10-14-21 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Cornell Student

Fills Common Council Position

By JOHN YOON Sun City Editor

For the first time since 2012, a Cornell student is joining the Ithaca Common Council.

Patrick Mehler ’23 is the new alderperson for Ithaca’s Fourth District — which includes parts of West Campus and Collegetown. The Common Council approved Mehler joining Oct. 6, and Mehler’s term officially started Wednesday.

The Fourth Ward has often been filled by Cornellians over the years — including Ithaca’s Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 and Eddie Rooker ’10. The newest member of the Common Council celebrated his acceptance by starting to read an 100-page city budget document, staying true to his major as an industrial and labor relations student.

“That’s been the most exciting thing so far,” Mehler said, speaking from his father’s study in Yonkers, New York.

Apart from marking up the budget with highlighters and pens, looking for interesting questions to ask the council, Mehler has started to meet with the various members of council to better understand his colleagues.

“I think an important part of any sort of governance is that everyone knows each other,” he said. “I’d like to know why people are doing what they’re doing, beyond looking at their campaign websites and things like that.”

Mehler said he hopes to use his connection to both Ithaca and Cornell to act as a bridge between the communities, specifically when looking at possible housing projects they can collaborate on.

“There’s a lovely spot I’m certain is right here for collaboration between the two of us, to see what projects there are that we can work on together that helps everybody,” Mehler said.

According to Mehler, a core part of his focus is civic engagement, continuing his work as the president of Cornell Votes, a student organization that works to increase voter participa - tion, and the director of elections for the Student Assembly.

Students Begin Hectic Search for Next Year’s Of-Campus Housing

By JULIA POGGI Sun Contributor

Only seven weeks into the fall 2021 semester, many Cornellians have already signed leases for the 2022-2023 academic year. With hybrid tours and more Cornellians in Ithaca than last fall, this house hunting season has challenged students as they scramble once again to find a home for next year.

Anneliese Markus ’23, who has spent the last few weeks looking for an apartment, said she signed her current apartment lease last October. Even then, she said, finding off-campus housing in a desirable location was hard, as students around her also raced to sign their leases.

“Around that time, we would call places and ask ‘Is this available?’” she said, “and [landlords] would tell us, ‘No, it’s gone.’” The pandemic added new challenges and procedures to apartment hunting last year. With landlords and property management companies advertising virtual tours, fewer renters saw spaces in person.

Ithaca experiences a housing rush each fall, with an influx of approximately 20,000 Cornell students living among a local population of 29,000. This creates a competitive housing market, especially for coveted apartments boasting locations near to campus, convenient amenities or new construction. Ithaca housing prices have risen consistently over the past years, but the rate of vacancies remains low.

“I’ve real- ly dedicated my collegiate career and I’m starting to really set up my profes - sional career to be one in which my purpose or life goal is to get peo - ple civically engaged,” Mehler said.

Mehler said he hopes to get more students involved from the moment they enter Cornell’s campus, helping new students learn more about the city they live in.

Mehler explained that new students learn all about Cornell’s campus — but they should also get to know what ward they’re in and who their representatives are. According to Mehler, even that brief introduction to the city will help acquaint them with the place they live.

He said many organizations on campus, including the

Kaitlyn Cisz ’22 recalled difficulties during her housing search last year due to the pandemic.

“Finding an apartment during the pandemic was

New Dorms Frustrate

By JIWOOK JUNG Sun Contributor

In the brand new Toni Morrison Hall and Ganedago Hall, hundreds of students are settling into the North Campus Residential Expansion project’s modern amenities. But the first residents in these dorms have observed early problems, from undecorated walls to flooding showers.

The new buildings stand out among the other North Campus residence halls, many of which the University built decades ago. The

Georgian-style Clara Dickson Hall, built in 1946, and the 1975 low rises shrink beneath the new buildings, plated with glass and boasting their own dining hall.

NCRE will continue through fall 2022, as the University constructs five new residential facilities in total, adding approximately 2,000 beds to the residential campus — including 800 beds for sophomores and 1,200 for firstyear students.

The NCRE project is creating spacious lounge areas, study spaces and common rooms where residents

Residents

can socialize with their neighbors. Despite these benefits, some students say they’ve struggled with the structure of the dorms, including isolating and inconvenient layouts. Residents voiced their complaints about a subpar drainage system in their showers — saying they’ve logged multiple maintenance requests to address this problem, but say there is not yet a permanent solution.

