SUNY Cortland: A History of Growth and Transformation
The State University of New York at Cortland (SUNY Cortland), also known as Cortland State or C-State, is a public university located in Cortland, New York. Founded in 1868 as the Cortland Normal School, the institution has evolved from a teacher training school to a comprehensive university offering a wide array of programs in arts and sciences, education, and professional studies. SUNY Cortland serves nearly 7,000 students on a campus that expands to almost 200 acres. In 2018, SUNY Cortland celebrated its 150th birthday (sesquicentennial).
Early Years as Cortland Normal School (1868-1941)
Inspired by similar institutions in Massachusetts, New York State established an experimental normal school in Albany in 1844 with the sole purpose of training future teachers. The school’s success prompted the state legislature to establish four more normal schools. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cortlandville Academy Horatio Ballard used his numerous political connections to secure one of these four charters for the village of Cortland. The village offered $100,000 and a plot of land in the center of town for the construction of the new school.
The year 1868 marks the beginning of the Cortland Normal School. On September 17th, 1867, the cornerstone was laid for Cortland’s new normal school on Church Street (current site of the Cortland County Courthouse). The day marked the start of the school’s construction. Before the stone was laid, a box containing memorabilia including coins, bills, and a newspaper was placed underneath it.
The Local Board was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the school, including the initial hiring of administrators, faculty, and staff. Dr. Hoose was the first principal in the history of the Cortland Normal School, serving from 1869 to 1891. Cortland Normal School classes began on March 3, 1869. To attend, students had to be at least sixteen years old. They chose a program of study among the three offered: Elementary English, Advanced English, and Classics.
Just before 10:00 AM on February 21, 1870 a newly installed boiler exploded, killing boiler engineer Henry Dains. Mr. Dains’ assistant, Curtis Mosso, was also injured.
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In June 1889, Abraham Lincoln DeMond was the first African-American student to graduate from the Cortland Normal School. Dr. Francis John Cheney was the second principal of the Cortland State Normal School, taking the position in the aftermath of Principal Hoose's controversial removal. The football program at the Cortland Normal School debuted during the 1893 season. J. J. Anna Norris was the first teacher of “physical culture” at the Cortland Normal School from 1895 to 1897. Mary Kirby Nakamura, a Japanese national, graduated from the Cortland Normal School in 1900.
In 1911, under the leadership of the Department of Science Head Layton S. Hawkins, Cortland Normal School created a two-year program for the training of teachers of agriculture. The program continued until the 1917 passage of the Smith-Hughes Act when the regents designated the State College of Agriculture at Cornell the training center for instructors of agriculture. Principal DeGroat was the third principal of Cortland Normal School, serving from 1912 to 1943.
Bessie Park ‘01 was a faculty member at Cortland between 1915 and 1941 and a pioneer in women’s Physical Education. In response to a 1916 New York State law, which required all public and private schools to offer PE, Bessie Park and Principal DeGroat lobbied across the state to allow Cortland to offer a PE curriculum to fulfill this need. Her efforts were rewarded.
The Fire of 1919 and Relocation
On February 27, 1919, a fire broke out in the oldest part of the Cortland Normal School. It burned until only the outer brick walls were left. Thanks to the generosity of the Cortland community, the Normal School continued to hold classes in various locations around town for four years until 1923 when Old Main opened for classes.
In August 1921, two years after the fire incinerated Cortland Normal School, construction began on a new school building. After much debate over where the new school should be located, a decision was made to put the school on top of Courthouse Hill. On May 1st, 1922 hundreds came to witness the laying of the new cornerstone. One year later, the new building, Old Main, was completed in time to host graduation. Old Main stood alone as the sole building on campus for many years until the 1950's.
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Transition to a Four-Year College (1941-1948)
In 1941, by an act of the legislature and the Board of Regents, the institution officially became a four-year college providing courses leading to the bachelor’s degree. It was renamed "Cortland State Teachers College," where students could earn a bachelor's degree.
