Rawlings tells Rotary he's bullish on CU and the greater Ithaca community

Cornell President Hunter Rawlings, in an address to the monthly meeting of the Rotary Club of Ithaca at the downtown Holiday Inn, April 4, asserted that, "Despite the uncertainties of the current economic environment, I remain bullish about the future of the greater Ithaca area and about the future of Cornell."

Rawlings went on to tell the assembled community leaders, "And I want to assure you, Cornell is committed to its neighborhood -- and to helping keep the community strong."

During his address, Cornell's president talked about several partnerships the university has made with the local community and he also discussed broad campus initiatives that the university has undertaken.

Rawlings noted that plans for the downtown Ithaca office building, in which Cornell has pledged to be a major tenant for at least the next 20 years, are moving forward. He pointed out that the field of possible developers has been narrowed to three, and when a final choice is made, the university will "work privately with that developer to finalize contractual agreements, acquire the site and work through other details before making a public announcement."

"I want to stress," Rawlings said, "that the purpose of this project is to strengthen the downtown area. ... Cornell is working hand-in-hand with the city to make sure the project will enhance the Commons and the surrounding downtown area. ... It has the potential to be a great example of what can be done cooperatively for the greater community."

He also talked about the success of the Cornell Business and Technology Park, which this year is marking its 50th anniversary. And he pointed out that the Lake Source Cooling project, completed last summer, is exceeding the university's expectations in the reduction of electricity use and savings of kilowatt hours, with no discernable effect on the lake. "We at Cornell appreciate the cooperative spirit and the productive synergies with the local community that emerged during this project -- and we are proud of and pleased with the results," he said.

In the area of staff compensation, Rawlings told the Rotary members that the university is continuing its multi-year overall pay improvement process for all staff, announced last December, and it is "addressing the issue of a living wage assertively by giving special attention to compensation levels in our five lowest pay bands."

Rawlings also described progress toward the start of several planned Cornell construction projects, including the new headquarters for the Laboratory of Ornithology in the Town of Dryden and Duffield Hall on the university's Engineering Quad. He also described plans for a new visitors center and for the replacement of Rand Hall, "to provide a new home for our undergraduate architecture program." (See story, page 1.)

"Of course the most visible building project on campus right now is on North Campus," Rawlings said, "where we are completing two residence halls and a community commons in preparation for housing all our freshman on North Campus next fall....The North Campus residential initiative is rooted in Cornell's commitment to be the best research university for undergraduate education in the nation." And he also discussed plans over the next five-to-eight years to make "an equally dramatic transformation on West Campus" to meet the needs of sophomore and upper-class students.

"In closing," Rawlings told club members, "let me say that the financial markets may be tumbling, but the trajectory for Cornell and the greater Ithaca community continues to go steadily upward."