Cornell University News Service Releases

September, 2000

Index to all months

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Cornell VP for human resources to give talk on 'Finding Work at Cornell'
Interested in finding a job at Cornell University, one of the community's largest employers? Mary George Opperman, vice president for human resources at Cornell, will offer advice in a talk Oct. 4 at the Women's Community Building titled "Finding Work at Cornell." The 8 a.m. talk is the first in the revived early morning coffee meetings of the Women's Information Network (WIN), a project of the Women's Community Building at 100 W. Seneca St. The event is free and open to the public. Oppermantalk.jp (September 29, 2000)

Toni Morrison returns to Cornell to give public lecture Oct. 3
Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison returns to Cornell University to present a free public lecture Tuesday, Oct. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall. Free tickets for the lecture will be available on a first-come, first-served basis at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office beginning Friday, Sept. 29, at 9 a.m., with a limit of two per person. morrisonlect.fc (September 28, 2000)

Veterinary students will wash dogs for education Sept. 30
Cornell University's Student Chapter of the Veterinary Medical Association (SCAVMA) plans a fund-raising dog wash Saturday, Sept. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the Tower Road plaza (in front of the ivy-covered James Law Auditorium) of the College of Veterinary Medicine. Rain date is Sunday, Oct. 1. The dog wash is free, but donations are gratefully accepted, explains Gabriella Sfiligoi, Cornell D.V.M. Class of 2002, one of the event's coordinators. All dogs are welcome but should be properly restrained to avoid potential conflicts with other dogs at the event. Parking is free in O lot (just off Tower Road at Route 366) or in the visitor parking lot adjacent to the Veterinary Research Tower near the plaza (at the bend in Tower Road). dogwash_2000.hrs (September 27, 2000)

NSF and New York state make major awards to Center for Materials Research
The National Science Foundation today announced continuing funding of $19.9 million over five years to the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR). The grant will support the work of five interdisciplinary research groups, four seed projects, seven major shared experimental facilities and three outreach programs in the center, which is one of 29 such national centers supported by the agency. At the same time, the office of New York Gov. George Pataki announced state matching funds for the CCMR, tied to the NSF grant, of $400,000 a year over five years to support a new industrial outreach program for small businesses. ccmr.nsf.deb (September 27, 2000)

LSP launches fall speaker series Sept. 28: U.C. Berkeley Professor Laura Pérez to discuss Chicana art, politics and spirituality
The Latino Studies Program at Cornell University begins its Fall Colloquium Speaker Series with a free public lecture by Laura Pérez, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California Berkeley, Thursday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. in Room B30 of Goldwin Smith Hall on campus. Pérez's talk is titled "Altarities: Chicana Art, Politics and Spirituality," and she will explore the intersection of the political, the spiritual and art in the work of more than 30 visual, performance and literary artists. The "literature" Perez will refer to includes comics, CD-ROMs, spoken word, mystery novels, book art and installations. LSP.spkr (September 25, 2000)

American Ornithologists' Union selects Lab of Ornithology Director John W. Fitzpatrick as president
John W. Fitzpatrick, the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, has been elected president of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). The AOU is the oldest scientific organization in North America and the Western Hemisphere's largest professional organization for scientific research in bird biology. The society, which is responsible for reviewing ornithological research findings and selecting the official English and scientific names of North American birds, publishes the technical journal The Auk. The AOU held its annual meeting at Cornell in 1999. Fitzpatrick_PresAOU.hrs (September 25, 2000)

Gov. Pataki receives appreciation for support of Bailey Hall renovations
Gov. George Pataki visited Cornell University today (Sept. 23, 2000) during its Homecoming weekend and, with students, faculty and officials looking on, heard from President Hunter Rawlings how important a $13.1 million rehabilitation of Bailey Hall, a statutory college facility constructed in 1912, will be for the campus and Ithaca communities. Rawlings expressed appreciation for the governor's leadership in securing the state's allocation of $10.6 million for the Bailey renovation. A gift of $2.5 million from George and the late Harriet Cornell makes up the university's share of $2.5 million for the project. Bailey.Pataki.event.lgk (September 25, 2000)

