Author Archives: William Bennet Ford

Science vs. Religion?

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In a time where I believe that religion is coming under fire more frequently for supposedly inhibiting scientific progress I believe Professor Gregory Sloan’s discussion on the trial of Galileo was a refreshing change of pace. For me he brought to light many facts about that trial and the era that are not well publicized and not considered by critics of religion. Foremost among these was perhaps that the Church of the Medieval era was not, as many seem to believe, an institution that held back intellectual progress. To the contrary, as Professor Sloan stated, the Church was essentially the source of all intellectual progress at the time, as it funded almost all educational institutions and libraries. Another important point I thought he made was that the idea that the earth was the center of the universe did not have its origin in the Bible or the Church. In fact, it had been the idea of one of the most respected Ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle, and had only been applied to the Bible by a Christian philosopher centuries later. I also thought that his commentary on the recent scientific debates was particular insightful. Despite direct evidence of the harmfulness of Tobacco, CFC’s, and CO2 emissions, it has taken years for the public to accept them and Professor Sloan pointed out that this was due to not only those corporations that had a vested interest, but also human nature’s natural desire to not want their worldviews disrupted. Overall, I think that this talk brought up ideas that are important to recognize for both the religious and nonreligious when discussing the theme of Science vs. Religion.

A New Crisis for Europe

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The United States has probably experienced more immigration over the past 200 years than any other country, and as such, we are used to the debate around immigration and its positives and negatives. For Europe, however, the Syrian Refugee Crisis poses an immigration problem of unprecedented level in those countries and it is difficult to know exactly how Europeans feel about the issue and what it signifies for them. Therefore, for me, Professor Holly Case’s talk was particular valuable because of her ability to give perspective on this, at least from the point of view of Hungarians. One of the most intriguing things I thought she mentioned was the metaphor that has been used to sum up the spheres of thought on the issue, that of the Spaceship and the Life Raft. The idea of the Spaceship was that the fates of all people are tied to one another so it is best to share resources whereas the Life Raft represented the concept of a finite amount of resources and space that can either be shared among some people or none at all. Professor Case further added that the split between these two camps of thought had actually become so divisive that people were breaking off friendships because of differing views and no moderate view about the issue seemed to exist. In my opinion, while the people U.S. may have some similarities in the way they view immigration, the subject has not nearly been so divisive at least in recent years and described in terms of survival. I believe that it is perhaps not only the newness and scale of this issue in Europe that has driven people to these extreme viewpoints, but also the relative size of the problem. Whereas the U.S. is an enormous country that is very heterogeneous, each European country is relatively small and has a culture and people that have been there for millennia. Professor Case also remarked that most Syrians that arrive in Hungary usually do not stay there and most Hungarians do not actually come into contact with migrants, and yet the issue is still the most important topic in the country at the moment, signifying that this will most likely be an important issue for all Europeans for the foreseeable future.

Towering Above the Rest

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Walking into a dining hall is one of my favorite experiences on West Campus. The quality of silverware, plates, and napkins, the unique aesthetic and layout of each hall itself, and of course the amazing variety of food provided every day never fails to impress me. It was no surprise to me then to learn about all of the attention to detail paid by the Cornell Dining staff to each and every aspect of the dining experience and all of the accolades that have been awarded to the organization. Furthermore, I saw that the excellence in execution was matched in innovation through the various initiatives Cornell Dining has taken. Programs encouraging healthy and sustainable eating such as Menus of Change or Five Days of Five were particularly illustrative of that strength. However, the part of talk I really hope will stick with me is perhaps the beginning of the talk, during which Mr. Paul Muscente and Chef Daniel went over some of numbers reordered by Cornell Dining. 19,000 Meals served per day, adding up to 2.3 million in a third of a year, with 1200 full-time employees and 600 student employees. These numbers not only reminded me of the number of people in the Cornell community, but also the enormous amount of resources needed for all those people. For me these numbers make clear how each citizen doing his part to avoid waste can make an enormous change in the amount of resources we use if summed over the total population at Cornell. I only hope that this Rose House Café will serve as a reminder for me to continue to appreciate the great resources that Cornell Dining provides and to steward those resources as best I can.

The Blaschka Models: Art and Science

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It is always intriguing to discover different areas where liberal arts and science intersect and Professor Drew Harvell’s discussion and film, Fragile Legacy, about the Blaschkas’ glass models of marine life was no exception. Learning about the Blaschka models was really a unique experience for me as they were not really like anything I had seen before. While I had seen plenty of detailed paintings and sketches done of wildlife, I had never encountered a collection that had such a focus on exotic forms of marine life, all done in the form of delicate glass models. Considering also the degree of size of the collection, it was a remarkable achievement. What really struck me about the artwork was both how very unique the collection is in my opinion and how difficult it must have been to create something like that in the nineteenth century. Not only did the Blaschkas have to assemble these complex pieces from glass alone with the technology of that era, but also they must have spent a considerable amount of time and effort actually searching for the creatures and diagramming them in detail. Furthermore, when the film explained that the search to find many of the creatures depicted by the Blaschkas is ongoing, I was only more impressed with what already seemed like a herculean feat by the Blaschkas. The fact that we have not confirmed sightings of these creatures yet, while the Blaschkas were able to find them in the 1800’s without any advanced scuba diving equipment is astonishing. From my perspective, another incredible aspect of the story was that Cornell holds the biggest collection of these glass models in the world, commissioned by our first President, but after the early 1900’s they were forgotten about until relatively recently. Now that these incredible works of art are being rediscovered however, it seems that they have inspired people to seek out and protect some of the sea creatures that were common only 200 years ago and now appear to be rare or gone. Overall, learning about these glass models was a real pleasure and as the professor said, the magnificence of invertebrate creatures can only truly be captured with glass models and I look forward to appreciating that when they are put on display in the Johnson Museum.

