Lynah remodel - keeping up with the Joneses

[KeithK]

[q]I suppose a kick ass hockey rink and parking structure could also be placed at that entrance as an alternative [/q]We already have a kick ass hockey rink...

[jeh25]

[Q]Liz '05 Wrote:
why they had to put it in the middle of a perfectly nice, grassy engineering quad.[/q]

To hide the rest of the engineering quad?

[Beeeej]

The nanotech facility was sited where it is because it's multi-disciplinary, and they hoped to encourage cross-pollination among the departments most likely to participate.

Beeeej

[ithacat]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 [Q2]I suppose a kick ass hockey rink and parking structure could also be placed at that entrance as an alternative [/Q]
We already have a kick ass hockey rink...[/q]

A kick-ass atmosphere, yes...rink? Certainly the rink helps create the atmosphere (banners, fans packed on top of each other), but still the concessions, restrooms, walkway, sound system are woeful. I don't know how the weight room, seminar/study rooms, offices, hall-of-fame room, and training room is?

My first choice would probably be to try to build a palace around Lynah, giving the program the first-class support facilites the coaches, players, and fans deserve (and recruits seem to love). I'd like to see some expansion to add seats on the west end, however. Such an approach should be able to retain most of the atmosphere inside the rink, maybe even add to it.

There will come a time, however, that Lynah will need to be replaced. I hope Cornell doesn't wait too long and find themselves having to build a facility on the edge of campus because all the land is built upon -- or, having to have the hockey team play all their games on the road for a year or two while Lynah is replaced on the spot (which happened to the Syracuse football team when the Dome was built). As much as I understand students wanting to be able to walk to a baseball game, I'd move that field in a second if I could have a state-of-the-art hockey facility attached to the parking garage.

I also believe that if marketed aggressively Cornell could fill a 5,000 seat facility with ease. It's the best game in town regardless of the time of year.

[Tom14850]

It's true that students pay some of the bills, but Cornell has long ago decided to attract students based on the quality of its academic offerings. I bet 99% of the time that Cornell is mentioned in the press, it is because of an academic endeavor. The more press coverage, the more awareness in the minds of potential students, even if the awareness filters through a few levels of society.

Secondly, and much more importantly, nanotechnology and other related academic buildings offer the opportunity to recruit better faculty, secure more grant funding, and do more research with the hopes of developing a product worthy of big fat new patent (CHA-CHING). This marriage of patent development, industry, and academia is a fascinating topic and is far more powerful than you might be aware. The hockey boosters can't compete, I assure you.

Compared to these priorities (increase the press for academic-related endeavors, recruit better faculty, win more grant funding, and develop patents), the sports programs are barely token gestures to the students and community to keep the masses happy.

[Ben Rocky '04]

Mind you, the recruiting of better faculty and increases in research grants do very little to change the quality of undergraduate education.  Cornell, along with many other universities seems set on being known for 'academic excellence'  while spending very little money on actual undergraduate education.  Instead Day Hall often wants to spend money on those big attention- getting programs (nano-tech, mars rovers, life sciences initiative, etc.) and have the limelight from these successes translate into a reputation for overall great education.  It seems that if they could get away with completely killing athletics, slope day, big-name performers [Ludacris/ Moby/ Counting Crows/ Jurassic 5], cornell fitness centers, the greek system (all core parts of undergraduate life), they would do it just to save money.

[ninian '72]

Deleted/duplicate.  See following

[ninian '72]

Go, Bill!  I really like the point about the untapped potential fanbase.  I may be swimming against the tide, but I think an overriding goal should be that anyone who wants to see a Cornell hockey game on any given night should be able to do so.  The line should become a dead tradition.  Maybe this will result in some empty seats against teams like Onion, but will this detract from the Lynah experience?  Geez, have some faith in yourselves!

