Civil Rights Complaint Against Cornell University, President Michael Kotlikoff Alleges Discrimination

Cornell University is a frequent subject of national headlines about DEI controversies and campus antisemitic activism. It is now under righteous attack from a conservative nonprofit pressing a variety of Trump-administration officials to investigate discrimination at the Ivy League school that is said to be “widespread, deliberate, and ongoing.”

A detailed June 26 letter from the America First Policy Institute’s executive general counsel, Jessica Hart Steinmann, and Leigh Ann O’Neill, chief of staff at AFPI’s Center for Litigation, leveled a formal civil rights complaint against Cornell. It was sent to leading administration officials, including Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. It specifies that the prestigious school’s new president, Michael Kotlikoff, is culpable for implementing policies that “reflect not just a tolerance for race- and sex-conscious practices but a deliberate, systematic effort to prioritize them.”

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Jack Fowler

Jack Fowler is a contributing editor at National Review and a senior philanthropy consultant at American Philanthropic.

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Cornell University is a frequent subject of national headlines about DEI controversies and campus antisemitic activism. It is now under righteous attack from a conservative nonprofit pressing a variety of Trump-administration officials to investigate discrimination at the Ivy League school that is said to be “widespread, deliberate, and ongoing.”

A detailed June 26 letter from the America First Policy Institute’s executive general counsel, Jessica Hart Steinmann, and Leigh Ann O’Neill, chief of staff at AFPI’s Center for Litigation, leveled a formal civil rights complaint against Cornell. It was sent to leading administration officials, including Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. It specifies that the prestigious school’s new president, Michael Kotlikoff, is culpable for implementing policies that “reflect not just a tolerance for race- and sex-conscious practices but a deliberate, systematic effort to prioritize them.”