Each June, Cornellians gather in Ithaca to catch up, showcase a year of achievements and inevitably to fundraise. Through shared beers and expanded waist lines, alumni bond and feel proud of Cornell and of identifying as Cornellians. Typically, Cornell spends millions of dollars in putting on a good event, with registration fees covering most of the costs. Both in 2020 and 2021, however, Cornell conducted a “virtual” event rather than in person.
Since Cornell’s earliest days, when the event was called “Cornell Day,” this is not only an occasion for socializing, but also for the alumni elders to gather and conduct serious business. While the Alumni Association and the Board of Trustees have since moved their meetings to other times, many Cornell alumni groups, such as fraternities and sororities, conducted “virtual” business meetings. The reunion that began on June 9, 2021, was noteworthy as the first chance to discuss and examine how Cornell has changed in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020. Although a few Cornell alumni groups issued quick statements a year ago, this reunion made plain how Cornell handled the storm.
Reunions are planned by the Alumni Affairs staff working with elected Class Officers. However, in recent years the Office of Alumni Affairs has been expanded by adding some “Diversity Alumni Programs and Cornell Mosaic” staff members to support “diverse alumni initiatives”. So, the 2021 virtual program featured many panels that focused on race and equity both at Cornell and in larger society.
The program included a panel on “Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in Leadership” with President Pollack and “Racial Injustice on Campus: Then vs Now” with Tom Jones ‘69. The reunion even featured a panel titled “And to Think I Saw It in the Library: Racism in Children’s Literature,” which covered the Dr. Seuss debate. To me the most surprising panel was “Mosaic Forum: How WE Can Achieve Racial Justice” lead by Africana Studies Professor Noliwe Rooks who began by reading a “land acknowledgment” (while mispronouncing the traditional name of the Cayuga Nation). Rooks touted that although colleges already have Dean’s Advisory Councils, during the past year, many units had established separate Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) councils to “assure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the forefront of their respective missions and goals.” Cornell has mandatory DEI workshops for faculty and staff “and are providing enhanced guidance for our alumni as well.” American Studies Professor Derek Chang then proposed to define “racism” very broadly. He claimed it goes beyond mere prejudice, and challenged the nation’s entire power structure and how social capital and the accumulation of wealth disadvantage some groups over others. Avery August, the Vice Provost who leads Cornell’s diversity efforts, attempted to justify the proposals for mandatory student and faculty training. Surprisingly, Professor Rooks advocated that Cornell should return all of the land that it received under the Morrill Act to various indeginous tribes, which is worth detailed discussion.
By the time that Ezra Cornell came to Ithaca in 1828, the Cayugas had already relocated thirty years earlier to Ohio and Canada with some settling on an Indegenous Reservation near Buffalo. Although the Cayugas dispute a 1794 treaty because it was signed solely by New York State and not ratified by the federal government, decades of litigation determined that the Cayugas had no legitimate claim to tribal lands in New York. They even lost a 2005 Supreme Court decision written by Cornellian Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Accordingly, activists object to the new Ginsburg dorm being placed next to the newly named Ganędagǫ Hall dorm.
The Cayuga Nation is trying to buy or acquire some lands for a new tribal home. Currently, the 493 enrolled Cayuga tribe members own 824 acres. In turn, Native American students and staff have demanded that Cornell surrender all its lands near Ithaca to the Cayuga Nation.
Both the new land acknowledgement statement and the petition argue that Cornell’s campus and endowment are the product of taking lands from the Cayugas. That is false.
First, Cornell’s campus was built on Ezra Cornell’s farm. He purchased it for full value from other European Americans long after the Cayuga Nation relocated. Second, the Morrill Act gave federal lands to the states in proportion to their representation in Congress. By 1863, the federal government no longer owned land inside New York, so Cornell received scrip, a federal land “I owe you”, that could be used to buy federal land in other states. Cornell purchased land in a number of states from Wisconsin to California and held some of the land until 1935 so as to avoid downward fluctuations in land prices. As a result, the University had a net income from the Morrill lands of $5,460,038.96. These funds were then invested in the Cornell endowment. However, in the early 1970’s Cornell shifted from maximizing endowment income toward maximizing total return on the endowment, and reorganized the bookkeeping to allow for a fluctuating share price. So, at $10 a share this would be 546,004 shares. As of April 2021, each share is now $63.09, so the land grant funds have grown to $34,398,239.40 out of a $8.5 billion total endowment, or .4%. The remaining 99.6% was donated by alumni and other benefactors. Long term, the real value of Cornell’s land grant status has been annual funding that is a 50-50 match between the US Dept of Agriculture and New York State. These funds pay for Cornell’s Agricultural Research Station in Ithaca and Geneva and its Cooperative Extension program in every county of New York. So, while Cornell’s blog posts decry a “land-grab university”, the facts are that Cornell is not responsible for US policy toward Native land claims. So, turning over either lands or endowment to settle Native land claims is both illegal and a violation of the wishes of many donors.
Third, advocates have seized upon Cornell’s “any person” ideal to fund an American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) at Cornell within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Over 300 students identify as Native American and in 1983 Cornell started a program for them. In 1991, Cornell opened Akwe:kon, a 35-bed themed dorm.
Beyond “any person… any study,” Ezra wanted New York to have a single Land Grant college that would be a center of academic excellence. Rather than spread the Morrill Land grant among many competing schools, Ezra Cornell insisted as a key State Senator, that all the funds should go to a single institution because one excellent college would better serve society than a number of mediocre ones. So, as higher education in New York has evolved, Cornell serves as the flagship school, with the highest academic standards. SUNY also operates other universities, colleges and community colleges. In fact, Cornell is a member of the “Native American SUNY: Western Consortium” that has a tiered strategy to serve indigenous students. Just because .4% of Cornell’s endowment traces back to land dispossession does not mean that Cornell must offer an Ivy League education to all indigenous students in New York. Instead, SUNY offers a tiered approach to address students of all academic backgrounds and achievements on different campuses.
Finally, although the land acknowledgment references the Cayuga Nation and the protesters demand that Cornell surrender its lands to the Cayuga Nation, it is not clear who would be claiming any returned land. Past Native land claim litigation has included the Seneca-Cayuga nation in Oklahoma, the Canadian branch of the Cayuga tribe as well as a small number of enrolled Cayuga in New York. Of the New York Cayuga, the leadership is bitterly divided to the point of erupting into violence. Although most of the AIISP posting have addressed Cornell’s role in dispossessing Natives west of the Mississippi River, discussion of remedies leap back to just the New York Cayugas.
So, returning alumni are understandably puzzled by the sudden introduction of a “land acknowledgment”, harsh self-criticism of Cornell’s Land Grant and demands for the surrender of Cornell lands around Ithaca. As a whole, the reunion has left Cornell alumni a bit concerned that the school has diverted from its pursuit of academic excellence, and that gifts to Cornell may be diverted from their intended purposes at some point in the future.
This article was published by a member of the Cornell community who requested to remain anonymous.
