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Cornell University

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Education

   CAPTION: Cornell University

   The Insignia of Cornell University
     __________________________________________________________________

   Motto "I would found an institution where any person can find
   instruction in any study."
   –Ezra Cornell, 1865
   Established 1865
   Type Private with 14 colleges and schools, including 4 contract
   colleges
   Endowment $4.3 Billion
   President David J. Skorton
   Faculty 1,594 Ithaca
   1,005 New York City
   34 Qatar†
   Undergraduates 13,515 Ithaca
   Postgraduates 5,932 Ithaca
   818 New York City
   135 Qatar
   Location Ithaca, NY, USA
   Campus Rural area, 745 acres (3.0 km²)
   Colors Carnelian and white
   Nickname Big Red
   Mascot
   The Cornell University Athletic Logo
   None. The unofficial mascot is the bear sometimes named "Touchdown"
   Affiliations Ivy League, AAU
   Website www.cornell.edu
   The Cornell University Logo
   †Regular full-time and part-time professorial faculty members. NYC
   Weill medical-division units have additional external affiliations with
   867 full-time and part-time faculty members elsewhere.

   Cornell University is a private research university located in Ithaca,
   New York. Its two medical campuses are in New York City and in
   Education City, Qatar.

   The youngest 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 university is organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven
   graduate divisions, each defining its own academic programs in near
   autonomy. Since the mid-20th century, the university has been expanding
   both its campus resources and influence worldwide. From a new
   residential college housing system to its 2001 founding of a medical
   college in Qatar, Cornell claims "to serve society by educating the
   leaders of tomorrow and extending the frontiers of knowledge." Cornell
   counts more than 240,000 living alumni and 40 Nobel laureates
   affiliated with the university as faculty or students. Research is a
   central element of the university's mission; Cornell spent $561.3
   million on research and development in a diverse group of fields during
   the July 2004 to June 2005 fiscal year.

History

   The Arts Quad, around which the College of Arts and Sciences centers
   Enlarge
   The Arts Quad, around which the College of Arts and Sciences centers

   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
   country, 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.
   In September 2006, David Skorton formally became Cornell's 12th and
   current president
   Enlarge
   In September 2006, David Skorton formally became Cornell's 12th and
   current president

   On April 19, 1969, more than eighty members of Cornell's Afro-American
   Society took over the student union building, Willard Straight Hall.
   The takeover was precipitated by increasing racial tension at the
   university in the 1960s; earlier incidents included a reprimand of
   three black students for a December 1968 incident and a cross burning
   in front of the black women's cooperative. The crisis ended on April
   20, 1969, with Cornell ceding to the society's demands, including the
   creation of a black studies program. The students emerged making a
   black power salute with guns in hand. (The guns had been brought into
   the hall after the initial takeover, following an attempt by members of
   an all-white fraternity to reclaim the hall.) James A. Perkins,
   president of Cornell during the events, would resign soon after.

   Cornell expanded significantly in the 20th century, with its student
   population growing to its current count of about 20,000 students. The
   faculty expanded as well; by the century's end, the university had more
   than 3,400 faculty members. Along with its population growth, Cornell
   increased its breadth of course offerings. Today, the university has
   wide-ranging programs and offers more than 4,000 courses.

   In the 2000s, Cornell has been expanding its international programs. In
   2001, the university founded the Weill Cornell Medical College in
   Qatar, the first American medical school outside of the United States.
   It continues to forge partnerships with major institutions in India,
   Singapore, and the People's Republic of China. The university has gone
   as far as to claim to be "the first transnational university".

Organization

   Goldwin Smith Hall and the A.D. White statue
   Enlarge
   Goldwin Smith Hall and the A.D. White statue

   Cornell is a private institution, receiving most of its funding through
   tuition, research grants, and alumni contributions. Three of its
   undergraduate colleges and the graduate-level College of Veterinary
   Medicine are called contract colleges. These divisions receive partial
   funding from the state of New York to support their research and
   service mission in niche fields. Residents of New York enrolled in the
   contract colleges pay reduced tuition. Furthermore, the governor of the
   state serves as an ex-officio member of the board of trustees. Despite
   some similarities, Cornell's contract colleges are not public or state
   schools – they are private institutions that Cornell operates by
   contract with the state government.

   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 have 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.

