Soundbites

Here is a sampling of quotations from Cornell University faculty, students and staff that have appeared recently in the national and international news media:

"In the end, we must decide whether we want safer tires or bigger sport utility vehicles."

--Robert H. Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, discussing America's ongoing debate over whether to cut taxes and government regulation or to use tax money to regulate the free market, in an op-ed titled "The Costs of Governing Less" in The New York Times, Aug. 26.

"The seminars are amazing. We wrote about stuff we were interested in. The class was small. There was a lot of back and forth with the professor. Things really sunk in."

--Casey Morse '00, describing the John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines, in an article announcing Cornell's selection as a "College of the Year" by Time magazine and The Princeton Review in The Best College for You, published Aug. 21.

"It's unnatural to drink milk. Isn't it strange that we're the only species that suckles from another species?"

--T. Colin Campbell, professor of nutritional biochemistry, in discussing why he and his family do not drink milk or eat dairy products, in the August Discover magazine.

"I think there should be some gravitas to our leaders. We should not pull them down to our level and then expect them to do great things."

--Joel Silbey, the President White Professor of History, commenting on the "just-plain-folks affect" by politicians in The New York Times, Aug. 5.

"Raising children as vegetarians has the advantage that we as adults tend to continue the diet we're raised on. I find it almost impossible to make a nutritional argument against it."

--David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and psychology, in discussing vegetarianism in the July 25 issue of The New York Times.

"In this tight a labor market, the use of lockouts and replacement workers would seem to be an ill-conceived strategy."

--Richard Hurd, professor of labor studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, in an article on a rescinded lockout by American Wholesale Grocers in Kansas in The Wall Street Journal, June 30.

"Men and women are cutting down on work commitments, but their timing is different, and that affects their options."

--Penny Becker, assistant professor of sociology, in discussing her study on how couples resolve work/family conflicts, in the June 2000 issue of Working Mother.

"If you go back and look at the earliest strikes that occurred, in the 1890s and the early 19th century, it's almost always the case that the disputants appeal for public support."

-- Cletus Daniel, professor of labor history, in an article on the Teamsters' picketing of stores that belong to a retail cooperative, in the Kansas City Star, May 12.

"Customers today are moving from being room-takers to room-makers."

--Chekitan Dev, associate professor of marketing, School of Hotel Administration, commenting on midpriced hotels providing frequent customers with amenities, in USA Today, May 24.