Cornell University has long been mired in controversies over the lack of intellectual diversity on its faculty and hostile free speech environment. In addition to controversial university policies, faculty members have allegedly sought to disrupt events, campaign against conservative faculty, target students for their opposing views, and remove of historical art. Cornell routinely falls near the bottom of free speech rankings. This history makes the current election of new trustees a major opportunity for alumni to seek reforms at the school. However, Cornell has been criticized for its extreme limits on candidates answering questions and its alleged favoritism shown to preferred candidates. Despite these limits, reformers are pushing alumni to vote before the February 28th deadline.
Cornell has long pointed to trustee elections as a way for graduates to have a real voice in the governance of their alma mater. However, the 2025 alumni trustee election has been criticized for what reformers view as a heavy thumb put on the scale in favor of “endorsed” or favored candidates of the administration.
There are long-standing rules at Cornell that prohibit any campaigning by alumni trustee candidates. While it may have been viewed at one time as a way of preserving decorum and focusing on individual qualifications, it creates a rather bizarre framing for one of the most important elections in the school’s history. Alumni want to address the host of incidents and controversies over the last decade, but candidates are sharply limited in their ability to reach out to such groups and engage in such discussions. This includes the university controlling what questions can be addressed by candidates.
Reformers also object that Cornell sent out a “volunteer toolkit” to a selective group of alumni that was viewed as a “get-out-the-vote” effort for administration-endorsed candidates. Yet, reformers are still tightly controlled in their own ability to campaign among like-minded alumni.
The Cornell Free Speech Alliance has been struggling with the university over these rules while pushing proposed reforms Lifting The Fog – Restoring Academic Freedom & Free Expression at Cornell University, as well as the candidacies of two CFSA members, Cindy Crawford and Ken Davis.
There is a concerning disconnect between the rules against campaigning and the use of “endorsed /unendorsed” alumni trustee candidate designations. Alumni-petitioned candidates (“unendorsed” by Cornell) can run, but only if they comply with the extreme limits imposed by the school.
Reportedly alumni trustee Andrea Van Schoick confirmed that the 28-member Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations (CATN), screens and endorses four candidates based on their qualifications and board priorities. The “Unendorsed” candidates can only be considered through the petition process.
One critic confirmed that the “Volunteer Leadership Communities” receiving the email included the Board of Trustees, the CATN, and various identity groups viewed as allies of CATN.
Reformers have laid out their grievances and objections of alumni in an effort to achieve greater balance at the school.
Yet, given the overwhelming ideological bent of the faculty, it is doubtful that major reforms can occur without an active and transformative Trustee board. Otherwise, Cornell will continue to reflect that same echo-chambered environment of other private universities.
The Cornell trustee election rules are hardly ideal for allowing a full debate over the history and controversies at this premier institution. Nevertheless, reformers are pushing alumni to vote, noting that only roughly 3,000 votes are needed to elect a trustee.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Years ago this old Alum (tuition when I started at Cornell was $1,200) learned the Golden Rule for voting for Alumni Trustees: Never, never vote for an “endorsed” candidate. It’s a simple extension of the Golden Rule for voting for Chicago Judges: Never, never vote “yes” for anyone on the ballot.
Cornell’s problem is that its motto is unwieldy. Whereas Harvard simply maintains its “Veritas,” Cornell students must shout 14 times as many words at the sheep and chickens of upstate New York: “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study!”
I tried that once and the sheep just looked at me a while, then said, “Well why the f**k don’t you then?”
I was nonplussed.
Seriously: stop funding them, realizing you are lighting dollars on fire at this point (a modern ‘degree’, I don’t care which school – ‘reputation’ means zero in 2025 – is basically a receipt that shows you paid, and nothing else, like buying tchotchkes at Wal-Mart or from Temu, and then bragging like you just bought a Jaguar) stop sending your kids, and let’s reform tenure.
