Fire Cornell President And Get Rid Of DEI, Says Major Donor And Trustee Emeritus
Jon Lindseth: “President Pollack and Provost Kotlikoff have allowed their headlong support for DEI policies to take root at the expense of the four essential pillars of Cornell University: 1) Open Inquiry; 2) Academic Freedom; 3) Viewpoint Diversity; and 4) Free Expression. This is an inexcusable violation of their fundamental duty to Cornell. Therefore, they should resign their positions effective immediately.”
Jon A. Lindseth and his family have donated a fortune to Cornell University over the decades, and Jon was a longtime Trustee, now Trustee Emeritus.
Jon has seen enough of the destruction caused to Cornell from the hyper-aggressive DEI agenda, and is calling for the President and Provost to resign and major changes to be made by the Board of Trustees.
The Wall Street Journal reports, and asks, Is Cornell Next?
Wealthy alumni activists enraged at the leadership of their Ivy League alma maters have helped push out the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University.
Now, a new group of donors are pulling out the same playbook at Cornell University.
Jon Lindseth, a Cornell alumnus, donor and former trustee, asked the school’s board to dismiss university President Martha Pollack and provost Michael Kotlikoff for allegedly stifling open debate and rational argument. Alumni who support the call for the pair’s ouster also are upset about diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the school as well as what they see as growing antisemitism on campus.
“Cornell is no longer concerned with discovering and disseminating knowledge, but rather with adhering to DEI groupthink policies and racialization,” Lindseth wrote in a five-page letter to Cornell’s board chair.
Trustees for the university in upstate New York are scheduled to meet Friday. In Lindseth’s letter, he calls for the school to eliminate DEI staffing and programming and adopt principles of free inquiry and open debate.
Fox News also covered the story:
In an open letter to Chairman Kraig Kayser and the Board of Trustees, Cornell emeritus trustee and presidential counselor Jon A. Lindseth urged the University to abandon its “misguided commitment” to DEI, claiming its embrace of such initiatives has yielded “disgrace” rather than “excellence.”
“I am proud to count myself one of several generations of Lindseths who are Cornell alumni and invested donors, but I am alarmed by the diminished quality of education offered lately by my alma mater because of its disastrous involvement with DEI policies that have infiltrated every part of the university,” he wrote.
“I have spent years hearing the stories of Cornell and its leadership, participating as a student, and sponsoring and funding some of the University’s exemplary past work including the Library (which I continue to fund). I can no longer make general contributions until the university reformulates its approach to education by replacing DEI groupthink with the original noble intent of Cornell,” he added.
Lindseth, who has been one of the school’s largest donors for several decades, contrasted President Martha E. Pollak’s “shameful” response to antisemitism and Hamas terrorism with her “strong response” in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. He suggested the discrepancy shows the school is no longer concerned with “discovering and disseminating knowledge” but rather “adhering to DEI groupthink.”
“Today, the instruction Cornell offers is in DEI groupthink applied to every field of study. The result is a moral decay, some call it ‘rot,’ that falls in line with prevailing ideology and dishonors basic principles of justice and free speech,” Lindseth added.
Jon is a Legal Insurrection reader, and echoes the points I have made here about the pernicious and damaging impact caused by the balkanization of the campus.
Will the Cornell Board of Trustees take up the call to action? Doubtful. WSJ reports the Chair of the Board is backing Pollack.
Kraig H. Kayser, chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees said Wednesday he supports leadership.
“For nearly seven years, I have strongly supported President Pollack, and that support remains strong today,” he wrote. “The board is working effectively with the administration to respond to various challenges facing higher education and opportunities to advance the university’s mission.”
There’s going to have to be a lot more pressure before the Board of Trustees will admit that the entire DEI industrial complex is smothering the campus, and that not only Pollack but also the Trustees are to blame. They are going to dig in, barring some major break, similar to when the Harvard, U. Penn, and MIT presidents testified in Congress.
