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Office of the Dean of Faculty

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Resolution 156: In Support of Naming a Residence Hall After Barbara McClintock

Passed: November 18, 2020

Sponsor: The University Faculty Committee

Posted: October 19, 2020

Background

The North Campus Residential Expansion (NCRE) involves the construction of five new dormitories and this creates a unique naming opportunity.

Already two of the residences have been named. In her State-of-the-University Address (10/9/2020), President Pollack announced that one would be named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg (B.A. ’54) and another after Toni Morrison (M.A. ’55).

Ginsburg was a Government major at Cornell, studied law at Harvard, and went on serve on the United States Supreme Court for twenty-seven years where she advanced  the rights of all people, particularly women.

Morrison earned her M.A. in English at Cornell, wrote highly acclaimed novels that explore and illuminate the black American experience, and received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.

A naming committee has been set up and is collecting nominations for the naming of the other three residences. The process is described in this article.

With this resolution the Faculty Senate nominates Barbara McClintock (B.S. ’23, M.S. ’25, Ph.D. ’27) . Dr. McClintock studied genetics at Cornell and subsequently made the profound and far-reaching discovery that genes can sometimes rearrange their ordering within cells. In 1983, Dr. McClintock was the first (and thus far only) woman to win a solo Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her painstaking work and major breakthroughs that challenged dogma and which, despite their importance, had been unappreciated for decades. She was not only a precedent-setting scientist; she also broke ground for women in many ways by overcoming gender-related obstacles throughout her career by sheer force of intellect. More details are provided in this nomination document.

The Resolution

Whereas Barbara McClintock (B.S. ’23, M.S. ’25, Ph.D. ’27) is recognized as one of the truly great geneticists of the twentieth century;

Whereas Barbara McClintock has had a profound and inspiring impact  on the  life sciences at Cornell and beyond;

Be it resolved that the Faculty Senate recommends the selection of Barbara McClintock to the NCRE Building Naming Committee;

Be it further resolved that the Faculty Senate wishes to communicate its deep appreciation for both the Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Toni Morrison residence hall namings and that these two women together with Barbara McClintock are perfect reflections of Cornell’s  commitment to  liberal education, creativity, and research.

9 thoughts on "Resolution 156: In Support of Naming a Residence Hall After Barbara McClintock"

  1. Barbara McClintock more than deserves this recognition. More than once when I have shown visitors or potential graduate students around campus, our stop at the McClintock Shed has been a highlight of their visits. She is or should be a hero, not only of women, but of all Cornellians.

    – Mike Thonney

  2. This is great! My only suggestion would be to start the resolution with the last point and then go on with the suggestion that Barbara McClintock be added to the list. It seems more logical to me that way.

  3. Absolutely thrilled. This is credit deserved, perhaps long overdue. We are talking about an academic who has walked the path and built a core aspect of genetics in evolution, with classic experiments. Beyond scientific impact, we need to create this awareness for future generations, to be inspired by this legend. Barbara McClintock marks how life as an undergrad can reveal one’s potential.

  4. I am in favor. Good choice. To have a McClintock building would be a nice reminder to everyone on campus, about women in science.
    (Walking by McClintock’s Shed, and showing it to guests from time to time, I often think of the parallels between McClintock and my mom, Geirid Fiskesjö, another plant geneticist who did her own share of struggle against unfair sexist obstacles to women in science, in the 1950s through the 1990s, while accomplishing groundbreaking research on environmental pollution, developing the Allium test to reveal genetic damage, and completing a PhD in genetics in Lund, Sweden, the first in our family, all the while raising me, and my siblings.
    It’s sad to read about how in her time, McClintock apparently had to avoid marrying or having children, in order to be able to work and do science).

  5. Barbara McClintock had an amazing career, showing passion, dedication, intellect and the power of astute observation. I met her at a Plant Breeding Synapsis Symposium in the early 1980s, when she returned to Cornell to give a keynote lecture. I was so impressed! I absolutely support the resolution. (Please don’t forget to add the word “with” in the final sentence “…these two women together WITH Barbara McClintock…”.)

  6. This is an excellent and long-deserved recognition of one of Cornell’s most accomplished scientists, whose contributions continue to be virtually invisible on the Cornell campus. It took an undergraduate to install an exhibit about McClintock in Mann library and a number of years ago, we nearly lost the iconic “McClintock shed.” I would love to see the Biotech Building or Plant Science named in her honor, but a dorm will do! Thanks for the initiative.

  7. I totally concur with the Faculty Senate resolution to the NCRE Building Naming Committee, to name one of the new dorms after Cornellian and Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock. Years ago I tried, but was hampered, in getting a plaque placed on the door of McClintock’s former office on the second floor of the Plant Science Building. The room has been renovated and the space is no longer viewable.
    A dorm building named for Barbara McClintock would be a wonderful way for Cornell to recognize the legacy of Barbara McClintock. She lived in Sage Hall and Risley Hall during some of her years as a Cornell Student. She returned to Cornell as one of the first A.D. White Professors in 1965, having offices in Plant Science and Bradfield Hall. Background information about McClintock at Cornell (and beyond) can be found in publications of Lee B. Kass

    Dr. Lee B. Kass (Cornell Ph.D. 1975).

  8. Yes, please consider naming a building on the Cornell campus after Barbara McClintock, to rise along with fellow Nobel Prize awardee Toni Morrison and Justice Ginsburg. Dr. McClintock joined Cornell as an undergraduate one year before women were given the right to vote in this country. What she was able to accomplish during this period in history, especially in the field of genetics, is truly legendary.

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