December 16, 2011 by Mark H. Anbinder
Cornell University announced Friday evening that an anonymous gift of $350 million -- the largest in the school's history -- will support Cornell's bid for an applied science and technology campus in New York City. Cornell was one of four finalists vying for the chance to build a high-tech academic institution.
Finalists besides Cornell included Stanford University, New York University, and Columbia University, but Stanford abruptly announced Friday that it was withdrawing its bid, submitted in collaboration with the City University of New York.
In a statement on Friday evening, Cornell President David J. Skorton said, "I am thankful and proud that this extraordinary individual gift will support Cornell's goal to realize Mayor Bloomberg's vision for New York City. He has inspired us all in the higher education sector." Skorton has been ebullient and outspoken this fall on the subject of what he calls "the tech campus of the future."
Cornell's bid to build a tech campus on New York's Roosevelt Island, in collaboration with The Technion, Israel's Institute of Technology, would expand its foothold in the City. In addition to Weill Cornell Medical College, affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell has an NYC outpost of its College of Architecture, Art & Planning, and several other NYC-based academic programs, mostly intended to provide a semester in the field for Ithaca-based students.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the competition to build an applied science and technology campus within city limits is intended to position New York as strong competition for Silicon Valley, the area of central California known for high-tech developments. New York would give the site on Roosevelt Island to Cornell to build the school, along with $100 million to assist in improving the property.
Weill Cornell Medical College is named for Cornell alumnus and former Citigroup chairman and CEO Sanford Weill, who has made several donations to Cornell in excess of $100 million each. Most recently, Weill donated $170 million to WCMC in 2009, but a donation of $300 million from Weill and his wife Joan in 2007 was, at the time, the University's largest. Speculation on who could be responsible for this new donation included Weill and Mayor Bloomberg himself.
