Cornell University Provost Biddy Martin June 7 announced the reappointment of three college deans.

Martin said she has recommended the reappointment of Edward J. Lawler, dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR); Robert J. Swieringa, the Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management (JGSM); and Donald F. Smith, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM). The appointments, which are for five years beginning July 1, 2002, will be forwarded to the Executive Committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees.

"Deans Lawler, Smith and Swieringa have made significant contributions not only to their individual colleges but to the university as a whole," Martin said. "Faculty members in all three colleges provided thoughtful, detailed assessments of the deans' first terms, and their letters were very helpful. We now have a very strong group of deans who have demonstrated their eagerness to work together for the good of the entire institution. I have enjoyed working with them this past year and am pleased that the deans of ILR, JGSM and the CVM have agreed to serve another term."

Lawler became dean of ILR in January 1997. As dean, he oversaw the school's move into a new home on campus – the $25 million, 100,000-square-foot complex – in the fall of 1997. The ILR School, one of the nation's premier institutions for the study of labor and workplace issues, has 49 faculty members and an undergraduate enrollment of about 720. The school's five extension offices – Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Old Westbury and Rochester – provide outreach services, sponsor conferences and offer classes.

Lawler joined Cornell as a professor of organizational behavior in the ILR School in 1994, although his association with the school began in 1978 when he was a visiting professor. He was a visiting associate professor at ILR in 1981 and served as a visiting fellow in 1990.

Before joining Cornell, Lawler was a member of the faculty at the University of Iowa for 22 years, where he served as chairman of the Department of Sociology and as the Duane C. Spriesterbach Professor. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology from California State University-Long Beach, in 1966 and 1968, respectively, and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1972.

Swieringa took office as dean of JGSM in July 1997. As dean he has overseen one of the nation's leading graduate management schools, with an annual budget of $35 million, an enrollment of 530 students and 45 full-time faculty members.

Before coming to Cornell as dean, Swieringa was a professor in the practice of accounting at the School of Management at Yale University. Swieringa's appointment as dean marked his return to the Johnson School, where he served as a professor of accounting from 1974 to 1985. Before that he was an assistant professor of accounting at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, from 1968 to 1974. He joined the Yale faculty in June 1996 after spending more than 10 years as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the key policy-making organization for accounting issues in the United States.

Swieringa earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Augustana College in 1964, an MBA from the University of Denver in 1965 and a Ph.D. in accounting and complex organizations from the University of Illinois in 1969.

Smith became dean of the Veterinary College in July 1997. He has led the college through reorganization and significant growth, building upon a legacy in veterinary medicine and the related biomedical sciences. The college, which has an annual budget of $85 million, is recognized as the leading veterinary college in the United States.

As dean, Smith has encouraged new initiatives that foster collaboration in basic research and clinical practice: appointments of new chairs in three academic departments (clinical sciences, biomedical sciences, microbiology and immunology), establishment of the Cornell Comparative Cancer Program, hiring of faculty in genomics and pathogenic bacteriology and completion of renovations for additional clinical instruction and research facilities.

Smith is an elected member of the National Academy of Practices and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. He earned the doctor of veterinary medicine degree, with distinction, from the University of Guelph in 1974. He was an assistant professor of surgery at Cornell from 1977 to 1983, then at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine for four years; he returned to Cornell in 1987 as chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences. He served the college as associate dean for academic programs from 1990 to 1997.

The College of Veterinary Medicine was chartered by the state of New York in 1894. Today the college has 320 students in the four-year D.V.M. program and 120 students in graduate programs; faculty at the college total 160.