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CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 170 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY , one of the largest of See also:

American institutions of higher See also:education, situated at See also:Ithaca, New See also:York. Its campus is finely situated on a See also:hill above the See also:main See also:part of the See also:city; it lies between Fall See also:Creek and Cascadilla Creek (each of which has cut a deep See also:gorge), and commands a beautiful view of the valley and of See also:Lake Cayuga. The university is co-educational (since 1872), and comprises the See also:graduate school, with 3o6 students in 1909; the See also:college of arts and sciences (902 students); the college of See also:law (225 students), established in 1887; the medical college (217 students, of whom 29 were taking freshman or See also:sophomore See also:work in Ithaca, where all See also:women entering the college must pursue the first two years of work)—this college was established in 1898 by the See also:gift of See also:Oliver See also:Hazard See also:Payne, and has buildings opposite Bellevue See also:hospital on First See also:Avenue and 28th See also:Street, New York city; the New York See also:state veterinary college (94 students), established by the state legislature in 1894; the New York state college of See also:agriculture (413 students), established as such by the state legislature in 19o4, the teaching of agriculture had from the beginning been an important part of the university's work,—with an agricultural experiment station, established in 1887 by the Federal See also:government; the college of See also:architecture (133 students); the college of See also:civil See also:engineering (569 students); and the Sibley College of See also:mechanical engineering and mechanic arts (1163 students), named in See also:honour of Hiram Sibley (1807-1888), a banker of See also:Rochester, N.Y., who gave $18o,000 for its endowment and equipment and whose son Hiram W. Sibley gave $130,000 to the college. A state college of forestry was established in connexion with the university in 1898, but was discontinued after several years. The See also:total enrolment of See also:regular students in 1909 was 398o; in addition, 841 students were enrolled in the 1908 summer session (which is especially for teachers) and 364 in the " See also:short See also:winter course in agriculture " in 1909. Nearly all the states and territories of the See also:United States and See also:thirty-two See also:foreign countries were represented—e.g. there were 33 students from See also:China, 12 from the See also:Argentine See also:Republic, 6 from See also:India, to from See also:Japan, 10 from See also:Mexico, 5 from See also:Peru, &c. In the W. central part of the campus is the university library See also:building, which, with an endowment (189r) of $300,000 for the See also:purchase of books and See also:periodicals, was the gift of See also:Henry See also:Williams See also:Sage (1814-1897), second See also:president of the See also:board of trustees; in 1906 it received an additional endowment fund of about $500,000 by the See also:bequest of Prof. See also:Willard See also:Fiske. The building, of See also:light See also:grey See also:Ohio See also:sandstone, houses the See also:general library (300,050 volumes in 1909), the See also:seminary and See also:department See also:libraries (7284 volumes), and the forestry library (1007 volumes). Among the See also:special collections of the general library are the classical library of See also:Charles See also:Anthon, the philological library of See also:Franz See also:Bopp, the Goldwin See also:Smith library (1869), the See also:White architectural and See also:historical libraries, the See also:Spinoza collection presented by See also:Andrew D. White (1894), the library of Jared See also:Sparks, the See also:Samuel J.

May collection of See also:

works on the See also:history of See also:slavery, the See also:Zarncke library, especially See also:rich in Germanic See also:philology and literature, the See also:Eugene See also:Schuyler collection of Slavic folk-See also:lore, literature and history, the Willard Fiske Rhaeto-Romanic, Icelandic, See also:Dante and See also:Petrarch collections, and the See also:Herbert H. Smith collection of works on Latin See also:America (in addition there are college and department libraries—that of the college of law See also:numbers 38,735 volumes—bringing the total to 353,638 See also:bound volumes in 1909). Among the other buildings are: See also:Morse See also:Hall, See also:Franklin Hall, Sibley College, See also:Lincoln Hall (See also:housing the college of civil engineering), Goldwin Smith Hall (for See also:language and history), Stimson Hall (given by See also:Dean Sage to the medical college), See also:Boardman Hall (housing the college of law), See also:Morrill Hall (containing the psycho-logical laboratory), McGraw Hall and White Hall—these, with the library, forming the quadrangle; S. of the quadrangle, Sage See also:chapel (with beautiful interior decorations), See also:Barnes Hall (the See also:home of the Cornell University See also:Christian Association), Sage College (a See also:dormitory for women), and the armoury and gymnasium; E. of the quadrangle, the See also:Rockefeller Hall of Physics (glob) and the New York State College of Agriculture (completed in 1907); and S.E. of the quadrangle the New York State Veterinary College and the Fuertes See also:Observatory. The university is well-equipped with laboratories, the psychological laboratory, the laboratories of Sibley college and the See also:hydraulic laboratory of the college of civil engineering being especially noteworthy; the last is on Fall Creek, where a curved See also:concrete See also:masonry See also:dam has been built, forming Beebe Lake. See also:East of the campus is the university playground and athletic See also:field (55 acres), built with funds raised from the alumni. Cayuga Lake furnishes opportunity for See also:rowing, and the Cornell crews are famous. During their first two years all undergraduates, unless properly excused, must take a prescribed amount of See also:physical exercise. Normally the first See also:year's exercise for male students is military See also:drill under the direction of a U.S. See also:army officer detailed as commandant. The reputation of the university is particularly high in mechanical engineering; Sibley college was built up primarily under Prof. See also:Robert Henry Thurston (1839-1903), a well-known engineer, its director in 1885-1903. The college includes the following departments: See also:machine See also:design and construction, experimental engineering, See also:power engineering, and See also:electrical engineering. The " Susan Linn Sage School of See also:Philosophy," so called since the gift (1891) of $200,000 from Henry W.

