The New York City Council has shared that it will vote to approve the Cornell NYC Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, a move which Speaker Christine C. Quinn says enables “the final steps necessary for construction to commence.”
In addition, Cornell NYC Tech has shared that it will “partner with New York City middle schools to create Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) programs.” Roosevelt Island’s local school, PS/IS 217, will receive particularly close attention.
This news follows similar approval from the New York City Planning Commission, which slated the school for a 2014 groundbreaking.
As we said back in March, the importance of this upcoming campus is clear: New York’s developer drought, which is affecting countless startups and hindering the growth of its greater tech scene, could be curbed by attracting and educating future engineers. This, coupled with initiatives in high schools, like NYC Generation Tech and the Academy For Software Engineering, makes for a promising remedy to the current shortage.
According to Cornell NYC Tech vice president Cathy Dove, the university is “confident” that the Cornell Tech campus will be something “we can all be proud of and that will benefit both the Roosevelt Island community and the entire city. We look forward to breaking ground next year and continuing to work closely with the community as our campus develops.”
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Today’s news follows the launch of Cornell Tech’s first class, which is currently being held at Google’s NY headquarters in Chelsea. Campus opening is expected to occur during 2017.
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