Beyond “… any person … any study”

University initiatives

We embrace Cornell University’s core values and we are committed to the institutional initiatives put forth by the university’s Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate and the Provost’s Task Force to Enhance Faculty Diversity. The eight main tenets of this plan feature changes in culture, policies and priorities; a commitment to increasing the diversity of the university’s faculty and staff; and a promise to enhance the student experience to support social belonging and wellness.

The College of Arts & Sciences is also actively involved in Belonging at Cornell, an institutional framework designed to track measurable progress toward making Cornell a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment. Metrics included in this framework are based on a sense of belonging, fairness, a net promotor score, turnover rates and proportionate hiring rates.

A curriculum that emphasizes culture, language, social difference & global citizenship

Beginning in Fall 2020, all incoming Arts & Sciences students will take part in a new curriculum focused on exploration of humanity’s wide diversity of knowledge and culture. Changes to the curriculum include new distribution requirements of social difference and global citizenship, as well as a continued commitment to culture and language.

All of our departments in the humanities and social sciences offer courses that are specifically designed to meet these requirements, as well as diversity requirements in the curricula of other colleges and schools at Cornell. Here are a few examples:

• Jim Crow and Exclusion Era in America
• Indigenous Issues in Global Perspectives
• Dissent and Protest in U.S. History
• Health and Environmental Justice
• Carceral Worlds: Policing, Prisons, and Securitization
• Philosophy of Race
• Gender and the Brain
• Staging Faith: Contemporary Theatre and Lived Religions
• Intersectionality in Disability Studies
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Academic programs dedicated to the study of identity

Arts & Sciences is home to most of the academic programs at Cornell that focus on the study of class, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, nationality, language, religion, gender, sexuality, and ability.

Our college is home to the first Africana studies program in the country, as well as the first women’s studies program and the first Asian-American studies program in the Ivy League.

• Africana Studies & Research Center
• American Studies Program
• Asian American Studies Program
• Center for the Study of Inequality
• Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies 
• Jewish Studies Program
• Latina/o Studies Program
• LGBT Studies 
• Religious Studies Program

The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program is housed in CALS; however, Arts & Sciences faculty teach in the program and our students can take courses or minor in AIISP. A&S students can also take courses through the Disability Studies Program in the ILR School.

Enhanced opportunities & funding for historically underrepresented students

The college is committed to developing and supporting its myriad programs that provide enhanced academic opportunities for historically underrepresented and first-generation students.

Get a head start on college by taking summer classes taught by Cornell faculty

The Pre-Collegiate Summer Scholars Program (PSSP) helps to prepare around 200 incoming first-year students, across the undergraduate colleges, for their first semester at Cornell University. During the program, PSSP provides the opportunity for students to engage in academic courses, connect with campus resources, while establishing a community with their peers. Students interact with faculty, staff, and their peers throughout the program.

Scholars are required to take courses and participate in weekly college activities that let students connect with offices and faculty across campus.  Courses for each student will be selected based on academic interests and information provided in a scholar’s Cornell application. Each Arts & Sciences PSSP participant will be assigned an advising dean and a program assistant, an undergraduate mentor that helps students navigate PSSP and Cornell. Additionally, scholars will be required to live on-campus for the duration of the program.  Students will be living in a residence hall on campus and have access to dining halls, libraries, laundry room, and study spaces.  All tuition, fees, room, and board charges are covered by Cornell. 

Click here for more details on the PSSP program.

Faculty at the forefront

Across our departments and programs, faculty members are leading their fields in research on diversity, equity and justice. Our community benefits from their knowledge and expertise.

Related faculty research, scholarship and creative works

Faculty Diversity and Equity Committee 

The faculty-elected Diversity and Equity Committee seeks to identify areas in which equity and diversity require specific consideration to bring to the attention of the Dean.

These areas include hiring and retaining a diverse faculty; ensuring continued efforts to maintain an inclusive environment in departments, classrooms and extra-curricular activities; promoting equitable assessments, support and recognition of under-represented minority faculty; ensuring that faculty find relevant information and help on these issues; and that faculty-generated initiatives on diversity and equity get the attention they deserve from different programs and administrative units in the College to implement them. 

Staff Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility

Staff DEIA Committee 

Teaching innovation

Learn more and take action

Land Acknowledgment for the Ithaca Campus

Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ' people, past and present, to these lands and waters.

Learn more about this land acknowledgment through the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program.