05 8 17 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Inside a Cornell Title IX Investigati

Court documents expose a process previously hidden from public

By DREW MUSTO

Sun Senior Editor

Hours before the moment in 2015 that sparked a Cornell Title IX investigation and two lawsuits, Sally Roe and James Doe began their nights as many students do in college towns across the country, by leaving a fraternity house and venturing off campus to locate a party

The two students, whose real names The Sun is withholding, spent about an hour in Ithaca’s Collegetown before returning to the fraternity house Doe’s and receding to Doe’s bedroom alone

What happened next was the subject of a nearly five-monthlong Cornell Title IX Office investigation based largely on text messages, a friend who spoke to Roe later that night and a Title IX investigator’s assessment of each student’s credibility The investiga-

OZ ER

tor ’ s ultimate decision that Doe should be suspended for at least a year was later overturned by the University’s highest appellate panel for Title IX investigations, and Doe is suing the University for what he says was a “fatally flawed” investigation

Cornell requires all parties to keep confidential anything they learn in the course of Title IX investigations, meaning the Title IX Office’s inner workings are rarely exposed to the public Court documents from one of Doe’s two lawsuits give an inside look at how the University’s Title IX Office handled the complex case, shedding light on how at least one Title IX investigator came to a conclusion

Elizabeth McGrath, the Title IX investigator whose investigative report happened to become public record, attempted to handle a difficult charge: to find the truth between two irreconcilable narra-

/

Cold as vice | Then Sen Joe Biden campaigns for U S Vice President with supporters at an ice cream shop in Florida in 2008

Cornell Dairy to Make Biden Memes Reality

By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS Sun City Editor

Cornell Dair y is teaming up with the Cornell Convocation Committee to name an ice cream flavor after former vice president Joe Biden, who will speak at this year ’ s convocation on May

27 Biden is known for his love of the frozen treat, which has spawned a Tumblr page, countless internet memes and led to his donning aviator sunglasses and diving into a cone with Jimmy Fallon

“My name is Joe

Biden, and I love ice cream, ” the 47th vice president declared in May of 2016 “You all think I'm kidding I'm not I eat more ice cream than the three other people you'd like to be with, all at once ” So when the

See BIDEN page 3

tives

Both Doe and Roe agree that when they got back to Doe’s room, they began to kiss consensually Their stories diverge from there, with Roe alleging that Doe took things too far by trying to unhook her bra despite her repeated demands that he not

Doe ignored her protests and became even more aggressive, Roe alleges, violently yanking her hair,

lacing his finge her neck and ch for about five se matter of self-d Roe says, she p ed Doe’s geni and left th room

Doe’s story

See TITLE IX page 4

Grad-Only Housing Renovations

Set for August 2018 Completion

By ANNA DELWICHE Sun News Editor

Construction is underway at the future Maplewood Apartments complex after Cornell officials and developers symbolically broke ground at the site Friday afternoon

The complex will be exclusively available for Cornell graduate and professional students

The original

M a p l e w o o d A p a r t m e n t s , built in 1989, was demolished last winter amid plans for re-

c o n s t r u c t i o n The former complex had capacity for 360 beds, though was built of “ poor quality” with an anticipated “short life span, ” Ithaca local Tessa Rudan ’89 previously told The Sun Construction for the new complex is expected to be com-

COURTESY OF EDR COLLEGIATE HOUSING

pleted in August 2018

The developer and manager of the site, Education Realty Trust (EdR), has led the redevelopment project with collaboration from the University Nathaniel Rogers, grad, president of Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly,

lauded the developer and the University for their inclusion of input from graduate students at the ceremony on Friday

Beds and beyond | Buildings at the periphery of the site (located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street just outside the City of Ithaca’s east edge) will feature traditional designs reflecting their context ( b e l o w ) , while those within the site will have a more contemporary look ( i n s e t )

“Graduate and professional students were invited to participate early in the design stage and set many of the original goals that made their way into the final plan,” Rogers said “I want to especially thank Jeremy Thomas, Senior Director of Cornell Real Estate Jeremy has done an excellent job of keeping graduate and professional students not just informed of what was going on, but has made us actual partners in this project ”

C o r n e l l currently has capacity for only four percent of its graduate and professional students on campus, forcing the rest to seek housing in Ithaca, according to a resolution passed by the GPSA in September

The new complex is expected to house 872 new beds in 442 units of apartments including studio units and one, two, three and four-bedroom apartments and townhouses, according to a presentation by Jeffrey Re-

See MAPLEWOOD page 4

- 6 p.m., 404 Morrill Hall

Kripalu Yoga 5 - 6:15 p.m., Garden Room, 215 Willard Straight Hall

McGraw Tower

Cornell Alum Makes Run for County Legislature

By NICHOLAS BOGELBURROUGHS Sun City Editor

When Reed Steberger ’13 woke up in an apartment on the Ithaca Commons on Nov 9, the 27-yearold wasn ’ t just worried about the future of the countr y under President Donald Trump, but furious at the Democratic Party

“This was their election to lose, and they lost it,” Steberger said over coffee at Collegetown Bagels this weekend “There were strong voices and clear indications that the strategy they pursued and the candidate they chose wasn ’ t going to stand up to the fight ”

The Cornell graduate said progressives need to “do things that we didn’t think we had to do” and “ step up into new roles if we want

“If we’re going to win change, people need to care about what they’re fighting for ” R e e d S t e b

r g e r ’ 1 3

to fight back against this agenda ”

Steberger is now running as a Democrat to represent District Four, which covers all of Collegetown and the Ithaca Commons, and is running against incumbent Rich John, also a Democrat

Steberger, a community activist and facilitator who has never run for public office, said members of the campaign plan to knock on every door in the district by the Democratic primary vote on Sept 12

“We’re going to build a people’s platform, and what that means is, if we ’ re going to win change, peo-

Moves Into Its Second Year

By DENA BEHAR Sun Staff Writer

Ezra Box, a star tup that has proclaimed itself the “Airbnb” f o r s

o

g

,

c

C

l students who need a place to s t o r e t h e i r b e l o n g i n g s w i t h other Cornell students who are either staying in Ithaca or leasing their houses for the summer

Created by a group of stud e n t s i n t h e I n

St

d e v i s e a

Un

o

c o s t alternative solution to Cornell’s more expensive option, Ezra Box was initiated in Fall 2015 and first operated last summer

ple need to care about what they’re fighting for and the Legislature needs to reflect what people actually care about,” the New Jerseynative said

Steberger has been in Ithaca for four years since graduating from Cornell, where the candidate studied environmental issues in an interdisciplinary curriculum

Asked about the biggest issues the budding campaign is prepared to take on, Steberger began with immigration, noting the recent arrest of a Mexican immigrant in Ithaca by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers

“Our community needs to make it extremely clear that ICE is not welcome here and we ’ re going to fight for our friends, our neighbors, our family members and classmates,” Steberger said

Asked if local government should go farther and defy federal law, Steberger said the community needs “ to have a conversation about what’s necessary to protect people, and then we need to do what’s necessary to protect people ”

“Maybe the Legislature can say this is a sanctuary city, but as a community we need to be a rebel city ” On Housing, Steberger said all stakeholders need to be involved in any Legislature actions and the voices of tenants, homeowners and small landlords must be prioritized

“Any just housing strategy is going to have clear, clear provisions that support tenants ’ rights and advocacy, and that provide clear channels for tenants to organize for and advocate for themselves,” said Steberger, who noted that rising rent could make the Cornell graduate’s Commons apartment unaffordable in two years

Often left out of the conversation, the Democratic candidate said, are candid discussions about how rising prices are impacting local populations

“What’s missing is an analysis of equity and social justice,” Steberger said “How is this impacting low-income residents of color? People under the age of 35? Working people? How is this impacting immigrants? We need to name the people that the system is not helping right now ”

The Legislature has “done a lot of talking for years, ” Steberger said “It’s not a new conversation ” Those conversations should prioritize low-income families who will be able to work and live in the City of Ithaca, said Steberger, adding that the he 210 Hancock

See LEGISLATURE page 4

Tight spaces | The founders of Ezra Box, a campus startup that connects students with storage options, hope to take their product to other colleges

summer, cr ushing its expectation to transact 50 boxes The company ’ s ser vices saved C o r n e l l s t u d e n t s $ 3 , 2 0 0 , c ofounder Yash Malhotra ’18 told The Sun The storage rates are l e s s t h a n h a l f t h e p r i c e o f Cornell’s units, Malhotra said

company has received positive feedback from customers, the Ezra Box team is still working to improve After students comp

m

v e boxes to the host, Ezra Box par tnered with JoyRun to transpor t boxes for Ezra Box customers this summer Ezra Box is looking to

The student-run startup helped 43 Cornellians store 170 boxes last year, crushing its expetations and saving the students at least $3,200.

