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| Left: Trustee Edwin Morgens reacts to a speaker's comments during the Cornell Board of Trustees meeting, Oct. 17, in B09 Sage Hall on campus. Right: Student-elected trustee Jacqueline Koppell speaks during the meeting. Frank DiMeo/University Photography | |
By Jacquie Powers
At his first Cornell Board of Trustees meeting last week, President Jeffrey Lehman heard encouraging news about the university's financial outlook, then offered trustees the opportunity to be the first official group to answer the "call to engagement" he had issued at his inauguration two days earlier.
At the board meeting Friday, Oct. 17, in Sage Hall, Joanne DeStefano, vice president for financial affairs and university controller, said, "Fiscal year 2003 was one of modestly positive results, and with continuing positive signs from the economy, we are looking toward a positive financial year for 2004."
DeStefano reported that total assets in 2002-03 increased by $169 million, or 2.8 percent. That reversed the trend of the previous year, when total assets declined by $147 million, or 2.3 percent, due to difficult market conditions resulting in a loss of investment income.
Cornell ended the fiscal year on June 30, 2003, with total assets of $6.3 billion, total liabilities of $1.3 billion and net assets of $5.0 billion. Total liabilities increased by $166 million, or 14.9 percent, from fiscal year 2001-02, while net assets rose nearly $3 million, or 0.05 percent.
Lehman noted, however, that while investment return and alumni giving are healthy, the university still faces financial pressure from declining state appropriations -- $11 million annually -- and increasing costs related to maintaining academic excellence.
Saturday morning's meeting was largely devoted to Lehman's "call to engagement," which the trustees and top administrators answered with enthusiasm. Lehman announced the "call to engagement" during his inaugural address Oct. 16. He explained that he will use his first year as president to engage a broad community of Cornellians, including faculty, students, staff, alumni, neighbors and friends, in a broad-based discussion designed "to consider how our university should evolve during the years leading up to our sesquicentennial in 2015."
Trustees and administrators were divided into small discussion groups and asked to consider three different sets of questions revolving around: Preparing our students -- what should we be teaching them, how should we be teaching them and whom should we be teaching? Engaging our world -- where should we be present, what does our land grant mission mean today and how should we collaborate? And focusing our lens -- should we be identifying special domains of research emphasis, and can such identification be reconciled with the highly adaptive decentralization that is a hallmark of Cornell today? In addition, all groups were asked to appraise the university's structure and organization.
Lehman cautioned that he was not seeking easy affirmation of his own ideas, but rather an instructive dialogue. In the end he got more questions than answers, but also valuable food for thought and a heartfelt "good luck."
In summaries of their group discussions, trustees made numerous observations and suggestions, including:
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