Everything about Cornell University totally explained
Cornell University is a
private university located in
Ithaca,
New York,
U.S. Its two medical
campuses are in
New York City and
Education City,
Qatar. Cornell is one of two private
land grant universities and a member of the
Ivy League.
Cornell was founded in 1865 by
Ezra Cornell and
Andrew Dickson White as a
coeducational, non-
sectarian institution where admission was offered irrespective of religion or race. Inaugurated shortly after the
American Civil War, its founders intended that the new university would teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge — from the
classics to the
sciences and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's motto, an 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." The student body consists of over 13,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students from all fifty states and one hundred twenty-two countries. Cornell counts more than 240,000 living
alumni, 28
Rhodes Scholars and 40
Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students. Cornell produces more graduates that go on to become doctors than any other university in the country. It also produces the largest number of graduates in the life sciences who continue for Ph.D. degrees, and the third highest number in science and engineering. Research is a central element of the university's mission; in 2006 Cornell spent
$649
million on research and development.
History
Cornell University was created on
April 27 1865 by a
New York State Senate bill that named the university as the state's
land grant institution. Senator Ezra Cornell offered his farm in
Ithaca, New York, as a site and $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial
endowment. Fellow senator and experienced educator
Andrew Dickson White agreed to be the first president. During the next three years, White oversaw the construction of the initial two buildings and traveled about the globe, attracting students and
faculty.
The university was inaugurated on
October 7,
1868, and 412 men were enrolled the next day. Two years later, Cornell admitted its first women students, making it the first
coeducational school among what came to be known as the
Ivy League. Scientists
Louis Agassiz and
James Crafts were among the faculty members. It continues to forge partnerships with major institutions in
India,
Singapore, and the
People's Republic of China. The university, with its high international profile, claims to be "the first
transnational university". Residents of New York enrolled in the statutory colleges pay reduced tuition. Furthermore, the New York State
Governor, the
Speaker of the New York State Assembly, and the President
Pro Tem of the
New York State Senate all serve as
ex-officio members of Cornell's Board of
Trustees. The statutory colleges are an integral part of the State University of New York. Despite some similarities, Cornell's contract colleges are not
public or state schools — they're
private institutions that Cornell operates under statutes, appropriations and contracts with New York State.
Cornell is
decentralized, with its colleges and schools exercising wide autonomy. Each defines its own academic programs, operates its own
admissions and advising programs, and confers its own
degrees. The only university-wide requirements for a
baccalaureate degree are to pass a
swimming test, take two
physical education courses, and satisfy a writing requirement. Although students are affiliated with their individual college or school, they may take courses in any of the colleges, provided they've fulfilled the course prerequisites. A handful of inter-school academic departments offer courses in more than one college.
Seven schools provide undergraduate programs and an additional seven provide graduate and professional programs. Students pursuing graduate degrees in departments of these schools are enrolled in the
Graduate School. The School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions offers programs for college and high school students, professionals, and other adults.
Several other universities have used Cornell as their model, including the
University of Sydney in
Australia and the
University of Birmingham in the
United Kingdom; the latter on the recommendation of one of its financiers,
Andrew Carnegie.
Campuses
Main campus
Cornell's main campus is on East Hill in
Ithaca, New York, overlooking the town and
Cayuga Lake. When the university was founded in 1865, the campus consisted of 209.5 acres (0.85 km²) of Ezra Cornell's roughly 300 acre (1.2 km²) farm. Since then, it has swelled to about 745 acres (3.0 km²), encompassing both the hill and much of the surrounding areas.
Some 260 university buildings are divided primarily between
Central and
North Campuses on the
plateau of the Hill,
West Campus on its slope, and Collegetown immediately south of Central Campus. Collegetown contains the Schwartz
Performing Arts Center and two upperclass
residence halls, amid a neighborhood of apartments, restaurants, and businesses.
The main campus is marked by an irregular layout and eclectic
architectural styles, including ornate
Gothic,
Victorian,
Neoclassical buildings, and less decorative
international and
modernist structures. The more ornate buildings generally predate
World War II. Because the student population doubled from 7,000 in 1950 to 15,000 by 1970, grandiosity was neglected in favor of less expensive and more rapidly constructed styles. While some buildings are neatly arranged into
quadrangles, others are packed densely and haphazardly. These eccentricities arose from the university's numerous, ever-changing master plans for the campus. For example, in one of the earliest plans,
Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of
Central Park, outlined a "grand terrace" overlooking
Cayuga Lake. Because the terrace plan was dropped, McGraw Hall appears to face the wrong direction, facing the Slope rather than the Arts Quad.
