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Contents : INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4-9 LAST LOOK Short profiles of some of the students graduating this weekend. 10-12 NOTED A roundup of Cornell awards and honors from the past year. Chronicle Volume 33 Number 36 May 23 2002 Student race-car team triumphs again at Formula SAE competition By Susan Lang Cornell engineering undergraduates swept the track again this year at the annual five-day International Formula SAE collegiate design and motorsports competition at the Silverdome in Pontiac Mich. The competition ended May19. Cornell the defending champion again won the overall competition with 927 points out of a possible 1 000. The team had a 109point lead over its nearest competitor the University of Wisconsin at Madison and also won $8 500 in various awards. It was Cornell's seventh win since 1988. Carroll Smith the race-car engineering author and consultant who has been chief judge at FSAE for more than 10 years said to the Cornell team: " This is the best design review I've ever seen the best documentation we've ever seen. This is the first team in the history of the competition that the design judges have not been able to ask one question you couldn't answer. We are impressed." The SAE (for Society of Automotive Engineers) competition regarded as the premier and largest engineering student competition in the world pits student teams from 140 universities in the United States Canada Mexico the United Kingdom Korea Japan and Venezuela against each other to conceive design fabricate and race with small formula-style cars. The competition includes performance design presentation and cost events. The students have to present their engineering design to the judges and defend their design decisions. The Cornell team won a $3 000 prize and the SAE Foundation Cup which is dedicated by the SAE in honor of Neil Schilke Cornell MAE '62. Cornell students won first place in the design event endurance race acceleration race and skid-pad event and second place in autocross. The Cornell team's special awards included first place and $1 250 for the EDS PLM Solutions Best Engineering Design Award first place and $1 500 for the Governor's Coalition E85 Award first place and $1 250 for the Visteon Powertrain Cooling System Award $500 for the Dynojet Highest Horsepower Award first place and $750 for the Altair Engineering Best Use of Optimization in Design Award third place and $250 for the Robert Bosch Corp. Engine Management System Award first place for tires in the Goodyear Best Performance Award and second place for the Hoosier Tire Autocross Award. The Cornell team members included more than 30 students from the colleges of Engineering Arts and Sciences Industrial and Labor Relations and Agriculture and Life Sciences who designed built and developed a new car for the competition. Student team leaders included Erich Leonard Kenneth McEnaney and Timothy Reissman of mechanical engineering Michael Nicolls of electrical engineering and Diane Horey of industrial and labor relations. Albert George the John F. Carr Professor of Mechanical Engineering is the faculty member in charge of the design course assisted by A. Brad Anton associate professor of chemical engineering. The building of an auto prototype for the competition spans both fall and spring terms at Cornell with an emphasis on research and design in the fall and building in the spring. The Cornell project which cost more than $20 000 was sponsored by alumni and companies including General Motors Hunter Industries Heller Industries and Boeing. The flowering of Commencement CU protein researcher is named among 100 top young innovators Technology Review a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has named Kelvin H. Lee assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell among the "World's Top 100 Young Innovators in Technology and Business." Nominees are recognized for their contributions in transforming the nature of technology in such areas as biotechnology computing energy medicine manufacturing nanotechnology telecommunications and transportation. The awards for the "2002 Innova- Lee tor of the Year" and "Technology in the Service of Humanity" will be announced during a ceremony today May 23 at Kresge Auditorium on the MIT Boston campus. The ceremony will conclude a conference "The Innovation Economy: How Technology Is Transforming Existing Businesses and Creating New Ones." Nominees were chosen from the United States Belgium Canada England France Germany India Japan and Singapore. Technology Review cited Lee for his development of a protein analysis that allows early diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease and one of its human versions sporadic CreutzfeldtContinued on page 2 Robert Barker/University Photography Ray Fox professor emeritus of floriculture and ornamental horticulture oversees preparation of carnations in the Ken Post Greenhouses for distribution to all graduates and ushers at this weekend's Commencement ceremony. Fox will be participating in his 55th Cornell Commencement. 10 Cornell Tradition students will use their awards to benefit others Since 1989 the Cornell Tradition an alumni-endowed recognition program at Cornell has been recognizing its own graduating seniors with Senior Recognition Awards. And in true Tradition spirit say the program's administrators the 10 senior fellows who have been honored with these awards this year for their community service and leadership efforts will use their monetary winnings to benefit others. The Cornell Tradition was established in 1982 through an anonymous gift of $7 million. It awards 600 fellowships each year to Cornell undergraduate students based on their work experience campus and/or community service leadership and academic achievement. And as in past years Cornell Tradition fellows are well-represented among Cornell students who have won other prestigious awards scholarships and fellowships nationally at Cornell and in the Ithaca community. Each year Cornell Tradition Senior Recognition Awards are given to a limited number of Cornell Tradition fellows. Each of those recognized can either designate the $4 000 award as a charitable contribution to a nonprofit agency or establish a Cornell Tradition named fellowship for another student during the subsequent academic year. The awards are competitively based on students' community service leadership work ethic and overall contribution to the quality of campus life. Winners are chosen by a selection committee composed of faculty members administrators