'Under house arrest': Cornell University 'modifies' suspension of international Phd student
Earlier this week, Cornell University modified a decision to disenroll an international PhD student for participating in a pro-Palestine disruption at a career fair on the campus earlier in September.
The decision means that 30-year-old Momodou Taal, a British-Gambian PhD student in Africana Studies at Cornell University, would be allowed to continue his degree and avoid deportation from the US.
The application of the disenrollment process would have triggered the immediate termination of his student visa and he would have had to leave the country in a matter of hours. It is unclear where he would have been deported to, had the deportation been executed.
On Wednesday, following a spirited campaign to have the decision overturned, the university communicated its new decision to Taal over email.
"It is bittersweet. I don't want to downplay it, but I don't want to overhype it," Taal told Middle East Eye on Thursday.
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"From where we were two weeks ago, I thought I would have to leave the country very promptly. I'm now allowed to stay.
According to the notice from the university, Taal can remain a student, keep his visa and submit his dissertation.
He is, however, not welcome on campus. He is, for now, banned from entering the university.
Given that Ithaca is a small university town in upstate New York (population 33,ooo) where students' lives almost always involve the university campus, Taal said the modification to the ruling meant he would be confined to the student residence which sits at the edge of the campus.
Not only is he unable to take part in activities or events, but he is also barred from continuing with his teaching at the university.
The ban on his movement on campus means he is only a PhD student at the university in name alone.
"I am effectively under house arrest," Taal said.
Disputed events
The university's decision to modify Taal's suspension came after weeks of intense pressure from students and faculty, as well as from scholars and activists in the larger academic fraternity who urged administrators to reverse his suspension.
Taal was originally suspended in late September for his role in the shutdown of a career fair at the university a week earlier.
University administrators said that several students, including Taal, had taken part in a pro-Palestine disruption of a career fair attended by companies including the defence contractors, L3Harris and Boeing.
The action at the fair was part of a sustained student campaign calling on universities to cut ties with companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinians.
Taal was accused of being part of a group that pushed police officers to enter the fair, which he denies.
Taal was also accused of being involved in “unreasonably loud” chants at the fair.
The university said it has evidence to prove its claims and he was immediately suspended. Later, several others were handed non-academic suspensions which allowed students to attend class but excluded them from larger university community life.
The suspension was Taal's second in a matter of months.
In April, Taal had been suspended for his participation in a pro-Palestinian protest encampment.
In his letter to Taal, informing him that the suspension would only be modified and not dropped, interim provost John A Siliciano said the university had evidence to support the initial decision to prohibit him from entering the campus.
But Taal insists there hasn't been a proper process or investigation to clarify what took place at the career fair.
"They still haven't been a chance for me to see the evidence or refute it," Taal said.
Cornell's Media Office did not reply to specific questions sent by MEE.
Instead, it sent a statement in which it said Cornell had "a robust, multi-step process to render both interim measures and final resolutions in situations where students are alleged to have violated the student code of conduct.
"The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects the records of individual students and bars institutions from discussing specific conduct cases," the statement attributed to spokesperson Joel M Malina, reads.
Repression at Cornell
Student leaders at Cornell said Taal had been targeted for being a prominent and influential Black Muslim pro-Palestinian voice at the university.
It had a chilling effect on international students at the university.
"I would say the people most affected would be international students because they see one of their peers being suspended and potentially deported for protesting, and now a lot of them are concerned about their own well-being," Malak Abuhashem, 22, president of the Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell, told MEE.
Abuhashem said that though the accusations levelled at Taal and the prospect of deportation were meant to suffocate and silence pro-Palestinian voices, it galvanised solidarity with other student groups, even those outside the world of pro-Palestine advocacy.
"I think a lot of people were really in shock, whether or not they agreed with what we're calling for, or the disruption that occurred, or what Mamadou [Taal] stands for. A lot of people were in shock that a student can be suspended and deported without due process," Abuhashem added.
With several universities moving to suffocate and suppress dissent over the US-backed Israeli war on Gaza - which has now claimed the lives of more than 42,000 Palestinians, student activists were concerned the incident at Cornell would set a precedent for other universities.
The result, Abuhashem said, was a stunning rebuke of the administrator-led repression of student activism.
"I think it shows that by acting collectively and pressuring this university, they are forced to move with their hand," Abuhashem said.
Abuhashem added that it's not the first time that they've seen this.
"When students come together, when it's faculty, students, when there's press on the scene, they tend to stop dealing out harsher actions."
A petition organised by Cornell Collective for Justice in Palestine (CCJP) secured more than 10,000 signatories.
“We demand an immediate end to his suspension, the lack of due process, and the disproportionate persecution of campus activists," the CCJP, which includes faculty, staff and graduate workers seeking a free Palestine, said in its statement.
“Cornell is manipulating their procedures and language to erroneously portray Momodou as dangerous. In light of the university’s glaringly obvious effort to depict handheld megaphones as a tool of violence, it is clear that this is yet another way to suppress protest," the CCJP added.
At the end of September, The Cornell Sun editorial board described Taal as having been subjected to a “kangaroo court in which the provost serves as judge, jury and executioner.”
Abuhashem said the case against Taal, the way in which administrators have treated him, and the manner in which the case has been conducted has led to several other schisms on the campus which had only strengthened the Palestinian cause on campus.
In early October, a Black student group at the university denounced university administrators for deploying “white supremacist caricatures” in his descriptions of Taal.
The student groups' campus-wide emails sent by administrators on 23 September and 30 September contained language that “drew on a lineage of white supremacist caricatures of Black people”, adding that Taal had been described as “aggressive”, “intimidat[ing]”, “frightening”, “highly disruptive and intentionally menacing”, and “harassing”.
The statement said Taal had been depicted as a “violent person who is a threat to campus security” despite the fact “he has resorted to peaceful means to protest a violent genocide in which Cornell is complicit".
Taal said it was an incredible irony that Israeli soldiers (Israeli-Americans who serve in the Israeli army) are free to walk around campus but it was his presence that was considered a threat.
But it didn't matter, Taal said.
"A time will never come when I think to myself: I went too hard on Palestine". So I kind of just thought to myself: 'Whatever happens, you'll be okay'," Taal said.