A new feature on Cornell's Employee Essentials Web page https://ee.ohr.cornell.edu makes it easier for staff and faculty members to indicate their race and ethnicity, announced Mary George Opperman, Cornell's vice president for human resources, and William Fry, dean of the university faculty, in a memo sent to faculty and staff members earlier this week.

Cornell, like all educational institutions, is required to collect and report race and ethnicity data to the U.S. Department of Education to aid in the administration of civil rights laws and regulations. This race and ethnicity information can now be directly gathered from the Cornell Web pages that also contain staff and faculty addresses, phone numbers and other personal information. The new feature is compatible with guidelines issued by the Department of Education.

To help ensure that race and ethnicity information are reported accurately, faculty and staff members are asked to review and, if they desire, update their records, by following these steps:

• Login to https://ee.ohr.cornell.edu using NetID and password;
• Select the Personal tab, then click on Ethnicity;
• Re-enter your NetID and password;
• Read the directions carefully;
• Update your ethnicity and race information if necessary;
• Use the Add Ethnic Detail buttons to select additional information from the drop down list if desired;
• Click the Submit button;
• If you choose to not make changes, click the Submit button; and
• When finished, close your browser window.

For more information about Cornell's diversity initiatives or to view a demonstration of the process described above, visit http://hr.cornell.edu/diversity/ and select the link for the Tutorial. You may be prompted to install an add-on that will enable your browser to run the demonstration.