On Wednesday, the Faculty Senate ignored substantial student opposition and passed changes to the academic calendar in the name of mental health. We are astounded that the Faculty Senate would not only move forward with this proposal without formalized student input, but also disregard the voices of more than 1,000 students who had expressed their opposition before the vote. We urge President David Skorton and Provost Kent Fuchs to reject the resolution and urge the revision of the calendar to make it conform to the needs of students, not just the needs of the faculty.

Last week, the Recruitment, Acceptance, Retention and Education committee — which President David Skorton charged with transforming pledging in the Greek system — released a set of recommendations that will be discussed and voted on in the coming months. There is little doubt that the recommendations put forward by the committee would completely alter not only the pledging process, but also the Greek system as we know it.

Congress is in the midst of a debate over extending a subsidy for federally subsidized Stafford student loans. Currently, students pay a 3.4 percent interest rate on their Stafford loans. Unless Congress passes a bill by July 1, the interest rate on those loans will double to 6.8 percent. 

Last week, the Interfraternity Council released the results of a survey sent to students about their experiences during rush week in January.  While the results show that the University’s new Greek recognition policy reduced the amount of drinking that occurs during this period, it is concerning that there has been an increase in the number of events held in Collegetown.

On Friday, a Cornell employee removed the covers of copies of The Cornell Daily Sun located in Day Hall to prevent parents and prospective students visiting for Cornell Days from reading them. We find this to be an affront to our editorial independence. While this may be an incident isolated to a single newsstand, the University must ensure that this sort of action does not occur again.

Last week, the Calendar Committee, comprised of various constituencies across the University, voted to approve their final proposal for an academic calendar that the Faculty Senate will vote on at its next meeting on May 9. Notably absent was the support of the two students on the calendar committee.

As New Yorkers cast their votes in the Republican Presidential Primary Tuesday, The Sun endorses Mitt Romney as the best remaining Republican in the race. 

The University is currently working to find permanent sources of funding to maintain levels of spending at the Gannett Health Center that were increased in the wake of the string of student suicides in 2010.

One year after Provost Kent Fuchs approved a Faculty Senate resolution calling for campus-wide implementation of the plagiarism detection service, Turnitin, faculty are still debating the effectiveness of the program.

On April 3, a Marine from Ithaca, Cpl. Christopher D. Bordoni, died from injuries sustained in a suicide attack in Afghanistan in January. Last week, thousands of people lined the highway as his body was transported from the airport in Syracuse to Ithaca for burial. Hundreds of Ithacans stood outside with American flags to welcome this Marine home for the last time.