INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun 8 Pages – Free
Vol. 139, No. 12
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2022 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Dining
Science
Weather
Graduates Assemble
Allergen Accidents
Niche Discovery
Partly Cloudy
Ten GPSA delegates will represent Cornell at the Ivy Plus conference for graduate student assemblies | Page 3
Emma Leynse '23 discusses poor allergen labeling and messy serving in Cornell dining halls. | Page 5
Cornell scientists find inter-species competition determines tropical mountain bird niches. | Page 8
HIGH: 58º LOW: 37º
Spanish Debate Team Partners With USAID
Collaboration to entail show debate on education celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month By LUCAS SANTIAGO-KERMANI Sun Staff Writer
In collaboration with United States government development agency USAID, Cornell’s Spanish Debate Team will host an Oct. 6 show debate to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Part of the Cornell Speech and Debate Society, the Sociedad de Debate en Español, or Cornell Spanish Debate Team, competes worldwide in Spanish-language debate tournaments. The team has a history of successes:
COURTESY OF CORNELL SPEECH AND DEBATE SOCIETY
Indisputably excellent | Spanish debate team members at the 2022 world championship in Madrid, Spain.
it made it to the semifinals of the 2019 Spanish-language world debating championship, won the 2018 and 2019 world championships in the Spanish as a Second Language category, won the 2019 Portuguese world championship and won the 2020 Spanish-language US national championship. For its members, however, the team is about more than competition. According to Jacobo Carreon ’23, the Spanish Debate Team has been a source of community, especially for Hispanic students. “Obviously, the Spanish-speaking population is a minority — in Cornell at least. The language itself is something that helps a lot of minority groups unite and feel more comfortable,” Carreon said. In addition to competing, the team hosts demonstration and community-building events. One such event is their upcoming show debate on the question “Should we prioritize vocational education over higher education?” Spanish debate team director Júlia García Güell grad said USAID wanted to collaborate on the event due to its extensive work in Central and South America and desire to give a platform to talented Spanish speakers in the United States. Güell said her team is strengthened not just by their hours of practice and research but by their open-minded approach. “A good debater can be anyone who is willing to open
their mind… it’s not about being the person who knows the most specific knowledge of geopolitics… or who has the best public speaking,” Güell said. “It’s about being open to challenging yourself and the things that you believe.” The team also draws from its members' experiences for inspiration in arguments on everything from the environment to the economy. “We use some of the examples from our lived experiences as Latino or Hispanic people, or people who know about Hispanic or Latino culture, and we use that in our arguments,” said team president Matilde Cardoso ’23. “It’s not something that we try to do, but something that happens because of our backgrounds.” Senior lecturer Sam Nelson, Industrial Labor Relations, is the program director for the Cornell Speech and Debate Society. He says the Spanish show debate is a great way for the team to have an impact beyond Cornell. “We want to do other things that help society at large and also the students. One of the great benefits to any kind of social justice student engagement project is that the students often learn as much or more than the people they're supposed to be [helping],” Nelson said. Carrero expressed a similar outlook, and hopes that the team can be an example to other communities. To continue reading this article, please visit cornellsun.com.
Reggie Fils-Aimé ’83 on Leadership By SOFIA RUBINSON and GABRIELLA PACITTO Sun News Editor and Sun Assistant Sports Editor
When Reggie Fils-Aimé ’83 was applying to be the head of marketing and sales at Nintendo in 2003, he did something unusual. Although he was at this point an experienced executive, he refused to take a job at Nintendo before having a video conference with the global president to see if their visions for the company aligned. “I learned that my request really had created quite a stir within Nintendo. Who’s this brash American asking to speak with our global president? He’s not even an employee,” Fils-Aimé said. “But my mentality was that I needed to make sure that I could partner with a global president. I needed to make sure that I understood his vision and could support it. Because if I couldn’t do those things, I was not going to be successful.” Luckily for Fils-Aimé, the connection with the president was there. Fils-Aimé would go on to become president and chief operating officer of Nintendo himself, crediting his time at Cornell and his aggressive spirit
for success. Passing those lessons on to the next generation, Fils-Aimé has written a book, “Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo,” in which he writes about overcoming obstacles, showing resilience and leadership under pressure. The book is part of his participation in the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series for the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. Dean of the Dyson School Jinhua Zhao selected the book to be read by incoming Dyson freshman and sophomore transfer students and to serve as a thematic guide for those students’ education. But Fils-Aimé wasn’t always an industry legend. He worked his way up, starting off as a child of Haitian immigrants, born in the Bronx before moving to Brentwood, New York where he attended middle and high school. ”It really did shape me as a first generation American,” Fils-Aimé said. “Someone who, really early in life, was hearing all of these stories and things about Haiti and all the challenges and strife... that shaped a mentality of focus on education and a mentality to really envision being able to overcome obstacles, having a sense of resilience and grit to drive my life forward.” Fils-Aimé knew he wanted to go to college, but he was alone in navigating the college admissions process and paying for his education. He was accepted to Cornell with an See NINTENDO page 3 MICHAEL SUGUITAN / SUN FILE PHOTO
Leader in Residence | Fils-Aimé spoke to Cornell students at the Dyson school.
JASON WU / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Dinner time | A Cornell undergraduate takes a piece of tres leches cake in line at a Cook house dinner. The dinners have returned for 2022-23.
House Dinners Return By SAM JOHNSTONE Sun Contributor
After living in eight different locAfter a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, weekly house dinners on West Campus have returned to the excitement of students and professors alike. Pre-pandemic, the weekly dinners were a trademark of West Campus living, featuring residents-only dining, unique menus and live entertainment. The dinners, which are hosted every Wednesday evening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., returned with the beginning of the fall 2022 semes-
ter, an exciting and new experience for most students on West. Becky Lee ’24 lives in Flora Rose House and attended her first house dinner on Wednesday. “It was very nice to be able to connect with other people and have these conversations with residents and also house fellows,” Lee said. Lee said that one of the main goals of house dinners is to connect students with faculty and professors in a casual setting, encouraging engagement and relationship building. See DINNER page 3