   Undergraduate
   Endowed
     * College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
     * College of Arts and Sciences
     * College of Engineering
     * School of Hotel Administration

   Contract
     * College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
     * College of Human Ecology
     * School of Industrial and Labor Relations

   Graduate and professional
   Endowed
     * Graduate School
     * Law School
     * Johnson Graduate School of Management
     * Weill Medical College (New York City)
     * Weill Medical College (Qatar)
     * Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences (New York City)

   Contract
     * College of Veterinary Medicine

Campuses

Main campus

   McGraw Hall and the clock tower
   Enlarge
   McGraw Hall and the clock tower

   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. Central Campus has
   laboratories, administrative buildings, and almost all of the
   university's academic buildings, athletic facilities, auditoriums, and
   museums. The only residential facility on Central Campus is the Law
   School's residential college, Hughes Hall. North Campus contains
   freshman and graduate student housing, themed program houses, and 29
   fraternity and sorority houses. West Campus has upperclass residential
   colleges and an additional 25 fraternity and sorority houses.
   Collegetown contains the Schwartz Performing Arts Centre and two
   upperclass dormitories, amid a neighbourhood of apartments,
   restaurants, and businesses.
   F.R. Newman Arboretum
   Enlarge
   F.R. Newman Arboretum

   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 favour 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 bound Central Campus, which become popular swimming
   holes during the warmer months. 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 Medical Center in New York City
   Enlarge
   Weill Medical Centre in New York City

   Weill Medical Centre, 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 Centre shares its administrative functions with the Columbia
   University Medical Centre. Weill Medical College is also affiliated
   with the neighboring Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre,
   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 centre, 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. The college is part of Cornell's program to enhance its
   international influence. The College is a joint initiative of the Qatar
   government to strengthen its academic programs and provide better
   medical care in the country. 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 US$750 million for its
   construction. The medical centre 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.

Other facilities

   Cornell University owns and operates many facilities around the world.
   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 Centre 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 centre 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.

   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

   Admission to Cornell is extremely selective. For the undergraduate
   class of 2010, the admission rate was 24.7%, the most selective in the
   university's history. With the most selective undergraduate college
   being the Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences that 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. Eighty-two
   percent of enrolling students were ranked in the top ten percent of
   their high school classes. Sixty-eight percent of new undergraduate
   students hailed from public high schools.

   Cornell enrolls students from all 50 U.S. states and more than 120
   countries. As of Fall 2005, 28% of undergraduate student identified
   themselves as members of ethnic minority groups. Ninety-six percent of
   first-year students return for their second year. Of 13,515
   undergraduate students, 4,251 (31.5%) are affiliated with the largest
   college by enrollment, Arts and Sciences, followed by 3,153 (23.3%) in
   Agriculture and Life Sciences and 2,680 (19.8%) in Engineering. By
   student enrollment, the smallest of the seven undergraduate colleges is
   Architecture, Art, and Planning, with 515 (3.8%) students.

   In 2005, the Graduate School accepted 21.6% of applicants, the Johnson
   School of Management accepted 34.4%, the Law School accepted 20.6%, and
   the Veterinary School accepted 10.9%. The Weill Cornell Medical School
   accepted 4.3%.

Faculty

   Carl Sagan with a model of the Viking Mars Lander at Death Valley,
   California.
   Enlarge
   Carl Sagan with a model of the Viking Mars Lander at Death Valley,
   California.

   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. The New York City medical divisions count 1,005
   faculty members and Qatar has 34. In total, 40 Nobel laureates have
   been affiliated with Cornell as faculty or students. Notable former
   professors include Carl Sagan, Charles Evans Hughes, Norman Malcolm,
   Vladimir Nabokov, Hans Bethe, Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, Archie
   Randolph Ammons, and Allan Bloom.
   Hans Bethe
   Enlarge
   Hans Bethe

   Cornell's faculty for the 2005-06 academic year included three Nobel
   laureates, a Crafoord Prize winner, two Turing Award winners, a Fields
   Medal winner, two Legion of Honour recipients, a World Food Prize
   winner, an Andrei Sakharov Prize winner, three National Medal of
   Science winners, two Wolf Prize winners, five MacArthur award winners,
   four Pulitzer Prize winners, two Eminent Ecologist Award recipients, a
   Carter G. Woodson Scholars Medallion recipient, four Presidential Early
   Career Award winners, 20 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, three Packard Foundation grant
   holders, a Keck Distinguished Young Scholar, two Beckman Foundation
   Young Investigator grant holders, and two NYSTAR (New York State Office
   of Science, Technology, and Academic Research) early career award
   winners.

   On June 11, 2005, Jeffrey S. Lehman announced that he would resign from
   the position of Cornell President effective June 30, 2005, citing
   "differences with the board regarding the strategy for realizing
   Cornell's long-term vision." 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 July 1, 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. In addition to traditional academic
   programs, Cornell students may study abroad on any of six continents.

