Trustee research (savecooperunion@googlegroups.com)

[waijeeho@gmail.com (Google Docs)]

I've shared Trustee research

Click to open:

• Trustee research

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[audrey snyder]

nice,
I am signing myself up now to start researching.
We have the colonnade for the next two weeks after the show comes
down, Shane Kennedy is working on a proposal...and talking with david
williams.

I am going to copy my last email here so that everyone I missed can
look at it:
che and nico, you mentioned that an arch professor has been doing some
of this research on the bprad of trustee members already, how similar
is his inquiry to the just straight-googling that walid suggested? if
it is more in depth perhaps we can re-asses how much we need to do.
However much he is doing I still think it would be useful for us as
students to do our own research...if for nothing more than to be
informed ourselves. Ideally the information we put together will be
made available to the wider student body.

mauricio, do you think it would be useful to get eveyone who was at
that meeting into research groups to break down all that has to be
done. It could be as walid suggested, by major with the other trustees
added into the group?

the president needs to be on the list!
who were the trustees that resigned after/before the new building was
completed? would it be interesting to include them in this because of
the politics of the school?

and we might have an opportunity to display this information...as well
as handing it to the development office in a list form. After the
meeting with development on tuesday does this make sense?

to move on,
I am going to do some research by this weekend, is the google doc the
best way to store information?

best,
Audrey




On Nov 16, 3:18 pm, "waije...@gmail.com (Google Docs)"
<waije...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've shared an item with you:
>
> Trustee researchhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Atp6sE3HXPhndFcyUmVCdXhz...
>
> It's not an attachment -- it's stored online at Google Docs. To open this
> document, just click the link above.

[Wai-Jee Ho]

to audrey:

i was trying to figure out whether or not a google doc is the best way to do it, but if there's going to be a show in the colonnade, the physical print-out aspect is the best way to compile the research. however, in order to keep the web-trail so you don't lose links you've found, you can post it there, and add columns to the doc to your discretion(for example a column to list the companies/boards that the trustees are involved in).

i think it's also a good way for there to be fact checking; if people see something else on a trustee or can elaborate on facts already collected, there can be a porous way for these things to be added/edited.

W

[Nicolas Libeyre]

Hi everyone!

W:

Thanks for your google doc initiative. We def need to share all the information we collect individually.

Audrey, Joe, Shane...:

I'm excited about seeing this in the colonnade! It's a bold move

This research makes sense because, according to the development vice president, the trustees don't share their connections spontaneously. Derek (the vice president) says he is trying to push them and have them work in our (everyone's) direction.

I think it would be great if you guys could attend the second part of the meeting next tuesday so that you know who are the development people, how they talk to us, how much info they share with us, how much they don't unless we ask precise and potentially sensitive questions. Not to create any kind of opposition but actually to make the collaboration become effective.

I don't know exactly what David Turnbull is doing. Che: do you think he would agree to attend our meeting on tuesday at 12? Would you ask him? (if it seems relevant/useful to everyone here)

Last qs: where are we meeting next week? Same room? 715??

Thank you

See you soon

Nico

[Joe Riley]

Jut wanted to make sure you all saw this:

Some questions and concerns generated from a review of the 2006 – 2009
990′s:

We welcome any response or further information.

1) We are trying to figure out the annual investment returns on
CU’s portfolio. The Form 990s don’t really break down the
different components between (i)returns from the investment
portfolio, (ii)returns (plus tax benefits) from the real estate
portfolio and (iii) drawdowns from the investment portfolio to fund
deficits.

The reason we are looking at this is because the MetLife loan $32M
in excess of what was needed. Apparently the trustees thought it
was a good idea to get this much extra and invest it in the hopes
of making more than 5.87% (the interest rate), which in itself was
likely a high benchmark in 2006 given how conservative CU needed to
be, but it would be really something given the interest rate
environment since 2008.

Are the financials online? Are they public? Also, the statements for
2010 and 2011 would be great.

2) Next, if our reading of their old debt (the Dormitory Authority
of the State of New York bonds) is correct, they were paying 5.53%
on $97M worth of bonds in Fiscal 2007. We have no idea why they
took out a higher interest rate loan to pay off a lower interest
rate loan, which added approximately $0.3M in interest expense each
year.

Can we get a better idea of what they were thinking?

3) We are not getting the same revenue/expenditure figures as TC
has provided per the November 9, 2011 letter titled ‘Cooper Union
Finance Update’. For example, according to the From 990, revenue
and expenses were $47,245,255.00 and $65,502,719.00 respectively.
But the graph points to figures of approximately $47M for revenue
and $60M for expenses. We get similar understatements of expenses
for 2008, 2007 and 2006 (haven’t looked at pre-2006 numbers yet).
We would be curious to know how they are reconciling their expenses
to be less than the figures reported in their Form 990.

4) Why was Mr. George Campbell awarded $175,000 in bonuses each
year in 2007, 2008, 2009 (do not have 2010 and 2011 figures, and
haven’t look at pre-2006 numbers) while the deficit gap was
widening?

5) Something that might be of interest: from 2006 to 2009, CU has
paid Jonathan Rose Companies $2M to supervise the construction of
the new building. The owner of this contractor is Jonathan F.P.
Rose.

We believe Sandra Priest Rose is Johnathon’s mother. She is also a
trustee at CU.

[Joe Riley]

Also, I dont mind taking on de Menil for research.

On Nov 17, 4:47 pm, Nicolas Libeyre <nico.libe...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mauricio Higuera]

How about for the meeting next week we all bring laptops and have a research day? Blackboard, notes, investigation... And let's try to find a tactful direction. Yes?

Mauricio Higuera
Mh4studio.com
203-524-3141
Sent from my iPhone

[Nicolas Libeyre]

Sounds great to me

[Rocco Cetera]

Saw this and figured i would share Interesting article on Cooper BoT by alumnus.

http://www.notnicemusic.com/board.pdfhttp://www.notnicemusic.com/board.xls

Rocco

[Che Perez (arch)]

Will we be able to begin building the layout of the show in the
colonnade at this meeting as well, meaning can we leave the things we
pin up in this room temporarily until we have put up the colonnade
show.

-Che

On Nov 19, 7:05 pm, Rocco Cetera <rcet...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Saw this and figured i would share Interesting article on Cooper BoT by alumnus.
>

> http://www.notnicemusic.com/board.pdfhttp://www.notnicemusic.com/boar...
>
> Rocco

[Osaze Udeagbala (Google Docs)]

[Mauricio Higuera]

Here's my research on Martin Trust:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FgZfEQgH0s1oQr7Yl77AF6sSUP8Hwp_fAZp0cSulmnw/edit?hl=en_US

I've also added a URL to the research spreadsheet.