04-12-13

Panama President, Ricardo Martinelli ,

By DARA LEVY Sun Staff Writer

Pa n a m a n i a n Pre s i d e n t R i c a rd o Ma r t i n e l l i s p o k e t o a

p a c k e d C a l l Au d i t o r i u m i n Ke n n e d y Ha l l T h u r s d a y

a b o u t h i s e c o n o m i c a n d e d u c a t i o n a l s u c c e s s e s i n

Pa n a m a Be f o re w i n n i n g t h e p re s i d e n c y i n 2 0 0 9 , s e r ve d a s

Di re c t o r o f So c i a l Se c u r i t y a n d a s C h a i r m a n o f t h e

B o a rd o f Di re c t o r s o f t h e Pa n a m a C a n a l Ma r t i n e l l i p re v i o u s l y r a n f o r p re s i d e n t i n 2 0 0 5 , re c e i v i n g j u s t 5 3

p e rc e n t o f t h e vo t e

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Re p u b l i c a n s i n p owe r, Ma r t i n e l l i s a i d h e “ w a n t e d t o b e a ‘ Ro s s Pe ro t ’ ” t h e m a j o r t h i rd - p a r t y c a n d i d a t e i n t h e 1 9 9 2 a n d 1 9 9 6 U S p r e s i d e n t i a l e l e c t i o n s M a r t i n e l l i s a i d , h owe ve r, t h a t Pe ro t d i d n o t e x p e r i e n c e t h e s a m e k i n d o f p o l i t i c a l s u c c e s s t h a t h e e ve n t u a l l y d i d M a r t i n e l l i s a i d b e f o r e h e e n t e r e d p o l i t i c s , Pa n a m a w a s a c o u n t r y o f “ t h e h a v e a n d t h e h a v e - n o t s , ” w i t h l a w s p r i m a r i l y b e n ef i t t i n g c o r p

Constr uction on Kl arman Hall Set to Begin in Summer 2013

By SARAH MEYERS

After much discussion and planning, the construction of Klarman Hall a 33,250-square-foot addition to Goldwin Smith Hall is on track to begin this summer and be completely finished by late 2015, according to officials in the College of Arts and Sciences

Cornell announced it would build Klarman Hall in October 2011 The building will be the first built for the humanities since Goldwin Smith opened in 1905 According to Susan Robertson, director of communications for the arts college, Klarman Hall will create more space for the college’s admissions, advising and humanities departments

Dean Knuth Took ‘Dif ferent Path’ to Cornell

By LIZ KUSSMAN Sun Staff Writer

Ba r b a r a K n u t h , v i c e p r ov o s t a n d d e a n o f t h e G r a d u a t e S c h o o l , s a i d w h e n s h e b e g a n h e r c o l l e g e c a re e r a s a p re - m e di c a l s t u d e n t a t t h e M i a m i Un i v e r s i t y o f Oh i o , s h e h a d n o i d e a w h a t t h e f u t u re h a d i n s t o re f o r h e r Gr ow i n g u p i n t h e s u b u r b s o f C l e v e l a n d , K n u t h’s i n t e re s t i n t h e o u t d o o r s l e d h e r t o w a n t t o s t u d y t h e s c i e n c e s a n i n t e re s t s h e s a i d s h e b e l i e v e d w o u l d t a k e h e r t o m e d i c a l s c h o o l In s t e a d , s h e e a r n e d d e g re e s i n z o o l o g y, p h i l o s o p h y a n d e n v i r o n m e n t a l s c i e n c e a n d p u r s u e d r e s e a r c h i n n a t u r a l re s o u r c e s “ W h e n I w a s i n h i g h

s c h o o l a p p l y i n g t o c o l l e g e , I b e l i e v e d t h a t I w a s g o i n g t o b e p re - m e d , j u s t l i k e e v e r yb o d y e l s e , ” K n u t h s a i d “ T h e n I h a d s o m e e x p e r ie n c e s w o r k i n g f o r t h e U S Fo r e s t Se r v i c e a n d f o r t h e Na t i o n a l Pa r k s Se rv i c e , a n d s o I c a m e t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e d r a w o f n a t u r a l re s o u r c e s a n d n a t u ra l re s o u r c e m a n a g em e n t , s o t h a t s e t m e o n a d i f f e re n t p a t h ” K n u t h , w h o s a i d s h e l i k e s t o h i k e a n d c a n o e i n h e r f r e e t i m e , d e s c r i b e d I t h a c a a s a d re a m c o m e t r u e B e f o r e b e c o m i n g v i c e p r o v o s t a n d d e a n o f t h e Gr a d u a t e s c h o o l , K n u t h c a m e t o C o r n e

t h e d e p a r t

r a s s o c i a t e d e a n o f t h e C o l l e g e o f A g r i c u l t u re a n d L i f e S c i e n c e s Si n c e b e c o m i n g d e a n i n 2 0 1 0 , K n u t h h a s s t a r t e d a n u m b e r o f i n i t i a t i v e s t o s e r v e g r a d u a t e s t u d e n t s , i n c l u d i n g t h e O f f i c e o f Inc l u s i o n a n d Pr o f e s s i o n a l D e v e l o p m e n t , w h i c h o f f e r s p r o g r a m s t h a t t e a c h e s s t ud e n t s l i f e s k i l l s s u c h a s p e r s o na l f i n a n c i a l m a n a g e m e n t , h ow t o c u l t i v a t e p o s i t i v e re l a t i o ns h i p s w i t h f a c u l t y a n d h ow t o r a i s e a w a r e n e s s a b o u t j o b o p p o r t u n i t i e s , a c c o r d i n g t o K n u t h “ O u r g o a l i s t o s u p p o r t g r a d u a t e s t u d e n t s a s w h o l e p e o p l e , ” K n u t h s a i d “ We w a n t t o c o n s i d e r a l l t h e a s p e c t s t h e y n e e d f o r a c a d e m i c s u c c e s s , p e r s o n a l a n d s o c i a l s u c c e s s a n d h a v e a r a n g e o f p r o g r a m s a n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s t o h e l p s u p p o r t t h e m i n d i f f e re n t a s p e c t s o f t h e i r l i v e s ” K n u t h’s s a i d h e r g o a l f o r t h e Un i v e r s i t y i s f o r e v e r y e n t e r i n g d o c t o r a l s t u d e n t b e p r ov i d e d w i t h a f e l l ow s h i p

a i

n d t h e s e n

P ros, C ons o f Gr ee k S yste m at Co rne ll,” W edn esday

Sp eaking ab out the challenges facing the multicultural Greek communit y “MGLC fraternities and sororities are much younger Our alumni network is not large enough to p ermit for them to donate to us directly [It ’ s not that] the current Cornell system is discriminating against these chapters The University is always op ening up p ossibilities for funding [for the MGLC] ” Juan Carlos Toledo ’13, Tri-Council Liaison

Tomorrow

$5 Challenge

11 a m to 5:30 p m , Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Role of TAs in Cultivating an Inclusive Classroom

11 a m to 12:15 p m , 143 Plant Sciences Building

Rhythms of China

3 - 5 p m , Bailey Hall

Pao Bhangra XII

7 p m , Barton Hall

Free Standup Comedy Show!