Short of razing our modern university system to the very ground in a blitzkrieg, I don’t know where else we start. Let the wealthy alumni float the bill if they still believe in these institutions to this extent, fully realizing the ‘connections’ that were formerly made there to bestow free rides to graduates are dead and buried. ‘Ivy League’ is kind of like saying in 2025 what ‘handicapped’ was in 1990 – nobody with a shred of sense is going to hire these people in any meaningful capacity, and I guess if you are fine with your kids living at home until you die, contributing literally nothing to society other than their angst and grievances because you were a s****y parent to begin with, that’s fine (hint: it is not fine for the rest of us).
It is a bad, pants down around the ankles, joke bested only by the actual ‘graduates’ of these tremendously expensive daycare centers when the rubber meets the road.
It seems that the Ivy League schools: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University have had their day in the limelight of post WWII.
Honestly their productivity as Research Institutions and Advanced Arts and Sciences have declined significantly from the post war period.
Even with their massive Endowments and Interstellar Tuition cost, the product output of this group could not bring about the technical paradign shifts that the Unicorns have. So why shouldn’t the tuition cost of Cornell University for example be reduced to that of a Community College? The Ivy League has not lived up to their weight in “Ivy”($$$), To many Elitist and not enough Workers (American colloquialism: To many Chief and not enough Indians).
Jonathan: You and the other usual suspects, The College Fix and FIRE, are all in a tizzy about how Cornell, a private institution, selects candidates for the Board of Trustees. You call that selection process an “echo-chambered environment”.
What you have ignored is what happened at the Kennedy Center in NY that shows how DJT handled its Board of Trustees. Without any consultation or inquiry DJT fired the Chairperson of the Kennedy Board, installed himself as the new Chair and packed the Board with his supporters. DJT did that despite the fact that he never attended a Kennedy Center performance , unlike the Obamas, never donated to the Center and has no interest in the “artistic” endeavors at the Center. His sole purpose in overturning the normal process of how Trustees are selected was to get rid of what he considers the Center’s “woke” approach to artistic performances. Now I would call what DJT did with the Center creating an “echo-chambered environment” in spades! Now I understand DJT has a list of performances he wants at the Kennedy Center. The first program on his list is a performance by the Jan.6 Insurrection Choir of some of its favorite hits–starting with “How I Got My Get-Out-Jail Free Card”!
So the Q is whether you are really serious about how Boards of Trustees are selected? Judging by your failure to address the crisis at the Kennedy Center it appears you have very little interest in “free expression” in the arts!
No one cares.
Somethings much more interesting,
The Next Hooters Is Already Here, And They’re Already The Top ‘Breastaurant’ In Town
https://www.outkick.com/culture/next-hooters-already-here-theyre-already-top-breastaurant-town
Poll: Many Americans Don’t Trust The Media To Cover Trump
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5159265-americans-trust-media-donald-trump-survey/
Dennis – still off in a tither blind to reality.
As an institution that accepts federal funding – Cornell is bound to comply with the first amendment,
That is a long ago decided legal issue. If they do not – FIRE is one of the groups that will provide legal support for those whose free speech rights are infringed on – and FIRE always wins.
As you note – Cornell is private. What you fail to get right is that the Cornell administration is NOT the owners of the institution. That is like saying that the President of the United States owns the US or that Tim Cooke owns Apple.
Generally the elections of board members of privately held public institutions are governed by state law
Regardless, I am not aware of anywhere in the world were the managers of an institution get to select their own bosses.
To whatever extent Cornell is free to elect its trustees – the administration does not get to dictate the winners – who will effectively be their bosses.
Turley is incorrect calling the Cornell process and echo chamber. It would better be labeled as incestuous.
With respect to Kennedy Center – I agree with you – The president should not be able to replace half the board and take control. That problem is trivially resolveable – sever Kennedy Center’s entanglement with the federal government.
