If the co-eds are successful scholastically, most of them do even better socially with an almost four to one ratio of boys to girls. While twenty or thirty years ago, the co-eds were held in considerable disesteem and Cornell men in a griping mood still occasionally exalt the merits of "imports" over the home-grown variety, the last real student resistance to co-education seems to have died out with the war.
In most extra-curricular activities girls are now accepted on an equal plane with men students. They serve in most campus organisations and in recent years have even stormed several traditional citadels of male supremacy--a girl has served as managing editor of the Cornell Daily Sun and this year a co-ed attained the ultimate in something by winning the post of sports editor of the Sun.
The presence of both fraternity men and independents in approximately equal numbers is the other major dividing line in the Cornell student body, but the campus atmosphere seems to be one of distinct "peaceful co-existence." Altogether there are approximately 55 or 60 fraternities at Cornell; there is some question as to what actually constitutes a fraternity, so estimates of their number vary.
Importance of Fraternities
At Cornell, there is at least one positive argument for fraternities--at present the University just does not have the dormitory space to house all is male students. Although several dormitories have been constructed and more will eventually be built, large numbers of students must still find living quarters elsewhere. Some room in private boarding houses around the town, but many find the fraternities the most convenient means of solving the problem.
In addition, food can be an expensive commodity if the student must eat his meals in Ithaca or in one of the University's large cafeterias. Even in the cafeterias, he must pay for his meals individually, since there is no contract rate. Thus board rates an be alarmingly high and cafeteria food can be alarmingly bad. Here again, students with an eye on both their pocketbooks and their digestive processes are likely to find the fraternities attractive.
The University places considerable emphasis on the importance of fraternities, grants them a large measure of independence, and deals with them chiefly through the agency of the strong Inter-Fraternity Council.
During the past school year, however, considerable controversy developed on the campus over the faculty suggestion that the fraternities stop rushing freshmen during the first weeks of school and defer their pledging program until the second term.
This eminently logical recommendation was strongly resisted by the fraternities, which claimed that their finances would suffer if they did not acquire new members early in the year. But the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation at a meeting last June and the fraternities accepted the decision with reasonable good grace, especially after the Trustee adopted a resolution which read in part:
"The Board reaffirms its faith in the vitally constructive services which fraternities perform in the Cornell community and is desirous in all its action to strengthen and broaden the effectiveness of the fraternities."
In spite of occasional difficulties, the fraternities do not exert a particularly oppressive influence on the college community as a whole. In fact, they probably figure very little in the thinking of the non-fraternity man. While it would be inaccurate to say that anyone who wants to can get into a fraternity--there are undoubtedly disappointments on the part of some students--the average independent is likely to be an independent by choice and is very largely indifferent to the whole fraternity system.
Spirit of Liberalism
To a steadily increasing extent, the University administration has attempted to maintain close contact with the student body by permitting students to serve in responsible capacities on various policy committees.
The main disciplinary body governing misconduct by undergraduate males, the recently created Mens' Judiciary Board, is entirely composed of students. Three students are non-voting consultants to the now appellate Faculty Committee on Student Conduct.
This effort to allow students a large measure of independence and some voice in University policy matters is one manifestation of a certain liberal attitude that has long been one of Cornell's outstanding characteristics. Extra Cornell and White showed another aspect of it when they struck at current tradition and prejudice by making their university one of the first non-sectarian colleges in the country.
Another manifestation is the striking autonomy of the various schools and colleges at the University and even of the departments within these schools. Yet another is the traditional freedom from University pressure and arbitrary control on which Cornell faculty members have long prided themselves.
Both faculty and students seem to have absorbed a large measure of this spirit. When a popular Cornell faculty member, Marcus Singer, was cited for contempt by a Congressional committee for refusing to name his associates in a pre-war Marxist study group at Harvard, both faculty and student groups defended him. The faculty of Arts and Sciences unanimously expressed its faith in his loyalty and the Student Council added its support for his moral position.
People at Cornell are fond of repeating a phrase, "freedom and responsibility," to sum up their ideal of the University. Unlike Harvard's "Veritas," this one is in English. But that is both understandable and appropriate. It is another sign that Cornell is young as great universities go.