INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 16 Pages – Free
Vol. 141, No. 8
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Science
Weather
Policy Pushed
Visceral Viewing
Developing Disease
Cloudy
The Student Assembly indefinitely shelved a resolution on divestment from weapons manufacturers. | Page 4
Chloe Asack ’26 reviews ‘The Substance,’ a gory yet glowing standout in an underwhelming year for horror. | Page 14
Cornell professors shed light on the recent Estern Equine Encephalitis uptick in New York. | Page 8
HIGH: 56º LOW: 34º
Ratan Tata ’59, B. Arch. 62, Class-Action Suit Accuses Influential Donor, Dies at 86 University of Price-Fixing By ANGELINA TANG Sun Contributor
Oct. 10 — Ratan Tata ’59, B. Arch. ’62, a former Cornell trustee and the University’s most generous international donor, passed away on Wednesday at 86. He was the former chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Group and gifted the University $50 million in 2008. Tata’s passing was announced in a statement on X by the Tata Group. Tata passed away at the Breach Candy Hospital in South Mumbai, India. The statement did not specify the cause of death. Tata initially attended Cornell to pursue engineering before pivoting to architecture. While at Cornell, he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. Tata joined the Tata Group, which was founded by his great-grandfather, in 1961, doing manual labor on the steel workshop floor. 30 years later, he became chairman, the role he served until his resignation in 2012. Under Tata’s leadership, the Tata Group’s profits multiplied 50 times, with the conglomerate’s revenue exceeding $100 billion by the time he retired. Tata was also a philanthropist. He was the chairman of Tata Trusts — a philanthropic organization rooted in humanitarianism — from 2012 until his passing. Tata Trusts’ wide scope of work includes healthcare, social justice and disaster relief. Part of Tata’s $50 million donation to Cornell established the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition, a research initiative that seeks to reduce poverty through innovation in food systems and nutrition. It also endowed the Tata Scholarship for Students from India, which supports about 20 Cornellians who attended secondary school in India and qualify for needbased financial aid.
An additional $50 million gifted by Tata Consultancy Services in 2017 contributed to the Tata Innovation Center on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus in New York City. Tata’s generosity was formally recognized in 2012, when he was named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year. Tata Group has also provided large donations to other top universities across the U.S., including Harvard University; the University of California, San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University. Interim President Michael Kotlikoff praised Tata for his lasting contributions.
“Ratan Tata has left an extraordinary legacy in India, across the world and at Cornell, which he cared about deeply.” Michael Kotlikoff “Ratan Tata has left an extraordinary legacy in India, across the world and at Cornell, which he cared about deeply,” Kotlikoff said. “His generosity and concern for others enabled research and scholarship that improved the education and health of millions of people in India and beyond, and extended Cornell’s global impact.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on X that Tata had an “unwavering commitment to making our society better.” Angelina Tang can be reached at at964@cornell.edu.
Financial Aid Packages By JEREMIAH JUNG Sun Contributor
Oct. 15 — A sweeping class-action lawsuit alleges that Cornell and 39 other top U.S. colleges conspired to overcharge students by including noncustodial parents’ assets in financial aid calculations. Noncustodial parents include those who do not have custody of a minor and do not normally live with them. According to the lawsuit, filed in federal court on Oct. 7, Cornell and dozens of other elite institutions violated federal antitrust laws by manipulating how need-based financial aid was calculated. The College Board was also named as a defendant for its College Scholarship Service Profile. The CSS Profile is widely used to apply for non-federal financial aid, which is generally given to students from the university’s own funds. The suit alleges that the schools involved helped develop and use the NCP Agreed Pricing Strategy, which required applicants to disclose the financial information of noncustodial parents in their CSS applications. The suit — which was brought upon by Eileen Chang ’21 and Maxwell Hanse, a current student at Boston University — alleges that this collusion allowed these universities to lower financial aid packages, resulting in a substantial increase in the net cost of attendance by approximately $6,200 per academic year when compared to other universities that did not consider noncustodial parental income. The suit now seeks a formal court order to stop the alleged conspiracy. A spokesperson for the University declined to comment on the lawsuit. Jeremiah Jung can be reached at jwj66@cornell.edu.
Suspended International Graduate Student Can Continue Studies Remotely, Remains Barred From Cornell’s Campus By GABRIEL MUÑOZ Sun City Editor
Oct. 10 — Momodou Taal, the suspended international graduate student activist, will remain banned from campus, but is no longer at risk of losing his student visa and can continue finishing his dissertation remotely, Interim Provost John Siliciano ’75 wrote in a Wednesday email to Taal obtained by The Sun. Siliciano’s decision is final and brings to a close a two-week-long appeals process that Taal hoped would end with his suspension being overturned. Siliciano also said Taal would no longer be able to teach his First-Year Writing Seminar because it is not a requirement for his degree. Taal said teaching the FWS — “What is Blackness? Race and Processes of Racialization” under the Africana Studies and Research Center — was valuable for his academic career. “There was a process of development for me … [and] for the students as well, the ability to kind of discuss what it means to be Black, what is Blackness and in my
course how they relate to the spaces in which they’re in,” Taal told The Sun. Taal was suspended on Sept. 23 after he participated in a pro-Palestinian protest that shut down a Statler Hall career fair featuring defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing. At the career fair disruption, Taal entered Statler Hall against orders from University officials and failed to leave when asked, according to a complaint Cornell University Police Department Lieutenant Scott Grantz ’99 filed with the University. Taal appealed his suspension first to Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi, who, according to Taal, denied it “after one business day,” before Taal appealed the decision to Siliciano. Taal has disputed the charges against him and repeatedly said the University has not provided him with due process. “I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights,” Taal posted on X late last month, after Lombardi struck down his first appeal. See TAAL page 12
KARLIE MCGANN / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Taal talks | Suspended international graduate student Momodou Taal speaks to a crowd gathered on the Commons for a pro-Palestinian protest on Oct. 5.