Undergraduate Student Access - Cornell University Division of ...

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UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ACCESSINTRODUCTIONIn the August 15, 1868 edition of the New York Tribune,there appeared a letter to the editor entitled “ACard from Mr. Cornell—How a Poor Boy Can Pay forHis Education.” Here Ezra Cornell laid out his visionof how a third financial strut would be added totwo he had already crafted to support a new kind ofuniversity that would extend higher education to thenation’s working classes. The first two underpinningswere (a) the assignment to Cornell University of NewYork State’s portion of the proceeds from the recentlypassed Morrill Land Grant and (b) Ezra Cornell’s gift ofa substantial endowment. Cornell knew that the combinationof land-grant revenues and endowment giftswould not suffice to build and operate a new university.Whether or not students paid the minimal tuition(some received scholarships that covered that expense),they would incur room, board, transportation,and other costs in coming to Ithaca to study. Givensuch expenses, would working-class parents, especiallythose who had no personal or familial experiencewith higher education, even consider the feasibility ordesirability of sending their sons off to college?According to Morris Bishop, the university’s initialenrollment had concerned Cornell. “One enormousuncertainty hovered over every decision. How manystudents would appear on the opening day? Toomany? Or too few? Fearing, perhaps, that there wouldbe too few, Cornell wrote [his] letter…” If that wasEzra Cornell’s concern, he need not have been so worried.The letter (which was widely reprinted in othernewspapers of the day) unleashed a flood of “sometwo thousand letters…mostly from totally unqualifiedyoung men or from their impecunious parents, whorecognized that to obtain a college education whileworking a quarter as hard as the Founder was a rarebargain,” and the university succeeded in enrolling412 students on its opening day. Carl Becker observedthat this represented “…the largest entering class everadmitted to any American college up to that time…more than twice as many as could be provided withlodging…and more than three times as many as couldbe conveniently taught in the class rooms available.”Thus was the university launched, grappling withchallenges of enrollment management, recruitment,admissions standards, and financial aid that are asgermane in 2005 as they were in 1868.THE CORNELL UNIVERSITY.A CARD FROM MR. CORNELL—HOW A POOR BOYCAN PAY FOR HIS EDUCATION.TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRIBUNE.SIR: The numerous appeals which I am receiving fromyoung men for assistance to enable them to pay their way whileobtaining an education at the Cornell University, impel me toreply through The Tribune. I would inform all who may desirethe information that, in organizing the University, the trusteesaimed to arrange a system of manual labor which, while itwould be compulsory upon none, would furnish all the studentsof the University with the opportunity to develop theirphysical strength and vigor by labor, the fair compensationfor which would pay the expenses of their education. Studentswill be employed in cultivating and raising, on a farm of 300acres, the various productions best suited to furnish the collegetables. These will include livestock for producing milk, butter,and cheese, and to be killed for meat; grain for bread, andvegetables and fruits of all kinds suited to the climate and soil.Mechanical employment will be given to all in the machineshop of the University. This will be equipped with anengine of 25 horse power, lathes, planing-machines for ironand wood, and all the most improved implements and toolsfor working in iron and wood. Here they will manufacturetools, machinery, models, patterns, &c. The erection of theadditional buildings required for the University will furnishemployment for years to students in need of it. Therewill also be employment inlaying out, grading, road-making,and improving and beautifying the farm and groundsof the University. The work done by students will be paidfor at the current rates paid elsewhere for like services.The work will be done under the supervision of the professors,and competent superintendents and foremen. Itwill be the constant aim of the trustees and faculty of theUniversity to render it as attractive and instructive as possible,and especially to make it conductive to the health,growth, and physical vigor of the students, besides affordingthem the means of self-support and independence,while receiving all the advantages of the University.With such combined facilities for instruction and maintenance,all the expenses of a first-class faculty and of tuitionbeing paid by the endowment, I trust that no person who earnestlydesires to be thoroughly educated will find difficulty inbecoming so by his own exertions at the Cornell University.We already have students who entered three months in advanceof the opening of the University, to avail themselves ofthe opportunity to earn two dollars per day “through haying andharvest, and thus make a sure thing of it.” Such boys will get aneducation, and will make their mark in the world in the use of it.In conclusion, I will assure the boys that if they will performone-fourth as much labor as I did at their ages, or as Ido now at 60 years of age, they will find no difficulty in payingtheir expenses while prosecuting their studies at Ithaca.Yours respectfully, EZRA CORNELL.Ithaca, N. Y., August 10, 1868.New York Tribune, August 15, 1868, page 41