Kennedy Center is owned by the federal government, and like almost everything owned by the federal govenrment it is administered by the president.
Like you I do not like the president having control of the Kennedy center. But ending that can only be accomplished by privatizing the Kennedy Center.
So long is the Kennedy Center is administered by the executive – the president controls its board.
If you do not like that – sell it so that it is private or amend the constitution.
Regarding the board of trustees to a “private” school. Well, there is that pesky fact that most “private” school students get federal loans and the institution gets accreditation under the umbrella of the D.O.E.
As far as the Kennedy Center goes, apparently, there was gross mismanagement of funds as well as bizarre programming. Time will tell when light is further shed on the circumstances.
VIOLATION OF THE CIVILITY RULE HERE!
Is Cornell the Kennedy Center?
Irrelevant, immaterial, impertinent, and impudent.
BAN FOR LIFE!
Jonathan; Breaking News: CIA Set for Historic Shakeup: Largest Firing in 50 Years Underway
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/us/politics/cia-firings.html
Trump is finally doing something useful; copying the example set 50 years ago by one of our most successful Presidents ever, Jimmy Carter.
The German Constitutional Process
Federal parliament elections to Germany’s federal parliament the Bundestag take place every four years.
Explained: How does Germany’s electoral system work and what changes this year?
Sunday’s crunch vote is a first test for a recently reformed electoral law.
Almost 60 million voters in Germany are called to the ballot boxes on Sunday to elect a new Bundestag, with Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) poised to emerge as the biggest bloc.
By: Mared Gwyn Jones ~ 02/23/2025
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/02/23/explained-how-does-germanys-electoral-system-work-and-what-changes-this-year
A quick guide to German elections
On the surface, the German electoral system is similar to that of most other Western countries, although it does have its own quirks and peculiarities. DW explains.
When Germans go to their polling stations — in schools and other public buildings — they have two votes: One for a candidate to represent their constituency and the second for a party’s state list, which usually lists between 10 and 30 candidates. The system is often referred to as “personalized proportional representation.”
https://www.dw.com/en/a-quick-guide-to-german-elections/a-4541194
Hey stupid, the post is about Cornell.
The Constitutional processes of Germany are in motion today – Here are examples of the impact of this Election in respect to the members of the European Union.
The rise of the far right, global trade and Ukraine’s future: why the German election matters – visual explainer ,
Trump’s election in November last year has – as promised – sent shockwaves round the world. But the German election could be almost as momentous
By: Alex Clark and Seán Clarke ~ Feb 19th 2025
Note: use ‘Scroll-Down’ the page for Info Stats.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/feb/19/the-rise-of-the-far-right-global-trade-and-ukraines-future-why-the-german-election-matters-visual-explainer
While it is a shame to see a once great institution fall so far, we can do better. Open more colleges that are not echo chambers. That promote actual diversity. That embraces the 1stA and debate. The University of Austin is one such place. We need more of those and less Cornells.
The Morrill Act in 1865 or thereabouts which created Cornell, named after Ezra Cornell, should be revisited by the Trump Administration.
There were ‘conditions’ contained in the Act which have or likely have been breached repeatedly and egregiously over the past 50+ years, but more recently over the past roughly 15 to 20 years (since Obama got elected over war-hero McCain).
I wonder if they still allow dogs to have the run of the campus?
Why? Seems you’re making a vague accusation. In other words, making-up a lie.
He asked a question – questions are often accusatory. That does not make them lies.
Dogs, probably still, and it is highly rated as a squirrel-friendly campus. Got back to my room once and saw a big bushy tail sticking out of my bag of doritos
The beginnings of the Leftist crap were visible many years ago. It has only metastasized over time.
I think we will find that the ensconcing of so many socialist/communist fleeing Europe during and just after WWI by woodrow wilson was the initial impetus for all the radicalism that has festered within our institutions of higher learning for this past century.
