Is Cornell the weirdest of the eight Ivies? So says Chiara Atik. According to this article that she wrote for Guest of a Guest, Cornell is known for its “chess loving, duck researching geeks,” has a Greek system known for “un-mainstream behavior” like copulating with goats, and boasts Bill Nye as one of its most famous alumni.
Okay, so the article is clearly misinformed and completely mischaracterizes the student body as a bunch of eccentric insect enthusiasts and sex-emailing mongers, but we can’t put the blame on Chiara. After all, she never really visited the other Ivies and most of the stuff she says about Cornell is true, even if it’s over exaggerated, right? Well, not exactly. If she had spent even 5 minutes searching through the popular IvyGate blog she would have found that our Ivy counterparts are guilty of much more deplorable and weird activities:
Brown: In 2008, a varsity hockey player pleaded guilty to voyeurism.
Columbia: Professors get into bar brawls with students whose opinions differ from theirs.
Dartmouth: Students enjoy running naked to attract, (or dissuade?) prospective students.
Harvard: They have their own email debacles.
Penn: Just weird.
Princeton: The Tigers have their own sorority embarrassments.
Yale: This is a family friendly blog, so I recommend all families with small children to stay away from Yale Facebook threads.
And this is just a brief rundown of strange happenings at the other seven Ivies- we haven’t even gotten into campus traditions.
I will say that as much as I dislike Ms. Atik’s characterization of our wonderful school, I do appreciate her Cornell Review, er, shout out?
The Cornell Review is a conservative newspaper founded by Ann Coulter, perhaps the only college publication in the nation which accuses its school of left-wing politics and political correctness.
Wait, what? Say that again. The only publication in the nation that accuses its school of political correctness? This seems to be one of those propositions which is self-evidently false, given the number of newspapers and the number of universities out there. Oh yeah, and furthermore, there’s an entire network of conservative papers that constantly criticize their respective schools for liberal politics. Not really sure where you were going with that one, Ms. Atik. I guess dramatic writing is not really the same thing as insightful, accurate, or interesting writing.
