Sage Residential College
Encyclopedia
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Ithaca
Ithaca
Ithaca or Ithaka is an island located in the Ionian Sea, in Greece, with an area of and a little more than three thousand inhabitants. It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit. It lies off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
campus. It was originally designed to be a residential building, however, currently it houses the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Its design was based upon that of the Dinosaur Hall at Oxford University's Museum of Natural History
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the...
.
Conception
Henry W. Sage
Henry W. Sage was a wealthy New York State businessman, philanthropist, and early benefactor and trustee of Cornell University....
, to advance a revolutionary concept at the time. "When you are ready to carry out the idea of educating young women as thoroughly as young men," Sage told his friend, Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell was an American businessman and education administrator. He was a founder of Western Union and a co-founder of Cornell University...
in 1868, "I will provide the endowment to enable you to do so." Although women had previously enrolled in Cornell as early as 1870, the absence of a women's domitory was problematic in attracting and retaining female students. Sage and Andrew Dickson White toured Oberlin College to study the facilities necessary for successful coeducation.
With Sage's $250,000 donation, construction started four years later under the guidance of professor of architecture Charles Babcock
Charles Babcock
Charles Babcock was a United States architect, academic, Episcopal priest and founding member of the American Institute of Architects....
. In 1875, Sage College welcomed 25 female students, making the university a pioneer in coeducation and attracting a swarm of applications. Early graduates included two college presidents, Julia Josephine Thomas Irvine (Wellesley) and Martha Carey Thomas (Bryn Mawr); a prominent women's suffragist, Harriet May Mills; a publisher and author, Ruth Putnam; and the noted Cornell professor and scientist, Anna Botsford Comstock
Anna Botsford Comstock
Anna Botsford Comstock , was a US artist, educator, conservationist, and a leader of the nature study movement, born in Otto, New York, to Marvin and Phebe Irish Botsford....
.
Facilities
When the building opened, it offered some of the most luxurious accommodations of any college dormitory in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Residents had access to a swimming pool, gym, botanical conservatory, indoor plumbing, and luscious furnishings. Additionally, the building contained features that defined it as a residential college
Residential college
A residential college is an organisational pattern for a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship with the overall...
as opposed to a traditional dormitory
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
such as a dining hall, classrooms, a library, and professorial offices. It had the ability to house up to 120 students.
Later years
Between April 1996 and August 1998, the university untertook a massive renovation of Sage Hall, at the cost of $38 million, to convert the building into the new home for the Johnson Graduate School of Management. The top segment of the building's iconic spire that had been removed years before was rebuilt. A glass ceiling was constructed over the inner courtyard changing it into an atrium. The design of that space was influenced by "Dinosaur Hall" at the Oxford University Museum of Natural HistoryOxford University Museum of Natural History
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the...
. Interestingly, Babcock's original design of Sage Hall had been influenced by that same museum's design.
Cornerstone letter regarding nonsectarianism
Ezra CornellEzra Cornell
Ezra Cornell was an American businessman and education administrator. He was a founder of Western Union and a co-founder of Cornell University...
was a birthright Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
, but was later disowned by the Society of Friends for marrying outside of the faith to a "world's woman," a Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
by the name of Mary Ann Wood. Ezra and Mary Ann were married March 19, 1831, in Dryden, New York
Dryden (village), New York
Dryden is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 1,832 at the 2000 census. The name was assigned by a clerk interested in the classics to honor John Dryden, poet and playwright....
.
On February 24, 1832, a disheartened Ezra Cornell wrote the following response to his expulsion from The Society of Friends due to his marriage to Mary Ann Wood:
"I have always considered that choosing a companion for life was a very important affair and that my happiness or misery in this life depended on the choice…"
There is a reason why this nation was founded on the principle of separation of Church and State. Religion and politics are immiscible as oil and water.
Ezra Cornell felt the same way about his university. What Professors Isaac Kramnick and Laurence Moore have shown to be a "Godless Constitution" is mirrored in the phrase religious conservatives used to describe this university in its early years: they called it "Godless Cornell."
In 1873, the cornerstone of Sage Hall was laid. This new hall was to house the Sage College for Women and thus to concretely establish Cornell University's coeducational status. Ezra Cornell wrote a letter for posterity—dated 15 May, 1873—and sealed it into the cornerstone. No copies of the letter were made, and Cornell kept its contents a secret. However, he hinted at the theme of the letter during his speech at the dedication of Sage Hall, stating that "the letter deposited in the cornerstone addressed to the future man and woman, of which I have kept no copy, will relate to future generations the cause of the failure of this experiment, if it ever does fail, as I trust in God it never will."
Cornell historians largely assumed that the "experiment" to which Cornell referred was that of coeducation, given that Sage Hall was to be a women's dormitory and that coeducation was still a controversial issue at the time. However, when the letter was finally unearthed in 1997, its focus was revealed to be the university's nonsectarian status—a principle that had invited controversy in the 19th century, given that most universities of the time had religious affiliations. Cornell wrote:
On the occasion of laying the corner stone of the Sage College for women of Cornell University, I desire to say that the principle danger, and I say almost the only danger I see in the future to be encountered by the friends of education, and by all lovers of true liberty is that which may arise from sectarian strife.
From these halls, sectarianism must be forever excluded, all students must be left free to worship God, as their concience shall dictate, and all persons of any creed or all creeds must find free and easy access, and a hearty and equal welcome, to the educational facilities possessed by the Cornell University.
Coeducation of the sexes and entire freedom from sectarian or political preferences is the only proper and safe way for providing an education that shall meet the wants of the future and carry out the founders idea of an Institution where "any person can find instruction in any study." I herewith commit this great trust to your care.
Notable alumnae
- Anna Botsford ComstockAnna Botsford ComstockAnna Botsford Comstock , was a US artist, educator, conservationist, and a leader of the nature study movement, born in Otto, New York, to Marvin and Phebe Irish Botsford....
- professorProfessorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and scientistScientistA scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
, namesake of Cornell's Comstock Hall - Julia Josephine Thomas Irvine - fourth president of Wellesley College
- Harriet May Mills - women's suffragist
- Ruth Putnam - publisher and authorAuthorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
- M. Carey ThomasM. Carey ThomasMartha Carey Thomas was an American educator, suffragist, and second President of Bryn Mawr College.-Early life:...
- first president of Bryn Mawr CollegeBryn Mawr CollegeBryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....