Cornell Occupation
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MARCH | APRIL 2019 $6 Owned and Published by the Cornell Alumni Association Witnesses to History In archived interviews from 50 years ago, Cornellians reflect on the Straight takeover PLUS: Monarch butterfy maven History of the gig economy ‘First-generation Martian’ Nagin Cox ’86 MA19_cover_FINAL_OK.indd 1 2/13/19 11:48 AM IN THIS ISSUE March | April 2019 Volume 121 Number 5 CURRENTS 15 WINGED VICTORY Monarch butterfy expert 20 DEFYING GRAVITY Nagin Cox ’86 helps run NASA’s Mars rovers 24 TINSELTOWN, NEW JERSEY Film fest founder Bob Feinberg ’84 15 24 30 NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT Perils of the gig economy 34 HOME COOKING Chinese-American chef Irene Li ’12, BA ’15 Dormie Network is a national network of renowned clubs combining the experience of destination golf DEPARTMENTS with the premier hospitality of private membership. 6 FROM THE PRESIDENT 8 FROM THE HILL 40 AUTHORS 62 34 42 SPORTS 48 Time Capsule 71 CLASS NOTES In the archives of Kroch Library resides a collection of oral histories recorded in the months following the takeover of Willard Straight Hall in April 1969, an 94 ALUMNI DEATHS event that would make headlines as the frst armed occupation on an American ARBORLINKS · NEBRASKA CITY, NE BALLYHACK · ROANOKE, VA BRIGGS RANCH · SAN ANTONIO, TX campus. A half century later, those seldom-accessed interviews serve as vibrant 96 CORNELLIANA testimony to the events of that spring, when Cornellians wrestled with diffcult 150 candles for CU Press and divisive issues that continue to challenge American society today. To mark the takeover’s fftieth anniversary, CAM excerpts those histories—eyewitness testimony, striking in its freshness and detail, recalling a defning moment in Big Red history that had only just unfolded. 62 Upon Refection When Tom Jones ’69, MRP ’72, was a senior, he was among the dozens of 67 EZRA MAGAZINE EXTRA African American students who took over the Straight. But in a remarkable Professors Richard Cerione and DORMIE CLUB · PINEHURST, NC HIDDEN CREEK · EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, NJ VICTORIA NATIONAL · NEWBURGH, IN transformation, the former activist went on to become not only a barrier- Claudia Fischbach team up to breaking fnance executive but a University trustee who even endowed a study cancer biology. campus prize for interracial understanding. This spring, Cornell University Press A special insert produced by University is publishing his memoir, From Willard Straight to Wall Street. “You dha good Relations and the Division of Alumni people on both sides,” he says, pondering the takeover in a recent interview Affairs and Development with CAM. “Everybody was well-intentioned. Nobody was a bad person. But because of the communication breakdowns and other dynamics, you ended up COVER: A SCENE FROM THE OCCUPATION OF WILLARD in this almost unimaginable confrontation.” STRAIGHT HALL IN APRIL 1969. CREDIT: CORNELL RARE AND MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS Cornell Alumni Magazine (ISSN 1548-8810; USPS 006-902) is published six times a year, in January, March, May, July, September, and November by the Cornell Alumni Association, 401 East State Street, Suite 301, Ithaca, NY 14850. Subscriptions cost $36 a year. Periodical postage paid at Ithaca, NY, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cornell Alumni Magazine, c/o Public Affairs Records, 130 East Seneca St., WWW.DORMIENETWORK.COM | [email protected] | ASHLEY OWEN 812.758.7439 Suite 400, Ithaca, NY 14850-4353. MARCH | APRIL 2019 1 190309_DormieNetwork_ivy.indd 1 2/11/19 10:12 AM MA19_toc_masthead_OK.indd 1 2/15/19 1:28 PM MA19_WSH_takeover_final_draft.indd 48 2/13/19 7:17 PM Time Capsule A half-century-old collection of oral histories in Kroch Library captures the tumult of spring 1969 in vivid detail By Beth Saulnier ver the past fifty years, the takeover of Willard Straight Hall has been exhaustively analyzed and revisited—in O books, at least one documentary film, and innumerable articles, particularly those marking major anniversaries. But one trove of memories from those days hasn’t been widely accessed. In the months following the takeover, dozens of Cornellians and other community members were invited to formally record their thoughts—on the occupation, the events leading up to it, its after- math, and its potential legacy. The interviews were conducted as part of Challenges to Governance, an oral history project launched by the University Library to capture memories of the drama that had roiled the Hill, as well as to chronicle students’ increasing demands for a stronger say in how Cornell was run. The interviews—whose participants include students, faculty, administrators, and local officials—were recorded on audio tape and transcribed; those old-school typewritten pages now reside in red folders in Kroch Library, repository of the University’s Rare and Manuscript Collections. