When Peter Meinig '61, BME '62, stepped into the Weill Cornell Medical College meeting room last week after being elected to a second three-year term as chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, he offered a few words of gratitude and optimism.

"I told the trustees that it's a privilege and a pleasure to serve -- that's because of the tremendous support our chairs have always received. The current board is no exception."

The board's support comes at a particularly exciting time for Cornell, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday evening from his home in Aspen, Colo. With the recent inauguration of President David Skorton and an ambitious campaign under way, he said, the tone among trustees is one of high expectation and unity.

Meinig, who was elected by unanimous ballot by the 50 trustees present, has been a member of the board since 1991and became chairman July 1, 2002. In re-electing him chairman for a further three-year term, effective July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2010, the board also extended his term as a trustee through June 30, 2011.

It is not uncommon for a board chair to serve more than one term; Meinig's predecessor, Harold Tanner '52, for example, served for five years, and, before Tanner, Stephen Weiss served eight years. Another term is out of the question for Meinig, though, since bylaws state that a board chair cannot serve beyond the end of the fiscal year in which he turns 70. Meinig will be 68 on July 15.

"My sense is that our board of trustees is functioning very, very well," he said. "And a good demonstration of that is in the enthusiasm that exists on the board with the appointment of David Skorton and the tremendous support that David is getting. People are very energized."

In his second term as chair, Meinig sees that energy going beyond the board's traditional roles of governance and oversight to work as a positive force in the university's $4 billion campaign.

"Our major challenge is implementing the campaign," he said. Board members are working hard to communicate the university's vision, to enable Cornell to be the best research university for undergraduate education and to fully realize its role as the land-grant institution to the world.

"We are all focused on the campaign to secure the resources needed to provide students access to a world-class education, to recruit the next generation of faculty, and to secure the needed facilities to inspire 21st-century learning and discovery. We are working together to make sure we realize that goal."

"One of the responsibilities of the board is to plan for future leadership of the board, and to put potential board leaders in positions of responsibility," he said. He sees strong leadership potential among the board's vice chairs and committee chairs, for example, and is confident the succession at the end of his term -- or earlier, if it's in the best interest of the university, he said -- will be smooth.

In the meantime, continuing to serve "is not something I need to do; this is for Cornell," he said. "I'm happy to work for Cornell in any way I can."