By Former Cornell Faculty Member
Cornell University’s Pollack / Kotlikoff administration came to an inglorious end in June 2024 as a consequence of longstanding misdirection of the university and the resulting train wreck that has unfolded before the eyes of all Cornellians over the past few years. Under President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff, the university abandoned its core commitment to “academic excellence” – and, instead, made political activism, ideological dogma, woke discrimination, and social justice its primary mission.
“America’s elite universities have gone from being centers of excellence to institutions pushing political agendas.” – Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Representative of what has occurred at other Ivy League schools, the Pollack / Kotlikoff led re purposing of the university has degraded its educational standing, created a divisive campus
environment, incited inter-identity hatred, encouraged an aggressive Cancel Culture on campus, and driven top students, faculty, and employers away from Cornell. Moreover, under this administration, Cornell became the only major American university subjected to four (4) different US Federal investigations related to foreign financial influence and DEI-driven discrimination and antisemitism on campus. All this has been worsened by whistleblower reports from members of the Cornell Community exposing unlawful hiring practices broadly implemented on campus whose aim is to disadvantage and/or disqualify people belonging to disfavored identity groups or holding personal views not conforming to current university ideological mandates.
The Pollack / Kotlikoff administration has progressively moved the university toward official policies and positions that are increasingly narrow and political in character — and which do not reflect the viewpoint diversity and values of US society as a whole. Such an environment is not only anathema to Cornell’s historical educational mission but also has made Cornell unable to properly address the diverse society which it is intended to serve. All the above factors have contributed to the sudden termination of the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration. This sad Cornell saga of university mismanagement holds important lessons which the Cornell Board of Trustees and other Ivy University leaders must heed going forward.
Cornell Humanities Overtaken
By Woke Radicalism
The problems at Cornell began years ago when the increasingly politicized humanities and social sciences disciplines became captive to an anti-American “grievance culture” which falsely teaches students that the US founding, history, culture, economy, and institutions (including Cornell itself) have always aimed to perpetuate “social injustice” and oppress our nation’s citizenry. The growing influence of grievance studies departments and curricula (e.g. women’s studies, LGBTQ studies, Latino studies, American studies, Black studies, Islamic studies, fat-o-phobia studies (oppression of fat people), Critical Race Theory, DEI certificate programs, etc) have divided Cornell into opposing identity camps vying for “most oppressed” status on campus --- and the discriminatory advantages such status brings to identity groups deemed so afflicted. In deference to Cornell’s culture of affliction, the English Department has been renamed in a bow to anti-Colonialization, the meaning and use of both age-old and newly invented pronouns are now contorted to conform to revised definitions of gender, and the campus community is trained to become hypersensitive to newly discovered “microaggressions”. A long-tenured professor of Cornell’s once renowned History Department declares that “Cornell doesn’t teach history anymore. We now teach cultural anthropology” --- while today’s History faculty professes “exhilaration” to justify the murder of innocent Israelis by declaring that such carnage is simply resistance against oppression.
With Cornell’s humanities and social science faculties overtaken by this woke ideology, victim culture, and curricular corrosion, adherence to such extreme viewpoints became mandatory in making new Cornell faculty hires. Thus, under Pollack and Kotlikoff, an intolerant ideological monoculture has come to dominate campus life, with the Cornell Daily Sun reporting that 99.5% of university faculty and staff now share a narrowly prescribed political / social philosophy --- and where viewpoint diversity is no longer tolerated. The resulting intolerance and accompanying ideological dogma has made today’s university nearly unrecognizable to its longtime donors and dedicated alumni.
A Focus On Student Activism
Rather Than Scholarship
As confirmed by the US Supreme Court in 2023, student admissions departments at Cornell and other top schools have used unlawful “affirmative action” methods to admit underqualified applicants who were not well prepared to take advantage of the university’s educational resources. Once at Cornell, such “marginalized students” have been taught about the many ways the US has oppressed them and how prioritizing political action in the classroom can reverse such perceived injustices. Thus, Cornell has become focused on admitting and training up “political activists” and “social justice warriors” rather than producing exemplary students, scholars, and future professionals.
