The Corne¬ Daily Sun
‘State of Emergency for Black Students’
Student arrested after black junior says he was punched, called N-word
By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS Sun City Editor
Following an assault in which a black Cornell student said he was called the N-word and repeatedly punched by a group of white students in Collegetown on Friday, Black Students United at Cornell declared a “ state of emergency ” for black students over the weekend and President Martha Pollack issued a series of initiatives meant to improve the campus climate
Ithaca Police arrested one Cornell student after the fight on Eddy Street at about 1:30 a m on Friday The arrested Cornell student, who had not been identified as of Sunday evening, was charged with misdemeanor assault, Ithaca Police Lt John Joly said, adding that the department is investigating “ any racially biased motivation ”
Pollack said in a message to the campus community that Cornell, pending a final investigation, will not consider reinstating the Psi Upsilon fraternity, which had its recognition revoked in 2016 At least four student groups said in separate statements that members of Psi Upsilon were responsible for the assault, although that has not been confirmed On Saturday, “You Rasist Fucks [sic]” was seen in paint on the Psi Upsilon’s uninhabited former house
Delmar Fears ’19, a co-chair of BSU, said in an interview over the weekend that the organization had declared a “ state of emergency for black students” following the assault and had warned black students not to attend Interfraternity Council or Panhellenic Council parties because of concerns for their safety
“Are we safe walking home from class from the library at night?” Fears asked
“Are we even safe at our own Collegetown parties?” T Celestin ’19, a co-cha BSU, added
Cornell investigating unaffiliated fraternity following assault
By NICHOLAS BOGEL-BURROUGHS and GIRISHA ARORA Sun City Editor and Sun Assistant News Editor
Two days after a black Cornell student said he was punched in the head by a group of white men who called him racist slurs in Collegetown, President Martha Pollack said the University would not allow the Psi Upsilon to return to campus, pending an investigation
part in the assault “has any association with our fraternity at any time in the future ”
Ithaca Police arrested one Cornell student and charged the student with misdemeanor assault, Lt John Joly and Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life, said
“The student involved in the incident on [Friday] is not and has never been a member of the Chi of Psi Upsilon.”
“Based on what we know, and pending final investigation, Cornell will not consider Psi Upsilon’s reinstatement as an affiliated fraternity,” Pollack said in a message to the campus
T h e A l u m n i o f t h e C h i o f P s i U p s i l o n a t C o r n e l l
At least four student groups said in separate statements that members of Psi Upsilon, which had its recognition revoked in 2016, were responsible for the assault, although that has not been confirmed On Saturday, “You Rasist Fucks [sic]” was seen in paint on the Psi Upsilon’s uninhabited former house
Thomas Fox, executive director of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, said in messages to Black Students United that he plans to investigate the matter to ensure that no one who took
By DREW MUSTO Sun City Editor
In an unsigned statement to The Sun late on Sunday, The Alumni of the Chi of Psi Upsilon at Cornell said, “The student involved in the incident on 9/15 is not and has never been a member of the Chi of Psi Upsilon ”
The association added that it is “confident” the arrested student “ was not a member of Psi Upsilon prior to the fraternity's status being revoked ”
The alumni association said that Psi Upsilon at Cornell, this semester, submitted a list of students to the University who were seeking to re-establish the chapter and that the arrested student “ was not one of those students on our list ”
The black student, a junior at Cornell, told The Sun that a
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Tomorrow
A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor 1:25 - 2:40 p m , G70 Klarman Hall
Food Science Graduate Seminar Series: Innovative Processing to Improving Health, Safety and Sustainability of Speciality Crops 4 - 5 p m , 146 Stocking Hall
MAE Colloquium: Intervertebral Disc Biomechanics With Swelling and Injury 4 p m , B11 Kimball Hall
ORIE Colloquium: Randomized Iterative Methods and Complexity For Markov Decision Processes 4:15 p m , 253 Frank H T Rhodes Hall
SAP Seminar Series: The Tiger and the TubeWell: Malevolent Environments in Rural India 4:30 - 6:30 p m , G08 Uris Hall
Weed Dating!
5 - 7 p m , Parking Lot, Brian C Nevin Welcome Center
Science Cabaret Presents: Sticky Slugs Inspire the Suture of the Future 7 p m , Coltivare, 235 S Cayuga Street
Documentary: Mosquito 7:30 - 8:32 p m , Willard Straight Theatre
s i s ? | Noliwe Rooks, director of American Studies, and four Cornell professors will discuss the state of American democracy at the Physical Science Building Free pocket constitutions for attendees!
Daily Show Host
Discusses Race, Politics at Barton
Trevor Noah addresses racism, fear in U.S. political climate
By EMMA NEWBURGER Sun Assistant News Ed tor
In a campus climate reaching a point of racial toxicity, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah who grew up as a mixed child in South Africa under apartheid paid a visit
Noah said there is an inherent fear that fuels racism and anger in America, a fear of “being replaced” and “becoming the minority ”
“What’s scary to consider is that the only reason you would be afraid of people of color becoming the majority is because you believe they would do to white people what white people did to them,” he said “That’s the only reason Otherwise, who cares whether you ’ re the minority or majority?”
The comedian added that the prevalence of the N-word is different in South Africa, which has given him a different take on the word’s use in America
When Noah was in Chicago, a white man drove by in a pickup truck and called him the N-word Rather than turn the other way, Noah yelled it back to him, subsequently alarming the driver
“He almost crashed and died,” Noah laughed “He looked at his hands like he had magically turned black, and because he was looking at his hands he swerved That was the first time he’s ever been called the N-word ”
Noah said that his ability to respond in a casual way inherently stems from the privilege of growing up in a place where the N-word has “ no power ”
“In South Africa, no one was suppressed using the Nword,” he said “I can throw it back at someone a lot easier than other people might ”
When it came to his ability to use the word, Noah acknowledged his own privilege “I’m not going to give you the pleasure of seeing my
pain,” Noah commented about the driver “I know that this is not easy, I’m not going to say that all black people can do what I do I know that it feels good because no one knows how to react to it, but I also know that I have privilege ”
Prior to Donald Trump’s presidency, Noah said Americans were mostly complacent about politics They were on “auto-pilot,” failing to watch the news or engage in current affairs
“Now people are paying attention,” he said “People know more about politics than they’ve ever known “We know about the 25th amendment We know about conflicts of interest We’re studying up on geopolitics ”
“Say what you want about Donald Trump,” he continued “But when he is done, everyone in America will be qualified to be president of the United States ”
The comedian called Trump an emotional paradox, joking that the president is doing what “ any uninformed person in the presidency would do living his best life ”
“Many days I wake up terrified of the notion that he is president of the most powerful nation in the world,” Noah
said “But everyday I wake up knowing he’s going to make me laugh ”
Noah rejects claims that Trump made America “ more racist,” arguing that America has struggled with racism for a long time People like to romanticize villainy, he said
“We make it seem like one man is bad and if we get rid of him then everyone is good,” he said “But that one man just represents an idea ”
Trump is a product of racism, and racism exists in the fiber of America and its people, Noah said However, racism does not have to define America
“People ask, ‘Is America good or is America bad,’ and it can be both,” he said “That’s how we are as human beings, we ’ re constantly trying to define ourselves ”
“Good people can do bad things, bad people can do good things,” Noah told his audience “You have to ask yourself which one you are ”
Ithaca Joins Worldwide Electric Vehicle Showcase
By PENELOPE CAMPOS Sun Contributor
Electric vehicles are no longer the car of the future they drive among us
Ithaca joined 264 cities worldwide to bring awareness to sustainable alternatives in the automotive industry on Saturday as part of the National Energy Drive Week
Twenty-four different electric cars were registered for this weekend’s events, ranging from a Tesla Model S to a Chevrolet Volt Residents of all ages made their way through
Press Bay’s lot, asking volunteers in green about mileage and charging ports Some even took advantage of offers to go on test runs and see the electric cars take the road
Generally, many people are put off by the sticker price, as electric cars are usually more expensive than gasoline cars However, the long-term savings can outweigh these prices, and these prices are starting to decline
“There’s more and more rebates and programs to make it more affordable to people,” said Sharon K Anderson, an environ-
mental team leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension, who was collecting information and offering details on energyefficient charging patterns
Some are also concerned about the charging sources and the durability of batteries
“Currently, the main thing that is keeping people from buying an electric vehicle is that they fear that if they run out of charge and there is no charging infrastructure around, then it might probably cause them inconvenience,” said Pooja Shah, who rep-
resented Clean Communities of Central New York
Nonetheless, Shah believes that the market for electric cars is “really promising actually, and with more charging infrastructure, it should improve ” Charging stations have indeed become more frequent in cities recently Tompkins County currently has over 20 stations for electric cars, and Ithaca is working to install several more in areas like Collegetown and near Ithaca Mall soon, according to Tompkins County’s EV Infrastructure Plan
Many Ithaca-based companies such as Renovus Solar and Taitem Engineering which both offer services relating to energyefficiency made an appearance with booths at Saturday’s event, which was the second annual NEDW event in Ithaca
According to the participating EV owners, Tesla cars can travel as far as 250 miles off a single overnight charge, with other plug-in cars being able to travel just below 200 miles usually
Electric drivers also enjoy “silent” rides with the absence of engines, smooth acceleration and the benefit of less maintenance checks For Ithaca drivers, EV owner Nathanael Nerode shared that his EV was “really, really good with hills ” In 2016, Forbes reported a 37 percent jump in electric sales Tompkins County which reports to have 202 electric vehicles, the second highest in the state does not seem to be an exception to the phenomenon of electric vehicles
“I think all new cars will be electric in 10 years, ” Nerode said
With a smile | World renowned comedian Trevor Noah takes the stage at Barton Hall, where he tells his Cornell audience of his story as a mixed-race child in apartheid South Africa.