and Cornell Tradition alumni. In addition recognition award winners must also demonstrate an outstanding commitment to the Tradition and to remaining active as Cornell alumni. "The Cornell Tradition has provided me with many fond memories and wonderful opportunities " said Debra Newman an award recipient. "I plan to continue my involvement in community service and hope to contribute to the future of the program." "Our mission statement challenges the program's alumni to stay involved to forward the Tradition " said Susan W. Hitchcock Cornell Tradition director. "The winners' donation of their awards not only fulfills that mission it strengthens our campus and community. At its core the Tradition is really about giving. In this case donors give to the program the program gives to students and ultimately the students give back to the community. By donating their awards these seniors in essence complete the giving cycle. "For the majority of our fellows that process brings about deeper understanding of the needs that exist in our world both seen and unseen " Hitchcock continued. "Some tell us that these needs have a greater impact because they are framed by the wealth of knowledge money and influence at the university. It is not surprising that many of our alumni choose to enter the nonprofit sector. "Experience shows that these seniors' gifts of $4 000 are not so much the completion of one giving cycle but the start of a much more invaluable one as alumni. Nonetheless we're glad to recognize the seniors and the agencies appreciate the funding " she concluded. Of the 10 recognition awards given this Continued on page 2 2 May 23 2002 Cornell Chronicle NOTABLES Former AT&T executive vice president Harold (Hal) W. Burlingame has been named to the board of directors of eCornell the distance learning subsidiary launched by Cornell in 2001 that offers professional certificate and continuing education courses from Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations School of Hotel Administration and Hospital for Special Surgery. Courses are planned using faculty and curricula from several other Cornell colleges. Burlingame is a senior executive advisor to AT&T Wireless a fully independent company that spun off from AT&T in 2001. He is past chairman of the National Academy of Human Resources and is a member of the boards of UniSource Energy and Workwell Inc. He also chairs the executive committee of Organization Resources Counselors Inc. BRIEFS Trustees meet on campus: The Ronald Ehrenberg the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute has been appointed chair of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Committee on the Economic Status of the Profession for the 200203 academic year. As part of his responsibilities he will author the AAUP's annual report on faculty salaries. Steven D. Smith a doctoral student in accounting in the Johnson Graduate School of Management was one of 10 accounting doctoral students from across the United States to receive a fellowship grant from the Deloitte Foundation. He will receive $5 000 during his final year of course work and $20 000 during the subsequent year while he completes his dissertation. He was nominated for the fellowship by accounting faculty at the Johnson School and chosen by a selection committee of accounting educators. Cornell Board of Trustees will meet in Ithaca today May 23 through Saturday May 25. The Executive Committee of the board will hold a brief open session at the start of its meeting at 9 a.m. Friday in the YalePrinceton Room of the Statler Hotel on campus. The open session will include a discussion of the 2002-03 financial plan for the contract colleges. The full board will convene in open session at the start of its meeting at 3:15 p.m. Friday in the Community Commons building on North Campus. During the open session the board will hear a report from President Hunter Rawlings a report from Dean of the Faculty J. Robert Cooke and the annual report from Robert Harris vice provost for diversity and faculty development on "Diversity and Inclusion." The 2002-03 financial plan and contract college budget also will be presented. The Committee on Land Grant and Statutory College Affairs will meet in open session at 5:30 p.m. today in the Rowe Room of the Statler. The committee will hear a report on the state budget and presentations from the Land Grant Mission Review committees. These committees will meet Friday: The Buildings and Properties Committee will meet in open session at 9 a.m. in the Amphitheater of the Statler Hotel. Status reports on various construction projects will be presented. The Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life will hold a brief open session at the start of its 1 p.m. meeting in the Yale-Princeton Room. A vote is scheduled on changing the name of the Floyd R. Newman Laboratory of Nuclear Studies to the F.R. Newman Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics. A limited number of tickets for the open session of the Executive Committee and of the full board are available at the Information and Referral Center in the lobby of Day Hall. Student teams triumph: Two stu- Governance of universities is CU conference topic in June Can not-for-profit universities with boards of trustees learn from corporate boards of directors Are universities essentially unmanageable places or are there workable strategies for running them well And should a university fight or welcome a unionized faculty and staff These and other pressing issues in higher education will be discussed during "Governance of Higher Education Institutions and Systems " the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute (CHERI) annual conference on Cornell's campus June 4 and 5. The conference will be held in 115 Ives Hall at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. All presentations are free and open to the public. Ronald Ehrenberg CHERI director and the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell said: "How colleges and universities are governed and whether they can be reorganized to make things run smoother and save money are some of the longer-run issues people are looking at in U.S. higher education research. The conference allows us to share the latest findings on governance policies and strategies that work or need rethinking." Nine papers will be presented addressing such subjects as how elected or appointed boards of trustees influence university decisions and whether decentralized budgeting at some state campuses is harmful helpful or even economically efficient. Presenters' papers will ask if faculty