Cornell police vehicles have remained outside a student-made encampment on the University’s Arts Quad since tensions began to flare April 25, but university police have made no arrests because of the encampment and ongoing protests on campus thus far.
The University will, however, potentially be charging a vandal for the graffiti that was spray painted overnight Thursday in “several campus buildings and outdoor locations,” according to a Friday statement by the university’s Vice President for University Relations, Joel Malina.
University officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the graffiti.
A response from the Coalition for Mutual Liberation
On Wednesday, two more pro-Palestine students were temporarily suspended by the university, in addition to the four previous temporary suspensions of undergraduate students and graduate workers since the protests at Cornell began.
“These suspensions are arbitrary and unfairly targeting the negotiations team because we are the easiest people to identify,” said Bianca Waked, one of the graduate students suspended last week and a member of the team negotiating with the university regarding suspensions and the university’s divestment from Israeli military research and manufacturing.
“The only reason they have identified any of us is because we have been meeting with administration officials for months to go through the proper channels to report harassment and seek divestment,” she said. “This targeting clearly exhibits the administration’s bad faith and is indicative of why students have steadily escalated actions over the past six months.”
When asked Tuesday morning if the length of the temporary suspensions had been decided or if student protesters will be subject to further disciplinary actions, university Media Relations Director Rebecca Valli offered no details on the issue.
“What the university is reducing to purposeless ‘rule-breaking’ must be properly understood as a core element of civil disobedience – deliberate and public rule-breaking for expressive purpose,” said Waked. “The Liberated Zone expresses deep discontent with Cornell University’s unequal treatment of their students – especially Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and anti-Zionist Jewish students – in addition to protesting Cornell’s material investment in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
The background: What’s been going on in the Arts Quad?
Cornell University students joined waves of protesters nationwide April 25 in protesting their school’s ties to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Since then, the school has threatened temporary suspensions for student protesters who would not vacate the encampment set up by a student coalition in protest of the university’s ties to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which the group claims is perpetuating a Palestinian genocide.
The student-led Coalition for Mutual Liberation began setting up tents at 4 a.m. April 25 on the university’s historic Arts Quad. The small walled area filled with about 20 tents still remains on campus as of Friday morning, despite a statement from the university claiming suspensions and police actions were likely.
