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Monday, July 28, 2025

Kotlikoff Address Alumni In 2025 State of the University Address

Kotlikoff Tells Alumni What Differentiates Cornell From the ‘Woke University’ Stereotype at 2025 State of the University Address

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In front of a packed Bailey Hall and welcomed with a standing ovation, President Michael Kotlikoff addressed alumni on Saturday in his 2025 State of the University Address. 

Kotlikoff was introduced on stage by the chair of the Board of Trustees, Kraig Kayser MBA ’84, who said that Kotlikoff has the leadership and unique institutional knowledge to guide the University through difficult times.

“These past couple of years have been unprecedented, in terms of challenges on Cornell and higher education in general,” Kayser said. “We have faced rational polarization and global strife.”

In his address, Kotlikoff addressed the “unprecedented” times the University has faced and the attacks on research and higher education. He stated that Cornell has been “deeply mischaracterized and misunderstood — by the media, by elected officials, by individuals unfamiliar with Cornell, and even by some of our own alumni.” 

“It’s a place where the thinking is liberal and woke, but where antisemitism gets a pass,” Kotlikoff said, explaining how “the Ivy League university” is misunderstood by the media, elected officials and those unfamiliar with the University. “[It’s a] place where protests and pronouns are the priorities, where a flood of DEI and identity politics have washed away any commitment to education, knowledge, or truth.”

He explained that the University will continue to embody core American values and listed six “differentiators” that show in his view, Cornell is not a part of the “woke university” stereotype.

In his first differentiator, Kotlikoff explained that Cornell is the only private or Ivy Plus university to have a college of agriculture and a college of veterinary medicine. 

“You will not find a farmer in New York state, indeed a production agriculture operation in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, that does not know the name Cornell,” Kotlikoff said.

Next, Kotlikoff stated that Cornell is the largest need-blind institution in the U.S. and that more low-income Pell Grant students graduate from Cornell than any other peer institution. 

Kotlikoff also emphasized that Cornell cares about its veterans as it is the “number one university for veterans” and also trains more Reserve Officers' Training Corps officers than any other top-ranked private college. 

Further, Kotlikoff told the alumni that Cornell Tech has the “most intensive and meaningful collaboration with an Israeli university of any institution in this country,” referring to the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute

A final differentiator Kotlikoff listed was Cornell’s one of a kind high-intensity X-ray source at a research institution which provides “state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation imaging for research in physics, chemistry, biology and environmental and materials sciences.” He noted that this work is crucial for protecting national security. 

In the second half of his remarks, Kotlikoff spoke about Cornell's cuts to federal research funding and the $1.1 billion funding freeze from the Trump administration. He stated that the grants from the government Cornell receives are “not a gift” but rather a strict contract the University agrees to conduct research that the government delegates on the institution. 

He described that these contracts are the foundation of the U.S. and that the University agrees to provide the buildings, graduate students and researchers in exchange for “highly competitive grants.”

“For the last 80 years, most scientific and medical research in the United States has been carried out through this system, in partnership between federal agencies, hospitals, and universities,” Kotlikoff said. “It’s a partnership that has drawn the brightest minds, from around the world, to our institutions; enabling our nation to attract and retain the cream of global talent, and training future generations of scientists to carry our progress forward.”

He told alumni that the University could not sustain its research efforts on alumni donations and its own resources alone. Kotlikoff called on alumni to join the “Cornell Matters” campaign, an initiative dedicated to mobilizing alumni to raise awareness about research cuts through advocacy, and remain informed about campus news. 

Kotlikoff Address Alumni In 2025 State of the University Address
During his address, Kotlikoff promoted the Cornell Matters campaign to alumni as a way for them to help Cornell (Zeinab Faraj / Sun Assistant Sports Editor).

He continued by describing that Cornell “is not perfect” and that the University administration has work to do. Kotlikoff highlighted the University’s updated expressive activity policy and summarized it by stating “my right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.”

Kotlikoff highlighted the launch of a Task Force on Institutional Voice that is designed to guide the University on when it should speak out on “matters of politics, current affairs, and world events.” 

Kotlikoff also affirmed that the University has changed its admissions policy to follow the 2023 Supreme Court decisions striking down affirmative action and has “strengthened enforcement” of Title VI civil rights protections on campus.

At the end of his remarks, Kotlikoff took four questions from alumni that ranged from concerns about freedom of expression on campus and research grants. 

Kotlikoff Address Alumni In 2025 State of the University Address
An alumna from the Class of 2015 asked President Michael Kotlikoff questions about how the University is dealing with research cuts (Zeinab Faraj / Sun Assistant Sports Editor).

Kotlikoff told The Sun that when drafting the speech, he knew he “wanted to hit some themes” while maintaining open communication with the alumni. 

“I wanted to give them information about certain issues and how we are dealing with them and also provide the kind of sense of value of the community and the role that alumni can play in these challenges,” Kotlikoff said. 

When asked about research cuts, he said that the alumni “can amplify our voice about what is happening at Cornell” and can play a huge role in helping to bring awareness to the cuts in research.

“I think they can provide a more accurate picture of the importance of research and education at universities,” Kotlikoff said. “We have a big, diverse alumni network that can help.” 

When questioned about the Trump administration’s threats to international students, Kotlikoff said his message to them is that they are a critical part of the Cornell community.

“They're part of our excellence, they're part of our strength,” Kotlikoff said. “We've enrolled international students from the first class at Cornell. And we're going to continue to do everything that we can to make this a place where international students are welcomed and supported and feel like they're part of this community.”


Zeinab Faraj

Zeinab Faraj is the assistant sports editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can reach her at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.


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