9-15-22 entire issue hi res

The Corne¬ Daily Sun

Curriculum Changes

By JONATHAN WU Sun Contributor

Starting this fall, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations implemented a substantially altered curriculum for first-year and transfer students, which includes a diversity and inclusion requirement, updated writing seminars and an increased emphasis on statistics and data analysis skills.

The update reinforces the college's mission to positively impact individuals and society through teaching, research and outreach.

that the changes made reflected input of students under the old curriculum. Although students under the old curriculum have the freedom to take the newly-introduced courses, it is not required to graduate.

Gearing Up for VMI Closing last season 2-8, the Big Red will travel to Virginia to face the military institution. | Page 8

Two Lecturers Discuss Morrill Act

By TAMARA KAMIS AND MINGHAN GAO Sun Staff Writer and Sun Contributor

In the 2022 Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture, journalist Tristan Ahtone and historian Robert Lee discussed how their investigation of how land grant universities, including Cornell University, financially benefited from Indigenous displacement.

The 1862 Morrill Act helped fund the creation of many universities across the United States, including Cornell, using the sale of land formerly inhabited by Indigenous people to support higher education. As part of the land acknowledgement of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the institutions acknowledge this history. Ahtone, a member of the Kiowa tribe and editor at large for the climate news organization Grist, and Lee, a history professor at the University of Cambridge, conducted a wide ranging investigation into the legacy of the Morrill Act.

“How can land grant universities square their professed values with their colonial legacies?” Lee asked in the lecture.

According to Lee and Ahtone’s investigative reporting and in agreement with writing from Prof. John Parmenter, history, Cornell University’s co-founder

Ezra Cornell purchased much of the University’s scrip — certificates which gave the owner the right to pick and claim a section of public land anywhere in the United States. Profits from the sale of the lands he selected, previously inhabited by indigenous nations including the Ojibwe, Miwok, Yokuts, and Dakota, were given to the University. Lee analyzed how Cornell has profited from the investment of Cornell’s Morrill Act Endowment over time, citing data collected from Cornell’s annual reports and archival documents.

According to Lee, only limited records are publicly available from 2008 to the present, but he believes he has enough data to estimate that roughly 73 million dollars of Cornell’s current endowment is the result of Cornell’s Morrill Act Endowment.

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

“[Organizational Behavior] was a class that I really looked forward to going to.”

Sawyer Tierney ’25

Originally proposed in Spring 2017, this change was approved by the New York State Education Department and the State University of New York system in the summer of 2021.

According to Bentley Wong ’25, a student ambassador in the ILR school, the curriculum change aims to provide students with both intellectually stimulating courses.

“The new curriculum presents so many great opportunities for new students to broaden their perspectives on not only social science research, but also the world as a whole as they begin their journey at Cornell,” Wong said.

“The newly introduced course requirements encourage [ILR students] to apply their learning to their own personal lives and local communities.”

As a student under the pre2022 curriculum, Wong voiced

The updated curriculum also includes a reorganization of pre-existing course requirements. This includes restructuring the organizational behavior and human resource management requirements into four separate half-semester courses, requiring an international and comparative labor course as opposed to being offered as an elective and increasing the number of data science and statistics sequences available to students.

One of the most polarizing aspects of the curriculum changes has been the abolishment of the ILROB 1120: Introduction to Organizational Behavior course — a well-liked, required course among the ILR students. In place are now two half-semester courses in both psychology and sociology each, emphasizing a focus on theories and applications as it applies to the intersection between work and labor and organizational structure.

“Organizational Behavior was probably my favorite class that fall,” said Sawyer Tierney ’25, who took the now-discontinued course his freshman year. “Prof. Rissing has been teaching it for a while. His lecture was probably the most engaging out of all the lectures I have taken at Cornell."

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

jw2452@cornell.edu. Tamara Kamis can be reached at tkamis@cornell.edu. Minghan Gao can be reached at mg2328@cornell.edu.

University Remains Test-Optional

By KATHERINE ESTERL Sun Staff Writer

After becoming test-optional for certain colleges in 2021, the University will extend this policy and remain test-optional for 2023 and 2024 applicants.

Standardized tests are typically used in the college admissions process to measure math, reading comprehension and science skills. The ability of standardized test scores to accurately measure academic capability has been called into question in recent years.

“No one believes that to be true

anymore,” wrote Prof. John Sipple, global development, in a statement to The Sun, on the dependability of standardized testing as a predictor for academic performance.

