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October 2009




Half a Workshop, Half a Library

Professor Richard Klein '62 has kindly offered to share the full context of his quote used by President Skorton on Friday.

Klein had written a letter to Skorton explaining the impetus and ideals behind the founding of Cornell. And in it, Klein defends the centrality of the humanities to the Cornell experience. The letter offers our readers not only a wonderful lesson in the history of Cornell, but also a passionate plea in defense of the soul of our University.

I don't want to read between the lines too much, but apparently there was a proposal and/or discussion to more strongly differentiate the educational offerings/experience of the applied colleges from the humanities offered in the College of Arts and Sciences. MPN

The most disquieting moment at the faculty meeting last week came when Walter Cohen hurriedly moved past Peter Hohendahl’s reminder of the 19th century origins of Cornell, by in turn reminding him, here in the 21st century, that we are no longer there. By implication, he was suggesting that the future of the university needs to be re-imagined from the perspective of the present, not the past. There are those, however, like the philosopher Simone Weill, who believe that the best models for the future are found in things that have already proven to work. What we re-imagine from the perspective of the present has all the faults and forms of blindness with which we are already afflicted. The past allows us to see things more clearly, clarified by the passage of time, better to discern what stands the test of time and what falls away. At no point in the discussion at the faculty meeting or in the Dean’s report did the question of our Founders enter into the discussion. And yet at the end of the faculty meeting, we were obliged to acknowledge, if only to post-pone, the whole question of Cornell’s specificity. What has made Cornell what it is?

In his Inaugural Address, in 1868, Andrew Dickson White quotes the letter he had just received from Professor Goldwin Smith, then at Oxford, who advised him: “to remain uninfluenced, either in the way of imitation or antagonism, by other educational institutions or ideas.” (Bishop 89. )

We heard much in that faculty meeting about how Cornell compares, very little about what it means. That could not be said of White’s Address which makes clear in bold italics what he takes to be the “Foundational Ideas” of Cornell, of which he says:

On these is the structure based. . . . Foremost of these stands that cornerstone embedded in the original Charter from Congress:

The close union of liberal and practical education.

We may say that any decision or policy that goes in the direction of disconnecting or disassociating liberal arts in the College of Arts and Sciences from the disciplines of other practical colleges violates the founding principle of the University. In the words of Jacob Gould Schurman, the third President, the fundamental principle that guides Cornell, is “to combine the idealism of Ancient Athens with the industrialism of modern America. ) (Ibid.) . It is their “close union” that makes Cornell a place of unusual creativity and entrepreneurship. Idealism comes from Plato’s eidos and Plato has always belonged as vitally to Cornell as Morse’s telegraph.

Andrew White, in his Inaugural Address, continues:

In entire harmony with the spirit and letter of this original Charter was the next foundational idea.

It was put forth by the Founder of the University himself, and in language the simplest and plainest” [In fact, it was White himself who polished those lines and attributed them to Cornell] It gave a complete theory of university education. Said Ezra Cornell::

I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” (The Inauguration p.11)

And White immediately adds, speaking of Ezra:

Devoted to practical pursuits, he recognized the fact that there has to be a union of the scientific and the aesthetic with the practical to produce results worthy of such an enterprise. (The Inauguration 12)

By science, White means physical science, at a time before social science was invented. The “aesthetic” probably comprises all the liberal arts, including the art of philosophy, which may not have been Ezra’s forte. They are to be unified, he says, with the practical. That is the horizon toward which Cornell must advance in order to produce worthy results. Productivity, as it is defined by Andrew Dickson White, is determined by the worth of what is produced not by its quantity.

By “any study” Cornell and White clearly intended, in the first place, to be countering the division that had always existed, until Cornell, between liberal arts colleges and practical colleges devoted to the mechanics of work. And the dream of “any study” has always seemed a little utopian. But as an idea it remains, as White says, “a whole theory of university education.” Thus, when any decision diminishes the capacity of students to find instruction in any study, it probably violates the founding impulse of the university. When millions are spent on a single laboratory in physics, there is no reason, in light of our founders, to eliminate Turkish as a language we teach.

This sentence of Ezra Cornell is “a whole theory of university education”—a theory that it is the destiny and the privilege of Cornell to embody. Morris Bishop writes in his History of Cornell (1962):

“Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dixon White dealt with great ideas. Ezra Cornell’s purpose to found an institution where any person could find instruction in any study was a conception of extraordinary scope and daring.”