“The water leaks all the way to the bathroom,” said Graciella

Patrick Mehler ’23 Steps Into Ithaca Common Council Seat

Continued from page 1

Office of Student Government Relations and Cornell Votes, have already started to inform students on local government. Mehler said he’s starting from a strong base.

“My hope is I can elevate and then further the causes that are getting people connected and getting people more aware of the city,” Mehler said.

Apart from focusing on civic engagement and living up to his reputation as “the election guy,” Mehler keeps busy with bowling and dining throughout Ithaca.

“[I’m] trying to explore more of the restaurants

— trying to figure out what are the more secret gems hidden throughout not just the Collegetown area, but throughout all of Ithaca,” Mehler said.

Mehler said he’s grateful for everything that Cornell has given him, saying that it has given him a stronger sense of responsibility to give back to the community.

“I work for my community and my job is to serve my community,” Mehler said. “It’s not something that I do on the side. That is why I want to do what I do — to help people.”

Mehler’s term will end in December 2022 when the city will hold a special election for Ithaca’s Fourth Ward vacancy.

John Yoon can be reached at johnyoon@cornellsun.com.

Students Begin Of-Campus Housing Search

HOUSING

Continued from page 1

crazy,” Cisz said. “We didn’t want to go into other people’s spaces and make them feel like we’re encroaching on their space. But there were no vaccines yet, so we also didn’t want people coming into our space.”

This year, many rental companies have returned to in-person tours. Some, including Ithaca Renting and Travis Hyde, have kept tours online.

Markus said she feels these

advantage [of future tenants].”

Samantha Hass ’25 shared similar concerns about virtual tours. Even though current firstyear students will be required to live on campus next year under new University policy and will likely not sign leases until fall of 2022, Hass said she hopes virtual showing methods will no longer be relevant by then.

“I would be afraid to virtually tour somewhere,” she said. “I think it puts a lot of pressure socially on a person to figure out where and with who you’re going to live with a year in advance.”

“I think it puts a lot of pressure socially on a person to figure out where and with who you’re going to live with a year in advance.”

Samantha Haas ’25

tours often don’t give students a full picture of the apartments they are renting. Last year, according to Markus, the virtual tours in the building where she currently lives didn’t show potential tenants the building’s disadvantages, including overflowing garbage on one floor.

“If you didn’t do an in-person tour, you wouldn’t know if you were on the garbage floor,” she said. “I think it’s easier to take

While apartment hunting last year, Cisz said she decided to renew the lease on her current apartment rather than go through the “risky process” of finding a new space.

“Even though I wanted to live in Collegetown,” she said, “it was really nice to not have to show my apartment and just lease it again for the next year.”

Though Cisz is a graduating senior and won’t be signing a lease for the 2022-2023 school year, she said she was happy with her decision to renew her lease for

this year.

Faith Shote ’24 also decided to stay put for the 2022-2023 school year. Cornell guarantees on-campus housing to sophomores, and Shote said the off-campus search seemed too challenging.

Shote said she plans to sign up for Rose Scholars — a program in Flora Rose House on West Campus that guarantees students housing through enrollment in a one-credit course — so she can guarantee herself a room.

“Ithaca renting is really difficult, especially this year,” she said, “and I don’t want to waste my time, so on-campus housing it is.”

Despite housing challenges, Markus affirmed that she felt more confident signing a lease this year compared to the previous one, as she has gone through the process of putting down a deposit, paying first month’s rent and gathering documents before.

Cisz offered advice to anyone going through the housing process for the first time.

“Costs really add up, so find a place that’s right for you and don’t get stressed about early signing,” Cisz said. “At the end of the day, you’re going to have to live there for a year or more.”

Julia Poggi can be reached at jcp337@cornell.edu.

Continued from page 1

Rivera ’25, who lives in Ganedago Hall. “We had to get rid of our rug because the water was all over the place.”

According to Rivera, the shower drains are level with the floor, so water leaks out into the rest of the bathroom. Although there is drainage in the middle of the room, Rivera and other residents said they frequently notice large puddles.

Some students, including Ganedago Hall resident Shaylyn Nair ’25, said the buildings’ structure also limits active social interactions between the residents.

Among the first-year residential halls on North Campus, Nair said, Toni Morrison Hall and Ganedago Hall are already building a reputation for being less social dorms. She traced this back to their layout.

“The suite doors are very heavy ... They are always shut,” Nair said. “In other dorms, you walk down the hallway and can see a lot of open doors. It’s so easy to talk to people and just say hi. That doesn’t happen here at Ganedago.”

