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Cornell University

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Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, USA, is a major research university and a member of the Ivy League. Cornell was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell, a businessman and a pioneer in the telegraph industry, and Andrew Dickson White, a respected scholar.

About Cornell

Cornell counts twenty-eight Nobel laureates among its alumni and affiliated faculty. Cornell was the first major institution in the eastern United States to admit women along with men, when the first women enrolled in 1872. It awarded the first university degree in Veterinary Medicine and Journalism, taught the first course in American History, formed the first university publishing company, and is a pioneer in many other areas. Cornell awarded the nation's first doctorates in electrical engineering and industrial engineering. Also, established the first four-year schools of Hotel Administration and Industrial and Labor Relations.

The university has seven undergraduate and seven graduate level academic units, as well as three intercollege divisions, the School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, and the Cornell University Library. Cornell's main campus is situated on a rolling site of 745 acres (3 km&sup2) overlooking Cayuga Lake, largest of the Finger Lakes, and the central portion is bounded to its north and south by picturesque gorges and waterfalls.

Two units, the Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences are located at the New York City campus. In addition, the university operates a medical school campus in Education City, Qatar, the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the Shoals Marine Laboratory off the coast of Maine (in cooperation with the University of New Hampshire), the New York State Cooperative Extension system, and several other teaching or research facilities around the world.

The university's students come from more than 100 countries and all fifty states. Cornell offers graduate degrees in approximately 100 academic and professional fields. Cornell's professional offerings include schools of law, management (business), medicine, and veterinary medicine.

The school colors are carnelian red and white, a play on "Cornellian" and Andrew Dickson White. Cornell's mascot is the bear, but its sports teams are all nicknamed "Big Red". They participate in the Ivy League and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

Academic units

Undergraduate colleges and schools

Cornell is a private Ivy League university. While most of its funding is received privately through tuition, research grants, and alumni contributions, three of its undergraduate colleges and the graduate veterinary school, called statutory colleges also receive partial funding from the state of New York to support their research and service mission in niche fields.

Endowed schools

Statutory colleges

Graduate/Professional colleges and schools

All of Cornell's graduate and professional schools are endowed, except for the statutory veterinary school.

Cornell University Library

The Cornell University Library consists of twenty units. It is one of the largest academic research libraries in the United States, with over 7 million volumes, 7 million microforms, 5,000 computer files, and some 76,000 sound recordings in its collections in addition to extensive digital resources and the University Archives. It was the first among all U.S. colleges and universities to allow undergraduates to borrow books from its libraries.

Cornell University Press

Cornell University Press, established 1869, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States and is one of the country's largest university presses. It produces approximately 150 titles each year in various disciplines including anthropology, classics, cultural studies, history, literary criticism and theory, medieval studies, philosophy, politics and international relations, psychology and psychiatry, and women's studies.

Other units

  • Division of Nutritional Sciences
  • Faculty of Computing and Information Science
  • Office of Undergraduate Biology
  • School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions.
See also : CORC, Cornell Theory Center

University Presidents

President Life Tenure
Andrew Dickson White 1832–1918 1866–1885
Charles Kendall Adams 1856–1902 1885–1892
Jacob Gould Schurman 1854–1942 1892–1920
Livingston Farrand 1867–1939 1921–1937
Edmund Ezra Day 1883–1951 1937–1949
Deane Waldo Malott 1898–1996 1951–1963
James A. Perkins 1911–1998 1963–1969
Dale R. Corson b. 1914 1969–1977
Frank H.T. Rhodes b. 1926 1977–1995
Hunter R. Rawlings III b. 1944 1995–2003
Jeffrey Sean Lehman b. 1956 2003-

Student Life

Cornell is considered one of the most diverse campuses in the nation. There are more than 500 registered student organizations, running the interest gamut from kayaking to full-armor jousting, from gospel choirs to improvisational theatre, multiple competitive video game clubs, and the famous Cayuga's Waiters.

The number of organizations is large, and can cater to any interests and tastes. University funding is very helpful in supporting the activities of organizations. However, the ability to socialize with numerous people of a particular interest does not breed inter-communication between groups. This is espeically a problem with the numerous ethnic/religous based groups.

Housing is divided into three sections: West Campus, Collegetown and North Campus. West Campus houses mostly transfer and returning students, whereas North Campus is almost entirely populated by freshmen. This is the result of President Hunter R. Rawlings III's North Campus Housing initative [1]. The only options for living on North Campus for upper classmen are the program houses, like the Holland International Living Center and Balch all-women dormitory.

Completion of the North Campus housing initative in Fall 2001, which included the addition of two large dormitories, has created a disparity in non-program-non-co-op housing, resulting in 671 freshmen unable to find standard housing after their freshman year [2]. Apartments are available in the city and surrounding towns of Ithaca, which is actual area of the city located within walking distance of Cornell up the "East Hill" of Ithaca.

