On the Hill

Ithaca is carved by gorges and waterfalls, but it's shaped by Cornell University and Ithaca College. The two institutions fuel the city's rich cultural scene and foster its creative spirit. Combined, the schools bring almost 30,000 students into the community each fall, and with them, PhD's in every field from astrophysics to zoology. The brainpower makes Ithaca a fun-loving, worldly, connected city, and turns the beautiful campuses on East Hill and South Hill into international destinations in their own right. 

Cornell is home to 20,000 students and 2,600 faculty members. It's a city unto itself. The sprawling campus encompasses some 260 buildings on a lush 745-acre landscaped hilltop. Start your visit with a campus tour, offered daily starting from Day Hall. Other must-see campus locations include the I.M. Pei-designed Johnson Museum of Art, the 4,000+ acre gardens and natural areas of Cornell Plantations, and the dramatic gorges near Bebe Lake and Triphammer Falls. When you're done touring, stop by Cornell Dairy Bar for fresh homemade ice cream and other goodies. Day and night, Cornell's event calendar is always full, offering a wide array of films, lectures, exhibits, sports and arts events year ‘round. Please note, parking is limited on the Cornell campus, plan ahead by using the the online maps and directions. 

Ithaca College, across town on South Hill, is New York's largest comprehensive, residential college. Home to 6,400 students and 600 faculty, IC was born more than 100 years ago with the founding of its nationally acclaimed School of Music. A century later, the spirit of hands-on performance infuses every aspect of college life, from Ithaca's renowned arts and sciences programs, to its award- winning Park School of Communications. Tours of the beautiful South Hill campus are available daily, except Sunday, starting from Job Hall. Nearby, the new Park Center for Business, home of IC's "green" business school, is one of the first 100 buildings to receive platinum LEED certification from U.S. Green Building Council. Also, be sure to visit IC's Handwerker Gallery for innovative shows and art installations. The campus events calendar is full of theater, lectures and activities, and be sure to check out the music school's performance and recital calendar. Amazing variety and quality.

Did You Know:

Bright Idea:
America's first electric streetlights were lit on the Cornell Campus in December 1875, making Ithaca the first city in North America with outdoor electric lighting.

Twilight Zone:
Pioneering screenwriter Rod Serling taught at Ithaca College from 1967 to 1975. The college houses his archives and promotes his legacy with an ongoing Rod Serling conference. Serling wrote some of his most famous scripts in an Airstream trailer at the family cottage on Cayuga Lake.

Burning Lolita:
Novelist Vladimir Nabokov was a little known émigré professor when wrote "Lolita" between semesters at Cornell—and he almost destroyed the novel here in a fiery case of writers block prior to publication. His wife Vera changed literary history when she rescued the manuscript from the incinerator at their rental house on East Seneca St.

Green MBA:
Ithaca College rose to the forefront of sustainable business education in 2006 when it broke ground on the Park School of Sustainable Business. One of the nation's first LEED-certified business school buildings, the building itself is a learning lab for the school's sustainable curriculum.

Cornell Creations & Discoveries:
The chicken nugget, invented by poultry scientist Bob Baker; the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, rediscovered (maybe) by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in 2005; the song "Puff the Magic Dragon," penned by Cornell Student Lenny Lipton and popularized by classmate Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary.

Broadway Bound:
Ithaca College began as a music conservatory and its tradition of great performance continues. The wall of fame at IC's Dillingham Theatre has posters from more than 50 Broadway shows featuring graduates of IC's music, theatre and communications programs. Hottest on the small screen? Actor David Boreanaz of Bones and Buffy fame.

Brainy on the Hill:
Cornell boasts 40 Nobel Prize winners including Pearl S. Buck, Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe and Toni Morrison. Other well-known Cornellians include Carl Sagan, E.B. White, Keith Olbermann and Ann Coulter.

Have a funny memory of college life in Ithaca? Share it at My Ithaca Experience.