Cornell University President Jeffrey S. Lehman will be honored Nov. 6 by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. (LDF) with a 2003 National Equal Justice Award for his role in the successful defense of the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policy before the U.S. Supreme Court. The award will be presented at a gala dinner at the Hilton New York in New York City. Emmy award-winning actress Alfre Woodard will be mistress of ceremonies at the event. The Supreme Court last June upheld the University of Michigan Law School's affirmative action policy in a decision widely hailed as a landmark in the law of higher education. Lehman served as dean of the University of Michigan Law School from 1994 to July 1, 2003, when he assumed the presidency of Cornell. During his tenure as dean, he helped shape the legal argument for universities' freedom to consider race as a limited factor in the admissions process in order to achieve meaningful levels of racial integration. When the Supreme Court upheld the Law School's admissions policy, Lehman said, "The question is no longer whether affirmative action is legal; it is how to hasten the day when affirmative action is no longer needed." (November 04, 2003)
Ruth Chinitz Uris, a Presidential Councillor and longtime benefactor of Cornell, died March 19 at her home in New York City. Through her husband, the late philanthropist and builder Harold D. Uris (Cornell Class of 1925), Ruth Uris became an active and generous supporter of Cornell and its Medical College.
Events on campus this week include Jewish refugee songs, a panel on big money in politics, a talk on racial justice, and alumni filmmakers Will Gluck '93 and Ryan Silbert '02.
Two Cornell researchers aim to develop the first noninvasive functional MRI imaging technique for studying small-scale strokes in mice, which could eventually be used for clinical research in humans. (Oct. 29, 2010)
The women's basketball team clinched a share of the Ivy League crown with Harvard and Dartmouth, and will play March 16 to determine who gets the automatic berth in the NCAA tourney. (March 12, 2008)
With above-average warmth throughout the Northeast, several cities in the region face top-10 warm Decembers, according to Cornell's Northeast Regional Center.
Eight teams of Cornell undergraduates are preparing for their presentations to win this year's Big Idea competition, proposals for businesses and nonprofits. (April 11, 2012)
A streamlining initiative is enhancing the depth and breadth of university communications and is on track to meet a 2015 savings goal of $500,000 nearly three years early. (Nov. 3, 2011)
Gail Sheehy, author of The Silent Passage and New Passages, will participate in a breakfast seminar on menopause in the workplace Thursday, May 22, from 8 to 11 a.m. at the Harvard Club, 27 West 44th Street. The seminar, sponsored by Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations and its Institute for Women and Work and the Human Resources Program.
Cornell President David Skorton, chemist Geoffrey Coates, physicist Sol Gruner and mathematician Laurent Saloff-Coste are among 212 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. (April 21, 2011)