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Dear Cornell on Fire, While Cornell’s corporate leadership held secret negotiations with an extortionist regime, their endowment ballooned to $11.8 billion. We asked, “What should Cornell leadership treat as untouchable: Their massive endowment or their core values?” We got the administration’s answer on November 7: Cornell corporate leadership settled with Trump’s regime, cementing their place in history as the “leaders” who sold out on Cornell’s core values rather than mobilize the endowment in the face of federal funding cuts. Criticism rained down on all sides. The Cornell Chapter of the AAUP immediately issued a sharp analysis of the threatening implications for academic freedom, civil rights, diversity, and vulnerable students, while the Guardian reported that Cornell’s deal set a “dangerous precedent.” Cornell student groups decried the “anti-diversity, anti-trans policies” and warned that the settlement “threatens the security of student activism across the nation.” A new group called Cornell Courage circulated a critical legal analysis of the settlement with an open letter for signatures. (Please consider signing!) Cornell could have protected their community and core values by taking the reasonable step of mobilizing the endowment rather than striking a deal with fascists. An analysis by Cornell Contingent Academic Workers points out that a modest adjustment to endowment payouts for an emergency period could have protected academic jobs under Trump’s funding cuts. Over 300 Cornellians signed a letter to the trustees in support of this emergency fund. Corporate leadership ignored it. The same week they settled, Cornell publicly argued that reserves should be spent – TCAT’s reserves, that is. Cornell issued an “insulting” $31,000 counteroffer for TCAT bus operations rather than matching the City and County’s $500,000 contributions. The Ithaca Voice reports that “Cornell’s reticence” is due to the reserve funds TCAT holds: “The Cornell spokesperson said TCAT’s $500,000 request comes while TCAT has a ‘substantial fund balance.’” Let’s reflect upon reserves for a moment. Who else holds a “substantial fund balance” in reserve? Would Cornell consider their $11.8 billion endowment “substantial?” Did they mobilize it to defend their core values, their workers, their vulnerable students, or their faculty’s academic freedom against a fascist regime? Absolutely not. Yet they are now using that very logic to twist TCAT’s arm into drawing down their astronomically more modest reserves, a move that would put TCAT in a “very catastrophic fiscal situation” in just two or three years according to TCAT’s General Manager. (Cornell recently upped their offer to $280,000, still representing only 56% of the full contribution requested by TCAT.) The irony is painful, both for the raw hypocrisy of Cornell’s position and for its betrayal of the university’s own climate goals. Cornell's Climate Action Plan promotes low-carbon public commuting and commits to funding it. In 2013, Cornell representatives boasted that "We have the best public transit system for a community our size in the country" and noted that by "leading with a good example in Ithaca…[Cornell] can have widespread impacts in other regions” (pp. 58-59). Consequently, Cornell pledged the following as part of their commitment to carbon neutrality: "Increase the use of mass transit by the Cornell community through the OmniRide Program and enhanced outreach for Cornell employees during the onboarding process." "Develop and implement comprehensive strategies to support mass transit in Tompkins County and increase ridership.”
Now, Cornell’s miserly offer betrays their Climate Action Plan and compromises TCAT’s ability to deliver low-carbon mass transit. It also betrays the community that hosts them – Cornell users comprise 70% of TCAT ridership, yet Cornell now refuses to match even a 33% split as one of three underwriters (along with the City and County). Cornell’s patronizing approach to TCAT’s finances offers up other ironies. Cornell corporate representatives claimed they would not pay their full contribution because of TCAT’s insufficient transparency, arguing for “sunlight measures” on TCAT’s internal financials and ridership numbers. They complained that such information should be available on TCAT’s website so “people truly understand what was happening.” Let’s reflect upon transparency for a moment. Has Cornell shared their internal finances so people can “truly understand” what’s happening with their 2020 moratorium on new fossil fuel investments? Does Cornell transparently report their donation sources and research funding streams so people can “truly understand” how fossil fuels influence Cornell’s internal policy and research agendas? Has Cornell published their key tracking data or followed the NY Climate Act on their GHG inventory webpage, so that people can “truly understand” what is happening with their lack of progress towards carbon neutrality? No, no, no, and no. Yet Cornell corporate administrators subvert TCAT’s operations with a Janus-faced demand that institutions should spend down reserves and transparently report on internal status. Meanwhile, the endowment continues to grow. And grow. It exists to serve the university in times of emergency. Cornell’s corporate leaders have spoken: Relax. It’s not an emergency. It’s just a climate crisis and the dismantling of democracy. Without reserve, Cornell on Fire View this email on our corresponding blog post or Instagram and Mastodon.
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