The Ithaca Campus is among the rolling valleys of the
Finger Lakes region and, atop the Hill, commands a panoramic view of the surrounding area. Two
gorges, Fall Creek Gorge and Cascadilla Gorge, bound Central Campus, which become popular swimming holes during the warmer months (although the university discourages their use). Adjacent to the main campus, Cornell owns the 2,900 acre (11.7 km²)
Cornell Plantations, a
botanical garden containing flowers, trees, and ponds along manicured trails.
New York City campus
Weill Cornell Medical College, often called Weill Cornell, is on the
Upper East Side of
Manhattan,
New York City. It is home to two Cornell divisions,
Weill Medical College and
Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and has been affiliated with the
New York-Presbyterian Hospital since 1927. Although their faculty and academic divisions are separate, the Medical Center shares its administrative functions with the
Columbia University Medical Center. Weill Medical College is also affiliated with the neighboring
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,
Rockefeller University, and the
Hospital for Special Surgery. Many faculty members have joint appointments at these institutions, and Weill Cornell, Rockefeller, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering offer the
Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program to selected entering Cornell medical students.
In addition to the medical center, New York City hosts local offices for some of Cornell's service programs. The Cornell Urban Scholars Program encourages students to pursue public service careers with organizations working with New York City's poorest children, families, and communities. The
College of Human Ecology and the
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences provide means for students to reach out to local communities by gardening and building with the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Students with the
School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Extension & Outreach Program make workplace expertise available to organizations, union members, policy makers, and working adults. The
College of Engineering's Operations Research Manhattan, in the city's
financial district, brings together business optimization research and decision support services aimed at strengthening industry and public sector collaboration. The
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning has a facility on West 17th Street, near
Union Square, to provide studio and seminar space for students and faculty.
Qatar campus
Weill Medical College in
Qatar is in
Education City, near
Doha. Opened in September 2004, it was the first American medical school outside the United States. Along with its full four-year MD program, which mirrors the curriculum taught at
Weill Medical College in New York City, the college offers a two-year undergraduate
pre-medical program with a separate admissions process. This undergraduate program opened in September 2002 and was the first
coeducational institute of
higher education in Qatar.
The college is partially funded by the Qatar government through the
Qatar Foundation, which contributed $750 million for its construction. The medical center is housed in a large two-story structure designed by
Arata Isozaki. In 2004, the Qatar Foundation announced the construction of a 350–bed Specialty Teaching Hospital near the medical college in Education City. The hospital will be completed in 2009 and is supported by an $8 billion endowment. The
Arecibo Observatory in
Puerto Rico, site of the world's largest single-dish
radio telescope, is operated by Cornell under a contract with the
National Science Foundation. The
Shoals Marine Laboratory, operated in conjunction with the
University of New Hampshire, is a seasonal marine field station dedicated to undergraduate education and research on 95 acre (0.4 km²)
Appledore Island off the
Maine–
New Hampshire coast.
Many Cornell facilities focus on
conservationism and
ecology. The
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, operated by the
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is in
Geneva, New York, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the main campus. The facility comprises 20 major buildings on 130 acres (0.5 km²) of land, as well as more than 700 acres (2.8 km²) 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
Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Sapsucker Woods in
Ithaca, New York, performs research on
biological diversity, primarily in birds. In 2005, the lab announced that it had rediscovered the
Ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be
extinct. The Animal Science Teaching and Research Center in
Harford, New York, and the Duck Research Laboratory in
Eastport, New York, are resources for information on animal disease control and
husbandry. The Arnot Teaching and Research Forest, a 4,075 acre (16.5 km²) forest 20 miles (32.2 km) south of the Ithaca campus, is the primary field location for faculty and student training and research related to professional
forestry. The mission of the Cornell Biological Field Station in
Bridgeport, New York, is "to provide a center for long-term ecological research and support the University's educational programs, with special emphasis on
freshwater lacustrine systems." In addition, the university operates biodiversity laboratories in
Punta Cana,
Dominican Republic, and in the
Amazon rainforest in
Peru named the
Cornell University Esbaran Amazon Field Laboratory.
