Cornell University News Service Releases

September, 2003

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Mary Pat Brady appointed new director of Latino Studies Program
Mary Pat Brady, assistant professor of English at Cornell University, has been appointed director of the university's Latino Studies Program (LSP) for 2003-04. Brady replaces Maria Cristina García, professor of history, who served as LSP director for three years. In accepting her appointment, Brady praised Garcia's accomplishments, while outlining a plan to build on the work of her predecessor. (September 30, 2003)

'Building a Political Movement to End the War on Drugs' is the topic of a lecture by drug policy reformer Ethan Nadelmann, Oct. 7
Drug policy reform advocate and former Princeton University professor Ethan Nadelmann will present a University Lecture titled "Building a Political Movement to End the War on Drugs," Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 4:30 p.m. in 165 McGraw Hall on the Cornell University campus. The talk is free and open to the public. Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, based in New York City, is widely regarded as one of the outstanding proponents of drug policy reform, both in the United States and abroad. The Drug Policy Alliance works to broaden the public debate on drug policy and to promote realistic alternatives to the war on drugs. (September 30, 2003)

James Morgan, who chairs world's leading microchip systems firm, is Hatfield speaker Oct. 2
James C. Morgan, chairman of Applied Materials Inc., will give this academic year's Hatfield address Thursday, Oct. 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall. Morgan's company is the world's largest producer of semiconductor equipment -- the systems used to manufacture virtually every new microchip in the world. Morgan, who holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering (1960) and an MBA (1963) from Cornell, will deliver a talk titled "The Networked, High-Tech Economy: New Systems Require New Thinking." He will speak as the 24th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, the highest honor the university bestows on outstanding individuals from the corporate sector, and he will be introduced by Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman. The talk is free and open to the public. (September 30, 2003)

Cornell inaugurates 11th president on three campuses around the globe
Jeffrey S. Lehman will be inaugurated as president of Cornell University in ceremonies on three Cornell campuses around the globe, Oct. 12-16. The events will feature remarks and lectures by the Sheikha of Qatar, national AIDS research leader Anthony Fauci, prize-winning architect Richard Meier and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "Cornell Celebrates a New Beginning" is the theme of the inauguration, in which Lehman, 47, will challenge higher education to provide fresh leadership in areas that are critical to the well-being of all humanity. (September 30, 2003)

India's attorney general to speak on combating international terrorism while protecting human rights
India's attorney general, the Hon. Soli Sorabjee, will give two talks at Cornell this week that are free and open to the public. Combating international terrorism in East Asia while protecting human rights is his overall subject. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 12:15 p.m., he will give a talk titled "Tackling Terror and Other Human Rights Issues" as part of the South Asia Seminar at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, G08 Uris Hall. He also will speak Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. on "Judicial Protection of Human Rights" at Cornell Law School, in G90 Myron Taylor Hall. (September 29, 2003)

Michael Burawoy, sociologist who studies labor on shop floor, will give the 2003 Polson Memorial Lecture Oct. 3
Michael Burawoy, who rolls up his sleeves to conduct sociological research on labor from the factory floor, will give Cornell University's 2003 Polson Memorial Lecture Oct. 3. His talk, "Public Sociology in a Global Context," will be followed by a panel discussion. The lecture, at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall on campus, is free and open to the public. Burawoy is a professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and president-elect of the American Sociological Association (ASA). In his research in the United States and in Europe, he uses the extended case-study method, which involves intensive participant observation. An example of this method can be found in his book, The Radiant Past: Ideology and Reality in Hungary's Road to Capitalism (Chicago University Press, 1992), for which he worked for a year as a furnace operator in a Hungarian steel plant. In other research projects, Burawoy has worked in a Hungarian champagne factory, spent a year as a personnel officer at a Zambian copper mine and toiled for 10 months as a machine operator on Chicago's South Side. (September 29, 2003)

