A Campus Welcome

Members of Cornell University's Ithaca campus community gathered on October 2 to officially welcome the Institute of Politics and Global Affairs.

The event was the first collaborative program of Steve Israel New York City-based director of the institute and U.S. Congressman (2001­–2017), and Douglas Kriner, Ithaca-based faculty director of the institute and Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions, Department of Government, College of Arts and Sciences.

Vice Provost Wendy Wolford greeted the attendees in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium in Klarman Hall, identifying the institute as one of the units in the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, which she leads.

Wolford then presented Provost Michael Kotlikoff, who introduced the institute to the university community. He explained how the institute aligns with the university’s “One Cornell” vision, serving as a bridge between the Ithaca and New York campuses and engaging Cornell faculty, students, and alumni in Ithaca, New York, Washington D.C., and elsewhere. Kotlikoff also emphasized "the opportunities the institute will create for the university to amplify its voice in major policy discussions, both domestically and globally."

Israel outlined the work of the institute and its mission. Then Kriner introduced the members of the institute's academic advisory board and the 2019-20 faculty fellows.

Kriner highlighted several academic programming initiatives that the institute has planned for the academic year. He invited everyone to the fall semester programs, including:

• a conversation with Representative Adam Schiff on October 10
• a panel on presidential power and populism with William Howell of the University of Chicago on November 18
• an event on climate change and food security in November with Chris Avery of the National Climate Assessment
• the first ConsensUS conference featuring Representatives Lee (D-CA) and French (R-AR) on the topic of prison education reform

The evening’s panel "Has Trump Changed Everything?" included three faculty — Kaushik Basu, C. Marks Professor of International Studies and professor of economics (Cornell/Arts and Sciences); Sarah Binder, senior fellow, Brookings Institution and professor of political science (George Washington University/Arts and Science); and Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, professor and chair, Department of Development Sociology (Cornell/Agriculture and Life Sciences). They were joined on the panel by Israel, with Kriner serving as moderator.

The event ended with a reception in the atrium.