The university also maintains offices for
study abroad and scholarship programs. Cornell in Washington is a program that allows students to study for a semester in
Washington, D.C., in research and
internship positions while earning
credit toward a degree. Cornell in
Rome, operated by the
College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, allows students to use the city as a resource for learning
architecture,
urban studies, and
art. The
College of Human Ecology offers the Urban Semester Program, an opportunity to take courses and complete an internship in New York City for a semester. As well, the Capital Semester program allows students to intern in the New York state legislature.
Academics
Profile
For the undergraduate class of 2011, the admission rate was 20.5%, the most selective in the university's history, though the highest in the Ivy League. Of those admitted, the average SAT Verbal score was 700, while the average SAT Math was a 720. Also, 92% of admitted students for the Class of 2011 were in the top 10% of their graduating high school class. In 2006, the most selective undergraduate college was the
College of Arts and Sciences, which admitted only 14.6% of applicants. For the class of 2009, 33.8% enrolled through early decision. Of enrolling students, 67% scored above 650 on the
SAT Verbal exam and 82% scored above 650 on the SAT Math exam. Sixty-eight percent of new undergraduate students hailed from public high schools. The
Weill Cornell Medical School accepted 4.3%.
Faculty
For the August 2005 to May 2006 academic year, Cornell University had 1,594 full-time and part-time academic faculty members affiliated with its main campus. Former Cornell President
Hunter R. Rawlings III served as interim president for the 2005–06 academic year.
David J. Skorton, former president of the
University of Iowa, assumed office on
July 8,
2006.
International programs
Cornell offers undergraduate curricula with international focuses, including the
Africana Studies, French Studies, German Studies,
Jewish Studies,
Latino Studies, Near Eastern Studies,
Romance Studies, and
Russian Literature majors. Cornell was the first university to teach modern Far Eastern languages.
The
Asian Studies major, South Asia Program, Southeast Asia Program, and the newly launched China and Asia-Pacific Studies (CAPS) major provide opportunities for students and researchers in Asia. Cornell has an agreement with
Peking University allowing students in the CAPS major to spend a semester in
Beijing. Similarly, the
College of Engineering has an agreement to exchange faculty and graduate students with
Tsinghua University in
Beijing, and the
School of Hotel Administration has a joint master's program with
Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore. The
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has signed an agreement with
Japan's National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, as well as the
University of the Philippines, Los Baños, to engage in joint research and exchange graduate students and faculty members. It also cooperates in agricultural research with the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
In the
Middle East, Cornell's efforts focus on biology and medicine. The
Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar trains new doctors to improve health services in the region. The university is also developing the Bridging the Rift Center, a "Library of Life" (or
database of all living systems) on the border of
Israel and
Jordan, in collaboration with those two countries and
Stanford University.
Cornell has partnered with
Queen's University in
Canada to offer a joint
Executive MBA. The only program of its kind in the world, graduates of the program earn both a Cornell MBA and a Queen's MBA. This program is made possible through
videoconferencing, and so students in Canada and the United States share an interactive virtual classroom.
Rankings
The university ranked 12th in the 2007 and 2008
U.S. News & World Report National Universities ranking and 12th globally in an academic ranking of world universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2006.Britain's THES - QS World University Rankings ranked Cornell 14th in the world in 2005 and 15th in 2006. Cornell was ranked seventh nationally and first among Ivy League universities in The Washington Monthly's 2007 ranking of universities' contributions to research, community service, and
social mobility. In 2006,
The Princeton Review reported that Cornell ranked ninth as a "dream college" for high school students and their parents.
Newsweek named Cornell the 'Hottest Ivy' in its 2007 listing of America's 25 Hot Schools. Instead of using the traditional school ranking methods,
Newsweek offers a snapshot of today's most interesting colleges according to high school counselors, admissions officers, consultants, students, and parents, who noted Cornell for its emphasis on "problem-solving as well as scholarly debate" and "variety on campus" among other things.
The
Almanac of Architecture and Design along with
Design Intelligence
has consistently ranked
Cornell's Bachelor of Architecture program as number one in the nation (in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007). In the 2008 survey, the program ranked second and the Master of Architecture program ranked third. In 2008, Design Intelligence also ranked Cornell's undergraduate and graduate landscape architecture programs as 6th and 4th respectively, in the nation.
