Jazmin Rodriguez \u201925 vividly remembers moving into the brand-new Toni Morrison Hall on North Campus in August. She arrived late in the day, and tried to unpack everything and set up her room before her parents had to leave. She found her name on the door, a welcoming suite, and lots of storage space. \u201cIt was so much bigger than I thought,\u201d says Rodriguez, a Massachusetts native and Engineering student. \u201cIt looked brand new and absolutely perfect. I moved in around sunset, and we had all this sunshine coming into our room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like generations of Cornellians before her, Rodriguez spent her first days on the Hill personalizing her room; learning about the dorm, the campus, and her schedule; figuring out where and how to study; and meeting new people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But for her and the more than 800 others who moved into the Ithaca campus\u2019s two newest residence halls\u2014Morrison and Gan\u0119dag\u01eb: (pronounced Gah-NEH-dah-go)\u2014this fall, those first days were also an immersion into a <\/strong>growing North Campus community that represents a comprehensive and nearly complete reimagining <\/strong>of the residential experience for first- and second-year students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That area of the Hill has long been home to residence halls and facilities many alumni remember: Risley, Balch, Dickson, and Mary Donlon halls; numerous fraternities and sororities; the Helen Newman gym; the Low Rise and High Rise complexes; Robert Purcell Community Center; program houses like Ujamaa, Just About Music (JAM), and the Latino Living Center; and newer buildings such as Appel Commons and Mews and Court-Kay-Bauer halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the late 1990s, President Hunter Rawlings III put forth an ambitious proposal that would create a more cohesive and welcoming experience for the incoming class\u2014centered around the new students all living in proximity to each other. Following debate, proposals, and committee reports, in October 1997 he released a comprehensive plan that would require first-years to reside on North Campus, whether in residence halls, program houses, cooperatives, or other affiliated housing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New residential space would be built; at the same time, renovations and construction on West Campus would demolish the aging and much-maligned U-Halls to make room for living-learning residential colleges and upgrades to existing buildings for upperclassmen and transfer students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am committed to preserving, to the extent feasible, the freedom of choice that has been and continues to be important to students at Cornell,\u201d Rawlings said of the plan, \u201cwhile also moving decisively to provide a unifying educational experience that will introduce new students to the breadth of the intellectual environment at Cornell and that will enable students to experience the full diversity of the freshman class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Students](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/11\/2021_1229_JK_102-1024x576.jpg\")
A visionary plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n