A protestor claimed Cornell University’s president ran over his foot after several people followed the president to his car following an Israel-Gaza war debate on campus.
The Cornell Political Union held an April 30 debate about the Israel-Gaza war before several students and non-students allegedly “accosted” university president Michael Koltikoff and surrounded his car, the president said in a May 1 statement. Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC) president Sophia Arnold and SDC members Aiden Vallecillo, Hudson Athas and Aislyn Berg followed Kotlikoff and questioned him about “free expression on campus” after the event, Vallecino told the Cornell Sun. Footage appeared to show multiple people surround Koltikoff’s car before he allegedly backed into at least one person.
A video shared by @cornellians_only and the SDC shows two students walking alongside Kotlikoff. A female student asks Kotlikoff questions about the university allegedly adjudicating students while a male student in a white shirt films the interaction. Kotlikoff says the event honored free speech and accuses the female student of “having an agenda.”
In a second video shared by the same accounts, Kotlikoff says goodbye to the students and enters his vehicle inside a campus parking lot. The same male student wearing the white shirt is still filming Kotlikoff as he begins to back out of the parking lot. The male student and his peers appear to be standing behind Kotlikoff’s car, according to the footage. The students do not move as the vehicle appears to back up, and the same student who had been filming Kotlikoff alleges “He just ran over my f–king foot!,” when he appears to be brushed by the vehicle.
