2024 in Review: Passing the Torch to New Administrators
The Reviews Recap of the 2024 Year
Author: Review Staff
Cornell students, community members, and alumni contribute to the Cornell Review. Staff consists of student writers collaborating on articles, with occasional guest submissions as well.
-
-
Labor News
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has generally supported viewing graduate students as employees with rights to form unions. As of July 2023, there were at least 156 active graduate student unions in the U.S. Also, currently, U.S. colleges have 775 faculty bargaining unions in public sector and private sector institutions of higher education. Unionization at private colleges are subject to the NLRB, and public colleges are governed by state labor relations authorities, such as the PERB in New York State. To date, there has been no public move to unionize Cornell’s faculty.
-
Committee on Expressive Activity Issues Final Report
The Cornell Committee on Expressive Activity (CCEA) issued its Final Report on December 18 that was shared in an email from Chair Colleen Barry to all students, faculty and staff.
-
Truth and Reconciliation: Indigenous Claims
This article is the Cornell Review’s celebration of November as “Native American Heritage Month.”
-
Boston University Shuts Down Humanities Graduate Admissions
Boston University has posted on its website that it will not accept new Ph.D. candidates for the 2025-26 academic year. The affected programs include American and New England Studies, Anthropology, Classical Studies, English, History, History of Art and Architecture, Linguistics, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Romance Studies, and Sociology.
-
Cornell’s Endowment Earns Middle-of-the-Pack Returns
Cornell’s endowment is critical to both the survival as well as the quality of the University. Peer Universities have now released their financial returns for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, and Cornell’s investment gurus have produced middle of the pack results, at 8.7%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index grew 22.7% during that period.
-
Cornell Lobbies as Washington Transitions to Trump
Cornell has been fiscally tied to the Federal Government since its very founding. Accordingly, Cornell devoted resources to managing this vital relationship.
-
Named Honors at Cornell
In general, it is not clear how the tradition of naming buildings at universities or at Cornell in particular, got started. Naming rights were associated with a generous gift or recognition of service to the university. By the time naming rights became firmly linked in the public’s mind as a great honor, people realized that the honor could not be easily revoked or amended.
