She was referring to the university’s surprise announcement in 2006 that it had agreed to sell 45 acres of Yerkes land for about $9 million to a New York developer that planned to build a 100-room hotel and 72 homes. The agreement also called for preserving Yerkes and 30 acres around it, creating a conservation zone along the lake and providing more than $400,000 a year to support the observatory, in addition to several million dollars for educational outreach at Yerkes.