Frank H. T. Rhodes

Frank Harold Trevor Rhodes (October 29, 1926 – February 3, 2020) was the ninth president of Cornell University from 1977 to 1995.

Biography Rhodes was born in Warwickshire, England, on October 29, 1926, the son of Gladys (Ford) and Harold Cecil Rhodes . He was educated at Solihull School from 1937–45, during which time he was elected as head boy. Rhodes then attended the University of Birmingham, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1948, and then went on to complete a Ph.D. there, in geology, in 1950; later, in 1963, he also earned a third degree from Birmingham, a D.Sc. (Doctor of Science), also in geology. Following his doctoral studies, he spent a year at the University of Illinois as a Fulbright scholar (1950–51).

Cornell presidency

During his eighteen-year tenure as president, the percentage of minority students grew from 8 percent in 1977 to 28 percent in 1994. The number of women and minority members of the faculty more than doubled. In the final years of his presidency a capital campaign raised $1.5 billion. In 1995 the building that houses what was then known as the Cornell Theory Center was named Frank H. T. Rhodes Hall. Cornell also has a professorship honoring Rhodes; Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 University Professors are appointed to three-year terms. In 2010, the university also created new postgraduate student fellowships named after Rhodes to support students committed to the field of public interest law, and enable them to gain in-depth experience in work on behalf of the poor, the elderly, the homeless, and those deprived of civil rights. Opposition to divestment Rhodes did not support divestment of university endowments and other investment portfolios from South Africa-related stocks during the massive anti-apartheid divestment campaign of 1985-1987, with Cornell arresting hundreds of peaceful student and faculty protestors calling for divestment even as many other leading US universities divested from South Africa-related holdings. . Rhodes was pied at the State of the University address on April 8, 1986 by an unknown assailant aiming to "put a bit of South Africa in Frank Rhodes' face" according to the Cornell Daily Sun .

Campus expansion Frank Rhodes presided over the construction of more buildings during his tenure than any previous president of Cornell.

Another controversial Rhodes construction project was a proposed eight-story, 252,000-square foot building to be sited on the edge of Cascadilla Gorge.