Victory for homecoming!

Time to say goodbye

Considering taking the course next semester

Attention Cornell endowed staff and faculty

On Wednesday, October 21 at 12:00pm ET, leadership will present the 2027 endowed health insurance benefits update to the Employee Assembly.

The presentation will cover the 2027 endowed health plans, including premiums and plan design such as deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, as well as 2027 dental and vision coverage. For context, endowed family plan premiums went up by $200/month in 2026. Any potential changes to the contract college plans will be announced at a later date.

How to attend:

• Please contact the Office of the Assemblies at [assembly@cornell.edu](mailto:assembly@cornell.edu) for access to Zoom meeting links.
• Or subscribe to email updates at https://assembly.cornell.edu/shared-governance/employee-assembly and request the EA info/agenda list.

About Q&A: Employee Assembly members are given priority during the Q&A. Non-EA questions will be allowed if time remains.

Want your question asked? EA seats represent specific colleges and units. Find the representative for your college or unit at https://assembly.cornell.edu/shared-governance/employee-assembly/members and send them your question before Wednesday. If your division or college seat is vacant, you can contact an at-large representative whose seat fits you, such as the exempt, non-exempt, or less-than-5-years-of-service reps. You can also send it to [assembly@cornell.edu](mailto:assembly@cornell.edu) and ask that it be passed along. Endowed faculty can DM me questions here.

Please share this with endowed colleagues, especially anyone who doesn’t follow Reddit or campus email closely.

*note to our mods: I will be reposting this at least once.

Which is better

That’s where he was hiding!

Staff here. My supervisor has gaslit me, steamrolled me, and severely undermined my confidence. I can no longer function normally at work or elsewhere. I cannot go on like this.

Has anyone been in a similar situation in this system? My DMs are open. I might not be able to share specifics, I am terrified of retaliation.

I was the "math kid" at my school. Skipped two grades in math. Took courses at my community college my senior year (Calc III and diff eq) because my high school did not offer it. Got a 36 on the Math section of the ACT.

I just took my first math prelim (MTH 2210) and scored 20 points below the median. I feel like a total idiot. I thought I knew the material pretty well too. I've been getting kind of subpar grades for the career I want to go in (academia?), but now I feel like I am just not good enough to get into the grad schools needed to do that. People have been telling me that I'm overreacting but linear algebra is a foo-foo class compared to some of the insane shit I'd be doing later on.

I'm not sure how to react to this information. I kind of have to major in math (?) because I need to graduate early for financial reasons and my transfer credits from community college make it significantly easier to do so.

What should I do? Got any advice?

I have never experienced as many inquiries about my alma mater as I am presently.

Mine has moved a few times this week. I’d love to hear what’s moved yours, if anything has, and whether it’s something we can currently see.

I understand the sentiment of wanting to end all fraternities. I get it. It seems like a simple step to take. The question remains whether or not it will solve an underlying problem which arguably runs much deeper than fraternity culture.

Fraternities are convenient lightning rods for bad press. When an incident occurs at a fraternity, it spawns discussions and outrage at larger targets: the whole chapter, the university, and the entire Greek system. Those are things that more people can relate to so those stories create engagement and page views, which seems to be at the core of our culture of outrage these days. When an assault or an overdose occurs in a random dorm room, we rarely hear about it.

Not hearing about it is not the same as it not happening. There have been many studies, including ones done at Cornell, that indicate that the vast majority of campus sexual assaults occur in dormitories, apartments, and off-campus housing. Even at a school like Cornell which has a very active Greek community (Cornell claims 30% of its students are affiliated with a Greek house), these assaults disproportionately occur OUTSIDE of fraternities. Do some of these incidents occur at other locations after one or both students left a fraternity party? Maybe. That stands to reason if fraternities are currently the social focus of the university.

Not everyone who attends college is interested in a social life. Indeed, at elite universities like Cornell, students have worked hard to get in and are more likely to prioritize academics over anything else. After all, that was the primary impetus for forming the Ivy League in the first place. But there are still many students who prefer a balance of academics, sports, social life, and/or other activities. At Cornell, those students tend to migrate to the Greek system. And it works. The fraternities host the parties and students can choose to attend or not (granted, invites are often required, but they're not hard to get). Those who don't want to participate find their dorms/apartments/housing a quieter, gentler place because the wild parties are happening elsewhere.

