Dear Reader,

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Dragon Day is usually the Friday before Cornell Break, which makes it Friday, March 18th this year.  Timing is not so exact... Typically the dragon (and it's motley parade) will leave the Architecture School around 1pm, travel down to the Engineering School where it will meet the Phoenix.  Then it will proceed by around 2:00 (or later) to the burn site on the Arts Quad.  We welcome you to join in the fun.  THIS YEAR ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE TEE SHIRT SALE WILL GO TO RELIEF EFFORTS IN JAPAN.

The annual Dragon Day Parade will be Friday, March 18 from 1 pm to 3 pm.

>The Dragon Day Parade will:

>- Leave Rand Hall around 1 pm

>- Travel east on University Ave.

>- Turn right (south) on East Ave.

>- Turn right (west) on Campus Rd.

>- Turn right (north) on South Central walkway through Ho Plaza

>- Enter the Arts Quad between Uris and Olin Libraries

>- Proceed to the burn site on the south side of Sibley Hall

Every year around St. Patrick’s Day, in a tradition whose origins go back more than 100 years, an enormous dragon created by the first-year architecture students parades across the campus. Accompanied by AAP students in outrageous costumes and heckled by rival engineering students, the dragon lumbers to the Arts Quad to be consumed by a huge bonfire. This rite of spring is one of Cornell’s best-known traditions. http://aap.cornell.edu/arch/programs/dragon.cfm

For a detailed history of Dragon Day follow this link, http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?tab=facts&q=dragon%20day&id=263.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Student,

This is a tough decision that may take some time to figure out.  I suggest meeting with an advisor in the Arts and Sciences Student Services Office and let them know your situation.  They have experience with students who straddle tow fields as well as those who switch majors, etc.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Faculty Member,

There are two events coming up after break which will be great opportunites for you to discuss your concerns and converse with others also intersted in student mental health.

The Faculty Senate is holding a meeting for faculty interested in discussing these issues on Wednesday, April 6th.  Please contact Dean of Faculty Bill Fry to find out where and when.

Cornell Minds Matter is sponsoring a discussion called Dining With Diverse Leaders that will be  happening at 6PM on Friday, April 8th for faculty, students and administrators to gather over dinner to discuss all of the actions that Cornell is engaging in to make this a healthier campus for students.  Please contact Casey Carr at kc64, to be put on the invitation list.  They welcome your input.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Undergrad,

Unfortunately for your new suitemates, they will not be able to have a vacant room in their suite. The Housing & Dining Contracts Office is obligated to provide all available housing to students who want to live on campus. So, if you switch to another room, someone else will be filling your place in “their” suite.

If you’re still interested in moving to another room, there are two ways to go about applying for a room change. You may find someone who has contracted for another room in on-campus housing who is interested in swapping rooms with you, and apply for a “direct room swap” by emailing sjd15@cornell.edu. The housing office will begin to consider direct room swaps in May.

If you can’t find someone who’s willing to swap rooms, you may also submit a room change request after you move in to your residence in the fall. Room Change Request forms are available from your RHD or Assistant Dean, or from the Housing & Dining Contracts Office.

Either way, I suggest you contact the Housing & Dining Contracts Office to discuss your situation. Best of luck!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear JJ,

Just getting your question cheers Your Uncle.  It means the long winter’s ice must have thawed from the musically calibrated paving stones on the Olin Library terrace.  And they’re making lovely sounds again —when you scoot round stones across them— instead of a muffled “thunkph!”

That ice build-up was probably the case when DUE answered Question 13 on March 3, 2009.  Check the DUE archives.  Or read the Daily Sun’s account, “Music or Mayhem? The Unique Properties of Olin Library's Roof ” in which they claim the musicality of the stones is a serendipitous construction side effect.

Whatever you do, be sure to try Olin stone rolling—one of the 161 things every Cornellian shouldn’t miss.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Eagerly Scheduling,

Over in the Registrar’s Office, Marisa LaFalce assumes you mean the 2011-12 Courses of Study  (is it then already?) since the 2010-11 version has been live for some time at http://www.cornell.edu/academics/courses.cfm and she adds:

“The 2011-12 catalog will go live this summer.  And new this year there will only be an online catalog (no print version will be made – although selective pdf printing from the newly improved online version will be available).  If you are a current student looking ahead to April pre-enrollment, you may find the Fall 2011 Course and Time Roster, which will be available at the link above on March 21, helpful in your course planning.  It's also helpful to know that some, but not all course additions and changes since the 10-11 catalog was released last July have been incorporated into the current online (but not pdf) version.”

