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CAU > On-campus programs > Overview

Overview

If you've never attended Cornell's Adult University, consider taking the leap this summer! In our forty-four years, more than 55,000 adults and their children and grandchildren have participated in our summer on-campus programs, and many have found the experience so rewarding that they've returned for five, ten, even twenty years running.

Between 100 and 150 adults take part in CAU each week: about three-quarters are Cornellians or Cornell spouses, half are here without youngsters, and about one-third are singles.

The classes are designed for bright people who may not have backgrounds in the subjects. The substance is rich and deeply informative, the mood lively and informal. The teaching is superb. Any reticence that a participant may feel at the start of the program soon melts away in the company of congenial classmates.

Classes meet each day until 3:30 p.m. with Wednesday afternoons free—so there's plenty of time to enjoy our “gorgeous gorges,” the Cornell Plantations, the Laboratory of Ornithology, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and Cornell's Robert Trent Jones golf course. In the evenings you can relax at lectures, plays, and free concerts, sip espresso at an outdoor café, or view the planets at Fuertes Observatory.

Most participants enjoy the fun and convenience of living in North Campus residence halls (which are clean but not luxurious) and eating in the dining halls. Court/Kay is the heart of CAU's living quarters. The comfy adult lounge there provides a computer, coffee and tea for early birds, and wine, soft drinks, and snacks from 4:00 to 11:00 p.m.

Please check out the frequently asked questions section and the program descriptions, which we hope will tempt you to join us for a week or more this summer. If you do, we know that you—like the thousands before you—will have a richly rewarding and memorable experience at Cornell's Adult University.

With warm regards from Ithaca,
Catherine Sutton Penner '68, Director