University Raises Income Limit on No-Loan Aid; Symposium Marks Roald Hoffmann's 75th Birthday; Former Students Acquitted in Fraternity Alcohol Death; Hotel Dean Emeritus Dies at 91; Law School Expansion Breaks Ground; Schwarz Honored with Essay Book
The Ivy League has adopted recommendations, developed by a committee co-chaired by President David Skorton, to minimize concussion in football. The guidelines, which will take effect this season, include limits on the number of full-pad/contact practices and more stringent postgame review of helmet-to-helmet and targeted hits. There will also be increased emphasis on educating student-athletes on such issues as proper tackling technique, concussion symptoms, and the potential short- and long-term costs of repetitive brain trauma. "It is important for our student-athletes to not only recognize symptoms of concussion in themselves and their teammates but to also understand the severity of such injuries and the need to relay that information to medical personnel," Skorton says. "Our goal is to emphasize that a concussion is a serious injury that requires immediate and proper treatment, including physical and cognitive rest, to promote healing."
University Raises Income Limit on No-Loan Aid
In July, the University announced a number of "adjustments to the financial aid program." The most notable change was an increase in the family income limit for no-loan aid. This had been set at $60,000, but will be raised to $75,000 for students matriculating in 2013 and after. The change does not affect current students. Administrators stated that the adjustments were necessary to ensure the "long-term sustainability" of the financial aid program. Under the new guidelines, students with family income of less than $60,000 will have no loan requirements and no required parental contribution. For those in the $60,000 to $75,000 family-income bracket, financial aid packages will include loans that are capped at $2,500 per year. According to University sources, need-based financial aid grants benefit more than 50 percent of current undergraduates and the percentage taking out loans has decreased from 43 to 34 since 2007.
Symposium Marks Roald Hoffmann's 75th Birthday
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffmann was fêted on his seventy-fifth birthday in July with a two-day symposium in his honor. Hoffmann, the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus, has been on the Cornell faculty since 1965; he received the Nobel in 1981. In addition to his work in theoretical chemistry, Hoffmann—a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the U.S. and attended high school and college in New York City—has written essays, poetry collections, science books for laymen, and a play about the discovery of oxygen. The weekend event, held in Baker Lab, featured chemistry demonstrations as well as talks by Hoffmann, Rhodes, and others. "From your earliest days," Rhodes said in a video tribute, "you have literally done everything."
Former Students Acquitted in Fraternity Alcohol Death
Three former students have been acquitted of all charges in the alcohol-related death of George Desdunes '13. In a bench trial in Tompkins County Court, former Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges Max Haskin '14, Ben Mann '13, and Edward Williams '14 were found not guilty of misdemeanor hazing and providing alcohol to a minor; the fraternity chapter, which did not offer a defense, was convicted on all counts. A fourth student was also charged, but due to his status as a minor his case was disposed of separately and the outcome has not been disclosed.
According to criminal court documents, Desdunes had a blood alcohol content of .35 when he was taken to the hospital after a custodian found him unresponsive on a fraternity house couch. The nineteen-year-old Brooklyn resident had allegedly participated in a mock kidnapping ritual in which pledges "abducted" him and another brother, bound them, and required them to drink if they gave wrong answers to questions about fraternity trivia. The accused students have since left the University, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon has been banned from campus for at least five years. Desdunes's mother has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the national fraternity, its Cornell chapter, and more than a dozen of its members.
Hotel Dean Emeritus Dies at 91
Robert Beck '42, PhD '54, dean emeritus of the Hotel school, died July 31. He was ninety-one. Beck served as dean for two decades starting in 1961, years which saw significant institutional growth including the doubling of its undergrad enrollment. Current dean Michael Johnson calls him "one of the most beloved figures in the history of our school." A World War II veteran, Beck lost a leg in the invasion of Normandy. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1954; in 2004, the school named an addition to Statler Hall the Beck Center in honor of him and his late wife, Jan. He is survived by three daughters.
Law School Expansion Breaks Ground
At Reunion, the Law School broke ground on an underground expansion—the first phase of a $60 million project. The addition, hoped to be completed by 2014, will comprise two classrooms and a 170-seat auditorium. Later phases will include the reconfiguration of the law library and the conversion of the residential Hughes Hall into offices and meeting spaces. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Dean Stewart Schwab noted that since Myron Taylor Hall's dedication in 1932, the school has more than tripled its faculty and student numbers and now hosts various research centers, institutes, visiting scholars, and exchange students. "We're bursting at the seams from all this activity," Schwab said, "and we need to expand our facility." The addition will be the campus's third underground structure, following the Cornell Store and Kroch Library. In June, the Law School announced one of the largest gifts in its history, $25 million from an anonymous donor to expand endowment support for faculty research, student aid, and other programs.
Schwarz Honored with Essay Book
English professor Daniel Schwarz has been honored with a festschrift, an essay collection marking his contributions as a teacher and scholar. Reading Text, Reading Lives: Essays in the Tradition of Humanistic Cultural Criticism in Honor of Daniel R. Schwarz was published in the U.S. by the University of Delaware Press and in the U.K. by Rowman and Littlefield. Schwarz, who joined the Cornell faculty in 1968, has won the Arts college's Russell Award for distinguished teaching and was named a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow in 1999. "Working on the festschrift was a true labor of love for me and an appreciation for all Dan Schwarz has done for countless people through his teaching, mentoring, and teaching-oriented scholarship," says co-editor Daniel Morris, a former student. "It is mind-blowing to me when I think about all the students Dan has influenced through his teaching and writing."