There is a residential college project under construction on West Campus, spearheaded by the completion of Alice H. Cook House in 2004. Completion of the five-"House" "residential college" campus will occur in 2010 [3]. The campus dining services have been rated as one of the top college dining services many times in recent years.

Athletics

Cornell has one of the most diverse varsity athletic programs in the country. It sponsors 36 varsity teams. An NCAA Division I institution, Cornell is a member of the prestigious Ivy League and also competes in Eastern College Athletic Conference, the largest in the nation.

Faculty

Cornell University has 1,550 full-time and part-time academic faculty members, and an additional 1,500 affiliated with its medical divisions. The 2002-03 Cornell faculty included 4 Nobel laureates, a Crafoord Prize winner, a Legion of Honor recipient, a World Food Prize winner, 4 National Medal of Science winners, a Wolf Prize winner, 4 MacArthur award winners, 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, 6 winners of Alexander von Humboldt Awards, 5 Presidential Early Career Award holders, 25 National Science Foundation CAREER grant holders, a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research, a recipient of the American Mathematical Society's Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement, a recipient of the Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award holder, 3 Packard Foundation grant holders, a Searle Scholar, a Keck Distinguished Young Scholar, and a NYSTAR (New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research) early career award winner.

Former professors include Carl Sagan, Norman Malcolm, Vladimir Nabokov, Hans Bethe, Clinton Rossiter, Richard Feynman, Bill Nye, John Cleese and Allan Bloom.

The campus

Main campus

Cornell's main campus is located in Ithaca, New York; Day Hall, the administration building, is located on East Avenue. The campus itself is situated on a rolling site of 745 acres (3 km&sup2) on East Hill, overlooking Cayuga Lake and downtown Ithaca two miles (3 km) to the west. The 260 or so major buildings are mostly divided into quads for the Arts, Engineering, and Agriculture, a science lab complex, and the athletic complex.

Central campus is bounded to its north and south by spectacular limestone gorges and waterfalls. Dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, and student centers are located on North Campus, north of Fall Creek Gorge, and on West Campus, at the bottom of the Library Slope ("Libe Slope"); after snowfalls, students students like to sled down the Slope on trays from the dining hall. East of the main campus lie the Cornell Plantations, approximately 3,600 acres (15 km&sup2) encompassing an arboretum and botanical gardens as well as natural woodlands, trails, streams, and gorges. South of Cascadilla Gorge lies the student-oriented Collegetown business district.

The first building, Morrill Hall, was erected in 1868. Cornell's signature landmark is McGraw Tower, which rises 173 feet and 161 steps from the ground. Constructed in 1891 atop Uris Library, it features the Cornell Chimes, 21 bells on which the Cornell chimesmasters play three daily concerts.

Contrasting with the Gothic, Victorian, and Neo-Classical buildings on the Arts Quad is the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, designed by I. M. Pei. Other notable buildings: Willard Straight Hall, one of the earliest student unions, Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, the largest academic building in the eastern United States, and the Statler Hotel, adjacent to and associated with the School of Hotel Administration.

New York City campus

The New York Weill Cornell Medical Center is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It is home to the Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, which are also affiliated with New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Sloan-Kettering Institute, and the Columbia University Medical Center.

Other campuses

The New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, operated by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is located in Geneva, New York, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the main campus. The facility now comprises 20 major buildings on 130 acres (0.5 km&sup2) of land, as well as over 700 acres (2.8 km&sup2) of test plots and other lands devoted to horticultural research. It also operates three substations, Vineyard Research Laboratory in Fredonia, Hudson Valley Laboratory in Highland and the Long Island Horticultural Research Laboratory in Riverhead.

The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, located in Doha, is housed in a large two-story structure designed by Arata Isozaki.

The Shoals Marine Laboratory, a seasonal marine field station dedicated to undergraduate education and research operated in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire, is located on the 95 acre (0.4 km&sup2) Appledore Island off the Maine–New Hampshire coast.

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, site of the world's largest radio telescope, is operated by Cornell.

Cornell University maintains facilities in Washington, DC and New York City for its Cornell in Washington, Urban Semester, and Urban Scholars Programs.

Other facilities include

  • Cornell Biological Field Station at Shackelton Point in Bridgeport
  • Punta Cana and EsBaran biodiversity field stations in the Dominican Republic and Peru
  • Arnot Teaching and Research Forest natural resources center in Tompkins and Schuyler Counties.
  • Animal Science Teaching and Research Center in Harford, and Duck Research Laboratory in Eastport, New York
  • Offices of the New York Sea Grant, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and School of Industrial and Labor Relations Extension Service throughout New York State
  • Offices for Cornell-administered study abroad programs such as the Cornell-Nepal Study Program and Cornell-in-Rome

Alumni of Note

Nobel laureates

Government / Law / Public Policy

Business / Economics

Medicine

Science and Technology

NASA Astronauts

Literature

Entertainment / Music / Sports

Architecture

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