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 unusual, there's no doubt about that -- political collections do not normally bring this kind of money. On the other hand, I won't say that it's outrageous. I think that for a political collection this is a biggie. This will really draw the attention of researchers. I think they have a unique body of material here. ... This'll be the new gold standard for these kinds of collections."

--Thomas Hickerson, associate university librarian, comments on the acquisition of Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate papers by the University of Texas at Austin for $5 million, in The Washington Post, April 8.

"Affirmative action helped me, and I'm here to support students from all over the country. The Supreme Court needs to do the right thing and support affirmative action."

--Rosa Clemente, graduate student, quoted in an Associated Press article April 1 describing the thousands of people who demonstrated for affirmative action outside the U.S. Supreme Court while the court heard arguments in the University of Michigan affirmative action lawsuits.

"As we prepare things like teach-ins, we need to think consciously not only about the people who want to protest the war, but also those who support it and have friends and family who are serving over there."

--Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, describing how Cornell is responding to issues surrounding the war in Iraq, in The New York Times, March 26.

"It's a great idea. The nice thing is that it gives people risk-free exposure to Cornell. They don't have to spend any money. All we want is their time and, if they show up, they get a free plane ride, a brunch, and they get to participate in some organized events. It's a way for their companies to do some cheap recruiting."

--Matt Trokey, MBA '04, Johnson Graduate School of Management, in an article about the Johnson School's strategy of flying corporate recruiters for free from Boston, New York City and Chicago to Ithaca to interview MBA students for potential jobs this year, in the March 7 Boston Globe. The approach, believed to be the first for any business school, is aimed at countering reduced recruiting in a down economy.

"Defense spending simply does not have the same kind of impact on the economy that it used to. ... the fact that we can today produce a smart bomb that can pick off a donkey in an Iraqi field doesn't have the same kind of economic impact that producing nuclear weapons did. ... Nowadays, military projects don't have the powerful commercial spin-offs they used to. On the contrary, the Pentagon seems to struggle keeping up with all the advances in computing and communications that are constantly being created and updated by regular companies in the private sector."

--Warren Bailey, associate professor, finance, Johnson Graduate School of Management, in an article on whether war is still considered good for the economy, in the Toronto Star Feb. 10.

"The way I would put it is, many of the components of the application are less reliable than we want them to be."

-- Glenn Altschuler, dean of the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, describing how some students try too hard to embellish their college applications, in USA Today, Feb. 4.