WHEREAS, The Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) was founded in 1965 to provide “financial and philosophical support” for the arts at Cornell, funding such projects through a “competitive annual grant process”; and

WHEREAS, The CCA Ad Hoc Committee Report of May 2, 2008 reaffirmed that “what distinguishes art at the university from art in society at large is its educational mission”; and

WHEREAS, Individual grants contribute to this mission, both in encouraging new artistic works and in providing students the experience of participating in the competitive grant process; and

WHEREAS, A committee report recently endorsed by the Office of the Provost (Oct 20, 2010) recommends eliminating these individual grants in favor of one large, annual project;1 and

WHEREAS, This proposed “grand projet” can coexist with the good work already being done with individual grants; and

WHEREAS, The CCA Review Committee, authors of this report, included no students and held no public hearings; and

WHEREAS, A petition calling upon the Provost to reconsider the elimination of individual grants received 390 signatures,2 as of Nov 26, 2010; and

WHEREAS, David Skorton, President of Cornell University, has recently stated that it is “time for Cornell to step up and advocate for the arts and humanities nationally”;3 and

WHEREAS, The proposed two years of interim grant funding at the current rate by the Provost’s office is inadequate, in that it: 1) eliminates the university-wide competitive aspect of the grants;
2) provides no opportunities for students outside the twelve CCA member departments, and;
3) a non-binding “expectation” that funds come from the departments or colleges themselves after two years is both unenforceable and improbable; and

WHEREAS, The elimination of individual grants has received negative coverage in opinion pieces in The Cornell Daily Sun, including an editorial by Judith Kellock, interim CCA director, originally printed in the Ithaca Times; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the University Assembly recommends that Kent Fuchs, Provost of Cornell University, or his designee, hold a public meeting with interested parties, including faculty, staff and students.

RESOLVED, That the University Assembly recommends that provost’s office reinstate individual grants as a constituent component of the CCA.

RESOLVED, That this resolution be sent to David Skorton, President, Kent Fuchs, Provost, Kent Kleinman, Dean of Art, Architecture and Planning, Judith Kellock, Interim Director of the Cornell Council for the Arts and Peggy Beach, Director of the Office of Assemblies.

Respectfully submitted,

Evan Cortens
GPSA Humanities Representative UA Graduate/Professional Student Representative

Thomas Balcerski
GPSA Humanities Representative/Vice President for Operations

1

http://www.cornell.edu/provost/docs/2010-cornell-council-arts-report.pdf 

2

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/artistgrants/signatures 

3

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct10/StateOfU.html