I guess we're doomed to keep rehashing these old issues until some concrete gets poured someday.  For what it's worth, I was in grad school at Michigan when their team played at a rink very much like Lynah - even smaller.  The regulars loved it, because they were close to the ice, and there was a small-town, family feel to Michigan hockey games, with a loyal fan base, even if they were cellar-dwellers in the WCHA at the time.   Yost was a run-down ex-basketball white elephant on Central Campus.  I don't know how the decision was made to move the hockey program there, but giving them that new/old facility transformed the sport at Michigan.  A new coach was hired, they started beating the likes of Wisconsin, weekend hockey games became a popular attraction for students, the band started attending, and the place rocked, even in those days before the Lynah road show had educated their fans.  A bigger place won't kill the traditions, if you don't let it.  What it will mean is that the Lynah faithful will become a less exclusive club, which I think will benefit Cornell hockey, Cornell, and Ithaca in the long run.  The unwashed masses will pick it up in a hurry.  Take a road trip to Ann Arbor , and see your future.

[Liz \'05]

I think I'm just bitter because I had to spend three years walking around the construction.  It was especially hard freshman year when I spent most of November on crutches and there was no easy way to get to Upson or Kimball (i.e. half my classes).

My point (better expressed by Ben) remains the same - these facilities do very little for the quality of undergraduate life and can actually detract from it.  I'm still not convinced that these extra buildings ought to be built on athletic fields.  They require more faculty/staff/researchers in the middle of campus, thus take up more parking, open space, etc, and are used by a very small number of undergraduate students.  Where's the harm in placing it father away?  (Arguably, the athletic fields are used by a small percentage of students...but I suspect they're used more often then we realize.  I've seen the band practice on the baseball field and ROTC uses Alumni Fields for athletics days.  There must be more groups out there that also use them.)

It's lovely that my Cornell degree might have a little extra cachet to it the next time I apply for a job because the University has a glossier reputation...but at that point I think 8 years in the Navy will have a bigger effect on my resume.  In the meantime, I care more about the non-academic reasons I came to Cornell - Greek life, a solid DI program with a marquee sport, and GRASS.  (While an extreme example, I hated Columbia simply because it had two grassy spots on campus, and you could only use them if an appropriately colored flag was raised.  Ugh.)  I'm here for a complete college experience and I can't help but feel that Cornell's more concerned about research and its so-called "transnational" status than its undergrads.

[billhoward]

What's going to happen 20 years from now is that Cornell's going to be run out of free space, the grassy spaces having been taken for academic buildings. There's no way the U is going to buy up buildings and level them to make playing fields. It would make financial sense (sort of) to replace a building with a bigger building.

Maybe it's time for Cornell to consider expanding south into Collegetown?

One wonders if Barton Hall's days are numbered (long term).

It's great there are recreational fields near North Campus. Too bad nothing for West Campus. If Cornell pushes team sports fields out to the extremities of campus, it kills support for some of the lesser sports.

I suppose, sigh, that Cornell is an academic entity first, not a collection of sports teams interrupted by coursework. But as others have noted, a lot of what's being built on campus underscores Cornell's reputation as a mega-research facility and doesn't help its undergraduate standing. At Amherst, say, there's no question where undergraduate education stands in the pecking order.  

[jy3]

actually, the fields (not playing fields) over by game farm really are NOT that far away. granted it would be a hike to walk from anywhere that students would live, but it isnt all the way to varna - well, maybe it is
just get the bus routes going and people will drive. only problem would be parking...another garage?
cornell owns a lot of land off campus, a LOT. i wonder if moving the orchards, as much as i would hate it, may come in the future if campus expands that way...

[ithacat]

[Q]ninian '72 Wrote:

  Take a road trip to Ann Arbor , and see your future.[/q]

Could be tough...according to Bill's chart, they're playing to 102.6% capacity. According to their website there's a waiting list for season tickets, and one can add their name to the list via the website (what a novel idea).

[billhoward]

Cornell should consider becoming the first Ivy school with its own monorail system. Then it wouldn't matter how far away the fields were.

Maybe some dorms out there, too? Luxury apartments with covered parking for students with nice cars?

[Rosey]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 Cornell should consider becoming the first Ivy school with its own monorail system. Then it wouldn't matter how far away the fields were.  [/q]
I hear South Ogdenville had one of those, and things didn't work out.

Kyle

[Ben Rocky '04]

Mono.. doh!