Can the School of Hotel Administration maintain its integrity under College of Business?

The College of Business. It’s a four letter phrase that can spark hours of conversation on campus at the moment. On one hand, there are passionate individuals from each of the three schools — The Johnson School, The Dyson School and The School of Hotel Administration — who are fervently against its creation. On the other hand, there are those who don’t understand why our individual accredited business schools haven’t been brought together sooner.

As a current junior in the School of Hotel Administration (SHA), I have my own opinions and hope to shed some light on the situation at hand.

So, why are so many students, faculty, staff, and alums up in arms?

To give you an idea of the Hotelie perspective, let’s start with a little history. SHA was started in 1922 where it originally began as a department within what is now the College of Human Ecology. In 1950, we became one of the first independent schools of its kind in the country to focus on the study of Hospitality.

Having built ourselves for over 65 years as an independent school in the heart of Cornell’s campus, we as Hotelies take much pride in the reputation our school has achieved both within its industry.

This reputation is what attracted my father to Hotel School, and it’s a large part of why I chose to follow in his footsteps many years later.

That’s why I was so shocked to receive an email at the end of last semester which seemed to threaten the independence and reputation of the School we both hold dear.

Beyond this pride that we Hotelies feel, a lot of our uncertainty and subsequent fear has come from a lack of information.

Many students, including myself, initially believed that we were simply going to be absorbed in a larger group and lose our identity. While we have been assured this is not the case now from many different parties involved in the College’s formation, uncertainty still exists for the plan going forward.

Provost Michael Kotlikoff, during the open forum regarding the College of Business, described the approved College of Business as an empty vessel.

How can we be certain the direction of an empty vessel? What if our intro business classes do become combined and The School’s hallmark small classes are taken away? What if are one day we are just a major within a larger college?

While many of these questions continue to be answered with a strong level of assurance by those involved, what this empty vessel looks like gives me pause and reason to be concerned for my School’s future. The Provost demonstrated the many boards that will be involved in this College’s creation, but since much of the planning still haven’t been laid out, I remain concerned.

While even the Provost acknowledges that the decision was handled poorly, we must continue to do all we can to preserve and protect what make SHA so unique.

Provost Kotlikoff claims that the individuality of each school will be maintained, and it is our obligation to make sure this comes to fruition within this new structure.