Cornell in the National News, December 23, 2005
Tuesday December 27, 2005 Category: News Permanent Link
The following is a sampling of recent major news stories courtesy of the University Press Office.
NYC Transit Workers Persevere in Strike
NPR Morning Edition, December 22
Nancy Solomon (reporter): Harry Katz, dean of the Industrial and Labor Relations school at Cornell University says public employees in New York have a history of militancy that has served the union movement well. He says the New York teachers strike in 1960 came at a time when municipal employees were largely unorganized. It set the stage for unionization of public employees across the country.
Katz: New York gets enormous attention—there’s also a large membership here of unionized workers. It’s a tough strike and I wouldn’t be surprised if the repercussions go beyond New York City and even New York state.
Bird Flu Victims Die After Drug Resistance
Associated Press (picked up by major broadcast and print outlets nationwide including the New York Times and the Washington Post), December 21
In a development health experts are calling alarming, two bird flu patients in Vietnam died after developing resistance to Tamiflu, the key drug that governments are stockpiling in case of a large-scale outbreak.
Dr. Anne Moscona, a flu expert at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, called the deaths frightening and said they demonstrate the dangers of hoarding drugs.
“People who stockpile will naturally share or take drugs at the wrong dose, and that’s really a bad idea,” said Moscona, who wrote an accompanying commentary in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Waste More, Want More
New York Times, December 22
In his regular Times column, the Johnson School’s Robert Frank discusses tax cuts and spending behavior.
“…paying more than the market rate is just one form of wasteful spending. Another, often far more important, form is to pay a fair price for something that serves little purpose. This second form of waste is considerably more common in private spending than in public spending—and made even worse as the chief beneficiaries of the tax cuts race to outdo one another.”
“On balance, there is little reason to expect large tax cuts for wealthy families to have resulted in a more efficient allocation of our nation’s scarce resources.”
Where Are the Voices of College Presidents?
The Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 21
Article about university leaders offering their input about intelligent design quotes President Rawlings.
Cornell University’s interim leader, Hunter R. Rawlings III, was blunt, devoting his state of the university address to the subject. “Intelligent design is a religious belief masquerading as a secular idea. It is neither clearly identified as a proposition of faith nor supported by other rationally based arguments,” he said.
Cornell Funds Professorship with Bombing Settlement
Newsday, December 20
Cornell University is using a $3.8 million settlement from the Libyan government to establish an endowed professorship in memory of a student who died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Birders Continue Search for Elusive Ivory Bill Woodpecker
Associated Press (picked up by major broadcast and print outlets nationwide including the New York Times and CBS News), December 18
Each morning, Sara Barker wakes before dawn, covers herself with camouflage and makes sure she has her compass before heading into the eastern Arkansas swamps. Her quest: the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.
Barker and fellow scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology plan to comb thousands of acres this winter, while leafless trees allow good viewing, looking for a roost, a nesting hole or any other evidence of the woodpecker’s existence. Their days stretch from before dawn to the “magic hour,” just before dusk, when the birds are believed to be most active.
College Counselors Find New Ways to Help
Associated Press (picked up by major print outlets including the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer), December 16
Janie Cisneros was having a crisis and needed to talk to a counselor. But there would be no embarrassing or intimidating visit to the campus clinic.
Instead, Sigrid Frandsen-Pechenik took Cisneros to the mall, where they had coffee and talked in English and Spanish.
Many students choose not to ask for help, counselors say. So Frandsen-Pechenik, the assistant director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University, is part of a national effort to take counseling out of the office and closer to students.
When Databases Leak
Chronicle of Higher Education, December 16
Article about the legal issues surrounding secure information breaches on campuses quotes Cornell’s Tracy Mitrano.
“There’s a lot of up-in-the-air legal questions,” says Tracy Mitrano, director of information technology policy at Cornell University and co-chair of a of a committee on law and policy and run by Internet2 and Educause. She says much of the confusion may be resolved only in the courts.
Ms. Mitrano is among those advising colleges to take stock of the confidential data they have on computers and networks and develop policies for protecting the data and for informing people if the information falls into the wrong hands.
State Law’s Threat Looms over Transit Union
Newsday, December 12, 2005
Article about risks the transit union faces by striking quotes Cornell’s Lee Adler.
[The current union president, Roger] Toussaint is well aware of the risks he runs if there is a strike this year, but that does not mean there won’t be one, according to Lee Adler, who teaches public sector labor law at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
“Still, labor leaders like Mr. Toussaint—fully aware that the law carries these penalties—at times have decided that leadership of their union requires actions that might trigger these harsh steps,” Adler said in an interview.
“What neither the MTA, the city nor the public knows is whether Mr. Toussaint and his members believe that this is one of those times,” Adler said.
