Pricey President Martha Pollack, Provost Michael Kotlikoff, Deputy Provost Avery August, Senior Affiliate Vice Provost Yael Levitte, Assistant Director Gabriela Vargas, and Chairman Kraig Kayser:
That is the 12 months of “Free Expression at Cornell”, a college that additionally prides itself on its range, fairness, and inclusion initiatives, with our president not too long ago receiving a nationwide range award. We’re a college with a mission of “Any Individual, Any Examine”.
However right here at Cornell, we don’t really feel equally protected by the College, and we don’t really feel equally in a position to categorical ourselves. Most not too long ago, we have been horrified by the threats made to our Jewish neighborhood. We applaud the president for issuing a swift and forceful assertion of condemnation. It’s this sort of unwavering assist that we hope to see for all weak members of the campus neighborhood, particularly Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and different BIPOC college students, workers, and college.
Consistent with the ACLU’s name, we ask that you simply subject a public assertion that focuses on condemning all acts of harassment and intimidation on campus and declares the worth of all free speech inside “the bounds of the legislation and the College’s anti-harassment coverage”, in order that we will return to a protected educating, studying, and dealing surroundings. Furthermore, we ask that you simply provide administrative protections in opposition to doxxing and implement neighborhood care options as an alternative of intensified policing, which has been a touchstone of your response. Free speech for all and a hate-free ambiance are complementary values to the standing in opposition to anti-Semitism initiatives introduced by President Pollack on November 1, 2023.
These current threats are part of a bigger local weather of alienation, racism, harassment, intimidation, and doxxing on our campus, and a part of wider makes an attempt to divide oppressed peoples. We name on the president to sentence this local weather of hate and to work proactively to revive the worth of free speech and create situations for furthering understanding. The administration’s lack of an avowal of all of our experiences and rights to expression has left BIPOC and in any other case weak members of our campus neighborhood feeling unseen and unsafe.
Now we have been appalled by anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic posters and a truck vilifying an African-American college member, and we really feel bereft that this incident has gone unacknowledged by the administration. The president and Board of Trustees chairman’s statements to the campus on October 16 condemned the college member and gave cowl to the following doxxing.
Because the Cornell Chapter of the American Affiliation of College Professors put it of their current assertion, the college’s announcement of an investigation into our colleague’s conduct was a mistake, and it “ought to have as an alternative declared forthrightly that free speech for all individuals, on any subject, inside ‘the bounds of the legislation and the College’s anti-harassment coverage,’ is a core worth that the College will defend”.
The administration bears duty for the chance, scrutiny, and total hazard, particularly for college, workers, and college students who’re BIPOC, worldwide, and in any other case marginalised. Collectively, associated to our duties as college, workers, and college students engaged on questions of domination and oppression, we’ve got confronted: worldwide harassment campaigns, circulation of our private addresses, unsolicited hate mail, threats to our households, requires our firing, workplace vandalisation, the donning of intimidating logos in our courses, photographing and videotaping of our actions on campus, screenshotting and circulating of our classroom communications, costs of reverse racism, threats of poor course evaluations, and an unwillingness to sponsor occasions on Palestine.
This hostile work surroundings has had a chilling impact on our analysis, educating, and learning. The local weather thwarts our academic mission which ensures “any particular person, any examine”. Many people at the moment are afraid to talk freely and have resorted to sporting masks to cover our identities on campus.
With out satisfactory assist, a few of us have been compelled to retreat from the neighborhood altogether. Doxxing, intimidation, and harassment are identified to inflict psychological well being, financial, and social injury, typically to relations and different harmless victims. Furthermore, analysis reveals that these from traditionally excluded and marginalised communities usually tend to be topic to racist intimidation and threats.
We wish to be clear that doxxing and harassment is a collective drawback. When one particular person is focused, it has a ripple impact. As such, these practices require collective and structural, not individualised, consideration and responses. The problem isn’t restricted to these of us who examine and train Israel/Palestine, but in addition applies to lecturers and college students of america, Russia and Ukraine, China, Nagorno-Karabakh, and elsewhere, in addition to colonialism, racism, casteism, militarism, empire, gender/sexuality, democracy/authoritarianism, and different matters associated to domination and oppression.
The actions from the college that we want to see do not embrace elevated policing, safety and surveillance, which have been touchstones of the college’s response. College entities at the moment advise measures like CUPD screening of labor e mail, set up of safety cameras, and elevated patrols and police presence.
