Dear Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White,
As founder of Cornell University, you aspired to create an institution where “any person could be educated in any subject.” That noble vision shaped a university that has long been a beacon of higher education, innovation, and public service. Yet we write to you today with heavy hearts because the university you founded has strayed from its guiding principles.
The hypocrisy of the current leadership of Cornell University is blatant. While the institution proudly proclaims that it wants to educate “every person,” it fails to pay a living wage to those who perform the essential jobs that keep the university running. How can the children of employees who themselves suffer from food and housing insecurity be expected to graduate? How can they focus on learning when their families are struggling with the most basic needs?
It is a sad paradox that even in the richest nation in human history, we live in a state of scarcity. This scarcity is not born of necessity, but of a system driven by corporate greed and the insatiable demands of the billionaire class. As they accumulate ever more wealth, working people struggle to afford even the basic necessities of a decent life. This inequality is not just an economic failure, but a moral one, and it is a failure that institutions like Cornell should be actively working to eliminate, rather than perpetuating.
It is especially troubling to witness this failure at a university with an endowment of over ten billion dollars and tuition of over $60,000 per year. There is little doubt that Cornell has the resources to strike a record contract with its union employees, but it refuses to do so for fear of falling behind other institutions. This reasoning is unworthy of a university that prides itself on leadership. If Cornell truly aspires to be a leader in science, technology, and beyond, then it must recognize that leadership in these areas is meaningless if it does not also seek to improve society. The university could do more for the common good here and now by ensuring that its employees receive fair wages—wages that allow them to live with dignity and afford homes in the community they serve.
What has happened to the institution you founded? It seems that Cornell has transformed from a center of learning dedicated to the public good into yet another billionaire corporation, filled with highly paid administrative staff whose job it is to make low-wage workers work for as little as possible. In some cases, these wages are so low that full-time employees at Cornell are eligible for government benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. In this way, the university is effectively outsourcing the cost of supporting these workers to taxpayers. This is truly disgraceful behavior from an institution that is tax-exempt and therefore does not do its fair share for the local communities it relies on.
We must express our deep disappointment that Cornell has failed to reach a fair collective bargaining agreement with its unionized employees. How can a university that claims to be “the world’s preeminent educational institution focused on labor, employment, and work” fail so spectacularly in negotiations with its own employees? Is what they consider “improving the lives of workers and transforming the future of work” sitting for days, week after week, in unproductive delaying tactics?
Instead of negotiating in good faith, Cornell sent a committee of highly paid lawyers, negotiators and administrators – many of them no doubt earning six-figure salaries – to block the UAW’s bargaining team. That team, made up of rank-and-file workers from food service, building maintenance and other departments, came to negotiate a contract that would lift the lowest-paid employees on campus out of poverty. The university’s failure to negotiate now leaves the union with no choice but to strike, inflicting even more economic hardship on those who can least bear it.
We sincerely hope that Cornell can return to the bargaining table with an offer that ends years of wage stagnation, provides a true example of how to work with labor to solve difficult economic problems, and restores dignity to the vital work these people do.
Cornell University must step up and create a fair contract with its unionized employees. This would not only restore the university’s reputation as a force for the common good, but it would also reaffirm the values upon which it was founded. Mr. Cornell, Mr. White — if you were here today, we believe you would stand with us demanding justice and dignity for all who contribute to the success of this great university.
In solidarity,
Concerned UAW staff at Cornell University
Nick Polato is a recovering academic with a PhD in ecology and a former baker. He is currently a gardener at Cornell Botanic Gardens and a striking UAW member. He can be reached at (email protected).