staff or graduate student unionization adds significant costs to a university's budget or improves the economic position of its members. They also will ask if the governance of private for-profit universities differs from and influences the governance of nonprofit and public universities. The authors of the papers and other speakers come from a wide range of public and private higher-education institutions and associations throughout the United States. Topics to be discussed include: Trustees and the External Governance of State Institutions Internal Governance and Organizational Issues Unions and Data on Governance and Challenges from Nonprofit and Nonlegal Legal Influences. For a full conference schedule and a preview of papers see the CHERI web site at www.ilr.cornell.edu/cheri under "conferences papers." For more information about the conference contact Rachel Rizzo at 255-2744. dent teams from Cornell won first and second place in the virtual competition of the WERC International Environmental Design Contest. They competed with more than 350 students representing 25 universities from the United States India and Mexico. Sponsored by WERC: A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development the 12th annual contest was held at the New Mexico State University campus in April. The contest challenged student teams to provide solutions to environmental problems that had been submitted by private industry and government agencies. The Cornell teams won $2 500 and $1 000 respectively for their first- and second-place awards. The students on the winning teams are: Nickolaus Shuster Margaret Morse Amanda Richards Benjamin Salter Raphael Siebenmann Melissa Stickle Tara Watkins Amadou Ange David Johnson Dennis Kwan James Wang Phech Colatat Caroline Maier Stephen Phillips Tara Rizzo Rosanna Severino Lit Chek Lim Emmanuel Ortiz Walid Ramady and their advisers (also Cornell students) Japheth Larte-Gyamfi Adrienne Gvozdich and Todd Walter. Transportation Services hours: Transportation Services summer office hours at 116 Maple Ave. will be 7:30 a.m.4 p.m. beginning May 28 the day after Memorial Day. Lee named a top young innovator continued from page 1 Jakob disease. Previously diagnosing the diseases with certainty was possible only by taking a brain biopsy after death. Both the cattle and the human disease are the result of a disruptive protein called a prion causing healthy proteins in the brain to misfold. During postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology in 1996 Lee identified a diagnostic marker protein for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and developed the diagnosis in a live subject. Lee's technique involves simultaneously analyzing the 2 000 proteins that exist in human spinal fluid to pick out the telltale compound. In 1997 he confirmed that the prion also appears in BSE-afflicted cattle. Clinical versions of the tests are now being applied in the United States and Europe. However there is as yet no confirmation of whether the same marker characterizes a newer form of the human disease variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. However Lee's team recently identified other protein indicators that might prove fruitful. Lee is director of the Cornell Proteomics Program which is concerned with the study of proteins as products of gene expression. The term proteome refers to the protein complement of the genome. Lee and his colleagues also are working on a marker protein test for Alzheimer's disease. Lee earned his B.S.E. at Princeton University in 1991 and his M.S. at the California Institute of Technology in 1993. Caltech also awarded him a Ph.D. in 1995. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1997. CORRECTION A story on Page 3 of the May 16 edition about the Faculty Senate's approval of a resolution against the closing of the Ward Center contained a misattribution. The measure at the May 8 meeting was presented by Robert Kay professor of earth and atmospheric sciences while the rationale for the reintroduction was provided by Francis Kallfelz the James Law Professor of Medicine. Chronicle Henrik N. Dullea Vice President for University Relations Linda Grace-Kobas Director Cornell News Service Simeon Moss Editor David Brand Science Editor Jacquie Powers Education Editor Karen Walters Editorial Assistant Aggie Morrison Circulation Writers: Franklin Crawford Blaine Friedlander Jr. Susan Lang Linda Myers Roger Segelken and Bill Steele Address: Surge 3 Ithaca N.Y. 14853 Phone: (607) 255-4206 Fax: (607) 255-5373 E-mail: cunews@cornell.edu Web: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle.html Published weekly during the academic year except during university vacations the Cornell Chronicle is distributed free on campus to Cornell University faculty students and staff by the News Service. Mail Subscriptions: $20 per year. Make checks payable to the Cornell Chronicle and send to Surge 3 Ithaca N.Y. 14853. Periodical rates paid at Ithaca N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Cornell Chronicle (ISSN 0747-4628) Cornell University Surge 3 Ithaca N.Y. 14853. Copyright Notice: Permission is granted to excerpt or reprint any material originated in the Cornell Chronicle. Cornell Tradition fellows continued from page 1 year seven have been designated to local agencies three will endow Cornell Tradition fellowships for next year two seniors are donating their awards to church organizations and two more are making donations to youth service agencies in Vermont and Alaska. This year's Cornell Tradition Senior Recognition Award winners their hometowns the names of the fellowships they received through the Cornell Tradition and their award designations are as follows: Khary Barnes of Rosedale N.Y. Andrew and Alexandra Chapko Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to the Springfield Gardens United Methodist Scholarship Fund of Springfield Gardens N.Y. Krista Beiswenger of New Hartford N.Y. Rebecca Quinn Morgan Cornell Tradition Fellow one year Cornell Tradition fellowship to a student from New Hartford Senior High School or another high school in the Utica Area. Erin Brannan of Visalia Calif. Patricia Knowles Wood Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to be awarded to On Site Volunteer Services of Ithaca N.Y. Dornechia George of Suwanee Ga. Nancy Lawrence and H. Laurance Fuller Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to be awarded to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Mu Upsilon Chapter in Ithaca. Meg Gluckman of Morrisville Vt. Quill and Dagger Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to