8 - 10 p m , Barnes Hall Theater

N ews, “V ie we rs, R e aders Must L ook O ut fo r Bia s in Me dia, S .E . C upp ’01 S ays, ” T uesda y Sp eaking ab out how news consumers should b e critical of news organiz ations

“I would s ay that MSNB C and Fox are less biased than CNN b ecause they are honest ab out their p olitical leanings CNN pretends to b e in the middle, but it ’ s really not When viewers watch Fox , they know what they ’ re going to get ”

S E Cupp ’01, author, co-host of MSNBC's “The Cycle”

Man St eals Car, Flees Of cers, Ithaca Police Say

By AKANE OTANI

A man who reportedly stole a car Thursday set off a highspeed chase through the City of Ithaca, striking the vehicle of police officers pursuing him before being caught by authorities, according to the Ithaca Police Department

David Manzi, a 53-year-old resident of Syracuse, N Y , was arrested and arraigned in the Ithaca City Court on two Class D felony charges: grand larceny in the third degree and reckless endangerment in the first degree, according to a press release from the IPD Police say Manzi may face a litany of other charges, including felony level criminal mischief, felony level unlawfully fleeing of a police officer, driving while ability impaired by drugs and violations of vehicle and traffic laws

The chase began when, at approximately 12:23 p m , IPD officers responded to a call about a motor vehicle being stolen from the parking lot of the Hess Gas Station at 366 Elmira Rd , according to IPD

Seeing the stolen vehicle moving through the city, police attempted to stop the vehicle, according to IPD The driver, however, allegedly refused to pull over

The driver then moved at a “high rate of speed” through the City of Ithaca, “ at times driving the wrong way on a one-

way street, ” according to IPD

At the intersection of South Corn Street and West Green Street, Manzi allegedly struck an unmarked IPD vehicle, injuring the three officers inside and causing “extensive damage ” to the car, according to IPD Soon after, Manzi abandoned the stolen vehicle behind a residential building in the 600 block of South Albany Street and fled on foot from the scene, police said

IPD organized a ground search for Manzi, who was subsequently found inside a nearby housing complex, according

Prof: Stereotypes Can Pose Threats

By ANNIE BUI Sun Staff Writer

Claude Steele, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, spoke to a packed Alice Statler Auditorium Thursday about his theory of “ stereotype threat”: a topic in the field of social psychology

According to Steele, stereotype threat refers to the frustration or anxiety experienced by individuals who feel pressured to overcome a negative stereotype associated with their group in certain situations

“For groups whose abilities are negatively stereotyped in broader society, individuals seem to underperform in challenging work, even when they are equally prepared or have the same talents,” Steele said Steele demonstrated this phenomenon by drawing from his own findings about the GPAs students at the University of Michigan earned and how they compared to their high school SAT scores

“I noticed this phenomenon many years ago Usually, kids come in with high SAT scores and earn even higher grades,” Steele said “However, when looking at African-American students, at every level of entering SAT scores, these students were getting lower grades than students [of other races] They were equally prepared and equally motivated, so what was causing this difference in performance?”

He said this pattern of underperformance could be seen anywhere in society, from Harvard Medical School to a third-grade classroom down the street

“There are circumstances where you really wanted to do well in something, but you know that the people who are watching your performance have a sense that ‘ you can ’ t do it’ that’s stereotype threat,” Steele said

Steele added that stereotype threat can have adverse affects on the cognitive abilities of people who believe their identity is attached to a negative stereotype

One of his experiments which studied the disparities between test performances of black and white students on a non-verbal IQ test supported the notions of stereotype threat, Steele said

According to Steele, during a non-verbal IQ test comprised of visual puzzles, black students scored a whole standard deviation lower than white students When the students were encouraged to solve the puzzles, just as a fun activity, black students performed exactly the same as white students on the test

“If you take away the condition where a stereotype might come into play, the differences are less pronounced,” Steele said

Steele also said that stereotype threat is hard to escape for those affected by it, and that diversity may help to ameliorate these feelings

“[Stereotype threat] is a chronic feature of life It is a contingency of identity and goes along with [one] in

certain situations,” Steele said “To remedy the situation, you cannot have homogeneity; you must have diversity to create excellence and change certain cues so that they won ’ t send negative messages to people ” Taylor Brooks ’16, who attended the lecture, said she sees stereotype threat in her daily life

“Stereotype threat is something that affects everyone The powerful pressures of both stereotype and social identity threat have been underlying thoughts throughout my life,” Brooks said

Obi Asiama ’13 echoed Brooks’ sentiments, adding that he found Steele’s lecture “enlightening ”

“As a black male in higher education, the idea of stereotype threat puts a face and a name to [the] many emotions and sentiments I have experienced,” he said “I wonder how important it is for us as people to not only recognize the way in which stereotype threat touched our own lives, but to be conscious of those who are facing challenges like our own ”

Thursday’s lecture was part of a series, the Robert L Harris, Jr ADVANCEments in Science Lectures, that is geared toward educating the campus community on gender and diversity issues It was sponsored by CU-ADVANCE, a program at Cornell dedicated toward diversifying the campus and improving its climate, especially for women faculty in engineering and the sciences, according to its website

to IPD He was taken into custody without incident

The three injured police officers were treated at a nearby hospital for minor injuries, including neck and back pain, according to IPD

Manzi, who was remanded to the Tompkins County Jail without bail Thursday, will appear in Ithaca City Court again on April 17, according to IPD

N. Korea Advances Nuclear Technolog y

WASHINGTON (AP) A U S intelligence repor t concludes that North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, a jarring revelation in the midst of bellicose threats from the unpredictable communist regime President Barack Obama urged calm, calling on Pyongyang to end its saber-rattling while sternly warning that he would “take all necessar y steps ” to protect American citizens

The ne w A m e r i c a n i n t e l l i g e n c e analysis, disc l o s e d Thursday at a hearing on Capitol Hill, says the Pentagon’s intelligence wing has “moderate confidence” that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles but that the weapon was unreliable Rep Doug Lamborn, RColo , read aloud what he said was an unclassified paragraph from a secret Defense Intelligence Agency report that was supplied to some members of Congress The reading seemed to take Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by surprise, who said he hadn’t seen the report and declined to answer questions about it

missile defense ships closer to the coast of the Korean peninsula, in part to protect against a potential missile launch aimed at Guam, a U S territory in the Pacific The Pentagon also has announced it will place a more advanced land-based missile defense on Guam, and Hagel said in March that he approved installing 14 additional missile interceptors in Alaska to bolster a portion of the missile defense network that is designed to protect all of U S territory

North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point where it could arm a ballistic missile

On Thursday, the Pentagon said it had moved a seabased X-band radar designed to track warheads in flight into position in the Pacific

Notably absent from that unclassified segment of the report was any reference to what the DIA believes is the range of a missile North Korea could arm with a nuclear warhead Much of its missile arsenal is capable of reaching South Korea and Japan, but Kim has threatened to attack the United States as well

At the House Armed Services Committee hearing in which he revealed the DIA assessment, Lamborn asked Dempsey, whether he agreed with it Dempsey said he had not seen the report

The DIA conclusion was confirmed by a senior congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the Pentagon had not officially released the contents The aide said the report was produced in March

Since the beginning of March, the Navy has moved two

“You said it’s not publicly released, so I choose not to comment on it,” Dempsey said

But David Wright, a nuclear weapons expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the DIA assessment probably does not change the views of those who closely follow developments in North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon

