Faculty Senate hears from the president on shaping the university for the future

By Jacquie Powers

Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman last week briefed members of the Faculty Senate on his plans for framing goals for his first year and for his presidency, which he hopes will extend to Cornell's sesquicentennial anniversary in 2015.

In other business at the first Faculty Senate meeting of the academic year, Sept. 17, Provost Biddy Martin reported on faculty hires and dean searches, and senate members discussed a plan for strategic corporate alliances.

Lehman

Lehman, in his first appearance before the senate, said that as an alumnus, returning to Cornell as president has been "fabulous. This is emotionally gratifying for me in a way that I thought it might be but couldn't have known."

He said he wants to spend this year formulating his goals and determining what it will take to achieve them. But, he added, "I do have some ideas about that, and I hope to see my ideas develop in concert with the faculty and others with a stake in Cornell."

Lehman said he would use the opportunity of his inauguration Oct. 12, 15 and 16, to begin the campuswide discussion of those ideas, and others, which will help him to formulate his goals. He noted that the inauguration celebration, which will take place at Cornell institutions in Doha, Qatar, Manhattan and Ithaca, is designed in part to be symbolic, showing the breadth and complexity of Cornell.

In his inaugural address, he said, he will call on Cornellians around the world to engage in a dialogue about how to shape the university for the future. Such a dialogue, he said, should include discussion of what we teach, whom we teach and how we teach them.

"Are there thematic areas where collaborations across disciplines, or focus on disciplines, could enable Cornell to have a greater engagement in the world?

"This is what defines Cornell," Lehman said, "this desire to engage and respond to the needs of society."

Following the inauguration he will use the many institutions at Cornell to engage in sustained discourse about these issues. And at the end of the year, he said, he wants to be able to have formed his goals and strategy for the years of his presidency.

On new hires, Martin said she was happy to report that the university had made 60 excellent faculty hires over the past year and that the searches for four deans -- in the Colleges of Human Ecology, Arts and Sciences, Architecture, Art and Planning and the Law School -- are under way. She said she expects to fill the Law School deanship by the end of the semester and hopes to have the other searches concluded by the end of the academic year.

Speaking about strategic corporate alliances, Robert Buhrman, professor of applied and engineering physics and member of the Faculty Senate's Local Advisory Committee, reported that the committee recommends "an effective mechanism for the community to monitor the ongoing development of such alliances. We suggest that this could be effectively done by requiring that any proposed alliance agreement be submitted to an independent Faculty Senate-appointed committee of Cornell faculty researchers for review and comment before the agreement is finalized."

Some senators expressed concern about exclusivity and "preferred access" to research issues. Charles Walcott, dean of the faculty, said a faculty forum on this issue is being scheduled for late October.