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:

"It's the greatest threat to U.S. forestry since the gypsy moth."

--Richard Hoebeke, senior extension associate in entomology, describing the danger the Asian long-horned beetle poses to North American hardwood trees, in the May 27 issue of TIME magazine. Hoebeke was the first expert to identify the appearance of the alien species from China in the United States.

"Our students come from an Ivy League institution, they're business oriented, and they go on to top executive positions in the industry."

--David Butler, dean of the School of Hotel Administration, commenting in a full-page feature article about Hotel Ezra Cornell in The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 24.

"People are moving out further to get more land, more space and they're willing to take longer commutes."

--Matthew Drennan, professor of city and regional planning in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, commenting in an article reporting that New Yorkers are logging longer and longer commutes to their jobs, in The New York Times, May 23.

"No matter how the race is defined, you still have to run faster than the other guy."

--Charles Lee, H.J. Louis Professor of Management in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, discussing a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal for companies to make quarterly reports available earlier than the current 45-day deadline. While he favored the earlier deadlines, Lee said it's still up to investors to read and understand the reports, whenever they get them. Lee was quoted in a Scripps-Howard News Service story, May 19.

"If we go back in time 20 or 30 years, women were quite scarce in the professions and in management, while they are well represented today."

--Francine Blau, the Frances Perkins Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations, commenting on a recent study showing men still earn more than women, especially as income levels grow, that was based on data from 1998 that may reflect old trends, in The New York Times, May 12.

"I can take the next 10 people off the street and have them making DNA in short order."

--Ted Thannhauser, director of Cornell's BioResource Center, in a feature article about genetic engineering in the May issue of National Geographic.

"The science appeal of the all the sites is pretty well understood now. So the focus is largely on landing safety."

--Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy and leader of the Athena science payload that the Mars Expedition Rovers will carry when they land on Mars in 2003, at a NASA workshop that reviewed 185 possible landing sites, quoted by Space.com, April 23.

"They're probably your least likely terrorists."

--Stephen Yale-Loehr, adjunct professor in the Law School, commenting on the USDA's axing of its J-1 visa-waiver program, which brought foreign physicians to the United States to staff clinics in mostly rural areas, citing terrorism concerns, in Newsweek, April 1.