Sipple studies the public school system and says test prep systems “guarantee improved scores” for students with resources including time, motivation, money and transportation.

“[A test-optional policy] changes the whole ball park of what admissions is,” said Ken Gonzalez ’24.

“It blurs the lines between you not getting in because you weren’t what Cornell was looking for, and you

not getting in because of circumstances that you can’t control in your environment.”

Gonzalez is a student intern with the Higher Education Opportunity Programs, which supports students from low-income backgrounds, as part of Cornell’s Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives. He said his own high school offered free testprep resources, but it wasn’t effective for raising scores.

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

Esterl can be reached at kesterl@cornellsun.com.

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Today

Entrepreneurs in Residence: With Bill Minnock ’79, MBA ’83 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., Statler Hall 189C

Estrangement: Fractured Fmailies and How to Mend Them With Karl A. Pillemer, Ph.D. 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Boyce Thompson Institute Auditorium

S.C. Tsiang Macroeconomics Workshop With Benjamin Pugsley 11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., Uris Hall 498

Energy Engineering Seminar — Fall 2022 With Atieh Moridi 12:25 p.m. - 1:15 p.m., Olin Hall 165

Gatty Lecture: The Gift of a Corpse: Notes from a Singaporean Mortuary on the Necropolitics of the Ordinary With Ruth Toulson 12:30 p.m., Kahin Center

Institute for African Development Seminar Series: Social Media Aesthetics and the Digital Afterlives of Old Nollywood 2:40 p.m. - 4:35p.m., Uris Hall G-08

Cornell Biennial: Walking Tour in Human Ecology Building 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m., Human Ecology Building, Main Entrance

Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before the Modern 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., Olin Library 107

Pandemic Politics and the Viral Underclass 4:30 p.m., Africana Studies and Research Center Multipurpose Room

Tomorrow

Neurobiology and Behavior Seminar Speaker, Ph.D. Defense: Hayden Waller

10 a.m. - 11 a.m., Virtual Event

Thomas Campanella: Mosaic Roads Noon, Abby and Howard Milstein Auditorium

New York at Work Webinar 1 p.m. - 2 p.m., Virtual Event

Bernd Lambert Memorial Lecture: Didier Fassin 3 p.m. - 4 p.m., McGraw Hall 165

OUR BODIES, Their Laws: Reproductive Justice After the Fall of Roe 4 p.m., Myron Taylor Hall 182

SC I ENCE Cornell Startup Unlocks Canine Genealogy

By BROOKE GREENFIELD Sun Staff Writer

Embark, a canine DNA testing company founded in 2015 by brothers Ryan and Adam Bokyo in Cornell’s Incubator for Life Science Companies, is now taking strides in studies of the canine genome. With the swab of a dog’s cheek, Embark can provide information about the dog’s genetic risk factors and ancestry.

Embark is working on building a data set of cutting edge genetic information of dogs for research purposes, while simultaneously helping dog owners accumu-

late as much knowledge about their dog’s health as possible.

“Our message is that we can help owners take the best care of their dog with preventable issues that could come up and help owners maximize the time and quality of time they get to spend with their dog,” said founder and Chief Executive Officer Ryan Boyko.

Embark has made landmark discoveries in the field of canine genetics such as inbreeding depression in golden retrievers, blue eye coloration in huskies and hearing loss in rhodesian ridgebacks.

“We are not comfortable with the

status quo of the 250 things we can test for today,” co-founder of Embark Prof. Adam Boyko, biomedical sciences said “We want to find the next 250 things so that DNA testing is even more valuable in the future.”

Embark is pushing boundaries in canine genetics by working with researchers to create new tests to further learn about each dog’s ancestry.

The Dog Age Test, launching this fall 2022, is an epigenetic test that looks at the amount of methylation — a type of epigenetic modification that influences which genes are turned active and inactive — in a dog’s DNA instead of the genetic code to translate into the calendar age of the dog.

Methylation, a reversible process that works by blocking proteins from reading the DNA and turning the DNA “off,” repressing the gene. DNA is made up of four bases: Adenine, thiamine, cytosine and guanine. Epigenetic marks — phenotype changes that do not affect the DNA code itself — act on the DNA to affect how it is expressed by telling cells in the body what to become. Epigenetic patterns are not permanent and can differ based on environment, lifestyle and disease.

Methylation acts as a clock, so the genome becomes less methylated as we age. This means that the amount of DNA methylation and position where it occurs can be used to identify how old a dog is. With just a cheek swab, an owner can know how old their dog is within five months.

