The Student Assembly approved several of the Finance Committee’s funding recommendations at its Thursday meeting, including allocations for ALANA Intercultural Board, CUTonight, the Community Partnership Funding Board and the Interfaith Council at Cornell, while voting to eliminate Empathy, Assistance & Referral Service’s direct funding and move the group under the Student Activities Funding Commission.
The Assembly also heard a presentation from the Presidential Task Force on Institutional Voice and considered resolutions regarding Special Projects funding, which included pushback during public comment and from Assembly members.
Members also announced upcoming meetings with the Gender Justice Advocacy Coalition on Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by a 12:30 p.m. meeting with Class Councils. This follows a rejection of the Finance Committee’s original recommendations to reduce funding for these groups at the Nov. 6 Assembly meeting after an hour of heated public comment and controversy during the Oct. 30 meeting.
Student Trustee Keten Abebe ’27 and Assembly President Zora DeRham ’27 also announced that they will host a town hall next Wednesday, with details posted on Instagram.
Byline Organization Funding
As several organizations have engaged in back-and-forth rapport with the Assembly, Thursday's meeting led to closure on many financial cases.
The Assembly unanimously approved the Finance Committee’s recommendation to increase ALANA’s funding by 12.9 percent, following backlash to their initial recommended decrease.
Vice President of Finance Hayden Watkins ’28 explained that the committee initially recommended a decrease, believing ALANA sub-organizations could be funded by the SAFC. However, he later discovered they already were, but were still experiencing insufficient funds.
The Assembly also approved the Finance Committee’s recommendation to reduce CUTonight’s funding to $11 per student, an 8.3 percent decrease from last cycle. The organization had requested a 50 percent increase — one of the largest requested increases among applicants.
Finance Committee members said CUTonight failed to demonstrate a need for the dramatic increase. The committee noted that although CUTonight reported being unable to fund four Spring 2025 events due to insufficient funds, the organization still funded 71 events.
CUTonight explained they had to reduce the maximum award from $5,000 to $2,500, though many of its programs cost more than $7,000, as one reason for needing increased funding.
They also cited a 146.4 percent increase in total requested funds and expressed concerns that the Assembly’s spread-out funding schedule would complicate event timing and rollover funds. Despite these concerns, the funding recommendation passed.
In one of the most significant changes, the Assembly approved the Finance Committee’s recommendation to reduce funding to EARS from 50 cents per student to $0. Finance Committee members said the move was planned and would transition EARS to be under the SAFC, where Watkins said the group could potentially receive more money.
The Assembly also approved funding increases for several other organizations, including ICC, which received a 76.9 percent increase to $11.50 per student. The International Students Association received an 11.6 percent increase to $9.50.
The Assembly also approved recommendations to increase funding to the Community Partnership Funding Board and maintain funding for Outdoor Odyssey and unanimously approved the committee’s request to table funding for the Multicultural Greek and Fraternal Council until additional information is provided.
Presidential Task Force Presentation
In addition to approving funding recommendations, the Assembly also listened to a recommendation from the Presidential Task Force on Institutional Voice. Task Force Co-Chair Prof. Avery August, immunology, presented the task force’s recommendations on how and when the University should issue statements on public issues. Formed in April 2025, the Task Force met weekly during the spring semester.
August said the University should adopt institutional restraint rather than neutrality, and that only the president and provost should issue statements on behalf of the University.
He said the University should speak only when issues affect core University values, functions or the background conditions enabling Cornell’s academic mission.
“It's not that the institution needs to remain silent all times, but that if its mission is compromised … it is entitled to protect those interests and speak accordingly and to be neutral would not be coherent under those circumstances,” said August.
August encouraged students to read the full report from the task force and reach out with questions.
Industrial and Labor Relations Representative Max Ehrlich ’26 asked if giving 60 million to the Trump administration was institutionally neutral, referencing the University’s recent settlement, which August said he could not answer.
Special Projects Funding
After the presentation, First-Generation Representative Admir Cekic ’26 presented Resolution 16, which would require that Special Projects Funding — which the Assembly grants for programs or services that “deems to improve the quality of undergraduate student life” — be used solely within Tompkins County.
Cekic explained that while all students pay the activity fee, many lack access to the trips taken by organizations using the fund’s. He clarified that he envisioned “a special project [as] something you might create … at Cornell and have Cornell students participate [in],” saying the funding has largely gone toward funding off-campus trips this semester for individual organizations.
Students from the Med-in-Black Pre-Health Association and the Black Ivy Pre-Law Association spoke against the proposal during public comment, arguing it would limit their ability to visit medical schools, law schools and professional environments.
Kennedy Young ’28, vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, opposed the resolution, saying its framing as an equity measure was misleading.
“The fact that you … only included organizations that use funding to travel, with the majority of those organizations being multicultural organizations, it feels like an attack to multicultural organizations,” Young said. Following Young’s motion, the Assembly voted to table the resolution indefinitely.
Also at the meeting, four new first-year representatives and one transfer representative were sworn in. The first-year election saw a record 39 percent turnout in eligible voters, a 38.6 percent increase from Fall 2024.
The Assembly unanimously approved Resolution 18, continuing the Assembly-funded Syracuse shuttle service for finals week, as in previous years, and Resolution 15: Approving Special Projects Funding Request for the Black Ivy Pre-Law Society.
The recently formed Technology Committee announced that it is now up and accepting applications on the Assembly website.
Correction: November 16, 2025, 11:56 a.m: This article has been updated to include that Industrial and Labor Relations Representative Max Ehrlich ’26 asked Avery August a question, not Representative at-large Ezra Galperin ’27.
