As “Brian Leiter reported yesterday”:http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2006/05/cornells_irwin__1.html, Terry Irwin has accepted a Professorship at Oxford University. This has led elsewhere to a fair bit of speculation (some of it quite irresponsible if you ask me) about what Gail Fine will be doing. So I thought I’d clear that up.

Gail was also offered a position at Oxford, but she has declined it and will be staying at Cornell. She will be on leave, and in Oxford, each spring semester for the forseeable future. But the main news here is that she has declined the Oxford position, and will be remaining a full member of the Cornell department, and we are all very happy that she is staying.

Losing Terry is obviously a large loss for Cornell. His wit and (especially) his wisdom have been such signature features of the Sage School for so long, that it is going to be hard to imagine the department without him. (I hope, given the way Gail’s teaching situation is arranged, that he’ll still be a frequent visitor to Ithaca, so we won’t have to go cold turkey on being without his presence.) It is obviously a great achievement to be offered a chair at Oxford, so while Terry will be missed at Cornell, it is pleasing to see that his talents, and his contributions, are being justly honoured.