Dear Uncle Ezra - Questions for Thursday, March 24, 2005

  Dear Uncle Ezra,
I am a junior studying for the year in England.  Upon my arrival, I decided that maximal cultural emmersion was the way and gave rowing a try.  I absolutely love it!  I will return to Cornell having rowed for the whole year and am interested in what the options are in Ithaca.
        Are there any rowing clubs that at a less intense level than the intercollegiate Cornell athletics crews?  While I would love to row competitively for Cornell, the two practices a day and frequent travel will prove too time intensive.  Is there a way to do rowing for PE credit somehow?  Are there local Ithaca crews that students join?
        PLEASE help my satisfy my insatiable appetite for rowing!

- Bow side

Dear Bow side,

Being out on the lake here is one of the true pleasures of Ithaca living. Cayuga Boat Club http://www.cascadillaboatclub.org/ has a Masters Group for experienced rowers and an adult learn-to-row 4-week introductory course covering water safety, proper sweep & sculling technique, coxing, and boat handling. It meets 3x/week on June and July evenings. They also have sculling and coxswain clinics. JGSM has a student rowing association (search the Student Organizations website -http://sao.cornell.edu/so/). Stroke.

Uncle Ezra

Dear EZ

I recently bought a bicycle and was wondering what I am supposed to do to register it with Cornell. Any advice?

Bicycle Owner

Dear cyclist,

I typed 'register bicycle' into the search window from CUInfo and was taken to this form: http://www.transportation.cornell.edu/Comm uter_and_Parking_Services/forms/tms3_bikeregform.html. There is other info if you do the search yourself. Enjoy your exercise and explorations. Check with Cornell Outdoor Education for cycling clubs and trips.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Ezra,
While searching through your archives, I found a very interesting post where you said that there is a pedestrian tunnel between Uris and Olin Libraries. Does this magical walkway still exist? It would make it so much easier than running outside every time I need a book.

Rachel

Dear Rachel,

If you read question 3 from March 16, 2004 you'll find out when the tunnel may be used.

Uncle Ezra

DUE,
do you have a list of other schools that provide services similar to this one?

Dear researching,

There are a number of schools that offer services similar to those that your dear Uncle provides:
Columbia has Alice (http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu), Ball State has Charlie (http://www.bsu.edu/students/cpsc/charlie), University of Maryland has Dr. Webster (http://www.counseling.umd.edu/Interact/interact.htm), and Appalachian State has Uncle Sigmund (http://www.unclesigmund.appstate.edu/).

Numerous schools offer online counseling and advising services in other forms too. Dr. Bob at University of Chicago does e-therapy at http://www.dr-bob.org/mental.html. Still other universities actually provide links back to sites including Dear Uncle Ezra and Go Ask Alice! I hope this helps you with your research.

Uncle Ezra

dear uncle ezra,
recently,
you have often been getting information for your responses off of the internet. How do you ensure the accuracy of these internet resources?

Dear reader,

You are correct, the Internet is a valuable research tool for us all. Since Uncle Ezra is more accessible due to the Internet,
we are quite overwhelmed with questions from everywhere and everyone. We cannot provide a Cornell-resource response for each question, and so we must triage.

Since the Internet has joined the resources of the many, certain questions are commonly asked, and have thorough answers on respectable sites. We appreciate the work of our colleagues, and the work they save us.

When you are researching a particular question, you must take any resource with a critical eye to its veracity, whether it is still true right now, and whether it is true in your particular situation. In gathering information, if you find discrepencies, you may need to resolve them directly. At some point, it is always best to get face-to-face responses.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Ezra,
I'm currently a sophomore in highschool and my dream school is Cornell (the hotel administration part).. However, I doubt that I am going to be accepted (my gpa is a 3.2 and compared to the majority of the students in my school, that's pretty low). Even though this might sound kind of stupid because I probably won't be accepted, I'd still really like to apply to Cornell because I definitely want to go into hotel management and I might get lucky. So my question is... what other colleges have great hotel administration programs? and.. I am in the Culinary Arts & Hotel Management Academy

Dear sophomore,

You high school guidance counselor should be able to help you find out about colleges you would be interested in and that would be interested in you. Good luck with your search.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Erza,

Is Cornell giving the phone number and address of students to credit card companies? My guess is not, but I keep getting these calls asking me if I want to sign up for credit cards designed for Cornell students, they know I go to Cornell, know my name, my address and my phone number. What can possibly be the source of these information?

I don't need a credit card

Dear Uncle Ezra,
I recently received a credit card offer in the mail, which I promptly ripped up. It was sent to my local campus address though, and I was wondering if the university ever sells students' information to marketing companies, banks (who issue such credit cards) or other like firms. I try to scrupulously keep my information out of the hands of marketers and such by opting out of future mailings, etc whenever given the chance. However, Cornell is sitting on a gold mine of data which could be turned into a very lucrative proposition should you offer it to marketers. If Cornell doesn't outright sell the registrar's data, does the registrar's office cooperate when asked to provide directory information to companies that have no use for it other than to send unsolicited mail to students?

Thanks,
Sick of spam

Dear students,

Cornell absolutely does not sell student directory information to credit card companies and other solicitors. Sadly, in this age of information, marketers are getting more and more savvy about their ways to collect information. For example, clever marketers may get their hands on a Cornell phone book, scan the pages, then use the names and addresses for mailing! The college-age demographic is a very attractive population to these marketers, hence their tenacity.

For complete information on Cornell's data policy, please see the Policy on Access to Student Information at http://policy.cornell.edu/vol4_5.cfm. In the meantime, thanks for being vigillant with tearing up those credit card offerings and other solicitations.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Ezra,
What is a prodestant

Dear spellcheck,

Try looking for protestant -- google should give you alternate spellings.

Uncle Ezra

Dear Uncle Ezra,
Why aren't building hours all put into a site so that Cornell students can access it? I've spent literally over an hour trying to figure out when just ONE building is open. It should not be this difficult.

Agitated

Dear Agitated,

I understand your frustration. This is one of the drawbacks of Cornell's large and diverse campus. There are over one hundred building coordinators, and each building sets its own policies. Even within buildings, individual departments or spaces may have separate rules, or hours variations based on the time of year. As a result, a comprehensive website would be difficult to maintain and constantly out of date. You may find it helpful to bookmark the University Scheduling website (http://registrar.sas.cornell.edu/Sched/default.html) so that you can contact the building scheduler when you need to know specific hours/access information.

Uncle Ezra

Hey,
Where exactly are the collected brains in jars in Uris Library?

Dear student,

While there is a great collection of brains in Uris Library, they are being actively used by Cornell students (we hope!) The infamous preserved brain collection is in Uris Hall, just off the stairwell on the 2nd floor.

If you type the words into the search bar of CUInfo you can read that "The brain collection houses the brain of John Rulloff, a notorious murderer born in 1819 and the namesake of Rulloff's bar and grill in Collegetown, as well as the brain of Burt Wilder, the originator of the collection."

Uncle Ezra