As Cornell moves to hire a deputy for its Dean of Students (DOS), it is making a pivotal decision in building its campus culture. Rather than upholding its publicly stated values and goals, the hiring process is doubling down on a harrowing alternative path that poses danger to students and to Cornell.
After a community-wide process, Cornell adopted a mission and core values to guide it forward. While Cornell claims to create “a community of belonging” it is equally devoted to academic freedom, academic excellence and environmental sustainability. Cornell adopted this balanced statement despite being pressed by activists who sought to promote diversity-equity-and- inclusion (DEI) as Cornell’s overarching goal. While DEI is already key for students when it comes to admissions, financial aid and academic advising, the Dean of Students Office historically did something different. It sought to build Cornell’s “school spirit” – getting every student to identify as a Cornellian with resulting rights and responsibilities. By building connections through student organizations, the programming at WSH and other community centers and conducting new student orientation, DOS supported students as they tackled a high pressure, competitive academic environment.
For most of Cornell’s history, the policies governing students were a combination of faculty policy-making and student self-government. In 1970, the University Senate was established to give policy-making and budget authority over the Division of Student and Campus Life to an elected group of students, faculty and staff. Although shared governance continued, the Trustees have gradually transferred power from its successor, the University Assembly, to the point that shared governance only applies to the mandatory student activity fee, and the DOS budget has shifted from transparent community control to the opaque decision-making of VP Ryan Lombardi.
Prior to Lombardi’s arrival at Cornell, the VP was Susan Murphy ‘73 who spent her career at Cornell, and the DOS was Prof. Kent Hubbell ‘69, a tenured faculty member. Unlike these Cornell alumni, Lombardi was hired straight out of Ohio University with no prior Ivy League experience. Lombardi reorganized and expanded DOS into two groups: Campus and Community Engagement and the new narrowly defined DOS. Campus and Community Engagement comprises campus activities, Greek life, orientation and community engagement under assistant VP Jenny Loeffelman. The new and larger division deals with identity groups under the DOS, now Marla Love. Neither Loeffelman nor Love have first-hand experience as a Cornellian prior to their current bureaucratic employment.
Cornell is now hiring a “Senior Associate Dean of Students, Diversity & Inclusion” to serve as Love’s deputy, with an estimated base salary of $128,000 per year. The job description shows that the dozens of staff reporting to this hire (and the millions of dollars in salaries) will be devoted to DEI evangelism. The job description reads, in part:
“The Diversity and Inclusion (D & I) portfolio supports the holistic development of the student experience by creating engagement opportunities, support services, and initiatives focused on belonging, equity, and inclusion. The D & I portfolio is comprised of identity-based centers and offices that support and empower students from historically marginalized backgrounds while also providing all Cornell community members with opportunities to deepen their understanding of racial justice and equity, expand their allyship skills, engage in dialogue across differences, and be a part of the movement for positive social change.” (emphasis added)
It is ironic that Cornell, which carefully presents all organized religions on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, has this large office pushing DEI and anti-racism so aggressively. A number of commentators have likened DEI to a new religion. For good reason, DOS requires the member ministries of Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) to promise not to actively convert people who believe in another religion and to not evangelize in the dorms, unless invited over by an individual student. Yet, this staff’s mission is to evangelize DEI without such bounds. Their outreach is hard to avoid, starting with mandatory DEI training during orientation.
Although the Cornell core values include “Free and Open Inquiry and Expression” there is nothing to indicate that the new deputy or the staff will receive formal training in how to protect this important freedom.
The value of a Cornell degree comes from employers recognizing that a graduate must work hard for four years following a highly selective admissions process. Employers assume that Cornell graduates are among the smartest people in their cohort and can handle the pressures of rigorous academic work. Yet, DEI adherents preach that Cornell’s admission process and academic standards are invalid and deny that merit-based grading can be fairly applied. They also attack the standardized test scores that Cornell relies upon in its admissions process. Rather than give identity group members the self-confidence to tackle challenges at Cornell, this staff would instead focus upon a narrative of victimhood and oppression that can only set students up for failure.
The Campus Activities Office registers over 1,000 student organizations, which are funded by the Student Activity Fee, or by collecting contributions. However, DOS has the Multicultural Student Leadership and Empowerment (MSLE) unit that also separately registers 150 multicultural organizations, including six organizations to which MSLE provides active advising (e.g., the Black Student Union and ALANA). So, when the BSU makes impossible demands on Day Hall and threatens building takeovers, Cornell students can be comforted that one or more MSLE staff members are closely advising the leaders of those political confrontations. Given that, it is not surprising that most “demands” typically include increased funding for Cornell’s DEI advising staff. A large portion of the mandatory student activity fee goes to funding these groups.
This allocation of staffing resources has now been in effect for five years with little improvement in the campus climate. If anything, the fear of attack from DEI-peddling social justice warriors has increased as freedom of speech, academic freedom and Cornell’s national reputation has further declined. Cornell’s elevation of DEI to religious fervor status has left both white and minority students unhappy with aspects of their Cornell experience.
DEI as the primary basis for shaping Cornell’s extracurricular student activities is doomed to fail, because there is no clear basis to decide who deserves special treatment at the expense of others. For example, a recent study found that nationally, DEI staffers tended to be more anti-Semetic.
Plus, although women were historically a minority at Cornell, they now are a majority of the student body, yet Cornell’s DEI staffing through the Women’s Center funds many programs including free dinner for those attending feminism discussions. The legal basis for discriminating against certain identity groups to favor others is drawing judicial scrutiny. Finally, alternatives to DEI are now coming forward in higher education.
This current search for the DOS deputy is a great opportunity for a turnaround to reorient the Dean of Students Office to address all of Cornell’s core values, not just DEI. Rather than hire someone whose goal is DEI indoctrination, guilt tripping, grievance mongering, and defeatist victimhood, why not hire someone with leadership experience forging a diverse group into a productive, positive group that has a sense of pride in their organization? Instead of staff advising different identity groups to demand advantages based on past injustices, DOS staff should reinforce a positive attitude toward Cornell’s collective mission and toward leveraging a Cornell degree to help each student reach an ambitious set of personal goals.
Instead of targeting “historically disadvantaged minority groups” for advantage and pressuring everyone else to take up “allyship” with them, the new hire could lead the staff to engage with all students to maximize the value of their Cornell experience. The university must bring students together rather than teaching them to divide along identity group lines.
This article was written by a member of the Cornell community who prefers to stay anonymous.
