeds, and talk to your squadmates about the mission ahead The different perspectives of your varied crew lead to enlightening discussions on the toils of war

a smoldering Earth For a triple-A blockbuster title of the sort, there is legitimate contemplation on the price of war, even if the theme’s execution leans more Independence Day than The Battle of Algiers

Love is still on the plate, of course, and virtual romance is still as incendiary as it has never been I favor overhearing crewmembers hit on each other and the awkward results that follow, or the exchange of dirty jokes between a meathead soldier and a 50 000-year-old warrior (“Now the joke’s on you human, hehe”)

To guarantee the “best” ending, assisting different races to find traitors or artifacts boosts their morale and, alas, readiness Your in-game journal does not register progress on these tasks, so these preparations for war just become what they really are: cumbersome chores Thankfully the Citadel, an ancient space metropolis, is a triumph of artistic direction, so running across a beautiful plaza to deliver the third missing war bible right after taking down a mile-high Reaper is not that much of a buzzkill

Playing multiplayer is also necessary to gain access to the “best” (again, the quotes) ending by some inexplicable logic of ratios and “effective military strength” EA threw in Thankfully, the online co-op is surprisingly fun, structured like Horde mode from Gears, with waves of enemies to defeat and simple objectives to complete I cannot picture myself playing it weeks down the line, but it is a worthwhile diversion from the main campaign And then it ends The ending already lives in infamy, with thousands signing protests against it I find this widespread devotion to story inspiring, signaling how great writing is now expected of great games

The final moments do not take into account the whole arc of your journey and enter some serious Lost territory that will frustrate some, or many I do not personally loathe it so, for it still successfully wrings emotion, a tough feat in video games, and there is a convincing justification making the Internet rounds (look up: Indoctrination Theory) The real issue is that, after bonding together the entire galaxy to fight the Reapers, there is little proof of collaboration in the final battle I would have appreciated some help from the bloodthirsty Krogans I befriended after dying for the ninth time battling endless screeching Reapers

However, if playing the good guy as I did, it usually boils down to Shepard reassuring those worried that cooperation is the key to victory and, when Shepard laments all those dead, a pal like series steady Garrus reminding that sacrifice is the other key War is bad, that is for sure The game even opens with you watching a little boy crash as his ship fails to escape

The first Mass Effect received a fair share of ridicule for its loading screens disguised as the slowest elevators in the universe, inching up as you and your squad just awkwardly stood there There is a not so subtle nod to that ignominy in Mass Effect 3 as you blast off on top of a high-speed elevator to apprehend an assassin BioWare has brought this series to remarkable heights over five years, aware of its weaknesses and ever eager to improve While the third may hold its own flaws, it closes the greatest modern video game franchise with style and heart I finished the game and was struck by that unique depression that also accompanied the finales of Lost and Harry Potter Now what? I guess I’ll play them all again

BY GEORGE KARALIS Sun Staff Writer

Last time I ended my discussion of the game BIT TRIP RUNNER and flow in video games with the caveat that not all games seek to induce a flow experience This week, I’ll talk about a ver y different kind of game so different, in fact, that many question its status as a game at all

Dear Esther is an experimental game released a couple of weeks ago for PC It was nominated for four awards at this year ’ s Independent Games Festival and recently won the award for excellence in visual ar t

In the game you explore a deser ted Scottish island, listening to fragmented voice-overs from an

reading letters to an

Esther It is apparent that Esther is dead, likely the result of a car accident, and the

problems with alco-

Dear Esther, What Is a Game?

things in the 3D environment, but that s about it You cannot pick things up You cannot open doors You definitely cannot blow stuff up

Even the seemingly open island is carefully constr ucted to take you for the most par t along a predetermined path so that key points of the stor y are revealed at specific times Some critics online call Dear Esther a “vir tual promenade” rather than a game

Though there is no unanimously agreed-upon definition for a game, it’s generally understood that a game must have several components:

1 Goals These are generally win/lose conditions or a high score

Paul, Donnelly, Jakobson The stor y is told in a semi-random fashion providing ne w information in different contexts each time the game is played You explore the beautiful 3D island from a first-person perspective The sound effects are fantastic

So, why do some argue that Dear Esther isn’t really a game and doesn’t deser ve to sit alongside “real” games like Mass Effect 3? The thing is, you can t really do much in Dear Esther That is, you can walk around and look at

2 Rules In digital games, r ules are mainly imposed by the computer For example, when blocks touch the top of the screen in Tetris the game is over, or in Super Mario Bros when you press the A button, the fanciful plumber jumps

3 Feedback – Ideally, games inform players of their progress througho u t g a m e p l a y s o t h a t they can plan and adapt, but at its most basic, feedback lets the player know if he or she has won or lost

Then there is a sle w of other qualifiers that cer tain individuals asser t make games what they are Must a game require the player to make decisions? Should an activity left entirely to chance? Could a slot machine, for example, be considered a game? There is also the issue of uncer tainty Can we call something a game if the outcome is known beforehand? Does it have to be competitive?