Comparative cancer program named the Sprecher Institute
Ceremonies on Sept. 11, 2003, at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine gave a name to the school's program to study cancer in humans as well as animals -- the new Isidor I. and Sylvia M. Sprecher Institute for Comparative Cancer Research. The institute name acknowledges a major gift from Isidor Sprecker, a 1939 DVM graduate of the college, and his wife, Sylvia, a teacher and author. The Spreckers changed the spelling of their name to clarify its pronunciation but have preserved the original spelling, Sprecher, for their gifts. An earlier gift from the Spreckers added their name to that of an 1800s governor of New York state, creating the Roswell P. Flower-Isidor I. and Sylvia M. Sprecher Library and Resources Center. (September 29, 2003)

Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference is Dec. 9
Cornell University's annual Agribusiness Economic Outlook Conference will be held Tuesday, Dec. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. in the foyer of the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium, Kennedy Hall, on the Cornell campus. William Lesser, chair of Cornell's Department of Applied Economics and Management (AEM), will open the session. Speakers will include two Cornell associate professors of AEM, Steven Kyle, who will provide the national perspective on the economy and agriculture, and Gregory Poe, who, with Nelson Bills, professor of AEM, and Peter Wright, senior extension associate in animal science, will focus on "Agriculture and the Environment." (September 26, 2003)

Cornell to host statewide 4-H contest in public speaking
Teenagers from all over New York state are talking their heads off on topics from beef cattle to babysitting. They have been competing for a place in this year's 4-H State Public Presentations, a public-speaking event to be held Saturday, Oct. 4, at noon in Morrison Hall on the Cornell University campus. Middle school and high school students have been giving talks and demonstrations at the local and regional levels, and those with the best gift of the gab have advanced to the state event at Cornell, where they will represent their counties. The speaking competition will award gold, silver and bronze medals to winners in the demonstration, speech, illustrated talk and dramatic interpretation categories. Participating will be 67 presenters from 38 counties with each county allowed to send up to three presenters in three categories. (September 26, 2003)

Arecibo promotes science, education to Hispanics in Puerto Rico
ARECIBO, P.R. -- The world's largest single-dish radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory is focusing on a largely Spanish-speaking audience by creating an Office for the Public Understanding of Science (OPUS). It will be headed by a native of Uruguay, Daniel Altschuler, who is stepping down as director of the observatory, a post he has held for the past 12 years. "Being located in an environment populated by 4 million Hispanic U.S. citizens places the Arecibo Observatory in a very special context," says Altschuler. The aim of OPUS, he says, is "to be a leader in the efforts to improve the public understanding of science, in particular in respect to the Hispanic community, which is underrepresented in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering." OPUS will do this through specific program proposals to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Informal Education and other initiatives (September 26, 2003)

Sixto González named director of Arecibo; Daniel Altschuler to lead new outreach program
ARECIBO, P.R. -- Sixto González has been named director of Arecibo Observatory, the home of the world's largest and most-sensitive single-dish radio telescope. His appointment is effective Sept. 29. He is the first native-born Puerto Rican to head the observatory. Since 2001 González has been assistant director for space and atmospheric sciences at the telescope facility. He succeeds Daniel Altschuler, who will become the first director of the observatory's Office for the Public Understanding of Science (OPUS), which will provide a multicultural focus for education and public outreach activities in Puerto Rico. (September 26, 2003)

Global economic pressure creates uncertainties for U.S. agriculture
The force of global economics is changing the agricultural landscape in New York state, the Northeast region and the United States. These changes have created uncertainties for the American agricultural economy, according to a white paper released Sept. 19 by Cornell University agricultural scientists and economists. "We are seeing more and more large farms, and there are billions of dollars in subsidies for large, commercial farms. If there were an economic shake-up in agriculture and if the big farm holdings could not sell their goods, the United States would become protectionist immediately," says Thomas Lyson, Cornell's Liberty Hyde Bailey professor of development sociology and one of the paper's authors. "I think it is very precarious." (September 24, 2003)

