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President's Council of Cornell Women
eNews | May 2015
CHAIRS' CORNER
Greetings, PCCW. Happy Spring!!
Linda Gadsby '88
PCCW Co-Chair
Jill Goldy MS ILR '78
PCCW Co-Chair
We're still basking in the glow of our wonderful celebration of
PCCW’s 25th anniversary and Cornell’s sesquicentennial at the March
annual meeting. Thanks to all of you who attended and were part of
the celebration. It was especially fun to reconnect with and to honor
our founding members, many of our past chairs, and members of the
founding class. And what a fabulous group of visionary women the
Annual Meeting Planning Committee found to inform and inspire us.
PCCW’s 25-Year Impact
For those who haven’t seen it, we recommend you check out the
graphic representation we created showing PCCW’s impact for
Cornell over the last 25 years. We have so much to be proud of. By
visiting the annual meeting page, you can also find photos of the
meeting, a wonderful congratulatory letter from President Skorton,
and the citation we sent President Frank Rhodes, thanking him for
the critical role he played in helping Lilyan Affinito and Patricia Carry
Stewart bring PCCW to life.
We Have Reached Our Goal for Gannett!!
At the annual meeting, we also announced a significant “give back”
aspect to our 25th anniversary celebration. We surprised our beloved
Susan Murphy, retiring VP of Student and Academic Services, with a
commitment to raise $250,000 over the next five years to name a
waiting room in the sexual health and wellness services section of the
substantially expanded and improved Gannett Health Center now
under construction. Susan has spearheaded the Gannett expansion
initiative for several years. The waiting room will be designated as a
gift from PCCW in her honor. This is a great chance to positively
affect all Cornell students for at least the next 25 years. And as we
had hoped, Susan found our gesture to be very meaningful
personally.
While we have five years to raise the $250,000, the larger Gannett
campaign requires us to have actual gifts or pledges for the full
amount by June 30, 2015. Thanks to your generosity we have met
our goal with a combination of actual gifts and pledges two
months early!!! Our heartfelt thanks goes to all of you who have
participated. Since this involves some long-term pledges, and we
recognize that members’ circumstances can change unexpectedly,
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we are pleased to accept gifts in excess of the goal amount to
ensure we meet our commitment over the long term. If a gift to the
Gannett project would be meaningful for you, please don’t hesitate to
supplement this fund.
If you prefer to give to one of the other PCCW sponsored funds, an
equal giving priority is the PCCW Current Use Fund. This fund
raises money that can be used in the current or following fiscal year
(July 1-June 30) to supplement the money generated annually by our
endowed funds. Because of the current low-interest-rate economic
environment, the endowed funds generate less money for grants
each year than they have in the past. At the same time, the number
of applications for these grants is growing. We have used the Current
Use Fund dollars we raised last year to almost double the amount we
were able to commit this year to Affinito-Stewart Grants for junior
women faculty seeking tenure. We plan to use the Current Use Fund
dollars we raise this year to increase the pool of money we have
available for Affinito-Stewart Grants again next year.
New PCCW Chair Named
Effective July 1, 2015, Jeanette Perez-Rossello will
be the next Chair of PCCW!! She is a wonderful
leader and we couldn’t be more delighted.
Congratulations, Jeanette!!!
Thank You, PCCW
It has been a great pleasure and a great honor to serve as the CoChairs of PCCW for the last two years. We love Cornell, PCCW, and
knowing and working with all of you. Thanks so much for putting your
faith in us, being our friends, and for all your wonderful work for
Cornell.
Best,
Jill and Linda
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE LETTER
Heidi Grenek '92
Co-Chair
As your Communications Committee co-chairs and vice chair, we are
excited to bring you this next edition of the PCCW eNews! Our
objective for the Communications Committee is to keep you informed
of PCCW activities and events and to celebrate the accomplishments
of our members and our organization. With delivery of the 25th
Anniversary infographic behind us, our attention has turned to the
update of the PCCW website. Stay tuned for the summer launch of a
refreshed site with enhanced features!
