The AP reported that the new center is slated to include updated technological capabilities, and that its installation will consist of a redesign of the existing Nestlé Library and George B. Mallory Lounge.

While bin Laden’s capture is indeed a cause for celebration, we should not let it eclipse or at all diminish our commemoration of the millions of innocent people who lost their lives to the Nazis in perhaps the most convincing display of human evil in history. Those victims deserve to be remembered much more than does bin Laden, and it is exceedingly important that we recognize that.

Fortunately, several Cornell students, by constructing a memorial on the Arts Quad, made sure their peers would not forget the tragedies of the Holocaust. Cornell Hilel, the LGBT Resource Center, Haven, the LGBT Student Union, Cornell Student Disability Services, and the Cornell Union for Disability Awareness joined together to sponsor the memorial, which consists of numerous colored flags planted in the ground. Each flag represents 4,000 people killed in the Holocaust, with yellow flags representing Jews, blue representing Poles, political prisoners, and POW’s, green representing Roma, white representing the handicapped, red representing Jehovah’s Witnesses, pink representing homosexuals, and orange representing Catholic clergy.

Although it may be painful to exchange last night’s jubilation and celebratory atmosphere for solemn feelings of remembrance, it is critical that each of us take at least a few moments today to recognize the ultimate sacrifice Holocaust victims were forced to make.

Robert L. Harris, Jr., Africana Center Director

No, this isn’t a joke.

Discerning readers may have seen coverage of the Africana Center’s outrage at proposed budget cuts increases in yesterday’s issue of The Cornell Daily Stun. However, also yesterday, the slightly less sarcastic publication The Cornell Chronicle released an e-newsletter version of its own article about actual increases to Africana’s budget following its move to the College of Arts & Sciences.

As it turns out, over the next 5 years, the Africana Center’s budget will be increased by over half– from $2.3 million to $3.5 million. The money is slated to be used for the development of a Ph.D. program, faculty recruitment, and research.

It’s also worth noting that, despite rampant accusations of Cornell administration trying to steamroll over the Africana Center’s authority, this recent budget adjustment is the product of collaboration among Provost Kent Fuchs, the Dean of Arts & Sciences, and the Director of the Africana Center.

Further, Fuchs told the Chronicle that the new funding would help “position the center for success,” and that “There’s a very strong commitment on the part of the university to ensuring that the Africana Center becomes a more vibrant part of our academic and scholarly community.”

These are hardly the words or actions of a man bent on eliminating blacks from Cornell’s campus, as so many have claimed in recent months.

So perhaps the move to Arts & Sciences wasn’t so bad for Africana– that is, as long as its students can bring themselves to study in a building that might house pictures of people with skin colors different from their own.

If you’ve ever been running late to class or been stuck waiting at a TCAT stop and wished you had a better way to get around campus, you will be happy to learn that Big Red Bikes, a bike-share program, is scheduled to begin operation at Cornell after spring break.

Similar in organization to the well-established Ithaca Carshare program, Big Red Bikes will allow students to check out bikes from the Uris Library circulation desk using just their Cornell ID cards. This service will be free for all Cornell students (as long as they abide by the necessary time restrictions and return their bikes within a day). The bikes will be kept locked outside Uris, and students will be issued a helmet and key when they check out a bike. Students can then return the bikes to the Uris bike rack or another nearby rack.

Co-presidents of Big Red Bikes, Sarita Upadhyay and Martin Leung, say their program will affect students’ lives on a daily basis: “Big Red Bikes is going to allow anyone on campus to be a bicyclist, whether they are enthusiasts or a casual commuter. It will give students more personal choice in transportation – another way to get around besides driving, TCAT, or walking.”

Upadhyay and Leung also emphasize that Big Red Bikes will give students the opportunity to benefit from bike use without having to spend time and effort maintaining and storing a bike. This makes the program perfect for those who would like to bike occasionally, but “not frequently enough to own one.”

If successful and well-utilized, Big Red Bikes stands to have a visible impact on transportation at Cornell. The absence of a campus bike-share program has so far “limited students’ transportation options,” Upadhyay and Leung assert, “leaving them stranded at a bus stop or walking from one end of campus to the other.” But this could change if students take advantage of the resources offered by Big Red Bikes.

Although the program will initially include only 20 bikes located outside Uris Library, it is scheduled to expand over the next year to include bikes stored outside Mann Library and Robert Purcell Community Center, allowing more students to access its services more easily.

A group of Ithacans including Cornell and Ithaca College students gathered on Ho Plaza earlier this week to show support for Wisconsin’s public-employee unions. Their set-up was simple, consisting of a single microphone surrounded by a group of students– some just observing, some holding handmade signs showcasing slogans such as “Take Back Our Economy” and shouting “This is what democracy looks like!”

One speaker at the event defended the unions by saying that they had already made concessions, including agreeing to pay more into their own retirement accounts, because they recognized such steps were necessary to balancing Wisconsin’s budget. He went on to protest, though, that they were also being asked to give up their collective bargaining rights, a request that has nothing to do with balancing the budget.