On eve of Beltway sniper trial, new book tells tale of boy murderer
"Americans have an ugly history of executing poor children. In the United States, we have been killing our children for more than three centuries," argues an award-winning Cornell University historian. To illuminate some important, but forgotten, history, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor of history, human development and gender studies, uses the prism of a single historical case in a new book, Kansas Charley: The Story of a l9th Century Boy Murderer (Viking, 2003). (September 24, 2003)

Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival Oct. 3-9 to screen more than 30 movies at 9 locations
Returning for its seventh year with a slight name change and more venues, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival is a showcase of films and performances with a message. More than 30 films, ranging from documentaries and narratives to animation and comedic shorts, will screen at Cornell University as well as five other campuses and two other venues from Friday, Oct. 3, through Thursday, Oct. 9. Most of the screenings feature an introduction and discussion with an expert on the film's topic, and four films will be presented by their makers or special guests. (September 23, 2003)

Stephen Campbell is named associate vice president for facilities services
Stephen M. Campbell, director of planning and project development at Johns Hopkins University, has been named associate vice president for facilities services at Cornell University, effective Oct. 27. He will be a senior member of the staff of Cornell Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer Harold D. Craft Jr., to whom he will report. "I am very pleased that Steve has decided to come to Cornell," said Craft. "He is a very seasoned facilities professional with a deep understanding of large research universities. He has shown real skill in the areas of facilities leadership that will need special attention in the coming years." (September 22, 2003)

Cornell student Serena Chan wins Homeland Security award to research bioterrorism and epidemics
Serena Suewei Chan, a Cornell graduate student in statistical science, has been awarded a grant to research bioterrorism for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The announcement was made by U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, whose district includes parts of Cornell. Chan, who was chosen by the agency from among 2,500 applicants, will work with her adviser, Gennady Samorodnitsky, professor of operations research and industrial engineering, to develop an epidemiological computer model of how terrorists could create an epidemic, such as smallpox. (September 22, 2003)

Fifty-pepper display and Sept. 27 garden tour create hot times at Cornell Plantations
Where did peppers originate? Why are some hot and some not? Why don't all peppers look alike? What are the benefits of eating peppers? Answers to these and other burning questions can be found at the Cornell Plantations' Pounder Heritage Vegetable Garden, where special displays -- and plantings that are now in fruit -- demonstrate the history, genetic diversity and importance of peppers. (September 19, 2003)

Ivan Hageman, co-founder of pioneering East Harlem school, will visit Cornell as Iscol lecturer, Sept. 24
Ivan Hageman, principal and co-founder of the East Harlem School at Exodus House (EHS) in New York City, will speak at Cornell University Wednesday, Sept. 24, at 4:30 p.m. in G73 Martha Van Rensselaer (MVR) Hall. EHS is a highly successful inner-city middle school established in 1993. The title of Hageman's talk will be "A Harder Thing: Discovering My Work in East Harlem." The program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service, an interdisciplinary program in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. The program is designed to inspire undergraduate students to become leaders in public service who will address the intractable problems that face society, such as hunger, poverty, ignorance, homelessness and violence. (September 17, 2003)

Cornell Plantations offers reward for arrest of plant thieves
Cornell Plantations is offering a $300 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the theft of three container plantings from the patio in front of the Plantations gift shop during the weekend of September 13-14. The theft was reported by the staff of Cornell Plantations, which is part of the Cornell University campus. One pot contained a six-foot-tall banana tree (Ensete vintricosum 'Maurelii') with large reddish-purple leaves. A second container housed a large agave (Agave Americana x scabra 'Gainsville Blue'), more than two feet tall, with thick blueish leaves and black spines. And the third contained a cycad (Cycas revoluta) with leathery, fern-like green leaves spiraling from a central cone-like base. (September 17, 2003)