Here is the Open Letter in full:
Chairman Kraig Kayser and Cornell Board of Trustees
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
Dear Chairman Kayser and Cornell Board of Trustees:
It is with a heavy heart that I outline this request to you today. As a proud Cornell alumnus, donor, Member of the Board of Trustees (Emeritus), and Counselor to the President, it is my opinion that Cornell must abandon its misguided commitment to DEI because it has yielded not excellence but disgrace.
I am proud to count myself one of several generations of Lindseths who are Cornell alumni and invested donors, but I am alarmed by the diminished quality of education offered lately by my alma mater because of its disastrous involvement with DEI policies that have infiltrated every part of the university.
President Pollack’s shameful recent response to clear acts of terrorism and antisemitism compared with her swift and strong response to the George Floyd tragedy demonstrates that Cornell is no longer concerned with discovering and disseminating knowledge, but rather with adhering to DEI groupthink policies and racialization. Ezra Cornell famously stated in 1865, “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” Today the instruction Cornell offers is in DEI groupthink applied to every field of study. The result is a moral decay, some call it “rot,” that falls in line with prevailing ideology and dishonors basic principles of justice and free speech. Under President Pollack’s leadership the university continues to put more value on DEI’s broad application rather than merit. This was not how Cornell became one of the country’s leading institutions and a proud member of the Ivy League.
President Pollack’s failure to act with conviction and moral clarity was a watershed moment as I watched the harmful effects of DEI programming play out on a whole generation of Cornellians. As with any leading educational institution, the President is ultimately responsible for the culture of the university. Under President Pollack’s leadership, antisemitism and general intolerance have increased on campus. Her lack of leadership in the days following the October 7th massacre is only one of the many examples of poor leadership and failed policies at Cornell. A new campus “bias reporting system” fosters a hostile Orwellian environment among neighbors, classmates, and colleagues reporting on one another. The elimination of grades and SATs has created a system in which equal outcomes rather than proven merit has become the objective. This is disastrous for a research university that is built upon academic achievement and aims to educate and train some of our country’s leading scientists, architects, and engineers. Undoubtedly these DEI policies are pushed by the university’s new “Center For Racial Justice and Equitable Outcomes.” Pollack claims the Center is necessary to counter the promulgation of slavery, pervasive oppression, and systemic racism which she believes permeates Cornell today. This is both untrue and a further veering from Cornell’s proper mission.
Alumni of Cornell have organized to offer support and feedback over the past year, providing policy recommendations and whistleblower accounts of problematic behavior on campus by students, faculty and administrators alike. The intent has been to see Cornell’s excellence restored by a determined rolling back of DEI and the toxic academic environment it creates. The lack of acknowledgement, responsibility, or accountability from the administration in addressing the major threats now confronting the University has left me, as one of her appointed counselors, with the disappointing task of calling for President Martha Pollack’s resignation. Provost Michael Kotlikoff should also resign for his close involvement in the denigration of Cornell’s academic legacy under DEI. I’m sure everyone is familiar with “The Peter Principle.” It being people rise in an organization until they reach their level of incompetence. We have now reached this at Cornell.
I have requested that these calls for resignation be added to the agenda for our emergency board meeting on January 26, 2024. I am awaiting a response from the Chairman on this request.
The failure to address a request for Board engagement in this long overdue discussion about the future direction of Cornell is another symptom of the moral rot that has infiltrated all of the Ivy Universities, Cornell included. The Cornell Free Speech Alliance has informed alumni (including myself) that whistleblower accounts from faculty and students describe unacceptable policies and conditions now prevailing on campus. Reports have been made of Cornell’s hiring faculty based on race rather than academic merit (even in the pure sciences) to fulfill their DEI targets for tenure track positions in specific departments. This violates U.S. law. Instances are reported of qualified candidates for faculty positions being rejected for their DEI statements alone, thereby screening out faculty candidates based on their personal, religious, and/or political views which are unrelated to their academic discipline and instructional duties. Cornell Law alumni see such practices as violations of New York State employment law. I am told that faculty members have been singled out and disciplined for expressing minority opinions on national events and policy matters. Repeated failures to support faculty members choosing to exercise free expression and academic freedom is unconscionable for a university of Cornell’s stature. Cornell leaders have also failed to defend the rights of non-conforming speakers invited to campus and instead have fed a cancel culture on campus where bullying, intolerance, and petulant behavior rule rather than academic rigor and honest debate.
