It seems that Santa came to Cornell University earlier this year. The Ivy League School has just received a $ 350 million grant to help build a high-level school on Roosevelt Island. While Cornell itself is located in Ithaca, New York, the new facility will be located in the heart of New York.
Donation is the biggest in school history. The donor, one Charles Feeney, is also a former student of Cornell, who graduated from the 1950s. Then he continued to earn billions through the Duty Free Shoppers Group. For the past two decades Fini has made promises, often anonymously, to schools and universities around the world. In fact, it has just been shown that he has donated over $ 600 million to Cornell over the past few years. Although at present no building has a name that can easily change after this last contribution.
Mr. Feeney is a rather interesting billionaire. He is not one of those who flaunt their wealth and always remember their roots. It was said that he did not even have a house or a car, and he still wears a watch in the amount of $ 15. More importantly, he is known for his generosity, especially in the field of medical research.
In 1982, he founded the group Atlantic Philanthropies and transferred a large part of his empire in the amount of 2.1 billion dollars to the foundation. Not only that, but he plans to give it all up in the next few years. In the past two years alone, he has owed more than $ 600 million for various reasons.
Of course, there was a fierce war to find out who would win the rights to build and operate the Roosevelt school. A recent press conference by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed that the final bid was won by the Tenion-Israel Institute of Technology together with Cornell.
The whole plan is worth as much as 2 billion dollars. It will also include a fund of $ 150 million to help create new companies in the New York area. It is reported that construction has created 20,000 jobs, suddenly launched 600 new enterprises and attracted taxes in the amount of 1.4 billion dollars. In addition, it would help science and mathematics education of 10,000 local elementary children.
Mayor Blumberg also has an ambitious plan. He wants New York to ever replace Silicon Valley as a new technological capital of the world. New York representatives spent more than two months reading 10.00-page sentences before making a decision. They finally decided the Cornell plan because of its courage and scale.
While construction will not start for a while, they will begin classes on sites already this fall. The entire facility will be 2 million square feet and is expected to be fully completed in 2037.
