Cornelliana
Cornelliana is anything related to Cornell University, an Ivy League university founded in 1865 in Ithaca, New York. The university has a considerable number of traditions, legends, and lore unique to the university that have developed over its existence, which spans over 150 years.
Traditions
Dragon Day
Impromptu student activities
While Cornell students are no stranger to such activities as
Traying down Libe Slope: Undergraduates were known to smuggle trays from the dining options in Willard Straight Hall or from the dormitory dining halls and use them to sled down Cornell's Libe Slope, a 100-foot hill stretching from Cornell West Campus to Uris Library, the undergraduate home of the Cornell University Library.[4]
Gorgeing: Over the summer, and at the beginning and end of the academic year when Ithaca enjoys warmer weather, students are known to find respite from the heat in the two creeks that cut across Cornell's campus through two dramatic gorges — Cascadilla and Fall Creek. While the activity is illegal due to safety concerns, and several students have drowned while "enjoying" the gorges, it does not deter students from swimming in the various swimming holes, playing in the waterfalls, or jumping off of 'Lover's Leap' north of Beebe Lake into the pool of water thirty feet below.[4]
Slope Day
In recent years, Slope Day has become more regulated, in an effort to stop underage drinking on the Slope. In order to regulate it, the Slope itself has been fenced off and entrances have been placed for ID checks.
Hot Truck and Louie's Lunch
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For years, there were two
"The Hot Truck", also known as "Johnny's Pizza Truck" was stationed below West Campus beginning in March 1960,[8] "The Hot Truck". The name came from owner Bob Petrillose's desire to differentiate himself from the cold truck.[7] The Hot Truck sold just pizza subs. Petrillose determined soon after opening that he could cut costs by only selling pizza. Bob discovered that he could produce a superior pizza when he put the toppings on buttered French bread. He dubbed his creation the PMP (or "Poor Man's Pizza"), which has since been brought to national popularity by Stouffer's.[9] At some time meatballs were added to PMP's, effectively expanding the menu to include meatball subs. The sub product with meatballs, cheese, and tomato sauce was named the MBC (Meatball and Cheese).[8] A "Hot Truck Dictionary" was published in the form of a small booklet listing novel names of menu items and creative yet odd terminology for toppings. One undated copy believed to have been collected during the mid-1980s shows menu items such as RaRa (roast beef sub with pepperoni and mozzarella), ReRe (roast beef sub with sausage and mozzarella), and Sep Pep (Double PMP, garlic, mushrooms, and pepperoni).[8] Regular customers, who were generally students, would order at the truck window using the appropriate odd terminology.
Over the years, the variety of pizzas has expanded with complete dictionary of combinations of varying peculiarity created by students, such as the "North Baker", which has
Sy Katz Parade
The Sy Katz '31 Parade is a biennial march in
Athletic traditions
As the most popular sport on campus, many of Cornell's athletic traditions revolve around the men's ice hockey team, and their fans, the Lynah Faithful. These include the famous
The Cornell Big Red Pep Band leads the Faithful through a rendition of the Alma Mater at every hockey game. Thanks to this tradition, Cornellians tend to know the words to their song more so than students at many other schools. Additionally, on the night of the last home hockey game of the year, all six verses of the song are sung by students.
Other traditions abound throughout Cornell Athletics. Every year, the football team squares off against the men from the University of Pennsylvania in the battle for the Trustee's Cup. At Schoellkopf Field, freshmen have traditionally taken the field by storm for the first home game of the year, while seniors take the field for the final home game of the year. Many traditions are passed down through the Cornell Big Red Marching Band (which calls itself "the only real marching band in the Ivy League"), including the annual concert within Cornell's undergraduate library, Uris Library, the morning of the last home game of the year.
