Cornell

C. Altschuler Glenn, Isaac Kramnick

Description

In their history of Cornell since 1940, Glenn C. Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick examine the institution in the context of the emergence of the modern research university. The book examines Cornell during the Cold War, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, antiapartheid protests, the ups and downs of varsity athletics, the women's movement, the opening of relations with China, and the creation of Cornell NYC Tech. It relates profound, fascinating, and little-known incidents involving the faculty, administration, and student life, connecting them to the "Cornell idea" of freedom and responsibility. The authors had access to all existing papers of the presidents of Cornell, which deeply informs their respectful but unvarnished portrait of the university. Institutions, like individuals, develop narratives about themselves. Cornell constructed its sense of self, of how it was special and different, on the eve of World War II, when America defended democracy from fascist dictatorship. Cornell's fifth president, Edmund Ezra Day, and Carl Becker, its preeminent historian, discerned what they called a Cornell "soul," a Cornell "character," a Cornell "personality," a Cornell "tradition"-and they called it "freedom." "The Cornell idea" was tested and contested in Cornell's second seventy-five years. Cornellians used the ideals of freedom and responsibility as weapons for change-and justifications for retaining the status quo; to protect academic freedom-and to rein in radical professors; to end in loco parentis and parietal rules, to preempt panty raids, pornography, and pot parties, and to reintroduce regulations to protect and promote the physical and emotional well-being of students; to add nanofabrication, entrepreneurship, and genomics to the curriculum-and to require language courses, freshmen writing, and physical education. In the name of freedom (and responsibility), black students occupied Willard Straight Hall, the anti-Vietnam War SDS took over the Engineering Library, proponents of divestment from South Africa built campus shantytowns, and Latinos seized Day Hall. In the name of responsibility (and freedom), the university reclaimed them. The history of Cornell since World War II, Altschuler and Kramnick believe, is in large part a set of variations on the narrative of freedom and its partner, responsibility, the obligation to others and to one's self to do what is right and useful, with a principled commitment to the Cornell community-and to the world outside the Eddy Street gate.

Sujets

• Nueva York
• University
• History of education
• Higher education
• New York

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 12 août 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801471896
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 12 Mo

Extrait

CORNELL

We have not invited you to see a university finished, but to see one begun. Ezra Cornell

CORNELL A History, 1940–2015

GLENN C. ALTSCHULER AND ISAAC KRAMNICK

Cornell University Press

ITHAC A AND LONDON

Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, NewYork 14850.

First published 2014 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Altschuler, Glenn C., author.  Cornell : a history, 1940–2015 / Glenn C.Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick.  pages cm  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801444258 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Cornell University—History. I. Kramnick, Isaac, author. II. Title.  LD1370.A57 2014  379.747'71—dc23 2014018297

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

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To our families, extended and ceremonial

Contents

Preface: The “Cornell Idea” ix Acknowledgments xv Authors’ Note xvii Part I1945–1963 1 Building a Research University3 2 The Death ofIn Loco Parentis47 3 The Cold War at Cornell74 Part II1963–1977 4 The Bureaucratic University and Its Discontents103 5 Race at Cornell155 6 The Wars at Home204 Part III1977–1995 7 The Rhodes Years241 8 Academic Identity Politics285 9 Political Engagement, Divestment, and Cornell’s TwoChina Policy323 Part IV1995–2015 10 Into the TwentyFirst Century355 11 The New Normal in Student Life409 12 Going Global449 Postscript 479 Notes 483 Index 515 vii

Preface: The “Cornell Idea”

I nstitutions, like individuals, develop narratives about themselves. Cornell constructed its sense of self, its sense of how it was special and different, in the middle twentieth century, on the eve of World War II, when America de fended democratic freedom from fascist dictatorship. Cornell’s fifth president, Edmund Ezra Day, and Carl Becker, its preeminent historian, discerned what they called a Cornell “soul,” a Cornell “character,” a Cornell “personality,” a Cornell “tradition”—and they called it “freedom.” “From its beginnings,” President Day declared on April 27, 1940, at Cor nell’s celebration of the seventyfifth anniversary of its founding charter, “the special quality of the tradition of freedom . . . has always prevailed upon its 1 campus.” Other universities encouraged free inquiry, but Cornell’s historical traditions, Day insisted, and its daily practices, embodied rebelliousness and liberation. Among America’s great universities, Cornell alone, Day told the celebrants, could claim to embody the spirit of freedom, which was the legacy of Andrew Dickson White, its first president, who had “released the forces that transformed higher education in this country. It was he who made men see the narrow restriction of the old academic schooling with its concentration on the classics and mathematics. It was he who pointed out the hampering effects of once sacred collegiate customs. It was he, in short, who brought into the field a 2 totally unprecedented freedom of action.” Professor Becker followed the pres ident to the podium and agreed that “Cornell has a character, a corporate per sonality, an intellectual tradition by which it can be identified. The word which 3 best symbolizes that tradition is freedom,” he concluded. A plainspeaking midwesterner, and a universally esteemed scholar and stylist, Becker praised his university as characteristically “impudent,” “a little wild at times,” and “a rebel against convention.” Like Day, Becker saw Andrew Dickson White as the source of Cornell’s rebelliousness: “Mr. White wished to found a center of learning where mature scholars and men of the world, emancipated from the

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