Lehman: Cornell is uniquely positioned to address challenges of the future

By Susan Lang

"Life. Wisdom. Sustainability."

These are the "three great challenges facing humanity that present exciting opportunities for Cornell. These are domains of fundamental worldwide significance ... where the world needs Cornell, and where our founders would expect Cornell to respond," said President Jeffrey S. Lehman on the crisp fall morning of Oct. 29 in his State of the University address to the 54th annual joint meeting of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and University Council in Alice Statler Auditorium on campus.

President Jeffrey Lehman is interviewed by Brian Tsao '06 from The Cornell Daily Sun, foreground, and Jackie Garcia from Eagle Broadcasting, left, after delivering his State of the University Address in the Statler Auditorium Oct. 29. In the background are Simeon Moss, left, deputy director of the Cornell News Service, and Tommy Bruce, vice president for communications and media relations. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

Preceded by Ginger K. So, chair of the Cornell University Council, the president was introduced by Peter C. Meinig '62, chair of the board of trustees.

The president began his address, as he has in the past, by extolling Cornell's distinctive position among the world's great universities in its "founding commitments to coeducation, to nonsectarianism, to diversity broadly understood, to a pairing of theory and application, to a principle of equal respect for classical and practical studies," and in its "reverence for all forms of insight, alloyed with a passion for active contribution to the welfare of humanity." And he spoke of building on the university's commitment to "Any Person, Any Study" and refreshing two dimensions of Cornell that he had described in his inaugural address in the fall of 2003: "the beloved and the revolutionary."

To ensure that tomorrow's students will continue to "profess their deep and abiding love for this university," Lehman said Cornell must continue to attract a diverse and extraordinary faculty so that all students have the opportunity to find true mentors among their teachers, and it must continue to fashion programs to bridge the boundaries between faculty and students. And, he said, the university must continue to promote "the meaningful integration of our community along as many dimensions as possible."

Cornell will face two special challenges in the next decade, Lehman noted, as it seeks to forge "a diverse and actively integrated community of talent." One is to make sure that students, regardless of wealth or income, continue to have access to Cornell and that the university secures the endowment funds needed to guarantee need-blind admissions into the future and "reduce the amount of self-help required of students from lower and middle-income families." The other, he said, is to fortify Cornell's efforts to expand its presence around the globe as it emerges "as an ever more transnational university."

Pointing out that Cornell's medical college campus in Qatar reflects one "exceptional form" of presence in the world, Lehman detailed other forms, as well, such as faculty-to-faculty collaborations across national boundaries and university-level partnerships with peer foreign institutions. During his upcoming visit to Asia, he announced, Cornell will be formalizing agreements with Tsinghua University and Peking University in China.

And to renew "our revolutionary Cornell," leading up to the university's sesquicentennial in 2015, Lehman said, the university must address "from a broad range of intellectual vantage points" three great challenges facing the world: life in the age of the genome, wisdom in the age of digital information and sustainability in the age of technological progress and economic development.

"Each requires strength across the full range of disciplines where this university excels," he said, "and each will benefit from the spirit of multidisciplinary collaboration that is our hallmark."

For each of these challenges, Lehman said, he has asked Provost Biddy Martin to work with deans and faculty members to develop a strategic plan. "Each of these plans will structure the support and integration of our many existing efforts. Each will identify aspects that need further development," he said. "And each will consider how we can best ensure that Cornell's contributions are uniquely significant and meaningful."

Supporting the university's work on these challenges, he said, are projects already underway and others being planned: Collaborations on the groundbreaking New Life Sciences Initiative have begun and, through the Bridging the Rift Initiative, work on a prototype for a Library of Life is underway; greater faculty strength will be added in computing and information science and a new on-campus facility in which interdisciplinary research and teaching in that domain is facilitated will be built; and the challenge of sustainability will continue to be addressed, in its many aspects, across all of Cornell's colleges.

"Cornell has had many builders," said Lehman, referring to founders Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, who "crafted the plan for a university that would become a world treasure," and the many who followed to make that plan a reality.

"Now it is our turn," Lehman said, challenging Cornellians. "Over the course of the next decade, let us renew our beloved Cornell. Let us ensure that its faculty, its staff, its programs and its students together constitute a university worthy of our students' love.

"And let us renew our revolutionary Cornell. Let us ensure that the intellectual breadth of our university is brought to bear on the fundamental challenges of our time. ... The result will be a truly transnational university. A university with worldwide presence. A university whose graduates become leaders around the globe. A university whose research has universal impact."

The text of the State of the University address is available online at: http://www.cornell.edu/president/speeches_2004_1029.cfm.