Intentionally small and highly selective, Johnson forms a concentrated, invigorating culture that functions much like a high-performance workplace.
We actively foster innovation, focus on results, and cultivate confidence. Our highly diverse students and faculty become colleagues in an inclusive environment, building a lifetime network of personal and professional contacts.
How do we cultivate such a community? First, we choose to be a relatively small business school (our MBA and PhD students total ~650; full and part-time faculty total ~90), set in the midst of the largest of the Ivy League Universities (20,000 undergraduate and graduate students). Our location in Ithaca – a small city in New York’s Finger Lakes region – brings us together, too. We are not commuters simply rushing in to take classes and disappear again; we are neighbors and members of a wider community, as well as colleagues.
One of the aspects of Johnson that our students note with amazement is the degree to which our faculty and administrators are involved. For example, all four of our deans sit on the Student Council – and regularly attend the 7:30 am meetings! Faculty and administrators make plenty of time available for meetings in their offices, but they’re also at Coffee in the Atrium every weekday – engaged in conversation, asking questions, following up. They’re on campus nights and weekends, too, supporting student-run events and working alongside students in every conceivable type of team. And it doesn’t end at the Sage Hall door; often they open their homes, inviting students to dinner.
Our community is not created by faculty and administrators alone. Students are challenged to assume high levels of responsibility for making things happen for the school, as well as for themselves. The number and variety of student-run organizations reflects the high level of engagement and collaboration, and the extensive calendar of events is just one manifestation of their extraordinary productivity.