Doors on the Cornell campus speak not only to the architectural styles and variety of aesthetics belonging to the buildings to which they grant access, but also to "the range of opportunities and issues that the university brings to built form." So says architectural historian and writer Roberta Moudry '81, M.A. '90, Ph.D. '95. She adds, "They talk about the history of the institution, not just its architectural choices."

There is a fairly well-known anecdote about Cornell's first day of classes on Oct. 8, 1868. As Morris Bishop relates it in "A History of Cornell":

"The doors of Morrill Hall [the only completed building on campus] stood wide open in welcome; in fact, they had to, as the hinges had not yet arrived."

"The university was new, but not yet a whole facility by any stretch of the imagination," says Moudry, who works part time for Cornell United Religious Work. "Nearly 150 years later, this institution offers to its students hundreds -- probably thousands -- of doors to open, to enter and to have experiences within that will change their lives.

"The doors are portals to so many different things -- to music performance buildings, to swimming pools, to science labs, to our wonderful libraries, our rich collections of art. The doors represent those possibilities and transformations -- we come away from this institution connected to it, changed by it."