Martinelli Stresses Power of Education

PANAMA

Continued from page 1

“I’m not a regular politician,” he added, citing his business background

Martinelli said most countries try to promote investment and improve their economies by helping private companies, but he aims to do the complete opposite by creating major infrastructure projects and lowering taxes

Since his election, Martinelli said, Panama has had “almost no unemployment”; the country has an unemployment rate of approximately 4 4 percent, according to Central Intelligence Agency reports Martinelli also said he has been able to lower tax rates, especially for low-income citizens

Many citizens earning less than $100,000 per year are exempt from paying income taxes, he said Martinelli said he has been able to maintain government revenue by eliminating the concept of illegal immigrants

After 30 days of being in Panama, immigrants are granted permanent residency and therefore must pay taxes

Easing the process of citizenship was just one of the things Martinelli has done to make Panama “ a more appealing country, ” he said

Martinelli said he has also been working to improve the Panamanian education system, both internally and externally by setting up higher education partnership programs with universities in the U S and Europe

He said Panama currently has such a low high school dropout rate that, instead of graduation rates being an issue, there is a problem of overcrowded classrooms

Martinelli said education accessibility has been an important initiative to him, with widespread free Internet access and tuition at the University of

Panama $26 50 per semester

“Education is the main drive that makes a country go forward,” Martinelli said “They can never take what you have in here,” he said, pointing at his head

Martinelli strongly urged the audience to get involved in politics, not just by making donations but also by considering running for office to make changes from within the government

“This is not the job to send to a dumb cousin; this is a job for bright people like all of you, ” he said

Martinelli encouraged students to maintain balance while moving forward and keeping track of their objectives

He said he became stronger from the mistakes he made leading to his 2004 loss

“Do whatever is necessary to achieve the aim you have in life,” he said, attributing his 2009 win to his perseverance

Martinelli’s speech followed his signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs to establish a scholarship program for Panamanians to attend the University’s masters programs Martinelli said the agreement “will change the lives of many Panamanians ”

At the conclusion of his speech, Martinelli received an award from the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs recognizing his efforts to improve education in Panama

Martinelli’s visit was sponsored by CIPA, the Office of the Vice Provost for International Relations, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, the Latin American Studies Program and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management

Dara Levy can be reached at dlevy@cornellsun com

Ever y Doctoral Student Should Be Recipient of Fellow ship, Knuth Says

Continued from page 1

“Fellowships allow students to explore their intellectual pursuits the way they want to, ” Knuth said

Knuth said she is working w

Un

affairs and development staff to appeal to donors who may have an interest in helping Cornell realize this goal

“Right now, we have 250 fellowships for roughly 500 students, so we need to essentially double the amount of fellowship funding, she said “It’s a longterm vision ”

Knuth added that in addition to providing academic freedom, fellowships would allow students to fully work with Cornell’s faculty

“It would be ideal to provide a fellowship to ever y student so every student has the opportunity to get to know faculty and see what their interests are before they get linked up with a faculty member,” Knuth said

K

touch with her Ph D advisor, said she urges graduate students to recognize the value of both faculty and fellow students in graduate school

“The relationship that you will have with your faculty advisor is critical to your success and how you will experience the program, ” Knuth said “But graduate school can be isolating if you ’ re thinking of coming only to work with a particular faculty member and don’t think about the community you ’ re engaging in ”

In addition to her responsibilities as vice provost and dean of the graduate school, Knuth serves as the associate director of the Hu m a n Di m e n s i o n s Re s e a rc h unit, which focuses on the study of human behaviors and attitudes towards the environment Her research focuses on the risk communication, risk perception, risk management of chemical contaminants of fish consumption

Liz Kussman can be reached at ekussman@cornellsun com

Clarifiying Klarman | This architectural plan shows both the existing Goldwin Smith Hall (top and upper sides) and the proposed Klar man Hall (center and below) The Arts Quad would be above, and East Avenue below, this plan orientation

Klarman Hall to Open in 2015

Will prov ide new space for humanities department s

“The college needs a space like that,” MacDonald said “It will be a focal point for not just the humanities but the college in general ”

“It will provide much needed space for the increase in the college’s humanities faculty, which is a result of the college’s success in the faculty renewal hiring initiative, as well as the overall expansion of the humanities at Cornell in the last hundred years, ” Robertson said

Prof Scott MacDonald ’78 Ph D ’86, philosophy, chair of the Sage School of Philosophy, said he thinks Klarman which will have 124 faculty offices will “ go some way toward alleviating

For instance, MacDonald said, Klarman Hall may redirect traffic “from further up the Hill to the Arts Quad ”

“I think when it’s finished, people will tend to go through Goldwin Smith rather than around it, making Goldwin Smith more of a thoroughfare,” MacDonald said

Similarly, Robertson said she sees Klarman and particularly its central atrium as “ a major crossroads for students and faculty from all over campus ”

the space shor tage in the College of Ar ts and Sciences ”

“I don’t think it’ll solve the space problem entirely, but it’s a step in the right direction,” MacDonald added

A major goal of the building, administrators said, is to increase the visibility and presence of the humanities on campus

Peter Lepage, dean of the arts college, said in an Oct 2011 University press release that Klarman Hall “will symbolically and physically welcome the rest of the campus to participate in the humanities and arts at Cornell ”

For instance, Klarman will house the Department of Romance studies which is currently housed in Morrill Hall “in order to bring all the literature departments into one building,” Robertson said MacDonald said he thinks the building, when completed, will serve as a “nice iconic space for the College of Arts and Sciences ”

The $61 million it will cost to build Klarman Hall will be completely funded by philanthropy

Lindsay Ruth, associate dean of alumni affairs for the College of Arts and Sciences, said the donations to finance Klarman Hall were “ a necessity as the University came out of the economic downturn ”

“ We are ver y pleased with the tremendous support that alumni and student families have shown for this building Without their generosity, this project would not have proceeded,” Ruth said MacDonald said Klarman Hall will be an “beautiful” addition to the Arts Quad

“I think it’ll be a beautiful space, continuing the development of East Avenue along with the new physical sciences building and the redesign of Lincoln Hall in a very positive way, so architecturally that’s a good thing,” MacDonald said Robertson echoed MacDonald’s sentiment, saying Klarman will act as a “ gateway to the Arts Quad from East Avenue ”

“[It will] provide an iconic indoor space for faculty and students to gather Its innovative and sustainable design will be a major architectural addition to the Cornell campus, ” Robertson said

T h e C o r n e ¬ D a i l y S u n

Independent Since 1880

131ST EDITORIAL BOARD

’14

HARRIS

REBECCA

Editor in Chief

HANK BAO ’14 Business Manager

LIZ CAMUTI ’14 Associate Editor

ANDY LEVINE 14

Web Editor

RACHEL ELLICOTT 15

Blogs Editor

DAVID MARTEN ’14

Tech Editor

SHAILEE SHAH 14

EMMA COURT ’15

Editor

CAROLINE FLAX ’15

Editor

SAM BROMER 16

Arts & Entertainment Editor

SARAH COHEN 15 Science Editor

BRYAN CHAN ’15

Associate Multimedia Editor

SCOTT CHIUSANO ’15

Assistant Sports Editor

MEGAN ZHOU 15

Assistant Design Editor

BRANDON ARAGON ’14

Assistant Web Editor

ANNA TSENTER 14

Marketing Manager

ERIKA G WHITESTONE 15

Social Media Manager

CATALINA LEE 15

Assistant Advertising Manager

HANNAH McGOUGH 15 Senior Editor

AKANE OTANI ’14

AUSTIN KANG ’15

HALEY VELASCO ’15

’16

Has Meditation Gone Main stream? Blame S cience!

