The Essentials

Black Students United, the umbrella organization for Cornell’s students of the African diaspora, has created multiple displays in three different library spaces across campus:

• In Mann Library’s lobby, exhibit cases illustrate the story of several African-American students at Cornell during the late 19th and early-20th centuries.
• In the Tower Room of Uris Library, a timeline traces famous inventors throughout black history.
• And in Olin Library, display cases across from the first-floor Current Periodicals Reading Room and outside the Maps & Media department on level B explain elements of African-American history on campus, with spotlights on the Africana Center, Ujamaa Residential College and more.

Also see highlights from the new Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections’ African-American photograph collection in the gallery space between Olin and Kroch libraries.

According to Uncle Ezra, about 8 percent of Cornellians marry each other.

Just in time for St. Valentine’s Day, a webpage collects stories of people falling in and out of love on the Hill.

Peruse entries (or submit your story) to find tales of romances begun in classes, work study jobs, dorms and co-ops and at Reunion; of serendipitous second meetings and fleeting glances that led to permanent couplings; and various stages of courtship played out against the backdrop of the Slope, Beebe Lake and Sage Chapel, site of numerous weddings where obstacles of different faith, race and national origin were overcome.

Despite battling two deadly cancers, a dog treated at the Vet College has become an emblem of hope for patients and pet owners facing terminal illness.

Hokey, a Belgian Tervuren, was top ranked in agility, obedience, herding and tracking when, in September 2009, lymph nodes across his body suddenly swelled.

Debra Eldredge ’76, DVM ’80, a retired veterinarian-turned-dog-trainer, brought Hokey to Cornell, where a biopsy revealed that Hokey had aggressive lymphoma, an immune-cell cancer with a median survival time of one year.

After chemotherapy, Hokey “earned the highest level title in agility that year. He especially loves tracking, and chemo can destroy the sense of smell,” Eldredge said. “Yet I had faith in Hokey’s abilities and we continued training.”

Hokey became the 280th Champion Tracker ever in the history of AKC, passing all the most difficult tests passed after chemotherapy. A certified therapy dog, Hokey has appeared at many cancer fundraisers. In April 2010 Freedom Guide Dogs named him Top Companion Dog.

In October 2011 Hokey developed a troubling sneeze. Eldredge found a cancerous tumor in the left side of his nose. Like the first cancer, this one had a one-year survival expectancy.

Hokey began a course of 19 daily radiation treatments using Cornell’s linear accelerator. After radiation and recovery from minor side effects to his eyes, Hokey returned home.

“He competed in obedience again this month and loves to be back to work,” Eldredge said. “His genetics must stink for him to get two cancers, but his love of life and healing powers are strong.”

Hokey has donated blood to the DNA bank at Cornell, where it will contribute to cancer research in dogs and humans.

If you missed last March’s festival to inaugurate the new baroque organ in Anabel Taylor Hall, you have another chance to hear some of the fabulous performances.

American Public Media’s program “Pipedreams” features Cornell’s baroque organ on this Sunday’s “Old Is New” program. Featured organists include Harald Vogel, Jacques van Oortmerssen, and Cornell professor of music David Yearsley, who will also perform with mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith and baroque flutist Steven Zohn.

Ithaca residents can listen on WSKG-FM Sunday, Feb. 12 a 6 a.m. or on WCNY-FM Sunday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Check for broadcasts in your area.

Arts and Sciences aficionados: Do you have a good idea for a digital collection?

Applications are now being accepted for the Grants Program for Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences, which helps faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences create new digital collections to enhance learning and teaching through online access to lecture notes, slides, photographs, printed documents and manuscripts. One of the goals of the grants program is to leverage information technologies to foster new ways of learning, creative expression and knowledge creation through interdisciplinary collaborations.

The program — funded by the college and coordinated by Cornell University Library — has helped faculty members digitize some of the university’s most interesting and rare collections, including ancient Greek and Roman coins and original hip-hop recordings. And the program has created original online repositories such as the Divine Comedy Image Archive. New digital collections will become part of Cornell’s digital library.

Feb. 17 is the deadline to express initial interest; proposals are due March 30. Awards will be announced at the end of May.

Read about the 2011 and 2010 projects and visit the DCAPS website for more information.

The Big Red Bear’s head, detached from its body, looked somewhat bemused, mouth slightly agape, on the carpeted floor of the Marriott Washington Wardman Park hotel. Actually, there was no body, just the empty suit of the costume laid flat. Cindy Marinaro ’12 was measuring it.

Marinaro, president of The Big Red Bears, is one of about a dozen students who share the role of Touchdown, the Big Red Bear, Cornell’s unofficial mascot. She was in D.C. to be the bear at the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference Jan. 27-29.

Terry Warren ’52, J.D. ’56, co-chair of his class’ reunion committee, had a special request for Marinaro: At his class’ 60th reunion in June, he wants the bear to play a big part in the festivities – decked out in a railroad conductor costume.

The Class of 1952’s Reunion theme is “All Aboard for Cornell.” Warren says the theme arises from the days  he and his classmates took the Lehigh Valley Railroad to campus.

Warren plans to outfit the bear in train engineer’s overalls, a railroading cap and red bandana. Marinaro was taking measurements for Warren to give to a costume design shop, which will create the costume.

“It’s important to know where the pants should start,” Marinaro said as she measured the back of the costume. This was the first request for a special outfit for the bear, she said, remarking that for a T-shirt, the bear’s size is XXXL.

Marinaro cautioned that a cap should have holes for the bear’s ears, and that it should be able to stay on when the bear is jumping around. “We rarely ever have headpieces put on,” she said.

The train theme is close to Warren’s heart. He met his wife, Dorothea Warren ’52, with whom he co-chairs their class’ reunion, on the train as they rode to Cornell from Penn Station.

– Joe Wilensky

A couple of weeks ago, Google Maps added the Cornell campus to its Street View feature. Now you – along with potential students, parents, alumni and whomever else – can get panoramic views of much of the Hill, from from West Campus to outer Tower Road and Beebe Lake to the Johnson Museum.

Three-wheel pedicabs topped with cameras capture the images, time stamped July 2009. Twenty-seven other U.S. campuses have gotten the Street View treatment; few look quite as good.

Cornell University Library is a newly minted member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an online collection of historic scientific literature.

Materials from Mann are joining nearly 100,000 digitized life science volumes already in the online repository, which boasts participants from Europe, Australia, China and the United States. Cornell University Library is the second academic institution to become a contributing partner (Harvard Libraries was the first).

Mann’s next BHL focus will be digitizing and adding Cornell’s entomology collection, which is one of the largest and finest in the world.

ILR’s Louis Hyman on American acquisition of debt in recent decades versus the postwar boom years.

The Sundance Film Festival winner “Hell and Back Again” has been nominated for a best documentary feature Oscar.

The story of an American soldier’s rocky return to civilian life after service in Afghanistan was directed by photojournalist turned filmmaker Danfung Dennis ’05, who studied applied economics and management at Cornell.

The film is set to air on the PBS series Independent Lens in May.