Cornell Insider

a blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

Big Red Baseball Looks to Keep Season Alive Against East Carolina

Posted by Alex Gimenez on June 2, 2012

After surprising many at the Chapel Hill Regional yesterday afternoon by challenging the #6 UNC Tar Heels through the final out in a 7-4 loss, the Big Red will bring their success against the Tar Heels out to Boshamer Stadium this afternoon against the East Carolina Pirates.  For both teams it is a win or go home situation, as ECU fell to St. John’s in the first game of the regional yesterday morning 11-3.  The Big Red will send Brian McAfee and his 3.19 ERA and 6-0 record to the mound while the Pirates counter with their ace Kevin Brandt at 7-6 with a 1.85 ERA.

 The Big Red started out neck and neck with the Tar Heels, and the score was 1-0 UNC through three innings with starters Rick Marks and Hobbs Johnson dealing zeroes.  In the fourth, Marks ran into some trouble and the Tar Heels were able to tack on four runs making it a 5-0 ballgame in favor of the Tar Heels.  In a spot where most teams would have withered away, the Big Red stormed back in the top of the 6th inning with a two run shot off the bat of Brian Billigen making it a three run ballgame.  After an hour and eleven minute rain delay, the game resumed action with reliever RC Orlan on the mound and the Big Red were able to score once more to make it 5-3.  The Tar Heels would reapply the pressure in the bottom of the inning making it 7-3. After a run scored for Cornell in the 8th, they put two men on base with nobody out in the top of the 9th with the tying run at the plate against  UNC’s closer Michael Morin.  Morin was able to slam the door shut assuring a Tar Heel victory.

The Big Red saw some outstanding defensive plays by shortstop Marshall Yanzick who made two of the best plays you will ever see out of a shortstop.  Cornell also out hit the Tar Heels 13-11 in route to the loss and the Big Red pitchers did a good job of handling a tough ACC batting order. 

As the Big Red get set to take the field this afternoon the key to their success will ride on the arm of freshman starter Brian McAfee who has been masterful this season going more than five innings in all ten of his starts up to this point.  The Big Red will need to get the middle of the order bats going after Chris Cruz and Frank Hager struggled yesterday going 1-10.  They will also need to come up with more timely hits after stranding 12 runners on base.  ECU is a team that tends to lose focus when they are trailing early in a ballgame, so if the Big Red can score early and Brian McAfee can shut the door on the mound, they should on the right track towards playing on Sunday against the loser of tonight’s matchup between UNC and St. John’s.

For radio coverage of this game follow this link, game time is tentatively scheduled for 1:00 PM EST.

http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents

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Big Red Baseball Takes Historic Run to Chapel Hill

Posted by Alex Gimenez on June 1, 2012

After finishing an Ivy League worst 10-30 in 2011, the Big Red Baseball Team has shocked the nation here in 2012. The team is currently 31-15-1 on the season going from worst to first in the Ivy League and winning their first ever Ivy League Championship title by besting Dartmouth in a best of three series at Hoy Field in Ithaca.  The 31 wins for the Big Red are the most the team has recorded in a single season in over a hundred years of the program’s existence.  With the victory over Dartmouth, the Big Red are set to play in just their second NCAA Regional in program history (only other appearance was in 1977) as they are set to take on the #6 University of North Carolina Tar Heels Friday afternoon in the Chapel Hill Regional

The Big Red will send senior right handed starting pitcher Rick Marks to the mound against the 44-14 Tar Heels.  Marks has been quite the presence in the Big Red rotation, posting a 3.09 earned run average with a 4-4 record over 11 outings in 2012.  The Big Red have won 6 out of his 10 starts this season with arguably his most impressive outing of the year coming back on April 1 against Dartmouth, where he worked 7 1/3 innings picking up the win and allowing just two runs.  The Big Flats, New York native has been the veteran on this Big Red staff and has done an excellent job of mentoring some of the team’s most promising young arms in guys like Brent Jones, Kellen Urbon, and Brian McAfee, who is scheduled to start the second game of the regional Saturday afternoon.

