Wells College 1868-2024

[nshapiro]

On a lighter note, I wonder what modifications we'll see (hear) in "The Song of the Classes".

Was the reference in that song or in the Cayuga's Waiters song 'Cornell' - to the tune of Downtown?

I would also love to hear that again, if anyone can find it online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwd_k9SDfs

although it's got the "ladies" version of the Sophomore verse.  As I recall the "gents" version it goes:

Oh, I am the Sophomore, with debonair look
My vile Freshman ways I have long since forsook
I used date girls from Elmira and Wells
But in my opinion, the best are Cornell's

Yes I have seen that.  I cannot find the Cayuga's Waiters song 'Cornell' - to the tune of Downtown.

I'm pretty sure I have a 30 y.o. CD with that song on it. It's in storage back home and I'm on a work trip for a few weeks.

Wow! If you could (at your convenience) post it somewhere so I could hear it, I would really appreciate it.

[RichH]

On a lighter note, I wonder what modifications we'll see (hear) in "The Song of the Classes".

Was the reference in that song or in the Cayuga's Waiters song 'Cornell' - to the tune of Downtown?

I would also love to hear that again, if anyone can find it online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwd_k9SDfs

although it's got the "ladies" version of the Sophomore verse.  As I recall the "gents" version it goes:

Oh, I am the Sophomore, with debonair look
My vile Freshman ways I have long since forsook
I used date girls from Elmira and Wells
But in my opinion, the best are Cornell's

Yes I have seen that.  I cannot find the Cayuga's Waiters song 'Cornell' - to the tune of Downtown.

I'm pretty sure I have a 30 y.o. CD with that song on it. It's in storage back home and I'm on a work trip for a few weeks.

Wow! If you could (at your convenience) post it somewhere so I could hear it, I would really appreciate it.

I'll dig it out when I get back and see what I can do. Btw, there is a Waiters album from 2015 on both Apple Music and Spotify. It has "We Didn't Go to Harvard" with updated lyrics.

[David Harding]

On a lighter note, I wonder what modifications we'll see (hear) in "The Song of the Classes".

Was the reference in that song or in the Cayuga's Waiters song 'Cornell' - to the tune of Downtown?

I would also love to hear that again, if anyone can find it online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwd_k9SDfs

although it's got the "ladies" version of the Sophomore verse.  As I recall the "gents" version it goes:

Oh, I am the Sophomore, with debonair look
My vile Freshman ways I have long since forsook
I used date girls from Elmira and Wells
But in my opinion, the best are Cornell's

That's exactly what I meant.  

I do remember hearing TheWaiters sing "Cornell" to the tune of "Downtown", but I couldn't reproduce any of the lyrics.  I did find links to the LP on which it appears, Lost in the Sound, et alia.

[Trotsky]

Gutting. What a loss to the community.

To pay off the surely mounting debts, I say Cornell buys some buildings and moves them, brick by brick, to replace some of our more horrific structures.

Just raze everything built since 1930.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Gutting. What a loss to the community.

To pay off the surely mounting debts, I say Cornell buys some buildings and moves them, brick by brick, to replace some of our more horrific structures.

Just raze everything built since 1930.

You do realize that includes Lynah?

[George64]

In addition to proximity, there's another connection between Wells College and Cornell.  As the story goes, Ezra wanted Henry Wells (of Wells Fargo, and later American Express fame) to locate and endow his proposed women's college at Cornell.  Wells declined, as he wanted Wells to be a separate and distinct entity in his hometown of Aurora.  Not deterred, Ezra and Andrew White then convinced Ithaca businessman Henry Sage to donate $250,000 to build Sage College for Women.  At first a women's residence hall, today the Johnson Graduate School of Management.

[Trotsky]

Gutting. What a loss to the community.

To pay off the surely mounting debts, I say Cornell buys some buildings and moves them, brick by brick, to replace some of our more horrific structures.

Just raze everything built since 1930.

You do realize that includes Lynah?

The sacrifice is worth it.  We can play our games at St. Nick.  The working girls in the Mezzanine will have a field day.

[billhoward]

In a significant announcement, Wells College has announced its upcoming closure at the end of this academic semester ...

Droll understatement

[David Harding]

New hope for the Wells College Campus.  https://www.clevelandcommissionforwells.org/
I just noticed a story in the Ithaca Journal about a public forum.  https://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/education/2025/05/23/wells-college-alumni-host-zoom-forum-about-bid-for-historic-campus/83814363007/


In related news, four acres of lakefront property were sold to a private individual who donated it to ensure public access as a park.  https://www.fllt.org/extraordinary-gift-results-in-new-lakeshore-park-for-the-village-of-aurora/

[billhoward]

Nice to hear about potential interest in the Wells College campus. But demographics say the number of students is not rising in the near future.

The first table suggests Baby Boomers were prolific and their kids went off to college through about 2010 (peak of 18.1M undergrads in 2010), since then it's been in the range of 15-16M undergrads.

There's an enrollment cliff now through 2030 owing to  falloff in births starting around the Great Recession (2007-on). It's likely to be seen starting with fall 2025 enrollment and continuing through the end of the decade, per an NPR story. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/08/nx-s1-5246200/demographic-cliff-fewer-college-students-mean-fewer-graduates

The second chart, via My e-Learning World, shows that drop in 18-year-olds. The Ivies, the top 25 schools, and probably at last the top hundred are less affected. All can admit and enroll students that are fully qualified to do the work. Schools that are failing seem to be schools that have high admit rates. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/04/09/a-majority-of-u-s-colleges-admit-most-students-who-apply/: "The great majority of schools, where most Americans get their postsecondary education, admit most of the people who apply to them, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Education Department data."

That would include upstate / Finger Lakes schools that closed: Cazenovia, Wells, College of St. Rose (Albany). Note that Elmira College currently has a 90% admit rate.