The Cornell Review looks back at the events of this past year. The year marked a Presidential transition with President Kotlikoff and Provost Bala taking full control of Cornell’s direction.
The Trump Administration Attacks Cornell Research
A public document, Project 2025, outlined the Trump campaign’s policy objectives if he won the 2024 Presidential election. Although Trump distanced himself from the document, he later appointed many of its authors to key positions in his administration. The document accused universities of overcharging for indirect costs under federal research grants in an effort to fund “leftist agendas.” The Cornell Review predicted that Cornell’s strength as a research institution would become newsworthy and reported that Cornell had the second-highest amount of federal grants in the Ivy League.
Trump became president on January 20, 2025, and his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quickly paused new federal research grants. However, a court enjoined the pause.
The Department of Defense, Department of Energy, National Institute of Health, and the National Science Foundation then attempted to cap indirect costs at 15% of the direct costs of research grants. Because the federal government had already approved Cornell’s 64% indirect cost recovery rate, Cornell joined other research universities and trade associations in successfully suing those agencies to lift the 15% indirect cost cap.
The Trump administration then turned to a university-by-university attack. The Trump administration established a task force to address antisemitism and Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at elite colleges, and Cornell was among those targeted. The Trump administration announced that $1 billion in Cornell’s federal research funding would be frozen, and specific “stop work” orders were sent to halt individual research grants. Cornell noted that the frozen grants did not appear to relate to the allegations of antisemitism.
In response, both Harvard University and the unions representing Harvard faculty and staff successfully sued the Trump Administration, claiming that the freeze violated the First Amendment.
Meanwhile, Cornell and other universities hit by the freeze conducted private settlement negotiations with the Trump Administration. On November 7, Cornell announced a settlement that would lift the research grant freeze in exchange for a $30 million payment to the government and an additional $30 million commitment to agricultural research. Under the settlement, Cornell is eligible to compete for new federal research funding “without disadvantage or preference.”
However, the Trump administration has cut the 2026 budget of the NIH, NSF, and other agencies that provide research grants.
On December 5, an alumni group called “Cornell Courage” traveled to Ithaca to present to President Kotlikoff a petition signed by 300 Cornell alumni condemning the agreement.
Reforming Cornell’s Conduct Process
From 1868 until December 2020, Cornell’s conduct process was the responsibility of the faculty and later elected shared governance bodies such as the University Assembly (UA). In December 2020, the Trustees adopted a new Student Code of Conduct and Judicial Procedures over the objections of the UA. The Trustees transferred control to Vice President Ryan Lombardi “in ongoing collaborative consultation with the elected Assemblies of the University.”
Instead of an independent Judicial Administrator reporting to the UA, a new Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) reported to Lombardi, subject to annual performance reviews that were required to involve the Student Assembly (SA) and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly. (GPSA) Important checks and balances, such as a public annual OSCCS annual report, and SA and GPSA review of the Student Code and Procedures, were then ignored for four years.
Public dissatisfaction with the new system spread, particularly after the processing of cases seemed to be delayed until students were pressured into pleading guilty because hearings were rarely scheduled. Many cases were placed on “interim suspension” for what appeared to be punitive reasons in cases where the final punishment was much less than a suspension. Pro-Palestinian protestors alleged that the rules were enforced based on the political beliefs of the accused students.
VP Lombardi proposed to staff the promised Review Committee after a four-year absence, but filled it with six administrators and five others. This drew criticism from the Faculty Senate, the Employee Assembly, the SA, and the GPSA, who passed critical resolutions. In addition, students proposed two referenda for an undergraduate vote asking for independence from the central administration and a return from a student-only code to a code that applied to students, faculty, and staff.
Although the referendum was mysteriously delayed until the first days of finals, the referendum drew about 3,000 voters who voted 93% and 91% in favor of the two referenda.
