<p>Great news for Cornell and Cornellians. Also, it truly is amazing that an alum would donate 350 million for this project. This speaks loudly of Cornell administration’s ability to get the business done. I am sure President Skorton deserves a lot of credit for securing this donation and winning this project.</p>
<p>this is awesome! it will be a huge boost for cornell!</p>
<p>A nice followup to my previous thread about the $350 million gift. I look forward to the future as a Cornell engineering student.
[Cornell</a> Wins Campus Bid - WSJ.com](<a href=“Cornell Wins Campus Bid - WSJ”>Cornell Wins Campus Bid - WSJ)</p>
<p>Actually sorry. I did not realize there already is a thread about this. Ignore this one.</p>
<p>I think this is really exciting! the official announcement from Bloomberg is supposed to be tomorrow so I guess we’ll find out more then.</p>
<p>How is it going to work? Grad school in NYC, undergrad in Ithaca? Complementary activities in both places, at both the grad and undergrad level?</p>
<p>The press conference announcing this exciting project will be webcast live today at 2:30 on the Cornell website.</p>
<p>A lot of dominoes fell regarding the NYC Tech Center competition this past extended weekend, and now this. It’s quite remarkable to have edged out Stanford. Very impressive indeed. Also, I’m sure that the hefty seed funding wont hurt in making the inception of this technology campus on Roosevelt Island a great success. Congratulations to Dr. Skorton and his team, and to Cornellians in general!</p>
<p>I think Cornell always had a significant edge over Stanford given Cornell’s much closer ties to NYC. I skimmed a few articles from the “Stanford perspective” over the past few months and it was clear that Stanford’s alumni overall were much less motivated to support a NYC campus on the other side of the country.</p>
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<p>While it is true that Cornell had an advantage with its NYC ties, I wouldn’t agree that they had a significant edge overall. Stanford also had advantages, not the least of which is their experience helping set up Silicon Valley, and their prowess in modern times at bringing new-tech to commerce. Winning this competition is clearly an exceptional achievement by Cornell that was in no way preordained.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply (though clearly I did) that Stanford also didn’t have significant edge(s) as well. But with a project like this, I think dedicated support from alumni are important and Cornell seemed much more passionate about this project. When Cornell Sun articles were written about this, SO many students/alumni were supportive of the NYC initiative and commented such on the articles. Whereas whenever I saw an article in Stanford’s student newspaper, quite a few comments were to the effect of “Why are we committing resources to a NYC campus?” I recognize article comments aren’t reliable proof, but it’ where I got my sense of the relative importance of this project to both universities’ respective communities.</p>
<p>The press conference just concluded. A wonderful project, and a wonderful day for Cornell University.</p>
<p>Where can I watch the press conference?</p>
<p>The live broadcast was [url=<a href=“http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoid=1810]here[/url”>http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoid=1810]here[/url</a>], but you’ll have to wait a bit for them to upload the recorded footage.</p>
<p>FWIW</p>
<p>The New York Times has reported that the $350 million donation was made by Atlantic Philanthropies (founded by Charles F. Feeney).</p>
<p>Atlantic Phiilanthropies has confirmed the gift!!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/news/atlantic-philanthropies-support-cornell-university’s-applied-sciences-nyc-initiative-through-si[/url]”>http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/news/atlantic-philanthropies-support-cornell-university’s-applied-sciences-nyc-initiative-through-si</a></p>
<p>THANK YOU</p>
<p>Chuck Feeney is truly an extraordinary philanthropist [and Cornellian!] - Thank you Mr. Feeney!</p>
<p>Some more information from this interview:</p>
<p>[Interview:</a> Cornell’s Dean Huttenlocher, On Expanding Into NYC And Building A Tech Ecosystem | TechCrunch](<a href=“http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/19/interview-cornells-dean-huttenlocher-on-expanding-into-nyc-and-building-a-tech-ecosystem/]Interview:”>Interview: Cornell's Dean Huttenlocher, On Expanding Into NYC And Building A Tech Ecosystem | TechCrunch)</p>
<p>Wow, exciting news for Cornell, Technion, and NYC!</p>
<p>I’m truly amazed with Mr. Feeney’s generosity and his humble life style.</p>
<p>Check out this article about Mr. Feeney:</p>
<p>[Cornell’s</a> $350 Million Donor Feeney Plans to Give It All Away](<a href=“http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/21/bloomberg_articlesLWJ18B6K50Y7.DTL]Cornell’s”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/21/bloomberg_articlesLWJ18B6K50Y7.DTL)</p>
<p>Thanks Gorges for posting that article, which states that Mr. Feeney’s donations to Cornell approach $1 billion. Thanks again Mr. Feeney, for your extraordinary generosity!</p>
<p>Nice story in today’s New York Times describing how Cornell’s partnership with Technion came about, and how they won the deal for the new campus.</p>