Emmy Award-winning writer Randy Cohen to give public talk March 11

Cohen

Randy Cohen, four-time Emmy Award winner, will be featured at this year's annual Cornell Commitment Convocation, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. March 11 in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. A reception will follow Cohen's address.

The convocation is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and may be obtained at the Cornell Commitment Office at 103 Day Hall or by calling 255-8595. All members of the Cornell and Ithaca communities are welcome at the convocation, and community agencies are invited to set up displays. For more information, contact the office of the Cornell Commitment at 255-8595. More than 600 community members and Cornell students are expected to attend.

Cohen began his career writing humor pieces for magazines and newspapers, such as The New Yorker, Harper's and The Atlantic. A collection of his short stories, Diary of Flying Man, was published by Knopf publishers.

For his writing on Late Night With David Letterman, Cohen won three Emmy Awards and went on to win a fourth for his work on TV Nation. Cohen was the original head writer for The Rosie O'Donnell Show for which he also co-wrote the theme music.

Randy Cohen is the current writer of "The Ethicist," a weekly column in The New York Times Magazine that ponders ethical dilemmas families and communities continually face. He also is the ethics columnist for The Times of London. The Good, the Bad and the Difference, a book based upon the column, was recently published in paperback by Broadway Books. He is a regular contributor to "Weekend All Things Considered" on National Public Radio.

As in past years, the convocation will also be the venue for announcing the Cornell Tradition Debra S. Newman '02 Community Recognition Award recipient. The award acknowledges the efforts of outstanding individuals who have gone above and beyond in service to the greater community and includes a $1,000 award to an agency of the recipient's choice.

The annual convocation is sponsored by the three recognition programs comprising the Cornell Commitment: The Cornell Tradition, Cornell Presidential Research Scholars and Meinig Family Cornell National Scholars. These programs reward outstanding Cornell undergraduates who demonstrate, respectively, excellence in work ethic and campus and/or community service, research experience, and leadership and academic achievement. Initiated in 1996 by The Cornell Tradition, the annual Convocation is held to honor the achievements of the students in these programs, who are especially encouraged to attend.

In addition to hosting a speaker, the Cornell Commitment holds a raffle to raise funds for an important community service project. This year, the Ithaca-based Aceh Relief Fund has been selected for recognition and financial support through the raffle. The Aceh Relief Fund was established immediately following the tsunami, to help fund Saiful Mahdi, a 36-year-old Cornell graduate student from Aceh, Indonesia, to return to Banda Aceh to find and rescue his family. Inundated with donations, Mahdi's friends realized that they had the means to go beyond helping just one family. They initiated the Aceh Relief Fund to serve as a direct front in response to the catastrophe in Southeast Asia, with the aim to fund Mahdi and other volunteers in their quest to provide emergency relief to Aceh tsunami victims in a culturally appropriate manner. So far, the Aceh Relief Fund has raised more than $77,000.

For more information on this organization, visit http://www.tsunamirelief.cornell.edu/localfunds.html.