Cornell Daily Sun: We Will Not Report About What Is Currently on Our Front Page

Last Friday the Cornell Daily Sun published an article about a Facebook page purporting to represent a “Union of White Cornell Students.”

The article, authored by editor-in-chief Sofia Hu ’17 and managing editor Phoebe Keller ’18, is titled, “Aided by White Nationalist Groups, Union of White Cornell Students to Release Demands, Host March” and details some of the group’s grievances and upcoming plans.

The Sun ran the article without verifying if anyone they were talking to on a conference call was an actual Cornell student.

That article then made it onto the front page of Monday’s print edition of the Cornell Sun.

However, in an epic case of cognitive dissonance, the same print edition contains a letter from the editor a few pages in written by Hu announcing the Sun’s moratorium on articles about the white student group until those behind it verify their identities.

An excerpt from the letter, which attempts to justify the Sun’s past coverage of the white student group and also apologizes for it:

“We feel that we cannot continue dignifying this group’s requests for anonymity as its members prepare to host a speaker series and a white students march, continue to share inflammatory and divisive aims and become more involved on-campus.

Many readers have rightly questioned whether the Union of White Cornell Students is a hoax, following a chain of 31 fake white student unions created in November. These concerns are valid, especially since white supremacist website The Daily Stormer was involved in the creation of the hoax unions and appears to be providing logistical and financial support to the Union of White Cornell students.”

The letter acknowledges the fact that last semester about 30 similar white student union group Facebook pages popped up at colleges across the country and all were later shown to be hoaxes. Hu’s letter does point out a few facts which make the Cornell group more unique—it contains specific references to Cornell—but ultimately nothing comes close to conclusiveness.