Among business schools in the United States, the
Johnson Graduate School of Management was ranked 7th by
BusinessWeek in 2004, 9th by
Forbes in 2005, 14th by
U.S. News in 2008, and 18th by
The Wall Street Journal in 2005. Worldwide, the school was ranked 17th by
The Economist in 2005 and 36th by the
Financial Times in 2006.
The
Undergraduate Business Program at Cornell University (or Applied Economics and Management program) ranked 4th Nationally in Business Week's Best Undergraduate Business Programs for 2008.
U.S. News ranked the
Weill Cornell Medical School as the 15th best in the United States in its 2007 edition. The
College of Veterinary Medicine was ranked first among national veterinary medicine graduate schools. The
Cornell Law School was ranked as the 12th best graduate law program among national universities. In 2005,
The National Law Journal reported that Cornell Law had the sixth highest placement rate at the top 50 law firms in the U.S. among law schools with recent graduates.
Among graduate engineering programs, Cornell was ranked ninth in the United States by
U.S. News in 2008. In its 2006 ranking and 2007 ranking of undergraduate engineering programs at universities in the United States,
U.S. News placed Cornell first in
engineering physics. In 1954,
Conrad Hilton called the Cornell
School of Hotel Administration "the greatest hotel school in the world."
According to the latest ranking of
National Research Council in 1995, Cornell ranks sixth nationally in the number of graduate programs in the top ten in their fields. Cornell had 19 ranked in the top 10 in terms of overall academic quality. Also
National Research Council ranked the quality of faculties as 5th in Arts and Humanities, 6th in Mathematics and Physical Sciences, and 5th in Engineering.
Library
The Cornell University Library is the eleventh largest academic library in the United States, ranked by number of
volumes held. Organized into twenty divisions, in 2005 it held 7.5 million printed volumes in open stacks, 8.2 million
microfilms and
microfiches, and a total of 440,000 maps, motion pictures, DVDs, sound recordings, and computer files 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.
The library plays an active role in furthering online archiving of scientific and historical documents.
arXiv, an
e-print archive created at
Los Alamos National Laboratory by
Paul Ginsparg, is operated and primarily funded by Cornell as part of the library's services. The archive has changed the way many
physicists and
mathematicians communicate, making the e-print a viable and popular means of announcing new research.
Press
The Cornell University Press, established in 1869 but inactive from 1884 to 1930, was the first university
publishing enterprise in the United States. It was established in the College of the Mechanic Arts (as
mechanical engineering was called in the 19th century) because engineers knew more than literature professors did about running
steam-powered
printing presses. From its inception, the press has offered work-study
financial aid: students with previous training in the printing trades were paid for
typesetting and running the presses that printed textbooks, pamphlets, a weekly student journal, and official university publications.
Today, the press is one of the country's largest
university presses. The press's acquisitions, editorial, production, and marketing departments have been located in Sage House since 1993, and the financial department is on Cascadilla Street in downtown Ithaca. The University Charter provided for free instruction to one student chosen from each Assembly district in the state. Even after the decree, all Ivy League schools continue to award aid on financial need without offering any athletic scholarships.
In 2007-2008, Cornell has budgeted $116.8 million of its own resources on undergraduate financial aid, 94 percent of which will be spent on grant aid. Sixty-four percent of all Cornell students receive some financial aid.
On January 31, 2008, Cornell announced a new financial aid initiative to be phased in over the next two years. In the first year, 2008-09, Cornell will eliminate need-based loans for undergraduate students from families with incomes under $60,000, and cap them annually at $3,000 for students from families with incomes between $60,000 and $120,000. The following year, 2009-10, the program will take full effect by eliminating need-based loans for students from families with incomes up to $75,000, and capping annual loans at $3,000 for students from families with income between $75,000 and $120,000. The initiative will cost an additional $14 million per year when fully implemented.
Student life
Activities
For the 2006–07 academic year, Cornell had 901 registered student organizations. These clubs and organizations run the gamut from kayaking to full-armor jousting, from varsity and club sports and a cappella groups to improvisational theatre, from political clubs and publications to chess and video game clubs. They are subsidized financially by academic departments and/or the Student Assembly and the Graduate & Professional Student Assembly, two student-run organizations with a collective budget of $3.0 million per year. The assemblies also finance other student life programs including a concert commission and an on-campus movie theater. Student organizations also include a myriad of musical groups that play everything from classical, jazz, to ethnic styles in addition to the
Big Red Marching Band, which performs regularly at football games and other campus events. Organized in 1868, the oldest student organization is the
Cornell University Glee Club.
