Cornell Alumni News - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

Alumni Trustee Reports:
Alumni trustees of the university are
required by the bylaws of the Cornell
Alumni Association to report to the association
when their terms of office expire.
The terms of Frederic C. Wood '24
and Juan J. Martinez '27 expire June 30.
Their reports:
BY FREDERIC C. WOOD '24
• Representing you for ten years as a
Trustee, the communications I have received
suggest that this report might appropriately
sum up my personal appraisal
of some of the current problems which face
Cornell.
As to the students about which there is
much talk and publicity, I have no great
concern. In spite of a scattering of barefoot,
bearded beatniks, our students today are
better prepared, more mature, and work
harder for education than did the students
of my generation. Their morals are probably
about the same, but their honesty about
them is more wholesome, though sometimes
shocking.
Cornell has a distinguished faculty. I am
not concerned about the shades of pink
shown by some. The overall spectrum of
liberals and conservatives is probably constant
over the years, varying only with the
national averages. The recent self study
made by the faculty, reported in condensed
form in the ALUMNI NEWS, is illustrative
of the honesty of this group in examining
how well it is carrying out its primary purpose.
In the current eddies of the educational
waters, Cornell is fortunate to have Dr.
Perkins as a pilot. The new tides are many.
There is a shift of balance between public
and private education with the latter declining.
There may be regional and national
planning of educational programs to fit together
the colleges and universities. The
nature of the first two years of undergraduate
work in a university will probably
change materially. The arts college in the
university is growing more unlike the small
liberal arts college. Conceivably the great
universities may decentralize geographically
to place their professional students in areas
where they can get the best "clinical" training.
For guidance through these problems,
we have an excellent leader.
In planning the future of Cornell, I do
have concern that this planning be adequately
coordinated. It must start with an
assumed ultimate student population and
its make-up - the ratio of undergraduates to
graduates - the number of men and women.
Coupled with this must be a planned educational
program-the proportions of the
various colleges and professional schools,
and the direction in which they are going.
The planning of physical facilities must follow
these determinations and not precede
them. The physical plant should be a "tight"
ship-no larger than the need. Equally important
is advanced planning of the capital
fund requirements and sources. This includes
prudence in "borrowing" these funds.
Similarly there should be advance planning
of operating expenses and income. Such coordinated
planning is in my opinion essential
to good management and a good future.
Such coordinated planning, however, requires
effort, patience, determination, and
some good "guessing," though an educated
guess is better than no guess at all. The socalled
"soft" money that is presently available
for education and the terrific pressures
for expansion are not conducive to such
planning. The idea is not popular. It is the
great responsibility of the Trustees to make
sure that the pattern of growth which Cornell
follows in the future is one in which all
of these elements are coordinated.
It has been a great experience for me to
have been an Alumni Trustee for ten years,
and I again wish to express my gratitude to
you. I hope I have served you well.
BY JUAN J. MARTINEZ '27
• One of the greatest honors I have received
was my election as Alumni Trustee
of Cornell University. I regarded my election
as an expression of my fellow alumni
of their desire to expand the universality of
our alma mater. It was a great satisfaction
to see Cornell lead the great universities of
the United States by electing a citizen of
another country to its Board of Trustees. In
our constantly shrinking planet, where the
necessity of closer cooperation between nations
becomes more evident every day, this
move was most opportune. No longer can
any one nation afford to isolate itself from
the rest of the world, no matter how rich or
how poor, or how prosperous or how decadent,
or how powerful or how weak, it
may be.
Cornell, in keeping with the times, had
established International Studies' Centers
and had also been moving towards a closer
relationship with its cousins south of the
Rio Grande. Under Professor Holmberg, it
had launched an ambitious and successful
program for the development of a peasant
Indian region in the Andes, in Peru, and
later sent some of its students on missions
of smaller magnitude to Honduras.
To top all this, a Latin American Year
was scheduled to take place at Cornell during
the present scholastic year. Notable
persons have come to Ithaca and interesting
conferences, discussions and exhibits of
Latin American policies, culture and art
have taken place. But, enough of this, I wish
to devote a few lines to other more important
events in the life of Cornell.
Dr. Deane Malott retired as President
of the University in 1963. During his term
of office the university experienced a tremendous
physical growth, in which President
Malott played a major role. As a tribute
to his achievements, the Trustees elected
him President Emeritus and named the new
building housing the School of Business and
Public Administration, Malott Hall.
President Malott was succeeded by Dr.
James Perkins, a man with a distinguished
career and a tremendous personality. The
first major move of President Perkins was
to ask the Board of Trustees to approve a
general increase in salaries for the members
of the faculty. This was imperative because
Cornell was lagging considerably behind
the other major universities in the country
in this aspect, and Cornell, who always has
excelled in the quality of its professorship
could ill afford to lose some of its distinguished
teachers. President Perkins has also
continued the policy of former President
Malott in constantly revising the organization
of the administration of the university
to enable it to carry out more efficiently its
functions. Accordingly, the office of Vice
Provost was established and new Vice Presidents
were appointed.
Cornell celebrated its one hundred years
of existence with a number of academic
functions, to which were invited representatives
of universities from all over the world.
The various ceremonies were most impressive
and proved the respect that Cornell
commands in this country and abroad. A
seventy-three million dollar fund raising
drive paralleled these celebrations. This
drive, so ably directed by Trustee Jansen
Noyes, was topped.
During my term of office, I served in the
Audit Committee for one year and in the
Buildings and Properties Committee for two
years. In the Audit Committee I could appreciate
the tenacious efforts of the administrative
officers to keep the economic and
financial affairs of the university in order.
I was initiated in the Buildings and Properties
Committee by a most able and charming
person holding the chair, Mrs. Hugh
Mackey. The work of the Buildings and
Properties Committee is so important that
two years ago it was decided that its chairman
should become an ex-officio member
of the Executive Committee of the Board
of Trustees. Tremendous problems face the
university in this field: adequate and modern
buildings for teaching and research have
to be constantly added; housing facilities
and recreational centers for the students
have to be provided; parking facilities and
traffic solutions have to be found; etc. They
will all be taken care of, I am sure, in due
time.
To close, I wish to recommend that Cornell
establish a tradition to have at all times
a non-citizen of the United States in its
Board of Trustees. Preferably, this person
should be, unlike myself, an outstanding
scholar and a humanist. My only regret is
that my lack of these attributes prevented
me from serving Cornell to the extent I
wished and that it deserves.
18 Cornell Alumni News