INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 8 Pages – Free
Vol. 139, No. 35
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
Gleeful Group
2023 Grammys
Women's Hockey
Sunny
The Cornell Glee Club hosted a clinic for high schoolers and performed a concert in Sage Chapel. | Page 3
This year's Grammy Awards provided excitements, disappointments and surprises.
Women's Hockey topped Brown but was unable to beat Yale on Senior Day.
| Page 5
HIGH: 49º LOW: 31º
| Page 8
Cornell Sweethearts Share Their Love Stories By SOFIA RUBINSON Sun News Editor
As Valentine’s Day approaches and love fills the Cornell campus, The Sun interviewed eight Cornell couples about their love stories. Have no fear, current Cornellians: While some married their firstyear crush, for other couples, their love stories were anything but linear. For Julie Vargo ’82 and Chris Metz ’82, their love story involved marrying other people before rekindling their friendship at a Cornell reunion. For Andy Atwell Ph.D. ’02 and Tina Atwell ’98, M.I.L.R. ’00, this meant taking a break until a long walk brought them back together. Below you will find the stories of a few successful Cornell relationships. As current Cornell students are finding out their Perfect Match, their stories aim to inspire and serve as a reminder of the joys Cornell has brought to some couples. As Ms. Vargo said, “I think that everybody probably thinks that their love story is awesome, right?” Like Father, Like Son Angela Cheng-Cimini ’92 and Michael Cimini ’92 met on the second day of their
freshman orientation. Ms. Cheng-Cimini learned that an old elementary school friend of hers, Todd, was accepted into
Cornell and reached out to him to reconnect. “I looked him up, and Michael was his freshman year roommate. Had it not been for my friend Todd, we'd likely would never have met,” Ms. Cheng-Cimini said. “We ran in very, very different circles. So
Todd is responsible for all of this aftermath.” They started as just friends and
COURTESTY OF THE INTERVIEWEES
finally made their relationship official on March 15, 1989, about seven months after they first met. They remember spending good times together around the falls in Ithaca and near Mr. Cimini’s fraternity house. “We used to like to go to the bridge behind the engineering quad,
near Collegetown through the woods,” Ms. Cheng-Cimini said. “It wasn’t terribly well-traveled. But the water ran under it and it’s a really beautiful spot. We would often go there just to enjoy the peacefulness.” Years later, their son, Matthew Cimini ’19, decided to attend Cornell to study engineering, despite the fact that he wanted a different experience than his parents. “I specifically thought, ‘No way I’m going to go to the same college as both my parents and then do the same dating thing that they did,’” Matthew Cimini said. “I purposely went in with the mindset that that was never going to happen.” But like his parents, Matthew Cimini met his soon-to-be wife, Sarah Dickerman ’19, on one of the first days of his freshman year. They both lived in Clara Dickson Hall and were part of a friend group of 12 people that remained together throughout college. Four years after graduating from Cornell, the couple is set to get married this May. Within their Dickson friend group, there are two engaged couples and one married couple. See LOVE page 3
TCAT Service Students Advocate for Disability Aid Cuts Disrupt Commutes By XINYU JOANNE HU Sun Staff Writer
By JIMMY JORDAN and SOFIA RUBINSON Ithaca Voice Reporter and Sun News Editor
Over the last few years, the regular bus passengers of Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit have had to contend with reduced service levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic and staffing challenges that the bus company has faced. The most impacted populations include people with incomes too low to afford a personal car and students at the local colleges. For many residents of Tompkins County and the City of Ithaca, TCAT buses are the primary mode of transportation, and the availability of a bus route and its frequency can end up determining much more about their life than
when t h e y need to arrive at the bus stop. Esse, a senior citizen who did not want to be identified by her last name, shared with The Ithaca Voice and The Sun that TCAT’s major service cuts in August last year removed later night bus runs she relied on to get to and from work, subsequently forcing her to change jobs. See TCAT page 4
For the first time in Cornell’s history, students participated in Student Empowerment Day on Feb. 8, rallying in New York State’s Legislative Office in Albany and striving for more state funding for college students with disabilities. Founded in 2021, Student Empowerment Day gathers college students in New York State to advocate for budgetary support to state legislators. Even with $2.0 million being approved for state funding, the event aims to push for another $13.0 million in funding. Cyrus Hamilton-Ferguson, assistant director of Student Disability Services, led students’ participation and organized the trip to Albany. According to Hamilton-Ferguson, New York State hasn’t provided state-level funding specifically for college students with disabilities, and universities and colleges are respectively responsible for their student's budgetary support. Several organizations and disability advocacy groups, including New York Coalition of Students with Disabilities in Higher Education, New York State Disability Services Council, CUNY Council on Student Disability Issue, and SUNY Student Assembly, founded the annual event to push for more voices to fill in
the gap. Hamilton-Ferguson said he first heard about the opportunity last October and thought it would be an opportunity that Cornellians definitely should not miss. “Many [participants], including some of our students, made signs and things like that,” Hamilton-Ferguson said. “One of our students made a sign that said, ‘Disabled, not disposable.’” With more than 300 people gathering, the size and diverse backgrounds of the participants of the rally impressed HamiltonFerguson. “Our students, New York State students from two-year colleges, universities, four-year colleges, public schools, private schools [and] independent schools [all participated]… It really didn't matter because this funding affects every single one,” Hamilton-Ferguson said. “It was amazing to just sort of see them there.” Along with Hamilton-Ferguson and another Student Disability Services employee, two students joined the rally. As a disabled student, Kate Keresztes ’26 participated in hopes of increasing awareness of disabled people. She felt happy about meeting similar people and celebrating their shared identity,
a community that Cornell greatly lacks, according to Keresztes. “At Cornell, we really don't see any campus highlights on disability communities or any [visible] disability community beyond what we make for ourselves,” Keresztes said. “It is really not encouraged by the college that we [are] visible and proud.” Keresztes n o t e d Syracuse University has better support for students. “Syracuse University has a Disability Cultural Center, and their disability studies program goes very far for not only providing the bare minimum route to attend school, but to be able to fully participate in society and to celebrate who we are and be a significant force on campus,” Keresztes said. According to Keresztes, the extra state funding could be used to raise awareness of the disability community at Cornell. “[The funding] could really benefit Cornell in the way that we [develop] disabled cultural spaces and places for disabled people to meet and have social interactions outside of medicalization,” Keresztes said. See RALLY page 3