At its weekly meeting last Thursday afternoon, the Student Assembly adopted Resolution 12, which will give current students the option of selecting gender neutral housing starting this spring. The Resolution comes with only one week until information sessions begin for current freshman, sophomores, and juniors who plan to utilize Cornell housing next year.

This upcoming deadline compelled the Resolution’s sponsors to label it as “time sensitive” and was used as a tool to push the policy change to a vote, while limiting the time of debate that usually encompasses a change of this magnitude.

Because of the shortened debate (which was further interrupted by a scheduled visit from President Skorton), the details of the policy are not known, even to some Assembly members. But in the words of one Representative who voted in favor of the Resolution, “Giving students more options is always a good thing.”

What is known is that current students will have the option to live with a member of the opposing sex in Cornell dormitories. These rooms will then be grouped into small suites with other gender-neutral rooms. These suites will then be dispersed on various, random floors around West Campus and Program Housing next year, with the hope of stimulating conversation about “gender issues” that apparently exist at Cornell, although the Resolution supporters lacked any data on the number of students who are negatively affected by the current housing structure.

What is not known (besides the lack of supporting data) is how the application of the program will be evaluated or what (if anything) is stopping romantic couples from utilizing the Cornell housing system to live together next year.

The sponsors spoke of the need to establish an evaluation process; however, such a plan was not in place at the time of the Resolution’s adoption. The only ideas for a plan involve an evaluation after two years at which point the policy will be applied to freshman housing as well. With no evaluation process in place and deadlines looming, this expansion seems inevitable.

Further Student Assembly resolutions are needed to clarify important details to this policy that the Student Assembly, upon the Housing Office’s move under the jurisdiction of the Dean of Students in the past ten years, now has authority over.

Read the rest of this entry »

As news broke of hissing and protests against Rick Santorum when he delivered an address at Yale earlier this month, leaders of the Cornell Republicans were beginning to prepare for potentially comparable action when the former Pennsylvania Senator visits Ithaca in October.

Santorum and Howard Dean are set to participate in a structured debate titled “The Role of Government in a Free Society.” The title itself suggests that both former presidential hopefuls will have remarks that stir their Cornell audience.

Santorum’s message of a family-based society has met protests throughout the summer, as he has strongly advocated for less government involvement in local affairs like education, healthcare, and life creation.

The leaders of the organization, however, claim that no adjustments will be made to their pre-event preparation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Provost Kent Fuchs announced in a statement this afternoon that the administration has approved a changes to Cornell’s academic calendar, as recommended by the University’s Calendar Committee last spring.

The changes will go in effect in Spring 2014.

“The committee’s objectives were to re-examine the existing calendar with an eye to proposing changes that would: address concerns about student stress and mental health related to prolonged periods of instruction without multi-day breaks, enhance educational opportunities, and comply with New York State Education Department requirements,” Fuchs released in a statement. “I applaud the committee’s dedicated service.

Under the changes, classes will begin on the Tuesday before Labor Day. The only other change in the fall is that the day before Thanksgiving will be a full day off, as opposed to a half day as it is now. This change brings the total number of instruction days from 67.5 to 68.

The spring semester changes are more oriented around reliving student stress. Instruction will resume after winter break on the Wednesday after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. A break will be added on the Monday and Tuesday of President’s week. Classes will end on a Wednesday in early May. This change will reduce the number of instruction days from 70 to 69.

There will also be an additional study day in the middle of the exam schedule, in both the fall and spring semester. The exam period will be reduced from 9 1/3 days to 9 days in both semesters.

One of the most contested aspects of the new calendar was the reduction of Senior Week. While accepting the change, the provost charged the final exam committee to consider orienting the schedule so that the majority of exams in senior classes ended before the last day of exams.

The proposed changes to the calendar had been denounced by the Student Assembly last Spring via Resolution 47.

