President Michael Kotlikoff wrote that he was unaware that his car made contact with anyone after an April 30 incident with students and alumni where Kotlikoff was questioned on free expression and drove into a student on campus, according to a Friday email statement released to the Cornell community.
Students and alumni followed Kotlikoff to his car and surrounded it, while questioning him about free expression on campus following the Cornell Political Union’s debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict on April 30. After the group blocked his car, Kotlikoff backed into one student and appeared to run over the foot of a recent alumnus, according to video footage obtained by The Sun.
Kotlikoff’s Friday email follows criticism regarding discrepancies between the video evidence and an email statement sent by Kotlikoff on May 1, where he stated that students were “banging” on his car and failed to mention that his car made contact with students. Several organizations have since called for Kotlikoff’s resignation.
In the Friday email statement titled “Observation on April 30 incident,” Kotlikoff wrote that he did not know his car made contact with a student until after he sent the May 1 email.
“Only when I saw the videos circulating later did I realize that a student had placed himself directly behind the car without my being aware of it as I backed up,” Kotlikoff wrote. “Only the following afternoon did I understand that my experience would look very different in the selected video clips posted on social media and be framed in ways that I found genuinely shocking.”
He also clarified that his goal was to remove himself “safely” from the situation without escalating it and noted that “in retrospect" he believes he should have remained in his “locked” vehicle and contacted the police.
Kotlikoff shared his thoughts on the events after The Board of Trustees’ Ad Hoc Special Committee, formed to investigate the incident, released its findings earlier in the day. The findings cleared Kotlikoff of wrongdoing and found the actions taken by the group that surrounded his car to be "inconsistent with University policy.”
The statement from the Ad Hoc Special Committee released on Friday noted that Kotlikoff chose not pursue a complaint against the students involved, and that “appropriate action” was being taken against the non-students involved. Milton Taam ’73, an alumnus who was present, was banned from campus for three years on the basis of trespassing.
Kotlikoff also explained his decision to not pursue action against the students in his statement.
“This decision is not a reflection of the seriousness of their behavior, but a consideration of the realities of our code processes: the public hearings required by the code would grant these students even more of the attention they have been seeking,” Kotlikoff wrote. “It would, in effect, reward the behavior and further divide our campus community, and this I will not do.”
Kotlikoff added that “disappointingly” the coverage and discussion of the incident have “hardly” mentioned the “dedication to respectful exercise of free expression” that occurred at the Israel-Palestine Debate Series.
“I was glad to be able to introduce one of the events, proud of our students for their willingness to engage, and grateful to the organizations involved for their readiness to platform both sides of a controversial and emotional argument,” Kotlikoff wrote.
He ended his statement by affirming his commitment to free expression and the University’s Expressive Activity Policy, which he stated he will “continue to defend” with “every means” at his disposal.
“Freedom of expression is inherently a concept centered not in the individual, but in the relationships between them; speech only carries meaning when one can speak and another can listen,” Kotlikoff wrote. “In a community and in a democracy, any exercise of that freedom carries the responsibility to respect the same rights for others.”
Zeinab Faraj is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences and a senior editor on the 144th Editorial Board. She was a features editor and assistant sports editor on the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at zfaraj@cornellsun.com.
