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Bricks & Mortar   BUILDING PROJECTS CONTINUE

FRIGID TEMPERATURES, SNOW, RAIN, and ice did little to halt the pace of campus construction this winter. The $58.5 million Duffield Hall project remains on schedule for an opening to the general public during Commencement Weekend 2004. In November, the Center for Nanofabrication completed its move into its first-floor clean room; within weeks, its former home, Knight Lab, had been torn down to make room for the south end of the Duffield atrium. By early February, builders were in the process of customizing the twenty-eight wet and dry labs that have been assigned to other researchers. A $4 million landscaping effort on the Engineering Quad began in November and is also scheduled to be finished in time for graduation.

Across Campus Road, builders spent January enclosing the 35,000-square-foot Beck Center on the Barton Hall side of Statler Hall. Besides two conventional classrooms, the addition features three case classrooms, a computer room, and a lecture hall, all of which will open in August 2004.

Bailey Hall renovations hit a roadblock in June 2003, when only two bids were received for the project; both were $1 million over budget, and New York State rejected them. A revised budget was approved by the state and the Board of Trustees in November and went out to bid in late January; a walk-through for potential contractors was held in February. Administrators anticipate construction might begin in early May; plans call for the building to return to full operating status in August 2006.

Alumnus to Lead Football   KNOWLES NAMED HEAD COACH

ON JANUARY 30, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS ANDY NOEL announced that Jim Knowles '87 had been appointed Cornell's new head football coach. Former head coach Tim Pendergast was dismissed in November after a 1-9 season. Knowles, an ILR grad, was an All-Ivy defensive end in 1986 and began his coaching career by serving as a Cornell assistant from 1988 to 1996. During that time, the Big Red shared the Ivy League title in 1988 and 1990. After leaving the Hill, Knowles was on the coaching staff at Western Michigan for six years before moving to the University of Mississippi, where he was linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator during the past season.

Three finalists had interviewed for the coaching position: Kevin Gilbride, former offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills,Marc Trestman, former offensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders, and Steve Nelson, a former NFL player who is head coach and athletic director at Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts.When Gilbride and Trestman both accepted new NFL positions and Nelson withdrew,Noel tapped Knowles. "It is no secret among my closest friends,"Knowles said, "that this opportunity represents my lifelong career ambition."

No Rhodes Profs This Year   NOMINATIONS ON HOLD

IN THE WAKE OF THE FLAP OVER THE APPOINTMENT OF Cynthia McKinney as a Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professor, there will be no Rhodes nominations in 2004. In December, AA&P dean Porus Olpadwala, MBA '73, PhD '79, chair of the nominating committee, told the Daily Sun that the committee had decided they would not put out a call for nominations this year, "in order to give the central administration the opportunity to arrive at a final definition for the program."

Following a procedure that had been in place since the Rhodes professorships were established in 2000, McKinney and journalist/filmmaker John Pilger were informed of their appointments before they had been approved by the president, provost, and Board of Trustees. Provost Biddy Martin has indicated that this procedure will be changed, and that all future nominees will be reviewed by the administration before notification. Other aspects of the program, including its funding, are also being evaluated.

McKinney's first visit to the campus, in November 2003, received mixed reviews. Some students and faculty praised her for stimulating dialogue about important issues while others were critical of the content of her presentations and said she was evasive when answering questions.

Rising Tide   ENDOWED TUITION INCREASES 4.8%

AT ITS JANUARY MEETING, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES approved a $30,000 price tag for 2004-05 tuition in the endowed colleges and the Graduate School. Tuition for the current school year is $28,630. Rates for the statutory colleges will be set by the State University of New York; preliminary estimates are for a 9.4 percent increase for undergraduate resident students and graduated increases of 5.3 to 10.1 percent for nonresident students, which translates into rates from $15,870 to $28,400.

A 4.9 percent increase at the Johnson School bumped tuition to $34,400, while incoming Law students will see a 7 percent increase to $35,280 and Vet students will pay $20,500, a 7.3 percent rise. Undergraduate housing and dining rates increased by 3.5 and 4 percent, respectively.

"While the economy has improved somewhat, Cornell continues to face significant financial pressure from declining state appropriations, small but still significant necessary decreases in endowment payout, and the increasing costs of maintaining academic excellence in a competitive, fast-changing, and costly technological environment," said Provost Biddy Martin. "We continue to try to keep tuition increases as low as possible by employing a number of strategies, including setting different levels of increases for new and continuing students. As always, we will adjust our institutional student financial-aid allocations to assist students and families with financial need."

Going Up   CU ENDOWMENT RALLIES

AFTER STRUGGLING WITH DIFFICULT MARKETS DURING THE 2002–03 FISCAL YEAR, Cornell's endowment posted a significant gain in the closing months of 2003, says Donald Fehrs, the university's chief investment officer. In its annual listing of college and university endowments, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Cornell's endowment as of June 30, 2003, was $2.85 billion—virtually the same as on June 30, 2002. (Harvard topped the list at $18.85 billion, and it also had the largest percentage gain of any Ivy League school for the fiscal year: 9.8 percent.) But in the second half of 2003, reports Fehrs, Cornell's endowment climbed to $3.20 billion. "It went up a lot," he says, "and our investment return for the calendar year was 20.5 percent." Fehrs credits an investment strategy of "increased equity exposure and increased diversification," as well as the stronger overall performance of the markets, for the upturn.

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