Writing in 1962, Morris Bishop foresaw the moment when research rather than teaching—finding “instruction”-- would become the primary business of the University, something we now seem prepared to take for granted. He wondered, given the “tendency of research to isolate itself in institutions and laboratories,” whether “The Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory may adumbrate the shape of things to come.” (p.614) Against that sort of corruption of the Cornell idea, Bishop quotes Cornell’s fifth President, Edmund Ezra Day, in whose eponymous Hall our President sits, who proclaimed the purpose of Cornell to be “to help the American people see more clearly and live more fully the ideals of American democracy.” (Ibid.) How thrilling that would be if Cornell were to declare its purpose to be one of pursuing and clarifying ideals, especially those of American democracy, at a time when they are everywhere under attack by ignorance and malevolence. Bishop, speaking of Day’s proposal adds: “This humane purpose, naturally strongest in the Arts College, pervades also the other colleges. Conversely, the dedication of the state supported colleges to public service reacts upon the students and faculties of the other schools.”

The specific combination of idealism and practicality at Cornell cannot be separated from the effect of its setting, in a landscape of romantic sublimity. M.H. Abrams in his introduction to Naturalism, Supernaturalism compares the views from the hills of Ithaca to the Lake Country of Wordsworth where thoughts turn more easily to broader perspectives and bolder visions of the greater good. As Morris Bishop writes: “A hundred thousand Cornellians keep close in memory their gorge-gashed campus looking afar over lake and valley.” (Bishop 615) In this place, isolated from the City, but alive with New York rhythms, an ivory tower stuck on a wild hill, half a workshop, half a library, the University produces a distinct type of Cornellian. On the one hand, our students are led with great alacrity to raise issues of social conscience, often well before those of other universities. At the same time, their social awareness is informed by an intellectual climate in which an intensely abstract and theoretical form of speculation focuses often compulsively on questions of language. The same pattern repeats itself in many forms.

When I arrived as a Freshman at Cornell in the Fall of 1958, the events of May still hung in the air. The student body en masse had marched to the home of Deane Mallott, not the Dean but the President of the school, to protest the oppressive rules the university was trying to impose on the cohabitation of men and women in Collegetown. Those demonstrations, brilliantly and eloquently led, were the opening shots in the student movement around the country. They coincided with the moment when Thomas Pynchon bumped into Richard Farina on the Arts Quad. Pynchon writes (in the Introduction to I’ve Been Down So Long It Feels Like Up to Me (1983)):

One day I was crossing the Arts quad and spotted Farina, reclining on the green grass with an open book. We nodded, said hello. “Listen,” Farina said, “I’m having a party Saturday night at my place on College avenue, if you want to fall by.” (p. vi.)

It is no accident that two giant contemporary writers met, as undergraduates, in front of Goldwin Smith Hall. Inside at that moment, Arthur Mizener was reinventing F. Scott Fitzgerald and M. H. Abrams was transforming the history of Romanticism. Norman Malcom had just finished the first biography of Wittgenstein and John Rawls was meditating on the meaning of democracy. James Hutton was rediscovering the Greek Anthology and Frederich Salmson taught Greek. A few feet away Morris Bishop and Vladimir Nabokov were probably in their offices.

There is a Cornell sponsored website, Cornell Writers, that assembles an enormous array, more than two hundred influential figures in American poetry and prose. It reminds us that “for more than a century, some of the most distinguished writers in American letters (novelists, short-story writers, poets, memoirists, and other creative writers) have studied or taught at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.”

There has been over decades what you could call a Cornell Romanesque, not a style but a mystique that imbues a romantic place of fictions where thousands of adolescents grow into adulthood in this isolated but weirdly cosmopolitan place. There has been around Cornell an aura of magic that has made it a place where for generations writers have found inspiration. And at the center of it is not a technology school but a vibrant College of Arts and Sciences, where bold thoughts and daring enterprise can be dreamed without distraction, where eccentricity and passion, liveliness and risk taking, even wild abandon of thought and language, are entertained and encouraged. I think of Morris Bishop sleeping in the library so he could finish the History of Cornell. Or of Nabokov riding school busses taking notes for Lolita. Or Richard Farina plunging his motorcycle down Buffalo street, screaming Blake and scaring the life out of everyone. Alison Lurie pretending to sleep through faculty meetings then running home to skewer her colleagues precisely. Or Archie Aamons talking frankly with women in the Temple of Zeus in conversations that became audible in his great poetic work. Harold Bloom standing up in MH Abrams lecture to correct in Hebrew his citation from the English Bible. Jacques Derrida, barely known in this country, speaking for three hours in front of an overflowing Cornell public.

