Cornell graduates Harold O. Levy, '74, '79 JD, and Randi Weingarten, '80, are more accustomed to meeting over bargaining tables than dinner tables. But on April 19, these two distinguished alumni -- and friends -- will meet as guests of honor at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) alumni award celebration in the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in the New York City public school system, will receive the Judge William B. Groat Alumni Award, given annually by the ILR to honor graduates who are exceptional professionals in the field of industrial and labor relations, as well as outstanding supporters of the Cornell school. Levy, chancellor of the New York City Board of Education, will receive the Jerome Alpern Distinguished Alumni Award, which recognizes extraordinary service and support to the ILR School by alumni whose professions are primarily outside the field of industrial and labor relations.

New York public school graduates, as well as Cornell alumni, Weingarten and Levy are currently on opposite sides of the deadlocked contract talks between the 140,000-member UFT and the Board of Education. At Weingarten's request, the Public Employment Relations Board has stepped into the dispute, and the Public Employment Relations Board has appointed a mediator -- who also happens to be a Cornell alumnus, Robert Douglas, '73.

Weingarten earned her B.S. from ILR and a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Born and raised in New City, she is a certified appointed teacher of social studies and American history and has taught at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn. Weingarten also is vice president of the 1 million-member American Federation of Teachers, vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and a member of New York State United Teachers.

Levy was a corporate lawyer with Citigroup, Inc. before assuming the chancellorship of the New York City school system, the nation's largest with 1.1 million students. A Cornell Telluride Scholar and student-elected trustee, he served as a state regent prior to his job as chancellor. Levy received a B.S. from the ILR school and also holds a J.D. from Cornell and an M.A. from the University of Oxford. Levy also was born and raised in New York City.

For more information about this event, contact Christopher Haley, director of Cornell's ILR External Relations at (607) 255-5827.