<p>Whoa...this is interesting...
<a href="http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/06/11/42ab05fedd949%5B/url%5D">http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/06/11/42ab05fedd949</a></p>
<p>I wonder how this will affect us...</p>
<p>Oh wow...that's....profound. I read his entire speech, and am completely unsure of what to think.</p>
<p>What do you guys think were the fundamental differences between his views for Cornell's future and the "Board's" views? Do you think it had something to do with reforming the university and his trying to make the university more multicultural/liberal/diverse?</p>
<p>I'm just baffled. I hope someone has some answers.</p>
<p>i do not think it's the best thing to happen. Obviously, something caused him to step down or forced him to step down. My personal opinion, as a member of the Cornell class of 2009, I still feel that Cornell, at least according to US News, is not as good as it once was. It once was a top 10 university, not it is top 15, and I think that just like Penn, Cornell needs to implement some reforms and get back to its old form soon. It is also possible, that this cornell president, being a member of Michigan's law school was a proponent of Affirmative Action, which may have caused some conflict within Cornell's administration. I really do not know, maybe some other ppl have some answers....</p>
<p>Whoa! My husband was on website and saw announcement. I came here to find out what you guys heard-but I guess the info is just starting to filter out. Anyway-he made this announcement at the alumni reunion in his "State of the Union Address" to alumni. His entire address is on the cornell website under related info-"Presidents Lehman state of univ. address. Anyway one of you computer literate kids can link it up. It must have been big time conflict to announce it at this venue.</p>
<p>It will certainly be interesting to see what, in particular, those differences were. The "direction" of the university has always been a mystery to me. I have never seen or heard an explicit statement from either the trustees or the president about what exactly that direction is, and this makes President Lehman's resignation even more curious. At least cosmetically, I thought he had done more in the past two years then I have seen get done in the previous five or six--new web page, increase in applications (though I'm sure they're related), increased media exposure, advancement of the life sciences innitiative, etc.. I'm curious to see who they get as a replacement, though I think they should set their sites high and attempt to get a proven commodity from a similar peer institution.</p>
<p>is that peer institution Penn, just curious??</p>
<p>I didn't have any one school in mind. But they would be wise to get someone who recognizes the advantages of self promotion/marketing. Schools like Stanford, Wash U. and UPENN didn't get exponentially better over the last twenty years, but people think they did because they all did excellent jobs of promoting themselves and improving their public image, especially UPENN. I think Cornell has fallen behind most of its peer institutions in this respect.</p>
<p>well, in my opinion, the school does carry great name recognition, even among average joes. I mean, everyone has heard of the school and considers it to be high up on the prestige chart, regardless of the joes on this website.</p>
<p>So, in all honesty, why do you think this happened? Aside from "differences in the long term vision". How can that be interpreted?</p>
<p>unless health or major personal family problems are an issue (and none were stated), no one walks away on short notice, particularly a young Pres. Even then, someone leaving typically gives one year notice, unless he's recruited by someplace else. Thus, the "differences" must be huge......film at eleven as we say on the left coast.</p>
<p>"Imagine for a moment an airplane that is supposed to fly from New York to the beautiful island of Bali. It can get there by flying east. Or it can get there by flying west. But even if the pilot and the co-pilot are each highly skilled, even if they have the highest regard for one another, the plane will not reach its destination if they are unable to agree about which direction to take.</p>
<p>Cornell University is meant to fly. Its pilot and co-pilot must agree on the strategic direction to be taken. Since I now understand that it is impossible for such an agreement to emerge as long as I am president, I have notified the Chairman of the Board, Peter Meinig, that I will step down as Cornell's eleventh president at the end of this month." </p>
<p>(Pardon me while I throw up)</p>
<p>Presumably someone will stop insulting our intellegence at some point and explain what caused the impasse.</p>
<p>Well I shouldn't admit that I am watching Geraldo Rivera on Fox news-but I'm an honest person. (At least it's not Sean Hannity or O'Reilly.) Anyway the "Fox crawler" - had the news about Lehman's resignation. (Sat night about 10:30 PM.) I think we'll all be hearing more about this story in the coming days.</p>
<p>I'm an alumnus who graduated before Lehman came in, so I don't have firsthand experiences with his efforts, but I had been hearing a lot more about Cornell in the press lately and I was impressed. For something this sudden and unexpected to happen after so short a time, there must have been some serious complications between the President and the Trustees. I'm just shocked there hadn't been more public knowledge about it. I'd think if there were big rifts between the two, the college should be clearly aware of them.</p>
<p>whats wrong with those two shows? :) (to the post above the one above mine)</p>
<p>conservative mania, thats whats wrong with them. durf.....lol</p>
<p>SIgh...I am really sad right now. Even though, I don't agree with everything President Lehman has done in the past two years, I truly believe that he one of the best presidents. In the past two years, Cornell has improved so much. Although, our USNews ranking is still the same, his legacy will definitely bring Cornell to a whole new level.</p>
<p>This will not affect Cornell in the least. Cornell is a university with 20,000 incredibly gifted students, 2,000 World-Class professors, cutting edge technology and resources, hundreds of thousands of loyal and successful living alums, a long and complex history of close connections with industry and other universities. Obviously, Lehman felt that another person would be a better fit for the role and he has decided to step down. While at Michigan (he was the dean of the Michigan law school for the better part of a decade), Lehman was known for going against the grain. Although his support for affirmative action and liberal approach to education seem to be in line with Cornell, I was surprised when he was hired to be president of Cornell. He is an amazing intellectual and a very competant administrator...but a president must have a diplomatic side, a side I think Lehman lacks.</p>
<p>Here's one man/'s sense of what the fight was about:</p>
<p>Thanks for the link Byerly.</p>
<p>Before reading that article, my mind had turned to Lehman's vision for a transnational university... seemed like an interesting concept, but I never could quite see how it could possibly be implemented...I suppose the trustees came to same conclusion...I'm sure we'll get to learn more about the rift as time goes by...</p>
<p>Lehman speaking:</p>
<p>"We must be willing to entertain the possibility that our university might become more true to its creed, not by enrolling a student body that looks like America, but rather by enrolling a student body that looks like Earth."</p>
<p>The question may have been whether Ithaca can be effectively internationalized, or whether it would be more feasible to start establishing colonies elsewhere.</p>
<p>Battling with the powers that be in Ithaca to get anything done can be expensive and dispiriting. Cheaper, perhaps to follow the Qatar model and build a Cornell in Singapore, a Cornell in Prague, etc.</p>
<p>The irritating ex-hippies who rule Ithaca are even more of an obstacle to progress (in a minor league Berkeley sort of fashion) than the bribe-seeking pols who run Cambridge and New Haven.</p>
<p>Better (and more rewarding) to build new campi where people want them!</p>