Cornell has been a place where the humanities have been at the center of life, where it was possible to think the most critical and passionate thoughts in an atmosphere of fierce mutual attention. Any decisions that reduce its role and threaten its centrality will forever alter the soul of Cornell and destroy what it has so scrupulously nurtured in the spirit of its Founder’s dream.


Matthew Nagowski | October 25, 2009 (#)

The Cornell Romanesque

Skorton made his State of the University address today to the University Trustees and Council. The Alumni Magazine has a brief synopsis.

For those of you with some spare time, I would encourage you to watch the video. It's notable for two reasons. First, it is by far the most Lehman-esque of Skorton's speeches -- channeling bits of Cornelliana and including quotes at length. And that should be taken as a compliment.

Secondly, the speech channels Cornell's history as a means for enduring the current challenges facing the University. And Skorton maintains that Cornell will only continue its excellence by maintaining what it has always
pursued-- classical and contemporary inquiry, innovative thinking, student access to education, and public engagement.

But there is also a need for the University to maintain the uniquely Cornellian experience -- one that embraces Ezra's tradition of open access and inquiry, diligent ethic, and independent action.

Skorton mentions Carl Becker's famous "freedom and responsibility" essay, but also introduces a new term -- the Cornell Romanesque -- and cites French professor Richard Klein '62 who has developed the term:

There is something you can call a Cornell Romanesque – not a style but a mystique – a romantic place of fictions where thousands of adolescents grow into adulthood in this isolated but weirdly cosmopolitan place. At Cornell it is possible to think the most critical and passionate thoughts in an atmosphere of fierce mutual attention. So it has been. And so it will be.

This notion appeals to me because it channels the oft-demanding and unsettled experience of a Cornell education. But it also suggests the enduring strength of spirit found on campus that is able to both inspire and mature students. And the former necessarily informs the later.

Sigh. Such insightful introspection makes me wish that The Muse was still around.


Matthew Nagowski | October 23, 2009 (#)

The United States of Cornell

Six weeks ago, we featured a map of Collegetown by a recent alumnus, Ryan Gomez '09. But Ryan is hooked on data presentation and Cornellians, so he asked us if we had any ideas for introducing infographics that he could produce.

We suggested that he look at the distribution of students from across the country, to see what areas are the most over/under represented, and provided him with a dataset containing enrollment and demographic information by state.

The beautiful result:

cornellusa.JPG

The colored dots represent the student representation of each state/region at Cornell. But what's more interesting is the relative representation -- we would expect a lot of students from California because California is a populous state.

But did you also know there are relatively more students fro California than the American Midwest? For every 10,000 high-school age students in California, 4.5 study at Cornell. But the similar statistic in the Midwest is 2.5.

Perhaps the admissions office should recruit more aggressively in Chicago.

Ryan hopes to continue producing introducing graphics like these for MetaEzra and asks for your input. He writes:

My education is in understanding and modeling statistical trends. My expertise is Collegetown's historical context. My list of sources is long and covers a wide range of Cornell's institutions and my mission is capturing the zeitgeist of our large Cornell family.

So what would you like to see? Email us at editor(at)metaezra.com today!


Matthew Nagowski | October 23, 2009 (#)

Ankit Patel '04 Tells Glen Beck What's What

MetaEzra previously featured Ankit waxing poetic about Sandy Weill.


Matthew Nagowski | October 21, 2009 (#)

Cantabrigian Hubris

Just remember, however bad we think Cornell's financial situation may be in, it could always be worse.

The university disclosed yesterday that it had lost $1.8 billion in cash - money it relies on for the school’s everyday expenses - by investing it with its endowment fund, instead of keeping it in safe, bank-like accounts. The disclosure was made in the school’s annual report for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Typically, companies and big institutions manage their cash conservatively in order to have it readily available, by keeping the money in such low-risk investments as money-market mutual funds.

But Harvard placed a large portion of its cash with Harvard Management Co., the entity that runs the university’s endowment and invests in stocks, hedge funds, and other risky assets. It has been widely reported that Harvard Management’s endowment investments were battered in the market crash - down 27 percent in its last fiscal year. Not revealed until yesterday was that the school’s basic cash portfolio had also been caught in the undertow.

If this doesn't speak to Harvard's arrogance, I don't know what does. And if it wasn't so hilarious, it would be sad. Just think about all of the educational good that cash-strapped community colleges and state campuses could do with $2 billion dollars.

At the very least, it will give us something else to heckle Harvard about when our hockey and basketball teams trounce Harvard this year.


