Heard at Cornell is a column that regularly quotes important statements made by Cornellians. This excerpt is taken from President Pollack’s statement on the Harvard affirmative action case:
For generations, Cornell’s remarkable students have done just that by bringing different perspectives and backgrounds to their education both inside and outside of the classroom.
As always, Cornell will follow the law, but within its scope we will remain a welcoming community, with strong core values and an unwavering adherence to our historic founding principle: to be a university where “any person can find instruction in any study.”
We hope this means that, going forward, Cornell will select students on the basis of increasing viewpoint diversity and not by using racial stereotypes or artificially inflating minority group representation based upon illegal quotas.
Notably, President Pollack did not address the impact the Court’s decision will have on Cornell’s employment practices and providing services to students and other clients. Will Cornell “follow the law” and re-examine areas beyond admissions as well?