Marks’ counterpart for UNC is Hobbs Johnson, a left handed pitcher who only recently joined the Tar Heel rotation.  The North Carolina native has been electrifying on the mound, posting 1.37 ERA over 52 2/3 innings out the bullpen and rotation this year.  Johnson’s 6-1 record and excellent strike out to walk ratio make him very tough on opposing hitters.  He carried a perfect game into the 8th inning against ACC opponent Virginia Tech, a team that narrowly defeated the Big Red in two matchups earlier this season.  The left hander will face a Big Red lineup with some left handed pop so the advantage appears to lie with Johnson and the Tar Heels, but these Cornell hitters have seen quite a few tough lefties this season and seen some success in those ballgames.

Speaking of the Big Red offense, Cornell has some excellent hitters.  The biggest threat by and large for the Big Red in the lineup is senior center fielder Brian Billigen who leads the team batting .362 with 5 HR and a team leading 38 RBI.  With five hitters coming in to the Regional hitting over .290, the Big Red pose a formidable threat at the plate.  Brenton Peters, the Cornell lead off man and second baseman has been a table setter for the Big Red leading the team with .449 on base percentage and he’s hitting .380 in games that the team has won so getting him on base is key to the team’s success.  Every hitter one through nine has the ability to come up with a big hit and look for senior right handed hitters Marshall Yanzick and Frank Hager to set the tone against the lefty Johnson.  But don’t forget Chris Cruz, the right fielder has hit a single season record 12 HR in 2012 including a walk off home run to send the Big Red to this NCAA Regional.

The Tar Heels also have a dominant offense and have showcased that offense against some of the best teams in the country.  Lead by third baseman Colin Moran who comes into play with a .362 average out of the third spot in the order, UNC can pound opposing pitchers. Moran injured himself during the season and in his absence the Tar Heels still managed a 13-8 record.  That was because of the offensive contributions of lead off man Chaz Frank and catcher Jacob Stallings who hit .303 and .299 respectively driving in 75 runs as a whole. Keeping Frank off of the bases will be a key for the Big Red, as he has swiped 16 bags in 20 attempts this year.  As a team, the Tar Heels have posted a nearly 1-1 split in strikeouts versus walks at the plate, an almost unheard of feat.

The Big Red have benefitted from a combination of senior leadership and excellent talent out of the freshman class, which have allowed them to improve dramatically over their 2011 season.  The team exhibits an unusually calm demeanor ever in the most stressful situations, which has allowed them to win games when all hope seemed lost. Following this team over the past few days, there is a sense that the pressure is on UNC to win this ballgame. The Big Red may be the only ones who believe they can win, but one thing is for certain, they are going to make things interesting for the Tar Heels.

For radio coverage of this game follow this link, game time is tentatively scheduled for 2:30 PM EST.

http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/#liveevents

 

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CTP Moving – Replacing Mama T’s?

Posted by Alfonse Muglia on May 31, 2012

Photo by Oliver Renick

A new sign in the window of Collegetown Pizza (CTP) this morning announced that the popular pizza shop on the corner of College Ave. & Dryden Rd. will be moving downhill, to 139 Dryden Rd. An employee at CTP confirmed that the sign was legitimate, but the owner was not available for comment.

The enthralling point of this breaking news is that 139 Dryden Rd. is the address of Mama Theresa’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant, longtime rival of CTP in the Collegetown pizza market.

The owners of Mama T’s have put the business up for sale multiple times in the last few years, most recently with James Orcutt Real Estate at an asking price of $149,000.

One can only speculate on the reason for the move until further details are released, but the relocation does prolong the trend of Collegetown business either closing or moving away from the prime, expensive intersection of College Ave. and Dryden Rd. Across the intersection, the space that formerly was Green Cafe has remained vacant since the eatery’s closure in Aprill 2010.

Collegetown Pizza has been serving the Cornell Collegetown community at its current location since 2001. It’s unclear at the moment if Mama T’s will take a new location or close entirely.

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Tragedy: Student Krista Depew ’15 Dies After Acute Illness [Updated]

Posted by nkantro on May 26, 2012

The University Communications Office has confirmed that student Krista Depew ’15, a rising sophomore in CALS, died earlier today. The cause and circumstances of her death have not yet been made public.

