To the Editor:

Re: “A Bird’s Eye View As Bain Tears Through,” Opinion, Sept. 3

The Sun’s coverage of the University’s new strategic planning process, and of the engagement of Bain and Co. as consultants, for the most part has been accurate, even-handed and responsible. However, the editorial yesterday raises the possibility of future sensationalism and misrepresentation at a time when the campus sorely needs and must depend upon solid reporting and interpretation. Our problems and challenges are real enough without creating the perception of opacity and a disconnect between rhetoric and action where none exists.

The editorial first speaks to the need for transparency and on that point there can be no disagreement. As has been the case from the outset of our financial crisis, the University’s senior leadership and I will continue to employ multiple avenues to keep the campus apprised of the nature and scope of our financial challenges and the processes we are using to plot a new course through unprecedented fiscal challenges. The planning process is a multi-faceted one — led by Provost Fuchs — involving faculty, students and staff across campus.

One aspect of the process is being facilitated by Bain, and only one. To cast the entire planning process in the shadow of this significant subset is to minimize the important work being done by all the teams working across campus. In the end, the recommendations of the teams, including work being supported by Bain, will be consolidated into a final report that will be made available to the campus.

The many hours of discussion and deliberation that have already occurred and the hundreds more to come between now and next spring, including extensive discussions with leadership of the assemblies, task force members, senior leaders of the campus, including vice presidents, vice provosts and deans, as well as input from faculty, staff, students and alumni will generate recommendations. These recommendations only then will lead to final decisions that I will make with Provost Fuchs as we settle on the best ways to streamline administrative operations of the University and finalize a new strategic plan to guide our activities in the years to come.

We pledge to continue and increase transparency so that the community will hear and be a part of the key deliberations. It is unfortunate that your editorial goes on to describe the engagement of a senior consulting team as a “… decision to outsource the duties of the central administration.” Characterization of a careful consultative process as abdicating management to the consultants is inaccurate.

The University, like all of American higher education and our society in general, is facing financial challenges unlike those any of us have faced before. But, unlike some peer institutions, Cornell is still recruiting faculty and staff; has reduced its workforce in great part by a respectful process of retirement incentives that allowed many of our talented colleagues to leave Cornell employment with dignity and relative security; financial aid has been substantially increased even in the midst of the revenue free fall last Autumn. So let’s continue to work together as a caring community with the optimism and trust that have made Cornell what it is today and what it will be for many decades to come.

President David J. Skorton