Briefs

Trustee meeting: The Cornell Board of Trustees is meeting on campus today, May 27, through Saturday, May 29. The Executive Committee of the board will hold a brief open session at the start of its meeting Friday at 7:30 a.m. in the Taylor A&B Room of the Statler Hotel. The open session will include a discussion of the 2004-05 financial plan for the contract colleges. The full board will convene in open session at the start of its meeting at 3:15 p.m. Friday in Appel Commons on North Campus. During the open session, the board will hear a report from President Jeffrey Lehman; a report from Donna Goss, chair of the Employee Assembly; a report from Charles Walcott, dean of the faculty; and the annual report from Robert Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development, on "Progress Toward Diversity and Inclusion." The 2004-05 financial plan and contract college budget also will be presented. The board reconvenes in closed session at 1:15 p.m. Saturday in Clark Hall.

The Committee on Land Grant and Statutory College Affairs will meet in open session at 4 p.m. today in the Taylor A&B Room of the Statler. The committee will hear a report from Provost Biddy Martin, and a panel discussion on economic development in higher education will be led by R. Wayne Diesel, vice chancellor for business and industry relations at the State University of New York.

These committees will have open sessions on campus Friday:

The Buildings and Properties Committee will meet in open session at the start of its 9:30 a.m. meeting in the Yale/Princeton Room of the Statler Hotel. Status reports on various construction projects will be presented.

The Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life will hold a brief open session at the start of its 1 p.m. meeting in the Yale-Princeton Room. The committee will vote on:a resolution to establish a Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology, a resolution to establish a Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering and a resolution to establish an undergraduate major in China and Asia-Pacific Studies.

A limited number of tickets for the open session of the Executive Committee and of the full board are available at the Information and Referral center in the lobby of Day Hall. No tickets are needed for the open sessions of the other committees.

Campus steam shutdown: The Cornell community is reminded that the annual campuswide steam shutdown -- enabling essential maintenance work on the steam distribution system and repairs at the Central Heating Plant -- will be next week. The steam system will be shut down at 5 a.m. Tuesday, June 1, and will start up again at 5 p.m. Thursday, June 3. Some buildings will not have full steam pressure, heat and domestic hot water until after midnight on Friday, June 4. Should you anticipate problems, contact the Facilities Management Customer Service Center at 255-5322.

Seat belt enforcement: Cornell University Police joins more than 13,000 law enforcement agencies and other campus and university law enforcement officers in a nationwide crackdown on seat belt law violators in conjunction with a national ad campaign, this week through June 6, titled "Click It or Ticket." The two-week enforcement wave will be supported by more than $30 million in congressionally funded national and state advertising. It is based on a proven public health model to increase seat belt use called "high visibility enforcement." Last year, the national "Click It or Ticket" push increased seat belt use by four percentage points -- to 79 percent, the highest rate ever recorded. "The only proven way to get significant increases in seat belt use among young people and ultimately save lives, is through high visibility enforcement, including targeted and intense advertising to alert people to the enforcement," said Sgt. Chuck Howard of Cornell Police. The publicity campaign is being conducted by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with support from the National Safety Council, in conjunction with law enforcement agencies and the National Transportation Safety Board.

CUSLAR Spanish class: The Committee on U.S.- Latin American Relations is offering a Beginner II Spanish class in June with a native speaker as instructor. The class will be offered June 3-29, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5-7 p.m. To register or for more information, contact CUSLAR at 255-7293 or by e-mail at cuslar@cornell.edu.

Computer policy and law:The Institute for Computer Policy and Law will be on campus, July 6-9, co-sponsored by Cornell and EDUCAUSE. The intensive four-day program, which has become one of the nation's premier forums for discussing and learning about technology policies in higher education, will examine how the widespread use of the Internet affects college and university policies, procedures and judicial systems. The program will be led by co-directors Steven L. Worona, the director of policy and networking for EDUCAUSE, and Tracy B. Mitrano, director of information technology policy for Cornell's Office of Information Technologies.

For more information, or to register, contact Cornell's School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions at 255-7259; fax 255-8942; e-mail cusp@cornell.edu; or visit this Web site:http://www.sce.cornell.edu/exec.

May 27, 2004