This, however, is probably not true. The rationale behind asking public-employee unions to surrender some of their bargaining power (Under the new proposal, they would still be able to negotiate for higher pay.) is intimately connected with the desire to reduce wasteful, unnecessary spending. The major concern here is that these unions collect mandatory dues, use those dues to finance the campaigns of certain politicians, and later have their own budgets and regulations decided by these very same politicians.

This problem is similar to the classic “Iron Triangle” dilemma, in which interest groups and corporations make campaign contributions to politicians who later staff the committees that oversee those same groups. Such constructs are obviously a potential problem and source of corruption and waste in government. Therefore, no matter what one thinks of Wisconsin’s proposal regarding on public-employee unions, it should not be considered a purely spiteful move by the governor to destabilize the Democrats’ power base, as was alleged at this week’s Ho Plaza gathering.

While tonight’s election returns were cause for much celebration among Cornell’s conservative groups, at least some of the campus liberal community remains skeptical about their true significance.

For instance, Junior Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Progressive Sarah Greenberg commented that the election results do not indicate the major political upheaval some make them out to. She asserted that the Democrat’s losses were a result of poor campaign strategy rather than mass dissatisfaction with liberal political agendas.

Cornell Democrats Executive Board member Sam Moss, too, contends that the real effects of tonight’s elections on Washington policy-making are dubious. He predicted that, since the country still faces the same “fundamental problems” it did two years ago, tonight’s results will not entail much change in the policies coming from Congress. He also (correctly) noted that without a Senate majority or a Republican in the White House the Republicans’ recent electoral gains will only guarantee limited gains in power.

Ultimately, only time will tell the true impacts of tonight’s midterms, but, at least for now, with numerous Republican victories in both Congressional and gubernatorial races, the country seems to have taken a definitive step to the right.

www.pictopia.com

As local politics aficionados are well aware, the race for New York’s 22nd Congressional district was once thought to be essentially a no-contest win for Democratic incumbent Maurice Hinchey. However, his Republican challenger George Phillips has campaigned his way to a much stronger position than was ever thought possible. According to the Huffington Post, although one recent poll still showed Hinchey with a strong lead, it is suspected that that poll over-sampled Democrats, and an internal poll conducted by the Phillips campaign showed the two candidates to be in a virtual tie.

Further, former Democratic New York Mayor Ed Koch recently endorsed Phillips in a public letter criticizing several elements of Hinchey’s highly questionable foreign policy voting record.

Finally, a local rally for George Phillips will be held at Binghamton University this Monday, November 1st. The Phillips campaign is looking to attract as many students– and as much media attention– as possible, and, for those of you interested in potentially influencing this highly contested race it could be a fantastic opportunity to get involved and have your voice heard. Anyone interested in attending the rally can contact Campaign Manager Yvette Ollada at (607) 757-3288.

According to a September 12th New York Times article, with a critical midterm election cycle approaching, a number of Democratic candidates for national office are attempting to distance themselves from their party and its recent legislative actions. Rather than riding President Obama’s coattails, it seems Democrats are marketing themselves as the renegades (or mavericks, if you will) of their party.

For instance, Democratic House Representatives Mark Schauer, Suzanne M. Kosmas, and Glenn Nye all ran campaign ads in which they criticized the status quo in Washington, the latter explicitly stating “‘I stood up to my party leaders and voted no.’”

It is worth noting that this strategic distancing is taking place as Republican candidates and groups run significant numbers of advertisements criticizing current “Washington insiders”, namely President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. This is likely more than just political coincidence. Both parties appear to sense a general dissatisfaction with the current state of national politics. Further, both are trying to capitalize on it– Republicans by drawing the public’s attention to the undesirable consequences of two years of Democratic political control, and Democrats by dissociating themselves with the political mechanism that produced these consequences.

This dynamic is strikingly similar to that which dominated the national political scene in the time surrounding the 2008 presidential elections. After eight years of the Bush presidency, Democrats insisted on an urgent need for new leadership, while Republicans looked to endorse “political outsiders” who could not be blamed for the Bush-era policies the American public found so unsatisfactory.

Interestingly enough, it has only taken President Obama two years to reach an analagous– if less extreme– state of political exile in his own party, and this begs the question, “How will Democrats view his administration come the 2012 elections, and how eager will they be to put their full support behind his reelection?”

After the discovery, the city was embroiled in scandal, prompting California’s Lieutenant Governor, Abel Maldonado, to visit Bell and sign a bill refunding the taxpayers’ money and speak to the absurdity of the city officials’ actions. According to a CNN report, Maldonado also addressed other potentially corrupt city councils in his speech, saying that the state government was ready and willing to go after cities who misused funds in a manner similar to Bell.

This raises questions about another California locale, Vernon, just a few miles away from Bell, whose city officials, according to CNN, have apparently been receiving similar benefits, even as the city has had to resort to drastic measures such as mandatory furlough days to help alleviate its budget crisis.

