Robert Barker/University Photography

Ron Seeber, chair of the management sciences task force, leads a brown-bag lunch discussion Dec. 3 in Duffield Hall Atrium about the task force's findings. About 20 faculty, senior administrators and staff attended.

Cornell teaches business and management in five different colleges and schools, from the Johnson School to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Could they collaborate, yet maintain their specializations? A task force on management sciences has mapped out several ways to approach the question, said task force chair Ron Seeber. "We [as a university] have very rarely thought adequately across the colleges and programs in a way that would allow us to gather whatever synergies are available," he said.

About 20 faculty, senior administrators and staff attended the brown-bag lunch to discuss the task force's findings Nov. 20 in Duffield Hall Atrium. The lunch precedes a public discussion to be hosted by Provost Kent Fuchs, Dec. 2, 12:15-1:15 p.m., in G10 Biotechnology Building.

Management sciences at Cornell include programs for undergraduates, graduates and professionals at the Johnson School, CALS' applied economics department and significant groups within the Hotel School, the ILR School and the College of Human Ecology.

Each college, department and school has its own focus, faculty and curriculum -- the result of independent decisions made over the years. The task force's recommendations offer options for collaboration on academics, faculty retention and recruitment, budgets and each program's relationship with its constituencies.

The task force took only a preliminary look at its most controversial recommendation: a wholesale restructuring of management sciences, said Seeber, who is also vice provost for land grant affairs. "But all nine of us agreed that we would never design the system that Cornell has in 2009 if we were starting over," he said. "That is obvious."

Brown-bag lunches:

• Dec. 3: Life Sciences, 12-1 p.m., Ramin Parlor Room, Sage Hall (off the atrium), with Kent Fuchs, provost, Nelson Hairston, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Robert Buhrman, senior vice provost for research;

• Dec. 4: Social Sciences, 12-1 p.m., Weill Hall Atrium, with David Harris, deputy provost and vice provost for social sciences;

• Dec. 9: Libraries, 12-1 p.m., Ramin Parlor Room, Sage Hall (off the atrium), with David Harris, deputy provost and vice provost for social sciences, Anne Kenney, university librarian, and John Siliciano, senior vice provost for academic affairs.

Formal public discussions, facilitated by Provost Kent Fuchs:

• Dec. 1: Social Sciences, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Lewis Auditorium, G76 Goldwin Smith Hall;

• Dec. 2: Management Sciences, 12:15-1:15 p.m., G10 Biotechnology Building;

• Dec. 7: Life Sciences, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Lewis Auditorium, G76 Goldwin Smith Hall; and

• January: Budget Model, date, time and location to be determined.

For more information, see the strategic planning Web site.