During the 2006 spring semester, the Future of Rural New York seminar series related to CALS research and outreach efforts including:

• Effectiveness of community-based watershed organizations
• Transitioning to renewable and agriculture-based products and energy
• Agriculture, food, and community partnerships as a model for development
• Immigration in New York state: trends and policy implications
• Federal energy policy and implications for New York state
• Higher education's public mission and work

Regardless of topic, the goal of the series is to foster increased interaction between research, practice, and policy, creating strong partnerships for future engaged work and thereby supporting the contemporary culture of Cornell’s Land-Grant Mission.

The highest-profile speaker was Congressman Maurice Hinchey, of New York’s 22nd Congressional District, who spoke about energy policy legislation he introduced in Washington this year. Congress’s highly charged debate over immigration policy reforms coincided perfectly with the seminar on immigration in New York.

The seminar series was sponsored by the Department of Development Sociology's Rural New York Initiative (through the Polson Institute for Global Development) and is part of the Rural Visioning Project — a collaboration with the Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI), Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the New York State Legislative Commission on Rural Resources.

For more information on the Rural New York Initiative and the Rural Visioning Project, please visit rnyi.cornell.edu.