‘DEI should never have been allowed to corrupt an institution that earned its prestige for exemplary academics based on merit,’ Mr. Lindseth said.
A major alumnus donor is pushing Cornell University to oust its president for allegedly promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that undermine education quality and academic freedom at the Ivy League school.
In a letter dated Jan. 23 to Cornell’s chairman Kraig Kayser and board of trustees, Jon A. Lindseth, a long-time donor and trustee emeritus, raised concerns over DEI policies and its “harmful effects” on the school and demanded Cornell fire president Martha Pollack and provost Michael Kotlikoff.
“Cornell must abandon its misguided commitment to DEI because it has yielded not excellence but disgrace,” he said. “Replace the President and the Provost.”
“DEI should never have been allowed to corrupt an institution that earned its prestige for exemplary academics based on merit,” Mr. Lindseth said.
In the letter, Mr. Lindseth said he was concerned about the DEI initiatives that have infiltrated all aspects of the university, creating a “toxic academic environment.”
“Today, the instruction Cornell offers is in DEI groupthink applied to every field of study. The result is a moral decay, some call it ‘rot,’ that falls in line with prevailing ideology and dishonors basic principles of justice and free speech,” he noted.
Mr. Lindseth listed multiple instances at Cornell that call DEI policies into question, such as allegedly race-based hiring rather than academic merit, rejecting qualified faculty candidates for not meeting DEI requirements, and punishing faculty members “for expressing minority opinions on national events and policy matters,” among others. He also accused the school of fostering “a cancel culture on campus where bullying, intolerance, and petulant behavior rule rather than academic rigor and honest debate.”
“A new campus ‘bias reporting system’ fosters a hostile Orwellian environment among neighbors, classmates, and colleagues reporting on one another. The elimination of grades and SATs has created a system in which equal outcomes rather than proven merit has become the objective,” Mr. Lindseth said. ”This is disastrous for a research university that is built upon academic achievement and aims to educate and train some of our country’s leading scientists, architects, and engineers.”
By Aaron Pan
