Dear Happy Sloper,

A giant concert on the lawn is a great way to mark the end of spring semester classes—it’s your chance to blow off steam, connect with friends, enjoy music, and (with luck) soak up some sunshine and fresh air. Slope Day has been a Cornell tradition since the 1970s. Classes are not cancelled, but Slope Day is in the afternoon so you should be able to go to class, take your backpack to your room, and then attend the festivities. A few simple things to remember.

Bring your Cornell ID.  You will not be let in the gate without it.  Do not bring a backpack or anything liquid. You cannot bring them in the gate.  Water bottles will be provided to all for free.  You will not have fun if you are drunk.  Vomiting is not pleasant or sexy and spending the afternoon on a cot in Gannett or in the Emergency Room at Cayuga Medical Center is even less fun.

Experience tells us that taking a few precautionary steps will help you get most out of your experience:

Be Advised

• No food, drinks, backpacks, amplified sound systems, pets or recording devices will be permitted on the slope.
• Large bags will not be allowed onto the Slope.
• Please leave your bags, purses, etc. home to avoid long wait times at the entry gates.
• All attendees are subject to search.
• The Slope Day staff reserves the right (at their discretion) to eject attendees or refuse to serve attendees alcohol.
• Open containers are prohibited outside the perimeter.

Dress for the weather.  Wear sunscreen if necessary.  Bring a raincoat if the forecast predicts rain.

• sleep in before the event
• stay hydrated and well-fed 
• know the signs of an alcohol emergency
• program your cell phone with Gannett consultation (255-5155) and Cornell Police (255-1111) numbers, just in case you or a friend need help
• Gannett has extended hours on Slope Day.  

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Wondering About Hunger,

Thanks for the question regarding Cornell Dining’s hours of operations on the website. Yes, Cornell Dining serves meals after May 6. Currently, hours are listed on the website to show January 24, 2011 – May 6, 2011. After May 6 (Slope Day), classes end and study period begins. During this time, due to decrease in demand, Cornell Dining gradually starts to reduce hours at some locations and close other locations. Those hours will be posted just as soon as they become available.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Puzzled,

That’s a perfect question for the Cornell Press Office’s Blaine Friedlander, who covered all three Solar Decathlon teams and their adventures on The Mall in Washington, D.C., and says:

“The Cornell University Solar Decathlon Team is alive and well, but they have a new name and a new mission.  They have become the Cornell University Sustainable Design Team.  While the students on the 2005, 2007 and 2009 Solar Decathlon teams gained valuable experience, the team members decided to focus their talents on helping the world.  And they will be going halfway around the world to do just that.  In summer 2011, the team will build a sustainable schoolhouse in South Africa.  Certainly, the students will gain valuable experience with that project.  In 2012, the team will build a sustainable research facility on Cornell's campus. Anyone can sign up for their electronic newsletters on the schoolhouse project or the sustainable research facility: http://www.cusd.cornell.edu/.”

Thanks, Blaine, for your insight.  We’ll miss the Mall Decathlon houses with their edible landscaping (who else but Cornell students would think of that prize-winning innovation!) but clearly sustainability is a global issue and there’s important work to do everywhere.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Worm-wary,

That’s a timely question, and one best answered by Pete Salino in the Grounds Department, who says:

“The infestation we’ve experience in the last few years were from the Forest Tent Caterpillar.  Typically at the end of April the newly hatched larva will crawl to the tops of trees and begin to feed on flowers and leaf buds.  Later they will descend feeding on emerging leaves and fully mature leaves early May through late May.  Branching Out, an Integrated Pest Management Newsletter for Trees and Shrubs published by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, for years have utilized Growing Degree Days to predict plant development and pest occurrence – proven to be a better indicator of the progression of the seasons then just following calendar dates.  We, in Grounds, often utilize another indicator – two weeks before Commencement!”

Thanks, Pete, for that.  Let’s hope the majority of tents on campus Commencement Weekend are filled with celebrating graduates, their families and friends.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Niece,

Aren’t the flowering trees especially welcome this spring—our botanical reward for surviving a long, grim winter on campus! In the Grounds Department, Pete Salino explains the native-plant issue:

“Flowering Cherries are widely utilized because of their unmatched, spectacular early spring display of pink or white flowers.  This being true here at Cornell when the winters can be especially long and difficult.  There are over 400 species within the genus with most being native in the Northern Hemisphere to include New York state.  Many of our ornamental flowering Cherries, here on campus, originated from cultivars developed in Japan.”

Thanks, Pete, for that. It’s worth noting the difference between the two kinds of gardening practiced here.  Blending almost seamlessly with the Grounds Department’s grounds —typically the quadrangles and near-building plantings— are the flora of Cornell Plantations. Plantations gardeners tend to favor plants and trees that are native to this region. (So does the Lab of Ornithology, if you get a chance to wander through the Sapsucker Woods preserve.)

You are encouraged to read the i.d. tags on any plantings—part of the education mission of this outdoor classroom we call the Cornell campus.  And if you see a class group out and about for a horticultural lesson —tag along. Listen. Observe. Ask questions. So many beautiful things. So much to learn! 

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Parker,

Parking is expensive no matter where it is that you park. A number of people who live in Collegetown work out a system where they park each other into a spot, making sure the one that is locked in doesn't need to get out that day or week. Your other options include parking by the semester or month in the Collegetown Parking Garage or paying for a spot in one of the other parking lots near Collegetown like the one right below Mitchell Street.

If all of those options prove to be too expensive, you might search for some friends who have a driveway in Collegetown, but no cars. They may let you park there in exchange for a ride to Wegman's once a week.

