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:

"By the time we get into our forties, we begin to reflect on our own mortality. We look backward and ask, 'What difference have I made so far?' and we look forward and say, 'What will my legacy be?'"

--Peg Hendricks, the organizer of the 1998 national conference on volunteerism at Cornell, discussing volunteer sabbaticals in the October issue of Working Woman.

"The immediate reaction to our study was, 'What is the purpose of this? There's no evidence that children are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome.' That's a silly statement. We know it takes five to 10 years before these injuries develop. That's why we're seeing more and more university and college-age students developing these problems."

--Alan Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis, in a MSNBC Online story about his studies showing that poor posture and poorly designed workstations are harming school children who work with computers, Oct. 11.

"On the one extreme are faculty members who say we should expose students to what we know and what we don't know. On the other extreme, there are faculty members who say it is bogus ... and shouldn't be given any place in the curriculum [until there is an acceptable body of scientific evidence]."

--Robert Gilbert, associate dean for clinical programs and professional service in the College of Veterinary Medicine, on the faculty's rejection of courses on alternative therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy, quoted in a Philadelphia Inquirer story about alternative therapies for animals, Oct. 10.

"The first step to revitalizing the labor movement is to stop the shrinking, and I believe that's happened. Does this translate into a revitalized labor movement that's on a permanent upward track? The answer to that is, it's still premature to say."

--Richard Hurd, professor of labor relations in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, commenting on the current state of the labor movement, in The New York Times, Oct. 9.

"People tend to think of pigeons as ordinary birds, but they happen to live in a very different sensory world from us. Pigeons must see very interesting things through these different sensory windows on the world."

--Charles Walcott, professor and chair of neurobiology and behavior and the former director of the Laboratory of Ornithology, in a Christian Science Monitor article which reports that pigeons can see into the ultraviolet, detect polarized light, hear ultra-low frequency sounds, sense barometric pressure and navigate using the Earth's magnetic field, Oct. 5.

"Some of the behaviors we have studied [that servers use to ensure a bigger tip] are things like squatting down and introducing themselves when they first approach a table, giving a large opened-mouthed smile, writing 'thank you' on the back of a check, making eye contact, proximity. These increase the social rapport between the parties. People who are in a good mood leave a better tip."

--Michael Lynn, associate professor of marketing in the School of Hotel Administration, explaining why people leave bigger tips, in a conversation with Bill Ritter on ABC-TV's "20/20," Sept. 20.

"... the whole history of the nuclear age shows that the combination of new science with the abandonment of a profound moral principle -- in this case that civilians should not be military targets -- can lead to awesome dangers that could not have been imagined at the outset."

--Kurt Gottfried, professor emeritus of physics, discussing the moral dilemma of the atomic bomb, in Nature, Sept. 9.

"Those who are retired and reemployed report the highest morale and lowest depression. [Men who go back to work usually want to, but women] usually have to do it for financial reasons."

--Jungmeen Kim, a postdoctoral research fellow who conducted a study on retirement, work and well-being with Phyllis Moen, Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies, in a Reuters News Report published in the Washington Times, Aug. 24.