The word ‘meditation’ may invoke any number of images Perhaps the likeness of the Dalai Lama sitting quiescently in meditative repose, legs crossed, eyes closed, hands resting gently in his lap Maybe stereotypical meditation paraphernalia such as a singing bowl, a meditation cushion or a Tibetan prayer flag comes to mind All of these images, and countless more, contribute to and result from pre-conceptions of what meditation is, where it takes place, who does it and why

do in solitary retreat, no longer holds

SHEKAR ’15

DING ’14

CLOSE ’14

HENRY 14

MANU RATHORE ’15 Senior Editor

WORKING ON TODAY ’ S SUN

DESIGN DESKERS Rebecca Coombes ’14

PHOTO NIGHT EDITOR Shailee Shah 14

NEWS DESKERS Lianne Bornfeld 15 Caroline Flax 15

SPORTS DESKER Emily Berman 16

ARTS DESKERS Sam Bromer 16

NEWS NIGHT EDITOR Jonathan Dawson ’15

the berry patch

As journalists, we at The Sun are constantly connected: to sources, to news outlets, to IV drips of caffeine So when we decided some of our people should participate in CU [dis]connect a student-run initiative encouraging a threeday hiatus from technology (shudder) we chose the low men on the totem pole: our berry patch reporters They’ve grown more creative, albeit also more awkward and unethical, in their pursuit to find and report the next big scoop for our loyal readers

Talking to Student Assembly reps or members of IFC in person instead of via email can be kind of a drag But our reporters are willing to go as far as it takes to get a story and we were surprised to learn that face-to-face interaction has more advantages than we anticipated There are only so many ways to be sexy over email, and most people are not as turned on by a sophisticated font as we are Our intrepid (shameless) berry patch reporters have been using their sharp minds (cleavage) to get sources to reveal some juicy story details To those of you who are wondering whether sexual seduction is an appropriate investigative tool: We say all is fair in war and journalism (Also, shhhh )

Since our staff ’ s inability to use computers prevents us from both posting online and sending newspaper pages to the printer, they’ve had to think outside the box Or rather, they’ve had to stand on a box on Ho Plaza, shouting through a rolled-up newspaper In addition to our News team yelling Extra! Extra! and calling out the day’s headlines, our Arts and Entertainment editors have been performing in-depth slam poetry readings of article content paired with interpretive dancing In the Sports section, meanwhile, our editors have taken to standing in for the opponents of Cornell athletes in reenactments of matches Interestingly, Cornell has been on a stunning winning streak in all sports throughout the [dis]connect challenge

Here’s to our berry patch reporters, who are as committed to bringing news to the Cornell community as the U S Post Office is to mail delivery It may not get to you in one piece, or in any manner of timeliness, but they won ’ t stop trying And they’ll look damn good doing it CU [dis]connect: Challenge accepted

I recently took time off from medical school at Weill Cornell to pursue a Ph D in religious studies at Emory University, focusing on the renaissance of Buddhist meditative practices taking place in Western Europe and the United States When I hear the word meditation, different images from the above are brought to mind I think of meditators some of whom have practiced for more than 60,000 hours in their lifetime and some of whom have never meditated before; some from indigenous Buddhist countries and others from small-town America all seated in repose while hooked up to fMRI machines in neuroscience labs I think of Thomas, a 15-yearold Atlanta foster care teen that I taught compassion meditation to as part of a research study at Emory, and the tears that welled up in his eyes near the conclusion of one particularly poignant session I think of Jack, another student of mine, a 7-year-old boy from an elementary school in Atlanta, and how he told me that meditating made him feel like a better, kinder person

Whether it’s a monk meditating in an MRI, a lonely and scared teen being passed around the foster care system, or an affluent suburban first grader giving the practice a try, meditation, in its myriad forms, is no longer exclusively associated with eastern religious traditions and romantic mountain hermitages These images should challenge deeply embedded stereotypes concerning the who, what, where and why of meditation, and reflect a shifting socio-cultural landscape in which meditation is trending toward the mainstream

The scientific study of contemplative meditative practices is the single greatest reason for the explosion of meditation in the West Since 1982, when the first seminal meditation study was published, we have seen an exponential growth in the number of publications per year In 1980 there were none, 1990 saw 5 and 2000 saw 21 But in 2005, there were 77, in 2010 there were 353 and this past year, there were 477 studies More impressive, these data only pertain to one kind of meditation practice namely mindfulness never mind the many other kinds are being studied This research some of which has been conducted at Weill Cornell and much of which is funded by the U S taxpayer dollars through the National Institutes of Health is the primary catalyst behind the shifting who, what, where and why of meditation in the U S today

If traditional notions of meditative practice have become antiquated, and science has accelerated this transformation, what exactly has changed? Let us begin with the who: both men and women, the young and the old, people from diverse ethnic backgrounds and varying socioeconomic standing have all been studied in meditation A brief look at the literature will reveal contemplative practices being studied in cohorts consisting of students of all ages and all disciplines, war veterans, criminals, doctors, nurses, those suffering from debilitating mental illness, completely healthy individuals and many more With this in mind, the naive and incorrect assumption that meditation is something that (male) monks

If the demographics of meditative practice are changing, what kinds of meditative practices are popular? Some of the main meditations researched and practiced in contemporary America include mindfulness, compassion and loving-kindness meditations In fact the tapestry of meditative practices flourishing today is considerably more nuanced Some specific contemplative practices such as “ yoga ” force us to ask important questions about the meaning of the word meditation In any case, it should be clear that meditation is not one single entity, but rather an umbrella term for a rich variety of practices of the body and mind dozens of which are being studied in research labs all over the world

Given such changes, where are people meditating these days? One may wonder what happened to the remote hermitage, but those interested in meditating in remote locations away from the hyperactivity and hypersociality (think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) of modern life can still do so, as there are hundreds of secluded retreat centers across the U S and abroad People are also finding that meditation can be a fruitful activity anywhere: the doctor’s office, at work, in school, on the frontlines and even in prison

And finally but most difficult to answer why are people meditating today? There is no easy answer to this question It is certainly the case that there are as many reasons to meditate as there are meditators, and probably more Some meditate because it makes them feel happier and less anxious; others because they were told by their therapist or doctor that they should; some because they feel like better, kinder people when they meditate; and others still because it was their homework assignment or they volunteered for a research study

Suffice it to say that science, once again, is the driving force in this regard With each new study that suggests a potential benefit to meditation be it prevention of depressive relapse, increase in positive affect, greater pro-social behavior or decrease in serum cortisol secretion the list of reasons for meditating continues to grow Science also functions as a gatekeeper, preventing the application of meditative practices to dubious causes, for instance, compound fractures or liver failure Such claims would never withstand the process of the scientific method and peer review In this way, science serves a dual role in the development of meditative practices in the West

It should come as no surprise, then, that the most visible and vociferous advocate for meditative practice in the West, the Dalai Lama, was fascinated with science from a very early age One of his first projects as a young boy in 1940’s Tibet, was to understand the inner-workings of an automobile engine Today, his aspirations are considerably more ambitious: to yolk scientific inquiry and meditation together and gain insight into the nature of consciousness