BSU, Frustrated With C.U. Response to Assault, Questions Campus Safety
ASSAULT
Continued from page 1
Cornell Kappa Sigma identified the assaulted student, a junior, as one of its members, adding in a statement that the student is recovering from his injuries The student, who spoke to The Sun from Cayuga Medical Center on Friday, said he was “ pretty bloodied up ” following the altercation He underwent X-rays for a possible concussion, but those tests were negative
The Kappa Sigma junior said he attempted to break up a fight in the front yard of his residence on the 300-block of Eddy Street when a group of four or five white men began shouting expletives and the N-word at him
“They said, ‘Fuck you, nigger,’ over and over, as they were leaving,” the student said
When the junior confronted them, the group of men " came up and started punching me in the face repeatedly,” he said
Pollack said she is convening a presidential task force in the next two weeks that will examine and address “persistent problems of bigotry and intolerance at Cornell” and recommend how the University can create a more inclusive environment The list of measures, Pollack said, is only “ a starting point ”
Pollack said she is also asking Vijay Pendakur, the dean of students, to create a new dispute resolution process “based on restorative justice” that will coexist with the current disciplinary system She is also tasking the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils with developing a diversity training program for its members before spring recruitment
The presidents of those two councils, as well as the Multicultural Greek Letter Council, said in a statement that they were “outraged” by the assault and committed to fighting hatred
In a video recorded early on Friday morning and obtained by The Sun, two men can
be seen arguing with an unidentified student One of the men uses the N-word multiple times A witness of that incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it occurred about an hour after the physical assault The assaulted student said he was not present for that verbal exchange
One of the two men, while standing on a sidewalk on Eddy Street, says, “We live right here, what do you mean ‘ go the fuck home’?”
In a second video reviewed by The Sun, the same two men can be seen standing outside of 306 Eddy St , where police said they responded to a reported fight Several students identified the house as Psi Upsilon's unofficial annex No one answered the door at that house on Saturday or Sunday afternoons
Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 told The Sun that police had reviewed at least one of the videos
Thomas Fox, executive director of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, said in messages to BSU that he plans to investigate the matter to make sure no one who took part in the assault “has any association with our fraternity at any time in the future ”
The Collegetown assault occurred about nine days after a resident of the Latino Living Center heard someone in the Zeta Psi fraternity, which is next door, chanting “build a wall” and saying, “let’s build a wall around the LLC ” Pollack said the events of the last few weeks are “deeply painful ”
“The pain is magnified a thousandfold for those whose dignity and, indeed, very bodies have been attacked,” Pollack said
About 15 members of BSU met with Vijay Pendakur, the dean of students, in an emotional meeting on Friday afternoon, but some BSU members were frustrated that Pollack did not contact the group until Sunday, nearly three days after the assault Fears, the BSU co-chair, said many of the initiatives proposed by Pollack in her statement were ideas that members of BSU had first shared with Pendakur in their meeting
Fears said it was frustrating to see Pollack “claiming” the ideas as her own
“Why did it take a black man being beat almost to a concussion for Pollack to say that we need to change?” Fears said “She should’ve been working on this earlier ”
“Black students are not going to slip into complacency because Martha sent a nice email,” Fears said
Six members of the BSU Executive Board, in an interview on Saturday, before Pollack's statement, said Cornell has not made the University a welcoming place for black students
“How do black students on this campus walk into class on Monday and feel like they have equal advantage to learning, to doing well in that class, to being respected by their peers and professors in that class?” said Celestin, the BSU co-chair
“We really want the Board of Trustees to pay attention to this,” she added
Most important to executive board members, they said, is that black students and other students of color feel safe on campus
Imani Luckey ’19, a BSU political action chair, said she had not been able to focus on school work since she first learned about the incident on Friday morning and began asking herself, “What if that was me?”
“I’ve taken that walk in Collegetown with my friends so many times and it’s just really scary that people who go here feel that much anger and that much hate that they’re willing to act on it in that manner, ” Luckey said
“There’s a lot of emotional investment that goes into being black on this campus, ” added Amari Sealey ’19, also a BSU political action chair
Joseph Nelzy ’18, the BSU funding chair, said that many Cornell students “have the privilege to just be on campus and just live their life and just be free ”
“I don’t think we have that privilege,” he said
A support fund initiated by BSU had raised more than $1,300 for the injured student as of Sunday evening Through a friend, the junior Kappa Sigma brother declined to speak again with The Sun on Saturday, and his fraternity asked the public to “ respect his privacy ”
More details on the arrested student are likely to be available on Monday A clerk at Ithaca City Court had not received paperwork for the arrest on Friday afternoon when The Sun inquired, and a supervisor at the Tompkins County Jail said no one had been booked on Friday morning, meaning the student likely posted bail before going through the jail
BSU Executive Board members said they were baffled by why Ithaca Police had only arrested one student and why that student had not been charged with a hate crime
“These people are walking around scotfree with absolutely no repercussions,” Fears said “I think these people are going to have happy fine lives after beating up a black person until he was bloody ”
Some BSU Executive Board members also said they were disappointed after their meeting with Pendakur, saying the dean of students had put too much of the burden of demanding change from the administration on students
“Students of color are working so hard to fight this fight and the administration needs to step up, ” Celestin said
“We’re not the University's hired diversity consultants, but that seems to be what we ’ re doing right now ” Through a friend, the junior Kappa Sigma brother declined to speak with The Sun again over the weekend, and his fraternity asked the public to “ respect his privacy” as he recovers
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs can be reached at nbogelburroughs@cornellsun com
Psi Upsilon Under Investigation
FRATERNITY
Continued from page 1
group of four or five white men repeatedly called him the N-word and beat him early on Friday morning on Eddy Street The student said he was “bloodied” and he spoke from a local hospital on Friday evening Police said they are investigating whether there was " any racially biased motivation "
The University has not explicitly said Psi Upsilon or its members were responsible for the assault, but the singling out of the fraternity in Pollack's statement raises questions about whether the fraternity was operating underground and what Cornell's investigation will entail
Pollack said she also is directing the presidents of the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils to "develop a substantive and meaningful diversity training and education program for all their members" that will be implemented before spring recruitment
Two students who appear in a video from Friday night can be heard arguing with another student on the 300 block of Eddy Street, where the assault occurred In the video, one of the two men calls another student the N-word multiple times
The junior who was assaulted was not present for the verbal interaction and said it occurred after the physical assault
In another video reviewed by The Sun, the same two men appear outside of an Eddy Street residence that several students said serves as Psi Upsilon's unofficial
annex No one answered the door at that residence on Saturday and Sunday afternoon
Cornell revoked its recognition of Psi Upsilon in May 2016, when the fraternity allegedly hosted a party in violation of the interim suspension The suspension was also due to 31 judicial complaints against the fraternity at the time, Cornell said In a separate incident, their former president, Wolfgang Ballinger ’17, pleaded guilty to forcible touching in February and was sentenced to probation in April of this year
The former Psi Upsilon house at 2 Forest Lane was vacated after Cornell revoked the fraternity’s official status The building is currently being renovated and has no inhabitants The spray paint was covered with a wooden board at around 4 p m on Saturday, but shortly after, the graffiti was visible again
The most recent graffiti comes after a spate of similar incidents in 2016, including one in January 2016, when the words “Kill Your Rapist” were spray painted on the side of the Sigma Pi fraternity house In addition, the words “All Frats Rape” were spray painted on Baker War Memorial Flagpole in Februar y 2016, shortly after Ballinger was charged for sexual assault
Josh Girsky ’19 contributed reporting to this article
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs can be reached at nbogelburoughs@cornellsun com Girisha Arora can be reached at garora@cornellsun com
S.A. Considers Adding Hate Speech Ban to Code
HATE SPEECH
Continued from page 1
on Facebook that he supports the effort to amend the Code, but it is unclear where the push currently stands Devatha, Indimine and Valadez have all been working behind-the-scenes to push an amendment to the Code, but no resolution has been drafted or presented to the S A , nor has one been presented to the public Indimine previously said he and others were considering an attempt to curtail hate speech
would likely be a long-shot given
regarding free speech
“It has to be a complete cultural change of this community if we want real community change.”
