The new post-freshman residential experience will allow Cornell to create in the 21 st century a learning community of faculty, students, and staff that will foster personal discovery and growth, as well as nurture scholarship and creativity, in an environment of collegiality, civility, and responsible stewardship. Learning which occurs outside the classroom is as important in college life as the knowledge acquired in courses.
Students can learn from each other as much as from faculty.
Learning in college happens everywhere, e.g., in class, in the dining halls, in the residence halls. Sensing this in the 19 th century, Cornell's founders originally established Morrill Hall with classrooms, as well as residential quarters for faculty and students. Ezra Cornell and A. D. White, borrowing from the Oxford-Cambridge model of residential colleges, assumed a seamless continuum between formal and informal learning and mentoring. The transformation of West Campus will realize that Cornell ideal. Faculty affiliated with a living-learning house for upperclass undergraduates will benefit enormously by acquiring a deeper understanding of and involvement with the young men and women they teach.