Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of an open letter delivered by Students Not Bombs to members of Cornell University’s Board of Trustees.
Dear Members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees,
We are Students Not Bombs. We fundamentally believe in Cornell's founding mission of “... any person … any study,” and we write to you today because Cornell has failed to uphold this central moral principle. Cornell is complicit in the genocide in Palestine through its endowment investments, research and recruitment and financial ties with the weapons industry. Cornell maintains a parasitic relationship to Ithaca by refusing to pay property taxes and failing to give proportional institutional support to the city and its residents. Cornell has capitulated to the Trump administration, which threatens the well-being of some of our most vulnerable students and opens the door to further fascist incursions and oversight.
We have tried every possible avenue to work with the University administration to address these harms. We have been met with silence, contempt, repression and police harassment. We have been arrested, tried and sentenced because we choose to uphold Cornell's own principles. We will not be silenced. We understand that refusing capitulation is our greatest strength. Our demands, which you can find published in the Cornell Daily Sun, are simple, clear and have been reiterated by the student body time and time again. As a starting point, we seek to begin negotiations with the University administration and you, the Trustees, on these demands. Once an agreement for negotiations is reached, we can collectively outline the negotiation process.
We realize that the Board of Trustees is not a monolith and hope some of you align with our goals of divesting from violence and investing in Cornell's student body. As members of the Board, we encourage you to uplift student voices seeking to be heard by our institution. If that is the case, please reach out to us for further conversation or to support us in our efforts.
Sincerely,
Students Not Bombs
Students for Justice in Palestine is a registered undergraduate student organization of Cornell University and is a Student Organization Columnist for The Opinion Department. The organization can be reached at sjpcornell@gmail.com.
