President's Office

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Introduction
Our Promise
A Caring Community
Our Relevance in the 21st Century
Where We Stand
Strengthening Our Position

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Cornell College has made great strides since its founding 150 years ago. It continues to rank among the top residential liberal arts colleges in the nation. However, with each year comes new challenges, and one of the greatest is the increasing competitiveness of higher education.

In analyzing the market, some argue that higher education is exceeding its capacity, or that there are just too many liberal arts colleges from which to choose. Whatever the cause, no one can deny that liberal arts colleges have lost m “market share. They do not receive the media attention of the large public and private universities with celebrated athletic programs and large alumni bases. A liberal education, designed to prepare young people for satisfying, well-rounded lives, doesn’t always appeal to those seeking specialized training leading to a specific job. Cornell is justly proud of its liberal arts tradition, a tradition that remains a very appropriate preparation for success and satisfaction today. This white paper will explore how Cornell College can continue to serve its students well and position itself for sustained growth within this competitive higher education market.

Our Promise

If we are to be successful in establishing a strong position in the market, we must first be clear about our educational program and our aspirations for it. Our mission is to empower students for leadership through productive careers and humane service in a global community. We are committed to delivering a liberal education in a caring community, offering unique opportunities made possible by our distinctive academic calendar.

Though the concept of branding has only recently been used in connection with higher education, I suggest that the concept might be quite helpful to us at this point. At its simplest, a brand is a promise made by an institution to its constituents. It is more than a tagline or a logo. To be genuine, our brand must be grounded in the values we share and it must be evident in the quality and character of an education at Cornell. It must be a promise that we can keep.

We promise a curriculum that offers rigor in the study of an individual discipline and breadth of study across disciplines. We promise faculty members who serve as mentors to students, guiding them in the selection of courses, providing knowledge and enthusiasm, and transforming them into passionate scholars. We promise students the opportunity to learn to think analytically and to become engaged in a lively community and develop lifelong friends. We promise a learning environment that combines theory and practice, including reflection and engagement, a place where students can relate knowledge to the world through research, internships, independent study, travel, service learning, and more. Delivering consistently on these promises is the essence of our “brand.”

The delivery vehicle for this learning is One-Course-At-A-Time (OCAAT), a distinctive calendar we adopted 25 years ago. OCAAT offers many advantages. For one, it allows students to concentrate on a single subject area without distraction. They learn how to meet deadlines, think on their feet, and work well in a group setting. It also allows faculty to take entire classes on extended field trips without forcing the students to miss other classes. It provides students an opportunity to hold internships—full-time—for an entire month at a time. And it encourages a high percentage of students to broaden their degree programs. In the class of 2003, more than 70 percent of students declared a double major or a major and a minor.

A Caring Community

Our identity is not just about academics; it’s also about the caring community we have nurtured. It’s a community built on strong relationships and abiding trust. Our campus is an attractive, welcoming place, conducive to studying and the forging of friendships and professional connections. Students live where they learn, on a beautiful hilltop with historic 19th-century buildings as well as modern amenities. Cornell is a place where students receive support for physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being and growth. It’s a place where they acquire interpersonal skills and the values and attributes of a democratic citizenship through student activities, leadership, and community service.

Our Relevance in the 21st Century

The Cornell promise has served our students and alumni well over the decades, and it may be more important than ever to our graduates and the communities in which they live. I was fortunate to be in the audience for a recent speech by Dr. Diane Oblinger, executive director of higher education for Microsoft Corporation. In her opinion, the key to continued prosperity will be the ability to “out-think the rest of the world.” In that context, she challenged the institutions to educate their students in five categories of intelligence: 1) analytic intelligence, the ability to solve problems, 2) creative intelligence, the ability to envision new approaches to issues, 3) practical intelligence, the ability to translate knowledge into action, 4) interpersonal intelligence, the ability to empathize and work with others, and 5) strategic intelligence, a breadth of knowledge, appreciation for diversity, understanding of global issues, and a strong sense of morality and ethics. When I reflect on the Cornell promise, I see a direct relationship between these categories and our commitment to the liberal arts and a caring community. An education at Cornell is indeed an education for the challenges of the 21 st century

Where We Stand

The truth is that the landscape of higher education has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. For example, we experienced a shortfall in student recruitment in the years 1997 to 2000. The past three years have been more successful. In fact, in 2003 Cornell received 23,000 inquiries about the school, a number that translated into 1,700 formal applications, and a near-record enrollment of 410 new students last fall. We were pleased to see our retention rates improve as well. The college must achieve stability in its efforts to consistently recruit the quantity, quality, and diversity of new students that it desires.

To help us present a Cornell education to prospective students, we regularly solicit feedback from our students and young alumni about their Cornell experience, asking what we do well, what we might do better, and what impact a Cornell education has had on preparing them for employment or further education. Here’s what a Class of ’99 survey—taken two years after graduation—found:

• 33.5 percent of these recent graduates were in graduate or professional school
• using a scale of 1-7 (7 being exceptionally well), graduates gave Cornell a 6.1 on average when asked to what degree Cornell prepared them well for their graduate/professional programs. When asked how well Cornell prepared them for their jobs, the average response was 5.8.

We also pay attention to national rankings, something we know prospective students and their parents watch as closely as we do. An example is the November 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, which assesses the extent to which students are involved in educational practices empirically linked to high levels of learning and development. Cornell scored exceptionally well nationally and against other liberal arts colleges in nearly every category, particularly: active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment. Cornell continues to benefit from its inclusion in Loren Pope’s Colleges That ChangeLives and will be featured in a new guide called Colleges of Distinction. We study carefully the rankings published by U.S. News & World Report. In that ranking, Cornell has consistently been rated close to the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation. Our academic reputation is strong, but our overall ranking has been lowered by a retention rate that is lower and a financial base that is smaller than those of higher rated institutions. While we may all debate the merits of such college rankings, it is important that Cornell be perceived as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges.

Strengthening Our Position

Our goal is to grow enrollment even further in the near future, from the current 1,117 to 1,200. This growth is desirable both for functional and marketing reasons. It will enable us to add faculty in key areas and offer students more diverse programs, academically and in campus life. This growth, however, cannot be accomplished without strategic intent and action.

If we are to meet these goals, our agenda must include a commitment to recruiting entering classes of students who have solid academic skills and represent the diversity of talent, geography, and perspective that will sustain an exciting learning environment. We must continue to improve our retention of students, making sure that they are fully engaged in all aspects of life at Cornell. We must assure that we will be able to attract and retain faculty members of distinction. We must continue to enhance our sense of place and the facilities that support our sense of community. We must enhance the college’s financial strength, especially our endowment.

We have already begun important discussions about the ways in which we might enhance the best features of the Cornell experience and OCAAT. At Cornell, for example, we believe that we can assist students in better understanding and exploring the integration of theory and practice than our peer institutions. In doing so, we are confident that Cornell can become a leader among liberal arts institutions and enhance its ability to communicate the ongoing value and applicability of a liberal arts education to future generations of Cornellians.

This is important work. I appreciate your confidence in Cornell and welcome your reaction to the ideas in this White Paper. Please let me know what you think about Cornell’s identity, its “brand,” and the position in higher education to which we aspire.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Leslie H. Garner Jr.
President