News

Graduate Students Criticize College of Business

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The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly voiced their frustration with the administration’s lack of transparency in the decision making process. Kotlikoff defended the Board of Trustees’ decision citing multiple past studies regarding the need for such a conglomeration of schools. These studies, Kotlikoff explains, have identified “fragmentation of our business programs as a liability for our University.”
“In many cases,” he said, “What’s happening is these programs are spending resources on those faculty that they would like to spend on their more specialized faculty and programs that distinguish the school, and that arises from the fact that we’re not leveraging our resources and allowing students to access resources across these schools.”
The provost described the need for the “most efficient organization” which would facilitate hiring of new faculty for business programs.
He maintained that preserving the identity and excellence of each individual school — one of the main concerns in response to the recent decision — will be a “major goal” in the upcoming process. Kotlikoff also discussed how faculty from each of the involved schools are “working together to determine the faculty governance process.” Various committees, including undergraduate and graduate student synergy committees, will also be involved in the governance process. In response, Nathaniel Rogers grad, GPSA vice president for operations, said it was “hard to say that the faculty felt like they were involved in the process.”
Rogers also said that some graduate students in the GPSA — an organization which gives them “the unique opportunity to impact how Cornell operates”— are frustrated because they do not feel that they are part of the process in making recent decisions such as the $350 student health insurance fee and the creation of the College of Business.

College of Business

After Negotiations, John Dyson ’65 Approves of Business College

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“We have agreed to and signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Provost and the dean of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,” John Dyson ’65 said in a Saturday address to the Board of Trustees. The MOU will allow the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management to be a part of both the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the recently approved College of Business, according to Dyson. “The CALS dean will be involved with all major decisions, and in case of disagreement with the [College of Business] dean, issues will be resolved by the Provost,” Dyson said. “[It is] truly a shared school with a balanced mission between business and its traditional agricultural and NYS Land Grant missions.”
Approved by the Board of Trustees Saturday, the College of Business will merge the Dyson School, the School of Hotel Administration, and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. “It was hard not to feel betrayed by a new plan altering an agreement made with me and my brother Peter only five years ago.” — John Dyson ’65
Dyson addressed the Board of Trustees prior to their Saturday vote, explaining his concerns about the proposed College of Business and recounting his talks with Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Dean of CALS Kathryn Boor ’80.

College of Business

O’TOOLE| Enhancing Business Education at Cornell

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This past weekend, the Board of Trustees created the Cornell College of Business. In a meeting held entirely in open session, the Board unanimously voted to change Cornell’s bylaws to add the College of Business as one of the University’s major colleges, schools and other major academic units. This vote came after several hours of impressively thoughtful and respectful presentation and discussion. However, this vote was also preceded by over a month of controversy about the administration’s intention to create a College of Business consisting of the School of Hotel Administration, the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. My initial reaction to the news of this initiative was — like many of yours — mixed.

College of Business

Board of Trustees Authorizes College of Business

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Cornell’s Board of Trustees authorized plans for the proposed College of Business Saturday morning, President Elizabeth Garrett and Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced in an email. The College of Business will merge the School of Hotel Administration, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Garrett and Kotlikoff called the approval of the controversial new school “the beginning of an inclusive and crucial process that will more fully define the details of how the College of Business will be structured.” “The plan for the new college will be developed with broad input from faculty, students, staff and alumni,” they wrote. “We wish to underscore our commitment to making this process inclusive and open for all …