A new study of upstate New York's economy by three Cornell University faculty members confirms that the region continues to lag behind much of the rest of the nation and, as a result, is losing its best and brightest young people to regions with more better-paying jobs in vibrant urban centers. The only bright spots in the otherwise bleak report are higher education and health care. The report quantifies how the region has never fully rebounded from the deindustrialization that began in the 1970s and continues to the present. Today, upstate remains far behind the national average in income and job growth, with average wages rising little more than 2 percent from 1980 to 2000, compared with 15 percent in the rest of the nation. However, the report also shows that jobs in the region are beginning to diversify -- a positive change. The researchers call for concerted state policy efforts backed by federal support to spur further economic health. (March 18, 2004)
About 300 people who run the world's reigning hotels and restaurants will be guests at the world's largest teaching hotel this April 1-4. Many of them also got their first training at that hotel, the Statler, which is linked to Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. For current Cornell Hotel School students, the 79th annual Hotel Ezra Cornell is the defining event of their undergraduate experience. In addition to showcasing their culinary and presentation skills, the extravaganza includes educational panels on pressing issues in the hospitality industry. It also offers students an opportunity to network with the executives while running both a hotel and a major conference themselves. (March 17, 2004)
Cornell University has been awarded a $300,000, three-year grant to generate public-private sector links that will bolster agricultural productivity, exports and rural incomes in India. The grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was awarded through the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development. Cornell will implement two development programs. First the university will offer a course, Agriculture in Developing Nations: India, in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years. Cornell also will develop an executive development program in agricultural business management. (March 17, 2004)
99th KILOMETER MARKER, ISRAEL/JORDAN BORDER -- Flying over this 150-acre speck in the desert, it is possible to imagine a near-perfect circle ringed by two green arcs. Approach by land, and imagine the arcs enlarging to groves of olive trees, a spiraling tower behind them. After it is completed, in about five years, the tower eventually will be home to the world's most advanced database, the Library of Life. The entire complex itself, called the Bridging the Rift Center (BTR), will be a symbol in the desert between Israel and Jordan, seeking, as its name indicates, to create a bridge between two divided societies. (March 16, 2004)
The hot topic of gay marriage in the United States will be the focus of a debate at Cornell University between two noted advocates on opposite sides of the issue. Elizabeth Birch, attorney and former executive director of the Human Rights Campaign, and Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, will square off on the subject April 6 at 8 p.m. in the Statler Auditorium. The debate is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and they will be available beginning March 16 at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office, on campus. (March 15, 2004)
Cornell University experts predict that the 103rd dragon spawned on campus will emerge from its lair Thursday, March 18, and they have issued a dragon warning and road-closure alert. Vehicular access to central campus will be restricted from 12:30 to approximately 3:30 p.m. Buses could be rerouted or delayed when the dragon emerges from its lair in Rand Hall at approximately 1 p.m. The dragon will travel east on University Avenue, then south on East Avenue, then west on Campus Road. It will lumber through Ho Plaza and enter the Arts Quad, between Uris and Olin libraries, before proceeding to the south side of Rand Hall. (March 15, 2004)
Why do autistic children avoid eye contact? What makes airline pilots steer the wrong way between the runway and the terminal? How did an International Space Station astronaut help explain why the horizon moon appears larger than the zenith moon? And whatever happened to the scientific discipline, the psychophysics of climate? More than two dozen questions like these, some nearly as old as the Society of Experimental Psychologists (SEP) itself, might finally find answers when researchers gather for the organization's 101st meeting, March 18-20, at Cornell University's Ithaca campus. (March 12, 2004)
Farmers caught in the middle -- between the recent federal ban against "downer" animals in the human food chain, as ordered by the United Stated Department of Agriculture, and rising costs for disposing of cattle that can't walk to slaughter -- now have a practical and economical alternative, according to waste-management experts at Cornell.
As gay couples rush to the altar and the White House backs a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriages, a poll by Cornell University researchers shows that voters who favor gay marriage tend to be young, educated and earn a comfortable living. And they tend to watch CNN. Voters who oppose gay marriage are usually older, less educated, vote Republican and are not as wealthy. And they tend to watch Fox News. (March 11, 2004)
More than half the urban teenagers surveyed in a study by a Cornell researcher say they feel disconnected from their community. The reasons for this come, in part, from feeling discriminated against by unknown adults on the streets, in businesses and by the police.
Cornell and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have signed an agreement committing the two institutions to collaborate on the planning for a 25-meter infrared telescope high in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.
The Cornell Board of Trustees will meet in Ithaca, March 10-12. The full board will have a brief open session beginning at 9 a.m. Friday, March 12, in B09 Sage Hall on the Cornell campus.
