At the Nov. 9 meeting of the faculty Senate, Provost Michael Kotlikoff unveiled a plan for addressing student housing on Cornell’s Ithaca campus while also advancing investments in academic initiatives.

The plan addresses maintenance as well as capacity issues. Kotlikoff said that Cornell has long deferred its capital maintenance for some residence halls and academic buildings and has “insufficient capacity for swing space” to address these concerns.

He also said the university has reached maximum capacity for on-campus housing, and he noted that first-year students are “almost immediately faced with the challenge of finding housing off campus for their sophomore year.”

The proposed housing plan would make it possible for first-year students and sophomores to live on campus should they desire. It also provides flexibility for the university to accommodate modest increases in student enrollment.

Kotlikoff emphasized that the housing plan addresses these capital concerns without detracting from the university’s significant need to invest in academic programs and faculty. Recently he has announced initiatives to increase hiring of diverse faculty and promote “radical collaboration” between academics in different disciplines.

The proposed plan is a result of the Master Housing Planning process launched by Student and Campus Life last academic year, and it builds on the results of the housing survey conducted last spring, which showed first-year students wanted the opportunity to live on campus longer.

The plan proposes renovating existing housing; adding new housing and dining facilities on North Campus for first-year students and sophomores; providing more variety of housing for on-campus sophomores; and partnering with developers to improve the Collegetown living environment.

The long-range plan for North Campus housing would accommodate up to 2,000 new beds when complete and would allow for swing space while deferred maintenance issues in current residence halls are addressed. By helping meet the sophomore housing demand, Kotlikoff said, lottery tension and pressure on the local housing market will be alleviated. The plan also calls for a sophomore “village” on North Campus that is programmatically different from the West Campus House System.

Kotlikoff said the housing plan will be financed by an increase in the university’s debt, revenue generated by the new housing, and modest enrollment growth after 2020. Together with the university’s investments in academic programming and faculty hiring, the benefits of increasing student enrollment and planning for the university’s future housing needs will significantly improve the lived experience of Cornell’s students as well as advance the university’s reputation as a premier teaching and research institution, he said.

The Master Housing Planning process has involved the local and campus communities, the deans, committees of the faculty Senate, the board of trustees, and faculty committees established by the provost. Kotlikoff said he and Vice President Ryan Lombardi are seeking additional feedback through presentations to the various assemblies, including the Student Assembly Nov. 10, the University Assembly Nov. 15, and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Nov. 28.