With the Board of Trustees convening in Ithaca this weekend for their annual meeting, The Sun sat down with Stephen Ashley ’62, MBA ’64 to discuss his role as co-chair of the $4 billion capital campaign. Ashley is currently the chairman and CEO of The Ashley Group, a collection of real estate, brokerage and investment companies. In September, Ashley resigned as chairman of the mortgage giant Fannie Mae, after the government-sponsored enterprise was placed into conservatorship by the U.S. Treasury.

The Sun: The Capital Campaign has raised an impressive $2.29 billion to date. How would you describe your role with the campaign as co-chair?

The Tisch family’s $35 million donation to enhance University faculty came at the right time for the Big Red.

Recruitment and retention of talented faculty has become an increasingly serious and immediate issue at Cornell. The school’s professors aren’t getting any younger, and the cost of hiring new faculty isn’t getting any lower.

Comforting perhaps is that this problem is nothing new. In March 2007, then-Provost Biddy Martin spent most of her first Academic State of the University address focusing on the impending retirement of University faculty and the need to up the ante in faculty recruitment. Martin projected then that fully one-third of the University’s faculty would retire by 2022, making current efforts to hire new and talented professors an absolute necessity.

Ann and Andrew Tisch ’71 address attendees of a reception to commemorate the couple’s $35 million gift.

“The waterfront of possibility is finally before us,” President David Skorton said on Friday afternoon to a room full of University administrators and members of the Board of Trustees. Skorton’s sense of optimism was prevalent among those in attendance at the “historic celebration,” where the University accepted a $35 million donation made by Trustee Andrew Tisch ’71 and his wife, Ann.

Amidst the hype surrounding Cornell’s recently announced financial aid initiative and the progress of the Capital Campaign, few undergraduates realize that they will be paying more for tuition next year.

According to a press release, the tuition for undergraduate students at the endowed colleges will rise by 4.9 percent, from $34,600 to $36,300.Percentage Tuition Increase At Cornell, Other Ivies This, along with the 4 percent increase in housing and dining fees, will result in an overall 4.7 percent hike in all fees from $46,021 to $48,194.

“We have work to do,” said President David Skorton on Oct. 26, 2006 when he officially announced the launch of Cornell’s capital campaign.

Less than a year later, it seems the administration has taken its president’s words to heart, having raised $1.72 billion out of the proposed $4 billion over five years.

“The campaign has made very strong progress since our public launch last October,” said Jim Mazza, campaign director. “During the past fiscal year, which ended June 30, Cornell had its most successful fundraising year in its history, with $754.8 million in new gifts and commitments, with nearly $300 million designated to priorities on the Ithaca campus and the balance to initiatives at Weill Cornell Medical College.