Cornell names Colvin permanent dean of ILR School

ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University announced it is removing the interim tag from Alexander Colvin as dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR).

He was appointed dean for a five-year term, effective July 1. The Cornell Board of Trustees and the SUNY Board of Trustees approved the selection, according to a news release posted on the Cornell Chronicle website.

Colvin — a professor of conflict resolution and associate dean for academic affairs, diversity, and faculty development — has been serving as interim dean of ILR since October, replacing Kevin Hallock who became dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

As interim dean, Colvin instituted several initiatives. They include the opening of ILR’s new Manhattan headquarters, which also houses nine other Cornell colleges and programs. He oversaw the recruitment and hiring of seven new faculty members, the release stated. Colvin also led a review of the undergraduate curriculum, which he began as associate dean. The resulting report, issued in May, recommended new options for students to concentrate elective coursework in areas such as human resources and organizations, labor and social justice, dispute resolution, and the social sector. It also strengthened coursework in statistics and data analysis, workplace diversity and inclusion, and work and technology.

Colvin said that putting in place curricular changes will be a top priority next year. He said he will ensure the school focuses on issues related to the future of work. Those issues include changes in the organization of work; shifts in the structures of careers and organizations; technological change, including automation and artificial intelligence, and its effect on jobs; challenges facing the labor movement and worker rights; globalization, from global supply chains to labor rights in the global economy and immigration; and the changing composition of the workforce, including issues of diversity and inclusion.

A faculty member since 2008, Colvin had served as associate dean at ILR from 2016 until he was named interim dean, in October 2018. Prior to joining Cornell, he was a faculty member at Penn State University from 1999 to 2008. 

Colvin earned three degrees from the University of Toronto — a bachelor’s in astronomy and astrophysics in 1989, a law degree in 1992, and a master’s in industrial relations in 1995. He earned a fourth degree — a Ph.D. in industrial and labor relations — from Cornell in 1999.

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Photo credit: Jon Reis/ Cornell Chronicle