Cornell responds to request to block Napster
Cornell University officials today (Sept. 22, 2000) responded to a request by Howard King, a Los Angeles lawyer representing the rock band Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre, that the university block students' access to the Napster file-sharing service. The text of Cornell's response, sent to King in a letter signed by Patricia A. McClary, associate university counsel, follows. Napster.letter.response (September 22, 2000)

Mystery of tiny asteroid Eros -- so much rock but so little gravity -- detailed in Science Science report
How could something so small have so much debris lying around? That is the puzzle presented by asteroid 433 Eros in the first major reports on the composition and history of the 21-mile-long body, the solar system's first asteroid to be subjected to close study. Writing in the latest edition of the journalScience (Sept. 22), Joseph Veverka of Cornell University describes tiny Eros as having a surface "saturated" with tiny craters smaller than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter and "abundant" with rocks 30 to 100 meters (33 to 109 yards) across. The craters and the boulders, says Veverka, indicate many violent collisions with the asteroid over time. But the gravity on Eros is so weak "that intuition and calculation tell you that most of the debris produced in a collision would have escaped -- but the surface is full of it." Veverka.Eros.deb (September 20, 2000)

Cornell will host in-service tax school in November
Cornell University's Department of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics will hold an in-service income tax school in November to review tax reporting and management. Classes will be offered in New York state in Binghamton, Batavia, Liverpool/Syracuse and Utica. This school is designed for accountants, tax practitioners, consultants, lawyers and financial advisers. Topics include: new tax legislation, individual taxpayer issues, small business issues, sale of a business, gifts, depreciation, agricultural issues, electronic filing, investments, retirement and current issues to aid in planning and filing tax returns. TaxSchool-2000.bpf (September 20, 2000)

Statutory colleges to hold Open House and Transfer Day for new students
Cornell University's statutory colleges will hold an Open House for prospective freshmen students on Saturday, Oct. 21, and a Transfer Day for prospective undergraduate transfer students on Friday, Nov. 3. Students interested in learning about admission to the state-assisted colleges at Cornell are encouraged to attend. The Open House will provide high school juniors, seniors and their parents the opportunity to visit Cornell's New York State colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology and the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Visitors will receive an overview of the university and academic programs in the three colleges. High school students and their parents are invited to campus to meet admissions staff, faculty and current Cornell students. The program will include admissions and financial aid information. OpenHouse2000.bpf (September 20, 2000)

Peter Neufeld, Innocence Project founder, to speak here Sept. 27
Peter Neufeld, co-author of Actual Innocence: Five Days to Execution and Other Dispatches from the Wrongly Convicted (Doubleday, 2000) and an outspoken advocate for the rights of the wrongly accused, will speak at Cornell University Law School Wednesday, Sept. 27. Neufeld's talk, "Executing the Innocent: Why So Many Wrongful Convictions?" is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Myron Taylor Hall's MacDonald Moot Court Room and is free and open to the public. Neufeld.adv (September 20, 2000)

Marcia Greenbaum, ILR School's first neutral-in-residence, to speak Sept. 27
Mediator and arbitrator Marcia L. Greenbaum will deliver the Jean McKelvey Neutral-in-Residence inaugural lecture at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Her talk, "Arbitration, the Second Oldest Profession, and Its Pioneering Professor," will take place Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 1 p.m. in Room 105 of the ILR Conference Center. It is free and open to the public. Greenbaum, an alumna of the ILR Class of 1962, is a former president of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution. She has helped create dispute resolution systems for newly emerging countries in Eastern Europe and has served on numerous arbitration panels, among them one resolving a 1993 dispute between Continental Airlines and the Airline Pilots Association. In addition she has been a facilitator and fact-finder in disputes in the public and private sectors as well as a dispute resolution trainer. Greenbaum.arb (September 20, 2000)

Denny's diversity officer, Rachelle Hood-Phillips, to speak Sept. 26
Rachelle Hood-Phillips, chief diversity officer of Denny's Restaurants, will deliver a talk at Cornell University Sept. 26. Her subject: how the restaurant chain went from pariah to the top U.S. company for minority employment and advancement. The talk will take place from 4 to 5 p.m in 305 Ives Hall and is free and open to the public. Hood-Phillips' talk is the first in a series called "Leadership, Management and Diversity in Corporate America." Diversity.spkr (September 20, 2000)

