Comments for Wild Water at http://cornellalumnimagazine.com , comment 0 to 13 out of 13 comments http://cornellalumnimagazine.com Wed, 22 May 2013 16:45:36 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_227 This is the best article I have seen on the issue of gorge safety and recreational use and I also appreciate the comments students and alums contributed on this issue. I am the faculty advisor for Friends of the Gorge and hope to work with others in the Cornell and Ithaca community to promote stewardship, safety, and recreation in the gorges. We are engaged in trail work, educating students about safe use, and gorge planning efforts in collaboration with the City. In addition to the students, Cornell Plantations is a strong supporter of our efforts. Please contact me if you have any suggestions or interest in joining our efforts. - Marianne Krasny Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:03:46 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_84 I am so sad to read here about fences and designs for destruction. Swimming at the gorge was one of the things that made Cornell infinitely special for me, and surely many others. I don't know any other college campus in the world that is so blessed. As others have written, to take such a beautiful gift from God away from everyone seems a morally insupportable solution. There are more creative ways to improve safety around this natural wonder that has enriched the lives of students for well over a hundred years without generating any significant outcry. For instance, put very clear signs up at entrance to the falls area at the bottom stating the dangers (average of 1 unintended death per year, out of XXX swimmers), that swimming is at own risk, and particularly emphasizing to stay out during times of high water. It is better for students to gain in joy and experience in exercising sensible judgment than to pad the world around them, or drive them to other less fruitful activities such as sitting inside a fraternity house and drinking. - Adrian Robert Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:16:08 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_81 Without proper information, human nature tends to motivate people to find things out on their own. (If you don't believe me, ask Grandma Palin how well the "just don't do it" method of sex education has worked in her family.) For the well-being of its students, Cornell must initiate a comprehensive, manadatory Gorges Safety program for all incoming students, and endeavor to supply up to date information about the condition of the gorges to the wider community on a continuing basis. Ithaca is a community comprised of intelligent individuals. Let's give them the tools and the opportunity to use their good sense in potentially dangerous situations, rather than levying well-intentioned, but ultimately counter-productive legal threats, or worse yet, closing the gorges for good. Such a penalty driven approach to mitigating the risks of these outdoor gems, will simply serve to attract more people to the gorges in search of a now forbidden experience. Cornell's outdoor beauty is one of the characteristics that sets it apart from other excellent learning institutions. The gorges represent not just a unique recreational element of the Cornell experience, but a valuable teaching tool that professors would be loathe to lose. Its dangers should be exposed and heeded, not hidden. More enforcement won't do it, but more information may. - Jake Englander Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:26:55 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_78 Let's make a list of every potentially dangerous place, and put fences around them all. Let's make a list of every potentially dangerous activity, and then ban them all. Let's make a list of non-nutritious foods, and prohibit their consumption. Ultimately we should all live constantly in padded rooms - then our minders could keep us REALLY safe. We lament the passing of those who died, but this article should serve mainly to elevate our concern about power-hungry, self-righteous, "thou shalt not" bureaucrats who seek to control all human conduct. - Mike Elliott Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:11:31 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_77 Life is full of risks. No amount of policing or filling in of one spot will hinder those who insist on putting themselves in harm's way. One may mourn the passing of those who die there and even point out the numbers if one wishes to use education as a/the deterrent. It seems to me that we are reacting to a rarely occurring event as though it were an everyday hazard. - Eric Snyder Mon, 24 Nov 2008 19:08:54 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_75 I experienced the death of 2 classmates while at Cornell. One died of natural causes and the other's death was due to wreckless decisions. At the end of the day, we need to treat students like adults. The University nor the town of Ithaca should be blamed for the death of this student or others who died similarly because of lack of action. As long as warnings are clearly posted, students and others make their own decisions. - E. Moore Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:24:10 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_72 man. Some days at Cornell ( most days) the gorges were the only place of calm in a mad, mad, stressful world. If they had fenced them off back then, I might have jumped myself! - xine Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:31:19 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_69 No one wants to see anyone die at an early age. Also no one wants to see all youngsters suffer because one or two individuals were unlucky or unfortunate enough to have died in an unpredictable accident. I remember very fondly times spent swiming in the gorges. At a time when a twenty dollar bill was all I had for weekly