Cornell is home to two
secret senior honor societies called
Sphinx Head and
Quill and Dagger that have maintained a presence on campus for well over 115 years.
Cornell hosts the second largest
fraternity and sorority system in North America, with 66 chapters involving 28% of male and 22% of female undergraduates.
Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate
Greek-letter organization established for
African Americans, was founded at Cornell in 1906.
During the 2004–05 academic year, the Greek system committed 21,668
community service and
advocacy hours and raised $176,547 in philanthropic efforts.
The Cornell Chronicle, published by the Division of University Communications with a print edition distributed Fridays during the academic year and an online edition updated daily, is the university's newspaper of record, containing news and features about university programs, research, students, faculty and the administration, and a calendar of events.
The Cornell Review is a fortnightly conservative tabloid newspaper published by students. The Review incorporated in 1986 as The Ithaca Review, Inc. While the ideological makeup of its staff shifts over the years, the paper has maintained strident criticism of Cornell's perceived left-wing politics and political correctness. The Review has received national attention for its articles including one that discussed a proposal to sell vibrators at Gannett Health Center on campus. (External Link)
The Cornell Progressive is an independent student-run publication that calls itself "Cornell's Liberal Voice." It was founded in 2000 as Turn Left by three engineering students to counter the domination by the conservative Cornell Review. Turn Left became The Cornell Progressive in 2007.
The Cornell Centrist was founded in September 2005, and published its first issue in April 2006. Its purpose is to publish multiple newspaper-style journals that contain centrist, center-right, and center-left political positions. It was originally conceived with the primary goal of "advancing an intellectual, sophisticated political dialogue on campus."
The Cornell Moderator is a student publication founded in 2004. Self-described as "unabashedly unbiased", it's meant to serve as a vehicle for intellectually-honest campus discussion. The paper itself takes no editorial position, allowing the mutually-opposed arguments of its freelance writers to succeed or fail on their own merits.
WVBR is an independent commercial FM radio station owned and operated by Cornell students, but not affiliated with or controlled by the university. During the week, it plays mostly rock music, and switches to specialty shows and community programming on the weekend. It also provides coverage of both Cornell and national sports.
The Cornell Lunatic is the campus humor magazine.
Housing
University housing is broadly divided into three sections: North Campus, West Campus, and Collegetown. Since a 1997 residential initiative, West Campus houses transfer and returning students, whereas North Campus is almost entirely populated by freshmen.
The only options for living on North Campus for upperclassmen are the program houses: Risley Residential College, Just About Music, the Ecology House, Holland International Living Center, the Multicultural Living Learning Unit, the Latino Living Center,, and Ujamaa. Of these, only Ujamaa, Akwe:kon, and the Latino Living Center remain controversial, due to their dedicated racial or ethnic themes.
In an attempt to create a sense of community and an atmosphere of education outside the classroom and continue Andrew Dickson White's vision, the university has undertaken the $250 million residential college project on West Campus. The Class Halls will be demolished and rebuilt as five residential colleges named after notable deceased Cornell professors. The first, Alice Cook House, was opened to students in 2004, followed by Carl Becker House in 2005. The third house, Hans Bethe House, opened in January 2007. The idea of building a house system can be attributed in part to the success of Risley Residential College, the oldest continually operating residential college at Cornell. Like Risley, the new houses will have their own dining halls, student governments, in-house lectures, house trips, and crests. The completion of the five-house residential college campus will occur in August 2008.
Athletics
Cornell has 36 varsity sports teams that are known as the Big Red. An NCAA Division I-AA institution, Cornell is a member of the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey League and competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), the largest athletic conference in North America. (Note that the ECAC Hockey League is no longer affiliated with the ECAC.) The men's ice hockey team is the most historically successful of the varsity teams and is the university's most intently followed sport. Generally, although Cornell's varsity athletic teams typically earn their "share" of Ivy League titles, they don't perform well in the ECAC conference or the NCAA overall, and fail to compete consistently for national championships in most sports. Because of the Ivy League athletic agreement, the university isn't permitted to offer athletic scholarships for athletic recruiting.