be awarded to Vermont Youth Conservation Corps of Waterbury Vt. Todd Hilgendorff of Round Top N.Y. Marsicano Foundation Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to be awarded to the Kodiak Science and Salmon Camp of Kodiak Alaska in memory of Blain T. Whitcomb. Tamika Lewis of Silver Spring Md. Class of 1989 Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to the Greater Ithaca Activities Center in Ithaca. Kavel McLean of Fort Lauderdale Fla. Rebecca Quinn Morgan Cornell Tradition Fellow donation to the Lighthouse Seventh Day Adventist Church (Adventurer's Club) of Ft. Lauderdale Fla. Debra Newman of Yonkers N.Y. Cornell Tradition Honorary Award the Chi Omega Cornell Tradition Fellowship for a sister in Chi Omega Fraternity of Ithaca. Michael Pattison of Dryden N.Y. Rebmann and Calloway Cornell Tradition Fellow Burton K. Pattison Fellowship to be awarded to a firefighter or EMS technician in Tompkins or Cortland County N.Y. who exceeds Cornell Tradition minimum program requirements. During the past 12 years 147 Cornell Tradition seniors have received this recognition. They in turn have awarded 58 fellowships to other undergraduates while more than $200 000 has been awarded to nonprofit agencies. More than $80 000 has been awarded in the Ithaca Community alone benefiting agencies such as the Southside Community Center On Site Volunteer Services Planned Parenthood Loaves and Fishes and many others. Describing Tradition's role at Cornell and in his own life award winner Todd Hilgendorff said: "Thanks in large part to Tradition I am completing my undergraduate studies with much more than book learning.' I am a more self-confident and poised person. I have become socially aware and learned to work as part of a team. Most importantly I have been involved in service to others." Cornell Chronicle May 23 2002 3 23 student volunteers and workers cited for their community spirit At a university known for its high level of student involvement in community affairs 23 Cornell students excelled during 2001-02. They were honored at the fifth annual Community Spirit Awards ceremony April 25 by the Cornell Public Service Center the office of The Cornell Tradition and by many of the local organizations that benefited from their good works. Held during National Volunteer Week the ceremony recognized extraordinary accomplishments by students who volunteer their time and talents through the Public Service Center as well as workstudy students who are placed in local human-service agencies by the Cornell Tradition program. Brigid Hubberman executive director of the Family Reading Partnership addressed the award winners thanked them on behalf of all the agencies they were involved with and emphasized the connections and learning that take place between volunteers and recipients. As volunteers she said "you receive as much if not more than you give." Students receiving Community Spirit Awards are listed under the category in which they were honored with their year of graduation and the office or agency in which they served: Innovation in Service for initiating a project within an agency or program or bringing tools or skills to the agency which has resulted in an enrichment of the agency's services: Christopher Benyarko '02 Lydiah Bosire '02 Heather Peterson '02 and Joshua Pushkin '02 Cornell Public Service Center Luke Hagstrand '02 Information and Referral of Tompkins County Vanessa Ulmer '02 On Site Volunteer Services and Daniel White '02 Better Housing for Tompkins County. Excellence in Academics and Service presented to students who have shown an active involvement in the community while maintaining an overall grade point average of 3.0 or above: Kristin Jackson '03 Women's Opportunity Center Bonnie Puckett '02 Information and Referral of Tompkins County Megan Ronco '02 Cornell Public Service Center and Benjamin Wolfe '03 Cornell Plantations. Dedicated Service presented to students who have demonstrated a strong commitment to a single agency or project. Jyoti Aggarwal '03 American Red Cross of Tompkins County Marcie Houser '03 On Site Volunteer Services Matthew Jarrett '02 Human Services Coalition of Tompkins County and Mary Kay Hausladen '02 Cornell Public Service Center. Star Performer presented to students who perform their work with an attitude that is contagious with enthusiasm: Susan Barnett '02 Cayuga Nature Center Michael Collins '02 Ithaca Fire Department Sarah Duford '02 Cayuga Nature Center and Halle Watson '02 City of Ithaca Planning and Development. Community Building presented to students who have worked to build understanding of a particular issue across the community and who have brought together various groups within the community: Simone Baribeau '01 Alternatives Federal Credit Union Julie Daum '01 Ithaca Housing Authority Tamar Melen '02 AIDS Work and Philip Rigueur '02 CornellIthaca Partnership. For more information on this event and other programs of the Cornell Public Service Center visit www.psc.cornell.edu or call 255-1148. 134th Commencement will be celebrated during ceremonies this weekend The celebration of Cornell's 134th Commencement weekend this Saturday and Sunday May 25 and 26 will feature speeches by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and actor Danny Glover. Glover one of the most well-known character actors in Hollywood also is a noted and outspoken human rights activist. He will present the address for Senior Convocation which will be held in Barton Hall at noon Saturday for graduates and their families and guests. On Sunday the Baccalaureate Service address will be given by Rabbi Richard Jacobs who serves as spiritual leader to the Westchester (N.Y.) Reform Temple. The interfaith service begins at 8:30 a.m. in Bailey Hall and honors all graduating students and retiring faculty members. Commencement ceremonies on Sunday will begin promptly at 11 a.m. on Schoellkopf Field. The Commencement procession will assemble on the Arts Quad at 9:20 a.m. As is Cornell's custom the president will deliver the Commencement address and he will confer degrees on more than 6 000 degree candidates. The procession and ceremony will be broadcast live on Time-Warner Cable Channel 16 beginning at 10 a.m. In the event of severe weather Commencement will be celebrated in two ceremonies in Barton Hall: at 10:30 a.m. for students from the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences Arts and Sciences Veterinary Medicine the Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Law School and at 1 p.m. for students from the colleges of Architecture Art and Planning Engineering