Cornell CHRONICLE CHRONICLE ONLINE: www.news.cornell.edu JANUARY 30, 2009 5 INSPIRED BY EDEN 7 THE BUZZ IN MANN 8 INNOVATIVE AND INFLUENTIAL Apparel design senior The library expands Founder of Priceline.com Jay Walker Jessie Fair wins top prize online access to rare ’77 will named Cornell’s Entrepreneur for asymmetrical gown. beekeeping volumes. of the Year. New hardship fund will help Cornell employees affected by the recession BY SUSAN KELLEY The university has launched a hardship fund to help employees who are facing fi nancial diffi culties. All faculty and staff – except for those at Weill Cornell Medical College – will be able to apply to the fund for a one-time grant, starting in July, according to Mary Opperman, vice president for human resources. LINDSAY FRANCE/UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY Continued on page 9 Vice President for Human Resources Mary Opperman in her Day Hall offi ce. Skorton says budget cuts needed to protect Cornell’s ‘strength and character’ President David Skorton reported in a Jan. 25 state- • Reducing expenditures in the operating budget for • Raising tuition for 2009-10 for undergraduate ment to the Cornell community that budget cuts will fi scal year 2010 by 5 percent, or $50 million, at Cornell’s students in Cornell’s endowed colleges by 4 percent be necessary to alleviate a 10 percent budget shortfall Ithaca campus and by 8 percent, or $13 million, at Weill (the smallest increase since 1966) and in the university’s resulting from the current national economic crisis. The Cornell Medical College in New York City; statutory colleges by 7.2 percent; and board of trustees has approved various actions “to pro- • Planning for an additional 5 percent budget cut on • Drawing an additional $35 million from the endow- tect the strength and character of Cornell, while dealing the Ithaca campus for fi scal year 2011; ment for increased student fi nancial aid. with fi nancial challenges that impact all aspects of the • Suspending annual Salary Improvement Program Skorton’s full statement to the Cornell commu- university’s balance sheet,” he said. raises for many faculty and non-bargaining-unit staff nity is online at <http://www.cornell.edu/president/ These actions include: for 2009-10, but providing a $750 bonus to full-time statements/2009/20090125-fy2009-budget.cfm>. Also, • Drawing down about $150 million in reserves to regular staff with annual base pay of $40,000 or less; Skorton addresses the community in a video available strengthen cash fl ow; • Extending both a campus construction pause and at CornellCast <http://www.cornell.edu/video/details. an external hiring pause through June this year; cfm?vidID=382>. Milstein Hall gets fi nal site Page 3: Administrators approval from city of Ithaca respond to fi nancial challenge BY DANIEL ALOI Development Board. The board’s vote was the culmi- • Walsh: Endowment is in good shape for long term Paul Milstein Hall cleared its nation of 15 months of municipal • Golding: Planning for budget cuts for fi scal year 2011 fi nal municipal hurdle Jan. 27 review of the project, fi rst proposed • Phlegar: Annual gifts on pace, new giving down with a unanimous 6-0 vote in 2000 to expand facilities for Cor- on fi nal site plan ap- nell’s College of Architecture, Art • Trustees: Tuition rises, new B.A., named professorship proval from the city of and Planning (AAP). Ithaca’s Planning and Continued on page 8 Four professors named 2008 Weiss Presidential fellows BY SUSAN S. LANG neurobiology and behavior; Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Four Cornell faculty members have of American History; and Richard Rand, been chosen for the 2008 Stephen H. Weiss professor in the Sibley School of Mechani- Presidential Fellowships for excellence in cal and Aerospace Engineering. teaching and advising undergraduate stu- The awards – $5,000 a year for fi ve years dents and outstanding efforts to improve for each faculty member – are named for instruction on campus. Stephen H. Weiss ’57, the late emeritus RENDERING BY ESKQ/PROVIDED They are Bruce Ganem, the Franz and chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, Milstein Hall’s cantilever design was the original preference of the project architect, Rem Kool- Elisabeth Roessler Professor of Chemis- who endowed the program. The awards haas and his fi rm, the Offi ce for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)-New York. try; Ronald Harris-Warrick, professor of Continued on page 8 2 January 30, 2009 Cornell Chronicle Frank Sinatra 3 Bolivian constitution 4 Local auto industry 5 Women MBAs 6 Cornellians in the news “I think the key thing is that it’s critically tied to Big Red Athletics the two major universities in the area. In that sense, some of the employment is fi xed and very strongly Track and Field connected with the