$17 million office building with Cornell offices proposed for Ithaca Commons
ITHACA, NY -- Cornell University and leaders of the city of Ithaca have reached conceptual agreement on a complex project that would strengthen the Ithaca Commons by bringing additional jobs and sales- and property-tax revenues to downtown Ithaca. The proposal involves a joint venture between the city, the university and a private developer to construct a multi-story, 130,000-square-foot office-building project at an estimated cost of more than $17 million. Cornell University would be the major tenant, renting space for about 300 employees. Commons.office.building (September 20, 2000)

Nurse visits reduce child abuse and neglect
Visiting nurses have helped reduce child abuse and neglect by up to 80 percent over a 15-year period among a group of low-income, unmarried women visitedduring their pregnancies and the first two years of their babies' lives. This is the conclusion reached by researchers at Cornell University in the longest study on record of the effects of nurse home visits during pregnancy and following birth. However, the study, published in the latest issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association , (Sept. 20, 2000) shows the visits had little or no effect in homes where domestic violence was moderate to severe. prevent.abuse.ssl (September 18, 2000)

Cooperative Extension and National 4-H Week will be Sept. 30 through Oct. 7
Cornell Cooperative Extension and National 4-H Week will be celebrated from Sept. 30 through Oct. 7 on the Cornell campus and at events around Tompkins County. This year's theme is "Strengthening the Economic and Social Vitality of Communities." CCEWeek.bpf (September 19, 2000)

Jeff Hawkins, PalmPilot inventor, is Entrepreneur of Year Sept. 22
Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the PalmPilot, is being honored by Cornell University Sept. 22 as the 2000 Entrepreneur of the Year and will deliver an address at 4 p.m. that day on campus in the Statler Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public. Hawkins has been described as a visionary designer who virtually reinvented the hand-held computer market. He currently is chair and chief products officer of Handspring Inc., which he co-founded in 1998 with a colleague, Donna Dubinsky, and holds nine patents for various hand-held devices and features. Hawkins.Entrprnr.Yr (September 18, 2000)

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to honor outstanding alumni Oct. 13
The Alumni Association of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University will honor eight alumni at the association's annual alumni awards banquet Friday, Oct. 13. The alumni association is celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Outstanding Alumni Awards. Of the college's 47,000 alumni, 105 have been honored with this award. The event will be held on campus at the Statler Hotel Ballroom at 6 p.m. CALS-2000.bpf (September 18, 2000)

Environmental Film Festival 2000 explores humanity's role in natural world
Seventeen cinematic works and the filmmakers behind them will explore humanity's role in the natural world during the Cornell Environmental Film Festival 2000, scheduled for Oct. 13-19 at Cornell University. Topics of the festival, which is presented each year by the Cornell Center for the Environment, include sustainable architecture, a culture threatened by desertification, citizens' role in watershed preservation, a river that survived pollution, strategies to counteract suburban sprawl and a 97-year-old environmental hero. EnviroFilm2000.hrs (September 15, 2000)

Economist shows why tuition keeps rising
Tuition at private colleges and universities has never been higher. It is also likely to keep on going up. With combined tuition, fees, room, board and expenses at the best institutions topping the high-water mark of $30,000 a year and rising, many students cannot attend these institutions without substantial help. More than half of the students attending select institutions receive some form of financial aid, and both the students and their families must take out hefty loans that they may still be paying off 10 to 15 years later. Now a new book, Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much (Harvard University Press, 2000), by Cornell University Professor Ronald G. Ehrenberg, explains why tuition at select colleges and universities keeps on going up and what can be done about it. Ehrenberg.tuition (September 15, 2000)

