Dear Curious Cornellian,
The Andrew White statue outside of Goldwin Smith, given by Henry Ickelheimer '1888 and the work of Karl Bitter, was unveiled in 1915 as White himself looked on.  The Ezra Cornell statue was the work of Hermon Atkins MacNeil, instructor in industrial art here from 1886 to 1889, and was unveiled during the Semi-Centennial Celebration in 1919 by the founder's daughter Mary Cornell. 

Phi Sigma Kappa is rumored to have painted the first footsteps between the two statues in 1936, so they may have more information about why Cornell and White arose from their chairs to shake hands at midnight.  One story goes that if a virgin walks through the quad at midnight, or more specifically October 31, the men will shake hands and congratulate one another on the chastity of the university coeds.

Many schools have stories about statues animating when the first virgin graduates (University of Maryland says their terrapin statue will fly away), a subtle poke at the morals of the times when dorms had live-in "mothers" and curfews.  Whether such legends were started by men to encourage women to "say yes" or whether women may have started the legend to encourage men to drop their judgmental attitude toward women who were sexually active, that may be the real mystery.  You can also look for more information about these stories in some of the Ezra Archives, see Q10 12/9/97, Q2 11/27/90 or Q15 10/22/87.

I have no idea what the new symbols (picnic table) mean, but would love to hear from those in the know!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Factoid,
My name is Uncle Ezra Cornell.  I am standing on the Arts Quad at Cornell University and right now it is raining on me.  I was born on January 11, 1807, which makes me 201 years old.  I hardly went to school since my family needed me to work the land and build our first framed house.  I began writing in my ciphering book on December 23, 1823 starting with simple multiplication tables.  I was a potter, a carpenter, a merchant, and a farmer.  But most important of all, I was a builder... a builder of telegraph lines, a university, and a community.  That community, Cornell University, now spans the globe with a base in Ithaca, NY, a medical school in New York City and Qatar and opportunities abroad in almost any country.  If you are interested in opportunities abroad, be sure to visit the Study Abroad Fair, Wed. April 2, from 11-2 in the WSH Memorial Room.

I was a son, a father and an uncle.  Now I am the caring uncle of all Cornell students, staff, and alumni.  So send me your questions and I will attempt to answer them.  I don't have time to answer every question, so if I don't get to yours, please continue your search by contacting one of the many caring people here at Cornell.  Someone will have the answer.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear DU(D)E Reader,
I love your salutation!  Very clever!  As for your question/comment about the minor entitled “Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies”, it might help to remember that the term “feminist” does NOT refer to women only, but rather to a way of thinking about and interpreting the world that focuses on gender inequality.  (And even saying it in this way is reducing a field of study that is complex and vast to something that sounds simple, which is not what I wish to do.)  There are many men who call themselves “feminists”, and there are a handful of men each year who choose to study this important area of scholarship.  So there is no intent to exclude you or any other man from this field.  The title of the minor acknowledges that there are historical and current differences between the experiences of men and women that are worthy of study.  So in the same way that one doesn’t need to be Russian to study Russian history or African-American to study the Harlem Renaissance, one doesn’t need to be female to study feminism.  I hope you pursue that which truly interests you!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear New Student,
When you are accepted to a college at Cornell, you are accepted to that college and not to any of the other colleges here at Cornell.  Therefore if you want to transfer to the College of Arts and Sciences, you will have to go through the process of transferring, which for Arts and Sciences, will require a personal interview, an application, essay, letters of recommendation from A&S professors and good standing in ILR. 

Your other choice would be to take a year off and apply next year to Arts and Sciences and start as a first year student, but you also run the risk of not being accepted. 

All of the schools at Cornell are "Cornell" and your diploma will say that you graduated from Cornell University.  Cornell, and all of its colleges are part of the Ivy League, which is an athletic conference originally known as the IV League or League number 4.

You've been reading the newspapers and still want to go into investment banking?

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Parent,
A collection of high resolution wallpapers is available from Campus Life at http://campuslife.cornell.edu/home/wallpapers.asp.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Thinking Green,
I wasn't able to find any greenhouses with gardens, as most of them are used for research.  I am fairly certain there are some greenhouses growing plants for other purposes, but the greenhouses are not equipped with comfortable places to sit.  Since they are being used for important experiments I don't think the researchers would like extraneous people in them anyway. 

