ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees will meet in Ithaca Thursday, May 27, through Saturday, May 29.

The Executive Committee of the board will hold a brief open session at the start of its meeting Friday, May 28, at 7:30 a.m. in the Taylor A&B Room of the Statler Hotel on campus. The open session will include a discussion of the 2004-05 financial plan for the contract colleges.

The full board will convene in open session at the start of its meeting at 3:15 p.m. Friday in Appel Commons on North Campus. During the open session, the board will hear a report from President Jeffrey Lehman; a report from Donna Goss, chair of the Employee Assembly; a report from Charles Walcott, dean of the faculty; and the annual report from Robert Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development, on "Progress Toward Diversity and Inclusion." The 2004-05 financial plan and contract college budget also will be presented.

The board reconvenes in closed session at 1:15 p.m. Saturday in Clark Hall.

The Committee on Land Grant and Statutory College Affairs will meet in open session at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 27, in the Taylor A&B Room of the Statler. The committee will hear a report from Provost Biddy Martin, and a panel discussion on economic development in higher education will be led by R. Wayne Diesel, vice chancellor for business and industry relations at the State University of New York.

These committees will have open sessions on campus Friday:

o The Buildings and Properties Committee will meet in open session at the start of its 9:30 a.m. meeting in the Yale/Princeton Room of the Statler Hotel. Status reports on various construction projects will be presented.

o The Committee on Academic Affairs and Campus Life will hold a brief open session at the start of its 1 p.m. meeting in the Yale-Princeton Room. The committee will vote on: a resolution to establish a Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology,a resolution to establish a Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering and a resolutionto establish an undergraduate major in China and Asia-Pacific Studies.

A limited number of tickets for the open session of the Executive Committee and of the full board will be available starting at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 26, at the Information and Referral center in the lobby of Day Hall. No tickets are needed for the open sessions of the other committees.

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EDITORS: Tickets for the general board meeting are available to news media from the Cornell News Service. Contact Linda Grace-Kobas at (607) 255-4206.