Thanks to all who are posting on our social media forums! If you see
something that would be of interest to our membership, please feel
free to post it to Facebook or Linked In (and one of the
Communications Committee members will post it to Twitter). We
welcome posts celebrating member accomplishments, Cornell-related
news, and topics relating to women’s issues and thought leadership.
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If you are not sure whether something is “post-worthy,” send it along
to one of us and we will be happy to take it from there!
Heidi, Tara, and Lisa
Tara Murphy '94
Co-Chair
Lisa Rangel '92
Vice Chair
MEMBER NEWS
Kim Azzarelli '93, JD '97 organized a tribute to Sandra Day
O’Connor at the Seneca Women Global Leadership Forum.
Stephanie Keene Fox '89 was elected as a Cornell Alumni
Trustee!
Linda Gadsby '88 was honored at the BLAPA Annual
Spring Dinner with the NYU Law Distinguished Alumni
Achievement Award.
Gabrielle Giffords MRP '97 spoke at Cornell’s Senior
Convocation on May 23.
Anita Harris '70 presented her book, Ithaca Diaries, to the
Cornell Club of Boston.
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Digit Murphy '83 was a panelist at 2nd Annual Power of
Collaboration Global Summit at the United Nations: "Women,
Technology and Social Innovation: Creating the Future of
Inclusive, Sustainable Economies".
Congratulations to Candace Osunsade '87 on her recent
election to the board of directors of Building STEPS, a
nonprofit that provides a continuum of programming to
ensure college access and completion for Baltimore City
public school students who have an interest in science and
technology.
MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS
Generational Divide: Myth, Reality, or Should We Just Get
Back to Work?
Eileen B.Hoffman Gives Her Perspective to Cornell DC-Area Women
As George Orwell observed, "Each generation imagines itself to be more
intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes
after it."
The reality is that each of the five generations working today has its own communication
preferences, and no generation is any more difficult to communicate with than the other,
says Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Commissioner/Project Director Eileen B.
Hoffman (ILR ’69). Eileen recently spoke to members of the Capital Area Cornell Women’s
Network on “The Generational Divide: Myth, Reality, or Should We Just Get Back to Work?”
Eileen has been teaching and speaking on this issue to labor, management and government
groups for many years. Her key message is that although the preferred form of
communication and its content vary significantly across generational lines, it is incumbent
upon the message sender to understand the preferences of the receiver if effective
communication is to occur.
Eileen provided an overview of each generation’s characteristics, noting many typical
conflicts and misunderstandings. She stressed the value of leaders and employees in every
place of employment making a concerted effort to communicate with their colleagues in the
ways each person prefers. She recommended bringing staff members of different
generations together for face-to-face programs that can help break down some of the
barriers that can—and often do—occur.
In her job at FMCS, Eileen mediates disputes on the domestic front concerning individual
rights, workplace disputes, equal employment opportunity, and discrimination complaints, as
well as collective bargaining labor disputes in the federal, public, and private sectors. She
also trains, designs, and assesses dispute resolution/mediation services and programs for
new mediators, labor, management, and government officials, and members of international
and nongovernmental organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
FMCS, Eileen notes, offers a range of programs and services, including on understanding
and reducing generational conflict. For additional information on FMCS programs and
services, contact Eileen at ebhoffman@fmcs.org or check out the FMCS site.
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Article submitted by Carolyn J. Jacobson
COMMITTEE NEWS and CALLS TO ACTION
Development Committee
If you have not already done so, please consider giving a gift to the PCCW Current Use Fund
before June. The PCCW Current Use fund enables PCCW to continue to give grants to
faculty, administrators and students.
Mentoring Committee
Cornell is seeking more women to mentor student-athletes. Mentors do not need to be
athletes to volunteer. Please contact Yonn Rasmussen if interested.
EVENTS CALENDAR
Visit the PCCW calendar.
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