The Essentials

As an undergraduate at Cornell, um, several years ago, I was on the “7-3” meal plan — that’s seven days a week, three meals a day. Taking advantage of the array of campus cuisine was, in itself, a highlight of my student experience (which might explain my membership in the “Freshman 15” club).

Lucky for me, Cornell meal plans aren’t just for students. A perhaps little-known fact: All faculty and staff are automatically enrolled in the Employee MEALChoice plan, designed exclusively for the adult contingent here at Cornell.

The plan works like a debit card — log on to the Web site to add money to your Cornell ID. Swipe your card at all Cornell Dining locations, campus vending machines with card readers and Ithaca-area restaurants that participate in City Bucks.

Here are the perks. You get:

- lunch for only $5 (Monday-Friday) at any All You Care to Eat locations on campus;

- 10 percent off all breakfast, lunch and dinner purchases at all retail restaurant locations;

- 10 percent off all breakfast and dinner purchases at any of the All You Care to Eat locations on campus;

- City Bucks discounts – Specially priced entrees and promotions at participating Ithaca eateries.

- Anne Ju

Getting a black belt doesn’t always have to do with martial arts.

For the first time this year, Cornell students getting a degree in systems engineering, an interdisciplinary field that deals with how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed, can receive a black belt in a program called Six Sigma.

A business management strategy that originated with Motorola, Six Sigma now has applications in all sectors of industry. Its goal is to create superior products through identification and removal of defect causes and variability.

Some fast facts about Six Sigma Black Belts:

- They save companies approximately $230,000 per project (Six Sigma Academy).

- Trained and certified Six Sigma Black Belts can earn up to $38,000 more than their uncertified counterparts (iSixSigma Magazine).

- U.S.-based Six Sigma Black Belts earn an average of $100,592 (iSixSigma Magazine).

Students getting their systems engineering degree via distance learning can also access the certification course.

For more information email Michelle Dean or call 607-254-8998.

- Anne Ju

Cornell is among the best schools in the country when it comes to library, campus food and career placement services, according to the 2010 edition of the Princeton Review’s annual college guide “The Best 371 Colleges.”
Cornell placed sixth in libraries; ninth in campus food; and 15th in career services.

Princeton Review is a private company in New York City known for its services to help students with the college application process. Its 62 ranking lists are based on surveys of 122,000 students (approximately 325 per campus) at the 371 schools in the book during the 2008-09 and/or previous two school years. The 80-question survey asks students about their school’s academics, administration, campus life, student body and themselves.

The Cornell Baja Team is giving people glimpses of its off-road adventures as members tweet from the road during two remaining competitions this year.

The Baja Team, which designs and builds an off-road vehicle that can survive the punishment of rough terrain and water, is fulfilling a lofty goal of entering three competitions this year, and members have decided to keep people updated on their progress via Twitter. The first contest took them to Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Alabama. May 7-10; they’ll also be tweeting from Baja SAE Oregon, and June 11-14, from Baja SAE Wisconsin.

Follow them here: http://twitter.com/CUBaja

For team information: http://baja.mae.cornell.edu/

The Merrill Family Sailing Center on East Shore Drive is finished – giving the Cornell Sailing Team, sailing physical education classes, summer sailing camps and the Cornell Community Sailing Program a new home beginning this summer.

The 5,466-square-foot facility on East Shore Drive overlooking Cayuga Lake features two levels, an expansive deck, classrooms, a wet lab for research, locker rooms and more.

The late Phil Merrill ‘55, his wife Eleanor Merrill, and their three children – Doulgas Merrill ‘89, MBA ‘91, Catherine Merrill Williams ‘91 and Nancy Merrill ‘96 – made the lead gift to the facility.

The Cornell Community Sailing Program, which is open to the public, welcomes novices and experienced sailors.  For a monthly fee, members can sail as often as they like, with access to 26 sailboats, from 14 feet to 26 feet. The season starts June 1. For information, call 607-277-9307.

The Merrill Family Sailing Center will formally be dedicated May 9 at a 5:30-7:30 p.m. reception and ceremony.

A video tour of the facility is online at: www.sailgroove.org/videos.

The 4-H Urban Outreach Program at West Village is looking for volunteers from May 4 to June 11 to provide assistance in the operations of its afterschool program, including helping kids with reading, homework and a variety of other activities.

The outreach program is part of the Raising Education Attainment CHallenge (REACH) program at the Cornell Public Service Center, a student-run initiative committed to serving academic and social needs in schools and communities around Cornell.

Interested? Contact 4-H Urban Outreach Program manager Matt Yaeger at mry7@cornell.ed.

The Ithaca-based Center for Environmental Sustainability will hold an Earth Day (April 22) planning meeting March 16 in Room A, Cornell Cooperative Extension, 615 Willow Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. All are welcome. Information: Joey 607-351-0664 or earthdayithaca@yahoo.com.

Timothy DeVoogd, professor of psychology and neurobiology at Cornell, visited Santiago, Chile, Jan. 11-14 to learn about progress in Chile’s science and technology development. DeVoogd was appointed a 2008 Jefferson Science fellow by the U.S. Department of State to work full time for one year in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. He travels extensively to Latin America to promote science and technology education and entrepreneurship through collaboration with U.S. universities.

Now in its 45th year of operation, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places – a designation strongly supported by the government of Puerto Rico and by scientists, who hope will gain recognition for the ultra-sensitive radio telescope and help it survive impending budget cuts.

The listing, released by the National Park Service, cites the National Science Foundation-owned observatory as the world’s largest single-dish radio astronomy telescope, capable of examining phenomena that occur as close as three kilometers (about two miles) above the Earth’s atmosphere and as far away as 10 billion light years, at the very edge of the discernable universe.

“The contribution of the Arecibo Radio Telescope to the human knowledge of space is, literally, beyond this world,” the document notes, “[and it] remains unmatched in its sensitivity and versatility for radio studies of the atmosphere, the solar system and the universe.”

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the register is administered by the National Park Service, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Cornell Outdoor Education’s Hoffman Challenge Course (HCC) has a new solar photovoltaic system that powers its lighting, computers, audiovisual technology and a small refrigerator. The system enables HCC facilities to be used at night. The photovoltaic cells generate up to 2,000 watt hours per day, three days a week, year-round and has the potential to expand. Students, alumni, the Ithaca community and the Cornell administration collaborated on the project, which seeks to raise $6,000 in gifts. Contact Todd Miner at tm49@cornell.edu or 607-255-8004.