“Cornell has forced the student body’s hand.”
These are the words that the Coalition for Mutual Liberation posted to its Instagram page in the aftermath of its actions at a career fair on September 18. In his opinion piece only a day earlier, Interim President Kotlikoff wrote, “We do not have the right to threaten, to infringe others’ rights or to make demands based on threats of violence or destruction.” In other words, as members of the Cornell community, we have the right to be free from harassment, a right that the CML, claiming in the same Instagram post to represent 70 percent of the student body, shamelessly violated.
I don’t know why members of the CML decided to shove police officers who were not even taking action against them. I don’t know why they screamed in the faces of their peers who were doing nothing more than exploring career possibilities. I don’t know why they thought that terrorizing a group of students and Statler employees would bring the University any closer to meeting their demands…