I get it, you’ve read a lot of articles this month about the Make Cornell Pay movement. You heard about the draft settlement last week and the strike on Monday, and maybe you even knew about the council vote on Wednesday. Regardless, you may or may not agree that Cornell ought to pay Ithaca more … [Read more…]
To the editor: Cornell University has the immense privilege of being exempt from property taxes. It enjoys this privilege due to New York State law’s treatment of nonprofit organizations, the underlying purpose of which is to help sustain institutions that will serve the public interest. The tax exemption is a public subsidy to Cornell to … [Read more…]
In the heart of the quiet greens of the Arts Quad, a stoic Andrew Dickson White, Cornell’s first president, sits and overlooks the campus before the commanding columns of Goldwin Smith Hall. On the other side, the University’s founder, Ezra Cornell, is perched upon a stone podium shaded by leafy trees and eyes the strolling … [Read more…]
I not only have taught and written with great pleasure at Cornell for 56 years, but I have also been treated very well here. For those reasons, this is a difficult piece to write. We at Cornell do not want to become the poster people for blatant anti-Semitism on campuses, and we do not think … [Read more…]
Re “Cornell Still Does Not Pay its Fair Share to the City of Ithaca” (Guest essay, Nov. 4) To the Editor: The guest piece by three officers of the Cornell Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) posted on Nov. 4 regarding Cornell’s financial obligations to the City of Ithaca is misguided. They … [Read more…]
Wealthy universities across the country benefit from tax exempt status while they sit on endowments in the billions that grow every year and collect millions in tuition dollars annually. Their tax exempt status can have a significant impact on the budgets of the cities and towns that host them. PiLOTS (payments in lieu of taxes) … [Read more…]
An arrest has been made after evil posts online called for the eradication of Jews at Cornell, the university I attend. But I feel no sense of closure. Even though the suspect, a fellow student, is in federal custody, the constant threat of anti-Semitism looms over us still. I learned growing up in a staunchly … [Read more…]
Re “Cornell Professor “Exhilarated” by Hamas’s Attack Defends Remark” (news article, Oct. 17) To the Editor: I thank Professor Rickford for delivering his anti-Semitic screed without recourse to the jargon used by many on the post-structuralist left. He does not claim Hamas reimagined Eurocentric repertoires of contention or invited colonizers to engage in transversal grief. … [Read more…]
Re: “To President Pollack: We Must Not be Punished for Our Words in A Time of War” (Editorial, Oct. 22) Cornell faces a test of its resolve to protect faculty academic freedom in the current moment of heightened tension and emotions concerning the Israel-Hamas War. At this point, the Cornell administration has fallen short of … [Read more…]