Please stay tuned for updates.

Update:

Miss Depew died suddenly after an acute illness on Saturday morning at a hospital in Albany, NY.

President Skorton has released a statement of condolence:

Dear Cornellians,

It is with deep sadness that I share with you the news of the death of Krista Marie DePew, 19, due to an acute illness Saturday morning, May 26, at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y. On behalf of the entire Cornell community, I want to extend my deepest condolences to Krista’s family and her many friends. Krista was a rising sophomore in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and a new member of the Alphi Phi sorority chapter at Cornell. Please join me in taking a moment to acknowledge and remember a cherished member of our community.

Plans for an appropriate commemoration will be made in the days to come in consultation with Krista’s family.

Best regards,

David Skorton
President

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Class of 2012 Employment Increases from 2011

Posted by Alfonse Muglia on May 25, 2012

As senior week comes to a close and the Class of 2012 prepares to don their cap and gowns before friends, family, and Michael Bloomberg this weekend, a growing percentage of these graduating seniors will be leaving Ithaca with jobs, according to a survey by the Cornell Career Services Office.

The Dartmouth beat the Cornell Daily Stun to this story, reporting that 49% of Cornell graduates have accepted job offers – compared to 47% this time last year. The newspaper also commented that more students received multiple job offers than in the past.

At Dartmouth, a similar survey found that 36% of respondents have job offers, up from 20% in 2011.

While this survey only provides a snapshot of the class, it has proven to be extremely accurate.

Official statistics from last year show that 53.5% of the Class of 2011 had secured a job six months after leaving Cornell, suggesting that the distribution of respondents to last spring’s survey was an accurate depiction of the class. Few students apparently find success in landing jobs in the immediate weeks after accepting their diplomas.

The fact that this number is increasing comes as a welcoming sign for the graduating class, but the growth is slow, and those without a job now may find continued difficulty in their searches over the next six months.

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Cornell Adds Twitter Exec. to NYC Coalition

Posted by Alfonse Muglia on May 24, 2012

Another day, another potential breakthrough for the CornellNYC Tech.

The team that will lead Cornell’s development in New York City continues to grow, adding a familiar personality with ties to a technological powerhouse.

The University announced on Wednesday that Greg Pass, ’97, former Chief Technology Officer for Twitter, will serve as CornellNYC Tech’s founding entrepreneurial officer. The position will primarily be responsible for assuring constant communication between the school and local industries, while also promoting entrepreneurial skills in the classroom.

Pass graduated from Cornell in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science. He stepped down as CTO of VP of Engineering at Twitter almost exactly a year ago on May 20, 2011.

“The idea is for the new program, is that we really ought to have someone specifically focused [on] making sure that the academic program and industry partnerships will successfully result in entrepreneurial value for students and faculty and the New York tech community,” Pass said in an interview with Business Insider. “We want to bring students that are specifically interested in making a difference and having an impact on technological innovation and are entrepreneurial.”

With the move, Cornell has proven determined to demonstrate that they have the networks and influence necessary to make the CornellNYC Tech campus a reality and to turn New York into a technological powerhouse that can rival Silicon Valley.

In the last week, New York has been outshining its West Coust prototype. Two days after tech icon Google (who had previously backed Stanford in Mayor Bloomberg’s contest) announced that they will rent space to Cornell for the school’s first five years of operation, Pass has followed suit and cut his ties with his Silicon Valley comrades in favor of a move back East.

“I see this as a unique opportunity to give back to my profession and figure out how to better cultivate the types of students interested in making an impact,” Pass continued. “How can we actually educate those types of students better and give them a better education to increase the size and quality of the talent pool?”

Answering this question now falls on the shoulders of Pass and his growing team of technological gurus.

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Google Opens Door to Cornell in NYC

Posted by Alfonse Muglia on May 21, 2012

111 8th Avenue, New York – the temporary home of Cornell NYCTech

Cornell University’s new Applied Science campus in New York City will be temporarily housed in property owned by Google, according to a New York Times story this morning.The move will help the University live up to its promise of holding classes in the city this fall. President Skorton said in an interview with the newspaper that students and teachers would travel down from Ithaca for seminars and workshops this fall. Classes will begin in the Google building, located at 111 8th Avenue, in the fall of 2013.

