“Cornell has forced the student body’s hand.”
These are the words that the Coalition for Mutual Liberation posted to its Instagram page in the aftermath of its actions at a career fair on September 18. In his opinion piece only a day earlier, Interim President Kotlikoff wrote, “We do not have the right to threaten, to infringe others’ rights or to make demands based on threats of violence or destruction.” In other words, as members of the Cornell community, we have the right to be free from harassment, a right that the CML, claiming in the same Instagram post to represent 70 percent of the student body, shamelessly violated.
I don’t know why members of the CML decided to shove police officers who were not even taking action against them. I don’t know why they screamed in the faces of their peers who were doing nothing more than exploring career possibilities. I don’t know why they thought that terrorizing a group of students and Statler employees would bring the University any closer to meeting their demands.
I do know this: It would not likely occur to 70 percent, 80 percent or even 90 percent of the student body to resort to violence or intimidate those who disagree with them because to do so is contrary to our shared Cornellian values of free, open expression and community belonging. It would not occur to the vast majority of those who voted in favor of last semester’s divestment referendum, it would not occur to the vast majority of those who voted against the referendum, and it would certainly not occur to the 50 percent of the undergraduate students who did not vote on the referendum at all.
As a leader in Cornell’s Jewish community, one of the largest and most politically diverse communities on this campus, and as a representative of the student body in our shared governance system, both spaces where spirited debate defines day-to-day life, I have seen the beauty that often characterizes our disagreements. What we saw at the Statler on Sept. 18 should shake every leader of every community here at Cornell to their core.
What we saw at the Statler that day was not a true exercise of the right to free speech that defines political discourse on Cornell’s campus and across the country. What we saw was an attempt to trample on others’ right to use their campus’s resources by (successfully) silencing the attendees of the career fair. All of us who are passionate about our opinions, whether liberal or conservative, socialist or libertarian, zionist or anti-zionist, must stand together in rejecting the alienation of those who don’t share our values, for history tells us how dangerous it is when we stand back and watch as sections of society normalize the ostracization of groups with whom we are seemingly disconnected.
We share a responsibility to denounce those who intimidated members of all of our communities on that dark afternoon. So today, I am calling on every leader on this campus to embrace our differences and disagreements and reject intimidation. We all earned the right to be here, and we all have contributions to make. Ezra Cornell’s vision of “any person, any study” does not have caveats or exceptions. Any person is entitled to any opinion, but they are not entitled to use it as justification to intimidate others. The student body’s hand holds that idea tight, and we must not allow it to slip away.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
Ezra Galperin is an at-large Student Assembly representative and the house manager of the Center for Jewish Living. He can be reached at [email protected].
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