The Herculean task of disinfecting those institutions (and all outflowing boards, chairmanships etc that are now in public institutions such as PBS, USAID, The Kennedy Center, MOMA – the list could go on and on – ) will be daunting but essential if we are to restore our original American culture and discard the European culture of post WWI that was given succor and support under such wrong-headed government agencies such as the WPA (Diego Rivera and Freda Kaplo are not prime examples of American Art in the tradition of Winslow Homer for example). I cite artistic examples more freely because of my degree in Art and Architectural history and my less informed concepts in literature but there are many that can be cited by others on this site.
This European, anti-traditional western culture shift has found its way in to our entire media/education industry and is now at the gates of our religious and political aspects of American culture that there will needs be a huge and heavy lift if we are to undo it at this point. There are so many younger minds totally poisoned by this multicultural, agnostic, undisciplined anthropologically failed experiment in social engineering that it will be like the black death marching through Europe in the 14th century if it is not eradicated soon.
Well put
What nonsense.
Yes, Cornell is currently nonsense and worse.
Mama, specific to today’s topic of education, one of the communists who fled the Nazi and Soviet versions of communism while WWII was starting to loom and endanger even intellectuals who shared their views was Herbert Marcuse.
Marcuse fled to America where he became a fixture at some of our universities and promoted his communist Critical Theory. I think Marcuse died sometime in the 1970’s.
Black Liars & Marxists and their racist activists took Marcuse’s Critical Theory, edited out the references to economic class and replaced them with skin color, and then assaulted America with the “new” idea of Black Critical Race Theory.
It is no accident that Black Liars And Marxists is deeply and permanently tied to Marxism, and it’s intent to destroy the load bearing walls of freedom in the free countries of the world.
While many people assume that Marxism is just one thing, it is comprised of many action fronts. There is economic Marxism of course, but also political and cultural Marxism.
Cultural Marxism is intended to brainwash and change the minds and views of the voters, to ultimately get a population to abandon the values that support their society and vote themselves into Marxist totalitarianism.
Herbert Marcuse is just one example of cultural Marxism in our higher schools of learning.
Herbert Marcuse: The Man Who Made Cultural Marxism
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/columns/sins-of-omission/the-man-who-made-cultural-marxism/
I first became aware of cultural Marxism as an undergraduate student at UCLA during the 1960s. There were several professors and teaching assistants with whom I came into contact who were fans of Herbert Marcuse and his two most recent books, One-Dimensional Man and A Critique of Pure Tolerance.
Marcuse had once been an orthodox, revolutionary, class-struggle Marxist but during the post-World War II era had moved towards achieving the same communist goals through transforming the culture—education, art, literature, language, religion, family, even one’s own consciousness.
In the 1960s and the 1970s, he became known as the pre-eminent theorist of the New Left and the student movements of West Germany, France, and the United States; some consider him “the Father of the New Left”. His Marxist scholarship inspired many radical intellectuals and political activists in the 1960s and 1970s, both in the United States and internationally.
Three of of those radical political activists he influenced on campus were named Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.
What poop.
Ithaca, NY is known as 10 square miles surrounded by reality. Even the locals call it that. In Ithaca if you’re Marxist-Leninist you’re considered middle of the road.
Meanwhile the sheriff of Tompkins County is letting violent criminals out on the street who have federal detainers. He knows they might victimize other innocent people including children, but that’s a price he’s willing to make them pay just to thumb his nose at President Trump.
I was at Cornell 40 years ago for graduate school, and I remember the Cornell Review – the tiny conservative student paper – ran a headline: “Where is the diversity at Cornell?” The article described how, among the tenured faculty in the humanities and social science departments, there were around 200 Democrats and exactly one registered Republican.
Still, Ithaca is beautiful in the summer, and there are some awesome views of Lake Cayuga from the Cornell campus. (There are only two seasons: July and winter.)
