Martha E. Pollack, the president of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., has announced her plans to retire on June 30.
“It is only after extensive reflection that I have determined that this is the right decision,” she wrote in a letter published on May 9. “Indeed, I began deliberating about this last fall and made the decision over the December break; but three times, as I was ready to act on it, I had to pause because of events on our and/or on other campuses.”
Pollack wrote that “there is so much more to Cornell than the current turmoil taking place at universities across the country right now, and I hope we do not lose sight of that.”
The letter named three areas Pollack said she sought to enhance at the university during her tenure: increasing academic distinction, fulfilling civic responsibility and enhancing “our educational verve.”
She wrote, “we have been vigilant in working to ensure the safety and well-being of all members of our community from all backgrounds, work I’ve been dedicated to long before the events of the past year.”
In a recent “Campus Antisemitism Report Card” the Anti-Defamation League assigned Cornell a “D,” noting “incidents of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination and harassment prompted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to open a Title VI investigation against Cornell.”
On a Sunday in October, Hillel at Cornell advised Jewish students to avoid 104 West, the campus kosher dining hall, “out of an abundance of caution” following online threats that included: “If I see a pig male Jew, I will stab you and slit your throat,” “Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell campus” and “Gonna shoot up 104 West.”
In March, the group Alums for Campus Fairness released a brochure urging Jewish students not to attend the academic institution, writing that it “refuses to enforce the student code of conduct, fostering a hostile climate that endangers Jewish students.”