Cornell President to Retire Amid Turmoil on US College Campuses

10/05/2024

Students on Libe Slope at the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, US, on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. US college costs just keep climbing and the increase is pushing the annual price for the upcoming academic year at Ivy League schools toward yet another hold-on-to-your-mortarboard mark.

(Bloomberg) — Cornell University President Martha Pollack will step down at the end of next month, leaving half of the Ivy League’s eight schools without permanent leadership.

Pollack, 65, said she’s retiring after seven years leading the university in Ithaca, New York. Provost Michael Kotlikoff will take over as interim president for two years starting July 1, and the board of trustees will establish a search committee for a permanent leader before his term ends.

“I understand that there will be lots of speculation about my decision, so let me be as clear as I can: This decision is mine and mine alone,” Pollack said in a statement Thursday. “After seven fruitful and gratifying years as Cornell’s president — and after a career in research and academia spanning five decades — I’m ready for a new chapter in my life.”

College presidents have been under significant strain this academic year, as campuses erupted following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the Jewish state’s retaliatory attack on Gaza. Pollack said she began weighing her retirement in the fall and made the decision during December break, but delayed the announcement because of events at Cornell and other US colleges.

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“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,” Pollack, a computer scientist, said in the statement.

With her exit, Cornell will join three other Ivy schools searching for new leaders: Yale, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. Yale’s president announced in August that he’s retiring.

While a Cornell student was arrested in November for posting death threats against Jews, Pollack avoided the fate of other prominent college presidents who were called by the House Education and the Workforce Committee over campus antisemitism. The leaders of Harvard and Penn gave widely derided testimony in December, spurring calls for their resignations. They left their jobs a short time later, with Harvard’s leader also facing allegations of plagiarism.

Jon Lindseth, a Cornell donor and former trustee, called for Pollack’s resignation in January, accusing her of mishandling diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and promoting “groupthink” on campus. Cornell’s trustees affirmed their support for her.

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