T h e c o m p a n y, nearly two years in, is still attached to the union for funding and logistical reasons, b u t i t i s i n t h e p r o c e s s o f becoming a separate organization

T h e c o m p a n y h e l p e d 4 3

Cornellians store 170 boxes last

Student Assembly’s diversity

$3,600 to the group to develop its website, where those looking to store their belongings can connect with potential hosts

Malhotra said that while the

, founders said, hoping to

countr y This summer, and in the future, the company plans to “ ser ve more students and pro-

storage, ” Malhotra said

Dena Behar can be reached at dbehar@cornellsun com

Joe Biden Memes Come

BIDEN Continued from page 1

announced Biden would be

a t S c h o e l l k o p f Fi e l d , Mo l l y Mandel ’17, who interned f o r t h e C o r n e l l D a i r y Processing Plant last semester, immediately thought of c r e a t i n g a f l a v o r f o r t h e former Delaware senator “ We need to make a flavor f o r Jo e B i d e n , ” M a n d e l

t e x t e d t o De a n n a Si m o n s , quality manager and academ i c p r o g r a m s c o o r d i n a t o r for Cornell Dair y S i m o n s s a i d s h e i s a “ h u g e f a n ” o f Bi d e n , b u t h a d n o i d e a h e w a s s o p a ss i o n a t e a b o u t i c e c r e a m u n t i l Ma n d e l p o i n t e d h e r t o t h e d o z e n s o f p i c t u r e s o n l i n e “ There’s these pictures of him eating all kinds of ice

c r e a m , ” S i m o n s s a i d “ I didn’t even know how to figure out what his favorite ice cream is ” Biden earned his bachelor’s degree from University o f D e l a w a r e , s o S i m o n s called the UDair y Creamer y, which said there had never been an ice cream named after the vice president and that his favorite flavor is oldfashioned chocolate chip

The project really kicked i n t o g e a r a f t e r a f i c t i o n a l Facebook event page spr ung u p t i t l e d , “ Jo e Bi d e n e a t s C o r n e l l Da i r y i c e c re a m , ” and more than 3,000 people indicated their interest

Cornell Dair y took note

o f t h e o v e r w h e l m i n g response and began to make Cornell students’ memes a c o l d - h a r d r e a l i t y, f i l l i n g about 30 three-gallon tubs with vanilla-based ice cream and chocolate chips

Narrowing a list of 150

suggested flavor names down to five, Convocation Comm i t t e e C h a i r M a t t h e w Baumel ’17 set up a vote on the final possibilities, which w i l l r u n u n t i l 1 1 : 5 9 o n Monday night

The five possible names are: Biden’s Chocolate Bites; B i t s ’ n ’ B i d e n ; B i g R e d , White & Biden; Not Your Av

C

s Chocolate Chip “ We d o n ’ t k n o w w h y [ B i

“There’s these pictures of [Joe Biden] eating all kinds of ice cream.”

D e a n n a S i m o n s

duty to help out here,” Mandel added “I think it’s common sense for Cornell Dair y to

The

Biden’s representatives, but there are tentative plans to scoop the ice cream at convocation and possibly sell it in the week leading up to the festivities

“If it gains momentum, we’ll make more, ” Simons said “ We’re keeping our fingers crossed, we ’ re holding our breaths ”

Texts Give ‘Clearest Record’ in Title IX Case

TITLE IX

Continued from page 4

is different

After kissing consensually, Doe says Roe pinned his wrists to his bed, sat on top of him and began kissing him aggressively, gestures that made Doe uncomfortable since he had been sexually assaulted in the past, he said

Doe says he asked Roe to be more gentle, but, when she refused, tried to shift Roe off his body by placing his hand on her collarbone and firmly pushing Less than half a second after he put his hand on Roe’s collarbone, Roe punched him in the genitals, he says

Tasked with determining which of the two accounts was “ more likely than not ” to have been true a standard of proof required by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights McGrath had little to work with There were the two competing reports, interviews with several people who spoke to one or both of the students afterward, and other evidence, like text messages between Doe and Roe on the morning after the incident and a picture of Doe’s bedroom

As is typical in Title IX cases handled by universities across the country, neither Roe nor Doe had the right to cross examine the other, to confront witnesses or to be represented by an attorney

Cornell’s Title IX Office received 32 formal complaints of sexual violence or sexual harassment during the 2014-15 and 201516 academic years under Policy 6 4, the University’s statute governing procedures for those allegations, according to the office’s statistics

Investigators found 20 students responsible, 11 not responsible and dismissed one complaint, and of the 20 found responsible, eight were dismissed, 10 suspended and two placed on probation

‘Appearance, Demeanor and Frankness’

The evidence in the case of Doe and Roe did not point overwhelmingly to one conclusion Asked which party they thought was more tr uthful, most witnesses including the two closest to the situation said they did not know

McGrath, who no longer works at Cornell, wrote in the investigative report that she would have to rely on her own “ commonsense [sic], life experience, knowledge of human nature, and good judgment” to render a decision

The investigator began her report by considering the parties’ “general credibility and character,” including “ appearance,

demeanor and frankness ”

Asked how investigators assess such characteristics, Title IX Coordinator Sarah B Affel told The Sun that “Cornell provides extensive internal and external training” to investigators “ on all aspects of their jobs, and consistent with federal and state laws, regulations and guidance on training ”

After discussing her impressions of the parties including her feeling that Doe was socially awkward McGrath’s credibility analysis involved looking for inconsistencies in their stories

The investigator found several inconsistencies in Roe’s account Roe originally said she met Doe in Collegetown rather than in his fraternity house, falsely said she had never been to Doe’s fraternity house before that night, and initially failed to tell McGrath that she was friends with one of Doe’s fraternity brothers, a relevant detail because he was one of the witnesses

McGrath also noted that Roe asked the University to extend Doe’s interim suspension, saying his presence at Cornell gave her anxiety, but returned to Doe’s fraternity house less than 24 hours after their initial encounter and several more times later that week, although she did not interact with Doe during these subsequent visits

These discrepancies were not significant, McGrath said, because they did not “ concern the incident at hand” and were “likely a result of [Roe’s] wish to keep details of her life private ”

As for Doe, McGrath said some of his comments “seemed incredible or were inconsistent,” such as when he took off his own shirt and asked Roe to take hers off, in spite of his discomfort with Roe’s allegedly aggressive behavior

Doe also admitted to modifying his own written reports of the incident after speaking with his lawyer, McGrath said It was not clear what changed between Doe’s initial and final drafts, but Doe’s testimony was “consistent with a document he admittedly changed after he first wrote it,” the investigator said

A text message conversation between Doe and Roe the morning after their encounter, McGrath said, was “the clearest record of their feelings toward one another after the incident and before there was a suggestion of an investigation or complaint ”

Doe initiated the exchange, screenshots of which were filed in Tompkins County Court, six or seven hours after the incident in his bedroom:

