A Campus Reckoning: ‘Cornell Is Now Known for This’
New York Times · LC · trust 38/100
Accusations of sexual assault at a fraternity party have tarnished the self-image of a fiercely proud Ivy League institution. Can the university ever be the same?
Listen · 11:21 min Share full article On the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the rituals of a new school year have been replaced with a reassessment of what it means to be a student there. Credit... Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times By John Leland and Emma Goldberg
Emma Goldberg reported from Ithaca, N.Y.
And after they had worked so hard just to get in, and paid the tuition of $73,946 a year, would they lose the cachet of Cornell’s storied name on their resumes? Many students declined to be interviewed for this article, for fear of being associated with the scandal.
“Cornell is now known for this,” said Lewis Holland, a senior, his voice shaking.
He had cherished so much about the school: the idyllic campus in Ithaca, N.Y., with trees turning red and orange in the fall, the work ethic of the students who spend late nights in the libraries, his own research on 2-D materials.
In its place is a mess they did not bargain for, and which most did not create. There is a high-profile criminal investigation, made more prominent by the school’s Ivy League status, and renewed scrutiny of the campus’s long-criticized fraternity culture, where the drug ketamine seems to be an accepted social lubricant at some houses.
Like other campuses, Cornell has been riven by pro-Palestinian demonstrations and charges of antisemitism, including an incident in which the university president bumped a student with his car. And like other Ivies, Cornell was already in the cross hairs of the Trump administration.
Last week, students and faculty were trying to find their way through the miasma. And they were doing so under the glare of global digital media, both formal and informal.
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