The dance program at the Cortland Normal School was originally directed by Mary Washington Ball who offered classes in the Physical Education Department from 1923 to 1950. In the early 1960s, Bess Koval, Ann Czompo, and Andor Czompo led the program and expanded its curriculum to offer classes such as: Modern dance, Choreography, Labonnotation, Jazz, Ballet, Folk, Square Dance, Methods and Materials for the School, and Dance for the Disadvantaged. The dance program was cut in the early 1990s due to budgetary constraints.
Illumination Night was an annual event that marked the start of the school year. Held from Old Main’s 1923 opening until the early years of World War II, this tradition involved turning on all the buildings’ lights in the evening and welcoming the community to campus. Moving Up Day was celebrated for about a half century at Cortland and marked students’ progression through class ranks.
Increased male enrollment in the new physical education program led to the establishment of Beta Phi Epsilon in 1924 as a fraternity for men in the physical program. Delta Kappa Beta started its chapter at Cortland in 1928. Theta Phi was the first sorority to acquire a house. In 1927, fifteen seniors received their teacher training experience in Binghamton city schools. This successful experiment led to the continued use of off-campus facilities for teacher training. Mabel Fitzgerald Wickwire donated the Wickwire Cup, also known as the Scholarship Cup, in 1928. Harriet Holsten was a faculty member of Cortland Women’s Physical Education Department from 1929 to 1972.
Carl “Chugger” Davis served as football coach and instructor of physical education at Cortland from 1932 until 1965. The Cortland Normal School’s football team went by many names, including “Crimson and White” and “Red and White,” before October 1933. That month a sports journalist for the Cortland Standard called them the “Red Dragons,” and the name stuck.
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The Campus School was an original part of the normal school, eventually named for alum Ella Van Hoesen ’89 who served as principal of the School of Practice from 1908 to 1938. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, there was a movement to convert New York normal schools from teacher training schools to four-year, degree granting teachers’ colleges. On April 13, 1942, Governor Lehman’s finally signed a bill to allow Cortland and other normal schools in the state to grant bachelor’s degrees.
The flagpole was originally displayed at New York City’s 1939 World’s Fair in the British Pavilion. Its dedication on August 24th, 1943 coincided with the retirement of Principal Harry Dewitt DeGroat and the appointment of President Donnal V.
Joining the SUNY System and Expansion (1948-Present)
In 1948, Cortland was a founding member of the State University of New York (SUNY). The College began to expand and Liberal arts entered the curriculum in 1963, a year before SUNY Cortland launched its first study abroad programme.
President Donnal V. Smith served as president of Cortland between 1943 to 1959, when the College transformed from a stand-alone, four-year college to its a member of the larger SUNY system. When Smith began his presidential term, Cortland’s campus was confined to one building on 33 acres that served 443 students. By 1959, when Smith resigned, Cortland’s campus had grown to over 100 acres with 6 buildings completed, six under construction, five in development, and a student body of 2,325. Under President Smith’s leadership, the College established a new graduate program and a budget that drastically increased from $203,494 to $1,767,196.
By 1944, in the midst of World War II, college enrollment declined to 357 students. That year, President Roosevelt signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act (the G.I. Bill), causing a surge in Cortland’s enrollment. By 1947, 1,075 students studied on Cortland's campus. One-fourth the student body that year were veterans.
Brockway Hall, Cheney Hall and DeGroat Hall open, the first new buildings since Old Main. Tuition is charged for the first time beginning with the fall semester. The College receives accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) for its teacher-education programs, making Cortland home to the largest nationally accredited teacher-education program in New York state.
The Robert C. With completion of the construction of Memorial Library in 1961, a room was devoted to the New York State and other special collections. Today the archives are located in Room B305 on the third floor of the North wing of the Library. This room houses the archival material documenting the history of SUNY Cortland from its days as a Normal School to present. Special collections are a separate collecting body from the college archives.
College establishes the James M. The Main Street SUNY Cortland facility opens at 9 Main St. Lynne Parks Hoffman ’68 becomes the College’s first $1 million donor. Army General Ann E. Dr. Louise M. Conley (granddaughter of Francis J. Cheney) makes a $1 million gift to be the first to endow an academic chair - the Dr. Louise M. Michael J. SUNY Cortland is named to President Barack Obama’s 2012 Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction. The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education awards the College a silver rating for environmental sustainability efforts on campus. SUNY Cortland becomes a tobacco-free campus on Jan. The Auxiliary Services Corporation (ASC) transfers ownership of the Antlers property in Raquette Lake, N.Y., to the Cortland College Foundation. Lynne Parks Hoffman ’68 makes her second $1 million gift to the College. This bequest honors her father and his family in support of the newly named William H.
