“…to serve society better…”

Cornell’s land grant mission has always assumed engagement with the needs of society. In his Inaugural address, Ezra Cornell linked the university to moral goals and national needs: “for the culture of all men of every calling, of every aim…. preparing them to serve society better, training them to be more useful in their relations to the state, and to better comprehend their higher and holier relations to their families and their God.” Andrew Dickson White’s second “Crowning Idea” was that the university should bring the powers of its students “to bear upon society.” Over the years student groups embraced this idea through the work of the Christian Association and then its successor, CURW; through the Cornell Congress, organized to debate national issues; and through a Cornell Civic Club, established as part of a national federation “… to inspire in the student a desire to take a vigorous stand for good government....” The group stated: “We prophesy that some day universities will let up on this mad race for knowledge and look more to the student’s worth as a citizen and a man than a money making machine.”

Women’s Suffrage

Women’s suffrage and temperance were ongoing issues. In 1889, a Prohibition Club endorsed woman suffrage, numerous speakers came to campus, and by 1908 the Cornell Congress finally passed a proposed Suffrage amendment. Women voted in elections for campus organizations. When New York State granted women the right to vote, Cornell offered courses in history and political science “adapted to the needs of women voters” for juniors and seniors. The Cornell Reading Course for the Farm Home published Lesson 120: “Civic Duties of Women,” by Professor Blanche Hazard, because the “average farm woman… would want to be and need to be an intelligent voter and worker in public life.”

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Student Activism, 1920-1940

In the 1920s and 1930s, student activism increased. In 1920-1921, Cornell held a Model Disarmament Conference, and the national League of Nations Model Assembly met at Cornell in 1928 and again in 1937. Cornell students joined a Regional Conference of New York State Liberal Clubs, which met at Cornell in 1932. The American Student Union, established in 1936, consolidated several liberal campus groups. The Cornell Daily Sun became a strong voice for campus discussion, supporting liberal causes.

CURW sponsored forums, lectures, and discussions of public questions. Optional versus compulsory military drill was vigorously debated in 1930-1931 under the general guidance of an independent committee of students. Pacifism became an important issue on college campuses, with meetings of protest against war. But by 1938, “protest against the outrages of the Nazi German government upon minority groups was registered in a mass meeting held in Willard Straight Memorial Room.”

CURW published The Areopagus from 1933 to 1937, when it became independent. It continued publication until 1940. Many of the articles dealt with liberal political ideas.

Students also participated in Ithaca social service activities, and CURW sponsored tours of social agencies in New York City: “visits have covered a wide range of experiences – visits to situations of racial conflict – typified by Chinatown and Harlem – attendance at dramas dealing with social problems, visits to educational institutions in the field of social work, and city Departments of Public Welfare.”

The Freshman Desk Book, created for the Class of 1940, also included the Young Communist League, reflecting leftist politics on campus. It was very controversial and was criticized by New York State Senator John McNaboe, who led anti-Communist investigations. The Cornell Daily Sun reported:

University spokesmen branded as “perfectly ridiculous” and “publicity-seeking” charges credited to State Senator McNaboe… inasmuch as he referred evidently to the freshman desk book published by the Cornell United Religious Work, not an official publication of the university, which lists, along with all church, fraternity, athletic and other undergraduate groups, such clubs as the “American Student Union,” the “Democratic Club” and the “Young Communist League.” “Cornell does not accredit any organization operating on its campus,” spokesmen pointed out…. “Any group of students can form any organization and find quarters in which to meet….”

Cornell Daily Sun , 30 November 1936.

Student Activism, 1960s

By the 1960s, student activists again began to focus on national and international issues: civil rights and equality for African Americans and for women, an end to the draft and the war in Vietnam, South African divestment. In 1963, Cornell students joined a voter registration drive in Tennessee. The next year, Ku Klux Klan activists in Mississippi killed Cornell student Michael Schwerner ‘61, along with James Chaney and Andrew Goodman. Students protested, boycotted, and marched. For young men, the draft presented a real threat, and many burned their draft cards in protest of what they considered an unjust war. Student organizations like Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Afro-American Society (AAS) worked on a variety of issues, sometimes cooperatively and sometimes at odds. Tensions over the shape of a proposed black studies program led to more confrontational tactics in 1969. President James Perkins resigned, and Dale Corson became Cornell’s eighth president. After the trial and conviction of CURW’s Dan Berrigan for destroying draft records in Maryland, Cornell showed its support through the America is Hard to Find Festival in April 1970.

Originally “published independently by Cornell students,” from volume 2 onward Dialogue was sponsored by the Community Service Area of Cornell United Religious Work. Articles included interviews with major figures, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Goodman, James Baldwin, Barry Goldwater, William Fulbright, Rose Goldsen, Bruno Bettelheim, Thomas Merton, John Lewis, Benjamin Nichols, Malcolm X, and Rollo May.

The 1960s can be seen as part of a generation’s discontent, triggered by war, social change, political failure, civil rights, generational conflict, and liberated sexual attitudes.

We came out of high school with the Johnson-Goldwater election, freedom rides and peaceful protests, prosperity, and a growing Asian war under our belts. Vietnam was the biggest issue of our four years. It wasn’t really an issue. Almost everyone on campus thought we should get out. Almost everyone thought “Immediately, if not sooner.”

Cornellian , 1970.

In April 1969, AAS members took over Willard Straight Hall in support of black students who had participated in other demonstrations. When the administration agreed to nullify the reprimands of the Faculty Committee on Student Conduct, AAS agreed to end its takeover. Those in the Straight received amnesty, and AAS members left the building, guns in full view, attended by the national and local media.

While apartheid in South Africa had been an issue in the 1960s, activity against it grew in the 1980s. In 1985, students and faculty built a “shanty town” of cardboard and wood structures outside Day Hall, and held sit-ins and demonstrations to demand that the Trustees divest Cornell’s investments in companies doing business with South Africa.

To be linked with “Civic Duties of Women” bulletin:

Additional Resources

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