DO E: I have no interest in you, but I don’t like to leave bad feelings to ferment If you would like to calmly talk sometime, I feel like it would clarify any misunderstand-

ings

RO E: I’m honestly scared to be around you now

D : That’s exactly why I think there’s a misunderstanding The moment you implied you weren ’ t having fun I implored you to leave

R : BS you did

D : Fine, don’t talk it out with me If you want to let your own insecurities control you, it’s your problem, not mine

R : I’m sorry I told you to stop multiple times and yet you decided to choke me

D : Now I’m starting to realize the misunderstanding I, possibly as my own fault, never understood you telling me this I apologize

R : I hate talking about this over txt

McGrath trained her sights on Doe’s final text, writing,“The investigator considers this final message to be an admission of some type of unwanted conduct on his behavior ” The texts, in part, led to her conclusion that Roe’s allegation that Doe choked her was more likely than not to be true

‘Motive and Opportunity to Lie’

As part of the investigation, McGrath then assessed each party ’ s “motive and opportunity to lie ” She found that Doe had a possible reason and opportunity to lie, noting that he only complained of being punched in the testicles after the Office of the Judicial Administrator issued him a temporary suspension due to Roe’s initial complaint under the Campus Code of Conduct

The “timing and nature ” of Doe’s complaint “ supports an inference that it was part of a strategy to lift the [interim] suspension rather than a good faith belief that he was the victim of sexual violence,” McGrath wrote in the Motive to Lie section of the report

McGrath also thought it odd that when Doe’s fraternity brothers confronted him about the choking allegations, Doe responded by saying that Roe should not have considered his actions choking because he is practiced in BDSM McGrath thought Doe’s reaction in this “unguarded” moment belied his candid thoughts since he, directly confronted by this fraternity brothers, had no opportunity to conjure a fake story

The investigator said Doe’s allegedly candid response was “ a bizarre response to make while also maintaining that he was the victim ”

Doe’s attorney maintains in the federal lawsuit that Doe was never interviewed prior to being given the interim suspension, a claim that court documents support

McGrath said Roe, on the other hand, “seemed to disclose the alleged sexual assault in an effort to get help from friends and the University ” After Roe filed the initial complaint with the OJA, Doe filed a report of his own, as well as a complaint under Policy 6 4 Roe then filed a Policy 6 4 complaint as well

McGrath also said Roe had no opportunity to lie because, according to one of the witnesses, Roe walked out of Doe’s room and immediately said she had been choked, indicating that the story was true and not contrived

McGrath wrote that one witness “described Roe’s face as red and said she looked disheveled as though she had been crying” when she left Doe’s room

The investigator’s comments were based on a witness who said “[Roe’s] cheeks were flushed I don’t really recall much more Maybe her hair was a little bit disheveled” and that Roe “seemed like she was tearing Wait was she? I feel like it was more like very flustered and not really maybe her eyes looked red, but it might not have been from tears ”

The same witness said he did not see any finger marks or bruises appear on or around Roe’s neck, according to McGrath’s summary of her interview with the witness

Taking all the evidence together, McGrath found it “ more likely than not ” that Doe choked Roe in the fraternity that night in 2015 She said she gave “ great weight” to Roe’s conversation with the witness after leaving Doe’s room, the text messages and Doe’s “claim about being skilled in the art of BDSM when first told about the investigation ”

McGrath’s decision was that since Roe’s story was “ more likely than not ” to be true, Doe was guilty of sexual assault under Policy 6 4 the only violent offense federallyfunded universities are required to adjudicate

Doe should be suspended indefinitely, but at least for one year, McGrath determined, saying the sanction “ attempts to balance Cornell’s interest in keeping members of [the] Cornell community safe, while remaining fair to [Doe] ”

The University’s highest appeal board under Policy 6 4 simply called the “Appeal Panel” struck down McGrath’s suggested suspension nine months later, placing Doe on probation instead

Representatives for Doe and Roe were each contacted for this story and declined to comment

Drew Musto can be reached at dmusto@cornellsun com

County Candidate Says Ithaca Yet to ‘Earn’ Progressive Label

LEGISLATURE

Continued from page 3

St development caused a lot of commotion from residents who

w o r r i e d a b o u t c o n s t r u c t i o n noise, shadows and traffic, but will give dozens a place to live

“ We c a n r a i s e c o n c e r n s

a b o u t h o w a n e w b u i l d i n g where an old coffee shop used to be changes the pattern of our daily life that’s real,” the candidate acknowledged “But if those changes mean that families who are working to support themselves and their children can live here, if that means that there are living-wage jobs so more people can afford to live in town, if that means that there are restaurants that my friends can work at those c h a n g e s a r e t h i n g s t h a t w e should embrace ”

Steberger also noted the proposed jail expansion and jail

s t u d y, w h i c h t h e c a n d i d a t e ’ s opponent, John, leads as chair of the Jail Study Committee

“ What’s troubled me, ” the 27-year-old said, “is when you review the videos of these m e e t i n g s , y o u d o n ’ t s e e t h e words ‘ mass incarceration,’ you don’t see the words, ‘ new Jim Crow ’ I don’t think we can have an honest conversation if we ’ re not using those words ” Steberger, who is “unequivocally not for the jail expansion,” was one of many stakeholders who co-coordinated a community read of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which more than 800 people engaged with over many months “Ithaca likes to think that reality is elsewhere, that we can do things in a more progressive way, that we can have a more progressive and humane jail,”

Steberger said “Right now we

need to earn that reputation and we don’t earn that reputation ” Tompkins County may not be able to stop the jail expan-

interactions with the State, but added that more alternatives must be proposed to “chip away and end the new Jim Crow in our community ” D

opinion on the Ithaca Plan which includes creating injection sites, where residents could inject heroin under the super vision of medical professionals Steberger said the community should “deal with public health issues as public health issues

r

justice tools ” Climate is also a major issue for the young Democrat’s campaign, and Steberger said developers should value the input from residents and, if necessar y,

readjust their projects to be more sustainable

Steberger, who has lived in Ithaca since coming to the city in 2009 for college, said representing the Fourth District is vital because it “is the heart of the city ” “ The mix of young people, of people who work for a living, who live on the Commons, the mix of fall creek residents it’s really so much of our city cont a i n e d i n t h i s d i s t r i c t , ” Steberger said “I think young people, especially students, want to have a g o o d r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h t h i s community and I don’t think t h a t t h e p o l i t i c a l a p p a r a t u s cares to engage them, because if students turned out to vote, things would look much different ”

Reach Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs: nbogel-burroughs@cornellsun com

Continued from page 1

secto, vice president of EdR, at a recent GPSA meeting

Resecto also estimated that rent would be approximately $914 per person, including utilities Noting how “excited the graduate and professional student community is to see the Maplewood redevelopment project come to fruition,” Rogers added at the ceremony that he believes “Maplewood will be the gold standard by which the GPSA will measure its future collaborations with the Cornell Administration and outside partners like EdR ”

DAHLIA WILSON 19 Business Manager

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Associate Editor

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Editorial

R e p. R e e d ’sVo t e f o r A H C A B a d f o r H i s O w n D i s t r i c t

LAST FRIDAY, 217 REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS voted to pass the American Health Care Act, a Trump-supported repeal of the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) Congressman Tom Reed (R-N Y ) was one of those 217; his shameful decision to put party politics over the health care of his constituents will irrevocably taint his legacy in Congress The American Health Care Act is a misguided piece of legislation that, if enacted, could result in the loss of health care for tens of millions, increased premiums for the elderly, reduced protections for those with preexisting conditions (encompassing everything from asthma to pregnancy to cancer to prior sexual assault), and signal the return of lifetime limits and reductions in employer coverage This is a bad bill for America, and a bad bill for New York’s 23rd Congressional District

The American Health Care Act is more regressive tax cut than health care reform The Brookings Institution and Urban Institute estimate that the AHCA would result in an effective tax increase of $350 to $1,420 for families earning under $50,000 a year (50 percent of New York’s 23rd), with the largest increases hitting those with annual incomes under $10,000 At the other end of the spectrum, the AHCA will effectively lower taxes by an estimated $5,640 for families earning more than $200,000 annually (3 percent of New York’s 23rd) A vote for the AHCA is a vote to increase taxes on the least economically secure in our district while simultaneously giving thousands of dollars back to the wealthiest among us

The AHCA cuts coverage, increases premiums and taxes and thrusts the one-quarter of Americans under 65 with pre-existing conditions (including an estimated one-third of the population of New York’s 23rd) into a state of constant and potentially devastating uncertainty Major medical organizations, from the American Medical Association to the American Nurses Association to the AARP and the American Cancer Society, categorically oppose the AHCA Simply put, there is no rational basis for this legislation

There is, however, an irrational one President Trump’s crippling insecurities have led him to aggressively seek any sort of legislative achievement, even one as damaging as the AHCA Both the first and second attempts to repeal Obamacare this year failed not because Republicans were worried about the 24 million who would lose coverage, but because they thought it wasn ’ t quite draconian enough and the president could not stand to appear defeated on this issue Trump wanted something, anything, that he could mindlessly trumpet, and Republicans like Reed were more than happy to oblige Instead of recognizing that the American people were against this harmful bill, Republicans decided to sneak the AHCA through and hope nobody noticed The bill was drafted in dark corners of the Speaker’s office The text of the bill, with its various amendments, is still not public The latest CBO report, sure to show the disastrous effects of the bill, has not yet been released Unlike Obamacare, which passed through over 70 public hearings and markups over the course of a year, the AHCA was workshopped at zero hearings and subject to only one hour of floor debate Republicans are afraid of what will happen when the American people learn exactly what they just voted for

Why didn’t Congressman Reed wait for the CBO score? Why didn’t he wait until after recess to decide on his vote, so he could consult the people of his district before putting their health and finances on the line? Health care should not, and cannot, be a legislative football with which a floundering president can score some cheap political points Congressman Reed claims to represent the 700,000 residents of New York’s 23rd, but it’s clear from today that Reed only has one constituent the one sitting in the White House

Campus Solidarity nd Something That Really Matters

osé Guzman is my neighbor He works with my friends and lives around the corner from my father’s house; he was arrested along my sister’s route to school Guzman was detained on Tuesday by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency That morning, his membership in our community did not matter His contributions and connections, all the constitutive elements of personhood in society, meant nothing when he was taken by an unmarked van That his city wanted him here was unimportant Ithaca’s sanctuary status meant very little as well Yet while Guzman’s arrest is disturbing, it is by no means unique ICE acts with impunity, and its sole constituency is a president who sees less humanity in some than in others For those of us at Cornell who have been shielded by geography from this frightening reality, this week is a reminder that our politics of reactive outrage are often insufficient

The proper context for the week’s events is urgent and troubling To be sure, President Obama’s record on immigration was harsh as well, but the Trump administration has engaged in a concentrated and distinct effort to undermine the rights and conditions of non-native born American residents ICE has arrested over 21,000 people since January, which is a sizeable increase over the same period in either of the two previous years Strikingly, the number of immigrants arrested with no criminal record has doubled Through executive action, the President has removed many of the restrictions that had previously protected millions of undocumented residents from sudden and capricious arrest

The immediate effects of these policies are appalling Immigration detention centers are often dehumanizing and dangerous, and a backlogged court system can leave the accused sitting in a cell for extraordinarily long periods of time Even just the threat of arrest has driven many undocumented communities to avoid law enforcement altogether, sometimes to devastating effects Recent data has shown a drop in reports of domestic violence by undocumented people since Trump took office Taking the administration at its very best, it is difficult to see a benefit to the President’s policies that could justify this damage

Perhaps more troubling, though, is the broader effort that the administration is making to undermine the legitimacy of all immigrants Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case regarding the circumstances in which the government could revoke a person ’ s naturalization status The administration’s lawyers argued that any lie told during the naturalization process could be legitimate grounds for the revocation of citizenship, even decades after the process has ended Pressed on this point, the lawyer conceded that this would, in theory, include such minor omissions as the failure to disclose a speeding ticket This is characteristic of this President, who has previously suggested revoking citizenship for those who burn the American flag The intent, clearly, is to inch toward a world in which the state fully owns a person ’ s right to be considered a citizen

And surely, the rhetoric of the Trump administration has worked to vandalize the perception of people of immigrant populations as well The politics of fear and blame labels a person ’ s entire existence as at odds with the best interests of other Americans Trump has heightened these politics with the introduction of a hotline for “criminal

aliens ” Taken in sum, this narrative exacerbates social divides and makes it easier for Americans to permit the unjust treatment that undocumented people often face

None of this information is particularly novel, but in writing it down I have felt quite a bit of guilt Within days of Guzman’s arrest, hundreds had gathered in protest, and thousands of dollars had been collected to support him It’s a reminder of how visceral, and powerful, community really is However, it should also be a reminder of how limited our solidarity can often be

There is a certain kind of deficient politics that college students are prone to practice, and it is borne mostly of privilege and isolation Universities, often quite intentionally, construct a world that allows attendees

When we are so preoccupied by what it proximate to us, it is much easier to overlook the scope of the problem we are up against.

to fully immerse themselves in the business being a student Naturally, this kind of isolation has the effect of making students hyper aware of their own world and somewhat blind to the real one This is not to say that students aren ’ t aware of the world I think we really are but the way college life is constructed makes this knowledge lose a lot of its bite The human cost of immigration policy is an academic matter, and not one that generates the level of emotive response that we can muster for a disappointing Slope Day performance Thus, when a case like Guzman’s flares up in our proximity, we are ready to act Sustained organization is otherwise rare

The deficiency in our politics has two damaging effects The first is that we are woefully reactive Tragically, it may be too late to return Guzman to his community I truly hope to be wrong, and fundraising for his cause should continue, but affecting ICE proceedings will be incredibly difficult and it is unclear that our efforts will be successful The second effect is that widespread organizing is quite short-lived When we are so preoccupied by what it proximate to us, it is much easier to overlook the scope of the problem we are up against What is needed, instead, is a level of organization equal to what we have seen this week but spread consistently over many months, aimed at generating constant political pressure for reform

To be absolutely clear, there are countless people across the campus and the country who work tirelessly on this issue and many more Yet for many more, myself included, the politics of immigration fit neatly into the many issues by which the campus left are outraged but unmoved to change If you felt that Guzman’s arrest was justified, I encourage your feedback in the comments section For those of us that were troubled, this week is a reminder of how strong a force a community can be We should aim to be that way more often

Rubin Danberg Biggs is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences He may be reached at red243@cornell edu The Common Table appears alternate Mondays this semester Comments may be sent to associate-editor@cornellsun com

JPegah Moradi | All Jokes Aside

Fail Hard

a e l G o l d f i n e ’ 1 7 , i n h e r f i n a l A r t s &

Entertainment column, crafts a wonderfully honest defense of writing as self-preser vation Through confessional eloquence, Goldfine exposes the duality of writing so gently that you could almost miss it She writes, “I get naked with ever y ugly, dizzyingly and terrifying thought I am prone to: that I am unintelligent, boring, superficial, incapable of non-derivative ideas, lazy, inarticulate, inadequate and generally shallow, uncreative and deluded in thinking that I might be an OK person ”

It’s the paradox of writing, or the paradox of adolescence, or the paradox of social media or American eastcoast elitist culture or something, I think Your expressions should be sincere but not saccharine, naked so long as you don’t reveal your hedonism or deep (deep) fears or your interests that have crossed the threshold from quirky to strange Append an all-lowercase “lol” to all your texts Be down-to-earth, but don’t dig deep enough to divulge any earthworms I’m cringing as I’m writing this because this is the exact self-serious, arro-

gant drivel that my friends and I mock in others’ writing I added that sentence to show I’m self-aware of how pretentious I sound That makes self-seriousness OK, right? The self-awareness?