“Despite [the committee's] purpose, there has been substantial criticism of the proposed calendar with students concerned that the changes will, in fact, increase stress and harm student mental health,” stated the Resolution.

Both undergraduate members on the calendar committee (including former Student Assembly President Natalie Raps, ’12) voted against the changes.

The entire statement can be found here on the University’s website.

The local Republican Party announced this evening that Cornell senior Misha Checkovich will be the party’s nominee to fill the seat on the Common Council left vacant by the sudden resignation of Eddie Rooker, ’09. Rooker, who has represented the  4^th Ward since 2009, will be leaving his seat to attend New York University Law School.

Checkovich began expressing interest in the position in late August when news of Rooker’s resignation started to surface. Those dreams were realized today when she, with the support of local GOP leader Janis Kelly, officially announced the candidacy.

Checkovich made the announcement at the weekly College Republicans meeting.

“I want to run in order to affect common sense solutions to the problems facing the Collegetown community,” she announced. “I need your help to keep the seat in the hands of a Cornell student who understands the area.”

The Democratic opponent, as announced by the Sun this morning, will be Stephen Smith, a graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo who has spent his time since graduation managing the campaigns of Democrats around the country.

Checkovich studies in the College of Arts and Sciences as a History major. She has been involved with the Cornell Republicans and Cornell Chamber Orchestra since transferring to Cornell her sophomore year. She currently resides on Stewart Avenue in Collegetown.

“I consider C-Town an integral part of the Cornell experience, and have been saddened by the deterioration of the housing and business environment” she added. “I want to make this a more livable area, not just a place people come to because they were pushed out by trends in campus policies in housing and Greek life. Unfortunately, there are a lot of entrenched interests that have created byzantine regulations that do not make sense in the 21^st century.”

Ninety-seven percent of the Fourth Ward is currently comprised of Cornell students. Besides Rooker, the area is currently represented by Graham Kerslick, who is the first non-student to serve the district since 2004.

The Cornell Insider first broke in May that Collegetown Pizza would be moving away from its College Ave. and Dryden Ave. location. The restaurant that had been a staple in Collegetown life since 2001 as a quick food stop and late-night loitering location would be moving downhill on Dryden Road to the former location of Mama T’s Pizzeria.

The announcement shook up the Collegetown munchies market. It was also a sign of the failing business model in our student neighborhood. As students explored new hot spots, three corners stood vacant on the intersection of College and Dryden.

The end of the pizza drought, however, seems to be in sight.

The Daily Sun reported this morning that the pizzeria should open sometime between September 20 and 25 at its new location. CTP would confirm that opening before Homecoming Weekend would be a significant profit booster.

Homecoming weekend kicks of Friday, September 21. The three days of Cornell-based activities bring hundreds of alumni back to campus each year. For CTP, this means more profits if their grand reopening can occur before the weekend.

The parents of a former Cornell sophomore are now blaming the University for their son’s tragic death after he fell 200 feet into an Ithaca gorge in 2010.

The claim is that Cornell was negligent in their efforts to provide adequate lighting, warning signs, or barriers around the gorges, according to the Ithaca Journal report published yesterday evening.

Khalil King was 19-years old when he fell to his death in the early morning of Saturday, August 28, 2010. The death was ruled “accidental,” with the official documents released to the Sun under the Freedom of Information Law reporting that the incident had occurred after a long night of partying.

The documents refused to offer any conclusive answers to the exact events that led up to the accident.

Of course, this is not the first time that parents have brought a lawsuit against Cornell regarding the school’s handling of the natural beauties upon which it was built.

Back in 1978, a judge ruled that Cornell did not have to install barriers around the gorges, according to a Sun article. A lawsuit was brought against Cornell in 1981 claiming that similar precautions should be made after the death of a Cornell student because of a lack of suicide barriers on bridges. The jury in that case decided in Cornell’s favor.

The current administration has taken a different approach, however, as suicide prevention has become a focal issue. Seven nets were installed this summer under Cornell’s bridges.