Cornell President Steps Down

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
21

<p>Despite the tempest in a teapot that is the recent Redbud / parking lot controversy, I think that the campus in Ithaca has more than enough room for growth and the hippies in Ithaca live there becasue of Cornell not in spite of it...neverthelss I would not be suprised if we learn that Lehman's vision was exactly as you suggest - the establishement of many Quatar like capmi - a bold and audacious concept that probably would be hard for a relatively large and diverse group of Trustees like Cornell's to get behind in a unanimous fashion... it's probably as simple as that - Lehamn sees Quatar as the first step of many and Menig sees Quatar as a small and unproven experiment...</p>

<p>Can we get Paul Harvey to tell us the rest of the story...</p>

22

<p>I really liked Lehman as a person. He seemed like a nice guy and he could give a hell of a speech. I thought he was a good president. However, his "vision" seemed to be wishful thinking on the most grandiose of scales, and his priorities seemed quite out of line. All his speeches were about the "multinational university", diversity, and globalization. Those are great ideals, and they sound good on paper, however, Lehman was extremely distracted from the real priorities by his "visions", which tended from idealistic to megalomaniacal. During my first year at Cornell, Lehman spent more time in China than he did in Ithaca. Every week the Daily Sun would run some article about some new agreement that he had formed with the nation of China or one of its major educational institutions. I remember once, during the first semester, when he spent an entire month touring the nation of China. People who share his "vision" would say, "Oh, how nice, he's reaching out to other countries, strengthening his ties with the global community, and working towards building a transnational university for the 21st century" or some similar blather. Great. However I- and I would dare say a majority of the other 20,000 students who attend this great school- didn't apply to study at a "transnational university for the 21st century", we applied to study at the world-reknowned institution founded by Ezra Cornell in 1865 and located in the city of Ithaca, New York. Simply put, I, and many if not most other Cornell students, felt abandoned. Why was our president, who was chosen to run this university, never present? Why was this man spending more time in other countries than on the third floor of Day Hall?</p>

<p>Now, at this point I feel that I must clarify my own opinion, lest I be misunderstood. I am not against, diversity. I feel that when people from all different cultures, regions, etc, are brought together, much more can be accomplished than ever could be through the efforts of a less diverse group. The power of shared knowledge and ideas is immense. Cornell has an amazingly diverse student body, and I am proud of this. In my own field, that of engineering, I have seen the gains that can be made through the sharing of information and cooperation between researches from different areas of the globe. </p>

<p>However, I think Lehman's focus took this to an extreme. To clarify, it is not the fact that he spent so much time reaching out to other areas, countries, etc, that I have a problem with; it is that he abandoned the university in doing so with which I do not agree. The president of the university should be there to run that school, not to spend all of his time away from it working on his own personal "visions" or plans or whatever he sees fit. If the university as a whole, and all of those who run it, feel that it needs to go in a certain direction (such as globalization), than of course the president should direct such efforts, but he should not become so involved in and consumed by this that he neglegts his most basic duties in doing so. Simply put, we need a president who stays on campus, who focuses on the thousands of students who attend said campus, and who works to manage the affairs of that institution. Maybe someday Cornell will be a network of campuses spread throughout the world, but for now, it is located in Ithaca, and we need a president who will put all that he has into improving this institution rather than chasing lofty, grandiose, and idealistic goals. </p>

<p>I really liked Jeff Lehman during my first year at Cornell. His ambition and excitement inspired pride in this school and made me feel as though I was part of something truly great. However, in retrospect, I feel that many of his efforts as president of this great institution were misdirected. We need a leader who will focus on further strengthening Cornell's reputation, solving the problems that exist here in Ithaca, and ensuring that Cornell remains undeniably one of the top schools in the country and the world. It is these goals, ones more important and more achievable than those of Lehman, that the Board should keep in mind when looking for a president who will lead this university forward in the years to come.</p>

23

<p>Well Said!</p>

24

<p>that is so well put perro..i could not agree with you more as a student about to be a senior at Cornell..Lehman had his head in the clouds, certainly not pragmatic enough to run the incredible institution he had in front of him.</p>

25

<p>any recommendations for the new pres, how about the Pres of Penn, offer her more money, and she'll have Cornell in the top 5 of US News in 2 years, i give her, if not less.</p>

26

<p>kudos to you Perro for a well stated assessment...</p>

27

<p>As I understood it, the President of the University does not stay there and run the university, actually. He/she spends a great deal of time doing fundraising, ensuring financial adequacy and establishing direction for the future.</p>

<p>Back in the stone age, Dale Corson was never there either. (Or so I recall). He was always doing fundraising. We survived without his presence.</p>

28

<p>Corson was a weak, caretaker president named after the turmoil of the Perkins administration. Rawlings was an interim sort of executive before and will be again. I hope that Cornell can tap and attract someone with Lehman's scope and vision, if perhaps with more tact.</p>

29

<p>I wasn't suggesting that what Cornell needs now is another Dale Corson. Though I honestly don't know enough to say whether your characterization of his tenure is accurate or not. There is also Frank Rhodes, I recall, and I don't really know what he accomplished either.</p>

<p>My only point was, none of these people are going to be around campus much, if they are actually doing what really is their job, as opposed to what some people may prefer to imagine their job to be.
Perro406 had lamented the fact that Lehman was not around much, to some backslapping on his great point, and I was just expressing my take which is that in this era NONE of these people are going to be around much. And his predecessors were also not around much. Or at least the one I was there for was not. And the new guy will also not be around much. And the board doesn't expect them to be around much.</p>