Grade Inflation at Cornell: How Big Of A Problem Is It, And What Can Be Done?

Partially inspired by this discussion.

Brendan: Schools first began generous grading practices during the Vietnam War. Students needed passing grades to be exempt from the draft. The problem was that professors could not just lift up the bottom portion—since that would have been transparently disingenuous, so, over time, they began to lift up the mean grades and the practice has never ceased since. I would venture to say that part of the problem is Cornell’s (or Harvard’s or any other elite school’s) status; grade deflation might make our graduates look comparatively weaker to employers and graduate programs, which are of course the things outsiders judge institutions by. If Cornell does not put a cap on grade inflation it may end up in a Brobdingnagian state like Harvard, where 55% of the students graduate with honors. How is a Human Resources person or a graduate school admission counselor supposed to judge how well you performed when half the school is, paradoxically, exceptional? I think the innovation Dennis mentioned, where the student’s grades and the class mean are both on the report card, provides Cornell with a remunerative contingency to re-adjust grades without cost to the school’s general standing, but will the school take that opportunity?
Lucia: Certainly, extreme grade inflation is a problem, as it disincentivizes hard work and commitments to education. However, one thing I find troubling about the discussion cited above is its treatment of hours spent studying as a good indicator of whether or not students truly earn their high grades. One would hope that college classes focus on developing critical thinking skills and that the tests in these classes ask students to analyze/evaluate situations relevant to their fields of study rather than simply recall information. High school classes, on the other hand, likely focus more on developing recall/comprehension skills, at least to a certain degree. These types of skills may require more study time to master, but surely are not more important than critical thinking skills, and the ability to think on one’s feet, especially at a college level. Thus, study time may not be an accurate gauge of whether or not students have earned good grades.
Joe: In general , grade inflation is a serious problem, for all the reasons discussed above (inability to accurately judge performance, lack of critical thinking instruction, etc.) While there is certainly some grade inflation at Cornell, it is not nearly as bad as in the other Ivies, especially Harvard. I forget the exact numbers, but far less than 55% graduate Cornell with honors.  I’ve had my fair share of difficult classes where I’ve earned (truly earned) a not-so spectacular grade, so I wouldn’t say we are past the point of no return; in fact we are well behind it. Still, this can be changed.

Elena Kagan: Will She Be Confirmed?

Brendan: I cannot envision how she will not be. Presidents almost always get their way with Supreme Court nominees unless the press manage to make the nominee (Bork and Harriet Miers) look like a missionary for a derranged cause. Since so few of her papers have been released there seems to be little any Republican might be able to bowdlerize or use to delay her confirmation. She has only published nine articles since 1992, one of which, called “Private Speech, Public Purpose,” advocates for government distribution of free speech. Kagan seems to mirror Obama’s attitude towards reparations for any sort of disparity and, whether we like it or not, we are going to have to live with it.
Lucia: At this point, it appears she will probably be confirmed. She’s the appointee of a liberal president with a liberal congress, and she hasn’t been the object of any major controversy.
Joe: As Brendan said, unless she commits murder at some point during these hearings, Elena Kagan will be confirmed. Even if she turns off a lot of people who are on the fence, the sheer majority of the Democratic Party in the Senate will ensure her place on the court.

Obama Administration’s Response To BP Oil Spill (just give a short, concise argument about how the administration has been doing and how its image will be damaged (or improved?) by its response).

Brendan: Had the President done something to ameliorate the problems caused by the spill, such as visit the Gulf before 8 weeks had ellapsed or not obstructed Governor Jindal’s cleanup barges with petty charges of life-jacket shortages, I would not mind his attendance of White Sox games or visits from Paul “Back in the USSR” McCartney. Some may succumb to the temptation to say that the odds were agianst the President and there was nothing he could do in the wake of such a catastrophe, however Governor Jindal seems to have taken great precautions to protect his shoreline, that is until the President decided to paint the Lousiana coastline black with oil. The President has simply done remarkably little to prevent disaster or clean it up. Since he made no effort whatsoever to protect the coastlines he will have to begin the more protracted and harder task of cleaning up the oil. The only question is, will he have blackballed the oil industry enough to pass Cap ‘n’ Tax by the time the cleanup stage commences?
Lucia: It is important to remember that this is not simply a public policy problem- it is an engineering problem. Thus, the government has limited power to deal with it directly. Aside from perhaps overseeing BP’s work or preparing panels of experts to discuss potential solutions, there is not much the government can do to actually repair the leak, because it simply does not have the necessary expert knowledge.
Joe: Obama’s response to the BP spill is no better or worse than Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina. Both meant well, but ended up merely getting in the way of state-led clean-up efforts. There are a few differences here of course; first off, the major corporation responsible for the spill is contributing hugely to the clean up, an advantage Bush never had and that Obama seems to be squandering, even alienating. Secondly, Bush and FEMA acted fairly quickly with the hurricane, while Obama took his sweet time in responding to the spill, which only made his public image worse.