You can also look at the Cornell options at this site,http://www.transportation.cornell.edu/tms/cms/parking/.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Lots Everywhere,

Granted, a bird’s eye flyover of campus reveals the roofs of clustered buildings and trees—surrounded by pavement. Acres and acres of pavement. But a few years ago, those birds would have seen much more parking amongst the Central Campus buildings. And not so many Conellians riding bicycles, walking from the bus stops, or joining vanpools.

Admittedly, most Central Campus parking was squeezed out for the University’s cheek-and-jowl building program. (Wisely, we’ve saved a few athletics fields, lots of natural-area greenery, and room for new parking garages.) But much more credit goes to the University’s highly incentivized “commuting alternatives” program  (http://www.transportation.cornell.edu/tms/parking/commuting/). Cornell Transportation will do (almost) whatever it takes to get people out of their cars and moving conveniently and (usually) less expensively.

Not so award-winning but equally effective is the University’s program of parking disincentives.  Like pricey parking fees to be on Central Campus during M-F business hours (but with many free spots, nights and weekends, so visitors should feel welcome to campus events off hours). And the ticket-wielding parking monitors are everywhere at all hours, issuing fines that make TCAT bus passes a bargain.  Did we mention a thriving local industry of tow trucks (and compounds with really high fences, a costly cab ride from campus) as the ultimate parking disincentive?

But you sound like a glass-half-full kind of commuter.  Please take advantage of the incentives. 

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Summer Gym Seeker,

North campus is rarely empty and Helen Newman is not so far (a relaxing walk by Beebe Lake to stretch your legs and fill your lungs with fresh air) before your Helen Newman workout, according to the Athletics Department’s Andrea Dutcher, who says:

“Helen Newman Hall is the recreation center that offers the most comprehensive activities – gymnasium, pools, fitness centers, multipurpose rooms, bowling center, locker rooms, etc.   With the severe budget cutbacks in recent years, it is more financially feasible and responsible to keep those facilities which offer the most at the least amount of cost. While North Campus may have fewer students during winter break, there are still many students and staff living in the surrounding areas.    In the summer, almost all of the residence halls on North Campus are full with conferees, many of whom purchase guest passesto use the Helen Newman Hall facilities.”

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Scared Senior,

If you really want to know the correct answer, please consult with the Student Services and Academic Advising Office in your college or school.  They can give you the answer that is correct for your specific situation. You wouldn't want to be surprised at the last minute.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Weaver,

Whatever happened, apparently your craft has been promoted from a recreation to an art —because weaving can now be performed in the Risley Residential College for the Creative and Performing Arts, according to Hall Director Lauren Elan, who says:

“Risley has a sewing shop and inside we have 2 looms.  If you would like to gain access to the shop, you can contact risley@cornell.edu and inquire about becoming an out-of-house member but please note that a membership fee is charged. ”

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Youuu,

That “ou-u-u” call will come in handy with at least one feature of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/), its live Owl Cam. But whether your classmates like the Lab . . . well, that all depends:

Do you think many of them care about animals of all kinds (not just birds) and the global environment we share? Were any of today’s Cornell students originally turned on to mysteries of the natural world as school kids by Citizen Science projects that came from the Lab of O? Would they want to take a birding course for credit (Spring Field Ornithology) where “field” goes from the haunts of Montezuma to the shores of New Jersey? Or simply wander through Sapsucker Woods preserve (boardwalks where there’s water, comfy trails where there’s not) then plop down in a carved-wood chair in the woodland-lodge-like observatory while all manner of bird behavior goes on beyond the glass?

If none of that interests them — and they don’t need to visit the Museum of Vertebrates (housed at the Lab), or the Library of Natural Sounds (the world’s largest) or the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program (whales, elephants, birds of course) or the free Monday night seminars (filming eagles was a recent topic) then . . . then there’s just no hope for students today.

And after that unabashed commercial for the world-renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Your Uncle must lodge one tiny complaint: Those annoying pop-up ads on the Live Owl Cam (BP is really, really sorry for the oil spill!) kind of detract from the dignity of the place. You-u-u, Lab of O, above all should know better.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Photog,

Try the Cornell Library’s  “Computers and Equipment” list (http://www.library.cornell.edu/svcs/equipment/other) for all kinds of gear you can borrow with a valid student i.d.   They even lend GPS units — to help find your way back to the library. 

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Summer Keeping Kosher,

Our own Food Science Professor Joe M. Regenstein is an authority on religious-dietary law and observance (and a pretty good cook, besides) so let’s see what Joe says:

“Yes, Wegman’s usually carries kosher meat and some kosher deli. They have the most extensive kosher food in Ithaca. So please do check out Wegman’s.  Enjoy your summer in Ithaca!”

There are also a few eateries on campus that serve kosher meals, even if you don't live in the residence halls, http://www.chabadcornell.com/.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Reader,

Only if the Rabbi blesses it!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Employee,

There are many, many people who are also broken-hearted at the closing of the ceramics studio at Willard Straight Hall.  Hopefully enough people can band together to enable the studio to live a long life, just in another place.  Although, many enjoyed the relaxing and creative atmosphere there, there were not enough programs that met the need of enough students to make it worthwhile.  There is much demand for space these days and there are many well populated clubs and organizations looking for venues for their programs that serve many.

I urge you to work with those who run the studio to help them flourish in their new venue.  There are rumors of a few possible new homes for the ceramics studio so it can remain a vibrant program on campus.

Uncle Ezra