Public Service
Working for New York State and Its Residents
In keeping with its founding mission, ILR is making an impact on New York State and its residents. Our faculty's expertise on issues relating to the workplace benefits undergraduate and graduate students, adult learners wanting to enhance skills and advance careers, organizational leaders needing consulting and technical assistance, and policy makers seeking information and guidance. In addition, we gather data that helps labor and management partners take steps to improve the lives of workers, disseminate facts and figures that keep the public informed, and facilitate the implementation of complex systems that enhance the functioning of local governments.
Throughout our history, ILR has provided the instruction and direct services that respond to, and stay ahead of, the changing needs of each era. That commitment will continue to guide us in the years ahead. Our dedication and relevance to New York State, and secondarily to our country and the global community, is reflected in all that we do.
Here are just a few highlights of our work:
- The Employment and Disability Institute is working with the New York State Department of Corrections and Division of Parole on a five-year program funded by the New York State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council to institute person-centered planning for 150 inmates with developmental disabilities at three state correctional facilities, Arthur Kill on Staten Island, Wende in Buffalo, and Sullivan in Fallsburg. EDI began working last year on intensive staff training to improve employment outcomes for inmates with developmental disabilities once they leave the correctional facility and return to the community, thereby lessening recidivism.
- The Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution is providing negotiations and conflict management consulting services in connection with Tompkins County’s new 911 emergency communications system, the largest single capital project in county history. SI is working with the county’s administrator, director of emergency response, and director of information technology as well as every public safety agency in the county to reduce friction in a highly politicized landscape in which a large number of stakeholders have raised concerns about when and how the new system will be implemented. Short-term focus is on project management, negotiations, decision-making, implementation, and compliance. Longer-term issues are conflict management and implementation.
- The New York State AFL-CIO/Cornell Union Leadership Institute graduates its third group of participants in summer 2005 and welcomes a fifth class. Top-level staff members and elected leaders from more than 30 unions across the state have participated so far, and many larger or statewide unions send new leaders through the program every year. Created in 2001 in response to the need for a program focused on leadership skills and competencies in today’s complicated economic, social, and political environment, the institute prepares students from every sector of the labor movement to lead strong, democratic, and responsible organizations. A one-year certificate program carries 12 units of college credit, combining seminar-based learning, fieldwork, and mentoring. The curriculum emphasizes broad knowledge of economics, politics, and organizational development. Admission is competitive, and the institute accepts up to 30 participants who have been nominated by their unions each year statewide.
- The Institute for Workplace Studies is currently affording 26 working adults in the New York City metropolitan area the opportunity to complete requirements for the Master of Professional Studies degree. The part-time program, taught entirely by full-time faculty from Cornell’s Ithaca campus, is the first academic off-campus program ever offered by ILR. Graduates receive a fully accredited ILR degree without having to take two years off from their job. Over the next few years, with the use of long-distance technology, the hope is to expand this program throughout New York State.
- Industrial and Labor Relations Workshops at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation human resources training to approximately 20 professionals, leading to certi. cates on completion of eight workshops or 12 full days of training. An example of customized on-site training that Cornell’s ILR School offers to organizations throughout New York State, the program allows up to 20 HHC employees to cover such topics as Foundations of Human Resources, Building and Managing Employee Relations, Internal Consulting Skills, Performance Management and Appraisal, Dynamics of Handling Complaints, Family and Medical Leave Act, HR and the Law, and Interviewing Skills. Training began March 2005 and will be completed with the awarding of certificates in June.