West Campus: The Right Balance

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Despite the unfortunate weather, I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Garrick Blalock’s Behind the Scenes at Rose House tour this past weekend. From the history lesson about the university and the life of its founder, to the many features of Noyes, to the secret Quill and Dagger Society room and the War Memorial in Lyon Tower, it was a special experience. Perhaps the most fascinating part for me, however, was learning about the history of the West Campus House system, that led up to the revelation of the secret tunnel between Rose and Becker.

Standing outside the Becker dining hall, Professor Blalock explained to us the surprising fact that, at its conception, Cornell was designed to have had no dormitories at all, as the founders had thought them to be another way in which college students were isolated from the communities around them. Apparently, however, as time went on, the university realized it might be nice if the freshmen could all share a similar first-year experience through living in dorms with each other, and therefore North Campus was created. Further down the line, West Campus was created as well, but as it was not large enough to house the entire sophomore class, most students did not live there for more than a year, and it did not seem to serve a greater purpose than extra housing. The idea of the modern West Campus House system then was ultimately to create an environment that was able to foster a great sense of community with other students beyond freshman year and a tie to a residential place similar to that created by the residential college system at other universities. At the same, the capacity of West Campus was not expanded by very much, and so even as Cornell continued to move towards a dormitory school, much of the student population continues to live in the Ithaca community, as Ezra Cornell had wanted. To me West Campus seems like the right balance of the two important concepts of creating a strong academic community and engaging with the local population, which is just one more reason why Cornell is a truly an amazing and unique school.

Cornell’s Amazing Surroundings

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As Mr. Todd Bittner, our guide for the Cascadilla Gorge Hike, so appropriately said, one of the advantages of Cornell’s rural location is that’s its beautiful natural surroundings and its famous gorges are within walking distance of anywhere on campus. Despite this however, before going on this Rose House Event I had never found my way to a gorge trail, and so this experience proved to be extremely valuable to me for many reasons. On the morning that we made our trek out to the gorge I know I definitely felt like I was too tired to go, but the minute I got out on the trail, I was glad I came. Not only was the scenery of the gorge magnificent, but also the wealth of knowledge that Mr. Bittner had about the history of the gorge was amazing. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the original designer of the trail, Frederick Olmsted. The name happened to be one I knew from high school as the architect who designed the paths in what in a small forest near the school fittingly called the Olmsted Woods, and that was a fascinating connection to me. In addition to that, it was just amazing to hear how much had been found out about the process of forming the gorge, which stretched back millions of years. Hearing about it, I was not only impressed by the staggering scale of the time, of which our lives are just a fraction, but also how we can be connected to all those years by the shared experience of observing this gorge and hiking through it. Ultimately, The Cascadilla Gorge Hike was a wonderful experience for me, and I hope to continue exploring Cornell’s amazing surroundings as I continue my time here.

A Professor’s Recommendations and Recommendations from Professors

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In the midst of college and all its requirements, it is very difficult to know exactly how to prepare for life beyond graduation. Four years still seems like a long time and besides, there are classes to attend to and nobody likes thinking about getting a job. However, if you do ever take a step back and consider what the end of your tenure at school will look like, an image might come up of arriving in second semester senior year and realize you don’t have any sort of employment lined up or even worse, you don’t have the necessary classes to graduate or never learned to swim. With that terrifying vision in mind, you realize then the importance of developing a plan of action to ensure that doesn’t happen. You know that you should have some sort of plan for laying the foundation for the job application process and the graduation process for that matter, but without ever having attempted to do either of these things in your before it is very challenging to even come up with a list of steps or if you can, they are usually very vague. I know for me, arriving at the end of freshman year and having to look for a summer job that I kind of felt lost in the whole process.

This is where the Becker-Rose Café’s speaker, Dr. Dan Schwartz comes in. As someone who has been at Cornell a long time and seen many students come and go, presumably both successful and unsuccessful ones, he was adept at relating to his audience what exactly differentiates the two. In under an hour, Dr. Schwartz went through an abundance of strategies for making the most of your courses, from which subjects you need to have taken to be ready for life after school to which subjects you need to take to be ready for life in general. Perhaps the most fascinating part of his lecture for me however, was his suggestions for the inevitable job process. One really interesting part of that that Dr. Schwartz touched on a lot were professor recommendations. Although most students do know they have to have recommendations at some point, at a big college like Cornell it can be hard to feel like you know your professors, and even if you did, have the courage to ask them for a recommendation. In this area Dr. Schwartz provided a key insight: every semester you have to make an active effort to get to know two professors and by the end of your sophomore year, even with a 50% success rate, you will still have four professors to drawn on. Adding to that he mentioned something I personally was very surprised by, which was that students should never worry about thinking they are putting a burden on a professor by asking them to write a recommendation. He emphasized that professors know that it’s their responsibility and are usually happy to do it if you know them well. Overall I really enjoyed Dr. Schwarz’s extremely energetic, relatable, and valuable advice, and I hope to put it all to good use in the rest of my time at Cornell.