President David Skorton sent the following message to the Cornell community Dec. 21:

As you know, Mayor Bloomberg announced this week that Cornell, in collaboration with The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, won the competition to build a new campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The mayor deemed the Cornell proposal to be visionary.

This is a historic and transformative moment for Cornell. We won because of the brilliant ideas of our faculty, the enthusiasm and energy of our students, the hard work of our staff, and the careful scrutiny and ultimately strong support of our board of trustees. I want to express my gratitude to everyone involved in this massive effort -- and for the amazing outpouring of support from students, alumni, and friends from across the globe. In a very real sense, our proposal succeeded because our campus community came together in a way that happens rarely in higher education.

I know you will join me as well in thanking The Atlantic Philanthropies and its Founding Chairman, Chuck Feeney, whose extraordinary gift will help make this historic opportunity a reality.

We have much to accomplish in the next few years to open the doors of our new campus in time to celebrate Cornell's 150th anniversary. As we move forward, I want to assure you that we will involve Cornellians in Ithaca and New York City every step of the way in order to make sure that New York Tech is an integral part of our university, sharing our institutional culture and our values.

It is fitting that this transformative opportunity comes on the eve of our sesquicentennial, and I look forward to working with you on this initiative along with all the priorities in our strategic plan.