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Bond Sale Secures Liquidity

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When the University decided that it would take on $500 million in debt to raise liquidity on March 6, Cornell’s financial officers went to work picking a date during which the bonds would fetch the best interest rate in this dramatically fluctuating market. The coupon rate, or rate of interest on which the bonds sell, depends heavily upon events like release of jobless rates, corporate earnings reports, other assets being sold that day and religious holidays, according to Joanne DeStefano, vice president of finance.

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Students Petition Against Closing of Science Library

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The University, in an attempt to maintain economic buoyancy, has had to reduce the variety of services offered, often to the chagrin of the students. One recent example was the closing of the Physical Sciences Library in Clark Hall, which generated much backlash from concerned students. The decision to close the library at the end of 2009 was made in early March by the University Library System in an effort to minimize its sizeable deficit.

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Engineering Prioritizes Instruction And Research in Face of Budget Cuts

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This is the last article in a series examining the effects of the University’s budget cuts on individual schools and colleges.

When President David Skorton announced Cornell’s financial cuts in the latter half of 2008, the University’s colleges were faced with the difficult task of reducing their budgets by 4.8 percent. For the College of Engineering, like the other colleges, meeting the cuts has been a particularly troublesome burden.

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Economy Claims 41 Staff Positions in Alumni Office Reorganization

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The changing face of the University will continue with the realigning of the Alumni Affairs and Development Office, which is implementing a strategic plan to tighten up resources and increase efficiency. Although the nation’s dismal economic climate was an impetus for the reorganization, the plan has been in the making for a year and a half.
“We’ve been doing strategic planning for about 18 months,” said Charles Phlegar, vice president of AAD. “Over the summer, we took reports from six committees that had looked at our organization. The financial catastrophe … heightened the need to perform more quickly.”

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Hotel School Strives to Meet Budget Reduction

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Unlike the other seven undergraduate colleges, the School of Hotel Administration is particularly market-driven because of its status as a “tub college.” Although this grants the School more financial independence, the University’s policies — including an across-the-board 4.8 percent budget cut — still directly affect how the Hotel School manages its $60 million budget.
“We are responsible for our own expenses and have our own revenue streams while we pay certain charges to the University, but we operate financially with a bit more independence than the other schools and colleges,” said Michael Johnson, dean of the Hotel School and the E.M. Statler Professor.

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High Demand Generates Quick Sale of C.U. Bonds

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The University successfully sold $500 million in debt last week, as Cornell maintained its credit rating on one index but slipped a notch on another.
Investors fully subscribed to Cornell’s bond offerings in under 30 minutes last Thursday, according to Tommy Bruce, vice president of University Communications.
The bond offering was divided evenly between $250 million of 5-year bonds at a 4.35-percent interest rate and $250 million of 10-year at a 5.45-interest rate.
While the University has lines of credit and regularly sells-tax exempt bonds to finance construction, the sale of these taxable bonds are unusual. The magnitude of the offering is, in fact, unprecedented.

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Physical Sciences Library Next on Chopping Block

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The Physical Sciences Library in Clark Hall — like Tower Café and the Knight Visual Resources Facility before it — has fallen prey to the University-wide budget cuts in reaction to the current financial crisis.
According to a recent announcement on the Cornell Library’s website, “Janet McCue [associate University librarian for teaching, research, outreach and learning services] met with PSL staff on Wednesday to let them know that their library will be closing at the end of 2009.”

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Skorton Quells Concerns About Workforce Reduction in Open Forum

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This story was originally published on March 16.

Addressing Cornell’s approximately $230 million deficit, President David Skorton summarized the University’s current financial situation and answered pointed questions from an audience of at least 200 this afternoon in an open forum aimed for faculty and staff in Statler Auditorium.

Most of the questions raised were centered on the subject of workforce reduction. Skorton said several times during the question-and-answer session that there would be more layoffs in the future.

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AAP Cuts Force Program Reevaluation

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As Dragon Day approaches, students and faculty in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning have another proverbial beast breathing down their neck — budget cuts. Like all colleges, AAP faces a 5 percent budget cut and has been steadily slicing away what the AAP administrators deem as unnecessary and spendthrift facets of the college.
“AAP is in a somewhat different budgetary situation than many of the other colleges in that we were already facing a structural deficit at the beginning of this fiscal year,” stated AAP Dean Kent Kleinman in an e-mail. “Our current budget includes a number of reductions over 2008 in central areas such as facilities, maintenance, communications and general expenses.”

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C.U. Awaits Word On Congressional Earmark Projects

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Congress passed the $409.6 billion omnibus appropriations bill last night, approving a number of earmarked spending projects that will be attached to next year’s fiscal budget. The bill — which President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law today, according to Politico — allocates a number of earmarks for Cornell research.
Among them, Cornell hopes receive $2.2 million to begin construction on a Grape Genetics Research Center in Geneva. As of last night, however, the electronic system that charts which projects are included in the bill had not been updated, according to Stephen Johnson, Cornell’s vice president for government and community relations.
“We’re hopeful that [the projects] are in there, but reluctant to say until we can verify,” he said.