To the editor:
Cornell University has the immense privilege of being exempt from property taxes. It enjoys this privilege due to New York State law’s treatment of nonprofit organizations, the underlying purpose of which is to help sustain institutions that will serve the public interest. The tax exemption is a public subsidy to Cornell to support its mission to provide education for the common good. The public mission of education reflects the democratic value of education, which should benefit society as a whole and should not serve as a private commodity benefiting only the individual student or faculty member.
This tax exemption — this public subsidy — heightens Cornell’s moral obligation and social duty to act as a responsible member of the communities in which it is embedded. The communities of Ithaca and Tompkins County benefit from Cornell’s presence. However, that is only a part of the story. Cornell’s presence also imposes heavy financial and social costs on these communities through Cornell’s use of public services, its enjoyment of the benefits of this region and its negative impact of raising the cost of living in Ithaca and surrounding communities. To maintain its legitimacy as an educational institution for the common good and to fulfill its moral and social obligations to contribute to the well-being of these communities, Cornell should pay its fair share to defray these heavy costs and contribute positively to the communities in which it lives. To maintain its standing as a national leader in sustainability and social progress, Cornell must show leadership in its own community by making payments commensurate with its rapid growth.
Further, as revealed by the Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project, Cornell was founded on, and has profited from, Indigenous dispossession and land theft here on Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ homelands and throughout the country. In addition to the forms of reparation called for by the Project, the University must change its extractive relationship to the communities of which we are a part.
Cornell’s privileged legal status is a prime reason why Ithaca has accumulated a large public debt, why Ithaca faces a budget deficit this year and why Ithaca faces a sustainability crisis in the long term. For the last twenty years, Cornell has made a miserly contribution to the City of Ithaca, and even less to the wider communities in Tompkins County. Its contribution, moreover, has been heavily restricted so that much of the funding it does provide must be spent on priorities set or agreed to by Cornell, rather than on priorities established by the democratic process.
It is time for Cornell to face up to its responsibilities and to contribute its fair share. This requires Cornell to increase its payments to the City of Ithaca and other elected bodies, substantially beyond the $4 million currently on offer; to fully remove restrictions on the use of these funds; to remove prohibitions against advocating for changes to nonprofit tax law; and to agree to a more regular updating to account not just for inflation but for the growth of Cornell and new costs facing our communities.
Like many large enterprises, Cornell brings many benefits to the region. In making its case to the public, however, the University does not account for any of the costs it imposes alongside these benefits. For example, it lists the size of its payroll (as if though paying employees is an act of kindness), but does not list Ithaca’s shortage of affordable housing, or the higher property taxes paid by homeowners — and by extension renters — that results from Cornell’s tax exempt status. It lists grants it has provided to small businesses, but does not consider the enormous wear on public infrastructure generated by the influx of students, parents or alumni. It lists its investments in community organizations, but does not note the lack of public investments that results from its non-payment of taxes.
As faculty, we are members of the Cornell community. As residents of Ithaca, Lansing, Dryden, Trumansburg and elsewhere, we are also members of a wider set of communities in Tompkins County. These communities should not be separated based on their well-being and standards of living. But as long as Cornell continues to exempt itself from its social responsibilities, to believe that unlike other major employers and property owners it can set for itself the terms upon which this responsibility is met, Cornell makes our communities separate and decidedly unequal. While Cornell might privately decide to invest in local organizations, this is not equivalent to an investment in the public services and infrastructure under community direction and control that only public governments can achieve.
Expanding public investments is an issue of racial and economic justice. Many workers, including many who are employed at Cornell, cannot afford to live in the City of Ithaca and rely on underfunded and inadequate public transportation to get to work. This visible and felt inequality makes it difficult to hire or retain workers of color. An Ithaca in which wealthier academic peers are segregated into overwhelmingly White neighborhoods while Ithaca’s historically Black neighborhoods remain cut off from Cornell’s wealth is not a welcoming environment for faculty or staff of color.
