President's address tops a talk with new faculty on expectations, priorities

By Jacquie Powers

Cornell's new president, the provost and a panel of students were among those who gathered last week in an effort to ease the transition for 48 faculty members new to Cornell this fall.

During the New Faculty Orientation session, Sept. 19, in Hollister Hall, David Harris, center, professor of sociology, questions a presenter, while Shelley Correll, left, assistant professor of sociology, and Daniel Peck, assistant professor of entomology, look on. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

"Hiring at Cornell is the single most important thing we do," said Provost Biddy Martin in welcoming the new faculty members. Martin said Cornell's tenure rate is high compared with peer institutions, because "our appointments are really critical. We do our best work when we hire you, and we hope that you will stay and do your best work at Cornell."

Martin explained that while Jeffrey Lehman, Cornell's new president, is in the process of formulating his priorities, the university's current priorities were developed in the late '90s by several university task forces and the administration. They include three strategic enabling areas in the sciences: computing and information science, advanced materials science and nanofabrication, and the new life sciences. Other priorities include preserving and building strength in the humanities and social sciences and fostering cross-college collaborations.

"We believe walls between departments and colleges should be permeable," Martin said.

Isaac Kramnick, the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government and vice provost for undergraduate education, told the gathered faculty, "You will change people's lives." He said that in any conversation with alumni about their college days, "they invariably say their most important memory is a particular faculty member or adviser who has shaped their lives. There are thousands of wonderful students waiting to have their lives changed by you."

Francille Firebaugh, vice provost for land grant affairs and special assistant to the president, moderated the half-day program Sept. 19 in Hollister Hall. Firebaugh said a participant in last year's new faculty orientation suggested adding the student panel to the program this year. She added that she hopes this year's participants also will forward their suggestions for improvements.

Kent Hubbell, the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students and professor of architecture, invited faculty members to engage with students. "It's important to engage students outside of the classroom," Hubbell said. "The university is more than the sum of its classrooms. It's a much larger place than the work we do in our labs."

Hubbell introduced the three-student panel: Melissa Ariate, a senior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Toby Lewis, a junior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Orlando Soria, a senior in the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. The three agreed that time management was the most difficult issue for them as Cornell students.

"I take whatever is next and I do it," Soria said.

Ariata said her solution was to add extracurricular activities, of which she has many, "a little at a time." She said she has found that at Cornell, students are either very involved in campus activities, or not at all. "There isn't a middle ground."

All three agreed that students are stressed due to what they called the "culture of achievement here," and that high achievement for many is more difficult than it was in high school.

When asked what students look for in a professor, Soria said: "It's really nice to feel that your education is affecting your everyday life. I respect a professor for that."

Lewis suggested: "Be hands-on, be involved, be excited about what you are teaching. And don't get overextended. It's so frustrating when a professor doesn't have time for you."

Sarah Thomas, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, briefed faculty on library resources, and Denise Clark, director of the Office of Sponsored Programs, offered help in finding and applying for research grants.

President Jeffrey Lehman concluded the program. Lehman said that when he first became a faculty member, he resisted talking with other faculty about the philosophical questions of education for fear of appearing uncool. "But I pushed past that, and I encourage you to push past it, too."

He said he is especially pleased that as a new university president he has permission to ask those questions again as he initiates a campuswide dialogue in order to set his agenda for the coming years.

Lehman said he will start the dialogue with his inaugural address, during which he will pose the same kinds of questions Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dixon White posed when they founded the university as a land-grant institution, uniting the liberal arts and the practical arts. Such questions, he said, include what we teach, whom we teach and how we teach them.

He noted that during his reintroduction to the campus last December, he had suggested the campus and global community might best be served if the university focused most intensely on six domains of inquiry: the new life sciences; advanced materials science and nanotechnology; computing and information sciences; the impact of globalization on human development; the need for collaboration across boundaries of race and religion; and technological change and the impact on what it means to be human.

He said he had not meant those six domains to become frozen as his priorities, but to be a means of starting the dialogue. To that end, he said, he would add two more now, and possibly more as the dialogue unfolds: the relationship between human beings and the environment and the changing nature of global peace and security.

In closing, he urged the new faculty members to think and talk about the big questions, both inside the classroom and outside it, and to engage fully with their students.

"Cornell is an amazing place," he said.