Harold Levy, interim chancellor of the New York City Public School System, is coming to the Cornell University campus Monday, April 24. He will give a public lecture at 10:30 a.m. in 105 ILR Conference Center. The talk, titled "Urban Education Today," is free and open to the public.

Levy, a Cornell alumnus (B.S. '74, J.D. '79), was appointed to the interim chancellorship in January by the New York City Board of Education after the preceding chancellor, Rudy Crew, was ousted following a series of stormy, public disagreements with New York City mayor and senatorial hopeful Rudolph Giuliani. Levy, who was described in The New York Times as a corporate lawyer and businessman with a proven interest in public education, has made it known publicly that he aspires to the permanent position.

Levy was director of global compliance for Citigroup and a member of the New York State Board of Regents, where he helped develop the new graduation standards that are being phased in throughout the state. Between 1995 and 1998, he served on what has come to be known as the Levy Commission, which restructured the School Construction Authority and documented the dilapidated state of New York City's schools.

Levy grew up in New York City (his parents had a hardware store in the Bronx) and attended public schools there. He traces his interest in education to his undergraduate days at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, where he wrote his thesis on collective bargaining in higher education. He went on to earn a master's degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University as well as a law degree at Cornell, then worked at Salomon Brothers and the Travelers Group before taking a post at Citigroup to ensure that the financial giant's overseas units are in compliance with local laws.

Levy's visit to Cornell is sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Law School.