Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP)

Program Website: http://cpep.cornell.edu/

Contacts:Robert Scott, Executive Director, [email protected]; 607-255-9104

Program Description: The Cornell Prison Education Program (CPEP) provides college courses in both maximum and medium security prisons in upstate New York. The program also engages Cornell faculty and students with the vital issue of the country’s burgeoning prison population. The core mission of the program is to support the academic ambitions of incarcerated people and to prepare them for, and assist in, successful re-entry to society. We are manifesting Ezra Cornell’s commitment to founding an institution where “any person can find instruction in any study.”

In the mid-1990s when an act of Congress and subsequent state legislation caused the collapse of taxpayer-funded College programs in most state prisons, a few faculty members, led by Professor Pete Wetherbee, undertook to offer a handful of classes on a volunteer basis in Auburn Correctional Facility (a maximum security prison one hour from Ithaca). In 1999, Cornell (alone among Ivy League universities) enabled these college classes to be given for credit, charging neither tuition nor fees.

Degrees Offered:Associates Degree in Liberal Arts and Humanities

Programs Offered:Twelve courses are offered each semester. The classes are taught by volunteer faculty and by graduate students who receive a small stipend. The classes are also supported by a group of forty undergraduate tutors/teaching assistants.

The wider program consists in a consortium linking Cornell University, Cayuga Community College, Auburn Correctional Facility, and Cayuga Correctional Facility. The largely liberal arts curriculum has ranged across classes in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, and has engaged adjunct instructors from nearby institutions of higher education (Syracuse University, Ithaca College, Nazareth College)

Unique Features: Twenty Five to Thirty courses are offered each semester. The classes are taught by volunteer faculty and graduate students. The classes are also supported by a group of undergraduate tutors/teaching assistants and supporters from the community.

Headquarters:Ithaca, New York

Correctional Facilities Served: Auburn Correctional Facility, Cayuga Correctional Facility and Five Points Correctional Facility

Population Served: Incarcerated men and occasionally the corrections staff at Auburn, Cayuga and Five Points Correctional Facilities

Number of Students: 165

Graduates to Date:45 (as of 2016)

Year Founded: 1994

Founders: Professor Pete Wetherbee

College/University/Organization Partnerships:Cornell University

Funding:CPEP is funded through private foundations and personal donations