occupation steven kaplan 
___MASK23___ or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity . This covers the ancient Mediterranean world , particularly ancient Greece and Rome . It encompasses the study of ancient languages , literature , philosophy , history , and archaeology . Traditionally in the West , the study of the Greek and Roman ___MASK23___ was considered one of the cornerstones of the humanities and a necessary part of a rounded education . Since the 20th century , however , ___MASK23___ is no longer a part of a typical elite education . Cornell University is an American private Ivy League and federal land - grant doctoral university located in Ithaca , New York . Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White , the university was intended to ___MASK86___ and make contributions in all fields of knowledge  from the ___MASK23___ to the sciences , and from the theoretical to the applied . These ideals , unconventional for the time , are captured in Cornell ' s motto , a popular 1865 Ezra Cornell quotation : " I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study ." Steven Kaplan served as the Goldwin Smith Professor of European History in the Department of History at Cornell University , where he is now a professor emeritus . His primary fields of expertise are French history and the history of food , specifically the history of bread . He earned his A . B . at Princeton University in 1963 and his M . A . in 1966 , M . Phil in 1968 and Ph . D . in 1974 at Yale University . The Ivy League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States . The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group beyond the sports context . The eight institutions are Brown University , Columbia University , Cornell University , Dartmouth College , Harvard University , the University of Pennsylvania , Princeton University , and Yale University . The term " Ivy League " has connotations of ___MASK38___ excellence , selectivity in admissions , and social elitism . Goldwin Smith ( 13 August 1823  7 June 1910 ) was a British ___MASK7___ and journalist , active in the United Kingdom and Canada . ___MASK55___ is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe . Andrew Dickson White ( November 7 , 1832  November 4 , 1918 ) was an American ___MASK7___ and educator , who was the cofounder of Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades . He was known for expanding the scope of college curriculae . A politician , he had served as state senator in New York . He was later appointed as a US diplomat to Germany and Russia , among other responsibilities . Ezra Cornell ( January 11 , 1807  December 9 , 1874 ) was an American businessman , ___MASK29___ , philanthropist and educational administrator . He was the founder of Western Union and a co - founder of Cornell University . He also served as President of the New York Agriculture Society and as a New York state Senator .