CURRENT ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | ADVERTISE | WRITE TO US | CORNELL AUTHORS | PAST ISSUES

Big Bucks for Ithaca  CU INCREASES FUNDING

PRESIDENT JEFFREY LEHMAN HAS forged a new deal with the City of Ithaca that substantially increases Cornell’s voluntary contribution and extends the memorandum of understanding that was approved in 1995. That agreement would have expired in 2007 with a final-year contribution from Cornell of $1 million. “I will be asking the trustees to accelerate that $1 million contribution to next year in place of the scheduled $750,000 contribution,” Lehman told city officials on the morning of his inauguration. “I am also proposing that the final three years of the current contribution schedule be amended so that Cornell’s voluntary contributions to the city will increase by $625,000 over the next four years . . . [and] I am proposing that the university make an additional contribution of $475,000 to the city over the next three years in support of its economic development efforts. This will bring Cornell’s voluntary contributions to the City of Ithaca to $4.7 million over the next four years.” Lehman also proposed that the memorandum of understanding be extended to 2023, with the university’s payments adjusted each year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index.

Lehman’s proposal was subsequently approved by both the Board of Trustees and the Ithaca City Common Council, but not without some grumbling from local officials. The deal had been struck between Lehman and outgoing mayor Alan Cohen ’81, some members said, without consulting the council. There were also complaints about a paragraph that allows Cornell to withdraw funding if the city has, in the university’s opinion, acted “arbitrarily and capriciously.” In a public hearing, Lehman told council members that he doubted the withdrawal clause would ever be invoked and that he would feel “a great sense of personal and institutional failure” if it were.

’Swonderful   LEHMAN ON STATE OF U.

ON OCTOBER 17—ONE DAY AFTER HIS inauguration—President Jeffrey Lehman ’77 delivered his first State of the University address to the assembled members of the Board of Trustees and University Council. He reviewed the key points of the inaugural addresses he had given in Qatar, New York City, and Ithaca, and told his listeners, “During my first few months as president, [my wife] Kathy [Okun] and I have been doing our best to engage the university and the community as fully as possible.” What they had learned after dozens of meetings with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community leaders is that “Cornell is wonderful.”

Lehman offered special thanks to the university’s senior staff for their guidance and help, singling out Inge Reichenbach, vice president for alumni affairs and development, for her role in organizing the inauguration. He then noted the “structural evolution” of Cornell, using a biological metaphor to outline the university’s transformation from a single cell at its founding to the complex organism it has become. “The addition of multiple new layers of organization on top of a base layer of cell specialization poses important questions about structure and governance,” he said. “In my call to engagement, I will be asking Cornellians to share with me their thoughts and advice about the organization of the university.”

MVR to Rise Again  PLANNING BEGINS

IN NOVEMBER, THE UNIVERSITY announced that “programming” for the new north wing of Martha Van Rensselaer Hall had begun. “This phase involves the future occupants of the building describing what they plan to do in their space so the architects can design the new building,” said James Kazda, associate director of contract colleges facilities. The design phase will last about eighteen months. Demolition of the existing wing—built in 1968 and abandoned in 2001 because of structural problems—may begin as soon as the summer of 2005; construction of its replacement will follow later that year.

Going for the Green  JOHNSON SCHOOL SCORES HIGH GRADES FOR GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

RANKING 100 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOLS ON THE basis of “social and environmental stewardship” rather than test scores and salaries, the Aspen Institute and the World Resources Institute collectively gave high marks to the Johnson Graduate School of Management in a report issued in October. In “Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003,” the fourth biannual report prepared by the two groups since 1998, the Johnson School didn’t make the top tier of the ranking—the six socalled “Schools on the Cutting Edge” of training MBAs in social and environmental impact issues—but was recognized among the next nine “Schools with Significant Activity.” Said Stuart Hart, the school’s new Samuel C. Johnson Professor in Sustainable Global Enterprise: “We’re just getting started.Wait two more years and see what we can do.”

Old Mann Becomes New  LIBRARY RENOVATIONS BEGIN

CONSTRUCTION FOR A $20 MILLION UPDATE TO MANN Library began in November. The three-year renovation will include replacement of the existing nine tiers of stacks with new stacks fitted with improved fire safety and humidity controls and addition of a five-story atrium. Improvements to the interior will retain the original art deco touches. The first phase of the project, a $20 million addition, opened in June 2000.

Return to top of page