Incorrect modifications to gene activity, even without changes in the DNA sequence itself, can cause health and behavioral risks. As a result, epigenetics

can be indicators of various diseases.

For example, different canine cancers have been associated with epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications. The most common canine cancers are seen through tumors along with cancers seen in soft tissues, digestive organs or bones.

Getting more tests into the public sphere is the best way to get more data and Embark has done this multiple ways. The first dog DNA test product was launched on the Today Show in May 2016. Since then, the test has been featured in shows such as Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl and Oprah’s Favorite Things.

From this increased awareness, Embark is now starting to work directly with veterinarians selling test kits in veterinary clinics to assist veterinarians in genetic tools for treatment of dogs. The organization recently partnered with Westminster.

“The first vet clinics that we started selling to have given us a wildly positive response with results that have been out of left field to save the dog’s life, and otherwise we would not have known that a dog had a potential life threatening disorder and would have not been avoided,” Adam Boyko said.

Preventative care through genetics can give very valuable information so by educating veterinarians Embark is working to improve canine health overall.

“We are unlocking the future of dog health,” Adam Boyko said, “where we are building both the data set as well as research capabilities that will enable the next big advancements in dog health.”

Brooke Greenfeld can be reached at bgreenfeld@cornellsun.com.

Circadian Disruptions Contribute to Fat Cell Growth

By EMMA ARBOLEDA Sun Staff Writer

Two recent studies conducted at Weill Cornell suggest that there’s more to gaining weight than diet. Chronic stress and disruptions in one’s circadian clocks may play a key role in fat cell growth.

The first study, published in Cell Reports this past June, researched the effect that chronic stress and Cushing’s disease — a disease that stimulates excess production of the stress hormone cortisol — have on weight gain and obesity, ultimately finding it plays a key role.

Glucocorticoids, stress hormones in our bodies released in response to cortisol, normally kick-up around 7 a.m., and will spike and drop throughout the day until dropping at night. These oscillations glucocorticoid levels are mediated by the body’s circadian clock.

Cushing’s disease, as well as chronic stress, may result in the flattening of these circadian oscillations, causing these spikes in glucocorticoid to decrease. This normally occurs when prolonged stress stimulates constant release of glucocorticoids instead of its

normal, biological cycle.

“If you don’t sleep [properly] at night, the next day you will have increased cortisol levels at night,” said Prof. Mary Teruel, biochemistry. “[B]ut there is a compensation that will bring down peak levels so the total amount of cortisol in the bloodstream is constant.”

To test the effects of this circadian disruption, Teruel and her colleagues replicated the stress that humans may face when sustaining worklife imbalances in mice. This was done by implanting mice with corticosterone pellets to simulate high levels of cortisol constantly. By prolonging glucocorticoid levels in the mice, researchers found that insulin levels and the amount of fatty tissue rose, ultimately resulting in obesity and fat cell growth.

When circadian rhythms were restored however, the effects were reversed.

Fat cell growth did not vary due to diet or the amount of glucocorticoids. The mice all got the same amount of glucocorticoids, but some got it at the wrong time causing their fat mass to double.

Even with a really healthy diet. This suggests that the fat cell growth is independent of

diet.

The importance of the body’s cycles of regulation is further emphasized in the second study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this past August.

This study follows the timing of fat cell differentiation in response to a cell’s circadian clock.

Using live cell imaging, and fluorescent markers, fluctuations of peroxisome proliferator- activated receptor gamma — a protein mediating fat cell production — and circadian gene expression were monitored. Preadipocytes have a circuit based on PPARG. If you stay on rhythms, PPARG will not reach the threshold to become a fat cell, however, if you give continuous stimuli, it will become a fat cell. Once

this threshold to become a fat cell is reached, it is irreversible.

It takes an extended period of time to become a fat cell, but the decision to become one is very rapid, occurring in a window of around 4 hours.

“Cells are only committing in the rest phase, and only make this 4 hour decision [to become a fat cell] based on the feedback loops that drive it,” Teruel said.

Provided that the cells commit to becoming fat cells during the rest phase, diet during this phase may result in weight gain as consuming a high fat diet during a rest phase will result in you becoming much more obese than if you were to eat the same thing during the day phase.

Emma Arboleda can be reached at earboleda@cornellsun.com.

