Cookie Day Turns 25!

In the fall of 2000, the ILR School’s “sweetest” tradition – Cookie Day – was born when former Catherwood librarian Boodie McGinnis, MPS ’95, and a small group of staffers began brainstorming a potential event for the library to host in celebration of the new school year.

“We were just spinning and couldn’t come up with any ideas,” McGinnis said. “Then one night, I was sitting with my husband, and I just thought ‘Catherwood Cookie Day!’”

McGinnis shared her idea at the group’s next meeting, and her co-workers – Deborah (Joseph) Schmidle, Sarah (Young) Chandler and Tim Murch – loved it and got to work planning the event and pricing out cookies from local bakeries, grocery stores and even Cornell catering. 

For the first few years, the cookies actually came from the Tops in Cortland. 

“They had a nice bakery at the store,” said McGinnis. “They were nice-sized cookies; they had them already on trays and ready to go, and I think per dozen, they were a couple of dollars less.” 

Library staff meeting records from September 2000 stated, “Over 1,500 cookies were eagerly consumed by our starving students. At certain times (the changing of classes), it was as if the gate at Hoover Dam just opened and students surged forward in search of cookie and sundry comestibles.”

For the first few Cookie Days, McGinnis, who still lives in Cortland, remembers filling the entire back of her minivan, “stacked several layers high” with trays of cookies and driving them to Ithaca. 

McGinnis laughed as she recalled, “I knew it was going to be a lot of cookies, but I think we ordered 144 dozen, and boy, when they got piled up, they filled the entire back of my van! 

“Then, that first year when I was driving over to Ithaca, there was a dead skunk in the road. Traffic slowed down, and I had to come to a stop just as I was right over it. I thought that all the cookies were going to be ruined! I really was terrified thinking all those cookies would end up smelling like skunk!”

Despite being referred to as a “smashing success” in the staff meeting records, Cookie Day was nearly short-lived. The following year, it was scheduled for the day after 9/11.

“The horror. It was the most horrible day on campus,” McGinnis said. “I know that Gordon [Law] (director of the Catherwood Library at the time) was really torn over what we should do. We considered cancelling it, but then we thought maybe this was a time when we needed to come together and bring people in and be a community; be a family in a time of grieving.”

Cookie Day went on as planned and has continued every year since, except 2020, when it was canceled due to COVID-19.

This year, Cookie Day was held on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

According to Jim DelRosso, Catherwood interim director, small changes have occurred over the years – such as the type and number of cookies, and where they are purchased from – but the most significant change came in 2008 when the staff began giving away free books as well. 

“That’s been extremely popular,” DelRosso said. “Not just with the faculty, but also with ILR staff, grad students and undergrads. I think just about every book ends up getting taken by the end of the day.”

Suzanne Cohen, Catherwood’s collection development coordinator, organizes the book giveaway. She estimates that while the number was lower in the early days, over the past 10 years, between 1,000 and 2,000 books have been given away each Cookie Day. 

“The majority of the books come from retiring staff, faculty and even alumni. Large numbers of books came to us when Extension offices closed or changed operations,” Cohen said. “Student workers are essential, as they search for the donated books in the library catalog to check if we have them already. Ninety-eight percent of what we give away are duplicates of what we already have in the Cornell University Library collection.”

Professor Ileen DeVault, chair of the Philip Taft Labor History Award Committee, is one faculty member who regularly donates to the cause.  

“Sometimes I submit the books from the immediate past year’s Taft Prize submissions – and sometimes I submit the books from my overfilled bookshelves that I need to move in order to keep Taft Prize submissions,” DeVault said.

Professor George Boyer is one of many who never miss the event – and according to DelRosso, is often one of the first through the door. 

“I always go to Cookie Day,” said Boyer, the Martin P. Catherwood Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations. “I go mainly for the books, although I never turn down a free cookie or two. They definitely make people jolly. Everyone loves cookies.”

“And, I think anything that gets students into the library is good. They can look at the display cases, meet our great library staff, and even pick up a book that might change their lives, if they are very lucky,” he said.