Elevated surveillance and securitisation prohibit expression and exacerbate a local weather of worry. These should not be the one responses: Such measures will be discriminatory, and never all communities are equally protected by or snug with legislation enforcement. Thus, along with public condemnation of all acts of intimidation, harassment, and doxxing, and a public reassurance of our equal rights to free expression, we want to see the college put money into responses that emphasise neighborhood care and a strong defence of open and rigorous evaluation. Particularly, we urge the college to take measures together with, however not restricted to:
- Implementing and publicising anti-harassment procedures, such because the assets compiled by library workers
- Funding for anti-doxxing and information privateness workers, consultations, and companies corresponding to DeleteMe
- Clear and moral information insurance policies: disclosure of CUPD and safety infrastructure funds and operations; non-purchase of predictive policing software program with historical past of racial bias or investigative software program that sells to ICE, constructing referendums on safety cameras
- Administrative protections (eg, distant educating provisions)
- A sequence of instructional occasions on free expression to be organised by the AAUP
We have to see the college fulfil its commitments to freedom of speech, range, and inclusion, and to offer substantive expressions and ensures of assist and reassurance to all members of its neighborhood, as different college administrations have finished. Listed below are useful statements from the Administrations at Syracuse, Rutgers, and Columbia, which has additionally introduced an anti-doxxing initiative.
Please reassure us that we’re free to precise ourselves with out worry of retribution from the college in order that we will proceed researching, educating, and making neighborhood with peace of thoughts, dignity, and security.
Please additionally reassure us that you’ll ardently work to guard free speech, together with critiques of the actions of any state’s human rights violations, and can counter any makes an attempt to conflate critique of the State of Israel with anti-Semitism, simply as a critique of any state’s human rights violations can’t be thought-about a critique of a non secular, ethnic, nationwide, or every other id.
Listing of signatories:
Adam A Holmes, Alumni
Adam Chandler, Cornell School/Workers
Alaa R. Farghli, Scholar
Alec McGail, Alumni
Alejandra Quintero, Alumni
Alex Nading, Cornell School/Workers
Alex van Biema, Scholar
Alexander Hoepker, Alumni
Alexander Wallace, Common Public
Alexis Boyce, Cornell School/Workers
Alican Taylan, Scholar
Alicia Swords, Alumni and School/Workers at one other Establishment
Alison Bliss, Cornell School/Workers
Allison Weiner Heinemann, Cornell School/Workers
Alyiah Gonzales, Scholar/Teacher
Amiel Bize, Cornell School/Workers
Andra Sonia Petrutiu, Scholar
Andre Nascimento, Scholar
Andrew Moisey, Cornell School/Workers
Andrew Musser, Cornell School/Workers
Ani Chen, Cornell School/Workers
Arlan Huang, Artist
Arnav Gupta, Scholar
Ashwin Kumar, Scholar
Anton Moore, Scholar
Ashley Stockstill, Cornell School/Workers
Aslihan Gunhan, Scholar
Asya Ece Uzmay, Scholar
Ava White, Cornell School/Workers
Bahar Mirhosseni, Cornell School/Workers
Barbara Regenspan, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Begum Adalet, Cornell School/Workers
Ben Wrubel, Cornell School/Workers
Benjamin Barson, Postdoctoral Fellow
Benjamin S. Yost, Cornell School/Workers
Bianca Waked, Scholar
Brandon Granby, Common Public
Brian V Sengdala, Scholar
Caitlin Blanchfield, Cornell School/Workers
Camille Suarez, Cornell School/Workers
Carole E. Boyce-Davis, Cornell School/Workers
Carrie Chalmers, Cornell School/Workers
Catherine Wilmes, Cornell School/Workers
Cathy Timmermann, Alumni
Cecelia Lawless, Cornell School/Workers
Chiara Formichi, Cornell School/Workers
Chloe Ahmann, Cornell School/Workers
Chloe Wray, Cornell School/Workers
Christine B Steadiness, Cornell School/Workers
Christine Wen, Alumni
Claire Cororaton, Scholar
Claudia Verhoeven, Cornell School/Workers
Courtney Ricketts, Cornell School/Workers
Daniel Hirschman, Cornell School/Workers
Daniella Pagan, Common Public
Daphne Blakey, Scholar
Darine Yusuf, Scholar
Darlene Evans, Cornell School/Workers
David Bateman, Cornell School/Workers
David Levitsky, Cornell School/Workers
Denise Inexperienced, Cornell School/Workers
Derek Chang, Cornell School/Workers
Derrick R. Spires, Cornell School/Workers
Durba Ghosh, Cornell School/Workers
Ecem Saricayir, Scholar
Edmundo Paz-Soldan, Cornell School/Workers
Edvard Avilés Meza, Scholar
Edward E. Baptist, Cornell School/Workers
Ekin Erar, Cornell School/Workers