While Harvard, Penn, and MIT were the focus of public testimony in the recent U.S. Congressional hearings, Cornell University is also now under intense national scrutiny. As the subject of three different U.S. Congressional and Federal investigations, Cornell could lose its university accreditation, tax exempt status, and governmental funding. It is my belief that President Pollack would face the same public outcry and demands for resignation as Harvard and Penn had she been on the stand before Congress in early December.
President Pollack is responsible for adding a grave insult to injury. Not only has she given the DEI social engineering experiment equal priority with open inquiry, free expression, and academic freedom, Cornell removed the treasured and historical bust of Abraham Lincoln along with a copy of the Gettysburg Address from the Cornell University Library. Apparently a student found this most highly revered U.S. President to be offensive and requested its removal, which the University obliged. (I am told it has now been returned.) So even Lincoln could be canceled under the present administration. This is an absolute disgrace.
President Pollack and Provost Kotlikoff have allowed their headlong support for DEI policies to take root at the expense of the four essential pillars of Cornell University: 1) Open Inquiry; 2) Academic Freedom; 3) Viewpoint Diversity; and 4) Free Expression. This is an inexcusable violation of their fundamental duty to Cornell. Therefore, they should resign their positions effective immediately.
We all see the increasing frustration of Cornell alumni as DEI continues to wreak havoc under President Pollack’s leadership. With my writing of this letter, an increasing number of Cornell alumni are refusing to continue donating to their alma mater. Unfortunately, President Pollack and her administration have refused to engage with concerned alumni and their sound policy recommendations to correct Cornell’s course. With all this as background, I now recommend that the Board of Trustees take the following actions :
ITEM 1: Replace the President and the Provost.
ITEM 2: Eliminate DEI staffing and programming. Revert to Open Inquiry, Academic Freedom, Free Expression, and Viewpoint Diversity on campus.
ITEM 3: Adopt and Implement “CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations To Cornell University” especially the Kalven Report (Political Neutrality) and Chicago Principles (Free Expression).
ITEM 4: Conform to the SCOTUS decision on elimination of Affirmative Action in Admissions and the Schils Report (See CFSA Recommendations) to return Cornell to “merit based” rather than “politically based” or “identity based” hiring and admission preferences.
ITEM 5: Publish a Cornell Policy Statement (similar to that just proposed at Penn) and a new Presidential and Provost Declaration, which Cornell’s new leadership will sign before taking office, that reinstates Open Inquiry, Academic Freedom, Free Expression, and Viewpoint Diversity at Cornell – while turning away from the current “political activism” priority that now dominates the University.
ITEM 6: Terminate Cornell’s use of its current web-based “Bias Reporting System”.
ITEM 7: Cancel opening of the proposed “Cornell Center for Racial Justice”. There is no racial justice with DEI.
I have spent years hearing the stories of Cornell and its leadership, participating as a student, and sponsoring and funding some of the University’s exemplary past work including the Library (which I continue to fund). I can no longer make general contributions until the university reformulates its approach to education by replacing DEI groupthink with the original noble intent of Cornell. Cornell’s embrace of DEI, as embodied in its new Center for Racial Justice and Equitable Outcomes, has or will help spawn an oppressive monoculture, inappropriate political activism, and an environment of fear and intimidation on campus while denigrating the merit based foundations of our university. Faculty, staff, and students are afraid to express their views for fear of punishment and ostracization from the Administration, faculty, and peers.
