Everything you ever wanted to know about Cornell is there, and now it's easier and more fun to navigate.

The Institutional Research and Planning (IRP) office, a subdivision of Planning and Budget, has been an indispensible part of Cornell's administration for more than 100 years -- under various names -- but few have heard of it. The redesigned website at http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/ may change that by offering data about Cornell in interactive, user-friendly graphic form.

The front page gives a hint of the possibilities. You'll see a graph of Cornell enrollment through the years, where recent sharp gains by women quickly catch the eye. Also immediately apparent are sharp declines in male enrollment during the two world wars. Depending on your needs, you can drill down: Move a couple of sliders to choose a date range; chose from a list to see just one college; mouse over the graph for precise numbers and dates.

"Had you seen it before, you might not find it interesting -- just a lot of tables full of data," said Elmira Mangum, vice president for planning and budget. "We have redesigned it to capture your attention and to be the source for interested parties or the curious to get institutional information for planning and national comparisons."

"The University Factbook used to 150 pages of PDFs; not so long before that, it was as many pages in a three-ring binder," added Marin Clarkberg, director of Institutional Research and Planning, who had primary responsibility for the makeover. "It was often a chore to sort through the pages to find what you needed." The design takes advantage of new software that makes it easy to "visualize data."

Move further into the site to find information about students, faculty and staff -- how many, where they come from. How we're doing on diversity. Survey results. Accreditation status. Everything is presented in ways that clearly point out trends for planners to consider.

Who uses all this? "Deans, parents, department chairs, faculty, staff and students," Mangum said. "Anyone who's interested in university trends, enrollment, admissions and a variety of profile information about the university at a point in time. In an ideal world, inquiries about statistics and trends at Cornell would be directed to IRP rather than calling around to the university to various administrative offices." All the data are reliable and vetted as valid, she added.

Many people outside the university also want this information. "Our biggest audience by far is prospective students," Clarkberg said. "They want to know what our students are like." And when national magazines publish rankings of universities and their programs, they will be based on information provided by IRP. There are similar offices at every university, and they collaborate to ensure that they all present data in a consistent format.

IRP also collects information through surveys, asking freshmen about their expectations, seniors about their experience and future plans, and alumni about how Cornell looks from a distance. Recent surveys of faculty and staff give an overview of job satisfaction and how private life mixes with work.

Coming soon will be a section called "Institutional Intelligence," based on electronic information sharing in collaboration with Cornell Information Technologies and other administrative units across campus. Laura Syer is project manager, working with a campuswide advisory group of data stewards.

"IRP provides point-in-time information and trend information, 10- or 20-year spans that can be used in planning and strategic decision-making," Mangum explained. "The Institutional Intelligence function is going to show what's happening in real time. IRP focuses on external audiences and trends while Institutional Intelligence focuses on internal decision-making and executive information."