The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/hotel-school/)
“All of the things I am quite interested in — real estate, food and beverage, exploration, tourism, travel, geopolitics, business, problem-solving … you have all of that tied into one industry. That is the hospitality industry,” Grande said.
The Sun’s thoroughly researched report on diversity in the School of Hotel Administration underscores the need to look beyond topline statistics when cultivating a diverse and supportive educational environment. While the hotel school has made strides in increasing the number of enrolled students who are underrepresented minorities, The Sun’s interviews with both students and professors indicate Cornell has not yet created a learning space in which all faculty and students feel represented and attended to equally. The University must continue to prioritize follow-through as well as the more visible outreach. The goal is not just to hire a more diverse pool of professors; it is to retain those professors for longer than a few years, whether with tenure and other means. The goal is not just to increase minority enrollment; it is to provide those students with the resources to be successful.
“My grandfather, David Ben-Gurion, more so than any other individual, was responsible for creating the State of Israel after 2,000 years of Jewish diaspora,” Ben-Gurion ’82 said.
Six days into the Spring semester, founding Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Soumitra Dutta resigned, after a little more than a year and a half in the post. Weeks later, still not a word from Cornell on the reason. A Sun reporter even went to the former dean’s home to find some answers, to no avail. Of course, as a private nonprofit institution, Cornell has no legal obligation to be transparent about personnel movements. A stench of mismanagement, however, stinks to high heaven. Most, including myself, had initial doubts about the endeavour.
Interim Dean Kate Walsh MPS ’90 has been named the seventh dean of the School of Hotel Administration in the SC Johnson College of Business.
“The MMH at the Hotel School was such a meaningful experience for me, personally and professionally, it means a great deal to me to receive this award,” she said. “In fact, there are so many impressive alumni of this program, it’s humbling to be honored.”
Judges for the Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition have declared the contest’s first-ever tie between two winning teams — Last Second Beach and Maidbot. The two teams will each receive $25,000 for their business plans and entrepreneurial ideas in travel and hotel operations, according to the University. Although the competition’s funding only provided a $25,000 prize for one team, Dean of the School of Hotel Administration, Prof. Michael Johnson, hotel administration, matched the prize for the other team, according to Maidbot founder Alex Levy ’18. “I was a little surprised it ended in a tie, as nothing like that had ever happened before,” Levy said. “I was very happy for [Last Second Beach founder Khalid Ladha grad] and his team, though and absolutely thrilled Dean Johnson matched the rest of the money.”
Last Second Beach — co-founded last year by Ladha and Zach Demuth grad — is a software platform that simplifies consumer navigation for travel purchases, according to Ladha.
This year’s theme — ‘The New Normal’ — will explore changes in the hospitality industry that range from the emergence of an ultra-luxury segment in the hotel market to the dangers of cybercrime, according to Ben Pilosof ’16.
The ranking was based on a survey send to 18,000 hospitality recruiters and managers of luxury hotels around the world.
A study recently released in December by the School of Hotel Administration combats the commonly held view that increasing minimum wage would lower a restaurant’s profitability. The controversial new study — conducted by Prof. Michael Lynn, hotel administration, and Prof. Christopher Boone, hotel administration — shows that modest increases in the minimum wage over the last 20 years have not affected the number of restaurants or employment levels. Boone said the study — titled “Have Minimum Wage Increases Hurt the Restaurant Industry? The Evidence Says No!” — was prompted by the United States’ new focus on wages that resulted from the recent recession. “There have been a large number of proposals to raise the minimum wage at the national, state, and local levels,” Boone said.