Above & Beyond CORNELL SEEKS TO RAISE $4 BILLION

AT A PRESS CONFERENCE HELD AT WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL College in New York City on October 26--just as this issue of CAM was going to press--University officials announced a fiveyear capital campaign with a goal of $4 billion. This fundraising effort is the largest in Cornell's history.

Co-chairs for "Far Above . . . The Campaign for Cornell" are trustees Jan Rock Zubrow '77, Stephen Ashley '62, MBA '64, and Robert Appel '53. President David Skorton will play a major role in meeting with prospective donors to explain the campaign's importance to the future of the University. Funds will be raised for both the Ithaca and New York City campuses, as well as for collaborative efforts focusing on biomedical research. The campaign priorities center on three areas: students, with an emphasis on increasing financial support for both undergraduates and graduate students; faculty, especially with regard to recruiting the "next generation" to replace the many faculty expected to retire in the coming decade; and facilities, including the Life Sciences Technology Building, Milstein Hall, a new physical sciences building, and an information science campus, as well as planned renovations to the historic buildings on the Arts Quad.

The quiet phase of the capital campaign began two years ago, and nearly $1 billion has been raised so far. The Board of Trustees approved the $4 billion goal in September, and the public phase of the campaign is expected to conclude on December 31, 2011. Look for a more extensive report on the campaign priorities in the next issue of CAM.

Koolhaas Connects  FAMED ARCHITECT OFFERS THIRD DESIGN FOR MILSTEIN HALL

"THIS HAS BEEN A LONG JOURNEY," AAP Dean Mohsen Mostafavi told the more than 800 people who attended the unveiling of Milstein Hall: Take Three in Bailey Hall on September 19.He wasn't just waxing dramatic. The new design is the latest chapter in an architectural saga that began in 2000, when philanthropist Paul Milstein and his family gave $10 million toward a new building for the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. The initial design--a seven-story cube by Steven Holl Architects--proved unworkable, while a long, narrow structure proposed by a Berlin firm in 2002 faded with more of a whimper than a bang. The new version, by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, appears to be on the fast-track for construction: groundbreaking on the $40 million project is planned for early 2007, with completion two years later.

Unlike its predecessors, the latest Milstein design doesn't require the demolition of Rand Hall; instead, it fills the rather grim construction-staging area behind Sibley, which Koolhaas repeatedly called "a war zone" during his presentation, and links the two buildings with the Foundry at the edge of Fall Creek Gorge. The aim, Koolhaas told the Bailey Hall audience, was to "create a place where there is no place, create a connection where there is disconnection." The threestory, 43,000-square-foot structure-- whose upper floors will stretch across University Avenue--will include an auditorium, a vast roof deck, the Fine Arts Library, studios, and a long-desired lecture hall. Its modernist design features floor-to-ceiling windows, a grid of skylights, and a "bump" that both defines the shape of the auditorium and creates a central lobby.

Undecided CU PONDERS OPTIONS ON EARLY DECISION

THE SEPTEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS THAT HARVARD AND PRINCETON WILL DISCONTINUE early decision in admissions as of next fall may have made headlines, but Cornell has been questioning the value of the practice "for some time," says Provost Biddy Martin. Early decision--which offers applicants the chance to settle their college plans months in advance of the regular deadline in exchange for a binding promise to attend the university that admits them--has been criticized as unfair to needier students, on the grounds that it keeps them from comparing potential financial aid packages offered by multiple schools.

"Because of our concerns about the potential for inequities, we have worked to limit the percentage of early decision matriculants at Cornell,"Martin says. "We are reviewing the data we have collected over time, comparing our policies to those of our peers, and consulting with a number of constituencies as we consider what would be best for Cornell and the public good."

The exact nature of any changes is still up in the air, but possibilities include switching from binding early decision to non-binding early action, further limiting the number of students admitted early, and ending early decision altogether. The issue is complicated,Martin says, by the fact that each undergraduate college at Cornell uses early decision differently.

The Rating Game  SOME UP, SOME DOWN

CORNELL MOVED UP A NOTCH IN U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT'S ANNUAL rankings of the best national universities, tying for twelfth place with Washington University in St. Louis. It also stayed in first place for a second year for the best undergraduate engineering physics program. And Cornell was one of only three universities profiled in adjacent articles, along with UCLA and Virginia's Liberty University.

Among colleges that are "engines of social mobility,"Cornell ranked eighth in the Washington Monthly's second annual survey. Although the highest rating among the Ivies, it was a four-place drop from 2005. The Monthly weighs indicators of community service, research of value to society, and social mobility factors such as the number of low-income students a school graduates.

The University also dropped in Black Enterprise magazine's "Top 50 Colleges for African Americans" rankings. This year, Cornell placed twenty-sixth, two notches down from 2004, the last year the survey was conducted

Cornell Divests UNIVERSITY PULLS FUNDS OUT OF SUDAN

IN AUGUST, PRESIDENT DAVID SKORTON announced that Cornell will no longer invest its endowment assets in oil companies doing business in Sudan because of the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region. "It is impossible for us to stand by idly and tolerate the complicity of the Sudanese government in this human tragedy," Skorton said. "Given that more than half of the Sudanese government's revenues are derived from oil, the Cornell community is sending an unequivocal message to the oil companies about the impact of their own actions in this crisis."

As of June 30, Cornell had about $10.3 million invested in oil companies operating in Sudan, according to University Treasurer Patricia Johnson. The University's investment managers were instructed to divest these holdings and refrain from any further investments until the Sudanese government deals with the humanitarian crisis. In his inaugural address, Skorton noted this action and added that "divestment is not enough," saying that he and Provost Biddy Martin will be "pursuing other avenues where Cornell can be a positive force in that and other troubled parts of the world."