SUPPORT FOR THEORY CENTER Gov. George Pataki has made a major CORNELL commitment to the center's federal supercomputing proposal. HUMANITARIAN SERVICE MEDAL Physicist and former Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov is honored by the American Physical Society. Volume 27 Number 32 May 2, 1996 Good neighbors Saleh recommended to be dean ofadmissions and financial aid Provost Don M. today in admissions and financial aid Randel has announced policy, and he has the leadership qualities he is recommending needed to advance us in these key areas. the appointment of Equally important, he has demonstrated a Donald A. Saleh as strong commitment to the financial and dean of admission'S educational well-being of our students." and financial aid. As dean of admissions and financial Saleh, whose ap­ aid Saleh is responsible for the coordina­ pointment will be pre­ tion of all undergraduate admissions ef­ sented for approval at Saleh forts, for the oversight of undergraduate the May meetingofthe financial aid programs and for policies board of trustees, has been acting dean of affecting these areas. admissionsand fi nancial aid sinceJul y 1994. "I am excited about the opportunity to He succeeded former Dean Susan H. serve Cornell as its dean ofadmissions and Murphy, who was named vice president for financial aid," Saleh said. "As one of the student and academic services. nation's premier institutions, Cornell at­ "I am very pleased to announce this tracts and enrolls some of the best students key appointment to my senior manage­ in the country. My role is to help maintain ment team," Randel said. "Don Saleh and improve the strong position that we brings to this position a wealth ofexperi­ currently enjoy in the admissions market­ ence, including 14 years of service to place and to ensure that our financial aid Cornell. Be has a strong background in programs support our enrollment and re- the issues we in higher education face Continued on page 8 Taylor appointed associate provost Winnie F. Taylor, professor of law at with Winnie Taylor's Cornell since 1990, has been appointed as­ legal expertise, lead­ sociate provost, President Hunter Rawlings ership in a broad spec­ and Provost Don M. Randel have announced. trum of underrepre­ In her new post, Taylor will assume sentation issues and duties and responsibilities of Joycelyn R. demonstrated vision Hart, associate vice president for human for pluralism in aca­ relations, who is retiring from university deme as well as em­ service on June 30. Hart had deferred her ployment," Rawlings retirement at Rawlings' request during the Taylor said. "I would also period of administrative transition. like to extend my ap­ Taylor will lead the Cornell Office of preciation to Joycelyn Hart for postponing Equal Opportunity and Office of Human her retirement and for her fine and dedi­ Relations and serve as the university's chief cated service to Cornell in a variety of affirmative action officer. As associate pro­ positions since 1970." vost, she also will work on issues that affect Randel said, "Winnie Taylor's legal Robert Barker/University Photography academic personnel and programs. background is especially suited to the StUdents, from left: Mike Zulla '97, David Koeppel '98 and Mike Intravaia Rawlings, with the support of Randel, new associate provost position because '96, from Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, help pick up litter on College will recommend the appointment to the of the growing legal responsibility asso­ Avenue during the 11th annual Good Neighbor Day in Collegetown on Executive Committee of the board of trust­ ciated with the human relations post. We April 27. The cleanup effort is sponsored by the Interfratemity and ees at its meeting in Ithaca on May 24. will build and emphasize faculty leader­ Panhellenic councils, with support from the community. "I am very pleased that we were able to ship in establishing a good human rela- find among our ter,ured faculty a person Continued on page 8 Rawlings tells students to cherish the research opportunities at Cornell By Larry Bernard education had been 30 years ago at a small liberal arts college with no graduate programs and only 450 students. Undergraduate students who do research enhance their "There simply were not the opportunities that Cornell COllege experience, Cornell President Hunter Rawlings told has to offer. Haverford offered 30 majors. Cornell offers undergraduate researchers last week. that many in the College of Arts and Sciences alone. There "Ifstudents - and that's a big question - ifstudents take are many more faculty members here ... major research advantage of the resources at Cornell, then they can have resources and major research libraries of over 5 million much richer and deeper experiences than Ihad at Haverford," volumes ... and a faculty in general that comprises leading the president said in an address titled "What I Didn't Learn scholars in every discipline." in College." At Haverford, he continued, the student research experi­ Rawlings, who earned a bachelor's degree