All the tenants move out of Armstrong Hall this summer as renovation work begins to transform the building into a new home for the music and theater departments. Major changes include turning the current theater into a "black box" theater, replacing Armstrong Gallery with an acting/recital studio, increasing classroom space, adding individual and group music practice rooms, and installing an integrated technology system throughout. Armstrong Hall is expected to reopen in late summer 2003.

The 250-seat theater addition to Armstrong should be completed in early fall. McWethy Hall (formerly Alumni Hall), the new home of the art department, will be completed this summer. The final exhibition in Armstrong Gallery featured works from the Blanche Armstrong Collection and paintings and sculpture from the larger Cornell collection, including works by early Cornell art faculty such as Henry Mills, Nama Lathe, Philip Henderson, and Charles Atherton Cumming.

The former Alumni Hall gymnasium takes on new life as the upper levels of McWethy Hall for the art department. On the gymnasium floor level underneath a lofted ceiling will be a table studio on the south side and an easel studio on the north side. The gym walls will be repainted and several ledges that once supported an elevated running track may be retained. The existing ceiling and trusses have been exposed and sandblasted to their natural wood condition.

Also this summer the campus pedestrian mall gets a new look. A 16-foot-wide walkway made of concrete pavers will stretch from College Hall to The Commons. Distinctive lighting and, in the fall, approximately 75 maple trees will be added along the walkway. A "chapel garden" featuring ornamental pear trees and a limestone terrace will be installed between King Chapel and Bowman-Carter Residence Hall. Marie Carter of Bettendorf, Iowa, contributed $1.5 million toward the pedestrian mall project.

Census misplaces dorm residents
When the 2000 U.S. Census showed Mount Vernon with 267 fewer residents than in 1990, city officials alleged the count was wrong. And census officials have finally agreed, admitting they mistakenly moved 418 Cornell dorm residents to the small Linn County town of Bertram.

With all its residents accounted for, Mount Vernon is now pursuing the return of about $25,000 in state road-use tax revenue that went to Bertram for the people who actually live in Mount Vernon.

Winter athletes make history
Senior trackster Julie Carne became Cornell's fifth female all-American when she placed seventh in the 400-meter dash at the Division III indoor national meet. Cornell's most recent all-American in track was Kelly Dodd '00 in the discus.

Junior center Luke Feddersen became the first Ram men's basketball player named to the first squad of the All-Iowa Conference team.

For the first time in Cornell history, a women's basketball player has surpassed 1,000 career points -- in fact, three players did so this year; (below, from left) seniors Marni Chandlee (1,031), Lisa Fry (1,131), and Bindy Comito (1,036).