The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/kkk/)
The move comes after a semester of controversy over statements on free speech that Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina made during a private Sept. 30 Zoom meeting with Jewish parents. The comments led to Black Students United demanding his firing and the Faculty Senate discussing whether to condemn him for violating faculty members’ academic freedom.
Cornell declined to answer whether members of six extremist groups would be allowed to speak on campus if invited by a faculty member or student group.
The University has a commitment to viewpoint diversity and free speech. But when that speech veers into discrimination and targeted harassment, creating an unsafe environment for marginalized students, that’s where the line must be drawn.
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.
Cornell yearbook fraternity rosters from the 1980s feature altered names such as “Ku,” Klux” and “Klan.”
So I’ve been trying to write this review without swearing but uhhh… holy shit did this movie floor me. If you’re one of those people who reads only the first couple lines of a review: go see Dunkirk. It’s breathtaking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-eMt3SrfFU
And that’s the first thing I need to harp on — Dunkirk is beautiful. There were more than a couple of takes in this movie where I couldn’t help but think director Christopher Nolan and director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema were just showing off, flexing their cinematographic muscles.