On Monday, August 26, the first day of classes brought graffiti and a smashed glass door on Day Hall, marking the return of Gaza-related protests to the new academic year. These disruptions were joined with a week of marching and protests by the United Auto Workers (UAW) who are striking against Cornell.
Background
As the spring semester ended, the Gaza protesters had staged an 18-day “encampment” on the Arts Quad demanding reparations for Indigenous Americans as well as divestment from Israeli-related investments. The Gaza encampment ended voluntarily after six protest leaders were “suspended” pending a hearing. Then-President Martha Pollack had met with the protesters to discuss their concerns, but did not make any concessions to end the encampment.
Within days, President Pollack announced her retirement, and that then-Provost Michael Kotlikoff would take over as Acting President on July 1. Also over the summer, a group of campus leaders studied the Interim Expressive Activity Policy, with a report expected this fall.
Monday’s Vandalism and Statements and Rally
Early Monday morning, a group of protesters broke a glass door and spray painted the exterior walls of Day Hall with the phrases “Israel bombs, Cornell pays” and “Blood is on your hands”. The Coalition For Mutual Liberation (CML), which led the Gaza protests last year is believed to be connected to this vandalism.
In response, Joel M. Malina, Vice President for University Relations, issued a statement promising “those responsible will be subject to suspension and criminal charges.” Based on the leadership of the 2023-24 protests, it is clear that CML leaders as well as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were responsible for illegal protests and are probably behind the new Day Hall vandalism. In fact, Gaza protesters contacted the Cornell Sun to take credit for the vandalism, which the Sun reported without disclosing their identities.
President Kotlikoff then issued a policy statement entitled “Freedom and responsibility” which was named after a famous essay by Cornell Historian Carl Becker. The statement reaffirmed “Cornell’s long held and deep commitment to supporting free expression and reasoned civil discourse,” but those freedoms “are bounded by the need to protect the core functions of the university and the reciprocal rights of others.”
The statement reaffirmed the Interim Expressive Activity Policy with one added wrinkle. Critics complained that civil disobedience is a choice between following the rules or accepting the sanction for breaking the rules, and Cornell has been too secretive as to the consequences for rule breakers. So a new tiered set of consequences are now: 1) no sanctions pending a hearing for a first violation, 2) a “non-academic suspension” pending a hearing for a second violation and 3) an “academic suspension” pending a hearing for a third violation. Since the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards is hopelessly backlogged, it may take over a year to reach a hearing.
On Monday afternoon, the new policy was put to an immediate test as 150 members of the CML marched from Ho Plaza to Klarman Hall where the CML occupied the atrium contrary to the Interim Expressive Policy and the Cornell Police were called.
Instagram posting from CMLCornell account.
Critique
A key controversy has been the extent to which groups are to be punished for the misconduct of their individual members. Most notably, whenever a group of fraternity members are accused of misconduct, even if the specific students are never identified, Cornell has been known to issue suspensions of the entire group pending a hearing. Cornell has not been willing to take the same approach for CML or SJP, although it has punished Climate Justice Cornell for making a false application to seek permission to start the Arts Quad encampment.
While Cornell’s investigators put a lot of pressure on possible student witnesses to identify the actual students who misbehaved, there is no indication that the investigation will put pressure on the Sun to identify which students gave them the incriminating quotes about the Day Hall vandalism..
Second, although Cornell promised to regulate expressive activity in a content-neutral manner, Cornell seems to be quick to announce enforcement against the Day Hall vandals, while taking a more lenient approach toward the UAW protesters who blocked traffic in front of Day Hall last week.
Third, although Cornell both promises to protect freedom of speech as well as to enforce its overly-vague harassment rules, those stated goals are contradictory. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the First Amendment rights of students in cases of alleged harassment in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education. To be punishable, the harassment must be severe, pervasive, and so objectively offensive as to deprive the harassed student of his educational opportunities. Monday’s statement implies that Cornell might punish student harassing speech even if it is protected under the Davis test.
Finally, the three tiers appear to violate the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct. Someone can only be banned from campus if the accused poses a grave threat to public safety and interim remedies pending a hearing must be the least restrictive possible limitation.
As all of this plays out, Cornell’s administration continues to be tested. Certain activists, including some UAW leaders, cannot conceive of policies being applied in an even-handed manner so as to punish “woke” causes such as striking workers or pro-Gaza demonstrators.
Yet, “content-neutral” means that Cornell will punish anyone who breaks the rules, without regard to whether the President happens to agree with their position or not.