“All the doors are always shut because the doors are very heavy. It’s very unwelcoming. I would like to have a more inclusive community.”

This issue is not unique to Ganedago Hall. Gloria Geng ’25, treasurer of the Toni Morrison Hall Council, raised a similar concern for her dorm.

Gloria Geng ’25

“I don’t know anyone from my hall beside the people in my suite,” Geng said. “All the doors are always shut because the doors are very heavy. It’s very unwelcoming. I would like to have a more inclusive community.”

However, other residents said they believe the closed suite doors bring some added security. Alyssa Miyamoto ’25, a resident at Ganedago Hall, said she enjoys the privacy.

“I don’t have an issue with it,” Miyamoto said. “The closed suite doors are great for privacy. Without it, random people who are not from Ganedago can easily access the residents’ private facilities such as the bathroom.”

Other students attributed the bright white walls of the new dorms to their “less social” reputation. According to the first-year residents, the walls at the new residential halls are overwhelmingly blank and white, causing some student residents to feel uneasy.

“It feels very office-building-esque and not homey at all,” Nair said.

Despite these problems, all interviewed student residents said positive aspects of the new dorms at North Campus outweigh the negatives, as both Toni Morrison Hall and Ganedago Hall provide the student residents with spacious rooms, good air conditioning and heating systems, and new facilities.

Geng expressed her satisfaction with her residence, appreciating the hardwood floors as well as the air conditioning and spacious rooms.

“I feel lucky to be in this dorm,” Miyamoto said.

Jiwook Jung can be reached at jj468@cornell.edu.

A Guide to ‘U-Pick’ At Indian Creek Farm

By OLIVIA SMITH Sun Staff Writer

Apple picking in Upstate New York is a must-do for every Cornellian. Delicious apples aside, the crisp orange, yellow and red leaves, fresh air and fragrance of an apple orchard make the experience one to remember. I can guarantee a trip to the orchard will make one forget all about prelims and upcoming assignments; all stress will disappear. The best farm to visit is Indian Creek Farm — a 40-acre farm with over 100 fruits and vegetables available for “u-pick.”

I visited the farm after AppleFest weekend, so my go-to honey crisp apple was all cleaned out. However, I still picked a basket full of apples, without duplicating any variety. Peaches are no longer in season, but the pear trees are still full of small, but flavorful, fruit. As I wandered through endless rows of trees, taking in the oddly pleasant, sweet smell of rotting fruit, it was difficult to resist sampling every apple variety I passed. After filling a basket with as many apples and pears as I could manage, I moved on to the u-pick vegetable patch.

The tall brussels sprout plot first caught my eye; there was a bucket by the gate, with massive tree shears anyone could grab to cut their thick stems. I successfully wielded my three-

carry my child-size branch of

to the car, so parking close by is a

when taking multiple trips to unload armfulls of fresh produce.

I eventually made my way through the rows of tomatoes, hot peppers and eggplants. I relished being left to my own devices to wander the farm

and pick whatever my heart desired. Ladders were left out in convenient locations to aid

in peace was refreshing. I was not bothered by staff looking over my shoulder or crowds of people pushing by. On my way out, I stopped by the flower patch, where it costs

All-in-all, I spent thirty-five dollars on baskets full of produce ... and a quart of fresh cider donuts.

in reaching high-growing fruit, and handwritten signs labeled every variety of crop. Picking

eight dollars to take home as many beautiful dahlias, zinnias and other blooms as one can grasp. All-in-all, I spent thirty-five dollars on baskets full of produce, an enormous stalk of brussels sprouts and a quart of fresh cider donuts. The checkout process could not have been easier; you bring all your pickings to the main building and place them on a giant scale. Fruits and vegetables are the same price per pound, so you can mix and match whatever variety of produce you like in the same basket. The only challenge is going to be eating my overabundance of food!

Olivia Smith is a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She can be reached at ojs28@cornell.edu.

