Dear Student,

Go directly to the Academic Advising and Student Services Office in your college.  They are good people and they can help you.

As for the consequences for failing a course--much depends on your over-all record (assuming you aren't a first-semester, first-year student) and the grades in your other courses this semester.  If you have not had difficulties before and if the other grades are reasonably strong, you could expect to receive a warning.  It is really hard to answer such a question without some sense of the context (are you hoping to declare a major that requires Calc? for instance, like Economics). 

But really, the central advice is for you to see an advising dean asap.  They are there to work with you and help you and they have a multitude of resources that you might not know about to help with your concerns.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Stumped,

Keith Hay, Facilities Manager of the Straight did some searching and found a plaque to the right of the main entrance to the Straight which reads, "This tree replacing the beloved "Stump" is a gift from the class of 1977."

In the 1960's, Dutch Elm Disease finally killed all the elms on Cornell's campus. In 1969, the grounds crew left one stump to be a lasting reminder of the elms, affectionately known to Cornellians as The Stump. For a decade, students used the stump as a combination soapbox/message board, delivering speeches from atop the piece of wood and tacking posters to its sides. In 1975, a student group sawed down the stump in the middle of the night and ransomed it for charity. Unfortunately, though the grounds crew reattached the stump, vandals knocked it over again. The stump stayed down, never again to be raised.

Rumor has it that the stump was cut down quietly, by hand, with a cross cut saw, with a cadre of spies carefully watching to make sure no one caught them. 

You can find a picture of the ole' stump at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cornell-Stump.jpg.

And here's an even better one of the Stump in action, http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cornellsun.com/files/images/burak-on-stump-wide-view.preview.jpg&imgrefurl=http://cornellsun.c om/content/images/piercing-cries-bullhorn&h=390&w=570&sz=69&tbnid=51aY6TsOlxfSpM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3 Drichard%2Bshulman%2Bsun%2Bphoto&hl=en&usg=__kqXsHWRrhzfW-DJF4hZ5iF1iB_A=&ei=AzDnSrqMJMrDlAfLxZGFCA&sa=X&oi=image_result& resnum=1&ct=image&ved=0CA0Q9QEwAA.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Curious by Statler,

The story of “Herakles in Ithaka I” began in 1956 when sculptor Jason Seley (1919-1983) found a chrome-plated auto bumper by the side of the road. At first he used discarded bumpers (a dollar apiece from auto body shops) as armatures (the framework inside sculptures) before deciding they were too beautiful to hide.  Welded and polished chrome bumpers became his signature material.  The Cornell professor of art (beginning in 1968) drove around campus in the ultimate “bumper car,” a rolling (37 mpg, 55 mph) piece of art on a Volkswagen chassis that Sports Illustrated magazine called “a living body of rippling, swelling muscles . . . a Mr. America on wheels.” Back then, bumpers were for bumping —unlike the flimsy plastic facades on cars today — and by 1980 Seley was working on the impressively muscular “Herakles.”  It took two years of welding in the Foundry (behind Sibley Hall) to complete, and Seley was struggling with the cancer that would take his life.  On Oct. 29, 1982, he said: “I was overwhelmed by the kindness and love so many from Cornell showed me then and now. My gift of ‘Herakles’ is my attempt to repay that debt of gratitude I feel to Cornell.”

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Supporter,

The situation to me sounds a bit like academic misconduct.  Policy 1.2 defines academic misconduct as:

What Is Academic Misconduct?    Academic misconduct includes any act that violates the standards of integrity in the conduct of scholarly and scientific research and communication. This includes, but is not limited to, plagiarizing the work of others, i.e., intentionally or knowingly representing other people's words or ideas as one's own; deliberately falsifying or fabricating data, citations, or information; forging academic documents; abusing the confidentiality of information obtained from colleagues or other persons; intentionally or knowingly helping another to commit an act of academic misconduct, or otherwise facilitating such acts; or other practices that seriously deviate from ethical standards that are commonly accepted within the scientific and scholarly communities for proposing, conducting, or reporting research. Academic misconduct also includes any form of retaliation against a person who, while acting in good faith, provides information about suspected or alleged misconduct.
.. Note: Academic misconduct does not include unintentional error or honest differences in interpretations or judgments of data.

According to Policy 1.2 allegations of academic misconduct need to be given to the Dean of Faculty.  If indeed the instructor is guilty of academic misconduct, the student should send that information to Bill Fry, Dean of the University Faculty.  He will conduct an inquiry into each allegation, which includes meeting with the complainant and the defendant.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear International Student,

Here is your answer from Joe Martin, Director of Cornell's  Writing Workshop.

"Unfortunately, the University offers no course that would suit this student's interest in improving grammar. The special First Year Writing Seminar referred to is a section of WRIT 1370 or WRIT 1380, offered by the Writing Workshop. That course does not teach grammar usage, but the instructor is very good at teaching students how to become more active language learners.

"With enrollment limits, I have to reserve that course for students who need to fulfill a FYWS requirement. I am, however, ready to talk with the student and help figure out just what issues with grammar and usage are most pressing.

Please have the student contact me (jam8)."

Joe Martin Director, Writing Workshop

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Best Regarder,

Please save your respect for some of the hardest working, most underpaid folks at any university, the post-doctoral associates.  They struggled for years to get that doctorate (and someday might even get a job offer as an assistant professor) but in the meantime, they would be honored to be addressed as “Dear Doctor . . . “

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Sun (dial) Worshipper,

The Joseph N. Pew Sundial is an elegantly designed and engineered scientific instrument (the work of Cornell President Emeritus Dale Corson, who is a physicist, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Emeritus Richard Phelan) that is indeed worthy of your fascination.  But as marvelous as it is, the sundial needs a little human intervention to keep apace of celestial mechanics. So the first person to come along each new day (even in the dark, by flashlight) needs to reset the thing.  And that first someone could be you.  This is participatory art and science at its finest.

You will find more details in the journal Engineering: Cornell Quarterly (1981 Vol. 15, No. 4, online at Cornell Library’s ecommons or in Carpenter Hall’s Engineering Library) but here’s a hint:

 “The finished work, a six-foot- diameter "bowstring" type of equatorial sundial, is deceptively simple in appearance. All the complicated adjustments for day-to-day astronomical variations are made by the internal mechanism, a marvel of engineering design that makes the Cornell sundial one of the most accurate in existence. (Its error is no more than 30 seconds.) It is also simple to use. All the observer has to do, besides waiting for the sun to shine, is to set a dial for the correct date and read the time directly on a simple scale.”

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Bus Catcher,

You could try one of these Rideshare lists...http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Student/RideBoard/.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Student,

No chance for appeal.  If you are interested in dabbling in another language, think about a summer course at another school.  Cornell has found that those who have taken language classes S/U don't put in as much effort and take the place of students who really want to become proficient in that language.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Student,

I suggest either use the sample that you mention, but give credit to those who helped you with it or choose a different sample.

Uncle Ezra