Wednesday is Cornell Giving Day -- Let's all chip in!
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Last year, for Cornell Giving Day, we pledged to expand Cornell's support services for students/alumni returning home from prison. There has been an acute need for reentry services during the pandemic, which has seen frequent suspension of in-prison programming. Even our 2021 graduation ceremony was cancelled by the prison authorities due to COVID.
With the support we received on Cornell Giving Day, we began taking serious steps to establish a reentry initiative at Cornell. This January, we hired a Director of Academic Reentry Services (more below). We have been building our network of relationships and supports for returning citizens, from repurposed laptops to affordable housing... but we're just getting started.
This year we will again commit this year's Cornell Giving Day contributions to our students' post-prison success. Please consider donating to CPEP this Wednesday. Your support helps us ensure our students' success. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Robert Scott, Executive Director
Cornell Prison Education Program
p.s. Note that the Giving Day portal will open this Wednesday, March 16th.
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Governor Kathy Hochul announced support for the restoration of Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) eligibility for college students in New York prisons. The bill, once ratified by the two chambers of the state legislature, will end a 27-year ban on financial aid, essentially designed to prevent incarcerated New Yorkers from going to college.
We are delighted to announce Richard Rivera has been appointed the first Associate Director of Academic Reentry Services for the Cornell Prison Education Program. Having earned his Bachelor's and Master's in NY prisons, Rivera brings valuable experience to this role, which will involve providing academic/professional services and material support to CPEP students/alumni on parole.
Before coming to Cornell, Rivera established himself as a leader in Ithaca, NY, serving the local reentry community and other underserved populations in our county. This past Fall, he was a catalyzing force in the establishment of the 
Julia Dshemuchadse (Engineering) 
We are hiring a full-time academic librarian to serve the CPEP student population inside the prisons! The search will be launched this week: our Outreach and Information Services Librarian will operate out of Cornell’s Olin & Uris Libraries, in collaboration with the Cornell Prison Education Program, with core responsibility to Cornell's in-prison college students.