1 8
Indimine and other members are considering additional options, such as an anti-hate-speech policy that S A would ask student organizations to adopt, he said Valadez did not respond to a request for comment
Some S A members who support the potential ban, but anticipate dissent, are trying to formulate a definition of forbidden “hate speech” that would be palatable to the University community Devatha suggested that a subcommittee of the body tasked with reviewing proposed changes to the Code the University Assembly’s Codes and Judicial Committee or a task force could work on defining “hate speech ”
“ That definition must be something that protects students, but is approved by the faculty/staff,” Devatha told The Sun in a message “The administration could potentially use a
poor definition to shut students down ”
But the S A does not have the power to amend the Code on its own, and its effort may run against principles of freedom of speech Hateful speech is protected by the First Amendment, and students’ rights organizations, like the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, largely counsel against banning hateful speech
“In order for speech to be truly free, speech that conveys deeply offensive messages, including hate, must be protected,” FIRE says on its website “A free people have recourse to reason, evidence, outrage, and moral witness against such speech, but do not need to turn to coercive power to silence it ”
An effort to amend the Code to forbid hate speech was made 10 years ago, but it “soundly failed,”
Prof Kevin Clermont, law, a drafter of the Code, told The Sun And rightly so, Clermont said
Defining hate speech “introduces terrible line-drawing problems, and will lead to punishing speech not deserving of punishment and chilling worthwhile speech,” Clermont said “It empowers the majority to suppress the minority Let the majority express its will by social pressure, not by legal means ”
Sarah Park ’20, the S A ’ s vice president of external affairs, is the only voting member of the U A ’ s Codes and Judicial Committee who also serves on the S A and said the committee has not received a resolution The process is still in “ super preliminar y stages, ” she said
If the CJC passes an amendment to the Code, both the U A and President Pollack, who has pledged to defend free speech, would have to approve the amendment for it to go into effect
Shruti Juneja ’20 contributed reporting to this article
Drew Musto can be reached at dmusto@cornellsun com
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
C h i c k e n F a t : A G r e a t T h i n g T h a t C o m i c s D o
I’ ve been reading Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge, a classic French comic by the great Jacques Tardi, recently reprinted by Fantagraphics It’s an adaption of a detective novel, and it is good Tardi has a way of telling hard-boiled detective stories with this loose, springy style that brings another level of joy to the work picture Shel Silverstein let loose on film noir What makes Tolbiac tick is the attention to setting woven into the graphic novel’s structure The rainslicked streets of Paris’ Left Bank preside over our
h e r o Ne s t o r Bu r m a , l o o mi n g i n d i f f e re n t to his pursuit of justice A single p e n s t r o k e b y
Tardi can create a window, and his freehand buildings seem to breathe Tolbiac is not Tardi’s masterpiece (for me, this will always be the absurdist and labyrinthine You Are There), but it is excellent
Six pages into Tolbiac, there’s a panel that really caught my attention It’s a good drawing that, though far from a showstopper, happens to do something I really like about comics The panel depicts Detective Bu r m a w a l k i n g w i t h In s p e c t o r Fa b re toward the morgue, where he’s going to see something a bit surprising Burma mockingly refers to the inspector as a communist, ironic considering Burma’s past in the a n a r c h i s t m ov e m e n t Sp e e c h b a l l o o n s delivering this information swallow up about a quarter of the frame, but our protagonists are barely visible, buried deep in the background of the image In the foreground, a nurse wheels an elderly woman across the road amid a downpour of rain
Their destination is unclear, but hopefully it's somewhere warm The old woman clutches at her shawl, a slight smile on her face suggests a mix of contentment and mild discomfort, as her tired, wrinkled eyes speak volumes to the wear of aging The
nurse, young but perhaps not youthful, furrows her brow She appears concerned, maybe a little stressed, but other wise seems quite calm, stoic even She is clearly in no hurr y Perhaps the rain has caught her a bit off guard, but she takes these walks regularly, so she is used to the occasional inconvenience
Tardi conveys all this nuanced visual information in the quick strokes of cartooning, creating a vivid tableaux for the re a d e r Bu t this informa-
to create a narrative
m o m e n t , a r g u a b l y a
c o re m e c h a n i c i n comics I couldn’t care less whether this someh ow m a k e s Br u e g e l some sort of proto-cartoonist, yet there is a similar formal game at p l a y T h e Br u e g e l painting and the Tardi panel both achieve a fine sensation of something else out there, just within the range of our perception, a second voice within the frame
in a second panel No context of their lives is provided beyond what we can see; they appear and then they are gone In a sense, they are like film extras, filling out the background space of narrative scener y But they are not in the background, rather the foreground, the focal point of the scene ’ s composition
This is an amazing thing that comics can do A panel can present us with interesting, captivating characters and situations, and then abandon them in the following panel without so much as a comment In a film, you could not place a group of people in the foreground without them appearing to be of some narrative importance, nor in the background without making them virtually invisible In literature, the time spent describing behaviors of others will again create a level of focus not present in this one-panel aside The only good parallel I can think of outside of comics is Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, where the captivating and timeless myth of human hubris before the heavens occurs literally in the background of a seaside village Yet, in Bruegel's work, we are directed toward that myth by the title of the work, an intersection of words and text
Lego That word alone conjures up delightful memories of putting together submarines and airplanes as a small boy More recently, I’ve fallen in love all over again with their feature length films If you had told me four years ago that I’d end up saying “I’ve come to expect quality from the Lego film franchise,” I’d have thought you batty! But, sure enough, they have taken Hollywood by storm with both critical and commercial success When I pop in either Lego movie, I feel my childhood resurrecting for ninety minutes at a time
That is why it pained me this past week when the New York Times reported that Lego planned to cut nearly a tenth of their workforce Their mid-year revenue report recently came in, and it doesn’t look good; they brought in about $544 million in profit so far this year, $16 million less than in 2016 Most of this has been tied to falling toy sales in Europe and North America, but I want to look at the film aspect here There’s something to learn about film, and the fine line between commerce and art
Let’s start with analyzing The Lego Batman Movie itself To be sure, audiences enjoyed it, and I myself praised it in my review this past February Unfortunately, audiences didn’t shell out quite as much for it The movie made less than 75% of its predecessor, The Lego Movie It could be because it was February, generally not a big month for family entertainment It could be part of the box office slump that’s been plaguing the entire year It could even be superhero fatigue After all, Marvel’s pumping out three movies a year, and DC’s trying to catch up As a result of any of these factors, or even something else altogether, the audience got pared down Besides limited exposure though, another obstacle blocked merchandising efforts Bloomberg quoted the CEO of Toys R
Tardi’s panel is no singular achievement, though I do love it
t h i s m o d e o f s t o r ytelling is as common to comics as the montage t o m ov i e s If yo u ’ ve ever read so much as a Mad Magazine parody, you ’ ve seen and likely enjoyed this narrative trick, the “packing” of p a n e l s t o m a x i m i z e the jokes per frame I believe it was either Will Elder or Har vey Kurtzman who called this “chicken fat ” Artists like José Muñoz (with the poet Carlos Sampayo) have elevated chicken fat to a discourse of its own, creating paranoid tableaux of mysterious happenings and beguiling glances for the narrative to move through, as but one citizen in a crowded mythic city Be your purposes humor or poetics, the thing about chicken fat is it often has as much staying power as the main action of the comic’s “main” narrative I’m still thinking about the old woman and her nurse, not so much about Nestor Burma’s ambivalent interactions with the law
