{"id":116495,"date":"2026-03-09T04:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/898235535"},"modified":"2026-03-09T04:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:20:12","slug":"students-pack-assembly-meeting-to-debate-resolutions-on-cornell-tech-partnership-with-technion-israel-institute-of-technology-university-sponsored-speakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/09\/students-pack-assembly-meeting-to-debate-resolutions-on-cornell-tech-partnership-with-technion-israel-institute-of-technology-university-sponsored-speakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Pack Assembly Meeting to Debate Resolutions on Cornell Tech Partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, University-Sponsored Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students packed the Student Assembly\u2019s Thursday meeting to debate two contentious resolutions: Resolutions 61<\/a> and 55<\/a>. The resolutions focus on Cornell Tech<\/a>\u2019s partnership<\/a> with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology<\/a> and University-sponsored events that feature people accused of war crimes or human rights violations.<\/p>\n

Resolution 61<\/a>: \u201cCalling for the Termination of Cornell University\u2019s Partnership with Technion \u2013 Israel Institute of Technology While Preserving Cornell Tech\u201d calls on Cornell Tech to terminate its institutional partnership<\/a> with Technion, citing ethical and legal concerns related to Technion\u2019s alleged involvement<\/a> in the development of military technologies connected to human rights violations. <\/p>\n

Cornell Tech and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology jointly established the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute<\/a>, an \u201capplied sciences campus\u201d in New York City, according to the American Technion Society\u2019s website. The institute offers<\/a> dual master\u2019s degree programs, as well as a postdoctoral program, according to its website.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartnerships with institutions that contribute to the production of weapons, military technologies, or infrastructure of apartheid are inconsistent with Cornell University\u2019s stated educational mission, ethical commitments, and core values,\u201d the resolution states.<\/p>\n

Resolution 61 also calls for divestment from any related joint programs and greater transparency in the University\u2019s ethical review process for international partnerships.<\/p>\n

Resolution 55<\/a>: \u201cCondemning the University Administration\u2019s Use of Programming to Platform Individuals Implicated in War Crimes\u201d condemns the administration for hosting, funding or sponsoring programming for speakers who, according to the resolution\u2019s sponsors, have been \u201cimplicated in war crimes and grave human rights violations.\u201d. <\/p>\n

The resolution references Tzipi Livni, former vice prime minister and former foreign minister of Israel, who was featured as a panelist during the University\u2019s \u201cPathways to Peace\u201d event<\/a> in March 2025, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and \u201cpotential paths forward for the people of Israel and Palestine.\u201d During this event, 17 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested or detained<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Livni faced<\/a> war crime allegations and a warrant for her arrest in the U.K. in 2009 for her decisions made before and during a three-week-long Israeli offensive in Palestine, Operation Cast Lead<\/a>, while she was Israel\u2019s foreign minister and member of the Israeli war cabinet. The warrant was withdrawn when it was discovered that she was not in the U.K.<\/p>\n

Resolution 55 argues that providing such University-sponsored events \u201cendanger[s] student well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are entitled to an academic environment free from militarization, intimidation, and the glorification or rehabilitation of individuals responsible for large-scale human rights abuses,\u201d the resolution states.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, several student organizations \u2014 including Students for Justice in Palestine at Cornell<\/a>, Cornell Asian Pacific Americans for Action<\/a>, the Kashmiri Cultural Alliance<\/a> and the Progressives at Cornell<\/a> \u2014 encouraged<\/a> students to attend the Student Assembly meeting via a joint Instagram post published on Wednesday. The groups urged students to \u201cpack the Assembly\u201d and use the public comment period to call on representatives to vote in favor of Resolutions 55 and 61.<\/p>\n

Public comment revealed divisions within the student community. While community members criticized the proposals, others voiced strong support, and some argued that the Assembly was not the appropriate forum for debating the issue at all.<\/p>\n

Graduate student Hannah DeFelice urged the Assembly not to vote on Resolution 61. DeFelice argued that the undergraduate Student Assembly was not the appropriate body to deliberate on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people most impacted are just not here,\u201d DeFelice added. \u201cThey\u2019re not members of the voting body. They\u2019re not here on campus to speak to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeFelice noted that Cornell Tech primarily serves graduate students and does not currently offer<\/a> undergraduate degree programs. She argued that any changes to partnerships or funding involving the campus would disproportionately affect graduate students who are not represented by the Assembly.<\/p>\n

Adriana Vink \u201927, who is the president of Progressives at Cornell, co-president of  SJP at Cornell and a Sun opinion columnist, spoke in support of both resolutions, and argued that the dissolution of Cornell\u2019s partnership with Technion is essential for the University to uphold its moral responsibilities. <\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s a] question of whether you believe the institution that you attend and fund should use its institutional power to prop up more crimes and more criminals, or to prioritize the student experience and its mission to do the greatest good,\u201d Vink said.<\/p>\n

Regarding Resolution 55, Francis Burns \u201927 argued that Cornell has ethical obligations to consider when deciding which speakers or groups they officially sponsor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this university extends an official invitation to an individual radically implicated in war crimes, it is not engaging in open inquiry,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt is granting legitimacy to these criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burns also emphasized that the resolution was not intended to limit debate or prevent student groups from inviting potentially polarizing individuals who could spark a necessary dialogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a call to restrict speech or to avoid controversial figures,\u201d Burns said. \u201cStudents, student groups and faculty retain the right to invite, host and engage with a wide range of speakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis resolution addresses a narrower question \u2014 whether the University itself, with its name, its funds and its institutional prestige, should be lending its endorsement to individuals facing credible accusations of war crimes,\u201d Burns added.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the resolution, however, raised concerns about its scope and intent.<\/p>\n

Levi Schmuel \u201927 criticized Resolution 55 specifically for what he described as selective focus and ambiguous language. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe resolution never mentions a different criteria or system for choosing speakers, nor does it mention other potential problematic speakers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Schmuel additionally argued that the measure appeared to target Israeli affiliations specifically, while overlooking potential moral concerns involving other Cornell partners or institutional relationships. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have trouble believing that this resolution is actually concerned with human rights or correcting justice, but with silencing speakers with whom the author disagrees,\u201d Schmuel said.<\/p>\n

Hasham Khan \u201926, closed the public comment period by citing Technion\u2019s use of military technology<\/a> in the Middle East, then ended with commentary aimed directly at the Assembly. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, fun fact, element systems test their weapons on Kashmir, the region that I’m from,\u201d Khan said. \u201cSo why duck around the corner? If you want to support Israel tech, and if you want to support our partnership, kill me now. Kill my people now. What’s stopping you?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Student Assembly heard more than an hour of public comment before continuing deliberations on the measures.<\/p>\n

Resolution 61 was ultimately moved to a third reading. It will be reviewed for a final time at next week\u2019s Assembly meeting before being conveyed to the administration. <\/p>\n

Due to time constraints, the Assembly was not able to get through the second reading calendar, so Resolution 55 is still on the third reading calendar for next week.<\/p>\n

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\nVivienne Cierski<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Vivienne Cierski is a freshman in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a Sun Contributor and can be reached at vsc38@cornell.edu<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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… Institute of Technology<\/span> While Preserving Cornell Tech<\/span>\u00e2\u0080\u009d calls on Cornell Tech<\/span> to terminate … rights violations.\u00c2\u00a0 Cornell Tech<\/span> and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology<\/span> jointly established …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}