Isabel will drop its heaviest rain on Northeast
As Hurricane Isabel churns in the middle Atlantic and takes aim at the East Coast, the storm's track on Thursday night and into Friday morning lies directly through the heart of the Northeast, where it is likely leave heavy rains and strong wind in its wake. Hurricanes and tropical storms, weakened as they passed over land, have caused some of the greatest two-day rainfall totals in the Northeast, say experts at Cornell University's Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC). Hurricane Agnes dumped 14.94 inches of rain on Harrisburg, Pa., on June 21 and 22, 1972, and a two-day record 7.52 inches of rain on Washington, D.C., on the same dates. On Aug. 18-19, 1955, Hurricane Diane dropped 13.97 inches of rain on Hartford/Windsor Locks, Conn., and 11.94 inches of rain on Boston. (September 17, 2003)

Cornell Police 'zero tolerance' program will continue through Sept. 30
Due to the large number of traffic infractions cited and observed by the Cornell University Police during National Stop on Red Week at the beginning of September, Cornell Police will extend this "zero tolerance" enforcement effort at least through Sept. 30. Cornell Police has been participating in National Stop on Red Week 2003, a law-enforcement program dedicated to educating American motorists about the dangers of running red lights, by fielding New York state-funded selective traffic enforcement patrols on campus. A zero-tolerance policy has been maintained for such infractions as going through red lights, running stop signs and failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks. (September 17, 2003)

Islamic legal scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl, to speak on Islam and human rights, Sept. 19
Khaled Abou El Fadl, recently appointed to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by President George W. Bush, will deliver a free public talk titled "Islam and Human Rights" Friday, Sept. 19, at 5 p.m. in Auditorium D of Goldwin Smith Hall on the Cornell University campus. Abou El Fadl, a visiting professor at Yale Law School and professor of law at the University of California-Los Angeles, is one of the leading authorities in Islamic law in the United States and Europe. He teaches Islamic law, Middle Eastern investment law, immigration law and courses related to human rights and terrorism. He also works with various human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights. (September 17, 2003)

Oxfam America president to address Cornell-based Engineers Without Frontiers, Sept. 17-20
Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America since 1995, will be the keynote speaker at the closing banquet for the Engineers Without Frontiers USA (EWF-USA) first national conference Sept. 17-20 at Cornell University. Offenheiser, who is a Cornell graduate, will speak Sept. 20 at the Clarion Hotel near the Cornell campus (the public is invited to attend his talk, which will begin at about 8 p.m., without charge). Boston-based Oxfam America is part of an international confederation of 12 organizations cooperating to combat suffering and poverty in more than 100 countries. (September 16, 2003)

Sept. 27 dog wash sends veterinary students to conference
Cornell University's Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association (SCAVMA) plans a fund-raising dog wash Saturday, Sept. 27, 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, Sept. 28. The dog wash is free, but $5 suggested donations are gratefully accepted, explains Ryan Taggart, Cornell D.V.M. Class of 2005, 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. A variety of shampoos will be available for dogs' special needs. Parking is free in O lot (on Route 366 between Tower and Caldwell roads) or in the visitor parking lot adjacent to the Veterinary Research Tower near the plaza (at the bend in Tower Road). (September 16, 2003)

Former Turkish president Demirel speaks Oct. 7 on global political change
Süleyman Demirel, the former president and four-time premier of Turkey, will give a public lecture Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m. in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall at Cornell University. He will speak on "Turkish-U.S. Relations: New Political Landscape of the Middle East since the Collapse of the U.S.S.R." The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is part of Demirel's three-day visit to Cornell, during which he will meet faculty and administrators to acquaint them with Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Project, known as GAP, for Guneydogu Anadolu Projesi. The visit will involve discussions of possible joint initiatives involving Cornell, the State University of New York system and the Turkish Higher Education Council. (September 16, 2003)

Crowley Foods of Albany named best milk producer in New York state this year by testers at Cornell
Cornell University's Department of Food Science announced that Crowley Foods Inc. of Albany, N.Y., with a score of 90.6 out of a possible 100, is the producer of the highest quality milk in New York state for 2003. Upstate Farms of Buffalo came in second place with a score of 87.9. Rounding out the top five high-quality milk producers in the state were: Stewarts Processing Corp. of Saratoga Springs, Parmalat/Sunnydale Farms of Brooklyn and Wendt's Dairy of Niagara Falls. The selection is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. Analytical testing is done at Cornell. (September 15, 2003)

