who we are
We are Cornell students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members.
We are your peers, neighbors, teachers, and co-workers. And we’re growing.
We are like you: concerned about the climate emergency and the intertwined ecological and social crises, and activated to move.
We aim to send a powerful, clear and sustained message to those who steward Cornell’s prestige and resources: the University must prioritize the wellbeing and survival of all at every level of decision-making, policy, and cultural norm-setting.
We are building a large-scale movement that leverages truth-telling, resilient community building, and nonviolent direct action for Cornell climate accountability.
We seek to center Indigenous knowledge and insights in our efforts, calling on Cornell to recognize that Indigenous leadership in climate work is essential.
Our Working Group
Our Working Group meets weekly to organize, research, and carry out evolving objectives. The Working Group includes members of the Cornell Faculty, students, staff, and alumni; Ithaca High School; Ecovillage Ithaca; campus student groups; and many local climate activism movements. The Working Group is open for committed new members. Let us know if you’re interested in joining at connect@cornellonfire.org.
Our Alliance Partners
We are a movement to empower many actors whose power, together, is greater than the sum of its parts. The organizations who endorse and collaborate with our movement include: Climate Justice Cornell | Sunrise Movement Ithaca | Society for Natural Resources Conservation | Thrive Ithaca | Make Cornell Pay | Fossil Free Research/Campus Climate Network | Mothers Out Front Tompkins | Extinction Rebellion Ithaca | Just Cause Employment | Fossil Free Tompkins | Campaign for Renewable Energy | and growing. Advance your organization’s mission, and climate justice, by joining our movement. Submit your interest form here.
Our Movement Advisors
A network of experts are consulting with our Working Group on everything from Cornell’s current sustainability efforts to the international campus movement for fossil free research. We are grateful for their vision, commitment, and refinement of our goals. Support us with research or consultation by reaching out to connect@cornellonfire.org.
We are on Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ lands
We stand upon traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (Cayuga Nation) homelands. The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters. In addition, these living lands bear the burden of the carbon-intensive, hyper-mobile lifestyles of elite higher education.
This painful history of dispossession has yet to be officially acknowledged or redressed by Cornell University or the US government.
Land acknowledgements are only the first step toward reparations, restorative justice, and recognition. At the heart of this movement is a commitment to the question: How can the Cornell community restore right relationship with the Earth, Indigenous Nations, and one another upon Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ homelands? Read our Call to Action to learn more.
“At a practical level, what would it mean to say, I acknowledge this land, and I’d like to learn my responsibilities so that I can become a proper guest?...What does it mean to be an educational leader on Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ land? What does it mean to be a provost on Indigenous land?”
-Tchen, Kohl-Arenas, Hartman, & Yang, in Universities on Fire, p. 115 [quotation adapted to read “Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ”]