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Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff is under investigation for slowly backing his car into student protesters and activists who had surrounded his vehicle following an Israel-Palestinian debate.
The Board of Trustees on Thursday launched a special committee to review the details surrounding the April 30 incident. The probe will be conducted by the Cornell University Police Department and the president has recused himself from involvement.
“This investigation will inform the Board’s fact-based review of the events of that night in their entirety and aid in the Board’s decision-making,” a May 7 statement read.
According to Kotlikoff’s statement to the campus, the activists “continued to follow me to my car and then surrounded the car, banging on the windows, blocking the car, and shouting.”
“I waited until I saw space behind the car and then, using my car’s rear pedestrian alert and automatic braking system, was able to slowly maneuver my car from the parking space and exit the parking lot,” he wrote.
Several videos of the incident have been released that show the activists blocking the car, but do not appear to show them initially banging on it.
Two Cornell graduates who made contact with the car — including one man who said his toes were run over — have expressed frustration over the incident to various news outlets.
Cornell University’s media relations and the Office of the President did not respond to The College Fix’s requests for comment.
The incident sprung from a Cornell Political Union campus event that drew almost 200 pre-registrations and focused on the current conflict in the Middle East “in a constructive manner” and as “a steppingstone toward foster more understanding between Cornellians.”
After the meeting, students and activists followed Kotlikoff, who is Jewish, outside toward his car, asking him questions regarding free speech on campus and past pro-Palestinian student suspensions.
Multiple students who took part were associated with Students for a Democratic Cornell, a group that describes itself as “fighting for reform to Cornell’s repressive Code of Conduct to end the unjust suspensions of student protesters.”
In a string of videos published by SDC, the students are shown with the president on his way back from the debate, following him all the way to his car. Some chose to stand behind the vehicle while it was preparing to back up, with brake lights on and activated, videos show.
One student asked “Am I allowed to stand here” after seeing the car attempting to back out, with another yelling “Oh! He just ran over my f****** foot!” after staying in place as the vehicle slowly moved in his direction.
According to the New York Times, “emergency medical technicians arrived and checked the foot of that student, who was not seriously injured.”
President Kotlikoff sent an email to the Cornell community the following day, writing that he was “accosted” by individuals he claimed are known for their abuse of school administrators and staff and past instances of disruptive protest, calling their behavior “harassment.”
Sophia Arnold, the student group’s president, said “I was pretty shocked and offended… A random pedestrian pulling out of a supermarket parking lot would probably have shown more care,” according to NewsChannel 9.
“Contrary to the university statement, we really weren’t intending to block President Kotlikoff in his car,” she said. “He hadn’t signaled or honked, or even rolled down the window and said, ‘Get out of my way.’”
However, others hold different sentiments. Noah Farb is a sophomore at Cornell who wrote a piece about the incident in The Free Press, adding context to the situation.
Farb labeled it as “yet another episode in a long-standing campaign by members of my campus community to punish Cornell administrators who don’t ascribe to their political beliefs,” stating that they should not “be allowed to get away with it.”
He referenced security footage that went largely unnoticed, showing agitators placing themselves around Kotlikoff’s car, preventing him from exiting. “His only choice was to remain there for what likely would have been hours, or to, as he did, slowly back out of the lot and force the activists to disperse,” Farb said.
“If you were in his position, surrounded and filmed by people hoping to take you out of context, would you stand there and engage, or try to stay calm and leave as Kotlikoff did?” he asked. “Those students brought this upon themselves.”
This issue has increased tensions regarding free speech on Cornell’s campus, with one Cornell student telling The Fix “this incident has definitely been the biggest talk of the town.”
The school has recently been struggling to create an environment fit for free and open discourse. For example, last February a speech was shut down after just eight minutes due to disruptive protests from students associated with groups like Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell.
To finish off his email, President Kotlikoff wrote “a primary goal of a Cornell education is preparing our students to participate productively in civil society; to do this, they must be able to hear different voices, assimilate different perspectives, and build evidence-based understanding,” adding that the behavior he experienced “has no place in an academic community, no place in a democracy, and can have no place at Cornell.”
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