About

Our Name
'Collis" is the Latin word for "hill," or "mountain." Our name is evocative of both Cornell University's hilltop location and of Scriptural imagery of hills and mountains as sites for mankind's illumination through encounter with the divine. "You are the light of the word. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden." (Mttw 5:14-15)

Our motto, "Send forth your light and your truth," is drawn from Psalm 43:3, which likewise refers to a mountaintop: the entirety of Psalm 43:3 reads, “O send forth your light and your truth; they will guide me on. They will bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.” We pray for God to illuminate the hearts and minds of the COLLIS community with wisdom and knowledge, through the true light, which is Christ.

COLLIS is also an acronym: CORNELLIENSE INSTITUTUM SAPIENTIAE. In Christian (Latin) philosophy, "sapientia" is used as a term to designate a special kind of knowledge: namely, knowledge of supersensible reality—divine things, and how the divine relates to human and material things. "Sapientia" is often translated as "wisdom," so the expansion of our acronym may be translated as, "Institute for Wisdom at Cornell."

History
The idea for COLLIS orginated in a phone-call between the late Thomas Levergood, of Lumen Christi Institute, and Prof. Jonathan Lunine at Cornell University. COLLIS was founded soon after in 2022 by a group of Catholic faculty from schools and departments ranging all over the university. COLLIS begins its first season of programming in Fall 2022.

An Institute at Cornell University
COLLIS is its own independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. However, we are official affiliates with Cornell University through Cornell United Religious Work.

Cornell University was founded upon the principle, “any person any study,” and with a commitment to public engagement. “Any person, any study” meant that people from all walks of life could attend Cornell. Cornell University is unique among the Ivy Leagues as the only land-grant university in this group. Pursing knowledge for a public purpose is foundational to the school’s identity.  
 
As an institute founded by and for Cornellians, Collis adopts these principles as understood within a Catholic framework. Collis endeavors to share Catholic intellectual and cultural traditions to people of all backgrounds, all faith traditions, and none. Our programs strive to shed light on how the activities of each discipline may glorify God through illuminating parts of creation and contributing to the world’s health, goodness, and well-being.   
 
COLLIS is committed to the integrity of the human person and to the moral responsibility of applying knowledge for public and individual flourishing. Our programming strives to engage the whole person by integrating classroom and seminar learning with hands-on exploration and to encourage the moral application of research through exposure to programs and researchers who live this out. 

A Catholic Institute
COLLIS Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture is governed by a board of directors comprised of dedicated lay Catholics. We operate with the support of The Most Rev. Salvatore Matano, Bishop of Rochester and are applying for inclusion in the Kenedy Directory (Official Catholic Directory).

Partners and Friends

COLLIS is one of six sister Catholic institutes in the In Lumine Network, which consists of: Lumen Christi Institute, The Collegium Institute, Harvard Catholic Forum, Nova Forum, St. Anselm Institute, and COLLIS.

We are proud to partner with other organizations on Cornell campus such as the Catholic Community at Cornell, Chesterton House, The Cornell Chapter of the Thomistic Institute, and the Center for Transformative Action.