UPDATE
May 8, 2026 8:00 AM CDT
An altercation between Cornell's president and students is now under formal investigation, reports the New York Times. The university's board of trustees said Thursday it will open an inquiry into an incident in which students accuse Michael Kotlikoff of deliberately backing into them when they surrounded his car. Kotlikoff maintains he was the one being harassed.
May 4, 2026 12:36 PM CDT
Cornell's president is under scrutiny after student activists say he backed his car into them, and campus video appears to challenge his account. In an email to the Cornell community Friday, President Michael Kotlikoff said he was "accosted" and harassed by students and non-students after a Thursday night debate on Israel's response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, ABC News reports. He said they followed him to his car, shouted at him, blocked his vehicle, banged on the windows, and that he only left the parking lot after seeing "space behind the car," using safety features to "slowly maneuver" out. He did not mention making contact with anyone.
Video obtained by the Cornell Daily Sun shows something different, the student paper reports. In footage released by Students for a Democratic Cornell, two students, Aiden Vallecillo and Hudson Athas, can be seen behind Kotlikoff's vehicle. No one is visible touching the car before it reverses, striking Athas and rolling over Vallecillo's right foot, according to the Sun. In the clip, Athas asks, "Am I allowed to stand here?" moments before impact, and Vallecillo can be heard shouting, "You just rolled over my f---ing foot." The students say they had followed Kotlikoff to question him about Cornell's policies on free expression and protest, after attending a debate where he had spoken about the importance of open discussion. "I don't believe it was anything that could remotely be classified as harassment," Athas says.
Campus police and Cornell EMS responded to the scene after SDC members called 911; scanner audio described a "college male" whose foot had been run over. Vallecillo was treated on site and told the Sun his foot remained painful to walk on the next day. No charges have been filed. Vallecillo says he is "fearful" of pressing charges with Cornell University Police, arguing that Kotlikoff oversees the department and has already released a statement with "false information about us and our actions."
- Students for a Democratic Cornell president Sophia Arnold tells WSYR that Kotlikoff didn't signal or honk before moving his vehicle. "I don't even have the words for it. I was pretty shocked and offended," Arnold says. "A random pedestrian pulling out of a supermarket parking lot would probably have shown more care."
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