Election Day is almost a month behind us and a healthy majority of the country has been celebrating the victory of President-Elect Barack Obama. Though a large number of people went to the polls November 4th, many still did not. For those Cornell students who used the excuse "my vote doesn't count in liberal Ithaca, New York" — you were wrong. Alma Aldrich tells us why.

Mary Tomlan, an alderperson who sits on Ithaca's Common Council as a representative of the Third Ward, gives us an introduction to the Collegetown Vision Statement--what it is, how it came about and why it is relevant and important to students, the University and those residing in nearby neighborhoods.

Kevin Casey McAvey, the new Executive Director of the Upstate Foundation and a grad student here at Cornell, gives us his take on Upstate New York's "brain drain"--the devastating phenomenon that the next generation born in Upstate is simply not sticking around to contribute to its economy, an issue that he has dedicated his life to studying the causes and cure of.

Alma Aldrich, a junior Collegetown resident, talks about her struggle to find parking in Collegetown. Her innocent mistake in parking on a residential street was met with tension and an unpleasant warning from the Orchard Place Association. Situations such as this cause her to call into question certain proposals outlined in the Collegetown Master Plan.

What is Cornell's context? Do we look at our beloved institution as part of the larger Ithaca community? The Upstate New York region? Or is it an Ivy transplanted to the middle of nowhere? Is Cornell a bubble, or is it an integrated part of the surrounding city? This blog will delve into the relationship between the University and its surrounding city one issue at a time, with contributions from four experts with very different point-of-views.