The damage we have seen inflicted upon Cornell’s reputation and academic standing by the current Administration grieves me and necessitates a truly comprehensive shift in leadership and priorities to put Cornell back on the path towards academic excellence. As my fellow alumni have witnessed, accountability is needed to bring a renewed focus on academic achievement. With the help of the new Ivy Excellence Initiative (a university reform movement recently established by the Common Sense Society), wide dissemination of this letter is enabling me to share my recommendations and opinions with my fellow Cornellians and the broader world. Many trustees, alumni, and donors have been on the sidelines for too long, frustrated by what they have seen happen at Cornell but unsure of how to get involved. I ask all Cornellians to join me in calling for new leadership and a roll back of the DEI dogma and monoculture now dominating Cornell.
President Pollack may signal a shift away from DEI, but the damage is done and she deserves to be relieved of her duties as were the Presidents of Harvard and Penn. During her tenure, President Pollack has strongly prioritized Cornell’s ill-fated DEI policy thrust. DEI should never have been allowed to corrupt an institution that earned its prestige for exemplary academics based on merit. Cornell desperately needs a cultural shift back to these bedrock principles. Due to the current policies of Cornell’s administration, Cornell is now one of the only four U.S. universities (Cornell, Harvard, Penn, and MIT) being investigated by two Committees of the U.S. Congress and by the U.S. Department Of Education for discrimination, intolerance, and antisemitism on their campuses. No alumnus, student, or faculty member should accept Cornell‘s being in this shameful position. We need new leadership to correct these intolerable circumstances and to redeem Cornell’s legacy and honor as soon as possible.
Cornell deserves better. Every Ivy League university deserves better. This much-needed reform can be implemented at Cornell—and be an example to the Ivy League and to other leading U.S. universities. Let us get on with what Cornell must now do.
Respectfully Yours,
Jon A. Lindseth
Member Cornell Board of Trustees (Emeritus),
Counselor to the President,
Cornell Alumnus and Donor.
DONATE
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to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
It’s a strong and well-written letter. We’ll have to hear how support it has at the board.
But I suggest you have a bigger problem at Cornell — culture.
Even if Mr. Lindseth’s call were to be adopted by the Board, and even if one could root out most/all of the DEI staffers, you still have the faculty and students, many of whom believe fervent the critical race theory/DEI/socialism they’ve been taught. They buy it with all their souls, and we know that no amount of reason persuades people whose belief systems depend on their believing something that isn’t true.
My university (Chicago) has a different culture (the ‘Chicago principles’). Our last several presidents and provosts have led and nurtured it. I’ve dealt with our provost office and my own dean’s office; they are completely behind this culture. And that’s why we tolerate dissent without having the dissenters riot, or close classrooms, etc.
How do you propose to change Cornell’s culture long-term?
The students are easy to handle, start failing them. That will have two immediate benefits, one – remove the rotted wood from the tree as they will be forced out of the school because you know, not meeting academic standards to continue as a student. And two, those left will be better academic students. But they will need to start failing these intellectual pigmies HARD!
As for the staff, gonna need a lot of targeted firings to get rid of the shit lecturers. Actually be quite easy to identify them, just go through their social media posts. True academics, the ones committed to REAL education will be easy to spot just as those committed to not being academics will easily out themselves.
Thirdly, focus on true academic subjects. That alone should remove 90% of the diversity hires in itself 😂
If Congress can make the case of DEI being the root of the chaos and partisan divisions directed by those who are hired by the Trustees and put in to leadership roles at Cornell, the same who can be charged and held accountable for allowing the demonstrations of hate and threats to flourish to the point we all have now seen the back side and damages which they caused in all our Universities.
We can hope this is a start of Accountability by imposing the withholding of Federal Funding and/or underwriting student grant/loan funding for each monitored College/University.
When it was right to step in an integrate all schools in the ’50’s and ending with Brown vs. .Bd. of Ed. in ’68, it was a result of actions by our Congress and the SCOTUS. We now need something similar and place Federal monitoring agents into all those institutions of learning to bring the same type of oversite on the level and applications of their current use of DEI policies which are preventing equal educational opportunities and outcomes for all students.
