Stand with the Cornell community on May Day
Dear President Kotlikoff,
We write to you on behalf of the thousands of graduate workers across Cornell University to demand that Cornell stands with us – the community of scholars and workers who fulfill Cornell’s educational and research mission. We write as workers who joined the Cornell community to “do the greatest good”: to advance scientific knowledge to benefit humanity and pursue excellence in teaching the next generation of students. We are asking Cornell to join us in the fight to strengthen and democratize our higher education system and to take concrete steps to ensure a thriving future for the students, graduate workers, faculty, custodial staff, dining workers, and administrative employees who make our institution run.
Higher education across the country is under attack. The Trump administration has withheld billions in federal research funding and pressured universities to abandon research integrity and DEI initiatives. We have seen ICE raids, abductions, and arrests tear apart our communities and chill free speech on campuses across the country. Workers like Rumeysa Özturk, Mahmoud Khalil, and others have been thrown into ICE jails. Others, like Cornell graduate workers Momodou Taal and Amandla Thomas-Johnson, were forced to self-deport as a result of the Trump administration’s politically-motivated and racially-targeted visa revocations.
For decades, rising tuition has made education less accessible; campus workers have been underpaid; and the workers who keep our universities running have been excluded from the decisions that shape our institution. By standing together, we have the opportunity to reverse the crises we face and build a more inclusive, equitable, and democratic system of higher education. The guiding principle of our university should be to serve the public good by increasing knowledge and training the scientists and researchers of the future to continue working for a better world.
Your leadership in this historic moment has the power to determine the future of higher education. Cornell and other institutions of higher education are faced with a choice: to cave to authoritarian pressure or to stand firm in defending the right to teach, research, and learn freely without censorship. In choosing the latter, Cornell has the power to advance a positive vision of higher education and truly live up to the motto of “any person, any study.”
This May Day, unions and students across New York State and across the country will stand together in solidarity. We are asking Cornell to stand with us and stand up for education and educators across the country.
We demand that Cornell close its campuses on May 1, 2026. In light of the Trump administration’s recent attacks on higher education, we call on Cornell to demonstrate their commitment to promoting the needs of working people over billionaires by shutting down the university on Friday, May 1st – no school, no work, no shopping. May Day is, first and foremost, a day to honor the dignity of all workers who keep our institutions running.
We demand that Cornell create a legal defense fund, making funds available to international workers who need access to legal representation and consultation. Cornell runs on immigrant labor. The work that takes place across our campuses – teaching and research, custodial and dining services, and care work, among others – is performed in large part by non-citizens. Amid ongoing federal attacks on non-citizens, Cornell needs to provide workers with protections and robust economic and legal resources to ensure our safety.
We demand that Cornell pay their fair share to the city of Ithaca by contributing at least $732 per student to ICSD, commensurate with how much Princeton University pays to their local school district. It’s past time that Cornell contributed equitably to the community in which we live, and we are demanding that they give back to our community and our local government. The Ithaca City School District (ICSD) needs the support from the largest employer of the city, in the same way Princeton does in its city.
We hope that Cornell will use their power to defend the workers that make this university run. Now more than ever, Cornell needs to stand with us and stand up for higher education and democratic principles.
Signed,
CGSU-UE Local 300 Executive Board