Crediting the support of legislative leaders and vigorous lobbying by statutory deans in securing additional funding in the state's 1998-99 legislative budget, President Hunter Rawlings early this week announced he is "extremely delighted" with initial reports of new state capital budget allocations for Cornell that should ultimately bring the five-year plan total to more than $100 million for campus facilities.
"While there will undoubtedly be some adjustments to the final appropriations to reflect technical corrections and matching requirements, we should now be able to complete most of the items in our five-year statutory construction plan," said Rawlings. "This would include $22 million in work on Mann Library, $11.9 million for the repair and renovation of Bailey Hall, $6.8 million for an addition to Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, at least $22.9 million for rehabilitation of Stocking Hall, $7.7 million for the renovation of the Catherwood library, $9.6 million for the complete rehabilitation of the Garden Avenue complex of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and several greenhouse projects for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, both on the Ithaca campus and at the Geneva Experiment Station," Rawlings said. "We are especially grateful to the hard work done on our behalf by State Sen. James L. Seward, who serves on the Senate Higher Education Committee and represents Cornell's district in the state Senate."
Also deserving major credit for securing funds for Cornell in the legislative budget proposal are Assemblyman Martin Luster; Sen. John R. Kuhl, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture; and Sen. James J. Lack, who represents senate majority leader Joseph Bruno on Cornell's Board of Trustees, Rawlings said.
"I would also like to commend Sen. Kenneth LaValle and Assemblyman Edward Sullivan, who co-chaired the first higher education conference committee and who carried out their responsibilities with distinction. This was a new procedure for the New York State Legislature and it appears to have worked very well," Rawlings said.
The new allocations were added to Gov. George Pataki's original budget proposal by legislators in sessions in Albany last week. The funds will be earmarked in bonding authority for the State University Construction Fund and are authorized to be completed over the next five years.
Other good news for higher education and Cornell in the legislative budget are:
"The new legislative allocations paint a much brighter picture for Cornell than we have seen in recent years," said Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, "and are the result of much hard work by the president, provost, deans and staff at Cornell, and by our many friends in the state Senate and Assembly."
Rawlings met personally with Joseph Bruno, temporary president and majority leader of the Senate, and Sheldon Silver, speaker of the Assembly, to explain the importance of the capital funding to Cornell's education and public service missions, Dullea said. Statutory deans Daryl B. Lund, Francille Firebaugh, Edward J. Lawler and Donald F. Smith made numerous trips to Albany, as well, to lobby for support, he added.
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