This past Rose Cafe, GRF Tyler Moeller came to present about vaccines and the engineering process for them that he concentrates his research in. I was very excited to hear we would be having a STEM speaker at one of the cafes since we usually have more speakers in the social sciences. It was very interesting to hear about vaccines and the work they do for us, as well as the work being done through modern science to make them more effective and accessible. I must admit, towards the beginning of the presentation I was quite lost with all the terminology and biological mechanisms since I hadn’t seen biology material since my freshman year of high-school. Tyler made these complicated mechanisms very easy to understand and answered all the questions very well to make sure everyone was understanding the basics of what vaccines do.

I was completely shocked to know that we have so many ways of creating vaccines. I had always thought all vaccines were weaker strains of the full live bacteria we were hoping to protect ourselves against. It was very cool to learn that not only can we use cell parts as vaccines, but we can also use sugars, toxins, outer membrane vesicles, and many others. All of these different ways of tricking our own body into reacting and storing memory cells of the foreign substances for future attacks made me realize just how intricate our inner workings are and how fascinating it is that we have such a grasp on the things we know about ourselves.

Tyler also talked to us about his work in developing a vaccine for the very rare and dangerous Francisella tularensis bacteria. Developed as a bioweapon by the Soviet Union, vaccines for this bacteria are of great interest to the US government for some of its members that work in areas at high risk of chemical attack. The interesting thing about this bacteria is that it hides from detection and therefore doesn’t allow your body to attack it making it very dangerous to remove. All in all, this presentation was amazing and very informative about a topic I knew nothing about.

At this past weeks Rose Cafe we had Noah Demarest, a practicing landscape architect in Ithaca, show us the many projects going on in Ithaca that he was working on. Noah founded his company, STREAM Collaborative, some years back and has grown it into a primary architecture and landscape architecture firm in Ithaca. The passion with which he spoke about architecture was very inspiring and made the presentation very interesting.

Coming from a large city like Miami, where one often sees more development than anything else, I was surprised to see the large amount of projects that just Noah’s firm was undertaking at the moment. The growth that Ithaca is undergoing at the moment in terms of developments is very surprising. I believe Noah’s firm was currently working on five large scale residence projects, the majority of which were in Collegetown. It was cool to learn about the design process and the different laws in Ithaca and NY State that sometimes make the project harder to complete. I really liked how Noah showed a great interest in sustainable development in his thinking and designs, I have always appreciated how conscientious the Ithaca community is about the environment and their effect on it. All in all, I was greatly enjoyed the presentation and time Noah shared with us and I look forward to seeing his completed projects.

This week we had Delta Airlines Pilot Mike Comella as the guest speaker for the Rose Cafe. I enjoyed his conversational approach as he immediately opened the floor to absolutely any questions we had on his career and flights in general. There were many fascinating questions asked with even more fascinating answers. I enjoyed learning about how Mr. Comella had gotten to where he was now; it was one of those spur of the moment decisions that inevitably led him down a runway and into the skies, where he has been for the past 32 years of his life. Though I always trusted the safety of planes and flying, it was very reassuring to hear Mr. Comella speak with such confidence and knowledge on the safety of both the mechanics and regulations of commercial flights.

I really appreciated the opportunity to learn more about flying, a dominant form of transport to and from Cornell for someone like me that lives in Miami. Flying is so often left to the experts and unquestioned so it was surprising how much I hadn’t thought about all the times that I’ve flown, like how long can a pilot fly consecutively? what do the pilots that fly across the pacific for 12+ hours straight do? I was relieved to hear that there is a regulation on the number of hours a day, a week, a month, and a year that a pilot can fly to ensure they are well rested. I was surprised to find that for longer flights, they’ll have larger crews to allow for rotations and sleep cycles for the other crew members. It was a very cool experience all in all to be able to hear about the magic of flying from someone who practically lives in the sky.