Thanks, Marisa, for clearing that up.  Before July, Your Uncle must brush up on his pdf-printing —just the desired number of pages and not the inch-thick book.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Summer Internee,

First, congratulations on finding a decent summer internship — a rare thing in this economic environment (Your Uncle has even heard of companies asking parents to pay for the student’s “opportunity” to intern. Wow!).

Here’s what Financial Aid  (203 Day Hall, 255-5145) says:

“ In terms of what this student is asking, additional assistance is not provided to help with the costs of housing/dining/transportation for summer internships.  We welcome this student to stop into our office and meet with a financial aid counselor directly, if he or she has more specific questions.  Our walk in hours are Monday through Friday, between 12:00pm-3:30pm.”

To which Your Uncle adds: Check with your college to see if help is available.  With a little creative financing, you can make this work.  Since many studnets clear out for the summer and have apartments tht they or their parents are still paying for, you cold grab a summer sublet for a very small sum.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Reader,

Glad to have the correct info!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear ED Niece,

Those glorious campus tours can be the start of your education — in critical thinking, attentive listening, healthy skepticism and reading “fine print,” such as the Arts College’s language requirements, found here:

http://as.cornell.edu/information/orientation/languages.cfm.

So read along with Your Uncle, here, in the list of languages that can be used to fulfill the college’s foreign language requirement.  Yoruba . . . Khmer . . . Tagalog . . . nope, not seeing Shyriiwook (Wookiee Speak) even for astronomy majors. 

Cornell is now offering fewer languages due to the recession and the efforts to concentrate on the greatest interest and need.

Still, that campus-tour story might have had a grain of truth somewhere amongst the hyperbole.  One of the great things about a university like Cornell is that students themselves are always eager to teach—the strangest things, even Star Wars languages.  And maybe that Shyriiwook-speaking student was from Rome (Italy, even, not Rome, New York) so a match was made.  But surely that instruction did not fulfill a degree requirement—no matter what your tour guide implied.

Anyway, you made a smart decision with ED, and congratulations on making the grade.  Welcome!  May your next four years be filled with lots of learning, fun, and new friends— some of whom you’ll meet in the ticket line for the 3-D Star Wars flick, reportedly set to open in February 2012.  See you there.   

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Far Above,

Anticipating  construction of the next Urban Olympics Bobsled Run, Your Uncle checked with the University’s Office of Capital Projects and Planning, where  Kevin McCord, senior dispatcher in Facilities, reports:

“The Commons ranges from a low of 408’ above sea level at S. Cayuga St. to 417’ above sea level at S. Aurora St.. The high point of Libe Slope is 793’ above sea level at Central Ave behind McGraw Hall. So depending on where you are on the Commons the elevation change is 385’ to 376’.”

 Thanks Kevin. That’s probably not much of a drop by Olympic standards, but wouldn’t it be fun to see those bobsleds on the Buffalo Street hill? 

 nother way to determine elevations (besides pestering the gang in Capital Projects) is to look at USGS topographic maps, like those  (in paper form) in the Olin Library Map Room or (online) at http://www.usgs.gov/. 

Once you find the right map for where you are (Ithaca?)  you will notice lots of squiggly contour lines— each denoting a change of elevation in a certain increment, such as 10 feet. Where the contour lines are close together, expect a steep slope there.  Libe Slope  has many close contour lines, and so do the slopes of gorges.  Also check the map for benchmarks—each with the exact elevation noted.  Benchmarks on topographic maps correspond with little metal markers in the ground. How many can you find around campus?

Speaking of USGS maps, did you know that Cornell civil engineering students in the 1870s  conducted summer land surveys throughout the Finger Lakes? And that their data were accurate enough to make it into the first USGS maps of  this part of the state? 

Other 19^th Century students spent the summer in boats on Cayuga Lake, lowering measured lines to the bottom to  make a gloriously detailed map of the lake.  Ask to see it in the Map Room.  (If you happen to drop your phone overboard offshore of Taughannock Park, for instance, you’d better have a 327-foot string attached.)  Okay, enough fun with maps.  Back to work.

Uncle Ezra