This section provides a list of frequently asked questions about the West Campus Residential Initiative which may be selected and read individually.

West Campus Residential Initiative Parking Lot FAQ's

What is the Residential Initiative?
The Residential Initiative is designed to enrich undergraduate life at Cornell. Some of its programs and services focus on introducing entering students to the Cornell community and exposing them to the wealth of resources that will ensure that they have a successful start. The North Campus Residential Initiative has added housing, dining, and recreation facilities to the north campus so that all freshmen can reside there. The West Campus Residential Initiative will recast the west campus as a living and learning community for sophomore and transfer-students and affiliated junior and senior participants. Also, the fraternity and sorority chapters at Cornell are examining their living and learning environment within the context of the Residential Initiative, with the intent of enhancing their programs and facilities.
An important goal of the Residential Initiative is to extend the guarantee of university housing to all sophomore and transfer students who want it. The new beds added to north campus for freshmen should allow Cornell to achieve that goal while preserving a broad range of housing options for all undergraduates -- traditional residence halls, program houses, the new west-campus houses, cooperative residences, fraternity and sorority houses, and single-gender housing.

What are the specific goals of the West Campus Residential Initiative?

The principal goal for west campus is to create--in architecturally attractive facilities--an environment for upper-class students that fosters personal discovery and growth, and nurtures creativity and scholarship.
Plans include the development of a house system primarily for sophomores and transfer students, with live-in faculty leaders, professional staff, associate faculty members, live-in graduate students, and a strong intra-house governance structure that promotes student leadership and involvement. Program offerings might include film series, in-house performances, seminars, advising and career-counseling services, and dining discussion groups. The houses will be based on the recognition that the needs of upper-class students differ from those of freshmen. In the freshman year, orientation and development issues predominate. Upper-class students are more grounded and are ready to be drawn more fully into Cornell's intellectual community.

When will implementation of the West Campus Residential Initiative begin? How long will it take to complete?

A West Campus Council comprising faculty and staff members and students is well under way in developing program and implementation plans. A sequential schedule of construction of new residential houses and a new community recreation center, coordinated with demolition of the Class Halls and Noyes Community Center has been proposed. A number of Cornell and City of Ithaca approvals are needed before these construction projects can proceed. An optimistic projection is that construction of the first residence house could begin in March 2003 and be completed in August 2004. Subsequent facilities will unfold through 2010.

What is being done to meet the needs of students living on west campus now and during the transition period?

Transition planning began in 1998, and some changes have already been implemented. In response to upper-class students' requests for more privacy, a number of double rooms in the Class Halls have been converted to singles. Community lounges in the Class Halls and the Gothic complexes have received face-lifts and new student-friendly furnishings. In addition, Jansen's dining hall in Noyes Community Center was renovated in summer 2000 and now has such features as open cooking stations, and new deli and customized salad sections.

Will there be an increase in the total number of student residents on west campus?

No. The capacity of west campus has remained at about 1,800 for many years. During the transition years, the bed count will drop to about 1,700 because of the conversion of double rooms to singles to meet upper-class-student requests. When construction phasing is completed, the capacity will return to approximately 1800 as it was prior to the Residential Initiative

Will the new west-campus houses be like the Harvard/Yale residential colleges?

Not really. The main similarity is the common goal of enhancing the residential environment by creating a community in which students and faculty members are actively engaged outside the classroom. Many universities have a housing requirement and/or an expectation that students will live in a residential college for three, or all four, of their undergraduate years. Cornell's west-campus program will be predominantly for sophomore and transfer-students, but no one will be required to participate. We hope that students who move off west campus for their junior and senior years will maintain an "associate" affiliation with their house and will continue to participate in house programming and eat meals there as well.

What will the new west-campus community recreation center provide?

Plans for the new Noyes Community/Recreation Center are still being developed, but the facility will likely include a gymnasium (for basketball, volleyball, and badminton), a fitness center, an aerobics/multi-purpose room,, a snack bar/cafe? and a convenience store. Construction of this center is planned during Phase 3 when House 3 will be constructed.

Will there be new outdoor recreation facilities, too?

Yes. The plan calls for replacement of the existing basketball and volleyball court. Finding suitable locations for these facilities is challenging, and ultimately some may be half courts or "urban-sized" courts.

What will a typical west-campus house be like?

Each house will accommodate about 360 students and will provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as access to a snack pantry. Each residential suite will consist of three single rooms, one double room, a living room, and a bathroom. There will be a large common room adjacent to the dining unit, for house dinners and a wide variety of programs. Seminar rooms, a music practice room, a computer room, a library, a TV lounge, a mailroom, and faculty/program offices also will be provided. A guest suite will accommodate visiting faculty members, guest artists, etc.