BREAKING NEWS: DOGE continues to offend and outrage Democrats and the tearchers’ unions that give them tens of millions of dollars in political contributions as a reward for giving those teachers unions hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.
Caesars Palace, MLB stadium, an ice cream truck: DOGE reveals how schools spent billions in COVID-relief funds
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/caesars-palace-mlb-stadium-ice-cream-truck-doge-reveals-how-schools-spent-billions-covid-relief-funds
Unionized public schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID-relief funds on expenses that had “little” impact on students, according to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting department. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk to purge wasteful government spending, revealed on Thursday that schools have spent nearly $200 billion in COVID-relief funds “with little oversight or impact on students.”
Political contributions to Democrats by teacher’s unions:
2016: $36 million
2018: $31 million
2020: $51 million
2022: $56 million
2024: $46 million
Apparently the unionized public school teachers thought they had the 2024 election in the bag with all the Trump indictments so their Democrat funding wasn’t at risk.
Any chance you can focus on Cornell?
Cornell is the example, attempts to rig elections are inside the scope of this article.
Even the slightest chance that you’re not an outraged Democrat who wants MORE porkbarrel federal taxpayer funding of teachers unions so that they can kick back tens of millions of those tax dollars to Democrat party candidates?
Yesterday Dennis McIntyre was posting that he is deeply concerned and upset that his Reliable Sources tell him that President Trump’s popularity is in the tank after Americans learned he is slashing waste, corruption and useless drone bureaucrats. To help Dennis get his Sunday off to a bright start before he goes to church services today:
New poll shows Trump approval rating at 53%
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/polling/new-poll-shows-trump-approval-rating-53
In 13 weekly surveys since he won in November, Trump’s rating has stayed within two points of 53% twelve times. Ten of those surveys found his approval at 53% or within just a single point of 53%’
Is it possible that Dennis’s Reliable Sources are trolling him?
Who gives a shite man! Stick to the subject today. Focus man!
NewsFlash-Joy Reid cancelled and out at MSNBC. Is this the first flicker of an avalanche? One could only hope. I suppose she may be moving to a smaller soapbox.
And, so what.
Just like a Karen. With increasing age, the old ones can’t shut up.
Anon: One day you’ll be “one of those old ones who can’t shut up.” Big nurse will give you regular 💩 purges. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Okay, whatever you say geb.
Wrong person. That anonymous was not me.
GEB
Right, your alter ego?
Never complained about The Old One when it was The Oval Office House Plant supposedly running the country.
Never complain about The Old One, Bernie The Commie, who never ceases his communist rants.
How about Chuck Schumer.
Karen, are you having a Hurt Feelings Day here this morning?
GEB,
Yep, I read that this morning. What a good morning it is! Will she follow Don Lemon to substack or some other site? And what of the new panel-O-pundits they are replacing her with? How will they fare? MSNBC is already on the For Sale bock. Is this move an effort for more curb appeal?
Cornell can be odious in what it does, including arranging trustee elections with engineered outcomes for their alumni, but that’s a private party issue affecting those alumni, not a First Amendment violation.
That said, I hope that sooner or later enough public start pushing Trump on these universities getting taxpayer funds (primarily squeezed out of the blue collar class) while they have enormous endowments sitting in the bank.
If their alumni can be contacted to vote for trustees, they can also be contacted to ask them to donate to Cornell where there are shortfalls in funding after endowment and student fee funding isn’t enough.
Publicly funding underperforming and failed ideas and institutions is the wrong way to spend voters’ money.
Cornell is partly a private university but also partly a public land-grant institution. That is why several of the seats on the HUGE Board of Trustees (64 members) are permanently designated to be filled by NYState bureaucrats, including the Governor (currently Hochul). Cornell plays it both ways, claiming it is “private” when it suits its purpose (like First Amendment and FOIA) and “public” when asking for $$$$$.
