North Campus

From CUWiki

North Campus Balch Hall and Clara Dickson Hall from the roof of program house Risley Hall

North Campus is an area of Cornell University bounded roughly by Fall Creek Gorge to the south, Pleasant Grove Road to the east, A Lot and Jessup Fields to the north, and Triphammer Road to the west. Some extend this boundary towards Stewart Avenue to include fraternity and sorority houses as well. North Campus has no academic buildings, excepting a few classrooms within dormitories. It is home to all of Cornell's freshmen-only residence halls. In addition, North Campus also has a number of program houses open to all undergraduate students, three cafeteria-style dining halls, two common buildings, two fitness centers, and plenty of recreational facilities such as multipurpose fields, tennis courts, and basketball courts. North Campus is served by multiple TCAT routes, allowing residents easy access to Central and West Campus, as well as Collegetown, Ithaca, and its vicinity.

[edit] Living

[edit] Traditional Residence Halls

Entering freshmen at Cornell are assigned to any one of the 12 traditional residence halls on North Campus. This first year placement within North Campus university housing is generally required. All of the traditional North Campus residence halls, with the exception of Balch Hall, are co-ed and feature single, double, triple, and some quad rooms. Students also have a choice of living in traditional halls or suite-style arragements. Balch differs from other traditional freshman halls as North Campus's only exclusively female residence hall. Each traditional residence hall has numerous Resident Advisors staffing each floor as well as a Residence Hall Director who oversees the entire building. All residence halls also feature on-site laundry facilites and programs catered to the residents of each hall.

The residence halls on North Campus include Balch, Clara Dickson, Mary Donlon, Court, Kay, Bauer, Mews, George Jameson, High-Rise 5, Low-Rise 6, Low-Rise 7, and the Townhouse Community. While each hall allows freshmen participate in the "college experience", the residence halls each have their own unique attributes. The suite-style living in Jameson, High-Rise 5, and the Low-Rises can lead to a lack of interaction between the floors. These dorms were subject to a November 2007 student petition regarding living conditions not being equal to surrounding residence halls.[1] Students living in Dickson or Donlon are provided with more open communal space. The Court-Kay-Bauer complex and Mews are the newest dorms, opening in 2000-2001. They offer a high standard of living for freshman on North Campus, including air conditioning in the warmer summer months. Students living in the Townhouses enjoy apartment style living and less RA interaction.

[edit] Program Houses

In addition to traditional residence halls, North Campus also features a variety of different program houses that are open to all undergraduates regardless of class year. Program houses usually require students to submit an application for housing in addition to fulfilling regular housing requirements. The program houes include Risley Residential College (arts-themed), Latino Living Center, Ujaama (Black history), Just About Music (JAM), Holland International Living Center (HILC), and Akwe:kon (Native-American). Another program house, the Ecology House, is located just a short walk north of the North Campus area.

[edit] Fraternities and Sororities

While not part of the university-definied North Campus, many of Cornell's fraternities and sororities are relatively close to North Campus Residence Halls. Fraternities include Zeta Psi, Alpha Gamma Rho, Tau Kappa Epsilon, Tau Epsilon Phi, Kappa Delta Rho, Acacia, Beta Theta Pi, Pi Kappa Phi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Chi, Phi Kappa Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Zeta Beta Tau, Sigma Chi, Sigma Alpha Mu, Seal and Serpent, Sigma Chi Delta, and Alpha Zeta. Sororities include Kappa Delta, Pi Beta Phi, Delta Gamma, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Alpha Phi, Alpha Chi Omega, Sigma Delta Tau, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Epsilon Phi, and Alpha Xi Delta. In addition, Pi Delta Psi, one of Cornell's Asian-interest fraternities, has its house adjacent to North Campus.

[edit] Graduate Student Housing

Graduate Students can choose to live on North in the Hasbrouck Apartments. While technically not part of North Campus proper, Hasbrouck is very close to many North Campus services as it lies just across Pleasant Grove Road. In addition, Hasbrouck Apartments are currently being used to house transfer students as well in repsonse to the closure of the Transfer Center last year.

[edit] Student Centers

North Campus also features three student centers. The Robert Purcell Community Center (RPCC) is located adjacent to Jameson Hall and features a cafeteria as well as a convenience store, sandwich shop, study rooms, a multipurpose room, mailboxes, recreation, and a computer lab. RPCC also has ATMs and a student information desk to help with residence hall administrative needs. Appel Commons, located just past Mews Hall, has similar amenities, but also features a coffee shop and cafe as well as a fitness center. The Carol Tatkon Center, incorporated into Balch Hall, offers a café, study center, and teaching resources.

[edit] Recreation and Fitness

North Campus is also marked by its plentiful recreation and fitness facilities. Most notable is Helen Newman Hall, a full-service gym and recreation center featuring a fully operational fitness center, basketball gyms, a swimming pool, recreation rooms, and a sixteen-lane bowling alley. Additionally, there is another fitness center in Appel, albeit much smaller (but much newer) than Helen Newman. Also, there are many recreational facilities located in and around the North Campus area, such as soccer fields, basketball courts, the Jessup Fields, and the Class of '82 Frisbee Golf Course located just north of the A Lot.

[edit] Parking and Transportation

Parking on North Campus is not hard to find, but often students and visitors find it hard to park during certain time restrictions and regulations. North Campus is served primarily by the A Lot, CC Lot, and Appel Lot. Additional limited parking is also available in the Donlon Circle, by Helen Newman Hall, by RPCC, by Risley, behind the Low-Rise residence Halls, and behind the LLC. Street parking is also available on Thurston Avenue. North Campus is also well served by TCAT, with major stops being located outside Risley, RPCC, and the A Lot.

[edit] External Links

• Cornell North Campus on Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
• First Year Student Housing