Lindsay France/University Photography

Glenn Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick addressed the challenges faced by Cornell presidents in an Oct. 16 presentation.

Two esteemed Cornell scholar-historians used examples from two Cornell presidencies to illustrate the immense challenge of the role, during an Oct. 16 Trustee-Council Annual Meeting presentation. The event was also part of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration kickoff.

Glenn Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies, and Isaac Kramnick, the Richard J. Schwartz Professor of Government, tag-teamed the telling of one success, as well as one not-so-successful moment, from the tenures of each of two presidents: Deane Malott, president from 1951-1963, and Hunter Rawlings, president from 1995-2003. The stories came from the professors’ research for their recently co-authored book, “Cornell: A History, 1940-2015.”

Altschuler began with what’s widely considered a hallmark of Malott’s presidency, which fell squarely during “postwar anti-communist hysteria,” now known as McCarthyism. During this period, Malott had to balance commitment to academic freedom “with the demands of loyalty and patriotism.”

“In meeting these challenges, Malott would sometimes falter and stumble, as the weight of the political world outside East Hill fell on his shoulders,” Altschuler said. “For the most part, however, in the face of pressure from trustees, politicians and the popular press, he bent, but did not break.”

In particular, Malott navigated a firestorm over physics faculty member Philip Morrison, whose perceived Communist activities were criticized publicly, and the university was under pressure to fire him. Though Malott did ask Morrison to be more discreet about his controversial activities, a committee appointed by Malott found Morrison to be innocent of wrongdoing. Morrison eventually was promoted to full professor at the urging of his physics colleagues.

Malott’s legacy wasn’t without blemish. Kramnick’s chosen example of a failure by Malott was when he tried to change the moral culture of the campus by imposing rules like chaperones for off-campus social gatherings. Furious students rioted over this perceived puritanical oversight of their social lives and wrote angry letters to The Cornell Daily Sun. Malott eventually gave in, but not before the student protests had made national news, Kramnick said.

Fast-forwarding to Hunter Rawlings’ more recent presidency, Kramnick regaled listeners of one of Rawlings’ most celebrated successes: transforming undergraduate residential life at Cornell. During the mid-1990s when Rawlings arrived on campus, first-year students were spread between both West and North campuses, and the housing itself was inadequate and unappealing.

Housing was also a racially charged issue beginning in the 1980s and through the 1990s; North Campus was considered “black” and West Campus “white,” in part because of the location of program houses that served different student populations, Kramnick said.

“Housing issues at Cornell stood in the way, he felt, of his aspirations to make Cornell the best undergraduate experience in an American research university. … He wanted to do something about it, and he did,” Kramnick said.

Known as a decisive leader, Rawlings launched an initiative to fundamentally transform the campus housing system. So began Cornell’s era of all freshmen living on North Campus, the construction of several new residence halls, and the advent of the house system on West Campus.

Rawlings didn’t make it through his presidency without some stumbles. Altschuler recalled the controversy surrounding Rawlings’ intent, beginning in 2002, to dissolve the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, which was met with fierce opposition from the college’s faculty, students and alumni. Rawlings had gone public with the idea, “and when you go public, the opponents are always more vociferous than the supporters … and that’s what happened,” Altschuler said. In the end, the idea was scrapped.

Of the reasons behind the talk, Altschuler said: “We do this to illustrate the extraordinary challenges that face any president, and of course we’re mindful of this as Cornell now, soon, will have its 13th president.”