When it comes to fraternity drinking, following the leader can be a dangerous game, a new study shows. Leaders of fraternities, and to a lesser extent leaders of sororities, tend to be among the heaviest drinkers and the most out-of-control partiers.
Child care is such an important industry to New York state -- generating billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and allowing hundreds of thousands of parents to work -- that it should be part of the state's economic development strategy, a new report from a Cornell researcher recommends.
A new book by a Cornell authority on early Islamic law shows that Muslim societies today have grown out of a rational, balanced legal tradition dating back at least to the 14th century. The book, Law, Society and Culture in the Maghrib, 1300-1500, by David Powers, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies in Cornell's Department of Near Eastern Studies, has just been published by Cambridge University Press as part of that publisher's series on Islamic civilization. Powers' book suggests that Islamic law as it was applied in the 14th and 15th century involved reasoned thought and argument by Muslim judges and jurists, who were highly sensitive to society and culture and how the law shaped, and was shaped by both. That finding refutes claims by an earlier generation of Western scholars who asserted that Islamic law lacked a body of legal doctrine and was, therefore, irrational. It also calls into question the popular assumption that Islamic legal practice can only be extremist. (November 08, 2002)
As part of Cornell's Africa Initiative, students at Weill Cornell Medical College organized a forum on neglected diseases that included some of the most important names in global health. (Feb. 23, 2007)
"Sex in the Stacks: A Zwickler Memorial Symposium on Sexuality and the Archives" will be held in Cornell University's Kroch Library Saturday, Sept. 28, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the library's Level 2B. It is free and open to the public. Phil Zwickler Memorial Research Grants, made possible by support from the Phil Zwickler Charitable and Memorial Foundation, have been awarded for the first time this year to provide financial assistance to scholars conducting research on sexuality with sources in Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The first two Zwickler fellows -- Professor Leisa D. Meyer, College of William and Mary, and Professor William B. Turner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee -- have done extensive research with Cornell's Human Sexuality Collection this summer. Additional funding for Meyer was provided through Cornell Law Professor Martha Fineman's Dorothea S. Clarke fund. Meyer, Turner and a panel of scholars will report on their research findings during the symposium and discuss the practicalities and theoretical considerations involved in conducting original research in human sexuality. (September 26, 2002)
Morris Dees, founder and director of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a noted fighter against violent hate groups, will deliver the keynote address for a conference on religion and human rights Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel.
Members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and Cornell University Council will arrive on campus Oct. 7, for Cornell's annual Trustee/Council Weekend.
President David Skorton recently returned from a 10-day, four-city tour of India, seeking to extend Cornell's mission as the world's land-grant university by building stronger bridges between Cornell and India, and to reinvigorate ties with alumni.
America's major research universities have enjoyed a long period of unprecedented success, but they are facing a rapidly changing environment in which higher education is becoming deregulated and subject to ever-increasing scrutiny, writes Frank H.T. Rhodes in his new book.