The Cornell University Board of Trustees today (May 25, 2001) voted to accept the recommendation of President Hunter R. Rawlings to begin the process to close the Ward Center for Nuclear Studies and to decommission the nuclear reactor associated with the Center.

The decision by the trustees was taken after a 40-minute, in-depth discussion in which the trustees reviewed both the written and oral arguments that had been submitted to them on both sides of the question.

The initial recommendation to close the Center and decommission the reactor was made by the Local Advisory Committee, a standing committee of the Cornell Faculty Senate, after a three-month study of the issue initiated by Vice Provost for Research Robert Richardson.

Prior to the board's consideration of this issue, and in accordance with the University's by-laws, Harold Tanner, the chairman of the Board of Trustees, appointed a special committee of trustees to meet on May 24 with a group of faculty opposed to the Administration's recommendation. The ad hoc committee, after meeting with the faculty group, unanimously recommended the approval of the Administration's resolution.