ITHACA, N.Y. -- The newest addition to Cornell University's North Campus is the Carol Tatkon Center, an academic center for first-year students, located in the south wing of the university's Balch Hall. A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new center will be held Friday, Aug. 22, at 5:15 p.m.

The Carol Tatkon Center was designed to connect the academic heart of the university with the residential center for first-year student life on North Campus. It is administered by Cornell's Office of the Dean of Students in collaboration with the vice provost for undergraduate education and the Campus Life office.

The new center will provide settings for classes, seminars, meetings, faculty-student interaction and support-services referrals, as well as a cafe for social gatherings. Computer accessible for wireless or plug-in applications, the center also has a walk-in writing service, a browsing library stocked with books by Cornell faculty members and corridors lined with cases displaying student and faculty art.

"The Tatkon Center is a place where students will be able to get together with friends, a TA or a professor," said Christine Schelhas-Miller, Cornell associate dean of students for new student programs and senior lecturer in human development. "They can use the walk-in writing service, attend a poetry reading or simply find a comfortable place to unwind with a cappuccino. They can bring any question to us, and we will help them find the answer. We hope first-year students will find the center early during their first semester and come often."

The center is named for the late Carol Clark Tatkon, a 1959 Cornell graduate and the president of Balch Hall and managing editor of The Cornellian in her senior year. An active alumna of the university, Tatkon served as a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. After her death in 1997, her daughter, Heather Tatkon Powers '91, MPA '93, and son-in-law, Eric A. Powers '86, MBA '93, worked with the university to find a fitting use for her bequest to Cornell. They settled on a facility dedicated to improving life on campus for students -- the Carol Tatkon Center."We are thrilled that Carol Tatkon's bequest has given us this opportunity to develop a center for first year students on North Campus," said Schelhas-Miller. "We hope it will ease their transition to Cornell and help them establish connections with the rest of the university."

For more information about the activities at the center or the Aug. 22 ribbon-cutting ceremony, call (607) 253-4282, or send e-mail to Carol_Takton_Center@cornell.edu .