The annual ritual in Ithaca this time of year (From the IJ)
Students flooding back to Ithaca
Move-in days at IC, CU this weekend
1:52 PM, Aug 21, 2013
Written by
D.W. Nutt
ITHACA — They’re almost back. Are you ready?
This weekend will see the return of thousands of college students in an annual migration of moving trucks, wide-eyed freshmen, bewildered parents and — watching it all from the sidelines — equally bewildered locals.
In a rare overlap, move-in days for Cornell University and Ithaca College fall in the same weekend, which means busier streets, slower traffic and longer lines at Wegmans.
Whether it’s keeping a close eye on pedestrians around Aurora Street’s restaurant row or navigating tricky intersections, such as Martin Luther King Jr./East State and Mitchell streets, Ithacans will need to prepare themselves.
Happily, there’s some breathing room between move-in days, with Cornell’s incoming class arriving on campus Friday, and Ithaca College’s freshmen unloading on Sunday.
The rest of Ithaca College’s returning students will move into residence halls on Monday. Cornell’s sophmore, junior, senior and graduate students are already back.
In an e-mail to the university community, Cornell University Police Chief Kathy Zoner said that “extra time” and “extra caution” are her buzzwords for the week.
Anyone traveling through Cornell’s campus on Friday — whether by bicycle, bus, foot or Ferrari — should expect delays and heavy traffic. Traffic is expected to be heaviest around 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., but the roads will be busy well into the evening hours and throughout the weekend.
According to Cornell’s Fall Opening Committee, 3,700 new students and their families will be arriving at Cornell. The committee asked faculty to allow staff to take vacation or personal days Friday and encouraged Cornellians to use TCAT and carpools or avoid driving on campus if possible.
TCAT will be resuming regular campus service on Sunday, with some routes beginning Friday to accommodate Cornell’s new arrivals.
Ithaca College’s student influx will be less extensive due to the college’s smaller size, but anyone leaving town via Route 96B should be braced for congestion.
“There is bound to be a lot of traffic around the South Hill area, and it’s especially important when there are new people coming into Ithaca that local residents be aware that some of those people are unfamiliar with the traffic patterns, particularly one-way streets,” said David Maley, associate director of media relations for Ithaca College.
Other locations where year-round residents may want to exercise caution when approaching: the Shops at Ithaca Mall, Triphammer Road, the strip of big-box stores along Route 13 and the infamous Octopus, where state Routes 13, 79, 89 and 96 tangle together.
There is a silver lining to such a high density of students: Cornell’s annual Dump and Run sale, a campus-wide waste-reduction and recycling program, in which items left behind by students at the end of last semester are resold to the general public. Everything from clothing and electronics to shelves, bookcases and, presumably, lots of uneaten Ramen noodles.
The sale runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday in Helen Newman Gym on North Campus, with proceeds benefitting local nonprofits.
So head out to work a little bit earlier Friday morning and take a few deep breaths before stepping into Target. And if you’re planning on dining out downtown this weekend? You may want to think about making a reservation.
Here's the link:
http://www.ithacajournal.com/article...ng-back-Ithaca