ITHACA, NY—Cornell University will establish an integrated College of Business, comprised of Cornell’s three accredited business programs: the School of Hotel Administration, the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management.
Upon launch, anticipated during the 2016-17 academic year, each school will maintain its identity and mission while bringing together faculty, curricular offerings and programs within a cohesive college.
The establishment of the college, through a change in the university’s bylaws, was unanimously approved by the Cornell Board of Trustees at its meeting on Jan. 30. The academic processes, governance and other necessary elements of the new college will be determined over the next several months by faculty and leadership of the three schools with input from alumni, student and staff advisory committees.
The Cornell College of Business will offer 145 research faculty for nearly 2,900 undergraduate, professional and graduate students. Soumitra Dutta, the current dean of Johnson, will become dean of the College of Business.
“At the heart of Cornell is a mission to apply knowledge for public purpose and educate the next generation of professionals and entrepreneurs to solve some of the world’s major challenges,” said Elizabeth Garrett, president of Cornell University. “A unified College of Business will allow Cornell to achieve the full potential of its excellent and varied business programs by integrating business faculty and students at all levels and coordinating programmatic collaborations that span our campuses.”
The College of Business will aim to create more diverse and rigorous learning and research opportunities for both students and faculty to help strengthen entrepreneurship, business and finance, technology, globalization and management education, according to the university.
The college will enable the expansion of Cornell’s domestic and global programmatic initiatives including further development and diversification of programs at Cornell Tech and educational collaborations with institutions across the globe. The combined college will bring together faculty in departments that can offer a critical mass of colleagues as well as combine resources for key recruitments to attract and retain excellent faculty at all levels. It also will strive to create a stronger and unified center from which to manage recruiting and corporate relationships, executive education, continuing education and faculty research.
“Today, every leading university must have a great business school to maximize its global impact,” said Robert Harrison, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. “Bringing together the faculty, curricular offerings and programs of Cornell’s three excellent business schools will enhance the reach and recognition of our business studies in an increasingly competitive environment. This follows Cornell’s long history of successfully sharing academic units in a way that preserves each program’s identity and focus, while creating lasting benefits for our students, our faculty and the rest of our global university community.”
Hotel Business will provide expanded coverage and exclusive interviews with Cornell University’s President Elizabeth Garrett and Provost Michael Kotlikoff in the February 21st edition.