Challenging? Fun?

Even if we stick to the three original criteria, each is flexible enough to fit with Dear Esther The goal, while perhaps not explicitly stated, is to reach to mysterious blinking beacon at the island’s summit The r ules are rather strict: you can only move and look around And there is most cer tainly feedback a ne w narration shows you have made it fur ther, or at a more basic level, when you press the W key you see yourself move for ward But, tr uth be told, it doesn’t matter if Dear Esther is a game or not

What makes Dear Esther such a uniquely moving experience is precisely the lack of agency You see a shipwreck from the exterior but cannot climb inside and explore it Paint cans litter the island, but you cannot contribute to the esoteric drawings that appear ever ywhere The odd paper boats float right by You can look, but you can ’ t touch You seek to reconcile the past but what can be done?

The game ’ s constr uction, the subtle exposure of algorithmic assembly it points to the suspicion that the island is nothing more than a figment in the mind of a per turbed soul And so what are you the player?

Dear Esther has been characterized as a ghost stor y But who are the ghosts? Esther, Paul, Donnelly, Jakobson, the narrator or the distant figures that might be your imagination?

I’ve used a lot of question marks today Because Dear Esther brings up a lot questions Don t play it if you ll be unner ved by ambiguous verse and open-endedness Go play Mass Effect 3 it’s fun Dear Esther is something else

Dear Esther is available to download for Windows on the Steam game ser vice for $9 99

George Karalis is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at gsk52@cornell edu

The Sweet Yet Hazardous Life of YOLO

Last Halloween, a prominent LA radio station dropped a bonus track from Drake’s 2011 platinum album Take Care And with this world premiere of “The Motto,” the masses fell under the seductive spell of YOLO YOLO which, for those of you over 35, stands for “ you only live once ” is hotter than Hansel right now, asserting itself at the ends of millions of sentences and tweets over recent weeks With a sound that rolls off the tongue like Jell-O and a versatile message that can excuse away a range of risqué behaviors from snorting an illicit drug to wearing non-matching socks to class, YOLO is becoming as ubiquitous in youth culture as yoga pants It’s the “ carpe diem” for young people too busy living to learn Latin And while YOLO is experiencing a bit of negative blowback on social media sites, I generally remain supportive of any phrase or fad, like planking or Kony, that reaches widespread viral prominence in this age of copious internet content, even if the premise of the fad like Kony is a little suspect YOLO is a very powerful term, and as Uncle Ben taught us, with great power comes great responsibility Like war and peace, there is a specific time to use YOLO, and as the phrase has increased in popularity, its improper usage is threatening the very fabric of an individual s outlook on life

of Lonely Island’s first hit songs In Ka-blamo, the Samberg-led trio exclaims, “That s Kablamo” after such silly statements as “Your mouthwash is gargly” and “You joined a sorority ” And while the humor-to-obnoxious ratio is up for debate, there is no real detrimental effect to society when someone culminates a statement like peeing with the seat down” with a good ol’ fashion YOLO

The second type of YOLO is what I’ll coin the “Fuck it YOLO ” Should you go bungee jump off the bridge? Fuck it, YOLO

YOLO is that you only die once (#YODO) Yet when the stars align, the occasional “Fuck it, YOLO” can improve your wellbeing and create a memory that lasts a lifetime

While the first two versions of YOLO have either positive or neutral effects on the individual and society, there lies a third, more insidious YOLO This sinister YOLO is the “Live everyday like it’s your last,” 24/7 type of YOLOing Originally popularized via fortune cookies, motivational calendars and sappy/crappy pop songs like Kris Allen’s “Live Like We’re Dying,” this abhorred form of YOLO makes the calm man crazy and the studious man lazy by highlighting the fact that all of us will eventually be reduced to worm food one day