Once the weather gets better, you might want to consider studying outside - on the arts quad, or in the garden outside of the Plant Sciences building or in the garden between the Straight and Gannett.  There are also so many beautiful places in The Plantations!

If you're willing to venture out as far as the greenhouses, you may want to give Mann Library a try as your studying location.  The library is very open, has a lot of natural light, and a variety of study spaces which are generally not as crowded as the central campus libraries.  There's also a lovely garden behind Mann which may appeal to you when the weather warms.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Dog Trainer,
Unfortunately having a service dog-in-training in the residence halls would not be allowed.  While the Housing office would undoubtedly agree that your endeavors are highly admirable and a definite service to many; the reality is that service dogs would only be allowed for students who actually need that dog's service.

Residence hall rooms are quite small and not very suitable for dogs in general, particularly dogs who are still undergoing any kind of training. The best advice I could give to you is that you would need to live in an apartment off campus where pets are allowed.  You may argue that a service dog is not a pet, which is true, however if it is still in training then it is not really a service dog yet.  It becomes a service dog when it's graduated and moved in with the permanent owner/partner who needs that dog's service.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Curious:
My friends in the Office of Student Disability Services provided this answer for you:

"Yes, there are indeed students on campus who use wheelchairs. However, there are not many, which is why you may not have seen them.  This is my 8th academic year working in Student Disability Services.  In that time there have been at least 2-3 students per year, both undergraduate and graduate, who use wheelchairs and/or power scooters.  This year there are 4 such students.  Occasionally, someone will need to use one on a temporary basis.

"You are right that this is a challenging campus for individuals who use wheelchairs - as it can be for anyone on wheels.  A primary role of Student Disability Services is to ensure that students with disabilities have access to educational programs and services.  For students who use wheelchairs, this may include:  use of CULift, the on-campus paratransit system that provides rides for students with permanent and temporary disabilities to and from classes and activities; relocating classes or activities to accessible venues; adjustable desks in the classroom; on-campus housing that allows for the extra room needed for a wheelchair, lowered bars in the closet and viewer holes in the door, and other similar modifications; and, if they make sense, a bus pass and/or accessible parking."

Thank you for your question.  If you have any other disability-related questions, feel free to contact Student Disability Services at 607-254-4545, or visit their web site at: www.clt.cornell.edu/campus/sds.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Transfer Student,
The best way to find out if there are currently openings in the Language House Program is to contact the Program Director who keeps track of openings at all times.  She is Ma Hongnan and can be reached by phone at (607) 255-6543.  You may also want to contact her via e-mail, her NetID is hm37 (add @cornell.edu to make it an email address).  Good luck with the process!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Environmentalist,
Well, it depends on how you think about it.  Traditional wood pencils use the valuable resource of trees in their manufacture, while mechanical pencils are typically made with plastic tubing that would take FOREVER to degrade when thrown away.  You can usually buy lead refills for mechanical pencils - but they often come in plastic packaging too.  Another alternative is pencils made from recycled paper, denim, or vending cups (like the ones you get when you buy coffee to go).  All have traditional graphite in the middle but have non-traditional materials on the outside.  Two websites that have information about eco-friendly pencils are http://www.epromos.com and http://www.pencilrevolution.com.  So write on!

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Concerned,
You are correct there are two War Memorials on campus.  One is part of the Gothics complex on West Campus (Lyon Hall tower and the connecting stone archway) and the second is in the entryway of Anabel Taylor Hall.  While the one in Anabel Taylor was originally erected to honor WWII vets, commemorations for vets of the Korean and Vietnam wars were later added to it.  So I encourage you to go check it out again and look carefully for the plaques that acknowledge all of these soldiers.  It will be interesting to see how the Cornell community decides to honor vets from our most current conflict in the Middle East.

Uncle Ezra   

Dear Saver,
No, Cornell retail locations do not accept manufacturers coupons.  One of the Dining managers explained to Uncle Ezra that companies who accept coupons need to belong to a clearinghouse to redeem them.  This works well for businesses that receive thousands of coupons a day, but Cornell is simply too small and would collect too few for it to be worthwhile on either side of the business equation.

Uncle Ezra