Student requirements
New Student Reading Project
A recently begun Cornell tradition is the New Student Reading Project, sometimes called the Freshmen Reading Project. Begun for the Class of 2005, all incoming freshmen and transfer students were required to read a book chosen by the university. Alumni and faculty were also encouraged to read the book. When students arrived, they participated in discussion groups and other activities related to the book. For example, in the fall of 2005,
Swim test
In 1918, at the urging of the Director of Women's Physical Education, Cornell began requiring that all female students must pass a swim test before graduating. In 1937, the school expanded the swim test requirement to all undergraduates. Despite reviews of this policy over the years, all students — with the exception of transfer students — must pass a swim test. The original swim test was administered as two-laps in the Old Armory Pool, which was half Olympic length. When the men's swim test was transferred to the Teagle Hall pool, the distance was preserved. When the women's swim test was transferred to the Olympic length pool in Helen Newman Hall in 1963, the number of laps was preserved. This disparity continued until 1970, when Trustee Robert Platt raised the issue of why women were required to swim twice as far as men to pass the test. Students who fail or do not take the swim test are enrolled in an introductory swimming course. The requirement was suspended for students graduating during the fall 2020 or spring 2021 semesters due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[25] The current swim test is a continuous 75-yard swim where students are allowed to swim with any stroke of their choice. [26]
Colleges and universities with similar swimming requirements include
Cornell songs
Like many colleges in the United States, Cornell has a number of traditional songs associated with the
"Far Above Cayuga's Waters"
"Far Above Cayuga's Waters" is Cornell's alma mater. The lyrics were composed in 1870 by two roommates to the tune of "Annie Lisle", a popular ballad of the day. The song is considered to be one of the best known alma maters in the world as it has been adapted and adopted by numerous universities, colleges, and high schools both in the United States and the world. The song traditionally concludes campus concerts by the Cornell University Glee Club and Chorus.[28]
"Give My Regards to Davy"
"Give My Regards to Davy" is Cornell's primary fight song. It was written in 1904 by three roommates at Beta Theta Pi to the tune of George M. Cohan's "Give My Regards to Broadway". Cornellians sing this song at sporting events, especially hockey.
"We Didn't Go To Harvard"
Sung by Cayuga's Waiters to the tune of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", this is one of the best known and popular a cappella songs in the Ivy League, and makes light of Cornell's reputation as a "safety school" for Harvard applicants. The song features a rotating cast of verses that document the contemporary Cornell student experience.[29]
Legends
Arts Quad statues
On the Arts Quad exist two statues memorializing the founders of Cornell, Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White. According to legend, if a virgin crosses the Quad at midnight while the chimes are ringing, the two statues will walk off their pedestals, meet in the center of the Quad, and shake hands on the chastity of the university. (Variants of this legend have it that they will take each other's place, or they will dance a jig to celebrate the student's purity.) To this day, the statues have never switched places, shaken hands, or danced; Cornell's tour guides maintain this is because the bells do not ring at midnight. Every year since 1936, Phi Sigma Kappa has repainted footprints on the Quad to memorialize the legend.[30]
Ghosts
The widow of Willard Straight made several reportedly unsuccessful attempts to contact her late husband through
In Risley Hall, the namesake of the dormitory, Prudence Risley, flits about the building, flickering the lights. During its days as the Residential Club, Ecology House suffered a fatal fire, whose victims are credited for strange lights and voices.[31] Some say that the Statler Hotel is haunted by the building's namesake, Alice Statler; other buildings said to be haunted include the Undergraduate Admissions Office, McGraw Tower, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Chi and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity houses among others.[31]
If a bride is married in Sage Chapel, she will probably use the crypt to prepare since no other appropriate room exists in the chapel. Within that crypt are buried the founders and numerous other important contributors of the University. If the bride waits long enough, it is said the spirits may rise to bless the marriage.[32]
Hoy Field
One campus legend says that the first person to hit a
Relationships
Many Cornell legends relate to relationships. One says that if a student refuses a kiss on the
Lore
Campbell Soup
Campbell Soup cans' colors are red and white. Cornell's colors are red (carnelian, specifically) and white. In 1898, Herberton Williams, a Campbell's executive, convinced the company to adopt a red and white color scheme, because he was taken by the crisp colors of the Cornell University football team's uniforms. In 2004, at the urging of The Image Committee of the Student Assembly, Cornell University officially reverted to a version of this shade of red (PMS 187) after a four-year brush with the much brighter PMS 186.[citation needed]
Items atop the clocktower
Several times, students have placed items atop the 173-foot-tall spire of McGraw Tower as a prank.
