NEW YORK – Cornell University president Martha E. Pollack will step down at the end of June, she announced Thursday.
Pollack’s resignation comes amid pro-Palestinian protests that have swept college campuses across the nation.
She’s the third president of an Ivy League school to step down since December.
Earlier, Harvard president Claudine Gay resigned, as did University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill. Those resignations came on the heels of widely criticized testimony before Congress. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks testified before the same Congressional committee earlier this week.
Pollack addressed the protests in her retirement announcement.
“Indeed, I began deliberating about this last fall, and made the decision over the December break; but three times, as I was ready to act on it, I had to pause because of events on our and/or on other campuses. But continued delay is not in the university’s best interests, both because of the need to have sufficient time for a smooth transition before the start of the coming academic year, and because I do not want my announcement to interfere with the celebration of our newest graduates at Commencement in just a few weeks,” she wrote. “There is so much more to Cornell than the current turmoil taking place at universities across the country right now, and I hope we do not lose sight of that.”
Pollack called serving as Cornell’s president for seven years “an amazing privilege.”
Pollack’s announcement comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson continues to call for Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to be fired for her handling of protests there. Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony in the wake of numerous protests. Their smaller graduation ceremonies begin Friday.