The words “. . . any person . . . any study” form the founding principle of Cornell University. The idea is that people from “all walks of life,” regardless of race, religion, income, or gender, are welcome at Cornell—and free to follow their academic interests wherever they might lead.
But last spring, longtime Cornell professor Eric Cheyfitz invoked a very different interpretation of this principle to justify kicking an Israeli Jew out of his “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” seminar.
During the third meeting of the class, computer science PhD student Oren Renard raised his hand for the first time. It would also turn out to be the last.
When he was called on by Cheyfitz, Renard spoke briefly about the Gaza war. The student said that when Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals” two days after the October 7, 2023, attacks, he was talking about Hamas. Cheyfitz had claimed that Gallant was talking about all Gazans.
The next week, the professor asked Renard to talk to him after class. Renard was suspicious. He secretly pressed the record button on his cell phone. It was a fateful, freighted decision. Had he not done so, there would be no record of what happened next.
Cheyfitz told Renard that he was “necessarily suspicious, unfairly no doubt, of your presence in this course,” according to the recording. The professor added that Renard’s “conduct in the course has been fine so far, so I’m not complaining about you.”
“Just please, I’m asking you, take another course. This is not your course.” —Cornell professor Eric Cheyfitz