Dining Guide

Your source for good food

Menstrual Munchies

By Daniela Wise-Rojas Sun Dining Editor

Anyone who experiences periods, especially in college, knows the struggle of having cramps. Eating foods that decrease inflammation in the body reduces cramping, but it’s hard to know what to eat to help yourself, especially when you’re always on the go and subject to dining hall food.

Obviously, I’m not here to tell you what you can and cannot eat. I am here, however, to recommend certain foods based on research and my own experiences. In a way, this piece is more for me to enforce healthy eating habits while on my period. Writing things down helps me. I’ve struggled with severe period cramps and periods that prevent me from doing daily activities, going to doctor after doctor. I don’t know what is wrong with me, and there isn’t anything that can fix it. However, your diet and how you treat your body impacts how your body handles pain and other obstacles.

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “There is a connection between the food you eat and your body’s estrogen levels.”

Certain foods like animal products and anything with added oils increase levels of estrogen in the body. When you consume more estrogen-based foods, your uterine lining can become abnormally thick. During the menstrual cycle, your uterine lining breaks down. Because of the thickness of the uterine lining, more prostaglandins are created, leading to severe pain.

All in all, “Eating foods that decrease inflammation in the body will help to tame menstrual cramps.” These include fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, while avoiding animal products, refined grains, added vegetable oils, and fatty foods. The reason why a diet of fruits and veggies are effective relates to the high number of antioxidants found in plants.

Despite advice that seems simplistic, I’m aware that such is easier said than done, especially when it comes to college and dining hall food. Here’s my recommendations for places on campus where menstrual-cycle friendly food exists.

As much as I love Bear Necessities, I would not recommend it for food that soothes your body aches, as most of the food tends to be on the greasy side. Smoothies from Crossings Cafe in Toni Morrison Hall are some of the best. My favorite is the cocoa pinenna smoothie. All are made fresh to order, with an assortment of flavors. You can choose if you want the base to be yogurt or oat milk. Whipped cream on the top is free. It makes you feel special while filling your stomach. At any

cafe, you can also get some nice, herbal hot teas. Those always help calm and soothe me.

Additionally, at any dining hall (North or West campus), you can make yourself a salad. My personal favorite is a Cobb salad, with hard-boiled egg as my protein. Blue cheese dressing is delicious, combined with some spinach, garbanzo beans, cheese, maybe some sunflower seeds, and you have a tasty and nutritious meal. If you’re more in the mood for a snack, you can always get some Cornell Dairy yogurt and top it with fruit and some sort of granola. If there’s no

If

you’re more in the mood for

a snack, you can always get some Cornell Dairy yogurt and top it with fruit and some sort of granola.

granola, feel free to use cereal or a crumbled oatmeal raisin cookie. Eating at Risley Dining could help; it’s an entirely gluten-free dining hall; such can help reduce inflammation.

If you’re near the agriculture quad, I would recommend the PB&J bagel sandwich with apple butter from Bus Stop Bagels.

The flavors truly do melt on your tongue. Trillium has omelets in the morning that are absolutely scrumptious, just choose an option that doesn’t have meat. Mann Cafe has a lunch sandwich called Chickpea of the Sea. It’s a cold sandwich with chickpea and seasonings, and I was pleasantly surprised the first time I had it.

If you’re on central campus, I would definitely recommend the hearty sandwich with egg whites, feta and spinach for breakfast from Goldies. They also have a portabella mushroom melt that tastes like my mom’s portabella mushrooms — delectable and dreamy. Crossings in Toni Morrison also has one of these. Although Terrace is on the pricier side, they also have tasty smoothies that allow you to get all your essential nutrients in.

What I provided is not an exhaustive list of period-friendly foods, these are just some of my finds that I personally don’t think enough people know about. I’m not vegetarian or gluten-free, but sometimes eating a certain kind of diet can be beneficial. Experiencing menstrual cycles is an exhausting part of life for many individuals; little things like food can help. After all, you are what you eat; you are more than just a college student. You’re an individual who needs to be cared for and nourished.

Daniela Wise-Rojas is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She currently serves as dining editor. She can be reached as dwise-rojas@cornellsun.com.

