INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 143, No. 25
WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2026 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
Features
Arts
Sports
Last lecture
Chaotic comedy
Crimson cornered
Super Bowl champion and Cornell alum Jalyx Hunt reflected on his mental health and football career during a Saturday lecture. | Page 13
Comedian Eric André visited Cornell on Friday, delivering a night of absurdist and unique humor. | Page 14
Cornell Women’s Lacrosse bested Harvard in a 24-goal lacrosse thriller on Saturday, where 14 cards were given out. | Page 16
The Chainsmokers, Daya to Perform at Slope Day By SOFIA SOLDATOVICH Sun News Editor
April 8 — The Slope Day Programming Board has announced The Chainsmokers as the headliner for Slope Day 2026 and Daya as the supporting performer, at Thursday night’s student DJ competition in the Willard Straight Hall Browsing Library. The winning student DJ will be announced on the Slope Day Instagram Thursday evening. Five Cornell student DJs — DJ Kav, SIDEPROJECT, ACID, Arsch x Danik and Sam Chitgopekar — competed live for the spot in the Slope Day lineup in a boiler room-style event, performing sets across house, techno, hip-hop and other genres. The winning student DJ will open Slope Day 2026 as gates open at 11:30 a.m. The Chainsmokers are a Grammywinning pop and electronic dance music duo made up of Drew Taggart and Alex Pall best known for their hit songs C
“Something Just Like This,” “Closer” and “Don’t Let Me Down” Pop singer-songwriter Daya will be the supporting act. She is best known for her songs “Hide Away,” “Sit Still, Look Pretty.” and her feature on “Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers. The Chainsmokers’ performance at Cornell’s Slope Day is the duo’s seventh stop in part one of a college tour, titled “Higher Education,” announced on The Chainsmokers’ Instagram on Tuesday. The tour will start on April 14 at the University of Florida. Students attending Thursday’s DJ competition broke out into cheers after a video announcement of the Slope Day performers was played. “I was really excited when I heard that The Chainsmokers and Daya were going to perform because the energy of both of the artists are really fun, I think it will be a great artist for Slope Day,” Ishani Khanna ‘29 told The Sun after the event. Slope Day, an annual outdoor concert held on the University’s Libe Slope, is an end-of-year celebration for the Cornell community that began in
COURTESY OF JULIO ENRIQUEZ / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
1901. Previous headliners include Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Flo Rida and Gunna. Slope Day 2026 is scheduled for May 6 and is open to the Cornell student body, faculty and staff. New this year, a limited number of outside guest tickets are available for purchase by current undergraduate seniors. This marks the first time non-Cornell affiliated guests have been able to attend the annual springtime tradition. Guest tickets are priced at $150 on a first come, first served basis. Both seniors and their guests must be 21 or older. Undergraduate student wristbands are free and can be reserved on Campus Groups. Wristband pickup will run May 3-6 with multiple locations around campus.
Sofia Soldatovich can be reached at ss4453@cornell. C
COURTESY OF JUSTIN HIGUCHI / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Around the World in Two Hours: SDC Political Chalk Messages Inside ALANA’s Culture Fest Powerwashed by Grounds Dept. By ANGELINA LEI and KRYSTAL KYMN
Sun Lifestyle Staff Writer and Sun Lifestyle Contributor
April 8 — ALANA’s Culture Fest began with a “passport”: a card listing all the cultural organizations present on April 10 in Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room. ALANA Intercultural Programming Board supports the activities, services and programming of many cultural clubs on Cornell’s campus. Its most anticipated event is its annual Culture Fest, which featured more than 10 cultural organizations, celebrating diversity and cultural interaction. Each organization stood by tables arranged in a circle around the room, showcasing unique foods, games and culturally relevant information. Armed with our passports, we felt like we were starting our journey across the world as we entered Culture Fest.
