Restructured Cornell Migrant Program opens search for new director

By Linda McCandless

Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has opened a search for a new director of the Cornell Migrant Program (CMP) and is welcoming nominations or inquiries about the position at cmp-director-search@cornell.edu. Position description #3405 is linked to http://www.ohr.cornell.edu/jobs.

"It is with great enthusiasm that we open this search," said Susan A. Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS). "The director will provide leadership in sponsoring, conducting and disseminating research helpful to farmworkers, their employers and the communities in which they live, and ensure that the Cornell Migrant Program provides reliable, consistent and comprehensive information."

The director will have responsibilities for supervision of staff in the program and for grant and contract management. The appointment will be as a senior extension associate in an appropriate academic unit in CALS. The initial appointment is for five years, with the possibility of renewal. Close collaboration with faculty across the colleges of Industrial Labor and Relations, Human Ecology (CHE), CALS and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is expected. The director will also be charged with forming an advisory board consisting of stakeholders that include farm workers, farmers and their respective advocates.

"With the firm grounding provided by strong linkages to the academic mission of the university and advice from informed stakeholders, the Cornell Migrant Program will be poised to play a leadership role in improving the lives of farmworkers and their families," Henry said.

The CMP grew out of the Agricultural Manpower Project started by CALS and CCE in 1971, and was transferred to the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in CHE in 1979, when it was renamed the Cornell Migrant Program. The program's focus has shifted numerous times over the 30-plus years of its existence in an effort to remain responsive to the changing needs of farmworkers and the farming community.

After an extensive review, in May 2004, the deans of CHE, CALS and the director of CCE announced the restructuring of the CMP to meet better the changing and complex needs of New York's farmworkers, including migrant, seasonal, and year-round workers and their families. As part of the restructuring, oversight of the program was shifted from CHE to CALS. A transition team led by Max Pfeffer, professor of development sociology in CALS and associate director of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, was appointed to work on restructuring the program.