The Dalai Lama aside, it is evident that the shift of meditative practices from an exotic Eastern phenomenon to a quotidian occurrence in homes, work and schools across America, has been catalyzed by rigorous scientific inquiry Singing bowls and prayer flags may still come to mind when one thinks about meditation, but MRIs, EEGs and RCTs are soon to follow

David Saunders is a M D student at Weill Cornell Medical College and

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

American Laureate of the Eccentric David Sedaris performs at the State Theatre

BY HENRY STALEY Sun Staff Writer

Da

Eccentric On Tuesday, he came to the State Theater to give readings of his new book Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, his New Yorker essay Old Faithful and spoken anecdotes on his travels across the country His punchy stories told of his regular themes aberrant relatives, rare animals, miscommunications with strangers and investigations into odd subcultures (i e Manhattan’s Taxidermy scene)

The night’s best story told of his near-purchase of a four hundred-year old Peruvian pygmy an ethnic group hunted for game by colonists The commodity was a fourteen-year old girl whose body had been preserved in a bag

Se d a r i s j o k e d t h a t h e w a s m o re shocked by the brand of the bag than the severed head the bag contained, a n d c l a i m e d t h a t h i s a n n oy a n c e towards fourteen-year-olds he sees on the subway makes him understand the colonist’s cruel practice

Sedaris’ stories push the audience’s ethics but he and his audiences have s u c h a c l o s e re l a t i o n s h i p t h a t h i s humor reveals itself as honest rather than incendiary His essays and books (which some claim are too fictitious to define as ‘non-fiction’) come from his bizarre personal experiences When You

Are Engulfed in Flames’ last essay tells of his cessation from cigarettes, Santaland Diaries follows his short career as a Macy’s Christmas elf Given the familiarity his writing breeds, it was no surprise he approached the audience without distance or formality Coming on stage, he opened, “The answer to the question you ’ re all asking is twenty two I’ve lost twenty two pounds ”

After losing twenty-two pounds, quitting cigarettes and finding a career outside of Macy’s, Sedaris has turned to an unconquerable misfortune: old age Sedaris is only fifty-six, but has apparently already acquired the hypochondria that often accompanies late adulthood Those around him have too: he joked about his sister constantly checking the mirror to see if her nipple’s still aligned and worrying about the lining of her postmenopausal uterus He confessed that he imagined uterus lining to look and feel like grape paste Sedaris is perfectly comfortable with being uncouth and defended the right to use crude material for humor

When an audience member asked of his opinion on teaching humor writing in e l e m e n t a r y s c h o o l s , h e offered that teachers should “let their kids write about ‘shit,’” or whatever crass matter youth enjoy talking about Such a suggestion

e

His books and essays cover the material that often falls beneath literature’s high bar of “acceptable material” and h a ve a t t r a c t e d a

through their accessibility t

Readership has waned in the last half century but Sedaris has reeled readers back in with his relatable and raw stories Would be non-readers and New Yorker reading intellectuals rejoice in appreciation for his acerbic wit, oddball perspective and boundary probing

I spoke with Sedaris after the show He asked my feeling on his use of the word “ cunt ” twice, breaking the “ one ‘ cunt ’ a speech rule ” Given his benign and self-deprecating posture, the audience did not appear offended I told him I’d be reviewing the night’s show, he said he wouldn’t read my piece as he doesn’t read opinions on him or his work (doubtful) He did, however, offer his opinion of the performance to readers of this article: “I think I was a good reader I can ’ t speak for the content ”

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls: Essays, Etc comes out April twenty-third

Henr y Staley is a freshman in the College of Architecture Art and Planning He can be reached at hstaley@cornellsun com

“People say when you know you know, but do you really ‘know,’ or do you just decide?” Liz Kussman ’14 lamented this to me recently Why, you might ask? In what context? Well, gee, if you ’ ve ever read anything I’ve ever written ever you would know that this blog is basically a better-edited version of my mental diary (there’s no real filter up there be glad I actually read this over) I haven’t written a post since being elected Blogs editor, mainly because I’ve been super busy doing casual things like interviewing Joel McHale and John Legend, but also because I haven’t had any monumental romantic epiphanies That was, until I gave advice to a friend of mine struggling with the same thing many of us are afraid to face: making a decision

If I can ’ t decide what I’m going to buy for lunch at Trillium as I weigh my yen for General Tso’s chicken against my rational thought of getting a salad (I always go for the General Tso’s Who am I k i d d i n g ? ) , then how am I supposed to decide who I’m going to end up with? Ok That’s a stretch Choosing between meal options and men are completely different, right? Except, maybe they’re exactly the same One of the options is clearly bad for you, but you want it anyway Maybe you even want it because it’s the complete opposite of what you need, and that’s what makes it intriguing The other is healthy, it will benefit you, it will be more satisfying in the long run and it is the option your friends would tell you to go for if they were choosing which is best for you So maybe you listen to your friends and you choose the salad But you’ll still always wonder what it would have been like to have the General

A 21st Century Hitchcock? Not Quite.

BY LAURA BOLAND Sun Staff Writer

“Just as a flower doesn’t choose its color, so we don’t choose who we are going to be ” This line, spoken by a teenage girl on the cusp of adulthood, provides the first of many unsettling moments in Stoker, an uneven tale of macabre murders and even more horrifying family secrets The speake

, In

( Mi a Wasikowska), is the only child of wealthy architect Richard (Dermot Mulroney) and

Wednesday Addams, all sullen sarcasm and dark hair, and she lives with her parents in a drafty old house not unlike the Addams

In

birthday her father dies in a horrible car accident A

Charlie shows up

u

director was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Vertigo and the film’s screenwriter Wentworth Miller (former star of Prison Break and Dinotopia) was directly inspired by the Shadow of a Doubt, from which he took the character of Uncle Charlie The film also references Psycho with taxidermied birds and shower scenes, and Birds with a telephone booth trap At first, these references are a treat for savvy viewers, but eventually one experiences the vague sense that just watching Psycho might have been a better idea Park and Miller also tried to translate the dark sexual undertones in many of Hitchcock’s movies into their own work These undertones quickly lose their subtlety and their power, growing more ludicrous as time goes on For a film so steeped in refer-

Stoker

Directed by Park Chan-Wook

Starring Mia Wasikowa, Nicole Kidman

d l y , much to the suspicion of the town gossips, and begins to ingratiate himself with Evelyn As people begin to disappear, India is drawn more and more to her enigma of an uncle, while undergoing some dark changes herself

Stoker is the first English-language film by South Korean director Park Chanwook, who is known for his bloody revenge films, especially the brutal Oldboy The film is immaculately beautiful, and the shots Park composes are filled with skewed southern gothic gentility and pristine landscapes The creepiness comes when Park borrows liberally from Hitchcock The

Iand culture, it is a little surprising that the

foreign Perhaps it is because Park didn’t bother to

modern setting It seems unrealistic that the characters inhabit a world filled with Hitchcock references and southern gothic atmosphere when they also have cell phones The high school India attends is straight out of Grease Girls cluster excitedly to oggle Charlie when he arrives at the school, and there’s a pack of football jocks that pick on India for dressing like a twee Victorian These are stock characters only included in the narrative to emphasize how different India and her family are from other people, and it feels fake

