Op-Ed
Favorite Cornell Founder: Ezra Cornell or A.D. White?
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The thousands of students and faculty who have passed through Cornell’s doors, 12 presidents and two co-founders have shaped the University into the institution it is today. While it is undeniable that both Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White have left lasting legacies at Cornell, it is Ezra’s forward thinking that I most admire.
Ezra Cornell came from a humble farming background and this likely influenced his desire to give back to the community. When he was 19, he left home to find work, ended up in the Ithaca area and married Mary Ann Wood. As their family began to grow, Ezra traveled away from Ithaca to find work. In 1843, he took a job in Maine and developed a machine that would dig ditches to lay pipes containing telegraph wire. However, while working this job, the owner of the company discovered that the wire was defective and would not send telegraphs. When asked if he could fix the problem, Ezra used resources available to him from the Library of Congress to learn about electricity; ultimately, he developed a working telegraph wire.
As a pioneer in telegraph development, Ezra became a very rich man. However, instead of spending the money entirely on himself, he used his money to do “the most good.”
With A.D. White as his partner, the two set out to create a land-grant university to educate the people of New York and Ezra continued his mission to “do good” in the world. After a hard fought battle in the state Senate, the co-founders were awarded the Morrill Land Grant. Ezra coupled part of his telegraph fortune with the money from the land grant to fund the founding of the University. Where’s your checkbook, A.D?
Both Cornell and White built off of the requirements stipulated by New York, and created an institution that “expands from an Agricultural College to a university of the first magnitude.” The co-founders had ideas for the university that were largely unprecedented. In particular, Ezra’s attitude towards coeducation was light-years ahead of policies in place at other universities on the East Coast. At the university’s inauguration, Ezra spoke to an audience saying that he believed he and White had “made the beginning of an institution which [would] prove highly beneficial to the poor young men and poor young women of our country.” While it is important to note women without state scholarships were denied entrance to Cornell during the first four academic years, Ezra’s timely response to this injustice is, in retrospect, even more significant.
To Lucy Washburn, who was denied admittance in 1869, Ezra wrote, “I hope to see a thousand young women educated at this university … but I don’t want the young women forced upon us before we are prepared to make a success of it.” Though White was also a proponent of coeducation, he felt that a university education would “enable women to wield religion, morality and common sense against [the] burdensome perversion of her love for the beautiful.” I’m not sure this is the best reason to send women to school, A.D. Nonetheless, in 1872, both Ezra and A.D. convinced the Board of Trustees to create an admission policy not based on gender, and the university officially opened its doors to women.
At home, Ezra also showed his commitment to women in education. He encouraged his daughter to attend Vassar College in 1866, and shortly after Cornell was founded, he sent a letter to his granddaughter. He wrote, “I want to have girls educated in the university as well as boys, so that they may have the same opportunity to become wise and useful to society that boys have.” Half a century before women had the right to vote, Ezra gave them the right to learn alongside their male peers. Thanks, Ezra!
The learning environment that Ezra created for women has lived on through many generations of Cornellians. I spent last fall in our nation’s capital, and while there, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg ’54 speak. When asked about her favorite memory of her time on the Hill, she replied Cornell was where she met her husband and that he was the first man who appreciated her for having a brain.
Ezra’s progressive outlook on coeducation was coupled with his attitude that “any person” could “find instruction in any study.” To those students who could not afford the $20 tuition fee per year (what a deal!), Ezra ensured that there would be work opportunities for them to pay their own ways at Cornell.
Going along with the “any person any study” theme, the University had many international students in its first class. Furthermore, though racial tensions ran deep in the post-Civil War era, there was nothing in Cornell’s admissions policy that prevented black students from attending the university. Finally, Ezra also ensured that there was religious freedom at his university and as a result, chose not to affiliate Cornell with any religious institution. (After all, he had been excommunicated from the Society of Friends for marrying “outside of meeting.”)
Lastly, we have Ezra to thank for our beautiful campus and our location in Ithaca. Much of today’s campus was part of Forest Home (Ezra’s farm), as Ezra insisted that the University be founded in Ithaca. I know what you’re thinking, but A.D.’s suggestion was to found the university in Syracuse. I’ll take Ithaca’s gorges over Carousel Mall any day.
And sure, there are a number of less serious reasons that Cornell trumps A.D. White; after all, we do go to Cornell University. Chanting “Let’s go, White” at hockey games just doesn’t have the same ring as “Let’s go, Red,” and I’m glad my hoodie sweatshirt doesn’t say White University on it. Finally, let’s be real; Ezra has a seriously hot goatee. So bring it on, A.D.
Sarah Olesiuk is a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She can be contacted at solesiuk@cornellsun.com. Archive This! appears alternate Fridays.