expenses, a date going to the gorge and spliting a six pack was super. Also I remember that there was a hole in the falls that you could sit in and the water went over you while you sat there breathing with no problem but hearing all the power and violence of the falls. Then at your choosing you would shoot out over the edge of the falls and splash into the pool below. It was a natural water flume. When I came back to Cornell with my family 25 years after graduation, one of the first places I took my family was to the gorge under the suspension bridge to show them the beauty. Are you going to deny all future undergrads the joys of going to the gorge on a sunny spring day and enjoyng the sun and a swim in the fresh cool waters rushing through the gorge? If so, I can only say, I am glad I graduated in a different time. I remember a cool fresh spring day when Al Fressola, now the president of a prestigious psychological support practice in St. Louis, and I went down to the Gorge. We were determined to be the first swimmers in the Gorge that year. We went down the back paths and saw a very different Gorge. The stream still had small chunks of ice floating in it. Our thought was so what. We dove in, swam and enjoyed the thrill of being in a wild river. Every once in a while you want to challenge your toughness. There is no reason that other tough Cornellians should not be allowed to swim the gorges. How hard is it to let students use there own common sense when visiting the Gorge? Yes there may be a few accidents but there are accidents everywhere in life. In my mind, a part of being a Cornellian is not being the type of person who "goes to the gorges once" but who lives the idea of being able to challenge frontiers. That means feeling confident enough to enjoy the risk of the gorges and knowing enough to be able to master them at their worst. - Bill Miller 73 Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:06:56 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_68 Thank you so much for your story about gorge safety. Despite being an alumnus who swam in the gorges and the parent of a current student, I had no idea that fifteen people had died in the gorges since the year 2000. While an outdoor pool or shuttles to parks where swimming is permitted would certainly both benefit students, I believe that finding or forming a safe swimming place within the gorges would be a better solution. With our top-quality engineers and architects, there ought to be a way to wall off and fill in a suitable section for swimming and supply a lifeguard for summer session and early fall. The gorges are an integral part of Cornell's identity for current students and alumni alike. They should be a usable asset to the community, not a death trap to be fenced off. Dena Seifer Friedman, M.D. Class of 1978 - Dena Seifer Friedman Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:35:23 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_67 it has been a long time but in the summers of 1949 and 1950, i spent much time in the gorge swimming after class and after helping a chemistry grad student, keith shillington, in baker lab. keith has passed away now but was professor of chemistry at washington and lee university from the time of his doctorate till he died. tea that i made in a five gallon crock was served every afternoon and then we trooped down to the gorge to cool off and relax before taking off to do homework preparing for next day's class. i do not remember anyone being hurt swimming there, though during my 4 years there was an occasional death mostly considered a suicide. i cannot imagine that that much has changed in the water flow so maybe it has been the change in attitude. after all 60 years is a long time, though it does not really seem so to me. we did swim just below the suspension bridge crossing the gorge leading from my fraternity house on thurston ave to the campus. ellis glazier '51 - ellis glazier Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:25:58 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_66 The article states that 15 people have died swimming in the gorge since 2000. In order to put that number into context, we need to know how many people have survived their swimming experience. A percent here is more helpful than a count. An additional interesting piece of information might be how many undergraduates have died in car accidents in that interval. It is astonishing to me that as a society we are so tolerant of deaths caused by cars and never consider banning cars, but we do consider banning swimming. The obesity crisis in America may claim more lives than the gorge, and swimming is excellent exercise. - Veronica Vazquez Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:45:25 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_65 So sad to see Cornell attempting to fence off the gorges. This is ridiculous. You take a risk with whatever you do in life, be it walking across the street or swimming in fall creek gorge. Educate the students of the dangers and let them make their own decisions. - Will Stokes Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:47:13 +0100 http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=264&Itemid=9#pc_62 Great article! One minor nitpicky correction: you say "students in the Department of Natural Resources have created an organization called Friends of the Gorges." The organization's name has been decided on as the Friends of the Gorge (no s!) and it consists mainly of Nat Res kids (the advisor is Mariann Krasny, chair of the Nat Res Dept) but is an organization created and populated by, first and foremost, people concerned about the current state of Ithaca's natural wonders, the many gorges. In addition, Friends of the Gorge has been working with the ad hoc SA committee to produce a more comprehensive gorge safety video. - Evan Mulvihill Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:32:16 +0100