Faculty Senate – September 30, 2020
Wednesday, Sept 30, 3:30-5:00pm, Zoom Link.
Audio and chat are posted on this webpage shortly after the meeting.
Agenda
Announcements (C. Van Loan, slides, 10 minutes )
How Should Cornell Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54? SEE BELOW (C. Van Loan, slides, 15 min)
Discussion and vote on a resolution that would approve a unified Professor of the Practice Policy for the S.C. Johnson College of Business. Slides from the 9/9 meeting and a clarification of JCB voting procedures (A. Karolyi, 10 min)
The Antiracism Initiative
Working Group Charges ( C. Van Loan, N. Kudva, slides 10 min))
Ideas Behind the Mandatory Program for Staff (A. Winfield, 10 min)
Thinking about an Educational Program for Faculty (Y. Levitte, A. August, slides , 20 min)
Technology, Humanities and STEM Instruction ( T.L. Goffe , slides, 15 min)
Meeting Recording (audio part 1; audio part 2) (chat)
Cornell’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg School of Public Policy
Including professorships and/or student scholarships for those who create collaborative partnerships among communities, women, and academia to bring together expertise (including experience) to creatively vision and work toward a future for all. Or something like that 🙂
rename our Law School after her, in her honor
Goodwin Smith Hall could be nicely renamed Bader Ginsburg Hall. That building is long overdue for a new name.
Or any of the Academic buildings on the arts quad.
Ginsburg’s name could be given to a building associated with the law school. However, the university should also consider naming a central building in the quad after Toni Morrison.
I think it would be appropriate to have an annual honor or recognition in Justice Ginsburg’s name through the President’s Council of Cornell Women. Further, I would argue for focusing on undergraduate or graduate women who have had meaningful engagements in public issues of particular relevance to women and the role of women in society. Justice Ginsburg’s life is inspirational. I think we should ensure that her example remains alive as an inspiration for young Cornell women in perpetuity.
Cornell should promote the idea of abolishing the Supreme Court, as a supremely undemocratic institution, which, moreover, is charged with overseeing an oppressive and discriminatory legal system.
Maybe the University could rename Goldwin Smith Hall “Ruth B. Ginsburg Hall”. The intention wouldn’t be to erase or “cancel” Smith, whose contribution to our university were undeniable , but the journalist’s Racist and Antisemitic views are abhorrent to many. Let us honor someone like Judge Ginsburg instead!
LF
Rename all of the Goldwin Smith Professorships to the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Professors
The most natural naming from Ruth Bader and Martin Ginsburg would be of the Law School. Or a fund to support female students working on social justice questions, either paying for an internship experience or undergraduate or graduate research costs or a graduate or undergraduate fellowship.
An A&S scholarship to a NYC female undergrad student from a low income family that is structured so as to offer access to the best programs at Cornell. A named chair in Government and in Law that includes a strong student mentorship component. An annual Bader Gindsburg lecture that brings in themes that were important to her life including gender equality and Jewish learning. Lastly, the clinical program should have a gender rights advocacy component that is named for her.
Another vote for naming the Law School after her — Alan ’77
RBG was a champion for gender equality. Rename the ‘Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program’ in her honor.
I support the suggestion of renaming Goldwin Smith Hall after Justice Ginsburg, given the problematic nature of Goldwin Smith’s legacy. It would also be good to recognize the specific work she did in support of women’s rights – perhaps with a scholarship, post-doctoral fellowship and/or named chair in FGSS or the Law School?
Cornell should also consider commissioning a piece of public art in her honor. Perhaps not a conventional honorific statue, but something more contemporary, creative and striking, in keeping with her legacy.
Rename Goldwin-Smith hall. see the research by Glen Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick for the reasons why. He held virulent anti-Semitic views. He was anti-imperialist but supported the white settlers in South Africa. He was for a small Britain and supported the US North in the Civil War, but he felt the Irish were racially inferior, as well as other non Anglo-Saxons. Had he lived later, he would have found fascism attractive. RBG knew that hall as an undergraduate.
What about naming the Cornell Legal Information Institute in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg? She championed the protections of the law, especially for those who often were left out of its considerations or who may not have had the wealth to buy access to the most elite legal defenders.