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Independent Since 1880

139th Editorial Board

KATHRYN STAMM ’22

Editor in Chief

ANUSHYA ALANDUR ’23

Business Manager

CATHERINE ST. HILAIRE ’22

Associate Editor

PRANAV KENGERI ’24

Advertising Manager

ODEYA ROSENBAND ’22

Opinion Editor

JYOTHSNA BOLLEDULA ’24

News Editor

TAMARA KAMIS ’22

News Editor

CAMERON HAMIDI ’22

App Editor

KRISTEN D’SOUZA ’24

Design Editor

HANNAH ROSENBERG ’23

Photography Editor

OMSALAMA AYOUB ’22

Science Editor

PUJA OAK ’24

Layout Editor

ANNIE WU ’22

Production Editor

MIHIKA BADJATE ’23

Assistant News Editor

SERENA HUANG ’24

Assistant Business Editor

ANGELA BUNAY ’24

Assistant News Editor

JOHN COLIE ’23

Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

AMELIA CLUTE ’22

Assistant Dining Editor

WILLIAM BODENMAN ’23

Assistant Sports Editor

AARON SNYDER ’23

Assistant Sports Editor

MEGHANA SRIVASTAVA ’23

Compet Manager

’s

MADELINE ROSENBERG ’23

Editor NAOMI KOH ’23

Editor ANIL OZA ’22

Managing Editor YUBIN HEO ’24

Web Editor

VEE CIPPERMAN ’23

NOOREJEHAN UMAR ’23

E.D. PLOWE ’23

YOON ’23

Editor

VELANI ’22

PICHINI ’22

TYAGI ’22

Editor

MENDOZA ’24

Editor

ARANDA ’23

Editor SURITA BASU ’23

KAYLA RIGGS ’24

LEYNSE ’23

JULIA NAGEL ’24 Assistant

LIAM MONOHAN ’24

ABAYEVA ’24

ALPERS ’22

’23

St. Hilaire ’22

Rosenberg ’23

deskers Vee Cipperman ’23

Surita Basu ’23

production deskers Jacqueline Woo ’24

Pico Ross ’22

layout deskers Kristen D’Souza ’24

Puja Oak ’24

photo desker Julia Nagel ’24

Dining desker Amelia Clute ’22

sports desker Luke Pichini ’22

Alecia Wilk Girl, Uninterrupted

Alecia Wilk is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at awilk@cornellsun. com. Girl, Uninterrupted runs every other Friday this semester.

Here Lies Learning, And Success in Its Wake

Learning became a loveless act for me by puberty, and in some circles that still makes me a late bloomer. This sentiment of love lost is so loud it sounds universal — it’s become a cliché to mourn the bookworm we once were in vain — but I do think condolences are owed to all the intellectuals that vanished with adolescence. Steeping in the realization that making a living necessitates schooling, and might be the end of what schooling offers, leaves little else to do but skate by. And from too young this made me a habit of doing exactly what was needed to succeed and only that. The unendingness of learning started to seem like a threat instead of a thirst that resisted quenching. Then succeeding took the backseat to staying afloat.

But this place isn’t for just staying afloat. It’s for jet-propelled water hoverboards, and then the covert uses of the technology those take. If we’re honest, nearly none of us here came just to get by. There’s worlds more we’re in this for.

We’re disciplined by it for twelve years at least, and in a perfect world I think school would be in part a parent too. If academia is what it has always premised itself on being, all of us entered in need of incubation. Our minds were meant to be nourished and our spirits nurtured. But academia aborts us. This womb is barren. Maybe because cultivating so many curious minds is too colossal an undertaking than it has ever been prepared for, or maybe because there is a single future it commits itself to constructing, and no one else’s can be of concern unless lest they converge with it, work to multiply it. Denied a space that fosters inquiries for a world not yet realized, rather, we “adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in [us].” Achievement blinds us from anything beyond us. So our dreams are simultaneously reduced and compounded.

Even now while our dreams are but designs, you can tell what they’ll be of service to. Involvement in the things that will bring them to fruition is typically so surface level, so aesthetic, so inconsequential. Our faces are made into billboards and the efforts afterthoughts. I wish there was more stress on what we have to share instead of having the most impressive intentions. It might help us rediscover lost love if we learned the range of things we bring to these seats.

On the second day of the semester, I got a glimpse of this. Class introductions were a potluck, all ears ready to pry from one another’s pasts. But barring this, admitting how much we didn’t know about what we were here for, took bravery. One student told us about a summer internship he’d had at a company you’d all recognize if I said it. He talked about its prestige and how proud it made his father — things I could relate to want-

ing. Until the only way for him to do his job right was by outsourcing tasks to Pakistanis he’d never meet, for pennies each. It would’ve been so easy for him to stay there. Smart, even. But, he’d realized something, so now we were together in Union Organizing.

Business is only one of countless pursuits caught in a banking model of education. There are far too many classrooms where you have to get comfortable in corners and press your ear to the walls to hear anything enlightening. Education is in the cracks of this place.