Computer programs that adapt and evolve
Computer programs that can adapt to changing conditions -- both in the virtual worlds they are creating and the hardware on which they are running -- will be developed under a $5 million project funded as part of the $90 million Information Technology Research initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced by the White House Wednesday (September 13). The program, called the Adaptive Software Project, will be conducted by researchers at Cornell University, the Mississippi State University, the College of William and Mary, Ohio State University and Clark-Atlanta University. NSF.adaptive.ws (September 14, 2000)

Genetics and immunology are topics for 50th anniversary symposium Oct. 9 at James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health
A scientific symposium focusing on genetics and immunology is planned Oct. 9, as part of the 50th anniversary observances at the James A. Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University. The symposium, from 9 a.m. to noon in David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall, is open free of charge to the public. Scheduled speakers are: Baker_50thSymp.hrs (September 14, 2000)

Director and associate director named for Latino Studies Program
The Latino Studies Program (LSP) at Cornell University has a new director and, for the first time in its history, an associate director as well. Philip Lewis, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has appointed faculty members María Cristina García, of the Department of History, as director and Mary Pat Brady, of the Department of English, as associate director of the program. García will serve a three-year appointment, and Brady has committed to a one-year appointment. LSP.new.dir (September 12, 2000)

Biomedical researcher Dr. Richard Lerner, Scripps Research Institute president, to give public lectures Thursday and Friday
Noted biomedical researcher Dr. Richard A. Lerner, president of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., will give The Class of 1942 James B. Sumner Lecture Thursday, Sept. 14, and Friday, Sept. 15, on the Cornell University campus. Lerner will deliver two lectures, open the public, as a guest of the Cornell Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. A general lecture will be at 4 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium of the Biotechnology Building and is titled "All Antibodies Have the Intrinsic Catalytic Capacity to Destroy Their Antigen." Lerner will give a second, more technical lecture, at noon Friday, in the same auditorium, with the title "Aldolase Antibodies." Lerner.Lecture (September 12, 2000)

Dwyer Dam Bridge will be closed during the day Saturday, Sept. 9
The Dwyer Dam Bridge at the entrance to the Cornell University campus on Hoy Road, near the intersection with Route 366, will be closed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9. The bridge closure is required to allow the removal of a work platform from below the bridge. During that period, Hoy Road will be closed from its intersection with Route 366 to just east of the Cornell parking garage. -30-Dwyer.Dam.bridge.closing (September 8, 2000)

Cornell Math Explorers Club, for high school students will hold open house Sept. 16
Want to crack cryptography? Do you crave secret codes? If you want to figure out fractals or if you enjoy the connection between math and art, then consider joining the Cornell Math Explorers Club. The Cornell University Mathematics Department will hold its initial meeting and an open house for high school students interested in joining the Math Explorers Club Sept. 16 at Malott Hall (5th floor) on the Cornell campus, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Parents are invited to attend the open house.) MathClub.bpf (September 8, 2000)

Cornell trustees authorize creation of 'eCornell'
The Executive Committee of the Cornell University Board of Trustees today approved the creation of a university-owned and financed, for-profit corporation, to be known as "eCornell," for the purpose of producing, marketing and delivering nondegree educational programs developed in conjunction with the university's schools and colleges. eCornell.hnd (September 8, 2000)

El Nino cycles linked to cholera outbreaks
About 11 months after the start of an El Niño event in the equatorial Pacific, hospitals thousands of miles away in Bangladesh can expect a surge of cholera cases, according to the first mathematical model to link climatic cycles with subsequent cholera outbreaks. Details of the climate-disease model are reported in the latest issue (Sept. 8, 2000) of the journal Science by ecologists at Cornell University and the universities of Barcelona, Maryland and London. cholera.ElNino.hrs (September 6, 2000)

Cornell health services receive quality health care certification
Gannett: Cornell University Health Services has been awarded the certificate of accreditation by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc. (AAAHC) for achieving nationally recognized standards for quality health care set by the Chicago-based accrediting organization. Accreditation is a voluntary, comprehensive evaluation of Gannett's operation against standard benchmarks of quality. Gannett.accreditation.sd (September 6, 2000)

Jane Goodall to give free public lecture on campus Friday, Sept. 15
The renowned primatologist begins an outstanding fall series of A.D. White Professor-at-Large lecturers, including Toni Morrison and John Cleese goodall.rel (September 6, 2000)

