'Future of the University' examined at German-American conference

Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman and President Jürgen Mlynek of Humboldt University in Berlin are among the featured speakers at a conference titled "A German-American Dialogue on the Future of the University," to be held Saturday, Nov. 13, in the Statler Hotel and auditorium on campus.

All talks and workshops are free and open to the public. For a complete list of speakers and activities, visit http://www.future-of-the-university.cornell.edu/.

The 21st-century university system faces challenges -- including the development of transnational markets for higher education, increasing numbers of transnational students and faculty, decreased government funding and the promises as well as challenges created by new communications technologies.

The conference combines lectures and workshops that take into account trends generated by the evolution of a transnational society and the impact of those trends on the modern university. Conference participants include German and American scholars seeking a proactive role in defining and shaping the future of higher education at their respective institutions.

The conference begins Nov. 13 at 9 a.m. in Statler Auditorium. Presidents Lehman and Mlynek will be introduced by Peter U. Hohendahl, director of Cornell's Institute for German Cultural Studies and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature, and Arnim H. Meyburg, Cornell professor of civil and environmental engineering and president of the Alexander von Humboldt American Association-Cornell chapter.

After talks by Lehman and Mlynek, speakers and workshops fill Saturday's schedule. An evening banquet at the Statler features Cornell President Emeritus Hunter Rawlings as speaker. An admission fee will be charged for non-registrants attending the dinner.

Sunday is dedicated to an information session presented by the Humboldt Foundation aimed at registered participants.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Institute for German Cultural Studies at Cornell and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is a nonprofit foundation established by the Federal Republic of Germany for the promotion of international research cooperation. It enables highly qualified scholars who are not German residents to spend extended periods of research in Germany.

Conference organizers include Hohendahl, Meyburg and Dominic Boyer, Cornell professor of anthropology. For more information about the conference, contact Jennifer Weber at 255-3328 or e-mail jlw85@cornell.edu.