So what would happen if all the Greek houses were closed? The short-term problem would be that thousands of students would be without housing. Either those houses would need to be converted or knocked down and new ones built. In some cases, even the chapter houses that are technically on Cornell's campus are owned by, or at least maintained by, the fraternity alumni associations and they would have to be compensated. Cornell currently faces at least one lawsuit for closing a fraternity chapter after the alumni spent millions paying off the mortgage and building additions. For the off-campus houses, Cornell could simply disaffiliate them. That would likely cause them not to be covered under their respective national Greek organizations' insurance policies, so they would effectively disband. All of these students would be homeless in the short-term.

In the near-term, the campus would be filled with a lot of socially-minded students that would somehow be expected to integrate back into the rest of campus. They would still be the same people with all the same predilictions, but they would then be living right next door to the very people who are leading the campus protests about them right now. Parties and wild behavior would not go away, it would all just occur everywhere instead of being somewhat contained in the fraternity houses. At least with the Greek system, the university has some ability to provide oversight and it has the leverage of issuing censures like chapter expulsions or suspensions - something Cornell has done 20+ times over the last 25 years. Cornell simply does not have the same leverage over the other living accommodations on or around campus that it does over the fraternities. The Greek system provides a place to focus regulation.

In the longer-term, students that might have once been attracted to Cornell due to its once-thriving social life may simply choose to apply elsewhere. Having all young, socially-minded males disappear from campus might be music to the ears of certain segments of the Cornell community, but is it healthy? Don’t many detractors mainly complain that fraternities are all too homogenous and like-minded within their walls? (Are they just earlier, brick-and-mortar versions of the echo chambers that we all increasingly find oursleves in these days?) That's easily disputed, but when the solution to that is to make Cornell less diverse by eliminating a whole segment of students, it makes me wonder if the detractors of fraternities simply want to be surrounded by people that are only like themselves. Are they guilty of exactly the intolerance that they ascribe to the fraternities? What happenes when the sheltered, coddled future graduates of Cornell get out into the real world and have not developed strategies to co-exist with other types of people?

On a side note, I’m less clear on why sororities are rarely included in discussions on this topic. The reason for this conversation is obviously the Jane Doe incident. Let’s not forget that, by her own words, she consumed more alcohol at her own sorority than she did at all bars, clubs, and fraternities combined that night. And, to be clear, if Cornell were to close its fraternities and leave its sororities open, there would be a massive Title IX complaint. Remember, Title IX cuts both ways.

Elininating fraternities would be a liability-mitigating act which may protect Cornell, but it would do nothing to solve the underlying social behavior on campus, therefore it would do nothing to protect Cornellians. Fraternities provide an environment for a lot of healthy social interaction, but I also fully understand that they amass individuals of a similar vibe which may amplify their behavior, they allow for consolidation of funds to gain access to alcohol (possibly drugs), and they provide venues for parties which sometimes give rise to unwanted behavior. All of those things are true, but they would just manifest themselves in different, unexpected ways if the fraternities were to disappear (for reference, research the chaos that happened during Covid). In that event, the underlying bad behavior would still exist, but Cornell would have sacrificed all of the positives of Greek life. That underlying bad behavior is certainly not unique to Cornell and exists at every other university campus, each of which is grappling with the same issues and watching Cornell closely. There is zero - absolutely ZERO - evidence that Cornell is in any way an outlier with respect to sexual assaults, despite all the anecdotal dog-piling that can be found on social media right now. That sexual assaults happen everywhere is not an adequate defense. That it happens at all is terrible.

The one good thing that might come out of this is that Cornell has the opportunity, perhaps the mandate, to be a leader in stomping out sexual assault on our campus. To that end, I believe that the time has come to find the right leader for Cornell going forward. Mike Kotlikoff has admirably attacked the job that he was hired to do, namely raise funds, but we live in a whole new world than we did a month ago and we need leadership that is equipped to deal with a new set of priorities. We need someone that is in tune with the student body enough to be able to create meaningful change in behavior at the root level. Creating a compelling path forward with leaders that understand the underlying problems is critical, but closing the fraternities is not the answer.

Leaked audio and video of Faculty Senate meeting

Dear CGSU-UE Member,

Last week, we brought more than 2,000 community members to a protest of Cornell’s handling of the Jane Doe case, calling on them to do more to protect our community and bring survivors to justice. Our financial secretary Andrea Cicirello gave a moving statement [link]. Now, we have the chance to bring our demands directly to the people who run this university: the Cornell Trustees!