Professors Jon C. Clardy and Jonathan D. Culler are appointed senior associate deans for the College of Arts and Sciences
Professors Jon C. Clardy of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Jonathan D. Culler of the Departments of English and of Comparative Literature have been appointed senior associate deans for the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. They will serve, with Dean Philip E. Lewis, as chief academic officers of the college and will share responsibilities formerly overseen by Biddy Martin, recently appointed university provost at Cornell. "The faculty and students of Arts and Sciences will benefit enormously from the energy, efficiency and insight they will bring to the college administration," said Lewis of Clardy and Culler. "Both are exceptionally distinguished members of the faculty with international recognition for their research and scholarship. Both are also renowned for their excellence in teaching at the undergraduate as well as graduate levels." new.deans.rel.fc (September 6, 2000)

Crowded homes stressful for every ethnic group
Dispelling widely held myths about various ethnic groups' tolerance of crowding, a new Cornell University study finds that Asian Americans and Latin Americans are just as uncomfortable in crowded homes as are Anglo Americans (Americans of European descent) and African Americans. "Contrary to popular beliefs and many scientists' views, we find no evidence that Asian and Latin Americans can better withstand or tolerate the adverse psychological consequences of living in crowded homes," says Gary Evans, a professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. Evans is an environmental psychologist interested in how the physical environment can affect human health and well-being. He is an international expert on environmental stress, resulting from noise, crowding, inadequate housing and air pollution. crowding.crosscultural.ssl (September 6, 2000)

Book looks at laws on how we are born and die
Who is the rightful parent of a test-tube baby? How should a physician honor a patient's right to die? Does the use of stem cells from human embryos in life-saving research violate a congressional ban? Should there be such a ban? A new book by a Cornell University law professor offers a fresh approach to these and other ethical dilemmas that have arisen because of rapid advances in medical science. The book, Endings and Beginnings: Law, Medicine and Society in Assisted Life and Death by Larry I. Palmer, Cornell professor of law, was published by Praeger this summer.Palmer.book (September 6, 2000)

Cornell student team wins robotic soccer world cup -- again -- in Australia
After a barn-burner semi-final match against Singapore, Cornell's Big Red team beat a tough German team to take first place in the Small Robots League in Robocup, the World Cup of robotic soccer, held Aug. 28 through Sept. 2 in Melbourne, Australia. The team successfully defended the championship it won in 1999. This year, the Cornell team, again coached by Raffaello D'Andrea, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, succeeded largely by making on-the-spot modifications to the hardware and software of the robots. Robocup.ws (September 6, 2000)

Trustees Executive Committee to meet in New York City Sept. 7
The Cornell University Board of Trustees Executive Committee will meet in New York City on Thursday, Sept. 7. The meeting will be held in the Fall Creek Room of the Cornell Club of New York, ExecComm.9.00 (September 5, 2000)

Elusive secrets of chemical bonding found
In the 19th century, fundamental discoveries were made by unlocking the chemistry of carbon, but wide exploitation of these major discoveries came slowly. It took some years, for example, before this knowledge led to the development of new drugs and synthetic fibers. Now, two researchers at Cornell University have made important theoretical discoveries that, similarly, have long eluded chemists: They have established the principles of crystal bonding of a group of thousands of compounds. But history repeats itself in that, thus far, nearly all of these unusual compounds have no industrial uses, although many have interesting electronic and magnetic properties. bonding.hoffmann.deb (September 5, 2000)

Biophysicist Michelle D. Wang receives $1 million Keck Distinguished Young Scholar award
Michelle D. Wang, assistant professor of physics at Cornell University, has been named a Keck Distinguished Young Scholar. Her research into the molecular mechanisms of gene expression will be supported by up to $1 million in grants to the university over the next five years from the W.M. Keck Foundation. A faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Physics since 1998, Wang studies so-called biological molecular motors, such as the RNA polymerase molecules that move along a DNA template during cell division to help transcribe genetic information from DNA into new RNA. Keck_Scholar_Wang.hrs (September 1, 2000)