| School of Hotel Administration | |
|---|---|
 | |
| | |
| Established: | 1922 |
| Type: | Private |
| Dean: | Michael D. Johnson |
| Faculty: | 38 |
| Undergraduates: | 842[1] |
| Postgraduates: | 89 |
| Location: | Ithaca, New York, USA |
| Website: | www.hotelschool.cornell.edu |
The School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University is a specialized business school[2] for hospitality management founded in 1922 as the first four-year intercollegiate school devoted to the field. It is one of a few hospitality management schools in the country that is not part of another academic department, school, or college, though until 1950, it was operated as a department within the College of Home Economics. Cornellians generally refer to it as the Hotel School, and its students and alumni as Hotelies.
The nature of the Hotel School was in large part the creation of professor Howard B. Meek. He was supported in his efforts by New York City hotel men, a number of whom testified in Albany, urging the legislature to appropriate $11,000 per year for the school. Edward M. Tierney of the Ansonia Hotel stated "There is a dearth of competent hotel employes [sic], and such a course at Cornell would have the endorsement and co-operation of the hotel men generally throughout the country... The war brought a great change in the hotel worker, and the old-time attitude of servility has been replaced by efficient service giving and courtesy. Young men now enter the hotel business just as they would banking, railroad, or commercial life, to find a future in it, and the hotel man must offer the same attractions of commensurate pay and advancement."
In 1927, at the 2nd Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell, Meek convinced a skeptical Ellsworth Milton Statler of the value of the concept; Statler declared "I'm converted. Meek can have any damn thing he wants." Statler and his wife became major benefactors of the school, eventually donating a total of more than $10 million.
In a 2007 Newsweek article dubbing Cornell has the "Hottest Ivy," the Hotel School was mentioned to be "considered the world's best."[3]
Profile
The Hotel School is located on Cornell's central campus in Statler Hall, endowed by Alice Statler, heiress to the Statler Hotel fortune. Directly attached is the Statler Hotel and JW Marriott Executive Education Conference Center (unaffiliated with the chain, which was acquired by Hilton Hotels in 1954), staffed by students and local employees. The Statler Hotel is the only hotel on campus.
The school enrolled 824 undergraduates and 89 graduate students in 2008, hailing from almost 50 countries; it is Cornell's second smallest undergraduate college. Its curriculum encompasses all facets of general business management with a focus on the hospitality industry. Although not required, many students choose to work at the Statler Hotel to supplement their education at the school. The Hotel School employs 38 full-time faculty members, most with field management experience.
In 1954, Conrad Hilton, who was closely associated with the school after his company bought the Statler hotel chain, called it "the greatest hotel school in the world."[4] Conrad Hilton later became more closely associated with another school after he founded the Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston in 1969.
The Hotel School's course catalog includes several offerings popular among students in other Cornell colleges, notably HADM 430, Introduction to Wines, a wine tasting course which enrolls 600–900 students each semester, as well as a 2-credit cooking course.
Fictional Hotelies have included:
- In Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart, a hotel manager attended the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration because it was the only Ivy League school he got into
- In Dirty Dancing, Neil
- In 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan's friend, Fat Balls
Degrees
The School of Hotel Administration offers the following degrees on both undergraduate and graduate levels:
- Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Hotel Administration [5]
Concentrations include those in Corporate Finance, Real Estate, Food and Beverage, Marketing, Information Systems, and Law.
- Master of Management in Hospitality (M.M.H)
- Master's degree (Master of Science, M.S.) (through the Cornell University Graduate School)
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) (through the Cornell University Graduate School)
Criticism
In a 1973 article entitled "Hospitality and the Plastic Esthetic," architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable complained of the "banal, standardized, multi-billion-dollar world of bad fabrics, bad prints, bad pictures, bad furniture, bad lamps, bad icebuckets and bad wastebaskets of totally uniform and cheap consistency of taste" which she found in American hotels. "All this is arranged in identical, predictable layouts... you never really know where you are. It is complete loss of identity... The accusation of elitist critical bias, or subjective judgment, just won't wash. Shlock is shlock." She laid this firmly at the door of two institutions: "the Holiday Inn products division and the Cornell Hotel School.... An overnight stay at the Cornell Hotel School's endowed model hotel wing reveals an interesting fact. The existing formula is enshrined here, and no future hotelkeeper is going to learn anything else. The training sample includes every cliché down to the stale air."[6]
Statler Hotel
The full-service Statler Hotel has 153 guest rooms at the center of Cornell's campus. The hotel also serves as a primary teaching tool for the Hotel School. Each year over 200 Hotel School students work alongside professionals in a range of hotel and restaurant operations.
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