We previously discussed the recent incident involving President Michael Kotlikoff, who was accused of hitting a protester while trying to leave a parking lot after an event on the Israeli-Palestinian issues. He was cleared by a university investigation, but the Cornell Chapter of the American Association of University Professors has condemned Kortikoff, who was merely trying to evade protesters who surrounded his car.

The ASUP joined Cornell Courage, the Cornell Collective for Justice in Palestine, and Cornell Graduate Students United in issuing a joint statement, as reported by The College Fix.

Calling the investigation “a sham,” these professors wrote to “express our outrage about the conduct of the Board of Trustees and President Michael Kotlikoff.” The letter declares that the videotape evidence “contradicted President Kotlikoff’s description, and revealed the students to be asking him relevant questions about Cornell’s speech policies and disciplinary processes.”

It is a knowing misrepresentation of that evidence. As I wrote earlier, the videotape shows a small number of protesters following Kotlikoff and then blocking his ability to leave.

As Kotlikoff walked to his car, he answered some of the protesters’ questions, then asked them to stop filming and leave him alone. When they reached his car, they then surrounded the vehicle to keep him from leaving. He backed up slowly, with students intentionally standing in the car’s path.

Kotlikoff stated, “I waited until I saw space behind the car and then, using my car’s rear pedestrian alert and automatic braking system, was able to slowly maneuver my car from the parking space and exit the parking lot.”

The students, however, remained standing in his path. One person can be heard yelling, “He just ran over my f—— foot!” There is no report of an actual injury.

Students for a Democratic Cornell (SDC) posted a video showing an individual being nudged by the vehicle while standing behind it.

One of the protesters, Cornell alumnus Milton Taam (Class of ’73), was declared persona non grata for a period of three years as a result of his conduct. He then wrote an op-ed that was almost a parody of what occurred. Taam portrayed the protesters as simply wanting to “talk to him.”

In the column, Tamm lamented:

‘I’m disappointed that Kotlikoff broke off the dialogue with concerned students, and instead responded to them by weaponizing his car and the next day using his power and privilege as University president to issue an email blast to the entire Cornell community against them (and me?).”

Kotlikoff HAD accepted a copy of Taam’s book, but then said that he did not want to engage the protesters further.  Tamm portrays himself as entirely innocent and shocked by Kotlikoff’s conduct.

When [Kotlikoff] seemed unwilling to open his window to talk, I went to the front of the car and took a photo to document the situation. I then decided I was vulnerable to serious injury by President Kotlikoff because he continued to drive aggressively towards me. Fearing for my own safety I moved to the side. Kotlikoff then exited the Day Hall parking lot without acknowledging what he’d done and without talking with any of the five people.

The only thing this self-serving column establishes is why most people would be “unwilling to open [a] window to talk” to these protesters.

Tamm says that he has retained counsel to try to lift the preliminary injunction.

The letter even takes Kotlikoff to task for not charging the students:

“In a striking passage, President Kotlikoff suggested he would not pursue a Student Code of Conduct complaint only because this would give the students the public attention they supposedly want. This again treats the students as hostile adversaries, rather than legitimate members of a community whom he may have injured.”

The joining of faculty in this effort to hound Kotlikoff is, unfortunately, little surprise for those familiar with the decline of the AAUP. As discussed earlier, the AAUP has been the subject of complaints for years over its ideological bias and partisan activism. Nevertheless, rather than tacking back to a position of greater neutrality and tolerance, it doubled down by selecting an openly activist president.

However, this letter departs from the values of objectivity and honesty. While it would have been better for Kotlikoff to enlist campus security (as he has acknowledged), it was not unreasonable for him to slowly attempt to back out of the space.

The tenor of the letter shows how the AAUP has lost its moorings in higher education. I fail to see how any objective reviewer could look at this videotape and find that the fault lies with Kotlikoff rather than those who followed him, surrounded his car, and obstructed his ability to leave.