will always be an exception Moreover, there’s an easy fallacy of declaring that just because something can be done by a medium, then that thing is therefore extraordinary or fantastic, a mark of excellence any time it is noticed All I have described is a thing that comics do Like any element of style, it can be bungled It can even just be there, a mechanic, plain as punctuation But there is something about this thing that can be done in comics that I believe is often great, and looking for things like this is how we begin to view comics as an art form, more than entertainment yet also more pleasurable
It’s always a danger to declare there is something that only comics can do There
Us, David Brandon, saying that The Lego Batman Movie had not successfully promoted the matching Lego sets The problem with Lego Batman sets is that there’s other Batman merchandise available In a great irony, DC and Warner Brothers ended up competing with themselves Of course, it doesn’t matter for them whether Mom picks up the Lego Batman or Affleck Batman It matters for Lego though, and with Lego sets priced so high, Mom’s more likely to pick up the cheaper Batman doll
Ninjago gets the same solid reviews as Lego Batman, that will be another boost to its box office
But what about merchandising? That all-important synergy is what Lego needs right now to boost sales Well, since Ninjago is a franchise exclusive to Lego, that means Lego gets a bigger share of the revenue Plus, they don’t have to worry about competition for Ninjago merchandise sales they’re the only ones who can license it! Add into that a loyal fan base and Lego might have better luck making money from Lego Ninjago
That doesn’t even include external competition Bloomberg also mentioned Lutz Muller, head of a consulting firm for the toy industry Muller points out that Lego has to face the likes of Mattel and Hasbro, who have been in the action figure business for years When it comes down to it, Lego Batman had so much competition that it’s no wonder the merchandise didn’t do well
So now our eyes turn to The Lego Ninjago Movie Could this film fare better than its predecessor, both in the cinemas and in the toy stores? Well, let’s pick this apart Lego introduced the Ninjago brand in 2011, and it became more popular than anticipated Since then, it’s built a strong following among young boys, and Cartoon Network even aired a show around it The LA Times predicts it will gross up to $40 million on opening weekend I imagine it’ll get a boost from the fact that there haven’t been any good family movies for a while now I mean, the last three animated films released this year were Leap!, The Nut Job 2 and The Emoji Movie They ranged from “meh” to deplorable, in that order If
What needs to be learned here is the importance of merchandising when it comes to filmmaking While many people detest the idea of movies as products instead of art, they are ultimately both That doesn’t mean they can ’ t be good products that we enjoy! I also want to say that I don’t feel too worried about Lego’s future They have hit trouble before, far bigger trouble (look up their 2004 crisis), and they climbed their way back to the top There are many reasons to believe that they will pull themselves over this setback as well They’re already taking steps to streamline their company (even if it means laying off a lot of people) But, a lot rests on The Lego Ninjago Movie, which is set to be released next week We’ll be waiting
David Gouldthorpe is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations He can be reached at djg284@cornell edu
The Next Panel Nathan Chazan
Nathan Chazan is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences The Next Panel will appear Mondays this semester He can be reached at ndc39@cornell edu
D o T h e y R e a l l y F l o a t D o w n H e r e ?
BY TRIP HASTINGS Sun Staff Writer
“You’ll float too! You’ll float too!” cried Georgie in the latest trailer for It, directed by Andrés Muschietti I remember watching it and having high hopes for this movie
The film is based off of one of Stephen King’s most famous novels, the only prior adaptation was a 1990 miniseries with Tim Curry as a crazy clown And, if Tim Curry as a dancing clown doesn’t automatically scream horror, I don’t know what does But, seriously, he was the funniest part about that movie
This interpretation seemed like it was going to be much more intense, which is something I was looking for from an adaptation of my favorite Stephen King novel
For those of you who don’t aren ’ t familiar with It, the story follows seven outsiders, in what they call they Losers Club, who survive a monster called “It” that manifests mostly as a killer clown
You can tell within the first few minutes that this film is going to look and sound gorgeous The cinematography is beautiful to behold, and the soundtrack is surprisingly epic There is one scene where one of the kids, Ben ( Jeremy Ray Taylor), is running away from the bullies up a river, and it’s a drone shot with this intense music playing I turned to one of my friends and said, “This is epic ” Also, the acting from everyone is really on point
Then, we ’ re introduced to Pennywise the clown (Bill Skarsgård) Now, there’s nothing wrong with a creepy clown, but I don’t find them particularly intimidating Either way, why this kid is listening to a creepy clown in the drainage pipe instead of running is beyond me Still, the clown isn t very scary When It attacks, the head gets closer as the rest of the body shakes in fake-looking, CGI fashion Also, the way It shakes its head as it attacks is rather funny The most ridiculous scene is towards the very end when Pennywise the dancing clown actually dances It’s this intense jig, and Pennywise’s face stays in the same position as the rest if its body shakes Despite all of this, It still has its creepy moments such as when all you can see are its glowing eyes (called the deadlights) And, Pennywise’s head can roll back into a row of teeth and then reveal the deadlights
The amount of gore throughout the film was very mixed It
Colton Poore
You may know Emily Haines from the Canadian band Metric This Emily Haines is an entertainer She energizes arenas of fans She sings and plays the synth at Coachella She dances comfortably on the stage
Yet there is another side to Emily Haines: quieter and lesser-known, slower and more introspective A side that you might not glean from popular, faster-tempo Metric songs such as “Gold Guns Girls” or, more recently, “The Shade ” A side that surfaced in 2006 with a full-length album, and once more in 2007 with an EP And after 10 years of slumber, Emily Haines has once more unearthed that side of her she calls Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, her solo project, in order to deliver a new album, Choir of the Mind And while Metric has evolved in its own way over the course of its six albums from downtempo to rock proper to indie rock and most recently to dance rock so has The Soft Skeleton discarded some of its old bones in creating this new album Considering that her 2006 release Knives Don’t Have Your Back was written during a particularly difficult time in her life following the passing away of her father, both this album and her subsequent 2007 EP What is Free to a Good Home? deal with themes of mourning, isolation and abandonment
In Choir of the Mind, however, there is an undeniable lifting in the tones of her new songs Haines has moved up higher on the piano, replacing the brooding, deliberate bass notes of Knives Don’t Have Your Back with elevated, almost dreamlike melodies She has opted for synthesized background beats and breathy vocal layers clearly influenced by Metric’s 2015 release Pagans in Vegas where in previous releases there was a quiet jazz drum and mournfully rolling cello She has written expansive and lofty lyrics, no longer rooted in 2006’s luxurious melancholy and grief
was rather gory in the first part of the film yet was rather lacking in the second half This change occurs once the Losers Club cleans up the blood from Beverly’s (Sophia Lillis) bathroom There is still impaling and broken body parts, but the blood is very minimal And, now I think it is finally time to nerd out I mean, my bike’s name is Silver because of this book
Despite Pennywise being a bit ridiculous, I was finally happy that a serious version of this story was created And, by focusing only on the kids, the film didn’t feel so crammed and pressed for time However, there were still a lot of story lines to go over in this two hour period There was each of the kids in the Losers Club, their home lives, the clown and the bullies Beverly was also given a far creepier home life, that I do not remember from the book
Now, in this adaptation, there were some choices that did and did not benefit the film First of all, we see more adults witnessing the children in danger and ignoring it This will be important later when the Losers Club figures out from this that the entire town is in on the killings Another is that there are more bullies than just Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) And, we actually get to see his home life and figure out why he is the way he is Henry’s switch to listening to Pennywise, a nod to The Tommyknockers, is actually made in this film instead of 27 years later, as in the book It gives it more of a sense of urgency
The ending also was very different, and that’s definitely not a bad thing I won ’ t give too much away, but let’s say that people actually float in this movie! They really do float down here! In the book, it was really just saying the dead float in the water And, the ending here was definitely more cinematic since the ending to the kid’s timeline was never meant to be the end of the story So, it had to be developed more for the movie And, it delivers!
