The Cornell Board of Trustees unanimously agreed this afternoon to allow the University incur up to a half-billion dollars in debt and scale back its endowment spending.
The Trustees authorized the University to sell up to $500 million in taxable bonds to provide working capital and institutional liquidity.
The University is also set to reduce spending from the endowment by 15 percent starting July 1, with further cuts planned for subsequent years.
“[The University] can’t keep taking the money out as if it were a larger endowment,” President David Skorton said in an interview Friday.