 From 1865 to 1868 , the year the university opened , Ezra Cornell and Andrew D. White worked in tireless collaboration to build their university . Cornell oversaw the construction of the university 's first buildings , starting with Morrill Hall , and spent time investing the federal land scrip in western lands for the university that would eventually net millions of dollars , while White , who was unanimously elected the first President of Cornell University by the Board of Trustees on November 21 , 1866 , began making plans for the administrative and educational policies of the university . To this end , he traveled to France , Germany and England " to visit model institutions , to buy books and equipment , to collect professors " . White returned from Europe to be inaugurated as Cornell 's president in 1868 , and he remained leader of Cornell until his retirement from the presidency in 1885 . 
