The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/joel-malina/)
Administrators answered questions on topics relevant to Cornell’s Black students, including suspensions of protesters, financial aid changes and comments made by other top administrators.
Footage released on Saturday refutes claims from student activists that the Sept. 18 career fair protest was peaceful.
My comments, in response to a question from a participant in the meeting about the KKK, were made in the context of my being challenged on why Cornell is allowing some hurtful speech to take place and to illustrate Cornell’s deep commitment to free expression. In retrospect, it was a terrible analogy that was posed, and a false equivalency, and I should have said as much in response. To be clear, the KKK is abhorrent by any standard, and Cornell University would never invite a representative of the KKK to campus. Any speaker invited by a faculty member or student organization is reviewed by the University Events Team and is only allowed to come to campus if the safety of all in our community can be assured.
The only logical conclusion is that the University has a responsibility to take a firm stance against Joel Malina’s welcomeness to offering platforms to hate groups to speak on campus in which all identities and orientations of Cornell’s student body and faculty will be threatened.
In his comments at Hillel, Joel Malina appears entirely confused about the scope and meaning of academic freedom. In his focusing on the case of pro-Palestinian activists, Malina suggests that the administration’s expressive activity policy is not content-neutral but is motivated by pro-Israel parents and donors.
Black Students United rallied to demand the University fire Vice President of University Relations Joel Malina after he said a KKK member would be allowed on campus if a faculty member or a student group invited them to speak.
I thank the members of Cornell’s faculty who reached out to me to express understandable concern.
After more than 20 years in the classroom, from graduate school through my time at Cornell, I have learned that if students feel that their teachers are scrutinizing what they say, the result is silence. If students feel trusted to explore ideas, the result is education. And when professors — as we surely will after this morning’s Sun story — teach from a place of fear rather than trust, the result is generalized apathy at best, widespread paranoia at worst.
To the Editor:
Re: “On Language, Misinformation and Divisiveness” (letters, April 29)
In an April 29 letter to The Sun, a group of Cornell professors opposed the University’s condemnation of the chant “there is only one solution, Intifada Revolution” on the grounds that the University’s statement was “based on a failure to understand the literal and historical meaning of an Arabic word, intifada.” Their argument attempts to divorce the word “intifada” from its well-understood meaning within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in so doing, give the air of academic legitimacy to a pro-terrorism chant.
There are many examples of words with general meanings that take on specific meaning when applied to specific historical events. For example, the word “holocaust’” has a literal meaning (a burnt sacrifice), but a very different meaning in the context of World War II. Likewise, the word “intifada” has a specific meaning in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The specific historical periods that the word “intifada” refer to are the First and Second Intifadas, which took place from 1987-1993 and 2000-2005, respectively. While both intifadas were characterized by Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, the Second Intifada was a particularly painful and scarring period. Over 1,000 Israelis were killed, largely in random acts of terrorism that were meant to make everyday life in Israel psychologically traumatizing (such as suicide bombings in buses, Passover seders, restaurants and markets). As one article puts it:
Mind-numbing terrorism made it scary to ride a bus, nerve-wracking to send kids to school, a psychological effort to take the family downtown for a falafel. Everyone eyed fellow passengers warily on the bus at one time or another during these years – especially fellow passengers wearing coats on a sunny day – wondering if they may be hiding explosives. But according to the professors, considering the meaning of “intifada” in the context in which it is being used is wrong. To use the term properly, they instruct readers to “reach out to subject matter experts … for education on matters related to Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish or Persian language …” In other words, reach out to them.
Their expertise, however, is questionable. A closer look into the professors’ suggested readings for those interested in “expert” opinion on the intifadas reveals not only their false expertise, but also their real agenda.
One of their suggestions is “The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle” by Dr. Ramzy Baroud. An initial look at Dr. Baroud’s website reveals that he is no dispassionate scholar of the Middle East. He routinely writes about Israel’s lack of a right to exist or defend itself. Even more shockingly, Dr. Baroud taped a video of himself on Twitter with the words “What Happened on October 7th and Why We Should Not Apologize for Palestinian Resistance” written on the screen. In the video, Dr. Baroud claims, “…
RE: “WILSON | The Power to Evict” (opinion, May 2)
I write to offer an important correction to what was stated in a guest column by Nick Wilson on May 2.
A student on temporary suspension approached West Campus House staff at approximately 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday expressing concerns about their ID card access. Staff immediately provided the student a temporary ID card to ensure continued access to their housing and dining privileges and assured them that this ID card would work until move-out if their original ID was not fixed. No student on temporary suspension in connection with the unauthorized encampment on the Arts Quad has been informed by the University that they have been evicted or must vacate university housing this term. Any assumption otherwise is incorrect. Students on temporary suspension who are living on campus continue to have access to housing, dining and student health services.