Graphic by Nial Parmanan
Ann Coulter ‘84, the co-founder of the Cornell Review, discussed immigration on April 16, 2024.
Coulter was interrupted repeatedly when she was invited to speak at Cornell on November 10, 2022, with the degree of interruption preventing her from speaking.
Nadine Strossen, a Professor Emerita at New York University Law School, attended the January 2024 Trustee Meeting. She suggested Cornell have Coulter return to cap off the Free Expression Theme Year. The Provost agreed and worked with the Cornell Chapter of the Heterodox Academy for Coulter’s successful return.
Provost Michael Kotlikoff welcomed the audience in Landis Auditorium, the same place Coulter tried to speak in 2022. Prof. Randy O. Wayne, Plant Sciences, warned the crowd not to improperly interrupt or disrupt the speech and then introduced Coulter.
Coulter outlined her views on immigration. Coulter believes that the nation would be better served by providing the legal immigration of people with the most desired characteristics rather than tolerating the illegal immigration of 8 million people.
Coulter expressed regret that Donald Trump rather than Ron DeSantis is the Republican Presidential nominee. Coulter predicts that Joe Biden will defeat Trump in November.
Coulter was protected by extensive security measures. Tickers were restricted to Cornell students, faculty and staff. Unlike November 2022 when boom boxes were permitted to be brought into the auditorium, no packages or knap sacks were allowed past security.
At least eight Cornell Police were present along with two personal body guards standing at each side of Coulter. Outside security staff used metal detectors to search each member of the audience.
The third questioner was Prof. Monica Cornejo of the CALS Communication Department. Instead of asking a question, she gave a brief speech calling everyone in the audience a racist. Prof. Comejo turned around and looked at the audience instead of facing Coulter as she spoke. Prof. Cornejo explained that her family entered the United States illegally when she was a child, and that she was allowed to stay under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Coulter cut her off and asked her if she had a question, but Prof. Cornejo continued to speak. Coulter again asked if she had a question. When Prof. Cornejo started to ask a question, Coulter said, “You had your chance to ask a question, let’s go over here for the next question.” However, Prof. Cornejo continued to shout out “racist” in response to various things that Coulter said, and was arrested for “disorderly conduct” and removed from the room.
The question and answer session continued without any further interruption. It is not clear whether Cornell will press charges in the Ithaca criminal courts or handle the violation internally through the faculty misconduct process. If Prof. Cornejo is convicted, it may impact her eligibility as a DACA recipient to remain in the United States.
A highpoint of the questions was when a student asked Coulter about her argument over whether the College of Arts and Sciences was the real “Ivy League” part of Cornell vis a vis Keith Olbermann ‘79 who graduated from CALS.
Prof. Barry Strauss ‘74, History, closed out the event.
