Cornell Blog: An unofficial blog about Cornell University

One important fact about Cornell–and most other instititutions of higher learning–is that they will harass you for every dime and nickel before you attend (financial aid), while you’re there (”student activity” fees), and after you graduate (alumni affairs donations). The latest to hit my inbox is an appeal from Martin Tang ‘70 of the Cornell University trustees:

The main appeal is that he is offering a 25:1 maximum leverage on your donation. If you donate $1, Martin Tang will donate $25 to your alma mater:

If you make a gift now at www.giving.cornell.edu/give, I will give $25 to support the Annual Fund for undergraduate scholarships.

To maximize this, simply go and donate $1 recurring for 1 year, and realize a $52 donation for Cornell. If all of the class of 2006 (3238 students) donate $2, Cornell would get the whopping sum of $168,376, thanks to the power of trustee leverage!

Kitsch magazine just put an article called Inside the Hub which no doubt evokes fond memories for all of you. It explores the internal private file sharing network that exists at Cornell as a DC++ hub server, and includes a selected quote from yours truly:

Elliott Bäck, a Cornell alumnus whose once-controversial campus blog I previously profiled in this magazine, collected data on the hub before graduating and last September posted to his blog an analysis. Bäck found over 19 terabytes comprising about 2.5 million different files shared between more than a thousand users at any given moment. (Apple’s popular—and legal—iTunes store currently has more than 6 million songs, but not even close to the over 200 thousand video files on DC++ at any one time.)

Unfortunately, the article is also heavily pro-administration and pro-RIAA, with a few ridiculous statements like:

• “When presented with a court-ordered subpoena, Cornell has little choice but to hand over this information.”
• “[A]ll Cornell can do is step back and stay as uninvolved as possible in the conflict between the entertainment industry and students.”
• “Mitrano says she has processed over 1,000 takedown notices.”

Nowhere in this article do they suggest that these things are in fact bad. For example, Cornell is able to block copyright holders from identifying alleged music pirates by filing a motion to block or quash the subpoena. Cornell also could, like Professor Charles Nesson at Harvard, actively refuse to help the RIAA’s police mission. As he points out, the purpose of a University is to teach, not enforce an archaic notion of copyright.

I’m disappointed that Rob didn’t quote my response to one of questions:

(4) As you acknowledged in your coverage, the RIAA has not sued a Harvard student yet. Is there anything Cornell can do to protect its students?

Fire Tracy Mitrano. Instead of writing memos like www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/dcplus.html when she receives a request to police the Cornell LAN, she could write a letter categorically refusing to do so, as is the University’s right under the safe-harbour provisions of the DMCA.

It was designed to spark a little outrage and to highlight the fact that she’s not doing her job, unless her salary is coming from the RIAA and MPAA. Note that I am not a lawyer, and in no way this post should constitute any sort of legal advice.

Update: Hurray, I’ve been misquoted by Tracy Mitrano who writes in today’s Sun that “a DC++ posting”–hey we call that a blog entry–concludes with the statement “Fire Mitrano”–which as you can see it does not. It actually concluded with “Fire Tracy Mitrano,” an error so severe given the ready access to the source material above, that I’m not surprised the article offers no insight into what happens when Cornell actually receives a subpoena, or what Cornell is doing to protect its students from predatory lawsuits.

I was reading Mao Ye’s dismal exhortation to the new freshman class when I realized that it doesn’t actually offer any insight into what being a Cornell student is. Ignoring for a moment the egregious abuse of style and grammar, One University, One Dream does little more than arrogantly brag about the author’s personal successes and throw down a few pseudo-politically correct platitudes about diversity and inclusiveness. The following is representative:

Last year, I was preparing to be interviewed by the Chinese Central TV station, the biggest TV station in China. I struggled with how to best express Ezra’s dream to millions of Chinese audience members. At last, I came to an epiphany: I could use two famous quotes related to the ancient Chinese thinker Confucius.

I wonder why Mao didn’t paint a more realistic picture of Cornell University, balancing his glowing report with such facts as:

• Only 85% of freshmen will graduate within four years, and your chances are lower if you’re not white or asian ^src
• We’re not the best university in the US, just the 12th best ^src
• There’s crime; more than you might think in a place where you should feel safe ^src
• Ithaca is in the middle of nowhere; it gets old fast ^src
• Your grades are inflated ^src, especially if you’re not in engineering ^src
• Harvard’s endowment grew in the last year by the size of ours ^src
• The only well-read college newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun, is a hack ^src

There are also tons of positives (without citation):

• Cornell is beautiful and large
• Many of the faculty are world-renown in their fields
• TAs are plentiful and eager to help
• You can get involved in hundreds of clubs or research groups from day 1
• There are about 3,000-4,000 others in your class to meet

So freshmen, welcome to Cornell University. Enjoy the people, your courses, Ithaca, our beautiful campus, hotelies, the gorges, dining halls, fraternities & sororities, west campus, our lovely c-town, the (relatively) new starbucks, allnighters, and the craziness. Expect a few highly publicized crimes/suicides/eco-protests/scandals, and make sure to fit in time for your education (that’s why you’re there, right?) in between playing xbox with the dudes and beer pong.