ITHACA, N.Y. -- An important and far-ranging discussion on the humanities will take place on the Cornell University campus May 9.

Provost Biddy Martin is convening a group of faculty and academic administrators for a round-table discussion on the state of the humanities at Cornell and on a national level. Last December, she was named to serve on a 12-person steering committee formed by the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) as part of an initiative to develop strategies to reinvigorate the humanities.

Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, is serving as Cornell's campus liaison to the AAU/ACLS planning committee. Peter Lepage, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, is also involved in the round-table planning.

The campus discussion, which will include about 20 participants, will center on a report, "Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond," which the AAU published last fall. The report was produced by an AAU task force formed more than two years ago to study the status of the humanities within and without universities, and it responds to a range of concerns: that the humanities and arts have lost ground to the sciences and to an emphasis on pre-professional studies, that some humanities disciplines seem to lack direction and that work in the humanities is poorly understood by the public. The report, which is available online at http://www.aau.edu/reports/report1.cfm, also highlights opportunities for new developments in humanities research and teaching.

Every AAU institution has been asked to hold a forum on its campus to discuss the concerns and opportunities described in the report. Martin responded to questions about the AAU initiative and the humanities report in a March 10 Cornell Chronicle article available at http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/05/3.10.05/Q-A_Biddy.html.

The Cornell Chronicle will publish coverage of the Cornell humanities round table in its May 19 issue.