As might be expected, underqualified students often do not perform well academically and earn weak grades. Given this, Presidentt Pollack determined that Cornell is guilty of maintaining an educational system that oppresses students via unjust and unreasonable academic standards. So what is Cornell’s response? Drop the SAT test in admissions, terminate the Dean’s List, implement mandatory anti racism courses for all students, de-program “white behavior” and attitudes, and prioritize political activism before scholarship in selecting and teaching students. Elite universities increasingly consider basic concepts such as academic standards, proper grammar, punctuality, rational thinking, and professional dress as forms of racial oppression. To cash in on the grievance craze, Cornell has even created a new Professional DEI Training Program which now issues certificates in political activism and social justice. The result is clear : a re-purposing of the Cornell mission and the steady degradation of Cornell’s educational excellence.
Cornell In DEI Overdrive : As Merit Abandoned,
Woke Ideology Pushes Into STEM Fields
With the woke takeover of the humanities and social sciences completed, the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration set its sights on Cornell’s highly regarded STEM fields which represented a last stronghold for serious academics and scholastic merit. This focus on STEM was necessary to fully convert the university to grievance ideology – especially since students at Cornell and across the nation are now leaving the woke humanities and social sciences in droves. Subsumed by DEI dogma, the Cornell humanities and social sciences departments produced few students having strong skills to enter the workplace (apart from a career in grievance politics and social activism), so students are running away from these fields.
Therefore, to ensure full social justice indoctrination, the Pollack Administration implemented campus wide DEI Statement policies which require new faculty (including for STEM fields) to profess “woke loyalty oaths” in order to get a job or promotion. Cornell whistleblower reports have reported how the Pollack / Kotlikoff admin used such DEI Statements to unlawfully discriminate against qualified STEM faculty candidates. Cornell ignored major US educational non-profit organizations which urged the university to drop such DEI litmus tests in hiring. Further to this, additional whistleblower reports indicate that Cornell DEI practices have violated US Civil Rights and Employment Law by disqualifying 99% of qualified STEM faculty applicants due to their disfavored race and/or gender characteristics. Related to a lawsuit recently brought against Northwestern University, Cornell’s discriminatory practices led to the hiring of STEM faculty having greatly inferior credentials compared to far more qualified applicants who were rejected for “wrong identity” reasons. Such practices have put Cornell on a trajectory that is degrading its STEM departments and educational standing.
Cornell Forgets Its Mission :
Discrimination & Political Activism Displaces
Equality, Merit & Academic Excellence
All the above described conditions at Cornell have been advanced by the policies of the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration and its decision to redirect Cornell away from its founding academic mission of “Any Person… Any Study” to a newly fashioned ambition to champion social justice and DEI-driven political activism. “Any person” means that every person is to be treated equally and none shall be disadvantaged due to race, religion, gender, or ethnicity. “Any study” means a focus on scholastic excellence in all academic fields of study. Unfortunately, since DEI conflicts with the educational principles of both “equality” and “excellence”, the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration has pointed Cornell away from its founding mission by purposefully practicing rampant discrimination (rather than fair and equal treatment) and by focusing on political action (rather than scholarly rigor) as primary objectives. Indeed, Martha Pollack has publicly stated that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals are now as important as free expression and academic freedom at Cornell. This is a shocking statement coming from a Cornell President --- especially since it is clear that, in practice, “Equity” is the implementation of blatant discrimination which arbitrarily favors certain demographic groups over others in university admissions, hiring, professional development, and promotions.
Nevertheless, in 2020, Ms. Pollack urged all members of the Cornell Community (faculty, students, staff and alumni) to read and embrace the political ideas of Ibram X. Kendi as set forth in his book entitled “How To Be An Antiracist”. In this Pollack assigned reading, Kendi paints a DEI picture of Cornell and our nation as comprised of only “oppressors” and the “oppressed”, where “Equity” is attained as follows:
“The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” – Ibram X. Kendi / DEI Political Radical & Author
After endorsing such horrific thinking and with 88% of Cornell students reporting DEI-driven self censorship on campus and Cornell’s FIRE ranking on free expression plummeting, Martha Pollack appalled Cornellians by declaring this :
Cornell is as dedicated to DEI as it is to free expression. – Martha Pollack / President of Cornell University
Under Pollack / Kotlikoff leadership, Cornell has implemented the Kendi ideology by practicing Equity driven discrimination against designated oppressor groups within the Cornell Community – in hiring, in admissions, and against non-conforming faculty (see such faculty discrimination at work in Arts & Sciences and the Law School).