Certainly seems like they have a stacked deck in regards to choosing alumni trustees. I suppose that you can fight this sort of thing the way these people are trying to widen the viewpoints of the trustees. The question is why bother? The more effective way might be to say, Open up the election or we take our grants and gifts elsewhere. Money talks. I went to a private university but for other reasons I became very disenchanted with their administration and never sent money to them and neither of my children ever attended. I sent my money elsewhere. You don’t marry a university. Their are more like a girlfriend who may or may not work out. If they don’t work out, you end the relationship and move on, with your money, of course.
Once an institution has been captured by the Left, it is nearly impossible to reopen. But could you really expect anything different from Cornell?
It may be “nearly impossible” but only a few years ago that was being said about the federal government, which, for decades and decades, has been a growing disaster increasingly captured by the Left and chock-full of waste, fraud and abuse, and thousands of worthless employees. Today, the federal government attic, the basement and the garage are finally being cleaned out. We are trying to do that at Cornell, and if we can get even two (out of 64) normal people on the Board of Trustees it will be progress and will give reason a voice. Of course, the Cornell administration and its rigged election system make this extremely difficult but there is hope. Cornell used to be a paragon of objective, civilized and rational thought, study and research. Perhaps, someday, that can return.
Wiseoldlawyer,
Well said. I noted in another comment how when the main members of a house are so rotten, sometimes it is better and the only choice but to tear it all down and rebuild.
Can you comment or give any insight, from your point of view, this election process and the sentiment of you Alums?
As to the election process for Cornell’s Board of Trustees there have been several op-ed pieces in publications and blogs lately that have been very articulate in showing how ridiculously biased it is. I have many fellow alums who previously never cared but now have taken notice. Some have advocated a lawsuit. But there are also many many alums who are, of course, committed Lefties and who are pleased at the cesspool Cornell has become and want to keep it that way.
Yes, I started my “protest” decades ago, not long after the student union was taken over by an armed gang of Lefties, and who were never punished, by stopping my donations to Cornell, except for a specific and deserving athletic team. Many others did the same, but with an endowment of billions and billions the Cornell administration didn’t seem to care, and still doesn’t. There are a few promising signs. The far-Left nut job that was Cornell’s President, Martha Pollack, recently resigned and the Board of Trustees has a new Chair as of this July. The new Chair’s first and primary job will be to find and hire a new President. If that new President is a clone of Martha Pollack (or even similar) with “DEI” and “Free Palestine” crawling out of his/her pores, I will write off Cornell forever, as irredeemably rotten to the core, and will encourage everyone I know to do the same.
BTW, as for Cornell’s next President, I am hoping Nikki Haley gets the nod. She checks all the boxes and even those with TDS can find something in common with her, she needs a job and, best of all, she is a solid, rational, unbiased intellectual with plenty of experience in running a big organization and dealing with idiots (the United Nations). She would be perfect.
Wiseoldlawyer,
Thank you for your comment and insights. And HA about Haley!
That is the right attitude, wiseoldlawyer. Prior to November 2024, I would have read this post and commented, stop funding it. Now, everything seems possible.
eventually even democrats end up hating democrats
END federal aid/loan backing to cities, states, non-profits and colleges
Ban Public Unions
Why, even those educational institutions have 1st Amendment rights. And what the crazies here propagate as free speech is hardly free speech, but rantings of blood thirsty animals.
Don’t want to live in a society with the likes of the commenters here.
PS, voted for Trump.
He’s got a point. As I see it, the rabid voices so prominent here are really no different that what the liberals in the USA rant about – follow the orthodoxy or off with your head.
One group of crazies replacing another group of crazies.
And eventually republicans hating republicans. And that’s where we are.
Oh, don’t our resident commies desperately wish Republicans are exactly like them!
Just nuke em.
Wouldn’t that be better than survival in degradation? One would think so but alas, gods eternal gift.
One continues to try. Split Cornell like the Solomon’s baby.
It is degradation.
Wow