SERENA HUANG ’24

Business Manager

EMMA LEYNSE ’23

Associate Editor

SURITA BASU ’23

Assistant Managing Editor

NAOMI KOH ’23

Assistant Web Editor

ELI PALLRAND ’24

ESTEE YI ’24

KAYLA RIGGS ’24

JULA NAGEL ’24

Editor

BHATIA ’23

KATRIEN DE WAARD ’24

Editor

PAREESAY AFZAL ’24 Assistant

JIWOOK JUNG ’25 Assistant

ADITI HUKERIKAR ’23 Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

DANIELA WISE-ROJAS ’25

JASON WU ’24 Assistant Photography Editor

GRAYSON RUHL ’24

KEVIN CHENG ’25

HANNAH ROSENBERG ’23

JYOTHSNA BOLLEDDULA ’24

140th Editorial Board

VEE CIPPERMAN ’23

Editor in Chief

ANGELA BUNAY ’24

Managing Editor

TRACY ZENG

Brenner Beard Agree to Disagree

Brenner Beard is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be reached at hbb57@cornell. edu. Agree to Disagree runs every other Tuesday this semester.

Why Do We Remember

This past Sunday marks the 21st anniversary of 9/11. 21 years ago, 19 hijackers ended the lives of almost 3,000 innocent civilians in what is one the most horrifying days in American history.

’24

’24

’24

BERNSTEIN ’23

MADELINE ROSENBERG ’23

Working on Today’s Sun

Managing Desker Angela Bunay ’24

Desker Katherine Yao ’23

Desker Katherine Yao ’23

Deskers Estee Yi ’24 Jiwook Jung ‘25

Desker Aaron Snyder ‘23

Desker Claire Li ’24 Production Desker Katrien de Waard ’24

SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OR GUEST COLUMN

Want to give your take on a campus issue?

The Sun thrives on your feedback. Continue the conversation by sending a letter to the editor or guest column to associate-editor@cornellsun.com.

Letters should be no longer than 250 words in length. Columns are 700-900 words

Please include graduating year if applicable.

All voices welcome.

This year, though, 21 years to the day, Sept. 11 was anything but horrifying. Sure, Instagram stories went up and some people attended memorials, but, all in all, it was a fairly normal Sunday for the majority of Cornellians and Americans in general. Which leads me to why I’m writing this column.

This Sunday, while proceeding with my normal Sunday routine, doing my normal homework, I overheard a question that really made me think: why do we still remember 9/11? Before you dismiss it, it’s not totally a question without merit. On this particular anniversary, with the 20-year Global War on Terrorism effectively coming to an end, its actually a pretty painful piece of introspection for Americans. For those that sacrificed their time, bodies and, in some cases, their lives fighting terror for the past two decades, I can’t even imagine what thoughts may have come to mind as we watched Afghanistan slip back into the control of the Taliban.

On the other hand, three quarters of us college students were born after the attacks. We never had to live with the consequences of the attacks. Nor will we have to “adult” in a world where the nightly body counts and reports of sucide bombings in far away lands grace our T.V. channels and air-waves. And so we circle back. With that chapter closing and with ours starting in a post-war-onterror world, what is the relevance of 9/11? Why should we care?

Monday morning, I joined thousands of first responders, veterans and military personnel across the country for a workout honoring the sacrifice of New York City firefighters and police on that fateful day in 2001. Together with the rest of Cornell’s Tri-Service Brigade, we climbed 110 flights

All we are left with are the monuments in Washington D.C., Pennsylvania and New York City, as well as all those painful memories.

of stairs at Schoellkopf field for 45 minutes to symbolize the trips that rescuers made up and down the towers as they saved the lives of hundreds of workers. It wasn’t easy to say the least. Cadets and Midshipmen alike were sweating up and down those steps, with some even puking. Amongst our ranks though, there was a contingent of CUEMS and CUPD personnel running up the bleachers with medical packs weighing up to 60 pounds. These first responders weren’t contractually obligated to be there like the

rest of us, but they were there and making the workout even harder for themselves than it already was. At one point between breaths, I asked one of them why they were doing this. He replied simply, “Because on 9/11, they were us.” That is about as simple of an explanation as it gets. Because on Sept. 11, 2001, we lost 3,000 of “us.” Americans, first responders, service personnel, Cornellians,

Monday morning, I joined thousands of first responders, veterans and military personnel across the country for a workout honoring the sacrifice of New York City firefighters and police on that fateful day in 2001.

friends and family. They came from all walks of life. They each woke up the morning of Sept. 11, said good-bye to their loved ones, went to work and never made it home.

In the 20 plus years since, the world we live in has changed rapidly. The U.S. has fought two conflicts on foreign soil. Yet, evil, terrrorism and wrongdoing persist, despite our best or worst intentions. Was it worth it? Who’s to say. But, as it pertains to the memory of 9/11, that isn’t a critical judgment for our remembrance. Nothing that has happened since that day 21 years ago can change or erase the human toll. Though the years continue to pass, we’ve arrived in 2022 with 3,000 less of us thanks to the actions of 19 people. Our country forever changed, American lives extinguished, and 20 years later we can do nothing to undo it.

