I guess it is only appropriate that I received in the mail last night a letter asking me to donate to the Cornell Annual Fund; as of early this morning, 'Far Above: The Campaign for Cornell' has officially entered the noisy phase. The website: campaign.cornell.edu is alive and kicking. The exact terms of the campaign should be of no surprise to people who have been reading MetaEzra. The University is hoping to raise "more than" four billion dollars, of which one billion is for Weill-Cornell. At first glance, there's not really one surprise that we haven't heard about before -- life sciences, physical sciences, area studies, West Campus, Gates Hall, Milstein Hall, endowed professorships, they are all there. There's obviously a lot more to explore. The next five years are going to be a very exciting time on East Hill. N.B. Coincidentally, farabove.cornell.edu will also re-direct to the campaign's website. Another site, giving.cornell.edu has also been launched. But where is givemyregardstodavy.cornell.edu?
The University makes its case for a "bold" campaign (isn't that Brown's term?) by stressing three key areas: students ($640 million), faculty ($1.9 billion), and facilities ($1.2 billion). "Unrestricted support" fills in the rest.