- In October 1997, a pumpkin was found on top of the clocktower. A live internet video feed, nicknamed "PumpkinCam," enabled live viewing of the pumpkin around the world, a relatively new phenomenon at the time.[37] How the pumpkin could so placed was a mystery which attracted national news attention.[38] The pumpkin remained there until it was removed in March of the following year. It was found to have been cored, which accounted for its longevity as it naturally dried out. It has since been memorialized as an ice cream flavor, "Clocktower Pumpkin", produced by the Cornell Dairy . A piece of the pumpkin is stored in the Wilder Brain Collection.
- In April 2005, a disco ball was found tied onto the clocktower with climbing rope. According to the Cornell Police, someone gained access to the top of the clocktower by breaking a sealed hatch on the clocktower and then free-climbing up the roof.[39]
- In December 2019, a red Santa hat adorned the clocktower; authorities speculated that it was probably lifted there by a drone.[40]
Gettysburg Address
Hugo N. Frye
In 1930, Republican leaders across the United States received letters inviting them to a celebration in Ithaca to celebrate the 150th birthday of
Stump
In the 1960s,
Secret societies
Myriad secret societies flourished on Cornell University's campus from its founding until the 1960s. These societies included Cornell's first fraternities and sororities, class honor societies, and drinking societies. As students rebelled against "elitism" and "The Establishment" during the 1960s, many of Cornell's drinking societies and honor societies became inactive or disappeared. Of the numerous class societies active in the early 20th century, two remaining secret senior honorary societies, Quill and Dagger and Sphinx Head, are the most well-known. Membership is mutually exclusive between the organizations.[citation needed]
Drinking clubs
During the 1970s, there were two remaining drinking societies at Cornell, The Majura Nolanda Society, an all-male society also known as Mummies "since 1896", and the Ivory Tower, an all-female "since 1895". Both groups met and drank together on Wednesday Nights at the Chapter House at 400 Stewart Avenue. The two societies were merged in 1975 at the urging of Thomas Coughlin, BSME Class of '76, then vice president and "Mummy". The Mummy was the mascot of the Majura Nolanda Society. The society met in a crypt in the cellar of the Chapter House and prior to the Cornell-Yale football game the Mummy would be Swaddled in a shroud, placed in a casket, and be driven around campus in a hearse to Schoellkopf Stadium. The group would be escorted to special seating on the fifty yard line. During half time the Mummy was permitted access to the field where he would caper about in drunken antic. The Mummy casket had a false bottom into which "contra-band" liquor would be concealed in an attempt to smuggle it into the stadium. This never worked! The Majura Nolanda Society also participated in various fund raising activities during the period. Upon joining the society a Mummie would be given a ceramic pint mug emblazoned with the words Cornell University, Majura Nolanda Bethel Amid, and Mummies. The "pint mugs" were of 18 ounce volume. The extra 2 ounces allowed for a full measure plus Foam.
Freshman beanies
In the first part of the 20th century, male freshmen at Cornell were required to follow eleven strict rules published in the freshman handbook. These ranged from "No smoking on campus" to "Give your trolley seat to an upperclassman." Number four on the list was "Wear your cap." The cap was a red beanie with a gray button on top. Freshmen boys wore their hats until the annual spring beanie burning. This rule was taken very seriously. One student, Frederick Morelli 1924, was chained to a tree for two hours and dunked in the lake for refusing to wear his cap, thus earning Cornell the name "Lynch College". By the 1960s, this tradition had disappeared.[43]
The White library bell
When Andrew Dickson White returned to the United States in 1894 from his post as the minister to Russia, he brought back a 361-pound church bell. For many years, janitors rang the bell to warn students of the library's nightly closing. Due to complaints about the "booming resonance" of the bell, librarians began ringing a smaller bell to warn of White's bell.[44] Today, White's bell is stored in the Andrew Dickson White Reading Room in Uris Library.[45]
Zinck's Night
Theodore Zinck was a saloonkeeper in Ithaca, and his pub, the Hotel Brunswick, was a popular gathering place for Cornellians in the 1890s. After his death in 1903, several bars using his name (Zinck's) continued to provide a haven for students. When the last Zinck's closed in the mid-1960s, celebrating the spirit of Zinck's became a favorite Thursday night
Zinck's is immortalized in the Cornell fight song "Give My Regards to Davy", with the following line: We'll all have drinks at Theodore Zinck's, When I get back next fall!
References
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