Associate Provost Winnie Taylor will return to the Law School faculty

Winnie Taylor, Cornell University associate provost and chief affirmative action officer, is leaving that post after two-and-a-half years to return to the Cornell Law School faculty.

Taylor is resigning as associate provost and resuming her position as a member of the Law School faculty effective Jan. 1, Cornell President Hunter Rawlings announced today (Nov. 12, 1998). She will be on administrative leave during the spring semester to update her teaching materials and will resume teaching classes next fall, Rawlings said.

"I am grateful for the leadership Winnie has provided the university regarding emerging issues of pluralism among faculty, staff and students," Rawlings said. "When I came to Cornell I reaffirmed, in a public statement, my belief in and the university's commitment to maintaining a strong program of affirmative action and equal opportunity in education and employment. I appointed Winnie as associate provost to make that commitment a reality, and she has worked tirelessly toward that end.

"Winnie has help us to build a more diverse, more inclusive campus community," Rawlings said. "She has been a catalyst in a process that must and will continue into the future. Affirmative action and equal opportunity remain a top priority at Cornell. "

Rawlings said Taylor currently is working with him and Provost Don Randel to consider how to restructure the Office of the Associate Provost to best meet the university's needs and goals for the future. No appointment will be made to fill the position during that process, Rawlings said.

Taylor, who taught for seven years at the Cornell Law School before assuming the post of associate provost, said she has helped lay a foundation for advancing diversity on campus and for creating a more inclusive campus community. She added, however, that she is eager to return to the classroom and to her research.

"In my almost two-and-a-half years as associate provost I have been challenged and stimulated by my work and have been pleased to serve in a leadership capacity, guiding

institutional efforts aimed at assisting Cornell in fulfilling its commitment to affirmative action and diversity," Taylor said. "Although I continue to believe that this work is among the most important at the university, I have decided to return full-time to the Law School next year. I sincerely appreciate having been given the opportunity to serve in this administration."

Provost Don M. Randel said he will miss Taylor's "energy and commitment and her company. We have been very fortunate to have a talented member of the faculty join the administration to work on the very important matters that Winnie Taylor has addressed. Simultaneously, one must admire and respect her wish to return to the faculty full time.

"As we begin to seek a replacement for her, we will seriously rethink the structure of her office so as to ensure that her successor is in the best possible position to enhance the diversity of the university community at large and to pursue with other colleagues the university's academic objectives," Randel said.

As the university's chief affirmative action officer, Taylor has been responsible for the Office of Equal Opportunity, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Resource Office (which also reports to Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services) and Peer Educators in Human Relations.

But all that has left her no time for the classroom and research. Taylor said that when she signed on as associate provost, she believed it would allow her time for occasional teaching opportunities, but that has not been the case.

In the fall she will teach contracts, employment discrimination law, commercial law and consumer protection. "I look forward to resuming my scholarly activities," she said.

Taylor's research is in the area of credit discrimination. She has been called on to advise the Federal Reserve Board on this issue and has been cited in court decisions dealing with federal credit discrimination issues.

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