The City Council wants CCNY to join the Cornell and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology collaborationby Ryan Wallerson.Last semester, City College had high hopes of partnering with Stanford University to create Stanford@CCNY, a collaboration between our science and engineering schools and the powerhouse California university.But the partnership fell apart when Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in December that Cornell University and Techion-Israel Institute of Technology had won the right to construct a two million square foot applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island (shown here).But CCNY may get a second chance to take part in Bloomberg's effort to make New York City more globally competitive. Late last month, a group of 21 City Council members sent a letter to the mayor calling on him to include The Grove School of Engineering in the project. The letter also asked for Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science to be added to the Cornell-Technion collaboration.
Here at City College, the Grove School is paying attention to the situation, but by no means are they frozen in anticipation. “We are always looking to expand and progress, and positive collaborations with other universities are obviously a great way to do that,” says Ardie Walser, associate dean of undergraduate affairs at the Grove School. “To be part of the Roosevelt project would fall right into what we try to do. That said, regardless of the outcome, we are progressing, and will continue to do so. If it happens, great; if not, we will continue to move.”
Dean Walser said that the thumbs up from City Council has been a real boost. “That we have such backing from the city council proves that we are doing something right here at CCNY," he said. "That’s what we will continue to strive for, Roosevelt project or no Roosevelt project. We are still here.”