Cornell Insider

a blog by the writers of the Cornell Review

Archive for March, 2010

CNN Report on Cornell Suicides

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on March 23, 2010

You can find the full video and related article here. You’ll find lots of original pieces of information that weren’t included in the articles that were run by other major news outlets.

Skorton provides a good response to the  reporter’s question about the reputation of Cornell as a suicide school: “There will be plenty of time to worry about our reputation later. What I’m worried about is the next student in distress.” He also openly states that he does consider Cornell to be in a crisis situation, and that the university is doing everything it can to guarantee the well being of its university.

The video also includes an interview with the parents of Bradley Ginsburg ’13, who say that they are not convinced that their son committed suicide on February 17.

Update: After scanning through a number of Cornell related articles around the internet and blogosphere, I discovered that this is not the only article that says there have been six suicides this academic year at Cornell. The CNN article says that in addition to the two most recent suicides, “Cornell officials had previously said authorities confirmed four other deaths at the school as suicides.” Except for Bradley Ginsburg, all three other deaths (presumably they are talking about Boon Jim Lim ’13, Lucas Wooster, and one other person) have not officially been ruled as suicides by the university. Perhaps a reporter just assumed somewhere, or did a university official accidentally admit the truth about the previously undisclosed causes of death?

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

Monday Reading Madness #41

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on March 22, 2010

From cornellbigred.com

- Health Care for all! Recap here and a brief analysis by Nile Gardiner.

- Nothing new here, but The Guardian and BBC have also written about the recent string of Cornell suicides.

- FoxNews and USA Today stories as well.

- Cornell laughs its way to the Sweet 16!!

- Meanwhile, hockey also goes to the NCAA Tournament.

- It can be easy to forget we’re fighting a war: excellent images from FP in Afghanistan.

- George Will takes on the subject of education and children again.

Posted in Campus Insiders, National News | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

This isn’t the kind of change we wanted.

Posted by Hannah MacLean on March 22, 2010

In case you’re living under a rock over spring break and haven’t heard, Congress passed the sweeping bill on health care last night–with the oh so small margin of three votes.

Hurrah!! We have health care! Woohoo!! All of our dreams have come true! Everyone in this country will now be covered and everyone else will benefit from it! We should expect the deficit to go down. We should expect that everyone will magically be able to have health care and no one will be worse off for it. The government is in charge now. Woo! Well, newsflash: Medicare and Medicaid and SCHIP were already in place. They were government-run, and they denied more claims than you want to know.

Sure, we’ll be covered. But watch, you may not get the care you want. You may have healthcare, but now that it’s a political issue, politicians can use it as leverage in political campaigns. Worse, people who know nothing about politics can and will vote in elections that decide these issues. You think you have a choice in your healthcare? Just wait and watch. When was the last time the federal government actually carried out a program without going over the predicted budget for said program? If you believe that this bill will actually reduce our deficit, you have another thing coming. If you have a moment, check out these graphs — but I warn you: they aren’t for the faint of heart. Here are a few of them:

I want to believe that the president and Congress just don’t know what they’re doing. Because if I allow myself to believe otherwise, I must believe that they knew what that they were passing that bill against the will of the people and that they were purposefully fundamentally changing the way this country works. There are about 300 million Americans. According to some estimates, 47 million are uninsured. But once you take out illegal aliens, people who can afford insurance and don’t want it, there are really only about 10 million people here who wanted health care and couldn’t get it without the help of this bill. Why couldn’t we have used some of the stimulus money to cover them? I’d like to think that they were just too stupid to see the other options and that it was just an accident that this plan involves a government takeover of things which the government has no business regulating. But that’s a little hard to believe.

Just some food for thought: Now that Democrats have shoved through health care, they will need to find votes somewhere because Americans are angry and resentful. Now where is he going to get votes? Think about it and it won’t be too much of a stretch. The next big issue will probably be amnesty for illegals. Obama needs their votes – if he promises them health care and finds a way to allow them to vote.. well, think about it. He needs this done by November – stay alert because this could be a very scary few months; these people just showed us that they are not going to ease up and listen to the American people just because elections are in November. No, they are going to get more bold and we cannot just sit back and watch as the government gets bigger and we lose our freedoms, our choices and our hard-earned cash.

Posted in Miscellaneous, National News | 8 Comments »

Cornell Heads to Sweet 16

Posted by Peter Bouris on March 21, 2010

Cornell men’s basketball is off to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament after defeating the University of Wisconsin 87-69.  Ivy League player of the year Ryan Wittman had 24 points.  All final stats are here.  The Big Red’s next game will be on March 25 in nearby Syracuse, providing the team with what will basically be a home game against powerhouse and number 1 seed in the Eastern Region University of Kentucky.

This is quite the feat for an Ivy League basketball squad.  While Kentucky is the class of college basketball, the proximity of Syracuse to Ithaca may give Cornell a fighting chance (better crowd, less travel).

