Media Relations Office

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday parents whose children are currently enrolled in all-remote classes will now have until Nov. 15 to opt back into in-person classes. Noliwe Rooks, an expert in cultural and racial implications for education, says it’s the responsibility of New York City officials to lead conversations with parents around safety concerns of in-person education, rather than making their anxieties a political issue.

New York City

Arts and Sciences

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Noliwe Rooks, professor of American studies at Cornell University, says the discovery of 11 coffins in Tulsa represents our past and present but does not have to represent our future.

Arts & Humanities

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today that public schools will not fully reopen for the upcoming school year. New York City students will return to school on a limited basis with only one to three days a week of in-person education and remote learning the remainder of the days. Noliwe Rooks, expert in cultural and racial implications for education says Mayor de Blasio needs to immediately outline plans for supporting low-income Black and Latinx children, and their families, who will be greatly impacted by this plan.

New York City

Arts and Sciences

Industrial and Labor Relations

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Noliwe Rooks, professor of American studies at Cornell University, and Derrick Spires, professor English, discuss Juneteenth and what it represents in 2020. 

Law and Policy

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COVID-19 presents challenges not only to public health but also to the way our societies function. Social distancing, remote work and businesses closures are changing the way we communicate with each other and posing important questions about how to protect under served populations and overall mental health. 

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American novelist Toni Morrison died at the age of 88, her publisher announced Tuesday. Morrison received a master's in English from Cornell University in 1955 and was the first African-American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Her work, which centered around issues of black identity and race, was “masterful, purposeful, precise and challenging,” says Noliwe Rooks, professor in the Africana Studies & Research Center.

Arts & Humanities

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Noliwe Rooks, professor of American studies at Cornell University and author of the book “Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and The End of Public Education,” says that segregation persists in American schools in large part due to white parents’ unwillingness to send their children to schools where they would have Black classmates.

Social & Behavioral Sciences

Law and Policy

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Noliwe Rooks, professor of American studies at Cornell University and author of the book “Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and The End of Public Education,” comments on international school strikes, at which students from around the globe demand political action to combat climate change.

Arts and Sciences

Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

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On Tuesday, an advisory panel on school integration and equity in New York City released a report suggesting that city government pursue policies that would address segregation in NYC’s public school system. Noliwe Rooks says that the report does not sufficiently account for entrenched racism and opportunity hoarding on the part of privileged, white parents.

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As analysts speculate whether issues of education will make the cut in tonight’s State of the Union address, Noliwe Rooks associate professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University and author of “Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education,” says that should Trump’s approach to education be judged by the actions of some of his financial backers, we may face a dismantle of the American public education system.

Law and Policy

Arts and Sciences

Cornell in DC

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