Advancing the world of work through teaching, research and outreach
ILR Vision and Mission
Our Vision:
The ILR School of Cornell University is the leading college of the applied social sciences focusing on work, employment, and labor policy issues and practices of national and international significance.
Our Mission:
The ILR School advances the world of work through teaching, research and outreach. As a land-grant college, we generate and disseminate leading-edge knowledge to solve human problems, manage and resolve conflict, and establish best practices in the workplace, and to inform government policy.
The ILR School Today
ILR emphasizes the importance of people in the world of work and to organizational success.
It is the world's only institution of higher education to offer a four-year undergraduate program focused on work and employment, several types of graduate degrees, and programs and workshops for adult learners.
ILR has more faculty dedicated to teaching and research in work, employment and labor than any other educational institution. Faculty expertise ranges across the workplace-related social science disciplines, including economics, sociology, history, psychology, political science, law, and statistical analysis.
Programmatic specialties include human resources management, collective bargaining, labor law, labor history, labor economics, organizational behavior, international and comparative labor, and social statistics. In addition, ILR's Catherwood Library and its Digital Commons on-line collection are considered the leading resources for work, employment and labor information in North America.
From our Ithaca campus and offices around the state, ILR connects with the nation, and the world. Excellence in teaching and research, and a commitment to outreach that helps improve workplace practices and inform government policy continue to be ILR's defining characteristics.
A Brief History of the ILR School
The idea seemed radical at the time: Establish a college where faculty and students could grapple with issues creating conflict in the workplace, including the adversarial relationship between labor and management. This daring vision, coming on the heels of the Great Depression and then World War II, led to the founding of the ILR School by the New York State legislature in 1945. The school was charged with a mission "to improve industrial and labor conditions in the State through the provision of instruction, the conduct of research, and the dissemination of information in all aspects of industrial, labor, and public relations, affecting employers and employees."
Given a home at Cornell University, ILR embodied both the intellectual rigor of the Ivy League and the democratic spirit of state universities. It created a multidisciplinary social sciences faculty that valued academic achievement and practical expertise. On-campus offerings promised students a liberal education with a professional orientation while off-campus Extension programs brought insights about the workplace to professionals and the wider community.