Remove Kraig Kayser as well.
Require everybody at Cornell, students and professors and administrators, to pass the U.S. Citizenship Test. If they do not know about basic liberties, they do not belong at Cornell.
Here is an open link to the entire article in today’s Wall Street Journal.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/is-cornell-next-schools-wealthy-donors-call-for-presidents-ouster-13ab9c4d?st=jwk8rucmzeffmp9&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink
They can all answer the Citizenship Test. They know how to pass tests and know all the stuff most people know and a lot most people don’t know. They are at Cornell.
These people don’t act wrong out of ignorance. They act wrong because they hate us and are driving for the win.
Good contrast.
We’re getting “universities” that have transitioned to funded by particular outside programs to promote particular agenda. My particular semi-alma mater drove out the President who advanced them about 5 points in academic ranking during his tenure, but not the agenda.
That current kerfufffles have me wondering why have universities? Why wold we who aren’t in them, support them? So here’s a straw man take on why have universities:
I think that covers all the useful uses — research, curation, teaching, & students, while excluding borrowed uses — indoctrination, ideological screening, credential stamping, and caste capture. I think “nexus” separates what uniquely lets universities do their unique thing, while leaving out incidentals. I think this captures that we sustain universities for our benefit, not theirs.
I think that offers a n alternative. along with pointing out problems.
Cornell, Harvard, LA Times, CNN, CDC, J6 committee, FBI, Democratic Socialists of America.
Gradually, and then suddenly.
Pardon me while I smoke some of this pulverized Berlin Wall mortar.
I love the flashbacks I get.
Higher ed is going through it’s own doom loop.
Alienate white male applicants and many white female applicants.
Alienated applicants find prosperous careers w/out higher ed.
Later become leaders who do no value candidates with higher ed.
Higher ed —- dead.
The economics of it are crazy.
Choice 1: Spend huge amounts of money to get degree that mostly allows for lame office job with mediocre pay.
Choice 2: Spend little money to get training needed to make lots of money and be your own boss.
Gee….lemme pick.
This is a start, but, the problem is that the “DEI,” “social justice” and general Leftist/Dhimmi-crat cultural, intellectual and moral rot go far beyond one or two school administrators, and, are deeply entrenched in faculty, administration and course curricula.
This cancerous rot needs to be torn from the foundation, up. That means hiring more professors and administrators who aren’t card-carrying Leftists/Dhimmi-crats. It means excising Leftist propaganda, departments and courses from the academic offerings. At a minimum.
Great ideas, but I suspect there would be bloodshed if they were implemented.
That’s the problem, when you’re dealing with obnoxiously goose-stepping, brownshirted, Maoist/Islamofascist cultists and fanatics, such as contemporary Dhimmi-crats have become. There is no reasoning with these people. They are beyond rationality, objectivity and compromise.
Maybe, but if dei continues, we won’t have a functioning republic in short order.
This is the penultimate issue of the 21st century. Our government education cabal, forced by socialist loving teacher’s unions, have been given free reign to infect minds from kindergarten on. We’ve reached the pinnacle of idiocy with companies and elite universities openly admit they will openly turn away qualified applicants, where merit should be the sole qualification measure, for skin color. I don’t care about the race of a commercial pilot or medical doctor if they meet objective standards for their roles.
Republic Shmrepublic I’m not so abstract. The assholes are winning and we have to make them lose. It’s actually pretty simple.
Yes and we need not to be deterred. That’s what the left does, they are more aggressive. This time they need to be shocked at the aggressiveness they are facing. Otherwise, try to defund and wind down the institutions — very hard to do, the left will frustrate that in 100 ways and they know what they’re doing — or give up totally.
I like that … “Viewpoint Diversity”.
Always thought the campus was going to implode. Seems like there was nothing else going on but whiny little children demonstrating all over on my visit there.
The whiny little children punch above their weight.
Maybe, but if dei continues, we won’t have a functioning republic in short order.
