Cornell University 2011-2012 Annual Report - DFA Home - Cornell ...

Provost announces university-wideeconomics departmentJuly 20, 2011—the formation of a new university-wide economicsdepartment that will bring together strengths ineconomics from across the university’s colleges andschools into one academic unit. The new DepartmentCollege of Arts and Sciences and all labor economistssmall number of senior professors from the SamuelCurtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, theManagement (part of the College of Agriculture andhave joint appointments.Skorton bans pledging in Cornell’sGreek systemAugust 23, 2011—and sorority membership selection will be officiallyhas announced. “We must end the current system ofpledging, often perpetuated through traditions handeddown over generations, because it fosters hazing andother activities based on humiliation or risky behaviorthat often pose psychological harm and immediateThe ban will be implemented during the 2012–2013The president has directed the student leaders ofCornell’s Greek chapters to develop a system ofmember recruitment and initiation that does not involvepledging, as it now exists. Chapters found in violation ofthe new policy will face loss of recognition.University Courses pilot promotes“one Cornell”October 13, 2011—Cornell, with its sevenundergraduate colleges and 80 majors from appareldesign to engineering physics, can seem like as manycollege lines to give students an experience of Cornelldistinguished faculty and most cross-listed in at leasttwo colleges, draw upon longstanding faculty interestin interdisciplinary study and collaborative teaching.The courses are intended not only to highlight Cornell’sdistinctive character but also to provide students with aplan that calls for the university to create a commonacademic experience for Cornell undergraduates.Streamlining UniversityStreamlining update sessions forcampus communityseries of informal brown-bag lunches during the fallsemester to update the campus community on progressin the various initiatives.way it buys everything from key chains to copiers,according to managers of the procurement initiative.2015 by cutting costs and increasing revenues fromdining, athletics, conference services, and housing,conservation savings will be realized by 2017, andnew zone structure; the shift of the trades shops froma construction to maintenance function; consolidationof some mail, fleet, and inventory operations; as wellCare.updates on four of the IT initiative’s five areas:organization redesign, IT service management,application and service development, and servers andTed Dodds is leading the fifth area, governance andon the human resources streamlining initiative’sseven projects: service assessment and feedback,administrative HR consolidation, creation of servicelevel agreements, and spans-and-layers analysis.communications at Cornell is enhancing the depthand breadth of university communications and is33