As the Oct. 28 deadline for Mayor Bloomberg’s invitation to construct an applied sciences campus in New York City approaches, competition for Cornell is intensifying as competing universities announce details of their plans. 

Stanford announced in a press release on Tuesday that it joined with the City University of New York and the City College of New York in drafting its proposal for a campus on Roosevelt Island.

The partnership would offer students “joint CCNY-Stanford B.A./M.A. and B.S./M.S. programs” and allow Stanford to use space on City College’s campus for classes and research until its Roosevelt Island campus is completed in 2016, according to the press release.

New York University has made progress on its plan to build a “downtown Brooklyn campus centered on urban sciences and technology,” according to Crain’s New York Business. NYU is collaborating with the University of Toronto, the University of Toronto, the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, CUNY and corporate partners IBM and Cisco Systems.

Additionally, Columbia University, which had initially planned to partner with the City University of New York, will continue to draft a proposal on its own, Crain’s New York Business reported. The university is proposing a one million-square-foot data science institute on its new Manhattanville campus, north of West 130th Street between 12th Avenue and Broadway, focusing on new media, smart cities, cyber security, health analytics and finance, according to Crain’s. 

“We definitely agree that an applied science campus in New York as envisioned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the right project at the right time for the city. So, it is not surprising that many colleges are interested in joining the competition to take part in that effort,”  said Simeon Moss ’73, deputy University spokesperson. “We are confident that our proposal is the one that will best position New York City to be a world hub of tech-sector business and innovation.”

As coalitions emerge among applicants, Cornell “may have an announcement down the road,” Moss said. However, he added that the University is focused on its current outline.

In the face of this increasing competition, Cornell alumni have created a letter of appeal to Mayor Bloomberg at Change.org, a social networking site that allows users to create and sign petitions. 

The petition, which has collected 13,530 signatures so far, emphasizes the University’s geographic proximity and “deep roots within NYC’s tech community.” 

Joseph Grzyb ’81, who signed the petition, commented on the website, “Startups need guts, talent and networks. Cornell knows NYC. Our alumni are involved with every part of the NYC economy. No other institution can offer the combination of technical strength, local networks and passion for NYC.”