Another One Bites the Dust: Cornell University President Martha Pollack Resigns in Surprise Email

Red State ^ | 05/09/2024 | Bob Hoge

[SeekAndFind]

The pro-Hamas protests that have engulfed campuses across the nation have claimed another victim, Cornell University president Martha E. Pollack, who announced in a surprise email Thursday that she is stepping down in June after a seven-year reign.

The Ivy League school has been at the center of two controversies in recent times: its racist promotion of DEI at all costs and its failure to take effective action against antisemitism on its campus.

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Background:

Ivy League School Offers Rock Climbing Class for Everyone But White Students

Cornell Professor Who Was 'Exhilarated' by Hamas's Attacks Is Now So Very Sorry (but Is He Really?)

Cornell Students Told to Avoid Kosher Dining Hall, Jewish Students Reportedly Afraid to Leave Their Rooms

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Lovely stuff, isn’t it?

The blowback may have simply been too much for the embattled Pollack. In her letter to “Cornellians,” she wrote:

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

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.

It’s been a time of reckoning for some of these “elite” universities, as UPenn’s Liz Magill stepped down in December 2023 after disastrous testimony to Congress about the rampant antisemitism on her campus, while Harvard’s president Claudine Gay was forced to resign in January for the same reason in addition to allegations of plagiarism. Somehow MIT’s president Sally Kornbluth has managed to survive in her position despite faceplanting at that same congressional hearing. 

Now it's over for Pollack:

Cornell President Martha Pollack has been slow to condemn the rampant anti-Semitism on Cornell's campus and has failed to protect Jewish students from vile terrorist sympathizers.

Her resignation is no surprise as she lacks the courage to lead during these difficult times.


https://t.co/SrZ9TvbXbO— Rep. Claudia Tenney (@RepTenney) May 9, 2024

William Jacobson, Clinical Professor and Director of the Securities Law Clinic, was not sorry to see Pollack go:

My statement on resignation of @Cornell President: "Martha Pollack was the architect of Cornell's disastrous race-focused DEI initiative that balkanized the campus, and inevitably led to targeting of Jewish and pro-Israel students. While I wish her well in her personal life, it…— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) May 9, 2024

While I wish her well in her personal life, it is time for the Cornell Trustees to turn the ship around, to eliminate DEI programming as is taking place elsewhere, and to refocus the campus on the inherent  dignity of each individual without regard to group-identity.

Well said, Professor.

Jacobson has been a vocal critic of the toxic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts at Cornell, and said in December ’23 that the campus antisemitism is a result of the “racialization of education.”

Although Pollack only barely mentions all the controversies in her letter, it’s hard to imagine they didn’t play a huge role in her decision. Why would you walk from a cushy, well-paid position at the top of your field when you’re only 65 and could milk it for a while longer?

Many if not all of the Ivy League universities have been training their students in far-left progressivism for years, and now they’re paying the price as their reputations burn and many of their students are turning out to be full-out extremist radicals. 

They have only themselves to blame.

[Paladin2]

"The POISON Ivy League school ...."

[CatOwner]

No reason to cheer, because the university will find someone more dedicated to the liberal and DEI causes.

[Paladin2]

“High above Cayuga’s waters, there’s an awful smell....”

[djpg]

All these presidents are women. Maybe that’s why they like DEI so much. They are beneficiaries of it.

[Sicon]

They are man-hating, irrational harridans, and utterly unqualified for their positions.

[AndyJackson]

I don’t wish these people well. I wish that they will take this as an opportunity for learning and personal growth and to shed the cloak of woke ideology in favor of and open minded appreciation of what is really going on around them. I pray for their salvation and rapprochement with our sacred texts and governing principles. Their is nothing easy about the path that this woman needs to take.

[Beowulf9]

Well, we’ll see who they put in next. Prob won’t be a white person.

[TexasFreeper2009]

another crappy DEI hire! Is every college in the nation led by women now?

[norcal joe]

Thank you, Ms. Optimist.

[HIDEK6]

There are an awful lot of first person pronouns in that letter.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Is every college in the nation led by women now?

Aside from the three (Harvard, Cornell, UPenn ) who have resigned... the following Ivy Leagues Universities have women Presidents:

Sian Leah Beilock : Dartmouth

Christina Paxsons: Brown

Minouche Shafik: Columbia

Sally Kornbluth: MIT

[hinckley buzzard]

How come all these false-front Universities have flakey female presidents?

[hinckley buzzard]

Sing it: “Thirty thousand horse’s a&&es call themselves Cornell.”

[Maris Crane]

In my mind, I am processing all the information of the last few days.

I tend to see PATTERNS of problems and then see SOLUTIONS TO THOSE PROBLEMS.

I AM A FEMALE...AND IT PAINS ME TO ADMIT I SEE MORE FREAKIN’ MISSTEPS, LOUSY ADMINISTRATIONS, DISGUSTING SOLUTIONS COMING OUT OF THESE “ROTTEN IVYS” THAN ANYTHING I HAVE SEEN IN YEARS...

AND GUESS WHAT THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON...

THEY ARE ALL RUN BY WOMEN.

I repeat, it pains me to admit this, but I am NOT one of those Soros paid for AGs.

I SEE THE TRUTH, AND IT HAD BETTER CATCH ON, OR WE ARE ALL LOST.

[Mears]

Unbelievable .

….

[wardaddy]

Black and Jewish women

Crazy

No regular white guys need apply

Gotta check those boxes

[sauropod]

AND, to top it off, Cornell had Joey Fingers as Commencement speaker one year.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Prob won’t be a white person.

I hear that Gay DIE bimbo ex-prez from Hahvad is looking for work... she blakkk...

[Paladin2]

Totally cancel Cornell.

It’s of no furthur[sic] use.