As faculty at Cornell, we take note of the University’s stated commitments to diversity. A robust commitment to diversity requires paying a fair share to the city toward improved public infrastructure and public life. Rather than dispensing financial incentives to individuals that cumulatively yield professional redlining and exacerbate inequality, we call on the University to adopt holistic approaches toward recruitment and retention that involve public investments. Substantially increasing Cornell’s payment through a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) would be part of such a change, and could address the displacement experienced by low income and communities of color in Ithaca while creating more reciprocity between the University and the city.
We call on Cornell to do the right thing and pay its fair share to the City of Ithaca and additional communities affected by Cornell’s presence, including Dryden, Lansing and Tompkins County. With its $10 billion endowment, Cornell can and should significantly increase its financial contribution to these communities. Cornell should engage in further negotiations to reach a fair agreement.
Signed,
Begum Adalet, Assistant Professor of Government
Chloe Ahmann, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Esra Akcan, Professor, Department of Architecture
Michael Ashkin, Professor, Department of Art
Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz, Assistant Professor, Performing and Media Arts
Annetta Alexandridis, Associate Professor of Art History and Classics
Santiago Anria, Assistant Professor, ILR
Ananda Cohen-Aponte, Associate Professor, History of Art
Oumar Ba, Assistant Professor of Government
Sandra Babcock, Clinical Professor of Law
Christine Bacareza Balance, Associate Professor of Performing & Media Arts (PMA) and American Studies
Diane Bailey, Geri Gay Professor of Communication
Audrey Baker, Public Health Program, Instructor and Manager of applied practice
Ernesto Bassi, Associate Professor, History
David Bateman, Associate Professor of Government
Richard Bensel, Gary S. Davis Professor of Government
Sarah Besky, Associate Professor, ILR School
Eliza Bettinger, Associate Librarian, Director of Digital Scholarship Services, Cornell University Library
Rachel Bezner Kerr, Professor, Department of Global Development
Amiel Bize, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Alexandra Blackman, Assistant Professor of Government
Caitlin Blanchfield, Visiting Lecturer, Architecture
Justin Bloesch, Assistant Professor, ILR
Erik Born, Assistant Professor, German Studies
Jonathan Boyarin, Professor of Anthropology
Jeremy Braddock, Associate Professor of Literatures in English
Leslie Brack, Lecturer, Department of Art
Anne Marie Brady, Research Director, Worker Institute, ILR School
Mary P Brady, Professor, Literatures in English, Director, American Studies Program
Ross Brann, Milton Konvitz Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Kate Bronfenbrenner, Senior Lecturer, Global Labor and Work, ILR
Laura Brown, John Wendell Anderson Professor, Department of Literatures in English
E. Wayles Browne, Professor Emeritus, Linguistics
Jamie Budnick, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Iliana Burgos, Emerging Data Practices Librarian, Olin Library
Jodi Byrd, Associate Professor, Literatures in English, American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Marty Cain, Visiting Lecturer, Literatures in English
Andrew Campana, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies
Thomas J. Campanella, Professor of City and Regional Planning
Patricia Campos Medina, RTE Faculty, ILR Extension The Worker Institute
Cathy Caruth, Class of 1916 Professor, Literatures in English and Comparative Literature
Jean Bernard Cerin, Assistant Professor, Music
Derek Chang, Associate Professor of History & Asian American Studies
Julia Chang, Assistant Professor, Romance Studies
Suzanne Charles, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning, Real Estate
Allison Chatrchyan, Research Associate, School of Integrative Plant Science
Eric Cheyfitz, Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters, Professor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Michell Chresfield, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies
Jeffrey M. Chusid, Associate Professor, City and Regional Planning
Reyna Cohen, Extension Associate, ILR Climate Jobs Institute
Elisha Cohn, Assistant Professor, Literatures in English
Monica Cornejo, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication
Angela B. Cornell, Clinical Professor of Law
