Last fall, following Hamas’ attacks in Israel on October 7, I wrote a column addressing former President Martha Pollack’s attempted apolitical stance on the Isreal-Hamas war as both a failure and a testament to Americans’ greater detachment from the gravity of war. One year later, I write to call attention to Cornell’s new administration following suit in former President Pollack’s mistakes.
Earlier this month, Interim President Michael Kotlikoff, who recently began his two-year term, spoke with The Sun on his intent to maintain personal neutrality and work toward institutional neutrality: “I’ve made a personal decision [to adopt institutional neutrality]. …I’ve always felt, personally, that it’s the right stance for a university. I don’t feel comfortable as a president opining on broad political issues, and since I’m coming into the presidency new, it actually is an advantage to be able to adopt that stance right from the start.” President Kotlikoff overlooks, however, that language is inherently opinionated. His very word choice is anything but neutral.
In his statement “On the Career Fair disruption and Code of Conduct violations,” President Kotlikoff willfully warps the language of peaceful protest. As Associate Editor Max Fattal writes, Kotlikoff “intimates that ‘preventing,’ ‘frightening’ and ‘harassing’ all constitute forms of violence, which broadens his definition to include any tangible impact (stopping anything that’s being protested) or the production of discomfort (making others feel frightened by the activism).” To take this one step further, Kotlikoff asserts that Career Fair attendees and recruitment officers need to feel “frightened” and “harassed” — rather than simply uncomfortable — by a group of students with a megaphone, Palestinian flag, and keffiyehs. His reliance on anger-inducing buzzwords reveals a crack in his “neutral” perspective of protest. The severity of his language is even more so farcical considering that the disruption of the Career Fair by the Coalition for Mutual Liberation was not, in fact, violent, in the sense that there was no “physical force or weapons to hurt, injure, or kill other people,” as defined by Collins Dictionary. Even more so, it was not an entire descent into disorder: it was a targeted disruption aimed at shutting down a Boeing and L3Harris recruitment event to pressure the administration into cutting ties with these companies. The “intimidation” was intended to remind the Cornell community of Boeing and L3Harris’s political agenda: supplying weapons to Israel.
One does not have to agree with CML’s politics to recognize the strength of its protests. Protests are meant to disrupt: only with disruption can activists fight against dominant power systems. The reason that protests organized by Cornellians for Israel are not disruptive is that the organization can plainly see that the University is on its side. Likewise, Zionist protesters do not wear masks at vigils — while consistently do — because they are not threatened with disciplinary action. To borrow from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, “Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” I hope that a few minutes of disruption will momentarily remind people of morality and disrupt their apathy.
Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina’s language is even more insulting to the joke of an institutional attempt at neutrality. In a private meeting with Hillel’s network, Malina described comments that Prof. Wunpini Mohammed, communication, reposted on X as “troubling.” Prof. Mohammed simply expresses her political (and anti-Zionist) stances on social media; Malina’s position as Vice President of University Relations allows the greater interpolation that the University finds pro-Palestinian activism troubling.
In another instance of a laughable attempt at institutional neutrality, Malina’s language toward Prof. Russell Rickford, history is nothing short of demeaning. “Prof. Rickford, for lack of a better word, is very savvy when it comes to staying on this side of our policies… [he] very intentionally did not enter The Statler,” during the aforementioned protest. Malina’s phrasing suggests that Prof. Rickford is acting with a level of cunning or trickery to avoid consequences, or in a less-than-honorable way, rather than straightforwardly adhering to the rules. He neglects to mention Prof. Rickford’s respect for Cornell University, his deep commitment to teaching and, most importantly, that Prof. Rickford chose to abide by illogical campus policies.
The recent failed attempts at University neutrality are a mere reflection that political neutrality is a reinforcement of more politically powerful (and likely hateful) forces. So, to President Kotlikoff, Malina, and the wider Cornell administration, your “neutrality” speaks louder than you realize. You’ve made your stance clear: against faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates who speak up for what they believe in. With my heart filled with love for the Cornell community, I ask: Take your hands off the student body — we actually have the dignity to acknowledge that we’re taking a stand.
Ilana Livshits is a second year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. Her fortnightly column Live Laugh Livshits focuses on politics, social issues and culture at Cornell. She can be reached at [email protected].
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