Correction appended. See below.

While the national government is taking measures to deal with the recent economic crisis, state governments are also forced to deal with the issues. The state of New York has a huge budget deficit, according to The Wall Street Journal, that Gov. David Paterson (D) and the state legislature are being forced to deal with.

In order to minimize the deficit, the state has to limit its funding to different institutions including schools. According to The Ithaca Journal, the state will force the State University of New York (SUNY) to absorb an estimated $70 to $96.3 million of the losses and Cornell will feel the effects of the cuts.

Despite national economic turmoil and threats of the worst financial crisis since the great depression, President David Skorton assured on Friday morning that Cornell is “not in a financial crisis.” Still, in his annual State of the University Address, Skorton emphasized the need for the University to revise its economic plan for its future in light of recent “stresses and strains that deserve our serious attention.”

Before students of the Class of 2009 were even born, Carolyn “Biddy” Martin and Carolyn Ainslie were dwelling in Ithaca as Cornell employees. So it came as a surprise this summer when both the provost and the vice president for planning and budget bid adieu to Cornell after more than two decades of service.

As Cornell’s highest ranking officers gathered in Ithaca this weekend, President David Skorton announced to a standing ovation that Kent Fuchs has been appointed as the University’s 15th provost. Fuchs, who currently serves as dean of the College of Engineering, will take the reins as Cornell’s chief academic officer and second-in-command to the president in January.

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Skorton chose Fuchs nearly five months after Biddy Martin decided to vacate the position to become chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently David Harris serves as interim provost.

Kent Fuchs, dean of the College of Engineering, will be Cornell's 15th provost, President Skorton announced at this morning's State of the University Address. Fuchs has been dean since 2002, and his term as provost will start in January 2009.

"I look forward to serving Cornell's faculty, students and staff, and working to fulfill President Skorton's vision for our campus. We are blessed with wonderful leadership across the University, and I will devote all my energy and time to helping those leaders enhance Cornell's stature, scholarship and teaching,” Fuchs stated in a press release. He succeeds Carolyn “Biddy” Martin, who is now the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Check cornellsun.com for updates.

Former Cornell President Frank Rhodes’s newest venture will bring him far from Cayuga’s Waters. Rhodes, who served as Cornell’s ninth president from 1977 until 1995, has been named to the board of trustees of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, according to the University.

The new school, which will open in less than a year, describes itself as benefiting “the region and the world.”

“KAUST is the realization of a decades-long vision of the Custodian of the Twoo Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud,” according to the school’s website.

The new school will train 250-350 graduate students in its first class with a faculty that may approach 400 members.

After 43 years as professor and administrator of the Weill Cornell Medical College, Dr. Daniel R. Alonso announced his retirement as dean of the school’s Qatar campus. When he leaves this January, he will be replaced by Deputy Dean Dr. Javaid Sheikh. Alonso’s retirement comes shortly after the graduation of WCMC-Q’s first class in May.

“He brought really bold vision to the project,” said Dr. Carol Storey-Johnson, senior associate dean of education, WCMC in Manhattan. “He had faith in the project at a time when people weren’t sure it would work.”

The Graduate and Professional Student Association met yesterday for the first meeting of the year in the Big Red Barn. In attendance were University President David Skorton and Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan Murphy ’73.

“Any non-academic policy issue that impacts the graduate student body is within our interests,” said Mario Guerrero grad. “This is a meeting where we talk about some of the advocacy issues we’re looking into.”

2008 marked one of the largest graduating high school classes in recent years, many colleges around the country, including Cornell, have over-enrolled students in their freshmen classes.

“As of mid-July, 3,181 first-year students indicated their intent to enroll in the Class of 2012; the target class size was 3,050,” Doris Davis, associate provost of admissions and enrollment, stated in an e-mail.

The Office of Minority Educational Affairs recently hired Mojisola Olaniyan as its new executive director, replacing former director Raymond Dalton, who stepped down at the end of June.

Olaniyan comes to Cornell from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, where she served as assistant dean for the Academic Advancement Program in the College of Letters and Science.

The executive director of the OMEA reports directly to Michele Moody-Adams, vice provost of undergraduate education. Moody-Adams praised Olaniyan’s successful career in higher education.