This new @yaleaaup.bsky.social report on academic freedom at Yale is horrifying if not surprising. One number that jumped out: "21.5% reported that they had been asked by a “department chair, Deans, or others in university leadership” to make changes to their courses, research or website".

UPDATE: Cornell University has banned Aiden Vallecillo—the recent grad whose foot President Kotlikoff ran over—from campus for one year.

People must be distracted by other things--this thread (excerpts from Cornell Law Professor @jtlg.bsky.social 's detailed blog) has flown under the radar. We agree 💯%. Anyone who thinks that the committee's "investigation" passes the smell test loses all credibility. Now the question is...

We ask your help in reading & sharing the recent statements of the SDC to counteract the misinformation being generated by university officials. Please read and share the students' recent statement. www.instagram.com/p/DY7sXmlFIP... And if you'd like to help us stand up to this kind of thing...

As Cornell prepares to welcome 6,941 alumni to next weekend's reunions, its officials have now banned a 2nd alum from campus following leaders' attempted cover-up of the President's highly unethical behavior. ithacavoice.org/2026/05/corn...

@brianphillips.lol's piece is one of the best we've read about this. Has info/accuracy/context to rival the local/student journalists & adds spot-on commentary. [Just missing the additional context of Kotlikoff's recent intimidation of SDC & his treatment of Taam '73 after the parking lot.]

#MIT alumni are rightly distressed to hear about the permanent closure of 3 of 4 major libraries. Could use your help to spread the word that there's a group MIT Alumni for Science [& Academic Freedom]. So ppl have a way to get involved.⬇️ mitalumniforscience.org

Time-sensitive: by June 1 The next round of alumni-elected trustee candidates will be chosen soon. Alumni can nominate someone for consideration. We need a slate of ppl who will stand up for Cornell's values. Think about who you know. Think about yourself. ... alumni.cornell.edu/volunteer/le...

Heads up, Cornellians! There's a new petition spearheaded by faculty, to insist that the Board conduct an independent investigation. [It builds on this joint statement. aaup-cornell.org/2026/05/20/i... ] Please sign & share the petition ➡️ c.org/sB6PfN9gxt And for other ways to take action .../1

🤔 Newly announced Cornell Center on Democracy "will help build democratic literacy into students’ education from the start." PR doublespeak? or are we too cynical, @cornellaaup.bsky.social ? news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

Cornell Courage is among the groups that also signed onto this statement issued by @cornellaaup.bsky.social AAUP. Please have a read of the statement--or at least of the summary posted here by Cornell AAUP....⬇️ aaup-cornell.org/2026/05/20/i...

Better link: the students released their own statement. ithacavoice.s3.amazonaws.com/ithacavoice/... Please repost to amplify the students' explanation & counteract misleading statements from the university. cc: @masnick.com via @ithacavoice.bsky.social story: ithacavoice.org/2026/05/no-c...

Breaking: Cornell's Board releases findings of narrow, "independent" investigation. +Kotlikoff makes statement. Misleading info in both. Typical. We ask all of you to share, instead, the student's statements. Help offset the PR machine of Cornell's president. 1/2 www.instagram.com/p/DYYBFvDEid9/

So heads up, everyone: if a high-school student applies to Cornell, it's quite possible that their data & essays will, w/o their knowledge/consent, wind up in the hands of the federal govt (& shared among various agencies). We'd love Cornell to prove us wrong on this. Not just make an empty claim.

Just out: A group of Cornell alumni w/ academic and legal backgrounds has written up the ways that Cornell's $60m "deal" w/Trump also creates ongoing dangers for student data and privacy--& affects future applicants, too. Read more here:⬇️ www.cornellcourage.com/media/press-...

We're happy to see Stanford alumni calling for Stanford to resist DOJ's pressure re: admissions data. Handing over student data is an issue at Cornell that has us alarmed, so stay tuned for our forthcoming report 👀) Please share ⬇️ w/your networks! alumni.standforcampusfreedom.org/petitions/ca...