Cornell University's football team had at least a share of the national championship four times before 1940 and has won the Ivy League championship three times, last in 1990. The Sprint Football team has won the CSFL title six times. The men's ice hockey team has been NCAA champion twice, ECAC champion 11 times and Ivy League champion 19 times, and recorded the only undefeated season in NCAA Division I Hockey history in 1970. The men's lacrosse team has been NCAA champion three times and Ivy League champion 21 times. The men's Lightweight rowing team varsity 8+ has won the IRA regatta three times since 1992. The women's polo team has won the National Women's Polo Championship 11 times and the women's hockey team has been Ivy League champion 8 times. In total, Cornell's varsity athletic teams have been champions of the NCAA, ECAC, or Ivy League 114 times.
Cornell maintains athletic rivalries with other collegiate institutions. The men's ice hockey team has a historic rivalry with Boston University, but since BU left what became the ECAC Hockey League to join Hockey East, rivalry with Harvard University has become predominant. Following tradition, when Harvard plays the men's ice hockey team at Cornell's Lynah Rink, some Big Red fans throw fish on the ice.
Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania are long-time rivals in football. With more than 114 games played since their first meeting in 1893, this is the seventh most-played rivalry in college football. Cornell's football series against both the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College are tied for second longest uninterrupted college football match-ups in history, both dating back to 1919. In polo, the men's and women's teams maintain rivalries with the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut.
In addition to the school's varsity athletics, club sports teams have been organized as student organizations under the auspices of the Dean of Students. Cornell's intramural program includes 30 sports. Beside such familiar sports such as flag football, squash, or water polo, such unusual offerings as "inner tube water polo" and formerly "broomstick polo" have been offered, as well as a sports trivia competition. Cornell students also often participate in the International Rutabaga Curling Championship, held annually at the Ithaca Farmers' Market. Cornell also has a rich history of martial arts on campus particularly Sport Taekwondo. Since 1987, Cornell Sport Taekwondo has competed in the Ivy-Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League (INCTL). In 2007 after a 4 year slump, Cornell Sport Taekwondo defeated MIT Sport Taekwondo to take the INCTL Cup.
Greek life
Cornell's Greek scene, founded with Zeta Psi in 1868, is the second largest in the nation, with roughly 1/3 of the undergraduate population involved in Greek letter organizations. Cornell currently has 39 fraternities registered with the Interfraternity Council (IFC), 12 sororities with the Panhellenic Council (Panhel), and 16 fraternities and sororities in the Multicultural Greek Letter Council (MGLC). All IFC and Panhel fraternities and sororities have houses, located just off of North or West campus, as there's no specific district for such buildings. However, none of the MGLC organizations have houses. While many of the fraternities at Cornell are known for throwing parties during most weekends and being the axis of campus social life, the fraternities and the sororities alike also partake in various philanthropic and community service projects, dealing with national organizations and local causes. In addition, all Greek letter organizations partake in Greek Week, held sometime during the beginning of fall semester, as a way to foster friendly competition between the chapters and to spark freshmen interest in Greek life and such organizations.
Underclassmen who choose to join such organizations usually do so during the rush periods. While rush varies for organizations in the MGLC, IFC and Panhel recruit potential members during the fall and spring; the former being the smaller, informal rush periods focused on recruiting upperclassmen, and the latter aimed primarily at freshmen and sophomores (this being the major rush period), held during the week before spring semester classes begin. Freshmen are not permitted to participate in Fall rush; Spring rush is a formal rush period, particularly for the Panhellenic sororities.
Despite its presence and power around campus, the Cornell Greek community hasn't been without controversy. In recent years, the IFC has seen the departure of Theta Chi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, although the latter has since returned to the campus. A Mexican-stereotype themed frat party in Spring 2007 caused outrage from the local Latino community. In July 2007, a statue from Sibley Hall was found in a fraternity basement after reported missing days earlier. However, the issue of hazing has been a constant controversy for the Greek community. A feature article in the Cornell Daily Sun in 2007 highlighted one student's experience as he was abused and humiliated by the brothers of his fraternity in 2001. Nevertheless, many Greek houses say that they abstain from such practices and choose not to haze their pledges. The Panhellenic sororities have strict anti-hazing requirements, and as all of the Panhellenic sororities have their own, independent off-campus houses, few houses are willing to risk deactivation or lesser penalties for hazing. None of the MGLC fraternities or sororities own their own houses, and most of the IFC fraternities have their own houses.