   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 Centre, 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

   Cornell Law Tower
   Enlarge
   Cornell Law Tower

   The university ranked 12th (tied with Washington University in St.
   Louis) in the 2007 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 Times Higher
   Education Supplement ranked Cornell 14th in the world in 2005. Cornell
   was ranked eighth nationally and first among Ivy League universities in
   The Washington Monthly's 2006 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.
   Sage Hall, home to the Johnson School of Management
   Enlarge
   Sage Hall, home to the Johnson School of Management

   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, 16th by U.S. News in 2007, 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.

   Cornell's Undergraduate Business Program ranked #11 Nationally in US
   News & World Report's Best Undergraduate Business Programs for 2007.

   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 13th 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.

   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 National Research Council, 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: Astrophysics (9), Chemistry (6), Civil Engineering
   (6), Comparative Literature (6), Computer Science (5), Ecology (4),
   Electrical Engineering (7), English (7), French (8), Geosciences (10),
   German (3), Linguistics (9), Materials Science (3), Mechanical
   Engineering (7), Philosophy (9), Physics (6), Spanish (8), Political
   Science (8) and Statistics/ Biostatistics (4). 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 Law Library, Myron Taylor Hall
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   The Cornell Law Library, Myron Taylor Hall

   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. In 2006, The Princeton Review ranked it as the 11th best
   college library.

   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. It
   produces approximately 150 nonfiction titles each year in various
   disciplines including anthropology, Asian studies, biological sciences,
   classics, history, industrial relations, literary criticism and theory,
   natural history, philosophy, politics and international relations,
   veterinary science, and women's studies. 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.

Student life

Activities

   For the 2005-06 academic year, Cornell had 886 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, a
   student-run organization with a budget of $2.7 million per year. The
   assembly also finances other student life programs including a concert
   commission and an on-campus movie theatre. 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. The Cornell Daily Sun is the oldest continuously
   independent college daily newspaper in the United States, having
   published since September 1880. In 1912, it became the first collegiate
   member of the Associated Press. Other campus publications include The
   Cornell Lunatic (campus humor magazine), The Cornell Review, Turn Left,
   The Cornell American, The Cornell Centrist, and The Cornell Moderator.
   WVBR is an independent 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.

   Cornell hosts the second largest fraternity and sorority system in
   North America, with 66 chapters involving 28% of male and 22% of female
   undergraduates. During the 2004-05 academic year, the Greek system
   committed 21,668 community service and advocacy hours and raised
   $176,547 in philanthropic efforts. However, the administration has
   expressed concerns over student misconduct in the system. In 2004-05,
   of 251 social events registered with the Office of Fraternity and
   Sorority Affairs, 37 (15%) resulted in a complaint. In that same year,
   there were five reported instances of property destruction, five
   reports of bias, three hazing incidents, and various other allegations.
   Student misconduct is reviewed by the Judicial Administrator, Cornell's
   justice system. Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter
   fraternity established for African Americans, was founded at Cornell in
   1906. Alpha Phi Alpha's charter was revoked in 1996 due to a hazing
   incident involving Cornell student Sylvester Lloyd due to allegations
   of intense physical beatings.

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 Centre, the Multicultural Living Learning
   Unit, the Latino Living Centre, Akwe:kon, and Ujamaa.
   Risley has served as the basis for the new residential colleges
   Enlarge
   Risley has served as the basis for the new residential colleges

   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 next house will be
   Hans Bethe House and is expected to open 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 2009.
   Balch Hall is a women-only dormitory on North Campus
   Enlarge
   Balch Hall is a women-only dormitory on North Campus

   Off campus, many homes in the East Hill neighborhoods adjacent to the
   university have been converted to apartments. Several high-rise
   apartment complexes have been constructed in the Collegetown
   neighbourhood. Nine percent of undergraduate students reside in
   fraternity and sorority houses, although freshmen are not permitted to
   live in them. Housing cooperatives or other independent living units
   exist, including Watermargin, Telluride House, the Centre for Jewish
   Living, and the Wait Cooperative.

   In its 2006 rankings of college campus food, The Princeton Review
   ranked Cornell's dining services fourth overall. The university has 31
   on-campus dining locations, and a program called the Cross Country
   Gourmet Guest Restaurant Series periodically brings chefs, menus, and
   atmosphere from restaurants to Cornell's eight all-you-care-to-eat
   dining halls.

Athletics

   Schoellkopf Field, home to Football, Sprint Football, Lacrosse, and
   Field Hockey
   Enlarge
   Schoellkopf Field, home to Football, Sprint Football, Lacrosse, and
   Field Hockey

   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 do not 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 is not permitted to offer academic
   scholarships for athletic recruiting.

