Cornell Graduate Banned After President Hit Him With Car

Cornell University has temporarily banned from campus a former student who was bumped by the university president’s car at a low speed, Ithaca’s NPR affiliate WSKG reported Monday. 

Aiden Vallecillo, who graduated from Cornell last month, won’t be allowed on university property for one year. According to the notice the Cornell University Police Department issued to Vallecillo last week, the ban comes after he “restricted a motor vehicle’s ability to maneuver while it was in motion as the reverse lights of the vehicle were illuminated … Your intentional act created a hazardous condition.” 

Vallecillo told WSKG that the timing of the ban is “very on par for the university.”

“This is kind of like how they like to carry out their repression of free speech: They like to wait for things to settle down so that they’re out of the limelight. Students are not presently on campus,” Vallecillo said. “I have no doubt they waited for that so that no attention is being paid to Cornell, so that they can silently and behind closed doors repress free speech on campus.”

The incident in question happened on April 30, as President Michael Kotlikoff was leaving an Israel-Palestine debate on campus, where he gave opening remarks. After the event, a group of protesters—including Vallecillo—followed the president to ask about the university’s speech and disciplinary policies. A video published by The Cornell Daily Sun showed Kotlikoff starting his car, then backing into the individuals behind it. 

A review by an Ad Hoc Special Committee of the Board of Trustees concluded that no one should be held criminally responsible. However, the committee criticized the student protesters, writing that their actions were “inconsistent with university policies governing expressive activity and our standards for respectful conduct, safety, and the prohibition of intimidation.”