Cornelliana
Cornelliana is a term for Cornell's traditions, legends, and lore. Cornellian traditions include Slope Day, a celebration held on the last day of classes, and Dragon Day, which includes the burning of a dragon built by architecture students. Dragon Day is one of the school's oldest traditions and has been celebrated annually since 1901, typically on or near St. Patrick's Day. The dragon is built secretly by the architecture students, and taunting messages are left for the engineering students for the week before Dragon Day. On Dragon Day, the dragon is paraded across the Arts Quad and then set afire. According to legend, if a virgin crosses the Arts Quad at midnight, the statues of Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White will walk off their pedestals, meet in the center of the Quad, and shake hands, congratulating themselves on the chastity of the University. There is also another myth that if a couple crosses the suspension bridge on North Campus, and the young woman doesn't accept a kiss from her partner, the bridge will fall. If the kiss is accepted, the couple is assured a long future together.
The university is also host to various student pranks. For example, on at least three different occasions the university has awoken to find something odd atop the 173-foot (52.7 m) tall McGraw clock tower — once a 60-pound (27 kg) pumpkin, once a banner reading "Who is John Galt?", and another time a disco ball. Because there's no access to the spire atop the tower, how the items were put in place remains a mystery. The colors of the lights on McGraw tower change to orange for Halloween and green for St. Patrick's Day.
The school colors are carnelian (a shade of red) and white, a play on "Cornellian" and Andrew Dickson White. A bear is commonly used as the unofficial mascot, which dates back to the introduction of the mascot "Touchdown" in 1915, a live bear who was brought onto the field during football games. In 2004–05, Cornell received 200 invention disclosures, filed 203 U.S. patent applications, completed 77 commercial license agreements, and distributed royalties of more than $4.1 million to Cornell units and inventors. In the 21st century, Cornell had a hand in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Cornell's Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator for the Athena Science Payload, led the selection of the landing zones and requested data collection features for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers took those requests and designed the rovers to meet them. The rovers, both of which have operated long past their original life expectancies, are responsible for the discoveries that were awarded 2004 Breakthrough of the Year honors by Science. Control of the Mars rovers has shifted between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech and Cornell's Space Sciences Building.
The Automotive Crash Injury Research project was begun in 1952 by John O. Moore at the Cornell Aeronautical Research Laboratories, which spun off in 1972 as Calspan Corporation. It pioneered the use of crash testing, originally using corpses rather than dummies. The project discovered that improved door locks, energy-absorbing steering wheels, padded dashboards, and seat belts could prevent an extraordinary percentage of injuries.
Cornell scientists have researched the fundamental particles of nature for more than 70 years. Cornell physicists, such as Hans Bethe, contributed not only to the foundations of nuclear physics but also participated in the Manhattan Project. In the 1930s, Cornell built the second cyclotron in the United States. In the 1950s, Cornell physicists became the first to study synchrotron radiation. During the 1990s, the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, located beneath Alumni Field, was the world's highest-luminosity electron-positron collider.
Cornell's accelerator and high-energy physics groups are involved in the design of the proposed International Linear Collider and plan to participate in its construction and operation. The International Linear Collider, to be completed in the late 2010s, will complement the Large Hadron Collider and shed light on questions such as the identity of dark matter and the existence of extra dimensions.
Alumni
Graduates of Cornell are known as "Cornellians". As of August 2005, the university counted 244,276 living Cornellians. Information about Cornell graduates, most of which is submitted by the graduates themselves, is available in the Cornell Alumni Magazine. The magazine is currently published 6 times a year.
Cornellians are noted for their accomplishments in public, professional, and corporate life. Taiwan's former President Lee Teng-hui, former President of Cuba Mario García Menocal, and former Iranian Prime Minister Jamshid Amuzegar all graduated from Cornell. In the United States, numerous Congressmen and Cabinet members, including Paul Wolfowitz and Janet Reno, and one Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have been Cornellians. After his Cornell education, David Starr Jordan went on to become the president of Indiana University and subsequently founding president of Stanford University after former Cornell president Andrew Dickson White turned down the position. M. Carey Thomas founded Bryn Mawr College and was its second president. Lieutenant Colonel Matt Urban is the most decorated serviceman in United States history.
