Cornell University

Cornell University was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. On October 7, 1868, the university opened its doors. Morrill Hall was the first building constructed on the main Ithaca campus, which today includes more than 260 major buildings on 745 acres. Cornell is a private endowed university and the federal land-grant institution of New York State. It is a member of the Ivy League and a partner of the State University of New York. Today, Cornell University consists of fourteen colleges and schools - seven undergraduate colleges and four graduate and professional schools in Ithaca, two medical graduate and professional schools in New York City, and one in Qatar.

Mission and Values

"I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study." Ezra Cornell, 1865.

 Cornell is a learning community that seeks to serve society by educating the leaders of tomorrow and extending the frontiers of knowledge. In keeping with the founding vision of Ezra Cornell, our community fosters personal discovery and growth, nurtures scholarship and creativity across a broad range of common knowledge, and engages men and women from every segment of society in this quest. We pursue understanding beyond the limitations of existing knowledge, ideology, and disciplinary structure. We affirm the cultivation and enrichment of the human mind and spirit.

Our faculty, staff, students, and alumni strive toward these objectives in a context of freedom with responsibility. We foster initiative, integrity, and excellence, in an environment of collegiality, civility and responsible stewardship. As the land grant university of the State of New York, we apply the results of our endeavors in service to our alumni, community, state, nation, and world.

The Cornell campus is one of the most beautiful and spectacular in the country, with many natural areas of its own. The campus itself encompasses Fall Creek Gorge; Cascadilla Glen; the Beebe Lake area; several formal flower gardens (including Miss Minn's on Tower Road, and the A. D. White garden behind the red stone Victorian house of the same name); the Mundy Herb Garden; and extensive the Cornell Plantations areas with both wild and cultivated sections. There are many trails in the Plantations leading through woods, along streams, and through large specimen-plant collections. Don't miss the wildflower areas, or the peony and rhododendron collections in the spring!

Wonderful views of Ithaca, its valley, Cayuga Lake, and Cornell can be seen from the upper floors of the Johnson Art Museum at Cornell, from the edge of Libe Slope, and, for those without vertigo, from the top of Cornell's McGraw Tower (open while the bells are ringing, a treat in itself...).

(Text taken in part from http://www.visitithaca.com/.)