The Presidential Search Committee will strive to ensure that the search for Cornell’s 14th president will be as inclusive and thorough as possible.
The committee held a series of listening sessions with faculty, staff, students and alumni to solicit input on what attributes the next president should have to lead Cornell through the completion of its previously articulated strategic priorities; to identify what type of individual would be able to bring his or her own vision into this context; and to identify any other challenges or opportunities Cornell is facing that need to be part of the incoming president’s priorities for the university.
Open forums for faculty, staff and students in Ithaca were held on May 4. Additional outreach took place on campuses and elsewhere. All members of the Cornell community are invited to provide feedback at cu-pres-search@cornell.edu.
Based on the input received during this initial phase of its work, the search committee has developed a Presidential Search Statement that articulates the characteristics Cornell seeks in its next president. With that document finalized, the committee will begin the confidential process of researching and identifying prospects.
All of the advice the search committee has received and Cornell's own past experience indicate that a confidential process is critical to a successful search. The best candidates will not appear for an open or compromised search. Toward that end, all members of the Presidential Search Committee and the staff supporting the committee have signed a confidentiality agreement. A copy of that agreement is reproduced here.
The search committee is comfortable that the significant efforts to obtain input at the beginning of the process, as well as the broad representation of campus constituencies among the membership of the committee itself, will allow the committee to consider all community voices throughout the search process.