As I see it, there are three versions of YOLO The first is the facetious usage of the acronym, when somebody adds in a YOLO to the end of an otherwise mundane or trivial action Just ate an apple #YOLO or Illegally streaming Hot Tub Time Machine, YOLO are such examples This type of YOLO is similar to Ka-blamo the catchphrase and title of one

Go streaking past a cop car? Fuck it, YOLO Get that second serving of Wow-Cow? Eff ’in YOLO But like red meats and Libertarian philosophies, the “Fuck it, YOLO” is healthiest when taken in moderation For when used on a proper basis, the “Fuck it, YOLO” has the ability to add extra spice to some of life’s drudgeries Sleep through that class every once in a while Try rocking muttonchop sideburns for a month When out in Collegetown accept the brownie that the friendly stranger offers you, transforming your otherwise humdrum night into a magical voyage of shapes, colors and time that ends with you lying peacefully in a field outside of Trumansburg None of these idappeasing actions are good strategies on a daily basis, and must be undertaken with caution, for the equivalent counterpart to

While the “live today like it’s your last” logic seems optimistic on the surface, it s actually a rather pessimistic view on life, the universe and everything To live like you ’ re dying is to view the metaphorical glass of life as being half-empty, and thus needing to be chugged quickly before it runs out But feeling like one needs to constantly be chugging life is an exhausting task that puts quite a bit of stress on the individual It is like taking a timed test with a giant hourglass placed right in front of you You will fixate on the dwindling sands of the hourglass and rush through the questions on the paper For it is rather difficult to endure much of Life s inherit monotonous grind when you ’ re set on constantly living the YOLO lifestyle

This is why the YOLO-inspired “life is short” mantra falls short for the ordinary Joe

For while Drake and his “25 mil” are all about YOLO every day, every day, every day, you are not Drake nor are you sitting on a cool $25 million Thus to live a perpetual life of YOLO is simply unrealistic Instead, as Kevin Spacey’s character philosophizes at the end of American Beauty, one should simply let the immense beauty of the world flow through you like rain” as opposed to “fill you up like a balloon that’s about to burst ” For while life is short life is also very long, and it’s kind of cool that we get to live it at all

Brian Gordon is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at bgordon@cornellsun com Get Off My Lawn runs alternate Tuesdays this semester

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Don’t let the wind blow your paper away

Red Looks to Make a Dent in Standings

W LAX Continued from page 16

would bring the game to within four at the beginning of the second half, they never posed a legitimate threat

“I think if we put a full game together, we can be competitive with anyone ” Veronic a Lizzio

to Cornell, as the Red went on to win the game, 2213 The 22 goals that Cornell scored were the most in the program ’ s 18-year history To close out spring break, Cornell traveled back to

Ithaca for Ivy play against Penn (5-2, 3-0) Jumping out to an early 3-0 lead and controlling the game for the first half, it seemed as though Cornell would pull out a hard-fought victory However, after Penn stormed back in the second half and held off numerous scoring attempts by the Red the Quakers came out on top of the match, 11-10, and were the victors in the closest game for Cornell this season I think if we put a full game together, we can be very competitive with anyone ” Lizzio said “We believe that we have the potential to be the top team in the Ivy League, and, with Princeton and Dartmouth coming up, we can really make a dent in the standings ”

Nick Rielly can be reached at nrielly@cornellsun com oc r llen s u n . c om

us keep you informed

Corne¬ Daily Sun

Spr ing Break Matches

Prepare Red for Ivy Play

By DANI ABADA Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Both the men ’ s and women ’ s tennis teams spent Spring Break on the road, playing matches down South The women ’ s team started its trip in North Carolina, where it faced UNC Wilmington, and then traveled to South Carolina to take on the College of Charleston and Costal Carolina

The trip got off to a rough start, with the team falling to UNC Wilmington without earning a single point, but momentum picked up as the week progressed The Red lost to Charleston by a smaller margin, 4-1, and then came away with a victory against Costal Carolina on Friday

“I thought we really stepped up, and we fought really hard,” said sophomore Ryann Young We played really well and found a way to win our matches ”

Cornell faced UNC Wilmington on Tuesday before heading to South Carolina Amidst rain delays, the Red competed against Charleston, which was a memorable match for the team, according to Young

“It was our second match of the day, they were still all competing really hard and not giving up, ” she said “Everyone had a lot of energy, everyone was really into the match and that was really exciting to see ”

The Red was able to win the doubles point, but could not hold on to win the singles

