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:

"She's a natural."

-- Arleigh Reynolds, assistant professor of veterinary medicine, after a treadmill test of Umbra, the dog that tried to swim the Bosporus strait, on National Geographic Explorer on TBS, Nov. 30.

"Why did we do it? We thought it would be fun."

-- Oliver B. Habicht of Academic Technology Services in Olin Library, on why he spearheaded the set-up of a camera aimed at the McGraw Tower pumpkin, offering 24-hour live images of the gourd on the World Wide Web, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 26.

"These things have not ruined the communities. They still look like single-family neighborhoods."

-- Patricia Baron Pollak, associate professor of policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology, commenting on homeowners' fears that "in-law" apartments could be converted into rental units, in The Washington Post, Nov. 24.

"Workers very seldom make a decision [for or against union representation] based on national events or images. They don't think of the national union, they think of the local organizer. . . . The general perception is that unions are no longer relevant or effective. The UPS strike did a lot to change attitudes toward unions. . . . It touched a lot more people than the Teamsters election. If you took a survey, most people would know about the UPS strike. If you asked them who Ron Carey is, nobody would know."

-- Richard Hurd, professor of labor studies, discussing whether scandals surrounding the recent Teamsters election would hurt the labor movement, in The Washington Post, Nov. 23.

"It's true that SAT scores have declined rather precipitously in recent years. Yet there are good reasons for the decline. Specifically, more high school seniors take the SATs now because more colleges require it. In the past, the group of seniors who took the test were self-selected, smaller and more elite."

-- Wendy Williams, associate professor of human development, commenting that test scores have narrowed but not because of genetic factors, in a Reuters wire story Nov. 6.

"Education in the next century needs to be more than just knowing all about computers. How do we as a Latino community work with very young children to teach them to think critically?"

-- Eloy Rodriguez, the James Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies, featured in the October issue of Hispanic Business, which named him one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the country.

"Seeing the composer, meeting him as a human being -- and a live human being -- and as a sympathetic person who's seeing beauty in the world can break down the wall between the artist and the person who's out there sitting in the audience who may not ... realize what's about to happen to them."

-- Steven Stucky, professor of music, discussing the importance of performance of new music and upcoming concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, for which he is serving as composer-in-residence, in the Los Angeles Daily News, Oct. 23.