$55M Building Project Will Expand Cornell Law School to House Growing Faculty as Library Shrinks
Cornell Law School is planning to spend $55 million to $60 million to expand and renovate its facilities in three phases over the next several years.
The project will include the construction of underground classrooms and renovating the library and law school student dormitory to create additional classrooms, offices and meeting space for students and faculty, the Cornell Daily Sun reports.
As part of the project, five floors of library space will be repurposed, and a number of volumes eliminated from the law school’s collection, according to the article. It appears that Cornell may also intend to reduce dormitory accommodations for law students.
A planned 15 percent increase in the school’s law faculty over the past eight years is one factor driving the expansion.
Stewart Schwab, the law school’s dean, points out that most readers today look at court opinions online, rather than in hard-copy reporters. And Femi Cadmus, the law school’s librarian, says she is fine with the plan to winnow Cornell’s collection of law books while preserving key materials, the article recounts.
“The library will become an even more aesthetic and welcoming place with collaborative and study spaces for users,” Cadmus said. “Both print and digital collections, important to the research and scholarship of our faculty and students, will continue to be maintained.”