Cutberto Garza reappointed director of Division of Nutritional Sciences
Cutberto Garza, professor and former director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, has been reapppointed director of the division. He succeeds Jere Haas, the Nancy Schlegel Meinig Professor of Nutritional Science, who has been director for the past five years. An internationally recognized expert on infant and maternal nutrition, Garza served as director of the division from 1988 to 1998 and as Cornell vice provost with responsibility for academic liaison from 1998 to 2000. Garza also is the director of the United Nations University's Food and Nutrition Program. He holds an M.D. as well as a Ph.D. (September 15, 2003)

Cornell Public Service Center student program is given AmeriCorps educational awards
The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the AmeriCorps program, has awarded the Cornell University Public Service Center's Raising Education Attainment Fellowship Challenge (REACH) program with 25 AmeriCorps educational awards, totaling $27,000. The funds will support 25 REACH/AmeriCorps fellows, who will work with local nonprofit organizations to mobilize Cornell students to help tutor and mentor children in the Ithaca area and in surrounding schools and communities. REACH is a student-driven and -initiated program at Cornell established in 1999 to coordinate and strengthen services provided to Ithaca area schools and community agencies. It includes REACH fellows as well as America Reads Challenge (ARC) and America Counts Challenge (ACC) federal work-study students. Fellows recruit, mobilize and organize a diverse group of student tutors, helping them gain the necessary resources, peer support and leadership skills to assist in enhancing the academic achievement of area children in pre-K through ninth grade. (September 15, 2003)

'Status' decides whether or not a language survives
The Tower of Babel might get built after all. While thousands of different languages are spoken around the world, 90 percent of them are dying and are expected to vanish in the next few decades. But Cornell University engineers have come up with a mathematical model that for the first time quantifies "language death" and may offer strategies for those who want to preserve an endangered language. (September 11, 2003)

Cornell engineers take honors in high-frequency chip design contest
A team of Cornell University graduate students has taken third place in the 2002-03 SiGe (Silicon Germanium) Design Challenge, sponsored by the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC). The team of Daniel Kucharski, Drew Guckenberger and Jing-Hong Conan Zhan, graduate students in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded a prize of $10,000 for an optical fiber transceiver designed to operate at frequencies up to 10 gigabytes per second. The device combines on a single chip the jobs currently done by three chips in converting electrical signals to and from optical pulses in fiber-optic transmission. (September 10, 2003)

Cornellia comes home: Cornell's missing cow mascot is discovered in paddock
Good moos: Cornellia, the plastic cow that has been missing from atop the Cornell University Dairy Bar since Aug. 27, was found early this morning in a paddock at the large-animal facility at the university's College of Veterinary Medicine. "Cornellia was returned unharmed, except her red ribbon was missing. We replaced it with a yellow evidence ribbon," said Lt. David Nazer of the Cornell Police. He believes Cornellia was taken as a prank. (September 10, 2003)

Electrospinning cellulose waste into fiber
It may soon be possible to produce a low cost, high-value, high-strength fiber from a biodegradable and renewable waste product for air filtration, water filtration and agricultural nanotechnology, report polymer scientists at Cornell University. The achievement is the result of using the recently perfected technique of electrospinning to spin nanofibers from cellulose. "Cellulose is the most abundant renewable resource polymer on earth. It forms the structure of all plants," says Margaret Frey, an assistant professor of textiles and apparel at Cornell. "Although researchers have predicted that fibers with strength approaching Kevlar could be made from this fiber, no one has yet achieved this. We have developed some new solvents for cellulose, which have allowed us to produce fibers using the technique known as electrospinning." (September 10, 2003)

BET co-founder Sheila C. Johnson gives public talk Sept. 16
Sheila C. Johnson, philanthropist and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), will give a public address on the Cornell University campus Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Statler Hotel Ballroom. Johnson's address is part of the Moses and Loulu Seltzer Lecture Series at Cornell and it is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the talk. Both events are sponsored by Cornell's university-wide Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program. (September 9, 2003)