“[We] changed the doubles combinations up and all three doubles teams are playing very well right now, ” said head coach Mike Stevens “Our doubles did get better ”

Those improvements carried into the next match, as the Red won in a close competition against Costal Carolina Young and junior Sarah O’Neil won both their doubles and singles matches

“We ended on a really good note with a win against a very good Coastal Carolina team, ” Stevens said “They were 11-1 at the time, so it was good to get that win and finish on a very strong note

The men ’ s team hosted Penn State on Saturday, Mar 17, and then traveled to Virginia to face Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth Unfortunately, the Red was not able to come away with any victories over Spring Break

“I felt like despite the results, it still felt like we played some great tennis,” said head coach Silviu Tanasoiu “I think this week we will address some of the things we ’ ve noticed Overall it looks like we are coming together ”

The past week marked the end of the Red’s non-league matches

“I think we certainly got a lot of good training in because we were lucky to get some good weather and practice outside,” said freshman Alex Sidney “I think it was very good to get those matches in right before the Ivy season ”

The team is still in a transition phase, according to Tanasoiu, who only began his tenure as head coach a month before the fall season came to a close Because of this, he has only had a few months to work with his young squad

There is a specific system that we are trying to get everybody to buy into as a team, ” Tanasoiu said “We are definitely a young group and its challenging with them coming from the juniors and having to transition into college tennis and a different style of coaching and training, but l do feel like the guys are buying into our system and the results are starting to show ” Sidney echoed similar sentiments

“I think as a whole we are a lot more concerned on improving and working on little things in our games so that we can play to our full potential in these next few weeks,” he said

Dani Abada can be reached at dabada@cornellsun com

After a Long Road Trip, Softball Brings Home Five Wins

The softball team had a tough spring break schedule, with 14 road games in just one week The last three games of the stretch, though, were canceled due to rain, and the Red came away with five wins over George Mason, Liberty and Bucknell

On the first weekend of break, the Red (910) headed to Fairfax, Va for the Cherry Bottom Classic In the first game of the two day tournament, the team could not get its offense going, only recording two hits and eventually falling to Bowling Green State, 7-0 In the second game of the day, sophomore infielder Jenny Edwards’ RBI double in the third inning was enough to carry the Red to a 1-0 win over George Mason Sophomore pitcher Alyson Onyon did the rest, shutting out the Patriots, only allowing three hits and two walks in 6 2 innings The following day against Albany, the Red bats went silent again and lost a heartbreaker, 1-0 Just two hours later, though, the team picked up a 7-4 win over the Patriots to finish off the Cherry Bottom Classic at 2-2

On Tuesday, the team faced off against ACC powerhouse Virginia Tech in a double-

header The Red dropped the first game, 6-2 In the second game, the Red opened up an early 3-0 lead off a homer by Edwards It tacked on another run in the fifth and headed into the bottom of the seventh inning with a comfortable 4-2 lead It was not enough to contain the Virginia Tech offense, though, as the Hokies exploded for six runs including a walk-off grand slam by Betty Rose

The Red went on to take two games from Liberty, 7-0 and 7-4 Onyon and senior pitcher Karen Marx both got wins, and junior catcher Kristen Towne and freshman infielder Linda Laeufer both went deep However, the Red could not build off its momentum the following day, as it dropped a doubleheader to Delaware State, 3-1 and 8-2

In the first and only game of the Epilepsy Awareness Tournament, the Red came away with a 9-8 nail biting victory over Bucknell Senior Erica Gaeta’s walk off three run homer in the seventh gave Cornell the victory and helped the Red finish with a 5-6 record in spring break games

Compiled by Scott Chiusano

Mock’s Heroics in Final Seconds

Carr y Cornell Over No. 8 Denver

Continued from page 16

managed to tie ever ything up, 5-5, by the close of the second period and it was any man ’ s game heading into the second half Langton and Gilbane found the back of the net in the third and four th periods, respectively, as did two other Yale players, bringing the game to its sixth tie Evened up at 7-7 one team needed to light up the scoreboard one final time, or risk heading into over time With just over five minutes left to play, Lang shot off a rocket, which propelled the Red to its first Ivy win of the season, 8-7 As Lang hoped it would, the Red took care of business

Roy came down and scored with a fe w minutes left and we were able to hold our lead to the end,” Gilbane said “Helping to secure that win was a team effor t, but definitely an effor t by the senior class

“ We had a lot of leadership by the senior class,” Donovan added “It was a tough one but we grinded it out and star ted Spring Break out with the win