This is the penultimate issue of the 21st century. Our government education cabal, forced by socialist loving teacher’s unions, have been given free reign to infect minds from kindergarten on. We’ve reached the pinnacle of idiocy with companies and elite universities openly admit they will openly turn away qualified applicants, where merit should be the sole qualification measure, for skin color. I don’t care about the race of a commercial pilot or medical doctor if they meet objective standards for their roles.
Two thoughts:
First, it’s not just “groupthink,” “moral rot,” and diversity, Cornell has become dangerous and unsafe for a great many students. That is foolish, irresponsible, impermissible and outright childish. Sooner or later there will be injury, or worse, and all that comes with it.
Second, Pollack, Kotlikoff, the DEI ‘administration’ and a professor or two here and there are not the only ones who should be removed, Cornell needs to clean house on its board of trustees. Trustees, regents, “corporations,” directors – call them what you will – in education and in the corporate and foundation worlds need to be overhauled. These silent and largely anonymous people have been tolerating and directing these things for years and getting away with it. Cornell’s board has reacted to the situation exactly as they did at Harvard and Penn. Oberlin. Yale. Disney. Comcast’. The list is endless and they all need to be fixed. FWIW, Pollack is a director at IBM. (Frankly, it also includes a great many in government at all levels as well.) The country needs a house cleaning and it needs to get on with it very soon.
Jon A. Lindseth must have been sleeping for the last 55 years. The building takeovers and subsequent capitulation by the Cornell faculty senate in 1969 was the beginning of a long downward slope. When was the core curriculum in Western Civilization eliminated? The vast majority of current graduates couldn’t define Western Civilization if their lives depended on it.
Between the tenured leftist faculty members and the “by any means necessary” student activists, I don’t see how it is possible for Cornell to be restored.
I was there when Carpenter engineering library was taken over by activists in 1971 or 1972 to protest Dow Chemical (napalm manufacturer) interviewing on campus. The library was held hostage for a week, and there was NO punishment for the activists.
There will be no change in command at Cornell. No change in DEI policies. I sense it. The board will give this lip service. I wonder if Pollock plagiarized much back in the day:)?
Probably not. She was in Computer Science before Chat GPT could write stuff for you.
This was going on back when I was in academia … some 30 odd years ago. Even back then, it was clear that you could not find a more racist, insane discussion than to sit on the “deliberations” of a university hiring committee. It was crazy. And everyone knew about it – because it was just implementing university policy. This was true almost everywhere – everywhere that I had heard of or had friends at.
LOL. That’s awesome!
Cornell was thinking about forming a new committee … The Committee For the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (recommended to them by Claudine Gay during a visit to Cornell last year) but they decided to go with the “social justice/equitable” thing instead.
It’s nice that this Lindseth guy has finally popped his head out of the sand … but this junk has been going on – in the open – for a very long time.
Now we’re talking! That should be done across the board – the loss of tax-exempt status and the end of all federal funding – as a matter of sane federal policy. None of these schools are charitable entities of any sort. They are not even boons to society (because of the free money flowing to them). So many of them – including ALL of the Ivies, have been distinctly ANTI-AMERICAN for quite some time. It was only the deranged, dirty courts that declared these AMerica-hating institutions are entitled to taxpayer funds and special tax benefits from the country they hate and that they cite as the source of all evil in the world. The same courts that force taxpayers to pay for all sorts of benefits to illegals, who should not receive anything but an uncomfortable ride out of the country and a bill for heir cost to US.
Take the tax-exempt status and federal money away from the university system and all this marxist BS will stop in a second. marxists are not self-sustaining. They can only leech off of others. Stop the host and the marxism quickly dies.
Does it bother anyone else when they read the phrase, “George Floyd’s murder”?
That was Fox writing that BS. Lindseth wrote “George Floyd tragedy” … which made me assume that he was probably a good bit of the problem, himself, though it was a bit ambiguous as to his intended meaning. It didn’t sound very good, though.
Of course, he was a trustee all these years and saw all this stuff going on and seemed to be pretty happy with it all up until just now.