Eli Friedman, Cornell School/Workers
Elisabeth Rattenborg, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Elise Finielz, Cornell School/Workers
Eliza Bettinger, Cornell School/Workers
Elizabeth H. Sarfaty, Common Public
Ella Road, Postdoctoral Fellow
Elizabeth Radman, Cornell School/Workers
Emma Campbell, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Emma Park, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Emily Parsons, Cornell School/Workers
Emily Van Dyne, Alumni
Emily Vo, Scholar
Emmy Lewis, Scholar
Eng-Beng Lim, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Enzo Traverso, Cornell School/Workers
Eric Cheyfitz, Cornell School/Workers
Eric Tagliacozzo, Cornell School/Workers
Erica Augenstein, Alumni
Ernesto Bassi, Cornell School/Workers
Esra Akcan, Cornell School/Workers
Ewa Nizalowska, Scholar
Wayles Browne, Emeritus college
Farah Bakaari, Scholar
Florian Idenburg, Cornell School/Workers
Fouad Makki, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Gaby Castro, Cornell School/Workers
Georgia Koumantaros, Scholar
Gina Goico, Scholar
Gracelynn Osei-Bosompem, Scholar
Hannah Miller, Cornell School/Workers
Hannah Toombs, Cornell School/Workers
Helena Maria Viramontes, Cornell School/Workers
Ian Greer, Cornell School/Workers
Iman Ali, Scholar
Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell School/Workers
Iliana Burgos, Cornell School/Workers
Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer, Cornell School/Workers
Jaleesa Reed, Cornell School/Workers
James A. Gross, Cornell School/Workers
Jamie F Block, Alumni
Jamila Michener, Cornell School/Workers
Jamie Johnson, Cornell School/Workers
Jane Glaubman, Cornell School/Workers
Jane-Marie Regulation, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Jeff Sabol, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Jeffery Hermanson, Common Public
Jennifer Colt, Cornell School/Workers
Jeremy Braddock, Cornell School/Workers
Jim DelRosso, Cornell School/Workers
Jodi Dean, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Jolene Rickard, Cornell School/Workers
Jonathan B Monroe, Cornell School/Workers
Jorge DeFendini, Alumni
Jose Beduya, Cornell School/Workers
José Luis Cano Jr., School/Workers at one other Establishment
Joseph Berra, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Juhwan Search engine optimisation, Scholar
Judith Byfield, Cornell School/Workers
Judith Tauber, Cornell School/Workers
Julia Chang, Cornell School/Workers
Juliana Garcia, Cornell School/Workers
Juliana Hu Pegues, Cornell School/Workers
Julie McLean, Cornell School/Workers
Juliet Lu, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, Cornell School/Workers
Juno Salazar Parreñas, Cornell School/Workers
Kaitlin Emmanuel, Scholar
Kalie Pierce, Scholar
Karin and Uwe Tauber, Common Public
Karina Edouard, Scholar
Kate McCullough, Cornell School/Workers
Katherine Ally Zaslavsky, Scholar
Kathryn Russell, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Katie Wang, Scholar
Katy Rendinaro Kimple, Cornell School/Workers
Ken Roberts, Cornell School/Workers
Kerri Sakamoto, Cornell School/Workers
Kevin Duong, Alumni
Kieran adams, Scholar
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Cornell School/Workers
Kimberly Knight, Former School at one other Establishment
Kimiyo Bremer, Scholar
Kina Viola, Cornell School/Workers
Kristin Roebuck, Cornell School/Workers
Kun Huang, Alumni
Kurt Jordan, Cornell School/Workers
Laila Abd Elmagid, Alumni
Lana Aldos, Alumni
Laraib Chaudhry, Scholar
Laura Caicedo, Scholar
Laura Schoenle, Cornell School/Workers
Lauren Oertel, Scholar
lawrence maminta, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Lee Simpfendoerfer, Alumni
Leila Tayeb, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Leon Miller-Out, Alumni
Leslie Alexander, Alumni
Leslie Schultz, Cornell School/Workers
Liliana Colanzi, Cornell School/Workers
Lisa D. Camp, Scholar
Lisa Quainoo, Scholar
Lynn Thitchener, Cornell School/Workers
Maboula Soumahoro, Common Public
Macarena Tejada López, Cornell School/Workers
Maddie Reynolds, Cornell School/Workers
Madison Albano, Alumni
Majd Aldaye, Scholar
Maki Inada, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Margaret E Foster, Scholar
Margaret Washington, Cornell School/Workers
Maria Cristina Garcia, Cornell School/Workers
Maria González Pendas, Cornell School/Workers
Marialuisa Palumbo, Scholar
Marcos S. Ramos Valdes, Scholar
Marina Welker, Cornell School/Workers
Marcelo Aguiar, Cornell School/Workers
Mario Hernandez, Alumni
Marty Cain, Cornell School/Workers
Mary Albanese, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Mary Pat Brady, Cornell School/Workers
Matthew Evangelista, Cornell School/Workers
Maureen North, Common Public
Mayleen Cortez-Rodriguez, Scholar
Maz Do, Scholar
