Members of the Cornell Board of Trustees and Cornell University Council will arrive on campus Thursday, Oct. 26, for their joint annual meeting, which this year celebrates the 50th annual meeting of the council.

The annual meeting of the more than 700-member council and a quarterly meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled on campus every fall so that the groups can attend joint meetings and hear President Hunter Rawlings' State of the University Address. The council is an advisory body made up of alumni and friends of the university who are elected by the trustees.

Rawlings' speech will be delivered Friday, Oct. 27, at 9 a.m. in Alice Statler Auditorium, Statler Hall.

The Cornell Board of Trustees will meet in open session Friday afternoon at 2:15 in the Trustee Meeting Room of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. The open portion of the meeting will include a report from Rawlings, an update from Provost Biddy Martin on the university's financial plan for the state-assisted schools and colleges, a report on enrollment trends and a financial report on fiscal year 1999-00. A limited number of tickets for the full board's open session will be available starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, at the Information and Referral Center in the lobby of Day Hall. No tickets are needed for the open sessions of the committees.

Several committees will have open sessions:

• The Committee on Land Grant and Statutory College Affairs meeting, Thursday at 2 p.m. in Mann Library, will be open for discussion on a range of program and financial matters affecting Cornell's state-assisted colleges.
• The Buildings and Properties Committee meeting, Thursday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Statler Hotel's Yale-Princeton Room, will be open for the first 20 minutes to hear status reports on ongoing projects.
• The Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life meeting, Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Yale-Princeton Room, will be open for the first 25 minutes for an overview of the year and for a report on the Middle States Association reaccreditation process.