New NYT article: Trustees ordered a (non-independent) investigation of Kotlikoff. 10 paragraphs: 6 reference Palestine, Israel, and/or protests abt the conflict. *0* references to the Code of Conduct--the issue these students are actually concerned about! www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/n...

The Daily Sun journalists have been on it: 4:30pm Canvas goes down at Cornell 9:32pm Cornell CIO finally emails everyone (+5hrs!) 10:30pm Canvas back up again 11:39pm Sun's report is up online. Says some faculty already in touch w/students to help re: deadlines. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

This is an outstanding editorial from the Cornell Daily Sun. It is well-written and very on-point-- how the Cornell president misused/abused the powers of his office last week, by using his communication channels to spread misleading information. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

In this day and age, it takes a lot of courage for people--especially young adults--to stand up to the powers that are oppressing them. We'd like to point your attention to what these students were standing up for. In their own words... www.instagram.com/p/DX7g3sMjyW6/

New coverage: NBC News gives the students at the center of this incident a chance to explain the background of the situation www.nbcnews.com/video/cornel...

Clarification/correction: no student was seriously injured. In the spirit of transparency, we wanted to get that out there. (our other points still stand) Now if Cornell's administration would like to correct the record on any of the claims they've made...over to you, Day Hall....

Let's ask @janelynchofficial.bsky.social to reconsider giving the speech unless action is taken about Kotlikoff's actions. It would be a gesture to honor the class of 2026.

Cornell alum @janelynchofficial.bsky.social MFA ’84, a Golden Globe & 5 time Emmy-winner, to deliver Convocation address May 21. “People want a fun, light-hearted, high-energy event, and we feel like [Jane Lynch] really, really embodies all of those principles.” news.cornell.edu/stories/2026...

We'll have more to say on this shortly, but in the meantime we're glad to see attention to this incident at Cornell in which the President endangered/injured students. (We already found his actions concerning--if you look at our recent posts). But some misunderstandings need to be cleared up..../

Police car on the Arts Quad? Was there some sort of threat on campus? Well, a small, calm student group convened for 1 hr, which is all that Cornell's recent regs. allow. +3 alumni from the late 60s/early 70s spoke about their student activism So oppressive! www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

When students write "NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH AT CORNELL" in chalk and Pres. Kotikoff deploys Cornell power washers within a couple of hours to eliminate any trace of this statement, this tells you everything you need to know about Mike Kotlikoff's "leadership style."

Prez Kotlikoff is so averse to criticism that when students wrote chalked messages, he promptly sent power-washers to remove the chalk--TWICE! (after students tried to re-write their messages) Campus police also came & said (wrongly) students couldn't do that. www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

Thank you @rweingarten.bsky.social for a strong op-ed that perfectly matches the views of the members of Cornell Courage. If we may use this chance to make a little plea, if anyone knows the illustrious Dr Randi Weingarten '80, please mention our group to her.🙏 www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

We'd give Cornell Prez. Kotlikoff an F in leadership at this point. Why does the 64-person board of Trustees give this kind of thing a pass?

ICYMI. From @cornellaaup.bsky.social Cornell Prez. Kotlikoff sold out his current *& former* employees by forking over their personal data to the Trump admin!! (there are >10K current employees). He concealed this act from them for months, and WORSE.../1 www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

We could say that Cornell failed the Lando test, but that would be inaccurate. Cornell's situation: more like if Lando said in first frame, "I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever. Except for the parts like Paragraph 19 that let the Empire back in anytime."

This news is unsurprising and shows how utterly ridiculous it was for Cornell's president to capitulate to the tune of $60 million (& agreeing whole host of disturbing terms)....under his calculation that the Trump administration would leave Cornell alone... /1 www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/u...

Happening now: We'll be joining this as well: #ICEOffCampus #HigherEd #AcademicFreedom #CampusSafety indivisible.org/events/ice-o...