This is hardly an original obser vation Back in September of 2013, Henr y Staley ’16 wrote that our generation was shifting toward narratives of the sincere and the insecure (“ bold self-expression can get a bit self-conscious in our digital hall of mirrors ”) Just last October, columnist Hebani Duggal ’18 wrote extensively about the fraudulent coolness of being the “cool girl ” In conversation with Staley, Duggal’s piece reveals the semi-sincerity of the transition to the postironic, whatever that means Sorr y! I’ve never read David Foster Wallace

So here we are, at the intersection between ironic self-protection and genuine vulnerability, which is kind of like the intersection of Stewart and East Buffalo street: you can either wreck your tires on the brick road (Why is Stewart made mostly of loose bricks?!) or coast down a terrifyingly steep hill Tr ying to engage in this recipe is frightening, which is why it’s easier to stay silent Back in September, I could barely write my first column because of what I then thought was a fear of negative feedback but now realize was actually a dread of improperly walking an ironic tightrope Here I am, in May, still unsure of how exactly to walk this line, still hitting backspace more often than the letter keys, still asking The Sun’s Associate Editor for extensions because what I’m writing isn’t yet explicitly self-aware enough to publish

Maybe I’m deluded Maybe it’s just me and my anxieties and I’ve completely constructed this problem in my head I don’t know I don’t know! But I do know that I have recently calmed my own anxieties through actively tr ying to desire failure Not in, like, a masochistic way, but maybe a little bit in an almostmasochistic way Like when Chris Gethard says with passionate exhaustion, “I wanna fall on my face I want people to watch me get caught I want people to watch me get blindsided by the failure of my own idea I wanna either succeed big or fail hard ” So fail! Like, not on your exams, but fail socially and intellectually Make loud mistakes Last week I asked my professor what “simultaneously” meant in a 200-person lecture and a bunch of AEM majors laughed at me It hur t It was r ude and it hur t a lot and I still haven’t forgotten about it but I’m pretending it didn’t hur t because we ’ re in the middle of this whole irony transition thing I just wrote about, right? You could argue this last column was a big failure Ha! But if we star t to fail hard, to be so vulnerable that it hur ts so bad, then maybe we’ll star t loosening this grip of semi-sincerity Ever ything about college is transient, which makes it the per fect time to scre w up So go out there and fail Or something I don’t know lol

Eric Schulman | Schulman’s Schtick

That’s My Schtick, And I’m Sticking to It

I’ ve read a lot of farewell columns in the past four years I started thinking about mine freshman year, during my first semester at The Sun As a freshman, I thought writing a column in the student newspaper would make me a campus celebrity I wanted to use the platform to get recognition for a speech I wrote in high school during tryouts to be class speaker I wasn ’ t chosen to be class speaker, and I was salty

S u r p r i s i n g l y, writing a column did not make me a campus celebrity, and it won ’ t give me recognition for the speech I still wanted to write about the speech though I’ll give you the paragraph version In one of my classes, someone wrote a poem that I really liked They weren ’ t the best student The speech was about how this person should keep writing even if they did not get recognition for it Although I wish I told them how I felt, they should enjoy writing regardless of other people’s encouragement

These days, I actually prefer people don’t recognize my writing My goals have changed a lot since freshman year I no longer want to be a campus celebrity I want to be an economist I signed away the next five years of my life to pursue a doctorate Writing in the student newspaper does not help a graduate school application These days, economics is about mathematics and statistics (and in my opinion computing) If anything, my cringeworthy writing from past could’ve hurt my application

I’ve grown a lot riting this column. oesn’t matter who recognizes it.

As a write my final column, I’ve been reflecting on my time at The Sun Looking back, I articulated why I continued with The Sun for long for so long in this speech I don’t get a lot of recognition for my writing Most people who write for The Sun get little recognition but work really hard I joke my writing only gets read by my mom, and the associate editor

WJust like the poet from my high school, I’ve gained a lot from writing This platform taught me how to articulate myself By studying economics and computer science, I’ve spent a lot of time working on problems with clear solutions Effective writing is a much more open-ended problem Writing this column for The Sun has helped me with those types of problems and it’s been a lot of fun I’ve grown a lot writing this column It doesn’t matter who recognizes it

So, to editorialize with some unwanted advice as I say good bye: do things because you enjoy them and you learn from them, not because you want recognition You never know Just like that poem in high school, maybe someone appreciates it and didn’t tell you That, and I should probably thank the four associate editors I’ve worked with We all want a little recognition and I’m glad one person reads my column every week So, that’s my schtick and I’m sticking to it Hopefully, you enjoyed the ride I know I have

Eric Schulman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at eschulman@cornellsun com This is the final edition of Schulman’s Schtick

Jaqueline Groskaufmanis | The Dissent

Learning to Quit

hen I was seven, I thought it would be a cool idea to tr y going off of the highest diving board at the pool I don’t like heights and didn’t really know how to “dive” at that point But my siblings were doing it, so I was going to do it too

But when my turn came to jump the however-many-feet, I froze I climbed all the way up the ladder, walked to the ver y edge of the board, and realized I just wanted to climb b a c k d ow n Bu t c l i m b i n g d ow n would mean walking right past a line of people who were brave enough to jump themselves, so I guess I figured that wasn ’ t really an option Ever yone was yelling at me to go, so I just kind of stepped off of the diving board; no jump or cannon ball, just a weird flop Long stor y short, I hit the water at an awkward, side ways angle and basically blacked out in the pool

classes, do research, get involved, win some things and then move on to this-or-that next step Each template whether applied to a future law student or a future artist is flexible but consistent, and governs a lot of the “free spirits” on this campus So it makes sense that it’s hard for us planners to become quitters

Sometimes, quitting is a bad thing obviously Sometimes it means t h a t y o u

shouldn’t have, or that you ’ re quitting s o m e t h i n g t h a t y o u s h o u l d k e e p doing The stigmatization of quitting didn’t come out of thin air But other times, it just means that you ’ re chang-

Each template whether applie to a future law student or a future artist is flexible but consistent and governs a lot of the “free spirits” on this campus

I laugh whenever I think about it, because in retrospect it’s pretty funny I was totally fine in the end, just embarrassed But the more I think about it, the more I realize how moments like these are symptomatic of a “refusal to quit,” which I don’t think is always a good thing Maybe the pool story isn’t relatable, but I think in college (and in life) we experience a lot of somewhat similar moments in which we finish something because we started it, and because everyone will judge us if we “climb back down the ladder ”

Maybe it’s our major, our career path, a club, or something that has nothing to do with school Collectively, we ’ ve been taught not to quit; that quitting is bad and that we should always see things through I think, for all of our benefit, we should push back on that a little bit

Most people come to Cornell with some sort of plan Get good grades in

ing your mind We shouldn’t view our actions as if they are zero-sum; just because someone doesn’t carr y out their original ambitions, it doesn’t make them a quitter It could just make them an adaptive person

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the ver y nature of college seems like it was designed to encourage us to quit; if only so we can make room for new paths We’re nudged to take classes that have nothing to do with what we think we want to study, and many realize that what they originally thought was wrong I’d guess that a lot of the “I’m an X major” introductions you heard during your freshman year O-week are already untrue Just last week I ran into a girl who I met as an English major who is now switching to computer science, and one of my friends who came in as a pre-med is now lov-

ing her anthropology major If my sister hadn’t “quit” her International Relations major when she was in college, she wouldn’t have gone to medical school A few weeks ago, she delivered a baby The point is, changing plans, or “quitting,” opens doors, closes others, and amounts to much more than shame and confusion associated with saying “I quit ” Maybe this all sounds obvious There’s nothing novel about the idea that we should do what makes us happy, or change things when they aren ’ t right And still, lately I’ve seen a lot of evidence that many people i n c l u d i n g m y s e l f h a ve n ’ t f u l l y learned that l e s s o n y e t Strict plans a re a p p e a ling in that t h e y a r e n ’ t messy, but I t h i n k t h a t in adhering to them too precisely we risk going on auto-pilot and forgetting why we started them in the first place