Human Ecology the Graduate School and the schools of Hotel Administration and Industrial and Labor Relations. Getting a fast start Frank DiMeo/University Photography Rauhit Ashar 6 a gifted sixth-grader from Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School in Midland Pa. was the youngest competitor at the annual Southern Finger Lakes-area finals of the Junior Solar Sprint competition for area middle school students May 18 in Bartels Hall. Rain forced the competition indoors so the competitors from six regional schools used battery packs instead of solar panels. Watching Ashar assemble his car are Jonathan Schoenberg left a Cornell junior in electrical and computer engineering and Michel Louge Cornell professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and a judge at the competition. CU gets notice of teaching- and research-assistant unionization petition The Cornell administration was informed May 14 that a group of graduate students called the Cornell Association of Student Employees/United Auto Workers (CASE/ UAW) has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to be recognized as a collective bargaining agent on behalf of Cornell graduate research assistants teaching assistants research assistants graduate assistants readers graders tutors and consultants. "A union at Cornell will empower TAs and RAs to bring about changes in our wages and working conditions " Gerod Hall a TA in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is quoted as saying in a CASE/UAW news release issued May 14. "With a union we will have a democratic and united voice for our issues. Collective bargaining is the only way for us to have a real say in the terms and conditions of our work " the statement reads. The Cornell administration views this action with serious concern. On the one hand the university has a long history of participation in both the American and international labor movements. On this campus the administration presently bargains with six different bargaining units. These negotiations have always been conducted in good faith by both the university and its represented workers. The petition filed by CASE/UAW however is not simply a request to represent yet an additional group of workers on the campus. Rather if ultimately approved and implemented it would extend worker status to thousands of graduate students who heretofore have been considered to be students whose teaching and research assistantship responsibilities constituted an important element of their educational program. Unionization of graduate students who serve in these capacities has the potential of significantly changing the relationship between the university and those graduate students by having them represented by a third party. Over the last few years the NLRB has reversed the long-standing position that graduate teaching and research assistants are not "employees" covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). These new rulings have been applied to certain graduate students at New York University Columbia University and Brown University among others. Several of the affected institutions are seeking to have these determinations reversed in appeals filed with the NLRB and perhaps thereafter with a United States Court of Appeals. The outcome of these cases obviously will have a considerable effect on private universities nationwide including Cornell. While expressing grave concern about the appropriateness of designating teaching and research assistants as "employees" under the NLRA the administration respects the right of the union organizing group (CASE/UAW) to seek certification under the NLRB rulings in effect at this time. Additional rulings by the full NLRB and the federal courts may well determine that the designation of these students as "employees" was inappropriate. Furthermore under the NLRA and existing NLRB rulings all participants in this process have certain rights and obligations that must be respected. The Cornell administration pledges to uphold its responsibilities in this regard to ensure that Cornell's graduate students are able to debate these issues openly and extensively. The Process or not they wish to be represented by CASE/ UAW as their exclusive collective bargaining agent. The outcome of the election is determined by a majority of those voting no matter how few eligible students vote. If a dispute persists over the basis or conduct of the election the objecting party may appeal to the NLRB and in that case the results of the election are sealed pending a ruling on the appeal. The University's Position Federal law stipulates that organizations wishing to be certified as collective bargaining representatives must submit supporting authorization cards signed by not less than 30 percent of the proposed membership of the bargaining unit. The NLRB regional office confirms the eligibility of those signing the cards and may schedule a hearing to resolve any issues presented by the petition such as the proposed composition of the bargaining unit. Once it has made a determination on any contested issues the NLRB regional office orders a secret ballot election in which those graduate students eligible to vote indicate whether Today's statement is not the most appropriate occasion for a detailed commentary by the university administration setting forth its position regarding the unionization of graduate teaching and research assistants. If an election is ordered by the NLRB and ultimately goes forward it is important to emphasize that the eligible graduate students must be assured the ability to make their choice freely and without intimidation from any source. Mindful of these prohibitions all members of the university community are nonetheless free to share their own opinions about graduate student unions. The university administration is committed to encouraging full and open debate and to the sharing of timely and accurate information. Over the next several weeks the administration will issue informational announcements and share its views as developments occur. 