   Cornell University's football team has won the Ivy League championship
   three times, last in 1990. The Sprint Football team won the league
   championship in 2006. 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 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.
   The Men's Ice Hockey Team at Lynah Rink
   Enlarge
   The Men's Ice Hockey Team at Lynah Rink

   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 horseshoes, 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.

Cornelliana

   An early Dragon Day parade, circa 1920
   Enlarge
   An early Dragon Day parade, circa 1920

   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.
   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 centre of the Quad, and shake hands. 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 is no access to the spire
   atop the tower, how the items were put in place remains a mystery.

   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. The university's alma mater is " Far Above Cayuga's
   Waters" and its fight song is " Give My Regards to Davy". People
   associated with the university are called " Cornellians". "Cornellian"
   is also used as an adjective and as the name of the university's
   yearbook.

Research

   For the 2004–05 fiscal year, the university spent $561.3 million on
   research. The primary recipients of this funding were the colleges of
   Medicine ($164.2 million), Agriculture and Life Sciences ($114.5
   million), Arts and Sciences ($80.3 million), and Engineering ($64.8
   million). The money comes largely from federal sources, with federal
   investment of $381.0 million. The federal agencies that invest the most
   money are the Department of Health and Human Services and the National
   Science Foundation that make up, respectively, 51.4% and 30.7% of all
   federal investment in the university. Cornell was on the top-ten list
   of U.S. universities receiving the most patents in 2003, and is one of
   the nation's top five institutions in forming start-up companies. 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.
   An artist's rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover as seen on the "Big
   Red" planet.
   Enlarge
   An artist's rendering of a Mars Exploration Rover as seen on the "Big
   Red" planet.

   Since 1962, Cornell has been involved in unmanned missions to Mars. 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 honours 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. The project led Liberty Mutual to fund the
   building of a demonstration Cornell Safety Car in 1956, which received
   national publicity and influenced carmakers. Carmakers soon started
   their own crash-test laboratories and gradually adopted many of the
   Cornell innovations. Other ideas, such as rear-facing passenger seats,
   never found favour with carmakers or the public.
   The Cornell Theory Center, Rhodes Hall
   Enlarge
   The Cornell Theory Centre, Rhodes Hall

   In 1984, the National Science Foundation began work on establishing
   five new supercomputer centers, including the Cornell Theory Centre, to
   provide high-speed computing resources for research within the United
   States. In 1985, a team from the National Centre for Supercomputing
   Applications began the development of NSFNet, a TCP/IP-based computer
   network that could connect to the ARPANET, at the Cornell Theory Centre
   and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This high-speed
   network, unrestricted to academic users, became a backbone to which
   regional networks would be connected. Initially a 56- kbit/s network,
   traffic on the network grew exponentially; the links were upgraded to
   1.5- Mbit/s T1s in 1988 and to 45 Mbit/s in 1991. The NSFNet was a
   major milestone in the development of the Internet and its rapid growth
   coincided with the development of the World Wide Web.

   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

   Ruth Bader Ginsburg
   Enlarge
   Ruth Bader Ginsburg

   Graduates of Cornell are known as "Cornellians". As of August 2005, the
   university counted 244,276 living Cornellians. Many are active through
   organizations and events including the annual Reunion Weekend and
   Homecoming, weekend festivities in Ithaca, and the International Spirit
   of Zinck's Night. For the 2004-05 fiscal year, Cornell ranked third for
   gifts and bequests from alumni, and fourth for total support from all
   sources (alumni, friends, corporations, and foundations) among U.S.
   colleges and universities reporting voluntary gift support. In October
   2006, Cornell made public a 10 year capital campaign " Far Above..." to
   solicit alumni and raise $4 billion to improve the undergraduate
   experience, attract and retain faculty, and expand the physical plant.
   .

   Cornellians are noted for their accomplishments in public,
   professional, and corporate life. Former Taiwan 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 founding president of Stanford
   University and a president of Indiana University. M. Carey Thomas
   founded Bryn Mawr College and was its second president.

   Cornellian-founded and/or headed businesses include Alamo Rent-A-Car by
   Michael Egan, Burger King by David Edgerton, Carrier by Willis Carrier,
   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.

   In medicine, 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 Tarter is the current director
   of SETI 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".

   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, and Kurt Vonnegut. 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. 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 Episode II: Attack
   of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 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 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 composer Steve Reich all attended Cornell.

   The Empire State Building and Grauman's Chinese Theatre were designed
   by Cornell architects Richard Shreve and Raymond M. Kennedy,
   respectively. Edmund Bacon is best known for reshaping Philadelphia in
   the mid 20th century.

   In athletics, Cornellians have won Olympic gold medals, been inducted
   into sports halls of fame, and led numerous teams as general managers
   and coaches including Bruce Arena, former head coach of the United
   States men's national soccer team.
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