Google bought the property in 2010 for $1.9 billion. Cornell will have access to the top floor, which Google executives have valued at $12 million.

The deal with Google says that we must be out of the building in five and a half years.  This ties in exactly with the fact that Cornell has promised to begin holding classes on Roosevelt Island in 2017. It leaves little room for error, however, throughout the construction process.

Perhaps the most significant implication of this partnership is that it indicates that large technological corporations are behind Cornell (and its Israeli partner Technon) in its quest to establish a stronghold in the New York City High-Tech labor market. Previously, Google had publically announced its support of Stanford University in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s contest for $100 million and the plot of land on Roosevelt Island.

This is not the first time that Cornell and Google have gotten together on a technological endeavor. In January 2011, the Insider reported that Google had given Cornell faculty members $800,000 to research the usefulness of social media networks like Facebook.

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Class Accounts Hacked in Backlash to Changes in Academic Calendar

Posted by L.R. Conrad on May 9, 2012

A huge student backlash and hacking of class accounts resulted today after faculty voted to change the Cornell University academic calendar.

The new calendar would include shortening study week to five days, shortening exam week to eight days, and cutting Senior Week from four days to two days. In exchange, students will be given off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and will include a two-day break in February.

If  approved of by President David Skorton, these changes will become officially adopted by the University. This will mark the first change to the academic calendar since 1984.

These changes are largely unsupported by students, who point out that exams are an incredibly stressful time period, and study time should not be sacrificed for short breaks during the school year.

Students received the following email Wednesday night around 7:19pm from their class councils:

DEAR PRESIDENT SKORTON,

WE DO NOT APPROVE OF THE NEW CHANGES TO THE ACADEMIC CALENDAR MADE WITHOUT STUDENT INPUT!!

THIS DIRECTLY AND NEGATIVELY AFFECTS OUR MENTAL HEALTH

PLEASE DON’T DO THIS TO US!

Tell all of your friends! Let’s show the administration we’re tired of them ignoring what we have to say and that we WON’T STAND FOR THIS!

http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2012/05/09/despite-student-outcry-new-calendar-approved-narrow-majority

At around 9:20pm, they received another email from class council, stating that the previous email was a result of a list serve hack. The email included the following:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Cornell Review Vol. XXX, #X

Posted by lukepolicastro on May 1, 2012

The last of the 2011–12 staff, and penultimate for the year.

A look at school and social issues:

  • Editorial: A Plethora of Policies—fidgeting for diversity
  • Ideological Fetishism: intellectual conformity in A&S
  • Ethnic studies: unscholarly selectivism
  • Concocted Compassion and Crocodile Tears: how our superficial moral standard resembles China
  • War on women? No kidding
  • and of course… Colonel Cornell and the Equity-Enforcing Entanglement

Also:

  • Wolfowitz: an underappreciated public servant
  • Science and ethics: not so different



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Drones Over Cornell?

Posted by nkantro on April 24, 2012

A report released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation shows that several years ago Cornell had been authorized by the Federal government to own and operate drones. Through a Freedom of Information request, the Foundation was able to obtain FAA records of domestic drone licenses. It turns out that among the various military and law-enforcement agencies licensed to operate drones were 19 universities, including Cornell.

While Cornell’s license has expired, many other schools - such as the Universities of Connecticut, Florida, Alaska, and Ohio, and even a community college – maintain active drone authorization. It is theorized that university licenses are related to research activities, and that the schools may be developing drone technology, but also that many schools’ strategic locations make them potential hubs for drone surveillance operations. However, the report states that the FAA has not yet released information on the types of drones being flown at each location, which could be used to determine their missions.

Drones – officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – have become prevalent in the military, as they can be used for reconnaissance and even carry missiles without putting a pilot in danger. However, they have recently been acquired by many civilian law enforcement agencies,creating a controversy over privacy rights.

A map of all US drone locations - including Cornell

 

Posted in Campus Insiders, National News | 1 Comment »

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