Erin York Cornwell, Associate Professor of Sociology
Raymond Craib, Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History
Cathy Creighton, Director ILR Buffalo Co-Lab
Iftikhar Dadi, Professor of History of Art
Anne DeCecco, Senior Extension Associate, ILR
Jim DelRosso, Librarian, Assistant Director of Catherwood Library
Ileen A. DeVault, Professor of Labor History, ILR School
Molly Diesing, Professor, Linguistics
Laurie Drinkwater, Professor, School of Integrated Plant Science
Virginia Doellgast, Professor, ILR
Christophe Duplais, Associate Research Professor, Department of Entomology
Deborah Dinner, Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Law
Shimon Edelman, Professor of Psychology
Reanna Esmail, Lead Librarian for Instruction, Cornell University Library
Lara Estroff, Department Chair, Materials Science and Engineering
Matthew Evangelista, President White Professor of History and Political Science
Darlene Evans, Senior Lecturer, Knight Institute, CAS (retired)
Ding Fei, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning
Paul Fleming, Director, Society for the Humanities
Carolyn Fornoff, Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies
Jill Frank, President White Professor of History and Political Science, Dept of Government
Robert H. Frankj, Professor Emeritus, JGSM
Chelsea Mikael Frazier, Assistant Professor, Dept of Literatures in English
Emily Fridlund, Associate Professor of Literatures in English
Eli Friedman, Associate Professor of Global Labor and Work
Kelley Gallagher, Assistant Professor of Microbiology
Maria Cristina Garcia, Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies
Albert George, John F. Carr Professor Emeritus of Systems, Mechanical Engineering, and Aerospace Engineering
Carl Ginet, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
Shannon Gleeson, Edmund Ezra Day Professor, Chair Department of Global Labor and Work – School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Brooks School of Public Policy
Jane Glaubman, Visiting Lecturer, Literatures in English
Lawrence Glickman, Professor, History
Rachel T. Goldberg, Associate Clinical Professor of Law
William W. Goldsmith, Professor emeritus, City and Regional Planning
Jenny Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Global Development, CALS
Seema Golestaneh, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies
María González Pendás, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture
Charlie Green, Senior Lecturer, Department of Literatures in English
Denise Nicole Green, Associate Professor, Human Centered Design
Joanna Green, Senior Extension Associate, Retired
Ian Greer, Research Professor, ILR School
Kate Griffith, Professor, ILR
James A. Gross, Professor Emeritus ILR
John Haines-Eitzen, Senior Lecturer, Department of Music
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Hendrix Memorial Professor, Department of Near Eastern Studies
Elisabeth Haly Meyer, Associate Professor, Department of Art
Jessica Hanshaw, Instructor, PE Department
Karla Hanson, Professor of Practice, Dept. of Public & Ecosystem Health
James Hardwick, Adjunct Professor of Law
Matthew Hare, Associate Professor, Natural Resources and the Environment
Samia Henni, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture
Stella Hein, Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Neil Hertz, Professor Emeritus of English
Andrew Hicks, Associate Professor of Music and Medieval Studies
TJ Hinrichs, Associate Professor of History
Daniel Hirschman, Associate Professor of Sociology
Saida Hodzic, Associate Professor of Anthropology and FGSS
Judith Hubbard, Visiting Assistant Professor, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Allison Hutchison, Senior Lecturer, Engineering Communications Program
Rehana Huq, Lecturer, ILR School
Misha Inniss-Thompson, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Bryan L. Isacks, Sr., Former Chairman and Professor Emeritus, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Tristan Ivory, Assistant Professor (Global Labor and Work)
Mari Jarris, New Faculty Fellow, Department of German
Kurt A. Jordan, Professor of Anthropology and American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Daniel Katz, Assistant Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science
Peter Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, Department of Government
Patricia Keller, Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature
Lori Khatchadourian, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology
Athena Kirk, Associate Professor of Classics