4 May 23 2002 Cornell Chronicle PROFILE s O F 2002 GRADUATING STUDENTS Hotel senior Renese Rhoden's upbeat attitude has served her well By Linda Myers Cornell Hotel School senior Renese Rhoden is the kind of person you just want to be around. It's her smile you notice first not an earto-ear 1 000-watt Julia Roberts smile but rather something more genuine welcoming and appreciative of the people with whom she interacts. The smile reflects "her unwavering commitment to be of service to others which is what makes her a great hotelie ''' said Neoma Mullens director of multicultural programs at the School of Hotel Administration. That Rhoden ended up at Cornell's Hotel School at all is still a surprise to her. As a high school student in Ft. Lauderdale Fla. she got involved in a program called DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) which works to interest young people in careers in management. "We took extracurricular workshops geared toward business and made trips to corporations " she said. But the corporate culture turned her off. "I didn't want to be trapped behind a cubicle. I wanted to be in a work environment surrounded by people who knew me as Renese " she said. Searching for college hospitality programs she discovered Cornell applied and was accepted. She chose it over the safer option of attending a university campus only 30 minutes from her home because she wanted to expand her horizons. She took part in a prefreshman program on campus several months before school began and met a handful of young women who ended up becoming her future roommates and closest friends which smoothed her transition to college life. One disappointment however was that one of her high school passions cheerleading seemed out of place on campus. "I like moving dancing performing " she said. "It was a natural for me to cheerlead in high school in the south where it's a huge thing. I was on a competition squad county state national. I loved the pressure and the excitement being surrounded by people who really wanted to win." But she found the activity was not taken as seriously in an Ivy League environment and after cheerleading in football and basketball her first year she let it go. She remained a member of the Cornell step squad Phenomenon for three years however. Continued on page 8 Charles Harrington/University Photography Senior Renese Rhoden takes a break in the lobby of the Statler Hotel on campus. Then her DECA chapter got involved in a statewide competition and a high school teacher and mentor enrolled her in a category she hadn't heard of hospitality. In addition to a written test she took part in a role-playing scenario in which she was a manager at a resort. Her task: to win over a client who had threatened to take her event elsewhere after the property's new function room became unavailable. The challenge as well as the interaction with people appealed to Rhoden immediately. Aaron Blake uses engineering to protect wild lands By Lissa Harris Aaron Blake is an engineer with a mission. An avid backpacker kayaker climber and skier since childhood he has brought a deep love of the wilderness to his major in civil and environmental engineering. "I'd like to do work that is environmentally significant " he said. Blake already has done much of this kind of work. As a Presidential Scholar he has worked on the Lake Ontario Biocomplexity Project as part of a team studying the way water flows through the lakeshore's bays and lagoons. Few problems are more complex than trying to predict how moving water will behave. But said Blake the study of fluid mechanics is a powerful tool for looking at how pollution spreads through the environment. "Any kind of contaminant is transported by fluids. The atmosphere is a fluid flow " he said. "Environmental fluid mechanics determines contaminant transport basically and that's what I got interested in." Early on Blake became involved in engineering through his interest in environmental conservation and alternative energy. As a seventh grader in rural New Hampshire he took part in the Junior Solar Sprint a competition for miniature solar cars (See related picture page 3). But by the time he got to high school he was hungry for bigger projects. "There was a group of us who had worked on the Junior Solar Sprint and we went to see the principal and told him we really wanted to compete in the Tour de Sol which is the famous solar and alternative-energy vehicles race that goes up and down the East Coast " said Blake. "He said We don't have any facilities we don't have any advisers we don't have any money but you can use the phone in my office and I'll support you how I can.'" Blake and his classmates wrote $30 000 worth of grants to fund the creation of the "Sunbunny " a solar-powered vehicle built from a donated Volkswagen Rabbit with a blown head gasket. The construction site a barn was lent to the students by a local farmer who moved his manure spreader to make room for the team. The team competed in the Tour de Sol and the experience Blake believes is what got him into the Cornell engineering program. Blake's enthusiasm for tough engineering problems has not faded. According to his adviser Todd Cowen assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering Blake who started taking graduate-level classes in his sophomore year has taken "more 600-level courses than probably any other student in the program." But Blake also has made time to pursue an abiding love of the outdoors becoming involved with Cornell Outdoor Education as a freshman and teaching more than 30 physical education classes in climbing paddling and skiing. Now he is ready to move on probably "out west " working in water resource engineering or watershed management. "Big mountains big rivers big rocks less people " he grinned. Frank DiMeo/University Photography Senior Aaron Blake at Cornell Outdoor Education's Hoffmann Challenge Course. Stacey Benton Ph.D. '98 D.V.M. '02 is loaded up with Cornell memories By Roger Segelken During Sunday's Commencement address if President Hunter Rawlings asks graduates to reminisce Stacey Benton will have much more than four years' worth of Cornell memories. She's been here 10 years first earning a Ph.D. in neurobiology and now a doctor of veterinary medicine degree. And some of her fondest recollections involve animals. Benton remembers winters unlike the last when enough snow fell to go out "skijoring" with her dogs. Describing the sport's special rigging a harness on the canine to pull a waist belt on the skier she points out "It takes planning to ski on the same side of trees as the dog." Her two dogs are special too. Not exotic purebreds but "SPCA specials " Benton says of the mutts she rescued from the local animal shelters and she acquired two cats the same way. Of course Benton recalls how she met the co-owner of those special animals she was introduced to her husband-to-be through the High Noon Athletic Club. Chris Mansfield was among that loose-knit band of lunchtime campus runners and he was marvel of timing both double-degree holders are graduating together. Benton remembers the exact moment when she decided to stop