Cornell University: ILR’s longest-serving tenured faculty member retires after 56-year run

Generations of students and scholars have been influenced by Professor James Gross, a worker rights advocate and labor relations expert who retired this summer as the ILR School’s longest-serving tenured faculty member.

Jeffrey Hilgert, ILR Ph.D. ’11, now a professor in the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal, said, “Jim’s work recognizes that most people are vulnerable to economic insecurity and arbitrary decisions at their workplace. How society protects collective labor rights largely determines if people have dignity at work, so his studies about the role of government are studies about the protection of human dignity.”

The author of A Shameful Business and seven other books, including a series on the National Labor Relations Board, Gross urged students to take responsibility for improving the lives of people who suffer at the hands of the privileged.

“Professor Gross challenged us to approach every human being with an open heart, an open mind, with empathy and understanding, said Kizzy Maitland Vassall, M.I.L.R. ’03. “He stressed the importance of the whole person.”