ELynah Forum

Looking forward to my first trip to The Whale and visiting Yale's campus for the first time. My girlfriend and I will be traveling from sunny Buffalo and I'm excited because it's her first Men's Hockey experience. (When she was on East Hill she somehow only made it to a Women's Hockey game.) Will there be any gathering of Cornellians before or after the game? And any recommendations for dinner?

LGR!

For anybody interested in cultivating some Big Red spirit and a fun little list-making exercise, MetaEzra is running a holiday contest on 'the 161 things every Cornell alumna/us must do'. Contest details can be found on the website. You're welcome to suggest some items on eLynah, but you will only be considered for the contest if you submit through the email posted on the website.

Have some fun, and thanks for your help!

Matt

http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/11/metaezra_holiday_contest_161_t.shtml

Quote from: RobertSchurFor those curious, the computers didn't crash this morning!  Instead, by 6:31, I was saving my confirmation and going back to bed.  We'll see how Friday ends up

How did it end up?

Although it does look like somebody with a quasi-Cornell connection will end up in Edmonton.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Oilers+sign+Swiss+national+coach/3344717/story.html

Quote from: ugarteThe fundraiser has a history of allegations of fraud and mismanagement. sigh

The fundraiser's daughter, Natasha (Cornell '05), was a wonderful human being. She is missed.

Quote from: ajh258It's a horrible space for an additional building - not enough parking space and a bit removed from the Eng Quad. They could have spent the money rebuilding the Eng Library or renovating Olin Hall (Chem Eng) and then renamed it after Gates if he wanted to. I don't see how we need more space considering Duffield was just built and more Engs stay in their rooms anyways.

Right, because the only people who use these buildings are undergraduates.

Quote from: Kyle Rose

Quote from: CUontheslopesA sad day. Its becoming increasingly clear that if we want to compete on a national level in athletics, the athletic dept. is going to have to increase the endowments for some key coaching positions, e.g. basketball and lacrosse so we don't just become a coaching conduit for other schools. It's incredibly frustrating to lose coaches to other schools. I understand the money was probably key and an opportunity for his wife to coach, but damn you Cornell, fire the field hockey coach to keep Tambroni. Who the hell cares about field hockey? Go ahead, jump on me. I don't care and I don't care about women's athletics in the slightest. Obviously no one else at Cornell does either since field hockey draws about 14 non-family fans a match.

As unpopular as most of the women's teams are spectator-wise, spectators are the least important aspect of collegiate athletics.  Sports are about the players' personal development: giving a team a crappy coach simply so that coach's husband will remain on-campus is about the most insulting notion I can imagine.

QuoteAfter Donahue's departure, I consoled myself with the notion that at least we wouldn't lose Tambroni because lacrosse isn't a big money sport like basketball. Turns out I was wrong. The Ivy League really really really needs a TV contract of some sort to get SOME money into the athletic budgets so we could get a little bit more $$$ to keep our coaches.

I think you've got that backward: someone would have to pay a TV station $$$ to carry the Ivy League's crappy games.  Tell me: did you fail basic economics, or simply skip that class?

Wait, did Kyle and I just agree about something?

QuoteLastly, you're right about the $200k example, I was exaggerating. I just wished people at Day had a bit more guts to make changes rather than sticking to the status quo. It's an oft observe shortfall of groups and bureaucracies.

I think Day Hall would have the guts to make more changes if they controlled more of the money. Right now everything but Arts and Engineering is like a separate little financial fiefdom, and you get bizarre outcomes like the Hotel School hiring yet another professor of hospitality marketing while the Arts college continues to cut already bare-bones programs in theatre or foreign languages. The budget model Day Hall is proposing would hopefully change some of this.

Quote from: Kyle Rose

Quote from: ajh258As an ILRie, I see this as an HR problem. If we maintain our current policies, Cornell will merely be a funnel for other institutions who are willing to pay higher salaries for more achieved faculty.

A lot of the problem is one of the very things that many of us love about Cornell: Ithaca.  Unless Cornell is willing to fund the founding of 3 or 4 other tier B and C colleges in the immediate vicinity, top-notch faculty/coaches with, uh... shall we say "less-achieved" spouses will always have an easier time finding an ideal situation elsewhere.  No one flees from Cornell to Dartmouth: when they leave for a better offer, they go to cities.

The dual-career problem is a really good point. Sometimes I wish that Ithaca was a Madison or Charlottesville-sized city with better employment options that didn't revolve around the higher-education industry. Want to start a high-tech firm in Ithaca, Kyle?

Quote from: Kyle Rose

Quote from: mnagowskithe provost starts talking about moving AEM out of the Ag School to better not only business education on campus but also the Ag School's appeal to students interested in natural resources and the environment

Off-topic, but I'm interested in this end of the story, because what you wrote doesn't make any sense to my mind without backing context.  Can you provide a link?  I was unable to find anything that didn't relate to the $25M donation.

http://www.metaezra.com/archive/2010/06/fuchs_and_skorton_did_not_want.shtml

QuoteAs an ILRie, I see this as an HR problem. If we maintain our current policies, Cornell will merely be a funnel for other institutions who are willing to pay higher salaries for more achieved faculty.

It is an HR problem or an athletic policies problem?

QuoteA lot of our funding are wasted in the unnecessarily-bureaucratic nature of this institution, and the administration moves too slowly to correct these structural errors. I really hope someone wakes up in Day hall next semester and do something about this rather than just sitting behind a desk, answering phone calls from 9 to 4, and then taking home a $200k paycheck.

I'm not certain if there's a structural error in athletics funding. Cornell as an institution clearly does not want to devote the resources that the Big 10 or the ACC have pledged to athletics. That's why the Ivy League was created, after all. And frankly, I agree with these policies. I don't think Cornell gets all that much more out of having a Cornell-caliber lacrosse team as opposed to a UVa-caliber lacrosse team. To pay Tambroni half a million dollars a year (or Donahue a million dollars a year) would be a waste of money, in my opinion, relative to the faculty, student aid, or research support the University should be investing. Of course, if you would like to provide the multi-million dollar endowment to see Tramboni stay here, that's another story.

I don't disagree with you that there are some major structural errors with Cornell's administration. But it's a lot more complicated than it appears at first glance. Witness what happened last week -- the provost starts talking about moving AEM out of the Ag School to better not only business education on campus but also the Ag School's appeal to students interested in natural resources and the environment, and then boom! -- $25 MM to keep AEM in the Ag School.

I highly doubt anybody in Day Hall is making $200k a year just to answer phone calls. The senior administration really hustles.

QuoteI hope our two high profile coaching losses will turn some of those heads who think we can easily compete nationally in any sport. The same kind of pressures we have getting and keeping coaches are reflected in recruiting.

Sadly, the same could be said about most top-performing faculty/staff at Cornell. I still was shocked when one of my favorite tenured professors bolted for an endowed chair at Michigan State.

Tambroni to Penn State? The fuck?

QuoteEvening 1

Ate dinner at the Antlers -- food was excellent. Recommend the place to anyone coming up for reunion.

fr
Glad to hear. Always concerned when I make a recommendation based on an experience from five years ago.

Reunion tomorrow night! I think we're going to kick the weekend off at Glenwood Pines.

Quote from: billhowardIt takes a while, sometimes a a year, to get over it.

Only a year?! I'm going on six.

Congratulations to Mitch, Elie, and the rest of the Class of 2010.

Edit: Quote box out of alignment.