Austin Franco’s family has reportedly kicked him out of the house after the Cornell University student told a prospective employer that he was “not interested in working for a Jew,” but the private Ivy in Ithaca, N.Y., is not expelling him.
Michael Kotlikoff, president of Cornell, stated last week that the school is “aware of antisemitic statements made by a student during a recent media appearance.
“We condemn these statements specifically, and antisemitism generally, as detestable, ignorant and fully at odds with the values of the Cornell community,” Kotlikoff said.
He added, however, that “as a university built on the solid foundations of our nation’s democratic freedoms, Cornell has an obligation to fiercely defend freedom of speech, even when we find that speech abhorrent.”
When JNS sought comment from Cornell, the school referred it to Kotlikoff’s statement.
Two Jewish students at Cornell told JNS that the university’s response is insufficient.
“We deserve answers,” Ezra Galperin, a rising senior, told JNS.
“If he really is returning in the fall, he’s going to have to encounter Jewish students,” Galperin said. “I have to ask what the university is going to do to ensure that he doesn’t direct his hostility toward them.”
The whole situation is “embarrassing,” according to the government and Jewish studies major.
“Is this the kind of person Cornell wants going into the world and saying, ‘This is the type of person who comes out of Cornell?’” he said. “Do we really go to school with this guy, and is Cornell going to dig itself out of this hole?”
Things have been better for Jewish students on campus in the past year, and the Cornell administration has “really heard our concerns” over the past two years, according to Galperin, which makes the situation “all the more disappointing,” he said.
“I hope the administration will take this as an opportunity to accept accountability,” he said.
Davian Gekman, a rising senior at Cornell who is studying industrial and labor relations, told JNS that the school would probably have made a stronger statement if it was a different minority group being targeted.
Instead, the Ivy made what he called a “blanket” comment.
“There hasn’t been a lot of assurances to the Jewish community on campus, especially with the recent news that he’s coming back to campus,” Gekman said.
“If that’s the case, then I would like to see something from Cornell that explains, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do to ensure the protection of the Jewish community from antisemitism coming from this student,’” he said.
Franco told British broadcaster Piers Morgan in a recent interview that he has “had bad experiences with Jews.