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GO BIG RED

Posted by Oliver Renick on March 21, 2010

[UPDATE:] Cornell wins!! Syracuse comes next, where we’ll take on powerhouse Kentucky in the sweet sixteen. Go Big Red!

At the half, Cornell’s Big Red is leading Wisconson in the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Here’s the link for the stats.

[UPDATE:] 2:39 left, Cornell up by 21. Get ready to set records, as we go on to Syracuse! (barring some unforeseen incident…).

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Caged In

Posted by Oliver Renick on March 20, 2010

In an effort to curb the amount of suicides at our school, Cornell University officials have decided to install fences around some of the main bridges on campus.  The Sun originally reported that the SA was considering taking such measures, but the action has been confirmed in the most recent of a series of emails from Communications VP Thomas Bruce.

In this spirit, we will continue to seek ways to make the campus safer. Over the next week, Cornell will begin installing temporary fences on the sides of the campus bridges. This will allow us more time to consider long-term solutions appropriate to our circumstances.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Steering Committee, among others, advocates bridge barriers as a most effective means of suicide prevention.

The University has taken quite a bit of effort to provide a defense for the fences.  A newly updated ‘Caring Community’ website has a list of downloadable documents and videos that deal with suicide prevention and mental health stability.  They obviously recognize that this move is going to provoke some negative reaction.  And perhaps for good reason, too.  Right now there are security guards on our bridges.  Next there are going to be fences lining our bridges and possibly nets hanging below them?  What kind of message does this send to tourists on summer getaways? What about to eager high schoolers during Cornell Days?

Welcome to Cornell.  Jurassic Park.  Where we have security, nets, and fences on our bridges so you don’t kill yourself.

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

New Cornell Review Issue 9 Available!

Posted by Oliver Renick on March 18, 2010

In our last issue before spring break, we cover the tragic week of suicides that was March 8-13th.  On a lighter note, we have exclusive interviews with SA President and Vice President, Vincent Andrews and Ray Mensah, respectively.  Additionally, the governor of Puerto Rico, Louis Fortuno, also sat down with The Review for some questions.

Follow the link below to download the PDF, or just go read the articles at our website!

Posted in Newspaper PDF | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

“Barack-etology”

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on March 17, 2010

Elie already has a link to this, but check out the full video on espn.com. Obama stays true to his Ivy League roots and picks Cornell over Temple on Friday!

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Thurston Avenue Love

Posted by Oliver Renick on March 15, 2010

Thurston Ave Love

Security guards standing on bridges could possibly contribute in some degree to combating student suicides.  Much more effective, however, are fellow students reaching out and showing that the life of another has value.  That its absence will have a tremendous affect on the people around it, and that there are steps that can be taken towards its preservation.

Cornell students have begun to pick up on this.  Up until 12 AM this morning, at least three students were camping out on the Thurston Avenue bridge above the Fall Creek gorge.  ‘Thurston Ave Love’ is their message, and have inscribed it in chalk along the bridge’s walkway.  Beside the messages are white roses that were laid down earlier, apparently by a sorority.  Security guards and fences won’t keep people above water.  People like these will.

ALSO: In a departure form his usual biweekly scolding, Munier Salem has an excellent, albeit occasionally crass, piece on how to keep your spirit up at Cornell. I’ll surely be doing at least a few of the things on his list.  Every Cornellian should read this – ideas like his and Thurston Ave Love are what will raise hearts and hopes to where they were before this month.

There are a million ways to be successful coming out of this place. Very few of them require a 4.0.

Next time you head into Mann library, Barton Hall or the ILR building, take a look at the inscription above the entryway. It says Excelsior: ever upward. For most of the world, Ithaca is where the Odyssey ends. But for us youth, who bear our books ‘mid snow and ice, this is only the beginning.

Posted in Campus Insiders | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Monday Reading Madness #40

Posted by Cornell Insider Staff on March 14, 2010

A picture worth a thousand words.

- VP Susan Murphy addresses the Cornell community about the recent tragedies on campus.

- The most recent Sun article on the Cornell community’s reaction to the tragedies.

- Deputy Provost Harris is leaving Cornell to become the “deputy assistant secretary for human services policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services.”

- Cornell Lax suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of No. 1 UVA.

- Women’s Hockey advanced to the NCAA Semis.

- Cornell Hockey won two games against Harvard (5-1, 3-0) to advance to the ECAC Semis.

- Would this really make March Madness better? (We got a 12 seed in the bracket, by the way).

- More evidence against the existence of an objective, mind-independent external reality: Cornell researchers find that things we want are further than they appear.

- Quite surprised that references to this story have managed to stay in the news for so long.

- Interesting post on MR about why people ask questions at public events.

- InsideHigherEd has a wrap up of the Cornell Law/Andy Bernard story.

- A great Krauthammer article that highlights the continuation of Bush policies under the Obama administration.

Posted in Campus Insiders, National News | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

 
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