In contrast to these Cornell practices, US employers are now recognizing that ”Equity” initiatives equate to nothing more than unlawful discrimination which must be stopped. The university has been led down the wrong path for years. Cornell must now follow the direction of US employers – and immediately restore basic merit-based fairness in hiring and admissions.
October 7 Exposes Campus Discrimination & Hate
The suppressive DEI-driven environment created at Cornell laid the foundation for the major embarrassments suffered by the university in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks --- with faculty and students publicly promoting pro-Hamas, anti-American ideologies and focusing hatred on Jewish students. President Pollack dismayed the Cornell Community by issuing an obviously biased university statement which appeased pro-Hamas students while completely failing to properly respond to the events of Oct 7 and their impacts on the Cornell Community. How could President Pollack possibly issue such a heartless and distorted official Cornell statement in October 2023? Because the Hamas horrors fit the pre-existing DEI “oppressor” vs. “oppressed” identitarian narrative which the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration had long promulgated. As a consequence, Cornell students gave US Congressional testimony describing the appalling conditions on campus that were fostered by the Pollack / Kotlikoff regime.
The problem, of course, is that Cornell has become wholly captive to a grievance culture narrative which was protected and promoted under Pollack / Kotlikoff leadership -- even if the plain facts of Oct 7 directly refute such false storyline. In the Pollack mindset, the oppressed vs. oppressor roles were already set. So, the President’s October 2023 statement was crafted to advance the woke narrative regardless of the plain reality. Similarly, the George Floyd events of 2020 were interpreted by Pollack to fit this same biased narrative. Regardless of the facts, a pre-determined “oppressed” identity was the injured party in the Floyd case. Therefore, Pres. Pollack’s June 2020 official statement on George Floyd had a completely different tone and purpose regrading sympathy for victims than was the case in the Pollack statement after October 7. A pre-determined DEI narrative, rather than the facts, dictate the Cornell position under Pollack and Kotlikoff.
The consequence is this : a) when a single convicted felon having a “favored identity” is accidentally killed when high on drugs and resisting arrest, Pollack decries the terrible injustice, the brokenness of the United States, and announces major changes to Cornell’s policies and purposes; but b) when over 1100 innocent Jewish men, women, and children of a “disfavored identity” are killed with horrific cruelty, Pollack notes nothing about the Jewish victims, the heinousness of the terrorist attack, or the perpetrators of such injustice in this much greater tragedy. And why ? Simply because Pollack sees her mission as promulgating a distorted, pre-set DEI political agenda which her administration had firmly established on campus. The hypocrisy is rife.
Cornell’s Four US Federal Investigations
The above posture of the university was met with outrage among both Cornellians and America at large. Along with Harvard, MIT, and UPenn, Cornell recently became one of just four US universities for which three (3) US Federal Investigations (i.e. the US Department of Education, the House Education Committee, and the House Ways and Means Committee) were launched to examine discrimination and antisemitism on campus. Of course, promotion of anti-Israel and antisemitic activities on campus is both anti-American and supportive of brutal theocratic Middle East dictatorships.
Related to this, Cornell also suffers the ignominy of accepting huge unreported donations from authoritarian Arab states which are closely connected to Hamas and are home to the Hamas international headquarters. Cornell is the single largest recipient of Arab state funding -- having received far greater financial support from such authoritarian regimes than any other university in the US. This fact is a shocking revelation to most every Cornellian. These unreported donations to Cornell have triggered a fourth investigation launched by the FBI regarding these donations from foreign governments. Of course, Cornellians are now questioning the role such huge donations from Israel’s opponents have in the biased DEI “oppressor vs oppressed” ideologies displayed on campus in the aftermath of Oct 7. All of these US Federal investigations were launched in response to events at Cornell under the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration – and have brought great embarrassment and dishonor to Cornell.
