Message from the Director

From its founding, Cornell University has stood for excellence and high achievement in academics. At the same time, Cornell athletics and recreation programs have demonstrated that student participation in intercollegiate sports and broad-based fitness and wellness programs are an integral part of the educational life of the university and complement its academic standards.

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Our Plan

Cornell’s broad-based athletics program ranks among the best in the country when measuring participation opportunities, competitive success, and academic achievement. Leading up to Cornell’s sesquicentennial in 2015, Cornell Athletics seeks to:

• Ensure that top high school student-athletes who meet the university’s academic standards can choose Cornell by offering financial aid packages that are equal to those offered by our Ivy peers
• Enhance our reputation for educating students who excel athletically and academically while also contributing to their communities
• Increase the competitiveness of teams that historically have struggled to compete among the top Ivy League programs
• Continue to excite Big Red fans everywhere through success at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics

Our Strengths

Winning Teams

We take pride in the success of our intercollegiate programs within the Ivy League, the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), and on the national stage. From the excitement of the Big Red on the ice and the men’s basketball team’s memorable run to the Sweet Sixteen in 2010 to the thrill of Kyle Dake’s consecutive NCAA wrestling crowns and the women’s polo team’s 13th national title, Cornell’s student athletes compete and excel at the highest level of intercollegiate competition in many programs.

Winning Coaches

Cornell boasts one of the finest coaching staffs of any NCAA member.  These coaches are fully committed to character and skill development that will benefit our athletes in competition, in the classroom, and long after they graduate from Cornell.

High-Achieving Student-Athletes

There are more than 1,000 student-athletes at Cornell who are dedicated to academic excellence and success in athletics competition. Big Red student-athletes make positive impacts within the university community and in the outside community as volunteers to a wide variety of activities and causes. The Cornell Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has raised funds for the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes and members of the women’s hockey team have donated their time to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. When it was learned that the niece of women’s basketball coach Dayna Smith was diagnosed with leukemia, SAAC joined with the Red Key Society to organize local efforts to increase the national bone marrow registry database. Through these activities and many more, including volunteering at local schools and non-profit organizations, Cornell’s student-athletes demonstrate that their character and compassion for others equals their dedication to athletic and academic success.

Our Priority Areas

Through the campaign for Cornell Now, Cornell Athletics seeks to increase private support across three areas:

Undergraduate financial aid support: With a target goal of raising millions in private support for undergraduate student aid, Cornell Athletics seeks to provide prospective student-athletes with competitive financial aid packages so they may choose where to attend college based upon the opportunity that best meets their needs.

Endowed funds: Increasing the size of endowment funds for Athletics will generate resources to help the athletics and recreation programs become increasingly self-supporting.

Annual funds: Our goal is to raise at least $3.5 million per year for the Cornell Annual Fund for Athletics and Physical Education, providing restricted and unrestricted funds to benefit all of the department’s programs.