Students in Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration will pull out all the stops for hospitality industry executives April 9--11. As they do every spring, the students will transform the 150-room Statler Hotel in the center of Cornell's campus into "Hotel Ezra Cornell," or HEC, a tour de force of culinary events, entertainment and managerial know-how designed to show off the students' considerable skills as hoteliers and restaurateurs. The audience is composed of the most demanding clientele in the business -- 225 people who run the world's best hotels and restaurants.

Among the prominent guests who will be wined and dined by future hospitality managers are John Sharpe, chief operating officer of Four Seasons, a chain of elegant Canadian and U.S. hotels, and Dennis Sweeney, vice president of Joseph Baum Co., which owns Windows on the World, the restaurant that offers sweeping views of New York City from its World Trade Center aerie. The event has a special draw for them because, like many of the visitors, they are Hotel School graduates themselves and began their careers running HEC.

From Friday through Sunday, 700 Hotel School students will run nearly all aspects of the hotel, everything from polishing the silver to preparing a rack of lamb to handling security. While the permanent staff takes a three-day hiatus, a board of 16 Hotel School students, led by HEC managing director Stephanie Uram and executive chef Charles Whittaker, will be at the helm of the hotel and restaurant. The team will take over as directors of such areas as purchasing, room and guest services, properties and maintenance and all other aspects of the world's largest teaching hotel.

"It's hard work, with a lot of attention to detail, but very rewarding," said Marjorie Kulak, a fourth-year Hotel School student who is director of publicity and education for this year's HEC. "It's the closest thing to real life while you're still an undergraduate."

"It's almost like planning and doing a soft opening" -- or pre-opening -- "for a real hotel," said Whittaker. "It's great experience, but it can be challenging because it's not the only thing we

do." Whittaker juggles his HEC responsibilities with a 15-credit course load. To produce a flawless event, he and the rest of the team have put in 30 to 40 hours a week since day one of the fall 1998 semester.

This year's theme for Hotel Ezra Cornell is "Simmer with Style." In keeping with today's trends, the venue is multinational and the menu multicultural. Friday settings evoke the gardens of Versailles, the lights of Broadway and a Roaring Twenties speakeasy.

On Saturday HEC guests will fly to Paris, metaphorically speaking, for breakfast on the Champs ElysŽes then spend the afternoon feasting on foods from Morocco, India and China. Saturday evening's black-tie banquet features a menu that is a fusion of French and Asian cuisine. The highlights are roast duckling and an array of appetizers, among them pan-seared scallops and salmon tartare.

The students hope that the mouthwatering fare and service with panache that they will be providing will impress some high-powered guests to take note when their firms recruit at the Hotel School.

One of the nation's top chefs, Michael Lomanaco, who is executive chef at Windows on the World, will be giving a cooking presentation. There will also be a panel discussion on social responsibility in the hospitality industry and a presentation on tourism and international relations.

In addition, these major Hotel School donors will be saluted in a special program: Richard and Monene Bradley, Michael Egan, Charles and Carol Mund, the late Lewis Schaeneman Jr., Hugh Westfall, the Duncan Hines Foundation and the Anheuser-Busch Foundation.

Hotel Ezra Cornell, named for the university's founder, began 74 years ago as a way of demonstrating to the hospitality industry the legitimacy of hotel administration as a collegiate field of study. The project so impressed hotelier E.M. Statler that he made a gift to build the Hotel School's classroom building and a 50-room inn, both subsequently named in his honor. Statler Hall was renovated in 1989, the same year today's hotel was built on the site of the former Statler Inn. This year marks the Statler Hotel's 10th anniversary.