“Social justice” led me to enroll in a public policy course my sophomore year. In preparation for our first big policy memo we were practicing calculating cost-benefit analysis between new seat belts for school buses and the possibility of student deaths. The eventual memo was about conservation bins, but even in the interest of saving something there wasn’t any heart allowed, only strict guidelines to analyze the efficiency without giving any new ideas about how to stop the burning around us. Every lecture gave the impression we were encroaching on a world already dead, and the knowledge we took was meant to give us a check to survive it, and control over what gets a burial and where.

Weeks ago, a congresswoman cried on the house floor during roll call. Her humble roots and other things represent what a lot of people wish will come of change in the world. Unlike a lot of our student body, she has had to work, unglamorously, just to get by, and sits in the White House now because of the bigger dreams she studied and struggled to see manifested. But her tearful decision, whether sincere or performance of sympathy, admits something. She realizes the horrors she once missioned herself against are now accumulating by her hand. Five Cornell alum were also among the votes, whether or not any of their eyes were wet I don’t know.

It forces me to wonder if cognitive dissonance is what it takes to succeed. Or is it the fortunate avoidance of the truths that would provoke it? And between the possibilities of finishing our term here unconfronted by any of those truths, or untouched by our confrontations with them, which should scare us more?

The systems we go through disorder a desire for real learning, morph it into something potentially monstrous. We’re prone, or perhaps programmed, to forget that the world is more than just ours. It belongs to all that we try to render invisible for us to succeed in it. If all the inhumanity that upholds even our most virtuous-sounding lectures was known to us, our hands would be past shaking over our next move; I think it would lead us to paralysis. But there are lives for us to live and they can’t be put on pause.

To continue reading this column, please visit cornellsun.com.

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

I Am Going To Be Small

C.U. Falls to Princeton, Rebounds Against Penn

By GABRIELLA PACITTO Sun Contributor

Cornell’s volleyball team had a split weekend after facing off against Princeton on Friday night and Penn Saturday evening. While the Red fell to Princeton in straight sets, the team earned its first Ivy victory, defeating Penn, 3-0.

The Red (5-8, 1-4) tried to stay in the game against Princeton (10-2, 4-0), with each set being relatively close. However, they came up short, and Princeton outhit them with a .258 percent to Cornell’s .202 percent. Despite an overall team-high and career-best of 15 kills and 24 attempts by senior Casey Justus, they lost the first set, 21-25.

“I think our first ball side out is something we are focusing on in practice as well as being more aggressive on the block and moving the outsides around on offense,” said senior Jillienne Bennett.

The second set was tight, but Princeton was able to keep a strong front throughout. Cornell started the third set strong with a lead but Princeton was able to catch up. Cornell tried to stay in it as the set continued, but Princeton, in the end, was able to solidify the win.

This resulted in Cornell losing three straight sets, 21-25, 20-25 and 32-34, respectively.

Senior Madison Baptiste also had a strong game, with 12 kills from the match. Baptiste and Justus made up 27 of the 43 kills from Cornell. Freshmen Jackie Backer and Megan Bickel contributed to the Red’s team-high 13 digs while playing in the back row.

On Saturday, the Red scored their first Ivy League win against Penn (5-9, 2-3). Cornell had a strong game right off the bat that made Penn unable to compete with the Red’s collaboration.

“What changed with our team … was how we were able to play together and less as individuals, collectively stick to our game plan, fire from all sides on the net,

and defend our home court with pride,” Bennett said. This was a big win for the Red (25-14, 25-22 and 25-19). They dominated in every aspect of the game, in terms of kills (52-36), hitting percentage (.443 percent-.289 percent), points (6343), assists (51-35) and aces (104). The game was also the team’s best hitting percentage all season

in the Ivy League.

“I think that we as a team really came out fast and strong against Penn. We were the aggressors during the match the whole time which was able to keep Penn off their game,” said senior Casey Justus.

Many players had an outstanding performance, one of them including Justus, with 14 kills and a .550 hitting percentage. Senior Jillienne Bennett had 13 kills, 18 attempts, a .667 hitting percentage and helped in defense with seven digs and one block.

“We have been working on our trust on the court and it showed in Penn’s match where our defense was reliable and strong throughout the entire match,” Bennett said.

Baptiste and freshman Camryn Carlo also had themselves a night, with each player recording 10 kills. Justus, Bennett, Baptiste and Carlo together contributed 47 of the Red’s 52 total kills.

Cornell will be looking for their second win this weekend when they travel to Harvard on Friday, Oct. 15th at 7 p.m. Then they face off against Dartmouth on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m.

Gabriella Pacitto can be reached at grp57@cornell.edu.

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