The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in two cases challenging the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education, writes Glenn Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies, in a Washington Post perspective.
"The court’s decisions will be shaped by decades of partisan contention over the meaning of affirmative action, during which opponents have distorted the policy’s justifications and obscured its successes," Altschuler writes in the piece with co-author David Wippman. "Opponents’ constricted understanding of affirmative action today is not altogether surprising. For well over 150 years, many White Americans have felt disadvantaged by government policies enhancing opportunities for women and racial minorities in employment, education and other areas."
Serge Petchenyi/Cornell University
From left, Xi Yang, PhD '10, senior lecturer of finance in the SC Johnson College of Business; Christine Ye; Christine Ye Award recipient Margaret E. Foster, doctoral candidate in communication; Cornelia Ye Award recipient Naman Agrawal, doctoral candidate in neurobiology and behavior; Cornelia Ye; and Derina Samuel, associate director of graduate student development at the Center for Teaching Innovation.
NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Artist concept of the gas giant planet WD 1856 b orbiting a white dwarf star. The planet is 7 times larger than the Earth-sized white dwarf it orbits. WD 1856 b has methane and hazes in its atmosphere, which would give it a similar color to Saturn's moon Titan. The white dwarf formed from a star that died 5 billion years ago, and has been cooling ever since, giving it an orange colour similar to the Sun.
Sreang Hok/Cornell University
Dressed in clean-room suits, the Warrior-Scholar Project’s STEM boot camp cohort toured the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility.