universities.”1 Vicki Bogan, assistant professor of applied economics and management, on a new report suggesting that Ithaca’s job market is expected to stay strong partly because more than 15,000 people are employed by either Cornell University or Ithaca College. NEWS 10 NOW, JAN. 20. “That hit home for me, because I never felt in danger during my entire trip. It was just hard to think if I had still been up there.” Freshman Adam Fisher on recently returning from an uneventful trip to Israel and reading about a rocket strike from Lebanon in the border region he had 2visited. NY JOURNAL NEWS, JAN. 11. “Sinatra enormously expanded the emotional palette of his art, incorporating shades of self-pity, longing, rage, bitterness, panic and despair that no popular singer had previously touched.” Roger Gilbert, professor of English, on “Frank Sinatra: the Man, the Music, the Legend,” a collection of scholarly PROVIDED essays about the singer, edited by Jeanne Fuchs and Ruth Prigozy. CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, JAN. 23. 3 Senior Jeomi Maduka broke three long-jump records Jan. 24. Senior Jeomi Maduka continued to shine as she led the Big “The mind-boggling text may have the ratifi cation of Red to a fi rst-place showing at the Upstate Challenge in the majority, but it might not be the recipe for a viable Barton Hall on Jan. 24. The women’s team fi nished with 294 points, with second-place Buffalo earning 115 points. Maduka country.” broke the Barton Hall, Cornell and Ivy records in the long jump, clearing 21-9, only the third collegiate mark of at least Edmundo Paz Soldán, associate professor of Romance studies, on Bolivia’s new that distance dating back to 2001. The Cornell men’s team constitution, which recognizes 36 different indigenous4 groups, some with fewer posted eight wins and six IC4A qualifying marks in claiming than 100 people, in a country where three main indigenous groups wield much a win at the Upstate. The Big Red tallied 226 points, well of the infl uence. THE NEW YORK TIMES, JAN. 25. ahead of second-place Buffalo’s 176-point total. Basketball “I think it says it’s good that they’re taking it slow on the slowdowns.” The Big Red men won their seventh straight contest, defeating Art Wheaton, director of labor studies for the ILR School in Buffalo, on the area’s industrial plants, which are Columbia 83-72 on Jan. 24 at Newman Arena. All fi ve Cornell holding up better than many others around the country during the economic downturn. BUFFALO NEWS, JAN. 21. starters scored in double fi gures, with Alex Tyler matching a career-high 19 points along with seven rebounds. The women’s 5 team snapped a six-game losing streak and earned its fi rst Ivy League win of the season. Rallying from a 12-point fi rst-half “It’s also part of a wider effort to attract more women applicants.” defi cit, the women defeated Columbia 58-53. Camilla Morgan, assistant director of admissions and marketing for the Cornell-Queen’s University Executive Fencing MBA program, on the school’s Web site, which, on its home page, features a photo of a female executive, repre- senting the program’s new, less male-dominated persona. WALL STREET JOURNAL, JAN. 21. The Big Red continued its 2008-09 season Jan. 25 after a 6 seven-week hiatus. Cornell traveled to Princeton, N.J., to take part in the Princeton Duals, winning four of its fi ve matches with eight fencers posting winning records. Cornell was led “We always saw a little bit of this, but it was in people already identifi ed by its foil team as Rebecca Hirschfi eld, Dana Baines and Jes- as having a psychiatric disorder. What doesn’t seem to make much sica Tranquada all had 10 wins for the Big Red. Junior épéeist sense is why we’re seeing it so much in seemingly healthy kids.” Katherine Thompson led Cornell with a 13-2 record. Janis Whitlock, human development faculty member, on the growing number of teenagers and young adults who Polo deliberately embed needles, paper clips or staples in their skin. FORT LAUDERDALE (FLA.) SUN-SENTINEL, JAN. 7. The men’s team opened its winter season with a 27-1 victory 7 over Skidmore on Jan. 24. Cornell improves to 8-2 for the Collected by Erik Bjarnar, Cornell Press Relations Offi ce. For information contact pressoffi [email protected]. season. The Big Red will play host to Virginia on Jan. 31. www.news.cornell.edu Cornell Chronicle January 30, 2009 3 Senior administrators respond to fi nancial challenges ALL STORIES BY SUSAN KELLEY Walsh: Despite economic downturn, Cornell’s endowment is in ‘very good place’ for the long term Despite the economy’s downturn, Cor- Skorton noted “the loss of 27 percent in nell’s endowment is in relatively good our endowment over the past six months.” health, according to James Walsh, the However, he said, “in order to maintain our university’s chief investment offi cer.