Stanford surprised some today by withdrawing a bid to open a tech campus in New York City. They were one of a few schools who have submitted proposals to Mayor Bloomberg, who is hosting a little competition to provide funding and real estate to a university with the best proposal for opening a new campus. Cornell and New York University are still competing, but Stanford being prestigious and already well positioned in the tech world, it was a pretty big contender to win the bid before today. And they'd pursued their bid pretty hard until now, hoping to put over $1 billion into the project. BetaBeat speculates on some of the reasons for the sudden withdrawal:

the proposal was not popular with everyone in Palo Alto, most notably the student body. There were also disagreements over the proposed location —Roosevelt Island — and other facets of Stanford’s application.

And Crain's New York notes that it's a loss for the city officials promoting the project, writing, "In response, city officials did not concede what must be their severe disappointment in losing such a prestigious applicant." Most reports say this news makes Cornell the odds on favorite to win the campus. 

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