Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Classroom
Course Content
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Incident Political Orientation:
Left wing -
Incident Responses:
Other
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Incident Status:
Other
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Cornell’s interim president, Michael Kotlikoff, has been accused of undermining academic freedom after privately criticizing a pro‑Palestinian course—taught by Jewish professor Eric Cheyfitz and titled “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance”—as “factually inaccurate” and antisemitic in response to concerns raised by adjunct professor Menachem Rosensaft. That Nov. 6 email, intended as a confidential faculty governance exchange, was later shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and published, triggering condemnation from Cornell faculty, the AAUP, and the Middle East Studies Association for potentially chilling intramural debate. Kotlikoff maintains he was defending campus safety and reserving the right to speak on hate incidents, while critics argue that publicly weighing in on course content oversteps administrative authority. This dispute, unfolding amid broader campus tensions over pro‑Palestinian speech and recent student protests, highlights enduring questions about the proper boundary between university leadership and faculty curricular autonomy.
