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:

"[The study] raises questions about the ability of fraternity and sorority leaders to really participate in those kinds of discussions in a meaningful way...we really need to target these leaders for intensive leadership training."

-- Philip Meilman, director of counseling and psychological services at Gannett Health Center, commenting on the results of his national survey that revealed that leaders of Greek organizations are among the heaviest drinkers and risk-takers on campuses, in The New York Times, Dec. 15.

"There's a concern that people are not being taught safe food handling practices from generation to generation. Whether or not people understood why they were doing things, practices were passed down as traditions."

-- Christina Stark, nutrition extension associate, discussing scares about food safety in the Washington Post, Dec. 10.

"We now have geological evidence from the Martian surface, supporting theories based on previous pictures from Mars from orbit, that water played an important part in Martian geological history."

-- James Bell, senior research associate in astronomy, discussing new data from the Mars Pathfinder mission, quoted in a Reuters wire story, Dec. 4.

"People don't have to become rocket scientists, but there has to be some comfort with science. If you have people who are a little more literate scientifically, they will have some basis for understanding things more clearly. . . . It's my view we needed 100 Carl Sagans, not one."

-- Robert C. Richardson, professor of physics, urging more science education in the United States, in the Toledo Blade, Dec. 3.

"Scientists-turned-engineers learned to manipulate microwaves in a thousand ingenious ways and won World War II. After the war they used the technology to open scientific worlds and create whole new industries. It is a fabulous legacy."

-- President Emeritus Dale R. Corson discussing the development of radar in a Newsweek special issue on inventions, Dec. 1.

"Obviously, independent hotels have it tougher because they lack that national brand recognition. If they can offer a unique experience -- for example, locating in a historic building and offering extra amenities that customers can't get elsewhere -- they still can have a positive future."

-- Richard Penner, professor of hotel administration, discussing hotel marketing in the Greensboro (North Carolina) News & Record, Nov. 9.

"It was like walking down the street and finding money on the sidewalk. It was a gift out of the blue."

-- Joseph Burns, professor of astronomy, describing his team's discovery of two previously unknown moons of Uranus, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Nov. 9.

"It's fairly clear we're losing biodiversity from heavily nitrogen-enriched areas."

-- Robert W. Howarth, the D. Atkinson Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology, discussing the problems that runoff from commercial fertilizers cause in waterways, in the Baltimore Sun, Nov. 3.