Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff rejected a recent Student Assembly resolution calling for the university to boycott its partnership with an Israeli institution, stating that doing so would “fundamentally conflict with our core commitment to academic freedom” and noting the “political bias” within the resolution “is deeply disturbing.” 

In a letter to the Student Assembly, Kotlikoff wrote that the resolution — which calls to sever Cornell’s longstanding academic partnership with the Technion —  “would not only hinder our research, teaching and public engagement; it would imperil our academic principles.”

The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, the partnership in which Cornell Tech is based, was established in 2013 as a collaboration between the two institutions. It is located on Roosevelt Island in Manhattan.

The resolution calls on Cornell “to terminate its institutional partnership with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology while maintaining Cornell Tech as an independent Cornell campus.” It claims “ethical and legal concerns” regarding the Technion’s involvement in Israeli military research and technologies linked to “human rights violations.”

The resolution, Kotlikoff wrote, “inaccurately asserts that ‘the continued operation of Cornell Tech as a Cornell University campus does not require an ongoing partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.’ Cornell Tech, while part of Cornell, is a joint effort of the university, the Technion, and the City of New York. It is no more possible for Cornell to unilaterally terminate that effort and claim full control of the campus than it would be for the Technion or the City of New York to do the same.”

“Finally, I am deeply troubled by the selective manner in which this resolution singles out the Technion, alone of Cornell’s many international partners, for censure,” continued Kotlikoff, who noted that Cornell currently maintains 159 active agreements with institutions in 59 nations and regions; all of these institutions have some government affiliation, and many conduct research with military and security applications. “Cornell also has relationships with institutions in countries whose governments have been accused of human rights violations — as our own has been,” he wrote. 

“None of these publicly available facts are mentioned in the resolution; only our partnership with an Israeli institution is targeted for erasure. The political bias evident in this selective approach is deeply disturbing, and the resolution is incompatible with both the Student Assembly’s purpose and Cornell University’s core values. I reject it fully and forcefully.” 

During his campaign, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would “reassess” the partnership between Cornell Tech and Technion, which he later walked back.