ABSTRACT
Cornell University stands on hills above Lake Cayuga, one of New York’s Finger Lakes, and has a wonderful prospect from the side of the campus that overlooks the lake. Not only that, two very deep gorges run through the campus. One borders the campus on its south side, dividing it from College Town, a collection of small shops, restaurants, and rather tacky apartment buildings housing graduate students. The other borders the north side, dividing the campus from Cayuga Heights, a residential district inhabited mainly by professors and their families. There is a car bridge over both gorges, and also, farther down each gorge, a swinging foot bridge from which one can peer down at the rocks and water far below while crossing. The campus is further divided by an imaginary line in the other direction into the lower campus (on the lakeside) and the upper campus above it. The lower campus houses the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Architecture, the main library, the art museum, and the Law School, which are privately endowed. The upper campus houses the College of Agriculture, the Veterinary College, the College of Home Economics (now renamed the College of Human Ecology), a second library, and several other schools, ail part of the State University of New York. Ezra Cornell, when he founded the University, wanted it to be an institution where one could study any subject, and that is just about true. A renowned president of Cornell in the 1890s, Andrew Dickson White, had publicly attacked organized religion and praised science, so all the schools, endowed and state alike, were strong in science.
