Siliciano named CU vice provost; Cohen returns to the faculty

Siliciano

Cohen

By Linda Myers and Franklin Crawford

John Siliciano, professor of law and former interim dean at Cornell Law School, has been named Cornell vice provost, Provost Biddy Martin announced this week. Siliciano, who will join the provost's staff in July 2004, replaces Walter Cohen, who returns to the faculty in the comparative literature department after serving as vice provost since 2001. Prior to his vice provost appointment, Cohen had served as dean of the Graduate School for eight years.

"I am pleased to announce that John Siliciano will join the provost's staff and the central administration as vice provost," Martin said. "John has had a distinguished career in law practice, scholarship and teaching and, most recently, has shown himself to be a strong, well-respected and immensely capable leader and administrator at the Law School as associate, vice and interim dean. That experience at one of Cornell's pre-eminent professional schools will offer us an especially valuable perspective when John joins our team."

Siliciano, whose new duties are still being discussed, will assume some of the responsibilities of his predecessor, including efforts to build strength in the social sciences and promote international studies, Martin said.

"From my undergraduate days in Cornell's history department, I've come to appreciate the wonderful breadth and depth of this university," said Siliciano. "I am truly honored and excited by this opportunity to serve one of the outstanding educational and research institutions of our times."

Martin praised Cohen's accomplishments during his 11 years in university administration.

"As dean of the Graduate School, he made a number of key decisions that enhanced the conditions under which our graduate students study and work and helped strengthen the quality our graduate programs," Martin said. "As vice provost, Walter has been the adviser to three provosts on tenure and promotion decisions, and his work on the process and substance of those decisions has been invaluable."

Martin also cited Cohen's many significant and lasting contributions to the social sciences and the humanities at Cornell.

"Without Walter's leadership and his attention, the work of the Social Sciences Advisory Council and their recommendations to strengthen specific departments and programs and to establish an Academy for the Social Sciences may well not have come to fruition," she said. "Walter has also played a central role in securing funding for and organizing the Mellon Humanities seminars for faculty and postdoctoral scholars."

Cohen's administrative attentions extended to the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, as well, Martin said, where "he worked extensively with the college faculty and staff to integrate, where appropriate, the curricular and research programs of the three departments."

Siliciano's distinguished career is highlighted by a stint as law clerk under Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, lengthy law and academic experience, and service to the university.

He has been interim dean of the Law School for the past six months, following the departure of Lee Teitelbaum as dean last spring and before the appointment this January of Stewart Schwab as the school's new dean. Siliciano also served as vice dean of the Law School in 2000-03 and as associate dean for academic affairs at the school in 1997-2000.

An undergraduate history major at Cornell, Siliciano was awarded a B.A., summa cum laude, from the university in 1975. He earned both an M.P.A. at Princeton and a J.D. at Columbia in 1979. While pursuing his law degree, he was editor-in-chief of Columbia Law Review. He was a law clerk to Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg, U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, in 1979-80; clerked for Marshall at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980-81; was an associate with the law firm of Califano, Ross and Heineman in Washington, D.C., in 1981-82 and an associate with the law firm of Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C., in 1983-84. He joined Cornell Law School's faculty in 1984 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1989 and has been a full professor since 1992. His academic areas of specialty are torts, products liability and criminal law. He is the co-author of The Torts Process (with James Henderson and R. Pearson; Aspen) and has published in scholarly journals on such topics as corporate behavior and the efficiency of tort law.

At Cornell, Siliciano was chair of the University Hearing Board and has served on a range of governing and advising groups, among them the Committee on Academic Freedom and Status of the Faculty; the Faculty Council of Representatives and the President's Council on Alcohol and other Drugs.