1230 YORKAVENUE: NEW YORK,N.Y.10021

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

 

May 23, 1978

Honorable Edward I. Koch
Mayor of the City of New York
City Hall

New York, New York 10007

Dear Mayor Koch:

Dr. George K. Hirst, Director of the Public Health Researeh«x
imatitutegof the City of New York, has written to me about the particular
predicament of the institute in the course of the well-known fiscal
upheavals of the city. I am told that there is a serious possibility
that the city may decline to renew its contract with the Institute, after
1981, although I believe that all that is in question at the present time
is the continued provision of laboratory facilities. According to
Dr. Hirst, the Institute would look to other sources, doubtless primarily
the National Institutes of Health, for general operating expenses.

It will be some time before I am sufficiently attuned again to the
numerous problems of municipal affairs to be able to offer a considered
judgment about the priority of choices that your office must make. Nor,
in any case, is it clear to me whether there would be any significant
expense whatever to the city in the renewal of the contract under the
terms aforementioned. What comes from looking at the balance sheet,
nevertheless, is that the net expense is very small indeed and particularly
in relation to the formidable scientific reputation and accomplishments
of the Institute's staff. The record of persénalities and of scientific
contribution of the Institute,in its history and at the present time, can
only be described as illustrious and remarkable for an organization of
that size. It would be a lamentable loss indeed, especially given the
leverage on total available funding that the Institute offers, if a quite
modest investment to secure its future has to be terminated/

Since, in a certain sense, the Institute can be regarded as a
competitor, operating in a similar domain to that of The Rockefeller
University, I could only offer these words on the basis of considered
appreciation for the scientific caliber of the work that the Institute
has performed. Competitor or not, it will be a great loss to all of us
if the city is unable to retain the intellectual vitality that makes it
such a worthwhile community in spite of the calamities of every day's
newspapers.

Your administration must of course make the final choice in weighing
values and costs; what I can offer is the considered judgment that the
E.I. Koch
5-23-78
Page 2

Institute is one of the most scientifically fruitful organizations for
its size and expense that could be found anywhere in the world.

Yours truly,

Joshua Lederberg,
President- designate
The Rockefeller University

JL/gel