CAMPAIGN UPDATE
'Opportunity is what I want for Cornell and its students'
Trustee Martin Tang '70, pictured in front of the Maddi Dallas and Martin Tang Planting at the Cornell Plantations in 2008. See larger image
When I imagine what is possible for Cornell in the future, I look first to my own family's past. My grandfather was a boy in China during the early part of the 20th century, when the nation was proud but not powerful, and there were fewer educational opportunities than there are today.
An American offer of scholarship, paid through the Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Fund, allowed my grandfather to enroll at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This single event propelled my family onto a path of opportunity that has grown with each generation. I am sure that our family history would be very different if my grandfather had not received this scholarship.
In a word, opportunity is what I want for Cornell and its students.
This year I leave the Cornell Board of Trustees after 16 years, and I celebrate my 40th reunion. I feel immense gratitude for the opportunities I have been given and a sense of obligation to continue providing for the scholars who will follow. As the university evolves through this important process of "reimagining," I am humbled to offer some of my own aspirations for Cornell.
First, we must continue to invest in scholarships. For so many students, scholarships present the only viable path toward an education that can be transformative for themselves and their families. Scholarships alone make it possible for Cornell to uphold the ideal that "any student" with the talent and ambition to excel at this university can do so.
As a corollary, I see Cornell as becoming ever more global in its outlook and in the composition of its student body and faculty. I recognize that this remains an uncomfortable notion for some, yet Cornell could not truly be called a world-class university if it did not engage with the world.
I have tried to unite these first two ideas in my scholarship challenge for international students, for whom there are extremely limited resources at present. In hopes of changing that, I have volunteered to match $1 for every $3 given toward international student aid endowments of $187,500 or more.
The other area of Cornell where I have focused my own energy is on Cornell Plantations, which is surely bursting with life in time for Reunion. Students are perhaps too busy or too focused to realize this treasure in their midst, but as an alumnus I have come to appreciate Cornell's natural beauty.
So when I visit the Plantations I always take time to literally smell the roses and think of what Cornell is and can be, even in times of trial. If we each do our part and give back, in whatever capacity we can, I am certain that the opportunities and beauty that Cornell provides us all will never fade.