CORNELL UNIVERSITY Founded in 1865, Cornell is an Ivy League research university comprising seven under- graduate colleges and seven graduate and professional schools. With total enrollment of more than 20,000 students from all over the world, and top-rated programs in archi- tecture, business, engineering, hotel admin- istration, human and veterinary medicine, human development, the humanities, labor and employment issues, law, and life scienc- es, the university embodies Ezra Cornell’s vision of “an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” The university’s commitment to high- quality education is reflected in the number and variety of resources available to its stu- dents, faculty, and staff. These include one of the largest academic research libraries in the United States; a First-Year program designed to help new students successfully negotiate the transition from high school to college; the Transfer Student Program, which supports students who come to Cornell after studying elsewhere; and more than 800 student organizations dedicated to interests ranging from politics to pro- fessions, religion to recreation. Cornell’s faculty, numbering more than 2,600 world- wide, includes Nobel laureates, Pulitzer prize winners, and presidents of the leading professional organizations in their fields. There is a vibrant cultural life on campus, with seasonal offerings of theater, music, film, art exhibits, and dance. As New York State’s land-grant institution—and the only Ivy League university with land-grant sta- tus—Cornell seeks to instill an interest in public service and community involvement in its students, encouraging them to use their skills and knowledge to benefit others. The university experience also is enriched by the diversity of its student body. More than a quarter of undergraduates are African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American, or from multiracial backgrounds. International students from 120 countries make up an additional 8 per- cent of the student body. Cornell’s main campus is frequently described as one of the most beautiful in the United States. Spread over 745 acres of gardens, fields, and woods crisscrossed by gorges, waterfalls, and creeks, it includes more than 260 buildings ranging in age from mid-Victorian to early twenty-first century and offers spectacular views of Cayuga Lake and the surrounding countryside. 5 Welcome 6 The Finest Education in Hospitality Management 8 Hospitality: The World’s Largest Industry 10 Worldwide Hospitality 12 A Hotelie and a Cornellian 14 Hospitality Leadership through Learning 16 A Management Curriculum 20 Understanding People Is Key 22 Student Life 24 Hotel Ezra Cornell 26 After You Graduate 28 The Faculty 30 Industry Connections 32 Hands-On Learning 34 About Ithaca 35 Admissions 38 Is the Hotel School for You? Admissions Office School of Hotel Administration Cornell University 180 Statler Hall Ithaca, NY 14853-6902 607.255.6376 E-mail: [email protected] WWW.HOTELSCHOOL.CORNELL.EDU 4 WELCOME The Cornell School of Hotel Administra- tion was founded in 1922 as the nation’s first collegiate course of study in hospital- ity management. A gift from the Statler Foundation in 1948 enabled the con- struction of a building dedicated to the program, and in 1950 Hotel Administration became a school of its own. The Statler Inn, with fifty-two guest rooms and two restaurants, opened in 1950 as the world’s first teaching hotel. In 1989, Cornell unveiled the $45 million, nine-story Statler Hotel and J. Willard Marriott Executive Education Center. Today, the Hotel School is recognized as the world leader in hospi- tality management. The school provides management-level instruc- tion in the full range of hospitality disciplines, educating the next generation of leaders in the world’s largest industry. WWW.HOTELSCHOOL.CORNELL.EDU 5 The Finest Education in Hospitality Management You will find no better preparation for a career in hospitality management anywhere in the world. Schools that offer programs similar to ours invariably modeled their curricula after ours, and many of their professors are graduates of our Ph.D. program. Throughout the industry, we are known by our nickname—the Hotel School—rather than as Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration. In the hospitality industry, everyone knows which hotel school they mean—Cornell is in a class by itself. We have almost 900 undergraduate and graduate students; some sixty full-time faculty members (whose priorities are teaching, advising students, conducting research, and consulting); a 153-room teaching hotel; the largest and most comprehensive hospitality library in the world; the world’s number-one executive-education program, serving thousands of hospitality leaders annually; and a network of 11,000 alumni working in every aspect of hospitality. But what makes the Hotel School superlative isn’t anything that can be measured in numbers or by external standards. In hospitality education, we are the bearer of the