Seeber

Ronald Seeber has been named to the position of senior vice provost, effective July 1 through 2015.

He will combine the full-time position with his current duties as professor and associate dean at the ILR School and associate director of the Martin and Laurie Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.

"Cornell has greatly benefitted from Ron Seeber's leadership and service the past five years. I am particularly pleased that he is willing to serve another term with greater responsibilities," said Provost Kent Fuchs.

In his new role, Seeber will be responsible for the social science infrastructure units, which support social scientists across all the colleges and include the Survey Research Institute, the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, the Institute for Social Sciences and the Institute for the Advancement of Economics. "We believe that it is important that these units continue to serve the needs of social science researchers," Seeber said, "and we are constantly looking to be more effective in doing so."

He will also work with the provost to oversee and advance social science and management science initiatives across the colleges. That includes taking the lead on exploring recommendations from academic task forces on the social sciences and management science. The provost created these task forces, and 18 others, in 2009 to find ways to strengthen the university's academic efforts in the context of the economic downturn and make its operations more efficient and effective.

Seeber will continue his duties in land grant affairs, which includes working closely with Cornell units involving government and community relations, communications and facilities on all things related to New York state and the State University of New York (SUNY). As the principal liaison to SUNY, he coordinates the contract colleges where needed in their efforts to secure adequate operating and facility funds, as well as the academic direction of the various educational, research, outreach and extension programs. Also, the ROTC programs on campus report directly through Seeber to the provost.

Seeber came to Cornell in 1980 as an assistant professor at the ILR School, and has taught a wide range of courses, all related to collective bargaining, negotiations and dispute resolution. He has served as an associate dean of the ILR School since 1987 and was the director of ILR Extension from 1987 to 2000. He helped to found (with David Lipsky, former dean of the ILR School) the Institute on Conflict Resolution in 1997 (now the Scheinman Institute) and served as its co-director from its founding to the present. He was appointed vice provost in 2005.

His research interests focus on systems of dispute resolution in the workplace, employment arbitration and alternative dispute resolution.

Seeber earned his B.S. degree in industrial engineering at Iowa State University (1975), and his A.M. degree (1977) and Ph.D. (1980), both in industrial and labor relations, at the University of Illinois.