What do Cornell University in upstate New York and Harvard have in common? Quite a bit as it turns out. They are both Ivy League universities with well-stocked trust funds. They are both also apparently full of antisemites. One difference between them is that Harvard’s antisemitic president, Claudine Gay, was finally convinced to step aside after a general uprising against her by donors and alumni. At Cornell, President Martha Pollack has shown no such inclination thus far. But she’s under increasing pressure to do so. The school’s board of trustees met last week to discuss the future and they surely talked about a letter they recently received from a major donor calling for leadership changes, an end to DEI and a return to a curriculum featuring academic freedom and free speech. (Fox News)

Cornell University is facing mounting pressure to end its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and for the school’s president to resign, following a top donor’s fiery letter to the school’s board of trustees, Fox News Digital has learned.

“Replace the President and the Provost,” Cornell major donor and trustee emeritus Jon A. Lindseth wrote in a letter Tuesday as the top item Cornell’s board of trustees should address.

“Eliminate DEI staffing and programming. Revert to Open Inquiry, Academic Freedom, Free Expression, and Viewpoint Diversity on campus,” Lindseth wrote as the second item that needs to be addressed by the board.

Hopefully, Jon Lindseth didn’t get his hopes up too far just yet. He may have plenty of supporters outside of the school who agree with him, but the board saw things otherwise. They quickly issued a response saying that Pollack still has their full support and there is no need for her to step down. In other words, there’s nothing to see here so everyone should just move along.

Cornell was founded on the principle that ‘any person can find instruction in any study.’ Under President Martha E. Pollack’s leadership, the university has remained faithful to this principle and to the core values that unite our institution. Today, the Board of Trustees of Cornell University met and voted unanimously in support of her leadership of the university.

We believe the pursuit of knowledge is dependent on robust discourse that acknowledges differences while exploring shared values. Cornell proudly embraced diversity in its inaugural student body over 150 years ago and will continue to do so for the next 150 years.

The board’s brief statement went on to emphasize that Pollack embraced free expression in her last inaugural address, stressing that it forms “the bedrock of democracy.” Apparently, free expression extends to “gas the Jews” among other things. As you can see, the board also flatly rejected the appeal from one of the largest donors to do away with the DEI agenda. So for the moment, Pollack appears to be safe. She hasn’t lost the support of all of the donors or the school’s alumni at this point. The school paper published an editorial from one alumnus yesterday titled, “Leave Martha Alone.”

But how long will that last? Lindseth is not the only donor calling for change and suggesting that future donations might go elsewhere. The uprising hasn’t grown as broad at Cornell as it did at Harvard, but there are more people in that community who are getting on board. Money speaks louder than words, particularly when it comes to Ivy League trust funds. As long as the war in Gaza grinds on and the protests continue, that’s unlikely to change.

The pro-Hamas protests driving this revolt don’t seem to be slowing down either. This weekend, more than 200 students and faculty from the University of Chicago held a “die-in” where they shut down business at a local coffee shop. Apparently, the Pret a Manger coffee chain recently announced an expansion including new locations in Israel. This angered the members of the local United for Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine organizations to the point where they were ready to lash out. The same groups recently put up an art installation including 23,000 flags which they named “Honor the Martyrs.” Apparently, all of the dead Hamas fighters and Palestinians are now considered martyrs.

The University of Chicago may not be viewed as being on the same level as Harvard or Cornell, but it’s still a sizable school. Surely their alumni groups are watching all of this activity unfolding. Are they okay with it? Or will we soon see the same conflict playing out at UChicago that we’re seeing at these other colleges and universities? I haven’t seen any coverage of similar backlash there yet, but don’t be surprised if it happens before very long.