Robert Barker/University Photography

Among the friendly faces waiting to greet the first residents of Becker House are, from left, Cindy Hazan, dean of Becker House; Mike McAnanny, West Campus Residential Initiative project manager; Edna Dugan, co-chair, West Campus Council; Lauren Beckles, graduate resident fellow; Jeffrey Ellens, assistant dean of Becker House; Carina Ray, graduate resident fellow.

The newest house on Cornell University's West Campus is ready for its first occupants, a year ahead of schedule.

Carl L. Becker House fulfills phase two of the $200 million West Campus Residential Initiative (WCRI). The complex is designed to bring undergraduates together with faculty, staff and graduate advisers in small communities offering intellectual, cultural and social activities and fostering peer leadership.

Ground was broken for Becker's construction May 17, 2004, and students will move in Friday, Aug. 19. Becker was a leading cultural historian who taught at Cornell from 1917 to 1941 and then served as university historian until his death in 1945.

The house system is "a setting that's informal and engaging for both parties," said Edna Dugan, co-chair of the West Campus Council and assistant vice president for student and academic services. "To be involved with this from its original conception [in 1998] until now is amazing." Council members visited and studied other residential colleges, including those at Yale, Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of Pennsylvania, and adapted those models for Cornell students' needs.

Each of the five completed West Campus houses will have accommodations, a dining hall, a library and other amenities for more than 360 sophomores, juniors and seniors, plus living quarters and offices for house deans and graduate resident fellows. Also, 28 faculty members and senior administrators will be house fellows; some have already served at Alice H. Cook House, which opened in August 2004.

"We all learned a lot from the Cook House experience," said Cindy Hazan, professor and dean of Becker House and associate professor of human development. "Part of the plan for West Campus was that all of us on the council who were also house fellows at Cook House would migrate to Becker House, and then to Houses 3, 4 and 5, so there would always be experienced fellows at every house." One graduate fellow and one student assistant also will migrate, Dugan said.

Cook House, which was fully occupied at the start of the 2004-05 academic year with 372 students, comprises the nearby "Gothics" (Boldt Hall, Baker Tower and Baker Hall North) and a new facility housing about 115 students. Becker's north wing, built at the same time as the new Cook building, operated as a traditional dormitory for about 140 students last year. The newly constructed south wing adds another 219 beds. With the dining pavilion, Becker House comprises about 147,000 square feet.

Workers sandblast the name onto Carl L. Becker House, Aug. 11.

"When we built the North Campus buildings in 2000 [Mews, Court and Appel Commons], we learned a lot of lessons up there. Cook House and Becker North benefited from that," said Mike MacAnanny, WCRI project manager. At Becker South and Becker Dining, "we just rolled the improvements into the design," he said.

Some enhancements for Becker South were based on student feedback. Hard wooden benches were replaced with soft furniture in hallway alcoves, and music students asked for wall mirrors in their practice rooms to see their hand technique.

Students' preferences also influenced the dining program at Cook House, which was amended early last fall to include a hot breakfast and to allow more meals away from the house.

"There has to be some communal activity around food," Hazan said, such as the Wednesday night all-house dinner, served family-style at Cook House.

"We want to help students achieve balance between their intellectual and social lives," said Jeffrey Ellens, assistant dean of Becker House.

Cultural and educational activities are part of that mix. At Cook House last year, students organized a book club; house fellow Michael Gold, associate professor of industrial and labor relations, led a one-credit American Sign Language class; Andrew Bass, professor of neurobiology and behavior, also taught a seminar; and several house fellows took students to events on campus and off, including a trip to New York City. The students have a say and take part in programming and other areas, such as stocking the house library, Hazan said.

Administrators have high hopes for the residential college experience, even in this first of several transition years. A high percentage of the Cook House students chose to stay on West Campus for another year, Dugan said.

"They understand that we were breaking down the environment into a warmer, friendlier place," she said. "It allows them to see faculty as people, who have interests other than their disciplines -- and to have opportunities for engagement in many disciplines."

For example, with faculty and graduate students readily available, a house can also offer support in such areas as career services.

Lauren Beckles, a Becker House graduate resident fellow (GRF) and master's candidate in public administration at the Cornell Institute of Public Affairs, said she aims "to give students the things they'd need besides academics, like basic life skills."

Other GRFs at Becker House are Carina Ray, African history; Lucian Leahu, computer science; Nick Robertson, chemistry; and Youngro Lee and Jocelyn Getgen, Law School.

"Interacting on a daily basis with undergraduates in their living environment provides GRFs with a deeper understanding of what students' lives are like outside of the classroom," said Ray, a doctoral candidate who teaches a freshman writing seminar.

Becker House's professional staff also includes administrative assistant Debra Opdyke and executive chef Eileen Hughes. Student assistants are Annie Burke '06 and Siray Koroma '07, both Human Ecology, and Jordan Peterson '07, Arts and Sciences.

The WCRI is slated for completion by August 2009, one year ahead of the original plan. A new Noyes Community Recreation Center will be completed (along with House 3, as yet unnamed) in January 2007. House 4, set to open in August 2008, is currently in the design stage.

Features of West Campus Houses:

• Dining hall and serving area for approximately 372 people
• Common room with fireplace, in proximity to dining hall
• Pantry, open 24 hours
• Stage with A/V equipment (in dining hall)
• Seminar room (with "smart board" for presentations -- Cook House only)
• Music practice room with piano
• TV lounge
• Furnished suites (typically accommodating five students -- one double, three singles and one common living room; rooms are wired for PC data ports, phone jacks, cable television)
• Library/study area with data ports
• Red Rover wireless Internet access in common areas
• Computer room
• House dean and assistant dean's offices, living quarters
• Graduate resident fellows' suites
• Guest suite
• Faculty offices
• Conference rooms
• Student services office / mailroom
• Laundry room (32 machines in Becker South)
• Bike storage room
• Locked mail storage room
• Chef's office
• Locker rooms for kitchen and custodial staffs
• Recycling room
• Refrigerated compost room
• Miscellaneous storage and support spaces
• Central facilities offices and West Campus crew locker rooms (in Becker South)

Infrastructure features include:

• Glycol heat exchanger in exhaust systems for heat recovery
• Lake-source cooling for chilled water
• Vegetated "green" roofs (Cook House is a LEED-certified building)