researching animals for her degree in neurobiology and behavior and start to learn to heal them. After months of rehabilitating and trying to socialize an injured red-tailed hawk at Cayuga Nature Center and a final three hours one frigid winter day as she tempted the hawk with a dead rat the flightless raptor trusted Benton enough to perch on her gloved hand. The hawk whose wing was irreparably damaged in an accident went on to provide an education for hundreds of visitors to the nature center while Benton went to veterinary school. Her Ph.D. research had involved brain development and vocalization in songbirds trying to discover how they learn their distinctive calls and remember them from one season to the next. Benton herself developed a prodigious memory as well as the other study skills needed to keep her at the top of the D.V.M. class each semester. Her potential for making important contributions to animal welfare was recognized when she was awarded a Michele and Agnese Cestone Foundation Scholarship which paid tuition and expenses for her last three years in veterinary college. "I am extraordinarily grateful for the support I received from the Cestone Foundation " Benton said. Benton's experience with animal nervous systems she expects will give her extra insight to diagnose and treat pets' neurological disorders such as spinal cord injuries and brain tumors. But she won't be board-certified in the specialty at least for now because that would take several years of residency in a teaching hospital. "I'm ready " she said "to get out of academics and into the real world." And she'll never forget her favorite veterinary professor the "phenomenal Dr. D. " as Benton calls Alexander deLahunta and she sat in the front row of his neurology class raising her hand to answer every question until the James Law Professor of Anatomy told her gently to cool it. She brought her father a pediatric neuroradiologist from Cincinnati to meet deLahunta and they found many common interests talking about a zoo hippopotamus that suffered seizures among other things neurological. Benton said she'd sooner forget the rectal exams of cows that every veterinary Continued on page 8 Charles Harrington/University Photography D.V.M. candidate Stacey Benton gives a friend a bite to eat. finishing his first Cornell degree a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering before attending law school here. The two were married in 1999 and in another Cornell Chronicle May 23 2002 5 PROFILE s O F 2002 GRADUATING STUDENTS Jessica Lyga's daydreams come true creating a landscape for her future By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr. Three years ago Jessica Lyga had a true Wizard of Oz experience as she worked on a landscaping project on a New Woodstock N.Y. farm. Around her were barns and nipping geese and a wind so strong she felt she would "fly away." Then it came to her in a moment of revelation: "This is where the tornado came from " she thought. More than a century earlier that very farmhouse had been the home of the grandparents of L. Frank Baum author of The Wizard of Oz. "That hilltop was so windy it reminded me of Baum's Kansas." Lyga will graduate this weekend with a bachelor's degree in horticulture. She started landscaping at age 9 in Cazenovia N.Y. helping in her mother's business. As her mother's "key weeder " she pulled dandelions and shook Japanese beetles from plants. But she also learned that she loved contemplation. "What I liked about landscaping is that it allowed me to think. It allowed me to wander off and daydream " she said. "Now with the Cornell degree I can wander off more in depth think about the plant structure and the ecosystem." In high school involved in other issues Lyga saw there were few places for teens to intermingle in Cazenovia. So with friends she started a fund-raising and activities organization called Project CAF now housed in Common Grounds a coffee shop that gives teens a place to congregate. After high school Lyga started her own landscaping business in central New York while earning an associate degree in horticulture from the State University of New York at Morrisville. Coming to Cornell in 2000 was not a clear choice for Lyga who had offers to attend Syracuse University and the University of Hawaii. "For two weeks I knew I had a hard decision to make. I came pretty close to choosing Hawaii but I always wanted to come here " she said. Although there were some setbacks discovering there was no kitchen in her apartment and waiting a month for telephone service Lyga found she "loved the courses " she said. She flourished in classes Frank DiMeo/University Photography Senior Jessica Lyga gets some flower power in Minns Garden. in plant pathology entomology taxonomy of vascular plants and landscaping management. And last year she won the New York State Nursery and Landscape Association A.M.S. Pridham Award. In her final semester she has served as president of the Hortus Forum the student horticulture group. And as graduation approaches Lyga is leaving a living legacy: a new brilliance and gleam to Minns Garden the famed Cornell flower beds in front of the Plant Sciences Building. Assisting horticulture professor Nina Bassuk Lyga renovated an older garden design cut away the overgrown plants labeled flowers and other greenery and boosted the beds. And now the garden is a rainbow of spirea crocus colchicum and willow. It's all in the mix for computer science and music major Chris Erway By Bill Steele Chris Erway has been interested in both computers and music since second grade. By third grade he was being called to the principal's office to fix computer problems. By middle school he was jamming at the Jazz Institute of New Brunswick N.J. near his home in Maplewood. In high school he was active in the "computer underground" of local bulletin board systems and editing an online humor magazine. When he arrived at Cornell it seemed natural for him to choose a double major in computer science and music. Somehow he survived 23- 24- and even 25-credit semesters and is now trying to figure out how to put his two interests together. Actually three interests along the way he spent three years studying Chinese. "I'm extremely optimistic " he said. "I have these three great skills. Cornell has opened up so many possibilities for me to pursue my interests I see it as an open road to do what I want." Erway's r sum bristles with computer skills and most of his summers have been spent at various computer jobs most recently at IBM's Extreme Blue program where he worked on Blue Gene IBM's project to build