Some of the worse deviations from the book included stereotypical Hollywood moments First of all, the group breaking up before coming back together cliché was really
unnecessary just was really there to break up the action a bit I know there needed to be a sense of urgency, but did we really have to go the damsel in distress route? It’s a group made up of six guys and one girl, and Beverly is the one who gets taken by the clown And, don’t worry There’s a reason why Pennywise doesn’t kill her Also, why did the kids keep splitting up and doing things you’d see in a typical horror film? There was even one scene where one kid, Ritchie (Finn Wolfhard), goes to open a coffin, and someone in the back yells “Don’t open it, man!”
The most important thing to me about the book It wasn ’ t the killer clown but the relationship between the characters and how they worked off of each other And, I do believe that they really got that down solid It was a group of kids whose chemistry worked and you want to hang out with, if you were that age again Let me dream! There are a few scenes that could be a bit shorter, as this is still a horror film and not as much a drama Although it is good to build character, it would have been nice to see more of a sense of urgency
So, how does It hold up? Incredibly well It stays true to the book while also adding in new, interesting elements while changing others for the better I’d give it a 4 5 out of 5 adventurous hats for a very entertaining adaptation, despite silly Pennywise and Hollywood moments And, now I can ’ t wait until 2019 for the sequel involving the adults This film has definitely raised my expectations And, wait Is that a balloon behind you?
Trip Hastings is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at gh357@cornell edu
T E S T S P I N S
O O O
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O n e w a n d n o t a b l e m u s i c i n r e v i e w
Choir of the Mind is erudite It is self-reflective It is hypnotic It is cosmic At some points, it is even a bit disorienting, as in the first minute opening track, “Planets,” in which a layering of vocals accompanies a gently plodding piano to achieve a swirling, weightless feeling
Yet at the center of all this cosmogony and weightlessness, there is, perhaps, a void of sincerity across the album Maybe this is a result of the vocal layering and synthesizer that appear in many tracks on the album, manufacturing an impersonal and mechanical sound Or maybe it is not necessarily insincerity that permeates the album, but inaccessibility
Emily Haines attempts to tackle questions of her own identity, her relationship to society and her own viewpoints on the progress of society (especially with regards to women), approaching these issues from her own labyrinthine introspections Unlike in her previous releases, though, she is not speaking in the common language of grief On Choir of the Mind, she is speaking in her own language She is trying to process her own thoughts
Unfortunately, these thoughts are often disjointed, like in the first single off the album, Fatal Gift ” It suffers from somewhat awkwardly phrased lyrics: “We accept the fatal gift/A soup stone for our stove/And a blindfold for our tears, ” which, in tandem with the dreamy, high notes of the piano, create a combination that is out of sync It then transitions uneasily to a strange dance beat, over which Haines periodically declares, “The things you own they own you ” As a whole, it is muddled Its lyrics are a bit heavy-handed Haines is in a dream world, yet her lyrics are critiques of reality; she has added a chilling dance beat to a reflective ballad, one thing undermining the other Other times, however, the lyrics and beat unite in interesting ways In another single, “Statuette,” which marries a light,
breezy bossa nova beat with the words, “With all the coal in the core/All the water and the oil/You can buy any girl in the world ” The balance here between heaviness and lightness is effective It has a catchy beat; without the haunting vocals to accompany it, the song would be relaxing and carefree Instead, it becomes pleasantly unsettling
Yet even in these situations where the album succeeds, its success is based around an artificial construction of separate elements There is no emotional rawness to Choir in the Mind I cannot crawl into my bed, cower under the covers, and simply feel the weights of every note and lyric, one by one as they dig deeper, gently pulled by the immense undertow of melancholy like I can with both Knives Don’t Have Your Back and What is Free to a Good Home? (“Telethon” from her What is Free to a Good Home? will always be my go-to cover-cowering song)
The environment of the new album is an enchanting dream from which there is no true awakening Rough reality never emerges for the listener, who is condemned to look into Haines’ mind always from the outside, condemned to orbit interminably around a mechanized emptiness
Even as I listen through the tracks on Choir of the Mind, I am drawn back to the songs of Knives Don’t Have Your Back, to “Our Hell,” to “Reading in Bed,” to “Crowd Surf Off a Cliff ” and to “Winning ” Listen to those songs Unearth the 10-year old Soft Skeleton Let the rolling waves of bass notes wash over you Ease into the powerful emotional performances of Emily Haines as she speaks to you the language of intense wistfulness Feel the immense gravity of reality; do not merely dream about it
Colton Poore is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences He can be reached at clp222@cornell edu
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A Reckoning After Hate in Collegetown
THE EVENTS REPORTED FRIDAY BY THE SUN are incredibly disturbing and merit immediate and comprehensive action by the University and the Interfraternity Council Early Friday morning, a black Cornell student told The Sun he was verbally and then physically assaulted outside of his residence after attempting to break up a fight around 1 a m The student, who was struck repeatedly in the face, was hospitalized A video taken later that night, reportedly an hour after the assault, depicts several people, identified as members of an unaffiliated fraternity by Vice President for Student Life Ryan Lombardi and alleged to be members of Psi Upsilon in a Facebook post by Black Students United, shouting racial slurs and other insults at another student who is offscreen It is difficult to watch, but we recommend to do so for anyone uncertain whether or not racism is alive and well at Cornell
Regardless of their alleged membership in any organization, the individuals involved must be held fully accountable by the University and by the city of Ithaca What is alleged is a criminal act and potentially a federal hate crime Anything less than the full force of the judicial system will be inadequate to address what happened There must be consequences, legal and otherwise, for racism and for assault
And if the individuals shown in the video are indeed members of Psi Upsilon, Cornell and IFC have a responsibility to act accordingly and prevent the fraternity from regaining the recognition it lost after violating the rules of an interim suspension That suspension, initially for three years and later reduced to 18 months, was put in place after chapter president Wolfgang Ballinger ’17 was charged with “first-degree attempted rape, first-degree criminal sexual act and first-degree sexual abuse” (Ballinger later pleaded guilty to forcible touching, a lesser charge) Lombardi did state that, pending investigation, “the ability of the fraternity to return to campus will no longer be considered ” IFC must support this decision and the sentiment behind it They must also take measures to prevent Psi Upsilon from recruiting underground pledge classes This fraternity, which before its suspension had reportedly amassed 31 judicial complaints, has repeatedly shown itself to be unworthy of a home at Cornell
Pegah Moradi | All Jokes Aside
How Do You Like Them Apples?
