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Director's Update

September 2020

by Harry Katz

Harry C. Katz is the Director of the Scheinman Institute and the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining.

With extensive arrival and recurring virus testing and strong social distancing guidelines, the Cornell campus and our Institute faculty welcomed the return of undergraduate and graduate students in early September. Classes are taking place in a mixed mode, with a strong majority on-line and with all instructors accommodating the needs of international students and others that remained at a distance from Ithaca. Meanwhile, the Institute, in partnership with ecornell, is offering a broad and deep array of professional development workshops via synchronous (virtual) sessions. Whether in on-campus or outreach teaching our faculty imbued their courses with simulations, exercises, coaching, and other tools to sustain a high degree of interactive learning. 

The Black Lives Matter movement reminded us of America’s persistent shortcomings with regard to racial justice. ILR’s dean and Institute faculty member, Alex Colvin, encouraged faculty and students to infuse classroom discussions and debate with attention to the continuing presence of bias and discrimination at the workplace and the world at-large. The bias in arbitration workshop reviewed in this newsletter is one example of how the Scheinman Institute took up Alex’s challenge. 

I particularly welcome back our campus students as we all seek to find ways to create a better workplace and a more just world. 

Harry Katz

  • Director of the Scheinman Institute and Jack Scheinman Professor of Collective Bargaining