We’re heading into finals, so I definitely wouldn’t say that now is a good time to experiment with quitting or shaking things up We can ’ t all change our majors, move to different countries and find all new passions and that’s okay, because most of us don’t want to But if any part of your life is feeling like that really high-up diving board with no real offered benefit and a bunch of randoms encouraging you to do something that doesn’t sound good or beneficial consider going back down the ladder

Jacqueline Groskaufmanis is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences She can be reached at jgroskaufmanis@cornellsun com The Dissent appears alternate Mondays this semester

ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT

The Unconventional,Honest Music of Paul Russell

BY LORENZO BENITEZ Sun Staff Writer

“Usually, when I tell people that I make music, I don’t reference Primary Colors,” says the polite, affable sophomore. “Instead I say, ‘Check me out on Soundcloud.’” Sitting in front of me with his work neatly put aside to accommodate this impromptu interview is Paul Russell, who is an opinion columnist for The Sun and is otherwise known by the name ‘Paulitics,’ under which he raps, sings and writes music. We’re sitting at a table in Temple of Zeus on Friday afternoon, the last day of class before Spring Break.

Over the course of this winter break, I grew familiar with Paul’s work, after he granted me permission to use some of his songs in a feature-length film I was co-directing. Naturally, this level of familiarity with his work made me want to learn more about the artist behind the music I was so generously given access to; hence this interview.

To know Paul is to know someone who's organized, outgoing nature contrasts with the classic stereotype of a disorganized, self-obsessed artist. While undoubtedly an extrvert, Paulitics’ music reveals a depth of associations, thoughtfulness and pensive tendency that rewards listeners who remember or are currently navigating the uncertainty of young adulthood. Indeed, when first presented with Paul’s entirely-digital discography, one is likely to be struck by his apparent desire to conjure a certain moment. While he admits that each song generally has a different process of conception, he acknowledges that most aren’t begun out of a desire to push a certain theme.

“When I make music, half the time it’s because I want to feel a certain mood. I’ll make music as if I felt some sort of mood, and that puts me into it,” says Paul. “I mean, sometimes there are themes I want to communicate, but I generally think it’s either the mood I want to create that motivates me, or I’m walking home late at night and I start rapping to myself or singing to myself and say, ‘Oh, that’s cool, I like that.’”

Explaining how his own taste is the foremost guiding inspiration for his music, Paul creates beats and songs featuring instrumentation that we, as he explains, “don’t usually hear in a song of that type.” Upon first hearing the electric piano and the “sense of peppiness” it brings to the otherwise melancholically retrospective song Youth, I

“I made a beat on my computer and ended up recording in my car.” For how long was he sitting there? “Hours,” he laughed. “When recording in a small space like that, it sounds sort of weird, so I rolled down the windows to avoid the echo. So, in the song, you can hear faint cricket noises from outside. Whenever I hear that song, I think back to myself sitting in the car — it was in a cool little area too. I was next to a field, so it has a cool, nostalgic feel to it.”

When asked whether he prefers rapping or singing, Paul answers by revealing something I hadn’t realized about the technicality of rapping. “I like singing more,” he shrugs.

“Just because, sometimes when I rap in a song I’m less satisfied with the song afterwards. I think in rapping it’s weird that even though there’s less inflection in your voice and all that, there’s still a specific way that things need to be said. In a way, it’s more technical. So, in rap, you want your voice to sound cool the whole time, while in singing, it’s okay for that to fluctuate.” He then pauses, before punctuating his definite answer with tentative humility. “It’s hard to explain, I guess.”

I ask Paul if he feels more self-conscious when he raps than when he sings. “Oh definitely … Sometimes I’ll think my voice didn’t sound low enough, or cool enough. ‘I sounded like a kid when I said that,’ sometimes I think to myself. But with singing, because you have that melody that’s more important than anything else, it’s possible to hide behind that.” Is it possible that because the most famous rappers are predominantly male, and attempt to project an image of strength through both the subject and style of their music, he feels a bit more constricted when approaching that form?

couldn’t help but note the beguiling assortment of unusual sounds that constitute Paul’s work. It’s apparent that throughout his music, sonic novelty remains as important as lyrical inquiry, evident in how Paul himself admits that, during the writing stage, it’s often the melody that emerges first. This guiding desire to experiment with certain sounds explains his reluctance to introduce people to his music through his debut album, Primary Colors. “For one, the recordings aren’t up to par with what I think they should and could be … And I do regret not having the more interesting sounds in it. [In] my music now, I like the production of it a lot better.”

However, despite his answer suggesting that the instruments precede the lyrics, Paul would be first to admit that his creative process doesn’t really have a strict definition. “‘Hotels’ is a song I recorded when I was driving and pulled over to the side of the road in mood,” he recounts.

“When I’m rapping, a lot of times I’m trying to fit within this mold of what a rapper sounds like, while there’s more freedom with singing, where there are so many diverse types of singers and voices.” Indeed, one of the first things I noticed about Paul’s music, even when he raps, is that he never swears, which is unusual because such language acts as punctuation for many rappers. When this is raised, Paul’s response is reasonable in its self-assured frankness: “I generally don’t use that language when I talk, and so I’m trying to be as real as possible … When I make my music, I don’t want to be that guy who’s a completely different person.”

So if today’s rappers aren’t his primary source of inspiration, then who is? “I really like Daniel Caesar, an R&B singer... There’s some sort of guitar or piano in his music, but it’s generally not what you’d expect to be R&B. Another big influence has been Shakey Graves, a singer from Austin. I really like the way he conveys emotion in his music, through very much describing a moment, in

the way. For instance, he has a song called ‘House of Winston,’ in which he’s describing a moment with a girl. It’s nothing very sexual or anything crazy, but it’s more him setting the stage of what’s happening in there. There are too many love songs that are all ‘I love you, you’re so great,’ or tell a long narrative that goes ‘First I did this, then I did that.’”

Considering influences beyond other musicians, Paul lists fashion as an influence that people might be surprised by. Whether it’s the song ‘Pyjamas on a Thursday’ or sporadic references to denim, he describes how “In a way, clothing communicates a specific culture. In a lot of music, I find myself mentioning clothing to bring people into the world that I’m thinking of — into the cultural sphere I’m imagining myself in when I write this song.” Looking back through his work after learning of this, it becomes impossible to ignore his mentions of fashion as a detail of the moment, a means by which his music situates him in a previous episode in his life. “The only way I know how to capture emotion is through a moment, I guess. I wrote the song ‘Okay,’over the summer. In trying to communicate a certain feeling of being relaxed and being sorta happy, I talk about the past, me as a child and being carefree. Within that, I talk about looking at a screen with an old friend, and wearing twenty dollar jeans. There was a song I wrote, the ‘Laces,’ in my Outfit EP, about me realizing I shouldn’t worry about the future.” As one of his earliest pieces of music, Outfit is currently not distributed, but it is a formative episode in Paulitics’ artistic and personal growth. “To me that was a very profound feeling that I didn’t think I’d feel again. Even now, when I go back and hear that song, I remember how much uncertainty I felt at that time in my life. Another one, even more recent than that, is the song ‘Youth.’ In a lot of ways, it’s me trying to capture this whole ‘me-as-a-musician’ thing. Because this whole time it’s never been my goal to be a professional musician … I feel sometimes like I just ended up in this crazy place and can’t help but think ‘Wow, how did this happen?’ This amazement feels like something I really need to remember for when I’m forty and saying ‘Remember when I used to do these crazy concerts in Ithaca, New York?’ … I think writing a song is a way to communicate every feeling I have, and even specific moments within that. In ‘Youth,’ I mention specific, real things that’ve happened as my time as a musician and that’s something I really like.”

