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:

"Whenever there is uncertainty in the environment, the tendency is to hold back and see where the dust settles. There's a self-fulfilling aspect: If you're concerned demand won't develop, you don't build your plant, and if you and others don't build plants, there's less spending, and that's going to choke things off."

--Robert H. Frank, the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management in the Johnson Graduate School of Management, commenting on the current economic slowdown, in the Boston Globe, Jan. 26.

"There is a big academic debate on social class as opposed to income. There are sociologists who argue that social class is in decline in regard to lifestyle, consumption factors and politics as coherent, meaningful groups."

--David Grusky, professor of sociology, commenting in an article that tries to define social class in America, in The New York Times, Jan. 18.

"There's a myth out there that foreign direct investment into China is for production for the big Chinese market and that U.S. companies are all moving their low-paying jobs in toys and textiles to China. But our data shows that it's not true at all. These are highly skilled and good paying jobs and many union jobs that are not serving the Chinese market. Companies are moving to China to serve the U.S. market in auto parts, electronics, high-tech components, electrical machinery, chemicals and sporting goods all to sell back to the United States."

--Kate Bronfenbrenner, director, Labor Education Research, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, discussing her China study in Manufacturing News, Jan. 15.

"For the layperson, that diversity constitutes a recurrent reason for another daily hike and for the scientist it provides a career of puzzle-solving. For both, you never know what you are going to hear next and that greatly enriches the lives of all of us."

--Jack Bradbury, the Robert G. Engel Professor of Ornithology in the Laboratory of Ornithology, commenting on the popularity and importance of capturing the sounds of nature and making them available to the public on CDs, in The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 23.

"The stress, the burnout, the substance abuse. What's happening is we're all beginning to live with more and more stress."

-- Samuel Bacharach, the J. McKelvey & A. Grant Professor of Organizational Behavior, on a major study examining New York City firefighters for stress, trauma, substance abuse or other conditions stemming from Sept. 11, quoted in a story about the study on WABC-TV, N.Y., Nov. 19. The study is headed by Bacharach, who also leads the R. Brinkley Smithers Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies.

"When you're a national columnist read by 90 million people, day in and day out, there are those who might feel they want a little piece of you, to break a small chip off the rock of the icon,"

--David Grossvogel, Goldwin Smith Professor of Comparative Literature emeritus, suggesting that readers, as well as collectors, might bid in an auction of Ann Landers memorabilia, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Nov. 18. Grossvogel is the author of a 1986 book Dear Ann Landers: Our Intimate and Changing Dialogue with America's Best-Loved Confidant.