This petition is in response to the following statement released by Cornell College on 11/21/2025: 


“Today we have information to share about changes to our academic offerings that will be effective for the 2026-2027 academic year. In consultation with Faculty Council, we have analyzed student enrollment data and student interest to determine where we will be making changes.   
 We will no longer offer major courses of study in: Classical Studies
French and Francophone Studies
German Studies
Religion
Spanish - we will retain a minor option
BMus K12, BMus Performance, BA Music (general track), Music programs (while retaining choir/choral ensembles, contemporary/popular music, and musical theatre); other instrumental groups are paused. While the history department has been impacted by staffing changes, the history major will be sustained.” [End quote]


To: The Board of Trustees and President Jonathan Brand We, the undersigned students, alumni, faculty, parents, and friends of Cornell College, are uniting to voice our urgent concern for recent attacks on the College’s historic mission. We are deeply troubled by recent decisions to eliminate core academic programs and reduce faculty positions—actions that threaten the heart of the liberal arts education that has defined Cornell for nearly 200 years. We call for a return to the values that make a Cornell degree uniquely valuable.

We believe you cannot cut your way to prosperity; you must build it. Instead of shrinking the college's offerings, we urge the administration to focus on positive solutions: boosting enrollment and growing the endowment by leaning into our identity, not stripping it away. The Cornell Difference is at Risk We chose Cornell—or sent our children here—because it is not a generic institution. We came for the Block Plan, the intimate class sizes, and the promise of a rigorous, cross-disciplinary education. The proposed cuts to the humanities and arts undermine this promise. A true liberal arts education relies on a vibrant ecosystem of disciplines.

The Administration has suggested that the liberal arts model can survive the gutting of Music, Languages, Anthropology, Classics, and Religion. We strongly disagree. When we lose these programs, we do not just lose majors; we lose the critical exposure that enriches every degree, makes cross-disciplinary study impossible, and sets Cornell apart from every generic college in the country. These departments should not be relegated to intramural hobbies; they should remain central to the curriculum.  Business students need ethics and sociology to become responsible leaders. Science majors need the humanities to ask the "deeper questions" that drive innovation. Athletes and Artists alike need a community that challenges them to expand their horizons.

The Silent Elimination of Archaeology

We must also call attention to the Archaeology program, which was omitted from the Administration's list of cuts but is effectively being dismantled. Archaeology is a uniquely interdisciplinary major that relies on the specific expertise of faculty in Anthropology, Classics, and Geology. By letting go of the staff that sustains these pillars, the College is quietly ending the Archaeology program without public acknowledgment.

Gutting these programs strips away the very essence of what makes Cornell special. This decision does not merely remove options from the course catalog, reduce the services we offer, or make us less attractive to prospective applicants, which are reason enough not to do this. But, more importantly, it inflicts fundamental harm on the education being offered at Cornell.  Cornell graduates are prized for their mental agility and critical thinking— skills that require a broad and challenging liberal arts curriculum to develop. We believe that diluting this curriculum compromises the rigor or our institution and diminishes the value of the Cornell degree.

No Donation Without Disclosure

We understand financial realities, but we reject austerity measures that destroy the product being sold. We want to support Cornell, but we need to know what future we are funding. Therefore, we specifically request that the College publicly disclose the details of its new program alignment plan following the cuts of these departments. The Cornell community deserves to know the strategic vision before the foundation is dismantled. If the College expects alumni and friends to donate, it must share what the "New Cornell" will look like. We cannot invest confidently in a vision that has not been shared with us.

Our Pledge

We are committed to the long-term success of Cornell College. However, we cannot support a strategy that dismantles the academic core we cherish. Until this strategy changes, we respectfully but firmly pledge the following:

A Call for a Moratorium: We urge the Administration to pause all faculty and staff cuts while a collaborative, thoughtful, and intentional plan is developed to address financial challenges without sacrificing academic quality. 

Financial Pause: We ask our fellow alumni and supporters to please consider withholding future financial contributions until the College releases its specific strategic plan and reaffirms a commitment to a full liberal arts model with ample humanities. We should not donate blindly to a strategy of reduction.

Recruitment Pause: We will pause our recruitment efforts—including the recommendation of Cornell to prospective students and legacy enrollees—until we are confident that the College will continue to offer the rigorous, holistic education that generations of Cornellians have benefited from.

A Way Forward

We stand ready to partner with the College to find creative solutions for growth that do not require sacrificing our identity. We want to help build a Cornell that thrives because of its liberal arts excellence, not in spite of it. 
Please, President Brand and our honored trustees, save the Liberal Arts model at Cornell College. Preserve the Cornell all we know and love.

Signed, The SLAM (Save Liberal Arts Model) Coalition 


We will update this petition with any new information or plans the College is willing to provide to the Cornell community.

Please subscribe to our online newspaper, The Cornell Watchdog.   https://cornellwatchdog.com

And please check out and share the article there, "The Dismantling of Cornell," which tells the story of how the cuts came about over just four months this fall, and how the administration lied in spirit when it said the cuts were done "in consultation with the faculty."