The New York State College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences (CALS or Ag School) is a
statutory college established and supervised
by the State University of New York (SUNY)
system. CALS is located on the campus of Cornell
University in Ithaca, New York. With enrollment
of approximately 3,100 undergraduate and 1,000
graduate students, CALS is the third-largest
college of its kind in the United States and
the second-largest undergraduate college on
the Cornell campus.
Established as a Land-grant college, CALS
administrates New York's cooperative extension
program jointly with New York State College
of Human Ecology. CALS runs the New York State
Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva,
New York, and the Cornell University Agricultural
Experiment Station, as well as other research
facilities in New York.In 2007-08, CALS total
budget (excluding the Geneva Station) is $283
million, with $96 million coming from tuition
and $52 million coming from state appropriations.
The Geneva Station budget was an additional
$25 million.
== Academic programs ==
CALS'offers more than 20 majors, each with
a focus on Life Sciences, Applied Social Sciences,
Environmental Sciences and Agriculture and
Food. CALS undergraduate programs lead to
a Bachelor of Science degree in one of 23
different majors. The Applied Economics and
Management program, for example, was ranked
3rd nationally in BusinessWeek's Best Undergraduate
Business Programs, 2012, edition. CALS also
offers graduate degrees in various fields
of study, including the M.A.T., M.L.A., M.P.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D..
== 
Additional programs and facilities ==
=== 
The Agriculture Quadrangle ===
The Agriculture Quadrangle (Ag Quad) is a
grouping of buildings dedicated to programs
offered by the NYS College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences. The oldest building on
the quad is Caldwell Hall (1913). The Plant
Science Building (1931), and Warren Hall (1931),
flank the art deco style Albert R. Mann Library
(1952). A newer Kennedy and Roberts Halls
replaced the original 1906 building, and The
Computing and Communications Center (1912)
was formerly Comstock Hall). These buildings
are owned by New York State, which pays for
their construction and maintenance.
The College operates extension programs through
the New York State Agricultural Experiment
Station (NYSAES) in Geneva, New York, in 20
buildings, including the Barton Laboratory
Greenhouse and Sutton Road Solar Farm (a 2-megawatt
energy facility that offsets nearly 40 percent
of NYSAES annual electricity demands), on
130 acres (0.5 km²) and over 700 acres (2.8
km²) of test plots and other land parcels
used to conduct horticultural research and
also substations: the Vineyard Research Laboratory
in Fredonia, Hudson Valley Laboratory in Highland,
and Long Island Horticultural Research Laboratory
in Riverhead.
The Dilmun Hill Student Farm is located in
Ithaca, New York is a student-run farm facility
operated according to sustainable agricultural
practices.The Social Media Lab, is part of
the College's Communications Department. In
this modern research laboratory, faculty supervise
undergraduate and graduate research focusing
on human interaction in CMC and online communities,
including the investigation of social phenomena,
such as disclosure or deception among users
of social media computer applications, such
as Facebook, Grindr. Studies examine human
behavior, personal experience, and human interaction
in the digital realm along the dimensions
of language processes, perception, self-representation,
and interpersonal interaction. In 2009, The
Social Media Lab coined the term, the Butler
Lie, a reference to factually untrue verbal
communication used to politely initiate or
end an instant message conversation, such
as "Gotta go, boss is coming!" These statements
buffer the otherwise negative experience of
social rejection or ostracism.The recently
established Rich’s Food Safety Lab was made
possible by a donation from frozen food industry
giant Rich. The laboratory aims to engages
in critical food safety research and the education
of the next generation of food safety leaders.
== History ==
Cornell's first president, Andrew Dickson
White, had little enthusiasm for agricultural
education, and the Board of Trustees were
likewise without much enthusiasm. Agriculture
could not be ignored, however, because Ezra
Cornell was deeply committed, and the provisions
of the Morrill Land Grant Act required it.
