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SUNY Chancellor Thomas A. Bartlett addresses the board of trustees during its March 29 open session, while trustee Chairman Stephen Weiss, left, and President Hunter Rawlings look on. Adriana Rovers/University Photography
By Jacquie Powers
President Hunter Rawlings opened last week's board of trustees meeting by noting that much of the day's discussion would focus on three important university partnerships: relations with the State University of New York, with the city of Ithaca and with New York Hospital.
And three key members of those partnerships came to the meeting Friday at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art to address the trustees. SUNY Chancellor Thomas A. Bartlett, SUNY trustee Edward F. Cox and Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen each addressed the board about the changing nature of their partnerships with the university and participated in discussions with board members eager to help define, forge and renew ties.
In addition, the trustees voted unanimously to reaffirm the university's need-blind admissions policy -- which guarantees admission to students regardless of their ability to pay the full cost of their education -- but deferred adopting new tuition rates for the statutory colleges due to the state budget stalemate.
Rawlings noted that Cornell and SUNY officials have been working over the past months to improve relations between the two entities. Those relations have been strained by differing views over funding of Cornell's four state-supported colleges (the College of Human Ecology, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the College of Veterinary Medicine). SUNY, which has 64 campuses, is facing a proposed $98 million funding cut for the next fiscal year.
The discussions with Cornell center around what Cornell's share of that cut should be and how the 50-year-old partnership should be defined in light of state finances and the changing state higher-education environment. Cornell's state appropriation has been reduced $21.6 million over the past seven years, with a loss of 300 state-funded positions.
Bartlett told trustees that when Gov. Pataki appointed a group of new SUNY trustees last summer he gave the SUNY board a new mandate: to maintain SUNY's educational mission of access, quality and comprehensiveness, but to reduce costs dramatically.
To accomplish this mandate the board produced a report, "Rethinking SUNY," which recommends new flexibility and independence for SUNY campuses that would require legislative and regulatory changes.
Bartlett said that in this context, and in the context of the need for changing the face of higher education in the state as well as for cutting costs, Cornell and SUNY need to be closer, to know each other better. "We have enormous common interests that need to be shared. ... We have to start working together not just occasionally at the senior levels but at the oper ating levels at a lot of different points."
Several Cornell trustees criticized Bartlett for not stopping what they called public attacks in the media against Cornell by some SUNY officials, and asked whether it might not be time to sever the Cornell-SUNY relationship. Bartlett did not rule that out, but added, "Let's first see if we can capture the advantages there are in working as partners."
Cox, appointed last summer by Pataki to the SUNY board, sought Cornell's help in the SUNY restructuring task ahead, as well as Cornell's political muscle to achieve SUNY's legislative aims.
"We're going to need Cornell's support in getting new programs through the Legislature and in focusing on the much larger picture," Cox said.
He also asked for a renewed spirit of cooperation, saying, "If we're joined at the hip, it will not advance the cause if the twins ... continue pummeling each other."
Cornell Chairman Stephen H. Weiss wrapped up the discussion. "We both agree the status quo is not acceptable to either side. ... Most of all, we have to get to a place where we can all support each other with pride. We've made a beginning today."
Ithaca's new mayor said the city is at an important crossroads. He said he felt safe when he arrived in Ithaca to attend Cornell in 1977, but "Now I must fight for the community I call home."
He said that community, of which Cornell is a driving force, is facing the problems all communities face: drugs, weapons, economics, parochial attitudes. But, he added, he is optimistic about the future of the city and its relationship with the university. He said the new agreement signed between the city and university is a good foundation for the future growth of both, and he hopes to build on that.
"The city needs to diversify its economy. Higher education has always been the driving force in the local economy, and the city needs to help its largest employer. Also, the health of Cornell University is dependent on the health of the city and its surround ings," Cohen said. He said to be competitive the local economy must be diverse enough to provide jobs and housing and shopping for trailing spouses and families of faculty, students and employees.
He asked the university to continue to invest in Ithaca, through venture capital funds, transfer of technology, low-interest mortgages and job training programs.
Trustees expressed interest in Cohen's ideas, particularly in the venture capital funds and in housing issues, and thanked him for reaching out to the university as a welcome partner.
In reporting on the partnership between the Cornell University Medical College in Manhattan and New York Hospital, Rawlings noted that it's a volatile time nationwide for the health-care business. He said managed care is coming late to Manhattan but is penetrating the market very quickly and "causing great stress and strain" on medical schools and their affiliated hospitals.
He said Cornell is working on new alliances to assure sufficient research and clinical facilities for its students and continued, critical revenues from its phy sicians' practices. Those include continued discussion between Cornell and its affiliate, New York Hospital, and three-way discussions with Cornell, North Shore University Hospital and New York Hospital.