The story of Willard Straight Hall is by no means straightforward.
At its grand opening in 1925, the Straight was located in the far west corner of the campus, but today it lays nestled at the epicenter of Cornell. In 1925, the Straight was intended to be an open forum for students and faculty to discuss any range of topics over a meal, the embodiment of a concept rarely found in American colleges at the time. Today, it houses the Student Assembly and administrative offices geared toward student activities, among other student organizations, and is arguably one of the most frequently visited buildings by Cornellians.
How did the Straight transform itself from a simple medium for open discussion to become what is today’s central headquarters for student activities and life? The Straight, fulfilling its purpose, is intricately tied with the student body, and thus has evolved to conform to the ever-changing demands and needs of Cornell students. For 80 years, the Straight has been an indispensable cornerstone of student life, whether it is providing the Memorial Room for the weekly meetings of the Student Assembly or providing a booth to sell tens of thousands of tickets for a live show with Jon Stewart.
In the summer of 1922, Dorothy Whitney Straight, the widow of Willard Straight 1901, donated the estate of her late husband, along with $500,000 of her own wealth, to fund the construction of Willard Straight Hall.
Willard Straight was a successful diplomat, journalist, and artist who gained international renown when he successfully negotiated a $300 million loan agreement between China, France, Germany, England and the United States.
The dedication of an entire building to the non-academic and leisure needs of students was a new and exciting concept in the United States. It would be one of the first student unions in the nation.
“It is my hope that Willard Straight Hall will provide a place where students may hammer out together their social faiths, their religious creeds, their philosophies, their political beliefs, their own roads to freedom,” Mrs. Straight said at the dedication ceremony on Dec. 13, 1925. “We trust those faiths and fears, those hopes and doubts, may be built into the very bone and structure of this building.”
The Sun reported on November 18, 1925 that Foster Coffin ’12 was appointed its director at the hall’s opening. It was decided that an undergraduate board would govern the Straight, headed by a graduate director in addition to a board of administrators. Each undergraduate student paid a fee to become members of the Straight, while other members of the University could pay a higher fee to take advantage of the Straight’s activities and offerings. The spacious meeting rooms, the game rooms, the theater and other features of the building, many of which did not exist on campus before, evoked many compliments at its opening. It was designed by a renowned architect of the time, William Adams Delano.
“They did a lot of thinking when they built that building. You still see some union buildings without all those facilities, built for much more utilitarian purposes,” said J. Kent McCrimmon, program director of University unions back in 1967, as reported by The Sun.
Straight’s younger son, Michael Straight, oversaw the development of the art gallery on display throughout the building, a collection that was launched in 1958. Michael spent several years on the lookout for special works of art and would, upon a Straight committee’s approval, purchase them for the Straight. Early in his search for artwork, Michael sent requests to prominent art collectors in New York for donations to expand the hall’s collection. At one point, Nelson Rockefeller sent a painting called “Nocturne” by an artist named Ben Shahn, with a message stating, “It’s a very good idea putting fine art where students can experience it every day.” From 1969 to 1978, Michael served as deputy director of the National Endowment for the Arts and continued his search to fill the Straight with spectacular paintings and sculptures.
The University Theatre was also one of the most unique and notable aspects of the student union. Prof. Alexander Drummond, English, supervised and directed theatre operations for nearly 45 years since the opening of the Straight. In June of 1925, The Dramatic Club and the Women’s Dramatic Club merged into the Cornell Dramatic Club, which was a “complete recognition of the equality of men and women,” Drummond said. The Cornell Dramatic Club had a history of staging nearly 50 performances a year, and Cornellians and Ithaca residents alike enjoyed its shows. The theatre staged its last play in April 1988. Plays have not been permitted there since the University decided to hold classes in there in July 1989 due to limited classroom space on campus. Today, it is used by Cornell Cinema to show films.
In the 1950s, certain student committees housed in the Straight were redesigned to be directed especially toward women. Fashion shows and beauty clinics were introduced and a Tea and Social committee was formed to encourage the participation of female Cornellians.
E.B. White ’21, former editor-in-chief of The Sun, described the advantages of the Straight: “Before Willard Straight Hall was erected as a pleasance for the independent students, there was a disadvantage in not belonging to a fraternity … Willard Straight Hall now offers all the comforts of home to everybody, and the fraternities are beginning to feel the way speakeasies felt after repeal: that there is nothing to be exclusive about any more.”
On November 18, 1975, the Straight celebrated its 50th birthday with a three-tiered cake that served over a thousand attendees and an ice cream parlor that charged 1925 prices.
Throughout the years, the advantages of the Straight and student unions in general became increasingly clear to the University. In 1967, the Noyes Center opened to accommodate the expanding western part of campus, at the cost of $2.6 million. McCrimmon explained the goals of Noyes to The Sun: “It’s part of a trend to create ‘sections’ of the University – to make it a smaller, more easily understood place.”
“Noyes Center will handsomely supplement the facilities of the 42-year-old Willard Straight Hall, which has recently become overcrowded,” stated an information booklet introducing the center.
With the continued expansion of North Campus, the University added yet another student union: the Robert Purcell Union, dedicated on June 11, 1982. It became a meeting place for thousands, serving up to 2000 meals a day, and hosting 80 conferences a year. For a while it also housed the university cooperative nursery school, workshop facilities for glasswork, woodworking, leather, metal, batik and other media. The Robert Purcell Union Council served the residents of North Campus.
More recently, in the summer of 2001, Appel Commons opened as the second student union building on North Campus, also to accommodate freshmen. The Robert Purcell Union was renamed the Robert Purcell Community Center, and Noyes was renamed the Noyes Community Center.
Has the Straight achieved what Dorothy Whitney Straight hoped it would? The answer lies in each student’s perspective of the Straight’s role during their time at Cornell.
“Because human relationships opened new worlds to Willard Straight, it is our hope that the Union may recreate life in these terms for others,” Mrs. Straight said. “In that faith, … we present the building to the University, to be guided and governed by students, and made by them, through their own adventures of spirit here, into an instrument for the illumination and enhancement of personal and social living.”