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"Cornell" redirects here. For other uses, see Cornell (disambiguation).
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 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 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."The Cornell University Mission. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-01-01. Cornell counts more than 240,000 living alumni, 28 Rhodes Scholars and 40 Nobel laureates affiliated with the university as faculty or students.Cornell Nobel laureates. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-06-06.Uncle Ezra. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
Research is a central element of the university\'s mission; Cornell spent $605 million on research and development in a diverse group of fields during the July 2005 to June 2006 fiscal year.Research Expenditures (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
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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.Becker, Carl L. (1943). Cornell University: Founders and the Founding. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9058-8. Retrieved on 2006-06-17.
The university was inaugurated on October 7, 1868, and 412 men were enrolled the next day.Archives, Cornell University. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-04-06. 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.
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.Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar - About Us. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-18. It continues to forge partnerships with major institutions in India, Singapore, and the People\'s Republic of China.Cornell president joins Indian prime minister to open new chapter in science education. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01.Hotel School, Singapore university establish joint master\'s program. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01.Rawlings heads to China to sign partnership agreement and deliver keynote address at economic summit in Beijing. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01. The university, with its high international profile, claims to be "the first transnational university".
Goldwin Smith Hall and the A.D. White statue
Cornell is a non-profit institution, receiving most of its funding through tuition, research grants, state appropriations, and alumni contributions. Three of its undergraduate schools/colleges and the graduate-level New York State College of Veterinary Medicine are called "statutory colleges" or "contract colleges". These colleges receive significant partial, ongoing funding from the state of New York to support their teaching, research, and service missions. For 2007-08, these colleges will receive $167.7 million in SUNY appropriations.http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April07/2007StateBudget.kr.html Retrieved 2007-07-03 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.NYS Education Law §§ 350(3), 352(3) and 357 Despite some similarities, Cornell\'s contract colleges are not public or state schools — they are 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 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.School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-02.
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.The Carnegie Committee, Cornell Alumni News, II(10), 29 November 1899, p. 6
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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.Cornell University - The Ithaca Campus. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.
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.Cornell University Map. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-05. 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.Margulis, Daniel; Schroeder, John (1980). A Century at Cornell. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Daily Sun, 110–111. ISBN 0-938304-00-3. 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.Parsons, Kermit C. (1968). "Chp. 3: A Quadrangle of Stone", The Cornell Campus: A History of its Planning and Development. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. 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 (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.Explore Cornell - Natural Beauty - Campus Gardens. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.
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.Weill Medical College of Cornell University - About Us. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-07-04. 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.Cornell Urban Scholars Program. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Cornell Cooperative Extension. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.ILR: Extension & Outreach Program. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Operations Research Manhattan. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.New York City. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-11-03.
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 increase its international influence. The College is a joint initiative with the Qatar government, which seeks to improve the country\'s academic programs and medical care.Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
The college is partially funded by the Qatar government through the Qatar Foundation, which contributed $750 million for its construction.Cornell, Qatar and Hamas. The Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved on 2006-06-18. The medical center is housed in a large two-story structure designed by Arata Isozaki.Colleges, Schools, and Faculties. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.
Cornell University owns and operates many facilities around the world.International Gateway. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-25. 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.Aricebo Observatory. National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. The Shoals Marine Laboratory, operated in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire,Shoals Marine Laboratory. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Animal Science Teaching Center in Dryden. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.Duck Research Laboratory. International Duck Research Cooperative, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Arnot Teaching and Research Forest. Cornell University Library. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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."Cornell Biological Field Station. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. In addition, the university operates biodiversity laboratories in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and in the Amazon rainforest in PeruBiodiversity lab in Punta Cana expands into a new consortium. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.Cornell Undergraduate Research Program on Biodiversity. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-30. 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 Washington. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Cornell in Rome. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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.Human Ecology Urban Semester Program. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22.
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.Princeton’s admit rate falls after apps hit record high. Yale Daily News. Retrieved on 2007-04-05. 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. C.U. Admissions Rate Drops by 4.2 Percent. Cornell Daily Sun accessdate = 2007-04-10. 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.Class of 2009 Profile (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-10. 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. Cornell enrolls students from all 50 U.S. states and more than 120 countries. The Class of 2010 has representatives from all states except for Arkansas. As of Fall 2005, 28% of undergraduate students 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 36.4%, the Law School accepted 20.6%, and the Veterinary School accepted 10.9%.Graduate School Admissions Statistics (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.Professional School Admissions Statistics (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.Law School Admissions Statistics (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.Veterinary Medicine Admissions Statistics (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-05. The Weill Cornell Medical School accepted 4.3%.Graduate School: Cornell University, Weill, Medicine. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.
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.
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 Honor 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."President Lehman to step down. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-11. 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.
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.Cornell Abroad - University & Program Choices. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-01-01.