Just three days after the tight win over Yale, Cornell hit the road on March 20 to take on f

Traveling to a neutral location in Hempstead, N Y , the Red secured a close 9-8 win in over time against the No 8 Pioneers Langton scored the game-winner; however, it was junior attacker Steve Mock who was the Red’s saving grace With just 6 3 seconds to play left in regulation, Mock received a feed from Langton and found the back of the Pioneers’ net

what the Red needed to secure the win, giving Cornell its fifth win of the season and second of its three game Spring Break campaign Wrapping off the week, the Red headed to Philadelphia, Pa , where it would face off a g a i n s t c o n f e r e n c e o p p o n e n t Pe n n T h e Quakers (1-5, 0-2) may not have been experiencing the best season to date; however, they gave a Red a r un for its money this past Saturday

Penn had the upper hand over the Red, dominating the better par t of the game leading by as many as five points and entering the final frame with an 11-8 edge over Cornell While things may have looked bleak for the Red, the winds shifted and caught Cornell’s sails in the four th period, propelling the team to a 16-11 win over the Quakers with a remarkable 8-0 r un in the final frame

“I think that we star ted to click and really star ted to play our type of lacrosse at the right time ” Gilbane said “It was a little late but we hadn’t played our best offense throughout the game and give Penn’s defense credit In the four th quar ter we star ted to play a little more aggressively and the offense star ted to r un and it worked ”

“I think that we started to click and really started to play our type of lacrosse.”

J J G ilban e

A standout for the Red, Donovan notched three goals and two assists in the big win, w h i c h e a r n e d h i m h i s s

“It was a clutch goal by Mock,” Gilbane said “ We set up a play and we had Mock shoot it and he scored Time was r unning out and it was not just the offense that delivered, but it was also the defense that got us the ball back so we could score and get into over time ” Denver almost walked away with the win with under three minutes to go in the final frame when Cornell junior defenseman Jason Noble’s twin brother, Jeremy Noble, scored for the Pioneers, giving them an 8-7 edge over the Red However, Jason Noble said he was not about to let the game slip away so easily

“I was sor ta pissed at myself that it would be him to score the game winner,” he said “I was doing ever ything I could to get the ball back for us to give the attack a chance to score ” Langton’s second goal of the game was just

c o n d Iv y L e a g u e Rookie of the Week honor Joining him in weekly awards, Mock also earned recognition as Player of the Week for his per formances over break

“I was not plying too well before that in the past couple games; I let some of the mistakes I made earlier in the game affect me later,” Donovan said “ Talking to the coaches and [injured senior captain Rob Pannell,] they told me I need to put them in the back of my head and play my game I did that and finally had a great game ”

“Matt has come in and played extremely hard whether it’s in the weight room or on the field,” Gilbane said “It’s great to see a freshman come in and contribute as much as he has ”

Lauren Ritter can be reached at lritter@cornellsun com

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Spor ts

Cr u z ’ s B a t , Jon e s ’

A r m L e a d R e d t o

S u c c e s sf u l Bre a k

By HALEY VELASCO Sun Assistant Sports Editor

Spring break was an eventful week for the Red as the team traveled down south for a nine game road stretch The Red began the break by going up against Delaware State for three games It matched up with Virginia Tech in a doubleheader and finished off the trip this weekend with four games against Longwood

“[The traveling] becomes a challenge,” said sophomore Chris Cruz “You get kind of worn out going from hotel to hotel, but overall it wasn t too bad

During the first bout of games, the Red took two out of three from Delaware State Cruz recorded four extra-base hits and six RBIs while freshman right hander Brent Jones wracked up another win to improve his record to 3-0 Cruz went 3-for-5 on the day with a double, triple, homerun and five RBI’s, which led the Red to a 16-6 victory

In the second game, Delaware State rebounded for an 11-2 victory Matt McClain tossed a complete game for the Hornets, settling down after the Red plated two runs in the first He struck out seven and walked none Freshman infielder Kevin Tatum had a single and a double for the Red, with Cruz and senior Frank Hager driving in the firstinning runs

The Red took the final game of the series, 19-6 Hager went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles, four runs and three RBI’s, and 12 different players had hits

Returning to the road on Tuesday, the team headed to Blacksburg, Va for a doubleheader with Virginia Tech The Red fell to the Hokies, 9-6, in the first game Seniors Brian Billigen and Marshall Yanzick tallied three hits and an RBI apiece However the Red let up five runs in the fifth inning and could not bounce back