In last week’s Rose Cafe we had a conversation with Chris VanDruff, Manager of West Campus Housing Facilities, about all the work that goes on behind the scenes to make this a comfortable home for all of us that live here. He first spoke to us about his background as a tradesman and how this position was a change for him as he was no longer doing the physical labor. As manager of West Campus Housing facilities he coordinates and plans the logistics of corrective maintenance for all of West Campus. VanDruff talked to us about the prioritization methods for determining the urgency of fulfilling a maintenance request. His top priority is fixing any issue with lighting, along with that priority is ensuring the security systems of each of the houses is functional, if a card-reader is broken, or a door does not latch, he will always have a worker on it immediately.

VanDruff was very explicit about his primary concern as manager: the safety and well-being of the residents of West Campus. The consuming nature of classes here don’t really give students the opportunity to realize that they live in a place that needs constant maintenance, a majority of which goes on right under their noses yet is so vital to keeping them safe and comfortable. It was very refreshing to access a different perspective on such an undervalued service we receive here on West Campus. Having the chance to meet Chris VanDruff was very comforting to me, knowing that my safety and well-being lie in the hands of such a responsible and experienced professional was very reassuring in a place that is so far from home.

This past week’s Rose Cafe featured Cornell Facilities Manager, Anthony McCabe, as he spoke about the effort that goes on behind the scenes on West Campus to make it as comfortable and homely as it can feel to us. Mr. McCabe spoke to us about the immense amount of communication and coordination between the staff that this work required, priding himself on his focus on speaking with his staff and always keeping tabs with them. Above all, Mr. McCabe was very interested in our feedback and questions we had about facilities operations. As he wrote down each point brought up, I was greatly comforted by his care and attention to detail.

Immediately after the session with Mr. McCabe, I noticed all the work and found myself thinking about all the planning that must be done by the facilities staff. This new knowledge gave me a fresh take on the place I had been living in for half a year, one that made it feel even more like home because I truly felt the care provided by the men and women that work behind the scenes day in and day out.

The following time that my bathroom was cleaned, I noticed something different. The trashcan, that had until now been placed directly below the hand dryer, had been moved to another corner of the bathroom. I smiled and thought to how the issue had been brought up by someone else in the cafe session that the hand dryer blew tissue paper out of the bin and onto the bathroom floor creating a mess that often exited to the hallway. This previously unnoticeable act had great meaning since I had been made aware of the great amount of respect and care we are treated with by these silent heroes of West Campus.

After enjoying his first Rose Cafe last semester, I was very excited to hear that Judge Scott Miller was going to be joining us again for another interesting and behind the scenes conversation about what it was like to be a judge. I had enjoyed his friendly and charismatic way of speaking as well as his frankness when speaking about serious cases and decisions he had come across in his life. This time, just as last time, Judge Miller did not fail to engage his entire audience.

What I most enjoyed hearing him speak about was his view of those who commit crimes, particularly when giving sentences. His value in humanizing the “criminal” is very important to him, so much so that he never uses the word to describe those who have committed a crime. I never thought I’d be hearing this from a judge considering the amount of evil and crime they have to face on a daily basis. This viewpoint from someone as experienced as Judge Miller definitely resonated with me and left an impact.

It is sad, but very true indeed, that our conception of the “criminal” has been horribly warped from reality by the media and Hollywood. I believe the majority of people see someone who commits any sort of small crime for their worst act instead of the sum of who they are, myself included. I particularly enjoyed Judge Miller’s insight on this because it directly challenged the popular notion of life being a battle of good vs. evil. It’s difficult to challenge this worldview not only because of the deep-rooted media culture we have, but also because it is the easiest position to take when thinking about someone that has committed a crime. Taking this position is a sort of comfort to our conscious for the guilt we may feel for locking someone up for longer than they deserve; the moment we humanize them, the moment the weight of their life becomes heavier in our minds.

I think steps can be taken to humanize a person that has been denied the proper amount of compassion. In particular, the concept of what it means to be a “criminal” can be attacked and changed, trying to steer it away from defining someone who has been convicted of a crime once or a victim of their circumstance. Instead of assigning long sentences for these people, we should focus on rehabilitating them to become working members of society. However, there are crimes so heinous that allowing those who committed them to roam the streets as a normal individual would be more dangerous for our society than if they were to be imprisoned, but the reality is that these criminals (because I would argue they really are criminals in this case) are a minority of those placed in jail.