Opinion | Editorial
Finding Transfer Students a Home
September 29, 2009 - 11:00pmFar, 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.
This fall, a little less than 600 transfer students matriculated at Cornell. These students were thrown into college life after most of their peers had already assimilated. Of course, for many transfers, leaving the college they initially enrolled in to come to Cornell was their own choice. But the University must make more of an effort to ensure that these students feel at home here. Providing an on-campus housing community for transfers must be a priority.
Transfer housing has been a cause for concern since 1999, when it was announced that the the Class of ’17 Hall Transfer Center would be demolished to make way for a new and improved West Campus. Transfer students were left out of the West Campus Initiative, however, as it was decided that transfers would be housed in six-person blocks spread throughout in other dorms across campus.
According to a study administered by the Committee on Transfer Affairs, 89.3 percent of students that resided in the Class of ’17 Hall Transfer Center said that having a transfer program where all transfers have the option of living together is “essential.” And while 88 percent of all transfers surveyed reported a "positive" first-year living experience, this number dropped to 36.7 percent when only those who matriculated after the hall was demolished were polled.
For a university that places such an emphasis on the first-year experience, this current housing situation for transfer students is a disgrace. Living on North Campus is formative for many Cornellians, since the insular community makes our large university feel like a smaller and more manageable place for freshmen. Understandably, dormitories on North are overcrowded, and housing all transfer students there is not an option. But creating a transfer student community on West Campus is viable.
Rather than scattering transfer students across North Campus, West Campus, in Collegetown and in Schuyler House, a dormitory or a portion of a dormitory on West Campus should serve as a transfer student program house. While campus housing may say that Schuyler was a step toward creating a community for transfer students, this simply is not the case: it is too far and isolated.
We are grateful that next year, Schuyler House will house non-transfer upperclassmen as opposed to just transfers. But we do not think that blocking small groups of transfer students together among other students goes far enough. We hope that as the University undergoes a massive restructuring, it will consider giving transfer students the community they deserve as new students — the same kind of community all other Cornellians had when they first arrived on the Hill as freshmen.
transfer housing
Amen to that. Thank you, Sun Editors.
That Cornell went forward with the West Campus master plan without regard for transfer housing, while continuing to recruit them actively and knowing well how important their first year experience would be, was utterly shameful. Cornell took advantage of transfers' marginal clout and lack of voice. Let's face it, they factored in their willingness to make any sacrifice just to wear a Cornell shirt. But like any society, Cornell should be judged by how they treated their least powerful members.
Let them not forget that, treated as equals, transfers will becoming among their greatest boosters and promoters, having worked harder and longer to get there. They need to make the most of the 3 years they have, and can least afford to have a shaky start. If treated like outcasts and campus castoffs, they will likely not fully recover their footing, and their undergraduate years will be ever tainted. Does administration think transfers will do disproportionately less well in life and thus care a little less about their alumni feelings and future contributions?
My daughter transfered, and lived off-campus in a little transfer leper colony. She dealt with it. She persevered and has contributed so far to Cornell in her 2 years more than I did in 4. She loves Cornell in spite of how they casually marginalized her. We joke that they should make sweatshirts with pink T's stitched next to the school name, like an asterisk. We are waiting for car decals with the words "Guaranteed Transfer Student" in large college lettering above the smaller word Cornell. As her parents who attended Cornell as freshman, we felt the difference.