Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Agriculture Quad viewed from Bradfield Hall, Ithaca's West Hill and Cayuga Lake in the background

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).[6] 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).[7] 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 [8] (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 [9] 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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[12]

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. 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.

Stone Hall, Roberts Hall, and East Roberts Hall were the first buildings of the New York State College of Agriculture

The legislation provided $125,000 for the construction of a new building for the College.[14] The building was constructed in three parts to comply with the act's restriction on spending for a single building.[14] These were Stone Hall, Roberts Hall, and East Roberts Hall.[14] Named for dean Isaac P. Roberts,[14] the buildings were built in 1905-1906 along Tower Road. East Roberts served as the new Dairy Building, as the old Dairy Building was merged into Goldwin Smith Hall.[15] The three buildings were determined in 1973 to be decrepit, and despite being listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1984, Cornell had them demolished in 1988.[15] Kennedy-Roberts Hall was built in 1989 to replace Roberts-Stone Halls.[15]

The college changed its name from the New York State College of Agriculture to the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1971.

In 1898, the State Legislature established a separate New York State College of Forestry at Cornell. 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. 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.