36 Cornellians named to Presidential Task Force

A broad, representative group of three dozen students, faculty and staff — including 10 faculty and students from the College of Arts & Sciences — has been named to the Presidential Task Force on Campus Climate, Cornell President Martha E. Pollack announced Dec. 4.

The nomination and selection process, designed and implemented by Cornell’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, began with seven open community meetings held during the first two weeks of November. Nearly 200 nominations were submitted to the Scheinman Institute, and, from those nominations, the institute recommended to Pollack 36 people to serve on the task force, along with each member assigned to one of three subcommittees. In a message to the campus community, Pollack thanked the institute for its “exceptional work” and accepted the recommendations.

The nominees “represent a diverse group of voices and perspectives,” Pollack said. “I thank the many members of the campus community who were engaged in the feedback and nomination process set forth by the Scheinman Institute.”

A total of 193 people nominated themselves to the task force (74 undergraduates, 19 graduate and professional students, 36 faculty members and 64 staff.

“The Cornell community really embraced this process, which is reflected in the robust response we received,” said Scheinman Institute Director Harry C. Katz, noting that the number of qualified nominees identified far exceeded the size of the task force.

Pollack’s charge to the task force asks its members to address the campus experience, explore the regulation of speech and harassment, and develop guiding principles of campus response to incidents through three subcommittees, each focused on reviewing and making recommendations in one of those areas.

Pollack said the task force will seek input from the campus community throughout the process.

The members of the task force subcommittees are:

Campus Experience subcommittee

• Co-Chair: Lisa Nishii, associate professor of human resource studies and incoming vice provost for undergraduate education
• Reem Abdalla ’20, College of Arts and Sciences
• Nicole Agaronnik ’19, College of Human Ecology
• Brandon Cohen ’18, College of Arts and Sciences
• Breanne Kisselstein, graduate student, plant pathology and plant-microbe biology
• Eugene Law, graduate student, soil and crop sciences
• Dustin Liu ’19, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
• Verónica Martínez-Matsuda, assistant professor, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
• Peggy Odom-Reed, M.S. ’97, Ph.D. ’07, lecturer, School of Hotel Administration, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
• Alicia O’Neal ’18, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Neethu Putta ’19, Law School
• Jolene Rickard, associate professor, College of Arts and Sciences
• Erin Sember-Chase, assistant director, Student Disability Services, Student and Campus Life
• Trudy Vande Berg, head coach of women’s volleyball, Athletics and Physical Education
• Reginald White ’80, senior management consultant, Organizational Development and Talent Management, Division of Human Resources

Regulation of Speech and Harassment subcommittee

• Co-Chair: Madelyn Wessel, university counsel and secretary of the corporation
• Florencia Ardon, adviser, Office of Internal Transfer and Concurrent Degrees
• Weston Barker ’21, College of Arts and Sciences
• Michael Dorf, the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law, Law School
• Mariela Núñez Santos, graduate student, molecular biology and genetics
• Eduardo Peñalver ’94, the Allan R. Tessler Dean and professor of law, Law School
• Karen Smeda ’18, Law School
• Sruthi Srinivasan ’21, College of Engineering
• Ari Weiss, executive director, Cornell Hillel, Cornell United Religious Work

Campus Response subcommittee

• Co-Chair: David Wooten, professor of marketing in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and associate dean and chief diversity officer of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
• Lee Adler, lecturer, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
• Stefan Antonsson ’19, College of Arts and Sciences
• Gary Cremeens, project associate, Transportation and Mail Services
• Delmar Fears ’19, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Adi Grabiner Keinan, program director, Intergroup Dialogue Project
• Jada Hamilton, physician, Cornell Health
• Carolyn Headlam, administrative assistant, Law School
• Stephen Kim, graduate student, English literature
• Jenna Kyle ’19, Law School
• Samuel Lagasse, graduate student, English
• Jamila Michener, assistant professor, College of Arts and Sciences
• Vanessa Navarro Rodriguez ’19, College of Arts and Sciences
• Shivani Parikh ’19, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Kyonne Rowe ’18, School of Industrial and Labor Relations

For additional information and updates, visit president.cornell.edu/task-force/.

This story also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle.