CORNELL NOW
Campaign News: Cornell Now – 2015
ANNUAL FUND
Nine year old is annual fund's youngest supporter
Zach "Big Red" Russell See larger image
Zach "Big Red" Russell, a third-grader from Greenwich, Conn., listened as his father, Stewart "Stew" Russell '87, made fundraising phone calls to classmates for their 25th reunion campaign. The elder Russell reminded alumni, one by one, of the importance of giving back, the pleasure of supporting one's alma mater, and the impact their combined giving could have on current students.
Swayed by his father's pitch, Zach sent a short note and a $20 bill to the Cornell Annual Fund. His note began, "I am nine years [sic] and I visit Cornell every year and I want to make a donation."
Thanks to his dad's efforts and those of his classmates, the Class of 1987 has raised more than $3 million for Cornell. And with his gift, Zach probably became the youngest Annual Fund donor this year, joining 20,000 alumni, parents and friends.
"This is really touching," says Joe Lyons '98, director of the Cornell Annual Fund. "When alumni pass down their love for Cornell and their habit of generosity and involvement, I feel confident in our nation's future and our university's future. I hope to see Zach at Reunion in June to thank him in person."
NYC TECH CAMPUS
The biggest gift in Cornell's history
Some gifts change the course of an institution's history instantly and forever. Such a gift, of $350 million, was made by the Atlantic Philanthropies and Chuck Feeney '56 to Cornell last December for the CornellNYC Tech campus.
The gift was announced in mid-December, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg's committee charged with selecting a winning bid to build a tech campus in NYC was still deliberating. Three days after Cornell announced the then-anonymous $350 million gift, the committee announced that Cornell University and its partner, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, were the winners.
"This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," said Feeney, "for Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, together with the city of New York, to create economic and educational opportunity on a transformational scale."
NEW HUMANITIES BUILDING
Paid in full!
"By enabling us to relaunch the design phase for a new humanities building, Cornell's Board of Trustees, by its January vote, has affirmed the centrality of the humanities to a Cornell education," says President David Skorton of the building that will become a gateway to the Arts Quad. "It's a very big deal."
The building's cost ($61 million) has been fully funded by gifts from alumni, parents and friends. Detailed design work is under way and expected to continue through the summer. Then construction documents will be drafted, and the university will issue a call for bids. In summer 2013, construction will begin, with a completion date projected for the close of Cornell's sesquicentennial year, 2015.
"This new building will be truly transformative in several ways," explains Peter Lepage, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "It demonstrates to the world at large Cornell's substantive and deep commitment to humanities scholarship. It will be home to faculty, departments and classes that serve students in our college and in every other college at the university. And it will strengthen our ability to recruit prominent humanists for decades to come."
In the past year, more than 20 humanities professors have been hired, and the college aims to hire 40 to 60 more by the building's completion.
New gifts and commitments to campaign as of Jan. 31, 2012