Thousands of students congregated in the rain on Libe Slope on May 3 for the annual Slope Day gathering, marking the end of classes for the spring semester. Several used the slope behind Uris Library as a mud slide. Charles Harrington/University Photography
By Larry Bernard
Cornell students took to the slopes on May 3, but they weren't skiing.
Mud sliding was more like it.
With more than 5,000 students congregating on Libe Slope on the last day of classes -- forever for graduating seniors, in an annual rite of passage from Cornell -- dozens of them went careening, rolling, tumbling and just plain falling down the hill as rain made the slope resemble a California mud slide more than a grassy knoll at the foot of Uris Library. But it's grass no more.
As a result, there were fractured bones, torn ligaments, dislocated joints, cuts and bruises, teeth knocked out and dozens of other injuries that had the Gannett Health Center looking like a MASH unit.
"We had more injuries, some of which were serious, this year compared to last year," particularly lacerations, fractures and ligamentous injuries, said Dr. Janet Corson-Rikert, acting director of Gannett.
Although only three people had to be taken by ambulance from the slope to the emergency room at Cayuga Medical Center for alcohol poisoning, about 20 were drunk or sick enough to require a rest at the Health Center. Thirty mattresses were brought there in advance, just in case. And while no one was comatose, emergency medical technicians reported that many of the more than 40 people they treated on the hill were too drunk to know where they were.
Cornell Police reported that they responded to 114 incidents and made dozens of arrests, most of them for liquor law violations. The amount of alcohol was so great, police confiscated more than 200 cases of beer -- and 100 cases of beer in one vehicle alone, which a fraternity was going to pass out for free on the slope. That was not to be, as police reminded the offenders that they would need a liquor license for that amount of alcohol.
Still, officials said it was a better Slope Day than last year, when the hospital emergency rooms were overflowing and health care workers had difficulty keeping up with the injured.
Credit the administration planners. The Dean of Students Office, led by Catherine Holmes, director of student activities, helped ensure a safe but fun day. Student and Academic Services determined that live music was not a good idea, and food was available from Tucker's Catering and Domino's Pizza.
The student group Students Offering Support, chaired by Leslie Kirchler '98, with the Dean of Students Office, rounded up more than 200 students, faculty and staff who were trained to patrol the grounds and try to keep students out of trouble. The volunteers were spotted easily by their pink "Slope Day 96 -- Keep it Safe, Keep it Fun" T-shirts, designed by Madison and Tower, the student advertising agency.
With 13 extra police officers, two vans to shuttle between the slope and the hospital, extra mattresses in Gannett, 4,800 16 oz. bottles of water, portable toilets around the slope's perimeter, double staff at the hospital emergency room and a volunteer corps on patrol, Cornell appeared ready for anything. But the students persevered, and even a steady rain did little to dampen their revelry.
"This is the worst I've ever seen it in my 10 years," Dennis Osika, director of the Grounds Department, said of the condition of the slope. "There was quite a lot of loss of grass and erosion on the steepest part of the slope. We only have three weeks until commencement. I don't know if we'll make it, but we're trying."
Grounds crews were working "feverishly," he said, spending seven hours on the slope Saturday doing cleanup and preparing for seeding. "It's very difficult to seed there because it's so steep," Osika said, adding that it would cost more than $3,200 for cleanup and repair of the area.
At times it got ugly, as reported by Cornell Emergency Medical Services technicians who were on the front lines. Not just beer and Frisbees were flying, but they reported numerous airborne UFBs -- Unidentified Flying Bottles. Combat pay was demanded only half facetiously upon return to the relative safety of the EMS tent across the street on West Avenue. Even President Hunter Rawlings, who came out to greet the students, had to turn back after a short time. And after one mud slider slid right under a Bang's ambulance on the path beneath the slope, that was enough for Cornell Police, who closed off that area.
Class of 1996, your soon-to-be alma mater has one question: Was it worth it?