by David Brand
Jeffrey S. Lehman, dean of the University of Michigan Law School since 1994, and Cornell's president-elect, forthrightly presented himself as a passionate advocate for Cornell, for equality in education and for the role in the world that Cornell should play by the time of the 150th anniversary in 2015, in two appearances Saturday, Dec.14, at the Statler Hotel.
"I expect to arrive at Cornell committed to a set of values that are deeply in the air here in Ithaca," he stated. He expected, he said, to "be able to work with a broad and supportive community and be able to continue to implement those values "
A news conference in the Taylor Room, moderated by Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations, gave the news media its first introduction to the views of Lehman, 46. He will be the first Cornell alumnus to serve as president of the university, having received a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1977.
Press conference participants included Peter C. Meinig, chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees; Edwin H. Morgens, trustee and chair of the Presidential Search Committee; and Hunter Rawlings, president of Cornell since 1995, who announced his resignation from the presidency in March. Lehman assumes office as Cornell's 11th president on July 1, 2003.
The conference followed a busy morning in which the trustees voted to approve Lehman as Cornell's next president. Then, at a luncheon at the Statler Hotel Ballroom, Lehman addressed a large audience that included faculty, community leaders, Rawlings and two former presidents, Dale Corson and Frank H.T. Rhodes. At the luncheon Lehman introduced his parents, Leonard and Imogene, who had flown in that morning from Potomac, Md. Leonard Lehman is a 1949 Cornell graduate. Also with the president-elect was his son, Jacob, a Cornell undergraduate.
The president-elect told the luncheon that race and religion continue to be divisive issues in the world today. "Throughout human history they have divided humanity. In the world today it seems that the dangers of racial and religious conflict remain enormous. I believe great universities have much to teach us about how humanity can transcend those boundaries without eliminating them, and how people of different races and religions can live cooperatively."
Lehman was nostalgic about his student years at Cornell, and expressed delight that he is returning to the campus he left a quarter of a century ago. "Join me to go back in time to May 1977. The snow was starting to melt and I was finishing up my senior year at Cornell. I was graduating and singing for last time as an undergraduate the words, 'Tell all the pikers on the hill that I'll be back again.' Never in my wildest fantasies would I have thought I would be coming back to the hill 26 years later as Cornell's 11th president."
Later, at the press conference, he called Cornell "one of the handful of truly superb, comprehensive research universities in the world. And among that group, it has the unique qualities that enable it to make contributions that no other university in the world can make. I take it as my responsibility as president to help build on that extraordinary legacy."
In introducing Lehman, Rawlings referred to his clear regard for his alma mater: "He has spent very good years at the University of Michigan, for which I know he has the deepest respect. But I know what his first love is. And he's back, and we are very fortunate indeed to have him back. I am completely confident he is going to be an absolutely wonderful president of Cornell."
At the luncheon Lehman also provided insights into his philosophy and the direction that he would like to take Cornell during his presidency. In 13 years, he noted, Cornell will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding. "What will Cornell be? How will Cornell be contributing to the human condition? What can we aspire to?" he asked.
His role as president, he said, will be to ask questions that will stimulate faculty to provide answers. "More generally, I believe that Cornell's president must nourish an aspiration to greatness and an aspiration to contribution. Everyone who is a partner at Cornell should hunger to leave a legacy of enduring insight and achievement. At the beginning of the 21st century our world desperately needs insights into every domain of inquiry."
He then listed some of these domains. Within the sciences, he noted progress in information science and computer technology. He spoke of post-genomic life sciences, agriculture, veterinary science and medicine, all of which, he said "suggest special opportunities." He also mentioned microfabrication and nanotechnology and studies of how society can keep pace with rapid technological change.
His role as a judicial activist came to the fore during the press conference when he was asked about his concerns for affirmative action and poverty, taxation and the American welfare state. At the University of Michigan Law School, Dean Lehman is involved in one of two lawsuits, now before the U.S. Supreme Court, to challenge the university's use of race in the admissions process. The University of Michigan's position is that the U.S. Constitution and civil-rights statutes, as interpreted by the 1978 Bakke decision of the Supreme Court, permit institutions of higher learning to take race and ethnicity into account in order to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body. Lehman said he had just come from Washington, D.C., where he met with "friends of the court" who would bolster Michigan's legal position. He said he expects the Supreme Court will uphold the University of Michigan's position.
