"This is not an exercise in exclusion or winning. This is an exercise in inclusion and having all the ships rise in this fine city."
– David J. Skorton, Cornell University president
With its sweeping proposal and ambitious goals, the Cornell-Technion consortium has the promise to fashion New York into the high-tech capital of the world.
In a "defining moment" for New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced Monday that Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology won a competitive bid to establish an applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island.
Cornell and Technion — considered the driving force behind Israel's emergence as one of the world's technology centers — beat out six other proposals from 17 institutions in the Applied Sciences NYC Initiative, the city's unprecedented competition to entice world-class institutions to set up shop here and serve as magnets for talent, innovation and growth in entrepreneurship and engineering.
The city is providing 11 acres of land on Roosevelt Island and up to $100 million in infrastructure improvements to construct the campus. A $350 million gift, the largest in the university's history and one of the largest in the history of American higher education, from Atlantic Philanthropies and its founding chairman, Charles F. Feeney, will anchor the graduate school. With its sweeping proposal and ambitious goals, the Cornell-Technion consortium has the promise to fashion New York into the high-tech capital of the world.
"Today will be remembered as a defining moment," said Mr. Bloomberg at a press conference announcing the new graduate school at Weill Cornell Medical College's Weill Education Center. "It really is a game changer."
City officials spent two months poring over 10,000 pages of documents submitted in the seven proposals, but chose Cornell and Technion because it was "far and away the boldest and most ambitious," Mr. Bloomberg said.
The school will open its doors next year in a temporary, off-site location while crews begin the first phase of construction, which is expected to open on Roosevelt Island no later than 2017. The project will culminate in more than 2 million square feet of space by 2043, featuring environmentally friendly buildings with public open spaces, and is expected to create more than 20,000 construction jobs.
The school is anticipated to bring in 2,500 students in master's and doctoral programs and 280 faculty members, and create a total of up to 8,000 permanent jobs. The campus will be organized in overlapping and flexible hubs focused around themes: "healthier life," concentrating on health care, insurance and medical information systems; "connective media," with direction in everything from finance to media; and "built environment," with its purview including architecture and planning.
Consortium leaders envision a ring of entrepreneurs around the school who will interact with students. The plans include business incubators and the establishment of a $150 million venture capital fund for start-up companies that agree to remain in New York for three years.
In all, leaders estimate the campus will produce nearly 600 spin-off companies over the next generation, creating upward of 30,000 additional permanent jobs, while generating more than $23 billion in overall economic activity during the next 30 years and $1.4 billion in total tax revenue.
While accepting this "vote of confidence" from the city, Cornell President David J. Skorton said that this is not a "touch-down dance for Cornell or for Technion."
"This is a time for a touch-down dance for New York City, for the people who are dreaming to get ahead," he said. "This is not an exercise in exclusion or winning. This is an exercise in inclusion and having all the ships rise in this fine city."