Andrew Dickson White, the first president of Cornell University whose statue is now covered in fake blood, was an impressive figure. State Senator in New York; United States Ambassador to Germany, then Russia, then Germany again; co-founder of our University.

But sometime early this morning, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized the A.D. White statue on the Arts Quad. To me, their crime shows a laziness to not understand the college community they are a part of and seek to shape. This group of protesters has resorted to looking for attention instead of any meaningful change.

What makes A.D. White an admirable historical figure isn’t his titles or his accolades. He stands apart from many of the exclusionary, old-fashioned educators that permeated early American academia because of his attitude towards change: many today would likely have labeled him a progressive, a reformer.

White wrote urging for Black Americans to become full United States citizens. He championed conflict thesis, a scientific approach that looked at the tensions between religion and science. He criticized overly dogmatic Christianity. And he co-founded one of America’s first co-educational, multi-racial universities, Cornell. White was a forward thinker — his legacy shows that his work was pointed towards equality.

Today,........

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