Campus and Location
Located atop one of the rolling hills in central New York’s “City of Seven Valleys,” the State University of New York College at Cortland is based in the small city of Cortland. Cortland is off of Interstate 81, between Syracuse and Binghamton. Its 191-acre campus is situated between Buffalo, which is 160 miles away, and New York City, 200 miles away. The college's main campus covers 191 acres (770,000 m2), and includes 30 traditional and modern buildings. Fourteen of these structures are residence halls that provide housing for approximately 3,000 students. Its former campus was burnt down by a fire in 1919, while sections of the current site were ravaged by a blaze in 1983.
Department of the Interior in 2004 designated Camp Pine Knot, now known as the Huntington Memorial Camp and part of its Outdoor Education center at Raquette Lake, as the first and only National Historic Landmark within the State University of New York (SUNY). Camp Pine Knot was the first Great Camp of the Adirondacks and the birthplace of what is now known as the Adirondack style of architecture.
Academics and Programs
Today, approximately 6,800 students are pursuing degrees within the college's three academic divisions-arts and sciences, education and professional studies. SUNY Cortland offers more than 100 courses in total at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Athletics: The Red Dragons
The Cortland Red Dragons are the athletic teams for SUNY Cortland. The college competes in NCAA Division III in the State University of New York Athletic Conference for most sports. SUNY Cortland has had the most regional successful men's and women's intercollegiate athletics program in New York over the past two decades.
In 1995, the Sears Directors' Cup was established to gauge and recognize the most successful intercollegiate athletics programs in the nation. to have finished every year among the Top 25 NCAA Division III programs. Cortland placed 12th out of approximately 440 schools during the 2015-16 competition that is now known as the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup. The competition is sponsored by USA Today, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, and Learfield Sports.
The Cortland Red Dragons annually play Ithaca College Bombers for the Cortaca Jug, which was added in 1959 to an already competitive rivalry. The match-up is one of the most prominent in Division III college football. It was called the "biggest little game in the nation" by Sports Illustrated in 1991. The Red Dragons had a seven-game winning streak as of November 2016, but lost 48-20 in 2017. They also play the Cortaca Mic game every Friday before the Cortaca Jug game. Which is played between the Ithaca (WICB) and Cortland (WSUC) school radio stations. Cortland also plays rival SUNY school Oswego each year for the "Dragon Sword" in Women's Field Hockey. The sword was donated by Oswego alumni Kimberlee (Bennett) and Michael Champitto and began play annually in 1999.
Cortland snapped Salisbury University's 69-game win streak to capture the 2006 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Div. III National Championship. The team reached the 2007 and 2008 national championship in rematch games against Salisbury University. In 2006 as part of its Silver Anniversary of sponsoring women's sports, the NCAA named the SUNY Cortland women's cross country program as its top cross country program of the past 25 years. The Cortland women captured seven NCAA Division III national championships in a nine-year span between 1989 and 1997 (1989, 1991-1995, 1997). In addition, the Cortland men's cross country team won the 2008 NCAA Div.
In all, Cortland teams have won 25 national titles, including 18 NCAA crowns. Along with the titles mentioned above, the field hockey team won NCAA Div. III titles in 1993, 1994 and 2001, the women's outdoor track and field team won an NCAA Div. III title in 1985 and the women's indoor track and field team was the 1991 NCAA Div. III champion. The men's lacrosse squad won the NCAA Div. II title in 1975 and the USILA College Division championship in 1973. The women's soccer won the 1992 NCAA Div. National Women's Soccer Championship in 1980, defeating UCLA in the finals. The men's gymnastics team won USGF Div. II-III titles in 1986, 1987, 1989 and 1990. The baseball and Women's Lacrosse teams each won their first ever Div. III titles in 2015.
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