Four Cornell students were suspended on April 26 for their involvement with a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus. The university administration announced on Saturday that more suspensions are coming. The encampment is part of the growing anti-war, pro-Palestinian protests on campuses across the country.
The four students received emails Friday afternoon notifying them they have been “temporarily suspended” from Cornell. Two of them are international graduate students. Two are American undergraduates. One condition of the suspensions is students are not allowed on campus.
Momodou Taal is a doctoral student from the UK. He said the administration deliberately targeted some of the most vocal student protesters.
“Really and truly it’s about the encampment," Taal said. "It is a temporary suspension which means it can be reinstated. But I understand this is a form of intimidation. It’s a form of a scare tactic to get us to back down from the encampment and to get us to stop being pro-Palestinian more generally."
Taal said the suspension will not deter his activism.
“It’s emboldened me forever, if I’m being honest. Because I’m unaware, maybe the listeners, if they do, can point me to another example, but I’m unaware of a nationwide, campus-led student protest in the history of this country that has ever been on the wrong side of history,” he said.
Taal said university officials have not responded to his requests for clarification about some of the conditions of his suspension. He is also a research assistant and member of the graduate student union. He said he’s got the support of the union and has contacted lawyers for more guidance about his rights.
On April 25, the day before the suspensions were announced, the undergraduate Student Assembly voted on a resolution to support the student protesters. Assembly president Patrick Kuehl visited the encampment over the weekend.
“The vote was unanimous, saying free speech, especially of students, shouldn’t be impeded on by the university and that we stand against students being suspended for exercising their First Amendment rights,” he said.
Suspended students were initially notified they would be evicted from university housing after an unspecified “grace period”. But the following day, Saturday, a statement from Joel Malina, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, seemed to reverse that condition saying, “None of these students have been denied housing or dining privileges, nor access to student health services.”
The statement also said suspensions came after students refused to move their encampment from the Arts Quad to the Sage Chapel/Day Hall area, "where noise would not disturb classes, people who wished to avoid the encampment could easily do so, and other registered events on the Arts Quad could be held." Malina, in the statement, goes on to say that officials are "deeply distressed" by the chant, "There is only one solution: intifada revolution,” which he implied could be construed as antisemitic.
As of Sunday evening no students had been evicted and the encampment was still intact.