Renowned constitutional scholar and Jewish Studies founder Milton Konvitz dies
Milton Konvitz, a Cornell University faculty member and authority on constitutional and labor law, and civil and human rights, died Sept. 5 at the age of 95. Konvitz was a professor in Cornell's Law School and School of Industrial and Labor Relations from 1946 until his retirement in 1973. He and his wife, Mary, lived in Ithaca from 1946 to 1992. He died at Monmouth Medical Center, near the couple's home in Oakhurst, N.J. (September 9, 2003)

Cornell Board of Trustees Executive Committee to meet in New York City, Sept. 11
The Cornell University Board of Trustees Executive Committee will meet in New York City Thursday, Sept. 11. The meeting will be held in the Fall Creek Room of the Cornell Club of New York, 6 E. 44th St., at 11:45 a.m. (September 8, 2003)

Sept. 11 commemoration events slated for campus
To memorialize the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, several events on the Cornell University campus, free and open to the community, are slated for Thursday, Sept. 11. A Sept. 11 commemoration at 12:30 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room will include remarks from: undergraduate student Nick Linder '05, a government and economics major and president of the Student Assembly; Gavin Hurley, a graduate student in operations research and industrial engineering and president of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly; Kenneth Clarke, director of Cornell United Religious Work; and Cynthia Farina, professor of law. The Sage Chapel choir will perform during the event. Following the commemoration, music will be played on the Cornell Chimes from McGraw Tower. (September 8, 2003)

Ed Lu speaks to his alma mater from the space station
Far above Cayuga's waters -- hundreds of miles, in fact -- NASA astronaut and Cornell University alumnus Ed Lu reached out today (Sept. 4) and spoke via shortwave radio directly to fellow Cornellians for 11 minutes. Lu was aboard the International Space Station some 240 miles above Earth as it passed over North America. It was the first time Cornell students had spoken to an astronaut in space. "This is really exciting, this is great and it all worked," said Chase Million, a Cornell junior from Hagerstown, Ind., who is president of the Cornell Amateur Radio Club. As a physics major, Million plans on a career in the space industry after he graduates. "Today was more than just a hands-on experience, we actually got to talk to a guy who is on the space station." (September 04, 2003)

Poet Alice Fulton kicks off Cornell Plantations' free lecture series with Sept. 10 'Barbaric Flowers'
Alice Fulton, the award-winning poet, writer and professor of English at Cornell University, will open the Cornell Plantations free Wednesday night lecture series with a Sept. 10 presentation, " Let the Barbaric Flowers Live: Nature and Poetry." The 10-lecture series is free, open to the public and continues through Nov. 12. Other noted speakers will include herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, children's author Lynne Cherry and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy. (September 4, 2003)

White Hall's $12 million restoration dedication ceremony Sept. 12
A dedication and formal ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the renovation of White Hall, one of Cornell University's three original buildings, will be held Friday, Sept. 12, from 4 to 5 p.m. on the university's Arts Quad in front of White Hall. The $12 million restoration project, completed in January 2003, was a top funding priority for Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. White Hall's renovated space, redesigned to enhance interdisciplinary research and teaching, is now home to the Departments of Government and of Near Eastern Studies. (September 4, 2003)

Cornell engineering freshman class is 28 percent women
As instruction begins at Cornell University, the 734-strong incoming freshman class in the university's College of Engineering is 28 percent women. In just five years the percentage of undergraduate women in the college has risen to more than 25 percent from 19 percent. Nationally, engineering schools average 20 percent women undergraduates. Cornell's leadership also extends to women graduate engineering students (21 percent of the college's total students). And women engineering faculty members (about 13 percent of the total) places Cornell's engineering college close to the top among its peer institutions. Women professors head up two engineering departments: Paulette Clancy is director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Teresa Jordan is chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. (September 02, 2003)