In the nightcap, the team got off to a quick start But for the second straight day, the Hokies rallied for a come-from-behind victory and won 5-4 Hokie Andrew Rash was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth, giving them the two-game sweep over the Red

The toughest team we played was Virginia Tech,” explained Cruz “They were both really close games and one of them we lost in the ninth inning ”

In the first game against Longwood, senior infielder Marshall Yanzick went 4-for-5 with three RBI s, extending his hitting streak to 19 games and leading the Red to a 5-1 victory Sophomore Connor Kaufmann provided a solid outing, allowing one run on four hits The win was the Red’s 10th victory of the season, matching its win total from all of 2011

The Red (12-4) rallied in the second game against the Lancers (1112) to win, 4-3, in the ninth inning The winning run came when junior Spencer Souza, who was pinch running, stole home on a throw back to the pitcher The ninth inning rally started with singles by Billigen and Cruz

Jones led the Red to another 3-1 victory over the Lancers in the final game of the series The freshman hurled a complete game, only allowing three hits and one run, striking out eight The offense was once again led by Cruz, who went 2-for-3 with a triple and a homerun

The Red will play Albany today in a doubleheader, before finally returning home for the start of Ivy play against Harvard and Dartmouth

“We are really excited for Ivy play We are pretty excited to play both Dartmouth and Harvard Our Dartmouth series is always a good series every year, ” Cruz said

can be reached at hvelasco@cornellsun com

Squad Records First Two Ivy Wins

By LAUREN RITTER Sun Sports Editor

“We have two goals this season to be undefeated at home and in the Ivy League So, we are going to take care of business on Saturday ”

Senior midfielder Roy Lang was confident as he expressed his enthusiasm heading into the Red’s first conference game of the season on March 17 against Ivy rival Yale No 4 Cornell (6-1 2-0 Ivy League) hosted the Bulldogs (2-4, 0-2) at Schoellkopf Field in the Red’s first of three games over Spring Break

The contest against Yale began quickly in the Red’s favor, as senior midfielder J J Gilbane lit up the scoreboard just 1:26 into the first frame off a feed from senior midfielder Chris Langton The Bulldogs responded less than two minutes later with

a goal of their own, tying everything up, 1-1 Junior attacker Connor English struck next for Cornell six minutes into the period, lifting the Red to 2-1 with an assist by freshman attacker Matt Donovan The Bulldogs answered the point by going on a 3-0 run, wrapping up the period in the lead, 4-2

Going into the game, I was told by a lot of upper-classmen that there is nothing like Ivy League games and I didn’t know what they were saying,” Donovan said “Then when we were losing, I knew exactly what they were talking about In the Ivy League where every game counts and winning or losing could be the difference between making the NCAA tournament or not in a few weeks every game becomes a battle The Red

Notre Dame, Penn Hand Red First Losses

By NICK RIELLY Sun Staff Writer

The women s lacrosse team saw mixed results over spring break, as the Red dropped tight contests to Notre Dame and Penn, but pulled ahead of a strong Jacksonville team in Florida The team is now ranked No 18 in the country, and still maintains a winning record

Cornell (6-2, 2-1 Ivy League) started the week by flying down to Orlando Florida to play a Notre Dame team that has not been defeated this season The Irish (60) have been dominant against every opponent they have faced so far, scoring at least 14 goals per game and winning every contest by at least three points

In the first half of the game it was all Notre Dame, as the Irish tallied five of the game ’ s first seven goals, with Megan Sullivan scoring a hat trick in the first 20 minutes Notre Dame opened the game up even more in the second half, scoring three more goals to make the score 15-6 Although Cornell made an attempt to narrow the margin with an impressive four goals in three minutes by senior

attack Jessi Steinberg it was not enough, and the Irish went on to win the game, 17-13 Notre Dame was a really good team ” said junior midfielder Veronica Lizzio “However, we believe that we have the talent to compete with top ranked teams If we can just play a complete game, than we know that we will be able to compete with anyone ”

The Red stayed in Orlando one more day to face a Jacksonville (6-

2) team that has averaged 16 goals per game and has surpassed the 20 goal mark three times this season

From the beginning, Cornell dominated the game as the Red scored six goals in the first eight minutes

The team scored on seven of the first eight possessions, and Steinberg and senior attack Olivia Knotts each had hat tricks in the first half Although Jacksonville