The Duke and Cornell men's basketball teams will face off on Jan. 6 in Durham, N.C. (Photos courtesy of goduke.com and cornellbigred.com.)

College students are more likely to favor sweeping healthcare reform than just about any other group. Sure, we quibble over the finer points of a single payer system versus public-private competition. But common to the editorials and classroom rants of our generation are tall tales of human rights and societal obligations. We have a sense that healthcare is intertwined with moral imperatives. We have a sense that “change” is available, that the path toward nationalized healthcare and a healthy nation is known, if only in need of some clearing.

Our University is entering its 145th year. Our traditions are well-established; our missions and aspirations well understood. Yet, each year, as students graduate and others enter Cornell — as first-year or transfer students or as graduate/professional students — an important turnover occurs that makes Cornell a slightly different place than the year before or any other year. How much different depends on the attributes and dreams of the entering students and how much they want to become involved in the Cornell beyond the classroom, lab and studio. My early experience with the Class of 2013 and this year’s other new students suggests to me that we have an activist and engaged group on the Hill. Let me share some observations and a call to conversation and action.

It’s the final countdown. In less than four weeks, you’ll find yourself standing in the stifling heat in a parking lot on North Campus. Dad will be off parking the car, Mom will be running about trying to find the next available luggage cart, and you, dear freshman, will be one of many, looking lost and confused, surrounded by a barricade of luggage, boxes and things.

But soon enough, Mom and Dad will shed a tear or two and be off, leaving you to face the most exciting four years of your life.

Cornell is an awesome place. Sure, there’s the daily grind of classes, papers and exams. But if there is one thing you take away from this issue of The Sun, may it be this: The academics are only one slice of the pie that makes Cornell so great.

In the face of the current economic downturn and New York’s fiscal woes, President Skorton recently asserted the need to “reconfigure” our beloved Cornell. The time is opportune to rethink how departments and colleges are positioned across East Hill. By doing so, we can not only streamline the University’s budget and cut through the Big Red Tape, but also improve the undergraduate experience and strengthen Cornell’s role as a land-grant institution.

Nowhere is this need greater than in the applied social sciences. Today, applied programs featuring faculty in the fields of economics, psychology, government, business and sociology are found in all three of the undergraduate contract colleges in an inefficient mix of departments and students.