Cornell University (pronounced /kɔrˈnɛl/, kor-nel) is a private Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, USA.
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. 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."
Following the spirit of its motto, Cornell offers curricula in traditional liberal arts studies as well as in fields like engineering, agriculture, hotel administration, and city and regional planning. The university is broadly organized into seven undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions at its main Ithaca campus—for example, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering—with each college and division defining its own academic programs in near autonomy. Cornell is one of two private land grant universities, and its seven undergraduate colleges include three state-supported statutory or contract colleges. The university also administers two satellite medical campuses, one in New York City and one in Education City, Qatar.
Cornell counts more than 255,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 41 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students. The student body consists of over 13,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students from all 50 states and 122 countries.
History
Cornell University was founded 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.
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.
Since 2000, 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, with its high international profile, claims to be "the first transnational university".
In addition, the university is home to many historic buildings. These buildings range from the first president's house to fraternity buildings.
Ezra Cornell's sealed letter, discovered in 1997, in the cornerstone of Sage Hall:
"On the occasion of laying the corner stone of the Sage College for women of Cornell University," he wrote, "I desire to say that the principal danger. . . I see in the future to be encountered by the friends of education, and by all lovers of true liberty, is that which may arise from sectarian strife. From these halls, sectarianism must be forever excluded, all students must be left free to worship God, as their conscience shall dictate, and all persons of any creed or all creeds must find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal welcome, to the educational facilities possessed by the Cornell University."
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. 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 Center and two upperclass residence halls, amid a neighborhood of apartments, eateries, and businesses.
The main campus is marked by an irregular layout and eclectic architectural styles, including ornate Collegiate 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, and become popular swimming holes during the warmer months (although the university discourages their use). Adjacent to the main campus, Cornell owns the 2,800 acre (11.6 km²) Cornell Plantations, a botanical garden containing flowers, trees, and ponds along manicured trails.
Cornell has adopted a comprehensive sustainability action plan, and has a number of LEED certified buildings on the Ithaca campus. A new gas-fired combined heat and power facility replaced a coal-fired steam plant, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels. It meets 15 percent of campus electrical needs, and a university-run, on-campus hydroelectric plant in the Fall Creek gorge provides an additional 2 percent. An award-winning lake source cooling project uses Lake Cayuga to air condition campus buildings, with an 80% energy saving over conventional systems. In 2007, Cornell established a Center for a Sustainable Future. Cornell has been rated "B" by the 2010 College Sustainability Report Card for its environmental and sustainability initiatives.