Matthew Goode makes an excellent psychopath whose face is as handsome and indifferent as the beige suit Charlie wears to his brother’s funeral Goode builds a creepy facade that is still mysterious and inviting, but it is ruined when Charlie finally reveals to India why he came back to the family after all these years The explanation that he gives her and the audience is just so absurd in so many ways that it spoils Charlie’s character, and neither Goode’s acting nor the plot ever recover from the ridiculousness Nicole Kidman also has to combat a script that doesn’t give her much room for subtlety The lost and lonely woman who hides behind old wealth, impeccable manners and flawless French is a dying breed, but it seems the cliché will never die It is a testament to Kidman’s acting abilities that she can slip some real emotion in when the camera gives her the space

Yet, couched within this melodramatic slasher is a coming of age stor y that, despite

Why I Like Men

f last year ’ s Season Premiere of Mad Men Season Five taught us anything, it was not to look at a season s first episode to guess what the remaining twelve episodes will be about The premiere opened up with a civil rights occupation in Sterling Cooper Draper Price’s lobby, setting the attitude for a season ’ s conversation on race, but with the hiring of a black secretary (Dawn Chambers) for Don and the release of an “equal opportunity employer” ad, that conversation quieted quickly However, the mind I’ve always trusted to bring me what I believe to be the greatest show of our generation, Matthew Weiner, has promised that the 90-minute premiere, “The Doorway,” is “really constructed like a film” and will “foreshadow the rest of the season ” I believe it The episode brought in many new themes and created new motifs for each character that Weiner couldn’t possibly introduce then run away from We’ll start with Don, of course We open up the episode to find him looser, tanner and attune to the times (the episode begins with the end of 1967) In Hawaii, he and Megan smoke a joint When he returns to SCDP, he writes off the ad artist smoking a joint in the office and says, smells like creativity,” before going on to say of an advertisement containing a pair of square newlyweds, “anything matrimonial feels Paleolithic [these days] ” Afterwards, he gives a speech on his notions of love “love is like a drug It s not domestic, it’s electric” that sounds like an echo of the “free love” mentality that dominated the preceding summer By the end of

the episode, we find that Don’s love is hardly matrimonial, domestic or reserved for Megan

For a show in which almost every line is a comment on the sixties, the characters and the times often mirror each other’s motions

Timothy Leary claimed that the renaissance of the sixties was motivated by Socrates’ motto “Know Thyself ” Likewise, Don seems to be beginning a period of inner exploration After Roger’s LSD trips last season, it’s Don’s turn to look inward While being photographed for office promotion, Don looks confused and glances at a lighter he snagged from a GI in Hawaii that reads: “In life we often have to do things that just are not our bag” Don pauses, loses his thought then the photographer asks Don to pose and says, “I want you to be your-

self ” The screen goes black and Don’s purpose for the season is stated With his waning job performance and fantasy of shedding his suit and responsibilities so that he can begin “jumping off ” (as displayed in his ad for Royal Hawaiian Hotel), Don seems to either have a sneaking death wish or a dream of dropping out

Another character speaks fondly of jumping off the show’s loveable jester, Roger Sterling This episode, Roger goes to therapy,

loses his mother and throws a fit at the lavish funeral, further proving himself to be the grown-up Anson Hunter of F Scott Fitzgerald s “The Rich Boy During the funeral, he declares, “This is my funeral!” a statement that, depending on your interpretation either acknowledges his love for his mother or foreshadows his downfall In one of his analysis sessions, he says that “he has this ‘invisible parachute’” that allows him to drop off; he foresees that “[what he is] going to be doing from now on is losing everything ” Several minutes after he tells his analyst “I don’t feel anything,” he breaks down and cries at the sight of his late shoe shiner’s shine kit Whether he’s feeling a Memento Mori or loss, Roger’s season will be defined by death

And then there’s the show’s third primary character: history After returning from his Back Street Girl downstairs, Don picks up The New York Times with a headline, “World Bids Adieu To a Violent Year; City Gets Snowfall ” If closely examined, the paper also has an article on presidential hopeful and segregationist Governor of Alabama, George C Wallace (noting both the year ’ s racial unrest and contentious election) next to an article commenting on the US-backed South Vietnamese Government (acknowledging the war and the resulting anti-war movement) Weiner will have to couple these four themes with the death of MLK Jr and RFK; the Chicago ’68 Democratic National Convention; the Tet Offensive and the year in which album sales peaked as the musical stage was set for Woodstock Weiner has a lot on his hands historically, but it is clear that he has begun to articulate the show’s conclusion The episode features three utterances of the notion that ‘bad things

the cliches, is still engaging Wasikowska's India spends too much of the earlier parts of the movie tr ying to be a female Edward Cullen When the stor y opens up a bit more and the mysteries she encounters shock her out of her sullenness, India becomes an interesting character to watch Her missteps and triumphs are not typical teenage fare, but they still spring from India's growing determination not to be a child There is one rather heavy-handed scene in which India exchanges saddles shoes, a poor fashion choice that she has maintained for entire life, for a pair of alligator-skin pumps Apparently, being a grown woman requires you to risk breaking your ankle Having sur vived all this, the India that emerges is cool, polished, and self-assured heroine, a satisfying end to an unsatisfying movie

Laura Boland is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences She can be reached at ljb259@cornell edu

produce good outcomes ’ Don’s rival (and I predict Peggy’s future love interest) Ted Chaough tells Peggy, “It always takes a crisis to sell work this good”; Don says, “death has to happen for you to go to heaven”; and a heart surgeon remarks, people will do anything to get rid of anxiety ” Given that the season takes place in 1968, a notoriously ‘bad year ’ for America, these statements could portend the show’s characters descent into anxiety, reliefseeking, work or consumption Instead, I think it ties into Roger’s doorway analogy Roger claims that life is just a bunch of doors or bridges leading to the same obstacles that came before All the characters and America’s optimistic youth believe that the bad will produce the good, change will occur, oppressions will end, but in a show that is about change, Weiner seems to be arguing that at the decade’s end, at the series’ near-end, not much has changed, not much does

Henry Staley is a freshman in the College of Art Architecture and Planning He can be reached at hstaley@cornellsun com Politicizing Art appears alternate Fridays this semester

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HAROLD

SEYMOUR LECTURE IN SPORTS HISTORY

Professor S tanley Enger man

John Munro Professor of Economics Universit y of Rochester

Monday, Apr il 15th, 4:30 p.m.

