INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 8 Pages – Free
Vol. 141 No. 43
THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2023 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Dining
Science
Weather
Snow Day Sledding
Grocery Grabs
Galaxy Greatness
Partly Cloudy
Students take part in the traditional Libe Slope sledding during the University closure.
A student-run nonprofit grocery store concentrates on providing accessible, fresh groceries to students. | Page 5
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Cornell astronomers discover a new galaxy using James Webb Telescope data.
HIGH: 51º LOW: 37º
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Dead and Co. Tickets Released By AIMÉE EICHER Sun Assistant Managing Editor
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Tour time | Likely letters are sent to a select few students a few weeks before the regular admissions decisions are released.
Likely Letters Offer Comfort, Provoke Confusion in Students By BREANNA MASCI Sun Staff Writer
For students enduring the stress of the college application process, receiving a “likely letter” from a university warrants a sigh of relief. These letters indicate that the student is “likely” to receive an acceptance from the respective university. It is common for private universities, such as Cornell, to distribute likely letters, yet the reason for doing so is unclear. The Cornell Admissions Office declined to provide a statement to The Sun about why and how the University carries out this process. Because university admission teams do not share reasons for acceptance, students who received likely letters will never know what specifically made their application stand out.
“By receiving a likely letter, it made me consider Cornell a little bit more seriously.” Shelby Williams ’25
“I was pretty surprised because I don’t know who normally gets likely letters, and it wasn’t like my application was particularly outstanding or anything,” MacLean said. Nia Denis ’26 was also surprised to receive a likely letter in March 2022. Though she expressed appreciation for the letter’s appearance in her inbox, she questioned why only a small number of applicants are sent likely letters. Denis believes if a student is a strong enough applicant to receive an acceptance, then they will be admitted regardless of whether or not they receive a likely letter. “It’s weird that [they] just a select few people get likely letters because I mean, if you’re accepted, you’re accepted,” Denis said. Isaac Saadi ’26, another student who received a likely letter in March 2022, said he believes colleges send likely letters to encourage applicants to accept that school’s offer of admission. “I have heard that likely letters are given to strong applicants to entice them to come to the school by notifying them earlier,” Saadi said. Shelby Williams’s ’25 experience, which involved her receiving a likely letter in March 2021, serves as an example of this idea.
Maddy MacLean ’26, who To continue reading this article, received her likely letter in March 2022, was uncertain as to why she please visit www.cornellsun.com. received one and could not think of any aspect of her application in particular that might have made her Breanna Masci can be reached at especially deserving. bmasci@cornellsun.com.
Student winners of the ticket lottery for Dead and Company’s May 8 concert in Barton Hall received emails at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday alerting them that they had been selected. While some students rejoiced in their victories, others sought alternative methods of acquiring a ticket. The lottery — which included several tier options for tickets, such as general admission tickets reserved for Cornell students — opened at around 1 p.m. on March 8 and allowed participants two days to enter, closing on March 10 at 11:59 p.m. Students who won the lottery received codes via email enabling them to purchase the $77 general admission tickets on the concert’s website until 11:59 a.m. on Friday, according to the email, which was
obtained by The Sun. Student lottery winners may transfer their tickets only to other Cornell students, as the concert will require student attendees to show their IDs at the door. Skyler Shapiro ’25, a fan of both the Grateful Dead and Dead and Company, awaited the lottery announcement with hope that he would win a ticket. Although he never received an email confirming whether he had been selected, Shapiro figured he had not won when other students began to comment on their own lottery results on Wednesday morning. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Aimée Eicher can be reached at aeicher@cornellsun.com.
COURTESY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY
Lucky lottery | The student ticket lottery sent announcements to its winners on Wednesday for the Dead and Company reunion concert, which will take place on May 8 at Barton Hall.
Eliot Schuman Highlighted By GABRIELLA PACITTO Sun News Editor
By day, Eliot Schuman ’75 is a trial lawyer and a partner at Delbello Donnellan Weingarten Wise and Wiederkehr LLP, but by night he is a volunteer coach for the Cornell Mock Trial Team and has been since spring of the 2014-2015 school year. Scouted out by Laura Bach ’16, Schuman has been involved with the team on an entirely volunteer and unpaid basis, helping the mockers improve to new levels over the past nine years. The team has competed at the National Championships five times, and seven members have earned All-American, while Schuman has been coach. To celebrate his 70th birthday and commemorate the dedication and commitment he has for the Mock Trial team, The Sun interviewed past and current members of the team and his family. In 2015, the team hosted their annual Big Red
Invitational Classic, and Schuman was one of the judges. Bach — a member of the team at the time — said that she approached Schuman after the competition to ask for him to be their coach because she liked how constructive and helpful his feedback was. See ELIOT page 3
COURTESTY OF THE SCHUMAN FAMILY
Award season | The mock trial team celebrates Eliot Schuman for his dedication to the team on his birthday.