“Tragedy” strikes me as fair. A man OD’d, a police officer has been unjustly imprisoned, cities burned as a result of a false narrative, etc. It all seems “tragic” to me, as it was all negative and avoidable and/or unnecessary.
George should be at the absolute bottom of the sympathy list there.
His death precipitated the events. It’s listed first because everything related to the episode flows from it, and not the other way around.
Didn’t catch that, but yeah, it’s surrender to say that.
The movement to correct the abuses at Big Education is gaining momentum. Let’s hope to spreads to all academic institutions large and small.
One approach from the outside is attack the funding. IMO that’s how the reform ultimately gets accomplished.
We have too many people going to college, many who take out huge debt for frankly worthless credentials. If some Parents or the Student themselves wants to attend largely for the ‘college experience’ majoring in a non STEM field or non core liberal arts major such as History that should be entirely on their own dime. Restrict Federal funding to support of those academic programs and deny it to X studies.
Likewise States can restructure their public colleges by casting all the non core academic/non STEM programs into a separate entity within the university. By separate I mean separate financially. Let the woke lefty billionaires woke alumni and others fully fund the operation of this department. The only shared resource would be the College President. Let them build the physical plant, pay the salaries and benefits of the staff for the X studies department. This gets taxpayers both Federal and State off the hook of supporting Cray Cray programs.
“Restrict Federal funding to support of those academic programs and deny it to X studies.”
Yes. If government is going to lend money (and not demand that it all be paid back), the least it could do is have that money go to the production of people with skills that are strategically important to the economy and the nation’s defense. This way, value comes back to the public for its expense.
Students also should be dismissed if they cannot meet high academic standards or if they prefer to become activists instead of educated.
Don’t have to discriminate based on field. Just require banks to do 10 or 20 percent of the underwriting. If the student can’t get a bank willing to be on the hook, based on grades / SAT / field etc. then no federal based loans.
So an engineering student with a B- might get funded but an American Studies (far leftist stuff) student with A- might not, because the bank doesn’t see the earning potential in the latter.
One element that I find most troubling about what’s happened on colleges (and what hasn’t happened on colleges) post 10/7 is that there are very few, if any, billionaire donors who are speaking out who aren’t Jewish themselves. That’s not good. I believe Lindseth is Jewish, but I’m not certain.
Where are the patrician or Catholic or secular humanist mega-donors speaking up about the institutional rot at some of our most ‘prestigious’ universities?
You’ll have to wait until secular humanists (not likely) or Catholics (just wait) get singled out for oppression at these institutions. Sorry, it’s just how we tree apes play the game.
He’ll, the Uber rich, like the WEF, want dei to succeed in dumbing down students. The schools are interested primarily in fleecing taxpayers and swelling their “endowments”. It is the schools that should be providing loans to students, not taxpayers.
My God, is it a requirement that the most prestigious universities be headed by repulsive shrews?
Are there no, you know, like, male-identifying men qualified to be hired for these top-executive university positions?
Perhaps not enough qualified men are interested at present. Being both smart and rational-thinking, it’s possible many see the D-E-I-B-S for the career-killing quicksand it is.
The billionaires are the tip, albeit a large tip, of the iceberg. I attended a well known liberal arts college which had been receiving several thousands a year in annual gifts from me and was slated to receive 1/3 of my estate. Which isn’t in the billions but is more than a pittance.. Several years ago, when the college gave $50,000 to BLM, I changed my will and reduced my annual gifts to a token of $25. I know several fellow graduates who have made similar decisions. The point is that none of us has made a stink or even publicly stated our dissatisfaction. We just walked away. I’m sure that’s happening to other colleges and universities. They deserve it. And worse.
Oberlin no longer announces the annual contributions (at least that I have been able to find) because I suspect that the significant decrease might inspire others to investigate why, only to discover the rot that we have known about for some time. The sin of ommission, I guess.
I can’t help but think that all this DIE garbage didn’t start yesterday.
