Urgent Communication to Cornell Leadership: For Emergency Cornell Trustee Meeting Now Scheduled for January 26, 2024 to Address:

January 22, 2024

Cornell in Crisis

Q: How to Save Cornell?

A: Cornell's Trustees Must Adopt the

"CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations"

Dear Pres. Pollack, Chairman Kayser & All Trustees:

Cornell is in serious trouble. Many alumni and faculty see an expanding “moral rot” at Cornell. The reputation and legacy of Cornell and other Ivy universities is now in “free fall”. The Cornell Board of Trustees is set to meet in NYC on Jan 25-27, 2024. The time for the Trustees to act to save Cornell is NOW.

The US Congress and US Dept of Education have recently announced Federal Investigations to examine claims of moral and educational failures permeating Cornell policies and practices which are hostile to Open Inquiry, Viewpoint Diversity, Free Expression, and Academic Freedom. On August 14, 2023, the Cornell Free Speech Alliance submitted the “CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations to Cornell University” to the Administration (strongly endorsed by America's leading organizations focused on university free speech and academic freedom) and requested that Cornell Leadership adopt these policies (including the Chicago Principles and Kalven Report) and meet with members of CFSA to discuss implementation on campus. If action had been taken on the CFSA Policy Recommendations, the operational and reputational chaos Cornell is now suffering would have been avoided. Unfortunately, thus far, Cornell Administration has failed to act on these recommendations and refused to respond to CFSA requests for engagement on these pressing matters. Subsequent to this failure to act, the following events have taken place:

• The Cornell Admin’s horrific response to the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel has exposed the gross inequality and unfairness the Cornell Admin has exercised in the enforcement of both free speech and political neutrality on campus—and has shown the linkage of this discrimination to Cornell’s harmful DEI policies and practices.

• The stark differences in the Cornell Admin’s handling of the the Oct 7 Hamas Massacres vs. the George Floyd tragedy (see Ref A and Ref B) was met with shock and dismay on the part of many thousands of Cornell Alumni. These emotional and reactionary University responses to the George Floyd tragedy set in motion the DEI disasters that are now being experienced on the Cornell campus.

• It is reported to CFSA that, shortly after George Floyd's May 2020 death, President Pollack made clear to the Cornell Board of Trustees the decision that "Cornell was going ALL-IN on DEI" under her Administration. This DEI takeover of Cornell has created myriad problems at the University - including the virulent antisemitism outbreak on campus in 2023-24.

• The resulting alumni outrage has caused Pres. Martha Pollack to repeatedly revise her statement on Oct 7 – but to no avail. Many in the Cornell Community see the signals sent by the University as opening the door to the outbursts of antisemitism that have erupted on campus over the past several months. Many alumni donors have now terminated their giving to Cornell because of their disgust over prevailing conditions on campus.

• As a consequence, Cornell has become one (1) of only four (4) universities (i.e. Cornell, Harvard, Penn, and MIT) which are the focus of investigations by the US House Committee on Education, the US House Ways & Means Committee, and the US Dept of Education to determine the drivers of rampant discrimination and antisemitism on campus. Recent events have made clear that the Administration's DEI policies have fueled an environment of bias, discrimination, intolerance, antisemitism, and violent threats among different ethnic and religious groups on campus. Thus, the Administration's DEI policies have brought outcomes which are exactly opposite of those advertised by DEI proponents.

• Attorneys leading the effort for the above US Government investigations of Cornell have connected with CFSA to gain insight and information about conditions on campus. The CFSA team is now engaged with these investigators to assist in their examination of the current Cornell Administration's programs and policies which have helped create the dangerous conditions now existing at the University - including last week's Cornell student declaration that "Zionists Must Die."

• With the above US Federal investigations, the DEI dogma and indoctrination now prevailing at Cornell represent a major threat to both the tax-exempt status and the federal funding Cornell now receives. Given the Administration's complicity in the current Cornell crisis, corrective policy actions must immediately be taken by the Cornell Board of Trustees to avoid further reputational damage and financial losses to the University.

• After Congressional testimony, the US Congress has demanded that the Presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT be fired. Thus far, two (2) of these three (3) Presidents (Harvard & Penn) have been removed from their positions and demands for the removal of the MIT President are still outstanding.

• Of the four universities (Cornell, Harvard, Penn, and MIT) now facing the most intense scrutiny by the US Congress and Dept of Education, only the Cornell President has thus far escaped a Congressional vote calling for her firing - simply because the Cornell President was the only one of the four Presidents who did not testify before Congress in early December 2023.

• In response to the ongoing tumult at Cornell, an emergency meeting of the University Board of Trustees has been scheduled for this week (Jan 25-27, 2024) in NYC. This meeting will focus on the crisis caused by the Cornell Administration’s disastrous political activism of recent years and the DEI-driven ravaging of campus harmony, inter-group tolerance, free expression, academic freedom, viewpoint diversity, and open inquiry on campus.

• CFSA has learned that a Trustee recommendation has been recently received by Chairman Kraig Kayser for the Board's removal of the current Cornell President from her leadership position. Therefore, Chairman Kayser is now considering a Trustee request for an Agenda Item discussion of such removal of the Cornell President and a new Presidential search at this week's Jan 25-27 Trustee meeting. It is very important for the Cornell Board of Trustees to now consider this recommendation.

