If you have a “naming idea” or any other kind of tribute then please share it below. Suggestions are totally anonymous unless you identify yourself in the post.
How Should Cornell Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54?
Connecting & Empowering Faculty
The Human Ecology building needs a name and Ruth Bader Ginsberg hall would be an excellent name for that reflective and shining building.
Name the Cornell Law School after her. At very least name a chair for research in legal research in gender equity. But there should be something for undergraduates to celebrate her, as well, so scholarships for women with children working on undergraduate degrees is another idea.
I think it is very special that Cornell is willing to honor the famous alumna Associate Justice Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a very special human being that left an indelible mark in the history of Cornell, the field of Jurisprudence, the United States and our society. RBG’s vision was extremely avant-garde. In my humble opinion and maybe I could be wrong, I believe that the Law School building or another building at Cornell, ought to be named after our Supreme Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I understand that the Law School building, once it was called Morrill Hall and I believe that back in the 1930s it was changed to Myron Charles Taylor, since he donated a gift of $ 1.5 million. Maybe it would be possible that the RBG name could be added?
I would also wish to share that I was very fortunate to have met Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg , during one her visits to her Alma Mater/Cornell.
Commission a leading contemporary artist to do a public sculpture in her honor
As one of what I hope are many gestures, I’d like to see the rooms in Balch Hall that she lived in be noted with a plaque to inspire the young women who are living there now. I believe she lived there in sophomore and senior year.
I suggest and favor naming the Law School itself after RBG. It’s a huge deal, but so was she.
I’m certainly not opposed to the suggestions of naming buildings or programs after her, but these are smaller in scope and I’m not sure they rise to the occasion. (Having now learned about the nature of Goldwin Smith, renaming the hall after somebody else sounds like a good idea). But RBG is singular in American history and she is a Cornellian, so among universities we are the ones who are most clearly charged with honoring her appropriately. Perhaps a fair comparison is Thurgood Marshall, remembered in part by Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD.
I met Justice Ginsburg on a Washington DC subway decades ago around the time when I was teaching one of the courses MIlton Konvitz had made famous at ILR.. When she heard about that connection she told me about Milton’s impact on her student days at Cornell. What ever Cornell does in her honor it would be appropriate if that connection with ILR could somehow be included.
Gerd Korman
Prof. Emeritus
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Ruth Ginsburg was the most illustrious and impactful of Cornell’s alumni. Naming programs or buildings after her is great, but I vote for a statue in on the Arts Quad. Many of us would contribute funds gladly for such a statue. This is our chance at Cornell to dilute the masculine power the two statues of Ezra and Andrew exude over this central place on campus. She would be present for all of us then, not just a name on a building, but a presence. I believe Ezra and Andrew would approve.
either the law school or the bell tower
Rename the university after her. Her contributions to society exceed Ezra Cornell’s.