Cornell to Offer First Ivy League Bachelor Degrees Inside New York Prison

Cornell University is poised to become the first Ivy League school to award bachelor’s degrees to incarcerated students, unveiling a three-year Bachelor of Professional Studies program at Cayuga Correctional Facility in Moravia, New York, slated for August 2027. The pilot cohort of 12-18 inmates must possess an associate’s degree or comparable education and will study a major called “Organizations, Markets and Society,” which blends business, policy and social-science coursework such as economics, data analytics and entrepreneurship.

Instruction will be delivered through a hybrid model of self-directed learning and in-person sessions with Cornell professors conducted inside the prison, with enrollment contingent on meeting rigorous conduct standards. This launch builds on Cornell’s prison-education program, founded in 2001, which has reached more than 1,000 inmates across Cayuga, Auburn and Five Points facilities and awarded 200 associate degrees, while offering tuition-free classes ranging from poetry to microeconomics.

Funding includes a five-year, $750,000 award from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative. At the same time, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been named special prosecutor to investigate whether criminal charges should be filed against seven Cornell fraternity brothers accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a female student.