That’s the frustrating part of it, isn’t it? 21 years later, all we are left with are the monuments in Washington D.C., Pennsylvania and New York City, as well as all those painful memories. There is no shiny medal that reads, “We got you all back” or a trophy for winning the war on terror.

So do we remember or move on? In a way, however, memory is a vehicle for moving forward. We remember those who died, we remember the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and we remember how it felt to come together as a country and grieve. And, yes, we cannot go back in time and prevent 9/11. Nor can we change the legacy of that day. Our posterity will decide that for us. At the very least, though, what we can do is climb some steps and remember those we lost.

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

MENS FOOTBALL

2022 Football Season Preview

By AARON SNYDER Sun Sports Editor

Cornell kicks off its 134th season of football on Saturday at Virginia Military Institute. After a 2-8 2021 campaign that represented a setback from a 4-6 performance in 2019, the Red will hope to turn things around in 2022.

The team, which was picked to finish last in the Ivy League in the pre-season poll, will be hampered by the loss of 51 seniors. While the preseason has brought uncertainty about the team’s youth and inexperience, it has also brought optimism surrounding a dynamic playmaker at quarterback in sophomore Jameson Wang.

Still, don’t expect Cornell to end its 32-year Ivy League title drought this season. The Red is dangerously thin on the offensive line and is resting its fate on mostly inexperienced players. Head coach David Archer ’05 is asking new players at various position groups to prove themselves for the first time in their college careers. Wang brings new promise to East Hill, but not enough to expect this team to compete for the league championship this season.

The result of the unprecedented roster turnover this season is a lot of unproven, inexperienced players. Reflecting on 2021, Archer indicated that he regretted “coaching with gratitude.”

So many fifth-year seniors disrupted their lives to play for the Red in 2021 after losing the 2020 season to the pandemic. Archer, feeling a sense of gratitude and perhaps obligation, gave those players most of the opportunities. Now, with those players gone, it’s hard to know what to expect when Cornell puts its current roster to the test for the first time.

Cornell’s hopes on offense will largely be tied to the performance of Wang, who will get the nod for his first full season as the starting quarterback. Wang’s midseason debut last year sparked a resurgence in what had been a pedestrian Cornell offense. The then-freshman created opportunities with his legs, rushing for an average of 50 yards per game. However, Wang was less dynamic in the pocket, passing for just 43 yards per game, including four touchdowns and four interceptions.

In 2021, Wang was playing with a hurt shoulder and limited knowledge of the playbook. Now back to full health and with understanding of a completely redesigned, simpler offense, Wang and the coaching staff are confident in his ability to lead the offense.

“Obviously my greatest asset is my legs, I can extend plays really well, but I also want to show that I can sling the ball down field too, which I believe that I can do,” Wang said. “I think that I really am a true dual threat quarterback.”

The certainty and optimism that Wang provides under center will be tempered by inexperience and questions about his weapons on offense. Senior wide receiver

Thomas Glover, who is returning for a fifth year after finishing second in the Ivy League with 767 receiving yards in 2021, will be the main weapon in the passing game. The bulk of the carries in the run game will go to sophomore running back

Eddy Tillman, who made the most of just 17 carries his freshman year, rushing for 142 yards. Aside from Glover and Tillman, the rest of the offense will be trying to prove themselves and compete for playing time.

The biggest uncertainty on offense will be the offensive line. The lone returning starter of a group that was a strength for Cornell last season is senior left guard Joe Kelly. The four remaining starting spots will go to an inexperienced group with a concerning lack of depth. Two converted defensive linemen have spent the preseason preparing to make the switch to offensive line. With such a lack of depth in a group that will be critical to Wang’s success, the offensive line’s health will be a big factor in Cornell’s offense.

Over the offseason, Archer and the coaching staff completely redrew the playbook. The staff feels that Wang’s ability to create opportunities with his legs will give the team more flexibility than it has had in the past. Archer has completely turned over play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Joe Villapiano, who will be running an offense that is designed to make things simpler for Wang.

“The first year, getting the experience to play live reps, that was [a] big experience for my role now,” Wang said. “The game really slowed down, I was able to read defenses well, I wasn’t panicking. I’m more calm and more comfortable with the offense.”

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