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the takeover, CAM read them from cover to cover (excluding those whose access is restricted at the interviewee’s request). The follow- ing are excerpts from those histories—voices from two generations ago, when Cornellians wrestled with difficult and divisive issues that continue to challenge American society today. The collection itself, and therefore the excerpts featured here, doesn’t constitute a comprehensive retelling of the events of that spring. There are few voices from inside the Straight, for one thing; faculty and administrators predominate. The histories occasion- ally contradict each other on points of fact. Interviewees aren’t reflecting on long-ago events with the benefit of distance and perspective, but rather recounting what recently happened. Some of the language may seem dated or insensitive to modern ears. But as the University looks back on April 1969, the interviews serve as potent time capsules—eyewitness testimony, striking in its freshness and detail, recalling a defining moment in Big Red history that had only just unfolded. ICONIC MOMENT: Black students exiting the Straight following the PHOTOS: CORNELL RARE AND MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS (UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED) two-day occupation The excerpts have been condensed and edited for clarity. MARCH | APRIL 2019 49 MA19_WSH_takeover_final_OK.indd 49 2/13/19 7:53 PM LEAD-UP TO THE TAKEOVER In 1964, President James Perkins and if we could accomplish this, our established the Committee on campus would be receptive and ap- Special Educational Projects propriate for black students. I don’t (COSEP), a program that recruited need to tell you now how wrong we more African American students were, and how blind. I think almost to campus, including those from from the beginning we were inevita- less privileged backgrounds. Many bly on a collision course leading up participants would come to feel to the events of April.” that the University didn’t entirely welcome or accommodate them, Cleveland Donald Jr., PhD ’73 leading to a series of protests and TAKEOVER PARTICIPANT culture clashes. “Perkins did not create an atmo- sphere conducive to black people Ruth Darling on this campus, so that encouraged ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENTS black people to think that white men “Clearly when COSEP was instituted didn’t care anything about them. we were all completely unaware of Many of the faculty members, es- the magnitude of the problems we pecially conservative ones, felt that were getting into. I think we started black students should be treated off, not consciously, on a very pa- just like any white students—that ternalistic, somewhat benevolent they were white students with black CAMPUS CONFLICT basis, and we had no conception of skin. And with that kind of attitude, (from top): President ‘I think almost Perkins (left) is shoved the way black students would feel, the black students began to develop from the podium from the coming into what was essentially a a more extreme position, and there during a symposium white racist university. At that time was a growing amount of hostility.” on South Africa in beginning we I don’t think we thought we were February 1969; Walter Slatoff protesters dance on were inevitably racist; in fact, I don’t think it even oc- tables in the Ivy Room on a collision curred to us. The main problem was PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH in December 1968 to we didn’t know what we didn’t know. “One could feel the tension over the express displeasure course leading It was our feeling at the time that all growing movement on the part of at a lack of progress we needed to do was to ensure that black students toward greater self- on a black studies up to the events program; students of April.’ black students would be welcome in definition, greater separatism. More address faculty and our white fraternities and sororities, white students and professors were administrators — Ruth Darling feeling that blacks were becoming circa 1969. hostile toward them. More black students were coming to feel that all whites were their enemies; oth- ers were simply feeling greater pride in their blackness. Whites were over- reacting to this and seeing it as some sort of threat.” Darling (associate dean) “I went to a security meeting, and we discussed what the procedures would be in the event of the occu- pation of Day Hall, how to keep the University in operation. And I said rather smugly that we had already planned what we would do in the case of an occupation of Day Hall— we would regroup at Willard Straight.” PHOTO (MIDDLE LEFT): CORNELL DAILY SUN 50 CORNELL ALUMNI MAGAZINE MA19_WSH_takeover_final_OK.indd 50 2/19/19 9:58 AM THE OCCUPATION STUDENT UNION (from far left): An Early on Saturday, April 19, a occupier looks out group of African American students a window; students entered the Straight and demanded gather outside as an SDS leader that everyone leave; those evicted addresses the included families staying in the crowd; parents pack building’s guest rooms for Parents’ their belongings after Weekend.