Cornell University has announced a ‘community day’ and is set to cancel classes on Friday after a student was caught making threats against Jews on campus.
In an email to the prestigious college’s Ithaca and Geneva campuses, university heads said the decision has been made due to ‘extraordinary stress’ of the recent developments.
‘We hope that everyone will use this restorative time to take care of yourselves and reflect on how we can nurture the kind of caring, mutually supportive community that we all value,’ the email read.
It comes after student Patrick Dai, 21, was arrested for making heinous antisemitic threats online, including warning ‘watch out Jews’ and ‘your synagogues will become graveyards.’
Cornell student Patrick Dai, 21, confessed to making heinous threats against Jews after FBI agents traced his IP address to the college campus and his hometown
All classes at Cornell are set to be cancelled on Friday as part of a ‘community day’ following Dai’s actions, as university heads said the decision was been made due to ‘extraordinary stress’ on campus
The closures at Cornell will see all non-essential university faculty and staff excused from classes on Friday, while some professors already offered Zoom class options for struggling students, according to the Cornell Sun.
The email added that some activities, such as sports, may be hard to reschedule and will still go ahead as planned on Friday.
Cornell leadership made the decision on the same day Dai was hauled into federal court on Wednesday in shackles, after he confessed to making the disturbing threats.
He made the warnings, including calling Jews ‘excrement on the face of the earth’ and declaring that ‘no Jew civilian is innocent of genocide’, on an online college forum that the FBI traced to his IP address.
Dai has been ordered to be held without bail, which authorities said was due to the troubling nature of his threats to shoot, stab and kill ‘pig Jews.’
The posts also included a slew of pro-Hamas remarks and threats to target ‘104 West’ – the Cornell campus Center for Jewish Living.
‘Gonne shoot up 104 west. Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!’ read one of his posts from October 29.
‘R*pe and kill all the jew women before they birth more Jewish Hitlers,’ another of the heinous threats said.
Of the several messages left on the school’s Greekrank page – a forum meant for fraternity and sorority reviews – were messages with the headlines ‘Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell Campus’ or ‘Israel deserved 10/7’
The threats sent the campus on high alert and closed the kosher dining hall out of fear for student safety. In his court appearance, Assistant US Attorney Geoffrey Brown revealed that Dai visited the very campus dining facility he had threatened to shoot up in his posts online.
The student’s actions sparked widespread panic on the college campus, which has been among numerous prestigious American universities upended by the conflict in the Middle East.
Cornell President Martha Pollack acknowledged the impact the ‘disturbing’ incident had on the campus in an email to students on Wednesday.
‘While we take some measure of relief in knowing that the alleged author of the vile antisemitic posts that threatened our Jewish community is in custody, it was disturbing to learn that he was a Cornell student,’ Pollack wrote.
The president vowed to clamp down on antisemitism in the university and announced numerous initiatives to prevent ‘all forms of hatred on our campus.’
The initiatives will include focusing on antisemitism in diversity and equity programming, bringing Jewish speakers to campus, and working to prevent ‘doxxing’ – exposing where someone lives online.
‘Let me say again clearly. We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell; indeed we will not tolerate hatred of any form, including racism or Islamophobia,’ Pollack’s email continued.
‘What does this mean? It means, first and foremost, that when there are threats or incitement to violence, we will respond rapidly and forcefully, as we did in this case.’
Cornell University President Martha Pollack slammed the ‘disturbing’ incident involving Dai in an email to students on Wednesday, declaring: ‘We will not tolerate hatred of any form’
Cornell has been among several universities, also including Harvard and Yale, to be rocked by warring groups of students on campus supporting either Israel or Palestine in the escalating war in the Middle East.
Just a week before Dai’s arrest, graffiti was reportedly found on Cornell’s campus reading: ‘F*** Israel.’
Groups of students on numerous campuses have been seen getting into hostile, fiery clashes over the conflict.
Pollack called for calm at Cornell in the wake of such incidents, as she concluded: ‘I want to conclude by reminding everyone that we have more than 27,000 students, 4,000 faculty and 13,000 staff across our campuses. We cannot let ourselves be defined by the acts of one person, or even ten.’
‘While we denounce hatred loudly, we must also remember to cherish and celebrate all the good that so many members of our Cornell community do and live every day.’
A New York State Police Department cruiser is parked in front of Cornell University’s Center for Jewish Living, near the Cornell college campus on Monday
At Dai’s hearing on Wednesday, his mother covered her face as she left the US District Court with her son’s attorney, Gabrielle DiBella
His mother also sat in the gallery, attempting to cover her face as cameras took photos of her walking away from the courtroom
At his hearing on Wednesday, Dai’s mother was in attendance and sat in the gallery after his parents previously insisted to the New York Post he was innocent.
His father told the outlet he was ‘depressed’ and ‘cannot control his emotion’, but declared that that he ‘did not commit the crime.’
‘He was always very nice to society, well organized, helpful to my family and his classmates before 2021,’ his father said, noting that Dai became severely depressed around two years ago.
‘He told us he lost his life goal and motivation … As parents, we tried to give him more love.’
However, once FBI agents were able to track him down via an IP address located both at Cornell and his home, Dai confessed to making the threats.
Now, he is in custody in Broome County, New York. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000.
