Administration
-
2025-2027 Student-Elected Trustee Candidates Speak at Election Forum
Six students are campaigning for the undergraduate student-elected trustee position on the Cornell Board of Trustees. This year’s candidates, who seek to replace incumbent J.P. Swenson ’25, are Marco Martini ’27, Lani Lin-Kissick ’28, David Diao ’27, Reid Schwartz ’27, Keten Abebe ’27 and Christian Flournoy ’27. Elections began on Wednesday and will run until Monday, April 28. The biannually elected position runs for two years, and the chosen representative will become the undergraduate population’s voice on the Board of Trustees, one of Cornell’s top decision-making bodies. On Monday, The Sun held the 2025 Student-Elected Trustee Candidate Forum moderated by Julia Senzon ’26, the editor-in-chief of The Sun, to understand…
-
What Was Said at Kotlikoff’s ‘Conversation With Students’ that Preceded the Kehlani Announcement
The day before President Michael Kotlikoff rescinded Slope Day headliner Kehlani’s invite to perform, top administrators promoted an event to several pro-Israel and historically Jewish Greek Life organizations to meet with concerned students. At the meeting, administrators discussed potential options for the concert, protocols for political activity at Slope Day and student reactions to the controversial headliner. R&B singer Kehlani was set to perform at Slope Day, the annual campus-sponsored concert on Libe Slope following the last day of classes. On Wednesday morning, Kotlikoff announced that he rescinded the artist’s invite in an email to the campus community. When Kehlani was first named as headliner, dissatisfaction surfaced as students and…
-
Zora deRham ’27 Secures Second Term as Student Assembly President, Christian Flournoy ’27 Elected Executive Vice President
Zora deRham ’27 will continue to serve as Student Assembly president and Christian Flournoy ’27 will fill the role of executive vice president, according to the Assembly election results for the 2025-2026 school year, announced at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. deRham won the majority vote in a presidential race against three other candidates. Ameera Aftab ’26 was the runner up for president against Eddy Pang ’28 and Flournoy — who ran for president and executive vice president and is currently on the student-elected trustee ballot. Flournoy also had three competitors for executive vice president, including runner-up Ezra Galperin ’27, Saad Razzak ’26 and David Suarez ’27. The presidential and EVP…
-
BREAKING: Kotlikoff Rescinds Kehlani Invite, Citing Antisemitism and ‘Hateful Views’
After revealing to a group of about 70 concerned students at a town-hall style meeting on Tuesday afternoon that a decision regarding Slope Day would be made “within 24 hours,” President Michael Kotlikoff announced that Kehlani’s invitation to perform was rescinded in an email to the student body on Wednesday morning. In the email, Kotlikoff wrote that it was not the intention for Kehlani’s slope day performance to have “injected division and discord into Slope Day.” “For that reason, I am rescinding Kehlani’s invitation and expect a new lineup for a great 2025 Slope Day to be announced shortly,” Kotlikoff wrote. This decision comes amid a funding freeze of over…
-
Meet the 2025-2027 Student-Elected Trustee Candidates
Cornell students have the opportunity to choose who will serve as the next student-elected trustee on the Board of Trustees for the next two years. Voting opens on Wednesday and students can cast their online ballot until midnight on April 28. This year, six candidates are running to be the next student-elected trustee to replace incumbent, J.P. Swenson ’25. Marco Martini ’27 Wants To Focus on Improving the Physical, Emotional Well-Being of Cornellians By Hope Thomas As a representative in the ILR Student Government Association, second year Air Force ROTC cadet and personal trainer at the Cornell Fitness Centers, Marco Martini ’27 hopes to use his experiences to demonstrate responsibility…
-
Supreme Court Rules for Cornell Employees in Landmark Retirement Plan Case
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Cornell employees in Cunningham et. al. v. Cornell University on Thursday, delivering an opinion that will make it significantly easier for workers to sue employers for retirement plan violations under federal law. More than 30,000 Cornell employees sued the University last Fall, alleging that it violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The plaintiffs claimed that the University mismanaged their 403(b) retirement plans by paying excessive fees to service providers, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund, Fidelity Investments and by failing to monitor investment performance. In the opinion authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Court held that workers…
-
The University Still Has ‘Not Gotten Formal Notification’ of the Funding Freeze, Kotlikoff Tells Student Assembly
As Cornell sees an over $1 billion funding cut from the Trump administration and at least four student visa revocations, President Michael Kotlikoff and Dean of Students Marla Love addressed the Student Assembly at its Thursday meeting. Funding Cuts Kotlikoff said that the University still has “not gotten formal notification” of the funding freeze at the Assembly meeting, over a week after The New York Times broke the news of the cuts on April 8, based on information from U.S. officials. The University received over 75 stop-work orders from the Department of Defense on Monday related to Cornell research “that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health,”…
-
Kotlikoff Acknowledges Assembly Resolution for Immigrant Student Protections, Rejects Several Suggestions
President Michael Kotlikoff acknowledged Student Assembly Resolution 37: “Protecting Immigrant Students” on Monday, while rejecting several of the Assembly’s suggestions and pointing to existing resources for international students. Resolution 37, which sought to increase protections for immigrant students, passed in the Assembly on March 6 in a room crowded with more than 100 community members gathered to show support for the resolution. In his acknowledgement of the resolution, President Kotlikoff rejected several demands, including implementing mandatory “Know Your Rights” training for all students, faculty and staff, designating certain campus buildings, namely religious spaces, as “exempt” from ICE activity and providing legal assistance to international students facing visa revocations. The resolution…
-
17 Lose of Student Status or Visa Revocation as Cornell Responds
Seventeen current and former students have had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records terminated by federal authorities, and at least four of the 17 reported that their visas were revoked, according to a Cornell spokesperson. This development comes after The Sun’s Monday article reported that the University quietly updated an FAQ webpage, revealing that “a small number” of international students have had their SEVIS records terminated. At the time, University officials twice declined to disclose to The Sun how many students were affected. On Tuesday, a University spokesperson shared a statement with The Sun detailing the number of SEVIS record terminations. Of the 17 whose records were terminated,…
-
Employee Assembly Announces Spring 2025 Election Results
Ten employee representatives were announced as winners of the Spring 2025 Employee Assembly election selected to represent the voices of the University’s colleges and schools, divisions, units and identity-based campus communities on Wednesday. The Employee Assembly is a 35-member group representing staff from Cornell’s Ithaca, Geneva and Cornell Tech campuses. Advocating for staff interests, the assembly promotes collaboration with University leadership and works to enhance the staff experience. This spring election used a ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference. Nickey Williams, a recent addition to the Cornell staff, is the assistant director for the Pre-Collegiate Summer Scholars Program. She was elected as the less than…