SA R73 (2025-2026): Calling for Cornell to Improve its Land Acknowledgement and Recognize the Benefits Obtained through the Morrill Act of 1862

Rejected by the President

• Resolution:
  SA R73 (2025-2026): Calling for Cornell to Improve its Land Acknowledgement and Recognize the Benefits Obtained through the Morrill Act of 1862
• Day:
  June 26, 2026
• Action:
  Rejected by the President
• Summary / Notes:
• File Attachments:
• Text Attachment:

  Dear Eeshaan,

  My thanks to Zora and to the Student Assembly for conveying Resolution 73: Calling for Cornell to Improve its Land Acknowledgement and Recognize the benefits Obtained through the Morrill Act of 1862. I reject this resolution, for the reasons outlined below.

  As is the case for all Morrill Act land-grant universities, Cornell’s founding was made possible both by the Lincoln administration’s visionary commitment to accessible higher education, and by the land made available through the deliberate and devastating displacement, decades earlier, of Indigenous peoples from many parts of what is now the United States. For many years, our university community has grappled with the question of how best to understand and reckon with the complexities of this history, along with its painful realities. That ongoing work has included ensuring that Cornell is a place that welcomes Native American students, by recruiting students with Indigenous backgrounds, ensuring that Cornell remains affordable and accessible to all students, and establishing support programs and facilities such as the Akwe:kon residence hall.

  We have also continued to promote engagement with Indigenous history and contemporary issues, in large part through the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) at Cornell, and the development of a land acknowledgment statement to help bring a lived recognition of that history to the university’s current-day community. The task of creating the statement was approached collaboratively by AIISP faculty, with the input and review of the local Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ community—the Indigenous community most deeply connected with this region and best placed to engage with Cornell’s presence and history. The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫɁ community approved the statement that was ultimately adopted in 2021.

  The university has been exploring a number of approaches to resolving the issue of the mineral rights it holds on land across northern Wisconsin, a small portion of which includes the Blue Hills Pipestone Quarry. Cornell holds a 50% interest in the mineral rights to these lands, while the county owns the remainder of the mineral rights, along with full surface rights. This presents a complicated situation, as Cornell does not possess, and therefore would not be able to convey, any unilateral right to access the quarry. The university has no objection to the Indigenous community, nations, and tribes accessing the site and is offering to remove any barrier that these rights comprise for that purpose.

  The university has no plans to expand historical signage around campus, as the history of the Morrill Act is already widely and publicly available.

  Sincerely,

  Michael Kotlikoff