Welcome to this week’s installment of The Student Slant, a column from SUNN Post that breaks down the headlines most relevant to students — like you, and like me. Stay tuned for new additions to the column every other week! Now, let’s get into it.
The Headline
Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff bumps a student protestor with his car during a student demonstration about conflict in Gaza, setting off intense debate.
The Rundown
After a debate about the war in Gaza billed as a night of civil dialogue escalated into a small protest last Thursday on Cornell University’s campus, university President Michael Kotlikoff reversed his car into a student standing behind his parking space, causing him to stumble. Another student alleged that Kotlikoff ran over his foot, although this account was not substantiated with video evidence. Kotlikoff left the scene — soon after, medical responders arrived and confirmed neither student was seriously injured.
Kotlikoff has denied wrongdoing, saying in a statement that he was “the victim” of the standoff. He alleged that student protestors, who had followed him to the parking lot in the wake of the event, at which he had spoken, knocked on the windows of his car while intentionally blocking his exit path — tactics he called “harassment and intimidation, with the direct motive of silencing speech.”
The event has split the Cornell community: While many students and staff are concerned at the severity of Kotlikoff’s escalation, others are defending him. In an interview with Fox News, Law School Professor William Jacobson said the situation seemed to him “like a setup,” with protestors boxing Kotlikoff into a situation he could not safely escape. Cornell junior Ezra Galperin, a student affiliated with leadership in the club Cornell for Israel, called the incident “an escalation” from previous protest activity and administration standoffs.
The Student Slant
Historically, college campuses have been microcosms of national conversations and crucial sites for protest movements. For a demonstration to escalate to the level of accidental or intentional physicality between students and administrators opens questions about the future of school protests: Have on-campus attitudes toward protestors changed over time? How might they continue to change? When we hear two versions of a story like this, are spectators more likely to side with students or administrators? Who gets to decide when free speech has turned dangerous, and who gets to deliver the consequences?
The Headline
The Trump Administration has set its sights on a new target in higher education: Historically women’s colleges and their transgender students.
The Rundown
The Education Department this week opened an investigation against Smith College, a historically women’s college in Massachusetts, to determine whether Smith has violated Title IX anti-discrimination law by admitting transgender women as students. Administration officials allege that granting biological males access to “women’s intimate spaces” undermines privacy and “a particular form of sorority and camaraderie.”
Smith has admitted transgender women since 2015, a policy aligned with the standard of at least two dozen other historically all-women’s colleges. Several civil-rights experts told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the federal government’s case rests on a flawed interpretation of Title IX, but could have a chilling effect all the same.
Smith College has yet to officially respond to the investigation, but community members are beginning to push back against the suggestion that transgender women hurt the Smith experience. One student wrote on an anonymous message board shared with NPR that “trans women belong at Smith College, and that shouldn’t be a hot take.” Another anonymous student told the radio outlet that “It’s just one thing added to the mix of, like, the stressful political climate that we’re living in. And we’re all just trying to come here to get our degrees, to study.”
The Student Slant
The Trump administration has repeatedly sought more control over how private universities operate. This latest news raises questions like: How might Trump officials continue to use existing legislation to draw new conclusions about the operation of independent educational institutions? And will it be possible for the Department of Education to substantiate a claim of discrimination in a community where stakeholders deny having been discriminated against?
The Headline
Hundreds of enthusiastic adventurers searched for buried treasure across San Francisco last week.
The Rundown
When a post on the San Francisco subreddit announced the existence of a buried treasure chest in the city last Wednesday, locals sprung into action. The chest contained 10,000 one-dollar coins, and was eventually discovered by three people and a dog near Golden Gate Park.
A New York Times article on the hunt spotlighted several devoted searchers, including one high school student who skipped classes for the day to hunt, with help from his father, who texted him clues while at work. This is the second such hunt, hosted by the same pair of anonymous San Francisco puzzle lovers — one of last year’s winners, TJ Lee, recycled her treasure chest with a new prize, paying forward the treasure hunt tradition.
The Student Slant
Young people are excited about kickstarting communities in creative ways, and it’s never been easier to rally a group around an activity—students reading about the San Francisco treasure hunt may be inspired to wonder what such an event could mean for their own communities: Could treasure hunts (or other, similarly fun local games) become a hotspot for connection? And might social media have the power to drive the creation of in-person community?