Matthew Nagowski | October 17, 2009 (#)

Connect The Dots

N.B. MetaEzra will not be at Homecoming this year, for the first time in eight years. We would like to say it has something to do with scheduling Fordham (?!?!) as the opponent, but in truth, our cousin is getting married. We will, however, be on campus and available to meet up over a pint at the Chapter House this coming Monday through Wednesday. We will be wearing a swine flu mask. Just be in touch: editor@metaezra.com

But reading the Sun today, it's impossible not to connect some of the dots between pro-active budget cuts and re-active budget cuts:

The study done by Bloomfield is not only applicable to Rockefeller Hall, but also to all other buildings on campus that leave lights on unnecessarily — most buildings on central campus would fall under this category. There are 260 “major” buildings on campus. If only 5 to 10 percent of these buildings — about 20 buildings — waste energy like Rockefeller Hall, then turning off their lights could translate into about $1,215 in savings in one week, $63,180 in a year; and 275 metric tons of CO2 could be saved in a year.

“So, just by turning off the lights in about 20 buildings,” Bloomfield stated in his study, “Cornell could save more than $60,000, and reduce its carbon footprint by almost one percent. Shouldn’t Cornell just be employing undergrads to turn off the lights?”

And we've talked about the fate of the Svenska program before. But the Sun follows-up on its plight:

Godec also mentioned that the termination of both Swedish and Dutch programs will result in a total savings of $90,000 per year — a small amount, Godec maintains, when compared against the $135 million budget deficit that the University faces.

“The budget crisis is very real and I understand that difficult decisions have to be made,” Van Morgan said. “At the same time, these are critical languages that serve numerous constituencies, including faculty and students. In light of this, I hope that the College will reconsider the decision to cancel them.”

Godec also highlighted the importance of Dutch and Swedish as elements that allows Cornell to boast its well-publicized motto of “any person, any study.”

“Dutch and Swedish are not widely taught languages. Only 15 universities in the United States and Canada combined have a Dutch language program,” Godec said.

The elimination of the Cornell Swedish and Dutch language programs will also affect graduate students and faculty whose research utilizes such languages.

Somewhere I know there is just a wealthy Swedish family waiting to endow Cornell's Svenska program.


Matthew Nagowski | October 16, 2009 (#)

The Dangers of Homecoming and Cornell Football

With Homecoming this weekend, football is in the air. The University is taking steps to create some new Homecoming traditions, including a parade of student groups. Apparently, though, University Risk Management outlawed the use of any sort of vehicle -- including cars, trucks, bicycles, and, presumably, hand-pulled wagons. And what is a Homecoming parade without a float?

Meanwhile, the New York Times ran an article last week about Cornell football and the changes it undertook this year to improve their on-field performance. The team took to early-morning ROTC style practices led by a Marine:

“We needed to get tougher as a team,” Rizzo said. “We needed to do some things to make sure everyone who wore a Cornell uniform was fully bought into the program and had made the sacrifice. We just made it harder to be a Cornell football player.

“That part of it comes from my background and experience as a Marine: shared adversity. If you want to make a group tighter, more cohesive and tougher, put them through adversity together.”

So the players dressed at 5:15 a.m., and most of the workouts kicked off at 5:30. The drills, developed by Tom Howley, Cornell’s assistant athletic director for athletes performance, usually lasted less than an hour. The players split into eight groups, mostly by position. Each drill had to be completed perfectly by everyone in the group to move on to the next station. There was also a penalty exercise for failure.

The team is 2 and 2, with losses to Harvard and Colgate. I often wonder how much success on the gridiron depends on coaching and practices versus the quality of recruits. Given Cornell's large, state-school feel with a heterogeneous student body, one would think that Cornell would have a better shot of landing top recruits. Maybe we will win an outright title one-day.

The big concern with football -- other than whether or not we will ever win an outright Ivy title again -- is just how violent of a sport it is -- and how dangerous it can be for a player's long-term health. This week's New Yorker documents Tom McHale, a Cornell and NFL alum, who suffered from "ridiculously abnormal" brain trauma due to repeated football-induced concussions, and ultimately died of substance abuse at the age of 45.

Maybe the University's Risk Management department should be more concerned over what is happening on the field than trying to outlaw Homecoming floats.


Matthew Nagowski | October 13, 2009 (#)

Cornell Wins a Nobel!

Well, sort of. Jack Szostak PhD '77, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, is sharing the Nobel Prize in medicine with two other researchers.

Szostak is a U.S. citizen. He was born in 1952 in London, England, and grew up in Canada. He studied at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he received his doctorate in 1977. He has been at Harvard Medical School since 1979 and is currently professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He also is affiliated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Interesting to note that he earned his PhD in Ithaca and not at the New York City Medical School.


Matthew Nagowski | October 05, 2009 (#)


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