Federal courts have halted the National Institutes of Health’s catastrophic funding changes, in part thanks to a lawsuit undertaken by Cornell and other university plaintiffs. This lawsuit is a meaningful stand in defense of science and a practical step to protect the University and those who work here, but its effects are temporary. NIH leadership has stated that the Institute will “effectuate the administration's goals over time,” making it only a matter of time before we face last week’s funding crisis again.
Beyond the NIH, United States Agency for International Development-dependent projects are in limbo, executive orders are piling up and the research infrastructure that drives scientific progress across the nation is, if not actively crumbling, at risk. During this crisis, Cornell has the opportunity to play a defining role in protecting education and science against our current administration, and we — graduate workers, participants in American society and drivers and beneficiaries of scientific advancement — need our university to rise to the occasion. As federal funding cuts proceed across agencies, we call on Cornell’s administration to draw on its considerable financial resources, including but not limited to its $10.7 billion endowment, to ensure that research and teaching continue uninterrupted across Cornell.
Cornell is a private institution with extensive financial resources. Expert financial stewardship has protected the University during troubling times, and, in recent years, ensured unprecedented investment returns. Cornell’s financial health must be maintained of course, and the value of the endowment must continue to grow — but not for the sake of growth alone, but for the sake of, in Ezra Cornell’s words, “the greatest good.” Cornell’s administration has reminded the University community of the endowment’s purpose repeatedly. It is a “perpetual and self-sustaining source of support for the University and its mission,” designed to protect and advance the University’s workings, especially during times of trouble, explained then-chief financial officer Joanne DeStefano MBA ’97 in 2020. We recognize these parameters. But, should the federal government continue wreaking havoc on the federal agencies that fund our research, the devastation to Cornell’s research community, and to the scientific progress writ large, will be enormous. To protect science against the most aggressive attack we’ve witnessed in decades, Cornell’s administration must draw on its extensive financial resources to ensure research continues uninterrupted.
During previous crises, Cornell has been quick to embrace austerity measures. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University immediately implemented freezes on University-wide hiring and salary increases for the 2021 fiscal year, anticipating a pandemic-induced recession. But Cornell emerged from the worst of the pandemic more prosperous than ever:In 2021, the Cornell endowment’s one-year performance was the best it had been in 35 years, bringing the value of the University’s investments to an unprecedented high of $10 billion. Reports from workers on the ground suggest that the University will push similar austerity measures again — protecting its financial bottom line instead of intervening on behalf of the workers who keep it running.
Financial resources to ensure that the University’s research and teaching objectives continue uninterrupted are unequivocally available. The endowment, for example, is a complex amalgam of over 8,000 accounts, many of which are restricted by donors, but many of which are not. What Cornell reports as its endowment is made up of two separate groups of funds — the so-called “true endowment,” comprising various funds set aside by donors for particular uses, and “funds functioning as endowments,” consisting of unrestricted operating funds totaling some $1.7 billion that can be, as the University notes, “liquidated over time … to support operations.” Over the fiscal year of 2023-2024, these funds increased by approximately $31 million — and, according to publicly-available NIH funding data for Cornell, the university relied on indirect costs to the tune of $31,372,235 in fiscal year 2024. In short, Cornell has resources readily available to compensate for lost indirect funding, should federal funding cuts succeed, now or in the future. While the University’s financial resources are not a cash reserve to deploy frivolously, their highest purpose is to help in exactly these moments of financial need that threaten the mission of the institution.
Moreover, Cornell’s financial resources extend far beyond the endowment. According to the University’s most recent audit for the fiscal year ending June 2024, Cornell had approximately $19.5 billion in assets, including nearly $1 billion in cash and cash equivalents and $11.5 billion in investments. After liabilities, the University ended the year with about $14.5 billion in net assets, out of which approximately $4 billion was without donor restrictions. Allocating a small share of Cornell's unrestricted assets now to cover losses due to federal funding cuts would be a deployment of the University’s financial resources in service of “the greatest good” and Cornell’s guiding mission. It would not weaken the future of the University for short-sighted immediate relief, but would instead be an honorable, historic and critically necessary resolution to ensure our University survives into the future with its research infrastructure and reputation intact. The heart and soul of American academia is at stake. Committing these funds isthe most responsible choice for the long-term health and integrity of the institution.
We came to Cornell for its dedication to its mission to “discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge” and arrived committed to advancing human knowledge and higher education with our work. Our University has the opportunity to play a defining role in protecting education and science against our current administration, and this is the moment to rise to that occasion. On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Cornell Graduate Student Union-United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America’s Bargaining Committee called upon the Cornell administration with this letter to draw on its considerable financial resources to ensure that all teaching and research staff, irrespective of immigration status or research discipline, remain fully employed and supported in their work. Cornell can honor the mission of this institution and the people who do this work by committing to offset any losses incurred due to federal funding cuts.
We are concerned for our funding security, our research and the future of our fields. In this uncertain moment, amidst attacks on research and education, our union is fighting for a strong contract to protect precisely these things. Essential to this fight is securing “union shop,” the gold-standard for union membership, which will ensure that CGSU-UE has the power and resources to fight for the future of science, research and higher education.
Signed,
CGSU-UE Bargaining Committee
Daphne Blakey is a graduate worker in the Brooks School of Public Policy.
Connor Davis is a graduate worker in the Department of Applied & Engineering Physics.
Margaret E. Foster is a graduate worker in the Department of Communication.
Arnav Gupta is a graduate worker in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Evan Heberlein is a graduate worker in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Ben Keller is a graduate worker in the Department of Physics.
Amritansh Kwatra is a graduate worker in the Department of Information Science at Cornell Tech.
Emmy Marra is a graduate worker in the Department of Mathematics.
Jenna Marvin is a graduate worker in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies.
Jawuanna McAllister is a graduate worker in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
Ewa Nizalowska is a graduate worker in the Department of Government.
Marguerite Pacheco is a graduate worker in Biomedical Engineering.
Takshil Sachdev is a graduate worker in the Department of Economics.
Rosamond Thalken is a graduate worker in the Department of Information Science.
Tamara Walsky is a graduate worker in the Department of Food Science and Technology.
Kara Zielinski is a graduate worker in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