Each house will have a live-in "house professor" and an administrative assistant dean. In contrast to the current resident-advisor structure, graduate resident fellows will hold leadership positions and will serve as mentors/role models for the undergraduate residents. Among their responsibilities will be promoting a variety of programs and activities. A strong intra-house governance structure (the House Council) and a diverse group of house associates (faculty, coaches, senior administrators) will round out the program support structure. House students, faculty and staff members will be drawn from all of Cornell's colleges. The houses are not intended to have any theme or specific program affiliation. The ambience of each house will be determined by its residents.

Will students not residing in the houses be able to benefit from this new initiative?

Absolutely. Programs and activities offered in the west-campus houses and community recreation center will often be open to the broader university community. House dining units will provide attractive meal alternatives for Cornell students and faculty and staff members, whether or not they are affiliated with a house. Students living in nearby fraternities, sororities, cooperative residences, and off-campus apartments may find the new west-campus facilities especially convenient. West-campus recreational and intramural events, speaker and discussion programs, and dances and other social activities could be of interest to Cornell community members from all areas of the campus.

Some fraternities and sororities have expressed concern about the impact the new west-campus house system might have on their ability to recruit and maintain a strong membership. Are these concerns valid?

As the number of beds on West Campus is remaining constant and a housing requirement for students is not being instituted, there will be minimal impact on the fraternities and sororities from the supply side. However, the fact that this venture will have significant program and facilities attractions for students does result in a pause for reflection by the fraternity system. Specifically, a faculty, student, staff, and alumni committee is examining the Fraternity and Sorority system in concert with the principles of the Residential Initiative. That committee as well as members of the Student Services Committee of the West Campus House Council will seek ways to cooperate and find new avenues of cross programming.

On a practical level, there will be impact during the construction period, especially on the Greek houses in close proximity to West Campus. Measures will be taken to minimize the impact but construction sites do produce noise, dirt and pedestrian route detours that may be inconvenient.

Will residents of West Campus Residential Initiative houses have to move out after their sophomore year, even if they want to stay?

The key issue is that the guarantee of university housing for freshman, sophomore, and transfer students who want it will be in place for fall 2001. Consequently, the number of university-housing beds available for juniors and seniors is dependent on the number of sophomore and transfer students who apply for university housing. Our hope is that the increase in the number of beds made possible by the north-campus project will allow us to alleviate the sophomore-housing crunch.

A number of juniors and seniors will be able to remain residents of the west-campus houses. Even house residents who decide that they want to move out can maintain an affiliation with their house and continue to participate in house programs, meals, and other activities.

What provisions are being made for parking on west-campus?

Planning for parking has been one of the most difficult challenges. Implementation of the West Campus Residential Initiative will displace about half of the existing 300 parking spaces in the west-campus area. Unfortunately, student-parking demand historically has exceeded the existing supply in that area, and this will continue to be the case in fall 2001, when the west campus becomes an all-upper-class-student residential community.

Cornell has received national recognition for its comprehensive transportation-services program designed to strike a balance between the need for community members to bring their vehicles to campus and the desire to encourage more environmentally friendly transportation systems and services. (Cornell has worked closely with Tompkins County and adjoining counties in coordinating transportation programs and services; as a result, Tompkins County has one of the best public-transportation systems of any rural community in New York State.) Options under consideration for parking facilities on or near west campus include surface lots, freestanding surface or underground garages, and parking levels/decks incorporated into buildings. Though underground parking facilities are appealing in several ways, they also are very costly--an underground parking space can cost about ten times more than a surface space. Also, the extensive shallow bedrock underlying the west campus further complicates serious consideration of underground parking facilities. Surface parking facilities, though not cheap, are at the opposite end of the parking-cost spectrum. But the most-feasible sites for additional surface parking at Cornell are not close to the west-campus area, and would require bus service between the lots and the west campus. Cornell's transportation-services program currently provides a free bus pass to students who use remote parking areas.

The proposed parking program for west campus does provide for nearby replacement of parking spaces lost during the construction period, and additional spaces will be constructed to help meet increased demand. Cornell currently is evaluating all university parking facilities and their use, and will issue proposals addressing a variety of needs, including those for west campus. Though it would be ideal to maintain the current parking capacity on or near west campus throughout the construction period, both the capacity and the location of parking spaces on west-campus are likely to fluctuate during that time, because of the need for contractor parking and construction staging space.