30

<p>with Lehman (but short)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050613/localnews/2158093.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050613/localnews/2158093.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

31

<p>I agreee that in a large university such as Cornell, the President will serve in a role similar to that of the President of this country- that of a figurehead, while the grunt work is left to the scores of subordinates below him. However, I think there is a difference between "not being around much" and being visibly absent. No one expects the president of an Ivy League school to be like a high school principal. However, I think that many students who were on campus during Lehman's tenure will agree that he spent to much time chasing his own "vision" and other unsubstantiated pipe dreams and not enough time facing up to the more imminent and important issues that faced the school.</p>

32

<p>We were amazed how accessable Lehman was when we brought our son to Campus last August. </p>

<p>There was a reception in a Tent on the Quad by the Freshman Dorms and Lehman was there with his wife and son meeting and talking to Parents and the new students. My wife and I were so suprised that he was actually there that we called our son on his cellphone to come down from his dorm to meet the President. </p>

<p>(The only time we saw Perkins or Corson was at the Convocation at the beginning of our Cornell Careers or at Commencement at the end of our time in Ithaca. Never a chance to interact one on one.)</p>

<p>It struck us that he was acting more like a small LAC President than as the President of a Large University. But we appreciated the opportunity to meet him.</p>

33

<p>If the reason for the dethronement was indeed because Lehman wanted to spread campuses across the globe, then I think that stepping down is the best move for Cornell. Several universities have tried the multi-campus approach to little success. For example, CMU-West is just a cost-center/degree-mill which has only devalued the real CMU degrees.</p>

<p>The best way for cornell to become transnational is to improve its reputation, selectivity, rankings, SAT scores and professors. There's no need to multiply campuses....the world's focus is on America, and improving reputation locally will be more beneficial than remote marketing.</p>

34

<p>It sounds more and more as if it was not the globe-trotting per se, but a lack of dedication to the primary, current job of the president - pushing a much-needed capital drive that is well into the quiet phase and was slipping behind. </p>

<p>The straw that broke the camel's back was when the well-respected director of development quit - at least partially because of (a) a personality conflict with, and/or (b) frustration with a lack of support from, Lehman, and decamped to Yale, where she will spearhead their pending capital drive.</p>

<p>Without a substantial and desperately-needed boost in its endowment, Cornell will be hard pressed to improve its competitive standing, whether one favors greater attention to the Ithaca campus or becoming a "transnational" university by building satellites in foreign lands.</p>

<p>Here is a list which dramatizes Cornell's plight - the Ivies ranked by per FTE endowment as of last June 30:</p>

<p>1 Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) $1,492,065
2 Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) $1,225,639
3 Yale University (New Haven, CT) $1,133,431
4 Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH) $439,373
5 Columbia University (New York, NY) $243,159
6 Brown University (Providence, RI) $223,163
7 University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) $194,984
8 Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) $163,327</p>

35

<p>Byerly:</p>

<p>your post makes the most sense to me....in today's high expense world, President's/Chancellors need to be cheerleaders and fundraisers first, and then they can build an empire.</p>

36

<p>Byerly, I am not too sure Cornell is in any worse shape than Penn, Brown or Columbia...financially speaking. Whether a school has $100,000 or $300,000 per student doesn't matter...that school is incredibly well off. There is a huge difference between HYPS and most other schools though.</p>

37

<p>Byerly,</p>

<p>My sources confirm that you are right on the money (pun intended).</p>

<p>Wharf</p>

38

<p>basically confirms its all about the capital campaign</p>

<p><a href="http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050615/localnews/2159986.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050615/localnews/2159986.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Wharf</p>

39

<p>Wow. In the Navy, we always talked about the 10% who did not "get the word." On the Lehman resignation, that was me. Lots of family events and other stuff in mid-June means I missed the flurry of news articles. Since the issue went dormant surprisingly quickly, there was no chance of discovering it by, say, June 20th. I found out, like many Cornellians, I expect, when I got an e-mail today from Hunter Rawlings. In taking the reins, Rawlings said that there would be no more discussion of why Lehman quit.</p>

<p>Cornell is poorer for that silence. We guess that this is about the capital campaign, but we don't really know. (The IJ reference in the post above does not work any more.) There are, it seems, two visions for the future of Cornell: that of the former president and that of the board of trustees. Pres. Lehman has been clear about his. Perhaps the august board will let us know what the test answers really were?</p>

<p>I have a number of different impressions. I went to my 25th reunion to hear Rawlings speak. He, too, was all about creating a "Great Global University". This is an idea that has bounced around Day Hall for a long time. Lehman seems to have just put that concept on steroids. Lehman has a right to ask, "Why didn't you tell me that was not the most important thing when you hired me?"</p>

<p>There is tension, in this future-of-Cornell business, between the arts and the sciences. Many writers point out the new science facilities and new technogy, but some of this may be a facade. The research reactor is gone. Cornell did not become one of the supercomputing centers. Yes, there's a nanotechnology building. But, how many undergraduates will do research there?</p>

<p>More importantly, there are no scientists or engineers in the administration (president, provost, etc.). Rawlings was a classisist, and Lehman was a lawyer. There is a proud tradition of grand scientists and historical science at Cornell, and I fear that the university may be eclipsed by others.</p>

<p>Congratulations to CC, by the way. My search of the net found this as the only real discussion of the Lehman resignation.</p>

40

<p>do you think this change in policy will have any influence over admissions to the University? Just last year's 18% increase in apps made in tougher, could this make it even harder to get in?</p>