“Ford

Fr ick, Mar vin Miller and th e Revolutions in American Spor ts” 165 McGraw Hall Free and Open to the Public

half, but he was a definite spark in the early goings for the Wolverines

Despite seeing his team squander a 12point lead to only a one-point advantage heading into halftime, Michigan’s head coach, John Beilein delivered a wonderful and motivating halftime speech to his players There was no yelling, there was no blaming, there were no chairs thrown He was encouraging and proud, like a head coach should be of a team in the national championship game After the game, he continued to praise his players while graciously crediting Louisville’s performance, demonstrating great class

On the other side the winning side is Louisville The Cardinals were lead by their lone senior player, Peyton Siva His story is absolutely incredible Growing up in a troubled neighborhood in Seattle, Siva found an escape through sports from the drug and gang activity surrounding him both at home and at school Even more

impressive, though, is that as he found his outlet in sports throughout high school, he allowed other friends and teammates to stay at his house on weekends to serve as a safehouse to help others avoid drugs and gang activity

He turned out an incredible championship game, which was topped off by a backdoor dunk with 6:25 remaining to seemingly put the game away As Stacey King would say, “Big time players make big time plays ”

Luke Hancock, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, comes off of Louisville’s bench That’s right He’s not even a starter He completely took over the game at a point when Michigan held a 12point lead with three minutes remaining in the first half after draining a three point field goal He went on to score 14 straight points to finish out the first half and give Louisville the energy they needed to start the second half He played 30 minutes in the game and scored 22 points

Finally, on the Louisville side, I’d like to mention Kevin Ware He snapped his tibia

in the regional championship game against Duke in what was undoubtedly one of the most gruesome sports injuries I have ever seen Thanks to the horrors of the Internet, people have been able to slow down the replay enough to capture a shot of his leg bent at a 90 degree angle just before snapping The most gross I understand that this is not an unheard of occurrence, but unlike football, where pads help to hide some of the more traumatic injuries, Ware’s leg seemingly broke in half Players started crying, passing out and throwing up That’s not a normal event

So, the fact that Ware was able to attend Monday night’s game after a successful surgery to motivate his team was an uplifting story Despite his crutches, the net was lowered so that Ware could make the final cut to bring down the championship net A true storybook ending to the game

Overall, this was an incredibly fascinating game to watch From the individual storylines to the momentum shifts in the game itself, it was ideal It was a perfect

championship game, in my opinion (minus the refs, but that is to be expected)

Finally, one last element of perfection to this championship game, and it’s almost too perfect to even share: the winning entry o n E S P N ’ s To u r n a m

which had 8 15 million entries this year was composed by a gentleman named Craig Gilmore The name of his bracket? Lennay Kekua’s Entry Per my column earlier this semester, “Notre Shame,” you should know that this is the name of the fictitious girlfriend of Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o

Mr Gilmore, you have done a wonderful thing As D J Gallo of ESPN said, “I feel like I’ve now been alive to witness a human achievement as triumphant as Neil Armstrong walking on the moon Thank you, Mr Gilmore And thank you, too, Ms Kekua; your fiction made this reality possible ” All around, this NCAA tournament was truly one for the ages

Annie Newcomb can be

Red Heads to Bucknell For Next Competition

TRACK & FIELD

Continued from page 16

Roig winning the 400m and senior J D Adarquah winning the 100m

With a little over three weeks remaining before the outdoor Heps finals hosted by Princeton, both the men and women ’ s teams are heading to the Bucknell Invite this weekend The men ’ s team is also sending a smaller squad to compete at George Mason

“This Bucknell meet is going to be exciting,” Bowman said “It’s usually one of our highlight meets We’ve got our whole team competing We’ll see some really good teams there’ll be probably eight to 10 really good teams there ”

Taylor said that as the season progresses, the men ’ s team looks to compete against stronger competition to prepare for the championship part of the season

“It’s a bigger meet, ” he said “All of the stuff we do during the regular season is designed to build towards the Heps and the rest of the championship part of the season I think some of the events will be really competitive The men are sending a team of about a dozen to George Mason to see some different competition We’re looking for a little bit more competition all of the time ”

Bowman also said he and his staff tell the athletes that the season is about development

“The whole season is a process, ” he said “If they follow the process, they’ll arrive at the end successfully It would help a lot if we could be outdoors more often, but we ’ re happy to have Barton Hall ” Taylor added that upcoming meet will help the team prepare for the championship portion of the season

“[The Bucknell Invite] turns up the heat a little bit,” he said “It turns up the focus and the competition For us, going against better and better teams gives us a better sense of the possibilities of what we can do ”

Juan Carlos Toledo can be reached at jtoledo@cornellsun com

Brain game | Catcher Kristen Towne attributes part of the Red’s struggles this season to mental lapses

Although the Red ranks second in the Ivy League in batting average and runs, it has the second-worst

Red Heads to Columbia For Four-Game Series

By SCOTT ECKL Sun Staff Writer

d i v i s i o n , l o o k i n g u p t o Pe n n a t 7 - 1 “ T h i s s e r i e s a g a i n s t C o l u m b i a i s ve r y i m p o r t a n t f o r o u r s t a n c e i n t h e So u t h e r n Di v i s i o n , ” s e n i o r c a t c h e r K r i s t e n Tow n e s a i d “ We d i d n ’ t d o a s we l l a s we h o p e d a g a i n s t t h e No r t h Di

“We’re just focusing on

i n n i n g , 1 1 - 2 , l o s s t o Ha r va rd l a s t we e k T h e t e a m h a d t w o s c h e d u l e d g a m e s a t Sy r a c u s e t h i s we e k , b u t

w a s n o t a b l e t o p l a y d u e t o i n c l e m e n t we a t h e r

“A g a i n s t C o l u m b i a , we n e e d t o f o c u s o n l e t t i n g u p a s f e w r u n s a s p o s s i b l e a n d

m a k i n g o u r d e f e n s i ve g a m e a s t i g h t a s p o s s i b l e , ” Tow n e s a i d “ We h a ve b e e n h i tt i n g we l l , b u t o u r l o s s e s h a ve c o m e f ro m m e n t a l l a p s e s o n d e f e n s e a n d n o t g e t t i n g t h e j o b d o n e t h e re ” Tow n e ’ s e m p h a s i s o n t h e t e a m ’ s m e n t a l i t y d u r i n g g a m e s re f l e c t s t h e w a y t h e s e as o n h a s g o n e f o r C o r n e l l T h e t e a m i s s e c o n d i n t h e Iv y L e a g u e i n b a t t i n g a ve r a g e w i t h 0 3 0 8 a n d s e c o n d i n r u n s w i t h 1 4 7 , b u t i t h a s t h e s e c o n d -

Meyer ’16 Quali es for Nationals With First-Place Zones Finish

By ARIEL COOPER Sun Assistant Sports Editor

As the equestrian team ’ s post-season begins to wind down, one rider is still in the running for a national title, as freshman Meridith Meyer is moving on to nationals after receiving a blue ribbon in open flat

The Red sent four riders to the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association’s Zone Finals this weekend Although the Red did not make it to zones as a team, four riders had strong results at regionals and were able to advance In addition to her first place finish in open flat, Meyers placed eighth in open fences Sophomores Madeleine Breen and Georgiana de Rham placed fifth in novice flat and open fences respectively, while junior Amanda Sevcik came in sixth place for novice fences

“I feel extremely blessed to have made it all the way to IHSA Nationals as a freshman,” Meyer said “It is a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to go to Nationals and I am so excited to have made it ”

Last year, Zone Finals was held at Skidmore The Thoroughbreds are a highly competitive team and formerly the Red’s biggest regional rival until the ISHA restructured the regions about two years ago This year, the competition was hosted at C W Post’s North Shore Equestrian Center The Long Island barn is one that most of the upstate N Y schools are largely unfamiliar with

“It was really great, ” head coach Todd Karn said of the facility “The ring was beautiful The ring was big, [and] the courses were really really nice I thought it was interesting because all the schools ended up there not knowing the horses really, and it made everything pretty fair, I thought ”

In the ISHA, the teams use the horses provided to them by the host school rather than transporting their own horses to every competition As a result, the host school usually has the advantage of competing on the horses that they normally practice on

Like Meyer, de Rham also made it to nationals as a freshman Despite the fact that she was unable to repeat last year ’ s performance, de Rham said she was still pleased with her ride

