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Cornell Receives $35 Million Gift to Enhance University Faculty

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This afternoon, President David Skorton officially announced a gift of $35 million dollars made to the University by Andrew and Ann Tisch. Andrew, a member of the Board of Trustees, graduated in 1971.
The endowment will be used to establish the Tisch University Professorships, which aim to preserve and expand University faculty by offering more competitive salaries and supporting graduate research.
The fund comes at a time when universities nationwide are struggling to attract the most renowned scholars, especially mid-career professors.
Interim Provost David Harris, who will be responsible for allocating the funds, found it a “welcome relief.”

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C.U. Endowment Spending Likely Unaffected by Legislative Proposal

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With recent debates in Washington over whether universities should be legally forced to spend more of their endowments, one cannot help but wonder how Cornell utilizes its $5.4 billion endowment, the 18th largest in the nation.
Under law, Cornell is not allowed to spend the principal value of the endowment, but can spend a portion of investment returns.
Nearly all of the $5.4 billion is invested, and after adjusting for inflation, a portion of investment returns are spent. This amount, called the payout, has been 5.1 percent of the value of the endowment on average over the past 10 years.
This figure is slightly higher than the five-percent minimum payout rate that legislation proposed last February by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

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Panel Discussion Held for Georgia

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Cornellians are often said to be living in the “10 square miles surrounded by reality” that is Ithaca. Yesterday afternoon, however, the Guerlac Room in A.D. White House was packed with students attending a panel discussion called “A New Cold War? The Crisis in Georgia and Its Implications for East-West Relations.”
In the event organized by the Cornell International Affairs Review, Prof. Valerie Bunce, government, joined Georgian author and political figure Irakli Kakabadze and spoke to about 100 people. About 20 members of the audience stood at the entrances of the small room throughout the two-hour discussion.

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PeopleSoft Hinders Review of Aid Applications

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12 days after classes started, about 750 students’ financial aid applications are still being processed due to complications from the implementation of PeopleSoft. PeopleSoft replaced JustTheFacts software and now manages students’ personal, academic, bursar and financial aid information.
“PeopleSoft is certainly the major factor in the delay,” Doris Davis, associate provost for admissions and enrollment, stated in an email. She cited late student applications as another cause.
“We want to encourage students who are in urgent situations to come to the Office of Financial Aid and speak to a financial aid counselor,” she added.

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University Bids Farewell To Provost Biddy Martin

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As a gift to the outgoing provost, President David Skorton proclaimed that the dining room in the A.D. White House would now be called the “Carolyn ‘Biddy’ Martin Room.”
The announcement was made yesterday at a special event, where about 150 staff, faculty, students and alumni gathered under a large, white tent on Bailey Hall plaza to bid farewell to Martin, now chancellor of University Wisconsin-Madison, her alma mater.
“A.D. White House is where I have spent some of my best times at Cornell. It is one of the most beautiful and important houses on campus. And to have something related to the humanities named after me means the world to me,” said Martin.

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Prof’s Online Video Library Licensed to Start-Up Company

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Getting the busy CEOs of Citigroup, Nike Inc. or PepsiCo to come to a Cornell classroom is an arduous task. A near-substitute, however, is made possible with eClips, a free and open online collection of nearly 11,000 video clips of interviews and presentations by business experts.
eClips was initiated more than a decade ago by Prof. Deborah Streeter, applied economics and management. Designed for classroom use, most of the clips are only a few minutes long and can be integrated into PowerPoint presentations. The free and open website now boasts users in more than 1,200 universities in over 75 countries.
Recently, Streeter announced that the online video library has been licensed to a startup company called eClipsNet, LLC.

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Profs Receive $25M Grant

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Two Cornell professors won a $25 million grant for a new interdisciplinary scientific research and education center at Cornell, announced the Global Research Partnership of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology yesterday.
The KAUST-Cornell University Center for Research and Education will be co-led by Prof. Emmanuel Giannelis, materials science and engineering, and Prof. Lynden Archer, chemical and biolomolecular engineering, the Marjorie L. Hart Professor of Engineering. Giannelis and Archer’s proposal is selected as one of the four winners among the 41 initial applications submitted in late 2007.

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Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Elects New Executive Board

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New officers of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly were elected on Monday during the final GPSA meeting of the academic year in the Big Red Barn Graduate Student Center.
Michelle Leinfelder grad, the current executive vice-president, was elected president of the new executive board. She identified three main goals of the new GPSA executive board: to continue working on the Graduate Committee Initiative, to represent the voices of graduate and professional students and to make sure that the administration understands the immediate needs for a graduate student center.

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Campus Dining May Be Linked to Stomach Flu

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Imagine spending a painfully long day in a claustrophobic bathroom stall while your friends are enjoying the April sunshine. Last week, a higher than average number of Cornell students had to go through the unfortunate experience of “stomach flu,” or gastroenteritis.
According to Gannett Health Services, 55 students reported symptoms of gastroenteritis between April 13 and 19. These students suffered from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or a combination of the symptoms. Although the number is much higher than the average number of 20 to 25 cases per week, it is “not unusual,” according to Nianne VanFleet, Gannett’s associate director for nursing and clinical services.

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Tension in Asia Provokes Response from Ithacans

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This is the second of a two-part series examining how local Tibetans are responding to the violence between China and Tibet.

A quick Google search for “Free Tibet” generates more than 8 million results. How some Chinese and Tibetans interpret this catchphrase, however, may be fundamentally different as Tibet refers to completely different border outlines for Chinese and Tibetans.
“This is a major confusion,” said Palden Oshoe, president of the Tibetan Association of Ithaca.
Ithaca is home to a small yet active community of about 50 Tibetans, and Cornell hosts more than 700 students and academic staff members from China.