Dear Cornell Community,
The Social Sciences Implementation Committee has submitted its final report of recommendations for advancing public policy and the social sciences at Cornell.
As a reminder, the Implementation Committee was formed after a two-year process whereby multiple faculty-led committees identified proposals for increasing the excellence and visibility of the social sciences at Cornell. On the basis of these earlier committee reports and faculty feedback, last spring President Pollack and I charged the Implementation Committee with making recommendations for a new public policy entity and the creation of super-departments in economics, psychology and sociology.
I would like to thank the Implementation Committee, as well as the super-department subcommittees, for their exhaustive efforts during the past year. Furthermore, we are grateful to Cornell faculty, staff, students, alumni and other stakeholders who engaged with the committee during its work and shaped its final report with thoughtful, robust feedback at various stages in the process. For more on the report, please see the following Cornell Chronicle article.
In the coming weeks, President Pollack and I will be examining the committee’s final report in consultation with university and college leadership as we decide which recommendations to pursue. Throughout the process, our commitment will be to strengthen public policy at Cornell, while continuing to support other less policy-focused faculty within the College of Human Ecology. We expect to update you with a final decision later in the spring semester. As we weigh the final report, my office will continue to accept feedback from the Cornell community by writing to ssreview@cornell.edu.
On behalf of Cornell leadership, I would like to again thank the Implementation Committee co-chairs, Melissa Ferguson, senior associate dean of social sciences and professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences; Christopher Wildeman, associate vice provost for the social sciences, professor of policy analysis and management in the College of Human Ecology and director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research; and John Siliciano, deputy provost and professor of law, and all of the committee members for their excellent, dedicated work on advancing the social sciences at Cornell.
Sincerely,
Michael I. Kotlikoff
Provost