POLICIES OF FAIRNESSWho gets access to a Cornell education?—and onwhat terms?—remain questions of great importance,and the approaches that the university has employedto answer them constitute policies of fairness thatare fundamental to the institution’s character. Theuniversity’s current admissions and financial-aidpolicy (see box at right) is a modern interpretation ofideas and ideals espoused by Cornell’s founders. EzraCornell’s famous motto—“I would found an institutionwhere any person can find instruction in any study”(which was probably polished by Andrew D. White † )—addressed student access directly by stating that anyperson should be able to attend. The motto is best understoodas a bold declaration that higher educationshould be open to the poor, to women, to people ofall races and ethnicities, and to individuals of variousreligious and moral persuasions. These were radicalnotions in an era when most colleges and universitieswere loosely affiliated with Christian denominations,and only a handful admitted women or minoritystudents or provided need-based financial aid of anyconsequence. Both Cornell and White were convincedthat the nation’s progress depended on such a socialtransformation. But simply stating that any person (i.e.,without artificial limitation) should be able to attendthe university does not imply that every person can.Not every applicant is adequately prepared or capableof taking up the rigorous course of study offered byan institution like Cornell. Even if all applicants wereequally prepared and capable, the institution is limitedin the number of students it can accommodate.Obviously, a process to sort and select applicants mustoccur to produce a class that is academically superiorand yet representative of the “any person” conceptthat is at the university’s heart.Imperatives in Law and ActionWhile a variety of laws shaped the university’s creationand continue to guide its operation, two statutes—theMorrill Land-Grant Act and the university’scharter—had a profound impact on student access.† Morris Bishop suggested that “White liked to improve, forpublication, the utterances of his rude companions. PossiblyCornell actually said something like: ‘I’d like to start aschool where anybody can study anything he’s a mind to.’”Cornell Admissions/Financial-Aid PolicyCornell University makes admissions decisions without regardto the ability of students or parents to pay educationalcosts. Students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residentsand who demonstrate financial need will be assisted inmeeting that need through one or more of the following:federal and state grants, employment opportunities, loans,The Cornell Commitment programs, scholarships fromendowments and restricted funds, and Cornell grants.Annual adjustments will be made in self-help and familycontribution levels.Cornell will continue its commitment to excellence anddiversity in the student population. Self-help levels forindividual students may reflect the University’s recognitionof outstanding merit, unique talent, commitment to workand community service, and its commitment to diversityin the class.– Adopted by the Cornell University Board of TrusteesMarch 1998The land-grant act stated that the monies realizedfrom the sale of federal land had to be used to “promotethe liberal and practical education of the industrialclasses in the several pursuits and professions inlife.” This act encouraged the states to create or expandinstitutions of higher education that would servethe population at large, not just the elite, providinginstruction that had practical value. The law did notdictate how these monies were to be applied, otherthan to proscribe their use in the “purchase, erection,preservation, or repair of any building or buildings.”While the act attempted to address America’s socioeconomicdisparities, it was basically silent on issuesof gender, racial, and religious inequality.Cornell University’s New York State charter, authoredby Cornell and White in their roles as state legislators,expanded the framework of the land-grant mandateby defining more fully how privilege and wealth wereto be excluded from the admissions process.§ 9. The several departments of study in the said universityshall be open to applicants for admission thereto at thelowest rates of expense consistent with its welfare and efficiency,and without distinction as to rank, class, previousoccupation or locality.The charter initiated a system of scholarships thatwere to be awarded to New York State residents, providingthe university’s first form of overt financial aid.§ 9. (continued) But with a view to equalize its advantagesto all parts of the State, the institution shall annuallyreceive students, one from each assembly district of theState, to be selected as hereinafter provided, and shall give2
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