Irecently bought an iPhone after having a Samsung Galaxy for almost five years I had lamented the lack of iMessage, the terrifyingly janky emojis (Why does the screaming-in-fear emoji have a GHOST coming out of its mouth?) and the front camera that made me look like a cloudy mirage Tired of being The Girl with the Green Texts, I switched
The iPhone isn’t a good smartphone It’s not a humane smartphone That is, the iPhone is not made with the user ’ s humanity in mind; rather, iPhones and iOS work to keep a person reliant on their smartphones as much as possible This isn’t surprising It’s capitalism, and until recently, it was somewhat insignificant and inane For instance, iOS 10 features separate, individual notifications for ever y individual bump from Facebook Messenger, every individual like on your tweet and every single Slack message You can ’ t consolidate these notifications into one alert anymore, meaning you constantly check your phone: incessant phone use is hard-wired into your iPhone settings OK, so not having combined notifications is really not that big of a deal I realize this; when I got my iPhone I described the notifications as being “like crack but on your
Thursday night’s events, coupled with last week’s incident in which a member of Zeta Psi fraternity chanted “Let’s build a wall around the [Latino Living Center],” underscore the need for a widespread reckoning of racism within the Cornell community, and in particular the Greek community on our campus A joint statement from the IFC, the Panhellenic Council and the Multicultural Greek Letter Council said “We do not need these incidents to recognize that there is a problem in our community, on our campus and in this world” but even that statement failed to acknowledge the consistently racial nature of the two occurrences While we do not doubt Presidents Gleason, Barrett and Lord’s stance against “ acts of hatred, intolerance and violence,” they must do more than just release statements after each successive incident They must acknowledge that endemic to the Greek system is a permission structure allowing for racism and classism, the result of which we have seen over the past two weeks Meaningful change can only come about via concerted, coordinated and consistent action, not incremental reactionary measures applied through a disciplinary proceeding The fetishization of tradition, central to much of fraternity culture today, understandably prevents such organizations from effecting meaningful change Again, while this is not reflected in all fraternities across America or at Cornell, it is a feature inherent to the institution of the fraternity Racism is not unique to the Greek community Implicit bias is not unique to the Greek community It is all of us, not just fraternity brothers and sorority sisters, who must reckon with it At a time when our nation’s leadership shows a remarkable reluctance to address racism and its continuing impact on the lives of tens of millions of people, it is up to all of us to speak up and to take action This includes calling out racism when we see it, working to understand our own implicit prejudices and actively rectifying them
What happened last Thursday night was despicable No student at this university should ever have to fear for their personal safety, especially at the hands of another student Nobody should walk the streets of Collegetown anxious that they will be recklessly harassed and assaulted because of the color of their skin It is incumbent on
phone” and my brother responded, “You’re overreacting,” and “What is wrong with you?” The stakes here are low and the solution is simple When Apple revealed the newest iPhone models in its keynote last week, however, things got a little spicier
The iPhone X’s face-scanning feature is egregious and violatory When it comes to security, your face is less mutable than a passcode and easier to spoof As Andy Greenberg, security writer for Wired writes, “Your face sits out in the open, displayed in public, and well-documented across social media platforms Using it as a secret key is a little like writing your PIN on a Post-It note, slapping it on your forehead and going for a stroll ”
That said, if it takes printing a 3D model of a user ’ s face to unlock a smartphone, then the average user is probably fine taking that risk
If, on the other hand, it takes a police officer forcibly unlocking a phone with a suspect ’ s face actions that several courts have found acceptable for fingerprints and TouchID users may be less enthusiastic
The privacy implications are far more insidious Consider that in order for FaceID to function, the iPhone X needs to almost constantly be scanning the user Natasha Lomas of TechCrunch duly notes that con-
Cornell and on the City of Ithaca to reassure people of color that they are not targets, but are students and Ithacans and faculty and employees and guests who deserve the full protection of the law
This starts with accountability IPD must answer to why they have yet to identify the name of the student charged with assault, or released his mugshot The alleged perpetrator most likely made bail Thursday night and is free to roam our campus and Ithaca under perfect anonymity Imagine the fear of not knowing if the man sitting next to you on the bus, or walking behind you at 3 a m on College Ave just put a black man, who had the temerity to break up a fight on his own front lawn, in the hospital with a possible concussion; imagine not knowing because the police refused to identify such a man
Furthermore, we should ask why neither the University nor IFC has identified the unaffiliated fraternity at the heart of all this If they are embarrassed that an organization that was theoretically banned from Cornell is apparently still thriving off-campus, or that it will expose their limited scope of power and restraint when it comes to fraternities whose alumni have a long and documented history of donations to Cornell, then let them be embarrassed Perhaps now we will finally find out why Psi Upsilon’s initial suspension was reduced by a year and a half with little fanfare or explanation
At this point, we have far too many questions, and far too few answers We look forward to the results of the investigation, and we hope, for all our sakes, that it is conducted in a method becoming of a situation of this gravity
We also eagerly await the forthcoming plan to combat “hatred, intolerance and violence,” referenced in the Greek Tri-Council statement Cornell cannot claim to be an institution for “ any person, any study,” when episodes like this are swept under the rug or sloppily bandaged with half-baked measures designed for damage control rather than real change This is not a question of rankings or of bad press and it is certainly not of future and potential contributions to the University’s coffers
It is an issue of humanity What kind of university, what kind of community, do we want to be? That’s a question we should all be asking ourselves in the days to come
stant scanning is conducive to surveillance, and that this danger is exacerbated by the omnipresence and ceaseless use of smartphones While the face scan is stored directly on the device and cannot be remotely accessed, any other data collected (e g facial reactions to content you view on your phone) could easily be sold to behemoth third-parties like Facebook or Google
Fortunately, the next iOS allows the user to disable FaceID Unfortunately, many users still won ’ t do so Lay users often make the “I have nothing to hide” argument when it comes to surveillance and privacy, and on the surface, that argument is understandable: If you ’ re not a criminal or cheating on your spouse, it’s difficult to see privacy being of particular importance I don’t particularly care if anyone knows that I’ve been playing a lot of Boggle With Friends (Play me @PegahM4)
The argument is understandable, but stupid Privacy isn’t just for criminals: There are just certain things we don’t want people to know You probably don’t want your employer to see your political donations or your neighbor to know your income
More importantly, research repeatedly shows that individuals change their behavior when they know they’re under surveillance, whether consciously or subconsciously: A 2015 paper by Alex Matthews of Digital Fourth and Catherine Tucker of MIT demonstrated how internet search queries on personally sensitive and government sensitive topics decreased following Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations In 2016, Jon Penney of Har vard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center and the Oxford Internet Institute wrote extensively on find-
ing “chilling effects” in traffic to sensitive Wikipedia pages following government leaks If you don’t care about surveillance subtly changing your behavior, perhaps you’ll care about higher prices as a result of tracking-based price discrimination
This isn’t “technopanic,” as Adam Thierer of the Mercatus Center described it at a libertarian tech policy summit in July While the free market is supposed to account for individuals’ privacy and security concerns, consumer preferences have trouble trickling up when the entire U S market for a product is effectively a duopoly
According to ComScore, as of June 2017, Apple made up almost 45 percent of the U S smartphone market The consumer is rendered pretty much helpless, especially when Apple’s design decisions are specifically intended to lock in the user through network effects and inter-device operability
Antitrust regulation is apt for use in this scenario but likely does not have the necessary jurisdiction to curb consumer concerns And while Sen Al Franken’s (D-Minn ) letter to CEO Tim Cook was a positive sign of prompt government responsiveness as opposed to the traditional ex post regulatory approach, legislative prospects are bleak In the meantime, American consumers (yes, you, the millennial with immense importance in the U S market!) can benefit from employing the European attitude on privacy: Refuse to give it up
Pegah Moradi is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences All Jokes Aside runs alternate Mondays this semester She can be reached at pmoradi@cornellsun com
Jacqueline Groskaufmanis | The Dissent
Who Pays the Price of an Unpaid Internship?
Sometimes I wonder why students who want to go into government, advocacy work or international relations are r unning around campus in suits for recr uiting, bending over backwards for jobs that many openly admit that they have no interest in pursuing I’m then reminded these corporate jobs actually pay, and they pay well and that alone is more than can be said for many internships in government, advocacy, or international relations
About 50 percent of college students work at an internship or co-op position at some point during their college careers Of those students, 47 percent find experience in positions that are unpaid To us, this may sound innocuous, but it is wor th noting that among
For-profit companies should pay their interns. If you are profitable, workers who contribute to that surplus should be compensated.
while searching for a summer job,” said one student I talked to “ The experience I got bagging groceries obviously didn’t make me as marketable as a job at the State Depar tment would have, but one pays and the other doesn’t That’s life ”
And there you have it Fe w would contest that the current system often takes advantage of student workers while tilting the experiential playing field towards those who have money I spoke with a California employment attorney who has litigated cases before various state and federal cour ts (including the Supreme Cour t), and has represented
those students who worked at for-profit companies, onethird weren ’ t paid, raising a tricky issue of compensation
A simple and obvious case to make is that it’s unfair to not pay someone who is working five days a week, eight hours a day, contributing to an organization That’s a per fectly valid argument, but it’s also some what incomplete Many employers invest in creating programs that are valuable educational experience for their interns, an effor t that takes money and effor t In this light, unpaid internships simply require students to match that investment But for ever y college student working hard without pay at a non-profit, a research lab or even a federal government agency, there are students who are qualified for and would love the same experience, but reasonably can ’ t afford to post up in some distant city all summer without any income
“For me, student debt is absolutely a factor I consider
McDonald’s employees Her bottom line with respect to id i ernships? In some cases, they’re not unfair, but also illegal m a legal perspective, it’s not okay, but do it with a wink and a nod because the way to get experience,” she said of
kers without satisfying the criterion andated by federal law “At the end of the day, the cycle continues because you have students that are able to work for free, and companies that are willing to take their chances ”
For-profit companies should pay their interns If you are profitable, workers who contribute to that surplus should be compensated That’s not just my personal opinion; in many cases it’s the law It’s oppor tunistic for o n e - t h
exploit the pipeline of eager students looking for job experience, and to limit the pool of students who can even consider applying by edging out those with financial constraints I cut nonprofits slack because many of them literally don’t have the resources to pay their interns, but also because nonprofits aren ’ t subject to the same laws regarding compensation
That being said, I don’t anticipate that these companies are going to change their practices anytime soon For this reason, I see the Cornell network as the most viable space for possible change Grants and stipends are essential, and literally make the difference between accepting or declining a dream job Students would benefit from more funding oppor tunities, but also from more widespread adver tising of existing grants and info about which students are eligible to apply Full disclosure, I worked at an unpaid internship last summer It was an incredible experience, and one principle reason I was able to work there was because I was awarded a grant to cover my commuting costs An alumni saw that there was a need, and he personally created a fund for students like me If that grant hadn’t existed, I would have essentially had to pay to go to work, which was not only infeasible but also would’ve been kind of ridiculous
That being said, it’s not like the world is an arena of equal oppor tunities in the first place; wealthy people have clear and obvious advantages well before they star t applying to niche internship positions But at a school where we ’ re taking the same classes and allegedly (or ideally) being oriented toward the same oppor tunities,it’s impor tant to at least tr y creating wider avenues that connect students to relevant work experience regardless of financial background So what are some potential solutions?
