Cornell Charged With Fixing NY Dairy Economy

Cornell continues to demonstrate that it has friends in high places. We had last Friday's comment by Hillary Clinton ("I love Cornell") and now, New York's two current senators got some nice appropriations money for the university:

U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee late last week approved $1 million for Cornell University to research and develop new agricultural policies to help grow New York’s dairy economy in the FY10 Agriculture Appropriations Bill. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand aggressively lobbied members of the Appropriations Committee to include funding for the project in this year’s spending bill.

Particularly for those of us studying liberal arts, it's not always obvious how large a role Cornell plays in the upstate agricultural economy. But a little looking around reveals a lot. Click on the "land grant" link on Cornell's homepage and you can find things like this:

Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), integral to fulfilling Cornell's land-grant mission, contributed $158 million in total economic impact on the state in FY 2007. CCE, with offices serving 57 counties and New York City, puts knowledge to work by extending the results of university-based research for the practical benefit of the people of New York State. CCE volunteers gave more than 1.14 million hours of service to important community efforts statewide.

With the current economic recession affecting New York farmers, lawmakers have turned to Cornell for ways to increase agricultural profitability through research and other means.

Back in May, an executive order by Governor David Paterson created a "Task Force on Diversifying the New York State Economy Through Industry-Higher Education Partnerships" -- or TFODTNYSETIHEP for short -- with Cornell President David Skorton as chairman.

In today's press release, Senator Schumer places a lot of faith in Cornell:

"Cornell is the cream of the crop when it comes to agricultural research institutions and these funds will keep it at the cutting edge of farming innovation," said Senator Schumer. "At a time when New York’s dairy farmers are struggling we need Cornell's help more than ever to help find ways to bring them out of crisis. It is critical that we fund these types of programs within our Universities to promote agricultural research and advancements that will help protect our farmers and promote our economy.”

It doesn't take a great university to admit top-notch students from the tri-state area and spit them out in the direction of law school, med school, or MBA programs. It does take a great university to maintain strong academics while working equally hard to develop the regional economy. For this reason, we should be proud of our alma mater.