The College Fix

‘We are providing video that shows initial forced entry at the Statler lobby and disruptive activity inside the Career Fair’: Cornell spokesman 

Yes, aggressive campus protesters did shove and barge their way past officers, ignoring and disobeying orders to back off, to shut down a career fair featuring Boeing at Cornell University last month.

The Ivy League institution recently released video footage to disprove demonstrators’ claims they peacefully entered the venue, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.

“The three-minute-long video, which includes footage from Cornell University Police Department officers’ body cameras and a main lobby camera, shows the moment when masked students breached the entrance and shut down the event,” the student newspaper reported.

“The footage, released on Saturday, refutes claims from student activists that the protest was peaceful. In the video, several CUPD officers can be seen guarding The Statler’s entrance. Three of the officers formed a barricade across the building’s sliding doors, briefly holding up their arms to provide resistance before protesters shoved past,” the Sun reported.

Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, stated in releasing the video that several members of the campus community had requested “that video evidence be made available of forceful entry.”

“…Having completed the preliminary criminal investigation of the event, we are providing video that shows initial forced entry at the Statler lobby and disruptive activity inside the Career Fair.”

The protesters had effectively canceled the job fair early after pushing their way past police, chanting “we will work, we will fight. No more jobs in genocide” and “F*** you Boeing,” all while banging on pots and pans.

Meanwhile, administrators also forged ahead with punishing students who took part in the melee.

“To date, Cornell has identified 19 individuals who disrupted university operations as part of a protest that shut down the September 18 career fair sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at the Statler Hotel,” the university stated Oct. 10. “… Three identified students also have been arrested for criminal offenses by the Cornell University Police Department and referred to the Ithaca City Court.”

The Cornell Daily Sun reported last week that four pro-Palestinian student activists have been banned from campus for three years, citing a news release from the Coalition for Mutual Liberation, a student-led activist group.

“The suspended students can appeal the decision,” the student newspaper reported, adding some are calling the move a “scare tactic” at a university that promises free speech.

But as The College Fix also reported last week, Cornell walked back its decision to suspend a foreign Black Muslim student and pull his visa for his role in helping lead the job fair protest.

MORE: ‘F** you Boeing’: Anti-Israel Cornell activists end job fair

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