Cornell University, New York, Campus History, Paperback Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, was founded after the Civil War as a great experiment: a nonsectarian, coeducational institution where “any person can find instruction in any study.”In the mid-19th century, there were only a handful of colleges that accepted women and even fewer that were nonsectarian. The university charter specifically states that “persons of every religious denomination or of no religious denomination, shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments.” Today, with colleges of hotel management and labor relations added to the more traditional majors in liberal arts, engineering, business, agriculture, and architecture, Cornell – both an Ivy League university and state land-grant college – truly offers a diverse program of study for a diverse collection of students.