BUZZ
Student groups claim the surveillance company is ‘fueling ICE’s terror against immigrants’
Recruiters for a defense technology company ended their two-hour career talk after only eight minutes Thursday at Cornell University after students demanded the event be canceled.
The university career center hosted the “Tech Talk” with Anduril, which develops surveillance and weapons technology for the U.S. military.
Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell, one of the groups that called on the university to cancel the talk, described the protesters who showed up Thursday as “peaceful” in an Instagram post.
“Faced by dozens of peaceful protesters, [Anduril representatives] left at the end of an eight-minute presentation, taking no questions and surrounded by cops,” the group wrote. “To every other weapons manufacturer planning a trip to Cornell: Come. We’ll be ready.”
The career talk was supposed to last two hours, The Cornell Daily Sun reports:
The talk opened with Associate Dean of Students with Student Support and Advocacy Services Christine Nye restating Cornell’s policies on expressive activity and free speech. She emphasized that invited speakers have the right to present their views without intimidation and to be heard, while audience members who disagree may express their views as long as they do not disrupt the speaker’s ability to speak.
Presenters then moved through a brief six-slide overview of Anduril’s mission, hiring process and internship opportunities. When it became clear the presentation was ending, protesters lifted anti-ICE signs, some shouted obscenities and “shame” at the presenters while others asked why they weren’t able to ask questions they had prepared.
Students spent more than a week urging Cornell Career Services to cancel the talk, according to protest organizers and an Instagram post from Students for Justice in Palestine, Cornell Progressives, Mexican Students Association and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán de Cornell.
Students for Justice in Palestine accused Anduril of “fueling ICE’s terror against immigrants and the genocide in Sudan” in an Instagram post.
Protesters also handed out fliers at the talk claiming the defense company’s surveillance technology on the southern border is “threatening the lives of migrants fleeing violence,” and its weapons are helping “genocidal nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia,” according to Cornell’s student newspaper.
Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, called on Cornell administrators to hold student groups accountable for shutting down the talk.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Anduril told The Sun that the career event still was successful.
Along with receiving several applications, the firm also “had students emailing our recruiters apologizing for the disturbance,” Shannon Prior told the student newspaper.
“We respect the right to free speech and we understand that protests are a hallmark of democratic expression,” Prior said, adding that the U.S. military protects the very freedoms that protesters enjoy.
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