INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 140, No. 32
8 Pages – Free
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2024 n ITHACA, NEW YORK
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Inside Backlash to Cornell DEI High School orientation, race and ethnicity differences” present in the workforce. Equity is defined as the ability for everyone to “access the same opportunities.” Inclusion Jon Lindseth ’56, emeritus member of the Cornell is defined as “the invitation for someone to actively Board of Trustees, released an open letter on Jan. engage as their authentic self” in an educational or 23 calling for President Martha Pollack and Provost professional environment. Katrina Greene ’27, the freshman representative of Michael Kotlikoff’s resignation over their response to antisemitism and Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, external affairs for the Caribbean Student Association which Lindseth considered a consequence of the and member of the Black Ivy Pre-Law Society, University’s “misguided commitment to diversity, explained the benefit of spaces that encourage students to share their diverse lived experiences. equity and inclusion.” “I think [DEI initiatives] should definitely be Lindseth’s letter came included [in academia] in the in the wake of national scrutiny of DEI initia- “I think [DEI initiatives] should defi- sense of basically allowing for everyone to learn about differtives at Cornell and peer institutions. On Jan. 10, nitely be included [in academia] in ent cultures and different ideas,” Jason Smith (R-M.O.), the sense of basically allowing for Greene said. Cornell implemented DEI chairman of the Ways everyone to learn about different initiatives during the 2017and Means Committee cultures and different ideas.” 2018 academic year when of the U.S. House of the Presidential Task Force Representatives, sent a Katrina Greene '27 on Campus Climate and the letter to the presidents Provost’s Task Force to Enhance of Cornell, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Faculty Diversity created a list of sixty suggestions for Massachusetts Institute of Technology challenging institutional and faculty initiatives to promote DEI. The University launched the Belonging at Cornell their tax-exempt status over their treatment of Jewish institutional model in fall 2019 to meet the task students and requesting answers to 13 questions about campus policies. Four of these questions con- forces’ initiatives of determining priorities for diversity and inclusion-related progress. The framework cerned DEI programs and initiatives. With the criticism toward DEI policies at Cornell, conducts analyses of diversity scorecard information The Sun explored how DEI practices impact students and examines staff evaluations to ensure an inclusive workplace atmosphere. and faculty at the University. Cornell’s DEI glossary defines diversity as the “age, socioeconomic background, gender identity, sexual See DEI page 3
By ERIC LECHPAMMER and CARLY HERMANN Sun Staff Writers
Sun Staff Writer
Cornell’s financial aid website touts an “Ivy League education within reach,” but a class-action lawsuit that some universities recently settled alleges that Cornell and 16 other schools engaged in a “price-fixing cartel” to reduce student financial aid awards.
On Jan. 23, five universities — Yale, Emory, Brown, Columbia and Duke — agreed to settle the case for a total of $104.5 million, according to a press release by the plaintiffs’ legal team. In light of the new settlements, Robert D. Gilbert, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in the same press release that it “is past time for the presidents and governing bodies of
JULIA NAGEL / SUN PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Fixed price | Cornell and 16 other schools were accused in 2022 of engaging in a "price-fixing cartel."
YUFEI WANG / SUN CONTRIBUTOR
Testing transformed | After data show correlation between income and SAT and ACT scores, future of testing policy at Cornell is uncertain. By DALTON MULLINS Sun Staff Writer
the remaining defendants to … resolve the overcharges to middle-class and working-class students that stemmed from the twenty years of collusion on financial aid by elite universities.” Prior to this announcement, the University of Chicago settled separately for $13.5 million in August, while Rice University agreed to pay $33.75 million, according to its financial documents. Vanderbilt University also settled for an undisclosed amount in November. According to statements provided to Inside Higher Ed, the five settling universities denied the allegations and expressed confidence in their educational and financial aid programs. “Though we believe the plaintiffs’ claims are without merit, we have reached a settlement in order to maintain our commitment to the privacy of our students and families and keep our focus on providing talented scholars from all social, cultural and economic backgrounds one of the world’s best undergraduate educations,” a Vanderbilt representative said to the outlet.
With more than 80 percent of colleges and universities not requiring standardized tests as part of their admissions processes, including Cornell, many high school students question if SAT and ACT exam scores can adequately represent the potential for collegiate success. This sense of skepticism among students comes in light of new data that show a strong correlation between standardized test scores and student socioeconomic status, with students from a higher socioeconomic status often performing better than those from a lower one. Cornell suspended its standardized testing requirement in April 2020 due to COVID-19 limiting testing opportunities. At the time, Cornell did not intend to permanently remove the testing requirement, but the policy remains in place for fall 2024 applicants. Three of Cornell’s undergraduate colleges — the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Architecture, Art and Planning and the Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business — are “test-blind,” meaning the colleges do not consider standardized scores when making admissions decisions for any applicants. The other colleges utilize test-optional policies, meaning each applicant can opt into whether to use their standardized test score as a component of their application. According to the University’s standardized testing policy, the University is conducting two years of “deliberate experimental review” to guide the future role that standardized testing will play in admissions decisions. The standardized testing policy for fall 2025 and following years will be announced this spring semester. The University declined to comment further on the future role of standardized testing. Opportunity Insights, a research organization at Harvard University, published a study that found families in the top 20 percent of income earners were seven times more likely to score at least a 1300 on the SAT or a 29 on the ACT than students with families in the bottom 20 percent of income earners. Laura Whitmore, an ACT and SAT tutor with 16 years of experience, attributed this disparity to inequities in the education system that play a pivotal role in students’ test scores.
See PRICE FIXING page 4
See TESTING page 4
Cornell Remains Defendant in Financial Aid Antitrust Lawsuit By EVAN LIBERMAN
Students Skeptic of Testing