Mee-Ju Ro, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Megan Jeffreys, Scholar
Meghan McGowan, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Mejdulene Shomali, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Melanie Duru, Scholar
Meredith A Palmer, Alumni
michael margolin, Cornell School/Workers
Michael Matsuda, Alumni
Michael Moynihan, Scholar
Michael Pickard, Alumni
Michell Chresfield, Cornell School/Workers
Migdalia Arcila-Valenzuela, Scholar
Mikayla Gutierrez, Scholar
Mingwei Huang, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Minh Huynh Vu, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Molinie, Cornell School/Workers
Momodou Taal, Scholar
Mona Sulzman, Common Public
Monica Cornejo, Cornell School/Workers
Montse C. Li, Scholar
Nancy Gallagher, professor emerita, UCSB
Natalie Kelsey, Cornell School/Workers
Natalie Melas, Cornell School/Workers
Natasha Bishop, Cornell School/Workers
Natasha Raheja, Cornell School/Workers
Nathan Carlos Norris, Scholar
Nathan Sitaraman, Cornell School/Workers
Naveen Sharma, Scholar
Nayomi Asghedom, Scholar
Neil Hertz, Cornell School/Workers
Nic Vigilante, Scholar
Nick Brattoli, Scholar
Nicholas Mulder, Cornell School/Workers
Noah Tamarkin, Cornell School/Workers
Noor Jehan Ahmad, Scholar
NoViolet Buluwayo, Cornell School/Workers
Olivia Ochoa, Scholar
Olivia Tai, Alumni
Oumar Ba, Cornell School/Workers
Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik, Cornell School/Workers
Parisa Vaziri, Cornell School/Workers
Pascal Schwaighofer, Scholar
Paul Fleming, Cornell School/Workers
Paul Nadasdy, Cornell School/Workers
Paul Sawyer, Cornell School/Workers
Pearl Ngai, Alumni
Pinar Kemerli, Alumni
Priyamvada Gopal, Alumni
Quinn Stickley, Scholar
Rachel Vogel, Alumni
Rachel Weil, Cornell School/Workers
Rachel Fomalhaut, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Raymond Craib, Cornell School/Workers
Reanna Esmail, Cornell School/Workers
Richard Franklin Bensel, Cornell School/Workers
Risa Lieberwitz, Cornell School/Workers
Rob Kotaska, Cornell School/Workers
Roberto Ibáñez, Scholar
Robin Gee, Cornell School/Workers
Robert Travers, Cornell School/Workers
Romy Opperman, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Ruari Paterson-Achenbach, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Ruth Yarrow, Alumni
Ani Mukherji, Alumni
Saida Hodzic, Cornell School/Workers
Samantha Sheppard, Cornell School/Workers
Samia Henni, Cornell School/Workers
Sandra Babcock, Cornell School/Workers
Sandra E. Greene, Cornell School/Workers
Sarah Grunberg, Cornell School/Workers
Sarah R Meiners, Scholar
Satya P Mohanty, Cornell School/Workers
Seema Golestaneh, Cornell School/Workers
Shaila Musharoff, Cornell School/Workers
Shang Yasuda, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Shannon Gleeson, Cornell School/Workers
Sharif Ewais-Orozco, Cornell School/Workers
Shio Lim, Scholar
Simon Gillhooley, Alumni
Sofia Leung, Common Public
Sofia Villenas, Cornell School/Workers
Sophia Taborski, Scholar
Sophie Pinkham, Cornell School/Workers
Suman Seth, Cornell School/Workers
Susette Min, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Suyoung Son, Cornell School/Workers
Tamika Nunley, Cornell School/Workers
Tej Nagaraja, Cornell School/Workers
Thari Zweers, Scholar
Thomas Hentschel, Alumni
Thomas Dolan, Alumni
Tim Murray, Cornell School/Workers
Tim W. Shenk, Cornell School/Workers
Timo Isreb, Scholar
TJ Hinrichs, Cornell School/Workers
Todd Ayoung, Cornell Group
Todd Saddler, Common Public
Tomie Arai, Common Public
Tracy McNulty, Cornell School/Workers
Tristan Ivory, Cornell School/Workers
Vanessa Gubbins, Cornell School/Workers
Verity Platt, Cornell School/Workers
Viranjini Munasinghe, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, Cornell School/Workers
Virginia Doellgast, Cornell School/Workers
Vishal Nyayapathi, Scholar
Woo Kim, Common Public
Yui Sasajima, Scholar
Ziad Fahmy, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Common PublicAnonymous, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Scholar
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Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, Alumni
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Alumni
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Nameless, Scholar
Nameless, Common Public
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
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Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
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Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, Alumni
Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
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Nameless, Cornell School/Workers
Nameless, School/Workers at one other Establishment
