If the true spirit of a university lies in its ability to set a good example for its students, Cornell has failed us. As an academic institution with not only a responsibility, but a moral imperative to protect all of us, Cornell has promoted Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruitment and denied any measures to sincerely keep its students from harm. In the wake of recent ICE arrests in Ithaca, this has become an even greater threat to the well-being of our campus and fellow students. We must mobilize and hold our University accountable after three years of complicity. 

My fellow students, I compel you: Do not forget the injustice. Do not forget how the University tried to sell us the lie of compromise after kicking Kehlani from Slope Day for opposing genocide, how this administration hosted a panel of famed war criminals and had the nerve to call this event “Pathways to Peace,” an event that reportedly did not result in as many arrests as President Kotlikoff was “hoping for.”

Do not forget how the land acknowledgement read at every major meeting is treated like an unskippable cut-scene rather than a genuine call to action for justice for the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ, who continue to lose land claims cases and don’t have any land of their own in their homeland; do not forget how this University weaponizes growing autocracy on all levels, to the point where it forced student activist Momodou Taal to self-deport last year following his activism efforts; how our divestment referendum which passed by a margin of more than two-thirds of the student body in 2024 was blatantly ignored by Cornell ‘leadership;’ how Cornell hasn’t once paid its share to the city as an organization that pays taxes for only about $8 million........

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