As approved Wednesday, 28 November 2007.

Whereas, the Master Plan is a living document of principles and responsibilities intended to guide future planning, design and development of Cornell University in a manner that supports the academic mission, enhances the campus experience, reinforces community, promotes stewardship of the environment, and ensures integrative planning and design for a sustainable campus,

Whereas, the Master Plan acknowledges that the Ithaca campus of Cornell University is an extraordinary place to learn and teach, to live and work, to visit and explore, and will ensure that Cornell will support and cultivate academic growth and development, ensuring open, collaborative and adaptable environments for teaching, research, the exchange of ideas and the nurturing of innovation,

Whereas, the Master Plan acknowledges that importance of the campus experience that is unique to Cornell, it will ensure that Cornell will enhance the community-building aspects of campus by broadening housing options, expanding the campus’s social and cultural infrastructure and promoting a healthy, vital Greater Ithaca,

Whereas, the Master Plan acknowledges that Cornell is rooted in a dramatic landscape that includes town and country, it will ensure that Cornell will respect and manage the physical environment of the campus and its broader landholdings for the health of the University, its constituencies, its neighbors and the larger regional eco-system,

Whereas, the Master Plan acknowledges that the campus’s town and country aspects and natural heritage are fundamental to Cornell’s academic mission and unique identity, and will ensure that Cornell will nurture inviting, accessible, safe and memorable places that contribute to personal, social and cultural wellbeing and that Cornell will maintain and enrich its legacy of memorable landscapes and become a more pedestrian-oriented campus,

Whereas, the Master Plan recognizes that Cornell is responsible to its founders, all Cornellians, its employees, the surrounding communities and the citizens of New York State, to manage its land carefully and grow wisely, it will ensure that in the planning and design of the campus, Cornell will coordinate academic needs, development projects, landscape initiatives, infrastructure improvements and community objectives to achieve a unified, integrated and sustainable campus,

Whereas, the development of the Master Plan was a transparent process in which a broad range of community (but not departmental) input and feedback was solicited throughout the planning process,

Whereas, the University Assembly has not yet had the chance to deliberate over the assumptions of growth provided by the Provost upon which the Master Plan is based that over the next 30 years, the number of undergraduates will stay the same while the number of faculty will increase by 100 (to 1,700), the number of graduate students will increase by 500 (to 6,500), the number of staff will increase by 700 (to 9,100) and the quantity of building space will increase by 3 million square feet,

Be it therefore resolved, that the University Assembly endorses the Master Plan and its vision of sustainability but wishes to consider the growth assumptions upon which it is based and the loss of proximal green space for teaching and athletics. To that end, it looks forward to beginning the campus-wide dialogue on the issue of growth of the campus at its meeting with Provost Biddy Martin in January 2008.

Respectfully Submitted,

Randy Wayne
Faculty Representative, University Assembly