What the hell was this guy doing when he was a trustee? When he was piling money on the folks implementing it?
Oh, that’s right, he was cheering it on.
The only reason we’re seeing this now is that it must have bitten him in some way.
“…it must have bitten him in some way.”
There’s speculation above that Lindseth is Jewish. If that’s accurate, then it was likely the sudden rise in the amplitude and frequency of anti-Semitism post 10/7. Everyone with any sense knows that campus lefties have always had this streak, but it’s been publicly exposed in the most extreme manner (vocal, very visible support for some of the most heinous atrocities to have occurred in modern times) that it could no longer be ignored.
Cornell’s administration and culture are in dire need of an enema.
The cleansing needs to be complete or, as with cancer and roaches, a failure to eliminate it all will just lead to a return in fairly short order.
It appears that college top decision makers have been wrongfully advised by their legal counsel, that embracing DEI/CRT will give them legal protection in the advent they get accused of racism by disgruntled students or teachers.
That would just be bad legal advice. Embracing DEI/CRT is massive legal liability for employers. College trustees need to get new legal advice and learn to become anti-fragile.
Big donors have every right to be concerned their donations aren’t being misused in way that disturbs them.
I wonder where their head of Legal was before Cornell? Hopefully they never did anything ill-advised there. 😉
Obviously your comment (and emoji) showed sarcasm because most of us know full well where Cornell’s current general Counsel came from and what she did at Oberlin before being hired by Martha.
Great Great Letter that had to be done. I’m nauseated by the stench coming from Cornell. It must be enforced because any common sense individual can see DEI is racist and poison to the core. After what they tried to do to Bill Jacobson for speaking the truth, I’ve had nothing but animosity toward Cornell and its administration. Unbelievable for this to happen. True leaders would have stepped up immediately and yet Cornell instead acted with a rabid thirst to bring him down. These people are far from being considered leaders and those and all that follow them have to go. Students are sponges and what they are absorbing from the administration is toxic to them and everyone else they happen to interact with in their future careers. It will take its toll. I have a 40th reunion coming up and I’m not a bit interested in stepping on campus.
I had my 65th reunion last year and refused to go.
You could go a organize the alumni against DEI.
A related problem is the University’s accepting funding from foreign governments, such as Qatar and China, to fund specific programs that portray those countries and their values in a positive light and to double down on the false DEI, “social justice,” and anti-American narratives. This paid-for advocacy is wholly inconsistent with the concepts of academic freedom to search for truth, freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, etc. A massive overhaul is indeed called for!
It’s just like paying the big bucks for 1970s cable because it’s “ad-free,” and then two years later, they start running ads.
Higher education is a classic bubble that has been busily stretching to its bursting point. Some final trigger will initiate the collapse, and there’s a good possibility that the recent massive refusal by millions to repay student loan debt will be that tipping point. The end will be swift for those without substantial endowments, and agonizingly slow for those who do have them. Grab some popcorn, because this should be fascinating to watch.
While they are at it, lets chip away at the administration bloat. Reducing this would certainly help all students and prospective students.
Pollack needs to stand down and be replaced with person who isn’t so polarizing. The school needs to move on.
Cornell alum here. Get rid of them all and start anew. Past few years, many alumni in my area have dropped out of Cornell alumni events, removed Cornell from their estate planning, and minimize mention of their alma mater. This will hit Cornell’s coffers. It has certainly affected the reputation. I would not hire someone from Cornell. I stress my graduate school and rarely mention my connection to Cornell.
Sadly, DEI will not die easily at Cornell. The Board of trustees Chairman, Kraig Kayser, was in charge of DEI at Weill Cornell. All Cornell’s living and deceased donors aside from Lindseth were/are Leftists who agreed with DEI: Chuck Feeney, Sandy Weill, Howard Milstein, and the list goes on! Peter Nolan may be the only major donor who would, could and SHOULD speak out, because he does NOT agree with DEI from everything I know about him. But some influential people love accolades more than making a difference.