Ithaca (1983: Doomsday)

The city-state of Ithaca, named for the Greek island of Ithaca, sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, USA. It is best known for being home to Cornell University, an Ivy League school with almost 20,000 students (most of them studying on Cornell’s Ithaca campus). Ithaca College is located just south of the city in the town of Ithaca, adding to Ithaca’s “college town” focus and atmosphere.

Post-Doomsday
The specialists educated at the various universities in the country were invaluable for the survival of the county and everyone in it. The county became one of the few places in the former United States to not only survive, but prosper in those vital early years. Having seen the destruction of various places in the state, it became all too clear that they were on there own. Thus they signed the Ihacan Declaration of Independance on August 7th, 1984. This makes them the oldest organized state in the former United States.

Military
There is no official Ithacan "Army", but they have enforced the Second Ammendment of their Constitution. A well-funded militia calling itself the Minutemen has been organized. These citizens, while trained by the Ithacan government, are very loosely regulated by it.

Economy
The Ithacans haven proven that there is no more valuable asset than a good education. The flow of people educated in tremendously valuable skills (Engineering, Agriculture, etc.) was one of the reasons why the regional economy recovered so quickly. The Ithacans are some of the few people that can maintain the vaulable machinery left by Doomsday.

Education
Ithaca is a major educational center in Central New York. The city is home to Ithaca College, situated on South Hill, and Cornell University (that is the last of the so-called "Ivy League" Universities) which overlooks the town from East Hill. The student population is very high, as almost 5,000 students are enrolled at Cornell, with an additional 1,575 students at Ithaca College. Tompkins Cortland Community College is located in the neighboring town of Dryden, New York, and has an extension center in downtown Ithaca. Empire State College offers non-traditional college courses to adults in downtown Ithaca. This means that the Ithacans are the most highly educated nation-state in the former United States.