The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/martha-pollack/page/3/)
President Martha Pollack underscored this academic year’s theme, which centers on freedom of expression, in an email to Cornellians on Thursday, Aug. 24.
A series of jointly themed events aims to manifest the University’s new academic year theme of free expression.
This decision will have impacts for generations to come. Universities must follow suit, the admission process will forever be changed.
President Martha Pollack sat down with The Sun for an exclusive interview reviewing the 2022-2023 school year, touching on topics ranging from free speech to reproductive health.
Last week at the Cans film festival, thousands of lucky fans, critics and members of the film community were treated to a sold out premiere screening of the much anticipated new movie, Pollack: A Martha Story. Reuniting Martin Scorsese as director and Paul Schraeder as writer, Pollack stars character actress Margot Martindale as Cornell’s very own beloved president, following her through the early years of her life. It opens from humble beginnings, with Martha only a student at Dartmouth — one of the worst schools in the Ivy League — and follows her as she works her way up to become a graduate student at a marginally better Ivy League school. It charts serious setbacks (serving as an administrator at a public university) and brilliant accomplishments, such as working in the field of AI a mere decade before it actually got exciting. Scorsese films each titillating scene with his trademark flourishes, and presents the hallowed halls of academia in the same manner that he’s previously captured the Mafia, Wall Street Criminals and Gilded Age politicians.
Of course, every biopic is only as good as its central romance, and Pollack is no exception, featuring a brilliant turn from Tilda Swinton as Vice President Ryan Lombardi.
Asking someone to watch a film that taps into that trauma, in the hope that the difficult material will recontextualize the way they see their experience, risks just as much that it’ll set them back in grappling with said experience.
President Martha Pollack provided details on the 2023-2024 academic theme of “The Indispensable Condition: Freedom of Expression at Cornell” in a Monday email to the Cornell community.
President Martha Pollack attended this week’s Student Assembly meeting to discuss the resolutions regarding content warnings and a permanent on-campus gynecologist, which were both rejected by Pollack.
In an April 3 email, President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff rejected a March 23 Student Assembly resolution requesting content warnings for graphic classroom content, citing academic freedom and academic integrity.
In an email to Student Assembly, President Martha Pollack expressed support for Resolution 20, which promotes increased access to nonprescription health care supplies including contraception through campus vending machines.