Lorenzo Benitez | Not a Cop
FAt a time when income inequality is reaching historic levels, it’s par ticularly impor tant to confront systems that undermine equal oppor tunity even if their impact seems negligible on the sur face-level Previous lawsuits haven’t adequately addressed the issue, and I wouldn’t guess that we ’ re on the verge of any real traction in terms of public policy change That being said, there are ways for us, as a university, to begin levelling the playing field The first step is becoming aware that there’s a tilt
Jacqueline Groskaufmanis is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences The Dissent appears alternating Mondays this semester Jacqueline can be reached at jgroskaufmanis@cornellsun com
Dress-Rehearsing for the Future
or those of us searching for careers in the private sector, the past couple of weeks have been defined by information sessions, networking events, interviews and the like The accelerating perception of an undergraduate degree’s foremost purpose as a means to access skilled employment has affected the lives of our generation, evident in our corporately-dressed classmates at the start of each fall The understandable nervousness felt by those shuffling between events structured to grant employers a more efficient means of recruiting the nation’s most intelligent laborers inevitably kicks up our collective anxiety Regardless of whether you yourself are actively participating in oncampus recruitment, you can at least agree that there is an uneasiness, caused by our natural, human apprehensiveness toward the future, that comes with seeing some of your classmates preemptively don the literal attire of adulthood, like actors dress-rehearsing for our next performance
While recruitment admittedly serves a useful labor market function by resolving the anxiety of summer or post-graduation employment far in advance, we must acknowledge some negative externalities
The other day, I was among a group of Cornell students at a Collegetown restaurant to eat dinner with alumni representing their employer As I was farewelling one of the firm’s representatives who, frankly, seemed tired and unexcited about the possibility of surrendering another business card another Cornell student, with a wellrehearsed, toothy grin, asked said representative for a business card, justifying the interruption as an opportunity to thank them for their “incredible knowledge ” Considering how most questions directed toward the rep-
resentative were novel re-phrasings of standard questions about “the firm’s culture,” and were inevitably met with novel re-phrasings of standard answers, it wasn ’ t difficult to spot the profound insincerity of such flattery
While it’s easy to specify inauthenticity to certain schmoozers, we shouldn’t be so quick to ascribe moral blame to those practising what they perceive as necessary That fellow student may have been raised by a single parent who struggled to juggle temporary, part-time service work at different employers to preserve the possibility of a better future for their child The spectre of mirroring their parent ’ s struggle, even to the slightest extent, may understandably prompt an existential insecurity in my classmate far more severe in effect than my own discomfort Indeed, the escalating commoditization of education as an input for optimizing the labor force is moreover a consequence of the increasing indebtedness necessary for many to access higher education, which the undirected forces of capital promote as necessary to skilled employment
If debt is a “foreclosure on the future,” then our generation’s growing indebtedness equates to a growing loss of future autonomy The more debt we assume, the more pressing the need to earn not merely a living wage, but one that additionally covers both principal and interest And with that increased necessity to promptly begin repaying the staggering debt many now assume to “become educated,” the ability to envision an alternate world, enjoy our disposable time and simply live fully and for ourselves diminishes The increasing rarity of disposable time is among the most troubling phenomena of our time The fact that the most
common regret expressed by the dying is the desire to spend more time amongst their families demonstrates disposable time is among the most meaningful, and sadly, the most threatened luxuries of the 21st century Even the most “bound-for-success” Cornellians the ones headed for Silicon Valley or Wall Street await a future of intensive hours, even if it’s as a worker in the services economy
The material gains of technological progress have thrusted smartphones into our
other startlingly-unequal societies like postSoviet Russia and caste-system India, ought to deeply trouble advocates of this nation’s trajectory
And so, as we continue to shuffle between employers, we must consider whether we harbor a preference for an improved material reality to that which we now experience or that we anticipate experiencing already among the most fortunate of potential recruits as Ivy League students
Flattery is admittedly, to some extent, neces-
While it’s easy to specify inauthenticity to certain schmoozers, we shouldn’t be so quick to ascribe moral blame to those practising what they perceive as necessary.
hands and an internet upon which we may find endless self-expression However, even in the developed world, is our material reality truly improving? If we go by an increasingly-popular alternative indicator of societal progress, gross national happiness , we see developed nations like this one fall behind This is unsurprising, in light of recent psychological findings that suggest a source of unhappiness to be the immediate inequality witnessed in one ’ s life hence accounting for the happiness of the impoverished and “isolated,” relative to wealthier Westerners
Applying this to a broader level, the fact that the United States is the seventh-most unequal country in the world, alongside
sary and so the general dissatisfaction I overhear expressed at the obsequious practises instituted by on-campus recruiting ought to be informed by an acknowledgement that people ultimately behave in response to incentives established and nurtured by the institutional trajectory of higher education Instead, the challenge that’ll separate those who find meaning in their subsequent productivity, the bedrock of daily existence in our society, from those who don’t will be whether one acts in concert with this fundamental intuition for a better reality, or chooses to abandon it
Lorenzo Benitez is a junior in the College of Arts and Scences He can be reached at lbenitez@cornellsun com Not a Cop appears alternating Mondays this semester
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Former Red QB Lazor ’94 Promoted to Bengals’ OC
By JAMIL RAHMAN and ZACHARY SILVER Sun Asst Sports Editor and Sports Editor
The Cincinnati Bengals announced Friday afternoon that former Cornell quarterback Bill Lazor ’94 will be assuming the offensive coordinator role for the team, effective immediately
In his playing time on East Hill, Lazor built a resume that ranks him fourth all-time in passing yards and third in passing touchdowns By the time of his graduation, the threeyear starter broke 26 passing and total offensive records for the program
Lazor was an All-Ivy honorable mention selection in his sophomore season in 1992 and earned the team ’ s Pop Warner Most Valuable Player Award the following year He was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012
After graduating from East Hill, Lazor was an assistant coach at his alma mater until 2000 He then made the lead to the NFL in 2001 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills Since then, Lazor has had stints in Atlanta, Washington and Seattle before making a brief detour into the college ranks once again when he was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the University of Virginia from 2010 until 2012 Lazor ventured back into the NFL as a part of the Philadelphia and Miami organizations, before ending up in Cincinnati
The announcement of his promotion came less than a day after the Bengals’ Thursday night matchup against the Houston Texans, where the team dropped a 13-9 contest The Bengals have lost the first two games of its young season, including its home opener, 20-0, against the Baltimore Ravens
“Trust me, things have happened very fast,” Lazor said in a conference call Friday afternoon, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer “We’ll have a chance to convene [Saturday] morning after everyone has had a chance to take in what’s happening and we’ll go forward a lot faster after that But the most important thing I think for today is just the relationships with the coaches on the staff and being all together and being prepared to move forward ”
