Far, far away in a little-known part of town is Schuyler House — a dormitory near downtown Ithaca that most upperclassmen have never even heard of. Housed in Schuyler is a contingent of students without a dining hall, whose neighbors are local Ithacans, and who trudge 20 minutes uphill every day to get to class. Unfortunately, these students are not upperclassmen, embracing the independent Collegetown lifestyle. Instead, these 110 students are some of the most marginalized of students at Cornell: transfers.

When Kenneth Glover, the veteran Ujamaa housing director, was abruptly reassigned to another dormitory this summer, backlash from the Cornell community reflected overwhelming support for Glover and his community-building initiatives within the residential college. Many saw the move as an attack on Ujamaa, which was established in 1972 to foster and promote black heritage at the University, and the outcry prompted the administration to temporarily reinstate Glover’s position for a year.

In the 1900s, the Cornell student body was housed entirely in fraternities and boarding houses — no real dormitories existed. According to Cornell: Glorious to View, a history of Cornell written by Profs. Carol Kammen and Walter LaFeber, both history, Andrew Dickson White, Cornell’s founder and first president, believed students should board themselves. Clearly times have changed. The Class of 2013 enters Cornell with a plethora of housing options, ranging from traditional residence halls to more specialized program houses. Let’s review some of the facts, figures and follies of the 10 traditional halls:

Balch Hall

Earlier this year Campus Life launched a review of our residential program houses, a process each academic unit experiences every seven years or so and one that Student and Academic Services has adapted for our many units. Just this year, University Health Services and Intercollegiate Athletics completed their accreditation / certification reviews by national organizations. Recently, the Hunter R. Rawlings III Presidential Research Scholar Program, the Prefreshman Summer Program and the Dean of Students Office, to name but a few, went through formal program reviews. Regular reviews are necessary to ensure the quality of the programs and services we offer our students.

When I first arrived at Cornell as a sophomore transfer, I was entirely convinced that the University hated me. I found orientation to be completely disorienting. I was absolutely befuddled as to which orientation activities were for transfers, which were for freshmen and which were for both. I was also thoroughly lost. Weaving around the rampant construction on West Campus, I went through a couple of campus maps as I frantically deciphered building codes trying to find out where on earth the Transfer Center was supposed to be. To make matters worse, the weather was decidedly fickle, and I had yet to discover the wisdom of carrying an umbrella on my person at all times.

The disappointing results of the housing lottery last week stirred deep-rooted concerns about the nature of on-campus housing at Cornell. Even after $225 million were spent on the West Campus Residential Initiative, many students were left unhappy this past week. The University has rightly sought to ensure a meaningful and closely knit campus community, but as the situation stands now, it hasn’t pulled its weight to ensure student satisfaction.