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A prominent Cornell law professor plans to file a federal civil rights complaint against the Ivy League university after the outing of an Israeli student whistleblower who claimed he was excluded from a controversial course on the Gaza Strip because of his nationality.
Following the initial complaint by Oren Renard, his full name and status as a former member of an elite military surveillance agency within the Israel Defense Forces was leaked to the press and was published by outlets including the left-wing magazine The Nation.
“There has been a campaign to dox the student, to reveal his name, even though he is in fear of his safety,” William Jacobson told The Post.
“The attacks on him serve as a deterrent to other students who may want to come forward, particularly Israeli or Jewish students who may be afraid that if they do complain about discrimination, their name is going to appear in public and they will be subject to potential threats,” added Jacobson, who runs the Equal Protection Project, a legal watchdog that targets colleges and universities for discrimination.
After Renard came forward, the Cornell Office of Civil Rights issued a “finding of discrimination” in the case, and the professor who ran the course opted to retire, according to a university spokesperson.
Jacobson believes the leak of Renard’s name could be a violation of federal civil rights laws or possibly the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Act.
“The Equal Protection Project and myself intend on filing a civil rights complaint with the Departments of Justice and Education, calling for an investigation of the harassment, intimidation and doxing of a student complainant in a Cornell University disciplinary matter,” he said.
Jacobson previously demanded a civil rights probe into Renard’s accusations about being kicked out of the “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” course due to his Israeli nationality and described the university’s investigation as “thorough.”
Renard’s accusations were directed at Eric Cheyfitz, a former professor of American studies and humane letters, and a well-known anti-Israel activist on campus.
Cornell confirmed last month that it had suspended Cheyfitz, claiming that he “admitted to actions that violated federal civil rights laws and fell short of the university’s expectations for student interactions.”
“Professor Cheyfitz has chosen to retire and leave university employment, thus ending Cornell’s disciplinary process. The finding that Professor Cheyfitz violated Cornell policy and federal law remains in place,” a Cornell spokesperson told The Post Monday.
Cheyfitz told The Cornell Daily Sun student newspaper in an interview that while he initially welcomed Renard, the prof now believes the Israeli was surveilling and recording other students in violation of the school’s code of conduct.
“The university investigated this and found that the request for the student to leave the class was, in fact, a civil rights violation,” Jacobson retorted. “If a professor believes a student is improperly recording a class, there would be procedures for that professor to complain to the university administration.
“What the professor does not have the right to do is to ask a student to leave a class based on nationality or based on viewpoint, and that’s what the university found was done here.”
Cheyfitz also claimed to the Daily Sun that he asked Renard to leave the course because he was “upsetting my students, and appeared to be not doing the readings,” “making contradictory comments,” and “not participating in the discussion.”
An attorney for Cheyfitz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the Cornell Office of Civil Rights found Cheyfitz had discriminated against Renard, a Faculty Senate committee rejected the finding.
The school’s provost later explained that the civil rights panel used the “proponderance of evidence standard” to reach its conclusion, as required by federal law, while the Faculty Senate panel used a higher standard of “clear and convincing.”
The provost reopened the case, which had been pending until Cheyfitz’s retirement decision. Several of Cheyfitz’s colleagues have since circulated a resolution to condemn Cornell’s handling of the case.
“Nothing that happened subsequently, by a different committee, a faculty committee can change that” finding of discrimination by Cornell’s civil rights panel, Jacobson said.
“They were extremely firm and extremely clear as to what happened here,” he added. “So to that extent, I think the university appears to have done its job, but it’s shopping short” by allowing Cheyfitz to retire.
English (US)