Permanent, On-Campus Gynecologist Denied President Martha Pollack expresses a lack of support for funding a gynecologist at Cornell Health

Continued from page 3 disapproval.

“Cornell University has an endowment of over $9.8 billion dollars and there are various ways to find external grants and secure funding,” Chowdhury wrote. “The University simply does not see this issue as a priority.”

Claire Ting ’25, School of Industrial and Labor Relations representative for the S.A., also expressed disappointment. In a statement to The Sun, she wrote that Pollack failed to acknowledge the structural barriers that prevent students from accessing adequate outsourced care.

“Though specialist referrals are available by primary care physicians on campus, there are still a number of structural barriers — reliable transport to off-campus sites, health insurance coverage, adjacent financial concerns, etc. — that prevents students from accessing this care,” Ting wrote. “I find it concerning that the President did not fully respond to these structural barriers, as they were a primary driver an in-house M.D. gynecologist at Cornell Health would have helped to diminish the inequities present in our healthcare system and within Cornell itself.” for why an on-site M.D. gynecologist was needed to begin with.”

Lewis said she believes Cornell has faced a persistent equity problem regarding the treatment of women, regardless of Cornell’s having challenged gender norms in the past. She added that Cornell Health’s inability to sufficiently support women’s reproductive health care represents a gendered disparity.

Valencia pointed out that low-income students face greater structural obstacles to healthcare access.

“We shared student testimonials of having to travel as far as Rochester or other areas in Upstate New York to get the care they needed and how inaccessible this is for low-income students,” Valencia wrote. “Having