“I got really positive feedback from Todd which is what matters to me, ” she said “I think Todd was surprised with

where I placed in the class, but I am content with it Riding is such a humbling pursuit Honestly, I was quite nervous, and I am glad I kept my head together and put in a solid round I am happy with how I rode ”

Since equitation is such a subjective sport, it can be very difficult to determine the winner of each competition Karn, who has years of experience both competing in and judging horse shows himself, said an extra judge may improve the quality of the results

“I’ve actually suggested in the future that with such a subjective [sport] like equitation where it’s just one person ’ s opinion and [with] the zones [competition] being so important that they have two judges and do an average [of their scores],” he said

Although the riders were all competing as individuals, team spirit remained strong both before and during the show

“Even though noncollegiate riding is an ‘individual’ sport, in reality, all equestrian competition at any level involves a team effort the preparation involved in getting horse and rider to the ring includes and relies upon numerous individuals,” de Rham said “For Zones, I relied not only on the other Zone qualifiers but on the other girls who came to help with chores at our smaller practices, our captains who supported us, [sophomore] Mary Beth [Hannon], [sophomore] Sofia [Steinberger], [freshman] Jennifer [Slaughter] who came to watch and the barn crew at the Oxley who encouraged us; the list goes on and on ”

There is one last team competition left for the Red Each year, the Ivy League holds a horse show exclusively for the eight Ivy League colleges Last year, Cornell placed second behind rival Brown The show is the final opportunity for most of the riders to compete this season A total of 23 girls are competing and 25 are making the trip to Hanover, N H , for the competition, which will be hosted by Dartmouth Brown and Dartmouth are typically Cornell’s biggest competitors at Ivies

“A lot of people are going, but there are three or four that are going but not competing because they’re girls that we added at the middle of the year, and we want them to go and use this as an opportunity to see a show before next season when they might have to compete, ” senior tri-captain Emily Kowalchik said

The team is ready to go and is hoping to bring the Ivy League trophy back home to Ithaca

“We haven’t really let off the gas pedal since the regular season shows stopped We’ve been continuing to practice and get ready,” Kowalchik said “We’re really ready to take back the trophy this year ”

La xers Fall to Syracuse After Late Orange O f fensive Surge

By SKYLER DALE Sun Staff Writer

With just 22 seconds remaining in a game that had gone back and forth for nearly 60 minutes, Cornell senior midfielder Connor English beat his defender, drew back his stick and fired the ball at the Syracuse goal only to have the shot deflect off the cross-bar, preventing the Red from tying up the match and ending Wednesday’s game in a 1312 loss to the Orange

No 2 Cornell (10-2, 4-0 Ivy) entered the contest on a four-game winning streak that included successes over Ivy League rivals Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth

Wednesday’s game against No 8 Syracuse began in Cornell’s favor with an assisted goal by Max Van Bourgondien, followed by goals from Steve Mock, John Hogan and Connor Buczek, each assisted by redshirt senior attackman Rob Pannell

After the Red’s strong start, the Orange responded by scoring four of the next six goals to cut the Red’s lead in half at the end of the first quarter, 6-4

According to Pannell, the Red missed the chance to secure a comfortable lead

“We had a number of opportunities both offensively and defensively to put Syracuse away and extend our lead to four or five goals,” he said “But [we] didn’t capitalize and allowed Syracuse to hang around ”

The Red had another chance to jump out to a big lead with three straight goals two at the end of the second and one in the beginning of the third from Buczek to give the Red a 9-6 advantage

The Red was again unable to contain a Syracuse comeback, however, and by the end of the third, the

Cornell lead was down to just one

The Orange took its first lead with just over six minutes left in the fourth period and then extended that lead to two goals with five minutes to play

The Red fought back with an unassisted goal from English to cut the lead to 13-12, but was unable to score for the next four minutes and suffered its second defeat of the season when English’s shot to tie the game fell short

“Connor had a good match up and we couldn’t have asked for a better look at the cage, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way, ” Pannell said “That one play doesn’t determine the outcome of the game, though ”

The Red defense, which allows just eight goals a game, was unable to hold Syracuse’s offensive ability and prowess at the midfielder position

“I think our defense was lacking tonight in a major way, ” head coach Ben DeLuca said in a statement after the game “We had a lot of unforced errors on our end and Syracuse like all good teams do took advantage ”

Despite the loss, the Red sits atop the Ivy League, and, according to Pannell, the team can use the game as a learning experience moving forward

“We learned that we can be as good as we want to be or bad as we want to be, and that we are our own worst enemy, ” he said “We lost ourselves that game by making a number of mistakes [We] need to learn from them and limit them as we move forward in facing a tough opponent in Brown next Saturday ”

Oxford, Cambridge Challenge Red

By JUAN CARLOS TOLEDO Sun Staff Writer

The Red was back in action this past weekend,

h o s t i n g a t h l e t e s f r o m

Oxford, Cambridge and Penn as par t of the traditional Transatlantic Series

The Red teamed up with Penn to take on the Brits a t t h e Ro b e r t J K a n e Spor ts Complex, and the combined American team came out victorious on both sides, with a 15-4 v i c t

i c

B o w m a n noted how easy it was to get his team excited to compete in this meet

Woolley won the 400m hurdles in a time of 61 67

Men’s head coach Nathan Taylor said he was pleased with the match, commenting on the degree of competitiveness he saw from his team

“In general, I thought there were a lot of great individual p e r f o r -

“Anytime in the Ivy League when you talk about traditions, it gets people more excited ”

“Anytime in the Ivy League when you can talk about traditions, it gets people more excited,” he said “This is part of our history They were ready to go; they were excited for it ” Senior co-captain Victoria Imbesi was one of the top performers, netting three events wins in the shotput, javelin and discus Freshman Claire DeVoe won the 3K steeplechase in 10:31 51, junior Ebolutalese Airewele won the 200m in a time of 24 80 and junior Ryan

m a n c e s , ” he said “I w a s p l e a s e d with how

c o m p e t itive everyone was in the face of less than ideal weather It was great It was nice to see [junior] Peter Roach do well ” Roach, who sat out the indoor season with a high ankle sprain, won the pole va

Also performing well for t h e Re d w a

Montez Blair, who took

7’ 25,” junior Steven Bell with a win in the long jump, senior Bruno Ho

This year ’ s NCAA tournament was one full of surprises, as it is almost every year (with the exception being 2008, in which all the #1 seeds made the Final Four, which no one predicted anyway because it never happens)

In a fitting end to an exciting season, this year ’ s c h a m p i o n s h i p g a m e b e t we e n L o u i s v i l l

Michigan did not disappoint For the first time in a long time, I was not cheering against a team that I hate, which was a wonderful relief Yes, I’m looking at you, Kentucky

Newcomb

I wanted to touch on a few of the elements that contributed to the overall story of this year ’ s championship game While any of these individuals merit their own column, I will merely make you aware of their excellence to encourage further investigation

I’ll start with the team that was not the victor, Michigan Sadly, this was not the year that the Big Ten would win its first championship since the Michigan State Spartans won it all back in 2000 However, there were still some positive aspects to relish in their loss

First and foremost, Spike Albrecht Incredible name, and incredible first half for this freshman He seemingly came out of nowhere to score 17 points in the first 20 minutes and help catapult Michigan to their early lead in this game after coming off the bench Unfortunately, he went cold in the second