• In addition to the university Presidential removals, demands for the firing of University Board Chairmen and Trustees are being made – with the Penn Chairman now removed.

• With US Federal Investigations of Cornell just now commencing, the University will soon be in the crosshairs of Congressional and Dept of Education investigators. This means that, regardless of action or inaction by the Cornell Board of Trustees, the jobs of the Cornell President, Chairman, and Trustees are on the line.

• Lawsuits are being filed at Ivy League universities and actions are underway to strip these schools of their college accreditation. US Federal funding for these universities are now being called into question. Cornell now risks that such actions will be taken against the University.

• Cornell faculty members are citing the disastrous impacts of the University’s DEI practices and calling for major reform of these “woke” policies which have spawned runaway antisemitism on campus. The problem: “Racialization of everything”.

• Through its ill-conceived DEI programming over the past several years, the current Administration has caused Cornell to be seen by the world as a “partisan political hack” rather than as a respected institution of higher learning. As CNN’s Fareed Zakaria reports, Cornell is now paying a heavy price for replacing its primary educational mission with a protracted "misadventure into politics". As a result of its wrong-headed DEI priorities, Cornell is "no longer seen as a bastion of excellence but as a partisan outpost".

• Leading university academic freedom advocates see Cornell’s web-based “Bias Reporting System” (“BRS”) as an unlawful and unconstitutional infringement on the civil rights of faculty and students. Cornell’s BRS is part of the “DEI apparatus” which creates an “informant culture” and “climate of fear” on campus. CFSA has filed an Amicus Brief to the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) which, if successful, will make Cornell’s use of BRS software systems unlawful on campus -- and constitute yet another major embarrassment for the dysfunctional DEI regime at Cornell. Thus, the US Supreme Court is welcoming advisement from CFSA while the Cornell Administration has been resistant to engage with CFSA on desperately needed policy reforms.

• Various Cornell faculty and staff “whistleblowers” have stepped forward to report to CFSA episodes of blatant racial and political discrimination in tenured faculty hiring, even in the pure sciences. To catalogue and illuminate the growing number of such “Cornell whistleblower” reports, CFSA is establishing a “whistleblower hotline” system at Cornell which will expose the DEI abuses now occurring routinely on campus.

• Notwithstanding all the above, President Pollack has publicly stated that she is as committed to advancing DEI as she is to protecting free expression at Cornell. With the great damage from DEI programming now manifestly evident on campus, this is absolutely the wrong message for a Cornell President to send today. It tells the world (including faculty, students, and alumni) that aggressive “political activism” has equal standing with Academic Freedom and Open Inquiry in Cornell University’s institutional mission. This message from Cornell leadership must be corrected and a renewed commitment to the priority of “education, research, and knowledge” must be communicated by Cornell leadership.

• Huge opposition to the current DEI direction of Cornell now exists among the University's Major Donors and Alumni. With the events unfolding after Oct 7, the University's repressive GroupThink and Monoculture will no longer restrain Major Donors and Alumni from speaking out. As with Harvard (Bill Ackman, Len Blavatnik, Leslie & Abigail Wexner, Jonathan Neman, others), Penn (Marc Rowan, Ronald Lauder, David Magerman, Ross Stevens, others), and Columbia (Leon Cooperman), Cornell Major Donors are now making similar calls for Pres. Martha Pollack's resignation along with demands for a clear change of course at the University.

• A large number of faculty and students also oppose current Cornell leadership and the direction of the University - which they feel is badly off track. With Major Donors speaking up, these Cornell faculty and students are being emboldened to come out from hiding and speak out regarding the travesties they see happening at Cornell today. Over 110 faculty have joined the CFSA cause and are the source for many very troubling reports regarding current conditions on campus.

• Despite being besieged with all these difficulties, the Cornell Admin continues to move in the wrong direction. Instead of rolling back its disastrous DEI policies, the Cornell Admin appears to be proceeding with creation of a Center for Racial Justice on campus in 2024 – which is sure to further worsen the malaise now engulfing the University. Trustee intervention seems the only means for making the major course correction now desperately needed at Cornell.

• Cornell is clearly in chaos. But, there is a means for Cornell Leadership to correct the current ill-fated path of the University: Adopt and implement the “CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations” at the Cornell Board of Trustees meeting on Jan 25-27, 2024

To further understand the horrendous conditions now prevailing at Cornell University, please view this video :

Prof. Peter Boghossian Interview : The State Of America’s Universities

Cornell is currently at a low point of its storied history. Many higher education leaders, academic freedom advocates, and thousands of alumni have voiced strong support for the CFSA Mission to “Save Cornell”. The time for the Trustees to act is now. The Administration is not inclined to reform itself or its destructive DEI policies and practices unless the Trustees exert the leadership and guidance necessary to bring change. We ask the Cornell Board of Trustees to adopt the “CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations” at the January 25-27, 2024 meeting in NYC. CFSA remains eager to engage with Cornell Leadership to commence the needed policy reforms at Cornell University. Please reach out to meet with the CFSA team as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

Cornell Free Speech Alliance

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