Last Wednesday, Professor Garrick Blalock came and talked with us about the history of West Campus. He first took us way back to the start of the school, and told us that, at first, Ezra Cornell, was against on-campus housing because he wanted students who came to Cornell to experience Ithaca and live in the city. As the university grew, however, he drew up the plans for West Campus housing, and it was originally supposed to be entirely made up of gothic housing. Due to the lack of funding, only the gothics that stand today were built at the time, and eventually just several years ago, the newer main houses were added to West. Prof. Blalock shared a lot of information in the hour, and I really found his talk interesting, especially because of the visual presentation that he had with him. He showed us many pictures from Cornell’s campus in the 1800s and early to mid 1900s that had been archived from Kroch’s rare library that were incredible to look at. In the middle of West Campus, in fact, there had previously been a large community center, and the other U-building had apparently (many in the room agreed) been out of place and unappealing. Learning about the history of the gothics and how West Campus came to be has given me a newfound appreciation for not only the gothics but Cornell University as a whole.