Credit: Robert Barker/University Photography

In a meeting with media today (July 13) Cornell president Hunter Rawlings announced that the university has decided to go ahead with its plan for the controversial West Campus Residential Initiative (WCRI) parking lot in the area dubbed Redbud Woods by protestors. He said the decision was reached "after a great deal of thought, a great deal of consultation and a great deal of work with many constituencies."

He said the first step, as in all construction projects, will be to post notices declaring the area to be a construction site and to erect a light fence around the area. As for protesters currently occupying the site, Rawlings said he hoped they would "obey the law."

He pointed out that plans for the WRCI, including the parking lot, have been in the works for five years and have included many revisions to reduce the impact on the natural environment. He thanked the various constituencies, including those who protested the plan, for contributing to those revisions.

Rawlings also announced that he and Charles Walcott, dean of the faculty, would form a faculty committee to advise the university on maintaining a balance between sustainability and the continuing need for additional parking. Studies have shown, he said, that the university will need at least 750 new parking spaces on campus over the next five years, not only for students but also to accommodate visitors from the Ithaca community and elsewhere.

He also said he would ask Provost Biddy Martin to create a fund to support faculty members who create research projects relating to sustainable development on campus, with preference to those who involve undergraduates in their research.

In response to a reporter's question, Rawlings noted that delays due to protests against the parking lot project have had a substantial financial impact. Among other things, he said, having construction workers on the site but not working is costing about $6,000 a day.

"I'm very proud of Cornell's record in sustainability, he added, citing the work of Cornell Plantations, which maintains some 4,000 acres of natural areas on the Plantations itself, in the gorges and elsewhere, the Lake Source Cooling project and the construction of new buildings in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.

"Whenever you make decisions, you expect a certain amount of … opposition," Rawlings concluded. "I'm experienced at it. I don't enjoy it."