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Private university in Ithaca, New York, US From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cornell University is a private Ivy League land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. Since its founding, Cornell has been a co-educational and nonsectarian institution. As of fall 2023, the student body included over 16,000 undergraduate and 10,000 graduate students from all 50 U.S. states and 130 countries.[7]
| |
| Latin: Universitas Cornelliana[1] | |
| Motto | “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”[2][3] |
|---|---|
| Type | Private[4] land-grant research university |
| Established | April 28, 1864 |
| Founder | |
| Accreditation | MSCHE |
Academic affiliations | |
| Endowment | $10.7 billion (2024)[5] |
| Budget | $5.4 billion (2023)[6] |
| President | Michael Kotlikoff |
| Provost | John Siliciano |
Academic staff | 1,639 in Ithaca, New York 1,235 in New York City 34 in Doha, Qatar |
| Students | 26,284 (fall 2023)[7] |
| Undergraduates | 16,071 (fall 2023)[7] |
| Postgraduates | 10,207 (fall 2023)[7] |
| Location | , , United States 42°27′13″N 76°28′26″W |
| Campus | Small city[8], 745 acres (301 ha)[citation needed] |
| Other campuses[9] | |
| Newspaper | |
| Colors | Carnelian red and white[10] |
| Nickname | Big Red |
Sporting affiliations | |
| Mascot | Touchdown the Bear (unofficial)[11] |
| Website | cornell |
 | |
The university is organized into eight undergraduate colleges and seven graduate divisions on its main Ithaca campus.[12] Each college and academic division has near autonomy in defining its respective admission standards and academic curriculum. In addition to its primary campus in Ithaca, the university administers three satellite campuses, including two in New York City, the medical school and Cornell Tech, and one in Education City in Al Rayyan, Qatar.[12]
Cornell is one of three private land-grant universities in the United States.[lower-alpha 1] Among the university's eight undergraduate colleges, four are state-supported statutory or contract colleges through the State University of New York system, including the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Human Ecology, the Industrial Labor Relations School, and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. Among Cornell's graduate schools, only the Veterinary Medicine College is supported by New York state. The main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca spans 745 acres (301 ha).
As of October 2024,[update] 64 Nobel laureates, 4 Turing Award winners, and 1 Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Cornell. Cornell counts more than 250,000 living alumni, which include 34 Marshall Scholars,[13] 33 Rhodes Scholars, 29 Truman Scholars, 63 Olympic Medalists, 10 current Fortune 500 CEOs, and 35 billionaires.[14][15][16][17][18]
Cornell University was founded on April 27, 1865, by Ezra Cornell, an entrepreneur and New York State Senator, and Andrew Dickson White, an educator and also a New York State Senator, after the New York State legislature authorized the university as the state's land grant institution.[19] Ezra Cornell offered his farm in Ithaca, New York as a preliminary site for the university, and granted $500,000 of his personal fortune as an initial endowment (equivalent to $12,373,000 in 2023) to the university. White agreed to be Cornell University's first president.
White spent the first three years at Cornell University overseeing construction of the university's first two buildings, and he traveled to recruit promising students and faculty.[20] On October 7, 1868, Cornell University was inaugurated, and 412 male students were enrolled the following day.[21]
Cornell developed as a technologically innovative institution, applying its academic research to its own campus and to outreach efforts. In 1883, it was one of the first university campuses to utilize electricity developed from a water-powered dynamo to light its campus.[22] Since 1894, Cornell has included colleges that are state-funded and fulfill state statutory requirements;[23] it has also administered research and extension activities that have been jointly funded by New York state and U.S. federal government matching funds.[24]
Beginning with its first classes, Cornell University has had active and engaged alumni. In 1872, the university became one of the first universities in the nation to include alumni-elected representatives on its board of trustees.[lower-alpha 2]
Cornell University is home to Cornell University Press, founded in 1869. Cornell was first home to the Cornell Era, a weekly campus publication founded in 1868. In 1880, it was replaced with the founding of The Cornell Daily Sun, an independent student-run newspaper, which is now one of the nation's longest continuously published student newspapers in the nation.
From the 19th to early 20th centuries, Cornell had several literary societies that were founded to encourage writing, reading, and oration skills. The U.S. Bureau of Education described three of them as a "purely literary society" following the "traditions of the old literary societies of Eastern universities.
In 1967, Cornell experienced a fire in the Residential Club dormitory that killed eight students and one professor. In the late 1960s, Cornell was among the Ivy League universities that experienced heightened student activism related to cultural issues, civil rights, and opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1969, armed anti-Vietnam War protesters occupied Willard Straight Hall, an incident that led to a restructuring of the university's governance and forced the resignation of then Cornell president