LINUS MEKHAYA / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Dancers in motion | Students from the Anjali at Cornell dance group performed at the festival. Our travels began at the Indonesian Association at Cornell’s table, where we were greeted with the bold flavors of Indomie, a popular Indonesian noodle dish. Our next destination was Cornell Asian Pacific Student Union, where a spin of a trivia wheel taught us about the Silk Road. The Haitian Students Association, only a few steps away, boasted Haitian
Pâté, a type of patty or baked puff pastry with a meat filling. Just a few minutes later, we found ourselves doing math at Project Hope’s table, which showcased its education based initiative by challenging students to solve as many multiplication problems as possible in 30 seconds. As we put our pencils down, an intricately made, colorfully woven garment caught our eyes. A member of Cornell’s Organization for Afghan Students informed us that it was an Afghan traditional dress and encouraged us to try Bolani, a flatbread stuffed with potatoes. Deafening cheering and upbeat music signaled the start of one of many performances of the night. Cornell’s E.Motion, a K-Pop dance group, was the first to take the stage. We managed to tear our eyes away for long enough to enjoy mango lassi from the Pakistani Students Association and learn about Nigeria’s economy from the Nigerian Students Association before our attention was captured once again by Anjali, a South Asian classical dance team. Their dancing, different in style yet equally as captivating as E.Motion’s, held the crowd transfixed. Located in Ithaca, a relatively isolated, rural area, Cornell isn’t exactly where one might expect to find such a celebration of diversity. Yet the truth is that our student body is made up of individuals from many different backgrounds, cultures and experiences — including those with roots in Ithaca long before Cornell was built. To continue reading this article, please visit www.cornellsun.com. Angelina Lei can be reached at alei@cornellsun.com and Krystal Kymn can be reached at klk239@cornell.edu.
By GISELLE REDMOND AND SHUBHA GAUTAM Sun Assistant News Editor and Sun Assistant News Editor
April 14 — The Cornell Grounds Department power washed several student-written chalk messages around campus that criticized the University on Saturday, according to video footage obtained by The Sun. The messages, which were written by Students for a Democratic Cornell, mentioned recent events, including the University’s involvement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, its $60 million deal with the Trump administration and an October letter sent to the University by United Nations Special Rapporteurs raising “serious concern” over alleged human rights violations on campus. The chalk messages included statements such as “YOUR TUITION GOES TO ICE,” “THE UN HAS FLAGGED CORNELL 4 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS,” “NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT CORNELL” and “KOTLIKOFF LOVES TRUMP.” The SDC members wrote the messages at multiple locations, including Ho Plaza, the Arts Quad, the Agriculture Quad and outside Bartels Hall, according to SDC member Soham Bera ’29. Created in Fall 2025, SDC is a campaign that originally rallied for “a return to a judicial system independent of the University administration” through its support for Resolution 10, a Student Assembly resolution passed in October that called for the voices of elected assemblies to be included in the ongoing Student Code of Conduct revision process. The SDC members chose to write these messages on Saturday because of Cornell Days, which are tour and information days for admitted students that take place on April 11,12, 18 and 19. The chalkers hoped to inform potential incoming students about “the experience that they could anticipate if they commit to Cornell” regarding free speech and funding cuts, according to SDC member Sophia Arnold ’26. Multiple members of SDC tabled on Ho Plaza over the weekend, handing out pamphlets and encouraging admitted students and parents to come talk to them.
The Chalking The SDC members first wrote their initial chalk messages at approximately 2 a.m. on Saturday, but when they checked on the messages around 9 a.m., they saw that their messages had been washed away, according to Arnold. They then re-wrote their messages only for them to be washed away again shortly after, Bera added.
ADELAIDE CHOW / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Washed words | Messages criticizing Cornell’s ties to the Trump administration were among those washed away. Arnold claimed the power washers were “following [them] around power washing,” immediately erasing any chalk messages SDC wrote around campus on Saturday morning. Cornell University Police Department officers also arrived at Bartels on Saturday after the messages were erased. CUPD officers told the students that they were not allowed to chalk and asked for their netIDs, according to Arnold. The students told the CUPD officers that their actions were well within their rights per the Expressive Activity Policy, Arnold said. Eventually, the officers checked the policy, agreed and told the students that their actions were permitted, but that they were going to check their chalk messages to ensure that they were not “inflammatory,” according to Arnold. The messages outside of Bartels were erased after the students left, according to Arnold. See CHALK page 10 Shubha Gautam can be reached at sgautam@cornellsun.com and Giselle Redmond can be reached at gredmond@cornellsun.com.