Justice does not begin with policies. It begins with voices, especially those long silent or deliberately silenced.
And justice cannot be made manifest unless someone is willing to hear those truths — however uncomfortable they may be.
Enter Gabriel Levin and his August 26 article, pulling back the curtain that has shielded eCornell for so long. A curtain that many would have preferred remained closed. While the events and circumstances chronicled in Mr. Levin’s article may seem implausible or hyperbolic, they constitute only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
As someone who has spent 28 years at Cornell and 39 in the HR profession, I’ve seen a lot. But nothing quite like the culture that was cultivated at eCornell. People — even leaders — are human and thus imperfect. This is understandable and almost always rectifiable. But when leaders intentionally make decisions or issue directives that are wholly unreasonable, allegedly discriminatory, or harassing, they transform the workplace into a seemingly inescapable quagmire of toxicity that thrives on, and is fueled by, a culture that values projects over people, obedience over collaboration and revenues over respect.
Such is the culture at eCornell/Cornell.
A place where recognition only comes after personal sacrifice. A place where working yourself to the brink is a badge of honor, rather than a rightfully held red flag.
An evident example of this comes in the form of monthly “all hands” Zoom meetings held by Vice Provost Paul Krause. There, employees are publicly celebrated for outstanding performance. An ideal employee engagement and recognition technique, right? Wrong. I can only recall an instance in which an employee was praised for a work product and was not also praised for the personal sacrifices it took to achieve that product within the same breath.
This sends a clear message to all of us: value is measured not by what you do, but how much of yourself you’re willing to sacrifice to do it.
These Sisyphean demands, however normalized, to Cornell’s public commitment to employee well-being, its adoption of the Okanagan Charter, and its branding as a “health-promoting campus.” Words that are meaningless as Cornell workplaces continue to punish boundaries and reward burnout.
Those who did muster the courage to escalate alleged discrimination or harassment through eCornell/Cornell’s designated reporting protocols did not extricate themselves from this seemingly enmeshed morass, as these efforts generally yielded few (if any) tangible results or changes.
Instead, the agents of Cornell/eCornell who knew or should have known about credible allegations of inappropriate, unprofessional and allegedly discriminatory behavior chose to delay, ignore, obscure or tolerate the chorus of those calls for full and fair investigations.
But what about those who suffered in silence? Why wouldn’t they escalate their concerns through one of Cornell’s well-documented and well-established channels?
All too frequently, these questions are also posed in other scenarios in which coercive control and abuse are present.
One portion of the answer is the same:
Fear.
The ever-present specter of retaliation from eCornell/Cornell loomed — and continues to loom — large at eCornell/Cornell. As Levin documents in his article: “After (Jackie Schwabe) reported McNally to eCornell’s HR department, he retaliated against her, she said, by writing her up that March for insubordination and warning her that she could be terminated in part because she protested the firings.”
For those of us who have been laid off, (allegedly) constructively discharged, or involuntarily terminated based on the pretext of poor — yet poorly documented — performance, that very fear, pervasive and paralyzing, didn’t just linger in the background; it played a role in shaping the outcomes we are experiencing. And, in the way the organization’s response to our claims attempts to invalidate, rather than investigate, the facts we have reported — even going so far as to subtly impugn the “independent, student-run newspaper” that dared to take our concerns seriously, when no one else would.
Years of alleged missteps and transgressions from dishonest performance reviews to inappropriate managerial conduct have culminated in the cataclysmic debacle that has unfolded over the last several months: a textbook case study in how not to respond to allegations of unlawful discrimination or harassment and how not to plan, implement and execute reductions in force. Professionally, ethically and possibly legally, the chasm between what should have been done and what was done is cavernous.
Before offering courses and bestowing credentials in Leadership and HR, eCornell/Cornell must demonstrate sound leadership and HR practices.
Before offering courses and bestowing credentials in Employee Relations and Investigations, eCornell/Cornell must follow its own Internal Investigation Framework, which — ironically — is what first brought me to Cornell in 1994.
Finally, before offering courses and bestowing credentials in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, eCornell/Cornell must first ensure full legal compliance with employment laws dating back more than half a century, including but not necessarily limited to: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2022.
This University’s legacy — especially one that houses the School of Industrial Labor Relations, an institution that boasts sharing “knowledge that improves the lives of workers and transforms the future of work” — depends on its willingness to listen, investigate and take responsibility for what has been allowed to transpire at eCornell.
Now is the time to unearth silenced reports and conduct real investigations.
Now is the time to stop isolating those who dared to speak.
Now is the time for Cornell to align what it teaches with how it leads.
Otherwise, eCornell may best serve as its own cautionary tale, a case study in contradiction. One is left to wonder whether Cornell will join the ranks of Wells Fargo, not as a model of leadership, but as a textbook example of its failure.
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Cathy L. Pantano is a North Carolina-based former eCornell/Cornell University employee who was laid off in June 2025. Prior to that, she worked for Cornell since 1997, including nearly ten years as an ILR faculty member. Her work with eCornell began in February 2002, when she co-authored the first online HR certificate program. Cathy can be reached at cathyleepantano@gmail.com.
