My Peter Pan complex was in full force this winter break. As a senior I am in complete denial that many of my peers are already yuppies. While I was home in the city I tried very much in vain to convince my friends to only frequent college hangouts. In the past I relished the change of scenery from C-town’s J.O.’s and the Palms. Tired of the Meatpacking District, I spent a considerable amount of time in Columbia’s Morningside Heights and NYU’s Greenwich Village. Surprisingly, it took until this semester break for me to start looking at New York City as a college town. The recognition of a large urban area as a potential melting pot of higher learning led me to consider Ithaca as a college town, too.

This is by no means an original thought. Ithaca is in fact a college town (just check Wikipedia if you don’t believe me). Urban planners often compare Ithaca to other beautiful progressive college towns like Burlington, Vt. or Boulder, Colo. However, as a Manhattanite, I wanted to see what we can learn about Ithaca by means of comparison to NYC’s educational landscape. Let’s be clear here, I am not refering to Collegetown in particular, but to Ithaca in general as a college town. As we are well aware, we are not the only game in town. Ithaca is host to Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College as well. Even though TC3’s main campus is in Dryden, it is only a stone’s throw of 11 miles away.

My search for nightlife might have inspired this thought exercise, but there is more to the Cornell-I.C. Columbia-NYU comparison than meets the eye. Like Cornell, Columbia is an Ivy that has a relatively green campus and an insular social scene with dependence on Greek life. NYU and I.C., on the other hand, are pricey concrete jungles without their own bar scenes — I.C. kids frequent the Commons and NYU students have even invaded Williamsburg. Cornell and Columbia are renowned for their academic prestige, while I.C. and NYU have great arts programs that respectively outrank their Ivy counterparts in music and film. NYU and I.C. students alike are known for working in their nearby off-campus neighborhoods while Cornell and Columbia students tend to stick to their own much more. Unfortunately, this translates into the local perception that Cornell and Columbia students are separate from their community fabrics, existing more as visitors to an educational enclave.

While it is wonderful that Cornell and I.C. are strong academic institutions bringing economic, social and cultural vibrancy to Ithaca, let us not forget TC3. According to its website, TC3 has approximately 3,000 enrolled students. Without exact information, I would venture to guess that many of them are local commuter students. They are high school graduates, some of whom are earning degrees in practical areas of study not offered by Cornell, like recreation leadership or computer forensics, while others are in more general programs that are preparing them to continue on to a four-year university. Alas, an e-mail to the Cornell Admissions Office requesting information about transfers from TC3 to Cornell went unanswered (to be fair I only sent it a few days ago). However, the TC3 website proudly proclaims that recent graduates of the Liberal Arts and Sciences-General Studies Degree Program have transferred to Cornell. This is fantastic news!

A column I wrote last semester urged Cornell’s Undergraduate Admissions Office to increase its recruitment and acceptance of upstate high school seniors like those that attend Ithaca High (the Little Red). However, I unfortunately forgot to consider TC3 as another potential pool. Yes, I know a recent blog on the Sun website has detailed that applications are up and the admissions process is becoming increasingly selective, but that does not mean we can afford to ignore TC3 students. These students have the commitment and wherewithal to encourage sustainable economic and community development in our beloved Ithaca. Unlike many of us who are unabashedly preparing to bounce out of here the moment we take off our caps and gowns, locals are more likely to stay and develop commercial and cultural institutions. How great did we think it was when a hotelie bought Dino’s? Now imagine how great it would be if all our favorite stores, restaurants and local businesses were owned and run by Cornell alums, having received a top education, dedicated to both their own and Ithaca’s economic success.

In addition to bringing more TC3 students to campus we should consider sending some of Cornell to TC3. And no, I do not mean those of us looking for an easy way to fulfill our distribution requirements. Another possibility for greater interscholastic integration would be to offer, or even require that, our graduate students fulfill part of their teaching or TAing requirements at TC3.

I must admit I am making these suggestions blindly without researching if this would be of interest to TC3. But my uninformed postulating, a hard but worthwhile habit to break, is another hard part of growing up I am struggling with.