Come to Myron Taylor Courtyard (next to the law school) at3:30pm TODAY!! We’ll be putting the Cornell 7, the Office of Student Conduct, the administrators who let this happen, and the entire Greek life system on trial! 

Our demands are:

1. The immediate resignation and/or termination of Cornell administrators Michael Kotlikoff, Ryan Lombardi, Brian White, Robert Harrington, Kavita Bala, and Christina Liang;
2. The expulsion or revocation of the degrees of all Chi Phi brothers involved in the gang rape of Jane Doe;
3. The abolition of all Interfraternity Council (IFC) Greek Life at Cornell;
4. And the dissolution of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) and the creation of a new democratic Cornell judiciary system.

Join us at 3:30 PM at Myron Taylor Courtyard to let Cornell know that graduate workers will not allow unjust systems and administrators to profit from our labor while the community remains unsafe.

Also, sign our petition calling for Cornell to use their billions of dollars for the community rather than spending them on fancy buildings, executive salaries, and the administrative systems used to cover up sexual assault.

SIGN THE PETITION

im on the student health insurance as an undergrad. I just got referred for an MRI. I could not find any detail about costs online and mistakenly did not ask the front office lady how that works with the cornell insurance. Anybody who has had an MRI here know? Im going to contact Cornell health but I was also looking for some personal anecdotes.

Hello! I come from a family where mental health isn’t seen as an issue so I wanted to see what others do when they experience something similar. I’ve always had anxiety about everything like ordering food but thought I could just work around it. Since coming to Cornell, it’s affected my exams so much, I feel like throwing up, get dizzy or I can’t read words on my test. Before my exams I try to stop doing anything for 1-2 hours, I’ve tried breathing techniques but every time I think about the thing that makes me anxious it all goes out the window :( it impacts my sleep and it feels like I am in autopilot during the exam and I can’t stop thinking about it for days. I also don’t have the student health insurance so I haven’t tried talking to anyone. Has anyone experienced the same and what has helped?

I pledged a fraternity when I was a Freshman because I was paying tuition out of a personal student loan, and I couldn't afford to rent an apartment in Collegetown. In order to secure a place to live my Sophomore year, I joined a house and moved in there. Cornell has a way of basically forcing huge numbers of its student body into Greek Life and we see the consequences.

The real BEGINNING solution to solving the recent issues is to shut down every building that operates as a frat house. Do not let people live in these buildings. They are traps for hazing, illegal drinking and drug use and sexual assault. Shut them down, move everyone out and build the housing that's needed to support all the students you gladly charge tuition to.

When the news broke of Jane Doe's civil suit against the university, the fraternity, her sorority, a bar, and the individual fraternity members who are accused of rape and sexual assault, my initial response was that the Greek system should be abolished. Not just fraternities, but sororities, too. Not just at Cornell, but at all institutions.

I still lean toward this point of view, but I am less sure of it now. Partially, this is because I am concerned that my perspective as a white alumnus fails to take into account that of students who are a part of Black fraternities and sororities. I know that I do not know enough about the historically Black and other culturally based historical organizations on campus to feel comfortable waving my hand at all Greek life and saying it must go.

That said, I am wondering whether Cornell and other institutions should investigate another option, which is to end the self-governance of fraternities and sororities. Institutions and the national organizations should agree to cede management responsibilities to universities and colleges. Specifically, I am talking about the placement of RAs or specialized student/graduate live-in coordinators in the houses. The RAs or live-in coordinators would be required to have no relationship with the Greek organizations under their charge.

Universities and colleges are reluctant to take on formal liability for what happens in the houses, which would be the case in such an arrangement, but as the Jane Doe case illustrates at Cornell, that liability already exists.

EDIT: Rather than kneejerk upvotes or downvotes, please contribute opinions.

The whole point of university frats is that the university can (at least somewhat) regulate them. Banning parties, entirely, just moves the parties off frat houses to off campus houses. You can’t seriously expect students not to have a single party for the rest of the year. At least when there were frat parties before, there was even a teensy bit of expectation that Cornell was to do something if something went wrong.

-Signed a recent alum with a sibling that is a current Cornell student in a frat who I expect will do even more dumb stuff now that Cornell has zero liability whatsoever sigh

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