Nearly 45 pro-Palestine protesters gathered around the entrance of Barton Hall on Friday evening as the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting reception and dinner were held inside. Through chants, banners and impassioned speeches, the crowd called for the University to divest from weapons manufacturers connected to the war in Gaza.
The Coalition for Mutual Liberation and The Progressives at Cornell organized a vigil for lives lost during the conflict in Gaza at 4:15 p.m. in the courtyard of Myron Taylor Hall following the Board’s Friday meeting before walking over to protest outside the dinner at Barton Hall.
The group of about initially 25 read poems and heard from speakers before banging pots and pans and using bullhorns to shout through the windows of the building, inside which the Board was believed to be meeting.
The night before, demonstrators also protested a University Council “Wine and Dine” event on Thursday and called for the Board to “fulfill their moral duties” and sell their shares in arms manufacturers involved in the war in Gaza.
Members of the Board were in Ithaca this week for the 2025 Trustee-Council Annual Meeting. According to the TCAM website, the trustees' event inside Barton Hall was an opportunity to “enjoy an evening of camaraderie and new connections” and “celebrate President Michael I. Kotlikoff’s inauguration as Cornell’s 15th president.”
Demonstrators moved from Myron Taylor Hall to outside Barton Hall to protest an event that celebrated “President Michael I. Kotlikoff’s inauguration as Cornell’s 15th president.”
At approximately 5:15 p.m., the group marched from Myron Taylor Hall to Barton Hall, chanting, "Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” and “Cornell trustees you can’t hide, you are funding genocide.”
Outside Barton Hall, protesters lined makeshift barriers constructed by University police, booing and shouting “shame” through bullhorns as hundreds of attendees entered and exited the building.
Several University leaders were seen entering the event, including President Michael Kotlikoff, Provost Kavita Bala and Vice President for Student and Campus Life Ryan Lombardi.
“We consider resolutions when they come to us,” Kotlikoff said to The Sun when asked his stance on the protesters' pleas for divestment. “We’ve had that resolution before, and there's a process here to be able to do that through the assembly, and that’s the process that should be followed.”
In Spring 2024, the Student Assembly voted to hold a referendum on whether the University should call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and also divest from weapons manufacturers. The referendum passed with two-thirds of the student body voting in favor of divestment. 46.77 percent of the undergraduate body voted.
For a University referendum, the results are sent to the Office of the President, and the president is required to respond if they reject or intend to implement the policy within 30 days. The then-University President Martha Pollack chose to disapprove the student-led divestment referendum, citing that it was not appropriate for the University to take a stance on the issue.
“It is not the proper role of the university to make a statement about this complex political issue, especially when there is a diversity of opinion among members of the campus community, as demonstrated by the fact that the vote on the referendum was far from unanimous,” Pollack wrote in a statement sent to the Cornell community.
Despite being met with boos and yelling from the crowd, Kotlikoff said of the protest itself, “This is fine; time, place, and manner is appropriate.”
For Zanaya Hussain ’28, a student in the school of Industrial Labor Relations and a protester at the event, the sight of Cornell administration entering the hall, including her school’s dean, Alexander Colvin, filled her with disappointment.
“I hope they feel ashamed because we are ashamed of them,” Hussain said. “Have they lost their humanity?”
Throughout the evening, there was a continual police presence, with several CUPD officers present from the beginning of the vigil at 4:15 p.m. until the protest ended without incident after 7 p.m.
Throughout the demonstration, several tense exchanges broke out between protesters and officers over where participants were permitted to stand in relation to the building.
Notably, the group chanted, “We are all SJP,” referring to the Students for Justice in Palestine, a student group that was suspended from campus in March 2025 after disrupting a panel event titled “Pathways to Peace,” which led to the arrest or detention of 17 protesters.
Protesters also made direct reference to the Willard Straight Takeover of 1969 in their speeches and shouted, “Take over Barton Hall” while outside the venue.
A fire truck and several EMS cars arrived at Barton Hall at approximately 6:20 p.m. According to a police officer at the scene, their presence was due to an unrelated medical emergency inside the building.
When asked about the repeated protests in recent years and the administration’s lack of response, Hussain reaffirmed the group’s dedication to their cause.
“We’re not going to give up, we’re not going to lose energy, and we’re going to keep fighting,” Hussain said.
Vivienne Cierski is a freshman in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a Sun Contributor and can be reached at vsc38@cornell.edu