Nicholas Klein, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning
Sally Klingel, Senior Extension Associate, Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, ILR School
Allen Knutson, Professor, Department of Mathematics
Alex Kowalski, Assistant Professor, ILR
Paul Kohlbry, Postdoctoral Associate, Anthropology
Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, Associate Professor of History
Theodore Korzukhin, Senior Lecturer, Philosophy
Whitney Kramer, ILR Research and Data Librarian, Catherwood Library, ILR
Amy R. Krosch, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Sarosh Kuruvilla, Professor
Brian Lazzaro, Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor, Departments of Entomology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Jane-Marie Law, Associate Professor, Asian Studies
Ruth Lawlor, Assistant Professor of History
Tashara M. Leak, Associate Professor of Nutrition
Johannes Lehmann, Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Department of Global Development
J. Robert Lennon, Ann S. Bowers Professor of Literatures in English
Christine Leuenberger, Senior Lecturer, Science and Technology Studies
Caroline Levine, David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of the Humanities
David A. Levitsky, Professor Emeritus, Nutrition and Psychology
Neil Lewis, Jr., Associate Professor of Communication Angie Liao, Extension Associate, Climate Jobs Institute
Risa Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, ILR
Alexander Livingston, Associate Professor of Government
Greg Londe, Senior Lecturer, Literatures in English
Edwin J Lopez-Soto, Senior Extension Associate
Farzin Lotfi-Jam, Assistant Professor of Architecture
Beth Lyon, Clinical Professor of Law
Barbara D. Lynch, Retired Visiting Associate Professor, City and Regional Planning
Fouad Makki, Associate Professor, Global Development
Steven Mana’oakamai Johnson, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources and the Environment
Joseph Margulies, Professor of the Practice of Government
Patchen Markell, Associate Professor, Government
Owen Marshall, Visiting Assistant Professor, Science & Technology Studies
John McCarthy, Associate Professor, ILR
Sally McConnell-Ginet, Professor Emerita, Linguistics
Kate McCullough, Associate Professor, English and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Philip McMichael, Professor Emeritus, Global Development
Tracy McNulty, Professor of French and Comparative Literature
Leeza Meksin, Assistant Professor, Art, AAP
Natalie Melas, Associate Professor, Comparative Literature
Jamila Michener, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy
Christopher J. Miller, Senior Lecturer, Music
Mostafa Minawi, Associate Professor, History
Andreea Minca, Professor, Operations Research and Information Engineering
Barbara Mink, Senior Lecturer, JGSM
Justine Modica, Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrew Moisey, Assistant Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies
Jason Mokhtarian, Neuman Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies
Jonathan B. Monroe, Professor, Comparative Literature
Rebecca Morgenstern Brenner, Senior Lecturer, Public Policy
Nicholas Mulder, Assistant Professor of History
Kathleen Mulligan, Senior Extension Associate, The Worker Institute
Shaila Musharoff, Assistant Professor, Department of Computational Biology
Paul Nadasdy, Professor, Anthropology
Alex Nading, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Tejasvi Nagaraja, Assistant Professor, ILR
Corinna Noel, Assistant Professor, Department of Public and Ecosystem Health
Sophie Oldfield, Professor, City and Regional Planning
Cecilia Oyediran, Labor and Employment Law Program, ILR
Iris Packman, Faculty, ILR Climate Jobs Institute
Jeffrey Palmer, Associate Professor PMA
Slava Paperno, Senior Lecturer, Comparative Literature, CU
Maria Park, Associate Professor, Department of Art
Elizabeth Parker, Archivist, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Juliana Hu Pegues, Associate Professor of Literatures in English, Asian American Studies, and American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Juliana Pepinsky, Senior Lecturer, Department of Music
Thomas Pepinsky, Walter F. LaFeber Professor of Government and Public Policy
Isabel M. Perera, Assistant Professor of Government
Benjamin Piekut, Professor of Music
Sophie Pinkham, Professor of Practice, Comparative Literature
Jocelyn Poe, Assistant Professor CRP
Verity Platt, Professor, Classics and History of Art
Gali Racabi, Assistant Professor, ILR
