The iconic gorges, campus bell tower, and idyllic Cayuga Lake may still be there, but things have certainly changed at Cornell University over the last half-century. Just ask Minor "Skip" Hughes. The 71-year-old attended the Ivy League school in the late 1950s; now, he revisits the quads through the eyes of his grandson, Dylan, 21, who will graduate in 2008. "Dylan and I are bonded by the Cornell experience," says Skip. "But, so much has changed since then."
For starters, when Skip attended Cornell, the student body was a lot more homogeneous, comprising mostly white males. Today, the campus has evolved so that there are nearly as many female students as there are male, and minorities represent 40 percent of the student population. Skip lived in one of Cornell's first non-segregated apartments on campus. He dated Judy, one of only a handful of women on campus, whom he had to return to a strictly-females dorm by 11 p.m. sharp, lest she face the wrath of the resident advisor. He took notes on a Steno Pad.
The differences are obvious and many. Still, it tickles Skip to think of his grandson, Dylan, walking the same hallowed halls he paced back in the '50s, perhaps even sitting in the same classrooms. Maybe his grandson hikes the same trails on Saturday afternoons or takes a load off post-finals at one of Ithaca's legendary watering holes.
Chances are, though, that Dylan and his friends aren't watching foreign films in town or hosting poetry readings in dorm rooms, as Skip and his buddies often did. "I had a bit of a beatnik streak back then," says Skip. "We'd spend a Friday night reading poetry or discussing political issues like Hungary's revolt against the Soviet Union." The hot-button issues that blip on Dylan's radar screen differ — terrorism, global warming, random violence such as the Virginia Tech shooting. But admits Dylan, "We won't spend an entire night talking about it."
Instead, Dylan — like most every other college student these days — is parked in front of his laptop most hours. When he's not tackling various projects for his electrical engineering classes, he's checking out videos on YouTube, reading his favorite blogs, or instant-messaging. He completed 20 credits last semester and has an internship lined up at a technology firm for the second summer in a row. It's this kind of multi-tasking mentality that Skip says he can't quite wrap his head around. While he does see his own work ethic mirrored in Dylan's drive (Skip paid his way through college as a waiter), the excessive course load causes a bit of grandfatherly concern. Says Skip: "I've never taken 20 hours of anything in my life! Dylan works really hard and intensely. I worry that doesn't leave him a lot of time to have… fun."
Dylan assures his granddad that he does allow himself time to go into town, take a hike, or cheer on the Cornell hockey team — just like Grandpa would have done.
Now, we'd like to hear from you! Is your grandchild attending your alma mater, making new footsteps in the stomping ground of your youth? Share your college stories in the comments area below.
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