Over 90 protestors protested outside of the Law School during Cornell’s Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, calling on the trustees to create an emergency fund in Cornell’s 2025-2026 Operating & Capital Budget Plan. The fund would “protect [their] jobs and [their] academic mission” amid the Trump administration spending cuts, which include federal research grants.
The Cornell Contingent Academic Workers wrote a letter to the trustees with over 300 signatures at time of publication, requesting the emergency fund to ensure research in fields like climate change, socioeconomic inequality and students’ financial aid continue to be protected. CCAW is still collecting signatures and will officially present the letter in May, when trustees will vote on the 2025-2026 budget.
More than a dozen organizations organized or attended the rally, including Cornell Contingent Academic Workers, Cornell Graduate Students United, Black Students United, Jewish Voice for Peace, Haven: The LGBTQ+ Student Union, School of Integrative Plant Science Community Advocacy and others.
Demonstrators called for the University to allocate part of the 2025-2026 budget for protecting immigrant international students and graduate workers, as well as ensuring the continuation of research as the federal government enacts grant cuts to universities.
Throughout the rally, protestors stayed clear of walkways and remained on the grass near the Law School building. Poole said this was to comply with the Interim Expressive Activity Policy, which stipulates that outdoor demonstrations may not “impede access to or from university property or campus roads.”
“The purpose of the rally was not to disrupt the meeting itself,” he said. “It was just to make our voices heard peacefully.”
The rally featured 14 campus organizations, the most of any recent protest. Nathan Sitaraman M.S. '18 Ph.D. '22, a member of CCAW and post-doctoral associate at Cornell, spoke with The Sun after the demonstration. He said that the collaboration of so many organizations in one protest is “pretty rare.”
“Federal cuts and federal policy changes are affecting a lot of different groups on campus simultaneously,” Sitaraman said. “It’s an issue that sort of cuts across different departments and different units, and also sort of affects everyone.”
In addition to requesting a Trustee budget for all, representatives from different activism and affinity organizations on campus presented their specific requests to University administration.
Sam Poole ’28, Cornell YDSA campaign committee chair and JVP member, announced speakers and led chants of “Stand up, fight back” and “Cornell, what do you say — it’s time to fund our future today” in between speeches.
One speaker, Karys Everett ’25, political chair at HAVEN, called on the University to continue providing gender-affirming care. Everett called for an end to “the pervasive neglect of the queer community.”
Cornell Health removed several lines from its gender-affirming care page after President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 28 executive order instructing federal agencies to deny funding to medical providers that administer gender-affirming treatments to patients under the age of 19.
Andrew Scheldorf, a postdoctoral associate in SIPS, said that cuts in research grants would make it more challenging for students from marginalized communities to enter higher education.
Another speaker at the event, Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, industrial and labor relations, said that the rally was designed “to bring people together, to be loud” because they “want [the trustees] to hear [them].”
Poole said, “I think this rally, even though we’re complying with University policies, it’s a rejection of that. It’s saying, ‘We’re here, we’re not going to be silenced.’”
Marguerite Pacheco, a Ph.D. student and member of CGSU-UE, called on other graduate students to sign a strike pledge in the case that the University “does not agree to a fair contract” for "just cause" job protections against firings by April 8. The demonstration occurs as CGSU-UE continues to bargain its first union contract. The University and CGSU-UE compromised on the union’s demand for a union shop on Wednesday, with the University putting forward what it views as an “agency shop,” according to a statement to The Sun by a University representative.
As one of the letter’s signatories, Pacheco emphasized the importance of demanding just cause, the standard that ensures that employers in unionized workplaces must have a reason to discipline or fire a worker.
“I also deserve to know that, in this political climate, I won’t get an email telling me to clear out my desk with no explanation,” she said.
Ithaca activist Mary Anne Grady Flores then asked demonstrators to support pro-Palestinian activist and international graduate student Momodou Taal in court in Syracuse on Tuesday, March 25. Taal and two other Cornell plaintiffs sued the federal government over alleged First and Fifth Amendment rights violations. The trial will occur days after the Department of Justice told Taal to turn himself into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
“The University will take any opportunity to repress us,” Poole added. “It’s important just to bring everyone together, and especially with the vulnerable populations being targeted, not to put them at additional risk right now.”
Correction, March 24, 11:30 a.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the University had agreed to CGSU-UE's demands for a union shop. The article has been updated to more accurately reflect the situation.