After much difficulty, George Chapman Caldwell
was recruited in 1867 as Professor of Chemistry
(Agricultural Chemistry). He was the very
first professor of what was to become the
Cornell University.[8][9]
The university opened in September 1868 with
professor Caldwell, the nominal leader of
a group of three professors with interests
touching upon agriculture. In addition to
Caldwell, there was Albert N. Prentiss, professor
of botany (with some reference to crops),
and Dr. James Law, professor of veterinary
medicine. The Faculty of Agriculture consisted
of this informal group of three and a professor
of agriculture of the moment.[9]
The arrival of Isaac P. Roberts, as professor
of agriculture, from Michigan, in 1874, finally
brought credibility to agriculture at Cornell.
During the period of 1879-1887, Cornell president
Charles Kendall Adams gradually changed the
Trustees seemingly hostility toward agriculture.
In June 1888, the "informal" departments,
including agriculture taught by Isaac Roberts,
agricultural chemistry taught by George Caldwell,
botany taught by Albert Prentiss, entomology
taught by Henry Comstock, and veterinary medicine
taught by James Law, were combined to form
the Cornell College of Agriculture.[9]
Also in June 1888, horticulture, which had
played a minor role in botany until it was
discontinued by the trustees in 1880, was
reestablished as an independent department
in the college, upon the recruitment of Liberty
Hyde Bailey as professor and department head.
Roberts was appointed Director of the college
and dean of its faculty while retaining his
role as professor of agriculture and heading
a department of agriculture within the college
of the same name.[9]
Legislation establishing the New York State
College of Agriculture at Cornell passed the
state legislature and was signed by the governor
in May 1904. The legislation passed in spite
of ″violent″ opposition and intense lobbying
led by Chancellor James Roscoe Day of Syracuse
University acting for Syracuse and six other
universities and colleges in New York.[9]
Established in 1874 as the Department of Agriculture,
the department became a college in 1888. In
1904, eminent botanist and horticulturist
Liberty Hyde Bailey, along with New York State
farmers, convinced the New York Legislature
to financially support the agriculture college
at Cornell, a private university that had
been established in 1865 as New York's land-grant
institution. Thus, it became a statutory college,
and changed its name from the New York State
College of Agriculture in 1904 to the New
York State College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences in 1971.[10]
In 1898, the State Legislature established
a separate New York State College of Forestry
at Cornell.[11] However, the school ran into
political controversy, and the Governor vetoed
its annual appropriation in 1903. In 1910,
Liberty Hyde Bailey, the Dean of Cornell's
Agriculture College, succeeded in having what
remained of the Forestry College transferred
to his school. At his request, in 1911, the
legislature appropriated $100,000 to construct
a building to house the new Forestry Department
on the Cornell campus, which Cornell later
named Fernow Hall. That Forestry Department
continues today as the Department of Natural
Resources.[12] In 1927, Cornell established
a 1,639-acre (6.63 km2) research forest south
of Ithaca, the Arnot Woods.
In 1900, the college began offering a reading
course for farm women. In 1907, the Department
of Home Economics was created within college.
In 1919, the Department of Home Economics
became a school within the Agriculture College.
Finally, in 1925, the Home Economics department
became a separate college, although both colleges
continued to work together to provide cooperative
extension services.
The World Food Prize has been awarded for
the sixth time to a Cornellian. Dr. Andrew
Colin McClung, M.S. 1949, was awarded the
World Food Prize for helping to transform
a large area of Brazil into fertile land.
His recommendations regarding key agricultural
inputs made this transformation possible.
== Notable alumni ==
Robert C. Baker, inventor of the chicken nugget
and turkey hot dog;
Vera Charles, mycologist and USDA expert
Bryan Colangelo, president and general manager
of the Toronto Raptors
Frederick Vernon Coville, Chief Botanist USDA
and work on blueberries.
Jon Daniels, general manager of the Texas
Rangers
Arthur Rose Eldred, America's first Eagle
Scout, American agricultural official and
executive;
Barbara McClintock, plant geneticist, Nobel
Laureate in Physiology and Medicine;
Beth Newlands Campbell, president of Rexall
Drugstore
Keith Olbermann, sports and political commentator
and writer.
Gregory Goodwin Pincus, Hormonal contraception,
the pill.
William F. Friedman, Geneticist turned WWII
code breaker
== 
See also ==
New York State College of Forestry
Agriculture in New York
