Today the Rose Scholars and I were joined by a variety of panelists representing various areas of Cornell’s advocacy centers with regards to safe and healthy relationships. Naomi was the representative from the Advocacy Center, and she gave us great advice on how to navigate healthy relationships and gave some great insight on how to navigate them throughout covid in particular. Shura Gat shared a key resource, which was a link where you can report an actual Bias Incident to Cornell. I found this super interesting because I am particularly passionate about the issue of implicit bias that is present in our day to day lives. I love how Cornell has created a form that can actually bring light to various incidents and help create concrete change due to it.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Professors Daniel Schwarz and Shirley Samuels. Professor Samuels currently teaches at Cornell and specializes in American Studies. She was formerly a House Professor at Flora Rose House and has been involved in Cornell in a variety of ways, including the Cornell Washington Program and more. I love how involved Professor Samuels has been within the Cornell community, and it shows through her involvement. Professor Schwarz has taught in the English department for 53 years, and his proudest moment has been pursuing the Cornell PHD Program in his own academic years. We gained each of the Professors’ views on COVID and teaching over zoom, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Professor Schwarz believes zoom is no excuse for slacking in school or not making the most of your education. He believes that bringing the same energy to zoom creates similar results to teaching in person. It is an unprecedented time, but it is important to adapt to the situation and make the most of it.

URF, Sam Lagasse, hosted a study session for me and the fellows tonight. It was nice to have a bit of face to face interaction. I liked being able to have people on the screen with me, even though we were not interacting much. We tried the Pomodoro technique of studying, which means you study 20 minutes on, take a break, then continue. I got to learn that Sam Lagasse is an English professor and that he uses this method when writing his dissertation. I will keep this technique in mind when I need to tackle some larger projects or exams in the future.

Today Professor Roberts taught me and the scholars about the goals of social protest. The first goal is for the protests to give voice to new actors in the political process who are underrepresented by the mainstream political institutions. The second goal is for the protests to put new issues on the social agenda that Washington is neglecting. The last goal of social protests is for it to make an impact on public policy. These are all the goals of public policy, however, they rarely happen to their full expression. We discussed how 2020 has given rise to a variety of social issues, and with that, civilians have been the most politically active in the form of social protests since the 1960s. There are a variety of issues that have come to light this year, and in addition to that, there is a highly debated election just around the corner. We also discussed how we believe the outcome of the election will spur any social protests, and we definitely believe that it could become a reality due to the nature of the election. On top of all of this, there is a world pandemic in play, so it is difficult to say how the election will play out, and how civilians will protest in a way that keeps COVID-19 and the safety of others in mind.

There are many ways that racial activism can be executed. Firstly, universities have to solicit activism on campuses and empower students to do the right thing. Universities must execute upon their words of “wanting to create the leaders of the world,” and must actually allow their students to speak up. The ways racial activism can be executed is by students protesting. The panelists explained that administration can get uptight on the way that students are protesting and forget the reason why students are protesting. I have first hand of experience with this, as I led a protest in high school, but I found that administrators are more concerned with expressing distress over the ways that students are protesting and try to shut down the protest due to safety concerns. In high school, I worked on a committee that worked alongside administrators to agree on safe ways for our students to perform their protest, therefore, the protest was not shut down. The panelists are saying that history turns due to protests and individuals speaking up to make change. Change does not happen in a committee meeting, but I do believe that using committees to help facilitate the student voice can help in many ways and helps ensure that change will happen.

Zoos are a recreational phenomenon all around the world. Families bring their children for a fun day at the zoo, but much of the public is blind to the truths behind zoos and the harms that they may cause. URF Maggie Holloway used to work at a zoo herself, and she revealed her experiences working there. The zoo she worked at specifically achieved the AZA certification, which is very hard to achieve because it entails meeting very high expectations and guidelines related to animal welfare. In this situation, it would seem acceptable for zoos to exist since the animals are being treated respectfully, however, there are also situations where this is not the case. In our discussion, two other fellows and I discussed the implications from purposely breeding animals in zoos. Breeding animals with recessive traits can create genetic abnormalities, which is very dangerous for the animals and leads to them needing to be put down. However, Maggie shed a light on the fact that there are certain zoos, such as the one she worked at, that safely breed animals and look into their genetic composition before proceeding. Animal welfare is a very controversial topic, and you can always discuss both sides. Being informed on the issue is the first step to understanding, and I am very glad I got to hear about the issue from Maggie herself, as she is very knowledgeable and passionate about this topic.