But commenting on the issues of diversity and equality of education, he noted, "I don't think I need to bring anything to Cornell." Cornell, he said, has always been open to students of all races. "What I think I will bring to Cornell is having worked for the past five years in trying to articulate those values in a different context."
What are the important issues facing Cornell, he was asked. "I can't give a good answer yet," he replied. "These transitional months are going to be ones of study. I have learned a lot at Cornell, but for past 26 years I have been studying Cornell at a distance. The next six months I will have an opportunity to study Cornell up close." He will, he said, walk around the campus and Ithaca and speak with many people so that he can "come to understand Cornell from the ground up." He said, "I am going to be very grateful for all of the advice and wisdom I receive, and I know that because it is Cornell, people will be very free with advice."
But, he warned, "one of the great risks that every university confronts is the risk of being insular. It is easy when people work as hard as they do to become self-obsessed and to believe that the only things that are really important are those happening in the classroom or on campus. Insular communities lose perspective." He gave an example of how he believes a university can contribute to a community: As a young, untenured professor at the University of Michigan he helped create the Michigan Law School's Program in Legal Assistance for Urban Communities, a clinical program that offers students an opportunity to offer technical assistance to community groups engaged in economic development. The law students worked with groups in Detroit, giving legal advice under supervision of faculty. "Everyone wins in that kind of relationship," he said.
Earlier Meining and Morgens had spelled out the search process that resulted in the choice of Lehman. Morgens said that the 19-member search committee sent out 200,000 requests for nominations to alumni and received 1,000 replies nominating 500 individuals. Screening narrowed this list to 100, which was then cut to 35 candidates. The search committee, in groups of two or three, then fanned out across the country to interview all 35. Ultimately this group became 12, composed of sitting presidents, rising provosts and "superstar" deans. The finalists were two men and one woman. But, Morgens said, "Jeff Lehman, in meeting after meeting, and in reference check after reference check, simply would not go away, and his star kept rising."
At the press conference, Morgens added that the specific criteria that attracted Lehman to the search committee were: an unblemished record of integrity; raw intelligence and the demonstrations of a desire to learn new things; a demonstrated interest in and appreciation for science; clear leadership skills coupled with the ability to make decisions; collegiality; a zeal for fund raising and a persona that would resonate with Cornellians and alumni; "and finally, a passion to lead, a passion to learn and a passion for Cornell - and Jeff combines all three." Lehman was, said Morgens, "able to articulate to the search committee his vision for higher education and for Cornell in the future with eloquence and clarity."
What role did diversity play in the search, Morgens was asked. "We felt it was time for Cornell to seriously consider having a woman president. And thought it would be very well if we had some finalists of color, and we did," he said. "It was clear in the end, however, that the person for the job happened to be a white male. We did not see any reasons to sacrifice what we thought was the best thing for the university for the sake of diversity, although we did consider it."
There was, naturally for an alumnus of Cornell, much talk during the press conference of Lehman's student days. In particular he recalled being asked by a publisher to write a book about the game Monopoly, which he and fellow undergraduate Jay Walker (who later was to found Priceline.com) played in tournaments. The two spent five weeks during a winter break in their sophomore year writing the book, which was published by Dell as "1,000 Ways to Win Monopoly Games." He learned from the experience, he said, about negotiating, writing and being asked to produce a manuscript in such a short time. "The main thing was that I felt like this was the sort of thing an undergraduate is supposed to do."
He also recalled being one of the people in charge of concessions for concerts and selling tickets for a Grateful Dead concert in Barton Hall in May 1977, "one of the greatest concerts ever given."
"You really cannot begin to imagine the excitement I am feeling right now to be able to return to Cornell," he said. "Cornell has never been far from my heart. I am humbled, awed and thrilled at the prospect of being able to serve as 11th president."
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