After anti-Semitic threats, Cornell University is canceling classes on Friday
Cornell University canceled classes for Friday following the arrest of a student accused of making violent anti-Semitic threats, aiming to give students and faculty time to rest and reflect and ease tensions on campus over the to calm the Israeli-Hamas war.
“The hope for tomorrow is that everyone will use this as a restorative time to take care of themselves,” university spokeswoman Lindsey Knewstub said in an email.
The student accused of making anti-Semitic threats, Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old computer science major, appeared in federal court Wednesday on charges of posting threats online to kill or injure others. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
In a series of posts on a forum devoted to discussing fraternity and sorority life, Mr. Dai allegedly threatened to slit the throats of Jewish people and called them rats and pigs, according to a federal complaint. Using the screen name “Hamas,” he was also accused of posting that he would “bring an assault rifle to campus and start shooting.”
One post specifically threatened a kosher and multicultural dining hall on campus, which is located next to one Center for Jewish Life.
“We hear that as a call to our genocide,” said Rabbi Ari Weiss, executive director of Cornell Hillel, a Jewish group on campus. “Students are afraid. They are concerned about their safety.”
According to the federal complaint, Mr. Dai, who is from Pittsford, N.Y., admitted to posting the threatening messages in an FBI interview after his arrest. He is being held in the Broome County Jail and is being represented by a public defender.
Tensions have been high on Cornell’s campus since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed at least 1,400 people and led to more than 200 hostages being returned to Gaza. Israeli counterattacks in Gaza in the following weeks killed thousands of civilians.
The atmosphere at Cornell became especially charged when Russell Rickford, an associate professor in the university’s history department who specializes in African-American political culture, gave a speech speech in downtown Ithaca on October 15, saying he found Hamas’s attack on Israel “exciting.” He later apologized and applied for a leave of absence from the university.
After the threatening messages appeared online Sunday, university officials and Governor Kathy Hochul condemned them as hate speech. The university and the governor sought to reassure students that they were taking steps to ensure student safety.
“We will not tolerate threats, hatred or anti-Semitism,” Ms. Hochul said during a visit to campus on Monday.
Campus athletics and other events can continue Friday, but classes will be canceled to give staff and students time to “reflect on how we can foster the kind of caring, mutually supportive community that we all value,” the college said in a campuswide statement meeting. e-mail.
Several students interviewed on campus Thursday said things felt tense.
“I’m seeing a lot more of my friends, students at Cornell, who are more upset than usual,” said Jack Merrill, 22, who is also studying computer science in the School of Engineering but who says he has never met Mr. John meet. Dai.
Cole Louison reporting contributed.