Jason Hungerford gave a detailed struggles he had with colon cancer, it reminded me of the time when my grandfather was diagnosed and passed away from brain cancer. The part when he describes the various circles of people who are affected and who you should discuss the problem with was very informative as he describes the failures of many attempts at comfort. While my experience is definitely different from his, I remember the various relatives (or family friends) that came to visit my grandfather. I don’t think my grandfather could really comprehend what was happening, but realistically, they could not do anything in spite of their good intentions I felt that they did not contribute to me feeling any better about the situation. I could understand how Jason Hungerford felt when he said people were offering their support for this struggle with cancer, when all he wanted was to be treated normally and not reminded of his cancer all the time. I felt their presence only reminded me of the reality that I wanted to forget. I really hope I can understand how to comfort people when they are struggling (for things besides cancer as well), and not be part of the problem of people making situations worse in spite of the best intentions, since I felt like I have personally been treated in a way that fits into that category.
Author Archives: ajy43
The Culture of Binge Drinking
Michael Fontaine, an expert on ancient European cultures, explained to us the origins of “bro culture” and binge drinking, things that affect our society today. These social ills were documented in ancient cultures in painting and in literature, and people then already acknowledged it as an issue.
The origins can be traced back to German knights, who after fighting in the Crusades, had nothing to do after going home. Warriors without a war, a life without purpose, the knights turned to alcohol as their escape. As they tried to fill the void in their hearts, they fell further and further into the void of alcohol induced insanity.
What then does this say about our society now, especially in college where society considers to be where “people who will actually accomplish something in life” go? While so called “bro culture”, or the peer pressure best your “bros” to drink more than they can to prove that you’re a “real man”, causes people to irrationally binge drink at parties and such, people actually seek out these situations where they can freely drink away their sorrows. Are do we college students feel like the crusaders did after there were no more wars to fight? While we still go to class, study, write reports to chase after vague notions of a better future, maybe we are really all empty and purposeless on the inside. So much so, that people will turn to binge drinking as a temporary refuge from the torment of the void in their hearts.
Behind the Memes: Martha Pollack & Cornell’s Mental Health Crisis
As a transfer to Cornell, I obviously feel like I just warped into another dimension without know what is really going on, and one of the ways I was introduced to Cornell’s new president, Martha Pollack, was through memes making fun of her and her administration on the Cornell: Any Person Any Meme Facebook page.
Here at the Rose House, we would actually get to meet the person I heard so much about, but was still shrouded by a veil of students’s stories describing her enthusiastic (or some other characteristic) teaching in some engineering class and memes making fun of her administration not trying to fix the mental health crisis or other issues that I can’t remember.
Of course, she seemed like a nice person, and I kind of felt bad for all the heat she was getting especially considering that she’s new and the problems she has to deal with (like the mental health crisis) are systemic problems that plague more than just Cornell. I felt like many of the students wanted to say things, but hesitated to since they didn’t want to be too pushy. Eventually, students did ask about the mental health crisis, but it seemed like Martha Pollack deflected the answer citing how technology is causing us to become more socially isolated and distressed (most notably with social media). While her point is valid and I agree that Cornell’s crisis is affected by so many external factors, such as our tech and the upbringing and academic culture that the students come from and grew up in, I felt like her answer was not the one the students wanted to hear. I’m sure they wanted to hear more about their efforts to fight the problem, even if those efforts are not really effective in reality, rather than the “its a systemic problem” explanation. (I think she did mention the efforts we were taking to solve the problem too, but the societal cause part of the explanation stood out to me the most).
I grew up in a high school with an extremely toxic academic culture; I even described it as analogous to Chernobyl in terms of the toxicity. Because of this, I do realize that a lot of Cornell’s mental health issues are outside of Cornell’s realm of administration. They can’t control what a person believes, or what their family believes, or what “their society” expects them to do. But do I have a better solution? No, of course not. However, I need to mention that being in CALS, specifically in Plant Science, the toxicity that Cornell is known for is nowhere to be seen. I felt like the only toxic person there was me. And that drove the point home about toxic culture at Cornell: we brought (or didn’t bring) it here. The admin can’t do much preventing the issue unless they reject emotionally unstable students, but that would be wrong. They can only find ways to bandage up the already broken situation and prevent it from getting out of hand. While our president’ answer may not be adequate, if I were her, I wouldn’t know what else to say besides explaining all the various things we are already doing or trying to do.
