In a Tuesday letter to the Cornell Board of Trustees, trustee emeritus and major benefactor Jon Lindseth slammed the school’s dedication to DEI, saying the racialized ideology has created a “toxic academic environment” that only serves to undermine the school’s elite Ivy League status.

“It is my opinion that Cornell must abandon its misguided commitment to DEI because it has yielded not excellence but disgrace,” Lindseth wrote. “I am alarmed by the diminished quality of education offered lately by my alma mater because of its disastrous involvement with DEI policies that have infiltrated every part of the university.

“I can no longer make general contributions until the university reformulates its approach to education by replacing DEI groupthink with the original noble intent of Cornell,” he continued.

[I’m actually surprised that this movement is picking up momentum. I thought that the impulse to cling to Academia would prove too irresistible, but the toxicity after October 7 is too much to overlook. — Ed]