The final print edition of the Cornell Alumni Magazine (May/June 2021) includes a feature called "Big Red Backdrop"--a roundup of novels set on the Hill--including several based on events at Cornell in 1969. These include:
Tom Jones, who led the takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969, and later became President of TIAA-CREF, has a full-page ad for his book and website in the current issue (and, sadly, final print version) of the Cornell Alumni Magazine.
Almost 50 years after that incident, we’re still plagued with the same problems: This issue of racism, more generally, but also specific cases of racist actions on campus.
I am trying to research a visit to Cornell in the spring of 1969 by astronaut Frank Borman and his wife Susan. This followed shortly after the flight of Apollo 8, but I'm not certain of the date and whether it happened before or after the Willard Straight Hall incident. Borman conducted a series of visits to university campuses that spring including Notre Dame and Columbia, and encountered protests and unrest at a number of them. While at Cornell Borman was hosted at the home of Carl Sagan where he was confronted by members of the SDS who asked Borman about war crimes in Vietnam, a subject Borman said he felt unable to address in his capacity as an Air Force Colonel in NASA's astronaut office. His account of the Cornell incident appears on pages 235-236 of his 1988 autobiography Countdown. There is no mention of his visit in the Cornell Daily Sun that I can find. In the book, Borman mentions that Sagan was an advisor to the SDS, however this is not something that I can find documented elsewhere. Can anyone shed light on this incident, and ideally, does anyone have images from Borman's Cornell visit?