Sage in memory of his wife, issues The Philosophical See also:

Review and Cornell Studies in Philosophy, and is well known for the psychological laboratory investigations under Prof. E. B. Titchener (b. 1867). Equally well known are the college of agriculture under Prof. See also:Liberty See also:Hyde See also:Bailey (b. r858); the " Cornell School " of Latin grammarians, led first by Prof. W. G. See also:Hale and then by Prof. C. E.

See also:

Bennett; the department of See also:entomology under Prof. J. H. Comstock (b. 1849), the department of physics under Prof. E. L. See also:Nichols (b. 1854), and other departments. The university publishes Cornell Studies in Classical Philology, the See also:Journal of Physical See also:Chemistry, the Physical Review, Publications of Cornell University Medical College, various publications of the college of agriculture, and Studies in History and See also:Political See also:Science (of " The President White School of History and Political Science "). Among the student publications are The Cornell Era (1868, weekly), The Cornell Daily See also:Sun (188o), The Sibley Journal of Engineering (1882), The Cornell See also:Magazine, a See also:literary monthly, and The Cornell Widow (1892), a comic tri-weekly. The regular See also:annual tuition See also:fee is $100, but in See also:medicine, in architecture, and in civil and mechanical engineering it is $150.

In the veterinary and agricultural colleges there are no tuition fees for residents of New York state. There are 150 See also:

free-tuition state scholarships (one for each of the state See also:assembly districts), and, in addition, there are 36 undergraduate university scholarships (annual value, $200) tenable for two years, and 23 fellowships and 17 graduate scholarships (annual value, $300-600 each). In the college of arts and sciences the elective See also:system, with certain restrictions, obtains. The university has always been absolutely non-sectarian; its See also:charter prescribes that " persons of every religious See also:denomination, or of no religious denomination, shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments " and that " at no See also:time shall a See also:majority of the board (of trustees) be of one religious See also:sect or of no religious sect. There is, however, an active Christian Association and religious services—provided for bytheDean Sage Preachership Endowment—are conducted in Sage chapel by eminent See also:clergy-men representing various sects and denominations. The affairs of Cornell university are under the See also:administration of a board which must consist of See also:forty trustees, of whom ten are elected by the alumni. The following are ex officio members of the board: the president of the university, the librarian of the Cornell Library (in Ithaca), the See also:governor and the See also:lieutenant-governor of the state, the See also:speaker of the state assembly, the state commissioners of education and of agriculture, and the president of the state agricultural society. The See also:internal government is in the hands of the university See also:faculty (which consists of the president, the professors and the assistant professors, and has See also:jurisdiction over matters concerning the university as a whole). and of the special faculties, which consist of the president, the professors, the assistant professors, and the instructors of the several colleges, and which have jurisdiction over distinctively collegiate matters. In 1909 the invested funds of the university amounted to,about $8,594,300, yielding an annual income of about $428,800; the income from state and nation was about $232,050, and from tuition fees about $336,100; the campus and buildings were valued at about $4,263,400, and the Library; collections, apparatus, &c.; at about $1,826,1oo. The university was incorporated by the legislature of New York state on the 27th of See also:April 1865, and was named in honour of See also:Ezra Cornell,' its. See also:principal benefactor. In 1864 Cornell, at the See also:suggestion of Andrew D. White, his See also:fellow member of the state See also:senate, decided to found a university of a new type—which should be broad and liberal in its See also:scope, should be absolutely non-sectarian, and which should recognize and meet the growing need for See also:practical training and adequate instruction in the sciences as well as in the humanities.

