The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/pro-palestine/)
Cornell Graduate Students United rallied in support of Ph.D. student Sriram Parasurama, who was de-enrolled from the University due to participating in a pro-Palestinian disruption that shut down a career fair on Sept. 18.
We are writing in response to Cornell administration’s use of temporary suspensions and “persona non grata” status as a disproportionate disciplinary tool to prevent student activism and protest.
Four student activists were issued persona non grata status and banned from campus for three years in the wake of the Statler protest. The three-year no-trespass orders were issued during one-on-one disciplinary meetings with the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards . They were issued by Cornell University Police Department, separate from and in addition to the suspensions meted out by OSCCS.
Why was an additional ban added onto the suspensions which already banned students from campus? The key is in the work done by the figure of the “persona non grata,” or “an unwelcome person.” As philosophical, political and moral investigations of belonging and hospitality show, the figure reveals how membership in a community is predicated on the exclusion of others. It makes visible the work of boundary drawing and policing in the making and re-making of communities.
We have to understand the imposition of PNG status in these cases of political protest as being explicitly intended to expel certain ideas, not as a disciplinary measure.
Three Statler Hall protesters appeared before a supporter-packed court Wednesday morning to be arraigned on charges of obstructing government administration and unlawful assembly. Two of the protesters, Yihun Stith ’26 and Sriram Parasurama ’24, pled not guilty, while Atakan Deviren ’27 had his case dismissed on a technicality.
The Sun interviewed four pro-Palestinian voters from the Cornell community who settled for Vice President Kamala Harris or voted third-party. They said they disagreed with both the Democratic and Republican party’s stance on Israel’s military action in Gaza.
In many ways, I see the University as a microcosm of empire through its mass surveillance, deference to profit, and exploitation of its labor. And, like all empires, it digs its own grave by oppressing its masses in the name of greed and extraction.
It is not ridiculous to ask the institution that takes my tax dollars to divest from war profiteers. It is not a fundamental misunderstanding to think that Cornell’s administration should not prioritize the speech of weapons manufacturers and the KKK over that of their own students.
In ignoring antisemitic slurs hurled at Jews protesting on behalf of Palestinian lives, while issuing punishments that bar Jewish students from participating in their chosen Jewish prayer communities, Cornell is inappropriately weighing in on Jewish debates about Jewish values and practice.
Over 150 protesters staged a walkout outside of the Law School during the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday.
Following a walkout organized by the student-led Coalition for Mutual Liberation, protesters disrupted the career fair through noise and chants, including “F*ck you, Boeing.” While I did not attend the protest, I co-sign their sentiment and support the student mandate to support a ceasefire in Gaza and divest from weapons manufacturers that support the ongoing war in Gaza. When it comes to Boeing, it’s personal.
The students were served three-year no-trespass orders on Wednesday in connection with last month’s pro-Palestinian protest at an on-campus career fair.