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Built for the future of work

80 years of pioneering research, education, and real-world impact.

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Undergraduate Admissions

Our flexible, interdisciplinary major lets students pursue a wide range of academic interests and careers.

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Graduate Programs

Study the workplace comprehensively with the world’s highest concentration of workplace faculty.

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Professional Education

Invest in your career by learning from instructors who blend world-leading research with business-tested practicality.

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Research at Risk

Susanne Bruyère and a small team of researchers started a project to identify barriers in the hiring process that prevent qualified autistic job seekers from getting jobs in STEM fields. The results would have helped employers identify ways to streamline hiring autistic individuals and to support them in the workplace after hiring.

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ILR School Events

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Emerging Tech Dialogues - The Future of Work: People, Process, and Technology

Alexander Colvin, the Kenneth F. Kahn Dean and Martin F. Scheinman Professor of Conflict Resolution at the ILR School, will be a keynote speaker for the upcoming event "Emerging Tech Dialogues - The Future of Work: People, Process, and Technology." Dean Colvin’s research and teaching focuses on employment dispute resolution, with a particular emphasis on procedures in nonunion workplaces and the impact of the legal environment on organizations. His current research projects include empirical investigations of employment arbitration and cross-national studies of dispute resolution. He has published articles in journals such as ILR Review, Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Relations Industrielles, Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution. He is the co-author of An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations, Labor Relations in a Globalizing World, The Oxford Handbook of Conflict Management in Organizations, and Arbitration Law. He is an academic fellow of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Dean Colvin will join the other keynote speaker, Elizabeth Mannix, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Management at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, and Ithaca CIO Ben Maddox in a panel discussion about the events’ themes. The all-day event will be held in person at Statler Hall on the Ithaca Campus and virtually via Zoom on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 from 9am to 4pm. Register free through the online form. The perspectives of the two keynote speakers plus breakout and poster sessions on topics ranging from AI, to data handling and analysis, to techniques for effective teams will make for a day of growth, discovery, and creative spark. Reserve your place today and we’ll see you in person or on Zoom on October 14!

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Emerging Tech Dialogues - The Future of Work: People, Process, and Technology

Disability Disclosure and the Interactive Process

Free webinar answers a variety of questions about disclosure in the workplace
Two people shake hands during a job interview
Disability Disclosure and the Interactive Process

A Paradigm Shift to Social Europe?

A Paradigm Shift to Social Europe: The impact of the EU Minimum Wage directive on the strengthening of collective bargaining in Europe The EU Minimum Wage Directive, adopted in 2022, marks a paradigm shift in EU labor policy. While the EU has long contributed to weakening trade unions and collective bargaining systems through its liberalization policy, the new directive now explicitly aims to strengthen labor market institutions. In order to promote adequate minimum wages, statutory minimum wages should be raised and collective bargaining systems strengthened all over Europe. The Directive obliges all EU member States with collective bargaining coverage of below 80% to establish national action plans to promote collective bargaining, with the aim of progressively increasing collective bargaining coverage. The presentation will discuss the implementation of the directive in individual Member States to date and identify the most important instruments that can contribute to higher collective bargaining coverage. Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schulten is head of the Collective Agreement Archive of the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation which is closely related to the German trade unions. He is also teaching as an honorary professor at the University of Tübingen. Further reading: Torsten Müller and Thorsten Schulten, The road to 80% collective bargaining coverage. The need for ambitious national action plans under the Minimum Wage Directive, ETUI Policy Brief No. 1/2025, Brussels, https://www.etui.org/publications/road-80-collective-bargaining-coverage Host Institute for European Studies Co-host School of Industrial and Labor Relations

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A Paradigm Shift to Social Europe?

Exploring ILR Career Pathways: Law

The ILR School’s interdisciplinary curriculum gives students the freedom to explore many interests, and law is one of the most popular. Approximately 23%-25% of ILR undergraduates pursue law school within five years of graduating, with many applying to law school in two to three years after graduation.

ILR alumni work in many areas of the law, including tech, health care, immigration, transportation, natural resources and criminal defense, while others who earn a law degree, forgo practicing law and instead thrive in business, finance, the entertainment industry or as leaders of professional sports organizations.

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The statue Contemplation of Justice by sculptor James Earle Fraser stands on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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“My time at the ILR School helped me understand both labor and management perspectives, which has proven to be a solid foundation for my career.”
Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Major League Baseball

Get To Know: Paul Ortiz

Faculty Spotlight

Paul Ortiz, a professor in the Department of Global Labor and Work, joined the ILR faculty in the fall of 2024 after 15 years in the history department at the University of Florida.

Professor Paul Ortiz
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ILRies Change
the Future of Work.

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Catherwood Library

The Martin P. Catherwood Library is the most comprehensive resource on labor and employment in North America, offering expert research support through reference services, instruction, online guides and access to premier collections.

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ILR in the News

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Models Feel Hemmed in by AI

Cornell Chronicle
Using generative AI, fashion designers can use digital photos to adjust models’ features and even deploy fully digital avatars in place of humans. A team including an ILR School researcher has written a paper highlighting models’ challenges.
Zoe West speaks at an even during Fashion Week. Photo Credit: Jaka Vinsek and Briana Elledge
Models Feel Hemmed in by AI

Five-Part eCornell Series Focuses on HR Business Partners

A new, comprehensive model developed by CAHRS to assist HR professionals will be explored during a free, five-part eCornell webcast series beginning October 16.
Brad Bell teaching
Five-Part eCornell Series Focuses on HR Business Partners

Two Grants to Study AI and Worker Voice Awarded to ILR

AI is causing a major shift in today’s workplace and raising many concerns. Two new grants will fund ILR research aimed at providing insights to policymakers, union leaders, managers and others who are shaping the future of AI in the workplace.
Futuristic looking lightbulb with the letters AI inside, plugged into a circuit board
Two Grants to Study AI and Worker Voice Awarded to ILR

ILR at 80: An Audacious Idea, Humble Beginnings, Worldwide Legacy

Since its opening in November 1945, the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations has had an outsized impact on unions, corporations, governments and non-profit organizations in New York  state and around the world.
An ILR 80th Anniversary banner hanging in Golden Courtyard
ILR at 80: An Audacious Idea, Humble Beginnings, Worldwide Legacy

Campus Life

A view of student life at Cornell University's ILR School in Ithaca, NY.

@cornellilr

Happy Fall Break! 🍂 The Cornell Campus-to-Campus bus service offers nonstop service every day between Ithaca and New York City. Amenities on the bus include reclining seats, power outlets, wireless internet, and more! 🚌 Have you ever ridden the Cornell Campus-to-Campus bus?

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Thanks to ILR alum Richard “Dick” Fincher ’73, ILR students have been learning about alternative dispute resolution both on @cornelluniversity campus and on-location in Vietnam and at the Hopi and Navajo nations in Arizona. Fincher, who has been instrumental in creating and teaching the Vietnam…

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This past weekend, ILRies celebrated Homecoming Weekend, connecting with past and present students and enjoying Big Red Sports games 🐻

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Exciting renovations are underway at the ILR School! King-Shaw Hall will undergo construction for the next 12-14 months. When it reopens, the building will be home to the ILR Student Commons. This new space will include the Offices of Student Services and ILR Registrar, along with the brand new…

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Applications are now open for the ILR Global Engaged Learning Program in Mysore, India! 🇮🇳 Deadline: October 15, 2025 🔔 Through this program, ILR students work with the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (@svym.india), in Mysore, Karnataka State. SVYM is a community development, non-religious, non…

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Some beautiful sights seen from the ILR School ☀️

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