He offered to the state as an endowment $500,000 (with 200 acres of See also:

land) on See also:condition that the state add to this fund the. proceeds of the sales of public lands granted to it by the Morrill See also:Act of 1862 for "the endowment, support and See also:maintenance of at least one college, where the leading See also:object shall be . . . to See also:teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts . . . "? The charter provided that " such other branches of science and knowledge may be embraced in the See also:plan of instruction and investigation pertaining to the university as the trustees may deem useful and proper," and Ezra Cornell expressed his own ideal in the oft-quoted words: I would found an institution where any See also:person can find, instruction in any study." The opposition to Gornell's plan was See also:bitter, especially on the part of denominational See also:schools and See also:press, but See also:incorporation was secured, and the trustees first met on the 5th of See also:September 1865. Andrew D. White was elected president and the entire educational See also:scheme was See also:left to him. Dr White's ideals in part were: a closer See also:union between the advanced and the general educational system of the state; liberal instruction of the See also:industrial classes; increased stress on technical instruction; unsectarian See also:control; " a course in history and political and social science adapted to the practical needs of men worthily ambitious in public affairs "; a more thorough study of See also:modern See also:languages and literatures, especially See also:English; the " steady effort to abolish monastic government and pedantic instruction "; the elective system of studies; and the stimulus of non-See also:resident lecturers. On the 7th of See also:October 1868 the Cornell University opened with some confusion due to the condition of the campus, and to the presence of 412 would-be pupils, many of whom expected to " work their way through." The brilliance of the faculty and especially of its non-resident members (including J. R. See also:Lowell, See also:Louis See also:Agassiz, G. W.

See also:

Curtis, See also:Bayard See also:Taylor, See also:Theodore D. See also:Dwight, and Goldwin Smith, who was a resident See also:professor in 1866-1869), was to a degree over-shadowed during the fifteen years 1868-1882 by See also:financial difficulties. But Ezra Cornell himself paid many salaries during See also:early years, and provided much valuable equipment solely at his own expense; and because the state's land See also:scrip was selling too See also:low to secure an adequate endowment for the University, in 1866 he bought the land scrip yet unsold ' Ezra Cornell (18o7–1874) was See also:born in Westchester See also:county, New York, on the 11th of See also:January 1807. His parents were See also:Quakers from See also:Massachusetts. He received a.scanty education; worked as a See also:carpenter in See also:Syracuse and as a machinist in Ithaca became interested (about 1842) in the development of the electric See also:telegraph; and after unsuccessful or over-expensive attempts to ground the telegraph wires in 1844 solved the difficulty by stringing them on poles. He organized many telegraph construction companies, was one of the founders of the Western Union Telegraph See also:Company, and accumulated a large See also:fortune. He was a delegate to the first See also:national See also:convention of the Republican party (1856) and was a member of the New York assembly in 1862–1863 and of the state senate in 1864–1867. He founded a public library (dedicated in 1866) in Ithaca, and died there on the 9th of See also:December 1874. Consult Alonzo B. Cornell, True and See also:Firm: A See also:Biography of Ezra Cornell (New York, 1884). 2 New York's See also:share amounted to 99o,000 acres. The Morrill Act prescribed that the proceeds from the See also:sale of this land should not be used for the purchase, erection or maintenance of any building or buildings.(8,9,920 acres)3 by the state at the See also:rate of sixty cents an See also:acre on the understanding that all profits, in excess of the purchase See also:money, should constitute a See also:separate endowment, fund to which the restrictions in the Morrill Act should not apply; and in 1866-1867 he " located " 512,000 acres in See also:Wisconsin, See also:Minnesota, and See also:Kansas.

In See also:

November 1.874 he transferred these lands, which had cost him $576s953 more than he had received from them, to the university. This actual deficit on the lands owned by the university steadily increased up to 1881, when, after the trustees had refused (in 188o) an offer of $1,250,000 for .e75,000 acres of See also:pine lands, they sold about 140,600 acres for $2,319,296; ultimately 401,296 acres of the land turned over to the university by Cornell were sold, bringing a See also:net return of about $4,800,000. The university was put on a See also:sound financial footing; the number of students, less in 1881-1882 than in 1868 at the opening of the university, again increased, so that it was 585 in 1884-1885, and 2120 in 1897-1898. The presidents of the university have been: Andrew See also:Dickson White, 1865-1885; Charles See also:Kendall See also:Adams, 1885-1892; and See also:Jacob See also:Gould See also:Schurman.

End of Article: CORNELL UNIVERSITY

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