a parallel computer with 4 million nodes. His formal course work in music included study with visiting professor and noted jazz musician Donald Byrd and Cornell Professor Roberto Sierra who "changed the way I listen to and write music " Erway said. Meanwhile he played in two bands: The Continental which he describes as "soul/ jazz/funk/jam " and Agent Double-O-Zero a ska/punk/rock ensemble. He also has played with various Cornell jazz ensembles. Most of Erway's performing has been on the trombone although he also plays piano guitar bass and a Chinese violin called the erhu . He hosted a ska-music show "Ithacaska " on WVBR-FM. In the fall of 2001 he spent a semester at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London studying East Asian and Indian classical music. In the summer of 2000 Erway who is biracial decided to pursue "the cultural quest of every half-Asian kid " he said by studying Mandarin Chinese in Cornell's intensive Fullyear Asian Language Concentration (FALof mixed blood) a group for people of any sort of mixed racial heritage. Another campus group focusing on the mixed-racial experience BLEND (Bi-Multiracial Lineages Ethnicities and Nationalities Discussion) was founded shortly thereafter. The two groups have been working together and will probably merge Erway said. Cornell Hapa now offers a literary magazine discussions lectures workshops and occasional cross-cultural food experiments like "Spam sushi." Erway's first real attempt to put computing and music together is a senior project to build a computer music input device for trombone players in which positions on a touch pad represent the seven possible slide positions and the harmonics ordinarily controlled by keys. "I believe it would offer the frustrated trombonist an outlet for fast piano- or saxophone-like runs generally uncharacteristic of the instrument " he said. He has considered graduate programs in computer music but first will do something he found common among British students taking a "gap year." He will start with another summer at IBM working on Blue Gene then possibly move on to a Chinese language program in China. Photo courtesy of Chris Erway Senior Chris Erway blows on his trombone during a Collegetown gig with the band The Continental. CON) program. The following December he toured China returning with a heightened consciousness of his Asian heritage to launch Cornell Hapa (a Hawaiian word for a person Julia Guarneri planned to trip the light fantastic but destiny had other plans By Franklin Crawford Born and raised in Oakland Calif. she'd studied ballet and modern dance throughout middle and high school. But prior to her sophomore year here Julia Guarneri developed a painful and mysterious form of tendinitis in her ankles. Discouraged but not dispirited Guarneri channeled her terpsichorean passions into her Cornell College Scholar program honors thesis delivering a remarkable academic performance titled " I Am With You You Men and Women of Generations Hence': Walt Whitman's Influence on Artists and Writers of the American Scene." "In my 37 years at Cornell I have never seen a finer honors thesis " said Michael Kammen the N.C. Farr Professor of American History and Culture and Guarneri's thesis adviser. "Her exploration of Whitman's cultural influence is really stunning: wonderfully researched clearly structured and elegantly composed. It's highly original and a genuine contribution to knowledge." Guarneri has thrived in the College Scholar program. This year she received a Goethe Prize for the best essay on a German topic and her Whitman thesis is now in contention for several academic awards. research projects. For her focus Guarneri combined American cultural history with history of the arts especially dance. An Einhorn Discovery Grant covered Guarneri's trips to Yale University's Bienecke Library and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. where she gained access to primary source material for her Whitman thesis. Guarneri spent the fall 2001 semester abroad at the University of Bologna in Italy and was a member of the Cornell Abroad Student Information Team. Following the events of Sept. 11 she said "I decided to compile reactions from Cornell students abroad." Students responded from Australia Russia Spain France and Lebanon among other countries with varied descriptions of a world they felt was in turmoil. "It was strange to feel close to Cornellians halfway around the world that I never met but I did " said Guarneri. "Knowing that we form this net all the way around the globe was a pretty amazing thing. And getting to see these unbelievable events from the perspectives of students not so different from myself helped me and hopefully others to form a more comprehensive picture of the effect of the attack and counterattack." Guarneri also finessed a rare in-depth interview with legendary choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones when his company came to Cornell. Considering a career in journalism she hosted her own radio show on WVBR recording a special program with Jones. Pursuit of a Ph.D. track in history is a future possibility as well she says and Guarneri mentions several professors who have inspired her in that direction among them Professor Larry Moore director of the American Studies Program. She reserves special praise for Kammen offering an anecdote by way of her regard: "My thesis was due for several prizes on a Monday deadline. Professor Kammen was at a conference in Spain all weekend long. He had read drafts of everything I had written except my conclusion. What we arranged was this I put my conclusion in his box on Thursday. His wife senior lecturer Carol Kammen taught that day and picked it up. He got back from Spain on Sunday night read my conclusion and then drove it over to my apartment where I got it from him with corrections marked so that I could fix it up and turn the thesis in the next day. And he brought me a T-shirt from Spain to top it all off. He really goes above and beyond the duties of an adviser." Frank DiMeo/University Photography Senior Julia Guarneri displays a first edition of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in Cornell's Kroch Library. "I could have declared a dance major or gone to a conservatory and that would have been a disaster " she said. "This way I had the flexibility to change my direction a little bit." College Scholars are freed from the normal restrictions of degree and distribution requirements. Instead students pursue selfdesigned extensive and cross-disciplinary

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