Cornell West Campus

Residential section of Cornell University

West Campus is a residential section of Cornell University main campus in Ithaca, New York. It is bounded roughly by Fall Creek gorge to the north, West Avenue and Libe Slope to the east, Cascadilla gorge and the Ithaca City Cemetery to the south, and University Avenue and Lake Street to the west. It now primarily houses transfer students, second year students, and upperclassmen. The university's Division of Student and Campus Life (SCL) uses the term differently, to refer to those buildings which are part of the West Campus House System, which organizes residents into five residential colleges. SCL labels its traditional dormitories and other residences on West Campus and in Collegetown collectively as "South Campus."

Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson White, was broadly opposed to student dormitories, believing that boarding houses and fraternities provided a superior living environment. Owing to the isolation of the campus, the university acquired Cascadilla Hall and housed some students and faculty there, and later in the "Stone Row" buildings on central campus, White, McGraw, and Morrill Halls. No dedicated residence halls would be erected for almost half a century.

After Prudence Risley Hall was designed as a women's residence in 1911, efforts began on a men's residential complex on West Campus. In 1910, Warren Hanning's campus plan had established the site for new buildings in the English Collegiate Gothic style. Trustees A. D. White, George Charles Boldt, and Robert H. Treman led a subscription campaign. The site was designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram, who had recently completed the Graduate School at Princeton University. Architectural firm Day & Klauder designed multiple buildings, each housing between 16 and 30 men. The first, Founders Hall, was completed in 1913. In the 1920s, West Campus was envisioned as fully Gothic in style, connected to Frederick Law Olmsted's plan of a grand terrace overlooking Cayuga Lake. Rhode Island architect F. Ellis Jackson, of the class of 1900, expanded this plan to include a memorial to the 264 Cornellians who had died in World War I. The war memorial group, completed in 1928, features the towers of Lyon Hall to the north and McFaddin Hall to the south, and a memorial cloister connecting the two. The ninth and last of the "Gothic" structures, Mennen Hall, was built in 1931. The grand terrace was never realized amidst the Great Depression and World War II, and the plans scrapped owing to the rapid postwar expansion in enrollment. Six modern brick faced dormitories were built in 1953 to accommodate the postwar expansion. Numbered 1 to 6, these were designated the "University Halls" to distinguish them from the Gothic "Baker Dormitories." In the 1960s–1980s, five of the individual University Halls were named in honor of various alumni classes that had achieved large donation records. The original Noyes Community Center, which offered dining, recreation and other services to residents of the campus, was constructed in 1966. The university also built or acquired a number of small residences in the area; it purchased the Central Avenue fraternity houses of Psi Upsilon and Sigma Phi fraternities to build Myron Taylor Hall (dedicated 1932), to be the home of the Cornell Law School, and built new houses for them on West Campus. These acquisitions accelerated after the war, with the university removing faculty housing and acquiring fraternities and other small living units around campus. Some, like 110 Edgemoor Lane, were demolished for parking or new construction, while others have been maintained as offices or residences. Before funding was obtained for new residences on either North or West Campus, the university added housing in the Collegetown neighborhood south of campus. Sheldon Court and Sage Infirmary (now Schuyler House) were converted into dormitories in 1981. Cascadilla Hall, the oldest building on campus, was renovated 1983–84, including the addition of a fifth floor, which increased its capacity from 144 beds to approximately 390.

Cornell had been considering establishing a series of residential colleges since a campus committee chaired by Alain Seznec recommended them in 1969. Although a residential college was established in Risley Hall in 1970, a lack of funding delayed more widespread implementation. In 1999, then Cornell president Hunter R. Rawlings III announced a new West Campus Initiative to rebuild large parts of West Campus. With an initial $100 million donation, the project aimed to create a residential college system on West Campus. Furthermore, a new Noyes Recreational Community Center was also proposed to replace the original community center. Construction was completed in August 2008.

Cornell uses a lottery system to allocate on campus housing, starting with rising sophomores, who are required to live in university affiliated housing, then extended to rising juniors and seniors. Revisions to the Flora Rose Housing system were implemented starting in the 2013–2014 academic year to keep the most active, interested residents of Rose House in the system. The lottery system was abolished in Rose House and replaced with two programs: the Rose Scholars program and the Rose Community Organizers program. The larger Rose Scholars program requires residents to attend events hosted within and approved by the House on a weekly basis. The Rose Community Organizers, the smaller program, requires residents to attend the weekly Rose Roundtable meetings and organize events for the House and West Campus. Completion of either event guarantees residents housing within Rose House for the following year. Residents must apply and be accepted into the program in the early fall to participate. Emphasis in the application process is on essays.

The War Memorial, dedicated on May 23, 1931, included a radio address by President Herbert Hoover. It was the 14th anniversary of the first Americans, which included an American Ambulance Field Service unit led by Capt. Edward Tinkham (Class of 1916) and other Cornellians, arriving on the Western Front in World War I. The complex includes two towers representing the army and the navy, Lyon Hall to the north and McFaddin Hall to the south. Between the two is a cloister featuring the names of 264 Cornellians who died in the war; Hans Wagner, Class of 1912, who died fighting for the German Empire, was excluded. and in 1934 the funds were instead given to Kurt Lewin, acting professor of education and a refugee from the Third Reich.

West Campus was served by the Noyes Community Center, formerly the Noyes Student Union, located on Stewart Avenue, centered on the axis of the War Memorial, until the 2006 07 academic year. This building was demolished and in 2007 was replaced with the Noyes Community Recreation Center, which provides indoor athletic facilities located on Campus Road. Academic buildings include: the Treman House (1902) designed by William Henry Miller, which houses the George McT. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia.

Insufficient parking on West Campus has been the source of controversy and litigation. Alice Cook House was built on the main West Campus parking lot. The University sought to replace the lost parking spaces by paving over the Redbud Woods, located on the gardens of the Treman estate. Conservation advocates sought to protect the area as a Historic District, and advocated the construction of underground parking beneath the new West Campus houses. Nonetheless, after much litigation and protests, the university paved the woods as a dormitory parking lot.