

How Cornell Beat Stanford's Bid to Build an Engineering Campus in NYC - nitashatiku
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/12/20/stanford-cornell-technion-bloomberg-tech-campus-12202011

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wdewind
Yet another time I want 5 minutes of my life back from reading a betabeat
article...when will I learn. To save the rest of you some time...

TLDR: 'But both city officials and Cornell say it was the school’s superior
offering that clinched the deal. “The catalyst was that Cornell was beating
them in every single category,” said source close to Cornell, citing the speed
of construction, the size of the campus, and the amount of students and
faculty it will serve.'

~~~
nitashatiku
Thanks for your comment. Most of our posts on Betabeat take way less than 5
minutes to read. In fact, I'd peg the bulk of the breaking blog posts on news
about the campus at about a minute. This was an investigation into the
backstory of how the deal for the $2 billion engineering school that could
change New York's economy and tech scene went down. Did Stanford drop out
because it was going to lose or is Cornell the second choice?

Sometimes things that take two pages to read are worth it, I'm sorry you
didn't find that to be the case in this instance, but what you quoted above
comes from Stanford and Cornell. Stanford says otherwise:

"A university source familiar with the negotiations said Stanford’s decision
to drop out wasn’t based on any one issue, but rather due to “a whole host of
things that held them liable for factors outside of [their] control,” such as
big-ticket penalties for missed construction deadlines and the city’s desire
“to indemnify themselves for any toxicity” at the Roosevelt Island site.
Although a Phase II study was commissioned this year, a full scale analysis of
the medical dump under the hospital cannot be done until the building is
razed. Should serious hazards be uncovered, the school will be on the hook not
only for the clean-up but also potentially for resultant delays.”You had a lot
of institutions that wouldn’t even apply because of the terms, and they got
even more severe in the negotiation process,” said the source."

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wdewind
That actually doesn't say otherwise. What it said is that Cornell met certain
conditions that Stanford didn't. It doesn't at all speak to the quality of the
schools, the bidding process, or anything like that. The opposing sides don't
actually seem to disagree with what happened, it just wasn't a deal that
wasn't worth it to Stanford, while it was to Cornell.

It seems the story is pretty short, and again I think the quote I used summed
it up pretty well: Cornell gave the best offer based on what the city wanted.
Stanford didn't, and claimed the factors like environmental cleanup were "out
of their control," while Cornell's offer dealt with them. You spent the entire
first page of the piece reintroducing the issue to an educated audience, and I
think the rest of your piece makes it seem like there is a lot more contention
and competition between the two schools than there actually is.

Also don't change the title of links when you submit them to HN - it should
match the title of the blog post (ie: "Safety School? As Stanford Says ‘See
Ya!’ Bloomberg Hops in Bed with Big Red").

Thanks for being here to defend your piece, though. I do appreciate that you
are willing to discuss, and I hope you don't take my critique personally.

~~~
nitashatiku
No, we (Betabeat and I) totally welcome feedback in any form--criticism,
questions, concerns, etc. Have at us!

We usually change the headlines from paper to blog and from the blog to Hacker
News only because the paper ones tend to be more opaque and literary and it
seems like HN readers like it a little more straight-forward, so they know
what to expect when they click on it. I've noticed other submissions doing
that too, although maybe it's not the norm?

Stanford was taken aback by the unusual penalties in the contract and the
negotiating stance of the city. Cornell says it was par for the course, but
other NYC institutions agreed with Stanford.

I totally hear you about reintroducing issues people familiar with the
backstory are already well-versed with, it's something we wouldn't do in a
blog post, but the idea here was a feature that stands on its own, to
encapsulates what happened over an unexpectedly tumultuous 72 hours.

Really appreciate the feedback. Always looking to improve.

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waterlesscloud
And Cornell is in NY state and probably has more relevant connections with
authorities than Stanford...

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nitashatiku
Yeah, the idea of knowing how to build in NYC was a big plus. There's actually
still so many hoops to jump through still: the land use agreements, any
remediation of the site, potential community benefits, etc.

------
unexpected
Didn't Stanford drop out? How can you beat someone that didn't even compete?

~~~
vsl2
Yeah, they dropped out because they knew Cornell was going to get it and they
preferred to quit rather than lose.

From multiple accounts, Stanford didn't have the same
passion/funding/flexibility as Cornell in getting the deal done. Stanford is
more prestigious, but that's not the only factor obviously - or why even have
an open competiton at all?

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coreyo
This whole thing reeks of failure. Win because you promise more? That sounds
like a government project.

~~~
nitashatiku
"Win because you promise more? That sounds like a government project." Ha,
ding ding ding ding ding ding!