Cornell Leadership Ignores Alumni & Outside World :
University Becomes Captive To Insular Ignorance
The one-sided political activism, ideological dogma, and viewpoint intolerance have been building on campus for years under the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration. The DEI takeover of Cornell stands at the center of all that’s gone wrong under the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration. The unhealthy conditions which spawned the ugliness and discrimination after Oct 7 have been festering for years. Rather than take actions to reverse the growing grievance culture and inter-identity hostilities on campus, the Pollack / Kotlikoff team implemented many DEI-driven policies and made blatantly biased statements which fueled the flames of hatred at Cornell.
In recent years, academic freedom and free speech organizations such as the American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA), the Foundation for Individual Rights in Express (FIRE), Heterodox Academy (HxA), and Campus Reform issued many warnings to Cornell leadership – urging that a course correction be implemented by the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration. In addition, numerous international media outlets reported extensively on alumni and faculty calls for leadership change and campus reforms aimed at returning Cornell to political neutrality and its proper educational mission. These leading media sources include :
The Wall Street Journal New York Post New York Times China Daily The Washington Post The Jerusalem Post Cornell Daily Sun CBS News The Cornell Review Washington Examiner The College Fix Bloomberg
The Washington Times Daily Mail News Forward Fox News NewsMax JTA Spectrum News CTV CNY Central National Review WBGN The National Desk Campus Reform Jewish News Service The Hill Fox Business Daily Wire The Daily Caller Times Of Israel Newsweek
Further to this, serious concerns have been expressed directly to the administration and the Board of Trustees by thousands of Cornell alumni, faculty, and students. These concerns were memorialized in myriad written communications and formal recommendations submitted to Cornell leadership over a 3- year period beginning in August 2021.
Despite these many warnings and recommendations, the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration resisted calls for policy reforms on campus. In particular, Cornell leadership has chosen not to respond to these formal recommendations :
CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations
To Cornell University
Given the Pollack/ Kotlikoff non-response to recommendations for necessary reforms, it should be no surprise that events have unfolded on campus which brought the end of the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration. Seeing Cornell leadership’s unwillingness to correct course, a major Cornell donor made public appeals for the termination of the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration via an open letter to the Cornell Board of Trustees on January 22, 2024 :
Lindseth Letter To Cornell University
Timely response by Cornell leadership could have avoided the deteriorating conditions on campus and perhaps helped Martha Pollack salvage her Presidency :
CFSA Statement On The Termination
Of The Pollack Presidency
With its refusal to deal with a university culture obviously gone awry, the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration attempted to maintain its insularity by avoiding accountability for the continued growth of major problems on campus. Despite this, the Lindseth Letter encouraged thousands of rank-and file alumni as well as major donors to bring pressure on the Board of Trustees to make needed leadership changes at Cornell. As 2024 progressed, the Cornell Board of Trustees received increasing calls for corrective action and for a change in university leadership which ultimately could not be resisted.
A Kotlikoff Presidency Is No Answer
In attempts to save itself, the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration orchestrated “votes of confidence” by the Board of Trustees and the Student Assembly in early 2024 – but to no avail. The growing pressure for reform resulted in the university’s capitulation to the Lindseth Letter demands by announcing termination of the Pollack Presidency on May 9, 2024. However, rather than terminating both Pollack and Kotlikoff, the Trustee Board announced that, to replace Martha Pollack, Michael Kotlikoff would move from his position as Provost to the role of President of Cornell University for a 2-year interim period until a longer-term Cornell President can be found.
It is very important that the duration of a Kotlikoff Presidency (commenced on July 1, 2024) be as short as possible, As Provost, Mr. Kotlikoff was co-author and chief enabler for many of the harmful policies and practices that have been introduced at Cornell in recent years. In particular, whistleblower accounts report that Mr. Kotlikoff’s Office of the Provost implemented discriminatory faculty and staff hiring policies which not only degraded the academic caliber of Cornell but also appear to directly violate US employment law. Additional CFSA whistleblower reports on unlawful hiring practices based on race and gender discrimination implemented by the Provost’s office will soon be disclosed.
