Dear CALS, Johnson and SHA Communities,
On behalf of President Garrett and myself, I am pleased to announce today that Cornell, pending approval by the Board of Trustees, will establish a single, unified College of Business with the transformative scope and scale to cement the University’s position as a world-class center of teaching, research and engagement for business management and entrepreneurship.
Comprised of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, the new College of Business will be a top 10 business school in terms of scale and impact, with 145 research faculty and nearly 2,900 undergraduate, professional, and graduate students when it is launched in Academic Year 2016-17. Each school will maintain its unique identity and mission, while its already strong stature, scope and impact will be markedly enhanced by its combination with faculty, curricular offerings and programs in a cohesive College of Business. The Dyson School will remain within CALS and also join the new College of Business. Dyson students who are New York State residents will continue to enroll at the New York State contract college tuition rate.
While I am sharing this news with you today to allow for more formal planning to proceed, the University’s bylaws require this organizational change to be approved by the full Board of Trustees. The Board will consider this change at its meeting in January. Pending Board approval, faculty and academic leadership will then work together to determine the details of the new integrated structure. Alumni, students, and staff at each school will also be engaged as we work to realize the full scope of opportunities for business study at Cornell.
Soumitra Dutta, the current Dean of Johnson, will become Dean of the new College of Business, and Chris Barrett, Director of the Dyson School, will assume the role of Deputy Dean and Dean of Academic Affairs. Each school will be presided over by a Dean of the School who will have responsibility for that school’s academic program. We anticipate that organizing the three schools in this way will result in an overall streamlined administration. Our search for a Dean of the School of Hotel Administration remains active and we will begin searches for a Dean of the Dyson School and a Dean of the Johnson School.
Through the College of Business, Cornell will achieve the full potential of its business programs by integrating Cornell business faculty and students at all levels and coordinating programmatic collaborations that span Cornell’s campuses, including Cornell Tech. The new College will enable us to expand Cornell’s domestic and global initiatives, including further development and diversification of programs at Cornell Tech and educational collaborations with institutions across the globe. The combined College also will create a stronger and unified center from which to enhance recruiting and corporate relationships and expand executive education and faculty scholarship.
Other meaningful benefits of the new Cornell College of Business include:
- Enhancing Opportunities for Undergraduate and Graduate Students and Post Doctoral Associates: Students will have greater opportunity to learn across disciplines and collaborate with a broader network of faculty and fellow students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, creating even more knowledge-sharing opportunities for students.
- Fostering a More Collaborative Research Environment for Faculty: The cohesive College of Business will enable Cornell’s business and management faculty to collaborate more easily and effectively in cross-disciplinary research and grow the national and international influence of faculty scholarship and achievements.
- Establishing a More Effective Structure: Following the announcement, the leadership of the College of Business, CALS, Johnson and SHA will engage faculty in an effort to develop appropriate internal academic structures so as to enhance collaborations in teaching and research and coordinate faculty recruitment.
The need for integration among Cornell’s business schools has long been recognized as an imperative by various Cornell constituencies, who believe as I do that a unified College will advance Cornell’s mission to apply knowledge for public purpose and educate the next generation of leaders and creators to benefit society and solve some of the world’s major challenges. As we maintain the individual strengths of our stellar business programs while realizing the numerous benefits of integration, the new College of Business will have a unique profile in, and impact on the world.
I look forward to the exciting changes to come and working with all of you, as a community, to advance the academic excellence of our great university.
Michael Kotlikoff
Provost