Newsletter #27: Meditations on a Fossil-Fueled Degree

Written By Cornell on Fire

“Breathe in Profit, Breathe out Responsibility”

Newsletter #27 published March 27, 2026

 

Newsletter #27 reviews our satirical meditation action in honor of the trustees. With a coalition of activists, we drew attention to Cornell’s fossil-fuel ties and publicized our resolution for dissociation from fossil-fuel funds in research, donations, and retirement funds. Our guided meditation targeting Cornell was inspired by the inimitable Oli Frost.

Scroll below for upcoming events and to get involved!

Dear Cornell on Fire,

Last week, while the Board of Trustees contemplated their “supreme control” over the university, activists gathered outside Day Hall to contemplate the trustees’ fossil-fuel ties. Listeners wondered whether to laugh or cry as the meditation leader sonorously instructed those present to “breathe in profit and breathe out responsibility” during a guided meditation targeting Cornell. 

Billed as a guided meditation retreat for Cornell trustees and administrators called “Accepting Business Realities (and Fossil Fuel Funds),” our action invited participants to roleplay actual Cornell actors by donning name tags like “Trustee Invested in Gas” or “Administrator Courting Fossil Fuel Donors.” Once in character, we contemplated a series of exercises such as the  “Accepting fossil fuel funding meditation” and “The soaring visualization” (in your private jet).

Inspired by Oli Frost’s meditation app OilWell, our meditation built on earlier actions to advance our campaign for university-wide dissociation from fossil-fuel funds in research, donations, and retirement accounts. Although the dissociation resolution was unanimously passed by the Student Assembly in December, President Kotlikoff issued a perfunctory response that failed to engage with any of its recommendations. 

The Trustees’ Meeting is a reminder that fossil-fuel interests permeate the highest levels of university governance, with many trustees and major donors carrying deep industry ties. The current Chair of the Board of Trustees, Anne Meinig Smalling, is president and managing partner of HM International, a corporation whose first acquisition was a company specializing in oil field valves. Smalling is also a prominent member of American Innovations (a corporation working on integrated approaches to oil and gas pipelines) and a principal holder and board member in Igasamex (a developer of private natural gas distribution systems in Mexico). HM International was founded by Smalling’s father, Peter Meinig , who was on Cornell’s Board of Trustees for over 20 years, serving two terms as Chair. The Meinig Family Foundation has given Cornell over $34 million across 14 individual grants, and has been Cornell’s 14th biggest donor from the last 10 years. Most recently, the newly-constructed Meinig Fieldhouse (named for Peter) pushed through several new plastic grass playing fields over rigorous community and scientific opposition.

Ironically, Smalling succeeds Kraig Kayser as Chair after Kayser stepped down amid outcry over his conflicts of interest involving weapons manufacturing. Kayser is on Moog’s Board of Directors, a for-profit weapons company that also provides technologies for oil and gas exploration. In response, Cornell replaced a Chair who profits off war with a Chair who profits off fossil fuels – carrying on her father’s conflicted legacy. 

Cornell’s extensive ties to the fossil-fuel industry engender systematic conflicts of interest. Research shows that fossil fuel funding ties influence internal policy decisions and weaken university climate commitments. Cornell’s behavior is consistent with this: Cornell is lagging on its climate pledges and promotes climate delayism, doublespeak, and inadequate reporting of their progress towards carbon neutrality. This attitude compromises Cornell’s core mission of teaching, where a lack of climate courses is compounded by open fossil-fuel promotion such as programs training students to greenwash fracking.

Meanwhile, Cornell's faculty and staff retirement funds are invested in coal, oil, gas, and land-grabbing activities through TIAA and Fidelity retirement funds. According to activists with TIAA-Divest!, Cornell is TIAA’s 8th largest client and TIAA has at least $78 billion invested in coal, oil, and gas. Cornell Professor Maureen O’Hara sits on the TIAA Board of Directors and has repeatedly refused divestment calls from activists, despite the fact that fossil-fuel investments are underperforming. 

Maddie Rhodes, Environment & Sustainability '27, helped plan the meditation action and played a leading role in Fossil Free Cornell’s research into Cornell’s ties to the fossil fuel industry.  "Reflecting on all the oppressive systems in which Cornell, and, by proxy, all students and staff, are entangled is crucial in combating these unethical partnerships,” she says. “Just as important is taking time to reflect on what a university free of these affiliations would look like, an institution that every student could be proud to attend, and feel listened to and represented by. To reach these aspirations, it's crucial for all Cornell constituents to show up and show out, take advantage of opportunities to get your voice heard by the decision makers of this university."

Huge thanks to our coalition partners in this action including Sunrise Cornell, Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), TIAA-Divest!, and the Cornell Chapter of the AAUP! We were honored to be joined by Ithaca Town Conservation Board member James Walter Hamilton, who recently nominated Cornell on Fire for the Town’s Fischer Conservation Award. Further gratitude to our friends with the Palestinian and peace movements who joined forces for our meditation action and a joint banner drop.  

Read on for opportunities to join our movement’s actions in April and beyond! 

Just breathe,

Cornell on Fire

Read on for actions, events, and updates! This newsletter was also published via email and social media on Instagram and Mastodon.

Get involved with Cornell on Fire:

  • Climate Criminals - Fridays on Fire: Friday 4/10 from 1-2pm on Ho Plaza. We'll display part of our art-ivism exhibit for the first time on campus! Drop by and take a peek.

  • Art-ivism Social at Watermargin Coop: Saturday 4/18 from 3-5pm. Join us to experience a climate art-ivism display that challenges cultural creations of “normalcy” while the world burns. Enjoy pizza, live music, and art that acts. Drop by! 

  • Cornell on Fire Monthly Meeting: Saturday, 4/25, 2-4pm at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Collegetown (109 Oak Avenue. We also meet hybrid - email us if you’d like the link!) 

  • Interested in joining our Working Group? We meet weekly and actively welcome new perspectives! Everyone can contribute to our campus-community coalition: students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members. Fill out our interest form or reach out at connect@cornellonfire.org.

  • Join Cornell on Fire as a climate justice liaison. Our movement receives coalition requests from powerful movers and shakers on campus and beyond, such as the Rainforest Action Network, Campus Climate Network, and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island. We need liaisons who can connect our work to theirs! This is a concrete way to support Cornell on Fire and the larger movement for climate justice. It’s easy: fill out our interest form to become a liaison who joins ally meetings and reports back to us. 

  • Contribute your creative skills to Cornell on Fire’s art-ivism project: We are seeking people with design and artistic skills to help create humorous, critical, multi-media artworks for a public exhibit about Cornell’s shortcomings in the face of the climate emergency and CoF demands. Get in touch with Leila at l.wilmers@gmail.com for details!

Engage the Wider Movement:

In case you missed it. Catch up on our latest work:

Thank you for reading this far and engaging in the number-one frontline for climate action: your attention. 

Newsletter #27 originally published on March 27, 2026.

Cornell on Fire

Cornell on Fire is a campus-community movement calling on Cornell to confront the climate emergency.

Next

Love letter to our critics