The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/willard-straight/)
Though students today might associate Willard Straight Hall with COVID-19 surveillance testing or free popcorn, the hall has a rich history of student engagement and political expression.
On the Friday that began Family Weekend, students, employees and alumni from various campus groups rallied for free public transportation and more resources for low-income students among other concerns.
et it was never just the snack that made the days of the students in Willard Straight. It was also the brief conversation with a stranger, either someone waiting in line alongside you, or the person serving you your popcorn, fit with toppings galore. There was a kindness and unity felt through the shared experience of bonding over free popcorn. Students long for this sort of camaraderie and simple pleasure.
In the basement of Willard Straight there’s a little movie theater. It’s clearly old, the seats are well worn and squeaky. The fading paint on the walls has several famous quotes, most of which I can’t quite recognize, except for Shakespeare and one in Latin. The lights are a fading yellow dim, in a way that would be creepy if it didn’t match the rest of the place so well. There’s something compelling about the quaint little theater; it’s one of those hidden gems of Cornell.
As a senior only a month and a half from graduating, I knew we had a cinema, but I had never actually been before this semester. I just never had a reason to go, and so I never actually took advantage of the opportunity.
In the days leading up to Halloween, visitors to Willard Straight Hall’s lobby may have noticed pumpkins for sale that looked, well, familiar: Radiant orange, and topped with a distinctive blonde hair combover, the miniature pumpkins bore a resemblance to President Donald Trump.
Once again, the Straight Edge will host its rooftop Pop-Up beginning on this upcoming Monday, April 29, with events every afternoon and evening through Friday, May 3.
The first College of Architecture Day — as it was originally called — was held on St. Patrick’s Day in 1901.
The project began a year ago and stemmed from the realization that “our campus lacks a true programmed community space,” said Daniel Correa ’19.
Video footage taken last weekend shows that Nazaire attended an Omega Psi Phi party hosted in Willard Straight Hall in the hours before he was killed.