Statutory College - at Cornell University

At Cornell University

The four statutory colleges located at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, are:

• New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (established 1888; contract since 1904)
• New York State College of Human Ecology (established 1919; separate college since 1925)
• New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations (established 1944)
• New York State College of Veterinary Medicine (established 1894)

Another statutory college, the New York State College of Forestry, was founded at Cornell in 1898, only to be closed in 1903 when outcry over a pending lawsuit led Gov. Odell to veto the appropriations bill that provided funding. However, forestry education was continued at Cornell as part of the College of Agriculture. The College of Forestry was later reestablished at Syracuse University in 1911. Two of Cornell's current statutory colleges — the NYS College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the NYS College of Human Ecology — existed as non-state-supported colleges (as the College of Agriculture and the School of Home Economics, respectively) before state legislation was enacted to make each a state-supported entity. The NYS College of Human Ecology and the NYS College of Veterinary Medicine trace their origins to Cornell's agriculture college. However, the College of Veterinary Medicine was actually the first statutory college in New York. The Hotel School started in 1922 as a department within Home Economics, but became a separate, endowed college in 1954.

The statutory colleges at Cornell grew out of Cornell's designation in 1865 as New York State's land grant college under the Morrill Act. Under the Morrill Act, Cornell received land scrip based on the population of the state, and the proceeds formed the basis of Cornell's initial endowment. Under the terms of the Cornell's 1865 charter from the Legislature, Cornell was obligated to teach agriculture, mechanical arts and mililtary tactic. (Cornell was also obligated to provide free tuition to students from each assembly district.) By the 1890s, Cornell sought state funding to continue its mission in these areas, and the statutory colleges were formed as a vehicle for direct state funding. In addition, around the start of the 20th century, new federal laws provided land-grant colleges (and their agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension services) with annual funding conditioned upon matching state funds. As a result, almost all of Cornell's land grant duties were transferred to its four statutory colleges, which receive such state funds through the present.

Academic programs can be transferred between the statutory college side and the host institution. For example, when private funding was sufficient to assure operation of the hotel administration program of the College of Home Economics, it was spun off as a separate School of Hotel Administration in 1950.