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.Cornell China major sealed in Beijing as Rawlings signs agreement with Peking University. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01. 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,Japanese officials sign agreement. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-05-23. as well as the University of the Philippines, Los Baños,Susan Henry continues Asia tour; signs agreement with Los Baños. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-10-19. 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.Cornell and India sign new agreement for agricultural development. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01.
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 and Stanford to work with Israel and Jordan on Bridging the Rift research center to include world\'s first databank for all living systems. Cornell News Service. Retrieved on 2006-01-01.
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.Johnson School - Boardroom Executive MBA. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-08-12. This program is made possible through videoconferencing, and so students in Canada and the United States share an interactive virtual classroom.
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.Architecture program ranked number 1. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-01. 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,Business Week (MBA/USA) businessweek.com: Business Schools profiles and rankings. BusinessWeek. Retrieved on 2006-05-06. 9th by Forbes in 2005,Forbes.com - Best Business Schools. Forbes. Retrieved on 2006-05-23. 16th by U.S. News in 2007,America\'s Best Graduate Schools 2007: Top Business Schools. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-23. and 18th by The Wall Street Journal in 2005.National MBA Rankings. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2006-07-21. Worldwide, the school was ranked 17th by The Economist in 2005 and 36th by the Financial Times in 2006.MBA Rankings. The Economist. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.Global MBA rankings 2006. Financial Times. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
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.businessweek.com - Best Undeergrad Business Schools. Business Week. Retrieved on 2006-02-28. Also, the Undergraduate Business Program at Cornell University ranked 12th Nationally in US News & World Report\'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.America\'s Best Graduate Schools 2007: Top Medical Schools. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-07-11. The College of Veterinary Medicine was ranked first among national veterinary medicine graduate schools.America\'s Best Graduate Schools 2007: Veterinary Medicine. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-06. The Cornell Law School was ranked as the 13th best graduate law program among national universities.America\'s Best Graduate Schools 2007: Top Law Schools. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-05-06. 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.Top 50 firms hire most from big names. The National Law Journal. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
In its 2006 rankingUndergraduate engineering specialties: Engineering Science/Engineering Physics (2006). U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-07-10. and 2007 rankingUndergraduate engineering specialties: Engineering Science/Engineering Physics (2007). U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on 2006-08-19. 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."Minton, Tim. "At Cornell School, No Expense Spared", The New York Times, April 25, 1979, p. C4.
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.1995 National Research Council Report on Quality in Ph.D. Education in the U.S.. UC Berkeley Graduate Publications. Accessed July 6, 2006. 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.
The Cornell University Library is the eleventh largest academic library in the United States, ranked by number of volumes held.Top Twenty University Research Libraries Ranked By Number of Volumes Held. Association of Research Libraries. Retrieved on 2006-07-09. 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.Cornell University Library: Annual Report 2005 (PDF). Cornell University Library. Retrieved on 2006-06-05. 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 Best 361 Colleges Rankings. The Princeton Review. Retrieved on 2006-05-23.
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.
The Cornell University Press, established in 1869 but inactive from 1884 to 1930, was the first university publishing enterprise in the United States.The History of the Cornell University Press. Cornell University Press. Retrieved on 2006-01-01. 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.Cornell University Press: Information for Authors. Cornell University Press. Retrieved on 2006-06-06. 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.
At the time of its founding, Cornell University was considered revolutionary because its founder, Ezra Cornell, was committed to access for all students, regardless of economic circumstance. Together with Cornell\'s first president, Andrew Dickson White, he opened the institution\'s doors "to applicants for admission ... at the lowest rates of expense consistent with its welfare and efficiency, and without distinction as to rank, class, previous occupation or locality."University Charter § 9. quoted in http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000030.pdf at 3-4. The University Charter provided for free instruction to one student chosen from each Assembly district in the state. Within the first 10 years of operation, the university admitted women and underrepresented minority students and provided financial aid for many students, using a combination of grant, loan and work-study opportunities. The university awarded need-based grants as early as 1879, and its first endowed scholarship fund was created in 1892.
Starting in the 1950s Cornell coordinated with other Ivy League schools to provide a consistent set of financial aid. However, in 1989, a consent decree to end a Justice Department antitrust investigation ended such coordination.http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000030.pdf at 5. 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.http://www.cornell.edu/about/facts/stats.cfm Retrieved 2008-02-06.
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. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan08/finAid.html Retrieved 2008-02-05.
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.SAO - Cornell University. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2007-08-06. 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.Cornell Assemblies SA Activity Fee. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-06-16.Cornell Assemblies GPSA Activity Fee. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-12-09. 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.Cornell University Big Red Marching Band - History. Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-09-20. 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.Go Greek!. Scorpion TKE. Retrieved on 2006-06-09.Fraternity & Sorority Advisory Council Annual Report 2004–2005 (PDF). Cornell University. Retrieved on 2006-05-22. 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. 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.