from Haverford ence comprised doing laboratory experiments in which the College in Pennsylvania in 1966, spoke at a plenary session of faculty already knew the outcome. At many colleges, Cornell's Undergraduate Research Forum in Schwartz Audi­ Rawlings said, "student researchers find themselves verify­ torium, Rockefeller Hall, on April 24. He was joined by ing references or washing out test tubes. Being part of an Jessika Trancik, ajunior in materials science and engineering, integral team simply was not possible." Who also addressed the plenary session after remarks by John He added that "access to frontier research" is another benefit that Cornell affords its undergraduates. "In the end, Hopcroft, dean of the College of Engineering. Frank DiMeo/University Photography The forum, co-chaired by Shefali Gandhi, a junior bio­ .Junior .Jessika Trancik gave a talk entitled "Mate­ some ofyou will have discovered something new. Research chemistry major, and Nikki Holtmeier, a junior chemistry rials Science: Surpassing Traditional Boundaries," for you is not just a laboratory exercise." major, featured more than 150 undergraduate researchers at the Undergraduate Research Forum, April 24. Rawlings said that in addition to the teamwork, first-rate who presented their projects in oral or poster form at librariesand resources and excellentfaculty, there wasanother locations throughout campus, sponsored by the Under­ helped organize the forum. advantage to doing research as a Cornell undergraduate: graduate Research Board. Marilyn Williams, assistant dean Rawlings said that when he read the abstracts ofstudent "You are going to remember what you did in research for academic services in the College of Arts and Sciertces, research, he was struck by how different his undergraduate Continued on page 4 2 May 2,1996 Cornell Chronicle LEITER It looks like an airplane hangar Harassment complaints shouldn't go to OEO The Cornell administration should be commended for recognizing that the sexual harassment procedures of the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) are seriously flawed and badly in need of revision. The OEO is the primary campus advocate for minorities and women and their special interests. In addition to this role, they have been assigned the task of investigating complaints brought mainly by their con­ stituency groups. In developing their own procedures for doing so, the OEO be­ stowed upon themselves the functions of investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and, in effect, executioner. The conflicts of interest inherent in such an arrangement are obvious, and the revised procedures make only minor inroads into this assault on fairness and due process. But the root of the problem is assigning these complaints to the OEO in the first place. This is akin to the unthinkable sce­ nario ofappointing the prosecutingattorney to serve also as judge in criminal cases. To appreciate the built-in bias of this arrange­ ment, imagine a criminal court judge who is assigned to preside over the trial of a man accused of raping the judge's daughter. By analogy, the OEO is assigned the role of "judge" in the "trial" of persons accused of sexually harassing the very people whose Division ofRare and Manuscript Collections/Carl A. Krach Library interests they are supposed to represent and Itis. Airplanes wereparkedin Barton Hall in 1918aspart of the UnitedStatesArmy School of Military Aeronautics. defend! If the university is truly interested in eliminating conflicts of interests, it will have to find someone other than the OEO to adjudicate these cases. This "someone else" should be obvi­ ~ ous: the Office of the Judicial Adminis­ Athletics seeks men basketball coach FOruBerstudentis trator. This office has the primary role of AI Walker, head men's basketball coach investigating and adjudicating ALL vio­ tive. Our team is maturing, talented and since 1993, has stepped down from that foundation fellow lations of the Campus Code of Conduct moving in the right direction." position, it was announced Monday by (Policy Notebook for Cornell Commu­ Walker was appointed head coach at Olugbemisola Amusa-Shonubi '91 re­ Charles Moore, director of athletics. nity 1995-96, page 66). It has no built-in Cornell in May 1993. In his three seasons as cently was named a fellow by the Echoing In making the announcement, Moore head coach, his teams compiled an overall constituency groups and should, there­ Green Foundation. The foundation, based said: "Basedon conversations with Coach fore, have no inherent conflicts of inter­ record of27-51 and 12-30 in the Ivy League. in New York City, annually awards seniors Walker over the past few weeks, we have est where complaints are concerned. And This past year, the Big Red men cagers and youngalumni with $15,000 fellowships decided that it's time for a change in the it already has a set ofcodified procedures posted an overall record of 10-16 and were to create and carry out public service pro­ men's basketball program." which would require relatively few revi­ 5-9 in Ivy League competition.