Education

Cornell University Makes Life Comfortable For Activist Squatters

Ian Miles Cheong Contributor
Font Size:

Cornell University is showing leniency towards hundreds of students who illegally squatted in a campus building to protest an alleged racially-motivated assault against a black student. They have now released a list of demands calling for the institution of “social justice mandates” at the university.

Following the alleged attack on Monday, Ithaca police arrested and charged a Cornell student, 19-year-old John Greenwood, on Tuesday and are now investigating the case as a potential hate crime. Police told the media that there were “no significant injuries reported as a result of this incident.”

The protesters claim that Greenwood is a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, but the group denies the claim.

In response to the protests, Psi Upsilon closed its Cornell chapter and opened its house to student groups.

In response to the initial event, Cornell student activists from Black Students United led a delegation of more than 300 students on Wednesday to occupy Willard Straight Hall. The incident is reminiscent of the 1969 occupation by black students at the same site.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported Wednesday that the students have now put out a list of 12 demands, which they delivered by hand to the university, including required coursework for “privilege and power,” “banning the Psi Upsilon fraternity and converting its building into a cultural center for black students.”

Protest leader Traciann Celestin said that the squatters chose to squat in Willard Straight Hall because they intend to “disrupt the heart of the campus.”

According to the Daily Sun, university administrators are not doing anything to address the disruption. The paper reports that students are “sitting on the floor chanting, singing and doing homework” in violation of the university’s code of conduct. Instead, they are making the occupation comfortable.

The dean of students, Vijay Pendakur, and several additional staff members are inside Willard Straight Hall with the protesters. The University provided water and BSU is contact with members of the administration and Cornell Police, they said.

University president Martha Pollack stated that the administration would “do everything we can to rid this campus of racism” in response to the demands.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel