Cornell University Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings and Dean of the Faculty Charles Walcott addressed the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Environmental Sustainability and Transportation and Parking Needs, Aug. 31, and gave the committee its charge. The committee was created by Rawlings and Walcott to provide guidance on an issue of importance to the university's future and to help implement the July 18, 2005, agreement between Cornell's administration and the Redbud Woods Working Group.

"We ask that this committee advise Cornell's administration as the university strives to achieve the proper balance between environmental sustainability and the university's need for transportation alternatives and parking," Rawlings and Walcott told committee members.

Among the subjects the committee on sustainability and transportation will consider in the coming months will be: forward-thinking steps to abate parking demand on campus; finding alternatives to single occupant commuting; identifying appropriate sites for future parking lots; and helping ensure proper design of parking lots to protect the environment as much as possible. The committee also will review issues that led to the opposition to the University Avenue parking lot.

The members of the committee are: Professor Kathyrn Gleason, Department of Landscape Architecture, who will serve as chair; Fabian Canes, undergraduate student representative; Professor Todd Cowen, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Professor Thomas Eisner, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior; Professor Douglas Kysar, Law School; Donald A. Rakow, director of Cornell Plantations; Daniel N. Roth, graduate student representative; William E. Wendt, director of Transportation and Mail Services; and Professor Emeritus Jerome M. Ziegler, Department of Policy Analysis and Management.

"We appreciate the service offered by the members of this committee, who have agreed, on behalf of the university, to examine these important issues," Rawlings said. "We look forward to reviewing the knowledge and advice gained from their work."

The committee is expected to deliver its final report to the president and the dean of the faculty by May of 2006.