CU president proposes a new agreement on contributions to city

Pledging to make strong relations between Cornell University and the city of Ithaca "a hallmark of my presidency," Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman began his inaugural celebration in Ithaca Thursday, Oct. 16, by announcing a proposal for a new memorandum of understanding that would significantly increase the university's monetary contributions to the city.

At the Tompkins County Library meeting with community leaders Oct. 16, Tim Joseph, chair of the Tompkins County Legislature, speaks with, from right, Susan Murphy, Cornell vice president for student and academic services; Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman; and Sally Grubb, Tompkins County Library development director and a member of the Ithaca City School District Board of Education. Robert Barker/University Photography

"A strong university and a strong community go hand in hand," Lehman said in a morning meeting with community leaders at the Tompkins County Public Library in downtown Ithaca. "A community with outstanding services, outstanding schools, and outstanding recreational and cultural opportunities makes Cornell attractive to outstanding students, faculty and staff members. Those students, faculty and staff members, in turn, help keep the community strong and contribute to the overall quality of life. We need to recognize the importance of our town-gown partnership. We need to celebrate it. And we need to strengthen it, especially in an era of budget constraints."

Lehman said he would ask the Cornell Board of Trustees at its meeting that weekend on campus to increase the amount of the university's voluntary contributions to the city and to extend the length of a current memorandum of understanding reached with the city in 1995. The 1995 agreement expires in 2007 with a final-year contribution from Cornell of $1 million. (On Saturday, Oct. 18, the Cornell Board of Trustees voted to authorize the revised memorandum. And the agreement was approved by the city of Ithaca's Common Council on Oct. 21.)

"I will be asking the trustees to accelerate that $1 million contribution to next year in place of the scheduled $750,000 contribution," Lehman announced Oct. 16. "I am also proposing that the final three years of the current contribution schedule be amended so that Cornell's voluntary contributions to the city will increase by $625,000 over the next four years.

"In addition to the increased annual voluntary contribution, I am proposing that the university make an additional contribution of $475,000 to the city over the next three years in support of its economic development efforts. This will bring Cornell's voluntary contributions to the city of Ithaca to $4.7 million over the next four years," he said.

Lehman added that the proposal extends the current agreement with the city by 16 years to the year 2023. The extended 16-year contribution schedule will be adjusted annually in response to changes in the consumer price index.

Under the terms of the 13-year 1995 agreement, Cornell has given $4.25 million in contributions to the city, through this year.

Cornell and Ithaca "must continue to build on our shared roots and aspirations," Lehman said, noting that Cornell is committed to being the major tenant of a new downtown office building. On Nov. 3, he and Ithaca City School District Superintendent Judith Pastel will hold a public meeting at 7 p.m. at Ithaca High School to draw community involvement into the Ithaca Public Education Initiative. Lehman called the public meeting "one small example of the university's commitment to working with our K-12 educational partners in Tompkins County and throughout New York."

Lehman met with community leaders at the start of his inauguration day in Ithaca -- after riding the TCAT "trolley" bus from campus -- to highlight the historic connection between the library and the university, both of which were founded by Ezra Cornell.

He noted that the university's first Inauguration Day, on Oct. 7, 1868, was celebrated at the public library, where Ezra Cornell and President Andrew Dickson White presented their inaugural addresses.

"Mr. White expounded at length on the ideas upon which the university was based: the union of the liberal arts and practical learning; variety in courses of study, with provision for student choice; nonsectarianism; coeducation," Lehman said. "They were radical, even revolutionary, ideas at the time. Yet today they are part of virtually all major American research universities.

"Ezra Cornell, usually the more pragmatic and down-to-earth member of the founding team, spoke of his vision for the new university and of what he hoped it would do for the students who enrolled: that it would make them 'more truthful, more honest, more virtuous, more noble'; that it would 'give them higher purposes and more lofty aims'; that it would train them to be more useful in their relations to the state and to better serve their fellows and society. Those 19th century sentiments remain admirable, and I wanted to highlight them as part of the new beginning we celebrate today," Lehman said.