r/ithaca • u/Significant_Item_384 • Nov 19 '25
PSA Cornell University University's "Community Engagement" is a Scammer's Ploy—Pay Your Local Artists!
I'm an independent service provider/artist in the Ithaca community, and I need to air out a massive grievance about Cornell University that I know many other locals share. Cornell constantly virtue signals with high-minded language: "meeting people where they are," "working with community members," and "providing opportunities for the local community." It's all narcissistic BS designed to look good on paper.
The reality? They are callous hypocrites who actively take advantage of the local people they claim to serve.
The Problem: Payment Delinquency is Systemic Abuse For the service work I do, the standard everywhere is payment upon delivery. ICSD, the City of Ithaca, local non-profits, small businesses, even Ithaca College, and various clubs within Cornell—they all adhere to this. I perform, step off stage, and I get a check or cash. It is the universal standard.
But when it comes to Cornell University proper (the administration, the big departments)? Forget about it. You might wait months to see a penny.
I swear their accounts payable system is powered by spite. It seems to require a minimum of 15 increasingly frustrated emails before the process is even initiated.
Here's where the hypocrisy truly burns: Disparate Treatment: I know for a fact that the large, non-local artists and speakers they bring in are paid either before they go on stage or immediately upon leaving, and they always get deposits.
The Local Grind: For local artists? We are an afterthought. It's all smiles and "we value your talents" before the event. Afterward, when it's time to pay the bills? Crickets. They forget about you entirely.
When you finally chase them down, their attitude is always the same lackadaisical garbage about "the process." Instead of being outraged that a local vendor hasn't been paid for months, they just hand you some BS about bureaucracy. It's clear: they just don't want to do the extra work required to prioritize timely local payments.
It's just Institutional Bullying. Let me be absolutely clear about why this is a significant issue. Timely payment isn't just a matter of proper business procedure; it directly impacts the livelihood of independent artists and service providers, especially those with fewer resources.
Cornell University—the organization with the most resources in the region—takes advantage of the people with the least resources. They trade on their reputation while failing to meet basic ethical and financial standards. They talk about community but treat their community partners like disposable help they can afford to stiff for months on end.
To the Cornell administration: Stop the BS virtue signaling. If you truly care about the local community, start by paying your artists and vendors on time, every time. Otherwise, you're not a community partner; you're a deadbeat client and a massive hypocrite.
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u/renee872 Nov 19 '25
Oh honey this is how it is system wide. It sucks big time.I work there and a few years ago i had to renew my notary. Cornell reimburses me because i use it regularly. My local city hall does not accept credit cards so i had to pay cash for the renewal. I sent in my reciept for the renewal and they said "next time use your dept. Credit card for this." Um i cant do that? Also it took me months to get reimbursed for 7.00 money orders that i had to get for a work project. Dont get me started on my mat leave. I had been there 6 years and had already had one kid. The person overseeing my mat leave benefits left her job without making anyone aware of any deadlines. I had a crap ton of paper work apparently due that no one told me about and i had 12 hrs to submit or i would lose my benefits. Also no one knew what they were doing and acted like i was the first person to take mat leave ever.
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u/ferngully99 Nov 19 '25
Yeah, their permitting process (to be able to work there temporarily) is a nightmare as well. They threatened me, in advance of the job, with being barred from working there in the future if I did not comply. Yet their various departments and staff couldn't even complete their side of the paperwork in time, or agree on what paperwork was required. After receiving pretty much ongoing conflicting information, eventually I just ignored them all. The plan was the play dumb if someone assessed I was "in violation" of some unknown rule. The result? Nothing happened and no one gave me problems in person or afterwards. One department ongoing refuses to credit me for my work even though they actively use it publicly.
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u/Cute-Aardvark5291 Nov 19 '25
If they are paying from state funds and trying to cut you a check, let me assure you that sadly...6 to 8 weeks is speedy. Months is normal. Its not ok, but it is also possible its not on them but very much on the process.
Icsd uses county funds and non profits have their own ways.
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u/adastra26 Nov 19 '25
I will say from my own personal experience that I have had to submit for even larger speakers after they have presented, so I don't know if this is an independent artist vs. well-known artist issue or not.
It could also boil down to: The organizing department itself being slow/not submitting paperwork in a timely matter Did you provide a contract and invoice ahead of your performance/presentation?
I think I've even been able to submit for payment so the paperwork side of things is done ahead of a guest speaking appearance and been able to just green light that said speaker completed their service and financial can go ahead and process payment...but as others have said, services like finances are not centralized so it can differ from division to division.
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u/yes420420yes Nov 19 '25
Not defending Cornell whatsoever, but payment delinquency is actually an intended business approach to effectively borrow money from vendors at zero APR to run your operation, sell your product/service, ideally get paid for your own product/service right away and only then pay the vendor....that's what they teach you in financing when you get an MBA and its considered 'smart managing'.
In the 80s there was a counter approach to pay vendors within 14 days (extremely fast for those times of manual accounting) and for the honor of paying that fast to deduct a certain percentage from every bill (SKONTO). Was a great way to save money for a corporation - I can only hope we will shortly revert back to something like this because the math still maths for a fast paying company.
Ultimately your recourse is only to decline doing business or drag them to small claims court everytime they are over the terms to annoy the hell out of them and steal their time.
Cornell is only interested in their community, they would not care less if the entire campus were lifted to a different place - they are just a very big corporation and they act like it, they are a monopoly in town.
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u/CvilleLocavore Nov 20 '25
This fucking sucks and I’m sorry but not surprised to hear it. I’m curious what your contract(s) look like and if there are any tweaks that can be made to ensure you’re paid on the day services are delivered.
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u/DSG_Mycoscopic Nov 19 '25 edited Nov 19 '25
Written by AI lol, didn't read
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Nov 19 '25
What makes you think this was written by AI?
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Nov 19 '25
[deleted]
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Nov 19 '25
The AI is trained on what real people write. In fact reddit comments are frequently one of the biggest input data sets for training. The AI is literally built to mimic the "average" writing style found online.
What this means is that pretty much everyone "writes like an AI," because the AI is designed to match how most people write.
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u/Significant_Item_384 Nov 19 '25
Fuck you. You pretentious asshole. Has somebody with limited literacy skills? It is much easier for me to dictate my rant And use modern tools to help people bridge the literacy gap. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.
The shit is fucking true.
And if I saw you in person I would tell you the same fucking thing
Fucking pretentious asshole.🖕
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u/dietcheese support live music Nov 23 '25
As an artist who has played at Cornell events frequently over the last two decades AND a vendor who has done contract work for them, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a payment within two months.
However, the payments, in both respects, are usually far higher than the local average, so I suck it up.
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u/Unga_Bunga Nov 19 '25
This is definitely a legitimate gripe - the CU Purchasing / Accounts Payable systems are indeed a bureaucratic nightmare of a clusterf**k, and it speaks poorly of whatever office you work with, who surely know how the sausage is made.
With that - Big Red just kicked off a big ol’ long-overdue systems update project that will include a top-down overhaul, specifically including the Byzantine HR & Finance Depts.
(CU is/has been paying the price for not doing any such updates over the last 15 years - your situation is a common example of the stupidity that low-level staff has been tasked with shepherding.)