After President Michael Kotlikoff rescinded Kehlani’s invitation as Slope Day headliner two weeks before the concert, the administration is now seeking to find and fund a new headliner, according to the email announcement.
Kotlikoff’s announcement to remove the slope day headliner follows student and parent dissatisfaction regarding Kehlani’s anti-Israel rhetoric on social media.
In a meeting with concerned students on Tuesday about Slope Day before the announcement, Kotlikoff was asked about whether or not the University would consider changing headlining artists. To this, he noted the “practical issue” with selecting another artist — the lack of time until Slope Day, which is set to take place on May 7.
“We would need to get the best, most popular artist and most representative artist that we can get and secure them. Basically, everybody is booked, you know, already,” Kotlikoff said at the meeting. “So I would love to go through a very inclusive process, etc. The reality is … if we do this, we would get the best performer we could get.”
At the April 17 Student Assembly Meeting, Kotlikoff said that the original selection of Kehlani as headliner was a “student-run decision,” in which the Slope Day Programming Board “surveyed the student body” and chose artists based on their “popularity” in the survey and the “available resources” that they had.
SDPB is responsible for securing talent and organizing Slope Day alongside Student & Campus Life. Early in the semester, SDPB distributed a preliminary survey to the student body to assist in the artist selection process. Based on the first survey’s results, a second one was sent out to gather more information.
According to his Wednesday statement, Kotlikoff spoke to SDPB and intends to ”work together to revise the process for researching and selecting performers for this important annual event.”
SDPB’s funding originates from the Student Assembly, who increased the SDPB budget from $315,000 to $715,000 for the 2023-24 academic year. In 2024, SDPB allocated $350,000 to talent. This budget has remained increased for the 2025 performance, in accordance with a rise in the Student Activity Fee.
In December 2023, the Assembly passed Resolution 39, which increased the SAF from $310 to $424 for the 2024-2026 byline cycle. The increase was spread out over the two school years, so the SAF was $384 per student for the 2024-2025 school year. According to the resolution, the mandatory SAF “shall be used to fund participation in and viewing of activities and programs that benefit the Cornell community.”
In an interview with The Sun, Assembly President Zora deRham ’27 confirmed that Slope Day is funded through the Student Activity Fee, which is allocated by the Assembly on a two- year cycle.
“Every student is charged for the SAF and it is part of the package of payments [with tuition],” deRham said.
The SAF is a pool of funds that all Cornell undergraduates pay into in order to fund Cornell’s undergraduate byline organizations, including the Student Activities Funding Commission, SDPB and the Cornell University Emergency Medical Service.
The largest percentage of this increase fee went to the SDPB following mixed reactions to the 2023 Slope Day headliner, COIN. With the increased SAF, Slope Day funding more than doubled from $21 per student per year to $50 per student per year.
In relation to next year’s funding for Slope Day, the funding should not be impacted by student and parent dissatisfaction toward Kehlani and her invitation being rescinded.
“The amount of money that the Slope Day Programming board gets from the student activity fee at least won’t change, because of this,” deRham said. “We don’t have a contingency with them over controversy or anything like that. The amount of money they get is pretty set.”
According to the Wednesday email from Kotlikoff, a “new lineup for a great 2025 Slope Day” to expected to be announced shortly.
SDPB did not respond to multiple requests for comment and SCL did not respond to a request for comment.
Isabella Hanson
Isabella Hanson is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a News Editor for the 143rd editorial board, and a former senior writer. She can be reached at [email protected].