Encouraging Free Expression and Ending Cancel Culture
Since 2022, the Cornell Review and others have advocated that Cornell adopt the Kalven Report on institutional neutrality. On March 11, Cornell appointed a task force to review the issue. They issued an interim report on “institutional voice” and collected further comments. Some comments questioned whether Cornell’s “land acknowledgement” was consistent with institutional neutrality. The Cornell Review co-sponsored a panel discussion on the interim report.
The Cornell Review also co-sponsored other events to encourage free expression. On April 10, it hosted a showing of a biographical documentary on noted First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams ‘56, followed by a panel discussion. On June 1, it co-sponsored a webinar on the First Amendment and Academic Freedom.
On March 28, Cornell approved an Expressive Activity Policy that set time, place, and manner restrictions on free expression activities.
On March 31, the New York Times printed an op-ed by President Kotlikoff condemning those who “seek to advance their own agendas by silencing individuals and ideas with which they disagree.”
On April 24, President Kotlikoff cancelled Kehlani as the Slope Day headliner because of her prior public statements supporting Palestine. Students conducted an alternative Slope Day in protest.
President Kotlikoff Leads on a New Path
President Martha Pollack announced that she would retire on June 30, 2024, and Michael Kotlikoff became interim President for the following two academic years, to be followed by a national search. Kotlikoff then led a selection process that picked Kavita Bala to serve as Provost for a five-year term starting January 1, 2025.
On March 21, the Board of Trustees dropped “interim” from his title and extended his service beyond the 2025-26 academic year. This move empowered Kotlikoff to better deal with the challenges of the Trump Administration.
RELATED: Cornell Faces Financial Challenges
In turn, Kotlikoff and Bala launched Resilient Cornell, which reviewed every Cornell budget area and identified staff reductions.
Finally, VP for Human Relations Christine Lovely left Cornell in December, and General Counsel Donica Thomas Varner announced that she would leave by February 6, 2026. VP for University Relations Joel Malina also left on January 5, 2025.
Graduate Education & Unionization
Cornell’s academic reputation is based upon both its current faculty and the PhD candidates that they supervise. The Graduate School, which overlaps with all of the other Cornell colleges, deals with the mechanics of awarding degrees and funding individual graduate students.
In November 2023, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) conducted an election where Cornell’s graduate students voted to join the CGSU-UE union, and for more than a year, Cornell administrators and the CGSU-UE met to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. However, the talks did not turn to discuss economic issues until January 2025, and the parties were very far apart. After taking steps to go on strike, CGSU-UE ratified an agreement on April 11, providing each graduate student with a $1,300 ratification bonus.
Cornell and CGSU-UE are still disputing how students can refuse to pay union dues based upon religious or philosophical objections. Other students are challenging whether they are “employees” subject to the NLRB.
On July 31, Kathryn Boor ‘80, Dean of the Graduate School, retired, and Thomas A. Lewis, who held the same job at Brown, replaced her. Former Student Trustee Mao Ye, ‘11, endowed a teaching award for graduate teaching assistants.
Sports
In 2025, long-time Men’s Hockey Coach Mike Schafer ‘86 retired, and Casey Jones ‘90 took over as head coach for the 2025-26 season. On May 26, the Men’s Lacrosse team won the NCAA national championship for the first time in 48 years.
Nationally, the future nature of college sports was changed by a federal district court approving the settlement of an antitrust case, House v. NCAA. Under the House settlement, the NCAA will pay $2.8 billion in back payments to varsity athletes who had competed since 2016. The settlement also capped Name Image and Likeness (NIL) payments at each college to $20 million per year. Cornell, as a part of the Ivy League, opted out of the House settlement.
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In September, the Ivy League began to require that colleges sign a document for any student NIL payment over $2,000, stating that the school played no role in arranging for the payment.
Other Developments
On March 13, Cornell Giving Day raised $11.2 million in a 24-hour period. This past year, Cornell raised a total of $878 million in new gifts and commitments.
With continuing challenges from the State and Federal government and internal policy contentions, 2025 has proven to be a prelude to 2026.
