Though many of the “Reimagining Cornell” academic task forces released earlier this month call for major overhauls of some academic programs, the School of Industrial and Labor Relations Task Force report does not recommend any changes to its academic programs, faculty levels or students services. The report describes freezing or not filling several administrative positions that are currently empty, but nearly all of the decisions regarding these positions have already been made.

No new changes were necessary at ILR because the school recently engaged in an outside review of its academics, Dean Harry Katz said. In addition to that review, parts of the school had been restructured in 2008 after New York State reduced the school’s funding.

“The way to read [the task force report] is: ILR had initiated a series of steps to achieve cost reductions … even before Reimagining Cornell was launched,” Katz said.

Costs have been reduced through decreased staff levels, according to the task force report.

A voluntary retirement program, combined with “staff departures that occurred as part of the workforce reduction that was taken at the school in Fall 2008,” reduced ILR’s workforce by 15 percent from its 2008 level, the task force report says.

“We get some recognition from the provost for beginning our cost-cutting before other colleges,” Katz said.

In the summer of 2008, ILR’s administration learned about midyear cuts to New York State funding and began restructuring the school that fall, Katz said. The administration also made changes based on anticipated University budget problems, he said.

For the University’s latest strategic planning initiative, Reimagining Cornell, the ILR task force focused on administrative services throughout the school.

Leaving some jobs empty was the task force’s primary cost-cutting strategy. The report describes several empty administrative and administrative support jobs that have been frozen or have not been filled.

The report does not recommend any changes to faculty levels, academic offerings or student services. These types of changes –– which may soon become a reality elsewhere on campus –– were not considered by the ILR task force.

“We felt content with our academic programming and initiatives,” Katz said, adding that ILR underwent an outside review of its academics, strategy and services two and a half years ago.

“We went through a pretty thorough year of self-examination,” he said. “Everyone was satisfied with the results of that process.”

Although the ILR task force did not recommend significant changes, the school will still be affected by decisions resulting from recommendations of other task forces.

“We’re open to the suggestions” of other task forces, Katz said. The university-wide library task force, for instance, would affect ILR if its recommendations to consolidate some other campus libraries into ILR’s Catherwood Library.

The school is also open to the idea of consolidating human resources and fiscal services between colleges, Katz said. “For us, the issue is we don’t have a lot of scale economies, being a small college,” he said.

ILR’s task force report also discussed changes to ILR Extension, which provides education and consulting services to businesses, unions and governments outside the Cornell campus.

The extension’s Albany office will close, the report says, “since the staff who remain in Albany do not need a physical space in which to operate.”

However, “ILR will continue to offer programs … in the Capital District during the coming year,” the the task force said in its report.

The extension office’s income was hit hard by the recession in the fall of 2008. But unlike ILR’s Cornell campus, the extension is not able to make up for funding cuts by growing its student population, Katz said.

New York State funding for ILR Extension has been cut twice since 2006, leading to restructuring and cut backs, Katz said.