Cornell University students and staff who participated in a pro-Palestinian protest at a career fair earlier this week could face criminal charges, according to a statement from a university official.
The Cornell Coalition for Mutual Liberation, or CML, is calling for the university to cut ties with weapons manufacturers, particularly those being used by the Israeli military in Gaza. Student protests against the war in Gaza have been ongoing since the war began, with some ending in arrests or suspension for demonstrators.
Protesters interrupted a university career fair at Cornell’s Statler Hotel on Wednesday. In a video posted on the group’s social media, demonstrators banged pots and pans and chanted. The protest ultimately led the university to close the career fair early.
CML spokesperson and Cornell undergraduate Yihun Stith said the group’s goal was to prevent student recruitment for two companies that make weapons of war, Boeing and L3Harris.
“We are stopping Cornell University students from going to jobs in genocide. The Coalition for Mutual Liberation would view that as a success,” Stith said.
Boeing was the top U.S manufacturer of missiles and other military weapons sent to Israel between 2021 and 2023, according to reporting from Seattle’s KUOW.
In a statement released after the protest, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, Joel Malina, encouraged community members to share any information they have about the protest to police, including the identities of demonstrators. This marks the first public statement since the war in Gaza began, where university officials have asked Cornell students, staff and faculty to turn in protesters to law enforcement.
Malina added that students identified as participating in the protest would be subject to disciplinary action, including suspension. Protesting staff and faculty would be referred to human resources.
The statement also said police officers at the scene were shoved and pushed and protesters could be subject to potential criminal charges.
Stith, the spokesperson for the protesters, said the protests were peaceful and that “no immense cop interaction happened.”
Malina condemned demonstrators' behavior, and called it “unacceptable, a violation of university policy, and illegal.”
Campus police did not arrest any protesters at the career fair.