Lazor joined the organization in January 2016 as the quarterbacks coach after his predecessor Ken Zampese was promoted to offensive coordinator and assumes his new role after the firing of Zampese
“Today, I’m really thinking more about Ken having been through it from the other side and knowing how much he put into it and feeling badly and trying to be humane about that,” Lazar added about Zampese, according to the Enquirer
Jamil Rahman can be reached at jrahman@cornellsun com
Zachary Silver can be reached at sports-editor@cornellsun com
COURTESY OF C NCINNATI BENGALS
Vet | Bill Lazor ’94 has been around football for a long time and will now lead the Bengals’ offense
No Preseason, Many Problems
Continued from page 12
“Like I told the team, this one i s o n m y s h o u l d e r, ” h e s a i d “ When Columbia canceled in early July and we had no one to scrimmage, that’s what it looked like in the first half I’m just disappointed in myself for not having that preparation for these guys ” D e l a w a re , i n a w a y, w a s Cornell’s Virginia Tech game a road contest against a school with much more flexibility in recruiting and developing a program But perhaps the nature of the matchup is what keeps the team buzzing with confidence after the o n e - s i d e d l o s s K n ow i n g t h e s t re n g t h a n d a b i l i t y o f y o u r opponent and not seeing any black marks on the Ivy record could ver y well end up being the tune-up game Cornell needs with
Yale who torched Lehigh 5628 Saturday next on the docket
After all, Archer said postgame that he felt more confident an hour following the season-opening loss to Delaware this year than he did after the opening win against Bucknell last season
And minutes after the final whistle, Banks had already forg o t t e n a b o u t i t , d i s p l a y i n g a maturity born with a year of starting in the rear view mirror
“I look at it as a complete fluke,” he said “ That’s not who this offense is, it’s the complete opposite identity of what we ’ ve been building all preseason, what we ’ ve been practicing all spring We are so much better than that
“I’m still completely certain we are going to be one of the better teams in the league this year ”
Zachary Silver can be reached at sports-editor@cornellsun com
5 Turnovers in 1st Half Stife Red in Season-Opener
Offseason rust, evident in fumble on frst play, comes to light in loss
By
NEWARK, Del A fumble on the first play of the season cast a dark cloud over Cornell football’s opening game, and the Red, showing its rust, was unable to recover its composure as Cornell was scorched by Delaware, 41-14, on Saturday
On the first play of the first drive of the first game of the season, running back Chris Walker lost the ball and Delaware’s Bilal Nichols scooped it up and, three plays later, the Blue Hens punched it in for the touchdown, giving Delaware a 7-0 lead after just 53 seconds of game time
“It certainly isn’t the way you want to start, ” head coach David Archer ’05 said
The opening play proved to be a harbinger of a mistake-riddled game for the Red Four more turnovers in the first half buried Cornell in a 27-0 hole at halftime
“We just gave it away, ” Archer said “It’s a great lesson to learn that in a non-league game, we have got to take care of the football to play to our potential ”
But despite the loss, Archer said he was feeling more optimistic than he was after last season ’ s opening game, a 24-16 win over Bucknell
“What this Delaware game shows you is all of your flaws,” Archer said “Maybe we ’ re not where we thought we were ”
Some of the most egregious flaws were evident on the offensive side of the ball Junior quarterback Dalton Banks, who had three interceptions in the game, emphasized that the offense’s repeated mistakes helped the Blue Hens run away with victory
“We are so much better than that,” Banks said “We’re just going to bury [this game], put it behind us and move on That was a horrible disaster of a game We literally just gave them the ball, gave them points ”
Beyond the interceptions, Banks struggled to ignite the offense in the first half, hitting 13 of 21 passes for just 86 yards Although he found his rhythm in the second half completing 71 percent of his throws for 161 yards a win was largely out of reach at that point
After the initial fumble, the offense appeared to settle down Debuting its new uptempo offense, Cornell marched to Delaware’s 37-yard line, determined to even the game at seven and quell the team ’ s early nerves But a penalty and a sack pushed the offense back to a third and 31, which the squad failed to convert
Overall, the new fast-paced style that Archer introduced this season showed it needs some fine tuning before it will be effective against opponents
“I still think [up-tempo] is the way to go, ” Archer said “It’s just got to get better ”
The Red again threatened on its next drive, powering to the Blue Hens’ 38-yard line But a trick play backfired and Walker’s pass sailed high over senior wide receiver James Hubbard and into the hands of Nasir Adderley who returned the ball 55 yards upfield Delaware capitalized off the short field position and booted in a 37-yard field goal to extend the lead to 10 Cornell coughed up the ball three more times in the first half, and each time the Blue Hens took advantage, putting points on the board after each turnover
The Red ended the Blue Hens’ scoring run midway through
the third quarter Banks fired downfield to wide receiver Eric Gallman for the freshman’s first career touchdown catch After the graduation of several key receivers, the position showed its inexperience, dropping several of Banks’ hard-thrown balls
“It’s first game jitters,” Banks said “We’ll clean it up, I’m not worried about the new guys ” Gallman ended with 36 yards off of three catches in his first collegiate appearance Also making a Cornell debut was fellow receiver Davy Lizana, a sophomore who grabbed three balls for 23 yards On the other side of the ball, Cornell also got a boost from some of its newer players Sophomore Jordan Landsman saw his first action at the college-level and made the most of it The defensive lineman racked up six tackles including a pair of sacks Landsman was a key member of the defensive line that helped suffocate Delaware’s rushing attack early on In the first 15 minutes of play, the Blue Hens had nine yards on the ground thanks to Cornell’s defensive line’s ability to bully its way past Delaware’s offensive line
“ That first half we stoned the run, ” said senior linebacker Kurt Frimel “ They run the ball, that’s their team, that’s what they do We were able to stop them which is a big-time plus ” Cornell will look to secure its first win of the season next week, when the squad heads back out on the road to battle Ivy League foe Yale in New Haven, Connecticut
By ZACHARY
owe re d o f f e n s e o n t h e f i e l d f i r s t Mi s t a k e s l i k e t h e s e a re t o b e e x p e c t e d i n t h e t e a m ’ s f i r s t g a m e o f t h e s e a s o n , e s p e c i a l l y g i ve n t h e q u a l i t y o f o p p o n e n t l i n e d u p t o q u i t e l i t e ra l l y d e l i ve r t h e f i r s t p h y s i c a l b l ow s o f 2 0 1 7 Bu t w i t h n o g a m e e x p e r i e n c e h e a d i n g i n t o a d a t e w i t h a p e re n n i a l l y t o u g h De l a w a re t e a m , t h o s e m i s t a k e s p i l e d u p f a s t Fo l l ow i n g t h e Wa l k e r f u m b l e , t h e Re d t u r n e d t h e b a l l ove r f o u r m o re t i m e s i n t h e f i r s t h a l f Ju n i o r q u a r t e r b a c k Da l t o n Ba n k s t h re w t h re e i n t e rc e p t i o n s t o g o a l o n g w i t h o n e f ro m Wa l k e r o n a t r i c k p l a y t ow a rd t h e e n d o f t h e o p e n i n g q u a r t e r C o r n e l l w a s l o s t “ Ou r g a m e s p e e d t h a t we a re u s e d t o i s a n i n t r a s q u a d s c r i m m a g e T h e i r s i s V i r g i n i a Te c h , ” e x p l a i n e d h e a d c o a c h Da v i d A rc h e r ’ 0 5 , a l l u d i n g t o De l a w a re ’ s s e c o n d g a m e o f t h e s e as o n a g a i n s t t h e t h e n - No 1 8 t e a m i n t h e s t ro n g e r F B S d i v i s i o n “ T h e s e g u y s d o n ’ t p l a y i n t h e Iv y L e a g u e , ” A rc h e r a d d e d “ I w a n t t o w i n e ve r y g a m e , n o q u e s t i o n , b u t i t ’ s n o t a l e a g u e g a m e , a n d t h e re a re c e r t a i n l y a l o t o f p o s i t i ve t h i n g s t o s h ow ” “ T h e y we re b i g , ” s a i d s e n i o r l i n e b a c k e r a n d c a p t a i n Ku r t Fr i m e l “ Pro b a b l y o n e o f t h e b i gg e r o p p o n e n t s we’l l e ve r f a c e , a n d we h e l d o u r ow n We e ve n b e a t t h e m a t t i m e s ”
ADAM BRONFIN Sun Senior Editor
SILVER Sun Sports Editor
Adam Bronfin can be reached at abronfin@cornellsun