Last week, I attended the Rose Cafe with VP Ryan Lombardi. It was definitely not par the course for the cafes I’ve attended in the past; instead of learning about a new intellectual topic that I haven’t been exposed to before, we discussed a topic that is very near and dear to my heart: the culture on campus. For all of Cornell’s wonderful qualities, one thing we cannot boast about as an institution is the incredibly high level of stress felt universally by the student population. It was interesting to have a conversation with Ryan about his experience working in higher education and his perspective on Cornell, compared to other schools. He was also genuinely interested in hearing our feedback about what could be done to improve our experiences on campus, and while the suggestion of a curfew to ensure that every student got enough sleep was more of a joke, I felt that it was important to have this kind of conversation and make abundantly clear to a member of the administration just how overworked students can feel at Cornell.

One other thing I did find particularly interesting was Ryan and Rosemary’s comments about how unfriendly New Yorkers can be, compared to others from places like the Midwest. As a New Yorker myself, I never realized how my instinct of minding my own business and not reaching out to strangers could potentially lead to other people feeling isolated. I definitely think the first step of smiling at our peers and expressing concern for the people around us, even those we do not know, could significantly contribute to developing a more friendly and supportive culture on campus.