Cornell Report Fall 2009
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What you should know: Theatre
Communication and community. Science demolished the myth that mind and body (or intellect and emotion) can be separated. What’s more, we’ve learned that the human brain is wired to be receptive to stories, both as a method of learning and as a way of remembering. Theatre is a unique communication medium that presents stories in […]
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What you should know: Psychology
Psychology is an interdisciplinary, diverse, and integrative science. Psychologists explore themes that cover a wide spectrum ranging from molecular, neural bases of behavior to human reactions that are embedded in groups, organizations, communities, and global cultures. Psychologists often operate on the borders and intersections between the natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and fine arts. The […]
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What you should know: Physics
Physicists study the universe at its largest scales. Using space-based telescopes, astrophysicists have observed galaxies at distances of 13 billion light years. These and other observations have led astrophysicists to realize that the universe must contain a kind of matter (dark matter) that holds galaxies together and a kind of energy (dark energy) that is […]
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What you should know: Philosophy
Philosophy is universal and inescapable. Everyone has a philosophy. Everyone has views about reality, truth, right and wrong, happiness, etc. The question is, is this philosophy plausible, is it true, is it defensible … or is it merely the set of beliefs that one has inherited from one’s culture, from one’s parents, from one’s peers, […]
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What you should know: History
History isn’t dead or even past—“What is past is prologue.” This quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest is chiseled in stone at the entranceway to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and it illuminates why the study of history is one of the most important intellectual undertakings humans should engage in; by understanding the past, we […]
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What you should know: Education
Education in America is and always has been a matter of local control; our schools belong to the people. The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees this right; because education is not named as a federal responsibility, it defaults to the individual states and their inhabitants. What this means is that Iowa enjoys an […]
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What you should know: Economics
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything costs something in terms of money, time, or energy. The question is how we choose to use the limited resources that we have. Economics is the study of how individuals, societies, governments, and countries distribute and use scarce resources. As such, it is applicable to […]
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What you should know: Computer Science
Computer science is not the study of computers. Computers are to computer science as telescopes are to astronomy. Rather, the discipline of computer science researches algorithms and information representation. Computer scientists use abstraction to manage complexity. The technical complexity of today’s hardware and software systems is mind-boggling, but computer scientists know a trick—use abstraction. While […]
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What you should know: Classical Studies
Classical Studies embraces the languages and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Temporally, that means that Classicists explore the Greek and Roman world beginning with the Bronze Age and the Trojan War (ca. 1200 BCE) through the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, in 476 CE. Geographically, the Greek and Roman world extends from India in […]
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What you should know
We asked faculty from a variety of fields to write a five-point primer on their discipline for Cornell Report readers. What follows may catch you up on what you’ve forgotten since graduation, jog your memory of classes and professors on the Hilltop, or perhaps even stir a desire to be back in the classroom again, […]
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Campaign reaches $92 million goal
With nearly 8,000 donors, Extraordinary Opportunities: The Campaign for Cornell College has unprecedented momentum.
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A Homecoming to celebrate
Cornellians had a lot to celebrate at Homecoming this year. The blustery weather was not one of them.
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Student finds piece of history on National Register campus
A geology student unearthed a small piece of history on Cornell College’s National Historic District campus: an 1889 penny lost sometime in the last 120 years.
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Rams welcome coaches, new and old
A number of new and familiar faces will be leading the Rams this year, as wrestling, baseball, and basketball welcome new assistants and head coaches.
What you should know: Theatre 
What you should know: Psychology 
What you should know: Physics 
What you should know: Philosophy 
What you should know: History 
What you should know: Education 
What you should know: Economics 
What you should know: Computer Science 
What you should know: Classical Studies 
What you should know 
Campaign reaches $92 million goal 
A Homecoming to celebrate 
Student finds piece of history on National Register campus 
In Brief 
Rams welcome coaches, new and old