It is interesting and gratifying to have conversations about art with people who don’t approach it from a vocational or strictly professional context, but who just seem to do it out of the most earnest and pure of motivations: self-expression. When asked about the possibility of a forthcoming album or mixtape, Paul remains tentatively optimistic: “Potentially. I make music very sporadically … Most of the songs I make are made in the spur of a moment.”

Paul Russell’s latest music is available via SoundCloud, and his album Primary Colors is distributed by Electric Buffalo Records, accessible on Spotify and Apple Music.

Lorenzo Benitez is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at llb224@cornell.edu.

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Women Prepare For Notre Dame In First Round

W LACROSSE Continued from page 12

Tiger goals Sophomore Sarah Phillips then broke the Tigers’ streak with a goal to star t the Red off on a streak of its own

Farinholt scored off an assist from Dickson, followed two minutes later by a goal from Ellis Midway into the second half, Reed scored again, which closed the gap to 10-7

The Cornell streak after the Princeton r un brought about a huge swing in the game, which saw Cornell dominating overall play Ellis, a senior leader on the team, noted the need to manage emotions along with keeping the foot on the pedal

“ There was a balance between pushing the offense in the second half from behind and also being smar t, ” she said “ We did a good job with that in the second half We took a fast break if we had it and slowed it down if we didn’t The mindset was just chip away, chip away, one goal at a time and we star ted to do that Going forward we need to remember to do that in the first half and not just come out with that mindset in the second half ”

C o r n

y Hompe’s seventh of the game The senior’s effor ts over the tournament set records in points, goals and assists

“She is a big girl, she really pushes through you, ” Cornell senior defender and Ivy Defender of the Year Catie Smith said of Hompe “She is an awesome player, and we respect that We tried to deny her stick the ball, but she is good and can get around She’s obviously ver y successful and she had a good day ”

Shifting gears | After its lackluster first half, the Red opened the second half with a 5-1 run However, despite cutting the Tigers’ lead to just two goal, Cornell was unable to complete its comeback

But following Hompe’s goal, Cornell sophomore Tomasina Leska took charge of the game with two consecutive goals to bring the Red within two With 10 minutes to play, it looked like the women might just do it

Leska brought Cornell within reach, but the Red was unable to close the gap, and Princeton’s George scored one last time for the Tigers to bring final score to 12-9

“I am ver y proud of the Cornell effor t today,” Graap said “Really pleased with an effor t by [us], and definitely the effor t in the second half is what we want to see is what we want to see the whole 60 minutes ”

Cornell placed five women on the All-Tournament team: Dickson, Smith, Ellis, Reed and Phillips The quintet put up 23 points over the tournament

Despite the disappointment of not being able to notch a second straight Ivy League Tournament title, the Red has earned itself an at-large bid into NCAAs, and will face Notre Dame in the first round

Lebron’s Prime Is Far From Over

In the spring of 2013, Kobe Br yant took the nickname of “ Vi n o ” f o r h i m s e l f T h e meaning was clear, if a little

h e a v y - h a n d e d : “ Vi n o ” re p resented Br yant ’ s elite playing status even at the ripe age of 34 Like wine, Kobe got better with age Unfortunately for Kobe, the nickname didn’t quite pan out Kobe tore his Achilles tendon soon after wards, ending his season prematurely with an injur y proved to be a death sentence

f o r t h e s e l f - d e e m e d “ Vi n o ” Save for small bursts, he never again found the magic on the court which had dominated the league for much of the past decade

While “ Vino” wasn ’ t quite appropriate for the Mamba, it is quickly becoming appropriate for another superstar LeBron James celebrated his 32nd birthday last year in December Yet, despite being on the wrong side of 30, James is playing some of the best basketball of his career

This past season, James averaged career highs in both rebounds and assists while also shooting the second highest three-point percentage of his career With the ongoing playoffs, James has somehow stepped it up a gear, to the tune of 34 points, nine

re b o u n d s a n d s e v e n a s s i s t s , w h i l e l e a d i n g t h e l e

steals And James’s individual

p e r f o r m a n c e s h a v e c e r t a i n l y translated to team success, as the King seems on course to easily

m a k i n g h i s s e v e n t h s t r a i g h t NBA Finals

This late-stage renaissance is

James has logged a titanic number of minutes over the course of the career, entering the NBA straight out of high school playing over a decade of grinding 82-game seasons, and dealing with grueling and physical playoff runs ever y season except his rookie season James’s game isn’t particularly easy on the body either; the crown jewel of his

offensive repertoire is driving to the basket, crashing with the league’s biggest and strongest athletes at full speed During his f i r s t s e a s o n b a c k w i t h t h e C a v a l i e r s , i t a p p e a

t James’s superhuman body was finally feeling the effects of his playing style when he was forced to take a two week break in the middle of the season to treat a bad back Yet, two years later, James appears fresh and sprightly again, like a newborn fawn Indeed, his renewed perfor-

m a n c e s h a v e h e l d e v e n h i s

o p p o n e n t s i n a w e R a p t o r s point guard Kyle Lowr y recently claimed that “nobody’s closing the gap on [LeBron]”, while his

b a c k c o u r t p a r t n e r D e Ma r D e Ro z a n t o l d re p o r t e r s t h a t “[LeBron] seems a lot quicker and faster this year from last year it’s incredible for some-

b o d y w i t h t h a t a m o u n t o f mileage on him, to come back s e e m i n g f a s t e r a

And these acknowledgements are just truly a testament to LeBron’s dominance as an athlete

Should this current Cavaliers squad reach the Finals for the third straight year, they will undoubtedly be the underdogs a g a i n s t t h

Warriors, who boast a concentration of all-star talent that hasn

Mi

Jordan’s Chicago Bulls teams in the late nineties For James himself, however, this has greater implications than one season Jordan embarked on his second three-peat at the age of 32: the s

n ow Coincidentally, Jordan also had three rings at this age, just like LeBron does now LeBron’s late resurgence, then, is coming at exactly the right time He has now put himself in the position of challenging Jordan’s legacy as the greatest player of all time With the stage set, it’s time to witness how the greatest player of his generation will close out his career

Junyoung Lee can be reached at junyounglee@cornellsun com

“ We are really excited for the NCAAs, we want this bid,” Smith said “Especially as seniors, we want to keep going as far as we can Looking back, this one is going to hur t, but it’s only going to fuel the fire going for ward ” Sunday was the seniors’ last game on Schoellkopf, as the NCAA draw results with the Red hitting the road for NCAAs The thought of never again playing at home did not really hit an emotional Smith nor Ellis, who hosted the first fe w rounds during last year ’ s NCAA r un

But given the team ’ s strong 6-1 record on the road during the regular season, Graap said before the selection she is confident with whatever cards the team is dealt “ We travel well [and] we had a tremendous record o n t h e r o a d , ” Gr a a p s a

announced “It doesn’t matter where we are going, but hopefully we can make the best of that ”

Zach Silver can be reached at sports-editor@cornellsun com

Mary Barger can be reached at mbarger@cornellsun com

Making the Most of Limited Opportunities

SIMONEIT

Continued from page 12

s e l f a s a n e ve r yd a y p l a ye r, whether it is behind the plate or elsewhere

“It was a good first year, [but] I want to be doing better,” Simoneit said “I have higher expectations for myself to get where I want to be I still have a lot of time and I’ve got to stay patient with it I can ’ t force things I have a whole summer [with] all baseball and no class ”

