A plaza dedicated and named in honor of Cornell’s 14th president, Martha E. Pollack, will be part of the new Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science building and complex, connecting it with Gates Hall.

The announcement was made at a gala dinner held in Barton Hall Oct. 18 in Pollack’s honor as part of Trustee-Council Annual Meeting events. Pollack retired from the presidency June 30 after seven years at the university’s helm.

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“How to appropriately acknowledge Martha Pollack’s contributions to Cornell is almost impossible,” said Cornell Board of Trustees Chair Kraig Kayser, MBA ’84, noting her strong connection with students, her commitment to academic verve, her dedication to and reiteration of Cornell’s core values and her leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plaza will be “a lasting tribute to one of the key successes of [her] administration and leadership,” he said. Kayser spoke about Pollack’s long academic background and accomplishments in computer science and the strides Cornell made across that field during her tenure, from the opening of the Cornell Tech campus in New York City to the naming and expansion of Cornell Bowers CIS.

At the event, New York State Senator Lea Webb (D-52nd District) and Assemblymember Anna Kelles (D-125th District), designees to the board from the state senate president pro tempore and from the state assembly speaker, respectively, read a joint letter of commendation. Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff; Robert Harrison ’76, emeritus chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees; and trustee emerita Peggy Koenig ’78, former co-vice chair of the board, also spoke.

Construction began in spring 2023 on the new four-story, 135,000-square-foot building that will be connected to Gates Hall. The building will support the fast-growing college, adding instructional and research space while also bringing together its three departments: computer science, information science, and statistics and data science.

The Martha E. Pollack Plaza will be located “at the growing heart” of Cornell Bowers CIS, Kayser said. “It will be traversed by thousands, used every day, and will forever be a reminder of the contributions that [she] made: not just in computer science, but to the entire university.”

Kotlikoff, who served as provost with Pollack for seven years, said that one of the things that most impressed him about her was “her total commitment to access” to Cornell for students, which helped inspire the current philanthropic campaign’s emphasis on financial aid and affordability.

“She got that immediately,” Kotlikoff said. “She questioned what our legacy was, what our founding commitment was, and whether we were living up to that commitment.

“I saw how she gave her full measure to Cornell University, how much of herself she poured into the university,” Kotlikoff said. “And I’ll always value what [she] has done for Cornell.”

Taking the stage, Pollack recounted how she was recruited to Cornell from her position as provost at the University of Michigan, noting that she typically had ignored offers from search consultants before – “but this was Cornell.”

Pollack said she had long known of Cornell’s reputation for excellence, innovation and collaboration; its diversity of schools and subjects; its land-grant mission and public engagement; and its balance of public and private and rural and urban campuses.

“But it had one more thing – one that I couldn’t have fully appreciated until I came here,” Pollack said. “It was this amazing community, this shared ethos amongst Cornellians, not only shared amongst the people on our campuses, the faculty, the staff and the students, but shared in the 300,000 living alumni. And more than anything, tonight, I just want to thank you, that community, for making me a part of you.”

The plaza and new building are expected to be completed sometime next spring, with full occupancy of the building planned for the fall semester.

Joe Wilensky is a senior editor for Cornellians.