Cornellian-founded and/or headed businesses include Alamo Rent-A-Car by Michael Egan, Burger King by David Edgerton, Carrier by Willis Carrier, Citigroup by Sanford Weill, Coors Brewing Company by Adolph Coors, Gannett by Frank Gannett, Grumman Aerospace Corporation by Leroy Grumman, Palm by Jeff Hawkins, PeopleSoft by David Duffield, Priceline.com by Jay Walker, Qualcomm by Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs, Staples by Myra Hart, and Tata Group headed by Ratan Tata. Reginald Fils-Aime is President and CEO of Nintendo of America and Dan Hesse is the CEO of Sprint Nextel.
In medicine, Dr. C. Everett Koop was the Surgeon General under Ronald Reagan, Dr. Robert Atkins developed the Atkins Diet, Dr. Henry Heimlich developed the Heimlich maneuver, and Wilson Greatbatch invented the first successful pacemaker. Dr. James Maas, both an alumnus and current faculty member, coined the term "power nap". Cornellians also include medical personalities Dr. Benjamin Spock and Joyce Brothers, as well as the Nobel laureate maize geneticist Barbara McClintock.
A number of Cornellians have been prominent innovators, starting with Thomas Midgley, Jr., the inventor of Freon. Jeff Hawkins invented the Palm Pilot and subsequently founded Palm, Inc. Graduate Jon Rubinstein is credited with the development of the iPod. William Higinbotham developed Tennis for Two in 1958, one of the earliest computer games and the predecessor to Pong, and Robert Tappan Morris developed the first computer worm on the Internet. The most direct evidence of dark matter was provided by Vera Rubin. Jill Cornell Tarter is the current director of the SETI Institute and Steve Squyres is the principal investigator on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Eight Cornellians have served as NASA astronauts. Bill Nye is best known as "The Science Guy".
Both female American Nobel Laureates in Literature studied at Cornell. Nobel Prize in Literature winner Toni Morrison wrote Song of Solomon and won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, Beloved. The Nobel Prize in Literature was also awarded to Pearl S. Buck, author of The Good Earth. E. B. White, author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, co-wrote the influential writing guide The Elements of Style with fellow Cornellian William Strunk Jr. Other Cornellian writers include Laura Z. Hobson, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada. Cornellian journalists include Margaret Bourke-White, Ann Coulter, Allison Danzig, Dick Schaap, Keith Olbermann, Kate Snow, and radio personality/former congressional candidate, Dave Ross.
Christopher Reeve is best known for his role as Superman, while comedian Frank Morgan is best known to younger generations as The Wizard of Oz. Howard Hawks is widely regarded as one of the most prominent directors of the classic Hollywood era, directing His Girl Friday and The Big Sleep among many other films. Stand-up comedian Bill Maher, host of the HBO series Real Time with Bill Maher is said to have been Politically Incorrect even as an undergraduate at Cornell. Jimmy Smits, best known for his roles on L.A. Law, The West Wing, and in the Star Wars films and earned his MFA from Cornell. Charlie Bucket was played by future Cornellian Peter Ostrum, and alumnus Robert Smigel is the puppeteer behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. Cornellians have won Academy Awards and been enshrined on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mack David wrote Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo from the 1950 film Cinderella. Robert Alexander Anderson (composer) wrote the Christmas song Mele Kalikimaka. Greg Graffin of the band Bad Religion, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, pop star Huey Lewis, and modern composers Steve Reich, Christopher Rouse, and Steven Stucky, all attended Cornell. Ronald D. Moore created the Battlestar Galactica remake that debuted in 2004. Carla Gallo played Lizzie in Undeclared.
The Empire State Building and Grauman's Chinese Theatre were designed by Cornell architects Richmond Shreve and Raymond M. Kennedy, respectively. Edmund Bacon is best known for reshaping Philadelphia in the mid 20th century. Contemporary architects Richard Meier and Peter Eisenman are also Cornellians.
In athletics, Cornellians have won Olympic gold medals, been inducted into sports halls of fame, include the current commissioner of the National Hockey League, led numerous teams as general managers and coaches including Glenn "Pop" Warner, and Bruce Arena, former head coach of the United States men's national soccer team.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cornell University'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://cornell_university.totallyexplained.com">Cornell University Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