Natasha Raheja, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Lucinda Ramberg, Associate Professor, Anthropology and Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Paul Ramirez Jonas, Professor, AAP
Masha Raskolnikov, Associate Professor of Literatures in English
Eric Rebillard, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities
Jaleesa Reed, assistant professor, human centered design
Barbara Regenspan, Emerita Professor of Educational Studies, Colgate University, Instructor, John S. Knight Writing Program, Cornell Summer Sessions, Challenges of Modernity as ENGL 1131, 2019-2022
Emilio Rojas, Visiting Critic, Studio Arts, AAP
Peter Rich, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Policy
Annette Richards, Professor, Department of Music
Russell Rickford, Associate Professor of History
Ben A. Rissing, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, ILR School
Kristin Roebuck, Assistant Professor of History
Ken Roberts, Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government
Aaron Sachs, Professor of History
Juno Salazar Parrenas, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Shirley Samuels, Professor, Literatures in English
Marian L. Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Microbiology
Rebecca Schneider, Associate Professor, DNRE
Katherine Sender, Professor, Communications/CALS
Suman Seth, Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science, STS Department
Anna Shechtman, Klarman Fellow, Literatures in English
Christina Sheley, Librarian, Business,Engineering, and Entrepreneurship, Cornell University Library
Samantha Sheppard, Associate Professor, PMA
Melissa Shetler, Senior Extension Associate, ILR Climate Jobs Institute
Linda Shi, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning
Aubryn Sidle, Lecturer, Department of Global Development
Elke Siegel, Associate Professor of German Studies
Nicholas Silins, Professor, Philosophy
James Spinazzola, Associate Professor of Music
Willow Starr, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy
Scott Steinschneider, Associate Professor, Biological and Environmental Engineering
Barbara Strupp, Professor, Division of Nutritional Sciences and Psychology
Camille Suárez, Assistant Professor, History Department
Laura Tach, Professor of Public Policy & Sociology
Eric Tagliacozzo, John Stambaugh Professor of History
Noah Tamarkin, Associate Professor, Anthropology and Science & Technology Studies
Janice Thies, Associate Professor, Soil and Crop Sciences
Lynn Thitchener, Librarian, College of Arts & Sciences, Olin Library
Chantal Thomas, Radice Family Professor of Law
Lindsay Thomas, Associate Professor, Literatures in English
Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik, Assistant Professor, History
Dan Torop, Assistant Professor, Department of Art
Irina Troconis, Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies
Katherine Tschida, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Lowell Turner, Professor Emeritus, Founding Director the Worker Institute, ILR
David Unger, Senior Extension Associate — The Worker Institute/ILR
Parisa Vaziri, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
Claudia Verhoeven, Associate Professor, History
Sofia Villenas, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Helena Maria Viramontes, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in English
Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Professor of Literatures in English
KC Wagner, Worker Institute, Cornell ILR
Maureen Waller, Professor of Public Policy and Sociology
Mildred Warner, Professor, City and Regional Planning and Global Development
Makda Weatherspoon, Senior Lecturer of Arabic, Near Eastern Studies
Rachel Weil, Professor of History
Gregory Weiland, Associate Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine
Allison Weiner Heinemann, Senior Lecturer and Director of Writing, ILR
Marina Welker, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Charley Willison, Assistant Professor of Public and Ecosystem Health
Jennifer Wilkins, Retired Senior Lecturer, Courtesy Professor of Practice, DNS
Andrew Wolf, Assistant Professor, ILR
Steven Wolf, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
Mary N Woods, Professor Emerita, Architecture
Ben Wrubel, Archivist, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Wenfei Xu, Assistant Professor, City and Regional Planning
Duanyi Yang, Assistant Professor, ILR
David Yearsley, Herbert Gussman Professor of Music
John Aloysius Zinda, Assistant Professor, Global Development
Emily Zitek, Associate Professor, ILR
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