In wake of Rickford’s comments, Cornell law professor calls for DEI overhaul

Cornell law professor William Jacobson is demanding that Cornell’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs be “revisited, reworked, or removed.”

Jacobson’s comments come after Cornell history professor Russell Rickford’s comments at a rally in Ithaca, where Rickford called the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel “exhilarating.” These remarks were met with criticism from students and faculty. A petition demanding his removal has reached over 10,000 signatures on Change.org.

University President Martha Pollack and the Board of Trustees also denounced Rickford, calling his remarks a “reprehensible comment that demonstrates no regard whatsoever for humanity.” They also added, “The University is taking this incident seriously and is currently reviewing it consistent with our procedures.” Rickford has since issued an apology for his remarks in the Cornell Daily Sun.

In a piece published on the Legal Insurrection website, Jacobson argued that Rickford’s comments were “merely an outward manifestation of a much deeper problem on campus that the Board must address.” He noted that Cornell has become divided by a focus on identity politics, especially since 2020. 

Jacobson wrote:

Almost everything now is viewed through an identity lens, pitting groups against each other, pitting colleagues against one another, and pitting students against their peers. There is substantial evidence that such DEI programming makes race and other relations worse, not better. We are seeing that play out in real time in the Cornell community.

He added that this new campus climate “leads to the inaccurate demonization of Israel as a white oppressor colonialist entity unworthy of existence,” marginalizing Jewish students and community members. 

Former De Anza College DEI director Tabia Lee wrote in the New York Post, “Now the colleges and universities beholden to DEI are hurting Jewish students with their silence, their moral equivocation about terrorism against Israel or their outright praise of the terrorists.”

As the board of trustees is set to meet this weekend, Professor Jacobson called on them to:

(1) pause all new administrative DEI initiatives for the remainder of this academic year, until the Board can consider permanent changes, (2) adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, and (3) form a special independent commission to investigate antisemitism on campus and the negative effects of DEI, comprised of dissenting voices among faculty, students, staff, and alumni, to make recommendations to the Board for corrective action.

This is not the first time Professor Jacobson has spoken out against university DEI practices. In February 2021, he launched the CriticalRace.org database of DEI policies in higher education. Earlier this year, he also announced the Equal Protection Project, an initiative to investigate racial-preference programs and “litigate when necessary.”