These whistleblower accounts have been reported to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (US EEOC). Discussions with US EEOC leadership indicate that Cornell faculty hiring practices overseen by the Office of the Provost violate US laws which prohibit such discrimination based on race and/or gender in employment. It is very difficult to believe that Cornell leadership was not aware of the unlawfulness of such discriminatory university hiring practices. Therefore, rather than expose and reform harmful university policies, the new President Kotlikoff may have strong reasons to cover up and/or ignore the employment practices he oversaw which could put Cornell in serious legal jeopardy. Based on this track record, Mr. Kotlikoff is a far cry from the “presidential timber” which Cornell University now so desperately needs. Thus, a new Cornell President must be found as soon as possible.
Actions The Board Of Trustees Must Now Take
Martha Pollack’s June 30, 2024 departure vacated the positions of both President and Provost at Cornell. The Board of Trustees has announced that a search for a new Provost is now underway and alumni and the Board must be vigilant to make sure that the “interim” Kotlikoff Presidency will be of short duration. If Cornell wishes to right the ship, the harmful anti-open inquiry, anti-merit policies of the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration must be revoked from campus as soon as possible – including the full departure of Mr. Kotlikoff from any leadership role at Cornell.
Major donors and alumni are now crafting formal recommendations which will urge the Board of Trustees to marshal the courage and resolve required to bring a new President and new Provost to Cornell who will make the major reforms to campus policy and culture which are now necessary.
This will not be an easy task. During the Pollack / Kotlikoff administration, extreme administrative bloat has gained a stranglehold on the Cornell campus. Media reports that there is now one administrator for every two students at Cornell. This wasteful bloat not only has driven tuition costs far out of reach for American families but also has entrenched a large cadre of professional political activists at Cornell. With faculty and students on campus now awash in woke ideology, DEI administrators, and GroupThink, the next Cornell President and Provost must be true reformers who are determined to cut back this administrative bloat as is necessary to restore open inquiry, academic freedom, viewpoint diversity, and free expression to Cornell.
Given the ideological monoculture now dominating campus, many faculty and students may push against a new Cornell President and Provost that work to bring constructive change. Therefore, new reform-minded Cornell leadership may be less than popular on campus. Unfortunately, with woke dogma now dominating campus, the outside force of dedicated alumni and key donors will be required to bolster Board of Trustee reform initiatives and to make the university accountable going forward.
At Harvard, there are concerns that the university’s last president was a “DEI Hire” who was neither qualified nor inclined to move Harvard in the right direction. Cornell cannot make such mistakes in choosing new leadership. The next Cornell President and Provost must NOT be DEI Hires --- but, instead, must be reform-minded leaders who possesses the background, vision, and fortitude to return a culture of academic freedom, viewpoint balance, and free expression to Cornell.
In addition, new individual Board members possessing strong commitments to open inquiry will be of great help. An election for new Alumni Trustees is set to take place in February 2025 – in which “pro open inquiry” alumni will be running as candidates. It is hoped that thousands of alumni help bring needed change to Cornell by voting for these reform-minded candidates.
Reasons For Hope
Under the Pollack / Kotlikoff regime, Cornell University has been on the wrong path for a number of years. An imbalanced and intolerant “woke monoculture” has been encouraged on campus which not only impairs open inquiry and free expression but also has eroded Cornell’s historical commitment to academic equality, scholastic merit, and educational excellence. Other Ivy League universities have experienced similar dysfunction. The bitter fruits of political monoculture and campus intolerance are now exposed for all the world to see.
However, the departure of Martha Pollack from Cornell and the roles played by CFSA, major news media, academic freedom organizations, donors, alumni, faculty and students to push the university to pursue new leadership is a huge accomplishment.
While current conditions on-campus remain discouraging and need major change, these unhappy circumstances provide fertile ground which can be cultivated to return the ethics and purpose of academic excellence to Cornell. It is time for accountability -- and the potential for meaningful reform now exists. All those who love our university are called to participate in the effort to return Cornell to its founding mission where “Any Person” will be treated with fairness and equality (fully free from identity
based discrimination) and where true and uncompromising excellence can be found in “Any Study”.
“I would found an institution where any person can
find instruction in any study.”
– Ezra Cornell / Cornell University Founded in 1865
CFSA Strategy To Return Open Inquiry To Cornell University
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