Simoneit is set on becoming a better all-around player, hoping to improve everything from his throws to second to getting m o re c o m f o r t a b l e o n t h e b a

because of his season-ending s u r g e

y d u r i n

h

re s h m a n year, there is an certain selfemphasis on regaining his “feel for the game ” Of course, one of Simoneit’s goals is securing the starting catcher position in the Red’s lineup However, despite this endgame in sight, Simoneit also hopes to help his team from his bat in the lineup

A s a C h i c a g o n a t i ve , Si m o n e i t d r a w s i n s p i r a t i o n s from Kris Bryant of the Cubs: a player who is effective at the plate but also plays multiple positions Since Bryant can be moved around the lineup, he p l a ye d a b o u t 9 6 p e rc e n t o f games for the defending World Champions last season Just as

how Br yant benefits Chicago with his versatility, Simoneit hopes to play a similar role for Cornell

“I want to be able to take reps at third [base], and feel comfor table at another position,” Simoneit said “If my coach wants to put me in the outfield, I want to be able to comfortably track a fly ball and make the play ” “I want to be able to take reps at third [base], and feel comfortable at another position,” Simoneit said “If my coach wants to put me in the outfield, I want to be able to comfortably track a fly ball and make the play ” T h i s s e a s o n , Si m o n e i t showed fans a sample of what he can provide Cornell baseball for possibly the next three years And with some of the Red’s top hitters in senior first baseman Cole Rutherford and third baseman Tommy Wagner graduating, the stage is set for Simoneit t o b e c o m e a c e n t e r p i e c e i n Cornell’s offense, and potentially everyday lineup “I want to be the guy; I want to have a leadership role on this team, ” Simoneit said “I want others to be excited when I come up to bat and hope that I can be the guy for the team ” From what he’s shown, this catcher is capable of being that guy

Jack Kantor can be reached at jkantor@cornellsun com

Laxers Secure NCAA Bid, Fall Against Princeton

the Tigers, while DeGarmo, the tournament MVP, had 15 saves, allowing just two goals in the first half

In the final game before the NCAA tournament, one would expect a team to be playing at its peak performance with plenty of in-game experience already under the belt But for Cornell that did not seem to be the case from the early onset of the game

The Tigers took control from the start, with a goal from Mary Kate McDonough within the first minute, followed quickly by a second Princeton goal from Elizabeth George Princeton set a fast pace and largely dominated ball control throughout the first half DeGarmo let hardly anything by her, and the Red struggled to get past the Tigers’ defensive line Cornell was completely shut out for the majority of the half until junior Ida Farinholt finally broke through to put the Red on the board, 3-1 Hompe responded with an individual three-goal run, followed by a goal from teammate Tess D’Orsi, to increase the Tigers’ lead to 7-1

Cornell senior attacker Catherine Ellis scored the final goal of the half to bring the score to 7-2 It was the Red’s largest halftime deficit of the season

Part of that season-high hole, Graap said, was a tough Princeton defense that forced the Red into unfavorable shots

Cornell women ’ s lacrosse knew the task at hand maybe a little too well

Entering Sunday’s championship matchup which was made possible by Cornell’s downing of Harvard, 1611, in the semifinals Princeton boasted the highest scoring per game player in the country in Olivia Hompe, and a goalie with the fourth highest saves per game in Ellie DeGarmo The two were at the forefront of the last contest between Cornell and Princeton, which ended as a double OT win for the Tigers, where Hompe scored four goals, and DeGarmo made 14 saves

A n d i n Su n d a y ’ s 1 2 - 9 t i t l e - c l i n c h i n g g a m e f o r Princeton, the duo certainly delivered yet again Hompe set a single game tournament record with seven goals for

“DeGarmo with 15 saves for Princeton was a major factor, ” said Cornell head coach Jenny Graap ’86 “Princeton had a big day with Hompe We were doing the best we could to contain and try some different strategies, but she definitely had a great game ”

While the two women stuck out as key players for the Tigers, it was early woes and faults from the Cornell side that doomed the team as the game unfolded Part of that, Graap said, was not realizing from the get-go what her team could be capable of That will be a main focus on the team as it heads into NCAA Tournament play

“This is one of the best teams I’ve ever coached here at Cornell” Graap said “We need to impart a bit more of that confidence, bringing it right away at the opening whistle Sometimes we analyze and question it a little bit ”

“In the first half we knew we weren ’ t taking the best shots, and we knew we had to make that adjustment, but I think we did in terms of better shots in the second half which was huge,” she said “We were kind of forced into taking some shots in the first half that maybe weren ’ t the type of shots that go past [DeGarmo] ”

Graap noted that another adjustment she had to make was at the faceoff circle Farinholt began the day on the draws, but senior attacker Amie Dickson soon slid into the role, which saw more wins for the Red and thus more time with the ball

“We tried to shake things up, ” Graap said “[Dickson] did a tremendous job It really got us the ball quite a bit [combined with] players off the lines working a bit harder and battling more ”

The Red opened the second half with much more gusto A goal from junior Taylor Reed came just 1:35 in, but Cornell’s momentum was slowed by three consecutive

Simoneit’s Path From Injury-Ridden Start

To Sign of What’s Ahead for Rising Red

By JACK KANTOR

Assistant Sports Editor

Freshman year was not an ideal season for Cornell baseball’s Will Simoneit As an injury forced the catcher to sit out his entire first year with the Red, it was a long time coming for the sophomore to finally see the diamond in 2017

And when finally given the chance, he delivered Now, Simoneit continues to show a willingness to be a contributing member and leader for a budding Cornell squad

With hip surgery landing Simoneit in the dugout during 2016, a monkey wrench was thrown into in his future with the team As with all injuries, the surgery indicated a waiting game for when Simoneit would play in his first game for the Red

“I knew I had to stay patient and stick with it,” Simoneit said “It wasn ’ t all going to come at once It’s a process coming back from [an injury], especially with catching This was something that I really wanted to do, and I felt like I could do it ”

Coming into 2017, Simoneit had not appeared in a single game And if one thing was certain, it was clear that his opportunities during the season would be numbered

“I knew I had two catchers in front of me, [senior] C J Price and [junior] Ellis

Bitar, who each had a season under coach [Dan Pepicelli],” Simoneit said “I tried not to think much about [playing time] It’s out of my control [and] I was just going to do the best I could ”

Despite Simoneit seeing limited opportunities, a door opened for the emerging catcher early in the season when Price suffered an unfortunate concussion

In the third weekend of play, Simoneit got the start behind the plate against Richmond And it was in that first start his first game for Cornell baseball that Simoneit hit a homerun in the top of the ninth inning The Red eventually walked away with a loss in extra innings, but the game nonetheless represented a promising start to Simoneit’s time in a Red uniform

As the season progressed, Simoneit continued to turn heads despite his limited appearances In just his fifth game, the sophomore hit a grand slam a feat that many ball players have failed to achieve over the course of their entire careers The slam came as Cornell led Towson by only a few runs during the fourth inning of a tight offensive battle In a high-pressure situation with all bases loaded, Simoneit sent one over the fence to blow the game open, leading the way for a 27-14 win

“I’ve always wanted to hit a grand slam,” Simoneit said “That’s like a dream come

true It’s motivating for myself I d I want to keep doing it ”

And it’s clear he can keep doing Red’s final season series against P Simoneit stepped up to the plate game tied 1-1 With the bases ju only one out, Simoneit, at the v needed to hit a sacrifice fly to give a lead Yet, the sophomore went a beyond the minimum by hitting slam to secure the win all while off an impressive first season

“I think the last two times I heart rate down and try not t much,” Simoneit said “I’m not trying to hit a home run I’m just get a barrel on the ball ”

In his first year of play, Simoneit did a fine job of getting the “barr ball,” leading the team in slugging age with an impressive rate of 61 the sophomore had slightly fewe than needed to rank in Ivy League his slugging percentage would be second-best in the conference

But even with his success in Simoneit believes he has plenty of do in the offseason in order to get where he wants to be as a ballplayer and establish