standard. What is the Hotel School? A Business School for the Hospitality Industry Behind every smiling reservation clerk lies an intricate world of management-planning, finance, operations, information technology, marketing, branding, and more. We’re a professional school, one that gives you the tools of business administration and teaches you how to apply them in the hospitality industry. Every Hotel School student takes the same core courses, covering such sub- jects as accounting, finance, marketing, information technology, and human resources. And be- cause hospitality is all about people—it’s a labor-intensive field and the ability to serve customers and clients pleasantly and consistently counts for a lot—labor relations, customer relations, and human relations generally are an important part of your education. 6 Laura Kornegay ’96 Vice president, Leadership Development ClubCorp Dallas, Texas “In Dallas they’re proud of Texas A & M and the University of Texas, and there are people who have never heard of Cornell; but in the indus- try, they all know Cornell.” “THE HOTEL BUSINESS is a very small world; and where you went to school makes all the difference,” says Laura Kornegay, vice president, Leadership Development for ClubCorp, which owns and manages more golf clubs, country clubs, and business and sports clubs than any other company in the country. “In Dallas they’re proud of Texas A & M and the University of Texas, and there are people who have never heard of Cornell; but in the industry, they all know Cornell.” Kornegay recruits at four national campuses, including Cornell, and she and her friends who recruit for Marriott, Starwood, and ARAMARK look forward to seeing one another on campuses and at conferences. “Someone once said to me, ‘You talk to each other?!?’ And I said, ‘Of course! We compete for the same recruits, but it’s a friendly competition.’ “You don’t think about this a lot, but Cornell offers you an amazing network of people. Honestly, I can pick up the phone and call any Hotel School alum and say, ‘Hi, this is why I’m calling, this is what I need, can you help?’ Our common experience makes that possible.” Kornegay’s relationship with ClubCorp began, indirectly, at Cornell. After completing a sales internship at Bristol Hotels and Resorts in Dallas, where Peter Kline ’69 was chief executive, she went to work for Bristol after graduating. When Kline sold Bristol to Intercontinental Hotels, Kornegay decided to stay in Dallas rather than move to Atlanta, and called on Cornell contacts, including members of the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH), for help in finding a new position. Through a NSMH contact at TGIFridays, she landed a job in Dallas. Then, when John Beckert ’75, former chief operating officer atB ristol, joined ClubCorp, along with his brother Richard ’78 and John Longstreet ’77, who had been Kornegay’s former boss in human resources at Bristol, Kornegay went with them to ClubCorp. “I loved working at Bristol because of the company’s values; and it’s exciting to be back where it all began—with hotelies,” she said. “I understand the way these guys operate. They came out of the Hotel School twenty years before I did, but we still speak the same language and can talk about the same activities.” 7 Hospitality: The World’s Largest Industry Hospitality is big business—$4 trillion a year and growing fast. When you add up all the hotels, motels, and resorts in the world, plus airlines, B&Bs, cafete- rias, car rentals, catering, concessions, eco-tourism, fine-dining restaurants, multi-unit restau- rants, ski resorts and health spas, vacation clubs, and more, hospitality turns out to be a bigger business than most people realize. It’s also airline management, amusement parks, ballparks, casi- nos and gaming operations, city clubs, cruise lines, country clubs, dance halls, e-commerce, golf clubs, theme parks, tourism, and yacht clubs. Business at this scale is a high-stakes game of risks and rewards. Creativity counts, and so does the discipline necessary to achieve results. Every dream is eventually measured against a profit- and-loss statement. You’ll need to be sharp, imaginative, and realistic, all at the same time. If you are, you will be given more responsibility at an earlier age than you might have imag- ined. Chances are, you will advance rapidly. Or, if you prefer, start your own company. Quite a few Hotel School graduates have founded companies, including Alamo Rent-A-Car; Burger King; Dunkin Donuts; Duty Free Shoppers stores at international airports; Hotel Valuation Services; PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Hospitality Consulting; and more. The worldwide hospitality industry is riding a strong wave of economic growth. In Asia and Latin America, American companies are making inroads, and national governments and private developers are building establishments at a great rate. Opportunities abound for Hotel School graduates, especially those who know foreign languages and cultures.