An Objective Way to Make Decisions?
Cheryl Einhorn, an expert on how to make decisions, introduced us to the AREA method. The AREA method is supposed to be objective and allows you to consider your own biases when making decisions, including decisions such as in relationships and career paths. She worked as a journalist, and after realizing the power of her words to potentially destroy people’s entire careers, she needed a way for her to ensure she was being objective about what she was writing. And thus, the AREA method was born.
However, at this point you might be wondering, what is this AREA method. Sounds interesting and useful, especially for all the life changing decisions we have to make as college students. To tell you the truth, even after the presentation, I didn’t really get the the whole thing besides what the AREA method is supposed to do. You have to read her book to find out how to actually use the AREA method. She did explain in general what each of the letters entailed, with different processes in each, but you are better off just reading her book.
Even though after the end of the presentation I was still confused, and it seemed to me that others were too, it make me happy to know that there is a way to make decisions in a way besides reflecting on the jumbled and tangled mess that is my mind to find an answer.
West Campus Story
Did you know the entirety of West Campus supposed to be gothic village? However, the gothic buildings you see today were the only things that ended up being built, basically only the corner of the village. Garrick Blalock, an associate professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics, explained the complex story of how West Campus ended up like it does today. Apparently, the open field between Rose and Bethe used to contain a giant community center, and on top of the “main” buildings used to be the so-called “U-Houses” which were supposedly very ugly according to the people that went to Cornell back in the day. While I frequently complain about living in a Gothic, and how inconvenient it is to do laundry, knowing the history still gives me some more appreciation for my dorm building, Founder’s Hall, the oldest building on West Campus. The idea that people lived and studied in the same buildings as I am is an interesting concept. While I would never know these people, or what they did, or what they studied, knowing they existed in the same space at a different time just irrationally makes the building better and more interesting. This begs the question regarding any new renovations or new constructions at Cornell, should the historical style, or the historical nature of a building be preserved, or should it implement new architectural styles?
Bridging the Cultural Gap: Dr. Lisa Nishii
Dr. Lisa Nishii, a professor in the ILR school and part of the Cornell’s board of administrators responsible for facilitating inclusion on the Cornell campus. Born in Tokyo to an American mother and Japanese father, she grew up wanting to become the very trade ambassador between America and Japan. As she made her way through her educational journey, she struggled with figuring out what to do for her career. In one of her classes regarding how culture affected how people think, and how that affects how they act, she wrote a research paper. She realized her passion was understanding the relationship between these elements in the human psyche. At first, she was hesitant toward going into academia, but her mentors pointed out her passion for learning was suitable for going into academia, as opposed to working in a corporate environment. Long story short, she became a professor here at Cornell.
While this was her story, it made me feel more comfortable not knowing exactly where my educational journey would take me. Ironically, the things she described as being interested in are also my own interests. But as a Plant Science major, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to take that many classes in that field. And now, when I finally got to writing this post, am considering changing my major to Interdisicplinary Studies (Make your own major). The question is, whether to specialize in Plant Breeding and Genetics, or incorporate social studies (history, culture, government, etc.) into my new major?
The Technology of Anitbiotics
Christopher Alabi shares his insight on the the history, technical considerations and processes, and impact of antibiotics. The thing that stood out to me about his presentation was the technicality behind mass production of medicines. Early on in the history of antibiotics, mass production was an issue. When penicillin (or was it something else) was first discovered as having antibiotic properties, not enough could be produced to save the patient that was being treated with it.
During WWII, morphine needed to increase production to keep up with the demand created by warfare. This forced researchers to create new, more productive and efficient methods. In order to keep the morphine-making yeast alive, it had to have oxygen to respirate. They wanted to create morphine in drums, but the yeast needed oxygen. A technique was created to inject oxygen into the tank, allowing the yeast to produce morphine in a more efficient manner.
While in the present day, medicines seem ubiquitous. It is easy to lose sight of just how recent “modern medicine” became a thing. However, the question is whether researchers are able to find enough new antibiotics to keep up with the evolution speed of diseases.