 Up until the time of Cornell 's founding , most prominent American colleges had ties to religious denominations . Cornell was founded as a non @-@ sectarian school , but had to compete with church @-@ sponsored institutions for gaining New York 's land grant status . A.D. White noted in his inaugural address , " We will labor to make this a Christian institution , a sectarian institution may it never be . " However , the university has made provision for voluntary religious observance on campus . Currently , the University Charter provides , " Persons of every religious denomination , or of no religious denomination , shall be equally eligible to all offices and appointments " . Through the 20th century , the University Charter also required that a majority of trustees could not be of any single denomination . Sage Chapel , a non @-@ denominational house of worship opened in 1875 . Since 1929 , the Cornell United Religious Works ( CURW ) has been an umbrella organization for the campus chaplains sponsored by different denominations and faiths . Perhaps the most newsworthy of the chaplains was Daniel Berrigan who , while Assistant Director of CURW , became a national leader in protesting the Vietnam War . In 1971 , the social activism aspects of CURW were spun off into a separate Center for Religion , Ethics and Social Policy ( CRESP ) . In 2006 , CRESP was reorganized as Cornell 's Center for Transformative Action . 