Name the law school after her. Host an annual lecture in her name on topics key to her legacy, like law and gender equity. Named chairs and/or scholarships In her name.
I recommend naming the FGSS program after her.
name the law school after her.
Rename Lincoln Hall as Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall in acknowledgement of her fondness for opera.
One of the new freshman dorms currently be constructed should be named after RBG.
Like idea of renaming Goldwin Smith Hall the Bader Ginsburg Hall, with perhaps a striking sculptural tribute outside. Also good to have RBG Chair of Gender and Legal Studies, to have RBG scholarships for undergrad women pursuing gender or legal studies, and RBG fellowships for grads studying in these areas. As an earlier commenter notes, it is also vit
al that there be a major recognition of Toni Morrison; I think in both cases both enduring physical and ongoing intellectual tributes various kinds are important.
Rename the Hasbrouck apartments after RBG. The Hasbrouck family gained wealth and prominence in upstate NY on the backs of their Black slaves, who for nearly 150 years provided labor for mills and farms. Recognizing the Hasbrouck ties to slavery, SUNY-New Paltz renamed its Hasbrouck dorm complex last year. Cornell should follow suit, and there’s no better way to do this than to replace “Hasbrouck” with the name of a champion of civil rights.
I think either naming the Law School or the new School of Public Policy would be a great choice. Or a named professorship in A&S/FGSS
Hi, I would like to suggest to rename building or program after her.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Cornell Law School
Rename the university after her. Her contributions to society exceed Ezra Cornell’s.
either the law school or the bell tower
Ruth Ginsburg was the most illustrious and impactful of Cornell’s alumni. Naming programs or buildings after her is great, but I vote for a statue in on the Arts Quad. Many of us would contribute funds gladly for such a statue. This is our chance at Cornell to dilute the masculine power the two statues of Ezra and Andrew exude over this central place on campus. She would be present for all of us then, not just a name on a building, but a presence. I believe Ezra and Andrew would approve.
I met Justice Ginsburg on a Washington DC subway decades ago around the time when I was teaching one of the courses MIlton Konvitz had made famous at ILR.. When she heard about that connection she told me about Milton’s impact on her student days at Cornell. What ever Cornell does in her honor it would be appropriate if that connection with ILR could somehow be included.
Gerd Korman
Prof. Emeritus
.
I suggest and favor naming the Law School itself after RBG. It’s a huge deal, but so was she.
I’m certainly not opposed to the suggestions of naming buildings or programs after her, but these are smaller in scope and I’m not sure they rise to the occasion. (Having now learned about the nature of Goldwin Smith, renaming the hall after somebody else sounds like a good idea). But RBG is singular in American history and she is a Cornellian, so among universities we are the ones who are most clearly charged with honoring her appropriately. Perhaps a fair comparison is Thurgood Marshall, remembered in part by Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD.
As one of what I hope are many gestures, I’d like to see the rooms in Balch Hall that she lived in be noted with a plaque to inspire the young women who are living there now. I believe she lived there in sophomore and senior year.
Commission a leading contemporary artist to do a public sculpture in her honor
I think it is very special that Cornell is willing to honor the famous alumna Associate Justice Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a very special human being that left an indelible mark in the history of Cornell, the field of Jurisprudence, the United States and our society. RBG’s vision was extremely avant-garde. In my humble opinion and maybe I could be wrong, I believe that the Law School building or another building at Cornell, ought to be named after our Supreme Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I understand that the Law School building, once it was called Morrill Hall and I believe that back in the 1930s it was changed to Myron Charles Taylor, since he donated a gift of $ 1.5 million. Maybe it would be possible that the RBG name could be added?
I would also wish to share that I was very fortunate to have met Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg , during one her visits to her Alma Mater/Cornell.
Name the Cornell Law School after her. At very least name a chair for research in legal research in gender equity. But there should be something for undergraduates to celebrate her, as well, so scholarships for women with children working on undergraduate degrees is another idea.
The Human Ecology building needs a name and Ruth Bader Ginsberg hall would be an excellent name for that reflective and shining building.