Effective Jan. 1, the University plans on ending the temporary reductions to Cornell faculty salaries and retirement benefits instituted earlier this year.
Please stop calling President Martha E. Pollack “Martha.” It’s disrespectful and your internalized misogyny is showing every time that you do it. Martha Pollack is the highest ranked faculty member at Cornell University, and the way that students refer to her is telling of continued gender biases in higher academia. There is a major disparity in referencing senior staff at Cornell University, with President Pollack referred to more frequently by her first name than Vice President Ryan Lombardi and Provost Michael Kotlikoff. In common conversation, students abbreviate these administrators’ titles to “Martha,” “Lombardi” and “Kotlikoff.”
Every time I hear a student refer to President Pollack by her first name, I remember my academic advisor’s warning during my first week at Cornell. She sat down her ten new advisees and explained the importance of referring to female professors as “Professor” or “Doctor” rather than “Ms.” or “Mrs.” She explained the struggle that she has faced after years in academia and her frustration when students, and worse, other academics downplayed her accomplishments when they reference her.
In an email to students on Friday, President Martha E. Pollack said that commencement will not be canceled, although it will be postponed from its typical date on Memorial Day weekend.
“We need to act as a community to protect the whole community. In addition, beyond our own campus and community, social distancing is extremely important as a way in which we can help to address and mitigate this global pandemic.”
In a recent letter to the New York Congressional delegation, President Martha E. Pollack called for New York lawmakers to monitor immigration policies affecting international students and faculty.
Data from the University show that financial aid policy has taken several turns in the past decade, and in the past five years, loans have increased significantly, while grant aid has stayed roughly similar relative to the increase in loans.
Bombings roiled Sri Lanka early Sunday morning, leaving a wake of casualty and eliciting feelings of shock, fear and confusion from people around the world.
In January 2009, a long-range missile from Gaza was fired into Israel. This has been a common occurrence ever since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. As a child, I was taught at school to immediately run to a bomb shelter if sirens go off, so I did that. I was home alone in my room and quickly ran to the shelter we had in our house. It was 9:30 a.m. Normally, I would stay in the shelter and wait for the sirens to stop, as rockets rarely reached my town of Gedera.
President Martha Pollack plans to keep Cornell open Thursday despite a wind chill warning, dozens of emails and a petition with thousands of signatures. It’s not the first time Pollack has faced criticism for defying the cold.