Only 6.6% of contactable alumni voted in last year's election. And the 4-page doc w/data on 2025 trustee elections didn't even mention this turnout %. 6.6% of alumni voting embarrassingly low. And it's been low for years, so the ppl in charge apparently don't think it's worth trying to change this.

While we're at it, just how inadequate is the social media of Cornell's alumni office? Their X, FB & Insta accounts have posted only 3x during the last ~6 wks about the alumni elections. Less than us! They need to get their act together....

"But wait..." we hear you say, "I need to decide who to vote for, and I can only glean so much from those standardized-format candidate statements." ➡️We've got you covered: see the recording of the online trustee election event, where they answered some questions: live.alumni.cornell.edu/trustees

Cornellians...! A reminder that you have until this Saturday (11:59 EST) to cast your vote for 2 trustees on Cornell's board. Cast your vote at: vote.yeselections.com/cornell/ You will need your NetID, and if you don't have it or forgot the password, don't fret--visit it.cornell.edu/netids/i-am-...

As we predicted, making a "deal" with the Trump administration does not mean that the Trump administration will then leave you be. Cornell now being targeted again. www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/p... We hope our former classmates who were ROTC will publicly express their views on this.

Cornellians... Did you watch the "Trustee Talk" tonight where the 4 alumni trustee candidates fielded (pre-screened) questions? If so, what did you think? If you didn't catch it, it was recorded and should be available online soon at that same link.

We are proud of Cornell's students for this touching display of support for their fellow college students at Brown University. (Singing another school's alma mater in our iconic student union? Very fitting under the circumstances. ) www.cornellsun.com/article/2026...

Cornell's administration took their time in responding to our letter, signed by many alumni, faculty, & others. We even hand-delivered it (in early Dec). If you've signed onto Cornell Courage, check your emails for our readout. If not, you can sign up here & at the end you'll see the link to it.

We've updated our web site to include several more universities' alumni movements that have launched! cornellcourage.com/affiliates There are 20+ so far. This movement can use your help since the govt pressure continues. Recent additions include groups for Johns Hopkins, BU, Texas A&M, & more

Please join Cornell Courage as we continue to urge Cornell's leaders to defend Cornell's values/freedoms and to stand in solidarity with other institutions. This link allows you to sign up for our movement by adding your name (or initials) to our "Open Letter." cornellcourage.fillout.com/letter1

We join in solidarity w/ @crimsoncourage.bsky.social, calling on Harvard's leaders to standing up to unlawful pressure. Americans must join together in getting universities to stand up to these attacks on our universities. Find the group for your alma mater here: cornellcourage.com/affiliates

Hi fellow alumni... Another reminder about the perhaps-mundane topic of alumni trustee elections. We get to elect 2 ppl to the body that will set Cornell's future direction. We suggest ppl vote after hearing from candidates at the 2/10 election webinar. Details: alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/...

We at Cornell Courage stand in solidarity w/Crimson Courage, who've urged Harvard's leaders not to capitulate. A main pressure tactic of Trump admin has been to launch unfounded investigations etc We trust that Harvard won't do what Cornell's current leaders did, which was to get scared and cave.

Cornell Courage has been very concerned about whether university leadership understands its role in preserving democracy. Current students are upset: www.instagram.com/p/DUHY0t6j74... This news does not align with the recommendations of Cornell's 'task force on use of institutional voice."

We can use your help tonight if you have a minute. It's the last day to submit Q for the Alumni Trustee election process. Yes, we know alumni are NOT motivated to engage w/Cornell now. (We get it!). But it's 1 lever to use to fix probs. Please dash off a quick Q to the email👇 even if it's late

ICYMI: Cornell's alumni trustee elections matter because it's a way that alumni get a say in who is running the university and how they respond to the Trump administration...Here's one thing to do now: ask candidates the tough questions.