Cornell University has postponed Friday classes due to “extraordinary stress” in the aftermath of a junior being charged federally with uttering antisemitic threats.
Instead, Friday will be a “community day,” according to Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Christine Lovely, vice president and chief human resources officer, in an email to students and staff, according to The Cornell Daily Sun.
“No classes will be held, and faculty and staff will be excused from work, except for employees who provide essential services,” according to the email.
“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 letter went on to say.
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It comes after university officials in Ithaca, New York, reported antisemitic “threats of violence” occurred online over the weekend, the latest in a string of troubling occurrences on college campuses throughout the United States since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict last month.
Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old junior at the Ivy League institution, was charged on Tuesday with making threats to murder or hurt another person via interstate communications, according to federal authorities in the Northern District of New York.
Prosecutors claim Dai threatened to “shoot up” a college facility on an internet discussion board. Prosecutors claimed he threatened in another post that he would “stab” or “slit the throat” of Jewish males and rape or hurl down a cliff Jewish women he meets on campus.
Prosecutors said Dai stated he would behead Jewish newborns and threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you” Jewish people.
The threats particularly mentioned the school’s Center for Jewish Living, according to school administrators. According to the federal complaint, he acknowledged to making the threats.
He appeared in federal court on Wednesday without entering a plea. During his initial court appearance, he was appointed a federal public defender, and a preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 15.
Adding to the campus tensions, university police received a complaint of a male individual carrying a weapon on campus on Wednesday. Police performed a search and determined that the claim was “unfounded.” In a statement issued Wednesday, University President Martha E. Pollack stated that the crime warning was unfounded, but that “it adds to the stress we are all feeling.”
“Cornell Police continue to have an increased presence on campus, and especially in high-priority areas,” the spokesperson stated.
The Israel-Hamas war, which started following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, has resulted in discriminatory events and threats against the Jewish and Muslim populations in the United States.
According to preliminary data, there has been an almost 400% spike in recorded incidences of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, and assault, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Since Oct. 7, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has received roughly 800 complaints and documented prejudice incidents from Muslims around the country.
A 6-year-old Palestinian kid was stabbed to death in suburban Chicago last month, reportedly by his landlord. According to his wife, the landlord, Joseph Czuba, was an enthusiastic listener of conservative talk radio who got preoccupied with the Middle East war. Czuba has pled not guilty to murder.
