In their annual address at Tuesday’s University Assembly meeting, President Kotlikoff and Kyle Kimball, vice president for university relations, fielded questions about the Department of Justice memo recommendations, transgender protections, staff layoffs, Resilient Cornell and the University’s legal capabilities post-settlement.
In the Nov. 7 settlement, the U.S. government agreed to restore all previously paused federal funding and close several civil rights investigations into the University. In exchange, the University agreed to pay $30 million to the federal government and invest another $30 million into agriculture research.
Clause 6 of the settlement stipulates that the University use Attorney General Pamela Bondi’s July 2025 “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination” as a training resource for faculty and staff. A pre-submitted question by a U.A. member asked Kotlikoff and Kimball whether the University had agreed in the settlement to implement the Department of Justice memo’s “anti-trans” guidelines.
The DOJ memo claims it is unlawful to “compel” students to “share intimate spaces,” such as bathrooms and locker rooms, with the opposite sex. Cornell currently allows transgender students, staff and faculty to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, which the University defines as “an individual’s internal sense of gender.”
In response, Kimball emphasized how the University would implement the DOJ memo’s guidelines — as guidance but not rule.
“We're not implementing the guidance,” Kimball said. “What we are implementing is we have agreed to share the guidance as a training resource.”
Kolitkoff also replied, saying that “[The memo is] not the institutional position of the University. “There is no commitment to implement that guidance. How we provide that training resource to faculty and staff is really up to us, and that’s something we’re working on now.”
Kimball noted that New York state law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression. “When there's a conflict between federal and state, the state supersedes,” he said.
Kotlikoff said that a potential implementation of the DOJ memo is that it “could be included” in already required “training sessions for faculty who participate in search committees,” which are hiring committees appointed to oversee the recruitment for new faculty.
Another pre-submitted question from a U.A. member asked what the University’s “best case hope” from the implementation would be.
Kotlikoff responded that the settlement provided a “better position legally” if the federal government were to restrict the University’s access to federal grants and contracts again without going through the full legal process, because it would “violate” the agreement.
Clause 21 of the settlement states that “any action brought by either party to enforce this Agreement must be brought in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.”
The University did not have a “clear” case before the settlement to take to court, according to Kotlikoff, as there was not a “consistent action” by the federal government because it did not withhold all federal grants.
“It’ll depend very much on the specifics, but if the agreement is violated, I believe we would take the government to court,” Kotlikoff said. “We would have the ability to take this document to court and basically sue for appropriate behavior.”
Another question asked about the “Resilient Cornell” initiative that was launched in October to reduce costs through a restructuring of the University’s workforce. In a post-settlement town hall, Kotlikoff had said that Resilient Cornell was largely unaffected by the settlement, as the University's financial strain existed pre-settlement.
“There are no additional layoffs at this point that I'm aware of that are planned,” Kotlikoff said. “That's not to say they could not occur as we think about restructuring many of our units.”
He added that information about any potential layoffs, retirement incentives or a hold in hiring forces would be communicated.
Yuhan Huang is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. Yuhan is a staff writer for the News department and can be reached at yhuang@cornellsun.com.
